Sahro grunted as he pushed his red lightning-covered sword through Glenn's souvenir of his voyage: the overgrown lizard that, evidently, wasn't a dragon, despite the two wings, massive claws, and vertical split pupils in his now-empty eyes.

"If there's indeed a Blumar dragon somewhere..." he grinned widely, "...I say we hunt it. I'm sure I can slice through Blumar with just brute force thanks to my latest advancement."

Glenn wiped his bloodied hands on his black Imoogi suit before using Nelg as a lever to dislodge the beast's teeth. "I know you're jealous of my shiny, new Dragon-slayer, but it's no reason to throw yourself at an ancient, indestructible creature."

//Descendant. Gundam's voice sizzled through Glenn's communication bracelet. //This mutated specimen is nothing like a dragon. You have not earned the impious title of Dragon-slayer.

Milena chuckled as she rolled the soft part of the lizard's wings. "You heard him, Glenn. You're no Dragon-slayer yet."

"Uhm..." Lina and Ary were standing next to the carcass, one with disgust and the other with curiosity. They were both holding sharp skinning knives, courtesy of Liara.

"Do we need to help...?" Lina asked hesitantly, grimacing as she looked at her blood-soaked boots. Unsurprisingly, there were no specialized butchering facilities in the 33rd Longhorn mansion, so they had been forced to drain the blood right in the garden. Liara patted Lina's shoulder and nodded frantically, her lips sealed in Ary's presence. It seemed like Glenn was the only human she was willing to speak to.

"Please, let me do your part," Ary said chivalrously as he approached the beast, sweat beading down his chin as each step took him closer to it. Even dead, the overgrown lizard still inspired dread and fear, proof of the might it had held while still alive. But as mighty as the beast was, it had still been helplessly executed with a well-aimed Shooting Star.

"Oww, look at him!" Milena patted Ary's back with a gentle smile, "How brave! Hey, Liara, isn't he adorable?"

Liara shot Ary a wide grin and a thumbs-up. The young man drew a deep breath before hesitantly pushing his knife against the lizard's scales. The blade slipped against it, unable to pierce through the tough skin. Ary gasped heavily as if a weight had been taken off his shoulders.

Sahro scorned. "No, no, that's not how you do it. Look, you need to slip your blade in between the scales and aim for the soft spots..."

Lina watched with Ary being lectured by her favorite Black Heir when a chill crept up her back. Glenn grabbed her shoulder and whispered with a fake smile.

"...Don't tell me you want to slip away from this amazing opportunity. You want to learn, don't you?"

Lina's eyes darted to the side. "I- I mean, I'm sure I can practice another day on something less intimidating, right? I certainly don't want to ruin the corpse with my inexperience—"

"Nonsense!" clamored Glenn as he pushed her closer to the body. He felt his sister tense up with each step until she was close enough to touch the dead beast.

"Fuck..." Lina blurted out. Now that she was that close to the creature, she couldn't help but realize how gigantic it was. The size of a small house, large enough to welcome a tiny family.

"Milady, I'd advise learning what you can before the Young Master disappears to Onnea knows where," Tiamanes whispered from within her left hand, careful not to be heard by Ary.

"Hey, if you're even a tenth like Glenn, you'll probably slaughter more beasts than men in the future," Diamanes cackled, not as caring as his counterpart. Lina wiped a big drop of sweat and turned to Milena with wide eyes.

"How aren't you scared of that? It's massive! I...I feel like it's going to rise and eat me up!"

Milena tapped her chin, pondering. "Well, it is a scary creature, but..." she shrugged, "It's not the scariest thing I've seen. The Occult Wanderers—that was some terrifying stuff."

Lina looked at her like she was insane, but Glenn pulled her back into work, grinning widely as he taught his sister how to skin a (fake) dragon.

'That's some pretty unbelievable family occupations, haha.'

With everyone working on the creature, it took the rest of the day to carve out all of the monster's flesh and skin his entire pelt. Ary had been actually very eager to learn and rapidly improved under Sahro's tutelage. Lina, on the other hand, had half-heatedly followed her brother's tyrannical—passionate lessons and didn't show as much skill as her comrade did.

Glenn had no idea whether that meat would be worth anything, but considering how magic affected everything in this world, maybe eating it would make them stronger. That remained to be tested, though. The tough scales would work perfectly to make armor pieces, as would the pelt. The claws were piled up with its bones, and only the creature's skull was left.

"I kind of want to keep it as a trophy," said Glenn as he looked at the massive skull, five times his height.

Sahro nodded slowly. "That'd work pretty well to scare off intruders. But where do we put it?"

Milena and Lina exchanged a look of disbelief. Did they want to put this horror inside the mansion?

"Liara, tell them it's a terrible idea, please!" Milena pleaded as she grabbed her best friend's hand. Liara looked at her with a confused smile.

Milena froze. "D- Don't tell me you're agreeing with them?"

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Liara smiled. Milena groaned and turned away, dismissing her worries with a wave of her hand. "...It's not like I can say anything about it. Sigh..."

"The entry hall?" Glenn proposed. Sahro looked up and down at the skull and grimaced.

"Hmm...We will have to hang it."

***

An hour or so later, the gigantic skull was hanging above the mansion's entry, held by strong steel chains. Glenn and Sahro gazed at their work, dusting their hands off with satisfied looks.

"Wow, what the hell is this? This is so cool!" exclaimed Liam as he entered the mansion, closely followed by his girlfriend, Janica. The girl's eyes widened as she stared at the skull, and her jaw dropped to the floor. Glenn rubbed his nose proudly.

"Well, hrm, it's my latest victim, a fake dragon. Nothing too crazy," Glenn said with a falsely modest tone. Liam's eyes shone and he walked up to Glenn to get more explanations, but something suddenly fell on his head, interrupting him.

