latelenovela Chapter 300: When Words Become Law
Chapter 300: When Words Become Law
After returning to Lakeside Town, it was already noon. Gauss's team submitted their commission and incidentally updated their point standings.Since it was convenient anyway.
Gauss: 1372
Herbert: 1117
Koman: 866
Tasha: 810
Gauss had returned to the top of the leaderboard.
His return once again caused a commotion in the guild hall.
However, Gauss no longer paid attention to what they were specifically discussing—it was nothing more than the same as before, marveling at his progress and origins, then speculating about Herbert's reaction.
Although he hadn't deliberately inquired, since Gauss was active in Lakeside Town, he had more or less overheard others' discussions and learned about some of the people on the leaderboard.
The most famous among them was probably "Frost Wolf" Herbert, who could be considered the face of the new generation of adventurers in the five towns around Blue Lake.
In his thirties, at the prime of his life, reaching level 5 Warrior status was indeed quite outstanding for most ordinary people.
Once he crossed the level 5 threshold and broke through to a new realm, his reputation could rise even further. Whether he continued with his personal team or joined the kingdom's military or noble factions, he would be able to obtain more favorable resources and development prospects.
Because of his "early success," his behavior was very flamboyant and domineering, so even among locals, many people had complaints about him.
Although many people didn't understand Gauss's situation, seeing him press down on Herbert actually gave them some secret satisfaction, even though the rankings had little direct relation to themselves.
After finishing their business, Gauss and the others left the noisy Adventurers Guild hall.
The afternoon sun was just right.
Gauss returned to the upscale inn where he was staying.
There were no direct commission arrangements for this afternoon.
On one hand, it was to give the team a small break, and on the other hand, he needed to spend some time on Draconic Language.
After washing up, Gauss left the inn, informed Aria and the others, then rode his Ostrich out of town to find an uninhabited wilderness area.
He opened the temporarily borrowed "Fold House."
Entering it, he returned to his own room.
Lying on the bed, his consciousness gradually sank like submerging into the ocean depths, permeating deep into his mind.
At that moment, there was a clear, orderly stream of information there.
Because it involved the power of "Dragons," Gauss hadn't attempted to receive it during the commission or within the town.
After all, they were the race at the pinnacle of this world's pyramid—no amount of caution was excessive.
Gauss didn't want any uncontrollable accidents to occur.
Even though until now, the rewards provided by the Adventurer's Manual had been very stable and controllable, it was still best to eliminate any possibility of causing harm to others in advance.
"Let's begin."
As Gauss willed it.
The vaguely majestic and authoritative information stream suddenly unraveled.
"BOOM!!!"
Like a surging tidal wave, the information flood accompanying the Draconic Language talent completely overwhelmed Gauss.
His brain briefly entered an overloaded state where he couldn't think properly.
This feeling was quite marvelous—as if every brain cell was being squeezed full.
Strenuous...
It clearly showed the gap between humans as a race and Dragons at the individual level.
It must be understood that Gauss was no ordinary person.
Among humans, he was absolutely exceptional.
His Intelligence reached 15 points.
But even someone like him struggled so much to receive knowledge about Draconic Language.
If it were an ordinary human, or a professional with low intelligence, they would likely be completely overwhelmed by this information flood in an instant—at best failing to receive it, at worst turning into an idiot directly.
Humans have limits, and the brain is particularly delicate.
And delicate instruments often have higher failure rates—once they exceed a certain pressure limit, they might go "pop" and be completely ruined.
"Whoosh—"
He didn't know how much time had passed.
It might have been an instant, or it might have been several hours.
Gauss's consciousness slowly recovered clarity from the flood.
He instinctively let out a long exhale.
Of course he wasn't turned into an idiot by that partial knowledge similar to inheritance—it was just that the information volume was too large, so he spent some time absorbing and accepting it.
Gauss opened his eyes.
The moment his eyes opened, gilded light seemed to pierce through the air before him.
A deep, ancient sense of majesty naturally flowed from him.
This wasn't something he deliberately did, but rather the draconic will inherently contained within the Draconic Language knowledge inheritance—it was like a forging hammer that had completed the tempering of his soul.
"Truly incredible..."
He had just experienced something like a dream.
In the dream, he saw many Dragon figures.
