What's the phrase to describe a greedy person? "A snake trying to swallow an elephant!" That's exactly the extremely dangerous state of mind I'm in right now.

While dealing with the red dragon's corpse, I found dozens of gold coins at the scene. This sudden realization hit me—aren't dragons fond of collecting shiny things? Since this is the red dragon Sonia's territory, her lair must be nearby. A dragon's lair? Wow... So, after hastily dealing with the red dragon's body, I couldn't even catch my breath before the faint morning light led me to find the red dragon's lair halfway up the mountain. I climbed in with great difficulty—specific details of the operation remain confidential...

I don't need to describe the excitement the moment I stepped into the lair, but after searching the cave thoroughly for half a day, the results left me in utter despair. There were gold coins, and quite a pile in my opinion, but the quantity... I can confirm, without missing a single one, that there were only 2,875 coins. Aside from the gold coins, there was nothing else. The fantasy of pet eggs, various green, red, gold, and multicolored equipment was just that—a fantasy.

Come on! You're a dragon! While meticulously searching the vast cave, I inwardly berated the late Sonia. Everyone knows that a dragon's lair is also known as a treasure trove, and in every version of the legend, dragons possess countless gold coins and jewels. But in this red dragon's huge lair, all I found was a small pile of gold coins—what a joke! Furthermore, in the conversation with Medusa earlier, the red dragon mentioned defending its territory multiple times—what territory is there to defend with nothing in it?

Sitting at the cave entrance, watching the sunrise, my disappointment eased a bit. Shaking my head, I fiercely despised myself. Today's adventure has been enough; if I found more equipment in this lair, it would be very abnormal—yet, is it normal for there to be no treasures in a dragon's lair?

Gathering my thoughts, I laid out all the night's gains on the ground. As I took out each item, my heart filled again with joy and excitement.

A total of three skill books: Advanced Fire Skill Book, Burst; Advanced Ice Skill Book, Ice. Seal; Intermediate Lightning Skill Book, Electric Ball Technique.

Two rings, one shield, one long sword, one staff. All unidentified items, and as for that staff, I can even be certain it's an epic weapon!

Finally, I took out the legendary Dragon Slayer Sword! When I was holding it to stab the dragon, I even regretted choosing the mage profession! If I had chosen to be a warrior, wow, with this weapon, slaying dragons and defeating bosses, who in the world could rival me?

Holding my breath, I slowly drew the Dragon Slayer Sword. The glaring cyan light instantly illuminated the entire cave.

Why is it cyan? Enduring the doubt, I looked down the blade and saw, Punishment of the Dragons (Quest Item).

My mind went blank! What is this? How did it become a quest item? And when I pulled it out of the dragon, although I didn't look closely, I vaguely remember it didn't have a color.

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Is this a joke? This is definitely a joke! I stood up furiously, harboring the slight hope of trying to equip it—since there's no condition prompt, I should be able to try. As a result, I found the system prompt appeared: "Quest Item, unable to equip."

Damn it! Unable to hold back, I cursed aloud. What the heck is this! The divine weapon I used to kill a dragon suddenly turned into a quest item... Is the system deliberately messing with me because I got lucky? Or was killing that dragon a quest?

Shaking my head with a bitter smile, today's emotions have indeed experienced ups and downs. Powerlessly sitting back down, I kept telling myself, don't be greedy, be content, and you'll be happy...

Fortunately, there are still all these pieces of equipment, materials, and the sudden leap of 31 levels. What am I still upset about?

After storing the equipment and checking the materials in my bag, I opened my character attributes. After the upgrade's ding-ding sounds, there seemed to be many prompts, but I automatically filtered them out. Now it's time to check the attributes.

Sure enough, upon reaching level 49 with 31 unallocated attribute points, my reputation also changed from 0 to the current 1000. It seems that killing high-level bosses gives a lot of reputation—reputation in Destiny is quite important, affecting the drop rate of equipment and some special quests. There are two ways to earn it: first, by doing system quests, and second, by killing bosses. Both methods are relatively slow, not like me, shooting up to 1000 like a rocket. I really wonder what level that red dragon was, to give so much reputation and experience.

After packing up, it was time to find a way out. Now, if you ask me to commit suicide, I would rather die than agree. Carefully returning to the valley bottom, I walked along a rugged path for nearly half a day before finally seeing a glimmer of hope—I saw the presence of monsters.

The monster in front of me wasn't in the fake guidebook I had, and I didn't know its level—a grotesque creature with a sheep-like face, holding a copper hammer, riding a tiger. What kind of creature is this?

Carefully, I activated the advanced magic shield—defense enhancement. Just now, I had upgraded all my skills to the intermediate level, so now I only needed to increase proficiency, and I could directly use the books once the proficiency reached the required level. However, just one more level and I could focus on learning element skills as a sorcerer. Except for Dark Arts and Magic Shield, which need to be learned to the top level, the rest aren't that necessary and don't need to be deliberately practiced.

The Kiss of Death has evolved into Star-Sucking Technique, with significant improvements in attack range and power. Although I intended to test my skills, I used the Pausing Spell, and sure enough, the monster wielding the warhammer was firmly fixed in place in the distance.

Star-Sucking Technique! -1! Seeing this effect, I rubbed my eyes, but there was no mistake, just -1. Death Ray! -1.

No choice, time to retreat. This monster with forced deduction of one point of damage is not something I can handle right now. The benefit of leveling up was evident—such as the Pausing Spell now holding the monster for much longer than before the upgrade.

Wait, I remember both the Pausing Spell and Battle Binding can only hold monsters up to ten levels higher than myself, which means this monster should be below level 60. For a mage accustomed to fighting monsters above their level, monsters within ten levels should be easy to handle!

A terrifying thought flashed through my mind. I've leveled up, but my skills are still at the intermediate level. Generally, other mages could max out Kiss of Death, Magic Shield, and Dark Arts skills by level 40. Yet here I am, at level 49. In Destiny's settings, experience starts to decrease when the monster is five levels below, and becomes only one-tenth when it's ten levels below... So, what level monsters can I defeat now?

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