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“…You really can’t make anything, can you?”

“…Leave me be. Who do you think I’m doing this for?”

I snapped at the blonde Elf, Gal Dragon, who kept interrupting with his snide remarks.

Gal Dragon, who had transformed into an Elf to try and understand me, was attempting to make clothes.

Using plant fibers to make clothes was put on hold.

After that, he tried making them out of leather, but the beasts inhabiting Gal Dragon’s territory were as massive as they were thick-skinned and thick-hided, making them suitable only for clothing for Titans or giants, not for humans like me.

More than anything, Gal Dragon was disgusted by the idea of wearing the skin of a beast.

‘For a kidnapper, he sure is picky.’

But the clothing material chosen after that was satisfactory to both Gal Dragon and me.

Gold.

The gold in the dragon’s lair was the clothing material.

It was only because I was a master of Internal energy manipulation, capable of even deforming and shaping metal, that it was easier to mold than fiber.

Usually, they would weave gold thread to make clothes, but that would be no different from using plant fibers, so we simply flattened the gold to create gold leaf, using it like fabric.

Gold was so abundant that it wasn’t just like pebbles on the road; it was piled up like mountains, so acquiring it wasn’t difficult at all.

Gal Dragon was also very pleased to be making clothes out of his favorite material, readily handing over the gold and watching with a curious expression.

He looked like a male Elf, but now that he was sexless, the revulsion wasn’t too severe, but it was still very unpleasant to have a naked Elf pressed so close that his skin touched mine.

I had only allowed three sisters among the High Elves to touch me.

I used a shoulder strike to send the Elf-shaped Gal Dragon flying away, and then combined the gold leaves to make clothes, but…

“You have a truly terrible sense of aesthetics.”

That was what Gal Dragon said as he picked up the clothes I had made.

It was just a simple, shapeless garment made of gold leaf, without any curves or undulations.

The only good thing was that the seams of the clothes were meticulously joined, making them neat.

“Did you make it like this on purpose?”

“…Right now, it just needs to be able to be worn and properly cover the body.”

“I’ve transformed into this form myself, but honestly, I still don’t quite understand. Is wearing clothes so desperate that one must wear even this monstrosity?”

“Quiet. You’ve been nothing but argumentative and critical since earlier. If you’re going to complain so much, why don’t you try making it yourself?”

“Indeed. It would be better if I made it myself.”

“Huh?”

I had only said that to rebuke Gal Dragon for constantly interfering, but Gal Dragon nodded as if it were a good idea and picked up the gold.

Then, just like I had done, he infused it with energy, deforming the gold, flattening it, and starting to shape it.

“You’ve barely seen any proper clothes…”

“Just by looking at the clothes you were wearing before, I understood roughly how to make them. Other than that, if I trust my sense of aesthetics, it’s not difficult.”

“Easy for you to say…”

His confident attitude was untrustworthy, but when I thought about how he had only been meddling and interfering, I decided to watch and mock the finished product, even if it was childish.

But with a serious face, the golden clothes were being spun out by the dragon’s touch.

Giving strength to the contours, clothes with graceful lines began to be created.

And that work didn’t take long.

“…What is this.”

“Hmm… It’s a bit unsatisfactory, but it can’t be helped since it’s the first one I’ve made, I suppose?”

Gal Dragon said, floating the clothes he had made in the air.

It wasn’t the same form as the Central Plains martial arts uniform that Ati had made for me, but it was a plausible piece of clothing.

Moreover, in terms of the lines the clothes drew, it felt like a martial arts uniform suitable for a woman to wear, even though it wasn’t a skirt.

It was possible because he had accurately grasped only the essential points of the necessary form and made it.

Gal Dragon seemed a little dissatisfied with his first creation and picked up another lump of gold, starting to draw out gold leaf again.

Clothes were being made with their own unique characteristics each time.

“Is the problem the structure of the form? When simply flattening the gold to make it, it seems that the durability and form are becoming more simplified than I thought.”

“Is the issue the intricacy of the structure? Perhaps that’s why they weave plant fibers together.”

“If that’s the case, then perhaps I can create a more stable form by thinly structuring and weaving the drawn-out pieces to create a surface.”

“If so… it’s a bit of a hassle, but…”

Suddenly fixated on something, he didn’t care about me and started making clothes in various ways using gold.

He was even trying to make thread, gold thread, which he had given up on because it was too cumbersome and labor-intensive, and then weave fabric.

He compared the length and shape to his own body and continued his passionate production.

‘…Come to think of it, there were an awful lot of gold statues modeled after him.’

Looking at Gal Dragon, who had an unusually good imagination for craftsmanship and form, I remembered the delicately crafted gold statues of Gal Dragon that I had seen when I woke up in the treasure vault.

‘…It doesn’t suit him. No, rather, should I say it suits him in this case?’

It’s a very prejudiced thought, but aren’t artists often portrayed as eccentric and difficult?

The sight of the Elf, with his beautiful exterior and serious expression, absorbed in his work, made the Elf seem artistically plausible.

Even though I knew his inner self and that he had an arrogant and appalling personality, the fact that he was doing art somehow made sense, which I resented for some reason.

