The Red Dragon Just Wants To Do As It Pleases-Chapter 373 - 237: Stormy Night (Part 2)

"HEHEHEHE." Praised by the mother dragon, Tania immediately grinned like a weasel that had just received New Year’s greetings from an unsuspecting hen, swaying her tail and flashing David a sly, playful smile, her pupils narrowing into slits.

David almost choked on his laughter right then and there.

To think he found Tania, this ’silver-cut black’ character, reliable! Heaven forbid that this little she-dragon, whose curiosity was potent enough to be the death of Dragons, might actually string him along only to abandon him one day!

Four days later, after enjoying a meal in the central courtyard that could rival his own body weight under the peculiar gazes of the dragons, David filled his lungs with sea breeze and leaped from the cave’s mouth, leading nearly half of the young Blue Dragons in the courtyard on a departure over the sea.

There were hardly any trade routes through the Kutaro Desert on the Old Continent of Skanis. Additionally, the northern Barbarian tribes, once a source of plunder for their gold mine treasures, had been so thoroughly beaten down by the High Elves that they couldn’t raise their heads. As a result, the Blue Dragons’ income was greatly squeezed, forcing them to focus their attention on the sea.

However, even in the bustling sea trade, the majority of the ships plying back and forth now belonged to the High Elves.

And when it came to the now powerful High Elves, the opinion of the upper court dragons was that they were not to be easily provoked.

After hearing Kailor, their new dragon lackey, give a ’market briefing,’ David immediately scratched his chin with the tip of his tail. "Not to be easily provoked, huh?" he said. "So that means we can still choose to bully the weak and fear the strong depending on the situation."

Hearing David’s words, which could be described as reckless or even an act of ’Arrogance,’ the scales of the Blue Dragons bristled.

What a guy! This fellow from Toriel, the prime material plane, is really brash! After all, based on nearly a month of firsthand experience, this brute’s idea of ’assessing the situation and bullying the weak while fearing the strong’ likely meant few ships would seem ’strong’ enough to him. If this led to a punitive expedition from the High Elves, how would they explain it to their clan leader!

Instantly, with David’s command to act freely, few dragons were brave enough to stay by his side. Surprisingly, this included Ezekiel and Tralton, who had challenged David just the previous month.

Speaking of which, those two Blue Dragon brothers had also had a rotten time. That day, they had just been beaten and were originally about to go to the central courtyard to pledge allegiance.

But then they bumped into David launching ’Wrath’ with a group taunt. Befuddled, they rushed up with the rest of the dragons and ended up getting beaten twice in one day.

It’s unknown who was so loose-lipped as to spread the news of that earlier incident. Combined with Patricio’s displaced anger, their status suddenly plummeted.

Seeing how even a pushover like Kailor could find favor, they immediately became the first to gamble and pledge allegiance, just as David had predicted they might.

But whether it was their good luck or bad, after wandering that sea area for two full months, they didn’t even encounter a single Elf warship.

What made David feel somewhat disappointed was that the process of collecting taxes was far simpler and more boring than he had imagined.

If this were like those Qidian-style web novels from his previous life, there should have been a ship carrying ’warriors’ who would resist during taxation, followed by a grand spectacle of heroes confronting the Evil Dragon on the sea.

But in reality, the reaction of these merchant ships was just like that of cargo ships from Blue Star encountering Somali pirates.

The most ’resistance’ David had seen usually involved spotting them from afar, at which point the Mages on board would start casting wind spells, trying to evade at top speed.

In such cases, escape basically depended on whether the merchant ship was large enough and whether the Blue Dragon wished to pursue. If the ship was large and the Blue Dragon was determined to chase, there was typically no escape.

And once even a single Blue Dragon landed on deck, the merchant ships would often choose to lower their sails and surrender peacefully.

The Blue Dragons would typically only rob treasures and merchandise, rather than ’draining the pond to get all the fish’ by killing everyone and burning the ships.

If they did that too often, others would rather transport goods overland than use this shipping route.

More often, David saw merchant ships heading straight for them. Then, like lambs to the slaughter, the captain, under the escort of a few guards who beamed like good luck charms, would jovially ’reminisce’ with Kailor and the others.

Yes, rob them enough times, and they become old acquaintances.

These ’regulars’ would often have their cook prepare a meal substantial enough for David and his group. Then, they would offer one-third to half of the valuables on board as a ’maritime protection fee’ in exchange for passage.

Of course, to avoid being plundered further along their route, the Blue Dragons would also mark the ships, indicating that they had already been ’visited’ by their kin and there wasn’t much loot left.

And what dumbfounded David was that the mark used by the Blue Dragons was the very familiar ’standard equivalent’—dragon dung.

The ship owners were also happy to accept this. Not only would it protect them from piracy during the rest of their voyage and even repel sea monsters, but once ashore, Spellcasters and even alchemists would actively seek to purchase it!

So much so that after Pafila ended the Dragon Dung War, and dragon dung prices on the New Continent were driven sky-high by a bunch of unscrupulous traders, a group of quick-witted and daring individuals started loading ships with cheap goods specifically to seek out Blue Dragons and ’let’ themselves be robbed.

By flipping and reselling, they made even more profit than from legitimate maritime trade!

Eventually, even slave ships began to join in. While preparing meals, they would have alluring female slaves perform seductive dances. Often, Blue Dragons nearing their mating season would ’unload their cargo’ right there, not even waiting for a stormy night.