After sharing dinner with his companion, Jose cleaned up the footprints and other traces left by them. Then, he found a stone to block the entrance of the cave and lay on the ground in front of the cave entrance to put down the loot on his back.
He had been in a hurry when distributing the loot. Now that he had time, he naturally had to take a good look at them.
His dragon claw picked up the most eye-catching staff among the loot. The eye-catching thing here did not refer to its length or other external appearance, but to the concentration of magical energy.
Dragons were magical creatures, they could feel the magical energy emitted by items. The magical power emitted by this staff was as conspicuous as fireflies in the night.
He stroked the delicate body of the staff and compared it with the knowledge of appraisal in his dragon inheritance. He mumbled to himself, "Well, the main body is made of fire-patterned wood. It uses a micro-carving craft to engrave the lines and then inject mithril into the lines to reduce the loss of magic power. This is the handiwork of the elves."
As he moved along the smooth and delicate body of the staff, he touched the ruby at the tip. This ruby was the size of a goose egg. Not including the craftsman cost of engraving the magic circles inside, just the materials alone were worth a lot.
In the darkness, the Red Dragon suddenly opened his eyes that were shining with surprise. He discovered that the magic circle in the staff was not one or two, but a total of five, two big and three small. The three small ones formed the equilateral triangle, and the two big ones overlapped.
The three relatively simple magic circles were all intermediate spells — one being Fireball, with a cooldown of one day. The two more complicated magic circles were the advanced spells Pyroblast and Meteor Shower; they both had a cooldown of three days.
"Good item! This staff is definitely qualified to be auctioned!"
"Eh?" He discovered that there was a line of tiny words written in Elvish on the link between the staff and the gem.
This staff is given to my dear friend Vanke Lurens — Arinas.
Jose wasn't sure who Vanke Lurens was, but the name Arinas was thunderous. He was a famous half-elf alchemist in the last three hundred years of Tedanol. He had so many excellent works that his tales were recorded in the innate inheritance of dragons.
Of course, it was not a good thing for his work to be remembered by the evil Five-Colored Dragons.
"I don't know where the mage got this staff from… But whatever, it belongs to me now.
"Let's give it a name. Since the first owner's surname is Lurens, let's call this the Staff of Lurens, hehehe."
After giving the staff a silly name, he put it away and continued to count the remaining loot.
The rest of the loot was much inferior. The inner armor gave protection against arrows; the gold earrings were engraved with the Cleanse spell; the cross necklace had the Lesser Healing spell, and there were also a few dozen gold coins.
There were a total of four magic items, a mysterious diamond, and a small handful of gold coins. That was all Jose had.
While carrying all of his assets, he started to think about his future plans.
No matter what, he no longer wanted to experience the helplessness he felt when he faced the mage in battle. He had to become stronger and control his own fate.
As for safety…
Living a beautiful life was the eternal desire of intelligent creatures, and Jose was no exception. However, now that he had transmigrated into a dragon, he would definitely not be able to live a normal life. He might as well establish his own power like the Mistress of the Red Nest and recruit some followers to rule over the mountains. When the time came, whether he would bring disaster to the area or save all living beings would be up to him.
He shook his head and expelled the unrealistic fantasies from his mind.
Before reaching adulthood, becoming an overlord could only be a fantasy. Furthermore, becoming an adult would only allow one to participate in the disputes of the continent.
In the Tedanol Continent, although adult dragons were at the top of the food chain, they were far from invincible. Not to mention the Human Alliance Army, which could even defeat the Mistress of the Red Nest, who was at the Ancient Dragon level, there were also many powerful species among the supernatural beasts that could fight against the adult dragons.
In the depths of the mysterious Dark Region, in the Deep Sea that was not familiar to people, there were even abnormal races that surpassed dragons.
"Rashness is unwanted, and keeping a low profile will benefit me. I need to continue growing without drawing attention to myself."
With these words in his mind, Jose began to plan his next move.
The woodland was really not a good place for him to live. Jose was much larger than the other dragons of his age, and the dense canopy would hinder taking off. Besides, he was also worried that he would be blocked from the entrance like what happened to the tiger earlier.
Therefore, finding a new place to live was necessary.
According to the survival strategies recorded in the inheritance of dragons, the best habitat for an underage Red Dragon was an abandoned mineshaft that extended in all directions or steep cliffs that were hard to travel on. The former would be easier to hide when there were few people around, while the latter could maximize the flying advantage of the Red Dragon and block most enemies that could not fly.
Of course, the current Jorgol Mountains were full of adventurers who were plundering loot. The matter of migration had to wait until the storm had passed.
At night, the only sound in the dark cave was the breathing of two dragons.
In a daze, Jose once again arrived at what he thought of as the "Galaxy Square". It was no different from when he left. The statue of the Undying Bird was still standing.
He quickly walked towards the Undying Bird statue. Ever since he obtained the Heart of the Undying Bird, he had been looking forward to coming to this mysterious space again to study the statue in more detail. Now, his wish had finally come true.
As he walked around it, he noted that it was no different from before, except that it had lost the resplendent starlight when they first met.
After studying it for a while, he did not find anything of use. It seemed that the Undying Bird statue only had some milestone significance and was witness to his transmigration.
He raised his head and looked at the starry sky. Indeed, he found another extraordinary star. He knew in his heart that he could only come to this Galaxy Square when a new reward was being offered.
I wonder if all these stars will be able to defeat the divine power if they descend.
Looking up at the sky full of stars, Jose was having wild thoughts as he said softly, "Come here."
A resplendent meteor landed, and a moment later, a new statue appeared beside the Undying Bird statue.
It also had a squarish base. The sculpture on the base was extremely abstract and artistic. From the front, it looked like a rectangle. From the side, it looked narrow on both top and bottom, with a large area in the middle. The color was pale gold, as though it was a treasure from the story Journey to the West that shone with golden light.
Jose looked directly at the abstract sculpture and felt a sense of grandeur.
It was definitely high class!
"But what exactly is this?"
He glanced at the introduction on the base and covered his face.
"What the—? Jinkela?!"
[Jinkela]: F rank
[Survival]: What cannot kill me will eventually make me stronger.
— American
Jose did not have the energy to retort this.
However, thanks to this simple and easy to understand name, he understood the function of this reward after thinking about it for a bit. It should have the effect of increasing his potential or speeding up his growth. However, it should not be effective immediately. Instead, it would slowly take effect over time.
After comparing the two statues, he confirmed his previous thoughts. [Heart of the Undying Bird] and [Jinkela] were both reward names.
The grades of the treasures were arranged according to F, E, D, C, B, A, and S, but it was unclear if there were any SS or SSS grade treasures.
As he touched the statue, specks of golden light poured out from the statue and entered every part of his body.
In the real world, in the dark cave, the resting Red Dragon felt itchy all over, as if thousands of ants were crawling on his body.
Not long after, the discomfort disappeared, and he felt warm all over.
The Red Dragon took a long breath and continued to sleep.