96: Chapter 96: Destination 96: Chapter 96: Destination Evil Wolf is not important, refined gold is more important.

All power is illusory, only one’s own strength is the most practical.

Compared to developing power, Leon prefers to enhance himself.

How does it matter if your army is huge?

I am an army of one, a forest alone…

When playing strategy mode games, everyone else plays with troops, but he solely loves the unbeatable lord style, obsessed with grinding the highest level, the best equipment, the best reward traits, soloing through thousands of men unscathed.

Dark Territory is even more dangerous than the surface; even Leon cannot be too reckless here.

Beholders, Purple Worms, Mind Flayers…

too many things could threaten him.

After all, he is still a young Red Dragon, although he is larger than a typical young Red Dragon and has mastered many Spells, his Challenge Level should have surpassed that of a young dragon.

If Leon were to blindly rush alone, he would undoubtedly encounter many bumps and bruises.

However, with Evil Wolf navigating who frequents the Dark Territory, they could sidestep unnecessary trouble, especially since the latter is now very motivated and moves quickly.

Of course, the big troubles were avoided, but minor troubles were still unavoidable.

For surface adventurers, just entering the Dark Territory and being able to return and recount everything that happened there is an achievement worthy of record.

Giant Fire Beetles are not worth mentioning, just hack them to death.

Kobolds run faster than anyone else when they see an enemy scream.

If Leon were to return to Dragon Form, the scene would probably be different.

Hook Horrors have the heads of bald eagles and the bodies of giant beetles, with exoskeletons covered in spikes and bone protrusions, named after their terrifyingly curled hook claws at the end of their long and strong limbs.

As fierce predators in the darkness, they dwell in hidden caves, continuously climbing back and forth on cliffs and cave walls.

Since Hook Horrors are group hunters and always hunt in packs, and even a single individual is not weak, they are quite troublesome to deal with.

By contrast, the Kuo-toa who also live in groups are simply laughable, more like comic relief.

Their appearance is not much different from big carp with hands and feet, wearing big snail shells as helmets, which is uniquely comedic.

Once enslaved by Mind Flayers causing mental collapse, their broken minds could not recover, so they immersed themselves in religious fervor, even inventing Gods to protect themselves from threats.

Leon did not act, and Evil Wolf only killed a Ghoul.

One of the Kuo-toa saw this and worshipped it as a God, enraptured in its own devotion.

“Great God, you have rescued us from the hands of the monsters…

We know your name, Kemamakolom.”

“O great God, what is your first commandment?”

Gods gain strength from faith, harvesting different amounts based on the strength and piety of the faithful.

The faith of a powerful Dragon can be worth the faith of thousands…

In case of the Kuo-toa, their faith is probably worthless.

Never has it been heard of a God demanding Kuo-toa faith; they only have Gods of their own making.

“Let’s go, I’m getting the creeps,” said Evil Wolf.

He suspected that even if he took a knife and cut down all those Kuo-toa, they would not resist.

“Yeah, let’s move on,” agreed Leon, fearing that his IQ might be assimilated by the Kuo-toa.

The Dark Territory makes no distinction between day and night, but they had set off from Crossroads City in the afternoon, and so much time had passed, it was undoubtedly night now.

Leon as a Dragon Form is sleepier, spending much time sleeping each day.

Though his human form is not as fond of sleeping, after such a long time, he grew tired too.

Leon made arrangements to sleep for seven or eight hours, then ate well the cave bear hunted by Evil Wolf, and continued their journey.

After walking for about an hour, a towering tree emerged in the distance…

indeed a towering tree, its branches wide enough to walk on.

There were Hook Horrors and giant bats, one requiring a set of moves, the other just one.

Leon had seen Whisper Trees in a certain game before and was prepared.

He hadn’t expected that seeing the glowing leaves of a Whisper Tree in person, its branches bearing bright blue flowers emitting a fluorescent glow, smelling faintly of honey, would be so dreamlike and breathtaking.

“Do you want to pick a Whispering Tree Flower?” asked Evil Wolf.

“That thing can only be appreciated here in the Dark Territory; once you take it outside, it will wither.”

“Just put it in a container away from sunlight,” said Leon, and he casually picked one.

Since he had promised, he had to deliver; Leon began collecting Whispering Tree Flowers.

The rulebook diverges from the real world, just as a game naturally differs from reality.

The Whispering Tree Flowers in the game have an anti-magic field, making it impossible for anyone near them to cast Spells.

However, while the Whisper Trees here can disrupt Spellcasters’ casting, they are not to the extent of negating magic…

The strength of the anti-magic field varies from flower to flower; the very best Whispering Tree Flower might have some magic-negating effects.

Leon activated the Heavenly Eye Technique and picked a Magic Power-rich Whispering Tree Flower to put in a prepared box.

Hesitant, he then picked a few more and threw them into a spatial rift, to the astonishment of Evil Wolf.

Whispering Tree Flowers must not be exposed to sunlight; their Magic Power continuously fades once they are away from Whisper Trees.

For this reason, Leon didn’t bother collecting extra Whispering Tree Flowers, not counting on their anti-magic field properties.

