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Unfortunately, as it grows, the price of unlocking talent tree nodes becomes increasingly expensive. The Dragon's Treasury has suffered from damned inflation; its creator clearly never studied economics.
While communicating with Artanis and silently ranting about the creator in his mind, Casalos opened the interactive interface that had been connected with Artanis, pondering how to maximize growth using limited resources.
The newly introduced Trinity Divine Ability advancement is not worth considering; there's not enough gold to buy all the prerequisite feats in Casalos. As for the existing three advancements, Elemental Mastery and Bloodscale Frenzy, there's also not enough gold to upgrade them. At most, you can use the connected paths to buy a branch ability that's a level above your current one, but the improvement is very limited.
This time, it didn't get a single crystal, the special currency needed for the Primal Power Tree. Thinking about its remaining nine crystals, it could only watch helplessly as the exorbitant price of the 16 crystals needed for the Severe Injury Enhancement remained...
"With so many possibilities for primordial power, why are you so fixated on the power of flames?"
Sensing Casalos's mental fluctuations, Artanis suddenly interjected.
These words were like a wake-up call, greatly stimulating Casalos and causing him to suddenly realize the truth.
20. Spend money again
Yes, the dungeon mode has already been updated, so why are we still fixated on the power of flames?
From the very beginning, Casalos chose the blazing branch of primal power to enhance his abilities, with the aim of soloing the bosses in the training dungeons.
The stacking effect grows infinitely, dealing continuous true damage with an execute effect—it's practically the king of damage output. Unfortunately, its initial value is pitifully low; it's practically useless unless you stack hundreds of layers. The Blazing Flame layers gained in the training dungeon are an in-game effect, resetting as soon as you leave, making Blazing Flame utterly useless in real life.
Casalos can easily defeat enemies he can overpower with a single combo; however, he can't afford to use his weak Blazing Flame skill to whittle down the opponent's strength. After all, real life isn't like a training dungeon where combat is the only option; there are many other things to do.
In reality, even without hiding in the rift, as a dragon, Casalos might not encounter a single battle on average every few months. Even if he did, it would only be a few hostile targets, and the purpose of the battle wouldn't necessarily be to kill them—from the Kotow murlocs to Gravesend City, or the Drow dragons to the green dragon family, and even counting the orange dragon Bellamyt, Casalos had no intention of killing them outright.
Because that doesn't align with its principle of maximizing profits.
The social ecosystem of Faerûn has its own operating rules. The gods are always watching this continent. It's impossible for Casalos to go on a killing spree in Faerûn just to increase the number of layers of Blazing Flame, unless it goes to the Abyss to participate in a bloody battle or something... Considering that Tiamat, the Queen of the Five-Colored Dragons, is now the Demon Grand Duke of Aphronus, this path is not very feasible.
Therefore, Blazing Flame will remain a useless "divine skill" in reality for a long time to come.
Casalos's focus on the "severe injury" effect is ultimately aimed at countering dungeon bosses with healing abilities.
But in the current Survivor Mode of the training dungeon... Casaroz hasn't even seen the first boss yet, and in the endless slaughter, it's already stacked its flames into a god-like devastating attack. It's foreseeable that if it can hold out until the boss appears, achieving the feat of killing the boss with a single breath attack isn't a dream—whether it can accomplish this in Survivor Mode depends on whether Casaroz can spot the boss in advance amidst the obstructing monster horde, whether it still has the strength to unleash a ranged breath attack, and whether that breath can hit and apply the flames to the boss.
The expensive and devastating enhancements for Blazing Flame are now meaningless to it.
Nine crystals are enough to significantly enhance the fragmented branch of primordial power, but this thing truly...
Chapter 107
What's the use of that... Casalos couldn't help but think of the infamous "Weeping for All": the Great Disintegration of Mad Duncan.
At times like these, Artanis, a powerful divine-level advisor, truly shines.
"Are you misunderstanding something? How could the 'disintegration' effect of the Primal Force be the same as the Disintegration spell of the Protective Arcane you know? ... In the power system that you can currently access in the Kingdom of Heaven, the spells that can barely correspond to the Disintegration effect of the Primal Force should be Disintegration or Annihilation Sphere."
