thefictionvixens Page 39
Page 39
"Hey, why are you glaring at me? Regardless of any conflicts or disagreements we might have had before, we're both now serving our lord under his wing. We should get along well, cooperate sincerely, and strive to plunder more treasures for him and conquer more territory for him..."
In terms of appearances, the green dragons are much more pragmatic than the orange dragons. If Casalos hadn't been so familiar with their character, he might have believed Shacales's lies.
“Shut your mouth, Shacales. Don’t expect me to believe your nonsense.”
Stopping the green dragon from continuing its nonsense, and seeing its expression of utter devotion, Casalos shook his head, summoned a bunch of kobolds, and placed the pre-prepared collars around the necks of the two colorful dragons.
Then, it used its wing hook to pick up a collar of the same appearance, put it on a thick, sturdy steel pipe, and slowly explained: "You should have felt it, this is a magical piece of equipment that can improve your ability to control water flow, making your movements underwater more fluid and natural."
At the same time, this is also the leash that keeps you in check. Inside the collar is a sophisticated and complex mechanical structure. Once worn, the magical lock will engage with the structure, and any attempt to disengage it, except through the correct opening method, will…”
Casalos took two steps back and unleashed a burst of dragon breath onto the collar around the steel pipe. The sparks had barely heated the collar's outer shell to a bright red when the intense light vanished in an instant. The explosion sent plumes of smoke and dust billowing up, and the steel pipe, as thick as a dragon's neck, was sliced in two by the blast, crashing to the ground and rolling away with a hum.
"A cleverly designed explosion will trigger, slicing your necks open like this—don't worry, this steel pipe is much tougher than your necks, you can definitely try it. In addition, at the same time as the explosion, a 7th-ring superpower brain-removing technique will be activated, removing part of your brain tissue. Even if you have some method to transform into an undead creature and survive, you will suddenly forget it because of the loss of brain tissue and calmly face your death."
The eyes of the two colorful dragons changed slightly, and they each lowered their heads.
"Besides forcibly removing it, there is also a timer in the collar that needs to be reset every three days, otherwise it will also trigger an explosion!"
Shacales and Bellamy buried their heads even lower.
“Only I know how to reset it. That means you must return here at least every three days to report your findings and mission progress. I can tell you that there are other underwater passages to leave the rift. You can try to leave from there and see if you can unlock the magical locks that connect the collars to the constructs within three days and escape my control. I also want to test whether the mechanisms of these collars are as reliable as their creators claim.”
13. Strategic Changes
Casaroz's methods instilled fear in both of the self-proclaimed evil colored dragons—Casaroz never intended to use any normal methods of appeasement or winning over these evil creatures. If evil dragons were so easy to subdue, they wouldn't be called evil dragons.
Of course, gaining the loyalty of a dragon isn't entirely impossible, but Faerûn's unique nine-square grid alignment attribute is actually a kind of fate record, which can be detected by spells. Alignment encompasses a comprehensive judgment of the target's current thoughts, past behavior records, and so on. Even if there are a few exceptions where dragons have been tamed, their alignment will still show a significant shift when detected.
Shacales and Bellamy were clearly not subdued by Casalos; they were merely subject to Casalos's power and were forced to serve him out of concern for their own lives.
The only way to make dragons obey is through violence that is more evil and cruel than theirs, and through oppressive rule.
Anyone who dares to be the slightest bit lax with them, believes their lies, or even feels the slightest pity for them, is not far from being swallowed whole by the evil dragon.
Both the orange and green dragons are true dragon subspecies that are naturally able to breathe underwater, and they are both quite adept at swimming. Sending them to deal with the Kou Tao fishmen would be a perfect match. The last destabilizing factor in the rift finally has a chance to be resolved.
These creatures have been hiding underwater for five years. Apart from the occasional Dragon Territory resident who ventures to the surface during an attack, they rarely show themselves. Nobody knows what big news they're up to underwater. Casalos would feel much more at ease if he could get rid of them.
