A few days later:
The dragon stood on top of a tall cliff overlooking the valley outside his minions' base. The dark smoke rose from his armoured black body as his reptilian eyes focused on the valley under him. The valley was close to the river, filled with verdant green grass. Dozens of kinds of mountain flowers littered the green grass carpet, turning it into a colourful mosaic.
A massive herd of dozens of sheep and cows was chaotically moving in the valley, tirelessly devouring all of the grass around them. More than twenty-five figures in black mantles and masks were running around, fastening baggage on the cows. Most of them had wooden masks shaped to look like dragon heads.
They were the newest recruits recruited over the last few days to help with the huge herd.
'It was easier to increase my numbers than I thought. All I had to do was let someone spread rumours about secret organisations, and here we are. More than a dozen of players immediately started to look for it, wanting to join it. As I thought, this whole style of masks and robes with this feeling of secrecy is more than big enough attraction for local players, but I should keep their numbers low for now.'
Of course, Vesuvius wasn't a fool and didn't immediately give them iron masks, as it would undermine the superiority of his older members with iron masks that fought for him and proved themself at least a little bit. So he created a new rank, with members of it wearing wooden masks. He called them unproven ones.
His minions under him were splitting into groups and packing their equipment, while some of them were simply chaotically running around.
'At least this is close enough to a standard escort mission, so they know what to do.'
Most of the minions under him were wielding bladed or blunt weapons for close combat, making most of them warriors or tanks. Then there were much smaller groups of people wielding bows and magical focuses such as staffs.
Most of the players in LOMM went with the way of close combat warriors as it was the most straightforward path that was capable of combat right from the beginning. Just by putting their stat points into body stats, they would gain the ability to fight against monsters. Contrary to that, ranged players such as archers required lots of practice to be able to hit fast-moving targets at a great distance and make them at least viable. Casters had it even harder as they needed to spend lots of time studying new spells and understanding the underlying principles of magic, making them weakest in combat at the start.
Looking at the players in black organising themselves, he felt that something was lacking, 'They are no priests, making healing much more complicated.'
Of course, he understood the reason behind it. All of the priests had to gain a blessing from a church. Then they were part of that specific church, only allowed to serve different organisations with approval from that church, making it impossible for Vesuvius to recruit them.
'This makes it even more important to strike a deal with the fire god church... but that is too dangerous for now... Maybe I can train my own priests for now? There is the dragon god. If I could make some of my minions their priests, then I would likely gain some bonus points with the dragon god and access to priests simultaneously.'
Vesuvius liked the idea of creating a cult for the dragon god as it had its merits, but he had no idea how to start.
Suddenly the animals started to make loud noises, stomping their legs as they started to panic, colliding with each other. The players around them desperately tried to calm them down while blocking an exit out of the valley. Their heads turned towards the smoke-covered dragon standing on the cliff above them. Their eyes widened in panic as they started to run, the ground shaking under their hooves as they rushed out, wanting to escape from the dragon.
'Damn it. I need to focus on the expedition now. It looks like effects expired once again.'
The dragon turned his head towards the animals, mana pouring into his eyes as they glowed with magical symbols arranging and forming rings around his irises. Then a bright light flashed across the valley for a split second. The animals instantly turned quiet and started eating grass under them again.
'I bet that when dragons in the past made this spell, they never thought that it would be used to herd animals.'
The dragon turned his head, looking at his claws. They were glowing in orange light with golden lines spread through them.
'Still no runes... Who would have thought that she would take so long to plan? Damns this, I hoped that I would go with such power up on this expedition... Sadly I can't push back this expedition. That would be inefficient.'
He wasn't angry, as he could understand the explanation given to him by the small elf, 'It makes sense. I am much bigger than a sword, meaning that there is lots of space on me, needing lots of planning. Also, she said something about experimenting with using mana in my body to power the runes to make them stronger.'
He looked once again into the valley.
A line of players in black robes and masks stood in line, eagerly looking in his direction as they finished their preparations.
The dragon opened his mouth, "My minions! We will now start this journey! It will be full of dangers, so be vigilant. Follow the river up its stream, and I will keep guard from above!"
Then he flapped his massive wings, sending dark smoke crackling with electricity in every direction as he rose up onto the sky. The players immediately moved while shouting as they moved the herd of animals, clouds of dust rising.
Vesuvius flapped his massive wings, rising higher and higher into the sky. The herd of animals and his minions slowly grew smaller and turned into small dots on the ground.