Pov Ismael

I watched as Rafe excused himself. He was still only wearing pants after his transformation, and I could appreciate what I could see. I wonder if he did that on purpose to distract me, but that didn’t matter anymore. People on the ship were already moving, which was damn impressive, especially after I lost control for that moment.

I won’t blame myself for that moment; at least no one got killed. But all of this still sounds too fantastic—a dungeon that’s somehow free and has enough influence before platinum rank, and sensible enough to send out these creatures to gather more resources for him. All of this sounds kind of familiar, similar to stories from one of the grand elders when I was still young.

Stories of dungeons spreading their influence, claiming territory, and building civilizations. All of that happened in the Second Age—the Age of Monsters. To my knowledge, that was the best age for dungeons; it was when they were the freest and most respected. Things have gone downhill for them after that.

“Contact Father. We need to inform him about the situation, and we need a way for him to communicate with Ismael,” I heard Rafe say to what I believe was the captain. They were deep in the ship, where they thought that I couldn’t overhear them. Silly little creatures.

Those rings that they wore—and some were even hidden under the skin—were quite excellent at keeping the secret of their real bodies. It kind of smells like Pixie magic, which is weird. The world might have changed more than I expected, but I don’t believe those creatures would ever work with a dungeon they didn’t fully control. Another mistake of my race was to have dungeons make that race.

It’s still hard for me to comprehend how arrogant they must have been, and because of that, our race has become nothing more than a farmable resource. I noticed that they activated some magic.

It was so obscured that even I couldn’t pick up on what they were saying, which surprised me. It was at least good to see that they seemed competent. What a disappointment it would have been if I had to hide their communication so we could keep our location hidden.

That reminded me of the drain on my body. Keeping this damn darkness powered made me so weak. Even then I was never really that good at fighting to begin with—there's a reason why they called me ‘the hidden’—because the only way I could survive, especially later in the last age when the heroes had reached such strength, that even the strongest Dragons could no longer simply take what they wanted.

I still remember every time I had to hide whenever my father was close by, as he thought me a weakling who didn’t deserve to be alive. That’s the only death of our kind celebrated when the heroes finally got him.

I was distracted when I noticed that the people on the ship seemed to be starting to build something on the island. So, it’ll take some time before I can communicate with that dungeon. I guess that’s fine.

All of the people on the ship seemed quite competent. I know that Rafe said this dungeon had whole worlds, and I know how big some dungeons can get, but this was still unbelievable. Could there really be a whole world where we Dragons could once again live without the worry of being wiped out? That would be the best-case scenario, but even if it was a small place, it might still be preferable to have some Dragons in that dungeon.

The safest place when a dungeon reaches the limit of this world is to be inside or around that dungeon—it’s like the eye of the storm. The further out you are, the more likely you are to simply die from the changing of the land and the disasters that come from it. This world has gotten bigger every time, but if this dungeon is already so big, I wondered how big this world would become if that dungeon made it to the limit.

During the end of the last age, when the most powerful heroes were all near or in the dungeon that was going to break the limit, they would have never guessed that I was amongst them.

They had been so hopeful that the menace of the Dragons would be over, but since I was so close when this dungeon broke through, it made it so that in this new world there were some natural-born Dragons as well. Unfortunately, most of them died quite quickly when the heroes found that out.

I, however, had a plan. I moved fast away from the people who were from the old world. For a brief time, they weren’t the strongest on the planet, and I did try to hunt and get stronger faster than them, but I failed.

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So, once again, the best plan was to stay hidden and create a fake magical disaster in a place where there were many dragons, creating this darkness to keep them hidden. That was the best I could do for my race, at least up to this point.

It looks like this is going to take even longer than I expected, so while they build their device, it’s time to sink into the blackness once again. My mind expanded as I connected deeply with my blackness spell, allowing me to sense everything inside it.

It took me a bit of time, but I noticed some commotion on Dragon's Feast Island, as the adventurers called it. It seems that they had found the wreckage of a ship that was named and looked quite similar to the one I was looking at, which was still completely whole.

That’s some excellent spy craft. That dungeon sure seemed to have made some capable individuals. Just thinking about Rafe and how he looked in dragon form was distracting in more ways than one—simply the power of that body was exquisite.

As time went on, he got even more body parts, as I believed that was his talent—taking parts of other creatures and making them his own. That’s just simply scary on its own, but he will get to diamond rank eventually, and that's even scarier.

