City of Sin

Book 7, 165

Five-Coloured Dragon

Richard took a single glance at the dragon being dragged by the Celestial Sage; it was a green dragon, one of the most common species. Although all dragons were valuable, he didn’t understand why Ruben had even bothered picking it up. He asked with curiosity, “What do you need that thing for?”

“I need the crystal, heart, and brain, everything else is useless,” Ruben answered before chuckling, “When is your portal going to be done? I can’t keep flying around with a dragon!”

Richard gestured towards the workshop that was already being built, “There will be a processing centre up soon, my mages are on their way and will arrive tomorrow. If you don’t mind waiting a few days, just hand it to me and I’ll process it.”

“Huh, you really are very detailed; this will save a week. Fine, take it; I only need those three things, you can keep the rest.”

“No, it’s all yours. They’ll process and pack everything, and someone will come inform you when it’s ready. My only question is about the meat; we can handle that too, but I don’t think it’s really worth it.”

“Of course I don’t want the meat,” Ruben waved, “How much is it for the processing?”

“None,” Richard smiled, “You can bring any number of dragons in, it’ll all be free.”

At this point, even the Celestial Sage was amazed. He patted Richard on the shoulder, “You really are a great businessman.”

“That isn’t all. If you have the time now, you can come take a look at the other things I’m preparing.”

Richard brought the Celestial Sage to the command centre in the valley, setting up a small map and activating it. Thirteen estates appeared on the table, displaying what they would look like when they were completed, “These things are going up right now, and they’ll include essential facilities like a lab and forge. You can sub-let them out or transfer them to others if you want, I’m not going to control any of that.”

Ruben’s eyes lit up as he looked at the image with interest, even playing around with the hologram to look at things from all angles. As someone with high standards for living, just the fact that he muttered something about them being not bad was a telling sign. In fact, the Celestial Sage only wanted Norland’s standard of living in Faelor; nothing could really compare to his tower. Although certain places in the Iron Triangle Empire were decorated well, their functions were obsolete in his eyes and definitely weren’t comfortable.

Zooming in on the plans for the lab and forge, he saw that they would come fully equipped and nodded with satisfaction, “When will these estates be ready?”

“Two weeks if we don’t meet any hiccups, three at worst.”

“That fast?”

“Mm, I transferred 3,000 knights to help with the construction.”

“That’s a big number, young man,” the Celestial Sage smiled, pointing out the biggest estate of them all that was in a prime location, “Leave this one for me. I’m planning to stay in the Dragon Plane a bit longer this time, at least a month; hopefully, everything is ready by then.”

“True mages never exaggerate,” Richard smiled as well.

Ruben chuckled, “I feel like you’re more suited to being a lord.”

“There isn’t any problem with being both.”

Just like that, an estate that was still a blueprint was reserved by the Celestial Sage. Neither party had even discussed rent, but no matter how high it was, the sum would be negligible to an epic being. Once Ruben moved in, Richard would have no difficulty selling the rest either.

Richard’s primary source of income was still the offerings that he would be paid for the legends to hunt in the Dragon Plane, alongside the sale and repair of runes. The dragon processing centre, estates, and amenities were all nothing compared to that, only tools to make staying within Faelor as convenient as possible.

Truth be told, even with a year of hunting reserved, the Celestial Sage wasn’t in much of a hurry to make a fortune. As an old epic being, he had accumulated an astounding amount of wealth already. Just an opportunity for conversation with him was worth offerings; he was renowned for his knowledge and wisdom that encompassed nearly everything in existence.

People like Ruben normally only cared about two things— extremely rare treasures or the finer details of daily life. Richard’s estates managed to capture the latter, drawing his attention. He stayed in Dragon Valley for a few days as the green dragon was processed, even taking some time out to guide the mages who were busy setting up the portal to and from Bluewater.

During this time, the dragon crystal, heart, and brain were all extracted and packaged well before being passed on to the Celestial Sage. While it would take a lot of time for a mage to work on such things alone, Richard had assigned knights to help with removing flesh and scales. Leaving the heart and brain behind to be transferred to the new estate when it was finished, Ruben headed back into the Dragon Plane.

When he heard that the wait had purely been for the dragon crystal, that it was an essential material for one of the Celestial Sage’s spells, Richard was stunned beyond words. A spell that required an adult dragon’s crystal to activate was likely even more powerful than Sharon’s portal explosions, comparable to Sharon’s Rainbow Bridge that required a beyslace spider crystal for every cast.

Richard personally went through the portal with the Celestial Sage and fought the horde of dragons guarding the gates until they dispersed. Afterwards, Ruben left to continue exploring the Dragon Plane while he returned to Faelor.

......

In a secret space deep within the Dragon Plane, the sky was suddenly lit up by a patch of fiery clouds. The clouds quickly started to shimmer before Bahamut flew through, taking a moment to appreciate the world before him.

This place was elegant and enormous, the majestic mountains all around covered by an abundance of trees. Some of the leaves were red as fire while others yellow like gold; all the colours seemed to be equal here, making the world look like it was constantly covered by a spectacular rainbow. There were also clear streams within the mountain, beings both humanoids and otherwise frolicking in the water as they appreciated the golden radiance falling from the sky.

Even the huge flame dragon looked like a normal bird in the sky here, letting out several deafening roars before he tucked in his wings and dove towards the peak of a particular multicolour mountain that was beautiful. He said in a deep voice, “Mighty Goddess, the Sharon and Celestial Sage Ruben have both appeared at the portal leading to Faelor. The situation is precarious; Ruben has already infiltrated our world, and if Sharon appears a few more times I worry that we will hand control of both ends of the passage to the other side.”

As the dragon finished speaking, the five-coloured peak in front of him suddenly started moving, white mist pouring out of a crack that widened to reveal amber. It was only when the rocks blinked that one would realise this was an eye that was a hundred metres in diameter.

The single open eye stared at the flame dragon, a voice like scraping metal filling the secret space, “Bahamut, you interrupt my sleep.”

The entire peak slowly started moving turning around to face Bahamut directly. This wasn’t a mountain with coloured stones; it was the enormous head of a dragon!