Game’s Dogma

Seeing Hagrid deep in thought, Chau Yu interrupted him. “Let’s not talk about me. Perhaps an explanation on what’s going on?”

Chau Yu shot glances at Drako Yau and Greenstone. Although they were on the same side in this quest, they were enemies after all. As if having his secrets exposed wasn’t bad enough, it just had to be in front of Mask.

Hagrid chortled and said, “Well, it’s nothing too complicated. Stygien, this lady here, is my lover. She died in an incident and reincarnated, but the reincarnation process was too vague and mysterious for me to predict, so I resorted to the primal method—searching every world I come across. It’s been twenty-seven years… My hard work has finally paid off.”

With a wave of his hand, a stream of black gushed out from his right palm and materialised into a black sword. It was a slim, three-feet-long tachi. The blade, apart from its edge, was covered in a dense pack of silver circuits.

The silver circuits sloshed like mercury before detaching from the blade and forming a silver sphere. The sword, now freed of its silver decorations, was pitch-black. Hagrid handed it over to Stygien and said, “If not for it, I couldn’t have found you. It’s time for it to be returned to its rightful owner.”

Various emotions flashed by Stygien’s face—longing, sorrow, annoyance. The three, however, had no idea why she was so emotional. Stygien trembled as she reached out her pearly hand at the pitch-black sword. The moment she touched it, the sword melted into a pool of black liquid and was absorbed by her body.

Drako Yau was unsure whether the sight of Stygien’s hair wiggling slightly as if they were individual beings was a hallucination or not. He turned to look at Hagrid, who only returned a gentle smile.

After a while, Stygien let out a long sigh and said with a bitter smile, “It feels strange. It used to be my body after all…”

“You’ll make our friends here confused if you go on,” Hagrid shook his head and said. He then held Stygien’s hand and turned to the three. “I guess you all have lots to ask, such as what’s travelling through space-time, what kind of worlds I’m talking about.”

“Since you’re of the Lee clan, you must be a smart one. Curious, too, yet you’ve got nothing to ask me. I guess Lee Shun has told you about most things before.”

Chau Yu stayed silent with a bitter look. He was always the one who saw through others, yet their roles were switched with Hagrid present—it was a tough pill to take.

Hagrid chuckled, clearly in a good mood. Once he started speaking again, the hoarseness in his voice was gone without a trace, replaced by a robust voice.

“There’s no telling whether this is a good or bad thing. You’ll naturally comprehend certain things once you become strong enough. If you learn of those concepts before that, it might only add to your worries, ones that you can do nothing about. This young brother here, you’ve met the fat guy, right? He should’ve told you things about cultivation, and that’s already pushing things to the limit. A tip is all he can give you without affecting your path of cultivation.”

“How did you know?” Drako Yau’s face fell as he asked. Did Hagrid read my mind?

“Oho, that fatty was here just now. And he’s not my friend.” Hagrid winked at Drako Yau.

Fatty’s no weakling… This man is powerful enough to read Fatty’s mind?! Thought Drako Yau. 

Just as Chau Yu was about to speak up, Hagrid shook his head with a smile and said, “You guys from the Lee clan are always plotting something. Don’t bully our pure little friend here shall we?”

Chau Yu froze in the pose of him trying to speak. Hagrid didn’t seem to have done anything, but it had to be his work anyway. With that, Hagrid continued, “It’ll be inconvenient for us to chat with him present, right? There are things I can tell without reading your minds. Now, how about you show me your face?”

Drako Yau nodded and took off his Mask of the Hidden Dragon. “I’m Drako Yau, this is Greenstone.”

“That I already know, but it feels merrier to hear it from you in person.” Hagrid put on a weird smile. “Two interesting fellas indeed.”

Hagrid held Drako Yau in high regard all the more. From the six Castellan’s heads, he learnt that everything began with Drako Yau refusing the system’s quest. If Drako Yau had chosen to help the bandits, the resistance quest wouldn’t have occurred in the first place and would result in the bandits’ assault and slaughter at Stygien’s village.

Hagrid also found Drako Yau to be a friendly and honest person, almost a little dumb in a sense. Still, such character made him a good friend to have; at least Hagrid didn’t have to worry about getting stabbed in the back.

“Brother Yau, you have a nice cultivation style. Although it’s nothing much at this point, it has great potential, and if I’m not wrong, it’ll become something extraordinary some day. Something bothers me though—you rarely cultivate actively, do you?”

“Cultivate actively?” Drako Yau asked.

Hagrid nodded and pointed at himself. “Taking myself as an example, I haven’t slept in at least two decades. Rather than sleeping, I spend my rest time cultivating or meditating. I noticed this because the forces within you are circulating a bit slow. If you can actively cultivate more, they can speed up by at least forty per cent.”

Hagrid then turned to Greenstone and said, “Young fella, your cultivation style is just as nice. Just and peaceful, righteous and unswerving. It’s no wonder that prolonged combat is right up your alley. However, you’re consuming your internal forces through stamina alone, and that’s a massive waste.”

The three of them discussed various things about cultivation. Hagrid was the one speaking most of the time, with Greenstone and Drako Yau asking questions only on crucial issues. Rather than feeling disconnected, Hagrid was having a blast, and the two listeners were learning a lot as well.

The old geezer had never really taught Drako Yau how to cultivate and allowed him to discover his own path. What he did pass on to Drako Yau was a solid foundation.

“You have a splendid mentor,” Hagrid praised. “I see no style or moves in your spearmanship, only fluid intentions. Wielding a spear is already a part of you. However, your mentor isn’t involved at all in your cultivation. Do you know how hard that is to achieve? I might not know how powerful a fighter your mentor is, but commenting purely on his mentoring skills, he’s one of the best I’ve seen.”

Emotions swirled within Drako Yau as he stayed silent. He felt proud of the old geezer but also missed him.

Old geezer, where are you now?

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