Chapter 480: Chapter 284: Discovering the Crucial Point

The wandering Chosen of God, sent flying by David’s tail and covered in mud, struggled awkwardly to his feet. He was gearing up for a long-awaited dragon-slaying battle but was stopped by Vileili, the Forest Enchanted of the God of Fate and History.

She looked meaningfully at the Legendary Red Dragon, who was now in a towering rage but had regained a sliver of rationality, and then at David, who had just scrambled to his feet.

“The Mithril Dragon Lock has been moved; let’s go!”

Leopold, who had suffered a disadvantage, was obviously reluctant.

Bradimir, however, breathed a sigh of relief. He heeded the advice and quickly followed the old Court Mage and Forest Enchanted as they slipped back through the rapidly closing Teleportation Gate.

After all, if a battle were to commence, he, the archer who had just turned Flameclaw into a pincushion, would surely be the enraged Legendary Red Dragon’s first ’target.’

Dragons hold grudges like this and retaliate on the spot. Not even a Mountain Giant could distract them from their vendetta.

Most importantly, the Mithril Dragon Lock had been moved by the dragons. There was no point in lingering, and besides, this wasn’t the only set of its kind.

The three Elven legends had arrived quickly and fled even faster. The Chosen of God, who failed to ’catch the ride’ in time, had no choice but to skulk into the depths of the forest, leaving Lizrite’s furious mother to unleash a Dragon Breath into empty air, her enraged roar echoing through the mountains.

David, still fuming from the previous ambush, also stamped his feet in anger.

“Damn it, how can those long-eared buggers run faster than rabbits!”

Wrath

For a moment, with no other opponents, the two Red Dragons, who had just been fighting each other but now had nowhere to vent their remaining fury, faced off, nearly coming to blows again on the spot.

It was Dragon Father Attilicia’s timely arrival that prevented this.

A Metal Dragon, come to join the fun? Figaroa thought, her rage finding a new target. She swiped a claw at Attilicia, sending him flying. He skipped several times across the smoke-filled forest like a stone on water.

Attilicia had just scrambled to his feet when one side of his face, struck by the blow, swelled visibly, his expression a mixture of bewilderment and indignation.

Is this female Red Dragon still in a frenzy?!

It was only because he was a Metal Dragon, his bones hardened from enduring the ravages of the Crimson Calamity, that he was not more grievously injured. Had it been any other type of dragon taking such a blow from an adult Red Dragon, they likely would have had half their teeth knocked out.

Alicia, the Silver Dragon princess, wisely kept hovering at a safe distance. She promptly spoke to dissuade the mother dragon, who was about to pounce on Dragon Father Attilicia:

“Your Excellency Flameclaw Figaroa, please calm your fury! We are not enemies. We are here at the invitation of your daughter, Miss Lizrite, to help release the Dragon Mad Lock.”

The idea, of course, had come from David. But in this moment, having Alicia be the one to speak was more likely to break the ice. David, who was cheerily hurrying towards them with a spring in his step, naturally had no objections to this small stratagem.

Hearing this, the mother Red Dragon finally paused, saving Dragon Father Attilicia from an undeserved disaster. However, her spoken words were still filled with the characteristic arrogance of a Red Dragon:

“How long, exactly, did my crazed ’slumber’ last? Did the Dragon Queen and the King of the North Wind get together? So much so that Chromatic Dragons and Metal Dragons are now able to live peacefully and even help each other, wing to wing?”

“Fifty years have passed, Your Excellency.”

Seeing that the legendary dragoness was finally willing to speak, and even joke about the two Dragon Gods, Alicia decisively and boldly descended, responding with a smile.

David, who had just been kicked flying by the mother dragon, now sidled up, putting on a brazen front. He grinned, “Congratulations, Mother, on breaking free from your seal and regaining the freedom of your soul! Heh.”

Figaroa finally narrowed her eyes, sizing up the young Red Dragon whelp before her, whose resilience seemed even greater than the ancient Elven treasury ramparts, so much so that her own memories felt muddled.

“I don’t recall having such an exceptionally talented child. Who are you, exactly?”

David, whose scales were askew and face was covered in bloody scratches from the mother dragon’s earlier assault, immediately puffed out his chest and declared:

“My name is David Uthos Sed Ponga; my mother is the Crimson Calamity Pafila. However, your daughter Lizrite is my spouse, and we even have children. So, isn’t it only natural for me to call you Mother? By the way, I’ve already sent Lizrite back to our territory. Would you like to visit her? It’s just that our daughter Octavia has been sent to Dragon Island for training and can’t be seen for now.”

Figaroa was momentarily struck silent by David’s impeccable logic, and she found herself secretly impressed.

Lizrite was not her first brood.

But a ’son-in-law’ daring to come back, clamoring to call her Mother—that was truly a first, a Red Dragon son-in-law coming to acknowledge his mother-in-law.

After all, unlike Green Dragons who liked to bind relationships with mutual benefits, Red Dragons were mostly solitary. For them, fulfilling the obligation of raising their young through the Hatchling phase was generally considered sufficient.

Those like Pafila, who would carry their young back in their mouths if the Dragon Nest was threatened, were rare.

It was to the point that David, who had once hastily leafed through the Draconic Legacy and been scared into a panic, had even mistakenly thought that Chromatic Dragons had the nasty habit of eating Dragon Eggs—Dragon Eggs, possessing inherent elemental immunity, wouldn’t even be harmed if swallowed.

