Chapter 92: King

It was still a bottle of red potion, with flames faintly flowing within, resembling a magma crystal of the fire element.

Drinking it required a bit of courage.

When Li En took it out, those beautiful eyes stared at it fixedly.

"Looks delicious." Upon seeing it, Dai Niya had already shamelessly drooled a little.

She instantly reacted, wiped it clean, yet realized something was wrong with her; her own body was craving it.

Li En wasted no time, handing the bottle directly over; the other party had already paid, and paid ten times over.

"Gulp!"

After she hurriedly swallowed it, Li En grew even more nervous, instinctively stepping back a pace.

He still remembered the agony after taking the medicine; it was pain of a lethal grade.

Pain so severe it caused convulsions, pain so abstract it caused fainting, pain so intense it woke one up directly from the unconsciousness.

If the princess before him really played this trick, he worried the guard might act impulsively and slice him with a single blade.

"What, why are you looking at me so strangely?" Dai Niya's face was full of confusion; what was this man looking at her for?

"Nothing." Seeing Dai Niya who seemed completely unaffected, Li En fell silent; he felt something was off.

"Lord Lord Kuku..." If Dai Niya had no problem, then the issue must have been with his own experience before.

"Lord Lord Kuku doesn't know!"

"It's not Lord Lord Kuku's fault."

"Ah. Everyone's constitution is different; it absolutely isn't a problem with the medicine."

Li En asked only one question, yet Lord Lord Kuku had already replied with three sentences, incriminating himself without being asked.

Li En sighed; wasn't this already a confession? It seemed he had served as a test subject this time.

But what else could be done? Was he supposed to scold a well-meaning kobold for messing it up again?

"Uh." Suddenly, Dai Niya instinctively clutched her head with both hands, seemingly already dizzy and faint.

Her female guard moved quickly, catching her directly.

Li En also breathed a sigh of relief; this was normal, right?

But quickly, in less than five minutes, she woke up again; in between, it was merely like normal sleep, completely unlike Li En's experience.

"Such a big dragon..." Half of her was awake, the other half still in a dream; she unconsciously murmured, "Such a big fire..."

Clearly, she had awakened successfully; it was nothing like Li En, who had used an entire day and half his life.

"How many words did you awaken?" This was the answer Li En hoped for, one that would make him feel slightly better.

After all, Lord Lord Kuku had said that usually, the first awakening yields only one word; having three words made him an outlier.

Having suffered extra hardship, there should be extra rewards, right?

The princess being questioned looked somewhat bewildered.

"Konungr (King)!"

She opened her mouth and unconsciously spoke this word.

When this "word" was spoken by a qualified person, the entire world changed.

And the first to suffer misfortune were the people around her.

Li En seemed to have fallen into a dream; it was a golden, resplendent palace where he stood, and upon the golden Wang Zuo before him sat a beautiful and solemn figure.

Golden flame hair burned fiercely; even a golden crown could not match her pure color, and those red dragon eyes silently looked down upon the mortal world.

She was the King, without a doubt.

"She is so powerful and majestic; she is my King; I should kneel, I should submit—what the hell, I'm kneeling to my daughter!!" Li En's dragon eyes also awakened at this moment.

"Smack!" Li En stomped his foot hard, awakening from the Illusory realm.

He returned to reality; opening his eyes again, where was the lofty Dragon King? There was only a brat with tears and snot on her face.

But behind her, that veteran expert of at least fifth-rank Great Knight level was already half-kneeling.

Li En withstood it, yet that female knight, who should have been far stronger, was directly affected after a moment of daze and was only now coming to her senses.

"Dragon aura... no, something even more powerful; this is Dragon Speech." She, too, had come to her senses.

Having fought in a hundred battles, she felt a bit of fear; even though she had no guard against the princess, at that moment she was indeed completely unprepared; a small knife could have taken her life.

Of the three present, two looked at Dai Niya with uneasy eyes, while only she herself looked utterly confused.

"Ah, why has my mana decreased so much..." She didn't even know she had just successfully cast a spell.

It seemed this Dragon Speech consumed a great deal from the current Dai Niya.

Being unable to use it frequently when one's ability is insufficient is a clear weakness of the current Dragon Speech spells.

The female guard leaned over and whispered quietly into Dai Niya's ear; Dai Niya was startled at first, then grew increasingly delighted as she listened.

This power might be far more formidable than fourth or fifth-rank spells, and it was merely a single "word"!

"Konungr (King) and Surtr (Fire); only the former can be used now." She answered Li En's inquiry, but her pupils were full of pride.

Also fire? Li En nodded thoughtfully.

Lord Lord Kuku had also said that even if both are fire, different words represent different meanings and imply different branching paths.

Even though both are Dragonkin, Li En and Dai Niya were not on the same path; it seemed they were vaguely far apart.

"Gaga. It is King, not Wang Zu or nobility; this little girl is not simple, not simple. Her fire (Surtr) refers to the Fire God's fire, which is also a very not-simple word."

