Knock knock*
“Guild master, they are here as you ordered.”
“Ok, come in.”
The receptionist opened the door and told Winter Snow and FeelingAwesome123 to enter.
She then closed the door quietly after they entered.
The sounds of rustling paper could be heard in the room.
Winter Snow took the initiative to introduce both of themselves. “Hello, I’m Winter Snow and this is my companion FeelingAwesome123.”
FeelingAwesome123 retorted quietly, “Who's your companion?”
Winter Snow heard his retort but didn’t bother paying attention to him.
“I’m the guild master of this guild in town, Anderson.”
“State your purpose.” The guild master said.
Winter Snow and FeelingAwesome123 looked at each other.
“Go tell him.” Winter Snow whispered.
“No, you– never mind,” FeelingAwesome123 whispered back to her, then turned his head away from Winter Snow to face the guild master.
“I want to file a report about the reason why a ‘dragon’ appeared in the Collapsed Mining Site and who the culprit is.” He stated.
The guild master was silent for a while, then calmly asked, “Who is it?”
Before FeelingAwesome123 could answer though, he was interrupted by Winter Snow.
“Before we tell you that, what benefits will we get by telling you?” Winter Snow showed a mischievous grin.
The guild master silently looked at her for a moment and sneered.
“Don’t worry, you will be rewarded greatly. What do you take us for? We are a legitimate establishment!”
Winter Snow smiled back as well.
“Of course it is! We aren’t doubting the guild’s legitimacy! We just wanted to hear some confirmation. Hahaha.”
“Hahaha, you’re quite the young lass huh?” The guild master laughed.
“Anyways, back to what you want to report. Extensively tell me the details.” He looked back again at FeelingAwesome123.
He cleared his throat, “Ahem, um… What I wanted to say was that I want to report who instigated the dragon incident that happened in the Collapsed Mining Site.”
“And do you know who it was?” The guild master, Anderson asked.
“Uhhh…” FeelingAwesome123 glanced at Winter Snow.
“His name is Lyn, he is the one who instigated this. He is a young man that looks to be in his 20s and is low leveled—somewhere between level two to three.
“He also recently won the challenge race in the Kraden Auction house that is at the trade area of Melburn town.”
Winter Snow looked at the guild master silently after she finished telling him what she knew.
“Hmm, Lyn huh?... wait for a while, I’m going to check some records.” He opened a drawer from his table and grabbed a thick book.
The sounds of paper rustling could be heard once again.
“Lyn was it…? Hearing that he is low-leveled, he should be at the new register records. That is if he did register.”
A few moments later…
“He’s not recorded in our guild’s registry, that means he probably didn’t register yet on our guild.” He calmly said.
“Then how are we supposed to make him a wanted person…” FeelingAwesome123 said with a forlorn expression.
Seeing this, the guild master laughed. “Hahaha, don’t worry, we have plenty of ways to know. Didn’t he recently win the challenge race at the Kraden Auction House? We can ask them to cooperate with us and give his records to us.”
Hearing this, Feeling Awesome123 heaved a sigh of relief.
“Now… What do you two want as a reward? The guild and the City hall will reward you generously for your merit.” The guild master smiled.
“Huh? The City Hall will also be rewarding us?” Asked FeelingAwesome123.
“Yes, of course! Let me tell you something, that dragon is even more of a threat than you think, in fact, none of us can take it down, at least none of the people in town can.” The guild master said grimly.
“Are you serious?” This time, it was Winter Snow who asked.
“Yes, I am serious. This is not a joking matter.” The guild master placed both of his arms on the table and held both of his hands.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“...S-So from this day on, L-Lyn will be wanted across all the kingdom?” FeelingAwesome123 shakily said.
“Yes.” The Guild Master said in seriousness.
“...This… This…” FeelingAwesome123’s body was shaking.
“Hey… you ok?” Winter Snow asked worriedly.
But before she could pat him, he shouted hysterically.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YES, THAT DAMN PIECE OF SH*T IS WANTED ALL OVER THE KINGDOM FOR LIFE!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…..”
Both Winter Snow and the guild master were startled by his sudden weird behavior.
“Uhhh… Is your friend… right in the head?”
“Ahem, don’t ask me. I don’t know either.”
“...Alright.”
***
Ugh… How much time has passed already?
…I don’t know
…Actually, where am I anyway?... Who am I?
Ugh, it hurts… Ahh~ it’s soothing… Ugh, it hurts…
This cycle of confusion that alternates between painful and soothing seems to be endless…
What seemed to be an eternity… came to a stop…
With a blast of an explosion.
BOOM!
Rumble…
Lyn fell to the ground unceremoniously.
For a few seconds, he was a bit confused and stunned, but he quickly regained his senses and gasped for air.
“Pant*... Pant*...” Sounds of someone inhaling and exhaling air could be heard subtly.
“Attack it!!”
Whoosh!~
A series of attacks were made in succession. Ground dust flew into the air, covering Lyn’s figure.
Taking advantage of the chaos, he turned his body with much effort and crawled away slowly.
Unfortunately for him, albeit unbeknownst to Lyn, the dragon wasn’t even paying attention to the attackers but instead paid close attention to Lyn.
Of course, Lyn wasn’t aware of this. The dust cloud covered the dragon’s figure as well, making it harder to see the dragon as well. Another factor also is that Lyn’s mind is still befuddled due to his head being slammed repeatedly and also being healed repeatedly in the process.
