Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Key to the Path of the Giant Dragon
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The swamp dragon was dead.
In the end, it had died after all. With its hind legs injured, it had been unable to conceal its trail, leaving an obvious path of torn earth, blood, and freshly regenerated scales behind it.
The magical factors in dragon blood shone through the air like brilliant lamps.
The swamp dragon also possessed a unique ability to create visual illusions, but that only made its presence even more transparent to Melina.
Since they were not far from Brightfall Town, they had asked the town mayor, Ilya... uh... Georgia! Miss Georgia, for a handcart. Charlie had hauled it while they followed the trail toward a wilderness near the Pure White Woodlands.
There, in the wilds, they discovered the swamp dragon's solitary lair. Dragons were beasts, and beasts never abandoned their nests.
They killed it.
Melina had dealt ninety percent of the damage, while Old Maria claimed the kill.
“An ancient dragon, and you still just happened to trigger it!”
Sonia said sarcastically,
“Old Maria, you never said you were a kill-stealer. How are you this accurate?”
“Stop barking.”
Maria had already shortened “What are you barking about?” to those three words. Sonia had tormented her too thoroughly.
Melina narrowed her eyes as she breathed in the blood-scented magical factors, enjoying a brief moment of satisfaction.
“It’s dead. Shall I help extract the magical factors?” she asked.
They had not brought any equipment for refining magical factors. After all, none of them had expected to casually kill a dragon during their outing.
The most primitive method of extracting magical factors was for a banshee to use her own magical factors to forcibly squeeze them out. It sounded rather indecent, but it was, in fact, a traditional method of refinement.
“No need... Charlie, can you wait outside?”
Maria extended a hand while motioning for Charlie to leave.
The Collector brothers held the three banshees in the highest regard, especially Little Mei, and had already become their devoted fans. They obediently walked outside the lair, even remembering to call back,
“Don’t forget that there are plenty of good ores in the nest!”
“We know, Big Brother Charlie.”
Sonia’s tone was strangely sarcastic. Melina decided that this, too, was a kind of talent.
Once they were certain Charlie had left and had gone far enough away, Sonia waved a reminder, and Maria nodded.
She placed her hand on the swamp dragon’s corpse and began chanting softly, as though reciting a spell:
“Command: Extract magical factors.”
A faint sound like dice rolling drifted through the air.
Countless points of light floated from the swamp dragon’s body, forming a scene even Sonia could see. Melina understood why they had sent Charlie away. This sight truly was not something a Collector should witness.
The points of light gathered and fused in the air, like cream and beaten egg mixed together and sprinkled with sugar, instinctively making one feel hungry.
The process lasted a minute. When the points of light finished merging, twenty remained.
Melina noticed a trace of worry on Maria’s naturally optimistic face.
What was wrong? Would this cost her something?
“...”
Maria bared her teeth and forced a single word through them:
“Pull!”
A faint melody suddenly rang through the air. Countless dazzling phantoms descended from above, and one beam of light struck the ground with a resounding clang.
Ten points of light began circling Maria. Melina quietly glanced at the musket spinning beside her, then covered her mouth. She was already prepared to stifle her laughter.
It was a ten-pull.
The essence of this ritual was a ten-pull.
The sort of ten-pull that made Little Mei want to rush over and press the button herself.
Ding, ding, ding—
After circling twice, the points of light stopped directly in front of Maria and changed color. Even a mobile-game novice like Sonia could recognize the result. No—Sonia was a Blizzard fan. She understood this tragic scene instantly.
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“Blue, blue, white, white, white...”
It was the purest African bloodline of blue skies and white clouds!
It was the kind of blue skies and white clouds that represented a complete failure to pull anything worthwhile. This result was practically destined to be called “good night,” threatening to crush Maria’s sanity beneath its overwhelming force.
The beautiful, mature woman bit her lower lip, unknowingly looking rather sensual. A faint mist gathered in her eyes before she squeezed out another word between her teeth:
“Pull!”
The previous ten-pull had been blue skies and white clouds, with two blues.
This ten-pull was also blue skies and white clouds, with one blue.
The bad news was that she had gotten nothing. The good news was that Old Maria’s unlucky bloodline had become increasingly pure, and she was rapidly approaching crystallized silver.
She nearly failed to draw breath and collapse, following Little Mei’s hard-earned wisdom that “the young fall asleep quickly.” But she held on.
And as she held on, she shouted:
“Roll!”
The points of light from both ten-pulls began gathering again, condensing once more into floating motes in midair.
“Old Maria, isn’t that cheating?”
Sonia was the first to panic. She waved her arms wildly as she protested,
“You couldn’t get anything, so you can just take it back?”
Realizing that sounded wrong, she hurriedly tried to explain:
“Sister, it’s not that I can’t stand seeing you get something good. I just think... isn’t this a little cheap? You can’t pull what you want, so you roll it back? Are you using a cheat trainer in a single-player game?”
Someone was getting awfully desperate!
Melina was not the only one who sensed Sonia’s agitation. Maria gave a cold laugh and showed Sonia an internationally recognized friendly gesture.
“Three times a day.”
With that, she reached out, preparing for another ten-pull.
Indeed, even after realizing the purity of one’s unlucky bloodline, no one could truly refuse a ten-pull—just as no one could refuse the growth of one’s fingernails. The desire to pull was something irresistible and undeniable.
Pulling was addictive.
“Wait, wait! I said wait!”
Sonia stopped Old Maria’s blindly confident attempt and called out with absolute assurance,
“I’ll do it!”
“Then go ahead.”
Old Maria folded her arms and stepped aside. She pointed at the motes of light and muttered,
“Reach out and shout ‘Pull’ at the same time.”
