This Necromancer Just Wants to Plant Trees - Chapter 94

When the pair of slender, backward-tilted dragon horns appeared in Matthew's field of vision atop the dragon's head, his first reaction was one of astonishment.

"A red dragon?"

No, that wasn't right.

Soon, he realized that the dragon before him was far from a true red dragon. The horns on its head resembled those of a red dragon, but below the neck, things took a different turn. Under the dense and rough scales, this creature had a bloated, short, and swollen neck that almost merged with its fat body.

This could be seen through the gaps in the collapsed buildings.

This dragon was almost as plump as a flattened meatball!

Matthew quickly composed himself.

This was a typical earthfire dragon, possessing at least a quarter of red dragon bloodline. Judging from its appearance, it was highly likely a hybrid between a red dragon and an earth dragon. In other words, a genuine earthfire dragon.

While such a creature was not to be underestimated, it was still a far cry from a true dragon.

After the dragon's roar, a large number of rainforest creatures scattered in fear.

The head of the earthfire dragon gently rested on the remains of a wooden structure.

Its gleaming vertical pupils stared at Matthew's group.

Then, a majestic voice resounded in their ears:

"Save me!"

"Please, save me!"

Matthew turned to Peggy.

The elven mage shrugged, "They didn't allow me inside, just said it was a secret place. But I heard Blorken mention that he captured a fire dragon to use for breeding."

Breeding?

Matthew looked back at the obese earthfire dragon.

The creature began to sob, tears and snot flowing, "That's right, that damned necromancer Blorken kept me in the desert for a whole five years! Five years, do you know how I survived? Every day, it was either eating or breeding. I was being driven mad by him!"

"Don't be fooled by my appearance. I used to be agile. But it was all due to Blorken's schemes and the immense pressure from breeding over the years that I ended up like this."

"It's all that cursed Blorken's fault! Oh, by the way, you heroes, you must have taken care of that scoundrel Blorken, right?"

Matthew looked at him curiously, "You speak the common language quite fluently."

"Thank you," the earthfire dragon, now identified as Afei, replied politely. "I'm Arutlun. My grandfather was a powerful red dragon, but my father was just a dim-witted earthfire dragon obsessed with fighting and mating. Fortunately, my elven mother, who's also a mage, saved my lineage by enhancing my intelligence and charisma. You'll see, once I slim down, I'll look quite handsome."

Saying this, Arutlun tried to scratch his chin with his five claws but couldn't reach due to his immense size. Matthew quickly cast five precise arcane missiles to help him out.

Matthew turned to his team and discussed for a while. They felt that the earthfire dragon posed no immediate threat and decided to enter the central tower to assess the situation, and then make a call on whether to free this dragon, who had mixed bloodlines and considerable intelligence.

Despite the partial collapse of the tower, some sections were still intact.

Matthew and his team entered cautiously.

Inside the tower, they found that the lower half of the earthfire dragon, Arutlun, was even fatter. His belly and hindquarters occupied around two-thirds of the tower's space, leaving his legs, tail, and tiny wings squished beneath, making him resemble a sphere more than a dragon.

Arutlun's body was interspersed with over thirty thick iron chains, each inscribed with magical runes.

"Are these runes used to restrict your movements?" Matthew asked.

Arutlun replied, "No, some of them assist me in moving around. As you can see, I'm too fat now, and I can't even turn over by myself."

Though he had been imprisoned for breeding for five years, Arutlun still seemed optimistic. "The other runes, well, those attached to my belly and tail, they are used to stimulate mating."

"Cursed Blorken, you can't imagine what he did to me!"

While Matthew and his companions examined the tower's interior, they chatted with Arutlun.

"How did he capture you?" Matthew inquired.

Arutlun sighed, "Initially, I was living carefreely deep within the shadowy realm, but one day, the small black dragons of the Frost City went crazy. They demanded double the tributes from all the creatures around our nests. At that time, I was struggling to feed myself, so how could I provide double the tribute?"

"I had no choice but to move closer to the surface three times."

Not long after my last move, I encountered Blorken. At first, he disguised himself well and, seeing my insatiable appetite, tempted me with copious amounts of cattle and sheep blood. I couldn't resist his enticements, and I kept eating and growing fatter. We even became friends."

"After about half a year, I had transformed from a healthy, handsome lad into a round meatball. It was then that Blorken finally revealed his ugly face and forced me into breeding for him. I was unwilling, but at that point, I was too overweight to put up any resistance. In the aftermath, I was imprisoned on the territory of the Dragon Worshipers, enduring their torment day and night."

