Starborn Apotheosis: When Demon-Elf Hybrid Unlocks the Primal Codex

Because of Elaine's sudden change, the sky of Eldrin was covered with a layer of haze throughout the summer. Whenever he had a little free time, the girl's smiling but crying face would appear in his mind, and no matter how hard he tried , he could not get rid of it. His heart was completely filled with Elaine's figure. With his outstanding wisdom and precise talent, her every word, smile, and every move would be completely restored in his mind, even every detail of her body, as well as the most mysterious area that had not been fully explored , all the bits and pieces would be clearly remembered. 

Moods change.

Not long ago, every fragment of memory brought sunshine, joy, anxiety, and more expectations for the next day. Now, these memories are repeated day by day, and finally the warm warmth burns into a scorching heat, like a piece of red-hot iron, burning on his immature heart, leaving a thin mark next to the deep scar.

Eldrin knew that Elaine had changed a lot in the past few days, and that she was worried, but he didn't know why, and every time he asked, he got no results. It was not until this time that Eldrin realized that, except for Elaine, he had no one to talk to. Yes, in Deepblue , he didn't have any friends, not even one. Although he was Isabella's direct disciple, he had only seen the teacher three times in a year in Deepblue . In fact, apart from the magicians who taught, he spent the most time with Elaine.

Whenever he was alone, the pain in Eldrin's heart was particularly clear, and sometimes it was as painful as a raging fire that only appeared in the depths of dreams. Only when he hid in the vast world of magic and knowledge could he return to peace and focus on complex formulas, curves, magic and creatures from other planes.

Summer is like winter.

Eldrin's performance this summer was amazing. He completely exploded in every field of study, and often the results he delivered left the well-informed Archmages speechless. There was nothing else to say except to praise the wise, great, and always correct Princess Isabella. In a very limited time, Eldrin's magic power increased again , and he would reach the standard of a second-level magician by the end of summer. Eldrin's performance outside the field of magic was equally shocking. Philosophy, history, politics, and economics, the little boy was like a dry desert, madly absorbing every drop of knowledge. Even the most picky painter was silent for a long time after seeing a painting Eldrin handed in.

It was the back of a young girl, carrying a large thermostatic food box, walking quickly into the dim passage in the distance. The momentary silhouette outlined her depression, sadness, a little panic and fear. Even the corner of the flying magic robe made people mistakenly think that it would continue to move with the wind. For some reason, the food box seemed to be the center of the picture, and the use of brushstrokes was different from the portrait. If the dynamic sense of the portrait was perfectly shaped, the food box seemed to be still there, as heavy as a boulder, pulling the heart of the viewer straight down. The whole picture was plain, and no second painting tool was used. It was all drawn with a magic feather pen. Countless fine and dense lines of varying depths together made up this suffocating painting.

The great painter spent a full hour looking at this painting, but still could not give an evaluation. Finally, he suddenly sighed and said to his assistant: "As long as the reproduction of reality breaks through the critical point, it can become art. And this painting, just the moment he captured, is enough to become eternal!"

The assistant was stunned. He didn't expect that a simple plain sketch would receive such an evaluation from the master. However, as one of the few people who almost stood at the pinnacle of the Holy Alliance art, the master's evaluation was definitely not wrong. Since it received the master's personal praise, this painting could easily be sold at a high price of tens of thousands of gold coins in the outside world. The only thing that restricts its further appreciation is that Eldrin is still alive, and it seems that he can live for a long time. But such a work, perhaps Eldrin will not create it for a long time in the future.

The master sighed for a long time, and finally shook his head heavily, waved his hand to let the assistant leave, and sat in front of the easel, staring at the portrait of the girl. Unknowingly, it got dark , and the studio became dim, but a ball of fireflies lit by magic appeared beside the master, adding a little dim light to the studio. In the dim light, the appeal of this plain-colored outline was truly revealed without reservation, making the viewer feel as if they were in that dark, cold, empty, and seemingly endless corridor.

"How many years have I not seen such a work? This child... it must have been painful when I painted her!" The master muttered to himself. He was also young once, and created the most brilliant works in the most painful time. However, after he became successful, he could no longer find the passion and impulse at that time. Seeing this painting, it's as if I saw Eldrin, the beautiful, silent boy with a wild and fierce character in his bones.

