Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Without wasting time, O’Neal started to assign tasks.
“Jacqueira, you will lead the First Squadron in charge of Zone 1.”
“Ludar, you will lead the Second Squadron—”
“…”
“Jose, you will lead the dragon slave and be in charge of Zone 13.”
Jose suspected that he had heard wrongly. Zone 13 was not smaller than the other areas. The other teams had at least fifty members, while his team only had two. Not to mention what he would do if he encountered enemies, just the workload itself was a big problem.
“Lord O’Neal, is it just the two of us?”
“What? You have a problem with that?!” O’Neal glanced at Jose with an unfriendly gaze.
It’s your honor to be my punching bag. How dare you have any objections?!
Jose was annoyed as he understood the reason. The stress, coupled with Warf’s connection, had made the Black Dragon use him as stress relief.
Under the pressure of the draconic aura, he continued, “But, what if the enemy is hiding in Zone 13? We won’t have enough manpower to discover them in time!”
The Black Dragon frowned. He had to admit that what Jose said made sense. If something really happened and the mistress blamed him, he would not be able to bear it. There was no need to take such a huge risk just to vent his anger.
But since he had already said it, how embarrassing would it be if he retracted his words now? His thoughts moved, and he had an idea.
“You have a point. Everything is for the sake of the mistress. Why don’t we do this? Whoever wants to follow you can join you.”
Immediately, everyone avoided the two dragons as if they were avoiding a plague. As long as their intelligence was high enough, they would be able to tell that the Black Dragon was deliberately making things difficult for Jose. Naturally, no one was willing to provoke him.
There was only one other dragon left, and that was the stupid White Dragon — Cassie. He still had not figured out why everyone was so far away from him.
O’Neal naturally would not argue with a fool. With a mocking expression, he said, “What a shame, there’s only one dragon willing to join your team. This won’t do. How about this? In order to not affect the mission, you can choose the elites of the stronghold that are outside. How about it?”
Jose was expressionless.
The elites outside?!
They had never had any training and were so skinny that they only had skin and bones. He called them elites?!
“Lord O’Neal, you are so generous, so selfless, and so wise. My foolish brother, hurry up and thank Lord O’Neal for his kindness.”
Hearing Barron’s sarcastic words, Jose laughed. “You are right. Lord O’Neal is too generous, too selfless, and too wise. My dear brother, your intelligence is only slightly less than his.”
“I’m glad you realized that.”
“Enough! Enough!” O’Neal interrupted the two dragons impatiently. “Since there’s no problem, then hurry up and carry out the mission.”
After the gathering ended, Jose flew out of the cave and into the sky. He flew above the shacks and looked down at the monsters below.
Most of the monsters living in the shacks were thin due to malnutrition. The gnolls’ fur was stuck together with mud and sweat. The scales on the kobolds were so dirty that their original colors could not be seen. The goblins looked as though they had rolled in the mud. They were the residents of Graystone Stronghold and the cannon fodder under the Black Dragon.
Even though the cannon fodder looked like dirty refugees, they would still be quite strong once they reached a large scale. After all, a sufficiently large number of ants could bite an elephant to death, not to mention monsters that were extremely vicious.
Jose took a deep breath and shouted at the monsters below, “Lowly slaves! I come with Lord O’Neal’s orders! You have been conscripted! Each family will send out an adult male! Take your weapons and gather at the city gate!”
In Graystone Stronghold, O’Neal’s fierce name could stop children from crying at night. His authority was naturally unmatched.
One after another, monsters walked out of the shack with sticks, pitchforks, and other “weapons”. There were nearly a thousand of them.
In the cave, O’Neal saw this magnificent scene through monitoring magic and felt that he had shot himself in the foot. He slammed the table unhappily, and the parchment on the table jumped half a meter high.
“Warf is right! This little brat is really annoying!”
Just like that, under the envious and jealous gazes of the other teams, the three dragons raised their heads and puffed out their chests as they left with nearly a thousand people.
After marching for more than two hours, the team arrived at Zone 13. From afar, they could see the cave where they had roasted meat earlier.
“Everyone! Check these mountains and search properly!”
The monsters dispersed, and the three dragons stopped.
The White Dragon suggested, “There… there are so many people. Why don’t we go to the cave and rest?”
“Let’s not do that. We don’t want to give O’Neal any excuse to punish us.”
…
In the cave, the guards of the Holy Altar spotted a passing Red Dragon.
“That Red Dragon is back!”
“Calm down, my friend. Who knows? We might have a chance to take revenge this time.” The bandit’s face was gloomy as he looked at a lump not far away; it was extremely smelly.
Seeing the main culprit who caused everyone to suffer, the usually quiet priest was furious and said, “Everyone, bear with it for a while more. As long as I activate the Holy Altar two days later, everyone will be able to take revenge.”
Upon hearing this, the muscular warrior touched the cold blade of the double-edged axe and gnashed his teeth. “When the time comes, I will chop that damned dragon into eight pieces to vent my hatred!”
“No! Eight is not enough! At least sixteen pieces!”
“No way! I say thirty-two!”
“No! No one is allowed to kill him!” Captain Oluke, who had been resting, opened his eyes and said, “Capture him alive!”
Everyone was enlightened.
“Yes, yes, yes! Capture him alive! A young Red Dragon can be exchanged for a Viscount title!”
“Before we sell him, we must torture him.”
“Hang him and beat him!”
“Let’s soak him in the feces pit and let him have a taste of this!” The female warrior wore a satisfied expression, as if she could already see her enemy kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy.
“…”
While everyone was discussing how to torture the enemy, the red-haired mage — Oluke — said nothing.
He was not an idiot who only had muscles, nor was he a priest brainwashed by religious teachings.
He was a spellcaster, a knowledgeable spellcaster, and of noble status.
Back then, when he saw the Red Dragon roast meat with his dragon breath, he felt that something was wrong with the dragon. Later, he saw the Red Dragon distribute the meat to the lowly kobold and became even more puzzled.
After pondering for a night, he recalled an unpopular book he had read in the clan’s library during his apprenticeship days — [An Analysis of the Abnormal Behavior of Dragons].
There was a record in the book that basically said this.
Dragons were one of the most successful species in the multiverse. They possessed the inheritance of dragons and were born with innate knowledge. Every dragon species also had a unique way of doing things. If a dragon seriously deviated from the inherent behavior patterns of this species, it would require special attention.
There were many reasons why dragons deviated from their nature; two of which needed precaution to be taken.
The first was that some evil existence had used a special secret technique to invade the dragon’s body, but the use of an external method to invade the dragon’s body meant that it had no true name, so there was no way to obtain the dragon’s inheritance.
The second situation was even rarer, and that was a naturally born abnormal dragon. Abnormal dragons often possessed some kind of special ability. Their abilities were all strange and varied, but they all had one common characteristic — their growth speed and their strength far exceeded those of ordinary dragons.
Under normal circumstances, as long as an abnormal dragon did not die prematurely, it could often grow into a powerhouse of the multiverse.
There was no pattern to the appearance of abnormal dragons. They came from all species of dragons, but they appeared the most frequently among the Five-Colored Dragons.
According to the information given by a certain elder of the dragon race who was unwilling to reveal his name, nearly half of the Five-Colored Dragon rebels whom the Evil Dragon God — Tiamat — had personally killed over the past ten thousand years were abnormal dragons.
Oluke muttered, “An abnormal dragon…”
He decided that he would keep it for himself after he caught the Red Dragon. The chances of it being an abnormal dragon were slim, but what if he ran into one? Even if it was not one, he would still have an extraordinary mount. If he trained it well, the clan would gain another guardian that could live for two thousand years.