Death... and me

Indeed. Even though the twins played with the rules to save the Armored Salamander, it simply didn't explain why the small white dragon ordered her to protect them. That was obviously much worse when the rule of not helping the participants was taken into consideration. Were the twins' interference and bending of the rules that effective to warrant such an order? Rean, Roan, Kentucky, Hurio, and Lilia highly doubted that.

"Oh well, such a result is still more than welcome," Rean said after thinking about it for a bit and getting nowhere. "Whatever the reason may be, it's a good thing for us, especially Lilia. Actually, not only Lilia. If Roan, Kentucky, Hurio, or I fail to be selected, we will also rely on the mother Armored Salamander's power to survive the Light Element Waves."

Roan then looked at the Armored Salamander after that, saying, "Then again, I don't think she'll have much to protect. With such a gigantic ancient beast following us around, none of the other participants will even dream about getting close to us."

As soon as Roan said that, the mother Armored Salamander's body began to shrink at a very fast pace. The several kilometers body quickly shrank within the span of a few seconds. Eventually, it reached the size of a normal lizard. It's just that it still had the mother ARmored Salamander's appearance.

"Cu...Cute!" Lilia couldn't help but say that. Indeed, the little mother Armored Salamander, with her white and red scale armor, did look very cute at this moment. Unsurprisingly, Lilia wanted to pet the mother Armored Salamander, but she refrained from doing so. That thing was who knows how many times more powerful than herself.

The Armored Salamander then floated to Rean's shoulder and held itself there, telling him, "I... protect... if... necessa...ry..." From the looks of it, she had no intention to bring the twins' group around. Her mission was only to protect, so she wouldn't show them where the next mark could be found either.

Kentucky then asked the mother Armored Salamander, "What about your kid? Is it okay to leave him alone for such a long time?"

The mother Armored Salamander nodded, telling Kentucky, "He... sleep... next... ten... years..."

"Ten years of sleeping?! Holy shit!" Naturally, Kentucky was surprised to hear that. "Well, if he gets to sleep for ten years inside that volcano, then I think he should be safe."

Lilia couldn't help but ask after that, "By the way... do you have a name?"

The Armored Salamander looked at Lilia for a moment before shaking its head in the end. "No..."

"Alright, I'm going to call you Sally from now on." Rean immediately came up with a name...not that it was very original, though. "Using the term mother Armored Salamander every single time is annoying."

"Sa...lly..." The Mother Salamander did seem to like it, though. "I... accept..."

Well, Roan couldn't care less about the salamander's name. "Alright, since everything ended well, let's head to the third floor. It's very likely that we're one of the very first groups to acquire the second mark, so we have quite a good position in the Lost Star Selection."

Naturally, no one was against Roan's words. With that, Kentucky let everyone jump on his back before taking flight once more. Rean also took the opportunity to heal Sally's body since she was touching him. They weren't serious injuries, but due to her level, it would take a very long time to heal them on her own.

However, while they were heading to the exit, little did they know that another group of the Dragon Tail Brotherhood watched things unfold from a hidden area far in the distance. They had found this Dragon Pool quite easily since Sally's gigantic body was very eye-catching. Not to mention that they also had a white scale with a red hue in their hands. Sure enough, they could be used to find the dragon pools, just like what Celso's group was doing before Sally appeared.

However, the Dragon Tail Brotherhood group was in a deep dilemma. How would they get close to the Dragon Pool with that enormous ancient beast there? That would just be tantamount to suicide. They were also puzzled by that scene as they had never heard of an ancient beast located near a Dragon Pool. The pools had always been empty in their surroundings.

They became even more afraid when they saw the several light beans raining down, breaking space apart. For a moment, they even thought they had been discovered. However, after seeing that none of the beans landed close to them, they eventually let out sighs of relief. They were just puzzled as to why that happened, as it looked like the beans suddenly changed direction. It was quite unfortunate for them that Sally's body was covering everything that was happening inside the Dragon Pool in the volcano, so they obviously didn't see Rean and Roan's intervention at that point.

Eventually, their wait was rewarded, and Sally's body began to shrink at a fast pace. At the same time, they were confused. That's because they were finally able to see something else other than Sally. Obviously, they could see Rean's group with Sally's body shrinking. They also saw how the ancient beast landed on Rean's shoulder before Kentucky took flight and left. They didn't dare to show their presence at all as they knew that Sally was an ancient beast and could feel their presence if they got too close.

In fact, when Kentucky took flight, Sally did glance at their group for a moment. But since they didn't attack, she didn't act either. Protect if in danger. That's her only duty, and she was prohibited from doing anything else.

Only after thirty minutes or so did the Dragon Tail Brotherhood group decide to come out of their concealment. "I remember those guys from when we were at the entrance. Weren't they the ones Celso almost started a fight with but gave up in the end?"

Another member nodded in response. "Yes. Celso thought they were the ones who stole four of the five Dragon Marks from his Dragon Pool. But after he checked those guys' marks, he found out that he was wrong. Well, I'm not so sure if he really was wrong at this point."

On the other hand, the elder that protected that group let out a bit of cold sweat. As a Void Tempering Realm cultivator, he could feel Sally's stare at him, even from such a long distance. "Remember their faces. I don't care what you do. You must absolutely not offend that group. Understood?"

He didn't need to say that twice as they saw how Sally followed them. Who would try to buy a fight against a group that had an ancient beast protecting them? "Yes, elder!"