Does your low fertility have anything to do with my floating city?
Roland looked at them in confusion.
Realizing his confusion, Minko stroked his beard and explained, “Every dragon species needs something special to reproduce. For example, the golden dragons need to absorb a certain amount of Ebony Stone, and the bronze dragons have to eat mud regularly. For the silver dragons to procreate, our females must have a special element that can only be found in the shells of the worms in the Astral Plane.”
Special element? Roland realized something.
But he still had questions. “Then why don’t you hunt the worms in the Astral Plane?”
The elder dragons smiled bitterly, and Minko continued. “The Astral Plane is too high for us to fly to, even though we have anti-gravity spells.”
“Then how did you procreate in the past?” asked Roland curiously.
Minko replied, “We didn’t have to fly up in the past. The worms in the Astral Plane flew down now and then, and we captured them.”
“No worms are coming down these days.” Roland nodded. He had collected and read a lot of books in the game world. A lot of the books mentioned weird bugs that descended from the sky hundred of years earlier and brought disaster to mankind.
Back then, the silver dragons were very active.
“It’s been more than two hundred years since any worms descended from the sky,” said Minko helplessly. “It’s because the Lawful gods and goddesses of mankind surrounded the main plane with divine power. Not just the worms, but even the Evil Gods can hardly pass through the barrier. The current Lawful gods and goddesses are the strongest in history.”
Okay… Roland got it.
In the eyes of the Lawful gods and goddesses, the dragons were probably nothing but intelligent, extra-large reptiles.
They couldn’t break through the border of the main plane and reach the Astral Plane.
Besides… There were racial distinctions between the gods and goddesses. Most of the gods and goddesses in this world were born from the collective subconsciousness of mankind. The Lawful ones were from mankind’s good side, and the Chaotic ones were from negative emotions. The Neutral ones were the elemental gods or those of the neutral races.
For example, the Water Goddess was an elemental goddess, and the God of Dwarves and the Elven Goddess of the Forest were deities of neutral races.
Of course, Bahamut, the god of metal dragons, was also among them.
It was true that the metal dragons were a Lawful race, but the problem was that the Lawful gods and goddesses of mankind were wary of them.
After all, the dragons were foreign creatures, and they were too strong as individuals.
As they got to this part, Roland already realized why the silver dragons wanted to move to the floating city. It was because the floating city could fly to the Astral Plane.
Even though there might be a barrier, the floating city could easily break through it with its stored magic power.
Thinking for a moment, Roland finished the wine in his cup and waved his hand. Then, the cup was filled with golden fluid.
It was the insect oil from the Astral Plane.
“Do you think this can make up for your malnutrition?”
In fact, the four human-shaped dragons were already hungry when they saw the fluid. But they all held themselves back.
Eventually, Minko said, “Futi, have a taste of it.”
Futi raised her head and gracefully grabbed the cup. She drank the fluid. A moment later, her eyes glimmered as she said, “Grandpa, it works!”
“It’s indeed insect oil.” Excitement flashed in Minko’s eyes. “But it’s too little. We’re very big and we need a lot more. Sir, this is one of the summoning spells, right? Can you sell the spell model to us?”
Roland shook his head.
The dragons all seemed rather anxious. Minko was about to talk.
However, Roland waved his hand and stopped him. Then, he said, “It seems that you haven’t visited the human world for a long time. Not that I’m unwilling to tell it to you, but I’ve sacrificed the spell to Mystra, the Goddess of Magic. If you want to learn it, you can exchange your faith for it.”
Faith!
The old silver dragons hesitated.
Bahamut was a kind god and didn’t mind his followers worshiping other gods as long as they were not evil or demons.
However, the metal dragons were all devout believers of the dragon god. If they were to worship a human goddess, their reputation among the dragons might be affected. They had to take that into consideration.
Seeing how hesitant they were, Roland didn’t urge them to make a decision.
It would be great if the whole thing worked out, but it wouldn’t matter even if it didn’t.
Mystra was no longer in dire need of believers.
As more and more teleportation arrays were built, more and more people were willing to worship her.
At this moment, she could already vaguely see the soul shadows of other believers on the pillars in her paradise.
For her, everything was going in the right direction.
“We’ll consider that, but what matters most right now is that Mr. Roland is entertained. Here, bottoms up.”
Minko seemed to be quite familiar with the human beings’ drinking games and appeared quite friendly.
After drinking for three hours with those elder dragons, Roland asked when the party was coming to an end. “Chief Minko, I have a rather offensive question. I hope you won’t be infuriated by it.”
“Please feel free to ask.”
Pausing for a moment, Roland asked, “I’m told that the dragons have a public tomb where a lot of dragon bones are kept. Can an outsider take some of the bones away?”
“Sorry, no!” Minko shook his head.
“All right then.” The answer was not surprising to Roland. Usually, nobody would want the bones of their ancestors to be desecrated by an outsider. “Then, Chief Minko, can you tell me where the bones of the five-colored dragons are kept?”
“You want to strengthen the floating city with dragon bones?” asked Minko.
Roland admitted it without looking for an excuse. Minko considered for a moment and said, “The five-colored evil dragons aren’t as united as us. They won’t tell their fellows where their families are buried, but there are ways to find them.”
“Can you tell me more?” asked Roland.
Minko thought for a moment and said, “If you want to construct and strength your floating city with dragon bones, your best choice is the black dragons, whose bones are the hardest. Usually, they prefer to stay in swamps or near lakes like the green dragons. Those are the places where they often die. It’s hard to tell from the ground, but you can find those places easily from the sky. Trees and animals tend to be more exuberant where dragons are buried.”
Oh, it was just like a whale fall.
Roland understood.
