Supreme BeastTamer: I Can Copy and Upgrade Skills 10x!

Eastern Side — Half an Hour Later

Raziel kicked open a half-collapsed door, sending rubble scattering across the cracked floor.

"This place smells like death," he muttered, wrinkling his nose.

Nyxirith, known for being silent, didn't respond and merely stepped past him, eyes scanning everything. The place resembled a plaza. It stretched as far as the eye could see. There were broken stalls, shattered magical lanterns, and scorched banners still fluttering in the wind.

It might've once been a market.

But now… Nyxirith couldn't help but see it as a graveyard.

For the last thirty minutes, the duo hadn't found anything useful. All they'd been doing was hiding from the Scourge beasts patrolling the skies while keeping an eye out for the humanoid commander.

"Let's split up and check the stalls one by one to see if we can find anything useful," Nyxirith suggested.

"Sure," Raziel nodded, and the two went their separate ways after agreeing to meet in the center.

Creak.

Raziel opened the door of a shop and stepped in. The place was filled with rot, cobwebs, and old skeletons. He approached the bar stand and saw bottles of dark liquid—wine, possibly.

"No doubt dragons once lived here," he said as he ran his finger around the neck of one dusty bottle.

"But none of the elders or monarchs ever told us about this place," he thought, shaking the glass slightly. "If we make it back, I'll ask Father if he knows anything."

As he shook the drink, he began to hear a faint clinking sound. He paused, brows furrowed in curiosity.

Normally, he would have ignored it, but because of how eerily silent the store was, the sound became oddly noticeable.

"What could be inside?" he muttered, pouring the bottle's contents.

A terrible stench wafted to his nose, and his expression turned ugly.

"So this is what a thousand-year-old spiked drink smells like," Raziel muttered under his breath.

Now that the entire bottle had been emptied, he finally saw what had been making the noise.

At first glance, it looked like stone fragments. But as he leaned closer and ran a finger over its smooth texture, his eyes narrowed in confusion.

This is an Elemental Core.

Raziel was stunned. Who would have thought he'd find one of the most sought-after treasures casually sitting in a bottle of wine? Why it was there didn't matter—but what it implied did.

"How wealthy were these people?" he muttered, speechless. Could it be that this entire city was a treasure trove?

Meanwhile, Nyxirith moved toward the center of the plaza, where something had caught her eye.

It was a statue depicting a tall, hooded humanoid figure. Its appearance resembled how dragons looked when using partial transformations.

Time and corruption had worn away the statue's face, but it held a large stone tablet close to its chest. Unlike everything else, the tablet was untouched—no vines, no grime. It was so clean that it felt unnatural.

"Could someone be cleaning this regularly?" she murmured, furrowing her brows.

As she ran her finger across the statue, her hand brushed the tablet's surface—one etched with runic engravings.

Something strange happened.

In an instant, her vision blurred.

A beautiful city carved from dark stone bloomed in her mind—alive, gleaming. Dragons flew overhead, but they didn't roar or rampage. They bowed.

At the heart of it all stood a figure cloaked from head to toe.

Then the vision shattered.

Nyxirith awoke with a splitting headache. Her gaze was blurry, and she saw someone staring down at her. Their lips were moving, but she couldn't hear them—the ringing in her ears made it seem as if the person was mute.

Eventually, her vision cleared, and she saw his face.

"Are you okay?" Raziel asked. He had just returned from the shop, only to find his partner lying unconscious. At first, he thought she'd been attacked—but after a quick inspection, that didn't seem to be the case.

"I'm fine," she replied, holding the back of her head as the lingering pain throbbed. She looked toward the statue again.

The tablet was gone—reduced to dust.

"Huh?" Her mouth fell open in shock as she pointed. "The statue…"

"You're acting strange, Shadow Princess. Are you sure you're okay?" Raziel's tone turned serious.

"I am. It's just… the tablet the statue was holding—it's gone," she explained.

Seeing the confusion on his face, she began to narrate everything that had happened in the last few minutes.

"From your explanation, it sounds like the tablet was crafted by a highly skilled runesmith. Probably a one-time use artifact," Raziel deduced.

"I figured as much," she nodded. "What's baffling is the vision I saw. The dragons lived peacefully here. They operated similarly to how we do back home. And they had a monarch, just like us."

"The Ninth Monarch," she added, her gaze fixed intently on the statue's empty face. Though the statue was hooded, the face itself had been carved away.

"I…" Nyxirith hesitated, then finally spoke with confidence. "I think this statue belongs to the Ninth Monarch. And they purposely left the tablet behind."

"Are you sure about that?"

"I'm more than certain," she replied firmly.

"Well, that's progress." Raziel smiled faintly. "Let's search for more clues."

"What about you? What did you find?" she asked curiously as they headed deeper into the marketplace.

"Nothing much," he said casually. "Just an old bottle of wine—and oh, some elemental core fragments inside it. Judging by the way it was placed, I'd say the inhabitants preferred their drinks with cores which is very strange if you ask me."

"That's strange," she said, pausing surprise and disableif. "An elemental core just lying around?"

"Right? I was shocked too."

After some time, they arrived at another section of the ruins.

"We're here," Raziel announced.

***

Thanks to all those who support supreme BeastTamer with their valuable Golden tickets and power stones I really appreciate. Like I always say, it motivate me write more chapter and also help the book to become more visible in the platform.