The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

A vigorous battle was enough to dispel the restlessness stemming from physiological urges.

He picked up the greatsword that Paris had dropped on the ground and found that, despite many collisions, the blade had not worn at all: “Your greatsword, the craftsmanship is exquisite. We’ve fought over a dozen times, and I’ve never seen it damaged; it must be more than just fine steel.”

Paris took back her greatsword, with traces of flush still on her beautiful face and the sound of her slightly panting breath exuding a uniquely feminine laziness.

Her eyes sparkled brightly: “This greatsword comes from the collection of a viscount in the Maple Leaf Duchy. I’m not sure about the level of its craftsmanship, but it caught my eye, so I took it.” After all, as a female thief, she spoke of pilfering as if it were only natural.

“Hmm.”

Liszt noticed the sweat on her face and that the thin undershirt inside her leather armor was also damp with sweat. So, he said, “The fight’s over, go back and take a bath and change your clothes. Don’t catch a cold in this weather… I need to change as well, let’s go.”

As soon as he had turned around, he heard Paris call out, “Baron.”

“What is it?”

Liszt turned back to look at her.

Paris sheathed her greatsword behind her back and flashed a brilliant smile, her voice as sweet as syrup: “Thanks for your concern, you’re a good person.”

Pfft!

Liszt received his second ‘nice guy’ card.

Of course, these were real nice guy cards, representing a genuinely nice person. He waved his hand and, without looking back, walked away nonchalantly. He left Paris standing there, biting her lip, her eyes conveying an alluring gaze as she watched his figure for a while before following.

…

In the castle’s bathhouse.

He was soaking in the indoor hot spring while casually calling forth the Smoke Mission.

He discovered that the Serpent Script transformed by the Smoke Serpent Script had changed: “Mission completed, a Rubber Tree Elf Bug is awarded.”

The killer bees had flown away for good, the danger declared over.

Then.

Another transformation occurred, and a new mission appeared.

“Mission: Douson has been feeling itchy lately. It senses that its magic power is ready to burst forth and seeks release but doesn’t know how to do so. Releasing Rock Spikes doesn’t relieve the urge, and as its master, it’s your duty to solve this problem for Douson. Reward: a new magic for Douson.”

“Hm!”

Liszt’s eyebrows twitched.

He instantly realized that Douson was beginning to comprehend a second kind of magic. The previous Rock Spikes, or Multiple Stone Spikes, could only be considered a single type of magic, just like the Purple Sand Crocodile that mastered Water Arrow Barrage would surely release the sole Water Arrow Spell as a precursor skill.

“Douson’s second magic, does it require my help? But I have no research on Earth System Magic… The handful of Earth System Magic spells that Elkerson sent could be used for reference, perhaps. Earth Wall? Rolling Rock? Earth Elevation Platform? Or the Rock Grenade I didn’t purchase?”

After bathing, he immediately pulled out the thick vellum where the spells of these Earth System Magic were recorded and memorized their theories in detail.

He prepared to assist Douson in verifying each one to determine which it would comprehend.

“If it’s an Earth Wall, have the serfs come and pile up some walls; if it’s Rolling Rock, have the serfs push stones to roll on the ground, or they could simply roll snowballs; if it’s Earth Elevation Platform, they can also pile up snow for Douson to grasp the concept.”

It was impossible for Douson to understand the principles behind spells; he could only follow its instincts and offer a spark of inspiration.

Having planned everything, he immediately sprang into action.

The simplest task was to roll a snowball, something even the servants in the castle could do—Tom, Thomas, Jessie, Parker, Jim, and John took turns pushing the snowball across the meadow, making it roll continuously.

Liszt led Douson, incessantly urging it to cast magic.

But no matter how grand the scene of rolling snowballs was, Douson could still only cast Rock Spike. After half an hour of back and forth effort, there was no sign of a new magic breakthrough.

“The plan failed, switch to the Earth Elevation Platform,” Liszt ordered his servants to start piling the snow to construct a series of platforms.

The Earth Elevation Platform magic involved using Earth System Magic Power to raise and lower the ground.

Whether it was because the imitation wasn’t accurate enough, or because this wasn’t the magic Douson was meant to comprehend, the servants, sweating profusely from the effort, watched as Douson continued to cast only Rock Spike.

“The plan failed again, switch to Earth Wall!”

Earth Wall and Earth Elevation Platform were similar in nature; they involved raising and lowering the ground to form a wall made half of rock and half of mud, capable of blocking some attacks. Casting this spell was quite a drain on one’s magic power, and compared to Rock Spike, significantly more challenging. Serfs toiled to dig several walls—still, it didn’t trigger any reaction from Douson.

A day went by, and Douson hadn’t comprehended anything.

On the second day, Liszt repeated the process, but Douson still had no breakthrough. Sometimes it seemed like Douson was on the verge of casting a new spell, but after struggling for a long time, it would still only produce a Rock Spike. Without inspiration, it always failed at the last hurdle.

Just as he pondered how to help Douson grasp a new magic,

Jela somehow got out. She didn’t continue soaking in the Sea Sprite Ake’s shell but instead started crying out “woo wa,” “woo wa,” picking up snow from the ground, forming it into small snowballs, and hurling them at Douson.

Feeling slighted by Liszt’s excessive closeness to Douson in the past two days, she was quite displeased.

So the snowballs served as her weapon of choice.

Douson was hit by the little snowballs but showed no reaction; it simply didn’t care about Jela’s feeble combat ability. It was precisely this disregard that suddenly enraged Jela. Forgetting Liszt’s ban, she raised her hand and scattered seeds, with thorns quickly sprouting among Douson’s fur.

In just a moment, they wrapped Douson into a bundle.

Liszt didn’t intervene; he felt somewhat frustrated by the notion of “sparing the rod, spoiling the child,” having taught Douson for three days without it grasping any magic. He found it foolish.

So the arrogant Jela started her onslaught, the rapidly growing thorns painfully pricking Douson, causing it to howl in pain. Expecting Liszt to help stop Jela, but seeing him unconcerned, Douson couldn’t endure any longer and leapt up in pursuit of her.

But Jela could fly, and however high it jumped, it couldn’t bite her.

Seeing there was no solution, Douson became extremely agitated, its dog eyes nearly bloodshot, Rock Spikes thrusting chaotically. Liszt thought the lesson was almost sufficient and was about to stop Jela from continuing her ravage.

Suddenly, Douson opened its dog mouth, and a surge of magic power shot out, condensing into a rock mass in the air and whistling straight toward Jela.

The triumphant Jela, terrified by the flying rock, shuddered violently and fell straight out of midair.

The rock grazed over its head and violently exploded mid-air, flinging stones and kicking up a spray of snowflakes. This was evidently a new spell… Douson had indeed cast a new magic; though it missed, it furiously lunged forward again, mouth open, ready to tear Jela apart on the ground.

“Stop, Douson!”

Liszt hurriedly commanded, for Jela was his treasure.

Deep-seated obedience halted Douson instantaneously, its gaze fixed on the Jela just an arm’s length away, growling fiercely.

Liszt quickly rushed over, picked up Jela, and assured himself that Jela wasn’t hurt before he breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to look at the still menacingly growling Douson.

He smiled.