Chapter Ninety-One: The Sacred Dragon Cavalry

What can be done in thirty minutes?

Perhaps enough time for a meal, enough for a bath, at least for a player; or perhaps enough to take down a boss.

But for Li Ren at this moment, those thirty minutes were of immense importance.

The reason was obvious: the points of light that fell from the sky, each one a mighty mount that had appeared after the system update.

Of course, mounts came in many kinds. The dragonhawks of Celestial Cloud Mountain and the gryphons of the Gryphon Knights were high-tier mounts: they could carry riders, fly, and even join battle.

In the world of the Gods, a mount was much like a pet in other games, only far stronger.

As for things that could not be ridden, they were usually classified as pets, and almost all pets had little to no offensive power unless you were a very special beast tamer. Hunters, of course, were another matter.

With thirty minutes of uninterrupted time, Li Ren and the others, led by Shadow, passed through the players’ city and its forces, and arrived in a gorge.

This gorge had once been a gathering place for level one hundred monsters. Since it had originally been the domain of wind serpents, and also for the sake of a somewhat poetic name, it was eventually named Wind Dragon Gorge.

In Wind Dragon Gorge, a place where people had once been unable to appear at all, four figures now walked in a line.

Wind serpents were all ranged lightning-attribute attackers; if they were allowed to gather and unleash a wave of skills on Li Ren, he certainly would not be able to endure it.

And so the glorious task of dealing with the wind serpents was handed to Shadow and Landis.

Faced with the enormous number of serpents ahead, Landis made no obvious move at all; a vast swath of magic came crashing down, and the wind serpents rolled off to meet their ancestors.

Thus, the small matter of handling the corpses was left to Li Ren.

And he carried it out with great enthusiasm.

Since he had upgraded his attribute absorption, even these ordinary little monsters could now provide him with attribute points to absorb. Being able to gain attributes and experience to strengthen himself—why would he not be delighted?

In truth, Wind Dragon Gorge was not very large. The whole terrain formed a five-pointed star, with wind serpent packs gathered at each point, while the place they ultimately had to reach lay between two triangular sections.

It was somewhat difficult to pass through there without alerting the surrounding monsters, but even if they were noticed, what of it?

Before that could happen, those monsters would already have become Li Ren’s attributes, everyone’s experience, and scattered pieces of equipment besides.

The second layer of Wind Dragon Gorge, the lair of the Wind Serpent King.

At this moment, a ball of white light was floating behind the Wind Serpent King.

When Li Ren and the others arrived, Shadow’s previously taut nerves eased the instant he saw the sphere of light.

“That should be the legendary Sacred Dragon Mount. It is an exceptionally powerful mount. Whoever can subdue it will be our victor,” Shadow said, somewhat excitedly.

“Hm? Then that means there’s a chance it can’t be subdued?” Li Ren asked curiously.

“That’s right. The Sacred Dragon Mount is one of the top mounts, and in a sense it has its own awareness. If it dislikes someone, then no matter what, it cannot be tamed. If it cannot be subdued, then either someone else must try, or it must be killed outright. There is no other way.”

Li Ren nodded. That seemed perfectly normal, really. Only, after coming all this way, who on earth among them could actually tame this thing?

First of all, he had already given up on any hope of claiming it himself. Just from the name alone, a skeleton trying to tame something bearing the word “sacred” was almost a joke; light and darkness had never been meant to mingle, had they?

But looking at the others around him, there did not seem to be many with particularly favorable attributes either. Shadow need not be mentioned; when he cast his magic, it was always a mass of blackness. As for Rania, there was no need to say more—being a vampire, she was practically of the same nature as his own skeleton race.

Only Landis seemed to have at least some chance. The queen was always so graceful and otherworldly; of course, that was only from the outside, and carried a certain contrast to it. As for what attributes Landis actually had, they did not know.

The only clue Li Ren had was his private suspicion that it might have something to do with their previous journey to the Black Soil Domain, but he was not certain of the details.

So, for these four to truly subdue the Sacred Dragon Mount, it seemed to be no easy task.

Before that, of course, they still had to fight the Wind Serpent King head-on.

So Li Ren charged forward, with Rania close behind. From the makeup of the four of them, the team was actually quite complete: Li Ren took on the role of warrior, while Rania, as vampire queen, was excellent in close combat, and her nimble movements made her perfectly suited to also fill in as an assassin.

Landis’s absurdly powerful magical attacks needed no explanation; she was practically a mighty cannon in human form. As for Shadow, the fellow was still low-level, and his equipment was nothing special, so all he could really do was make do as a priest who could not heal, or a mage whose attacks could not be brought to bear.

In short: a very strange team.

The Wind Serpent King, a third-rate lord of no particular standing, soon lay sprawled on the ground beneath their abuse. It did indeed drop several pieces of equipment, and upon inspection the quality was all fairly good. One ring, in particular, was a fine item that could greatly increase all damage dealt by a mage.

Li Ren glanced at it, then casually tossed it to Shadow. Even though they were both level one hundred and thirty, the things Landis wore were certainly far superior to ordinary gear; otherwise her damage would never have been so terrifying.

So there was no need to consider the equipment for her. In fact, the queen herself looked down on such shabby trash.

After Li Ren threw it to Shadow, Shadow said nothing. At level one hundred and thirty, he was already someone who spent his days running about with city affairs and had no proper place to improve his level. He was almost close to tears.

Putting that aside for now, the ball of light transformed from the Sacred Dragon Mount was right beside them.

Under everyone’s encouragement, Li Ren resolutely stepped forward to activate the mount’s appearance.

“You have discovered a new mount. Would you like to activate it and make it your companion?”

The system prompt sounded lovely enough, but after Li Ren chose confirm, the Sacred Dragon Mount merely materialized completely, taking on its true form. As for the system’s talk about it becoming his companion, none of that came to pass at all.

Cursing that infuriating prompt and that infuriating setup under his breath, Li Ren continued to stare at the constantly shifting sphere of light before him, waiting in anticipation for the final form of that legendary Sacred Dragon Mount.