Ergo found himself being jerked back to consciousness an hour later; having dozed off from an information hangover. Naturally it was the movements of the adventurers that woke him; specifically them reaching the third floor.
“Did I miss anything interesting?” He asked Crys with a telepathic grumble.
Ergo received a mental shrug in response. “Not really. Ever since they rested earlier, they’ve been going pretty much nonstop. I think they’ve gained something like twenty levels already. They must have a really high prestige rank.”
Not responding, Ergo watched the adventurers as they casually waded through the slimes. Being the bottom floor, the slimes this time were almost exclusively dragon slimes; the strongest that were available to Crys. Even so, the adventurers had no trouble clearing them as they progressed through the dungeon. Ergo found himself thinking they would make a fine addition to his stomach before he caught himself and slumped dejectedly into his bed. Even if he truly wanted to kill them, by this point they were far too strong.
Ergo blew an irritated stream of fire into the pile of dragon scales that made up his bed. Naturally, this had no effect on the fire-resistant materials, and after a few seconds he settled in again to watch the intruders.
“Man, this poor thing must’ve spawned really deep into this hill. Imagine how long it’s been building up? It’s even managed to evolve dragon slimes! Can you imagine how long that must’ve taken without a dragon around?” Ameline asked wistfully as she popped one like a balloon with her warhammer.
"Who's to say there isn't a dragon around?" Rickard asked grimly as he shot an arrow that passed through a slime core and out the other side; redirecting itself in midair to strike a second slime.
Ameline frowned. "That wouldn't make sense though. The dungeon only just breached the surface. There's no way a dragon has had time to get in here."
Rickard shrugged. "Stranger things have happened."
Ameline shook her head but looked pensive. "I really hope there isnt a dragon here. I'd hate to have to hurt it."
In his small cavern, Ergo's eye twitched. Being pitied and looked down was a new experience. He suppressed the urge to leave his hiding place to roar majestically at the ignorant human. This decision was made after he made a practice growl; producing only a high pitched squeaking sound.
"Please dont do that again. It's too adorable. My crystal cant take it." Crys gushed.
"Don't even start with that." Ergo replied; his telepathic voice expressing a much more convincing growling noise than his throat had.
Crys remained unintimidated. "Hey don't blame me for stating a fact."
Ergo huffed a puff of flame, but didn’t reply; tuning out the dungeon core by watching the adventurers again. They had already reached the chamber in front of Crys’s core room. In front of them was a single, massive dragon slime. Ergo cocked his head at it, fascinated.
“What is this slime?” Ergo asked.
Crys sighed in shame. “That’s the boss monster. Every dungeon gets one per floor. I didn’t really see the point with the other floors because I only have two types of monster right now, and I don’t want to waste the mana making a regular slime into a boss monster.”
Ergo nodded, not asking any further questions as he watched the adventurers tear into the dragon slime. This time the fight wasn’t entirely one-sided; the slime firing gouts of flame that singed Ameline’s tunic.
She growled in irritation at the damage. “I’m going to kill that tailor. I specifically told him not to cheap out on the materials.”
Rickard snorted. “I told you not to trust him. He’s a were-rabbit.”
Ameline shot him a look. “Stop being racist. This has nothing to do with him being a were, and everything to do with him being a cheap prick.”
Rickard rolled his eyes at her, but re-focused on firing his bow; empowering the arrows with a blue glow that caused the arrows to leave patches of frost on the slime’s scales. Every time an arrow landed, Ameline drove her hammer into the frozen area; causing large chunks of solid matter to fall from the slime’s body rather than splattering its goo.
“Seriously though, what do you think I should do? If this thing can cause damage to my new tunic, then I clearly got cheated. I spent an entire extra gold for the durability fortification enchantment!” Ameline whined in between grunting as she swung her hammer.
“Did you sign a contract or agreement to that effect?” Rickard asked, licking his lips in concentration as he continued firing arrows.
“No…” Ameline moaned dejectedly.
“So you have no paperwork indicating the extra costs?” Rickard asked calmly.
“No…” Ameline almost faltered in her swing as she said it.
“Did you even get a receipt?” Rickard sighed.
Ameline growled, and increased the tempo of her swings.
“Remind me why I married you?” Rickard asked.
“You like the way my ass looks in leather.” Ameline replied without looking back at him.
