Under the Red Dragon

Every world is complex and has checks and balances. Beside every behemoth, there exists something to restrain its power.

Because the world tends towards balance within order, the other side of the scale must have an equal amount of weight. What the Golden Empire is doing now is to let the east wind prevail over the west wind, to issue some serious warnings.

But the Empire is not the passive one, so...

"Open the door, Court of Judgment!"

The Beauty and the Beast Tavern is the largest and most luxurious tavern and inn in the Royal Capital.

It boasts spacious accommodations, clean and tidy beds, attentive service from wild elf and snake-person maids, and the best security in the entire empire.

In the Royal Capital, every location receives special attention from the idle kobold security guards.

Therefore, merchants who can open shops and taverns in the outer ring of the Royal Capital's center are 'big figures' with considerable economic strength and social status.

The laws of the Golden Empire explicitly state that the legally acquired private property of the empire's citizens is sacred and inviolable, with clear property rights protection regulations.

This means that even the shops, businesses, or residential areas of these merchants are accessible to the wind and rain, but no one can forcibly enter without the owner's permission.

Even the empire's security guards need to hold inspection warrants from relevant imperial departments to enter the legally defined private areas of the empire's citizens.

Under the empire's legal provisions, with property rights clearly defined to the individual, the empire's social impact began to emerge.

Under the influence of the law, everyone became a truly unique individual, and independent personalities and free will were born under the protection of each citizen's rights.

Because an individual's independent personality is built on an important condition: the sanctity of legally owned private property.

Everyone has a dilapidated house deep in their heart, and that is their independent personality.

Once a person possesses an independent personality, free will arises accordingly.

Free will also means being in charge of one's own affairs, freely disposing of everything that belongs to oneself.

Thus, the power of families cannot form the original entanglements in the Golden Empire, because the will of the family cannot be greater than the will of the law.

Therefore, the young people in those families no longer regard the will of the patriarch and elders as a 'law' that must be followed; they only need to practice the will of the Dragon Court.

Under the Gogmora dragon swarm, the rule of law began to be implemented.

Under absolute and clear inequality, all beings obtained the greatest possible equality within a relative scope. Although they needed to align their will and thoughts with the will of the empire, this correct guidance and constraint was indispensable.

Therefore, in the Golden Empire, the population was 4.5 million in last year's statistics, and it increased by 100,000 in just three months, all of whom were immigrants from other places.

And those outsiders, including sailors, merchants, adventurers, and travelers, can freely speak their minds in the empire's taverns, discussing their business and future plans, without worrying about being targeted by malicious people.

Even some small nobles seeking refuge often establish themselves in this tavern, and some high-level adventurer teams regard this largest tavern as a long-term foothold.

However, the empire's law stating that personal legal private territory is inviolable is invalid in the face of the empire's Court of Judgment knights!

Because the empire's Court of Judgment knights are directly under the rule of the dragons, and the will they carry out is the clear will of the dragons, they have the legitimate qualification to execute decrees.

Bartender Dak is a young man who always seems to be smiling, his squinting eyes always looking kindly at others, but a huge scar that sweeps from the wing of his nose to behind his ear makes this young bartender look a bit more ferocious.

When the captain of the Court of Judgment knights called open the tavern door, it attracted the attention of some small nobles and adventurers enjoying breakfast in the tavern's first-floor hall.

However, these people are not afraid of these Judgment knights, because they are legitimate merchants and travelers. In everyone's eyes, these knights in black armor only appear after a clear target has been identified.

The Court of Judgment knights are the nightmare of those with ulterior motives, and have nothing to do with normal people.

"Which rooms do the people in the portrait live in?" A Judgment knight flicked down the scroll in his hand, and a young man's head appeared in front of bartender Dak.

Dak wiped the glass in his hand as he looked over. Then he quickly raised his head, pointed his chin towards the left side of the tavern's third floor, and said in a deep voice, "The deluxe dormitory at the innermost side. The guy standing on the third-floor corridor pretending to look around is the 'eye' of those 'guests'."

Before Dak's voice fell, the eye pretending to wander on the corridor was pierced in the back by an arrow shot from the open skylight on the third floor of the tavern. The arrow, carrying magical paralysis and concealment effects, felled this thief rogue who wanted to retreat when he saw the situation was not good.

