Chapter 141: Unnamed

With a hum, Muria stumbled out of the massive teleportation circle, his face spattered with traces of blood, and his body showing several unnatural twists and indentations.

"How do you feel?" Cassio asked, her expression neutral as she watched the somewhat disheveled Muria. She had anticipated this outcome when Muria decided to accept all the challenge requests.

"Exhilarating!" Muria grinned, revealing teeth stained with pale golden blood, which looked strikingly vivid.

"Five soul intent fifth-tier titans, two soul intent fourth-tier titans, four legendary-bloodline soul intent fifth-tier beasts, and one fourth-tier beast. Although all were suppressed to soul intent first-tier, your performance, reaching this state, is somewhat unexpected."

"Ha!" Muria chuckled proudly. Having just broken through to soul intent and then engaging in ten high-stakes battles, his current disheveled appearance was harsh, but the results were remarkably impressive.

In ten battles, Muria hadn't lost a single one, each ending in a draw. It should be noted that his opponents were all near-legendary beings. Even though they had suppressed a significant portion of their power, their combat experience and physical prowess were impossible to diminish. Thus, Muria ended up quite battered.

"You move fast!" Muria stood beside the Pool of Life. He remembered that when he had awakened, this pool had almost turned into clear, colorless water, and the bottom was covered with meters-thick, energy-depleted discarded crystals.

Now, those discarded crystals had been cleared away, and even the pool water, which Muria had drained of life essence, had been completely replaced with vibrant, emerald-tinged water.

"This water..." Muria observed the pool shimmering with a faint green luminescence, "seems different from before."

"A few drops of Eternal Life Tree sap have been added."

"Splash!" Without a second thought, Muria dove forward, causing a spray of water that shot meters into the air, and then his body was engulfed by the pool.

"Bloop, bloop!" A cool yet fiery warm current spread from various parts of his body, seeping into his flesh and accelerating the healing of his injuries. A strong sense of comfort made Muria involuntarily open his mouth under the water, releasing a string of bubbles.

...

"You all disappoint me greatly." Muria stood on the mountaintop, his face etched with a look of deep regret as he gazed down at the dragons lying below. "Not one of you completed the homework I assigned."

"How were we to know you'd wake up so soon?" A dragon muttered quietly below.

"Yeah, last time you slept for five years before waking up. This time it was only a year. Who would have thought it would be so quick?" A braver dragon whispered in agreement.

Hearing these murmured excuses, Muria's expression darkened. "Those are just excuses for laziness, not reasons for failing to complete your homework. Be honest with yourselves."

A pale golden aura of dragon might spread out, and all the multicolored dragons bowed their heads, silenced.

"The old rules apply. Those who didn't complete their homework, pay a fine and move aside. Those who did, come forward."

Upon hearing Muria's words, the dragons stirred, but quickly quieted down. Many dragons exchanged looks, reluctantly extracting an elemental crystal from their stash and placing it on the ground before obediently moving aside.

Only about twenty dragons remained in place, doing nothing, though many of them looked around nervously.

"Not bad, but I wonder how many of you are just trying to bluff your way through," Muria remarked, eyeing the twenty-odd dragons skeptically. "Line up, then come forward one by one and show me the spells you've just learned."

At Muria's command, the dragons shuffled and slowly formed a line to be inspected.

With the dragons now possessing their own private hoards, Muria had implemented new rules: complete your homework on time, and get rewarded with elemental crystals as usual.

For those who failed to meet deadlines, a daily fine of one elemental crystal was imposed until the task was completed. This rule leveraged the dragons' greedy nature to motivate them to study to protect their treasures.

...

"This spell, you learned it for your last assignment, didn't you?" Muria asked, scrutinizing a green dragon with a stern expression.

"Muria, I..."

"Double the fine, no excuses," Muria said as he dealt with the green dragon attempting to sneak by. Every time he checked their homework, there were always dragons like this, challenging his memory as a super hybrid.

The green dragon looked up at the imposing titan before him, bit its lip, and reluctantly pulled out two elemental crystals from beneath its scales, placing them before Muria. Then, head hung low in dejection, it moved aside to watch the other dragons undergo Muria's inspection.

Mur

ia watched the two crystals at his feet vanish without a trace, then looked up at a black dragon crouching not far away, somewhat timid: "Next."

...

"Being a teacher is exhausting!" Muria sighed deeply at sunset, watching the dragons fly down the mountain to their respective palaces. He then walked with the three red dragon sisters, who had also paid fines, back to the courtyard.

There he saw Claudia, still engrossed in her book.

"If only all dragons were like Claudia," Muria sighed again. He had never assigned her any homework; there was no need.

"You three, haven't you gone to read your spell books yet?" Muria's gaze hardened as he addressed the three bright-scaled female dragons behind him. "How much longer do you want to keep paying fines?"

Watching the female dragons transform into human girls and obediently sit next to Claudia to read, Muria stood thoughtfully for a moment before walking into one of the great halls in the courtyard.

Muria pushed open the heavy stone door, stepping into the hall with a rumble, and walked toward the four stone platforms arranged in a square in the center of the hall. The floor sparkled with dazzling patterns of light, the hall being one of the most heavily protected in his residence.

The four platforms displayed four types of legendary metals—electrum, solar flare gold, thundering purple gold, and hurricane blue gold—each gifted by the Abyssal Lord Ulysses, enough to forge a legendary weapon suitable for an adult titan.

The electrum from the mine initially given by Lord Ulysses had already been refined.