Chapter 148: The Power of Blood

Looking at the Lordamere Lake from the south still felt a bit unfamiliar. Although Jesse grew up by the lakeside, he had never seen her appearance from this direction.

The entire city of Dalaran was not large, especially compared to a metropolis like Stormwind. But these exquisite buildings, clean paved streets, numerous spires rising and falling, gardens, street flower beds and small fountains everywhere made people believe that this was definitely a rich and peaceful place.

The house where Jesse was located was at the southern end of Dalaran. It was a part of the Dalaran urban area that was relatively closer to a normal city and not particularly closely related to magic.

He was on the third floor. Looking down from the metal railing on the windowsill, the street was bustling with people. Just at a glance, he saw two or three groups of elves walking together.

At the end of the Arathorian Empire, Dalaran was just a small city-state under the protection of the empire.

At that time, most of the human mages were concentrated in the capital of the empire, Strom. They learned magic from the high elves of Quel'Thalas and received guidance to assist the empire in fighting against the invasion of the Amani trolls.

But as the empire gradually declined and internal and external troubles continued, Strom began to have more and more distrust for this group that revered foreigners.

The trolls couldn't deal with the increasing number of human mages. The war between the two sides gradually subsided, and people gradually forgot everything the mages had done to defend the city.

Later, the mages left Strom, where the opposition to magic was growing stronger, and came to this small state in the west, regarded as a barbaric land but with strange ley line energy.

More and more mages came here from all over the Arathorian Empire. Dalaran also became more and more prosperous and powerful under the influence of magic. During the decline of the empire, it rapidly became a new star against the trend.

However, after the founders who came here only to build a mage sanctuary died, the new mages were proud of the name of Dalaran and abused the power of magic wantonly, quickly dragging the city into the abyss.

The space here became increasingly strangely distorted. Terrible planar disasters occurred frequently, and even demons appeared from it, until it attracted the attention of Quel'Thalas.

The high elves came to Dalaran to help the human mages, passed on the taboos handed down from the ancient war to humans, reestablished order and restored the peace here.

To this day, it is still greatly influenced by the elves. Many elves also settle here in the name of diplomacy and alliance cooperation and live together with humans.

A sudden headache passed through Jesse's mind. The pain was so intense that he almost fell when he held onto the windowsill railing.

This pain reminded him of the pain he experienced before he opened his eyes and came to Dalaran, during that drowsy period. Now the swelling pain all over his body had dissipated, but there was still some continuous tinnitus and occasional sudden attacks of pain in his head.

At that time, even the blood he vomited out was like condensed shadowy slurry, almost without any trace of blood color.

Was he cured now? Was it the mages of Dalaran who helped him cure it?

Were there any aftereffects?

Jesse returned to the room and rummaged through various drawers for a while. Finally, he found a small mirror.

He looked at his face, eyes and teeth to see if there were any traces of shadow corrosion, but everything was normal.

At this moment, Jesse thought of a possible explanation for why his arm hadn't recovered.

Perhaps when he was attacking the black dragon with Life Drain, he simultaneously absorbed shadow and life force. After all, the black dragon was a dragon corrupted by shadow, and its shadow energy was extremely powerful.

The fallen body of the black dragon could reconcile the two forces, but Jesse probably couldn't.

The shadow power entered and injured him, but at the same time, the life force of the black dragon repaired these shadow damages. But in the end, the shadow power was still stronger, which led to his coma and vomiting of shadow-polluted blood. So his arm didn't recover.

But this couldn't explain why there was no dream generated by shadow power.

Previously, not to mention being seriously entangled by shadow. Even being frightened by a Fear spell would give him a terrifying and tangled dream. It seemed that only when he was burned by his own shadow fire in Stonehold did he not be tortured by nightmares.

A somewhat outrageous but seemingly possible explanation came to mind.

Could it be that the black dragon's blood was absorbed by him?

Because that dragon blood was transformed into his power, so there was no healing effect?

Absorbing dragon blood was generally not a special ability.

Dragons often looked for mortals who worshipped dragons and gave them their own blood, allowing them to obtain a certain degree of extraordinary power. But the price was being gradually enslaved and controlled by the dragon.

The end of this path was the drakonid, a half-human, half-dragon hybrid monster that unconditionally obeyed the orders of dragons. Ancient dragons could use this contract-like power to create an entire legion of drakonids to serve themselves.

Did he happen to encounter such a situation?

Although drakonids seemed quite powerful, Jesse didn't want to become an ugly monster with no mind and only knowing to obey orders.

Of course, just for that moment of using Life Drain, it couldn't have such serious consequences, right?

He even doubted whether the blood of a young dragon had the same effect as that of an adult dragon.

Putting aside these thoughts, Jesse put on his own clothes, neatly folded the shirt that didn't belong to him and placed it on the table, and stuffed the cloak that wasn't suitable for wearing when walking around in Dalaran city into the warlock bag.

