In the same forest, at the sparser part.

The group of four different species is silently walking toward the south-west. A human, an angel, a lizard and me, a dragon. Well, I am more like crawling on all four.

After the incident last night, the lizard named Argon wanted to return to his tribe as soon as possible. The angel named Bened slept through the night while the human named Rector didn't feel tired at all; so we just kept walking. I'm amazed of myself for remembering all of their names in one night. Well, I learned the kid's name before though.

We keep walking in silence. I tried to apologize once to the lizard for his loss, but he said that everything was okay but didn't say anything to me. For some reason I prefer him being fanatic than giving me the "silent treatment".

About the human, he shushed me for waking Bened on his back as I tried to talk with him. So, not until when the sun is visible and the kid wakes up that I can ask where we are going.

"Let's see, the Western Alliance has some good tourist spot so we would follow him to the Reptile Kingdom." Rector points at the direction we're heading as he says.

"Reptile!" Bened happily runs toward Argon who is walking in front.

The lizard immediately turns his head away, trying not to look at the kid.

"What is wrong with him?"

"I think the angel reminds him of his brother. Neon had a very childish personality and always tried to re-pronounce strange words." Rector explains as he looks at me.. but not my face.

"Should I compensate for him and his tribe?"

"I believe Lacertian tribe also... treats you the same way as we human does." Rector obviously tries to avoid the word 'worship'.

"Tribe? I thought you said 'Reptile Kingdom'?"

"Reptile!" Bened tries to get Argon's attention again.

"The Western Alliance are a group of non-human kingdoms. Most of the residents there live in tribe-like society."

"Tribe..." The moment Rector mentions "tribe-like", I again imagine all sort of things they would do. The "civilized" human is already fanatic, then what would those tribal folks would do? I shudder at the thoughts and stop walking.

"Oh?" Rector turns back and also stops before asking. "You don't want to go there?"

Hearing his words, Argon also stops and glances at me, but then immediately turns away. That look stirs up my guilt, but I dispel that by thinking about how happy the lizard Neon was before his death.

Now that I notice about that, all of my current companions had their closed ones taken by me. Argon simply bears his loss without blaming me. After becoming an angel, the kid Bened has stopped talking about his dad. Rector has never brought it up ever since we met back in Glutton's lair.

Speaking of Glutton, I glance at Toothpick in Rector hand. I've tried summoning him a few times but nothing worked. If he was here, I'd let him glomp all of these people to stop feeling guilty each time I look at them.

"Hello?" Rector's voice breaks me out of deep thought. All of them has stopped to wait for me.

"Can we change our route a bit? I don't want to visit a tribe."

"It's okay." Unexpectedly, this time Argon says but still doesn't look at me. "We could hold my brother's funeral without you."

"As long as I simply get treated as a visitor, I will come."

"That's manageable." Argon says with a slight hesitation before continue walking.

"Alright human.. Rector. The route would be giving his tribe a brief visit."

"I see." Rector nods. "We will go toward the south-west, passing by the Mirage lake-town to rest then head straight to his tribe. It would take roughly a week with our current speed." He glances at Argon who is still walking in front of us.

"How many days in a week?" I ask, making Rector frown and give me a weird look.

"Seven days. Didn't you define it that way?"

"If I could, I would define it as one day per week so we could reach our destination tomorrow." Seeing Rector's frown deepen, I sigh. "It was a joke."

Do all human with Earth element have a rock for brain? I glance at Bened as I think about that. His father, Felix, is one. If the kid was also a rock-headed, he would be a flying rock!

"That remind me, what is the floating island above the east ocean?"

"That's Prae, the Magic city, founded by and named after the God who governs Magic."

"Govern Magic?"

"Yeah. Not anyone could cast all kind and element of magic like you."

"How does that work?" Although I suspect that it's the same as that game, I still ask.

"I'm not sure. If you want to learn more about Magic, you should go to Prae. The largest Magic Academy in the world is also there."

"Is there anything fun to do or beautiful to see?"

"I forgot the guide book at the Inn so I can't tell much, but I'm pretty sure that it's the must to visit Prae if you want to tour the world."

"Then set the route, we will visit it next."

Rector nods the soon loses in thought. Thinking about it, if we go straight from the west to the east, the Temple...

"I want to pass by your Temple on our way. I've never been there before." Rector suddenly says. He probably realizes the same thing as me.

"Why would you bother going there? I am right in front of you!"

"Although they're incomparable to you, there are a lot to see in your temple. It's also a tourist spot."

"Tourist spot? Hmm, if I reach Lv60 by then, I will pass by it. If not, you can visit it alone, I will wait in the forest."

Rector nods then continues walking again. He randomly asks me some question about our travel, however none of them gives change to our route.

"Where do you want to visit next?" Finally, Rector asks this question.

"The southern area is a mess of different country and kingdom. I see nothing special so we will just traverse them randomly."

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"I don't know much about the South, however we could get a better guide from Prae."

