Between half-dream and half-awake, his perception of the surroundings was as vague as smoke.

Lance sensed someone approaching the tower, someone walking into the tower, but he couldn’t move a muscle, not even able to utter a sound of help.

There were too many enemies of the dragon. Lance thought that if someone took this opportunity to kill him, he wouldn’t even have the strength to resist.

He might be dying soon.

Someone kicked him, seemingly testing if he was dead.

Why not just kill him directly?

The dragon’s reputation had always been terrible. Since Lance had lived in this tower, he had dealt with many brave but ignorant adventurers.

But none of them had made him feel as weak as he did now.

He didn’t know if it was because his body was immobile while his thoughts remained active, but Lance quickly found a reason why he hadn’t been killed.

He was probably in human form, right?

He should be. The top of the tower was narrower than the bottom and filled with various alchemical items, so he usually operated in human form up there.

"Hey." He heard a crisp sound.

It wasn’t a man—it was a girl. The blue dragon vaguely thought, The adventurer this time is a girl?

What kind of sword did she have?

In his collection room, Lance had hundreds of sharp swords, all trophies he had collected in battle.

Dragons were collectors by nature. Many dragons liked to collect gems or other shiny things, and Lance was no exception. His collection was even richer than other dragons', containing not just gems but also swords and books.

Lance’s thoughts were fragmented, but he could feel her flipping him over.

The strength of this adventurer was quite weak. Previous adventurers had hurt him, even in his dragon form.

She took the book that had fallen on top of him.

Then, the giant dragon heard a low incantation.

A high-level spell—Rebirth. It could restore damage and was a difficult healing spell. Dragons could cast it effortlessly, but for humans, the spell required an extremely high level of skill.

Of course, human mages used mediums to assist in their casting, and if a caster had an excellent medium, the difficulty of the spell would decrease accordingly.

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Lance didn’t know if Rebirth would work on him. Magic cast by humans needed to be pure enough to have an effect on a dragon.

The gentle energy flowed into his body with the incantation. The energy, in tandem with the incantation, slowly accumulated and fused into his being.

Warm currents surged through his veins, intertwining with his own magical power.

Lance’s thoughts gradually became clearer.

Even as the blue dragon who was most skilled in magic, he had to admit that the perfection of this spell was astounding.

Waves of pain surged as his consciousness returned, but warm magic wrapped around his dragon body, soothing the pain.

He couldn’t help but emit a low groan, slowly opening his eyes.

A black-haired girl was peering at him.

Lance saw her blink, then display an expression of surprise.

He blinked as well, his dark blue, almost black lashes casting a small shadow.

“It actually worked,” Mira murmured. This was the first time she had cast Rebirth. Although she had seen the method of casting this high-level healing spell in the Magic Energy Hub’s library, she had never had the opportunity to try it herself.

The Magic Energy Hub was considered the safest place in the world, gathering the most powerful spellcasters. Even if someone had sustained such a fatal injury, it would never be Mira, an apprentice, who would be tasked with healing them.

"Do you feel better?" Mira cautiously asked, observing the blue-haired man in front of her with curiosity.

Lance tilted his head slightly.

The girl crouching in front of him was dressed in a complicated and luxurious white gown, with black hair adorned with jewelry.

The jewels emitted a faint glow in the candlelight, and Lance’s mood faltered for a moment.

Dragons all loved jewels, and even though he was a blue dragon, he was no exception.

Mira noticed that he didn’t respond and assumed he wasn’t fully awake yet.

She waved her hand in front of Lance’s face, showing off the pigeon-egg-sized gemstone ring the king had given her.

The jewel instantly caught the blue dragon’s attention.

“I feel much better,” Lance said, his gaze fixed on the gemstone ring. He had never seen this kind of gem before—it wasn’t something from the tower.

Lance didn’t think a woman dragging such a complicated gown could have acquired treasures from this tower, and this wasn’t the usual attire of an adventurer. More importantly, she didn’t have a sword but instead used magic.

He instinctively asked, “What’s going on?”

Mira snorted. She was still curious about what was going on with him. After all, she had saved him, and yet he was the one questioning her first.

“You tell me what’s going on first.”

A snapping sound echoed in the dimly lit tower. One old book after another flew toward Mira, stacking themselves into a shape resembling a chair.

Mira confidently sat on top, her chin raised slightly, as if she were judging a criminal.

“Why?” Lance asked in confusion.

“I saved you, so naturally, you tell me what’s going on, and then I’ll decide if I want to tell you about my situation,” Mira replied, her voice calm but firm.

Lance was taken aback by her assertiveness, and for a moment, he couldn’t help but find it amusing. But he was indeed curious.

Humans had always feared the reputation of his black dragon cousin. Apart from adventurers, others avoided the tower. Yet here was a human girl, not an adventurer, but a spellcaster. Why had she suddenly appeared in the tower?

She was so thin, not very tall, clearly all bones and unappetizing insides—not enough to fill the dragon’s teeth.

“My name is Lance.” He recalled the reasons adventurers had given, “I’m a mage. I’m here to seek treasure.” But he replaced “adventurer” with “mage.”

Lance couldn’t use a sword, but he was proficient in magic.

“But you were burned by dragonfire,” Mira observed as she appraised him back and forth.

Lance looked down at his injuries. From his chest down, there were large patches of burns, and his legs had been charred to a crisp.

He had been researching a lightning spell when he accidentally fell into a lightning trap and dropped from the top of the tower.

Fortunately, he was a dragon, or even if he hadn’t been electrocuted, he would have been smashed to pieces from the fall.

“Burned?” He hesitated, recalling the situation at the time. “It was just an accident.”