Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 77 Evolution
"Failed again."

Kuku sighed as he watched the magic power dissipate from the little red paws.

"Unstable mental energy output? Insufficient magic power? Incomplete model? Elemental rejection? Or all of the above?"

Kuku nodded; the answer should be all of the above.

Compared to Kuku, who was born with absolutely nothing, Rean was far too fortunate.

The prerequisite for a spellcaster is to construct a rudimentary "spell model." Mental energy is the blade that sculpts this model, the supplier of the materials, and the foundation of everything.

Kuku, this kobold warlock, has mental strength that is even inferior to that of an ordinary person, let alone the "geniuses" in the mage tower.

Not only does it not output enough magic, but its output flow is also not stable enough.

Its magical model, shaped by its spiritual power, is extremely fragile. Lacking a complete education in mathematics and geometry, it is even inadequate in terms of spatial imagination.

The most difficult thing is that it simply has no ability to imagine a "spatial model of magic". How can something that cannot be understood be created?
Can you master magic tricks after just a few hundred tries? Kuku had no idea he'd practiced thousands, even tens of thousands of times, yet he still only failed.
"It's done, it's done!"

After countless failures and reviews, and after a long period of improvement and accumulation, a success that was full of chance and luck was finally achieved.

But the joy that welled up inside him at that moment was something that Kuku, who would become a top spellcaster in the future, could never forget.

Insufficient magic, insufficient mental strength, insufficient knowledge, insufficient spatial imagination. Acknowledge the shortcomings, then continuously make up for them and repeatedly try and fail.

"Teacher, teacher! I've learned it! I've learned it!"

What Kuku remembers most vividly is the teacher's exasperated reaction as he watched his apprentice spend over a year mastering the magic trick.

But the next moment, the teacher stroked his beard and revealed a genuine smile.

"Well done, well done." He even patted Kuku's head.

"I knew you could do it." He smiled smugly and contentedly.

Time flies, and Kuku's studies in the world of mages are not going well.

Things didn't go smoothly from the start, and they got even worse afterward.

You can certainly make up for a lack of progress in your studies with diligence, but geniuses can too; time will only widen the gap between you.

You can proceed slowly and ignore your surroundings, but the resources, money, and opportunities needed to learn magic are all limited.

If you have it, I don't. If you fall behind, these opportunities and resources for progress will slip away from you.

As you are constantly left behind, you will also suffer increasing psychological pressure. This is on the premise that you are not seen as worthless trash who wastes resources and are directly kicked out.

You can indeed stay up all night studying complex spell models, but when you reach the third or fourth ring or higher, the amount of calculation and modeling power required increases a hundredfold or a thousandfold. When you decipher the blueprint of a spell model into an incomprehensible book, you can often only sigh helplessly after a long period of overtime.

The third ring is a hurdle, a bottleneck that most mage apprentices can never overcome in their lifetime. But for warlocks, it may be an awakening of their instincts and a breakthrough of inspiration during sleep.

Kuku has vaguely realized that, given his talent, he will probably never reach the three realms of a mage in this lifetime.

"There's always a way out. Strange, even though there are dead ends everywhere, why do I feel there's still hope?"

At this time, Kuku had been expelled and was living as a war sorcerer who studied and worked, but he still did not give up learning magic.

At this time, he had actually entered middle age and his mind was almost mature.

His adventurous life broadened his horizons. He remained interested in magic, but no longer focused solely on the "academic standard magic" in the mage tower.

"Alchemy! Alchemy! It is change, transformation! It is the possibility of making up for what is lacking!"

For a considerable period of time, alchemy, acquired from dwarves and elves, was not even considered a normal branch of magic; it was often only learned by mediocre spellcasters.

Then they become logistics and equipment suppliers for adventurers, carrying a bunch of bottles and jars through the streets and alleys, and even selling hair loss potions and fertility drugs, but they are not considered as members of the magicians.

The professional potion-making science, which originated from alchemy, was not mature in Kuku's time, and racial evolution was also unsystematic.

"Witchcraft! Interesting! I can learn it! Evil magic too!"

During his adventures, he discovered that the wild monster races, including goblins, ogres, and tree spirits, all had their own spellcasting systems.

Many of these are not limited to sorcerers of bloodline, but rather incorporate shamanistic witchcraft, curses, and sorcery that combine rituals and incantations.

These spells can actually be categorized under the realm of magic, but they are often fragmented and unsystematic. However, they do not require high levels of comprehension or mental strength from the caster. Instead, they often require strange and unusual things, which vary from race to race.

"I can learn! I'm eager to learn!"

At this moment, the kobold appearance actually helped Kuku, as he, as an "evil creature," easily blended into these "evil creature groups."

