Discovery

A month passed in the blink of an eye.

In Valeria Hall, inside a special training ground reinforced by magical effects, Lucia sat cross-legged on the floor with his eyes closed, quietly sensing the flow and fluctuations of blood and vital energy throughout his body.

With each long, steady breath, the rich and powerful demigod blood within him surged endlessly through his veins like a mighty river. At the same time, his bones, muscles, meridians, and even the skin on the surface of his body trembled at a strange frequency, entering into a mysterious resonance with the pulsing of his blood.

With every resonance of flesh and blood, Lucia could hear a clear forging ring from within his chest. His heart seemed to have become an astonishingly vast furnace, tempering his blood, vital energy, and physique through thousands of hammer blows.

Wisps of heat escaped from his pores, condensing into a white mist around him. In the process, the supreme bloodline power that came from the Dragon King and the Dragon God, along with the ancient dragon's powerful physical strength, gradually fused within his body, ultimately becoming the unique "power of blood and vitality" of the Dragon King's Body. Over these past days, he had already been able to clearly sense the strength rising within him like the morning sun.

Suddenly, all the muscles in his body jolted violently, and his figure sprang up from the ground. The speed of his eruption almost tore apart the surrounding air, and a blurred wave of force exploded at the center of the field!

In the shift from absolute stillness to absolute motion, silvery-white ancient dragon scales instantly covered most of his body. In his half-dragonized state, his long, fair hands had already transformed into savage dragon claws, their sharp, powerful talons reflecting a cold, ghostly gleam!

Lucia's figure flashed like a phantom to a spot dozens of meters away. His left and right dragon claws swept forward fiercely, and ten shattered rifts flashed through the air before vanishing, bursting open into a crackling spray of black-red lightning!

An armored puppet that had originally stood before him collapsed to the ground with a crash. Across the chest and abdomen of the doll, the body forged from refined steel and the enchanted heavy armor covering its surface had both been cut open by ten smooth, mirror-like slashes, as effortless as a sharp blade slicing through tofu.

Lucia did not stop. Instead, he reached back and drew the Dragonscale Blade from behind him. Amid a clear ring of steel, blazing crimson dragon lightning immediately wrapped around the entire blade. Vast strength flowed through his whole body like running water. He twisted his torso, and after the muscles throughout his body swelled to their limit, they released in an instant. The long blade flew from his hand like an arrow loosed from the string!

An incomparably sharp scream rang through the entire field. A black line wrapped in thunder gradually disappeared through the air—and when one looked again at that long blade, it had already sunk deep into an iron wall a hundred meters away!

Around the hilt buried in the wall, there were also many blade marks of identical size. At first, those cuts were rather scattered, but later they gradually became orderly. By the time they reached the latest area, the distance between each cut looked as if it had been precisely measured, with not the slightest discrepancy between them.

"Whew—" Lucia exhaled a stream of scorching air. The dragon scales on the surface of his body gradually vanished beneath his skin. After regulating the boiling, clamor-filled energy inside him, he walked over to the wall, reached out, and easily pulled the long blade from where it had sunk into the surface, then slid it back into the sheath on his back.

"Brother, isn't Lucia even stronger than yesterday?" At the edge of the field, Malenia shook Miquella's arm and asked with bright enthusiasm.

The girl's clear pupils reflected the distant boy's swordlike, slender figure. Lucia's stride length, rhythm, the sway of his body, and the cadence of his breathing all fell into her eyes. With just a single glance, the countless complex and chaotic pieces of information finished integrating in her mind, allowing her to deduce the most accurate conclusion.

Just as Malenia had identified at first sight that Lucia was an ancient dragon in human form, although she had never studied martial arts, this extraordinarily keen insight seemed to be an instinct she was born with. Miquella had long since known about his younger sister's talent, and had named it "Mind's Eye."

"Yeah," Miquella, seated beside her, nodded when he heard this, his eyes filled with admiration. "His strength is improving visibly every single day. Even more astonishing is that his control over that strength is evolving rapidly at the same time. With that rate of progress, I doubt even Brother Godwyn could have managed it when he was young—he's a true genius!"

Sherry, the little fox who had originally been sitting upright at the side, instantly perked up when she heard this. She hopped in front of the two of them as well, bouncing around and waving her little paws for a while, even humming and whining sound effects for herself. After she finished, she sprang onto Malenia's lap with a flop, proudly lifting her little head while her fluffy tail swished into a blooming white flower.

"Haha, our Sherry is a little genius too!" The girl giggled as she scratched Sherry's chin, and the little fox happily narrowed her eyes.

On the other side, Lucia took a towel prepared at the edge of the field and wiped the sweat from his hair. Then he walked over, first stroking Malenia's and Sherry's heads as usual, before looking at Miquella and saying with a rather smug smile, "How was that? Not bad, right?"

