For several long moments, Torventozil maintains eye contact with me. I keep my gaze soft and my smile friendly during this, knowing the effect it has on him.

Finally, he decides on his response.

"You lack the power to kill me."

The dragon dashes forward, only to find a vertical [Lightning Arc] slicing past me. To his credit, the dragon shifts to the side, avoiding having his wing sliced off by my husband's attack. By the time he's corrected himself, my husband is standing beside me, having used his [Flight Wind]s at his max to move in close.

"Maybe that's true," Kyron hands me my ring. "Maybe it's not. But maybe you're also forgetting that there were others here, too."

"Hmph!" Torventozil scoffs. "That puny attack lacked the power to even hurt me!"

"Yet you still dodged," Kyron states.

"Better to dodge than take an attack you didn't assess yet."

"Maybe," I say. "And maybe you should examine the staff I'm holding."

Torventozil examines Novabodos, the dragon's eyes widening as he reads its description.

"I am the spellsmith who forged Durazvokir," I inform him. "And we came here to retrieve it. I forged it for my husband and would like it now. Now, you saw me handle you just fine while butt-naked and without any magic items. Either I can let you live, or I can take your entire hoard, and turn your body into food and items. The choice is yours."

"Personally, I'm in favor of the latter," Akrazidonn says, and the dragon jumps. "What? Never seen a talking animal before? Guess you've never seen your own reflection."

"What manner of creature are you?"

"An Elder Spirit," Kizarvinat approaches, mostly upright in a sort of standing position now, though he still leaning back a little, his hands behind his head and ankles crossed. "He's friends with the Sage of Fire. I'm in agreement with you, Akrazidonn. Listening to him boast about how he's so much better than someone as awesome as Caleb is annoying. I mean, he couldn't even get Caleb to move from his spot, and the mage was butt-naked and without any items! He's probably going to complain for the next few centuries about how annoying that was."

"You, too, Kizarvinat?" The dragon is definitely shocked.

"What?" Kizarvinat folds his arms across his chest and shrugs. "As if it's bad enough listening to you make baseless claims to anyone near you for a century, I really don't want to listen to your complaints for a few. Honestly, I'd kill you myself if it actually net me something other than peace and quiet. Seeing a naked, item-less human best you was actually some nice entertainment, too."

"I haven't been that entertained," Akrazidonn says. "Since I saw Ryker take on three dragons in the nude! They interrupted him getting it on with his wife. Man, did Axel's father put the fear of mortals into those dragons. He spent the next half-hour beating them into submission and lecturing them on the importance of letting people have sex."

"Since when can spirits take on tangible forms?" Torventozil asks.

"Any Elder Spirit can," Kizarvinat tells him. "Though even in our spirit forms, we can interact with things if we wish it. Who do you think keeps rearranging your hoard?"

"Hey!"

"I'd be willing to trade some stuff for my husband's sword," I tell Torventozil, before the dragon can start bickering with the spirit. "I don't have much on me at the moment-"

"You've got nothing but a ring on you."

"The ring is a spatial ring," I hold up my right hand, and a water crystal appears above it. "It contains a pocket dimension inside. As I was saying, I don't have much on me right now, as our rings were completely empty when we awoke after being resurrected, but I'm sure we can come to an agreement, if you don't want to simply give up my husband's sword."

"That sword is the pride of my collection," Torventozil puffs up his chest. "The most valuable, most powerful item within it. I won't give it up for anything."

"Let me be a little more clear than Caleb was," Kyron says. "We're taking my sword. Either you can get something out of it, you get nothing out of it, or we get plenty out of it. How this goes is your choice."

The dragon looks at each of the four of us in turn.

"Wow," Kizarvinat says. "He got his ass whupped by a butt-naked Sage of Fire and is still thinking he's top of the chain. I wonder how Inzulmiaz would react if you told him about this once you go visit her, Caleb."

