svetikya Page 17
Page 17
This is not to say that these kobolds are anything special or have any potential.
They are still just a bunch of weaklings.
Dragons possess many effective methods to stimulate the awakening of the dragon bloodline in dragon-origin species. Kobold tribes that can find a dragon's "backer" can easily produce a large number of dragon vein sorcerers, so there is no need to rely on luck.
Casalos simply remarked that the kobolds' good luck might have run out.
As an Iron Dragon that was born with the ambition to restore the glory of the Iron Dragons and regarded all the True Dragons as its own kind, it could not stand by and watch such an ancient dragon skeleton be desecrated by maggots and kobolds.
Casalos had a new idea popping into his mind: he needed to find a way to restore peace to this place.
No longer afraid, it relaxed its wings and walked with upright steps into the safety line. The psychic power that distorted reality crashed onto its body like waves, connecting with its heart. As if it had discovered the true nature of Casalos, the dragon, it silently retreated.
Dragons are naturally immune to such majesty—or rather, the creators of this majesty did not create it to influence the other children of Asgrath.
Walking up to the dragon skeleton, I used my wing hook to pry off two dragon maggots and tasted them. They were quite ordinary; apart from being slightly chewy, they were similar to eating lava, containing very few of the nutrients needed by the iron dragon.
Casalos lost interest in keeping the dragon maggots and decided to destroy them directly.
Lacking many essential sensory abilities, the dragon maggots failed to detect the approaching danger even as sparks of dragon breath rained down, turning to ashes without pain. Casaloz thus cut off the kobold tribe's special food source.
The dragon skeleton was repeatedly scorched from head to tail with dragon breath, making the gem-like skeleton, which shimmered with blue-green flames, even more dazzling. Its distorted, majestic aura gently rippled, as if the deceased dragon soul was expressing its gratitude.
"You're welcome."
Casalos casually shook his wings and tail, then leaned closer to the dragon skeleton for one last look, feeling the warmth radiating from its medullary cavity. He shook his head, took off, and flew up to the top of the tomb's main hall to examine it closely. He found a huge crack—in fact, the kobolds' passage was part of this crack.
This ancient Bejuri gem dragon skeleton may be much older than the gods themselves.
There are several relatively wide openings in the cracks extending to the top, with traces of dragon flies crawling through them. It seems that the last batch of dragon maggots left the tomb from here after emerging from their cocoons. It is unknown what place they harmed, but after eating and drinking their fill, they returned to the tomb to lay their eggs, and the cycle continued generation after generation.
Casalos has no intention of patching up the gap; it doesn't have the ability to do so yet.
Destruction is far simpler than creation; all it can do for the keel is destroy the supports of the tomb chamber.
Chapter 36
The force propped up the tomb, causing it to collapse and submerge back beneath the lake. Thus, the Bejuriosaurus, which fed on the tremors of the earth, was finally back in the earth, and nothing could disturb it anymore.
First, it transformed into a bat to explore the path the dragonflies flew down on the dome and confirmed it was clear. Then, it flew back into the tomb chamber a few times to find the stress point at the bottom supporting the chamber. After calculating that it was about right, it used the shovel head and claw wing hook to dig in and create a cavity. Then, it stepped back out and breathed a breath of dragon fire into the opening.
A muffled rumble erupted, followed by the crackling of falling rocks and a series of rumbling vibrations. Then, a serpentine crack appeared, originating from the opening and spreading out in several specific directions.
At the widest fork in the crevice, the same action was repeated. After this tremor, the crack split into three, their branches intersecting and almost covering the entire dome. The tomb chamber was now on the verge of collapse.
After confirming that the escape route was clear, Casalos unleashed a final drilling and dragon breath explosion. Without waiting for the shockwave to subside, he turned and charged upwards, transforming into a small bat and flying into the escape tunnel, propelled by falling rocks.
Before it had even flown halfway, the complete collapse began.
The rumbling sounds continued into a ground-shaking tremor, the escape tunnel shuddered, and stalagmites broke off and fell like a rain of spears falling from the sky.
Casalos, now transformed into a bat, stared wide-eyed as he dodged the increasingly dense clusters of falling stalagmites, his mind focused solely on the exit.
The roar of the lake water pouring into the tomb chamber came from behind, followed by the shockwave from the impact of the boulder hitting the ground, which disrupted the airflow of the small bat's flapping wings and pushed it into a fallen stalagmite.
At the critical moment, Casalos reverted to his dragon form and took the hit from the stalagmite. He was then stuck in a narrow crevice and was hit hard by more falling rocks. The stalagmite covered with travertine and the metal scales collided, creating a mournful sound like the beating of gongs.
