MM Racing Page 32
Page 32
The key to progressing deeper in the training dungeons is to identify a core loot based on the drops before the first boss and then focus on strengthening that core. Choosing the best quality loot regardless of its type or how it fits your build, and being a jack-of-all-trades but master of none, will make you a nightmare for Casaroz, let alone the second boss; even the mobs in some rooms will be enough to deter you.
Casalos has consistently applied this experience to real-world situations.
Advancing Bloodscale Frenzy, which offers almost no practical improvement in the early game, requires an exorbitant price of 8000 gold. You could use that money to upgrade Elemental Master and instantly get it to level 3. Alternatively, you could buy some useful feats, or even just some basic stat boosts – wouldn't that be better?
But this final trial in the fledgling stage, the encounter with Hellfire, made it realize that it couldn't keep its distance and play cat and mouse forever. There would always be something that could fly better and faster than it, or there would always be some other means of restriction that would pull it into an inevitable melee.
If we consider individual species as platforms and professions as the supporting combat systems, Casalos, as an iron dragon, already possesses a top-tier basic 'platform' in the mortal realm. Even with a singular build, the inherent advantages of its dragon body allow it to fully utilize basic defense and melee combat. However, when it encounters a mindless Hellfire in a training dungeon with a 25HD build, its fate is still quite tragic. It's unimaginable what would happen if it encountered a truly cunning Hellfire in reality.
The Treasure Vault Trial can be restarted if you fail, but reality will not give you a second chance. A jack-of-all-trades who can do everything may reduce actual strength, but it is the best choice to survive, because in reality, if you can't beat someone, you can run away. Compared to a single-function specialization, a jack-of-all-trades is definitely the best solution for survival.
"No wonder there are very few people in the entire continent of Faerûn who have a single profession or who have progressed all the way to the legendary level."
Looking at all the named figures in Faerûn, every single one of them has a secondary profession. While a single profession offers high strength, its adaptability is terrible; it's ineffective against enemies specifically targeting you. Adventurers in Faerûn face complex and ever-changing situations, encountering all sorts of enemies; a single profession is a dead end. Aside from the top-tier, resource-rich powers that can dedicate resources and manpower to cultivating a small number of highly skilled level 17 or 18 single-profession individuals for specific situations, who has enough lives to fight to the death with just one profession?
Having figured this out, Casalos no longer felt that investing 8000 gold coins in Bloodscale Frenzy was a waste. After all, compared to those who could only train arduously, it could exchange life after life in the Dragon Treasury for gold, and then spend more money to bring all its advancements to a specialized level. Given enough time, it could become a versatile combat dragon, both broad and specialized, and would no longer fear encountering any specific divine abominations… In fact, divine abominations or other quasi-divine powers weren't so easy to encounter. Faerûn had its own rules, and these quasi-divine beings had their own fixed spheres of activity. Unless they were deliberately causing trouble, the creatures of Faerûn would never encounter them.
Casalos's meticulous planning is probably due to the neuroticism he's developed from countless battles to the death.
While career advancement can take its time, Casalos was equally pleased with the developmental milestones that are crucial for dragons, such as crossing age gaps.
Through that abstract information, it realized that it had undergone abnormal development across age during its advancement to Bloodscale Frenzy, thus gaining additional growth in its life essence. Numerically speaking, its Hit Dice (HD) gained an extra level, just like when it hatched. Combined with the generally fixed 3HD for dragons across age stages, the newly juvenile Casaroz already possessed 12 HD.
The arrogant humanoid adventurers of Faerûn categorize dragons as monsters, and HD reflects the dragon's biological level, corresponding to its "native" role. As a powerful dragon, Casalos's base enhancement with each HD upgrade is unparalleled even by advanced classes—however, base is base; it lacks the various abilities of advanced classes.
Chapter 80
The Atheros had already demonstrated to Casalos the true weakness beneath the powerful exterior of a white dragon through their annihilation.
Casalos is no longer on the narrow path that most dragons are destined for in their lifetime. The base boost from one HD (High Definition) upgrade has a very significant impact on its actual combat power. Ignoring the paid advanced classes, just looking at Casalos's mage class, which he became through his own research into arcane magic, he gains an extra spell slot with each HD upgrade.
A level 1 mage who can record three first-level spells in a spellbook is considered a magical genius even in the entire Forgotten Realms!
However, Casalos's slight concern is that while other athelian dragons memorize and prepare spells in a manner similar to mages, they don't require a physical spellbook as an aid. His dragon arcane powers haven't fully awakened yet, and as a mage who relies on learning and research to become a mage, he needs a spellbook to aid his memorization; otherwise, he can only unleash the last prepared spell.
