harleyscars Page 46
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"But you, who are so terrified of the dragon's servants, are so confident you can kill it?"
"What do you know, you little brat? These dragon vein goblins, and those half-dragon kobolds who command them, are all much stronger than that young dragon. They would never willingly become the young dragon's servants."
If I'm not mistaken, these should be servants of Julius, the adult red dragon who originally ruled the grasslands, while the young dragons are Julius's descendants. Julius died suddenly for some unknown reason, and the original master-servant contract between these dragon-blooded creatures was inherited by the young dragons, forcing them to obey them.
Once we kill the baby dragons, the contracts binding them will break, and they'll be free. They'll be thanking us then, hehe.
Casalos opened his mouth, but said nothing more, and turned to continue leading them up the mountain with a limp.
37. Suspicion
It took more than five days to reach the foot of the mountain, and another four days to climb up to the snow line. A week in Ferenc passed just like that.
They encountered many dangers along the way. Several times, Casalos had just pulled the somewhat dazed Tifflin into the ravine when the goblin team climbed up from behind the rocks and slipped away to another place... Thanks to Casalos's efforts, this adventurous team, who were dreaming of a better future, never ran into the dragon vein goblin patrol head-on, and the group gradually gave Casalos enough trust.
To prevent Casaloz's seemingly limping movements from delaying the journey, Kenneth had Karina, the "strongest" ranger in the group, carry it as a pendant on the final stretch to the summit.
Watching the human girl carry him up the snowy cliffs like an antelope, Casalos grumbled, wondering where the supernatural ability to switch to Iron Dragon form had hidden the mass. He thought that since she was carrying him up the mountain, he could make these guys suffer less later. The entrance to the dragon's lair was already in sight.
"That's the entrance to its lair..."
“Hey kid, the cliffs on three sides are all sloping outwards, we can’t fly.” With their target right in front of them, Kenneth excitedly interrupted Casalos.
“To be precise, that’s the entrance reserved for dragons, and also their terrace for looking out over their territory. Of course, we can’t go in from there.” Casalos spread his hands, which had been wrapped around the human girl’s neck. “The terrain inside the dragon’s nest is incredibly complex, almost like a maze. Besides where the dragons live, there are also the dwellings of their servants. They can’t fly, so of course there are passages from the ground to get inside.”
"Tell me how to get there!"
"Couldn't you wait until I finished speaking?" Casalos rolled his eyes. "Those ground passages are also problematic. There are always dragon vein goblins guarding the entrances. I observed them from a distance for a while and found that there were no shift changes. There are probably other hidden sentries and traps inside. We can't get through..."
"Are you kidding me?" Kenneth grew increasingly agitated, but Casalos simply watched him calmly, waiting for him to shut his mouth in frustration before continuing, "After exploring the summit for a long time, I finally discovered a passage without any high goblins guarding it or any traps, allowing me to successfully infiltrate the dragon's lair. And incredibly, this passage doesn't even pass through the dangerous servant area, leading directly to the dragon's dwelling. The problem is..."
"What exactly is the problem?"
“The problem is, that passage is very narrow. I can squeeze in, and you probably can too, Stephanie probably can as well, but they might get stuck.” Casalos’s gaze fell on the priest’s rather large chest, then glanced at the agile ranger beneath him. He thought to himself, “I should have had the kobolds widen that crack a little more.”
"Ha, that's alright, just you and I will go in. We can let them stay outside and keep an eye on the movements of those dragon vein goblins and half-dragon kobolds."
Kenneth suddenly smiled with relief and proposed a bizarre plan to split up. The three girls nodded in agreement, which made Casalos suspicious: "It's one thing for the four of you to be confident in taking down an ordinary young red dragon, but now even you, a level 6 bard, are so sure of victory. And you don't seem to think there's anything wrong with yourselves? Something seems off. Is there some information we've overlooked?"
Now that things had come to this, Casalos no longer had the time or interest to continue playing role-playing and digging into Kenneth's secrets. He could only use his mental network to have the dogs raise their alert level and wait for his signal. He then dismounted from the girl's back, and with Kenneth, sneaked around to a protruding stone platform. He leaned out and jumped down to a crooked spot, then turned sideways with his back against the almost vertical cliff, and moved about ten meters along a stone platform that was only a foot wide, before disappearing into a crevice.
