Chapter 40: Just Because It Has Wings Doesn't Make It a Flying Wyrm—It Could Also Be...

Just as Joshua stood before Black, who was lazily sprawled on the ground refusing to move, staring at it with wide eyes, a crisp voice, a blend of a young boy and girl, sounded from behind him.

"Master, the materials you wanted are here!"

"Yeah, we brought them over!"

Hearing the voices of his weapons, Joshua couldn't help but nod. He turned around with a smile and said, "You're here? Good, thank you for your hard work."

He looked at Ying and Lin, two young Divine Mechanism youths holding a variety of scattered and strange items in their hands—seeds of some plant, a beetle in a cage, many chunks of meat, and a whole lot of other miscellaneous things.

Lin tilted his head slightly, handed the materials to Joshua, and then looked at Black, who had already lowered its head as if in a state of hibernation. The black-haired youth seemed quite interested and said, "Master, can I help?"

Ying also nodded in agreement: "Yeah, it looks really interesting."

"Feel free."

Taking the materials, Joshua placed these scattered little items on the ground. Then, with a serious expression, he crouched down, picked up the cage containing the beetle, and shook it in front of Black's eyes.

The beetle's carapace was tough, surpassing the hardness of ordinary blades. If not for some material collection quest, few hunters would bother hunting such a creature—it was too easy to damage weapons.

But there was one creature that particularly enjoyed preying on these hard-shelled bugs. Even a hybrid should have some reaction.

However, Black clearly just let out a lazy snort at the beetle, showing no reaction at all.

"Good, it's not a Yian Kut-Ku."

Joshua nodded without any sign of disappointment—in fact, he was relieved it wasn't a Yian Kut-Ku. Although it was also a type of wyvern, that monster was at the very bottom of the large wyvern food chain. Even a warhorse wouldn't want to be associated with it.

Next, Joshua took from Ying a few pieces of specially seasoned mammoth meat, herbivore wyvern meat, and wild boar meat, and waved them in front of Black one by one.

These monster meats, treated with special spices and magic potions, held an unimaginable allure for carnivorous wyverns. As a horse, Black had shown clear omnivorous tendencies after its bloodline awakened, which was enough to prove it might have inherited the bloodline of a carnivorous wyvern.

This time, Black did react. It opened its eyes, sniffed each piece of meat in turn, and seemed somewhat interested.

But under Joshua's somewhat excited gaze, it eventually snorted, turned its head away, and lost interest.

"That's strange..."

Setting the meat aside casually, Joshua fell into thought—faced with this specially seasoned meat, even a flying wyvern, knowing it might be poisoned, couldn't resist the temptation. Black had shown a flicker of interest but ultimately turned away... And since it didn't seem capable of breathing fire, that ruled out the Agnaktor, Rathalos, and Gravios families.

Come to think of it, its bloodline had awakened to the level of a half-dragon, yet it still had no beak, no wing membranes, and no venomous claws. It really didn't seem like an Agnaktor or Rathalos bloodline. Plus, it hadn't shown any aversion to the icy winter before, so it probably wasn't a Lavasioth either.

"What's wrong, Master?"

Lin kept waving various strange things in front of Black's eyes—like Fire Herb seeds and Sunstone ore fragments. Black looked at each in turn but still showed no special reaction. The Divine Mechanism youth, however, seemed to be having a great time, and Ying beside him looked eager to join in.

"Nothing."

Joshua frowned at this scene and muttered to himself, "Those are all the common wyvern types. Could it be some kind of higher bloodline?"

To be honest, Agnaktor, Rathalos, and Gravios were already high-tier monsters. Even in Joshua's previous life at the Gold-rank, he was still hunting these wyverns—they never went out of style. And if you let your guard down, these massive creatures could seriously injure you.

But if it really was a higher bloodline, then it was *too* high. Gold and Silver Rathalos were ultimately still Rathalos bloodlines, just growing stronger with age. Other creatures that could control flame power... were basically all at the Ancient Dragon level.

The Overlord of the Lava, Akantor; the Volcano God, Fatalis; and the one that triggered the Great Aias Volcano eruption four hundred years ago, shaking time and space, Alatreon—all these wyverns associated with lava and fire were undoubtedly the highest-tier monsters. Their power could cause natural disasters, destroy cities, and even topple a nation.

