"Yes, the tiny golden sphere, or as I said before, MY BEAST CORE is now residing right below your mana core due to your lucky success in actually refining my core at your meager level."

"What exactly do you mean with that?" Ventus inquired angrily.

"It means that if weren't for the humongous amount of coincidences you just luckily found yourself into, you would never have been able to refine my core." the voice replied.

"It is actually quite the feat you just pulled off ya know?"

"I mean...who would've had ever imagined that the one who would free me and coincidentally refine me when my soul is at its weakest ever without having the power to rebuild my body due to it being sealed and oppressed for millennia under this despicable seventy-four restriction corona formation would be a little apprentice magus as yourself?" the voice laughed in self-deprecation.

"I, the once hailed as the Eternal Sand Dragon, would become a tool for an apprentice magus ant. That would definitely make me a great joke amongst the five divine beasts!" the voice sighed.

"Wait a little okay? first, I could use some respect since you're living in my body. Second, it would be nice if you could actually explain things first before mumbling numerous references into my brain that I could not possibly understand, and third, what exactly are your plans now? take my body or something? and how does that refinement stuff work anyway?" Ventus grumbled in annoyance.

"All right kid, fine, I'll explain...I guess I owe you that much since you've freed me, even though you've trapped me a few hours later." the voice chuckled.

Ventus now attentively listened to the voice, he felt as if he was about to learn some very important information about the world.

"First, let's start with a few introductions. I am known to you humans as the "Eternal Sand Dragon" one of the five supreme leaders of the Beast Clan, my name is Ragnar Heremos."

"The five supreme leaders each govern a faction inside the Beast Clan and due to our proximity in bloodline with the Ancient Titan Beasts, we were deemed as the Five Divine Beasts,"

"Thousands of years ago, the world was at war. All kinds of living beings fought amongst themselves for supremacy of resources and land. Back then, there was no Kingun that dominated the world and subdued the masses with his power,"

"In those chaotic years blood flowed as rivers and corpses became mountains on a daily basis, in those cruel times were born the brightest and strongest combatants, be it human, beast, elf, demon, lune, solem, dwarf, giant or fey."

"Countless powerhouses were produced by all the races and shook the world with their might. Those times were truly splendid."

As the voice told the stories, golden threads of energy flowed from the golden core into his and then travelled to his brain. As the information was told, the memories of the ancient dragon were played in Ventus's mind.

Massive battles that wrecked the earth, rainbow-colored lights and explosive energies flew all over as the various warriors of the nine races fought. Any casual sneeze of any of those existences could wipe the whole Lumina Kingdom out of existence. Even though it was just a memory, the mere aura contained in that remembrance was enough to shake Ventus to his core, plus, Ventus had never seen anything like it before, he never had even imagined something so powerful could ever exist, except for maybe Kingun.

"In that time, a grand battle took place between the nine races. All fought bravely and did the very best they could, but not even the joint effort of all of those monstrous powerhouses could stop the First Kingun from dominating and uniting the nine races under the might of his fist,"

"He was a Human that rose in power rapidly and defeated everyone in his path. Though he was human, he did not favor his race and dealt with every single being with cold and hard fairness."

The memory flow then changed and the image of a humanoid silhouette appeared in Ventus's mind, his features were blurred, but his very existence made Ventus feel like it was only right to bow before him.

"He was named Nikolai Kaiser before he became Kingun, how he achieved that insane amount of power was a mystery, some speculated he had some sort of treasure or god legacy. Others, however, thought he had received the recognition and support of the Will of the World that powered him to an extreme invincible state."

The humanoid being radiated a majestic aura as that felt as wide as the world itself, he seemed to be like he was one with the world and sometimes he even felt like could fuse with it. If one did not pay attention, one would quickly lose sight of him. Around him tornadoes rose as the lands quaked and the seas churned and waved, the world seemed to be suffering the apocalypse as he exerted his might.

"After that grand battle that forced every race to back down in defeat, he became known as the "Conqueror of The Nine Races" or simply as the "Supreme King", Kingun."

The old dragon's voice ringed emotionally in Ventus's mind before the memories continued.

"Of course, no one opposed his rule, but that didn't stop the nine races to have wars between them, though none dared to ever do such a grand battle again. In one such war, in a very peculiar battle, the humans allied themselves with the elves, the lune, and the solem race to fight against the beast clan over a certain treasure."

At this point, the alliance appeared in his mind. Several hundreds of thousands of humanoid warriors appeared on one side of a massive stretch of cracked dry land, whilst on the other side, the beast clan stood with its monstrous sized combatants with the gigantic behemoth that was their leader, the ancient golden dragon.

