Setting out

He felt his "wallet" shrinking rapidly, and his heart ached as though a dragon had clawed it.

But seeing Ehm's suffering, he gritted his teeth and decisively clicked "Confirm" in his mind anyway.

Once the operation was complete, a gentle green energy brimming with life immediately flowed along the arm Redd had pressed against Ehm,

burrowing into the black dragon's enormous body like a living thing.

In an instant, a faint green glow enveloped Ehm, and those hideous wounds, damaged scales, and torn wing membranes,

even the skin scorched by intense heat, all began to heal and regenerate at a visible speed.

Within just a few breaths, Ehm seemed utterly transformed, renewed as though that brutal ordeal had never happened.

The black dragon Ehm regained his vitality and let out an exuberant, powerful roar that sent rings of ripples across the sea.

Then, like a cat in heat, he excitedly began rubbing his enormous head against Redd with tremendous force.

Caught off guard, Redd staggered under that immense strength and fell straight onto his backside on the soft sand.

"Cough, cough! Ehm, easy!" Redd brushed the sand off himself, then patted Ehm's snout, trying to soothe this newly recovered "strapping dragon."

After taking care of Ehm, Redd did not forget about the red dragon Aegon.

He took a deep breath and repeated the earlier procedure, pressing his hand against Aegon's equally massive, wound-covered body.

The system displayed another detailed diagnostic report, but this time Redd skipped straight to the payment screen without even looking at it.

When he saw that it required 1,500 energy points, his brow furrowed even more deeply-400 more than Ehm!

This meant he would have to exhaust almost all his energy reserves.

It certainly hurt, but looking at Aegon's weakened state, Redd did not hesitate at all. He understood that now was not the time to begrudge the energy points.

He decisively clicked "Confirm."

The green light shone again, gently enveloping Aegon as well.

Time ticked by, taking even longer than Ehm's restoration,

but eventually, the red dragon Aegon regained his former luster too, his injuries fully healed. He still looked somewhat weak, however, and clearly needed time to recover his strength.

After recovering, the red dragon Aegon merely stood quietly there without making any affectionate gestures,

but when those aged, wise eyes looked at Redd, they were filled with kindness and gratification,

like a weathered elder gazing with pride at an accomplished member of the younger generation, sending a warm current through Redd's heart.

He gently patted the wrinkled skin of Aegon's neck, rough as old tree bark, in acknowledgment of that unspoken bond.

Redd turned back, his gaze settling on the remaining energy points in the system in his mind-only a little over 500.

He could not help letting out a bitter chuckle, feeling that the fruits of more than half a year of painstaking saving

had been exhausted in just two treatments. He really was back to square one.

His "wallet" was empty, but his companions' lives had been saved. Was this "deal" worth it?

Redd knew the answer in his heart: yes.

He carefully considered his current situation and finally fixed his sights on one direction-Westeros.

One reason for this decision was that he was relatively familiar with the place, and could use certain known historical events or landmarks to roughly determine the current time;

the second, more important objective was the wights beyond the Wall.

The vast army of wights commanded by the Night's King might sound chilling,

but they were essentially dead things, and perhaps contained vast quantities of energy points in another form.

Given his current predicament, this was an enormous temptation.

Of course, Redd also understood the risks involved.

If the wights or that so-called Night's King proved unimaginably powerful, opponents he could not handle for the time being,

then he could only make a crueler choice-target humans.

He would exploit certain rules that might exist in the system, or directly hunt targets that were easier to kill but yielded relatively fewer energy points.

He glanced at the red dragon Aegon beside him, newly recovered yet already counting down the days of his life-only eight years remained.

Then there was the other dragon, the black dragon Ehm. Although his condition was currently good, he was also a companion Redd had obtained with great difficulty, one who could fight alongside him.

He absolutely could not stand by and watch either of them lose their chance to survive because of his own negligence.

This thought strengthened his resolve to head for Westeros.

From the pile of books he had previously excavated from the Valyria Ruins,

he dug out an ancient, rather crudely drawn map that could just barely pinpoint the approximate location of Westeros.

He checked it against the position of the sun, now low in the west and casting its lingering glow,

then, without the slightest hesitation or delay, immediately climbed onto Ehm's back while signaling King Ghidorah and Aegon to follow.

The three enormous dragons gave low growls, then spread their huge wings, carrying Redd

as they resolutely took flight toward the direction marked on the map, filled with unknowns and dangers, and vanished into the blood-red afterglow of sunset over the Smoking Sea.

Following the crude map's guidance, Redd rode Ehm, with King Ghidorah and Aegon close behind,

the three enormous dragons beating their wings as they flew tirelessly over the sea, on and off, for several days and nights.

At last, after endless clouds and bone-chilling sea winds, the outline of a lush, vibrant continent appeared on the horizon!

"Land!" Redd could not help exclaiming softly, his voice filled with excitement he could scarcely conceal.

After drifting for so long across the deathly still, dangerous waters of the Smoking Sea,

and struggling for nearly half a year before that in the ruins of Valyria, he had almost forgotten what normal land felt like.

More importantly, it had been far too long since he had eaten "normal food."

Over these past days, their main source of food had been fish hauled out of the sea. Fresh though it was, eating it every day had grown tiresome.

He was now desperate for a taste of normal food. Even a bowl of hot soup or a serving of bread held enormous appeal for him.

Flying high amid the swirling clouds, the closer they came to the continent, the clearer the scenery below became.

Finally, through a gap in the clouds, he saw the outline of an enormous city, its towering walls and tightly packed rooftops gleaming in the sunlight.

Redd recognized it as the location of Volantis on the map, now the southernmost city of the Free Federation.

However, he did not have the three dragons dive straight down toward the city to land.