'Why can't I be a good dragon?'
Destroying two Golems in one bite, Rebecca releases her frustrations on the Ringmaster's puppets.
Randy has been dedicating extra time to the Rebellion Dragon. Out of all the other members of his family, she's the one struggling hardest. Her species makes life extremely difficult for the young Dragon.
Feeling power surging through her from receiving another level up, Rebecca revels in its warmth. Swinging her tail, she destroys a further two Golems and takes out twice that number with her large claws as she spins.
"Haha. I'm unstoppable," she boasts raining fire down on the remaining opponents and ending the match.
The Ringmaster appears next to her, clapping his hands. Some of his head is missing and the moon-shaped crescent looks slightly disturbing even to the large Rebellion Dragon.
"Well done, Becca. You're definitely getting stronger." His voice is easy to hear even from her heightened position, not that he has a mouth on the moon he calls a face. "Don't get too cocky though. Strong as you are, there could always be tougher opponents."
He clicks his finger and a single Mythril Golem appears in the ring. "What level are you now?" He looks at the Dragon of Rebellion's status. Randy is one of the few who can check the status of another and is needed in his role to help the denizens of the dungeon grow stronger.
"Level 43 is extremely good. Well done, Becca. Unfortunately, I still don't think it's going to be enough to beat Barry Mark 2, over there."
Becca looks at the Golem who does resemble a post-evolution Barry. Rebecca sorely wants to evolve herself. If she can, all of her negative emotions might go away and it should take her disobedient attitude with it. All she wants to do is talk to Abi. But every time she sees her, mixed emotions cloud her judgment and force her to act out.
Randy returns to his seat as the fight begins and Rebecca charges toward the Golem. Picking up speed with each step whilst using her wings to propel her forward, the first attack she lands on Barry Mark 2 does more damage to her claw than her opponent and The Rebellion Dragon screams in pain.
At least the Mythril Golem was propelled into the arena wall. Rebecca's claw mangled in a gory scene of broken bone and flesh, however, was not worth its while. She hadn't damaged the Golem with that attack and it was only briefly incapacitated while it freed itself from the debris. Seeing her disfigurement, the pent-up Dragon roars ever louder.
The Golem simply pulled itself out of the wall and slowly began walking toward her. Not even a scratch was left on its frame. Not from the impact nor Rebecca's speed attack.
"That's fucking bullshit that is, Randy and you know it. How is it not even a little damaged?" She screams at the Ringmaster, still watching from his booth.
"It is made from pure Mythril. One of the strongest substances on this planet. I did say you weren't ready for this, did I not?" His voice echoes in her head as she watches the Golem draw closer.
"No, you said you didn't think it would be enough. You didn't say anything about not being ready!"
"Well. Seeing how that is the case, I must apologize. You commenced the battle yourself when you charged into the fray after misunderstanding my statement. At no point did I tell you to fight that Golem. Now, you will have to do your utmost best to defeat it, or die trying."
Even though the Ringmaster doesn't have a face, Rebecca's sure he is grinning at her. This bastard.
"I don't want to die here, Randy. Let me out now." Rebecca attempts to flee by flying out of the arena, but a barrier prevents her from escaping. The same shell that protects civilians from stray spells in the arena also prevents any form of matter from passing through.
"Let me out, you bastard! I don't want to die in here." Rebecca screams again. Fear seething through her tone and lacing her words.
"You don't actually die in the Coliseum, Becca. Well, you do, but you come back to life afterwards. It's a special feature that was created when the master upgraded this feature." Randy explains as she moves where the barrier meets his booth.
"Fuck that bitch. Get me out now, Randy!" The Oblivion Dragon unleashes a torrent of purple mana at The Ringmaster. Unfortunately, it does nothing but cover the area, effectively masking his stupid face from view until it disperses.
"Sometimes death is good for the soul and teaches things that life can not. Like cocky, young Dragons who think they're invincible for example. Now, get down there and fight. We're not going anywhere till one of you kicks the bucket." Randy claps his hands and the barrier turns black. Hiding everything above her, Rebecca can no longer see the seating area and turns to look at her opponent below.
Cursing Abi, Randy, and Abi once more for creating the torturous Ringmaster, Rebecca steels her nerves and attacks the Mythril Golem below with a breath attack. Painting the ground black, the Oblivion Dragon kept it up until she eventually ran out of juice.
Once the attack was over and the mist had cleared, the motionless Golem stood as steam leaked from its body. This fight isn't an easy one, the barrier was still trapping Rebecca inside. Deciding to try another speed/power attack on what she hoped to be a now-brittle Golem, the Rebellion Dragon shot down from the air like a bullet. Her good claw impacted her opponent's chest and shattered like the first as the Golem was pushed into the ground.
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Rebecca wanted to cry. Both her claws were broken and as she tried to take flight, she felt the cold grip of death latch onto her wing. What followed was the worst twenty seconds of her life. The Mythril Golem broke bone after bone as it made its way toward her neck before finally ending her suffering.
Her eyes snap open and immediately lock on to the only other person in the room, Randy. He's sitting beside the bed she's laid on in a small, featureless room.
"I fucking hate you, Randy." She glares at him.
"Yeah. A lot of them say that, but I'm not sure why. All I'm doing is helping." Doubting his intentions, Rebecca is sure the Ringmaster secretly enjoys watching them suffer as she wears a doubtful look. "Anyway, did you learn anything from your fight?"
"I did," she answers immediately.
"Do tell then. I would very much like to know." The crescent moon on top of his body comically bobs away in anticipation.