Furthermore, with the underwater threat eliminated and a group of underwater troops forcibly conscripted, the dragon leader's lake development project and the secret passage leading out of the rift valley were all secured—the plan to plunder labor from the green dragon couple had taken an unexpected turn, and the dragon leader urgently needed an alternative; it was time to give Gray...
Chapter 101
The grey dwarves of Frosende are causing some trouble.
The original plan to directly conquer Gravesend City needed to be revised, as the Dragon Territory, lacking sufficient population, would be unable to control the city. Casalos decided to emulate the nomadic tribes of the Chultan Peninsula, employing a long-term, intermittent plundering strategy against Gravesend City through hidden underwater passages and the mobility of magic ships.
Bellamy and Shacales's campaign to eliminate the Koto fishmen was merely a preliminary step in the liberation of Gravesend.
The artisans of Dragon's Lair received their mission and began developing underwater vehicles. Casalos's specifications stipulated that these vehicles didn't require significant underwater combat or navigation capabilities; all that was needed was a pressure-resistant, sealed shell, coupled with oxygen-generating magic, capable of carrying dozens of people to a depth of two to three hundred meters for several days. Then, Bellamy and Shacales would lead a group of conquered Kotau murlocs, towing two large shells through underwater tunnels to transport several elite combat teams out of the Rift. Once a suitable outpost was established, they could then launch guerrilla attacks from behind on the mining or agricultural areas surrounding Gravesend.
There is no peace in the Underdark. Gravesend is constantly under attack from various factions, groups, and even wild monsters of similar intensity. They will remain oblivious until the scale of the Dragonflight raids grows. Those slaves exploited by the Grey Dwarves will undoubtedly be eagerly awaiting Casalos's rescue.
As for Casalos himself, due to the interference of the Dragon Cult, his plan to obtain the Blood Oath Pact from Lanlot was also thwarted, thus delaying the time to subdue the Drow Dragon. Although the Charleson boy was a bit weak, he was much more useful than the two chromatic dragons. Casalos needed him to do special long-term infiltration intelligence work, which was clearly not suitable for using pure violence to rule by fear. Casalos really couldn't think of any other effective method besides the Blood Oath.
Besides their strong binding force, the blood oaths created by the devil possess many characteristics that differ significantly from sacred oaths. Casalos's most valued aspect is that all terms recorded in the blood oath are binding, regardless of the method used.
The devil often uses invisible ink or special script resembling lace to write hidden clauses that are difficult to detect, leaving those who sign the contract utterly bewildered. Casalos wouldn't actually trick the Drow Dragon in this way, but he could easily use a method similar to photolithography to inscribe hundreds of thousands of words of clauses onto a blood oath contract with a very limited surface area. As long as his staff is capable enough to list all possible scenarios, any possibility of the Drow Dragon betraying him could be completely eliminated.
There's no way around it; although both are in the evil faction, the Drow dragons are far more chaotic than the green and orange dragons. They're chaotic and unpredictable, and nobody knows if the Charleson kid might suddenly have a brain fart and do something reckless. If all the bad signs can't be nipped in the bud, Casalos really doesn't feel comfortable using such a rare dragon talent.
The orange dragon and the wingless green dragon went into the water as ordered, but after returning three times to report back, they still failed to find any trace of the Kou Tao fishman.
Compared to the limited stone pillars and domes in the air, the lake covering the entire rift valley is actually much larger. Underwater is a three-dimensional space, and the water's shielding of perception is so comprehensive and severe that the two dragons' progress is entirely in line with Casalos's expectations.
But the two dragons weren't loyal kobolds, and Casalos wouldn't give them any reason to be lazy. He severely beat the two dragons until they were crippled, had the dragon vein sorcerer heal them, and then gave them another beating. Only then did Casalos extend the reset timer on their collars to one week, and send them back underwater to continue searching for the Kotto murlocs.