If a martial artist doesn’t have the personality that comes with martial arts, they are basically considered a black sheep or a rogue.

But if you have artistic talent, it justifies that temperament, even making it seem special.

‘…It feels a little unfair.’

With a somewhat sullen expression, I just watched Gal Dragon’s work.

Both myself and Gal Dragon were beings who had already surpassed the limits of normal creatures.

We didn’t need to eat, and we could go without sleep for long periods of time without any problems maintaining our lives.

However, watching Gal Dragon, who was lost in his own world, wasn’t a very pleasant experience, so I carefully moved away and focused on recovering my body by circulating my Internal energy.

The clothes I had made had long since been dismantled by Gal Dragon, who called the result a desecration of the material, and turned into gold thread.

Thanks to that, I was still naked, but Gal Dragon was the only one watching me here, and he was distracted by something else, so I was able to concentrate on recovery and training with a relaxed mind for the first time in a long time, unlike usual.

‘…Actually, if there’s no gaze or attention, it’s surprisingly not bad.’

Just like the giant’s territory that Gal Dragon considered his garden, the lair also had a very dense distribution of Mana.

‘I don’t know the exact cause, but I guess it’s because the Elder Loa are special.’

The environment around my mother, the World Tree El-Prigion, was also different from the areas where humans lived, with a higher distribution of Mana.

And that had a big impact on the vegetation, such as the limits to which the beasts of the Elven Road and Pohölän could grow, or the difference in the number and size of fruits that grew even on the same plants.

Moreover, wasn’t this the place where Gal Dragon and Terato coexisted in the narrow (?) northern region?

‘If you approach it from that perspective, it seems understandable why the vegetation here is the way it is.’

In the case of the Titans, they were artificially created beings like Elves from the Elder Loa Terato, but the beasts and vegetation that made up the environment here were clearly normal creatures.

But unless they were beings who deviated from reason, like Elves or Titans, they couldn’t grow as large as the Brachio I had seen in the north, if normal laws applied.

If their bodies became too large, they would often be crushed by their own weight if normal laws were applied.

It made sense that they had grown so large due to the Mana filled by the two Elder Loa.

Moreover, the beasts in particular often had forms similar to lizards.

Even though they were clearly not artificially created beasts, there were many that looked like a mix of various beasts and lizards, such as birds, mice, and chickens.

If they were originally different beasts but were influenced by Gal Dragon’s energy…

‘…This is too much.’

I myself had grown up in my mother’s forest.

Even so, I had never seen a creature that had evolved like a plant.

Above all, even in the process of absorbing and refining the energy inside the lair, the energy was dense, so refining it was not easy, but I did not feel that my existence was changing.

Rather, I felt that my recovery was faster thanks to this dense energy.

‘…The heads of prestigious families and the leaders of famous sects are said to circulate their Internal energy in places made of ten-thousand-year-old ice.’

After circulating my energy for the past two weeks, I felt that Gal Dragon’s lair had a function comparable to objects made of ten-thousand-year-old ice.

If I continued to train here, it would be twice as efficient in terms of Internal energy training and healing of meridians compared to other places.

Even if I went back to the Elven Road to recover, it wouldn’t be faster than here.

‘Should I call this lucky? Or a blessing in disguise?’

In the end, Gal Dragon was the owner of this place, and I was in a state like a captured hostage, so I couldn’t just be happy that I had found such a place.

With a slightly complicated mind, I was focusing on recovering my body and accumulating energy for two days when Gal Dragon, who had been concentrating on making clothes, suddenly approached me.

“…? What is it?”

“It’s a little lacking to complete it with just imagination in my head.”

“? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please speak clearly.”

“Your body, and the changing form as you continue your biological activities. I don’t have enough information to compare and make it with just my body.”

“…You’ve been looking at my body to your heart’s content until now. More than that, you’ve made so many clothes, but you haven’t made a single one for yourself? Why are you still naked?”

“The story about what I’ll wear is enough for now. I need information about you.”

“…Wait, what are you planning to do? Your eyes are strange? Wait. Don’t come closer!”

Gal Dragon instantly released his lotus position and pounced on me, who was retreating backward.

“You crazy bastard! Have you lost your mind!”

“The skin is soft… and the joints and tendons are… when breathing, the rib cage…”

“Don’t touch me! Get a grip!”

I screamed in horror at the hands that were groping my body.

I tried to strongly strike his back with Internal energy to collide and blow him away, but the perverted Elf who had transformed from a dragon didn’t let go of me even as his chest caved in and he vomited blood.

“Ugh… this line here…”

I felt fear rising in my heart at the sight of the Elf, whose eyes were bloodshot and tears of blood were flowing down his face due to the severe internal injuries caused by his collapsed chest, but he didn’t let go and kept muttering.

“Wait, ah, you, no, you bastard, hey!”

I momentarily forgot my dignity at the groping hands and cursed, throwing murderous punches, but Gal Dragon, who had somehow covered himself with a protective barrier, was not only impossible to kill, but I couldn’t even stop him because I couldn’t get a proper stance.

In the end, before the second humiliation I had experienced since being born into this world was properly over, I couldn’t avoid experiencing the third humiliation.