Chapter 43: Tenacity and Insignificance

To give those lizardmen a chance to perform, Luge stopped the Foul Skin Spell in advance and stood in a conspicuous place. Now the spell was cast successfully again, the performance was reaching its climax, and the lizardmen fell one after another, while he caught the flying short spears with his bare hands. Of course, to be safe, while standing there earlier, he had quietly cast Bull Strength and Magic Skin Technique on himself.

The performance had no novelty, but the effect was not disappointing—at least judging by the second spectator's reaction, Luge was quite satisfied. He spoke the final syllable of this curtain call and raised his hand to slap Aijin on the head.

He was about to say something.

But Aijin suddenly leaped up, took out the claw blade made from the previous black large claw, hurried to the lizardmen's side, and began to massacre them. At first she lunged and stabbed directly, but later, seeing that the lizardmen could indeed hardly get up, she no longer pounced so fiercely; instead, she walked over them one by one in an orderly fashion and finished each with two or three more stabs.

Luge watched Aijin busy herself in a circle, and for a moment forgot what he had been about to say. After thinking it over, he decided to drop it anyway. She had her own mind; some words she would definitely listen to, others she might not.

The two set off again.

After passing a strange path where strange stones jutted out like canine teeth all over the ground, they arrived at a valley.

He followed Aijin's footsteps, and after not walking far into the valley, he saw the goal of this trip.

A black tree, only slightly taller than him but covering a large area, its form as if crawling on the ground, with numerous branches spreading in all directions, like a person stretching, or perhaps struggling in pain, stretching limbs and body with all their might.

Luge's eyes merely swept over it and he could see dozens of fruits hanging on the branches. This was because the fruits were black; if they were light-colored, he estimated he could see even more.

"Did Old Gold Tooth say anything?"

He looked at the various traces around and casually kicked at the dirt a few times with his foot.

The larger traces and broken branches nearby should have been caused by underground beasts of the Black Claw Saint Lord's large size; perhaps occasionally an underground beast would mistakenly come here to eat fruit.

"Old Gold Tooth asked me a lot. He said to pay attention to whether there was anything strange around. If not, just dig under the tree," Aijin stood behind Luge, looking around, "Luge gege, if there is something better to eat than this fruit, could it save Old Gold Tooth?"

"It could."

He began walking around here.

"First, trouble Dasha. As long as his blood can keep Old Gold Tooth's life hanging, even if there is nothing good here, I will find a way to save Old Gold Tooth."

His feet did not stop; he circled again and again, first around this strangely shaped tree with branches sprawling all over the ground, then wandering through the entire valley, feeling and looking everywhere. Aijin also silently followed behind him, looking around everywhere.

Finally, he stopped in front of the tree and kicked the stones under his foot hard.

"I'll go find Tu Ya and Da Hen Hen to come together, and call the clansmen..." Aijin said.

"You step back a bit."

He did not directly squeeze to the tree trunk to act, but pulled Aijin back and began using the Bedroom Space to collect the dirt and stones around the strange tree.

Under Aijin's surprised gaze, he quickly dug a long trench, wide and deep, circle by circle, using this special method.

Luge jumped into the trench to take a simple look, then continued digging by collecting earth.

The place where the strange tree stood soon became a small lonely island.

Circle after circle, when tired he let Aijin stand guard to the side, and he sat down to rest and meditate to recover spiritual power.

The digging traces gradually converged toward the center where the tree trunk was, and the lonely island shrank bit by bit.

But now there was still nothing found. Aijin's face was already full of worry; the feeling of dashed hopes was not pleasant. He also felt the hope was not great, but on the surface he remained calm. Perhaps this had something to do with the different situations the two faced. For Aijin, this was the only chance she could find—to become a Dragonborn Kobold and to save Old Gold Tooth. Luge, on the other hand, had the Wizard's Supernatural Path as a fallback in his heart.

The small island basically no longer existed; only a lonely tree trunk remained.

Luge glanced at Aijin, said nothing, and simply continued digging downward. Some shallow tree roots had already been dug out, but many more roots were embedded deep in the earth.

Until a faint strange smell caught his attention. Hidden among the cluster of many rootlets was a black-and-red tree root, slanting and spreading toward the distance.

He simply meditated and rested, then changed his target and began digging along the direction of this strange tree root.

Following it all the way, this tenacious tree root had drilled out a distance far beyond imagination. Clearly not a very thick fellow, it was amazingly able to drill and run.

Luge followed it to a corner of the valley. During this period, he meditated and rested several times, and the construction progress inside the Bedroom Space had indeed made good progress.

Following it here was not the end. He continued digging downward. Around the valley was a circle of hard rock walls, and the tree root continued to extend downward here, drilling downward along the rock wall, demonstrating its tenacious life force.

He felt he was getting closer and closer to the answer.

Aijin watched anxiously from a distance.

He, on the other hand, felt increasingly calm in his heart. The moment just before the mystery was revealed was when he was relatively calm; it was only when he could not find direction and clues that he would become anxious.

The closer to the answer, the steadier he had to be. He even temporarily stopped digging and enlarged the opening above, to prevent a collapse from burying him inside.

The facts proved he was right. An inconspicuous thin little tree root led him to an astonishing depth.

Only when he saw the cave entrance on the rock wall did he stop chasing the small tree root.

The tree root spread into the cave entrance along its top edge, but he did not rush. He began clearing dirt around the cave entrance, but stopped after clearing only half. This cave entrance was truly too large; there was no need to waste energy. Half its size was enough for him to pass through, and even just one corner would be enough for him to get through. The part he continued to clear was only to estimate the size of this cave entrance.

He moved forward while collecting dirt and stones, and soon there was nothing left to collect.

A spacious large cave, a conspicuous pool, and beside the pool, a huge creature fallen into a deep sleep.

He tried to take a step, his posture somewhat distorted.

After thinking it over, he cast a Zero-Circle Spell, Spiritual Boiling on himself, trying to suppress that fear in his heart. Whether it was a psychological effect or not, it really worked at the critical moment.

Was this a dragon?

He saw that the tree root extended from the dirt at the cave entrance all the way into that pool. He then turned his head to look at the sleeping huge creature again.

Gathering his courage, he stepped forward. The pool was beside the huge creature's foot, and the source of the water was obviously from it.

There was a faint bloody smell in the pool.

This pool water... bloody smell... this big fellow...

He looked left and right, examining from different angles. An answer gradually revealed itself in his mind, but he felt it was somewhat outrageous. It was a dragon hiding here who knew for how long, injured and urinating blood, a dragon that would still urinate blood from time to time even in its sleep.

Of course, if it really was a dragon.

(Chapter End)