Chapter 15: Encounter on the Road
Chapter 15: Encounter on the Road
As they created a distance from the heart of Great Forest of Motto, Amos began to discover lots of traces of adventurers.
Unlike the vast and sparse barbarian lands, Bailey was one of the most prosperous port cities in the north. A natural deep-water port with a large throughput like Bailey Harbor, with convenient shipping conditions, not only helped with commercial development but also attracted quite a few southern adventurers from Bailey City by the sea.
They would enter the Great Forest of Motto for wealth, the forest was also surrounded by several small towns that survived by doing business with adventurers.
Amos tried his best not to deal with intelligent creatures until his wings were fully grown. The young dragons killed an Iron Armored Lizard and occupied its cave. The young dragons would do this kind of thing a lot these days. They planned to stay in a cave for a small rest until nightfall and later fly into the sea.
Amos applied light and shadow magic to the cave entrance, making it look like ordinary grass from the outside. For tens of days, the young dragons were nervous, and now they could finally rest.
In the evening, the young dragons were awakened by the movement outside the cave, they stopped Willy who was about to get up to check. Amos chanted a spell and a transparent eyeball appeared in the air.
Mage's Eye.
The transparent eye gradually disappeared, and Amos controlled the mage's eye and flew out the cave.
Amos looked at the image transmitted by the Mage's Eye, twenty or so adventurers were chasing after three people in front of them.
Soon they were overtaken by the adventurers, and the three men made a quick decision. Two guard-like people remained behind to stop the pursuers while a mage-like noble lady continued to escape.
Amos looked at her escape route, not surprised by her actions...
Amos pressed his paw against the girl's face who had fallen into the cave to block her screams escaping, the girl struggled, when Amos increased the strength on his dragon claw, the girl understood the warning and she stopped struggling and stiffened.
Soon the two guards were attacked and stabbed to death by a large number of adventurers.
The adventurers kept on chasing the girl in the direction of her escape.
Adventurer A: "Damn! I saw her run this way, how come she's vanished all of a sudden?"
Adventurer B: "Assaulting a noble is a capital crime. If we let her get away, we will find ourselves hanging in the gallows!"
Adventurer C: "We'll have to be alive to even reach the gallows, first. If we don't retrieve the item, we'll have to deal with the boss."
Adventurer D: "She couldn't have run far. Let's split up and look for her."
Instead of noticing the plain grass on the ground, the adventurers cursed and went away.
Amos felt wetness in his hands when he moved away his claws. He saw the noble lady was slick with perspiration all over her forehead and face. And he instinctively felt embarrassed; his claws were simply too big. He not only covered her mouth but her entire face along with it, even crushing her lovely nose when he did.
He, the bad guy, couldn't apologise, of course.
"Wow~ What do we have here? A Mage came to our doorstep, what do you want me to do with you, lovely lady?"
Only then did she clearly see what it was that was holding her. She looked at the four young dragons in horror. She quickly calmed down, understanding her current predicament.
She calmly stood up first, then straightened her messy hair and patted the dust on her clothes, with a standard noble smile on her face.
"Good day," she said, "young, honorable dragon."
As Amos watched Mage's performance, his impression of her improved a lot; she was both calm and rational.
"Now I'm very curious as to why a noble lady such as yourself was being chased by a group of adventurers," Amos said in an unquestionable tone: "Can you satisfy this curiosity of mine?"
"Of course, I'll be honored."
Miss Mage took out two one-meter-long eggs from her dimensional bag.
Looking at the scaly eggs in front of him, Amos smelled a familiar smell, dragon egg?
No, it's Bipedal dragon egg.
The strength of the Bipedal flying dragon was the best among the sub-dragon species. It could reach level 15 as an adult, which was equivalent to a fourth-ranked professional and could become the foundation of a viscount family's fighting power.
Moreover, it had a long lifespan. Once domesticated, it could protect the family for up to 800 years. The value of two Bipedal dragon eggs was such that it could save the adventurer's life in a life or death situation.
On Nordhill, the nobles were eager for such extraordinary cubs. The domesticated extraordinary creatures were not only to give the nobles bragging rights, but could also strengthen their family heritage and create supernatural beings. So, the price of an extraordinary creature's cubs remained high, and the cubs of high-level transcendent creatures were even more priceless.
"Thank you, Lord Dragon, for saving me. I am willing to give these to the mighty dragon."
"Very good! You are quite smart, little mage."
Amos's voice changed: "However, you are originally my trophy, and what's yours would've been mine, either way. Yet, you offer what was mine to me as a gift?..."
Felicia interrupted: "Amos! Why waste time talking to her? Just kill her and take everything from her!"
Feeling the young dragon's blatant killing intention, the mage quickly said, "I'm willing to redeem myself."
"Miss, as I said, what is yours is mine, what do you intend to redeem yourself with?"
"My name is Philea Oliver, the daughter of Viscount Oliver in Bailey City and am the only heir of the family. If Lord Dragon allows me to go back, the Oliver family will be willing to redeem me with ten thousand gold coins."
"Miss, are you retarted? If I let you out, whether or not you get to redeem yourself is secondary. What if you expose our whereabouts? Then wouldn't those greedy adventurers..."
Amos' head approached Philea, snorting on her face: "There won't be any negotiation unless you are willing to sign a contract and become my servant."
Amos had long wanted to establish his own intelligence system among humans, and now such a great opportunity to control a human noble came to his doorsteps, he couldn't simply let it go.
"Lord Dragon, I am willing to swear in the name of the gods that I will not do anything against you."
"You don't have much of a choice, lady. Choose. Life or death."
Philea had no doubt If she refused the dragon, he would undoubtedly kill her. After a bout of internal struggle she finally said: "I am willing to sign an equal partnership contract."
"Don't try to test my patience."
In the end, reason prevailed over impulse, and Philea gave in. She had a long life ahead of her and didn't want to die, yet.
After the signing of the unequal contract, the contract paper burned flamelessly, which marked the establishment of the contract, and Philea became Amos's slave. Unless Amos took the initiative to terminate the contract Philea could never do anything against her owner.
Amos did once over at his first servant. Scan!
[Name]: Philea Oliver
[Level]: Level 3 Mage
[Strength]: First Order
[Camp]: Orderly; Neutral
[Introduction]: Heir of the Viscount Oliver family in Bailey City, a talented young mage, servant of the White Dragon Amos.
"Master, may I go now?"
"No," Amos glanced at his first family member: "I don't want the ten thousand gold coins. Give me everything you have, now."
After offering all her gold coins, Philea asked again: "Master, can I go now?"
"No."
Philea: "..."
At night, Amos grabbed Philea and sent her to the safest area---two kilometres away from Bailey City. He didn't want this new member of the household to be eaten by wild beasts before they even left the forest.
After sending Philea away, the four young dragons continued to fly towards the sea.
When he reached the offshore, Amos folded his wings in the air at ten meters, dropped his head down freely, and plunged his head into the sea.