24

The Witcher: The last King of the elves

Chapter 24 – The Roar of the Fire Dragon

An amount of five thousand magic crystals, while not excessive, was by no means a small quantity.

The legions of elves under his command could easily complete a hunt in a single day and store even greater numbers of magic crystals in the warehouses.

But from another perspective, these crystals could be used to strengthen his army and expand his troops, which could hardly be described as a small number.

“Using five thousand crystals to exchange them for a powerful magic spell would save me time. It’s not that I cannot, but in our situation it is absolutely worth it...” Thranduil lacked neither skill, talent, nor cunning, and he needed no advisor to understand the advantages of his decisions.

He knew that if he enhanced his abilities, he could quickly recover the crystals invested by adding new fire magic to his arsenal.

Moreover, he was the most powerful force of his entire race. He could not afford to lose a single battle.

Thinking of this, Thranduil summoned one of his elven messengers who was standing guard not far away and asked: “How long has the elven army been hunting?”

The elf replied respectfully, “Your Majesty, it has been nearly two hours.”

“This is a good moment. Tell Haldir to send me the magic crystals the gatherers have brought.”

“As you command, Your Majesty the Elven King!” The elf turned and mounted the swift leopard at his side, swiftly riding toward the ruins outside the plaza.

There was also a dozen of the royal guards who accompanied the messenger. They scattered in different directions of the ruins to cover the area.

In less than half an hour, a group of elves returned one after another, handing over leather packs filled with magic crystals to Thranduil, who was reading documents.

After taking inventory, there were more than 23,000 magic crystals.

Thranduil was slightly surprised to have gained so much in just two hours. That meant that his army, now large, was being well organized by Haldir and the commanders in charge.

“But to produce so many energy crystals, we had to kill tens of thousands of monsters. That is nothing to be glad about either.” Thranduil’s expression turned heavy with concern. “Could it be that the number of magical beasts and monsters in the ruins is also rapidly increasing?”

During the day, there were not many undead in sight. And that was because there were no fortresses built by undead creatures in the central city ruins.

But further inward, one could encounter a wide variety of monsters. And all of them had stopped hiding in their lairs.

“Any movement?”

An elf dressed in silver armor reported: “The battle last night seems to have alarmed the swamp rats. This morning, a large number of giant rats appeared on the surface. They are wandering among the ruins in alarming numbers.”

“That’s the reason!” Thranduil suddenly understood.

It was normal to have rats around. In all the ruins of the ancient elven city, the most numerous monsters were swamp rats, even more numerous than vampire mosquitoes.

About two months ago, with the help of the World Tree’s consciousness, he had witnessed a vision of a tide of rats sweeping through the ruins of the outer city.

It had been quite a spectacle for Thranduil—his first contact with a horde.

Thranduil spoke to the guard awaiting his orders: “Give instructions to the hunters to place some magic traps near the plaza to deal with any possible rat plague.”

It was never a bad thing to plan ahead. He only had to ensure the surrounding ruins were cleared to prevent scattered monsters from stumbling into the traps and causing the effect of using a cannon to kill a mosquito.

“As you command, Your Majesty!” The elf obeyed respectfully.

After he left, Thranduil continued sitting beneath the Tree of Life.

“System, consume energy crystals and learn the Fire Dragon’s Roar!” Thranduil had made his decision.

The Fire Dragon’s Roar was the high-level magic recorded in the magic book.

It was a group-attack type of magic.

“[… Processing.]”

Resources made things easier.

As soon as the system received the payment, it immediately infused all the magical mysteries of [Fire Dragon’s Roar] into Thranduil—simple and direct, like a data transmission.

Thranduil needed to do nothing but wait. After about a minute, the transfer of knowledge was complete.

“[…Congratulations, Host. You have perfectly mastered the magic skill Fire Dragon’s Roar.]”

Thranduil immediately calmed himself and focused, recalling the magical secrets of the Fire Dragon’s Roar in his mind.

Soon, a massive dragon blazing with scorching flames appeared in his thoughts. The fire dragon was enormous, with four legs, wings, a swollen belly, and a long, thick tail.

It resembled a winged lizard. Under Thranduil’s control, the fire dragon suddenly disintegrated into countless magical runes and then reformed into an extremely majestic fire dragon.

This was the perfect control of magic.

He could command every magical rune that composed the Fire Dragon’s Roar with ease.

As long as those magical runes were connected to each other, no matter what final form they took, it would still be the Fire Dragon’s Roar, and its power would not diminish at all. After all, the only thing that had changed was the form.

The magical runes themselves had not been altered.

After resting, Thranduil donned his armor and went to the ruins outside the plaza to conduct tests. He waved his magic staff, and a blazing dragon burst forth. Its size grew rapidly in the air, reaching more than twenty meters in the blink of an eye.

The enormous fire dragon flew directly toward the ruins of a building hundreds of meters away.

Wherever it passed, countless sparks rained down.

A path of flames several meters wide ignited.

At the target point, the Fire Dragon crashed into the ruins of the building. Accompanied by a tremendous roar, scorching flames spread in all directions, turning an area within a 200-meter radius into a sea of fire.

After a long time, the sea of fire finally died down.

All the ruins of the buildings in the area had been reduced to ashes, and even some iron objects had melted. In addition, at the center was left a massive crater nearly 100 meters in diameter.

“As expected of ancient magic—it is truly powerful!” Thranduil was delighted.

The magical power of the Fire Dragon’s Roar exceeded his expectations.

Moreover, the Fire Dragon’s Roar was a type of group-attack magic, and its range of extermination was absurdly vast.

Once deployed on the battlefield, its effect would be absolutely astonishing.

“Surprisingly, the Fire Dragon’s Roar does not consume much energy.” Thranduil did not know if it was because he was a Sun Elf or if it was the same for other mages, but with the magical power within his body, casting twenty Fire Dragon’s Roars in succession was no problem at all.

Watching the destruction caused by the roaring fire dragon from afar, Thranduil felt increasingly satisfied.

…

Once Thranduil returned to his territory, he looked at the remaining crystals. After learning the Fire Dragon’s Roar magic, he still had more than 18,000 crystals left.

He did not immediately train the elven troops but instead checked the level information of each building in the territory.

Thanks to his great advancement, he was able to upgrade all the buildings with the remaining magic crystals.

“My lord, you should not go out without your royal guard,” Haldir said as he returned, his armor covered in blood.

“It is impossible for me not to take certain risks. I cannot remain idle knowing that my strength is necessary for our race to rise above.” Thranduil understood the responsibilities of a King, but he could not afford to dwell too much on them now.

Knowing what his king was thinking, Haldir stopped insisting and instead spoke of the progress they had been making in all directions.