Richard's sky had been overcast all summer due to Eileen's sudden change. Whenever he had a moment to spare, the smiling yet weeping face of the young girl would appear in his mind, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not drive it away. His heart was filled with the image of Eileen. With extraordinary intelligence and a gift for precision, every word, every smile, every movement of hers was completely restored in his mind, down to the smallest detail of her body, including the most mysterious areas that had not yet been fully explored.
His state of mind could change.
Not long ago, every fragment of memory brought sunshine, joy, trepidation and more anticipation for the next day. But now, these memories are superimposed day after day, and eventually the warmth burns into searing intensity, like pieces of a red-hot iron, scorching his immature heart, leaving a thin trail next to that deep scar.
Richard knew that Eileen had changed a lot in these few days, and that she was troubled, but he didn't know the reason why, and every time he asked, there was no result. Only at this moment did Richard realize that apart from Eileen, he didn't have anyone to talk to. Yes, in Deep Blue, he didn't have any friends, not a single one. Although he was Helen Su's personal disciple, after being in Deep Blue for a year, Richard had only met his teacher three times. In fact, apart from the teaching magisters, he spent the most time with Eileen.
Whenever he was alone, Richard's heartache was especially clear, and occasionally it even hurt like the raging fire that only appeared in the depths of his dreams. Only by hiding away in the vast world of magic and knowledge could he regain his peace of mind, focusing on complex formulas, curves, magic, and extradimensional creatures.
Summer was like winter.
This summer Richard is amazing. In every field of study, he has exploded, and many times the results he has produced have left the knowledgeable Grand Magi speechless. There is nothing to say except praise the wise and great, the ever-right Helen Su. And in a very limited amount of time, Richard's magical power has once again accelerated, and he will reach the standard of a second-level magician by the end of summer. Outside the field of magic, Richard's performance is also equally shocking. Philosophy, history, politics, economics – the young boy was like a desert that had gone dry, voraciously absorbing every drop of knowledge. Even the most discerning of artists was left speechless after seeing the painting Richard had submitted.
It depicted the back of a young girl carrying a large lunchbox, walking quickly down a dimly lit corridor. The fleeting silhouette captures her depression, sadness, slight panic and fear, and even the corner of the floating magic robe makes people mistakenly believe that it will continue to move with the wind. For some reason, the lunchbox seems to be the focal point of the picture, and the brushstrokes are used differently from those of the portrait. If the movement of the portrait is superbly portrayed, the lunchbox seems to be standing still, heavy as a boulder, pulling the viewer's heart downwards. The entire painting is in monochrome, and no second painting tool was used. It was all sketched with a magic quill, with countless fine, dense lines of varying shades coming together to form this breathtaking painting.
This painting made the great painter look at it for a whole hour, but he still had difficulty giving it a critique. Finally, he let out a long sigh and said to his assistant, “To recreate reality, you just need to break through a critical point, and the original will become art. This painting, which only captures this moment, is enough to become eternal!”
The assistant was dumbfounded, not expecting such a comment from the master for a simple sketch in plain colors. However, as one of the few people who almost reached the pinnacle of the Holy Alliance's art, the master's comment was definitely not wrong. Since it had been praised by the master himself, this painting could easily sell for tens of thousands of gold coins in the outside world. The only thing limiting its further appreciation is that Richard is still alive and seems to be able to live for a long time. But for a work like this, it is possible that Richard will not create it again for a long time in the future.
The master sighed for a long time, finally shook his head heavily, waved his assistant away, and sat in front of the easel, staring at the portrait of the young girl. Before he knew it, it got dark, and the studio became dim. But a ball of fire, lit purely by magic, appeared next to the master, adding a little dim light to the studio. In the dim light, the appeal of this sketch in plain colors was truly revealed without reservation, making the viewer feel as if they were in that dark, cold, empty corridor with no end in sight.
“How many years has it been since I last saw a work like this? This child...it must have hurt when he painted her,” the master muttered to himself. He, too, had been young once, and had created his most brilliant works during the most painful times. However, after achieving success and fame, it was no longer easy to find the passion and impulse of those times. Looking at this painting was like seeing Richard, that beautiful, silent but wild and passionate young man at heart.
