Chapter 31: The Language of Dragons

"Greedy lizard!"

Dino muttered a curse under his breath as he watched the black dragon disappear beyond the clouds.

The deck was littered with unconscious sailors, some still foaming at the mouth, overwhelmed by the dragon's oppressive presence.

Only the knight-class sailors had managed to remain conscious.

As the suffocating pressure finally lifted, Hutson was the first to move. Without hesitation, he shrugged off his black robe and draped it over Lilian's shoulders.

Unlike her drenched corset dress, his robe was thick enough to conceal anything, even when soaked.

Lilian fumbled to wrap herself up, securing the robe tightly before hastily retreating to the ship's cabins. Her face was burning red, her movements flustered and frantic.

Hutson, however, didn't leave immediately.

Seeing Dino approach, he decided to ask: "Dino, what exactly was that dragon after?"

The wizard gritted his teeth, his fury barely contained. "Damn parasites! Those greedy worms love to rob ships passing through their domain. If I weren't concerned about the ship's safety, I'd have turned that lizard's flesh into lantern oil!"

There was no mistaking the genuine frustration in his voice.

The pile of treasure had hurt to part with—even for someone like Dino.

Recognizing the wizard's simmering anger, Hutson didn't press further. He merely watched the sky, his mind racing with thoughts.

Nearby, a knight-ranked sailor grabbed a rope-bound bucket and lowered it over the ship's edge.

With a practiced motion, he hauled up seawater and dumped it over the unconscious crewmen, shocking them back to reality.

Watching them sputter and cough, Hutson suddenly became aware of his own discomfort—his clothes were still damp and clinging to his skin.

Time for a change.

The moment Hutson finished changing, there was a knock at his door.

Lilian stood outside, now dressed in a loose nightgown, her golden hair still damp from earlier.

In her hands, she held a massive red-bound book, the title inscribed in Sivellian script:

"An Introduction to the Dragon Tongue."

She waved it slightly, stepping inside without waiting for permission. "I need to check what that dragon actually said. Dragon language is insanely difficult—I can barely recall its basic phonetics."

She plopped onto his bed, drawing her legs up slightly, resting her bare feet along the edge.

Flipping open the tome, she ran her fingers down the index page, eyes scanning rapidly before turning to the correct passage.

After several minutes of careful study, cross-referencing, and muttering syllables under her breath, Lilian finally looked up, triumphant.

"Got it!"

She smiled. "The dragon said: 'Hand over your treasures, or I'll flip your ship upside down.'"

Hutson smirked. "Straightforward."

Lilian continued, "Dino responded with: 'Are you looking for death?' To which the dragon replied: 'You're strong, but you can't keep me here.'"

Her eyes sparkled with amusement. "And at the end, the dragon was just sulking: 'Too little. Not enough.'"

Hutson leaned back against the wall, deep in thought.

"So Dino is really that powerful? Even a dragon hesitated to fight him?"

Lilian pulled her legs closer, resting her chin on her knees. "Of course. Dino is a seasoned First-Class Wizard. If this were land, that dragon wouldn't even dare look in his direction."

Her words carried absolute certainty.

After a pause, Hutson gestured toward the book. "Mind if I borrow that?"

Lilian arched a brow. "You're interested in dragon language?"

He nodded. "I figured I might as well learn. Could come in handy someday."

Lilian let out a short laugh. "You say that now, but once you try learning it, you'll understand why almost no one bothers."

Still, she didn't refuse.

"Alright," she said, scooting aside and patting the space next to her. "Sit. I'll teach you. Proper pronunciation is key, otherwise, you'll sound like you're choking on rocks."

Hutson chuckled, shaking his head. "You sure do make yourself at home here."

Dragonic phonetics consisted of over nine hundred base syllables.

And that was just the simplified version.

Some words required hundreds of syllables linked together, stretching across entire pages.

Why was it so complex?

Because dragons did not speak like humans—their vocal structures were entirely different, making their language fundamentally unnatural for human speech.

Even with AI chip's assistance, Hutson quickly understood why so few people ever attempted to master it.

