Chapter Nineteen: Achieving an Unconventional Goal

Melina’s lethality was insufficient only when it came to "dragons." For creatures like this, she could easily finish them off with just two solid punches.

Clenching her fists, Melina jumped down from the giant wolf’s body and patted the wolf fur stuck to her thigh.

Maria stared wide-eyed at the giant wolf’s corpse, letting out a few surprised sounds before turning to Sonia.

“Soso, be honest—did you lie to me?”

“Does it matter whether I lied or not?” Sonia controlled the horror on her face.

“Because you damn well said Mel was physically weak! You call this physically weak?” Maria was hysterical. “I’ve been training with the system for ten years, and I probably only have the strength to kill a bone-toothed wolf with two punches! You say she has poor physical fitness?”

“No one’s seen Mel when she’s healthy!”

The two argued as they approached to harvest materials. Their appearances were undeniably high-level, so even with their faces covered in blood, they looked terrifying yet carried a forbidden, alluring charm.

There wasn’t much value in wolf materials. Their pelts were mostly used to make ordinary leather clothing, and the coarse wolf hair was not popular among the ladies of the Capital.

But their thigh meat was quite delicious, evenly balanced between fat and lean.

The red muscles were wrapped in a thick layer of golden fat, which crackled like dry wood in a fierce fire when cooked. As it roasted, the golden fat shrank into a crispy layer, while the tender thigh meat seemed perfectly baked by the heat. One bite offered a crackling, crispy, oily aroma mixed with a slight fishiness yet intensely meaty tenderness.

“The bone-toothed wolves’ bodies rely mainly on their bone structure for support, so walking doesn’t really train them. All their fat and muscle are for explosive power during attacks, which gives their thigh meat such a unique quality.”

Maria wrapped four wolf thighs in cling film and stored them in her system space.

Such convenience was truly cheating.

Sonia chuckled, “I’ve heard that too, but because this thigh meat spoils quickly, it’s best to eat it immediately after hunting… That’s why live capture of bone-toothed wolves is a common commission. We originally planned to capture them alive too, but since Old Maria has space storage that preserves food, killing them outright is better! Tonight…”

She glanced at Melina and added, “Let Old Maria take it to the inn and let the innkeeper make a processing fee off us.”

Melina felt she could cook well enough but didn’t say so—it would have been tactless at this moment. One good thing about Melina was that she took advice well.

…

Tracking dragons along the valley was extremely difficult.

Not only because of the thick mist and the sunlit riverbanks, which acted like a continuous but weak flashbang, irritating their eyes until they stung and ached, forcing Melina to use magical factors to provide herself with some sun protection.

“Whew…” Maria panted, “Are you sure that sea erosion dragon is really nearby? What if it hasn’t come? You mentioned some butterfly effect…”

“Do you know what I hate the most?” Sonia asked.

“What?” Melina interrupted. “Don’t tell me it’s the word ‘give up’?”

“No.”

Sonia kicked aside a hollow stone with her heel, skillfully grabbing a small crab from inside.

“I hate the phrase ‘butterfly effect’ the most because so many marketing novels in my past life overused it. Like the horseshoe effect—losing a war because a horseshoe was missing… That’s just pure stupidity, deducing the result backward and turning a minor cause into the main one.”

“So?” Maria took the crab, froze it with magic in a flash, and stuffed it into her storage space.

“So don’t tell me that dragon won’t come. It definitely will. It’s inevitable—biologically and naturally!”

She shouted with the determination of a warrior, then grinned, “Another oil crab! We’re in for a treat today.”

Apparently, saving the world and personal enjoyment were not mutually exclusive.

If anything, senior sister might hold the mindset of ‘saving the world for better personal enjoyment,’ which was somewhat comforting. Melina feared selfless martyrs the most—they reminded her of those who worked overtime without pay, you know? Something always felt off.

Speaking of which,

Melina curiously asked, “Senior sister, do you know why the sea erosion dragon would come around here? Though the Crying Peninsula is rich in fish, these dragons usually dwell in the open ocean and rarely attack shipping lanes…”

“No one knows. It’s a mystery.”

Sonia said, “Before confirming these dragons were behind it, the Crying Peninsula had long become a no-man’s land. But not entirely unoccupied—later, they found veins of Tarei crystal ore here. The kingdom organized an expedition army to mine it, but then a golden dragon destroyed the mining commission. People were furious and needed dragons they could fight back against to vent. The sea erosion dragon was a good target.”

