Ray held perfectly still, his back against the concrete wall in the center of the seventh floor. The Orkin and Goblins were mimicking him perfectly, none of them daring to even breathe hard.
The clearing of the floors went well, resulting in two more Leach-Light Lamprey deaths. Each death gave them the same number of resources, an additional core, and dissolved the slimy floor slick that the creatures seemed to live on
Then they hit floor seven.
The creature on floor seven was a winged reptile. A huge, winged, reptile. He wasn’t going to use the D word, but it was damn close. Far too close for comfort. Ray hadn’t been able to identify it at first, but after some quiet observation, he got an answer;
{AETHER DRAKE}
That simple action woke the damn thing up. It had some kind of hypersensitivity to the environment around it. That included, apparently, any use of skills or abilities. The beast had obliterated what little cover there was on the floor as the group scrambled to find cover, and while it hadn’t utilized any abilities yet Ray was sure it had some seriously powerful ones.
The game of cat and mouse persisted for nearly an hour before both sides found themselves in a standoff. Ray and his group on one side of the central concrete pillar of the building, just around the corner from the exit, and the Aether Drake on the other. Guarding said exit.
The stalemate had lasted for upwards of ten minutes, or so Ray had thought when the creature shocked them all. It spoke.
“Little, little humaaaans,” it said in a sing-song voice. “Come out and play little humaaaans.”
Ray cleared his throat, “I really don’t want to. But say, how about we just leave and you can keep this floor all to your lonesome.”
A burst of hot putrid air wafted around the corner, and Ray swore it had chuckled. “You come into my home. Wake me from my slumber. And then ask to leave?” it chortled. “Oh no, my small, pink, and tasty friend. You are breakfast.”
“Uh… it's not though,” Ray said, failing to come up with a response.
The silence was nearly deafening.
“Not… what little humaaaan?” the voice asked curiously.
“Not your home. I mean, you’re sleeping here, sure, but you have nothing here. No… stuff,” Ray pointed out. “Besides, I’m sure this place is hardly large enough for you. You seem a bit… cramped.”
And it was true. The Aether Drake was packed into a floor meant for people. Or at least, human-like people or smaller. The Aether Drake must have been fifteen feet tall at its lowest height and was only barely packed between the roof and the floor of the office building.
The silence stretched, but unlike the previous consideration by the beast this one almost seemed thoughtful. After a while, it spoke again;
“Interesting. You make a valid point,” the creature conceded. “But my point remains. I hunger.”
Thinking quickly, Ray opened his storage room and stepped through. As fast as he could he grabbed every bit of meat, food, and water he had available and shoved it out of the portal. Even as he stepped back out he heard the Drake questioning what he was doing.
“Well, you talk. That means you are quite a bit smarter than the mindless monsters we’ve run into so far Mr. Drake,” Ray began, “So it stands to reason that we can… reason through this misunderstanding.”
Silence followed the statement. A long silence. Then chuffing. Deep, belly chuffing that rapidly developed into roaring laughter. Ray narrowed his eyes as the Drake lost its shit at his attempt to negotiate with it for their lives. After several minutes, it calmed down enough to speak again.
“Reason through this misunderstanding? You, my little tasty human friend, are hilarious,” it said, still chuckling. “Would you negotiate with a food animal if it wandered into your home? No. You wouldn’t. So Why would I extend the same courtesy to you?”
Ray nodded. It was a reasonable assumption. But he had one thing up his sleeve. Reaching into his storage, he pulled out his handgun. Focusing on it, the slide became so cold it nearly burned his hand. He quickly accepted the cost in Power, dropping a whopping fifteen points.
Gritting in pain, even as the others looked at him in confusion, he ground out, “If you don’t want to negotiate, I’m going to shoot you.”
“Shoot me?” the Drake asked questioningly. “Shoot me? You?” it repeated in confusion. “I don’t think you understand. My scales are harder than steel. I wouldn’t even feel a normal arrow. Ballista bolts might cause me some-“
Ray popped around the corner, lifted the pistol, and pulled the trigger.
The entire floor on that side of the building went from mild apocalyptic warm to frozen hellscape in an instant. The furious storm filled in the empty space, covering the Drake in thick layers of frost and ice and locking it into place. For the first time, Ray got a good look at the beast, its eyes bulging in place as it struggled to move.
