Chapter 124 - King Bomb

"No way, today’s joke has already been told," Gaven refused without hesitation. He now could not access the internet; his stored knowledge was finite, yet the Red Copper Dragon’s demand for it was limitless. He absolutely could not set a precedent.He had agreed to one joke per day, and he would only try to help reduce that number, never increase it.

Clearly, Aivensa was also one to count every penny, quibbling over the matter, "When was today’s joke told? Earlier we were just chatting, and at that time, I had not yet accepted your employment. That doesn’t count, absolutely not."

"Earlier doesn’t count, but when we discussed the commission, we mentioned one about a greedy rich man—that one counts," Gaven helped her recall.

"What? That was just normal conversation, how could that count?" Aivensa looked incredulous.

"As long as it’s a joke, it counts. It can’t be that I have to come over every day to tell you a joke for it to count."

"Swindler, scheming swindler, such shouldn’t count from now on," the Young Red Copper Dragon put on an air of not being easily bullied.

"They must count," Gaven was equally unyielding.

Although she wanted to appear mature like an adult, limited by her age and personality, Aivensa often exhibited pronounced child-like behavior; the longer one spent with her, the more noticeable it became.

Consider this, she was only thirteen years old. Even though she was born with intelligence to match an adult’s and the Giant Dragon’s genetic legacy endowed her with survival knowledge, she had mostly lived alone in the Rocklands wilderness for most of her life.

Occasionally, when she encountered other sentient beings, seeing her would usually cause them to tremble in fear, worried she would eat them in one bite—if they weren’t constantly flattering her, they were trying to find ways to escape, unlike Gaven who engaged in equal exchange.

Compared to random, incomplete jokes, this young dragon had a particular fondness for comedy sketches, and fantasized about being a comedic lyricist, often bursting into continuous and loud humming of entertaining ditties—an all too common occurrence.

Gaven wielded Dragon Might to command the gnolls, he certainly wasn’t aiming to switch careers to dragon nanny.

After assigning a small team of gnolls responsible for Aivensa’s daily needs, Gaven slipped away.

With Aivensa’s presence in Blackwell, the gnolls of Eagle Cliff Burrow treated Gaven quite differently.

Seeing that Gaven wasn’t sticking with the young dragon anymore, Chester approached stealthily, his dog face plastered with a flattering smile identical to Gos’s, "From the first moment, I knew Chief Gaven wasn’t ordinary. I just didn’t expect your methods to be so extraordinary, to be on such good terms with the Giant Dragon on first meeting. How many days will the Giant Dragon stay here? Is there anything we can serve you with?"

"From now on, Lord Aivensa accepts my employment," Gaven obviously knew what the other party was thinking and spoke frankly. "She will be stationed here in Blackwell from now on, but before that, I promised to help Lord Aivensa with her troubles, slaying dragons, do you dare to take on the task?"

The Eagle Cliff Cave Chieftain’s face instantly fell, smiling bitterly, "Chief Gaven, you’re just playing with me now, aren’t you? Slaying dragons? Just look at our situation; when facing a Giant Dragon, people either kneel or run away. To even think about slaying a dragon is ridiculous—it’s more likely we’d be the ones getting slain."

Giant Dragons exerted an overwhelming bloodline suppression on gnolls, far surpassing the intimidation that fierce beasts like the Ferocious Tiger or lion would have on prey like sheep. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on ɴovᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet

This suppression came from two fronts—psychological and physiological.

Psychologically, they worshipped Giant Dragons, believing themselves to be descendants of the dragons and that they shared an inseparable bond; hence, when facing dragons, their instinct was to serve rather than resist, regardless of whether the dragon was benevolent or malevolent.

Physiologically, upon encountering a dragon, their blood flow changed, their spirits lifted abnormally high and their bodies uncontrollably trembled, with an urge to kneel.

Thankfully Aivensa was still a young dragon. If they were faced with fully awakened adult dragons with fierce abilities, the gnolls would fare even worse.

This was the gnolls’ greatest and most fatal flaw.

But if used wisely, it could also be turned to one’s advantage, such as raising a young dragon oneself.

Gaven gave a sly smile, "Who said slaying a dragon had to be done in a head-on confrontation? I’ll plan it, and you’ll just need to help me dig some holes, set up some traps, and you might not even see the dragon up close."

Even if the opponent was a juvenile Red Dragon, it was still a Giant Dragon. One blast of Dragon Breath had a kill radius equivalent to three Fireball Techniques, usable at least five to six times a day, with just half a minute’s rest between each one.

Even if all the gnolls from Blackwell and Eagle Cliff Burrow were bundled together, aiming to kill it was a pipe dream; they were more likely to be slaughtered in return.

Exactly.

Who said that to slay a dragon one must confront it face-to-face?

Using traps was a completely viable strategy; even Chester could think of a number of suitable traps, though he wasn’t sure if they would be lethal to a Giant Dragon.

Especially when operated by the young Half-Elf before him, Chester believed there would be even more variety in the schemes.

"No need for our clan to fight the dragon to the death," the Clan Leader of Eagle Cliff Burrow let out a long sigh of relief, "Whatever Chief Gaven requires of us, we will do our utmost to cooperate."

All creatures are selfish, and gnolls were no exception.

Just look at Chester, if asked to slay a dragon, they wouldn’t refuse as long as they didn’t have to risk their lives facing the dragon.