Since sentry duty was rather boring, the guard soon began to let his imaginations run wild.

The three heroes, Tahir, Carvella, and Rafik, were the top fighting forces within the Pande Kingdom.

Killing them was no easy task.

The only possible explanation that the guard had come out with was that a large number of enemy troops had already invaded the north and they had coincidentally encountered the three heroes.

The problem with this explanation, however, was, how did an army that was huge enough to defeat the three heroes manage to sneak into the north without raising any alarms?

'Could it be...'

'Maybe they weren't defeated by humans?'

The guard immediately connected the dots. 'Perhaps it wasn't humans who killed the three heroes, but rather, powerful beings of other races?'

'Perhaps they were done in by the overlords of the sky, the dragons.'

Upon this thought, the guard shivered. He had seen a real dragon once before, and from what he remembered, it was disaster incarnate.

When a dragon spread its wings, it could cover the sky, and when it roared, it could scare the most cowardly of soldiers to death. Whatever the dragon's breath touched, the item would instantly be charred into charcoal..

...

"The southern lords wishes to exterminate the dragons.. Hoho..."

Alfred threw the letter aside and began to read the next one.

With news of Tahir's death circulated throughout the kingdom, everyone, from the nobles to the beggars on the street were mourning for the death of the legendary figure.

At the same time, they were also gossiping about it with much fervor. They were wondering who exactly was responsible for Tahir's death.

The location where Tahir was last seen was in the desert towards the north.

Early that year, they had received reports of dragons being sighted there.

As such, the general consensus of the public was that Tahir had died to the hands of said dragons.

After all, at Tahir's level of strength, there was almost no one in the world who was capable of defeating him. The only possible explanation was that he was done in by the dragons.

Naturally, the southern lords wanted nothing more than to launch a crusade against the dragons.

They intended for the northern nations to expend all their resources in the crusade against the dragons, while they themselves would sit back and take advantage of the situation. 

"Let's see what the northern lords think."

Alfred moved over to another stack of documents and found what he was looking for.

It was a letter sent by Duke Ardarian, one of the northern lords, a few days ago.

He cut it open and began to read through it.

It started off with a simple paragraph.

"It must be that Ancient Red Dragon, Agatha! No other creature is capable of harming Tahir!"

As for the remaining portion of the letter, Alfred did not bother to read through it. After all, it was merely a regular report regarding the tax collection and the construction occurring within his territory.

"Dragons, huh..."

Alfred sighed. The faint flame of the candle flickered in his breath.

Dragons were undoubtedly the greatest enemy of the Pande Kingdom.

Back in the past, humans had only regarded other human beings as their greatest enemies.

After a hundred years of war, the Pande Kingdom was formed, and they were united under one flag.

However, as time went on, the humans realized that in the face of the mighty dragons, everything that they had built up was as fragile as a piece of paper.

There were some dragons that were almost at the demigod level living in the sky. They were only sleeping. Once they woke up, they would definitely bring about a cataclysmic disaster to the human civilization.

Fortunately, most of the dragons at that level cared not for the lowly mortals that were living under them.

However, a few of those dragons had also been hunted and pursued by humans back when they were younger. As such, upon obtaining power, they would take their revenge against humanity.

Dragons of that level would usually slumber for hundreds of years. As such, by the time that they had awoken from their slumber, countless generations of humans would have already come and gone.

Although it was no longer a debt that could be settled, the proud dragons would not just sit back and forget about their grudge.

Perhaps one day, they would appear in the skies of the Pande Kingdom and unleash terror upon the humans as a way to settle their grudge.

It was not surprising for such a thing to happen.

As the current king of the Pande kingdom, Alfred had to maintain a fearless appearance in the crowd.

However, whenever he was alone, he could not help but tremble whenever he imagined such a scene taking place before him.

According to the legends, the Pande Kingdom was not the first-ever civilization of mankind. Within the long river of history, there existed countless human civilizations no less as prosperous as Alfred's own kingdom.

However, they were all annihilated by the dragons who were close to the realm of the gods.

Of course, these were merely legends. No one could prove that such civilizations had truly existed. They could have been stories made up by bards to amuse the masses, or they could have been actual events that had taken place.

"An Ancient Dragon... if our foe is only an Ancient Dragon, we might still have a shot in dealing with it."

Alfred noticed that not only did the letter mention that the dragon was a Red Dragon, it had also stated that it was an Ancient Dragon.

An ancient dragon was undoubtedly a disaster for small nations. However, the Pande Kingdom was a colossal empire, and if Alfred could obtain the cooperation of the lords, he stood a good chance in winning.

At the end of the letter, the northern Lord Ardarian had also mentioned something.

He had already gathered his troops which was 3,000-men-strong.

He was prepared to scout the northern region to gather more intel on Agatha.

...

The moment Max woke up, he first took out his wings from under Mia's head.

He did not know when Mia had slept on hi swings. After all, she was no longer in the same position that she had gone to sleep in.

'The lair is empty. Agatha's nowhere to be found. She must've gone out to hunt.'

"Hoo — Haa —"

Max took a deep breath and exhaled heavily.

He could clearly feel that his body had changed.

Dragons used sleep as a means of growth. They could become stronger through sleep without any training.

Therefore, every time Max woke up from sleep, he would feel refreshed and energized. Usually, he could also feel that the muscles in his body had expanded somewhat.

This morning, however, Max felt different.

This time, he felt like he had become... Purer?

He could not describe this feeling. It was as if he had become much more attuned with the surrounding environment.

"Perhaps, winning the Battle of Existence has provided me with some mastery over the elements."

Max thought aloud.

Unless something had gone wrong, he should have received his reward for winning the Battle of Existence.

He had killed a human mage named Tahir.

From that, he had obtained some talent in magic and the affinity to the elements.

Perhaps it was due to this affinity to elements that Max felt more attuned to nature.

After all, in the world that he had transmigrated to, everything in the world was made up of five elements. They were wind, fire, water, thunder, and earth.

At the same time, they also corresponded to the five basic types of magic.