Chapter 167: Headless Dragon
‘So what if I like two-dimensional wives? Holy crap, I fell into a trap!’
Cordova immediately asked.
‘No, no problem at all, and my conscience feels much better. You go ahead and do your thing~’
Mo Tan replied with unusual calm. After waiting a few seconds and receiving no response, he closed the message bar and looked up at Ji Xiaoge, who was floating in mid-air, asking, “Did you find anything?”
“No, nothing.” Ji Xiaoge shrugged at Mo Tan, floated down in front of him, and shook her head, “The visibility here is too low. I can only make out that it’s a snowfield. Besides that, I can’t see anything else. Hiss~ So cold!”
The young girl shivered in place, hugging her arms, her pretty face a little pale, and the wings that usually fluttered slightly behind her were trembling.
The area where the two of them were currently was covered in snow, and snowflakes were gently drifting down from the sky. Mo Tan, as a knight with high physique, and the Half-Dragon’s advantageous resistance compared to other races, could feel a chill, let alone Ji Xiaoge, who was slender and had a very poor physique.
The latter had already entered the 【Cold】 state; not only was her movement speed affected, but her health points were also slowly dropping at a continuous rate. As time went on, these effects were very likely to intensify.
Different environments, temperatures, and weather conditions would cause various effects on players. Although Wu Zui Company’s official channels hadn’t explained this, it had already spread on the forums, so Mo Tan, who had been reading many posts recently, naturally knew about it.
He remembered that one of the first few posters was a Half-Orc with bat blood. That fellow was spawned on a mountaintop and, according to reports, was sun-baked to death before he could even dream of being a vampire for half a minute…
By the way, his guiding quest was 【Find a shady spot to hide】, which seemed simple but required high reaction speed from the player. As a result, that slow-reacting guy was roasted to death.
“Put this on.” Mo Tan casually took off the burgundy cloak from his back and handed it to Ji Xiaoge, “Although it’s not very thick, it can at least block some wind. I also have warmer heavy armor, but you probably can’t wear it.”
This cloak was one of Mo Tan’s Arena quest rewards. It only required 2 points of physique to wear. Even a Sand Goblin with all 2 attributes back in the day could wear it, but its effect was naturally not very good, offering only extremely low defense and 1 point of agility.
“It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m not having much trouble. This temperature just needs a little getting used to.” Ji Xiaoge shook her head, a little embarrassed, then put her slender hands on her hips and smiled proudly, “Achoo!”
Mo Tan: “…”
“Alright, it does seem a bit cold.” Ji Xiaoge chuckled twice, then wrapped the cloak, which still seemed to have some residual warmth, around herself, and said seriously, “Back equipment seems quite rare. I’ll return it to you after we get down the mountain, achoo!”
Mo Tan shrugged and waved his hand, “That doesn’t matter. Anyway, what we have now is basically transitional equipment, so it’s fine to give it to you, but it needs a little tailoring.”
Ji Xiaoge: “?”
“Right now, you look like you have a tent pitched behind you.” Mo Tan spoke truthfully.
“Haha, it really does look like it!” Ji Xiaoge carefully tucked her excessively long hair into the cloak, then let out a satisfied sigh, “Much better. The frozen status is gone, and I’m not losing health anymore.”
Mo Tan smiled slightly, and just as he was about to say something, he heard a long howl approaching from a distance, followed by the sight of a gigantic… headless dragon descending from the sky.
That’s right, it was an ice-blue giant dragon with dragon wings, dragon claws, a dragon tail, dragon scales, dragon might, a dragon neck, dragon wing roots, and dragon knees, but conspicuously missing its head!
“Undead creature!” Ji Xiaoge immediately darted behind Mo Tan, instinctively throwing a tea egg, “Is it a Bone Dragon? Why does it have so much flesh?”
Mo Tan, however, muttered somewhat puzzledly as he drew his sword, “Why does it look a little familiar…?”
BOOOM!
A flash of fire accompanied by a large number of spinning iron pieces… no, a large number of spinning eggshells erupted abruptly near the headless giant dragon’s neck. The latter immediately let out a loud dragon roar.
“Holy crap!!”
At this moment, Mo Tan, being a Half-Dragon, could understand it. He immediately identified the owner of the voice.
