Chapter 97: Strange Dragon Kingdom

Edward reached the forest and quickly found Kali using his perfect sense. Not willing to stay any longer around the City of Ashes, he mounted on its back and they started flying north.

After stopping high in the mountains, Edward had Kali land not that far from the giant crater. Stepping down from his back, he extended one hand and said: “Show me your status tablet.”

Kali understood what he wanted, and a tablet soon appeared in front of Edward.

<Name: Unknown>
<Class: Beginner Fire Mage>
<Mana: 115/115>
<Level: 1>
<Level Life Force: 1/100>
<Spells: none>

“That’s good enough. At least you’ll be able to level up.” Said Edward before handing him the tablet and summoning his own.

<Name: Edward Black>
<Class: Master Water Mage>
<Sub-class: Nightshifter(Unique)(!)>
<Sub-class: Advanced Swordsman>
<Mana: 5 142/5 142>
<Stamina: 11 003/11 274>
<Strength: 122>
<Dexterity: 141>
<Level: 55>
<Level Life Force: 21/500>
<Spells: Perfect Water Control;
                Perfect Ice Control;
                Elemental body;
                Summon Azure: 2000-4000 mana;
                Elemental shifting, Locked>
<Skills: Wolf Shift: 20 stamina/minute;
                Deadly stillness: passive/inactive;
                Perfect sense: passive/inactive;
                Shadow step: passive/inactive;
                Shadow Dash: 20 stamina/inactive;>

“Why didn’t my shifter class get a promotion as well?”

[Weird. Your wolf form changed completely during the promotion, but it seems to have returned to its normal form now.]

Edward frowned, not understanding what was going on with his unique class as he lifted one of his hands. With mana flowing into his hand, it slowly started changing until it slowly became transparent and took on a completely watery structure.

He moved his water hand like one would a normal one a couple of times before returning it to normal.

“The water body should not be bad. Also, my mana quality increased again.”

[Try to use it in your wolf form.]

Edward nodded and quickly changed form. He focused on one of the wolf’s paws, but no matter how much mana he used, it didn’t change the structure of his limb at all. He used a few spells around his body to see if it affected his casting of spells as well before turning back into a human.

“It doesn’t work. I can use other spells, but not this one.”

[Your wolf form has been able to use all spells until now and during the promotion, your wolf body was the one that was forced to take water form. I imagine the promotion was a success, but it somehow reverted to the nightshifter class.]

“We’ll see in the future. Minx can use it in her beast form, so it might have something to do with the curse.” Said Edward before turning towards Kali.

“Kali, I’ll have to head to your people’s kingdom. As much as I want to take you as well, there’s no way I can do that. You hunt around this area and try to gain some levels on your own. With your hard dragon scales, the beasts around here won’t be able to do anything to you.”

“I’ll return to check on you as soon as I can.”

Seeing the dragon nod, Edward spent a few more minutes pestering him about being careful and stuff like that before turning into his wolf form and rushing toward the dragon kingdom.

He only reached the proximity of their kingdom at first light in the morning, and he had to stop because of his low stamina. Turning back to a human, he jumped on top of a tall tree and looked at the large city ahead.

Calling it a city was an understatement, as it was at least twice the size of the City of Ashes. What Edward found more worrisome was the fact that there didn’t appear to be any sort of gate in the wall surrounding it, at least on the side he could see.

“Maybe I can find the gate if I go around?” muttered Edward.

[Probably not. What need would they have for a gate when they can just fly in and out whenever they need to?]

“Makes sense, but that only makes things more troublesome for me.”, said Edward with a frown as he looked at the dragons that were flying over the gigantic walls.

Knowing he had no way of doing anything during the day, Edward waited for the night before turning into his wolf form and going around the wall to check for a gate. Sadly, it was just as Fenrir had said. There was only a continuous wall going around the entire city.

“These lizards made their kingdom impervious to any human or elf.”

He couldn’t figure out a way to get inside. He could use magic to escalate the wall, but he was sure the dragons would spot his use of magic. As for his wolf form, escalating that wall would for sure allow the flying dragons to notice him.

After he spent quite a long time pondering to no avail, Fenrir said: [You can always dig your way inside.]

Edward smiled wryly at her idea. He had thought of that briefly, but he didn’t even want to imagine how long that would take. He had to go quite deep and even if his wolf form could claw its way through the ground, he still had to pull the dirt out.

[You could let me do it, but I wouldn’t recommend that. The wolf has gotten a lot stronger and who knows what damage your soul could sustain if it comes in contact with the curse.]

Edward sighed and after discussing for about one more hour with Fenrir and coming up with no other idea, he decided to check how fast he could dig on his own.

His speed was not bad, but he had to dig deep to ensure the ground would not crumble and fall on him. He also had to carry all the dirt out using his mouth, which was not a pleasant experience.

Slowly, time passed with Edward doing nothing else but work on the tunnel. Three weeks later, as he was tunneling forward, his claws hit a hard material that made him wince in pain.

Turning into his human form, he looked at his bloodied hand nails and said: “Damn it, how deep does this wall get? I’m already fifty feet deep.”

[They might have used earth magic to shift the ground when they created the wall.]