The Whisper Tree Flowers were for completing Betty’s task; it was Whisper Tree Bark that Leon looked forward to.

He climbed up the drooping branches to the Whisper Tree, glanced around, and started to peel off the bark.

After peeling off two pieces of bark, Leon glanced at the knowledgeable Evil Wolf and said, “Don’t just strip the bark…

You don’t need to help me, just stand guard.”

Whispering Tree Flowers contain varying levels of Magic Power, and so does Whisper Tree Bark, of course.

Not every piece of Whisper Tree Bark is usable—it has to be a special bark saturated with Magic Power, and there are not many to be seen on one colossal Whisper Tree.

One has to climb around until, after great difficulty, they are able to find a piece.

Fortunately, Leon can transform into his Dragon-man form and fly around with wings, otherwise, it would take half a day’s work just climbing up and down to get it done.

Several pieces of Whisper Tree Bark were collected; what remained was figuring out how to utilize them.

Leon had no idea if his Salamanders knew how to use Whisper Tree Bark, but it was always better to have it on hand.

With Whispering Tree Flowers in hand and Whisper Tree Bark obtained, what remained was the refined gold—the objective of this journey into the Dark Territory.

First, they crossed a path filled with spider webs, inevitably encountering Ettercaps and giant spiders along the way.

An Underground Lake appeared ahead, along with Kuo-toa.

“A Kuo-toa village,” Evil Wolf said.

“We could either steal a Dragon Bone Ship from the Kuo-toa or pay them to ferry us across.”

Leon’s attention, however, was on the comically crafted statues of the gods created by the Kuo-toa in their village.

The statue of Mother of the Sea was a rough carving of a humanoid female figure made from wood, but with a head and forepaws resembling a giant albino crayfish, emitting a strong foul smell of rotten fish and shells.

At the base of the statue were piles of shells, colorful stones, mushrooms, and rotten fish, with a wreath hanging around its neck.

The Divine figure of Father of the Depths was formed with a large animal hide wrapping a spread-out ray’s corpse to make the lower body, and two octopuses tied together to form the upper body, also giving off a foul smell.

Leon, feeling disgusted, looked away and asked, “Do you trust these Kuo-toa?”

Evil Wolf slowly shook his head.

“I’ll grant you Water Walking—” Naturally, Leon’s Water Walking Technique could also be cast on others, otherwise, it would have been ludicrous, “you walk over there, and I’ll fly.”

Leon had expected that Evil Wolf might encounter some kind of creature while walking on water, but to his surprise, there were no monsters throughout the trek across the Underground Lake.

Then a Fungus Forest stood in front of both of them.

This Fungus Forest was inhabited by intelligent Myconids capable of movement.

The Myconids, who pursue enlightenment in life and oppose violence, were willing to coexist peacefully with people.

They did not trouble Leon and Evil Wolf.

Instead, they sold mushrooms and offered conveniences, thus preserving their own lives.

Water Ball Mushrooms were a kind of round, plump fungi that could be squeezed like a sponge to extract drinking water, leaving behind an edible “bread”.

Fire Moss, when crushed and fermented, made a tasty, spicy sauce…

Leon finally had the chance to taste the “delicacies” of the Dark Territory.

It went pretty much like that.

Relying on the map provided by Betty, the two traveled for half a day and finally reached their destination.

It was a roiling Molten Lava Lake.

Refined gold weapons are extremely expensive; just applying a layer of refined gold to a regular weapon could sell for five hundred Gold Coins.

When a Dragon evolves from a baby dragon to a young dragon, the accumulated treasure over time could be worth thousands of Gold Coins.

The key to determining whether a Dragon is mature, besides a century of life, is a treasure trove worth about fifteen thousand Gold Coins or more.

As you can imagine, refined gold is definitely not easy to obtain, and now the biggest problem has surfaced.

A Molten Lava Lake was a nightmare for Evil Wolf, but for Leon, who was a Red Dragon, it was like coming home…

Still, it wasn’t that simple because there were monsters living on top of this Molten Lava Lake.

Sure enough, there were Magma Mephits flying to and fro above the Molten Lava Lake.

Surrounded by bubbling Molten Lava, Magma Elements, heavy-headed and light-footed, with silhouettes resembling giant silver-backed gorillas.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake.

“An earthquake?” Evil Wolf was somewhat alarmed.

Leon’s ears moved.

He said, “It’s not an earthquake.

Something is about to appear.”

At that moment, a monster that looked like a Magma Land Shark made of molten lava appeared in the Molten Lava Lake, larger than a normal adult Red Dragon, and covered in Armor while possessing four legs.

“What kind of monster is that?” Evil Wolf’s knowledge was limited; he knew only that the creature was far more fearsome than a Behir.

Even if he transformed into a Werewolf, he wouldn’t dare provoke it.

He couldn’t move about freely on the Molten Lava like Leon, and a claw attack would dredge up not flesh but scalding Molten Lava.

“Magma Land Shark, if I remember correctly, that should be its name.”

Leon’s expression was grave.