The Red Dragon Just Wants To Do As It Pleases
Chapter 65 - 64: Version

Chapter 65: Chapter 64: Version

David couldn’t help but laugh.

Wasn’t the guy before him the very Barbarian who had escaped from his clutches over two months ago?

With his frail human body, he had managed to injure and pose a threat to David at the time, and his bravery had also left a relatively deep impression on David.

David had initially thought that the Barbarian, with such severe injuries, wouldn’t survive or would be crippled at best. He believed they would most likely never meet again.

Yet, now he had been captured by the Green Dragon Nifadora and given to him as a gift.

This made even me, a transmigrator, marvel at the wonders of fate.

However, what made a mere Barbarian so valuable that Nifadora would earnestly present him as a gift to me, convinced it would be of value to me and thereby change my attitude towards her?

It was a familiar bloody scent emanating from the man that made David instinctively take a sniff.

Upon closer inspection of those Kratos-like blood-red tattoos on his body, David asked with some curiosity, "Kid, what the hell are you doing smearing my Dragon Blood all over yourself?"

"Wait!"

He immediately realized that not only was the man uninjured, but he was also full of life and vigor. Clearly, something fishy was going on. He turned directly to the Green Dragon Nifadora, "Could it be that our Dragon Blood also has healing properties? No, that’s not right. I remember the blood of us Chromatic Dragons is strongly corrosive. How did he manage that?"

Take Red Dragon blood, for example. Unless alchemically processed by a professional Spellcaster, splashing it on oneself was practically no different from bathing in quicklime. It was purely seeking death.

Since the man had managed this, Nifadora must have already interrogated him and gotten the answers she wanted. He might as well ask for the correct answer directly.

Sure enough, he heard Nifadora seriously reply, "The Bonding Ceremony."

"What did you say?!" David was greatly shocked.

He had the strange feeling of being outrageously swindled with his own Dragon Blood, and now this meddling Green Dragon had caught the culprit and was hauling him over for a confrontation.

"To be precise, it’s a Dragon Bonding ritual that has been tampered with by the High Elves."

How does this relate to the Elves? David was somewhat dumbfounded.

After Nifadora’s subsequent explanation, David finally learned what bizarre story had unfolded after his battle at the foot of Mount Katjana that day:

It turned out that the Barbarian who had escaped from his claws that day, facing the prospect of a crippled life due to excessive blood loss, had done something that would immensely satisfy any dragon.

This Barbarian was already quite disgruntled with the overbearing High Elves. After encountering two massive dragons, how could he not realize that these black-hearted Elves had withheld crucial intelligence from their people? This had directly led to the near annihilation of several Barbarian tribes and a massive death toll among the elite of his own Rosinde tribe.

Rosinde then directed most of this new and old hatred towards those ’long-ears,’ and began causing trouble for the High Elves on the South Foothills battlefield, an area David had already completely devastated.

This should have been a suicidal act. However, David’s destructive passage had left so many Elves dead or maimed that Rosinde, despite his grave injuries, managed to successfully go about finishing off survivors and scavenging.

Just as he was about to kill a Spellcaster—to make his impending death feel worthwhile—before taking his own life, the female Elf Spellcaster, in an attempt to save her own life, tempted the Barbarian Rosinde into a deal: by using the Bonding Ceremony deciphered by the High Elves to enhance Rosinde, in exchange for the chance to save her own life.

But why would the High Elves be so generous?

Although they had cracked the secret of the Dragon Bonding Ceremony many years ago, they quickly discovered that without the personal supervision of a true Scarlet Dragon Bloodline Holder, few Elves could endure such a torturous experience, akin to bathing in sulfuric acid. Most either died during the ritual or suffered a mental breakdown afterward. Even those lucky enough to survive faced severe aftereffects: chaotic Magic Power would continuously invade and erode their bodies, and their lifespans would be reduced by more than half.

So, that female Spellcaster naturally had the same malicious intent. She didn’t even need to be meticulous about the ritual’s details; merely tricking the Barbarian into soaking in a pool of Dragon Blood would likely kill him.

But little did she know that Rosinde, already desensitized to High Elf deceptions, directly demanded that she, the Elf, undergo the Dragon Blood ritual with him. The female Elf Spellcaster, eager to preserve her life, had no choice but to carry out the appropriate Bonding Ceremony in the hopes of surviving.

