Chapter 460: Chapter 238: Melted Scale Town and Red Scale Mushroom Soup
Melted Scale Town,
a peaceful yet bustling small town deeply embedded in a mountainous hollow on the eastern slopes of the treacherous and rugged Melted Scale Mountain Range.
It’s like a pot of water gradually coming to a boil, with the calm surface and occasional ripples showing little difference from an ordinary town, only the jets of flame jumping up now and then from below the iron pot and the bubbling hot bursts on the water surface revealing its uniqueness.
Compared to other human settlements located in dangerous, remote, and desolate places, Melted Scale Town is much more prosperous than imagined.
Although it can’t rival River Valley Town, which has an adventurer association, it’s not much different from its nearby Kalanfor.
As for the reason, one aspect is the town’s unique geographical location.
Leaning against the towering mountains, it sits on a relatively gentle slope, with a powerful, long stream originating from the depths of the Melted Scale Mountain Range running through the town.
Besides bringing valuable water sources to the town, it also dispels the lingering sulfur heat in the air, irrigating and nourishing the nearby land.
It creates the basic conditions necessary for the life of the people in the town.
On the other hand, the fact that Melted Scale Town can develop in such a remote location and attract wave upon wave of merchants and adventurers for trade and exchange naturally also has its unique reasons.
That powerful giant dragon, named Crawbarry, perched atop the highest peak of the Melted Scale Mountain Range, is one of the reasons.
Under normal circumstances, facing such a creature whose mere dragon breath could destroy countless years of hard work by thousands of people in the town, it can be deemed a mobile natural disaster.
No one with even a bit of sanity would choose to approach it.
Especially considering that Crawbarry is the most temperamental Red Dragon among dragon kinds.
But perhaps precisely because of this, the Red Dragon’s unique strong territorial awareness seems to include this small settlement of gathered weak creatures as part of its territory.
Even though it often flies over Melted Scale Town, it has never attacked the buildings or civilians in the town.
Moreover, due to its innate Dragon’s Might and the dangerous aura of being a top predator in the food chain, the appearance of demons around is extremely rare.
Throughout the year, the area around the town might only see a few goblins that multiply rapidly like cockroaches and have low intelligence, or some kobolds attracted as followers of the Red Dragon.
They pose no threat to the town.
This makes Melted Scale Town one of the few safe places near a dragon’s habitat within Pan Yun Province.
And thanks to this dangerous yet proud and powerful guardian, the town has acquired an industry crucial for its economic development.
—Red Dragon Scales.
Of course, they never have direct confrontations with it.
Those known locally as “Flame Gatherers,” professional adventurers and bold hillfolk, exercise extreme caution in searching for naturally shed or battle-lost scales of the Red Dragon in relatively safe areas away from the Dragon Nest.
Benefiting from the dragon’s high resistance against various magical attributes and solid defensive power, these dragon scales, even when separated from its body, still hold great forging value.
If transported to big cities like Newm, they can even be directly displayed at auction houses, fetching a hefty price.
And if one can find the molted wing membranes of the Red Dragon, or even rarer, dragon teeth and dragon claws, for ordinary people, it can nearly be life-changing good fortune.
Humans and the giant dragon, amid the whistling mountain wind and the scorching sulfur smell, reached a bizarre yet stable balance.
When Xia Nan and his group arrived in Melted Scale Town, the streets were already bustling.
The town was built against the mountain, bounded by terrain and the need for wind and fire protection, it has only one wide main road, while narrow, winding alleys occupy most parts of the town, full of stairs and steep slopes.
Buildings along the road are generally low, seldom two-story types, constructed with the thick red-brown stone and fireproof clay, and the roofs are steeply covered with special ceramic tiles.
The road surface is locally sourced, compacted from the dark grey slag from the Melted Scale Mountain Range, with deep grey and charred black as the main colors, stepping on it gives a faint warmth underfoot.
Though peculiar, the town streets, though not spacious, seem even more crowded due to the flow of people and street vendors.
Yet it gives off a sense of order amidst chaos, lively and prosperous, filled with a bustling atmosphere.
“Thud.”
The sturdy leather boots, bearing remnants of forest leaves, landed on the charred grey ground, scraping against the slag with a grating sound.
Xia Nan, bearing dual swords and clad in iron armor, lifted his leg and stepped up the staircases, eyeing the street vendors’ goods with curious interest.
Pottery made from special clay of the Melted Scale Mountain Range, heat-resistant textiles, mine picks and crowbars, rocky sheep wool, herbal plants of peculiar shapes…
Even though it’s closer to River Valley Town than Newm and still within Pan Yun Province.
The street scene of Melted Scale Town, filled with exotic allure unlike other human settlements, gives one the illusion of having reached the other side of the continent.
“This place is very safe, near the Melted Scale Mountain Range, and intelligence is hard to pass outside quickly due to the terrain restriction.”
Wood, the guard, kept a low presence at Hai’an’s side, his sharp eyes scanning around.
“We can rest in town for three days until everyone has recovered, then set off again.”
With a glance at Sava not showing any expression ahead, Xia Nan internally agreed with Wood’s suggestion of resting.
Not to mention anything else, just for their team’s Dragon Descendant, a three-day rest is quite necessary.