(PS: Since the intervening period was just the tedious stuff of taking requests, we're skipping ahead. Roxy Migurdia will appear very soon.)
K397, Armoured Dragon Calendar.
The spear tip pierced through the goblin's body, and the last goblin finally fell.
"Killing goblins is still the easiest." Dan Feng inserted his spear into the ground and said slowly.
By now, Dan Feng had grown much taller, and his appearance was almost identical to Dan Heng from the game.
"After all, you've already solo-cleared a C-rank labyrinth. Clearing out one goblin tribe is still extremely easy for you." Galdaruf, wearing his eyepatch, said while removing the magic stone from the goblin leader's body.
Because this goblin leader had carried this red magic stone for years, it served as the proof of the kill.
"Burn these corpses, or they'll turn into zombie goblins." Galdaruf said, then began chanting fire magic.
"May the great blessing of flame descend upon the place you seek! Fierce and violent flames, burn away the grand favor in its entirety! [Great Fireball]!" Galdaruf raised his staff high, and a massive fireball descended onto the pile of goblin corpses.
"Fireball Technique!" Meanwhile, Dan Feng didn't need to chant—he simply raised his hand and fired off a fireball spell.
"I'm really jealous of you. You clearly have such amazing magical talent, yet you insist on being a warrior." Galdaruf sighed, his tone filled with envy.
"Hey, come on—you've got that Charm Eye thing, and you're still envious of my chantless magic?"
"Charm Eye isn't that useful."
"Alright, so with this, you've successfully become an A-rank adventurer, right?" Galdaruf got to the point.
"Mm. Thanks for teaching me so much magic over these two years." Dan Feng expressed his sincere gratitude to Galdaruf.
Over the past two years, in order to quickly raise his adventurer rank, he had to take requests in farther places, so time passed quickly.
This time, because these goblins had become restless with the arrival of spring and were hurting people everywhere, it had become an A-rank request.
As long as Dan Feng took it as a party request, he could jump straight to A-rank.
"Don't remind me of that. Did I really teach you? I just demonstrated once and recited the chant once, and you immediately got it. You learned all my attack magic in a single afternoon!" For once, an expression of anger finally appeared on Galdaruf's usually calm and unruffled face.
He wasn't angry because of Dan Feng's learning speed, but because of his own inadequacy.
It had taken him years to learn those attack spells, yet Dan Feng had mastered them in just a few hours—and in the middle of it, when his own mana ran out, Dan Feng still had plenty left.
This made him clearly realize that Dan Feng was a genius he could never compare to.
"Alright, alright, let's head back and submit the request. The reward this time is still pretty substantial." Dan Feng pushed Galdaruf along as they walked.
Since this goblin tribe had only recently formed, there wasn't anything particularly valuable. While searching, Dan Feng and Galdaruf had grumbled about it a bit.
By the time the two returned to Millishion, it was nearly evening. They immediately headed to the Adventurers' Guild to collect their reward, and Dan Feng was promoted to A-rank adventurer.
[Congratulations to the host for reaching the first stage of the progress bar at 10%. Reward: Weapon - Cloud-Piercer granted to the host]
Over these two years, because he had killed so many monsters, the progress bar had been steadily increasing, though the rate slowed more and more.
A year ago, when he reached 5%, the system had granted him new insight into spear techniques as well as chantless healing magic skills.
Normally, achieving chantless healing magic required rich theoretical knowledge of human anatomy and precise mana control. At that time, Dan Feng had only achieved one of those.
Because Dan Feng couldn't perform chantless healing magic, Galdaruf had felt a little better about himself. But sometime later, when Dan Feng demonstrated chantless healing magic right in front of him, he had nothing left to say.
Feeling a surge of power welling up from within his body, along with the sensation that he could summon the weapon at any moment, Dan Feng found it utterly unbelievable.
"System, if I summon Cloud-Piercer, can I put it back?" Dan Feng asked the system inwardly.
[Yes] An electronic synthesized voice echoed in Dan Feng's mind.
When the progress bar reached 5%, the system had gained the ability to respond—but only to questions about the system itself; it generally wouldn't answer anything else.
"Let's go, we're heading back." Galdaruf said to Dan Feng, who was spacing out nearby.
"Oh, yeah." Dan Feng picked up the long spear he had spent a fortune to have custom-forged and walked out of the Adventurers' Guild with Galdaruf.
By the time they returned to the tavern, it was already packed.
The place was filled with adventurers who had finished their daily requests and gathered here to drink.
Someone spotted Galdaruf and Dan Feng and shouted: "Yo, Galdaruf and the Cold Dragon Young are back!"
"Sigh." Dan Feng shook his head, wanting to quickly get away from these adventurers who loved teasing him.
Whenever a newcomer asked about the nickname "Cold Dragon Young," the others would explain it to them.
"When Dan Feng was still a C-rank adventurer, he once took a request to scout the rainy season conditions in the Blue Dragon Mountains. Unfortunately, he was targeted by a variant blue dragon. The variant was entirely cyan-colored and later got called an azure dragon. At the time, Dan Feng threw his spear and instantly killed that A-rank variant blue dragon. All of this is from the Adventurers' Guild report."
"But what does that have to do with his nickname?" The newcomer still didn't get what "Cold Dragon Young" meant.
"He gave himself that name. After killing the blue dragon, Dan Feng got really famous. When someone asked him what his title was, he said 'Cold Dragon Young.'"
The newcomer just listened quietly and took a sip of his drink.
"With that deadpan face of his, he actually calls himself the Cold Dragon Young—doesn't it feel super mismatched? Hahaha!" An adventurer laughed heartily while slapping the newcomer on the back.
Pfft—the newcomer, caught off guard by the sudden slap, spat out the drink in his mouth.
"Cough cough!"
"Ah, sorry."
Mayibeia, seeing Dan Feng and Galdaruf return, quickly came over. "You're back! Was clearing the goblin tribe easy this time?"
Because Mayibeia was a demon, she couldn't participate in some requests, so during her free time she helped out at the tavern for the landlady.
She helped because the landlady's daughter Lifa had gotten married and could no longer assist, so the place sometimes got too busy to handle alone.
"Very easy." Dan Feng walked to a seat, picked up the water pitcher on the table, and poured himself a cup.
"Galdaruf, is that true?" Mayibeia turned her gaze to Galdaruf.
Galdaruf nodded and sat down next to Dan Feng.
"Ah, you two must be hungry! I'll go tell the landlady!" Mayibeia suddenly remembered that Galdaruf and Dan Feng probably hadn't eaten yet, so she hurriedly ran toward the kitchen.
But just then, someone came out of the kitchen.
"Oof!"
"Ah!"
=====
New Story posted:
One Piece: Collective Viewing of the Future, Starting from God Valley