"Damn it, kid, how did you find such a hidden passage?" Kenneth followed him in and also became suspicious. This kind of path really didn't seem like something a child with a congenital disability could discover.
Casalos, of course, couldn't claim that it found the place by flying, and it was too lazy to make any more excuses. It simply asked Kenneth, "Are you coming or not?" before disappearing into the dark, winding crevice.
Kenneth turned his head and spat on the ground, cursing under his breath as he watched what tricks Kenneth could pull. He took off his lute from his back, cast a few buffs on himself, and then chased after Kenneth inside.
Outside, three girls of different races, hiding in a crevice, suddenly found themselves surrounded by two winged kobolds and several dragon-scaled goblins. Under the overwhelming power, they were captured without any chance to resist, and didn't even have time to send a signal.
Kenneth quickly caught up with Casalos, whose human form was immobile, and then followed closely behind, stumbling and struggling along the narrow passage. The natural passage formed by the rock fissures was not long; after only a few tens of minutes, the light of magical flames shone through the air ahead.
Stopping just before the view opened up, Casalos stopped Kenneth from rushing out. He pretended to observe the stone wall from all sides for a long time before saying, "We're lucky. The red dragon isn't in its lair right now. We can go in. I suggest we set a trap first, then find a place to hide and wait for the red dragon to return so we can catch it all in one fell swoop..."
"No need, kid. I'll wait for it to come back here openly and honestly."
Kenneth stepped over Casaloz, peeked out and looked around to confirm that the red dragon was not in the lair, then leaped down and jumped into the dragon's lair hall.
So brave? Casalos's doubts deepened. He climbed up and followed Kenneth inside, standing behind him and watching him slowly back away with a strange expression. It needed a little space to transform into a red dragon. He wondered what kind of surprised expression Kenneth would have when he discovered that the red dragon he considered prey was actually the disabled boy who had led him there.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" A sudden voice interrupted everything. A girl dressed in strange clothes walked into the hall. She put down the book she was holding and looked at Kenneth and Casalos with a puzzled expression. She said, "Whatever you want to do, you'd better leave quickly. This place is very dangerous."
This little girl
Chapter 122
How did they get out now? Casalos bared his teeth. The human who could move freely in the dragon's nest was, of course, his apprentice Isis.
"Hmm? Beautiful young lady, are you the princess who was kidnapped by the dragon and taken to its lair? Don't worry, you're safe now. I will rescue you from the dragon's clutches!"
Kenneth, however, made a new bold statement.
38. Communication Studies
Casalos abandoned its plan to revert to its red dragon form. It wanted to see what the halfling bard was up to, and also to indirectly assess the progress of Isis's "loyalty" cultivation during this period.
Isis wore gold-rimmed glasses without lenses, a well-tailored suit skirt, ultra-thin black nylon stockings over her thighs, and a pair of strappy crystal high heels—this outfit was not from the Forgotten Realms, but rather something Casalos had come up with out of boredom.
Besides office lady outfits, Casalos had actually made all sorts of other things like white stockings, sailor uniforms, fishnet stockings, and denim hot pants, fantasizing about opening up the market in Faerûn and making a fortune in gold coins someday. However, the only "model" available in the entire Dragon Territory right now was Isis, and this girl was quite fond of the office lady look.
Such an exotic outfit elevated the already beautiful young woman's "charm" several notches. Coupled with her unique appearance—dark skin, white hair, and red eyes—she immediately caught the eye of Kenneth, the lecherous halfling. He temporarily forgot the fact that he was in a dangerous dragon's lair and ran over to circle around Isis, playing background music on his lute while boasting about his achievements, intending to stage a hero-saves-the-damsel-in-distress scene.
After hearing the poem praising himself, Casalos realized that the three girls had been rescued by him from different perilous situations, which explained their obedience to him.
Half-elf priestess Quintina encountered a demon while helping villagers exorcise evil spirits and was nearly dragged into an abyss, but Kenneth, who happened to be passing by, drove the demon away in time and saved her; human ranger Karina was attacked by an invincible ferocious beast while patrolling the forest, but Kenneth, who was with Quintina, arrived in time and drove away the ferocious beast, allowing her to escape its claws; Stephanie's village in Tifflindruid was besieged by the Zantalin Order, and it was Kenneth, his two companions, who repelled the villains and saved her village...
