Beast-Head Village

The materials for making the magic book had been gathered. Next came the further preparations.

Ink based on Dragon blood was not difficult to make. Serie knew the method, having happened to hear it from elders in the Elf Forest.

But she did not know how to make paper that would endure for a thousand years.

However, Rhode's group came across another village along the way. Its residents somewhat resembled Beast-headed People, with humanoid torsos and limbs but beast-like heads.

Moreover, they possessed intelligence and could communicate.

With the help of the common language of this world, Rhode's group smoothly obtained permission to stay in the village for one night.

"You want to make Dragonhide Paper?"

A Leopard-Head who looked extremely old was responsible for receiving Rhode and the others. During their conversation, Norn did not forget to ask whether he knew how to make Dragonhide Paper.

And as it happened, he actually did!

"Honestly, I only heard of it from other races. Dragons are simply too powerful. No one can withstand that terrifying Dragonfire alone, much less dare to use their hides as material for making paper."

Old Leopard-Head had not considered that this seemingly frail group possessed the strength to kill a Dragon. He merely took it as the curiosity of outsiders.

After all, among the five outsiders before him, aside from the Elf and the Dwarf, he had never seen the other three kinds of creatures.

They clearly had bodies like his people's, yet why did they have no fur? Even their faces were bare, their skin exposed directly to the air.

If not for the lack of those slender Elf ears, he might have mistaken them for members of the Elf race.

Through Old Leopard-Head's explanation, they learned that making Dragonhide Paper required a special plant.

Even the hide of a dead Dragon retained terrifying residual heat on its surface. If used for writing directly, it would evaporate every mark.

Thus, a cold-aspected vine was needed to neutralize it.

As for the specific process, it shared some steps with the papermaking technique in Rhode's memories: soak the vines in water and mash them apart.

Dragon hide naturally could not be mashed, so it had to be soaked in the water containing the crushed vines. Only after its residual heat had completely faded could the next stage begin.

"Then where can we find this Cold Vine?"

"I don't know that. Perhaps you could ask the tribes farther north. This kind of vine generally grows in the snowy mountains of the north."

Rhode found himself in a difficult position.

They were heading west, after all, since the Land of Fallen Gods lay directly west. The Dwarven Ruins, however, were in the northwest.

"How about we head north first to look for Cold Vine?" Norn suggested. "Now that we've gathered the Dragon blood and beast hide, we can't just let these materials go to waste."

He had some selfish motives of his own, and everyone else could see them, but no one exposed him.

After all, this was something they had all agreed upon.

Som scratched his chin. "That would mean taking a detour. The Dwarven Kingdom ruins are northwest. If we head north first, we'll probably have to travel at least another half year."

This world was enormous.

Ordinary creatures would need at least ten years, perhaps even decades, to explore the entire world.

Unless they possessed special abilities, such as the Winged race, who were born able to fly and could greatly shorten that time.

Serie stood to the side and spoke flatly. "Too far."

She did not care about the half-year journey. She simply disliked the distance.

After Serie made her position clear, no one spoke again.

Only after thinking for a moment did Rhode say, "Cold-aspected plants are not limited to Cold Vine. Perhaps other types of plants can serve as substitutes."

Norn's eyes lit up. That was true.

Cold Vine's purpose in making Dragonhide Paper was to reduce the residual heat on the Dragon hide's surface. In theory, other plants with the same effect could replace it.

There were quite a few tribes and villages in the northwest. Someone among those races was bound to know where to find plants with a similar effect.

Serie looked thoughtful. "If that's the case, ice magic could produce the same effect too, but..."

She did not know ice magic.

Perhaps Rhode could create it. After all, he always brought her all kinds of surprises.

Listening to their discussion, Old Leopard-Head's eyes flashed with surprise. "Honored guests, did you truly slay a Dragon?"

Dragons were incomparably savage. After being tempered by thousands of years of warfare during the Mythical era, every Dragon that had survived was a renowned powerhouse.

Ordinary creatures barely had time to flee from their lingering might. How could they possibly dare challenge one?

Erik laughed and eagerly took out a relatively intact Dragon Scale from his luggage.

Though he had not been a main source of damage, he was probably the best at taking hits.

That Dragon had chased him for a full quarter of an hour, breathing Dragonfire who knew how many times during that period.

At the time, Erik had nearly thought he was truly done for. But when the Dragonfire later grazed him, he discovered that he felt nothing at all.

Upon closer inspection, he found a faint magical barrier around himself.

So Mr. Rhode had already taken safety precautions!

His confidence soaring, Erik immediately decided to stop running. He had run long enough. Now was the time to strike back.

Yet in the very next moment, that Dragon had been drawn away by Serie's aura, leaving Erik deeply frustrated.

The yellow fur all over Old Leopard-Head's face trembled violently. His shock was plain to see. "Th-this is a scale from an Adult Red Dragon!"

Dragon race scales were highly distinctive. Almost no race on the continent failed to recognize them.

Seeing that they possessed such terrifying strength, the old village chief immediately became much more respectful. "Honored Dragon slayers, please come with me. We will provide you with a better house."

In a small village like this, every house belonged to a family. There were basically no spare rooms.

Thus, Rhode's group had camped out in the open as usual, with only a tent prepared for Serie.

Now that Old Leopard-Head had actually offered to clear out a room for them, they naturally did not refuse, and so they

moved into a sufficiently spacious room.

During that time, Old Leopard-Head also arranged for villagers to bring over various fruits and meat from several unknown animals.

After hearing that Rhode's group possessed the terrifying strength to kill a Dragon, every villager looked at them with far greater reverence and no longer dared to stare casually.

When they had first entered the village, they had practically been surrounded by villagers.

After all, these Beast-headed People had never seen humans before, and they rarely even saw Elves.

Naturally, Rhode and the others had aroused the villagers' curiosity.

Now that he saw how their strength had earned the Beast-headed People's reverence, Rhode did not ask anything else of them. He even thanked them for the room they had provided.

He had never been someone who bullied the weak with strength.