As the last of the giant wolves violently departed this world Mercury appeared next to Max and the fainted Annabel as he asked

    "How is she?"

    "....Her mana is entirely drained and she seems to have lost a lot of blood"

    Mercury sighed before he quickly examined Annabel, then he remembered how she had put her hand on her stomach before the blinding flash of light appeared and rolled up her shirt, Max was about to protest when he saw it, a magic formation had been tattooed into her stomach with black ink, Mercury looked it over for a bit before he sighed and called

    "Asma"

    Asma''s ears peeked up before she quickly walked over and after a few seconds of looking at the formation tattooed on Annabel''s stomach she spoke

    "Instant gate… To a specific spot this part here, that part there… Blood, soul, and mana sacrifice… Fuel for the instant gate… familiar formation, like you Mercury"

    Mercury nodded

    "Yeah, I had that feeling… Looks like this is the work of the dragon spirit alright…"

    Max was confused and quickly asked

    "What are you talking about? What dragon spirit? And more importantly, will Annabel be okay?"

    Mercury showed a smile before he ruffled Max''s hair as he reassured him

    "Don''t worry, her soul hasn''t become cracked so she''ll recover naturally on her own, as for now, we need to move before more nasties show up"

    "Where are we going?"

    Mercury looked up at the sun before he quickly decided the direction they should head

    "West"

    The group nodded before they quickly began moving westward with Max carrying Annabel in his arms, as they walked Max asked Mercury

    "Dad… I don''t understand, how is that magic formation like you?"

    "Well… Here''s the thing…"

    "What?"

    "Your dad is a living god"

    "What..? What''s a living god?"

    "The finer details we can  discuss later, but the fact is that I got placed into this body, this vessel by one of the 33"

    "By the one of the 33 you say… So your soul came from another place?"

    "Yeah, another world, but this vessel seems to have been artificially made by this dragon spirit… And right now it wants to get it back from me so it can inhabit it and become truly immortal or some such"

    "What would happen with you if it succeeded?"

    "Well I would be dead"

    "...Understood…"

    Mercury showed a smile and spoke reassuringly

    "Don''t worry Max, your dad is very strong"

    Max nodded

    "...I know"

    The group moved all throughout the day and when it was evening they still had not made it off the plains, with nothing else to do they were forced to spend the night in the open, there were no firewood or other fuel so when the sun descended over the horizon the temperature fell drastically, Mercury made a few huts out of compressed dirt to keep the wind out, he also took the night watch, he sat on a platform of compressed dirt and watched the stars while he thought, time passed like this for a few hours before his ears picked up movement from the central dirt hut, then he stood up and muttered

    "Time to get some answers"

    Mercury walked over to the only almost totally enclosed dirt hut and opened a wall, inside sat Annabel, her red eyes saw Mercury''s figure before she sighed and spoke

    "Kill me"

    Mercury sighed before he reached out and grabbed Annabel by the neck before he lifted her out of the dirt hut, as she struggled to breathe Mercury spoke

    "If I squeezed just a little bit your neck would break… A shame… I would have loved to see you make Max happy"

    Tears gathered in Annabel''s eyes as she imagined the further that would not come true, then suddenly Mercury let go of her neck, she fell heavily on the cold ground and began coughing as Mercury spoke

    "Fortunately for you, I am a merciful god…. Now speak, where are we?"

    Annabel coughed for a bit before she managed to squeeze out a few words

    "....The Klaman islands… West of Yil"

    Mercury thought for a bit, Juliantia an island nation that was Nestled in between two continents, one of which was the continent of Cana to the south while the Northen one was Yil, Mercury nodded before he spoke

    "What''s the dragon spirits fifthly claw in this? Let me guess it holds someone you hold dear to you hostage?"

    Annabel''s eyes widened slightly before she nodded, then Mercury sighed again before he began muttering

    "So when the plan in Cana didn''t work it came here to build up a base… But that doesn''t make any sense…"

    Mercury looked at Annabel before he asked

    "How long has the dragon spirit been here on the Klaman islands?"