And Lord Lord Kuku, the expert on Dragon Speech, also seemed to have given a relatively high evaluation?

"Princess." Her guard's tone was a bit heavier at this moment.

"I understand... do not tell anyone else." At this moment, Dai Niya finally realized; the abilities and spell lists of transcendent beings concern life and death; how could they be casually leaked?

"Strange, I actually spoke it out unconsciously." Dai Niya glared at Li En again; it must be that this man used some strange ability again, causing her to feel she could trust him at that moment.

Thus, she opened her mouth, eager to act; perhaps she needed the other party to reveal a small secret.

"Hmm, I won't say it. I won't leak it. I know the rules."

Li En quickly raised his hand; he didn't want to take another hit. It seemed he had passed the resistance threshold just now, but the next time might not be so lucky.

If he really knelt, even without leaking the secret, she would laugh at him for a long time.

Seeing Li En so sensible, Dai Niya's disappointment was visible to the naked eye; finally, she sighed and gave up helplessly.

After all, she was no tyrant.

Next, after confirming her physical condition was good, Her Highness the Princess took her leave; her schedule was always full.

But after leaving, she pondered for a moment and still said something.

"If you need money, there will be targeted underground expedition teams coming up. You can try them. The monsters in the underground ruins have high bounties. Especially lion-type and dragon-type monsters; their bounties are doubled. This is also forbidden to leak!"

Having spoken, she simply walked away, as if she had reached the limit of what she could say.

Was this revealing the answer in advance? But Li En had already received news from various channels these past two days.

Only Dai Niya, the Princess who issued the order, probably didn't know; this was already a secret known to all.

However, this was normal. Monarchs and royal presidents live in a "cage" carefully constructed by others; what they see and perceive is often abnormal, so this is actually normal.

The Princess's visit was a small interlude, and her successful awakening also made Li En breathe a sigh of relief.

Since she was gone, Li En could properly read and study. He still hoped to become a true mage as soon as possible; the current him really needed power.

But his progress remained quite subtle.

For a novice spellcaster, his abilities were not too bad, but once he truly started reading these miscellaneous subjects, he discovered he needed to make up for many "common sense courses."

The magic of this world is a collection of knowledge, and Li En lacked much of the "common sense" locals took for granted; it seemed he needed to make up for it properly.

As for learning spells, he was actually progressing quite smoothly.

One by one, simple cantrips of the zero ring; the more he learned, the smoother it went, and the more practiced he became.

And these cantrips themselves were the "foundation" for higher-level spells; for instance, Mage Hand was the foundation for a series of force spells, and Fire Bolt was training for fire spells.

After feeling the power of the Dragon Speech spell, Li En was also somewhat curious about the power of his own "ELDER (Fire)."

But Kukuk warned him again: if he wanted to rebuild his house from the ruins stage, he should just use it.

And unlike Dai Niya, Li En's three words seemed to be purely offensive; each one taken alone was a quite powerful offensive spell.

"Reading this book makes me want to die; analyzing first-ring magic is so hard." The more Li En studied, the more he felt he had returned to the "joyful" time of the college entrance exam; there were truly endless books to read.

"I can help you! Help you. I can also accelerate your knowledge learning!"

Kukuk's response, however, was vaguely uneasy. Compared to Dai Niya's awakening, Li En's was perhaps a bit too painful.

And the teaching method he came up with was also quite simple and effective.

One night passed, and Li En, awakening from the dream, was somewhat dazed.

He snapped his fingers, and a Mage Hand appeared on his shoulder, massaging him to relieve stress.

When the Heroic Soul was "awake," Kukuk could specify memories to share to a certain extent; this time, Kukuk shared his own experience of learning magic!

If it were just specifying a few low-level spells, he had enough time to complete the most detailed instruction, letting Li En experience as complete a learning process and casting flow as possible.

That was not Li En's physical body; memories would also blur as the dream shattered, but the awakened Li En felt his understanding of those spells had increased significantly.

However, the time the Heroic Soul existed was limited; wasting it on this was perhaps a bit too extravagant. Or perhaps it was because the current Kukuk truly had nothing else to seek and was willing to waste time.

And as gratitude to Kukuk, Li En also fulfilled his promise.

He spent some money to buy a half-scraped steam engine. Kukuk immediately jumped high and even danced a strange little dance.

But half an hour later, a pile of metal junk appeared in a corner of the yard; Kukuk had lost interest. He rushed back to his storage room to quickly record his insights and experiences.

Learning time is always pleasant and short; troubled times inevitably bring trouble, but what first broke the peaceful daily routine was that seemingly stable underground ruin.

On that very same day, at least three ruin entrances appeared with collapses and a large number of monsters.

It seemed the ones who launched the attack first were actually the underground residents.

But what was surprising was that the location affected this time was actually the Glow District, which should have had the strongest defenses.

"The Goblin Bank on Mage Street was attacked? And a new tunnel entrance collapsed directly out; isn't this just bandits taking the opportunity to rob the bank?"

(End of Chapter)