Chapter 76: 76. Their Respective Pressures
After dinner,
This time, Dorothy was sprawled on the sofa, holding her overstuffed belly, not wanting to move a muscle.
"Meow!"
"Roar!"
Beside her, two Little Ati were staring at each other, a cat and a Dragon, each using their own language to engage in unintelligible, nonsensical, encrypted communication.
"Hmm, not bad, these two Little Ati seem to get along quite well."
Watching the cat and the Dragon, who had started wrestling again due to their language barrier, Dorothy nodded, thinking contentedly.
Armor Beasts are a very peculiar species, especially as the deity of the Armor Beast world. The Armor Beast Source possesses the conceptual divinity of the Mother of All Beasts, which is why It can give birth to Armor Beasts of various strange shapes and different races.
However, the divinity of a primitive minor world is clearly insufficient to evolve the true concept of the "Mother of All Beasts." For one, none of the original three Calamity Races could be easily simulated by this primitive deity. In the past, It could at most only evolve some superficial imitations resembling Angels, Dragons, or Demons.
But ever since this poor Mother of Armor Beasts was sent to the laboratory by the Demonesses, real Angel blood, Dragon blood, and Demon blood became plentiful. This greatly compensated for the primitive god's congenital deficiencies, so the Angels, Dragons, and Demons among the second-generation Armor Beasts are no longer the paper tigers of the past, but genuine articles.
And this discovery greatly excited the Research Witches, so they enthusiastically began to draw their own blood, preparing to have this Mother of All Beasts create some Demoness-type Armor Beasts, and then...
And then there was no 'then'.
The power of a Demoness does not lie in her body, but in her powerful magic and her characteristic of infinite evolution.
Therefore, even though Demoness blood was fed, the Mother of Armor Beasts gave birth to weak human-type Armor Beasts. It seemed that in the primitive god's concept, Demonesses and ordinary humans still had no fundamental difference.
However, Dorothy wasn't very interested in these research projects that sought to understand why Demonesses are powerful. She only knew that if her Fafna was properly nurtured, even if she didn't transform into an armored familiar in the future, she would at least be a qualified pure-blooded Dragon enforcer.
Yes, so now she is three times 'future-promising'.
A future-promising Demoness, a future-promising Psychic Staff, a future-promising Dragon-type Armor Beast.
So, looking at the two Little Ati wrestling in front of her, Dorothy shed tears of poverty.
"Tsk, but they need enough resources to develop to truly be 'future-promising', right? If resources aren't enough, then they'll be directly infertile."
At this moment, the duel between the two Little Ati had already decided a winner.
The young Dragon Fafna had been dazed by Buster the cat's shadowless cat paws. She was now sprawled on the sofa, very un-Dragon-like, with her front paws covering her head. And the Little Witch, who had a perfect 10-0 record in the Familiar Dragon Beast Championship to date, proudly stepped on the Dragon's head with one paw, puffing out her chest and letting out a cute meow.
"Meow!"
"Good, Buster is amazing, truly worthy of being the older sister."
Dorothy also timely praised the Little Ati.
The Little Witch, praised by her master, became even more spirited after hearing the first half of the sentence. However, upon hearing the second half, her small face instantly stiffened. She lowered her head to look at the Dragon she was stepping on, then awkwardly moved her paw away.
"Meow meow."
She softly meowed at Fafna, who was still burying her head in self-isolation, and even tried to extend her paw to help this weak sister up. But as soon as she extended her paw, the young Dragon's defense became even tighter, and the Little Ati directly curled her entire body into a round, rolling iron ball.
"Meow?"
The Little Witch was even more embarrassed. She looked annoyedly at this stinky sister who wouldn't give her face, then looked at her master ingratiatingly.
Buster nimbly jumped onto Dorothy, then her two small paws climbed onto the two towering peaks, finally stepping on the summit and rubbing her face against Dorothy's in a spoiled manner.
