Chapter 75: Greed Provokes Evil
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The atmosphere in the cave became tense after the crew acknowledged that Anfey had decided to battle against the wyvern. Filled with excitement, they eagerly offered their advice and suggestions: some advocated direct attack in spread-out formation; some advocated sending a squad to harass, attract and split the wyvern’s power so that the main force could take the chance to take down parts of its body; some advocated setting plenty of traps, and then leading the wyvern into a trap to beat the crap out of it; however, the final decision was Anfey’s.
Using traps was indeed a solution, but to entirely follow Arrago’s idea could be irrational. Digging traps in the forest was not very easy, since they only had a limited number of helpers. How many total traps were they able to dig? What if the wyvern was not dashing along the ground? The traps would become useless decorations unless there was ... some bait that could automatically lead the wyvern down to it.
"Zubin, in addition to the magic crystal and the fang, the rest of the parts are not one iota useful," said Anfey in a low voice, hoping to finally confirm that. After all, the wyvern was a high-level magic beast. Anfey was reconciled to the fact that they might take risks that did not match the gain.
"No, in the same family of magic beasts, the value of a wyvern cannot even be compared to a seven-winged magic fly," laughed Zubin.
"Seven-winged magic fly?"
"A seven-winged magic fly is a middle level magic beast. It is approximately as big as a sheeps head. Its combat effectiveness is very low. The attack can be accompanied with some weak magic, yet with little effect. Magic beasts that can beat the seven-winged magic fly would not be bothered by the weak beginner level magic. Those who cannot beat the magic fly... there is no need to fear at all. Since the seven-winged magic fly is very fast, even faster than the unicorn, the beginner level magic beast cannot escape in any case," laughed Zubin. "Seven-winged magic flies likes to live close to the lair of the wyvern. The task of hunting seven-winged magic flies is often given to the mercenary line. In order to protect their own safety, mercenaries often have to choose to kill the wyvern first, and then hunt down the seven-winged magic flies, since in their eyes, the value of seven-winged magic flies is much higher than the wyvern."
"What is the value of the seven-winged magic fly?"
"This," Zubin blushed suddenly, "is what I do not know.
"Zubin, why avoid it? Say it out aloud," Christian asked with curiosity, as he overheard Anfey and Zubin's conversation.
"I really do not know." Zubin shook his head again and again.
Anfey realized that Zubin was not comfortable saying it, so he waved it off. "Distraction, distraction. Let’s talk about how to deal with the wyvern."
"What Zubin said should not be considered a distraction," Suzanna said. "Seven-winged magic flies always follow the Wyvern to migrate. Near this group of wyverns, there should be seven-winged flies too. Having small appetites, after the wyvern’s successful hunting, the seven-winged flies can share some leftover carrion, which is enough for them to survive. On the other hand, the seven-winged flies’ speed is ultra-fast, and they have sensitive perception. They usually play the role of a sentry. Just a little bit of a disturbance, and they would immediately send an alert to the Wyvern. "
"This may not be easy to deal with ..." Anfey couldn’t help raising his brow.
"We did not see the seven-winged magic flies last time," said Blavi. "Maybe the group of wyverns had just migrated here, and there was not yet enough time to attract the seven-winged flies?"
"The fact that they were not there in the past few days does not mean that they are not there now." Susanna shook her head.
"It is meaningless to continue to this debate, I think ... Christian, Suzanna, you two should go for a walk around the wyvern’s lair and see if you could find seven-winged magic flies."
"Right," Christian nodded.
"Sooner rather than later. You two should go now."
Without further conversation, Christian and Susanna went out of the cave one after another.
Anfey pondered a moment, smiled, and waved toward Zubin, indicating Zubin to come over, then whispered to him, "Tell me what is the use of seven-winged magic flies?"
"I..." Zubin looked around and lowered his voice with a bitter smile, "If you grind the wings of the seven-winged magic fly into powder, you can use it to make a strong kind of aphrodisiac. It’s said that it has an effect on both men and women, and there is no age limit either."
"How amazing?" Anfey was astonished.
