"What did I do?" Kashi stared at the raging Nornesh, wondering what had gotten into the proud dragon. What did Nornesh have to be angry about? Kashi was the one who got killed. He was about to repeat the question when he spotted Syèl laughing at pointing at the ground. Kashi suddenly felt terrible foreboding. The daeben swallowed hard, and then looked around him.

Kashi instantly groaned. Just as he feared, the mana pool no longer existed. Yggdrasil sucked up everything, not sparing a single drop. Now, Kashi understood Nornesh's rage. Pulling up, taming, and then maintaining this violent mana could not have been easy. Anyone would be pissed if a guest came in and cleared out their fridge and storeroom.

A thousand thoughts ran through Kashi's head at once, until his eyes shone with mischief. Kashi met Nornesh's gaze, and then said, "So, I guess I won, right?"

Nornesh froze for a moment, in disbelief of his own ears. Suddenly, the flames on his hands turned black as they flared up. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"

Kashi winced as the flames burned his chest. Damn, now it was obvious Nornesh had gone easy on them. If the dragon had used these black flames from the start, neither Kashi nor Syèl would have survived. Contrary to expectations, Kashi's expression remained neutral despite staring death in the face. Instead, he curled his lips as he said, "I won. We bet that I could survive for three hours in here." Looking around, the daeben chuckled, "But there's no more mana in this pool. I can remain here for the remainder of the time if you want. But either way, that favour is already mine." Nornesh opened his mouth but Kashi interrupted, "My favour is that you let this go." The daeben then added with a shit-eating grin, "I suppose that leaves me with only one favour."

Nornesh's eyes burned. "You!"

"Let it go, man," Syèl called from behind. "Old ginger might be the spiciest, but the student will eventually surpass the master." Shrugging he added, "He's got you on a technicality. You gotta let him go."

Nornesh glared at Syèl, but the halben only responded with a helpless shrug. His eyes said, 'Don't blame me chief. Blame the game.' Even though Nornesh would have loved nothing more than to snap Kashi's neck, he was honour-bound to respect his rules.

Thus, Nornesh, after a long, internal debate, freed Kashi and then turned to Syèl. The essence blood floated in his hand as he spat with a spiteful grin, "Nothing says I have to give you th—"

"[Dawn Pelmut]"

Nornesh's jaw dropped to the floor, stunned silly by Syèl's audacity. He was so shocked that he failed to react until the Essence Blood was dancing on Syèl's palm. "You!" Nornesh exploded with rage. "You dare steal fr—" *Cough* Kashi's sudden cough caused chills to run up the dragon's spine. He looked at the daeben, shock in his eyes. "You wouldn't."

Kashi, however, replied with a smile, "A few hours ago, maybe not. Now, though, I do not intent on relying on external power, so..." Glancing at Syèl, he said, "My last favour. I ask that you overlook Syèl's slight."

Nornesh regarded Kashi with disbelief. "You would waste an Elder Dragon's favours this way?"

"Is it really a waste if you appreciate the reason you wasted something?" retorted Kashi with a profound smile. He then said, "So, will you grant me this final favour?"

"Heh." Nornesh's maw twitched, but then spread in exaggerated laughter. "He-hahahahaha!" The dragon's laughter turned increased as he bent his head backward. Eventually, after a short while, and a few tears later, Nornesh clamped his right hand on Kashi's shoulder. "Good Kid. I like you." He then glanced at Syèl and added, "Your friend not so much. Are you certain you do not wish to swap out your favour to kill him?"

Kashi shook his head, sighing sadly as he said, "Maybe some other day."

"I can hear you guys, you know," complained Syèl as he played with the Essence Blood. "I'm standing less than three meters away from you guys."

Nornesh let out a regretful sigh. "I suppose I must let you go. This request does not cross my bottom line." His eyes then sparked with a vindictive light as he glared at Syèl. "You, however; I shall not teach you the safe absorption method for that Essence Blood. Wallow in pain, you ingrate."

