Lord: Starting from a Goblin Nest

Fight or flee?

Ron’s Dispel Magic landed on the Vine Monster, but the multicolored Spiritual Light surrounding it didn’t diminish in the slightest. It was obvious the old Green Dragon’s mastery of Magic was far superior to their own. Even the Magic on a mere guard monster was beyond his ability to easily dispel.

BAM!

Sera was sent flying by the Vine Monster’s tentacle again, crashing back into Victoria’s Array. The barbarian had been trying to attack relentlessly, but with little effect. Aside from severing a few thin rootlets at its extremities, she had achieved no greater success.

”Ron, we should retreat!” Aiksuuri flapped his wings. ”I can carry the goblin and one other person besides Aive—this thing is just too tough!”

”Luckily, it’s slow. We can still get away!”

”Ron?”

The young Black Dragon looked quizzically at the Mage, who was still flipping through his Spellbook. He couldn’t understand why Ron wouldn’t give up, even when it was clear their opponent was too difficult to defeat.

”I don’t think we necessarily have to defeat it,” Ron said, looking up. He took a Snake Tongue and a small piece of honeycomb from his alchemy pouch. ”Its purpose is to drive out intruders, right?”

”So, what if we’re no longer intruders?”

”Suggestion!”

”We are guests, invited by the Green Dragon Auson Munielp. You must not continue to expel or harm us, unless your master gives you new instructions!”

”Sera! Delaford! Stop attacking it!”

While he was Casting, Ron’s words seemed to possess an incredible power. The layer of Magic on the Vine Monster that Aiksuuri had tried to dispel earlier seemed to have been meant to counter this very situation, but now it was utterly useless.

Beneath the debris piled on the Vine Monster, a red light flashed and vanished. After a brief pause, the unstoppable creature slowly turned and began to move away from Ron and the others.

”Suggestion Magic. A brilliant idea. And you spoke in the Dragon Language, which it could understand,” Silvia said with a sigh of relief. ”Its master is long dead. For the next eight hours, it shouldn’t attack us again.”

”That was close! I thought I was going to be eaten by a plant!” Delaford plopped onto the ground. ”I tried to use Speak with Animals to communicate with it, but it was totally useless!”

”That’s because it’s not an animal at all,” Aiksuuri said as he landed. ”It’s an animated plant.”

”Silvia, did you say we have eight hours?” Aive asked, looking at the Vampire Descendant. ”We should have enough time to explore this area, then.”

”Theoretically, yes,” Silvia said, leaping onto the Vine Monster, which didn’t react at all. ”Unless these things are mass-produced, or you harm it and it snaps out of the spell.”

”Where did you guys run off to before? How did you manage to provoke this big fellow?”

”Where else? The Green Dragon’s treasury,” Victoria said as she cleaned up the residual traces of Casting from the ground. ”Delaford claimed he could pick the lock on the treasury door without alerting the guard. Apparently, he failed.”

”Who would’ve thought the vines wrapped around the door were its hands!” the goblin protested. ”It cheated! It’s not my fault my skills weren’t good enough!”

”In any case, thanks to Ron’s Suggestion Magic, we can now freely enter the Green Dragon’s treasury,” Aiksuuri said excitedly, following behind the Vine Monster. ”I’m going to take everything in here! You all have to help me!”

”Of course.” Aiksuuri’s hoard was their warehouse; there was no way Ron and the others would refuse something like that.

”This Vine Monster is so slow!” Trailing behind it, even short-legged Delaford was getting bored. He could easily overtake it without even trying to speed up. ”Let’s just ignore it and rush ahead!”

With that, the goblin took advantage of Aiksuuri’s inattention, vaulting onto his back. ”Barbecue Knight, forward to the Green Dragon’s treasure! Charge!”

”Get off me!” The Young Dragon was caught off guard and thrashed about, trying to throw the goblin off. ”Haven’t I told you all before that I don’t like being ridden!”

”And what’s with that name? What the hell is a ’Barbecue Knight’?!”

”We bonded over barbecue! Just let me have my fun!” The newly-minted ”Dragon Knight” Delaford used all of his goblin cunning to justify staying on the dragon’s back. ”Aiksuuri, you don’t want Ron to pick out all the best treasures first, do you?”

The young Black Dragon: ”...What’s with that tone!”

But Aiksuuri thought for a moment. ’If Ron and the others get to the treasury with me, according to our contract, the good stuff will have to go through Ron’s hands before they get to mine. But if I get there first—’

”Then hold on tight! I’m speeding up!”

With a whoosh and a powerful beat of his wings, the Young Dragon shot past the Vine Monster with Delaford on his back, heading straight for the depths of the passage.

The Young Dragon wasn’t large, so he had no problem flying even inside the old Giant Dragon’s lair.

”Aren’t you going to chase them, Benefactor?” Silvia asked, lying lazily on the Vine Monster’s head. ”I don’t plan on moving. I’m tired from today, so I’m just going to take a nap on this thing.”

’Tell me about it...’ The two Mages found common ground on this point. If he wasn’t too embarrassed to kick Silvia off, Ron would have wanted to rest on the Vine Monster for a bit himself.

By the time Ron and the others, following the Vine Monster, finally reached the Green Dragon’s treasury, a certain goblin and a young dragon had already been reveling inside for quite some time.

”Ron, look! So many Gold Coins!” The goblin held up a big pile of Gold Coins, showing them off to Ron. ”We’re going to be rich!”

”A five-hundred-year-old Green Dragon... I hope I have this much treasure when I’m that age!” Aiksuuri purred comfortably, lying on a pile of Gold Coins with a gold and red crown perched on his head.

”Well, haven’t you already achieved it?” Sera sat down, leaning against a small mountain of treasure and casually scooping up a handful of Gold Coins. ”You’ve inherited quite the family fortune. Can your own treasury even hold all of this?”

”I’ll expand it as soon as I get back!” Aiksuuri said quickly. ”No need to trouble you all with storing it for me, absolutely not!”

”I can dig caves very fast!”

No Giant Dragon dislikes treasure. Even a Young Dragon whose hoard wasn’t entirely his own would do his best to keep the riches close.