Meera and Kalrina hid in a mostly broken house. Luckily, it was clean enough, or as clean as it could be, considering their situation. They had come out of a sewer pipe not too far from here. Kalrina had explained that this was not a nice part of town even before the dragons descended. Unfortunately, they were stuck here until nightfall, and as it so happened, nightfall was a long way away.
The sun shone brightly in the sky, and Meera could finally get a better view of the city. They were on the second floor, which, as Kalrina said, was rare for this part of town. The more Meera scanned this place, the more she could tell it was beautiful once. Sprawling buildings and statues had adorned the city streets, which had all but melted or crushed to dust. Charred and mauled corpses littered the ground. There was a small hill to the east where the Sootscale Dragonling had flown to, and Meera did not like what she saw.
Dragons upon Dragons littered the place. Some basked in the sunlight on rooftops. Others moved about and looked to be talking to each other. Unfortunately, they were too far away for her to use Identify on them. Their scales were of a myriad of colors. Some had only one shade, some had multicolored scales that looked so beautiful, and most, but not all, had lighter undersides.
Then, there was one who was clearly their leader. This dragon sat on this expansive building on the hilltop. It glowed in the sunlight. This dragon's scales resembled a tiger's coat, with stripes and a white underside. It even had sharp horns that looked like a crown.
Meera nudged Kalrina with her foot. "Who is the big one on that hill?"
Kalrina didn't even look out the window. "That is Ignis Sunbreath. The king of this lot, though dragons don't have a true monarchy. They follow strength. Whoever is the strongest becomes the leader, and he's the strongest one around for a thousand miles. If I had to put my money on it, I would say he's not far from being an archdragon himself like his mother once was."
"His mother…" The gears turned in her head. Kalrina had mentioned to watch out for dragons on the road to the sorceresses. "He's Akhessai's son!"
Kalrina snorted lightly. "Took you long enough. He's the eldest. In fact, a lot of them are her children or grandchildren. Four hundred years ago, this city was nothing but a small town, dwelling under the shadow of the archdragon Akhessai, until Veridiana came."
Meera furrowed her brow, trying to remember. "She was the one who killed Akhessai and formed the sisterhood of sorceresses, right?"
Kalrina paused to look at her. "How did you know that?"
"You told me, but I guess you don't remember that. You also told me that Akhessai's children, meaning them." Meera waved to the dragons on the hill. "They've never forgiven the sorceresses for making Akhessai's body their home. But the last dragon I fought exploded after death, so how did this Veridiana make an archdragon's body her home?"
Kalrina smirked. "By petrifying her body before she died."
As she said it, Meera remembered Kalrina had told her this. But there was one thing that Meera found odd.
"If they're mother and son, why are their names so different?" Meera asked. "Ignis Sunbreath, I can understand and even guess that he's a fire dragon, but Akhessai doesn't tell me anything. Other than that, it's probably from an entirely different language."
Kalrina smiled. "You know, you've surprised me, dearie. You do have a brain behind that pretty face of yours."
Meera gave her a blank stare. "Are you going to give me an answer?"
The sorceress chuckled. "Of course, love. Just having a bit of fun. You're right about it being two different languages. All dragons have two names—one they give to the world and one they keep secret. Scholars call it a worldly name and a true name. Take Ignis's mother, for example, Akhessai was her true name. Her worldly name was Agniaz Dawnbringer. The whole reason Veridiana was able to kill Akhessai was because she learned the archdragon's true name. Though, she never told us how or where she learned it from."
Meera frowned. "Learning a dragon's true name would make that much of a difference?"
"Oh, it makes a world's worth of a difference. You've fought a dragonling before and were only about a hundred levels lower than it. If you knew that dragonling's true name, you could've made it dance to your tune."
Meera sat up straight. "Really?"
The witch nodded. "But the greater the difference between your levels, the harder it would be. If you somehow learned Ignis's true name, I would say you could probably hold him in a trance for maybe half a minute. Probably less. But that is sometimes enough to make a difference."
"Is that how Veridiana turned Akhessai to stone?"
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Kalrina nodded. "Aye, love. Killing their mother, the dragons could have forgiven eventually, but using her true name as the name of the sisterhood was adding salt to injury. So, don't utter Akhessai's name if a dragon confronts us. They tend to become irrational and downright unhinged."
"Noted." Meera watched the sun dip towards the western sky, but it was only late afternoon. They still had a long wait remaining. Neither talked much in their tense climb out of the sewers because they didn't want to run into another Drake. She hadn't gotten the chance to look at her notifications and, most of all, what skill she had stolen from the Drake.
*ding!*
[Your party has killed Drakasaros – Level 464. You have gained partial experience. For killing an opponent a hundred levels higher than your own, you have gained bonus experience.]
