Spellcasting Gods

Before the swarming wolf pack could even react to what was happening, a bright, scorching flame erupted from the crack. The intense heat not only turned the iron gate into molten iron, but even melted the rocks that formed the fortress.

Fortunately, Arugal reacted quickly and vanished from his spot with a Blink spell; otherwise, he would probably have died from the fatal spit.

When the flames subsided, a giant dragon with beautiful violet scales shimmering all over its body stood out from nowhere at the entrance to Shadowfang Keep.

Compared to their last parting, Kuro Kerba has grown nearly four meters taller, and both its sharp claws and robust body prove that this dragon possesses devastating power.

Just as Zhang Cheng was about to mount the dragon and sweep through the entire castle, the scales on Kuro Kerba's body suddenly began to glow. Then, the arcane energy contained in the surrounding air surged into its body like crazy, forming dazzling magical vortexes due to its speed.

The suffocating pulling sensation almost made Zhang Cheng lose control of the surging magic power within him...

Chapter 0301 Compromise

"Damn it! How could there be such a commotion!" Zhang Cheng's face quickly turned ugly as he watched the dragon frantically absorbing arcane energy.

Although he had long anticipated that Kuro Kerbal would draw upon some magical energy upon arriving in Azeroth to compensate for his innate deficiencies.

Unexpectedly, so much energy was absorbed that it created a temporary vacuum of arcane energy within a radius of several kilometers. Right now, let alone casting spells, it is extremely difficult to even prevent the loss of magic power within the body.

As for Arugal, he was so frightened by the astonishing scene that he hid in the deepest part of the castle, unable to believe that a dragon had appeared at his doorstep and had even caused a violent energy draining phenomenon.

I don't know how much time passed, maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours...

After the twenty-odd magical vortexes of varying sizes in the air gradually subsided, Kuro Kerbal finally opened his breathtaking eyes.

This time, its pupils no longer held even the slightest trace of bestiality, but were filled with the light of wisdom.

"Kuro Kerba?" Zhang Cheng called out the dragon's name in a low voice, trying to figure out the current situation.

To his utter surprise, the dragon bowed down and replied in standard Westeros, "It is I, Father. May I ask where this is?"

"You...you can talk!" Zhang Cheng's eyes widened, an expression of disbelief on his face.

“Yes, I feel like I’ve suddenly become much stronger and smarter. There’s a scent in the air that I like. Is this your new castle?” Kuro Kerba looked around like a curious child.

It was completely unaware that it had left Westeros and arrived in a completely unfamiliar and more dangerous world.

Although being called "father" by such a colossal creature made Zhang Cheng a little embarrassed, he quickly adjusted his mindset, climbed onto the dragon's back, and gently patted the dragon's neck: "No, this is not my castle. On the contrary, it belongs to the enemy. Now, burn it down for me. Remember, do not touch the tallest spire; there is a very important book inside that I desperately want."

“Slaughter and destruction, is that what I do best?” Kuro Kerba flapped his wings and flew into the air, beginning a merciless massacre of the entire Shadowfang Keep.

Whether it was the wandering ghosts or all sorts of giant wolves and werewolves, they were all burned alive to ashes under the deadly flames, unable to mount any effective counterattack.

It's important to know that the flames breathed by adult dragons in A Song of Ice and Fire can melt even the granite used to build castles. Moreover, Kuro Kerbal's breath wasn't just simple high-temperature flames; it also contained terrifying arcane energy, causing any substance that came into contact with it to explode in an incredible way.

Under such severe destruction, the historic walls of Shadowfang Keep began to break down, and the buildings collapsed rapidly, turning into ruins in the blink of an eye, with only one tower remaining intact.

Through the window, Aruga could clearly see the terrifying behemoth hovering overhead, his eyes filled with fear and despair.

Perhaps he was once full of confidence in the werewolf army he created, believing that with their power he could easily defeat the Alliance and the Horde, and achieve great feats.

But the harsh reality told him that, forget about any great achievements, a single dragon could send his dreams to hell.

At the same time, Arugal understood that the reason the dragon did not attack the tower was not because it feared his power, but to ensure that the precious Book of Ur would not be accidentally damaged.

As everyone knows, mages are a group of absolute realists who value their lives above all else.

When faced with danger, they don't mind turning to the enemy, as long as the other side can guarantee their safety.

Having recognized the monstrous difference in their strength, Arugal didn't hesitate to take the Book of Ur from the bookshelf and shout at the top of his lungs, "You won! Here! This book is yours!"

"Hehe, thank you."

Zhang Cheng gestured for Kuro Kerba to lower his altitude, then snatched the book with the blue cover from the other's hand and quickly flipped through it.

After confirming that the contents were genuine, he nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad. If only I had brought it out sooner, we could have avoided the conflict. But now, simply bringing out this book is far from enough; you must pay a price to compensate me for my losses."