"She'd probably laugh her ass off!" Kizarvinat doubles over laughing. "Oh, the hilarity! The 'mighty' Torventozil, who constantly boasts about how dragons are superior to all mortals and how the stories of the Sage of Fire are lies, defeated by that very same person! He'd be a laughingstock of dragons for ages! They'd still tell tales of his stupidity thousands of years after his death!"

I guess Torventozil has really been annoying Kizarvinat, for him to make fun of him like this. The land and water around us are full of his amusement, and I can even feel the lesser spirits buzzing in the way they do when they're laughing. While the dragon can't detect the spirit's effect on the world around and on the lesser spirits, it seems like it's still affecting him.

Before he can decide between outrage and shame, the lesser spirits suddenly stop buzzing and Kizarvinat stops laughing. The spirit straightens up and Akrazidonn lets out a small rumble that I recognize as him being intrigued about something.

Then another spirit appears. No motes floating toward it to take form, no unusual feeling to the magic in the air… just the spirits here reacting right before his appearance.

This one has a slender build and fair skin, his dick slightly-larger than Kyron's, his hair bluish-green, while his eyes are bluish-grey. A series of bluish-green markings are on the back of his hand, stretching halfway up the backs of his arms, while more are on his shoulders and stretch halfway down his upper arms. Another similar marking is on his face, beside his eyes.

He wears an earcuff made of bluish-grey metal on each ear, a short leather cord with a pair of bluish-green water crystal beads hanging from them. Similar to Akrazidonn, he doesn't wear the usual accessories for spirits, instead wearing just two leather anklets on his left ankle and a silver band ring on his right ring finger, the ring containing a trio of water crystals and a bluish-green pattern wrapped around it.

The spirit wears a leather cord around his neck, a bluish-green crystal hanging from it, purple runes etched on each of the three black beads to either side of the crystal's connection to the cord.

Floating above his head is a halo made of some sort of black material, seven water crystals set into it, purple runes etched into the surface of the halo, forming a leaf-like pattern connecting the crystals together.

Thirteen streams of water flow around him, some thinner and some thicker. They move about in addition to flowing, sometimes creating a ribbon-like effect, sometimes creating the impression of wings, sometimes simply moving with his arms and legs.

I've never seen a spirit like this before, and it honestly takes me a moment to recover from my shock at seeing one like him. Those bands of water are unlike any I've normally seen a spirit have around them, and that halo… then there's the fact that he has markings similar to Akrazidonn's, but in greater quantities.

Fortunately, the spirit was meeting the gaze of each individual here, be they person, spirit, or dragon, before finally settling on Kizarvinat, who looks utterly confused. Unlike Akrazidonn, who's returned to his catkin form.

"Kizarvinat," the mysterious spirit's voice is gentle and kind, but wise. "Please be nice to the dragon. Getting bested by a butt-naked person who has not a single item assisting him may be funny, but when it's a dragon no one really knows, he'll be forgotten just as fast as he gets laughed at."

Did this mysterious – but obviously powerful – spirit show up just to make fun of the dragon?

"Who is this?" Kyron whispers to me.

"No clue," I respond. "But he's right – if no one really knows about Torventozil, then he probably won't be laughed at for millennia. They'd laugh at him, sure, but probably just mention a dragon that lost like this to others, and only while telling amusing tales they'd heard of. It would probably be forgotten in a few generations."

"Kapiakoz," Akrazidonn says with a slight touch of reverence to his voice. "It's not every millennia a spirit of your status makes an appearance."

"Has it really been that long?"

"Are you even able to measure that long?"

"Caleb!" Kyron exclaims as Kizarvinat laughs.

"Hm," Kapiakoz muses as he examines me. "You're a curious one, aren't you? The ripples you make in the universe are quite large despite your young age. You're a true mage who doesn't know the difference between 'what's that lever?' and 'pull the lever!', aren't you?"

"Got you in a nutshell," Kyron snorts.