The dragon was staying still—even though it was being bombarded by attacks from all sides—as it watched Lyn struggling in hopes of getting away. It was waiting for Lyn to become so desperate and then it would crush his hopes of ever getting away.
“Ugh…” Lyn groaned as he struggled to move.
‘Move… Move!’ Lyn said in his head.
Slowly, he started regaining control over his body and was able to move much more than earlier, although it was only a bit. The confusion that shrouded him like a veil started to be lifted little by little.
Soon, his mind was going to be clear of confusion.
“Urgh… my head hurts…” He grabbed his head as it throbbed with pain, it was painful but at least he was gaining clarity by now.
After a few seconds of headache, his head was finally clear of any confusion, and was now able to think clearly. The first thing that came into his mind was: “What happened?”
He took a quick glance around his surroundings.
It was full of dust. Granted as he was inside a cloud of dust. So his vision was naturally impeded by it.
But that was enough.
He gained an understanding of his situation and immediately started to act on it.
He stood up with difficulty and headed in the direction opposite where the sounds of bombardment could be heard.
Just as he was about to walk out of the dust cloud, silence permeated the area all of a sudden. The surroundings became eerily quiet. Lyn didn’t pay attention to it whatsoever. He was about to get out after all.
Just one more step…
He was about to take the last step when his senses were screaming for danger. His body shivered with intensity. His pores perspired with cold sweat. His body hair was standing pointing upwards. Something tells him that danger was coming!
He sighed, then tiredly looked up since it was what his intuition told him.
And just as he expected. The ‘dragon’ was staring at him from above, like a person looking at an ant with a smug and arrogant expression on its face-- Or so it looks like it.
The dragon raised its right hand and brought it down upon him. Strangely enough, Lyn didn’t offer any resistance and just succumbed to his fate. Maybe because he didn’t have the strength or motivation to do so, I guess.
And again, he was pressed down to the ground, his face pressing hard on it. Eh, why ‘again’? Anyways, he was pressed down to the ground again.
The dragon looked at Lyn and then took another look again, but this time it took a closer look. It wasn’t a face the dragon was expecting at all. Lyn’s face was devoid of fear and despair but it also doesn’t look like he hasn’t given up yet or is filled with resolution. It was the face of a person who has given up on anything and any expectations at all! What’s more! His expression was just like that of a salted fish.
The dragon was dumbfounded. It at least expected Lyn to have more resistance after all, but it didn't expect Lyn to give up so easily!
Lyn nonchalantly looked at the dragon’s face and raised his free hand just in front of his face. Just as the dragon was wondering what he would do, he inserted his index finger and started picking on his nose.
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” He said in a lackluster tone.
The dragon was silent for a few moments… It was digesting what was happening right now for a while.
After a few moments of silence. It decided that it was time for Lyn to die now. The dragon was fully satisfied already, so it was about time for Lyn to die.
Lyn sensed what was about to come for him, but he didn’t show it on his face. His face was still looking like a salted fish as ever.
The dragon then grabbed Lyn from the ground and held him tightly, holding him up just right in front of its face.
By now, most of the dust cloud has disappeared, so their surroundings are pretty much laid bare.
The dragon opened its hand, letting go of Lyn. But instead of Lyn falling to the ground when it did this, Lyn floated midair.
“Woah, I’m floating~” He exclaimed with a mildly surprised expression.
Ignoring his reaction, the dragon opened its mouth wide and started gathering energy. But the thing is, this energy was somewhat different than usual. Especially since its color is quite different and there is also a chilling aura on it. Usually, its color transitions to blue to orange, but this time there was no blue in the first phase but directly orange to ghostly pale blue with it at first having a tinge of blood red color mix in it, although it was almost undetectable.
It expanded quite slowly, making it quite a spectacular sight. It was beautiful; but deadly. Especially if it was right in your face.
But still, it was indeed beautiful and eerie in a sense. Both literally and metaphorically.
Lyn looked at it with fascination.
Soon, it finished expanding and was about three times the size of Lyn.
And it shrunk at a visible rate.
After it shrunk, its size was about that of a baseball.
The dragon lightly blew at the ghostly pale blue energy ball, the size of a baseball, towards the direction of Lyn.
It flew in a straight line heading toward Lyn’s chest.
Well… You might have expected Lyn to actually struggle but he didn’t. He just looked at it calmly. After all, what can he even do? He’s suspended in midair, he can’t even get out.
It entered Lyn’s chest smoothly, without any obstacle. At first, nothing happened. But then, rising heat could be felt from his chest surging with energy. It was a strange feeling of both hot and cold, with the cold slightly less than the heat. But that wasn’t the point. The point is, that caused Lyn to feel pain that cannot even be imagined.
‘Wha– What’s happening?!?’
Ding!
[ALERT!!!]
[WARNING!!!]
[THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN OVERRIDE!!!
THE SENSITIVITY IS SET TO A HUNDRED PERCENT!!!]
[THE PLAYER’S BRAIN AND BODY WILL BE PROTECTED FROM ANY STIMULATION WITH REGARD TO THE SYSTEM OVERRIDE!!!!]
[HOWEVER!!!
ANY STIMULATION THAT THE HOST WILL FEEL IN THE GAME WILL BE THE PLAYER’S OWN RESPONSIBILITY!!!
NO DAMAGE WILL BE DONE IN THE REAL WORLD!!!]
‘The– The heck!?!?’
But before he could react any further, intense pain overwhelmed his senses.
Not long after, a scream could be heard across the place. If anyone was near the area, they would ultimately shiver in fright.