"And you were stuck in the crystal for a thousand years?" Allen was getting used to Shoul's barking laughter and condescending tone.

"I wasn't really stuck", he corrected the old man, "I just didnt find my way out yet".

Another barking laughter, "that's stuck in my book" followed by, "and you just decided to be a ghost one day?"

"Something like that", not wanting to share his secrets with someone who ccould also access the system directly, "what were you doing in here alone for over a hundred years?" Allen asked the question most burning in his mind.

"The same as you Casper", laughing at his own joke, "reading and playing games" he added, "when I signed the contract they let me bring a whole library of books and old vr games so when I got stuck here I caught up on my old hobbies"

"You must have read quite a lot in a hundred years", Allen encouraged him.

"It took me a month to upload everything", the dragon sounded upset, "then I just knew whatever was in these books", bitterness oozing in every word, "bastard developers probably knew it", adding, "must have laughed behind my back for eighty years before they died", laughing again, "that was two hundred years before I even tried", he barked then "ha! serves them bastards allright"

"How did you upload the books directly to your memory?" Allen asked counting every word.

"You just put in the command [upload ] and it does it in less time than it takes to think the command", the dragon answerd without thinking, "you didn't know it because you were stuck in a crystal", roaring laughter shaking the walls and dropping stones from the ceiling, "you actually read everything word by word?", the Dragon rolled on the floor flapping it arms in the air, "oh time wasted" it roared laughing with every word.

"Yes", Allen said softly, "it was nice meeting you Shoul" he added "but I should go now"

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Oh don't leave yet", the monster sobered up, "I haven't spoken with anyone for literal ages", then it thought about the situation, "how come you can understand me"

"I just learned the dragon language from a book", Allen tried to regain some of his dignity.

"That's a lie", the dragon squinted in his direction, "I will trade you a secret for the truth", then he thought about the previous conversation, "though it seem like you got one secret from me already".

"Fine" Allen replied after a few seconds, "your only registered language is an unknown and unknowable dialect so the system translate everything you hear and say to garbled nonesense".

"What" the dragon roared in indignation, "how can I fix this?" He cried at Allen, "why can you speak this unknown and unknowable dialect?"

"I know all languages", Allen quickly added, "its a trait from being a crystal", hoping he isnt caught in another lie.

"Thats just annoying", the dragon stated, "can you teach me some other language then" It asked, "whatever the lizardfolk around here speak?", it finished.

"I can" Allen said thinking, "for another secret".

The dragon laughed again, "oh you drive a hard bargain" it rolled to its stomache, "what do you want to know?"

This was a hard question, Allen thought for a few seconds before answering "what you believe it would be worth for you to know the language"

"Ha" Shoul barked, "you know this game", the dragon fell silent for a while and Allen thought it has gone to sleep, "this secret isn't mine", the dragon finally spoke, "so I will obfuscate the words and let you figure it out", closing its eyes in concentration the old one spoke at last "in the dungeon deep, where souless dread, the guildmaster sleep, believed long dead"

"Thats almost cheating" Allen said in frustration, "but since I wouldn't even know there was something to figure out" he finally relented, "I will pay your price", and as he finished he added the Draconian language to the dragons' array, as soon as he was done something unexpected happened, once the array opened the system added almost fifty other languages to the list, "I guess you got more than you bargained for" Allen finally said, "probably from all the books in your memory"

The Dragon stared at him for a second and blinked, "how did you add new books to my library?" It finally asked.

"I think they were stored in the system and waiting for a trigger", Allen said after thinking, "maybe knowing the language?", then looking at his display he added "I really have to go now", but the dragon just stared with glazed eyes at something in his display never noticing when Allen left.