It took them almost a week before Rafe climbed on top of the cliff once again, this time fully clothed, unfortunately. "We would like to ask for your help. The miniature gateway is ready, but we need your help to keep its activation hidden. We presume that you can communicate with dungeons as you wanted to speak with him—this should allow you to do that."

I gave him a head nod and stood up. It was novel walking like this once again. It’s been quite a while since I was in human form. I didn’t like it much, but it was different, which was nice.

The gateway should only be possible inside the dungeon as they have full control of that area of space, allowing for teleportation that is incredibly simple, even over long distances, at least relative to the inside of those dungeons.

For it to be able to do something like this, it's time to stop underestimating whoever this dungeon is and just assume he is equal to or even greater than all the dungeons before him, even during their golden age.

The dungeon language is quite complex, but there are spells to help you understand it better without being contracted to its creatures or bonded to it—if that's even still possible. The ship was a marvel of engineering, and like all dragons, we appreciated the intricacies it takes to make stuff like this.

Near it was quite a large device, taking up a large portion of the central area of the clearing. For its size, however, the gateway entrance seemed no bigger than my head in this form. I prepared my magic and supported it with a few skills to make sure that not a scrap of any energy, mana, or anything else could escape from this area. "You can activate it now, it’s safe."

My words prompted a lot of actions. One of the creatures even dropped a few blood drops on a certain crystal that sizzled away almost immediately. Then I witnessed one of the more unique phenomena I had ever seen. It seems that this device was nothing more than a way to keep hidden what was happening and so the dungeon could have a pinpoint location on where to connect.

In the center, where the head-sized circle was, a new gateway took its place, slowly being built out. I was so fixated that I almost lost control of the concealment spell I had crafted. That took a lot of concentration to keep right, but that gateway was so marvelous. I would be happy if I got the chance to study this gateway for a few thousand years to learn its secrets.

It took about an hour to finish, but then the connection happened. There was a bigger delay for the connection than I expected, and there was the presence of the world that I felt for a moment. Curious.

Well, let’s see how well this dungeon can communicate. I extended my hand into the gateway and felt it in another place that was definitely a dungeon. Then I weaved the spells I needed to understand a dungeon.

“I don’t seem to be able to communicate with him. What did he say about… wait, I think I can feel his presence.” Came a voice that felt like a young adult male, but had way too much wisdom for his age.

“Is this Ismael? Can you hear me?” it asked. Well, now I believed the claim that he’s been sentient ever since his birth. He almost sounds like a regular person, something it takes dragons a few centuries to achieve.

“Yes, I can hear you. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I replied, but he interrupted me before I could continue.

“The way you communicate is interesting. I am known to many as Father, but to the wider world I am a dungeon called Eternal Training Ground, or ETG for short. Refer to me any way you wish. Can I simply call you Ismael?” Eternal Training Ground... what an interesting name.

“Yes, ETG, Ismael is perfectly fine. I understand that you have an offer to make me—something I would be quite interested in, I believe—but first, tell me about yourself. Tell me why you live.” This time there was a long pause before he communicated again.

“To build worlds, to watch life that lives there succeed in their own unique ways—that is the thing I enjoy the most. Also, giving others the opportunity to get stronger if they are willing to put in the work. Now, Ismael, tell me what you are scared of the most in this world?”

His question took me aback. Why would he ask something like that? Immediately, I put up my guards. Was this a ploy to get leverage over me? What was the angle? It didn't matter much in the end.

“Of my race disappearing—that's what scares me the most. We certainly aren’t perfect, most are arrogant beyond all means, yet I still wouldn’t want them to die out.”

“Seems like they might need someone to lead them down the right path. To train them to be better than their instincts. I believe that you and I could make quite an interesting world for your race to inhabit and to make sure that most don't become arrogant beyond all means, as you say.”

“The only question remaining is how tightly you want to be associated with me. Because if you so wish, I could bring as many dragons into my dungeon as you want. It would only require some work and resources on your part, and of course, to keep my involvement a secret so no one would ever find out what really happened until it's too late.”

As a sales pitch, that was one of the best I’ve heard. Good thing I decided not to underestimate this dungeon. Perhaps the old me, who wasn’t so guarded, would have accepted that immediately. There was a confidence in his voice that simply made you want to accept and understand his words, but it was time to get further into the details.

“I will give you a tentative agreement, but first, there are still many things I need clarification on.” I felt satisfaction coming from our communication bond. This was going to be fun, even if most likely, my entire race's survival hung in the balance.