9 Green (-)

The cave was undisturbed for many years.

Green found it very comfortable living here.

He was lying at the bottom of the lake and meditating when the sound of steps reached him.

Someone was walking by the shore.

Green opened an eye and looked up through the layers of fire. In the weak light of the cave walls, he saw a little shadow carefully probing around.

'A human?' it had been so long since he had last seen a living human. 'What is it doing here? Did the hole open up?' he thought.

There was an unstable hole at the ceiling of the cave. It would appear occasionally, letting in some animals from time to time.

Green didn't mind eating those small things. Not that he needed to actually eat, but as they would die in here anyway, why not have a feast.

But a human was different.

Green wasn't a man-eater.

Still, it would die in here like any other.

Also Green wasn't a vicious magical beast, he wasn't a particularly benevolent one either.

He liked being alone, and would not go to greet the human just because it had fallen into the cave.

It was that human fate, nothing to do with him.

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That was what he thought for a moment.

But the next moment his eye suddenly constricted.

After looking around a cave for just a bit, the human went to the lake and washed its hands.

And nothing happened.

'What?!' the Green was immensely surprised. 'How come a human can just come and wash its hands in the liquid fire like it's nothing?!'

The liquid fire was a very rare form of fire. It was a transparent liquid with a bit of light-blue hue. And it had all the properties of fire except it was… well, liquid.

By all means, the human's hands should've been burned to a crisp. But they weren't.

It was as if the lake here was filled with ordinary water.

But that definitely wasn't the case.

The tree in the cave was a very rare natural treasure Fireleaves Treasure Tree. Not to say about it being able to produce a fruit only once in a thousand years, it could only grow in the natural environment with abundant fire energies. And this was exactly the case with the cave. Its walls were made of Earthfire Crystal which was rich in fire energy and was able to provide the nutrition for the tree.

And it was even more so with the lake as the lake was full of not anything else but liquid fire.

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Green was able to live in the lake because he was a dragon and he had affinities to earth, water and fire. In fact, the environment in this cave was just perfect for him to cultivate.

For people, it was bad to have more than one affinity as it obstructed their growth. But it was not the case for magical beasts. On the contrary, magical beasts had a natural talent for merging elemental energies, so the more affinities a beast had, the more powerful it would be upon reaching maturity.

It was harder to grow for more powerful ones, but if they survived they would be the rulers in the world of magical beasts. One affinity was a common magical beast. Only the ones having two affinities were considered something in the magical beast society. The ones having three affinities were elders and aristocrats. And the King had four.

As for those with five or six affinities, there were none of them, as the ones born with that much talent had a very great toll on their bodies and died right after birth. Not even the dragon bodies were able to contain so much power, nothing to say of any other beast.

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Green's interest was thoroughly picked.

To be able to contact with liquid fire and not be burned, just affinity alone was not enough.

It meant this human had to have some sort of fire constitution.

It was hard to say now if this human was unlucky or not to fall in this cave.

If it really had a fire constitution, this cave could possibly provide the human with a rare opportunity to nourish its body. That was once in a lifetime chance.

Green decided to observe the human.

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The human went around the cave several times.

It was apparent it was looking for an exit.

A pity it was bound to fail as there was no exit here.

After it found nothing in the cave, it took off clothes and went into the fire.

Now, Green could tell that the human was a girl. It was really hard for magical beasts to tell human gender while it was wearing clothes. Well, it was hard for humans to tell magical beasts apart too. It's natural if they are not your species. That's why all magical beasts referred to humans as 'it' and reserved 'he' and 'she' for their own.

The girl went into the lake. And then stumbled and fell into the fire.

'Oh, stupid creature, why would you go into the lake if you can't swim?' Green sighed and willed for the fire in the lake to throw the girl out.

The funny thing was that although the human obviously swallowed some of the fire, still nothing bad happened to it.

So it was clear that its constitution wasn't just any. It was evidently one of the top-class fire constitutions.

'Well,' Green thought. It was probably the fate that brought them together.

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He watched as the girl learned to swim.

Green was only able to praise the little one's indomitable spirit.

It went into the lake once and once again.

Even after nearly drowning several times it didn't give up.

Green didn't mind giving the human a helping claw. He had grown an admiration for it in the past several days.

He even was a bit sad after the food the human had was consumed.

That meant he wouldn't be able to enjoy watching it for much longer.

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Time went by fast.

The girl couldn't move anymore. It was lying ashore looking into the lake. Was it even seeing anything?

Green thought regretfully, that it was the time to say goodbye. Not that they ever greeted each other.

He looked around. Where was it? He decided to give the human a parting gift.

He reached a claw and took an enormous piece of shed skin. He didn't need it, but for a human, it would be a valuable treasure. Humans were good at producing different useful things from discarded skins, scales, and horns.

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The lake seethed and the figure donned green robes came ashore.

Green didn't intend to show his true form to anyone, and he didn't know if there was anyone outside the cave, so he assumed his human form.

His hands still looked a bit like claws, but otherwise, he looked just as a human would.

He took the human's magical purse and placed his skin into it. Then he added some fallen crystals and leaves. They were of no use to him, and even if they were he had a full cave of them. He even went as far as taking one of the branches from the tree and giving it to Feather. What she couldn't do no matter how she tried, Green was able to accomplish with one sweep of a claw.

He then took the girl into his hands and opened the hole out.