"I truly regret these years."

"If only I had taken one less bite back then, could I have run faster and escaped that cursed necromancer's clutches?"

He spoke with a tone of regret.

Matthew chuckled and then asked curiously, "What animals did Blorken make you mate with?"

"Oh, there were many, many of them. At first, mammoths, rhinoceroses, crocodiles, giant camels... I tried them all. During that time, I was quite content. I thought that, even though I had been deceived, life wasn't so bad. But soon, my nightmares began. One day, he brought back two terrifying creatures, and a few days later, he told me that I could only mate with those creatures continuously. I was really infuriated at that time."

"And what's even more annoying is that they were insatiable. Sometimes, I felt like they were draining the fat off my body, but I didn't lose an ounce. It's maddening!"

Arutlun complained.

"In any case, I really don't want to mention the names of those disgusting creatures. You'll see them soon enough."

And Arutlun wasn't wrong.

Before long, the group arrived at a large number of giant cages on the ground floor of the tower. They saw ugly creatures with eight legs, short fine fur, and densely packed compound eyes.

...

"Nurturing Spider (Level 11/Giant Creature/Ancient Creature): Skilled in reproducing and breeding with various species, offspring mostly inherit the abilities and forms of the male; their method of reproduction follows the male's inheritance."

At a glance, Matthew understood why the earthfire dragons, driven by the Dragon Worshipers, looked more like spiders in terms of physique.

"It's really a result of large-scale hybridization between earthfire dragons and spiders," Matthew could safely conclude.

Blorken continually extracted the reproductive potential of Arutlun and the Nurturing Spiders using the technology he had at his disposal, which allowed him to obtain a large number of cheap and inferior dragon eggs. After rapidly maturing and hatching these eggs, most of the hatchlings turned into Dragon Mountain Ash, consigned to a black pit.

Blorken collected vast amounts of this material, which, if used for the Dragon Mage-Warrior transformation ritual, could potentially create hundreds of Dragon Mage-Warriors.

This material undoubtedly had other uses.

And those earthfire dragons, while no match for Matthew and Bobo with their coordination, would pose a significant challenge for ordinary adventuring parties. Moreover, the Dragon Worshipers' primary targets for their raids were usually ordinary people.

"Judging by the number of dragon eggs in the breeding facility, although it has been recently established, it was indeed prepared for a long-term conflict. But something happened later, which made Blorken completely abandon this idea, and then he disappeared."

Matthew walked along the cages of the Nurturing Spiders.

These spiders looked dull and sluggish, lacking even basic instincts.

"They seem not very intelligent, and even lack basic biological instincts," Matthew said in confusion.

"That's right, so mating with them is utterly uninteresting—"

"I mean, 'Nurturing Spiders' are indeed not normal creatures. When Blorken introduced them to me, he proudly stated that he obtained these creatures from a big shot within the Seven Saints Alliance. If you ask me, this is certainly something created by some mage in a laboratory! Such a purely mechanical creature could never exist in the natural world."

Arutlun explained.

At this moment, Li Weiqi, who had been examining the cages, solemnly said to Matthew, "He's right. Nurturing Spiders are not natural creatures, at least not creatures that should exist in today's natural world. I sensed an 'aura' of disharmony from them, which means they have traces of artificial synthesis."

"Not natural creatures? What do you mean?"

Matthew was puzzled.

"They are ancient creatures, products of magic resurrection, but magic often only revives a few specific traits of ancient creatures, and this flaw often leads to many fatal side effects."

Li Weiqi turned to Huiyi, who was weak:

"I heard that the Seven Saints Alliance conducted several rounds of 'Ancient Mythical Creature Resurrection' experiments. Were these spiders a part of it?"

Huiyi shrugged, "I'm just an extra-mural employee responsible for running errands. Whatever the boss asks me to do, I do. Even if such a project exists, it's not my place to know."

Matthew's mind raced.

He had heard about this project from Tower Spirit 177.

Next.

The group quickly checked and tallied the supplies in the central tower.

Except for the jar that Matthew found in the storage room, which appeared to have once contained a substantial amount of Dragon Mountain Ash but had been taken by someone.

The rest of the items mostly matched what they knew about the Dragon Worshipers.

These thirty-plus Nurturing Spiders had significant magical research value. Matthew had originally planned to transport them back to Rolling Stone Town. Unfortunately, Arutlun informed him that these spiders needed to be fed regularly with Blorken's mana and blood to stay alive. With Blorken missing for several days, many of the spiders were showing signs of deterioration and would soon die.