His scales seemed like impenetrable shields, His wings covered the sky above and created mighty winds as they moved giving the world below a golden hue as the sun shone upon them. His fangs were white and hundredfold in number as they looked like sharp swords in that gargantuan-sized maw, whilst his claws were black and looked like invincible scythes of death when he swiped cutting even air itself apart. On his back were black spikes protruding along his spine all the way to his tail that would from time to time hit the earth and make the whole battlefield vibrate with the sheer power of the impact. His eyes seemed like scarlet-golden entrances to the abyss as he silently glanced the foes he was about to face with his ten thousand meter long body.

Such a mighty image struck at Ventus's soul, creating shockwaves as he gasped for breath. Without warning, the form of such a monstrous dragon had formed within him, forcing it's way through his very subconscious. Manifesting even a hint of power seemed enough to rip him apart. That beast was the embodiment of Armageddon itself. It's golden luster shined so bright as if to give the sun itself a moment to hesitate. That sort of power, domineering and absolute, demanded respect and Ventus gave it willingly, without a second thought.

"In that battle, the beast clan's golden faction under my command was massacred, and it was also in that same battle that I fell,"

"Where you stand now was once a massive stretch of dry land, but when I was defeated by the human alliance, my body was disintegrated. It became this massive metallic golden sand desert, and thankfully, my core and soul were powerful enough to resist the human's skills, allowing me to preserve my life."

"Seeing that they could not completely destroy me, they sealed me away in hopes of one day weakening me enough to completely destroy me,"

"But it seemed that either they forgot me or the ones that made this plan had long since died," The old dragon sighed, "Well, but those are matters of the past, if they ever come to haunt me, I'll deal with them as they come."

Ventus's mind could not stay still for a long time, those events in the memory of the old dragon were far too impressive for him to process rapidly. At this moment he realized how much of a frog in a well he was, he knew basically nothing about the wide world he was stepping into and was proud of the little achievements he had, when in reality, he was truly nothing more than an ant in front of the true behemoths. As if feeling the distress in Ventus's mind, Ragnar spoke.

"But don't feel down because of it. That battle occurred millennia ago. All of the combatants were hundreds of years old and had spent most of their lives training to achieve that power, there is no need whatsoever to compare yourself to them," He spoke gently, "If you had the time to train they had, even if you were retarded you could achieve their power, so relax, you still got a long way to go!"

Ventus's mood improved slightly as the dragon consoled him and drove away his inferiority-filled thoughts. At this point, he relaxed his body and laid down on the golden sand.

"Answering your following questions," Ragnar continued, "Refinement is a procedure when you use your mana, your blood or your soul in a procedure to assimilate and "brand" as your own something that was not originally yours to begin with."

"It is similar to how you convert world mana into inner mana and make it your own power. Due to the nature of mana being neutral and having no consciousness, it is far easier to refine it than it would be to refine something that has a consciousness and can actively resist the process." he explained.

"But if your core has your soul, and consequently, your consciousness inside," Ventus questioned, "Why didn't you resist the refinement?"

"Good question kid!" the dragon laughed, "Simple, I had no energy to resist. When you took me out of the sealing formation, my consciousness was hazy and my soul needed nourishment, and thus, when the energy came pouring in, I greedily absorbed, but little did I know that it was your energy, and thus actually ended up being refined,"

"Luckily, you had no knowledge of a proper refinement technique and as such, I was able to retain my consciousness. But, even though really rough, you still ended up refining me" he laughed," If for an example, you tried to do that when my soul was at its peak strength I could totally resist the process and you would either die of old age trying, or I could just instantly drain you to death."

At this point, Ventus felt a chill crawl up his spine. He had unknowingly shaken hands with death for ten hours when refining this thing! cold beads of sweat appeared all over his body as he trembled slightly.

"Scared now huh? relax kid, I mean no harm," Ragnar sighed gently, "All these long years trapped in this formation changed my mindset, I'm no longer the imposing dragon you saw in my memories, now I'm more of a wise old sage that saw through the curtains of time."

"As for your last question" he proceeded, "no, I have no plans on taking your body, even if I did, I can't take control of your body unless you let me do so."

"Why is that? your soul is far stronger than mine!" Ventus chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"Yes and no, it's not that simple," Ragnar replied, "The intrinsic nature of souls and refinement is a complex matter, once something is refined, even if crudely so, it has no power whatsoever over its master unless he allows so."

