When I woke Elias up, there was, understandably, a little bit of shock and a lot of screaming. That scared off the remaining few who were brave enough to stay around for the sake of having more space. Elias only calmed down after a few minutes, but by then we were the only people in this area. After that, it only took a while to convince Elias that the dragon was not a monster for him to kill, and instead a new companion I had worked on while he was asleep. He accepted that reluctantly ("Terra, please don't do that to me again, or Kaelen, or anyone else we pick up.") and we swapped positions. I lay down near Hydra while Elias took up my role. I felt myself drifting off when the dragon commented with a hint of amusement, 'Humans are weak, aren't they, birdie? Are you weak?'

'No', I replied, a little proud, as I recounted the scope of my powers and what I had done with them. The new personality in me jumped excitedly, but I tuned her... it out.

The dragon waited for me to finish, although I could see impatience gathering in his eyes as he scoffed, 'Silly hatchling. A power is not a useful power until you can use it.'

Yes, the voice in me answered. It did not take me long to figure out why it could (or at least thought it could) communicate with the dragon - it was a part of me, at the end of the day, no matter how much I wanted to expel it from my body, Tell the other me what I cannot, dragon.

'There are two of you?' the dragon cocked his head, smoke rising out of his nostrils, 'Regardless, I will get to the point. Birdie, you've missed a lot of things you can do with your power in your haste to do all those quests and devour all the essence of the beasts you slay. I am glad to be created, but won't it be easier for you to use tools? I don't know what you call them here, but they do exist, yes? You can store them in your Inventory and you do not need to control them. Your power has a lot of potential, but you are not a competent wielder.'

'How do you know so many things?' I questioned, suspicious. If Hydra was a dragon that I created, he should have no knowledge of anything except perhaps information on the abilities I had granted him, 'I mean, you did not even exist a few hours ago.'

The other personality within me felt amused when I said that, and the dragon laughed outright, a booming noise that startled Elias. It probably sounded like a roar to him, but I was connected emotionally to Hydra too. It was hard to explain, but we had a psychological bond that ran deeper than the simple telepathic communication. Elias glanced back at us, but since Hydra was not actively trying to kill me or Kaelen, he soon focused on surveying his surroundings for signs of enemies. I highly doubted any human would want to disturb us with the dragon around, but it was always safe to be cautious.

Hydra explained with a tone similar to the one somebody would use if they were trying to teach one plus one to a four year old, 'When you create sentient beings like me, where do you think they pull us from? I was an actual, ancient dragon living in one of the System-integrated worlds. In that world, we were one of the dominant species, and we too use tools suited to us. We were strong and smart, but our population was still small compared to the elves on our planet, so the System was not made available to us but to them. It made those elves wildly powerful although many of them were killed off, but that's not the point.'

We fell into a weird silence, and I realized that he was waiting for me to say something, so I did. Reluctantly, I replied, 'Yes, I understand now. I... did not think of making machinery during my battles. My first succeeded with a vine attack, so I leaned on them instinctually to protect me. I'll create them the next chance I get, but I need to rest now.'

The dragon nodded, and when he replied with his usual tone, I could hear a wisp of softness in it, 'Humans are weak. Sleep well, little hatchling.'

--

When I woke up, Kaelen had already gone through the 'freak out and understand' phase, and we were ready to go. There was no need to check with Elias on whether or not he still wanted to fight the skeleton - seeing that I had somehow managed to get us a dragon seemed to have bloated his confidence a bit, and that was good for this battle.

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We set off with Alaric and Hydra after having a quick breakfast of meat: horned wolf meat for me, another piece of forest deer meat for Kaelen, and whatever red meat Elias had swallowed while grumbling under his breath.

The forest was lively for the first few steps, but as we got further away from the safe spot, the woods grew eerily silent and the buzzing noise returned. As we pushed in further with Hydra flying above the canopy - the forest was too crowded for his liking -, the noise grew louder and louder until a roar erupted from behind us. The skeleton from before now loomed over us again. The 'soul' I had seen before and the System Worker had described pulsated strongly within its skeleton armor, and every step it took towards us were like heavy drum hits that messed with my heart beats.

However, this time, we were ready.

Elias was lifted up by Alaric until he was floating right before the skeleton's heart. It did not seem to notice. To it, they were probably just flying bugs it wanted to kill. I sent a quick request to Hydra to prepare for intervention in case the plan went wrong, before focusing back onto the skeleton before me. I was not certain how mana worked in this world, so although I had a full mana reserve now after a few hours' sleep, I still worried that it might not be enough, even with its supposedly weak mind, but I had no choice but to trust my System Worker's words and just go for it.

I visualized an illusion where the skeleton was able to eat and destroy anything it wanted, and made sure that the illusion hid Kaelen, Elias and me. The imagery must have soothed the skeleton, because the moment I pushed the illusion onto it, it stopped moving and relaxed. For extra protection, Kaelen created a force field to shield us, and we were tense as we watched Elias climb onto the skeleton. As he did, I painstakingly ensured that the skeleton could not sense him in any form. Elias reached into the skeleton's heart with much difficulty because of how thin the gaps between its bone armor was, but he managed it after a few tries.

The moment Elias' fingers touched the skeleton's soul, the boy started to use his corrosion ability, and the pain must have been so immense for the skeleton that it almost jerked itself out of my illusion. I had to exert extra effort to keep the illusion on, and to be honest, I was surprised that it held. Just how weak was this skeleton's mind? As the heart continued to disintegrate into nothingness, I felt many more pushes on the illusion, but I reinforced it every time. My knees weakened, and I staggered, but I tried my best to fulfil my role in this fight. It was only when the last bits of the skeleton's soul was about to disappear that its mind made a desperate attempt with all its power to break out.

This time, it succeeded.

I fell back onto the ground with a daze, my head aching like someone had stepped on it. Kaelen asked, "Terra, are you okay?"

I nodded, but did not have the time for a reply. My attention was fully on Elias and the skeleton. I sent out a message to Hydra, 'Distract that skeleton! Don't try to actually fight it - it is really tough.'

'Sure, little bird,' The dragon agreed, and it flooped down, flying in loops around the skeleton's head. By now, the creature had flung Elias off of its chest. Fortunately, Alaric caught him in time, and when he saw the dragon, Elias shouted over the noise from the skeleton and Hydra's occasional clashes, "Alaric! Drop me at the same spot!"

"Are you sure, hoot?" Alaric asked. When Elias nodded slightly, it did as he asked, and Elias did the same thing as he had done earlier, plunging his arm into the skeleton to reach for the heart, which was just beginning to repair itself. His fingers wrapped themselves around the trugging piece of the monster's soul, and with a final push of his ability, the remainder of the skeleton's essence disappeared. The bones that the skeleton was made out of fell apart, but before they could reach the ground, they were already melting away as notification alarms ringed in my ears.

A Battle Group Member has slain 1x Giant Skeleton [Lvl. 8]! You gained 400EXP, 160 New Gems

'Skeleton' Quest Completed. Quest Progress: 1/1! You gained 5 Ancient Crystals!

You have received a gift from Player #KTWC-52931 from Planet #5468-K [Integrated]! [View Details]

I was almost certain that the gift was from the 'someone' who sent me that chat request. I had forgotten about that again, haven't I? Now that the skeleton problem was dealt with, I should have some time to check that chat request out during my night watch today. But for now, we surely have enough energy and time left to fight some more creatures. I clicked open the details of the gift. I could at least open that while we walk - it could be something helpful.

The moment I saw what was in the gift, my eyes grew wide and I gasped in surprise.