Chapter 66:

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sound of fists connecting with flesh echoed throughout the massive palace.

Rod was covered in blood, his fists repeatedly smashing the head of the Giant King.

Every time the head was crushed, the Giant King would roar and grow a new one.

Once, twice... ten times... twenty times...

At first, the Giant King was full of vigor, but as his head was shattered again and again, a look of panic spread across his face.

Puff!

The newly grown head was once again smashed to pieces.

The Giant King finally started to panic, his voice carrying a note of weakness.

"Human, perhaps we can negotiate!"

Rod, with a blood-covered face, looked at the pleading Giant King with indifferent eyes, raised his hand, and smashed the Giant King's head with a punch.

Negotiate?

Trash, do you think you're worthy?

"Human, must you fight until death? I am not one to be easily trifled with either!"

"Let's go down together..."

Blazing flames emerged from the Giant King's body, making Rod feel as if his hands were being roasted.

Rod squinted his eyes slightly, and the "Lament of the Dead" turned instantly into a large icy blue sword.

Puff!

The blade pierced through the Giant King's chest, the freezing power instantly extinguishing the flames burning on the Giant King's body.

Bang!

With another punch, the Giant King's head was shattered, and the flames were completely extinguished.

"Human..."

"Shut up!"

Rod frowned and looked at the muttering Giant King, a cold expression appearing on his face.

Why not just stay there and die quietly?

What's with all this nonsense?

You think this is a show?

Boom!

With a powerful punch, Rod smashed the Giant King's head into pulp, and the force of the blow continued unabated, surging into the ground.

The power of one punch cracked the solid ground.

Rumble!

The ground collapsed, and within a radius of hundreds of meters around the impact point, the palace sank into a massive pit.

The palace shook violently, teetering on the edge of collapse.

On the Giant King's neck, the head that had been shattered began to gather flesh, but in the end, no new head grew.

The Giant King's struggling hands fell weakly to the ground.

"Can't hold on any longer? Pathetic."

Rod spat, thinking this guy could last for a few more hours. But after just one hour, he had already been beaten down.

He really overestimated this guy.

However, now that he was dead, he could become the nourishment that would make Rod stronger.

Rod placed his hand on the Giant King's body, a deep light bursting from his palm.

"Sacrifice!"

As the Giant King's corpse slowly disappeared, Rod's already maximized physical strength began to increase once again.

Rod squinted his eyes, enjoying the feeling.

This sense of getting stronger was truly exhilarating, making his entire body tremble with excitement.

But the rewards from sacrificing the Giant King weren't just about increasing strength.

Besides the enhanced physique, Rod had also gained three of the Giant King's abilities.

The first one: Earth's Blessing.

At first, Rod thought that as long as he destroyed both of the Giant King's heads, he could kill him.

In reality, all of the Giant King's regenerative power came from the ground beneath his feet.

Giants were the children of the Titans, inherently gifted with the power of the earth. As long as they stood upon the earth, their power and physique would surge.

In theory, as long as more than half of their body was not destroyed, they could continuously regenerate limbs. Even if their head was smashed, it could grow back.

But there was a restriction: the body had to be in contact with the ground.

Only then could they draw power from the earth and regenerate their body.

However, this ability also had a limitation: the power of the earth in a given area was finite.

Although the power of the earth could recover itself, if too much was drawn in a short period, the protection of the earth's power would be lost.

The Giant King had been beaten to death so many times that the surrounding power of the earth was exhausted, which is why Rod could finally kill him.

If the Giant King had escaped to another place with abundant earth power, killing him would have been troublesome.

Unfortunately, the difference in strength was too great, and the Giant King was completely overpowered by Rod.

He didn't have the chance to escape to another place to recover.

As for why other giants didn't have such terrifying regenerative powers, it was because their bloodline was too diluted.

The power of giants came from the Primordial Titans, but only the very first generation of giants had perfectly inherited the power of the Titans.

The power of the Primordial Giants was so terrifying that even the gods feared them.

They had to be banished from the world and sealed away.

