"...And there's more. In the big cities, alchemist mages are quite well received. After all, an alchemist mage generally has a solid grasp of potion-making and can brew potions with miraculous effects — the nobility is very fond of them. And on top of that... alchemist mages are, as a rule, the wealthiest group among all mages."
The word "wealthiest" went straight to the bumpkin's head. Excitement kindled in Xia Ya's face all over again, and he looked down at the booklet. "Then — if I follow this booklet, I can learn alchemy?"
"In your dreams," Dar said, smiling at him.
"This thing is nothing but a lexicon cataloguing all sorts of magical materials. It records the properties, the appearance, the transformations and so on of a great many materials — but there are no formulas in it! To an alchemist mage, formulas are the be-all and end-all of the craft. And that booklet in your hand is just a basic theory primer on magic, printed by the church headquarters in the royal capital — you can buy one at the church's Mage Guild for a few gold coins. So if you're dreaming of getting rich off this thing, forget it."
Xia Ya's face fell at once; his interest in the booklet died on the spot, and he tossed it casually to the wretch. Then he picked up the transparent sphere instead, full of hope. "What about this, then? If a mage carried it around with him, it must be some wondrous piece of magical equipment!"
This time even the wretch looked at Xia Ya with a trace of pity, and couldn't bring himself to burst his bubble.
Dar sighed and looked Xia Ya up and down for a while, until Xia Ya himself began to feel uneasy. Then he spoke, coldly: "I really have to wonder — you actually dare call yourself a demon hunter."
"...What's that supposed to mean?" Xia Ya was a little nettled.
"This is a crystal ball..."
Seeing Xia Ya's eyes light up at the word crystal, Dar went on at once: "Don't get your hopes up too soon. This is the cheapest kind of crystal there is. It is indeed a piece of magical equipment, but it's one of the cheapest, lowest-grade pieces there is.
It's called an 'appraisal orb.' For any mage, any demon hunter, it's the most basic, most bare-minimum piece of kit there is. Its only function is to appraise a target's magic level.
After a demon hunter kills a magic beast and gets a magic core, he holds this orb up to it, and from the color of the light the orb reflects, he can tell the quality of his spoils — whether they're worth money, whether they're worth anything at all. Beyond that, it does nothing."
He paused, then added: "To a demon hunter, an appraisal orb is like a sea sailor's compass. You've never even seen a basic thing like this? And you have the nerve to call yourself a demon hunter... These are sold everywhere. One silver coin will get you one, and a higher-grade one is only three or four silver coins."
Xia Ya had been disappointed by the first half, but hearing that the thing was worth a silver coin, he brightened right up and happily tucked it into his shirt — one silver coin was, after all, a tidy little windfall for a bumpkin as broke as he was now.
The bumpkin's miserly airs earned a snort of contempt from Dar, who turned his head away in disdain.
The wretch, though, was concerned enough to help Xia Ya treat the burns on his body. The man's constitution was monstrous; he had been smoking all over from the burns, but luckily he had crossed the fire zone at a terrifying speed, so he wasn't really badly hurt. He looked a wreck, but it was all surface wounds. With a physique like his, he'd probably be patched up before long.
According to the intelligence Dar provided, following the slope up through the woods would lead to the dragon's lair at the summit. But now, with a mage's corpse before them and the burn marks on it, both Dar and Xia Ya judged that the mage had passed through here some time ago.
Whether those fellows were alive or dead — whether the dragon had finished them all off, or whether they had slain the dragon and left — could not be determined. Dar scoffed at the latter possibility.
In his words, "If a few second- and third-rate mages picked at random could kill a dragon, then dragons wouldn't be called the strongest creatures on the continent."
But Xia Ya, bent on getting rich, still refused to give up; at his suggestion, the three of them pressed on — except that Xia Ya kept a corner of his mind on guard, resolved to bolt the moment anything looked wrong.
Dar had provided one truly valuable piece of intelligence: the dragon's eyes were blind. Even if a dragon is that powerful, if its eyes are out and I run for it, I can always get away, can't I?
This peak had once been covered in dense forest, but the three of them climbed on and on, and after the better part of a day, when they reached the mountainside's midpoint, they saw the slope ahead of them — a scene of utter devastation!
There should have been a great stretch of forest here too, but it looked as if something had crushed its way across it: a vast swath of trees toppled and shattered, the ground strewn with broken and pulverized trunks, branches and leaves; even many of the rocks had been pressed deep into the earth!
Xia Ya was instantly on guard. This is probably all the dragon's doing!
Except that they had climbed halfway up the mountain and still found no trace of those mages... Don't tell me they really aren't here anymore?
He looked up toward the distant summit. The very peak was dead silent; above the sea of clouds only sunlight spilled down, with not a sign of movement.
As they walked on through the forest, the higher they went, the heavier Xia Ya's heart grew. He had spent years traveling wild mountains and forests, and had long since developed a strange, special sense: whenever danger drew near, he would feel something. Now, the higher they climbed, the stronger that unease became, and several times he had to fight the urge to stop, or turn around and leave.
Only, it was he himself who had insisted so stubbornly on coming to find the dragon. Turning back now would cost Xia Ya far too much face. So he could only grit his teeth, say nothing, and keep going — though at some point he had quietly taken the fire fork in hand.
