Chapter 64: 61 – Dungeons and Dragons

A week has passed since the treaty was signed. In that week, the new elves were able to get settled and began working. There haven't been any issues between the groups, but they are each keeping more to themselves than interacting. It's a big change and there will certainly be an adjustment period. However, if we can keep any deadly fights from happening again, time and being forced to work together on these projects should slowly mend their relationships to a degree.

After Zahra's immediate public execution, both sides have started recognizing her as their princess. Notably, many from the first group have started to treat her differently. They are coming to terms with the fact that the girl who they have known since she was a baby is being placed in a position of authority and will one day rule their race.

It's not enormous changes, but she has started being treated with more respect or reverence. Her interactions with the original group of elves have become more formal and she's not quite sure how to feel about it. People she once laughed with around a fire are now more reserved around her or address her differently.

I don't think it's a bad thing, but she still seemed a little distressed about it. Thus, I spouted something ridiculous. I told her that she should talk to the other princesses about it. They are likely in similar positions with their own people, and are also her peers. That's how I ended up inadvertently being the inspiration for the first Princess Party. 

They plan to hold the parties every week when possible. Really, they're just tea parties or game nights for the girls to all have fun at. Anastasia seems to be enjoying them, along with all of the others. In the grand scheme of things, having gatherings like this between some of the most prominent people of their given races, is a great way to cement good future relationships. 

Hypothetically, unless something incredibly drastic happens or I do something completely stupid, Midnight will never have to worry about hostility from the dwarves or elves. At least while Perrin and Zahra are alive and at the helm of their people. 

During this past week, Navi continued to unravel the secrets of enchantments and using dungeon cores and Ailine delved in the dungeon for supplies that were needed for the elves. Sara trained the members of the Midnight Special Forces by teleporting with Ailine to the Abyssal Dungeon. Tsuki went with them to the dragonids where they'll be power leveled. Meanwhile, I was working on upgrading Anastasia's armor and making a set for Degare.

Steph does a lot at the castle and helps look out for Anastasia when Ailine and I aren't around. Sara also pitched the idea that if Degare is sufficiently leveled, trained, and armored, he could act as a bodyguard for Anastasia when they played together and as they got older. It was a decent argument, and Sara has been teaching Degare how to use weapons properly. If something unforeseen were to ever happen, as unlikely as it is, having good armor for Degare and Anastasia would be a good thing. 

After Degare became a vampire, Navi tested his affinity with magic. Like the other vampires, he has good dark magic, but also seems to have decent air magic. The other types were nothing to write home about. 

I had made a mold of him and was currently working on their armor. They aren't going to fight a dragon, so the insane armor Navi and I made wouldn't be needed. Even so, I'm my normal overprotective self, and want Anastasia to be protected.

Therefore, I'm making them armor with true dragon leather, enchanted steel, true dragon scale on the larger areas, and wyvern scales on the less vital areas. The true dragon leather alone is extremely protective, but we have the materials, so no reason not to use them.

For helmets, I'm using enchanted steel with some wyvern scales. The visor will be the titanium dioxide infused glass with a thin diamond coating on the outside to make sure it won't be pierced without something extremely out of the ordinary. Navi will put the dark magic enchantments on everything to make sure they stay safe during the day along with other enchantments where she can for protection. Even though she can't enchant scales due to their anti-magic properties, the amount of things that could get through the leather, yet alone the scales, is very minimal.

Crafting with the dragon materials is fucking ridiculous. I have to resort to using Seren, my mithril Godsword, to cut or puncture the leather. The scales were even more difficult. With enough time and effort, I could cut the scales if I wanted, but I can't shape them like the gods did. That's why the wyvern scales, which are smaller and in various sizes, are the best choice for smaller areas or as filler in spots that the dragon scales can't protect efficiently. 

Is this armor overkill for a couple of kids? Yes. Yes it is, and I don't give two shits. 

It took another two weeks of working, but I finally finished them. They looked similar to the armor Navi and I made to fight the dragon. Anastasia liked the look of that armor so I tried to keep the same aesthetic. I painted and dyed everything so it was all black, and put the red speckling on the chest Anastasia requested. Overall, they looked pretty cool and weren't nearly as heavy as our tungsten-alloy armor. Both kids should still be able to move effectively.

I reached out to both of them on the FCN. (Anastasia, Degare, come on to my workroom. Your armor is done.)

(Yay! We'll be right there, Mommy Lia!) Anastasia said.

I didn't have to wait more than a couple minutes before the excited little girl burst through the door, dragon and boy in tow with Steph bringing up the rear.

Her eyes were sparkling when she saw the armor on the stands. "Mommy Lia! These are so cool! Can I try it on?"

