Volume 7 Chapter 396: Ingredient Hunt in Sky Jungle Veblen of the Four Danger Zones
Translator: The Light
Edits by Kenny
Precious ingredients were uncommon in the human continent. They generally consisted of Sea Demonic Beasts and Sky Demonic Beasts, as none of their origins were in the central Manasvir Empire. The main market where one could purchase Sea Demonic Beasts was in the Octavia Empire. As for Sky Demonic Beasts, the main market was in the Assassin’s Nation, the Kristoff Empire.
If anyone were to visit these two places, then their main goal there would be purchasing ingredients. Not only was it expensive, but it wasn’t worth it either. For example, Bella had unintentionally hunted Deep Sea Demonic Beasts and Deep Sea Demonic Snakes in the past. The market price was outrageous. Deep Sea Killer Crabs were even worse. Half a kilogram’s price was counted in gold coins. Bella didn’t want to go there and buy them anymore. That would be a huge loss.
Silver Dragon Princess Isabel knew of a place where she could get top-quality ingredients, and that was the “Sky Jungle” Veblen known as the Dragon Hunting Ground. It was a strange forest at the edge of the sky. There were many rare beasts there not commonly seen in the continent. Due to its dangers, if your average Dragon Knight didn’t form a team, they could lose their lives there.
Isabel wasn’t originally going to recommend such a dangerous place for hunting, but Bella wasn’t at a level that ordinary Dragon Knights could compare with. She also wanted to test her idea by recommending that place to Bella. Sure enough, just as Isabel expected, Bella was very interested in her suggestion.
“Seriously, Isabel?! Why didn’t you tell me of such a good place earlier? I can just go there!”
“But, Bella. The Veblen Jungle is a very dangerous place. Quite a lot of Demonic Beasts in there are stronger than even Mavis and I. Even you know that Mavis and I belong to a magic offensive Dragon Race. We get very passive in a fight with physical combat types. It would be nice if we could find the missing Golden Dragon Princess Laceman. It should be fine if she’s around.”
“It’ll be fine, I’ll just ask two of my roommates to come along. It’s just a forest! I’ll get in contact with them right now.”
Upon hearing Bella describe the Veblen Jungle as just a forest, Silver Dragon Princess Isabel and Ice Dragon Princess Mavis looked at each other, making an interesting expression as if they wanted to laugh but were holding themselves back. Once Bella arrived, she’d know whether Veblen Jungle was just an average forest or not. Bella might not believe her if she told her now.
Bella chose her roommates for the hunt for ingredients, the Assassin Noreya and Puppet Master Elaine, to come with. A normal hunt would require assassins, archers, mages, knights, swordsmen or warriors, and priests to be considered a complete hunting team. Time was clutch now as Bella didn’t have the time to recruit more of her roommates. They were all in class, so she could only find girls like Noreya and Elaine, who also liked to play truant.
After receiving Bella’s magical contact message, these two “truancy experts” appeared in front of Bella in a flash, so quickly that Bella really had to admire their truancy skills. Since Noreya heard it was going to be a hunting activity, other than wearing the assassin profession black skin-tight leather armor, she also brought a huge number of arrows. She was an assassin-archer duo professing existence and a hunting event just happened to need an archer, so she made a friendly cameo as the archer.
Puppet Master Elaine didn’t have much to bring. She didn’t need any fancy weapons with her abilities. A few simple puppet wires could easily end the life of any prey. After seeing Bella’s two supportive roommates, the two dragon princesses originally wanted to advise Bella to find more people, but the words stopped at their lips. The Assassin and Puppet Master gave them a sense of danger. She could tell that they were dangerous existences similar to Bella. Everything should be fine with them around.
“Did something fun happen, Bella? Hunting doesn’t seem all that interesting. They’ve got no hands or legs to cut up. Do they have humanoid demonic beasts there?”