"He accidentally started the Great Demon War," Akrazidonn says. "Apparently, he found a rock with a strange magical energy and cut off a piece of it, not aware that it was a seal created by that dumbass Paxton. Then he sacrificed himself to kill the Great Demon King. That was a thousand years ago, and now… he and his husband are somehow back. They don't know why."

"They were resurrected?" Kapiakoz looks at us with more curiosity.

"With our original bodies," I nod.

"Huh," he says. "A most curious situation. Well, I should be going. I'm playing hide-and-seek with Vierkolzar and don't want to linger here very long or he'll catch me. See you around, spirits. And maybe you as well, if I'm back around here in the next decade or so. As long as you don't do anything extreme, you should at least be able to live that long. Bye!"

The spirit vanishes just as suddenly as he came.

"…what kind of spirit was that?" Kizarvinat asks.

"The very first water spirit," Akrazidonn answers. "He's even older than I am. Vierkolzar is the very first fire spirit. The last time I saw any of the firsts, it was shortly after Paxton died. They were throwing a party. We actually got into trouble for that, it kind of caused problems for mortals. Completely worth it, though."

Apparently, even the first spirits didn't like him. Though if even the first spirits can get into trouble… ah. Things are starting to make sense now.

"You look like you just realized something," Kyron says.

"I did," I say. "But I can't explain what."

"Shame," he says, then looks at the dragon. "We'll be setting up camp here for the night, Torventozil. In the morning, we'll be heading back to the Dungeon camp we're temporarily staying at. We'll be taking my sword when we leave if we don't have it before then."

The dragon thinks for a few minutes, then steps a little closer as he looks at me.

"What kind of things are you offering to hand me?" He asks. "That crystal you pulled out of your curious ring isn't very worthy of a beast like me. That ring is quite the curiosity, though…"

"That's an impossibility," I inform him. "I'd have to be at least Level 300 to make one. That's not an estimate based on how things were a thousand years ago, that's a direct requirement for me to have a hope of completing the sole Dungeon I know of that contains the specific type of magic used to make it."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"What Dungeon?" Akrazidonn asks.

"The Forbidden Dungeon."

That's not something people just call it – that's the actual name of the Dungeon, which is announced when we enter it. While there are a few things in the world that don't comply with the elemental magics (a spirit's ability to teleport objects, for example), the Forbidden Dungeon has them in abundance.

A normal Dungeon is a pocket dimension, and includes teleportation in some cases, such as falling into the void with the shortcut on. The Forbidden Dungeon has traps that teleport people scattered all over the place. There are tunnels that are longer than they ought to be, mazes where the layout logically shouldn't be possible.

Monsters which exist nowhere else, including ones that can bend space, manipulate time, and teleport. The Dungeon's layout differs every time it's entered, too, which only adds to the difficulty – we can't just study the layout and learn the optimal route, we have to learn the layout every single time we enter.

Reaching the Forbidden Dungeon isn't all that feasible in the first place. The only reason I learned of it in the first place was because I noticed something was off about an area and investigated it because I knew it would bother me for eternity.

There are four Forbidden Dungeons in the world, one for each continent. None of them are easy to find or enter, though I'm certain my dad knew about them, considering that he is the reason I even knew that rings like these were possible. Had my father not owned such a ring, I never would have even guessed that I could make a pocket dimension of my own.

"I'm nowhere near powerful enough to even reach where it's located," I tell him. "So it's impossible for me to make one for you. I'm also not giving them up."

"Here!" Akrazidonn starts spitting out high-quality water monster cores and water magic crystals.

They're not actually coming out of his mouth, but he's certainly making it seem like they are. I catch them with air magics.

"You're giving him these?" I ask.

"No," the spirit answers. "I heard you like making sculptures of dragons using monster cores and magic crystals of the same element as them."

"Ah," I say, and a chunk of iron floats out of my ring. "Thanks, you weird cat."

"Look who's talking."

