Chapter 703: Dragon Island and Gloria

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation | Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

The position of Dragon Island was located northwest of the Elven Empire, suspended in the outer sea beyond the Northern Continent.

Its power was composed of orderly fraction dragons, such as the Red Dragon lineage, Blue Dragon lineage, Gold Dragon lineage, White Dragon lineage, and several other dragon lineages, all possessing order and wisdom. As for Green Dragons, Black Dragons, and other chaotic neutral dragon lineages, they were more often the type of dragons that burn cities and plunder treasures in legendary stories, and these dragon lineages were not under the jurisdiction of Dragon Island.

However, what truly astonished everyone was the dragons’ explosive conduct on Dragon Island, a stark departure from the majestic and formidable image typically associated with dragons.

It all started a thousand years ago.

When the contemporary Dragon Emperor took office a thousand years ago, the first difficult problem he faced was how to feed the hundreds of dragons on Dragon Island. The appetite of dragons was extraordinary; they could easily devour ten cows in one meal, and with a hundred dragons, that was a thousand cows per meal. The excrement piled up into mountains!

Dragons were also wealthy; their long lifespans allowed them to accumulate a considerable amount of wealth. If they were to use this wealth to purchase food, it could support their daily meals. However, dragons considered wealth as important as life itself. Making them give away their own gold coins from their nests was more agonizing than killing them!

If they didn’t spend this money, the dragons on Dragon Island would starve, and their hearts would scatter.

But if they did spend this money, their hearts would still scatter.

Faced with this century-old problem, the contemporary Dragon Emperor fully utilized his subjective initiative and proposed a new idea based on assessing the world’s commercial needs.

Since our dragons had long lifespans and formidable strength, crushing most of the inferior races, why not use our power to make money ourselves?

At this point, a young dragon suggested, “Does His Majesty mean for us to plunder human cities?”

The Dragon Emperor replied, “Your perspective is too narrow. What era are we living in? Still resorting to these traditional methods of making money?”

Having done these unethical things too often, those sand-sculpting human warriors would go mad, each one wanting to be a dragon-slaying hero. The bodies would pile up on the beaches of Dragon Island!

If they intended to take action, let’s approach it with a wider perspective.

Thus, a plan that was seen by many dragons as great, revolutionary, and comprehensive was launched.

Under the proclamation of the Dragon Emperor, Dragon Island introduced a range of services including but not limited to armed guards, armed escorts, dragon knight contracts, mutual defense treaties, and one-time hiring agreements.

Basically, if you pay them, they’ll act on your behalf.

When Ji Chen discovered the approach of Dragon Island, he almost dropped his jaw in shock. However, upon further consideration, even though this world still witnessed frequent wars and ongoing disputes among nations and races, it’s no longer the era when dragons reigned supreme thousands or tens of thousands of years ago.

Humans, gnomes, and elves had developed means to threaten dragons, albeit at a considerable cost, and it was not impossible to resist attacks from evil dragons.

As time went on, the living conditions of the dragon race gradually deteriorated. Without a stable and reliable source of wealth, as they looked at their small treasuries that hadn’t changed in thousands of years, they suddenly felt itchy.

So, the introduction of this plan by Dragon Island was understandable — like hell it was!

Ji Chen seriously suspected that the current Dragon Emperor might be some sort of time traveler, to have come up with all these things.

With the implementation of this plan, the dragons had something to do during the long years. It satisfied their desires for fighting and killing, while also bringing in heaps of gold every day, without worrying about those mad dragon-slaying heroes bothering them.

—In the end, we’re just hired help; if you have any problems, take them up with our employer; it’s not our business.

—What? You can’t handle our employer? Well then, my friend, maybe you should consider taking a look at the revenge services provided by Dragon Island. For Just fifteen million gold coins, we can deploy a whole dragon fleet to eliminate all your troubles and enemies with dragon flames and claws!

—Of course, all food expenses, accommodation expenses, possible medical expenses incurred during the process, will be borne by you!

That’s about it.

Anyway, it was rather magical.

In any case, throughout the last millennium, whenever conflicts erupted among different kingdoms and races on the continent, they would more or less enlist dragons for warfare.

—Since the other side hired dragons, wouldn’t I be at a disadvantage if I didn’t hire any?

This is a peculiar commercial system based on the strategic deterrence of dragons.

As a result, the dragons on Dragon Island enjoyed the most prosperous period of their lives, scaring people away with their claws and teeth every day, and earning a lot of shiny gold with just a little effort. Isn’t it great?

Naturally, if a dragon were to spot dragons on the opposing side as well, they would need to carefully assess the situation beforehand and decide whether to engage. Otherwise, if they were to inadvertently find themselves battling against their own kin, such as distant relatives, it wouldn’t bode well for familial harmony among the dragons.

But to be fair, dragons still understood the importance of commercial credit. When there were no dragons on the other side, they would work very diligently. Therefore, they had maintained a good reputation all along.

Dragon Island officially boasted hundreds of dragons, with at least four hundred fully grown dragons possessing combat capabilities. Each one’s strength was equivalent to that of a rare-tier hero unit. Together, they formed an extremely powerful force, sufficient to have turned the tide of a large-scale battle.

If Ji Chen could recruit assistance to resist demon attacks on the frontline of the Crown of the Ocean, perhaps he could delay the demons until all orderly forces were fully mobilized and ready to join the war, and then support the Crown of the Ocean on the frontline..