The disintegration effect of primordial power is the purest and most primitive destructive force for both the material and spiritual worlds, and its destructive effect is no weaker than that of divine power. The reason your current disintegration can only disintegrate the effects of spells is simply because your primordial power is still too weak..."
I feel like I missed out on 100 million!
Casalos opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.
Thinking about it carefully, it's not entirely wrong. Blazing Flame is definitely the biggest contributor to its growth to its current state in five years. If it had chosen the path of disintegration back then, it might have "devastating" attack power now, but it would just be a glass cannon and would never have achieved such growth.
Artanis's explanation to Casaroz was very detailed: the pure, primal, destructive power of the Split was linked to Casaroz's own "attack" power, unlike the Blazing Flame, which was an independent value.
In other words, if Casalos wants to fully unleash the power of the original force's disintegration, it must take the path of strengthening its explosive offensive capabilities. Its build in the training dungeons will also lean towards offensiveness, so it naturally cannot go very far in the kind of prolonged battles that are the training dungeons.
I reckon you can only get past the second boss with a bit of luck. If you encounter the third boss, who possesses legendary power, you'll be instantly killed. Perhaps the massive offensive power combined with the Disintegrate ability might effectively damage the being with legendary power, but that won't grant it true legendary power. That legendary being will have absolute initiative against a dragon with constant agility, and the dragon will be instantly killed.
If we consider Blazing Flame as a special enhancement branch for the trial of primordial power, then Disintegration is definitely a special enhancement for the real world.
Having figured this out, Casalos stopped worrying and decisively threw all nine of his original crystals into the disintegration process.
核心的裂解分配3块水晶提升到2级，让其效果提升到相当于升环为7环的裂解术，分别将裂解的力量引导进吐息与翼肢上。余下6块中3块投入到裂解点亮后显露出来的初级强化基点中。正如阿塔尼斯所言，这个仅有的初级强化便被称为解离。最后剩的3块就不在够点别的什么节点了。
After some consideration, Casalos decided to invest the 1400+ gold he earned from this dungeon into three feats: Multi-Strike, Ability Specialization, and Mastery of Twin Wings Strike.
These three specializations enhance Casalos's ability to unleash continuous attacks using its natural weapons such as claws, wings, and tail; improve the effectiveness of its breath attack; and increase the actual power of its wing strikes. They don't synergize much with Casalos's current advanced class and aren't even listed in the talent tree; they belong to its miscellaneous abilities category. However, they are all enhancements specifically designed for the endless monsters in Survivor Mode dungeons, offering significant improvements in real-world combat. Given limited gold, they are undoubtedly a high-value choice.
Thus, Casaloz's adventure in the Dragon Vault ended hastily. He relied on the triggered spell effects to survive the death experience that was reflected in his body. The young iron dragon, whose appearance had not changed, quietly returned to the mushroom bushes to remove the illusion that had replaced him.
Coincidentally, the Dragon Vein Warlock stationed at the ground outpost sent an urgent report to the Rift using an ultra-long-range communication spell.
"A skeleton has come knocking on the door, wanting to pay a visit to the Dragon Lord..."
It's past 11 o'clock, it looks like it's too late today...
I really miss that energetic era, sigh.
21. Contact
"who are you?"
After confirming some information with the kobold dragonblood sorcerer, Casalorz still came to the surface. Of course, in the name of the red dragon Cecita—the purple-robed lich who came this time was actually looking for Cecita, and it naturally regarded the kobold dragonbloods who had occupied the territory of the green dragon couple as Cecita's servants, but unexpectedly made contact with the real master Casalorz.
The Iron Dragon's ability to change forms, like the Gold and Silver Dragons, is a supernatural power. Across the entire continent of Faerûn, aside from a few untouchable individuals, there are probably few beings who can see through Casaroz's disguise like Hevilan. Unless the three giants personally intervene, none of the purple-robed members of the Dragon Worship Cult can do it.
They couldn't possibly go to the ruins of Mysdrano to find the ancient red dragon and confirm whether she had a daughter named Sersita. If the grassroots organizations of the Dragon Cult, which acted independently after Samaster's nominal death, had dared to disturb an ancient red dragon, they wouldn't have taken a fancy to the green dragon couple, let alone kept thinking about Sersita, the young dragon.
