It was morning, and the sun was shining brightly. A group of young men dressed as hunters were making their way up a steep mountain path, panting heavily. Sheer cliffs flanked both sides of the trail, and huge boulders often blocked their way, making the journey especially terrifying.
But the hunters seemed long accustomed to it. Though the path was extraordinarily dangerous, they had no choice but to take risks for a living...
At the mountaintop grew a valuable medicinal herb. Finding just one plant was enough to cover their living expenses for an entire month. Taxes in the Empire were now frighteningly high, and hunting alone could no longer sustain them. With no other options... they had to risk their lives looking for other ways to make money.
Gathering and selling these precious herbs was one of them.
Yet the rugged mountain path was not the greatest danger. The true danger lay in the Danger Beasts that inhabited the mountain, including, on occasion, powerful draconic Danger Beasts.
Whenever they encountered such creatures, all they could do was pray that the gods would keep them from being noticed. Still, as long as they were careful, they generally would not run into these terrifying Danger Beasts.
"Up ahead... there's a medicinal herb!"
As they neared the summit, one of the hunters spotted a herb ahead of them, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.
Even at the summit, such herbs were hard to find. To discover one here was truly lucky! The excited hunter rushed straight toward it.
But he did not notice that, high in the sky... a two-headed drake nearly ten meters long had been drawn by his voice and set its sights on him. The reason these herbs grew on the surrounding mountaintops was precisely because so