The giants of today were the descendants of those Primordial Giants, interbreeding among themselves or with other races.

After generations of reproduction, their bloodline had become so diluted that it was almost nonexistent.

They only had great strength and physique, but they hadn't inherited any of the Titan's power.

The two-headed Giant King was an exception. Perhaps due to a genetic throwback, he had mutated.

He had awakened a faint trace of the Primordial Giant bloodline.

And he had even mastered two types of Titan powers.

This was the second ability Rod gained.

The Power of Flames!

Using the power of his bloodline, the Giant King could control the fire element around him, creating flames hot enough to melt steel.

Moreover, the strength of the flames he could control would increase with his power.

In theory, if his power was strong enough, he could create flames comparable to the surface of the sun.

These two powers came from the Earth Giant and the Flame Giant.

Rod speculated that the two-headed Giant King was most likely a hybrid born from the interbreeding of two different types of giants.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to possess two types of Titan powers simultaneously.

As for the third ability, it was quite interesting.

Dual Casting!

The two-headed Giant King had two heads, each with different powers.

Since the two heads were independent entities, they could use two different abilities simultaneously.

Earlier, the Giant King was releasing flames with one head while using the earth's power to regenerate his body with the other.

Although Rod hadn't grown a second head, he had gained the Giant King's ability to dual cast.

He could use two different types of magic and powers simultaneously.

Though it wasn't a particularly powerful ability, it could be just as effective as combat abilities in actual battle.

After dealing with the Giant King, Rod searched through the palace.

He found quite a few good things, starting with the harp the Giant King had been holding.

He had thought that the Giant King had some musical talent to be able to play such beautiful music.

But it turned out the harp was a magical instrument that could play music on its own.

Even an idiot could make the harp play the most beautiful music.

"Quite the act."

Rod smirked, nearly fooled by the Giant King's performance.

Even though it was just an auto-playing magical harp, it was still a magical artifact—good enough to keep as a decoration at home.

He put it in his personal storage.

Behind the palace was a treasury belonging to the Giant King, filled with a large amount of treasure.

However, Rod just glanced at it and lost interest.

The aesthetics of giants were much like those of dragons—they liked shiny things.

Aside from gold and silver coins, there were all sorts of gemstones.

While valuable to ordinary people, they were nothing but useless junk to Rod.

Still, he took them all.

After all, they were his spoils of war.

After looting everything, Rod carefully searched the giant's castle again.

After confirming there were no hidden dangers left, he was about to leave.

Looking back at the massive floating island behind him, a bold thought suddenly crossed his mind.

Could he take this sky island into his personal storage?

The world itself had a consciousness, like a collective subconsciousness formed from the will of all the living beings in the world.

Thus, the world couldn't be taken into his personal storage.

But this floating island, suspended in the sky, was essentially a massive independent magical artifact.

It was indeed large.

But theoretically, any inanimate object without a resisting consciousness could be put into his storage.

Whether his personal storage could contain this sky island was something he would have to test.

"Take it!"

Swoosh!

In an instant, the massive island disappeared before his eyes.

Rod felt an overwhelming sense of weightlessness, his surroundings shifting rapidly.

Without the island to support him, his body began to plummet at an incredible speed.

Not just him, but all the living creatures on the floating island fell with it when it vanished.

Seeing the ground less than a hundred meters away, Rod cast a Levitation Spell on himself.

Swoosh!

His body came to an abrupt stop, as if gravity had vanished, hovering mid-air.

Unfortunately, the beasts falling from the island with him weren't so lucky.

They crashed to the ground, turning into a mess of flesh.

Gently touching down with the tip of his foot, Rod scanned his surroundings, finding himself in the middle of a dense forest.

Fortunately, his Night Warhorse bore the mark he left behind, and after sensing for a moment, Rod realized it wasn't far away.

Just a few kilometers or so.

"Should be right through this forest."

Rod looked at the vast expanse of forest and decided to cut straight through.

Halfway across, he came upon an old, rundown house.

Hmm?

