Chapter 418 – The Arrived Caravan

Huaibien Kingdom, Rock Sand City.

Rock Sand City was an authentic desert city. As the royal capital of the Huaibien Kingdom, this city lacked conventional walls. Built within a desert valley, it was surrounded by rocky mountains that served as its natural fortifications. These thick, sturdy mountains had only one artificially carved passage leading to the hidden city within. Anyone attempting to climb from elsewhere would have to endure the perpetual desert storms raging on the slopes.

Though serving as the capital, Rock Sand City’s gates remained rather desolate. Difficult transportation in the vast desert was always the greatest obstacle to the development of desert cities. Only a handful of daring merchants dared to travel between two cities, as journeys through the desert were extremely dangerous for humans—even for the royal capital.

It was the thirty-second day of the Tender Season. With the sun’s rays growing increasingly scorching, every creature dwelling in the Raging Wave Sand Sea could clearly sense that the Blazing Season was approaching. This year’s Blazing Season would be filled with high temperatures, scorching heat, and intense light, just like previous years. The sand would be baked until it rivaled iron plates glowing in charcoal fires, and the air temperature would feel suffocating.

For fifty days—the entire duration of the Blazing Season—there would not be a single drop of precipitation in the entire Raging Wave Sand Sea. Any city, kingdom, or family that failed to store sufficient water or attach themselves to a prosperous oasis would experience the agonizing pain of thirst in this parched hell.

At this time, the Huaibien Kingdom had nearly ceased all activities to focus on inspecting wells and accumulating water sources in oases. Everyone had to ensure every well remained unobstructed and every oasis lake maintained ample water reserves.

The busy yet eerily quiet Rock Sand City currently hosted almost no caravans. Even the bravest merchants dared not cross the entire desert during the Blazing Season. However, at the city gates, a small caravan with five giant Bactrian camels had unusually come to a halt.

Without a doubt, this was the caravan Ovakain was traveling with.

Following Ovakain’s request, the caravan—having just escaped the goat-headed men—had discarded all their goods and raced almost nonstop to the royal capital. Now, the entire caravan waited quietly for Ovakain’s next instructions. Though the merchants inwardly lamented their lost goods, they cautiously maintained smiling faces when dealing with Ovakain.

“……Honored sir, as per your instructions, we have reached the royal capital. Our scouts are paying the entry fees. Do you have any other requests?”

Seeing Ovakain and Aisha dismount from the giant Bactrian camels, the eager head caravan leader quickly trotted over to greet them. His smiling face suggested genuine honor at Ovakain’s presence, but in reality—within the black dragon’s considerably restored perception—this kindly-looking, benevolent uncle of a leader was nearly overflowing with hatred and resentment.However, Ovakain was not angered by the caravan leader’s internal cursing directed at him. After all, this caravan had lost all its goods, and the loss of these goods alone was enough to bankrupt the leader. Unaware that he had narrowly escaped death and only knowing that he had been forced by an inexplicable professional to discard the cargo, the leader’s resentment was understandable. Ovakain fully sympathized with the grief and indignation of someone who had lost all their possessions yet still had to feign gratitude to save their life.

Thus, even though the leader’s internal curses were harsh, Ovakain pretended to know nothing and retrieved several diamond-encrusted solid gold sculptures from his Storage Ring.

These sculptural artworks had been gifted to Ovakain by the subjects of the Dragon Roar Kingdom. Though these “treasures” served no purpose to the black dragon beyond satisfying a dragon’s aesthetic sensibilities, they ultimately represented the heartfelt intentions of his people, and Ovakain had accepted them without qualms at the time.

Now, neither his subjects nor the once-prosperous Dragon Roar Kingdom remained. Gazing at these glittering golden artifacts only brought Ovakain sorrow. Seizing this opportunity, he decided to give them all away—after all, for a rational mage, lifeless crafts could offer no spiritual solace.

After hesitating briefly while holding the jingling treasures, Ovakain resolutely wrapped up the sculptures and shoved them into the leader’s arms.

“Here, take these as my gratitude for saving my life. Don’t worry about any schemes from your financial backer—inform them I’ll be residing in the royal capital for a long time. If they have any thoughts, they’re welcome to seek me out.”

After stuffing the pile of dazzling art sculptures into the stunned leader’s arms, Ovakain turned and headed straight for Rock Sand City’s entrance without another glance at the dumbfounded deputy leader and merchants. Following silently behind him was Aisha, now draped in a long robe.

This marked the end of Ovakain’s intention to further interact with the caravan. His mere presence brought only calamity, and the safest choice for these merchants was to stay far away from him.

Walking lonesomely along Rock Sand City’s main thoroughfare, Ovakain allowed himself a moment to taste the faint melancholy in his heart before steeling his resolve. He decided to ask Aisha about the residence of the Master-Level Kingdom Protector in the Huaibien Kingdom.

Generally speaking, most professionals who became Kingdom Protectors belonged to benevolent alignments. Having already suffered two defeats at Punk’s hands, Ovakain didn’t believe his current state could overcome Punk. Thus, he sought to find himself an ally.Perhaps inspired by Punk, Ovakain now also had the idea of setting traps. In fact, the black dragon was wildly planning to use himself as bait to lure Punk into a trap. As a spellcaster who had reached level 19 and was half-step into the Legendary realm, Ovakain was confident that the traps he set would be no worse than Punk’s. However, as a Lawful good black dragon, his principles required him to seek permission from the owner of the location when using someone else’s property to set traps. The owner of this “location”—the Huaibien Kingdom—was undoubtedly its Kingdom Protector.

With various considerations and plans in mind, the troubled black dragon finally stopped in front of a shop.

“Aisha, there’s something I need to tell you…”

Ovakain’s voice was calm. According to his plan, after inquiring about the information, he would distance himself from the young girl Aisha, not wanting to bring disaster upon the innocent maiden.

But when he turned to look at Aisha, Ovakain unexpectedly heard her speaking simultaneously. Most coincidentally—the words spoken by both were astonishingly identical.

“Sir, there’s something I need to tell you…”

Though the content was exactly the same, compared to Ovakain’s deliberately calm tone, Aisha’s voice sounded much more subdued and conflicted.

(End of Chapter)