Chapter 175: Harvesting Treasures

According to books on dragons, black dragons generally build their nests in large, damp caves or multi-chambered lowland caves. Of course, some dragons prefer to be independent, just as there are individuals with distinct personalities among humans. It seems this black dragon is one such case.
Normally, black dragons belong to the water-type dragons, feeding mainly on fish, mollusks, and other aquatic creatures, and they also like to go out hunting magical beasts for additional nourishment. It is thus somewhat surprising that this black dragon resides in an underground cave near a lava volcano.
Donald only has a general understanding of dragons, knowing that they are divided into two major factions within their race: the evil Color Dragons and the righteous Metal Dragons. They are naturally hostile to each other and each have their own dragon gods they worship. There are said to be other rare types of dragons, but to humans, they remain mere legends.
Dragons prefer to live alone, usually inhabiting remote places such as high mountains, deserts, or islands far from human settlements. Even within the same dragon clan, the nests of two dragons are kept at a distance from each other.
The Metal Dragons of the righteous faction include Gold Dragons, Silver Dragons, Brass Dragons, Red Bronze Dragons, and Bronze Dragons. They are relatively friendly toward humans and elves. It is said that in ancient times, Metal Dragons often helped humans or elves solve problems, and some even took on human forms using advanced transformation magic to wander among humans.
The Color Dragons consist of Red Dragons, Black Dragons, Blue Dragons, Green Dragons, and White Dragons. They were once common dragons, but this prevalence was not a good thing for humans. In legends, it is usually these evil dragons that attack human cities and seize treasures.
Since the division of the Banai Empire and the rise of worship of the gods in the main world, dragons have appeared less and less frequently. Especially in the past century, there has been almost no concrete evidence of dragons, only unverified rumors.
This black dragon is one of the Color Dragons, and it can be said to belong to the most evil type. Although all Color Dragons are part of the evil faction, aside from the simple-minded White Dragons, the other types are roughly equal in evilness. However, the chaotic and evil Black Dragons are recognized as the most cunning, capricious, and ruthless. They are the kind of dragons that do not kill their prey quickly but instead torment them until they suffer immensely.

Dragons are generally ranked by strength based on their age. Purebred Multicolored Dragons and Metal Dragons go through stages such as hatchling, juvenile, young dragon, adult dragon, elder dragon, and primordial dragon starting from birth, corresponding to strength levels of black iron, bronze, silver, gold, and legendary. The juvenile stage is a transitional period with uncertain strength; depending on a dragon’s talent and effort, it may remain at the silver level just before reaching adulthood or break through early, varying from dragon to dragon. The same applies to the elder and primordial stages, but those who reach the primordial stage must possess legendary-level strength.

Nevertheless, despite their much longer lifespan than humans, dragons’ lives are still finite, usually ranging from 600 to 800 years. Those who live beyond 800 years can be considered elder dragons, while those who surpass this limit and live past 1,000 years are typically primordial dragons who have successfully broken through the legendary realm. The transition from elder dragon to primordial dragon is a critical milestone in all dragons’ lives; overcoming it allows them to continue breaking through and extend their lifespan, while failing to do so means remaining stuck at the gold level until old age. It is said that only one in ten thousand dragons can overcome this limit.

Judging from the size of this black dragon and its fully ossified skull, Donald guessed it was at least an elder dragon, possibly even close to a primordial dragon, with strength likely at the peak of gold. It was a shame it met its end before breaking through its limits, forced to sleep forever in this dark underground world.

Just as Donald touched the black dragon’s scales, the seemingly dead dragon suddenly opened its eyes, and a formidable presence that despised all living things emerged in the cave.

“Petite humans, how dare you disturb the slumber of the great Lord Azkaban…” The little demon Pachi immediately collapsed to the ground, trembling in fear. Even Uther and Kelthas couldn’t help but step back under this oppressive aura.

Only Donald remained motionless, his hand still on the dragon’s front claw, as if unimpressed.

Indeed, though this dragon’s aura seemed unstoppable on the surface, it felt hollow and lacking in strength. It paled in comparison to the willpower of the powerful being he encountered at the royal auction house, let alone the grandeur of the Abyssal Will he had felt before.

With disdain, Donald said, “This black dragon isn’t even at peace in death!”

