CH 31

Chapter 31

Janus, seeing Ayra retrieve food from his dimensional inventory, crouched down across the mage and asked, “As a mage, can’t you use magic to light a fire?”

Ayra, who was levitating two sausages over a bonfire, shot a sidelong scowl toward the mercenary. “Do you know how difficult it is to use magic to light fire in such a cramped space?”

There were levels to magic as well. Spells to float or destroy something were basic and made up the foundations of magical education. Causing something to explode or cutting something suggested some level of magical knowledge. A mage would only break free of their beginner status after they demonstrated the ability to transmute their surrounding materials and environments or created something out of nothing.

Lighting a fire as small as one’s palm was more advanced magic than setting a whole forest ablaze; carving and engraving rocks were considered more advanced than smashing boulders. From there, one can attain applicable magic. After staying in the Labyrinth for 20 years, it was possible for mages to reach a level whereby they could utilize dimensional subspaces, create hallucinations, or synthesize artificial creatures freely. It went without saying that only the talented ones could hope to achieve the pinnacle of magic: awakening.

Of course, Ayra was a high-quality wizard who could easily create a small bonfire with his magic, but he wanted to save what scraps of mana he could in his depleted state. After roasting his sausages, Ayra inadvertently glanced at the thing between Janus’s legs.

‘I might actually die from taking something that big. I should break up with him before that goes in.’

Carelessly, he handed one of the roasted sausages to Janus before bringing the other up to his mouth.

‘Still, it felt incredibly good earlier… People do say ‘it’s better when it’s bigger’… Is that true?’

Lost in thought, Ayra mindlessly mouthed at his sausage before noticing Janus’s peculiar stare. Only then did Ayra realize that staring blankly between a person’s legs while eating a sausage could easily insinuate something, so he hurriedly chewed at the sausage before shoving it into his mouth. His throat hurt from swallowing too quickly, but the young lord paid it no attention, hurriedly bringing up a new topic to prevent the atmosphere from turning lewd again. “We’re quite fortunate. No demonic beasts have appeared yet.”

“Mmm, is that fortunate, though…?” Janus replied sourly as he sucked the sausage grease off his fingers.

Before leaving the castle, Sir Bloom had repeatedly reminded Ayra to be cautious as Dallum Gorge was host to many demonic beasts. Seeing as how none had appeared yet, Ayra wondered if they had fled from the landslide. He felt a twinge of disappointment–he’d wanted to observe how Janus fought.

‘Still, I guess it’s for the best that none showed up.’

The worst-case scenario was that the merchant had been attacked by demonic beasts while crossing the gorge. It was better if the merchant was simply stuck because of some avalanche or landslide. As he melted into the warmth of the bonfire, Ayra made plans for the future.

They had to somehow clear the way, escort the merchant back, and pay interest. He needed to resume building the walls and would also need to go through the backlog of documents and organize them all. Before then, they’ll need to visit the landslide site. On second thought, Ayra realized that they’d have to raise yet another 300 cells after paying interest…

Honestly… how on earth was he supposed to repay the principle debt?

The more he thought, the bleaker the future seemed. Ayra sighed and muttered under his breath, “I wish a dragon settled down in this territory.”

Perhaps due to the lingering atmosphere, Janus turned at those words and gazed hungrily at the young lord. The frightened horses whinnied and hid behind Ayra.

“A dragon?” the mercenary asked.

“We will no longer need to worry about external invasions if a dragon settles down.”

A dragon was such a strong and violent existence, unable to be dealt with or countered by many possible opponents–they could be likened to a natural disaster. They would often travel around the world, like a storm, leaving behind slaughtered masses and ravaged cities in their path. They’d live in sparsely populated woods, killing all who’d enter their territory. On the other hand, it was rare for dragon corpses to be left behind when one such great being died, so knowledge about dragons was sparse.

The existence of dragons was the sole reason why their current world was not unified under one King.  When a person claiming kingship attempted to establish a monarchy, wandering dragons would flock over to wipe out that king. The only exception to this rule was Aeolga, the Dragon King. 700 years ago, the dragons were unable to take his life and thus were forced to accept his reign. The mages’ Labyrinth was actually built atop the center of the ruins of that man’s kingdom.

There were two reasons why humans had been able to survive and continue to prosper despite these terrifying natural disasters. First, when a dragon encountered another, the two would usually fight to the death, further reducing the already small draconic population. Second, dragons always welcomed human companions.

If a dragon took a human companion, it would cease its meaningless massacre. Like Carcassa in Amzel to the South or Heyani in Rodia to the east, the companion was crowned as the territory’s Lord, and the dragon would protect the territory. Furthermore, the companion would share the dragon’s life expectancy, so the humans in that territory would thrive and enjoy many generations of peace.

Once in a blue moon, dragons, like the one guarding Trasta, would appear, volunteering to take up the mantle of the Lord instead of threatening a massacre. It slaved away for eons, serving the needs of the humans in its territory before finally obtaining a human companion recently.