Could Black have inherited the bloodline of one of *them*?

It was now the end of summer, and even the Northern Lands had pleasant weather. Looking at this lazy, good-for-nothing horse in front of him, Joshua couldn't help but doubt his own reasoning.

But regardless, he had to try.

Recalling the ecology of various Ancient Dragons from his memory, Joshua called Ying and Lin over and whispered a few instructions to them.

"Bring these things over."

"Yes, Master!"

Hearing the warrior's request, the silver-haired girl nodded first. After responding, Lin asked an extra question: "These are all very precious, Master. Are you sure you want to use them?"

"Really, I can't use them for anything else anyway. Keeping them is worse than trying."

Joshua nodded with a smile and gestured, "Go on, don't keep me waiting."

"Yes!"

Soon, the two returned with the materials he had requested.

Among them were some bottles and jars, as well as various types of bones.

The previously lazy Black suddenly changed its demeanor. It raised its head, staring intently in the direction of Ying and Lin, its gaze fixed on the materials in their hands.

*Looks like my guess was right! This guy actually has a trace of Ancient Dragon bloodline!*

Chuckling softly, Joshua took the items handed to him and opened a tightly sealed crystal bottle. Instantly, a rich, bloody scent spread throughout the entire stable. The ancient aura contained within made one's mind snap to attention, instinctively becoming alert.

Ancient Dragon Blood.

The Black Erosion Dragon he had killed during the Black Tide was, after all, a juvenile Ancient Dragon. Its body materials were both valuable and rare. The dragon's carcass had been traded to Verdani; the Countess needed its bones to craft a new staff. In exchange, she had given Joshua many other rare materials.

One of them was this bottle of Ancient Dragon Blood.

As the origin of all magical beasts on the Mycroft Continent, Ancient Dragons had vastly different bloodlines, but their power was relatively similar. Since their power all came directly from the Steel Force bloodline, any Ancient Dragon's blood could easily fuse and react.

Black's reaction to the Ancient Dragon Blood proved that its awakened bloodline wasn't some low-tier hybrid mess, but rather a fortunate trace of Ancient Dragon power. Even if it was just a little, it was a pleasant surprise for Joshua.

But confirming it had an Ancient Dragon bloodline didn't identify *which* Ancient Dragon. That meant Joshua couldn't perform targeted bloodline awakening. At this point, the warrior grew cautious. After all, a warhorse awakening such a rare bloodline was extremely uncommon. It was said that the Imperial Emperor's own mount was a Ground Dragon that had fully awakened the bloodline of a Five-Colored Dragon Clan Black Dragon. After careful nurturing, its power far exceeded that of an ordinary Black Dragon.

Black let out a heavy snort. The carapace and spines on its body slightly expanded and lifted, emitting wisps of white steam. A wave of heat immediately washed over the area.

Tempted by the bottle of Ancient Dragon Blood in Joshua's hand, the creature shed its previous lazy demeanor and actually stood up.

But the warrior sneered and put the Ancient Dragon Blood away.

*This guy, acting so aloof before—I tried everything and got no reaction. Now it's looking at me with such longing for the Ancient Dragon Blood?*

*Fine, if you beg me, I might just give it to you!*

But contrary to Joshua's expectations, when Black saw him put away the dragon blood, it shamelessly stepped forward, nuzzled his hand affectionately, and let out a whinny. Seeing Joshua still unresponsive, it seemed to make a decision and even stuck out its tongue, which was already starting to develop tiny barbs.

*When did this guy get so smart?!*

"Don't lick me! Tch, you're not listening to reason."

Quickly pushing away the head of this utterly shameless dragon-blooded horse, Joshua took a few dragon scales from Ying, who was trying to suppress a laugh. He infused them with Battle Qi, and the power contained within these nearly shattered scales began to emanate, releasing waves of strange energy.

Instantly, the stable was filled with fire elements. Around Black, layers of visible orange-red halos appeared—a sign that fire elements were concentrated to their peak. The slightest disturbance would now trigger a massive explosion capable of blowing up the stable.

