Chapter 327 (Patreon)

Chapter 327

Sophia and Igis finished their fight, and it went about as expected, with the tiger being the undisputed victor, as she didn't even need to attack the demon for her challenger to realize that there was just no way to best her. Afterward, the demons wanted to know more about her curious magic. Still, the blonde decided to talk only about the portals and nothing else because she wanted to use them on the new continent anyway.

“By the way, I’ve heard from someone who was here before that the demon continent has a bit of a dragon problem.” The group, together with some of the demons, including Igis and Errol, returned to the beach, where they got comfortable in a cozy outdoor bar when Sophia wanted to learn more about the situation Aura talked about before.

“Define problem.” Igis lightly tilted her head while she was snacking on some food.

“They’re apparently everywhere and can be quite the bother to cities.”

“Ahh.” She nodded a few times. “Yeah, breeding season when they migrate to different places can be a big pain if a city lies in their path. Normally, we have good defenses and precautionary measures, but every few decades, some places get overrun and have to be abandoned. Most of the time, like in 99% of the cases, they aren't much of an issue."

“If anything, they’re great fun to hunt in a group with other demons.” Errol added his own evaluation on the matter. “Okay, the raid on the capital that happened that one time supposedly was pretty dicey from what I heard, but we had luck on our side as the dragon hunter hero saved our rear there. Your wolf clan is certainly impressive for that feat.” He then smiled at Aura as her name reminded him of the hero Aurora.

“Well, I also like to hunt dragons, so I'm sure that amazing individual probably also just wanted to have fun with them, and saving the city was just a bonus.” The female wolf sounded rather confident about her claim for some reason.

“For a demon, that doesn’t make it any less impressive.” Errol shook his head. “We respect the hustle regardless of the motivation.”

“Hehe.” Aura liked that. “I’m a big fan of you demons and how you look at things.”

“So, dragons are everywhere on the continent?” Sophia lightly rolled her eyes while glancing at the hero they were talking about before focusing on Errol and Igis again.

“It very much depends on the place.” Errol paused for a moment to think about it. “The center of the continent usually has little dragon activity. That's where our capital and most of the major cities are located. The elven forests usually don’t have any dragons, either. Besides those places, you usually won’t be long without a dragon wanting a piece of you.”

“Dragons, for the most part, are highly territorial, too.” Igis added some more detail. “The mainland has very distinct biomes that house its own types and species of dragons. Some types, like wind dragons, who like to soar through the sky everywhere, are not that bound, though. Mating seasons also mix things up quite a bit.”

“Elven forests?” Sophia quickly got distracted by something else in that explanation. “I’d like to know more about that part.”

“SAME!” Steph nodded a couple of times.

“The name should be pretty self-explanatory, no?” The demon woman tilted her head. “It’s a forest where the elves prefer to live. It's not the only place they are, but it's their territory.”

“I figured that much from the context, yes.” The blonde rolled her eyes. “Elves are extremely rare on our continent, and I’ve never managed to meet any yet. The closest I got was finding an abandoned village of them in the middle of a forest.”

“Ahh, that makes sense.” She nodded a few times. “I don’t know that any elves were still left there. Anyway, compared to us demons, they’re still a rare group, but you won’t have much trouble running into them at some point.”

“It will probably be rather soon, too.” Errol agreed with her. “One of their biggest territories is a massive forest right at the edge of the mainland that way.” He gestured towards the open sea on the beach they were on.

“Right!” Igis clapped her hands. “I almost forgot about that. The demon outpost city we occasionally give our reports to is mostly surrounded by it. It’s the quickest way to get to the mainland, so I’d recommend heading for the outpost. It’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll see some elves there. If you befriend one of them, you might even get them to show you around in their forest.”

“Ohh!” Sophia seemingly liked the sound of that and smiled at the others in her group. “I guess we just found out what to do next~.”

“Let’s go!” The dog-girl was a big fan of the suggestion.

“By the way, what do you mean by the mainland has very distinct biomes?” Chloe wanted to know more about the previous topic. “Is there anything special about nature on this continent, or why did you specify that? Are any biomes here not normal?”

