***** PoV: Arthur “Necrosbane” Boateng *****

{Aaaaand… there goes the last of the necromancers. I could really use some food and rest.}

Congratulations! Not only did you discover the first Cataclysm, but you also effectively killed it in one shot! Now that a cataclysm has been defeated, and a new faction is being added, both of which mean that I have to call for the Grand Conjunction to meet again. While I get that all setup and finish pulling your compatriots out of transfer space, do you have any requests for what kind of challenges I send you off to face in the meantime?

[Huh. Why are you blue? I’ve never even heard of a blue box before.]

I’ve never had reason to talk to you personally, and you’re not ranked high enough to be involved in any of the political or min maxing shenanigans that would force me to get personally involved. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to deal with idiots who do things for the sake of getting stronger that just… yes, it will make you stronger, but you’ll be so miserably uncomfortable for the rest of your life that it’s not worth it.

{As for Challenges, I request at least two tons of raw meat and bone, somewhere we can absorb a bunch of fire and life mana, and then I need to sleep for a literal week.}

That’s not what I was expecting. Care to explain?

{Before I was unceremoniously flung across the cosmos, I had been awake for an entire month because I was necessary for the final push, I no longer have access to my territory so a chunk of my regen is borked, so I need a bunch of mana, especially if Victrina is going to need a bunch for her bloodlines. Normally I’d just use the reactor in my armor to get extra mana, but it needs maintenance soon and you don’t mess up the maintenance on reactors.}

Yeah, can’t blame you on that one! Give me a few minutes to get that set up and figure out what sort of reward you’re supposed to get for that kind of stunt. I did not expect someone to utterly break the default reward table for Cataclysms quite so thoroughly, especially so soon after the first one was discovered.

{[Fair enough.]}

[I have to say, you’re a lot friendlier and less formal than I expected, based off the standard messages.]

It’s not every day that I get to talk to someone who isn’t high enough ranked that I have to be overly formal with everything. Besides, something tells me that I’ll have to talk to you guys quite often, I’d rather be friends and not be overly formal all of the time.

Before we had a chance to understand the implications of those statements, Mayor Comathu walked out the now open gate. “Wow! You weren’t kidding when you said that you could deal with the horde! Thanks for defeating it so handily! Where was all of that fire going?”

“The fire should be out by now, but I’d recommend sending some people to go check and make sure it’s out. Also, the leftover ash should be some high-quality fertillizer.” I replied. “You’re welcome! The fire was going to set all of the necromancers on fire, as those were undead gobins. I’m not sure how or why they had an illusionist of that caliber working for them, but it wasn’t quite good enough to hide from me.”

“Oh. Well ok. That would definitely explain some of the oddities the scouts had reported. The system says it will take care of rewarding you appropriately, but is there anything that we could do for you before you move on?”

“I’d ask for food, but I’m a dragon. Asking you for that amount of food with no warning is exceedingly rude.”

“Fair enough.”

Before we could continue our conversation, a transparent illusion of an old wizard in robes of indeterminate color and a staff that was also lacking in definition popped into existence off to the side of the Mayor. The interesting thing was that it was an intentional lack of definition, as if they could appear to be anything at a moment’s notice. “Thank you for freeing my children from the necromancer’s curse. Sure, they’ve got some nasty burns now, but burns can be healed far easier than soul curses. I’ll find some way to pay you back once they’re healed and relocated to a safe location.” he said, bowing as he faded away.

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Custom Challenge preparation complete! Portal opens in 10 seconds. Challenge goal: kill all monsters and notify me when you’re ready to move on.

“Looks like our time here is through. Glad we could help, may the Lord be with you!” I said, saluting the Mayor.

“And with you also!” he replied, returning the salute before the portal opened to my left.

On the other side, we landed in a sandy arena with an arched opening big enough for two city busses to fit through, the inside of which was hidden in shadow.

Not that it mattered too much as three giant snakes, each with heads the size of a small car, came barrelling out of the doorway, before rearing up and studying us in the middle of the arena.

[Well, there’s the several tons of food you asked for…]

{As well as lesson number one!} I replied, pulling a grenade out of my smart wrist bag and throwing it at the face of the snake on the left. As I had hoped, it swallowed the grenade, which I then remotely detonated, effectively decapitating the snake.

{First off, DO NOT eat random things thrown at you by those who even might be hostile to you, this is an easy way to bypass your external armor.}

Next, I sealed up the armor and jumped at the face of the middle snake. As expected after the first one, it happily tried to swallow us whole. Only, instead of jumping down it’s throat, I stood on it’s bottom jaw and grabbed it’s upper jaw with my left hand, holding it’s mouth open for long enough to stab it in the roof of it’s mouth with the spell energy blade I’d summoned in my right hand.

{Do not bite opponents smaller than you, they can hurt you quite badly from inside your mouth, especially if you try to swallow them whole.} I explained, backflipping out of the snake’s mouth back to where we started.

The last snake was rather pissed at us, so it opened it’s mouth and hissed, only for me to shoot it in the roof of the mouth with my railgun pistol. {Honestly, if you’re in combat, just don’t open your mouth, use magic to talk instead, and be careful when you need to use your breath attack, unless you’re in full armor. The armor has some method of letting your breath attack out without that vulnerability. Assuming you have a breath attack, I’m not sure what that would even look like for a life dragon.}

[Oh. Well, ok. I’ll keep that in mind. Lunch time?]

{FOOOOOD!} I cried as I switched to dragon form and started eating as fast as I reasonably could without choking. {These snakes taste soooo much better than I expected!}

[They do say that hunger makes the best seasoning!]

{True!}

Fifteen minutes later, with a stomach that was finally full hours after I expected to be asleep, I was prepared to move on. [Wait, how did we eat all of those snakes? They were at least half again as large as your dragon form!]

{Huh. I’m not actually sure on that one. While it is entirely possible to eat more than you’d expect, something about a natural minor spatial expansion, that much is far beyond normal. My best guess is that a bunch of that went into your stomach in addition to my own, which would explain how much hungrier I’ve been feeling.}

[Makes sense to me. That said, I think we need to move on. You’re so tired I’m starting to feel tired, and at this point, my stamina will only last so long.]

{Fair enough.}

Are you both ready to move on?

{[Yes.]}

Roger that! Portal opens in 90 seconds. You will have ten minutes to find a place to hide, then my minions will begin looking for you. The longer that you manage to hide, the better your rewards. If you find a way to change hiding places without being spotted, you can probably get all of the mana you need out of this.

{Great! I always loved playing hide and sleep as a kid!}

[Don’t you mean hide and seek?]

{Yeah, that was fun too, but anyone can play that game. Only dragons can play hide and sleep.}

[Ok, but what is hide and sleep? Why does sleeping change anything?]

{Because dragons can sleep anywhere they darn well want to. In one memorable instance, when somebody tried to kidnap a dragonett, the little boy decided it would be a great idea to hide up his kidnapper’s nose. I’m a bit uncertain how exactly they figured out what happened, but I’ve seen pictures of the kidnapper’s face once someone told him what happened, and it was priceless.}

[That is hilarious! Do you still have that picture?]

{Sadly, no, I’d have to ask my adoptive parents if they still have a copy. Regardless, we should be able to get some sleep and some mana out of this. I cannot wait!}