Chapter 120 Found a Dragon!

It took her a considerable amount of time to regain her composure. After a brief moment of contemplation, she whispered faintly, "All I need is for you to teach me how to harness the form of a magic formation to cast spells without incantations."

Upon hearing this, Vetter's lips curled into a smile, knowing full well that Antawana would indeed make such a choice.

Antawana was undeniably sensible. Sky Dragons, much like Silver Dragons, belonged to a lineage of dragons whose magical prowess was unmistakable. Devoting extensive time to mastering Shaping Magic that barely augmented her combat capabilities would be a futile endeavor. Furthermore, it would detract from her studies of elemental magic.

Relying solely on magic formations was another matter entirely. Though she possessed good patience, especially when hunting—mastering the timing—it was a skill utilized primarily in combat. Meanwhile, just listening to Vetter narrate the process of configuring the magic solution already brought about a hint of impatience in Antawana's eyes. Such a temperament was clearly ill-suited for learning magic arrays.

Fortunately, borrowing magic formations for spell-less casting wasn't truly akin to mastering magic formations. Otherwise, she wouldn't entertain the idea of learning it at all.

...

Night had fallen!

Perched on one of the bone dragon's horns, Vetter gazed up at the celestial expanse above. It was his first glimpse of the night sky since arriving here. Earlier, preoccupied with carving and painting the magic formations needed to hunt the Elgin Dragon Beast, he hadn't had the chance.

As he looked at the stars twinkling in the night sky, Vetter couldn't help but ponder what Celine and the others might be doing at that moment—practicing magic, sleeping, or perhaps, like him, gazing at the starry sky.

Snapping back to reality, Vetter's smile faded, and he shook his head. "They must be asleep!"

"Them? Your companions in the Dragon's Nest?" Antawana landed behind him, prompting the question.

Vetter nodded. "Yes, my companions in the Dragon's Nest."

Antawana gave him a quizzical look before sitting down. "Mind sharing some stories?"

Vetter paused for a moment before smiling. "Sure, let's start with Billy, I suppose... He's..."

Vetter's voice, carried by the night breeze, drifted away into the distance...

The night was hazy. Lying on her back on a rocky outcrop within a crater, Celine stared blankly at the sky.

"Missing Vetter?" a voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

Celine's eyes sharpened momentarily but softened as she recognized the speaker. "It's you, Dinnet. I thought it was those creatures."

The mention of those creatures caused a flash of deep disgust to flicker in Celine's eyes, reminiscent of the time when Vetter was covered in a sticky substance. Dinnet's eyes reflected a similar sentiment.

She walked over to Celine's side and sat down. "Don't worry, Celine. Winters and the others will take care of it. I don't know where those disgusting things came from, but if even we can handle it, Winters and the others can surely manage. Besides, we have Desedro. She'll wake up if it gets really dangerous."

Hearing Dinnet's words, Celine smiled. "I understand."

Dinnet gazed up at the starry sky above. The sky was devoid of clouds, with the stars swirling like a vortex, emitting dazzling colors that even the moonlight seemed dull in comparison.

"Vetter would be thrilled to see this starry sky, haha... Well, I know he wouldn't!" Celine chuckled softly. "It's never been the stars he's fond of."

...

"You seem to like stars a lot?" 

Vetter paused for a moment and turned to Antawana.

"Why do you ask?"

Antawana responded, lifting her tail and pointing upwards. "Don't you usually look up at the stars while talking about them?"

Vetter chuckled. "I suppose... somewhat! It's getting late. We should rest. We have tasks ahead of us tomorrow. And if food is scarce around here, we might have to relocate, even if this place is safe."

With that, Vetter stood up, stretched his wings, and flew towards the bottom. Antawana watched Vetter's retreating figure thoughtfully before following suit.

The night was silent, with no words exchanged.

Morning arrived!

After breakfast, the two dragons embarked on their respective duties. Antawana was responsible for scouting the Fallen Dragon Valley and its surroundings, including the types of dragon beasts, population densities, and more. She also gathered materials for Vetter to brew a potion to cure the dragon plague. Additionally, she had to arrange the trigger-type magic formations that Vetter had inscribed around the Fallen Dragon Valley.

