The Dragon Girl’s Ascension Vol 2
Table of Contents
Dragon Girl’s Ascension Volume 2
First Dungeon
Oinktera
began to sweat. His boss was not going to tell him he had to go in there,
right!? “Boss…?”
Desaray
finally turned to look at Oinktera and gave him a wide, scaly grin. “We are
going in since we need to figure out what level dungeon it is. From the
surrounding area, I’d say it is around level 1ish. We will be okay as long as
we take our time. After all, we need to level up, and if this works like the
dungeons I know of, then we can do this one dungeon over and over until we all
reach the proper level. Plus, we need to kill elite mobs. Elites only appear in
dungeons or around them, but I do not see any elites here now, do you?”
Oinktera
wanted to argue, but he could find no fault in anything his boss said. He
sighed and looked at the dungeon, which still sent shivers down his spine. He
then took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. He held up his spear and
said: “T-Then l-let’s do it!”
“Good!
Remember though. We are checking first. Do not attack anything unless you are
attacked first. If they are around the level range I stated, then we will try
to pull one at a time. I will be the main tank. I will need you all to keep me
healed with first aid, just like we practiced.” Desaray had already trained
them on teamwork. Each one of them knew how to play their roles
quite well. She was the main tank, and the rest were DPS. Oinktera was their
main healer since she, for some reason, had a bigger mana pool than the others.
“Understood!”
everyone replied in unison. Desaray was their boss, so even if they were a
little reluctant, they would still follow her orders.
Desaray
nodded before taking a deep breath and pushing the door to the dungeon open.
She felt as if she passed through some kind of thick film as she stepped into
the dungeon. At the same time, a notification appeared above her head.
[Discovered
The Secluded Cave]
[Experience
Points Gained….]
Seeing
that she got experience points just for entering the cave made Desaray happy.
She quickly looked around to see that she was now in a dimly lit mossy cave.
There were torches lining the walls which would never be possible if there was
not some kind of special trick to this entire place.
The
pigmen all stood behind her with their weapons at the ready. Each one was very
nervous except Desaray, who was trying to analyze everything. “We need to go
slow. We do not know if these dungeons have traps or not.”
Desaray
was trying to take everything into consideration. As long as they were not
caught in a monster trap with hundreds of monsters or hit by any of the traps
themselves, they should be able to clear the dungeon. She did hope to maybe
find some drops if drops were a thing in dungeons.
Taking
a deep breath, Desaray decided it was now time to move. She slowly made her way
forward. To be safe, she would test the area in front of
her with rocks from the cave floor. She did not know if anything was able to
sense movement or not. The first area seemed like a safety zone. There were no
monsters in sight. But when they came to a passage that narrowed out leading to
the next area, Desaray went fully on guard.
The
passage was not long and was only two Desaray wide. They slowly made their way
down until they came to the exit that opened up to the next room. This is where
Desaray came to a full halt. She motioned to her companions to stay quiet and
stay there before looking around and whispering: “Appraisal!” Over and over
again.
She
was able to pick up three sources that were monsters.
[(Elite)
Night Snake]
[Level]:
8
[Monster
Rank]: E
[Elemental
Affinity] Dark
[HP]:
600/600
[MP]:
100/100
Desaray
snorted in annoyance. The damn snake had more health than her! But…. She was
lucky it was an elite. This meant she could easily clear one of her evolution
requirements. She slowly backed up, forcing the pigmen to follow suit before
sitting down in the cave. “From what I can tell, there are three level 8 elite
snakes called Night Snakes. They are rank E monsters. Their health is at 600
HP, and their mana is at 100 MP. I have no idea about their defenses or
anything like that, but they are aligned with the dark element.”
The
elemental affinity was something new thanks to her leveling up Appraisal. It
helped a lot to understand the alignment of the monsters
you are killing since this can help take advantage of a weakness. All elements
had opposing sides, after all. Although, the fact that it took longer to get
good at certain spells did not help if you were not aligned with them either.
So it made things much more difficult to go around casting every type of
element as if you were a god.
But
Desaray did plan to slowly get used to the other elements as time went on but
would keep her current ice element as her main element. “Since none of us are
of the light element, we will have a bit of a tougher fight. I will try to lure
one over to kill. But be ready for two or three. We will use the narrow passage
to our advantage if we get more than one. I will try to keep them both on me,
though.”
Since
their plan was set, Desaray moved back into the room. Her first target was the
elite night snake to the right since it was farthest away from the others.
Oinktera and the other pigmen all waited at the designated spot where they
would fight.
Although
the room was rather dark, Desaray’s dragon eyes could easily see what was going
on around her. Sadly, it was only her that could see well. The pigmen still had
a hard time seeing into the darker sections of the cave.
But
even for Desaray, who could see well in the dark, seeing the black night snakes
in the darkness was no easy feat, which was why she used appraisal to find out
what was around.
She
quickly and quietly made her way over to the lone night snake and raised her
claws. “Ice Arrow!”
A
blue and white ball of ice formed in front of her hand before slowly extending
out into the shape of an arrow and flying forward. It flew
through the cave silently until it smashed into the side of the head of the
night snake.
The
night snake turned its head with narrowed eyes as it hissed and looked at
Desaray. It did not hesitate in the slightest to chase after the blue thing
that just smacked it with some kind of rock.
Desaray,
on the other hand, was already backpedaling but not too fast since she did not
want to lose aggro if it was even possible to do so. But since things were more
and more like a game by the second, she couldn’t help but feel like it was. She
was also keeping an eye on the other night snakes. Luckily there was no
movement as of yet.
From
the information she was seeing, she had done thirty points of damage from that
one attack and used 5 MP to cast the spell. This left her with 415 MP. She
would need to attack it 19 more times to kill it. She could easily do that
while kiting the night snake, but that would not give her companions the
experience they need to fight elites. Now that she had those who were fighting
at her side and were part of her team, she could not just do everything
herself.
She
did not wish to fight alone either. While it might make her seem more powerful,
what would happen if she was alone and accidentally pulled three or four
monsters at a time? She would definitely end up dead if she could not run away.
Having Oinktera and the others helping her as she made her way toward her goal
was very important. She had to fight as a team in order to defeat monsters
safely.
The
night snake began picking up speed as it rushed toward Desaray. Its body
slithered back and forth in between the rocks protruding
out of the cave floor. Desaray finally turned around to start running normally.
She raised her paw and extended one finger towards Oinktera to indicate that
only one monster was incoming.
Oinktera
and his kin were nervous but also determined. They wanted to be of help to
their boss, who had done so much to help them grow stronger. They were taking
steps to become the first pigmen to evolve. There had never been any record of
a pigman who had evolved before, so this was the first time.
“Attack
once our boss reaches us. Remember what she said. We will fight near the
entrance to stay away from other mobs and to also allow us a quick escape if
need be. If you get hurt, quickly cast first aid on yourself and back up until
you are ready to fight again. If someone ends up dying, do not lose your cool.
Keep fighting in formation. Our job is to keep attacking and reduce its HP
until it hits zero!” Oinktera called out his orders, making his companions all
nod. Their eyes went from being nervous to looking very serious. It seemed they
did not want to fail on the first monster.
As
soon as Desaray arrived at the group, she skidded to a halt, turned around, and
blasted a few more ice arrows at the night snake. She had to keep its attention
on her. Oinktera and the rest did not have high HP, nor did they have much
defense, but she did, which was why she took up being a tank.
The
night snake was enraged once more after being hit so many times. It darted at
Desaray, ignoring the little piggies at its side. Little did it realize that
this was going to be a fatal mistake. While the night snake was focused on
trying to kill the one who kept hitting it in the head with frozen rocks, the
pigmen flanked it from both sides and began stabbing it with their stone
spears.
[You
Defeated A Elite Night Snake]
[Experience
Points Gained….]
Desaray
smiled as she walked over to the night snake and sent it into her inventory.
But when she did this, she was surprised to see that instead of white names,
the items had green names. “Oh? A higher quality? Is it because it is an
elite?”
Although
she was curious, something caught her eye, drawing her attention. A few shiny
objects were lying on the ground where the Night Snake once was.
“This
is?” Desaray asked as she looked at the shiny circular objects on the ground.
While she was asking what it was, she pretty much already knew what it was.
“Gold
coins. They are the currency of our world. They can be used all over the world
no matter the race, which makes trade much easier,” Oinktera explained.
“I
see, so we can just save them then.” Desaray sighed and put the shiny coins in
her inventory. They did not take up a slot, but instead, the 0 she had at the
bottom suddenly shot up, showing she now had 10 gold.
[Name]:
Desaray Harris
[Race]:
Ice Dragling
[Age]:
14
[Level]:
13
[Monster
Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20
[HP]:
860/860
[MP]:
580/580
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice
[Skill
Points]: 16
[Skills]
{Ice Breath
(Lvl 2)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl 2)}
{Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)} {Dig
(Lvl 1}
{Dry
(Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 2)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon
Crafting (Lvl 2)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 2)} {Hunting (Lvl 2)} {Foraging (Lvl 2)}
{Cooking (Lvl 2)}
On
top of now having 16 skill points, her HP and MP also jumped nicely. Even the
elite requirement on her evolution requirements had disappeared. She found
elite monsters, even ones of a lower level, were good experience.
“I
think that is it?” Desaray pursed her lips. “Did we miss a turn?” She could
have sworn they checked the entire dungeon.
“Boss,
from what I know, dungeon boss rooms only appear when the whole dungeon is
clear of monsters. If this was truly the last monster, then we need to look
around for the door,” Oinktera explained.
“Alright
then, let’s backtrack. Follow the map, and when we find the boss room, mark it
down.” Desaray still had someone map out the dungeon. By having this map, they
could run this dungeon a few times. Oinktera said dungeons reset every twenty
four hours. So they could scout around for a day and then the day after do the
dungeon again to get everyone’s levels up. She was actually hoping to find a
higher level dungeon as well. She had gotten a lot of gold and green crafting
materials. She hoped to make some new armor when she got back to her base camp.
One
thing she was really excited about was the tin and copper she had been farming
as well. She had enough to make a few weapons for all of them. Stone spears and
stone daggers did not work all that well and would chip. If it was not for the
fact that she had made a few tips for each spear and dagger that she had
crafted, some of the pigmen would have long been left without a weapon.
“Well,
according to the rules of dungeons that I know of, the boss should be a snake
since that is basically all we have been fighting.” Desaray hoped the boss
would not be too hard. She had to think of the safety of everyone, including
herself.
“According
to what I know, this is correct,” Oinktera replied.
“Okay,
then let’s stop and see what skills we can get. Oinktera, you said a few magic
spells had shown up, correct?” Desaray knew magic would be best to quickly take
a boss down unless it had some kind of high magic resistance.
“Yes,
all of us have access to fireball and rock arrow,” Oinktera answered.
“Then
use your points on that and then upgrade any combat skills you have. At the
start of the fight, let me battle the boss for a few minutes to get enough
damage ramped up on it.” Oinktera and the rest were all level 9 now. Oinktera
was almost level ten. They had all leveled up quickly, but that leveling was
starting to slow.
While
the pigmen were excitingly getting their first true attack spells, Desaray
began going through her list, looking for something for her to buy. She kept
scrolling through her list until she spotted something interesting. “Healing
Snow?”
[Healing
Snow]
[Heals
Everyone within 32 feet for 100 points.]
[Mana
Cost]: 20
“An
ice healing spell….” Desaray smiled. It was not even a single cast spell but an
aoe (area of effect) healing spell. It cost ten skill points as well. This
meant she could cast this spell when she saw people getting low with no way of
healing themselves. She took a deep breath. “Alright, I will spend ten points
on this and try to up a few more skills.”
In
the end, Desray could only level up one skill, and that was the skill she had
just purchased, Healing Snow. The healing, along with her affinity, went up to
250 HP per cast.
[Name]:
Desaray Harris
[Race]:
Ice Dragling
[Age]:
14
[Level]:
13
[Monster
Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20
[HP]:
860/860
[MP]:
580/580
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice
[Skill
Points]: 1
[Skills]
{Ice
Breath (Lvl 2)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl
2)} {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)}
{Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry
(Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 2)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon
Crafting (Lvl 2)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 2)} {Hunting (Lvl 2)} {Foraging (Lvl 2)}
{Cooking (Lvl 2)}
With
her new aoe healing skill, she was ready to face off against the boss.
She
just needed to watch her mana closely. Because if she used her new healing
spell too many times, it would drain her MP fast. Desaray looked over at the
others and asked: “Ready?”
“Boss,
no matter what happens, we will follow you!” Oinktera had gained a lot of
confidence since they started the dungeon. The same went for his companions.
They each learn how to kill elite monsters! This was something that only those
privileged enough to cast magic could do, and now they were in this class of
magic users.
“Then
let’s do this!” Desaray pushed open the door and walked in with Oinktera and
the rest following closely behind.
The
room was dark, which was normal for any dungeon boss room that Desaray had gone
into. They had only taken a few steps into the boss room when the sound of
clapping was suddenly heard. “Good job! And welcome.”
The
entire room suddenly lit up as if it was the light of day, causing everyone to
shield their eyes. As they slowly adjusted to the new brightness, they saw a
man in a black cloak standing not too far away. Desaray narrowed her eyes as
she looked at the man. She could only see the outline of his chin since he had
his head slightly lowered, but she felt like she might know this person. Although she is not sure who it was or why she felt
like this.
The
cloaked man’s eyes flashed as he looked at Desaray before clapping his hands
once more. “I can not tell you who I am, but I can say this. To be the first on
a world that has just been turned to complete a dungeon, shows that you all
have promise. Although…. To see pigmen from the boundary world here is very
promising.
The
cloaked man sat down on a stone block that rose up from the floor and crossed
one leg over the other as he held his hands in his lap. “Please take a seat. I
believe you all are wondering why things are the way they are. Am I correct?”
Desaray
looked at the cloaked man with caution. “Do I know you?”
Desaray’s
question made the cloaked man’s eyes flash once more. He couldn’t help but let
out a sigh before saying. “I can only tell you what is going on and nothing
more.”
He
did not deny nor agree to anything, making Desaray purse her scaly lips.
“Appraisal”
[System
Message: Can not be appraised….]
Clicking
her tongue, she sighed and gave in. She felt that even if this man wanted to
kill them, he could at any time. She did not even think they could escape.
Sighing once more, she turned to Oinktera and the rest and waved for them to
lower their weapons. “Let’s go sit. We need to know what is going on. And since
he is here, it means he is part of all of this.”
The
group walked over and went to sit down. Normally the boss door would have
slammed shut behind them, but it was still wide open.
Desaray was about to sit fully when a stone block in the shape of a chair rose
up from the ground. The cloaked man pointed to the chair and said: “Those of
the dragon race should be treated with more respect.”
Desaray
ignored the chair and sat down on the floor in front of it. “I am no different
from Oinktera and the rest. If they sit on the floor, so shall I.”
The
man’s lips curled up as he mumbled: “Still the same….” he sighed and then stood
up himself before sitting on the floor as well. “Since that is the case, then I
too will sit on the ground.”
Desaray
grinned slightly, seeing this. She found the man to be rather strange. “So what
is it you want to tell us?”
“Every
world has another world that exists beside it,” the cloaked man began. “These
worlds run on different timelines and laws. One world could be a world of
technology, while another could be a world of magic or a world with nothing on
it whatsoever. Everything is based on what happens during those timelines that
change the world compared to its clone.
“Think
of it as parallel worlds. Sometimes these worlds are forcefully brought
together. Some will merge into the other, or they will clip each other, causing
catastrophic events. Hence, what happened to this world. Normally, it would
only cause natural disasters, but there are times when the worlds will
partially merge. Beings from both worlds will begin to appear. But now here is
when things get complicated….”
The
cloaked man sighed as he looked at the world around him. “Your world and the
other world are in a strange state. Those that disappeared were consumed by
this world and turned into mana that now fills this world while monsters and
mana from the other world slowly seep into this world.
They are still in the middle of merging. Soon this world may expand to two or
three times its current size.”
The
cloaked man’s gaze never left Desaray as he wanted to see her reaction to all
of this information. After all, he had come here for only one purpose only. He
only had a limited time and had to pull strings to come to this place. He could
not come back for some time.
“So
this merger caused all of this….” Desaray scratched her head. She still was
unsure about a lot of things. “Then what about my body? I was originally human.
”
“This
is something that happens. As I said, your worlds split at some point, so the
part of the DNA hidden deep within you was the cause of the transformation
since mana will bring out the old DNA and rewrite your own DNA. But don’t
worry, all races have a humanoid form. Dragons are known to be able to
transform back and forth as well. Keep leveling and growing stronger. You will
be able to do more than just transform but even soar through the sky.” The
cloaked man wanted Desaray to keep growing stronger. She had to protect
herself.
“I
will keep working hard….” Desaray sighed once more. She had no choice but to
work hard. She still had to get to where her father and friends were. She
wondered how long that would take.
“Good.
I must leave. The rewards for this level will be given as if you had defeated
the boss of this dungeon. Tell those you come across about the merger. This is
the only thing I ask. And Aria, stay safe.” The cloaked man looked Desaray
straight in the eye as he called her Aria.
[You
Defeated A Dungeon Boss: Vanishing Snake King]
[Experience
Points Gained….]
[Level
Up!]
[Level
Up!]
She
had reached level 15 and gained 10 more skill points. She was happy about this
but also felt things were still strange. She wondered just how much more the
world would change. Would the current world she was in change dramatically to
where she would not recognize it anymore? Why did that man seem to know her,
and for some reason, deep down, she felt as if she knew who he was…
“Let’s
check the loot.” Desaray decided to put her thoughts on hold. She had no way of
answering anything. She could only concentrate on gaining five more levels.
She
walked over to find gold coins on the ground along with some armor that was
blue colored and more materials. But these materials were also blue colored.
She picked them all up and put them away. The armor was a blue quality armor
but was also metal.
[Vanishing
Kings Chest Armor]
[Level
Requirement]: 13
[HP]
+ 30
[Defense]
50
[Notification:
Equipment Window Unlocked…]
Desaray
looked at her menu and saw that it was indeed unlocked. She opened the
equipment menu and saw a bunch of generic equipment slots. Some of which were
filled with the armor she put on. She wondered why it suddenly became
accessible. “Is it because it’s a drop item?” Desaray did not know, but she
hoped this would make making armor easier for her later on. She equipped her
new armor, and with a flash of light, her old armor came off, and her new armor
went on. She looked down at herself and found that the armor really fit her
perfectly. There was no tightness around anything. Even her wings had two slots
they were poking out of.
“Boss!
Your armor looks amazing!” Oinktera praised. None of the pigmen were mad that
Desaray took the armor. After all, if not for her, they would not have had the
chance to even complete a dungeon and level up. She took the brunt of all the
damage and was always making sure none of them got hurt.
“Thanks.
Although I wish I had gotten the equipment menu sooner. Could have saved time
and materials on armor for myself….” Desaray sighed at the thought of the
wasted materials, but now she did have better quality materials, so she could
make much better equipment for the pigmen. “Let’s head back. We will rest and
spend a few days making new armor and weapons. After that, we will search for a
higher level dungeon!”
“Yeah!”
The pigmen all shouted at the same time, a big difference from when they first
entered this place.
It
was just that not far away, a set of eyes was watching them as they gathered
around the campfire.
Toblins
The
next day Desaray got to work on crafting. She wanted to get everyone new armor
and weapons as soon as possible. Luckily the pigmen had all gained more
abilities as well. She started off by working on their spears. She did not
think they should be switching weapons just yet. They could do that in their
free time. For now, she wanted them to keep going with what they were
comfortable with.
While
Desaray was working, Oinktera walked over and whispered to her. Desaray lifted
her head and looked at Oinktera, and narrowed her eyes. “Drag them out.”
“On
it Boss!” Oinktera did not waste even a second as he raised his paw up to give
the signal.
Not
even half a second later, a yell came from the tree line not far away. A very
familiar voice could be heard. “Let go of me! You are nothing but walking
sticks of bacon!”
Oinktyra
and Oinkyera both walked out of the bush holding a long ear each. A gray rabbit
with a small horn and two long ears that were gripped by two pigmen dangled in
the air kicking and screaming.
Desaray’s
eyes narrowed. “What do you want, Jake?”
Oinktera
looked at his boss and saw her shake her head no so he signaled for the others
to keep a tight grip on the rabbit. Desaray snorted before saying: “Jake, why
are you here? I think after everything that you said last time you and I are no
longer friends.”
“Desa,
are you still mad? I only said a few things in a fit of anger! I will apologize
if you want. So tell these bastards to let go of me!” Jake still did not seem
to understand. He knew deep down that if Desaray was not here he would be
shaking in his fur not willing to say a word hoping he would be able to escape,
but since she was here and seemed to be in charge of these pigmen he felt a
high of superiority.
“Jake,
I think you are not understanding something. You are yelling at my friends and
calling them names. Who the hell are you to ask me for a favor? Last time you
freaked out thinking I was trying to get you killed. Now you are even giving me
a half-assed apology like I would take it to heart. From the beginning to the
end, you only want to seem superior. I mean how can you be superior when you
are a damn rabbit!? Anyone of my friends here can kill you in an instant. But
you still want to act all high and mighty?” Desaray snorted and stood up. She
put down the half finished spear tip in her hand and walked over to him.
“Wha?”
Jake’s eyes grew big. He looked like a scared rabbit. “You! You wouldn’t dare
eat me! I used to be….” Before he could finish he felt something slice into his
arm. He looked at the claw that was pulling back and looked up at Desaray who
began licking the blood off of it.
“Jake,
did you forget? I am a dragon. I am not human, nor are you. You are a rabbit
and a fat one at that. I can easily shove a stick in one end and out the other
to slowly roast you over a fire. Your hide will make Oinktera a new pair of
socks. I can even make a toothpick out of your horn…” The more Desaray said the
more the gray fur on Jake’s body began to turn white. He realized that she was
not kidding! She would really eat him!
“I
get it! I will not show up in front of you again!” Jake could only bite his lip
and yell this out.
“Heh.”
Desaray motioned with her head and Jake was finally set free. “Leave before you
make me change my mind. It just so happens we have yet to decide on dinner.”
Jake
quickly turned and ran away. Off in the distance, Desaray heard: “You will
regret this!”
“Boss…
This… Are you sure we should let him go? It is better to deal with those kinds
of people before they come back after growing in strength.” Oinktera was
worried. He did not know if the rabbit would somehow evolve and become
powerful.
“Oinktera
what race am I?” Desaray asked.
“If
you want rabbit I will not stop you, but I want the materials.” Desaray could
care less if Jake lived or died. So if Oinktera wanted to hunt Jake, he could.
“Then….
I will go try to find it!” Oinktera turned and ran off. He was quickly followed
by two others.
Desaray
chuckled as she went back to working on the equipment. She hoped to reach level
3 in armor and weapon crafting in the next few days.
Not
long later, Oinktera came back with the other pigmen with a sullen face. “Who
knew rabbits were so quick!?”
Desaray
chuckled as she finished the first spear. “Not bad..” She turned and looked at
Oinktera and tilted her head. “No rabbit?”
“Boss,
you have no idea. Once that rabbit thing saw us it cursed us a new one before running
as fast as possible!”
Desaray
laughed out loud as she handed him the spear in her hand. “This is called The
Vanishing Spear.”
[Vanishing
Spear]
[Quality]:
Rare
[Damage]:
50-60
[2%
chance to vanish from opponent’s sight.]
It
was long and bone colored. This was, of course, since it was all made out of a
bone from the Vanishing King boss. She did not plan to just make the one
either, she had enough to make all the pigmen spears. She
also planned to use the fangs to make arrowheads. She found daggers were of no
use to her, so she planned to make arrows and a bow using the materials on
hand.
She
was sure she had enough materials, and if she made something out of the scope
of her current crafting system, she could earn more experience towards her
level, it seemed. The reason why she was doing a bow was mainly because of its
ability to do things like ice arrows with lower mana cost. She had ice element
mana. If she infused an object with her mana, she noticed that it would freeze
over, and if enough mana was injected into the object, anything the object
touched would start to freeze as well. She found that with half the mana cost
of an ice arrow, she could send an arrow flying out infused in her mana to get
a third of the effect of a normal ice arrow. It was quite handy for times when
she was out of mana and needed to slow an enemy to escape.
This,
in the long run, would give her another trump card for survival as well as
another means of pulling enemies. Since she knew in the foreseeable future she
would be the tank of her party, she wanted to have as many manaless options as
possible so she could conserve them for when mana was truly needed.
