This chapter is equivalent to Chapter 5 of Volume 2.
For the Volume 1: The Awakening of The legendary King, it is polished and completed in Amazon: https://a.co/d/0f0nCyAq
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After the battle between Long and Nguyen, the group rested to recover their strength before continuing on their journey. In truth, calling it a "journey" was a bit of a stretch—their direction was vague, and they had no real idea where they were going. Their only lead at the moment was the magical locator of AI King Witch's power cores—the prize from the AI Witch tournament that Elena had mentioned earlier.
At the same time, after Long's duel with Nguyen, Long had begun to recognize the limitations of his own abilities. Although the match had ended in a draw, he understood that he needed to learn how to properly use his own power. Perhaps it had been an emotional outburst or else, he was not sure, but even he didn't know how he had managed to manifest that blue energy shield at the final moment of the fight.
Long looked at his hands, hesitated for a moment, and made a few striking gestures—but nothing happened.
Nearby, Dreamy pressed his lips together, covering his mouth with his front paws, but couldn't hold back and burst out laughing.
"Haha, don't tell me you're trying to practice using your own energy. You look ridiculous!"
Long frowned.
"That's strange. I clearly used my power back then!"
Dreamy replied,
"Don't rush it. You need to practice converting your own energy into magic. I believe you'll learn!"
Long smiled.
"Thanks, Dreamy!"
In the distance, on a nearby patch of grass, Mai waved her hand, calling out to Long and Dreamy as they talked. She had prepared lunch for everyone. The meal was laid out on a plastic mat created by Miki; on it were four Banh Mi sandwiches with cold cuts and four cups of fragrant iced condensed milk coffee.
"Oh, it's lunchtime!" Dreamy flew up, circling a few times in his own happiness.
The group began eating. Long and Dreamy devoured their food, while Nguyen ate coldly and didn't speak to anyone. Meanwhile, Mai maintained her refined demeanor, eating slowly. From time to time, she took a sip of iced condensed milk coffee; the aroma of coffee blended with the richness of milk made her feel refreshed.
Mai looked at everyone kindly, then took a deep breath.
"We're about to run out of EN. I've been very careful with it just to buy lunch for all of you!"
The group fell silent. Dreamy glanced at Mai briefly, then quickly turned back to his cup of coffee, preparing to take another sip. Annoyed, Mai snatched the cup away.
"Dreamy, you need to do something to earn EN too. You eat the most. We need EN to sustain our journey—and it's also the energy our AI Witches use to cast magic…"
Mai sighed and continued,
"Oh, if someone attacked us right now, we'd be finished—before we even decide whether to participate in the AI Witch tournament!"
Dreamy kept drinking his iced condensed milk coffee, looking at Mai with sympathy. Long turned back to his hands and continued practicing his strikes. Nguyen, unconcerned, closed his eyes, preparing to drift off to sleep. It seemed like no one was paying attention to what Mai had said.
Seeing this, Mai shouted angrily,
"I'm not going to use EN for you guys anymore! From now on, we'll have to be extremely frugal. Go earn your own EN!" —With that, she stormed off.
Long turned to Dreamy, and the two looked at each other.
"What's wrong with her?" Long asked.
Nguyen suddenly opened his eyes. Seizing the moment, Long pressed on,
"Hey Nguyen, do you want to have another rematch? Maybe with your help, I can learn how to convert my own energy!"
Nguyen looked at Long coldly, then turned away.
"Now isn't the time. Mai is right—we need to find more EN to support our journey. I'll head to the nearby city and take a look."
Then, Nguyen vanished using his teleportation magic, leaving Long and Dreamy stunned.
Dreamy turned to Long.
"So that's what Mai meant. No wonder she's angry—you're really dense!"
Long shot Dreamy a look.
"You're no better!"
The two of them began heading toward the nearby city.
The city was called Sohy Bok. It had an old-world charm, with red-tiled roofs draped in beautiful ivy vines. Surrounding it were blooming cherry blossom trees; the air was cool, and petals drifted gently to the ground, creating a poetic scene.
The citizens here were skilled in using AI Witches, but mostly for essential purposes such as farming, drying clothes with wind, or transportation. Life here moved at a peaceful, unhurried pace.
