After explaining much about Epic knowledge to Muria, the Lord of the Wild, Archimonde, left. Despite his lengthy explanations, it was merely a rough outline to give Muria a general understanding of the Epic path.
"Isn't there a safer, more reliable way to obtain source power?" Muria sighed. He wasn't lacking in courage, but the Titan method of becoming an Epic was fraught with danger. However, if one could ascend through that method and survive, their combat power would undoubtedly be among the best of their kind. After all, every bit of source power an Epic Titan earned was won over the corpses of other Epics.
"Come on, don't overthink it, little Muria. You used to have only one choice, but now you have two. By the time you reach the peak of the Legendary rank, you might even have a third option," the Golden Dragon Queen said as she approached Muria, patting him on the shoulder to comfort him.
"Uh, Mother, does the dragon race have any secret techniques for acquiring source power?" Muria asked.
"Muria, do you know how many dragon gods are in the Pantheon?" the Golden Dragon Queen asked with a quiet tone.
"Uh…" Muria was stumped by the question.
"Nine. There are nine dragon gods in total. If our dragon race had a method similar to the Titan or Seraph races for acquiring source power, do you think the Pantheon would be packed with nine dragon gods?"
Muria remained silent.
"However, I'm not too worried about ending up like those dragon gods now. Since the Titans and Seraphs have joined forces, and the dragon race is involved as well, I'll have two choices when the time comes for me to become a Dragon King."
"Since the dragon race is part of this, shouldn't you inform my grandfather?" Muria asked.
"The old man?" The Golden Dragon Queen, who had been about to take Muria to sort through the wedding gifts, smacked her forehead as she finally remembered her father, who had ventured into the void.
...
"Alright, I've notified him. The old man was lucky. He just saved a world from an invasion and obtained a drop of source power. He's on his way back to Erathia now."
"How long until he returns?" Muria asked curiously. It was notoriously difficult for dragon kings to advance on the Epic path, and they relied heavily on luck to obtain source power.
"Who knows?" The Golden Dragon Queen waved dismissively, then grabbed Muria by the arm and dragged him outside. "Now, let's go sort through the gifts you received at your wedding. Once you've gone through everything and taken some time to absorb it all, your strength and influence will skyrocket."
Hearing this, Muria's interest was piqued. Many of the kingdoms and empires that had sent him gifts hadn't been properly inspected by him yet. Even the gifts from the Seraphs and Epic Titans had gone untouched, as his mind had been elsewhere at the time.
"Mika, come with me to take a look. These are gifts for both of us," Muria invited.
"No need. You go ahead," Mikaela, now a newlywed, shook her head, declining the offer. She had little interest in material items anymore. She already had all the equipment she needed, and as for the cloud cities that every Seraph must have, she not only had one beyond specification but also twelve standard cloud cities as satellites.
Additionally, aside from the army of undead watchers Muria had acquired for her, the Seraph race had gifted her a million-strong angel army at the wedding. She lacked nothing now.
With her current setup, if she had peak Legendary strength, she could already choose a world to begin preparing for her Seraph ascension.
"Alright," Muria conceded with a helpless nod.
...
Legendary metals, extraordinary metal mines, elemental vein coordinates, eggs or young of various powerful exotic beasts… But among the most numerous gifts were dragon eggs. It seemed Muria's penchant for collecting dragon eggs was well-known by the various powers, and they had tailored their gifts accordingly.
"Mother, how much did you take?" Muria asked as he stood before the mountain of gifts, glancing at the Golden Dragon Queen beside him. After the arrival of the Seraph guests, he had been too busy to properly greet everyone, and his mother had handled much of the gift reception.
"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm your mother! Why would I take anything from you?" the Golden Dragon Queen denied firmly, pretending to be innocent.
"Mother, none of the empires or church envoys sent me needles or thread," Muria replied flatly. He would have to be out of his mind to believe his mother hadn't pocketed anything.
"Just tell me. I'm not going to ask for it back. I just want to know how much these people gave me," Muria assured her.
