Chapter 807

【 ELVES AND DRAGONS 】

Two elves dressed as adventurers entered the tavern, but the first thing Old John noticed was the equipment they were wearing, which was far superior to anything he had ever seen ordinary adventurers wear.

—No.

To call such equipment “superior” was hardly an adequate description.

To Old John, the equipment they wore looked far more like exquisite works of art.

It gleamed brilliantly, radiating both elegance and majesty.

Whether it was the druid clad in flowing robes or the warrior encased in armor, both carried the same extraordinary presence.

Good heavens… I can actually tell the difference between a druid and a mage now!

He had to thank that druid apprentice who frequently visited the tavern for drinks and was always eager to explain such things.

As Old John gazed at the elf’s magnificent robe, adorned with the distinctive druidic patterns, he could not help but complain inwardly.

Then… he found himself taking another look.

It couldn’t be helped.

These two elves were simply far too beautiful.

Even though they were both men, their finely sculpted features and skin smoother than fresh milk made it almost impossible to look away.

Old John swore that even those pampered noble ladies did not have skin as flawless as theirs.

However, the moment the elves’ eyes swept in his direction, he hurriedly lowered his head, not daring to meet their gaze.

It was said that all elves were powerful experts, born with the innate gift to wield formidable magic.

Ordinary people like him naturally felt awe in the presence of such individuals.

Although Old John was nothing more than a common man, he could still sense the overwhelming aura emanating from the two elves.

They seemed like noble beings from an entirely different world, utterly out of place amid the tavern’s noisy and chaotic atmosphere.

Tsk… Damn it, my wound hurts again.

Old John felt the injury on his back tear open once more. Trembling, he reached back to touch it, only to find his hand covered in blood.

“Shit…”

He could not help muttering the curse under his breath.

Yet in the quiet tavern, that crude expletive rang out with startling clarity, drawing everyone’s attention, including that of the elves.

The instant he felt their gazes upon him, Old John’s face turned deathly pale.

Extraordinary beings stood far above ordinary people.

To them, powerless commoners were no different from weeds growing by the roadside.

Thus, offending an expert rarely ended well.

Even if they were elves.

Moreover, Old John had heard the stories.

The elves of today were no longer the kind, benevolent beings depicted in the old legends, where wandering bards had told countless tales of elven adventurers.

Now they were decisive, brutal and powerful.

And anyone who became their enemy invariably met a miserable end.

Of course, opinions of elven adventurers were sharply divided. Some praised them, while others spoke ill of them.

But regardless of the truth, as an ordinary man, Old John wanted nothing more than to live a quiet, peaceful life.

His body trembled, and his throat had gone dry.

He wanted to apologize, to explain that his earlier curse had not been directed at the elves.

Yet, paralyzed by nervousness, he could not find the proper words to say.

Fortunately, before he managed to force anything out, the elves had already withdrawn their gaze.

They did not seem to regard him as worth their attention.

I… I’m all right?

Old John blinked in disbelief, feeling as though he had just received a royal pardon.

He quickly shrank farther into the tavern, doing his best to hide himself in the shadows and become as inconspicuous as possible.

Even so, he could not resist secretly stealing glances at the handsome long-eared strangers.

He had never seen elves before.

So naturally, he was quite curious about them.

The two elves walked into the tavern and approached the counter.

Before they could even take a seat, someone immediately vacated a table for them.

Everyone was accustomed to doing such things.

When faced with powerful experts, ordinary people knew that caution was the only way to avoid trouble.

Especially since the resurgence of mana, rumors circulated almost daily of experts killing someone in one tavern or another. Even the city guard had long since stopped bothering with such incidents.

No one was willing to take that risk.

“Three cups of elven flower tea.”

The druid, who appeared to be their leader, spoke to the bartender.

Three cups?

Old John was momentarily puzzled.

The next moment, however, the tavern door opened once again.

Another elf entered.

A woman this time.

She was even more beautiful than the two male elves, so breathtakingly beautiful that it was impossible to look away. Old John could even hear people throughout the tavern quietly gasping in amazement.

She frowned slightly at first, seemingly uncomfortable with the tavern’s stale air.

However, her expression quickly returned to normal.

“Dōngdōng, over here!”

The red-haired warrior seated beside the druid enthusiastically waved to her and patted the empty seat next to him.

The female elf rolled her eyes at him, curled her lips in obvious disdain, then walked over and took the seat beside the druid instead.

For just a brief instant, Old John thought he saw the elf warrior’s smile stiffen ever so slightly.

