The First King of Beasts

Dustin had left immediately with the wyvern toward the place where it found the bodies, and the moment they got there, Dustin knew there was nothing to be gotten from the people, as they really were dead. Their bodies looked bloated, and they seemed to have been dead for at least a day, according to Dustin. 'The rest of the group should be close by if these bodies are one day old.' He couldn't tell exactly since the condition of the environment was an extreme one, and he had no experience with dead bodies being under heat, so he could only make a guess.

"This region is said to belong to the Red Dragon Lord and his 7 sons, right?" Dustin said to himself as his hands approached his smooth chin. He stopped before his hands reach though.

Right next to the bodies, Dustin spotted what looked like a trail of blood, and it would seem like the person with the blood wasn't bleeding lightly at all. The heat of the environment caused the blood to almost disappear, but for Dustin, it was still visible. 'This...' he thought in his mind, as he followed the trail away from the bodies.

'This doesn't seem to be normal no matter how I look at it. No one would be able to drag themselves this far after receiving such an injury.' Dustin said in his mind after reaching the point where the blood trail began to defy reason.

If the trail had continued on the ground, it would be understandable, but it straight up went up the rocks that stood vertically high, almost over a hundred feet. There was no other thing to think in such a situation. 'This has to be the work of a creature that can fly.' Dustin said in his mind. Seeing as the region was known to belong to the dragons, it didn't take a second for Dustin to come to the conclusion that it was the doing of a dragon.

From there on, Dustin followed the trail up the steep side of the rock. It would be difficult to climb the vertical face of the rock, so Dustin went up using the wyvern, and after he got there, then looked for the blood trail and continued trailing it from there.

After close to half an hour of following the trail, it started to disappear, and after some point completely vanished. Seeing as he couldn't see any sign of a dead body or remains of one, Dustin was sure that he wasn't yet at the place where he is supposed to be.

"I would use one of the animals to track it, but the smell must have been erased because of the high temperature." Dustin said. If the temperature was high enough, it could burn off the blood and smell, it was also the reason why the trail had become so unperceivable after only a day. After think about it briefly, Dustin decided to give up on the trail. The owner of the blood would definitely be dead by now. As for why the other bodies were left behind, Dustin had no idea-

"It's not my reason for being here anyway, so-"

Dustin got on his wyvern and took off, high enough that he wasn't above the clouds of black smoke, and could make out details on the ground. With his improved eye sight and sixth sense skill, it wasn't too hard for him to scan his surroundings below.

Dustin kept on it for a while searching the place. While on the search, he notices a rock structure that was almost void of molten lava unlike the rest of the place. Dustin ordered the wyvern to fly towards that area, and as he got closer he noticed that the structure was natural, and the two rocks that shot above the cloud of smoke like spikes had formed a place like some kind of gate between them. Dustin landed and came off the wyvern, before unsummoning it.

Another thing Dustin noticed was the almost unnatural mist that surrounded the base of the two spike like rocks that stood like pillars. Dustin was a bit surprised seeing fog in such a place. Normally, it should be impossible for such a thing to even occur, but here he was right in the fog walking forward with paced steps. Dustin didn't bother for a sneak attack or anything unexpected, as even though his normal senses seemed to be in a bit of disarray within the fog, he still had his sixth sense. He could see everything around him as clear as day, and he could see that there was nothing in the fog, 'at least for now.' He said in his mind just before something appeared.

Dustin acted calm as though nothing had happened, and just kept walking forward. Because of the enormous size of the two rocks, Dustin was still in-between them and had yet to reach the other side. 'Is that a dragon?' Dustin asked in his mind as he studied the creature that had appeared within the mist some tens of metres ahead of him.

The creature looked like a dragon, but Dustin couldn't see any wings on its back, and it's entire anatomy was quite different from what he thought a dragon would look like in real life. He did study about different creatures, monsters and beasts alike, so he had some idea. Dustin had the system to assist him in identifying things like this, but he also loved knowing the creatures himself too.

'System, what is that monster ahead?' Dustin asked the system while continuing on walking like nothing was happening. The system answered, and from what the system said, Dustin understood what was before him. Basically, the creature before him was a Drake. It is related to a dragon just like the wyvern, but it's not exactly one.

'So I'm guessing that the seven sons of the Dragon Lord will have different draconic forms, and won't be explicitly dragons...' Dustin thought the idea was good, and in that moment, the thought of what the Dragon Lord's wives were what came to his mind, but after a brief moment, he let go of the thought. It was getting rather chaotic already in his head, and that was enough on its own.

"The thing now is if its an intelligent creature that's capable of communication, or not."