Chapter 10 Sifreya

"Uncle, take care on your way."

Noah watched with great enthusiasm as his foster father and his Pioneer Knights descended the mountain, then turned his gaze to two small mounds at the entrance of the Dragon Nest.

His recent restraint was against the dragon species' instincts, not aligning with the world's understanding of the Dragon Clan, and it even changed his foster father's perception of him, as evidenced by the different expression in his eyes.

Gold and gemstones, of course Casius wouldn't touch them. Noah's assessment that this iron-blooded, cold lord was like the Dragon Clan was not wrong; the man valued face highly and wouldn't take back the spoils he had given.

"Seems like I gained some favor?"

Though there was no systematic data to reference, Noah could sense a bit of change.

As a dragon species, Noah naturally liked gold and gemstones. Who could refuse? Even as a human, he felt the same. However, he could temporarily suppress the greed from his instincts to seek longer-term benefits.

If his foster father succeeded, could he be any worse off?

If not, he'd have to suffer alongside him.

"This batch of gold isn't very pure, it needs some refining, but it's not a big problem."

Noah's attention returned to the pile in front of him, where he raked through some Horseshoe Gold. These irregularly shaped chunks of gold, formed under natural conditions, contained quite a bit of impurity, though they were much better than those in gold mines.

Gold wasn't important to Golden Dragons; gnawing a few bites was sufficient. What truly affected a Golden Dragon were the gemstones.

However, when Noah evaluated the mound of gemstones in front of him, he couldn't help but notice with regret that though there was a large quantity, their quality revealed many flaws and varied sizes of cracks.

These gemstones, much like the batch of pearls sent by Tidel a few days ago, were only good enough for eating, with very few reaching collectible quality.

The grading of magic gems is very simple: shattered, ordinary, flawless, perfect, inheritor.

Most of the gemstones sent by his foster father were shattered, few were of ordinary quality, and only a handful were flawless, barely collectible.

However, the value of gemstones was completely different from that of pearls. Even cracked magic gems could attract low-level mages.

For broken and ordinary gemstones, humans had many subcategories, but for Noah, they were the same; after all, they were just fillers for his stomach.

Flawless-level gemstones were already quite rare, perfect-quality ones were strategic resources for a country, enough to start a war over, and inheritor gems could become the cause of a weak country's downfall.

Foster father Casius and his knights had already disappeared down the mountain; Noah had classified all the gold and gemstones, and the originally quiet flowerbed was suddenly filled with noisy chatter.

"Oh~ this place is so scary."

"Boohoo, Mom, I want to go home."

"Ah! I'm going to die of fright!"

Under Noah's gaze, one by one, tiny Flower Spirits poked their heads out from the flowers, confiding in each other, venting their fear.

However, as these little creatures, relaxing in relief over their survival, looked up, they spotted a six-meter-long giant dragon with scales shimmering in the sunlight, reflecting brilliant radiance as it stared at them, instantly freezing them on the spot; the flowerbed returned to silence in an instant.

"Sister, is that big dragon looking at us?"

"Probably."

"Will it eat us?"

"It probably won't, it's a Golden Dragon."

"But it looks so big."

However, when Noah didn't make any further moves, tiny whispers of discussion arose.

This made Noah's expression turn peculiar, and at this time, a Blue Butterfly Elf hurriedly flapped her wings, flying to a strange flower closer to Noah, and lay on the large flower's bloom,

"Kindly generous Dragon's Son, please forgive their ignorance; they do not understand the nobility and majesty of a Golden Dragon, forgive their disrespectful actions."

"First of all, none of us metallic dragon race, including me, have a taste for elves. We are not Colorful Dragons; you should know this distinction."

Noah looked at the Flower Spirits silenced with fear again in the flowerbed and then lowered his head to look at the Blue Butterfly Elf before him.

"Secondly, have you seen my parents or else you fear me too much?"

Noah noticed that the attitude of the first three Flower Spirits who snuck into the flowerbed early on differed significantly from the newly arrived ones in facing him.

The newly relocated Flower Spirits, though initially terrified by his presence, did not exhibit as much panic-driven fear as these earlier little creatures.

"Yes, when your parents built the Dragon Nest, I secretly saw them from afar."

It was precisely because she had personally seen the might of an adult Golden Dragon before, her horizons had broadened, and even when facing a Golden Dragon, merely a juvenile, she acted with such trepidation.

"If you've seen them, why would you and your companions dare sneak in?"

Noah was somewhat surprised.

"I know, Golden Dragons don't eat elves."

The Blue Butterfly Flower Spirit hesitated a bit, answering with some embarrassment.

Sneaking in without the owner's permission and settling down privately was unethical, and she gambled on the fact that the Golden Dragon wouldn't notice these tiny creatures; even if it did, it wouldn't care.

In some way, her gamble was correct, but unfortunately, she encountered Noah.

"You've got some nerve, tell me, what is your name?"

Living under a dragon's eyes, cohabiting with a dragon, even a Golden Dragon with a storied reputation, could be considered quite courageous.

"Sifreya Lidoverya Palomino..."

"Stop!"

At the moment the little Flower Spirit began, Noah quickly interrupted, a trace of helplessness in his eyes,

"You don't need to state your full name; just tell me the name you and your companions usually use."

"You can call me Sifreya."

The Blue Butterfly Elf appeared somewhat flattered.

"So, Sifreya, are these all the companions you know? Are there more?"

Although these newly relocated Flower Spirits hadn't brought him fruits from the Golden Tree, seeing their presence on its root system meant they had recruitment value.

"Are you willing to harbor more Flower Spirits?"

The Blue Butterfly Elf displayed great excitement; though the Golden Dragon allowed her to recruit companions to settle in the flowerbed, she only summoned some with more stable temperaments, not too many.

Despite being all Flower Spirits, some elves had overly lively and cheerful personalities; sometimes, they would use the slight spells they had mastered to trick other creatures.

Due to this, those mischievous Flower Spirits would be documented separately in books by some travelers, being categorized separately from others, and called pixies.

But in reality, they were the same at their core, all belonging to the category of spirit-like creatures.

If some prank-loving companions offended the Golden Dragon, Sifreya dared not imagine what would happen. Even a hatchling could bring destruction upon all sprite-like creatures in this area.