Chapter 99: Disastrous Dragon
Erani, the Dryad, and I all sat around the corpse of a Green Drake, eating its tangy, sour meat. Well, the Dryad wasn’t eating – she got energy from the sun – but she sat with me and Erani while we ate.
“How much longer until see Dragon?” The Dryad asked me. She’d asked a couple times now how close we were to it. I supposed that was just the way kids were, and she was a kid, in a way. At least, she seemed just as impatient as any other child I’d seen.
“We probably won’t see it until tomorrow,” I said. We’d only just started climbing the mountain, after all.
She just nodded.
“Angelic Shield finally Ranked up to 10,” Erani said, pulling my attention away from my conversation with the Dryad. “When I dropped from the side of the cliff. Fall damage got negated, and gave me the last bit of Spell XP I needed.”
I raised my eyebrows. “That’s great! So you’re gonna go back to practicing Firebolt, then?”
“Yep. Currently Rank 15, but it has 7 free Spell Ranks put into it from my Class, so it’ll only cost the same as a Spell at 8 to Rank up.”
“And once it gets up to Rank 20, you’ll need two more Fire Spell Crystals to Rank it from there, right?”
“Yeah. But that’ll take a while. I don’t have your absurdly high Mana/Minute,” she rolled her eyes. “But my Next Level is 15, so I should be getting a new Talent of my own, soon.”
“Know what you’re gonna pick?”
“Yeah, probably just sticking with my original plans and going with Signature Magic.”
“What’s it do? Do you remember the specifics?”
“I actually have its exact wording memorized from when I kept studying my future Talent Choices,” she chuckled. “It reads ‘Whenever a Spell you cast deals damage to a being, for the next minute, all future copies of that Spell you cast deal an additional 10% damage. This effect adds with itself.’”
I nodded. “Sounds good, considering you’re pretty much only casting Firebolt over the course of a fight.”
“That’s the idea. Though it’s a bit unorthodox to use Signature Magic when you picked Angelic Shield for your second Spell. Normally, with Signature Magic, you want to go into a combat with a single Spell in mind, and focus on spending all of your Mana on only that Spell – that way you get the full benefit. But because of Angelic Shield’s passive nature, you can’t control whether or not you cast it. So I won’t be able to fully utilize its effect. Still, the Talent’s good enough that it’s still worth picking.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Well, hopefully we can get you to 15 before we take on this wall. I imagine we’ll all need to be in top shape for that.”
She nodded. “Yeah, we’ll see. But I think our main issue is going to be actually talking to the Dragon.”
“It’s just a conversation.”
She just laughed at that and rolled her eyes, biting into the piece of Drake thigh she was eating.
After we finished, we continued hiking up the mountains for the rest of the day with surprisingly few complications. We had a few run-ins with some more Drakes, but as long as we showed that we meant no harm and left their territory immediately, they’d leave us alone. We did end up getting into a fight with another one – this one was a Blue Drake – but it was relatively low-Level, so it didn’t prove too difficult to kill. And I got a good 200 XP out of it, too.
Still, we avoided picking fights with Drakes, even if the lower-Level ones didn’t give us much trouble to kill. The thing about Drakes was that they had a pretty wide range of possible Levels; Drakelings evolved into Drakes at Level 15, but Drakes wouldn’t evolve again until they reached Level 60. If you saw a Drake, you wouldn’t have any idea whether it was a manageable Level 20, or if it would completely demolish you because it was actually Level 55. So we generally tried to stay away. No sense in drawing unnecessary attention to ourselves.
While we hiked, I also kept an eye on the Dragon. It eventually gave up from its attack on the wall like it’d done before, flying back up to the top of the mountain and resting there for a few hours. And then, a few hours later, it flew back down and attacked again. This attack didn’t last for nearly as long though, and by the time thirty minutes had passed, it flew back up dejectedly. Seemed like it was already running out of motivation to bother itself with fighting the Demons. I knew I would, if I had to ram myself up against a magical shield over and over again.
By the time the sun had set, we’d gotten about halfway there, I estimated. Expedite significantly sped up the process, which I was extremely thankful for. But still, I wanted to hurry as much as possible.
So to hurry, I’d been spending pretty much all of my Mana on Expedite to keep a quick pace. We didn’t only use it to get past impassable obstacles like cliff faces, but also just to move more quickly across flat terrain. And because of Light Plate and Exponential Reclamation, just within the time we’d been climbing, I’d gotten the 355 Spell XP required for Rank 10. I remembered back when it’d taken days of dedicated practice just to get Noxious Grasp from Rank 9 to 10. Now I’d done it in a few hours.
That said, I wouldn’t be able to get the Rank-up benefits until I used a Spell Crystal. So now I was just staring at this disappointing notification.
