"Wanna see something?"

Drayken chuckled. He lifted his pen again, and mana swirled around him, gradually accumulating at the tip of the pen. Then, he jotted down a dot.

At a glance, it seemed the same—just a simple black dot. But hidden beyond the naked eye was a deeper intent, a complex mana structure woven into it.

"This is the SoulMark spell, derived from Aura," the old man said, gulping hard.

Drayken casually made another dot. This one was the most basic—the Aura spell itself, the foundational spell it all stemmed from.

"This is really true…"

The old man took a deep, heated breath to calm his surging thoughts, while Drayken was quietly puzzled in his heart:

'Is this feat so terrifying to accomplish that even this guy, who clearly should be one of the strongest in existence, is having an existential crisis right now?'

Thinking in his heart, Drayken felt strange and uncertain for a moment. When he was in that strange trance-like state, he felt like his comprehension was rapidly enhanced, which was already enhanced from the skill he had…

"The increase seemed to be more than I expected."

Drayken concluded in his heart with a firm nod of his head, because he truly felt like so.

It wasn't a one-plus-one upgrade, but instead multiplied multiple times instead!

"Anyway, Grandpa, I would like to read further books then."

The old man quickly recovered and glanced at Drayken once more.

"Go ahead, little monster," he said, his eyes flickering with uncontrollable excitement:

"Haha, my Dragon race will be in worthy hands in the future."

As his figure vanished, his voice lingered in Drayken's ear.

"Oh, well, let the old man celebrate."

With a sigh, Drayken chose the third book and read it, without turning the thousands of pages left for the second book. He had already learned everything possible there because all the remaining pages were the description of images and how it functions.

Drayken could be considered as a master of his own and is able to completely skip this stage, but he still needs to study because he has only learned how to use intent. Even the spell he has constructed was one of the spells he already had the blueprint for.

For one to create a completely different spell, and one that has relatively higher quality, he would still need more knowledge…

'Sigh, it's like I am back to the days of my college, programming hard every day.' From his understanding, these complex magic patterns were actually like programming, a certain one at that called OOP, otherwise known as Object-Oriented Programming.

You define a body, let's say a human body and define its features like its eyes, nose, mouth, fingers, and many more as classes.

This is the same for the complex structures of magic, you define the body with your intention clear, and then start to add one feature after another. By the end, it will be complex, but this is the easiest way to find and solve it.

Programming might just be a language for us to communicate with computers, but it teaches us the logic, the deeper meaning behind things!

'What a beautiful thing.' Muttering this in his heart, Drayken promptly started his reading journey. The next book was called Aura Farming, this was a theory book.

And looking at it with a strange expression in his heart, Drayken started to read it. He felt dazzled the moment he turned the first page, almost in a completely trance-like state.

"This… this is interesting…"

The more he read, the more he felt one of his questions gradually go away from his heart.

When he first thought of aura and its basics, which let one harvest their own emotion to turn into strength, obviously this was very limited.

But this Aura Farming, which is a theory only, delved into farming aura, it harvests the emotion of others towards him to get stronger.

The more he read, the happier Drayken became. He felt like he could make a spell with the same intent behind it, if he could fully grasp this theory.

At this time, Synthia stuck out her head, her eyes full of curiosity, looking at Drayken:

"You don't have to read this theory so intently. This is only a theory that one of our ancestors made, but unfortunately, he couldn't make the spell," she casually patted his shoulder.

"Really?"

Drayken looked at the book and at her, his pupils flickering slightly in doubt:

"Why can others not make this theory into a spell?"

"Everyone has tried, but no one seems to have succeeded. It's very hard to create a spell," Synthia shook her head with a sigh. "Theory is theory, after all, and changing the very foundation of the spell is even harder and more complex."

"I see."

Drayken nodded his head with honesty, a thoughtful frown settling upon his brows:

"You are right, but I wanna try it anyway." He already had a complete grasp of Intent—how hard could it be…

Ten hours later.

Drayken had black circles underneath his eyes, his left eye was twitching, his hand trembling without stop. He, at this very moment, felt like his entire brain cells were already dry and finished.

This was the feeling he had while looking forward in blank space.

"Have you tried enough, brat?" The old man's figure appeared in front of him. "This was a theory of one of my old friends, it is likely that you wouldn't be able to complete it."

"Yes."

Drayken fell to the ground with bloodshot eyes: "I succeeded, haha."

"Hmm?" The old man's words were stuck in his throat. He mumbled with a heavy heart, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I completed it. I made the Intent of the spell, haha."

Even though he seemed to be a maddened man, Drayken still had a hint of rationality and excitement flickering in his eyes.

"Show it to me."

"Okay."

Drayken closed his eyes and gathered his breath. He raised the pen, his mind rapidly forming the structure he had envisioned. First came a xerox copy of the Aura spell as the foundation. Then, he began introducing various elements into it: "Harvest," "Emotions," and many more.

It might have seemed simple at first glance, but the mental computation required to integrate even a single feature into the already complex framework of Aura was nothing short of terrifying.

Finally, Drayken drew a simple, bloody mouth on the paper in front of him.

The pen slipped from Drayken's fingers, and he nearly collapsed on the spot, barely staying upright with the help of the old man, who was staring at the paper with a mixture of disbelief and joy in his eyes.

"This... Haha, this is incredible! You've done it. You've created something no Dragon has ever managed to accomplish."

Drayken, exhausted and gasping for breath, managed to croak out, "What's my reward, old man?"

The old man grinned. "My granddaughter's hand."

"..."

Drayken stared at him, speechless.

"Fine," the old man continued with a chuckle, "you can choose any one item from the treasury, but only one. And that's only because you're going to be my grandson soon."

"Thank you," Drayken murmured, before finally collapsing to the ground, surrendering to a peaceful sleep.

Synthia was also next to him, long gone to sleep before him, but they somehow started to cuddle on the cold floor, seeking warmth.

The old man looked at them with a flabbergasted expression, then he focused on the page before him:

"My friend, your dream has been completed, not by me, but it has been completed."

He appeared in the sky, looking at the moon with tear-filled eyes.