Cthulhu Gonfalon

“Haha, haha!” Sui Xiong laughed so happily that his body shook back and forth, dozens of tentacles dancing in the air, as if he was convulsing. “Shoggoth, you’re such a genius!”

“What’s the problem?” Shoggoth looked very innocent. “I just thought Miss Graupel was alone underground guarding the treasury. I thought it was so cold and pitiful for her to be there alone that I went to tell her stories. Alas! If I hadn’t left my hometown in pursuit of art, I would have had a daughter her age…”

“What a daughter! Can you even have a dragon daughter?” Although the misunderstanding had been solved, Frost still had an angry expression and talked in angrily. “Our dragons lay eggs. Show me how you can lay an egg!”

“I’m just making an analogy…”

“What a damn analogy! You just want to chase after my sister!”

Watching them quarrel again, Sui Xiong waved his tentacles, and the powerful pressure that appeared and disappeared within a second was enough to calm them down.

“Well, that’s it.” Seeing the two sides stop fighting, he touched his head with his tentacles and said thoughtfully, “But I really should consider changing her post. It’s improper to let a little girl live underground all the time…”

“You’re wrong. Her current life is the best for Graupel.” Snow smiled and shook her head. “If you want her move out, she’ll be sad.”

“But children need to communicate with others.” Shoggoth said, “I’ve consulted a lot of parenting experts. They told me that if a child lived alone all year round, it would be easy for them to be isolated, withdrawn, and paranoid. Then they could suffer from a variety of mental illnesses—”

“There isn’t such a thing for dragons. That’s only for fragile human beings.” Frost interrupted Shoggoth’s remark. “You aren’t a Rock Dragon. Don’t assume we go by human standards! For us dragons, living alone is the most normal way of life. She’s even been working all day with golden coins and living in underground caves that are the most suitable for her. If other dragons knew about her life here, they would admire it greatly!”

Sui Xiong nodded slightly and asked, “What about you? Do you admire this kind of life?”

“Of course I do, but I’m a man! I want to gather wealth and build a dragon cave with my own strength!” Frost replied proudly.

Sui Xiong was shocked at his reply and appreciated the boy who had always done things in an awkward way a little more.

Although this kid had many shortcomings, generally speaking, he was just an innocent boy who had grown older and stronger, but not smarter. However, his ambition alone was worth others’ appreciation!

“Then how are you going to gather wealth?” Sui Xiong asked with great interest.

“I’m learning the technology of prospecting, and I’m also working on plane shuttle magic. Once I’m good at it, I’ll go to the Earth Element Plane to mine,” Frost said. “This is the most orthodox way for us Rock Dragons to acquire wealth. Most of our successful predecessors have gathered wealth in this way.”

“It seems that Rock Dragons are not in the kind camp. Why do you make money in such a loyal and honest way?” Sui Xiong asked curiously.

Frost was about to answer, but his face turned red, and he closed his mouth.

However, it was useless. At this moment, he was so close to Sui Xiong that what he was thinking was transparent in Sui Xiong’s eyes. As long as Sui Xiong looked carefully, he could see the answer directly from his mind.

The reason was actually simple: they weren’t powerful enough.

As a member of the Inferior dragons, the average power of Rock Dragons was a bit tragic. They didn’t fly fast or high enough. They didn’t have strong power. Their magic talents were ranked almost at the bottom of all dragons. Their only abilities were strong claws and thick scales on their bodies. In any case, they were like blue-collar basketball players on earth who had a strong build, but weren’t skilled enough. They had to rely on hard work to cooperate with their teammates and were responsible for making fouls when it was necessary.

Because of their poor magic power, Rock Dragons were often bullied by the Superior dragons, and even dragons such as Green and Black Dragons would purposely search for the Rock Dragon’s caves to rob. Therefore, for Rock Dragons, it was best to not only strive to accumulate wealth, but also carefully guard it. They tried their best to avoid attention from others. They just wanted to make a big fortune without being noticed by others.

This established that they were unable to gather wealth in the traditional way of dragon tribes, only fit to be silent miners. But even so, most of the Rock Dragons were still unable to avoid the cycle of mining, accumulating wealth, then being robbed through a depressed life.

“Life must be really tough for you!” Sui Xiong sighed deeply, put his tentacles on Frost’s shoulders, and said with sympathy, “Rest assured, now you’re in charge of the warehouse of the Void Mask Land. If anyone dares to cause trouble for you, I’ll help you. If Blue Dragons, or even the old Black Dragon Cladema, dare to rob your cave, I will tie them up and cover them with shells, putting him at your door as a sign!”

Frost was stunned at first, then realized that Sui Xiong had seen through his mind, so he flushed with embarrassment. However, he couldn’t refuse Sui Xiong’s kind favor, and finally, he could only sigh helplessly and deeply with an awkward expression.

The little storm ended. Shoggoth, who had misunderstood the whole thing, still ran to Graupel from time to time to tell her stories that he had collected and compiled before. Anyway, no matter what others said, he still thought her lifestyle was unhealthy and insisted on giving the poor, lonely girl a little warmth in his own way.

Frost was unhappy with this, but since Graupel herself had no objections, and Shoggoth wasn’t planning to chase after his sister, he did nothing further. However, he wore a more vicious and cruel expression, as if others owed him a lot of money. The staff in the Void Mask Land had to choose a victim to talk to the dragon by drawing lots when they went to the warehouse to collect things.

Sui Xiong was curious about the Rock Dragon and found some information. He thought these kind of dragon miners were very interesting, so he wanted to see if there were any similar species.

As a result, he found something rare and strange.

With Inferior dragons, many dragons lost their ability to attract the opposite sex because they couldn’t accumulate wealth and build decent dragon caves. In this case, their parents would often lay two eggs together, one female and one male. When the two dragons hatched, they grew up together from childhood and had a good relationship, and eventually, they would become a couple. This was also a natural choice made to confront the harsh situation and improve the reproductive ability of their race.

When he saw this information, Sui Xiong was stunned for a long time. He thought about it several times and couldn’t help laughing secretly.

No wonder Frost had been so angry when he thought that Shoggoth had been chasing after his sister. There had been a reason behind it!

He laughed strangely and went to Snow to tell her about it. He had thought Snow would be surprised, but he saw her indifferent and careless face.

“What’s so strange about that? In our dragon family, it’s very common to see brothers and sisters get married.”

“What?!” Sui Xiong opened his eyes wide, marveling at the fact that the dragon clan had such a shameful (or delightful) tradition.

“Don’t be so surprised. Weak dragons also have a right to reproduce.” Snow sighed and said, “And even in the Superior dragons, there are such situations; for example, to maintain the purity of blood… Aren’t those families with special blood in human beings very fond of internal marriages? I remember that from wizards, so it’s normal for siblings to get married…”

Sui Xiong was perplexed. He was shocked. He was lost in the wind.

“I should have learned of this… Is it too late to open a German Orthopaedic Clinic?”

“A German Orthopaedic Clinic? What’s that?”

Sui Xiong laughed without any emotion. It was extremely inconvenient to have to explain the famous Internet slang from earth. He left with an embarrassed face.

————————————————————-

1. The German Orthopaedic Clinic refers to medical institutions that could provide treatment for people who are caught promoting incest.