Translator: Exodus Tales
Editor: Exodus Tales
Translated by Mianbao
Edited by RED
The first light of dawn…
Some frost dotted the monotonous courtyard. A teenager was cleaning the public area resentfully with a big broom. The ground was littered with patches of shedded dragonling skin, fallen scales, beast spittle, and most of all, the remains of cheap wooden stakes and straw men.
“I thought I wouldn’t have to do these chores after coming here. Big Horn, you’re too disappointing; why couldn’t you send that wolf spirit flying? That way, we wouldn’t have to clean the courtyard,” Li Shaoying grumbled as he recalled the dragonlings fighting yesterday.
Their opponent was a wolf spirit dragonling. Logically speaking, its physique was much weaker than his horned ox dragonling, but his horned ox dragonling was incredibly clumsy during the fight, and was played like a fiddle throughout the match.
“We have to work harder, and regain our face the next time we fight!” Li Shaoying continued mumbling to himself.
Creak…
The gate to the courtyard was pushed open, making a loud noise. Li Shaoying looked towards the gate in surprise.
-Who woke up this early?
-There’s actually someone so hardworking, returning from their morning training before the sun is even up?-
Soon, Li Shaoying saw Zhu Minglang walking in. He could tell how tired Zhu Minglang was just by watching his steps, and his face was even more confused.
—–
After returning to his house, Zhu Minglang put down the large bamboo basket on his back.
Walking to the back of the house, he saw the little crocodile spirit laying on the sand, biting on the groupers that were starting to stink, one mouthful at a time. Looking at the speed it was eating, one could easily tell those things were unappetizing, making it hard for the little crocodile to swallow.
Zhu Minglang smiled bitterly.
-Ai, this little fellow seem to know we’re poor, and is eating despite its dislike for fish.-
“Heiya, look at what we have here!” Zhu Minglang placed the large bamboo basket in front of the little crocodile spirit.
Zhu Minglang tipped over the bamboo basket. Plump large silkworms rolled out, one after another. The little crocodile spirit’s round eyes shone brightly when it saw them!
It quickly came running, wolfed down the large silkworms that had fallen out. Immediately afterwards, it stuck its head into the bamboo basket and became a gluttonous pig, wiggling its butt and tail as it feasted.
After a round of ravaging, the little crocodile spirit was finally full. Not a single silkworm was left in the bamboo basket. It crawled to Zhu Minglang’s side in satisfaction, licking at him to express its affection.
“Don’t, don’t. I’m smelly all over. I need to go take a bath first,” Zhu Minglang pushed the sticky little crocodile dragon away.
The little crocodile dragon didn’t mind at all. It came up again, and licked Zhu Minglang’s face all over before returning to its pond contentedly.
Zhu Minglang got up, planning on clearing away the stinky fish. The little crocodile dragon was somewhat unwilling, however, looking at Zhu Minglang.
Heiya was an intelligent creature.
It seemed to realize Zhu Minglang had only managed to obtain this basket of silkworms after toiling through the night. It planned to keep the fish around, and make do with them to fill its stomach when it got hungry again.
“Don’t worry. I guarantee there’s food for your next meal. You’ll see a basket fuller than today tomorrow morning. Let’s get rid of these,” Zhu Minglang assured the little crocodile dragon.
The little crocodile dragon was very happy to hear that. It took the initiative to bring its adorable head closer, encouraging Zhu Minglang to caress it.
“You continue sleeping, then. Training starts when you wake up. I’ll say this in advance: I’m a heartless devil during training,” Zhu Minglang warned it.
“Wuooo!” the little crocodile dragon replied. It was similarly eager to become stronger!
——
After washing up and laying down, Zhu Minglang was unable to immediately fall asleep despite his fatigue.
Cleaning the Dragon Storage Hall for a whole night only allowed Zhu Minglang to obtain a basket of silkworms. The little crocodile dragon’s rations would be settled if he went there again tonight, but this wasn’t a sustainable solution.
