Chapter 36 You look so familiar
Translator: Tchu
Editor: Amaranth
“……Also, alchemists are very popular in big cities. After all, an alchemy masters are generally proficient in “potion making” and can make some medicine with magic. They are highly welcomed by aristocrats and ……alchemists are generally speaking the richest people in the magician community.”
“Richest” this argument immediately got this hillbilly excited and Shaar’s face showed renewed interest while looking at this book: “Then, can I study alchemy with this booklet?”
“Keep dreaming.” Ada smiled and looked at Shaar: “This thing only records the various attributes of magic materials such as effects, appearance, transformation etc., but it does not have any formulas! For an alchemist, the formula is the most important information and this booklet in your hand is an elementary theory study book sold in Royal Capital printed by the magician guild of the church. You can buy it for several gold coins but if you want to get rich with this thing, you should stop dreaming about it.”
Shaar immediately felt great disappointment and lost interest in this book while casually throwing it to the pitiful creature. Then he picked up the transparent sphere and asked with a hopeful voice: “What about this? Since this thing was carried closely by the magician the whole time, it must be a mysterious magic equipment!”
This time, even the pitiful creature looked at Shaar with sympathy, but was not cruel enough to break his heart.
Ada sighed and took a closer look at Shaar for a while and felt a somewhat guilty conscience before saying in a cold manner: “How do you dare to call yourself a magical beast hunter.”
“……What?” Shaar was feeling a bit uncomfortable right now.
“This is a crystal ball ……” Seeing that Shaar’s eyes lit up after hearing the word crystal, Ada immediately continued: “Don’t get too excited right now, this crystal is the most worthless kind. It is indeed a magic equipment, but it is actually one of the most preliminary and cheapest magic equipment. Its name is ‘appraisal ball’ and this item is the most basic equipment for all magicians and magical beast hunters. Its only function is to appraise the magic rank of its target. After hunting a magical beast, you will get a magic nucleus and you can use this appraisal ball to identify its characteristics. The colors reflecting on the appraisal ball can identify the quality of your spoils and tell you the value of it. It does not have any additional functions.”
Pausing for a moment Ada added: “An appraisal ball is as important to a magical beast hunter as a navigation compa.s.s is to a sailor. You don’t even know such basic things? How can you have the nerves to claim to be a magical beast hunter……This thing is sold everywhere and generally speaking a silver coin can you buy one. If you want it in a better quality, it costs 3-4 silver coins at most.”
Hearing the first part of the sentence made Shaar feel somewhat disappointed, however when he heard that this thing was at least worth a silver coin, he instantly turned happy again and happily put it in his bosom – no matter what, a silver coin for the current poverty-stricken hillbilly could be considered a small fortune.
This hillbilly’s penny-pinching made Ada snort contemptuously and he turned his head with at disdained expression.
The pitiful creature meanwhile was actually concerned if Shaar’s body should not receive some treatment against the burns. However with this guy is abnormal, although his whole body was burned until it started to smoke, he was fortunate that he ran through the fire with such a high speed. At the end, he did not obtain any serious injuries and even if looked badly, it was actually just some flesh wounds. With his body, he could probably recover before long.
According to the information that Ada provided, if they followed this hillside across forest, they would reach the dragon’s lair at the summit. However, now that they have seen corpse of this magician, according to this burned corpse, Ada and Shaar concluded that the magicians already pa.s.sed by here for some time. What they could not judge from the body was whether those guys were dead or alive. Whether the dragon has already killed them or if they already departed with the dead dragon – Ada scoffed the second possibility. In his words “If a few two and third-cla.s.s magicians could casually kill a dragon, then the dragon would not be called the strongest creature on the continent.”
Obsessed of wanting to get rich, Shaar was not willing to give up and suggested that they would continue ahead. However, Shaar stayed alerted in his heart the whole time and if he discovered that something was wrong, he would immediately order them to escape.
Since Ada had provided very valuable information: The dragon was blind and even if the dragon used its power, with no eyesight, they just had to escape and then could easily run away.
This mountain was originally covered with a dense forest, the three people walked until the evening after a half day, they suddenly saw that the place uphill was a complete mess!
In front of them there should be a large tract of forest, but instead it looked like something had rolled over it. Countless trees have collapsed and were broken while the ground was filled with ruptures. Broken trunks and breaches were everywhere and even big pieces of rocks were pressed deeply into the ground!
Shaar immediately became wary of the surrounding: This was probably done by the dragon!
Yet, when they walked halfway up the mountainside, they could not find any trace of these magicians ……Were they really here?
Looking up at the summit in the distance, there was only silence at the top. Above the sea of clouds, only sunlight sprinkled through and not the slightest movement could be seen.
Continuing their journey through the forest, the higher they got, the more Shaar felt the heavy pressure on his heart. His perennial journey through the mountains and forests, gave him a special kind of precognition. Often, when danger approached, he would get this special feeling in his heart. Right now, this feeling was stronger than ever. It gave him such an intense uneasy feeling and there were times where he could not help but wanting to stop and turning back.
He strongly insisted to look for the dragon and if they would decide to turn back now, it would make uncle Shaar lose his face. Therefore, he could only bite the bullet and advance without uttering a word.Without noticing, he subconsciously started to grip tightly onto his pitchfork within his hand.