However, it is not a scroll dragon. Its relatively clumsy forelimbs, which are designed to support its body's center of gravity, are not good at holding books, let alone performing delicate operations such as copying and drawing on them.
It was unwilling to act like a mentally ill dragon with a spell addiction, directly using the dragon scales imbued with dragon magic as a spellbook and memorizing spells on the scales—undoubtedly, memorizing spells on them would greatly damage the strength of the scales, inhibit the flow of dragon magic, exhibit a negative state of negative level, and would also conflict with the mysterious runes of the Carved Skin Dragon, which was definitely not a choice made under normal thinking.
Therefore, it had to waste a very scarce creature-level feat slot to choose the dragon-specific feat of embedding spell artifacts, which involves embedding spellbooks, which are considered spell artifacts, into its body, making them a part of its own body.
Of course, these are all minor matters.
Having successfully passed through its dormant period, Casalos's challenge level jumped directly to level 23, making it a legendary "monster" in the adventurer's standard—but even a true legend would be no match for it.
But it doesn't matter. What about the Drow Dragon, what about the city of Gravesend, and the green dragon couple that have been chasing it to nowhere on the surface? These guys that have made it endure for so many years had better be prepared. Casaloz's sharp teeth, claws, and dragon wings are already itching for a fight!
88. Unexpected Gains and Hunting Preparations
"What do you mean you captured a mind flayer and seized a shell-like ship?"
No matter how eager he was to leave the mountain, Casalos couldn't just ignore everything and rush out of the lava flow to chase after the Drow Dragon.
Only by mobilizing all available resources and developing multiple reasonable tactical plans can the success rate of the operation be guaranteed. Therefore, it naturally needs to first contact Eisen, who is guarding the perimeter, to find out what happened during its slumber and what the situation is before it can start venturing out.
Eisen's report left it somewhat bewildered.
Not long after it fell asleep, a riot broke out in Dragon Territory—this was to be expected. Dragon Territory was now teeming with unorthodox individuals; without the dragons' suppression, it would be a disservice to their natural allegiance not to rebel. Even among the unorthodox grey dwarves and goblins, after all these years, a large group still hadn't become dragon servants, and each harbored ill intentions. Casaloz had instructed the Kalik tribe to make ample preparations for this; otherwise, why would it be so cautious?
The riots were inevitable, and it was only right that they were suppressed, but where did these mind flayers come from?
There were indeed spirit flayers passing through the rift before, but they haven't appeared since the passage was destroyed. These tentacle monsters, who travel in shell ships that can teleport at will, would normally just switch to another path if they find one is blocked. So why are they crawling in again now?
"According to the voluntary report of that half-construct grey dwarf Edgeworth, the riot was planned and instigated by this mind flayer named Meow's Whisper. It hid outside the Rift, using its psionic abilities to remotely connect with every subject dissatisfied with your rule, devising detailed plans for their rebellion, and even successfully persuading the goblins to remain neutral during the riot..."
"Wait, so that means it also contacted Edgeworth, and then this gray dwarf agreed on the surface, but then sold it to you? Didn't this guy hate me to death? Why did he switch sides now?"
“Perhaps… it hates mind flayers even more?” Eisen, equally unable to understand the gray dwarf’s line of thought, continued recounting the story of the mind flayers: “Edgeworth created a mental illusion in its own memory, deceiving the Roaring Words’ remote mental probing and memory fine-tuning, thus completely putting it at ease.”
Edgeworth, a powerful psionic mage, was an indispensable top-tier fighter and battlefield commander in the riots fueled by the Whispering Words, so it informed Edgeworth of most of the riot plans in advance. Of course, it withheld some crucial information, including its true purpose.
Afterwards, Edgeworth created a mental barrier and approached the elders, revealing the entire plan of the clamorous words.
Our joint analysis revealed that the ultimate goal of the riot plan orchestrated by the Roaring Words is you, the sleeping Dragon Lord!
However, it was hiding outside the Rift, and we had no means to counter it. So, we decided to play along, having the goblins and the dragon servants among the grey dwarves cooperate in staging a play. The riot unfolded and proceeded according to the plan of the Roaring Words. When Edgeworth and Penny led the remnants of the riot up the Lava Channel and were stopped by us, the Roaring Words finally piloted its shell-hulled ship into the Rift.
Then, Edgeworth launched a sneak attack and killed the true traitor, Penny. The dragon servants in the rioting ranks also turned the tables and killed the traitor. We activated the pre-set magical traps to restrict the shell-like ships that had entered the lava, and then captured the clamorous voices…
"So, this guy was eyeing this place when I first blew up the tunnel?"
