The Mighty Dragons Are Dead

“Wuu wah.” Jela whined pitifully, trying to gain Liszt’s sympathy.

But Liszt’s gaze was all on Douson, as he had a servant come over to help tear off the thorns from Douson’s body. His mood was quite uplifted; in the dangerous situation just moments ago, Douson had successfully released a brand new type of magic. It actually formed rocks in the air that could explode upon flying.

“Could this be the Rock Grenade that Mr. Elkeson possesses, which only a Grand Magician can master?”

Mr. Elkeson had the spell model for the Rock Grenade, but he himself could not cast spells, requiring the mental control of a Grand Magician to release magic of this level.

The new magic of Douson was very likely a more advanced type of magic.

“Woof woof!”

Douson barked at Liszt.

It was probably accusing Liszt of shielding the mischievous Thorn Minor Elf Jela, but Liszt wasn’t going to punish Jela. Instead, he ordered Jela to immediately return to the Worm Room and not to come out. Then, he took out a few pieces of dried meat and tossed them to Douson as a comfort and reward for learning the new magic.

Once Douson finished the dried meat, he immediately gave the command, “Douson, cast the magic!”

Douson opened its mouth.

A Rock Spike burst out from the ground in the distance.

“Not that one—it’s the new magic you just learned. Come on, aim here and release it!” Liszt pointed to mid-air.

Douson looked confused for a good while before spitting out magic power, whoosh, a rock about the size of a basin rapidly formed and exploded shortly after.

He had already sent for Mr. Elkeson.

“Mr. Elkeson, what do you think of the new magic Douson has mastered? Which Earth System magic is it?”

Elkeson exclaimed in surprise, “This is a Rock Grenade, a very powerful Earth System Magic. Douson truly deserves to have completed the bloodline metamorphosis of an Intermediate Magical Beast. It has successfully mastered the Rock Grenade that can only be learned by a Grand Magician! However, its Rock Grenade is a bit weak. I saw a Grand Magician cast it once; the rock formed was as big as a water jar.”

‘Weak’ was probably because Douson was still unskilled.

Once it mastered it with skill, the Rock Grenade could be greatly improved.

Now, Douson finally had an attack that could target the sky; it would no longer be passively getting hit by the Sky Knights and could instead take the initiative to attack.

Just think—a briefly airborne Sky Knight jumps up to attack, and Douson fires directly. A few Rock Grenades could certainly repel the attack of the Sky Knights.

“Well done, Douson, starting today we have a new training program. Follow my command—Douson, Rock Grenade!”

Douson looked dumbfounded.

It took a long time before it spit out a Rock Grenade.

It had yet to form a conditioned reflex to the command for the Rock Grenade; that would take time.

But, regardless, Douson now truly had the fighting power of an Intermediate Magical Beast and could contend with the Sky Knights.

Riding on Douson, Liszt was spirited, his heart filled with boundless pride, “Now I can strut around on Coral Island; surely no one will raise objections.”

He even thought.

With the combat power of Douson and the potential future of the eight Little Blizzard Beasts, why would he need a Knight Squad? He could directly lead an army of Blizzard Beasts into battle—of course, the lands couldn’t do without the support of the Knight Class, after all, Blizzard Beasts had huge appetites, and without the development of the lands, they couldn’t be sustained.

Just the feeding and drinking for nine Blizzard Beasts cost over a hundred Gold Coins a month.

“Besides, on the battlefield, a Knight Squad would also be needed to take care of the Blizzard Beasts, guiding them to participate in the battles. Relying solely on my command, the scene would look very ugly… However, I should probably be able to join the Earl in battle with this year’s Pioneer Mandate,” he contemplated.

The desire to achieve merits was already stirring within him.

Black Dragon Childe Paris provided close protection while Douson was the main damage dealer, and with the assistance of a Knight Squad on the side, as well as the care of the Earl and Levis, who incidentally took over the logistical defense work, they should be able to earn enough merits with minimal risk.

Bit by bit, by the age of twenty,

he should be able to rely on his military achievements to be granted the title of Viscount and turn Black Horse Island into his own fiefdom.

With his own island and the help of Smoke Mission, combined with the knowledge and vision of a transmigrator, he couldn’t say how brilliant the future would be, but he was sure to ride a dragon!

…

“Task completed, reward: new magic for Douson – Rock Grenade.”

“Task: Carpenter Karasko has fallen deep in thought. He has helped the Brewing Workshop make many novel wooden tools, which have brought him too much inspiration, and made him realize that he does not enjoy making tables and chairs every day; he yearns to create, please give him some guidance. Reward: Mutation of the Rubber Tree Elf Bug.”

Teach Douson the new magic.

The task was immediately completed.

But the newly released task surprised Liszt, “Does Carpenter Karasko aspire to be a Lu Ban? I’ll give him a few creative ideas later; I can’t do the Wooden Ox or Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, but I can still suggest rocking chairs, drawers, unicycles, and curved ploughs… but what does the mutation of the Rubber Tree Elf Bug mean?”

A direct mutation into a Minor Elf?

Liszt felt it was unlikely; he had never heard of a plant directly giving birth to a Minor Elf.

But apart from mutating into a Minor Elf directly, what other kinds of mutations could there be? He pondered for a long time without any clues and decided not to think about it anymore.

Complete the task first.

“Karasko, right? I admire craftsmen with creativity the most,” Liszt immediately ordered someone to look up information on Carpenter Karasko and quickly received feedback.

Karasko was a serf bought from the Eagle Kingdom, currently working in the Carpenter’s Shop.

He was not an exceptionally skilled craftsman and was considered an “oddity” in the Carpenter’s Shop. Other carpenters would take care of their own lives after work, but he had almost no life outside of work, spending all day staring blankly at wood. Sometimes he would even pick up wood and randomly craft strange things.

For this, the town officials would scold him whenever they inspected the Carpenter’s Shop.

“It seems that the limitations of the era have confined his thoughts, not giving him a proper environment to let his imagination fly,” Liszt thought to himself.

He quickly took his Retainer Knights and hurried to the Carpenter’s Shop, wanting to personally inspect Karasko’s carpentry work.

Inside the Carpenter’s Shop, sawdust was flying everywhere.

After the serfs gave their respects and were scolded by the Steward to continue their work, Liszt went straight to Karasko: “Where are your woodworking creations that you’ve done in your spare time? Show them to me.”

“L-Lord Landlord…” Karasko was half nervous and half not fluent in the language, stuttering through some Serpent Script.

“Don’t be nervous, Karasko,” Liszt said gently.

In the town, he always presented himself as noble, gentle, and merciful. Those roles of playing the bad guy were left to other officials.

Feeling the kindness of Lord Landlord, Karasko finally relaxed and laid out his spare time woodworking creations one by one.

Stools with five legs, chairs with backs on all sides, tables with triangular tops… The only thing that remotely looked decent were several teacups shaped like sea bowls.

This wasn’t creativity; it was a missing screw in the brain.

Liszt finally understood why the inspecting officials scolded Karasko; if not for the Smoke Mission, he too would have started scolding. How did he come up with chairs with backs on all sides? How was anyone supposed to sit in them, as a baby crib? A triangular tabletop, surely not afraid of someone being impaled?

But since there was the Smoke Mission,

he encouraged him with a smile, “Karasko, I can see you have lots of ideas.”