"Oh? There's a crater there."
They turned their gaze towards the direction that Rafik was pointing to. What they saw was a huge, charred crater.
The crater was the size of a basketball court, and it was located some distance away from the dead camels.
Tahir took out a handful of the charred coal from the pit, kneaded it into powder, and looked at it a couple of times.
"Red Dragon, or a Blue Dragon? Hmm..."
As a court mage that had fought against dragons many times, Tahir was certain that it was one of the two dragons. The crater was caused by a high temperature move. The only type of dragons that met this condition were the
Moreover, seeing as there were no dead camels in the pit, it meant that the dragon that fired the blast was not experienced, as it was incapable of controlling its own abilities.
It was very likely a Dragon Hatchling!
Not only was a Dragon Hatchling extremely valuable, but it was also easy to kill, and it posed little threat.
Although adult dragons were worth much more than Dragon Hatchlings, adult dragons were also much more dangerous to fight against.
Meanwhile, capturing a drake was enough to let one live well-off for several years.
In comparison, a pure dragon's corpse could be sold for more than ten times its weight in gold coins!
As professional adventurers, the three of them knew the value of pure dragons like the back of their hands.
"I'll put it out here before any of you get any weird ideas."
Tahir tapped the ground with his staff. "The dragon's eyes are mine for the taking. Dragon eyes are indispensable magic material."
The process of dividing the spoils had already begun, even though they had yet to hunt down the Dragon Hatchling. Naturally, Carvella did not fall behind, and she immediately chimed in.
"Then I want all of the dragon's claws. The arrows made from the dragon claws will make my the dragon's claws can make my ballista unstoppable."
"Then... Then..." Rafik thought long and hard about the body part he wanted, but he was immediately scolded by the other two.
"You? You're the fool who lost the camels in the first place! You should count your lucky stars that we're willing to split the gold obtained from selling the dragon's corpse to you!"
With that, the trio had settled their division of loot.
The dragon's eyes, which contained rich magic, belonged to Tahir.
The dragon's claws that was capable of tearing apart its own kind, were given to Carvella, who wished to upgrade her ballista.
The remaining parts would be auctioned off for gold coins, and this would be the only part that Rafik was allowed to take part in.
With their discussion settled, the three of them began to pursue their target.
Tahir raised his arm.
"Wind spirit, heed my call, and describe what you've witnessed!"
As a former court mage, Tahir's knowledge did not extend merely to lightning magic. Rather, he had only used his lightning magic as a tool for offense.
In fact, every qualified mage, be it humans or magical creatures of other species, would definitely learn practical magic for convenience.
The spell that Tahir had cast was called "Wind Speak."
It was a wind spell. It enabled him to converse with the wind spirits in the air, and it allowed him to detect things that were in contact with the wind.
The desert was vast enough that a strong gust of wind could blow from one end to the other. As such, Wind Speak was the perfect spell for him to use, as it would enable him to look over the entire desert.
"There are two of them!"
Tahir suddenly opened his eyes and revealed a smile on his face.
Through the spell he had just cast, Tahir realized that it was not just one Dragon Hatchling that killed the camels, but two!
This was undoubtedly good news. It meant that they could reap double the rewards!
However, when the wind spirit returned, its body was crackling with the sound of electricity.
This meant that his opponents were Red Dragons.
This was bad news for Tahir, who exceled at lightning magic. After all, Red Dragons were particularly resistant towards lightning magic!
However, they were only Dragon Hatchlings. No matter how powerful they were, they could not be compared to the court mage of the kingdom!
"We're rich! It's two Red Dragon Hatchlings!!"
Tahir laughed loudly as he ran north. By using lightning magic to stimulate his muscles, he was able to run faster than a regular person.
"Must be nice to know magic." Carvella shook her head. Only a mage like Tahir could find his target in such a vast desert.
Nevertheless, so long as they followed Tahir, they were certain to locate their targets.
"Hurry up, idiots."
Carvella and Rafik hurriedly followed behind Tahir.
However, while passing the corpses of the camels, a small detail had come to Carvella's attention.
Most of the camels corpses' had broken bones. Their bodies were broken in 90-degree angles. Blood and internal organs spewed out from the corners of their mouths, and there were bruises were all over their bodies.
They seemed to have been beaten to death.
According to Tahir, the two Dragon Hatchlings were Red Dragons.
Red Dragons usually preferred to hide underground to launch an ambush, or they would use illusions to lure in their targets before attacking them.
Details aside, their preferred way of hunting had involved using sneak attacks.
Under normal circumstances, such lightning craters would not appear in Red Dragon hunting grounds.
Moreover, Red Dragons were rather poor at hand-to-hand combat. Compared to using their claws to attack their prey, Red Dragons preferred to use magic.
'In that case... Why were these camels beaten to death...'
...
'We should be safe now, right?'
While Max flew, he made sure to look behind every few seconds. Ever since he realized that his sister had bitten an adventurer's badge, Max was constantly on alert.
'The adventurers must have lost their camels by accident.'
'If these adventurers are rich, they probably wouldn't come looking for them. But then again, if they had money, why would they become adventurers? This world isn't a video game. Adventuring is a highly dangerous job.'
From this, Max determined that the adventurers would definitely come looking for the camels.
As a dragon, adventurers were Max's natural enemies.
There were a couple of reasons behind this. For example, there were idealists who hunted dragons for the sake of justice and order. On the other hand, there were those who were greedy, and had treated dragons as flying pouches of gold coins.
In short, should dragons and adventurers cross paths, a deadly battle would certainly ensue.
Max did not know how powerful those adventurers were.
However, he doubted that they were rookies. Most rookies would have already been devoured by the beasts lying in the desert this far in. Backed by his 18 years of video-gaming experience, Max was certain of this.
Moreover, he was still a mere Dragon Hatchling.
Although he was indeed a dragon, the difference of strength between Dragon Hatchlings and Adult Dragons was like a bicycle and a space shuttle.
Those who were on the shuttle would not even notice the person on the bicycle, but the converse did not apply to the bicycle.
That was how huge the difference between them was.