Beneath the Red Dragon

Chapter 18: Chapter 17: Gold-eating Beast

”Flying southward from here, it takes a juvenile dragon thirteen or fourteen days of full-flight to cross this forest. Beyond the forest lies endless mountains and hills,

even a giant dragon needs to fly continuously for at least half a month to traverse these mountains. That place is favored by divine beings and is also the Land of Divine Promise for humans. Though the land is not as broad and flat as a prairie, the land between the mountains and hills holds far more fertility, thus nurturing many races.”

Carlette squatted on the platform at the highest peak of this mountain range, explaining to Karon what she knew from her knowledge and experiences.

Karon did not receive knowledge about the Transformation Skill during his sleep, so now every few days, after Carlette is well-rested, he seeks her guidance on the skill.

After learning the knowledge and application techniques of the Transformation Skill, he also requests Carlette to explain some knowledge about the world, for the world is constantly changing, and the legacy in his mind isn’t fully omniscient.

In consideration of the rare ores Red Dragon excavated using his Elemental Control master talent, Carlette reluctantly agreed to Red Dragon’s request.

But Carlette now no longer allows Red Dragon to enter her cave, because she has begun to feel a bit of threat from Red Dragon.

It’s hard to believe, but a young Blue Dragon would actually sense a threat from a juvenile dragon. Though not much, it is genuinely present. Carlette chooses to trust her instincts.

As Karon sits beside Carlette, he’s no longer that tiny fellow who could be knocked over by a puff of air. The talent of this Red Dragon might unexpectedly make him the most powerful giant dragon of this dragon group family.

With Carlette’s current mild relationship with Red Dragon, the Blue Dragon leader holds expectations that the dragon group she established will keep growing stronger, so as to avoid being scattered across the world like her birthplace, the Blue Dragon Clan.

Thinking of this, Carlette tilted her head to Karon, emphasizing: ”Little Karon, if you ever need to traverse that mountain range to reach human habitation, you can secretly pass through the route I came from. Do not fly directly over the mountains, for there are many hidden monsters in those mountains that even giant dragons cannot match.”

”I will be especially careful,” Karon nodded, then curiously asked, ”What kind of monsters are there, to make dragons so cautious?”

”Actually, I don’t know much. Though my birthplace, the Blue Dragon Clan, is just at the edge of the southern mountains, no giant dragons dare to easily cross the territorial boundaries to deeply explore the mountains, even though the Blue Dragon Clan has three adult giant dragons.”

Fear flashed in Carlette’s eyes, ”But one day, for some unknown reason, a mature Thorn-tailed Mountain Cat appeared within the Blue Dragon Clan’s territory. Maybe it had wandered from deep within the mountains, or traversed from a lower plane. This Thorn-tail effortlessly killed the Blue Dragon leader, then began hunting the remaining Great Dragons. I was lucky, scattered to escape with the giant dragons of the family, and I succeeded.”

Karon knew of these creatures—supernaturally spawned super hunters, resembling giant black three-headed mountain cats.

These creatures naturally become legendary creatures upon maturity. Though they cannot use magic, they are stronger and more perfect than giant dragons.

This creature possesses silent mobility, is skilled in hiding and lurking, and its unmatched agility always places it in the offensive forefront. Its strengths are numerous.

It can be said to be an all-around enhanced version of giant dragons besides flying and magic. The bodies dragons pride on are as fragile as paper before these creatures. The toxic prick at the end of a Thorn-tailed Mountain Cat’s tail can easily bring down a giant dragon.

If the legacy in a dragon’s mind were a piece of paper, the Thorn-tailed Mountain Cat as a species is marked with a thick red pen, highlighted in bold as ’high risk’.

”The nearest to the west of the Blue Dragon Clan’s territory is a nest of Hill Giants. It’s said many giants with dormant bloodlines are scattered throughout this mountain range, with Storm Giants near the sea to the east of the mountains, and powerful One-Eyed Giant Lords deep within the mountains. Moreover, Supreme Celestial Titan, a legendary celestial creature, is rumored to drift here, slumbering somewhere.” Carlette roughly shared what she knew.

”Hiss,” Karon took a deep breath, his recently inflated heart calming down quietly. No wonder Carlette seems disinterested in expanding the Dragon Group Territory, always sleeping in her cave; she must’ve been scared off. Now, she probably just wants to gather strength cautiously.

Karon also started to ponder whether his decision to journey to human lands to learn magic was too hasty. Maybe he needs to patiently wait until trader ships appear in the Gulf where the Ogre Tribe resides before making a decision.

Creak, creak, Karon lay on a low mound on the prairie.

He tossed a refined metal chunk into his mouth, the sharp, long tusks crushing the metal chunk. The tough metal under the dragon’s fearsome tusks felt like a delicious chocolate.

Red Dragon’s agile tongue licked the roof of his mouth. Hmm, the iron-rich flavor was slightly bitter, akin to pure dark chocolate.

From the pile of metal chunks before him, he picked out metals he wanted to taste; those high in silver content had a cooling flavor, like mint-flavored chocolate. Metals high in gold content had a particularly soft and smooth texture.

Consuming metal can promote the development of a dragon’s skin and scales, making the skin tougher and the scales firmer.

