"That's not a plushy," I pointed out, glad that Krana was bound by the Law to not act anything like a stereotypical dragon and, for example, eat Cluma for her pure audacity.
Cluma blinked and looked more closely at what she was holding. "Oh," she said, eventually. She had [Inspection], after all, so she should at least be able to see his name and race. "Hi! Nice to meet you. I'm Cluma! I've never seen a dragon before. You're smaller than I expected."
"Well met," he responded. "Now would you please deign to release me?"
"Sorry," she said, putting him back down.
"As that slime was saying, Erryn left behind a letter for Serlvrenalliacta. Within it were a number of requests, one of which was to retrieve and protect an artefact called the 'subsidiary dungeon core'. Alas, she neglected to mention where this artefact could be located. I have found no hints within this dungeon."
Wait, a subsidiary core still existed somewhere? How? And more importantly, why did it need draconic protection? Couldn't Erryn have stored it somewhere safe herself? But if it wasn't here, there was an only one obvious alternative, and it was somewhere I wanted to go anyway. With the aid of Krana, I would have a better chance of gaining access. "The ark, then?" I suggested.
"The slime made the same suggestion," said Krana, nodding.
Huh? "Then why did you call me?" I asked. "Have you checked there already?"
"We have not," answered the dragon.
Lily was shuffling around suspiciously, staring at the ground.
"Okay, why would you..."
ding
Skill [Danger Sense] advanced to level 10
I spun around, looking towards the source of my triggered skill, only to see Cluma reaching for a pink-edged book from Lily's bookshelf. Activating [Minor Speed] on instinct, I used [Far Step] to leap over, slamming the book out of her hand and safely back into the shelf.
"Huh?" said Cluma, not understanding the corruption I'd just saved her from.
"Just... pretend those books aren't there," I said. "Under no circumstances should you try reading them."
"Okay?" she responded, treating me to a confused stare.
"Oi! They're good books," complained Lily.
"I fear I must agree with Peter, here," sighed an exasperated dragon. "Already you have corrupted much of Synklisi with your depravation. There is no need to spread your taint further."
Cluma looked at the dragon, then back to the bookshelf, before edging away slowly.
"Anyway, as I was saying, what did you want me for? I failed miserably the last time I tried to enter the ark."
"I know. That's why I asked you to come. You... wanted to search inside, right? To help the twins? I figured this was your best chance."
So she didn't call me because she wanted my help. It was the opposite. She was trying to help me. "Thank you. I appreciate it."
ding
Skill [Basic Etiquette] advanced to level 3
Oops, I did the official gesture of thanks on autopilot, a sort of hand-shake with myself. The knowledge that came from that skill kept inserting itself into random situations. Not that it was problematic, in particular, but it would be a lot more useful if the average commoner actually knew what the gestures meant.
"The hell? Did you take an etiquette skill?" asked Lily, who wasn't at all common.
"Maybe?" I answered, which sent Cluma off into an uncontrolled fit of giggles.
"Or perhaps it is already too late for these two," sighed Krana. "Regardless, I have delayed here long enough. Let us depart."
"Why the sudden rush? It's been a couple of years already."
Krana's muzzle scrunched up in the dragon equivalent of a frown. "The letter was delivered only last week. I took action as soon as feasible."
"I handed them off to the delver's guild the day after I got them," said Lily. "It's not my fault if they took ages to deliver."
Given that there wasn't anything on them but a name, I could see how delivery would be difficult. Then again, there couldn't be too many people around with a name like... whatever it was. Serlv-something.
"Hey, wait," said Cluma as Lily opened the exit door. "What's the ark? Where are we going?"
Or a more pertinent question; did I want to bring her at all? "Do you want me to teleport you home?" I asked.
"Depends on what the ark is," she answered.
"It's..." Oh heck. How could I explain that? For that matter, what did Krana think it was?
"It's a place where Mother keeps important stuff," answered Lily in my place. "When the plushy asked, I tried 'where the System lives' and some other explanations, but they all just slid off," she added to me, resulting in Cluma and Krana sharing a dazed expression for a few seconds. "See?"
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
"Where the earth mother keeps stuff?! Wow. Sure, I'll come!" replied Cluma.
We followed Lily out of her room and into the boss chamber, where she shot out a dozen tendrils and relocated the cone of disks between pillars in some sort of specific order, causing the black teleport crystal to appear.
"You need to solve your own puzzles to get out?" I asked. I'd never really thought about it before. The last time I'd been here I'd teleported myself, and hadn't exactly been conscious at the time, anyway. The time before, I'd been teleported out straight from her room, though. Certainly no-one had needed to solve a puzzle.
"I can't exactly ask Mother anymore," she replied unhappily. So Erryn must have teleported me manually.
"How are we going to get there?" I asked as we teleported back to the surface. "Me and Cluma can jog with [Weft Walk]."
"Isn't it obvious? We're going to ride," said Lily.
Ride what? Zephyr wasn't here this time. Or did she mean... I glanced at the tiny hug-sized dragon plodding alongside us. Yup, that would work, once he returned to his full size. I felt at my gauntleted finger, reassuring myself that I was still wearing my feather fall ring underneath. Cluma had hers, too. It would be fine.
We'd only taken a few steps towards the gate before the pair of guards noticed us. Fortunately, they didn't panic and start ringing the dungeon break bell, but after some discussion among themselves, they did step out and bar our way.
"Sorry, but can we ask where you're going? We'd like to send word ahead of you," said the poor sap who seemed to have been volunteered as the spokesperson.
