Chapter 144 - Generous Gift

During their conversation, two tiny elves only about thirty centimeters tall, with gauzy butterfly wings and wearing clothes that seemed to be woven from petals, flew in. These were Pikespirits, one of the forest races and a branch of the little fairies. One of them was carrying a large backpack over its shoulders and flew in front of Gaven.

The other, holding a glittering gold ring, landed in front of Aivensa.

The Lord of Yaling explained, "This is a portable magic backpack, which in the material world is referred to as the Howard Convenient Bag. It can hold small items without any weight, and with all the weapons you carry around, this will make things a lot easier for you."

The Howard Convenient Bag, shaped like a backpack, has three compartments, one large in the middle and two smaller ones on the sides. Each compartment is connected to an independent dimensional space. Each side pocket can hold up to ten kilograms, and the middle one can hold up to forty kilograms and up to 8 cubic feet in volume. As long as the items placed inside do not exceed the bag’s limits, the backpack always weighs 2.5 kilograms.

In the hands of a familiar mage, it’s possible to purchase one for five thousand gold coins, which compared to most magic items, is not very precious. However, due to its overwhelming demand and lack of market availability, it is common for its price to be driven up to fourteen or fifteen thousand.

Gaven had long desired to acquire one.

Due to his habits from a past career, even though he is now a Psychic Sorcerer, he is insistently armed to the teeth.

Not to mention armor, just the number of weapons he carries is impressive. For long range he has a Keen Edge Longspear, for short distance a Magic Longsword, a Handheld Crossbow hangs on the left side, a Gnome Hand Cannon is tucked on the right, two single-handed axes are clipped behind his waist, and each boot has a Dagger tied inside.

He now also has a large Jackalwere bow and two quivers of arrows.

Though he’s used to it and it doesn’t affect his movement much, with a Howard Convenient Bag, other than the Dagger he keeps for close protection, he could stash everything else inside. This would not only reduce the burden but also allow him to carry more items.

He could even consider boosting his firepower, such as packing a few Tremor Bombs, since it’s a magic space without the issue of violent shaking, there’s no need to worry about explosions inside the bag.

The Lord of Yaling then turned to the young dragon Aivensa and said, "This is a transformation ring. Its ability is relatively simple, allowing you to choose a human-like appearance to maintain for a long time, which will be very helpful for your future travels among different races."

The Young Red Copper Dragon was already irresistibly attracted to shiny things and couldn’t take its eyes off the golden ring. Hearing that it was something beneficial, its eyes gleamed even brighter, without any notion of politeness, and stretched out a dragon finger, directly slipping it into the transformation ring.

Ow!

The young dragon couldn’t help but howl towards the sky as its bones twisted and changed.

Even with the help of magic, the first transformation was extremely painful.

It signified the reshaping of bones and flesh.

Fortunately, this process was very brief. Before the Young Red Copper Dragon could finish its howl, the mist that was emanating from its body had already dispersed.

In its place stood a sleek, seven or eight-year-old little girl, exquisitely beautiful, with skin that had faint dark red dragon scale patterns, and pointy ears, clearly in the image of a Half-Elf. In choosing her appearance, she was obviously influenced by Gaven, as he was the person she was most familiar with.

In her features, one could still see a trace of the Young Red Copper Dragon, a naturally mischievous smile.

Aivensa, who had just completed her transformation, had no sense of shame. She curiously touched her body with her little hands, feeling here and there, full of curiosity.

Just as Gaven was about to take off a piece of clothing to cover Aivensa’s body, the young Red Copper Dragon turned around, reverted to its original form, then turned again and transformed back into a little girl.

This was purely akin to a child gleefully playing with a new toy.

Seeing this, the Yaling Lord couldn’t help but chuckle and said, "It was my oversight. You should stay in your original form for now; I’ll have someone prepare an appropriate set of clothes for you. That way, when you transform, the clothes will naturally integrate with your original form, and this issue won’t arise when transforming again."

"Why do I need to wear clothes? I think it’s quite fine like this," said the young dragon, completely lacking any sort of human-like moral notions.

Gaven knew that arguing moral concepts with Aivensa was futile. Instead, he used a tempting tone and asked, "Don’t you think the clothes of the Lord are beautiful? And aren’t General Stelina’s armor very majestic and handsome?"

"Right, now that I can become a human, of course, I can wear them," Aivensa’s eyes sparkled as she nearly drooled and said, "I want something that sparkles, preferably a garment encrusted with jewels."

"Getting something that sparkles is easy, but a garment fully encrusted with jewels might be somewhat difficult," the Yaling Lord replied seriously.

"She’s just playfully speaking like a child, don’t take it seriously. Lord, please just prepare a normal piece of clothing. Both gifts are truly precious, and we can’t accept them," Gaven began the adult charade of insincere refusal.

"If you do not accept, it would actually slight our friendship. In the future, should we have any troubles, we will not be able to turn to Lord Gaven for help." The Yaling Lord deftly offered his compliments, suggesting that their refusal might actually lead to more serious problems.

"For the sake of our friendship, then we will accept for now. I believe this is just the beginning of our friendship and that there might be many times in the future where we will trouble you, Lord," said Gaven, who wasn’t just considering the possibility but was certain, for he was the kind of person who could even extract oil from a stone, let alone a Yaling Castle filled with treasures.

Not to mention various fruits, vegetables, and such—there would surely be no shortage here, and the Blackwell Tribe would gain an additional food supply line.

The Yalings would likely be very interested in the iron ore produced by the Blackwell Tribe. Thɪs chapter is updated by ɴovel(ꜰ)ɪre.nᴇt

Gaven and Aivensa stayed in Yaling Castle for a full day and night, enjoying the unique sunrise and sunset of the Fairy Wilderness.

