Life is tough, so Honglong resorts to performing?

Chapter 3 On the train

After saying goodbye to his landlord, Loren headed to the train station.

"Lightness, feathers falling, the elegance of a cat."

After Loren skillfully chanted the incantation, several beams of magical light were cast upon him.

He began to hop through the complex streets and buildings of the lower town.

As a third-tier archmage who had completed most of the conventional spells, Loren was fully qualified to use flight and short-distance teleportation between cities, but the problem was, he was a dragon.

It is not only a rare animal under second-class protection, but also a juvenile.

Federal law protected him strictly, but it also restricted him, especially in the use of force, which was quite strict and rigid.

The kind where you can be fined a lot of money if you get caught once.

This forced Loren to move quickly by jumping.

Of course, there is another very practical reason for doing this: those magic crystal cars that solicit passengers are very expensive, extremely expensive.

And Loren was very poor.

"Hopefully I can get a child's ticket today, otherwise I'll have to spend the night at the station."

As he jumped, Loren pondered.

Because of the long period of immaturity for immortal races, the Federation offers children's tickets for immortal races such as dragons and elves on a daily basis, with a limited number available each day until they are sold out.

In addition, dragons also have various taxes that require extra payment for riding in vehicles, such as those for large, dangerous, or rare items.

This means that if Loren doesn't manage to buy a child's ticket, he either has to pay a high ticket price or sleep at the station overnight and buy a ticket for the next day.

Fortunately, Loren was lucky.

When he rushed to the train station, there were still plenty of tickets left at the children's ticket window.

"One Dragon Clan child ticket, to the neighboring Greenleaf City."

Loren went to the window, handed over his identification, and called out to the halfling woman inside who was operating the screen.

"Loren Gellis Izak, a pureblooded red dragon?!"

The halfling in the window shouted, drawing everyone's attention.

Their eyes showed a hint of surprise. After all, this was not some dragonborn, dragon beast, bloodthirsty creature or any other random thing, but a real pure-blooded red dragon!

Even with the city's development to this point, superior races like Loren are still rare among the vast majority of ordinary races.

"Yes, it's me."

Loren covered his face. He knew the other person was surprised, but it didn't matter; he would be even more surprised soon.

"Ordinary seat, no insurance for valuables, no special security, just the cheapest ticket."

Loren calmly stated his request, knowing that it was because of those enlightened dragon beasts and purified half-dragons—dragon members that ordinary races were more familiar with…

Dragons have been labeled by the vast majority of people as people who are extremely rich.

After all, those guys don't need to save money or build up resources to break through to the Ancient Dragon rank. They occupy a middle to upper-level ecological niche in social life thanks to the powerful physical bodies and magical talents of the dragon race.

They were all upper-middle class, with considerable family wealth.

Young dragons like them, from the Five-Colored Dragon Clan, are often kicked out of their homes by their parents and need to earn their own living to build up their wealth. Being penniless is the norm for them.

"Why bother? With your dragon race's talent for making money..." Sure enough, as Loren stated his needs, the halfling sister inside the window cast a complicated look at him.

So much money, yet so frugal?
Loren simply snorted in response.
"Greed and stinginess are fine traditions of our dragon race. We five-colored dragons are just like that."

He couldn't very well say that he was a poor wretch who was worse off than those identity thieves, could he?
That would be incredibly embarrassing.

"Okay, here is your ticket, totaling 243 copper coins, including 26% of various basic value-added services."

Although the halfling sister didn't understand, she was clearly shocked. She respectfully handed over her ticket, and watched as the young red dragon painfully pulled out his purse and carefully counted out the copper coins. She couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
"No wonder they're rich."

Amidst the surprised and envious gazes of the crowd, Loren walked towards the large, dangerous vehicle in the back.

Unlike conventional train carriages, which are packed to capacity like sardine cans, these carriages are quite short.

However, its height and width are significantly larger, and it typically only accommodates four people per section, each with its own dedicated protective measures.

However, because Loren is a giant creature like a dragon, he takes up two slots.

"Identity verification, Red Dragon, Loren Gerlis Izak, passed."

As Loren inserted his ticket into the reader next to his seat, several thick black iron pillars rose up, creating a small area just large enough for his true form to move around in.

At the same time, fine magical runes lit up, and the black pillar turned into a deep blue.

"Energy-absorbing metal paired with a cold-type magic array, even if I use up all my dragon breath, I still won't be able to burn this thing."

As a professional mage who is also penniless, scavenging his employer's materials while doing odd jobs is a required course.

So Loren quickly recognized the material and curled his lip.

It's absolutely impossible to break it off.

Of course, even if he could break it off, he couldn't take it with him, since the train is operated by the federal government!

Loren was not the only passenger in the carriage.

Occupying two squares opposite him was a colossal creature that stood two meters tall even while seated—a two-headed ogre.

Its rough, grayish-brown skin and two tilted heads were gazing at the new little guy with curious yet somewhat dazed eyes.

He might be thinking, "You're so small, why do you need to live in such a big space?"

In a brief exchange that followed, Loren learned that the drooling-headed guy was named Sika, and the other, somewhat wary-looking guy was named Sidang.

This mentally challenged fellow insisted on paying for both fares, which meant that no more people would board the carriage, and they could wait for departure.

However, at this moment, Loren was clearly not in the mood to chat with the cannibal, as he was still immersed in the pain of losing weight in his wallet.

Every single penny of this is the foundation for his future progress!

The federal government's broken trains and its broken policies are ruining us poor little old dragons!
With that in mind, Loren began his daily spell training in the car. Because of the suppression of the energy-absorbing metal and the cold magic array, he could take the opportunity to practice a few more sophisticated energy-shaping fire spells.

"Let's take this one, the Flame Web."

Loren began to construct the spell model and location in his mind, based on his memory.
Because there is no magic network or similar system for storing spell slots in this world, mages in this world rely on mana bars and their own memory to cast spells. In other words, mages have to compete on casting speed.

Repeated memorization and casting not only make one more skilled at spellcasting, but also allow one to control the strength and power of spells.

If you're lucky, it's even possible to develop a super magic specialization.

Once the magic crystal train officially started, Loren stopped practicing and started chatting with the ogre next door.

(End of this chapter)