Chapter 34: Exile

After returning to the Five-colored Dragon Castle, Muria immediately began reading the books he had taken out from the space ring. He wasn't averse to reading and studying.

His robust physique and abundant energy nourished Muria's brain, elevating his intelligence to a level beyond ordinary comprehension. The most obvious manifestation of this was the great improvement in Muria's memory, reaching the point of never forgetting anything he saw.

Moreover, there were other more subtle improvements, such as enhanced understanding and calculation abilities. With these enhancements, learning became a joyous activity, and the increase in knowledge gave Muria a sense of fulfillment.

Muria spent three days and nights without sleep, immersing himself in the basic knowledge related to magic circles, gaining a fundamental understanding of the magic circle studies he wished to learn.

Magic circle studies is a vast and complex discipline. Just by simple attribute classification, it includes six basic categories: earth, water, wind, fire, light, and darkness. Beyond these, there are magic circles that utilize special attributes like thunder and void.

Magic circles can also be classified by their functions into categories such as offensive, defensive, supportive, and sealing types.

However, these are just single-function magic circles. The most commonly used or practical are composite magic circles, such as those that possess both offensive and defensive capabilities or can launch attacks with four different elements.

Thus, the classification of magic circles is even broader, described aptly as "varied and complex". Moreover, every magic-capable race has its own perspectives on magic circles, further complicating the study of magic circles.

Therefore, it's generally best to specialize in one type of magic circle. However, for Muria, whose lifespan far exceeds that of humans, it doesn't matter which type he learns, as time is on his side.

But for now, he needed to choose which type to specialize in, especially since he was considering customizing hatching magic circles for each dragon egg.

"Elemental, supportive type," Muria made his choice, a still vast category, but without more specific options.

Time passed as Muria's understanding of magic circles and his practical ability to set them up strengthened daily. As a consequence, his room was daily supplied with tons of magic circle materials by female cloud giants, who also cleared away the large amount of trash produced from practicing the magic circles.

By using a large amount of materials to rapidly improve his practical skills in setting up magic circles, Muria wasn't new to this method of learning, which he once humorously called with his maid Mia: the "pay-to-learn" method.

While Muria was enjoying his studies, a storm giant guarding the Dragon Castle, accompanied by two cloud giant leaders, came to Muria's study. The room was littered with discarded magic circles of various shapes, including pentagrams, hexagrams, and even heptagrams, some still flickering with a weak elemental glow.

"What's the matter?" Muria, in a good mood, looked up as he had just completed a magic circle.

Muria's gaze shifted to the three giants, and then to the two giant leaders, "I remember you two aren't stationed inside the Dragon Castle, right? You're in charge of managing the cloud giants outside the castle. What brings you here?"

"Your Highness, we've come to seek your approval for some matters," one of the cloud giant leaders said, feeling much relieved after seeing Muria's pleased expression.

"Seek my approval for some matters?" Muria was momentarily stunned, then realized that he was no longer the powerless commoner of his past life; he now had nearly ten thousand giants following him.

"Your Highness, not long after you arrived at the Taiji Island, other cloud giants began migrating here, wanting to follow you. Are you willing to accept their loyalty?"

"Ah, I see." Muria pondered for only three seconds before responding, "I accept the following of all giants willing to submit to me. Feel free to accept them."

Hearing Muria's words, the two cloud giant leaders exchanged a somewhat gloomy look before speaking again, "Your Highness, ten days ago, an entire mist giant tribe migrated to Taiji Island. Their chief has been wanting to meet you, but we were afraid of disturbing you, so we didn't report it."

"Mist giants, I recall they are close kin to you cloud giants, and their chief wants to meet me?" Muria frowned, then looked amused at the two cloud giants, "You've been delaying, why not delay further?"

The two cloud giant leaders remained awkwardly silent. Naturally, they felt uncomfortable with Muria's acceptance of any giants' following, leading them to tacitly choose to delay or even hide such matters.