"Sure," I said with a smile. "I'll help put yours on. Steph, could you take Degare and his set and give him a hand in the side room?"

"Of course, Your Majesty." Steph bowed and turned towards Degare. "Come, Degare. Let's try on your new armor."

"I can do it myself, Maw Steph…" he muttered under his breath, yet still took his armor and followed obediently. 

The hardest part about putting on Anastasia's armor was how she was practically vibrating. I took a couple minutes to go over the different straps with her. I made it simple enough that she can do it by herself in a couple minutes. 

"How does it feel?" I asked once it was fully on her.

"It feels really nice! It's a little heavier than my other armor, but I can still move around." She then dove at me and hugged me tight. "Thank you so much, Mommy Lia! I love it."

I couldn't help but to smile as I hugged her back. "I'm glad you like it. I love you, Anastasia. Be sure to wear it when you go out, alright?"

"Alright, Mommy Lia!"

When she let me go, Steph and Degare came back in. 

Degare hesitantly asked, "What do you think, Anastasia?"

She ran over and grabbed his hands. "You look cool, Degare!"

"T-thanks," he said while blushing and looking away.

They happily chatted together while I went over to Mitena.

"Hey Mitena," I said as I patted her on the side. "I know it was a while ago when I mentioned it last, but I want us to both rush the dungeon by the mine. Between the two of us, we should be able to finish it in a week or two depending on what type of fucking mazes it has."

"Groewell."

"You still up for it?" I asked. "We'll probably leave in a few days."

"Groewell!"

I patted her on the side. She was bigger than a large horse but not quite the size of a small elephant. Thankfully, she wasn't that broad yet and the doors to all of the main castle rooms were large. She barely fit and it wouldn't be long until she would have to stay outside. 

Along with my question for the gods for clearing the dungeon, I'm hoping she gets something that could help her size issue. No idea if it's something that she could get, but Chaos at least seems to be pretty generous. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try.

A few days later, I had everything in order here. The new elves have been here for about a month and there haven't been any major issues. With Ailine and Navi here, I felt at ease leaving for a while. 

Going over to Anastasia's room, I walked in and woke up the sleeping vampire.

"Hey, Anastasia," I said as I gently stroked her head.

She yawned as her eyes fluttered open. "Are you leaving again, Mommy Lia?"

"Yeah," I said to the cute little girl. "Like we talked about, I'll take Mitena with me."

She rolled out of bed and walked up to the dragon sitting on the floor next to her bed. While hugging her tight around the neck, she said, "Be safe Mitena. I'll miss you, but do your best!"

"Groewell!"

I gave Anastasia a hug when she let go of Mitena. "Be good, listen to Mommy Ailine, and drink all of your blood. I love you."

She squeezed me back. "I love you too, Mommy Lia."  

Once released, we left her room, went downstairs, and walked out the front doors into the pre-dawn light. After saddling up the dragon, we took to the sky. 

The flight was uneventful and by evening we spotted the ruins. There really isn't a faster way to travel. On Talon or Mitena, a full day of flying covers about the same distance as a week with a horse-drawn wagon.

"Take us down by the castle, Mitena," I said to my scaly companion.

"Groewell."

When we landed, I looked around at the structure. It was definitely smaller than our home, but still a good size. Except for the large double doors at the entrance, all of the other doors were smaller and Mitena couldn't go anywhere besides the foyer that was covered in dried blood. I didn't really feel like exploring the entire thing right now, so I took a bed out of my big-bag along with a large quantity of furs.

I laid out the furs for the spoiled monster. "Here, Mitena. Let's get some sleep before we try to find this dungeon."

"Groewell."

With Mitena curled up on the furs and me in the bed, we got a few hours of sleep after checking on the others at home.

When we woke up, we stored the bed and furs and made our way towards the face of the mountain. It certainly looked like there was a major collapse. This area reminds me a lot of pictures I saw on earth of Devils Tower in Wyoming. We aren't far enough north to be in the northern mountain range, and seemingly out of nowhere, multiple buttes just pop up. The face of the one we were looking at seems to have collapsed unnaturally, judging by it being the only spot on any of these that has such a high quantity of large stones that collapsed. 

With my hands on my hips, we looked at the collapsed area. "Alright, Mitena. I'll bag the larger chunks. You start at the top of the pile and just toss what you can off to the side."

Using the big-bag to help move the collapsed side of the mountain was definitely a cheat, but it wasn't an instant fix. For example, if a large chunk is still mostly covered by other chunks, I couldn't just magically extract that piece. I would have to first get it clear of most of the other pieces so it was movable, and then it could be placed in the bag. Just like I can't use space-time magic to store clothes that someone is wearing. It seems like the rock has to be in a place where it could be moved towards me for the bag to be able to store it.