"But even then, something like you said, or "possession" as the world knows it, is only possible when the refinement process is ongoing, but not when it is completed. Once refined, possession is only allowed but can be reversed at any second should the master will it to happen."

Ventus nodded silently. He entered this trial just to pass the test and officially become an apprentice magus, but who would've imagined he'd have such a lucky encounter. At this moment he remembered something, The manager did say that there was a hidden treasure on this trial that if successfully obtained, could be kept even if he failed the trial, was this beast core it? perhaps they thought that the soul inside had long since died and as such, figured that it would be a good treasure?

As Ventus's mind speculated and his thoughts raced, he grew increasingly excited. He had now the core piece of the massive desert, with its aid, couldn't he basically walk around this place like it was his own house? A wide grin surfaced on his face as his mood improved massively.

"You said before that this desert was once your body right?" Ventus asked excitedly.

"Yes, why do you ask?" Ragnar inquired curiously.

"If it is so, can't you rebuild it? if you did, I would basically be invincible!"

The dragon's voice echoed in his mind as a hearty laughter burst out.

"So that was your plan you rascal!" Ragnar laughed, "I indeed could rebuild my body, but not with my present strength."

"Why?" Ventus asked as his excitement faded.

"Because right now, my strength is your strength. Basically, I can only exert as much strength as you can, and should I force my power on you, your body wouldn't be able to handle the burden and would be crippled if not directly killed" he explained.

"Do you think you could rebuild my body with your current strength?" Ragnard asked already knowing the answer.

"no.."Ventus replied as his mood clearly deflated.

"The most I could do now is undo the desert." Ragnar spoke.

"WHAT!? you're complaining you're too weak and now you're saying you will undo this desert, how could you possibly pull that off with my power!?" Ventus exclaimed.

"Well, this desert was originally my body and it originated from my core. As such, storing it inside my core is no problem at all, but I would indeed need a massive amount of energy," Ragnar replied frowning, "You already shown the ability of refining mana whilst executing another task before, if you can steadily supply me with mana, I can definitely regather my body and store it inside my core."

"At that point, you would have a near endless amount of material to execute your earth magi art, and to make it even better, the control would be further fine-tuned by my core inside your body. Not to say that my "sand" is of a far greater quality than most minerals on the planet!"

"But if I supplied you with mana constantly so that you could store the desert, how much time would you take to do that?" Ventus inquired.

"If your supplying speed was as fast as the speed you refined your mana, it would take approximately a full month of non-stop mana supply" Ragnar replied.

Ventus quickly checked his tracking device and discovered he only had four days remaining.

"Damn…. that's not fast enough, I only have four days before the trial ends and the portal is most likely closed!"

Ventus was becoming increasingly annoyed with his weakness. After watching the memories of the old dragon he noticed how small and powerless he was right now, but as if fate was toying with him, constantly he was being reminded of how actually minute was his power.

"IF, for an example, you could supply mana at ten times that speed, and somehow recover mana just as fast as the increased demand, I could store the whole desert in three days" Ragnar mumbled.

"Well…"Ventus said slightly troubled, "It's not like it's impossible to achieve that ratio, but it is ridiculously dangerous to do so..."

"Oh, you have a way to pull off that speed? how?" Ragnar inquired curiously.

"Well, executing my refinement technique at my core instead of my meridians, the speed is dozens of times faster than my usual refinement speed, but it also has the risk of crippling me since its truly hard to control the mana inside my core as precisely as I desire," Ventus replied.

"OH! you can actually do that!?" Ragnar exclaimed incredulously.

"Yes...why?"Ventus asked somewhat suspicious.

"executing any technique inside one's core is an extremely dangerous ordeal and can only be safely done once one reaches the equivalent of a magus king rank. You doing that at the apprentice rank means either Kingun himself protects your little life, you have the devil's luck or you are an unprecedented genius!"

"Well..I don't think I ever encountered Kingun, so it must be I'm a genius, after all, I'm no devil!" Ventus laughed.

"I tried and managed to do a few circulations whilst fleeing from the silver sand poison dragon, but once I failed, I felt an immense pain spread through my body, luckily, my core wasn't destroyed in the process!"

At this point the dragon grew silent as he pondered his options, a few moments later he spoke.

"So you were fleeing for your life and you pulled off a core refinement? not only that but you also managed to do it a few more times?" He said in a mysterious tone.

"Yes, I was fleeing for my life. It was actually kinda surprised I managed to do it without getting myself crippled." Ventus chuckled.

"Then if you were in no danger whatsoever and could completely focus on refining mana through your core whilst I made the effort of taking mana and gathering the desert, do you think you can successfully refine mana in your core again?"