"Your progress is rapid. At my level, I'm definitely no longer your match. In a few months, when Brother Godwyn returns from the northern border, you can go straight to him for sparring." Miquella answered with feigned seriousness.

Lucia's face immediately darkened. He awkwardly rubbed the bridge of his nose and said, "I've discovered you're getting worse and worse. Can't you let me get carried away for just a little while?"

Miquella could not help shaking his head with a laugh. A moment later, he said, "Once you've rested for a bit, shall we continue sparring?"

"Let's leave it for today," Lucia said as he rolled his shoulders and arms. "I gained some new insights while practicing swordsmanship this morning. I'll sort them out later, then challenge you one-on-one tomorrow."

"No problem, but you have to feed me as usual," Miquella said with a shrug. "The chefs Mother assigned to your place are too good. I've already dismissed most of the chefs at Haligtree Hall."

"Hahaha, sure. Anyway, your appetite is only one-third of Sherry's or one-fifth of Malenia's. If I grit my teeth, I can still afford it."

"Lu—ci—a!"

"Awoo!"

An indignant protest from one person and one fox immediately came from beside him.

After dinner, Lucia and Sherry sent the siblings back to the neighboring Haligtree Hall together. After returning, he went alone to the quiet room and opened the Memory Battlefield once more.

After a month of training day and night, his stats panel had also changed along with it—

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Name: Lucia-Sancus

Race: Ancient Dragon (Royalty)

Level: 148

Available Rune Points: 0

Attributes: Vigor 40 (+5), Mind 30, Endurance 15 (+5), Strength 31 (+8), Dexterity 21, Intelligence 30, Faith 30, Arcane 30

Skills: Ancient Dragon Combat Art (Beginner), Storm Swordsmanship (Beginner), Dragon King's Body (First Stage), Claw of Ruin (First Stage), Dragonbolt Incantation (Beginner)

Legendary Abilities: Dragon Bloodline Inheritance (Unlocked), Memory Battlefield (Unlocked), ??? (Locked)

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Over these past days, he had practiced Ancient Dragon Combat Art and Storm Swordsmanship in the morning, then patiently refined the two royal combat arts and the Dragonbolt Incantation in the afternoon. At night, before going to sleep, he would enter the Memory Battlefield, first using the powerful mental energy there to carefully examine and comprehend the results of the day's training, filling in the gaps from his daytime practice. After that, he would summon Godskin Noble Samuel from the stars and use everything he had to fight him to the death again and again.

Aside from pushing the analysis progress to 19.9%, only a hair's breadth from completion, he had also made several new important discoveries. The first was that the permanent enhancement the Dragon King's Body granted to his physique would be displayed after his attribute data in the form of additional bonuses. If he entered a half-dragonized or dragonized state, the corresponding attribute changes would also temporarily appear in the same position. When he returned to human form, the attribute data would return to normal as well.

For instance, when fully dragonized, his Vigor would sharply increase to 40 (+15), while his Dexterity would decline to 21 (-6). After returning to human form, they would recover to 40 (+5) and 21.

The second was that in the starry sky overhead, another star in the central region had lit up. After Lucia connected to it with his mental energy, he discovered that the phantom contained within the star was actually Miquella!

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Target: Empyrean Miquella (Child Form)

Race: Human (Demigod)

Level: 188

Attributes: Vigor 20, Mind 60, Endurance 10, Strength 15, Dexterity 12, Intelligence 20, Faith 70, Arcane 60

Skills: Erdtree Incantation (High Rank), Golden Order Fundamentalism Incantation (High Rank)

Legendary Ability: Pure Gold Order (Locked)

Current Analysis Progress: 7.8% (Combat Memory Locked)

Next Analysis Node: 10%

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After comparing Miquella's information with Samuel's, Lucia had more or less confirmed that only by pushing the analysis progress past 10% could he unlock that combat memory mode Samuel had. To do that, he had to gather enough information about Samuel in the real world, and fighting him head-on was the most efficient method.

Through more than ten sparring sessions with Miquella over the past month, the "Current Analysis Progress" had gradually risen from the initial 1.0% to the current 7.8%. Reaching the next node was only a matter of time.

After rehearsing all his skills several times in the Memory Battlefield, Lucia took a deep breath, adjusted himself to his optimal state, and once again summoned the star that represented Samuel. The reason he had refused to spar with Miquella earlier was precisely to preserve enough mental and physical strength for the battle to come.

A black-flame emblem shaped like a pupil emerged in the air dozens of steps away. A cold, sinister chill surged over him like a tide. Facing this old opponent who had killed him countless times, Lucia gripped the Dragonscale Blade manifested from mental power in both hands and, without the slightest fear, stepped forward once more, meeting the fight head-on!