Chapter 399: Aftermath

The New Year holiday passed in a joyful atmosphere.

While commoners remained immersed in the festival, some had already noticed that security and patrols in Shi Ying Town had escalated several levels above normal.

As soon as the holiday ended,

curfews, reinforced city gates, nighttime inspections, and magical checks followed in quick succession.

News of the dragon's attack and subsequent repulsion spread like wildfire.

Some outsiders chose to relocate again, but more chose to stay.

The dragon was terrifying, yet if Shi Ying Town's forest warden could repel it, that proved the town's potential and strength.

Relocate again?

To the north lay Coral Bay and the sea; to the south, the Plague-ridden Koshi Plains; to the west, the Death Desert—only the east remained.

But the east was the very path they had come from.

Along the way, they had seen with their own eyes: rebellions toppling nobles, grotesque and cruel monsters, beastman bandits ambushing travelers, natural disasters, and mad wizards gone insane—who could guarantee any place was better than Shi Ying Town now?

At least the forest warden was strong enough.

For Shi Ying Town's city hall, the departure or arrival of these outsiders was not a concern.

For days, the committee's agenda remained focused solely on dealing with the dragon.

Fortunately,

all five committee members were elderly local gentry who had stayed in this remote frontier town precisely because they valued ancestral ties and held deep affection for their homeland.

Now, every last one of them wanted to go up and kill that acid-breathing black dragon.

The eighth-rank dragon's breath was no joke—it lingered for ages.

After being scattered by the erratic winter winds, it had begun slowly spreading toward the farmland district.

That district held the precious elf-grain seeds Luo De had sold them; their survival through winter and early spring depended entirely on those seeds.

The elderly gentleman Humbert, whose beloved adopted daughter had nearly been killed, reacted with particular fury—he swore, by his own words, to level Coral Bay!

He had been frantically writing letters and sending them out, clearly begging for aid from every contact he had.

Luo De was dragged to meetings every morning.

Siege cannons, giant crossbows, trebuchets, and corresponding magical methods were all discussed.

They didn't even care about the cost—they planned to acquire at least some of each. The bloodlust of Shi Ying Town's locals exceeded his expectations; if the dragon came, they'd fight.

But these were mostly deterrents; they might not be truly effective in actual combat.

The dragon could fly, strike from afar, and had thick health and high attack power.

Especially when Luo De faced the black dragon Mikhail—he'd turned and fled the moment things looked even slightly off, revealing his true cowardly nature at a glance.

Luo De calculated based on the brass spirit-measuring sphere's spiritual value.

He estimated the thing's value at around 510 marks—extremely staggering, even reaching the ninth-rank threshold.

But this brass spirit-measuring sphere from the dwarves was primarily calibrated for humanoid species' body sizes.

Dragons naturally possessed enormous spiritual and magical capacity; this 510-mark spiritual mass was certainly inferior to that of a normal ninth-rank.

As for the watered-down seventh-rank dark elves who attacked, most barely reached 150 or 160 marks.

The seventh-rank high-tier one with the exclusive weapon, the Black Gold Warhammer, likely hovered around 270 marks.

No wonder he had a dedicated weapon—this was essentially pure, no filler.

Luo De measured himself again.

【314 marks】

Hmm.

From 312 to 314, to Luo De, it was no different from no increase at all.

He'd been around 250 marks before ascending to seventh rank; the jump to 312 was the real increase.

"314 marks versus 510 marks? That's a huge gap."

Luo De grew discouraged.

The excitement from recently repelling the dragon, and the praise from others, had cooled.

As a warrior, most of his spiritual energy went into sustaining his body, so the brass sphere's reading reflected his physical attributes.

In direct combat with the dragon, his prized physical strength would be crushed.

The reason he'd shattered the dragon scales

was thanks largely to the 【Dragon-Specific Attack +5】 from the Euphoria Party and Naulin's 【Hatred of Painful Fire】.

So the only variable lay in spiritual arts.

This couldn't be reflected in numerical values.

The new shared skill, 【Julia's Blood Burst】, was a dragon-slaying technique—if used properly, it might let him face a dragon alone.

"When facing an opponent who overwhelms you in power and dwarfs you in size, clinging to brute strength is pointless—you must boost speed and agility."

Luo De had always neglected this.

He was fast enough, excelling in raw power and straightforward assaults, but ultimately lacked agility.

His only spiritual art was 【Swift Shadow Step】, which he'd taken from the half-werewolf during the Ruins Brotherhood's assault.

If his strength, constitution, agility, and charm could be quantified, agility would be his lowest stat.

Thinking of this,

he abandoned the meeting and slipped away.

He spent the afternoon wandering the Magic Control League's market district and ate at two nearby snack stalls.

One served deep-fried skewers made from a parasitic worm pulled from Calvin's brown bear's anus; the other served a thick soup of Kuangwaren couple's skin mucus, paired with freshly squeezed frog eggs, dipped in a sauce of emerald courtyard wild tree juice.

Luo De's verdict: insane. He promptly gave it to the front desk clerk at the service hall.

He was also deeply disappointed.

He hadn't found anything.

The Magic Control League rarely had spiritual arts.

The organization's core purpose was controlling magical disasters, so its contents naturally focused on that.

Spiritual arts,

compared to spells, posed little danger—the worst they could do was cripple the user themselves, rarely causing direct harm to others.

To find spiritual arts, you either joined the military—where there were countless military-grade spiritual arts—or the Spirit Guild, also known as the Adventurer's Guild.

There was a larger Adventurer's Guild in Windstorm City; Luo De thought he might visit tomorrow.

It was already evening.

Time to go home and throw a silver party.

The Magic Control League's teleportation point was east of Shi Ying Town, near the station.

As Luo De stepped out, he saw Pan Ni the ghoul far off, performing some spell amid a pile of dark elf corpses.

The ghoul girl wore a white-gray wrapped robe that clung to her figure, accentuating its curves.

A hood with a thick fur collar obscured her face; a strand of black, slightly curled long hair slipped out, resting quietly on her right collarbone and chest.

Several constables watched from a distance, visibly fearful.

Pan Ni radiated a chilling aura, saturated with negative energy—naturally instilling fear. Even knowing she was an ally from Windwall Forest, none dared approach.

Pan Ni suddenly turned her head and spotted her master.

Instantly, her limbs trembled with excitement, appearing unsteady—nothing like her earlier cold demeanor.

"Master! Pan Ni has successfully assimilated all usable dark elf corpses! These are the last batch!"

"Master! Pan Ni has successfully assimilated all usable Dark Elf corpses! These are the final batch!"

The dark elf corpses were a problem—hundreds of mutilated remains, more than during the Ruins Brotherhood's assault; mishandling them could cause trouble.

Last time, it had drawn a ratman attack.

Pan Ni's necrotic army could claim some.

The rest, unusable, were piled together to rot until Luo De used 【Plague Domain】 to fully absorb the plague elements, then disposed of them properly.

This indirectly eliminated potential bacterial threats.

It was, at least, putting everything to use.

"Come, let's see your level."

Luo De handed her the brass spirit-measuring sphere.

Pan Ni knew what it was—she eagerly took it and infused it with magic.

The black crystal display flickered, then showed 【178】.

The black crystal shards on the brass sphere flickered, displaying the number 【178】.

"Huh? Waaah!"

(End of Chapter)

(End of Chapter)