"What a behemoth, like a small mountain…"
Standing before the massive fire dragon's skeleton, Princess Ailita sighed with genuine awe.
"Let's get to work!"
Rolling up her sleeves, Hilulele tapped the Dragonbone with her staff.
"It's really incredibly hard… Such a huge dragon skeleton should yield a lot of Dragonbone, right?"
"You're thinking too much."
Su Lin casually replied, then swung his fist and started smashing.
Each punch knocked off a few scattered Dragonbones, but in just a few seconds, the dragon skeleton completely disappeared.
"That fast?"
Princess Ailita was greatly surprised.
This speed was even faster than when she used magic to make boneless chicken feet.
Princess Ailita eagerly approached Su Lin, her face full of anticipation.
"How many Dragon Bones are there?"
"Eleven."
"Eleven?!"
Princess Ailita excitedly pointed at the area where the dragon skeleton had been, gesticulating wildly.
"Such a huge dragon! Like a small mountain… and it only dropped eleven Dragon Bones in the end? This dragon didn't have osteoporosis, did it?"
"Reign in your imagination."
Su Lin knocked Princess Ailita's head, annoyed.
"This kind of harvest is already great. The dragons in the MC Dungeon are like this; just consider these Dragon Bones to be the essence."
"Concentrated?"
"…You could think of it that way."
Princess Ailita's face immediately fell with disappointment.
The Dragonbones salvaged from an entire dragon skeleton weren't even enough to make a single dragon claw. She strongly suspected that the MC Dungeon had embezzled the excess Dragon Bones.
However, once Su Lin crafted a Dragon Taming Staff from the Dragon Skull, Princess Ailita completely forgot about the Dragonbone issue.
An 183-year-old elf, yet still acting like a child who can't move when they see a toy… so easily fooled.
Su Lin shook his head, then looked at Beixi and began to instruct her.
"Clean up the desert village and let the army move in to develop it. The desert area is still very easy to find fire dragon skeletons. Also, be careful of the underground ant nests and Death Worms."
"You all keep an eye on things here. I need to go back to base. If anything happens, contact me with a magic message."
Beixi nodded readily.
With the handbook summarized by Grandpa Lop, while not fully mastering the villager fertility encouragement techniques and other villager technologies, imitating them was not a problem.
Moreover, with her strength, as long as she didn't encounter a dragon or a BOSS, there wouldn't be any major issues. Although she was an elf so radical that she had lost some humanity, she was quite reassuring.
Su Lin, meanwhile, took Hilulele and Princess Ailita back the way they came.
This time, with the Hippogryph mount, it would take at most a dozen minutes.
Hilulele didn't know what she was thinking; she had been silent ever since collecting the Dragonbones. Princess Ailita, on the other hand, was as lively as ever.
"Su Lin, what are we going back to base for?"
"To drop off some things, then go to the grassland to find Cockatrices."
"Cockatrices? Aetherium Continent seems to have them too. They're also high-risk magical beasts. Are we going to tame them?"
"No, we're going to kill them."
Cockatrices drop materials like Wither Bones, which are used to craft the Dragonbone Longbow and Dragonbone Arrows.
Once this dragon-slaying weapon is made, they can prepare for official dragon slaying.
The core of the ice and fire legend mod is all about dragons. To accumulate development value as quickly as possible, a large number of dragons must be slain.
"Seriously, shouldn't we make some Dragonbone armor before we go?"
"…Ailili, you're more afraid of death than I am now."
"Didn't you say any random dragon is a Tier 3 dragon?!"
Princess Ailita blushed, glaring angrily at Su Lin.
Just a while ago, this guy was adamantly saying that with their current equipment and understanding, encountering a wild dragon meant certain death.
A couple of hours later, he turned around and said they could now prepare to slay dragons.
Even human women aren't this fickle!
Su Lin naturally understood what Princess Ailita meant, but fickleness was also a characteristic of the MC Dungeon.
"I really wasn't confident just now, but a Dragonbone Longbow plus Dragonbone Arrows… do you understand what an overpowered artifact is?"
A Dragonbone Longbow enchanted with Tier 5 Strength, paired with Dragonbone Arrows, would allow Su Lin to play ice and fire legend in a broken mode.
One critical hit could deal fifty-nine points of damage, which was even more outrageous than Xue Rengui's three arrows settling Mount Tian.
Listening to Su Lin's description, Princess Ailita's eyes gradually began to light up.
"Is the Dragonbone Longbow that strong?"
"A plain Dragonbone Longbow isn't much, but with Dragonbone Arrows… this one arrow will pierce the stars!"
"Good!"
Clapping her hands decisively, Princess Ailita's small face was flushed with excitement.
"This Queen will equip all members of the Hippogryph cavalry with Dragonbone Longbows!"
A Hippogryph cavalry unit fully equipped with Dragonbone Longbows and Dragonbone Arrows, soaring above the nine heavens, unleashing a volley of arrows… as Su Lin put it, it was purely missile carpet bombing.
The Hippogryph flew over the area where the ant ants had previously been. A Death Worm was being besieged there.
She only caught a glimpse of the chaotic battle scene; the Hippogryph was too fast. But that brief moment was enough for Princess Ailita to spot a blind spot.
"Su Lin… the Dragonbone Longbow is strong, but how do you guarantee that a giant dragon will give you ten shots of output time?"
Her clever intelligence once again took the high ground.
