Dark city

If in winter（3）

Autumn is like winter.

Early autumn in the bay is already very cold, and late autumn is no different from the harsh winter, and the only difference can be discerned from the vivid colors of the vegetation before it has had time to fade.

Throughout the autumn, Richard was like a volcanic eruption that had been silent for a long time, suddenly bursting with tremendous energy, and the madness of learning and cultivation and the thirst for knowledge shocked the Great Magus who were still amazed by the speed of summer. They could hardly believe that a person could squeeze his time in such a way, and all this did happen in Richard's small body.

Richard's adjusted schedule did not leave any room for himself to think, and the use of time was accurate to the minute. Every day, when he was extremely tired, he would immediately empty his brain, fall into bed, and fall asleep, relieving even the most basic alertness of life in the mountains. Only in this way will Richard get the deepest sleep, regain the energy needed for a day of study in three hours, and make the magic increase in three hours of sleep no less than that of three hours of meditation.

Reports flew like snowflakes to the black gold, making the gray dwarves angry. He did his best to compress the number of Legendary Mage's desks so that His Highness Helen Su's excessive joy would not overwhelm Deep Blue's already fragile balance. However, the strength of the gray dwarf was sometimes poor, and the blowout of records flew in every corner of the deep blue, and even many reports had enough energy to directly pass him and send them to Su Helen.

So Deep Blue's balance of payments began to falter. Fortunately, for some reason, Duke Solam suddenly made up a large amount of sponsorship fees, and another self-funded disciple qualification was auctioned off at a sky-high price in the Millennium Empire, one of the three major kingdoms of mankind, which added two big fig leafs to Deep Blue's autumn and winter financial reports. However, the gray dwarves are not a short-sighted race, and Black Gold has a long-term strategic vision, and in the past, he would often worry about the financial situation of Deep Blue three hundred years later. But the real situation in front of us is that it will not take 300 years, and it will not be possible to live next spring.

The gray dwarf grew haggard day by day, and his stout body miraculously revealed a hint of boniness, and the obviously ill-fitting coat fluttered with each swing of his fist curse, like the fragile balance on the books. He has to deal with a lot of numbers every day, but his income is stable, his expenses are always unpredictable, and every time he goes in a direction that exceeds expectations, it is not pleasant. The erosion of every piece of profit made Black Gold feel that a piece of flesh on his body had been ripped away. But the Legendary Mage's joy is not subject to the will of the Grey Dwarf, and sometimes she even cheers for a small achievement from Richard.

In this autumn, the only person in the dark blue who doesn't want to see "Sue Helen's Joy" is the gray dwarf.

At the most helpless, the gray dwarf even came up with the idea of Su Helen's personal wallet. As long as His Highness opens even a small corner of his money bag, the situation of Deep Blue will be solved. Heijin was once fascinated by this idea, and His Highness's delicate little purse contained the wealth of an unknown number of dragons! However, fortunately, he soon came to his senses and understood how stupid this idea was, even the dragon did not dare to hit the idea of Su Helen's wallet, let alone a little gray dwarf?

And Black Gold was not deterred, he quickly found his own motivation. If you can't solve the dilemma in front of you, then what's the use of him? The treasurer is not just a bookkeeper, that's the job of the High Elves.

The gray dwarf was haggard, while Richard, who was also in a gloomy mood, was the opposite.

On the last day of late autumn, Richard stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror and carefully looked at himself in the mirror. This is a body that is beginning to show male style, with broad shoulders, two pectoral muscles that are beginning to take shape, a rapidly tightening waistline, tight and powerful buttocks, and even elf-style slender but explosive legs. And his face changed slightly, perhaps because he had not smiled for a long time, or perhaps because he had been silent for a long time, and the little childishness and softness that remained in the spring had all faded, and the edges and corners began to stand out, like steel rock cut by a giant axe, and flowing magma was buried in each line. As for those eyes, they were as quiet as an abyss, gloomy, cold, and bottomless.

Richard thought moved slightly, and then looked down at his body. The male traits are already standing tall and ready to penetrate and conquer, and they are already extraordinary now, and there is still room for more growth. Seeing the murder weapon, a long-lost smile finally appeared on the corner of Richard's mouth.

I'm already a man.

However, at this moment, Erin's crisp and heavy voice suddenly sounded in Richard's ears: "Yes, it was last night. ”

Richard's body immediately trembled. He raised his hands to cover his ears, but halfway through them he put them down, knowing that no matter how hard he tried, the conversation would be repeated in its entirety.

"Why?!"

"I need money."

"I have a lot of them!"

"But I don't want to make your money."

...

Richard no longer looked at himself in the realm, but strode towards the magic laboratory with the conversation ringing in his ears. In the corner of the laboratory stands an iron doll. It was originally used to test the power of magic, but now it was used by Richard to sharpen his fists. Whenever his heart was burned by the past, he would use this puppet to strengthen his physical strength and torture himself at the same time. This time too.