In fact, after losing Samasser's leadership, even the most powerful former Dragon Cult grassroots organizations were basically just revolving around the two weaklings, Black Dragon and White Dragon. The fact that the black-robed lich managed to trick the robust green dragon Lylotar into joining them was already a remarkable feat.
"Your Excellency, the Red Dragon Lady, my name is Foster Luce, from Ivanso. I have come to apologize for Darren's reckless behavior and to extend another invitation to you..."
Darren was the grey-robed wizard who was turned to ash by Casalos's breath.
As he spoke, Lusien pulled a heavy bag from his dimensional pouch and handed it to Casalos: "To show our sincerity, we would like to offer you 100 Moon Coins as compensation."
Without any pretense, Casaroz's vertical pupils instantly straightened, the greedy light emanating from its eyes giving off a predatory feel—this wasn't a metaphor, but a real occurrence. Under the influence of dragon magic, a dragon's eyes would more or less glow. Casaroz also constantly emitted flames from primal power, and when its emotions fluctuated violently, these flames would also undergo sudden changes in their manifestation, resulting in such a situation.
Seeing the red dragon's performance, the soul fire in the two holes of the lich skull shrouded in purple cloak flickered slightly: "As long as you join us, a steady stream of gold coins will be added to your treasury. In addition, I will make Darren your personal attendant. With his help, you will surely be able to develop and expand your territory and bring all the snake people in this area under your rule."
Casalos could imagine that this guy must be feeling quite smug right now: "What a little brat, just an inexperienced young red dragon, he's got me completely under his thumb."
But it had to admit it was truly tempted. From birth until now, it had never seen a single real gold coin, let alone a monthly coin, one of which was equivalent to two platinum coins, and there were 100 of them!
That little bag contained a real 1000 gold coins, and that was just "compensation." What young dragon wouldn't be tempted?
Of course, a more important reason is that joining the Dragon Worship Cult as a red dragon might not be a bad thing. For its own life, for the future of the Athena dragon race, and even for the survival of all the true dragons of Faerûn, it had just made the decision to get involved in the affairs of the Dragon Worship Cult. What better way to grasp the Dragon Worship Cult's movements than by infiltrating it?
"Um... I'm not a dog, I don't like Darren. And likewise, I don't like you!"
But it couldn't just agree to that. Last time, Lelotar said the reason it was exposed was because Iron Dragon's order-oriented behavior was very different from Yellow's.
Chapter 108
If the Copper Dragon, that chaotic and goofy creature, were to so easily agree to join the Dragon Worship Cult disguised as a Red Dragon, the Lich would surely begin to suspect its true identity.
It must behave in a manner befitting a red dragon to deceive the purple-robed lich, Luthon.
With a flick of his left wing, Casalos snatched the bag full of moon coins, even tilting his head to look down at the purple-robed man. He continued, "For the sake of the moon coins, I won't let you taste my breath. I have no interest in skeletons, much less a skeleton servant. I accept the compensation, and I forgive your offenses against me and my mother. Now, get out of my territory."
Your promises might fool those blue bumpkins who bury themselves in the sand, but they won't fool the great son of Asgras' blood!
If you can't offer anything substantial, you'd better never come looking for me again.
Casalos offered a condition that would allow the Dragon Cult to act freely, and then had Svent, who was disguised as a descendant of the Red Dragon, see the guest out.
"I understand, Your Excellency Red Dragon. I will certainly bring you a gift that will satisfy you when we meet next time."
Lussen glanced at the group of exemplary dragon vein sorcerers or other dragon servants surrounding the young red dragon, the soul fire in his hole flickered, he bowed and bid farewell to Casaloz, then activated teleportation and vanished without a trace.
After having the Dragon Vein Sorcerer Elder of the Prophecy School, along with two young Dragon Vein Sorcerers, thoroughly inspect the area, dismantle the surveillance spells that had been placed at the five outposts at some unknown time, and remove the two teleportation anchor points, Casalos led a large group of "royal guards" to fly high into the sky, board the Iron Dawn, and return to the Rift.
"Are they really willing to pay such a high price for you, Dragon Lord?" Curious Eisen's question was never too late.
"Haha, of course not. That young female red dragon isn't worth a purple-robed man from the city of Aivanso personally visiting. If it didn't introduce itself in a false way, then these guys are now allied with an ancient black dragon, a mind mage, and are among the most powerful of all the grassroots organizations that have split within the Dragon Worship Cult."
