At this time, Professor Derrick and his students were on their way to the Midnight Swamp. One of the students had a delicate appearance, a pale complexion, and a black magic robe embroidered with four stars, representing that he was a fourth-year student at the Star Academy. His name was Daniel, and he had been with Professor Derrick the longest among the current students, as the exams to advance from the fourth to the fifth year were extremely difficult. As a result, even younger students like Lusen, who was two grades lower than him, had become his classmates.
"Lusen seems to have been out of contact with us for a long time," Daniel worried.
Standing on the other side of Professor Derrick was a blonde half-elf girl named Alcota, who also took the initiative to speak, "Lusen's communication crystal can't be connected. I don't know if it's because the magic power is exhausted or it has been destroyed."
Seeing Professor Derrick's worried expression, Alcota continued, "Teacher, are you worried about Lusen as well?"
Professor Derrick came to his senses, waved his hand, and said, "You don't know Lusen. He's like grass by the roadside, neither the storm nor the drought can destroy him. He can survive anywhere. What I'm worried about is another matter. If we can't produce experimental results to deceive that person, our project funding next year will fly away like a lightning bird."
Daniel complained in a low voice, "How could there be any results for such projects? 'The possibility of vampires transforming into werewolves,' 'Methods to reduce high-level vampire drug resistance,' 'Research on potions to contaminate the vampire's magic source'... Let's not talk about the feasibility of these topics, what if..."
Alcota interrupted, "If this kind of project reaches the ears of other vampires in the Elder Council, they'll tear the whole academy apart!"
Professor Derrick lifted his eyelids, "That noble's generosity is well known, and besides him, who else can we accept sponsorship from? Those merchants who only see gold coins in their eyes? Rather than researching a potion to 'turn stones into gold,' I'd rather dissect the bodies of vampires."
Alcota whispered a reminder, "Vampires don't have corpses; they only turn to ashes."
Professor Derrick said coldly, "So my research won't have any results either. It would be nice if that noble would believe that my experimental data also turned to ashes."
At this moment, Professor Derrick's communication crystal lit up.
Once connected, Lusen's face appeared in the void in front of them. He sounded cheerful, "Professor! I've safely arrived at Misty Town near the Midnight Swamp, and the mission to collect the Stone Devil Grass juice went smoothly. However, my communication crystal's magic power was depleted, so I couldn't contact you these past few days."
Professor Derrick nodded and confirmed again, "Are you safe now?"
Lusen: "I'm working at a restaurant in town." He seemed to hear something and turned his head to look at the side. Then, he hurriedly turned back and hastily spoke a few words before shutting off the magical communication.
It seemed that due to insufficient magic power, the last few words were intermittent. Professor Derrick only heard a few words like "There... they're coming, I, hurry up, waiting for you."
Professor Derrick's expression became serious as he tried to call back, but the communication could not be connected. Daniel also raised doubts, not the only one suspecting that Lusen was in danger: "Lusen's communication crystal ran out of magic power a few weeks ago, so how did this call come through today? Is there a high-level mage in Misty Town who can replenish the magic power of the communication crystal?"
Although communication crystals can be charged, they have very high requirements for the purity of magic power. Only mages of a high level or above can do this. Could there be such a mage in Misty Town?
"We need to speed up and get to Misty Town as soon as possible," said Professor Derrick.
On the first day of the restaurant's reopening, the business was booming due to the new 3D menu. Every customer ordered at least three dishes, and everyone had cotton candy. Dusì was too busy to realize Lusen had slipped away to slack off.
Ina remembered when she was asked, "I just charged his communication crystal. Lusen should be contacting his professor now." She was afraid that she might have used too much force and would burst the communication crystal, which she heard was quite expensive. She didn't know if the little bit of magic power she infused was enough.
As she spoke, she walked towards Lusen's room and knocked on the door, "Lusen, is there enough magic power in the communication crystal to activate it? If you've already contacted your professor, come out and help us quickly. There are quite a few guests today."
Lusen immediately agreed and said to the professor on the other side, "Some guests have arrived, and I have to go to work now. You'd better hurry up. I'll be waiting for you at the Dragon Flame Restaurant."
He didn't notice the faint white light flickering from the communication crystal, a sign that the magic power was about to run out.
Vila and her companions entered the Dragon Flame Restaurant, and Edith looked somewhat preoccupied. Although he strongly urged them to leave this place quickly, he was half-persuaded and half-pushed by the others with reasons like, "We have to see what kind of person the Restaurant owner who made the self-heating meatballs is" and "You have to eat a good meal before you leave after eating tasteless food for days."
He raised his head and started searching for the menu hanging on the wall in Restaurant. As he looked closely, the words on the menu seemed to move.
Edith took a closer look.
Today's Specials:
Grilled Polar Flame Snake Segment (2 silver coins)
Braised Snow Rabbit (with complimentary rice) (3 silver coins)
Radish Cake (90 copper coins)
Daily Dishes:
Sandwich (40 copper coins)
Meat Sauce Pasta (70 copper coins)
Cola Cake (40 copper coins)
...
