We stepped inside the dungeon and the door closed behind us. This was normal, what isn't is that it was pitch dark in here. My eyes had limited usefulness here. Hmm, that’s odd, I don’t have any issues seeing in the dark but this is different, I wonder if Greg could see through this.
“I can’t see a thing! Who is Greg?” A good friend of mine. I wonder how we’re supposed to get through this. I saw some orbs that gave off light. We headed over toward it. Well, I did, Vinny was walking around very carefully because there was not much he could see. I ignited the tips of my tails with foxfire but this only seemed to create enough light around me to see 3 meters in the darkness but it was enough for Vinny to follow me.
“What could cause such darkness?” Some shadow magic or some ancient or mythical creature, 3t shadowcats could do this too.
“You know any shadowcats?” Yeah, Greg the friend I talked about is one.
I made an orb of fire and threw it in a random direction. The darkness seemed to choke out the light so we couldn't see it after a certain distance. It is simple yet very effective, this darkness. There is not much we can do against this. I’m tuning the filters in my eyes and I can see a bit better in this darkness but it's still far from perfect.
“I’m sure they didn't expect a dragon to enter this dungeon!” Vinny grabbed me with his tail, put me on his back, and flew up. We flew for a good 100 meters before we crashed into a wall and fell. I saw an empty space and used [Howling Updraft] to get there. They could put any nasty traps anywhere; I only trust the floor I can see. Vinny crash-landed and I landed safely almost 2 minutes after.
“Ah right, you guys fall funny.” Do you know anything about it?
“Nope sorry, I only know that for dragons it's easier to blow spirit foxes away than it is to blow dandelions away.” Come on, that’s an exaggeration, we don't get lighter than dandelions, we don’t, right?
“Dunno, I'm a dragon” Right, I’m tired of this darkness, back up a bit. I shifted my stance and used [Fire dragon festival] and changed the property and colors to yellow-white which are known for their luminosity.
“Oooh, that seems to work. Whoa! What is that!” Great… a shadow behemoth is exactly what we needed. This colossal creature made Vinny look like a fly and the behemoth wasn't happy with me lighting up the place.
“Is this guy responsible for this darkness?” There's a high chance but he seems already at the last boss level, did the ancients get lazy again? Vinny swooped me up because [shadow spikes] the size of towers shot out of the ground.
“Owowow that thing you’re doing is extremely hot.” I’m sorry, you have poor compatibility with fire. I jumped off Vinny and rode one of the fire dragons I was keeping up. We could only see a small part of the shadow behemoth because my dragons weren't illuminating this place as much as I wanted. I also had to watch out to not turn Vinny into a pile of flying ash.
So, Vinny, we have one problem. These flames aren’t offense-oriented, so if I want to attack, I will have to use different colors and this will take away a lot of visibility.
“I think that we’re toast the moment the visibility drops.” Vinny wasn't wrong, we were having this conversation while evading enormous widespread shadow attacks. Not sure that they would one-shot me but I surely didn't want to find out. Well then, I guess I’m the lightbulb and you’re the attacker, show him what you got!
“Can you light up the floor so I can see it?” As long as it’s not covered in shadows I can. I sent a dragon down but there didn't seem to be a floor.
“Hmm, that is odd, your fire dragon should have reached the floor by now.” Yeah, not even shadows, just nothing. I spread the dragons out and created many more.
Ok, so we’re lucky that we’re flying. It seems the walls are still there but the walls are moving and revolving around us. There are probably some parts that just end up in an endless abyss, I don’t know how this works but its ancient magic after all…
“So, anything that can't fly will get the floor pulled out under them and won't even get to fight this behemoth?” Pretty much. I made a network of yellow-white luminescent dragons because the light would fade after a certain distance but as long as the dragons bit each other's tails the light wouldn't fade. Moving walls could be seen on the side and occasionally an empty hole.
“Hey, Agnis, what if the walls and floors aren't moving but we are…” Hmm, we’re flying so we still wouldn't notice if that’s the case but then it's messing with our spatial coordinates and I would know if that was the case.