A lithe black-armored light knight agilely opened the skylight and jumped down lightly from the roof.

The architectural style of the Golden Empire is extremely tall and grand, and even knights in black armor can easily squeeze through the skylight.

When this black-armored knight jumped down and caught the thief rogue, the young thief had not yet fallen to the ground, which was enough to prove the strength of these black-armored knights.

The arrows, with magical paralysis potion and enchantment blessing, are similar to blowguns, but heavier.

They are silent when launched, but can easily bring down the fierce behemoth king on the grassland. The young thief's superb strength had not yet been发挥, and he was easily brought down by several arrows.

The black-armored light knight made a gesture, and several light-armored knights jumped down from the skylight. A dull sound of footsteps also came from the roof of the inn's stone building.

But these knights who landed later were not ordinary knights, but magic golems as tall as knights—Anti-Magic Knights.

The Royal Capital, as the empire's largest city, has a city defense enchantment that prohibits magic, but it is not necessary to go to such lengths to capture a small team of the Harpers' Alliance.

The next thing is needless to say. These Anti-Magic Knights only need to open the door of the inn and shoot down all the Harpers' group with the bows and crossbows in their hands to complete this simple task.

The biggest difficulty of this task is just to keep them alive, so as not to have these golems kill them all.

The power organized in the form of an adventurer team appears so weak under the power of an empire, without any chance of resistance.

After these Court of Judgment knights left, the inn returned to calm.

But in a small room in the inn, there sits a power that even the empire's institutions cannot detect.

In front of veteran teams, the empire's reconnaissance power is not omnipotent. Professional identity disguise and disguise technology allow these people to safely roam under the empire's nose.

Of course, the most important thing is that these professional teams did not do anything that would arouse the empire's vigilance, like those Harpers' Alliance and others.

Because they are professional teams.

This room is very hidden, located at the corner of the inn's second floor, but with a very open view.

Several men and women dressed as adventurers gathered in a room. They are the enemies of the dragons, the destroyers and implementers of conspiracies, and also weapons that can be used in the eyes of some people.

"Another team of idiots has been killed. Although these guys are just some targets to attract firepower, they are too careless," Tor's face was gloomy, and he didn't seem to have a good temper.

In fact, the rogues in each adventurer team have some obvious commonalities in appearance, because they approach the shadows and use the power of the shadows, so they are also affected by the power of the shadows.

"There's no way. The dragons of the Golden Empire are very terrifying guys, completely different from the dragons we killed before," "They want to find the weaknesses of the Empire's dragons. They can't rely on external observation and reasoning as usual. Those intelligence is of no reference value when applied to the dragons of the Golden Empire," Kyle said.

Her plump body looks like it has strong explosive power. Her entire slender body is hidden under exquisite armor, and even her beautiful face is covered by a hood.

"Only prophecy can bring help to a certain extent, but since the power of magic exists, it will be observed. They just underestimate this country created by the dragon," "The Golden Empire is different from other nobles' territories. The social structure and connections are more strict than any kingdom I have traveled to."

This dragon-slaying team, which is ostensibly a mercenary team, is very distressed.

Even though this legendary dragon-slaying team once participated in the 'Crimson Matriarch' Dikris's punishment plan, and beheaded that adult red dragon in front of her lair, deep in the barren volcanic belt.

Even though this dragon-slaying team has no shortage of legendary warriors who have fought with dragons and beheaded real dragon heads.

In this team, four people have the aura of the title 'Dragon Slayer'.

On other continents of the Aikania world, there have been dragons active in the world's field of vision, powerful red dragons, majestic gold dragons, and beautiful and noble silver dragons.

Many people on the central continent have dealt with dragons, of course, dead dragons.

In the two major hegemonic empires on the central continent, fresh dragon blood and dragon meat were almost sold on the market every month.

Many big merchants even often face adventurers publicly auctioning high-level materials such as dragon bones, dragon scales, and dragon horns.

Even in the southern continent, in areas where metal dragons are active, there are often dragon body materials for sale, and dragon cubs are publicly auctioned, although almost all of the materials come from the five-colored dragons.

