However, instead of making him feel demotivated, this pushed him, as he had no intention of ever being too far behind, ever again.

Daneel saw this change in his friend's eyes, and in fact, an objective of his behind calling him had also been that there would be this effect if everything went well.

That arrogance was gone, and now, Faxul could keep getting stronger without anything hindering him.

Of course, Daneel still itched to have a fight with him, but he postponed that for later.

The fact that it had worked in the case of Elanev, too, was a bonus.

One of the main reasons behind such abrupt changes was also the very strange sight right beside them.

The fire that Daneel had shot out…had actually smashed its way through 4 floors of the Palace, and then made a deep hole in the ground that had even destroyed an underground room, taking with it the setpieces of a romantic drama that Eloise had been planning.

Through the formation of the Palace, though, Daneel had safely pulled everyone out of the way. There had been no way that he would not try and achieve the thing that had severed his foot the last time, and pointing at the sky wasn't an option, as there would be too much of a risk that someone would be able to spot something. Inside the Palace, though, he could prevent others spying, and that was also why he had gone ahead and transformed fully here, after laying down some untraceable Hero-level formations.

And after hearing the a.n.a.lysis, Daneel felt…ecstatic.

He had succeeded!

Even the system was heaping on the praises, more so than many of the Achievements he had gotten before, and this made it clear just how difficult it was to do something new when those before you have already had many, many years to think and get the same idea as yours.

A lot of hard work, a large amount of creativity, and a little bit of luck was required, all of which Daneel had thankfully possessed, which had led to this situation now.

True, there were limitations, but he would have time to slowly overcome them. h.e.l.l, Daneel even saw a few daydreams of him swapping between G.o.dbeasts, and even creating something unique by combining a few so that he could take the best advantage of all of their powers.

As for their pieces of consciousness that he required…he wasn't worried about this, at all, because the Treasury was present from which he could obtain them.

And besides, even if this wasn't a viable option, the whole experience with Awakening the Hidden Bloodline in Lan had given Daneel another idea.

Wasn't every normal descendant of a G.o.dbeast…also a possessor of its Bloodline?

This was a radical idea, and Daneel didn't know whether it was true, but it was logical.

After all, both Bloodline Holders and the beasts which were descended from G.o.dbeasts were descendants, so Daneel hoped that he was right.

Also…there was the yet-untapped resource of the treasuries of the sects in the Big Four, and with so many options, the King of Lanthanor was confident that he would get what he wanted in at least one of them.

This had been the hardest part of his plan, and the most uncertain. Now that he had accomplished it, he swelled with confidence, and it felt as if the rest was practically a piece of cake.

Although that wasn't true, Daneel let himself enjoy it for a few more moments, before finally getting back to reality.

"So…do you two still think I've cut off my Path?"

As he interrupted the thoughts that were running through Elanev's and Faxul's heads in this way, both of them widened their eyes, and shook their heads in sync.

Laughing out loud, Daneel said, "Good. Now, then. Elanev, ask the Senior whether he knows of a place I can find any remains of the Divine c.o.c.kroach."

This was next on his list, and the sooner he finished with it, the sooner he could move on to the part he was looking forward to.

Elanev's answer, though, made it so that it was Daneel's turn to feel shock.

"Err…he says he doesn't know where you can find the remains, but he asked whether a living one is OK."

"…"

What the f*ck?!

Quickly, in order to convince himself that he hadn't been an absolute idiot by not asking the system whether there was any record of a live G.o.dbeast surviving from the time of the Apocalypse, Daneel went ahead and posed the question now.

[Scanning records. Result: Inconclusive. Historians, and Emperor Fenoras believed that it was possible that a few G.o.dbeasts, especially ones like the Divine c.o.c.kroach which hadn't reached the Champion level, might be able to survive the Apocalypse. However, because of the decrease in Energy level, it is possible that even these survivors might mostly have died. In the records of the Big Four, there are no mentions of any live G.o.dbeasts being found. A few remains were found right after the Apocalypse, and these are stored in hidden locations.]