"What were you after? It was clearly after me, but you came here just because you smelled my blood. Now look what happened, you didn't get to eat the green dragon meat, and you almost became food for other dragons. Although you survived, you're called a vicious dog, but you're being abused every day, just like me. It's really pitiful."
The green dragon, Shacales, mocked the orange dragon, Bellamy, before diving into the water and swimming into the depths. The orange dragon, furious, turned back to look at Casalos, wanting to say something but unable to utter a word.
实在有些看不下去的卡萨洛兹咯嘣下铁喙，自言自语似得说到：“见过蠢的，没见过这么蠢的。它又打不过你，地位也没你高，你嘴臭不过它难道不会揍它么，就算揍残废了，只要不死那丢给小狗子们治疗一下不就行了……”
14. New Advanced Level
Having dealt with the two colorful dragons, it's time for another trial at the Dragon Treasure Vault.
As Casaroz entered the larval stage, the Dragon Treasury underwent a subtle change. Upon entering the hall again, Casaroz was immediately struck by a sense of realism, as if the virtual environment it had created for aesthetic purposes had suddenly become somewhat more tangible—a very strange feeling. The scenes within the hall were originally visible and tangible, undeniably real to the spiritual being, yet Casaroz knew perfectly well that they were fake. Now, however, an inexplicable sense of reality had emerged.
Perhaps if things continue like this, one day in the future, the Dragon Treasury will become a real physical space?
Regardless, this is meaningless to Casalos right now; it is more concerned with whether the upgraded Dragon Vault will have any new enhancements.
It eagerly opened the talent tree interface, and sure enough, the entire talent tree had undergone a major change. The several talent trees that Casalos had acquired were no longer independent entities.
Originally, the three talent trees of Carved Skin Dragon, Elemental Master, and Bloodscale Berserker originated from the same point and branched off 120° apart on the plane, each growing in a different direction. The enhancements or abilities that improved classes could gain were distributed throughout the gaps, and the branching paths connected them like tree branches.
Finally, the level 12 nodes of the three advanced classes all connect to a common ring, which itself becomes a path—Kassaroz's Leather Dragon is now at max level, thus illuminating the outermost ring path. In other words, when spending money now, one can start with the ring path and work backwards to unlock the late-game abilities of Bloodscale Frenzy and Elemental Master.
In addition, interconnected paths have appeared between some related nodes in the three talent trees.
This means that the Dragon's Vault talent tree now allows Casaroz to deviate from the original growth path of its advanced classes. By spending real money, it can selectively acquire the most useful abilities from the remaining two advanced classes, significantly optimizing the cost-effectiveness of Vault coins for its own growth.
The roots of the Primal Strength Talent Tree overlap with those of the three advanced classes, but its growth direction is perpendicular to the plane formed by the talent trees of the three advanced classes, making it somewhat unique. Although the Primal Strength Talent Tree has not yet formed any connection with the three advanced classes, the ends of Casaloz's deepest branch, Blazing Flame, are all drooping like willow branches. If it continues to illuminate further, it will eventually intersect with the plane of the three advanced classes.
An even bigger change was the appearance of three overlapping trunks opposite the original Power Talent Tree, none of which had yet unlocked their new talent trees. Focusing his consciousness on them, Casalos learned that the three new talent trees were the Holy Watcher, the Blasphemous Destroyer, and the Calm Observer.
There's definitely a reason why the three talent trees overlap in the main trunk.
Casalos, filled with a strange feeling, transformed the information about the three professions into more intuitive text and demonstrations, and his thoughts finally became clear.
Without a doubt, the three newly introduced advanced classes for True Dragons are the three advanced classes related to the Dragon God that True Dragons are familiar with: the Holy Guardian of Bahamut, the Blasphemous Destroyer of Tiamat, and the Calm Observer of Chronips.
Bahamut's Holy Watcher and Tiamat's Blasphemous Destroyer are essentially two dragons that have fallen.
