Chapter 47: I'll Form the Head (Reached five hundred followers, extra chapter tomorrow! Continuing to ask for follows)

"You need to read more books, you silly goose."

Victoria waved the green-covered book in her hand.

"I read the world."

"Tch, how despicable..."

Linde clicked his tongue, though he didn't shamelessly deny it. Instead, he made a final request:

"Don't call me that outside, save me some face. You can call me whatever you want when we're inside our room, alright?"

"Okay~"

The little dragon then happily hummed a victorious little tune.

This time, Linde even understood the lyrics.

Don't look at me like I'm just a little dragon; a dragon's intelligence is beyond your imagination...

Optimistic and cheerful, a happy little dragon who brings joy to everyone.

Heh, that title was actually quite fitting.

Linde glanced at the silvery-white little dragon, unable to help a wave of sentiment in his heart.

"Alright, enough messing around, let's get back to business."

"There's definitely something fishy when things are abnormal. Since the red dragon went against so many factors to live in this area, it means there is an absolute reason why it cannot leave."

"Perhaps it's an agreement made with other dragons, or perhaps there is something it desperately desires in this area, so even if the terrain is disadvantageous for combat, it insists on lingering here."

At this point, Linde suddenly recalled their experience in the deep cave.

The gigantic dragon skeleton, the precious dragon pearl obtained from it, and that pool of black mud exuding an ominous aura that he had seen...

Limited by their strength, they hadn't continued exploring the spot at the time.

And now, Victoria and the others had treasures to boost their strength, and he had raised his reputation level to Tier 2, with over a thousand reputation points to squander.

Once they let the young dragon advance to the fourth tier and made another breakthrough in combat power, they could head back to that mysterious skeleton and investigate further.

Perhaps that was the very reason the red dragon had stayed here for so long.

They still hadn't fully grasped the precious dragon pearl they had obtained, unable to unleash its full potential.

Currently, they usually just had little Pink give it a lick, using the mucus secreted on its body surface during slumber to indirectly harness the power within the dragon pearl.

Speaking of little Pink, he would have to make time later to go back to the hut and bring her here to the Migal River Valley.

Besides, strangely enough, the gluttonous Victoria couldn't directly extract power from the dragon pearl.

Wait!

An idea flashed through Linde's mind like a bolt of lightning.

"Victoria, quick, quick, give me the dragon pearl."

"Oh, why are you suddenly in such a hurry..."

Muttering to herself, Victoria took the dragon pearl out of her space gemstone and readily handed it over to him.

Linde didn't hesitate for a second and began testing the newly acquired enhancement command.

To be precise, he was testing the feature of fusing specific blocks into it.

Enabling the command cost reputation points, but even without enabling it, he could still determine whether a block could be fused into his own body parts.

After trying it out, he received one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news was that the system judged the dragon pearl could be fused.

The bad news was that fusing it would kill him.

[High risk of death upon current fusion]

The system offered only that single warning.

It probably had very high physical requirements, Linde guessed.

There were five parts of his body where he could fuse blocks, but a dragon pearl was best suited for fusion into the torso, as that would relatively maximize its utility.

After all, the blood of the entire body flowed through the heart, and power could be transmitted to the limbs from the heart.

Given this premise, there were still four other body parts where four more types of blocks could be fused. Choosing to fuse blocks that enhanced physical strength should lower the risk of death.

In that case, the initial reputation cost would reach 250 points.

The upside, however, was that the body itself would be comprehensively enhanced, and fusing the blocks would simply be strengthening upon strength without consuming additional reputation.

If he consumed extra reputation to further strengthen his torso while in the enhanced state, it might reduce the risk of death even more.

With his body comprehensively enhanced, possessing a power core (the dragon pearl), and gathering the traits of all five types of blocks, he would basically lack nothing.

So one of his current goals was to find the most suitable accessories to assemble himself.

Why did he suddenly feel like he was the one doing the head-forming? The mecha was actually himself.

Thinking of this, Linde suddenly felt refreshed, and even the air he breathed seemed a bit sweeter.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, he also tested his existing materials.

The final results showed that all ores, most tool and material types, and a small number of natural blocks (dirt, wood, etc.) fell within the fusion-compatible range.

Furthermore, most of them did not trigger danger warnings.

In other words, if Linde wanted to, he could fuse an iron pickaxe into his head to achieve true, literal iron-headedness.

No flaws there, old iron.

He could even dig with his head and both hands wielding three pickaxes at once; capitalists would shed tears at this efficiency.

As for what could not be fused, it fell into the category of living creatures.

Just like when Linde ran a system check on Victoria, this young dragon obviously could not be fused.

As for food items like chicken and beef, he couldn't fuse those either.

Worthy of note, however, was that items like collected feathers could be fused onto his back.

Flight would no longer be a dream in the future.

Pity about the duration limit, though.

Watching Linde chuckle foolishly one moment and sigh dejectedly the next, Victoria muttered to herself internally.

Was he too mentally stimulated and actually gone crazy?

Linde shouldn't be such a sore loser.

She crept over to Shirona, pressed her head close to the other's, and whispered:

"Shirona, what do we do about this..."

"Don't worry, I have a trick for dealing with raving lunatics."

The butterfly dragon quietly approached Linde, who was engrossed in testing blocks. When the distance was right, she leaped up and swiftly struck the side of his neck with her wing.

With a crisp "crack," Linde fell into a very peaceful slumber.

Shirona turned her head and smiled at the dumbfounded Victoria:

"Sometimes, when the prey struggles too fiercely, a little tap like this calms everyone down."

"Linde isn't prey, hey!"

The young dragon hurried to Linde's side, lowering her head to listen to his heartbeat.

Phew, thank goodness.

"Exploding Dragon, don't be so rash before doing things next time."

"Okay..."

"You need to apologize properly to Linde tomorrow."

"Mm..." Shirona replied softly.

...

The next day.

When Linde opened his eyes, he still felt a bit dazed.

Was his sleep quality a bit too good? He had even forgotten when he fell asleep.

He remembered he still had things to do...

Before he could recall what happened yesterday afternoon, a familiar face came into view.

"Linde, the weather is really nice today, let's go out for a walk."

"We're underground. Exactly how are you telling that the weather is nice?"

Linde gave Shirona a sidelong glance, then looked around and found the young dragon missing.

Noticing his gaze, Shirona explained:

"Victoria went out to find food."

"That's perfect. You and I will go do this thing together. Best to avoid Victoria and not let her know."

"?"

Shirona's eyelashes fluttered as her mind began to wander wildly.