The master suddenly became anxious, unable to sit still in his chair. He stood up and paced back and forth in front of the painting, as if there was a difficult decision inside him. After wandering for a full hour, the master's gaze fell on the corner of the studio. There was an exquisite magic table, which was a bit out of place with the overall casual style of the studio. The magic table is a special device for activating monthly bills. It should be placed in a suitable space and installed securely, but the master is a bit undisciplined, so this expensive and important device is casually thrown in the corner of the studio. It is only when it has to be used that it is pried out of the corner among the piles of discarded drafts. Seeing the magic table, the master naturally thought of the monthly bills and Helen Su's joy.
The master hadn't seen the legendary mage's joy in months.
And this painting... This painting was so vivid that the master couldn't even pretend not to see it. It meant something special, and it was one of the few special circumstances that the legendary mage had specifically listed as needing to be reported. If it wasn't reported, the master could guess with his toes that the ensuing result would be the legendary mage's rage. The Master could struggle between art, conscience and the joy of Helen Su, but between conscience and Helen Su's rage, there was simply no room for him to choose.
The Master, with a face of pain, reached out and removed the statue of the maiden, carefully wrapped it, and then hurriedly left the studio.
An hour later, the statue of the maiden was placed in front of Blackgold.
The Dwarf Grey kept the Master waiting for a full 40 minutes, before crawling out from under the pile of gemstones that had covered the entire workbench and blocked half the passageway. Then he spent a minute listening to the Master's explanation. Deep blue is the world of magic, and the world of gold coins, but there is nothing about art. The Dwarf Grey had one foot halfway up the side of the Magic Peak, while the other was standing at the summit of the Gold Coin Mountain. Therefore, although his physical height just reached the Master's chest, his mental height was just the opposite.
The master's explanation The Dwarf didn't listen to a word of it. He skipped over all the explanatory sentences and grasped the main point: Richard's work, one of the items that Her Highness Helen Su had specifically requested be reported on. Upon hearing this, Blackgold didn't dare to be negligent either. With those hard and rough hands covered in calluses as thick and hard as a monster's scales, he carefully tore open the wrapping paper, revealing the statue of the young girl inside.
There was silence.
The Grey Dwarf's eyes hardly moved as they fixed on the statue of the young girl, his lips moving rapidly as he muttered something to himself. The master was deeply shocked. He had never imagined that Blackgold would be able to see and be moved by the fleeting charm of the painting. The master suddenly felt that he had been prejudiced against the Grey Dwarf. Who said that this race did not understand art at all?
Blackgold suddenly let out a breath of air, rubbed his sore eyes, and said, “That's it?”
“Huh? Yes...” The master was a little confused.
“This painting hasn't been colored yet, has it?”
“...”
The master struggled to suppress his heart, which was beating fast and slow at the same time. After taking a long breath, he reluctantly replied, ”This is a plain painting.”
The gray dwarf suddenly understood, took another look at the portrait of the young girl, and commented, “Well, she hasn't fully developed yet, but her figure and looks should be average. I'm judging by your human standards. If I were to judge by our Stormhammer traditions, hmm... Aha! I see, the lunchbox! That's the lunchbox specially made for Richard! What perfect details and proportions, not a single line out of place, just like Richard! You know, that Archmage Lodan, who teaches magic circles, has praised him three times this week already. How many times has he done that this year? Let me see, fifty or seventy... quite a lot anyway! You have to understand, the old guy hasn't praised anyone that many times in the past ten years combined!”
The Archmage really couldn't express how he felt, and unable to explode at Blackgold, he could only guide him patiently, “If you look closely, the painting captures that moment...”
The Grey Dwarf looked carefully, looked again, looked again... and finally felt that the painting should be painted with some color.
As he left Blackgold's office, the Master felt almost as grey as Richard. An unprecedented sense of defeat had almost made him lose his artistic confidence. He never understood why this master appraiser of jewelry, magical equipment and antiques knew so little about painting, and every word of layman's talk he uttered was deeply damaging.
