Devour

Josh rarely concealed his origins. He did not know whether this guy simply did not care or had long since grown used to it.

Whether he encountered a mage as powerful as the Ancient One or ordinary people as weak as O’Connor and the others, Josh had never hidden where he came from.

Josh felt that some things were better explained clearly from the start. Of course, he would not go around telling everyone, "Hey, I’m not from your world."

Josh might not care, but he was not insane. If someone asked and he was in a good mood, he might explain.

If Josh was in an average mood, he would probably be too lazy to pay them any attention. As for the last possibility, if Josh was about to kill someone and they happened to bring up the subject, he would not mind telling them.

Just like now. Smaug clearly had no ability to resist, and, unfortunately for him, he had landed in a lake.

Naturally, Josh would not be polite. Though he could not guarantee that Smaug would not freeze to death this way, he figured that freezing him would at least keep him from going bad.

"Otherwise, what were refrigerators invented for?"

Howling winds and terrifying frost froze the entire lake at Lake-town. Smaug, still wearing that expression as he stared fixedly at Josh, became a gigantic ice sculpture together with the lake water.

Josh could clearly see the hatred on Smaug’s face, but he did not care in the slightest.

"If you’ve got the guts, come out and bite me. Seriously."

He flew toward Natasha and the others. After landing, Josh immediately withdrew his Elemental Light Wings.

He glanced at Garen and Natasha, who both looked as though it was only natural, as well as Legolas, who seemed somewhat incredulous but remained respectful. Josh merely shrugged indifferently.

The expressions of his companions and Legolas were at least normal. Compared with the Lake-town residents surrounding them yet not daring to approach, they were far better off.

The looks in those residents’ eyes left Josh somewhat unsure of what they meant.

Awe? There was some, but would fear not be a more fitting description?

Those residents were indeed terrified. When someone’s strength exceeded imagination—when, simply put, Josh’s personal power was enough to destroy a nation—it went beyond their understanding.

Anyone would fear things they did not know and could not comprehend. Josh understood how they felt, so he could not be bothered to care. Leisurely taking Natasha’s hand, Josh turned his head to admire the ice sculpture.

"Josh, I never expected you to deal with it so easily."

Seeing Josh walk over and directly take Natasha’s hand, Garen immediately rolled his eyes.

Still, he congratulated him and casually asked a question. He was truly curious how Josh had handled a Sixth Tier dragon so effortlessly.

"Probably because this guy’s magic resistance is zero."

Josh shrugged nonchalantly. That was merely the conclusion he had reached.

Although Josh’s conclusion had no basis at all, before obtaining information about this world, he could only make guesses. Still, Josh felt his guess was probably correct.

If it had not been an issue of resistance, Smaug could never have been nearly beaten to death on the spot so easily by two of Josh’s spells.

Honestly, if his guess was right, Smaug was truly unlucky, because he had encountered a mage.

"Zero resistance? No magic resistance?"

Garen’s expression turned somewhat strange. The concept of having no resistance was gaming terminology. Although it sounded a little odd here, it let Garen immediately understand what Josh meant.

A dragon with no magic resistance sounded strange no matter how he thought about it.

Think about it—a creature as powerful as a dragon had no magic resistance?

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, Garen would never have believed it. Yet the scene before him forced him to believe. Scratching his head, Garen did not know what to say.

"Smaug is dealt with now. What do we do next?" Seeing Garen’s speechless expression, Natasha directly changed the subject.

"Mm, there are two possible choices. First, we go straight into Lonely Mountain, take everything that belongs to us, then return to Rivendell and deal with the ‘students’ here. Second, we watch what happens next, such as the downfall of that pale-skinned Azog."

Josh rubbed his chin as he spoke, but he quickly shook his head, essentially rejecting the first idea.

He glanced at Smaug, frozen into an ice sculpture and surrounded by residents. This thing had not been dealt with yet. If Josh left, who knew what would happen to it?

Akathosh was still studying that information. Josh did not know how things were going and had no intention of disturbing him.

As for Smaug, Josh truly did not dare toss him straight into his Space Bag. He could sense that the thing was still alive.

