“Why?” Mira simply couldn’t understand.

Lance was a good person. Although they hadn’t known each other for long, he had already shared a lot of knowledge about magic.

What was most important was not the medium, but the self. His words, though simple, offered Mira an entirely different perspective, one that broke the constraints she had grown up with in the rigid system of the Magic Nexus.

He helped her break free from the limitations imposed by her previous environment.

So why would Lance be called a freak as well?

“Maybe it’s because I was born different?” Lance replied with a smile, clearly unconcerned about being unwelcome.

“Many times, being different does make us the ones who are ostracized,” Mira lowered her head, recalling some of the unpleasant events from her own life. She hadn’t expected someone like Lance, a mage, to face the same problems she did.

Seeing the flash of sadness on Mira’s face, Lance didn’t want to continue the topic, knowing it might make her uncomfortable.

His gaze wandered, landing on the heavy books placed on the low table.

The great dragon squinted slightly. With the power of his extraordinary race, he easily read the small text on the spine of the book.

“Mira, didn’t you pick out some books from the library?” Lance diverted her attention away from the previous conversation, focusing her attention on what was happening right now.

“Do you want to give it a try?”

Mira remembered the book she had ignored, The Art of Magical Cooking. She turned to look at the book on the table.

She blinked. “Right.”

Mira walked over and picked up the book on magical cooking. As she saw the title, her mind was involuntarily reminded of a joke among traveling mages.

“I’ve always known that mages in the traveling school could bake their own bread, but since I’ve been at the Magic Nexus, I’ve never used that kind of spell. With this, I can cook on my own,” she said thoughtfully. “Magical cooking should taste better than what I could make myself.”

Lance’s gaze moved from the cover of the book to her, acknowledging her little moment of excitement.

“We can try it tonight.”

Mira thought about the supplies she still had. “I have two pounds of beef and two loaves of bread left. I’d like to try using magic to bake the bread.” She added with a spark in her eyes, “This spell is very famous.”

Lance tilted his head. He wasn’t particularly interested unless the spell involved making meat patties by hand. Dragons were carnivorous, and other foods were indigestible to them.

The amount of food Mira had prepared would be enough for a grown man but would not even fill the gap in the jaws of an adult dragon.

Though Lance appeared human at the moment, he was definitely not one.

Mira, of course, had no idea what Lance was thinking from a few meters away. She sat in the chair and began flipping through the book on magical cooking.

This book didn’t just explain the specific spellcasting process for turning magic into food, but also included some enticing food illustrations.

Mira couldn’t help but think, if she could master all the cooking magic in this book, she could open a small restaurant in a city by the dock once she left the tower.

She could serve customers with these magical dishes every day. If someone from the Magic Nexus came by, she could sneak out the back door and take the earliest ship to leave.

Anyway, the dimensional ring the king had given her was filled with money—enough for her to open any small shop in any city in the world. Thinking of the bright future ahead, Mira felt more motivated than ever.

But what she wanted most was to become a mage in the tower. If that didn’t work out, she could always run a restaurant.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The restaurant was her backup plan. Mira nodded to herself and forced her overly active thoughts to focus back on the book in front of her.

As she flipped through the pages, the dazzling illustrations almost made her drool.

She wasn’t really drooling, right? Mira pretended to prop her head up with one hand and quickly wiped her mouth with the other.

No, it was just an illusion. She sighed and continued reading the cooking book.

Mira thought this was probably the most practical magic book she had ever seen. What could be more tempting than delicious food?

She was starting to feel hungry, and the strange emotions she’d had earlier seemed to have vanished. The girl was eager to try the new magic and couldn’t wait to begin.

She turned to the first page of the book. The first spell recorded was Handmade Bread.

Mira took out the blue dragon scale from her pocket. Holding the gift from the mage, she glanced at the man who had given it to her.

Lance was resting with his eyes closed.

His injuries were still healing, so it was perfectly normal for him to need a long rest.

Mira felt a strange, indescribable feeling. In just a few days, this mysterious mage had provided her with so much help. While she had saved him, it was she who felt more grateful to him.

Mira pulled her gaze away and spread her palm. The shiny dragon scale rested in her hand.

Today, she was determined to show her skills and prepare a magical feast for Lance as a thank you.

