The Crimson Dragon Chapter 101

TN: I'm trying a new way of leaving TNs. All my footnotes will start with a 'T'

The Shadow belonged to a monster with a challenge rating of 26. Most adventurers wouldn't encounter one in their lifetime. The Shadow of the Void and it's sibling, the Shape of Fire, are both extremely rare, and even the winterwight and lavawight that they sp.a.w.n are legendary monsters. The party that Claudius was in had a few level 10+ paladins and priests, as well as some level 5-6 mages who were currently running away, as well as some level 10 warriors, rangers, and thieves.

Claudius would have had a bit of a headache dealing with this thing. If he was in the Crimson Dragon form then he could kill them as they arrived. However, he was currently in human form. As a human incarnation, Claudius was just a regular barbarian who had taken a step onto the road of legends.  "Aha, it looks like I need to run quickly. If I transform into a dragon here, things will get messed up." Claudius immediately put the mace on his belt then turned and ran. "Hey, Hank!". Shouted Tasman, the paladin. "Oh, I'm Fatalis [T1]. Who's Hank?" Claudius shamelessly replied.

[T1] Fatalis is an elder dragon from the game Monster Hunter. Claudius seems to be memeing 

Tasman stared blankly at Claudius, but then quickly grabbed onto him. "In that case, will you please at least…" Claudius returned to the priest Lady Mara, who was still unaware of the situation, and flung her onto his shoulder. "Take her with me, right? No problem. After using Chinese to shout the last four words, Claudius ran away with the beautiful priest on his shoulder leaving behind a trail of dust. The lamentable paladins and priests had short legs and so there was no choice but to leave them to the top of the tank [T3].

[T2] 风紧扯呼 (Fēng jǐn chě hū): "wind tight pull call", meaning that the situation is tense and so it's time to leave

[T3] 顶缸 (dǐng gang): "top of the tank", a metaphor for handing off the current calamity

A high level undead like this Shadow of the Void wouldn't just appear in a place like this, so there must be some sort of conspiracy behind it. Claudius, happily thought that, even if the adventurers and undead fought to death, it still wouldn't affect him. Instead, because of the fact that these evil creatures had appeared, The Silver Dragon might appear due to her sense of justice, which would reveal her location to Claudius.

The Crimson Dragon's movement speed was very fast, and even after he transformed into a human his agility still broke the watch [T4]. Even though he moved faster as a dragon, his large size made others think that he's not actually that fast. Carrying Lady Mara, Claudius easily overtook the weaklings who ran first. The people all rushed out of the tunnel and returned to the sunlight-covered surface. The Shadow of the Void wasn't scared of the sunlight, but this was the South and the extreme heat always made the legendary undead a bit uncomfortable. They prefer the cold weather of the Icewind Dale. [T5]

[T4] 破表了 (Pò biǎole): "broke the watch", a metaphor for setting a new athletic record

[T5] Another DnD reference. Icewind Dale is located in the northernmost region of Faerûn

"Aha, they're all gone?" The Crimson Dragon had just exited the tunnel when he noticed this. It seemed like the paladins and priests that stayed behind were all dead. The thieves, mages and rangers who also escaped the tunnel were trembling. It looked like the Shadow of the Void didn't chase them, otherwise Claudius figured that apart from him and Lady Mara that he was carrying, no one else could even consider escaping. 

"This just got a lot more complicated. Looks like the next time I go back, the Shadow of the Void will still be there. Let me think… based on the remains of the poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds [T6] that got done in by that thing, those paladins and priests could probably be turned into 3 or 4 winterwights. "Hah, this mine basically turned into a legendary dungeon." Claudius shook his head and sighed. In all honesty, while on the road he felt that brother Tasman wasn't a bad person. Even though he was a bit naïve, he also very friendly. As for whether or not to avenge brother Tasman? If Claudius could find the Silver Dragon Eliaza ,then he didn't mind doing it.[T7]. He thought about his abilities. The challenge rating of the Shadow of the Void is 26, and the challenge rating of its winterwights is 23, but the Crimson Dragon Claudius was very confident in his ability to clean up this trash. He was also very confident in his flames and materialistic aura [T8]. As for the winterwight's fighting ability, even though they can easily handle any ordinary dragon, they still couldn't beat someone like Claudius who was special even in terms of a Crimson Dragon.

[T6] 倒霉蛋 (Dǎoméi dàn): "unlucky egg", meaning someone who's ill-fated

[T7] 干一票 (Gàn yī piào): "do one vote", meaning to do something once but typically used by gangsters and the like

[T8] 唯物主义光环 (Wéiwù zhǔyì guānghuán): "materialism halo", I have no idea what this is supposed to be. Maybe it's like his immense pressure or something

In this sort of situation, the survivors need to return to the city and report the situation and get some sort of reward. However, the city officials and local n.o.bles would surely get a headache after hearing about how some legendary undead had appeared in the mines. This wasn't something that regular adventurers could help with right now. This would be handed off to the so-called unnamed adventurer team [T9], like the legendary door-kicking team [T10]. But Claudius knew that this city's officials will have a headache for a long time.

[T9] 无名冒险者队伍 (Wúmíng màoxiǎn zhě duìwǔ): not sure if this is some reference I'm missing or meant to be taken literally

[T10] 踢门团 (Tī mén tuán): again, I'm a.s.suming this is some sort of reference I'm missing.

It was true, when the city officials and the mine owners heard the report from the survivors - by the way, Claudius didn't go submit a report, he was busy bringing the confused Lady Mara to the temple of the Sun G.o.d. Claudiua didn't have any s.e.xual desires [T11]. With his twisted sense of beauty, he thought that dragons were much prettier than any human. After hearing the report, the officials and the n.o.bles were a mess. They couldn't believe that the Shadow of the Void would stay in the mines without leaving and making a mess. The objective of destroying or at least sealing away that Shadow of the Void was given the highest possible priority. They started using their connections to the city of Faerûn, although they only really requested help from the cities around the desert and the kingdom.

[T11] 男女 (Nánnǚ): "men women"

Claudius didn't want to wait around like this. Without revealing his ident.i.ty, he wanted to know how a Shadow of the Void appeared in this mine. So he began planning on how to go alone, but before he did that he needed to make some preparations. Since he's already a human, he needed to learn how to act like a human. Since he was already a barbarian, he needed to learn how to act like someone with that cla.s.s. That's what he needed to prepare. Claudius wasn't someone who would treat himself poorly. He took some of the money he just received, and plus the money he had on him which made 10 gold coins and 53 silver coins. Then he bought a lot of smoked meat and other rations. But before he officially headed out, Claudius still wanted to have one last drink at the bar.