Chapter 102
The combat professions developed in the war are equivalent to the Seraphim in the two Dragon God Wars, except that this war did not only take place in the divine realm, but also involved all mortal beings in the material world.
The calm observer of Chronipus originates from Chronipus, the dragon god of fate, death, and judgment.
He is a silent, indifferent, and calm deity. In ancient times, most dragons respected Chronipus, but because He was neutral, very few dragons worshipped Him or served Him as priests.
Colored dragons and metallic dragons are almost always too obsessed with philosophical extremes to become priests of Kuronips, and their fervent loyalty to their faction means they have no interest in the detached attitude of observers.
Most of the calm observers are gem dragons, brown dragons, toothed dragons, song dragons, dragon turtles, or bipedal wyverns that are not true dragons.
The Kuronicus are true observers, maintaining a detached attitude towards events in their world, acting as observers rather than active participants. They are an excellent source of information and advice, and dragons often turn to them for adjudicating disputes and complaints.
In those distant times, the cool observers of Cyronipus generally nested in areas where other dragons used as burial grounds, where their gods were embodied as the face of the god of death, and where the graves were protected from robbers and blasphemers.
In a sense, these three advanced classes represent a different aspect of the true dragon race: good, neutral, and evil. They are completely contradictory and in opposition to each other, and no one can advance to any two of these three classes at the same time.
The advancements offered by the Dragon's Treasury have undergone some subtle changes.
The most obvious change is in the naming of the professions. All three have lost the prefix "Dragon God," which indicates that the connection between the three advanced professions and the three Dragon Gods has been completely severed. They have become truly independent advanced professions, rather than divinely endowed professions.
Next, there is the completely overlapping talent tree path trunk.
The overlap path represents the overlap of the paths of the three professions: if Casalos chooses to spend money to advance in any of the professions, it will simultaneously increase the level of the other two professions, but this is not an effective level, it is just a display level.
The effective class level of this talent tree is determined solely by how many nodes have been advanced along the main branch.
In other words, the three advanced classes related to the Dragon God are now actually merged into one. Casalos can simply choose one of these classes to manifest as his own: if he becomes a level 1 Holy Watcher, he will also become a level 1 Blasphemer or a level 1 Calm Observer. He can only choose one of these classes each time he manifests, and the effective level is 1, instead of the three combined levels of 3.
The same applies to choosing the other two advanced paths.
Furthermore, each level increase in this talent tree requires a choice to determine the branch ability. Although Casalos cannot hold all three positions, he can switch back and forth between the three advanced professions at each effective level increase to choose the ability branch that best suits him and build a unique growth path.
15. New Dungeon
The conflict and contradictions stemming from the factions of the three dragon gods were resolved by the creator of the Dragon Treasury in a chaotic, crude, and violent yet effective manner. This gave Casalos greater room for maneuver.
The ability to switch freely between the three advanced classes and choose any one to display is useless for in-game training, but in reality, it undoubtedly has the potential to become a god-tier skill. Especially when combined with the ability to switch to Iron Dragon form, its disguise becomes much harder to detect—there are many abilities that can transform into other forms, some even granting complete access to the target's base power, potentially allowing it to impersonate an advanced class user from an opposing deity…
Compared to advanced classes like the Carved Skin Dragon, the three advanced classes derived from the Dragon God offer an immeasurable boost to a dragon's strength.
If it's its original profession, regardless of which deity it becomes a follower of, it will undergo a Divine Conversion, losing all the effective Arcane Casting Rank previously gained based on age and dragon type, and converting it into Divine Casting Rank. Its original effective Divine Casting Rank will be added to the number of Warlock Ranks it sacrificed, allowing dragons that become Divine Watchers or similar classes to cast Priest spells and Domain spells much more effectively.
For example, an ancient golden dragon with a level 1 priest class, after accepting Bahamut's Holy Watcher advancement, will have its level 13 warlock spellcaster level converted into 13 effective priest levels, granting the dragon the spellcasting abilities of a level 14 priest.
