The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　Professor Sylph frowned slightly.

　Dark explained, "It probably wants to taste the 'Flower of Demeter'."

　“Meow!” “Shami” nodded immediately.

　"Would the Flower of Demeter be enough?" Professor Sylph pondered. "I could prepare a big bag of them as snacks."

　Dark said with gratitude, "Thank you, Professor."

　"Shami" also showed a very happy smile.

　Professor Lily flapped her wings and said, "Three times it's been successfully transmuted, three times it's been lucky. This can't possibly be a coincidence again. Let's hope it becomes our lucky star."

　Dark said, "I hope so too."

　Professor Lily then said with great interest, "Why don't we summon that fossil pterosaur to see how fun it is!"

　Dark said, "It needs to be summoned, but not now."

　After looking around for a while, he asked Professor Sylph, "Professor, what special ancient items are in the academy's storeroom?"

　"Antiques," Professor Sylph said, frowning.

　Dark nodded slightly and said, "It should be considered an antique. But the older the better, and it would be best if it contained special powers. I'm not sure if ordinary items would be useful."

　Professor Sylph asked, "What's the use?"

　Dark said, "My 'Fossil Pterosaur' can grow further by absorbing the ancient power contained within ancient artifacts."

　"Another growth-type magical spirit!" Professor Lily exclaimed, her eyes widening in surprise.

　She certainly knew the secret of the "Coffin of Death," which explained her even greater surprise. Dark nodded, saying, "If the ancient power is sufficient, this 'Fossil Wyvern' could very well cross the threshold of the third tier and enter the fourth! Its potential is enormous; I don't think it's impossible for it to directly evolve into a twelve-star magical spirit."

　Professor Lily said, "This sounds even more impressive than your coffin."

　Dark said, "That's not necessarily true. After all, the 'Coffin of Death' has no limit to its growth, while the 'Fossil Pteranodon' only has one chance to transform."

　Professor Sylph listened and immediately said, "The academy may not have much else, but it has a lot of ancient artifacts. However, ancient artifacts that truly possess great power are not usually left in the storeroom. After all, the academy has experienced many crises throughout its history, and it's impossible to leave any usable items unused. A small number of forbidden artifacts that have survived from the past are locked away in a sealed place because they are too dangerous. To be honest, I don't have the authority to open them."

　Dark wasn't too disappointed. He continued, "Let's go take a look. Until we see it, we can't be sure what kind of ancient power the 'Fossil Ape Dragon' needs. If we're lucky, we might be able to collect some. Besides, I have another idea."

　Professor Sylph asked, "What are your thoughts?"

　Dark smirked and said, "In this era, there shouldn't be one older than the time when gods still existed."

　Professor Sylph's heart skipped a beat: "You mean..."

　Dark nodded and said, "Even if we gather enough ancient power within the academy, we can continue our search on Mount Gods, or even in the 'Heavenly Court'! And the 'Soul of the Moon Goddess' is another example!"

　Artemis, the "Goddess of the Hunt" among the twelve gods of Mount Polopus, is also a goddess who wields the authority of the moon goddess.

　Even though the "Heavenly Court" is no longer what it used to be, it should still retain some of its original divinity.

　This trip is both dangerous and an opportunity.

　If this can be used to push the progress of "Moon God's Soul" to a very high level, it will definitely have a great positive impact on the future.

　Of course, rescue is the top priority.

　But whether it's the "Fossil Pterosaur" or the "Soul of Luna," if they can undergo a metamorphosis through this, it will greatly help the rescue.

　After cleaning up the experimental residue, Dak followed Professor Sylph and immediately headed to the treasure trove of St. Marian Academy!

　...

Chapter 926 Academy Collection: Ancient Sword [7,000 views, requesting monthly votes]

　St. Marian Academy's treasure trove... well, it's more like a warehouse. St. Marian Academy doesn't only have one warehouse; Dark first entered the warehouse located in the basement of the Noble Academy tower.

　Although it's called a basement, half of it is actually above ground level. The first floor of the Noble House tower is level with the second floor of the castle, so the basement is level with the first floor of the castle.

　However, the upper level of the basement is only level with the first floor of the castle, and it is filled with miscellaneous items and tools.

　Students would occasionally go inside to retrieve tools such as brooms. Further down was the actual basement!