"Oh? This will hurt?" questioned Syèl with a skeptic look. The halben raised the blood to his mouth, and then swallowed it. Nornesh watched, eyes glittering with anticipation, but apart from a momentary wince, Syèl had the most relaxed expression. Anyone would think he just ate a berry, not one of the most destructive Essences on the planet. Several seconds later, Syèl's eyes widened. "Oh? This really something." He opened his right hand, and then admired the blue flame that appeared.

Kashi and Nornesh's eyes twitched as they looked at the flame. Did this bastard just skip straight to a Tier 3 flame? Why were the heavens so unfair? Kashi, in particular, looked at that flame with trepidation. He was completely immune to Tier 1 flames, possessed a partial immunity to Tier 2 flames, but from Tier 3 up, he had zero immunity. Even with Syèl's multitude of skills, Kashi always took solace in the fact that he was resistant to Syèl's favorite attack element: fire. From today onward, that was no longer a guarantee.

Syèl meanwhile, grinned as he flexed his arm and examined a prompt that informed him that he had advanced to Vampiric Prince. As a result, his Strength and Agility had both risen by 200 points, his magic-skill potency had increased to 200%, and finally, his health regen had increased to 3%/s. Syèl grinned as he examined the prompts. Indeed, the fastest way to Vampire King was to find dragons and other rare creatures.

More importantly, however, the Essence Blood not only granted him 10,000 HP, free, also granted him a few passive skills. [Bloodline Sense] granted him the ability to sense dragons or dragonkin nearby. [Divine Aura] covered him in a holy aura that offered protection against both black and holy magic (It also had the side effect of making him seem trustworthy to strangers.) [Dragon Tongue] granted him an understanding of an ancient draconic language. The language possessed powerful magic, but he had to go searching for them himself.

Syèl glanced at Nornesh. Unfortunately, the dragon's stormy expression belied his most likely response. His question might just be that straw that broke this dragon's back. Sighing, Syèl said as he walked over to Kashi, "Thanks for the save."

"No problem," stated Kashi with a smile. "If you weren't here, he might have burned my corpse to ash. Don't know if I can come back from that."

Syèl laughed and then wrapped his hand around the daeben's neck. "So, what did you get from your torture? Anything sweet?"

"Sweet?" mused Kashi. "Don't know." He muttered and then opened his system logs to see the past few logs. Seconds later, he and Syèl's jaws dropped at the veritable waterfall of notifications that poured out. Hundreds of [Mana +1] poured out, until finally, they hit the summary.

Kashi and Syèl stared at the prompt with blank expressions. Finally, the daeben looked at Nornesh with trembling eyes. "Uh... It seems I owe you a favour." This was far too much! The additional 5000 MP was nice, but the real kicker was Mana Affinity! Anyone would tell you. Rather than instant growth, growth in potential was what ultimately differentiated top warriors from riff-raff down the line. No one took increases in levelling points lightly.

Syèl, at a loss for words, patted the daeben's back as he exclaimed. "You're truly something else. Why do you always seem like a walking cheat code?"

"Says the guy with Tier 3 flames," snorted Kashi with derision. "You had the explosive growth. Mine's just potential. It'll take a while before I can boast about it."

"Says you," challenged Syèl with a snide grin. "You think I don't know what this Mana Lord means? This' the equivalent of having your mana doubled in a second. It doesn't even have any restrictions on skill proficiency, which means there should be some skills you can now use indefinitely."

Kashi hid a bitter smile. Yes, that was true. A lot of his earlier skills already cost next to no mana. If he added the halved mana cost, and then coupled that with his MP Regen, then yes, there were many skills he could indefinitely use. However, something about being called an overpowered cheat by Syèl did not sit right with the daeben, so instead, he challenged. "Alright then. Let's compare our skills side by side. See who's the real cheat."

Syèl paused, but then suddenly grinned with confidence. "You're on. Okay. On the count of three. 1... 2... 3..."

"!!!"

Kashi's brow shot up as he stared at Syèl's seemingly endless skill window. The halben had learned hundreds of magic spells, most of which were self-taught. The daeben sneered as he then looked up at Syèl. "I'm supposed to be the OP one? When did you have time to learn all these?"

