Chapter 102: Failed Negotiations

Chapter 102: Failed Negotiations

I lay, crushed beneath the rubble of the overhang destroyed by the Dragon as it stood atop the wreckage searching for me. Erani and the Dryad were dead, so I knew for a fact that this timeline wasn’t one I’d continue in even if I did survive this. But still, I’d use this opportunity to try and get at least a bit of information from the Dragon.

So I tried to shift myself out from under the rubble that crushed me.

But I couldn’t. It was all so heavy, I couldn’t move at all. My arms were pinned under jagged rocks, my torso and legs would’ve been broken if not for Dark Plate reducing the damage and saving my life, and I couldn’t see anything. I tried casting Expedite on myself, but no matter how limber the extra Dexterity made me, I simply didn’t have the power in my muscles to move.

So instead, I resorted to coughing the dust from my lungs and shouting out.

“Please,” I croaked, “spare me.”

My voice must’ve been weak and muffled, coming through all the stone that was on top of me, but I still felt the Dragon move around, the entire layer of rocks covering me shifting above me.

Its voice came through again, this time much louder – it must’ve moved its head closer to me so I could hear it better. Its deep voice rumbled my heart. “Who are you?”

“My–” I coughed. “My name is Arlan. I am not against you. I want to take that wall down, too.”

I felt a rumbling from above and the rocks covering me were drug out of the way. One sweep of the rubble aside, and I felt the weight lessen. Another, and suddenly I felt like I may be able to move. A third, and finally I could see sunlight breaking through the gaps of the gravel.

I laboriously raised my hands and shifted the dirt and stone away from my face, and I could finally see clearly.

Staring straight down at me was the massive scaly face of a Dragon – head taller than my entire body. Its yellow eyes felt like they glowed brighter than the sun, staring through me. Its reddish-purple scales glinted dominantly, like the beast was brimming with power. Its nostrils flared with each breath, the heat from its air feeling like it would melt my skin if I let it too close to me.

“You are the living one,” it said, its massive mouth opening and showing me just how easily it could eat me – one bite would be all it’d take.

“Yes, thank you for sparing me,” I said, getting to my feet only to fall to my knees, bowing my head toward it. “Please, I believe I can offer you help–”

“What is my name?”

“I– what?”

“You have told me your name. Tell me my name.”

“I don’t know,” I looked at it, confused. “You haven’t told me yet.”

“No. You have not heard of me. Why would you want my help if you do not know why I am?”

Ah. It was a pride thing. This Dragon wanted someone who could stroke its ego. I took a moment to think, then spoke, “I am aware of the great Dragon species, of course. As a member of such a family of beings, you demand great respect. I can promise that I believe in your power.”

“But you do not know my name,” its deep voice rumbled my heart, teeth shining a reflection of the broken helm of my Dark Plate. It was slowly reforming as the forty-second timer ticked down until it could be used again.

“I’m willing to learn!” I said. “Please, inform me of your greatness.”

“I am Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Homeholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker, Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash! All know my name! You are ignorant. You are stupid. You are worthless.”

“Yes, my sincerest apologies,” I committed what the Dragon said to memory, doing my best to remember all ten titles alongside the damn thing’s actual name. The Intelligence Stat helped to increase memory, in the same way Strength increased physical power and Conjuration increased your speed at casting Spells, so memorizing the name wasn’t as hard as it’d be for an Unclassed person.

“Your apology is worthless,” Astintash said. “Someone who does not even know who I am, trying to speak with me as though they are my equal? I thought you may be an intriguing Human, since you survived my attack, but clearly your mind is not as strong as your body.”The initial posting of this chapter occurred via Ñøv€l-B!n.

“Please, educate me on your great deeds,” I said.

“Well, if it saw us, what are we supposed to do to stay alive this time?”

“Well, I learned a good bit about it before it killed me,” I said. “First, its name is Astintash. Well, really, it’s Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Wastelayer, Ashbearer... wait. No, there was another one in there. Homeholder? Yeah, Homeholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, and then it was... Earthquaker? Or no, was it something else? Fuck.”

My Intelligence Stat clearly wasn’t helping me quite as much as I hoped it would with remembering all of the titles. Even if I did remember most, I suspected that if I missed one or even just didn’t get them in the correct order, it’d be seen as a massive insult to Astintash.

“It’s, uh...”

Index spoke up. “Mountaintamer, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Homeholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker, Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash.”

“What?”

“That’s the correct order. I’m looking through my logs right now. When you heard it, that’s what you repeated back to yourself to try and remember.”

“Oh. Thanks.” I’d forgotten Index not only experienced what I did, but had an immutable log that’d forever hold all information I took in. It effectively gave me a perfect memory, as long as Index had the time to look back through and find it. That was... useful. I hadn’t even considered that when I first thought about what Index could do for me.

“What is it?” Erani asked.

I repeated the full name back to her. “Index just reminded me. Pretty useful to have around, honestly.”

“That’s what I’m here for!” Index said cheerfully.

“Anyway, yeah, that’s the Dragon’s name. And it’ll get pissed if you don’t remember, so we should probably all go over it a few times to make sure.”

“Okay, so if we know the name, it won’t kill us?”

“...Not quite. It killed us instantly without even giving us a chance to talk, but Dark Plate saved me. It was only after it noticed I was still alive that I could get some info out of it. So if we can get it to avoid attacking initially, then we can show off that we know about it, and from there we should be safe.”

“And how do you suggest we keep it from killing us at first? Should we just find a deep cave we can hide in so it can’t reach us, or something?”

“That may work, but I think I have a better idea,” I said. “When it was talking to me, it kept talking about how insulted it felt that I didn’t do any of the ‘good manners’ stuff. I didn’t know its name, didn’t know its history, but most importantly, it said I didn’t bring an offering.”

Erani slowly nodded. “An offering. So we just have to find something to offer it.”

“Exactly. We put out an offering in a big, visible area, and then when it flies by to kill us, it’ll see that we’ve left the offering out, be impressed by our good manners, and come down to talk. Then we can negotiate about taking down the wall and stuff. If that still doesn’t work, then we can just go back, run away, and try again tomorrow. It’ll suck to be set back another day, but that way we aren’t risking anything.”

“Okay, that makes sense. But what can we offer? Not really much of value that we have on us. And definitely not anything big enough to draw its attention from up in the air.”

“We don’t have anything on us now, but we can gather something to offer.”

“Like what?” Erani frowned.

“Well,” I said, “Dragons have to eat, don’t they?”

“Okay...”

“And we saw quite a few Drakes on our way up here.”

Erani looked at me.

“I think it’s time to do some big-game hunting.”