But even so, Black showed no reaction. It was still clinging to Joshua's side, trying to find that bottle of Ancient Dragon Blood.

"So it's not a Teostra..."

Putting away the Teostra scales he had purchased at a high price a few days ago, the warrior's mood wasn't as frustrated as before. Now that the range of Ancient Dragons was narrowed down, he would just test all fire-related dragon materials.

"Next, let's try this—a fragment of a giant fang said to be shed by an Akantor during a tooth change."

...

A long time later.

"Why isn't anything working?!"

Furiously slapping a stable pillar, the entire stable began to tremble violently. Amidst the soft exclamations of Ying and Lin, Joshua widened his eyes and glared at the warhorse lying obediently on the ground, awaiting its master's wrath.

Before this, Joshua had tested many materials from various Ancient Dragons or powerful wyverns to verify the source of Black's bloodline. But frustratingly, none of them worked.

Generally, there was only one possibility: the materials weren't pure enough to trigger a bloodline resonance.

But these were already the rarest materials Joshua could collect—Ancient Dragon materials were incredibly hard to come by. They were legendary-level terrifying creatures, each one hidden away in some unknown place in slumber. Even if you wanted to hunt them, you couldn't find them.

These materials were collected from places Ancient Dragons had once inhabited, not obtained by hunting them, so their lower potency was normal.

"So picky... Looks like I have to use my last resort."

After a moment of silence, a cold glint flashed in Joshua's eyes. "I didn't want to use it—consider yourself lucky, Black, that it's not winter."

"Neigh?!"

Hearing the murderous intent in their master's voice, even Ying hugged her arms and huddled together with Lin, trembling. And Black, facing the pressure of this Dragon Slayer directly? The dragon-blooded warhorse immediately collapsed to the ground, unable to function.

Grabbing Black by the neck and dragging it, Joshua brought the dragon-blooded horse to the backyard of the Lord's Manor.

In the backyard of the Lord's Manor, there was a pond. This pond was usually used to supply water for the stables and other areas. The water was clear, and a mechanism continuously brought up clean groundwater from below. Occasionally, the manor would activate a purification array to cleanse impurities from the pond.

But now, the warrior threw his warhorse into the pond and ruthlessly, unreasonably, shoved it underwater.

"Don't struggle!"

He threatened viciously. Black, which had been about to struggle, immediately stiffened, not daring to move, and obediently stayed in the water, blowing out a stream of bubbles.

Joshua's actions naturally had a reason. Based on his experience from his previous life, the power of bloodline was the power of instinct, the power of life's continuation—a power that only erupted in the most critical moments.

And when would a Rathalos feel that its life was at an end, that it would die if it didn't erupt?

In the water, of course!

A Rathalos in the water would inevitably reveal the most fundamental source of its power. That way, Joshua could clearly identify which Ancient Dragon's bloodline Black had inherited.

Feeling a slight abnormal movement from Black under his hand, Joshua sneered and pressed it even deeper into the pond.

Since the pond was connected to an underground water vein, the water was bone-chillingly cold and very deep—enough to make Black feel the panic of not reaching air above nor touching the ground below. The cold water would also suppress the fire element power around it, forcing it to focus on channeling the energy within its bloodline.

Time passed slowly. Joshua's hand remained like the sturdiest clamp, firmly holding Black underwater.

But as time dragged on, even Joshua began to feel something was off, wondering if Black had drowned.

That wasn't the case.

"Splash."

Sensing the weakening of Joshua's grip, Black twisted its body and nimbly slipped out of its master's hand. Then...

Then it started swimming in the water?! And it looked perfectly at ease, without any sign of struggle or discomfort!

*No wonder it stopped struggling when I said so and barely moved afterward—it wasn't uncomfortable at all!* Joshua stared at this scene in shock, and a sudden realization dawned on him.

*Right, just because it has wings doesn't make it a flying wyrm—who said you can't have wings if you can't fly?!*

*This guy probably inherited the bloodline of another Ancient Dragon I overlooked—the Overlord of the Seas, the Active Volcano, the Abyssal Dragon, Gramiraos!*

In other words, Black was actually a Sea Dragon! (To be continued.)