A
few days passed, and Desaray had finished all the armor, as well as her bow and
arrows, and more spears. Both her armor crafting and weapon crafting jumped to
level 3. Currently, she was receiving a report from Oinktera about some new
sightings around their camp. “So goblins?”
“They
seem to be a variant,” Oinktera began. “There are two variants of goblins. The
green-skinned goblins, who can only produce male offspring, so they need to
find women to impregnate, and then there are the gray-skinned goblins, who are able to give birth to males and females and are much
more civilized. They like to call themselves toblins.”
“Toblins,
huh?” Desaray pursed her scaly lips. She wondered why they decided on such a
stupid name. “So, are they just hunting, or are they looking to attack us?”
“I
am not sure. We have only been keeping an eye on them and have not made contact
as of yet. We did not report it until now since we wanted to see if they would
leave on their own,” Oinktera replied.
“From
now on, tell me right away if there are other races hanging around. Especially
goblin-type races.” Desaray hated goblins, but these were not goblins but
toblins. “Let’s make contact. I want to know what they are doing. If they are
enemies, we will kill them, if they are friendly, we will welcome them.”
“Understood,
Boss.” Oninktera did not know much about the toblins since they would always
stay away from other races. But he figured this was due to the prejudice that
others had against goblins in general.
Desaray
had Oinktera follow her. Oinktera already said they were low level so there was
no need for her to bring a bunch of people along. When they arrived, the
toblins, who were pushing their wooden spears in the bushes, all quickly turned
around and pointed them at Desaray and Oinktera. “Put them down. We mean you no
harm.”
“You…
How can we trust other races?” A female toblin spoke up. She was very wary of
both Desaray and Oinktera.
The
toblin girl looked at Desaray and then at Oinktera and took a step back. “I
still can not trust you. But I can say that we have come in search of a
prisoner that had escaped.”
“A
prisoner?” Desaray’s brow furrowed. “What did they look like?”
“Gray
fur, long ears, and a short horn on their head.” The toblin girl did not hide
anything.
“Ah!
That damn rabbit!” Oinktera gritted his teeth. “He was fat and juicy and
escaped!”
“Are
you still on about that?” Desaray asked. She had never seen a pig throw a fit
over rabbit meat before.
“Why
wouldn’t I be!? Boss, if you cooked it, just imagine how good it would have
tasted!” Oinktera loved the meat that Desaray cooked.
“Oh….”
Desaray nodded. She also felt that Jake would have tasted good, slowly roasted
with some peanut oil and some seasonings. She even had some mushrooms and other
vegetables that she could have sauteed and stuffed in him. “Alright, you win.”
“Ummm…
So you have seen it?” the female toblin asked. She was starting to think these
people were not too bad.
“Yes,
but he escaped,” Desaray replied. “Let’s head to my camp. We can talk more
there.”
“My
name is Juna, next to me are my guards, Rintu and Trina.” Juna introduced her
and the male and female guards at her side.
“Guards?”
Desaray tilted her head. If Juna had guards then she was probably some kind of
noble in the toblin race.
“Yes.
Believe it or not, I am a princess or was. Now that I am on this world I am no
different from anyone else. I do not know how or why but we suddenly appeared
in this strange place. The air is different so I know it is not the same
world.” Juna had keen senses for her race. She was one of the few shamans of
the toblin race.
“You
are not wrong. You are in a different world but at the same time not. You can
think of this world as a different version of yours on a different timeline.
Our worlds are slowly merging. In the future, there will be more of your
people. So while you are just you now, once the world fully merges you will see
more of your kind. But I feel this world will end up being much more chaotic.”
Desaray did not even want to think of the wars that would soon start. She was
sure there were areas undamaged with powerful military equipment, as well as
things hidden underground that could destroy an entire world.
Thinking
about these things, Desaray wondered if she should stay here or move camp to an
area near those areas. But she was afraid that if she did, she would run into
someone else later on and end up being shot at. She was
not sure how strong the people of the other places were at this time.
“I
can see that. From what I can tell, you are from this world, while the pigmen
are from my world. I can smell the difference,” Juna sighed. She wondered just
what would be happening in the future as well.
“How
many of your people are here at this time?” Desaray decided to ask. There was
security in numbers, after all. If she could get Juna to move her people here,
they could slowly build up a fortified base. Then she could leave for a while
to check out the area more.
“There
are twenty of us. I was on my way from checking our borders to make sure those
goblins and orcs were not trying to set up camps near our village. We were hit
with a bright light and found ourselves on a pile of rubble,” Juna sighed. She
did not want to be here.
“If
that’s the case, then if you would like, you can come and join our camp. We
have been exploring dungeons nearby and plan to level up more. I want to build
a fortified fort here for us to stay in. They do say there is safety in
numbers.” Desaray was not afraid that Juna and the others would cause an issue.
She could easily kill them all if they dared to attack.
“Hmm…
To have a dragon look out for my kind is strange. You are indeed not from my
world.” Juna felt funny. Although her skin was gray, she still looked like her
kind’s counterparts. Dragons would look down on her kind and put them in the
same lot as the goblins. While they would not be actively hunted, if they
appeared they would be attacked. She had long gotten used to the
discrimination.
“As
Boss said, we will not treat you badly. As long as you do not attack us, we
will show you the same respect you show us.” Oinktera decided to speak up. He
understood his boss wanted Juna and the others to come here. He also felt this
was a good idea. They had too few people here.
Juna
hesitated for a moment before looking at her guards. The female guard Trina
leaned over and whispered into her ear. Juna nodded before turning to Desaray
and asking: “If we feel threatened at all will you allow us to leave freely?”
“Of
course. I am not trying to hold anyone hostage. This is just a request. I feel
it will be good if we can start a small community here and grow stronger
together,” Desaray answered.
“Then
we will accept your offer. My camp is about three hours from here. We will
return first and then come back. But if you do see that long-eared rabbit
again, please do capture it. It tried to steal our food supplies two days ago.”
Juna wanted to cook the stupid rabbit. It cursed at them as it ran away. She
could not let it off!
“Alright.
I will be sure to hand it over to you as soon as I see it again,” Desaray
sighed. It seemed Jake had grown bold since he left. But then again, in order
to live this long until now, he would have had to muster up some courage. It
seemed him going off on his own was for his own good.
It’s just too bad that he was still not very smart.
Juna
and her guards left quickly to get things settled on their end. Oinktera
scratched his head and asked: “Boss, are you sure this is okay? I mean, if
things go as we were told, if we have certain races under our care we might end
up being targeted as well.”
“That
is why we need to get as strong as possible before that happens. But no matter
what, Oinktera, those we befriend we will not leave behind unless they betray
us. Never betray others just because someone is putting pressure on you.”
Desaray hated it when people did that. She hated bullying altogether. That was
why she put up with Jake for so long. She would have done her best to keep him
alive no matter what. But he never stopped.
Oinktera
quickly waved his hands back and forth. “Don’t worry, Boss! I would never turn
my back on you or those you deem as friends. We have already devoted ourselves
to following you.”
“You
do not need to devote anything,” Desaray chuckled. “Anyway, let’s get things
ready. We will all help in building new shelters.”
They
had a lot to do. Building twenty more shelters would take time. But with their
levels much higher than before and their strength and stamina much higher, they
were easily running around with huge slabs of concrete walls and stacking them
on top of one another, creating small huts quite quickly.
In
just two hours, they had already built ten new stone huts. While they were
nothing fancy, they were at least a shelter. When Juna and her kin came over,
they were surprised to see so many new stone huts already
built. “You did so much in such a short time….”
“We
will have ten more huts done soon. You and your people can start settling in.”
Desaray was still overseeing things, so she could not talk at this time. She
wanted to get these huts done, and then she wanted to start building a stone
wall that was at least ten feet high. If they got more people joining them
later, then that was fine.
Juna
did not wish to stand around doing nothing, while everyone else worked. She
quickly had someone settle in her people, one per person per hut. She sent the
rest to start helping build. While they were much weaker, they could still move
small stones.
With
the extra hands, they were able to finish the last ten huts in just under an
hour. Everyone sat around the fire and ate a meal together for the first time.
Oinktera took the stage. He had been acting more and more like a leader since
Desaray first met him. She guessed it was due to him finally leveling up.
“I
want to take a moment and welcome our new brothers and sisters. We may be of
different races, but I hope we can all get along and work together. Boss has
helped us all, and I hope you can help Boss in return, just as we try to do
every day.” Oinktera raised his cup of juice that Desaray had poured everyone
with a big smile. Everyone else did the same before letting out cheers.
The
pigmen and toblins began to mingle and quickly became friends. Desaray smiled
seeing this. While toblins looked like goblins, they were not bad. She did not
understand why they were so looked down upon. Of course, she would keep a
watchful eye, but she did not sense anything wrong with
how things were at this time.
“Miss
Dragon….” Juna walked over and bowed her head slightly. She was a little
nervous to be talking with a dragon.
“Just
Desa is fine. Or you can call me Boss like the others. Although I have no idea
why they call me that.” Desaray rubbed her snout.
“Then
I will call you like the rest.” Juna felt this was the real way to go. “Boss, I
know my race will bring you troubles in the future, so if the worlds do merge,
then I will leave with my people in order to not cause you any trouble.”
“Juna,
do not look down on me as someone who would force a friend out. If you never
betray us and help out as much as you can, then I will never turn my back on
you, even if there are those who dare to say your race is bad. I myself do not
like goblins. But toblins are different. I will not toss you aside; this I
promise.” Desaray could only sigh. Things had not even come to that point yet,
and Juna was already willing to go into hiding again.
Juna
did not know how to feel. She was slightly happy, but she did not know if
Desaray would change her mind later. For now, she will decide when the time
comes. “Then feel free to ask me and my people to do anything.”
“For
today, just settle in. Tomorrow, Oinktera and the rest will be working on
building a wall around our little village. I will be working on new gear for
you and your people. While it will not be blue gear right away, it will at
least be green quality. This is both weapons and armor. I will also bring a few
of you on our next dungeon run. We are all trying to reach our first
evolution.” Desaray explained.
“Oinktera
and the rest were only level 1 and 2 when I first met them. Now they are all
levels 10 and 11. We will go to the low-level dungeon and work on getting your
guys to level 10 first. Then we will be hitting the harder level dungeon once
we find one. But before that, we will need to work on a few things to get
settled down better.”
The
next morning Desaray called a meeting with Juna and Oinktera to try to plan out
a more sustainable village-type situation. “So I was thinking we should try to
form some kind of farmland and start planting what we can. We need to do more
than just forage in the forest. If we eat everything around us, there will be
nothing left for us, and we will need to move to another location. This is not
very effective if we wish to build a fortified place to live.”
“This
is something my clan used to do as well. As you know, my kin, the toblins, are
not very strong. We can only fight in numbers which allowed us to ward off
attacks from others. But staying hidden away also made it so we had no choice
but to farm as well. We could not move around as a large group all the time. So
when it comes to farming, you can leave it to me and my kin. Most of us have
the farming skill. Even two of my guards have it maxed out.” Juna felt this was
a very good idea. To take certain plants and then grow them on their own was
something her clan had been doing for hundreds of years.
“Then
I will leave this to you. If you need any help, let us know. We should build
our wall so that we can alter the size of our land at any
time.” Desaray used a stick to draw on the ground. “We will put our farm land
near the walls on the inside. We will dig a few wells near the farmland to make
watering easier. We will need irrigation and compost to make sure the land stays
fertile.
“I
think we can also catch a few families of weak monsters to raise. This way, we
can use their manure to make compost. If their milk is drinkable, we can make
many things from that to help with food production. Like cheeses and other
milk-based foods.” Desaray began going over her ideas one by one. Both Juna and
Oinktera nodded at the things she was saying.
“Alright,
we will go with that. We will spend the next week bringing this place into
working order. We will first get the wall down. Juna and her kin will then till
the land and get ready for planting. During that time, Oinktera and his people
will go hunting and searching for monsters to raise. They will bring one of the
toblins along so they can gather seeds and other items that they will need. I
will bring some of the toblins around to kill monsters around the area to get
them leveled up so they can get first aid. Does this work for you two?” Desaray
asked as she looked at Juna and Oinktera.
“Boss,
I will follow your orders, you do not need to worry about my opinion.” Oinktera
was very loyal. If Desaray said jump, he would jump.
“Yes,
we will follow your plan,” Juna nodded. She was starting to feel that Desaray
was quite amazing.
“Alright,
we will get started then.” Desaray stood up. She patted the dust off her before
looking around at the clearing that the others had been working on and smiled.
She couldn’t help but think to herself: “Dad, when I can
finally find you, I will be able to show you the new home I have built for us.”
Desaray
did not know where her father and her friends were. But she knew that once she
was strong enough, she would go search for them. But she first needed to settle
things here and make this a place that could run on its own if she were to
leave for a month or so.
That
day was filled with nothing but wall building. Desaray and the others lugged
cement block after cement block around the encampment. They cleared trees and
made the area much bigger as well. Compared to before, it looked like the start
of a decent sized village.
Oinktera
had decided to make the wall around the village thicker and wider so that they
could get on top of it and keep a lookout. They even made a gate using large
logs. With the skills that they had on the pigmen side, the log gate actually
rose up from the ground using a pulley system. This meant two people always had
to be on lookout at all times. While this was a little rough with the lack of
higher levels at the time. Desaray felt that once the toblins leveled up as
well, it would be no problem for them to help out with gate watch.
Desaray
did as she promised and took toblins out to level them up. Getting almost all
of them to level 4 within a week. Juna had her people till the land and in no
time had three plots of land set up to plant the seeds they had harvested from
the forest. Things were starting to look up as they all began forming a new
community together. Everyone worked together and protected each other. For the
toblins, this was the first time they had been treated as an equal. Their
respect for Desaray, who allowed them to experience this
new kind of treatment, grew with each passing day.
Two
weeks later, Desaray stood up on the newly constructed stage that would be used
for village meetings. “We have all worked hard for the past two weeks. While
there is still more to do, we can now slow down slightly. I will be taking a
group of toblins with me to a dungeon north of here. It is where Oinktera and
the rest reached their current level. I plan to get all of you to level 10
before moving to the next dungeon. This way, I can outfit you all with better
gear. So, for now, we will do a lottery of who will go with me. We will set out
tomorrow.”
Evolution
Currently,
Desaray was standing outside the boss room in the Secluded Cave. To her right
was Juna and to her left was Oinktera. She figured having one more high level
to help with this would make things go smoother. Luckily she did since one of
the toblins almost died on the way here.
“Juna,
I will be honest with you. We have yet to fight the boss. The last time we came
here a man appeared here instead of the boss. So we never got to fight the
boss. While you all have leveled up to level 8 and 9, it is still very
dangerous to face this boss. If you do not want to risk it we will turn back. I
will come back with Oinktera and the other pigmen and try to fight the boss
first so we have a better understanding of its quirks.” Desaray wanted to give
Juna a choice. She could risk it and try to fight the snake or they can turn
back now and return to the village.
“We
will go. My toblin race is not so weak that they will back down from a
challenge.” Juna held the staff they had looted from a treasure chest in her
hand firmly. She did not want to be looked down upon anymore.
“Alright.
Then we will go in.” Desaray was actually quite curious as to what this boss
looked like. It was named the Vanishing King, so she was sure it had some kind
of movement or invisibility skill. When Desaray pushed the door open and stepped inside with the others, the room began to light up.
In the center lay a large black-scaled snake with three horns on its head that
were positioned in such a way and shaped oddly, giving one the impression on
first look that it was wearing a crown. “Appraisal!”
[(Boss)
Vanishing King]
[Level]:
13
[Monster
Rank]: D
[HP]:
2870/2870
[MP]:
765/765
“A
rank D Monster…” Desaray frowned. She still had no idea how these rank things
worked, but it seemed that out of everyone here, only she had a rank, and she
was rank F! This boss was two ranks higher and had much more health than her!
“Oinktera
the two of us will start the fight. You will wait for my signal to attack. Just
in case, keep an eye on the ground for any strangeness. If you see a spot
glowing under your feet, do not stand there and quickly move.” Desaray gave out
her orders to Oinktera before turning to Juna and the rest. “You all will wait
for my signal. But watch closely to the monster’s attacks and how Oinktera and
I move. Also, if you see anything glowing under your feet or any kind of
discoloration with the ground under you, quickly move out of the way. You will
only have a few seconds to react. If you get hit by a spell or attack, myself
and Oinktera will not be able to save you.”
“Don’t
worry, Boss, just concentrate on the fight. If we are unable to move, then that
just means that was how far our journey to gain power was meant to go.” Juna
knew her people were very grateful they were the most powerful people in their entire clan. Their race could finally hold their heads high
and not worry about being squashed by many races. So even if a few of them died
here, it was for a cause that they had never dreamt would be possible.
“No
dying. Just react,” Deraray stated firmly. She did not want to lose anyone!
She
took a deep breath and looked at Oinktera. He nodded, and the two rushed in. As
soon as they crossed the first pillar, the doors to the boss room slammed shut,
locking them in. It was now live or die.
“Oinktera,
I will go in first. Hold back until I signal!” Desaray gave out another order
before drawing her bow and letting loose an arrow. This was a normal arrow. It
was nothing more than to get the boss’s attention on her while Oinktera got
into position.
The
arrow flew through the air and slammed into the side of the sleeping boss’s
head. A clanging sound that sounded like metal on metal was heard, followed by
the sound of a very angered roar.
*Roar!*
The
boss let out a mighty roar. It was a snake, but it seemed to be evolving into a
new kind of monster. Desaray was not frightened at all, even as the rancid
breath of the boss entered her nose. She ran right up to the boss and fired off
a few ice arrows to distract it while she went in for a melee attack.
Her
claws created sparks as the boss reared up and roared in pain. Her ice arrows
slammed into its left eye, causing it some damage. Her claws barely scratched
the scales of the snake, causing her to frown. “How does
a snake have such hard scales that a dragon can’t even cut through them!”
Desaray
pursed her scaly lips as she continued her onslaught. She would use ice arrows
to blind it, causing it a bit of damage while she attacked with her claws,
looking for the soft spot just under its belly.
Desaray
had not even noticed that she was attacking so fast and hard that the health
bar of the boss was actually quickly shrinking. Oinktera and the rest stared at
Desaray with eyes filled with worship. Their Boss was soloing the dungeon boss!
Their boss was the better boss!
“Oinktera
now!” Desray finally realized she had already cut the boss’s health in half.
She was using a method that seemed to keep the boss from being able to attack
at all, which would interrupt the boss’s ability to see any targets.
Oinktera
quickly snapped out of his daze and charged in. His spear was made with the
boss’s body parts, so it was easily doing damage. Although, it was nowhere
close to the amount of damage Desaray was doing. Oinktera did not wish to be
left behind so he sped up his attacks searching for the weakest point on the
boss.
The
boss that originally had only 2870 HP was now down to 1134 Hp. “Boss, I think
they can join now!”
“Go….
Oinktera back off!” Desaray had looked over to see the boss’s tail starting to
turn into a black fog. It was slowly moving up the boss’s body.
“Whao!”
Oinktera felt something was very off as he quickly jumped back and out of the
way. The spot where he was standing suddenly cracked open
and parts of the stone floor were sent in all directions.
“The
name Vanishing King actually holds meaning!” Desaray gritted her teeth. She
should have foreseen that the boss would pull something off. Now that it had
turned into a black fog, she had no choice but to wait out its attack timer if
it had one. But what made her a little annoyed was that it was still attacking
her, so she could not move from her spot and could only rely on her senses to
dodge its attacks!
Oinktera
quickly retreated to where Juna and the others were. His job was to help make
sure they stayed alive. Juna had a worried look on her face as she watched
Desaray struggling with a boss she could not even attack. “Will Boss be okay?”
“Boss
is a dragon! Of course, she will be okay!” Oinktera had a strong trust in
Desaray. It was to the point that if he had a statue of Desaray, he would
worship it every day.
Juna
felt a little more at ease hearing Oinktera’s confidence. Although, she had no
idea where he got this confidence. But she had seen what Desaray could do, so
she chose to believe that Desaray would pull through.
While
the others watched with worried expressions, Desaray was busy dodging attack
after attack. The boss was slamming its tail and swiping it back and forth. If
she did not sense the change in the wind, she would have long been beaten black
and blue. Because in front of her was nothing but a black fog, she could not
even make out the outline of the boss anymore. It just looked like a fog and
nothing more. “This is so annoying!”
Desaray
couldn’t help but complain as she took a deep breath. “Ice Breath!” She jumped
up into the air, flapping her wings to give herself a bit
of hang time as she let loose a stream of ice breath at the floor and onto the
black fog.
The
black fog seemed to be freezing over as the particles of water within it began
to freeze under Desaray’s ice breath. A roar filled the air as the boss
suddenly reappeared. It was covered in ice and looked very sluggish. It seemed
Desaray’s ice did not just cover the outside of its body but the inside as
well.
[(Boss)
Vanishing King]
[Level]:
13
[Monster
Rank]: D
[HP]:
100/2870
[MP]:
234/765
“Looks
like that was a critical hit! Juna! Come and attack! Oinktera protect them!”
Desaray wanted to give the last hit to the toblins. If she knew the first half
of the battle was the easiest part, she would have allowed them to attack
sooner.
Juna
readied her spear and rushed forward with her kin, and began attacking the boss
with everything she had. Oinktera did not attack and only waited for the last
of the boss’s health to deplete.
[You
Defeated (Boss) Vanishing King]
[Experience
Points Gained….]
[Level
Up!]
[Level
Up!]
Desaray
saw the notification that the boss had been killed and smiled as she watched
the body disappear, leaving behind a pile of treasure and materials. Desaray
walked over and looked at the loot as she said: “That was
a bit insane, but luckily I now know what to do.”
Desaray
was also surprised that she got to levels out of the deal as well. She could
only guess that she must have been close to level 16 to be able to hit level 17
on the boss from level 15.
“Boss,
there is another chest armor piece here.” Oinktera pointed at the chest armor
on the ground. It was the same one Desaray was currently wearing.
“It’s
yours. Go and take it. We will farm this dungeon and get everyone these chest
pieces or whatever else might drop from this boss. The stats are better than
anything I can make at this time.” Desaray put all the materials and money into
her inventory and looked at Juna and the rest, and gave them a scaly smile.
“You all did great! And each of you has leveled up by leaps and bounds. Juna,
you will keep coming with Oinktera and me as we level up your kin. Once we have
gotten every one of level, we will take turns farming for materials here and
get ready for the next dungeon. Even if the experience gets slow, at least we
can all be ready for what is to come.”
Desaray
had decided. Since they could easily run this dungeon many times, they might as
well make use of this dungeon to get better gear and a level or two more each
run. This way, they could start using materials that were below the blue
quality to make things like blankets and other tools.
Another
week passed, and everyone in the village had already been outfitted in blue
gear. Desaray was with Juna, Oinktera, and the other pigmen and was fighting
the boss one last time in this dungeon. Mainly because after so many boss
kills, Desaray was about to hit level 20.
“Don’t
worry, Boss. I will be sure to protect you with my little oink life!” Oinktera
would make sure no one could touch his boss! He was now level 17. He would
never have gotten this far if not for his Boss carrying him all the way and
paving the way for him to actually dream of becoming powerful.
“Boss,
we all will protect you no matter what.” Juna’s eyes now looked at Desaray as
if she was a goddess. She was now level 15 and was the most powerful toblin her
tribe ever had. She wondered if she would be able to become a yoblin when she
finally evolved.
“I
am relying on you both.” Desaray smiled as she turned and smacked the boss
snake with her claw sending it flying into the dungeon wall. It turned into
balls of light, leaving behind a pile of treasure.
[Level
Up!]
The
magic words appeared in front of Desaray, causing her to feel very excited.
“Level 20!”
[You
have reached the requirements for evolution. Would you like to evolve now?]
[Yes]
[No]
Desaray
took a deep breath before sitting down. “I will now begin my evolution. Send
someone back to the village if it takes more than a few hours.”
“Understood, Boss.”
Oinktera knew that people would be worried if they did not return by dark.
Desaray
took a quick look at her stats.
[Name]:
Desaray Harris
[Race]:
Ice Dragling
[Age]:
14
[Level]:
20
[Monster
Rank]: F
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 20
[HP]:
3245/3245
[MP]:
2201/ 2201
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice
[Skill
Points]: 46
[Skills]
{Ice
Breath (Lvl 2)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl
2)} {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)}
{Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry
(Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 2)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
{Healing
Snow (Lvl 2)}
[Professions]
{Weapon
Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Hunting (Lvl 3)} {Foraging (Lvl 3)}
{Cooking (Lvl 3)}
She
now had 46 status points. She did not spend any points just in case she needed
them after she evolved. After checking her stats, she closed her menu and then
took a deep breath. She reached out with her claw and poked the yes button.
