Chapter 173: Dragon
The Dragon atop its hoard took a step forward, growling at us. In the massive room, it almost looked small—or, smaller than a typical Dragon was—but that did nothing to take away from the primal fear the sight struck into me.
I held out a hand and bowed my head. “M-my apologies, uh…”
“Wealthhoarder, Slavedriver Neenix,” Index reminded me of its name.
I repeated the words back at it. In my panic when we first saw it, I hadn’t quite been processing what it’d said. Well, other than the fact that it’d threatened to kill us. But, really, the name wouldn’t be nearly as difficult to remember as some of the others. With just two titles…”
Wait. I looked closer. Only two titles before the name? And it didn’t just seem small because of the massive room, it was small. It was still much larger than a person was, but probably half the size of a Dragon like Astintash or Paiiniak. If it was small, and only had a couple titles, that meant it probably hadn’t lived very long.
Index, am I correct in assuming…
“It’s a Young Dragon, yes. So that means pre-evolution into becoming a normal Dragon. But, uh, definitely don’t let that increase your confidence here. Even if it’s only a Young Dragon, it’s still definitely got a raw numbers advantage. Won’t be one-shotting you or anything, but as just the three of you, you wouldn’t win a fight if one broke out.”
It continued to approach us, holding its head up so it could properly look down on us. “You dare intrude on my land, kill my slaves, destroy my home?! Insolence!”
“Look,” I said, “I’m sorry. We didn’t know you were here. We just knew there were some Goblins causing trouble, and we were asked to get rid of them. No idea they, uh, belonged to you. So we’ll just head out, and won’t bother—”
“You will perish!”
It charged, and I braced myself. But just before it could reach us, Erani shouted out, “We know Astintash!”
It stopped in its tracks.
“Right,” she continued, “uh, Mountaintamer…um…”
I quickly had Index relay the titles to me, so I could mentally remind her of the excessively long list through Ainash.
“Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Homeholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker, Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash,” Erani said with renewed confidence with my—and Index’s, and Ainash’s—help. “We assisted it with felling an extremely powerful foe. As do we know Peacekeeper, Compassiongiver, Hearthaver, Homeholder, Gracegiver, Knowledgegainer Paiiniak. I assume you know them.”
“...I do,” it said. I could actually see fear in the eyes of the Young Dragon at Erani’s name-dropping. “I was thrown from my home recently by Astintash, and Paiiniak did nothing to help me. They are the reason I am stuck down at the bottom of these mountains!”
“Yes,” she said, holding a hand out as though trying to tame a wild animal. “We are well-connected. If you spare us, perhaps we could put in a good word with them. Get your home back.”
It snorted, smoke coming from its nostrils. “...Perhaps. But how do I know you are telling the truth?! You could be lying!”
“That is true,” I said with a nod. “We could be. But even if we are, it would still not be a good idea to kill us.”
“And why would that be?!” It felt like every time the Dragon spoke, it shouted. “If I can kill an enemy, then I am stronger than them, and they deserve to die!”
“Yes, perhaps with other beings,” I said, “but Humans are different. We are cooperative. See, we came here because other Humans kept getting attacked. If we, too, get attacked and killed here, the Humans will take notice. Even stronger Humans will be sent to attack you, over and over, until they’re able to defeat you. So by letting us go, we won’t want to attack you.”
“Bah, Humans,” it spat. “You’re all weaklings. There’s no chance any Human could defeat me!”
“You’re mistaken,” I said. “Even if there’s no Human nearby that could take you on alone, we still have strength in numbers. Your own Goblins prove that. Individually weak, powerful as a group.”
“Yes, yes, strength in numbers. And how has that worked out for these Goblins? Have they been able to defeat me?”
I sighed. We weren’t getting through to it. Sure, we’d opened up a dialogue, but it wasn’t going anywhere. At best, the only way I could see out of this situation would be to somehow distract the Dragon so we could run off.
“You!” it turned to one of the Goblins cowering against a wall—one of the ones that’d entered and informed it about our attack. “What is your name?”
“Uhh…” it looked up in fear. “You not…not have give me name.”
“I’ll call you,” it moved its body in what I realized was the four-legged version of a shrug. “Ploblin. Yes, that works. You look like a Plob. Do you think you could ever defeat me?”
“No, not possible.”
“What if you had another Goblin to assist you?”
“No.”
“What if you had two? Or three?”
“No.”