Behind the master, the two bronze doors to the Grey Dwarf's office slowly closed. The doors were twice as tall as those in the rest of the building, which meant that the Grey Dwarf's office was also twice as high. So these two antique and magnificent doors, which represented wealth and status, had always been the object of envy and hatred for many people in the Dark Blue. The reason why the Grey Dwarf, who was only half the height of a tall human, had made his office area so high was self-evident.
When the door closed, the gray dwarf behind it suddenly sneered, muttering, “The boss's joy is not something that can be obtained so easily.” In his cabinet, if you count the statue of the young girl, the events that have made Helen Su “happy” have filled most of the cabinet, totaling 67 items.
The grey dwarf instinctively walked over to the gemstone ore, but frowned and stopped. He turned back to the desk, reopened the girl's portrait, and examined it carefully for more than ten minutes. He then closed it and, after hesitating for a moment, put the portrait in a smaller cabinet. The smaller cabinet also contained events or reports intended to make Helen Su “happy”, but there were only five in total, and the painting was placed in second place. Unlike the large cabinet, the reports in this cabinet will soon meet the legendary mage. And the contents of the large cabinet may be dumped out in a few months, just like the abandoned mine.
The entire summer seemed to pass in the blink of an eye for Richard. In just one more day, the Harvest Festival would begin, marking the beginning of autumn and the end of the fishing season in the Iceberg Bay. On this day, the millions of people in Iceberg Bay who made their living from the sea would hold a grand celebration to thank the sea god for providing food to get through the long, harsh winter. The dark blue located in Iceberg Bay also made this day a holiday, which was considered to be the official sign of the beginning of autumn.
The Harvest Festival meant nothing to Richard. All his time was taken up with finishing his homework, which was so heavy that it would take forever to finish, meditating to accumulate magic power, and practicing his magic skills. He had to fill his time completely, otherwise his thoughts would bubble up like water, popping up here and there.
On the evening of the harvest festival, Eileen arrived at Richard's settlement on time to deliver his dinner. The heavy lunchbox was already difficult for the young girl to carry with just one arm, but it was expected to continue to gain weight in the foreseeable future. While Richard buried his head in cleaning the food, Eileen sat quietly on the side, silently watching. Now that the two no longer had a trade of one gold coin between them, they rarely even spoke. Therefore, Eileen had not received a single gold coin from Richard during this period of time. Eating was now a complete ordeal for Richard. The girl's melancholy could not be hidden no matter how hard she tried, but she refused to disclose the reason. So Richard was suffering, but there was nothing he could do about it.
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The last piece of dessert was swallowed by Richard with great determination, and then he looked up and looked at the girl for the first time. He wanted to say thank you habitually, but the rows of numbers that appeared on the girl's body made him freeze on the spot! The girl's body had changed. In the digitalized vision, the original subtle changes were infinitely magnified and presented extremely prominently before his eyes.
Her breasts had increased slightly, and they were not symmetrical, which obviously was not a natural growth, but caused by external injury. And her movements also seemed unnatural, especially her legs occasionally trembling lightly, and her waist moving quietly non-stop. It seemed that sitting on the heavily brocaded cushion made her feel tingling. The girl's eyes were slightly swollen and redder than usual, as if she had cried hard not long ago. Today, the girl's magician's robe was wrapped extra tightly, but an area of bruising on her neck was revealed in an inadvertent movement. Moreover, her heartbeat was much faster than usual. Compared to himself, Richard's heart only beat so fast when he had just experienced something very important.
All the signs combined immediately made Richard think of an answer, one that he found completely unbelievable. When he turned eleven, Richard didn't know anything about the enlightenment of noble children at the age of seven or eight, but now that he was eleven and a half and Eileen had taken him most of the way, he already knew all about the things that must happen between adult men and women.
“You...have a man?” Richard's voice was dry and hoarse, and he could hardly recognize it himself.
