Chapter 334 A Dragon’s Roar
When team Lawland continued their adventure for the next six days, their luck seemed to have gotten much better than before. Carrie brought them back to their original route, which helped them avoid encountering quite a few intermediate rock element spiritual beasts.
Carrie announced in a loud voice whilst holding her map, “It’s about two to three days till our destination, team! Just hold on a little more!”
Hearing that was pleasant for everyone. With 30 crows scouting in the sky, a very detailed map for reference, as well as having dire wolves as the means of transportation, team Lawland was traveling quickly inside the Double Moon Forest.
There were a total of two soulspeakers in the team, and Abel was one of them. His talent was just too extreme. With him around, they would never stumble into danger. Still, when Carrie got closer to the destination, she felt more anxious about what they might face.
Carrie had confirmed it with Lady Jenny. Their destination, Lila Valley, was occupied with one very powerful spiritual beast. They didn’t know how strong it was, but apparently, it was strong enough to drive out all the other spiritual beasts from their home.
Abel saw the map as well. Right now, the team was somewhere north of Double Moon Forest. When they advanced, the path of them started to become narrower. There was the Earth Dividing Basin at the west (occupied by the dwarves) and the Dragon Depth Mountain Range at the northeast (which surrounded the Dragon Depth). The geography of this area was splitting the forest apart. From where they were, the Double Moon Forest was split between south and north.
The area was quite hard to describe. It wasn’t just a forest; it was a rocky valley like Lila Valley, with no trees to be seen whatsoever. Yet, at the same time, you could see large lakes and gra.s.sland. In fact, since this place was bordered with trees on the west and east side, it’s almost as if the whole Double Moon Forest gave birth to it.
Suddenly, a large roar came from very far north. As far as the source as the crows that were flying on top of the team suddenly fell to the ground.
The five dire wolves that were carrying the elven ladies stopped moving forward. They started crouching on the ground and stayed completely still. The forest was in dead silence now. All the insects, birds, beasts, and any other living beings just stopped doing anything.
When Abel heard this terrible roar, he sensed a powerful wave of imposing pressure that was coming towards him. He was fine, though. His soul was already strengthened to the extent that it could withstand something like this.
“Goodness me! This is a dragon!” Carrie exclaimed softly. She’s the only one who could still talk right now. The other elven ladies were too pale to say anything in reaction.
Abel could feel something wrong with the poison ivy that was underground. After hearing the dragon’s roar, it had ceased to continue any movement. Apart from that, the five crows Abel owned were completely still on the ground. Crows were supposed to be the smartest birds there were, but right now, they were just asking for help in fear.
At least Black Wind was still fine. It was still standing, which was nothing more than what you’d expect from a high-level spiritual beast. It was the same for White Cloud. It’s supposed to be the weakest animal that Abel owned, but when Abel tried to communicate it with the soul chain, it actually ignored the dragon’s roar from far away.
Abel asked when the voice went down, “Was that from a giant dragon, Carrie?”
“No,” Carrie replied with a grim look towards the faraway sky, “It’s a pseudo-dragon. I don’t know which type it is, though.”
Giant dragons were the strongest of their kind. As the apex predators of the ecosystem (of the world), they had no natural enemies in the Holy Continent. They were immune against most spells and physical attacks. Their life expectancy was very long. They were basically invincible. Nothing could stand against a giant dragon. If there was, it would have been another giant dragon.
Like humans, elves, orcs, and dwarves, giant dragons were intelligent beings. Yet, due to their power, they rarely interacted with other beings. The elves helped facilitate this. By protecting the Double Moon Forest, they also protected the Dragon Depth from being hara.s.sed.
While the pseudo-dragons were not the strongest creatures, they were the most plentiful amongst dragonkind. While they were technically beasts, pseudo-dragons were close kins to the giant dragons. Interestingly, they were not intelligent beings, per se, but some of the matured ones did possess intelligence.
No one knew what type of pseudo-dragon that was back then. All they knew was that it was extremely powerful, so much so that the creatures that were summoned just gave up on even running away.
“How are you still alright, Abel?” Carrie suddenly realized. Abel didn’t respond, though. He wasn’t sure how to explain what a “soul transformation” was to her.
Since Abel didn’t respond, Carrie chose not to push too much for an explanation. Right now, her main attention was on her fellow team members. While novice druids weren’t supposed to be too terrified to a pseudo dragon’s roar, the elven ladies were simply too young. They had no way to react except the way they just did.
Carrie was suddenly out of ideas. She wanted to reach the destination, but there was a pseudo-dragon there; she just didn’t know what to do now. She could have a member go to do some scouting. That way, she would know whether the pseudo-dragon was staying inside Double Moon Forest.
If the pseudo-dragon was staying in the Double Moon Forest, there would be a very serious problem. It wasn’t just that the team had to cancel their quest, but they also had to return to Angstrom City to report to Grand Duke Edwina. Something like this would ruin everything. The ecosystem. Angstrom City’s economy. Everything.
One thing was for sure: the rock element spiritual beasts were chased out by the pseudo-dragon, as for how and why Carrie had to be careful in her investigation.
After a quick look at her team, Carrie decided that the one she could rely on was Abel. As for the others, they would be lucky if they managed to survive in the presence of a pseudo-dragon. Most elven ladies here were summoner druids. If the pseudo-dragon could immobilize their summoned creatures with its voice, they pretty much had no ways to protect themselves.
“Would you help me with something, Bennett?” Carrie asked Abel.
“Uh, well, it’d be my pleasure!” Abel was a bit surprised by how polite Carrie was being.
Carrie said as she pointed at the other members, “Thank you. I need you to stay here and take care of the other members.”
“Where are you going, Carrie?” Abel raised his brow.
“There’s a pseudo-dragon up ahead. I don’t know if it’s staying or it’s pa.s.sing by, so I have to do some scouting myself. The other girls can’t withstand the dragon’s roar; they can’t protect themselves right now, so I need you to help protect them. Understand?”
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Abel understood Carrie’s intent, but he was also uncertain with the way she’s trying to tackle the situation, “Can’t we just go around it? Actually, Carrie, I don’t think your dire wolf is up for scouting. With all due respect, just look at it! It won’t be able to run away if it faces a pseudo-dragon!”
“You’re missing the plot, Bennett,” Carrie said in a helpless voice, “The path ahead is the elve’s main transportation route. There is no way to go around it! More importantly, that’s where the elves carry most of their resources from every year!”
“Oh no…” Carrie started rubbing her head with the tip of her fingers, “It’s only a month before we start importing and exporting more resources! If that thing doesn’t move, we are going to be in a lot of trouble. That’s all I can say.”
The elves were known for how rich they were. Still, they couldn’t just transport millions of tons of goods between different cities for trade. The energy cost for that would be immeasurable, which meant that the main way to sustain trade was through large numbers of cargo carriages.
If the narrow path ahead was really going to be blocked by the pseudo-dragon, it would be a disastrous loss for the elves. Those who weren’t notified about it might just make their journeys towards it. Once that happened, only tragedy awaited.
There were only two choices here. The team could send reports to the high-ups of the elven race. Or, they could try to remove the threat that was up ahead, whether by killing it or by chasing it out of the area.