“Stop throwing for now!” Mo Tan first grabbed Ji Xiaoge’s small hand, which was preparing to throw another bomb, then shouted at the giant dragon, which was standing upright in front of them, “Is that you, Feimi?”
His response was a dazzling blue light. The next second, Feimigeer (human form), Lu Jiang, Jia Deka, and Ya Ya appeared not far away.
“Mo Wang!”
The first to greet was always Ya Ya. This lively dog-girl immediately ran towards Mo Tan with shouts and yells, then turned her run into a pounce, crashing into Mo Tan’s chest, “Wang missed Mo!”
“Tsk tsk, it seems your two-dimensional wife won’t be lonely.” Ji Xiaoge sighed leisurely from the side, smiling mischievously like a middle-aged uncle, “You’ve got some moves!”
Mo Tan rolled his eyes, “You’re overthinking it.”
“Wang is fragrant!” Ya Ya, however, innocently brought her small nose to Mo Tan’s face and sniffed, her big eyes blinking for a long time, “Wang is hungry!”
The latter skillfully picked up Ya Ya and placed her aside (Ya Ya was not short but very light), asking in confusion, “Fragrant?”
“Wang!” Ya Ya nodded vigorously, then suddenly looked back at the bomb bucket in Ji Xiaoge’s hand, “Wang Ge sister also has it! The same Wang scent!”
Then this dog-girl seemed to suddenly remember something. With a backflip, she distanced herself from the two, looking at Ji Xiaoge with lingering fear and shaking her head vigorously, “Wang is not hungry anymore!”
Mo Tan: “…”
Ji Xiaoge covered her face and sighed, “I’m so sad.”
“I’m also very sad.” Feimigeer had also walked over by now, asking Ji Xiaoge with great helplessness, “Why did you throw Master Lu Wei’s dynamite at me just now?”
Ya Ya turned back and sniffed at Feimigeer again, “Wang Feimigeer also became fragrant!”
Ji Xiaoge reacted at this point and quickly and clumsily explained, “Uh, what I threw just now wasn’t dynamite, it was just that… that something, after seeing the headless dragon, I was momentarily inspired to… to feed it, so I accidentally…”
“Feed it?!” Feimigeer’s body trembled, then he asked with a black face, “Where is the headless dragon?”
Lu Jiang and Jia Deka, who were following him, exchanged a helpless look, then raised their hands with a wry smile, “Teacher Feimi, I think that headless dragon probably refers to you…”
Feimigeer pouted, “Alright, I thought so too.”
“So what exactly is going on?” Mo Tan, pulling Ji Xiaoge, who was trying to bury herself in the snow, walked forward and asked Feimigeer curiously, “Feimi, why did your head disappear after you transformed?”
The latter rolled his eyes, then sighed faintly, “It didn’t disappear, it just got a bit small. This story has to start from the beginning. In fact, I’ve been accompanying Lu Jiang all day to practice giant dragon transformation. Ya Ya and Jia Deka only arrived a short while ago.”
Mo Tan and Ji Xiaoge nodded understandingly. After all, Lu Jiang’s previous giant dragon form was indeed a bit… It was hard to say whether it was an embarrassment to giant dragons or to druids, but it was certainly embarrassing.
“However, this process wasn’t very smooth.” Feimigeer blew his nose in place (Mo Tan guessed he probably meant to snort, but in human form, it could only be interpreted as blowing his nose), saying somewhat dejectedly, “The results are mediocre…”
Lu Jiang smiled awkwardly, “Perhaps it’s because my talent isn’t up to par; my progress is a bit slow.”
“Actually, I think the progress is quite significant.” Jia Deka suddenly interjected. This self-detonating mage had been busy sticking the smoking end of his staff into the snow, “Compared to how it was before.”
【Can you fight a rat to a draw now?】
Mo Tan really wanted to ask that, but he ultimately suppressed the urge and cleared his throat, “How much progress has been made?”
“Uh, it’s not very clear to explain with words.” Lu Jiang replied somewhat helplessly, then turned to Feimigeer and asked softly, “Should I try again, Teacher?”
The latter nodded and said wistfully, “Go ahead and try.”
Then Lu Jiang, having received permission from the leader, ran to a slightly further spot and slowly closed her eyes.
