Coiling Dragon (Pan Long)

Still lying down in the middle of the grass, Linley held his breath as he watched. “That mound must have at least fifty or sixty Blueheart Grass.” Linley forcibly tamped down on the wild joy he was feeling. But the thing which astonished Linley the most was…

Bebe seemed to feel that wasn’t enough, and continued to pull out more and more Blueheart Grass.

“Will Bebe be able to carry over that huge mound with those two small claws of his?” Linley was growing confused. He immediately reached out to Bebe mentally. “Bebe, that’s enough. Get back here.”

Bebe raised his head and glanced at Linley, and then wrinkled his cute little nose. “No rush. There’s a lot more to go.”

Right at this moment, a Velocidragon which was drinking water by a nearby river just so happened to look over in this direction. Its gaze falling upon Bebe, it clearly noticed him, and it rose up from the water, snorting out a plume of smoke as it fixed its icy cold gaze fixed upon the little Shadowmouse.

“Not good.” Linley’s heart immediately tightened.

If Bebe began an all-out battle with the Velocidragon, perhaps even more magical beasts might be attracted here. By then, the situation would become even worse.

Bebe also noticed the Velocidragon. Upon seeing it, Bebe seemed to be terrified, and immediately hid near the Blueheart Grass, ‘trembling’.

“Growl…” The Velocidragon let out a satisfied roar, and then immediately lay back down again and continued to drink water from the river.

“What a big stupid lump. It’s so easy to fool it.” Bebe delightedly spoke to Linley mentally.

At this moment, Linley didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. He didn’t expect little Bebe to ‘feign weakness’. Linley knew very well that a year and a half ago, Bebe was capable of forcing a Velocidragon to flee. After another year and a half of growth, Bebe should now be even stronger.

Bebe definitely had no fear of a Velocidragon.

But Bebe was also very smart. He knew that if he caused too much of a ruckus, Linley would be easily exposed.

Humans!

Magical beasts were very much antagonistic towards humans.

In the eyes of that Velocidragon, Bebe was nothing more than an extremely small and weak magical beast. Seeing how terrified Bebe was, naturally it wouldn’t bother to kill Bebe. After all, the Velocidragon knew that amongst Shadowmice, only the lowest level mice had black fur.

But the Velocidragon had no idea that one of his ‘comrades’ had been mauled quite badly by little Bebe.

“Formidable.” Linley gave Bebe a big thumb’s up.

Bebe laughed delightedly. “Naturally. I, Bebe, am an extremely intelligent Shadowmouse.” Taking a look at the large pile of Blueheart Grass next to him, Bebe suddenly expanded his body size dramatically, from twenty centimeters to nearly half a meter.

Now that his size had increased, Bebe was able to easily use his two large paws to press that pile of Blueheart Grass against his chest. Then, with a flex of his legs….

Whoosh!

Bebe suddenly landed in the grass, directly next to Linley.

“Boss. All in all, there’s 160 clumps of Blueheart Grass here. Having me, Bebe, take action was the perfect, flawless plan.” Bebe arrogantly puffed out his little chest.

Linley lovingly rubbed Bebe’s little head, and then put all of the Blueheart Grass in his backpack.

“Let’s keep going. I’m growing more and more curious about this valley.” Linley’s eyes shone as he looked east. “For this valley to have so many magical beasts, and also to have such a thick density of elemental essence….mmm, I feel like the elemental density here is even higher than when we first came down. The elemental essence density here is about ten times higher than in the outside world.”

Linley had a feeling…

Whatever strange factor was causing the elemental essence in this valley to be so much higher than normal, must have came from the eastern side of the valley.

Linley continued heading east, moving his way through the dense grass. With the assistance of the supportive wind-style spell Supersonic, Linley was able to move at a very fast speed. A seventh-level magus using the Supersonic spell was capable of allowing someone to move three times faster than normal!

Three times Linley’s normal speed as a warrior of the fourth rank.

“Whoosh. Whoosh!”

Linley quickly scurried from one hiding spot to another, dodging one magical beast after the other. Fortunately, aside from that part which had an abundance of pegasi, the rest of the valley was filled with abundant grass, tall enough to totally hide Linley within it.

“From the point where I entered the gorge until now, I’ve perhaps gone east almost a hundred kilometers.”

Linley was very astonished.

