radicalducati Page 43
Page 43
"Ow..."
Julius raised its head and let out an unprecedentedly high-pitched roar, which quickly faded. Its long neck slumped down, and its huge, ferocious head crashed to the bottom of the pit. The roar turned into a weak moan, then into a crackling sound. Sparks flew from its mouth and nostrils, eroding the bottom of the crater created by the two dragons into small, vitrified craters.
The adult dragon's vitality was so strong that even though most of its organs in its chest cavity were carbonized by the electric sparks and dragon breath, it still did not die.
As he stopped breathing, Julius exhaled murky smoke, his eyes filled with resentment, bitterness, and doubt as he faced Casalos.
It strained to open its trembling maw slightly, as if trying to say something, but could only spit out a mouthful of dragon blood mixed with rich fire elements. Then, under the influence of gravity, it deflated and closed its mouth, its upper and lower jaws slamming together with a muffled thud.
At this moment, a subtle change appeared in its gaze.
Casalos understood something. The dying red dragon no longer cared why it had failed. In its final moments, it only wanted to know who had killed it and why they had come after it.
"There is no reason why. The hatred between the Atheros and the Color Dragons has been going on for 30,000 years. It is a blood feud, a destiny, and the will of the Dragon God—not our Dragon God, but yours, even though you may not know His name."
He is Tiamat, the Queen of the Five Colors, who has returned to Faerûn and regained power. Your dragon soul after death will go to His kingdom and will no longer be able to be guided to the next life by the Dragon God of Fate.
Therefore, I won't tell you who I am; I don't want to be constantly cursed by a hellish red dragon.
The red dragon's grip on Casalos's forepaws slowly stiffened, and the molten light in its eyes dimmed.
27. The Invisible Guardian
"How pathetic!"
Almost a month has passed since the battle with the red dragon Julius, but Casalos still feels indignant every time he thinks about it.
Admittedly, for a young dragon to kill an adult red dragon is something to be proud of.
But even with its level 23 challenge rating, it managed to defeat a level 15 challenge rating adult red dragon in the end.
If it weren't for the thick armor it had built, and if it hadn't continuously unleashed its fiery attacks during the war of attrition, which had drained a lot of Julius's stamina, it might have lost its life after being captured.
Ultimately, challenge level is an unreliable standard for measuring strength—of course, from the perspective of humanoid adventurers, Casarosz is indeed far stronger than a fully grown red dragon. A super adventurer team with an average individual level of 15, if well-prepared, wouldn't have much difficulty dealing with a fully grown red dragon. But if they encountered Casarosz, even if they weren't dragged into aerial combat, it's hard to say how many would survive its breath attack, which combines disintegration and blazing flames.
The reason Casalos struggled so much against the Red Dragon ultimately stemmed from its lack of offensive capabilities commensurate with its strength. With its base stats suppressed, any tactical maneuvers became mere flashy displays in a head-on confrontation. This is perhaps the very essence of what base stats are meant to be; stats that grow across the board with age are the foundation of a dragon's power, and Casalos was still too young.
Next time I encounter an opponent of this caliber, perhaps it would be more appropriate to bring a pack of dogs and gang up on them?
Casalos had this thought more than once, but he would quickly dismiss it.
For the sake of Dragonlord's development, it had already planned specific and long-term growth paths for the high-level professionals among the Kalik tribe's kobolds, especially the several Dragonvein Warlocks who had advanced to Dragonpledge Warlocks. Even if they were all combined, they couldn't produce a single high-level combat spell. Their significance to Dragonlord was strategic, not tactical; taking them out into battle would be utterly wasteful.
Throughout the entire Dragon Territory, the only inhabitants with the ability to engage in direct combat commensurate with their level are Casaloz's current head guard, Svent, and the few dragon-blooded goblins he leads.
Now, it's time to improve this serious imbalance in academic performance.
Looking back at the red dragon head hanging on the wall of the new lair's hall, Casaloz, disguised as a small red-skinned female dragon, made a new strategic decision.