Therefore, dragons were feared, envied, and romanticized by humans. The children of this world would grow up listening to stories about dragons and dream of becoming a dragon’s companion. Stories of love and companionship between a human and a dragon were popular among adults as well.

While recalling what he knew about dragons, Ayra fell into deep contemplation. While making wild hypotheses, he murmured and sighed, “A Dragon…I want to meet one in the flesh at least once in my life…”

“You want to be a Dragon’s partner?” Janus asked with a mysterious smile.

Ayra, deep in his reverie, responded, “That’s not it… If I could survive the encounter, I’d like to harvest a droplet of blood… or maybe a strand of hair…”

“Hm? As a souvenir? Or is your goal to create an elixir of immortality with those?”

“First, I’ll go to Is’hael with the specimens I obtained and ask them to duplicate them.”

Janus didn’t understand and tilted his head. The mere thought of obtaining samples from a dragon’s body was a happy fantasy for the mage. Ayra clasped both hands together and a waterfall of excited confessions poured forth. “Is’hael is a mage that can replicate anything in this world. I’ll carefully store the original and experiment with the replicas. From what I can glean off existing literature, it seems like most dragons aren’t able to utilize magic well.”

As far as Ayra knew, there was only one dragon mage in history–the companion to the first lord of Labyrinth and the dragon that created countless transmigrators and reincarnators by tearing a hole through the dimensional boundaries. In addition, it was incredibly difficult to find records of dragons using magic in the archives, and nigh on impossible to find records of dragons using magic while in search of a companion. In all records and public sightings, dragons had used the pure strength of their bodies to massacre humans.

“…Is that so?” Janus said with a rare flustered tone.

However, Ayra paid no heed and continued, “If dragons have an unusually scarce supply of mana, then their cells should have interesting reactions to the Artragyphus reagent. The lower the substrate’s magic resistance, the more acidic the reagent becomes; if my hypothesis is correct, the samples will melt without a trace.”

“That reagent sounds incredibly dangerous…”

“It’s alright. It’s usually a reagent that’s only dangerous to mages or demonic beasts. Not only is it expensive, but a cup of the reagent would be as effiicient as a cup of water in most cases. However, as I thought… a strand of hair or a droplet of blood is insufficient in testing these hypotheses. I wish a very very powerful mage from the Labyrinth would go out and capture a dragon alive.” Without a care for Janus’s gaze or judgement, Ayra muttered happily, still immersed in his delightful delusion.

One of the oldest topics of conversation in Labyrinth was what they would do if the denizens of the Labyrinth were to capture a dragon alive. Ayra belonged to a group that theorized dragons were demonic beasts that could take human forms.

“Are their organ structures similar to those of humans? How do they break down and absorb the nutrients from their food? How do they reproduce? So much time has passed, but we still have not come any closer to discovering how dragons are born. I would gladly exchange my entire collection for an opportunity to look at a dragon’s insides.”

Janus, who was sitting down and listening to Ayra’s mumbles silently, suddenly lowered his head and looked at his own body.

“Still, they’re highly intelligent creatures with sentience comparable to humans… I don’t know if anesthesia will affect them the same way it does humans, but I’ll have to cut into their body as painlessly as possible. Then, I’ll stitch them back up without leaving any surgical incision scars. Maybe that will convince them to let me cut into them again…” Ayra was popular amongst the Labyrinth’s slaves because he handled experimental subjects kindly and affectionately. Most human experimental subjects were vicious criminals and would receive harsh treatment at the hands of the majority of the mages… Ayra truly intended to treat the dragon much more delicately than those criminals and conduct his experiments with utmost care.

However, all of this was nothing more than a daydream; Ayra’s ecstatic expression slowly disappeared with a deep sigh. That dream was difficult to achieve because the dragon population was so small, and the dragons that currently coexisted with humans could not be brought back to the lab and used as experimental subjects. Warmed by the heat of the bonfire, the igloo ceiling started to drip. One such water droplet fell onto Ayra and jerked him back to reality.  His body had already been sufficiently warmed by now, and his supply of mana seemed to have recovered a little. “Shall we get going now?”

Janus, who had been fondling his abs, stared at Ayra and smiled. At this moment, a notification window manifested before the mage.

[Janus Rezhedt’s affection has increased by 1.]

[Current affection: 3]

‘Hm? The affection stat increased?’

‘What could be the reason… Crisis bonding? Sexual acts? The conversation about dragons?’ Ayra figured that having common interests to talk about made it easier for him to increase the other’s affection. With this in mind, he asked, “Janus, are you also interested in dragon anatomy?”

“No.”

Ayra was a little disappointed at the mercenary’s firm response.

Janus laughed hysterically, like a madman. “I’m not interested in dissecting dragons, but thinking about how you’d cut through my stomach stirs me up.”

…As expected, he was a crazy pervert…