And the dead adult red dragon, 'Crimson Matriarch' Dikris, was itself a large supplier. This red dragon used to search for wild dragon eggs everywhere in the wild, bring them back to the lair to hatch, and then sell the dragon cubs as slaves to humans.

If it weren't for this bold red dragon provoking the silver dragon, it wouldn't have faced death.

Although this was the dragon's voluntary behavior, it is enough to prove the changes of the times. The world is no longer an era ruled by dragons. Dragons, titans, orcs, elves, and dwarves, the protagonists and hegemons of the past era, have been overthrown by humans and trampled underfoot.

However, the once desolate northern land is different from other continents. The dragon country born in the wilderness has become the hegemonic country in the remote northern land.

Thanks to the superior location, the Golden Empire did not attract the attacks of other human civilizations in the early stage of its birth. As it gradually grew to its current size, ordinary human kingdoms have been unable to target the Golden Empire alone.

This dragon-slaying team has also come to the Golden Empire because of this.

However, even though they had expected it, coming to the Golden Empire still surprised this professional dragon-slaying team.

The dragons supported by the empire are targets that even this legendary dragon-slaying team cannot face head-on.

Even powerful ancient dragons, surrounded by tens of millions of people, in a predicament where they cannot move, will fall under the siege of mortal legions, let alone these humans.

Although legendary warriors have the ability to walk in the air, they cannot compare to the dragon's ability to roam the sky.

Once surrounded by the legions of the Golden Empire, even if these people had three heads and six arms, they would not be able to survive.

"Then how should we find the weaknesses of those dragon lords? The activity patterns of these dragon lords cannot be detected, and the surroundings of their lairs and possible landing points are guarded by those loyal legion warriors," "Not to mention luring out that red dragon. If we can't find their patterns and weaknesses, are we going to climb to the top of the mountains and face the Dragon Emperor directly?" "Moreover, although the ability of this treasure is very powerful in the mouths of those people, in my opinion, it may not be able to affect that ancestral red dragon," Hart said in a deep voice. He looked at the team's archmage, who was also one of the team's leaders.

This is not surprising. Few mages who can ascend to legend will join adventure teams like other wandering mages. Even events like dragon slaying do not bring as much benefit as legendary mages exploring alone.

After all, legendary mages have the ability to build teams that are only loyal to themselves, or war puppets, or golem warriors. The means of legendary mages are beyond the imagination of these warriors.

The peak mage of the Sanctuary is already considered the top configuration in an adventurer team.

But even a mage of the Sanctuary can gain the greatest dominance in front of a legendary warrior.

Because the caster is always stronger than the warrior, this strength does not refer to direct combat ability.

The power of the caster is reflected in the wisdom of magic being almost omnipotent.

As long as there is infinite wisdom, the things that magic can do are almost infinite.

Just like the legendary strongest ninth-level spell—Wish, from the root, as long as it does not violate the overall logic of the laws of the universe, its effect is omnipotent.

It almost transcends all physical laws, natural laws, and can even transcend time and rejuvenate.

But the Wish spell is not the end of magic. Truly powerful mages can even create and design spells according to the effects they want. The effect is linked to the mage's imagination and knowledge, and there is almost no limit.

Just like the law of destiny above the legend, those chosen ones artificially create their own destiny of choice.

They are their own chosen ones, and the limit is only within their ability, and not within the rules of the universe.

Although the mages in this team cannot create various powerful magics like the legendary mages, such as hiding their treasure house in other dimensions, or changing the climate and terrain of an area, and standardizing the basic theorems of an entire material plane or planet.

However, this mage also relies on his own ability to develop a unique skill, spell theft.

Or it would be more vivid to call it spell replication.

The mage Loll shook his head, he looked at the central table in the room, a huge wooden box was placed on the table, and countless dense magic runes were written on the thick seal. The magical aura on the surface of these runes even revealed a crystal luster.

"Although the advanced divination skill I stole can confuse the target's direction, I don't want to use it,"

"That ancient red dragon can counteract divination spells, and it has nothing to do with the level of ability of the user of the divination spell. Even divine skill cannot see the future direction of that red dragon,"

Loll said with a serious expression: "As far as I know, those divination school mages have been troubled by the fantasies generated by peeking the ancient red dragon and cannot extricate themselves."

