As the players left, the castle fell silent once more, leaving only Ed had just finished his performance, and Seraphina, who had enjoyed the show.
The Red Dragon Girl didn't seem to care much about the players leaving, nor did she have any intention of returning to the bank to resume operations.
Because she had already sensed that these four new Soul Returner didn't have a single copper coin on them, and even if they came to her, they couldn't do anything.
In a corner of the hall, she looked at Ed, who was smiling, and nodded, saying:
"You're not lying to me, they truly are a spectacle."
"I've seen similar creatures before, but they only possess some of the traits of these Soul Returner, so how many of these souls can you summon?"
Ed looked at Seraphina and gave her a knowing smile.
Although Seraphina didn't get an answer, she already had a guess in her heart.
She sighed and said:
"I think I understand why you borrowed so much money from me."
Ed, however, showed little interest in the topic and instead said:
"Could you tell me about your race, the 'Dragon'? I will give you equivalent knowledge."
Seraphina thought for a moment and replied:
"It's possible, but most of what I know are memories I was born with... I told you before, I was only fifty years old when the Demonic Tide broke out, and I hardly ever saw any of my kind."
Ed nodded:
"That's right, just explaining the basic settings will suffice."
Seraphina then said:
"Before the Demonic Tide broke out, there were many kinds of dragons in this world. Most of them could be named by color or some characteristics. For example, I and the Black Dragon you asked about before both exist, but the power in our bloodlines is different."
"For me, the vast majority of the powers I can control are concentrated in the 'fire' domain, with a smaller portion in 'metal,' 'space,' and 'secret contracts.'"
"Therefore, when we signed the contract, I used gold coins as the medium. The rarer or more precious the metal, the better the binding effect will be."
Hearing this, Ed nodded, understanding why Seraphina opened bank accounts for players in three tiers: gold, silver, and bronze. These accounts were essentially contracts between her and the players, with higher-level accounts possessing more wealth and thus warranting the use of more powerful contractual abilities to ensure their security.
Ed seemed to suddenly remember something and continued to ask:
"Then what was that 'domain' you mentioned in the cave earlier?"
Ed had been holding this question in for a long time. He hadn't asked before because he didn't know Seraphina well enough and was afraid of revealing his secrets.
But now the two sides are complete partners and allies, and each has something to ask of the other.
Moreover, Seraphina doesn't seem to be an experienced old dragon, and Ed has already demonstrated the miraculous ability to Otherworldly Soul Summoning from another world. This gives him more confidence in front of her and allows him to offer more things to trade to ensure the stable continuation of a mutually trusting and beneficial relationship between the two sides.
Seraphina looked Ed up and down a few times, then focused her gaze on his pockets.
Ed also looked into his pocket, where there was only one thing: the Baron's Territory Secret Pact Carrier, a magical item that could modify the direction of gravity within a certain range by injecting Psionic Energy.
Seraphina laughed:
"It seems you've already guessed. I can tell you have abilities similar to a 'domain,' but you may have named it in a different way."
The term 'domain' appeared after the Demonic Tide. The Demonic Tide's erosion brought about changes to all the rules, and no one knew what was feasible and what was not.
"And a 'domain' is the ability of a powerful person to force things within a certain range to behave according to their own ideas by using their power."
"My gold coins were spared from being corrupted by the Demonic Tide and slowly turned into scrap metal or something else precisely because they were within the domain. Dragonborn Village also had a similar effect because it retained a piece of my dragon scale."
"As for that petrified tail..."
Seraphina felt somewhat ashamed when she recalled this embarrassing incident:
"It must have been that while sleeping, it accidentally extended beyond its controlled range and was eroded by the Demonic Tide, resulting in an assimilation similar to that of a cave wall."
"Of course, this is not a problem for me. As long as I eat it all and digest and absorb it again, the effect will be eliminated."
"And I can sense that the thing in your pocket can act as a medium to release a small 'domain,' though I can't yet discern the specific rules... but you should know them."
Ed nodded. So that's how it is. So this is the domain. It seems I really underestimated Baron Tuer, who has been dead for fifty years.
Thinking of the other party's will and the Aberration bones, Ed could roughly guess that the last Baron Tuer's wish was to use his domain to keep his family away from the corruption and Aberration caused by the Demonic Tide.
But in the end, he failed.
Thinking about this, Ed felt more and more that his ideals were somewhat detached from reality.
Seemingly sensing Ed's thoughts, Seraphina prompted:
"It's necessary to tell you that 'domain' is not a panacea for all problems."
"The more powerful the person wielding the domain, the more rules they can modify, but they will also be more susceptible to the erosion from the Demonic Tide."
"Conversely, the simpler the modified rules are, and the closer they are to the current situation, the smaller the impact of the Demonic Tide will be, but then it would be meaningless."
"But if the caster suffers a mental breakdown, the domain will naturally collapse along with it, and the Demonic Tide will bring a backlash, causing the caster unimaginable pain."
Seraphina's warning gave Ed a more comprehensive understanding of "domains," and he wondered if there might be powerful beings in this world who, before the outbreak of the Demonic Tide, maintained an orderly "utopia" through their own abilities.
If so, the creators of that field would likely be more powerful than imagined.
Thinking of the traces of plant encroachment within the territory, the Dragonborn Village's strategy of using Aberration to combat Aberration, the players I stitched together with vines, the Tree Worship Church, and myself coexisting with Little Green...
Ed couldn't help but lament that under the pressure of survival, everything was adapting to new rules, even if those rules were actually unpredictable.
The formulation of rules for a "domain" also seems to be a science. If the erosion and Aberration brought about by the Demonic Tide within the region can be made reasonable, the rules seem to be much simpler to formulate. I wonder if this method can be used to avoid some possible backlashes...
Having been a cyber ghost for a while, Ed is now particularly interested in exploiting loopholes and finding bugs.
After thinking for a long time, Ed finally looked at Seraphina again:
"I roughly understand. Please continue with the settings related to 'dragons'... I mean, the knowledge."