　But even after living in this tower for nearly two years, Dak only found out today that there was another floor below!

　Professor Sylph casually patted a horse head statue on the wall, and the horse head suddenly opened its eyes, two beams of green light shooting out from the eyes and shining directly onto the shelf in front of it.

　Immediately afterwards, the wooden shelf, which was filled with all sorts of odds and ends, split open on both sides, revealing a dark passageway leading to the underground.

　"Stop looking, this horse head recognizes people. No one without the necessary permissions can open it."

　Professor Sylph offered a casual explanation and then led the way down the path.

　Dark and the others, who were behind, immediately followed her into the path. A ball of light rose, illuminating the path leading underground. Soon after, they arrived at a golden door—and it truly was a door made of gold!

　"According to Arte, this is the golden gate built by the previous headmaster. Not only can it block any magic-related detection, but it also has a rule-based ability—only by opening this gate can one enter the Noble Academy's collection room."

　Professor Sylph glanced back at Dark and the others, then said, "Turn your heads away."

　Although Dark wanted to see, he could only turn his back at this moment. Everyone else turned around as well, except for Professor Lily, who was sneaking a glance back and was then glared at fiercely by Professor Sylph.

　Once everyone had stopped looking, Professor Sylph reached out and wrote a magical rune on the golden door.

　The incantation wasn't long, but it was impossible to guess it out of thin air before knowing the answer.

　No one would have even imagined that the way to open this door would be by writing on it.

　"Okay."

　Professor Sylph withdrew her hand, and the runes on the door vanished instantly. But the sound of mechanisms turning could be heard from inside the door.

　The golden door slowly opened before Dark and the others' eyes. A musty, stale smell immediately wafted out.

　Professor Sylph frowned slightly, and a gentle breeze swept through the room, carrying away the musty air from the warehouse—the storage room.

　"Mi-choo!" Shamy, who had already transformed back into "Land Form," grabbed Dark's clothes on his shoulder and sneezed slightly.

　A pale green halo seemed to emanate from it, and the air in the entire underground space was refreshed, becoming non-toxic, harmless, fresh, and sweet.

　Professor Sylph relaxed her brow and entered the collection room. Dak followed closely behind.

　This collection room in the House of Nobles is filled with countless antiques, any one of which could cause a stir in the art world. But now, they are displayed on dusty shelves like ordinary objects.

　A little further inside, you can see swords, spears, and halberds leaning haphazardly against the wall—although there is no magical aura on those swords, the overall decorative patterns are quite exquisite.

　It's more of a work of art than a weapon.

　After following Professor Sylph around quickly, Dak realized that what the professor had said earlier was true.

　There are very few items with strong magical fluctuations in this entire collection room.

　It is evident that those truly magical ancient artifacts have indeed been completely consumed over the long course of time.

　Although St. Marian College may seem to be indifferent to worldly affairs, it has always been at the forefront of the historical trend.

　Just like the battlefield closest to this era, most of the golden heroes who ultimately ended the war came from St. Marian Academy.

　To support the heroes who emerge from the academy, St. Marian Academy naturally spared no expense.

　But the academy itself gained nothing from that war except for reputation.

　That's why they resort to money-making schemes like dueling arenas.

　Many of the things the college has now are actually things that have been accumulated over the past ten years or so.

　Thanks to the rapid advancements in magical technology, the professors' strength has greatly increased, enabling them to delve into dungeons, obtain rare and valuable monster materials, become even stronger, and then acquire even more precious materials... thus creating a virtuous cycle.

　However, the "ancient power" needed by the "fossil pterosaur" is not something superficial.

　Because there were too many items in the collection room, Dark did not summon the "Fossil Pteranodon" here.

　But this did not prevent him from awakening the "Fossil Pterosaur"—and using it to sense the "Ancient Power".

　The "Fossil Aerial Dragon," created using the Great Sin Fruit, possesses its own sentience.

　Once Dark awakens it, he can communicate with it directly through magic cards.

　"How is it?" Professor Sylph asked.

　Dark looked at the magic card and said, "If it can sense the presence of 'Ancient Power,' it will tell me."

　Professor Sylph nodded and said, "Let's start with this side then." Dark glanced over there; it was a whole side of the vessel.

　These vessels include those made of iron, those made of pottery, and of course, those made of gold and silver.