"Tell me, how many giants have come to my island recently?" Muria asked with a smile, lightly tapping the wooden table in front of him.

"Tide giants, storm giants, and mountain giants have also come in large numbers," one cloud giant leader cautiously observed Muria's expression, reporting in a low voice.

"And how many are there?"

"We haven't counted!"

"I see!" Muria took a deep breath and then exhaled, calming the anger within him.

Muria remained silent for a while, making the kneeling giant leaders increasingly uneasy. The storm giant that had brought them in had left at some point but returned shortly with nine storm giants, glaring menacingly at the two kneeling cloud giant leaders.

"I remember Taiji Island doesn't have a stable food source, right? The majority of food for nearly ten thousand giants is provided by naga, mermaids, and other sea races, correct?"

The two cloud giant leaders, under the watchful eyes of the ten storm giants, sweated profusely, relieved by Muria's seemingly irrelevant question.

"Yes, Your Highness. Although the Titan Islands have plenty of prey, it's not enough due to the large number of giants. Moreover, we dare not venture too deep into the Titan Islands, so our main food source comes from fish herds driven by the sea races."

"This won't do. We must solve the food problem on the island and not rely entirely on the sea races' provision," Muria said seriously. "What if the sea races stop driving the fish herds? Would most giants go hungry? Therefore, I'm assigning you a difficult but important task."

"Lord Muria," the two giant leaders kneeled, sweating even more, sensing something very unpleasant was about to happen.

The assumption that sea races would stop supplying food to the giants was absurd; as long as Muria wished, those sea races would continue to provide food.

"Go, bring me the sand table of Taiji Island," Muria commanded. Two storm giants left and soon brought in a large sand table.

In the center of the sand table was Taiji Island, shaped between a circle and an octagon. The table also depicted not only Taiji Island but all islands within a nearly hundred-kilometer radius around it as the center.

Muria approached the sand table, looking at the intricately depicted island models with a smile, "You storm giants have done well."

"Serving you is our honor," the storm giants humbly replied. They hadn't been idle these days, continuously exploring the environment around Taiji Island.

"Come here, you two," Muria called the two cloud giant leaders over. Once they reluctantly approached the sand table, Muria pointed to eight irregularly

 shaped islands around Taiji Island.

"Choose one of these eight islands, each of you."

Hearing Muria's words, the two cloud giant leaders hesitantly chose an island each, then anxiously looked at Muria, guessing what might happen next but still hoping for the best.

"Good, after you leave, take the cloud giants following you and start clearing on the island you've chosen. Remove all useless trees and plant fruit trees and berry-producing bushes.

Moreover, you're to find low-tier monsters on the Titan Islands that can be domesticated and bred on a large scale as a food source for the giants on the island. As for the scale of domestication, it should be large enough to meet the daily meat needs of all giants on the island."

After saying this, Muria's eyes narrowed into a smile, watching the two trembling cloud giant leaders.

"Lord Muria, we..."

"Do you accept this task?" Muria's smile seemed amiable, but his tone was anything but soft.

"...We accept," the two cloud giant leaders said, their faces bitter under Muria's pressure. Rejecting wasn't really an option.

"Then off you go!" Muria smiled, "And remember, you may return when you've accomplished what I've asked. Otherwise, do not step foot on Taiji Island."

The two cloud giant leaders staggered towards the door, then bowed their heads and quietly left, understanding the cost of their actions.

"Greed blinds wisdom," Muria mused as the two cloud giants left, his smile fading to a stern expression.

He understood why the cloud giants delayed or obstructed new giants from meeting him. With so many giants already on the island and Muria's young age, his Titan bloodline could only influence the giants closest to him. Other giants could only look on enviously.

Understanding aside, Muria found such behavior intolerable: "Do they think I'm a child to be fooled? Hmph! Seems I need to set some rules. Otherwise, this will happen again."

As for the food source problem for the giants, Muria had already provided an explanation...