Meanwhile, Vetter needed to scout further afield. Some dragon beasts had vast hunting ranges, and he needed to identify the predatory dragon beasts and their strengths in the vicinity of the Fallen Dragon Valley. Based on that, he would decide whether to let them be, hunt them, or even leave the valley altogether!

Yesterday's hunt for the Elgin Dragon Beast progressed remarkably smoothly.

Out of the four types of magic — Strength Weakening, Elemental Weakening, Blade of Flowing Fire, and Water Binding — the first three were each cast nine times, while Water Binding was utilized an additional sixteen times. Consequently, the lower and middle-tier gold dragon beasts posed no immediate threat, and even the upper-tier gold ones could still be engaged in battle.

Vetter's main concern was encountering a platinum-tier dragon beast. Such an adversary was beyond the capabilities of a level 4 magic formation. Normally, these high-tier dragon beasts wouldn't venture near the Fallen Dragon Valley, but what if they were driven to it by the lure of dragon blood and meat? In that case, their only option would be to flee the valley.

In the blink of an eye, half a day had passed. When Vetter returned to the cave, Antawana was nowhere to be seen.

"Huh, where could she be?" Vetter gazed around in confusion. Despite Antawana having more tasks, they were all in the vicinity of the Fallen Dragon Valley. Since he had already returned, she should have finished hers long ago.

"She can't be taking this herb-gathering seriously!" Muttering to himself, Vetter prepared to venture out in search of Antawana. Just as he turned, he spotted Antawana approaching from afar, her flying posture somewhat awkward. Something seemed to be entangled around her tail.

Before Vetter could get a closer look, Antawana landed in front of him. "You're back. How did it go?"

Upon hearing this, Vetter swallowed his intended inquiry and replied with a smile, "The surroundings are fairly safe. The Athulf Dragon Beast group is around, and there are also Wave Ring Dragon Beasts and Capron Dragon Beasts in some places. The latter are farther from us, and there are quite a few predatory dragon beasts over there, quite powerful, even including some upper-tier gold ones. However, there's no need to worry about them coming here. There were also some predatory dragon beasts near the Meteor Dragon Valley, but they weren't very strong, mostly lower-tier silver, with the strongest being an upper-tier Silver Cass Dragon Beast. We shouldn't provoke it unless it initiates aggression."

"By the way, how's everything on the Fallen Dragon Valley side?"

At these words, Antawana hesitated for a moment, then suddenly swung her tail in front of Vetter's face. "I've set up the Fallen Dragon Valley, and I caught this!"

Vetter quickly pulled his head back to avoid a pair of dazzling golden eyes and froze on the spot. A dragon! Upon closer inspection, it was a bipedal, upright type with long, slender forelimbs that seemed quite flexible, and stronger hind limbs. The dragon horns resembled tree branches, brown in color, and its entire body was covered with large, raised cyan fish-scale-like dragon scales, while its chest and abdomen were adorned with light cyan plate armor-like scales. The wings were enormous, twice the length of its body, and the dragon tail... a tree?

"Is this a giant dragon? But why does a giant dragon have a tree as its tail? Does such a thing exist within the giant dragon species?"

Moreover, the tree looked somewhat familiar. The fan-shaped leaves were extremely similar to a type of tree named Ginkgo that existed in Vetter's mind. As Vetter pondered, he once again met the dragon's gaze, which timidly averted.

Seeing this, Vetter couldn't suppress a grin. Why did this dragon seem so timid? With this thought, Vetter took another look and noticed that the dragon's scales had some sticky liquid in the cracks, and its body length was only about a meter. "Just born?"

Antawana nodded. "He was still an egg when I found him, but he was already starting to hatch, so I had to wait until he finished eating the shell before bringing him back. I just wrapped him around my tail and almost forgot about him!"

Vetter rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the newborn dragon. "Raise your head!"

However, upon hearing Vetter's command, the dragon instead lowered its head, holding Antawana's tail so tightly that it was shaking vigorously. Vetter was speechless. This dragon was too timid. After all, he himself had once dared to question Winters!

"Stop shaking and tell me your name at least!"

At this moment, Antawana spoke up. "Don't worry, it's not a dragon beast. Its name is Linstar Isenger!"

"Linstar..." Vetter repeated the name under his breath and fell into contemplation...