196:
“Here!”
A team of soldiers in black armor appeared in front of the dragon egg. Their eyes burst with excitement.
“Great!”
“It’s real.”
Although most of them were injured, their aura was not weak. They still exuded a terrifying ferocity, like beasts that had walked out of a jungle.
Behind them lay many mutilated corpses… of warriors, and of various monsters.
Further away… a golden figure the size of a small mountain was lying on the ground, blood splattered beneath it.
It was a… gold dragon.
A gold dragon had whiskers on its face, and it looked learned and wise. Its horns extended back from its nose and forehead, echoing the two frills that decorated its neck. A gold dragon’s sail-like wings extended from its shoulders to the tip of its tail, allowing it to have a graceful movement like swimming in water when it flew in the air.
But at this time, this gold dragon lying on the ground was in a tragic state. Its metallic scales were covered with charred wounds, deep enough to see the bone. But those were not the fatal blow that had killed this gold dragon… The fatal wound was at the top of this gold dragon’s head, a huge, dark hole straight into the brain.
“Sir, what on earth happened here? Will we get into trouble for this?”
A warrior with a severed arm asked the leader with some worry. This team was not weak, but if they were to face a powerhouse who could pierce a gold dragon’s head, it would be overestimating themselves. They had already suffered losses just by dealing with the guard monsters around this dragon’s lair… Now that they had taken someone else’s spoils of war, would that person come looking for them in the future?
The leader carefully observed the gold dragon’s corpse, looking at the dried blood. He gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, “We can’t care about that much now. Take it.”
So many warriors had died. If they couldn’t bring back enough spoils of war… then his own head would probably not be safe.
“Leave the gold dragon’s corpse here for now. Take the dragon egg and these magic items. Let’s go.”
A metallic dragon’s weight was heavier than a chromatic dragon’s. They were like a huge, hard piece of metal. This adult gold dragon, with a total length of over 16 meters and a wingspan of over 20 meters, weighed at least 10 tons. This was not something a group of not-lightly-injured warriors could transport in one go.
“Yes, sir.”
The leader had just turned around when a tragic cry sounded in his ear.
“Ah!”
He had just drawn the sword at his waist when his arm flew off.
“Ah! Ugh…”
Even with this attack, the leader still maintained a trace of reason. He clutched the wound on his severed arm and quickly retreated, barely dodging the next attack.
“Who is it! Why are you… ah!”
“Cough, cough! We are…”
A hand-knife pierced through the leader’s back.
Why are you…
As he fell to the ground, the leader saw many things. This was a team of adventurers… they were constantly slaughtering his subordinates.
“Cough… no…”
Unwilling, in the last moment of his life, he heard a conversation, “Katerina, stop playing.”
“Yes~ Big Sister.”
“This dragon egg… just send it to the Temple of Good Fortune to deal with. We’ll continue to pursue that target.”
“Alright.”
…
The priests of the Goddess of Good Fortune loved a joyful atmosphere and a proactive vitality. They believed that by taking greater risks, they could obtain more luck.
The Temple of Good Fortune was usually a supply station for adventure groups, providing various services and goods, such as holy water or healing potions. Some temples even went a step further, providing a lot of secret assistance to those adventurers who dared to take the most risks.
The Church of Good Fortune believed that this would have a great positive effect on publicly proving the correctness of the goddess’s teachings. The priests would greatly publicize those heroes who had miraculously survived dangerous dungeons and haunted tombs. They would claim that the adventurers’ survival and spoils of war were the Lady of Luck’s reward for their daring.
Therefore, many adventurers liked to accept their assistance. The adventurers’ chances of survival increased, and the temple could also spread its teachings. Mutual benefit.
However, when an adventure team sponsored by the temple was annihilated by a wall covered in tentacles, or walked into a “black hole of destruction” hidden in the mouth of a huge demon statue and never returned… the priests would, contrary to their usual practice, remain silent, as if it had never happened.
That dragon egg was also sent to a certain monastery of the Temple of Good Fortune to be hatched.
Perhaps it was the gold dragon’s talent that was favored by the goddess, or perhaps it was just a whim of fate. That gold dragon, on the first day of its hatching, was blessed by the goddess. It, or rather, she… was given a name by the god.
Erica.
From that day on, there was a slow-growing girl in the Church of Good Fortune.
She was very lucky. The talent of a gold dragon, the favor of a goddess, no external pressure… allowed her to enjoy life and grow freely.
But in return, she could never turn back into a dragon, but remained in her human form. Fortunately, Erica didn’t care about this kind of thing.
Perhaps because she was a God’s Chosen, Erica’s personality was also very similar to Tymora’s. Although it would be unfair to criticize Tymora as “cruel”… she was indeed addicted to creating all sorts of pranks, and often tried to tease those serious gods with gentle teasing and playful means.
For example, pranking the serious God of Justice, or the stubborn God of Protection. None of them had escaped her clutches…
Like that goddess, in the first fifty years, there were few people in the entire Church of Good Fortune who had not been pranked by her, Erica. She always had a naive smile, pretending to be innocent. Even if she was caught, she wouldn’t hurt anyone, just pretend that nothing had happened.
Erica had always enjoyed the love of everyone and had lived under their surprised care. But later, the children who had grown up with her had all gradually grown up. The smile on Erica’s face also became less and less, and she began to no longer appear in public.
She was like a ghost, watching them grow up, get married, have children, and finally… die.
After the first playmate passed away, Erica disappeared from the temple. Erica never appeared in their lives again. She was like a ghost wandering in the temple, passing by, but no one noticed.
Erica never regretted it. The coldness that came from her bones made her feel confused.
Gold dragons… were the most reclusive and cold of the good dragons. Gold dragons valued their privacy and rarely had deep relationships with dragons other than their own mates and offspring. Unlike silver dragons, who would maintain friendships with humanoids for multiple generations, even if a gold dragon became a companion, it would leave after a few days or weeks.
They were not arrogant, but that kind of self-sufficient coldness was innate, from the bottom of their hearts.
One day, the now-grown-up Erica pushed open a door in the temple.
