The four of them were doing what they’ve always done when Money Body suddenly said, "The dragons are on the move. It seems they want to start testing us in direct combat."
By this time, the island was more than a kilometer underwater. The white gem behind them had also grown to become bigger than them.
When Loki heard what Money said, he immediately looked around for the dragons. But no matter how he looked, he couldn’t see any dragon around. All he saw were the rabid beasts trying to kill him.
Since Money Body had a better perception than he did, he shrugged when he couldn’t see the dragons. He thought nothing more of it since it was normal for Money Body to be able to see what he couldn’t see.
But when Money said, "They’ve split up and are coming towards us in different directions. It seems things are about to take a more violent turn."
He immediately became attentive and took the situation seriously. Both Ant Hill and Nether Flame did so.
Ant Hill took the situation so seriously that she asked anxiously, "Is the dragon king making a move?"
Money Body shook his head and said, "That cunning snake is lying low. There is nothing to worry about."
Ant Hill relaxed immediately when she heard this. Then she said to Money Body, "It seems your power and might are too great an intimidation for the dragon king."
Money Body looked at her with a strange gaze as he said, "It would seem so. But that’s only for now. We must not slip up, or things will take a turn for the worse."
The obvious flattery from Ant Hill made Loki roll his eyes. He also wanted to call her a spineless ant that only knows how to flatter. But since the situation was so serious, he decided to keep his caustic thoughts to himself.
As for Nether Flame, he asked with a serious tone, "What do we do about the attack?"
Money Body thought about the question for a few seconds before his eyes suddenly gleamed, and he turned to stare at Loki. Loki immediately got a bad feeling when he saw that stare. What Money Body said only confirmed his suspicions.
Money Body said, "I think it is time to use that plan."
Loki immediately shook his head and said, "I’m not sure about that. Since the dragon king is not among them, why don’t we let them come to us? With you here, we don’t have anything to worry about."
"As long as the dragon king doesn’t come, we will kill every one of them that comes here. So there is no need to risk ourselves like this."
But Money Body snorted and said, "Do you think the dragons are stupid?"
Without waiting for a reply from Loki, he said, "Of course, they are not stupid. They won’t come here without the dragon king. What they are doing is exactly what I plan to do."
"They are splitting up and approaching us without the dragon king in order to give us an opportunity to lure us from here. They want us to come to them to attack them."
"I’m guessing if we don’t take this perfectly good bait, they will think that we are too afraid. That might embolden them and their dragon king to bring the fight to us."
Then he pointed at the white gem and said, "If you haven’t noticed, we are protecting something fragile here, and it is halfway through the first stage. If the dragons come to us and we fight here, the outpost core will surely be destroyed."
"A dragon doesn’t even need to attack it directly to destroy it. Just the shockwaves from our fight will destroy it. So we can’t allow the dragons to come here to fight us unless we are ready to start over again."
Nether Flame nodded in agreement before saying to Loki, "He has a point."
Ant Hill also interjected, saying, "Why are you behaving like you will die permanently if you die? Don’t you know that you’re a divine being now? You need to act with more spine and courage."
"Even if we want you to die for the mission, you should be willing to do so. That’s what a true divine being is."
Money Body immediately said in displeasure, "How come you know how divine beings should work when you don’t behave like one? Weren’t you shaking just earlier when you heard that the dragons were about to attack? Where was your courage then?"
He was calling her a hypocrite who was very comfortable asking others to do things she wouldn’t do. His claim was true, so she didn’t say anything to refute him.
Even if what he said was wrong, she didn’t have the courage to defend herself and claim otherwise. All she could do was smile at Money Body and say, "You’re completely right, your majesty. I was wrong."
Money Body snorted at her in response. Then he turned to Loki again and said, "Don’t worry about dying because that’s not what I’m asking of you. All you need to do is posture to the dragons that you are not afraid of them."
Loki was very skeptical, and he had no problem showing it as he said, "It doesn’t sound like you want me to posture if you send me alone to face the dragons."
Actually, he wanted to fight a dragon, see what’s so great about them, and kill a dragon. This was something he had been looking forward to ever since he found out that Oceania might have dragons.
However, he doesn’t want to be used as bait in whatever plan Money Body has. Something about that reminded him too much of being an easily replaceable slave. He doesn’t want to ever be treated like that again.
He also doesn’t want to expose too much of his strength yet. So he doesn’t want to go along with this plan.
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A/N: Please, don’t forget to vote with your power stones and golden tickets to receive bonus Chapters. Thank you for your support.