Chapter 3: Gathering Intelligence

One of the great advantages of dragons is that they don't need to eat every day. Simply put, they eat and then sleep for months or years. They obtain the Dragon Scripture in their dreams and grow in their dreams. Legend has it that the dragon gods can even respond to the prayers of believers while sleeping.

After eating and drinking his fill, Sakavi planned to find a place to bury himself and have a good sleep.

To prevent himself from being ambushed by wild beasts in his sleep, Sakavi spent a lot of effort digging a hole in a giant rock. Based on his current size, he expanded it by double to ensure he wouldn't find himself stuck in the hole when he woke up.

A dragon's body is exceptionally strong, so digging through rock wasn't too strenuous, even for a juvenile dragon who hadn't reached adulthood. After a day of digging, a cave that looked somewhat like a gourd was completed.

According to the seniors in the Dragon Scripture, a cave for hibernation should have several exits left behind so that one can slip away when encountering enemies blocking the door. After all, dragons have too many enemies.

However, for his current situation, a construction period that was too long would instead attract the attention of wild beasts. If it were like the leopard from yesterday, he could handle it, but if it were something larger like a bear, he could only run. And that was just ordinary wild beasts; if he encountered more difficult magical beasts, whether he could run away was another matter.

After the rough completion, Sakavi crawled in and dug out a stone slightly smaller than the cave entrance, placing it at the entrance to ensure it could block most wild beasts from entering while not causing a lack of oxygen inside the cave.

After confirming that there were no traces of intelligent creatures within a few miles of the cave he made, Sakavi entered the hibernation period.

Goblins go missing or die accidentally every day in the goblin tribe, so missing one or two wouldn't attract any attention. By the time Sakavi woke up, he would be able to deal with an entire goblin hunting party.

With eyes closed and then opened, it was already five months later. It would be better to say that Sakavi was woken up by the smell inside the cave rather than waking up from sleep. At this moment, Sakavi finally understood why dragons like to have vassal races like kobolds clean their dragon lairs.

Since he couldn't sleep anymore, he might as well go out for a walk!

He dug out the stone at the cave entrance and came outside. Looking at his healed wings, he flew directly into a tree. In a situation where it wasn't clear whether magical beasts existed in the sky, showing his head rashly was a very dangerous thing.

Now, there were no wild beasts in this forest that could pose a threat to Sakavi, because those that ran on the ground couldn't fly, and those that could fly didn't dare to land to fight. It was time to scout the surrounding environment.

Sakavi came to the vicinity of the goblin tribe again. This time, the hunting target was no longer the children responsible for picking pine nuts.

A goblin hunting party might not know what forces were in the forest, but they definitely knew what predators were there. For Sakavi, who was still completely in the dark, they could be considered soft persimmons.

However, the goblins responsible for hunting might not be good at fighting, but they were definitely vigilant enough. Catching a live one wouldn't be easy. But for a dragon who had received nine years of compulsory education, this was not a problem.

By squatting near the goblin tribe for two consecutive days, Sakavi finally figured out the activity range and activity time of the goblin hunting party. So, on a drizzly morning, Sakavi grabbed a monkey he had lured with wild fruit in one hand and used his claws to poke the monkey's front paws, making the monkey let out a shrill scream.

After about five minutes, a goblin as thin as dried ribs poked its head out from the fog-filled bushes, its disproportionately large pointed ears rotating at high frequency, capturing the slightest sound.

Its nostrils twitched violently, as if tasting the flavor of fear in the air. After dozens of breaths, it disappeared into the bushes again.

If Sakavi hadn't known the goblin's hunting route in advance, he probably wouldn't have noticed this goblin at all. Sakavi thought that by taking advantage of the rain that had fallen all night, he could wash away his unique scent, but he still underestimated the vigilance of the goblin scout.

Perhaps it was because they hadn't caught any prey all night that the entire hunting party's situation was very dire, or perhaps the goblin captain thought the threat was manageable. About five minutes later, five short and agile figures emerged from the mist.

The goblin behind the scout was exceptionally strong. Its rough green skin was crisscrossed with countless white scars. Its left eye was a turbid white sphere, while its right eye flickered with pure intelligence and vigilance.

He saw it raise the simple longbow in its hand and shoot directly at the monkey's direction. The monkey's screaming stopped abruptly. Just as Sakavi was sighing at the old hunter's impressive strength, the goblin captain suddenly made a hand gesture pointing downward and then dove into the bushes. The other goblins also disappeared one after another, but it was already too late.

Watching the frantically fleeing goblin hunting party, Sakavi kicked off the tree trunk with his hind legs and instantly rushed toward the goblin squad like an arrow released from a bowstring. The five goblins fled frantically in the bushes like frightened marmots, but this was destined to be futile.