“See? No matter how many Goblins there are, you could never defeat me. Because I am just better than you.” It chuckled and turned back to me. “I have given these Goblins a better life than they would ever have had, otherwise. In just this week, I taught them the basics of language, so they could communicate and engage in civilized discussion. Without me, they would be stupid. I help them cut down trees and bore into the mountains in search of powerful stones and minerals. Without me, they would be weak. I claimed this land, clearing out all of the other creatures that resided nearby, and allowing them to reside in the safe haven I created. Without me, they would be powerless. They need me. They could not defeat me.”
“We could assist you,” Erani said. “If you let us go, we could come back with wealth and riches to offer.”
It frowned. “How would you lowly Humans be able to add to my hoard more adeptly than I?”
“There’s a town nearby. We can work for the Humans, and then they freely give us money in return. With that money, we can buy you whatever you like. If you let us go, we’ll come back in, say…two weeks?”
I recognized Erani’s strategy. In two weeks, we’d be long gone, teleported away to the capital. In that case, it wouldn’t be able to find us if it tried.
“A Human settlement, you say?” The Dragon took a few steps forward. “And the Humans there have wealth?”
“Yes, they’d be able to provide enough to us to buy anything you want.”
“And why would I not take it myself?”
“Bad idea,” I warned, understanding what it was getting at. “There are people there that are very, very powerful. You’d die.”
It snarled. “I am a Dragon! I do not die to measly Humans!”
“Arrogance is a deadly sin,” I said, but it flapped its wings out, preparing to take flight. Was it seriously about to head out to attack the town right now? Purely out of spite?
I groaned internally. If it went to the town and started rampaging around, it would definitely be killed. No way that a town as full of Classers as Salvation would fall to a monster attack, even if it was a Young Dragon. But even then, the Dragon wouldn’t die instantly. The death toll from the destruction…I could easily see it reaching the count of hundreds. Not to mention the financial damages. And a tragedy like that, directly linked back to us would be bad. Very, very bad.
But I also saw a way to spin this. This Young Dragon obviously put a complication into our plans in clearing out the Goblins, but its existence could also help a massive amount. We were just barely too weak to fight it and win, but the city as a whole wasn’t. The problem that it caused wasn’t that it was an unbeatable foe, only that it was one that wouldn’t die quickly, due to its high defensive Stats. So if the fight broke out in the middle of the town, innocents would die. But out in the forest, it was a simple matter of sending out a large enough squad. A pressing issue, due to the Dragon’s aggression. And an issue that only we had knowledge of.
Currently, negotiations had clearly broken down between us and the Dragon. But with two more activations of Time Loop, I had quite the upper hand when it came to controlling the flow of these events.
Just as it took off into the air, I hit the Dragon with Crippling Chill.
You have cursed Level 22 Young Dragon with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, it loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and its Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.
56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 1259.
Level 22, huh? Index, remember that for me. And how many Goblins there were here. Or, at least, how many you estimate there were, from the number we saw.
And then I was back, standing in the forest alongside Erani and Index. This was just before I’d come back the time before, meaning Ainash still kept her memories from the Bond.
“Woah!” she said, looking around herself. “Is like I teleported into new body!”
“Yeah, takes some getting used to.”
“Time Loop?” Erani asked.
“Yep. There was a Dragon at the Goblin camp.”
Her eyes widened.
“Well, a Young Dragon. Let me tell you how it all went down.”
I told Erani the whole story of the two timelines she’d missed as we walked back out of the forest. And we were leaving. There was no real way we could exterminate the Goblins without tangling with the Young Dragon as well, and as far as I was concerned, there was no way we could kill that on our own, either.
“So,” Erani said once I was done explaining, “all of that was for nothing? And, uh, what are we going to do about the Dragon? I guess it isn’t an active threat to the town anymore, but it’s still there. Basically anyone who takes that job will either die to the Goblins, die to the Dragon, or accidentally convince the Dragon to go and burn down a bunch of villages. Should we tell the guild about it?”
“Absolutely we should,” I said. “But that’s the thing. This job wasn’t a bust. Think about it. There’s this highly aggressive Young Dragon hiding out in a nearby forest, actively trying to expand its territory and claim more land. It’s enslaving monsters to go and kill adventurers to steal their equipment, and a tiny bit of prodding will send it into a rampage where it’ll start razing cities to the ground. And not only is it dangerous now, but if it ends up Leveling up enough to evolve into a full-fledged adult Dragon? That’d be enough to basically eradicate this side of the country. The guild absolutely needs to know about this. And we’re the only ones with the information. So whether or not we actually killed those Goblins, I highly suspect they’re going to be thankful enough for our recon abilities to give us that reward anyway.
