Chapter 44: Ancient Red Dragon
The inn in White Horse City was bustling with people. In fact, as soon as Soren arrived, he heard some bad news: it seemed that the monsters in the nearby wilderness had suddenly gone mad, leading to a mass migration that blocked all roads southeast of White Horse City. Various creatures from the plains and hills had migrated into areas of human activity, causing the battle situation around White Horse City to escalate, and even the stationed military forces had been dispatched for patrol outside.
The Adventurers’ Guild even issued a B-level investigation mission, offering a reward of 12,000 Gind to hire someone to investigate the cause of the situation.
It was not necessary to solve this problem.
Just clarifying the reason for the migration of so many creatures could earn the reward of 12,000 Gind.
Unfortunately, the results brought back were not good.
The first batches of adventurers who set out couldn’t even enter the Black Marsh and were beaten back outside by a group of ogres.
Adventurers daring enough to take on B-level tasks were naturally not simple, as the entire team consisted of high-level professionists above Tier 3, including even native wizards. Yet, such a powerful adventurer team returned in a state of disarray with two dead and three injured. They encountered a group of ogres, which was not the key issue since the challenge level of ogres is not high. The problem lay in the fact that there was actually a two-headed ogre among them. Moreover, it was a two-headed ogre wizard!
The multiple spells it wielded directly slaughtered the spellcasters within the adventurer team, then commanded the ogres to besiege them, ultimately relying on some items to barely allow three of them to escape. During their retreat, they also saw enormous footprints; some suspected that the mountain giants from the southwest had also been driven here by something, and another adventurer team might have been entirely wiped out.
Over a hundred merchant caravans were stranded inside White Horse City.
Some caravans with stronger guards attempted to break through from another direction but encountered large groups of werewolves, with fewer than one in ten returning alive. Now half of the roads in White Horse City were blocked; apart from the road Soren came from, all the roads leading to Leaffall City or moving toward the sea were occupied by various monsters.
Goblins, dog-headed people, werewolves, ogres, lizardmen, etc.
It was as if some terrifying entity had suddenly driven out all the creatures near the southern region by the Tomore Mountains.
There were already rumors that a dragon had appeared over there.
Unfortunately.
No one had yet returned with accurate information, and no one had actually seen the giant dragon’s figure…
The muddy, filthy road.
Soren held Vivian while walking on the dirty streets; his travel horse was entrusted to the Mule Market. Due to the excessive number of caravans stranded in White Horse City, all the inns were fully booked. Even paying double the price, it was challenging to find lodging in the city; this era was particularly hostile to outsiders, and Soren had no choice but to bring Vivian to the old city district. More and more caravans were blocked in White Horse City, and unless they were willing to return from distant places, they could only wait here for the trade routes to be cleared.
This was very bad news for Soren!
Because his planned route had also been cut off by these migrating monsters, it would be relatively easy for him to traverse alone.
But it would be very troublesome with Vivian; Soren couldn’t guarantee he could take care of her during a battle.
Ancient Red Dragon.
This was the first thought that popped into Soren’s mind.
Because there was no other existence that could drive so many monsters into a frenzy, apart from an adult dragon.
Moreover, the center point of the monster expulsion was roughly where the Ancient Red Dragon was located in Soren’s memory.
Given that information flows slowly in this world, if they waited for White Horse City to sluggishly investigate the cause of the monster rampage, the timing would actually coincide with the emergence of the Ancient Red Dragon. This dragon had ravaged the southern region for over two years, claiming countless lives, and it cunningly disguised itself as a normal red dragon until players deduced its level was far beyond that; only then did everyone realize it was a challenge level 25 Ancient Red Dragon.
Had it not foolishly provoked a saint who descended from a deity during the upheaval years, it’s likely that there would have been few capable of taking it down in the southern region!
“Ancient Red Dragon.”
“Challenge Level 25, Biological Level 34, super strong dragon breath.”
“Attribute estimation: Strength 42, Agility 10, Constitution 35, Intelligence 25, Perception 24, Charisma 24.
“Special specialties: Ancient Dragon, Legendary Spells, Giant Creature, Super Strong Dragon Breath???