Why does it seem like this guy always runs into beautiful girls in distress wherever he goes? Now, even entering a dragon's nest, he bumps into Isis, who almost never hangs around the hall. This guy's constitution is just too bizarre, Casalos couldn't help but complain.
Unfortunately, Isis was different from the girls Kenneth had met before. Having been taught by Casaloz for a period of time, she was no longer a country girl and didn't buy into the bard's self-aggrandizing nonsense.
"Enough! I don't know what your purpose is in coming here, but it's definitely not for me. I'm not some princess kidnapped by a dragon and taken to its lair, and the master of this place isn't the dragon you imagine. Telling you to leave is the greatest kindness I can show you. If you don't leave, I'll call for help!"
Isis's brow furrowed slightly behind her gold-rimmed glasses as she abruptly interrupted Kenneth's endless self-aggrandizement that accompanied the music, causing the bard to momentarily freeze in his thoughts. He asked, somewhat dazed:
"What? You weren't kidnapped? Then how did you get here?"
"I'm studying here."
"Studying, Dragon's Nest?"
"What's so strange about that? You must have come down from the mountain. Haven't you heard along the way that many young people from the tribes at the foot of the snow mountain are studying on the mountain?"
"..." Kenneth hesitated for a moment, then continued, "I've only heard that the evil dragon has abducted many young men and women from the tribes at the foot of the snow mountain..."
"Heh, that's just what's being said among the tribes around Desera, isn't it? You're a bard, a messenger of news on the continent of Faerûn, don't you understand that a thing can take on a different meaning just by being passed around by word of mouth?"
The snow-capped mountain is about 300km away from Desala. How many people have passed through your mouths to spread the information you found out? How credible is it?
You came all the way from Desala, didn't you even bother to ask the tribes at the foot of the snow-capped mountains about the actual situation?"
"..." The halfling opened his mouth, wanting to refute something, but couldn't utter a word. He understood this all too well. However, after briefly gathering his thoughts, he explained, "The tribes below the snow mountain are all guarded and monitored by dragon vein goblins. Why would I go looking for trouble? No matter what, the red dragon is still an evil dragon, and an evil dragon would never have any goodwill towards you. It must be deceiving you, secretly plotting some scheme. Trust me, let me take you away from here, away from the threat of the evil dragon."
“I think this is entirely your prejudice?” Isis walked up to Kenneth, looked down at the halfling, held a book to her chest with one hand, and pointed to the huge skeleton in the center of the hall that reflected a slight metallic luster, with crazy fire elemental power surging on it like waves.
"The people of the grasslands know better than you what a true dragon is. We have lived in the shadow of its evil wings for decades, and now it is there, nothing but a pile of bones. Its head is being carried around among the tribes at the foot of the mountain. It is a dragon, and its name is Julius."
The dragon that now rules over the tribes at the foot of the snow-capped mountains has dispatched its servants to each tribe, providing them with protection. It has brought up the mountain to strictly guard the monsters that plague the grasslands—kobolds, goblins, ogres, and various ferocious beasts—preventing them from harming the grasslands any longer. It has also brought the able-bodied young men of each tribe to the mountain, teaching them everything from life and animal husbandry to survival and combat, from continental languages to general knowledge. Would you call it an evil dragon?
Am I that good? Hearing Isis's words, Casalos, who was standing in the back watching the show, began to doubt himself: everything he did was for himself and for the future development of the Dragon Territory, so how come it seemed to be a different story in Isis's eyes?
“No, that’s not right!” Kenneth, who was convinced that the “red dragon” was an evil dragon, felt even more that there was something wrong with Isis’s statement: “This is all an illusion. You have been deceived. This evil dragon is different from others!”
I understand now. I know what it's trying to do. It's managing its territory, training its own evil army, and using you to strengthen itself. If this continues, it won't be long before its evil army flattens the entire grassland, even crosses the Gulf of Gaslandes, and conquers the whole of Tindor.
Damn it, by Asgrass, this red dragon is behaving just like the blue and green dragons! Something's not right. What went wrong?
Hmm, a low-level halfling bard actually knows so much about dragons, exclaiming the name of the god Asgras in surprise?
Casalos narrowed his eyes and commanded his dragon servants to enter a red alert state via the telepathic network, surrounding the entire Dragon Nest Hall.
