Tenacity and Insignificance

To give those lizardmen a chance to put on a show, Ruger had stopped the Foul-Smelling Skin spell early and stood somewhere conspicuous. Now, he successfully cast the spell again, bringing the performance to its finale. The lizardmen fell one after another, and he caught the flying short spears barehanded. Of course, to be safe, while standing there stupidly before, he had secretly buffed himself with Strength of the Savage Bull and Demon Skin Spell.

There was nothing particularly novel about the performance, but its effect had not disappointed. At least, judging by Audience Number Two's reaction, Ruger was quite satisfied. He struck the final note for this curtain call and raised a hand to pat Aisijin on the head.

He was just about to say something.

But Aisijin suddenly sprang up, pulled out the claw blade made from that black giant claw, and hurried over to the lizardmen to start finishing them off. At first, she simply pounced on them and stabbed. Later, seeing that they truly could no longer get up, she stopped being so fierce and instead went over to them one by one in an orderly fashion, giving each another two or three strikes.

Watching Aisijin bustle through the whole area, Ruger forgot what he had wanted to say after being interrupted. After thinking about it, he decided to let it go. She had a mind of her own. Some things, if he said them, she would certainly listen to; some things, even if he said them, she might not.

The two set off again.

After passing through a strange path where bizarre rocks jutted up everywhere like dog teeth, they arrived at a valley.

Following Aisijin's footsteps, he had not gone far into the valley before he saw the target of this journey.

A black tree, only a little taller than him but sprawling over a vast area. Its shape made it seem as though it were crawling across the ground, countless branches stretching in every direction, like a person stretching after sleep—or like someone in agony, straining with all their might to extend their limbs and body.

With a single sweep of his eyes, Ruger spotted dozens of fruits hanging from the branches. That was only because the fruits were black; if they had been light-colored, he would probably have seen even more.

"Did Old Gold Tooth say anything?"

He studied the various traces around them and casually stirred the dirt with his foot a few times.

The larger marks nearby and the snapped branches were probably left by large underground beasts like Blackclaw Lord. Perhaps underground beasts occasionally wandered in here by mistake to eat the fruit.

"Old Gold Tooth asked me a lot of things. He said to carefully check whether there was anything strange around here, and if there wasn't, to dig beneath the tree," Aisijin said, standing behind Ruger and looking around. "Brother Ruger, if there's something even better than this fruit to eat, can it save Old Gold Tooth?"

"It can."

He began circling the area.

"Big Silly Hum will have to suffer a little first. As long as his blood can keep Old Gold Tooth alive, then even if there's nothing good here, I'll find a way to save Old Gold Tooth."

Without stopping his feet, he made circle after circle. First he circled the grotesque tree whose branches sprawled chaotically across the ground, then he wandered throughout the entire valley, touching and examining things everywhere. Aisijin silently followed behind him, looking about as well.

At last, he stopped before the tree and kicked the stones beneath his feet hard.

"I'll go get Bald Tooth and Big Hum Hum. We'll come together, and bring the clansmen too..." Aisijin said.

"Step back a little."

Rather than squeezing straight up to the trunk to start digging, he pulled Aisijin back and began using the bedroom space to store away the earth and rocks in a circle around the strange tree's perimeter.

Under Aisijin's astonished gaze, he quickly dug out a broad, deep trench using this unusual method.

Ruger jumped into the trench for a brief inspection, then continued excavating by collecting the soil.

The place where the strange tree stood quickly became a tiny island.

Circle after circle, whenever he grew tired, he had Aisijin stand guard nearby while he sat down to rest and meditate, recovering his mental power.

The path of excavation gradually closed in toward the center where the trunk stood, and the island shrank bit by bit.

Yet there was still nothing. Aisijin's face had already filled with worry; the feeling of watching hope fall through was not a pleasant one. Ruger also felt that the odds were slim, though he remained calm on the surface. Perhaps it had something to do with what the two of them faced being different. To Aisijin, this was the only opportunity she could find—for becoming a dragonblood kobold, and for saving Old Gold Tooth. But Ruger still had a wizard's extraordinary path as a fallback in his heart.

The little island had all but vanished, leaving only the lone trunk.

Ruger glanced at Aisijin. Without saying anything, he simply continued digging downward. Some shallow roots had already been unearthed, but many more were still deeply rooted in the earth.

Then a faint, strange smell caught his attention. Hidden amid a cluster of roots was a black-and-red root, slanting away into the distance.

He briefly meditated to rest, then changed targets and began digging in the direction of that peculiar root.

Following it all the way, he found that this tenacious root had burrowed an unimaginably long distance. It was clearly not a particularly thick thing, yet it was astonishingly good at drilling and running.

Ruger followed it to a corner of the valley, meditating several times to rest along the way. The construction progress inside the bedroom space, however, had made rather good headway.

That was not the end. He continued digging downward. The valley was surrounded by a ring of hard rock walls, and from here the root kept stretching down, boring along the rock wall and displaying its tenacious vitality.

He felt that he was getting closer and closer to the answer.

Aisijin watched anxiously from afar.

Yet his heart grew steadier and steadier. The moment before a mystery was unveiled was when he was at his calmest; it was only when he could not find a direction or clue that he became impatient.

The closer he came to the answer, the steadier he had to be. He even stopped digging for the moment and widened the opening above, lest a collapse bury him inside.

The facts proved he was right. An inconspicuous, slender little root had led him to an astonishing depth.

Only when he saw an opening in the rock wall did he stop chasing the little root.

The root extended through the top of the opening. Rather than rushing in, he began clearing away the dirt around the entrance. But after clearing only half of it, he stopped. The opening was simply too large; there was no need to waste energy. Half its size was enough for him to pass through—indeed, even one corner would have sufficed. He had only cleared more in order to estimate the opening's size.

He advanced while collecting dirt and stones, and before long there was nothing left to collect.

A vast empty cavern, a conspicuous pool, and a colossal creature sunk in deep sleep beside it.

He tried taking a step forward, but his posture came out a little awkward.

After thinking it over, he cast the zero-ring spell Mental Boil on himself, trying to suppress the fear in his heart. Perhaps it was just psychological, but it was actually somewhat effective.

Was this a dragon?

He saw the root extending from the dirt at the cave entrance all the way into the pool, then turned to look at the sleeping giant again.

Gathering his courage, he stepped forward. The pool lay by the colossal creature's feet, and the source of its water was clearly the creature itself.

There was a faint smell of blood in the pool.

This pool water... the smell of blood... this big fellow...

He looked around, and an answer gradually surfaced in his mind. This was a dragon that had hidden here for who knew how long, one that had been wounded so badly it was pissing blood—a dragon that still occasionally pissed blood in its sleep.

Of course, if it really was a dragon.