Lance’s gaze settled on Mira, who was eyeing him with a curious smile.

It was he who had told her about the room in the tower where scrolls were hidden. However, the door to the room containing the scrolls was sealed with powerful magic, and ordinary people couldn’t enter. Knowing this information made Lance realize that the whole thing might be suspicious. He couldn’t answer her question based on the assumption she gave him, as it would contradict what he had previously said. Mira must have noticed something, prompting her to ask such a question.

He needed to prevent her from exploring the tower on her own. The girl’s mind was too sharp, too active.

Lance tilted his head. “I placed the seal,” he met her gaze, “Sorry, I forgot about it.” He supported his head with one hand, wearing a slightly helpless expression. “I suppose it’s because of my injuries. My head’s been foggy for a while, and I can’t remember many things clearly.”

Mira studied him carefully, trying to determine whether his answer was trustworthy.

The magic on the door had indeed been placed recently. Lance had been severely burned by dragonfire and had been unconscious for a while, so it made sense.

But the two things didn’t necessarily have a direct connection. He might be lying and hiding something.

Mira squinted her eyes.

Lance tilted his head, attempting to distract her from any irrelevant details by shifting her focus elsewhere.

“I lived here for a while when I was very young,” he said, but stopped short. As a mage, he knew how much a half-revealed secret could attract the curiosity of another spellcaster.

Mira’s brow twitched.

Only half a story! This was so frustrating. Her curiosity had just been piqued, only to be abruptly suppressed. It felt like thousands of ants were crawling over her heart—such an uncomfortable sensation for a spellcaster who was curious about everything.

However, the sharp-minded girl quickly noticed a new problem.

The magical dragon had been occupying the tower for at least eighteen years, so when Lance was a child, how long ago was that?

She moved closer, her eyes scanning his face.

He looked like he was in his twenties.

“What are you thinking about?” Lance raised his eyes to look at her, inwardly pleased that his approach had worked. Judging by the way Mira looked at him now, she had obviously found something else that intrigued her.

“Wondering how old I am?” Lance guessed her thoughts. Her actions of looking him up and down were too obvious.

Mira pursed her lips. Mages were always clever and sly.

“You look like you’re an old man.” Mira crouched next to him, “Am I right?”

Lance turned his head. Fortunately, this question was easier to answer, and it wasn’t easy to go wrong.

He had just celebrated his two-hundredth birthday. According to the lifespan of a dragon, he was still in his prime.

His humanoid form also fit into this category: a young man with dark blue hair and deep blue eyes.

“It depends on your definition of old.” Lance answered Mira’s question, “Magic can maintain your appearance, Mira.”

“Facial retention magic,” Mira replied, “It’s the most commonly used spell among high-level magic. The Magic Nexus even has special groups of casters who use it for clients who pay exorbitant amounts.”

“This is more for helping others,” Lance knew about the spell, “But what I want to tell you about is something different.”

“Not facial retention magic?”

Lance slightly tilted his head. “Humans have a natural obsession with prolonging life. This led to the creation of spells related to vitality.”

“That’s incredibly difficult.” Mira was surprised. “If you simply use magic to extend lifespan, the magic itself causes irreversible damage to the caster, right...?”

Mira was eighteen years old. While her appearance might be maintained by magic, her life force would still be consumed.

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If there were truly a way to extend life, that magic would undoubtedly be legendary in nature.

“Have you been subjected to such a spell?” Mira found it hard to believe. But her earlier experiences gave credence to Lance’s words.

Teleportation magic had been lost for many years. Yet he could use such a spell. Could it be that it wasn’t a small magic society that kept a record of such spells, but that Lance himself had learned to use it?

Because he was from the time when teleportation magic existed.

Mira gasped. In that case, he might not be an old man, but an ancient ancestor.

“It’s not that dramatic.” Lance, seeing the disbelief in her eyes, guessed her thoughts.

“Mira, look at my eyes.” Lance said seriously. “Age is hard to conceal. Even if a person’s appearance doesn’t change, their eyes—those, the experience that comes with age—cannot be overlooked.”

“And what about vitality…” Mira muttered, puzzled.

“You seem eager to learn more about magic,” the blue dragon tried to entice her.

After a moment, he crafted a suitable identity for himself that wouldn’t be questioned.