This left Matthew feeling regretful. For now, he had to leave the spiders in iron cages, planning to take their corpses later. They could be used as materials for summoning advanced undead creatures like the "Hades Spider" or "Frostbite Dead Spider."

The rescue operation for Arutlun was a long and strenuous process.

Fortunately, Lysanna had summoned many Jango people to assist.

Even so, with multiple people working together, it took several hours to remove the iron chains that were piercing the earthfire dragons.

The dragons' heads were now heavy with sleep.

It seemed that Lysanna's words held true.

After leaving the central tower, Matthew checked the other buildings of the dragon breeding facility. Once they had collected everything they needed, it was time to destroy the entire place.

...

By the afternoon, all the buildings in the breeding facility, except the central tower, had been demolished. When Arutlun was successfully rescued, this place would be set ablaze.

From now on, the threat of the Dragon Worshipers to the Rainforest would be temporarily removed.

Matthew, Reiga, and Li Weiqi discussed their plan for handling the captured cultists. After breaching the breeding facility, they had taken about twenty cultists into their custody, including three high-ranking members: the necromancer Port, the Dragonblood Warrior Kombototra, and the fairy sorceress Bai.

Combining Huiyi's recommendation, Matthew intended to send all of them to the "Blacksear Mountain Fortress." It was where the Seven Saints Alliance held trials and incarcerated prisoners.

This choice was made for two main reasons. First, Huiyi informed them that although he couldn't contact the Alliance headquarters, he could still communicate with the Blacksear Mountain Fortress to the west of the desert. As per the Alliance's usual procedure, captured cultists would be sent directly to Blacksear Mountain or similar institutions.

The second reason was the high bounties placed on the Dragon Worshiper members by the Seven Saints Alliance. For Dragonfang-ranked members, the rewards for capturing them alive usually ranged between 2000 and 2500 gold coins, while killing one would only fetch around 500 coins. Ordinary cultists were worth approximately 50 gold coins each. For financial reasons, they decided not to kill these people outright.

Matthew estimated that these captives could earn them roughly 7500 to 9000 gold coins. This bounty was nearly as significant as the magic crystals they had obtained in the underground dungeon.

The only minor hiccup occurred when cross-referencing the captive list. Huiyi mentioned that the presence of Bai, the fairy sorceress, was awkward because she had only recently joined, and the Alliance had not offered a reward for her. If they were to transfer her to prison, she would be treated as a regular cultist.

At this point, Bai suggested that she would pay her own ransom. Matthew was initially tempted but eventually decided to hand over the fairy sorceress to the Seven Saints Alliance. However, he proposed an alternative approach.

Over the next few days, the group resided in the central tower. The empty iron cages became temporary holding cells for the Dragon Worshiper captives. They continued the rescue operation for Arutlun while awaiting the arrival of Blacksear Mountain Prison's field agents. At the same time, they remained vigilant for the possible return of Blorken.

Soon, two days had passed. As the deadline for defection was approaching, Matthew transformed Miss Zombie and Bone Dragon into his summoning spells. Miss Zombie remained a standard summon and did not gain the Silvermoon Zombie's bonus, leaving Matthew somewhat disappointed.

The Bone Dragon, on the other hand, occupied one of Matthew's summon slots, becoming his fifth undead covenant. Compared to Phylorius, this Bone Dragon had average quality and weaker attributes, being roughly equivalent to the strength of two ordinary zombies. After signing the covenant, Matthew simply tossed it into the Negative Energy Plane, allowing it to gather bones on its own.

However, the strength of this Bone Dragon was not particularly important. Its very existence held significant meaning for Matthew.

In addition, the mission he received in the Blackthorn Dreamland to expel the Dragon Worshipers had been marked as completed. Possibly because the level of violence in their approach was not too high, Matthew had only gained three druid spells in the end.

...

"Beast's Awareness: You touch a willing beast. While the spell is in effect, you directly experience the sensory perceptions of the beast, including its special senses. However, during this time, your own body is considered blind and deaf."

"Plant Localization: You call the name of a certain plant, and all plants of that kind within a 10-kilometer radius will respond to you."

"Prodigious Leaf Bloom: You grasp a large group of leaves from any plant and cause them to wither within about 5 seconds. During this time, you or your allies will recover a certain amount of health. Overusing this spell may lead to misdirection, so use it cautiously! Daily usage limit: 5."

