Hearing Elqi’s exclamation, Scarlett also cast a glance over.
After seeing the pattern on the coarse paper, she couldn’t help but frown and muttered to herself, “This is a bit troublesome…”
As soon as she made that comment, Simona and Bella’s expressions turned serious.
In this rookie team of theirs, the only one with real experience might be Scarlett.
She was a bit different from them in that she had once lived on the streets.
She had done many unknown things. In terms of worldly knowledge, she was far broader than those who were either Missies or had both parents alive.
Rosily stared intently at the lifelike earth dragon on the coarse paper.
A dragon… Magical Beast dragons are divided into three major families: the earth dragon family, the flying dragon family, and the large wyvern family.
The wyvern family—the name already makes it clear—refers to those magical beasts that have a trace of dragon characteristics, but they mostly exhibit other animal traits.
Because wyverns have impure bloodlines, their destructive power is usually not very strong.
However, due to containing a bit of dragon blood, they are still somewhat stronger than ordinary magical beasts.
There are also rumors everywhere that wyverns are actually inferior hybrid offspring produced from crossbreeding between dragon-type magical beasts and other races.
This rumor has existed for a long time, but has never been truly verified. Still, it is the most convincing explanation for their origin.
As for the flying dragon family, they are magical beasts with half the traits of the Dragon Tribe, possessing flight ability, and are one of the Sky Sovereigns.
Because their bloodline is purer and closer to the dragons themselves, the destructive power of flying dragons is also higher than that of ordinary magical beasts.
The features of flying dragons include not only wings but also their foreclaws, which are fused with the wings—these are all identifying marks.
The so-called dragon characteristics actually refer to how similar they are to true dragons.
The more a dragon-type magical beast resembles a true dragon, the denser the dragon blood it carries, and its destructive power will be closer to that of a true dragon.
Of course, there is still a huge gap between the strongest flying dragon and a true dragon, equivalent to a human’s Nine Steps crushing an Eighth Order.
On the coarse paper in Rosily’s hand, that copper-colored earth dragon had no wings, but its form was not very different from a true dragon, except its size was much smaller compared to a true dragon. Without its dragon horns, it would look more like a large lizard.
“Brass Earth Dragon, seven meters tall, about fifteen meters in length from head to tail. Individual combat power is close to Sixth Rank. It looks quite dangerous.”
The paper also had the basic information on this dragon.
It possesses the ability of Hardened Skin, making it extremely difficult for ordinary attacks to break through its defense.
“Is that it?”
Scarlett, who was beside her, saw that the promised basic information was just this one sentence.
She twitched the corner of her mouth and couldn’t help complaining.
“That bald bastard’s information is even less reliable than the Adventurers’ Guild’s. Just this much? Is he really not afraid of people dying?!”
This exam question was definitely not specially designed for Rosily. The other teams should only face beasts of slightly lower strength.
To make these novice students from the Academy face such aggressive dragon-type beasts on their first try was an extremely bold and particularly dangerous decision.
…..
Elqi pursed her lips and remained silent.
She looked a bit nervous.
A beast close to Sixth Rank, and an earth dragon type at that. Its destructive power and aggressiveness—just thinking about it made one hesitate to go forward, let alone take the blood of this earth dragon.
She tightened her grip on her staff and looked in Rosily’s direction.
Coincidentally, Rosily was also looking at her.
When their eyes met, Rosily gave Elqi an expression that said “no problem.” Elqi felt a warmth in her heart.
Rosily then swept her gaze over the others and found that they all didn’t seem very confident.
“Ahem~”
She cleared her throat and said, “Let’s set out!”
Having said that, Rosily took the map and walked in one direction. Scarlett saw this, frowned, and called out, “Hey, Rosily, wait.”
“……”
Rosily stopped and turned around to look at Scarlett. Scarlett walked past Elqi and Simona, came up to Rosily, and glanced at the map. Huh, it was actually right? Scarlett had originally thought Rosily wouldn’t be able to read the map.
