Chapter 10: The Sorrow of Northwind Keep

Gold coins flowed from the corners of the red dragon's mouth, and Chimera was watching all this from outside the cave. In his greedy eyes, there was not only heartache for losing the treasure, but also a hint of resentment, but this emotion was fleeting and he dared not show it in front of the red dragon.

Cassius noticed all this, but he didn't care. He even had a sense of accomplishment in becoming a Minotaur.

For this chaotic and evil monster, showing kindness is useless, because Chimera will never be unconditionally loyal to you. Once it gets the chance, it will do everything it can to devour its master and take over.

To use an old saying from the previous life, it is called "fearing power but not virtue", and that is the case for this monster.

The only thing the red dragon can do is to use its power and maintain its own powerful majesty, so that it can only be a subordinate forever and never have a chance to turn over.

[Metal scales upgraded to full level (5230/5000)]
[Obtain new feature [Gilded Scales]]
[Gilded Scale] Ac+3 Constitution+1
[You have swallowed an excessive amount of gold elements, and the flowing gold will adhere to the surface of your body and deep in your heart.

You can actively activate [Gold Plated Shell], and the gold in your body will form a coating on your body surface, greatly increasing your armor value and changing the appearance of your scales to gold.]
"Can the scales turn golden?"

Some strange thoughts suddenly occurred to Cassius.

Because in his memory, there should be no golden dragon in Anzeta.

Is it possible to...

In any case, the Red Dragon was very happy that his life-saving items had increased.

He ignored the Chimera's extremely resentful look and continued to let it lead the way as he explored the Giant's Mouth Cave.

"Isn't it over yet?"

Cassius thought.

This place was far more complicated than he had imagined. There were many extremely deep places in it, which made people doubt whether it was a natural formation but the creation of some dwarf craftsmen.

In the narrow cave not far away, bursts of hot white smoke were gushing out, and some magma was splashing out, which made the red dragon feel somewhat familiar.

"Keep going inside."

Cassius motioned for Chimaera to lead the way.

But this life-threatening beast just kept whimpering and begging for mercy, and refused to go in no matter what.

"Master, it's hot and dangerous."

"will die."

After all, it surrendered to the red dragon in order to save its life.

Instead of losing its life in the lava, it does not have the fire resistance like the red dragon.

"Strange place."

"But the elemental reaction is so intense, we should wait until we are fully confident before going in to explore."

"As for the name, it's called the Bottomless Cave."

Cassius thought for a moment and decided to put it aside for the time being. After all, he was just a young red dragon.

It was difficult for him to even claim the throne in this wilderness, let alone face those unknown monsters underground. If a high-level monster like the Eye Demon appeared, he would not be sure of winning.

"You should leave first."

"Thank you, Master."

Chimera breathed a sigh of relief.

It didn't even care about the wounds on its body, and ran to the cave where it hid its treasures, and quickly moved the remaining hundreds of gold coins. It even ignored its wings that were about to break, and forcibly carried its gold coins, staggering to the other side, and found a place to bury these treasures.

"As expected of a guy with dragon blood."

"You are really thrifty."

Cassius couldn't help but shake his head in disdain.

In this way, Cassius used the outer cave of the Giant's Mouth Cave as his first nest and temporarily closed the inner passage with rocks.

The chimera was driven by Cassius to a small cave opposite the rock wall, where it served as the red dragon's servant and guarded his home.

In Cassius's opinion, the treatment he gave was already very good. At least he left some savings for it, right? Many modern companies don't have such treatment...

"Magic trick!"

As Cassius cast his spell, a cubic foot area in the corner of the cave became clean and tidy, and the bloodstains that had turned smelly disappeared.

This red dragon was like a cleaner, using magic to clean the cave inch by inch.

"This brainless beast can really ruin a place. This cave should be a 'blessed land' in any cultivation novel, but it turned it into a slaughterhouse." Cassius couldn't help but complain as he looked at the blood on the ground.

There was another pile of bones in front of him. The red dragon was about to clear them out of the cave, but he saw the skull with goat horns again among them.

The skull did not look too old, perhaps only a few weeks old. There were still some pieces of flesh left on it, and flies were buzzing around it.

From its human-like body shape and broken tailbone, it can be determined that this is a tiefling.

Tieflings are descended from human blood and look roughly the same size as humans.

However, the devil bloodline has left a clear mark on their appearance. They have horns on their heads, thick tails four to five feet long behind them, their eyeballs are completely solid color, and their skin is covered with various colors.

These ethnic groups with hellish blood usually gather in human towns. They are not necessarily evil by nature, but they always see distrust and discrimination in the eyes of others.

Cassius thought for a moment and recalled the quest line of his previous life: "It's Tieflings, for sure. Could it be the group in the quest [The Sorrow of Northwind Keep]?"

[The Death of Northwind Castle]

[Northern Wind Castle, also known as Kovanarz Castle, is a city located on the border of the United Kingdom of the North. It faces the Storm Peaks to the north. There are more than 30,000 people in the city, including more than 1,000 tieflings. It is a territory ruled by the noble Earl Rackman.]
[However, a hundred years ago, the old Duke Brad Rackman, suffering from the loss of his lifespan, made a contract with the evil necromancer and transformed himself into an immortal vampire. Now he has awakened again and promised to sacrifice a thousand lives for the necromancer within ten years to complete the great ascension.]
[In the following months, many people in the city disappeared inexplicably, and even their bodies were not found. Bratt Rackman took the opportunity to hold a meeting and delivered an infamous "bloody speech", putting all the blame on the tieflings known as the "Devil's Offspring", claiming that they were sacrificing human lives for the devil.]
[Thus, a "just" massacre began. Angry people rushed into the city and tied the defenseless tieflings to the stake. Regardless of gender, age or status, they were all charged with having liaisons with the devil and burned alive.]
[Medrolash, a Tiefling paladin from the original city defense army, fought to the death, escaped the capture of the Duke's soldiers, and led 300 remaining members of the tribe to flee to the north, near Storm Peak, and established the Tiefling refugee camp "The Broken House".]
One of the player's main tasks in the early stage is to cooperate with Tiefling, expose the true identity of Duke Rackman, and kill this brutal vampire.

The North Wind Fort is also the most important "main city".

"Could it be that the Tiefling refugee camp is near this territory? Perhaps I can use this quest line to... take over Northwind Keep."

You have to know that this is the player's main city. Once you occupy this city, you will almost gain control of the player. In the eyes of Cassius, who has experienced several versions of the previous life and knows the importance of players, the benefits are too great.

Thinking of this, the Red Dragon called Chimera again, pointed at the wreckage on the ground and asked:
"Where did you encounter these creatures?"

Chimera came forward, sniffed with his lion head, and replied: "Humans with horns are not tasty."

Cassius looked at the Chimera's broken wings, which seemed to have lost the ability to fly long distances.

He thought there was no need to rush, and his power was not strong enough, so he could first recruit the surrounding creatures under his command.

"Go back and recuperate first."

"Yes, Master."

(End of this chapter)