Chapter 91. Winning Friendship, with the Demigod Grand Elder as a Backer
William had just waved his hand, about to say sothing modest, when Daenerys pressed down on his shoulder, her gaze earnest.
“No need to be polite. If you run into trouble, use the Reverse Scale to call .”
At that mont, the sound of beating wings ca from outside.
One after another, giant dragons of all shapes filed into the hall. So carried dragon eggs in their claws, while others had toddling hatchlings clinging to their backs. In an instant, the vast hall felt crowded.
“Grand Elder, you summoned us to bring our children here. Is sothing the matter?” a red-scaled mother dragon asked first, her voice full of confusion.
The old Grand Elder’s laughter echoed through the hall.
“Hahaha, naturally, it is to test your children’s aptitudes.”
As it spoke, it opened its mouth and breathed out a draconic spell flowing with golden Runes. The magic drifted down like a gauzy veil and settled neatly over William’s head.
William instinctively tried to dodge, but Daenerys stopped him.
“Do not be afraid. This is only a temporary True Speech Draconic Spell. It rely prevents you from lying. It will not harm you.”
Half convinced and half doubtful, William relaxed and let the magic envelop him.
Seeing this, the Grand Elder said in a deep voice, “All right. Begin.”
Daenerys took a table and two chairs out of her Spatial Ring and placed them in the center of the hall.
When William sat down, he could feel hundreds of dragons’ gazes falling on him at once. So were curious, so wary, so disdainful, but most of all, they were scrutinizing him.
A blue-scaled mother dragon was the first to step forward with her hatchling. The little dragon was covered in fine scales and kept rubbing anxiously against its mother’s claw.
The mother dragon stared at William, her tone openly threatening. “Human, look carefully. If you dare spout nonsense...”
The mont William ca into contact with the hatchling’s aura, its aptitude surfaced in his mind automatically. Under the effect of the True Speech Spell, the thought in his heart ca straight out of his mouth.
“Your child has Legendary Aptitude, but you yourself only have Sky Aptitude. It seems the child’s father has extrely high aptitude, at least Domain Aptitude. You were the one dragging the child down. If it were ...”
Before he could finish, the blue-scaled mother dragon staggered back a step. Her draconic eyes were filled with shock and humiliation. With a low growl, she hurried away with her hatchling without even looking back.
William clapped a hand over his mouth, finally realizing how terrifying the True Speech Spell was.
He could not even hide the thoughts in his own mind. He clicked his tongue inwardly, and when the next mother dragons stepped forward, he limited himself to reporting their aptitudes as briefly as possible.
“Domain Aptitude.”
“Sky Aptitude.”
“Legendary Aptitude.”
He did not say one more word.
Even so, the atmosphere in the hall gradually turned subtle.
The mother dragons whose hatchlings had been found to have high aptitudes could not hide their delight. Those whose hatchlings were rely average, however, drooped in disappointnt, and their looks toward William grew more complicated.
Standing to the side, Daenerys saw that William had finally learned his lesson, and the corner of her lips lifted in a faint, almost imperceptible smile.
She knew that the dragon race had always been fiercely protective of its own. The only reason William had not been torn apart by dragon claws for those words just now was because the Grand Elder was present.
The testing continued. William sat in his chair, watching dragon after dragon arrive full of hope, only to leave in disappointnt.
As the testing drew near its end, William was just about to rub his throbbing temples when a burst of noisy dragon roars suddenly ca from outside, carrying unmistakable anger.
Imdiately afterward, a group of even more powerfully built male dragons crowded in. Their scales were still dusted with dirt from outside, clearly showing that they had rushed over from elsewhere.
At their head, a crimson-gold male dragon charged straight up to William. Its enormous claw carved deep grooves into the floor as it glared furiously at him.
“Grand Elder, this human is talking nonsense. I am clearly a Domain-Level Combatant. How could my child possibly have only Sky Aptitude? He must be deliberately insulting the dragon race.”
“Exactly.”
A jet-black male dragon beside him imdiately chid in, its dragon breath heating the floor until it burned.
