The light of dawn was a few minutes from gracing Herdurand when Mary, her blood servants, and fellow Adepts snuck into it.
They wasted no time upon arrival and went straight for one of the many noble mansions closest to the city square, ushering themselves in and relieving the former owners of their physical and mental freedoms.
It would have been better and more convenient to simply kill the fifty or so residents, but that would defeat the purpose of anonymity they were trying to maintain. Especially when so many of the plane's powerhouses were present in the city and not that far away from them.
And so after coming to a consensus, Greem and the others left the issue of controlling the residents to Adept Ferrier, one of the clan Adepts whose main focus was potion crafting.
While she went about doing this, the others erected a barrier within the mansion's walls to mask the potent elementium flux they naturally generated before finding a good location to spy on the snoring dragons curled up in the square.
To better blend in, the Adepts had gotten rid of their robes and armors, switching them with the noble attires and dresses belonging to their now slaves.
Greem had ditched his vest for a tight but comfortable shirt with two rows of buttons in the front while his armored pants had been replaced with stylish leather ones used for horseback riding.
When combined with his lady killer looks, impressive height, and perfectly wild hair, he cut a figure that would make most young ladies swoon.
Right at his side and ready to tear any of these women with ideas limb from limb, Mary's dashing beauty had somehow taken another leap, the bright red long dress hugging her in all the right places making her even more enrapturing.
When they stood together like this, the beautiful couple looked like they were made for each other, something the spectating Keoghan and Ferrier could admit despite their opinions on the relationship.
They too had changed into similar noble clothing, but unlike how a quick glance at Mary and Greem would bring to mind words like "beautiful," "handsome," or even "perfect," there was something unsettling about them.
Watching them wear and move about in the noble attires felt like an eldritch monstrosity had dressed in normal clothing and entered a normal society expecting to not get any weird looks.
The mark of Lethon and aura of cruelty and savagery that long advanced Adepts normally wore with pride was too strong on them. And they couldn't mask it even if they tried. Not that Keoghan and Ferrier were interested in doing that in the first place.
With smiles that would make children weep, they observed Greem and Mary as the couple joined them in their observation of the dragons, their minds awash with memories of the period after they themselves advanced.
They also had the same traces of emotions, passion, and humanity their juniors wore. But after a century of engaging and drowning themselves in wealth, authority, and all forms of pleasure and depravity with countless men and women of all shapes, sizes, and races, they'd lost all but the physical marks that made them human.
Now all they cared about was knowledge, as they'd come to understand that it was the only worthwhile pursuit of an Adept.
Unwilling to unravel the mysteries behind the ugly smiles being sent him and his lover's way, Greem pushed aside his slight discomfort and moved towards one of the windows in the room, gently moving aside the curtain.
He squinted, training his vision to its higher than normal limits while employing Meat Vision in tandem to examine the massive green reptiles curled up on the square.
"We haven't been able to glean much," Keoghan moved to the opposite end of the window, mimicking Greem's actions so he could take another look. "How about you? See anything yet?"
Greem maintained his squint and frowned, twisting his head to the side slightly. "These dragons… they're adolescents. Barely. The one on the left is male while the other is female. As for their Grades, we'll have to get closer for a precise reading."
A bit disappointed at his colleague getting the same result as he did on the power front, Keoghan brushed it aside and rubbed his eyes before squinting as well. "You can tell whether they're male or female? How?"
Even with his comical actions of clearing his eyes, he could still only make out the emerald scales of the dragons and their silhouettes, his Adept abilities not geared towards improving his body's abilities.
"It's their horns and build. The one on the left has thicker and larger horns with more angular curves. Pair that with its larger build, it's easy to deduce that it's the male. The one on the right is the opposite. She has slimmer and less curvier horns, matching her smaller and less bulky body."
Squinting his eyes even harder, Keoghan with this new info managed to spot the shadows of these differences, his already high opinion of Greem improving.
"How do you know this? Don't tell me you read them from books?"
"I did. I read all the books in the Swamp Tower and the tower at the underground world mission site. Memorising them wasn't hard."
Keoghan's jaw dropped. "..."
After taking a few to mutter to himself, the slack jawed Adept regathered his wits and probed for more information. "If you had to estimate their grades, what would you go with?"
"Hmm… Beginner or Intermediate Second Grade."
"Go on."
"Newborn dragons have the strength of First Grade from birth. These two are adolescents, meaning Third Grade and above. However, seeing how young they are and the lack of elementium in this plane, they can't have reached Third Grade or even peak Second Grade yet."
Since he was dealing with an expert on the matter Keoghan took Greem at his word and assessed the plan they'd come up with to deal with the powerful reptiles.
Though they hadn't reached Third Grade, each of the dragons could fight individuals or creatures of that power to a standstill. What they would do to their entire group in a clash wouldn't even be called steamrolling.