    Annabel lowered her gaze slightly before she spoke

    "My late grandfather told me it arrived when he was young…. So about 250 years ago"

    Mercury narrowed his eyes as he considered whether or not to off Annabel before Max woke up, though he eventually decided against it, leaving her alive was simply more beneficial to them, so he clapped her on the shoulder and spoke

    "I won''t kill you… Not yet anyway, that would simply be too pitiful, you must still be feeling weak so get some sleep"

    "Yes…"

    Mercury watched Annabel walk back into the dirt hut and curl up before he sighed and muttered

    "I am still too soft… I should level up, being stronger can only help me with what''s to come… Status"

    Name: Mercury

    Age: Error

    Race: Draconix

    Class: [Metal]

    Class level: 21

    Titles: [Last member of the ********* ** *** ******] [First of the ********] [Sinner of the ****** race] [Cursebreaker] [Iron ranked hunter] [Partially reinforced right leg and hand] [Savior]

    Strength [52/1050] - Constitution [52/1000] - Dexterity [53/500]

    Intelligence [53/100] - Wisdom [55/100] - Carisma [55/10]

    Class skills: [Metal assimilation, lv--] [Essence refining, lv--] [Essence consuming, lv--] [Essence shop, lv--] [Golem core creation, lv--]

    Active skills: [Earth magic, lv10] [Lesser metal weaving, lv--] [Metal domination, lv--] [Blacksmithing, lv4] [Swordsmamship, lv3] [Forging blows, lv1] [Meditation, lv--] [Lightning magic, lv5] [Ice magic, lv5] [Instant movement lv2]

    Passive skills [Cursebreaker, lv--] [Pain resistance, lv04]

    Mercury looked over his status for a bit before he nodded then he spoke

    "[Essence shop]"

    Within a few seconds, his status morphed into the essence shop

    [Essence shop]

    Current essence: 324.192

    Available skills: none

    Available purchases: [Metal gamble, cost: 1.000] [Advanced chunk of Living metal Assimilation, cost: 100.000]

    Random status point, cost: 100

    Specific status point, cost: 500

    Level up, cost: 1.000

    "It''s good that I got so much metal from Mars… Let''s see, Level up 29 times

    Mercury flet his essence points being rapidly drained as his attributes increased rapidly, it was an exhilarating feeling of growing stronger all at once as his senses sharpened even more and his mind became increasingly clear, Mercury flexed his hand a few times before he nodded and spoke

    "[Stauts]

    Name: Mercury

    Age: Error

    Race: Draconix

    Class: [Metal]

    Class level: 50

    Titles: [Last member of the ********* ** *** ******] [First of the ********] [Sinner of the ****** race] [Cursebreaker] [Iron ranked hunter] [Partially reinforced right leg and hand] [Savior]

    Strength [277/1050(UP)] - Constitution [277/1000(UP)] - Dexterity [278/500(UP)]

    Intelligence [278/100(UP)] - Wisdom [100/100(UP)] - Charisma [55/10]

    Class skills: [Metal assimilation, lv--] [Essence refining, lv--] [Essence consuming, lv--] [Essence shop, lv--] [Golem core creation, lv--]

    Active skills: [Earth magic, lv10] [Lesser metal weaving, lv--] [Metal domination, lv--] [Blacksmithing, lv4] [Swordsmamship, lv3] [Forging blows, lv1] [Meditation, lv--] [Lightning magic, lv5] [Ice magic, lv5] [Instant movement lv2]

    Passive skills [Cursebreaker, lv--] [Pain resistance, lv04]

    "Hmm… alright, every status has gone up except for Charisma which is over its cap because of my [Savoir] title… Now for the interesting stuff… [Essence shop]"

    [Essence shop]

    Current essence: 295.192

    Available skills: [Minor metal weaving, cost: 50.000] [Metal prospecting, cost: 100.000]

    Available purchases: [Metal gamble, cost: 1.000] [Advanced chunk of Living metal Assimilation, cost: 100.000]

    Random status point, cost: 100

    Specific status point, cost: 500

    Level up, cost: 1.000

    "...Looks like an upgrade to [Lesser metal weaving]... But what''s this [Metal prospecting] about?"

    Mercury then proceed to ''click'' on the latter of the new skills and soon information about the skill [Metal prospecting] appeared in the form of text in front of him

    [Metal prospecting]

    Tunes the user to any kind of metal, both in raw form as well as in processed form, allowing the user to detect metal from great distances, even if it is buried underground

    "Seems kind of useful… Buy them both"

    Mercury then once again felt his essence being drained and nodded before he muttered

    "[Metal prospecting]..."

    Then at once, his vision expanded outwards like a sonar pulse, bright lights shone under his feet as well as in the distance, Mercury assumed that these were metal, he looked down and saw a large metal deposit about 2 kilometers below him and showed a smile before he spoke

    "[Essences consuming]... [Minor metal weaving]... [Golem core creation]..."

    Within a few moments, a Model ''Hound'' had appeared next to him, the skill [Minor metal weaving] proved its worth with being able to weave metal at much greater precision than [Lesser metal weaving] was able to