" illusion?" The knight wearing elaborate carved white scale armor frowned and asked suspiciously.

The legendary knight is tall and burly, and his neat black long hair set off his handsome face, making him look more like a nobleman with good temperament.

The magic greatsword in this knight's hand comes from the hand of the mage in the team, endowing the greatsword made of fine materials with the powerful performance of magic.

In the world of magic, casters are the God that ordinary warriors need to rely on most.

"Yes, a powerful illusion. Any caster who tries to peek the fate of the red dragon will be interfered with from a higher level. The illusion of the spiritual space is rooted in the senses of those mages,"

"Their perspective and senses have been distorted and changed in another dimension, as if the innate cognitive instinct has been changed, and the perspective has also been changed as a result,"

Loll said heavily: "A mage fell in love with a slime, and a mage thought he was a kobold, and became proficient in the kobold language without being taught, although that mage had never learned the kobold language."

"There was a mage who obtained a relatively ordinary aesthetic perspective, and he fell in love with a horse,"

"I don't want to turn myself into a freak!"

As the mage's voice fell, everyone in the room shuddered.

The ranger Naylor, who was particularly sensitive to perception, felt that his back was soaked with cold sweat. In the mage's description, he could already imagine the scene of being changed from the origin of cognition.

"If those poor mages haven't been caught, they should be able to use divine skill to remove such negative illusions, otherwise it would be terrible." Naylor said.

The mage Loll shook his head and said regretfully: "Divine skill cannot solve such problems. For those mages, this is not a negative spell effect or a negative effect similar to a curse,"

"Rather, it is a spontaneous change in the perspective of cognition, just like the reality of the world is different in everyone's eyes."

"In the cognition of these mages, they have become another kind of creature. This is a permanent polymorph, but it is formed by the influence of the reality of the world and cannot be resolved by the effect of divine skill."

"Unless there is a legendary chosen one, a strong man who has mastered his own destiny law, and rewrites the will and cognition of these mages with his own cognition, it is possible to solve this problem."

"But in that case, these mages will never be able to make breakthroughs and success on their own paths,"

Loll tsk tsk said: "It's a pity that those mages may have been caught by the Judgement knight of the Golden Empire, otherwise I could study them to peek some of the power essence of that red dragon."

"So, are we just doing nothing and waiting here all the time?" Jesse asked, "We have been here for half a year, and there has been no progress. I am about to rely on my own ability to buy a small villa in the Golden Empire,"

"Or we might as well abandon this task. I think it's quite easy to make money in the Golden Empire. If we give up this dangerous ' Lure the dragon out of the cave' plan, maybe we can live a good life here."

The white-armored knight Gower shook his head as he listened to his companion's complaints, and said, "The main body of world order is laid by human beings. No matter how powerful the Golden Empire is, how can it compare with the civilization of human countries."

"Only those who have no ability will like this country ruled by dragons, Jesse, stop complaining, we should patiently look for opportunities and find the right time,"

"My only question is, does this thing really have the power that those nobles say it has?"

Everyone's eyes focused on the huge wooden box on the table. The wooden box sealed by layers of magic is a treasure that is difficult to measure by ordinary grades. In certain situations, this magical trinket has more powerful power than legendary treasures.

Nagamat's Heart, a dragon heart that has survived from ancient times.

In the distant ancient times, the followers of Platinum Dragon King Bahamut attacked and killed the followers of immortality Nagamat, thus triggering the Dragon Meteor Holy War that lasted for thousands of years between the ancient metal dragons and the color dragons.

Nagamat was the most important fuse. I don't know why the heart left by this ancient dragon who died fell into the hands of these people.

"The power of this treasure has been blessed by magical incantation, and it will have unexpected power against dragons," the mage Loll said in a deep voice: "I am just worried about one thing, after we release this treasure, how should we safely escape the country of the Golden Empire and escape from the claws of that crazy red dragon."

"After all, we are not facing ordinary dragons. Even the former adult red dragon, Crimson Mother Dicris, cannot return to the source in the mortal world and become the apex of the bloodline of the material plane—the ancient dragon."