[Evolution
System Started….]
[Finding
Evolution Paths…..]
[Evolution
Paths Found….]
[Waking
Host’s Consciousness….]
[Waking
Successful.…]
“Hmmm?”
Desaray felt like the world around her was slightly hazy. She was in a white
space with nothing around her. “This is?”
[Please
Select Evolution Path…..]
A
notification popped up in front of her. She realized this must be part of the
system. Three choices appeared under the last message.
[Dragan]
[Young Ice Dragon] [Drakin]
“These
are….” Desaray sighed. She had no idea what a Dragan was, nor did she know what
a Drakin was. They did not even give an explanation! “Are they doing this to
make fun of me?”
Either
way, she had already invested herself in ice magic, so she would have gone with
Young Ice Dragon anyways. She reached up and poked the young ice dragon button.
Not even a second passed and she passed out once more.
[Evolution
Path Chosen….]
[System
Error…..]
[Finding
Solution….]
[Solution
Found…..]
[Adjustment
Completed…..]
[New
Race Combination….]
[Changing
Young Ice Dragon to Young Ice Dragon Goddess…..]
[Unlocking
Goddess Parameters….]
[System
Error….]
[Forcefully
Downgrading Realm To Mortal….]
[Goddess
Status Activated….]
[New
Requirements Per Evolution Added….]
[Evolution
Will Now Commence….]
While
Desaray was evolving, Oinktera and Juna had worried looks on their faces.
“Brother Oinktera, will Boss be okay?”
“Boss
has never failed us. We can only believe in her,” Oinktera replied. He had
never seen anyone evolve before, so he was unsure of how it worked. But no
matter what, he would believe in his boss!
Juna
could only nod and watch on as time ticked by. After two hours, Oinktera sent
someone back to the village to tell them that they were okay. After almost five
hours passed, Oinktera suddenly felt like the room was starting to get very
cold. “Juna, is it just me, or is it cold in here?”
Oinktera
let out a puff of white mist from his mouth. When he looked over at Juna, he
saw her huddling up with one of her female guards. So he was sure he was not
imagining things! He turned to the swirling mana not far from them and felt
that it had grown exceptionally small and seemed to be turning an ice-blue
color. Right before his eyes, he saw the mana suddenly get sucked into the dome
all at once before suddenly bursting out in all
directions. He covered his face to protect it from the sudden shock wave of
mana.
When
he uncovered them again, he was met with a humanoid figure floating in the air
with her eyes closed. White hair as white as snow. Blue horns that looked like
they were carved from deep blue ice. Blue scales covered her private parts and
parts of her arms and legs. Beautiful round face with pearly white skin. On her
back were two wings that seemed to be made of ice as well. And down further was
a blue-scaled tail that gently swayed back and forth.
Slowly
the figure’s eyes opened and blinked a few times. She looked around and met
eyes with Oinktera and smiled. “I seem to have finished my evolution….”
Oinktera’s
mouth opened so wide he could hit an entire gray back in it. He was in utter
shock! The person before him was his boss! This evolution was too huge! The
change was much different from what he had expected!
Desaray
looked down at herself and saw that she was standing there without any clothing
on, but this did not seem to bother her in the slightest. Mainly because
everything that needed to be covered up was covered up. Even the bottom of her
feet was covered in scales protecting them from harm from the rocky dungeon
floor. She looked at her hands and gripped her fists, and smiled. Her Ice blue
eyes shined brightly when she felt the strength within her.
“Not
bad at all….” Desaray smiled. She opened her menu and looked at her inventory.
She saw that all the armor she had been wearing before had been unequipped. She
equipped them before opening her status menu to see what her stats were at now.
Luckily thanks to the equipment window, even if the
original items were made smaller, they magically became big enough and fit her
perfectly. It was just now her original shorts showed a great deal of her
thighs. However, they were partially covered in ice-blue scales.
When
she finally looked at her stats, her eyes widened. The stats in front of her
were ten times more than she had ever expected!
[Name]:
Desaray Harris
[Race]:
Ice Dragon Goddess
[Current
Realm] Mortal
[Age]:
18
[Level]:
20
[Monster
Rank]: E
[Realm
Advance Requirements]: Reach Level 50, Kill 1 thousand enemies, Raise your
affinity with Ice to 70%, Create a domain with 10,000 followers
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 100, Kill 2 Demigods, Complete 3 level 100+ dungeons
solo
[HP]:
4567/4567
[MP]:
3289/3289
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice (20%)
[Skill
Points]: 41
[Skills]
{Ice
Breath (Lvl 5)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl
2)} {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)}
{Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry
(Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 5)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
[Goddess
Skills]
{Frozen
Step (Lvl Max)} {Absolute Zero(Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon
Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Hunting (Lvl 3)} {Foraging (Lvl 3)}
{Cooking (Lvl 3)}
Her
health had jumped almost two-fold, and her mana as well. But what confused her
the most were the new things…..
“Hmmm?
Ice Dragon Goddess? Goddess?” Desaray tilted her head to the side. She did not
seem to understand why she had suddenly become a goddess. She had only chosen
to become an ice dragon.
“Current
realm is mortal… Age 18… Level 20… Wait, 18!? Why did I suddenly age 4 years!?”
Desaray felt slightly depressed. She sighed and continued looking at her stats.
She went to sit on the floor but paused when Oinktera suddenly yelled out:
“Boss, watch out!”
“Hmmm?”
Desaray paused and looked down. Right in the spot she was about to sit was a
sharp pointy rock sticking up. It seemed to be egging her on, asking her to
take a seat if she had the guts. Desaray frowned and waved her hand. A large
chair made of ice appeared under Desaray. She sat down on it and crossed her
legs up under her. She could have sworn she had read a story once about a
dragon girl who had made enemies with all rocks in every realm.
“So
I am rank E now and have two requirements?” When she looked at the hefty
requirements, her eyes dimmed slightly. It was not that
she was unwilling to reach them, it was just that they were asking for a lot!
Her
elemental affinity also now had a status on it. She only had a 20% affinity,
and in order to get to the next realm, she had to raise it by 50%. Just reading
through the requirements of both her evolution and realm requirements made her
want to cry.
As
her gaze fell on her skills, she suddenly looked down at the ice chair under
her and realized that she had created this chair without much thought, but it
was actually due to her new ice manipulation skill. She had instinctively
created it without realizing it. “Besides ice manipulation, I also got partial
and full transformation. I guess this is for my dragon forms. All my skills
that deal with ice are also at level 5 as well which is good. But goddess
skills?”
She
wrinkled her brow and looked at the two spells under it. “Frozen step lets me
create frozen foot holds on any surface. I can even create them in the air, but
they will only last a few seconds while in the mortal realm.”
Desaray
pondered for a moment and sighed. While it was maxed out, she still had to be
in a higher realm to use it properly. However, its current state could help her
in a fight or escape. She scratched her head and looked at the other skill.
“Absolute zero. Passive and active…. Passive: always generates an area of cold
air around you. When activated, it turns everything in a 100-foot radius into
ice. At level 1, this can only be used once a day. At level 10 in the mortal
realm, it can be used five times a day. My guess is when I get out of the
mortal realm, I can use it even more than that.”
“Hmmm?”
Desaray snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Oinktera with a questioning
gaze. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…”
Oinktera did not dare ask if her brain was right. He did not wish to die. So he
decided to change the subject. “So Boss, how was it? The evolution process?”
Desaray
thought for a moment before saying: “I do not remember any pain, so I do not
think you will have any issues However, there was a choice selection, which
gives you no details about the evolution path you can take. So be careful
picking. You do not want to suddenly become an ant or something.”
“I
think an ant fits him well,” Juna teased.
Oinktera
snorted and shook his butt at her, causing everyone to laugh. Desaray smiled
and said: “Since we are done here, we should head back. I am sure the others
are worried about us.”
On
the way back Desaray told them about her next evolution requirements, which
Oinktera found strange. “From what I know the second evolution should have been
at level 40. It is done every 20 levels.”
“I
do not know either. But I think my evolution path is a bit special.” Desaray
did not reveal that she had some kind of god race now. She really did not know
what to make of this. But what she did know was that she was a bit disappointed
in her chest area. She was supposed to be 18 years old now, but her poor chest
had only grown a small amount since her previous human form.
Desaray let out a long sigh as she continued walking to camp.
When
they arrived, all the pigmen and toblins stared at Desaray in shock. But once
Oinktera yelled at them, they all began running around to get set up to hold a
big celebration. Their boss had evolved! It called for a huge celebration!
On
the floating island that had long departed from where Desaray was currently
located, Ricky was sitting on a tall rock wall looking out into the forest.
During this time, Ricky and the kids had secured a large area for themselves
and built a wall. They even had a water source, so they only needed to provide
food.
“Mr.
Harris, Dinner is ready.” Becky had a plate of food in her hand. Everyone was
now level eight. They had worked hard and cleared out the orcs and even secured
a decent amount of monster meat.
Ricky
turned around to see the young girl smiling back up at him. Her white scaly
face seemed to have a tinge of pink in her cheeks. She held the plate and
slowly made her way up the ladder they had built to get to the top of the wall
and placed it down next to him. “Hey Becky, you have been with Desa since you
were little. What do you think she is doing right now?”
“Knowing
her, she is probably already high level. She has always been one to push
forward. She would do what she needed to do to get up to us. And that would
mean leveling up. Desa is strong minded, so you do not need to worry about
her.” Becky could only sigh. She hoped her best friend was okay. She, Yu, and
Mike had already put their human lives behind them. They were looking toward
the future now. But she had a problem. The man next to
her was her first love, and even to this day, she still loved him. But she had
to hide it in her heart since this man was her best friend’s father. She could
not rightfully ask her best friend to call her mom….
“That
is true….” Ricky sighed. He never stopped worrying about his daughter. He could
only hope she was safe and sound. “Tomorrow, we will spread out a bit more and
see if we can map out the region. We need to see what is out there now that
things have changed. If we find any orc or goblin camps nearby, we will need to
get rid of them as well. But only if our levels are even or higher than what we
encounter; otherwise, we will run. If it is just a single monster that is a few
levels higher, then we can take it on in a group. But we must be careful no
matter what.”
“I
will let the others know. Umm… Mr. Harris, are we going to always stick
together?” Becky asked. She felt shy asking this, but she really wanted to
know.
“We
are all one family now. If we do not stick together and protect each other,
then who will?” Ricky had taken these kids as his own. As an adult, he felt
responsible for them. He would protect them no matter what. Becky couldn’t help
but pout a little. She understood the meaning of his words, but she also felt
slightly relieved. She would not need to part with Ricky anytime soon.
Back
at Desaray’s camp…
“Ahhchooo!”
Desaray rubbed her nose and frowned slightly. “Is Becky hitting on my dad
again?”
“Boss?
You sick?” Oinktera asked. His entire face was covered in grease. In his hand
was an earth boar leg. He was basically eating a close cousin.
A Cult?
A few
days later, Desaray had a meeting with both Juna and Oinktera. “We need to
figure out our next step. We are getting too high level for the current
dungeons. Our route to the lower-level dungeon will need to come under our full
control. If we take in more people in the future we will need to give them the
ability to make it to the dungeon and back easily.”
“Boss,
what if we have one person do escorts? They can even get paid for doing it. By
the time we start bringing in more people, we will need to start some kind of
currency so we can buy and sell things. After all, you can not keep giving
things out for free.” Oinktera made a good point.
Dungeons
gave gold for killing monsters. While it was not always something that dropped
it was still a means of getting cash even if they had no skills other than
fighting. People who had crafting skills could make armor. Those that needed it
would need to produce the materials and or pay extra for the materials from the
merchant if the merchant had them on hand. It would build a decent economy. It
would be half based on barter since you could also pay with materials if the
craftsman or merchant needed them. And this went for not just craftsmen either
but also other trades.
“Alright.
We will start circulating money. For work and buying and selling of goods once
we reach over fifty people. Right now we do not need it just yet. But once we
reach a population of fifty it will need to be done. We will also need a
village guard. As for newer buildings, do we have the ability to make something
better than what we have?” Desaray asked. She was unsure about all of this.
“With
our current strength, we can easily process wood and make new homes,” Oinktera
replied.
“Alright,
we will do things one step at a time. First, let’s look into reinforcing the
current walls around our village, maybe expanding it even more than it is. If
we can reclaim more land that would be for the best. Then we can produce more
farmland and even have some new buildings put in.” Desaray felt that although
they did not need too much land right now, if a large group of people came it
would be better to be ready beforehand than to end up having to do it then and
there.
“I
will get my people on it. Besides those doing the farmland, there are many just
sitting around at this time. We will expand the village in all directions
starting tomorrow.” Juna also felt like it was a good idea to expand the
village walls once more.
“I
will have my people start cutting down trees and processing the wood into
boards so we can start building proper homes. This time they will have proper
facilities as well.” Oinktera knew now that his Boss had her humanoid form she
would need to bathe properly.
The
last thing Desaray wanted was for the worlds to merge and for her not to have a
foothold to stand on. If she was not strong enough, how would she be able to
keep those she sees as friends safe? While yes, she wanted to catch up with her
father, the current her had no means of finding them now. For all she knew,
they could be floating over the ocean. She had tested her new wings. At most,
she can hover in the air for a while. Flight was still too hard. Her wings felt
very heavy. She was unsure if it was because she had just got new larger ones
or if it was because she was too weak to use them properly. She hoped she could
one day fly through the sky.
“Boss,
if you are going to check the dungeon, let me go with you!” Oinktera’s eyes
were sparkling. After getting used to dungeons, he was all for doing more. He
had grown so much confidence compared to the meek pigman who once did not even
dare look at Desaray.
“You
can come. Juna, you can come too. But you both need to pass down your orders on
what needs to be done first.” Desaray did not mind company. It would be boring
by herself anyways.
“Then
I will happily join you.” Juna did not mind getting the first shot at becoming
stronger in a new dungeon.
◆◆◆
“Is
this the place?” Oinktera asked as he looked around. The place did not look too
welcoming. The trees in the area were dead and many Razor Teeth Crows were
flying about. Luckily these kinds of monsters did not attack living beings.
Otherwise, they might end up being swarmed.
“It’s
what we circled on the map. But who would have thought it would change so much
since the last time we came.” Desaray frowned slightly. The world was changing
little by little which meant the merger was still going on. She did not know
how this world would look in the future, but she was sure as hell not going to
let it defeat her.
“Look
over there! There looks to be a mine shaft!” Juna pointed over to their left.
Sure enough, on a large mound that stuck out of the ground a mine shaft
entrance could be seen.
Desaray’s
eyes glowed when she saw this mine shaft. If there was a mine shaft that meant
there should be ore, right? “Let’s go take a look. Oinktera, take this.”
Desaray
handed over a pickaxe. “If it is a dungeon with lots of ore, I want you to mine
as much as possible between fights. I will also be doing the same. Juna, you
will keep a lookout for more monsters as well. We will take things slow. We
need to make sure we do not stumble upon any traps.”
“Got
it, Boss!” the two said at the same time.
Desaray nodded and the
two slowly walked into the entrance of the mine….
[Discovered
Ilings Mines]
[Experience
Points Gained….]
“Remember,
take it slow.” Desaray reminded the two. They slowly made their way into the
mines and looked around.
The
entrance area was nothing but a tunnel, but it slowly opened up to a small room
that had a bunch of old rusted mine cart tracks that had broken boards and even
a few toppled over mine carts. There were many spots with glowing rocks that
Desaray found to be something called night stones. Rocks that had a natural
glow to them.
“Let’s
mine some of these night stones first.” Desaray felt they would be very handy
for the village. “Juna, when you have the walls moved to expand we will expand
in this direction instead. This place is contained in a small dead-end crevice.
If we move our village walls to take control of this area we will have full
access to this dungeon.”
“I
was thinking the same thing. Just these night stones would go for a decent
price.” Oinktera thought this place was very good. To have the ability to mine
night stones from a dungeon was not something many had a chance to. They could
monopolize the entire industry.
“I
will do as Boss says.” Juna nodded her head. She was more than willing to
follow her Boss’s orders. She did not know much about night stones but with
what Oinktera said they would be very good for the village in the future.
After
collecting what they could, Desaray headed deeper into the dungeon. From the
room they were in was a tunnel that had a few twists and turns. It was when
they reached a fork they had to stop. “I smell something.” Desaray frowned. It
did not smell fresh at all.
“I
think this is a dungeon filled with undead.” Oinktera guessed. He could also
smell the rotting smell.
“Then
make sure to aim for their heads. But for now, stay here. I will go check the
levels.” Desaray wanted to be absolutely sure that they could take these
monsters head-on before just rushing into one.
Desaray
left the two at the fork before following the stench down the side tunnel. This
tunnel was not as lit as the others but this did not matter to her. She could
still see perfectly fine. She turned her arms and legs into dragon form as she
walked down the tunnel. She wanted to be ready for everything. She also found
her partial transformation quite useful. While she was a little nervous about
her full transformation, she decided she would try it once things calmed down a
little. The only reason she was nervous was because she did not know if it was
ugly or not.
Desaray came to a stop
when she heard shuffling not too far away. She quickly used Appraisal.
[Elite
Undead Miner]
[Level]:
19
[Monster
Rank]: D
[HP]:
2300/2300
[MP]:
1000/1000
[Elite
Undead Miner]
[Level]:
22
[Monster
Rank]: D
[HP]:
2700/2700
[MP]:
1300/1300
[Elite
Undead Miner]
[Level]:
21
[Monster
Rank]: D
[HP]:
2550/2550
[MP]:
1256/1256
Desaray
picked up three undead. When she saw their levels, she raised an eyebrow. She
slowly backed away, not daring to go forward since she did not know how they
would aggro.
She
quickly returned to the fork to see both Juna and Oinktera standing guard at
each tunnel entrance. “Boss!” Oinktera called out first, when he saw her
coming.
“We
can’t go any further. We will need a full team. This seems to be a level 20
Dungeon.”
“Level
20!?” Oinktera’s eyes went wide in surprise. To be a level 20 dungeon meant
that if they were careful, everyone in the village could
finally evolve! “Boss, when do you think we can clear it?”
“In
about a week’s time. Let’s get the main things in the village done first. We
need to prioritize our advancement and make the village into a real village.”
While Desaray also wished to quickly get this dungeon done, she knew she had to
finish things up at home first.
Days
passed while Desaray worked on her village. During this time, a girl with cat
ears and a tail was running through the forest. “Nya! Why do they always chase
me-nya!?”
Her
white hair fluttered behind her as she ran as fast as she could. Behind her
were two large pig-faced men. But these were not those of the pigmen race but
orcs. They were like the goblins of the pig race. Because of the distinct
features, the pigmen and orcs were not placed in the same boat. They were very
much two different races. And because they were also a race that only had male
offspring, they had to hunt down women to mate with, and any race was no
exception.
As
for the cat girl, she was not only a woman but also a budding one who had the
scent of a virgin on her, which made her even more sought after by the orc
races who liked virgins the most. While she was beautiful, this did not matter
to orcs.
She
was only level 11 and had been on a walk just outside her village. Before she
knew what was going on, she had found herself in a strange place. She had been
walking around for a few days killing monsters and finding wild vegetables for
food. But it seemed she was deemed to be unlucky because she had accidentally
run into two orcs which were both level 15! She had no
weapon and no means of being able to kill an orc. She was nowhere near strong
enough.
As
the cat girl ran, her tail swayed back and forth. Her mind was throwing a fit.
She was tired and wished she could just take a small rest. She had tears in her
eyes as she looked up at the sky peaking through the trees and decided to pray.
“I swear, oh gods above, if you save me this time, I will be your devout
follower forever and ever! I do not want to be taken by the orcs!”
“Oink!”
A loud shrill oink came from behind the cat girl, causing her to almost trip
over her own feet. She came to a stop and turned around to see what had
happened. But when she felt like she was seeing a goddess.
Standing
there with one foot stomping on an orc’s head, was a girl with ice-blue scales
on her body, a tail that swayed back and forth, and two horns on her head. Ice
formed around her as her snow-white hair fluttered in the breeze. “Tch! I hate
orcs! Wait…. Can I cook them? Will Oinktera and the rest be able to eat orc
meat? Is that cannibalism?”
The
cat girl was stunned at the fact that the newcomer seemed to be talking to
herself without a care in the world nor fear of the other orc that was about to
hit her with a tree. She watched as the strange girl raised her hand and
stopped the tree trunk with the tip of her finger. Seconds later, the other orc
was also smashed into the ground, its head crushed just like its companion.
“A
goddess!” The cat girl suddenly screamed out. She was not bothered by the
bloody mess in front of her. She quickly ran up to the figure and dropped to
the ground bowing her head. “Goddess, thank you for saving my life!”
“Huh?
Yes!” The cat girl let out a small squeak. She had to admit the girl in front
of her was just as beautiful as a goddess!
“That’s
good. Let me ask you, did you lose your clan? Did more of your people come to
this new world?” The girl asked.
“Ah
no, I found myself here just a few days ago. I do not know how to get back to
my clan.” The cat girl’s ears and tail dropped. She really wanted to go home.
“I
see. Then come back with me. The world merger will still take some time, it
seems, so it will not be safe for you to be wandering around for the time
being.” The girl paused as if realizing something and said: “Right, my name is
Desaray. I am originally from this world.”
The
cat girl was a little happy but also wary when Desaray asked her to go with
her. But she was a bit unsure of what she should do. However, she did decide to
give her name. “M-My name is Nina!”
“Then,
Nina, follow me.” Desaray did not want to just stand around in case more monsters
came. Nina nodded and quickly followed Desaray. Her eyes shined every time she
looked at the beautiful goddess walking next to her.
“Yo-You
said you are originally from this world?” Nina asked.
Although
she did wonder. Would she go back to her old ways if she could? Now she could
use magic. She could actually fight and was now the thing she loved most in her
past life, a blue dragon. Could she really go back to her old life? A life
where she would go to school and graduate. Maybe even go to college. Get a job
that would probably go nowhere. Grow old and die. She did not know if she would
ever have kids or if she would have ever gotten married. She had a lot of
what-ifs about her old life.
But
now….. Here she was. Growing four years older in a single evolution. She found
it funny that the system could actually push her age by four years. She just
hoped her age would not get any older than it was now. She did not wish to be a
grandma while her friends still looked young.
Nina’s
eyes widened. She never thought the goddess next to her used to be a dirty
human! Of course, this did not change her attitude toward Desaray. In any case,
the goddess next to her saved her life and treated her kindly. There was just
one more question that really made Nina curious. “Are you not cold?”
Nina’s
question was a valid one. Desaray was not wearing any armor. Her private bits
were covered in scales, but they did not look all that
safe for work. It left a lot for one to look at. Desaray looked down at herself
and saw nothing wrong. She then looked at Nina, who was wearing short shorts
and a belly shirt and snorted. “I should be asking you the same question! Look
at you!”
“Nya!
What is wrong with what I am wearing!?” Nina looked down at herself and felt
her clothes were quite normal!
“Never
mind. Let’s just say we are both dressing normally.” Desaray decided to leave
it at that. The word dressing did not really fit her since she had no clothes
on at all and just scales. She had gotten so used to not wearing clothes that
she now felt stuffy even when wearing armor. So when she was not in a dungeon,
she would not wear anything.
“Okay…”
Nina pursed her lips and realized this goddess was quite easy to get along
with. She hoped to become friends with her goddess. “How far are we from your
village?”
“About
fifteen minutes out. If you had kept running forward, you would have run into
it. But I must warn you. There are toblins in my village. They are not the same
as goblins and live normal lives like you and I. Also, they are a higher level
than you and might beat you up if you start anything with them,” Desaray
warned.
“That’s
fine. I have met a few before. They are much different than goblins,” Nina
replied. She was never one to look down on other races except those that meant
her harm.
“By
the way, how is it that you are always producing cold air?” Nina was very
curious about this. She had to stand a few feet away so that she would not
freeze to death.
“I
see.” Nina had a lot of questions as the two walked, and the more she asked and
the more answers she got in return, the more she came to like speaking with
Desaray. She had many friends in her village, but she had never met anyone so
easy to talk to like Desaray was. She just seemed calm and relaxed. While at
the same time, she could get excited and be sarcastic. She was very easy to get
along with, and Nina could tell that Desaray was one who did not hide her
emotions.
“Boss!”
The two had arrived at the gate, and as per usual, Oinktera was pouncing toward
his boss at full speed. He came to a skidding halt before bowing toward Desaray
and then turning to Nina. “A cat kin?”
