Tale of the Red Dragon Without Dragon’s Might
Chapter 128 Volcano

Chapter 128: Chapter 128 Volcano

Leon had met Dwarves in Crossroads City, whether common Dwarves or Gray Dwarves; they were generally a head shorter than humans, or even more, but they were exceptionally sturdy, and their weights might exceed those of humans who were much taller than them.

Leon wasn’t interested in Dwarves, but he was quite curious about Iron Hammer Castle, as he had never seen a Dwarf Fortress before and had heard that its architectural style was completely different from human buildings.

Leon wanted to go to Iron Hammer Castle.

He was not afraid of the Dwarf Lord, who was said to be able to defeat a Red Dragon alone. After all, he had no intention of provoking the Dwarf Lord by appearing in Dragon Form above Iron Hammer Castle. He just wanted to visit the fortress in human form. If he did get discovered by accident, couldn’t he just run away if he couldn’t fight it out?

Of course, Cecilia had her own thoughts. You’re a Red Dragon, and even as a teenage dragon, your size is nearing a super-large creature, while also possessing an endless array of divine Spells. I’m just an ordinary Green Dragon, I don’t have the guts to act recklessly under the watchful eyes of a powerful Dwarf territory.

She knew that Leon never looked out for females, sometimes he insisted on gender equality to a frightening degree. Uninformed people might think he had been terribly hurt by a woman before, and if he didn’t die in silence, he would erupt in silence, and she quickly spilled more intel about Iron Hammer Castle.

Iron Hammer Castle was a city of Dwarves; apart from a few humans, mainly familiar merchants, others were not welcome for visits because the stubborn-minded Dwarves thought that humans would bring chaos. Unless one had an introduction from someone familiar, one should not think about entering casually.

"Is that so? Don’t lie to me."

Leon was only mildly interested in Iron Hammer Castle, it wasn’t something he must visit. It was inconvenient to visit, so he would no longer consider it, especially since the Lost Plateau was vast, with plenty of other places to explore.

The mountain goats were too small and could only be used as food, not for riding. Camel replaced by giant goat, the two set off on a giant goat from the town, venturing deeper into the Lost Plateau without a specific destination in mind, going wherever the road took them, and when they could no longer proceed, they could simply revert to Dragon Form.

"I thought there would be lots of trees here; I didn’t expect it to be so barren, not even a blade of grass." As a Green Dragon, Cecilia was most concerned about greening, "Without trees, how do these Dwarves survive? Without wood, how do they fuel their stoves? Do they rely solely on Molten Lava?"

"Coal is enough," Leon said, his geographic knowledge mediocre, relying entirely on stereotypes, "such a desolate mountain must have many coal mines."

"It’s a plateau, but there’s not a single snowy mountain," Cecilia commented.

"Who told you plateaus must have snowy mountains... We are currently on the outskirts of the Lost Plateau, we should see snowy mountains further inside, I guess," Leon thought for a moment, "but I can’t guarantee it."

Leon’s vision was quite good; he immediately spotted a Flying Dragon soaring over the mountains.

"What are you looking at?" Cecilia followed Leon’s gaze, "That’s a Flying Dragon, right?"

"Yes, a Flying Dragon," Leon said, "I used to be really afraid of encountering Flying Dragons. I feared that if I encountered one, I wouldn’t be able to fight or outrun it. Because of that, I mostly dared only to crawl on the ground and not fly in the sky."

Flying Dragons had two legs covered in scales and a pair of sturdy wings, with a strong and powerful tail that ended with a venomous stinger. It was said that the poison in the stinger could kill a creature in seconds, indeed quite powerful, often causing panic on the fringes of civilization whenever they appeared.

"Just a mere Flying Dragon..." Cecilia looked down on Flying Dragons, "I can’t believe there was a time when the master was afraid of them."

"Didn’t everyone have their younger days..." Leon thought about how he was afraid of Flying Dragons during his baby dragon phase, but at that time, he was in Mother Dragon’s territory and never needed to worry about the threat of Flying Dragons. Even though he was later driven away by Mother Dragon, he had mastered Samadhi True Fire, "Weren’t you scared when you were younger?"

"I can only say I wasn’t very scared," Cecilia paused to think, "Although they were nurtured by my mother, as you know, while Flying Dragons are close relatives of giant dragons, they still lack intelligence, only slightly more cunning than ordinary beasts."

"By the way, master, did you know?" Cecilia suddenly said excitedly, "The poison of a Flying Dragon can burn through the circulatory system and scorch the victim’s heart and arteries, which is very lethal. It can also be used in alchemy and to coat weapons with poison, which is quite valuable."

"I support you in flying over there right now, killing that Flying Dragon, and bringing it back," Leon said, "the poison liquid is all yours... I just want to taste the Flying Dragon Meat; I’ve never had it before."

"If brother wants to taste Flying Dragon Meat, I’ll go right now," Cecilia was ready to try.

"Take care of those goblins first," Leon noticed a group of goblins gathering around.

On plains, plateaus, deserts, forests... no matter the terrain, there were always goblins to be found.