A goblin holding a stone spear seemed to have sensed something and looked back, only to see a black figure swooping down with a whistle that tore through the air. It had just opened its big mouth and hadn't had time to let out a terrified scream when its entire neck was bitten off, leaving only a bit of flesh connecting its head to its body.

Sakavi was just about to swallow this piece of meat when he suddenly felt a pain in his chest. He looked up and saw the goblin captain preparing to draw its bow and shoot again, and an arrow was already in front of him. After reaching out and swatting away the bone arrow, Sakavi rushed directly toward it.

Perhaps it was frightened by this momentum, or perhaps it knew it had nowhere to run, but the captain actually froze in place. Perhaps it was because Malagos, the legendary King of Goblins, favored this captain, but Sakavi didn't intend to kill it immediately. After knocking it out with one claw, he began to continue hunting.

After two consecutive hunts, the other goblins seemed to have become smarter and started running toward places with more bushes, but this didn't make any sense.

Sakavi took to the air again and swooped down. The scout from before relied on its beast-like intuition to roll to the side at the last moment, barely dodging the fatal claws, but its entire left arm was torn off, causing it to roll on the ground and scream incessantly.

Subsequently, he cast Dragon Might on the remaining two, instantly making their legs go weak and forcing them to their knees. Under normal circumstances, a juvenile dragon's Dragon Might wouldn't be so powerful, but when cast on weak goblins facing unknown danger, the effect was different.

Just as Sakavi was about to finish off the shivering goblins, he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness in his brain. It seemed that the goblin captain had coated the arrowhead with poison.

He had been careless after all. Forcing himself to resist the urge to sleep, Sakavi finished off the three surviving goblins and bit off the goblin captain's legs and arms. Only after doing all this did he fall into a coma.

When he woke up again, he found that the forest was already sprinkled with golden sunset glow, which instantly scared Sakavi into a cold sweat. He had actually slept on the ground for a whole day. Fortunately, this area was where goblins were often active and there were no other large wild beasts, otherwise he wouldn't be able to see this beautiful world.

The toxins of ordinary creatures are not fatal to dragons. Dragons that have grown to the adolescent stage can ignore the toxins of all wild beasts. Of course, magical beasts are another matter.

Sakavi looked back at the goblin captain, only to see it glaring at him with fierce eyes. It seemed that it was very unconvinced about being caught by a juvenile dragon.

When the front claw pressed on the injured part of its calf, the old hunter's eyes instantly became clear. He began to beg, "Great Dragon Lord, I am your loyal servant, willing to do anything for you."

Sakavi didn't believe a word of this. According to the experience of the seniors in the Dragon Scripture, only a goblin that has been beaten into submission is a good goblin. For a race that is immune to physical means, they can be converted into vassals.

Sakavi took out a fallen scale, dripped a drop of blood on it, and pressed it directly onto the old hunter's forehead. Watching the old hunter twitching constantly, Sakavi once doubted if the seniors were deliberately lying to him; no matter how he looked at it, this goblin looked like it was about to die.

Fortunately, the old hunter had good physical fitness and survived. Looking at the old hunter panting heavily, Sakavi asked, "Name? Who is the leader of the goblin tribe? How many adult goblins are in the tribe?"

The old hunter panted and said, "Respected Master, my name is Gray Bark. Our leader is called Grash Dark-Spear. There are about three hundred goblins in the tribe who can fight. Even the leader doesn't know the exact number."

"Very good. What forces exist around here? Are there any magical beasts?"

After questioning, Sakavi roughly figured out the situation around him. Besides solitary wild beasts, the only threats were the wolf pack to the northwest and the murloc tribe to the south. However, the murloc tribe wasn't too large, only about a hundred people or so.

However, it was said that there was a very powerful elk in the forest to the east that could use spells to manipulate trees, and no one dared to enter its territory. Sakavi felt that it should be a druid who had lost himself. He could go visit when he had time, but druids were not friendly to dragons, so this matter couldn't be rushed.

After clarifying the situation, Sakavi cast the most powerful spell he currently mastered, the Level-2 Healing Spell, to help Gray Bark heal his wounds. He couldn't let the vassal he had worked so hard to convert just die like that.

There are multiple standards for the grading of spells. Dragons are accustomed to dividing levels into twelve, but the mainstream view likes to call levels 1-3 Low-Level, 4-6 Mid-Level, 6-9 High-Level, and the rest Master Rank.

It is said that there is Legendary Rank above Master Rank, but Sakavi did not find any ancestor who reached Legendary Rank in his Dragon Scripture.

With an "insider," hunting would be much more convenient in the future. As long as he got through the Juvenile Dragon Stage, he wouldn't have to live so cautiously. ===== CHAPTER 4 =====