Feeling the vibrations transmitted from the stone wall to his body, with the frequency decreasing but the amplitude increasing and the energy increasing, Casalos transformed into a nimble weasel, clinging to the trembling stone wall, stepping on the top of the falling rocks to accelerate upwards. After reaching a certain speed, he transformed back into a bat and flew the last leg of the journey.
All the noise and commotion suddenly turned into silence in an instant, followed by the sudden opening of the crevice in the rock and the oncoming surge of a towering wave.
The tomb had completely collapsed, and Casalos had escaped with his life. He regained his dragon form and bravely faced the crashing waves. With a bang, he became dizzy and began to roll around in the water.
After a long time, it sank to the still trembling bottom of the lake, still churning, and was carried by the turbulent current to slide into the deeper lake.
It struggled against the surging undercurrents to get up, lowered its body and spread its wings diagonally downwards, using the wing membranes as deflectors and the wing hooks as anchors to grab the rocks. Its limbs clung to the original stone island, and it struggled with all its might to climb up little by little.
The deeper you go, the weaker the current becomes, and the easier Casalos crawls.
Finally, it climbed out of the water along the stone pillar that grew from the bottom of the lake, and looking back, all that remained of the stone island was now a whirlpool that was getting smaller and smaller.
"Rest in peace..." it sighed softly.
"Thank you, child." A deep dragon voice, clearly imbued with kindness, sounded in Casalos's ears.
Within the vortex, a blazing ball of light rose slowly above the lake surface, transforming into a shooting star as it flew toward the dumbfounded Iron Dragon Hatchling perched on the stone pillar.
37. Save the Day
“Good dragons are rewarded.” Casalos sighed deeply, then added somewhat impatiently, “But could you please not be so ‘dazzling’?”
That burst of light was undoubtedly a "small gift" from the ancient Bejuri dragon to repay it for the final burial of the dragon bones.
Fair trade is quite normal for dragons, especially neutral dragons, even for the souls of dragons that have long since died.
The flames that transformed into a shooting star instantly surged into Casalos's body, leaving it no room to refuse.
At the same time, it also learned the basic function of the flame. It was a nearly eternal non-magical energy source, capable of effectively providing the dragon with the energy needed for its most basic physiological activities. In other words, Casalos no longer had to worry about starving to death, even in the Dead Magic Quarter... which was essentially useless.
Of course, there were other benefits as well. Casalos discovered that the heat from this flame made his body slightly stronger, and some of it was absorbed by his blood vessels and integrated into his dragon magic, slightly increasing the power of his breath.
Therefore, it can be inferred that when it grows up and awakens more spell-like abilities and masters the ability to cast spells, the spells it releases and other external effects based on dragon magic may be a little stronger.
More importantly, when its body has no energy shortage, the excess energy produced by the flames can be supplied to the Dragon Treasury. This means that even without finding an elemental magic convergence point of the level of the Atheros Holy Land, Casalos can re-enter the treasury for training much more frequently.
Don't underestimate this small amount of surplus energy; it's persistent. As long as Casalos doesn't starve himself in terms of energy needs—which is nearly impossible in magic-rich Faerûn—the flames will continuously replenish the Dragon Treasury.
Preliminary calculations show that it can gain a guaranteed amount of experience approximately every three months!
For short-lived humanoids, this might be long enough, but for long-lived dragons... three months is still much better than having to rely on luck to find a place.
Casalos traveled through the lava river for a long time, but he didn't encounter even a single point of convergence of elemental magic that could directly awaken the Dragon's Treasury!
That is why its gratitude towards Fionamiron, the tungsten dragon, has become even more profound.
The benefits are huge, but there are also some minor downsides...
Casalos looked back at the scales that had somehow regrown in the lava, their edges gleaming with a kind of metallic sheen, and the gaps between the scales occasionally flashing with dazzling light.
Looking down at the monstrous corpse it had torn to pieces, it sighed helplessly once more: "How am I supposed to survive in the Underdark like this?"
The reason why the Bejuri Gem Dragon is called the Bejuri Gem Dragon is because of its shimmering flames.
Unlike other gem dragons, they don't actually have scales that match their names. Bejuri gems are hard gems that are sea-green in color, while the scales of Bejuri gem dragons are mainly dark gray, turning purple in ancient times. They seem to have almost no connection to Bejuri gems, except for the occasional flash of fiery light—this is the fundamental characteristic that distinguishes Bejuri gems from other gems; otherwise, wouldn't it be better to call them ocean emeralds?
