DKIE CH15: An Invitation

Luka’s ability to stump people was growing by the day.

The shop owner successfully choked, unsure what to say.

Adhering to the principle of free trade, less trouble is better than more, and with the support of his dragon readers, the owner shut his mouth and went to retrieve the goods. Luka paid, shoved the items into his storage ring, and slipped back into the alley, taking a shortcut to return to the guild hall.

Maya wasn’t there, and An Qi had been disgusted away that morning. Confirming the guild hall was deserted, Luka turned and locked the door.

The quill pen flew towards the container of essence blood.

In the Land of Exile, to avoid falling into the Demon King’s trap, it had endured until the essence blood’s energy was almost completely dispersed before manifesting, ultimately receiving only limited blessings. Now, it could finally drink its fill.

A deformed, rusty-red, blackened heart reappeared.

Luka was about to ask if it wanted a straw when the demonic beast essence blood in the container rapidly began flowing into the heart.

Having seen the heart drink blood before, Luka considered whether to get a glass of beast milk to go with it.

Suddenly, the temperature in the room plummeted.

“So cold~” He shivered.

In the extreme cold, a massive phantom appeared without warning. The phantom floated in mid-air, like on a turbulent sea, its body flickering uncertainly.

Luka sharply took a step back.

The heart had turned into a person?!

No, it was definitely illusory.

The man’s clothing easily passed through tables and chairs like a ghost.

In a brief moment of astonishment, Luka stood rooted to the spot and tentatively called out, “Alex?”

The phantom had long, unbound hair, its silvery-gray strands extremely dark, making its face unreadable. The hand in its voluminous right sleeve was devoid of flesh, a pure skeletal claw, while its left hand wore a black glove.

Upon hearing the name Alex, the phantom slowly opened its eyes, a pair of grayish-white pupils staring directly at Luka.

An unprecedented sense of crisis filled his chest, making his heart pound wildly.

Luka controlled his emotions as much as possible, comforting himself that the blood pact was the best life-saving charm.

In the past, Luka had directly called the deformed heart “Alex” several times, and the heart had never explicitly denied it. But seeing it in human form, the shock was extraordinary.

“Are you Alex, Your Excellency?”

Luka still found it hard to connect him with the quill pen.

The quill pen was usually very sharp-tongued and ill-tempered, but when it absorbed the essence blood and manifested, it looked completely different, as if it had become another person.

The phantom before him gave off a… strange stillness.

Its misty form made its white robe appear even more mysterious, with a broken piece of battle armor draped over half its shoulder, bearing some bloodstains that time could not wash away.

As the phantom slowly descended a little, its body remained ethereal, yet it seemed to be sitting right beside Luka.

No emotion.

No words.

Like an automaton, entirely cold.

Luka became even more vigilant. If a charmingly arrogant continental legend sat opposite him, threatening his life at every turn, he wouldn’t be this nervous.

He was tense all over, like a poised little leopard, though it wasn’t fully apparent on his face.

“Calm down.”

Luka quickly did some mental self-coaching.

Things reach an extreme and then reverse. He couldn’t suppress the quill pen’s revival forever; he would have to feed it essence blood sooner or later. At least today he was doing it willingly.

Having thought this through, Luka calmed down a lot and boldly looked at this legendary figure.

“Al—”

Just as he spoke one word, lines of text began to appear on the papers on the table, the ones used to write “The Beloved Three-and-a-Half-Year-Old.”

Curiosity triumphed over fear, and Luka’s attention was diverted.

“This is…”

“The Aelius Golden Notes you’re cultivating have many problems,” the phantom said faintly, its voice sounding very ethereal. “I’ve refined it slightly.”

“…From now on, only positive emotional feedback can become nourishment for your cultivation. Your idea is not wrong; starting with strong individuals is the only way to get started.”

This sudden boon left Luka a bit bewildered.

Giving favors so readily, what was the catch?

“No need to be nervous. You have no value for me to harm right now,” even as its energy was almost exhausted and it was about to disappear, the phantom showed no emotion. “I haven’t gone into detail about the true benefits of the revised version, but I believe you will soon feel them.”

He gave Luka one last calm look. “See you next time.”

His tone was as natural as if stating a certainty, as if they would meet again very soon.

Luka inexplicably got goosebumps.

The phantom vanished.

Silence returned to the room, leaving only the deformed heart, slightly swollen from having just drunk blood.

It plopped onto the tabletop with a satisfying bounce.

Seeing that the deformed heart was temporarily unconscious, Luka took a moment to fully recover from the phantom’s shock, pulling out the papers it had been pressing down on.

The revised cultivation methods on them were neatly written, looking more like the work of a meticulous scholar.

“A revised cultivation method?” Luka hesitated for a long time before deciding to try it.

