“This can’t go on.”
Li Xiuman watched his Constitution stat steadily drop as his body decayed, feeling deeply uneasy.
Who knew what other side effects the erosion of death power might have on him now?
“Tier 2 Magic, Water Prison!”
Holding off Orfen's breath attack with his right hand extended forward, Li Xiuman gripped his wand with his left and expanded an aqua-blue magic circle.
Water condensed in the air along the magic circle, wrapping around Li Xiuman's body to form a smooth sphere of water.
Then, Li Xiuman released his Death Shield.
With a loud sizzle, the dragon breath slammed unhindered against the water sphere, scorching it.
A massive cloud of steam erupted with a bang, and Li Xiuman was blasted backward through the air.
His breastplate and armguards negated most of the damage, while he tanked the remainder with his [Elemental Resistance] and [Flame Devour] skills.
Even so, the burning heat left Li Xiuman in considerable pain.
“Golems!”
In order to break free now, Li Xiuman didn't care about anything else.
Waving both hands, he retrieved all the golems from his storage space.
They were water-magic specialized golems.
To enhance their water-element damage, their [Flight] skill was only at Lv 1.
They only possessed the most basic ability to fly.
“Go!”
Li Xiuman waved his hand, and the Heavy Armor Golems charged out first, followed by the Swordsman Golems and Water Mage Golems.
Like a small army, they charged toward Orfen.
Orfen was clearly taken aback for a moment.
What was going on? How did so many golems suddenly appear?
However, it quickly realized that these were weak golems that posed no threat to it at all.
Realizing this, Orfen roared even more wildly, unleashing its scalding breath toward the oncoming golems.
The golems quickly scattered, leaving Orfen momentarily confused as to where to direct its breath.
It could only turn its head toward wherever the golems were most densely clustered and spew its fire.
Seizing the opportunity, the remaining golems launched an all-out assault on Orfen.
Arrows made of water struck its scorching scales; while they did almost no real damage to Orfen, it felt as miserable as having icy water dumped on it.
Growing increasingly enraged, it spewed dragon breath while tearing apart any golems that drew close.
The sturdy golems were as fragile as paper under its deadly talons.
They were easily torn to shreds.
“Good job, my children.”
“I will remember your sacrifice.”
“Though I hate to part with you, I really must run now.”
Li Xiuman lamented aloud while sprinting at top speed, not looking reluctant in the slightest.
Though he did feel a bit pained in his heart.
After all, crafting these golems had consumed quite a lot of Iron River Sand and magic stones.
“Roar! Roar! Roar!!”
Seeing Li Xiuman about to escape, Orfen’s roaring pitched up drastically.
It desperately tried to break through the encirclement of golems and tear Li Xiuman to pieces.
However, all the golems swarmed it frantically, opening dense arrays of magic circles that dragged Orfen down.
After all, enough ants could bite an elephant to death.
Furthermore, these were pure water-attribute golems specially crafted by Li Xiuman to counter the red dragon Orfen.
Seizing the opportunity, Li Xiuman waved his wand and expanded an earthy-yellow magic circle beneath him.
“Tier 2 Magic, Rock Excavation!”
Needless to say, this was also a spell Li Xiuman had modified himself.
After all, naming a spell something so crude was definitely not the style of the magical world's natives.
As the magic circle expanded, the ground began to tremble.
A massive quantity of rock burst through the dirt, flying up into the air beneath Li Xiuman.
Li Xiuman hurriedly continued waving his wand.
“Golem Creation!”
All the rocks squirmed like modeling clay, shaping into figures identical to Li Xiuman.
Next, Li Xiuman draped clothes over every golem, shuffled their positions back and forth, and then sent them flying off in all directions without looking back.
This sequence of actions wasn't merely seamless; it was absolute perfection.
“Roar!”
Orfen’s roaring held a hint of desolation.
This young red dragon could already see the future where its reputation in the magical world lay ruined.
And it wasn't even an adult yet!
It desperately broke free from the encirclement of the golems, watching as identical copies of Li Xiuman flew off in every direction.
It frantically tried to search through the Dragon's Inheritance in its mind for a tracking spell.
However, since it usually only used its ancestral memories to look for dragon smut, how could it instantly find the magical knowledge it needed?
In the end, as if accepting its fate, it picked one of the Li Xiumans and gave chase.
It easily caught up to this Li Xiuman.
Crushing it in its claw, it was indeed nothing more than a pile of shattered rock.
It fell silent for a long time, using its claw to hook the clothes on the ground and sniffing them in front of its snout.
It burned that scent deep into its memory.
It swore to drag this despicable thief back and subject him to the most excruciating dragon tortures.
However, the urgent matter at hand was...
Where could a dragon go to change its name? If that despicable thief actually leaked its secret...
It would never be able to show its face in public again.
...
Seeing that the dragon behind him wasn't pursuing, Li Xiuman didn't lower his guard.
Along the way, he continued casting magic to craft golems, releasing them continuously.
Eventually, he found a river, submerged to the bottom, and drifted downstream with the current for over ten li.
Only then did he climb ashore and craft a few more golems.
Some golems flew in the opposite direction to draw attention, while others continued floating downstream underwater.
Finally, the rest of the golems scattered in all directions.
Li Xiuman moved along the dense forest, using Earth Magic to travel underground for who knows how long.
Only when he surfaced above ground did he sprint in the direction of Iron River City.
“Just another day of matching wits and power against the enemy.”
On the way, Li Xiuman changed out of his clothes into a fresh outfit, then located a carriage heading into Iron River City and hid beneath it completely unnoticed.
After bouncing along with the carriage for half a day, he finally entered Iron River City without a hitch.
Once inside Iron River City, Li Xiuman crawled out from under the carriage, went into an inn, and rented a room.
After that, he placed a golem inside the room.
Then he changed his outfit, created another golem, dressed it up, snuck out, and rented another double room.
Entering the double room and lying on the bed, Li Xiuman finally breathed a sigh of relief.
When traveling abroad, one could never be too cautious.
Now, it was time to take stock of his loot from this endeavor.
Li Xiuman pulled the curtains shut, took out all his gains, and began counting.
Gold coins... 1,003.
160 of them were damaged, which would lower their purchasing power proportional to the damage.
Bah! Fuck's sake, being this poor and still putting on such a grand facade!
Seeing these pitiful gold coins, Li Xiuman couldn't help but curse again.
He absolutely had to expose this red dragon's crimes; otherwise, his anger wouldn't be appeased.
Had he known there were so few gold coins, Li Xiuman would have had to be out of his mind to target it in the first place.
Rate on N.U.
