Chapter 515: Dragon Blood Storm (2)

Chapter 515: Chapter 335: Dragon Blood Storm (2)

“How are we supposed to get down?”

Several old Feder men were sprawled on their stomachs at the edge of the platform.

The Lord walked over and took a look. From a height of several hundred feet, even Biefeng, who hadn’t made it up and was pacing anxiously on the ground, had shrunk to a small black dot. The entire vast plain was laid bare before him, as if everything had been scaled down countless times.

As a cold wind gusted, he couldn’t help but shiver.

‘Damn, I can’t fly either…’

With his current physique, if he actually jumped, it was hard to say whether he’d smash a crater into the earth or be splattered into a pile of meat paste.

But the old Feder men would definitely be reduced to puddles of blood, so mangled that not even their own mothers could tell them apart.

…

The Lord sat on the Silver Dragon’s back, incredibly thankful he had learned the little trick of the Sound Transmission Horn from Filo. It was the only way he could use Holy Light to send a message across the hundreds of feet to the Jackal Wolfman Cavalry on the ground, telling them to go to High Cliff Castle and find Sophia.

“Levi, I estimate I’ll have to go into hibernation in a couple of days, after you and Tina get married,” Sophia said, her voice thick with sleepiness.

By all rights, she should have already gone into hibernation. The only reasons she hadn’t were that she still hadn’t found a suitable Dragon’s Nest, and she also wanted to experience a human wedding.

While on Dragon Island, she had read in a book that humans give money to children during weddings. And although she was thirty-five, she was still just an adolescent by Giant Dragon standards. It would be completely unreasonable if she didn’t get any.

“Alright. You saw the Dragon’s Nest earlier. Just head over there when it’s time,” Levi said with a nod.

Although her hibernation meant High Cliff Castle would lose its air superiority, there was nothing to be done. Not even Giant Dragons could resist the call to slumber; they could only delay it at best.

“Oh, right. That thing I asked you about earlier, did you get it ready?” Levi recalled.

Ever since the Beastman Barbarians had become Berserkers, the final tier of Dragon Vein Berserker remained locked. So, he had been thinking about trying a cruder method, like seeing if bathing in Dragon Blood could grant them the power of a Giant Dragon.

Coincidentally, High Cliff Castle happened to have a dragon on hand, so he planned to just buy some from Sophia to test his theory.

After all, she was about to hibernate, so sooner was better than later.

However, this Silver Dragon Maiden’s eyes lit up at the sight of money. At first, she refused his request outright. It was only after he started hyping up how important and potent Dragon Blood was—using the old Dragon Vein Dog-man’s superior strength as an example of the power of a Dragon Vein—that she showed her true colors and demanded he pay for it.

It was a classic case of tooting her own horn, and he had no idea where she’d learned it from.

“I already gave it to Tina. You can just get it from her.” Sophia perked up at the topic. A mere cup of her blood, which wasn’t even enough to count as an injury, in exchange for five Gold Coins? It was an incredible deal for her.

“Levi, if you ever need more Dragon Blood, just come to me. Since we know each other, I’ll even give you a twenty-percent discount,” she vowed, clearly intending to turn this into a long-term business venture.

After all, she had plenty of Dragon Blood and could regenerate it with a short rest. It was infinitely easier than all that fighting and killing.

“We’ll see.” Levi needed to test if the Dragon Blood was even effective first.

After all, it wasn’t like he could drink the stuff like tea. He wasn’t that twisted.

The group returned to High Cliff Castle. After setting the old men she had been carrying in her claws down on the ground, Sophia shifted back to her human form, yawned, and left.

It was obvious just how exhausted she was.

The poor old men, however, were not so fortunate. At their advanced age, they had just experienced not only a high-speed ascent but also a high-altitude flight with no safety restraints.

Even after landing, they were still clutching their chests, their faces pale with shock.

As soon as the Lord returned, a crowd naturally gathered, asking what had happened.

Levi had to clear his throat and give them a vivid, dramatic retelling of the events. After his explanation, everyone turned to look at Buji in amazement.

