The Queen of Scrolls never admits defeat

Chapter 713 Dream World 51
Moran was secretly stuffing Dream Coins into his pocket, calculating which materials to buy, completely unaware that on the wall behind him, Teacher Martina's shadow was twisted into an exaggerated grin, even secretly making a victory sign.

Shadow General Store is located on the other side of Shadowless Stone Square.

“It’ll be faster to get there through the shadows,” Martina said, and then disappeared into the nearest shadow.

Moran had already mastered shadow walking and quickly used his shadow to carry him into the shadow world. In just a few breaths, they had traversed the entire Shadowless Stone Plaza.

When Moran returned to the real world, he was surprised to find a cave standing in front of him that was almost identical to Martina's house.

The same fan-shaped black lacquered wooden door, the same wall windows, even the doorbell hanging at the door is exactly the same. The only difference is the glowing sign above the door that reads "Shadow General Store".

Moran stopped in his tracks.

The vast Shadow Village is filled with all sorts of strange houses, some hanging upside down from the cave ceiling, some embedded in the rock walls, and most of them are cave houses carved out of hollowed-out stones.

But even among cave dwellings, none are exactly alike, because no two large stones are exactly the same.

But the grotto in front of us looks like it was copied and pasted directly from Martina's house.

“Teacher…” Moran sensed something was amiss, “The owner of this shop…”

"Oh! Isn't this our esteemed village chief?"

A hoarse, slightly mocking female voice suddenly came from above.

Moran looked up and saw the window on the second floor of the general store suddenly pushed open. An old woman wearing an eye patch leaned out, her gray braids wrapped with shimmering, shadowy threads.
"What, has the reclusive old lady finally decided to come out of her cave and get some fresh air?"

Martina's stone cane slammed to the ground with a thud, startling several passing shadow insects into scattering in all directions: "You little imp! Hurry up and open the door, don't delay my apprentice's teaching!"

"Apprentice?" Leona was taken aback at first, a look of surprise flashing in her single eye, then a mischievous smile appeared on her face. "Oh dear, you've finally come to your senses, finding a lover to prepare for having a baby—" She stopped mid-sentence, then noticed Moran standing to the side, her expression freezing instantly. "Her? You've taken an adventurer as your apprentice? Are you alright?!"

“I paid the tuition, so it’s three Dream Crystals!” Martina proudly raised her chin, tapping her stone cane on the ground in a smug rhythm. “How long would it take you to sell groceries to earn that much? I earned it in just a short time taking classes!”

Leona's one eye widened, her lips twitched, and she resisted the temptation of three Dream Crystals, forcing a straight face as she said, "So it was to earn Dream Crystals! If you're short of money, just tell me. There's no need to rip off adventurers!"

She deliberately raised her voice, reminding Moran, "What can adventurers learn from us? It's just a few skill books, right? I have plenty of skill books here; buying one of each wouldn't cost that much!"

“Heh,” Martina sneered, “My apprentice just switched races this morning, and in less than an hour she mastered shadow walking, shadow jumping, and walking in the light. Now she’s already learning to tame the shadows of mindless creatures. Do you think she can learn anything?”

As soon as Martina uttered those words, she immediately stared intently at Leona's face. Sure enough, Leona's expression froze instantly, her single eye filled with disbelief, and even the shadowy threads on her braid seemed to explode in shock.

Martina immediately felt completely refreshed, and even straightened her back a bit.

“How is that possible?” Leona’s voice suddenly rose. “I’m not saying this, but learning from skill books can’t really be called learning.” She unconsciously tightened her grip on the window frame, causing the wooden frame to creak under the weight.

"Me, Martina, using skill books as teaching materials?" Martina scoffed. Stone Strike impatiently tapped the ground. "Open the door now! I still need to help my apprentice choose materials for further instruction!" ...

The two argued back and forth, and Moran couldn't get a word in edgewise.

She now fully understood that these two identical houses were simply the product of their rivalry!
Martina's shadow on the wall was baring its teeth and claws at the second-floor window, while Leona's shadow, not to be outdone, emerged from the window and gave them the middle finger.

It seems tonight's shopping trip is destined to be anything but peaceful.
The store door suddenly creaked open, and Leona, who had somehow teleported behind the counter on the first floor, stared intently at Moran as he walked in.

Leona knocked on the counter and said to her daughter, who was checking the goods by the counter, "Lia, haven't you always said that no one in the village your age can compare to you? It just so happens that your grandmother Martina's new apprentice is at a similar learning pace and is the same age as you. Why don't you compare whose shadow is more stable!"

Lia turned to look at Moran, and then vanished from the spot in an instant.

The next moment, Moran sensed something amiss in her shadow. She remained silent and quietly mobilized her mental energy.

In the shadow world, Lia, who was trying to slip into Moran's shadow to control her, looked at the rock-solid shadow under her hand: "???"

She had never failed among her peers before, and was very surprised, but she didn't want to embarrass her mother.

If controlling the shadow doesn't work, tearing off a small piece of this person's shadow will do. At worst, we can return it after winning the competition, and it won't cause her too much harm.

Lia hid in the shadows of the counter, condensing the power of shadow into a blade that slashed at Moran's shadow.

Moran's shadow silently scratched an itch and reached into the shadows of the counter.

"what!"

Lia was caught off guard and fell out of the shadow world. One of her fingers was completely immobile and throbbed with pain. When she looked at her shadow, sure enough, the shadow of her finger was missing a piece.

At this moment, that piece of shadow was being tossed around in Moran's shadow hand!
“Mother, I lost. Her shadow was too solid; I couldn’t grasp it or control it, and she easily pulled me out and even cut off a part of my shadow.”

Seeing that she had achieved her goal and made her teacher look good, Moran had Shadow return the other person's finger to Shadow.

If it's delayed too long, that finger could really become useless!

"How about that? It's real ability, isn't it?" Martina said proudly.

Leona didn't nod, but that was only because she didn't want to admit defeat to her old rival. She had just clearly seen that this adventurer showed no signs of using a rigid skill book and had quite agile control over his shadow.

But Martina wouldn't let her off the hook, watching her with a mocking gaze.

Not wanting to lose face in front of her junior, Leona managed to squeeze out a sentence: "You've really found a good apprentice..."