The pouch was a bit of a disappointment to Ander. It held stuff Ander assumed was food, though it didn’t look like any food he had ever seen, along with other daily necessities. There was plenty of spidersilk clothing, which would be worth some good money once he got out of the pit. Other than that, there was nothing besides the pouch itself. Ander removed the key from the belt of the shade and tried to store it in his inventory, but for some reason it wouldn’t go, no matter what he tried. He was forced to leave it in his pocket, which felt odd as he hadn’t needed to use pockets for quite some time.

But now, it was a serious question whether or not to abandon his current objective and go to the treasure room. There was good loot, but abandoning the quest would bring him into a straight up conflict with Sir Mattheos he didn’t feel ready for. Another week and maybe, but he didn’t have that time. He would continue with the egg quest for now. There should be plenty of opportunities in between bouts in the tournament to get the treasure room.

On another note, fighting the shade had been exactly what Ander had needed.

Congratulations! You have Levelled up!

You are now level 40!

+15 Strength

+30 Dexterity

+30 Agility

+6 Conductivity

+18 Wisdom

+6 Regeneration

+3 Beauty

+6 Presence

+60 Free Points

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Ander split his free points between strength and dexterity. He did want to focus more on wisdom, but he wouldn’t be able to use a lot of his abilities in the upcoming fights so Strength and Dexterity would be more helpful.

An extra three levels were exactly what he needed to get himself back in front of the curve, and Ander was immediately back to killing his way down the floors. It took the rest of the day and most of the next, but Ander made his way down to the 32nd floor. It was odd, as the city sights ended abruptly at level 30, leaving him in old mines that seemed to extend forever. But he was still able to descend.

It was not obvious when he arrived at level 32. He mostly just saw more mineshafts. But there was something different. There were claw marks all over the walls and support structures. He was not made to wonder long as a heavily scaled lizard came around a corner. It was big, too big for the tunnels, and had to drag itself along on its belly. Still it somehow managed to be fast. All Ander was presented with was a massive pair of jaws not unlike that of a crocodile.

Ander threw a concussive fireball, letting it blast him back on the wave of wind as it exploded in the lizard’s mouth. It did surprisingly little damage, but managed to stun the creature for a time. It was long enough for Ander to produce his spear and ram it through the creature’s eye.

With the creature dead, Ander was able to get a better look at it. It had heavy overlapping scales, and a long toothy snout. What seemed like a crocodile snout was nothing like what Ander had thought. It was long, but it had a long line of serrated fangs that would cut and snap anything they bit down on. Crocodiles' mouths were made to grab and hold, not so these teeth. But the really bizarre thing were the two withered wings atop it’s back.

Ander stared at them for a good 10 minutes. Had he really just killed a dragon? It had not tried to breathe fire at him, but it did look the part. Ander stored it in his inventory and moved forward. Ander was forced to dispatch a number more of the creatures with the withered wings, and each one went into his storage for eating later. The one good thing about finding these creatures was that he could trace them back to where they came from.

The egg forest was pretty incredible. Clusters of eggs by the hundred littered the floor of a giant chamber covered with natural growing crystals all along the walls and ceiling. The room was beautiful, but Ander wanted only one thing. He saw an egg in the middle of the room that was broken open and hollow. That should be good enough to get Sir Mattheos off his back. No dragon taming for Sir Mattheos. Ander made his way to the broken egg carefully, being sure to stay hidden, and then taking the egg into his inventory. He then made a dash for the tunnels, storing every egg he could touch along the way.

There was a roar so loud it caused crystals to break free and fall to the ground. Out of a hollow on the opposite side of the room stood a Dragon.