The three elves sat together, their powerful presence dominating the room.

However, after hearing their request, the bartender wore an awkward expression.

He cautiously glanced at the group before apologetically saying,

“Honored elven guests… I’m terribly sorry, but we don’t serve flower tea here. It’s far too refined a beverage for a place like this. In fact, here in Luke City, only the noble tavern in the Inner City is likely to have it…”

The elves raised their eyebrows.

The leading druid waved his hand dismissively.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Just bring us the finest drink your tavern has.”

As he spoke, he placed a gold coin on the counter.

“A… a gold coin!”

The bartender’s eyes widened, and his expression immediately turned obsequious.

“R-Right away, honored guests! Please wait a moment. I’ll have it prepared immediately!”

Before long, three glasses of clear liquor were placed before the elves.

Old John recognized it at once. It appeared to be the tavern owner’s prized bottle of Erguotou, said to have been purchased at an exorbitant price from a black market merchant.

“Oh you actually have this?”

The two male elves’ eyes lit up.

The female elf, however, shook her head.

“I’ll just have fruit juice instead. Please replace mine with juice.”

“O… of course!”

The bartender stole a nervous glance at the beautiful female elf, quickly removed the liquor, and returned with a glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice.

The three elves nodded in satisfaction and began enjoying their drinks.

Gradually, the tavern became lively once again. The bard resumed playing his music, the adventurers returned to their games of Gwent, while the loafers and drunkards continued their matches of Gomoku.

Even so, the atmosphere remained noticeably quieter than before. Anyone paying close attention would notice that nearly everyone in the tavern was secretly watching the three elves.

As they sipped their drinks, the elves began chatting with the bartender.

“My good sir, we are adventurers from the Elven Forest. You may call me Li Mu. Have there been any interesting developments around here lately?”

The elven druid asked with a warm smile.

His smile was remarkably approachable, naturally putting others at ease.

As he spoke, he took out another gold coin and placed it before the bartender.

Another… gold coin!

Old John’s eyes widened with envy.

A single gold coin was worth one hundred silver coins, the equivalent of three or four months of his earnings.

The bartender was both astonished and delighted.

He glanced at the gold coin, then at the smiling elf, quickly pocketed it, and eagerly replied in a flattering tone,

“You’ve come to the right person, dear honored guest! No one knows the local situation better than I do!”

“Ahem, recently… a beast tide broke out again on the northern tundra a few days ago. It even attacked a couple of towns at the border. I heard quite a few people were even killed.”

“Oh, and a few days ago, our city lord signed an alliance with Marquis Weimar. They may be preparing to move against Count Mis to the south.”

“They also say a new vein of mana stone has been discovered in the Western Territory, and they’ve even mined magical crystals from it…”

The bartender spoke animatedly, while the three elves listened with great attention.

“We’ve already heard about those. Is there anything else?”

The elven warrior asked.

The bartender scratched his head in thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

“Ah! I almost forgot. There’s something else! They say a dragon has appeared at the mines outside the city!”

“A dragon? What kind of dragon?”

All three elves immediately became interested.

Noticing their reaction, the bartender excitedly gestured with both hands.

“A huge dragon! They say it destroyed the entire mining site!”

Then he pointed toward Old John, who was hiding nearby.

“As a matter of fact, Old John over there saw it with his own eyes! He was working at the mine when the incident happened!”

Being called out so suddenly startled Old John.

The three elves immediately turned to look at him, nearly causing his heart to stop.

“H-Honored elves…”

Old John stammered.

Although the elves seemed quite gentle, he could not help but feel nervous in their presence.

“So you actually saw the dragon? What did it look like?”

The red-haired elven warrior asked curiously.

Then, noticing the bloodstains on Old John’s clothes, he raised an eyebrow.

“Wait, you’re injured? Did the dragon do that?”

Meeting the elf’s gaze only made Old John even more anxious.

Before he could say anything, however, the red-haired elf suddenly began chanting an obscure incantation as golden light blossomed around him.

Countless pale golden motes gathered in his hand before drifting toward Old John.

Under Old John’s horrified gaze, they entered his body.

Yet the instant the light merged with him, his terror turned into astonishment.

A warm current flowed throughout his entire body.

The searing pain from his wounds gradually faded until it disappeared completely.

When he hurriedly lifted his shirt to look, he was stunned to discover that every one of his gruesome wounds had vanished without a trace.

Not only that, he felt as though he had been reborn.

Strength surged through every part of his body in an instant.

It was as if he had suddenly become ten or twenty years younger.

