After having dealt with the Emperor, Arthur used [Faster than death] to teleport away from the hall and with a dozen more teleportations, he arrived out of the castle.

Since he achieved what he came here to do, it was time to return, so without staying any longer he started running towards Laksy city.

It didn't take him long to arrive there, so he used the teleportation array to go back to the academy.

Just when he was making his way to his room he came across the principal who surprisingly was near the teleportation array.

Though he noticed her and saw her smiling at him, he bypassed her without speaking, after all, he had nothing to tell her.

"Sneaking away in the middle of the night, I wonder where were you?"

She couldn't help but finally speak and ask him because she honestly was curious, naturally, he would not sneak around at night and tonight was the first time he did, so she was wondering why he did that.

In fact, she only saw him leave the academy earlier, but that was purely by accident so she decided to wait for him to come back, I guess you could say curiosity got the better of her.

Arthur turned around to look at Sonia and coldly replied

"Though I'm a member of the council, I don't have to tell you everything I do, or do I?"

As if expecting this kind of answer, Sonia giggled for a second before speaking again

"Hehe~ of course not Mr. Arthur~, I was just wondering that's all"

Arthur was quite irritated that his name was discovered, though it's not like he was purposely hiding it, but the way the principal said his name seemed Like a teasing.

Since she didn't insist and he had nothing else to say he turned around and continued walking.

Though she was disappointed he didn't tell her what she wanted to hear, she could do nothing about it, after all it's not like she could read minds and get the answer but him acting unfriendly made her feel a bit sour, she wanted to build a friendly relationship with him but he kept acting cold and unwilling...

To be honest, Arthur hates people like the principal because behind that charming smile there is surely some schemes or plans, though she is kind and friendly on the outside, she must be crafty on the inside, as to be expected from a principal of a powerful magic academy, but of course that was only how Arthur thought of her, maybe his past made him think badly of everyone he encounters.

Arthur never believed himself to be remotely kind, or right, he just does what he wants, maybe it's bad or evil to others but that's just how his mind works, for him everyone who might cause troubles to him is an enemy no matter if they are kind people or bad ones, they are all the same as long as they provoke him.

He finally reached his room and found Lucy awake, she was sitting on the bed without doing anything apparently lost in thought, and when she saw Arthur come back, you could see her expression brighten and a breath-taking smile formed on her face.

Arthur quickly sat beside her and softly said

"I was just warning some idiots, why don't we go to sleep?"

Though she didn't question him about what he was doing, he knew her nature and after some time with her he comprehended a little of her personality, he could pinpoint her mood just by looking at her face, though in public she kept an expressionless face, when she is with him she started to smile often and speak a lot and her heart seemed to open to him more and more, so when he saw her gaze now, he immediately knew she was a bit curious so of course would tell her.

"Um!"

She nodded at him and soon both of them slept in the usual position, she used his chest as a pillow and he wrapped his hands around her, hugging her tightly.

Morning soon came and both of them quickly got ready and headed to class like usual, though it's a bit weird for a council member to be attending class, however, Arthur didn't particularly care about that and enjoyed the company of Lucy very much.

Like this a few days passed peacefully until Arthur got summoned by the principal along with Lucy, so after classes, they both headed to Sonia's office.

It didn't take them long to arrive, and once they entered Arthur saw that there were 3 council members present, Mary, the male beastman who apparently was named Mach and last but not least is the female elf.

Arthur ignored them and sat with Lucy on a nearby sofa, seemingly nonchalant, once he got comfortable he looked at the principal as if expecting her to speak.

This time the female elf who was quite arrogant last time didn't dare talk and provoke Arthur for she honestly was afraid of what he was capable of, heck she even heard from the principal that he(Arthur) killed Frederic, who compared to her was many times stronger.

"I see you finally came Mr. Arthur, well I have summoned you here for a special mission for you and 3 other council members"

Sonia didn't waste time contemplating Arthur and spoke directly about the mission, she knew his attitude so she didn't waste time prolonging the talk, when she finished speaking she gazed at him to observe his reaction but he kept a poker face without even as much as flinch.

Sonia waited for him to speak but even after a minute he still didn't talk so she took his silence as a confirmation and continued talking

"This mission will be quite dangerous, deep in the ghost island there is a true adult dragon who has been residing there for a long time, I want you 4 to try to steal an essence crystal from him"

She posed for a second as if still observing Arthur, but with still no reaction, she smiled and said

"What I want you to steal is an essence crystal. An essence crystal is a catalyst for using 'judgment' and without it, we cannot use it, as for why we need it now, you should know very well how threatening the holy church had become and I want to take precautions..."

To be honest Arthur was quite surprised, first as to why would she choose him to partake in this mission, and second is why would she need the essence crystal now, I mean normally they should have it always with them to prepare for any sudden attacks, so this was completely illogical, suspicions grew in his heart as he began to be more and more distrustful against the principal, there surely is a scheme behind this.

"Alright, but my comrade will come with me"

Since he was sure there is something going on, he had to bring Lucy, he had an uneasy feeling and he absolutely couldn't let her stay here alone.

"Of course, that's exactly why I summoned her here too."

As if expecting him to say that she immediately replied back to him while smiling.

"Since it's decided, you will head to the ghost island tomorrow morning."

Sonia continued to talk about some other matters about the trip, and after half an hour, Lucy and Arthur left the office and headed towards their room.

