Chapter 44: Forty Square Meters of Despair
Three days into winter, the Blazing Mercenary Group received a new mission.
The employer was a noble mage living in a three-story building in the east of Redstone Fortress. He was supposedly a big shot from the imperial capital who specialized in researching "Dragon Bloodline Inheritance"—at least, that's what the flowery mission description said. In short: escort him to his private laboratory in the suburbs for a reward of five hundred gold coins.
Carlos studied the mission description for a long time before turning to Lia. "Do you think this is reliable?"
Lia took the paper and glanced at it. "Reliable."
Carlos raised an eyebrow. "You're that certain?"
Lia pointed to the small print at the bottom. "He's already paid the full deposit. Three hundred gold coins are sitting in the bank. Whether we go or not, they're ours."
Carlos gave a thumbs up. "You've got sharp eyes as always."
——————
Early the next morning, Lia met the employer at the entrance of their base.
The man was in his forties, tall and thin, wearing sophisticated deep blue mage robes. The hems were embroidered with silver magical patterns, and a glittering badge was pinned to his chest—an official member of the Imperial Magic Association. This status was enough to let him do as he pleased in the borderlands. His skin was incredibly pale, his fingers long and slender, and his nails were neatly trimmed. He was clearly the type of person who spent all year indoors and had never done any manual labor.
The most striking thing about him was his eyes.
His pupils were pale gray, and he always squinted when looking at people, as if he were observing some interesting experimental subject.
When he saw Lia, his eyes narrowed even further. His gaze swept over her from top to bottom, left to right, inch by inch, finally settling on her face.
"You're the new mage?" he asked, his voice very soft, carrying a trace of imperceptible excitement.
Lia nodded.
"Your name?"
"Lia."
"Level?"
"I don't know."
The man smiled, a meaningful expression. "Interesting."
He didn't ask anything else and turned to board the carriage.
Lia stood in place, staring at his back for two seconds.
Those eyes reminded her of someone—a professor from her past life when she was studying Animal Science. He specialized in the reproduction of endangered species, and every time he saw a rare animal, he had that same look: excitement, greed, and a desperate urge to take it back for dissection and study.
This mage was off.
But she said nothing, mounting her horse and following beside the carriage.
——————
The journey from Redstone Fortress to the suburban laboratory took only half a day.
The group passed through the city gates and followed a dirt road that had been abandoned for years. Large patches of withered, yellow grass lined both sides of the road, with the occasional crooked tree standing lonely, its bark mostly peeled away to reveal the grayish-white wood beneath. The sky was overcast, the sun hiding behind the clouds, and the wind blew like a knife cutting against the face.
The mercenaries wrapped their cloaks tightly and hunched their shoulders behind the carriage, cursing and complaining about the wretched weather.
Lia rode her horse, maintaining a constant five-meter distance from the carriage.
Along the way, the mage pulled back the carriage curtain three times, and each time, he stared at her.
The first time, he looked for three seconds, smiling with squinted eyes.
The second time, he looked for five seconds and licked his lips.
The third time, he looked for a full ten seconds before dropping the curtain, followed by a suppressed low laugh from inside the carriage.
Barton, who was bringing up the rear, leaned in and whispered, "Mage Lia, that old guy keeps staring at you. Something's not right."
Lia remained expressionless. "I know."
Barton grew nervous. "Should the boys get ready for something?"
Lia shook her head. "No need."
Barton wanted to ask more, but when he met those golden eyes, he swallowed his words.
——————
At dusk, the group arrived at their destination.
It was a three-story stone building constructed deep within a valley, surrounded by bare rock walls without even a proper road. The exterior walls of the stone building were covered in dead vines, the windows were sealed tight with iron bars, and the main door was made of solid cast iron, thick and heavy, engraved with dense magical runes.
The man stepped out of the carriage, took out a key to open the door, and turned back with a smile. "Please, everyone, come in. The laboratory is inside."
The mercenaries looked at each other, none of them moving.
Carlos frowned. "The mission only said to escort you to the laboratory, not to go inside."
The man's smile didn't waver. "It's late. Why don't you all come in and rest for the night before heading back tomorrow morning? I've prepared good wine and food, and there's a fireplace—it's better than freezing outside."
Carlos looked at Lia.
Lia stared at the door for three seconds and said calmly, "Let's go in."
Carlos was stunned. "Are you sure?"
Lia nodded.
——————
The interior of the stone building was much more spacious than it appeared from the outside.