“Your mind is so dangerous, Noreya. They don’t have to be humanoid demonic beasts; other beasts are just as fun too! Such as their eyes and their mouths!”
“Uh, Princess Isabel, Princess Mavis, please don’t mind them. This is how they usually speak.”
Even though Assassin Noreya and Puppet Master Elaine both sounded like young girls, they had an unusually cold tone with a strong yandere flavor. Bella was worried that they would scare the two dragon princesses, so she could only soothe the uneasiness in Isabel And Mavis’ hearts.
If they were to go to “Sky Jungle” Veblen, they would need flying mounts. Bella left her flying dragon mounts behind in the Manasvir Empire’s capital, Macnadix City, as guard demons. They won’t be able to be sent out for a while. With no choice, Silver Dragon Isabel transformed into her dragon form and carried Bella up into the sky. Meanwhile, Ice Dragon Princess Mavis, who was at the side, also transformed back into dragon form and followed closely behind.
Assassin Noreya wasn’t a Dragon Knight, so she didn’t ride on the Silver Dragon Princess’s back. Instead, she rode along with Puppet Master Elaine on the back of a giant puppet eagle that she had summoned. This puppet eagle was made of wood, so who knew what sort of “black technology” Puppet Master Elaine had added to it, but its speed wasn’t any less to the Silver Dragon and Ice Dragon in the sky, who went ahead first, as they quickly caught up with Bella.
“What’s with you, girls? It’s your class time right now, you can’t skip class. Come to the Disciplinary Committee office with me right now... Uh, Bella? Why is it you?!”
“Chief Natasha, we’re going out for some business, so let’s talk when we’re back! You should quickly head back and get some rest. Let your subordinates handle the petty business like patrolling! It hurts my heart when you work yourself too much!”
“Bella, you... Wait, I haven’t finished speaking yet...”
Bella encountered the Chief Natasha of the Disciplinary Committee, who was out on patrol on her flying ice dragon mount. She couldn’t keep up her usual strict disciplinary facade in front of Bella. Realizing that her mount was stronger than Natasha’s flying ice dragon when she flew overhead of her, she flew upside down and touched Natasha’s cheek on the way.
Bella left the blushing Disciplinary Committee Chief Natasha dumbfounded and alone in the skies. Natasha could only glare at her from afar. After some thought, she gave up on chasing Bella and her group. All the Student Union Presidents were on Bella’s side right now. Even she herself was deep in the ranks, so she could do whatever she wanted.
Bella was considered fortunate. The one on duty today just happened to be her close friend Natasha. If it were Dragon Knight Shawn or Dragon Knight Copperfield, it would definitely take a lot more effort to “skip school.” Except for Natasha and Bella herself, the rest of the dragon knights in the academy were male. Since the mount that her little sister Lisha had registered wasn’t a flying dragon, even though she was also considered a dragon knight, she didn’t have patrolling duties.
“Sky Jungle” Veblen really was a forest in the sky. When they arrived, Bella retracted her previous ignorant comments. It was a forest floating atop the clouds, and regardless of their height, the tall trees were all ancient and stood hundreds of meters into the sky, while the small trees shorter than a meter were all rooted in the sea of clouds and were growing. The surface area of the forest was huge. At the very least, Bella couldn’t see the other end just by looking across.
Even though Bella knew that logic didn’t run the same way in Other Worlds, those trees were seriously growing against the common sense of physics. They didn’t even need soil and grew directly from within the clouds. No matter what, she couldn’t understand the principles of it. Other than the vast jungle with no visible end, Bella vaguely sensed the aura of the God Race, which was considered in the same camp as her. Assassin Noreya and Puppet Master Elaine both sensed that something was wrong as well, as their eyes instantly grew alert.
“No need to be surprised, Bella. Actually, “Sky Jungle” Veblen is a separation from the God World. When the Twelve Demon Kings invaded the God Race 10,000 years ago, the entire God World was broken into pieces. Also, there are Holy Beasts in there! So be careful.”