He looked deep into the warlock bag and tried to say, "Zaenor, if you hear me, I want you not to show up... Think of a way to let me know you exist."

However, there was no response. Where did that imp go?

Just as Jesse was about to continue searching, a rustling sound suddenly sounded behind him.

Turning around, a magic broom was standing in the corridor leading to the outside door, sweeping on its own. When Jesse noticed it, it seemed to feel as if it was being stared at and stopped sweeping. After a few seconds, it suddenly turned and ran away with a rustling sound.

"Wait..."

Jesse followed the broom and ran downstairs. He saw a man sitting by the dining table downstairs, drinking coffee and reading a book.

"Master Dushan?"

"Eh?" Carlo Dushan turned around and saw Jesse and said, "By the Holy Light, how did you... You finally woke up! I thought you were going to sleep through the Orcish language exchange!"

Jesse asked, "Miss the exchange... How many days have I been asleep?"

"Four days, Jess Setho." Dushan said, "It's already the 5th day of December. The date of the Orcish language exchange has been set on the 11th. There's less than a week left... Wait, you get out of bed now. Are you sure you're okay? Those mages said your situation might not be optimistic. Just now I was still thinking about how to find other ways to further treat you. And now you're standing here... Is there any place on your body that doesn't feel right?"

"I..." Jesse looked at himself and said, "My arm still hurts. Is it a burn?"

"Yes." Dushan explained, "Your arm was burned by the black dragon's fire, but compared to the main injury you suffered, that's nothing."

Jesse said, "Wait, Master. What's going on? How did I come to Dalaran? What about that dragon? What injury did I suffer?"

Dushan stared at Jesse for a while and asked, "You don't remember anything? What's the most recent thing you remember?"

"I..."

Of course, Jesse couldn't possibly say that he used Life Drain, that dark magic, to make the dragon's mouth and eyes crooked.

"I saw that dragon looking at me in the watchtower, and then I don't know anything."

"That's it. You haven't forgotten anything." Dushan explained, "That dragon attacked you with dark magic. At that time, your injury was very serious. Many mages present thought you were definitely going to die. Southshore definitely couldn't handle such a problem. So the soldiers of Lordaeron urgently asked the gryphon knights who came to support to send you to Dalaran, thinking of seeking the help of higher-level physicians or scholars." So, that dwarf knight was really just a passing patrolman. His companions came after getting the news. So much time has passed.

The appearance of him lying dead in that room still couldn't be erased from Jesse's mind. It was still as real as if he had just seen it.

Dushan continued, "After a series of anti-shadow treatments, your vital signs finally stabilized. But the shadow power in your body still couldn't be completely eliminated."

"Just in these few days, the villages and towns attacked by black dragons are not only Southshore. Ambermill and Aldensblad are the same. Many soldiers and mages who were seriously injured like you were sent to Dalaran to ask for help. The medical resources of Dalaran are also limited. As soon as you were out of danger, you were sent out. I am the only person in the entire Dalaran who knows you. So I brought you here first."

"It's really too much trouble for you, Master Dushan."

"Don't say that, Jess Setho." Dushan said, "You are my favorite student and also a brave warrior who has just fought against a black dragon. How can taking care of you be troublesome? I was just always worried that you wouldn't wake up. I was also a little afraid that your talent couldn't bring honor to the Wizard's Sanctum in the subsequent Orcish language exchange."

He smiled and said, "Of course, if something goes wrong with you, maybe Master Andomas will cut a lot of my funds later. That's also quite troublesome..."

Jesse smiled embarrassedly. Suddenly, he recalled what Dushan had said just now. He was the only person in the entire Dalaran who knew me? What about Greed?

"What about that dwarf?" Jesse asked.

Dushan suddenly remembered something and said, "Ah, I almost forgot about your friend, that Wildhammer warrior named Greed. He's the friend who came to Southshore from Stormwind with you, right? He came several times yesterday and kept asking me if you were better. He's fine, Jess. He's a dragon-slaying hero in Southshore now."

"I know you gave him a bottle of shadow protection potion. That potion was really crucial. If you hadn't given it to him immediately, he would probably have died there. At least he would have serious lifelong aftereffects. But strangely, you don't have any aftereffects. Don't you feel anything wrong? You were hit by the strange magic of that black dragon!"

Jesse was basically sure that no one knew that he had used Life Drain to deal with that dragon.

He replied, "I still have a headache now."

Dushan nodded and said, "Wait. I'll go to the pharmacy and get you some drugs to suppress shadow energy. At least get some headache medicine. You try to rest as much as possible. Your friend may come soon."

"Won't it be too expensive, teacher?"

"The pharmacy knows about your situation. The mayor of Southshore has already figured out the cost of treating your injuries. Don't worry."