The Crimson Dragon Chapter 34

Chapter 34

  If Claudius had seen the machete-wielding Dehrii, he would surely feel that they were way, way more threatening than the Flying Monkeys from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Just the looks of them holding machetes was enough to scare the h.e.l.l out of people. A few Derhii dived down towards the flying Sleipnir, with a silver-haired leader leading the team.

  The Derhii eventually agreed to join the force to purge 'The Crimson Disaster'; though no one knew how the Copper Dragon managed to persuade them. The campaign was now in full swing, yet ironically, the target himself was completely unaware of it. As Claudius was focused on the clay plates, he failed to notice that there was a Copper Dragon nearby.

  He thought, "A mere young dragon dares to play pranks on me? Impossible!"

  Claudius barely slept, as it was currently his active period. Most of his time was spent hunting and messing around with clay plates. Due to his increased activity, Claudius had a larger appet.i.te than usual. He easily wiped out every single herbivore within tens of kilometres from his lair; even the native predators had to move away from his hunting zone due to the lack of food. Thanks to his habit of planting mushrooms, the hunting was still at an 'acceptable' level. Claudius would have devoured all life forms if there had not been a mushroom farm. An extra benefit of consuming mushrooms were their rich fibre content, which prevented Claudius from constipation.

  The mushrooms cultivated in his lair were no ordinary mushrooms; they were either blood red or bright red in colour, as compared to the normal black and white. These colourful mushrooms also had a tint of warmth to them for some reason. Most people would most likely die from consuming one of Claudius' mushrooms&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;

  Their growth rate was also shocking, with a bunch of mushrooms growing rapidly on Gudebar's corpse every day. The mushrooms required less than an hour to grow from hyphae to a fully grown mushroom around the height of a human adult. Even Claudius, who had experienced plenty of weird stuff himself, thought that the mushrooms had to be haunted or cursed; he had already completely forgotten about the Heart of Treant he had tossed into the farm days ago.

  Even more fascinating, some of the mushrooms experienced an interesting change; it was just that Claudius himself was unaware of it. Some of the shorter mushrooms, around the height of a 10-year-old, began growing cute limbs and facial features. Concealing their presence under the taller mushrooms, they avoided the fate of being consumed. Claudius could not really be blamed for not noticing it, as he would only casually grab a bunch of the fully grown ones without paying too much attention; there was no need to pay much attention to the looks of his staple food. He recently tried writing on the hardened mushroom caps of over aged mushrooms, but the attempt failed — they were still too soft.

  The spontaneous appearance of Myceloids, the mushroommen, was due to constant exposure to the radiation released by Claudius and the nourishment of the Heart of Treant. The Myceloids had the innate ability to communicate with telepathy, thus they were still undiscovered by Claudius despite living in close proximity. The Crimson Dragon had thought that something weird was going on within the mushroom farm, but he dismissed the issue as bug or mice infestation and did not investigate further. One thing to note: the Myceloids were of the good and righteous alignment&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;

  The 'normal' mushrooms Claudius grew could earn him a stockpile of gold coins equivalent to his body ma.s.s if he sold them as materials for alchemy. Eating mushrooms bursting with mana was both a luxury and a great waste, but Claudius could not care less. He had no idea his mushrooms had such a high value, and he had been consuming them for lengthy periods of time already. It was now a habit to eat mushrooms as the main course while meat was more of a side dish.

  The purge had finally begun while Claudius was working on clay plates. He had a powerful and intense dragon aura, but it had limited range due to his age. Achilles challenged Claudius with a roar before declaring, "Leave right now, murderer!" in the Draconic Language in front of his lair.

  The 20-meter-long Bronze Dragon had long morphed back to his dragon form and was currently circling above Claudius' lair. White mist covered the entire region at the blink of an eye.

  "So there's a Bronze Dragon here, huh. The f**k is wrong with him? I've only minded my own business after settling down. This is none of his business! Maybe he's a Silver or Gold Dragon disguised as a Bronze Dragon?" Placing down the clay plates, Claudius walked out of his lair and leapt into the air.

  The scorching air dyed the mist red, and Achilles could only see a ma.s.sive shadow crashing out of the dense mist. Claudius dispersed the mist with a few flap of his dark crimson wings, flooding the area with heat at the same time. Although the Bronze Dragon hated the evil and chaotic Crimson Dragons, Achilles could not help but admire the ferocious and mighty look of his enemy. The steel-like body, dark crimson scales, as well as the two pairs of horns extending in different directions all suggested that the Crimson Dragon in front of him right now was special and was ridiculously powerful.

  Contrary to Achilles' hatred, Claudius was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with curiosity — it was his first time seeing a Bronze Dragon in person. The mature adult dragon was smaller in size than Claudius, with his body around the size of Sylvia. Claudius simply thought that the Bronze Dragon was looking for trouble; he thought that Achilles lacked the strength to overpower him in combat. But physical strength was not the only thing which mattered, as Bronze Dragons could utilize magic fairly well.

  "That guy over there! You're a Bronze Dragon, right? What brings you here, eh? I don't remember killing any of your kin though? Making me leave is also unreasonable, you know? Too bad I plan on staying here for a long while!" Claudius tried to talk things out.

  Claudius blocked half of Achilles' field of view with his ma.s.sive body, attempting to intimidate the Bronze Dragon.

  "You killed my friend, poor old Guderbar! Furthermore, this is my territory! Crimson Dragons are unwelcomed here!"

  Achilles wanted to solve the problem without having to fight to due to his kind nature; it was best if the Crimson Dragon could leave quietly. In his mind, threatening the target was necessary was necessary to achieve his secondary goal. That was why he brought along Sleipnir the Bronze Dragon.

  The little Sleipnir was merely 3 meters long. No matter how Claudius looked at it, it was still something he could probably finish off in one bite. He would have mistaken Sleipnir as some other creature instead of a Copper Dragon if not for his knowledge from the Inheritance Ceremony; it was his first time seeing a Copper Dragon, and Sleipnir's size was simply too tiny when compared to his own.

  "Did you guys really think you could fight me just because it's 2 versus 1? Just a puny young Copper Dragon and weak adult Bronze Dragon, and you guys thought it would be possible to fight a Crimson Dragon of my tier? Don't tell me it's something r.e.t.a.r.ded like believing 'Justice will always be victorious over evil'! Pfft, the definition of 'righteous' and 'evil' is subjective anyways&h.e.l.lip;&h.e.l.lip;" Claudius was about to burst into laughter.