"Your losses?!" Aruga glanced at the castle, which had been almost completely destroyed, his lips twitching uncontrollably.

“Yes! I also want your research notes on werewolves! And ten bottles of Vogan’s blood!” Zhang Cheng stated his harsh conditions directly.

According to his memories, werewolves originated a long, long time ago and seem to have some connection with the Druid cult.

But these guys eventually lost control of themselves and went berserk, becoming the first werewolves in the world of Azeroth.

To prevent them from harming people, the famous hero Malfurion banished them all to another dimension, where they were inadvertently discovered by Ur and recorded in the Book of Ur.

Coincidentally, Arugal, who had just experienced Arthas's attack on Dalaran, desperately craved a power to protect himself. The Kingdom of Gilneas also happened to be caught in the Scourge invasion. So the two hit it off and summoned the first Worgen back from another dimension, defeating the invading Scourge army, but also sowing the seeds of a rampant curse.

Among these first-generation werewolves, the most powerful was named Vorgen. It was using his blood that Arugal created the werewolf king Nandus, Arugal's son, and a series of second-generation werewolves.

Without a doubt, the blood of the Vorgon possesses considerable power, which can also be described as a curse, making it highly valuable for research.

Zhang Cheng has never been a moral guardian, nor does he have any moral fastidiousness. As long as it can enhance his own strength, he doesn't care what means he uses.

"You wait!"

Although Arugao really wanted to curse, he held back and turned back to his room, presenting a notebook and ten bottles of blood that emitted an abnormal gray color with both hands.

“Very good! Now we're even! One last reminder: the Forsaken won't be paying attention to what's happening at Shadowfang Keep anytime soon, so you have about two weeks to a month to restore it to normal. Otherwise, you should know better than I do what those undead are capable of, right?”

After saying this suggestive remark, Zhang Cheng patted the dragon's neck again.

Kuro Kerba immediately turned and left the castle, flying due south. As he passed the gate, at his master's prompting, he casually grabbed a warhorse that was grazing by the roadside...

Chapter 0302 Astonishing Changes

After crossing the border between Silverpine Forest and Hillsbrad Foothills, Zhang Cheng quickly chose an inconspicuous valley as his temporary base.

The moment Kuro Kerba's massive warning landed, the frightened warhorse immediately fled into the woods like a madman, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.

However, Zhang Cheng had no time to chase after his mount. He quickly jumped off the dragon's back and, using the few tools he carried in his waist pouch, began to check various indicators of the dragon's body, especially changes in its blood.

It's important to understand that for magical creatures, blood not only serves normal functions such as transportation, metabolism, and the immune system, but is also the central hub for energy circulation. To understand their strength or weakness, one only needs to draw a little blood and analyze the amount of energy contained in each milligram of blood.

Of course, this calculation method, which clearly has a modern scientific tendency, was his own creation. Most mages simply extract the blood volume of a standard potion bottle and then judge the strength based on their own estimation.

"Father, are you worried about my changes?" Kuro Kerba seemed to have long been used to having his blood drawn. Instead of resisting, he opened his mouth and allowed the sharp needle to pierce the soft inner wall of his mouth.

"Shouldn't I be worried? You must understand that no form of power or evolution happens for no reason, much less without a price." Zhang Cheng explained as he squeezed the blood from the syringe into several test tubes, then injected small amounts of energy of different attributes into each for observation.

In just a few seconds, the test tube infused with arcane energy was the first to burst forth with dazzling light, as if even the sun in the sky had lost its color in comparison.

Without a doubt, the arcane energy contained in Kuro Kerba's blood is the highest, even far exceeding the limits of most senior mages and even archmages per unit volume.

If it could learn magic, its power would surpass that of most spellcasters more easily than eating or drinking.

Unfortunately, despite having a fairly clear mind and the ability to speak, the dragon's intelligence level was like that of a seven or eight-year-old child. It was full of curiosity about everything around it and kept asking questions, as if it had a hundred thousand whys.

With this level of intelligence, let alone learning obscure and difficult magical theories, even slightly challenging math problems would be quite difficult.

However, Zhang Cheng felt it would be a terrible waste to let such amazing magical talent go to waste. At least in his almost short-sighted philosophy, he would never allow this to happen.

Just as he was feeling a bit conflicted and had a headache, several other test tubes that had been calm suddenly erupted with violent reactions.

The red blood that had occasionally flashed with a violet luster suddenly began to glow. Some of it shone with a warm golden light, some began to burn fiercely, some solidified into bone-chilling ice, and some continuously released white lightning. The last bottle even emitted an ominous black mist.

Even more astonishingly, after a brief energy resonance, all the test tubes simultaneously reverted to the violet glow characteristic of arcane energy.

