Chapter 114: Adult Giant Dragon
As the distance gradually closed.
Soren’s footsteps became lighter, and his speed slowed down. Dragons possess considerable hearing abilities, and even with Soren’s high agility bonus, he could still be detected if he attempted to sneak in. Fortunately, the dragon in front of him was a white dragon, which didn’t have a very high spell level; it only possessed some spell-like abilities. Otherwise, Soren would have to be cautious about magical traps when sneaking in. Once a dragon’s lair evolves into a maze over time, it certainly contains many traps and mechanisms.
The adult giant dragon before him appeared to be sleeping, but that did not mean it was unaware of its surroundings.
A dragon’s sleep is a crucial process in its life. In a sleeping state, they still retain about 50% of their basic abilities and can perceive nearby creatures or heavier footfalls. While sleeping, a dragon’s abilities gradually increase, and its injuries heal at an accelerated pace, requiring it to have filled its belly with a significant amount of prey beforehand. The adult white dragon Soren saw was recovering from injuries, as he noticed a wound on its left wing, measuring thirty centimeters in length and almost five centimeters deep, seemingly inflicted by some kind of two-handed sword strike.
This would affect the white dragon’s flying abilities!
Additionally, there was another wound on the white dragon’s throat, where fine scales were densely packed, appearing to be a weak defense yet actually one of the most resilient parts of a dragon’s body. Ordinary weapons would find it hard to penetrate. The attack was likely made with a longsword or a thrusting weapon; the wound was smaller in area but appeared quite deep, suggesting that the previous attackers were equipped with dragon-slaying weapons. When dealing with any pure-blooded dragon, one can imagine it as being mostly covered by armor-level protective gear.
In the bard’s anecdotes, it seems that dragons always have a spot called the “reverse scale,” which is a fatal weak point on a dragon’s body. Striking here could kill even if it didn’t reach the dragon’s heart.
However, in fact, dragons do not possess reverse scales.
They do have weak defensive points, but there are absolutely no lethal reverse scales. It is unclear when this notion began, but the bards have spread this tale, leading many naïve adventurers to believe that finding a reverse scale would make slaying a dragon easy, because the stories always suggest that heroes strike the dragon’s fatal weak point and kill the terrifying creature in one blow.
“The defense strength is at least 25 or above!”
Soren closed the distance to about twenty meters, observing the adult white dragon’s body, focusing on the color, thickness, and distribution of the scales. Based on his rich past experience, Soren judged that the adult giant dragon before him had a defense level of around 25, meaning that the dragon scales and skin covering its body could withstand physical attacks of about 25 points of intensity.
This defense strength is equivalent to an adult man attacking with all his might using a weapon.
In other words.
An adult man wielding a two-handed weapon in a full strike might just barely penetrate the giant dragon’s defenses.
Just enough to break through, the damage would likely be less than 3 points!
Soren’s expression was quite serious as he stealthily approached from the other side, privately thinking, “With the elite pirates I’ve brought, breaking through its dragon scale defense shouldn’t be a problem. However, if we don’t deal serious damage, the injury will probably only be a single-digit number.”
This was not a good sign.
Relying solely on Soren to deal damage and kill an adult dragon would not be easy.
As he circled around the side of the dragon’s lair, Soren could see a pile of treasure. Because the amount wasn’t too large, it was directly overshadowed by the dragon’s massive body. As the weakest among the five-colored dragons, the white dragon, though it had accumulated wealth to adulthood and complied with double to triple the spoils standard, still didn’t seem to have treasures as extravagant as the red dragon.
Red dragons are the mightiest of the five-colored dragons and also the most fond of hoarding treasure.
However.
Before Soren’s eyes, he saw some small objects that flickered with light.
Those were diamonds!
White dragons are the most fond of diamonds among all dragons. Whenever they discover diamonds, they inevitably try to claim them, unless such behavior is exceedingly dangerous. Among all gems, white dragons love diamonds the most, so in almost any adult white dragon’s lair, some striking diamonds can usually be found. Therefore, even in what seems like a modest treasure hoard for a white dragon, there could often be hidden valuable spoils, depending on the quantity of diamonds.
After all, just one can fetch a high price!
There wasn’t much gold in the dragon’s lair.
Due to its proximity to the sea, Soren hardly saw any Gind; most were fragments of gold dust and gold nuggets. The number of gems wasn’t high, but it was mixed with quite a few diamonds, with Soren spotting nearly a dozen.
After a moment’s pause.
Soren crouched in the corner, memorizing the entire environment of the dragon’s lair, while his brain began to devise tactical plans.
He had two options.
The first was to take advantage of the dragon not having discovered him yet, quickly pull out the Legendary Curved Blade Icebane to launch a surprise attack. Once within ten meters, even if the dragon sensed his presence, Soren could still aim for two or three attacks. If he could hit the enemy’s vital point by chance, he could inflict considerable damage right from the start of the battle.
However, this would make the subsequent combat more difficult.
Due to the cramped space of the dragon’s lair, once the white dragon reacted, it would undoubtedly unleash its dragon breath, at which point Soren wouldn’t have anywhere to hide.
Absolutely do not take a dragon breath head-on!
This is a point particularly marked in dragon-slaying guidelines.
The second option was to lure the white dragon out, which would eliminate the opportunity for a sneak attack, but would allow the white dragon to think he was just an intruding thief. Normally, the white dragon would surely pursue him out of the lair. This way, Soren could lead it down, granting the elite pirates lying in ambush below a chance to attack.
If he could keep the white dragon on the ground, the likelihood of victory would be as high as eighty percent!
………………
Soon.
Soren had made up his mind.
Suddenly, his figure shot out, directly leaping towards the white dragon in front of him, then swiftly grabbing a large handful of gold and diamonds from beneath it. Once he had the goods, Soren immediately retreated. Almost as soon as he was about five meters close to the treasure, the sleeping giant dragon seemed to sense something and moved slightly, then suddenly opened its huge dragon eyes.
——”Dragon Sense (Ten Meters).”
Soren’s figure was almost escaping outside the dragon’s lair, only a blurry silhouette could be seen.
Roar!
An angry roar erupted!
The suddenly awakened adult white dragon stood up and exclaimed in Common, “Despicable little thief!”
It was not an ordinary white dragon.
It wasn’t like those that resembled beasts with little intelligence; its ability to use Common meant it had some remarkable traits.
……………… (To be continued ~^~)
