Alexia
She’s cheating. She must be. There’s no way someone can be this good at cards.
No matter how hard I try to catch her cheating though, I don’t find anything.
She can’t be playing fairly, right?!
After five games, with the Ancestral Dragon winning every single one, I finally give up and call it quits.
Ethan just laughs and says, “She’s been playing cards for tens of thousands of years. There’s probably very few people who can actually beat her at this point, so don’t worry yourself about it.”
I cross my arms and frown anyways as the two continue playing cards, Astrid having left a little while ago to go deal with something back at The Retreat. And after watching them play for a bit, I finally lose my patience and ask, “Did you only come here to see Ethan, or should I worry about your presence here?”
The Ancestral Dragon doesn’t even look up from the card game, simply shuffling the cards in her hand and studying them as she says, “No, don’t worry about me. I just came to check up on my son. I’ll be here for a few days before leaving to go find my daughter next.”
I blink in surprise before remembering that Ethan actually does have a sister.
Never really thought about that before.
Honestly forgot he had family other than Vargas and his mother.
Makes me wonder if they’re gonna visit too or not.
I cross my arms and tap my finger a few times with my lips pursed before sighing and grabbing something from my bag. One of those radios made by a craftsman in Lucas’s Dimensional Block that was good enough to be considered a System Item due to its ability to contact you even in dungeons. And without warning, I toss the thing at Ethan, letting him catch it without even looking.
“Please give me a call the next time you have a visitor,” I tell him as he looks curiously at and likely identifies the radio. “I don’t want to end up worrying about someone unknown being in the Dimensional Block next time.”
He gives me a salute without taking his eyes off of the game.
I roll my eyes and walk away, teleporting straight to my clearing in The Retreat, where I find my house completely finished.
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It’s about time. The previous times I was here, the house was only partially finished. The actual house, not the temporary one.
So I couldn’t really stay in the real one. But now that it’s done, I can go ahead and move my stuff there. I can also finally begin taking that one with me places through that portable house thingy.
I enter the house before looking around a bit, finding it to look quite a bit like a regular noble’s mansion from before the Reset. Large, fancy, and highly decorated with expensive stuff.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Pretty good, really.
The place even has a little hangout for Luna, which she takes to right away as she immediately leaves my shoulder to go to it. A little dark cavern with a mixture of scratching post ceiling and comfortable mattress-like ceiling for her to dangle down from.
Cute.
Quantum pops, you said that she’d be able to enter her quantum vampire form after I reach Tier 4, right?
“Yes,” he answers, surprisingly not complaining about the nickname. “I understand you’re just calling me it to irritate me. There’s no reason to respond.”
Well that’s annoying.
I let out an inner sigh and decide to drop the whole quantum pops thing.
In all honesty, the atrocities he’s committed to me aside, it was rather petty.
Anyways, I finish up my rounds of the house before closing my eyes and searching for Astrid. Then, after finding her, I teleport right next to her, startling more than a few people as I appear in the middle of a council meeting. One that goes silent at my entrance.
I ignore the council as I ask Astrid, “Have you heard anything about the Cataclysm Class monster that appeared in this Block? I need to go hunt some.”
She doesn’t look surprised as she glances at Alara, who quickly answers, “The Cataclysm Class monster this time is a massive flying turtle whose back is as large as an island and was last seen about a few days travel to the South of us.”
Oh? It’s close by.
I can probably teleport there within a few hours.
“Anyone know its level?” I ask, prodding for more. But when no one answers, I add, “Or its Tier, at least?”
“The creature is Tier 3,” some random woman that I don’t think I’ve ever met answers.
“Thank you,” I tell them, nod my head at Astrid once more, then teleport out of the room to reappear near my house. And with just a wave of my hand, I put the house in my ring, startling a certain quantum vampire bat who was sleeping in it.
Oops.
Luna flies over to me squeaking a few times before settling down on my shoulder again.
“Sorry, girl,” I tell her while rubbing her head.
After making sure I have everything, I quickly begin to teleport from one island to another, skipping islands in the process all the way till I reach another city. At which point I ask the locals – who are less terrified of me than they used to be – where the turtle is. And then I go in the direction they point out, continuing my search until I stop at yet another city.
Rinse and repeat a few times until I finally find the massive turtle.
Something that doesn’t prove very hard when I get near the thing, since the thing’s pretty hard to miss.
It’s as large as an island after all. And it’s just kinda floating there.
Unlike the Dragon of Cataclysm, this little, err, not little turtle is black and blue in color. A mixture of both on its shell and body.
And it’s swimming through the sky.
I stare at it.
Not sure how that’s working, but probably best not to question it.
Anyways, time to identify it.