Chapter 442: White Dragon Tomb

After waiting on the spot for half an hour, Miss Wen Na retrieved the White Dragon Horn Seal from her secret stash.

The item differed somewhat from a dragon's horn in the traditional sense.

It was a curved, backward-sweeping bony neck-crest, attached to an elastic hard membrane — somewhat like a fish's dorsal fin.

Only this thing was bigger, half a metre tall, and Miss Wen Na needed both hands just to hold it.

Rod took it in hand and examined it.

He did not feel the same resentment as he had in the deeper levels of the White Dragon Tomb.

The smoothness of the horn's bone surface, after generations of stewardship by the Puweir family, gave it a distinct sense of age, but otherwise it looked more like an ordinary piece of craftsmanship.

This was the raw material for the second dragon-body component of this Resentful Dragon, and it was still a Semi-Finished Product.

It would still need to be sent to the 【Cat Fairy Paradise】 for processing.

Only then would its peculiar properties likely manifest.

Rod did not dwell on it, and slipped into the shadow of the land naga Yvette together with Tally and Miss Wen Na, letting her carry them back into the White Dragon Tomb.

Since the land naga's negotiation terms with Santarin had only just been concluded, the daytime layout had not yet changed.

Santarin's oversight was still excluded from the shallower levels, while the land naga's people were deployed somewhat further in.

It did look a bit like a turtle trapped in a jar.

Fortunately, according to Yvette, the first thing they did upon entering to begin work was not to break open the tomb, but to construct an escape teleportation array.

This also served as groundwork for their later behaviour of taking the money without doing the work.

When Yvette arrived at the deepest level — the location of the spell seal —

only her mother Lady Lilian was there.

Lady Lilian was startled for a moment: "Yvette? Didn't you say you were going back to camp to get clothes?"

"I thought about it and decided against it. This one is quite comfortable as an undergarment as it is."

She looked Yvette over, and finally her gaze settled on Yvette's bare, firm, taut abdomen.

With a touch of envy she said, "Maybe I should start training my spirituality too. Meditating on magic not only doesn't improve my body, but sitting for so long has even given me a little belly."

As she spoke,

her face flushed slightly, recalling how the night before last and last night a certain man had kept pinching her little belly.

"I'm the one envious of Mother's figure — so full of a woman's softness, all squishy." Yvette laughed.

"Sigh, you're still young and don't understand. In another ten years or so I'll start to sag, and it won't look good then. I'll head back to camp in the latter half of the night — you keep watch here."

Hearing this, Yvette felt a little surprised.

Her own mother, ever since being seriously injured over a decade ago, had rarely paid attention to such things; grooming her appearance was only a necessity of being the clan's priestess.

But now, there seemed to be a faint trace of anticipation in her — a woman adorning herself for one who delights in her.

When a woman suddenly starts paying attention to her own appearance, it's very likely because of a man.

Yvette herself was the best proof of that.

Earlier, upon learning she was going to meet a certain bastard of a man, she had secretly done her hair and tidied her outfit.

What was going on with Mother?

A sudden inspiration struck Yvette.

She recalled how, the night before, her mother had introduced a husband-to-be to her, and even hidden that man in her own tent to keep her younger sister Betty from snatching him to play with.

Could it be… Mother's desires had risen again?! And she'd had a taste of that man?!

Yvette's face took on a strange expression.

It wasn't that she opposed her mother finding a man again, nor that she minded her sleeping with the husband-to-be she'd been introduced to.

After all, she had never been interested in other men to begin with, and her mother was a normal naga — swapping out a husband or two or three a year was no big deal.

It was just that, looking at the mature beauty before her and that expression of being lost in love, she had a vague sense of foreboding, that was all.

Still, for now Yvette pressed down her doubts.

That bastard of a man's business was more urgent.

After chatting for a while,

Yvette said she had a new idea and wanted to try it alone on the spell seal, asking her mother to cast a few spells to muffle any noise.

Lady Lilian nodded, paid it no mind, cast a few spells, and then went to rest at the cave's temporary rest area.

After confirming she had left a certain distance,

Rod leapt out of the shadows and caught sight of Yvette's worried expression.

"What's wrong?"

"I feel like Mother has taken a fancy to a man… but I don't know who the other party is, and I'm a little worried."

"Mm, I think it's better not to interfere with mother-in-law's love life. We're all adults, and mother-in-law is a seventh-tier mage — she won't come to harm."

"You don't understand. Mother was seriously injured over a decade ago, and ever since her body has been dry and she hasn't been able to feel desire or affection for a man. If Mother had cured the root of her ailment she would definitely have told me. What I fear is that man playing some little trick, just like your 【Charm Body Fluid】."

As she went on,

she looked at Rod, her eyes unfriendly: "Where did you learn the effects of that damned fluid of yours? There aren't other men who can do it too, are there?"

"Not that I know of. I'm born this way — fated to be liked by girls. Can't be helped."

"Heh, I don't particularly like you. Hurry up and get to the real business. In the latter half of the night I plan to follow Mother back to camp and see what's going on with that man."

Rod raised an eyebrow.

But he did not react to the matter.

He took out the White Dragon Horn Seal, and the spell seal immediately responded — both sides emitted a faint glow.

Without delay, as Miss Wen Na had instructed, he slowly recited the incantation to lift the seal.

As the syllables pulsed, the surrounding air began to ripple.

The enormous blue magical circuit resonated with the white dragon's horn, its light growing from dim to bright until it enveloped the entire seal.

The hard rock walls stirred in response.

Eve's brows knit together.

She raised a hand and pressed it against the cave wall, using the 【Ley Line Resonance】 Rod had previously triggered, soothing the disturbance back to stillness.

Rod turned his head to glance at her and said with a smile, "Not bad."

The naga girl proudly tilted her head back, revealing the delicate, smooth, graceful line of her neck: "As if you needed to say so?"

A moment later.

The magical light went out one by one.

The enormous spell seal covering the entire cave mouth likewise parted at its center, opening a small door wide enough for only one person to pass through.

The moment Rod stepped inside, another great wave of resentment surged toward him.

【Resentment +43】

【Resentment +32】

【Resentment +37】

The resentment of an ancient white dragon dead for several hundred years is still this strong?

They say white dragons aren't very smart, hold grudges over the slightest offense, and have extremely strong memories — perhaps that's exactly why.

After entering the spell seal together with Eve, Rod kept up his good habit of closing doors behind him, shutting the seal's small door once more.

At this point, Teyla and Tally also stepped out of the shadows in turn, and only then did the four of them cast 【Light】 and press forward together.

After a hundred meters, the temperature began plummeting.

Traces of frost appeared on the rock walls.

Of everyone present, only Teyla was a rookie, currently hunching her shoulders and shivering.

Another hundred meters on, the party finally saw the first object within the white dragon's tomb.

A greatsword taller than Rod, gleaming with a cold metallic sheen, was now driven point-first into the ground before a small burial mound.

By now the spreading blue ice crystals had already covered the cave walls and rocky floor, turning the rock cave into an ice cave.

Yet this ice cave—

—had not encroached upon the greatsword and the burial mound at all, as though it feared them and dared not draw near.

(End of this chapter)