Silver Dragon Princess Isabel, who seemed to have sensed Bella’s heartbeat abnormalities, quickly explained the origins of the “Sky Jungle” Veblen to her. “Sky Jungle” Veblen belonged to the region of the God Race. After they were defeated by the Twelve Demon Kings, the region was separated. As a region of the God World, all sorts of ingredients available there were considered precious by human standpoints. Not counting the meat of the Sky Demonic Beasts, even a blade of grass here could probably be sold for good money with some marketing. The price of a piece of grass from the God World compared to the normal grass was worlds apart.
This was dangerous. Most of the Holy Beasts lucky enough to survive had basically been affected by the dark miasma and had gone through terrifying mutations. There was a huge difference between the strengths of the Holy Beasts and the Demonic Beasts on the ground. The weakest mutated Holy Beasts were all starting at S rank and above, with the highest going up to SSSSS or more.
In this Other World’s human continent, there were only the Ancient Canyons where dinosaurs or sub dragon level demonic beasts gathered, and the Dead Sea Basin where various species of Deep Sea Demonic Beasts lived. There was also Mystic Killing, where all sorts of mysterious unknown demonic beasts gathered. The danger levels of those three places were on par with “Sky Jungle” Veblen. Accidentally, Bella arrived at the final “training” hunting spot before the other male Saviors, and the only mistake she made was not calling the remaining four Renegades, Black Savior Little Sister Lisha, Princess Kriss, and the others to join her, and only brought along Assassin Noreya and Puppet Master Elaine.
However, Princess Isabel misunderstood. She thought Bella’s heart was beating fast out of fear, but Bella was actually extremely excited to be able to encounter such a challenging hunting spot. How could she be scared? Along with her, Assassin Noreya and Puppet Master Elaine were also excited and unafraid of mutated Holy Beasts.
“Alright, this is as far as you have to send us. Isabel, Mavis, you two can follow us in human form. You can leave the rest to the three of us.”
“What? Bella, you... You three are planning to hunt Mutant Holy Beasts here without dragon support? Are you serious?!”
“Of course, Isabel. Don’t worry, us three will be fine. You can just watch us with ease.”
Even though they didn’t quite believe Bella’s words, Isabel and Mavis still transformed back into their human forms, this time changing into silver and blue mage robes, respectively. The temporary cameo time mage and ice mage followed behind Bella and the girls. If Bella and the others encountered any danger, then the two dragon princesses would still lend a hand.
The environment in “Sky Jungle” Veblen was beautiful, similar to the wonderland of the legends. Not too many remnants of the deadly fight between the God Race and the Twelve Demon Kings were left here. After stepping onto the clouds, Bella realized that she had misjudged. This place did have soil, but it was covered by the clouds, and that was why it gave Bella the illusion that the trees were growing on the clouds. The soil here was soft, very different from the ground. Visually, this looked to be very fertile and precious soil.
An idea popped into her mind. Bella was reminded of those 10,000 years old precious seeds she had gotten from the underground catacombs. Even though the Moon Elves and Flower Fairies had been working hard to cultivate them, the seeds were unable to germinate even now. Maybe if they dug up this God World soil, things might take a turn.
After Bella gave Assassin Noreya a look, the two took out their shovels from their storage rings and began digging. Puppet Master Elaine was very cooperative in carrying a special sack behind them, helping them collect the divine soil. This unexpected turn of events stunned the two dragon princesses behind them. Things didn’t look quite right. Didn’t they say they were here to hunt? How did it suddenly turn to “planting trees?”
Just as they were confused about how they were going to complain, Bella’s shovel suddenly hit something hard. Driving her shovel in, the metal shovel head broke. This shovel was forged from the hardest metal in the human continent, but it suddenly broke like a fragile piece of glass. Bella almost had the thought to go back and return it. This kind of shovel cost more than five thousand gold coins for a single piece, but it broke just like that.