He was the only son of a woman who had once lived in the tower. After the tower was invaded by the magical dragon, he was forced to leave. For many years afterward, the child, cast out from the tower, dedicated himself to studying magic and traveled across the world to train. Eventually, he became a powerful caster and returned to seek revenge on the dragon that had taken over his homeland.

He defeated the magical dragon, but was severely injured by dragonfire.

This was mostly the truth.

Lance downplayed the dragon aspect, turning his identity into that of a human, and blurred the timeline. After all, the lifespans of humans and dragons were incomparable.

He had indeed defeated the magical dragon, and had been injured during their fight. But that had happened ten years ago.

He had been the tower’s master for some time. He had lived here for quite a while, but because of the dragon’s bad reputation, very few people had dared to come here, and fewer still discovered that there was more than just a black dragon in the dragon clan.

Mira, after all, had misunderstood the lightning pool’s damage as caused by dragonfire. Lance took advantage of that misunderstanding and carefully wove a story that mixed truth with lies.

“Will you teach me?” Mira’s eyes lit up.

Although she often criticized the Magic Nexus, she had to admit it was currently the most powerful magic guild in the world.

Leaving the Magic Nexus without magical media support would make learning magic extremely difficult.

But if Lance were willing to teach her, the tower could be her support. Mira’s talent would certainly be put to good use.

“Why not try learning on your own?” Lance looked at Mira. “Human spellcasters rely too much on media and formal teaching.”

“I always…” Mira stopped mid-sentence.

Right. She had always wanted Lance to teach her magic. Now that she had an entire library at her disposal, why couldn’t she teach herself?

“The teaching system created by humans isn’t well-suited for learning magic,” Lance pointed out. As a spellcaster favored by the dragons, the blue dragon clan naturally had the authority to explain magic.

“Magic is a product of nature. The first spellcasters, inspired by the dragon clan, learned magic from nature. But humans’ innate physique limited them. The first spellcasters continued seeking the dragon’s help, eventually discovering the concept of media,” Lance spoke about the past between the dragon clan and human spellcasters. To be precise, the dragons he was referring to were the peaceful and inquisitive blue dragons.

“But media is only a tool to help spellcasters cast spells. It’s not the key to becoming a spellcaster.”

Mira tightened her grip on the crystal. She only had two complete crystals left.

“The Magic Nexus limits me, doesn’t it?”

“Narrow understanding of magic limits many people,” Lance said softly. “After all, humans have a limited lifespan. Today’s spellcasters aren’t the same as those who once communicated with dragons. Many things, as time passes, naturally shift in focus.”

Lance’s voice softened. This was also why he disliked communicating with modern human spellcasters.

They were restricted, but magic had never been limited.

Mira was an exception. Not only because she had entered the tower to save him, but also because Lance saw the natural curiosity in her.

Curiosity, thirst for knowledge, agility, and eccentricity.

“You’re influenced by your environment, so it’s not surprising that you think this way. But I believe you have many possibilities. If you love magic, isn’t the dragon’s library the best resource?”

His gaze fixed on the book Mira was holding, a book on magical cooking.

“Just like this book. You can read it and try learning new magic. If there’s anything you don’t understand, you can come to ask me.”

Mira nodded eagerly.

“Turn around first,” Lance said to Mira.

“What are you going to do?” Mira asked, but she obediently turned around.

“I need to get something,” Lance replied.

He stretched out his hand into the blanket.

His injured skin was rapidly healing. In the place Mira couldn’t see, new dragon scales were covering his legs.

Lance pinched one of the new dragon scales, his fingers bending to pull it off. A cleaning spell quickly surrounded the scale, washing away the bloodstains.

Lance was a blue dragon, so he didn’t need a medium to cast spells.

But Mira hadn’t grown to the point where she could filter out volatile energy on her own yet. She still needed medium protection.

Looking at the blue scale in his palm, Lance said, “Alright, Mira, you can turn around now.”

Mira turned around and immediately smelled a faint blood odor in the air.

“You didn’t hurt your wound again, did you?” The girl frowned, looking suspiciously at Lance.

Lance didn’t answer. He extended his hand, revealing a triangular object that glowed with a faint blue light.

“What’s this?” Mira asked, “It looks like a scale?”

“This is my medium,” Lance handed it to her. “I know you don’t like the ones in the tower, but this one is different. It’s not a piece of a magical dragon taken from someone else.”

“I’ll give it to you to cast magic.”

Mira looked at the scale in her hand, still warm to the touch.

Combining Lance’s strange behavior earlier, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

“Where did you hide it before?”