Bathing in lava, tearing through lightning, breathing to freeze rivers, shaking mountains, turning stone into gold...
True Draconic Language was never merely language and vocal patterns. Even if a very few Goblin-like creatures or Gnolls might learn some of its phonetic characteristics and produce sounds that Dragons could understand, it wasn't the same thing as the true words of Dragons—more like a parrot mimicking speech.
Draconic Language spoken by Dragons was a rule-based power that could stir the surrounding mana tides, far more domineering than human Mages guiding mana through complex gestures, incantations, and spellcasting material components.
And now, this miraculous language had been stolen by Gauss in his human form.
Gauss gently moved his throat and jaw.
His control over breath and vibrations had become more meticulous.
A certain impulse to produce complex, unique syllables spontaneously arose.
These were the "specialized vocabulary" of Draconic Language—sounds that ordinary humans and most races' vocal organs couldn't produce accurately.
While contemplating the vast additional knowledge in his mind, Gauss followed this seemingly innate vocal impulse, mobilized his throat muscles, and finally uttered a syllable that sounded quite peculiar to human ears but contained powerful force.
"Hum..."
Like wind howling.
As the sound was produced, the air before Gauss visibly vibrated with wondrous ripples, washing outward in circles.
However, Gauss actually understood it.
The meaning of the sound returned to his brain through his ears—he could interpret its meaning.
The content was simple: release the Light Cantrip.
Before his fingertip, a fist-sized ball of soft light appeared out of nowhere, floating in the air and illuminating the surroundings.
Gauss gazed at the light ball, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned.
This seemingly ordinary Light Cantrip was vastly different from before.
First, in his perception, the mana consumption for casting had decreased significantly. The moment he cast the spell, Draconic Language seemed to create some marvelous resonance with the natural mana in the air, reducing the amount of mana he needed to invest himself.
This wasn't limited to just the Light Cantrip magic—other Cantrips and spells could enjoy this enhancement as well.
This single change was surprising enough.
"No wonder..."
No wonder many powerful spells that human Mages couldn't cast, or could only cast very few times, Dragons could casually use as routine methods.
This wasn't necessarily because Dragons were more skilled in magic techniques than many human archmages, nor was it necessarily because they worked harder.
The more crucial factor was this highly efficient way of utilizing mana.
Not to mention their naturally vast mana reserves and powerful physical bodies also allowed them to control magic more freely.
Gauss focused slightly.
The Light Cantrip ball before him wasn't just about reduced mana consumption.
In the past, Gauss's Light Cantrip often needed to attach to some fixed entity—like a Magic Wand, shield, or rock wall—this was limited by spell rules.
But this time, the Light Cantrip condensed into a light ball floating in the air. To be precise, this Light Cantrip wasn't completely unattached either—it was just attached to the ever-present dust in the air, something that couldn't be covered before.
He willed it.
The light ball gradually dimmed, becoming so faint it was almost extinguished.
Willed it again.
The light ball released dazzling brilliance once more, instantly illuminating the entire room brightly white, to the point of blinding people's eyes.
"Is this a flashbang?"
Compared to the original Light Cantrip that maintained a fixed brightness for a period, the new version could achieve the repeated flashbang effect, instantly switching from extremely dark to extremely bright.
Useful.
It might sound unimpressive, but with Gauss's rich combat experience, he naturally understood the strategic value of this effect.
In his view, if used properly, this 0th-level Cantrip could rival 2nd or 3rd-level spells in effect, and might even achieve better results.
Gauss narrowed his eyes slightly, as if sliding some invisible progress bar, repeatedly adjusting the brightness and darkness of the Light Cantrip.
It had to be said, after obtaining the Elementary Draconic Language racial talent, he had reached the level of effortlessly handling magic at the Cantrip level—as simple as breathing, complete and thorough mastery.
"It seems I need to spend time learning more Cantrips."
After all, the burden Cantrips placed on the soul was almost negligible to him now.
He could even learn as many as possible.
Master of Basic Cantrips—he thought this title sounded pretty good.
Gauss left the Fold House and went to the wilderness to test more Cantrips and spells.
As he sensed, almost all magic consumption had been discounted, and the lower-level the magic, the greater his control over it.
One could only say that heaven truly favored the Dragon race enough to make Gauss, a former "primitive human," feel somewhat unbalanced.