“That
is right.” Nina rolled her eyes. Wasn’t it quite obvious that she was a cat
kin? Why did this pig man decide to ask if she was a cat kin as if it was a
question or not? She figured her tail and ears would give it away!
“Oinktera,
this is Nina, I just met up with her. She was being chased by orcs. She will be
staying here for the time being.” Desaray introduced the cat girl at her side.
“Ah!
Glad you are okay.” Oinktera smiled as he continued: “Our village is still
small, but thanks to Boss, all of us have been able to level up and get closer
and closer to our first evolution. We are preparing for when the merger
finishes. At that time, war will most likely break out between the races.”
She
did not see Juna at the side, quietly standing there serving Desaray as if she
was a little maid. Desaray licked her lips and nodded her head in approval.
“That was very good, Juna. Your cooking skills have gotten much better.”
“I
learned this from you.” Juna blushed. She then peeked a look at Nina, who had
just noticed her. “Miss Nina, it is a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise?”
Nina felt strange. She had always thought toblins were uncivilized, like
goblins, but here was a female toblin cooking meat and receiving praise from
her goddess.
“Nina,
we are building quite a few spare homes, but none of them are fully ready yet.
I will have you stay with me for the time being. As for what happens when the
merger completes, I do not know. But rest assured I will not be attacking
anyone unless they attack this village first.” Desaray did not plan to play
around. She would not attack others but if they attacked her she would not
hesitate to defend her new home. She planned to build a kingdom. She would have
no other choice but to do so since she had to gain followers.
Her
realm advance requirements were a little insane, but she was determined to
complete them. She wanted to know what it meant to break through the mortal
realm and into whatever realm thereafter.
“It’s
fine. If she can’t even defeat two small orcs, how can she harm me in my sleep?
My entire body is as tough as a mountain.” Desaray waved off Oinktera’s
warning. She found her skin was quite tough. She had tried to cut into it quite
a few times but was unsuccessful.
“Boss….”
Oinktera glared at Nina. He raised his hand and pointed at her. “If you dare
try to harm boss, I will skin you alive!”
Desaray
rolled her eyes. “Nina, ignore him. He is just overprotective. You would think
he was in love with me or something with how he acts.”
“Of
course, I love you, Boss!” Oinktera said righteously. “So does Juna and
everyone else. You have given us new meaning in life. It is our duty to protect
you.”
“Right!”
Instead of getting mad, Nina suddenly clapped her hands. “We should look after
our goddess!”
“Oh!?
So you do understand!” Oinktera attitude quickly changed. He began chatting
non-stop with Nina about Desaray. Desaray sighed. When Oinktera got like this,
he would never stop. What made things worse was Juna also joined in, and now
three of them were standing there praising her left and right.
“Did
I somehow start a cult?” Desaray shook her head and walked away. She did not
want to stand there listening to them. She figured
Oinktera or Juna would lead Nina to her hut later. “I guess I should see if
there are any new skills I can get.”
Desaray
walked over to the main campfire and sat down. She opened her status menu to
look at her current situation.
[Name]:
Desaray Harris
[Race]:
Ice Dragon Goddess
[Current
Realm] Mortal
[Age]:
18
[Level]:
20
[Monster
Rank]: E
[Realm
Advance Requirements]: Reach Level 50, Kill 1 thousand enemies, Raise your
affinity with Ice to 70%, Create a domain with 10,000 followers
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 100, Kill 2 Demigods, Complete 3 level 100+ dungeons
solo
[HP]:
4567/4567
[MP]:
3289/3289
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice (20%)
[Skill
Points]: 41
[Skills]
{Ice
Breath (Lvl 5)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl
2)} {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)}
{Dig (Lvl 1}
{Dry
(Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 5)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection (Lvl 1)}
{Healing
Snow (Lvl 5)} {Partial Transformation (Lvl Max)} {Full Transformation (Lvl
Max)} {Ice Manipulation (Lvl 5)}
[Goddess
Skills]
{Frozen Step (Lvl Max)}
{Absolute Zero(Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon
Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Hunting (Lvl 3)} {Foraging (Lvl 3)}
{Cooking (Lvl 3)}
She
had yet to level up once since her evolution, but she did have 41 skill points.
“Let’s see what skills I have access to now.”
She
hit the skill shop button and began scrolling through the list. It was now
split into multiple different categories. Normal Skills, Professions, and God
skills.
A Distressed Ice Fairy
When
Desaray opened her skill list, she saw a lot of new skills. Most of which cost
a lot of points to get. “Most of these new regular skills cost over 100 skill
points. The goddess skills are not even something I can touch at this time.
From what I can see of the list that is there, the cheapest one is 1000 skill
points…..”
Desaray
had some hope of getting a cheap goddess skill, but it seemed she would not be
able to get any of them today. But two skills did catch her eye. Both of which
cost 20 skill points each. The first one was Summon Ice Elemental. As the name
implies, it summons an ice elemental at your side. It will follow your every
command. At levels 1 through 5, you can only summon one, but at level 6, you
can summon two. She figured having an extra addition to her fighting prowess
would be nice.
The
second skill that caught her eye was called Prison of Absolute Cold. It was a
barrier-type skill. It could enclose an area within it with a barrier that, if
someone tried to walk through it, they would be instantly frozen. While it did
need ten mana per ten-foot radius to maintain, it was worth it if she could use
it to cover the entire village in case of an attack. Although she knew she
would need to quickly raise her level in order to be able to do so but to have the skill now, even if she could only wrap
everyone in it to protect them, it would be fine.
“That
should do it….” Desaray nodded her head in satisfaction. The second skill she
chose was quite overpowered. If she had the ability to keep it up without
concern about her mana disappearing it would be a massive trump card in
defending against enemy attacks. It would also be helpful in dungeons as well.
“Let’s
try the summon skill, I guess.” Desaray wondered just what kind of ice
elemental would be summoned. She took a deep breath before reaching her hand
out and calling out the skill: “Summon Ice Elemental!”
A
bluish glow came from the palm of her hand. An icy cold air began to flow out.
This cold air began to twist and turn, forming a small pocket of frozen air
that began to condense. It spun around in a circle creating a sphere-like shape
that began to give off a faint glow at its center. Slowly this glow grew bigger
and bigger. The wind around Desaray began to pick up, causing her snow-white
hair to flutter. Everyone who sensed the strangeness in the air turned to look
at Desaray.
What
shocked them was the small figure starting to form in the air in front of their
Boss. It was humanoid in shape but small. The figure was curled up in the fetal
position and was slightly transparent, but slowly, it was starting to become
more opaque by the second.
Desaray
watched as her mana was draining at a rapid rate. She had over 3000 mana, and
now it was down to 1000. This was a huge drop with a single spell cast. She
couldn’t help but wonder just how much mana this spell took since it did not
say.
[System Notification:
Goddess Line Detected….]
[Normal
summoning changed to goddess summoning….]
[All
summons by those of the Goddess Line are permanent and will level up as the
skill itself levels.]
As
the system message popped up, Desaray noticed that her mana suddenly dropped to
1. The figure before her had fully formed. It was a small girl with ice-blue
butterfly-looking wings on her back. She had two horns on her head and a thin
ice-blue tail. Her little face was quite cute as well. She looked like a human
but with extra features. On her body was an ice-blue dress that went down to
her knees. Her ice-blue hair flowed down to her feet and even a little past
them.
The
figure slowly floated over to Desaray’s hand and landed in her palm. Only then
did the thin layer of ice around the figure burst. Desaray looked excitedly at
the little figure and found her to be very cute. She could see her little chest
rising and falling, so she knew it was alive.
After
a few seconds, the figure suddenly rolled over on her back and stretched her
little arms up over her head. She mumbled something no one could understand
while scratching her stomach. Desaray really could not help but laugh when she
saw this. It was too cute!
“Hmm?”
The figure slowly opened her eyes. She blinked a few times before rubbing them
gently. She looked around in a confused state before turning to look at
Desaray. “Ah!!!!!!!! Who are you!? Where am I!?”
“Ummm…”
Desaray was a bit confused. She could tell right off the bat that this small
girl was not something she had created. “My name is Desaray. I summoned you….”
“I
uh… can’t….” Desaray really felt bad. She never meant to kidnap anyone!
“What!?
Wait!? What is this.…” The figure realized something was very wrong. “This
connection… No way!? Master slave… No!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Desaray
looked at the very distressed fairy in front of her and scratched her head.
This was completely not what she had been expecting at all. “Umm… I’m sorry?”
“You’re
sorry!? You summoned me here and turned me into a slave and say you are sorry!?
What good do sorries do!?” The figure cried out. She sat in Desaray’s hand and
started bawling.
Desaray
looked at the others for help, but they all shook their heads. They had no idea
what to do either. They had never even seen summoning magic before. Desaray
sighed as she reached out with her other hand and patted the top of the
distressed fairy’s head. “I can’t send you back, but I can promise never to
make you do anything you do not want to do. I do not know what this
master-servant thing is since my spell never said anything about such a thing.
But if you are willing, you can stay by my side, and I will make sure you live
a good life.”
The
figure looked up at Desaray and wiped the tears from her eyes. This was what
she was most afraid of. She did not want to do things that went against her own
morals. “If you promise me not to abuse your control over me, then fine….”
The
figure’s eyes lit up as she flew up from Desaray’s hand and landed on the ice
rose. When she did, she suddenly realized something. She tapped her foot off
the ice a few times before flying up and over to the top of Desaray’s head,
where she landed and took a few steps. After a short moment of indecisiveness,
she sat down on top of her new master’s head. This place was much colder than
the ice rose. It suited her much better and was softer. “I will live here. As
for the companion thing, I…. I will agree to it.”
Desaray
rubbed her nose. It seemed her ice rose was no good. But when she heard the
last part of what the figure said, she smiled and nodded slightly. “Then I will
be counting on you to watch my back.”
“Not
like I have a choice. I am bound to you, which means if you die, so do I,” The
figure replied before flying off Desaray’s head and hovering in front of her.
“My name is Hina, Master. What is your name?”
“My
name is Desaray. You can call me Desa or Boss like the others. It’s a pleasure
to meet you, Hina.” Desaray smiled. She really found Hina very cute. “But Hina,
I have a question.”
“Hmmm?
Question?” Hina was a bit confused. She did not think her master would ask her
a question all of a sudden.
“An
ice elemental? Well, that sounds about right, but you see, I am a high
elemental. Or other words known as an ice fairy. High elementals and above have
these kinds of forms or one like your own. Anything below that would be more of
a golem type,” Hina replied. Now that she thought about it, she had never heard
of a high elemental being summoned before. Normally, such elementals were too
powerful for anyone to summon them. This thought made her very curious about
this new master of hers.
“I
see…. That would explain it then. I do hope we can get along well together.”
Desaray knew she was not strong enough to summon some kind of high elemental
which meant that this was due to the system and the fact that she had become
some kind of a goddess.
“Me
as well,” Hina replied with a real smile for once. She floated up and landed in
Desaray’s hair and snuggled into it. The coldness that she felt suited her just
fine. This was much better than that snow lotus.
With
things now settled, everyone gathered together around the fire. Desaray could
feel the warmth of the fire, but it did not actually warm her up. It was just a
sensation of knowing it was there. This was because of how cold her body was.
“Umm…
Goddess… I mean, Boss….” Nina sat down next to Desaray but quickly moved a few
steps away. She found it weird. Earlier Desaray had grabbed her hand, and she
did not feel any cold at all but now…. She could hardly
sit a few feet beside her without feeling ice cold. “What are your plans from
here on out?”
“We
are finishing a few things up then we will be exploring the dungeon we checked
out not long ago. I want to level up and gather more resources. The entire
village needs to be equipped with better equipment as well. There is a lot to
do,” Desaray sighed. She wondered when she would be able to see her father and
friends again. She could already tell the road ahead was going to be a long
one.
“Nya!
This is amazing!” Nina cried out. The houses were now done and the biggest one
of them all was Desaray’s. Oinktera said since she was the boss she had to have
a house that matched.
“Isn’t
it too big?” Desaray wrinkled her brow. The house was three stories tall! It
had so many rooms but it was just her and Nina at this time. And Nina might
even be taking a house of her own. This was still up in the air.
“It
seems just right for a temporary house. Boss when we have more materials we
will build you a large palace!” Oinktera announced. This was followed by
everyone nodding their heads.
“I
don’t need a palace!” Desaray wished they would listen to her. She kept telling
them she only wanted a small house! She would have to take care of this place!
“Boss!
Boss! We captured a few humans!” A toblin who was on guard came running over
and announced.
“Humans?”
Desaray wrinkled her brow. She did not know if they were the other world humans
or humans from her world. She had to be careful with how she handled this. She
sighed and said: “Oinktera, Nina, follow me.” After
saying this she told the guard to lead the way.
“Yes,
Boss!” The toblin guard smiled and quickly led the way. He was happy to have
his boss talk to him!
It
was an unspoken rule in the village that their boss was to be admired from
afar. She was beautiful, wise, kind, and gentle to those around her. She was
willing to share all the good things with them without a second thought. She
was truly their goddess. Of course, this was a rule that did not just apply to
men but also to women.
Desaray
walked over to the newly built guard house to see ten humans all tied up using
thick vines. They looked quite haggard. According to appraisal, they were also
low level which meant they were from her world from what she could see. Seeing
Desaray and Nina walk over, two people who had more human features, the humans
who were all sitting on the floor looked a little relieved.
Desaray
stood in the front and looked at them all before asking: “Who is the leader?”
“I
am.” An older man replied. He looked up at Desaray and said: “We originally
came here to ask for help. We have been hungry for days. We did not expect to
be captured on the spot.”
“Oh?”
Desaray looked at the toblin guard who nodded his head and said: “In our world
humans would attack demi humans no matter what. So we were taking precautions.
Since we wish to build a place for all, we did not go too far. This is why we
did not kill them and instead, captured them.”
“I
see. I can see now why you captured us like this. But I promise we mean your
people no ill will. We are just on the verge of starving to death. This is the
first settlement we have seen since the apocalypse happened,” the old man
replied. “My name is David. I am an ex-general in the military. Although long
retired, these are the few survivors I have picked up while trying to find a
place safe to settle down in.”
“I
see. Well… We can take you in. But you will need to build your trust with us.
But let me warn you while we can give you a week of rest and a chance to regain
your strength, you will all need to start working after that. Those who do not
work do not get fed.” Desaray looked at the people who all had sunken cheeks.
She could tell they had not eaten for many days now.
“This
is what should be done. We will do as you ask. As long as we have a place to
settle.”David smiled. He never thought the strange girl in front of him would
be so willing to allow them to stay. Of course, Desaray would not have let them
stay if every one of her people were not of a high level.
“Good.
But let me warn you. If you dare to harm any of my people, the toblins, the
pigmen, myself, or Nina, I will kill you myself,” Desaray said coldly. She had
never killed a human before, but since becoming a dragon girl her way of
thinking had long changed. She did not feel bad about killing anything.
“Then
follow him. He will give you all some food to eat. A stew would be easier on
the stomach. Just remember to eat slowly. There is plenty of food here. So you
will not starve no matter what. But do not bite the hand that feeds you. The
first time you betray my trust I will hunt you down to the ends of the Earth.”
After giving this last warning Desaray turned and left with Oinktera and Nina.
She did not care about anything else. She hoped the humans here could become
good assets to her and would work well with the other races. This would allow
humans and demi humans to live together in harmony.
A
week later things had settled down. The new wall construction was under way and
the houses were being built one after the other. Nina decided to just stay
living with Desaray and somehow suddenly became her maid. Desaray, who was
currently sitting on a stool, was getting her back washed by Nina. It was not
an easy task since Nina had to keep soaking the towel in hot water every few
seconds to keep it from freezing. She was even wearing more clothes than normal
to keep herself warm.
“Boss,
what are your plans going forward?” Nina asked out of curiosity. Things were
settling down. Even the humans were pitching in and doing what they could to
help out. They even rigged up this thing called electricity in the village
using things from this world.
“Since
things are going smoothly, I plan to bring a few people and clear the new
dungeon so we can mine night stones and other ores. We need people to be around
level twenty or above to even make any use of the dungeon
and only then will we be able to truly farm for ores there.” Desaray had not
forgotten about the precious ores she so needed that might be hidden in the
dungeon.
“Can
I go with you?” Nina asked. Her eyes glowed with excitement. It never dawned on
her that the whole dungeon might be very dangerous.
“If
you want. But you will need to stay in the back. These are zombies and are all
level 17 to 25 elites.” Desaray did not know the exact levels of the dungeon,
but she at least had a good understanding of what the levels were.
“Yay!
Thanks, Boss!” Nina always wished to evolve.
“No
problem.” Desaray smiled and poked Hina, who was sitting in her lap sleeping.
Every time she poked the little fairy’s cheek, she would wave her hand and then
rub her nose without waking up. She had noticed that Hina would not leave her
side even for a second. She would always be tucked away in her hair or would be
sitting on her shoulder when things were going on. She was always watching her
surroundings as if she were Desaray’s personal guard.
After
washing up, Desaray decided to go have a meeting with Oinktera and Juna. Of
course, Nina would follow, and so would Hina.
When
Desaray thought about the two names between the fairy and the cat girl she
chuckled since they rhymed. She went to the front door of her new mansion and
asked the pigman on guard to send for Oinktera and Juna before heading to the
meeting room to wait for the two.
About
five minutes later, the door to the meeting room burst open and Juna and
Oinktera rushed in shouting: “Boss!” The two even stopped to look at one
another and glared at each other before snorting and sitting down at the table.
Desaray
chuckled as she said: “We will be going on another dungeon dive. We need to get
everyone to their next evolution as well as make it so that we can finally mine
the dungeon itself. I also plan to have two people take the humans to the
low-level dungeon. I want them to quickly level up. This run alone should push
both of you past level 20. When you reach the evolution stage, let me know, and
we will backtrack and find a safe room to let you evolve in. This goes for
everyone who comes with us. One dungeon run should net us all at least 4 to 5
levels. Maybe even more.”
“Boss,
will we be able to clear this dungeon as well?” Oinktera asked. He was kind of
excited to get another dungeon completion under his belt.
“I
am not sure. Maybe when all of us are closer to the max level, we can take on
the boss. But in order to not risk it, we will keep farming until we are at a
much higher level than the boss. This will give us a level advantage. I know we
jumped right in on the other boss but by the time we actually fought it we were
close to the boss’s level already. We should not take too many risks. After
all, if you die, that is it.” Desara wanted to be careful this time around. She
knew that as they leveled, the dungeons they would encounter would be even more
challenging than the last. The bosses will also become
harder and harder. She did not wish to lose anyone.
“Then
let’s farm and map out the dungeon.” Juna was okay with this. Killing elites
was not bad either. They could easily get quite a bit of XP from elites and
level up much quicker than hunting monsters outside. This was proven in the
last dungeon.
“Yes,
that is my plan. You can each choose two people from your side to come. Nina
will be coming as well. However, until she is higher level, she will only be
sitting back. We can’t have her fighting up front until she has gotten her
level up. So go choose a few people and set up the humans with dungeon guides
for the lower level dungeon and get them to at least level 12 by the end of the
week.” Desaray dismissed the two and leaned back in her chair. She couldn’t
wait to level up again. She needed to be much stronger!
◆◆◆
“Yuck…”
Desaray frowned as she looked at her hands. She now wished she had made herself
a weapon. In front of her were three undead zombies. But because they were
undead, their skin and the juices inside all splattered when she attacked just
now.
“Boss,
you should have made a weapon for yourself as well…” Oinktera felt bad. His
boss was used to using her claws, but these kinds of monsters were not
something you would really want on your hands.
“It’s
fine. I will make one in a second. But before that…. Cleanse!” Desaray used
cleanse on herself to get rid of the goo that was sticking to her hands. Only
when it was gone did she feel much better. Blood and guts were fine for her,
but when it came to something rotting, she couldn’t help but feel disgusted.
After
some thought, Desaray decided to make something she had seen before that she
thought would be even cooler than a simple sword. In seconds, the sword in her
hand extended a little and became wider. It had the same shape as a certain
game character’s sword from a long-running series of video games. More
specifically, the number seven in the series.
She
also made an ice bow as well, since it would be easier to snipe the zombies
from afar and pull one at a time. This was the only good thing about this
dungeon. The zombies were easy to pull, so you would not need to fear pulling
too many at once as long as you did not agro them with loud noises.
“Boss,
your sword is huge.” Oinktera looked on with a bit of envy. He wanted to touch
it, but he knew better. The last time he tried to touch one of Desaray’s ice
weapons, he almost lost his arm.
“Don’t
be jealous just because mine is bigger than yours.” Desaray gave Oinktera a
wink before walking down the tunnel.
Juna
and Nina both covered their mouths and giggled at the side while Oinktera’s
face turned red. He did not dare say a word as he quietly followed behind
Desaray. It happened about a week ago. He was busy working on something and
only had a pair of shorts on. He was doused with cold
water by one of his friends, which caused his shorts to fall off, revealing his
manhood to everyone.
Because
of the cold water, his manhood had retreated, and because of this, he was
laughed at by everyone. What made it worse was that his Boss even turned her
head and giggled as well! He tried to explain things, but this only made
everyone laugh harder.
The
group continued through the dungeon. The zombies were only dropping some coins
here and there or some cloth. Nothing that was really worth writing home about.
Desaray was a little disappointed, but there was nothing she could do about
what dropped in the dungeon.
With
her new sword, she was easily able to cleave the heads off the zombies cleanly,
making their killing and leveling much quicker. She even reached level 22
within a few hours.
It
was about the third hour in when Oinktera suddenly announced he had hit level
20. “Boss! Boss! I hit level 20! I can evolve!”
“Congratulations!”
Desaray was very happy. Evolutions gave a huge boost in power. This meant he
would now be able to fight more easily and help defend the village more easily
as well. “Alright, let’s head back to a safe room. Everyone is on guard duty. Once
Oinktera evolves, we will continue on with clearing the dungeon.”
Everyone
nodded and quickly hurried back to a large room that they could easily defend
if needed. One would think that they would leave the dungeon to let Oinktera
evolve, but if they did, the dungeon itself would reset. And it was actually
safer to evolve in a dungeon where things were more under
your control than it was to evolve outside of it where anything could happen at
any time.
When
they set up camp, Oinktera sat in the corner of the room and readied himself
for his evolution. He had never heard of his kind evolving before, so he was
nervous. He hoped his evolution would not turn out to be something like an orc.
“Boss, if I somehow evolve into an orc, please kill me right away.”
“Don’t
worry, no matter what happens I will be sure to roast you on the grill,”
Desaray replied teasingly. Oinktera couldn’t help but smile. He was truly
grateful to this boss of his. He could not be where he is today without her
assistance. “No matter what, boss, my life will always be yours.”
“Alright,
stop acting all weird. Hit the button to evolve.” Desaray hated it when he got
all corny on her.
Oinktera
smiled and pressed the button. He was quickly engulfed in a whirlwind of mana.
Multiple Evolutions
Desaray
sat down in front of the mana vortex in front of her on a bench made of ice.
She crossed her legs up under her and stared at the swirling mana, wondering
just what Oinktera would look like after he had evolved.
“Desa….”
Hina called out while pulling on one of Desaray’s horns.
“Hmmm?
What’s wrong, Hina?” Desaray reached up with her hand and let Hina climb on top
of it before bringing it to the front of her face. So they could seed each
other.
“You
should fight the boss….” Hina had been thinking about it. Her new master was
much stronger than she thought. Hina could tell. To instantly kill a bunch of
level 20 to 25 elites was already proof that she could solo this dungeon
without help. Her actual strength did not match her level.
“I
am not sure I can….” Desaray wanted to shake her head but was quickly cut off
by Hina.
“Desa,
no, Master! You have strength that is beyond this dungeon. You are belittling
yourself too much. You even have many comrades here who
can easily assist you. The Juna girl even told me you basically soloed the
first dungeon boss you faced without any issues. You just need to have more
confidence. I’d say you could at least fight bosses ten, no, thirty levels
above your current level without issue. Look how smoothly you have been pushing
through this dungeon. How many of the monsters have the rest of your team
killed? Almost all of them were killed instantly by you!” Hina’s words made the
rest of the group nod.
Hina
did not lie. Desaray was instantly killing the elites without much effort. With
such skill, the boss itself should be a walk in the park. Juna walked over and
sat down not far from Desaray and added: “We all have seen how strong you are.
You can easily defeat the boss alone. While we can not do much on our own, I
think that most of us will also evolve before we even reach the boss room.