Eisen, kneeling on one knee, lowered his head: "I'm sorry, Dragon Lord, we can't pry open the mind flayer's mouth."
"It's alright." Casalos shook his head indifferently. "That's a master of manipulating mind power. If you can pry anything out of it, you'll have to consider whether it has some other scheme in mind. Let it sit for a while. I'll deal with that Charles kid first, and then I'll handle this tentacle monster."
Casalos had no intention of letting a mind flayer disrupt his original plans. On the contrary, his desire to cause trouble for the drow dragons had become even more urgent—this creature had participated in the riot orchestrated by the mind flayers, killing many kobolds of the Kalik tribe, and the dragon vein sorcerers were powerless against it. The kobolds were Casalos's most trusted henchmen, and this enmity had now become a serious one.
The Shadow Dragon, shrouded in shadow, is extremely difficult to deal with, and the Charleson boy, having undergone rigorous assassin training, is as slippery as an eel. Despite Casalos's immense growth over the past five years, he still hasn't managed to catch it.
It could catch up with the Drow Dragon, but without the help of the Dragon Vein Warlock, it would be difficult to find the exact location, let alone find out the elusive creature hiding in the shadows.
This time, the sleeping Casalos has grown significantly, especially with the addition of an extra spell slot, greatly increasing the success rate of capturing Drow Dragons—this is the advantage of mages casting spells, as they can prepare useful spells in advance according to their purpose to deal with possible situations.
Of course, a mage is a profession that acquires spells through learning and research, unlike a warlock who can obtain spells on a whim. The spells Casaloz can prepare must be spells learned and recorded in its spellbook. Needless to say, the spells recorded in its spellbook mainly originate from the dragon vein warlocks of the Kalik tribe.
In fact, every dragon vein warlock elder in the Karrick tribe now possesses the ability to cast sixth-circle spells. If placed among the humanoid factions on the surface, they would be considered "archmages." In a direct confrontation, even five or six young shadow dragons wouldn't be enough for it.
Chapter 81
They bombarded it, but unfortunately, they were too slow to catch even a single scale of the Shadow Dragon. As long as the Drow Dragon remained wary of them, they would have no chance of catching it.
With these as sources of arcane magic, Casalos found it quite easy to find suitable spells.
Dragonblood sorcerers draw their spells from their dragon bloodline, and the spells that dragon blood can bestow are, of course, magic created by dragons. In other words, most of the spells Casalos currently possesses are highly suited to his dragon identity, rather than the spells commonly wielded by humanoid sorcerers.
To capture a Zorlong, perception is key.
While it could rely on the dragon vein sorcerer's prophecy for general direction, Casalos would have to rely on itself once it got close. Therefore, it first prepared a first-level dragon blood detection spell, which would allow it to continuously track the aura of a true dragon or half-dragon at mid-range for its duration, preventing the drow dragon from completely escaping under the cover of shadow. Combined with the close-range lock-on of Flamelight, the Charleson brat would have nowhere to run.
89. The chase and escape play out again.
Being able to detect, track, and lock onto a target is only the basics; you also need to be able to catch up with the target to complete the capture.
For some reason, the Charson boy flies much better than ordinary Shadow Dragons, his speed and maneuverability almost matching Casalos, who has acquired numerous flying feats. Therefore, Casalos will need to acquire another Swiftwing to increase his flight speed in order to completely overwhelm the Drow Dragons with their aerial maneuverability disadvantage.
Finally, there's the "weapon" to capture.
Casalos and the Drow Dragon have been locked in aerial combat for years, developing a thorough understanding of each other. Even the slightest movement in flight is instantly anticipated by the other. Being dragons themselves, the Charson boy must have anticipated Casalos's growth during its slumber; trying to catch it with its original claws, tail, and mouth is unrealistic. After all, any movement in flight requires a pre-air sway to maintain balance.
However, Casalos was reluctant to kill this rare "elite monster" outright—for the Dragon Territory to grow and expand, an intelligence department was indispensable. And what could be more suitable to be the head of an intelligence department than a drow dragon?
It doesn't matter if the Charleson kid doesn't want to; just catch him and beat him up until he swears a blood oath to truly serve Casalos as his master.
A spell that a shadow dragon cannot detect or defend against will become a powerful tool for capturing drow dragons. Fortunately, a dragonborn spell called Ghost Tail is perfectly suited for this purpose.