They never would have guessed that the Little Elf their Lord had picked up from who-knows-where was actually powerful enough to make a single vine grow to the size of a small mountain.

Praise washed over Buji in waves. Sam, High Cliff Castle’s Grand Shaman, was about to step forward to add his own compliments when the Little Elf suddenly shot him a wary look and hid in the Lord’s arms.

The little old man Sam, wearing his wool Felt Hat, immediately squatted down in a corner, looking aggrieved as he secretly wiped away tears. He had been the one to guard Buji when he was just an egg, and he’d carried him everywhere afterward, terrified that something might go wrong.

He had even figured out how to hatch the egg, but now Buji didn’t acknowledge him at all and wouldn’t even call him “papa.”

There was no greater sorrow in this world.

“Sigh. Don’t be too discouraged, Sam.” Mier came over to the little old man, patted his trembling shoulders, and offered him a handkerchief. “At least you’re not the only one Buji’s afraid of.”

Sam turned his head and saw Zamanzi, who had one hand up his nose and the other scratching his rear. The crude Barbarian shot him a “what are you looking at?” glare. Sam was speechless. Though Zamanzi hadn’t said a word, Sam felt as if he had been profoundly insulted.

“Buji, how did you know the effects of all those Magic Plant Seeds? And where did you learn so many Natural Magic spells?”

The Lord asked casually as he munched on an apple, the question having just occurred to him.

It wasn’t unheard of for exceptionally gifted Races to be born with Talent Magic, but Buji knew far too many spells: creating flower fields out of thin air, an unknown Healing Technique, spells to accelerate plant growth, and more.

He was like a Great Magic Master proficient in all sorts of Natural Magic. Yet, he was less than a year old and lived in a backwater place like High Cliff Castle, where the population was basically magic-illiterate. There was no way he could have learned so many spells here.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the Magic Plant Seeds. It was doubtful that all the botanists of the Seven Kingdoms combined could identify every single one, yet Buji seemed to have an intimate knowledge of each seed and plant.

Some uniquely blessed Races, like the Giant Dragons, were born with an ancestral legacy of knowledge. But that didn’t seem to be the case for Buji; it was more like he possessed innate knowledge.

“I… I don’t know either.” Buji, sitting cross-legged on the Lord’s head, looked just as bewildered. “All this stuff was just in my head when I was born.”

‘Well, it’s impossible to get to the bottom of this, then.’

After all, Buji probably didn’t even know his own Race. Otherwise, he wouldn’t treat the Lord as his father; he clearly thought he was human, too.

That would explain why it was so normal for him to be afraid of fierce-looking Half-Beastmen like Zamanzi and Gus.

…

And so, two more peaceful days passed in High Cliff Castle.

「On the morning of the third day.」

Gus and Orak, who had been guarding the iron mine, finally returned with their party, riding in with the first light of dawn.

Gus, taking advantage of his four legs, sprinted ahead of the others like a whirlwind.

“Lord, you’ve finally returned!”

The towering, brawny man, who was as stout as a small building and carried a greatsword on his back, bowed respectfully.

“You young whippersnapper, couldn’t even wait for this old man.”

Orak the Shaman was riding a Wendigo Beast. He had wanted to go faster, but the creature, serving as his Servant Beast, paid him no mind and simply ambled along, arriving from behind.

He hopped down from its back and quickly placed a hand over his chest in a salute. “Good day, Lord.”

Levi bumped fists with each of them before asking with concern, “Did you run into any trouble?”

They were dealing with Magical Beasts, after all, and some of the more powerful ones even possessed Talent Magic.

“No trouble. None of the Warriors were injured,” Orak reported honestly. “It’s just that some of the goblin miners had already been eaten by the time we got there.”

Dealing with a pack of Magical Beasts was a simple task for them.

Their homeland was the harsh Far North Icefield, where hunting such Magical Beasts was a part of daily life.

“As long as you’re all alright. We were just waiting on you,” Levi said with a loud laugh, personally leading the two into the dining hall.

He hadn’t invited any outside guests for the wedding; it was just going to be a celebration among the people of High Cliff Castle.