Chapter 21: Does electrocuting yourself count?

“Generate electricity?”

Rosie repeated the words. Her silver brows furrowed slightly.

She lowered her head and looked at her own hands, covered in fine scales, then inwardly felt the ever-unreconcilable conflict of forces raging inside her body.

Whenever she tried to wield mana, that soul-deep sense of rejection was like two raging torrents smashing together—always erupting into tearing agony and an all-pervading numbness, as though invisible currents were lashing her over and over.

…Was this also “generating electricity”?

“Electrifying… myself… does that count?”

Rosie lifted her gaze. She looked at Ankira with eyes that were nearly cold, carrying strong rejection and resistance.

She really didn’t want to bring this up. Doing so was tantamount to exposing—completely and without reservation—her own clumsiness and powerlessness when it came to controlling mana.

“Uh…”

Ankira was momentarily choked by her expression that seemed to say “say yes and I’ll bite you.” He chose his words with great care.

“From the way it manifests… it barely counts, I suppose.”

He quickly steered the conversation toward the crucial point.

“So, Miss Rosie—when you came into contact with Lester, for example through physical touch or similar situations… did it ever happen that while you were shocking yourself, that same current was also transmitted to Lester?”

At Ankira’s question, an unbearably embarrassing and intimate memory instantly flooded Rosie’s mind.

Her cheeks flushed uncontrollably with a thin layer of red. She hurriedly lowered her head, lips pressing tightly together in an attempt to hide it. Her small fists clenched quietly at her sides.

After several seconds of silence, she finally forced out a mosquito-like whisper through gritted teeth:

“…Yes.”

Good. That made things workable.

A huge weight lifted from Ankira’s heart.

He forcefully suppressed his rising excitement and maintained a calm, steady expression. His gaze fixed firmly on the self-proclaimed human juvenile dragon before him.

From the corner of his eye he glanced at Lester, who still lay unconscious on the ground. He steadied himself.

No matter what—keeping Rosie here had to come first.

“Based on what I just personally experienced, combined with Lester’s bizarre state in the fighting pit,” Ankira’s voice was clear and composed, as though he were explaining a difficult problem to a student,

“we can preliminarily conclude one thing: Miss Rosie, the electric current produced by your mana has extremely strong conductivity.”

He looked into Rosie’s silver eyes, which were full of confusion and unease, and deliberately softened his tone to something gentle and patient, like a teacher.

He extended a finger and casually pointed toward a low-hanging tree branch not far away.

“Watch. Like this.”

A slender but tough strand of spider silk shot out silently and stuck precisely to the branch.

“Ordinary silk-spinning. No problem at all.”

Then his eyes sharpened. He attempted to infuse the silk with mana, intending to reinforce it into a venomous spike.

However—just as his mana was about to reach the end of the thread—it was abruptly severed.

With a soft “pop,” the strand of silk instantly went limp, losing all luster and power, becoming utterly ordinary.

“Just like this,” Ankira withdrew his hand and gave Rosie a helpless, wry smile.

“The moment I try to channel strong mana into the silk, my body produces this ‘snap’—a complete cutoff. The mana pathway is severed. I can’t release it at all.”

He crouched down, turned toward Lester, and lightly prodded the other’s arm, which was still covered in dim dragon scales.

“I suspect this is exactly what happened to Lester in the fighting pit. He could still harden his scales for defense, but he couldn’t mobilize his own mana.”

After hearing Ankira’s clear explanation and analysis, Rosie’s body suddenly trembled.

Her throat felt blocked by something.

She understood what Ankira meant: it was her uncontrollable current—carrying a sealing effect—that had indirectly caused Lester’s crushing defeat, allowing that arrogant Demon King to be pummeled like a sandbag.

If she hadn’t released that mana toward Lester at that time, the outcome of the fighting pit match would have been completely different.

“I…”

Rosie’s voice carried a faint, barely noticeable choke. She clenched her fists so hard her nails nearly dug into her palms. She bowed her head deeply, unable to look at Ankira anymore—much less at the unconscious Lester on the ground.

“I didn’t know… this current would cause you so much trouble.”

Her voice grew smaller and smaller, filled with bewilderment and self-loathing.

This power not only affected others—she herself didn’t even understand what it truly was.

“There’s no blame intended, Miss Rosie.”

Ankira immediately sensed her plummeting mood and intense unease. He softened his voice further, infusing it with reassurance.

“I just want to understand the situation clearly—find the root cause and a way to solve it.”

He paused, noticing how Rosie still kept her head down, shoulders trembling faintly. He decided to shift to a gentler—but equally critical—question.

“So, one last question.”

Ankira’s tone grew solemn.

“How exactly did Lester turn you from a human into… what you are now?”

Rosie was silent for a very long time.

Finally, in a muffled voice laced with humiliation, she answered:

“…With a魔核. A魔核 forcibly implanted into my body.”

“A魔核?!”

Ankira’s purple pupils contracted sharply. For the first time, undisguised shock appeared on his face.

Lester had forcibly used a魔核 on a human?!

In his understanding, a魔核 was something demons used to strengthen themselves or trigger extreme bodily mutations to gain even greater power.

Applying it directly to a human body—this was simply unheard of.

The risk was tantamount to stuffing an extremely unstable bomb into a fragile container.

Ankira’s brows locked tightly. He fell into deep thought, fingers unconsciously rubbing his chin.

After a moment, he looked at Rosie with exceptional seriousness.

“Miss Rosie, forgive my bluntness—if you choose to leave alone right now, your situation will be extremely, extremely dangerous!”

He paused, then continued his analysis:

“A魔核 capable of forcibly evolving—or rather, transforming—a human into dragonkind, especially into such a rare silver dragon form… that魔核 itself must contain unimaginable, extremely ancient, and unknown power.

That power inside you is like an enormous, impossible-to-hide treasure beacon. It won’t just attract the covetous eyes of powerful demons—it could draw in other, unpredictable existences.

And you—” He looked at Rosie’s slender frame and lost, bewildered eyes.

“You can’t even control your own power right now. You have no way to protect yourself!”

Ankira sighed. His tone was sincere and earnest.

“To be honest, I can’t bring myself to blame a newborn who can’t even control her mana properly.”

In the demon race, every newborn was extremely precious.

He cast a glance at Lester on the ground, his tone taking on a hint of teasing.

“If we really have to blame someone… it can only be this guy for courting death himself. He must have done something outrageously infuriating—pissed you off so badly that you shocked him, right?”