Ember Dragon

"Are you doubting my intelligence-gathering abilities?" the hermit asked, looking down at him with a half-smile.

"of course not."

Lu Dian quickly waved his hand.

The hermit tapped the ground with his scepter and said meaningfully, "This war began hundreds of years ago. The filthy creatures hidden deep underground, the brutal evil gods, and the evil dragons from the north all want to take this city for themselves."

"After waking up, my responsibility is to protect the city that Victoria left behind, and to safeguard its people and civilization."

The man's voice was ethereal, carrying a sigh of time, as if it had remained unchanged for hundreds or thousands of years.

"Do you know that queen from three hundred years ago?"

Lu Dian was surprised and excited, his heart pounding.

A mysterious guardian from hundreds of years ago, a mind flayer lurking among the people, sees this as nothing more than a long-forgotten past, a grand main storyline!

"of course."

The hermit's expression turned wistful as he reminisced about the past. He said with a touch of melancholy, "That child was just like you back then, carefree and reckless, only wanting to make a name for himself."

As he spoke, a smile appeared on the hermit's face, as if he had recalled something amusing, but when the smile faded, an indescribable sadness remained in his eyes.

child?

He actually regarded people from three hundred years ago as his juniors.
Ludian was deeply shocked, which further strengthened his resolve to cling to the hermit's coattails.

This mysterious, ancient, and powerful being is clearly an old grandfather figure prepared for a genius mage like him!

At this moment, the man in front of the four players seemed increasingly unfathomable. What was his true identity?
Just then, Lina spoke up crisply, "Then why do you want to protect this city? Is it related to Her Highness Victoria?"

Her tone was full of curiosity, and her eyes revealed an undisguised excitement.

A history from hundreds of years ago, a long-deceased queen, a man awakened from his tomb—this is clearly a love story that transcends time!
And the hermit, as she wished, smiled and nodded, speaking in a leisurely, storytelling tone: "It really is a very distant promise."

"It was a moonlit night three hundred years ago. I gazed at this city with her. Of course, back then, it was far less prosperous than it is now. The entire city had only a few hundred people; it was merely a simple seaside village."

it is as expected! !

Lina's eyes grew increasingly excited.

The hermit stretched out his left hand, covered his chest, and said in an extremely soft voice, "At the top of the Clark Mountains, I made a promise to her: as long as my heart is still beating, I will protect this city with my life, at any cost."

He gazed at the vast night sky, his eyes reflecting the twinkling stars, making them appear exceptionally deep.

Listening to the hermit's lonely yet deeply emotional voice, Lina was now completely convinced. In her mind's eye, she seemed to recall the scene of the young and spirited queen and the gentle-smiling mage pouring out their hearts to each other under the moonlight.

But now the woman is gone, the queen has long since become dust in history, while the man, in order to keep that promise, paid a terrible price and survived to this day by some forbidden technique.

What a poignant story!

She rubbed her teary eyes and said, choking back tears, "My lord, you have suffered so much these past few hundred years."

Lina clenched her hands, making a silent resolution.

She wants to continue exploring the secrets of the main storyline and spread the story of the hermit and the queen on the forum, so that players who are as emotionally sensitive as she is can feel the beauty of love!
Compared to swimming in filthy sewers or pulling bugs out of human skulls, these wonderful things are the true essence of gaming!
Lina felt like crying but had no tears left to shed.

However, she was unaware that the so-called three-hundred-year-old agreement, the love-hate relationship with the queen, and the mission to protect the city were all fabrications made up by this hermit to fool the players and promote the power of the Tower of the Coast.

How could he possibly know anything about Queen Victoria?
If we consider the clone as a semi-independent individual, then this hermit is probably still a child under ten years old.

The hermit turned around, his usual serious expression returning, and looked at the four players: "Do you—also want to protect this city?"

At this moment, Alpha was filled with emotion, his mind filled with stories of legendary heroes from the past.

