Chapter 23: Arrival

The captain found the old lair that Zheng Yichen had deserted. Without explanation from his team, he saw that the cave clearly had dragon traces. The claw marks on the walls stood out too obviously.

But the cave was too small for an adult dragon. Did this mean the young dragon had always lived alone?

This made him recall the earlier signs of battle. If a young dragon really existed here without a mother dragon, it made sense that someone might act. A dragon was too valuable.

“What is this? An inscription?” The captain noticed the character ‘正’ carved on the wall by Zheng Yichen and asked a team member nearby. None of them knew Chinese.

“Doesn’t look like it,” the team member replied, shaking his head. He quickly copied down the wall character. They didn’t recognize it, but learned people in The Church might. Bringing it back could uncover clues since it wasn’t random scribbling.

After searching the cave a bit longer and finding nothing, the team left the now useless place and went back to the town. The mages staying behind had made some progress in breaking the seal on the Mercenary Guild branch. The tough seal weakened steadily.

They could faintly see inside the branch now. Even with scouting, they detected details that shocked them.

The space inside was forced to expand many times. All the town residents were crammed in, frozen still.

This discovery hardened the captain’s expression. Someone who could do this wasn’t normal. On confirming the residents weren’t dead, his face relaxed a bit.

Though intimidating, the doer hadn’t taken lives. That suggested they weren’t evil or didn’t like trouble. Either way, it was good. More would be known once they freed those people.

Elsewhere, Zheng Yichen moved forward with a stern face. Loris stayed on his back, not thinking of getting off. Though light, her fingers sometimes brushed the nape of his neck.

She enjoyed touching a living creature.

But other live beings?

Zheng Yichen had seen a rabbit turn to dust at Loris’s touch, and he never spoke of it again. She was dangerous, but without her ‘aura’, creatures willingly approached her.

Even if she didn’t touch them, they gravitated to her, like moths to a flame. Bafflingly, Loris didn’t clarify.

She simply said that as long as Zheng Yichen felt fine, it was okay. She meant him no harm.

“Where are we going next?” Zheng Yichen asked.

“Forest of Illusions,” Loris answered.

“Uh, not a good place, right?” Zheng Yichen stifled a comment on the name.

“True, not great, but not awful either,” Loris explained. “I have a home there.”

“… So you’ve got many homes?”

“Living long means more places to stay.”

The Forest of Illusions didn’t have monsters. Instead, the forest held a unique power. Ordinary people inside got illusions easily, then sank in and died unknowingly.

Even professionals failed to resist it with weak wills. Once trapped, escaping was hard, even in groups.

Alone, an illusion might trap you. With others, it could drive you wild, triggering attacks. Over time, that gave the place its name.

Staying longer raised the risk.

“So you can live in this place?” Zheng Yichen sat on a large rock, leafing through the book from Loris. His tail waggled behind, as he eyed Loris poking it with a small stick.

Did looks keep affecting the mind? Such acts didn’t suit her ancient life.

“Are you truly twelve hundred—”

“Problem?”

The sharp tone made Zheng Yichen pause. He shook his head fast. “No.”

“Then move on,” Loris said, tossing the stick and leaping back to his back.

Zheng Yichen clicked his tongue. Loris had fast ways to the destination but skipped them. Traveling by “dragon vehicle” felt exciting. For most of the way, he tried flying.

Luckily, his power grew. With gravity lifted, he finally could fly… after nearly half a month!

Young dragons couldn’t fly, Loris had explained. Dragons flew not just with wings. After the young stage, their wings gained a force that eased takeoff.

Small wings and weak bodies stopped young dragons. Dragons weren’t light—their bones weren’t hollow—so flying without that force demanded major muscle.

He flew little. Mostly, Loris used magic artifacts to add gravity. Weight pinned him down, and they had arrived.

“Just saying, flying could’ve gotten us here ten days ago,” Zheng Yichen remarked from a hilltop, eyeing the distant forest.

Loris gave him a look but stayed silent. Flying wasn’t possible without that half month.

By then, word had spread of the event at the town beneath the Tote Mountain Range. Its strangeness made the young dragon without a mother dragon famous.