“Oh ok, that's a relief then, if something was messing with our spatial coordinates it would be capable of much more.” The behemoth started throwing [Shadow Tendrils] around that had the diameter of a house. "But since the walls are moving this plays to my advantage!” Vinny flew to the east wall and waited till a large patch of the wall appeared and landed on it. He roared and it started growing plants that started to spread. He then took off and used [Dragon Dance].
“Can you move the light a bit further away so you don't burn my attack?” I decreased the temperature of the dragons.
“That works too.” The small jungle on the wall that kept moving with the wall kept growing and started acting as if it was alive and attacked the shadow behemoth. Vinny repeated this multiple times and created countless mini jungles on different parts of the wall and turning them alive. Because the walls were moving all around there was always a jungle patch attacking the behemoth. Whoa, that was genius, do you by any chance have any plants that become stronger depending on how much light they get?
“Oh, that's a good idea! I will plant some Dawnlights!” Oh, those things still exist?
“You know about them?” I heard about them from my friend Greg, Don't they store sunlight and convert it into a powerful mana blast to defend themselves?
“Correct, they also give off light so it could help out with illuminating this darkness.” Can you leave me some seeds after all this is over and tell me how to grow them? They could be useful one day.
“Sure, can you increase the light intensity but keep the temperature low?” I will try. The dragons became brighter and slightly hotter and Vinny went around planting Dawnlights. The place seemed to really light up but the moment light hit the eyes of the shadow behemoth, things changed. You don’t want a 200m tall creature to go berserk but that's exactly what this thing did.
“So ehh what’s the plan?” Stay alive? The first Dawnlights bloomed and burst and sent beams of light elemental mana at the behemoth. Shadow behemoths should be weak to light magic it's just… this thing is huge, and it will take a while before it will get any meaningful damage.
Any chance that you know of any light attacks? Vinny shook his head and we dodged some [Dark Waves] and [Shadow bolts] the size of houses. I had no light skills in my arsenal either. I looked up, no celestial dragon vein currents here so nothing I could try. What else works well against these things besides light? I had to put in more effort because I needed to take a big evasive maneuver. Gravity always works on huge creatures but I don’t know how to use that and certainly not with Dragonvein. Can I use [Pressure]? I’m not sure if I can sneak those movements in because I’m already sneaking in movements to not get hit by all this stuff flying around. Vinny, can you attempt to trip him? Like bind its legs with vines or something, and maybe throw some poisonous briars in too.
“Are you insane? You want me to trip that colossus?” It’s not a colossus just a behemoth.
“... You know what I meant… mean!” The Dawnlights kept shooting light blasts at the behemoth but as far as I could see it wasn't doing any meaningful damage. I sent a shadow clone in one of those blasts. “What are you doing?!” Just checking if those things are doing damage. My shadow clone ate 2 blasts and got poofed out of existence.
“Does that answer your question? And I thought you made a rule to not use magic?” Yes… and well ehh I’m cheating, I do use it for utility like swapping stuff, my dimensional pocket, and clones, it’s not hindering my training if I use those.
“I see… if you could use magic how would you deal with this?” I blocked a [Shadow Tendril] with 4 dragons. To be honest, I have no clue, I would probably use frost magic since I can't use light or gravity magic. But of all elements, dark magic is the least affected by frost magic properties. Watch out! Vinny and I were in a stalemate. This was good because if the behemoth actually did something besides throwing random attacks around, we would've been in deep shit.
Come on Vinny, you're a member of the legendary dragon race do something!
“What? I’m just a brat and what does being a dragon have to do with being able to do something? And how about you?! You’re a member of the strongest mythical beast race! Why don't you do something?” I’m fresh out of my diapers. Do you want me to do something? Shouldn't you as the elder here show how it's done?! Vinny used [Dragon Dance] to make a mass of living jungle take a [Shadow blast] for us.