Now, he is the protagonist of the story!
The excited warrior stepped forward, patted his chest, and said, "My Lord Hermit, although we are beings from the stars, immortal and indestructible, I am willing to give my life to protect Victoria Harbour!"

“Me too!” Ludian retorted, standing next to Alpha.

Even Fitz and Lina, who are usually listless, look full of fighting spirit.

"very good."

The hermit nodded in satisfaction, then solemnly said, "Victoria Harbour is about to face a great disaster. Those evil gods and filthy insects have colluded to turn the entire city into their breeding ground."

He extended his bronze scepter: "And at that time, I will need your strength."

"I am willing to die for the Hermit!"

"Of course!"

"We are willing to contribute our strength!"

As the players responded excitedly, the top of the bronze scepter shone with a brilliant light. They felt a warm current brush across their faces, and then the words "The Hermit's Blessing" appeared above their heads.

"what is this?"

"The Hermit's Blessing grants +1 to all attributes for a limited time, doubles spell slot regeneration speed, and doubles the number of uses for spell-like abilities and talent skills."

"This is divine protection! I'm invincible!"

Ludian's voice trembled; he was overjoyed and almost dropped his staff.

The hermit observed their reactions and then said, "I hope you will use the power I have given you for good, and do not let your guard down even after the disaster is over."

“My eyes can glimpse a bit of the future. You should know that this disaster is just the beginning. The real threat comes from the east of the mountains.”

"what do you mean"

Ludian hesitated for a moment before cautiously voicing his guess: "Which empire?"

The hermit did not answer, but silently waved his scepter. The four of them felt a blinding white light flash before their eyes, and in the blink of an eye, they were back at the bottom of the Coast Tower.

Lu Dian lowered his head in thought, stroking his chin and muttering to himself, "Although the Hermit didn't answer, he didn't deny it either; it was more like an acquiescence."

He raised his head, his eyes blazing with ambition: "As expected, my guess was right. We are the protagonists of this world, and that empire that disrupts world order and ruins the aesthetics is undoubtedly our enemy!" "Erezeguet's main mission—is to resist the empire's cruel tyranny and restore the world to its original state!"

"I'll go back and post it on the forum right away!"

"The main storyline of the Empire is about to end; now it's the rebels' turn!"

After receiving the hermit's blessing and obtaining valuable clues to the "main quest," the four players left the Coast Tower with high spirits.

At the top of the tower, the hermit, or rather, the alter ego of Cassius, still gazed into the distance, the enormous Mind Flayer worm hovering in his hand.

The worm, as thick as an arm and covered with rows of densely packed sharp teeth, capable of killing an adult, was powerless to resist in the man's hands, and could only writhe and struggle in mid-air.

With a flash, the hermit led the Mind Flayer larva into the underground part of the tower, arriving at a pool filled with blood-red liquid.

There were rustling sounds coming from the pool, the sound of water being stirred, the sound of flesh rubbing against each other, and even the crisp sound of bones being gnawed on.

The water rippled, and the blood-red pool was teeming with white Mind-Stealing Demon larvae, so many that they were impossible to count.

They densely occupied the bottom of the pool, piled up in several layers, their mouths full of sharp teeth open as if howling in pain, and extremely powerful psychic energy filled this narrow space.

The hermit throws the larvae he gets from the player into it.

Due to the mind flayers' unique hive mentality, these larvae can connect to the master brain through the mind.

The gathering of thousands of larvae creates a psionic trajectory powerful enough to warp space, allowing the Hermit to locate the mainframe and even pinpoint the location of individual mind flayers.

For years, the hermit has remained secluded in the tower, studying the mysteries of psychic powers.

Psionic energy is mysterious in style and its effects are more focused on the mental realm. It can easily rewrite reality, perform extrasensory perception, mind control, and psionic teleportation. It often only appears in ancient races like mind flayers, whose origins are difficult to trace.

Compared to magic, psionic energy often does not involve spells, rituals, gestures, materials, etc., nor does it rely on magic networks. It is a special system independent of arcane and divine magic.