The first floor was a hall where a roaring fire burned in the fireplace, making everyone feel warm. Several faded oil paintings hung on the walls, all depicting various dragons—a Red Dragon breathing fire, a Blue Dragon discharging electricity, a Green Dragon perched on a withered tree—their expressions fierce and lifelike. A row of glass cabinets stood in the corner, filled with various jars and bottles labeled with things like "Dragon Blood Sample," "Dragon Scale Powder," and "Dragon Heart Extract."
The mercenaries curiously leaned in to look, but the man smiled and blocked them. "Experimental materials, nothing worth mentioning, nothing worth mentioning."
He clapped his hands, and two servants emerged from a side door carrying large platters of roasted meat and jugs of hot wine, setting them on the long table.
"Please enjoy yourselves. I will go prepare the guest rooms," the man said, turning to head up the stairs.
Halfway up, he turned back to Lia, his smile deepening. "Miss Mage, there are some precious magic grimoires upstairs. I wonder if you would be interested in a tour?"
Lia set down her wine cup and stood up.
Carlos grabbed her arm and whispered, "Are you crazy? This place is wrong. Going up there alone—"
Lia gently pulled her arm back. "It's fine."
She followed the man upstairs.
——————
The second floor was entirely made up of laboratories.
Glassware of all sizes filled the long tables, with liquids of various colors bubbling inside. Iron racks were nailed to the walls, hanging rows of dried animal organs—claws, teeth, eyeballs, half-tongues, and several fist-sized hearts strung together with hemp rope like dried meat.
The man led Lia through the laboratory toward the last door at the end of the hallway.
That door was smaller than the others but made of cast iron, engraved with runes just like the main door downstairs.
The man took out a key, opened the door, and stepped aside with a gesture. "Please, come in. The most precious things are inside."
Lia glanced at him and stepped over the threshold.
The door closed silently behind her.
*Click.*
The bolt slid home, locking tight.
Lia turned around, looked at the closed iron door, and then surveyed her surroundings.
The room wasn't large, roughly forty square meters.
The walls were painted stark white, and a magic lamp hung from the ceiling, emitting a sickly pale light. The floor was paved with smooth stone slabs, and the corners were piled with various experimental equipment: beakers, test tubes, distillation flasks, and several unnamed metal machines connected to a dense network of tubes.
In the center sat a massive operating table with several leather straps fixed to the surface, designed to bind a person's limbs tightly. Two iron racks stood beside the table, hung with shiny scalpels, saws, and pliers—all medical equipment, but each piece was a size larger than normal, as if not meant for humans.
The only consolation was that the ceiling was high, nearly six meters.
The man stood by the door, back against the iron, arms crossed over his chest, looking at her with a smile.
That smile was completely different from before.
Before, it was polite, restrained, and probing.
Now, it was excited, greedy, and undisguised.
"Your name is Lia, right?" he began, his voice as soft as if he were coaxing a child. "What a fine name. What a fine body. What a fine—"
He took a deep breath and squinted, his expression ecstatic. "What a fine bloodline."
Lia stood in place, watching him expressionlessly.
The man paced slowly around the operating table, speaking as he walked. "Do you know? I've studied dragon bloodlines at the Imperial Magic Association for twenty years. I've seen countless hybrids claiming to have dragon blood—Dragonborn, Draconic Sorcerers, Dragonblood Warriorss—all frauds. The so-called dragon blood in their bodies is diluted thinner than plain water; they can't even manifest a single dragon scale."
He stopped and stared at Lia, his eyes frighteningly bright.
"But you're different. The first time you appeared before me, I smelled it—that scent so pure it couldn't be purer, that aura that only true dragons possess. You thought you hid it well? You thought an ordinary human mage could breathe fire of that intensity?"
He laughed, sounding very happy. "Dragon blood extracts are useless to you because your blood is purer, more potent, more... perfect than any of those extracts."
Lia remained expressionless.
The man walked to the side of the operating table, stroking the leather straps with a touch as gentle as if he were caressing a lover. "A constitution like yours is simply a gift from the heavens. The perfect experimental subject, the perfect research object, the perfect—"
He looked up, his eyes fanatical. "Breeding Mother."
Lia's eyebrow twitched slightly.
The man pulled a thick notebook from under the operating table, flipped to a page, and pointed to the dense handwriting for her to see. "I have researched dragon reproduction for twenty years and found a long-lost secret technique in ancient texts—using a pureblood dragon as a mother and injecting the essence of other dragon species, one can breed a never-before-seen new species. The power of the Five-Color Dragons, the wisdom of the Metallic Dragon, the Psionics of the Gemstone Dragons—all fused together to give birth to a truly perfect dragon!"
