Chapter 88

PS: Which editor deleted all my comments in the book review section? It's made my place so quiet...

...Main text...

"This is your reward for the battle." Liu Siyi took out forty crystals from his storage space, divided them into four portions, and handed them to the four crystal dragons.

"Lord Lewis, we are very grateful for your generosity." The crystal dragons took the crystals and expressed their thanks.

"Huh?" The youngest crystal dragon, Green, looked at his portion of crystals and suddenly let out a soft exclamation, which sounded loud to Liu Siyi.

"Is something wrong? The number shouldn't be short, right?" Liu Siyi asked. Each portion was ten crystals; if he made a mistake, it would be embarrassing.

"Nothing's wrong, it's exactly ten." Green's eyes darted around, clearly not lying. He smiled and asked, "Lord Lewis, look at this crystal, it's different from the others..."

"XX force XX crime XX!" (Note: Words with XX are in other races' languages, perhaps dragon language or insect language...)

Blue suddenly roared, deafening Liu Siyi. His ears buzzed for a long time before he slowly regained his hearing.

"Oh, my, Lord Lewis, I'm truly sorry, please forgive my rudeness."

As soon as Liu Siyi recovered, he saw Blue's fawning dragon face filling his field of vision, apologizing.

"It's fine, just be quieter next time, I can't take it." Even if he didn't forgive, what could he do? His ears were still buzzing, but his mind was clear. Fortunately, the crystal dragons didn't have bad breath.

"By the way, speaking of crystals, the ones I took out do seem a bit different." Liu Siyi immediately brought the topic back to the previous one. Although he didn't know what Blue's roar in dragon language meant, it made Green shut up, which probably meant 'shut up.' It was just about the crystals, but the urgency made him suspicious.

Heroes all have their own storage spaces, and their sizes vary. Mage-type heroes, with stronger mental power, have larger storage spaces than warrior-type heroes. The storage space grows with each level-up. Before, there wasn't much to store, so he didn't pay much attention. After collecting five hundred crystals, he noticed this.

Each type of resource is stored separately. Since they were all crystals, he didn't pay much attention and put them all together with the previously obtained crystals.

However, he couldn't forget the items he had just handled, especially now that Liu Siyi's mental power had increased after leveling up. He immediately thought of what was different about the crystals he gave to Green.

Indeed, there was a difference. Out of the ten crystals, nine were the newly collected protection fees, and only one was from before.

In front of the four crystal dragons, Liu Siyi directly took out one of each type of crystal and immediately saw the difference.

The crystals he had obtained before and the protection fees collected from the crystal dragons had a significant color difference.

The crystals condensed by the crystal dragons were very pure, each crystal a single color with no impurities. The crystals he had obtained before, while still a single color, had variations in depth.

When the two types of crystals were compared, it was immediately clear that the crystals condensed by the crystal dragons were more like artificial creations, while the other type was very natural, like natural crystals.

"I know these two types of crystals. One is condensed by you, and the other is condensed by the laws. Both are resources that can be used to build structures and exchange resources, with almost no difference in function. However, these two types of crystals should have a significant difference for you, right?" Liu Siyi, having his suspicions, naturally asked.

"Um, yes." The four crystal dragons looked at each other, pondered for a moment, and then Blue answered.

"Oh? What's the difference?" Liu Siyi was determined to get to the bottom of it.

"Lord Lewis, there's no need to hide this. Didn't you notice anything when you received the five hundred crystals?" Blue said frankly, "Each crystal dragon has a different color due to the different colors of the crystals they absorb, so the colors of the crystals they condense are also different, which is more obvious when compared to the crystals condensed by the laws. Although the colors are different, their functions are the same.

However, this is a big issue for us crystal dragons.

Each crystal dragon has a unique color, representing different powers. Therefore, absorbing crystals condensed by other crystal dragons requires more energy than absorbing our own, and it might lead to impurities in our colors, which means a mix of powers.

Of course, this isn't a big problem.

What Green was about to say was whether you, Lord Lewis, could pay us with the crystals we condensed ourselves or the crystals condensed by the laws as a reward, so we can absorb the energy more easily."

"This isn't an unreasonable request, why did you stop him?" Liu Siyi asked again, having accepted Blue's explanation. It's like blood types, A, B, AB, and O.

"Lord Lewis has been very generous to us. I just didn't want to cause you any unnecessary trouble." Blue said respectfully.

Liu Siyi nodded. Although he still had some doubts, he didn't ask more. Instead, he smiled and said, "You're right. Since we're working together, we shouldn't be selfish and should consider each other. There's no need to say you won't cause trouble. Since I know now, it's just a small effort. Take out your crystals, and I'll exchange them for you."

Saying this, Liu Siyi selected the crystals from his storage space, took out the crystals condensed by the four crystal dragons, and handed them over.

Green looked constipated. He was the only one who got a natural crystal, and now he had to give it back for this reason. How could he not be upset? The other crystal dragons were also helpless. Since they had given this reason, it was too late to say anything now.

"Since Lord Lewis isn't bothered, we thank you." Blue smiled.

"It's nothing, it's better for everyone to be happy." Looking at the crystal dragons' smiles, Liu Siyi couldn't tell how forced they were.

"XX (Dragon language) don't look so gloomy. It's just five hundred crystals, and they'll be used up quickly. And from Lord Lewis's attitude, since he knows the crystals condensed by other crystal dragons are unsuitable for us, he will naturally give us natural crystals in the future. So, even without battles, in just forty weeks, we'll get a natural crystal every week." Blue patted Green on the shoulder, hugging him, and smiled to comfort him.

"XX Yes, I know, but it's just a bit upsetting to hand over the natural crystal I got." Green nodded.

The wisdom of dragons is no less than that of humans, and many dragons are even more intelligent. This can be seen from how quickly Blue found a nearly flawless excuse. However, dragons don't often use their wisdom because their fists are big enough. Why go through the trouble of thinking? Some say this is a human flaw, that with power, they stop using their brains, but it's the same for any race.

Liu Siyi didn't know that natural crystals and natural crystal mines could help crystal dragons break through level barriers, and the crystal dragons wouldn't say. It's a bit of leverage, and it's not good to be held by others.

A not-so-intense battle could easily yield ten crystals. Whether it cultivated the crystal dragons' fighting spirit is unknown, but after this, they shouldn't be消极怠工 (slacking off) in the next battle.

After dealing with the crystal dragons, Liu Siyi released all the knights and temporarily taught the fifth-level earth magic, "Return to City," to Ball. He was the only one here with advanced intelligence, capable of learning and using fifth-level magic.

"XXOO..." Ball chanted the spell without using magic power, waiting until he fully mastered the spell before activating the "Return to City" to bring all the troops back to the orc castle.

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