"What are you two talking about," asked Niya curiously, as Anfey and Zubin seemed sneaky.
"Nothing, Zubin said he would find you some good stuff to take," Anfey grinned.
"What is it?" Niya was even more curious.
Zubin’s face turned pale and he desperately nodded at Anfey. If Niya understood the use of the seven-winged magic fly or would learn the specific use of it in the future, he would be dead for sure... it was not a funny joke!
"It is a type of snow lotus: have you heard of it?"
Zubin let out a long sigh of relief, looking at Anfey with a complicated expression on his face.
"What is the use of the snow lotus?" It seemed like Niya did not want to give up.
"The snow lotus contains natural essence that moisturizes the skin, making the skin moist, delicate. It restores the natural muscle elasticity, making the skin as soft as silk. It also prevents wrinkles…" Anfey dashed along without even thinking.
"Really? What a miracle," shouted Niya elatedly.
"Of course, this is exactly what Zubin told me just now."
"Zubin, thank you! Please bring me some!" Niya stared at Zubin earnestly. This girl too easily trusted others...
Zubin was stunned, and then immediately came back to reality. It seemed that it was too early for him to feel relieved. Snow lotus? He never heard of it. Let alone finding some.
"You’re welcome." Zubin barely made a smile. Then he lowered his voice toward Anfey, "Anfey, you wanna kill me? Girls have extremely good memory of this type of thing. What if she asks me for snow lotus in the future?"
"It does not matter, I’ll take care of it," Anfey laughed.
"Snow lotus? I just heard about it for the first time ...do you really have it?"
"There’s plenty of stuff with similar effect, and those are easy to obtain."
At this moment, a hoarse scream came from outside of the cave, followed by a shadow dashing by. Strong wind blew right into their faces. The stones at the entrance were blown down, making a crackling sound. The most unfortunate part was that Sanchez was sitting next to the campfire to read his magic book. The flame blew right on him. Black smoke came out of the dry pages of the magic book. Sanchez hastened to blow out the magic book, and put it back into his space ring.
Half lying prone on the ground, raising his little head solemnly, the little guy that attended the serious military meeting was filled with excitement. It stood up to dash outside the cave. Fortunately, Anfey didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the little guy's neck. Although the unicorn was considered the most powerful of the high-level magic beasts, it had to be at least an adult first. There was no doubt that this little guy would very likely be killed if it rushed out.
"Sanchez, stop!" Zubin yelled.
Magic books were the lifeblood of the mages. The books were priceless, like a golden castle with a stunning beauty inside. This was first said by educated people from another world, but was not taken seriously by other educated people. On the contrary, almost every mage valued their magic materials, since they deeply understood that their status, power, and wealth were all bestowed by magic! Seeing his magic book was burned, Sanchez’s eyes turned red right then and there. He turned to dash outside, but was immediately stopped by Zubin.
"Riska, use the eyes of the sky!" Anfey stared at Sanchez.
Sanchez calmed down, hesitated for a moment, and slowly retreated.
Riska whispered a few spells, and the eyes of the sky opened between his hands. The scenery outside of the cave was clearly shown in the eyes of the sky.
Two wyverns were quietly hiding inside the cliff at the top of the cave, patiently waiting. Yet one wyvern hovered around, and rushed at the cave again. This time it did not just sweep by, but opened its mouth and breathed acid mist into the cave.
"How cunning the wyverns are." Sanchez felt a chill down his spine. If he had run outside just now, he would have been attacked by two wyverns!
Zubin spouted a spell which released of a magic shield, isolating the acid mist outside the shield. Then he looked at Anfey quietly.
"Wait!" Anfey blurted out. Anyways, everybody was inside the cave. Maintaining this geographic advantage made people feel fearless to the attacks from the wyvern.
The wyvern who was baiting them provoked them repeatedly. Noticing that there was no response from the cave, the wyvern could no longer bear it but to land on the ground, blocking the cave’s exit and staggering about.
The eyes of the wyvern were very small, which made people cold and terrified. A pair of wings, half open and half shut, were just able to block the hole tightly. Its long neck shook from side to side flexibly, constantly letting out unpleasant calls.