Little Baiqi might wake up at any time. The price of nectar was much higher than silkworms; it wasn’t something he could exchange for by doing chores. However, putting food on the table for the little crocodile dragon was already taking up most of Zhu Minglang’s time…
The little crocodile dragon would continue growing. When it grew to two or three meters long, its appetite would increase further. At that time, Zhu Minglang wouldn’t be able to feed it, even if he did chores day and night, let alone training it!
“When I came back from the Dragon Storage Hall, there seemed to be a task with decent rewards at the Academy’s mission hall. I’ll take a short nap first, and go test my luck before noon.”
The Academy commissioned some tasks for the students or dragon tamers to take on. Raising dragons or dragonlings was a huge expenditure. The grassroot students with no background could either take up a job to sustain themselves, or rely on the Academy’s missions to receive benefits.
Among them was a dragon capturing mission, which provided great rewards.
There were also commissions that were purely labor tasks, like looking after dragonlings, spiritlings, or cleaning their nests..
Zhu Minglang had talked to the old mister from the Dragon Storage Hall. He could go to the Dragon Storage Hall to help look after spiritlings at night, while the newer slaves would clean the Dragon Storage Hall. After all, the slaves didn’t know the habits of spiritlings and dragonlings, while a proper dragon tamer student like him was more qualified.
An overnight shift would allow Zhu Minglang to obtain two baskets of large silkworms!
The old mister needed Zhu Minglang to go over tonight. If he worked the shift tonight, food for the next two days would be settled.
He still needed to find a mission with a higher reward during these two days, to get the nectar ready.
“Ai, it’s been so long since I lived such a disciplined life!” Zhu Minglang sighed.
Even though things would become much more difficult in the future, his life had become one filled with expectations once more!
——
Zhu Minglang didn’t sleep for long. He didn’t have enough time; cutting his sleep down was the natural choice.
He had to make good use of his time to prepare rations for the little crocodile dragon and little Baiqi.
Zhu Minglang went to the canteen and casually grabbed some food to eat before hurrying over to the Academy’s Mission Hall to see what tasks he could do.
“Siii… there are even missions to head to a battlefield to lay siege to a city… Those are probably missions for true dragon tamers. The Academy is really lax on their mission postings.” Zhu Minglang looked at the complicated mission list, feeling a headache.
The reward for heading to the battlefield was rather exaggerated; the one who completed the mission could actually obtain a quarter of the city’s taxes!
If little Baiqi hadn’t regressed, Zhu Minglang could actually have given that mission a try.
-With the treasury of a city, I could buy a few mountains worth of silkworms… Ugh, why am I using silkworms as a unit of measurement; that’s so stupid!-
“Fish demon spirits are beginning to propagate in Lichuan’s lake, producing loud noises from their mating late at night. Eggs laid on the shore are hard as rocks, severely affecting the beauty of the Academy and Lichuan lake. Some fish demon spirits have even gone to the towns to attack the fishermen. Their actions are extremely obnoxious…” Zhu Minglang read the contents of a mission out loud.
Eradicate the spotted blue fish demon spirits!
This was an awkward mission. Dragon tamers with real dragons would find it beneath them to take on a mission like clearing away demon spirits. Demon spirits all had their own ways of escaping and avoiding the strong. It was a waste of time for a Dragon Child to take on such a mission, not to mention the meager reward.
As for spiritlings, not only were they required to know the ways of the water, they also needed to have sharp hunting abilities. Most dragonlings weren’t fit for the task, and in the worst case scenario, they might even be ganged up on and killed by the fish demon spirits!
It just so happened that the little crocodile spirit was an expert at hunting fish!
The little crocodile spirit’s training time every day was in the afternoon. While using the waterfall’s rapid currents to strengthen itself, it could also hunt those demon spirit fish. It was killing two birds with one stone!
“The mission’s duration is for half a month. So, Heiya will have a concrete training plan during this half a month. If we successfully complete the mission, we will even get a grain of gold.” A smile widened on Zhu Minglang’s face.
Training, and earning money, two in one! Obtaining this grain of gold would greatly alleviate his ration problem!
-I’ll accept this task!-