Chapter 176: Sealing the Passage

“Well then, I’ll leave this matter to Elder Ilya!”
After resolving the issue with the young dragon, Donald bid farewell to Ilya.
Ilya patted the head of the young dragon beside him and said, “Don’t worry, Elder Donald. I will take good care of Igus!”
Igus was the name Ilya had given the red young dragon. Seeing the little one’s reluctant demeanor, Donald couldn’t help but feel sympathy for its future.
Its intelligence was already on par with that of a human child. Seeing Ilya’s determination to train the red dragon into a good dragon aligned with justice, it was clear its life would no longer be as free by its master’s side.
But Donald couldn’t worry about that much. In the future, he would need to summon more powerful dragons, and taking care of young dragons could probably be left to the adult dragons.
Back in Dusk Town, Donald immediately called for the treasurer Jesse and the business manager Augusta, leading them to a warehouse.
Watching the gold and silver treasures pour forth at Donald’s gesture, Jesse and Augusta were so astonished they couldn’t even close their eyes.
“Dear lord, did you rob a dragon?” Jesse exclaimed, rushing forward and grabbing a handful of gold coins to confirm they were real before speaking in shock.
Donald smiled and asked, “How did you know?”
Jesse rolled his eyes, thinking he was joking, not realizing he had hit the nail on the head.
Augusta, being an experienced merchant of noble background, immediately asked, “Lord, how do you plan to handle these funds?”
Donald gave him an appreciative look and said, “Although Selt’s official currency, Goldthorn, is used here, I also intend to mint our own currency in Dalaran. But it won’t be ordinary gold or silver coins—it will be something like ancient magic coins. So for now, use any surplus funds to acquire some gold and silver.”
“Yes, Lord!”
Jesse and the others were too impressed to say anything else and simply responded solemnly.
At just eighteen, he was already a hereditary noble, lord of vast lands, and a powerful mage. Such achievements left them without even the slightest envy; they could only wholeheartedly follow Donald’s lead in hopes of achieving greater wealth, status, and success.
After dealing with the black dragon’s treasure, Donald hurried to see his teacher.

When the entire body of a black dragon appeared before Maelser, the old mage was utterly shocked—this disciple truly brought him too many surprises. First, moonlight wine; then rapid advancement; followed by exceptional alchemical talent and various discoveries from the ancient archmage ruins. Now, here was a complete giant dragon. What else might come next? Perhaps capturing a deity?

This was not the Chimeric Dragon they had dissected together with the other silver mages—it was a genuine pure-blooded golden giant dragon, one of the most powerful among the five-colored dragons.

After hearing Donald recount the details of this journey, along with the corpse of a golden demon, Maelser looked at his disciple with mixed emotions, not knowing what to say.

Yet he was deeply satisfied with Donald’s performance. Having such a disciple was even more joyful for him than ascending to the golden rank himself.

So Maelser sighed and said, “Donald, you really know how to cause trouble for your teacher! A black dragon’s body and the corpse of a golden demon—once I finish studying these, I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold back my power any longer and will break through to the golden rank!”

Donald knew that his teacher’s method involved staying for a considerable time before each major rank, accumulating enough foundation before making a decisive breakthrough—advancing without any bottlenecks and gaining strength far beyond that of ordinary mages of the same rank. If he broke through prematurely now, all his previous efforts would be in vain.

He had also been following his teacher’s approach all this time, to avoid the pitifully weak abilities he had when he first became a mage, relying solely on the Book of Truth. This situation had improved greatly after he acquired divine knowledge and unlocked the functions of the Time House.

Smiling, he said to his teacher, “There’s more. Look again!”

With that, Donald released a circular stone slab about ten feet in diameter in the laboratory. It was engraved with intricate and complex spell circuitry, embedded with hundreds of crystals of various sizes.