Through in-depth research, the hermit has made a new discovery: to some extent, this mysterious and unpredictable power can even resist the spiritual pollution of divinity.

When he returns to his original form, this mysterious power will come into play, becoming a strong wall on his path to godhood, resisting the mental interference from outer planes.

The hermit looked at the larvae that were causing the pond water to boil with disgust.

He slowly began, “It has developed to this extent. It seems that those evil gods have also realized the urgency of the matter and are eager to control Victoria Harbour, the Free Trade Confederation—and even the entire Silvermoon Bay.”

"Oh, we can't miss something this interesting."

He raised his head and gazed northward: "It's time for my true form to awaken. All these years of lurking in this city, accumulating strength, have been for this very moment."

He raised his bronze scepter and slowly waved it, causing the larvae and blood to float up and coalesce into a huge sphere.

The sphere continued to compress, eventually becoming a palm-sized, blood-red sphere filled with tiny white dots, like a prophetic crystal ball used by a witch.

The hermit placed his hand on the blood-red sphere, and his brain immediately felt an extremely strong spiritual energy. Countless howls and roars appeared in his mind, and even he felt a stinging pain in his head.

"return!"

"Back to the mainframe!"

"To reproduce, to grow, for the evolution of a great race!"

"We will return to the surface, reclaim that ancient past, and rule over all races!"

The hermit gently stroked the crimson sphere and said with a cold laugh, "Heh. Soon, I will fulfill your wish and allow you to return."

Just then, the sounds of horses' hooves and footsteps came from the ground.

"It should be Helovets."

The hermit used his magic to look over and saw a carriage bearing the emblem of the Golden Bird Clan parked at the tower's entrance, surrounded by numerous guards.

"Miss, we are here."

Soon, a young woman with long golden hair and emerald green eyes stepped down from the carriage. Her clothes were not conspicuous, but the expensive materials were evident. She exuded an aura of authority that belonged only to those in power.

Under her extremely imposing gaze, the guards beside her all respectfully lowered their heads, half-kneeling on the ground, not daring to meet her eyes.

This is Helovitz Sever, the eldest daughter of the Sever family, known as the "Bloody Goldfinch".

In just a few short years, this excessively young noblewoman rose to prominence like a shooting star.

She swiftly eliminated her family's enemies, seized control of the "Mithril Hand" from her uncle, and became the most powerful figure in the family, even surpassing her father, the Grand Duke of Plantagenet, Aiden Severus.

But anyone with a high status within the Severus family and who knows the inside story has heard that, compared to her own father, Miss Helvets has even greater respect for a mysterious and unpredictable figure—the "Hermit" of the Coast Tower.

As she looked at the white tower, the girl's usually proud and sharp emerald green eyes softened, while the guards beside her remained silent.

She walked slowly into the tower, lowered her eyes, lifted her skirt and gave a graceful bow, saying in a polite and gentle voice, "It's been a long time, Hermit. I'm sorry to bother you again."

“It’s alright, Miss Helovitz. Rather than saying you’re bothering me, it’s more accurate to say I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”

The familiar voice rang out, and Helovitz looked up expectantly.

The man in the long robe with a gentle smile appeared before her again, behind the counter of the Coast Tower.

He looked like a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, with elegant manners and an air of perpetual composure, like a leisurely aristocrat who loved art.

But Helvetz knew that this "hermit" was actually an ancient and powerful bronze dragon with a past that was beyond her imagination and immeasurable.

Over the years, Helovetz has undergone tremendous changes within the clan, and has become the de facto ruler of the clan, with even her father often subconsciously agreeing with her.

Although Helovitz felt that she had indeed grown a lot, she also knew where these changes came from and where her confidence came from.

—It was this mysterious and unpredictable man before me, or more accurately, a dragon.

Thinking of this, Helovitz smiled gently and said softly, "I've also wanted to see you for a long time. We really are thinking the same thing, Mr. Hermit." (End of Chapter)