Chapter 18

"There's plenty of love and hate among adventurers, too. Sometimes they stop seeing each other, and sometimes they trip up an ex who's still on their team," Telingewei said. "It's very messy."

Xie Juanhan thought of all the jobs he had tried and all the coworkers and bosses he had met.

He sighed in sympathy.

Telingewei added, "Sometimes you run into fun things, too, but you don't have to join an adventuring party to enjoy them."

Xie Juanhan said, "Forget it, then. I won't join one after all. I'll just trade for some rice when I have time."

Telingewei nodded. "If the Adventurers' Association doesn't sell it, you can buy it on the black market. There are lots of black markets in Teme Port, and you can buy lots of interesting things there."

Xie Juanhan was tempted. He considered his savings, then suppressed the urge. "I'd better save up Demonic Cores first."

As a dragon who wasn't exactly flush with cash, he had better not think about it too much.

==========Author's note:==========

See you tomorrow!

Thanks to Gulingshenguai Xiaoyatou for the rocket launcher; thanks to Yingjin and Ganluo. for the grenades; thanks to Nanzhi (*2), Quantang 0 Zhi Liangcha (*2), Jianding Taila Dalu Remen Shengwu, Meiyou Qian, Mangguo Dawang, Sun Shifu, Mu Su, Gulingshenguai Xiaoyatou, Yishui de Xingxing, Li Yumi, Li Furen, Tangping Yezi, Maoni Ya, ophir, Tangyuan Hui Faguang, mana Jiang, and Huayan for the land mines.

Chapter 18: Chapter 18 [VIP]

Early morning.

The sun rose over the horizon.

Orange light fell on Xie Juanhan's eyelids and on the fluffy little ones curled up beside him.

Xie Juanhan opened his eyes. Wrapped in a soft down quilt and nestled against the little ones' warm, toasty bodies, he had no desire to get up.

Still wrapped in the quilt, he turned his head and watched the sun slowly rise.

The dragon beneath him, who served as a bed for him and the little ones, woke up too and turned his neck to glance at him.

Xie Juanhan noticed, lifted his head slightly, and met the dragon's gaze with a smile.

Then he made a gesture, telling the dragon not to move and to stay in bed a little longer.

A few of the more sensitive little ones noticed his movement and kicked their short legs, starting to wake.

Xie Juanhan quickly reached out and patted them, then pulled part of the quilt over their bellies.

The black dragon watched his movements without blinking.

He looked up and smiled.

Yesterday, too, Telingewei had turned into a dragon and let Xie Juanhan and the little ones sleep on him, keeping them away from the damp chill of the rocks on the cliff.

Xie Juanhan had spread the soft down mattress on him, wrapped himself in the little down quilt, and put on his sleeping cap. He had slept soundly.

Even better than he had in his little shelter in the Magic Forest.

Now that he was awake, Xie Juanhan still didn't want to leave the lingering comfort of sleep behind.

They stayed curled up together like that, quietly watching the sunrise.

Not until the little ones were fully awake and too restless to sit still, chasing and playing on Telingewei's body and occasionally biting one another, growling at their companions.

Annoyed, Telingewei simply closed his earholes and shut his eyes, facing the sea.

Xie Juanhan looked at the dragon, who seemed to wish he could shut himself away but still hadn't thrown them off. He lowered his head with a smile, packed up the bedding, and jumped down.

Telingewei shook himself, shaking all the little ones off, then returned to human form.

Telingewei asked, "Shall we collect the rope in a bit?"

"Sure." Xie Juanhan cheerfully rolled up the bedding and put it in a bag. "We can see how many Demonic Oysters have attached themselves to it."

After waiting a day, Xie Juanhan was sure that plenty of little Demonic Oysters had grown on the rope.

Even so, he was surprised when he saw them.

Demonic Oysters covered the rope so densely that they looked like a stone wall.

These little Demonic Oysters were only the size of fingernails. Their muscular feet had already degenerated, and they looked like miniature oysters.

They clung to the rope, turning it into a "stone pillar."

Xie Juanhan floated on the sea, looking to his left and then his right. "How did it get so full?"

"Because of the Dragon Power," Telingewei said. "When I put out a rope before, I was lucky if they covered a third of it."

Xie Juanhan gently flicked the rope. "This is a hundred and twenty percent covered. There can't be enough room on the rope for this many Demonic Oysters to survive together, can there?"

Telingewei nodded. "We need to thin them out."

There were too many Demonic Oysters. They had to remove more than half.

Telingewei turned the rope as he inspected it, picking off the smaller, weaker oyster spat and throwing them back into the sea, leaving only the robust, plump, vigorous ones.

Xie Juanhan had no experience, so he watched Telingewei's movements carefully.

After watching for quite a while, he copied Telingewei and picked off the lower-quality spat.

The two of them worked one behind the other, but after a long while, they had only finished a short section of rope.