I also couldn't simply store the entire thing at once. I had to do the pieces one at a time. Really, I couldn't be too frustrated at whatever rules it all worked on. When we were clearing the rubble from the north tower years ago, I had to do the same thing. No point in complaining that a cheat isn't cheat-y enough. 

I would store a large amount of rock, walk a short distance towards the castle, and dump it on an increasingly large pile. Even with the bag, we worked for three days before we finally removed enough rock to see a tunnel.

I stared at the tunnel leading into the cliff face. "Holy fucking shit. I don't even want to think how long that would've taken without a big-bag. Even with using magic when needed, that tunnel was really fucking buried."

"Groewell."

"Glad you agree. I'm going to shore up the walls and ceiling, then we can go make sure the tunnel leads to the dungeon and not some other hidden fucking place."

It took me another hour to make sure that the entrance was stable. There were so many cracks and issues with the damn thing. I had to give it to the old vampires. They certainly closed this fucker off.

"Let's go take a look. If what we found in notes or diaries is right, this should be a twenty-five floor dungeon."

"Groewell."

We began walking through the tunnel. Mitena has decent night vision, so I didn't need to make any light for her. Besides, she can make her own if she wants to. It was no surprise when Navi worked with her on magic and found a high talent in fire magic. She also had decent talent with space-time. Her fire breath is innate to her species, but now she can control the fire, shoot fireballs, and do anything else a fire mage can. 

We walked down the tunnel until we eventually came to an iron dungeon door.

I looked back at the dragon. "You ready for this?'

"Groewell," she said with a nod of her head. 

Pushing the door open, we walked through the threshold and into a dark forest. Unlike the other forests, this one had spiderwebs covering the majority of the branches. The lighting also seemed to be set to just after sunset, and there was a fog in the area.

"Spiders, I assume? Let's go."

I jogged for a few seconds but realized Mitena wasn't behind me. When I turned around, I saw her standing by the door, frozen in place. Wait…

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"Mitena… Don't fucking tell me you're scared of spiders..."

She looked away. "Groewell."

I threw up my arms. "You realize how fucking stupid that is! You're a goddamn dragon! Like hell a low level spider is going to do shit against you!"

She looked at me with narrowed eyes and refused to budge. "Groewell!"

What the fuck is wrong with this world? Fucking claustrophobic dwarves and a dragon with arachnophobia. This is so stupid.

I was fucking annoyed, and came up with a plan that was just as stupid and went go put it in motion. I jogged down the path for a few more seconds until I saw the first monster of the dungeon.

Giant spider - level 1

Yup. Just a plate-sized spider. I grabbed the thing by its back and hid it behind my back. I walked back towards Mitena who was looking around at the webs with darting eyes.

"Catch!" I tossed the spider at her.

"GROEWELL!"

She jumped almost ten feet in the air when the spider landed on her face. While freaking out, she began breathing fire and using fire magic in a random and haphazard fashion while spinning and flailing around. This created a massive fire in an instant that's only increasing as she flails around wildly. The spider died instantly from the heat as she began setting everything in the area on fire. I even had to activate my armor enchantments just to be safe.

After a dozen seconds of this, she looked back at me with hate evident in her eyes, and then charged. "Groewell!" 

I turned and ran down the path. "That's right! Come the fuck on and get me you big baby!"

The path behind me and to my sides was on fire as Mitena chased me through the dungeon while firing magic and breath attacks at me the entire time. Whatever spiders or other monsters were around died the instant they came into view. It was like I was being chased by the incarnation of fire itself.

After almost five minutes of the dragon trying to barbeque me, I had to smile. The wooden boss door finally came into view. Thankfully, this floor was a single trail and didn't branch. Without stopping, I pushed the door open and ran through as the blazing inferno followed close behind. The larger boss spider, whatever it was called, was burnt to ashes before I could even appraise it.

I skidded to a stop and turned towards the pissed off dragon barreling towards me. Now that the object of her ire had stopped, she lunged and tried to bite me in half. I dodged to the side, then jumped towards her, latching my arms around her neck.

"Sorry, Mitena, but I need you to calm down for a bit."

As I squeezed my arms around her neck, she started trying to claw at me and burn me with fire magic. With my enchantments still activated, she wasn't able to get through my armor. However, a glance at my arm where a claw swiped it revealed noticeable scratches. It looked similar to a car door after being keyed.

After a dozen more seconds of struggling, she fell to her stomach, then passed out. Once her consciousness was gone, I released her and took out an ogre corpse for her. Holy shit that was intense. A dick move on my part, but I got her to focus more on wanting to kill me than on the spiders. That whole thing gave an entirely new meaning to kill it with fire. 

