Chapter 219

Chapter 219: Chapter 219

"Acnologia, the Black Dragon, was once a Dragon Slayer?"

Gildarts’s injuries had placed Marshall under enormous pressure, and he began deliberately gathering information about the Black Dragon.

Naturally, his first move was to run keyword searches through the Super Archive.

He hadn’t expected to find much, yet to his surprise, there was actually quite a bit of useful information buried inside.

Someone had published numerous articles concerning dragons, and when Marshall checked the author’s name, he found the signature:

Elefseria.

"Elefseria... Wasn’t he that incredibly powerful Mage who founded the first Mage guild about a hundred years ago?"

Marshall paused.

"Wait. He’s still been publishing articles over the past few years?"

So the old man was still alive.

The deeper Marshall searched, the stranger it became.

He even discovered that this legendary figure had left comments beneath several of Marshall’s own academic papers and discussion posts.

That nearly broke him.

The lifespan of Mages really was unpredictable.

Exceptionally powerful Mages surviving for well over a century wasn’t particularly unusual, and information published by someone of Elefseria’s level naturally carried considerable weight.

For example, according to Elefseria’s records, Acnologia had attacked human cities remarkably few times throughout history.

Almost never, in fact.

The Black Dragon did not seem interested in attacking humans without reason.

That information allowed Marshall to relax slightly.

But another piece of information immediately brought the tension back.

"Acnologia was originally a Dragon Slayer... and Dragon Slayers eventually transform completely into dragons if their transformation progresses far enough?"

Marshall sucked in a breath.

If Elefseria’s information was accurate and the Black Dragon really was a fully dragonized Dragon Slayer, then what exactly had Acnologia’s original attribute been?

Gildarts claimed the dragon had eaten his Magic.

Surely Acnologia hadn’t just happened to be some kind of Crush Dragon Slayer.

The odds of something that convenient were absurd.

This was the strongest dragon in history, a monster said to have slaughtered countless dragons and brought an entire age to an end.

Marshall had a far worse theory.

What if Acnologia could consume all Magic Power?

What if he had no specific elemental attribute at all?

That would certainly explain why he was so overwhelmingly powerful.

And if Marshall’s hypothesis was correct, then Acnologia’s defenses went far beyond simply possessing unusually high Magic resistance.

He might effectively be immune to Magic itself.

In a world where Mages represented the dominant combat system, complete magical immunity sounded so absurd that Marshall instinctively wanted to reject the idea.

His rational side refused to let him.

When dealing with an enemy this dangerous, he had to prepare for the worst-case possibility.

And unfortunately, this explanation fit disturbingly well.

So how was anyone supposed to fight an enemy like that?

The answer was actually fairly obvious.

Marshall looked toward the values representing his mental and physical capabilities.

If Magic didn’t work...then he would have to beat Acnologia through raw physical force.

In other words, a physical-combat build might actually be the answer to the current meta.

Marshall currently possessed two major methods for strengthening his body.

The first was the Body-Conditioning Magic he had developed himself.

The second was Dragon Slayer Magic—or, more specifically, the Dragon Power it cultivated within him.

Body-Conditioning Magic constantly tempered Marshall’s body.

By now, he had become so accustomed to living with a permanent background level of pain that he barely noticed it anymore.

Unfortunately, its effect on raw physical strength was still nowhere near as dramatic as his growth in Magic Power.

In fact, Body-Conditioning Magic improved his endurance and overall vitality more than it increased sheer strength.

It expanded his ability to take punishment more efficiently than it increased the force behind his attacks.

Dragon Slayer Magic was different.

That was the method that truly increased physical power.

Marshall’s Dragon Power was currently only LV2, yet even at that level, the increase to his raw strength was already extremely noticeable.

If he seriously intended to reach a point where he could fight Acnologia directly, then improving his Dragon Slayer Magic was unavoidable.

There was only one minor drawback.

As a Dragon Slayer’s transformation deepened, their vestibular system—the organs responsible for balance and spatial orientation—underwent irreversible changes.

They weren’t damaged.

They became too good.

Their sensitivity increased so dramatically that the brain struggled to reconcile conflicting information about motion and balance.

The result was...motion sickness.

Marshall had reached this conclusion by studying Natsu.

Once Natsu’s Dragon Power advanced beyond LV3, he began suffering badly whenever he rode vehicles.

