Beast Taming? Nah, Dragon Herding is Way Better! - Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Assassins
“Let’s see, I should probably find some treasures I can exchange for Realm Gold so I can buy another dragon…” traversing across the thick woods hopping from branch to branch with the assistance of his wind elemental affinity, Diluc said to himself as he checks the information on the floating grey screen currently right in front of his eyes, just a bit to the side so that his vision won’t be obstructed by it.

Looking at the information about his current strength displayed on it, his eyes couldn’t help but get pulled at the numbers just right beneath the information about his age.

[Diluc Leonhart]

[Race: Human]

[Age: 16]

[Realm Gold: 9,000]

[Cultivations]

[Magic: Bright Red Core (Combat power between Bright Orange Core and Vague Yellow Core)]

[Body Tempering: Peak Skin Refining (Combat power Between Peak Muscle Conditioning and Early Blood Vessel Widening)]

[Elemental Affinity: Wind, Wood, Metal]

[Skills: Draconic Scale, Absolute Regeneration, Life Breathing, Heavy Metal Reinforcement, Rain of Swords, Dragon Roar, Dragon Claw, Specific Mana Manipulation (Wind)]

[Overall Combat Power: 4.5-stars]

[Draconic Realm]

[Missions]

[Shop]

Seeing the amount of Realm Gold he currently have, one might think that this is already a really big number given what sort of things he can achieve in the Draconic Realm just by using this currency to purchase things in the shop, however, as the owner of the system, he is the only one sorely aware of how in dire straits he currently is in terms of financial prowess.

“I’m piss poor…” he said in self-deprecation as he continues his travels, hopping from tree to tree leisurely all while still being really observant of the surroundings, something that he learns the hard way by exploring the outside world time and time again and making such things his way to earn his living in this world.

While he continues to mock his own poverty though, he starts noticing something pretty off in the surroundings, this something making him stop on his track as he starts paying more attention to the woods around him, everything seemingly far more silent than normal as if there’s no longer any creatures around him.

“Tsk, trying to hide in these thick woods huh… let’s see where you all are…” knowing that there’s someone following him probably hiding behind some of the trees all around him, Diluc couldn’t help but mutter to himself as he starts using his wood elemental affinity, using it in a way that he learns from the neon-green haired mature beauty one time they are talking about mana control.

‘Remember my liege, you just need to go with the flow of the wood elemental mana in the surroundings, the trees and all the children of nature will do the rest for you~’ he remembers Yggdrasil telling him this as he tries to extend his senses through the help of every single living being in the surrounding that has wood elemental affinity on them, such technique bringing him quite the surprise as he feels really odd, yet somehow clairvoyant to some degree.

‘Got them…’ he thought to himself as he detects five different life signatures scattered around the trees, all of them not going farther than a couple of meters from each other, making him think that this is going to be quite the easy attack as he doesn’t need to spend too much effort on chasing each one of them.

‘One Light Orange Core, one Late Muscle Conditioning, and the rest of them are pretty much lower-level thugs…’ Diluc takes note of the opponents as he continues to probe their strength just by observing them, the fact that he manages to see through the levels of someone with far higher cultivation than him showing just how much powerful he is.

“I should go with something like this, just in case…” condensing wind elemental mana underneath his feet, he exploded as he shoots through the high air, surprising the assassins aiming to claim his life as he disappears all of a sudden in their eyes, causing them to frantically look around as they wonder just where the young man goes.

“Search the area!! Don’t let that money bag escape!!”

“Damn it!! Where did that kid go? That money should’ve been good for playing with women for more than a couple of months!!”

The two stronger fellows in the group said as they also start panicking, the speed in which the young man disappears something they really didn’t expect from someone who is only at the Bright Red Core, making them all the more wary as they start thinking that this is no normal kid they are planning to take on.

Meanwhile, their target is currently floating high in the air, using a platform made entirely of wind elemental mana in order to stand in the air, looking down on the people trying to take his life without any sort of emotion in his eyes.

As he stares at these people, two beautiful ladies stand on either side of him, to his right, a mature-looking, neon green haired alluring beauty is observing his attractive face with such keen interest as she hums a joyful tune, and to his left, another beauty, appearing to be of the same age as him if not a bit younger, stands, her shiny platinum hair paired with her emotionless face making a great, near perfect combination, said beauty also observing his face with such focus as if she wants to see through something from it.

“Ygg, Argenta, prepare to intercept the ones escaping, I’ll deal with all of them…” the young man, their liege and lover, said to them prompting them to nod at him, the two of them merely cheering for him in their hearts as they watch him descends on the ground once again, a metallic sheen appearing on his limbs and some on his neck and cheeks as he falls down, those sheen being scales that made him appear draconic looking, said appeal increasing all the more as a reptilian slit appears on his eyes.

[Heavy Metal Reinforcement]

As he descends to the ground, his body starts getting heavier, causing his descend to bear more force as he gets closer and closer to the ground, the scales around his body congregating more and more as it starts to form an armor around him, making his body grow a bit bigger than his normal size.

As he crashes to the ground, one of the assassins were caught off guard by his strike, causing him to react lately as he raises his arms in an attempt to block the incoming figure about to hit him, his entire body struggling to keep its defense up as the figure finally hits him, making him feel disoriented and hurt as he feels like some of his organs even got shifted a bit due to the attack.

‘It’s a good thing I broke through Late Muscle Conditioning, or else I might be screwed by that attack…’ the assassin thought to himself as he looks at his damaged, almost battered arms, currently shaking and numb from the attack, but he feels like this is something that’s definitely going to hurt him later.

“That’s quite the tough body, I thought you’re definitely going to turn into a meat paste after that…” as the assassin tries to recover a bit through the use of mana, he got interrupted as a voice resounded through his ears, making him feel such a close brush with death with just the terrifying pressure released by the owner of the voice alone, casting him into an illusion on looking towards a massive object, only for him to find out that this massive object is an eye of a creature so incomprehensible to him.

Once he took a look to the object of his terror through, he couldn’t help but feel a bit ridiculous, immediately brushing off such thoughts of danger once he found out that the one talking with him is a young man with a Bright Red Core cultivation, someone who looks all too similar with their target if not for the scales covering major part of his body.

Despite the oddities on the young man’s body though, he pays no heed to them as he feels like the money is going to be worth it, causing him to smile maliciously as he starts taking steps towards the young man, the maniacal smile on his face growing wider and wider as the pressure he previously felt disappears in the air.

“Hehehe… obediently hand your life, boy, my fellow assassins are going to arrive here anytime soon, so there’s just no way you can escape with your cultivation anymore…” the assassin proudly said with such confidence in his voice, especially once he crushes a stone that alerts all his companions to gather at his location just in case this young man tries to escape once again.

“Really? That’s good news for me then, who would’ve guessed I wouldn’t need to search for each one of you anymore?” hearing the assassin’s words, the young man, Diluc, couldn’t help but beam with a smile of relief, causing the man trying to kill him to wonder in a mixture of terror and confusion.