“Was that a divine spell!? He’s a priest from the Church of Life!”

An adventurer’s cry of astonishment rang out from somewhere inside the tavern.

A divine spell?

A priest?

Old John froze for a moment.

Then he finally realized what had happened.

Overwhelmed with gratitude, he immediately bowed deeply to the red-haired elf, his voice choked with emotion.

“Thank you! Thank you so much for your benevolence, honored elf! Thank you… Thank you for healing me…”

The spell had healed his injuries in an instant, even curing all the chronic ailments that had plagued him for years.

This was certainly no ordinary healing spell.

No…

Even the intermediate healing miracles of the Eternal Church could not possibly produce such astonishing results.

He had seen priests heal the sick before, and their healing magic had never been anywhere near this miraculous.

Meeting Old John’s emotional gaze, the elf laughed heartily and waved his hand dismissively.

“It’s nothing, just a small favor. No worries. Just tell us what you know.”

However, his expression soon changed as he frowned.

“Good grief… That one healing spell consumed far more mana than I expected. Just how badly were you injured? Hm… No, that’s not it. There are still traces of rampant magical energy lingering inside your body. Most of the mana was spent purifying those remnants…”

Clicking his tongue, he continued,

“So you work in the mines? What kind of mine was it? How long have you been doing that? And what’s this about a dragon?”

Hearing the elf’s questions, Old John sighed before answering.

“Honored elf, it was the gold mine outside the city. I’ve worked there for quite a few years. I fled here from the south last year. They happened to be recruiting miners at the time, so I signed up just to make a living.”

“A gold mine? One year? You wrecked your body this badly in just one year? Were you mining ore, or writing web novels?”

The elven warrior looked genuinely astonished.

“Web… novels?”

Old John blinked in confusion.

“Uh… never mind. So it was just a gold mine?”

The elf quickly changed the subject.

“It used to be. Luke City’s gold mine was quite famous throughout the Empire. But last year, while digging beneath it, they uncovered a vein of mana stone.”

Old John thought for a moment before replying.

“And the dragon?”

The elf pressed on, clearly intrigued.

“The dragon suddenly appeared at the mine a few days ago. It took over the entire site and drove away every miner, refusing to let anyone get close.”

Old John continued.

“It drove all the miners away?”

The elven warrior was taken aback.

“That’s strange. From what I know about dragons, shouldn’t they have kept the miners around to dig up gold for them?”

The female elf looked puzzled.

The elven druid pondered the matter for a few moments before asking thoughtfully,

“What exactly did the dragon you saw look like?”

“Well… it… it was simply too enormous. I couldn’t make out the details. Everyone said it was a dragon, so… I suppose it must have been one. It was gigantic, covered in scales, with wings, exactly like the dragons the bards describe.”

Old John shook his head.

“What color was it?”

The elf asked.

Old John hesitated before replying,

“I think… I think it was golden… the same color as gold itself.”

“Golden… A gold dragon?”

The three elves exchanged glances, each seeing the same look of surprise in the others’ eyes.

“A gold dragon? Heh, now that’s interesting. I think I know what’s going on.”

The elven warrior stroked his chin thoughtfully.

He then looked Old John up and down once more.

“So, the injuries on your body weren’t caused by the dragon?”

Old John nodded.

“No…”

He sighed deeply before continuing through clenched teeth,

“It was those damned nobles! After losing the mine, they took out their anger on us… They didn’t even pay us our wages!”

“The nobles…”

The elves sighed quietly after hearing his story.

“Heh. The nobles here are all the same. In their eyes, commoners are probably worth less than the dogs they keep.”

The elven warrior let out a cold laugh and shook his head.

He then turned toward his companions.

“Brother Mu, Dōngdōng, what do you think? Want to take a look at that mine? We’ve still got plenty of time before the deadline for our visit to Dragon Island. We can call Sister Cat and Sister Féng along too. Hmm… You know what, knowing them, those two might already know about this by now.”

The other two elves exchanged a glance before nodding.

After all, their journey had always been about enjoying the adventure while completing limited-time quests along the way.

Seeing his companions agree, the elven warrior grinned even more broadly. He turned back to Old John with a cheerful smile.

“By the way, Mr, what should we call you?”

“Esteemed benevolent elf… You… you may simply call me as Old John. That’s what everyone calls me…”

Old John replied nervously.

“All right then, Old John. Would you be willing to take us to the mine? As payment, I’ll give you one gold coin.”

The elven warrior said with a cheerful smile as he took a gleaming gold coin from his pocket.