“This…”

Messel widened his eyes again, as if he had seen a rare treasure, and said excitedly, “This is an integrated spell matrix circuit invented by ancient mages based on goblin technological concepts! It can reduce the size of the otherwise massive spell matrix layout by a large margin. It’s truly an epoch-making invention. With this, some of my research ideas that couldn’t proceed due to the size limitations of the spell matrices might now succeed!”
“An integrated spell matrix circuit?”
Donald was surprised upon hearing this. “Isn’t that just an integrated circuit board in the world of mages?!”
“It seems that having too many things isn’t always a good thing. This black dragon is the most valuable. What do you plan to do with it, Donald?”
Donald thought for a moment and said, “Let’s disassemble it first! I hope to use the dragon scales and skin to create two excellent pieces of armor. The dragon bones, horns, and teeth should be sufficient to make weapons. As for the dragon crystal and the dragon soul inside, they are too precious, so I haven’t thought of how to handle them yet. For now, I’ll just store them!”
Dragon crystals have always been the most precious energy crystals in the main world. The energy contained in a level-9 dragon’s crystal is ten times that of an ordinary level-9 magical beast crystal core. More importantly, as long as all the energy in the crystal isn’t exhausted at once, it can slowly recover by absorbing free energy from the air over time—a advantage that ordinary magical beast crystal cores cannot match. Even golden-level sacred beast crystal cores, which possess such capabilities due to the laws they embody, are far inferior to dragon crystal cores.
That’s why dragon crystals are among the most precious of all crystal cores. And since level-9 dragon crystals are already so valuable, the top-tier golden dragon crystal in Donald’s possession is likely worth no less than the crystal core of a legendary magical beast.
Hearing Donald’s thoughts, Messel nodded and said, “No problem. With Chris and the others helping, I’m confident I can create a set of legendary gear for you. As for golden-level equipment, since the materials themselves are of the highest quality, we can easily make hundreds of pieces. Save the rest—there’s no need to waste them. But to create clothing-based defensive gear, it would be best to have a master tailor or artist to assist!”
Donald nodded, already having someone in mind. The elves are people with deep artistic skills, and Elder Ilya is especially skilled at crafting weapons like bows and leather armor. If he asks a few highly skilled tailors from the tribe to work alongside the masters, that should be enough.

Moreover, compared to hiring human tailors and art masters, the elves of the Druid tribes were clearly more trustworthy. At least for now, the elves were under his protection and recognized his authority.
“What a pity!”
Messel sighed regretfully as he looked at the corpse of the black dragon that occupied most of the laboratory.
“Teacher?”
The old mage pointed at the dragon’s body and said, “It’s a shame that although this black dragon’s body is well-preserved with no signs of decay, its dragon blood has dried up. Its research value is far less than that of fresh dragon blood! If we had fresh dragon blood, the several dragon-blood potion recipes I’ve collected would be useful!”
The magic array on the stone platform in the black dragon’s tomb had also played a role in preventing the dragon’s body from decaying, but after hundreds of years, the dragon blood inside had solidified and dried up. Although it still had some value, it no longer had the effects of fresh dragon blood. Otherwise, Donald had planned to take a dragon-blood bath!
It was said that those who bathed in dragon blood would become invulnerable, with greatly enhanced physical defenses. Only the legendary dragon-slaying heroes of ancient times had the chance to take such a bath!
However, Donald wasn’t too disappointed, as the Book of Truth had already analyzed the previous chimera and this black dragon’s body, essentially mastering the genetic information of the dragons in this world. He knew that the dragons in their original world and those in this world were almost the same species, with identical bloodlines.
So, as long as he could permanently summon an adult dragon now, he could easily obtain dragon blood.
But at that moment, Donald didn’t reveal his thoughts. He simply offered some comfort before saying to his teacher, “There’s no rush with these studies. You can focus on researching the integrated magic array circuits while continuing to gather information. We can deal with these two corpses when we’re close to making a breakthrough. I think Senior Chris and the others will be waiting for you!”
Seeing his teacher nod in agreement, Donald continued, “There’s also an abyssal passage in the underground world of the Green Cloak Forest waiting for us to seal! How’s the final adjustment of the sealing magic array coming along?”
Messel excitedly walked over to the testing table and pointed at the altar-like device on it, saying, “It’s completely finished. No errors were found. We just need to activate it officially to test its effectiveness!”
The design concept of its structure was inspired by the intricate construction of the arcane lock that Messel had studied, leading him to create this altar-shaped sealing magic array.

Donald nodded. “That’s good. While there are no changes on the side of the Abyss yet, let’s call Senior Chris and the others to seal the passage first!”
“Exactly. By closing the passage early, we can sleep more peacefully. The chaotic thoughts of the Abyssal demons cannot be reasoned with using normal logic, let alone those of a powerful Abyssal Lord at the semi-god level!”
So the two of them called Chris and the Marlf siblings together and flew toward the location of the underground world passage.