Syèl laughed and scratched the back of his head. "Well, you see. I like to experiment with my spells when I'm bored." Waving his hand, he defended himself. "Don't be fooled by the numbers. Most of them are failures. I only use a handful from these." Syèl then examined Kashi's skills and said, "You might not have as many skills as I do, but yours are far more Overpowered... Huh. See? They're so good, you only felt the need to add one original skill. I need dozens just to boost the basic skills to acceptable levels."

Kashi winced. "Well, I'm sorry I don't have original skills. I've been busy, you know."

"Why are you complaining to me?" questioned Syèl with a raised brow. "I was praising, not condemning you?"

"I—" Kashi snorted and then shook his head. "Forget it. Let's see your stats. That will paint a clearer picture of who's truly OP between the both of us."

"Oh? Stats, huh?" Syèl's smile strangely faltered for a minute. "Yeah, that might be the best way to judge." He swallowed hard, and then, once again counted down, "3...2...1."

Kashi and Syèl, stared at their statuses for a good minute, then looked at themselves.

"CHEAT!"
"CHEAT!"

"I'm a cheat?" Kashi bellowed with exaggerated laughter. "Look at those Hit Points! What are you, a BOSS? Is that it? Are you the final boss? What kind of OP shit is th—"

"Sharrap!" interrupted Syèl with a belly full of rage. "I'm a vampire! I don't have wisdom stat, so I don't have mana, idiot! Both my mana and health come from that HP. Does it sound so ridiculous now?"

"Heh, don't try and hoodwink me," sneered Kashi. "Even if we say an even 50-50 spread, that's still over ninety-thousand HP and MP. Do you think that's normal? Cheat Code!"

"Bull!" Syèl spat with a snide grin. "You think you're smart. Focusing on my HP? What about you? 30k across the board? What kind of perfect all-rounder are you? How is any of that even fair? Most people would kill to have just one of those stats at your level, and you have them on all three fronts? And I'm the cheat code?" Syèl then jabbed his finger at Kashi's stat page as he continued, "And what's with that Attack and Defence? Huh? 7,500 Magic Defence? You're the final boss of final bosses! The asshole that uses mages' ultimate infernos as bath steam!"

Kashi refused to back down as he too jabbed at Syèl's page. "Aren't you a mage? How is your Strength higher than mine? The fuck have you been eating?"

"My strength's higher, but your attack's ultimately higher," argued Syèl. "I guess Dragons are better attack-dogs than vampires, eh?"

"Fair, but what about your Magic Attack? Seven thousand!? Are you a walking nuclear bomb!?"

Nornesh, unable to stand their argument, roared, "That's enough out of the both of you!" The dragon, who was already in a bad mood, huffed and grumbled, "Are you both trying to show off in front of me? Is that it? Here's our potential. We shall soon surpass you. That sort of thing?" Nornesh glared at Kashi and then waved his hand, "You have what you came for. Leave. I will see you at Oni Hill."

Kashi and Syèl paused to regard the dragon. Following Nornesh's rebuke, they looked at each other, nodded, and then bowed toward Nornesh.

Kashi spoke for both of them as he said, "All joking aside, thank you Nornesh, for your help. You might say you only helped us because your honor dictates so, but we are grateful that you held up your side of the deal." The duo then stood straight, firm smiles on their faces as Kashi declared, "And yes. We were showing off. You might have trounced us today, no contest. But soon... Soon, we shall return and defeat you in a fair, all-out battle. Until then, please take care of us."

Nornesh's eyes gleamed as he regarded the duo. Suddenly, his lips parted as he revealed a toothy grin. "You want to defeat me?" The dragon snapped his fingers, and soon after the Elder Dragons in the pass burst into the cavern. Nornesh chuckled, exclaiming as he once again snapped his fingers, "You will have to go through them first."

Kashi and Syèl watched, slack-jawed as the Elder Dragons rapidly shrunk until they were naught but a bunch of red scales floating in the air. Those scales flew down and then embedded themselves onto Nornesh's right arm.

"Oh..." muttered Kashi in disbelief.

Syèl, in turn, replied, "Now, that is the true cheat code..."

VIDEO OF THE DAY

https://youtu.be/SCyfbfoS_74