"You want to quit your job? I'm going to kill you!"

"Um..." Rector stares at the ground, not saying anything. At this point even I could not know if what I just said was a joke anymore.

"Can you kill me next when we reach my tribe?" Argon suddenly asks from the front. Due to my size, my voice is pretty loud in comparison to my companion.

"Your case is a bit special. Your brother told me to take care of you." Although I'm not obligated to do so, my Conscience would be really mad if I kill Argon. Strangely though, I don't feel weird when I think about taking sacrifice anymore.

"I just want to see my brother again..." Argon says in a low voice, barely enough for me to hear. I suddenly stop walking.

"What's wrong?" Rector stops to ask, making the other two stop to look at me.

"I might be able to help you with that. Without killing anyone, of course."

"You can?" Argon asks with some doubt in his voice.

I simply lay down on my belly, motioning him to come closer before closing my eye, entering my Realm.

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An endless space of blackness.

Well, it's a bit pointless to say that every time I reach here. The Realm is always the same. I hope I could decorate it a bit though, since it's the equivalent of my dream. I will think about that later.

I look around my floating body, trying to find the other lizard, Neon. Ah, he is on the same spot as where.. Felix was. That makes sense since I killed them both in the same way.

"Hello Neon." I smile while giving his tiny deformed lizard-head a pat. He can't talk though, but he could still hear me.

["Are you here to console your prey?"] Vitae's voice suddenly echoes in my mind.

"Ah, you come in such a right time. I need some help."

["If you want to revive that Lacertian, then I apologize."]

"No no. I just want to let his brother visit him."

["Aren't you always casting a random spell for everything you want to do?"]

"Dealing with Soul need Primal Life magic." I recall what the priest told me back in Mirage lake-town. "So I need your help."

Last time I chanted on a whim, but she still appeared and helped me. So this time I want to ask her first, since she seemed nice to me, though I will NOT pray to her.

----------------------------------------

I open my eyes, finding myself back in Material Realm. All three of my companions are staring at me with a curious eyes.

"I've got help from Vitae." I smile at them, however, their curious eyes turn into horror. Bened looks surprised though.

"You speak the name of the Goddess..." Rector says.

"What's wrong? She's a nice little girl."

"You call the Goddess a little girl..." Argon says.

"I am the freaking Origin Dragon!" I yell at them, making them fall onto their butts. Bened chuckles at the sight.

"I know, it was a joke!" Rector explains with a wry smile.

"Then how could you two think of the same joke at the same time?" I turn to look at Argon.

"My tribe worships the Life Goddess. Mentioning her name like that would bring a death sentence." Argon says with a serious face.

"I'm going to say her name again in my chant." I glare at Argon. "Don't cut my throat if you want to see your brother."

"I.. I understand!" Argon springs up with high speed and stands right in front of me. I reach my claw over to grab him, though I'm not strong enough to lift him up, but this will do. Taking a deep breath, I start my chant.

"I am Origo, the Origin Dragon. Under the witness of Vitae, I command the Soul of Argon the Lacertian. Come to my Realm. Come to me... Soul Link!"

As I speak the spell name, no special effect happened. However my throat suddenly feels extremely itchy. I uncontrollably takes a sharp breath through my mouth. At the same time, Argon's eyes lose their light and he faints in my claw.

"Wait, did I just swallow his Soul?" I frantically shake the lizard.

"His status is still there. I guess it's alright. The Goddess won't probably lie to you. Further more, the spell name is just Soul Link."

I nod at Rector words then slowly lay Argon down, however... I lift the lizard up, shaking him up and down a few times. He is.. weightless. I glance at Rector who is also having a confused look.

"He.. is a Wind element?" However Rector is surprised about this instead.

We continue walking forward with me carrying Argon and later have a rest beside a small lake in the forest. At first I let Rector carries the lizard since I thought he was mass-less. However Rector still felt his weight so I have to carry him on my back.

"Interesting..." After testing it for a moment, I realize how "weight" in this world works. That's also the reason I could lift my huge body to fly with my low STR. Anything within the same soul would be almost mass-less to each other. And since Argon's soul is currently linked to me, I could lift him like a part of me.

While I am playing with Argon like a puppet, Bened is playing with the water in the lake and Rector is sitting next to him. Suddenly, the lake's water violently shakes. Rector grabs Bened and jumps backward. I simply raise my eyebrows to look. Even if it's a Lv99 Monster, it's not allowed to hurt me anyway.

A watery explosion happens on the air above the lake, then a figure fades into existence. A [Lv45 Water]. He looks like an Octopus, but it's strange as Octopus only lives under the sea. Maybe this world is a bit different.

Instead of fully fade into existence, the Octopus looks.. transparent. That reminds me of Glutton. I glance at Toothpick, seeing it slowly floating into the air, giving off three different glows.

["Well well well. What a coincident seeing you here."] His impudent voice echoes in my mind.