4th of Ab, 118 years since megados eruption

Good morning reader(s)! On today's entry in Vildra's diary, 'my centipede is sapient?!' No seriously, what the fuck. No one else could've possibly made that entry. Bonus, I found the parasite. It's the centipede. This leaves me with so many questions. Luckily, knowing the centipede can read and write lets me ask those questions.

1. How the fuck did the centipede gain sapience? (blood) [what the fuck]

- How does it know how to read and write? (blood taught me) It has no hands! (yes I do, 100 of them)

- Blood taught you? (drink blood, get smarter)

2. Why does it want my blood? (rhetorical, already answered. smarter and taste)

- How did it even get a taste of my blood to begin with? (vertebrae)

- Why is there a centipede strong enough to penetrate dragon hide in the wastes? (hatched here)

3. How did it get on/off my back without me noticing? (stealthily)

- That makes no sense. (then you have bad perception)

4. Why are you still here? (blood)

- Can you please leave? At least be self sufficient. (no)

This centipede is a 7 on the troublesome scale, 9 on the danger scale. I know dragons that would kill for a monster that can drink a dragon's blood without them noticing. That's why vampires exist. That means I can't let other dragons know about it. (you should probably stop writing about me then.) Good news is that dragons have absolutely no reason to come visit me. I think the nearest one is more than 700 km away. That's an hour and a half of constant flying in the wastes.

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Bartheon the rash had heard a strange rumor. The city of Throldhaven had orichalcite. Of course, Throldhaven is in the middle of a desert, with exactly no known orichalcum deposits within a weeks journey. This caused him to believe that the rumors were false. Then he saw the ore. Among the new year offerings, there was a piece of high-quality orichalcum ore. Though piece would be an understatement; it was the size of a sapient.

Bartheon the greedy nearly toppled a castle trying to find out where the ore came from. The trader responsible said he bought it from some desert traders in Brilgport. And so, with great haste, Bartheon flew to Brilgport. As a small city, Brilgport was easy to search through for any hidden riches. Smell led Bartheon to find another piece of orichalcum ore, nearly as big as the first. Even more valuable though were the rumors.

"They say that a dragon came down to buy the city's treasures. All of them. It paid using a boulder of orichalcum ore!"

"No, I heard different. The dragon stole away all of the treasures, but then it ran out of room to store it, so it threw away the least valuable things it had!"

"I partially agree. The dragon was looking to get rid of the ore, of which it claimed was worthless, and it got the treasures due to a misunderstanding."

"That doesn't make sense. You see, they actually wrote down what the dragon said. If I remember correctly, it said 'I have stuff I don't need, and want stuff I don't have.' Clearly it getting the treasures was intentional." The gossipers bickered while Bartheon listened on. He bit back the temptation to eat them all, remembering the taste of hair. He instead Just stepped on all of them. They might survive, but it sent a message.

Bartheon the envious flew into the wastes. It hurt to be here, nearly as much as that papercut and lemon incident 400 years ago. However, this was where Throldhaven was. The center of the rumors. After flying for over an hour (slowed by the burning wind and lack of mana), he came upon the small city. Even at such a distance, the smell of riches was unmistakable. Mimicry orichalcum, as it was titanium rather than mythril, but orichalcum none the less.

When he came crashing down in front of the castle demanding the king, he expected some resistance. Instead, the king walked out within the minute. Impressed, Bartheon started the interrogation. The rumors were cleared up; The dragon had knowledge of the treasures and implied they wanted it. They then took out boulders of copper and orichalcum as 'payment', also implying that it was worthless to them. The boulders were then broken down into dozens of pieces, of which a few made their way to Brilgport.

Unfortunately, no one knew where the dragon went, came from, or even their name. This was a dead end. Bartheon smashed the castle for the trouble this city was causing him. He flew up and started smelling. Winter washed away any trace of the dragon, but the mana was still there. This high up in the wastes there was barely any ambient mana to hide it. Bartheon made a risky decision.

Bartheon started casting a tracking spell. It bit into his mana reserves, taking away a significant portion. The results were underwhelming. The dragon wasn't even trying to hide its mana. 50 kilometers away from the city, in a mountain.

As Bartheon the fool approached, he sensed something. A feeling of unwelcomeness, with the faint smell of... black? He couldn't quite understand the sensation. Yet, as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared. Was it a barrier? No, he was otherwise unaffected, so maybe a warning?

Seeing a charcoal stake gave some relief. It was a form of territory marking. Annoyingly effective; he couldn't pretend to have come here by accident. He was going to have to be smart about this. The dragon was probably a greater dragon. However, they must have lived in the wastes for a long time to amass so much wealth. Therefore, in terms of power, Bartheon had the advantage. Best case scenario, he kills them and gets all of their treasures.

Bartheon the lusty was not expecting the dragon to be female. This opened up an entirely new opportunity.

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"Hello, fine lady. I am greater dragon Bartheon of Hilbenrat. I have heard great tales of your wealth and have become stricken by love. Please allow me to propose to you!"

"Oh, a visitor. I wasn't expecting anybody... ever. You must be tired after flying all the way here. I have a guest room, so why don't you go rest there."

To Bartheon's surprise, the dragon let him in easily. However, the cave he walked into was nearly empty, save for some random rocks... no, those were ores, though faint were the smell. But where was the rest?

"Oh, sorry, you'll have to take a smaller form to get deeper. The guest room is the second doorway to the left. It should be empty."

The layout of this den intrigued Bartheon. Unlike most, there were individual rooms, with stone doors hiding what was inside. He didn't know how many rooms there were, but from his short permitted exploration he saw 4 doorways.

