Unaware of the fact that the quest she had been struggling with had already been completed, Scaly eagerly stared at the far larger piece of meat Verdell had pulled out and begun roasting alongside a large number of vegetables she hadn’t seen before. Waiting for what felt like hours before Verdell handed her the large slab of roasted meat alongside equally delicious looking roasted vegetables.

Chomp~

Not even hesitating for a second as she directly swallowed the large slab of roasted meat and the roasted vegetables in a single bite before a feeling of disappointment set in. Not because the roasted meat and vegetables weren’t delicious, but instead because it was over far too fast because of just how large she was compared to the quantity of food. Giving her no time to properly enjoy it.

Still, as her attention finally shifted away from Verdell after the food was eaten, Scaly finally noticed the quest screen that had appeared in the corner of her vision at some point in time when she hadn’t noticed.

[Dragon Seeker’s Attention]

[You have drawn the attention of a dragon seeker; you can choose to aid them in their quest to befriend a dragon or ignore them]

[Reward for establishing friendly relationship: Dragon Blood Purity increase by 5% (Complete)]

[Ignore the Dragon Seeker: Obtain unique skill, Dragon’s Pride (Failed)]

Announcing clearly to her that the quest she had been struggling to complete had somehow ended up being completed when she had been focused on the roasted food, something that did deeply confuse her considering she had no idea how it had been completed just from her eating a bit of roasted food from Verdell.

But... Maybe that was it? Eating food from Verdell meant she had officially befriended him, or maybe it was how her view of Verdell changed after being fed delicious food by him...

No matter what it was, she was just happy that the quest that had eluded her completely before had been completed successfully. Increasing the purity of her dragon blood by an entire five percent. Getting her extremely close to the fifty percent mark.

As for what to do with Verdell now that she didn’t have to follow him around any longer and ensure his safety... She decided to keep him around for the simple reason that the food he had created was far too delicious for her to give up now that she had already been completely captured by it.

Of course, Verdell himself was completely unaware of the fact that his entire worth and the reason he wasn’t abandoned or in the worst-case scenario, killed, was because his food was delicious enough to convince Scaly to keep him around.

Instead, he was far more interested in getting out of the small, sealed space that the two of them found themselves in. Having already packed up the spices, he had pulled out earlier before finding himself standing beside the rocks blocking the way out while discreetly glancing back towards Scaly. Waiting for her to make a move and get rid of the rocks blocking the path out.

Bang!

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait for long, as Scaly cleared the path out using her large body to slam through the rocks, she had collapsed to block the entrance before falling asleep-

Rumble~!

Something that unintentionally caused the rock ceiling above to start collapsing in on itself. "Whaaa-!? Don’t squish meee!" Forcing Verdell to rush after Scaly while letting out a rather undignified scream that reminded Scaly of her first few pathic attempts on a proper dragon roar. Although, thanks to his fast reaction speed, he managed to just barely escape before he ended up buried by the rocks falling from above. Suffering no injuries in the process outside of a small scratch from one of the rocks bouncing off the ground hitting him from behind.

Roooar-!

[Mist Forest Purple Boar, lvl 103]

But he had no time to react to his injuries after getting out of what turned out to be a mountain cave before a grey colored boar, that didn’t live up to its name thanks to the grey sun above, jumped out at him from the foliage not too far away from the mountain cave.

Scaly was nowhere to save him from this sudden ambush, as she had similarly been ambushed the second she had emerged from the sealed off mountain cave by a group of three mist forest purple boars. Finding it difficult to deal with the group of boars immediately, as it was clear that they possessed some kind of unique ability that made them almost completely immune to magic, forcing Scaly to rely on her physical power that was more than strong enough to overwhelm the mist forest purple boars.

Problem was, though Scaly was clearly the one with the upper hand, her current state also meant that she didn’t have the time to spare to help Verdell in dealing with the sudden ambush he found himself facing.

Meaning... Verdell found himself facing off against an S Rank Monster with powerful enough magic immunity that Scaly’s powerful water magic useless. In other words, the worst possible opponent for a mage like him to face off against.

Even worse, the boar was already far too close to him for him to dodge it.

Fwoosh-! 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Meaning the only real way he had to resist the incoming attack was to gather his newly evolved fire magic into a magic shield and pray that his magic had at the very least become strong enough to resist the mist forest purple boar-

BANG!

A hope that was soon enough turned to ashes, as the boar forced its way through his fire magic shield with little to no difficulty before slamming into him with a tremendous power that almost caused him to throw up blood as he was sent flying backwards by the impact.

His hope that the boar was just immune to water magic was immediately dashed as he realized his life was in very real danger while being sent flying through the air before violently crashing into the hard ground. Sharp rocks digging into his flesh as he forced his now bloody self to stand back up to face the boar that had already shaken off the pain from the impact and gotten ready to rush forward for another attack.

To say he was unprepared for another hit would be an understatement, as his already weak body that had barely allowed him to endure the first hit would undoubtedly not be able to take another powerful charge attack head on. Especially if it ended up with him landing on top of sharp rocks again, as that alone had already cut deep into his hands and legs alike.

Roooar-!

Of course, the boar had no intention of waiting for him to come up with a plan, as it had already begun to charge towards him.

What great luck... I just recovered my strength only to end up all bloody again...

Lamenting his current state as the boar charged towards him, Verdell ultimately only had one thing he could rely on in his current situation when his magic was rendered useless-

Shiiing~

That being the dagger he always had on him, a relic from his past before he had ended up walking down the path of a mage, when he had been a dagger user who fought close quarters, one of the main reasons why his dexterity could be considered far above average for a normal mage.

Problem being that while his skills with the dagger could be considered decent, they weren’t exactly impressive for the S Rank considered how he only had two classes related to the dagger and had swapped into becoming a mage when he reached the D Rank in the past. Focusing all his effort on his magic from that point onwards while only rarely practicing with his dagger when he had some spare time and didn’t feel like practicing his magic.

Still... being at the S Rank now, he was still comparable to a normal B Rank Adventurer when it came to using the dagger alone.

Although... faced with the boar charging towards him filled with killing intent at the S Rank, a B Rank dagger wielding adventurer wouldn’t stand much of a chance-

Luckily for him, he wasn’t a B Rank Adventurer so to speak and could still make use of his fire magic for mobility using some of the movement enhancing spells he had learnt over the years. Allowing his movement speed to keep up with that the charging boar and even surpass to some extent because of the simple fact that he was rapidly burning through his mana to increase his own speed-

Whoosh~

Roooar-!

All for the simple purpose of just barely using his momentum to slide below the boar before it could lower its head to impale him with its sharp tusks or bite into him with its teeth-

Ptsh!

ROOOOOAR!?

Stabbing his dagger into its soft stomach as he continued sliding forward while cutting open the stomach of the boar in the process, something that would be difficult to survive even for a powerful S Rank Monster...