“This is... Divine Crystal! Bella, you’re so lucky! Even we dragons haven’t seen many pieces of these ourselves!”
After everyone saw what was buried in the ground, Silver Dragon Princess Isabel and Ice Dragon Princess Mavis showed obvious excitement on their faces. Divine Crystal was one of the necessary resources for the God Race. The highest-ranked God Races basically all wanted these crystals. The colorless and transparent crystal looked just like an average colorless crystal to Bella. It was much worse than colorless gemstones. Other than that, she couldn’t see anything special about it. The only thing different was the strong God Race aura she could feel from it. When she heard that a small piece of this could be sold for up to tens of thousands of gold coins, Bella felt that the seller must be crazy. Either that or the buyer was crazy as well.
The Divine Crystals were buried deep underground and were usually hard to dig up, but Bella managed to dig up this piece when her shovel accidentally hit something just now. The attentive Assassin Noreya, who was observing it quietly, pulled on Bella’s sleeve. Bella followed her finger gestures and was able to see the obvious signs of digging next to the Divine Crystal. The soil had very obviously been moved, and this was all fresh soil.
Apparently, someone had been digging for this piece of Divine Crystal before. That person was probably trying to dig up the whole thing, but just as they were about to succeed, they had to leave for some reason. Scoring a lucky hit, Bella and the girls snatched someone else’s almost-successful labor. At the place where the soil met the Divine Crystal, Bella was keenly able to detect a light scent. It seemed to be the perfume of a girl.
“Please wait, Bella. We can’t touch Divine Crystals. They repel existences like the Demon Kings and can be fatal, but our powers are too strong. If you touch it, this piece of Divine Crystal will shatter into dust, and those two dragon princesses are going to find out who we are.”
Bella’s hand that was about to touch the crystal was stopped by Puppet Master Elaine. Thanks to her timely reminder, Bella avoided revealing her true identity early in front of Silver Dragon Princess Isabel and Ice Dragon Princess Mavis. Neither of the two dragon princesses knew that Bella was a Demon King or even a Demon God. If they did, Bella wouldn’t be able to get close to them in the future and capture them, so it was safer to let them know after “pushing” them down.
After giving up on touching the Divine Crystal, they were just about to get up and see what sort of prey was nearby when they noticed a big snowy white rabbit looking at them nearby. The white rabbit looked like a standard F-ranked Demonic Beast, Flame Rabbit. Other than being able to spit out fireballs and wind balls, they didn’t have any strong magical moves. Due to their delicious meat, it was common for them to be hunted by the adventurers when they were on field missions.
Bella’s face relaxed when she saw that it was an F-ranked Flame Rabbit. After receiving a random dagger from Assassin Noreya, she planned to hunt it. She forgot that this was one of the Four Danger Zones, Sky Jungle Veblen, and the Flame Rabbit wasn’t an F-ranked Demonic Beast at all. It just looked like one.
“Wait, Bella! That rabbit is dangerous!”
“What are you worried about, Isabel? It’s just an F-ranked Flame... I, Doomsday Flame Dragon! You crazy rabbit...”
Isabel warned Bella as soon as possible, but she was too late. Just as Bella was about to approach the rabbit, a strange human-like smile emerged on the rabbit’s face. After jumping up and opening its mouth, a forbidden-level fire spell, Doomsday Flame Dragon shot towards Bella.
The Doomsday Flame Dragon was a forbidden-level magic attack that transformed into a long snake-like flame dragon to attack its opponent. Since this was a sneak attack from the rabbit, Ice Dragon Princess Mavis, who had transformed into an ice mage, was caught off guard by the unexpected situation and couldn’t prepare the corresponding ice defense spell, “Zero Point,” in time. She could only feel anxious as she watched Bella get attacked by the Doomsday Flame Dragon.
As a Demon God with two Renegades by her side, Bella wouldn’t get trapped so easily. But nobody noticed the pair of bright eyes in the bushes not far away, watching them secretly.