She nodded slowly. “That…makes sense.”
“So yeah, they can send out a squad to take care of it, we get to move on to other things, and we get our money. Eight thousand out of the thirty we need. Sounds like a plan?”
“As long as we can pull it off.”
“But father,” Ainash said, “what about Dragon and Goblins?”
“The guild will most likely send in a squad to take care of them once they’re aware of what’s going on.”
“They will kill all of them?”
“I guess.”
“But that is bad!”
“Wait, what? I thought you were totally fine with killing them.”
“Dragon is bad. It is trying to invade new territory and take it over! Destroy it and replace it with Dragon place. And this place is not for Dragons! It should go back to its home in mountain, not in here. So should kill Dragon. But Goblins are supposed to be here! They are being used by Dragon to do mean things! If Dragon is gone, Goblins are not problem, right?”
I frowned. “Well, I guess they won’t be as aggressive anymore. But the way the Humans we spoke to talked about them, I don’t think they can leave the Goblins alone even if the Dragon is dead. They’ll still cause problems for the town. So it's just one of those situations with animal territory, right? The Goblins are trying to attack Humans, and the Humans don’t want to be attacked, so they’ll fight back. You shouldn’t have any problem with that, right?”
She looked down, obviously disappointed. “There is nothing Humans can do to make Goblins not be mean anymore?”
“I mean…I don’t know. Maybe they could figure out a peaceful solution. But I have no idea why they’d do that.”
She sent something to me that couldn’t really be put into words. It could best be equated to when someone pouted, like a sad and frustrated sigh.
I looked over and saw her expression. She really did seem upset about this. “Is something wrong?”
“Yeah,” Erani said, “if there’s something bothering you about this, you can tell us. We’ll try our best to figure out something that makes you happy.”
“...Do not want Goblins to die,” she said.
“Why?” I asked.
“I do not know! Feel bad for them, they have been attacked and abused by bad, mean Dragon, and now when Humans come, and they think they will be saved by Humans, the Humans just kill them too! It is sad and I do not like it!”
“Well, we might be able to talk to the Humans about keeping them alive,” Erani said. “Maybe they could establish a peaceful relationship, or something. They can talk, so it could be possible.”
“I mean, yeah, maybe,” I said. “I don’t know if they’ll be particularly kind or anything, but maybe they could exist alongside each other without fighting.”
“Should be kind!” Ainash said. I could feel from her tone that she was absolutely determined. “Goblin species should not be ended! If Humans not take care of them, then…then…I take care of them!”
“You…what?”
“I will take Goblins after Dragon dies. I will be leader! Will take care of them and teach them to be good guys! That way, nobody will want hurt them! They will be like…” She frowned and looked down for a moment. “Will be like my…what do other Humans say? They think I am something. Like I am owned by you, and you feed and take care of me. Like I am little baby animal, or something. They say I am a…pet! Yes, they think I am a pet. That is not true. But Goblins could be real pets! Goblins can be like my pets! Can I have them?!”
“Uh…”
“Ainash, darling,” Erani said in a soft voice, “I don’t know if that would be…a good idea. I don’t think you can keep a Goblin as a pet. Normally pets don’t make weapons, and they don’t use bombs to blow people up. Normally they don’t kill people at all. Don’t you think that would be a little unsafe?”
“Will take good care of them! And teach them to be good! And to do tricks!”
I pursed my lips. “I don’t…”
“Two Goblins we caught before, they were good! They were helpful and nice! If I teach them for long time and give them good home, they will be even better!”
“Tell you what,” I said, “we’re going to go back to the town and talk to the Humans. Tomorrow, once Time Loop has fully refreshed for me, you can go and try to communicate with the Goblins. Promise you can take care of them better than the Dragon can and try to get just one or two to come join you. If something goes wrong, I can just go back and undo it. If you can get that small number to work with you and prove to us that they’re capable of cooperating, then we can see about finding a peaceful solution for dealing with the rest of them.”
“Yes,” Erani agreed. “And you’ll be the one responsible for them, okay? They can stay out here with you, and if they get into trouble with attacking any Humans, you’re going to need to deal with it. We won’t be able to babysit them the whole time. Are you okay with that?”
“Yes! They are very cute and funny, so will not be mean.”
“We’ll see about that,” I said. Then I turned to Erani. “Okay, let’s head back to town. We need to negotiate payment with the guild. And I guess also prepare to have a Goblin tribe as a pet.”
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