Rod raised an eyebrow. This house seemed strange.

He could have sworn he hadn't seen it just a moment ago, and then it suddenly appeared.

But then, considering that this was a fairy-tale world, it wasn't that surprising for weird things to pop up.

Looking at the plain-looking house, Rod felt a sudden curiosity.

What could be inside?

He walked up to the door and gave it a gentle knock.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

"Who's there?"

The sound of footsteps approached, and then the door opened.

Rod scanned the inside of the house but didn't see anyone who might have opened the door.

"Hey, hey, hey, what are you looking up there for?"

An annoyed voice came from below, and when Rod looked down, he saw a dwarf barely as tall as his legs.

The dwarf looked up at him with a very displeased expression.

A dwarf?

Rod raised an eyebrow, maintaining a gentle expression.

"I've been traveling for a long time and would like a place to rest. Could I come in for a bit?"

The dwarf stared at Rod's face for a long moment, then turned and walked back inside.

"Come in."

Rod entered the house, finding it much larger than he expected.

Besides the dwarf who opened the door, two other dwarves were sitting on stools, looking troubled.

The door-opening dwarf walked over to the others and whispered a few words.

Three pairs of eyes turned towards Rod, all with a scrutinizing look.

"Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Rod casually took a seat, looking at the worried expressions on the dwarves' faces, and decided to ask.

In a fairy-tale world, there were certain beings one should avoid messing with.

Elves, witches, gods.

Witches weren't that hard to deal with—just be cautious and ruthless, and don't give them any chance to make trouble. They weren't that much of a threat.

Even curses could be lifted.

But elves and gods were different.

The elves in fairy-tale worlds might be weak—so weak that even an ordinary person could kill them—but they had near-absolute power to make their words reality. Their curses and blessings could easily reverse a person's fate.

And, most importantly, such curses and blessings couldn't be undone.

Only by fulfilling the condition of the curse could it be lifted.

And the power of gods was even beyond that of elves.

However, the chance of encountering a god was lower than winning the lottery.

In many fairy tales, dwarves often replaced elves, so until Rod figured out what these dwarves were, it was best to gain their favor.

"Sigh, there's no point in telling you."

"Lately, the forest harvests have dwindled, and we don't have enough food stored for winter."

"Unless you have a way to help?"

The three dwarves spoke one after another.

It was clear that each of them had a distinct personality.

The dwarf with the white beard seemed to be the eldest and had a steady temperament.

The one who opened the door seemed to be the second oldest and had a calm demeanor.

The youngest dwarf was the most hot-tempered and impulsive. His gaze towards Rod was the most unfriendly.

"As for food, I do have plenty with me."

With a wave of his hand, Rod made a pile of fresh vegetables and fruits appear on the floor.

His personal storage was well-stocked with supplies.

Various fresh vegetables and fruits—enough to fill several small warehouses.

Plus, the floating island he had stored away grew a lot of giant fruits and vegetables.

Huge ones, each about two or three meters in size.

The three dwarves wouldn't be able to finish one in a week.

Food?

He wasn't lacking at all.

Seeing the pile of food appear out of nowhere, the dwarves' eyes widened like saucers.

"Are... are all these for us?"

"This isn't right, we don't even know you."

"Or do you want us to trade something for them?"

The three dwarves swallowed nervously. They hadn't eaten a full meal in days, trying to save on their food supplies.

Seeing so much food, how could they not be tempted?

Only the youngest still looked at Rod with suspicion.

After all, humans were deceitful creatures, always scheming.

Offering so much food—there must be a catch.

"I love making new friends. If you consider me a friend, then these are my gifts to you."

"After all, isn't it only right to help a friend in need?"

Rod waved his hand with a generous smile.

After all, they weren't worth much to him.

He didn't know the dwarves' origins, but if he could use these things to gain their friendship, he thought it was a worthwhile exchange.

Rod's sincere words and genuine gaze immediately moved the dwarves.

Even the grumpy youngest brother now looked at Rod with friendliness.

Every human they had ever met had been greedy, deceitful, and demanding.