This radiant light is precisely why the Bejuri Gem Dragon got its name. Their original names have long been lost to history, forgotten even by themselves.
Casalos, who accepted the gift, never imagined that he would also be adorned with this dazzling light.
"Should I change my name to Bejuri Gem Iron Dragon?"
To be honest, Casalos is not a gem dragon. The blazing light shining from its bone marrow cavity, after passing through many obstacles, was not very strong when it pierced through the gaps in its scales. It would have been completely negligible in the surface world.
But in this dark and gloomy region, even the slightest flash of light is highlighted by the darkness and becomes a beacon. After being focused by the reflection of the smooth iron scales, it becomes several gleaming swords, piercing through the omnipresent darkness of the region and marking the location of Casaloz to the monsters of the underworld at all times!
It couldn't predict when the flash would appear, nor could it predict where the light, focused by its own scales, would point...
Even worse, the altered form couldn't resolve the blazing flames emanating from the oldest dragon in Faerûn.
Chapter 37
This thing has nothing to do with magic!
The heavy metal dragon's body and scales can still provide some cover, allowing the flames to flicker only occasionally. However, if it were to transform into another form, Casaroz would become a giant light bulb, leaving it nowhere to hide.
It had only climbed this short distance up the stone pillar, yet it had already attracted the attacks of three groups of flying monsters!
Fortunately, the monsters they've encountered so far are all flying arthropods parasitized by the puppet worms. Casalos can easily take them down by swinging his wing and slashing out.
"I hope my luck continues to be this good..."
What can it do? Since the conditions don't allow it to keep a low profile, it can only be more high-profile.
First, of course, is to forcibly subdue that group of kobold tribes in order to establish a base... After all, what dragon doesn't subdue kobolds?
To unkind dragons, they are such a loyal servant race, practically natural lackeys!
Having set his goal, Casalos abandoned his slow crawl, released his nails that were digging into the travertine layer, fell backward, rolled back to his upright position, spread his wings, and glided into the air. Using the lava flow falling from the dome as a landmark to determine his location, he flew straight toward the stone pillar where the kobolds were located, and saw the fluorescent mushroom bushes in the distance.
"The fluorescent mushroom jungle is much more conspicuous than me. These kobolds have managed to gain a foothold, so they must have some strength... Never mind what I said."
Before he could finish speaking, Casalos noticed an unusual flash in the jungle. He determined that the flash was caused by some kind of lightning bolt, and something was besieging the glowing mushrooms. From the kobold tribe, the kobolds, who had the home-field advantage, were being pushed back, and the addition of five kobold dragonvein warlocks had only slightly reversed the tide.
"No! I just decided to take you as my servants, how come you're about to perish? Hold on, I'm coming to save you!"
Before the dragon arrived, its roar preceded it. Casalos let out a high-pitched dragon roar, folded its wings back, and accelerated as it swooped down toward the battlefield.
The kobolds, who had just been beaten like dogs, suddenly became incredibly energetic upon hearing Casalos's dragon roar. They halted the attackers' offensive and even organized a local counter-offensive, holding out until the arrival of the saviors.
38. Kobold Tribe
"earthquake?"
Amidst the slight tremors of the earth, Eisen awoke somewhat uneasy, climbed to the top of the tallest mushroom in the fluorescent mushroom forest, and gazed into the distance toward the hunting grounds.
The hunting warriors had been on their way for two days, and judging by the time, they should have just finished their hunt and were beginning their return. These past few days haven't been the days for the gray dwarves to hunt slaves, and the mind flayers' shell-like ships had only recently patrolled this remote area; the warriors shouldn't encounter any danger.
Sensing Eisen's movement, Giks also woke up—Gix had been pestering Eisen, as had Os. But Eisen chased them both away. As the tribe's only female dragon vein sorceress, the young males of the tribe, having reached puberty, found it difficult to suppress their desires in her presence. But she knew that the best time for mating was when the hunting parties brought back flesh and blood that could stimulate the bloodline of true dragons.
Eisen never had to serve as a guard; she needed more rest than others, relying on it to replenish her blood and inner magic. Now, prematurely awakened, she could only sit up and maintain focus for a long time, solemnizing her mind to be able to maintain her condition so that she could better use her magical talents when she entered her next sleep period.
When she opened her eyes again, Eisen noticed Sven standing next to her.
Svent would always be there to protect her whenever she meditated. He was the best of her first children, the strongest among her tribe's companions, and the one with the greatest magical potential. Mating with him would greatly increase the chances of their offspring awakening as dragon-blooded sorcerers.