Casalos, however, didn't mind the question that was suspected of attacking the dragon's arrogant and conceited pride. It was eager for these loyal dogs to learn the various intricate schemes and power struggles of humanoids as soon as possible, so that it could focus its energy on its own growth. To put it bluntly, it was just too lazy. Which dragon would want to do everything itself if it could be the manager of the winged wing?
In order to be a good, hands-off parent, I now have to do my best to answer the puppies' questions: "Do you know why I brought you all along this time?"
"To intimidate that lich?"
"Think again."
"To prevent any accidents, is it possible to capture or kill it without revealing our identities?"
"That's just one of the reasons, but not the main one."
22. Substituting one beam for another
Eisen could never guess what Casalos was up to.
The kobolds are not unintelligent; in fact, their average intelligence level is comparable to that of an adult human. However, intelligence is not the same as wisdom, especially the wisdom derived from the constant game-playing among individuals within the complex and chaotic system that has developed in their pseudo-social humanoid societies. In short, the evil, cruel, yet orderly kobolds have virtually no emotional intelligence, and Casalos has a long way to go in raising their emotional intelligence.
However, once we obtain the Blood Oath Contract and force the Charleson family's son to swear a blood oath, this kind of thing can be completely left to it. The Drow Dragons are much more professional in this regard than Casaloz.
For now, Casalos can only continue to teach by example.
"Eisen, do you think an ordinary young red dragon can have a large number of exemplar-level servants?"
By adventurers' standards, a baby red dragon is only 5CR. I'm not kidding, any one of you could easily take on five or six baby red dragons right now, as long as you don't slide down or stupidly rush in for melee..."
"Huh?" Incredulous exclamations echoed through the mental network. The kobolds' worship of dragons led them to blindly believe in their power. When facing dragons, unless given a direct order from Casalos, they easily overlooked the fact that they already possessed far greater power.
“It’s just an ordinary red dragon. Our great dragon lord is different.” Svent suddenly interjected, steering the discussion in the mind network in another strange direction, and a strong atmosphere of dragon worship filled the air.
"Of course, I'm not like those wild dragons." As a proud iron dragon, Casalos didn't know what humility was and readily accepted the dogs' admiration: "Don't even mention a young red dragon, even an adult red dragon, I can break its wings and capture it back to the Rift!"
But even the elderly red dragons cannot fully awaken the dragon blood dormant deep within you. Only I can help you regain your lost glory and successfully transform into half-dragons…”
At first, Casaloz thought that the large-scale and efficient awakening of dragon veins by the Kalik tribe's kobolds after they followed him was a normal occurrence that any dragon could achieve. However, after successively defeating the green dragon lich Lelothar, the crippled green dragon Shakales, and the orange dragon Bellamyt, he realized that normal dragons simply could not provide such a strong stimulus to the bloodline of dragon races.
Only dragons whose arcane powers have awakened to a sufficiently high level, or those who have deeply studied dragon magic, could manipulate and create the same passive effect that Casaroz had on the Karrick tribe. Undoubtedly, this was once again an effect of the primal power originating from the Bejuri Gem Dragon.
The original source of the Kalik tribe's dragon vein awakening was also the Bejuri Gem Dragon, and they regarded Casaloz as the successor of the Shining Dragon, which is true in a sense.
"In other words, you cannot be followers of a young red dragon."
From the moment I brought you here, the purple-robed lich's attention has been focused on you. In the lich's eyes, you could only be the 'mother' of that red dragon I was impersonating, the lord of the ruins of Mysdrano, and servants of the ancient red dragon Nargarthra, following me only on the orders of the ancient red dragon to protect and monitor me.
My main purpose in bringing you all here is to strengthen the credibility of my disguise as the daughter of an ancient red dragon.
“I understand now. No wonder it, despite its high level, could endure the contempt and harassment of the ‘young red dragon’ and continue to fawn over it. It’s not afraid of you, Dragon Lord, because it has no idea of your true power. It’s afraid of that ancient red dragon.”
"I'm not so much afraid, more like wary... but I'm not going to swallow my pride. You need to know that humans are very hypocritical creatures. They can endure any grievance to achieve their goals. Even a king can live in a beast's pen, and even a legendary hero can lick the toes of a poor person. Even becoming a lich won't change anything."
