Chapter 40: Paper Tiger

What Levi spoke of was a type of art that changed the outer appearance. In common terms, it was the art of transformation. It could only modify the outer shape and appearance, but couldn’t change the original essence, for example, the blood, muscles, breathing and so on would still belong to a dragon’s.

But to Yi Longlong, this was already enough.

What made it even more convenient was that Yi Longlong didn’t possess the domineering aura of dragons, or maybe her bloodline was quite significant but wasn’t really developed at all.  If it weren’t for Levi’s senses being especially sharp, it would basically go undetected. As long as she learnt to conceal a bit and didn’t have interactions too close with people, it would essentially be difficult to spot the cracks.

Before Levi could even finish stating his plans, Yi Longlong already couldn’t stop her eyes from sparkling. She frantically nodded, “Then let’s go with this, what needs to be done?”

Levi held up three fingers. “Firstly, a magic circle, secondly, a gem that’s necessary for activating magic circles, and thirdly, a magician with certain levels of mana.”

Levi heaved a sigh at the sight of Yi Longlong’s bewildered gaze. He figured that the young dragon wouldn’t understand regardless of what he said about magic, but still made some small explanations. “Due to some needs in the past, I’ve thoroughly researched on magic circles that can change the outer appearance, so this one’s not difficult to achieve. The hard part’s the remaining two components.”

“Although people with great mana can directly bypass using gems and magic circles, it is quite regrettable that I’m a priest and not a magician. My mana isn’t any greater than a magic apprentice’s… the function of the gem is to… uh … anyway, it’s useful and that’s it.” After being tongue-tied for some time, Levi found that he was just not suitable to be a magic instructor. All he knew was that some gems were very useful towards stabilizing magic circles, but he didn’t know why it was like that at all.

After going through the theory with great ambiguity, Levi continued his discourse. “The gems require large amounts of money to buy, but as you can see, this temple of mine is very poor… it’s true…” He spoke while pulling a long face, but even Lin Qi could tell that his eyes were carrying a crafty smile.

Yi Longlong thought for a bit, had Lin Qi put down the wooden crate that he was still bearing on his back till now, opened a lid from behind, moved one of the panels from the walls, and took out a bulging pouch. Yi Longlong shoved the whole pouch to Levi. “I looted this from a rogue who wanted to hold me hostage. There are some gadgets inside, go see how much you can exchange from them.”

Since these things were taken from Roland, Yi Longlong was not the least bit sad about selling off her things from the rogue.

Although she knew that Levi’s words about the temple being broke could be lies, Yi Longlong didn’t expose it. After all, them helping out was already an extremely big blessing. No matter how, she felt it would be too much to have Levi fund the sum. She was not the type of person to push the boundaries. She had also planned to fund the searching fees for Eric together.

Levi untied the pouch, took out the items and studied them piece by piece. After a while, he returned to Yi Longlong a uniquely crafted jewelled ring, a blue whistle made of some unknown materials, and a small booklet. “Keep these three things. These are either not for sale or things that no one around here can afford… the rogue that’s able to have these things, is their name Roland?”

The grey haired priest from the pallet squad was his student and stayed at Vanilla Town for a few days. Naturally, he knew the identities of each person in the squad, and was even more informed on Roland’s backgrounds than Easley.

However, he didn’t really have any ties with Roland. His not-quite-perfect morality also didn’t feel what Yi Longlong had done had any problems, and was even gleeful that the problem of money was resolved.

Levi then separated the items from the pouch into several piles. After this was all done, he lifted his head, his expression close to solemn. He glared at Yi Longlong and began a ruthless tirade, “Do you know that if you carelessly place things too valuable in front of other people, it can trigger human nature’s greed? If it weren’t for that brat Eric, I would’ve long pocketed all your things, and sold you at a good price along the way.”

Although his look right now was the same cold face as before when he was giving a lesson, Yi Longlong’s reaction was vastly different. She merely waved her paw at Levi with a smile. “It’s because it’s you that I took it out; I believe you’re a good person.”

Not just because Levi and Eric know each other, but also because of his being.

A thread of grievance and sadness still lingered at the bottom of her heart, but Yi Longlong was no longer despondent. Now, she could tell that the guy who panicked to the point of begging for mercy at the sight of a crying young dragon, regardless of what mean faces he pulled, was just a paper tiger.

And even then, with this young, handsome baby face, Levi was not threatening at all.

Having received the label of a good person, Levi gave a helpless sigh and knew that now he couldn’t frighten the dragon anymore, so he continued to explore the third component. “The issue of the gem is resolved. Then, what about the magician? There are no magicians with enough power within Vanilla Town. They usually reside in major cities, and although we can request for a dispatch from the Temple, it will expose your existence to them. The higher ups in the Temple will not pity your misfortunes and will have you locked up.”

Although he was also a member of the Temple, he did not care the least about criticizing the place he belonged to. What he believed in was God, not the Temple.

Magic circle, costly gem, magician. Of these three, the hardest one to resolve was actually the last item.

Out of all the magicians that Levi knew, there were not many that had the reliable power, and those with enough power weren’t trustworthy enough. No matter what, they couldn’t randomly let a person participate in this job, and hiring temporarily was even more impossible, unless they killed the witness after the matter was done.

But once this problem was passed on to Yi Longlong, it instead became the least problematic problem.   She lifted her little paw and deftly pointed at Lin Qi who was by her side. “A trustworthy magician? We’ve got one.”

What seemed to be far to the horizon was actually right in front of their eyes.