Yet—

"AI chip, record all dragonic phonetics and assist in memorization."

"Task archived."

With AI chip's support, everything changed.

Lilian spent hours painstakingly pronouncing each syllable, yet Hutson only needed to hear them once before committing them to memory.

By the time she finished the lesson, he had memorized all nine hundred syllables perfectly.

Lilian stared at him in disbelief.

"You're joking."

She narrowed her eyes. "You're telling me… you already memorized all of that?"

Hutson blinked. "Yeah? Isn't that normal?"

Lilian gaped at him, reconsidering everything she knew about intelligence.

"No. It is not normal."

For the first time, she felt genuine doubt about her own intellect.

After grasping basic sentence structures, Hutson could already form simple phrases in the dragon tongue.

He smirked, suddenly speaking:

"#@?%"

Lilian blinked. "What?"

Hutson shrugged, "Nothing. Let's move on."

Lilian squinted at him suspiciously. "Wait. What did you just say?"

She quickly flipped through the index, trying to match his words to their meaning.

But before she could decode it, Hutson bolted for the door.

"I'm hungry! I'll grab some food first!"

Lilian barely had time to register what was happening before he vanished from sight.

Then, a moment later—

"YOU DARE CALL ME STUPID?!"

Her enraged shout echoed through the corridor.

But with her damp nightgown, she couldn't exactly chase after him—so instead, she simply glared toward the door, gritting her teeth.

Mastering the Language of Dragons

Despite its difficulty, Hutson fully absorbed the contents of "An Introduction to the Dragon Tongue" within five days.

To avoid crushing Lilian's spirit too much, he pretended to struggle for half a month before claiming he had finally mastered it.

Still—Lilian was crushed.

No matter how she looked at it—

Hutson was an absolute freak.

Mastering the Language of Dragons

No matter how much Lilian tried to rationalize it, she simply could not understand—

Something that should have taken years, something that required countless hours of dedicated study, had been mastered by Hutson in less than a month.

Did such a vast gap truly exist between people?

She refused to believe it.

Yet the proof was undeniable.

Deep into the silent hours of the night, Hutson sat in his cabin, his mind completely immersed in meditation.

Then—

The third star fully solidified.

A wave of clarity washed over him, his mind sharpening as if a veil had been lifted.

Hutson Merlin:

Strength: 2.1 | Agility: 1.7 | Constitution: 2.9 | Mental Power: 5.8 | Mana: 100%

This time, his mental power had increased by 1.2 points—a noticeable leap.

Hutson exhaled slowly. His mind had never felt so crisp, so unclouded.

But he didn't stop there.

Rising from his seat, he pushed open the door, stepping into the corridor with a clear objective—

The fourth star.

His meditation technique required observing the night sky, and while he had spent much of his time indoors, he frequently visited the deck for moments of rest.

The ship had been sailing smoothly for over half a month, with no disruptions, no storms, and no threats.

Tonight would be no different.

Or so he believed.

Stepping onto the deck, Hutson was greeted by a breathtaking sight.

The heavens stretched above him in a sea of endless stars, brighter and clearer than ever before.

And there—hanging over the horizon, reflecting upon the ocean's surface—was a colossal, glowing moon.

A scene so surreal, it was as if the universe itself had descended onto the sea.

At the ship's bow, a lone figure stood motionless.

Dino.

Hutson had noticed this before—every time he came to the deck, Dino was already there.

Always standing in the same place. Always with his eyes closed.

Was he asleep?

Or…

Was this a form of meditation?

Hutson narrowed his eyes.

"My technique requires observing the stars.

 Could his require observing the ocean?"

The thought intrigued him.

But he did not ask.d

Some things were better left undiscovered until the time was right.

Instead, he simply found his own spot on the deck, sat cross-legged, and turned his gaze to the stars.

He sought his next celestial guide—the fourth star.

Each of the three stars he had already meditated upon was positioned in vastly different parts of the sky, their distances creating a unique balance within his consciousness.

This time, he would choose another star—one in yet a completely new direction.

As he gazed upward, scanning the vast, endless cosmos, he felt it—

A new light, waiting to be claimed.