"Don't worry, we're leaving the city," I answered. "And I'm Peter, and this is Cluma," I added, so they could take our names off their list. I didn't want anyone thinking we were still inside.
The guard seemed happy with that, and let us out, at which point Krana swelled up to his full fifteen metre length, evaporating the guards' happiness instantly. Thankfully, not being a monster, Krana didn't cause the panic that fifteen metres of sudden dragon might be expected to cause, the people walking along the street not being able to recognise that he was capable of hurting them.
"Wow!" exclaimed Cluma, just before he grabbed her. Yup, dragon express it was.
Resigned to my fate, and wishing I'd had less for breakfast, I let him grab me too. Lily leapt up herself, before Krana beat his wings, accelerating from the ground with enough force to slam me face-first into his scales.
I would have quite liked to have seen Synklisi from above, but didn't get the chance with a sizeable amount of dragon between me and it, as well as my full attention being required to both hold on and not throw up.
I'd just have to ask Cluma what it looked like later, given that she was casually wandering around Krana's back, running from side to side and peering over the edge, taking care not to step on his wings.
"I'm sorry," said Lily, once we were in the air, causing me to try to twist to look at her. Saying that she was lying flat on the dragons back had a different meaning for her than it would have for someone with more bones in their body, and she'd turned into a bit of a fried egg, with a bulge around her core in the centre of a vaguely circular puddle.
"What for?" I called over the whistling wind. "Did you bring me up here under false pretences?"
"What? No, not at all! I meant for attacking you! I snapped when I heard you'd been using soul affinity. I shouldn't have. I've always had a bit of a temper."
"You didn't exactly get out of it scot-free," I pointed out with a sigh. "I forgive you. Or rather, I already had. I could understand your anger, given what happened to Erryn. But I do need to ask; are soul perception skills safe? I've been avoiding using mine, but I've never had any negative feedback or sense of danger from it, and it lets me instantly pick up reincarnates."
"I honestly don't know," she replied.
Even if [Soul Perception] was safe, would that remain true if I evolved it to [Soul Sight]? Soul stuff was full of potential, both good and bad.
"Cluma, can't you at least sit down?" I called, watching her leaning over the edge and feeling a not insignificant amount of vertigo on her behalf.
"No way! The view is amazing!"
"I'll be adding some more colour to that view soon," I muttered under my breath, before suddenly being grabbed by a dragon's claw.
"If you are to regurgitate, I would appreciate you not doing so over my scales," said Krana, but the sudden movement followed by being dangled upside-down meant that I didn't hear him, being too preoccupied with my own business.
"It's okay, I don't think I have anything left in there to come out," I shouted up a couple of colourful minutes later, causing him to return me to his back.
"My turn! Me next!" shouted Cluma.
"You do not sound sick," commented the dragon.
"Nu-uh. I just want to be able to see all the ground at once!"
Krana grabbed her from his back, but there was no way I was going to watch what he did with her. I simply hunkered down, held on as best as I could, and waited for the torture to end. Fortunately, I could see a mountain chain growing in the distance, suggesting we didn't have long to wait. The dragon express certainly outperformed [Weft Walk] in speed, if not in comfort.
Lily directed Krana to the plateau outside the entrance tunnel, where he shrunk down to a more moderate size before we started the trek down it. Could Krana burn through the doors? Open them with force? Use his magical authority over rock to dig around it?
"I have come for the subsidiary dungeon core," he said to no-one in particular, and the doors swung open.
"Well, that was surprisingly easy," I half-celebrated and half-complained, following him in. Could I have got in the last time I'd visited just by asking nicely?
"Woah," said Cluma, wide-eyed.
"This isn't the place to go wandering off," I warned. "So, now that we're here, what now? I don't suppose the letter included a map?"
"Alas, it did not," growled Krana, thankfully still large enough to not sound like a hamster on helium.
"There's a map of the facility in the booklet over there," I said, pointing to the enchanted cabinet, which was exactly how I'd left it on my last visit. "But I'm not sure how much use that will be without a room reference."
Cluma skipped over and grabbed the booklet, starting to read, but only lasting a few seconds until her eyes glazed over and the booklet fell from her limp hand.
"What is wrong with the girl?" asked Krana in concern.
"This facility is protected," I answered.
"Really? What by? [Trap Perception], [Threat Perception] and [Danger Sense] aren't showing anything," said Cluma, walking back to our group and abandoning the booklet on the floor where it had fallen, showing no sign she remembered its existence.
"This sight is disturbing," said Krana, eyes narrowing as he stared at Cluma.
"Huh? What's wrong?" asked Cluma in confusion, looking around.
I took the opportunity to step past her and grab the booklet before it caused more problems.
"Oh? Where did that come from?" she asked.
"Explain," demanded the dragon.
"I literally can't," I answered. "Well, I could, but you would forget. What should we do, Lily? This is going to be a tough trip if that keeps interfering."
"Huh? What's going on?" asked Cluma, completely lost.
"You were robbed of a minute of your memory, when you attempted to read the document Peter is holding."
I'd never been in a position where someone lost memories while there were people around to watch. Normally, it was speech that triggered the effect, in which case it hit everyone in earshot.
"Don't worry about it," said Lily. "He'll forget seeing her forget soon enough."
"What?" boomed the dragon.
"Let's start searching," she continued. "I suggest we split up and meet back here in an hour."
"Before that..." started Krana, before his muzzle wrinkled. "I feel there was another task to deal with," he said, eventually. "Very well, let us divide our efforts."
Wow. This was going to be a really weird search.