The name of the prophetic dragon vein warlock elder remains unknown—in fact, Casaloz knew his name. Eleanor Velanoz is the current name of this dragon vein warlock, one of the first kobolds to inherit the surname of a fallen hero.
Reality doesn't follow the rules of the game. Prophecy spells are very special; their obscure and difficult-to-understand nature excludes the vast majority of arcane talents, and spellcasters with the talent to become prophets are extremely rare.
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less.
But their significance is so great that it can influence the direction of the entire power.
Eleanor Villanoz is now the head of Casalos's strategic intelligence group, its chief strategist, and part of the Dragon Territory's decision-making hierarchy. Every decision she assists Casalos in making becomes the guiding principle for the Dragon Territory's development and execution, because her talent allows her to have a limited ability to "foresee" the future. Prophecy is magic that reveals information. In addition to the most conventional reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance, its deeply ingrained nature allows it to predict whether an operation will face danger, enabling specific preparations to be made. From the results of what is gleaned, it can vaguely judge whether a decision will lead to serious consequences.
The key issue is that Casalos understands the strategic significance of the Prophet, and the other factions are not idiots either.
Before any major conflict in Faerûn, including the wars of the gods, a "war of information" waged by prophets from all sides has already begun. The prophets stir up information of unknown origin by mutually shielding, interfering with, and misleading each other. In this invisible battle, the most effective and direct method is, of course, to physically eliminate the opposing prophets. Being part of an information network, a prophet will inevitably leave their mark on it; it is not uncommon for prophets, whose magical true names are exposed, to suffer mysterious assassinations such as curses.
For the sake of this important official's safety, it was undoubtedly necessary to have all members of Dragon Territory forget its name. Currently, besides Elinor himself, Casalos is the only one in Dragon Territory who knows its name.
Even the members of the Carrick tribe who originally knew of it had all erased their memories of Eleanor through mind magic. Only Casalos's trusted dogs, such as Eisen and Svent, knew that such a mysterious dog-headed figure existed by Casalos's side—they had all forgotten that it was once one of the elders of the Carrick tribe.
As for Eleanor, all that remains is a code name that changes randomly at irregular intervals.
Elinor Veranos is the hidden guardian of Casalos and Dragonlands, an unnamed elder, a glory unique to it. Perhaps only kobolds fanatical in their devotion to dragons can truly accept this nameless dedication and honor.
In fact, under Casaloz's guidance, this unnamed elder has gradually shed his identity as a warlock and begun his exploration as a dragon mage. Before long, he will be able to embark on this unique arcane path of dragon magic advancement.
With the assistance of an unnamed, prophetic dragon vein elder, Casaloz had Sven lead two squads of fully armed earth elf warriors, carrying Julius's head, away from the new dragon's lair on the mountaintop. They toured his new territory, proclaiming that the evil dragon Julius had been slain, and levied a "protection tax" on the native inhabitants of the territory, while also recruiting people to join the new lord's "guard."
Recent reconnaissance has revealed that, excluding Desera City, Julius's original territory contained at least two Golden Dwarf tribes, five Desert Serpent tribes, and more than a dozen villages of nomadic grassland natives. The total population exceeded two thousand.
If Julius could learn from his greenskin relatives and manage things a little, he could easily raise an army of hundreds of dragon servants, and Casalos wouldn't have much of a chance to kill him alone.
Unfortunately, it would be too much to ask red dragons, whose nature is chaotic, to manage their territories; a red dragon like Chassa is a special case.
Now, the abundant labor force in Julius' vast territory, along with its treasures, naturally benefited Casalos.
It would be best to first bind a portion of the labor force under the identity of the Red Dragon, and after investigation and selection, then entrust them with the dragon vein and send them to the Iron Dragon's territory.
28. A Turning Point in Fate
Isis parted the withered grass stalks that were taller than a person, bent down and scooped up a handful of clear water from the stream to splash on her face, chasing away some of the scorching heat of the sun, so that she could calmly take one more look at the azure sky, the vast grassland, and the towering snow-capped mountains in the distance.