The man nodded, observing the mentioned body part as he continued firing his bow; aiming perfectly despite his distraction. “Fair enough. I think I’ll keep you.” Rickard answered dryly.
“You better. I need my daily dose of compliments.” Ameline growled.
Rickard smiled warmly, but didn’t respond; instead focusing on overcharging an arrow. The process lasted several seconds, and by the end the arrow was vibrating on the string; fully covered in a cold blue glow. Licking his lips again, Rickard released the arrow; which impacted the slime in an explosion of frost. Almost the entire left half of the slime was flash-frozen; Ameline shattering the whole frozen part with a single swing of her hammer. This left a portion of the core exposed. Before the remaining mass could reform around the core, Rickard pierced it with an arrow. The slime jiggled, seemingly in confusion, for several seconds before dissolving into a pile of gooey scales.
Ameline picked up one of the scales. “You think these are worth anything?”
Rickard nodded. “Probably. I’m sure there are alchemists or smiths who would love to get their hands on them.”
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Ameline nodded. “I suppose we should have grabbed the scales off the smaller ones when we came through.”
Rickard shrugged. “Better to grab them later than be weighed down in a fight.”
Ameline said nothing as she began shoving scales into her pack. While she was doing this, Rickard stuck his head into the core room. He waved casually at the core, scanned the room, and came inside.
“Hello there.” Rickard said amiably, his entire demeanor changing from what it had been over the course of the dungeon dive.
“Hello human.” Crys replied neutrally.
Rickard smiled politely. “We’ve come as representatives of the empire. According to imperial law, new dungeon cores are considered citizens of the empire. Will you submit yourself to our laws?”
“What is my alternative?” Crys asked coldly.
Rickard frowned. “Probably either death or being subject to experimentation by our mages. I won’t lie to you, the empire doesn’t look fondly on unattached dungeons in its territory.”
Crys sighed mentally. “Does citizenship afford me any rights?”
Rickard’s diplomatic smile returned. “So long as you are a citizen, your life is guaranteed. Smashing, or damaging a core without permission is a capital offense. We won’t dictate your growth or composition either, so long as it doesn’t infringe on the territory of a legally recognized farm, village, town, city, or other human dwelling. Finally, you receive all the rights afforded to a normal human citizen. A lot of these are likely irrelevant to you, such as freedom of movement, but you have them regardless. Finally you will receive a handful of free basic templates, including currency. Admittedly though, those are mostly to give you loot templates for our own benefit.”
“And what do you expect in return?”
Rickard nodded slowly. “You will restock your supply of monsters in a timely manner. A reasonable number of monsters will drop a reasonable quantity, and quality of loot relative to their difficulty level. You should have access to the information through the wiki, but just in case, you can request the official guidelines in writing if you wish. Traps are allowed, but must either be avoidable if detected, nonlethal, attached to some kind of puzzle that deactivates them, or of reasonable difficulty to disarm relative to the difficulty of the floor. Again, you can request exact guidelines in writing. All rooms must be somehow accessible by a person of human size, and build. This includes the core room. Though between you and me, as long as there’s a route to the core room, and the floors are decently large, no one will care if you have a few rooms to yourself. Finally, any attempt to plot against the empire, or local government in a political, or military sense will be grounds for termination. Any such accusations will be judged by an impartial panel of imperial judges.”
Crys sighed again. “I suppose I have no choice. I accept your terms. What are your rules about dungeons keeping… pets?”
Ergo froze, and growled at Crys telepathically, but Crys ignored him. Rickard’s face broke out into confusion for a second before realization dawned. “Oh, the dragon right? I knew you couldn’t have just evolved those slimes naturally.” Rickard smiled and tapped the side of his nose conspiratorially. “As long as you keep it away from the adventurers, no one will try to kill it.”
“I am not your pet.” Ergo growled at Crys.
“Shut up, I’m trying to help you here. Gods know why under the circumstances, but I’d rather you didn’t die.” Crys retorted before focusing on Rickard.
“Is there any way to allow him freedom of movement without danger of attack? I feel confident he wouldn’t be a danger to anyone unless they threatened him.” Crys asked neutrally.
Rickard frowned. “How can you be sure? Dragons are vicious, mindless beasts.”
Crys mulled over his response before deciding to gamble. “He’s sentient. Intelligent actually.”
Rickard froze. “A… fully sentient dragon? I…” Rickard sighed. “Has he ever murdered, or endangered any citizen of the empire?”
