Level 1 Strongest Sage ~

Going back in time to the moment right after Halt and his comrades discovered the method to break Miu’s mom’s curse —

They decided to create a curse-breaker item called [Katara’s Drop].

The ingredients they needed to create that item was recorded in the book that was written when the world was created. Luna read the book aloud.

“The first thing we need to create Katara’s drop is the Nine-Tailed Fox Fur.”

“Master, is this okay?”

Youko pulled out her own hair and handed it to Halt.

“Thanks, Youko.”

“Next, scale of a colored dragon.”

“Luna, is Kokuryuu — Black Dragon okay?”

.”Hmm… Yes. The species doesn’t matter as long as it’s a colored dragon.”

“Really. Then — Urk!”

Ryuushin suddenly ripped off a scale from his arm.

“Uuu. O-Ouch…. Here, Halt.”

“Sorry, Ryuushin. I’ll Heal —”

“Heal!”

Hinata casted healing magic on Ryuushin faster than Halt did.

“Ryuushin-sama, are you alright? Is it painful?”

“It’s really brave of you to peel off your own scale, Ryuushin-sama. You’re amazing. That’s why… here a little r-reward for you.”

Hinata gently patted Ryuushin on the head.

He was a bit embarrassed, but it was also obvious that he was happy.

“Luna, what else do we need?”

“Holy Water and the fruit of Yggdrasil.”

“We have stocks of both.”

Halt opened a hole in the air, and he took out a vial filled with holy water and Yggdrasil’s fruit from the enormous stocks he kept in the Spirit Realm.

“We also need another fluid aside from Holy Water, it’s “Spirit Water” —”

“Halt-sama, please have this.”

Mai and Mei handed a vial with fluid to Halt.

“Is this Spirit Water?”

“Yes!”

“Spirit Water is supposed to be created exclusively by the Water Spirit King…”

Luna mumbled.

“Thanks, Mai, Mei. Luna, any other ingredient we need?”

“Y-Yes. The last one would be the claw of the Soryuu, the Ancestral Dragon.”

“Soryuu?”

“It’s Great Granpa-sama!”

“He is the only monster that dwells in the Demon Realm. His existence is incomparable to mere monsters, though…”

Hakua and Sitri were familiar with Soryuu.

Soryuu was the called the first monster.

Demons and majins were born from the power of the Evil God, but most of the monsters and magic beasts were generated from mana. All mana came from the overflow of the dragon veins that run through the entire world.

The spirits managed the dragon veins and converted mana into magical power, but the Soryuu was the sole monster capable of sending mana into the dragon veins.

“So, does that mean we had to go to the Demon Realm no matter what?”

“That’s right, but…there’s no guarantee that you will meet Soryuu even if you go to the Demon Realm.”

“How come, Sitri?”

“It is said that Soryuu dwells in the Demon Realm, but even us demons had never laid our eyes upon him.”

“That’s true for us, too. Great Granpa-sama bestows words of blessing everytime a new dragon is born, but not a single dragon has ever seen him.”

“So that’s how it is…”

Halt felt dejected when he heard that it would be impossible to obtain the last material needed to make Katara’s drop.

“Maybe there’s a way.”

Something dawned to Halt, and he placed his hand on the ground.

“What are you doing, Halt-sama?”

“All of the entire world’s mana flows from Soryuu, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. Actually, we spirits convert the mana that flows from Soryuu into magical power.”

Spirit King Sylph answered Halt’s question.

“In that case, if we trace the source of mana that flows into the world, we’ll be able to pinpoint Soryuu’s location, right?”

“I-It’s impossible even for you, Halt-sama.”

Just as Tina said, normally, it would be absolutely impossible to trace the exact location of Soryuu by following the dragon veins.”

— Yes. If it’s normally.

This Sage was anything but normal.

He subdued the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Demon King who now followd him, and he also had contracts with all the Spirit Kings of the four attributes. Not only that, he also raised the status of ordinary spirits using his own mana, making them evolve to become at par with the Spirit King’s level.

Moreover, he could even use the Divine Glyphs, and he could enter the Divine Realm at will.

And because of a certain reason, he had the strongest connection to Soryuu compared to any other being living in this world.

That’s why it happened.

“Ah, is this it?”

The Sage managed to locate where the Soryuu was.

And in that instant —

“Halt-sama!?”

Halt, along with the space surrounding him, was teleported somewhere else.

──＊＊＊──

“W-What’s this?”

It was the first time that Halt was involuntarily teleported since his incarnation into Halt’s body.

“It’s been a long time since you contacted me.”

“—!?”

A voice suddenly resounded above Halt.

There was a gigantic wall in front of him but — it was no wall.

It was the belly of a ginormous living thing.

Halt was now standing on top of a cliff that was just like a wall. There was a dragon that was so huge its size far surpassed any other dragon — and it was right in front of him.

“It’s been a long time since you came here to play, so what are you being dumbstruck for?”

The ginormous dragon drew his face closer to Halt.

If not for Halt’s [Static Status] curse, he would have been long blown away just by the dragon’s exhalation.

“A-Are you Soryuu-sama?”

“Yeah…Hm? Are you perhaps the first Halt?”

Halt was confused when Soryuu said he was the ‘first’. It was the first time he ever met Soryuu.

“First…May I know what that means?”

“It’s fine if you don’t understand. I confirm now that you really are the first one.”

Halt was further confused because Soryuu’s answers didn’t make any sense to be considered as answers. Soryuu started to move, ignoring his puzzlement.

“Halt the First. I’m going to take back the power that I lent you.”

Soryuu took a deep breath after saying that.

Along with a huge amount of air, a massive amount of mana was taken away from Halt.

Taken away — Well, even if it was so, it didn’t affect Halt one bit; it was utterly meaningless for him because his status had been fixed due to the Evil God’s curse.

“Ahm, I don’t quite follow, what does that mean?”

“Well, it’s fine even if you don’t know. What I’m telling you is that the next time you come here, you can borrow my power without any reservation.”

Halt couldn’t follow the conversation at all, but he could no longer ask anything because he was overwhelmed by the existence of the Soryuu that was in front of him.

“Right, the you this time around wants my claw, don’t you… Here, is this enough?”

Soryuu used his own fang to crush the tip of his gigantic claw, and he placed it in front of Halt.

“T-Thank you very much!!”

Halt didn’t understand what was going on, but he managed to obtain his target ingredient.

“Mm. You don’t have much time now, right? I’ll be looking forward to when you’re going back here to play.”

Soryuu uttered those words, then he teleported Halt back to his original place.

Once Halt was gone, Soryuu muttered to himself.

“The next time we’ll meet will be in 10, 000 years.”