Walking up to the steel doll, Richard stood as usual, his legs shoulder-width apart, ready for the punch, and took a deep breath. The surface of the steel doll is very smooth, and Richard's face is clearly reflected. For some reason, seeing himself in the steel armor, Richard suddenly felt uncontrollable anger in his heart! He hated himself, and even more so for not being able to detect Erin's embarrassment sooner, but instead indulged his own loss, waiting for an unacceptable outcome in silence. The rage ignited the hidden blood, and the flowing blood boiled and burned in an instant, turning into a roaring lava that rushed straight to the top of the head!

The burning blood suddenly gave Richard infinite power, every vein wanted to burst under the pressure, every meridian seemed to be broken in the next moment, he let out a beastly roar, swung a fist, and smashed it on the steel doll's chest!

The steel forged chest collapsed and dented, and even faint cracks appeared. Not only the fist, but Richard's small forearm did not enter the puppet's chest, and the force of the rage was too strong, and it faintly formed a vortex with suction, and the puppet was tightly sucked on the top of the fist, and the range of deformation was still expanding. Finally, when all the power was unleashed, the twisted puppet flew backwards, slammed into the wall, and deformed again.

This is a standard magic doll with defensive power comparable to that of a military-standard bust. This means that the power of Richard's punch is enough to kill an elite knight in half-steel armor from the front, and if you use energy level conversion, it is also equivalent to a weakened fireball technique.

So, on the day from autumn to winter, Richard awakened the first bloodline ability in his life: explosion.

Getting through the winter is like turning into a winter winter.

Winter is the season of s*******r for every native life in this plane, and even creatures accustomed to living in the cold will prefer spring and summer. Because during those two seasons they can find more food, they can mate, they can reproduce, they can store fat for late autumn and winter.

Now the seasons make no difference to Richard. The fledgling, who had been curious to see the outside world, completely closed his eyes and sealed off his senses, Richard didn't care about anything in the outside world, but just frantically threw himself into the world of magic. His magic grew wildly again, and during the freezing season in the northern part of the floating ice bay, Richard's magic reached 24, which was already beyond the standard of a third-level mage. Almost all of the tutors who taught Richard were ecstatic about his progress, with the exception of one person, the master who taught him the arts.

The paintings handed in by Richard made the master feel suffocated by one by one. They are all plain and sketched, all with a thin quill. In the beginning, the picture also pays attention to composition and light and shadow, and there are also various characters. According to the master's teachings, the portrait will endow the picture with a soul. However, in the paintings that Richard handed in, people appeared less and less, and the environment became more and more oppressive. Later, there were no more creatures in the picture, and even the scene gradually blurred. But in the eyes of the master, these paintings are more powerful than the other, like the sea in the dark night, where there are only slight waves on the surface of the sea, but the storm can come at any time.

The master sometimes can't help but look at the lines in detail. Every time the lines were outlined, curved, and smoothed, it made him feel as if he heard the cry of his soul from the depths of hell! Even a single line is so powerful! The master could not imagine what Richard should have been like when he painted. One day, the master who was only a twelfth-level magician suddenly found that he was already a little unable to bear the mental impact of those paintings. However, his duties as a mentor forced him to carefully examine every painting that Richard handed in.

In Richard's paintings, the use of light is becoming less and less, the scenery is becoming more and more blurred, and large shadows begin to occupy larger areas. Finally, one day, when Richard handed in a 'painting' made entirely of messy lines, the master suddenly smashed everything in the studio that could be smashed!

In the winter, there were two small things that slightly disturbed Richard's life.

One was that during a certain class, Richard once again met a young mage who called himself Stevenson. The young mage was very enthusiastic and had an irreproachable demeanor, fully demonstrating the etiquette of a noble child, and his identity as a personal disciple of Su Helen naturally reduced the gap between him and Richard. Another student of the legendary mage, Minnie, was also present, but she was much more lively at the moment, and after listening for a while, she not only took the initiative to join, but also raised a few topics.

Both Stevenson and Minnie have a good grasp of magic, so they talk about magic. Richard didn't want to talk to anyone, but the discussion of magic was an exception, so he reluctantly chatted with them for a while, but the lesson soon began, and Richard was able to return to the loneliness of walking alone.

Throughout the conversation, Richard sensed a faint hostility from beginning to end. Although they are very well disguised, some of the physical details are captured by Richard's talent for precision and analyzed by intelligence. It's normal to be hostile, and almost everyone Richard sees in Deep Blue is more or less hostile to himself, except for Helen Su and Erin. What he didn't understand was that both Stevenson and Minnie , both of whom had a stronger background and personal ability than himself, why was they still hostile? However, these two people were not important to Richard's heart, and by the end of the night, he had almost forgotten about Stevenson and Minnie .

The other small thing was that he saw Irene again. It was just a distant figure, in the near bottom of the largest piece of trade area, people rolling, a flash passed, but Richard knew that it was her. Irene's side there is a man, openly put his arms around her waist, gesture of intimacy. It doesn't matter where they go, it doesn't matter what they do, because everything has been shown to have been done. One more time, one less time, it doesn't matter.

Richard did not run after him or take a second look. The young man next to Irene looked a lot like Stevenson, but Richard did not continue the comparison. It didn't matter who the girl was with anymore, so Richard got her and the men around her out of his mind, and it was pretty easy.

It is still difficult to forget, but there are many ways to stop the pain. This may be one of Richard's gains this winter.