“If you all keep staring so hard, I am going to blush.” Said a voice from the drake's direction, and if it wasn’t for its slightly gruffly and deeper nature, everyone would have thought it was Tesilim’s voice.

“Did… did the drake just speak?” Rose asked, stating what everyone was thinking, her eyes bulging slightly in sheer disbelief.

“It seems so,” Jasmine answered with a wide smile.

“Drakes don’t usually talk. Actually, most monsters don’t.” Stated the redhead.

“Wow, what a bunch of rude individuals. Hey, dad? Are you my dad? I guess you are. Anyways, stop staring at me and give me a name.”

This line finally got everyone to snap out of staring at the drake. Instead, their gazes moved over to Tesilim, whose mouth was hanging open. His soul-induced headache from draining himself so much was quickly being replaced by another pain-inducing problem standing right in front of him.

The drake, tired of being ignored, began to walk toward Tesilim. This finally got the elf to snap out of his shock.

“Drake, buddy, what do you mean I am your dad?” Tesilim asked reluctantly. Meanwhile, the rest of the group, eager to see what would develop, took a step back and just watched.

“Well, I do have a portion of your soul, and you are the reason why I am alive. So, in a way, you are my dad.” The glimmering drake answered, stopping in his tracks.

“Okay, I guess that makes sense, but how come you can speak?”

Hearing this, the drake's rather well-defined scaly eyebrows made a motion that can only be interpreted as rolling his eyes, even though his actual eyes didn’t really do anything.

“Well, according to Grandpa’s knowledge, you should be able to identify me. Is that correct? Apparently, that should answer most questions.”

“I am sorry, but who is your grandpa?” Tesilim asked, ignoring the less relevant information.

“Not really sure. He said he was a crystal something.”

“What!” Alyx interrupted abruptly, not being able to hold himself back any longer. “Tesilim identify him? It? Identify your child, for god's sake!” The line got chuckles from the three ladies who were still watching with amusement.

“Yeah, listen to the gnome. Though who are they, by the way? I don’t have that information. Also, give me a goddamn name!”

“Uhhhhhh. They are some friends of mine. As for a name…. Well, I am not the best at giving those, so let me think.”

“How about Drakey?” Jasmine threw in out of nowhere.

“Drakey? Really, Jasmine, that's the best you got?” Rose questioned her friend with a judging look.

“Absolutely not!” The drake responded, throwing what was definitely a dirty look at Jasmine.

“What about Tesilim Jr?” Lili pitched with a grin as the other three members of the watch party laughed.

“That's better, but no.” The drake said, shooting down the idea.

“Okay, I got it! What about Drex?” Tesilim finally said.

The party waited in silence as the drake thought over the answer.

“I like it. Sounds powerful. Very well, from now on, I shall be called Drex!”

“Okay, now that Drex is happy. Tesilim if you would.”

“Jesus Alyx, alright, I am going,” Tesilim answered, a bit annoyed at the gnome.

“Who or what is Jesus, and what does it have to do with me?”

“A demi-god from my old world,” Tesilim said offhand.

“Wait, so you guys did have high rankers?”

“What? No. Actually, yes, let's go with that. Back in the day, we did have high rankers, but they all died or left, so our world was left defenseless. This Jesus character was rather well known back on Earth, and it translated into many expressions using their name. Look, don’t worry about it. It's a whole thing that would take too long to explain.”

The exchange between the gnome and elf was listened to very intently as the three ladies and a drake were interested in learning about a different world, though for two completely different reasons. The ladies were just curious, while the drake was noting all the things about his dad, which included the fact he came from another world.

Tesilim didn’t need to actually identify the drake. Drex was a part of him, so he had access to all of his information from the get-go, and he quickly called Alyx and Lili over. Hearing this, Jasmine and Rose had curiosity written all over their faces, but considering the possible problems presented by Alyx, they held back and went to get a closer look at Drex. Once Lili and Alyx were close enough, Tesilim willed for the drake’s information to appear.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

🔷 Crystal Notice 🔷

🔷Creature Information🔷

Name: Drex.

Summoner: Tesilim Telsy.

Rank: Low D Rank.

Type: Chaos Drake - Summoned.

Size: Medium.

Arcane Mana: 780/780.

Pure Arcane Mana: 390/390.

Active Abilities: Chaotic Breath Weapon. Body Enhancement - General. Enhanced Strike.

Passive Abilities: Draconic Scales. Dark Vision. Summoned Body. Presences.

Summoner Abilities: Immune to Chaos. Chaos Boost. Chaos Event. Blessing of the World Crystal.

Concentration: 0/1.