“I don't even know what this thing's weaknesses are. I didn't even knew it existed before today!” Wait, is this thing standing on the floor?
“Duh, of course, he is…” No, I mean if that’s the case all we have to do is drop him into the abyss.
“And how heavy do you think that thing is? It’s surely heavier than my mom.” Wait was that a ‘Yo momma’ joke?
“What?” Never mind. I sent some dragons to where I assumed the behemoth’s feet were.
“Seems your idea isn't going to work.” Apparently, these things don't have feet when they touch the ground, they create an abyss. So, wait the abyss we see around us is actually part of its body? Talking about creepy.
“Does that mean we’re inside its body? What if this dungeon is its stomach?!” A stomach with revolving walls?
“Ok, Mr. smartass do you have better ideas?” Uhh, let’s go with the stomach idea then. So how do we cause this behemoth indigestion then?
“What does it normally eat?” No clue.
“....” Probably unaware adventurers or something, let's see, if your diet is normally random humans what would disgust you?
“Cheese?” You don't like cheese? What is wrong with you? But let’s try. I took all the cheese I had stored and chucked it into the abyss. The behemoth made a sound but nothing seemed to happen. I got it! It must hate poison!
“You have poison on you?” Yes, a lot actually time to get rid of all of it! Greg is crazy about it and kept harassing cows.
“Wait what do cows have to do with poison?” I took over 1000 litres of poison out and poured it all into the abyss. “Wait that’s not poison that's milk!” Same thing. Look he’s reacting! Poison never fails me!
“You are joking, right? This behemoth is lactose intolerant?” Ooh sensitive to poison! Greg is not going to like this but I’m getting rid of all the poison! I dumped the rest of the poison I had into the abyss; I also chucked some yogurt in but also ate some.
Want some yogurt?
“Isn't that ‘Poison’ a component of yogurt?” Just like some poisons can be made into medicine so can this one.
“You make no sense…” Doesn’t matter, look it's working!
“I can't believe that a creature that can give a dragon and a spirit fox a run for its money is weak to milk…” It makes perfect sense even the strongest things have weaknesses! It can be as simple as being weak to poison or as complicated as being weak to lasers! Now let those Dawnlights bloom!
“I think you have it backward… more individuals are weak to lasers, if not all, while lactose intolerance is… who even tests that out as a weakness?!” Worked twice!
“Twice? It worked before?” Yup, I fed a god poison and it wrecked him and we could escape!
“A god… lactose intolerant? You know what let's just defeat this behemoth…” I must be imagining things but it looks like the area is getting smaller.
“It's working! He's getting weaker! The walls are closing in on us! Oh, wait nooo the walls are closing in on us!” At least this pace is getting brighter.
“That's some misplaced optimism, what do we do?!” What do you mean by ‘We’? I've been in charge of illuminating this area, you're the damage dealer here!
“And yet your milk did more damage! You must have another trick!” You know what's worse than poison?
“Uhh no?” Boiled poison!
“Oh Kaledon have mercy on me…” I turned some fire dragons back to normal and sent them into the abyss. Nothing happened for a while and then the whole room started to shake and convulse. “I should procure some milk if we ever make it out of this…” The behemoth was shrinking and vomiting some black fog. The exploding Dawnlights did visible damage to it. The surroundings slowly started to become more visible and light started to work like it normally does. The floor returned to normal and I stopped using [Fire dragon dance]. The room was the normal size of that of a boss room. Get ready for phase 2!
“What?" I shifted my stance and used water [Dragon] to block a dark cleave aimed at Vinny. “There is more?” There is always more. I shifted to [Lightning Dragon dance] and intercepted another dark cleave. The behemoth shrunk to some 3-meter-tall humanoid covered in black armor and shadows. It was holding a black katana and black fog was surrounding it.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Where did your jungle go? I looked around and the jungle and Dawnlights Vinny made were all gone, it was just a boring room.
“All the mana got sucked out of it and they disappeared…” Well, go attack him then!
