Infinite Dragon Beast: Taming Ice Dragons with SSS Ranked Talent-Chapter 78: The Wasteland

***

The next day.

That morning, a horse-drawn carriage arrived in the village. The horse-drawn carriage stopped right in front of the inn, a place that was usually used to drop off or pick up passengers.

Fiona walked out. To arrive in this village, Fiona had spent at least 2 silver for two carriage rides. However, she had no idea whether Aiden had arrived or not.

Her head wandered the surrounding area, watching carefully. From her eyes, she only saw villagers on the move.

"Where is he?" asked Fiona.

Rio was chirping, Fiona nodded in understanding. It wouldn’t hurt for them to start asking the villagers about Aiden’s whereabouts.

Only needing to meet one person, the villager said Aiden’s name right away. Fiona nodded, she was looking for Aiden.

The person told Fiona that Aiden was at the inn, with two beautiful girls with him. Fiona nodded. She had guessed that Aiden had arrived.

She hurried inside and asked the receptionist for more information. What a surprise! Rio chirped again when his eyes caught sight of Aurora in her sleeping pajamas. She came out of one of the rooms.

"Aurora?" called Fiona, waving a hand.

Aurora, whose face was half sleepy, turned her head slowly. Her eyes looked forward, seeing Fiona had arrived in the village that morning. But Aurora was indifferent.

She looked away and stepped to the end of the corridor to use the toilet. Fiona was taken aback by Aurora’s attitude.

"What’s wrong with her?"

Not wanting to ask, Fiona stepped towards the room door where Aurora had exited earlier. When the door opened, she saw Rachel still lying on the bed, while Aiden slept soundly on the couch.

"These people... why are they still sleeping?" asked Fiona, letting out an annoyed sigh.

Hearing the voice, Aiden slowly opened his eyes and turned over. That’s right! He saw Fiona in their room.

Instead of being enthusiastic, Aiden got up and stretched his sore body from sleeping all night on the hard couch in the room.

"What is taking you so long to arrive?" Aiden asked, softly.

"Hwaaah!"

Rachel squirmed and opened her eyes, seeing Fiona nearby. Quickly, Rachel got up and sat up as she adjusted her messy pajamas.

"The carriage ride was quite tiring," Fiona explained.

"I asked you to ride the dragon, but you were stubborn," Aiden said, yawning sleepily.

"Because I really don’t want to ride it. What if I fall off from the dragon?"

Aurora returned, pushed off Fiona’s body and fell asleep again on the bed, right next to Rachel who had woken up.

Fiona was shocked when Aurora pushed her, but her eyes were focused straight ahead, looking at Aiden who was getting ready.

"So, did you guys go to the Wasteland?" Fiona asked.

"Two days ago, we landed there. We didn’t know it was the Wasteland," Aiden explained.

"Really?! Then how was it?"

Aiden paused, then stepped up to pull back the window curtains to let the sunlight stream in, refreshing everyone in the room.

"Just empty red soil, no life whatsoever."

"It’s true," Fiona explained, bringing Aiden to a halt.

"What’s true?"

Fiona stared ahead, she had gotten information about the Wasteland from the charioteer. The main characteristic that distinguished it from other places was the type of soil.

If in this village it was brown soil, then there was red soil. It was said that the color of the soil came from the human blood that died in the war. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

’She always exaggerates things,’ said Aiden.

"So, what do we do?" asked Aiden.

"We’d better get going. I can still go in my current condition," said Fiona.

Aiden cleared his throat. He woke up Rachel and Aurora, asking the two dragon girls to get ready. Just before leaving, they took the time to eat at a small tavern close to the inn.

Different with Rachel, before going to the tavern, Aiden gave her 15 beast essences for her to eat. Aiden accompanied Rachel in the process of absorbing the energy from the beast essence.

At exactly ten in the morning, Rachel was full, as were Aurora and Fiona. They were ready with their equipment, carrying the small birdcage Aiden had requested.

An old man with a white beard escorted them to the outer village border. He handed Aiden some items, said to be able to ward off threats from monsters.

Aiden accepted it. It was a necklace with a black gem in the center. From Aiden’s eyes, the gem did emit magic energy, but not a significant amount.

"Sure. Thank you," Aiden explained.

"No problem. You’ve done us a favor. Sorry we can only help you with this," said the old man.

The man nodded. Once outside the village, he waved goodbye to the old man with the white beard.

They continued walking on the forest dirt road, until they came to the border of two regions, the forest and the Wasteland.

Based on the name and the story, the land was red in color with many ruins of villages and dead trees.

Fiona was seeing the Wasteland for the first time, she never thought she would set foot on that dangerous land.

ROARR!

The dragon’s roar was heard again that day, accompanied by a strong gust of wind carrying particles of dust and red soil all over the place.

Aiden stretched out his hand, creating a protective wall of fire magic from his manipulation magic. Aurora, Rachel, and Fiona were successfully protected from the flying dust particles.

"W-What’s that sound?" asked Fiona, shocked.

"Dragons," Aiden explained.

"W-Were we going to fight a dragon straight away? Our job is to find the Black Root herb."

"I know that," said Aiden, fading his magic wall when he saw that the dust particles had disappeared, "But the Dragon and all the monsters in the Wasteland won’t make it easy for us."

Aiden led them into the Wasteland, setting their feet on the red soil. The more they stepped inside, the more Aiden began to smell an unpleasant scent around him.

He covered his nose, watching as white smoke mixed with green spread through the air. At first glance, Aiden felt familiar with the scent, reminding him of something.

’Sulfur?’ Aiden asked.

"It’s a dangerous poison, said to make people suffocate when they breathe it in," Fiona explained, softly.

’Sulfur contains sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. They can irritate your breathing and cause tightness,’ Aiden explained.

’If the sulfur level is too much, it can damage the lungs and cause breathing difficulties. In the end, it will lead to death,’ Aiden said.

’Now, I know the reason why many adventurers die from the sulfur smell,’ Aiden said.

"Adjust your breathing tempo, don’t talk too much," Aiden explained.

They nodded. Aiden activated his fire elemental magic and faded all the sulfur smoke around him. Not only that, he also activated a fire magic barrier that could protect them.

"Let’s go."