“The
boss will also jump out levels a few times as well. I know you are worried
about our safety, but we must all take risks. Even if one of us dies, we will
not blame you. Eventually, we will lose someone in a dungeon or war in the
future. So we should practice now instead of playing it safely. The world
around us is unforgiving. You can not shelter us all the time.”
Juna’s
words made sense to Desaray. It also opened her eyes and made her realize that
she had been sheltering them. She was always worried about one of them dying
and taking the brunt of everything on her own. She let out a sigh before
nodding her head. “Alright. We will fight the boss.”
“Yay!”
Hina shouted happily. In truth, she just wanted to be of some use. This entire
time, she had not needed to make a move, nor did Desaray ask her to. She wanted
to show her new master that she could be of use. She had only known Desaray for a short time, but she really liked this girl, mainly due
to the consistent ice-cold air that came off her body but also because she was
very caring and always watching out for her.
“I
think he is done,” Nina spoke up. She was kind of jealous. While she had jumped
quite a few levels since the start of the dungeon, she did not think she would
hit level 20 by the end. She was only level 15 at the moment.
Desaray
and the rest all looked at the swirling mana as it began to dissipate,
revealing what looked like a young man in the nude standing there. He had two
pink ears on top of his head that were adorned by his pink hair. His face was
quite handsome, along with his muscular body that would make any girl swoon.
Even the member between his legs seemed to have gotten a level up. On his
backside was a curly pink tail that looked like a spring. He looked much
different from any orc.
Desaray
looked Oinktera up and down and nodded her head in appreciation. While he was
indeed good-looking, she still did not feel much. For some reason, looking at
Oinktera reminded her of the mysterious man she saw in her first dungeon. He
had said they would meet again, but she really wondered if that was true or
not.
“Oh!
I look human!” Oinktera suddenly shouted out.
“Can
you put some clothes on!? We do not want to go blind!” Juna yelled out. Her
gray cheeks turned a ting darker as she blushed. She wondered why this damn pig
man had to turn out so handsome!
“Ah!”
Oinktera only just now realized he was naked. He quickly covered himself up and
began going through his inventory to look for his armor. He quickly equipped it
and let out a sigh of relief. With a shy smile, he looked
around and scratched his head as he said, “Haha, sorry about that.”
“It’s
fine,” Desaray replied without really much care. “Tell us what race you are
now?”
“That
is just it. I never heard of this race before. I am now what is called a Devil
Hog,” Oinktera replied. He had never heard of his race evolving. So this was a
first for him, his health and mana shot through the roof, and he even got two
new racial skills.
“What
are your stats like, and what skills did you get?” Desaray wanted to get a good
understanding of this new race, devil hog.
“My
health is 3120, and my mana is at 1567. As for skills, they are all the same as
before, except I now have two new ones. Devil Hog Strength and Fiery Fists.
Both are at level 1,” Oinktera explained.
Desaray
was surprised that he got strength buffs and a fists skill. But just from the
sound of his race, it seemed he was born to beat people up. She couldn’t help
but think of abiker gang when she heard his race name.
“Okay,
we will test it out. In the next few fights, you will be in charge of killing
the zombies. Let’s see just how powerful you have become.” Desaray wanted to
test Oinktera out. She had to know if all evolutions gave a huge spike in
ability,
“Don’t
worry, Boss, I will do my best!” Oinktera really wanted to see how strong he
had gotten as well.
The
group continued on and quickly found a single zombie shuffling around. It was a
level 22 zombie, which meant they were probably getting
closer to the boss’s room. Oinktera ran up without unsheathing his sword and
punched out. His speed was much faster than before, and as his fist landed on
the zombie skull, it suddenly exploded all over the place, sending chunks of flesh
and brain matter all over the place. Oinktera stood there in a daze. He
instantly killed an elite zombie!
“Not
bad.” Desaray was also stunned. She looked at Oinktera, who kept looking at his
fists and then back at the cloth item drop before looking back at his fists. He
was too shocked at his own strength!
“Seems
I can’t pick on him anymore….” Juna pursed her lips. She couldn’t wait to
evolve as well so she could beat the damn pig brains up!
“No,
you can. I noticed that Oinktera has a soft spot for you, Juna.” Desaray could
see that the two got along well, and Oinktera was always following Juna’s
whims. She did not know if different species could form families or not, but
she did hope the two could get together at some point.
Juna
blushed. But she wondered. Would that soft spot still continue even if she
evolved? What if her evolution made her even worse-looking than she was now….
Many thoughts were bouncing through her mind. She did not know what her evolved
form would look like, and it scared her. “We will need to wait and see…”
“I
do not think Oinktera cares about looks.” Desaray patted Juna on the head. She
then used cleanse on Oinktera since he was bouncing back towards them with an
excited look on his face. She knew if she did not do it now, they would all
need to be cleansed. With the way he liked to flail his
arms about when he talked, he would spray gook all over them.
“Boss,
did you see!?” Oinktera asked excitedly.
“Yep.
I saw you blast a zombie’s head into millions of pieces. Congratulations, you
learned how to splat brains. How is it, did you get the brain splatting skill?”
Desaray asked teasingly.
“Boss,
there is no….. Wait, I did!” Oinktera was shocked. He really did get a skill
called brain splatting!
Everyone
was quiet, including Desaray. She had just been teasing Oinktera and was not
serious, and now a skill really appeared! Everyone else felt the same way. They
were shocked. They, too, knew that their boss was just teasing Oinktera, but it
actually came true! This brought their respect for Desaray to another level.
Desaray
was at a loss as to what to say. She had no words! “Ahem…. It seems there is
such a skill. Congrats.” Desaray smiled awkwardly. Oinktera, who had no sense
of the mood in the room, smiled happily and thanked Desaray.
With
a second powerhouse now in their team, Desaray was more confident in fighting
the dungeon boss. The group quickly made their way toward the boss room, but
just before getting there, they had to stop because Juna had actually hit level
20 as well.
“Juna,
we will protect you, so evolve in peace.” Desaray smiled warmly at Juna, which
caused her to blush. She wondered if her boss knew that she was very pretty!
And even more pretty when she smiled!
Juna
snapped out of her daze and nodded. “I will start now.”
“Boss,
what do you think she will evolve into?” Oinktera asked.
“A
beauty that you will never get to touch,” Desaray replied teasingly. She found
it fun to tease Oinktera.
Oinktera
blushed after hearing this. He was just asking! Why did he need to get teased?
Although he couldn’t help but be slightly worried, after all, Juna was a good
girl. If she turned out beautiful, would she want someone as silly as him? It
was only when this thought came to mind that Oinktera suddenly realized he had
feelings for the girl. His whole face grew red, causing everyone to wonder just
what was going on in his mind.
A
few hours later, the mana whirlwind around Juna dissipated. Desaray quickly
made an ice wall to block everyone’s view as she looked at the gray-skinned
beauty on the ground. Juna opened her eyes, blinked a few times, and looked
around. She was a bit confused as to why things seemed smaller than before. She
looked up at her boss in confusion.
“You
have become very beautiful, Juna. Here, look.” Desaray made an ice mirror for
Juna to look into. When she saw herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help but
burst into tears. She was happy she did not become ugly!
Juna
gazed at herself in awe. She never thought she could be so beautiful before. “I
do not understand it….”
“Ummm,
one second….” Juna quickly opened her menu and looked at her status screen.
“Let’s see…. I became a Nymph…. I never heard of it before…..”
“Nymphs
are considered a fae race.” Desaray was very knowledgeable about this. “I am
not sure what they are in your world, but in mine, they are mythical
creatures.”
“I
see…” Juna smiled softly. “Do you think he will like it?”
“I
do not see why not, but Juna, do not let him get what he wants easily.” Desaray
wanted to make Oinktera work for his right to be with Juna! “Make him work for
it. Grow your bond slowly.”
“Mmm…
I also want the stupid pig to work for it.” Juna nodded her head and smiled.
Her smile was like the sun. If Desaray was not careful, she might fall for Juna
instead!
“Alright,
get some clothes on and let everyone see your new form. I am sure they are all
worried.” Desaray helped Juna up. Juna, who was once shorter than her, was now
a head taller than her.
Juna
quickly put her armor on. When she was ready, Desaray removed the wall of ice
and stood next to the newly evolved Juna. “What do you all think?”
Everyone
was praising Juna left and right. The only one who was not saying a word was
Oinktera, whose eyes were glued to the gray-skinned beauty. Desaray chuckled as
she walked over and slapped the frowning devil hog on the back of his head.
“Wake up and praise her!”
“Ah!
Right! Juna…. You look stunning….” Oinktera blurted out, causing everyone to
grin. Nina even pushed Juna forward, so she was standing in front of Oinktera.
Juna
lowered her head shyly before bringing her foot back and throwing it forward,
making strong contact with Oinktera’s shin. “Who wants your praise? Humph!”
“Hahaha!”
Desaray let out a loud laugh as she watched Oinktera hop around in pain.
“Damn,
woman! Why are you still the same even after your evolution!?” Oinktera cried
out. His shin really hurt!
“So
what!? Am I supposed to act differently just because I evolved? Hell no! I will
still be the same,” Juna retorted. She looked at Oinktera in disdain before
turning her head away with a small smile on her lips.
Oinktera
could only helplessly sigh as he rubbed his shin. Once he felt no more pain, he
went over to Desaray to start complaining. “Boss, you need to uphold justice
for me. She is so mean to me!”
Oinktera
nodded. He also felt that Juna did like him as well. If he did not have this
feeling, he would not be chasing after her. He also had not stated his true
intentions to her yet. However, he did know one thing. Even if she had not
become beautiful, his attitude toward her would not have changed. Juna was Juna
after all.
The
group progressed through the dungeon and made it to the boss room after another
half-day. Juna had new spells that could only be used in outdoor areas. She now
had the ability to control plants. Sadly, in a cave dungeon, they were useless.
But she did plan to make good use of them and form a natural barrier around the
village made of large tree roots.
Almost
everyone evolved except two people. One was a toblin who was of a lower level,
and the other was Nina, who was a level away from reaching level 20. The only
thing was that while the pigmen all became devil hogs, the toblins were
different. They did not become nymphs like Juna, but something called a Horned
Trinity Fae. They still had gray skin and got a human form like Juna, but they
all got wind-attributed abilities. One spell boosted their speed, while another
allowed them to cast blades of invisible wind that could slice through their
targets.
As
they stood in front of the boss’s room, Nina pouted. “I wanted to evolve too….”
“Don’t
worry. We will run it again to get you and Tible the level you need if the boss
does not level you up. But I am pretty sure it will.”
Desaray did not plan to leave the two sitting at level 19.
“Mmm…”
Nina nodded and took a deep breath. She did not think she would get to level 20
so quickly. She had to admit, meeting her goddess was the best thing that had
ever happened to her.
“Everyone
rest up! We will head into the boss’s room after we rest for a few hours. I am
sure you are all hungry as well, but remember one thing. Even if you have
evolved, you need to take care of yourself. Do not allow yourself to be
killed!”
“Alright,
let’s do this!” Desaray pushed the door open, revealing a room filled with
bones. In the center was a large undead monster wearing armor. “Appraisal!”
[Boss:
Ghoul Knight]
[Level]:
25
[HP]:
10354/10354
[MP]:
1000/1000
“Alright,
here is the plan. I will go in first, followed by Oinktera. Juna, you are on
healing. Although there are no plants around, you can still use your healing
spell but only do so if we get low. Everyone else should know their roles. When
I say attack, attack!” Desaray created a large ice broadsword in each hand and
walked towards the boss with them held out to her side.
Hina
flew to the top of her head and stood there looking, ready to cast spells at
any time. “Master, remember. You can easily defeat this boss alone. So do not
worry. Face it head-on.”
As
soon as Desaray reached the center of the room, the boss finally reacted to her
presence. It stood up from its hunched-over position and looked at Desaray with
an evil grin. “You come to my laier with weapons drawn. It seems you wish to
kill me. Let’s see if you have the ability to!”
Desaray
was stunned for a moment because she did not expect this boss to speak. It
looked like a humanoid monster. It was grotesque looking, but it was actually
able to speak! She only snapped out of her daze when Hina suddenly called out
to her. “Master, it’s attacking!”
Desaray
looked up to see a huge fist in her face. She instinctively raised her right
hand and blocked the attack with her sword. Causing a loud clanging sound to be
heard. The strange thing was that Desaray did not move from where she stood.
Her feet were firmly planted on the ground and had not even moved an inch.
Even
the boss seemed to be confused. He stared at Desaray and yelled out: “Who are
you!? How do you have such strength!?”
“Ummm?
Just your average dragon girl?” Desaray replied without much thought.
“What
is a dragon doing in my lair!?” The ghoul seemed afraid. Desaray did not know
what to make of this. Wasn’t a boss supposed to be a
boss and just wave its hand and shoot beams from its eyes and mouth? Why was
this boss so talkative?
“Ummm….
Killing you?” Desaray replied. She really did not know how to answer a boss
ghoul who could talk. She looked back at the others, who all shrugged back at
her. They also did not seem to understand what was going on.
“Then
I guess this will be the day a dragon dies by my hands!” The boss ghoul let out
a roar as he swung his fists over and over at Desaray in a flurry of attacks.
The sheer wind pressure made the others all quickly jump back. Hina had to hide
behind one of Desaray’s horns while holding on for dear life.
Desaray,
on the other hand, only held up her sword to block the blows one after the
other. The sounds of clanging were heard as if the boss ghoul was ringing a
bell and not attacking someone.
Even
with all the attacks, Desaray still stood in the same spot as if she was an
unmovable wall. She did not feel that the boss ghoul’s attacks were all that
strong. She sighed and waited for one of its fists to come at her before
flipping the sword in her hand as if she were holding a bat one-handed and
swinging it out. The sword smashed into the fist with a loud bang, followed by
a crunching sound as all the bones in the boss’s arm shattered into pieces. The
boss’s health bar instantly dropped by twenty percent with a single attack.
“Impossible!”
The boss did not seem to understand where such a small body got so much
strength. It could not let itself be defeated here! It quickly jumped back with
one of its arms dangling at its side before waving its good hand and creating
ten magic circles in front of it. “Let’s see if you can
still act calm facing these! Shadow Fiends!”
Large
monsters, two Desaray tall, suddenly appeared in the room. There were ten in
total, and they took up a good portion of the room. Desaray could tell that
these monsters were this boss’s final attack; it seemed she had already driven
it into a corner. After all, all of its mana was gone in a single cast of a
spell. She quickly cast appraisal on the new enemies to see what kind of stats
they had.
[Shadow
Fiend]
[Level]:
25
[HP]:
5000/5000
[MP]:
0/0
“So
they are just melee style monsters…. Oinktera! You guys deal with the adds I
will handle the boss!” Desaray decided to let the others deal with these ten
monsters. She knew that the devil hog race was very strong, so she was not
worried about them. A few punches from them, and these monsters would easily
die.
Desaray
walked past the monsters, which seemed to ignore her. Why this was, Desaray did
not know, but it worked out well for her. She came to stand in front of the
boss once more, who seemed to be in a state of confusion. “Ummm…. I am going to
kill you now, okay?”
“You!
Damn dragons! Who do you think you are? I have ruled this domain for millions
of years! I will not fall so easily!” the boss ghoul cried out before slamming
both its fists down at Desaray.
Desaray
only held up her hand, catching the attack as it came down on her, and tossed
the massive fists to the side before reforming her sword
and swinging it down on the wrists of the boss ghoul’s arms.
A
howl of pain rang out through the boss room as two thuds were heard. The only
weapon the ghoul had was now severed at the wrist. Fear filled the boss ghoul’s
eyes as it stumbled backward, trying to escape, but sadly, there was nothing
but the boss room wall behind him. Desaray tapped her foot off the ground and
sprung up, creating a few ice foot holds to get herself to eye level with the
boss.
“This
will be your end,” Desaray stated before jumping up toward the boss ghoul and
spinning her body around. The boss ghoul raised its arms in defense, only for
them to be sliced apart once more.
“This
can’t be happening!” The boss ghoul cried out as it felt a pinch in its neck
and then a strong force slamming into the side of its head. Desaray had sliced
right through its neck and then kicked it in the side of the head to make its
head separate from its body.
The
health bar of the boss ghoul quickly dropped to zero as the body and head
collapsed to the ground. Desaray also landed lightly on the ground in a bit of
a daze. She was now realizing what Hina meant. Her strength alone would allow
her to solo these dungeons with ease. “Hina…. Thank you for giving me
confidence.”
“I
would not recognize you as my master if you did not have this little bit of
ability.” Hina blushed and snuggled into Desaray’s hair.
The
boss’s body turned into balls of light, leaving behind many items once more. As
per normal, all crafting materials went to Desaray. She did not really care
about any of the armor that dropped. She did not even wear any armor anymore.
She felt uncomfortable and stuffy when she wore it.
With
her current strength, she also did not need to worry about being harmed all
that much either. For defense, she could always wear a layer of ice as armor,
which would serve much better than anything she could make or even get from
drops.
The
others also quickly dispatched the summoned monsters as well. A few extra piles
of drops were scattered across the ground.
[You
Defeated Boss: Ghoul Knight]
[Experience
Points Gained….]
[Bonus
Clear Experience Points Gained….]
[Level
Up!]
[Level
Up!]
[Level
Up!]
[Level
Up!]
In
the end, Desaray reached level 28 after killing the boss. This dungeon alone
allowed her to jump 8 levels. The dungeon was also much bigger than the last
and had many more monsters inside. With a full clear and bonus experience, she
was bound to get quite a few levels.
[Race]:
Ice Dragon Goddess
[Current
Realm] Mortal
[Age]:
18
[Level]:
28
[Monster
Rank]: E
[Realm
Advance Requirements]: Reach Level 50, Kill 1 thousand enemies, Raise your
affinity with Ice to 70%, Create a domain with 10,000 followers
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 100, Kill 2 Demigods, Complete 3 level 100+ dungeons
solo
[HP]:
7698/7698
[MP]:
6267/6267
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice (20%)
[Skill
Points]: 41
[Skills]
{Ice
Breath (Lvl 5)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl
2)} {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)}
{Dig (Lvl 1} {Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 5)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection
(Lvl 1)}
{Healing
Snow (Lvl 5)} {Partial Transformation (Lvl Max)}
{Full
Transformation (Lvl Max)} {Ice Manipulation (Lvl 5)}
{Summon
Ice Elemental (Lvl 1)} {Prison Of Absolute Cold (Lvl 1)}
[Goddess
Skills]
{Frozen
Step (Lvl Max)} {Absolute Zero(Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
She
was getting closer and closer to reaching 10000 health. This kind of excited
her since, to her, this was a lot. Desaray smiled happily as she looked at her
stats.
“Umm….
Boss… I can evolve now….” Nina stood in front of Desaray, feeling slightly
nervous.
“Alright.”
Desaray closed her menu and had Nina sit down in front of her. Oinktera was
going to guard the other member who had just hit level 20 as well. “Nina, do
not worry about anything. I will watch over you.”
“Okay.”
Nina nodded before taking a deep breath and hitting the accept button. Her
evolution process quickly began.
Desaray
opened her menu again, looked at her level, and felt something was a little
off. She seemed to have gained a lot of levels. “Oinktera, how many levels did
you get?”
“Me?
I got 2.” Oinktera replied.
Desaray
furrowed her brow and asked the others. They, too, only got 2 levels. This told
her that she somehow got a huge experience boost. Where it came from, she did
not know. She was not going to complain either.
-
- -
In
another space, a handsome young man sat staring at the screen in front of him.
His eyes locked on to the dragon girl, who was staring at her menu in a puzzled
manner. He reached out and gently touched the screen and let out a sigh.
“Soon…. Soon, I will be able to see you again… Aria… I have waited for so many life cycles just to be with you again…. I can not do much
for you at this time, but I can at least help you grow in power. While what I
can do at this time is little, it should be able to help you on your road to
regaining your true strength.”
Another Major Merger
Desaray
decided she would deal with her new points when she got back home. She was
happy with how fruitful this whole dungeon dive was. Not only did everyone hit
level 20 and evolve, but she jumped to almost level 30 herself. This was a huge
bonus for her.
Desaray
guarded Nina until the cloud of mana began to fade away. She quickly set up a
wall of ice around her and Nina to block anyone from seeing anything within.
“Nina, congratulations.”
Nina,
who was still slightly in a daze, smiled brightly as she stood up. She now had
a second tail swaying behind her. “I turned into a catsith!”
Nina
did not care if she was naked or not. She jumped on Desaray and hugged her tightly.
“Boss, thank you so much! It would have taken me years to evolve, but now I am
already on my first evolution!”
Desaray
smiled and scratched the cat girl’s ears, causing her to purr. Seeing the
blooming smile on Nina’s face made Desaray very happy.
Although… “You should let go. Or you will freeze to death. You should put your
armor back on as well.”
“Ah!”
Nina only now felt the chill on her body as ice began to form on it. She
quickly jumped back with pursed lips and opened her menu. She wished her boss
could figure out how to control the aura of ice around her.
Only
when Nina was fully dressed did Desaray reveal her to everyone present. “Nina
is now a catsith. We have all worked hard. The teleport to the first floor is
right over there. We will head back to the village and celebrate so many
evolutions in one go! We will have a feast tonight!”
“Yeah!”
Cheers filled the boss room. They had all worked very hard and fought with all
they had.
In
a good mood, everyone headed back to the village and sat down. They roasted
monster meat and sang songs while dancing. Even the humans joined in on the
fun. Not a single one of them had any signs of prejudice against any of the
races. They all ate together, sang together, and some even slept together.
Desaray
sat there looking at the peaceful scene with a smile on her face. She was truly
happy. Oinktera and Juna both walked over and sat a few feet from Desaray.
“Boss, Juna and I were thinking. I think it is about time we give our village a
name.”
“Hmmm….
Now that I think about it, we should name it, huh?” Desaray had thought about
it before, but it was not on her priority list. “How about Serenity? A place
all races can call home without feeling oppressed?”
“I
like it!” Oinktera would have even agreed with the name if Desaray called it
poop village. But the one thing he felt was that this
name really suited this place when he saw all the races sitting there having
fun without any boundaries.
Desaray
stood up and got everyone’s attention. “As of today, we will call this place
Serenity. What we turn this place into is up to us. Whether we go from a
village to a city or even a kingdom, the future is on us, but…. No matter what,
this will be a place for all races. As long as they are not causing harm, they
can come here and live in harmony with us. We will not turn good people away.”
She
raised her cup of fruit juice and yelled out: “To Serenity!”
*Boom!*
Lightning
streaked across the sky as thundered boom across the land. The ground shook
violently, and the sky began to light up with a purplish color. It was almost
like before with the yellow light, but this time, it was purple.
Desaray
squinted for a moment before waving her hand. “Prison Of Absolute Cold!” A
large dome of ice covered the entire village. “Remember what we talked about
last time! Everyone gather in the same spot. When I ask you for it, give me
your mana!”
Desaray
frantically scrolled through her list of skills and quickly found two spells
she was hoping to find. {Mana Reduction} {Mana Regeneration}. These skills
would be essential, and she had already planned to look for them. And now she
was glad she had thought of it. Currently, to cover the entire village, it was
costing her almost a hundred and fifty mana per second. These two skills cost
her four points each.
With
mana regeneration, she was able to get that to level 3 as well. Then went from
10 mana per second to 30 mana per second and also cost her 15 points. While
this only dropped her mana cost to 135 mana per second, her natural mana
regeneration was already 75 mana per second. Now, with the 30 extra mana
regeneration, she had 105 mana regeneration.
So,
she was only losing 30 mana per second at this time. Juna, Oinktera, and Nina
were already feeding her mana as planned. They had long practiced for when
things hit the fan, and the two worlds had another major merger.
“Boss,
how long do you think this will last?” Juna asked. Juna had also created a dome
of roots around the entire village as well which were now frozen solid due to
the barrier. Whether this was effective or not, they would not know until
whatever the purple liquid was dropped from the sky.
But
Desaray did know one thing…. “No idea, but we might run into more races sooner
than expected.”
Desaray
sat by the fire and watched the flames. She did not need to do much of anything
but keep the dome of ice above their heads intact. As long as she did not run
out of mana, she would be fine.
“Like
hell if I would know! Just look around you! We only have about half our forces.
After that bright flash of purple light, we arrived at this place. I know those
damn long ears do not have the ability to transport us so this might be
something else,” Alex, the general of the human army of Alaistine, replied. He
had been sent out on a mission to subjugate a bunch of forest elves. He knew
they were not all that powerful and a teleport spell was not something they
could easily cast.