Threshold reached. Expedite XP has reached 355.
Consume an Alteration Spell Crystal to increase Expedite Rank to 10.
But once I got that crystal, I’d get to choose a new Upgrade. Expedite was just waiting for that moment. And the rest of my Spells were gonna get to that point soon, too. It was a bit disheartening to know that I’d be unable to Rank them until later, but that was more than made up for by the fact, the second I got those Spell Crystals, I’d probably get to Upgrade almost all of my Spells.
It was unfortunate to have to effectively waste my Mana on Expedite for now, since I’d still need to cast it to get us through the mountain range but wouldn’t get any Spell XP for it, but I supposed some things just needed to be done.
Once it was nighttime, we set up camp on the mountain edge to sleep like normal. Ironically, now that we were up on the mountain itself, we’d stopped having to worry as much about monster attacks. It was like being in the eye of a storm – everything up here was so dangerous, nothing stuck around to bother us. Even Drakes were scarce, being so close to Dragon territory – especially when that Dragon was as active as it was.
Still, we set up a watch system like normal for the night. This time, I decided to just keep my two unused activations of Time Loop. If I wanted to use them, I’d have to go out and find something to kill first, which was actually quite unlikely, given how scarce finding anything alive our here was, and I’d also have to live with the possibility of dying in an instant if something like that Dragon or a high-Level Drake found us in the few minutes it’d take to refresh Time Loop. Considering those circumstances, I decided I’d just hold onto them for safety.
So we just laid down and got ready to sleep. It felt nice to go back to practicing Noxious Grasp after spending so much Mana on Expedite, and I felt the bit of a headache that’d been coming on drift away after spending some time resting and casting my familiar Spell.
Since Erani’s Angelic Shield Ranked up to 10, she wouldn’t be able to Rank it any more until we got a Spell Crystal for her. But we stayed in the same sleeping position we normally did for practice anyway. Neither of us said a word, simply lying down next to each other and wrapping our bodies together without discussion.
It’d just feel wrong to sleep without her, at this point – and I suspected she felt the same. With everything going on, it was nice to have someone to go through it all with.
“Good night,” I murmured to Erani, eyes closed.
She hummed and nuzzled her head into the nape of my neck. “Night, Arlan.”
The next day, we awoke and quickly made off, ascending further into the mountain range of Kingdom’s Edge. The cliffs we ascended and hills we hiked got steeper and less Human-friendly, and we began seeing more and more evidence that there were powers beyond Humanity that resided here.
Early in the morning, we came across a crater the size of a village that ate a chunk out the side of a slope. Later, we found a cylindrical hole the shape of a talon that stabbed straight down at least a dozen paces into the earth. We found the skeletal remains of a massive Drake – judging by the size of it, this was probably one of the over-Level-50 ones.
I had no doubt that most, if not all, of these things were caused by the Dragon. And every time I saw one of these displays of power, I got a stronger and stronger sense that I should not have been there. But with Dark Plate and Time Loop, I had safety nets to keep my life intact. That didn’t quite quell my primal fear, though. Something about existing in the same area of a beast that could so easily demolish its environment just made me want to turn and run.
And, of course, as we neared the home of the Dragon, we also saw the thing itself more and more often. It continued swooping down to the wall and attacking, but those attacks progressively got shorter and shorter. Its strategy seemed to be moving away from long-term assaults and into quick and dirty hit-and-runs.
I had to imagine that the longer this went on, the more well-established the Demon forces would get, and the more easily they’d be able to repel the Dragon. We needed to talk to it and get something figured out soon. I had a few ideas brewing in my head about how we could subvert that magical shield, thanks to the info I’d gotten from Index, but first we needed the Dragon to actually listen to us.
Eventually, as the sun crested the sky and time passed to afternoon, we climbed a routine ledge and, upon reaching the top, found ourselves in front of a view that showed the entire path through Kingdom’s Edge before us.
“Y’know,” I said, staring down at the view alongside Erani, “if I didn’t know I’d have to walk along that whole path soon, I’d say this view was almost beautiful.”
“Mm. Being able to see the wall that’s been made specifically to kill us definitely dampens the mood.”
“It does remind me of our first date, though. When we were up there at the top of the clock tower. So I think I’ll forgive it for also reminding me of how that clock tower got destroyed.”
“You were such a dork back then,” Erani laughed. “You were totally out of your element back in that big city.”
“It does feel pretty long ago, at this point,” I nodded, gazing across the landscape.
As I’d suspected, the wall that the Demons had built in that valley wasn’t even halfway through the path. Once we passed that, we’d need to walk for at least another half a day before we exited the mountain range.
