Selvira was probably planning to take all the anger from being rudely awakened and dump it on whatever unlucky magical beasts crossed her path in Blackbriar Forest.
Evelyn watched her mother disappear into the distance.
After a few seconds of silence, she solemnly raised both front claws and pressed them together in front of her chest.
“May you all be fast runners.”
That was her moment of silence for the poor creatures about to suffer.
As for why Selvira had specifically come to save her and Darrien...
Evelyn wasn’t sentimental enough to call it some grand display of motherly love.
Family bonds among chromatic dragons were weak at the best of times.
Selvira had probably come because the enormous commotion had woken her up.
She was already in a foul mood.
Going outside and finding something to take it out on was only natural.
Saving her two young dragons along the way...
That probably counted as nothing more than fulfilling the hatchling rules established by Tiamat, the Dragon Queen.
Until Evelyn and Darrien were truly capable of surviving independently, Selvira couldn’t simply stand by and watch two True Dragon hatchlings who had awakened the Draconic Inheritance die.
“Tch.”
Evelyn clicked her tongue.
She had always known what chromatic dragons were like, but there was still something strangely disappointing about realizing her own mother might have saved her almost as an afterthought.
While she was lost in those thoughts, Darrien suddenly shouted from nearby.
“Evelyn!”
“Is that something shiny over there?”
Evelyn turned toward him.
Before she could even see what he was talking about, Darrien’s eyes had already lit up.
He dropped to all fours and charged away at an astonishing speed.
“...”
Evelyn’s mouth twitched.
Of course.
No matter how arrogant Darrien acted most of the time, the second he spotted something shiny, the instincts of a purebred dragon immediately took over.
The barrier Selvira had created was already gone.
The aftermath of Bruno’s self-destruction was also beginning to settle.
But the battlefield itself had been completely transformed.
The once-dense forest had been blasted into a huge open clearing.
The center had collapsed downward into a massive depression that looked almost like a newly formed impact crater.
Most of the trees were simply gone.
Only charred, broken stumps remained.
The heat of the explosion had baked parts of the soil red, and thin streams of white smoke still rose from the ground.
The air carried a strange mixture of scorched wood, hot earth, and lingering holy power.
Evelyn placed one claw against the ground.
It was still warm.
For a dragon, though, that amount of heat was barely worth noticing.
She leisurely made her way toward the center of the crater.
Darrien had already reached the place where Bruno had detonated.
He was lying flat on the ground and digging furiously with both front claws.
He looked more serious than he had during the actual fight.
Chunks of dirt flew behind him.
Before long...
“Found it!”
Darrien shouted excitedly.
He dug something out of the blackened soil.
“Probably magical equipment left behind by those adventurers.”
Evelyn wasn’t particularly surprised.
The adventuring party had been made up largely of Silver Rank professionals.
There was no way they had been carrying nothing valuable.
As for how Darrien had found it so quickly...
Dragons possessed an almost instinctive sensitivity toward treasure.
Gold.
Gemstones.
Powerful magical items.
Some dragons could even locate hidden treasure from surprisingly far away by sensing its presence.
Darrien had clearly inherited that proud draconic tradition.
Evelyn’s own desire for treasure was somewhat less extreme.
She certainly liked gold and gemstones.
There was something undeniably satisfying about looking at a huge pile of shiny objects.
But if someone forced her to choose between a chest of gold and a table full of delicious food...
She would probably eat first.
Gold couldn’t fill her stomach.
Of course, if she could have both, that would be ideal.
Maybe she really was a bit unusual by chromatic dragon standards.
Then again, dragonkind was enormous and dragons lived for ridiculous lengths of time.
Surely a few other oddballs had existed who didn’t value treasure more than their own lives.
Evelyn walked over to Darrien and lowered her head.
He was carefully holding a blue gemstone between his claws.
It was about half the size of a small bird’s egg.
Dust and dirt still covered its surface.
Darrien painstakingly wiped it clean with the tip of one claw.
Soon, a deep, pure blue glow emerged.
“This is...”
Evelyn’s eyes brightened slightly.
She reached toward it.
Darrien immediately recoiled and hid the gemstone behind his back.
“What are you doing?”
“I found it first!”
“You’re not taking it!”
He stared at Evelyn with open suspicion.
The way he guarded the stone made him look like a thief protecting some priceless piece of loot he had just stolen.
His golden eyes never left his sister.
Clearly, he trusted her about as far as he could throw her.
Evelyn covered her face with one claw.
“Relax. I don’t want it.”
“Just let me look at it.”
“I’ll give it right back.”
Darrien stared at her suspiciously.
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Evelyn rose onto her hind legs.
One claw rested on her hip while the other extended toward him.
“When have I ever lied to you?”
“...”
Darrien fell silent.
Several unpleasant memories immediately surfaced.
There had been that one hunt when Evelyn promised he could have the larger share of the prey.
The moment they got back to the dragon lair, something had hit him in the back of the head.
When he woke up...
Only bones were left.
Then there was the time Evelyn solemnly promised she only wanted to study a gemstone he had found.
She had sworn she would return it immediately.
That gemstone had eventually appeared in Evelyn’s personal hoard.
It was still there.
Darrien’s expression became more suspicious by the second.
Evelyn’s smile never changed.
“Come on.”
“Let me see.”
“...”