39. Confrontation
Asgras did not spread his faith on the continent of Faerûn; only the true dragons who considered themselves his children could recite his name.
The bard Kenneth is a dragon who has turned into a half-human!
Although the story of dragon transformation is widely known, among all the true dragon races in Faerûn, only seven and a half dragons actually possess the ability to shapeshift without relying on advanced magical power or psychic abilities. Apart from the Obsidian Dragons, which were excommunicated from the Gem Dragon class, the remaining six, including the Iron Dragon itself, are all metallic dragon subspecies.
A level 6 bard doesn't possess the magical power to transform into a dragon, and transformations performed through high-level magic or psychic abilities have their own unique fluctuation characteristics, making them detectable by various detection spells, unlike these golden...
Chapter 123
The dragon subspecies possesses innate supernatural abilities that make them completely immune to detection-type spells.
Throughout Casaloz's journey up the mountain with his team, the unnamed prophetic dragon vein sorcerer conducted multiple rounds of magical probing on the four, but found nothing unusual... In other words, Kenneth, who was facing away from Casaloz and vehemently slandering its lord's actions to Isis, was most likely a metal dragon.
A golden dragon? Or a silver dragon? Or perhaps a bronze dragon?
Casalos was unaware of the situation; it only felt that things were becoming somewhat thorny—if it were just an ordinary bard, dying here wouldn't be a big deal. Countless reckless adventurers died every day on the continent of Faerûn, and no one would care about the disappearance of a mere bard.
But metal dragons are different.
Almost all the metal dragons capable of transformation belong to the Order faction, and most of them come with families. In addition, it is unknown why the Nine-Headed Dragon God Aio endowed several metal dragons with such special powers, but those metal dragons that can transform into humanoid beings innately, except for the Iron Dragons, generally have close dragon-human relationships with the mainstream civilization members of Faerûn, that is, the various humanoid races.
Whether it's a golden dragon or a silver dragon, it's perfectly normal for them to have a large number of brothers, sisters, relatives, and friends within humanoid species and their own groups.
In other words, when trouble arises, they are actually quite adept at calling for backup—calling for backup isn't a silver dragon's specialty, it's just that silver dragons like to do it, while other metal dragons tend to be a bit arrogant. Even though arrogance might cost them opportunities, this trait of "being good at calling for backup" also means that if a dragon mysteriously dies somewhere, their well-established dragon-to-human relationship network will search for their whereabouts, uncover the truth, and even seek revenge for them…
Taking advantage of Kenneth and Isis's idle chatter, Casalos ordered all non-combat units near the dragon's lair to evacuate. He commanded the dragon vein sorcerers to quickly set up magic arrays around the lair to disrupt teleportation and interfere with prophecy, thus blocking information from within the lair. He then ordered a squad of dragon vein goblins to escort the three girls into a room behind the hall to await orders. The remaining dragon vein goblin warriors changed into heavy armor specifically for fighting dragons and formed ranks to surround the hall from various hidden passages.
Casalos had finished all the preparations, but Kenneth was still trying to persuade Isis.
"You must believe me, I never lie..."
"Yes, yes, I never lie, but I only tell half the truth, right?" Casaroz muttered to himself as he instructed the Dragon Vein Sorcerer to silence him, silently transforming into the form of a red dragon. At the same time, he made a wing gesture, signaling to Isis, who was facing him in surprise, not to alert Kenneth.
However, the girl was a little slow to react, and Kenneth still noticed something. It's just that this guy seems to have a bit of a problem after seeing a woman.
“Oh, right, I have evidence. The new master of the lair, that young red dragon, was definitely evil. Yes, you see him, the boy behind me? His entire family was reduced to ashes by the red dragon's breath!”
"Yes...it is true, my whole family was killed by the red dragon, and I'm not lying."
The tone was largely the same, and the language spoken was Tindor, but the words spoken by the dragon sounded like the roar of a steam whistle in the cave, finally making Kenneth realize that things seemed to have gone against his plans.
He turned around abruptly to look at Casalos, his eyes widening in surprise. The young red dragon had already left the ground, its wings flapping backward to propel its body toward him.
"#%..." The short, half-human muttered something unintelligible before disappearing in a flash of light.
Casalos nearly slipped on a slick of oil that appeared out of nowhere.