“Can you read a map?”
“No.”
“Then how did you go in the right direction?”
“By instinct.”
Rosily said this without any burden. Scarlett took a deep breath, calmed herself, and then took the map from Rosily’s hand.
“First, determine the direction.”
Using the sun, which was not yet directly overhead, she confirmed the direction was correct, then returned the map to Rosily. Rosily took the lead, while Scarlett silently retreated to the back of the group.
Their team, which had only been formed for barely half a month, was officially welcoming its debut battle.
After stepping into the primitive forest of the Northern Mountains, the first part of the journey was very peaceful, with almost no magical beasts encountered. Some small magical beasts they met immediately ran away upon seeing them. In a relaxed atmosphere like a picnic, Rosily arrived at the boundary of the outer forest of the Northern Mountains.
The girl raised her foot and stepped onto that rectangular stone pillar. The stone pillar she stepped on was exactly the boundary stone dividing the inner and outer areas. Beyond this point, it was no longer within the influence of Red Pine City.
Rosily stood on it and looked up at the dim yellow sky. The trees here were very tall; a few trunks were as wide as a house, a hundred meters high, with lush foliage. She leaped from the boundary stone, stepped onto the almost vertical trunk, and ran straight up along it.
The four girls below all looked up at Rosily, who was now standing at the top of the canopy. The hundred-meter distance made Rosily’s figure very small, and the leaves and branches blocked the view, so they couldn’t tell what Rosily was doing at the moment.
Rosily stood at a high place, first looked toward the western sun. Her pupils were orange-red, exactly like the sun now close to the horizon. Then she looked toward the north. She narrowed her eyes and murmured to herself, “In the storybook Mom gave me, it says that Enya entered this forest at sixteen and met a very beautiful elf woman. Passing through here, you can see the Elf Kingdom…”
Her gaze was distant, and it was unclear what exactly she was thinking. After coming down from the tree, Rosily said to the others, “Let’s stop here for today.”
The five of them had been traveling for a whole day, and everyone was a bit tired, so they all agreed to stop and rest for the night.
Soon, the five girls set up their camp on a tree trunk. Night was the time for magical beasts to hunt, so the ground was not suitable for rest. They chose to sleep in the trees. Fortunately, the huge trees had branches larger than usual, and with a little trimming, they could safely set up tents.
After nightfall—
Elqi poked her head out of her tent and looked at Rosily, who was sitting on a higher branch, keeping watch during the first half of the night. She hesitated for a moment, but eventually came out of the tent.
The girl tidied her robe. This robe was not only a highly practical magic tool but also had an elegant design. The Miss Sorceress also adjusted her hair, then with an excited heart, she made her way toward Rosily. Elqi cast the Wind Control buff on herself and flew up to an even higher branch. Since she was afraid of heights, she didn’t dare look down at all. Instead, she fixed her gaze entirely on Rosily and slowly approached until she was three or four meters away.
Rosily suddenly turned around. Her movement startled Elqi, causing the girl’s little heeled boots to slip, and her whole body began to fall sideways.
Rosily teleported in an instant and reached out to pull Elqi into her arms. Her orange-red eyes met Elqi’s with concern. She smirked and brought her face closer.
“Elqi, are you feeling unwell?”
“No…”
A faint blush appeared on Elqi’s face.
Rosily sat down with Elqi and looked at the forest under the starry night sky. However, the two were slow to exchange further words. Finally, Elqi couldn’t hold it in anymore and broke the silence.
“We…”
“Shh~”
Rosily pressed a finger to Elqi’s lips, interrupting her, and then said confidently, “It’s just an earth dragon, right? Only taking its blood? That’s underestimating me too much. I’m going to surpass that woman named Enya in the future and become someone even stronger than her.”
“?”
Elqi thought she heard wrong. She widened her eyes and looked at Rosily.
“You just said— E-Enya. Right?”