Darrien looked down at the gemstone.
Then at Evelyn.
Finally, he considered the very obvious difference in their combat strength.
After struggling with the decision for a while, he reluctantly handed it over.
“You promised.”
“Just looking.”
“Mhm, mhm.”
Evelyn agreed without much thought.
The blue gemstone fell into her claw.
She immediately released a thread of mental power and carefully extended it inside.
The next instant, her perception opened up.
There was an independent space inside the gemstone.
It wasn’t especially large.
Roughly ten square meters of usable space.
But quite a few things had already been stored inside.
Weapons.
Food.
Clothing.
Gold coins.
Bottles and jars.
And plenty of miscellaneous items.
Evelyn’s eyes brightened.
Just as she had guessed.
This gemstone had originally been mounted in a Storage Ring.
More accurately, the blue gemstone itself was the true core of the storage item.
According to the Draconic Inheritance, these were known as Spatial Gems.
They possessed an extremely high natural affinity for spatial magic.
They were also exceptionally hard.
After being processed by alchemists and mages, they could be turned into all kinds of magical storage equipment.
Bruno’s self-destruction had been incredibly powerful.
The ring’s metal frame and other components had probably been completely destroyed in the blast.
Only the far tougher Spatial Gem had survived.
Even better, the storage space inside it had remained intact.
“We actually found something good.”
The corner of Evelyn’s mouth curled upward.
A Silver Rank adventurer’s private storage space couldn’t possibly be filled entirely with junk.
There was a good chance they would find something useful.
The moment Darrien saw her smile, he became alert.
“Why are you smiling?”
Evelyn hadn’t even answered when his claw shot forward.
He snatched the blue gemstone back and hugged it against his chest.
“Mine!”
“I know it’s yours.”
Evelyn rolled her eyes.
“I never said I was taking it.”
Darrien looked completely unconvinced.
Evelyn couldn’t be bothered to argue.
They had already found Bruno’s storage item.
The adventuring party had consisted of four people.
If Bruno had carried spatial equipment, there was a good chance the others had too.
Which meant...
There might be three more gems somewhere nearby.
The moment that thought occurred to her, Evelyn dropped onto all fours.
Then she began searching carefully.
Darrien stared at her for a second.
Then realization hit him.
“There are more?!”
A second later, he lowered his head and started frantically digging again.
And so...
The two black dragons who had just survived a brutal battle immediately began excitedly rummaging through the ruins for loot.
Dragons truly were talented when it came to finding treasure.
Both siblings could also use mental power to sense nearby magical fluctuations.
After half a day of searching, they had found the remaining three Spatial Gems.
Evelyn sat on a patch of charred ground.
Three differently colored gemstones rested between her front claws.
For once, genuine anticipation filled her golden eyes.
These were the belongings of four Silver Rank adventurers.
Even if only a portion of what they had carried was useful, it would still be a considerable windfall for Evelyn at her current level.
“Let’s see what’s inside.”
She extended her mental power into the first Spatial Gem.
The storage space opened.
Evelyn began pulling things out one by one.
A light gray robe landed on the ground.
“A women’s mage robe?”
Evelyn looked it over.
Wrong size.
And she couldn’t wear it anyway.
She pushed it aside.
Next.
An elaborately made lace dress.
“...”
Evelyn stared at it for a few seconds.
She had a pretty good idea whose storage space this was now.
She continued.
Several pairs of boots.
Useless.
Women’s undergarments.
Even more useless.
Perfume.
A comb.
Several alchemical skincare potions.
And a pile of small objects Evelyn couldn’t even identify.
“Why did a mage carry this much stuff...?”
Evelyn muttered.
She kept searching.
Clink.
A small pouch of gold coins dropped onto the ground.
Evelyn was just about to casually toss it aside.
Then she stopped.
She looked down at it for two seconds.
And quietly pulled the coins back toward herself.
“This is useful.”
She might not suffer from the usual draconic problem of becoming helpless at the sight of gold.
But money was useful almost everywhere.
Especially if she eventually wanted to visit human cities and get her claws on some proper food.
She couldn’t just steal everything she saw.
That sounded needlessly troublesome.
If a problem could be solved with money, then using money was usually easier.
Of course...
If she didn’t have money, that was a different matter.
Evelyn set the gold aside and continued searching deeper into the storage space.
Most of what she found near the front consisted of daily necessities.
Then her mental power swept across the very bottom.
She sensed several objects that felt different.
“Books?”
Evelyn immediately perked up.
A moment later, several thick books appeared on the ground one after another.
Thump.
The first landed in front of her.
Beginner’s Guide to Magic, From Basics to Mastery
Evelyn raised an eyebrow.
That sounded perfect for her.
The second book followed.
The Wandering Knight Fell for Me!
“...”
Evelyn’s expression turned strange.
She looked down at the cover.
A long-haired noblewoman was being held in the arms of a handsome knight wearing a traveling cloak.
The two were gazing deeply into each other’s eyes.
This was clearly not a magic textbook.
“So mages read this kind of thing too?”
Evelyn casually tossed it aside.
The third book was different.
Illustrated Guide to Magical Plants
Useful.
Then came the fourth.
Illustrated Bestiary of Magical Creatures
Also useful.
Evelyn looked down at the books spread before her.
Her golden eyes slowly began to shine.