It braced itself on all six limbs in the oil slick, blocking Isis from leaving, and then turned to look at its own balcony.
There, a metallic dragon, its skull structure somewhat resembling that of a Triceratops, its body covered in bright golden scales, its form as agile as a tabby cat, and its size larger than itself, stood there, its back arched, its tail raised, its back arched high, watching it warily, its parrot-like beak slightly open, emitting a low, threatening hiss:
"I'm always the one who disguises myself and then suddenly transforms back into a dragon to scare people. I never expected to be startled by you this time, you little red dragon... Damn it, how can you transform!"
The lute floated to the right of Kenneth's head, an invisible force plucking the strings and releasing mysterious melodies that enhanced its various states.
“I shouldn’t have spoken to alert you… Bronze Dragon? Strange, how come a bard could appear among your group of socially anxious people?”
Kenneth wasn't in a hurry, and Casalos, with his home-field advantage, was even less so. The longer the fight dragged on, the more thoroughly the dragon servants could prepare. If they could hold out until the dragon vein sorcerers set up their anti-magic arrays, the powerful magical advantage of the seemingly adult bronze dragon bard would be completely negated, leaving the relatively weaker creature no choice but to be beaten down by Casalos.
"Something's not right... What are you? How can you be so strong? How can a red dragon cub have so many immune abilities? How can you have such a high identification level and be a mage? And what is that flame shining through your scales?"
A magical aura shimmered in the bronze dragon's emerald eyes, instantly recognizing the abilities Casalos retained even after transforming into a red dragon. It shrank back slightly, continuing its conversation: "Hey kid, I haven't treated you badly along the way, have I? We may have had some disagreements on our sides, but we've never really had any real conflict, have we?"
"How about I leave first, and we pretend I never came to Tindor? What do you think?"
"What about your three female companions? Did you abandon them?"
"You arrested them?"
The bronze eyes flickered. As long as it hadn't fallen, no matter how glib it usually was, it would never abandon its companions and run away alone.
40. That Wretched Magic (Picture)
"What do you want me to do to let them go?"
Perhaps realizing that Casaloz's strength far exceeded expectations, Kenneth still did not give up on resolving the issue through negotiation, even now. This was a perfectly normal strategy for the metal dragons before they were corrupted by the arcane plague. Even the neutral iron dragons did not like to start fighting right away.
"You talk too much nonsense, you're nothing like a bronze dragon." Casalos clicked his beak, leaped up and pounced again, shouting, "You're the ones who came looking for me, beat me first before you talk!"
Magical light surged in the bronze dragon's emerald eyes, and the melody played by the lute floating beside its head suddenly changed, creating a tide of magic that converged on the bronze dragon.
Immediately afterwards, the music changed again, and a song that sounded like a deep dragon chant came out. Casalos, who was leaping into the air, felt the dragon magic flowing in his veins stagnate, as if it had been stuffed with syrup and become viscous, making it difficult to flow into his lungs and form breath.
Kenneth didn't make any further moves. A cloud of mist enveloped the entire hall, and the bronze dragon's golden figure with mottled green spots became hazy and indistinct, as if it had split into two, twisting and running off in two different directions.
Casalos, unsurprisingly, missed its target. It turned back to confirm that Isis had left the hall, then let out a loud cry, stood upright, spread its wings, and spun around, creating a storm. With pure power, it dispersed the clouds created by the bronze dragon's magical abilities, revealing its form once again.
"phantom?"
Flames flickered in Casalos's indigo pupils, unaffected by the illusion created by the bronze dragon. Kenneth's illusion raced towards the balcony, while his real body rushed towards the three women guarded by the goblin—he had somehow pinpointed their exact location.
Chapter 124
Casalos lunged forward again at the real Kenneth, forcing him back to the center of the hall.
When it landed on the ground, its eyes were bloodshot and turned blood red. A layer of extremely faint yet substantial red light lingered around its bright red scales. Drops of dragon blood seeped out from the gaps in the scales and then evaporated, adding an even more striking visual effect to the red light.
"Bloodscale Rampage! Where did this mad red dragon cub come from?"
Kenneth recognized Casalos's condition. While dodging Casalos's next three-hit melee attack with dance-like steps, it sang and cursed, splashing large amounts of oil out of thin air, covering the entire hall.