“Sir,
what is this?” a soldier called out and pointed at the frozen roots. It stuck
out like a sore thumb.
“I
am not sure… can you see anything beyond the roots?” the general asked.
“People!
There are humans and some other races inside! I think the humans are being held
captive!” Because of the ice being slightly blurry, they could not see things
clearly. So to them, the humans who were huddled on the ground looked like
prisoners.
“Get
everyone together. No matter what this place is, we need to help our fellow
humans. We will set them free and bring them with us as we search for a means
of escaping this place,” the general ordered without any hesitation. To him,
every human was another soldier’s boots on the ground.
“Alright….”
Desaray sighed. She could hear outside the dome, so she already knew it was
humans from the other world, and they did not seem demi human friendly. “Juna,
come with me. Oinktera, Nina, protect the others.”
“Understood,
boss.” Oinktera nodded and quickly got everyone to follow him so that they
could hide better. Nina followed from the back.
Juna
followed Desaray as they walked toward the edge of the ice dome. “Juna, from
here do not say a word. Just restrain them if I say to.”
“Yes,
Boss.” Desaray waved her hand creating a small passage in the ice dome, while
Juna did the same to the frozen roots.
On
the other side, the General saw movement and quickly had his men pull back.
“Don’t attack until I tell you to!” He watched with narrow eyes as two beauties
walked out to stand in front of the ice dome.
“If
you attack at all, I promise I will make it so none of you can leave here
alive.” Desaray’s eyes swept over every soldier there. An aura of ice began to
spread out toward them, causing the air temperature to drop.
“Release
the humans, and we will not attack!” the general demanded. While he felt this
young demi human was quite strong he could not back down.
“The
humans of my world are not part of your world. They do not know your customs
and I will be damned if I let you turn them into people
who hate the other races. So, General Alex was it? I ask of you, take your men
and turn around. Find a place to settle down until the two worlds fully merge,
or else I can make you and your men decorations for Serenity’s new village center.”
Desaray was not playing games. She had no qualms about turning these people
into ice statues.
The
general narrowed his eyes. He had understood a few things from what this young
demi-human said. And the most major one of them all was worlds, not world.
“What do you mean by the merger?”
“You
were transported to this place, right?” Desaray asked. From what she heard,
this should be the case.
“Yes,
we were marching to battle when we appeared here.” The general could not pass
up free information. After all, this was a strange place he had suddenly been
thrown into.
“General,
do not listen to this demi! She is definitely lying to us!” a soldier yelled
out. His killing intent soared as he stared at Desaray. Whether she was
beautiful or not did not matter to him. A demi was still a demi.
“The
man in the back who just shouted…. Hina, please make him an ice statue.”
Desaray decided it would be best to make an example out of someone.
“Roger!”
Hina came out of her hiding place and waved her little hands. The soldier who
had just spoken did not even get to scream before he was turned into ice.
“You!”
The general saw his soldier being turned into an ice sculpture and wanted to
rage, but he took a deep breath instead. Information was
more important than a mere soldier. “Please tell me what you know and if there
is a way to get back.”
“No,
there is no way. As I said, the worlds are merging. The only way to get back is
after the merger has finished.”
The
general furrowed his brow after taking in Desaray’s words. “Can you tell me
when this merger will end?”
“No
idea.” Desaray spread her hands out. “I wish I knew so I knew how much time I
had left to prepare after all. Your people seem hell-bent on coming here and
starting fights with me for no reason. I will protect my own people. No matter
if it means turning your entire army into ice statues to decorate my village.”
While
the general was wary of this woman’s power, he still could not stand by while
humans were being used as slaves. “You protect your own but use humans as
slaves. This kind of logic does not seem fair.”
“Slaves?”
Desaray was a bit confused. “There are no slaves in my village. Only people who
work together live together and strive for harmony between races. We do have
humans, but they are nowhere near slaves. They are also an important part of my
community. If you do not believe me, I can have a few come out to speak to
you.”
The
general did not know what to say. He knew it was not easy to see inside, so he
could not say for sure whether the humans within were being treated poorly or
not. “I will have to ask you to call them out.”
“Alright,
but the women will not be called. After all, a bunch of men who look
sex-deprived should not be near any women.” Desaray
looked at the soldiers who were leering at her and frowned. “Should I turn you
into ice cubes as well?”
The
general became nervous and quickly yelled out: “What the hell are you all
looking at!? Look at your own feet!” Only after shouting this did he apologize
to Desaray. “I am sorry about that. As you said, men will be fine. I just want
to speak with them.”
“Juna,
please go in and get David and Alan. David is the leader of the humans, and
Alan is second in charge.” Desaray figured the leaders would be the best people
to talk to with this man. If they decide to follow the humans of the other
world, that would be fine. She would not stop them. But if they ran into each
other again down the road and became enemies, then she would kill them without
any hesitation.
Desaray
stared down the humans while Juna went to get David and Alan. Only when she
returned did things pick up once more. David walked next to Desaray, staying a
few feet away, and asked: “Boss, is this the man who wished to speak with us.”
“Yes,
he is from the other world. He did not believe me when I said you and the other
humans were not slaves,” Desaray explained lightly.
“What!?
If not for you, we would have long been dead!” David got very angry. He was an
avid Desa follower. The unofficial church of the Ice Goddess was under his
command. Juna was even a member of it. They met every Thursday. So, anything
that went against his goddess angered him to death. He turned and glared at the
General and yelled out: “How dare you not believe in my Boss!”
Desaray
held her head and shook. This old man was so hot-headed!
“Imprisoned!?
Enslaved!? What the hell is that!? If not for our Boss, myself and the rest of
the humans living here would have long been dead. She allowed us to live with
her and has even helped us grow stronger. She feeds us and keeps us safe from
the monsters outside. We even mingle with the other races. Alan’s wife is a
newly evolved toblin!” The old man huffed. His beard flying in the breeze.
“This….”
The general’s face contorted as he looked at the other human man named Alan.
“You… You actually mingle with these demis!?”
“Watch
your tongue!” David yelled. “How dare you insult our friends. Demis…. What a
word. How about I call you a bunch of hairless monkeys!? If I were not human,
that would be just as racist as you calling my friends and my boss demis! If
you wish to fight, this old man does not mind throwing down with you!”
“David,
please calm down.” Desaray sighed and tried to calm the old man down. She was
afraid he would get too worked up. “If you get too angry, it will be bad for
your heart.”
“Boss,
I just can’t stand it!” David was so angry he stomped his feet.
Desaray
looked at the general and narrowed her eyes. “While David does need to calm
down, you also need to apologize. Or else I will use you and your men as a
means of deterrence to those who dare to come near my home. As you can see, my
people are nowhere close to being enslaved. If you wish to fight, we can, but I can guarantee that you will not be the
victor. Leave this place and do not come back within one hundred miles.”
“Miles?”
The general did not understand these words.
“Lengths,”
Juna explained. “One hundred lengths. If you do not wish to die, then do not
come within one hundred lengths of this place. March out now. We will be
watching.”
Juna’s
eyes glowed as the trees around the army suddenly began to shake. Roots sprung
up from the ground, causing the general’s men to begin to panic. The general
knew he had no choice but to leave. He quickly yelled out: “Alright! We will
leave.”
“Boss,
do not worry. I will keep an eye on them.” Juna was very clear about the humans
of her world. There were some good ones, but the rest were bad. They hated demi
humans and had tried to kill her kind many times. She lost count of how many of
her people died at the hands of humans.
“Thanks,
Juna.” Desaray waved her hand and canceled her spell. She also had Juna retract
the roots. There was no reason to keep it up if they were now safe.
“Boss!”
Oinktera came running over quickly. “What happened?”
“Some
asshole humans from another world dared to look down on our boss!” David yelled
as he slammed his cane off the ground.
“David,
you will hurt your hip again if you keep this up. You may have leveled up, but
we have not found a cure to fix the issues with your bones yet.” Desaray
smiled, seeing David being so angry on her behalf.
“Haha.
To be honest with you, David, I was very close. But you catch more sugar with
honey. I had Hina freeze one of his people. The reason I did not freeze the
general after he offended me was because of the numbers. By any chance, if any
of us died, everyone in the village would have suffered. I can not have that
until we are sure that our strength is enough to defeat all who stand in our
way.” Desaray could not risk it. While she might have been able to kill all of
them, she was not used to fighting humans as of yet or other sentient beings
that could think and plan. She had to be careful in how she approached things.
“I
understand that, but still….” David was indignant. He did not like people
talking badly about Desaray, who had saved him and his companions. They all
owed her their lives. He, for one, would never forget this. She had also been
helping them learn more about this world and how to level up and use their
powers.
Everyone
got their things together and went back to celebrating. While the incident had
interrupted their fun, they still wished to celebrate and enjoy the rest of the
night. But who would have thought that the next morning, more newcomers would
find their way to their front door?
“Hello?”
A voice rang out as a short, stocky man followed by ten others, both men and
what looked to be young girls. “Is there anyone around?”
“What
can I do for you?” One of the toblins asked as they stood up on the wall.
“A toblin and a….
Human!?” The dwarf in the lead was quite surprised.
“Just
because he is a toblin doesn’t mean he is not a good person.” The human man
named Mitch said with a snort. “Our village does not discriminate, so if you
are one of those types who hate demi-humans, then please leave.”
“Not
at all! We, dwarves, fall under what you humans call demi-humans,” the lead
dwarf replied politely.
“That’s
good. Hold on; we will get one of the village leaders.” Mitch said a few words
to the toblin next to him before jumping off the wall. A short while later,
both Oinktera and Juna walked out of the village.
“State
your name and reason for coming here.” Juna was a person who got right to the
point.
“Right.
My name is Regal. I am an elder dwarf and am a bit lost, to be honest. Me and
my companions were on our way to Iron Forge City when we found ourselves here
in this strange place,” Regal replied.
“Oh?
An elder dwarf, now that is rare. My name is Juna. I am a nymph. And the fellow
beside me who looked like he is a bit dimwitted is Oinktera, a devil hog.” Juna
couldn’t help but slip in a jab at Oinktera.
“Juna!
Why do you always say stuff like that!? It took me almost a month to get the
humans not to think I was dumb!” Oinktera complained before turning to the
dwarves and bowing slightly. “Please do not listen to her. She is on her time
of the… Oooff!” A tree root flew up from the ground and smashed into Oinktera’s
stomach, sending him flying.
“Follow
me. I will take you to our Boss. Please be respectful. Our Boss is kind by
nature, but she is also very much revered here in our village. All of us would
give up our lives for her. She has saved us all.” Juna liked to make things
clear right from the beginning.
“Don’t
worry; we would never say anything out of line.” Regal was wondering if he was
being led to some kind of demon lord slime or something. He had never seen
people so protective of their leader to the point that they basically worshiped
them.
But
when he came upon a beautiful girl who was busy crafting weapons, he finally
understood. The person before him was like the tree of life to the people
living here.
Lately,
as long as she did not need to mass produce anything, Desaray had taken a
liking to weapon crafting. At this moment, she sat by the fire with an anvil in
front of her, hammering away at a dagger she was making. This was not something
from her current list of crafting items, just something she was tinkering with.
It had become a hobby of sorts.
Regal
looked at the young girl who was hammering away and felt her method was crude,
but the dagger in front of her seemed to gleam with a cold light. It was then
that he realized that this girl was not using a furnace at all. She was only
hammering away at a lump of metal and forming it into a dagger. He could see
bits of frost building up on the blade that would shatter with each hammer
strike.
“Father,
what is cold smithing?” a young dwarf girl asked.
“It
is an ancient technique that should have been long lost. I do not think this
girl understands what she is doing with how rough her hammering technique is,
but even so, this dagger will still turn out quite well. It will also have the
ice attribute imbued into it,” Regal replied.
“Oh….”
The young girl lost interest. She was more curious about the cold air that was
being emitted by the young woman. The only person she could ask was the
beautiful girl in front of her, but she was too shy to step forward.
“Boss,
we have guests.” Juna stood a few feet away from Desaray and announced.
“Hmmm?
Again? Did those humans come back?” Desaray asked with a frown. But when she
turned and looked at the newcomers, her eyes flashed. “Dwarves?”
“Yes.
Elder Dwarves, to be exact,” Juna replied.
“Oh.”
Desaray put her hammer down and stood up. She dusted herself off before using
cleanse on herself and stepping forward. “How can I help you?”
“We
were wondering if you could tell us where we are?” Regal asked.
“Well,
since you come from the other world, I can say you are now on a planet called
Earth. A separate version of your own world. This village is a village we have
begun to build up called Serenity. And I do hate to say
this, but there is no going back. You will need to wait for the worlds to
finish merging before being able to go back. I am not sure what happened in the
last merger, but I am sure more than just living beings came over this time.”
Desaray had yet to take a look at anything, but she was sure the landscape
probably had some new additions here and there. If the merger was doing what
she thought it was doing.
“I
see… ” Regal did not think that Desaray was lying. After all, they had just
met. There was no need for her to lie to him. He turned and looked after his
people and was at a bit of a loss as to what to do.
“You
all can stay here. But just know that there are strict laws about
discrimination and crime of any kind. This is a place for all races to live in
harmony.” Desaray was not sure how dwarves were, but from their interaction
just now and how the dwarf in front of her was acting, she could tell that they
seemed easy to get along with.
Regal
was stunned. He did not plan to ask her if they could stay since he felt it was
out of place for him to do so, but he really did not expect her to make such an
offer. “If you are willing to do so we promise to abide by all your rules.
Miss…”
“You
can call me Desaray, Desa, or boss like the rest. You and your people are
welcome to stay,” Desaray replied with a smile.
“Then
Boss, my name is Regal. I am the leader of my group of elder dwarves. We will
be in your care from now on.” Regal gave a polite bow, causing Desaray to
smile. She knew her intuition was spot on.
“We
can build anything. But it seems you already have some decent buildings do you
not?” Regal looked at the houses around him and found them to not be too badly
made. He even wanted to talk to the people who constructed them.
“I
want to build a more fortified structure and make things a bit more proper. We
plan to expand to a dungeon not far from here, which will be the main source of
income for the village. It is a cave dungeon with many ore veins inside,”
Desaray explained a few details. She was not worried about them coveting
anything since she could just turn them into frozen statues.
“I
see. Such a dungeon would be coveted by many powers as they emerge in this new
world. What if we do something like this.” Regal already had a few ideas in
mind. He was willing to help Desaray since she was willing to help them. He
quickly drew out a blueprint on the ground for her to look at.
Lily
“Oh?
This is quite interesting. So you want to make a dome made of stone that has
runic engravings on it to ward off any attacks?” Desaray asked as she looked at
the detailed blueprints on the ground.
“I
figured with this setup, even if they were to sneak attack right at the
location, we would be able to ward off most attacks. And with a tunnel leading
out, we have a way to evacuate anyone in case they somehow get trapped there.
These dwarven runes are specially made for defense and, in my world, are second
to only ancient dragon scales when it comes to defense. Only the elder dwarves
can carve these runes,” Regal explained.
“Then
I will leave it to you if it is not too much work.” Desaray had to admit with
such a defense setup, the dungeon that would become the lifeblood of their
village would be safe for the time being.
“Not
too much work. It will only take about a week. With earth magic and a few of us
old dwarves carving the runes, it will be quite easy.” Regal waved his hand. He
was already happy enough to be able to help out. Desaray was willing to take
them in; if he did not pay back this kindness in some way, he would not feel
right.
“Thank you.” Desaray
smiled. She was glad Regal was willing to help in this way.
“Boss,
if I may ask…. The dagger you are creating, can I take a look at it?” Regal was
very curious about the cold smithing.
“Sure,
I do not mind. I was only tinkering around anyway. I like to create weapons,
but it is hard when most fires will go out near me now. I need to stand back a
few feet, or they will freeze over. But I found with my strength I could still
forge ore without needing to heat anything up. Although my hammering technique
needs some work. I am sure you will find many flaws in it.” Desaray blushed as
she rubbed her nose.
The
sight of seeing their boss blush made everyone who saw, excluding the recently
arrived dwarves, almost die of blood loss as their noses bled. They all felt
that their boss was very cute! And a blushing boss was even cuter!
Desaray
took a few steps back so that Regal could inspect the hammer. She really
wondered when she would be able to control her aura enough so that she would
not freeze people out. Although she was not too worried about it at this time.
Mainly because it seemed to serve as an automatic defensive measure.
Regal
took the dagger and inspected it from the blade tip to the base. He could feel
the coldness in his hands. If he had not been wearing gloves, he was sure he
would have already gotten frostbite. “I will admit the hammering does need
work, but the overall craftsmanship is not bad. Boss, you are a beginner,
right?”
“Yes.
I only started about a week ago. And only in my spare time,” Desaray replied
honestly.
“I
only tested it out to see if it would work. I did not know there was a thing
called cold smithing,” Desaray answered.
“Then
I will tell you what you are doing has not been done since ancient times. Cold
smithing is a long-lost technique. But now I know it can not be done by just
anyone. They have to be attuned to the ice element. If you do not mind, I can
help you form your own hammering technique. I only ask that you allow me to
watch anytime you go cold smithing.” Regal was willing to do anything as long
as he could see someone create a weapon straight from ore.
The
thing about cold smithing was that the weapons would come out stronger since
they were not losing any of their properties in the fire. It was forming the
raw metal that had not been heated at all into the shape one desired. While
many could smash ore, it would never work correctly since you needed the ice
element as a bond.
Of
course, the ore itself also needed to be taken into consideration as well. Not
all ore was able to be used for cold smithing. Or at least that should have
been the case…. Regal looked at the sword that had a blue sheen and knew this
was a bronze dagger. He really did not know how she was able to bond the copper
and tin together without a flame. It did not dawn on him that Desaray used her
system to make the bronze ingot she used to craft the dagger.
As
the days passed, Desaray watched as the village they lived in became a
fortress, thanks to the help of the dwarves. High stone walls with staircases
leading to the top and a large stone gate that could only be opened by powering
engraved runes at the top of the tower next to the gate itself. The walls were
also engraved and fortified the entire village to the point that as long as
there was nothing flying over the walls, they would be perfectly safe from all
attacks.
Because
of this, Desaray relaxed a bit and began exploring what she had decided would
be her domain. If she really wanted to build up her village and make sure no
one was able to take it from her and destroy the lives that she and the people
who were following her were building, she had to try to get more people to join
her village.
On
this trip outside the village, she was actually alone. She walked through the
forest that was now teeming with life and came to a sudden stop in front of a
statue she had never seen before. “It’s cracked and looks quite old….” Desaray
mumbled as she walked over to it.
The
statue depicted what looked like a male elf with a sword in his hand. The sword
was pointing up toward the sky with the elf’s head tilted up, looking up at the
sky as well. She was not sure what the elf was doing since he seemed to be
standing perfectly straight. Moss and vines covered the
statue, but at the very front, there was a partially broken plaque with strange
writing on it.
“The
Hero of Killian? Hmmm? I can read it?” Desaray wrinkled her brow. She did not
know why she was able to read a language she had never seen before, but it was
as if the symbols on the plaque were turning into words she could read right
before her eyes. She scratched her head and decided it was probably something
to do with the system. “The hero of the tenth great war who stopped the humans
from pushing into elven lands… The rest is all chipped away. But to be called a
hero and then immortalized as a statue. He must have really done something
spectacular.”
She
did not know about what the tenth great war was. She would need to ask Oinktera
when she got back since he was like a library of knowledge when it came to his
world. She looked around a bit more and noticed that this statue was not the
only thing around. The entire area seemed to be some kind of elven ruins.
There
were even a few intact stone dwellings. Whether they were living quarters or
something else, she did not know. She only knew that the place seemed to be
very, very old. After looking around and not finding anything of interest, she
continued her walk through the forest.
She
walked for about three hours when she came to a stop. “Come out. It is useless
to hide from me.”
Desaray
had felt since an hour after leaving the ruins, she had someone following her.
She turned around and waved her hand, creating a spear
of ice in her hand, and shot it toward the tree not too far behind her. “Ah!
Please don’t kill me!”
A
young girl came rolling out from behind the tree. She was human and had coarse
clothes that were dirty and ragged. She looked to be around ten years of age.
The sight of this young girl surprised Desaray. She had not expected her
stalker to be such a young girl.
The
girl had dirty, ratty, blonde hair and was skin and bones. She looked like she
had not eaten in weeks. “You suddenly appeared here?” Desaray asked.
The
little girl lowered her head, afraid of raising it, but she did nod to answer
Desaray. This made Desaray pursed her lips as she said: “I am not going to eat
you, I am just going to ask a few more questions, okay?”
The
girl nodded her head, indicating that she understood. Desaray sighed as she
asked: “Do you have any parents?” The girl shook her head this time. “Were you
an orphan?”
This
time, the girl nodded her head, giving Desaray the answer she was looking for.
“My name is Desaray, or you can call me Desa. If you want, I can bring you to
my village so you can eat and live a better life. What do you think?”
“I…
You won’t kill me?” the little girl asked nervously.
“Nope!
I do not have the habit of harming kids. I, in fact, detest it. I know you need
help, or you would not have followed me, right?” Desaray knelt down to be more
on the same height as the girl. When she spoke, she spoke softly and kindly.
She did not want to scare the girl.
“This
might be a little personal, but do you have ice resistance?” Desaray could only
think that this was the reason why this little girl could not be frozen by her
aura.
The
little girl shook her head as she said: “I have magic warding. It nullifies any
magic that comes in contact with my body.”
Desaray
was shocked but, at the same time, very happy. She pulled Lilly into her arms
and hugged her tightly as she whispered softly. “Don’t worry, from now on, you
will be safe. You will get to eat to your heart’s content and wear nice
clothes. I promise to protect you.”
These
words were all that was needed for Lilly to break down crying. She hugged
Desaray’s neck and cried into her chest. Desaray gently rocked the little girl
back and forth. She had tears in her eyes as well. She could not even imagine
the life this little girl had lived through all this time.
Seeing
as it was getting late, Desaray lifted Lilly up and held her in her arms as she
began making her way back to Serenity. Life was strange. There were always
twists and turns that one would encounter in life. She felt maybe it was
destiny that brought her and Lilly together.
In
the end, Lilly ended up crying herself to sleep. Desaray hoped she had found
security and safety in her arms, which allowed her to
sleep like she was. When she reached the village, Lilly had yet to wake up.
“Boss!”
Desaray
quickly waved her hand, causing Oinktera’s big mouth to be sealed with ice. She
glared at him and pointed at Lilly, who was in her arms, causing Oinktera to
quickly nod his head. Only then did she remove the ice from his face. “What did
you want to say?”
Oinktera
was almost afraid to talk when he saw that Desaray was holding a sleeping child
in her arms. He lowered his voice and said: “We discovered another dungeon. It
is to the south on the shore of the large river.”
“Okay,
we will discuss it more later. For now, I need to bring her back to get washed
up. Can you get a set of clothes for children?” Desaray asked as she gently
stroked Lilly’s hair.
“On
it, Boss…” Oinktera answered in a low voice before running off. Desaray walked
through the village and noticed that everyone who was being rowdy quickly
quieted down as she walked past. She couldn’t help but smile at how kind
everyone was.
When
Desaray reached her house, Hina seemed to wake up from her nap and looked down
at the figure pretending to be asleep in her master’s arms. But since she did
not feel any malice, she did not pay too much attention to it and snuggled back
into Desaray’s hair.
Desaray
walked into her home to see Nina cleaning up. “Nina, can you help me draw a
bath for this little one?”
“Sure!”
Nina smiled and quickly ran off to do as she was asked. It was very rare for
Desaray to request anything, so Nina, the self-appointed
maid of the house, was very happy at this moment.
“Lilly,
you can stop pretending now.” Desaray had known Lilly was faking being asleep.
But she did not say anything since she also knew Lilly was very nervous as
well.
Lilly,
who was caught in the act, blushed and slowly lifted her head. “I….”
“It’s
fine. You will get used to things here soon. Nina will be helping you with the
bath since I can’t touch the water. I will first use cleanse on you before you
get in, and then you can take a nice soak and have Nina wash your hair, okay?”
Desaray spoke softly.
Nina,
who had just come to tell Desaray that the water was ready, almost squealed
when she saw Desaray coaxing the child in her arms. Her boss was too damn cute!
“Boss?”
“Ah,
Nina, this is Lilly. I hope you can help her wash up.” Desaray explained as she
tried to introduce Lilly. But Lilly seemed to be too shy since she quickly hid
in Desaray’s chest as if she was trying to hide from the world.
“Of
course-nya!” Nina was more than happy to help!
