Sofia and Sonia ended up talking for a bit while sharing food, trying to get to know each other a bit more. They talked skills and defenses, until it looped back around to the expedition itself.
“So you have absolutely no idea what we’re up for?” Sofia asked.
“Not quite, the hobgoblins have already explored the entire area near the entrance, and I myself went to scout it once. They call it the root forest. It’s a pretty safe zone, all things considered, because most of the mana is being absorbed by the tree roots. The instant you leave the root forest behind, though, we’re in the dark. Could be anything down there, and I an ANYTHING. Forget about whatever preconception you might have, forget rules, forget numbers, forget physics, even– nothing is sacred in the forbidden layer.”
“It’s that bad?”
“Not always, in fact most things are normal most of the ti, but whenever sothing goes wrong, it can go very, very wrong. One ti I approached a waterfall that flowed in reverse, the water was going up the cliff like gravity didn’t exist, can you guess what happened next?”
“I don’t know, you started flying up too?”
“Ah, that would have been much better,” Sonia said with a shiver, “no, my blood started flowing in reverse too. Very bad ti, extrely bad.”
“That… And stuff like that happens often?”
“More than I’d like. And annoyingly enough, the places with the more interesting things to find are usually the most unstable.”
“I can imagine that making sense… And what about monsters?”
Sonia scratched her head in embarrassnt, “That… I can’t tell you, they’re too different every ti, so are weak, so are strong, but they all know how to use magic, and they never run out of mana. The general rule is to always avoid them, if you can afford it.”
“Understood. Still, it can’t be that bad if you’ve been doing this for ten years, no?”
There was a mont of tense silence, Sonia staring at the crackling fire, “... We were a team of five, initially.”
“Oh… I’m sorry-”
“Don’t, it’s fine, they all knew what they were getting into. If we’re not careful we’ll be joining them, so I can only ask that you take this seriously.”
Sofia nodded, “Not my first ti exploring a strange and dangerous environnt. I can handle myself.”
“Watching your trial it certainly looked that way.”
“Oh, and, I should ntion, there is another thing I am looking for down there,” Sofia said.
“More skeletons? There’s plenty of stuff to find in the old ruins and all, it’s all up to luck though.”
“Yes but not. I need a leyline seed.”
“A leyline seed?” Sonia repeated, before chewing on her food, looking pensive, “Hmm… I’ve seen one once from a distance, it’s near the leyline knots where the mana density is the highest… I can help you look for one but I won’t risk my life to retrieve it if there’s nothing in it for . That’s a highly dangerous thing to go for, more than I would usually accept.”
“Hmm… Loot distribution is fifty fifty, right?”
“Yes. What we used to do to make it fair, anything we bring out we get appraised, and we split according to the value. If two people really want the sa item we haggle offering the rest of our share,” Sonia explained, “But we can do it another way if you want.”
“That sounds fine… Then, if I need your help to retrieve the seed, what if I offer you one veto? Any one item we find that you really want I’ll let you keep for your share, no haggling.”
“Hmm… I’ll accept that as long as the seed is accounted for in your share’s value. And let warn you, I won’t be cheap at all,” Sonia said.
“Of course.”
“Then it’s a deal! Oh, are you not going to use the dragon right away, by the way? There’s a reason we gave you that in advance.”
“I am, I can’t wait actually, but sorry to disappoint, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to summon it yet,” Sofia answered.
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“That’d be annoying. I kinda want to see it in action, and it would be a great asset to have down there, even if it’s just to protect us against foreign aura.”
“Right, monsters this strong will start to have that… Not too used to taking that into account.”
“You’ll get the hang of it quickly,” Sonia assured, “not to ntion the mana down there severely limits aura range, so you really have to go quite close for it to reach you, but still.”
“Alright. Well, let’s do it. Bookie!”
Bookie, Pareth and Pestle appeared behind Sofia in unison, each striking a different pose.
“What are you guys doing…” Sofia said with a stifled laugh when she turned around, “It’s dragon ti. You can ditch the page with a single Sirhellion.”
“Done!” Bookie answered right away, before unsummoning his skeleton form.
“Good.”
Sofia stood up, jumped to the relatively open space directly under the drop, and unceremoniously dumped the dragon bones on the ground. They piled up to a bone mound bigger than a two-storey house.
