# Chapter 2: Welcome to My World
As Joshua's unique pressure radiated outward, almost all Gold-rank and above professionals in the Moldavia Territory became aware of this fact.
"He wasn't gone long this time."
"The Lord returned quite quickly."
"Hasn't even been a month yet, right?"
Similar murmurs echoed throughout every corner of the territory. After briefly remarking that the warrior's expedition this time hadn't lasted long, everyone went back to their respective work. After all, for Moldavia, the Lord going out was hardly news—rather, the day Joshua actually stayed in the territory for several days without leaving would be the real news.
As for the center of the topic, Joshua and the others located above the Great Aias Volcano were rapidly retracting their pressure.
Releasing all their power had been a necessary measure. Having returned from the void, everyone needed to remain vigilant at all times, paying attention to the movements of spatial ripples and traces of possible temporal storms. They even had to resist the immense pressure from the void itself, so no one dared to relax.
But since they had already returned to the Mycroft Continent, there was no need to be so conspicuous. A few seconds later, everyone had concealed their aura, which immediately made things much more comfortable for Lisa, who had been struggling to breathe from the very beginning.
"This trip was incredibly fruitful, my friend!"
"I have never been so fortunate in my entire life. Baniel, who would believe what we've gained this time?"
At this moment, the two legendary mages, having returned to their homeland, immediately began praising each other. They laughed, looking thoroughly satisfied. This was not surprising. After their journey to the Chronos World, both Baniel and William had not only witnessed the true form of the ancient dragon they had longed to see but had also obtained first-hand research data about it. As long as they catalogued these discoveries in detail and wrote them into books, the two mages were destined to be remembered in history.
The silver ancient dragon, called the Dragon God by the dragonmen of the Chronos World, the God of Sky and Thunder. According to William's conversation with the ancient dragon, he even learned that in other worlds, the ancient dragon was also called the 'Ancestor Dragon.' However, following the naming conventions of the Mycroft Continent, these were merely honorific titles. The true, formal name to be entered into the Dragon Encyclopedia would be 'Erettomagnik,' the Master of Magnetoelectricity, the Dragon of Thunderstorms, as named by the two of them.
"Aside from information about the ancient dragon, our gains are still substantial. First, we discovered several civilizations surrounding the Mycroft World, as well as a void behemoth, Leviathan, that previously existed only in the observation lenses of the observatory."
William was summarizing other aspects. He nodded, casually waving his hand to pull up a light screen, and looked at its contents as he spoke softly: "Most importantly, we witnessed and obtained first-hand data on the ancient dragon's creative power." At this point, both legendary mages turned their heads simultaneously to look at Joshua. Then William continued: "Although this might be a bit too early for us, as research deepens, it is not impossible for us humans to master this power."
Undoubtedly, the authority of the Soulflame within Joshua gave the two legendary mages immense confidence. As long as they possessed both powers simultaneously, humanity would gain the ability to transform from the root and create living worlds.
*These two fellows are actually saying this for my benefit, aren't they?*
Joshua listened, roughly understanding what the two legendary mages meant. Since this information would be written into their works and submitted to the entire mage community, they had written a portion first to inform him. If the warrior found anything wrong, he could raise it, and they would revise it.
But Joshua didn't feel there was anything that needed changing, so he tacitly accepted it.
Seeing that Joshua showed no dissatisfaction, both Baniel and William breathed a sigh of relief. After all, as one of the key parties involved in the Chronos incident, the warrior's attitude was very important. Since he had no issues, everything was fine.
"Joshua, although it's a bit rushed, William and I need to return to the Sky-Piercing White Tower immediately... since we're currently affiliated there, we still need to report in name."
Baniel stood in midair above the Great Aias Mountains, watching as Joshua led the dragon girl away slowly, and said: "We'll take our leave now. Let's meet again next time!"
"It was a very pleasant journey. Farewell."