Eileen's body trembled, and her face instantly paled. When the truth of the matter was revealed, she slowly calmed down instead, raised her hand to fix her slightly messy hair at the side of her face, and said, “Yes, last night.”
Richard took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and stopped looking at the hopeless numbers jumping in front of his eyes. ‘Why?’ His voice was as calm as Eileen's, but it had a chilling coldness to it.
“I need money.”
“I have a lot!” Ever since noticing Eileen's changes, Richard had been poking his head out like a bird breaking out of its shell to learn about the outside world. Although he still didn't have a single friend he could talk to, at least Richard had come to understand that he couldn't measure the others in Dark Blue by his own standards. Take spending money alone as an example, his monthly income was enough to let dozens of people in Dark Blue live well.
Eileen's face paled. She gave Richard a deep look, shook her head, and said softly but firmly, “But I don't want to earn your money.”
She packed the lunch box as usual, and when she reached the door, she turned back and said, ”I forgot to tell you, starting tomorrow, someone else will deliver your meals. So...goodbye, Richard.”
The metal isolation door slowly closed. When the sound of a heavy impact came, Richard suddenly felt as if he had lost all his strength and slumped against the back of his chair. He grasped his hair and tried hard to believe that nothing had just happened, but not only his two gifts of inspiration, but also all the qualities cultivated since childhood reminded him of this cold and cruel truth. However, he could not understand why Eileen would not want to earn his money.
At this time, Richard did not understand that when one is young, one will always have certain inexplicable insistence, and be moved by it, but often inadvertently let the truly important things slip through one's fingers.
Autumn is like winter.
The early autumn in the Bay of Drifting Ice is already very cold, and late autumn is no different from severe winter, except that one can tell the difference from the bright colors of vegetation that have not yet faded.
Throughout the autumn, Richard suddenly erupted with great energy, as if a long-dormant volcano had suddenly erupted. The level of his obsession with learning and acquiring knowledge shocked the Archmages, who had been amazed at the speed of his progress during the summer. They could hardly believe that someone could squeeze so much out of their time, and yet it was happening in Richard's small frame.
Richard's adjusted schedule left him no room for thinking, and his use of time was precise to the minute. Every day when he was extremely tired, he would immediately empty his mind, collapse into bed, and go to sleep, even dismissing the basic alertness cultivated by living in the mountains. Only in this way could Richard get the deepest sleep, restore the energy needed for a day of study in just three hours, and allow the magic of growth within those three hours of sleep to be no less than that gained from meditating for three hours.
Reports flew to Blackgold like snowflakes, making the Grey Dwarf furious. He did his best to compress the number sent to the legendary mage's desk, lest Her Highness Helen Su's excessive joy overwhelm the already somewhat fragile balance of payments of Deep Blue. But the Grey Dwarf's power sometimes ran out, and the records flew like a blowout in every corner of Deep Blue, and even many reports had enough energy to go directly past him and to Helen Su.
As a result, Deep Blue's balance sheet began to falter. Fortunately, Duke Thoram suddenly made a large additional sponsorship payment for some reason, and another self-funded disciple's qualification was auctioned off at a sky-high price in the Millennium Empire, one of the three great human kingdoms, adding two large covers to Deep Blue's financial reports for the autumn and winter seasons. However, the Grey Dwarves are not a short-sighted race, and Blackgold has a long-term strategic vision. In the past, he often worried about Deep Blue's financial situation 300 years in the future. But the reality is that it won't be 300 years before they can't make ends meet.
The Grey Dwarf is wasting away day by day, and his stout and stocky frame has miraculously revealed a hint of thinness. His coat, which obviously doesn't fit, flutters with every punch he throws, like the fragile balance on the books. He deals with massive amounts of numbers every day, but his income is stable, while his expenses are always difficult to measure, and every time they exceed expectations in an unpleasant direction. Every profit margin eroded makes Blackgold feel like a piece of flesh has been ripped off his body. But the legendary mage's joy is also not subject to the will of the Dwarf, and sometimes she even cheers for Richard's small achievements.
In the autumn, the only person in the Dark Blue who didn't want to see “Helen Su's joy” was the Grey Dwarf.