Such a violent and rapid energy conversion would leave even the Archmage of Dalaran dumbfounded, let alone Zhang Cheng who was completely clueless.

"Incredible! Absolutely incredible! Holy light, shadow, elements, life... all forms of energy are ultimately transformed into arcane magic and integrated into the blood, with almost no loss. This simply doesn't conform to the theories recorded in the books. Could it be a problem with the dragon breed from A Song of Ice and Fire? Or did some kind of mutation occur during hatching? Energy... arcane magic... devouring... transformation..."

He was like a madman who had discovered a "new continent," his eyes shining with fanaticism, and he kept muttering to himself.

In contrast, Kuro Kerba was much calmer, slowly lying down and yawning with his mouth full of sharp teeth open.

As an experimental subject that had been subjected to blood draws and various tests since birth, it had witnessed too many of its "father's" incomprehensible and crazy behaviors, and did not find anything surprising, and fell into a semi-conscious state on its own.

In short, the man and the dragon settled down in the valley. At least Kuro Kerba knew that they wouldn't move easily until their "father" got the answer he wanted.

Time flies, and ten days have passed in the blink of an eye.

With the mage's powerful abilities, Zhang Cheng built a makeshift laboratory out of clay, wood, and stone. He spent all his time inside exploring the mysteries of dragon blood. Except for when he ran out of research materials and had to draw some blood, he spent the rest of his time in the simple room.

As for Kuro Kerba, he would occasionally hunt some animals around to fill his stomach, and spend the rest of his time absorbing the rich magical energy in the air before falling into a deep sleep.

Having only been in Azeroth for a few days, it had already grown to an astonishing forty meters, almost indistinguishable from those guardian dragons that had lived for hundreds or thousands of years.

It's hard to believe that this little guy is only about a year old since it hatched, and it's growing at an incredible rate. In just a few years, it will become a true "primordial behemoth," a terrifying monster that can destroy a city or even a country all by itself.

Of course, changes in physical appearance alone would not have piqued Zhang Cheng's interest. What truly interested him was Kuro Kerbana's highly malleable magical talent.

Most of the established spells and different types of energy are transformed into arcane magic and absorbed and stored in front of this dragon, as if something is being conceived inside its enormous body.

This means that all spellcasters can only use summoning or polymorph spells to defeat Kuro Kerba by directly confronting him. Otherwise, spells like fireballs, ice arrows, or arcane missiles will be absorbed as energy before they even get close.

Although there is a ceiling to this absorption, it is simply impossible for most mages to achieve. Furthermore, engaging in close combat with a dragon is something no mage would easily attempt unless they were completely insane.

"To put it simply, it's magic absorption and immunity, truly an incredible ability..." Zhang Cheng said with a wry smile, his eyes bloodshot.

As a mage, he knew all too well how astonishing Kuro Kerba's current abilities were, coupled with his deadly breath mixed with arcane energy, making him a natural nemesis of spellcasters.

Most importantly, the magical contract he used when incubating the dragon egg did not weaken as the dragon grew stronger; on the contrary, it became increasingly tighter, sometimes even allowing them to understand each other's feelings through telepathy...

Chapter 0303 Admonition

"Father, are you... are you afraid of me?" Kuro Kerba seemed to sense something, opened his eyes and asked in a somewhat uncertain tone.

Clearly, its intelligence level is insufficient to comprehend overly complex emotions, especially the notoriously treacherous human heart.

"Shouldn't I be afraid? You know, your current power is a perfect counter to mine." Zhang Cheng chuckled and patted the other's large head.

As the dragon mentioned, after confirming the other party's abilities, he did indeed feel a fear that was indescribable. But this fear was not that Kuro Kerba would one day betray him; it was simply awe of power itself.

After all, he gave up so much to gain knowledge and power, including kindness and humanity, and he had to endure tedium, loneliness and solitude to achieve what he has today.

But what about the dragon in front of us?

It merely eats, drinks, and sleeps, occasionally venturing out to spew a few breaths of dragonfire, yet it has gained magical talents that others can only dream of. Even the most open-minded person would feel a pang of jealousy.

Fortunately, these negative emotions did not trouble Zhang Cheng for long. After a short while, he regained his composure and rationality.

Regardless, Kuro Kerba was created by him personally, like his own child, and played a crucial role in many battles, so there's no reason to be too conflicted.

"I don't understand." A look of confusion appeared on the dragon's ferocious face.

"Hehe, you'll understand when you grow up and mature a bit. Remember, don't use your abilities lightly. Once you do, do everything in your power to kill everyone present and make sure no one else ever finds out. Understand?" Zhang Cheng solemnly instructed.

"Understood!" Kuro Kerba nodded thoughtfully.

Although it didn't quite understand the purpose of doing so, it was used to killing and destruction and didn't mind crushing a few more tiny ants.