Knowing there would be plenty of time to meet again, Joshua didn't turn back but waved his hand behind him at the two legendary mages. However, he then felt something flying toward his hand accompanied by magical fluctuations. Joshua caught it casually, looked at it, and found it to be a peculiar half-liquid, half-gas substance resembling thundercloud magnetic mist.
"Ancient dragon blood..."
Just as Joshua murmured to himself, accompanied by another intense spatial fluctuation, the Observer and the two legendary mages disappeared from above the Great Aias Mountains, heading to an unknown distant location.
Holding the ancient dragon blood, the warrior felt the terrifying activity contained within the living blood in his hand and couldn't help but frown: "Such powerful force—can Faina withstand it? Well, never mind. Hill and the others should have made corresponding preparations. At the very least, it should be more than enough."
Undoubtedly, what Joshua held in his hand was the blood of the Chronos ancient dragon. And this was not ordinary blood, but the most primal energy essence. Joshua believed that if he shattered the white crystal bottle in his hand and let this cloud of mist spread out, all the magical beasts and humans in the entire Great Aias Mountains would undergo a certain degree of bloodline mutation, becoming ancient dragon vassals similar to dragonmen.
Back in the early days of creation, the ancient dragons had used this method to influence the newborn primitive life, causing them to evolve rapidly.
While Joshua was marveling at the preciousness of the blood in his hand, the dragon girl Lisa was curiously looking down from high above at this unfamiliar and vast world. Syndicate, who had just awakened, also used her perspective to observe this sovereign's homeland.
"My god, it's so magnificent..."
Although everyone was currently above the volcano of the Great Aias Mountains, they could clearly see the dense figures of people in the mountain forests... Over the past few years, countless survey teams had detected mineral deposits, and mining sites had begun to be fully established for development. Supporting facilities and villages had also been built atop the former survey camps. These people, whether drawn by mineral wealth or the unique magical beast resources of the forest, were establishing new settlements on this land their ancestors had never conquered.
Thanks to the outstanding performance of the mana armor, their reclamation process was ten thousand times easier than that of their ancestors.
"Interested, Lisa?"
Noticing the agitation in the young girl beside him, Joshua patted her shoulder. He too looked at the busy crowds and said with a light laugh: "Mana armor—although this thing became useless for me long ago, for ordinary people, it's truly a qualitative change."
"No need to worry about magical beasts or dangerous environments. Increased stamina, faster transportation, and various small improvements. In short, as long as a team has more than ten sets of mana armor, construction speed can increase tenfold."
"Now this stuff sells overseas. The research institute is working on fully enclosed mana armor, so even completely unknown other worlds can be explored. Speaking of which, although I don't need it, if it were you, mana armor might actually be surprisingly suitable."
As he spoke, Joshua couldn't help but look at Lisa and ponder. This young girl, fused with his saint, possessed pure ancient dragon bloodline, giving her naturally superior physical qualities, reaction speed, and energy sensing abilities. She could also manipulate magnetic fields and electric currents, providing a considerable boost to mana armor. If mana armor was merely additive power for ordinary people, for Lisa, it might be multiplicative!
Although he had a rough plan in mind, Joshua didn't say it directly. This was one of the advancement paths he envisioned for Lisa, but her own path needed to be walked by herself. At most, Joshua would gradually present these choices to her later, letting Lisa decide how to move forward.
As for the rapid development of mana armor, it had actually exceeded Joshua's expectations somewhat—at least he hadn't expected the Northern Empire and the Church of the Seven Gods to value this technology so highly, even sparing no expense for large-scale investment, with many other countries and forces also willing to contribute money and effort.
This was more or less the influence of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground's appearance. Because they could see the possibilities existing in the distance, major powers were unwilling to hold back. And because they knew of the vast heavens and earth within these possibilities, various conflicts on the continent gradually subsided. After all, rather than fighting a bloody battle against a familiar opponent whose strength was known, which would inevitably result in losses, why not try their luck in the multiverse and see if they could encounter an uninhabited other world to develop?