She recalled the steps from the book, gathering the surrounding magical energy as instructed.

In simple terms, the spellcasting process involved the mage’s own mental energy influencing the surrounding magic, filtering out harmful parts through the medium, and then using the remaining energy to cast the spell.

As she followed the prescribed method, it was as though some reckless person had thrown a lit firecracker into a bear’s hibernating den.

Boom—Boom—

The chaotic magic was awakened. It gathered together in disarray, like a bunch of noisy children shouting and screeching, their cries echoing one after another.

This was only a simple spell, but the different medium made the experience entirely different.

The dragon scale given to her by Lance acted like a guiding light in the dark, leading the noisy children in the right direction. They really did become gentle, transforming from bothersome children into winged spirits. Following the guiding light, they were arranged and organized by Mira’s will.

A soft blue glow spilled out from the dragon scale in her palm, enveloping Mira’s body.

For a brief moment, she felt as if she were soaring through the clouds on the back of a giant dragon. The dragon’s form was vague, rolling through thick and light clouds, its wings unfurled, shaking, with light escaping from the path it flew.

Mira had the strange feeling that she wasn’t standing in the tower anymore. Instead, she was in an open wilderness, with endless green fields beneath her feet, and the sky above filled with dark clouds and sunlight, hiding a gigantic creature.

She didn’t feel like she was making magical bread; it was as though she was creating her own tower.

The heavy clouds parted as the giant dragon swept through them, and the ground beneath her feet trembled.

Suddenly, Mira realized that the ground beneath her wasn’t land at all—it was the back of a real dragon. The wind whistled past her ears, and the icy cold of the clouds clung to her face.

Her awareness remained clear. She knew she was just practicing a simple spell, but these overwhelming and impossible illusions were still emanating from the blue scale in her hand.

Mira was riding a giant dragon, flying through the clouds, and the world beneath her seemed so far away.

When she finally opened her eyes, the sensation of solid ground beneath her feet came as a sudden shock.

Mira blinked. This was the first time she had felt that spellcasting could be such a complex process, yet it felt as natural as eating or sleeping.

The girl looked at the magic bread in her palm and then at the blue scale in her hand.

Such a grand scene, and all for the sake of a small loaf of bread.

How strange. It felt like a daydream, like a legendary story she had imagined in her mind before falling asleep.

So embarrassing. Mira lowered her head, sneaking a glance at Lance to see if he had noticed anything suspicious in her expression.

“Lance,” she asked, her gaze flickering back and forth. Had she given away some strange look?

“Did it work?” Lance pressed his hands against the blanket.

He bit his lip. When Mira had invoked the magic through the scale, it was as if the magic had passed through him.

Underneath the thin blanket, his legs were covered by newly grown dragon scales, as if they had been summoned, growing wildly in response to Mira’s magic.

Lance had never experienced anything like this before. He pressed down on the blanket, trying to hide the abnormality as best as he could.

But Mira walked over, carefully holding the magic bread in her hands, her bright eyes fixed on him as she approached.

It was as if she was trying to figure something out.

Lance pressed the blanket down.

“It looks good,” he said, forcing his gaze to stay on the bread in Mira’s hands.

“Yes… yes,” Mira stammered. The bread looked good, but the process of casting the spell had been so strange.

“How’s the new medium?” Lance asked, probing to see if she felt the anomaly too.

“It’s… it’s very good.” Mira stammered again, trying to find the right words to describe her experience.

Thinking of Lance’s words, she blurted out, “It feels like nature.”

Lance froze for a moment. Her words seemed to act as a soothing balm. Suddenly, the new dragon scales growing on his legs ceased their restless movements and seemed to display the natural comfort Mira had described.

Lance squinted his eyes, and his Dragon’s Eye moved over Mira again. But he still couldn’t sense anything out of the ordinary—Mira was just a girl with good talent.

Mira hesitated for a moment, then finally spoke.

“Would you like to try the magic bread?” She thought that for such a simple spell to cause such a disturbance, the bread must taste pretty good.

Lance, being a dragon, couldn’t digest anything except meat, so he should refuse.

But seeing Mira’s expectant expression, the refusal that was about to leave his mouth turned into agreement.

“A little bit,” the blue dragon muttered, somewhat annoyed, but it was too late to change his mind.