I spend the next few minutes working on making a water-steel sculpture of Torventozil, who watches curiously as I work. Once it's completed, I let it float in the air as the dragon walks around it, examining it from all angles.

"How curious," he murmurs. "So humans can create things like this? A novel way to use the crystals."

He's definitely not had very many encounters with people before.

The dragon takes the sculpture using his tail, then flies into his cave behind the waterfall. After a few minutes, he returns carrying a sword in his tail. Once he returns to us, the dragon tosses the sword to me, and I catch it using air magic before grabbing it and examining it.

The scabbard is silvery-blue, a seven-star pattern along each side of it. A pure-white cap rests at each end to protect it, both set with a star-sword-and-staff crest. I draw the blade, examining the sword itself.

The hilt is golden with a blue hue to it, the same crest on the scabbard's caps set onto either side of the crosspiece. A magic crystal is set onto each end of each side of the crosspiece. Fire sits on the left-hand side and air sits on the right-hand side of one side of the crosspiece when looking at it, while water sits on the left-hand side and earth sits on the right-hand side of the crosspiece when looking at it. All four of them are set into their elemental crest. The pommel is made up of four claws, which grasps a dark purple crystal.

Much like the scabbard, the blade itself is a silvery-blue metal, and there are purple crystal runes etched into the fuller.

"It's… so beautiful," both spirits breathe in awe.

Durazvokir, the Elemental Blade Grade: Celestial This is an ultimate sword forged of celestial iron by an expert among expert spellsmiths. All magics channeled through it cost 25% less Mana and possess 50% more Magic. Enchantment-type spells cannot be cast through this sword, however, other weapon-type spells can be used through this blade regardless of element. Those who know the secrets of the elements find themselves without limitations in their use.

This sword has additional abilities, but I removed them from its description when I created it. They only work when used with the shield, and I didn't want anyone other than those I let know about it learn this information. Only Kyron and the Golden Knight were told what else it could do.

Durazvokir and its shield partner were what led to my creation of Novabodos, if I'm entirely honest with myself. They were proof that I could forge items that could use elements without needing to switch things around.

Though Novabodos is still leagues above Durazvokir and Durazmakis.

"We thank you deeply for returning this to us," I tell the dragon as I sheathe the sword, which I then hand to my husband. "I am glad to see it in good condition."

"As if you had any doubt about that," Kyron snorts. "It would take a truly old dragon to hope for a chance of damaging celestial iron."

"I've never heard of such a metal before," Torventozil tells us. "And nor had anyone I spoke with. I take it that it comes from a Forbidden Dungeon?"

"No," I answer. "It's an alloy that was passed from father to son in my family for generations. I learned it when I was little, though only because I snuck into the forge to watch my father forge it when I was seven. I was supposed to be sleeping at the time, but I got bored of that and so I-"

"Caleb," Kyron says, and I look at him. "You woke up because you were bored of sleeping?"

"Yes."

"How does that even work?" He asks, but before I can answer, he holds up a hand. "Never mind."

I shrug as he fixes the sword to his belt.

"I'm going to go get something for us to make for dinner," Kyron says once the sword is fixed to his belt. "Don't end the world while I'm gone."

"I'll try not to!"

"Akrazidonn, come with me."

"Why?" The spirit flips himself upside-down. "I want to play with Caleb since we're setting up camp here!"

"Because I don't trust the two of you alone," Kyron snorts. "You two haven't seen each other since Caleb was nine, and if I know anything about Caleb, it's that if someone was his friend when he was that young, they no doubt got up to mischief."

"Can't argue with that," I shrug. "Why don't you go with him, Akrazidonn? You'll get to see the hunting style of the guy who won my heart."

Akrazidonn shifts back to his "new" animal form and hops up onto Kyron's left shoulder, then Kyron uses [Flight Wind] to leave. I watch them until they disappear into the forest, then wait about five minutes before turning to face Torventozil.

