Octavian didn’t bother to respond, though, instead dropping the multiple layers of forged mana and rushing in to help Travis and Liz.

The duo had done an excellent job wearing down the drake on their own, but with Octavian, Roh, and Araceli joining the fray, it didn’t take long for them to force the drake to surrender its key.

I didn’t even do much. Apart from the odd overcharged Fungal Lock spell, and Dusk casting her hands spell, we mainly just sat back and watched.

With the drakes defeated, Kene went by each member of our group and checked them over, healing a few of Travis’ wounds, and casting some spiritual healing on Octavian and Araceli.

“What was that light spell?” I asked Octavian as Kene cast the spells over Araceli.

“Hmm? Oh, that? It’s a sky dragon spell, Light Lens. It gathers ambient solar energy that exists in light, as well as some of the other things like tempest, and concentrates it. That doesn't do a whole lot on its own, but where it really shines is when other spells are cast through the lens. Dragonfyre and a bunch of other spells are amplified massively by the lens. We set up four of them, then Kene cast a burst of light, and all of that was amplified and discharged at the drake.”

“I’m guessing you overdid it?” I said, nodding at the golden light emerging from Kene’s hands.

“Just a bit,” Octavian said, laughing and scratching the back of his head. “It’s power boosted up to mid fourth-gate level, and… Yeah, it put a strain on our spirits to maintain that.”

“It was still impressive,” Liz said. “I can’t output that much raw power.”

“Are you kidding me?” Octavian said. “The two of you basically soloed the drake that took me, Araceli, Roh, Malachi, Kene, and Siobhan.”

“Well, I said can’t output that much raw power,” she said with a grin. “I can still output a lot, more than I should. And my legacy helps.”

“Definitely,” I agreed.

“I wouldn’t trade my legacy for the world,” Octavian said, “but if I had to lose mine, yours isn’t a bad pick.”

Kene shot me a look, and I had to stop myself from smiling. Not at the joke that he’d conveyed in his look, but for the fact he was able to joke. That meant he had at least enough hope to joke about his hag’s status, which was fantastic, as far as I was concerned.

With everyone healed, we let our mana restore itself to full, then put the two halves of the key together, and slid it into the lock. It clicked open with a clean, crisp sound, and the gates swung inwards.

The sage appeared next to us, beaming.

“Well done, my children! You have found one of the seven hidden trail sites I have scattered throughout this land. This is the home of one of my three bonded familiars! While many know of Idyll, the greatest of them all, it is oft forgotten that I too had a mighty gem-cavern dragon, and an exotic Byangoma, from the rebel-lands of Tianzhu.”

Dusk whistled in response to the sage, saying that of course Idyll was the best, and I saw Octavian’s lip tremble in restraining a smile at that. Kene actually let out a short laugh, and Liz rolled her eyes.

“No,” a voice said, shaking the entire cavern. The illusion of the sage rippled like it was a pond that a stone had been thrown into.

“Do not make me hear the voice of that monster again,” the voice said, and a moment later, a dragon’s head appeared. It was covered in angular, multicolored crystals, with golden eyes that stared down on us.

Fear shot through my body, smashing through the defenses of my mind shielding ring without so much as a second of resistance. I was stuck, frozen to the spot, unable to do so much as twitch a single muscle. I couldn’t even blink, and as the dragon’s gaze swept over us each in turn, my eyes started to water from the dryness.

Even my mana senses were completely frozen, and I couldn’t sense a thing.

“You should leave this place,” the dragon said. “Leave this cursed realm to wither and die in peace. There will never be another Sevenfold Celestial Sage.”

The fear vanished, and Octavian stepped forward.

“Are you trapped here, great dragon? Unable to leave.”

“Impudent child,” the dragon said, steam billowing from its nostrils. “Were it not for the one beside you, I would eat you myself. I am no more trapped here than a lizard can be trapped by an aphid!”

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I blinked and tilted my head. My mana senses were still suppressed, and I couldn’t cast any active spells, but the passive sensory enhancement from Vampiric Senses wasn’t picking up on anything.

Was the dragon an illusion?

Even as I thought that, the dragon’s head dissolved. I started to open my mouth to tell the others, but magic far stronger than mine teleported me before I could.

“Congratulations on discovering my illusion!” another illusion of the sage said. “Illusionists are oft tricky to deal with. Regardless of if you noticed the lack of heat, or the lack of smell, well done. Your next challenge is simple. Find the seven shards, guarded by minotaurs…”

I blinked as I realized that this was the challenge Kene had described undergoing. Leaving the sage to ramble on, I started teleporting.

I hadn’t had much time to enjoy it during the battle upstairs, but having both Beast Mage’s Soul and Magister’s Body ingrained now really did make short range teleportation a breeze.

Dusk peeped when she spotted a minotaur, and that was enough to nearly throw me off my rhythm.

