“Then go.”
Garrett waved a hand.
“Why do you need my permission for that?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Lucas licked his dry, cracked lips and glanced toward the darkness outside the cave.
Every so often, the distant howl of some wild beast drifted through the night.
Truthfully, he was scared.
Back when he traveled as a merchant, Lucas always hired a few adventurers to protect him along the road. They ate together, slept near one another, and stopped together whenever nature called.
But now...
Lucas glanced toward Talia, the only woman in the party.
There was no way he was doing this inside the cave.
Then he looked at the half-elf and dwarf, who had already started arguing again.
Grinding his teeth, Lucas finally headed outside.
Only after he disappeared into the darkness did Talia turn toward Garrett.
“Is it really safe to let him go out alone?”
Garrett was standing over the iron pot, stirring the stew with a ladle.
He didn’t even look up.
“Safe? Wouldn’t it be better if something happened to him?”
Talia gave him a puzzled look.
Garrett continued.
“We already know where those two young dragons have been appearing, and we know the safe route in and out.”
“All we have to do now is wait for them to show themselves.”
“As for the guide... if he dies, that saves us some gold, doesn’t it?”
Talia considered that.
Then she nodded lightly.
“Fair enough.”
...
The magical formation at the cave entrance blocked sound, so Lucas heard none of their conversation.
He walked a short distance into the forest.
Just as he was about to lower his trousers and take care of business, a sudden chill crept up his back.
Lucas spun around and looked from side to side.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
He finally relaxed, assuming the damp air of Blackbriar Forest had simply turned colder at night.
A moment later, the smell around him became considerably worse.
Rumble!
Lightning tore across the sky.
Heavy raindrops began falling, splattering across Lucas’s face.
He looked up at the flashing clouds and silently cursed his luck.
Of course it had to start raining now.
Another bolt of lightning lit the forest.
For the briefest instant, the silhouette of a massive creature appeared behind him.
Its golden eyes looked especially cold in the white flash.
A deliberately lowered voice came from the darkness.
“You’re out here... taking a dump too, right?”
Lucas’s eyes went wide.
Very slowly, he turned around.
Another flash of lightning illuminated a vicious black dragon’s head.
The next second, Lucas jumped up without even pulling his trousers back into place and tried to run.
A scaled claw shot out from the side even faster.
It clamped over his face.
Everything happened in an instant.
Lucas didn’t even have time to scream.
A second unfamiliar voice sounded beside his ear.
The owner of the claw spoke in flawless Common.
“Don’t move. Move even a little, and I’ll twist your head off.”
The voice was soft and almost sweet.
The killing intent behind it was not.
Cold rain ran down Lucas’s body.
His heart felt even colder.
...
Five minutes later, after being threatened by both Evelyn and Darrien, Lucas had told them everything he knew.
How the whole situation had started.
Why the adventurers had come.
What each member of the party could do.
He held nothing back.
“So they really did come for us.”
Evelyn sorted through the information she had extracted.
Then, almost casually, she crushed Lucas’s throat.
“Are we going to attack?”
Darrien was already itching for a fight.
The black dragon blood in his veins seemed to urge him forward.
Evelyn thought for a moment, staring through the layers of forest toward the cave.
“Three Silver Ranks and one Bronze Rank. They’re not overwhelmingly strong.”
“But rushing them head-on would still be risky. Let’s wait and see if we can find a better opportunity.”
“What’s there to be afraid of?”
Darrien’s eyes burned with violence and excitement.
“They’re nothing but insects. I could wipe them out with one claw.”
Evelyn looked at him as though he had suffered brain damage.
After years of living around her, Darrien had picked up quite a few strange phrases Evelyn herself had invented.
Over time, he had become painfully dramatic.
By dragon standards, Darrien was still a child, so perhaps he really was at the perfect age for this sort of thing.
Even so, hearing lines like that come out of a black dragon’s mouth was almost unbearable.
Thump!
Evelyn slammed a claw down on Darrien’s head.
The hit knocked some sense back into the overexcited young dragon.
It also reaffirmed the family hierarchy.
Darrien opened his mouth to yelp, but Evelyn immediately grabbed his snout shut.
He started to struggle.
Then Evelyn’s expression suddenly became serious.
She raised one claw to her lips.
“Shh.”
Her eyes flicked toward the cave.
Darrien understood immediately.
He grabbed Lucas’s corpse and followed Evelyn back into the darkness.
...
Several minutes later...
Splash. Splash. Splash.
Footsteps through shallow water gradually approached.
It was Elliot.
The half-elf ranger had been sent out to check on Lucas.
The merchant had been gone too long, and Garrett suspected some passing magical beast might have dragged him away.
Garrett didn’t particularly care whether the greedy merchant lived or died.
Still, they needed to know which one it was.
The moment Elliot entered the dense forest, he became alert.
His keen nose caught the faint scent of blood lingering in the air.
As an experienced ranger, he quickly concluded that Lucas had probably been attacked by some beast or magical creature.
He never considered dragons.
Creatures as proud as True Dragons rarely bothered with ambushes.
Whenever a dragon appeared, its Draconic Presence usually announced it first.
The dragon hadn’t even arrived yet and everyone nearby would already know something terrifying was coming.
If a dragon had attacked Lucas, there should have been far more noise.
The party would have noticed.
The cave wasn’t very far away.
Elliot searched the surrounding area but found no useful tracks.
The soil in the rainforest was already soft and wet.
Under the heavy rain, it had turned into patches of mud and shallow bogs.
Whatever traces had been left behind were being washed away.
Dark clouds covered the sky, making the forest difficult to see through.
Elliot accidentally stepped into a puddle.
Mud splashed across his clothes.
He looked down at the stains and spat in disgust.
That was enough.
He had no intention of continuing the search.
“Greedy bastard. Probably better off dead.”
He turned and started back toward the cave.
Rain continued pouring through the forest.
Hidden perfectly within the darkness, Darrien opened his golden eyes.
His jaws slowly parted.
A stream of Acid Breath shot toward the half-elf.
Elliot’s elven blood gave him exceptionally sharp hearing.
He caught the sound of danger just before the attack reached him.
His reaction was immediate.
He threw himself sideways and rolled across the muddy ground.
“Damn it!”
A strangled groan escaped his throat.
The sudden ambush had missed most of his body.
But not all of it.
Acid had clipped his right arm from shoulder to wrist.
Steam rose from the flesh as it corroded.
For a ranger who relied on a bow as his primary weapon, the injury was devastating.
The breath hadn’t killed him.
But with one arm badly burned, drawing a bowstring would be nearly impossible.
His combat strength had been cut by more than half in an instant.
There was no time to think.
Elliot scrambled to his feet and ran toward the cave as fast as he could.
At the same time, he glanced over his shoulder.
The moment he saw what had attacked him, his pupils contracted.
A dragon.
A black dragon.
Judging by its size, this had to be one of the young dragons the entire party had spent the day searching for.
But Elliot felt no excitement.
Only terror.
If the whole party had encountered this dragon while prepared, they could have relied on magical equipment and their planned tactics to kill or capture it.
But right now, Elliot was alone.
And one of his arms was already badly injured.
Even as a Silver Rank ranger, there was a very real chance that this young dragon, no stronger than Bronze Rank at most, could tear him apart.
The difference in species was simply too great.
Elliot fixed his eyes on the direction of the cave.
He only had one option now.
Get back.
Fast.
And have that filthy dwarf priest heal his arm.