"Aouch!" He looked up confusedly, "What was that?"

A small stone the size of a pearl rolled on the floor and stopped in front of Glenn's boot. The latter picked it up, staring at it confusedly. The stone was dark-red, with hints of a jade color hidden in its center.

"Pebble?" Glenn muttered, puzzled. He pressed his hand against his breast pocket, and indeed, Pebble wasn't in its usual spot. Janica, her shock past, looked at the ceiling worriedly.

"Hmm...I'll do some maintenance on the ceiling. It isn't a good omen if our roof starts collapsing on our heads."

Sahro scoffed, "I wouldn't worry about that. That stone fell off the skull."

"The skull?" Glenn raised an eyebrow. 'What the hell was Pebble doing in the not-dragon's skull?'

Diamanes laughed widely in his head. 'Maybe he was absorbing the dragon's powers? Who knows?'

Glenn stared at Pebble for another minute before shrugging and putting it back in his breast pocket. But, against all odds, he failed. The rock slipped away from his hands and fell on the floor. It rolled without stopping, slipping under the mansion's door and into the garden. Glenn looked at his friends, half in shock and the other half in guilt.

'I didn't exactly explain to anyone that I might have created a sentient rock. Let's just hope nothing too weird happens.'

Glenn followed Pebble outside. Sahro, Liam, and Janica followed him curiously. Milena had insisted on talking with Lina while they were hanging the skull up since she didn't get the occasion yet. On the other hand, Liara went to prepare dinner. Ary had politely proposed his help, and the Black Heiress accepted.

"They're going to be so jealous once I tell them they've missed such a weird sight," Sahro muttered with a smirk. Pebble continued to roll before stopping in the blood-soaked spot where they had butchered the dragon. Glenn felt a chill creep up his spine.

'Oh-oh, this is weird! I love it!' Diamanes laughed wickedly. Glenn wasn't as amused as him, sadly. The dirt rose around Pebble, compressing and forming a tougher whole. At first, it just looked like a pile of mud, but it soon grew out a pair of arms and legs—no, these were only legs. Pebble wasn't taking on a human shape. A tail grew out at the back, and the legs defined themselves further, ending up with sharp metal claws. The head had a pair of jaws and a singular eye: Pebble. Wings span out of the dirt formation, stretching out majestically.

Dirt continued to be pulled out of the ground until the earth-construct surrounding Pebble became indissociable from actual scales.

A brown, pupil-less, one-eyed dragon. Glenn rubbed his eyes, before crouching in front of Pebble.

A cat-sized dragon.

"Aww, he's too cute!" Janica melted as she rushed to try and grab Pebble in her arms. The dirt-dragon rolled away and hid behind Glenn, its single eye shining under the setting sun. Janica's expression crumbled, tears welling up in her eyes. Liam made a wry smile and pulled her in his arms.

"It's fine, it's fine, I'm sure it's just shy..." The couple headed off, far from the heart-breaker. Pebble peeked his head out, making sure that Janica was far away before leaving his hiding place.

"A rock that transformed into a...very, very tiny dragon. I don't even know what to say," admitted Sahro. Glenn's jaw was still sitting on the floor. Raijin, Sahro's fox, suddenly appeared on his master's shoulder and glanced down at the rock dragon curiously. Pebble looked at it with an empty eye, his tail waving left and right.

"I think we need to find it a name," said Sahro, but Glenn shook his head.

"No need," he smiled, still in disbelief, "He already has one. Right, Pebble?"

The dragon looked up in recognition and flapped its tiny wings proudly.

"I swear, life can't possibly get any weirder," muttered Diamanes.

"You know, it somehow doesn't surprise me," Sahro said, his hands on his waist. Raijin licked his chin, but the Black Heir's expression remained unmoved. "I'm not sure how long you've been lugging this stone around, but I know it's been part of our adventures for a while now."

Glenn scratched the back of his head. "Well, it kind of followed me around without me asking, and I couldn't exactly do anything about it—" Pebble suddenly phased out of existence. Glenn and Sahro's eyes were glued to the spot where the tiny dragon previously was. They looked at each other in shock.

"Where did it go?" Glenn's heart jumped, suddenly worried. 'I've had Pebble around forever. I kind of don't want to lose him now, damn it!'

Sahro's eyes widened and he pointed at Glenn—more precisely, the top of his head. The young man slowly looked up, meeting Pebble's single eye staring down at him. The creature was as weightless as a feather and had somehow teleported itself on his head. Glenn carefully grabbed Pebble and held him at arm's length. The dragon's tail waved left and right like an excited dog. Glenn sighed heavily, uncertain of how he should treat this new...pet?

"Your pet rock transformed into a pet rock dragon. I would have never guessed this evolution to be possible." Diamanes admitted in awe.

Glenn scoffed. "Who would have?"

//Me. Gundam's voice startled the three of them, sizzling out of the communication bracelet. //This rock possesses a hint of Divinity from an unknown source and seems to have mutated to gain sentience. It also seems to have gained the ability to alter its weight, from weightless to overbearing. I believe it can absorb the properties of things around him, and become a...copy of a dragon— Gundam pronounced the word with utter disappointment — ...After absorbing the mutated specimen's blood and energy. This scenario was inevitable the second this rock dove into the mutated specimen's body.

Diamanes laughed. "Great! At least one of us knows what the hell happened!" He paused, and the mouth in Glenn's palm opened widely, "...But wait a minute, absorbing things and growing stronger from it...That's my power! Hey, Pebble, how the hell did you get my power? Thief! Plagiarizer!"

Pebble looked at Diamanes with one wide, empty eye, before jumping out of Glenn's arms and strolling away. Sahro's fox followed it, curious.

Glenn rubbed his forehead and sighed.

"Just another Monday..."