The Demons had also continued their construction while we were climbing, and the wall was much taller and thicker by now, with archer towers built into it and even more heavy weaponry lining the boxes built into the side of the stone barricade. Their construction was paused for now, though, as the Dragon had gone on one of its now-routine attacks on the wall.
It’d long since learned that attacking the magic shield was a waste of energy since the shield would just be reformed even if it was broken, and so the Dragon was now attacking the things left outside the shield.
It struck at straggling soldiers out collecting resources, supply lines, the surrounding environment that the wall was built into – anything to disrupt its construction. I’d always heard that Dragons were territorial, but this was intense. It did not want to allow anything in its home.
The attack lasted for all of five minutes before the Dragon took back to the skies and began heading back toward the peak where it resided. This time, because of our positioning so close to that peak, it’d fly right over our heads.
“Hurry, get under a bush or something,” I said aloud to Erani and mentally to the Dryad. “Don’t want that thing to see us before we’re ready to talk.”
We were high up enough that vegetation was pretty scarce, but we made due with the bushes and sticks and leaves that lied around, with Erani hiding under some branches and me being forced to rely on the debris around to cover myself with. And the Dryad of course had its own natural camouflage due to the pigmentation of her skin.
So I was lying under some rocks and sticks when the Dragon flew over us, staring up at it and trying not to move. And while I watched it pass over, I thought I saw it glance down at us and meet my eyes. But it kept moving without coming down to attack us, so I must’ve imagined it.
Once it was gone, we got back up.
“Think it saw us?” I asked Erani.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Couldn’t see. But I guess it didn’t, if it moved on.”
“Hm. Index, what do you think?”
“I can’t see that far, but apparently you think it’s possible but unlikely. So I’ll just agree with you.”
“Very helpful,” I rolled my eyes. “Keep an eye out ahead for us? Just let me know if you see something dangerous.”
“Got it.”
A few hours later, the Dragon left from its perch once again and headed down to the wall. This time, we were prepared for it, so we had hiding spots already picked out and we were totally hidden from sight by the time it passed over our location. I’d also decided to switch from Light Plate to Dark Plate with Ethereal Armor, since no matter whether or not it saw us, we’d be talking with the Dragon soon, and keeping it from one-shotting me would be nice.
Once the Dragon started flying back up to the top of the mountain, we hid once again below a rocky overhang, preventing anything in the air from seeing us. We also couldn’t see anything in the air, of course, but we’d just wait a few minutes to be sure the Dragon was gone, and then we could come out once it was safe.
“If plan is to get Dragon attention and talk, why we hiding?” the Dryad asked in a tone I felt was exasperated and inpatient.
“We need to show it we’re here specifically to talk. If it just sees us randomly in the mountains, it’ll probably assume we’re with the Demons and kill us like it does with the other soldiers it sees. But if we show up at its home and we’re the ones to initiate conversation, we can explain what we want and what we can offer.”
“...Okay.”
“Uh, hey Arlan?” Index said into my ear while I spoke with the Dryad. “The Dragon just came into my view. It normally doesn’t get close enough for me to see it. I think it may be–”
Index was interrupted by a massive crash and a collapse of the rocky overhang above us. Gigantic boulders and pieces of stone rained down upon us, destroying everything beneath.
You have been crushed by stone. 3.61k damage.
Dark Plate has triggered. Damage has been reduced to 165.
Your Health is 165.
Due to preventing damage, Dark Plate is Broken. It will be unable to trigger for 37.9 seconds.
I coughed, finding myself crushed beneath countless pieces of rock. I couldn’t even begin to move, pinned down by the rubble.
When I tried reaching out to my connection with the Dryad, I found it nonexistent. As if it’d never been there in the first place. Why couldn’t I–
“Yeah, Dryad’s dead,” I heard the familiar voice of Index say. “Erani is, too. All these rocks were super overkill.”
I tried to speak, but couldn’t muster the energy. Apparently, even if Dark Plate prevented the damage from killing me, it sure as hells didn’t prevent pain.
“Don’t worry, you don’t need to speak. Your lungs are so full of dust you probably couldn’t even if your entire body wasn’t being crushed right now. To answer the question you want to ask, yes, it was the Dragon. Thing’s still here, actually. Standing on top of all these rocks.”
I heard a muffled voice come from above me, something out in the open air. It was deep and primal, and had an accent I couldn’t even begin to place. “Three damage notifications. Two kill notifications. Two Humans and a Dryad for damage. One Human and one Dryad for kill. A Human is still alive. Reveal yourself. Perhaps, if you beg enough, I will allow you to live.”
It said that last part much louder than the rest – it was obviously talking to me.
It seemed like the Dragon decided to bring the meeting to us.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆webnovel