"Argh!"

Halfway through their meal, Mia suddenly screamed.

Blood flowed out of her mouth as she spat out her tooth.

Seeing this, Max asked, "What's wrong?"

"My tooth broke."

Max frowned. Although Dragons did not have eyebrows, he still subconsciously did the action.

Although Mia was a dragon hatchling, her teeth should be as strong as a normal beast's.

What on earth is harder than a dragon's teeth?

Max looked around and noticed something else that her sister had spat out.

A badge.

It was a badge made of pure gold. There was a layer of magic over it, which made the badge extremely strong.

There were three weapons engraved on the badge.

A long sword, a heavy crossbow, and a magic staff.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the badge itself resembled a shield.

At the top was a small cross, which served a structure to tie a string upon.

"Warrior, swordsman, archer, mage, priest..."

Max felt that this combination looked a little familiar.

"Damn it!"

"Aren't these adventurer classes!?"

It was only then that Max realized that he was holding an adventurer's badge!

The fact that it had come from the camels meant that the camels were owned by a group of adventurers.

The adventurers had most likely set loose their camels to graze on the plants nearby. However, one of the careless adventurers had left his badge on the camels!

'There must be adventurers around!'

'Mia's Lightning Breath earlier might have alerted them.'

'No wonder our ancestors fancied carrying out sneak attacks. Red Dragons liked to launch sneak attacks. It turns out that the silent approach is the best approach.'

"It's time to pack up!"

Upon realizing this, Max hurriedly put down the camel leg in his hand.

Max gave up on his prey. After selecting a couple of the most delicious parts, he immediately dragged his sister into the air.

...

This desert was in the north of the continent.

There was a group of desert residents here. They raised camels, sold porcelain, or acted as guides for travelers who wanted to take a shortcut through the desert.

Their days were not bad.

That is... Until one night, when a red shadow flashed across the sky.

Agatha, a three-thousand-year-old Ancient Red Dragon, appeared and hunted everything in its vicinity.

The existence of the dragon had dealt a great blow to the village. Ever since then, no one had dared to release their camels. Men, women, old, and young were afraid to go out. The goods that were stored in their warehouses were gathering dust, and no outsider had dared to come anywhere close to the desert.

One day, Agatha arrived at a village. She spread her wings that covered the sky, and unleashed lightning from her wings.

Agatha was not trying to hurt anyone. However, she had taken all the camels.

Nevertheless, the strong gusts from the flapping of her wings had killed most of the children and elderly in the village.

The old village chief was swept away by the wind and had died after crashing into a tree.

As a result, a new village chief was elected.

Upon taking up the position, he immediately suggested to escape.

The villagers accepted his suggestion, and they had given up the place where they were born and raised, all so they could seek a safer place to live at.

However, upon reaching the edge of the desert, they were besieged by tempestuous winds and rampant thunder.

Agatha was waiting for them there. The dragon crawled out of the sand and killed the village chief. Then, it stared at the villagers with its strange vertical eyes, which made everyone's hair stand on end.

Through her gaze, everyone understood that they had become prisoners of the dragon.

The Red Dragon preferred camel meat to human meat, and in order to feast on camel meat, she would need a village to raise said camels.

As a result, they had discovered a way to live in harmony with the dragons, which was to buy a batch of camels on a regular basis and then send them to the desert as tribute to the dragon.

This dealt a huge blow to the finances of the village. It was already difficult for them to feed themselves, and now they had to feed a hungry dragon.

Worse still, there were rumors of Agatha flying across the sky with two dragon hatchlings.

This was devastating news. The appetite of two dragon hatchlings was comparable to that of adult dragons.

Should the situation continue any further, they would either die of starvation, or they would be killed by Agatha.

One day, however, a group of people wearing colorful clothes came from afar.

"Adventurers!"

The third village chief was the first to notice the adventurers. He gathered all the food and water sources he could muster, called the most beautiful women within the village, and warmly welcomed the adventurers.

The adventurers were well-equipped, and their combat prowess was outstanding.

The warrior leading the party was wearing a full-body plate armor that cost a lot of money. It was said that the giant gemstone sword in his hand could easily cut off the claws of the giant dragon.

Meanwhile, the woman carrying the bow was not only skilled in archery, but she also carried a dismantled ballista in her luggage. Those crossbows were so powerful that they could nail a dragon to the ground.

However, the most powerful member in the party was an elderly person.

"Tahir!"

"The former palace mage of the kingdom, the incarnation of the God of Thunder!"

The village chief had quickly taken notice of the elderly man. He was a top mage of the kingdom and the idol of all those who practiced magic!

It was said that Tahir's lightning magic could even rival Ancient Red Dragons!

Tahir stroked his white beard and chuckled. He responded to those claims by saying that he was at was at most, at the level of an Archaic Dragon.

However, a faint blue spark of static electricity travelled along his beard. This indicated that his magic had reached the peak!

After all, he was capable of using electricity without even casting a spell!

This was a trait that only Red Dragons exhibited!

After eating and drinking, Tahir mentioned that they wanted to go further north in the desert, but they did not want to take a detour.

As such, they decided to cross the desert.

Tahir asked, "Is there anything dangerous in this desert?"

The villagers remained silent. They were purposely concealing the existence of the three Red Dragons.

That night, the village chief had found it difficult to sleep.

Later that night, the village chief ordered the fittest villagers to purchase twenty camels with the last few silver coins in the village's treasury..

Early morning the next day, the adventurers had finished packing up, and they were preparing to leave.

It was at this point that the village chief brought in the camels.

"This is our last gift, please accept it, heroes!"

Tahir did not notice the scheme and accepted the camels with a smile.

Since that day, the villagers would look in the direction in which the adventurers had departed to.

Red Dragons loved eating camels.

The adventurers rode on the camels the villagers had given them. There were a total of twenty of them!

They were certain that the Red Dragons would cross path with the adventurers!

Although the villagers called the adventurers heroes, they knew that the adventurers were not good people. They would not help them out just because they asked. Adventurers were a money-minded folks, after all.

However, the village could not afford the commission fee needed to slay the dragons.

Moreover, they could not tell the adventurers the truth. They had purposely withheld the existence of the three Red Dragons.

This was because even someone as powerful as Tahir might not be willing to fight against an Ancient Dragon like Agatha.

The group of adventurers was the village's last hope. Therefore, they did not mind playing dirty.