Having made his choice, Casalos memorized the three spells through meditation, then connected telepathically with the elder who specialized in divination spells. He bid farewell to Eisen and plunged into the lava flow, riding the lava to quickly return to the rift valley. He emerged from the waterfall, spread his wings, and flew directly towards the location of the Drow Dragon.
"I have no intention of being your enemy. My previous assassination attempt on the kobold was due to the mind flayer's psychic power!"
Even though they were still quite far apart, Zhuo Erlong's reflection came over to explain.
Casaloz rattled its iron beak, clenched its wing blades to shatter the mirror image into a dark mist, and continued charging toward the direction where the Drow Dragon's main body was.
A second mirror image appeared immediately afterward, flying at a safe distance, continuing to try to persuade: "They're just a few kobolds, I can make it up to them."
"What kind of compensation?" This piqued Casalos's interest. Of course, interest aside, the capture and punishment still had to be carried out; otherwise, how could it, as a lord, be worthy of its subjects—though the kobolds wouldn't care, Casalos's sense of order prevented it from ignoring the fundamental obligation of a lord to be responsible for the lives of loyal subjects. This had nothing to do with good or evil; it was the purest and most basic order.
"A message, a secret, a message that can quickly grant you immense power, a secret that can grant you immortality."
"Heh, not interested." Casalos destroyed the new mirror image with a breath of extended range. Even now, that Charleson brat still wanted to play tricks on it. If it really had any information or secrets about quickly gaining immense power, why didn't it go itself? What it said might be true, but clearly, there were huge risks hidden behind this information, which was why Drow Dragon was willing to share it.
More importantly, is there anything that can enhance the power of a true dragon more quickly than the Dragon Treasury?
Casalos has seen a whole host of dragon gods in the Dragon Vault, so how could he possibly believe the clumsy lies of the Drow Dragon?
Sensing that the distance was about right, the detection of dragon blood was released, and two "highlighted" dots immediately appeared in my consciousness. The largest and brightest one placed in the center was myself, and the other one, emitting a black mist-like light, was undoubtedly the Drow Dragon.
Another mirror image appeared, but this time Casalos didn't give it a chance to speak. Before the mirror image could fully solidify, Casalos rolled over and cleaved it apart with its wing blades.
The bright spots marking the approximate location of the Zorlong in the mind fell from the dome and slowly accelerated away to the left; the Zorlong had begun to slip away.
But this time Casalos wasn't completely oblivious. It attached itself to the Wings of Swift Flight, adjusted its direction, and climbed to a height close to the dome before suddenly plunging into a dive and accelerating, heading straight for the Drow Dragon.
Sensing Casalos's movement, Zollong, still clinging to a sliver of hope, didn't accelerate suddenly, but simply changed direction and flew away. Casalos immediately turned and continued flying directly towards it.
After three attempts, Zhuoerlong finally realized that its location was being tracked. It flapped its wings vigorously to increase its flight speed and began its real escape.
"It feels weird to fly, like I can't use my strength."
As its flight speed increased, Casalos noticed something unusual about its flight: whenever it flapped its wings, the enormous thrust generated by catching the air did not give it the expected acceleration; the drag generated when it returned to its starting position exceeded the expected level; even stranger, when its wings were stationary in a "gliding" posture, the airflow that occasionally flowed over its wing surface seemed to be disturbed, giving it lift beyond what should be expected for gliding speed and a strange thrust, causing its altitude and speed to slowly increase...
Unfortunately, now is not the time to study this matter. It can only remember this feeling and then maintain its dive acceleration in a way that may consume more energy, gradually closing the distance with the Zorlong.
Realizing its position was no longer completely obscured by shadow, the Zoldyr Dragon rolled and spun sharply. Casalos cut straight in front of it and then reversed direction, creating a head-on flight path. The Zoldyr Dragon spun again, and Casalos, occupying a high position, pursued it in the same direction.
Two consecutive sharp turns caused the Zorron's flight altitude and speed to drop drastically, thus rapidly closing the distance between it and Casalos. Seeing that it was about to enter the range of the flames, the Zorron had no choice but to fold its wings and dive vertically downwards, attempting to pull the larger and heavier Iron Dragon into a steep, uncontrollable dive as well.
Casalos, however, was not fooled. Instead, it began to circle around the Drow Dragon's location and slowly descend, forcing it to the brink of falling... This was merely a raptor's flying technique for hunting birds in the air. Why do most dragons just blindly fly straight after it?
It couldn't help but recall the aerial battle between the colorful dragons and the Athena dragons in the Sacred Land of Athena after the Lock of the Maze shattered. Those colossal dragons, blotting out the sky, were so powerful, so rampaging, and so clumsy as they soared through the air.
