"As long as you follow my guidance... all this will be in your bag."
"Awoo—!"
"Yes, yes, time for today's routine checkup. Good girl."
Successfully coaxing Little Black out of the Mushroom House, letting her lie prone on a particularly stout giant mushroom.
Several Puchis immediately started working, using mycelial tentacles marked with size scales to measure the arc length of her increasingly broad dragon wings from root bone to wingtip, and incidentally recording the growth progress of those additional incomplete patterns on Little Black's scales.
On the ground in front of Little Black, to attract her cooperation with the examination, Lin Jun deliberately placed some shiny little trinkets.
A few round pearls, several colorful glass marbles, and...
Norris, who happened to pass by, stopped. After hesitating again and again, he still couldn't help asking in a low voice: "Boss, that 'all' you just mentioned... shouldn't include me, right?"
...
Conducting regular physical examinations for Little Black had now become one of the weekly routines of the Mushroom Garden.
Relying on the day-after-day application of the [Bloodline Enhancement] skill, the progress of that mysterious [Way of the Ancient Dragon] in Little Black's status bar was advancing slowly but steadily.
[Way of the Ancient Dragon 9%]
A status linked to "Ancient Dragon" was significant no matter how one thought about it, and actual changes were indeed happening.
Little Black's dragon wings, which were already quite sizable, expanded further. The wing membranes became tougher, and the contours of the bones grew stouter and harder.
More special were those scales on Little Black's body. On those originally pure black scales, extremely fine yet complex patterns now began to emerge.
Those patterns looked somewhat similar to the magical patterns on that Ancient Dragon Scale Lin Jun had once obtained.
Unfortunately, it seemed the magical patterns lost their effect after the dragon scale fell off, so he didn't know what the specific effect was.
But these signs were enough to infer that the so-called [Way of the Ancient Dragon] was very likely a deep atavism or sublimation of the bloodline, guiding Little Black's life form to slowly evolve toward a true Ancient Dragon.
Just that, could a dragon-kin... really transform into a complete Ancient Dragon in the end?
Or would she become an Ancient Dragon-kin?
However, Lin Jun was just feeling a bit curious. Facing higher-level power, there was no reason not to acquire it.
As for whether she could maintain human form after gaining power?
Was human form something very important?
Lin Jun himself didn't have a human form, and didn't he live just fine?
Only a conservative like Norris would tangle over such minor details; a natural like Little Black probably wouldn't care.
The real problem lay in... Little Black was raised too lazily by Lin Jun.
Just like now, as soon as the routine checkup ended, Little Black couldn't wait to gather those increasingly broad wings forward like a huge black tent, tightly wrapping herself, a juicy Delicious Puchi beside her, and those shiny things inside.
Norris dodged backward, avoiding being gathered in too.
Subsequently, satisfied chewing sounds came from inside, which soon turned into even and heavy breathing sounds.
She directly entered the seamless cycle of "eating-sleeping."
Lin Jun wasn't even sure if evolution required sleep, or if Little Black was accidentally raised to be useless by him... perhaps both?
Fortunately, the extra nutrition and energy seemed mostly supplied to the growth of wings and strengthening of scales. Otherwise, with her current lifestyle attitude of never standing when she could lie down and never moving claws when she could move her mouth, she should have turned into a round, fat otaku dragon long ago.
Anyway, not a trace could be found of that agile, fierce momentum of chasing a knight for a thousand miles when they first met.
Even, if not for Lin Jun urging daily, if she didn't feel a crisis herself, she absolutely wouldn't take the initiative to use skills like [Bloodline Enhancement] that consumed energy and even brought brief discomfort.
While using mycelial tentacles to pull up Little Black who had just entered dreamland, urging her to complete today's share of [Bloodline Enhancement], Lin Jun sighed over the failure of his education.
[Way of the Ancient Dragon 10%]
Oh? Progress increased again, nice!
Just when Lin Jun felt somewhat gratified by this tiny progress, Little Black, who was sleepy-eyed just now, suddenly had her dragon scales stand on end, muscles tensed. She even stretched those huge dragon wings to the limit; the wingtips swept past, accidentally scratching the Mushroom House nearby.