“Wish I could also use the skull for the choir…” Sofia mumbled, as Bookie did not wait for her permission. His book form flew out from her side, and started devouring the bones like a magic eraser wiping away the old skeleton from existence, with disturbing papery noise, and a loud burp once it was all done.
“And just like that, it’s gone,” Sofia comnted, walking up to Bookie and picking him up from the rocky ground, “let’s see what we’re dealing with.”
The new page appeared near the very end, right before the one hosting the skeleton from the lost epoch god of Pain. It showed the dragon skeleton from above, sleeping in a perfect circle reminiscent of a coiled serpent. Sofia hid the mana cost with a hand, only looking at the drawing for now.
Slim fra, two wings, short horns, narrow head. It looks a bit like a big four-legged bird, cute.
Slowly she moved her hand up, revealing the stat boost Bookie gained from the skeleton first.
‘ 115% All’
Holy crap. Yeah, alright. Dragon. Even if I can’t summon it right away Bookie just got the stat boost of a lifeti.
And now the painful part…
Sofia took her hand off of the mana cost, expecting an absurd mana cost like the god of Pain.
‘150 000 000’
Wait…
No way, I can actually afford it right away?!
“Sothing wrong?” Sonia asked, seeing Sofia freeze.
“No, nothing wrong. Nothing wrong at all! Bookie! Summon your ass out of here right now!”
Bookie’s short skeleton reappeared in a flash, patting his ribs like a fat man rubbing his belly after a huge al.
“How is it?” Sofia asked.
“I feel full!” Bookie said.
“I can see that. I am glad you enjoyed the al, but that is not what I asked. Can you feel anything from the skeleton? Alive like Pestle was?”
“Hmm… Uh…” Bookie looked truly hesitant, fidgeting in place, “I– I’m not sure, Sofia! It’s like… The dragon… Hmmrmm. It’s weird,” Bookie concluded, nodding to himself.
“That thing’s been dead for at least thirty thousand years,” Sonia comnted from the campfire, “I don’t know how necromancy works but I’d be truly shocked if there was any trace left of the dragon’s soul or anything like that.”
“That would make sense,” Sofia answered, “But it’s my Bookie we are talking about here. There isn’t a book on this planet more full of surprises than he is.”
“That’s right!” Bookie exclaid proudly, “And, uuuuh. I think the dragon is a… It got… Crowie…”
“Crowie?! What? Did sothing happen to Crowie?!” Sofia asked in a slight panic.
“I– I think Crowie… Crowie ate the dragon,” Bookie said, himself looking and sounding shocked at what he was saying.
“HUH?!!!”
With bulging eyes, Sofia flipped the pages to search for Crowie, finding him safe and well. His page looked the sa as ever, aside for a tiny, tiny detail, six extra zeroes after his regular mana cost of ten.
Crowie… What the fuck did you do?!
“I understand a bit now!” Bookie said after so consideration, “The dragon blueprint was all old and rotten, and because the general shape was a bit like Crowie, even if not much, he managed to eat it!”
“... The pages could do that?”
“I had no idea!” Bookie said, “Now Crowie is even more super aweso!”
“And what about the dragon?” Sofia asked.
“It’s also Crowie!” Bookie answered, quite certain of his claim.
“... Also Crowie… What if I try to summon both at once?”
Bookie shook his skull, “Well no, there is only one Crowie, you can’t summon him twice.”
“I’m losing my mind here… So what we got isn’t a Dragon but a second form for Crowie?”
“It’s both!” Bookie eagerly answered.
“...” Without a word, Sofia tore off the Dragon’s page.
Three quarters of her mana spewed away from her, a thick cloud of golden fog envelopping the surroundings, as a new skeleton ford. Bones assembled together one by one in a giant puzzle, until the full Dragon was ford. The size of a large mansion, it occupied most of the space of the wide entrance cavern. Unlike what would be natural for its body shape, it stood on its two hind legs. Bright golden flas burned in its eye sockets, while a clear mana heart concentrated most of its power hidden inside of his skull. The dragon raised its neck, spread its skeletal wings as much as the limited space would allow, and roared.
“CAAAAAAAAW!”
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