Desaray
brought Lilly to the bathroom, but she had to stay away from the tub, or else
her aura would freeze the water inside. She set Lilly down, stripped her, and
used cleanse on her to clean all the dirt off the young girl’s body. With
Nina’s help, Lilly was put into the bath, where she was then able to soak and
have her hair washed. “Lilly, from now on, you will live here with me, Hina,
and Nina, okay?”
“Hina?”
Lilly was a bit confused. She did not see anyone named Hina. She watched as
Desaray reached up towards her head and pulled out a
small figure who was snoozing away in surprise. She had never seen such a
little person before.
“This
is Hina. She is always asleep, but she does wake up from time to time,” Desaray
explained as she placed Hina back on her head. The fairy, sensing something
off, quickly slipped back into Desaray’s hair and disappeared. “If you need
anything and I am not around, you can just ask Nina. She is normally home.”
“Mmm…”
Lilly was not used to Nina, but she could tell Nina was a kind person. Plus,
she had this urge to pat that tails that was swishing back and forth. She found
it strange, though. She heard from many of her own kind that demi-humans were
monsters who would kill humans on sight, but here she felt that everyone here
was very kind. She grew up as a street rat, so she was very sensitive to
people’s emotions, and she knew for certain that these people would not harm
her.
After
a hot bath, Lilly was dressed in a new set of clothes more suitable for
children. Desaray picked her up and carried her in her arms. “Lilly, how about
taking on my last name and becoming my daughter?”
Lilly,
who was snuggled into Desaray’s embrace, was stunned at this time. She looked
up at the dragon girl with mixed emotions before nodding her head. She liked
the sound of having a mother. She smiled brightly and hugged Desaray’s neck as
she said: “Mama!”
“Mmm!”
On this day, Lilly Harris became Desaray’s daughter.
“So
she will be Princess Lilly from now on!” Nina clapped happily.
Since
it was already late, Juna knew it would not be good to host a party tonight, so
she would plan it for tomorrow! She hurried out of the house without letting
Desaray say yes or no, with only the thought of making it a grand occasion.
Desaray
saw her retreating figure and helplessly chuckled. “Looks like tomorrow will be
much more lively.”
“Mama,
what is a celebration?” Lilly had heard the word before but did not know what
it meant.
“It
is when everyone spends time together, having fun, eating food, and doing other
activities. This time, we will be celebrating you, so make sure you have lots
of fun, okay?” Desaray replied while smiling softly at the little girl in her
arms.
Lilly
was small for her age. After cleaning up, she looked no more than seven years
old but, in fact, was eleven. She grew up on the streets, so she did not know
much. She knew how to steal things and run away, and that was it. She was
barely surviving on her own. But now, as she gazed up at the warm smile on her
new mother’s face, she couldn’t help but start to tear up. She had what she
wanted the most in the world. A family.
Desaray
was stunned when Lilly began crying suddenly, but when Lilly hugged her neck
and squeezed tightly, not wanting to let go, she knew Lilly was just letting
out all her pent-up emotions.
Desaray
wondered what would have happened to her if her father had never come to pick
her up. Would she have ended up on the streets? Would
she have been sent to a foster home? Would she have ended up in a situation
much worse than she could ever imagine?
Desaray
put those thoughts behind her and carried Lilly to bed. Lilly snuggled up to
Desaray as she fell asleep. Desaray could only watch over her warmly. She did
not know why she felt so close to this little girl, but she was sure she did
not make the wrong decision, taking her as her daughter.
When
the first light of the next day shined down into the windows of her bedroom,
Desaray slowly opened her eyes to see another set of eyes staring back at her.
“Morning, Lilly.”
Lilly’s
cute little face blossomed with a smile as she hugged Desaray happily. “Good
morning, Mama!”
“Boss,
can I come in?” A knock came at the door. Nina had been standing by, waiting
for any noise to be heard inside. As Desaray’s head maid, she had to be sure to
make sure her Boss was well taken care of.
“Mmm…
The sheets froze again….” Desaray frowned. She still wanted to sleep in a bed,
but every time she did, the mattress and the blankets would all freeze. Half
the room froze under her aura.
“Mama,
why not make a bed of ice?” Lilly asked. She was not affected by the cold at
all.
“Can
you withstand it?” Desaray was not sure she could make a soft bed made of ice,
but she had yet to try.
“Mm…
No matter what element it is, it will not affect me,” Lilly replied.
Nina
wore a jacket and gloves as she brought over clothes for Lilly to wear.
“Princess, raise your hands over your head.”
Desaray
was quite amused. Nina was really treating Lilly as a princess. Not that she
minded. In fact, she was very glad no one was treating Lilly differently, even
though she was a human. But she did know one thing, and that was that she had
to protect Lilly at all costs. The fact that no element worked on her was
something many would covet. Thinking about this, Desaray said: “Lilly, from now
on, do not tell people that you are immune to all elements. Just say you have
high ice resistance.”
When
Desaray understood so far about Lilly’s skill was that while it was called
magic warding, it did not actually nullify magic itself but only nullified the
effects it would have on her body. Hence, if she were to sleep on a bed made of
ice, it would not make the ice bed disappear. It would only keep the bed from
freezing her.
“Okay!”
Lilly quickly agreed.
Desaray
smiled before looking at Nina. Nina knew what Desaray meant without her saying
anything. “Don’t worry Boss; I will also inform those closest to us and will be
sure that they assign more people on guard duty from now on.”
Desaray
had to admit, Nina was a good maid! “Thanks.”
Serenity
Village was filled with a festive atmosphere. There were many colorful flags
up, and flowers were strewn across the entire village. A
large bonfire was set ablaze in the village center, along with many smaller
fires that were grilling food of all kinds.
The
star of the day was held in Desaray’s arms as she slowly walked into the city
center. Word had already spread that Lilly was now the new Princess of the
village. She still had sunken cheeks, but her big bright eyes that looked
around at the colorful decorations told everyone that when she fully recovered,
she would be a beautiful little girl.
“It’s
amazing that the little girl Boss picked up has ice resistance,” one of the
humans said with a bright smile. “Boss also seems very happy and protective of
our new princess.”
“She
will be spoiled rotten by us all, that is for sure,” a toblin replied.
“Who
cares! She is Boss’s daughter, so she deserves it.” Everyone was chatting
happily as they watched Lilly get placed on the ground so she could check
everything out. People kept giving her little trinkets to the point that her
arms were so full she did not know what to do.
Desaray
laughed and created a small ice basket that had wheels so she could pull it
around. Just the sheer amount of attention Lilly was getting was overwhelming.
But at the same time, she couldn’t hold back her smile. She did not care so
much for the gifts, but she would be sure to treasure them no matter what. And
even in the future, Lilly would still have these gifts that she received this
day. But the thing that made her smile the most was that she was being so
welcomed by so many races.
After
filling her basket up, Lilly made her way back to her new Mama. “Mama, look!”
As
the party got underway, Oinktera raised his cup and a fork and clinked it a few
times. “Attention, please!” he yelled out, causing everyone to quiet down.
“Today is a day of celebration for our new Princess. Princess Lilly!”
“Here!
Here!” a dwarf yelled out.
“Today
is a special day that shall be celebrated once a year to honor the day our Boss
gained a new family member. Let us all watch over our new Princess and never
let any harm come to her!” Oinktera finished his speech, which was followed by
cheers.
Desaray
shook her head helplessly while stroking the top of Lilly’s head. Lilly was
busy snacking on a meat skewer, not really paying attention to what was being
said. The only thing she knew at this moment was that Desaray really loved her.
The feeling she got from Desaray was something she had longed for for so long.
The
celebration was not just food and drinking, but even a play was being held.
Juna was up on stage with a few others from the village, trying to act out a
play that they only had a night to practice for. “I will huff, and I will puff,
and I will blow your house in!”
“Not
by the pears of my chinny chin chin!” Oinktera was up on stage as well. But he
kept getting his lines wrong.
“I
said pears!” Oinktera yelled back. The play ended up turning into a comedy skit
of a couple’s quarrel, which amused those watching. Even Lilly found it very
funny. Desaray kept wondering to herself when they would finally tie the knot.
She had a small smile on her face as she watched the show. Lilly sat in her
lap, snuggled up into her embrace. The new mother and daughter looked as if
they had been mother and daughter for many years. The comfortable, warm feeling
they gave off warmed the hearts of everyone who saw.
As
the celebration came to a close, Lilly was already fast asleep. Oinktera and
Juna walked over and spoke in low voices. “Boss, when will we check out the new
dungeon?”
“In
a few days. Let Lilly get used to this place first. I will then let Nina watch
over her while we check out the new dungeon. But when I get back, I will be
taking her to the lower-level dungeons to help her level up. I want to get her
level up as quickly as possible so that she is not defenseless.” Desaray’s main
concern was someone discovering her magic nullification. If it was discovered,
or if someone wanted to kidnap her for other reasons, as long as Lilly’s level
was high enough, she would be able to protect herself when needed.
“I
can assign someone to teach her how to use the sword. What do you think?”
Oinktera asked.
“This
is a good idea. But they need to be female. And they have to take into account
that Lilly is not fully recovered yet, so do not push her too hard.”
High Elves
Two
weeks later, Desaray, Oinktera, and Juna were walking through the ruins of part
of New York. She did not know which part it was since so much had changed, but
she was sure it was definitely close to where she used to live. “Oinktera,
where is the dungeon you are taking us to?”
“From
the location marked on the map, that building that is sticking up over there
has the dungeon entrance,” Oinktera replied.
Desaray
looked off into the distance, and sure enough, there was a building sticking up
past a few trees. It was only half of what it used to be, but it was still a
large building. “Let’s get going. It will still take us a while to reach
there.”
“We
need to be careful. There are elites outside the dungeon,” Oinktera suddenly
said. “If I am not wrong, this might be a raid.”
“A
raid?” Desaray wrinkled her brow. She was not unfamiliar with this term. But
she did not know what it meant in the other world.
“A
raid is a massive dungeon with multiple bosses and floors. I have heard that
the biggest raid in my old world was one thousand floors deep and has never
been cleared. On each floor, the monsters grow stronger and stronger. And so do
the bosses. Sometimes, you have to defeat a boss before
entering the dungeon,” Oinktera explained.
“So
the outside is like a world raid zone?” Desaray asked.
“Yes,
you can put it like that. However, the boss outside is normally stronger than
the mid-boss of the raid dungeon. No matter what, we should not let our guards
down.” Oinktera was worried that they might end up running into something they
could not defeat easily.
“Little
Piggy, you look down on master….” Hina stretched her little arms and spoke in
annoyance. She hated when people looked down on Desaray, especially since she
was here too!
“Hina,
Oinktera is right. Even if I am strong, I might be able to protect myself, but
what about them? We are a team. We go in together, we come out together,
alive.” Desaray had this one rule. No one was allowed to be left behind.
“Okay….”
Hina pursed her lips and then dived back into Desaray’s hair.
They
continued forward for about half an hour before Desaray suddenly raised her
hand for everyone to stop. As they did, two arrows landed in the ground right
in front of Desaray. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the treeline ahead.
“Show yourself. What is the point of hiding? Or do I need to turn this entire
area into an ice field!?”
“Humph!
Don’t talk big just because you are a dragon whelp!” a voice replied with a
snort. Ten tall men wearing green leather clothing walked out of the tree line.
Each one had long blonde hair and long pointy ears.
“Oinktera!”
Desaray glared at him, causing Oinktera to shrink back. “We do not
discriminate. There are humans in our own team. If you say that you are looking
down on them. There is always the good and bad in any race. So keep that in
mind when you speak.”
“Sorry,
Boss…” Oinktera turned and bowed his head to the humans. “Sorry, I was just angry….”
“It’s
fine. We understand.” The female human blushed when she saw Oinktera’s handsome
face. But she quickly looked away when she felt an ice-cold gaze fall on her.
She had forgotten Juna was there!
Desaray
chuckled in her heart, seeing Juna becoming jealous all of a sudden. But she
had no time to tease them, so she turned her attention back to the elves in
front of her. “You should learn to watch your tongue.”
Desaray
would not let elves off either, just because she said something to Oinktera
about them. “You should not think too highly of yourselves when you are in my
world. This is no longer the world you came from.”
“Your
world?” The elf in the lead frowned slightly.
“Yes,
my world. This world is not where you came from. Why else do you think the
terrain is different and the ruins here are nothing like you have ever seen
before? You are now in my backyard, not your elven
territory. So be more respectful.” Desray was not being humble in the
slightest.
“Hah!
A dragon whelp is still a dra-muff!?” The elf, who decided to continue to be
rude, suddenly found his mouth covered in ice. He did not even see a magic
circle! The girl in front of him only glanced at him, and his mouth was sealed
in ice.
“What
are you doing!? Remove the ice spell this instant!” All of the elves raised
their bows and pointed them at Desaray and the rest.
Juna
sneered and glanced at Desaray’s hand. When she saw her flick her finger, Juna
grinned and waved her hand. Roots shot out of the ground and wrapped around the
ten elves who were standing there, restraining them from being able to move.
“What
are you doing? Let us go! If you harm me, my royal father will never let you
off!” the elf who had fancier armor than the rest suddenly yelled out.
But
sadly for him, all he got in return was Juna’s laugh. “Hahaha! Your royal
father!? Little elf, let me tell you that your royal father will not be able to
save you any time soon.”
Ten
high elves were restrained with roots, kneeling on the ground. Each one of them
was glaring at Desaray and her group. “Let us go! If not, I will have my father
wipe you and your entire clan off the face of the planet!”
“Oinktera,
every time they say something rude, hit them.” Desaray waved her hand, created
a chair of ice, and sat down. She decided it was time to teach these young high
elves some manners.
“Yes, Boss!” Oinktera
cracked his knuckles and walked forward.
The
one who had just threatened Desaray’s eyes showed a look of panic as Oinktera
walked over to him. “What? What are you doing!? Don’t you know who…. Ah!”
A
sharp pain could be felt on his right cheek. The so-called prince of the high
elves was actually punched in the face for the first time in his life. He even
squealed like a pig. He looked at Oinktera with anger and humiliation in his
eyes. “You dare to hit m… Ahhh!”
Oinktera
was not holding back, either. He was going all out to make sure he hit the
prince as hard as he could without killing him or knocking him out. Since
Desaray did not say to kill them, he could not kill.
An
hour later, each one of the high elves had swollen faces and very obedient
looks in their eyes. “We are sorry!”
“That
is much better.” Desaray smiled as she crossed her legs and folded her hands
over her knees. “Now, I will say it again. You are in my world. This means you
are in my territory. So if you go mouthing off like you did before, you will
end up dead because there is no one in this world who cares about some elven
king. Let today be a hard lesson to you. Now I can give you two choices. One,
you can go free and continue to roam around aimlessly and maybe piss off the
wrong person who will not beat you up but kill you instead…. Or you can come to
Serenity village and become a commoner until the worlds merge, pick.”
The
high elf prince’s eyes showed a bit of confusion. “ What do you mean by until
the worlds merge?”
The
elven prince lowered his head. He did not know what to think of this situation.
He looked at the group behind Desaray and saw that they were truly a mix of all
races. Even humans were mixed in. He looked at his ten comrades, who were all
noble children who lived pampered lives and knew what the right decision was to
make. “I will take you up on your offer and live as a commoner.”
“Wise
choice, but let me tell you now, each of you will have an ice needle planted
into your heart. It is something you can not get rid of easily. I do not want
you to go to my village and try to act arrogantly. Not only will you be beaten,
but depending on what you did, you might die.” Desaray let out a burst of cold
air that swept over the group of high elves, making them all shiver.
“That
is fine.” Surprisingly, the Prince nodded his head in agreement. “I do hope I
can gain your trust later on. But I do promise that I will keep my men in line
and that they will not cause trouble. I know we started off on the wrong foot.
I am at fault for this. I let my arrogance go to my head. Living like a
commoner may also help me for when I become king.”
“It’s
good you think this way.” Desaray waved her hand and made ten hair thin needles
of ice and pierced into the high elves’ bodies. They did not feel any pain
whatsoever. But these ice needles could be used as a catalyst for Desaray to
freeze the hearts of these ten elves at any time.
“Now
that that is settled, let’s get some names.” Desaray finally stood up and got
herself ready to go.
“My
name is Fel. I am Fel Greensworth.” Fel then went on to introduce his
companions as well.
“Then
Fel, I hope you can adjust to life in the village. But before we go, my
original plan was to check out the dungeon here.” Desaray did not plan to put
aside her plans just because she had some new additions.
“Ummm…
We just checked, and the dungeon here is level 30ish elites outside. There also
seems to be some kind of boss,” Fel announced.
“But….”
Fel, on the other hand, was not very excited at all. He was the highest level
out of his companions and was only level 15!
“Just
shut up and follow Boss. All of us are only in our lower-level 20s, while Boss
is level 28. She has soloed many bosses of a higher level than her. Do not
worry. We just need to follow her command.” Oinktera did not like people
looking down on his Boss!
“Okay….”
Fel gritted his teeth. He could tell these people all had absolute faith in
this dragon girl! Since they believed in her, he had no choice but to follow.
They
quickly arrived at a parking lot that seemed to have survived quite well since
the change. It was still covered in some overgrowth, but not as much as other
places. Even the cars here were only jostled a little.
In
the parking lot, Desaray raised an eyebrow when she saw humanoid robots walking
back and forth. Some had swords, and others had guns of some sort in their
hands. She motioned for everyone to crouch down behind a car before turning to
Oinktera and Juna. “Oinktera and Juna will protect the group while I test the
waters. If I can defeat them easily, then Oinktera will go in next, then Juna.
Just be careful and keep your eyes open.”
“Understood!”
Oinktera and Juna both nodded. They were not scared in the slightest.
As
she got closer, she noticed that these robots were not fully mechanical. They
seemed to be a hybrid. A biomechanical lifeform. “Appraisal!”
[Elite:
Mutant X827]
[Level]:
30
[HP]:
12376/12376
[MP]:
11000/11000
Desaray
raised an eyebrow when she saw the monster’s stats. “Quite strong!” She licked
her lips and then waved her hand, sending out multiple ice spears all at once.
The
ice spears shot through the air and slammed into the monster, causing it to let
out a pained roar. Its health dropped to under ten thousand in that one attack.
The monster quickly spotted Desaray and ran towards her.
The
good thing about monsters in the real world, different from those in games, was
once you cut off their heads, they were dead no matter how much health they
had. So, as soon as the monster was in range, Desaray formed a massive
broadsword made of ice and swung it down, slicing the monster in two from the
tip of its head to its crotch. Its body took a few more steps before splitting
apart and spraying green blood all over the place. Desaray quickly waved her
hand and created an ice shield to block the blood shower.
[You Defeated A Elite:
Mutant X827]
[Experience
Points Gained….]
Desaray
looked at the ground to see that it did drop an item. She bent down to pick it
up, and her eyes suddenly glowed with a bit of excitement. “A circuit board! It
even looks like a motherboard to a computer!”
If
these monsters really dropped computer parts, it might become something quite
insane. “We need to capture this dungeon….” Desaray decided then and there that
their village would expand towards this dungeon. Even if she had to fight a war
to get this place, she would still do it. Luckily, she thought of a way to keep
the high elves in line. She could keep them from speaking of this. The only
issue was the dwarves. While they were good people, she did not know how loyal
they were to her just yet.
“At
any rate. I need to tell Juna and Oinktera.” She knew she could trust Juna and
her group, as well as Oinktera and his people. She just hoped this was the same
for the others.
Dsesaray
quickly returned and pulled Oinktera and Juna aside. “Boss, what’s up?”
“Oinktera,
Juna, I need the both of you to take all the loot no matter who kills the boss.
These things drop something we will need to build our village to a higher
level. Also, when we return, make preparations to expand our village to this
dungeon. We need to secure it while we still have a chance,” Desaray explained
as she pulled out the item she picked up.
“This
is basically something in my world that helped humans without magic to advance
quickly. This is a computer chip, or more like this is a
larger form called a motherboard. It can be used to make computers. We can
hopefully get more drops like this that are different parts to make a computer
that even my world has never seen.”
Desaray
was very happy at this moment. Not only had she gotten multiple drops to build
almost five PCs, but she also got a box with a cube drive that had a special
kind of operating system on it called Astral OS. She couldn’t wait to try to
hook it up. The only issue was that she did not have a monitor, if it even ran
on a monitor.
“Boss,
that world boss looks quite strong….” Oinktera pursed his lips as he looked at
the massive biomechanical monster in front of him that looked like a mech with
muscles.
“Hmmm?”
Desaray came out of her little fantasy world and finally took a hard look at
the boss in front of her.
[World
Boss: Mutant Z]
[Level]:
40
[HP]:
100000/100000
[MP]:
100000/100000
“Geh….”
Desaray’s expression was not good. The damn boss’s health was ten times as much
as her own!
“Boss,
should we turn back?” Juna was a little nervous when she saw the boss’s health.
“No,
we will fight it. It is only level 40, so while it has a lot of health, it
should still be possible to kill. It will just take a while. We will go with
the normal plan. Fel, you and your men will attack from afar. Be sure to watch
the ground at all times, do not get caught up in any red glowing spots. I will
not be able to protect you.” Desaray knew this was a
risk, but she did not plan to let this place go just because of some boss with
high health. If she ran away when the odds did not look good all the time, she
would not be able to continue dungeon diving. Luckily, she gained a few levels
while farming the elite mobs for item drops.
[Name]:
Desaray Harris
[Race]:
Ice Dragon Goddess
[Current
Realm] Mortal
[Age]:
18
[Level]:
31
[Monster
Rank]: E
[Realm
Advance Requirements]: Reach Level 50, Kill 1 thousand enemies, Raise your
affinity with Ice to 70%, Create a domain with 10,000 followers
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 100, Kill 2 Demigods, Complete 3 level 100+ dungeons
solo
[HP]:
10342/10342
[MP]:
8767/8767
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice (20%)
[Skill
Points]: 22
[Skills]
{Ice
Breath (Lvl 5)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl
2)} {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)}
{Dig (Lvl 1} {Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 5)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection
(Lvl 1)}
{Healing
Snow (Lvl 5)} {Partial Transformation (Lvl Max)}
{Full
Transformation (Lvl Max)} {Ice Manipulation (Lvl 5)}
{Summon Ice Elemental (Lvl
1)} {Prison Of Absolute Cold (Lvl 1)}
{Mana
Reduction (Lvl 3)} {Mana Regeneration (Lvl 3)}
[Goddess
Skills]
{Frozen
Step (Lvl Max)} {Absolute Zero(Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon
Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Hunting (Lvl 3)} {Foraging (Lvl 3)}
{Cooking (Lvl 3)}
Desaray
grinned, showing her sharp white teeth as she looked at the huge boss in front
of her. “I finally got enough room!” She had only tested it out once since she
became human, but she was sure her dragon form would be very handy in this
situation.
“Everyone,
back up!” Oinktera knew what was going to happen and quickly had everyone
retreat. Seconds later, a massive blue-scaled dragon appeared towering over the
boss, who only came up to its chest.
Fel
and the other high elves all began to sweat and thanked the heavens that they
had made the right choice. Fel actually wondered what the hell he was thinking
calling Desaray a dragon whelp! She was not a whelp at all but a full-blown
dragon!
“Now
then!” Desaray raised her front foot and slammed it down on the boss, who
finally reacted to her presence. The boss saw the attack and let out a roar of
anger as it raised its arms to try to block the attack, but sadly, the
difference in weight made the boss sink into the ground. Its own strength
barely held on as Desaray pushed as hard as she could.
*Boom!*
The
sword crashed into what seemed like a barrier, causing the ice to shatter.
Desaray pursed her lips as she did a backflip through the air and flapped her
wings as she gracefully landed on the ground about fifty feet away from the
boss. She took a second to check the boss’s health and was very happy with what
she saw.
[World
Boss: Mutant Z]
[Level]:
40
[HP]:
84560/100000
[MP]:
90000/100000
“Looks
like it is weaker than I thought. Everyone attack!” Desaray yelled out.
Oinktera
did not hesitate to rush forward. Juna waved her hands and shot many roots out
from the ground to wrap the boss up in as Oinktera’s fist landed on its head. A
pained roar filled the air as attack after attack rained down onto it. Even the
humans were casting fireballs and ice spears at it.
Desaray
watched as the boss struggled under Juna’s roots and was quite amazed at how
strong they were. She did not step in at all and instead decided to let
everyone else take care of it.
“Idiot!
Boss is taking a nap. Why are you making so much noise!?” Juna kicked Oinktera
in the shin before walking over, stopping a few feet from Desaray, and
squatting down. She could stare at her boss’s cute sleeping face all day.