"There are so many more people here than in the village. What's that word? Pros...per...ous? Oof!"
Beside Joshua, Lisa looked at the settlements and mining sites in the mountains and spoke with some emotion. At the end, she even bit her tongue due to unfamiliarity with the newly learned Mycroft common language. But before Joshua could explain, the flame demon inside her spoke somewhat awkwardly: "Alright, Lisa, this is just the outskirts. Saying prosperous or not now is really..."
Compared to Lisa, who didn't understand true civilized worlds, although Syndicate had never been to other living worlds, it had seen demon civilizations and cities. So it knew that this bustling forest was merely a corner of this world. Humanity's true strength was far more than this.
And these armors... Syndicate looked at the mana armor, lost in thought. It knew that the reason demon invasions were almost always unstoppable was because they were an entire nation of warriors, crushing most races in basic qualities. Perhaps some civilizations' armies could contend with them, but civilians absolutely could not. Under the demon's scorched earth strategy, few armies could continue after most of their civilians were killed or wounded, and scattered armies were no different from civilians.
The qualities of Mycroft people could only be considered above average, but due to their living environment, they still couldn't compare to demons. However, this armor greatly enhanced ordinary humans' ability to resist. If one day in the future, every human household had such a set of armor, demon invasions might encounter unexpectedly strong resistance.
No, that's not right. With this thing, if it truly became widespread, where would demons even have the chance to invade? These monsters would surely have gone to invade other worlds long ago!
Thinking halfway, Syndicate suddenly shuddered mentally. It immediately understood this point and turned its spiritual perspective toward Joshua with reverence. Noticing the demon's spirit, Joshua smiled slightly and said: "Syndicate, I'll find a way to deal with your body. After all, you're only fused with Lisa, not completely without a body. There's no need to create from nothing, so this isn't very difficult."
"It's just possible that after your rebirth, you won't be a demon anymore."
*Who would want to be a demon anyway!*
Hearing Joshua's words, Syndicate almost controlled Lisa's body to kowtow to the warrior. Was there really anyone in this world who wanted to be a demon, who truly wanted to become an abyss world? Setting aside everything else, from the Abyss Lord Goliath of the Sixth Abyss, the Molten Sea Fire Prison, downward—which demon wanted to continue this kind of life? The reason they desperately invaded outward and coveted ancient dragon power was precisely to return to being a normal race, to return to being a normal world!
"Alright, Lisa, get ready. Now, I'll take you to see what a city really is."
Joshua shrugged. Then, he once again took the dragon girl's hand and flew through the air with her.
The warrior's flight speed was very fast, but for Lisa, who had practiced current propulsion and had vaguely advanced to a higher realm, it wasn't unacceptable. The young girl curiously looked down from midair, watching mining sites, collection points, and settlement villages pass by one after another. The figures of powerful magical beasts in the Great Aias Mountains didn't escape her notice either, causing the dragon girl to exclaim: "These magical beasts are so strong!"
But soon, something even more shocking appeared before her.
To the south of the Great Aias Mountains, at the edge of the horizon, a ring of silver-white light faintly appeared.
It was dusk. The sun was gradually setting, and darkness was beginning to invade the world from one side of the horizon. But before the starlight could illuminate the sky, a patch of silver-white radiance appeared at the other end of the horizon.
That was lamplight—the light of glowstone lamps. The glow of magic power was flickering. This was the light representing civilization.
"Lisa."
Gazing at the enormous city complex in the distance, which was almost completely finished, Joshua couldn't help but smile slightly. He turned to look at the dumbfounded dragon girl and demon, who hardly knew what to say, and spoke in a rather proud tone: "Welcome to the Mycroft World."
"Welcome to Moldavia."
But what Joshua didn't expect was that in the Lord's Mansion, someone completely beyond his expectations was waiting for his arrival.