Chapter 57: [Black Dragon Bloodline] (Seeking Monthly Votes!)

Li Rui grabbed the largest sphere within the red zone of the roulette, pulled it out, and looked closely.

[Thermal Vision: You gain a thermal-sensing vision effective up to 18 meters. The effectiveness of the thermal sensing may be reduced due to object obstruction. If you stare directly at excessively bright or hot objects while using this trait, your eyes may suffer light burns.]

"Enmmmm..."

The corners of Li Rui's mouth involuntarily twitched downward.

Well, what else could one expect from a kobold possessing merely a thin lineage of dragons?

Reaching for the largest one didn't pay off this time.

No matter, he still had four draws remaining.

Again!

The roulette spun rapidly, and finally, the pointer landed on the blue zone.

As a seasoned veteran with plenty of experience in drawing prizes, Li Rui already guessed what was inside before the pointer came to a rest.

'Should be the pity reward...'

The pointer transformed into an arm shape and reached into the blue zone, which churned like a thin, wispy smoke.

True to expectation, only a single sphere could be felt inside.

Pulling it out, he read the label: [Lesser Soul Energy].

'Not bad at all. I've been staying underground for quite a while now, and my mind has been feeling utterly repressed.'

Without hesitation, he directly consumed this one-time-use trait.

As the disposable trait slowly faded from his trait slot, Li Rui felt an indescribable sense of coolness wash over his brain.

His recent experiences buried deep underground had taken a severe toll on his psyche.

Darkness, silence, turbid air, dim prospects... every single factor was enough to drive a person mad.

Only when intertwined and fused with Millie could he momentarily forget the heavy pressure of the surrounding environment and indulge in pure bliss.

Yet upon utilizing the [Lesser Soul Energy], his thoughts instantly became crystal clear.

The lingering sense of suffocation, the pervasive chilling atmosphere—all vanished as if swept away by the morning sun, lifting a thousand-ton burden from his mind and leaving it exceptionally light and sharp.

Though it was merely a pity reward, for his current self, it was nothing short of timely help in a time of need.

Now, for the third one.

Open!

Red!

This time, he finally drew the trait Li Rui had been hoping for.

[Black Dragon Bloodline: (Fusion-type trait, repeatable and stackable) Contains a 0.3% concentration of Black Dragon blood. When the fused bloodline concentration exceeds 50%, you will have a probability of awakening as a Dragonblooded Sorcerer.]

This was the one!

A surge of hot blood rushed from the bottom of his heart—he finally had a chance to become a Dragonblooded Sorcerer!

Through drawing traits, although he could acquire various desired abilities via precise hunting, that required time, battles, money, teammates, equipment, and all sorts of other resources, along with the constant risk of mortal danger along the way...

Yet if he could become a Dragonblooded Sorcerer... he would be able to experience the sheer thrill of awakening spells right in bed!

Although it wasn't an immediate leap to directly draw the Dragonblooded Sorcerer class, but rather required collecting more [Black Dragon Bloodline] traits to fuse, upon careful thought, the kobold that dropped this trait wasn't a Dragonblooded Sorcerer either, which brought Li Rui a sense of solace.

There certainly was no shortage of kobolds here. Creatures like kobolds were not spore goblins; they did not wander alone. Instead, they gathered in family clans and lived in complex underground cave networks. Generally, a single kobold family consisted of at least 20 individuals, with larger ones numbering four or five hundred.

Since five kobolds had appeared here, their lair and tribe must be nearby—there were bound to be more kobolds in the vicinity.

Li Rui's gaze swept over the gelatinous substance gently rippling like a giant jelly beside the boat, a calculating smile curling the corners of his mouth.

Armed with [Colloidal Body Fluid] and [Controlled Body Fluid] dropped from the slimes, this vast lake was practically his home turf. As long as the kobolds dared to approach the lake shore, he could harvest their heads and turn them into stepping stones on his path of bloodline ascension!

Next, he proceeded to draw the fourth and fifth roulettes.

The fourth draw landed on the red zone, which likewise yielded [Black Dragon Bloodline] with a concentration content of 0.2%.

After fusing it with the identically named trait in his slot and watching the total concentration of [Black Dragon Bloodline] jump from 0.3% to 0.5%, a trace of genuine joy welled up within him.

It was 0.5% now. Though still a long way from 50%, this tangible progress bar served as the greatest encouragement!

The fifth draw landed in the gray zone.

As the pointer hand reached into the gray zone where countless characters seemed to flicker, Li Rui pondered for a moment and selected the largest sphere.

By now, he had figured out that the largest sphere in the gray zone usually contained the target's linguistic memories, while the second largest likely represented a skill or technique honed through deep study and training.

As for the third and subsequent ones, he hadn't fully explored them yet, but they presumably consisted of fragmented skills or scattered memory fragments.

For low-tier creatures like kobolds, expecting any profound or high-level techniques was unrealistic. Moreover, Li Rui needed to gather intelligence on this unfamiliar and perilous underground world, making linguistic memories the optimal choice.

The memory sphere was retrieved, and Li Rui caught sight of the small characters inscribed upon it.

——[Kobold Wou's Draconic Language Memories].

Draconic!

A magnificent find!

Li Rui immediately slotted it into his trait slot.

The next instant, he had finished absorbing the memories contained within the trait, mastering countless unfamiliar syllables and bizarre grammatical structures.

"Hoo..."

He couldn't help letting out a long sigh of relief.

'Draconic language is simply miraculous!'

Compared to the Common tongue created by the gods, although Draconic lacked the advantage of being universally understood by all who heard it, it possessed a unique feature of its own.

That was—it came with illustrations!

The very moment Li Rui viewed the [Kobold Wou's Draconic Language Memories], Wou's entire life played out like a high-definition stop-motion animation directly inside Li Rui's mind!

It was more than enough to gain a thorough understanding of this region.

After finishing the [Kobold Wou's Draconic Language Memories], he also belatedly realized a crucial fact.

——Kobolds actually knew how to use fire; they simply avoided staring closely at flames within a distance of three to five meters to prevent the glare from harming their eyes.

Then why did they row boats onto the lake without torches, needlessly walking right into his "flashbang"?

The reason was...

"Whoosh... Whoosh..."

A few sounds of flapping wings suddenly echoed from right above Li Rui and Millie.

'Not good!'

He lunged fiercely toward Millie, wrapped his arms around her, and tumbled straight down into the gel beneath the small wooden boat.

"Plop!"

At the exact same instant they smashed into the viscous gel beneath the boat, becoming completely enveloped by it and cut off from the air above—

Boom!!!

A silent yet overwhelmingly violent force, akin to an invisible giant hammer, slammed instantly down upon the small wooden boat!

That force was not a physical impact, but rather a destructive sonic wave generated purely by ultra-high-frequency vibration!

The crude wooden boat crafted by the kobolds disintegrated instantly under this terrifying force, shattering into a flurry of splinters that drifted down onto the lake surface.

Through his [Low-Level Dark Vision], Li Rui caught sight of the attacker hovering above the water.

A low-tier magical beast—Sonic Bat.