“It seems that you’ve got it.” Minko thought for a moment and said, “Then enough of chit-chat, let’s focus on drinking. If you’re willing, you can bring any of those girls back with you. Just don’t hurt them.”
The silver-haired dragon girls all winked at Roland.
Roland wasn’t touched.
After his stomach was filled with alcohol, Roland left the cave and returned to his floating city with teleportation.
As a Legendary expert, Roland wouldn’t get drunk so easily.
Standing in the floating city, he considered for a moment and decided to search for the tombs of five-colored evil dragons… He couldn’t talk himself into digging up the tombs of the metal dragons who were Lawful.
The five-colored evil dragons were different.
All means should be adopted to strike down evil.
Taking the dragon bones and building a better floating city was exactly a way to strike down evil.
In the same cave, Minko said, “Although we can get the way to summon insect oil from the Goddess of Magic, it’s just a backup plan for us. In any case, we have to figure out a way to acquire Astral Worms stably on our own. We cannot let go of Roland. We need to send someone to make friends with him, so that we can ask for his help if anything happens in the future.”
Everybody nodded.
At this moment, Minko looked at Futi. “Since you already made friends with Roland and you two seem close, you can go with him.”
“To be his mount?” Futi’s face turned red. “What are we going to tell the other four clans? It won’t do good to the reputation of the silver dragons. After all, we’re not as shameless as the five-colored dragons.”
Minko snorted. “We’re already jokes. We haven’t seen a baby dragon in two hundred years. Also, they all said that they would help us with our procreation problem in the past hundred years, but they never did anything. If we keep procrastinating, the silver dragons will go extinct after your generation grows old. I won’t allow that to happen. So, they can laugh at us if they want to, but they cannot declare that we’re no dragons.”
“I’m afraid that Roland doesn’t like me.” Futi was slightly worried. “He didn’t look at me at all just now.”
“Then it’s time to show your feminine charm.” Minko encouraged her. “Besides, even if you don’t have enough feminine charm, you can always sway him with your strength. Normally speaking, no man can refuse to be a dragonrider. No man!”
Futi thought for a moment and nodded.
At this moment, Minko’s expression changed. “Huh? The floating city is activated. You should go.”
Oh!
Futi quickly rushed out and turned into a glittering ball of light while running. Then, a gigantic silver dragon flew out of the light and took off, chasing after the floating city.
Then, Minko became extremely serious. “Knock the Stellar Crystal Bell on the peak and summon everybody. We need to decide if we should worship another goddess.”
Roland was flying the floating city to the Fareins Kingdom. He intended to pick up the architects and sculptors to continue the construction of the floating city.
However, after he just flew for a while, he saw a familiar silver dragon hovering outside the floating city.
He temporarily turned off the barrier, and the silver dragon landed and turned into a beautiful female elf.
Wearing tight white clothes that were transformed from dragon scales, Futi walked to Roland gracefully and said with a smile, “Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“I thought you were going to stay here…”
“Do you know where the territory of the five-colored dragons is without me leading the way?”
That did make sense!
Then, she stood next to Roland and asked in a low voice, “Do you mind having a dragon mount? One that you can also ride at night.”
Roland coughed loudly.
He had to admit that it was very easy for a man to get a spouse when he was capable. When a man was poor and incapable, it was very hard for them to win over the girls they liked.
However, most of the men who were rich and powerful would rather not waste too much time on women, who were only obstacles in their way to greater achievements, because they were already sick of women.
Roland was strong and had a big floating city. He was very charming even though he wasn’t very handsome.
No wonder Futi was willing to contract herself to be his mount.
After Roland was done with coughing, Futi said with a smile, “I was just kidding. If your answer is no, I won’t leave. We can still hang out as friends.”
Of course Roland wouldn’t believe that.
He had said exactly the same thing to his first girlfriend in college: I just want to hang out with you and I don’t want anything else.
But three months later, he took his girlfriend to a hotel.
Heh… I’m very familiar with this method.
Roland mumbled to himself.
Under Futi’s directions, the floating city crossed the sea and came to the south of the western continent.
Compared to the northern deserts, the south of the western continent was comfortingly green.
Above the boundless trees, Roland soon locked onto a dark forest.
The trees in the forest were in a deeper color and taller than other trees nearby.
Standing right next to Roland, Futi pointed at the area. “If my guess is correct, a five-colored dragon that just reached adulthood died there.”
Her body was fragrant and soft.
It had been days since Roland made out with Andonara. He felt rather uncomfortable when Futi was so close to him.
Then, he slightly moved away from her.
“Why do you know that it’s a dragon that just reached adulthood?”
“Because the abnormal trees had the coverage of a dragon that just became an adult.”
So that’s how it is.
Roland flew the floating city to the area and stayed above the forest.
Then, Roland looked down and snorted.
He didn’t realize that there were two masses of powerful magic reactions in the forest below until he got closer.
Then, Futi detected them too.
But she was still slower than him.
“The magic waves… They belong to the white dragons of the five-colored dragons!” Futi were briefly stunned. “What are two white dragons doing here?” Roland was not in a hurry to go down. He dropped a lot of transparent tiny magic spiders first.
Watching those spiders disappear below, Futi felt that her head was dizzy.
She vaguely realized what those spiders were for.
What surprised her even more was that those spiders could barely be detected after they were released.
That was an awesome reconnaissance technique.
Was that the expertise of a man who had built a floating city?
A tremendous number of magic spiders soon fell in the woods.
Then, a lot of images were transmitted into Roland’s head. After that, Roland saw that two brawny males who had horns on their forehead were mumbling something on their knees in front of a black altar.
On the altar was a piece of shapeless, bizarre-looking meat.
They seemed to be performing a ritual.