Through the Book of Truth, Donald immediately scanned the entire corpse of the black dragon, gaining a clear understanding of its internal condition. The dragon’s power and roar earlier were merely minor tricks—installed by the black dragon itself after death to ward off desecration. Once someone touched its corpse, these spells would release the remaining dragon power and emit a warning sound. This mental message was similar to Donald’s telepathic ability; any creature that sensed it could understand its meaning. Cowards might be scared into leaving the tomb, with fear etched into their souls, preventing them from returning. Yet even against those with a strong will, the black dragon still ended up being torn apart. Now that the spell had been triggered, the black dragon’s eyes would never close again. If one looked closely at its pupils, it was clear it had lost all life force. But even knowing the dragon was dead, being glared at by those furious eyes could still scare those with weak minds to death. This is what is meant by “even after death, its might remains”—even a common fierce beast like a tiger is like this, let alone a powerful golden dragon. Donald didn’t care about such things. He had already encountered golden demons and even the Will of the Abyss; he was no longer the homebody who relied on luck just to hunt a deer in the forest. After a year of training, his nerves had become extremely resilient, and he had seen enough dangerous situations to be easily frightened by what lay before him. With a wave of his hand, the entire dragon’s corpse disappeared from the stone platform, stored in his storage space. The mental effort required to store such a massive object was now easily manageable for him. After the dragon vanished, the large magic array behind it became visible—designed to draw geothermal lava energy to create a protective barrier. There was a gap in its center, likely where the energy storage crystal taken out by the young dragon had originally been embedded. Donald showed delight as he observed this previously unseen style of magic array. Noting that its size was far smaller than that of a teleportation array—about seven or eight feet in diameter—with its intricate patterns, it was clearly a lost, mysterious magic array. He quickly called Uther over to help dismantle the entire array from the stone platform and store it separately in a corner of his storage space. After finishing this, Donald scanned the entire cave and then waved his hand, storing all the items piled on the ground one by one, planning to sort and count them carefully later.

Legend has it that older black dragons sometimes capture humanoid creatures, forcing them to reveal the locations of their gold, silver, and other treasures, before killing them to silence them. Looking at all this wealth here, it seems there are tens of thousands of gold and silver coins alone, not to mention the more valuable jewels and crystals. Who knows how many lives were sacrificed to amass such riches!

“Let’s go out!”

After searching carefully again to ensure nothing else was left, Donald led everyone out of the tomb hall.

Upon arriving in the outer cave, he saw everyone, including the young dragon, staring at him. The little demon Pachi knew it was time for its fate to be decided.

Just as it was about to speak, Donald shook his head and said with a light laugh, “I’m very satisfied with the Black Dragon Tomb. Since I promised you, I’ll keep my word. I’ll let you go one more time, and this time, to make things right, I’ll even send you back to the Abyss!”

Seeing the little demon express its gratitude in delight, Donald waved his hand and said, “Alright, wait by the passage you came in through! I’ll be there soon to send you back to the Abyss!”

Noticing that this powerful human mage seemed impatient, the little demon Pachi wisely stopped pestering him and ran off toward another passage.

“Alright, let’s head back to our territory!” Donald used teleportation magic with all his followers, returning instantly to the backyard of the lord’s manor.

Looking at the affectionate young dragon beside him, Donald thought to himself that it would be difficult to handle this situation. “This little guy isn’t suitable to be seen by outsiders. I’d better find him a good place to live!” With that, he teleported away with the young dragon alone. When they reappeared, they were already in Starlight Town, the elven settlement in the Moonlight Forest.

Along the way, Donald greeted the elves he met kindly, and the elves bowed respectfully to Donald, their new elder who had done so much for them. When the druidic elves saw Donald arrive in town with a strange creature, they all curiously stared at the little guy, especially the younger elves.

Donald smiled at this reaction. The elves continued to watch until he entered the home of the High Elder Elyia.

“Elder Donald, what—” Elyia was naturally very surprised to see Donald bring a young dragon. As an old druid who had lived for over five hundred years, he naturally knew what a young dragon looked like.

But in recent centuries, there had been few sightings of dragons on the continent, let alone a young one!

“This is the young dragon I adopted. It was difficult to find a suitable place for it in our territory, so I asked Elder Ilya to help take care of it. Once it grows up, it can stay in the tribe to help protect our people!”
Ilya was deeply moved by this. After all, in ancient times, their Druid tribe had been guarded by several powerful dragons. Yet he still had doubts and said, “But Elder Donald, this is a red dragon!” Donald naturally understood that the implication was that red dragons are inherently evil, but the dragons he summoned could certainly not be such.
Still, Donald explained, “No creature is inherently evil. Even among species like the dark elves, who have cursed bloodlines, there are those who yearn for light. Moreover, since this young dragon is still young and its mind is unformed, it would be a good thing if kind people raised it, allowing it to join the side of goodness!”
“Well said!”
Ilya immediately agreed enthusiastically. So he took on this task. Raising a dragon to adulthood would be a meaningful and fulfilling achievement for him.