The master suddenly became anxious, and even couldn't sit still in his chair. He stood up and paced back and forth in front of the painting, as if he had some difficult decision to make in his heart . After wandering for a whole hour, the master's eyes finally fell on the corner of the studio. There was an exquisite magic table, which was somewhat out of tune with the overall casual style of the studio. The magic table was a special device for activating the monthly bills . It should have been installed in a suitable space, but the master was a little careless, so this expensive and important equipment was thrown casually in the corner of the studio. Only when it was necessary would it be pulled out from the pile of waste drafts in the corner. Seeing the magic table, the master naturally thought of the monthly bills and Isabella's joy.

It had been many months since the Master had seen the joy of the Legendary Archmage .

And this painting... This painting is so vivid that even the master can't pretend not to see its vividness. It means a special situation, and it is one of the special situations that the Legendary Archmage specifically lists as needing to be reported. If he doesn't report it, the master can easily guess with his toes that the Legendary Archmage will definitely go crazy. The master can still struggle to choose between art, conscience and Isabella's joy, but between conscience and Isabella's rage, he has no choice at all.

The master had a painful look on his face. He reached out to take down the portrait of the girl, wrapped it up carefully, and then hurriedly left the studio.

An hour later, the statue of the girl was placed in front of Blackgold .

Gray Dwarf made the master wait for forty minutes before he crawled out of the gemstone ore that covered the entire workbench and blocked half of the passage, and then spent a minute listening to the master's explanation. Deepblue is a world of magic and gold coins, but there is no art. Gray Dwarf has one foot on the halfway up the magic mountain and the other on the top of the gold mountain. Therefore, although his physical height just touched the master's chest, his psychological height is just the opposite.

Gray Dwarf didn't listen to a few words of the master's explanation. He skipped all the explanatory sentences and grasped the key points , Eldrin's work, one of the situations that Princess Isabella specifically requested to report. Hearing this, Blackgold did not dare to neglect it. With his hard and rough hands covered with calluses as thick and hard as the scales of monsters , he carefully tore open the wrapping paper and revealed the statue of the girl inside.

It was silent.

Gray Dwarf's eyes were fixed on the girl's portrait, his lips were opening and closing rapidly, and he was mumbling something to himself. The master was deeply shocked. He did not expect Blackgold to be able to see the charm of this painting , and was shocked by it. The master suddenly felt that he had some prejudice against Gray Dwarf before. Who said that this race did not understand art at all?

Blackgold suddenly let out a breath, rubbed his sore eyes, and said, "That's it?"

"Ah? Yes..." The master was a little confused.

"This picture hasn't been painted yet?"

"…"

The master struggled to control his heart, which was beating fast and slow, and after taking a long breath, he reluctantly replied, "This is a plain painting."

Gray Dwarf suddenly realized, and re-examined the girl's image, commenting: "Well, she hasn't fully grown yet, but her figure and appearance should be very average. I measured according to your human standards. If we follow the traditions of Stormhammer, hum... Ahaha! I saw it, that lunch box! That's the lunch box specially prepared for Eldrin! What perfect details and proportions, not even a single line can be found to be deviated, it's really Eldrin's style! Did you know that the Lordan mage who teaches magic circles has praised him three times this week. How many times has he praised him this year? Let me think, fifty or seventy... Anyway, it's a lot! You know, that old guy hasn't praised others so many times in the past ten years combined!"

The master couldn't really express his feelings, nor could he vent his anger at Blackgold , so he could only patiently guide him: "Look carefully, this painting captures the moment..."

Gray Dwarf looked at it carefully, and looked at it again and again... In the end, he still felt that the painting should be painted with some color.

When leaving Blackgold 's office, the master's heart was almost as gloomy as Eldrin's. The unprecedented frustration almost made him lose his confidence in art. He never understood why this master of jewelry, magic equipment and antiques knew nothing about painting, but every word he said was so unprofessional and had a profound impact on him.

Behind the master, the two bronze doors of Gray Dwarf's office slowly closed. The height of the doors was twice that of ordinary areas, which meant that the height of Gray Dwarf's office was also twice that of other offices. Therefore, these two simple and luxurious doors, which represented wealth and status, had always been the object of envy and hatred of many people in Deepblue . And why Gray Dwarf, who was only half the height of a tall human, would make his office so high? The reason was self-evident.

When the door closed, Gray Dwarf behind the door suddenly sneered and muttered to himself: "The boss's happiness is not so easy to obtain." In his cabinet, if the portrait of the girl was included, the things that wanted to make Isabella "happy" had filled up more than half of the cabinet, a total of sixty-seven things.