Even when it wasn't Svent's turn to be on guard, he would always remain vigilant. His tamed ferocious ferret, Crick, had inherited his good habits, and with them around, Eisen felt at ease.
Eisen felt that after this celebration, Svent would become the tribe's sixth dragon vein warlock, which would greatly increase the tribe's strength and make them more likely to survive and thrive in this dark and remote region.
They await the return of the hunting warriors. May the dragons bless the Kalik tribe—the Kalik tribe, to which Eisen belongs, does not worship the kobold god. Since the day they were banished to the Underdark, they have been protected by the blood of the dragons.
However, Eisen's thoughts weren't on Sventa at the moment; she had a feeling that the earthquake that had woken her foreshadowed something that would happen today...
The glowing mushrooms, and all the other underground bioluminescent organisms, emitted an increasingly bright light. It is said that this is the result of the sun's magic penetrating deep into the earth, so a day in the Darklands is the same as on the surface, except that the "day" is a few hours shorter and the night is much longer.
As dawn broke, the sounds of labor in the mine intensified, then quieted down as the fluorescent light faded. From each mushroom house came the sounds of barking and howling, a normal phenomenon that inevitably occurred after the kobolds returned to their nests and ate their hallucinogenic mushroom dinner.
Although these mushrooms are highly hallucinogenic, they do not harm the kobolds' bodies. On the contrary, they are nutritious and are the tribe's main food source.
The fighting within the lair signified the arrival of night for the tribe. Eisen knew that most of the young people were entering a period of decline, and the sounds of fighting would soon transform into something else.
"May the magnificent, shining gem dragon bless us, and may a dragon-forged egg emerge from among the little ones being conceived today."
She'd been praying like this every day lately, but sadly, not a single one had come true… Well, the Dragonforged Egg nurtures innate dragon vein sorcerers, a blessing upon all kobolds. How could a dragon long dead bestow more blessings?
A day had passed, and with all the fluorescent lights extinguished, dark vision could no longer perceive much distance. Nothing should have chosen that time to attack the Karrick tribe.
The fluorescent mushroom cluster is located at the top of the stone pillar, which is surrounded by nearly vertical cliffs covered with smooth travertine. The only way to reach the top of the stone pillar where the Carrick tribe is located is a natural stone bridge, which is full of traps. Eisen's worries did not come true.
The dragon continued to protect the Kalik tribe.
She stood up and walked toward her other guardian of her solitary nest, Euryx, the ferocious weasel she had tamed herself, intending to scratch its chin before beginning her rest for the day.
Unexpectedly, the normally docile Euryx suddenly dodged Eisen's slender claws, lowered its body, raised its short fur, and let out a menacing hiss towards the back of Eisen's lair.
Kurik, who was standing not far away, did the same thing.
"Quiet, Euryx!"
Eisen gave a command and exchanged a glance with Sven, then began preparing his spell. Sven nodded knowingly, gripped his bone spear, and, pulling Kurik along, walked cautiously toward the back of the lair... where the cliff lay.
Sven walked to the edge of the cliff, leaned against the rock wall of Eisen's Nest, patted Kulik, grabbed its paw and suddenly yanked its head off the cliff, only to be pulled back by Kulik.
Almost simultaneously, a bolt of lightning tore through the darkness, grazing half of Svent's face as it flew into the sky.
Svent felt half of his face go numb, and his whole body was filled with numbness and tingling, but he still managed to give Kurick his last command before collapsing.
Guys!
Upon receiving the command, the ferocious weasel raised its head and let out a sharp cry that echoed through the stone pillar. The enemy attack warning was sounded, and the Carrick tribe, immersed in illusion and life creation, was awakened, and the chaotic battle began.
The group attacking the kobold tribe was a bunch of creatures that looked like upright mudskippers: the Kotto fishmen.
They were well-trained and had planned this for a long time. Using their limbs, which had mutated into suckers, they climbed up the nearly vertical cliff face along the smooth stone pillars, avoiding the defenses set up by the dog-headed people.
Chapter 38
Avoid the trap and strike directly at the core rear.
Before the kobolds could organize a defense, Kotō murloc warriors wielding spears and shields leaped onto the top of the pillar. Several kobolds, still dazed, emerged from a nearby hole and were quickly stabbed into mincemeat.
Eisen, who was the first to notice the situation, finally released the spell he had prepared. A gray ray connected to the merman who jumped out from beside Svent and thrust a spear at the incapacitated Svent, weakening it so that it could not kill Svent. It was then bitten and torn apart by the ferocious weasel Kurik that was protecting it.