Princess Ailita suddenly realized that no matter how strong the Dragonbone Longbow was, they still had to survive to shoot it.
Dragons above Tier 4 could kill them instantly. Would they give Su Lin ten shots of output time?
"No problem. The front line just needs to draw aggro and tank the damage."
"Do we have a front line?"
Su Lin didn't answer. His gaze, which should have been kind and friendly, instead sent shivers down Princess Ailita's spine.
"You're not trying to make my sister and me your meat shields, are you?"
"Thank you, Ailili."
"Damn it! I'm just a weak magic user! Can't you ask Grandpa Lop to do this?"
Princess Ailita, exasperated, urged her Hippogryph away from Su Lin and closer to Hilulele.
"Sister! Did you hear that? This Su Lin guy wants us to be his meat shields!"
"Huh? What did you say?"
Princess Ailita was a little puzzled.
"What is Sister thinking? She hasn't said a word since just now."
Hilulele opened her mouth, then after a long moment, still shook her head and said:
"Nothing, just some unimportant things."
Since she said so, Princess Ailita wisely didn't press further.
But Su Lin's intuition told him that Hilulele was thinking about things related to the MC Dungeon. However… if she didn't speak, Su Lin wasn't interested in asking.
---
The elves now had a deeper understanding of the MC Dungeon.
Su Lin and his companions had been out for less than half a day. When they returned, a small village had already sprung up around the portal.
Various basic villager technologies were also rapidly built using resources brought from the first layer, and a simple preliminary outpost for the fourth layer was thus completed.
Even the materials Su Lin needed were already available thanks to the elves' exploration.
"Not long ago, while exploring the surroundings, we encountered two Cockatrices in the grassland area. Fortunately, the exploration team reacted in time and suffered no losses."
"Additionally, when the vanguard explored towards the southern sea, someone heard a very ethereal song."
Ethereal song?
It's a Siren!
"You didn't send anyone to explore, did you?"
Without earplugs, elves, who are not good at water combat, would likely suffer significant losses if they encountered one.
"No."
The captain of the Imperial Guard decisively shook his head.
"According to your handbook, any abnormal situation requires an immediate return."
"That's good. For now, don't let anyone approach the sea."
"Understood."
The captain of the Imperial Guard reported many things, showing that they had gained a lot during this period of exploration and construction.
However, it was still a bit too conventional.
Only three Wither Bones were brought back. The Dragonbone Longbow could be made, but the most crucial Dragonbone Arrows could not be made in large quantities at all.
Su Lin still had to make a trip to the grassland area.
Cockatrices themselves aren't very strong, but their disgusting gaze, which makes you feel like you're looking into eternity, is truly troubling.
Fortunately, with Hilulele's combat talent, she could easily beat a Cockatrice even with her eyes closed.
But to be safe, Su Lin still made three blindfolds. What if closing her eyes didn't work, and Hilulele fell victim to the Cockatrice's attack... a violent loli wielding a spiked club, swaying under the influence of a nausea debuff, unable to accurately target enemies.
Such a thing sounds terrifying… Before setting off, Su Lin again instructed the elves to first build large chicken coops.
The demand for key materials like Wither Bones would be endless in the future, and relying solely on finding wild Cockatrices wouldn't be enough.
After Su Lin introduced the MC Dungeon Cockatrice's magical attack method, Princess Ailita, as expected, was very interested.
That skill, which Su Lin named "You Bastard, Look at Me!", if used well on the battlefield, would be an invincible crowd control weapon.
He simply had the elves build two large chicken coops: one for producing Wither Bones, and the other for continuously taming Cockatrices to cultivate a Cockatrice army in the future.
"Yes, Princess Ailita!"
The captain of the Imperial Guard wrote down the task, then looked at Su Lin.
"Mr. Su Lin, are there any other instructions?"
"Hmm… send all the magic books from the Elven Kingdom, including those from the restricted section. Once I'm done with this, I want to thoroughly study magic."
Upon hearing this, Hilulele was a little puzzled.
"The Elven Kingdom has many magic books. Can you learn that many?"
"No big deal. It's easy to gain experience in the fourth layer of the MC Dungeon. I plan to take this opportunity to become a walking magic encyclopedia."
Although magic, no matter how strong, couldn't compare to his simple and unadorned serious punch, casually flinging out all sorts of flashy magic… was cool enough!
"Why don't you let the elders teach you? They master those spells. With the elders imparting their experience, it must be better than just reading books."
To be honest, Princess Ailita also really wanted to witness the birth of an outrageous magic user who mastered all magic.
Such a thing would be impossible for anyone else, but Su Lin… Although Princess Ailita despised his talent for escaping, this guy's magic talent, like this Dungeon, was abstractly limitless.
Most importantly, once Su Lin also maxed out his magic, his self-preservation abilities would be even more comprehensive.
Given the Elven Kingdom's complete reliance on Su Lin now, his absolute safety was the guarantee for the Elven Kingdom's continued greatness… With the accumulation from the first three layers, a Dragonbone Longbow that was almost fully equipped quickly came into Su Lin's hands, along with some Dragonbone Arrows.
A large part of the dragon-slaying preparations was complete.
But just before they set off, the captain of the Imperial Guard rushed out again.
"Mr. Su Lin! There's a situation in the jungle! The exploration team that just returned reported that they saw a scorched earth area in the jungle and heard the roar of a giant dragon!"
"It seems there's a giant dragon in the jungle!"