As they entered their room Arthur softly said

"Lucy, sorry but I had to.."

Before he could finish Lucy interrupted him and spoke

"I know, something is suspicious about this mission.."

It seems even Lucy found it strange, surprisingly she put a hand on her hip and began to think deeply about something.

Arthur patted her head reassuringly while chuckling to himself as he found her pose very cute and enchanting especially with that green dress she was wearing, though he patted her head, he didn't say anything, after all, words are meaningless between them, she knew he would protect her no matter what and he knew she would do the same even though she is not as strong as him.

The night passed rather quickly and it was now morning, Arthur and Lucy went to the meeting place and found the 2 beastmen and elf waiting there.

No words were needed and they proceeded, as usual, they took the teleportation array and appeared at the ghost island.

As they were heading deeper in the island, Mary finally broke the silence and spoke to Arthur

"The adult dragon is a lightning type and he is extremely strong but we do not need to beat it, just distract it for some time until we get the essence crystal, it is located in his(the dragon) cave with all the other treasures"

Dragons were the greedy type and loved collecting treasures of all kinds and would never let go of them even if they died, so just stealing the treasure in front of it would enrage it even more.

Arthur heard her but still remained silent which greatly angered her but nonetheless, she snorted and spoke again

"You need to know that you have to distract him until we get the essence crystal, we picked you to do that because apparently, you are the strongest among us and with teleportation, you should win sometimes against him"

Arthur still didn't reply but this time she didn't mind and kept walking ahead with Mach.

Along the way, they encountered some strong monsters but the female elf waved her staff and killed them with her wind magic.

Arthur could only sigh and repress his emotions, every time he bypassed a dead corpse without possessing it would be such a huge waste, after all, every single point of stats matters, he thought to himself that on the way back he would use the excuse of training and possess those corpses.

They did indeed encounter some imoogis but they discretely bypassed them to not cause unnecessary troubles or attract even more beasts.

After 3 hours of walking with decent traveling speed, a black mountain came in to view, it was very high and could be seen from a long distance, Arthur noticed it from earlier due to his keen senses but to normal people like Lucy the towering forest trees blocked almost all the view, plus the cloudy sky with no sun made it even harder to see.

The mountain was very normal except it was jet black and extremely high, but the more they approached it the more Arthur noticed the surroundings become darker as if they were at night, but you can see various lightning around, striking the ground now and then and as they become closer to the edge of the mountain the lightning become more frequent.

Mary and the female elf seemed a bit afraid as for Mach he held a poker face which surprised Arthur a little, he never heard the man talk but he somehow appeared special with his silent yet cold demeanor

They finally reached the foot of the mountain and stopped there, Mary turned around to look at Arthur and said:

"The dragon is probably at the summit of the mountain, his home is there so the treasures are likely to be there, we need you to distract him and bring him a little further from his home so we can sneak in and take what we need"

Arthur was curious as to how she knew he lived above or even how she was so sure of that, but he gave up on that idea for the time beings and made the dark cloud and jumped on it along with Lucy.

He decided to just get done with this quickly but he was overly cautious of the people here more than the dragon, sure he was way stronger than them but there were some strange things in this world that he still didn't know about and those things can probably harm him even if he is this powerful.

He created a barrier around Lucy, he made sure it's complete and perfect and then he flew to the summit with her using the dark cloud.

He then retrieved his staff, and also made a barrier around him, he didn't know how powerful a dragon can be but a young earth dragon gave him a headache, so an adult one must be extremely strong too.

He can use [hell arrow] but that was his trump card and he didn't want to show it to them plus he was sure there is something plotted and to straight up use his trump card would put him at a disadvantage, also what if the arrow don't work?that would only bring his doom.

Once they reached the summit which looked like a huge crater that spanned a kilometer or so, Arthur saw a silver creature laying not too far away, seemingly asleep.

The dragon had silver scales which honestly looked very beautiful and made him look majestic, lightning descended on him now and them but he seemed to be completely unaffected by it, not too far away from his there was a cave that could barely fit him, Arthur guessed that the treasures must be there.

He contemplated the silver dragon for a second before he was interrupted by a deep yet calm voice

"Who dares disturb Yamak?"

The dragon opened his eyes for a second before closing them again when he saw that it was just a puny human as if not caring about these beings, he wanted to kill the ones who disturbed him but since it was just some weak humans he found it useless and a waste of time to do it so he resumed his nap.

Dragons are creatures who didn't love traveling, they always stuck to one place and made it their home, also they would sleep for a long time, especially the adult ones as they can survive without food for a very long time.

Arthur was startled as it is the first time he heard a beast talk but that's to be expected from a legendary being, after all, dragons are known to be able to talk human language when they reach adulthood.

The First thing he did was appraise the dragon and he got this

[Named lightning dragon(Yamak, the Unforgiven): Lvl637]

'Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to distract THAT!'

Arthur gritted his teeth in anger, the dragon's level was completely out of his expectation after all the young earth dragon was only 100 and something but this one was a whopping 600, no matter how confident Arthur was, he didn't even have the assurance to be able to win against Yamak, fortunately, he only had to win some time and if he couldn't he would only run with Lucy and abandon the others, after all, who cares about their petty lives.

He soon created a dozen or so dark spears and threw them at the silver dragon....