For her, every day of life was precious, and the world in her eyes appeared even more magnificent and colorful—she could see many things that others could not, such as the strands of light that filled the air like silk threads. They flowed from every person, every object, and every event, intertwining and weaving into various intricate and mysterious patterns under the dome, converging in the unseen distance, slowly stirring, as if the fate of the entire world... including her own.
Of course, she knew it wasn't fate, but she didn't know what it was.
Perhaps we will never see this beautiful scenery again tomorrow.
Several days have passed since the day was set for offering sacrifices to the dragon that spews destructive flames, but the dragon has yet to arrive. This is to be expected; the people of the grasslands have lived under that red shadow for decades, and the dragon has never been punctual.
At the latest, the dragon was three years late.
Isis also hoped that the dragon would arrive later, so that she could live a little longer, since she was one of the sacrifices to be offered.
The evil dragon Julius demands that the people of the grasslands offer him a fixed amount of gold, jewels, and other treasures each year, as well as three of the most beautiful women, in exchange for the right to live under his dragon breath.
The people of the grasslands had no power to resist Julius; to survive, they had no choice but to accept this unreasonable condition—in fact, the tribal leaders, coerced by the dragon, were quite relieved. The Tindor Grasslands were far from peaceful. The people of the grasslands constantly faced threats from various wild beasts, intelligent carnivorous dinosaurs, goblins, and the treacherous Koto fish-men that roamed the waterways. And beyond the grasslands, a serpent-man empire, its very existence uncertain, lurked, eyeing the people of the grasslands with predatory intent.
Since the dragon claimed the vast nomadic area beneath the snow-capped mountains as its own territory, the carnivorous dinosaurs and earth sprites have all moved away from this place, and the frequency of the Kou Tao fishmen's raids and plunders has also decreased significantly.
Of course, none of this was the spontaneous behavior of those monsters. It is said that before Isis was born, when the people of the grasslands were offering a sacrifice to the red dragon, the dragon was a few days late, and the prepared treasures and maiden attracted the covetousness of the Koto fishmen.
The hideous monsters, wielding long spears and shields, slaughtered the large camp built for the sacrifice, killing everyone, including the sacrificial girl, and then stole all the treasures prepared for the red dragon.
When the red dragon arrived belatedly, it was enraged to see its sacrifice lying in a pool of blood. Then, it began an indiscriminate massacre of the grassland bandit species, its dragonfire nearly igniting the entire plain. From that moment on, the grassland inhabitants of the red dragon's territory were no longer greatly harassed by goblins and similar creatures.
The culprit, the Koto fish-man, escaped by hiding underwater, but he no longer dared to provoke the evil dragon too much, and instead shifted his focus of plundering to the bay outside Desera.
In this way, the major tribes located at the foot of the snow-capped mountains were left with only the insignificant threat of wild beasts. Nourished by the snowmelt, the grasslands at the foot of the mountains were always among the most fertile in the entire Tindor steppe. For the tribal leaders, exchanging the lives of only three young girls each year, along with the gold and jewels that the herders "traded" from merchant ships anchored in Desala using large quantities of sheepskins, milk, or other game, for the protection of the Red Dragon was an extremely worthwhile deal. After all, it wasn't their own daughters being sacrificed, nor their own treasures being offered up.
The bloodthirsty, evil red dragon has become the protector of the grassland people, which is ironic.
"Sisi! Where are you, Sisi!"
A shout interrupted Isis's thoughts; it was one of her few friends in the tribe calling her.
"I'm here, what's up?" Ishi stood up, found a small mound, climbed up, and stretched her body out over the weeds, waving her arms to indicate her location.
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S asked, "The red dragon is here?"
Regardless, she still had to face her fate as a sacrifice. When the tribal shaman delivered babies for the people of the grasslands, he would use witchcraft to select a girl qualified to become a sacrifice—if the sacrifice did not meet the red dragon's requirements, the dragon would massacre the village in a demonstration, and no one dared to disobey it.