Daily Desserts:
Double-layer Milk Pudding (30 copper coins)
Cotton Candy (20 copper coins)
...
There was nothing special about it, and Edith felt a bit conflicted. On one hand, he hoped that this Restaurant, with its magical self-heating food, would truly be unique and bring him special surprises. On the other hand, it was he who had strongly discouraged everyone from dining in the Restaurant, so it would be better if the Dragon Flame Restaurant was really ordinary, so as not to make him look particularly foolish.
Edith was about to randomly pick a dish from the menu when his gaze stopped at the first line, "Grilled Polar Flame Snake Segment." His eyes blurred, and he saw the segmented snake meat being placed on a wire rack for roasting. The charcoal fire below glowed red, and a hand reached out diagonally to brush oil on both sides of the snake meat. A drop of hot oil fell into the charcoal fire, making a hissing sound and producing a wisp of white smoke. Even though Edith didn't know much about cooking, he understood that the oil was being brushed on the meat because the snake meat was firm and low in fat.
Then the hand sprinkled thick spices on the cooked and discolored snake meat segments – rosemary, basil leaves, and pepper powder, along with a little bit of salt. Edith felt as if he could already smell the aroma of grilled meat and spices combined.
He snapped back to reality, startled. What kind of magical artifact was this, a Memory Stone? How could such an expensive item be used to display a menu? No, that's not right. Memory Stones could only play fixed images, but he had just seen the cooking process of a dish because his gaze lingered on the name for a moment, which was clearly more advanced than a Memory Stone.
Taking his eyes off the magical menu, Edith immediately pretended to look around and saw that he was not the only one standing there, staring straight ahead, before finally letting out a sigh of relief.
Now Edith became more interested in the Dragon Flame restaurant. After everyone saw the magical menu displaying food images, Vila ordered a strawberry cake roll, Benson chose fried shrimp balls, and Gwendolin asked which dish was the most popular today. After learning that it was the Grilled Polar Flame Snake Segment, she ordered it without hesitation. This wasn't because the Braised Snow Velvet Rabbit was not competitive, but because the mercenaries who came to the restaurant saw the Grilled Polar Flame Snake as a challenge as if competing for the bravest diner of the day. Although the taste of the snake segment was indeed worth it.
Edith chose the Braised Snow Velvet Rabbit. Just as everyone's dishes were being served, he heard a few mercenaries talking.
"Why is this place called Dragon Flame Restaurant? Are there any dragon legends in the Midnight Swamp?"
"There are dragon stories everywhere on the continent. Since the dragons disappeared, even dwarves dare to call their own brewed wine Dragon Blood Wine!"
Ina joined their heated discussion and honestly answered, "Why is it called Dragon Flame Restaurant? Because the owner is a wicked black dragon. Haven't you noticed the fire in the fireplace never goes out? That's the legendary dragon flame."
Seeing that even the boss had joined in the teasing, the mercenaries laughed heartily.
Only Edith's movement of stuffing meat into his mouth froze in midair. That voice! He suddenly looked up and saw a familiar smoky pink color.
Ina walked toward Edith, and his companions were very relaxed, still discussing the joke.
"You see, there's no firewood in that fireplace, maybe it really is dragon flame, hahaha!"
Vila noticed the stiff Edith and said incredulously, "You don't really believe it, do you? And you were scared!"
Gwendolin couldn't help but laugh at him, "The blessings of the Conjugate Tree have disappeared, and our young master has turned back into a coward."
Only Edith's legs trembled beneath the table like a sieve.
Ina came over and heard their words, smiling at Edith, "Did I scare you? I was just kidding, the fire is not dragon flame."
Edith wanted to shout for everyone to know, "No! She's not kidding! The fire is not dragon flame, but she really is a black dragon!" But he knew he couldn't say it, and could only watch in horror as the disguised black dragon drew closer and closer.
Ina leaned in to look at the plate in front of him and gently poked with a knife, "Would you like something else to eat? Live snails, frog, or monster blood?"
Wasn't this the same line he used to mock the mercenaries who dined at the Dragon Flame restaurant that day? Edith became even more certain that this person – no, this dragon – knew everything! The entire Misty Town and Midnight Swamp were under her control!
Ina: Actually, no. You just happened to badmouth my restaurant behind my back, and my staff overheard it. After all, you're the only young nobleman here, too easy to recognize.
After Ina turned and left, Edith was still sweating cold sweat. He really wanted to leave immediately but was afraid of angering the black dragon. Benson snatched the fork from Edith's mouth and patted him on the shoulder, "Are you okay? You've been biting the fork for a while now."
Edith wanted to cry but had no tears. He thought angrily, "What a bunch of foolish teammates! The black dragon is standing right in front of you, and she even exposed her identity, yet none of you realized it."