Night Frost slowly stepped out from behind the grass. A trace of wariness filled her eyes.

The group of Sorceresses, meanwhile, burst into discussion the moment she appeared.

“Wow! What an adorable little girl. To think we’d run into one out here in the middle of nowhere… Heehee, I really want to taste her.”

A Sorceress behind the leader wiped the corner of her mouth. A hint of greed surfaced in her eyes.

She had just started forward when the Sorceress leader stopped her.

“You brainless idiots! Do you even know how hard it is to survive out here right now?!”

The Sorceress leader flicked her on the forehead.

The Sorceress who had tried to approach was sent flying backward. She sprawled on the ground and only managed to crawl back up after quite some time.

After wiping away her drool, she stood solemnly behind the Sorceress leader.

Ever since the three suns had risen into the sky, this forest had become terrifying and strange.

There was no way the Night Frost who had suddenly appeared before them was an ordinary person.

The Sorceress leader carefully examined her.

Then, a voice suddenly came from behind her.

“Look how tiny her feet are!”

“Shut up! Say one more word, and I’ll tear your mouths apart!”

The Sorceress leader shouted.

It was an expression of helplessness. The Sorceresses behind her were all rising talents of their race.

Even the oldest among them was only in her twenties. Most of them still looked young and immature.

The leader turned her gaze back to Night Frost.

Night Frost wore a loose robe, sewn together with simple black thread. Golden thread formed the pattern of a dragon around her cuffs.

In the Sorceress leader’s eyes, Night Frost wasn’t wearing any shoes.

Her small, snow-white bare feet seemed to step directly onto the scorched earth.

But upon closer inspection, they were actually hovering a short distance above it.

Night Frost had thickened her Magic Layer, creating the effect of floating in midair.

Looking higher, the leader saw that Night Frost had snow-white hair and red-gold eyes.

A few scales covered each of her cheeks. Two pitch-black horns grew from the top of her head.

Behind her, a thick tail swayed restlessly.

The Sorceress leader was worthy of her title. With her wealth of experience, she recognized Night Frost’s race at a glance.

The Night Frost before them wasn’t human.

She was a dragon.

Night Frost’s next words confirmed the Sorceress leader’s judgment.

“Who are you? (Dragon language)”

The Sorceresses’ records also contained descriptions of this forest.

It seemed to be the habitat of a certain Named Dragon.

Could Night Frost be that Named Dragon?

No.

Night Frost was powerful, but not powerful enough to be a Named Dragon.

Still, it wasn’t impossible.

She looked extremely young. A dragon’s age could be determined by the size of its horns.

Night Frost’s horns had only just emerged. She looked less than a hundred years old.

The more the leader thought about it, the more likely Night Frost seemed to be a Named Dragon.

To possess such an oppressive presence before the age of a hundred…

The Sorceress leader glanced around.

She didn’t understand much of the dragon language, so she turned around and pointed at the oldest Sorceress in the group.

“I remember you studied some dragon language. You go.”

“But I’ve forgotten all of it!”

The Sorceress protested.

Then she saw the leader’s murderous gaze and understood that refusal wasn’t an option.

If she refused, her bones would probably end up in the cooking pot tomorrow.

She might as well try to treat a dead horse as if it were still alive.

With that thought, she stepped forward.

But the moment she did, Night Frost warily took a step back. Flames gathered in her palm.

The Sorceress knew that Night Frost was on guard against them.

She scraped a trace of useful knowledge from her pitifully small store of memories and spoke slowly.

“Don’t worry. We won’t hurt you. (Dragon language)”

Even Night Frost thought her own Dragon language was clumsy.

She hadn’t expected the Sorceress before her to be even worse.

Still, judging by the situation, her disguise probably wouldn’t be exposed too easily.

“You have trespassed into my territory. Give me a reason. (Dragon language)”

Night Frost felt that there was nothing wrong with this statement.

This was where Li Dogegg lived. Therefore, it was Li Dogegg’s territory.

And Li Dogegg was now Night Frost’s familiar.

As Li Dogegg’s master, Night Frost naturally possessed everything that belonged to him.

So this was her territory.

The Sorceress’s expression changed after hearing Night Frost’s words.

She hurried to the leader’s side and translated them word for word.

The Sorceress leader’s brows drew tightly together.

Night Frost’s words completely matched her judgment.

She was indeed a Named Dragon.

Only, she was a newly born one.

A newly born Named Dragon could be defeated.

But their group would surely pay a terrible price. Night Frost’s strength was no joke.

“Tell her we’re only passing through. We’re searching for a passage and hiding from the disaster.”

The Sorceress conveyed the leader’s words to Night Frost in full.

Night Frost nodded after hearing them.

Avoiding the disaster was probably one of the Sorceresses’ goals.

It seemed they had no intention of provoking Night Frost.

That suited her perfectly. This was no place for a conflict to break out.

“You’re looking for a spatial rift, aren’t you? So am I. My predecessor entered a spatial rift and then vanished. I’m going to find Them. (Dragon language)”

Night Frost wanted to present herself as an innocent, inexperienced young dragon girl.

She swept away the calculation in her eyes, leaving only wariness and naivety behind.