Anfey suddenly realized that the focus of the wyvern was set on the little guy in his arms. He could not help but be stunned for a moment. The situation seemed a bit strange: in accordance with the description of the various wyverns’ habits, they should not cause trouble before food had become scarce. Now it became clearer and clearer to him that the two wyverns were probably after the little unicorn! They should also be aware of the benefits of the unicorn's blood. In other words, they had an insatiable desire for the unicorn.
A certain degree of greed could lead to progress, but excessive greed could also bring disaster easily! It is a universal truth for both humans and animals!
This was a wyvern who was blinded by greed. It failed to control its own desires, landing on the ground and even getting into the cave. However, at the moment when its greedy eyes stared at the small unicorn, Anfey's hand had waved down. Then the wyvern felt some violent magic fluctuations blowing right on its face. Realizing the danger, the Wyvern tried to squeeze its fat body out of the cave to escape, but it realized what was happening too late.
In order to avoid the phenomenon of elements of mutual exclusion or conflict, everybody used fire magic: small fireballs, rockets, gigantic fireballs, flame radiation, flame dust, etc. All of the fire magic attacks were tossed at that wyvern. Riska even released a fire meteor in no time at all. Even little Shally released two small fireballs. Numerous fire magic elements lit up the cave, looking even ten times brighter than the grasslands blazing in the sun. All of the people inside the cave almost invariably closed their eyes.
Since the body of the wyvern was way too fat, it was easy for it to come inside the cave, but difficult to go out. With no time to retreat from the cave, fire magic had been hitting right on its body repeatedly. Screaming tragically, the wyvern flew around a bit. Its light blue body became green and black. Its chest and abdomen had received numerous wounds. The disgusting burnt smell in the air made people sick. Especially Riska’s fire meteor put a meter-wide hole right in the middle of its chest. People could even see its internal organs.
The wyvern twisted on the ground, struggled, and failed to stand up again. Its flexible long neck had become bulky, and it let out a miserable cry. Among the family of high-level magic beasts, wyverns’ resistance to magic was the lowest. Although wyverns could be immune from primary magic like fireballs and rockets, people like Zubin, Sante, and Blavi, who were all high-level mages, could release enough flying flame dust and flame radiation to cause damage to the wyvern. Riska’s fire meteor was even stronger and caused serious injury to the wyvern!
If something had to be blamed, blame greed. If the wyvern had not crashed into the cave, facing a battle like this, it could at least have avoided some magic attacks instead of getting hit by them all.
Without leaving time for Anfey to speak, Riska had once again opened the eyes of the sky to see that the other two wyverns had already abandoned their partner and flown back to their nest.
"Magic beast, after all, are only beasts: too stupid." Anfey smiled. "Riska, are you alright?"
"I’m alright." Riska's face turned pale, but his mental state remained very good. In the past, after the release of a fire meteor he would no longer have magic. Yet now he could continue to release the eyes of the sky, suggesting that he already had made great progress.
"Zubin, Sante, you two come out with me. Riska, hold on for a while. If the wyverns return, immediately send us an alarm."
"Okay," Riska nodded.
Anfey walked out of the cave slowly. The wyvern was still struggling feebly, but raised its triangular head, rotating it with the footsteps of Anfey.
While he walked, Anfey took the scorpion-tailed lion’s tail pin from his space ring. Since he had decided to make the tail pin his own exclusive weapon, he should be familiar with the performance of the weapon for sure. Or if an accident occurred, he would not know how he died!
Having seen that Anfey approached, the wyvern suddenly thrusted his head forward at Anfey's head and tried to bite him. However, since it was seriously injured, it didn’t even have 20 percent of its original speed and strength. Anfey gently dodged and kicked the wyvern’s neck, five inches under its head. The wyvern’s triangular head bounced back with the attack.
The wyvern still attempted to recalcitrant, but Zubin and Sante each released a big fireball, both hitting right on the wyvern’s head. As the big fireballs exploded, the Wyvern's head jumped twice, eventually dropping to the ground.