The instinct to pick on the weak is perhaps one of humanity’s most valuable evolutionary traits.

Knowing when to bide your time is not shameful.

If you can’t win, join them, or if you believe you are a true dragon yourself, join the other side—that’s acceptable.

Melina formed a hypothesis.

Sea erosion dragons hardly ever approach land. Their nests float atop coral reefs, beautiful and shimmering at night, earning them the nickname “lighthouse dragons” because of their glowing nests. They sleep during the day and hunt glowing fish at night over the ocean. They avoid shallow waters unless necessary.

They are home-loving dragons.

Unless, somehow, a surplus human emotion grows inside them.

She looked at Sonia and speculated, “Could it be a pregnant sea erosion dragon?”

These dragons hide their eggs beneath scales on their abdomen to prevent the ocean from swallowing them, making them highly aggressive during pregnancy—a natural maternal instinct.

Her guess made Sonia fall silent, seemingly pondering the possibility.

Just when Melina expected a groundbreaking insight, Sonia silently shook her head.

“Maybe, but I don’t care. Killing that dragon is my priority now… Mel, wasn’t this what you helped me with?”

Her words were sincere.

Melina felt underestimated, snorted, and twirled her umbrella.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sonia nudged Maria’s rib armor with her elbow, referring to her as the “Mel Master.”

Maria imitated Melina, snorting hard.

“It roughly means she’ll help you, but only if you, dog Sonia fan, stop playing those disgusting tricks, got it?”

“Oh dear, that’s really…” Sonia tapped her chest and pointed at Melina.

After two long hours under the burning sun, they managed to catch at least twenty oil crabs, twenty to thirty eels, and about ten feather crabs—the Crying Peninsula’s favorite. Feather crabs were solid meat crabs, weighing three pounds each, with two and a half pounds of pure meat—astonishingly meaty!

Small shellfish, marine mushrooms, fresh kelp, and little chestnut shrimp were even more numerous.

Only one problem remained.

They came looking for dragons, not crabs!

Melina took off the water cup hanging at her waist, drank some water, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and looked up at the scorching sun, feeling the humid heat rising off the river’s surface, almost like being back in the capital.

Splash!

Water splashed in the nearby warm river as Sonia held up two freshly caught oil crabs, wailing, “Crabs! No meat!”

Maria, carried away as well, clutched lobsters and wailed, “Shrimp! No meat!”

It was truly difficult for these two to maintain such youthful spirits; Melina nearly wiped away a tear.

At that moment, a sharp, piercing roar came from the sky.

Melina downed the invisibility potion at her waist in one gulp, then cast a magical factor over a four-meter radius around herself, rendering the area unnoticed by dragons.

Prepared for anything.

A magnificent yellow dragon with red, white, and gold feathers soared overhead. Judging by its size and shape, it was a bipedal, two-winged dragon species resembling a bird, lacking extra wing claws—a common type among yellow dragons. Measuring about ten meters, with elemental attack glands typical of yellow dragons, it was also the only type among the four-colored dragons known to produce dung balls as weapons.

“Noon has passed, and except for food, we’ve gained nothing,” Sonia summarized. “Maybe I was wrong. Maybe it hasn’t come today; maybe it’ll come tomorrow.”

Maria philosophically commented, “A shepherd dog doesn’t meet wolves every day.”

“Old Maria, old Maria, do you think I can’t tell you’re secretly calling me a dog?” Sonia laughed.

Seeing the two about to launch into another heated verbal battle, Melina, feeling like the permanent mother of the trio, changed the subject.

“My thought is, you can’t hide an elephant in a room. Even if you pretend not to see it, you can’t do that for long.”

“Oh? Mel! I need some wise words right now. Tell me your thoughts so we can comfort ourselves about these two-plus hours of scorching heat—so damn southern, equatorial-level—and all for nothing!” Sonia smiled, though rare, without any joy.

Melina placed one hand on her hip, twirling her umbrella with the other.

“If a sea erosion dragon is coming, I feel that with its strength, it would make its presence known easily. A completely new dragon appearing here would cause enormous ecological disruption, and we’d only need to monitor ecological changes.”

Sonia, slightly restless, nodded in agreement but seemed hesitant.

Melina immediately understood why and softened her tone.

“…But an on-site investigation is valuable too. When we detect ecological changes nearby, we can quickly pinpoint where the dragon is in this valley, since we’ve already figured out all the possible dragon hideouts here, right?”

Sonia smiled happily once again.

Melina saw Maria grin like a golden retriever and give her a thumbs-up.