It was common knowledge that living things could not be placed inside a Space Bag. If they were thrown in, they would probably turn into specimens for one reason or another. Using a corpse was enough to make Akathosh refuse; a specimen that looked even more revolting than a corpse would be even worse.

Josh did not want to work for nothing, especially not to finish something only for others to show no appreciation. He did not want to experience that infuriating feeling himself.

So Josh really could not leave yet. At the very least, he could not leave before Akathosh devoured this thing.

"Fine, forget what I said earlier. We only have the second option now. Who knows when that bastard Akathosh will be done."

"Who are you calling a bastard, asshole? I’m wasting my time deciphering all this information for you!"

Josh shook his head and sighed helplessly. Of course, he did not forget to curse Akathosh either, as naturally as drinking water or eating.

But what Josh had not expected was for the silver tattoo on his body to suddenly begin glowing. Akathosh shot straight out of his body and immediately began cursing Josh.

His appearance gave the residents present quite a fright. Who knew what the hell that dragon was?

However, seeing Akathosh’s small size and his casual manner around Josh, they quickly guessed that the young dragon was being raised by this mysterious Elf King.

Raising a dragon? That was simply unbelievable. But when they thought of Josh’s overwhelming power, how he had single-handedly and easily killed—frozen—a dragon, it somehow seemed only natural.

Naturally, they did not know that dragons did not belong to this world. Aside from Smaug, dragons no longer existed in this world—although Josh had not lowered his voice while speaking to Smaug, they had been in the center of the lake. The residents could hear Smaug, but not Josh.

"I talked, didn’t I? It’s not like I didn’t pay a price. Look at this dragon! I knew you wanted a live one, so I specifically preserved its life for you! Do you know how much effort that took?"

"Asshole, just because I was studying that information does not mean I had no idea what was happening outside! Do you think I don’t know what happened to this dragon? It’s purely a lopsided freak. How embarrassing! It got beaten into this pathetic state by two spells!"

Akathosh gave Josh a disdainful look. Although he had been deeply focused on studying that information, he had not actually expended much effort. He had merely spent a fair amount of time verifying it.

But Akathosh would never tell Josh that, just as Josh wanted to fool him into thinking he had put in tremendous effort to deal with Smaug.

It could not really be called deception. It was simply that both of them liked claiming credit for themselves.

Perhaps neither Josh nor Akathosh had noticed it themselves, but the man and dragon had indeed become increasingly harmonious together. Their personalities were exceptionally compatible as well.

Josh bickered with Akathosh every day, but if anyone else insulted Akathosh or Akathosh needed Josh’s help with something, Josh would immediately get it done, even if he kept emphasizing afterward just how hard he had worked.

Akathosh was the same. Deciphering world information meant understanding a world more comprehensively through its very essence. Once someone understood such information, for a person who had reached or surpassed the limits of a world, they could completely rule that world!

This was no joke. Simply put, a world or a universe was like a graceful woman, while the laws governing that world were that woman’s interests and preferences.

Once you understood and deciphered that information, it was like learning the method to win that woman over. All you needed to do was cater to her tastes, or wait for her in some dark corner.

Of course, deciphering such information was extremely difficult. You could imagine that woman as a princess of the Elf Empire like Avila—innocent, yet absolutely difficult to deal with.

When Josh asked Akathosh to help him decipher this information, Akathosh accepted without hesitation.

What Akathosh himself had not expected was that the informational blueprint Josh had given him was so comprehensive and clear that he had not needed to spend much energy cracking its structure.

Under normal circumstances, Akathosh would not have resolved it in so little time.

"By the way, how’s that information coming along?"

"It’s already done. Don’t worry. I’m not as ridiculously unreliable as you."

"Bullshit!"

"Heh."

Akathosh sneered, then soared into the air and flew toward the frozen Smaug. As he flew, his body began to expand. In the blink of an eye, he had become a dragon over fifty meters long!

Although the Lake-town residents stirred again, they did not do anything excessive. With Josh here, they still felt relatively safe.

Besides, this dragon seemed to have a very good relationship with the Elf King, and it was nowhere near as enormous as Smaug.

Akathosh had no time to care what these ordinary people thought. He looked at Smaug with satisfaction and nodded, then suddenly opened his mouth! Behind him appeared the shadow of an even larger silver dragon.