At his most desperate, the Grey Dwarf even had the idea of going after Helen Su's personal purse. If only Your Highness would open up her purse just a little, the situation in the Dark Blue would be resolved. Blackgold was once enchanted by this idea. Your Highness's exquisite little purse contains the wealth of countless dragons! Fortunately, he soon came to his senses and realized how stupid the idea was. Not even a dragon would dare to lay a finger on Helen Su's purse, let alone a tiny grey dwarf.
Blackgold was not deterred, and soon found his own motivation. If he could not solve the immediate predicament, then what was the use of him? A finance officer was not just someone who kept accounts; that was a job that even high elves could do.
The Grey Dwarf was haggard, but Richard, whose mood was equally dismal, was the opposite.
On the last day of late autumn, Richard stood naked in front of the full-length mirror, scrutinizing himself in the mirror. This was a body that was beginning to show signs of masculinity, with broad shoulders, two budding pecks, a rapidly tightening waistline, tight, powerful buttocks, and even elven-style slender yet explosive legs. His face had undergone slight changes. Perhaps it was because he hadn't smiled in a long time, or perhaps it was because he had long been silent and thoughtful. The slight childishness and softness that had remained in the spring had all faded, and the edges and corners had begun to stand out, like steel rocks cleaved by a giant axe, with flowing magma buried within each line. As for those eyes, they were as calm as the bottom of a deep, dark abyss, gloomy and cold, unfathomable.
Richard's heart stirred slightly, and then his gaze fell to his lower body. There, his masculine features were already standing tall and proud, ready to pierce and conquer. They were already extraordinary, and there was still more room for growth in the future. Seeing his proud weapon, Richard finally managed to force a long-lost smile to his lips.
He was already a man.
However, at that moment, Eileen's crisp yet heavy voice suddenly sounded in Richard's ear: “Yes, it was last night.”
Richard's body immediately trembled. He raised his hands to cover his ears, but halfway through the motion, he let them drop, because he knew that no matter how hard he tried, the conversation would be repeated in its entirety.
“Why? !”
“I need money.”
“I have a lot of it!”
“But I don't want to earn it from you.”
...
Richard no longer looked at himself in the mirror, but instead let the conversation echo in his ears as he strode towards the Enchanting Lab. In the corner of the laboratory stood a steel mannequin. It was originally used to test the power of magic, but now Richard used it to sharpen his fists. Whenever his heart was burned by the past and it hurt too much, he would use the mannequin to strengthen his physical strength and torture himself at the same time. This time was no different.
Walking up to the steel mannequin, Richard stopped as usual. His legs were spread shoulder-width apart, in the exact position he needed to throw a punch, and he took a deep breath. The surface of the steel mannequin was very smooth, clearly reflecting Richard's face. For some reason, seeing himself on the steel armor, Richard suddenly felt an uncontrollable surge of anger! He hated himself, and even more, he hated why he had not been able to discover Eileen's predicament earlier, but instead indulged his own loss and waited in silence for an unacceptable outcome. The anger ignited the hidden bloodline, and the flowing blood instantly boiled and burned, turning into roaring lava that rushed straight to the top of his head!
The burning blood suddenly gave Richard infinite power. Every blood vessel was about to burst under the pressure, and every meridian seemed to be about to be broken through the next moment. He let out a beast-like roar, swung his fist, and smashed it hard on the chest of the steel doll!
The chest of steel collapsed and dented in response, and even appeared to have faint cracks. Not only the fist, but half of Richard's forearm sank into the chest of the puppet. The violent power was so strong that it faintly formed a vortex with suction. The puppet was tightly sucked to the top of the fist, and the scope of deformation was still expanding. Finally, when all the pent-up power was released, the distorted puppet flew back violently, crashing heavily into the wall and deforming again.
This is a standard magical puppet, with a defense comparable to a military-issue half-body armor. This means that the power of Richard's punch is already enough to kill an elite knight wearing half-body steel armor from the front. If converted to energy levels, it is also comparable to a weakened fireball spell.
