Since the young lava dragonet only came at night, they have free time till then. Jeanny suggested they explored deeper into the cave so that they knew the terrain better before tonight’s capture mission, but Peniel advised against it.
The huge cavern hall where Jack last saw the young dragonet might be close enough to the dragonet’s nest already. If they went there and allowed their presence to be found out by the adult dragonets, then they could kiss this capture attempt goodbye. Those dragonets would become alert and pay attention to them. The fact that none of them had yet to come means that this young dragonet did not inform its parents of its finding.
Everyone separated into small teams like yesterday and farmed the flame drakelings. Jeanny reminded everyone to come back before sunset. They needed to rest and be fully ready for the capture mission.
Everyone followed the order, even Jack stopped his grinding once the sun was close to the horizon. He went back to the cave with everybody.
Inside the cave, while everyone else was resting, the leaders had one last meeting to discuss their plan. Peniel estimated the young dragonet should have a lower level than the flame drake, so they should have no problem reducing its HP to 30% swiftly even without Arlcard.
Jeanny said then the problem lay in the probability of the adult dragonets coming to the rescue.
Peniel corrected her that it was not a probability, but a certainty that the adult dragonets would come once they sensed the young one was in danger. The question was how many would come. Ideally would be two, but on rare occasions, it could be as many as four.
Everyone gulped. If they had to fight four monsters that were as strong as or might be even stronger than the flame drakes…
Jeanny divided them into two teams, one would attempt the taming while the others held the adult dragonets at bay until the taming was completed. The key was to complete the taming process as fast as possible. Once they were done, they just needed to flee from those adult dragonets.
Jeanny gave the last Giant Capturing Cage to Jack. Jack would of course be the center of the capture team, together with The Man and his berserkers who held the runic ropes.
Jeanny and a large portion of the remaining players would be in charge of holding the adult dragonets. Jack would summon Arlcard and had him join Jeanny’s team.
They decided they would hold the adult dragonets at the entrance of the huge cavern hall. It allowed them more space to maneuver. If the dragonets entered the narrow cave and used some sort of large and long-ranged skill like the Grim Flame Drake’s Flame Wrath. The attack might reach Jack’s location and caused him to fail the taming attempt again.
After going over the plan and making sure everyone was on board. Everyone ate stat-increasing food that the guild cooks had prepared before leaving Heavenly Citadel. After that, all they could do is wait until the young dragonet appeared.
They made sure to wait further away from where the sentries used to stand guard so that they were out of sight and not scared the young dragonet when it came. Except for Jack and Life Runner who took positions at a different waiting place from the others.
*
When it was almost midnight, Jack was meditating as he waited. He was not meditating at first, but he found that his mind tended to wander pointlessly about useless stuff when he was idle. Like what if the young dragonet decided to not come tonight, what if it had lost interest in the players here so it now went to play somewhere else.
So, he got into a meditative state and trained his mana sense while waiting. He sent his sense to the depth of the cavern hall. He should be able to feel the young dragonet approaching in this way.
He also took a better look at the cavern hall while he was at it. The terrain was irregular with many hills, valleys, protruded rocks, and natural pillars. It should give many cover spots for his guildmates when they went up against the adult dragonets, providing that they knew how to utilize the terrains.
While he was observing the place, he sensed some movements. He immediately went over to check. The movement was small, but it could not avoid Jack’s detection.
It was indeed the young dragonet. It was moving in a very low position, sort of like crawling, with its large bat-like wing covering its body and making it as if flat with the ground.
Jack was amused. This young dragonet was daring enough to leave its parents’ protection and adventured outside, but was also mindful enough to be careful. Jack liked this youngling. He had to tame it!
The young dragonet moved even slower after entering the cave. Jack could see its dragon eyes continued to monitor the distance, making sure the sentries weren’t positioned closer than the night before.
Jeanny had instructed the sentries within the cave to stay guard as normal, to not raise the young dragonet’s suspicion.
The young dragonet finally arrived at the spot where it used to peek. It stayed there as it watched with its red eyes.
Jack sent the message that he would be making his move soon.
After sending the message, Jack’s body dissolved out of the shadow behind the unaware young dragonet. He had been using his Shadow of Cloak’s ability to hide within the shadow. With him positioned at the dragonet’s back, he cut off its path of escape.
Jack had used Inspect when the young dragonet crawled past him.
*
Lava Dragonet (Rare Elite monster, Draconic), level 40
HP: 365,000
Status: Youngling
*
The dragonet heard crackling sounds from behind. It turned around in consternation, twenty lightning balls landed on its body successively. Each detonated with violent lightning energy that shook the cave. The dragonet roared from the pain.
Jeanny led the others and rushed out from their hidings. At the same time, they heard a tremendous roar from the depth of the cave.
Those with sensitive mana sense felt incredible raw power in that roar.
“That didn’t bode well,” Jack said.
He cast Myriad Ensnaring Chains to bind the young Dragonet. When it was incapacitated, Life Runner came out from his Hide skill and landed another ambush on the dragonet using Unblockable Stab. It scored critical damage.
Jack had used Enhanced Whetstone on his weapon. He also activated Overlimit, Life Burning Art, and Adrenaline Rush before he sent the Lightning God Barrage to the unsuspecting Dragonet. Added with ambush bonus, those two ambushes with Life Runner’s had netted almost 150,000 damage, effectively cutting their attempt short.
Under normal circumstances, the addition of the ambush bonus would have scored them damages of over 200,000. This showed how tough the dragonet’s defense was despite still a youngling.
Jeanny and the others rushed past Jack and the bound dragonet. They headed into the depth of the cave. Jack called out Arlcard and asked him to follow Jeanny’s group.
Jack didn’t dare to be negligent after hearing the roar just now. He fed one hundred mana cores to his amulet. A level 43 Ice Demon Fiend appeared. Jack gave it the command to follow and help Jeanny as well.
Jack, The Man, and a few others stayed behind to deal with the young dragonet.
The young dragonet was still bound by Myriad Ensnaring Chains, but it could attack. It opened its mouth and a thick stream of dark red beam poured out.
Jack had started casting Magic Wall when he felt the intense mana build-up inside the young dragonet. The magic wall formed as the dark red beam poured out. The beam slammed the rectangular light wall, Jack could still feel the heat through his magic wall. Some droplets recoiled from the impact and dropped on the ground. These droplets liquefied the ground it touched, producing deep recesses with smoke and hissing sound.
“That is lava breath, it is hotter than a flame breath,” Peniel informed. “If you are hit by it. Not only does it have the probability to cause burn, but it will also cause your equipment’s durability to go down at a faster rate.”
Hearing it, Jack sent this information to Jeanny. His mana wall could resist this lava beam no problem, but the adult lava dragonet was sure to have a more fearsome lava breath. Jack hoped they can hold the monsters long enough until he completed the taming process.
With that urgency, he dove towards the young dragonet once its lava breath was over. Jack cast Magic Weapon before transforming into the black werewolf, then activated Gold Scale Armor. He fought the young dragonet in a frenzy, trying to bring its remaining HP down to 30% as fast as possible.
The Man and the others chipped in as best as they could.. With Jack taking the full attention of the young dragonet with his reckless assault, the others sneaked in attacks from the side.
