"Alright, thank you for warning me about the current state of the kingdom. It'll be much easier to make my plans now." Magar sighed as he contemplated how to proceed.
With the whole kingdom going through a crisis he couldn't rely on outside help, he would have to resolve the problems in the barony himself.
"No problem, on another note, do you know where to find some burrow drake cores?" Chronos asked.
Magar glanced at the royal eagle waiting expectantly on the back of his chair.
"The hill we're camped around has a drake nest underground. I think the tear used them as the first source of black beasts this time. Now that the tear is gone, they should be back to normal so you can hunt them down now, if you need advice about how to draw them out then ask the hunters in camp."
"Thank you." Chronos bowed before he left the table.
Entering the camp he turned to Gregory, "Do you know how to draw the drakes out?"
"Yes, follow me."
"As reliable as ever."
Smiling Chronos followed Gregory until they were halfway up the hill in a location with no one else nearby. Sitting down Gregory took out a few sticks of incense and stabbed one end into the ground while lighting the other end.
The incense used would help an earth-based creature grow stronger by a slight amount while intoxicating them, making the smoke extremely attractive to the burrow drakes. But due to their cautious nature it would be sometime before a drake with a beast core showed up.
"If you can't hide your presence perfectly then you'll need to back up," he stated.
Right now, Chronos' bloodline was growing stronger making it impossible for him to completely hide his presence until he had full mastery of his bloodline.
Backing up he took position on top of a boulder doing his best to prevent the burrow drakes from detecting any vibrations from his movements while also casting an [Isolate] to hide any remnant aura leaking out of his body.
While he was doing this Gregory concealed himself with shadows from his own cloak and took position near the incense but far enough away that the drakes wouldn't detect him.
The smoke from the incense slowly curled its way around the area before falling to the ground where it was absorbed into the dirt. For nearly thirty minutes the smoke lazily moved around the hillside and just as Chronos was getting bored a small head poked out of the dirt carefully looking around.
Confirming that there was no threat nearby it crawled out of the dirt and made its way over to the incense. It took several deep breaths then lay on the ground, basking in the sun.
Looking at the small drake Chronos could tell that it didn't have a beast core nor was it anywhere near creating one. It was probably a scout sent out ahead of the rest to find out what the nice scent in the area was. They would have to wait for a while longer before one strong enough to form a beast core showed up.
Amongst magic beasts only those at the third rank had a chance of forming a beast core and not all third rank beasts were capable of forming a core. This hunt might take them quite some time.
Continuing to wait they watched as more and more drakes slowly made their way out of the ground heading towards the sticks of incense. When the incense sticks were nearly burned out a large mound of earth pushed up from the ground.
A moment later a large head poked through the dirt.
It looked around carefully, maintaining its position as it sniffed the air. When it was certain that it was safe it crawled out of the ground and made its way towards the incense.
Sniiiiffff!
Inhaling deeply, it gave a satisfied expression then lay down with the rest of them quietly absorbing the power given off by the incense.
Chronos leaned forward ready to leap at it when Gregory motioned for him to stay put. Taking two steps closer he examined it then stepped back and shook his head.
"So that one doesn't have a beast core. Well, there's only a chance a third rank beast has a core, we'll just have to find another location to set up our trap. There's no way such a large hill only has these few dozen drakes in it." Chronos thought as he retreated with Gregory.
After walking around the hill a short distance, Gregory set up some more incense, and they took their positions once more to wait for stronger drakes to show up.
They had to repeat these actions two more times before they found a drake that had a core.
It was noticeably larger than the previous drakes and forced the smaller ones back as it laid down.
Gregory carefully studied the large burrow drake then nodded at Chronos. Taking out Echoforge Chronos began silently charging it, waiting for Gregory's signal to strike.
Currently he could charge it with 9 echoes in 20 seconds and hold that charge indefinitely, as long as nothing attacked him.
He could charge it much faster than when he first received it, but for some reason every time he tried to charge it with ten echoes or faster than 20 seconds, he would fail and suffer a backlash from it.
He had a feeling that if he could create ten echoes or charge Echoforge in less than twenty seconds he would make a major breakthrough in his mastery of hammers but that could be left for later right now.
Gregory raised his hand as the burrow drake became more comfortable waiting for the perfect moment when it was so relaxed that it couldn't react in time.
Several minutes passed as both of them waited, then Gregory suddenly dropped his hand as Chronos exploded forward. The drake heard him coming and stood up too rapidly causing it to wobble under the effects of the intoxication.
BOOOOOM!
Unable to dodge in its current state Chronos was able to easily crush its skull as dirt and stone flew into the air.
Gregory jumped back in shock.
He had been so focused on the drake he hadn't seen what Chronos was doing until it was too late. Looking at the pit that used to be a burrow drakes head a vein on his head throbbed.
"Did you have to charge it up that much?!" he shouted at Chronos in frustration.
"No, but I wasn't sure I could kill it in one blow if I didn't charge it up all the way."
Chronos sheepishly stowed Echoforge as he looked at the destruction he had caused.