"Meow meow meow."
"Alright, alright, I forgive you."
Dorothy, tickled by the Little Ati's soft fur, helplessly took out a soul fragment from her pocket, then crushed it and kneaded it into small fish jerky strips.
She blew a breath towards these translucent fish jerky, then tossed them into the air. The next moment, these seemingly inanimate fish jerky suddenly came to life, swimming around the living room like real ghost fish.
And as soon as Buster saw her beloved fish jerky, she instantly forgot about her master. She bounced and jumped off Dorothy, starting to chase and hunt those ghost fish everywhere.
Whether it was the feline instinct or the blessing brought by Buster's goddess name, the young Little Witch displayed remarkably high hunting skills. Those ghost fish, though more agile than real fish, could not escape the cute cat paws with their pink paw pads.
Every jump and pounce, every swing of her paw, signaled the end of a ghost fish. This made the Little Witch even more excited; her hunting enthusiasm grew, and her agile, lively movements were watched with envy by Fafna, who had somehow peeked out from a crack in the iron ball on the sofa, making her even more introverted.
"Roar!"
The young Dragon let out a wronged and forlorn whimper, until a pair of hands gently picked her up.
"There, there, don't be sad. Your cat sister is only so strong because she was born earlier than you. Fafna, you are a Dragon! A cat can't beat a Dragon. When you grow up, she won't be able to beat you anymore."
Dorothy held the heavy, solid iron ball-like young Dragon, softly comforting the Little Ati.
The form and personality of special familiars like spirit races or Armor Beasts are often influenced by their masters. Fafna, as the child of Sophia's Angel Armor Beast Angela, hatched not as an Angel but as a Dragon because of Dorothy's identity as a Dragon Witch.
To better cooperate with her master, Fafna instinctively chose Dragonas her race from the Armor Beast's gene pool inherited from the Mother of All Beasts.
And as newly formed consciousnesses, the personalities of the two Little Ati would unconsciously begin to be influenced by Dorothy, their master, through the familiar contract.
The Little Witch Buster inherited more of Dorothy's hidden wildness from her time as a Forest Witch, but Fafna
Alas, Little Ati probably inherited more of Dorothy's usual lazy, homebody nature.
Though she should have been a naturally combative and defiant Dragon, her personality was unexpectedly docile. She rarely left Dorothy's side, always being exceptionally clingy, just like Dorothyherself didn't want to leave home.
This Dragon, who should have been combative and lively, had been raised by Dorothy into a submissive, home-loving Dragon. As her owner, Dorothy felt a complicated mix of emotions.
However, there was no way she could dislike her own child. Anyway, as a Tumu Mowu who would likely be involved in infrastructure projects, she wouldn't be going to battle. It didn't matter if her familiar could fight or not. When Fafna grew up, it seemed perfectly fine for her to be a Dragon-shaped crane carrying building materials. This child clearly looked suited for moving bricks.
Fafna, who was still unaware that her scoundrel of an owner had already defined her future as a brick-moving Dragon, naively believed her owner's comfort. Little Ati cheered up again. She stretched her body, then shook the wings on her back, which were more like thick, steel claws than Dragon wings.
Then, the tips of those thick steel claws split open. From the exposed hollow pipe structure, crimson Dragon Breath shot out. Aided by the reverse thrust of this Dragon Breath, the incredibly heavy steel Baby Dragon zoomed directly into the sky. (It's my favorite Valstrax template again. Fafna's appearance can be imagined as a red and black Gundam-style Valstrax, with an even stronger sense of mechanical steel.)
It was a pity that Little Ati was still too young. Such an unusual flying method was destined not to be easily mastered. As soon as Little Atitook off, her still underdeveloped respiratory system couldn't keep up with the consumption of Dragon Breath. This caused the crimson Dragon Breath sprayed by her wing thrusters to gradually weaken and eventually die out.