“Uhh ok, what about you?” I’m support!
“You? A spirit fox as support? What kind of joke is that? It's like using a sword to heal, don’t tell me you’re going to heal too?” A 9t as a healer? Are you crazy? What a waste of your skillset!
“How is this different?!” I pushed Vinny aside with [Dragon] because another dark cleave was aimed at him. Hey, behemoth can't you see we're talking?! Vinny used [Dragon Dance] and created more plants.
I will try to make sure this guy doesn't cut you in 2, I need to practice.
“Practicing with my life on the line?” You’re a dragon, if you guys were pushovers, you'd not be this high up the food chain.
“Right right, I’ll do my best.” Behemoth kept cutting down the greenery that was coming from Vinny. His katana intrigued me, it seemed to be made with ancient technology. I wonder if I could steal it and examine it. The behemoth took a specific stance. Yoo Vinny this is bad, get out of there!
“Why? He sheathed his sword it's time to press the attack!” Yes, and that’s the problem! I used [Dragon] to scoop Vinny up and launch him in the air. I jumped up and dodged the quickdraw the behemoth did. All the plants in a straight line in front of him got cut by a black cleave.
“What was that?!” That’s called an 'Iai', it's an extremely fast cut that packs a lot of damage, you don't want to get hit with those. I sent [Dragon] at him and he tried to cut it but he was getting pushed back. Vinny used [Dragonbreath] and the behemoth just took it. Plants started to grow on him and sap his mana. He ignored the attack and prepared to cut Vinny down.
An attack is incoming. Vinny covered himself in some bark armor and took the attack. I made water split off the [Dragon] and used [Frozen Ground] and froze the behemoth's legs so he couldn't take the correct stance to do most of his sword slashes. Because of this I also took a look at myself, I need to make sure that I can still do my stuff if someone wants to break my stance. Behemoth’s attacks stopped because it was busy trying to break free. Vinny continued bringing down the hurt. I didn't need to do many defensive maneuvers because the behemoth’s attacks dropped in frequency, it was just the occasional [Dark wave] and [Shadow spikes]. Suddenly he broke free and lunged for me.
“Watch out!” I wanted to evade but Vinny blocked the behemoth with his tail. “Ow! Oof, that might leave a scar.' I created an [Ice wall] between Vinny and the behemoth. I created swords out of ice and took some real swords out of my dimensional pocket. I had some exchanges with the behemoth but he cut all of them in half, Noo! My swords!
“So dramatic!” Vinny picked me up and flew up to evade another [Dark Slash]. I had to recover from the fact that all my swords had been destroyed. Why am I such a shit blacksmith…
“You're a blacksmith also?” Apparently not, I can’t even make swords that don't break… Vinny looked at the gash on his tail.
“He did cut through my [Bark Skin] and dragon scales… I don’t think your swords are the issue here…” I need to step up my game!
“Are you even listening?” Huh no, what were you saying?
“Can you do something about those slashes?” Don’t you have an ultimate skill? How about that [Dragon Rush], I have more marbles.
“Is he even going to stand still to get hit?” I froze his feet again. “That works.” Just one thing… he is frozen in a stance where he can use his Iai.
“And why would you freeze him in that stance?” Hey, I’ve been using leylines for a long time I’m starting to become tired and a bit sloppy! Just do the rush I will deal with whatever he’s going to do.
“All right, give me the marbles halfway through the rush just like the last time.” Just remember, drugs are bad!
“What are you talking about…” Just rush! Vinny started rushing and the behemoth readied an Iai. I reformed [Dragon] again and sent it to block the Iai. There was a slight clash but my [Dragon] cancelled out the Iai and disappeared. So exhausting… I shoved the frost marbles in Vinny’s maws and jumped off. Vinny powered up and sped up and crashed into the behemoth. A black mass got launched into the wall and didn't move.
“Is he dead?” Dunno, you rammed into him, shouldn't you know? We approached the hole in the wall and a black mass was slowly disintegrating. Nooo not the katana too! Couldn't you hold back a bit?!
