Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 161 Commendation
The battle was actually over the moment Rean successfully injected the "snake venom".

After overcoming the formidable Beast Prince (mature) and the madness of the Mind Flayer's mastermind, Rean and his companions have completed Mensodirka's quest and can now go directly back to Princess Dania to claim their reward.

However, as long as there are other Beast Princes active, the underworld is destined to be unstable. If they were to form a team or mature again, it would be another catastrophe. Even a fully-formed magical girl could cause the collapse of a city.

Now, those who were supposed to die are all dead, and at least as far as the eye can see, there are no more hidden dangers.

After this battle, no one will ever underestimate the real "Beasts" and "Beast Magical Girls" again; they are not even in the same league as the Beast Order.

For the people on Earth, the most important gain was not just the hunt for the Beast Prince.
"Thank you all for your efforts. We will remember your contributions. Radiant City and Mosodirka will be our eternal allies. We will fight together against future crises." Rean knew that diplomatic rhetoric was just for show and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

In the city hall where Rean and his companions first arrived, they finally completed their expected audience and received personal commendation from the city lord, Verna.

A few hours earlier, she had opened the "Treasury" and let Rean and his party choose some rewards. The treasury was full of rare magical items, which were simply irresistible.

Rean touched the light red arm guard on his arm and was quite satisfied.

The Fire Giant's Armguards are high-quality, powerful gloves that not only provide a boost to strength but also offer a certain degree of fire resistance and fire manipulation ability.

To achieve this level of sophistication is already the work of an ancient alchemist among the Dark Elves.

"Good stuff! I'll take it!"

Kuku immediately took a liking to the magical item and urged Rean to accept it on the spot. Often, the value of a magical item isn't determined by its market price, but by how well it suits one's needs.

This powerful gauntlet, crafted from materials used by the Fire Giants, retains as much of the Fire Giants' talents and abilities as possible, making it a perfect match for Rean.

Now, with the gradual upgrade of his physical hardware, the fixed level of power of the "Cursed Ogre Gloves" has become a constraint rather than an enhancement.

To grow further, he definitely needs to get a normal super-powerful glove.

Equipment like the Mighty Gloves, which all warriors need, are easy to obtain at lower levels, but slightly better ones command exorbitant prices.

It's not as simple as a case of high price but no market; it's that a good item appears and is instantly snapped up, especially something like this that preserves the Fire Giant's signature talent.

It not only slightly increases fire resistance and damage, but also comes with a "Meteor Throw" talent ability, which allows projectiles thrown by both hands to be imbued with the talent's flames.

Its only problem might be that it retains too many abilities. As a price to pay for other powerful forces, it even retains the body temperature of the Lava Giant (an advanced form of the Fire Giant). People without fire resistance probably can't use it, and those with low fire resistance will also find it very uncomfortable.

"A very nice hand warmer." Rean, however, was quite satisfied. "Giants really are a treasure trove."

It was Kuku who, upon hearing this, added a couple of comments at that moment.
"Heh heh. Don't let the giants hear you say that. And definitely don't let them see your gloves."

Rean certainly knows what he's doing. Wearing dragon skin armor in front of dragons and giant gloves in front of giants is a classic example of courting death.

"Uh...actually, they get jealous when they see you. So just wear whatever you like." After thinking for a moment, Kuku added.

Now it was Rean's turn to break down.

"Do they have a grudge against me? The giants have the ability to recognize us."

Kuku shook his head. If the world had the ability to find the Thousand-Faced Dragon, reincarnation would have been terminated long ago.

"The relationship between giants and dragons, especially dragonborn, and between dragons and beasts, is probably a mortal feud that ends their respective eras." Rean fell silent. It seemed like everyone was an enemy of dragons. Had he boarded the wrong ship?

"Compared to the Thousand-Faced Dragon's own enemies, the Dragon Clan's public enemy is really nothing." Perhaps time was running out, Kuku reminded Rean.

As Rean grows, the aura of a true dragon within him will surely become stronger and stronger, and at that time, neither beasts nor giants will be friendly to him.

"Why do you keep talking about real dragons? Is there any difference between them and the giant dragons we see today?"

"It's probably the difference between ancient and modern humans. Modern dragons are descendants of true dragons, but the descendants of true dragons aren't just the five-colored dragons and metal dragons. The five-colored dragons now all claim to be true dragons, but that's not entirely true."

After thinking it over, Kuku still reminded him.

In fact, he also had to be careful with dragons. The five chromatic dragons did not have a good attitude towards dragonborn (unless you were the same color as them), and the metallic dragons also had a bad attitude towards the five chromatic dragons and their dragonborn.

As a descendant of a red dragon, he was bound to experience the infighting within the dragon race. Even if he encountered a red dragon, there was a high chance that the dragon would try to enslave him, as red dragons were notoriously bad-tempered.

