Tania swallowed hard as she literally drooled at the augury saw thistles with greed dripping from her eyes.

If she could just gather all the saw thistles here, her life is set. Which kind of mage tower is she scared of then? She could also hire high tier mages to lift the curse upon her then. Wasn't that just a dream come true.

Tania quickly got down; collecting all the augury saw thistles on her way. As an alchemist, there was nothing that could lure her more than the concept of making raw gold out of thin air. As she was stocking up all the rare herbs, her eyes fell into something even more incredible.

Golden krypton ivy vines!

These extremely rare golden vines that were climbing the walls of the wizarding realm. Titania gulped hard, her eyes widening even more at the exceptional sight of this dazzling herb. She had only ever heard of Golden krypton ivy vines in legends. This was an herb that had gone extinct a thousand years back.

It is said that if this herb is processed by an alchemist, it could even bring the dead back to life. But even in the lower realm a thousand years back, this herb was extremely rare 'cause it was said that this herb did not belong to the lower realms. It was a native of the middle and the upper realm.

Tania's eyes glowed like she was seeing a treasure chest in front of her. To make herself believe of what her eyes were seeing, she almost stumbled to the ivy vine and touched it to feel if all of this was really factual and not her hallucination. The vine was smooth to her touch, like a beautiful suet jadeite.

Tania almost could not keep her heart from beating wildly in excitement. She was really elated as she tore off the ivy vine climbering the wall. But something was strange about this magical vine.

It seemed to have been creeping from some other place to this particular wall. Tania ripped the golden krypton ivy vines off the wall and kept ripping it off as she followed it to a blue spring near the dungeon she was imprisoned in.

The ivy vine was getting all its nutrients and enrichments from this strange spring in a small clearing in the area. The spring did not look like it was a normal rivulet for even a moment. It definitely was not, because what she saw in the middle of the spring was not a sight she could ever forget in this lifetime.

There, in the middle of the blue torrent, laid a creature... it was not just any creature; it was a Dragon, a serpent king, the divine beast of the spirit realm. It had a way about itself, a slowness and grace. A giant shade of dark inky black, taking the warmth in through its obsidian scales, it shone under the sun rays like dark beautiful gems, making the entire creature as if it was glowing celestially. It was half submerged into the water of the spring and appeared to be asleep.

She stood stunned, as she stared at the divine beast, reveling in its awe, not aware of even the fact that she was unconsciously walking towards it.

When she stepped into the water of the rivulet, the ripples she caused suddenly woken up the beast and it sharply turned towards her. Its fiery deep eyes, like the pure stygian fog, stared back at her, as if it spoke to her with its eyes in a language carved before the age of ice.

Titania could not help but gulp as the mythical beast stared at her with a dragonish glare. As such, Titania suddenly came to her senses and felt fear filled her gut once more.

Fear was the thing that kept Titania alive to this day. And she knew damn well that it was the one thing that she would never trade of with anything else.

She instinctively took a step back as the dragon slowly rose from beneath the water; its massive body was slowly being revealed to her sight. And she took another step back.

"ROAR!!!" Before she could turn on her back and run for the hills, the deafening roar had her pinned to her spot, her limbs immovable due to intense fright, as panic rose up her spine.

The great beast swayed towards her while her legs turned into jelly and she fell flat on her buttocks, unable to take her eyes of it nor able to utter any sound in horror.

When she thought that she was done for, the dragon faltered in its steps as it let out a groan of pain and stopped to let out a painful glare.

And that was when Tania realized that the dragon was wounded. That very thought had her up in her knees and ready to bolt. She turned on her heels but stopped halfway.

Biting her lower lip in a dilemma, she slowly turned around to look at the injured dragon.

Dragons were creatures not of this realm, so if one were to ever see a dragon; it was considered an auspicious fortune. It is said that, if you can make a dragon owe you a favor, you shall be eternally blessed and can brave through any storms under the dragon's protection. It was almost like having a second life at spare. Titania, who had her life in the hands of others, had to consider the upsides of making a living breathing dragon owe her a favor. Under the dragon's protection who would dare to slight her.

She gulped once more and slowly took a step forward towards the divine creature while the creature stared at her in vigilance.

"D-Don't be offended revered sir dragon. I.. I only want to help." She timidly muttered at the intelligent creature as she approached it in caution.

The obsidian dragon, who was staring at her with eyes filled of pure mockery suddenly went still, and then slowly closed its eyes to settled where it stood.

Tania took his sudden disregard of her as a sign of consent, and with a silent sigh of relief, she slowly approached the towering beast.

On closer inspection, she could see part of its skin beneath its belly slowly rotting off, but the water of the spring was rapidly healing the rotting part of the skin, it was like a war being raged between the rotting flesh and the magical healing water of the spring. Tania found it both astounding and mindboggling as she inspected the wound.

She took out a couple of blood red pills that she had concocted before. These red pills were the most expensive stuff she had on her body at the moment and these were not some elixir meant to increase her own powers, but were originally meant for her little lover Egan.