Edward nodded and had no choice but to keep digging downwards, hoping to find the end of the wall soon. It took him almost an entire day until, to Edward’s annoyance, his claws hit something hard again.

“These fuckers. I’m this close to just running in there and fighting them to the death. Why is there a hard floor so deep underground?”

After Edward had his share of swearing at the dragons, Fenrir spoke: [I think it might be a dungeon.]

Edward stopped and looked at the material underneath before asking: “Are you saying I’ve been trying to claw my way into a dungeon?”

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[I’ve been feeling a dungeon’s presence for quite a while, but it’s very faint, so I figured I might be wrong. Now that you hit this horizontal wall, I guess it might actually be a dungeon underneath. There’s only one way of knowing for sure.]

Edward nodded and took a few more minutes for his hand to stop hurting before he summoned his status tablet on the hard floor beneath. As he expected, the floor disappeared, and he found himself free-falling toward the ground.

Taking his wolf form, Edward looked around to check the dungeon he was falling into, only to be stunned by what he saw.

The entire dungeon looked no different from the outside world. He could even see some forests and rivers passing by. After landing safely on the ground, he hid atop an actual tree and turned back into a human.

“Fenrir, what the hell is this? Where did we fall?”

[We already figured out that dungeons are parts of different worlds that had fallen into Jötunheimr. The other dungeons we’ve seen until now are small, created by the core extending its influence and laws outwards, but this one… a lot more of this world should have survived. I also felt a trace of energy, probably space, as we fell through the dungeon’s floor, so there’s no way of knowing how far it might extend.]

Edward frowned and looked around before asking: “Can we find people here?”

[I doubt it. After the fragment of this world attached itself to Jötunheimr’s space, it lost its access to the spirit pool, which means it couldn’t receive a new influx of souls. This world might have kept a part of its relief and structures, but if no incredibly powerful being who could protect itself through the vast chaos fell here with the world, there should be no living being inside. Besides the dragons, that is.]

Edward nodded and looked up. “Can you find your way back to this place if I go exploring? We still need a way out, and I don’t feel like digging another tunnel upwards.”

[Hmm… Place your bite mark on this tree.]

Edward did as he was told and placed his mark against the tree’s bark. Tendrils of purple-gray energy left his arm and entered the tree’s bark. Slowly, the tree’s leaves started falling off and its bark also started turning the same color as the chaos energy.

[It’s done. I should be able to find my way here again. Also, the dungeon won’t be able to remedy this damage and remove the chaos energy I left anytime soon.]

Edward nodded and turned into his wolf form before rushing into the distance. When he fell through the dungeon’s ceiling, he saw something that resembled a village far off in the distance and wanted to check it out.

‘This feels no different from the outside…’

The world was so vast that Edward had to run through for half a day until he reached the village he has spotted earlier. The only slightly distinct thing from the outside world was that this one’s relief seemed kind of flat.

There were a few hills, but they were not that high and he couldn’t spot a single mountain, even with his enhanced vision.

What he thought was a village turned out to be a full-blown city. It also looked quite intact, considering it was supposed to be from a world that had been destroyed.

Turning into his human form, Edward went inside and started looking around the place.

“Fenrir, how come this place looked so preserved, even as abandoned?” asked Edward while running his hand over the texture of a metallic building.

[Try using your tablet on the buildings and you’ll understand.]

Edward summoned his tablet, but the moment he tried to place it on the same wall he was touching just before, the wall disappeared in front of his tablet.

“Life force? So this place is generated by the dungeon core?”

[Indeed. If I had to guess, the place indeed survived, but the core already had the world’s appearance saved and it used life force to reconstruct it after it started crumbling…]

“But how come I didn’t stumble upon a single monster all the way here? Or even dragons? This is too weird.”

[I don’t know. The world might be a lot larger than we believe.]

Edward kept walking through the abandoned city for a few hours, admiring the interesting architecture. All the buildings were having a somewhat round shape and were made completely out of metal. Well, fake metal, simulated using life force by the dungeon core.

As he was getting ready to leave the fake city, not finding anything of interest, Fenrir said: [That building to your right. There is something inside that feels different, like it was not made using life force from the dungeon.]

Edward nodded and used the tablet to open a door before walking inside. He kept exploring the inside of the building, following Fenrir’s directions.

After opening a trap door on the ground, he found a small chest made of wood and pulled it out.

[Inside. Open it.]

Edward nodded and opened the chest, only to find three golden talismans inside. There were some strange markings on them, but he couldn’t understand what any of them meant.

[Try putting your mana inside one of them and see what happens.]

Edward nodded and separated one talisman from the rest before inserting his mana inside. The talisman crumbled in his hands and his vision blurred for a moment.

When he could see again, Edward’s surroundings had changed completely. He was now sitting on a round platform in what looked like some old ruins. There were markings similar to the ones on the talismans all around the stone walls of the ruins.

“Fenrir, where the fuck am I?” asked Edward with a frown, but before Fenrir could answer, a feeling of danger gripped his heart.

Raising an ice barrier behind him, Edward slowly turned around. After a clinging sound and his barrier shattered, he could see the face of his attacker.

“You?” two equally surprised voices sounded through the ancient ruins at the same time.

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