Gray Dwarf instinctively walked towards the gemstone ore, but then frowned, stopped, turned back to the desk, opened the girl's portrait again, and carefully examined it for more than ten minutes before closing it. After hesitating for a while, he put the portrait into another smaller cabinet. The small cabinet also contained events or reports that wanted to make Isabella "happy", but there were only five in total, and this painting was placed in the second position. Unlike the large cabinet, the reports in this cabinet will soon meet the Legendary Archmage . And the things in the large cabinet may be dumped out like the waste mine in a few months.

The whole summer seemed to pass in the blink of an eye for Eldrin. In one day, the Harvest Festival will arrive, which marks the beginning of autumn and the end of the fishing season in Floating Ice Bay. On this day, millions of people who make a living by the sea in Floating Ice Bay will hold a grand celebration to thank the sea god for the food they have received during the long and harsh winter. Deepblue in Floating Ice Bay also regards this day as a festival, marking the official start of autumn.

The Harvest Festival meant nothing to Eldrin. All his time was spent completing his heavy schoolwork, meditating to accumulate magic power, and practicing magic techniques. He had to fill his time, otherwise his thoughts would bubble up like bubbles, pressing here and floating there .

On the night of the harvest festival, Elaine arrived at Eldrin's residence on time and brought him dinner. The heavy lunch box was already very difficult for the girl to carry with her arms alone, but in the foreseeable future, the lunch box would continue to increase in weight. When Eldrin was busy cleaning the food, Elaine sat quietly by the side, watching silently. Now there is no transaction of a gold coin between the two of them, and they even rarely talk. Therefore, Elaine has not received a single gold coin from Eldrin during this period. Eating is now a complete torment for Eldrin. No matter how the girl hides her melancholy, she cannot hide it from him, but she refuses to reveal the reason. So Eldrin is in pain, but he can do nothing about the pain.

Eldrin swallowed the last piece of dessert with his tenacious will. Then he looked up at the girl for the first time and wanted to say thank you out of habit. However, the rows of numbers that appeared on the girl's body made him freeze on the spot! The girl's body had changed. In the digital vision, the originally subtle changes were infinitely magnified and presented in front of him very eye-catchingly.

Her movements were also unnatural, especially the occasional slight tremor and the constant movement of her waist. It was as if sitting on a chair covered with heavy brocade would make her feel stinging. The girl's eyes were slightly swollen and redder than usual, as if she had been crying hard not long ago. Today, the girl's magician robe was wrapped particularly tightly, but inadvertent movements, a bruise on her neck was exposed. Her heartbeat was also much faster than usual. Compared with Eldrin himself, his heartbeat would only be so fast when he had just experienced something very important.

All the signs put together immediately gave Eldrin an answer, an answer that he found completely unbelievable. When he was just eleven years old, Eldrin didn't understand that noble children were initiated at the age of seven or eight. But now he was eleven and a half years old, and Elaine had walked most of the way with him, so he already knew everything that was bound to happen between adult men and women.

"You... have a man?" Eldrin's voice was so dry and hoarse that he could hardly make it out.

Elaine's body trembled and her face turned pale. When the truth was revealed, she slowly calmed down, raised her hand to tidy up the messy hair on her cheek , and said, "Yes, it was last night."

Eldrin took a deep breath and closed his eyes, not letting the despairing numbers jump in front of his eyes. "Why?" His voice was as calm as Elaine's, but with a chilling coldness.

"I need money."

"I have a lot!" Since noticing the changes in Elaine, Eldrin has been like a bird that has just broken out of its shell, and has begun to look outside of his studies. Although he still has no friends to talk to, at least Eldrin has understood that he cannot measure other people in Deepblue by his own standards . Just taking consumption as an example, his monthly income is enough for dozens of people to live well in Deepblue .

Elaine's face turned pale. She looked at Eldrin deeply, shook her head, and said softly but firmly, "But I don't want to make money from you."

She packed up the lunch box as usual , and when she reached the door, she turned around and said, "I forgot to tell you that starting tomorrow, someone else will bring you food. So... goodbye, Eldrin."

The metal isolation door slowly closed. When the heavy crashing sound came, Eldrin seemed to have lost all his strength and leaned back in his chair. He grabbed his hair tightly, trying to believe that nothing had happened just now. However, not only the two enlightenment talents, but also all the characteristics cultivated in childhood reminded him of this cold and cruel fact. However, he could not understand why Elaine was unwilling to make money from him.

At this time, Eldrin still didn't understand that when people are young, they always have some inexplicable persistence and are moved by it, but they often inadvertently let the truly important things slip through their fingers.