Isis's fate was sealed from the moment she was born. Her tribe provided her with the best food and drink for her entire life, hoping to make her a suitable sacrifice. Aside from her predetermined destiny, her first sixteen years were carefree.
"No...no! No, that's not right, the red dragon came...no, it can never come again...sigh, anyway, you no longer have to be a saintess."
Her friend, babbling incoherently with the good news, exclaimed, "Come back with me quickly! The dragon that wanted to devour you is now only left with its head! A group of monsters carried it into the main camp, and they're talking to the tribal elders about something. There are so many people gathered around the camp now, all wanting to see what the severed dragon's head looks like!"
"Ah?!" Upon hearing this, Isis was initially delighted, but quickly became worried. Unlike her naive herdsmen friends, thanks to her status as a saintess, Isis had read many books brought by merchants from the continent in Desera, and could think of much more.
The death of the red dragon means the tribes beneath the snow-capped mountains have lost their former ferocious protector. Will the being that killed the red dragon seize its territory? If so, will it impose even harsher demands on the people of the grasslands?
Is she really no longer going to be a sacrifice disguised as a "saint"? What will become of the major tribes?
Compared to her predetermined fate, the unknown future that she couldn't even imagine seemed to frighten her more... and there was also a tiny bit of anticipation.
In a daze, Isis was led back to the main tent by her friend's hand, and she saw Julius's enormous head from afar.
The red dragon was dead, but its ferocious aura remained. The grassland people who were watching dared not get too close, but only dared to stand at a distance and look up at the source of evil that had once dominated the grassland people for decades.
Beside the red dragon's head stood a short, kobold warrior covered in steel scales and with dragon wings on his back. Even though he was only about half the height of the grassland people, the imposing aura emanating from the kobold was in no way inferior to that of the red dragon when he was alive.
As Isis looked at it, it turned its head to look at Isis.
"That's one of your 'Holy Maidens'? Very good, she's a suitable candidate, my Dragon Lord will surely like her!"
The right person, my dragon lord... These words flooded Isis's ears, and she suddenly realized that her fate seemed to have not changed.
29.Surprise
“Isis, is it? Look up at me.”
Casalos, still wearing the skin of a red dragon, sat sideways on the "balcony" of the former Julius's lair, overlooking the vast tropical grasslands below the snow-capped mountains.
A human girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old knelt tremblingly on the inside, her head bowed and not daring to speak.
Not long after Sven took the dragon vein goblins out to patrol the territory, he personally brought the girl to it with two goblins, saying it was a surprise for it.
Upon hearing Casalos's command, the girl trembled slightly, yet dared not disobey. Biting her lower lip, she slowly raised her head.
"She's got the makings of a beauty," Casalos thought to himself, glancing at her. This wasn't just an evaluation based on memories from his past life; it was also a dragon's most basic aesthetic judgment: for some reason, the Nine-Headed Dragon God had endowed dragons with the ability to appreciate the reproductive aesthetics of all species.
Both his past life's human aesthetic sense and his current life's dragon instinctual aesthetic sense agree that the girl is indeed beautiful enough—Casaros originally thought that the people of the Churt Peninsula all looked like Ni, but now it seems that he was wrong.
Compared to the common races of Faerûn, the girl's skin was indeed very dark, but not the kind of dark black that Ni had. Instead, it was closer to the healthy brown that comes from long-term exposure to ultraviolet rays. Moreover, her skin was much smoother than that of the common races of Faerûn, with small pores and very little body hair.
The girl had long white hair, and her eyes, wide open in fear, were adorned with a pair of jewel-like red pupils. Her slightly chubby face was oval-shaped, with exquisitely sculpted features that looked as if they were carved by a master craftsman.
In addition, the girl also had a pair of straight and long legs. This is a common feature of the indigenous people of the Churt Peninsula. These long legs give the Churt people excellent running and jumping abilities, and in the girl's case, they provide her with excellent vertical body proportions.