“So unreasonable…” A pedestal rose out of the ground and it had 3 items. “What’s this?” I picked up a pile of ancient-looking paper. Yesss! Finally! Katana magic relic weapon manuals! I can't read it but it’s something! This other thing hmm a magic circle, probably some super strong skill, I can't read this either but judging from the rune arrangement it's some dark magic skill. I will save this for my friend Greg.
“And what is that? A key?” Hmm, well there should be treasure somewhere, right? It’s probably to unlock the treasure room! I scanned the area to find the hidden room but all the ancient technology was blocking my sight. Actually, It wasn't that, it was just that this dungeon was just this room it seems.
“Look there's a keyhole in this pedestal.” I looked at where Vinny was pointing with its claw. Nice catch, are you going to address that deep cut in your tail by the way?
“Oh, right haha!” Vinny circulated nature energy and the cut slowly closed up, it didn't go back to how it was, it left a dark green scar that contrasted with his light green scales. “Hmm a scar, I guess there was still some dark residual magic left in the wound but I will take this as a proud battle scar!” Just make sure it's not going to rot or anything.
“It was dark element, not rot element!” Does rot element even still exist or wasn't it called Decay element?
“I don’t know it is a branch of black magic after all so it's either highly illegal or went extinct.” I don’t understand why humans and witches banned black magic, it’s ok to burn someone to ash but not decay them or put tortuous curses on them? Who decided on that logic?
“Humans don't make any sense. Now open the treasure room! I’m curious!” I placed the key in the keyhole and turned it. I swear if something is guarding the treasure room, I’m going to lose it, I had enough bullshit for today. The pedestal sucked the key in and sunk in the floor and left a revolving staircase behind that went underground.
“This is dragon discrimination! I don't fit through that!” Don’t worry, I will rob this place clean and give you your fair share. I descended the staircase. It went down and down. I decided that I got tired of this bullshit and froze the staircase and turned it into a slide. I arrived at the bottom. I certainly didn't enjoy the slide more than I should have. I looked at a room that had shelves with some unimpressive treasures. It was just the normal gold and silver artifacts. I didn't find anything that stood out. Sure, having all this in your possession will make you rich but if you’re not interested in becoming rich this is quite boring.
The manual and magic skills were way more valuable to me. I scanned the whole room to see any symbols of ancient languages but I found nothing. How disappointing. I’m not sure if Vinny would be happy with all this but I don’t need it. Moreover, he did most of the heavy lifting. I will ask him if he's interested in the magic skill and manual but I really hope he isn't. I stored all this trash, ehm treasure and headed back up. It took a while but I finally made it. I think these stairs were the real end boss…
“Anything interesting?” Not really, just this. I took out all the treasure I found down below and I even sneaked in some treasure I got from the Corund dungeon that I find quite useless.
“Whoa, that’s a lot! How are we going to split it?” How about I get the manual and magic skills and you get this?
“Uh, really? I don't think that’s fair.” Do you want the magic skill too?
“No, I mean you get only that and I get all this.” Oh, don't worry the magic skill and manual are more than enough for me, you can have all this.
“Uhh, ok, if you insist, can you drop this off in my room? I don’t want to make other dragons jealous.” I can understand, hey is it true or is it a myth that dragons like to hoard treasure?
“I don’t know about other types of dragons but we like to hoard treasure although for us jungle dragons it also includes rare plants and fruits.” Like rare medicinal plants or plants like those Dawnlights?
“Yeah, oh right, since I still think you got the short end of the stick, I will give you some rare plants and fruits from my hoard, I don’t have anything like gold and metals yet so I think this is a fair exchange.” Deal!
“Nice! So how do we get out of here?” Dunno, I can't really use the method I used to get out of a dungeon the last time.
“What did you use last time?” Uhh, lose control and vaporize the whole dungeon and the mountain around it.