"Want to spar a second time?" I ask. "I'll still be naked, and the only magic item I'll use will be Novabodos. If you win, I'll make you a fountain with a life-size water-steel sculpture of you as the centerpiece and fountain. If I win, you have to give me a ride."

"Make it double life-size."

"Deal!" I say. "Kizarvinat, you call for the start."

"What's the win condition?" Kizarvinat asks.

"The battle goes until either one of us leaves the boundaries of the island," I say. "Or is rendered incapable of fighting for five seconds. The one who meets one of those two requirements is the loser. If Torventozil uses dragon's fire, then he automatically loses."

"That's an unfair handicap!"

"If you use dragon's fire," I say. "Then it's an admission that you can't beat me without it. I'll also be restricted to using only my own Mana – no manipulation of any Mana other than my own. If I do, then I automatically lose."

"That's a fair reasoning," the dragon reluctantly admits. "I agree to those terms."

With the use of Novabodos, my Magic will be that much more powerful, which gives me an advantage already. That's why it's only fair to restrict myself to using my own Mana. In addition, my ability to manipulate other Mana creates an unfair advantage, on top of decreasing how long it will be before the universe comes for me.

I'm sure he doesn't want to risk having the universe come after him as a result of being a reason I'm doing such a thing. Chances are that he already knows about ripples and that he realized how that technique affects things.

As for dragon's fire, it seems he's realized that he's not the top of the chain of creatures. He's willing to admit that using his dragon's fire is an admission of defeat.

"Kizarvinat," I say. "When you're read."

"Go!" he soars in a backflip.

I point my staff at Torventozil, and a dozen streams of fire soar out from the main crystal, that, the fire crystals, and the crystal etchings glowing.

[Fire Bind] learned!

Torventozil tries to fly away while staying within the confines of the island, but my [Fire Bind]s soar fast and far, weaving around through the air as they attempt to grab him. Even as the dragon tries to fly upwards, the [Fire Bind]s follow him.

Less than ten seconds after the start of the fight, some of the binds have grabbed the dragon, whose attempt at using [Water Breath] fails against them. As much as he struggles, I have over 100 Magic for all spells cast through Novabodos and the dragon only has around 50 Strength.

He can't get free.

I yank him down to the ground and hold him in place, binding his mouth shut to avoid his water breath, since he produces enough water it would actually burn through my Mana faster to try and sustain the binds. Though the dragon struggles, he's unable to break free.

"Five!" Kizarvinat soars in close to the dragon. "Four!" Kizarvinat soars to the side. "Three!" Kizarvinat does a backflip. "Two!" Kizarvinat lies on his side. "One!" Kizarvinat kicks out his feet while pumping out his fist. "Victory for Caleb!"

Torventozil huffs, and I dismiss the [Fire Bind]s.

"Those didn't burn," he picks himself up off the ground and examines his body. "Those were strong enough to burn me."

"While they were made of fire that had double your Magic," I say. "They're designed to sacrifice heat for solidity. [Fire Bind] is a primarily non-damaging way for a fire mage to bind a target. It's something most fire mages learn by the time they reach Level 50, out of need for a way to have non-damaging binds. We can make them have heat if we want to, but most don't."

"It appears there's much for me to learn still," Torventozil says.

"Yeah," I nod. "I'm glad you turned out reasonable. The last time I tried to humble someone, they were just assholes who didn't care. A god showed up to dispel their lies, and they ran away."

The dragon appraises me.

"You know," he says. "A few months ago, a curious person came by. He put me in a foul mood, claiming to be able to hurt me, then disappearing faster than I could follow. Told me I needed to stop talking bad about you or he'd come kill me."

"The Golden Knight," I nod. "Do you happen to know which way he went?"

"East," he answers. "Though I'm not sure anything more specific than that. He said something about 'visiting the Heart of Lightning', whatever that means."

The Heart of Lightning? I know exactly what that means, but it's west of here, not east. The Golden Knight must have gone east to either do something else first, or to throw the dragon off his trail.