It was huge. Black scales glinted in the afternoon sunlight coming in through the windows. A long tail, a pair of huge wings flooded tightly against its body, and four legs with claws long enough to tear a man in half. The thick scaled neck had a head on the end with a pair of horns sweeping back from the base of the skull. The creature's deep purple eyes accented a face with a mouth large enough to swallow most of a man whole.
All in all, Ray would say it was beautiful. Dangerously so.
“What? What is this? Let me out!” it roared, its maw moving just barely enough to talk with a heavy lisp. “Let me go!”
Ray chuckled and pulled out his sword, walking slowly toward the large creature. The Drake began to panic.
“Hey now, come on. Let’s talk about this. Did I say food animal? I meant a fantastic animal! The greatest animal of all! Really!” it blabbered, practically crying. “Surely you can understand the predicament I was in. Something strange wanders into your… eep!”
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Its voice was cut off as Ray dropped the flat of the blade onto its nose. “So, Mr. Drake, there seems to have been a reverse of circumstances here,” Ray said, grinning evilly. Nyx came up behind him and sat on the floor, followed by the surviving Orkin and Goblins.
“Don’t torment the thing. Either kill it so we can move on, or use your ability on it,” Nyx said, casually observing the situation.
Ray blinked. “Ability?” he said, curiously, pulling up his stats. “Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I do have that one I haven’t tested out at all. Kinda hard to without any valid targets.”
The Drake, at this point, was practically crying. “I won’t hurt you, so please let me go. I can find another place to roost. Those undead aren’t tasty, but they feed me just fine. Please!” it begged.
Ray actually felt bad. A teeny tiny bit that is. He looked at the large winged creature in front of him, debating on his choices. He could kill it. Easily. A few swings of his blade should slice right through that long-scaled neck. On the other hand… a flying creature would make getting around easier. Much easier. It would also help in finding all of his people.
“Alrighty Mr. Drake, I am going to give you a choice,” Ray said, getting the creature's attention immediately. “I can’t let you go. Sorry, but you are an enemy. It's kill or be killed. No hard feelings,” he began holding up a hand to stave off the drakes whining. “But, I have a solution other than me killing you. I have an ability, {OATH OF FEALTY}. I have no idea what it does, but it binds your fate to me. Could be permanent. Could be temporary. I have no fucking clue. So, you can die, or become a member of my… group?”
The Drake stilled. Then it closed its eyes for a moment. With a deep sigh, it opened them and stared at Ray. “Fine. Better this than death. You said you have no idea what it does, just that it binds me to you?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Never used it before actually, never had a reason to.”
“What about those Goblin’s and Orkin?” the Drake wondered. “Or your canine companion?”
Ray gestured at the dog and his green companions respectively, “Nyx is my soul companion. The others I trust with my life,” he said watching the Orkin and Goblins swell with pride. “I have no reason to use it on anyone.”
“Fair enough,” the Drake said. “Use your ability. Then let's figure out what’s next.”
Ray nodded and pointed at the Drake, “{OATH OF FEALTY},” he said and immediately felt the outpouring of Power. His eyes widened as a list of options appeared before him.
{OATH OF FEALTY}
CONDITIONS MET
TARGET INCAPACITATED – TRUE
TARGET WILLING - TRUE
PERMANENT OATH – 50 POWER
50 YEAR OATH – 25 POWER
25 YEAR OATH – 13 POWER
10 YEAR OATH – 5 POWER
1 YEAR OATH – 1 POWER
“Woah,” he said while Nyx and the Drake looked at him questioningly. Explaining he said, “I got a ton of options for the ability.”
The Drake looked at him in confusion, “Options? Abilities shouldn’t give you options. They are abilities. You just use them,” it said haltingly.
“Not mine,” Ray said, choosing twenty-five years. “Your ass is mine for twenty-five years. We can renegotiate after that.”
A blast of Power exploded out from Ray as he was lifted several inches off the floor. The ice and snow were swept away, obliterated by the explosion of raw force. The Drake was free, even as the abilities manifested force wrapped around it and sunk into its body.
{OATH FORGED}
The creature gasped in surprise as it felt the energy sink into its very being. Then its stats appeared before Ray;
RIVSPLSEA THE REDEAMER
{RACE}
AETHER DRAKE
{CLASS}
CHROMATIC HOARDER
{CLASS GRADE}
RARE
{STAGE}
1
{LEVEL}
6
{STRENGTH}
15
{AGILITY}
18
{POWER}
40
{WISDOM}
22
{LUCK}
5
{ABILITIES}
FLIGHT
LIGHTNING BREATH
FIREBALL
SHIFT
“Wow, you’re actually pretty strong,” Ray said whistling. “Although with wings, shouldn’t flight be an inherent trait, not an ability? Also, I can’t pronounce your name. Rivplacia? Man, that’s hard.”
