Chapter 107: 107 | Long Live the Discount King!

[High Elf King Bloodline (Divine)]

[Description: The bloodline of the First and Last King, the sovereign who ruled beneath the World Tree at the dawn of the ancient era. Ruler of all elves, master of the four natural elements, and guardian of the World Tree. Though his kingdom fell to ruin long ago, the authority of his blood has never faded.]

Dante's eyes lit up the moment he read the description and his body shook with excitement.

'The World Tree...' He had read enough novels to know that anything related to the World Tree was at the very top of the food chain. Without exception.

[Warning: This is the only bloodline of its kind in existence. The causality is extremely high, so a portion of the reward will be consumed to help you bear it. You can obtain this bloodline with 10% purity (Super Rare).]

"Only 10% purity?" His shoulders slumped after seeing the number. He expected something like 25% at the very least. This was way too low.

The reason was understandable, but he now had no idea how many bloodline techniques would actually be unlocked at just 10%.

A troubled look settled on his face.

Emma's bloodline was still two upgrades away from Divine. If this thing needed four upgrades, he would have to burn through all of Emma's milestone rewards just for this bloodline.

But then something clicked and he felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.

'Wait... I always get rewards one grade higher. Does that mean I only need to upgrade twice?'

"System, I only need to upgrade this bloodline twice using milestone rewards, right? Or am I wrong?" He prayed in his heart that he was right. It would make everything so much easier.

[You are correct. Two upgrades to reach 100% purity.]

This was way too perfect to be a coincidence.

He pulled up his status panel just to check his luck and after seeing it was still at Common, a wry smile crept onto his face. "I guess it really is just a coincidence."

He pushed the status panel aside and tapped on the bloodline, scrolling down until he found the option.

[Do you wish to select this bloodline as your reward?]

"Of course..." Dante was about to hit yes but his finger stopped just inches from the panel.

'Before I start, I need to make sure no one notices.' He activated Blind Spot without hesitation.

If he was awakening the High Elf King Bloodline at 100% purity, he would have needed to go somewhere far from the mansion entirely. Emma's Legendary bloodline alone had turned the place into an ice age.

'But at 10% purity, it shouldn't be that intense.' He thought with some confidence, sat cross-legged on the bed, and pressed yes.

Before another thought could even form, Dante's eyes blazed with golden light. His body lifted off the bed on its own, rising slowly until he was suspended in the air.

A crown of intertwining branches materialized above his head, glowing with faint green light. Golden radiance poured from his body in every direction and ancient elven runes surfaced across his skin, crawling up his arms, his neck, and his chest like they were being carved by an invisible hand.

Behind him, a phantom of the World Tree appeared with an ethereal glow.

Then his body convulsed as something deep inside him began to shift. Bones, muscles, cells, all of it was being torn apart and rebuilt from the inside out. Like someone had set off a bomb at his core and his body was scrambling to piece itself back together around the blast. His body and soul were going through an evolution on a fundamental level.

Even after Metamorphosis, his body was nowhere near enough to contain the power of the Elven King.

He was transforming into a higher form of life entirely.

Blind Spot hid everything perfectly. Natasha, who was just a few rooms away, didn't notice a thing.

But some things couldn't be hidden by a mere technique.

***

Thousands of miles beyond the borders of the known world, past the oceans that no human ship had ever crossed, in lands that didn't exist on any map, there stood a forest older than recorded history.

The mana in the air was dozens of times denser and purer than on the human side.

This was the other side of the world. The side that humanity didn't know existed.

In the center of the forest was a massive hollow in the earth.

At first glance, it looked like an asteroid had struck the ground, but the shape told a different story.

It was nothing like an impact crater.

It had the outline of roots. As if an impossibly large tree had been ripped straight out of the earth.

At the edge of the hollow, an ancient elven woman stood motionless, staring down into the empty earth with deep sadness in her eyes.

She had spent her entire life standing at this very spot, hoping to find even a trace of what was once there.

It had been her lifelong dream to see the sacred World Tree with her own eyes. But during the Ruination, both their King and the divine tree had fallen.

Neither ever returned.

Without their king and the sacred tree, the grand elven kingdom had shrunk to nothing more than a village.

"That cursed era took everything from us." The old woman muttered under her breath as she turned to leave. There was nothing left to see. There hadn't been for centuries.

It was then that golden leaves began falling from the sky.

They came from nowhere, drifting down in silence, glowing with a warm light that hadn't touched this land in thousands of years. They swirled through the forest and spiraled into the crater, forming a golden vortex at its center.

The old woman stopped. She reached out to catch one, but it passed through her fingers like light through water.

As she slowly turned back toward the crater, her face was bathed in an ethereal glow.

A phantom of the World Tree was rising from the center of the earth. It grew and grew until its trunk towered past the clouds and its branches stretched across the sky so wide that every corner of the continent could see it.

Elves poured out of their homes, out of the forests, off the riverbanks and hilltops. They gathered at the edge of the crater with disbelief written across every face, staring up at the phantom with trembling bodies.

"A miracle..." Tears streamed down the old woman's face as she fell to her knees. "In my lifetime... I actually get to see it."

At the same time, every elf across the continent felt something stir deep in their chest. A pull in their blood that had been silent for as long as they could remember suddenly came alive.

"This feeling..."

"Our King has finally returned!"

"Our King has finally returned!"

"Our King has finally returned!"

…

…

…

The shouts grew louder and louder until the phantom started flickering. A second later, it dissolved into particles of light and scattered into the sky.

The crowd went dead silent. No one knew what to say.

"There's something down there!" Someone with sharp eyes pointed toward the bottom of the crater.

At the very center, a small sapling stood in the cracked earth. It was barely the height of a child. But even though no light reached that deep, it was glowing with a soft golden radiance all on its own.

"The sacred tree...?"

"But why is it so small?"

No matter how hard they tried to guess, not a single elf would ever know the reason was that their long-awaited king was frauding.