Thus, the entire Dragon could only helplessly continue crashing forward due to its previous inertia.
"Roar"
Seeing herself about to crash into a wall, the panicked steel Baby Dragon curled into a ball again, preparing to withstand the upcoming impact.
However, Fafna waited for a long time, but the expected impact did not occur. A gentle magical power intercepted her, and she finally returned to that familiar, warm embrace.
"I told you not to rush. When you grow up, you can fly wherever you want. For now, you just need to eat and sleep well."
Dorothy looked at the suddenly impulsive Baby Dragon with a hint of helplessness.
Little Ati's appearance had been specially adjusted by her. This unique Dragon form was based on an Ancient Dragon from a hunting game she loved in her previous life, so Fafna was truly a one-of-a-kind Dragon species in this world.
However, while it was genuinely cool, she had also completely messed up the Dragon's original flying instincts. The ancient flying memories inherited in the Dragon's bloodline clearly weren't well-matched with this new-age jet propulsion method.
The mismatch between the software and hardware meant that Fafnawould probably have to learn how to fly little by little on her own in the future.
But it didn't matter. No pain, no gain. Dorothy believed that Fafna would understand her painstaking efforts when she grew up.
Dorothy thought this to herself as she pulled out a large lump of special metal from her pocket.
And the innocent and naive Baby Dragon's eyes lit up when she saw the metal, and she happily hugged it and started gnawing.
Well, after all, it was an Armor Beast. To make the armor it transformed into even harder, it had to use various rare spiritual metals. These precious metal materials, which should have been used for forging various Alchemy tools, could now only become Dragon food.
So, she had to eat high-grade ingredients, Buster had to eat soul fragments, and Fafna had to gnaw on spiritual metals. None of this was cheap. Just thinking about it, Dorothy could already see her future of constantly worrying about food expenses.
Compared to these pressures, tomorrow's assessment was simply not worth mentioning.
But there was no helping it; she had chosen this path herself. Mooching off her parents was out of the question. She had been eating and drinking for free for several days; she had to figure out a way to get some money first.
So, when Sophia came out of the kitchen after washing the dishes, she immediately saw the evil light in the eyes of the young lady lying on the sofa, a light that even her black-rimmed glasses couldn't conceal.
This made the ahoge on the Angel Witch's head twitch directly. Her Angelic talent for detecting evil had been triggered.
The pure white girl immediately shivered violently. She smelled trouble brewing.
This instantly put Sophia on alert. She wanted to ask, but because of the argument before dinner, she didn't know whether she should speak up at the moment.
From just now until then, the two had not said a single word. Sophiawasn't very eager to be the one to break the silence.
Because for the proud Angel Witch, it would seem as if she was the one who surrendered first.
But
"I'm sorry, Young Lady. I apologize for my previous behavior. Perhaps I was indeed wrong."
Sophia finally spoke. She quickly finished the sentence, then turned and went straight back to her room.
She hated the feeling of actively bowing to someone, but more than this reluctance to admit defeat, she feared making mistake after mistake due to her stubbornness.
Right is right, wrong is wrong. It's a simple truth, nothing that can't be accepted.
"Alas, my naive Young Lady, not everyone has loving family members like you, or a powerful mother as a backer. Even if you fail, you can inherit everything from your teacher, but I can only rely on myself.
Perhaps I truly lack the heart of a strong person, but it doesn't matter, because I know even more clearly that I cannot afford the consequences of failure, so I can only be extra cautious and careful in everything I do."
Walking into the room, as she closed the door, the corner of her eye caught a glimpse of the young lady on the sofa, who looked stunned by her apology. The pure white girl thought this to herself, and in her golden, shining eyes, envy, even Greed, flickered, but in the end, everything returned to calm.
Then, the door closed tightly.
Dorothy: "…"
The Little Witch was shocked and bewildered.
3800 words, rounded up to two updates. Time to slip away. Today is another day for writing fairy tales.