Support me and be 30 chapters ahead of webnovel:
patreon.com/Draco_
For every 5 Patreon memberships I receive, I'll release 15 chapters all at once. Your support means a lot to me.
*****
Late the next night, upon the frozen ice layer of the Sea of Ghosts beneath the College of Winterhold.
Nidenia, having already recovered from the majority of her injuries, stealthily unfurled her wings and took flight, looking as furtive and sneaky as a thief.
For a giant dragon, external injuries like those she sustained yesterday could be healed very quickly, provided she had enough time to rest.
"I don't believe you can catch me this time!"
As a newly resurrected dragon, she still had many things she wished to accomplish; she truly did not want to be reduced to a human's mount.
After thinking it over again and again, she felt she had to make one final attempt.
Of course, she was not a brainless dragon. She dared to make this final attempt because she felt the probability of success was very high this time around.
The reason her escape failed last time was that she didn't understand George well enough. She had misjudged his strength, never expecting that he could actually shoot her down just by throwing stones.
But this time, she had summarized the lessons from her previous two failures and knew exactly how to target George's weaknesses to shake him off.
With a powerful flap of her wings to accelerate, Nidenia flew straight toward the depths of the Sea of Ghosts.
Indeed, her plan was quite simple: she intended to hide deep within the Sea of Ghosts to prevent George from catching up to her.
George's speed was fast, yes, but this was the open ocean. Even if he jumped, there was no place to land. He couldn't possibly just keep swimming in the water, could he?
Moreover, even if his swimming speed was fast enough to catch her, there were no objects around for him to use to smash her down.
Everywhere one looked, there was only boundless seawater.
As long as she shook off George, she could find a small island in the vast ocean to rest. She would wait two or three hundred years until George died of old age, and then he would never be able to locate her again.
Meanwhile, inside the Arch-Mage's Quarters at the College of Winterhold, George was in the midst of discussing the fundamental principles of the world's magic with the Arch-Mage.
Yesterday, after proposing to Savos Aren that he join the College of Winterhold and receiving approval, he had moved into the college today.
He did not immediately seek out the instructors of the various schools of magic to ask for guidance. Instead, he first found Savos, the strongest individual in the college and the one with the most thorough research into magic, to begin an exchange on basic magical theory.
Because he had played the game in his previous life, he understood the various spells of the mages in this world.
Therefore, he was in no rush to learn specific spells.
The power and visual effects displayed by those spells did not hold much that was worth his anticipation. Basically, he could already achieve the same effects using his own brand of magic.
In his view, the most important thing was to first master the basic magical principles of this world. This would allow him to understand the operating laws of this world more clearly, helping him expand his knowledge and accelerate the completion of his own "Small World."
Likewise, once he mastered the basic magical principles, he would be able to rapidly learn all the magic this world had to offer.
Additionally, he could use the magical principles of this world to re-manifest the magic from other worlds that he was already proficient in.
Facing George's request to discuss basic magical principles, Savos had originally only agreed out of politeness and to save face.
As far as he was concerned, for basic magic, there was no need for him to step in; even the apprentices with decent grades in the school could guide George.
However, he didn't dare actually let those apprentices guide George—that would be too disrespectful to this Legendary Warrior.
At the very least, it had to be a college instructor.
But since George had actively requested that he, the Arch-Mage, provide the guidance, it was hard for him to refuse.
However, what he hadn't expected was that while George's understanding of basic magical principles was limited, he was often able to articulate new ideas and lines of thought during the guidance that gave Savos sudden flashes of insight.
Consequently, what was originally intended to be a one-hour session had unknowingly stretched from morning all the way until late at night.
Furthermore, he discovered that George absorbed the magical principles he explained with incredible speed.
At the beginning, it was mostly Savos guiding while George listened, occasionally raising questions that made Savos's eyes light up or offering perspectives he hadn't considered.
But gradually, as George mastered more and more magical principles, the dynamic shifted. By now, it could almost be said that they had graduated from one-sided guidance to a mutual exchange of knowledge.
"I knew it. Did she really think flying out to the sea would be enough to shake me off?"
George raised his hand to pause the Arch-Mage, who was still in the high spirits of discussion.
"Arch-Mage, it is getting late, and you should probably rest.
My mount is trying to escape again; I'm going to go deal with it.
We can continue tomorrow."
"Is it already this time? It's the first time I've felt time pass so quickly."
Savos looked at the time and couldn't help but let out a sigh of emotion before nodding.
He felt that accepting George into the College of Winterhold was truly the most correct decision he had made in his life.
And George indeed possessed great magical talent. Perhaps he was the most talented person in magic Savos had ever seen; it was truly a pity that he worked as a warrior.
Coming out of the Arch-Mage's Quarters, George followed the stairs to the roof of the College of Winterhold.
"Little Blue-Blue, I'm coming for you."
Sending a soul transmission to Nidenia, George leaped off the edge, plunging toward the Sea of Ghosts below.
"Frost Spell!"
Just as he was about to fall into the sea, he extended his hand toward the water's surface and unleashed a Novice-level Destruction ice spell. The intense cold immediately froze a patch of the sea into a massive block of ice.
Landing on the ice block, he leaped again. The instant the ice shattered under the force, he was already propelling himself far into the distance.
Just like that, utilizing the ice blocks created by the Frost Spell, George bounded rapidly across the surface of the Sea of Ghosts. Very quickly, he caught up to Nidenia, whose wings were smoking from how frantically she was flapping them.
"He can actually do that?!"
Seeing George using the Frost Spell to skip across the ocean surface, Nidenia's entire face turned green.
"It's fine, it's fine. It is all seawater here; he doesn't have anything he can throw to smash me."
Thinking of this, she felt slightly more relieved.
But in the next second, she saw George make a ferocious leap, his trajectory aimed directly at her.
"I'll dodge!"
Startled that George could jump so high, Nidenia panicked and quickly maneuvered to avoid contact with him.
She knew that if George touched her, she would inevitably be beaten unconscious on the spot.
Because she was flying high enough, she had ample time to evade, and she indeed successfully dodged George's close-quarters approach.
However, something beyond her expectations happened again. George suddenly blew a powerful breath of air from his mouth. Borrowing the massive reactionary force, he actually shot sideways toward her at an extreme speed.
This scared her so badly her dragon eyes bulged, and she desperately flapped her wings, trying to dodge once more.
"Sparks!"
A violent barrage of lightning struck, covering the sky. Within a mere three seconds, the giant dragon Nidenia, despite her extremely high magic resistance, fell toward the Sea of Ghosts looking like a charred lizard.
Twenty minutes later, a slightly recovered Nidenia carried George back to the ice layer beneath the College of Winterhold.
Nidenia was in a much more miserable state than last time. Crucially, the two beautiful, crystal-like blue dragon horns on her head had been forcibly snapped off.
For a female dragon, having her horns broken off was like a woman having her head forcibly shaved—one could imagine what a cruel punishment that was.
"If other dragons see me, how can I go on living?"
Nidenia now endlessly regretted her clever little escape attempt today, which had cost her her favorite dragon horns.
She would have rather been beaten half to death than have her horns snapped.
"Once, twice, but never thrice. If I find there is a third time, I will kill you directly—including your dragon soul—and make you truly vanish from this world!"
George stood there holding two crystal dragon horns, his body radiating a terrifying killing intent.
Nidenia lay prone on the ground, trembling all over. She didn't dare lift her dragon head even an inch. She had completely submitted.
(End of Chapter)