“I love biomes!” Sophia’s thoughts drifted towards her domain. “Tell us more, please!”

“Well, normal always depends on who you ask, doesn’t it?” The demon woman looked at them while shrugging. “One thing to note is that the biome borders are quite hard and sudden. There’s little to no blending between them. Like, you’re in a dense jungle, and a few meters later, you're suddenly waist-deep in a swamp. Except for the center of the continent, it's almost the same everywhere, and your surroundings change in a near-instant."

“That’s how it is.” Errol agreed with her. “Here and there, there are some small forests or mountain ranges that divide select biomes, but for the most part, things suddenly change in a rather harsh and unexpected way.”

“That’s also where the dragon territories come into play.” Igis remembered how the topic first came up. “Like, fire and lava dragons in the volcanic biomes, ice dragons in the glaciers up north, and so on and so forth without spoiling more things for you all to explore.

“Alright, we’re heading north!” Steph instantly got excited. “Glacier time!”

“Nuh-uh.” The four cats and Fen shook their heads.

“Booo!”

“Haha.” The demon woman let out a small chuckle. “There are certain themes of biomes grouped together on the continent, though. Again, not wanting to say too much, but you’ll be entering on the lush side. It’s quite filled with all sorts of forest types and similar thick green-ish overgrowth. It will take a while before you get out of that area unless you give up on exploring and follow established paths.”

"NEVER!" Both sisters shook their heads.

“Also, what we just told you is based on the known parts of the continent.” The demon man scratched his cheek. “Many areas of significant size are completely unexplored, and things could be different there.”

“How come there’s that much unknown?” Sophia tilted her head. “Are demons not that much into exploring? I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

“That’s absolutely not the reason.” He vigorously shook his head. “Quite on the contrary, but this continent has some very inhospitable places that aren't made to be explored, and it's basically impossible to traverse those biomes.”

“Come on, how bad could it be?”

“Remember the Igis mentioned a few minutes ago? She missed the part where you aren’t waist-deep in muddy and smelly swamp water. It’s a poison swamp.”

“Ah.” The blonde could see the issue.

“Don’t forget the valley of toxic vapor right next to it.” The demon woman reacted with a small nod. “Coughing up blood while choking and slowly dying is not my favorite way to go.”

“Thanks for telling us where not to go!” Ari didn't like anything she just heard and stared at the sisters with a concerned expression. “R-RIGHT?!”

“I’d like to see it, but seeing it from afar is good enough for me." Even Steph wasn't too into the idea.

“Thank you!” The jaguar was happy enough with that.

“Are there any dragons in those areas?” As Sophia was planning to meet and possibly befriend every elder dragon there is, she thought it might be beneficial to follow the regular dragons to find them or at least gather hints of where they could be.

“I mean, that depends on your definition of dragons, but if you count massive venomous serpents that continuously leak poison from every pore of their being, you’re going to like the aforementioned swamp a lot.” Igis just shrugged. “People also saw movement inside the toxic vapor, but no one ever was stupid enough to check and die trying.”

“Mhmm.” The blonde got lost in thoughts for a moment.

“You aren’t stupid enough for that, either!” Maya didn't like her reaction and immediately glared at her.

“I wasn’t planning to go in there.” She smiled back at her. “It’s just that toxic vapor covering a biome doesn’t sound too hard to get rid of with magic to see what’s hiding in there.”

“That’s actually fair.” The cat-girl could follow her reasoning.

“I’m not too knowledgeable about the area, but I’m sure fellow demons have already tried it. Well, I at least can’t imagine that no one did.” Errol had a hard time believing that Sophia was the first one to have that idea. “I’d heavily assume that it didn’t work.”

“My magic is a little bit stronger than most, so I still think it’s worth a try at least.” The tiger showed him a cheeky smile.

“Yeah, true.” He had nothing else to add there. “If you manage to do it, please let me know because I’m curious to see it.”

“Yes!” Igis nodded a couple of times.

“Sure!”

Afterward, they kept chatting about the topic a little longer while getting even more tips from the demon duo about how to get to the mainland, enter the outpost city, and where to go from there in order to be able to explore the area to their fullest ability.