However, this requires prolonged and substantial consumption. This amount is merely a drop in the bucket for Red Dragon, Karon’s just tasting them out of greed.

Karon’s mastery of Metal and Earth Elemental talents allows him to perceive many things on the prairie that other giant dragons find hard to discover.

He just sensed while patrolling in the sky that many places in this grassland beneath him contained many minerals, with many black minerals covering the surface thickly, and some buried underground.

The places he sensed, if connected, evidently form a large open-pit mining area, and with the current perception of the Red Dragon, it’s difficult to probe the size of this mining area underground.

The surface and underground of this mining area have a thick layer of black minerals, but Karon also discovered traces of silver and copper ores in them. A closer inspection also revealed traces of lead and zinc ores, making this a treasure land.

Moreover, there’s a high probability that a gold mine lies buried under the earth, which can be identified from the associated minerals of the deposit.

In his excitement, Karon was thinking about whether to reluctantly accept those Bear Goblins and Green-skinned Rats in the forest as miners.

Just at this moment, the soil beneath the grass-covered ground near a mound in the distance began to move. A yellow shadow, wrapped in a gust of wind, darted out of the grass, brushing aside the wild grass to reveal a dark hole.

The yellow shadow was extremely fast, but the Red Dragon’s keen eyesight could still clearly capture all its movements.

This creature was about the size of a dog, its entire body covered in rough golden fur, with silver eyes and gold pupils in the center. The ends of its eight strong legs bore six-centimeter-long copper claws.

This was a Gold-eating Beast, a creature that likes to live in regions with rich reserves of golden ore veins, and uses gold as a supplementary food.

The appearance of the Gold-eating Beast confirmed Karon’s suspicion, but perhaps due to the particularly strong new-born blood, the greed from the bottom of his heart instantly occupied the Red Dragon’s mind.

This damn thing dared to steal my gold mine. Spreading its thirteen-meter-wide broad wings, casting a shadow, the Great Dragon roared up and lunged at the Gold-eating Beast.

The Gold-eating Beast running ahead felt the aura of the Great Dragon, terrified to the core. Having just escaped from the attack of those wicked Kobolds underground, it found itself inexplicably under the assault of a Great Dragon. With low intelligence, the Gold-eating Beast did not explore the reasons, it just moved its eight legs even faster.

But it hadn’t run far when what was once a normal grassland suddenly became strange. The flat plain under its eight long legs suddenly sank, and a dirt pit appeared out of nowhere, causing the unsuspecting Gold-eating Beast to fall right in.

With its powerful eight legs, it tried to step on the bottom of the pit to jump out, only to find itself unable to exert force. Each time it tried to push off, the soil beneath gave way, causing its eight legs to flounder in the muddy pit.

Karon landed on the ground and extended his head to stare at the Gold-eating Beast that played dead in the pit upon his arrival. The creature’s fur was very valuable; the completely stripped fur could be made into an extremely strong and beautiful leather coat by merchants.

This leather coat not only offers strong physical defense but can also resist ordinary flames and to some extent, magical flames, thus it is very valuable, estimated to be worth about fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Gold Coins.

The body of the Gold-eating Beast can also be smelted; a creature of this size with incredibly dense body tissues can yield roughly a hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds of high-purity gold after smelting.

It can be said that this creature is made of Gold Coins, and this is basic knowledge inherited in the mind of the Red Dragon along with an instinctive appraisal intuition.

A living Gold-eating Beast is of even higher value. If tamed, it could be used to sniff out ore veins and further tap into its abilities.

However, the Gold-eating Beast’s intelligence is equivalent to that of a low-intelligence beast, unable to communicate, and Karon didn’t know how to tame a Gold-eating Beast, so he was hesitating.

From the entrance of the burrow the Gold-eating Beast emerged from, two heads quietly poked out. Beneath crocodile-like heads were lizard-like bodies, and in their lizard-like claws were bone-like magical artifacts, clearly indicating their identity as Kobold Sorcerers.

The two Kobold Sorcerers were whispering: ”What should we do, that Gold-eating Beast was caught by a True Dragon, and it’s a fierce and greedy Red Dragon. If we go out to bargain, we might be burned to death, there’s no way we can get that beast back.”

The slightly larger Kobold Sorcerer shook his head and scolded: ”You’re truly an idiot. We just need to align ourselves with this powerful True Dragon, serve him, and then request the great True Dragon to grant us that beast so we can better serve him. Wouldn’t that easily bring the beast back to us?”

”You’re so smart,” the smaller Kobold beamed, ”Then why don’t we simply align ourselves with that seemingly stronger Blue Dragon from before, it should be close to a Juvenile Dragon.”

”You’re such an idiot,” the other Kobold glared at his companion. ”That Blue Dragon is too ugly. Look at how beautiful the scales of this Red Dragon are, how majestic its body is, how dignified its head is. We Kobolds should serve such a great True Dragon; besides, a grown Red Dragon will be stronger than a Blue Dragon.”

”You have a point.”

The two Kobolds retreated into the burrow, their voices fading away.

”We must hurry back and inform the chief before that precious beast is eaten as a snack by the great True Dragon.”