Although Daneel felt glad that his supposition regarding remains of G.o.dbeasts being present in the treasuries of the Big Four was true, he was still too puzzled regarding Senior Fists of Justice's statement. After all, this supposition had been based on the obvious conclusion that the dead bodies of G.o.dbeasts would be present after the Apocalypse, and they definitely would not be ignored by any of the Survivors, because those people must definitely have known of their value.

Not wasting any more time, Daneel exclaimed, "A living Divine c.o.c.kroach?! Is he sure?"

To respond, the old man, himself, appeared in the room.

"Yes, I'm sure, but what do you want to do with it? I have no idea how you managed to do this incredible thing, but I expect it is with Drakos's help. Sadly, you cannot enter into a bond with that thing, because it cannot even wake up! It's in a deep, deep state of hibernation, ever since the Energy levels dipped too low for its existence. It must have survived because, well, it's a c.o.c.kroach, and those f*ckers don't die no matter what you do with them. When the Energy levels pick up again, it'll wake up. I only managed to find it by fluke, in one of my reincarnations. Hehe, the Big Four found it, too, but because they hadn't seen one before and had only heard of them in the records, they just thought it was a weird rock, and didn't even pay too much attention to it. The fools!"

As Daneel heard the old man's words, excitement slowly began to s.h.i.+ne on his face, until it reached a point where he felt like going forward and hugging the old man.

THAT WAS PERFECT!

He thanked the Heavens that something was finally going right for him, as each step so far had been excruciatingly difficult. Hence, he really, really appreciated the fact that at least one thing had fallen into his lap, instead of requiring him going out to hunt for it.

A few seconds later, Daneel was standing on the outskirts of a village along with Elanev.

He had put away the Crown, and he had told Eloise to a.s.sess the damage, and draw up plans to repair it.

She had innocently asked 'What damage?', and in response, Daneel had only been able to chuckle sheepishly.

The most ironic thing was that the village he was standing outside…was actually in Lanthanor, itself.

And its name…was 'Village of the Blessing Rock'.

All the information regarding Lanthanor was at Daneel's fingertips, but there was nothing recorded regarding this village.

It was Elanev who spoke up, repeating the old man's words who was speaking in his head.

"I found the name interesting, so I stayed here for a few years because I found a very feisty…er, never mind. The reason behind the name is because the legend goes that a particular chief of the village had become the father of a very weak boy, who was close to death soon after being born. Hopeless, he held the baby and prayed to the heavens throughout the night while sitting on a peculiar rock that had always been present in their village. In his dreams, he saw the rock glowing, and the next morning…the child was healthy again, and he was declared to be normal. It was a miracle, and it attracted the Big Four, who found nothing and chalked the whole thing up to an incorrect a.s.sessment of the Healer who must surely have been mistaken. The Chief believed that it was the blessing of the Rock, and he insisted that that be the name of their village. The name stuck, and to this day, the villagers wors.h.i.+p that rock, even though no miracles have happened since then. In the years that I lived here, all I found that was out of the norm was that there were a few more born with the potential to become quite decent Fighters than in all the other villages around."

While they were talking, Daneel had cast an invisibility spell, and they walked inside the village.

Soon, they came upon a black-colored, rounded s.h.i.+ny rock whose peak was 3 feet above the ground. The rest was buried underground.

Daneel had scanned it from a distance, and he had found nothing.

Yet, the moment they neared, he suddenly got a strange feeling as if the rock wanted to…run away.

Puzzled, he cast a few formations to prevent spying eyes, before walking forward.

The rock remained unmoving, but just as he was about to lay his hand on it, it…burrowed into the ground, and disappeared.

The jaws of both Elanev and Daneel fell, and at the same time, an urgent message was heard in Daneel's head.

[Target has begun moving at a speed that rivals any seen in creatures that host has encountered so far. Target will be out of range of system's surveillance radius in 3, 2…1. Target has left system's surveillance range. Speed matches that of a Divine c.o.c.kroach, as recorded in the memory of the Emperor.]