Then she embellished her purpose and told the Sorceress everything.

The Sorceress turned around and repeated Night Frost’s words.

The Sorceress leader connected the clues in her mind and understood everything at once.

According to the Sorceress tribe’s records, a massive rift had once opened in this forest.

Some Sorceresses had followed the power radiating from it into the forest.

After searching for a long time, however, they had found nothing.

There was no rift.

There was no so-called dragon species, either.

The dragon had entered the rift.

Judging by the situation, it had almost certainly died. Otherwise, there would have been no need for a new dragon to inherit its place.

“Since our goals are the same, there’s no need to fight. Go and tell her that we don’t want a conflict.”

The Sorceress who had been dragged in as a translator stammered through the words.

Night Frost was left with a head full of question marks.

After thinking for a long while, she finally understood what the Sorceress meant.

“Cooperation? (Dragon language)”

The Sorceress nodded.

The Sorceress leader invited Night Frost to sit with them at their camp.

But the wariness in Night Frost’s eyes only grew stronger.

That was normal. In the eyes of outsiders, the Sorceress tribe wasn’t exactly known for being kind.

And that judgment was correct.

The Sorceresses were an arrogant bunch.

They relied on power far beyond what humans possessed and considered themselves extraordinary.

Some had even abandoned the path explored by their ancestors, choosing instead to pray for divine power.

This branch was relatively normal.

They hadn’t separated themselves from humanity because they looked down on humans.

They had left of their own accord because the fortress was simply too oppressive.

In the leader’s eyes, Night Frost had probably heard all sorts of scandals about the Sorceresses.

“Cooperation is fine, but we’ll have three rules. You’ll tell me your plan. You won’t attack me. And finally… give me a private space. (Dragon language)”

The Sorceress leader hadn’t expected Night Frost to agree to cooperate.

After all, Named Dragons were proud. They lived alone and refused to mix with the mundane world.

Yet Night Frost’s behavior made the leader feel that she was plotting something.

Perhaps Night Frost intended to scheme against them.

No, no.

A proud Named Dragon wouldn’t plot against them.

That was something only Sorceresses from the other branches would do.

It seemed that years of intrigue within the Sorceress tribe had made the leader overly suspicious.

If Night Frost had known what the leader was thinking, she definitely would’ve given her a thumbs-up.

How had she guessed that Night Frost intended to leave every one of these Sorceresses here?

“Then, please. (Dragon language)”

The wariness in Night Frost’s eyes didn’t fade.

Following the Sorceress leader’s instructions, the translator began explaining their plan to her.

According to the Sorceress tribe’s records, the rift had opened again one month after it first appeared.

That convinced the Sorceress tribe that a rift truly existed here.

Now that disaster had descended, the tribe could no longer struggle on in hiding.

Some Sorceresses could pray for divine power to protect them, but the gods could only delay the disaster.

They still had to escape.

Thus, the Sorceress tribe had begun to act.

Their branch was responsible for finding the spatial rift in this area.

Two Chapter Three members led the operation.

Night Frost had seen one of them inside the human fortress.

That Chapter Three Sorceress had volunteered to search for the Elven Codex and use it to predict whether the path beyond the door was safe.

She had taken most of their high-level combat strength with her.

Now, only one Chapter Two member remained beside the Sorceress leader.

The Sorceress tribe had once exchanged magical knowledge with the elves.

Back then, the tribe’s leader had witnessed the power of the Elven Codex.

After returning to the tribe, she often sighed with emotion.

“The Elven Codex is a rare treasure. It can derive magic and predict the future.”

To avoid unnecessary sacrifices after entering the rift, the Sorceress leader had approved her request.

She had sent the other Chapter Three Sorceress, along with three Chapter Two Sorceresses, to the Elven Forest.

Their mission was to borrow the Elven Codex and use it to predict the dangers within the rift.

After hearing their plan, Night Frost sorted through her thoughts.

The Sorceress who had gone to the fortress earlier had wanted to borrow the Elven Codex.

She planned to use it to predict the dangers beyond the rift.

That sounded reasonable.

But was it really borrowing?

It had clearly been robbing!

If Night Frost hadn’t been strong enough, she would’ve been finished by that Sorceress.

Still, Night Frost was grateful to her.

Without that encounter, Night Frost could never have broken through to Chapter Three so easily.

“Her name is Andi. She’s the leader of this branch of Sorceresses. I’m Fertini. I’m… the translator. (Dragon language)”

Afterward, she introduced every Sorceress present to Night Frost.

One of the Sorceresses used Mana to shape a small, hollow mound of earth for Night Frost.

She could rest inside it.

As for food, Night Frost didn’t need any.

Who knew whether they would develop evil intentions and put something strange inside it?

Night Frost’s arrival brought quite a bit of excitement to the group.

Most of the Sorceresses in this party were minors, and they were extremely curious about the “dragon” named Night Frost.

Especially Keti.

In the middle of the night, she slipped into Night Frost’s room, only to be caught red-handed.

Her eyes remained fixed on Night Frost. Her body kept edging closer and closer.

That girl was like a piece of stubborn chewing gum.

Even after Night Frost threw her out, she would reappear around the little earthen mound before long.

“Could I have… run into a pervert?”