He had never shown those symptoms before.

Natsu had even begged Marshall to cure him, but Sky Magic could only alleviate the symptoms temporarily.

It couldn’t undo the underlying physical adaptation.

Marshall wasn’t particularly worried about that drawback himself.

He could fly.

He could teleport.

There was virtually no reason for him to rely on ordinary transportation in the first place.

Besides, he didn’t think solving the problem would be especially difficult. H

e could probably create a magical device that temporarily dulled the relevant senses, or modify vehicles so their movement registered as stable ground.

Compared with Acnologia, motion sickness was barely worth mentioning.

So Marshall had no objection to raising his Dragon Power further.

The real reason its level had remained stagnant was much simpler.

Dragon Power experience was extremely difficult to obtain.

And his stockpile of Inspiration Points wasn’t looking much better.

He had poured a huge portion of his reserves into Form Magic during the battle against Phantom Lord, leaving him with very little to spare.

Marshall was running short on Inspiration Points.

With the Black Dragon now hanging over his head like an enormous shadow, Marshall finally turned his attention back toward his system.

For years, life had gone remarkably smoothly, so he had always maintained a fairly relaxed attitude toward earning Inspiration Points.

He believed inspiration was something that came naturally.

Keeping a calm, healthy mindset made it easier to encounter new ideas, while desperately chasing inspiration usually had the opposite effect.

Trying too hard would only slow him down.

That philosophy still made sense.

Unfortunately...

Marshall was genuinely getting anxious now.

Looking at the system balance sitting below 100,000 Inspiration Points gave him the same miserable feeling he remembered from his previous life whenever he checked a dangerously low bank balance.

He desperately needed more inspiration.

And based on all the data Marshall had accumulated over the years, the fastest, easiest, and most efficient method he had found for generating large quantities of Inspiration Points was—

kissing.

A single kiss could sometimes earn him several thousand Inspiration Points.

Fun and profitable.

It was one of the major reasons Marshall had never objected too strongly whenever Levy and Juvia became particularly clingy.

And if something as simple as kissing could generate that much inspiration, then Marshall suspected that deeper emotional experiences could probably produce even more.

Unfortunately...he wasn’t going there.

Originally, Marshall had believed that a few more years of development would be enough for him to become practically unbeatable.

But back then, his benchmark had been Gildarts.

Now?

Marshall finally understood that time might not be on his side.

Judging from his current rate of improvement, reaching a level where he could defeat Acnologia within only a few years simply wasn’t realistic.

His only real hope was...the Heart of Time.

In the end, Marshall decided to trust the mysterious person one more time and gamble part of his future on the Heart of Time.

That didn’t mean he intended to sit around doing nothing.

From now on, he would gather as many Inspiration Points as possible.

And the first method that came to mind was—

"Lucy, can I kiss you?"

Lucy had still been sulking because Marshall had suddenly abandoned her and disappeared earlier. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

She absolutely had not expected him to return and immediately throw out something that outrageous.

"Huh?"

Her eyes widened.

"HUH?!"

"Just one kiss."

Marshall blinked innocently.

"It’s perfectly normal for a pet and her master to kiss, isn’t it?"

He lied without the slightest hesitation.

Truthfully, Marshall genuinely enjoyed teasing Lucy. Every time he got a good reaction out of her, he became happier—and that alone generated a surprising amount of Inspiration Points, sometimes nearly as much as kissing did.

Normally, Marshall wouldn’t have approached things quite this aggressively.

Unfortunately, circumstances had changed.

He was being forced by the situation!

Kissing different girls could produce enormous amounts of Inspiration Points.

Marshall had decided that the time had finally come to stop pretending to be such a perfectly behaved little angel.

It was time to become proactive.

And Marshall had plenty of confidence.

After all...who could refuse someone as adorable as him?

Lucy, apparently.

"So you’ve finally revealed your true nature, you evil little pervert!"

Lucy pointed accusingly at him.

"I’m absolutely not doing something that shameless! I’m only your pet, not your little girlfriend!"

She crossed her arms firmly.

"So forget it! Not happening!"

"Pfft—fine, fine!"

Marshall immediately burst out laughing.

"If you don’t want to, then forget it. Hahaha! Lucy, you really are hilarious."

Just Lucy’s reaction had already improved his mood considerably.

Marshall casually turned around.

"I’ll ask someone else."

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