Inside the Pterodactyl's Lair.
Looking at the completely dead female dragon, Guilliman gently exhaled a turbid breath.
His back, which had just hit the wall from the recoil, was already injured, feeling numb and throbbing with sharp pain.
However, there was no time to lose. He didn't spend time scavenging the lair but quickly formed the Soul-Gathering Seal to extract the female pterodactyl's soul.
He already had a lot of experience with this. If a monster's soul wasn't extracted within an hour, then unless it transformed into a spectral creature, the soul power would rapidly dissipate, returning to an unknown place.
He was very interested to know how much soul power the first elite monster in his life could provide.
As the Soul-Gathering Seal activated, a duck egg-sized ball of soul light, carrying a hint of struggle and unwillingness, was sucked into Guilliman's forehead's soul space.
A few seconds later, the pterodactyl's soul was crushed by the soul storm and merged into his own soul, and he heard Deep Blue's familiar system voice in his ear.
Absorbed a resilient soul, Soul Power +125 points.
125 points? A three-digit number?
Before Guilliman could feel joy at this rather explosive number, a wave of despair, unwillingness, and destructive intent from the pterodactyl's dying moments violently surged into his mind, causing him a splitting headache.
Fortunately, these strong negative emotions had just been crushed into fragments by the soul storm and were no longer a threat.
Otherwise, such an impact would have caused immense damage to his will and spirit.
However, looking at the total of five hundred twenty-five points of soul power on his panel, even with the headache, a smile couldn't help but appear on his lips.
It was incredibly satisfying. As expected, you had to fight elite monsters and Boss monsters.
The past few days of exhausting work clearing small monsters weren't as exhilarating as that one sword strike just now.
Once this dragon hunt was over, it would be time for a major self-enhancement.
Guilliman reached into his storage space and pulled out a torch, then snapped his fingers with Igni, lighting it with a flourish.
However, he wasn't in a hurry to deal with the pterodactyl's corpse. Instead, he approached the center of the cave and entered the dragon's nest that the female pterodactyl had fiercely protected behind her.
In a nest built from a pile of unknown bones and flesh, three dragon eggs with grayish-brown scaly shells were huddled together, surrounded by bone fragments, feathers, fur, and other unknown debris.
Looking at these three large dragon eggs, Guilliman couldn't help but harbor some thoughts.
Whether it was the female dragon he had killed, or the materials and dragon eggs in this nest, they were all considered common spoils of war before being distributed among the dwarf dragon-hunting team.
He was not a short-sighted person. For the sake of his future reputation and friendly relations with the dwarf race, he wouldn't touch these things beforehand, planning to wait until everyone had finished the distribution.
But, some things others couldn't see or take, they were special resources belonging only to him, the cheat-user.
Even if he took these things, others wouldn't be able to discover it, completely unbeknownst to them.
Looking at the three dragon eggs that had already entered the incubation process, Guilliman's mouth twitched. Then, suppressing his disgust, he approached the foul-smelling dragon's nest, simultaneously mobilizing all the chaotic magic power within him, positioning his right hand in the Soul-Gathering Seal, aiming it at the dragon eggs, and activating it with full force.
Sure enough, a breath of life permeated from the three dragon eggs.
Three somewhat dim, yet still duck egg-sized, balls of soul light were pulled out of the dragon eggs' range by the power of the Soul-Gathering Seal, engaged in a tug-of-war with the magic power in his body.
His guess was indeed correct. Dragon eggs like these, which had already been fertilized and entered the incubation state, also possessed souls.
Although they were pure, blank souls like those of infants, they were excellent nourishment. They didn't even need to be crushed; they could be absorbed directly.
After more than ten seconds, Guilliman's magic power circulated at full speed, and finally, before his magic power was depleted, he forcibly pulled out the three soul light clusters.
Absorbed a weak yet powerful soul, Soul Power +50 points.
Absorbed a weak yet powerful soul, Soul Power +50 points.
Absorbed a weak yet powerful soul, Soul Power +50 points.
Another one hundred and fifty points of soul power!
Guilliman was so excited he almost cheered.
Moreover, the souls within the dragon eggs didn't bring him any negative mental effects at all, making them the most perfect harvesting targets.
This gave him an idea.
In the future, when hunting monsters, he must try his best to find their lairs. Regardless of age, especially newly born monster cubs or unhatched monster embryos, they must be eradicated, leaving none behind.
This was the only way to maximize soul power acquisition and strengthen his own abilities.
What?
Worried that this would lead to the extinction of monsters?
What a joke. How could the slaughter by a single person possibly extinguish the monsters on an entire planet?
Furthermore, if his strength ever reached a point where he could affect species extinction, then he would simply raise monsters in captivity, establish a monster protection association, and kill them in an organized, planned, and cyclical manner.
Like leeks, harvesting them in waves, wouldn't that be better?
Guilliman indulged in his thoughts for a while, but he quickly reined in his mind, pulled the Viper Steel Sword from the female pterodactyl's skull, and swiftly ran out of the cave, heading towards the mountainside.
Now was not the time to delay. The dwarf dragon-hunting team was still fighting desperately with the male pterodactyl, and he had to rush there as quickly as possible.
This wasn't just to help the dwarves hunt the dragon; he was mainly craving the male pterodactyl's soul power. Judging by its size, its soul power would definitely not be lower than the female dragon's. It would be too much of a waste if it were lost.
Guilliman was very clever this time. He didn't descend the mountain the way he came but found the rope that the skinny dwarf had used to slide down the cliff earlier, and he followed suit, sliding down.
As expected, it didn't take long to follow the tracks and find the location where the dwarves were ambushing the male pterodactyl.
At this point, the battle here had also entered its final stage. Unlike his swift and clean kill of the female dragon, the dwarves and the male pterodactyl were engaged in a war of attrition.
Dozens of crossbow bolts were haphazardly stuck in the pterodactyl's body, its two eyes already shot blind. Dark red dragon blood mixed with the dust on the ground formed dried, dark stains all over its body.
On its wings, thighs, tail, and neck, there were numerous wounds, dozens of them, carved by dwarf battle-axes, still oozing blood. It was clearly at its last gasp.
However, the dwarves' situation was not optimistic either.
Although there had been no major casualties, they all bore bloodstains to varying degrees, and their physical and mental strength were almost depleted.
While the final victory would undoubtedly belong to the dwarves, whether there would be any casualties remained unknown.
When Yarpan, Zoltan, and the others saw Guilliman approaching them, they all showed expressions of disbelief.
They would rather suspect that he hadn't participated in the battle than believe that he could arrive here unscathed after dealing with the female dragon.
Guilliman didn't care what they thought. He gestured to Yarpan, indicating that he wanted to join the battle.
The dwarf captain hesitated for a few seconds, looking at his visibly exhausted team members, and finally nodded.
Upon receiving permission, Guilliman didn't hesitate.
His strength, several times that of an ordinary human, fully erupted. His muscles swelled, and his figure expanded, leaping up like a hero in a poem, raising the Viper Steel Sword in his hand, aiming at a wound on the blind pterodactyl's neck, and fiercely slashing down.
This was his strongest attack, a full-power, no-holds-barred burst after consuming the potion.
With a 'whoosh' sound, the blade cut through flesh and blood.
The Viper Steel Sword flashed with a lightning-fast sword light, slicing across the pterodactyl's neck.
As blood gushed out, the massive dragon's head flew off with a thud, falling to the ground, and the surrounding dwarves all let out shouts of shock.