Time passed quickly while Roxy was sleeping, so it was now already dusk.
Roxy's consciousness gradually returned, and her eyes slowly opened.
She felt the abundant mana filling her body, like a warm current flowing through her.
The first thing she noticed was the warmth against her back—a comforting, reassuring heat.
As her awareness cleared, she slowly pulled away from Dan Feng's back.
Dan Feng immediately sensed the contact disappear behind him. He turned his head and looked at Roxy with concern, asking, "Feeling better now?"
A joyful expression appeared on Roxy's face. She nodded vigorously and replied, "Mm-hmm, much better."
One could imagine she was extremely happy about what had happened not long ago.
Seeing her smile, Dan Feng couldn't help but feel a trace of pleasure in his heart as well.
He looked up at the sky and noticed the sun was nearly set; night would soon fall.
This meant they wouldn't be able to make it back to Ranoa Magic University today and would have to spend the night in the wilderness.
Dan Feng felt a little helpless. He really wanted to fly Roxy back to the academy, but with his current abilities, high-speed flight seemed incapable of carrying another person. He'd have to wait until his progress bar advanced further and he could transform into a true dragon before he could fly with her.
Dan Feng turned to Roxy and said, "Stay here and don't wander off. I'll go find something for us to eat." His tone had a slight fluctuation, but overall it still sounded somewhat distant.
With that, he turned and started walking away.
"Let's go together!" Just as Dan Feng stood up, Roxy grabbed his sleeve from behind.
Dan Feng looked back at Roxy's face. At this moment, her expression carried unease—she probably hadn't fully recovered from the fear of death yet.
Dan Feng nodded, and the two of them headed in the direction from which Dan Feng had originally flown in.
Earlier, while in the air, Dan Feng had spotted some monsters, so now they could hunt a few to solve their dinner problem.
After walking for some time, something ahead caught their attention.
"Monsters fighting each other?" Dan Feng murmured as he looked at the scene in front.
Right now, up ahead, a white porcupine and a black bear were locked in combat.
"Both look like good ingredients," Dan Feng thought silently as he drew Cloud-Piercer.
A restless torrent of water instantly coiled around Cloud-Piercer. Dan Feng's eyes sharpened, and he hurled Cloud-Piercer—along with the flowing water—toward the two monsters.
"Soaring Dragon Manifest!"
...
"Wow, it smells so good!" Roxy's eyes widened, fixed unblinkingly on the meat sizzling on the barbecue rack made from earth magic. The aroma wafted everywhere, and saliva pooled in her throat—she felt like it might spill out any second.
After all, she hadn't eaten anything for more than half a day, and after expending so much adrenaline earlier, her stomach had been growling fiercely for a while.
Right now, this tantalizing scent had a firm grip on her appetite; she couldn't resist it at all.
"The meat's done. Eat first," Dan Feng said, seeing Roxy looking like a starving kitten. The corners of his mouth curved into a faint smile. He conjured several thin earth spikes and slowly skewered the roasted meat onto them.
These weren't ordinary earth spikes—Dan Feng had deliberately poured extra mana into them during creation, making them as hard as iron.
This way, they could easily pierce and hold the meat chunks without snapping during the roasting process.
Roxy was simply too hungry. She didn't even bother being polite; she took the skewer Dan Feng handed her and immediately bit into it.
"Mmm..." She let out a satisfied little sigh. Though this roasted pork had no seasonings at all, it carried the pure, natural deliciousness of the meat—tender, juicy, and bursting with flavor the moment she bit down, leaving an endless aftertaste.
For adventurers spending the night outdoors like them, such simple roasted meat was already the finest delicacy.
"So delicious!" Roxy showed a contented smile and began devouring it eagerly.
No helping it—she was starving.
"I've mastered the art of barbecue," Dan Feng said calmly, then sped up his roasting. Basically, he grilled one skewer and Roxy ate one.
Before long, Roxy was finally full, while Dan Feng prepared his own dinner.
The crimson firelight shone especially brightly in this desolate Deadwood Forest. The bloody scent from the two monster corpses wafted around, attracting many monsters to prowl nearby.
Yet not a single one dared approach to steal any—because Dan Feng, still in his Vidyadhara form, sat silently by the fire roasting meat.
The mere pressure he emanated was enough to suppress this pack of low-level monsters.
"So Dan Feng, what race are you exactly? I've never seen anyone with features like yours before," Roxy asked curiously after eating her fill. She studied Dan Feng's ears—which resembled those of the long-ear race—and the especially prominent illusory dragon horns on his forehead, puzzled.
Dan Feng didn't answer Roxy's question right away. His full attention remained on the meat in front of him.
The roasting meat sizzled, fat continuously seeping out and releasing wave after wave of fragrance.
After a long while, Dan Feng slowly lifted his head and answered briefly, "Vidyadhara." Then he lowered his head again, continuing to focus on roasting.
"Vidyadhara? Hm... I've really never heard of that race before," Roxy said, frowning as she racked her brains.
She thought of the demon race and beast race, but she definitely hadn't heard of any group called Vidyadhara among them.
No matter how much she tried to recall, she couldn't remember ever hearing of this race anywhere.
"Perhaps in this world, I'm the only Vidyadhara left," Dan Feng suddenly said calmly, as if it weren't anything particularly significant.
"Ah!" Roxy let out an involuntary cry of shock upon hearing those words.
Her eyes widened in astonishment as she stared at Dan Feng, her mind racing with a guess: Could it be that Dan Feng's entire race has already been wiped out?
"I'm sorry, Dan Feng. I didn't know the Vidyadhara no longer exist," Roxy quickly apologized. Her water-blue eyes were filled with guilt and self-reproach.
Seeing this, the corners of Dan Feng's mouth lifted slightly into an almost imperceptible smile.
He knew Roxy had misunderstood—he realized she thought his entire race had been tragically exterminated.
But he didn't explain too much. He simply continued with an expressionless face, saying, "It's fine."
In truth, it wasn't quite like that. Theoretically speaking, the human world had never had a true Vidyadhara to begin with.
Unbeknownst to him, Roxy had already begun imagining an entire backstory in her mind.
The Vidyadhara race exterminated, Dan Feng the sole survivor escaping alone, arriving in Millishion, taken in by the tavern landlady, and eventually becoming an adventurer.
Because of this, the way Roxy looked at Dan Feng now carried a trace of heartache.
She thought: If the Migurd race were wiped out, she would probably be devastated, and then she would begin an endless quest for revenge against whoever was responsible.