“The child’s mother and I are both Legendary Combatants. How could the child have only Domain Aptitude? Unless the child’s mother cheated on ?”
In the blink of an eye, dozens of male dragons closed in. Their low growls echoed through the hall, and their golden draconic eyes were full of ferocity. If not for the Grand Elder’s presence, they would probably have attacked William already.
William remained seated in his chair, but cold sweat had already broken out across his back. He knew why these male dragons were angry.
The dragon race had always taken pride in its bloodlines, and the parents’ combat power was closely tied to a hatchling’s aptitude. Now that he had asured results that seed “contrary to common sense,” they naturally thought he was lying.
Daenerys stepped forward and stood in front of William, looking coldly at the male dragons.
“The mother dragons were all present during the testing. Every word William spoke was bound by the True Speech Spell, so how could he be talking nonsense?”
“True Speech Spell? Who knows whether the two of you arranged it in advance.”
The crimson-gold male dragon roared angrily, “I demand a retest. I want to watch it myself.”
The Grand Elder lay sprawled atop a sea of treasure without even lifting its eyelids, yet its voice carried unquestionable authority. “Silence, all of you.”
The clamorous hall fell silent at once.
The old dragon slowly raised its head, its ghostfire-like gaze sweeping across the male dragons.
“Do you think a dragon’s bloodline inheritance is immutable? If a mother dragon is disturbed by outside forces while carrying her egg, or if the Mana in her habitat falls into disorder, it can affect the hatchling’s aptitude.”
It paused and looked at the crimson-gold male dragon that had led the challenge.
“Last month, you fought Abyss Demons in a high-level Secret Realm. You were injured during the mother dragon’s incubation period, and the baleful aura in your dragon blood seeped into the eggshell. What is so strange about your child’s aptitude being damaged?”
The crimson-gold male dragon stiffened abruptly, clearly struck where it hurt. It opened its mouth, but said nothing more in rebuttal.
Another ink-black male dragon was still unwilling to accept it. “Then both my mate and I are Legends, so why...”
The Grand Elder cut it off, its tone flat.
“There are so things you know perfectly well in your own heart; you simply refuse to admit them. Treat your wife better from now on, and stop running off to sleep around at every turn.”
The ink-black male dragon’s bluster instantly deflated, and it lowered its head without another word.
The other male dragons looked at one another. Most of those whose hatchlings had been asured as having “mismatched aptitudes” had either experienced so unusual incident themselves or had mates who had. They simply had not wanted to ntion it before.
Now that the Grand Elder had exposed them one by one, how could they dare keep making a scene?
The Grand Elder looked at William, and its voice softened sowhat.
“Human hatchling, you did well.”
Then it turned toward the other dragons.
“From now on, he will be invited here every few years to conduct these tests. If anyone dares question him again, it will be treated as a violation of dragon law.”
Though the male dragons were unwilling to accept it, none of them dared defy the Grand Elder’s orders. They could only retreat sullenly to the side. Their looks toward William were still complicated, but there was less killing intent in them now and a little more eagerness to curry favor.
Only then did William let out a breath of relief, cold sweat sliding down his spine.
Daenerys patted his shoulder and said softly, “It seems your usefulness on Dragon Island is even greater than I thought. From now on, I suspect that not even the Royal Clan’s Ancestor will dare make a move against you lightly.”
The Grand Elder’s gaze fell on William. For once, those ghostfire-like eyes held a trace of gentleness.
“Human hatchling, you did very well. To see through the confusion in a bloodline with nothing but your eyes—such ability is enough to win the friendship of the dragon race.”
As it spoke, it raised its wrinkled foreclaw. A palm-sized scale slipped from the tip of its claw, glowing with a warm dark-gold luster like the oldest amber.
The scale floated of its own accord to William’s front. Faintly visible upon it were intricate dragon patterns flowing across its surface.
“This is my scale.”
The Grand Elder’s voice echoed through the hall.
“Any being on the continent with even a little standing will show it so respect when they see it. If you encounter one of those ‘undying old monsters’ that have lived for centuries upon centuries and they try to bully you, just show this to them.”
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