Clearly their mana reserves were already abundant enough, yet they further reduced spellcasting mana consumption—all the advantages went to them.
If there really existed some creator, when crafting Dragons, they might have accidentally gone overboard and created a statistical monster.
So much so that they had to follow up with some patches, reducing the birth probability of true Dragons to limit the race's numbers.
Otherwise, every piece of land on this continent should be completely dominated by such creatures.
Shaking off the baseless speculation in his mind, Gauss began conducting more tests.
"Chah!"
Another low, authoritative short syllable spilled from Gauss's throat.
The air suddenly heated up.
A flicker of red flame appeared out of nowhere before Gauss.
Then it fell to the ground, igniting the wild grass there.
Success again!
Gauss stared at the flame for a while.
Then he uttered another syllable.
Immediately, above the burning flame, a clear stream of water miraculously appeared.
It poured onto the flame, sizzling, eventually extinguishing the fire.
Gauss's eyes became exceptionally bright.
This wasn't him using any specific magic, but simply using "Draconic Language" to speak.
The spoken content was fire and water respectively.
Then the natural mana in the air followed the meaning in his voice, like some invisible machine starting to operate, creating the fire and water he wanted.
Although the effects of both this fire and water were inferior to even Cantrips, let alone proper spells, they were fundamentally different from spellcasting.
On a small scale, he could summon fire and water without any personal mana consumption, saving mana.
On a large scale, this was like speaking with divine authority, having words become law!
Like verbal spirits.
Nature and rules would respond to his words, even if the intensity wasn't high.
Besides fire and water, Gauss tested many others.
Rock, seedlings, gentle breeze, strange electric sparks, frost...
All were simple elemental effects.
So miraculous.
Gauss faintly sensed that this verbal spirit-like ability could be enhanced, related to his soul strength.
And while soul wasn't directly equivalent to Intelligence attribute, they were intricately connected.
In other words, as his professional level increased, his soul strength would naturally rise accordingly.
"Would my Tongue of Languages effect be better now?"
Gauss suddenly thought of this.
He could test it on his companions and Hephaestus after returning.
"Next..."
He looked at the racial talent section in the Adventurer's Manual.
"【Elementary Draconic Language】Hundred Color quality (can advance)"
Elementary Draconic Language was now glowing.
"Conditions for advancing quality have been met. Advance Hundred Color quality racial talent 【Elementary Draconic Language】?"
"Yes."
Gauss naturally didn't hesitate.
He couldn't wait for this talent to become stronger.
As his thought flashed, elite points instantly decreased by one hundred.
And a blue color slowly emerged from the original Elementary Draconic Language, eventually squeezing out its original Hundred Color completely, turning into an extremely deep azure blue.
"Hundred Color quality 【Elementary Draconic Language】 successfully advanced!"
Gauss's brain and soul depths trembled slightly.
The racial talent advancement once again tempered his soul, making his soul essence more resilient.
His eyes also quietly turned pure gold.
The light within them grew deeper, almost able to pierce through the air, condensing into something like substantial gaze.
This advancement didn't take as long sensory-wise as receiving the Draconic Language knowledge had.
Perhaps because his brain and soul configuration had been upgraded, so although he learned more Draconic Language, he remained clear-headed.
The original 【Elementary Draconic Language】 had become 【Intermediate Draconic Language】.
It seemed if it reached purple quality, it would be Advanced Draconic Language?
What about gold quality and red quality then?
Gauss naturally grew more curious.
"【Intermediate Draconic Language】blue quality."
"Your understanding of Draconic Language has reached proficiency, moving beyond the babbling young dragon stage."
"Your Draconic Language now contains more draconic aura and rule power, while your own effectiveness with sonic and language-based spells increases, and resistance to enemy similar spells greatly improves."
"The word-becomes-law ability has been strengthened. The scale and intensity of basic effects from using Draconic Language to stir environmental mana will increase, and enhancement effects on elemental magic improve."
"Your soul essence has been tempered by Draconic Language power, mental resistance increases, resistance to charm, fear and other effects strengthens. Soul strength growth potential slightly improves."
Gauss's vision continuously popped up with the enhancement effects brought by the talent.
Terrifying to such an extent!
What does it mean to be the chosen one of the version?