As expected, it met the criteria for the red dragon's favorite food... Svent knew, of course, that his dragon lord was not an evil red dragon, and that Casaloz didn't like this kind of food.
In fact, the kobold doesn't possess the dragon's bizarre ability to understand the reproductive aesthetics of all species. It can't even distinguish between male and female humans, let alone beauty or ugliness. The surprise it speaks of has absolutely nothing to do with anything that onlookers find entertaining.
The surprise Svent mentioned was the girl's arcane talent.
Even though she had never learned any magic-related knowledge or truly come into contact with magic, the girl still exuded arcane energy that Casalos could clearly sense, and her eyes were filled with magical light—the girl's eyes were almost developing spell-like abilities!
It was truly a wonderful surprise that prompted Svent to return urgently!
Casalos used the abstract legacy of the Athelon as a reference. With this girl's arcane talent, if she had started systematically learning magic from a young age, she would probably be close to touching the threshold of legend by now.
"Don't be so scared, I won't eat you." Thinking of this, Casalos shook his head, deciding to calm the girl down first: "My servant brought you in alone because I saw your talent. I want to take you on as an apprentice. What do you think?"
Upon hearing this, the girl put one hand to her chest and let out a long sigh of relief, her expression visibly relaxed, though she remained reserved in the face of the dragon's imposing size.
The warp and weft of the magic network also fluctuated with her emotions, making Casalos want to complain: How can this be? Are you the illegitimate daughter of some goddess whose name cannot be directly called?
Casalos's resolve to take the girl in became even stronger: with the arcane talent she had shown, if she started learning now, it wouldn't be long before a great mage appeared in Dragon Territory!
Most importantly, this archmage will be personally trained by Casalorz's Winged Hand, setting aside the enhancement of the Dragonflight's power. Her magical talent, her rapid growth in the magical realm, and her research into magic will be the best catalyst for Casalorz's own arcane power growth. Furthermore, the assistance a mage can provide to Casalorz in all aspects is far beyond what a warlock can match.
For sorcerers, magic is an art, a talent. A sorcerer's research and understanding of magic stems from a resonance with arcane magic in their blood and a flash of inspiration. Finding clues from phenomena and summarizing the laws governing the operation of magic is somewhat like talking to a brick wall for them.
Warlocks may be able to wield magic in dazzling and colorful ways, but mages are the group that advances their magical power and spells through logic and rules.
Putting everything else aside, regarding the problem Casalos discovered about dragons' flight, even dragon vein sorcerers, including prophets, have been studying it for months and still haven't found a clue. If this young girl before them has already reached the pinnacle, perhaps she'll discover some clues in just a few days?
"If I don't want to... will you eat me?"
Casalos turned his head and looked down at the girl without saying anything.
“I understand… So if I become your apprentice, what will become of my tribe…”
"Now that you have become my apprentice, your tribe should rightfully become your servants and your subordinates."
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They will be granted higher status and will no longer be required to pay tribute; instead, they will become the enforcers of tax collection within my territory.
"I do!" The girl's eyes suddenly hardened, and even the magical network connecting her to her body seemed to freeze briefly, just like the effect of a certain law spell being activated.
Casalos nodded in satisfaction: Even when sacrificed to the red dragon by his own tribe, he still did not forget the tribe's nurturing grace when faced with choices, and could still feel a desire to protect his tribe.
Given the girl's nature, the probability of her willingly betraying Casalos after successfully completing her studies under his tutelage is extremely low. This reduces the risk of the investment significantly while increasing the returns considerably.
Sven gave it a really big surprise!
So where should we begin teaching magic?
Given Casalos's current level 1 mage status, trying to teach Isis, a talent whose emotional fluctuations could affect the magic network, was simply wishful thinking. However, if she were to be taught by a kobold dragon vein warlock, her talent might suddenly awaken into some kind of divinely favored warlock, which would somewhat contradict Casalos's original intentions.