The entire Mountain Range of Magical Beasts was around a thousand kilometers or so wide, so for a valley to be over a hundred kilometers long was very astonishing. Based on distance, Linley should have begun to draw very near to the core regions of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.

“Hey, Boss. There’s very few magical beasts here.” Perched on Linley’s shoulders, Bebe was constantly scanning in all directions as well.

Linley nodded.

In an area around them with the radius of several kilometers, only two magical beasts could be seen. It was very strange for the density of magical beasts to be so low here. The two magical beasts present were both gigantic Velocidragons. Most importantly…these two Velocidragons were both resting on the ground, apparently asleep.

“Just two Velocidragons, and sleeping besides.” Linley laughed in a self-mocking way. “This section will probably be the easiest section to traverse ever since I got in here. But I must say ,these two Velocidragons are rather different compared to your average Velocidragon.

Linley noticed that these Velocidragon’s bodies were even larger than that of most Velocidragons. Because they were lying down, it was hard to be certain, but these two Velocidragons, even while lying down, were almost as tall as most Velocidragons were while standing up. In addition, their body length was double that of an ordinary Velocidragon.

While lying down on the ground, those two large Velocidragons looked very much like two small mountains.

In order to be extra cautious, Linley went so far as to carefully pass the two large Velocidragons via a patch of grass that was over twenty meters away from them. But Linley didn’t notice that when he passed through the grass, making a soft ‘swishing’ sound, the ears of the two Velocidragons twitched, even though their eyes remained close and they didn’t move.

When traveling through the grass, of course there would be some noise.

But Linley didn’t pay too much heed to that, because as Linley saw it, even the wind blowing through the grass would cause some swishing sounds. It would only just be a bit quieter than the sound of a person traveling through the grass, was all. Linley had crept through the grass for so long now without any trouble.

“Swish!”

A sudden blur sliced through the air and directly smashed towards Linley. Linley, even while boosted by the Supersonic technique, was only able to just barely stop in time.

“Whack!”

A long, dragon tail, as fast and flexible as an iron whip, heavily struck the ground right in front of Linley, perhaps just half a meter in front of him. The earth itself split apart from that blow, as a meter-wide crevice appeared in the ground. Linley hurriedly exerted force with his legs and began to run.

“I’ve been discovered.” Linley’s heart shuddered.

“Growl!” “Growl….”

Two roars in succession. The two Velocidragons that had been sleeping suddenly both rose to stand up. Both of them were four stories tall, and their body length alone was around forty meters, with their tails making up another forty meters in length. Their size was absolutely astonishing.

“They are so huge! These must be elites amongst the Velocidragon race. Most likely magical beasts of the eighth rank.” Linley’s heart trembled.

These were the first magical beasts of the eighth rank which Linley had met here in the valley. As a magus of the seventh rank now, Linley had confidence to tussle with even magical beasts of the seventh rank. But upon encountering a magical beast of the eighth rank, he didn’t even dare to entertain the thought of fighting, because at the higher ranks, the differences in power for each rank grew even more pronounced.

Just from the value of magicite cores, one could tell.

A magicite core of the sixth rank. 1000 gold coins.

But a magicite core of the seventh rank could be worth up to 50,000 gold coins! The gap between the sixth and the seventh ranks was thus easily imagined.

A magicite core of the eighth rank? The price could reach up to 500,000 gold coins!

As for a magicite core of the ninth rank? The value was an astonishing 5,000,000 gold coins!

“These were just the general estimates based upon the books in the libraries. In reality, the magicite cores of some particularly large and powerful magical beasts are extremely rare, and thus even more valuable. Often, you won’t even be able to find them on the market.”

A magical beast of the eighth rank was far more powerful than a magical beast of the seventh rank.

“Growl.” “Growl!”

The two Velocidragon’s of the eighth rank exchanged glances. A look of amusement actually appeared in their eyes, and then they turned, charging at Linley at high speed.

The intelligence of a magical beast of the eighth rank was definitely no less than that of any human being.

“Whoosh!” At maximum speed, Linley began to frantically run eastwards while immediately beginning to chant the words to the wind-style Soaring Technique spell. But since it was a magical spell of the seventh rank, the incantation was quite complex as well, and had to take quite a bit of time to perform.

At this point in time, Bebe didn’t dare to try and show off either.

He could defeat a Velocidragon of the seventh rank, but a Velocidragon of the eighth rank? Just based on their size alone, which was a full size larger than ordinary Velocidragons, Bebe knew very well that his teeth might not even be able to bite through the scales and reach their flesh.

