The small dragon stilled all of his movement as three sets of steps were quickly approaching his location. He slightly moved his head to look towards the ground, all of his muscles tense and ready to quickly escape.
‘If they notice my presence, I can still fly away before they realize that I am not a regular drake or wyvern but a true dragon.’
The steps finally got close enough to reveal the three players with bright nametags floating above their heads. They were out of reach of analysis, but as an experienced player, Vesuvius focused his gaze on their equipment. His eyes first fell at the elven mage, ‘Some kind of caster. Basic robes… that staff is a little bit more expensive, probably a lucky drop.’ Then he checked the fat dwarf, ‘Cheap armour, but still good at the lower levels. His axe also doesn’t look like an enchanted weapon.’. Finally, his eyes fell upon the spear-wielding man, ‘Hmm, leather armour, at first glance cheap and weak but in reality highly durable as it is made from the skin of a magical beast. From the looks of the metal tip, his spear is probably made out of magic-infused steel. Overall low-level equipment but of high grade. He is either a whale or a lucker.’
Vesuvius relaxed a little bit and breathed out in relief, ‘From their equipment, they are not at such a high level that I would have no chance to escape.’
The three players were looking warily around them, their weapons ready to strike at any monster that would attack them.
“Are you sure that you heard something? There is nothing here… ” the spear-wielding player said.
“Don’t make me slap you! When I told you that I heard something, then I heard something!”
The fat dwarf immediately laughed, “Hahaha, if I were you, I would listen to her. She looks fragile, but her slaps could probably crack a wall. Also…”
“Hey! Don’t turn me into some kind of gorilla.”
“…Also, she is an elf, and they have better senses than us.” Dwarf ignored her and continued.
Vesuvius slowly started to doubt if he could learn something useful from these players. However, he still kept listening, hoping for any bit of useful information. The three players kept slowly walking around, warily looking in every direction, prepared to immediately react to an ambush.
‘Why is no one ever looking upwards… They are definitely not very experienced if they are making such a beginner mistake.’
“Why do I feel like something is watching us.” The elven player suddenly looked upwards. The small dragon immediately stiffened. He even stopped breathing to not attract any attention towards him. Her head kept turning, slowly closing towards Vesuvius’s hiding place. She was carefully looking for any sign of movement.
“Hey, what are you looking for up there?” the elf jumped up, scared by the sudden question. Her head turned towards the man.
Veusivus breathed out air that he was holding, ‘Whoa! That was close, the leaves may cover me, but my scales are still bright red. There is no doubt that she would notice me if she looked more intently. Her having elven sight also isn’t helping.’
Vesuvius quickly unwrapped himself from a thick branch and jumped towards another thick branch at the tree further away. His body moved elegantly like a cat, even with its giant size, making only a slight rustle as his body moved through the leaves.
Players gripped their weapons thought and looked upward, where Vesuvius was before. There was nothing, only still trembling leaves.
“Probably just a wind.”
“Crack!” an old branch cracked and broke under the dragon’s legs, falling down from the three creating and loud noise. All three players jumped at the sudden loud noise.
“Look, something is up in the trees!” All there of them looked up, noticing a car-sized red-winged lizard at the thick branch of an ancient oak.
“Graaa!” Vesuvius growled and quickly spread his wings, jumping down from the branch. Then he flapped his wings and flew up above the trees, quickly vanishing into a distance.
‘What the hell? What did I think? I am no longer as small as I used to be. I can’t just hang up in the trees as some kind of bird. Luckily young dragons are almost unrecognizable from regular drakes.’
In the world of LOMM, there was a giant difference between different kinds of draconic species. Most of them were wyverns that lacked a separate pair of front limbs as they merged with their giant wings, giving them incredible air mobility. They also lacked any kind of elemental attacks, only attacking with their bodies and occasionally poison. The size they could grow into was also limited only to that of a big van, except for rare deviants and subspecies. Then they were drakes. They were much rarer and could grow into giant proportions. They also had their own elemental attributes, giving them unique colours and powers. The greatest difference between both of these common species and rarer higher dragon species was intelligence, as they were lacking any higher intelligence acting like an ordinary beast except for a few very old ones.
POV BoobaFet’s party:
“Rustle!” leaves on the trees rustled, moved by a surge of wind created by a flap of dragon’s wings.
“What was that!” all three players quickly turned towards the tree, where they saw a giant red lizard.
“Was it drake or wyvern?”
“It had to be drake as it was red. Wyverns don’t have elemental attributes.”
Quests of all three players were immediately updated.
Ding!
//
Quest accomplished!
Accomplished bonus objectives: Find a culprit before he attacks again!
Rating: A
Reward: 2000 XP; Quest line continuation
//
Ding!
// New hidden, unique quest!
Content: Find a culprits lair!
Reward: Will be calculated after completion.
Failure: End of the quest line
//
“Haha, what have I told you? We were not lost. We just came here for more clues, and we have found one.” Fet turned smug once again.
His friends looked at each other and shook their heads at their at the man’s unbelievable luck.
POV Vesuvius:
A few minutes later, Vesuvius landed on the opposite side of the goblin settlement and sniffed for a goblin trail. He caught multiple of them, so he chose the most fresh one with the greatest variety of different goblin smells.
The dragon’s mouth moved into a dragon smile, ‘Time to hunt!’. Then Vesuvius ran in the direction of the trail.
Back in presence:
The dragon stood in midst of cut-down goblin corpses.
‘Finally, it’s over…’ flames of rage and vengeance slowly calmed down inside of him.