“You’re here?” I asked. She said that of course she was, and I blinked, confused. In the last trial she’d been treated as her own person, and had to go through her own challenges. Was this just because it was a different trial?

Well, it was a mystery for later.

Rather than engage the minotaur in combat, I used Transport Item to teleport the shard to me, then teleported away as the minotaur started to glow red and charge. A couple of Immovable Locks and Foxsteps, and I was in the air over the maze, running along.

It might not have quite been flight, but the combined spells were certainly close enough to make running through the maze a breeze. None of the minotaurs had any aerial mobility, so even when they got angry, it was a simple matter to flee.

For a moment, when I reached the center, I was sure that I’d messed up. The central dias, where I was supposed to slot the shards, was absolutely surrounded by minotaurs.

But… Seven casts of Transport Item later, while hovering overhead, and the world dissolved around me. I found myself grinning, anticipating what came next.

I found myself in a room with an old man. His hair was multicolored and stringy, and he radiated power. Seventh gate, but old, strong, the absolute pinnacle of what a seventh gate mage could be.

As he looked over me, I noted that his eyes were multicolored too, just like his hair.

“I have interrupted your trial,” he said in a dry voice, nowhere near as booming or powerful as the illusory dragon’s had been.

“The gem-cavern dragon, I presume?” I asked, bowing slightly.

“Indeed,” he said. “Much of what the illusion said was true. Some of it was not. Before I decide if you and your companion should even be given the right to continue this trial, let alone my other considerations, I wished to speak with you. You can consider me to be your next trial guardian.”

“I’d be happy to answer most questions,” I said honestly, and Dusk chimed her agreement. “What should I call you, sir?”

“Excellent,” he said, and a pair of chairs melted out of the floor. He sat in one, and gestured for me to sit in the other. “You may call me Elio. First, I presume my sister has already verified and watches to ensure that you two treat one another with mutual respect.”

“Yes, Mister Elio,” I agreed, and Dusk sighed, saying that Idyll had been quite mean about it.

The old dragon took a sip of tea, and I blinked. Where had he gotten that from?

“Good,” Elio said. “Unlike her, however, I have more subtle methods I can employ. I assume you don’t mind if I check for myself?”

I glanced at Dusk, then back at him.

“If she’s okay with it, I am,” I said.

The dragon put his teacup to the side, on a table that sprouted from the floor, then raised one hand. A shimmering crystal spun into place over it, and in the reflections of the crystal I could see my moments with Dusk. Almost all of them.

It was… Creepy, to say the least.

Elio paused when he came upon the memories of us hiding the mantle estragon eggs.

“These eggs. You have not sold them, have you?”

“No sir,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m going to bring them to a sanctuary in Delitone, where they have the resources to raise them right.”

“I see, I see,” the dragon said, slowly nodding. “And why are you here?”

“I…” I said, trailing off. “Do you mind elaborating, Mister Elio, sir?”

“Here, in the Idyll-Flume,” Elio said.

“Well,” I said. “I need to be strong. Stronger than I am now. My partner has a condition, do you know the Hexed Heritage legacy?”

“I do,” the old man said, tilting his head in a nod.

“Well, we want to dive a sepulcher to let them fix it,” I said.

“What then?” the dragon pressed.

“I want to explore. See the world. Help people. Grow stronger.”

“For what purpose?”

“For that purpose. To help others, to step in where people can’t help themselves. I started out as a mage by catching a toad. It wasn’t a powerful toad. But it was messing up crops, and the locals couldn’t seem to catch it. That’s good work. Work that needs to be done. And work that I’m happy to do.”

Elio leaned back in his chair and took a long sip of tea. Then, he finally sighed and nodded.

“A childish, naive way of looking at things. One that will get you killed. But it is better to die a happy fool than rot as a bitter old man. Very well. You seek to help the world?”

“Yes,” I said, bracing myself for another quest. Instead, a blue crystal, the size of my palm, and shaped like an egg, appeared in the dragon’s palm.

“This is a metamorphic-egg,” he said. “It was made by me personally, a very, very long time ago. Break it on the shell of an estragon egg, and it will provide the nourishment and magic to turn it into a terragon egg. Take it. Use it on one of the mantle estragon, one of the ones that you plan to leave at the sanctuary. It is not your place or right to take it…”

“I won’t,” I promised seriously as Dusk took the precious egg-stone-crystal thing. After a second, I asked, “Why?”

“Because,” he said. “I know all too well what it is like to be with little hope for the survival of your species. I cannot help the gem-cavern dragons. But I can help the mantle dragons.”

He sighed out a long, weary rumble.

“I grow weary of this. It is clear you are not another monster like the sage, so finish your trial. You have but one room left.”

I appeared on a flat stone floor, with a tunnel that branched off in either direction in front of me. In front of me was a placard, describing the left as the tunnel of wisdom, and the right as the tunnel of courage, and saying that I needed to choose one path and take it.