Right now, he truly had no value for Alex to harm.

The quill pen, being mindless, might think of escaping, but the phantom wouldn’t. He should know very well that the risks of escaping at this juncture were far greater than staying by his side.

Luka was a man of action.

Following the instructions recorded on the paper, he decisively began to adjust the magical structure within his body.

“What a strange posture…, form.”

The first time Luka constructed a faith-based magic structure, he didn’t spend much time, so this time he was inevitably a bit lax. But soon, he met his first failure; the magic structure directly collapsed, and Luka almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

The first failure quickly led to a second. After experiencing failures of varying degrees, Luka felt as if smoke was coming out of his head, and the burning sensation on his scalp lingered.

“The sun shines on the incense burner, and purple smoke rises…”

Luka thought dazedly, making mechanical adjustments. After countless failures, he finally grasped some tricks.

The refined magic structure was very strange. Luka even felt it extending from his body into the world in an invisible way, like countless bridges, with every traveler having to pay a toll.

It got hotter.

His scalp tingled.

Will I go bald?

After an unknown amount of time, just as he was about to succeed, something plopped onto his head.

It was cool and dispelled some of the heat.

Luka opened his eyes. The reflection on the metal door frame ahead showed his current appearance: the deformed heart was nesting in his hair like a bird’s nest, two heart vessels squinting suspiciously, asking, “What purple smoke?”

Luka’s mind wandered for a moment.

“You just…”

The quill pen interrupted, “You kept saying ‘purple smoke rises’, what is purple smoke?”

“A poem.” Luka didn’t explain further, enduring the headache to examine his body.

Success!

The embryonic form of the new magic structure had coalesced, with mottled specks of light floating on it. Luka felt abundant energy from them and tried his best to integrate those specks into his body, but after much effort, only a thin portion was accommodated.

The deformed heart transformed back into the quill pen, like a rooster’s comb stuck upside down on his head.

Seeing the familiar quill pen, everything that had just happened felt like a dream; Luka had a sense of unreality.

However, he clearly knew that the phantom had genuinely existed; the magical structure within his body was the best proof.

He frowned: “Just now…”

The quill pen interrupted, “Focus on your cultivation.”

Focusing on himself was easy. Luka took the advice and concentrated on the cultivation method.

“I haven’t caught the eye of the dragons yet. How does this power feed back to me?”

The quill pen sneered, “Who wrote the book?”

Luka subconsciously started to say “I,” then changed his mind: “You.”

From the perspective of pure “writing,” when this story took shape, it was he who held the quill pen and wrote it stroke by stroke.

“Good. I am the source, imbued with my will, and then spread through ‘stories’.”

Luka always felt this pattern was somewhat familiar, then suddenly realized.

Isn’t this like the movie The Grudge I watched before?!

“What’s the difference between this and a curse?”

The quill pen, rarely sincere, said, “Aren’t you writing a horror story?”

Luka was lost for a few seconds by this answer.

“…His Holy Maiden Demon King.”

When he came back to his senses, he unexpectedly found that the clothes he had bled on that morning hadn’t been cleaned yet.

He habitually opened his mouth to ask the quill pen to cast a cleaning spell.

“Can’t you do it yourself?”

Luka paused, suddenly realizing that his vision had become clearer at some point, and the burning sensation within his body hadn’t dissipated, still moving as if it could obey his command.

When he closed his eyes and tried to sense the elements in the air, he found that he could actually manipulate some water elements!

The whole process was clumsy, to the point where he drenched himself like a drowned rat.

Luka quickly tried again, finding that his current limit was to create a small water ball, but this at least meant he had one foot in the magic world.

He couldn’t help but grin, smiling.

The quill pen lacked the composure of the phantom earlier, utterly speechless: “Just one water ball, and you’re grinning like an idiot?”

Luka looked at the floating pen tip and sincerely said thank you.

Regardless of the other party’s purpose, it at least gave him hope of becoming a magician. If he had followed the original cultivation path, he would have had to further design how to meet dragons and guide them to love what he loved, otherwise, even with positive emotional feedback, it wouldn’t be able to affect specific people.

And now, this process was clearly omitted; the benefits mentioned by the phantom were indeed significant.

Suddenly receiving such sincere gratitude, the quill pen felt a bit awkward and floated to the other side.

Luka’s gaze kept lingering on the pen shaft. Its intelligent appearance was quite frightening; it wouldn’t be good if it grew back fully and settled scores with him later.

It seemed he needed to think twice before scheming against it next time.

“But why, out of so many elements, did I first sense water elements?”

“Is it because I’m good at hydrology?”

Just wrote “The Beloved Three-and-a-Half-Year-Old”, why all this?

He strenuously tried to manipulate magic elements again, confirming it wasn’t a dream, and Luka suppressed his joy.