At first glance, this may seem like nothing special, but upon closer examination, one can discover that these three advanced divine-endowed professions are the only path that allows dragons to obtain the legendary spellcasting abilities they have always dreamed of, apart from either concurrently practicing their primary spellcasting profession or forcibly pursuing the spellcasting profession to reach the legendary level.
Moreover, compared to taking on a secondary spellcasting role or directly embarking on the path of a legendary spellcaster, the advancement of a divinely gifted class is much easier. As long as one gains the favor of the corresponding deity, it's easy to reach a high level. A blue dragon devoutly devoted to Tiamat would at least have a priest level of 2 to 3. Due to the Dragonfall War, if it were to lick Tiamat's deformed cavity a little more often, obtaining a level 12 Tiamat Desecrator wouldn't be too difficult. Therefore, when this blue dragon reaches its prime, it will possess the spellcasting abilities of a legendary priest, and the resulting advancement is simply terrifying.
The three advanced classes offered by the Dragon Treasury have been separated from their corresponding deities and are no longer restricted by them.
Of the three Tier 1 abilities currently visible to Casalorus, Divine Transformation has been completely transformed into Arcane Transformation, and its effective spellcasting levels have correspondingly become those of a dragon's primary spellcasting class. In other words, as long as Casalorus advances to any of these talent trees, regardless of what spellcasting class Casalorus later takes on—whether warlock, priest, paladin, or assassin (classes with limited spellcasting abilities)—all the spellcasting levels he gains will be converted and added to his primary spellcasting level as a dragon, rather than existing independently for each class as before when he could take on multiple roles.
This undoubtedly raises the bar significantly for Casalos' future development.
In addition, the three advancements originating from divinely endowed professions are located in the talent tree interface. Like the Primal Power, they are perpendicular to the three major advancements such as the Carved Skin Dragon, yet they run counter to the Primal Power. Whether this has other implications, or whether it will produce any special effects after further exploration, remains to be seen.
Casalos is still too young. Although his challenge level is very high, he is still hovering near his own lower limit. He can only bully the blank wild dragons that fill Faerûn.
The revival is not yet complete, and the young dragon still needs to work hard. Thinking too much about other things is pointless; focusing on farming is the right path.
After reviewing the changes to the interface and learning about the new external features of the Dragon's Treasury, Casalos took a short break before starting the training dungeon.
As the scene shifted, Casalos arrived at an area shrouded in a black curtain filled with shimmering silver stars. Streams of silver flowed from those distant silver stars, converging like rivers to form broad, surging waves.
Casalos was currently atop one of the silver streams whose width was indeterminate. Beneath it, a strangely shaped island, resembling a humanoid body, drifted slowly by. It seemed to sense that the island was the starting point of its current training.
Spreading its wings, it swooped down onto the island with a strange sensation completely different from that on the continent of Faerûn, slowly yet incredibly quickly "ascending"—this godforsaken place had no gravity, no concept of up or down; it was a dive defined entirely by a frame of reference. Everywhere, there was an air-like substance, yet it possessed a vastness far exceeding that of air.
Chapter 103
Viscous drag makes it as difficult to fly in any direction as it would be to climb rapidly in Faerûn.
Casalozne's initial relief at the ability to fly in this instance diminished considerably. If it couldn't find a suitable way to fly and continued flying like this, it wouldn't last long, let alone fight.
Fortunately, as Casalos got closer to the island, he could still feel the gravitational pull emanating from it, but the intensity curve was quite strange, ranging from a light, effortless feeling to an intensity approaching that of the Forgotten Realms, all within a few dozen meters of height.
When it landed, the gravity it felt was almost the same as that of the continent of Faerûn.
Casalos attempted walking, running, and jumping, and then circled twice in the air. It gained a preliminary understanding of the "gravity" environment of this instance. Normal movement on the ground was no different from that on the continent of Faerûn, but once it flew above twenty meters, it could hardly rely on gravity for any effective assistance.