“Challenge Difficulty: S+.”
…
This was part of the Ancient Red Dragon’s attributes from Soren’s memory.
Its challenge difficulty was on par with a weaker deity, the only difference being that it had no divine rank or divinity, only the power boost of an ancient dragon. Some had once foolishly thought they could rely on a human wave tactic to defeat it; they ended up with dozens dead in one Dragon Wing Strike and hundreds killed by a single dragon breath, directly extinguishing everyone’s ideas of eliminating it through sheer numbers.
However, even so, some still aimed to sneak in, as there was a hoard of wealth belonging to an Ancient Red Dragon within.
Over five million Gind, various extraordinary items, plus at least a dozen legendary items. As for artifacts, such things rarely wandered outside; unless the deity that created them had already fallen, even the Ancient Red Dragon might not be qualified to possess one. Therefore, it was still uncertain whether there were artifacts within its lair.
What could be confirmed was that.
Indeed, some people had entered the dragon’s lair through harassment tactics and managed to obtain one or two legendary items.
This would be the key to the later god-slaying success!
Soren’s current profession level was only level 5, lacking any spells to resist fear, and he couldn’t even stand in front of it.
Naturally, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to set his sights on the Ancient Red Dragon, but the problem was that the monsters had blocked the road, and he couldn’t take Vivian to Leaffall City. The red dragon had occupied its lair for a long time, which meant the blockade would last a long time, unless someone else wiped out all the forced migrating monsters.
Otherwise, Soren could only rely on himself to cross the White Horse Plain.
The inn was filled with noise.
Soren entered while holding Vivian, surrounded by adventurers armed with swords and some small caravans.
“Those damned werewolves!”
A robust man slammed his cup onto the table and said in a deep voice, “They devoured Myard just like that. When I finally found his corpse, I couldn’t even piece together his head and neck.”
Almost all the adventurers were complaining.
The sudden attack caught everyone off guard; some villages established by humans near the Black Marsh had already been forced to migrate.
Because the lizardmen living there had begun launching frequent attacks!
Some terrifying entity had forced them out of the swamp; they needed new territory to live in, so the humans who originally resided nearby became enemies.
A figure that seemed drunk stumbled awkwardly toward Soren.
“Sorry!”
As if pushed by someone, the figure bumped into Soren, and a hand skillfully reached for his coin pouch. However, before the hand could touch the pouch, Soren frowned, quickly seized the opponent’s wrist, then flipped and slammed the person to the ground while stepping on his knee joint, pinning him down.
The entire inn fell silent immediately.
Only the thief’s pained screams remained, as Soren showed no mercy and dislocated his arm.
“Keep your eyes open.”
Soren set Vivian down, withdrew his curved blade with the other hand, and coldly traced it over the thief’s arm. Nearby, several people had their hands on their waists, unable to determine if they were the thief’s accomplices, but they were approaching Soren.
“Enough.”
A man at the bar stood up; first, he frowned at Soren, then pointed at the thief on the ground and said, “Break one of his arms and throw him out.”
“Daring to steal in my establishment is simply asking for d*ath!”
Crack.
The individuals who had gathered around the inn nodded at Soren, then reached out and twisted the thief’s arm; soon after, there was a piercing scream, and two of them lifted the thief and tossed him into the filthy ditch outside the inn.
These were the thugs inside the tavern.
It seemed this tavern had an unsavory background, but it appeared that the old city district couldn’t have a tavern with a clean background.
“Young man.”
“It seems your skills are quite good; do you wish to stay here?”
The burly man at the bar looked Soren up and down, and when his gaze fell on Vivian, it brightened; he said in a low voice, “Two silver Gind for a night.”
“If you’re not satisfied, you can find somewhere else to stay.”
Soren glanced around, took out two silver Gind, and tossed them onto the table, then picked up Vivian.
The burly man nodded to the side and reached out to sweep the silver Gind over.
Soon.
A heavily made-up waitress came over, leading Soren to the second floor of the tavern.
These were part-time waitresses, serving in the tavern while also providing some special services for guests who could afford it.