The guest room was small, it would barely fit his full form. Luckily, he had practice in the half-size form that was trendy 120 years ago. If it was any other dragon, Bartheon would have been embarrassed to be seen like this. However, if this dragon is to be his mate, then he shouldn't be embarrassed, right?

As he sat down, it occurred to him just how tired he really was. He flew for several hours today, a few in the wastes. He also casted a spell using his own mana, something he hadn't done in 80 years. The exhaustion seeped in, so he decided to take a nap.

He never noticed the wall moving, coiling up his leg. He was too excited to notice the hundred legs rooting themselves into his back. He was asleep and so never felt the bites, not that he would have noticed were he awake. He noticed an itch. Then there was no one left to notice.

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14th of Ab, 118 years since megados eruption

I had a visitor today. Some random greater dragon from Hilbenrat. Was saying something about proposing? Is he some sort of suitor that my mom warned me about? (rhetorical, reader can't know) If he is a suitor then he needs to get better at it, because he was so unappealing.

I'm letting him sleep in the guest room (aka my room), not sure what to do with him. Probably just reject him and let him leave. But only after Aesmo gets as much blood as they want from him. Speaking of, how is their blood? (tastes as good as yours)

Alright, here's a new deal. We keep him trapped for as long as possible, you drink his blood instead of mine, and I get his meat once he dies. Deal? (he's already dead.)

What the fuck. How did you kill him? (no idea. just drank a little blood. less than you.) Alright, autopsy time. I swear if you completely dried him out already. For the reader's context, the average dragon has over 6000 liters of blood. Aesmo drinks about 20 liters per day, without me even noticing.

19th of Ab, 118 years since megados eruption

The thing about working with a dragon corpse in a small room is that it takes forever to do anything. First you have to peal the scales, then cut into the hide. Normally, I'd just bite a hole into the hide, but since I want to know how he died, I need a more precise method. That's where Aesmo comes in.

Since her bite can penetrate dragon hide, I had her bite enough in one spot to make a small hole. Then using a single nail I slowly tore out the hide. Once one piece is torn off, I can easily tear off more without any damage to the rest of the dragon.

Now, to be honest, I don't remember what I was expecting when doing the autopsy. Just that it wasn't the several cancerous growths I found. Each one was about the size of a book. He was dying a slow death. The problem was that this was just on the outer flesh and muscles. After seeing the growths, I expected worse on the internal organs.

I started with the stomach. No cancer, stomach acid was normal, if a bit diluted, and there was a partially digested ox, about a week into digestion. Next were the intestines. Some scars from a previous injury, otherwise normal, no cancer here either. I moved to the lungs. There was severe inflammation, no cancer, but a viscous fluid was in the alveoli. He was struggling to breathe, but not enough to cause noticeable pain, nor kill him. Cause unknown.

The heart was the hardest organ to analyze. It was buried beneath quite a bit of fat. Here I expected some plaques in the heart. I did find some plaques, and even a cancerous growth on the outside. This lowered the heart's efficiency by about 40%, but that's not enough to die. You need a heart efficiency decrease of 60% ± 5% to die. From the heart, I took a small taste of the blood. Low on mana, but that might just be because we're in the wastes.

I spent the past 4 days searching each and every organ like this. Most organs that I haven't written about were normal. The one organ I haven't analyzed is the brain, which is a whole other problem. The amount of cancer I found wasn't enough to kill him just yet. The many problems among his heart to lungs weren't enough to kill him. So how did he die?

Addendum; I talked/wrote to Aesmo and, according to her, while I was sleeping my heart rate went down by a small amount, which isn't normal. My theory is that when this dragon went to sleep, its heart's efficiency dropped even lower, to the point where it couldn't supply enough oxygen to its brain, and so it died. I can only assume this is due to the wastes.

7th of Aes, 118 years since megados eruption

I finally finished analyzing the brain. Not much of note, so I just ate it. Aesmo is enjoying the year's worth of blood that is stored in the food storage room (☺). I say food storage, but really it's just a pit filled with blood, and dragon meat hanging above. Luckily, dragon meat doesn't go bad for years, so I have food for a long time. The taste is also nice. Been a while since I last ate dragon meat (cannibalism). Last time I got in trouble, but this time there's no one to complain. (I can complain) [You won't]

Now that that's all finished, I should plan out what to do for the foreseeable future. I guess I should expand my home downwards. If I get deep enough, I can get a skylight without causing any issues. Maybe I'll use that as the entrance instead, and use the former entrance area for something else. Yeah, being able to fly right into and out of your home sounds more exciting.

Minor problem though; I'll need to get all the rocks I dig up out of the way. Which is annoying. This is where I'll be using Aesmo (what). She's going to be carrying anything I dig up to the entrance, where I can process them later. (I don't consent!) [I'll pay you in my blood] (really?) [Yes]

26th of Aes, 118 years since megados eruption

Lost track of time again. Aesmo says they're exhausted so we'll be taking a break now. Don't worry, we'll work on your room next. (yay) I have quite a lot of rocks to sort through. I know some are definitely ores, but i was too focused (or unfocused) to actually consider how much or what kind. Also, I've been noticing that the rocks are getting harder. The pickaxe is getting chipped easily. I might need to get an upgrade eventually.

Also, I've been smelling something weird. Like oil but sweet? It's hard to describe, but I'm going to set up the poison alarms I got fr

I just felt a strong earthquake. Its epicenter feels nearby. I'm going to go check it out.