Chapter 389: A Dragon Hunt, Lemon
....
"This'll be a nice kill to add to our reputation!"
A robust man wearing shiny gold and silver armor with a large greatsword on his back started to speak.
"Just imagining the headlines talking about how I slayed a Gold-Ranked Dragon gets me excited!" He added, followed by boisterous laughter escaping his mouth.
"And to think that we found this creature gliding through the skies while we were on our way to the Centennial Clash! We must be on a lucky streak!"
The one who spoke was a scrawny man with sunken cheeks and a rapier strapped to his waist.
He had on a look of avarice as he imagined all the High-Rank beast food he could eat with the reward obtained from bringing in a Dragon's head.
"You're still the same as always, Duckroff! Do you only think about eating?? You should be more focused on the beautiful women slaves that we could buy with all this wealth!" A man with a large frame shouted with a lascivious look on his face.
"Yah, you're right, Umbo!" Duckroff and the other man exclaimed in unison.
"..." A girl with dazzling blue armor and gold feathers on her head looked at the three men with a disgusted look on her face.
"You idiots know that I was the one who threw the javelin, don't you?? Stop thinking about taking all the credit!"
The name of the girl who just spoke was Lemon, and she had long blonde hair with yellowish eyes.
Lemon didn't even want to be in the presence of these deplorable SS-Rank Adventurer's; however, since they were similar in strength to her, she had no choice but to deal with their repugnant personalities.
In truth, Lemon and the other three SS-Rank Adventurer's barely knew each other and were all on their way to the Centennial Clash.
The thing is, they just so happened to spot the Golden-Ranked Dragon at the same time.
And, of course, the one who had caused the Dragon to go down was a spiraling javelin thrown by Lemon.
However, the other three SS-Rank Adventurer's were looking to steal what should've rightfully been hers!
"You see, Lemon," Duckroff began with a sinister smirk on his face.
"We have heard many things about your accomplishments over the last few thousand years. And we've also heard things about that body of yours"
He licked his lips while scanning over Lemon's enticing curves concealed beneath her armor.
"Y-You bastard!" Lemon screamed with her hand tightly gripping onto another javelin she conjured up.
However, when the javelin was about to increase in intensity, it suddenly fizzled out and faded into the wind.
"!?!?" Lemon didn't know why it disappeared, so she tried to conjure another one.
But the one she tried to materialize ended up with the same fate as the last one
"What is happening!?" She shouted before she felt something come up from her intestines.
*Spit!* Crimson-colored blood splattered out of her mouth and onto her hands.
"T-This is" She mumbled before her eyes became shaky as she felt her vision blur.
Lemon turned her blurred gaze up and saw the evil looks on all three of the SS-Rank Adventurer's faces.
That was when she realized what had happened as she yelled, "You bastards!! You said that was an energy-boosting potion! It even had the official Alchemist Association label on it!"
"..." Ruckoff's face became even more malevolent when he saw the struggling look on her face.
And the rest of them were the same way, as they had planned this from the moment that they caught sight of the dazzling beauty that was Lemon!
First, they replaced the label of a forbidden lethargy potion before they added the Alchemists Association label through the use of Ruckoff's 'Forgesmith' profession.
After that, it was smooth sailing, as all they had to do was convince Lemon that the potion would be a necessity if they wished to take out the Gold-Ranked Dragon in one hit!
Of course, there was some truth to this ploy, as the 'strength potion' did indeed have a strength boost aspect to it; however, more than that, it was a sleep-inducing potion that would leave the inflicted unconscious for days!
And that was more than enough time for Ruckoff and the other two SS-Rank Adventurer's to finish off the Gold-Ranked Dragon before they 'played' around with Lemon's body for a while.
Now, none of this would've panned out the way it did if not for the prestigious background that she descended from.
Since she was pampered and treated as the star child for most of her life, she had just the right amount of naivety to fall for the 'label switch trick' that they used on all the women who caught their eye.
You see, it wasn't merely a coincidence that Ruckoff and the other two SS-Rank Adventurer's had 'coincidentally' crossed paths.
No! They had been after Lemon for the past few years now! And when they heard rumors of a Gold-Ranked Dragon in the area, they knew that the chance that they had been waiting for had finally come!
After all, it was spread around that Lemon was looking for Gold-Rank Dragons scales to make herself a new set of armor. So the three of them were nearly 99% sure that Lemon would go straight for the Dragon as soon as she heard about it.
And their predictions had turned out to be correct, as she left her family home in the Royal Capital of AquaRing, delaying the Centennial Clash sign-up process.
And her destination: The Gold-Ranked Dragon!
"You despicable scum!" Lemon shouted with blood flying out of her mouth.
"It looks like we gave her a little too much of the lethargy potion, Ruckoff," said the scrawny man.
"Yeah, it seems like some of her internal organs have been damaged, but it's no matter; as long as that part of her is still warm, then we won't have any problems," Ruckoff replied with a malicious glint in his eyes.
"You're right! Let's just take all that armor off right now, then!" The scrawny man responded, his hands going toward Lemon's armor.