The enormous drag and unpredictable changes in gravity at altitude essentially render it incapable of conventional flight combat; it's best not to take off unless absolutely necessary.
Slightly annoyed, Casalos clicked its iron beak and headed toward the direction indicated by the abstract message in its mind. A humanoid old man, whose face was obscured by the shadow of his hood, wearing a patched brown robe, leaning on a crooked wooden cane, and with a hunched back, staggered into its field of vision.
"You've finally arrived. I've been waiting for you here for so long, Destined One. Can you truly save us from the end of all things?"
Oh, the upgraded training dungeon now includes a story quest?
What exactly is the "Chosen One"? And what does "the end of all things" mean? Can't the quest text be written in plain language? Just list out where to kill what monsters and what to steal, why make it into a riddle? Is that really that interesting?
16. New dungeon, new mechanics
"When the time comes to an end, when all things cease to exist, our race will hide in this realm of perpetual uncertainty, awaiting..."
The nonsense spouted by the dungeon NPCs is probably meaningless. Terms like "Chosen One" are likely just a unique designation for those who have participated in the Vault Trials within that dungeon, and Casalos doesn't intend to dwell on it.
All it wants to know is what its "task" is and what kind of reward it will receive.
Based on its current understanding of the Vault, this nonsense is probably some unskippable process. Only after completing the NPC's storyline can Casalo receive the "quest" he wants—the upgraded Vault dungeon, which probably has some unknown game content stitched in.
Sure enough, after the NPC finished his rambling, Casalos received an abstract message. After converting this message into a familiar quest text interface, it knew what it needed to do.
The quest text condensed the NPC's long string of nonsense into six quests.
The first task is to fully explore the dungeon map. Given the Vault dungeon's tendency to have completely random terrain and scenery each time, Casalos doesn't think he has a chance to complete this task.
The second task is to kill the culprit who destroyed the original world of this NPC, the ancient immortal evil, one of the lost seven gods, "Dandel the Night Serpent"... Needless to say, this is also an impossible task for Casalos, even in the rapidly evolving game.
It can only consider three tasks to search for and rescue NPCs in the instance, and one task to find "relic fragments".
Unfortunately, aside from the quest objectives, the NPCs don't provide Casalos with much useful information. There's no information whatsoever about where the dungeon NPC he needs to rescue is, or which room the quest item he needs to search for is hidden in.
Looking enviously at the quest rewards, Casalos let out a long sigh of relief: With only one dungeon opportunity, the chances of completing the remaining four quests were slim, and it seemed these epic items that could be taken out of the Dragon's Treasury were out of reach—yes, the upgraded Dragon's Treasury, besides having additional, inexplicable story quests, also had equipment and items that could be used in the real world. And the way to obtain these items was by completing the story quests.
With a snap of his iron beak and a shake of his head, Casalos signaled to the NPC that he was ready. The NPC nodded and stretched out one hand across his body, opening a purple vortex-shaped dungeon portal.
“Wait, Chosen One, I have something here that might be able to help you.”
Just before Casalos could step into the portal with one paw, the NPC called out to it, causing it to stop abruptly and nearly lose its balance and fall.
Couldn't you have told me something this important sooner... Wait, is that robe of yours a dimensional bag?
Casaroz grumbled as he steadied himself and took a half-step back, watching expectantly as the NPC pulled a treasure chest over three meters wide from his tattered robes and placed it on the ground. Opening the chest, a blinding golden light flashed, and a four-option room completion loot interface appeared in Casaroz's view. It seemed the NPC's promise of "something to help" was merely a change in the initial welfare system.
The starting bonus is a spell-like ability, two blue and two purple. After a brief comparison, Casaroz chose Infrasonic Shield, which has the same effect as the Duskblade spell of the same name. It can create a shield made of force field to increase defense, and when attacked, it generates a force field impact carrying infrasonic waves, damaging and pushing away nearby targets.