CHAPTER 81: TAPPED OUT

"What happened?"

Luke’s question caused everyone’s eyes to lock onto him. Everyone stood there silently for a few seconds, saying nothing.

"You tapped out," Kevin said, somewhat rudely, if I may say so.

When Luke heard these words, he could only ask, "Me? I tapped out?"

"Yes... I told you before. Face-to-face combat and training are very different... Some people are born to fight, while others need a long time to get used to it. It’s perfectly normal for you to be at the second part." Callum had said.

The two of them hadn’t treated Luke like a prince at all. Callum was like an older brother to him, much older. Kevin, of course, was an older man who had helped Luke a lot in a fatherly role.

The two of them had every right to behave that way.

After everything that had happened, Luke managed to pull himself together, immediately stood up and asked, "Why are you all even here?"

Both Callum and Kevin rolled their eyes when they heard this question. It wasn’t because they were disappointed in Luke or anything like that.

Elsa stepped forward a few steps and calmly made a great request, saying, "Your Majesty, the great Hiera... Please extinguish the fire in your body."

To be honest, Luke had no idea what Elsa was talking about and narrowed his eyes, asking, "What?"

Kevin immediately reached for the magic bag on his waist and pulled out a mirror that was almost half a metre long, holding it towards Luke.

Luke finally managed to see the scene. He understood why Kevin was looking at him strangely and why Callum was constantly trying to see if he was harmed, filled with concern.

When Luke looked into the mirror, he could see that every strand of his hair was engulfed in pure white flames and that every part of his body was covered in a mixture of pitch black and bright yellow flames.

He had no memory of having done this.

The phrase ’tapped out’ now held great significance in his eyes.

He carefully observed what was happening and quickly reduced the three flames covering his body, then made them disappear.

As a result, the dark elves around him were now able to stand more comfortably.

Each of them knew how dangerous the pitch-black flame was. It wasn’t a situation where they could simply go and help Luke.

Once the fire touched their bodies, it would continue to burn indefinitely on that body or object unless Luke chose to extinguish it or the affected part was quickly separated from the body.

Nothing could extinguish it.

Not even the Holy Power itself.

Luke looked around at those around him as if apologising and then repeated the same question:

"Why are you here?"

"The other paths contained too many magical creatures, but after three days, we cleared everything and took the treasures, thus starting the dungeon cycle. So it’s currently an impassable area, which is why we came here to take a look," Callum answered the question.

Dungeons entered a regeneration process after the treasures were collected or a specific magical creature was killed. This was called the dungeon cycle, and it not only prevented the dungeon from overflowing but also made the dungeon itself much larger and improved the quality of the treasures inside.

It wasn’t an incident that occurred after everyone had left the dungeon, but it was a well-known fact that it had accelerated the renovation of the dungeon.

"I understand..." Luke had said, then taken a deep breath and added, "Let’s continue then."

The moment he spoke those words, Luke was stopped by Callum.

Callum had lifted Luke under the arms as if he were holding a baby, then handed him to Elsa and said, "Take him out of here."

Luke was about to say something when Kevin himself said, "Your safety is more important than any other life, Your Majesty."

"That’s not true," Luke said, but Kevin had spoken his final words, and Luke wasn’t bold enough to be disrespectful to the old man.

For one day, he had lived through his first battle in detail, even in a way he couldn’t remember.

That much action was enough for him at the moment.

Of course, there would be more in the future. With his ancient dragon Shenhal and the more he would gain, he might burn humans, half-humans, half-demons, elves, dwarves, and more alive, but that action was enough for him at the moment.

He had to be seventy.

After Elsa carried Luke out of the dungeon in her arms, Luke continued to frown, and they managed to reach the outskirts of the forest, near the city, in a short time.

"Put me down, I’m not too weak to walk to the city," Luke ordered.

Elsa obeyed the order and gently placed Luke on his feet.

Luke was wrong. As soon as the adrenaline in his body subsided, his muscles stopped aching and began to throb with pain.

Still, he had entered battle for the first time and believed he must enter the city with honour.

With slow steps, he began walking toward the city, followed by seven hundred dark elves.

The city now had three gates, and despite all this, Luke had walked kilometres to enter the city through the front gate, the Great City, Selene’s rightful domain.

As he reached the front gate of the city, a growling sound rose from the other side of the city:

"Grooowll..."

This time, the sound was filled with sorrow and grief.

Those descended from Hiera’s Blood and the Ancient Dragons and Ancient Phoenixes were, of course, mentally connected.

Thus, the Ancient Dragon Shenhal had managed to directly sense the pain in Luke’s body. This growl had arisen directly for that reason.

In the end, Shenhal truly loved his master. One reason for this was that Luke was just like Andromeda, but another reason was that, in the eyes of the Ancient Dragon, Luke was even more advanced than Andromeda.

Perhaps it was an illusion that Shenhal was thinking, but thinking this way made him love his new master even more.

The sounds of wings flapping as they rose into the sky could be heard shortly thereafter: