Chapter 469: Hours of Enlightment

He returned to his human shape and started working on the tools and materials in hand to make large batches of arrows. Just after minutes of beginning forging, he heard loud booming sounds coming from the direction of the monsters.

"You've started," he muttered before returning to focus on the task in hand.

It took him five hours to make twenty thousand arrows. His efficiency in forging was increasing with time, especially when he became so familiar with the arrows he was making.

As for his system and golden dragon, they finished arranging everything in two hours and waited for him to finish.

"I'm ready," he turned into a dragon and soared towards the monsters.

When he reached there, he found the pillars surrounding the area of monsters with some scattered inside. From his high place he could take a glimpse over the shape of this arrangement.

"A flower formation?" he muttered.

"It's the sacred flower formation," the golden dragon corrected before adding, "this formation is unique, yet it's also quite taxing on your pillars. After two times the pillars would have minimal amount of energy left, and to compensate the loss a year is needed at least if not a couple."

Arthur sighed. "Each time I gain pillars I find that I can't get enough of them." He turned his gaze around for the last time before asking, "what should I do now? Which pillars should I hit first?"

"Ding! Just hit the arrows one by one and I'll guide your senses to hit their mark," the system said before adding, "this formation is quite complicated and needs each pillar to be activated in a specific way."

"Alright, here I come," he took out his bow and arrows before starting to release them one by one. He kept controlling the arrows by his energy, and he felt the system shifting the direction to aim for certain pillars.

As the system described, the way to activate this formation was quite complicated. Arthur tried to follow the arrows and create a pattern in his mind, yet after one hour of doing so he just gave up.

"This… it follows no pattern at all!"

"Don't try to break the formation down," the golden dragon laughed, "it's quite complicated even for your well organized system."

"Sigh, this I can already tell," Arthur shook his head before continuing to release his arrows.

Each arrow hit its mark caused a rumble where the pillar released a sudden impulse of wave that met other waves from other pillars. Then the pillar would go silent, while Arthur noticed some shivering happening to these gigantic pillars.

It took him roughly a day to finish hitting the six thousand pillars. When he finally finished, he noticed a flower-shaped dome of white energy surrounding everything down below.

"What's now?" he asked.

"Drop a single blood drop from you over these energy waves," the golden dragon said before adding, "and be ready to toss away some of your arrows."

"I'll hit the pillars again?"

"No, I said toss them, not release them," the golden dragon sneered before adding, "you'll understand in time. Just let your blood over the energy waves."

Arthur didn't understand his meaning yet he used his claws to injure himself before letting the blood ooze towards the ground.

The moment his blood touched the enormous dome it rumbled. The calm white energy stirred up and blue lines appeared interlinked with black, white, and golden lines in the dome.

Then the doom started to change the surface. Parts started to elevate while others kept decreasing, until a gigantic true form of a huge flower with vast petals appeared in front of him.

And at its center, the flower had a massive hole linked deeply even beyond the level of the surface.

"See that hole in the middle? Go and let the arrows fall one by one, one per minute."

"To how long?" Arthur moved his wings while he asked. "I don't have many arrows now to last for days," he added.

"Don't worry, this won't take longer than a day," the golden dragon reassured him, "what you have is already enough."

"Alright," Arthur reached the top of the hole and glanced at it. "Wow, it's an endless pit, where does it lead?"

"No one knows," the golden dragon said, "no one ever entered it and returned to tell the tale."

Arthur resisted this strange thought of going down there and checking this pit. "Don't glare too much at it, it has some strange effect even on top ranked mages in the entire universe," the golden dragon warned when he noticed the strange silence of Arthur.

"Sigh," Arthur took a deep breath before muttering, "this seems very dangerous."

He took one arrow and then let it fall on the pit. The arrow fell normally until it reached the opening and then something crushed it and a huge explosion occurred.

The explosion was controlled with invisible power that sucked dry everything in no time.

"Rumble!"

"Rumble!"

"Rumble!"

Arthur saw the gigantic realistic looking petals echoing with a rumble while they raised slightly above then landed heavily on the ground with a massive boom.

Arthur was speechless for a moment, while the golden dragon had to jolt him awake: "Release another arrow."

Arthur instantly let another arrow fall and the familiar explosion occurred while the petals kept ascending again, slightly higher than before and landed with strong momentum and loud booming.

"Wow, I love it," Arthur shouted while releasing the arrows and the gigantic flower kept booming.

He kept doing this while feeling too much excited without a good reason. "Sigh, this is a side effect of the shockwave of the flower," the golden dragon muttered, "you are still too weak to handle these waves."

Arthur didn't mind this, as during his strang euphoric state he had many things popping up in his mind. "This is… just like enlightenment!" he was shocked when he finally realized what this familiar feeling was. "I want more, more," he kept throwing his arrows while his body and soul kept trembling out of excitement.

What initially caused him to think much about the next plan of him and other top members of his team, was instantly solved in minutes during this stage.

"I can help in erasing this shockwaves effect, or at least decrease them."

"Ding! He seems to be enjoying his time, let him be."

Arthur kept on this stage for hours. His mind worked from the old memories of his and started to analyze what he experienced here so far. In the end, a road map appeared in front of him, starting from this low place until reaching the top world in this universe.

"Stop, the formation ended half an hour ago!" the golden dragon exclaimed in surprise as he repeated his words to Arthur for the tenth time, yet Arthur didn't seem to hear him.

"Ding! Let him be, he seems to be in a world of his own."

"Damn this strange blue energy, blocking me reading his mind," the golden dragon complained.

"Why are cursing my energy?" Arthur suddenly returned to his norm when the shockwaves coming from the petals faded away from him.

"Finally," the golden dragon sighed before adding, "you kept throwing arrows like a machine for half an hour."

"What?" Arthur turned around to find the place was void of the gigantic flower it filled here before, "it's gone? This fast?!"