"Uh, why does it feel like there are enemies everywhere?"

"In a world where interdimensional wars are constant, there are naturally enemies of every race. You're lucky; after all, weak races aren't qualified to be the natural enemies of true dragons and their descendants." Kuku only mentioned it briefly. He didn't mention that if the Thousand-Faced Dragon wanted to find enemies, even Tiamat, the mother of dragons and the ultimate boss in at least a thousand legendary stories, probably wouldn't have as many enemies or as much trouble as him!

The little incident passed quickly, and at least for now, Rean is very fond of his newly acquired Giant's Gauntlets, and judging from the joy on the faces of the others, they have also gained a lot.

The goddess Verna was indeed an honest person; when she said she would repay the debt, she meant it.

Now, the alliance party held under pressure from internal forces has formally settled the relationship between the two cities in a diplomatic setting.

The matriarchs of the other families outwardly offered their full support, but inwardly they were certainly quite unhappy.

They'll definitely cause more trouble later; it remains to be seen whether the Goddess Town can keep them in check. Rean pretty much understood that it wasn't that Verna was particularly friendly to the earth; it was simply that the First Family of the City Lord had a different stance than the other families.

The First Family always demands stability; they have no further opportunities for advancement, and the entire city is their property. No wonder they would reward those who save the city handsomely.

If the "deer" is truly unsealed, although it will most likely affect the ground, it will also bring about huge changes inside and outside the city of Mozordilka.

Even if the deer have no interest in the underworld, Menzoderka's strategic value will plummet, and even the gods might "withdraw their investment."

If the Dark Elves use this as a prelude to their ground attack, the First Family will definitely be replaced, and a more powerful Dark Elf family will take over the city.

For the First Family, remaining unchanged is the best path to development, and the alliance with the Earth aligns with their expectations.

For other families, becoming the number one family is the top priority. They crave any possible change, and colluding with external enemies is almost a must.

Such a mechanism may bring change and vitality to the Dark Elf society (which is rare in Elf societies), but it also wastes most of its resources on various forms of internal strife, making it hard to say whether it is a good thing or a bad thing.

"At least in the short term, these families won't be able to cause any trouble."

Seeing the two goddess sisters surrounded by a faint divine light, the other matriarchs could only behave themselves for a while.

After all, the First Family was under divine favor due to this great victory, and in a theocratic society, the attitude of the gods was the most important thing.

Meanwhile, other families suffered considerable losses this time. On the one hand, in the final stages of the city defense battle, each family used up their reserves to deal with the giant beasts that rushed into the city.

On the other hand, very few of the noble ladies who went out to carry out the mission of eliminating the mastermind have returned, such as the eldest daughter of the third family, whose members have all been lost.

The First Family's idea was also straightforward: to take advantage of the height of their authority to establish a development trend that prioritized stability. For this, they paid an extra price to demonstrate their family's "sincerity."
"The eldest daughter of the First Family, Alexie Talabal, will serve as ambassador, establishing an embassy in Radiant City to strengthen ties between the two cities."

Alexie has finally left the underworld as she wished, but it's unclear whether that's what she was hoping for now.

But "hedging her bets" also subtly suggests that even Vera isn't very confident about the future. Since her sister hates the underworld, let her develop her career somewhere else.

Thus, Rean's diplomatic activities can be considered a great success. Not only was an alliance signed, but a certain degree of cooperative diplomatic relations was also established between the two sides. Most importantly, through this incident, the forces related to the beasts were definitively defined as mortal enemies of both sides, and they were to be hunted down to the end.

The diplomatic activities concluded there, followed by a grand ball and buffet. The goddess even personally took to the stage to dance a victory dance dedicated to the gods, thanking them for their protection along the way.

I must say, she danced quite well, especially since she was dressed in such a revealing outfit.

After the dance, a faint divine light even fell, as if its "mother" had received this gift.

"After painstakingly accomplishing great things, she doesn't take credit for herself, but publicly attributes all the glory to the leaders. It's no accident that Verna is doing so well."

This divine favor completely forced other families to bow down, which was good news for the people on earth.

The ball was getting more and more exciting. If this were Rose's time, the arrangements would probably have turned into all sorts of large-scale parties that are hard to describe. The Mirror Maiden is a neutral deity, but she doesn't overly suppress the nature of the dark elves.

There was no group party, but some noble ladies came to invite Rean to rest in a side room. This kind of group activity after the ball is common in dark elf society, although it is usually led by women.

Rean refused; with Suliman on his left and Purple Rose on his right, it seemed he had no choice but to refuse as well.

There are actually other plans for tonight.

"It's the last night," Rean said, still holding on and not entering the dragon's sleep, perhaps just wanting to talk to Kuku a little longer.

He also wished that time could slow down.

But what's meant to come will eventually come.

(End of this chapter)