Chapter 69: GOLD

A golden light flashed, and in the next moment, the dragon stood in a empty white space. A massive mountain made out of piled-up golden coins glittered in the white light right in front of the dragon. Its sheer size was big enough to fill at least three family houses to brim with golden coins. The dragon's heart immediately started to pump faster, his eyes glued on the pile of gold illuminated by a bright white pillar of light falling from the white emptiness above him.

'What is this? How is this a part of the trial? This feels like a trap.'

He knew there was something fishy going on, but he still made a big step towards the pile of gold. His were eyes focused on it while still being careful of any traps. His muscles were tense, ready to dodge any attack. He made the step, and nothing happened; there was no sound of the trap activating nor any sign of movement.

The dragon loudly breathed out in relief.

'Even if it isn't real, I want to touch it!' his reptilian inverted slits eyes dilated at the massive mountain of gold with a strong and sweet smell of gold filling the whole space. He rushed forward, sprinting on all four of his legs.

He kept running forward happily, wanting to reach the gold as soon as possible. The pile of gold remained stationary, not getting any closer, no matter how fast he ran.

Vesuvius noticed it and stopped, looking at the pile of gold that remained at the same distance from the beginning with confusion. Testingly, he lifted one of his legs and moved forward one step. Nothing changed. The gold remained in the distance.

His instincts were burning within him, wanting him to run towards it to reach it as soon as possible to make it his own.

He spread both of his giant wings and lifted up from the spotless white ground. He flapped them, blasting in the direction of the gold. His surroundings turned smooth with air howling around him.

The pile of gold remained stationary at the same distance without moving, enraging him with frustration. He wanted to destroy the whole cursed white space. He opened his mouth, and a massive column of magma shot out, flying downwards. It didn't stop and just continued into the depths of the white space as if there was no ground. He shook his head and temporarily stopped, landing back on the ground. He suppressed his surging emotions and started to think rationally about the problem in front of him even though he wanted to scream in desperation, 'This is definitely some trickery. I can't reach it no matter how fast I am moving... My attacks are also doing nothing. There is only one thing I can do.'

He slowly turned back even though his mind was screaming at him not to take off his eyes of the gold as it could vanish. Then he put all of his resolve and launched at full speed, running on all four as if he was some fast feline beast like a tiger.

'One more second!' he was anxious about the pile of gold, but he kept suppressing it, running in the opposite direction.

"Graaa!" 'I can't anymore!' such a huge pile of gold was too much for a young dragon. He stopped running, turning again towards the gold, wanting to make sure that it was still there.

He made a quick turn, his head hitting something hard with a delicious smell. It was the mountain of gold. His eyes dilated as he spread his wings, landing on top of the golden mountain, causing a small avalanche of golden coins. He looked at the golden coins, slowly moving and dinging under his legs.

The trial might seem obvious, but he still snickered, imagining some weak-minded dragons running forwards for days, maybe even weeks if they were strong, without realising that something was wrong, before collapsing out of the exhaustion with sheer despair in their heart, 'A fitting trial for a dragon lord. A lord can't afford to get blinded by a few pieces of gold. They must always keep their mind calm to realise that someone is trying to trick them.'

Suddenly a large number of pitch-black silhouettes materialised all around the mountain. They were in a plethora of shapes, some of them looking like humans, while others looked like birds or even rats. There were even giant things that looked like balls made out of the twitching pitch black tentacles and monsters taller than trees with pitch black claws long enough to decapitate a small group of humans with one swing. Their bodies were without any texture or details, looking just like pitch-black shadows placed in three dimensions. All of them moved at once, running or flying towards the golden mountain in hordes. They moved without any sound, moving in a chaotic manner, unlike undead.

Vesuvius immediately realised what he had to do during the second part of the trial, 'I must protect the gold. I will probably fail even if only a single coin is stolen.'

The dragon flapped his wings and rose into the air, causing another landslide of gold. Shadows of monsters were quickly approaching from each side.

'I must take the initiative. Otherwise, it would be too late when they reach my effective attack range.'

He expected the flying monster birds to rush in, but to his horror, they remained hanging behind the other monsters as if waiting for the right moment to try snatching the gold.

He opened his mouth wide, an orange glow flickering inside through the smoke as he spat out a large stream of magma. He flapped his wings, flying in a circle around the golden pile, his magma hitting the ground as he flew, making a circle of hot bubbling magma around it.

'Weird now it works normally as if there was ground... this place makes no sense, but at least this should keep the rats away.' His eyes fell upon the swarms of small pitch black rodents rushing towards him like a tsunami.

Then he flapped his massive wings flying towards the incoming wave of pitch-black monsters that kept advancing without making any sound. They weren't making any sound with their mouth, nor were their wings and legs as they moved.