"Leave it to me, master." Cecilia urged the giant goat closer to the goblins. As a young dragon, she had mastered Frightening Majesty, it might not be useful against powerful enemies, but it was surely enough for weaker ones. A single shout of "Scram" had the goblins scrambling away in disarray, dropping their weapons without bothering to pick them up, some might have even wet themselves.

Seeing this scene, Leon couldn’t help feeling a bit envious. After all, he still hadn’t mastered Flame Breath, only having Samadhi True Fire, and could imagine he might never be able to master it, and naturally, he couldn’t learn Frightening Majesty either. Frightening Majesty wasn’t about scaring others with looks; it was entirely a spell-like ability.

Seemingly, no one cared about the mice and bugs suddenly popping out from the roadside; neither of them paid much heed to the goblins and continued riding the giant goat, until they encountered a Basilisk.

"I was wondering why there were stone statues by the road. I thought those Dwarfs were just carving them for fun, but it turns out to be Basilisks," Cecilia said from atop the giant goat, eyeing the Basilisk with no less than eight legs.

"No need for my help, right?" Leon asked.

After Leon spoke, he saw Cecilia’s shoulders slump and she gave him a reproachful look. He explained, "If you were in Dragon Form, I believe just a breath of your Poison Breath would cost that Basilisk half of its life, and then a slap and a bite could end the battle. But you’re in human form now, aren’t you?"

"Human form is no problem either," Cecilia retorted, leaping off the giant goat and charging at the Basilisk.

The Basilisks were clumsy and slow, and it was not hard to deal with them if one avoided their petrifying gaze... well, not so easy to handle, actually. At least for Cecilia in her human form, her strength and stamina decreased significantly, though her agility had little room to decline, not to mention she had no job rank and knew no spells, making the fight particularly strenuous.

Leon couldn’t stand by and watch, so he lent Cecilia a hand, scorching the Basilisk with a Hand Palm Bomb until it was well done inside and out.

Cecilia, watching the smoking Basilisk, did not feel underestimated by Leon’s intervention. Instead, she cheered jubilantly, "You helped because you were afraid I would get hurt, you care about me, right?"

"I’m starting to wonder if you did that on purpose," Leon said.

It was Leon’s first encounter with a Basilisk, and he didn’t mind trying its taste, which soon revealed to him what the phrase ’as tasteless as chewing wax’ truly meant. Compared to the food they had in the town not long ago, the Basilisk’s flesh was nearly inedible.

After encountering the Basilisk, the two did not meet any serious monsters for the next two days. After all, they kept moving along the mountain path, where monsters rarely appeared, and any that did appear were likely to be quickly dealt with by others.

Walking along the road was just that, with branching paths appearing from time to time. With no signposts, and no maps, they naturally seemed a bit lost.

"Where are we now?" Leon asked. "We haven’t been walking in circles, have we?"

Leon planned to cross the Lost Plateau to see the sea and didn’t want to get lost in the mountains and waste time.

"I don’t know." Cecilia looked up at the sky, then said, "I’ll fly up and have a look for my master."

Saying this, Cecilia resumed her Dragon Form, transforming into a Green Dragon. The giant goat she had been riding immediately panicked and bolted away. With light flaps of her wings, she soared into the sky.

Leon was also curious about their location and how long it would take to cross the Lost Plateau. But before he could shift to Dragon Form, Cecilia circled around and descended.

"I see a Volcano," Cecilia exclaimed excitedly. "A smoking mountain must be a volcano, right?"

Leon looked up and asked, "Why can’t I see any smoke?"

"Because that volcano is quite far away, and the smoke isn’t that thick," Cecilia explained. "By the time the smoke reaches a height where you could see it, it would have been dispersed by the wind."

"Alright."

"Do we want to fly over and take a look?" Cecilia inquired.

"Do you like this place that much?"

After two days of walking and observing, Leon wasn’t too impressed with the Lost Plateau. Of course, it was still nice to enjoy the scenery. He believed there must be many minerals here, but that was about it. Even if they discovered a volcano, he had no interest in nesting there, preferring to stay at the Molten Lava Lake.

Leon, with a human soul, couldn’t stay in the mountains for long. When he was in the desert, he spent more than half of his time in the Oasis City.

"Um... not really impressed. It feels like there’s nothing but mountains," Cecilia said perceptively. "I’m just a bit curious to see if the smoke is signaling an impending eruption."

"I can only say it’s possible." Leon hadn’t witnessed a volcanic eruption. "Let’s go take a look. In which direction is the volcano?"

"You’re not planning to walk there, are you?" Cecilia asked worriedly. "It might take days to get there by foot."

"Of course we’ll fly," Leon replied, clearly tired of walking. He immediately resumed his Dragon Form. Turning to look back, he saw that the giant goat he had been riding had also been scared off.

Soon, Leon also saw the smoking volcano, flapping his wings and flying towards it. Cecilia followed closely behind, and the two dragons flew to the volcano which would have taken days to reach by riding the giant goats, arriving in a mere matter of minutes.

"It looks like there’s a fight going on ahead," Cecilia observed with a keen eye.