I run to alert the tribespeople about the incoming danger. My boots of the traveler make it trivially easy; I reach their celebration in about 7 seconds. "A dragon approaches from the South." They all look at me for a moment. At first, I think that they’ll pick up their spears to fight. But to my surprise, they all run in fear.

"What!?" For the first time in a long time, I am surprised. "Ican, why do they run? Surely a dragon cannot be so powerful that it can overpower them all." Apparently I am wrong, because Ican is shaking and urinated out of fear. "Jesus Christ. Give me a few minutes."

I walk back to where the dragon was coming from and approach it. "I can tell you are an intelligent creature," I say. "Why do you approach this tribe?"

The dragon huffs smoke through its nose and releases a massive roar. I can feel the searing heat from its breath. "Okay, well, I’m assuming you can talk because the last dragon I encountered did."

It grunts and says in a deep, gruffy voice, "Yes. Little human, you anger me greatly by standing so proudly before me. Kneel!"

"There is only one being I will kneel to, and you are not Him. Why have you come here?"

It roars in anger again. "I sense that the magic has returned, and I felt its source in this area."

"Yeah, that would be me."

"…what?"

"I did that. That was me. You’re welcome."

The reptile squints its eyes in fury and roars again. "Imbecile! First you disrespect me, and now you dare take credit for the work of god? I will kill you!" The dragon rears up its neck and release a blast of fire from its mouth. My runic shielding glows and easily blocks the damage.

When the dragon realizes I haven’t been incinerated, it tilts its head in confusion. It swipes its claw at me; once again, my runic shielding glows and knocks back the dragon’s arm. It looks more panicked now. It tries to grab me in its mouth, but my runic shielding causes its teeth to stop at the air, causing me to slip between its jaws unharmed.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"What the hell are you?" Asks the dragon in a fearful voice.

"That’s not important. Since you’re not a god and you’re sentient, I won’t kill you. However, you lose a danger to this tribe, so I do need to do something about you. I’ve never studied a dragon brain before…" I leap onto the dragons neck and place my hands on top of its head. It bellows in anger. The dragon’s scales are too tough to dig through with my hands, so I cut off the top layer on its skull with my primal cutter. Now with its flesh exposed, I dig my fingers into its flesh and bone and pull apart. The dragon’s head splits in half with some effort, and it lets out a final roar of pain before falling limp. I carefully remove the brain and use my gauntlet’s noble soul to channel healing magic into the brain.

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When I return to the tribe’s camp, I hurriedly rummage around for supplies. Although I have hardly anything to work with, I manage to create a simple life support system similar to Winter’s original. Julius and Ican stare on in absolute shock, evidently having seen the fight. As I plug the dragon’s abnormally large brain into the device, I breathe a sigh of relief as it seems to have worked.

The tribe gradually returns, and immediately begins scavenging the dragon’s corpse. "This is enough to eat for a whole season!" They cheer.

"That dragon wasn’t important for anything, was it?" I ask Ican. "The last time I killed one, well…" I gesture to Winter, who produces a mechanical buzz of annoyance.

"No, I don’t think so. At least, I’ve never seen it or heard about it before." He answers. Thank God. At least I would not come out of this battle empty-handed. I stare at the exposed brain in my hand. It is surprisingly very heavy, so I have Winter carry it in a chest cavity I placed in him for storage. Our group stays until sunrise, at which point I open a flux rift back to the city.

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"Remember, we are looking for anyone whose soul doesn’t belong to this world. Ican, I assume using Status you can see some sort of title that shows this?"

"I sure can," he says. "Kind of fun if you think about it. When I was human I read so many books about this sort of thing."

We explore the city for the rest of the day, Ican using Status on each and every person he sees. Eventually, after a few hours of searching, we decide to unwind at a bar. Well, Julius does, since Winter and I can’t exactly drink and we’re not sure how alcohol would affect a wolf.

As we sit talking about stories, Ican lifts his head from the ground. "That person. Right there." He says. He points his nose at a person sitting alone at a table drinking. "He has the Reincarnator title." This god made our jobs a whole lot easier. I stand up and approach the hooded man, who seemingly senses my presence. As I stand to his side, he jumps up, intending to hold a knife to my neck. Before he can get there, however, I intercept his arm and place him in a headlock.

"Calm yourself," I say. I grab his knife and snap it in two with one hand. Then I toss him to the ground.

"Who are you? What do you want?" He says as he scoots himself into the bar’s corner.

"I am the Thaumaturge, and I am here to help." I extend my gloved hand towards him to help him up.