“Right… let’s not do that, hey what’s that?” Vinny pointed at a white floating orb that was leaking some white energy that fell to the floor. Phase 3? No hmm, it might be our way out, come. We approached the orb and I could see that it was some sort of ancient device or something that would function as a teleporter. This is a teleporter. I grabbed Vinny’s claw with one of my tails and touched the teleporter. It felt exactly like a short-range lightning teleport but… better and before we knew it, we were in front of the entrance of the dungeon.
“That was quite the unique experience. Hop on let's go to my home.” Wait, I need your input on this, how long did you think we were in there?
“Uhh, maybe 3-4 hours?” So, it should be around 7-8 in the morning, right?
“Yeah.” Does it look like it’s morning? We looked at what looked like a sunset.
“So how long were we inside?” Well, you were not wrong we were down there for 4 hours and 23 minutes but… out here 2 days have passed.
“What?! Oh no mom is going to kill me!” Just defeat her with some poison.
“She is not a shadow behemoth! And I’m not going to fight my mom!” Look at him a full-grown dragon afraid of his mommy.
“And what’s wrong with him being afraid of his own mother?” She’s standing right behind me, isn't she? Vinny nodded nervously. I turned around. Ehm, so your son has protected me from dying a pathetic death, he truly is a dragon of dragons, he deserves autonomy!
“Oh really?” Vinny’s mother looked at him and he tried to avoid his mother’s gaze. Hey, Vinny dragon up will ya!
“Yes! I did! I [Dragon Rushed] that shadow behemoth and now he’s a black splat on the wall!”
“A shadow behemoth?! Really? It isn't one of those tricks nine-tailed spirit foxes play?” It sounds like a funny prank but not this time!
“Hmm, ok, I will let you off the hook Vinny, your friends had good things to say, something about you finally acting like a dragon. Let’s go home.” I got a dragon ride to the hollow tree and the dragons seemed to be happy to be finally back. That’s where his mother noticed the scar on his tail and he told the story about our adventure. I could see that the dragons were getting more and more respect for him. I guess he was kind of the nerd under the dragons but now he had an adventure none of these dragons have ever experienced. I sat in a corner trying to decipher this ancient language.
Vinny was giving me a bit too much credit though, all I did was make sure we didn't get screwed over in the darkness and assist him a bit in landing some blows. But at least it seemed he wasn't trying to make himself look good with this story which drew more dragons into his story. I could even see a dragon chick getting interested in him. This dragon will go far in life.
“So Agnis was it? Why didn't you do spirit fox things?” I was still focused on these symbols so I didn't notice that I was getting addressed by a random dragon. Huh, what? Oh, I’m training so I set certain limitations on myself, also to be honest I didn't have skills that could really deal with the situation anyways and those that would work would blow up everything Vinny included so it was for the better.
“I didst never know what spirit foxes were thinking. This seemeth to be quite normal for their race.” Ah elder dragon, can you by any chance read this stuff? I showed her the symbols of the ancient language. She looked at it and shook her head.
“Imst sorry I canst.” I’m not sure that you have mastered the vocabulary of the persona you're trying to mimic but at least thanks for trying. Right Vinny, we still need to finish our exchange.
“Right, sorry guys I need to do some business with Agnis. I will be back soon!” Quite popular, are we?
“Hehe, thanks to you.” I don't know, I don't think I did much here. We arrived at Vinny’s lair and… Are you sure there's nothing wrong with you? I’m somewhat familiar with lairs but aren't they supposed to be messy? Why is everything so orderly, wait did you even catalog this shit? Are you sure you’re a dragon?!
“I like to know what items I have in my possession and where they are.” I’m so happy to see the birth of a new race.
“Hey! That’s rude I’m a normal jungle dragon!” Doubt… I’m just going to dump your stuff in that corner there. I dumped the treasure in a corner that had no business being that clean, it pissed me off so I dumped all his treasure there.
“That’s fine, I prefer to catalogue the items myself anyways, so you were interested in Dawnlights right?” Yes, any plants that can create light or earth elemental effects are welcome, maybe also things that restore stamina and can make my body tougher.