The little ones played nearby for a while, then came over to help.

They waved their little paws, pawing at the oyster spat one by one.

After a while, they grew impatient and ran off to play in the water, chirping as they chased and played with one another in the sea.

Xie Juanhan looked at the little ones having fun, then down at the rope, and sighed. "If only there were a spell that could pick out the best oyster spat all at once."

"There's no such spell. You'd have to create one," Telingewei said. "Life Magic is complicated, and changes to its Magic Power circuits have to be extremely precise. A grand mage below the mage lord level can't alter them."

Xie Juanhan looked up at him.

He said, "I don't really know how."

Xie Juanhan thought of the many courses he had taken as a child, such as "Dragon Power Dynamics" and "Dragon Power and Its Applications." "I don't know how either, and I don't want to learn."

The two dragons gave the young Demonic Oysters on the rope a preliminary sorting.

As for the rest, if the rope ran out of room as the Demonic Oysters grew, they would gradually thin them out in batches.

Once they had placed the rope in the waters where the ocean currents met,

Xie Juanhan looked at the Demonic Oysters they had put so much work into and said, "I hope nothing like that Demonic Squid comes to steal our Demonic Oysters again. Otherwise, I'll definitely tear it to pieces."

Telingewei was tying one end of the rope to a reef. "There probably won't be."

"Let's hope so." Xie Juanhan dragged the other end of the rope. "Should I tie this end to the reef underwater?"

Telingewei said, "Tie it there for now. In a couple of days, I'll bring some Budemi seeds over and tie them on."

The rope was thick and difficult to tie.

In human form, Xie Juanhan dragged it underwater and tied it around the reef.

Sunlight shone down through the sea above him, providing him with a diffuse light source.

The water was fairly deep, and visibility was mediocre.

Just as Xie Juanhan was wrestling with the rope,

Something wispy drifted in front of his eyes, blocking his view.

He was instantly a little annoyed.

He reached out to brush it away.

Halfway through the motion, he stopped.

It was the Demonic Squid skin he had torn off yesterday.

This was where ocean currents met, so it was only natural for the Demonic Squid skin to be carried around by the water, drifting away and then back again.

Xie Juanhan brushed the Demonic Squid skin aside, watched it drift away, and lowered his head to continue tying the rope.

As he worked, his hands suddenly stopped.

Xie Juanhan stayed beneath the surface for quite a while.

Telingewei, who was waiting on the surface, dove down several times to check on him.

The little ones playing nearby sensed Telingewei's unease. They all stopped and slowly swam over to him.

Every so often, the little ones stuck their fluffy bottoms in the air and pressed their faces into the water to look at Xie Juanhan, who was busy on the seabed.

They were just as anxious as Telingewei.

Xie Juanhan finished tying the rope and surfaced.

Before Telingewei could say anything, the little ones immediately swam over, caught the hem of his clothes in their mouths, and chirped questioningly.

"It's nothing." Xie Juanhan stroked each of their fluffy heads and explained, "I just saw yesterday's Demonic Squid skin down there."

The little ones looked puzzled. They kept their faces raised, watching him with big, round eyes.

Telingewei said, "It must have drifted over with the current."

"So I watched for a while longer to see where the debris would drift," Xie Juanhan said.

Telingewei gestured for him to continue.

Xie Juanhan's eyes lit up. "This is where the ocean currents meet. They must bring lots of things here, right?"

Telingewei still couldn't follow his train of thought.

Xie Juanhan gestured as he spoke. "Ocean currents follow specific paths. They keep bringing debris from far away, and that's why Demonic Oysters can be raised here."

Telingewei nodded.

"If currents can carry debris, they can carry other things too." Xie Juanhan's eyes were very bright. "So many creatures die in the sea, and the currents carry their bodies along. If they have Demonic Cores, the currents should carry those along too."

Telingewei had spent years flying over the sea in search of prey and had seen currents carrying countless objects with his own eyes. He said with certainty, "They do. They can even sweep away enormous magic ships."

Xie Juanhan said, "In theory, when an ocean current encounters an island, a continental shelf, an ocean ridge, a bay, or somewhere like that, the water slows down, and the things it carries settle."

Telingewei said, "That's true."

The two dragons exchanged a look and instantly understood what the other was saying.

The little ones floated between them, turning their little heads to look at one and then the other. Their faces were blank; they hadn't understood a thing.

Xie Juanhan reached out and scooped up a few of the little ones, setting them on his shoulders. Full of vigor, he said, "Let's go chase the currents!"

The little ones chirped, "Huh?!"

Xie Juanhan had already turned into a white dragon on the spot. He raised his upper body, and the little ones on him went tumbling down to his lower body.

The white dragon not only carried the Companion Beasts on his back, but also nudged Telingewei in the back with his head, making him stagger, then lifted him up. "Hold on tight!"