What exactly is the reason?
Could it be that the dragons' arrogance has blinded them to the point that they disdain even glancing at how the birds, which are everywhere, dance in the air?
This dragon flies much better than them!
90. Catch
If we were still in the world of the previous life, answering Casalos's sudden question wouldn't be too difficult: it's just a certain health...
Chapter 82
The paper's writing style is lacking; it's like trying to write an aerial battle scene on the ground.
It's hard to say what caused it, but it's not just toilet paper. Looking at the fantasy world created by Western creators, the dragon battles depicted are truly indescribable... No, it's not just dragons. They always manage to turn a bunch of lofty settings into petty thugs fighting, and they take pride in it.
Galakrond suffocated by a stone, the stylish guy was shot to death by two black arrows, Viserion was stabbed to death by a javelin... Not to mention the distant past, within the Forgotten Realms universe of the D&D series, there are countless dragons that have been killed by stones or fallen to their deaths while flying. It's as if the dragon's vast magic and powerful physical strength are just a useless background.
Of course, one can find a thousand or ten thousand reasons to fill in these bugs, but no matter how many reasons one finds, they are all far-fetched, because the "phenomenon" shown in the original work's images or descriptions is there, and the essence of its reaction will not change.
Casalos now lives as a dragon in a real world, and the situation he encounters is completely different.
To put it in a fantastical way, the foundation of the world's existence and the basic rules governing its operation will automatically fill in those bugs.
But since the Age of Thunder, dragons have been soaring through the skies of Faerûn. No matter what kind of power they rely on to fly, they probably don't know how to choose their flight path or how to conserve energy while flying!
As it turns out, they simply didn't know.
Whether it's the legacy of the Atheros, the aerial battle between the Atheros and the Chromatic Dragons that Casalos witnessed, the subsequent pursuit by the Green Dragon, the strange feeling after gaining weight, or the experience of chasing the Drow Dragon, all of these things prove to Casalos that the dragons of Faerûn can fly, but that's all they can do... fly, but only a little bit.
The Zorron also cannot breathe underwater; once it falls, it will become fish on a chopping board. The Charleson boy knew this well, so before it lost control and plummeted, it pulled itself up, intending to use the high speed gained from the dive to escape in the opposite direction of Casalos's circling.
However, it dived so low that the speed it gained from the dive was merely an illusion.
Instead of making a sharp turn, Casalos tilted its head back and pulled upwards, tracing a U-shaped trajectory to enter inverted flight, thus changing its direction of flight. Although it lost a lot of speed, it allowed it to fly higher. Directly heading towards the direction of the Zollong, it made a shallow dive, rolling back to its normal position as it dived. Before it had even closed a few hundred meters, Casalos had already gained a higher speed than the Zollong and was still accelerating.
Seeing this, Zollong made a sharp turn, while Casalos kept increasing the dive angle, turning vertically and continuing until he was in an inverted flight state before starting to turn in the opposite direction.
In this way, it gained more than twice the flight speed of the Zorron, and with the help of a side turn, it circled around the Zorron ahead of it and turned back into a flight path facing it head-on.
"You've gone too far in bullying the dragon!"
A new mirror image appeared, roaring at Casalos. Drow Dragon, utterly lacking the courage to confront Casalos head-on, could only turn and flee once more.
Unfortunately, the aerial battle was entirely under Casalos's control. After such a long period of attrition, Casalos had effectively placed himself in a position of absolute energy advantage, and Drow Dragon had no chance of escaping.
Ignoring the reflection in the mirror, it turned around past the flight trail of the Zorlong and cut in front of it once again to meet it head-on.
Zhuo Erlong had no choice but to make another sharp turn.
In order to maintain speed, in addition to flapping its wings as hard as possible, it kept dropping in altitude, almost touching the surface of the lake, and its wake stirred up a rippling wave on the water.
When Casaloz leaped over it again, it had no room to make another sharp turn.
Either you slowly turn around the sharp bend and get hit head-on by Casalos, or you try to climb and lose all your speed, crashing directly into Casalos's arms.
"What do you want from me?!" The mirror image, which had no mass or resistance and was simply a reflection, kept up with Casalos quite easily.
"What do I want? Didn't I tell you long ago that the matter of serving me as your master is over?" Casalos clicked his beak and said mockingly, "Of course, since you tricked me once and dared to cause trouble while I was asleep, this time it's no longer a matter of nominally serving me as your master. If you want to live, you'd better become my servant!"
"Okay, I promise, please stop now."