The wretch dogged Xia Ya's heels, only to notice that his eyes had gone strange — fixed straight on Dar's back — and that he had the fire fork in his hand, a murderous glint surfacing on his face from time to time...
The wretch's body gave a shudder. He lowered his voice: "Hey, you're not thinking of... him..."
Xia Ya came back to himself and gave the wretch a sly grin.
"I'm thinking, how does this pretty-boy sissy know so much? Magick Tongue, and all this business about mages — hmm, I remember he even seems to have some knowledge of goblin culture; enough to be sure that Oakes fellow is a handsome goblin man...
And that magic formation in the fire marsh earlier — he had the entry bearings memorized down cold.
Hmph.
If that was the passage set before the dragon's lair, then naturally it's the defensive gate the dragon put up. So how does he know it?
Heh.
I'd say there's more to this fellow than meets the eye!"
Ahead of them, Dar tossed back over his shoulder, without turning his head, "Do you know that talking about people behind their backs is a bad habit?"
Xia Ya looked not the least bit embarrassed. "It's not as if I meant to hide it from you. So come on — what's your story? If I don't get this straightened out, I won't have any peace of mind."
"Fine," Dar said, and stopped, one hand braced on a nearby tree. The long climb had left him slightly short of breath, sweat beading on his forehead. He looked at Xia Ya, and that incomparably refined face of his broke into a mysterious smile. "Actually, I am..."
But before Dar could finish that sentence...
All at once, everyone felt the ground beneath them heave violently! With a rumbling boom, the whole mountain seemed to shudder in an instant, and from deep underground came a muffled roar like distant thunder. The earth pitched and shook until none of them could keep their footing, and they staggered to and fro.
The wretch went down headfirst into Xia Ya's arms, while Dar clung for dear life to the tree trunk beside him...
Then, from the summit, a roar rang out!
The sound of that roar seemed to come from beyond the sky — remote and deep, yet carrying an endless sense of dread and majesty. It was like muffled thunder, and yet more chilling to the heart than thunder! Far away as it was, it seemed to strike straight at the heart, setting it hammering, and an instinctive terror washed through the whole body in an instant, until even the scalp went numb!!
The three of them were stunned for a moment; then Dar's expression changed, his brows knitting tight. "The dragon! That's it roaring!"
Xia Ya, one arm around the wretch, sat on the ground and cursed loudly: "No shit! What, you think you're the one doing the roaring? Damn — this bastard's got some lungs on him!"
Looking up, the summit was only a few hundred meters above. Suddenly, from the peak, a vast azure shadow flew up into the sky and circled the mountaintop once!
Its huge blue-gray body seemed draped in a thin haze of light. Behind that enormous frame were a pair of bone wings; as they beat, the wind they raised howled like a gale. Above the vast body rose a long, slender neck, and on it a huge oval head, its great mouth gaping wide, blue-gray smoke pouring from its maw! More terrifying still, the dragon's tail trailed out immensely long, and at its tip was an enormous lump like a fleshy tumor, studded with sharp ridges...
And as the dragon circled, its long tail dragged below, and the ridged tip of it scraped across the mountaintop — and at once the rocks of the peak were smashed to rubble!!
For the first time in his life, Xia Ya was seeing a living, breathing dragon!!
"Big! Fucking big!!" Xia Ya tilted his head back, his mouth hanging open...
He was still marveling when Dar, ahead of him, saw the dragon in the sky suddenly draw a deep breath, its belly swelling up — and his face changed drastically. He cried out in alarm: "No good! It's going to use its breath!"
Dar's words had barely landed when the dragon abruptly spiraled down, opened its enormous maw at the ground below...
BOOM!!
As if a gale came howling down, a vast sheet of blue-gray flame burst forth and swept everything before it! From the summit downward, in a band some ten-odd meters wide, trees and rocks alike were swallowed by that savage blaze; inside it, tree trunks burst apart in an instant and became a whirl of countless splinters, while rocks were torn up out of the earth and went tumbling everywhere...
Just as that breath was about to reach Xia Ya and the others, several dull shouts came from the woods ahead, and a shining, transparent screen of light rose into the air, like a huge pane of clear glass set across their path. The breath struck that screen and was blocked on the spot, the residual flame curling back on itself...
Four figures shot up swiftly from the forest. Each wore a splendid fur cloak — though all of them were torn and ragged, fine material reduced to a beggar's castoffs. Arms spread wide, each gripping a wooden staff about half a man tall, they rose into the air, faced the dragon from afar, and let loose a rapid string of strange, urgent notes...
Xia Ya was staring wide-eyed at the spectacle when he saw a figure come scrambling and tumbling down out of the woods above, fleeing in wild panic, heading straight for him. The man's foot caught on a rock; he fell, rolled over and over, and nearly crashed headlong into Xia Ya.
The fellow lifted his head — a gaunt, dried-up face full of alarm — and his eyes happened to meet Xia Ya's.
"Eh? Hey, friend, you look awfully familiar." Xia Ya blinked.
The gaunt fellow froze as well; then the two exchanged a look, and spoke at the very same moment.
"Ah! You're the little bastard who stole my robe!"
"Ah! You're that street conjurer!"