The result was quite obvious.

The female Elf died instantly in excruciating pain.

But Rosinde, this Barbarian, survived.

Not only did he survive, but he was also in better condition than ever before. After all, he wasn’t as sensitive to Magic Power as the High Elves. At most, he felt a continuous tingling in the areas soaked with Dragon Blood.

But what was a little pain, anyway!

Rosinde knew he had struck gold. He immediately started collecting all the Magic Potions he could find from the Elves and gathered all the smoking Dragon Blood he could see strewn across the battlefield.

He then returned to his tribe with all his spoils—including ’High Elf Combat Skills,’ ’Sword Dancer’s Introduction,’ and the ’Magic Handbook’—and persuaded Chief Rosinde to relocate the entire tribe to avoid potential retaliation from dragons or Elves.

Consequently, just as the Barbarians moved from the Katjana Mountains to the neighboring Gloomy Forest, the Katjana volcano erupted with a thunderous boom. Even these Barbarians, not known for their wits, understood that if they hadn’t listened to Rosinde’s advice, they would likely have met a grim fate in that terrifying natural disaster.

Suddenly, Rosinde—who had saved the tribe and brought the Barbarians access to an ’advanced class system’ and the ’Dragon Blood Warrior ritual’—saw his reputation soar. Some Barbarians even secretly conspired to make Rosinde their new chief, a position he sternly refused. In his own words, with the disaster upon them, he would not entertain any notions of power or love until he found a way to lead all Barbarians out of their despair.

Instantly, Rosinde’s name—associated with titles like ’Highland King of the Axe,’ ’Scarlet Dragon Bloodline Holder,’ and ’Elf War-Tactic Warrior’—became unrivaled within the tribe.

With Rosinde’s success as a clear example, the Barbarians knew exactly where their path forward lay. They immediately fanned out from the Gloomy Forest, searching everywhere for traces of dragons. These Barbarians didn’t expect to completely defeat or capture a dragon. If they could just make one bleed, as had happened in their fight with David, they would achieve their goal.

Thus, within a mere two months, Rosinde had gathered a force of over thirty ’Dragon Blood Warriors.’ Following a similar line of thought to David’s own past schemes, they set their sights on the lair of Nifadora, the Green Dragon. They hoped to steal a few Dragon Eggs or hatchlings to raise, thereby ensuring a sustainable supply for creating more ’Dragon Blood Warriors.’

Then, their endeavor ended in a spectacular, collective failure. Rosinde, the instigator, was captured by Nifadora and brought as a ’gift’ to David, the ’aggrieved party.’

This actually worked? Those High Elves are talented!

After hearing the full story, David was immensely shocked. He also felt an indescribable sense of absurdity.

Indeed, after the dragons were driven from the center stage of history by the suddenly ascendant High Elves, they did rally and fight back with shame-fueled determination for a time. After spending vast eons, they finally cracked the pinnacle of High Elf creations—the Magic Enigma Lock.

However, in this changed era, dragons no longer possessed the ambition to reclaim their dominant status. So, instead of creating something like the legendary Dragon Frenzy Enigma Lock—rumored to have once caused a devastating dragon plague—they converted their knowledge into ’Nest Guardians,’ essentially ’lair protection systems.’ The High Elves, who had berated and cursed these draconic rogues for countless years, found themselves powerless against them, as these ’Nest Guardians’ proliferated across various planes.

Now it seems the tables have turned...

Those long-eared ones have hacked their way into the dragons’ domain...

However, the High Elves’ extreme sensitivity to Magic Power rendered this discovery completely useless for them—a ’chicken rib,’ so to speak. Yet, by a twist of fate, it ended up benefiting these Highland Barbarians.

In a way, it was as if the small amount of Dragon Blood David lost from a mere surface wound had triggered a ’class system update’ for all the Barbarians in the Katjana region. The Barbarians, after enduring millennia of humiliation and exploitation by the Elves on the Old Continent, had finally received their almost game-breaking ’Dragon Blood Warrior’ update.

David found himself both amused and exasperated. As he looked at this Barbarian, his initial impressions completely overturned.

You damn rascal, you’re quite a talent too!