Chapter 24 The target is the dragon egg!
Deep in the rarely visited mountain forest, there is a narrow valley heavily covered by the canopy of countless giant trees.
At the bottom of the valley, a small hunter camp stands here.
This place is still very far away from the real core area of Shuret Sen Hill - the ruins of ancient Shuret City.
But for Gordon, who had always been active only in the outer areas of Senqiu, this place was already a completely unfamiliar and dangerous hunting ground.
Sitting cross-legged on the hard bed in the camp tent, the young hunter was carefully studying a map with a lot of additional annotations.
The map was given to him by instructor Ernest.
Without this detailed map kindly sponsored by the instructor, let alone successfully completing the mission, it would be considered lucky not to get lost in the deep mountains.
In fact, the instructor disapproved of Gordon taking on the task of stealing fire dragon eggs.
The reward is indeed generous, but the difficulty and danger of the task are too uncontrollable.
It is said to be a collection mission, but the mission item that needs to be handed in is not the egg of a herbivorous dragon, but the egg of a fire dragon!
That is a flying dragon species in the true sense.
If you are lucky and catch the fire dragon leaving the nest for a long time, pick up the eggs and leave, then this is just the most ordinary gathering task, no different from a one-star mushroom gathering.
What if when leaving with the eggs, she bumps into a female fire dragon who is just returning to her nest and is known as the "Queen of the Earth"?
The difficulty of the mission increases by four stars.
In the hunter guild's task division, only experienced hunters with four stars or above are qualified to confront large flying dragons such as male and female fire dragons head-on.
However, according to the instructor, this is still not the worst situation.
The male and female individuals in the fire dragon tribe have a fixed partnership. If they meet someone's parents and come back together with the egg in their arms, they will be greeted by a mixed doubles of the "King of the Sky" and the "Queen of the Earth".
ˆ Mission difficulty five-star base
If you take into account the more powerful subspecies individuals in the fire dragon group, and even the rare individuals, then the difficulty of this task can rise to the limitless level.
Of course, the instructor himself does not deny that there are elements of alarmism in this.
Collectable tasks are not hunting tasks after all, and the Hunter Guild will not send out scouts and hot air balloons to confirm the ecology of monsters in the hunting ground.
In other words, although the probability of the above is low, it is indeed possible to happen.
With Gordon's current strength and equipment, if he encounters the worst situation, it is a luxury to escape with his life, let alone complete the mission.
After this long series of presenting facts and reasoning, the instructor thought he could persuade Gordon to give up this task.
After all, the latter has completed a large number of one-star missions in the past few months and is not short of money, so there is really no need to take this risk.
But he had forgotten the reckless and convulsive stubbornness that is unique to teenagers aged sixteen or seventeen.
Gordon finally accepted the mission and broke into this unfamiliar forest.
According to what this guy said: I'm not doing it for the money, I just want to see what the legendary fire dragon looks like!
This kind of irresponsible attitude towards his own life really made the instructor very angry, but he really couldn't completely leave this guy who was almost half of his son alone.
In the end, he had no choice but to provide Gordon with a map as detailed as possible and a lot of precautions before kicking the idiot out of the house.
Apologise properly after you complete the mission and return.
Patting his knees, Gordon stood up: "Are you ready, Pork Chop? The target fire dragon's lair is about four kilometers to the southwest. Let's complete the mission in one go, and then go back for a big meal!"
"Meow!"
Along the narrow path that can only be walked sideways, the hunter and the hunting cat walked out of this hidden camp.
From the moment they stepped out of the camp, their spirits were completely tense. No one had forgotten that this was a dangerous area where dragons lived.
After recalling the route on the map in his mind, Gordon lowered his voice and said, "It should be relatively safe along the way from here to the fire dragon's lair. A powerful apex predator like the fire dragon will not allow other large monsters to exist in its territory. of.
We followed a route with lush trees, taking advantage of the shadows of the tree crowns to hide so as not to be spotted by the fire dragon looking down from high in the air. "
“Okay meow.”
Pork Chop nodded. Being cautious by nature, he behaved more lightly than Gordon.
“Pay attention to the smell in the air. The instructor said that the smell of sulfur after the fire dragon spits out its flames can spread far. My nose is not as sharp as yours, so it’s up to you to distinguish the smell.”
Pork Chop twitched its little nose in all directions and meowed cautiously.
Obviously they were in the wild, but a man and a cat were like thieves, creeping forward among the leafy trees.
Gordon knew very well that the purpose of this trip was not to fight, but to move as flexibly and quickly as possible, and the items in the luggage were also streamlined as much as possible.
Except for the most basic potions, he didn’t even bring a sharpening stone.
Originally, he didn’t even want to bring medicine, but under the instructor’s strict order, he finally brought a few bottles of recovery medicine G, as well as antidotes and flash bombs that he would never bring with him normally.
According to the latter, in case of encountering a fire dragon, these are real life-saving items and must not be omitted.
The journey to the Fire Dragon's Lair was uneventful.
Not to mention dangerous monsters, there were not even any larger herbivores. The biggest guy was actually a mushroom pig with a spine that was less than Gordon's thigh.
What made Gordon and the others speechless the most was that this kind of creature that was supposed to be timid and cautious actually walked around arrogantly in front of them, eating lichens and mushrooms wantonly, without even the most basic vigilance.
Apparently he has not experienced a severe beating from a predator.
But after thinking about it, I feel that it is completely normal. Fire dragons will not allow other predators to exist in their territory, especially in the area near their nests, not even the most common blue speed dragon.
As for small animals such as mushrooms, pigs, and rabbits, they looked down upon them, so they just vacated an ecological niche.
In normal times, Gordon might have killed this stupid guy so that he could collect some meat.
But at this moment when he was afraid of making any big noise even when walking, he naturally would not make any extra trouble. You must know that the sense of smell of flying dragons is very sensitive, and the smell of blood will almost certainly attract them.
Then the trouble would be big.
Recalling the tender meat of the mushroom pig and the gelatinous pig skin with the fragrance of mushrooms, Gordon took a deep sip of saliva, then pulled the pork chop around the confident guy in front of him.
Being cautious along the way and running at full speed for at most fifteen to twenty minutes, Gordon and Pork Chop walked for nearly an hour.
When the rocky hill highlighted as bright red on the map appeared in front of them, one person and one cat couldn't help but hold their breath.
The faint smell of sulfur lingering in the air reminds them all the time.
This is the lair of the fire dragon.
(End of this chapter)