Fate Online: Shadow

Chapter 496: Dragon Valley Again

"Wow! Hundreds of thousands?! I..I can only count twenty"

Mara exclaimed in amazement as the siblings listened to Solitary Tempest recount her experience, the latter even tried to count the numbers using her fingers only to end up dejected since her fingers and toes aren't enough to count past twenty.

"Many hands and feet," Ant muttered, knowing that he'll need many of them if he wants to count to hundreds of thousands.

"Hahaha, your hands and feet won't be enough to count that many" Looking at them trying to count that many using their feet and hands, Solitary Tempest laughed and ruffled their heads.

Kids mood swings are really superb as the two immediately brightened up and Mara looked up to Solitary Tempest, "But did you see any dragon over there big sister?! I heard from them that they are really scary, big, and super strong!"

'Yeah, there's two currently standing before me' Solitary Tempest thought as she truly wondered why their mother never told them who they truly are.

It was truly something that anyone would be curious about, they even wondered if the two kids were actually adopted and not her offspring since they never showed any traits of that of a dragon.

Looking at those puppy eyes directed at her, Solitary Tempest let out a sigh, "Well, there were a few Undead Dragons, but it was mostly the warriors of the alliance army that dealt with those since just a breath from them would kill me"

"Oh! Oh! I know those! We got to meet one before!"

"Uhhm…all bones, scary and stinky"

Mara excitedly raised her hand like she was in a classroom while her brother nodded in agreement and talked with a soft voice to support his sister's claim, seemingly worried that the woman before them might not believe them.

Listening to them talk about meeting an Undead Dragon before, Solitary Tempest couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"Really? Where did you encounter one and how?" Solitary Tempest was intrigued since there were never sightings of that kind of monster until just recently.

Mara contemplated for a while before answering with a tilt of her head, "Hmm…I don't really remember. My memories are really…cloudy?"

"All I remember is that it's a really big bone head!" she added cheerfully.

'This means that these kids weren't born in this village since this place would have been razed to the ground if an Undead Dragon appeared here before' Tempest thought since its widespread knowledge that an Undead Dragon are just a crazy bunch of bones and since they don't feel any emotions anymore, they would attack anything in sight, even Dragons are not an exception.

Soon after, Tempest has concluded catching up with the siblings and went to look for the village chief who had left long ago and inquire about something.

She soon found him, but was busy dealing with a small line of players who are there to accept some common related quest from him, like collecting firewood or other miscellaneous tasks around the village.

Buckley wanted to immediately go over to her when he noticed her, but the latter just gestured for him to carry on and ignore her.

So Tempest stood there by the road near the local village blacksmith, where anyone would constantly hear the rhythmic sound of metal clashing against each other.

But the flashing name hovering above her head quickly drew the attention of some of the players around her.

"Look, isn't that her? That Solitary Tempest?" whispered a player to her companion while they stood by the entrance of the smithy.

"I noticed, didn't you see that she was the one that came out of that beam earlier?" her companion answered while she looked at Solitary Tempest from head to toe, either she was thinking bad things about her or curious about what kind of equipment she wears under that robe.

"Ohh..I wasn't paying attention. I wonder what happened though since a Teleportation Scroll cost a lot?" the woman replied with a shrug before turning her head back towards the direction of the smithy where she can see her weapons being repaired and upgraded under the continuous hammering of the blacksmith.

The players around her just watched her and whispered among themselves but none dared to approach her since she's already quite the celebrity herself.

Though it would be an entirely different story if this was a city or a big town, as she'd certainly cause quite the commotion from the players, namely her fans, male fans to be exact.

A few minutes later, Buckley had finished up issuing any of the available quests to the players.

He hurriedly approached Solitary Tempest with an apologetic smile on his face.

"My lady, I apologize for making you wait. The village has been really boisterous since the Lord arrived here over a month ago, but how may I be of service to you, m'lady?" Buckley was incredibly happy with the current growth and liveliness of the village he had been calling home for many years.

"No need to apologize, village chief. I just want to inquire if the village has any maps leading to Dragon Valley?"

Solitary Tempest smiled while Buckley quickly led her inside the village hall where they quickly discussed why the former was looking for him.

Buckley served her tea and a few pieces of cookies that his wife made.

"Dragon Valley? That is where the Lord had gone to, are you possibly preparing to follow after him m'lady?" Buckley immediately grew worried and wanted to advise her against such plans, but then he remembered that she's not as weak as she appears to be, so he just kept mum and kept his worries to himself.

"You need not worry, I'm only looking for something around the outskirts of the valley"

She quickly noticed the worries on his face and immediately reassured him, but didn't explicitly say how far she'd head inside when she arrived there.

Buckley just sighed as he knew that she probably didn't mean what she said.

He just let go of his worries and immediately headed towards the room at the back, before emerging with a scroll on his hands and laid it on the table before them.

"This is a map that was copied from Lord Shadow's own map. It was entrusted to me to be used on a rainy day, but I didn't expect that it would come this soon"