Chapter 147: Food

Ethan patted Liora’s head as he spoke.

Liora smiled happily.

When they arrived at the cabin, Walter greeted them, he was sitting in a rocking chair, holding a book, seeing them return, he set it down and asked with a smile, "How was the trip?"

"Very interesting, let’s plant the Water Spirit Tree first, and then I’ll tell you all about it."

"Oh? It seems you definitely encountered a lot of interesting things." Walter said expectantly, he was clearly eager to hear the full story of their journey.

Holding the Water Spirit Fruits, Ethan walked over to the World Tree, found an empty patch, and planted the seeds, he used Soil Fortification and Growth Acceleration to help the Water Spirit Tree grow rapidly.

"I didn’t expect it to grow this well on land," Zharok remarked in surprise, he had truly expected it would need to be submerged, the Water Spirit Tree grew near the Dragon Palace — at the bottom of the sea, he hadn’t expected its leaves to spread so lushly in a place without seawater.

Ethan poured his entire focus into the abilities, coaxing the tree along, after a short while, the Water Spirit Tree — originally just a seed — had grown into a sapling, then it kept growing, trunk thickening, branches reaching, until it stood as a towering tree.

"Wow, so pretty, meow~"

The World Tree’s trunk flared with dazzling light, when it faded, the tree had grown a bit larger.

Ethan looked at Liora. "How do you feel? Any changes?"

"No changes, meow~"

"Has your strength increased?"

"I think... maybe?" Liora raised one hand, a curtain of light spread outward with her at its center.

Zharok and Pearl curiously reached out to touch the light curtain.

Just then, a voice rang out. "That is World’s Aegis."

"You’re here."

"Yes." It was the giant dragon, she stood outside the light curtain and gently touched it with her hand, then, she snatched a black fragment out of thin air — a Chaos Fragment.

The dragon gripped the fragment tightly, and a stream of black aura surged from her palm, she shot this aura toward the light curtain.

Whoosh!

The aura passed straight through and vanished completely.

The dragon stepped inside and smiled. "Within the range of the World’s Aegis, the power of Chaos is nullified."

"The power of Chaos? Then what you just—"

"Yes, what I just used was the power of Chaos."

The giant dragon could actually use the power of Chaos? Everyone was instantly dumbfounded.

She shook her head, still smiling. "As long as you have a Chaos Fragment, you can use it, this isn’t some profound technique — the Witch can do it too. ask her when she visits."

"I have no desire to learn such a thing... How do you know all this?"

"Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated, is that not common sense?" She walked to the fire and sat down.

Liora deactivated the World’s Aegis, the light curtain vanished.

Ethan brought out an affogato, handed it to the dragon, and asked, "Have you ever fought the forces of Chaos?"

"I belong to a neutral faction, but I have no wish to see this world destroyed by them, either."

Even the giant dragon was unable to defeat the forces of Chaos? Ethan felt incredibly surprised.

He asked, "Do you know anything about the Temple of Chaos in the western part of the Great Forest?"

"Of course I do, that is a temple built by humans corrupted by Chaos, they used their own lives and souls to construct that temple, it is said that no matter what method is used, it cannot be destroyed, I have attacked it before, but it remained completely intact."

"I heard it’s a monster nest, do you have no plans to step in and deal with it?"

"Why should I step in? What benefit would the beastmen of the west offer me?" The dragon smiled, she wasn’t free labor, she gently stirred her affogato with a spoon and added, "If you are willing to become my personal chef, I could consider helping you solve this problem, there is no free lunch in this world."

"Make her pay up right now, meow~"

"Very well, then I will give you this." The dragon waved her hand, a black metal plate appeared before Ethan.

He looked at it curiously.

Zharok gasped. "That’s a dragon scale."

"You know what this is?"

"Of course I do, how could I not?"

"Then tell me — what is it?"

"As the name implies — a dragon’s scale, an incredibly precious material for forging weapons and armor, worth a fortune, if you gave this to the dwarves, they’d weep tears of gratitude."

"This should cover quite a few affogatos, shouldn’t it?" the dragon asked.

"More than enough, but when will we ever meet dwarves?"

Ethan shrugged, they would run into them eventually, one way or another, he placed the dragon scale into his storage.

The dragon looked at him and smiled. "You have done very well, Liora — be careful, greedy fools might set their sights on you."

"I’m not afraid." Liora made a V-sign to show she was doing well.

The dragon patted her head and turned to Ethan. "I will protect the World Tree, if you wish, I can protect Liora as well."

"But she’d have to stay here and couldn’t leave, right?"

"Naturally, my power can only protect my territory."

Ethan looked at Liora.

She shook her head. "I want to go on adventures with Ethan."

"Then you must possess the ability to protect yourself." Protecting Liora wasn’t a difficult task for the giant dragon, but if Liora insisted on leaving the territory, she would need to be strong enough to face threats on her own.

Ethan extended his hand.

Liora grabbed it and smiled. "I will work hard."

"Hey, hey, hey." A voice rang out from the path.

"We brought the iron ore."

It was the fox beastmen, they arrived in front of the cabin hauling several carts of ore.

Seeing the giant dragon, they froze solid, then, as one, every eye fixed on her.

"Hmm? It seems you’ve been frightened by me." The dragon smiled and stood up, new guests had arrived, so it was time for this old guest to take her leave.

She waved goodbye to Ethan and said, "I am leaving, I will come again next time."

"Please wait, I’m making fried tofu pockets tonight, would you like to stay and eat with us?"

"Oh? What is that?"

"The fox tribe’s favorite food."

"Haha, then I absolutely must try it, see you tonight." With that, the dragon vanished completely.

Only then did the fox beastmen let out a collective sigh of relief, they looked at Ethan nervously and asked, "How come you were with a giant dragon?"

"She is also a guest of mine, by the way — the iron ore..."

"Right, we brought a lot of high-quality iron ore this time." The fox beastman showed Ethan the ore piled on the carts.

Ethan, Zharok, and Pearl carefully inspected every piece and found the quality excellent, it seemed they could forge some very good items with this batch of ore.

Just as Ethan was feeling satisfied, his communication crystal chimed.