He closed the notebook, staring at Lia with a fanatical gaze that bordered on madness: "I need you. Your body, your womb, your bloodline—unite with me to give birth to the perfect Dragon-kin offspring! This isn't harm, it's creation! It's transcendence! It's the greatest breakthrough in magical history!"
Lia was silent for three seconds.
Then she spoke, her tone as calm as if asking what was for dinner: "You mean, you want to mate with me?"
The man froze for a moment, then nodded: "Yes! Mating! On-site mating! I want to witness the reproduction process of the dragon race with my own eyes, record every detail, analyze every change—"
"Do you know I'm a Red Dragon?"
"Of course I do!" the man said excitedly. "Red Dragons are the strongest, most tyrannical, and greediest of the Five-Color Dragons! Your flames can melt stone slabs, your scales are as hard as iron, and the power of Tiamat's origin flows in your blood—"
"I mean," Lia interrupted him, "do you know how large a Red Dragon's body is?"
The man froze again.
Lia looked around the forty-square-meter room, filled with experimental equipment, the only exit being that locked iron door.
The ceiling was six meters high.
The operating table was two meters long.
All kinds of equipment were packed tightly, leaving little room even to turn around.
She sighed.
"You know," she looked at the man, her tone carrying a hint of sincere helplessness, "I've been quite happy living in the human world these past three months. Eating well, living well, reading books and drinking tea when I've got nothing to do, occasionally teaching a few mindless idiots a lesson; life is much easier than raising kids at the Volcano."
The man frowned: "What do you mean?"
Lia ignored him and continued: "I originally wanted to stay peacefully for three years, finish my mission and leave—not looking for trouble, not making a scene, just keeping a low profile. But you just had to—"
She looked up, a flash of true helplessness in her golden pupils: "Just had to seek death."
The man took a step back, instinctively reaching for the staff at his waist.
Then he saw the most unforgettable image of his life.
Lia's body began to expand.
It wasn't the soft light-and-shadow transition of the Transfiguration Technique, but a real, savage, and blatant expansion. Human skin was stretched until it tore, bones were elongated, and muscles grew wildly like fermenting dough. Red scales burrowed out from beneath the skin, one after another, densely covering her entire body. Her skull extended forward, lengthening and deforming into a massive dragon head. Her limbs twisted, tore, and reshaped into thick dragon claws. Two huge masses of flesh bulged on her back, tearing open and unfolding into dragon wings that blotted out the sky—
The entire process took less than three seconds.
The man didn't even have time to scream.
Boom—!!!
The Red Dragon filled the entire room.
A forty-square-meter space was far, far too small for an adult Red Dragon with a shoulder height of eight meters and a body length of over thirty-five meters. The dragon's body was like a sardine packed into a tin, wedged tightly between the four walls. The operating table was crushed into a metal pancake, experimental equipment was ground into fragments, iron racks snapped like matchsticks, and all those shiny scalpels, saws, and pliers were buried under the scales, leaving no trace.
The walls couldn't withstand the pressure and began to crack.
Cracks spread like spiderwebs, climbing from the base of the walls to the ceiling and extending in all directions. Stones fell pitter-patter, clinking as they hit the dragon scales. That locked iron door was the first to give way; the door frame deformed, the hinges snapped, and the entire door flew out like a soda can stepped on by a giant, crashing into the wall across the hallway and embedding itself half a meter deep.
The man was squeezed into the gap between the dragon's body and the wall, with only his head sticking out.
His eyes bulged, looking as if they were about to pop out of their sockets. His mouth was open wide enough to fit a fist, and a rattling wheeze came from his throat, like a chicken being strangled.
He stared at the mountain-like red behemoth before him, at those scales thicker than his arm, dragon claws larger than his head, and fangs longer than his entire body; his mind was a complete blank.
Twenty years of researching dragon bloodlines.
Reading thousands of ancient texts.
Dissecting countless samples claimed to have dragon blood.
Believing he understood dragons better than anyone.
But he had never seen a real dragon.
He never imagined a real dragon could be this large.
He never thought his laboratory, which he took pride in—the'spacious' forty-square-meter space, the'sufficient' six-meter height—would be worse than a cage in front of this colossus.
"Worth... worth it."
The man murmured, his voice as thin as a mosquito's buzz.
He stared at the behemoth before him, his gaze shifting from terror to bewilderment, from bewilderment to dullness, and finally settling into a bizarre calm.
"To be able to die in the mouth of a real dragon... it's worth it..."
Lia lowered her head, the massive dragon head hanging directly above him, her two golden pupils like two burning suns, looking down at him from above.