He learned curses and potions from the hag, bloodthirsty shamanism from the ogre wizard, poisons and the secrets of the demon world (the lower plane) from the goblin folk, the art of corruption and murder from the dark elves, dragon language magic from dragons and dragonborn, and sorcery and blasphemy from the devils. Heaven knows how much he learned, and his outstanding "language talent" gradually made him an unconventional magic master.

During this process, he also made many friends and gained many disciples. What he enjoyed most was exchanging magical secrets with the local tribes and discussing and developing new spells with the local spellcasters. He had long since determined that not all magic required extremely high computational abilities and talent.

Sometimes, by changing your perspective, a weakness on one path can become an advantage on another.

As he later told Rean, the magic of each race is actually the crystallization of that race's civilization and knowledge, and is the most suitable extraordinary magic for them.

After learning enough, he even combined witchcraft, sorcery, and dragon vein magic to develop his own spells.

In that era, there were even several types of magic named after Kuku.

The "Kuku's Fire Rain" spell series, now under a different name, continues to circulate in the world of magic.

At that time, he was far from being a grand mage in the eyes of ordinary mages, even though most grand mages strive their whole lives but do not have a spell named after themselves (which is one of the highest honors among spellcasters).

When he returned to the (orc) world, he was still not an archmage, but in reality, he had far surpassed ordinary archmages.

However, this does not mean that he is able to decipher those overly complex spell models and incantations.
"There's a way! Perhaps! Ogres! Multi-headed lizards!"

He has an idea, but perhaps it requires some sacrifice and experimentation.

Among ogres, there is a rare multiple mutation. Among the generally low-intelligence ogres, multi-headed ogres are natural warlocks and shamans, and can even perform "multicasting" or "simultaneous casting" incomprehensible to most spellcasters.

Two heads, two consciousnesses? At the same time, Kuku also thought of multi-headed creatures in the world, especially the multi-headed serpent lizard that also had dragon blood, and even had the potential to venture into different elemental realms.

If there were an extra "head" to help calculate and analyze spells.
"Experiment! Experiment!"

It's hard to say whether this idea came from fragments of memories from a past life (assistive computer) or from a chance encounter with a multi-headed spellcaster.

Kuku was not a cruel dark wizard. He experimented with small animals and mice, combining shamanic magic, natural magic, and alchemy.

However, most of them died within a few days due to "immune conflict".

So, after thinking it over, he adopted a bolder idea.

He hired a priest to help him "heal the wounds" of the animals. He cut off the animals' brains, nurtured them (and healed them), and then transplanted them back into the animals' bodies, creating de facto multi-brained life forms.

So, after countless failures, he created some “multi-headed lives” that were not actually multi-headed.

But at this point, his research was interrupted.

Another group of paladins approached. From their perspective, a wizard hiding in a remote, impoverished area was creating a whole host of strange and monstrous creatures, clearly indicating a conspiracy.

When they followed the villagers' directions and saw a large number of deformed monsters such as multi-headed chickens and dog-faced monkeys, they no longer hesitated.

"This evil is worth fighting!"

As a result, Kuku was in big trouble.

He drove off the knights, and then a small squad of knights arrived.

After defeating the small group, a knightly order arrived.
"Me, Kuku! I paid for it! I bought it all! Find the villagers!!"

This is probably the most heartbreaking declaration of defeat and escape.

But no matter how many failures or setbacks you face, as long as you persevere, there will always be a day when you break through.

Many people may not know that kobolds, who are descendants of dragons, are actually long-lived beings. Although 80% of them do not live past the age of ten, their natural lifespan is actually over 120 years.

The kobold whose dragon vein awakened will have his lifespan at least doubled. Finally, Kuku obtained the knowledge and results he wanted.

So, one day, he finally operated on his brain, and the gleaming white light of the blade opened it up.
"Ahhhh!"

This time, Rean was startled awake from his dream.

Upon waking up, Kuku saw him waving a small knife around and quickly backed away.

"What! You can't finish Kusla! Aren't you allowed to have some?"

Rean then noticed that Kuku was just holding a knife and gesturing at the cake.

Rean quickly took a few deep breaths before slowly recovering from the nightmare.

"You...you were talking about multi-head surgery before?" Rean remembered what Kuku had mentioned before: "a little sacrifice, a little cost, a little awareness."

Is this just a little bit?! Is this merely a little bit of awareness?
"No! Crude! Outdated! What Kuku wants to achieve is evolution! Species evolution!" But Kuku just shook his head. What time is it to still use that outdated technology?

"Dragon evolution, multi-headed dragon evolution!"

(End of this chapter)