These three spells all had their uses. In particular, "Prodigious Leaf Bloom" was Matthew's first healing spell. Now, he could finally provide support to his team from the rear during battles. As for the part about potentially leading to misdirection, Matthew thought that his alignment as a necromancer was already so deviant that this minor deviation didn't matter.

On the third evening, a floating airship from Blacksear Mountain Fortress, used for prisoner transport, finally arrived near the ruins of the breeding facility.

This time, upon receiving the magical message from Huiyi, Blacksear Mountain urgently dispatched two field enforcement officers to take custody of the Dragon Worshiper captives.

The names of these two officers were Dave and Macbeth, both fourth-tier mages with years of experience at Blacksear Mountain.

Interestingly, Macbeth recognized Reiga; they had briefly chatted at a banquet hosted by Archmage Ronan several years ago. Although they didn't reminisce for long after this reunion, their prior connection built trust between them, and the handover went smoothly.

Macbeth informed Reiga that under normal circumstances, prisoners transported to Blacksear Mountain would only receive half their bounties upon initial delivery, with the remainder paid after a formal court trial. However, due to Huiyi emphasizing their bravery and contributions in his magical message, Blacksear Mountain made an exception and directly transferred the full rewards.

So, Matthew's party received a substantial reward, Dave and Macbeth successfully captured a group of significant criminals, and everyone was content. But not wanting to delay their work, the farewells were short.

After loading everyone onto the ship, Huiyi boarded as well, explaining that he needed to report to Blacksear Mountain for work. Matthew waved goodbye as the airship set off, and he continued watching until the vessel disappeared on the horizon.

It was only after the dark silhouette had vanished into the desert that his smile slowly faded.

"Is everything marked as planned?" Matthew asked Li Weiqi.

Li Weiqi nodded solemnly. "Yes, it's all marked. The ship is confirmed to be from Blacksear Mountain, and the people are from the Seven Saints Alliance."

Matthew's expression became somewhat complicated as he looked into the setting sun. "Most likely, tonight, we will finally learn the truth behind why Blorken suddenly vanished."

"Let's hope I'm just overthinking it."

Night fell.

Near the central tower, by a campfire, Li Weiqi hurriedly approached Matthew once more.

Matthew didn't wait for him to speak but nodded, indicating he was already aware of everything.

On the data panel:

...

"Notification: The 'Necromancer Port' and 'Dragonblood Warrior Kombototra' you marked have both died!"

...

"It won't be long before we hear news of the Blacksear Mountain airship's accident or a dragon crashing," Matthew sighed helplessly.

"This world is indeed complex and cruel."

Li Weiqi's expression remained unchanged. He sat down beside Matthew by the campfire and prodded the flames with a twig absentmindedly.

"So, Blorken's reason for abandoning the Dragon Worshipers is now clear."

"He just wanted to stay alive."

Matthew nodded lightly. "I couldn't understand it at first. When Blorken was negotiating with me, he was aggressive. I couldn't figure out why he vanished after our negotiations."

"Now, looking back, he must have severely misjudged my identity during the negotiation. He saw Huiyi by my side and knew of my association with the Seven Saints Alliance. This panicked him, thinking I was the first step in a League attempt to test him. What followed would be his inevitable demise."

"The reason it took me so long to realize this was probably due to a lingering idealistic view I held of the Seven Saints Alliance deep inside."

"The Alliance has allowed the Dragon Worshipers to grow for years, possibly because of internal resistance."

"And Huiyi mentioned he was sent by the Alliance to monitor Blorken. But in the end, only he knows whether he was really monitoring or cooperating. After all, he guided us to confront Blorken from the beginning."

"The Alliance typically only pays half of the bounties in advance, and the enthusiasm shown by Dave and Macbeth is likely to ensure our silence. After all, I have Ronan's guardian on me, and you and Reiga were there, so they dared not harbor evil intentions."

"The Dragon Breeding Facility is destroyed, Dragon Worshipers are dead or fled, and even the leader, Blorken, has disappeared like a drowned rat."

"In a few days, people will start celebrating, and one major threat will be eliminated from the world."

"But who would have thought that the infamous, universally detested Dragon Worshiper High Priest Number Three, Blorken, was probably the hidden glove of someone influential within the Alliance?"

"Out of the Dragon Mountain Ash and other forbidden materials that Blorken was aggressively collecting, how much did he use for himself, and how much did he deliver to those behemoths lurking in the shadows of the Seven Saints Alliance?"

"I don't know..."

"I don't know."

The crackling firelight flickered on Matthew's face. He appeared somewhat saddened, somewhat resigned, but most of all, there was a thread of anger.

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