Stretching, the Drake spread its wings and shook the last bits of ice off of them before turning its attention to Ray. “First of all, flight is absolutely an ability. If it wasn’t, it would take a huge amount of energy and Power to get off the ground. Second, my name is Rivsplsea, but you can call me Rivea I suppose. If it’s easier.”
Then the Drake got down to eye level with Ray. Then it tried to bite him in half. Its maw smashed into an invisible barrier inches from his skin. He recoiled, throwing himself backward into a reverse somersault and coming back up to his feet.
“What the fuck was that?” he roared, pulling his blade out and pointing the gun at Rivea. “You just tried to bite me!”
The Drake shrugged, “Meh. I had to see what would happen. It was weird though, it was like I tried to bite through the side of a building. Can you really blame me for trying?”
“Yes,” Ray said immediately.
Rivea rolled her eyes, “Come on. At least hesitate a little. Jeeze,” she snorted. “Now that I’ve established I can’t even hurt you, what do I do now?”
Ray turned to the Orkin with the battleax, “Take the Goblins down to the first floor and wait for me. Make sure Derrick is doing alright and get any building materials we have organized. I don’t know how they will be used exactly, so just get them prepped.”
“You gotz it Boss,” the large green man grunted. He turned away and began organizing everyone for the return trip to the bottom floor. Nyx remained sitting on the floor next to him, watching with curiosity.
Ray returned his attention to his new companion. “Alrighty… Rivea. Here are my goals. First off, begin claiming the territory around us with the end goal of getting this Hex under our control. Second, and concurrently, work towards finding the lost members of my group. Third, but not least of all, build a foundation to reclaim most if not all of the planet.”
The Drake snorted at him. “Yeah, good luck with that last one. This entire world is one giant Relic World. I can see you controlling a portion of it, but widespread control would be impossible. It's too big, with too many monsters.”
“That’s for me to figure out, although any advice you have would be welcome. The task in front of me is… monumental. It won't happen fast, and it may not happen at all, but that’s my goal,” Ray said, admitting that what she had said was likely the truth.
Rivea sighed. “Well, I can’t help your long-term plans, but I can help you find any missing companions. I can also help fight. I’m pretty strong,” she said, puffing herself up a bit. Then the big Drakken leveled her gaze at him. “But I also have needs.”
“What kinds of needs,” Ray asked warily.
“Drakken powers scale when certain racial needs are met. For one I need a roost. A horde of treasure or items of power will increase my strength dramatically. Food is needed as well. I eat a lot, and monsters make a good meal. So, leaving any bodies alone instead of looting them will help out a lot.”
Ray blinked at that. “But don’t the bodies vanish? You can’t really cut them up and store them…” he said, trailing off.
She laughed. “Silly little human. If you don’t loot them then you can do whatever you want with the corpse. Cut them up, use them as food, use the parts for components, craft armor, and fertilizer. Whatever you want. Looting them, however, gives you the base minimum and returns the matter back to the System for whatever it uses it for.”
“That makes… a lot of sense actually,” he said slowly.
“Forgive Ray. He is a good person, I think, but a simpleton at the core. He can pursue his goals well enough, but understanding anything deep about the System is, frankly, beyond him,” Nyx said, licking on of her paws.
Ray stared at the canine. “Did you just call me stupid?” he said in a monotone.
“No. I just called you simple,” Nyx clarified. “Stick to killing stuff and strategizing. If you get bogged down in the technical details you won’t progress. That means I won’t progress. Delegate those tasks so that we can move forward toward the goals you just laid out. Achieving those goals will mean a serious increase in power for ourselves.”
“She’s not wrong you know,” Rivea said, “I would listen to the dog. She knows her stuff… well she knows her stuff about you at the very least. I would continue to focus on what you can do and listen to others' advice on what you don’t know. But don’t go plumbing the universe for knowledge, it seems that will only serve to distract you.”
Ray understood what they were telling him. Simply put, he should stay in his lane. Straying from it will only distract him. He needs to focus on what he can do and learn how to do it better. A good first step would be claiming the building.
He focused on the building and activated his {CLAIM} ability. The System gave him the green light, so he hit accept.
Then he vanished.