Lu Qiuchen glanced toward the voice. A burly man was sitting at the larger round table, surrounded by a few others who were either seated or standing nearby—his teammates, clearly.
It was a mid-sized adventuring party of ten. Everyone wore high-quality gear, and their aura was far from what ordinary adventurers gave off.
On closer look, their class composition was well-balanced too, with both offensive and support roles fully covered. This was unmistakably a powerful team.
“A quest that caught Mr. Audi’s eye must be worth it. Personally, I’d love to work with you, but that depends on what our employer says,” York shrugged toward the man and gave a thumbs-up in Lu Qiuchen’s direction.
“Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Audi. My name is Cecilia. At the moment, I’m acting as Mr. York’s employer. I am interested—would you mind telling us more about the quest?” Lu Qiuchen smiled gently and took over the conversation.
She wasn’t asking without reason. From the earlier exchange between York and Audi, she’d learned that this team was the one who had provided the dragon sighting information.
Naturally, she wanted to find out more.
“Miss Cecilia, nice to meet you,” Audi gave Lu Qiuchen a once-over before saying, “There’s nothing secretive about it. The quest is still posted on the guild board. It’s a reconnaissance mission—to investigate the Rondo Ruins. It was reposted just two days ago.”
“Rondo Ruins? Ah, that quest. But isn’t that just a mid-level mission? Is it worth you taking so seriously?” York frowned slightly, puzzled.
Just yesterday, York had browsed the hall for any interesting tasks and had noticed that one too.
But a simple mid-rank reconnaissance quest wouldn’t attract any high-ranking professionals, much less a legendary team like Audi’s Lightning Gryphon party—known to be far more elite than York’s own Courage and Justice.
“It was a mid-level mission yesterday. But this morning, the guild revised its classification.”
Audi smiled with a touch of mystery, glancing meaningfully at the dragon horns on Lu Qiuchen’s head.
“The guild upgraded the quest to epic rank. It’s now officially an ‘epic’ ‘reconnaissance’ mission!”
He emphasized the words epic and reconnaissance.
Gasps rippled through the tavern. The surrounding adventurers stared in disbelief, and a few quick movers darted off to the guild hall to verify the news.
The two teams were seated at the center of the tavern, which was bustling with other adventurers. And of course, a conversation between two top-tier parties from different regions was bound to attract attention.
The Adventurers’ Guild generally categorized missions involving ancient ruins into two types: elimination and reconnaissance.
Elimination missions were usually more difficult, since monsters that survived in ruins were often ferocious.
Reconnaissance missions, in comparison, were relatively easier, and were often ranked one tier lower than their elimination counterparts.
The Rondo Ruins were first discovered more than 200 years ago, located in the central region of the Kingdom of Tara. Scholars identified it as a city once built by the ancient goblins.
Unlike the ruins left behind by other ancient races, goblin ruins held almost no development value. These short, ugly creatures had long been classified as a primitive civilization, and their cities naturally held little worth.
Back in ancient times, goblins were driven from the southern continent by humans and forced to cross the ocean to the harsher lands of the north.
Some scholars believe that even if goblins were given tens of thousands more years to develop, their civilization still wouldn’t reach humanity’s current level.
Because of that, even after more than two centuries, the Rondo Ruins had never been fully excavated.
The guild would periodically repost quests involving the Rondo Ruins every few years.
After a wave of new adventurers gave it a try and lost interest, the quest would be pulled, only to be reposted again a few years later to attract the next batch. It went in cycles.
“Confirmed! The quest was reposted this morning! The Rondo Ruins reconnaissance mission is now ranked epic!” shouted one of the adventurers who had just returned from the guild hall.
At that, the entire tavern and guild hall erupted.
“Epic-rank reconnaissance?! That means the elimination version might be legend-rank!”
“A legend-rank quest! Hasn’t it been centuries since one of those showed up? Are we about to witness history?!”
“Hey, kid! There’s no way that ruined dump Rondo has an epic quest in it. Out with the details! Don’t leave us hanging!”
Clearly enjoying the attention, the adventurer cast a glance at Audi. Seeing the man didn’t mind someone else stealing the spotlight, he leapt onto a table and shouted:
“Word is that some adventurers fled in terror from the ruins. They claimed there’s a horrifying creature inside. Guild staff went to check it out this morning—and they confirmed it. There are claw marks suspected to belong to dragons and residual demonic energy. The guild suspects… there’s a corrupted dragon in the ruins!!!”
The last time corrupted dragons were seen was… back during the demon invasion of Eternity ten thousand years ago.
Corrupted dragons were created when dragon hatchlings were captured by demons and subjected to vile psychic rituals.
These rituals damaged their draconic bloodline, forcibly evolving them into stunted but dangerous pseudo-adult dragons—unable to grow, but still incredibly powerful.
Their main feature was their dulled intellect, which made them easy for demons to control.
“Corrupted dragons! Whether they’re drakes or truebloods, they’re packed with rare materials!”
The adventurer who said that suddenly felt a chill, but when he looked around, everyone else still seemed excited—none of them were looking his way. He could only chalk it up to nerves.
