Translated by: SaltyTank
Edited by: crimsonwolf8439
Here is your sponsored release! If anyone is confused, we still have 10 sponsored chapters left! The previous post was just counting this chapter’s publication too.
3/3 Regular
3/3 Sponsored
Chapter 29
A new member had been added to the list of atrocious Crimson Dragons on the Floren Continent, but "The Crimson Disaster" himself was oblivious to the fact that he had made himself well-known throughout the continent with just a single breath attack. After venting his anger, Claudius swaggered away like a boss. The war between the elves and Sylvia may last for centuries, but that was none of his concerns anymore. There were countless evil organizations within Floren, and wars were constantly waged between these organizations and countries. Claudius had left the pathetic Fire Dragon Bay, and the broad continent of Floren was awaiting him.
This was a world dominated by small countries and city-states as an empire was nowhere to be found. The empire had probably fallen, splitting into various countries as a result. From Claudius" point of view, things would not be too different even if an empire existed right now. The degree of prosperity was similar to that of the Medieval Ages in Europe, but the level of productivity was way higher due to the presence of magic. The wilderness gave off a vibe which resembled New Zealand, and eerie ruins could be seen from time to time; at least that was what it felt for Claudius, who was looking from thousands of metres above ground level.
There were quite a few towns and villages, but the villages were more of a "gathering of people" instead; over half of the villages only had several hundred of villagers. Gnomes, goblins, gnolls, ogres and the likes were roaming in the wilderness, and there were also a handful of dragons. On Claudius" left were mountains which seemed to touch the skies. He was rather sure that a number of Crimson Dragons, Copper Dragons and Bronze Dragons were nesting among the mountains, thus he did not want to intrude their territory. Directly in front of him, a desert could be seen. The air was steamy due to the heat and the golden sand reflected rays of sunlight. The name of the desert was Calim Desert — the place where Cerulean Dragons and Bra.s.s Dragons resided in.
"I don"t like the freaking desert, but should I go to the mountains? Argh, is there somewhere I can stay for at least a while? Screw this; I"ll see how things go after going there!" The juvenile dragon thought while pondering on where to land.
Claudius understood that he was complete garbage in terms of magic; advanced spells like human transformation was way out of his league. The pressing matter right now was finding a place to settle down. He would then be able to sort through the knowledge learnt during the stay at Sylvia"s library and search for useful stuff from the sealed knowledge from the Inheritance Ceremony.
"Perhaps I might be able to exchange knowledge with the dragons there. Or should I "buy" some stuff off the dragons there?"
Along with the completion of the fusion of his soul and body, the concept of "buying" things in his mind was more like "robbing", "blackmailing" and "scamming" rather than actually paying to obtain something……
Doing things as he liked, Claudius made a sharp 90-degree-turn like a yoyo and flew towards the Starspire Mountains. Unless they were ostentatious dragons like Crimson Dragons, almost every single True Dragon would not release their dragon aura all the time. With the ability to freely control their own aura, the True Dragons tended to suppress their aura in order to conceal their presence.
Unlike typical Crimson Dragons, Claudius was more of a cautious guy, thus he did not want to proclaim his arrival to all the other creatures in the mountain. Crimson Dragons of his age tended to be less reckless than the youth and adult counterparts as well, opting for a less conspicuous course of action before reaching adulthood. Claudius did not want to overthink about the location as he was just going to stay there temporarily. There was no need to go deep into the mountains to find a comfortable place.
Claudius landed on a random hilltop. He surveyed his environment, looking in all directions. Directly below him was a vertical cliff which was connected to the ocean while a craggy mountain was on the other side, making it a rather hard to access for others. Claudius was satisfied with the current location; despite being near the ocean, the ground was rather dry due to the mountain"s high alt.i.tude. It was certainly better than the humid and moist cave which he once lived in.
Before constructing his lair, Claudius first circled the mountain for a while to check if someone else owned the territory. He decided not to fly this time as being too conspicuous would alert the owner of the area, given that there was one. Claudius chose to walk around the area; Crimson Dragons were good at leaping anyways.
Although it was meant to be less conspicuous, Claudius still reached 15 metres when he stood on his pair of hind legs, not to mention his 25-metre-long body. His cautious stroll turned out to be extremely obvious, but the huge crimson shadow was enough to scare off all the inhabitants of that particular mountain. Without even sensing the dragon aura, the creatures all fled once they saw a Crimson Dragon.
Up till now, all the creatures Claudius saw were more or less the same as those back on Earth. There were some which looked slightly different from their Earthly counterparts, but they were nothing outrageous. There was something which caught his attention; at the bottom of a valley, there was rather strange-looking creature. This was probably the "owner" of the mountain as well.
An ancient tree with intertwined roots stood at the bottom of the valley, but the scarred surface of the tree bark made it look odd. After closer inspection, Claudius thought that the bark seemed to resemble a pair of closed eyes, a nose and lips.
"Perhaps this is a treant? I have only seen them in books though."
Claudius walked around the 10-metre-tall tree in circles before poking the back of its "head" with his claws.
"Is this really a treant? Perhaps it"s really just a large tree?" Claudius thought, but he was proved wrong not long after. This was the first strange creature he came across in this world — it was undoubtedly a treant.
Gudebar — that was the name of the treant who had been living in the valley for over a century. For certain reasons, Gudebar left his kin in the Wealdath Forest and went on a tough, long journey towards the Starspire Mountains. The lone treant settled down in the valley of a nameless mountain and had been living a quiet life until a Bronze Dragon came 80 years ago. The two hit it off straight away and became friends. As treants were long-living creatures that did not have quick minds, he was always slow to react to the dragon"s jokes and pranks. Although the Bronze Dragon"s pranks left behind several scars on his body, Gudebar was never angry towards his friend. The fact that someone was there to accompany him was enough to make him lively once again.
And right now, he was awakened by some noise. Since he began his slumber a few years ago, this was the first time he was awakened by external influence. Gudebar initially thought that it was his friend Achilles playing a prank on him, but the possibility was denied once the fellow who woke him up appeared in front of him.
"What the h.e.l.l is this?!" Gudebar gasped.
The treant looked at the monsters in shock. A ma.s.sive body crimson in colour, a lingering smell of fire sulphur along with an atrocious and scary appearance; Gudebar had never seen such a "dragon" in his entire life. Nonetheless, the treant was able to identify the monster as a genuine Crimson Dragon from the vibe and aura it gave off. Sure, the dragon was somewhat different from his memory, not to mention it stood on two legs instead of crawling, but it was undoubtedly a Crimson Dragon.
Crimson Dragons were the creatures which Gudebar hated the most — not one of the most hated creatures, but the only one.