"Really?" The Golden Dragon Queen looked at him in disbelief. Since when had her son become so generous? Maybe it was because he wasn't a pure-blooded dragon?
"Of course," Muria nodded firmly. "Now, show me what you took."
"Alright, but it wasn't much." The Golden Dragon Queen reluctantly pulled a massive crystal sculpture out of her personal dimension, followed by a legendary spear…
Moments later, Muria looked at the mountain of rare treasures piled before him. His eye twitched as he glanced at his mother once more. "And the legendary metals? Where are those?"
"I only took a few pieces, not much."
…
Fifteen minutes later, Muria stood before enough legendary metals to forge a Titan's weapon and sighed. "Do you need legendary metals to forge weapons right now?"
"Not at the moment."
"Then why did you take so much?"
"To collect them. Don't you think they're beautiful?"
"If you don't need them, then—"
"Actually, I was thinking of forging a special weapon with them," the Golden Dragon Queen suddenly backtracked.
"But you just said you didn't need them."
"I just came up with the idea!"
"Fine, take them," Muria sighed in defeat. Legendary metals were just a small portion of what he had received. The real treasures were the resources and knowledge from the Seraphs and the Titan Epic gifts, which included seeds for creating entire armies.
"You're so kind," the Golden Dragon Queen said, surprised by her son's generosity, and with a wave of her hand, she gathered up all the treasures she had claimed.
"The Seraphs gave me coordinates for 24 resource worlds. I'll need to build star gates to access them. Nineteen rune weapon production lines—they'll require skilled workers to operate…" Muria began sorting through the gifts from the Seraphs. "These copied knowledge books, I'll need time to read them all."
Once he had finished with the Seraph gifts, Muria turned to the Epic Titans' offerings.
"The Mech Emperor's gift is really something…" Muria withdrew his mental energy from a crystal sphere that felt like it contained an entire star system. A look of resignation crossed his face—he couldn't extract even a single battleship from it.
The Mech Emperor had set conditions on each battleship, requiring Muria to fully comprehend every function, structure, and material composition before he could claim one. In other words, Muria had to be capable of building an identical battleship from scratch before he could use any of them.
To acquire the fleet, Muria would need the knowledge necessary to construct the ships himself, piece by piece.
"He's really putting thought into this," Muria muttered. The Mech Emperor's gift was tempting, but it was also pushing him to study. Strangely, he didn't mind the challenge.
Every Epic Titan was essentially a walking library. Even the brutish Lord of the Wild, who seemed to rely solely on strength, possessed vast amounts of knowledge. His vast collection of battle beast species alone was proof of that.
Source power could indeed create anything, but this creation was random. Archimonde's beasts, however, were specifically designed for battle, clearly a product of intentional creation. To create such beasts, Archimonde needed a deep understanding of tens of thousands of species, allowing him to manifest creatures that nature could never produce. Becoming a creator was no easy task—in other words, Archimonde had mastered biology to the fullest extent.
"Oh, right, Muria, there's something I need to tell you," the Golden Dragon Queen said, interrupting Muria's focus on studying.
"What is it?" Muria asked, looking at her.
"The elves from the Titan Isles also sent you a wedding gift, but instead of the usual, they gave you life crystals formed from the sap of twenty World Trees."
"Is that a problem?" Muria didn't see anything wrong with the gift. The fact that the elves of the Eternal Peninsula had offered anything at all was already impressive, given how they revered the World Trees.
"I was expecting World Tree leaves or branches."
"It's more than enough."
"These elves are vassals of your Titan race, but if you're fine with the gift, I have no complaints. However, there's another matter. The elves still haven't sent you your share of World Tree leaves. Don't you think it's time to have a chat with them?"
"I'll deal with that later. I think I should handle Synapse first."
In the underground treasury of Wind King Castle, Muria looked up. He had just sensed the presence of a Dragon King who had remained in Synapse and hadn't left.
Next, time skip.
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