That wording is strange, though… why would the Golden Knight-

"Best three out of five?" Torventozil interrupts my thoughts. "You can't use bind spells."

"And you can't fly more than a hundred feet into the air."

"Deal."

"Begin!" Kizarvinat exclaims.

I send hundreds of shards of ice at the dragon, manipulating them to force him to the ground before encasing his legs and wings in ice to prevent him from taking off or continuing the fight. As with last time, Kizarvinat moves around between each number he counts down, before declaring me the winner.

With that done, I melt the ice, and Torventozil adds another rule to our match that I can't use any spell that binds him down to win, whether or not it's a binding spell. My counter for that is that he can't use his elemental breath magic, and once he agrees to that, our match begins.

The moment it does, powerful winds pick up and throw him into the lake. Thousands of air spirit motes glow in the air, moving around in excitement, and the dragon rights himself, spluttering.

"No using spirits!"

"I didn't!" I laugh as I send Novabodos into my ring. "They're just acting up because they liked the magic."

"That's three for three!" Kizarvinat does another flip. "Caleb wins the contest! The other two don't even need to be done!"

The dragon shakes himself off as he returns to the island, then huffs.

"I wanted that fountain."

"Yeah, yeah," I use [Flight Wind]s to fly over to him and land on his back. "Let's go!"

Torventozil huffs again, then spreads his wings and takes flight. I let out a whoop as he soars straight up, enjoying the feel of the flight. Dragons have an innate magic that protects the rider from the lighter air pressure at higher speeds, from the higher winds and air friction, from the bugs that we may fly through, and even from the lower amount of breathable air. I'm not really sure how that magic works, and I gave up trying to study it a couple of years ago.

Well, it was more than a thousand years ago, but it was only a couple of years ago for me.

The dragon flies around for about an hour, mostly just soaring by sometimes flying straight up or taking a dive. He glides over a river and the forest, and even dunks us into a deeper part of the river before flying out of it.

When we finally return to the island at his waterfall, Kyron and Akrazidonn are back, my husband cooking over a fire he built. It's a rather large fire, and he's using a metal cooking grill I didn't know he had. Whatever he killed was definitely on the larger side, and that's not even accounting for the dead bear that's laying on the island, too.

"The bear is probably for you," I let Torventozil know as we land.

"Caleb," Kyron says when he looks over. "Did you really just ride a dragon while butt-naked?"

"I forgot I was naked."

Kyron snorts, and I hop off of the dragon and join my husband by the fire, where he's just finishing up cooking the various pieces of meat. Some of them are seasoned, some of them are cooked with vegetables, and he even has a small pot of some sort of mashed tuber in it.

"Akrazidonn wanted a variety of foods to try," Kyron says. "And you were taking too long to return, so I got started. I'm not as good as you, but I hope you enjoy. And Torventozil? That bear is for you."

"Thank you," the dragon walks over to the bear and starts eating it.

"Caleb," Kyron sighs. "I took the spirit with me because I had a feeling you'd get up to no good. What do you do as son as I'm definitely out of earshot? You decided to challenge the dragon to three sparring matches, just so you can get a ride on him. I can't go anywhere without you doing something ridiculous!"

"I only challenged him to one," I say. "He challenged me to best three out of five."

"I did tell him that," Kizarvinat tells me. "Though he somehow knew about the fight and flight before I said anything. I guess he saw you two flying."

"No," Kyron snorts. "I saw a dent in the ground that wasn't there before and figured that Caleb had probably slammed the dragon into the ground. Considering the two of them were gone, it was easy to guess that he'd challenged the dragon to a fight just so he could try and get a ride."

"Oh! I did dent the ground with the dragon!"

My husband snorts again, then gives me a kiss.

"Do you want to take over cooking?" Kyron asks. "Because you're honestly better at it than me and I'm not used to cooking this much at once."

"Sure," I say. "You can be my assistant. Pull those veggies off the grill, and please tell me that you harvested more than just those."