Ben transferred Smog's soul into his body through the Dragon Soul Technique. But it wouldn't fully stop Ben's Dragonization and instead slow it down. Smog is a lot weaker than Escanor, so his soul can't create a antidote for Ben's Dragon Seed.

Furthermore, Smog's soul only had remnants of his power from when he was still alive 400 years ago. So it would only help Ben a little, but that was good enough for him.

Previously, A.I Chip predicted that his Dragon Seed will grow fully between 5 to 7 years, depending on his usage of Dragon Slayer Magic. But now it increased to 10 to 12 years with his current usage of Dragon Slayer Magic.

However, that estimate could decrease if Ben overused his Dragon Slayer Magic. That's why Ben needed to control his usage of Dragon Slayer Magic. At least he needed to use his normal magic on weaker opponents.

In those 10 years, he would make sure he was strong enough to permanently solve this problem. His goal was to defeat the infamous Acnologia. He only had 10 years to do that. He is sure he could do it, he would make sure of it.

Ben's business with Smog was done here, but he decided to walk around and look at the crystals. This cave has a lot more crystals than the one near his village. This place also had a lot more Ethernano which felt a lot denser.

"No wonder Smog chose to hide here. His magic power is masked completely by the Ethernano. Too bad this place is too far away from the village so I can't train here. Let's just take a few crystals as a souvenir." Ben said while walking around.

Ben looked around for any good crystals that he could take with him. With his magic sense and experience with lacrima crystals, he can find the best ones among these crystals.

Ben spread his magic sense and found some good crystals. He took some that he thought were the best among these good ones. He gathered around 27 crystals with medium and small sizes but they had better quality and more Ethernano than the bigger ones.

Ben was about to leave when he felt something strange in the cave. He felt something like a resonance, but it was faint. The source of the resonance felt like it was calling him.

He concentrated and searched for the source of the feeling. Finally, he found it in the center of the room and it was under the ground where Smog's skeleton was located.

Ben put his crystals away and check the location that he sensed. Ben dug into the soil for a few minutes until he made a 3 meter deep hole. He found a strange crystal ball with a bright red color.

"What's that? A dragon ball? Do I need to find 6 more? Hmm, this ball doesn't have a star inside it." Ben said jokingly.

[Item found: Heat Dragon Lacrima.]

"WHAT THE F! It's really a dragon ball?" Ben was surprised that his joke was a reality.

[Natural Dragon Lacrima. It's a dragon crystal formed at the location of a deceased dragon formed from the gathered essence of a dragon's corpse.

The chance for a natural dragon lacrima to be formed is higher in a place with a high magic density. But it's still very low. Maybe this lacrima can be formed because Smog's soul was here for years.]

"Ooh, so this is very rare, huh? But why did you call it Natural Dragon Lacrima, and not just Dragon Lacrima?" Ben asked.

[There are two types of Dragon Lacrima, Natural and Artificial. The Natural One is like the one you just found. The artificial one is made by mages using the remnants of a dragon. They extract the dragon's magic from the remains and insert it into a lacrima crystal.]

"Damn, they can even get the power of a fossil. Is this like Jurassic Park?" Ben was amazed with the discovery.

He looked at Smog's dragon lacrima that was the size of his fist. He was curious about the lacrima now. "Where did you get all this information?"

[From one of the books you scanned back at the school. You would know about it if you read the books instead of simply scanning them.]

Ben sweat dropped at the fact A.I Chip was lecturing him. But he wasn't fazed by A.I Chip's tone. She'd been this way ever since he arrived in this world last year.

"Does this thing have any usage?" Ben asked.

[It can grant the power of a dragon if placed in a mage's body.]

Ben's eyes widened in shock after that revelation. He was surprised to find out a Dragon Slayer can be made with this crystal.

That means a Dragon Slayer didn't need to learn their magic from a dragon. This also allows future mages to become Dragon Slayers even when dragons had perished. They just needed to make a Artificial Dragon Lacrima.

A.I Chip also explained to Ben that a Dragon Slayer who uses a dragon lacrima won't have a Dragon Seed. Ben was now jealous because they didn't need to worry about turning into a dragon.

"Maybe I should insert this into my body and stop using Sun Dragon Slayer Magic." Ben sighed.

[I would advise against that. You already have Sun Dragon Slayer Magic. Your Sun Dragon Slayer Magic hasn't matured and is still weak. Adding another Dragon Slayer Magic would only make your progress slower and your power to become half-baked.]

[Furthermore even though your Sun Dragon Slayer also utilizes heat, it would be very different from Heat Dragon Slayer Magic.]

"Hmm, I think you're right. Practicing with 2 different Dragon Slayer magics will split my concentration and prevent me from reaching my full potential." Ben said.

[If you want to add another power, I suggest doing it after your power matured and you reach a high level with your Sun Dragon Slayer Magic.]

"Alright, I'll follow your advice. I will keep this lacrima and study it. Maybe I'll learn some things about heat and apply it to my magic."

Ben decided to keep Smog's dragon lacrima to study it. It might be useful in the future and help him when he needed it. It's also very rare, so he wasn't going to leave it here like a idiot.

Ben took all the crystals he gathered and exited the cave. The sky started to get dark, but he didn't realize it when he was in the cave. He put all the crystals in the trunk of his car and drove back to the capital.

When he reached the capital, it was already dark. But the city was not dark at all, it's very bright with colorful lamps everywhere. The streets were also full of people and stands like a festival.

Well, it's really a festival to close the Grand Magic Prix. Many people came to the capital today, so the kingdom needed to do something to make them happy. The only way to do that was to hold this festival.

Ben drove slowly among the crowd and it's really hard to pass through. Everyone recognized his car and knew he was the runner-up of today's race. So they got close to his car and wanted to see him.

Ben sighed and just waved from inside the car while continuing to drive slowly. He finally reached Joseph's place after 2 hours even though he drove inside the city. The crowd was really crazy and made it hard for him to drive.

Ben exited his car and walked into Joseph's residence with a tired expression on his face. Ben walked to the couch and just slumped down on it while sighing. A maid approached him and asked if he needed something, so he just asked for a glass of cold water.

"Ah, where are my sisters?" He asked the maid.

"They're walking around with the Madame, enjoying the festival. As for the master, he's in his office." The maid answered.

Ben nodded and the maid went to get his glass of cold water. He enjoyed the drink after it arrived and rested for a few minutes. Then he went to find the girls because there would be fireworks tonight. The girls want to watch them with him, so he needed to find them.

"It's tiring being a big brother." Ben sighed.