“Hmm, let's see, Dawnlight seeds, instructions on how to grow them are attached but just hitting them with nature energy from time to time will do enough. How about Stoneroot, Phoenix flower, and uhh I don't have anything to make your body tougher sorry.” Wait, what in the Hourai? Do you have Phoenix flowers?
“Yeah, I actually have a lot, do you want them?" Hell yeah! Oh, just curious do you have dynamo beans, red sky mangoes, and blue ghost truffles?
“Ohh, for the lightning tigers, phoenixes, and spirit foxes, how do phoenixes fit in the mix though? Let’s see, I got a couple of dynamo beans, they are very hard to grow for us because they need to be grown under the constant influence of purple lightning or above so I can't give you a lot of them only 4, I have 12 red sky mangoes to give you but unfortunately no blue ghost truffles, I’m sorry to say but there is a big chance they have gone extinct… sorry.” Don't be sorry, that was to be expected, 4 beans hmm that will not even give Raishin 1 life… it’s better than nothing though.
“Didn't you have a shadowcat friend? Don’t you need liquid shadow potatoes?” Uhh, I have thousands of liters of liquid shadow vodka stored up so that’s not an issue. And I dislike potatoes so I’d rather not get near them. I ate the sky mangoes while Vinny was proudly showing his collection.
“Hey, don't you need them for your Phoenix friend?” I’m the phoenix friend.
“Huh, I thought you were a spirit fox, hmm spirit fox and phoenix.” Vinny froze. Oh shit, here we go.
“Wait are you related to that legend? Edea Hourai?” Uhm, would you believe me if I said no?
“Well phoenix-spirit fox hybrids are rare so I would say that you’re either lying or related to her.” Well, I guess the fox is out of the bag, I’m Agnis Hourai, Edea Hourai’s third child and first son.
“I’m in the presence of a legend!” No, you’re not I have done fuckall with my life, I’m just a random kid that has an amazing parent.
“Hmm, if you say so, how many lives did you gain from those mangoes?” 36, I’m at 45 at the moment.
“Right, how about you take all my sky mangoes!” Nono, it’s fine, I need you to keep growing them because these things are near impossible to find, if there's at least a consistent source I should be fine… I think.
“Please be careful, I’m saying this as a friend, and as an inhabitant of this planet, I’m aware that your race is crucial.” I will do my best, thanks for all the stuff. What does this stoneroot do actually?
“If you grind it up, mix it with water and something that's volatile you can create a substance or gas that petrifies whatever organic material it comes into contact with. You also need to add a specific component to it to make sure you become immune to its effects but you won’t have problems with it. As a dragon, you would grind some of your broken-off claws or shed scales into it to make sure you’re immune to it. You can grind some of your fur in it. For a human, he would need something from a mythical or legendary creature, grind those in it but also wear a talisman made out of the same component that's mixed up in the stoneroot powder up to protect himself.” So basically, while it’s accessible for normal races to use, they would need access to materials of mythical or legendary creatures to become immune to the effects?
“Exactly, that’s why this is quite useless in the eyes of most races but for us, it’s quite valuable.” Very useful indeed is it deadly or temporary?
“When imbued with earth magic it becomes permanent and deadly, without it, it will wear off after a while so you can use it to run away or just deal more damage to him. It will deal a lot of earth damage to the victim if you decide to attack him when the effect wears off. ”
Oh, this is useful. Thank you. Vinny showed me more of his collection and then went back out to socialize with the other dragons. I decided to thank him and leave. I went back to my hideout near the waterfall. It feels like I haven't been here since forever.
I relaxed till day 214 and then tried to decipher this ancient language. I kept running simulations and racking my brain and on day 230 I had enough and decided to visit the archaeological site again. Maybe some archaeologists there would be able to read this. I wrote some of the text on paper because I didn't want to show them the real thing. They would probably get interested in it and harass me and get their hands on it.