I waited for a single day before ditching the cave just to make sure the princess was not going to suddenly return. There was no way in hell I was going to be anybody's slave let alone having a loli for a master. With my full access to magical spells and the mana crystals expanding my limits, I was a lot more deadly than the princess believed. The only reasons I did not attack her were I did not want to deal with the fallout of a dead royal and in truth, besides laughing at me she caused me no harm.

Using earth magic I broke the modified crystal that was powering the glyph, making it look as if someone had come to collect me and scanned the area with a tremor based echolocation. This spell was the best result of my hidden practice over the two weeks. Despite all the knowledge I had inherited it still required practice and effort to use magic. It's like the difference between someone explaining a car engine right down to every last screw and being expected to put one together from the parts, it's possible but complicated.

The pulse let me know exactly what I wanted and confirmed what I had suspected. The reason, why the princess was sent to this particular forest, was because it housed multiple low-level dungeons that would create a perfect ecosystem for generating monsters and thus be a good location for finding a familiar.

Heading towards the nearest reading that was more of a direction indicator and less of a GPS beacon I began searching for the entrance to the dungeon. Unlike many told stories there would be no grand entrance or human-sized tunnel. A dungeon opens its entrance as it grows larger and stronger with newly born dungeons having an entrance barely large enough to allow a mouse. After all, why would any semi-sentient being allow a creature larger then it can kill and consume to enter inside itself with ease.

Dungeons themselves are not some magic anomaly they are a creation of the system. Rarely when a monster dies of natural causes like age its mana crystal will absorb its soul. This soul-infused crystal will then bury itself down into the earth and extend tendrils forming a small network of tunnels. It will then draw small prey into these tunnels by imitating the mana pulse of a rare plant or another lure it knew about during its life. These first few creatures will either be strangled by the tendrils or consume the core.

If the core survives it will be able to use the accumulated biomass to create more of whatever creature it was in life or a selection of simple creatures if its original form was something more complex like a wyvern. As it grows more powerful it buries itself deeper and seeks larger prey, customising it's interior and inhabitance to better kill the local fauna. Eventually, it develops to the point it starts targeting the origin races like elves and humans since they provide it with more mana and potential than monsters.

From then on its just a matter of will the humanoids destroy the dungeon before it becomes too strong for them to do anything about. as for how a dungeon could spawn a nature elemental. Dungeons occasionally create creatures that are either not part of the dungeons type or are not under the dungeon's control. These creatures are expelled to the surface to act as lures or remove a possible threat.

Anyway eventually I managed to find a dungeon entrance around a foot in width and judging from the horned rabbits in the vicinity I guess this was the location the princess was abducting my training dummies from. After six or so hours of digging using earth magic and killing rabbits, I managed to obtain the first required item for my class a dungeon core. Despite easily finding the first of three objects the other two could be considered more elusive as, unlike a weak and almost defenceless core they would fight back.

I would need more than a tattered shirt and a small knife to continue my quest. I would need proper weapons and armour but that would be unattainable as a human so I had to at least acquire some metal and another dungeon core. The whole process took around four days. Wandering around the forest, eating preserved food while earth scanning for a metal deposit shallow enough to reach. Despite my recent run of good luck, the lady of fortune had abandoned me in this endeavour.

Every time I found metal it was far too deep to reach with the only suitable deposit being used as a nest by red-bellied black snakes whose poison could kill me in seconds. I had however managed to gather some semi-rare and rare plants as well as the additional dungeon core. I was eventually distracted from my fruitless search my a different kind of result from my scan, people.

Using the second spell I had become capable with I cast space eye in order to remain concealed while investigating the situation. A small slit in space appeared in front of me that lead to an equally small slit in space positioned above the targeted location. Through the portal, I could see three Dracon wandering around the forest. Were they slavers, bandits or some other form of criminal?