Even the Green Dragon would have to admit defeat to them in this respect.
You must always remember that when you deal with them, their apparent weakness and compromise do not mean they are afraid or submissive. It is just a facade. Behind the hypocritical 'mask' they wear from birth, they are always ready and waiting. Once you make any mistake, they will pull out a knife and stab you in the heart!
The only people you can truly trust are those who are also my servants, and who have also awakened their dragon veins…
Infiltrating the Dragon Cult means officially joining the turbulent events of Faerûn. It's only a matter of time before the Dragon Cult comes into substantive contact with the various powers of Faerûn. Casalos needs to prepare his loyal hounds beforehand, attaching a new, established label to their mystical perception of humans.
"The ancient red dragon instilled fear in the lich, but also fueled its madness and envy. It was so tolerant of me..."
Chapter 109
Jean's true purpose is to use me to establish contact with the ancient red dragon Nargathala and then form an alliance with it.
In this way, the City of Evanso, with its allies including psionicists, ancient black dragons, and ancient red dragons, could potentially replace the Sambia Organization as the largest branch of the Dragon Cult and reorganize it—of course, this is merely wishful thinking on the part of the purple-robed lich.
After explaining the significance of his actions to his guard dogs, Casalos then began to assign them new tasks.
"Next time, the lich Lussun will surely bring 'gifts' that will drive the young red dragons mad with fascination—not just for me, but for you too. At that time, I will take you all with me to join them."
Next, they will try every means to remove you from my side, bribe you, and divide you. At the same time, another part of them will expose your mistakes to me and fawn over me in order to replace you and become my confidants.
We must proceed according to their wishes. I will gradually grow to loathe you, and you will gradually betray me—of course, all of this is an act. I know you cannot cooperate with me in putting on such a grand show right now, but that's alright. There are mind masters in the Rift, green dragons skilled at manipulating hearts and minds and performing, and drow dragons accustomed to this kind of cruel struggle. They will be your best teachers.
Your next task is to learn camouflage and performance from them, then practice and experiment repeatedly to master these skills. Then, cooperate with me to infiltrate every stronghold of the Elvanso city nest, penetrating every level of the organization, and transform it into my, Casaloz's, city nest!
23. Interlude
Lussen returned quickly. Before Casaloz could pry any useful information out of Lelotar, and before the orange dragon Bellamy and the crippled Shacales could catch the Koto murloc, the dragon vein warlock stationed on the ground sent a new communication report.
As usual, he led a large group of half-dragon lackeys on the Iron Dawn to a high altitude some distance from the ground outpost, then disembarked and slowly flew over to meet the purple-robed lich. This fellow didn't bring any treasure Casalos "wanted," but Casalos didn't drive him away for that.
"Your Excellency Red Dragon Lady, due to the limited capacity of the dimensional bag and the considerable distance between Evanso and the Churt Peninsula, the gifts we have prepared for you will take quite some time to reach your territory. I have brought a list of gifts for you to review so that you may make your selection..."
"No need to choose, I'll take them all." Casalos glanced at the list casually and accepted everything in the domineering manner of a red dragon. This also meant that the red dragon was very satisfied, and Lushen's ambitions had a glimmer of hope.
Before discovering Casaloz's true identity, Lussun, who dreamed of contacting the ancient red dragon, certainly wouldn't betray it. It's just that Casaloz might not like what he prepared according to the red dragon's interests.
The piles of gold and silver jewelry on the list, seemingly from who-knows-where, were obviously something any dragon would love. But the few dozen humans chosen for selection made Casalos feel a little strange.
Don't get me wrong, the red dragon isn't some kind of lecherous scoundrel, at least not entirely. Besides, in Luss's eyes, Casaloz is a young female red dragon, with neither the need nor the function.
The red dragon's unique fondness for humans stems from a spiritual "appetite"—in the context of D&D, the red dragon undoubtedly best embodies the image of the evil dragon from Casalos's previous life in Western fantasy works. It can be said that they represent the embodiment of all the evil that dragons should possess from a human perspective. Dragon legends have their own inherent cultural background, and the "right of the first night" is a typical symbol within it, making it perfectly normal for it to be attributed to evil dragons.