So, on this day as autumn turned to winter, Li awakened the first of his bloodline abilities: explosion.
Wintering is also like winter.
Winter is a season of death for every native life form on this plane. Even creatures accustomed to living in frigid zones prefer spring and summer. That's because in those seasons they can find more food, mate, reproduce, and store fat for late autumn and winter.
Now the seasons made no difference to Richard. The young bird, who had originally looked curiously at the outside world, completely closed his eyes and sealed his senses. Richard didn't care about anything outside, and just wildly threw himself into the world of magic. His magic power grew wildly again. During the time when the northern part of the floating ice bay froze, Richard's magic power reached 24, which had already exceeded the standard of a third-level mage. Almost all of the mentors who taught Richard were ecstatic about his progress, with the exception of one person, and that was the master who taught him art.
Richard's paintings were breathtaking. They were all monochrome sketches, all drawn with a fine quill. At first, the pictures had a composition and lighting, and various characters appeared. According to the master's teachings, portraits would give the picture a soul. However, the people in the paintings Richard submitted were appearing less and less, and the environment was becoming more and more oppressive. Later, there were simply no longer any living creatures in the paintings, and even the scenery gradually became blurred. But in the eyes of the master, these paintings became more and more powerful, like the dark sea, with only the slightest ripples on the surface, and a storm that could come at any time.
Sometimes the master could not help but look closely at the lines. With each stroke, curve, and smoothness of the line, it was as if he could hear the soul's cry from the depths of hell! Even a single line was so powerful! The master could not imagine what Richard must have been like when he was painting. One day, the master, who was only a 12th-level wizard, suddenly realized that he had become unable to withstand the mental impact of the paintings. However, his duty as a mentor made him have to carefully examine every painting Richard submitted.
Richard's paintings used less and less light, the scenery became increasingly blurry, and large shadows began to occupy larger areas. Finally, one day, when Richard handed in a “painting” made entirely of messy lines, the master suddenly smashed every single thing in the studio that could be smashed!
In the winter, there were two other minor things that slightly disturbed Richard's life.
One was that in one of the lessons, Richard once again met the young wizard who called himself Stevenson. The young wizard was very enthusiastic and had impeccable manners, fully displaying the etiquette of a noble child. As a direct disciple of Helen Su, he and Richard naturally had less of a barrier between them. Another student of the legendary wizard, Minnie, was also present. Usually cold and aloof, she seemed much livelier this time. After listening for a while, she not only took the initiative to join in, but also started several conversations.
Both Stevenson and Minnie had a good command of magic, so the conversation was all about it. Richard didn't want to talk to anyone, but the discussion of magic was an exception, so reluctantly he accompanied them for a short while. Fortunately, the lesson started soon, and Richard was able to return to his lonely ways.
Throughout the conversation, Richard sensed their faint hostility from beginning to end. Although they hid it very well, some of the subtle physical details were captured by Richard's innate talent for precision and analyzed by his intelligence. It was normal to be hostile. Almost everyone Richard met in Deep Blue was more or less hostile towards him, except Helen Su and Eileen. What he couldn't understand was why Stevenson and Minnie, both of whom were more capable and had better backgrounds than he did, still held a grudge against him. But these two people didn't really matter to Richard, and by the end of the day, he had almost completely forgotten about them.
Another small thing was that he saw Eileen again. It was just a distant back view. In the largest trading area near the bottom floor, the flow of people was rolling, and it flashed by in an instant, but Richard knew it was her. Eileen was accompanied by a man, who openly put his arm around her waist in an intimate gesture. It didn't matter where they were going or what they were doing, because everything had already shown that what needed to be done had already been done, and it didn't matter if it was one more time or one less.
Richard did not go after them, nor did he take a second look. The young man by Eileen looked a bit like Stevenson, but Richard did not pursue the comparison. It no longer mattered who was by the girl's side, so Richard erased her and the man by her side from his mind, a fairly simple and easy process.
It was still not easy to forget, but there were many ways to stop the pain. This might be considered one of Richard's gains this winter.
