The remaining golem sighed in relief at the sight. Sitting on the ground, it quickly packed up the magic stones and was about to leave the dragon's cave.
Suddenly, a roar echoed from deep within the cave, and crimson flames surged toward the golem.
“A red dragon!”
Without shouting another word, the golem abandoned the remaining magic stones and hastily flew toward the sky, desperate to escape without looking back.
From the flames, an immature dragon about the size of a small truck crawled out of the cavern, its body covered in crimson scales.
It stuck out its tongue to swallow the scattered magic stones, then raised its head to look in the direction the golem was fleeing.
After hesitating for a moment, the taste of the magic stones it had just swallowed lingered in its mouth.
Delicious.
And that human had a whole bag of these delicious magic stones.
Thus, without further agonizing, it flapped its wings and gave chase.
Seeing the dragon leave, Li Xiuman wasted no time. He scrambled down into the crater, spread his Bone Wings, and flew toward the dragon's cave.
The dragon's cave still contained lingering flames from the red dragon's breath.
This was absolutely perfect.
He quickly summoned Number Zero and handed the Magic Flame Bottle to it.
“Gather all these flames into the bottle for me.”
Number Zero took the Magic Flame Bottle, nodded, and began collecting the flames.
Li Xiuman quickly rushed toward the depths of the cave.
He ran all the way, finally arriving at the innermost part of the cavern.
“Holy crap!”
That was...
A pile of gold coins, mixed with gems, magic stones, and various magnificent suits of armor and swords.
Among them, several pieces were clearly magic items!
I'm rich! I'm absolutely rich!
Just as Li Xiuman was about to pounce on the hoard and sweep all the treasure into his storage space, he forced himself to a halt right before touching it.
His magic expertise allowed him to keenly sense fluctuations of mana.
“Appraisal.”
Under the view of Appraisal, a dark red film could be seen covering all the treasure.
[The Red Dragon's Curse] Red Dragon Orfen Rory Gould curses anyone who covets its treasure. If the treasure is touched, Orfen Rory Gould will instantly sense it and unleash a red dragon's breath upon the offender.
“Damn, how insidious.”
Li Xiuman quickly pulled his hand back.
This was not a curse he could break at his current level.
So he had better focus on the scales the red dragon had shed around the area.
Li Xiuman peeled his greedy gaze away from the pile of treasure with great difficulty and began searching for scales nearby.
Before long, Li Xiuman successfully found several dull and chipped scales.
Activating Appraisal, he quickly and precisely scavenged other scales in the dragon's lair, though his eyes still drifted back to the pile of treasure from time to time.
Damn it, the temptation was simply too great.
After thoroughly searching the entire dragon's lair, Li Xiuman walked away with a whole bag of scales.
Although most of them were chipped and broken, the quantity was certainly sufficient.
“Time to make a run for it,” Li Xiuman said, staring at the pile of treasure.
No matter how you looked at it, there had to be tens of thousands of gold coins worth of treasure there.
If he could get his hands on it, he would be able to live comfortably for who knows how many years. This was truly a windfall.
Li Xiuman felt as though an angel and a demon had appeared in his mind.
The angel said, “No, no, no, snap out of it, Li Xiuman. Treasure is a dragon's ultimate taboo. If you touch it, you'll be hunted to the ends of the earth.”
The demon said, “Li Xiuman, oh Li Xiuman, you've already offended an incredibly powerful bone dragon, and you're afraid of an underage one? Take it and run! Once you pull off this job, you can wash your hands of this life. With all these gold coins, you can buy whatever you want!”
The angel argued back, “How can you do that? You must have some human moral integrity!”
Well, you talk about human integrity, but I'm a skeleton.
Besides, when the red dragon returns, it will definitely discover its cave was broken into anyway.
For a proud dragon, that's a disgrace, and it will definitely chase me to the ends of the earth.
Since both choices offend it, why not make it worth it?
Since I want to seek excitement, I might as well go all the way.
Exactly.
Why not?
Opportunities to bully an underage dragon like this don't come often.
With so many gold coins, and even magic items among them!
Taking them all would multiply my wealth immensely.
Faced with this temptation, even a gentleman of noble character would find it hard to resist.
“Golems!”
In one go, Li Xiuman summoned all of his Water Mage Golems.
All the golems formed a circle around Li Xiuman.
Number Zero had also finished collecting the dragon flames at the cave entrance. It stepped in front of Li Xiuman to shield him.
“Water Wall!”
“Water Wall!”
“Water Wall!”
The golems chanted in unison, and streams of water wrapped around Li Xiuman layer by layer.
Li Xiuman also raised his wand.
“Tier 2 Magic, Water Prism!”
A blue magic circle expanded, controlling all the flowing water to form a prismatic barrier in front of him.
Having prepared everything, Li Xiuman reached out toward the treasure.
In an instant, the magic circle enveloping the treasure shattered, and scalding dragon flames poured over the intruder.
“Sizzle!”
The extreme heat instantly evaporated a massive amount of water, filling the entire cave with thick steam.
Although the golems did their best to maintain the barrier, they couldn't withstand the scalding dragon flames. One by one, the aqua-blue magic circles shattered.
“Number Zero, collect the dragon flames!”
Li Xiuman never missed an opportunity to exploit a situation.
With such pure dragon flames right in front of him, letting them go would simply be a sign of disrespect to the red dragon.
Meanwhile, in the distance...
“Roar!”
The red dragon Orfen let out a world-shaking roar, abandoning its chase of the fellow in front.
It sensed that some wretched thief had touched the treasure in its cave!
Damned thief!
With that thought, it flew back toward its cave!
It absolutely could not allow the thief to discover the secret within its treasure. Absolutely not!
That was its final shred of dignity!
If that secret were to be exposed, it swore it would never let the thief go, even if it had to hunt them down to the ends of the earth!
Orfen was like a red meteor, crashing down toward the cavern in the crater.
Meanwhile, back with Li Xiuman...
Having endured the dragon flames, he swiftly swept the massive pile of treasure into his storage space.
He could already picture himself lying on a lounge chair beside the pool of an oceanfront villa, sipping coconut water as he watched the sea.
While Ilu, wearing a revealing swimsuit, lay by his side and fanned him.
Let this wicked wealth corrupt my body as much as it wants. Have no mercy!
“Huh?”
Li Xiuman grabbed a handful of gold coins and noticed something was off.
Beneath the gold coins, there seemed to be... something hard?
What?
The red dragon had hidden another treasure underneath?
Oh, that was almost embarrassing.
Li Xiuman quickly brushed aside the surface of the treasure, revealing what was buried underneath.
It was... rock.
Ah, as expected of a dragon, to have hidden such precious volcanic rock!
That was truly...
Dammit, it was literally just volcanic rock!
Rate on N.U.