The sun here didn’t circle the sky but rather rose from the horizon in the morning, stopped at a forty-five-degree angle, and then in the afternoon, it retraced its path and set back where it came from.

It didn’t set completely, though, leaving a bit of slanting afterglow lingering in the sky, hazy and faint, like that all night, until the sun rose again.

After all, the universal laws of Zhang You’s past life were not applicable in Felen, much less in the Fairy Wilderness.

The Yaling Lord, named Virginia, had been accompanying the two the whole time.

This castle called Spring Bud had not seen foreign visitors for many years, and Virginia was filled with curiosity about the material world, especially the Rocklands related to the curtain of the stage. With Gaven as a free source of information at her doorstep, she certainly didn’t miss out.

After a day and a night of companionship, Gaven was one hundred percent sure that even if Virginia didn’t have any special abilities like mind-reading, she possessed the ability to subtly change others’ attitudes and influence their thoughts.

It was like the silent nurturing of a spring breeze, quiet and unnoticed.

The young Red Copper Dragon was tidied up by her so neatly that in a short span of time, she grew very attached to, and even somewhat dependent on, Virginia.

Even Gaven, who had become wary and used autohypnosis to build a mental barrier, unknowingly fell for it and ended up revealing quite a bit of information.

Fortunately, the other party’s focus was not on Gaven, and the crucial thing remained unexposed.

This incident rang an alarm bell for Gaven, and in his spare time, he had to dig deeper into the knowledge of psychic sorcery to see if there was any special ability to guard against psychic spying and manipulation.

With more and more encounters with people and events, one could never be sure when one might come across a master skilled in the arts of charm and control or a monster with extraordinary talents.

Once controlled, the consequences would be disastrous.

For the short term, Gaven planned to keep his distance from Lord Virginia.

Even though the feeling of being treated with utmost consideration and having someone always think ahead for him was very pleasant, very good.

But Gaven did not like situations beyond his control, not one bit.

It might seem contradictory, but it was not.

Liking was about the time two people spent together.

Disliking was about reflecting on those times once they were apart.

Overall, the incident turned out to be quite rewarding.

It allowed Gaven to establish another line of contact in the Rocklands and discover a new point of interest that, if well developed, could bring benefits comparable to the Blackwell Iron Mine.

Gaven and Aivensa rushed back to Eagle Cliff Burrow, mainly because of the group of Dragon Seekers.

They were still a bit late, as most of the Dragon Seekers had already awakened.

Fortunately, these Dragon Seekers were ordinary ones.

The ones they were most concerned about, those who had taken the Red Dragon Blood Potion, were still in deep meditation, ensconced within a red mist woven of blood and fire, obscuring their condition.

The more it went on, the more people wanted to know what was happening to them, their curiosity becoming almost unbearable.

The first of the kobolds who had taken the Red Dragon Blood Potion to awaken took a full twelve days.

The rest followed suit, waking up one by one on the thirteenth and fourteenth days.

On the twelfth day, a total of eighteen Dragon Blood Kobolds awoke.

To be honest, their condition was somewhat disappointing to Gaven.

The Dragon Blood Kobolds experienced a substantial enhancement in their physical constitution, growing a full head taller, averaging around one meter thirty-four.

Quantifying their physical attributes, it was Strength +2, Constitution +2, Charisma +2, and Fire Resistance +5.

But the problem was, no matter how much they were enhanced, they were still kobolds with too low a starting point; even after enhancement, they were only roughly at the same standard as average humans.

The only thing that made them slightly better than ordinary people was that they also awakened to a level one Firecasting Spell called Incendiary Hand, which provided them with an additional means of attack.

This outcome couldn’t be considered a failure, but rather it was that Gaven had set his expectations too high at the beginning.

The Dragon Blood Kobolds who woke on the thirteenth day...

Their condition was not much different from those who woke up the previous day, with the only difference being the ability they awakened to was the more powerful level two Firecasting Spell, which allowed for medium to long-range attacks. There were eleven of them.

Gaven was not one to be easily discouraged, and he never gave up until the very last moment.

On the fourteenth day, he finally received a pleasant surprise.

The last three Dragon Blood Kobolds who awoke had approximately the same degree of physical enhancement as the first two groups.

The difference lay in the ability they awoke to: it was the formidable Dragon’s Breath – Fire Dragon’s Breath.

In simple terms, it was a weakened version of the Flame Dragon’s Breath, with only half the destructive power of a fireball technique, but the coverage of a ten-meter conical area was still quite considerable.

Two of them were ordinary kobolds, and one was an Erde – coincidentally, this Erde was Gaven’s old acquaintance, Xize.

Meaning, all thirty-two Dragon Seekers who drank the Fire Dragon Blood Potion were successful.

This was quite astonishing.

If it were not for Gaven’s desire not to make the abilities of the Dragon Blood Kobolds too one-dimensional, the success rate of the Dragon Seeking Ritual Ceremony in the future would be one hundred percent.

It seemed necessary to sign a new agreement with Aivensa – a blood-selling agreement.

The three who had the Fire Dragon’s Breath were kept close by Gaven to become part of his personal guard’s reserve forces, ready for him to train personally and to explore their potential.

The rest were dispersed among the garrison troops, assigned according to their capabilities.

For a while after, Gaven did not initiate any new attacks.

Recently, they had been developing too quickly and had to slightly slow down, sorting out internal affairs. Only with internal processes streamlined could they fully mobilize all manpower and resources.

Otherwise, even with an abundance of kobolds, the effort would be inefficient.

Still, the number of kobolds coming to offer their allegiance each day was steadily increasing.