Respawn Time: 6 Hours.

Description: A Chaos Drake summoned by Tesilim Telsy. Due to the drake's nature, it is capable of releasing a variety of breath attacks. The type of breath attack effect is randomly chosen every time it is used and selected from the currently available effects: Fire, Ice, Acid, Poison, Lightning, or Wind.

Furthermore, the drakes draconic scales give it an additional minor increase in resistance against all magic and a major increase in resistance to physical attacks, among other aesthetic properties. Since the drake is a summoned creature, it can be respawned by its summoner at the cost of mana.

The drake has many abilities some manifesting as he grows in power while others must be unlocked. Additionally, due to the drake having its own consciousness, it can use its own Presence and Will, which are very similar to its summoner.

🔷

“Alright, well, the summoner abilities explain the talking part. It looks like your blessing was taken a bit further and allows for Drex to speak.” Noted Alyx.

“I'm not sure how to feel about more chaos stuff, though. We already have plenty to deal with, just with yours alone.” Lili added.

“Well, I mean, I can always tell him not to use the Chaos Boost.” Tesilim pointed out.

“Honestly, it seems like Drex is rather powerful overall. Though not being able to regen mana is a big weakness.”

“Yeah, true, will make him easier to kill at higher ranks.” Lili agreed with the gnome.

“What do you mean?” Tesilim asked, hearing Lili’s comment.

“Well, at higher ranks, it is common to keep a body enhancement going at all times. Usually, by that point, your regeneration is strong enough to keep up with the demand.” Lili replied.

“Does that matter? Do we not lose our weakness as we rank up?”

“What do you mean by that, Tesilim?” Alyx questioned.

“Well, I assumed that as we ranked up, our brains, hearts, lungs, and all the stuff that makes us easy targets would go away and be replaced as our souls directly took control of us.”

“I guess I can see why you would guess that, but no. We still have all of our organs. Though they do become tougher as we rank up, they can still be targeted and destroyed. This is why keeping an enhancement going at all times is so important. Mind you, however, that some things do get better, like limb regeneration, and it is harder for an A Ranker to outright kill another A Ranker with a single attack. Well, unless a hell of a lot of preparations are done.”

Hearing Alyx’s explanation, Lili quickly added, “Additionally, at S Rank or Higher, the possibility of rebirth is very real. At those levels, magic is capable of a lot more, and just because you destroy someone’s body doesn’t mean they are necessarily dead.”

“Also, Lili, though you were correct that without enhancement, it would be easier to kill Drex at higher ranks. I think you forgot something important.” Alyx added, bringing the topic back to Drex’s capabilities.

“What's that?” She asked.

“Drex is a summoned creature, so there is a high chance his body doesn’t have any organs. He might have a flesh body, but I think he works more like a puppet, with his soul actually acting as the brain. Sort of like a higher-ranking undead.”

“Hmm, I guess that might be possible.”

“Well, either way, he will be a nice addition to the party. Though I am not sure how good he will be at stealth if he is always shining like that,” Tesilim added.

Drex, who had been hearing the entire conversation while letting Rose and Jasmine stroke his scales, snorted. Looking over to see why the drake had snorted, the trio saw a ripple go through the drake's body once again.

As the ripple passed, the drake's scales changed. And Drex quickly became a forest drake, at least in the looks department. His tougher scales that covered the upper parts of his body were a deep green, and they slowly shifted to a softer green as they moved toward the belly and inner areas of the drake's body. Even his purple and yellow swirling eyes shifted in color as he blinked, and they became dots of vibrant green.

Needless to say, everyone was impressed, and Drex took on a look of smug satisfaction. The drake would genuinely be a good companion to have, and he didn’t have a timer. Though, in a way, his limited mana was a timer, well, unless Tesilim could somehow transfer mana over to him. That was something he had to try out. Actually, there were many things they still had to learn about Drex.

As for what everyone else in the party thought of the drake, well, Rose and Jasmine were content. It was another member to help them in combat, though overhearing the other three talking about more possible chaotic things didn’t offer Rose much consolation. Lili was also content, though a bit disappointed that Drex didn’t give off the feeling of Chaos Mana. Alyx, on the other hand, was extremely excited since he had yet another thing to look into.

After the color-shifting revelation that Drex had shown, the party headed inside Alyx’s room to allow Tesilim to regenerate his mana. Then, around two hours later, they made their way through the nice sunny forest once again.

A lot had happened in a relatively short amount of time, but the party was not deterred. In fact, with their latest addition, the trepidation some had-had towards investigating the cave had evaporated, and they were all looking forward to unleashing some of their newly built-up stress on some bunny rabbits.