　Some of them are exquisitely crafted, while others have rather strange shapes. The only thing they have in common is their age; there are no labels or explanations on the shelves, making it difficult to determine their origin.

　Dark raised the magic card and examined the vessels. The first vessel was a copper pot with a pointed spout and a round belly. The pot was covered with cracks, but strangely, it had no rust.

　It brought the "Fossil Aerodactyl" magic card closer; the Aerodactyl on the card had sharp eyes. But after a moment, it shook its head in slight disappointment.

　“No.”

　Undeterred, Dark found a second container and brought the magic card closer.

　Professor Lily, Aurora, and Nix then entered the collection room.

　The three of them had no particular purpose; aside from occasionally glancing at Dak, they simply wandered around the collection room at will.

　Although this type of collection room mainly contains ordinary antiques, you might still find some overlooked treasures if you're lucky.

　Even if you don't find any treasure, you can still pick out one or two trinkets you like...

　Dak gradually increased his speed. Although those bottles and jars were all ancient antiques, unfortunately none of them contained the "Ancient Power" needed by the "Fossil Pteranodon".

　The "Fossil Pteranodon" is a "greedy" magical spirit with an astonishing intuition in this regard. It often has an innate instinct, especially for things it desires.

　Therefore, Dark has complete faith in its abilities; if it says no, then it really doesn't!

　After a while, Dak shook his head and walked to another wall. That wall was covered with a dazzling array of tools, many of which Dak didn't recognize, and others he simply didn't want to recognize.

　He never expected that there would be such things in the collection room located below the tower of the Noble House.

　However, considering that this is the tower of the Noble House, it doesn't seem so strange to have those things here.

　It just doesn't quite fit the "student dormitory" environment.

　Dark pretended not to recognize anything and simply swept the "Fossilized Aerodactyl" magic card across the surface. But when it passed over one of the tools, the card's face inexplicably glowed!

　“Dark,” Professor Sylph reminded him.

　Dark stopped and looked at the tool that had caused the "fossilized pterosaur" to react.

　It was a cylindrical tool, the specific function of which Dark didn't know. He frowned slightly, then tapped the magic card in his hand and whispered, "Fossil Pteranodon, will it work?"

　At first, "Fossil Aerial Dragon" did not react, but suddenly ripples like water appeared on the surface of the magic card, and a small dragon head emerged from it, opening its mouth to suck in the direction of the tool.

　A moment later, a wisp of pale gray aura wafted out from the tool and was inhaled by the "Fossil Aerial Dragon".

　It then immediately retracted into the card, and the ripples on its surface vanished without a trace. Dark infused it with magic to examine it, but after a moment he frowned: "Not even a 1% increase."

　Although we still don't know exactly what this "ancient power" is, it at least proves that it can indeed be obtained from ancient artifacts.

　However, the trace of "ancient power" that they finally found was less than one percent of that of the "fossilized pterosaur".

　This clearly means that collecting the "Ancient Power" needed to complete the "Fossil Pteranodon" will likely be much more difficult than expected.

　But upon closer reflection, it seems that this is how it should be.

　The conditions under which the "ancient power" was created are unknown, but it must be an extremely rare thing.

　Because within St. Marian Academy, there is something ancient and incredibly massive that has always been right before our eyes—that is the castle of St. Marian Academy!

　However, the "Fossil Pteranodon" did not sense even a trace of "Ancient Power" from the castle.

　"Don't rush," Professor Sylph reminded her.

　Dak nodded and said, "Let's check all the antiques in this collection room first!"

　Dak sped up his pace, and in just fifteen minutes, he had checked everything in the collection room.

　The progress of collecting "Ancient Power" from "Fossil Wyvern Jun" has finally increased from the initial 10% to 11%!

　Although it's only a 1% increase, it's certainly a visible breakthrough.

　“Let’s go to the next collection room,” Professor Sylph said.

　Dak nodded and quickly moved to another location.

　They then entered the basements of the Magic Academy tower, the Knights Academy tower, and the Fools Academy tower, searching all the underground collection rooms of the four academies.

　In the underground collection room of the Magic Academy tower, Dark obtained more "Ancient Power" than in the underground collection room of the Noble Academy tower.

　In the underground collection rooms of the Knights' Tower and the Fool's Tower, they only obtained "Ancient Power" that was almost identical to that in the underground collection room of the Nobles' Tower.