Chapter 99: Disastrous Dragon

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.

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.