"I know you're in a rush, but calm down first. Tell me clearly, what's going on?"
Gongqu tapped Ying's forehead and gently pushed her away.
Ying wiped the black soot off her face and gave a toothy grin. "Well, we ran into a fire dragon in the wild and tried to tame it as a mount. But that oversized lizard was pretty cunning. We fought it for nearly two hours, and it spent most of the time hovering in the air, spewing dragon breath."
"Keqing and I didn't have any good anti air moves, nor any elemental abilities to counter its fire and ice resistance. Plus, we didn't have a healer in the party, so we had no choice but to temporarily retreat."
A dragon already?
Hearing this, Gongku was a little surprised.
After all, he and Keqing had spent ages searching for a dragon's nest and found nothing, while Ying had stumbled upon one on her first outing.
It was hard not to wonder if Ying carried the fabled protagonist's halo, wherever she went, trouble followed.
Luckily, Gongku had been preparing to become the Sword Saint of Shí Lǐ Pō and stubbornly stayed in peaceful mode the whole time.
Otherwise, even on easy difficulty, with Ying's luck, he'd probably have had a 3 star demigod level zombie spawn right in his face.
Here, the "3 star demigod" didn't literally mean the monster had become a deity. It was a difficulty rating taken from the Champions mod in the Dragon Adventure pack's Chinese localization.
Under the influence of the Champions/Elite Enemies mod, ordinary monsters could get buffed and become elites, dropping powerful enchanted books. Their difficulty ranked roughly as:
1-star fiend,
2-star wraith,
3-star demigod,
and 4-star eldritch.
Boss tier creatures were guaranteed to be enhanced, with ratings matched to the event's progress.
Dragons, being growth-based monsters, scaled their rating according to their development stage.
So, what Ying and Keqing had faced wasn't just the few hundred-health dragon from the original Fire and Ice mod, but an amped-up, thousands-of-health dragon plus.
"Got it. Did you leave a marker for the coordinates?"
"We left an anchor point at the southern side of the dragon's nest, behind the mountain. We took a detour while escaping, so it probably hasn't noticed us yet," Keqing said, cradling Paimon, who had fainted from fright.
Gongqu stepped closer, channeling Dendro energy to check Keqing's body.
"Good, no injuries. Next time, when I'm not around, don't go charging in with Ying so recklessly, understand?"
"What do you mean? Besides, I had the potion you gave me. When Ying was accidentally smacked by the dragon's tail and thrown off a cliff, it was that potion that saved her."
Ying's cheeks turned bright red. "Keqing, don't bring that up! I-I just… wasn't paying enough attention!"
"Oh? Then what about when you rushed straight at Osial's wife, Ba Zhe? Are you saying the same tactic failed twice for the Traveler?"
"Ugh… Gongqu, you're bullying me! I'm not talking to you anymore!"
Boom!
A sudden rumble echoed in the distance.
Ying nearly jumped out of her skin, grabbing Gongqu's arm and glancing nervously toward the waterfall.
"Oh, that's Klee. I promised to let her blow up some fish to her heart's content."
"Scared me half to death! I thought that big idiot was chasing us already. But… Klee? You dared to bring Klee along, even though kidnapping Lisa was already bad enough? Aren't you afraid of Lady Alice chasing you across all of Teyvat?"
Gongqu flicked Ying's forehead with a playful twang.
"Always overthinking. I didn't do anything to Klee. What's wrong with a big brother inviting his little sister over to play?"
"Stop flicking me! My smart brain is probably all messed up because of your flicks! Hmph, I'm going to flick you back!"
"Fine, fine, go ahead and flick. You're such a kid sometimes."
Gongqu let Ying drag him off, leaving the space to Keqing and Lisa.
Paimon, still passed out, didn't count as part of the conversation.
"They're really close, aren't they~" Lisa watched as the two in the distance suddenly started an arm-wrestling match.
"They're always bickering like that. When they reunited, they gave me such a shock, I almost suspected they were actually siblings."
Looking back now, Keqing still had a lingering urge to stick her Mistsplitter straight into their foreheads.
"Ha, it's true. Sometimes the things they do are just so infuriating."
"You're Lisa, right? From Mondstadt's Knights of Favonius. I've heard of you."
"I've heard of you, too, Keqing, the Yuheng of Liyue's Qixing."
"That's all in the past now… judging by your expression, you probably already know about me and Gongqu, right?"
"Yes, I do."
"Doesn't it bother you, though? You're a young woman yourself, yet you have to share him with someone else."
"Does it bother you?"
"Does it? Maybe. But being able to meet him, love him, and stay by his side… in the end, none of that really matters."
Keqing's gaze softened with indulgence as she looked at Gongku, who was now balancing triumphantly atop a wooden plank.
It was only in moments like this that he showed a childlike side.
But whether he was calm, mischievous, or that domineering figure in bed, Keqing loved every part of him.
What a magnanimous heart!
Lisa was stunned by Keqing's reply.
She admitted to herself that if she were in Keqing's place, and other women still wanted to compete with her… she'd be a whirlwind of fury, not just a gentle breeze.
She had to give it to Keqing, this mistress of the harem. Lisa truly admired her.
But as for Gongqu… that scoundrel definitely deserved a good zap when the time came!
"Looks like you've come to terms with it, Miss Lisa?"
"Hehe, what can I say? We witches are fated to suffer, bound to one person for life, even if that person is long gone."
"I won't let you hurt him," Keqing said with a frown.
Lisa gave a sly smile. "So as long as he doesn't die, that's enough, right?"
"Still… let's not take things too far. Besides, let me tell you, Gongku isn't that easy to hurt. You'd have to strip him of his diamond armor first before you could even scratch him."
Keqing explained seriously about the defensive properties of Minecraft gear.
Now even Lisa wasn't sure if Keqing was naturally dark or just took everything so literally.
Either way, it was good news, at least it meant Gongku wouldn't be hurt so easily.
That night.
In a small forest cabin, a combat meeting was underway at the dinner table.
"The fire dragon Ying encountered is probably a third-stage open-air nest dragon. If it were just me and Keqing, we'd only be able to mark it and retreat.
But now we have a warrior, a priest, and a mage. With enough potions and resources, we should be able to take on a juvenile fire dragon head-on," Gongqu said.
He laid out twelve bottles each of red and blue support potions.
He'd spent a fortune refreshing random shops dozens of times just to get them.
The general store didn't sell instant-use items, and the first time he saw them, he didn't have the funds to stock up. Fortunately, he'd kept up his habit of hoarding like a packrat, world coins weren't that big of a deal anymore.
Once the villagers in his territory expanded the farmland, even if he wasn't skilled at manipulating the world's rules, he'd be able to achieve financial freedom in world coins.
When that time came, he'd draw a thousand or eight hundred lottery pulls a day until his fingers cramped!
"Also, I've got a scroll here. Lisa, see if you can use it."
Gongqu handed over a scroll he'd gotten as a bonus while farming for potions earlier.
[Caster's Compendium]
Type: Support
Inscribed Runes: Shield, Amplify, Shield, Amplify
This was an item from the New Arcane Arts mod, letting anyone with magic power cast the inscribed runes directly. This one had second tier "Shield" runes and amplification runes.
Gongqu hadn't even started "eating" runes to learn magic yet, he didn't have the mana to activate it. But there were already two witches here, one big and one small.