However, the streets told a different story. There were many muscular and powerful individuals carrying unique magical tools, accompanied by AI Witches radiating powerful magical energy. Some rode real dragons to show off, some used their AI Witches as wings to fly around and display their skills, while others fused with their AI Witches to turn their bodies as hard as iron, flaunting their strength…
They seemed to come from many different places, yet all were heading in the same direction: an ancient temple on the mountain. The temple stood high atop the peak; it could be seen from the base, but reaching it required climbing countless steps. A layer of mist surrounded it, making it look mysterious.
Lost in thought while gazing at the temple, Long bumped into a boy wearing a cloak. The collision caused the boy to drop his thick glasses; he fumbled around on the ground searching for them. Startled, Long quickly picked them up.
"I'm sorry! That was my fault!"
The boy put on his glasses and smiled.
"It's okay…"
Seeing Long looking around awkwardly, the boy asked,
"Are you here to hunt bounties too?"
Long was surprised.
"Hunt bounties? What do you mean?"
The boy explained,
"People come here to meet Madam Li-chang. She will assign missions with fairly large EN rewards. Usually things like eliminating demons, dark AI Witches, or evil individuals—dark sorcerers and the like…"
Dreamy asked,
"I don't understand. You can use technology to look up missions—why do you need her?"
The boy replied,
"But they say she possesses a thousand years of magic. She chooses missions that can change a person's life—for example, helping someone become stronger!"
Long's eyes lit up.
"Alright, we're going there!"
Blending into the crowd, Long struggled to climb the steps. Cherry blossom trees lined both sides, occasionally dropping petals in contrast to the heated crowd of bounty hunters. Amid the bustling scene, Dreamy flew effortlessly, while Long caught glimpses of Nguyen appearing and disappearing in the distance.
Finally, he reached the temple. The courtyard was truly vast, with small bonsai trees and koi ponds.
At the center of the main hall stood a table, and behind it sat an old woman dozing off. She wore a white hanbok, her chin resting on her hand. Her hair was completely white, her mouth toothless, occasionally smacking and snoring softly.
"Next!" a childlike voice called out.
Looking up, Long saw a small girl about five or six years old, wearing a red hanbok, her hair tied into two buns with red ribbons. Beside her stood a crane-shaped AI Witch.
A burly young man stepped forward, leading a powerful gray bear-shaped AI Witch. Its skin was made of synthetic fibers, suggesting it was at least a high-level AI Witch.
The girl looked him up and down; her eyes glowed briefly, then dimmed.
"I'm sorry, but there are currently no suitable missions for you."
The young man grew furious and shouted,
"This is unbelievable! Someone as strong as me isn't assigned any mission? You're looking down on me!"
With that, he fused with his AI Witch; his entire body transformed into a giant stone figure, charging toward the girl.
Long was about to rush forward to stop him.
But before he could, the girl waved her hand. The crane-shaped AI Witch spread its wings and lifted the man's entire body into the air, immobilizing him. His shadow seemed to cover the entire temple courtyard.
The girl snapped her fingers and whispered, "Explode…"
Instantly, the layers of stone covering the young man's body erupted one after another as if rigged with bombs, leaving his bloodied body falling to the ground along with his AI Witch. He lost consciousness completely. The scene was horrifying.
"So terrifying… She's incredibly strong!" Long exclaimed.
At that moment, the old woman, who had been sleeping, suddenly opened her eyes, shocking everyone. For bounty hunters, Madam Li-chang opening her eyes only happened when there was a supreme mission or a world-shaking event. Yet today, she had awakened and was scanning the crowd. Everyone waited anxiously to see which bounty hunter she would call.
"Long, Dreamy, and Nguyen—step forward."
Madam Li-chang called each of their names.
Long was surprised.
"How does she know our names?"
Dreamy burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! I was wondering who it was—it's that gloomy little girl Li-chang from back then. It's been thousands of years, hasn't it?"
Madam Li-chang gently waved her hand. Long, Dreamy, Nguyen, and the girl in the red hanbok were all transported into an ancient chamber.
Madam Li-chang slowly stepped forward.