Meera would be lying if that partial experience didn't sting. She had killed the thing, but how was she to know that it would come back to life to take one final potshot at her?
*ding!*
[Congratulation. The Shadow Image has gained 5 levels and reached Level 357. You have been awarded 15 stat points]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Mirror's Affinity has gained 2 levels and reached Level 249. All of your mirror-based attacks will get a 253% boost.]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Spectral Dominion has gained 5 levels and reached Level 33]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Death Mark has gained 3 levels and reached Level 75]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Smoke Eclipse has gained 3 levels and reached Level 4]
*ding!*
[Congratulations. Shadow Affinity has gained 3 and reached Level 109. All of your shadow-based attacks will get a 112% boost.]
*ding!*
[Class Ability Activated. You have stolen the skill Toxic Breath. Toxic Breath – Type: Active. You can exhale a cloud of toxic gas that poisons anything caught within its range. Would you like to acquire this skill?]
*ding!*
[Class Ability Activated. You have stolen the skill Venomous Regeneration. Venomous Regeneration – Type: Passive. You can consume poison or poisonous materials to regenerate from wounds. Each drop of poison enhances your regenerative abilities. Would you like to acquire this skill?]
Yes, I think I'm good. Was Meera's first thought, but she decided to give it some thought, as she had nothing better to do. Venomous Regeneration was too situational, and it wasn't like she was carrying around vials of poison for her to swallow. Besides, she had Vitalize, which could do everything this skill could do. Not to mention, there was Nightstalker Bindings as well.
Toxic Breath was nice, but the only skill that she could think of giving up for it was Petrifying Surge, which was handy in a challenging situation. She had petrified her enemies in a tough spot to gain those crucial seconds. It was a tough choice between this and Toxic Breath, but in the end, she ended up giving up the chance to acquire Toxic Breath.
She put half her stat points into Focus for more Mana and the other half into Constitution. With that, she was all caught up on everything. Now, what do I do?
It wasn't like these worlds had the internet, or, for that matter, her phone didn't have any battery remaining, so she could waste time on social media. She didn't even have any books shoved into her Belt, something she would rectify soon. That only left talking to the witch, and she was in no mood to rip out her hair in annoyance. So, she stayed quiet and surveyed the dead city.
But she didn't have to stay bored for long as she noticed someone coming down the street. He jumped from the shadow of one building to another, trying his best to avoid being spotted by the dragons.
"What the…Hey, witch, someone's coming," Meera said.
Kalrina turned to look out the massive window. "Now, who is crazy enough to be walking about in broad daylight, aside from us, of course."
Meera zoomed in on the man. He wore dirty, tattered clothing, and his face was covered with soot and ash. His overall looks were nothing special—just a regular man you could find anywhere in these worlds. Something told Meera she'd seen him before.
She zoomed in on him and used Identify.
[Frostweaver – Level 411]
Meera raised an eyebrow at his level and glanced at Kalrina, who must've done the same. She, too, was surprised to find someone so powerful lurking about here.
"Damn, he's strong," Meera said.
"Honestly, he's about average for one of the stronger guards of this city, though they're probably all dead now," Kalrina replied.
"Did they have any ice mages?"
"Oh, yes, elementals of all sorts made up their ranks. I mean, look at that hunk, Leo. He's an earth elemental of sorts."
"What's Leonel's level?" Meera asked.
"613, but then he is the captain of the guard," Kalrina said. "The Protector of Drurith. The one who single-handedly held off a horde of dragons so all those people could make it down to the Underground City."
Meera took a moment to process that information. It made sense why that dragon ran from him. She motioned to the Frostweaver. "Is this guy trustworthy?"
"In this town, anything without scales is trustworthy in my book."
Kalrina jumped out the window and quietly beckoned the guy towards their building. Meera wanted to slap the illusion of the witch's face for making a move. But with no other option, she watched the skies above and the hill, hoping no dragon had seen the crazy witch.
It didn't take long for the Frostweaver to reach their building. He huffed and panted as he wiped the sweat off his brow. Kalrina ushered him in, and Meera descended the stairs to meet them.
"Oh, thank goodness, I made it here without causing any trouble," he huffed. "I saw you two hiding out here and decided to take a risk and reach you."
"Who are you, O brave one?" Kalrina asked, her voice emulating a theatre actor. It was so bad that Meera wanted to barf.
"I was a city guard before all this. When the dragons came, I hid in one district or another. Recently, I've been trying to get out of the city and make for the safer passes in the forest. Then onwards to another city or a village far from here."
"How fortunate," Kalrina said. "We've been planning the same as well. I am Kalrina."
"Meera."
"I am Lainor. I'm so happy to have met you both."