A map? Saving the best for last; from the sound of it, it was more precious than all the treasures and equipment on her person.
Garros's gaze swept over the scattered coins she had pulled out, then fixed upon the Rogue.
"If I kill you, these things will still be mine."
He said, "You use my things to trade with me? This hardly seems enough to buy your life."
The Rogue knelt on the scorched earth, her trembling hands holding a roll of yellowed parchment. She had already stripped off her leather armor, and her undergarments were soaked through with cold sweat. Traces of her companions' blood still splattered her forehead.
Under the moonlight, the edges of the map in her hands shimmered with a faint metallic luster, appearing like anti-counterfeit patterns woven from Mithril thread—certainly not something an ordinary adventurer would possess.
"If you kill me, you will only obtain an ordinary map. It requires a special method to reveal the path."
The Rogue pleaded, "I ask for nothing else but to live. Please, forgive my previous offense."
Garros did not answer. His tail gently coiled around the map. Each dragon scale was as sharp as a blade, yet under his control, they pressed flat together, leaving the map unscratched.
Picking up the map with his claws, Garros examined it closely.
It was covered in a chaotic mess of threads, showing no trace of a map, as if it had been encrypted in some way.
"Raise your head and look at me."
"Speak. Where did a low-level adventurer like you get a clue about a Legendary Alchemical Item?"
Garros asked.
Though he was a young dragon, his words already carried an unquestionable authority that made the Rogue instinctively raise her head.
"This is a natural-born, super Evil Dragon still in its youth; our luck is just too rotten to have encountered such a Dragonkin." The Rogue was terrified, her body trembling under the gaze of the Red-Iron Young Dragon's black pupils as she said, "It was like this..."
She recounted the sequence of events haltingly.
Due to her current state of fear and panic, her words were somewhat disorganized, but Garros still understood the process.
In short:
The Rogue had swiped this map from a greenhorn adventurer at a tavern using her Seduction and Thievery skills.
While he was drunk.
The greenhorn had bragged that the map concerned the whereabouts of a Legendary Alchemical Item. It came from the lost Grey Dwarves' dungeon, and the place marked on it was [Marnes]—the site of the former dungeon.
Within the Marnes Dungeon lay the corpses of thousands of Grey Dwarves.
Its fall was said to be caused by the Legendary Alchemical Item going out of control, and the tool itself was lost within the Grey Dwarves' dungeon as a result.
The Grey Dwarves' dungeon, Marnes.
It had indeed existed and once flourished, producing many powerful weapons and equipment, some of which still circulate today.
However, with the passage of time and the changing of eras.
Following the destruction of Marnes and its burial by the earth, very few people knew where the dungeon was actually located.
News of the Legendary Alchemical Item still attracts many adventurers to explore, but they find nothing because they cannot locate Marnes.
At first, the Rogue didn't believe the greenhorn's map recorded the location of the Marnes Dungeon.
But later, a Count from her city-state flew into a rage and issued a warrant.
Only then did she realize that the adventurer was the Count's son.
Obsessed with adventure stories, the Count's son had stolen the map from home, intending to form a party to explore, only to be hit hard by reality.
Before he even left the city or formed a team, his purse and map were swiped by the Rogue. If it hadn't been for the crowd and the noise, he probably wouldn't have had even his underwear left.
Garros shook the map and said, "Your words sound like a vague story rather than fact."
The existence of the Grey Dwarves' dungeon was mentioned in his Legacy.
It was a dungeon buried in the torrent of history; that part was true.
As for the cause of its destruction, opinions varied. The most widely circulated version was the Rogue's claim: it was destroyed by a Legendary Alchemical Item going out of control.
There were other theories as well.
For example:
That it was destroyed by Divine Punishment because it touched upon the true essence of Alchemy, which the gods could not tolerate.
Indeed. Among the many bizarre theories, the one about the Legendary Alchemical Item going out of control was actually quite credible.
As for the Grey Dwarves.
These sapient beings belonged to the Dwarves, possessing their strength and exceptional talent for forging. However, their personalities were starkly different from normal Dwarves—insidious and malicious, they hated most races and were generally unwelcome by any other species, dwelling in dungeons year-round.
Meanwhile.
The Rogue guaranteed urgently, "I swear by the peace of my fallen companions! I swear by my own grandparents! Nothing I have said is a lie!"
Garros grinned. "You know the price of deceiving a dragon is ten times more terrifying than death."
He looked at the Rogue and threw the map back to her.
"Point out the location of the dungeon to me."
Hearing this, the Rogue hesitated.
This was her only bargaining chip with the dragon before her; she didn't want to give it up directly.
After some thought, a humble and fawning smile appeared on the Rogue's face, and she asked tentatively, "Noble Dragon, once you know the coordinates of the dungeon, can you forgive my offense?"
Offense?
Garros didn't care about that.
He smiled and said, "I guarantee in my mother's name that I do not care about your offense. I will allow you to leave my territory safely. The life or death of a weak existence like yours is not worth my concern."
The situation was clear.
The Rogue had no room to bargain and feared angering the Evil Dragon, so she played along and flattered him, saying, "I believe in your promise. A dragon's promise is more precious than gems. For an excellent dragon like you, a single word is worth more than ten thousand gold pieces."
Immediately after.
Holding the map, the Rogue walked to an open space under Garros's gaze, held the map up to the moonlight, and then tore it to shreds.
The fragments fluttered, but they did not land on the ground.
They danced and spun in the air, gathering once more to transform back into a brand-new map.
Garros picked it up to look again.
Etched upon it was a portion of the wilderness landscape, including the Hemlock Hills, as well as barrens, lakes, and forests. It was exquisitely detailed, and in the southeast corner, a circle was outlined with silver thread, marking a special location.
"According to the map's markings, the Marnes Dungeon is located beneath an Abandoned Mine."
The Rogue said fawningly, "With your strength and wisdom, you will surely obtain the Legendary Alchemical Item and become a powerful dragon that awes the wilderness in the future."
Garros stared at the map and ignored her, merely waving a claw at her. Samantha also curiously craned her head to look, her gaze falling on the map.
The Rogue slowly backed away.
Garros glanced at her but did not stop her.
Seeing that he had no intention of stopping her from leaving, the Rogue turned and walked into the thick night, then began to run for her life. She didn't dare to stop for a moment, weaving between the massive hemlocks on the hills.