“The dragon clans forbid hunting pureblood dragons and high-tier drakes… but they never said anything about corrupted ones. The dragons themselves don’t even recognize corrupted dragons as kin.”
Someone else poured cold water on their excitement. “You lot better forget it. This is an epic quest. How many of you here even qualify?”
That sobered everyone up. All eyes turned toward the two epic-tier parties in the tavern, filled with envy.
Hidden in the crowd beside Lu Qiuchen, the invisible Blue Dragon King Calmer stirred at the mention of corrupted dragons. He said he’d head to Rondo himself to investigate once Andala returned.
Lu Qiuchen also felt uneasy about the corrupted dragon, but she had other priorities—namely, finding the sisters Andona and Andala.
So she turned to Audi and said, “Though I’m quite interested in the ruins, unfortunately I have other matters to attend to. I’ll still need to keep employing the Courage and Justice party. I hope we’ll have the chance to collaborate in the future.”
“All right then, Miss Cecilia. I look forward to working with you again in the future.” Audi didn’t press the issue. He turned to York and added, “If you all finish your business, come find me here. This mission will be tough—we plan to recruit a few more companions, so we’ll probably stay in town for a few more days.”
After leaving the crowd, Lu Qiuchen and the five members of York’s team found a quiet corner in the tavern to discuss the next task.
“I need you to help me gather more information. The reward will be much greater than last time.” Lu Qiuchen looked at the rogue in the team as she spoke.
“I’ll need to hear what the job is before we talk payment.” Sensing this wouldn’t be as simple as before, the rogue sat upright, his tone serious.
Lu Qiuchen lowered her voice. “I want you to dig up everything you can about Grand Duke Sesis, including…”
The group looked surprised after hearing the mission. They exchanged glances before the team leader, York, spoke up. “We’ll take the job—but the reward has to be doubled.”
Lu Qiuchen didn’t understand why they reacted that way, but since they were willing to accept, she didn’t press further.
After some back-and-forth, both sides agreed on a mutually acceptable reward. A contract was signed, and after reviewing it, Lu Qiuchen paid part of the reward in advance to the Adventurers’ Guild.
The guild would then officially post the mission for the “Courage and Justice” team to accept.
This essentially made the Adventurers’ Guild a middleman—while they charged a considerable service fee, they also acted as mediators in case of disputes. Naturally, personal contracts like these were kept confidential unless needed.
After arranging to meet again at noon the next day, Lu Qiuchen left the tavern.
“She wants us to investigate her uncle? What exactly is this half-dragon lady planning?” the handsome young man dressed like a bard frowned slightly.
*****
Late at night, silence blanketed the dragon’s lair. The silver dragon inside was fast asleep.
A shadowy figure silently stepped out of the lair and joined another figure waiting nearby. Together, they activated a soundproof and sight-concealing magic barrier.
“The plan’s gone sideways. They played us.” The voice was laced with anger.
“They were never trustworthy to begin with. Find a reason to withdraw those arrangements,” said the second voice.
The first voice returned. “Still, this might be our chance—to turn the tables and use them instead.”
The second speaker hesitated. “But that could put the Tara Kingdom in serious danger.”
“Their fate was sealed long ago. Vassals with divided loyalties have no right to remain.”
“So be it. I’ve received some new intel on my end…”
*****
The next morning, after Lu Qiuchen and the Blue Dragon King Kalmer finished the breakfast delivered by the soldiers, they prepared to head out in search of more clues.
To be honest, the amount of food provided wouldn’t even fill a newly hatched dragonling. For a full-grown dragon, the several carts of food supplied by the Tara Kingdom were barely snacks.
Fortunately, most dragons weren’t gluttonous—pureblood dragons could survive by gnawing on various minerals and absorbing ambient mana. Meat and other foods were little more than flavoring to them.
At that moment, three black dots appeared in the western sky. Upon seeing them, Kalmer transformed into his dragon form and soared up to greet them. Lu Qiuchen, reacting a beat slower, quickly followed suit.
The three black dots turned out to be the Red Dragon King Andala and the two dragons who had gone missing a few days earlier.
Seeing that the two dragons were safe, both Lu Qiuchen and Kalmer breathed a sigh of relief.
When Andala had found them, the two dragons had been surrounded by a group of Church professionals. It seemed the battle had already lasted several days and had now entered a period of rest.
The Church’s group had sustained many injuries, though thankfully no casualties.
The dragons, by contrast, were in better shape. The red dragon’s chest scales were slightly scorched—likely from divine spells—but the blue dragon bore almost no wounds and appeared in good condition.
Although both sides had fought, they had exercised a degree of restraint.
Behind the Church stood the divine race, who no longer directly intervened in the world of Eternity. The dragons, meanwhile, were the dominant rulers of this world.
This balance of power had formed a longstanding tacit understanding between the two sides—minor clashes were tolerable, but full-scale war was strictly off-limits.
As for why these two dragons had clashed with the Church in the first place—well, that was a longer story.
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