While Aaron was teaching Alfie the Aurora Realm's main written language, Lord Noah Wakefield, on the other hand, was busy working on his report for the upcoming international conference, which was to take place in the Wulin Kingdom. Thus, the lord spent that whole day and night locked up in his massive office and library, which resided in the headquarters of the magic research department. And as was his habit, he neglected to feed himself in the process, despite the mysterious appearance of meals beside his elbow now and again. Indeed, when he was deep in thought and busy with work, even if the world were about to come to an end, Lord Noah wouldn't have noticed. He was that absorbed in whatever task he happened to be doing.
It was morning of the next day when Brenna Kent, his pretty assistant of a cat person, came in through the door and asked loudly, "My lord? Are you still in here?"
Noah raised his head and blinked, more than a little perplexed. He thought he told her to leave him be to his work a few moments ago.
He said, "Brenna? As I've told you before, I'm busy. Don't bother me again until tomorrow."
Brenna finally located him behind a huge pile of papers on his desk. So, she thought, he hadn't moved an inch from his seat since she had left him to it last night.
She poked her head around to see him, two cat ears sticking up prominently from her head. She said, "But it is morning now, my lord, and you haven't eaten anything since lunchtime yesterday afternoon. As your assistant, I'm very concerned."
Just as she said that, Noah's stomach growled loudly. Yes, he was a demon lord, but that didn't mean he didn't have to eat. The dark qi residing within his being, as well as with all the other lords, required a lot of sustenance to nourish it—and him—after all.
The moment he realized that he was absolutely starving, his body responded by weakening even more and his head flopped onto the pile of paper in front of him, his masked face buried in it.
"My lord!" Brenna shouted in a panic. "Get ahold of yourself."
A few moments later, Noah found himself lounging on a comfy couch in the sitting area of the research department, nursing a headache. Well, served him right for overworking yet again.
Brenna said, as she made him a cup of black coffee, "You must have been using too much dark qi on your research again, my lord."
Noah said, his forearm resting over his eyes to block out the bright light, "It can't be helped. The conference is in a month, and I have a shitload to do before that. The reports. The presentations. Not to mention the many new potions we've just created. And one of them definitely needed a few more test subjects before it could be launched."
"Are you talking about that top-secret one?" Brenna asked. "The one that is used to increase strength? The golden pill?"
"Hm," Noah responded. "It'll be a game changer for the soldiers, for sure, if all goes right. Magic enhancement. Magic evolution."
Magical enhancement—which led to the enhancement of body and an increase in strength—happened when a small amount of golden qi was acquired by the body, such as from Lord Noah's golden pills he had developed with a top-secret formula.
Magic evolution, on the other hand, as the name implied, was a type of magical power that could lead one who acquired a tremendous amount of golden qi—one of the rare types that was almost nonexistent in the universe—to evolve not only in physical appearances and strength, but internal qi as well.
Typically, one could acquire an enormous amount of the golden qi by sucking the energy from powerful beasts in the catastrophic class. But of course, one would have to kill the beast first, which was simply impossible and would be akin to a death sentence or suicide. After all, a catastrophic class beast was the highest level and most dangerous in the disaster beast classification system. One simply didn't challenge such a monster that had the power and ability to destroy the whole realm with a simple flick of its claws or a mere puff of its breath. The four known catastrophic beasts that still exist today were the black tortoise, the green dragon, the white tiger, and the red phoenix.
"But the golden pill looks good so far, doesn't it?" Brenna asked. "All the test subjects have had their strength increased by two-fold since taking the pill. That means the enhancer, at least, is working."
Noah said, "All the physical stuff, yes. As for their qi, there's no change in that, which means that magic evolution has not worked because the golden qi in the pill is kept at a very low percentage. Well, they'll have to increase the cultivation of that themselves through sheer hard work."
"Which isn't a bad thing. One simply shouldn't go from zero to hero without hard work," Brenna said as she came over and handed him the hot drink. "Here you go, my lord."
Noah removed his forearm from his face and immediately groaned in despair as he squinted his eyes against the glaring light. Damn, it was just too bright for his liking.
He grabbed the hot drink gratefully and was about to down the lot in one go when Brenna said, "And your pill, my lord."
Noah looked at the little glowing blue painkiller and sighed. "I suppose the bloody headache isn't going to go away by itself anytime soon."
Brenna chuckled. "Unfortunately, it won't."
Noah took the pill and popped it into his mouth. Then he drank the black coffee to his heart's content. Once done, he said with a pleasant sigh, "Ahh... that's better."
"I know it's too early for lunch, but what would you like to eat? I'll order something for you from the kitchen."
He waved his hand in the air, unconcerned. "Whatever is fine." Then he flopped back on the couch, lazing there like a very bored prince.