Whether it was Sed Ponga, whose fame spanned many planes, or Pafila, who had made her mark half a century ago, both made Figaroa see David in a new light.

Not to mention, this fellow had somehow managed to suppress her when she was in the throes of Dragon Madness, and had even cooperated with her own daughter to extract the Dragon Mad Lock from her body.

All of this—his profound background, peerless talent, and a network capable of mobilizing Metal Dragons as allies—made Figaroa, who had always been arrogant and supercilious, display an uncharacteristically good temper that would have astonished any dragon who knew her from her past. She inwardly accepted this uninvited ’son-in-law,’ even going so far as to awkwardly extend her tail and playfully tap David on the head, just as she used to do with Lizrite and her other children when they were young.

“’Hmm, a good child,’ she conceded. ’However, I won’t be visiting the territory. The Elves’ “masterpiece” has fooled me for this long. This grudge, I must repay.’”

Upon hearing this, David’s eyes immediately lit up. Although he knew very well that his ’mother-in-law’ was temporarily avoiding her daughter Lizrite for psychological reasons related to the draconic tragedy fifty years ago, and might not really be ready to immediately seek trouble with the High Elves, this didn’t stop him from seizing the opportunity to stir up trouble for the Elves.

“That’s easy! These long-ears are currently trying to get their hands back on the Skanis Continent. They’ve even taken over my territory, Katjana, and now they’re at Eight Peaks Mountain, bashing those stubby Dwarves’ heads in! With Mother’s strength, you’ll definitely make those long-ears feel sicker than if they’d eaten shit.”

Then, under the strange looks from both the mother dragon and Alicia, he hurriedly rubbed his claws together and corrected himself, “Ah, no, I mean, you’ll definitely become the biggest variable in breaking this stalemate and the nightmare that keeps these long-ears tossing and turning all night!”

“…Eight Peaks Mountain? I’ve noted it.”

Figaroa, who was feeling famished and desperately needed a hearty meal, had been put on the spot by David. She couldn’t very well backtrack now and say she didn’t want to seek revenge on the Elves, could she?

She, Flameclaw, couldn’t bear to lose face like that.

Little did she know that the ever-cunning David would produce a Portable Cave from around his neck and, like a magician, unleash a variety of fresh fish and Dragon Food packaged from Dragon Island. This spread even included half a ton of Gold ingots intentionally scattered by David, which at first glance looked as showy yet insubstantial as those flashy gold-leaf steaks from Turkey on Blue Star.

“Mother, you’ve been lost for so long, you must be starving,” David said. “Please, take your time and eat your fill. It’s best to set off on a full stomach.”

“Alright, alright, alright! What a thoughtful child!” Figaroa’s expression visibly brightened as she gazed upon the glittering golden feast before her.

She also finally gained a ’certain’ appreciation for her sudden son-in-law’s financial capacity.

He wasn’t just rich; he was incredibly generous too.

Such was his magnanimity that it felt as if becoming a Deification Dragon—one that advanced by consuming Gold—would be a waste of his true potential.

“But three years from now, The Slaying King Star will arrive. Mother, you must be careful,” David advised with concern.

“I know.” After Flameclaw, the Legendary Dragon, had devoured the golden banquet, she set off in high spirits, with David and his family respectfully seeing her off. She headed south to cause trouble for the High Elves, who were then in the midst of their assault on Eight Peaks Mountain.

“Heh, managed to bluff my way through that one. By the way, Father, has that old Dwarf Bergin come back yet? I’ve sent such a strong reinforcement to Eight Peaks Mountain; I’ll have to squeeze a hefty reward out of him!”

David turned, a mischievous grin on his face, only to see his Dragon Father, Attilicia, looking at him warily, his own face still swollen.

This rascal has egged me on like this more than once in the past!

Damn it, even the notoriously treacherous Green Dragons aren’t this shameless!

How did I, a paragon of a Silver Dragon, end up siring such a creature?

Seeing that his father didn’t quite remember whether the Dwarven Runemaster had returned from the Gloomy Region of the New Continent on his own, David thought about the Elves’ recent actions and felt something was off. He squinted his eyes, a sense of unease settling in as he murmured to himself:

“These High Elves are more timid than I thought; I expected them to be up for a fight sooner. If I had known, I wouldn’t have rushed to send Lizrite and that blasted thing back to the fortress… No, damn! I forgot about those Blue Dragon ’charging stations’ outside the fortress; we need to rush back and seal them up.”

Otherwise, if we’re late, we might get our dragon brains bashed out.

Immediately, he opened a Fesentelerus’s Portal and returned to the fortress.

However, much to David’s surprise, the chaotic free-for-all he had envisioned wasn’t happening.

While the Blue Dragons were indeed brawling for various reasons, the scene wasn’t as bloody as he’d imagined. It was more like a drunken melee.

They’d been fighting for so long, yet remarkably, not a single dragon life had been lost.

The distance from the fortress might have been a factor, but it couldn’t be the sole explanation.

After all, according to his father’s experience while flying overhead and Alicia’s experience after lending him the necklace, both had reported feeling on the verge of losing their minds.

David recalled that Blue Dragons, unlike Gold and Silver Dragons, could maintain group living and even a semblance of civilization despite the effects of Dragon Madness. His eyes narrowed as he turned to look back at the still-running Tokamak Furnace and the swirling electromagnetic turbulence around it.

An incredible thought surfaced in his mind:

Could it be…?

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