Her pleated skirt fluttered without wind, her tall figure gradually blurred, and she slowly transformed into the ‘Ancient Slime’ state that everyone was quite familiar with before. Although she still maintained a human form, her essence had undergone some earth-shattering changes.
“Then I’ll start!” Lu Jiang shouted loudly as if cheering herself on, then she slightly bent her body into a constipated posture, her delicate and lovely face flushed, and a faint light seemed to flow on her smooth back, and then…
With a soft cry from the young woman, a pair of dragon wings, similar in size to Ji Xiaoge’s feathered wings, suddenly unfolded from Lu Jiang’s back, stretching out in the not-too-cold wind around them.
“Dragon wings?” Mo Tan looked at the large wings on Lu Jiang’s back in disbelief, and after several seconds, he turned to Feimigeer and asked, “What’s going on?”
The latter shrugged, “As you can see, what I’ve been training Lu Jiang in today is this. Although he hasn’t made any breakthroughs in dragon transformation, Mr. Long prompted me, saying that if it’s only a part of the body, the burden should be much smaller, at least enough to barely manage. The result… sigh, as you all can see.”
“Why are you sighing?” Ji Xiaoge asked curiously in a low voice, “I think the pair of wings on him now looks quite majestic, much more imposing than my feathered wings!”
This time, before Feimigeer could speak, Jia Deka had already spread his hands and explained, “I asked before, and in Feimi’s words, those wings are not yet a pair of dragon wings; they are just some kind of Slime composition extending from Lu Jiang’s body.”
“Exactly.” Feimigeer nodded, sighing, “To be more precise, the pair of things on Lu Jiang’s back hasn’t been endowed with the characteristics of dragon wings yet…”
As is well known, a druid’s shapeshifting ability allows them to possess all the characteristics of a certain creature, including its appearance. For example, transforming into a Water Dart Pig allows them to swim, transforming into a Fire Mane Lion allows them to breathe fire, and transforming into an Azure Wind Magpie allows them to cast some low-level wind magic. There is almost no difference between a druid’s transformed species and the ‘original’.
But the current Lu Jiang is different…
Although he could indeed master abilities like dragon breath, dragon might, and flight after transforming into a giant (small) dragon, the pair of dragon wings generated on his back at this moment were merely for show, lacking even the most basic ability to fly.
“Don’t other druids do this?” Mo Tan looked at Lu Jiang, who was flapping his wings desperately in place, and couldn’t help but turn to Feimigeer curiously.
He could probably understand what Feimigeer had just said. Simply put, when Lu Jiang completely transformed into a giant (small) dragon before, he was in 【Lu Jiang Dragon Form】. Now, he is in 【Lu Jiang Original Slime Form】 with a pair of wings on his back, so even if he creates a pair of dragon wings that are indistinguishable from the real thing, it’s useless.
Feimigeer chuckled dryly and made a face at Mo Tan, “Heaven knows. As far as I know, no druid would try to change only a part of their body like him. If Mr. Long hadn’t said that Lu Jiang had a chance of success, I wouldn’t have let him try this…”
“Alright.” Mo Tan nodded, then suddenly asked with interest, “So what was the deal with your headless state just now, Feimi?”
Feimigeer glared at him, then let out a faint sigh, “I had to lead by example, didn’t I? Never mind, you all step back a bit…”
Mo Tan, Ji Xiaoge, and Jia Deka quickly retreated several steps, while Ya Ya had already run off to play somewhere. Although the girl wasn’t wearing much, her cold resistance was quite high, and she seemed even more lively than usual.
“Watch closely!”
Feimigeer shouted loudly, then leaped high into the air, transforming once again into the huge and majestic Azure Dragon amidst a distorted light curtain, but still without…
Wait!
Ji Xiaoge, with her almond-shaped eyes slightly narrowed, exclaimed, pointing at Feimigeer, “He has a head!”
Jia Deka stroked his long beard, “Hehe, I was also surprised when I first arrived…”
And Mo Tan had also clearly seen Feimigeer’s head by now. That’s right, he did have a head!
On the thick, scaly neck of the giant dragon, there was a head that felt no bigger than a soybean.
A human head…
Feimigeer’s human-form head, embedded in his giant dragon-form neck.
Honestly, after realizing what was going on, Mo Tan felt that any Bone Dragon with above-average looks wouldn’t be as terrifying as the one in front of them.
Chapter 164: The End