"Don't trust the gods-damned Ringmaster!" she jabs, quickly porting back to the Dragons Daycare before Randy can stop her. Rebecca's fighting for the day is over after that last moment of horror. Maybe even for the week.
Rebecca and Randy
Dungeon Stories Volume 5
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By the time I've unlocked the rest of Ishda, my daily income has closed in on the 200,000 mark. Increasing my spending limit is by far the best feature of acquiring new land. The amount I can accomplish in a single day keeps getting larger and larger too.
Which isn't the best, but I like being flush so it's fine.
Less than a week after acquiring my third city, I've already managed to connect us more than we ever have been before. I spent a few days repairing and adding roads, bridges, and everything in between, connecting all the cities that fall under my domain. I even placed rest stations at set locations between each city, giving my inactive guard members something to do whilst making travelling safer.
I even went ahead and set up patrols around Tune and Ishda. Both are on the worse end of Soul Guide's scale of righteousness so I ended up stationing about a thousand guards in each city. That's only a small number compared to their respective populations, but it's enough to keep more of my family busy.
Plus, it was only the other week I was complaining that too many of them had nothing to do except keep the peace in my city. Which isn't really much of a job seeing as how my dragons have that front covered. However, sourcing out a few to the two cities should help prevent any more negative-coloured souls from cropping up.
Creating roads and pushing work onto the guards isn't all I've been doing this week. I've been slowly upgrading the shoddy stone wall that surrounds Varona in between my various other tasks. I'm about a tenth of the way done, which isn't very far, but the section I've finished is all solid Mythril bricks. That's right, Mythril. Nothing's going to be breaking through these walls by the time I'm finished. I might even throw some magical enchantments in there while I'm at it.
Well, that won't be until I've finished changing all the bricks to Mythril, but it's still a good idea for afterwards.
Tune's count on souls that need guidance has also been dropping well and I'll soon be able to move Councilman Raff over to Ishda. I don't know how he manages it without Soul Guide, but working together with Treasurer Goode, the wise councilman can spot corruption a mile away. Once he's finished with the fishing city, Raff's second task will be twice as big as his first due to Ishda being double the size of Tune. Although the Vampires will have already given him a head start on that front.
They're practically guaranteed to succeed in the noble district. If shit rolls downhill, so too do sunshine and rainbows.
However, it wasn't all that long ago that Noir had to stomp out some major corruption with his sisters. I've even seen the destruction firsthand at this point and it wasn't pretty. Not that Carrie and Dropper were as heavy-handed as the dungeon-loving loudmouth had been, but Lord Aldor still seemed more than a little sour over Noir until I dropped that gold in his lap.
Anyway, the Assassins' visit curbed a good deal of evil from the region's capital, but it wasn't anywhere near enough to cleanse the city completely. It was a good start though and Raff should easily be able to pick up where the trio of Assassins left off. Not to mention the Vampires already doing a fantastic job of making behavioural changes right now.
It's amazing what flattery, unmatched beauty, and a little bit of magic can do. Especially when you're a drop-dead gorgeous Noble Vampire. Speaking of, Clara ended up joining us in Varona for our morning meetings and updates.
Me asked for another budget increase which I happily provided. With the extra 40,000 coming in daily from Lord Aldor's city, I didn't mind upping Me's allowance to 15,000. He is using it to fuel our adventurers and further my goals after all.
All in all, other than that weird kid who keeps watching me eat, everything's been progressing nicely.
The triplets even hit level 40.
It broke my heart and, honestly as selfish as this sounds, I didn't want them to evolve. I wanted them to be my three, little adorable babes forever. Sadly, that can't happen as evolution is as much a part of their life as I am. Plus, I don't want to see a repeat of what happened during the King's attack.
I'd rather them be rebellious than go through that again.
I watched as three, cute Oblivion Dragons evolved into their next tier. Growing slightly in size, each one transitioned into teenage-sized versions of themselves. Violet's hair now has a white streak running into her fringe, a telltale sign of rebellion if I've ever seen one. Although, out of the three, she's already the hardest to coax into doing anything unless Bear is involved.
Blondie, for some unknown reason, has a pair of glasses hanging around her neck after her evolution was done. I don't see why she needs them, all my creations have superior senses, but when she puts them on... She looks super cool.
Amber seemed to be furious and it wasn't far-fetched to say that I was a little worried. Fortunately, when she turned her scornful gaze my way she only said one word and it was more of a question.
"Dinner?"
Shattering the illusion that every Rebellion Dragon would be like Rebecca, I instantly moved us to Ali's and watched as the teenage Dragons demolished plate after plate in the most peaceful eating display ever seen. People watched in silent happiness as plates came out as fast as they went back until they eventually slowed down. Normally the crowd would be rambunctious but because my Dragons are involved, it's a different story.
Two out of the three finished and only a greedy redhead continued to put it away. As I was beginning to wonder where it was all going, Violet asked me a question.
Violet!
"Can I go for a run with Bear?"
As scary as the prospect of a Rebellion Dragon riding a fully-grown Bear was, I didn't dare say no. I also didn't want her kicking up a stink in Ali's restaurant so soon after her evolution and I agreed. I also told her to try to stick to the forest. Not that people would care much about her running through the streets, that peaceful-vibe aura they have going on is some pretty powerful shit.
After watching her dash off, I turned back to find Blondie missing. The chatterbox doesn't normally leave my side, but now they've evolved of course that's bound to change. Scanning the crowd, I found her talking to Ali at the counter.
I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my chest. Other than Violet wanting some alone time with Bear, nothing else seems to have changed much. Blondie's still talking someone's ear off and Amber is stuffing her face.
It's nice to know they're still my girls.