Chapter 1 Family Gathering
In the dream palace.
Weekend family gathering.
The family of four gathered together,
Ji Ma hummed a song, holding a plate of fried rice, and as she walked from the kitchen to the dining room, she saw Eve Frostleaf leaned against the wall, dragging her hand. Her originally butt-length silver hair, after some grooming, now had a hint of a married woman’s charm.
Ji Ma’s tail wagged: “What’s wrong? Miss me?”
Eve Frostleaf said, “Last time we settled it.”
“Settled what?”
Eve Frostleaf reminded, “In the underground gnome city.”
Ji Ma paused in thought, but her gaze was drawn to the curve of Eve Frostleaf’s calves. She suddenly thought, with Frostleaf’s snowy skin, wearing black stockings would look nice with a hint of white peeking through.
The emerald earrings on Eve Frostleaf’s long ears swayed: “Ji Ma.”
Ji Ma came back to her senses: “Oh, I don’t remember what it was. Can you stop playing guessing games?”
Eve Frostleaf was silent for a moment. Recalling the events, she had used Ji Ma’s greed for beauty to suggest that she steal the music box for her while she secretly met with George.
It was hard to speak of.
Forget it, anyway, Ji Ma had played everyone for a fool, monopolizing George on their wedding night could be considered even.
Her light pink thin lips moved: “Then forget it.”
Saying this, Eve Frostleaf reached for the fried rice, grabbing a slightly overcooked perfect fried egg and put it in her mouth, asking, “Delicious, what egg is this?”
“Dragon egg.”
Eve Frostleaf had just nodded when the elf suddenly froze: “What dragon egg?”
“This one you’re eating.”
“Where did it come from?”
A long, long time ago, a dark elf stole a dragon egg from the Star Beast and sold it to Bald Qiang, so I used it to make fried rice, and fried tofu as well. In short, the theme of tonight’s dinner is Dragon Egg Feast.
“Ji Ma!” Eve Frostleaf’s hands trembled: “How can you use a dragon egg as an ingredient?”
“What else?”
“I can buy it and return it to the Dragon Clan allies.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t say so earlier.”
“Using a dragon egg for food is such a waste.”
“Where’s the waste? My cooking skills are well-suited for dragon eggs, just like my singing matches my voice.”
Eve Frostleaf shot Ji Ma a glance: “You could hatch the egg and get a dragon mount.”
“What do your high elves’ dragon allies usually do?”
“Sleep.”
“What does it take to wake a dragon?”
“The finest elves need to sing for three days and nights.”
“Who raises them?”
“Usually the Kingdom of Kaledo, they have dragon-taming techniques.”
“So, you want me to start from scratch raising a dragon? It’s not a chicken egg. Plus, even if everything goes smoothly, what am I supposed to do with a young dragon? Fine, wait a hundred years for it to grow into a young dragon? Do I take it along while traveling with George?”
“But this is a dragon.”
“So what?” Ji Ma said: “The battles we’ve experienced are so brutal, dragons fall from the sky in droves. Dragons in our battles are just more cannon fodder, and I have to spend massive amounts of time and energy to take care of it…”
“Is this your reason for frying dragon eggs?”
“Dear Frostleaf, don’t frown, come try the dragon eggs.”
The Dragon Egg Feast began. The family of four, along with Lianxi, gathered around the round table to eat.
They began discussing matters. Jenna talked about the ranking promotion situation in Ulin City, many people were dissatisfied, after all, ranking is one thing, actual combat is another.
Jenna said with frustration:
“Some adventurer teams even attacked teams of higher rank to snatch their rank, and asked us for certification.”
Ji Ma asked: “Did you agree to their demands?”
“Of course not.”
“Why?” Ji Ma asked: “Isn’t rank just a way to determine superiority? It’s already a matter of life and death.”
“Ji Ma, it’s different. Adventurer team rankings are evaluated based on tasks completed in the Adventure Association. In adventures, combat is just one aspect. If I certify it, that’s encouraging adventurers to fight among themselves instead of against monsters.”
“Then why create this troublesome thing?”
“Order,” Jenna said: “This allows adventurer teams to better assess their strength against tasks.”
“Glad you think so.”
Ji Ma said: “It’s almost like a video game.”
“Ji Ma.” George said: “Order is very meaningful; it provides a sense of security.”
“Only strength can do that.”
“Life is a chaotic mess, full of change. And order is about making life as predictable as possible,” George said: “In the past, adventurers took a task worth ten gold coins, and upon arriving at their destination, they could find themselves facing an entire tribe of green-skinned orcs.”
“Ahhhh~” Ji Ma yawned: “Let’s eat; anyway, they can kill me, and I still wouldn’t be a model citizen.”
“By the way, Ji Ma, how was your first week of travel?”
“Terrible.” Ji Ma said: “Three hundred cultists surrounded us, wanting my head. They said the crown should belong to the strong, not to me, this lazy fish.”
“Three hundred?”
“In fact, there was another rift behind us, filled with sharpening demon warriors.” Ji Ma curled her toes as her tail intertwined with Eve’s calf under the table, “Those locals were excited, frothing at the mouth, luckily we had Yangzhi with us.”
George, chewing on dragon egg tofu, said: “I chopped off their cult leader and witch, closed the rift, and the remaining three hundred cultists were scattered by us.”
Jenna asked: “How did they find you?”
Ji Ma said: “Because we taped notes on our backs saying I am the Eternal God and he is the Hero.”
“Ah?”
George said: “I was wearing unmarked full armor, Ji Ma was in formal attire, I carried the holy sword, which cannot be stored in another dimension bag, and Ji Ma used a branch as a walking stick. We planned to scare off some troubles we might encounter, after all, there were only the two of us.”
“But as news of our travel spread, we were immediately recognized by the underground cult.”
“No way.” Ji Ma dismissed: “I originally said we should play dumb and eat the tiger. Let George wear ragged clothes, turn into a lumberjack, and the holy sword could be disguised as firewood. As for me, just show my face. Just think, a mute lumberjack with a stunning wife, there would definitely be plenty of fun on the road, people would line up to come and slap our faces. Adding some humor to our travels.”
“Too bad. George is kind-hearted and can’t bear to see others suffer. He says fishing enforcement is wrong.”
George said: “We need to demonstrate our powers to avoid trouble while also avoiding exposing our identities. Jenna, I thought of you taking a ranking exam in Marlin City.”
Jenna laughed: “Great, very welcome.”
Ji Ma said: “Why not just give us a gold or platinum badge? Are we really going to take a ranking exam?”
Jenna shook her head: “No, rules must be followed.”
“Hey, so troublesome.” Ji Ma said: “It wouldn’t be going to fight goblins, would it?”
“Hopefully, the task is really about goblins,” Jenna said: “If it’s the Four Gods’ underground cult, it might expose your identities; the wild green skins have also bred a lot in recent years.”
“Those mushroom babies are really annoying.”