“Juna,
why did you kick me!?” Oinktera felt abused! His wifey beat him. Of course, he
could not say this out loud, or else Juna would beat him more. Although they
were an official couple, Juna still wore the pants in the family. He could only
submit to her.
“So
what if I kick you? At least I didn’t kick the part that matters, right?” Juna
said with a snort before pulling Oinktera down to sit next to her. “Now shut up
and watch Boss as she sleeps. It’s peaceful.”
“Oh…
Okay….” Oinktera was very obedient. He could also gaze at his boss all day.
Juna’s and Oinktera’s feelings for their boss were borderline fanatical. They
worshiped the ground she walked on.
Fel
looked at the two sitting next to each other and frowned. He had wanted to get
to know Juna, but the damn man was always next to her. What pissed him off the
most was that they were always flirting! On top of that, the man was better
looking than him! And even stronger!
Fel
walked over to one of the humans and asked: “What is the relationship between
those two?”
Fel’s
expression fell. He now realized he was going to have a hard time chasing Juna!
Seeing the jealous look in Fel’s eyes, The human shook his head and said: “Just
a warning, don’t try to get in between those two. Not only will Juna crush you
with her roots, but Oinktera will beat your head into mush. And if they do not
do it, Boss will turn you into an ice statue. Those two are a couple meant to
be. While Juna is a little violent, she loves Oinktera a lot, and Oinktera
loves her a lot. They are both extremely jealous as well. Once, a girl tried to
talk to Oinktera and trick him into following her to her home. Juna found out
about it and beat the girl up so badly that she took three days to heal, even
with healing spells. It wasn’t pretty.”
Fel’s
expression fell. His mind began to waver. He did not want to end up like that
girl. Sensing the change, the man decided to give it one more push. “There was
also a time when a guy looked at Juna the wrong way, and Boss had to stop
Oinktera from smashing the guy’s head open. You’ve seen how strong a devil hog
is. He could easily smash your head open and make it go splat all over the
place. Let’s just say the man had to change his pants that day.”
Fel
finally decided to erase all thoughts of chasing Juna. One was more violent
than the other. He would not be able to survive no matter what! Then he thought
of how close the two seemed to be to Desaray, and he knew his heart would burst
for having such thoughts. He patted the human man on the shoulder and gave his
thanks. “Thank you. You just saved my life.”
Desaray
slowly opened her eyes to see multiple sets of eyes staring at her, causing her
to blush. “Why didn’t you wake me if you killed the boss!?” Desaray pouted.
They all just stood there and watched her sleep! How embarrassing!
“Boss,
did you know you are very cute when you are sleeping?” Juna asked teasingly.
“Juna!”
Desaray wanted to pinch those cheeks so they could not grin at her like that!
“Hehe!
Boss is mad! Run!” Juna jumped up and ran away. Of course, she did not forget
to grab Oinktera’s hand and pull him along. She had to use someone as a shield,
right?
Desaray
let out a long sigh. She ignored Juna, walked over, and looked at the massive
pile of stuff. She even got two levels from the boss as well.
[Name]:
Desaray Harris
[Race]:
Ice Dragon Goddess
[Current
Realm] Mortal
[Age]:
18
[Level]:
33
[Realm
Advance Requirements]: Reach Level 50, Kill 1 thousand enemies, Raise your
affinity with Ice to 70%, Create a domain with 10,000 followers
[Evolution
Requirements]: Reach level 100, Kill 2 Demigods, Complete 3 level 100+ dungeons
solo
[HP]:
15278/15278
[MP]:
10987/10987
[Elemental
Affinity]: Ice (20%)
[Skill
Points]: 32
[Skills]
{Ice
Breath (Lvl 5)} {Ice Immunity (Lvl Max)} {Appraisal (Lvl 2)} {First Aid (Lvl
2)} {Toughened Skin (Lvl 2)} {Spark (Lvl 1)} {Cleanse (Lvl 1)} {Drink (Lvl 1)}
{Dig (Lvl 1} {Dry (Lvl 1)} {Ice Arrow (Lvl 5)} {Fireball (Lvl 1)} {Detection
(Lvl 1)}
{Healing
Snow (Lvl 5)} {Partial Transformation (Lvl Max)}
{Full
Transformation (Lvl Max)} {Ice Manipulation (Lvl 5)}
{Summon
Ice Elemental (Lvl 1)} {Prison Of Absolute Cold (Lvl 1)}
{Mana
Reduction (Lvl 3)} {Mana Regeneration (Lvl 3)}
[Goddess
Skills]
{Frozen
Step (Lvl Max)} {Absolute Zero(Lvl 1)}
[Professions]
{Weapon
Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Armor Crafting (Lvl 3)} {Hunting (Lvl 3)} {Foraging (Lvl 3)}
{Cooking (Lvl 3)}
First Blood
After
running for a while, Juna returned and asked. “Boss, are we still going into
the dungeon?”
“No.
We can not go in just yet. While I want to run in right away and start leveling
up. We first need to secure the whole area. I need to speak to Regal and ask if
his people can quickly extend the walls surrounding Serenity to this area. I do
not know when the next merger will happen.” Desaray was worried that this place
would end up in someone else’s hands if she did not move fast. This place was
very important. She needed to make sure that no one would be able to snatch it
from her.
“Will
we come back after?” Oinktera felt a little reluctant to leave. He wanted to
level up more!
“Yes.
But only after we got things in order. So for now, let’s head out.” With that,
Desaray and the rest quickly made their way back to the village to see that
they seemed to have gained quite a few more people.
“What’s
going on?” Desaray stopped a human female who was going about their day.
“Ah!
Boss! Sorry, I was not paying attention. Just two days ago, a group of this
world’s humans appeared and begged for help. Many were wounded. We healed them
and gave them a place to stay. Nina and Regal spoke to
them and passed down the rules. They are all adapting well. However, I am not
sure how they got hurt. You will need to talk to Regal and Nina,” the human
female replied.
“Alright,
thanks for letting me know.” Desaray smiled, causing the human female to blush.
The human female wondered if her boss knew that her smile was enough to make
any girl want to pounce on her.
Desaray
went to her house first since she had promised Lilly that she would see her
first when she returned. When the little girl saw Desa walk through the door,
she dropped what she was doing, charged over, and jumped on her Mama. “Mama!”
“Lilly,
you will kill your mama with your cuteness!” Desaray really loved Lilly. The
little girl was like a bright light in the gloomy world. Just seeing her little
smile made Desaray smile.
“Hehe…”
Lilly giggled as she hung from Desaray’s neck.
Desaray
scooped her up, held her in her arms, and looked around. “Where is Nina?”
“She
went to go get something. She will be back soon,” Lilly replied.
Not
even two minutes passed when Nina returned. “Lilly, I got the materials we can
make…. Boss!”
“Nina,
I am back a little sooner than expected.” Desaray then asked Nina what was
going on with the new humans.
It
turned out that these humans were actually attacked by the other world humans.
They had started a settlement of their own not far from here, only a few miles
away. When the other world humans saw their small camp
they raided it killing quite a few people and kidnapping many of the women.
Those who escaped were forced to scatter. Those who did were already injured
from helping the others escape. The group consisted of mainly women and children
with ten men, five of whom were seriously injured.
“So
those bastards really raided other humans. To think they came here acting all
high and mighty saying they were trying to rescue their own people….” Desaray
furrowed her brow. “We can not let these people sit close to the village. Nina,
take me to the leader of this new group of humans. I need to find out where
their camp lies. We need to see if those humans moved on or if they stuck
around. If they stuck around we will kill them all.”
“Understood!”
Nina could see that her boss was very pissed off.
Nina
led Desaray to the house that had been set up for temporary housing until new
houses were built. The leader was a middle-aged man who now had a missing eye.
He even had to use a cane to walk. “You are Jose?” Desaray asked.
“Yes….
You are the leader of this village?” Jose asked. He was not sure who he was
speaking to.
“Yes,
my name is Desaray. Believe it or not, before the merger started I was a human
like you. Although I was just a fourteen-year-old girl,” Desaray explained.
“So
you are the one called Boss.” Jose suddenly bowed his head. “Thank you for
taking us in.”
“I
am building a place for all races to live in peace. There is no need to thank
me. I have heard what happened but can you tell me
again?” Desaray wanted to make sure she got all the information.
Jose
repeated everything that had happened. Desaray listened carefully and could
only grit her teeth, the other world humans were really ruthless. They treated
their own kind in such a way. How did they treat the other races? “Can any of
you show me the way to where your camp was?”
“I
can!” A young man around fifteen years of age raised his hand.
“Jamal…”
Jose looked a little reluctant.
“Jose,
I know it’s dangerous, but my mother was taken by those bastards and they
killed my father. I can not let this go.” Jamal’s eyes were turning red, but he
held back his tears.
“Don’t
worry. If we can find them, I will make sure they all die.” A cold chill filled
the room, making everyone shiver.
Desaray,
the human boy Jamal, Oinktera, and Juna all left Serenity. Desaray did not need
to bring any more people with her. Since she knew just she and Juna alone could
deal with things. She had Oinktera along to help protect Jamal.
“Boss,
will you be okay?” Juna asked. She knew Desaray was once human as well.
“Hmmm?
I have been killing monsters left and right for a while now. Killing a human
such as this is no different than killing these monsters. Blood is blood. Jamal
needs closure as well. I will make these other world humans suffer for what
they have done. It is that simple.” Desaray’s human morals had long
disappeared. She was no longer human and knew the world was no
longer the same. She was no longer scared of taking a human life. In fact, she
welcomed it so she could get it over with.
She
would not go out hunting humans, of course. But what these humans did went
against what she had always been taught from young. Her father had taught her
that one must try to help others in need, not kidnap, murder, and steal. This
was why she had always looked up to her father as her hero. Since he truly was
her hero. Whether or not her father would reprimand her for her actions today
or not is another story. But she did know that she would do what she could to
help those around her. This was another reason she decided to start Serenity.
Night
soon fell, and Desaray had Oinktera start a fire. Jamal sat in front of the
flames, seemingly lost in thought. Desaray walked over and sat a little ways
away and asked: “Jamal, how much further?”
“We
should be there by noon tomorrow. This area is one of our hunting areas. We
knew about your village a while ago, but since we did not know if you were
hostile or not, we decided to stay away. We moved camp quite a few times, so
you may not have noticed us,” Jamal replied.
“Most
of the locations we go to are in the opposite direction, so we might not have
ever seen your camp until we ventured out more. But you and your people are
brave. Most humans are probably still hiding out.” Desaray had to hand it to
this group of humans since they were doing their best to survive. They even
made an actual camp and settled down.
“We
had no choice. We were with a bigger group at one point, but the people leading
were…. They took the young girls, and they were never seen again… we ended up
leaving in the middle of the night, we even took some of
their weapons. Luckily, those bastards were dead drunk at the time, or else we
would not have been able to flee.
“When
we found a settlement close by here, we decided to stay as close as possible
without being seen. Mainly because we felt that if we were close by, we could
get some form of deterrent from others and monsters. I know it is a bit sneaky,
but it seemed to work.” Jamal rubbed his nose. It seemed he was proud of how
his people had been able to figure these things out.
“That
is smart.” Desaray had never thought of such an option. “But now your people
can be safe. Stay in Serenity village, help out and work as a community, and
build a new home with us.”
“Thank
you.” Jamal felt relieved that his people had met such kind people who were
willing to let them take refuge.
“No
need to thank me. Wait until we get revenge for your people. If we can, we will
rescue the women as well. As long as they want to stay living.” Desaray did not
even want to mention what might be happening to them. Some of the girls might
already be dead, or wish they were dead.
“Okay.”
Jamal nodded and stared at the flames dancing about in front of him. But his
vision was soon blocked by a stick of roasted meat.
“Eat.
Little ones should always eat more when young to grow up nice and strong. This
way, you can repay Boss’s kindness by helping her protect the village.” Juna,
of course, was all about her boss.
Desaray
did not say anything. She liked how Juna and Oinktera were able to converse
with everyone with ease. They really brought the best
out of people. However, she did wonder why their conversations always steered
towards what seemed like some kind of cult recruitment.
“Yes,
so make sure you always think of Boss. If you want, you can even pray to her at
night,” Oinktera added in. At this point, Desaray decided to just ignore
everything that was happening. If she pretended not to hear it, it was never
said, out of sight and out of mind.
She
laid back and looked up at the sky. She felt the stars high above were truly
beautiful. They were no different from before, but they were much more vivid
and she could even see the entirety of the Milky Way.
She
wondered if one day she would grow strong enough to fly through the stars and
see if there were actually aliens out there. She did not seem to think about
the fact that they were being merged with another version of her own planet. If
this was possible, then aliens probably one hundred percent existed.
“Haha!”
The sounds of laughter filled the air, along with the cries of those asking to
be let free.
“General,
it is good that we have found this place, but don’t you think we are still too
close to that village?” a soldier asked as he sat down next to General Alex.
“Don’t
worry about that. I highly doubt those dregs will ever even know we are here.
You saw it yourself. There were toblins in that village. How strong could they
actually be.” General Alex was only saying this to save face. In fact, he
understood that at least two of them were very powerful.
Little
did the two hundred or so troops know, behind them, in a bush not far away,
Desaray sat with Juna sitting next to her. They had Oinktera and Jamal wait
further away so Jamal would not be caught up in any fighting. “Hah! Do these
stupid idiots think we are weak!? Boss, can I slaughter them all now!?”
Juna
was beyond angry. They called her boss weak! Someone who could solo bosses way
above her own level they were calling weak! She reached out her hand and was
about to spear the entire human army with roots when an ice-cold hand grabbed
hold of her.
“Do
not interfere. This time, I need to do this alone.” Desaray had to take this
chance to spill first blood not only for those who had been victims of these
men but for herself as well.
Juna
pursed her lips and wanted to say something, but she kept quiet. Her hand was
starting to numb from being held by her Boss, so she could only nod her head.
Desaray smiled and let go of Juna as she said: “Thank you for getting angry for
me.”
Juna
looked up at Desaray to see her boss’s beautiful smile and quickly held her
nose. If she did not, she was sure blood would squirt out! Her boss’s beauty
was too much to handle!
Desaray
rolled her eyes. She had seen not only Juna but Oinktera and a few others do
this when she smiled. She even overheard them talking about it and couldn’t
help but feel they were overreacting!
Desaray
got up and walked out of the bush. The men were all too busy doing their own
thing to even notice the dragon girl who had suddenly
appeared. “Why does it feel cold all of a sudden?” one of the soldiers asked as
he shivered slightly.
“Cold?”
another soldier asked in confusion, but as he lifted his head, he was met with
a beautiful face, and his comrade who had just spoken’s eyes were open wide in
shock as blood dripped from his mouth. In his chest was a translucent blade
that was dyed red and had blood dripping from it. The soldier quickly jumped
back and pulled out his sword as he yelled out: “Attack! Enemy attack!”
Desaray
could have stopped him from alerting the others, but she did not. She was too
busy looking at the now dead soldier in front of her with a cold expression on
her face. She felt nothing. Nothing at all, even after she killed another
human. “It seems I was right. I would not be affected by killing humans.”
She
was slightly relieved but also felt slightly conflicted. It just made her
realize even more that she was no longer her original self. “Well… Since my
testing is done, I guess it is time to kill them all….”
“You!”
General Alex had rushed over upon hearing the alert. The other soldiers also
quickly went on guard and drew their weapons. What surprised General Alex the
most was that while they were under attack, there was just one person. “You
actually dared to come alone!? I tell you what, if you turn around now, I will
forget this ever happened.”
“Oh?”
Desaray chuckled. “You killed humans from my world, kidnapped the women, raped
them, and think you can just send me off with a ‘you will forget what
happened’? Do you really think you are in a position to say such things?”
Desaray
waved her hand, and before anyone could react, tens of bloody ice shards poked
out of the chest of over fifty soldiers. They dropped dead on the spot. Desaray
had ice manipulation, which meant she could create ice from the water particles
in the air and any kind of water source. This meant the water inside the
soldier’s body was also up for grabs when using her spells. It was just that
her ability to manipulate the blood in a person’s body to create a spear of ice
was not easy, so she could only do fifty soldiers at once.
But
this cut the two hundred man army down by a quarter. General Alex became
alarmed as he watched all the men around him fall to the ground. He knew that
his men and himself were not going to live through this without a fight. “What
are you all standing around for!? Kill her!”
“Yes!
Why are you standing around? Come kill me!” Desaray shouted out mockingly. The
soldiers who had planned to charge forward hesitated. Even if their general was
ordering them to fight, they felt like even if they did go in to attack, they
would die.
“What!?
You are all big men who can attack defenseless people and rape women, but you
can’t stand up to a single dragon like me!?” Desaray’s body suddenly began to
grow right before the eyes of the human soldiers.
The
general, along with his soldiers, all froze in fear. An ice-blue dragon stared
down at them with glowing blue eyes. Never in their
lives would they have thought a dragon would be here. From what they learned
from the humans of this world that they captured, this world never had any
dragons, but now…. “Miss… Miss Dragon, it was my men who did it! I did not give
the order!”
The
General suddenly pushed the blame onto his men. Right now, all he cared about
was saving his own life. He was not strong enough to face a dragon. He had only
thought the girl was a half-breed, not a full fledged dragon!
“Heh.”
Desaray snorted as she suddenly launched forward. Her mouth opened wide before
snapping shut. Seconds later, she spat something out of her mouth and returned
to her humanoid form. “Nasty….”
Blood
dripped from the side of her mouth as she spat a few more times. She had only
done it on instinct, but she had actually bit someone’s head off. And it tasted
very bad! She looked over at the general’s body as it swayed back and forth
before falling to the ground. Then she looked at the soldiers that were left
and suddenly got a good idea. “I will not kill all of you.”
Desaray
waved her hand, creating thin blades of ice. Enough for each soldier still left
alive. “But, you will all become slaves and work for Serenity Village. I should
kill you all, but what I lack right now is a workforce. If you do not want to
die, you will follow my orders. Also…”
Desaray
snapped her fingers, and ten half-naked soldiers who were by the women suddenly
had their chests explode as a spear appeared where their hearts should have
been. “This is what will happen if you do not follow my orders. Do you all
understand!?”
Desaray
wanted to kill them all since blood for blood was her way of thinking. But
since they could be used, she decided this was the best
method. Turn them into people with no rights. Make them suffer more than those
they harmed. This was another tactic that could be used. Whether she would put
them out of their misery in the future will be up to those they had harmed. If
she brought them back and the humans who were harmed because of them decided to
kill them, then so be it.
She
did not see herself as an angel. She was now a dragon, and she had people to
look after. If they could quicken their pace in doing things, then why not use
those who were to be condemned to death to atone for some of their sins? She
did not like slavery, but this thought stopped when it came to people like
this.
All
the soldiers in front of her knelt down. They had no choice. Since their
general was dead and they were now at risk of being killed for even a single
ill thought, they could only submit even if it was humiliating to them. These
men valued life over death. But only when it came to themselves.
“Boss,
are you sure about this? I can just stab them all to death now if you want.
There are plenty of roots here.” Juna still had some misgivings about all of
this.
“Why
not? I mean, think about it. Instead of having our people work hard every day.
We can allow our people to go into dungeons and level while they build the new
walls that will lead to the dungeon and expand our village faster. Of course,
this is only if the humans decide to let them live or not.” Desaray’s eyes
landed on Jamal. “What do you think?”
“Can….
Can you kill one person for me?” Jamal asked as he stared at a man with
murderous eyes. He slowly lifted his hand and pointed at
the man. “He was the one who killed my father and took my mother away….”
“What?
I never did….” The man’s eyes went wide before an ice spear suddenly poked out
of his chest.
Desaray
frowned slightly. “We will have your people come out to take a look before we
let the leftovers into the village to start working. Don’t worry we will not be
inhumane. You will be given two meals a day, but it will only consist of bread
and a baked potato along with water. Don’t expect anything good.” Bread and
potatoes were something quick that could be eaten and were filling. It also had
high carbs. It should be enough to keep them going through the day.
“Okay,
we will now do a kill check. The women who are left alive will point out all
the men who touched them one by one. Those men will die on the spot, no
excuses.”
“Fifty
people….” Desaray could only shake her head. She had a bit of hope that not so
many would end up dead since it would cut down how many she could use as
workers, but this was life.
“Okay,
the rest of you all get inside.” Juna created a jail made of roots reinforced
with magic. It was also on a cart made of roots as well. Because they were all
magically infused, the wheels on the cart moved by themselves. The reason she
did this was to make sure that these soldiers understood that they were now
prisoners.
Desaray
did not have any objection to this. After gathering the girls who had been
kidnapped, she gave them a choice of life or death. Those who chose death, she
would make it as painless as possible. For those who chose to keep living, she
would create a women-only section in the village to help victims like them slowly get over the trauma. Luckily, she did not
need to kill anyone. She was glad that although they went through a horrifying
experience that they were willing to stay alive.
Whether
they became pregnant or not was another story. They did not have any means of
aborting a baby. So, if they do end up pregnant, Desaray offered to set up an
orphanage for those who did not wish to keep their children. She loved kids, so
she was happy to set up such a place to make sure they could grow up strong and
full of love and care. She felt all children should have a chance at life.
The
sight of a large cart made of roots rolling into the village stunned everyone,
especially when they saw the hundred or so soldiers all packed inside. Desaray
paraded them right into the center of town before hopping up on top of the cart
and looking at those gathering around.
Desaray
sat down with her legs crossed up underneath her and let out a small sigh. “As
you can see, I have brought back half of the soldiers who attacked Jose and his
group of humans. These soldiers… No, these slaves will now work for our
Serenity Village in order to make up for their sins. How long their sentences
will be, I am not sure. Maybe not until the day they die. It all depends on the
families who have been affected by their actions.
“Let
me make this clear, I would normally not care to keep these bastards alive, but
they can be of use to our village. What we lack now is manpower. These guys
decided to commit a heinous crime, so they will need to suffer for those sins.
All crimes come at a cost. Based on the crime you commit will depend if you
will die or be allowed to work for your freedom.
Juna
made a root pop out of the ground under her feet that moved her over so she
could hop onto the cart. She stood next to Desaray and unfurled a sheet of bark
that had writing on it. “We will now go over a set of rules.”
The
rules and laws were simple…
1)
All residents of working age, which was age ten and over, were to help out
around the village doing one job that allowed them to help progress the
village. If you were under the age of fifteen, you only needed to work for four
hours. Desaray wanted to make it so all kids could still be kids but still have
them help out in some minor jobs around the village. This could consist of
cleaning the streets or helping pick vegetables.
2)
Small crimes would require one to weeks of hard labor, and you would get an ice
needle placed in your heart to deter you from doing such things again. This was
small things like stealing and other petty crimes.
3)
Serious crimes such as murder or rape would result in one of two punishments or
both. Either death or hard labor or both. This depended on the needs of the
village as well as the victim and their families. Desaray was putting in an eye
for an eye kind of punishment. If someone committed a crime, and it could be
proven with proper evidence, the victims got to seek justice in the way they
felt was right.
These
four rules and laws were being implemented to help the people of the village
feel a bit more secure. A new courthouse would be built, and all court sessions
at this time would be overseen by Juna, Oinktera, and Desaray. At a later time,
when the village gains more and more people, another person would be appointed
to the position of village judge. Of course, each case and ruling would need to
be signed off by Desaray as well. This was to keep corruption from happening.
After
Juna finished stating the new laws and rules and explaining everything, Desaray
stood up. “As you can see, these rules are fair to both sides. So you can not
just blame someone just because. Without proper evidence, you will not be able
to bring someone to court. In this case, with these soldiers, they were caught
red-handed. As such, once we have moved our village to stretch all the way out
to the new dungeon that was discovered, I will allow Jose to pass judgment on
these men. Their lives will be in your hands once the village has become stable
and does not need as many laborers. Is this okay with you?”
Jose
looked at Desaray and smiled. “That is fine. Just knowing that we are able to
avenge those we have lost and that these bastards will not get away with it is
enough for us to feel more secure. Those who follow me are willing to follow
you from this day forth and hope we can help you build the place you envision.”
Afterword
I want to thank everyone who picked up Volume 2 of The Dragon Girl’s Ascension and also those who have picked up the first volume as well. Desaray’s adventures and kingdom-building are just beginning, so stay tuned for what is to come as she grows not only in power but as a person and ruler as well. I want to thank all my fans who are reading the web novel version on https://fore-lore.com as well as all my patrons who are supporting me on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/invayne).
