Leon slowly woke from his brief nap.
"I'm back in the mansion," he murmured, noticing the familiar surroundings of his room.
Spotting a note on his bedside table, he recognized his mother's handwriting and picked it up to read.
My Little Lion,
I've had to leave on a month-long trip and took the elemental wood with me. I'll have a friend craft it into a wand that you'll love. Your aunt will be visiting this week to keep you company. Be good and continue your training. When I return, we'll go on a special trip together.
Love,
Mother
"So, Mother's off on another long journey," Leon sighed, a flicker of disappointment crossing his face.
"Well I want to drink milk again." Leon had a pervert look on his face thinking about his mother's breasts.
"Master, you really are a little pervert." Alice came out of Leon's body and began to tease him.
Leon looked at the alluring Alice and retorted, "It's all your fault for making me do that."
Alice adopted a mock-wronged expression. "Weren't you the one who enjoyed it?"
Leon, choosing not to continue the argument, turned his attention to the Celestial Ring. "Alice, why can't I see the contents in the Celestial Ring?"
"My little master, your strength is very weak right now," Alice explained, her tone becoming more serious. "The ring has many restrictions placed on it by the founding ancestor. You can lift these restrictions as your cultivation base increases. For now, you can only store items up to about two cubic meters in size."
Leon showed a disappointed look but accepted that having limited storage was better than none.
"When can I lift the first restriction?" Leon asked seriously.
Alice smiled warmly. "When you reach the level of a One-Star Mage, you can remove the first restriction. Then, you'll have access to a ten-meter space and some surprise treasures that the founder left behind."
Leon nodded, absorbing this information. He then took out the dragon scale, seated himself in his usual study chair, and began to examine it meticulously.
Alice, curious about the strange dragon scale, hovered beside him. "Did you find anything special about it?"
"Alice, do dragons still exist in our world?" Leon asked, glancing up from the scale.
Alice's expression turned serious. "Little master, dragons do exist, but most have gone into hiding. Now we can only find a few subspecies with dragon bloodlines throughout the world."
"Why do the dragons hide? Aren't they the most powerful and noble clan in the world?" Leon asked, a confused look on his face. All the information he had read about dragons only stated that they were powerful creatures and never to be offended.
Alice replied with a mocking tone, "While it's true they are powerful, in ancient times, when the Ten Ferocious Beasts challenged the Dragon God, the vitality of the dragon clan was greatly damaged. Various clans seized the opportunity and hunted the dragons almost to extinction. Later, the Dragon God created a secret realm for the dragons to hide. Since then, no one has found the secret realm, and the Dragon God also disappeared."
"Oh," Leon was completely shocked by the story. He never imagined the ending would be like this.
"Do you know what type of dragon this scale came from?" Leon asked curiously.
Alice examined the dragon scale closely and shook her head. "I don't know, little master. It has a very strange mana around it."
She looked at Leon and asked, "By the way, little master, how did you transform your hand like that in the treasure vault? It had almost the same mana fluctuations as the dragon scale."
Leon scratched his head and explained, "That's shadow mana that I used in the vault. I channeled it into every cell in my hand and wrapped them in it. Then it transformed like that."
"Shadow mana?" Alice looked puzzled.
Leon smiled and elaborated, "Shadow mana is the name I gave it. I use my mana to imitate my shadow. Then my mana turns into shadow mana. The drawback is that it consumes too much of my mana. I can only transform about one-tenth of my body into shadow mana. I'll show you now."
Leon closed his eyes and extended his finger. Slowly, the color began to change to a dark blue.
"This is the legendary shadow element," Alice exclaimed in shock, carefully examining Leon's dark blue finger. She soon adopted a serious expression.
As Leon's finger returned to normal, he looked at Alice with concern. "Is there something wrong, Alice?"
Alice replied with a grave tone, "Little master, I now know which dragon this scale belongs to."
"Which dragon?" Leon asked immediately.
"The legendary Shadow Dragon," Alice answered with a serious expression.
"What? Shadow Dragon?" Leon's face was a mask of confusion.
Alice smiled and said, "Little master, there was a legend in the Dragon Clan that there were two other dragons with strength equal to challenge the Dragon God individually without losing, and even defeating the Dragon God."
"What?" Leon was stunned. The Dragon God was an entity that dominated the entire world with a single hand. But other creatures that could fight the Dragon God without losing were simply unbelievable. The strength of the dragon clan was beyond imagination.
Alice, seeing Leon's reaction, continued, "These two legendary dragons were the Light Dragon and the Shadow Dragon. They are also known as the Light Dragon God and the Shadow Dragon God."
Leon was completely shaken by the story. "Are those two dragons really true?" he asked again.
Alice had a helpless expression and said, "I don't know, but there was an incident where a few people saw the Light Dragon God in an ancient realm. As for the Shadow Dragon God, there was no evidence until now. This dragon scale definitely came from the legendary Shadow Dragon."
Leon gazed at the shadow dragon scale in his hand. "I can't see anything special about it, but I have a feeling that it's a treasure."
Alice pondered for a moment and said, "Some magical treasures can only be revealed with similar properties."
Leon nodded, but said with a bitter smile, "I don't know any ocular technique. So, I can't fuse shadow mana with my eyes for fear of damaging my Eyes of Darkmoon."
Alice thought for a while and said, "I have an ancient technique that can fuse various elements with one's eyes."
Leon looked at her in surprise. "Can you teach me?"
Alice wore a crafty smile. "Little master, I can teach you, but you have to agree to one of my conditions."
Leon felt uneasy seeing her smile, but he helplessly agreed to her request. Alice quickly taught the ancient technique to Leon.
The technique, called Dual Eyes, had two stages and used two different polar elements.
Leon studied the technique carefully and said, "This can be useful for normal people, but I am different. I have the Eyes of Darkmoon."
Alice sighed. "Little master, there aren't many comparable techniques for the Eyes of Darkmoon. This is the most compatible technique I have."
Leon thought for a while and decided to try it.
Sitting cross-legged, he began to transform his mana into shadow mana. Slowly, a strange dark blue mana flowed toward his eyes.
When Leon opened his eyes, they didn't contain the usual dark glow but a dark blue glow. The Crescent Dark Moons were replaced with crescent dark blue moons in his eyes.
"There are no major changes, and my eyes will return to normal if I stop the flow of shadow mana," said Leon with a smile.
Alice sighed in relief and quickly said, "Check the scale."
Leon nodded and took the shadow dragon scale in his hands. Activating his new Eyes of Darkmoon, he carefully examined the shadow dragon scale.
"I can really see it. These are some strange words," Leon exclaimed.
"I don't understand any of them," he added, shaking his head helplessly.
Alice, at his side, immediately said, "Write them down; maybe I can decipher them."
Leon slapped his forehead, realizing he had overlooked such a simple thing. He quickly took a quill and began to draw the strange words on paper.
Soon, Leon's mana ran out. He said weakly, "I can't write anymore. I'm going to sleep for a while." He went to his bed and quickly fell into a sound sleep.
Alice looked at the ten strange words Leon had drawn on the page and said with a serious expression, "Dragon Language."