The pitiful creature who followed behind Shaar closely, discovered that Shaar looked a bit strange. He was staring at Ada’s back and his hand was gripping tightly on his pitchfork while making an ominous expression from time to time ……
The pitiful creature’s body started trembling and whispered: “Hey, don’t tell me you want to do something to him ……”
Snapping back to reality, Shaar put on a smile and looked at the pitiful creature: “I was thinking, how could this handsome sissy actually know so much? Magic language, theory about magic, ah, I remembered that he even seems to know about goblin culture and recognize that Oaks was a handsome male among goblins…… Also, when we arrived at the magical flame swamp, he was actually able to remember the correct path by heart. Hmpf ……Since that pa.s.sage guarded the dragon’s lair, it should naturally have a strong defense and be well hidden. How could he actually know about it? Hehe, I think this guy is not what he seems!”
Ada at the front did not turn his head and replied coldly: “Don’t you know that talking behind someone’s back is not a good habit.”
Not looking embarra.s.sed from this comment, Shaar replied loudly: “Don’t worry, I did not intend to hide anything from you. Since we are on this topic, where did you actually come from? If we do not solve this issue, I won’t have any peace in my mind.”
“Alright.”Ada suddenly stopped and put his hand on a tree nearby. After walking for such a long time, he was slightly out of breath and beads of sweat were running down his forehead. Looking at Shaar with a mysterious smile on his delicate and unparalleled face, he said: “Actually I am ……”
Just when Ada was saying those words ……
Suddenly, they felt the ground underneath their feet was shaking! With a loud bang, the entire mountain started trembling instantaneously and a faint roar transmitted to their bodies from the ground. The trembling continued disrupting their balance while making them staggering back and forth.
Pitiful creature fell into Shaar’s arms and Ada stubbornly clung on a nearby trunk……
All of a sudden, they heard a loud roar coming from the summit!
As if the roaring sound came from the sky, it was distant and deep accompanied with the feeling of endless terror. When the sound stopped, their hearts were even more startled than hearing a thunder! Although that sound was far, it seemed to be able to directly pound fear into someone’s heart! Their hearts were racing intensely and a terror spread from their instincts burst out from their bodies instantaneously making their scalps numb!!
Shocked for a moment, Ada’s face immediately ashen and frowned: “The dragon! It is a dragon’s roar!”
Shaar who was still hugging the pitiful creature sat down and cursed: “s.h.i.t! If not the dragon’s roar, what else! f.u.c.k! This guy’s voice is really loud!”
Looking up at the mountain peak several hundred meters above them, they suddenly saw a huge shadow flying into the blue sky and circled around the summit!
It had a huge blue grayish body covered with a faint haze and a large pair bony wings attached to it. Each time the bony wings fluttered, they emitted a strong roaring wind. Above the huge body was a slender neck with a huge ellipse shaped head attached to it. The dragon suddenly opened its big mouth while emitting gray smoke! What was even scarier was that the long tail of this dragon had a morning-star shaped tip with sharp edges jutting out…..
When the dragon circled around the mountain, its long tail that was dragging behind sc.r.a.ped on the hilltop with the edge of its tip and immediately triggered an avalanche of rocks from the mountain top!!
This was the first time in his life that Shaar saw a living dragon!!
“Big! So f.u.c.king big!!”Shaar’s jaw dropped to the ground……
While he was still amazed by this majestic creature, Ada suddenly saw that the dragon in the sky was taking a deep breath and its abdomen was ballooning up. His face immediately became pale and he shouted out: “Not good! It’s going to use its breath!!”
Just when Ada’s voice came out, the dragon suddenly decreased its alt.i.tude and turned its giant opened mouth towards the ground….
Bang!!
Like a strong roaring wind, a large bluish gray flame gushed out, sweeping across the sky! From summit to directly downward,in a more than ten meters wide area, no matter if it was a tree or a rocks, it was all blown away by that violent breath. The tree trunks and branches cracked immediately under the high pressure of this attack and innumerable sawdust blew up in the air. Every stone on the ground was turned over and either flying or rolling around……
Seeing that this breath was flying towards their direction, they suddenly heard several dull voices in front of the forest and a shiny transparent curtain suddenly appeared over the sky. Like having giant transparent gla.s.sed mirror put in front of them, the breath hit this section of light curtain and immediately got repelled while the flames were pushed back……
From the grove quickly four shadows emerged and each figure wore a luxurious, but tattered leather robe. It was obviously made from magnificent and expensive material, but right now it looked like something a beggar would wear. Those guys opened their hands and everyone released a wooden stick with the length of about a meter, letting it rise into the sky. Facing the dragon from the distance, they started to send out a series of rapid and strange words……
Shaar stared at them with widened eyes and suddenly saw a figure rolling and crawling out of the forest. He was dashing towards them with extremely difficulties and when he faced towards Shaar, he suddenly stepped on a stone and immediately tumbled to the ground. Rolling down like a rock, he nearly hit Shaar’s body.
When this fellow looked up, his skinny face was full of panic and when Shaar looked him in the eye he noticed something.
“Eh? Friend, you look so familiar.” Shaar gawked.
This skinny fellow was also startled and they immediately stared each other in the eye while simultaneously shouting out.
“Ah! You are this young b.a.s.t.a.r.d who s.n.a.t.c.hed by robe!”
“Ah! You are that swindler!”