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No, they appeared to be farmers. While dracon, in general, were known to be arrogant asshats their entire species could not be royalty. There would always be workers supporting those at the top and Dracon nobility believed only Dracon workers made anything worth using. So their food had to be farmed by Dracon farmers and their weapons had to be made by Dracon blacksmiths. They essentially enslaved their own people into a caste system and hid them from the rest of the world to avoid embarrassment. I had no qualm with these Dracon and they had no problem with me so normally I would leave them alone, but they happened to be carrying tools. Tools made from metal.

I followed the farmers until they reached what appeared to be a pre-made camp and waited for them to fall asleep. As with any being passing through a monster-infested forest, they had one of their members take watch. I sat comfortably on a log while studying these three, listening in on their banter safe in the knowledge that none of them could detect my spell or else they would have reacted earlier.

"where the hell could that fucking plant be? I swear I saw it in this area last time" the largest one roared while the others only laughed and spat back "you couldn't tell the northern edge of this forest from it's south to save your life yet you think you can remember where you spotted a silver-leafed daisy?" the third member of the trio just berated the others "get to sleep because I will be waking one of you morons up to replace my watch and I don't want to hear any shit about not getting enough rest."

My general understanding of there purpose was that they had entered the forest to find a rare flower to cure a member of there family. Luckily for them, I had already found such a flower and needed something they had. unfortunately, I could not just walk up and attempt to barter with the trio. So I waited till they changed shift before using some subtle wind magic to move the odourless pollen of a local flower that causes drowsiness towards the man. Within a minute he was out cold.

I entered into the clearing and selected a well worn but obviously maintained axe from amongst their tools and replaced it with the flower they sought before disguising the scene to look as if a faerie had pulled a prank. Silently I wandered back into the forest wondering how this encounter would affect the farmers and if they would find it as amusing as I did.

Looking for another cave I retreated back along the path. It was not long until I encountered an alcove that would be acceptable. Unlike crafting by weaving plant material I would actually need to melt and from this metal. I started by making a mould using earth magic before creating a crucible out of stone. It took several attempts to melt the iron despite cheating with magic because while fire magic could create a flame with no fuel and air magic could make the flame hotter the stone would become brittle and shatter at the temperatures requires and neither my mana supply or control was sufficient to use more spells simultaneously.

I started to regret not taking metal affinity when I remembered the spells saved in the mana crystals. It took 8 mana crystals and spell fusion to finally achieve the desired result with two devoted to space being used to suspend and contain the metal. Three being used for fire and two being used for wind so as to reach the required temperature. the last one being earth to extract any impurities. After managing to cast the circular ring I used space magic to strengthen my knife's edge as I inscribed the required geometric pattern before inserting the dungeon core.

After a quick submerging it in a combination of blood and mana crystal dust, the disguise pendant was complete. While beneficial this object was not perfect as it only allowed me to change my appearance for 18 hours a day and needed to be recharged after each use. The illusion could also be broken by certain high-level spells and be seen through with very rare specific anti-illusion skills. But unless I decided to march into a place filled with level 80+ individuals I should be fine.

It took about three days to get accustomed to the disguise as walking with a tail turned out to be more complicated than expected. When I was finally happy with my ability to blend into the population I began my trek towards civilisation. Turns out civilisation was a lot closer than I thought because it was less than a days walk before I emerged into open fields filled with a red corn-like crop.

After finding the nearest road I continued wandering north. Sometimes I encountered others and relied on my limited knowledge to muddle my way through conversations slowly building up an understanding of the culture and how one would act in dracon society. Despite the fact I would not need to be a member for long the less attention I could bring to myself the better. Remembering the chat with the princess I positioned myself as a member of the order of salvation, using cloistered training as an excuse for any mistakes I may have committed and the healing spells as a form of identification.

Since I had no idea on how much such services would cost I merely asked that I be paid what they think my skill was worth and placed any irregularity down to being on a pilgrimage to improve my skills. I was constantly being asked questions only to answer with vague non-answers like "I was asked to by a noble" or "it is the healer's way" and it was a close call when I encountered nobility. Days of travel and healing later I spotted a wooden wall and the target of my journey.