"Mate?" she spoke, her voice like muffled thunder rolling across the sky, shaking the entire room and causing dust to fall.
The man couldn't speak.
"On-site mating?"
Another layer of dust fell.
"Cultivating a broodmother?"
Several more cracks appeared in the wall..
Lia stared at him for three seconds, then slowly opened her mouth.
Deep in her throat, an orange-red light began to coalesce, the temperature spiked sharply, and the air in the entire room began to warp and distort.
The man closed his eyes, waiting for death.
He waited for five seconds.
He didn't die.
He opened his eyes and found that the massive dragon mouth had closed again.
Lia pulled her head back, re-examining the room she had already squeezed into ruins, fell silent for a moment, and then sighed.
That sigh blew out with a blast of sulfur-scented hot air, flattening the man against the wall like a cockroach hit by a powerful hair dryer.
"Forget it," she said.
Then light enveloped her body again.
The dragon's body began to shrink, scales receded, wings folded, bones compressed, and muscles reshaped. The entire process was again three seconds, so fast it was as if nothing had happened.
Lia returned to her human form, standing in the middle of the ruins, patting the dust off her mage robes.
The robes had a few tears, her hair was messy, and her face was a bit dusty, but overall she was fine and presentable.
She looked down at herself, then at the mess around her, and finally at the guy who had been flattened into a mural on the wall.
The man was stuck to the wall, limbs splayed out, looking like a pancake run over by a steamroller. His eyes were still rolling, his mouth was still moving, but the sounds he made were all wheezes; he couldn't say a single complete sentence.
Lia walked to the wall and reached out to peel him off.
The man was as limp as a noodle, unable to stand steadily, and slid directly onto the floor.
Lia squatted down to look him in the eye.
"Do you know why I didn't kill you?"
The man shook his head desperately.
Lia pointed at the iron door that had flown out: "The door was too narrow."
The man was stunned.
Lia stood up and looked down at him, her tone as calm as if stating a fact: "Next time you want to find a dragon to mate with, remember to find a bigger place. Forty square meters isn't enough for me to turn around."
She turned toward the door, stopped after two steps, and looked back to add:
"By the way, that five-hundred-gold-coin deposit has already been received, and there are no refunds."
Having said that, she stepped over the twisted door frame, walked into the hallway, and disappeared at the end of the stairs.
The man sat on the floor, staring at the departing figure, his mind a complete blank.
A long, long time later, he finally squeezed out a single sentence:
"The... the door was too narrow?"
He lowered his head, looking at his legs that had turned into noodles, and suddenly laughed.
The laugh sounded worse than crying.
"Worth... it was so fucking worth it..."
——————
In the hall downstairs, the mercenaries were gathered around the fireplace drinking and eating meat, the atmosphere as festive as New Year's.
Carlos held his wine glass, and just as he clinked it with Barton, he heard an earth-shattering boom from upstairs.
Boom—!!!
The entire building was shaking.
Dust fell from the ceiling, oil paintings on the wall crashed to the floor, and jars and bottles in the glass cabinet shattered all over.
The mercenaries jumped up in unison, grabbing their weapons to rush upstairs.
Carlos pressed down on Barton, who was at the front: "Wait!"
Just as he finished speaking, footsteps were heard on the stairs.
Lia walked down from the second floor, her hair a bit messy, her robes torn in a few places, and her face a bit dusty, but overall she looked unscathed.
She walked to the long table, picked up her unfinished drink, and downed it in one go.
Carlos stared at her: "What happened upstairs?"
Lia put down the glass and said indifferently: "Nothing much, that mage wanted to discuss magic with me; the discussion got a bit intense."
Barton's eyes widened: "Discussing magic can make that much noise?"
Lia glanced at him: "I specialize in fire-breathing."
Barton shut up.
Carlos stared at her for three seconds, then looked at the deathly silence upstairs, fell silent for a moment, and finally spoke: "What about that mage?"
Lia picked up a piece of roasted meat, took a bite, and said while chewing: "Upstairs, contemplating life."
"Contemplating what?"
Lia swallowed the meat, her tone flat: "Contemplating why the door couldn't be built a bit larger."
The mercenaries looked at each other, completely unable to understand what she was talking about.
Carlos stared at her for a long time, finally sighed, and sat back in his chair.
"Alright then," he raised his glass, "as long as you're okay. Whatever mage he is, as long as he pays."
Lia nodded, sat down across from him, and continued eating meat.
Moonlight from outside shone in, falling on that calm face.
As she chewed the meat, she thought of that pancake mage stuck to the wall upstairs.
Three years undercover.
It's only been three months.
The days ahead should be... even more interesting.