She lowered her limbs, gripping the ground tightly, and emitted continuous low growls toward a certain direction.
That sound was deep and fierce, completely different from the lazy whimpers usually.
Lin Jun became alert immediately, his will extending rapidly along the direction of Little Black's low growl. Perception skimmed over the Mushroom Garden, swept across the Northern Territory wilderness, extending all the way to the Empire's northern border...
However, apart from capturing a few future D-Class Personnel, no potential threats were discovered.
Checking Little Black's status panel, apart from [Way of the Ancient Dragon] jumping to 10%, everything else was as usual, with no newly added negative statuses or prompts.
A Puchi leaned forward, extending a tentacle to scratch Little Black's chin. It took quite a while to stop her low growling, but Little Black still looked nervous.
"Little Black, what's wrong?" Lin Jun asked directly through the mycelial network.
"Fight... Cub... Want to fight!" The thought transmitted back by Little Black was full of restlessness and vague hostility.
After changing several ways of asking for quite a while, Lin Jun finally figured it out.
Little Black seemed to have a premonition that she was about to erupt in conflict with a certain existence. But as to why fight, what specifically the opponent was, or even whether this premonition was reliable, she couldn't explain clearly at all.
The direction Little Black growled at just now was south.
However, the Mushroom Garden was in the Northern Territory. Even if a threat appeared, it would definitely come from the south, so the specific location couldn't be judged.
Lin Jun pondered slightly and had an idea. Puchis clustered around the still anxious Little Black, bringing her to the Puchi Dungeon through a rift.
Yet almost the instant she landed, Little Black's head jerked toward another direction, low growls rising again, vigilance not diminishing in the slightest.
Took out a map.
Measured the angle of the new direction, compared it with the direction recorded in the Mushroom Garden previously, combined with the relative positions of the two places, and drew two extension lines on the map... intersecting...
If the deviation of Little Black's intuitive direction wasn't large, then the threat she sensed was in... the Empire's interior?
Reasonably speaking, Lin Jun was a bit disbelieving.
No perception skill could sense a threat coming from half a continent away, not to mention this sensing didn't show up on Little Black's panel at all.
But to be safe, better make some preparations...
...
The Empire, Twilight Fort.
Emperor Mortis leaned on the magnificent throne, his well-defined fingers slowly rotating a crystal-clear goblet.
He wasn't in a hurry to drink the Blood Jade Wine in the cup. Instead, he brought the rim close to his nose tip, inhaling deeply that complex and domineering aroma, before taking a small sip, letting the deliciousness melt on the tip of his tongue, swallowing slowly.
Several steps in front of him, the Empire's Chief Intelligence Officer, Succubus Mofrey, was kneeling on one knee, reporting various recent intelligence within the Empire.
The progress of eliminating slimes in various parts of the Empire...
Eugene and Dean's investigation plan in the North...
Sigmund privately selling slightly inferior quality Blood Jade Wine...
Elinore suspected of obtaining a Mushroom Tribe member, beginning to cultivate fungal mats in parts of her territory...
And,
"Dragon Cliff Dungeon anomaly?"
Mofrey replied immediately: "Yes, currently it looks like a suspected Monster Tide. However, less than two years have passed since the last Monster Tide of Dragon Cliff Dungeon, which doesn't conform to the time pattern of Monster Tides, so it cannot be confirmed yet."
She paused slightly, raising that question requiring special permission: "Your Majesty, is it necessary to dispatch an exploration team to enter Dragon Cliff for reconnaissance?"
Among all known dungeons in the Empire, the status of Dragon Cliff Dungeon was extremely special.
It was not ownerless land. The Empire had a tacit understanding with it; official forces usually wouldn't intervene.
Precisely because of this, Mofrey asked for instructions separately here.
"No need." After pondering for a moment, Mortis slowly straightened up from the throne. "Prepare a bit. I will go to Dragon Cliff personally. It's also time... to see that old dragon again."
(End of Chapter)
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