Ergo gave in to the flow of the conversation. “Does self-defense count?” He sent directly to Rickard telepathically.
Rickard looked around for a moment before adapting to the new voice. “If you were truly defending yourself, then there shouldn’t be any issues. It’s not unheard of for monsters to develop sentience as a function of leveling, or a random magical mutation. The empire recognizes such entities as eligible for citizenship. You’ll essentially be given the same rights as any human. I assume you have a humanoid form in addition to your natural one?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re classified as a were-dragon. I can process your citizenship today if you want, alongside the dungeon core’s. All I need are your names.”
“Crys.” Crys replied.
Ergo sighed as he fully gave in to his fate. “Ergon Proudscale, but I prefer to be called Ergo.”
Rickard nodded as he pulled out a notepad, writing down the names.
“Before we go, may I see you Ergo?” Rickard asked politely.
Ergo grumbled to himself, but stood up; shaking like a wet dog to wake up his muscles. Padding briskly to the entrance, Crys coughed awkwardly. “I didn’t install an exit panel.”
Ergo turned his head to glare at him with one irritated eye.
“What? I didn’t have time.” Crys said. Ergo shook his head, but didn’t berate Crys. Instead, he simply tunneled through the intervening feet of stone.
“Interesting. A dragonling. May I see your human form?” Rickard asked calmly.
Ergo paused as he realized he didn’t quite know how to transform, but simply focusing on the transformation while investing a mild quantity of mana produced results. The transformation was slow, until an increase to the mana investment sped up the process. When it finished, he had the appearance of a reptilian ten year old boy with red and orange scales. He felt disoriented and nearly fell; unaccustomed to both bipedal movement, and forward-facing vision.
“Good. I recommend you use this form whenever you interact with humans. Otherwise, they’re liable to kill you on sight.” Rickard informed him, nodding. Suddenly, he coughed. "Also, you might want to invest in some clothes."
It was at this moment that Ameline wandered in through the doorway. “Hey Rickard, what’s taking so… OH MY GOD HE’S SO CUTE!” She screamed running up to Ergo. Squealing, she scooped him up into her arms; twirling him around vigorously. Ergo squirmed, and fought, but even the sharp talon-like nails on his fingers failed to dislodge her. In fact they failed to penetrate her skin as well, which was somewhat concerning to Ergo.
“Unhand me human!” Ergo roared verbally, the noise coming out as a high-pitched squeaking sound.
Rickard sighed, striding calmly over to his wife. With all of his strength, Rickard slapped her butt. Ameline froze for a moment; long enough for Ergo to squirm out of her grasp.
Ameline sighed contentedly a moment later. “Sorry, I got carried away.” She muttered sheepishly.
“I am not cute human. I am a proud dragon. I am no one’s pet. I am a predator, not a plaything.” Ergo huffed indignantly. Ergo’s huff emitted a puff of fire that left another singe-mark on Ameline’s tunic. Ameline smiled indulgently down on him, and patted his head.
“Of course kid, of course. My mistake.” Standing back to her full height, Ameline stepped back; looking to Rickard, who nodded.
“That’s it then. We will be back within a week with your official citizenship papers.” Rickard said, dropping back into his diplomatic demeanor.
Ergo nodded, and the pair of adventurers turned around; Ameline just now noticing the new singe-mark on her tunic. “I swear I’m going to kill that tailor.” She muttered, following Rickard out of the core room.
-----------------------------------------
Three days later.
A knock on his door caused Archmage Keller to look up wearily from the mountain of paperwork in front of him. The death of the cook, and damage to his imperial stronghold had caused no end of headaches.
“Enter.” Keller called.
A man in black leather armor entered the room. “Sir, we have a lead on the dragonling.”
“Indeed? What have you found?” Keller asked, perking up at the opportunity to enact vengeance.
“A sentient dragon was just registered by a dungeon census. So far, he’s been granted full citizenship by the census-taker.”
Keller’s eyes narrowed. “Fascinating. Go investigate, but don’t engage the creature. My enemies would jump on the chance to accuse me of murder, even if it is a were-citizen.”
The man in black nodded, and walked out of the room. Once he was gone, Keller steepled his hands; imagining eviscerating the offending creature, only to magically heal it, and eviscerate it again. “I will get you back for humiliating me in front of the emperor.” He muttered.