The diverted expedition lasted for a whole month, and during which James stayed with Dora back in her cruiser, raiding over small kingdoms, adding more territories to him one after another, plus having some fun with her.

As for Rigo, he had joined hands with other leaders to attack those large kingdoms. Their huge number made them quite hard rock to crack, while Rigo had to sacrifice with some of his own forces in exchange of securing many victories here.

Each kingdom fell was followed by a huge wave of monster attacks. These attacks were chaotic, causing more damage at first, but with time, his allies got to know better dealing with these monsters.

The war continued to rage, and huge areas of space started to be added to James' growing empire. per agreement, Rigo gave these forces their share of monsters and planets to secure, and another issue emerged.

The ore mines!

It was now widely known how this strategy proved its worth! Even a worthless asteroid was now worth its weight in gold if it had an ore mine inside it.

This made everyone crave for these ores, and after consulting with James and Islinda back home, another agreement was reached.

They could have all the mines they wanted, provided that they paid the daily fees for it!

This deal was something the seven forces never dreamt of! They didn't imagine James to let go of such a huge wealth easily, and without much payment except for these ores!

Despite the ores were now expensive, the value coming from these monsters outshadowed the price, making it quite cheap in fact.

However, for James, Islinda, and others, these ore mines were a burden! Imagine trying to branch out forces to secure these, while working hard to extract the ores from inside, while fighting off the monsters!

If not using small cruisers to suppress these monsters alongside large numbers of ground soldiers and fighters, nothing good would come from this then, and the monsters would be lost.

Simply like that, these leaders gained a huge piece of the cake, making them very satisfied, thinking this was thanks to the girls they sent to James, making them searching for more, wanting to drown James with these girls.

However, James was nowhere to be seen right now, and only Rigo kept appearing in his stead. News travelled fast, and rumors of his return to his capital spread, while James was staying back at the original spot they all started from, while enjoying the soft and delicate treatment of Dora all time!

This made him and Dora gain much benefits, that at the end of this month, Dora was much aggressive, and he formally stepped into the realm of cultivation for the first time ever!

It happened so suddenly, where he finished one deep intimate session with Dora, leaving her as usual, unable to move a finger, lying lazily and helplessly in bed!

Just as he was about to stand up and leave, as usual, a strange feeling suddenly hit him, making him stop his move, return to his place, sit on the bed, and forcibly closed his eyes.

He found himself standing in the middle of a small universe, where half was light, while the other half was dark!

He didn't know what was going on, and before he could ask anything, the universe started to rotate around him, slowly at first, then it started to pick up speed, while small shiny stars started to coalesce, forming circular lines all the way around him.

Everything was spinning, everything but him. suddenly in the middle of all this, his scepter reappeared again, after a long time of absence.

"Scepter, what is going on here?" James asked, with extreme anxiety.

However, his scepter totally ignored him, while lying calmly in his hand.

The moment he grabbed his artifact again, a shock happened to his body, making every single spot there to ache! The pain continued for long times, exceeding hours, however when it finally subsided, James felt refreshing, like never before.

And the next moment, he was kicked outside, opening his eyes, feeling much startled by the scene he saw in front of his eyes!

Dora was now standing away from him, holding her weapon and wielding it in front of his face. "Dora, what are you doing sweetie?" James asked, and when he just opened his mouth and spoke, his sound seemed quite bizarre, like coming from inside a large distance, not directly speaking to her.

"Stand away from me monster, and where did you take my James to? If you don't bring him back, I won't hesitate to fight you here and now!"

Her words were severe and harsh, like speaking to an enemy not a lover. James gradually took control over his body, and when he did, that huge monster that appeared here vanished, and only James appeared again.

"It's you?!!" she skeptically asked, with much shock in her voice, "What happened to you?" she asked, before hurrying to throw the weapon, running towards him and hugging him hard, "you made me panic! Extremely worried!!"

He hugged her, before glancing over the whole room in daze. The room was in a mess, where strange dark offensive fluid filled the whole floor. He himself didn't have a clue about what happened, nor he could explain. He knew nothing, and he hoped she, instead, would explain to him!!

"Can you tell me what happened here?" he asked, after making sure she calmed a bit.

"A dragon, a very vicious and ferocious dragon appeared instead of you. Its huge body pushed me off the bed, and the next moment I was jolted awake, I was shocked by his brutal eyes and strange appearance. His body kept ejecting this dark fluid for non-stop, until you finally showed up and it was gone!"

Her words made him more at daze, as he never had any memory about dragons at all. Dragons were mythical beings that he never heard existed in real life.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Pretty sure, I know what I saw, it wasn't you, it was a dragon!"

James looked again towards the bed, which was now crushed, leaving marks of big claws. He sighed, as he didn't know what was happening to him!

"Until we figure out what is happening to me, we should stay away at night, not sleep together for the upcoming days," he said, as this was the only thing in hand he could now do.

"Sleep separate?!" she sadly asked, before nodding, "it's for the best, but are you ok? And what is all about this dragon?" she asked.

"I honestly don't know," he shook his head, before adding, "I think it has some relation to that scepter, the one I used to save you, remember it?"

"Ah, that freakishly strong artifact! Sure I recall it, is this it's doing? You should ditch it then!"

"I can't," he said and didn't say anymore. He had a relationship with the scepter, and instead of throwing it away, he should just fix it, and hear the answer directly from the scepter.

The next day, James just closed upon himself, sitting all day on the floor, trying to revise anything related to what happened and he might read it somehow. He also tried to mimic the feeling he had, in vain.

As he lost all hopes to find anything useful in his mind, he scanned the database of the cruiser, finding nothing useful. He then asked Islinda and Luna about it.

Away from expressing their worry over him, he had no single useful info so far. He sighed, recalling the old words of his scepter, the words he long forgot about, lost interest to seek.

"I had to look for a master, someone with answers to my questions," he muttered, before he finally decided to start his search for that master.

The issue he faced was related to how and where he should start his search! Rigo had no info about what happened to him, or any useful leads about such a master.

James thought about asking the seven forces, but he had no trust yet in them, plus what he should tell them, he was transformed into a dragon and wanted to look for anyone like that in the universe?

He would turn himself into a laughing clown for them, he wouldn't humiliate himself ever to them, for fear they might have second thoughts and might try to betray him.

He sighed, he never thought looking for masters would be such a hurdle!

"Sigh, it seems my only solution is to repair the scepter and wait for it to tell me everything then," he sighed, as he sent to Luna asking about her status in looking for the godly ore.

She was now searching far and wide for that ore. Recently, she felt its presence in an uninhabited planet, and she didn't hesitate to turn the whole planet upside down, looking for this ore.