Not long after, the space twisted again, and the strange Great Dragon head with five-colored scales extended inside. "Are you seeking to continue the trade?"
"No. We will discuss a different deal, not with the Demon King, but with you." The dragon head showed slight surprise, then interest.
"With me? What kind of deal?" "You have plans for the dragon race, do you not? No need to hide it. Our sight is beyond what you can imagine, so we can see it clearly."
Ludwig adopted a commanding pose. "By chance, I recently learned of a very special dragon." "You will definitely be interested."
A thunderous boom rang out as a massive explosion erupted. Violent energy and shockwaves shattered the surrounding white crystals into Shard, sending a mushroom cloud hundreds of meters into the air. The blast rolled across the ground before slowly fading.
"Failed again…" Belial blinked, brushed the dust off his face, and sighed. One segment in the structure he had just controlled failed to line up, detached, and predictably exploded again. He looked more annoyed than surprised.
Lilith calmly raised a translucent metal wall formed through metal transparency. The nearly half-meter-thick barrier easily blocked the shockwave as she continued writing in her small notebook. Her expression did not change at all.
"Experiment failure number one hundred eighty-four. This time the problem might be with the Lord…" She finished recording the data and stuffed the notebook onto an already overfilled bookshelf. Inside were many of Belial's speculative Magic ideas, including that strangely infectious dance.
Lilith thought that once the Barrier was fully repaired and she could stay home again, she should organize all this material. It might even become a Magic book someday. It did not need to be profound, as long as it was fun to read.
After several more days, Belial had nearly drained everything Lilith could teach him in practice. Aside from a small portion preserved only in written records, he had learned all of it. With that done, he immediately began innovating again.
Simple ice spells and water bubble spells were pushed into something she had never seen before. He turned them into strange spells that could record images and even function briefly after leaving the spell structure. The image clarity was far higher than what she could achieve using Magic constructs.
From these spells, Lilith could clearly see how different this dragon's thinking was. His ideas were unlike those of ordinary mages, including herself. His understanding and experience were on a completely different level.
Things became even stranger when she taught him about auxiliary casting tools like the Magic Staff and rituals. The dragon suddenly began building structures completely unlike normal spell patterns. They formed on a square board of condensed Magic floating in the air, with straight-line markings, flowing currents, and small bulbs blinking on and off.
Later he switched to using Ancient Steel for experiments, though Lilith still could not understand what he was trying to make. Several tons of metal were scrapped in the process. She recorded everything anyway, sensing that it resembled a Magic Staff in structure but was fundamentally different.
Although the bottleneck was still not broken, Lilith gained a great deal from the process. After finishing her notes, she removed the barrier and rang a clear bell used for communication. The sound echoed lightly through the space.
"Let's pause the Laws experiments here for now."
"Oh, class is over already?" Belial looked up, clearly unwilling to stop. He felt that a few hundred more attempts might have succeeded. Still, most of the experiments required Lilith to guide him directly, which placed a heavy burden on her.
Large-scale abilities like Laws could not be used casually, so the number of daily experiments was limited. With that in mind, he nodded. "Alright then. I'll keep trying to see if I can build a computer."
The lesson was over, but homework was something Belial handled on his own. He immediately began constructing familiar things again. Yes, he had decided to try building a computer.
The idea was simple. If Magic could act like compressed packages, casting tools like the Magic Staff, chips, and computer-like components, then why not just make a full computer? He did not fully understand how, but with Lilith's knowledge of auxiliary rituals and casting devices, plus a rough plan, he started working.
If he could make a computer, then the internet would not be far behind. With the internet, widespread adoption, and computers everywhere, he could go back to arguing online while watching shows all day. Once the internet existed, other modern products would surely follow.
Excited by the thought, Belial combined everything he knew with his limited programming knowledge. Relying on his powerful mind, he began running calculations at a frantic pace. His focus was absolute.
"But this is harder than I expected." The Magic circuit board floating in the air collapsed again. Belial felt genuinely stuck for the first time in a while.
At first, he had not planned to build everything directly from nothing. He tried using that metal instead, since it had good energy conductivity and Lilith seemed able to control it freely. It looked like perfect material.
He eagerly started working, but the moment he released even a small amount of his energy, the metal failed instantly. He kept lowering the output, stubbornly trying again, until several tons were ruined and he finally gave up. For some reason, the metal strongly rejected his energy.
With no other option, Belial turned to void construction. There was actually another choice, using his own body as material. His crystals and wings were excellent components, especially the wings, which functioned like casting organs and could be seen as two Magic Staff mounted on his back.
The dense, capillary-like living pathways inside his wings formed layered structures like chips. Together they built a vast and complex System. Some nerves connected directly to his brain, allowing thoughts and casting commands to arrive instantly.
After the integration of body and soul, the delay was effectively zero. Performance across the board improved drastically. Even a single scale on Belial's body could be treated as part of a supercomputer and participate in calculations.
In theory, he could even modify his own body directly. He could build a dedicated biological computer for casting, connect it to his brain's database, and deliberately split his focus. That way, an automatic casting intelligence could be created.
Then, even if he did nothing, his body would calculate based on external conditions and automatically construct the most suitable spells. It was an extreme idea. "Even science fiction novels wouldn't dare go this far, and cutting into my own body needs careful thought."
Even with revival safeguards, blowing himself up by accident would still mean years of recovery time. That was not worth it. For now, it was better to focus on learning this spell-based fusion reaction first.
Still, Belial had most of these ideas recorded by Lilith. Maybe she could research something useful from them. "And I already gave her materials for two full MOGUERA units. Who knows, she might build a giant robot someday."
He decided that continued nuclear-scale experiments needed a different location. Constant explosions here were far too noticeable, and Lilith needed peace for her research. Setting off fireworks all day would not be polite.
Lilith returned to the High Tower on Sky Island. The interior had changed noticeably. Alchemical machines and spell experiment devices of every type filled the space, while flowing metal text on the walls displayed countless spell records.
Ever since a certain dragon casually brought back tens of thousands of tons of metal, Lilith had boldly put it to use. She had practically replaced her entire home. Sofas, blankets, and furniture that looked ordinary were actually metal mimics, adjustable in hardness and color.
Everything around her was made of this metal. When she first finished it, even she felt dizzy at the extravagance. Across the entire continent, no one else would use precious Ancient Steel for their entire living environment.
After getting used to it, though, it no longer felt like a big deal. Still, this was not the most important place. Lilith continued down into the basement, where a special space had been constructed, forcing a large expansion around Sky Island.
After issuing the access command, she walked down the stairs. Even the thinnest wall inside was more than four and a half meters of pure metal. With Ancient Steel's resistance and absorption, even a hydrogen bomb detonating next door would not wake anyone.
As a safe room, it could survive a fall from outer space without issue. Even so, Lilith felt it might not be enough. The object she was studying here was the core Belial had produced earlier.
"Thirty-first observation. Begin." The crimson core was suspended at the center of layered machinery and protective Magic Array. Lilith stood behind a transparent metal wall several meters thick, growing more uneasy the longer she studied it.
The core constantly released enormous amounts of Magic. Each second of output was roughly equal to her own, and her capacity was already extreme among her peers. Even dozens of mages at her level combined would fall short.
Yet this was only the visibly damaged, low-power state of the core. "If this unknown object fully activates, how absurd would it be?" she murmured. "And what was it originally meant to be?"