“Pull!”
Sonia stepped forward and slapped her hand down with swagger, carrying the confidence of a European lucky player.
“Give me something good!”
The motes of light swirled around her. Lavish music filled the air, and all ten motes burst open together.
Brilliant gold, mysterious violet, and elegant, luxurious orange!
The violet one was the swamp dragon’s signature Refining and Sorting Magical Factor, which could increase a human’s inspiration for herbs when used to create items.
The golden one was the far nobler Warning Magical Factor, a magical factor once possessed by all truly great beings. In sufficient quantities, it allowed its bearer to sense approaching danger and become more attuned to darkness.
The orange one was a special magical factor that absolutely should not have appeared in a swamp dragon at all: the Black Dragon Gene Magical Factor. It was a precious factor, a key to humanity’s path toward becoming dragons, and a signpost pointing toward the ritual path of transcendence.
Old Maria froze for a moment before letting out a roar and practically leaping onto Sonia.
“Ahhh! I can’t accept this!”
...
After packing everything away, they set off again for Hamlet Town. They entrusted the swamp dragon’s corpse to the Collectors’ Guild for harvesting and disassembly, intending to divide the spoils only after returning to Hamlet Manor.
“I’ve heard of dragon gene magical factors before, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen one.”
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Melina was intensely curious, but she was not tempted. She had only one reason for wanting to become a dragon: to claim the skies and roam them freely. Most black dragons were land-dwellers. Their wings, once yearning to fly, had long since degenerated, and their minds, once longing for the heavens, had withered away. Following the path of the black dragon would not allow her to claim the sky.
“It’s your first time seeing one. Do you like it?”
Sonia kicked off her boots. Her white-stockinged feet, steaming with heat, quickly kicked the shoe cabinet until a pair of slippers fell out. She turned her head and said with a grin,
“If you like it, use it. My family controls the ritual of dragon ascension.”
“No.”
Melina waved both hands and sat beside Maria. After changing into her indoor shoes, she asked,
“You don’t want it?”
Her secondary reason for rejecting the dragon-gene transformation was strength. Someone with a history-defying talent like Melina did not need additional reinforcement at this stage. Yet Sonia, despite lacking comparable talent, still looked down on it.
“Little Mei, Little Mei!”
Sonia climbed back onto the exercise bike and tilted her head.
“I’m a reincarnator, you know. You don’t need to worry about my path to dragonhood. I’ll encounter a great opportunity very soon.”
“Ha. Who are you planning to ruin this time?”
Maria picked up the box containing the stored factors and entered the alchemy room. She drew the curtain but continued chatting with them while she worked.
“Why call it ruining someone?”
Sonia spoke with righteous conviction.
“You did get one thing right, though. This matter concerns a certain person. He’s an indecisive lord with a younger sister and a two-digit number of beautiful women around him. He neither takes the initiative nor rejects anyone... But all that can be tolerated. The important thing is that this idiot possesses a Red Dragon Gene Magical Factor, and after using it, he actually doesn’t want to become an explorer. He keeps saying things like, ‘I hope the world will treat me gently...’”
She paused, then spoke with utter determination:
“An opportunity like that deserves to be taken from him. If he won’t use it, I might as well make it part of my foundation! Heh heh heh!”
Her eerie laughter sounded like a beautiful older woman imitating an old grandfather or grandmother.
Reincarnators possessed a tremendous advantage in information. They knew who would commit crimes during future raids, who the traitor in a team would be, and what the most powerful figures looked like.
All they had to do was appoint themselves judges of the future, and they could act without the slightest psychological burden.
Truth resides in the heart, bestie.
Melina had not expected the Black Dragon Gene Magical Factor, something almost impossible to purchase anywhere else, to be considered so worthless here that nobody wanted it.
“Old Maria?”
“My hard pity is a Radiant Red Dragon. It’s even more powerful than Sonia’s.”
Maria did not want it either. It was less appealing to her than a backpack full of geological samples.
“You handle it, Mimi.”
The senior student raised a map from the table and pondered certain secrets both ancient and yet to come. She paid no further attention to the Black Dragon Gene Magical Factor tucked inside Melina’s waist pouch.
How generous of her. This small canister of dragon-gene magical factor could sell for nearly ten thousand gold lei on the market, equivalent in purchasing power to roughly one million in the currency of Melina’s former life. Even in an era when the internet had begun making people dismiss lavish lifestyles with phrases like “a million is pocket change,” that amount remained terrifyingly high after conversion.
It was roughly equivalent to the savings of a worker earning ten thousand a month and spending nothing for one hundred months.
One hundred months was eight years and four months.
Eight years and four months was enough time for the Great Demon King to become Flying Faker, for Flying Faker to become Flying Uncle, for Flying Uncle to become Big Fly, and for Big Fly to become veteran player Flying Faker again. That was how long it was.
Melina held that span of time in her hands—a whole youth—and she had no intention of selling it.
“I’m going to use it to make a magical sigil, the magic of the Star Principle. I want them to look at me and make me the brightest star in the night sky.”
Sonia chuckled and tilted her head, nodding mysteriously.
“Anyone who spends ten thousand gold lei on a spell becomes the brightest star in the Weeping Peninsula.”
From behind the curtain in the alchemy room, Maria leaned back and poked her head out. She called brightly,
“Abandon the magic of the Madman’s Principle, which symbolizes savagery and madness, and cultivate the magic of the Star Principle, which represents vigilance and dawn. Amy, this will benefit you too!”
She was probably afraid that Melina would be forced to abandon the magic she had specialized in and become angry with Sonia. In truth, however, Melina was not a banshee who specialized solely in the Madman’s Principle.
She was proficient in all seven schools.