Chapter 50: Unparalleled

"Weak, weak, weak." In the spacious martial arts hall, Muria, in his titan form, grabbed a storm giant and slammed him to the ground, creating a spider-web pattern of cracks centered on the fallen giant in the white marble floor.

At Muria's side, a storm giant wielding a heavy sword mercilessly swung at him, but Muria, despite his massive body, deftly dodged the attack. He reached out and slapped the thick blade heavily.

"Clang!" The heavy sword, forged from a mix of jade steel and cold iron, emitted a piercing clang as if it were the desperate wail of a dying man when struck by Muria.

With a twist into a V-shape, the damaged sword fell to the ground along with bright red blood.

Simultaneously, a lightly armored storm giant grunted. The sword that had been knocked away was his, and the force of Muria's strike was so terrifying that he couldn't hold onto his weapon, tearing open the flesh of his hand.

"Boom!" As this bleeding storm giant looked up, Muria, nearly twice his height, had already reached him, picked him up, and then smashed him against the wall, embedding him into it.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"... One by one, the storm giants assailing Muria were severely injured and fell, unable to withstand even one of his blows. The power of the titan was overwhelmingly fearsome.

"You're too weak!" Eventually, Muria stood in the center of the martial hall, surrounded by about thirty storm giants either lying on the ground or embedded in the walls.

"This is boring." Muria huffed in dissatisfaction. He was a being of the third gold tier, yet his combat power far exceeded that level.

Initially, Muria had a fifth-tier gold storm giant in full armor and armed with a spear oppose him. However, under a full-force strike from Muria, the spear broke, the armor shattered, and the storm giant was left in a near-death state.

Such an outcome was unexpected for Muria; he hadn't realized he had become so strong. He had merely utilized the physical strength of his titan body, not even employing the power of his titan lineage, and yet, he had almost killed a storm giant.

He was unsure of his own combat level and the extent of powerful beings he could contend with, so Muria ordered the castle's storm giants to attack him. He wanted to test his limits.

Unfortunately, Muria couldn't find his limit, as even the peak-level gold storm giants seemed too weak against him. In his battles with them, Muria had to restrain himself; otherwise, he feared he might accidentally kill a storm giant.

"Your Highness, it's just that your power is too great!" The surrounding storm giants, witnessing Muria's dissatisfaction, all knelt down in awe.

"Alright, let the cloud giants clean up and have the mountain giants repair the martial hall," Muria responded indifferently to the praise of the storm giants.

Muria was beginning to understand the mindset of the titans and why they did not accept the allegiance of these giants. Even though he had just moved beyond his juvenile phase, he could easily defeat the strongest storm giants with just his physical strength.

Even if the storm giants grouped together, they could not harm him, and their magical attacks were almost entirely ineffective against him.

If a young Muria was this formidable, then to a true adult titan, the storm giants were probably as trivial as ordinary ants, making their allegiance meaningless.

"Your Highness!" A team of cloud giants and a team of mountain giants entered upon Muria's command. They bowed respectfully to Muria, indifferent to the gruesome scene before them, as they had grown accustomed to it.

Since Muria's awakening, each of his visits to the martial hall in the Dragon Castle invariably resulted in numerous severely injured storm giants.

Cloud giants worked in pairs to extract those embedded in the walls and lifted those moaning on the floor, repositioning their twisted and broken bones and dressing their wounds.

Beyond this, recovery was just a matter of time and nutrition for these peak-level lifeforms, provided their brains and hearts were intact.

As the injured storm giants were carried away, the mountain giants began to repair the damaged areas of the hall, restoring it to its original state.

Muria watched the giants efficiently clean up the mess he had made, nodding in satisfaction before returning to his room. He shifted from his titan form to his smaller human form; the massive size was indeed inconvenient.

"Prince Muria! Here are the spell books you requested," a blonde girl said, placing several thick volumes in front of him.

"Mia, make me another pot of tea," the boy-sized Muria said as he picked up a spell book and began to browse through it.

"Of course." Mia left the room and soon returned with a tray holding a steaming teapot and cup.

"Your Highness, perhaps consider hiring some maids? It's not ideal for such a large castle to have just one maid," Mia suggested as she poured the hot tea.

Muria sipped his fragrant tea, looking up from his book to Mia, "What's the matter? Do you find your work too much? Are you looking for help?"

"Ha, no one in this castle has it easier than I do," Mia chuckled.

"Then why suggest hiring more maids?" Muria asked, puzzled.

"It's for the cloud giant girls in the castle. They handle most of the menial tasks. They work so hard; they deserve a proper status."

"That makes sense." Muria nodded, recognizing the hard work of the female cloud giants he occasionally saw. The massive scale of the castle meant it required a large workforce, which was not only dirty but also exhausting.

"Then you handle the hiring of the maids," Muria decided, delegating the task to his maid without a second thought.

"Eh, you want me to take care of it? You're not involved?" 

"Do you think I would handle such matters?" Muria glanced at Mia's surprised face. "Right, the maids you hire will all be under your responsibility."

"Alright, I'll take care of it." Mia clenched her fist and waved it excitedly.

Days passed as usual, with Muria overseeing the juvenile dragons' meals and magic studies. Having witnessed Muria's dragon form, the dragons behaved exceptionally well, knowing they were no match for him.

The strongest red dragons among the juvenile five-colored dragons were only third-tier silver, and the weakest white dragons, except for the scholarly Claudia who had reached silver through her efforts, were all fourth-tier bronze—pitifully weak to Muria.

However, Muria did not force the dragons to study spells every day. Now the strongest being on Taiji Island, he relaxed significantly. He adopted a casual approach to the dragons' education, a stark contrast to his regimen before his slumber, which the dragons welcomed without any objections.

"Your Highness, six red dragons have just entered their hibernation period," reported a pair of cloud giant maids as Muria lazily read in bed one day.

"Alright, I know." Learning that the red dragons had begun their hibernation period made Muria even more relaxed. According to his inherited memories, even in their teenage dragon phase, red dragons only reached fifth-tier silver, posing no threat to him.

Time quietly slipped

 by as Muria continued his leisurely days of sporadic teaching and reading. However, as his strength grew, a thrilling phenomenon gradually began to manifest, delighting all beings within the castle.

"Brother, have you noticed that your ferocious wolves have gotten bigger recently?" In the wolf den, a cloud giant cleaning his ferocious wolf spoke quietly to another.

"Have you felt it too?" The questioned cloud giant, surprised, scratched his head, "I thought it was just my imagination. I've noticed my ferocious wolves seem bigger, and even the ferocious eagles I'm raising seem a bit larger."

The cloud giants in the den gathered to discuss, and they all noticed that their ferocious wolves had indeed grown larger.

"What's going on?"

"I heard that Prince Muria has reached the third gold tier, and his combat strength far exceeds that level. He beats those peak gold storm giants every time, leaving them with broken bones."

"We all know that, don't beat around the bush. What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying, now that the prince is so strong, could the change we've been waiting for be coming? Could we be about to break through our racial limits?"

"Prince Muria is only at the gold tier; it's still too soon!" a cloud giant murmured.

"But our wolves are already growing bigger!" another cloud giant argued excitedly, his expression agitated.