It would be a massacre. And all those observing knew this. Fortunately, they were Adepts. Intelligence and planning had always been their way of surviving this harsh multiverse despite humanity's many and glaring weaknesses.
Mary, who had left the room at some point, returned with her fair left hand over her nose as she waved her other hand in the air around her. "The things you asked for have arrived. They are waiting for you downstairs."
Aware that she was the one being referred to, Ferrier put on a faint smile and moved her burly, weightlifter build out of the room. She'd been brought here for this very purpose after all.
While most would steer clear of a dragon's or anyone's faeces, the potion master considered them adequate ingredients in the crafting of some potions. Specifically potions designed to weaken a powerful creature.
Their innate and robust magic resistance made dragons immune to almost every low grade spell. When pitted against their formidable physiques and potent life forces, no regular poisons or paralysing substances would slow them down in the slightest.
It was either something supremely rare or costly or specially engineered for them that could bring them to their knees. As for killing them with it, that was a pipe dream not even the dumbest Adept would entertain.
And while the poison Ferrier would craft might even fail to work, it was the only way the Adepts could go up close to the dragons, much less finish them off.
Since it was just morning and they planned to attack when night fell, the potion focused Adept had all day to work on the miracle poison.
Meanwhile, Mary coordinated with her thralls, sending two of them to bribe the paupers tending to the dragons so they would cart more the creature's waste and saliva to the mansion while the majority were sent all over the city to gather information about Herdurand to help her better understand its inner workings.
As for Greem and Keoghan, they stayed near the window and watched the dragons, occasionally pausing and taking shifts to attend to their personal or other matters. The day unfolded like this and faded into night, the time for the attack inching closer and closer.
Right as darkness fell upon the land and under Greem's watchful gaze, a host of knights escorting one of the dragon knights exited the city hall and bid the latter farewell.
He jumped onto the dragon on the left and whistled, the creature standing up lazily in response and flaring its wings wide before taking to the skies in a single leap.
Keoghan and Mary had joined Greem by now, the commotion caused by the dragon unable to escape their senses. They saw it take off and leave its partner behind, and the three shared excited and meaningful looks, their eyes bright like stars.
Though their success at tonight's endeavor had skyrocketed, there was a small issue with the departed dragon and its rider. They were headed in Blue Hillock City's direction.
And though there was nothing they could realistically do about it, Mary still contacted the Adepts they left behind there and informed them of the development.
Going back would be pointless since even if the dragon knight did something in the city, they would be hard pressed to intervene or even stop it and its rider.
Instead of trying to solve an unsolvable problem, why not focus on the one in front of them. The one that just became easier to tackle? It was a no brainer.
☀☀☀
Rissana was bored… though that was understandable.
As a dragon who only turned 118 this year, she was supposed to be in the prime of her life, at her most active and energetic. Where amassing wealth be it through conquest or pillaging was supposed to be her pastime.
Yet, here she was, without a den or any proper treasures to her name after six long years in the outside world. Sure, the king had constructed a palace for her and filled her sleeping quarters to the brim with shiny gold coins. But that was it.
There was none of those rare treasures or items that would make other dragons jealous and envious of her. To make matters worse, she couldn't go out and plunder the wealth in the various cities due to the agreement between the kingdom and her elders.
She could only sleep and pass the time, making do with the bed of gold in her palace. And even that had now been taken from her.
Acutely aware of the wet and cold stone floor holding up her beautiful body, she waved one of her thick dragon claws and fiddled with a corpse of one of the servants responsible for bringing her food and carting away her shit.
Her mind was elsewhere, thinking of what Kalyk, her rider, had told her about this trip.
Apparently, some bugs had found their way into this plane and the knights were planning a crusade into the Greenland forest to eradicate them. The young dragon didn't care about this.
Bugs would always be bugs. Who was she? She was Rissana. In the past one hundred years of the dragon cliff's history, no other dragon had come close to the melting pot that was her young age, beauty, and power.
Her suitors could fill an entire valley and the poems they wrote about her could be read for three days and three nights without stop. She deserved more than this.
However, boredom had become the norm for her. The unlucky fellow underneath her claws relieved some of it. His only mistake was getting too close and breathing in the poison mists she exhaled in her bad mood.
When he fell down twitching, the others went white as sheets and she even recalled one of them, the smell of urine on him to be exact. This infuriated her further and she whipped her thorn-covered tail towards him, reducing him to a chunky smear.
Just as she entertained the thought of killing another human to quell her boredom, she heard the familiar roll of cart wheels on the ground accompanied by the desperate cries of livestock.
'Is it feeding time again,' the young dragon craned her neck lazily and wondered.
Having feasted to her heart's content the day before, Rissana didn't have much interest in the food being delivered.
It wasn't until she caught a whiff of something different that she angled her nose upward and sniffed aggressively, her whole body rising as her large slitted eyes zeroed in on one of the carts like a magnet.
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Author's note:
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