“The dragons’ power is indeed extraordinary.”

Just the fondness for a book could bring such a massive feedback. He could only be considered a minor magician now, perhaps even less, but the process of going from nothing to something was the most precious.

Before today, he was a complete magical inept.

“I need to find a way to popularize this book among the dragons.” That way, the benefits could be maximized.

Luka’s eyes flickered, thinking of the two dragons still in the city. He tucked the quill pen into his sleeve: “Let’s go, find Cullen.”

Just as he got up, a knock sounded unexpectedly.

Luka opened the door.

A man who looked difficult to deal with stood straight outside. The captain of Boulder City’s guard looked at Luka and stated his purpose:

“The City Lord wishes to see you.”

…

City Lord’s Mansion.

After layers of clearance, Luka followed the guard captain all the way into the City Lord’s study.

Unexpectedly, Cullen was also there. The City Lord was playing chess with him. From the chessboard, Cullen seemed to have arrived not long ago.

Luka wasn’t skilled in chess, but he could more or less discern some patterns. One played with meticulous experience, the other with a strong drive to exploit every opportunity. Cullen’s style was naturally the latter; he didn’t intentionally hold back but used all his skill to compete.

Luka quietly watched for a while. The City Lord’s hand paused slightly, and he asked, “Who do you think will win this game?”

Luka thought for a moment: “Cullen.”

Cullen looked over with some surprise.

The City Lord smiled and asked, “Why?”

Luka remained silent.

He had just said it casually.

Cullen finally spoke then, smiling, “Indeed, I will win, but the City Lord gave me pieces earlier.”

“Sit.” The City Lord pointed to the empty seat beside him.

Luka sat down properly.

The City Lord began, “Not long ago, Leo and Berlanie…”

“Berlanie?”

“A Frost Dragon, a renowned strong individual among the dragons.” The City Lord showed no displeasure at being interrupted and continued, “They both liked your book very much and specially came to the city to buy it.”

Luka already knew this and feigned an appropriate amount of joy.

The City Lord looked down at the chessboard, holding a piece, seemingly contemplating where to place it.

After a while, he said, “I’m going to introduce you to them.”

Luka was startled. This meant he wanted to leverage his relationship with the dragons.

Now was definitely not the best time for a face-to-face meeting. Such a deliberate meeting, veiled with official colors, would complicate many things.

Seeing his prolonged silence, the City Lord gazed at him.

After a moment, Luka said seriously, “Currently, I only wish to quietly write books and let more readers see my work.”

The meaning implied by “more readers” was nothing more than further spreading his work among the dragons.

The City Lord understood his hidden meaning and said with great interest, “Do you have any good ideas?”

According to the dragons’ personalities, forcefully trying to guide them to share reading material would only seem more deliberate.

“There’s a method we could try,” Luka said decisively. “For example, organizing some kind of popularity contest or voting, an annual best work award… or even a red and black list, or perhaps an annual most popular character election.”

You know, every anime or manga poll is a bloody battle. The dragons’ personalities are inherently strong; could they really ignore their favorite characters languishing at the bottom of the rankings, or being directly topped on a black list, labeled as trash?

Have you not seen modern world fans, for their favorite idols, forming voting teams, watching the charts day and night, voting constantly? Capitalists, to make money, have an endless stream of various rankings.

Fan voting is definitely the best promotion opportunity.

Beside them, Cullen instantly caught a whiff of a profitable business opportunity.

Voting, evaluation?

His eyes lit up as he looked at Luka. Why hadn’t he thought of such a money-making scheme before?

The City Lord pondered for a moment. When he spoke again, he didn’t mention the introduction, merely chuckling, “Young people still have ideas.”

His laughter carried outside, and the guard captain at the door wondered why the City Lord was suddenly so happy.

“There’s a good opportunity right now,” the City Lord casually tossed a chess piece into a wooden jar nearby. “Next month is the Holy City’s annual Myriad Courts Assembly, where teams from various races will come to exchange.”

His tone became a few shades more serious: “In the past, there have been some competitions… what you call evaluation activities, but mostly focused on contests of potions, weapons, and the like. Adding a book evaluation this year wouldn’t hurt. Then, you will come with us.”

Luka was stunned on the spot: “Go to the Holy City?”

Author’s Note:

The Holy City arc is about to begin. Dragons, the Demon King, Saints, etc., will all have explosive [crossed out] [read as happy encounters] clashes with the protagonist in the Holy City.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, let’s virtually sign a contract to not stop updating during the New Year~

Excerpt from Luka’s Diary:

Finally, I can cultivate.

After one day of cultivation, I’m best at water elements.

I thought about it carefully.

The highest good is like water, because I am good.

Alex: Then why are you worst at light elements?

Luka: You peeked at my diary and left a comment.