Their huge size signified that they had thick scales as well. Each scale of these Velocidragons of the eighth rank were more than half a meter thick, and beneath that was an even thicker layer of muscles.

To injure them was an extremely difficult proposition.

Possessing the speed of a warrior of the fourth rank boosted by the Supersonic supportive spell, Linley’s traveling speed was still somewhat faster than the rather slow Velocidragons. These huge creatures were rather slow and lumbering, but each step they took covered a large amount of distance. Each step of theirs covered as much distance as ten of Linley’s.

Most importantly…

The iron-whip-like tails of these Velocidragons of the eighth rank. Possessing the speed of lightning, they were even faster than the tails of Velocidragons of the seventh rank. With a flash and a flicker, they could move dozens of meters, and were approximately on the same level as Bebe’s own speed.

The earth shook as those two huge, ponderous creatures continued to chase after Linley. Every so often, the two of them would exchange a strange look with each other.

“Whooosh!”

Linley suddenly flew into the sky. He had finally completed the incantation for the Soaring Technique.

“I’m finally safe.” Linley quickly flew higher. Seeing the two enormous Velocidragons beneath him, Linley finally let out a sigh of relief. “These two Velocidragons of the eighth rank were really sinister. They intentionally feigned sleep in order to lure me in.”

Actually, what Linley didn’t realize was that the two Velocidragons were not baiting him in at all, earlier.

But these two Velocidragons of the eighth rank were extremely sensitive to their surroundings. They were very used to the sound of the wind rustling through the grass. When they heard the frequency of the rustling suddenly change, of course they would immediately become suspicious.

“Growl…”

The two Velocidragons of the eighth rank watched as Linley flew away. They didn’t appear angry in the slightest. Instead, they raised their heads high and roared. That roaring sound seemed almost…happy.

Linley was able to differentiate between a roar of rage, and a roar of pleasure.

“Growl…” “Growl…” “Growl…” “Growl…”

Suddenly, the air above Linley was split with draconic roars as well, one draconic roar following the other. Just from the number of roars, one could tell that there was an extremely large number of magical beasts present.

“They’re above me.” Halting in mid-air, Linley looked up, startled. From within the white, foggy mists, one enormous draconic beast after another began to emerge, every single one of them around seventy or eighty meters long, and with an enormous wingspan of around fifty or sixty meters long as well.

Multiple huge, draconic figures hovered there in the white mist. Linley could tell at a glance how many there were.

“At least a few dozen.” Linley felt as though he couldn’t breathe.

One enormous flying draconic beast after another descended from the skies. Their flame-colored scales were so resplendent, and flames seemed to flicker around their entire bodies.

“Fire Dragons!” Linley knew that the situation had just become catastrophic.

Fire Dragons were considered middle-class dragon-type beasts. Most Fire Dragons were magical beasts of the eighth rank, while elite members of the race could reach the ninth rank in power.

“Two magical beasts of the eighth rank were able to give me so much trouble for so long. Now, I’m dealing with ten that can fly.” Linley felt extremely miserable right now.

And right at that moment….

“Growl…” “Growl!”

Another series of roars began to emanate from a different direction. And then, one flying creature after another, each approximately the same size as a Fire Dragon, began to spread their massive wings and fly in this direction. These enormous, flying draconic beasts had dark green scales that were as clear as jasper.

These flying draconic beasts with green jasper scales were not the slightest bit fewer in numbers when compared to the Fire Dragons.

The two Velocidragons of the eighth rank below Linley began to roar in amusement as well, their eyes filled with a sinister maliciousness.

“Now I know why when I entered this area, I only saw the Velocidragons of the eighth rank and didn’t see anything else.” Linley felt miserable. “Most likely, only magical beasts of the eighth rank are permitted to reside in this area. Magical beasts of the seventh rank don’t dare to enter. This Fire Dragons and Emerald Dragons are all pack-type draconic beasts of the eighth rank. Most likely, these two Velocidragons were just toying with me this entire time. When they saw I was about to fly away and escape, they immediately roared out to have the Fire Dragons and Emerald Dragons to come as well.”

Over a hundred massive flying dragons were circling above him in the sky. Only now did Linley realize what was going on.

But by now, the way out through the skies was forbidden to him!

“Boss, what are we gonna do?” Bebe’s pitiful voice rang out in the back of Linley’s mind.