Half a minute later, I heard her groan and then saw her open her large eyes.

"Hey there, Mitena. I got an ogre for you to eat," I calmly said, still keeping a bit of distance.

She blinked a couple times, until realization hit and her head snapped towards me. "Groewell…"

I put both hands up. "Easy, girl. That was a dick move on my part. That wasn't cool to do and I know you can't help what you're scared of. Even so, we needed to get through that floor, and trying to kill me was a pretty good distraction. Look over there. That's the door to the next floor."

She glanced at the door, then at the ogre, and back to me. With a huff, she relaxed and bit into the ogre. I put my arms down and sat on the ground to wait. Thank Chaos for this armor. Even though she isn't an adult, a pissed off dragon is nuts. Every once in a while it's good to remember that she's a powerful monster and not a dog.

Once done with her snack, she looked back at me. "Groewell." Then smacks me with her tail.

I blocked it with a forearm, but it still pushed me back. "Yeah, I deserve that one. Come on. Let's leave this floor and never come back."

"Groewell." 

Together, we walked through the door to continue our dungeon dive. 

It took a week for us to reach the door to floor twenty-five. It went a lot like it did with Talon. Open-world floors became simple when we could fly. No monsters stood a chance against us, and thankfully, there weren't any more spiders. 

The most time consuming floors were the two labyrinths. One was just big, but floor twenty-three was big and had changing walls. Fucking stupid shit made traversing it akin to just wandering around and getting lucky. We couldn't even leave a trail as the dungeon would either absorb what we left or repair the cuts we made. This fucking floor alone took almost three days.

We stopped at the door and I patted Mitena on the side. "You ready to be done with this dungeon?"

"Groewell," she said with a nod of her large head.

After entering the floor, we looked around at the scenery. The ground was barren, dry, and cracked. Smoke was thick in the sky, blocking out most of the sunlight. The path in front of us meandered along the side of an active volcano, complete with smoke and an active lava flow leaking down the side of it. This floor makes me glad I have my helmet to protect my lungs from the chemicals, soot, and whatever else is in the air. 

"Are you going to be alright, Mitena?"

"Groewell." She lifted her head with a smug expression. 

I don't know anything about dragon biology. I mean, they breath fucking fire. I have no clue what their lungs could handle. Can a dragon even get Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis from breathing in the small bits of mineral dust in the air around some volcanoes that then fucks with your lungs? I guess I'll just watch her to make sure. With magic, so long as you know what is actually causing an issue, it can pretty much take care of damn near anything.

We started jogging on the path winding up the volcanic mountain. Whenever there's a path, I'm always hesitant to fly. I don't know where the threshold for when dungeons start to punish someone for going off the path is, so it's just safer to stay on the ground. 

We jogged up the mountain path with a lava flow next to it and ran into our first monster.

Lava toad - level 34

The cow-sized red and grey toad lunged at us. This resulted in Seren cutting it nearly in half as we continued on our way. 

After killing some more lava toads, volcanic scorpions, and fire hawks, we ended up at the boss door after an hour-long jog.

Opening the door, we saw the boss. 

Volcano tortoise - level 37

The shell had the shape of a stereotypical volcano. It was larger than an elephant, and had a head reminiscent of a snapping turtle. Orange veins seemed to pulse at the surface of its black and grey skin. If our levels were the same as the floor monsters, this would probably have been a difficult floor. Good thing they weren't.

Mitena rushed forward towards the head. It snapped its jaws at the dragon. When they close, it sounded like a large rock just fell off of a cliff and smacked into a boulder. Mitena had juked to the side to avoid the mouth, and then latched her jaws onto its neck.

It reminded me of those nature documentaries of a lion latching onto a wildebeest or zebra. Once she was attached, the fight was all but over. Blood spilled down from the neck of the tortoise as it frantically tried to detach the dragon. After a few seconds, Mitena ripped her head back, tearing out a large chunk of the tortoise's throat. 

A couple seconds of panic, and the monster stilled. A dragon with a smug face raising one side of her mouth into a smirk looked back at me.

"Good job, Mitena. That was as bloody as I think you could've made it. Come here. We can't let Anastasia hug you when you're as bloody as that."

"Groewell." We walked towards each other and I cleaned her with magic. 

Walking over to the dead boss, I bent down with my helmet off and bit into its neck. I have no fucking idea why its blood tasted spicy, but I'll be damned if it didn't taste like I swallowed a mouthful of Tabasco sauce. That doesn't make any fucking sense! 

I curse inwardly at the gods as I took out a blood bag and did everything I could to get that fucking burning sensation out of my mouth. Seriously. why the fuck does a monster have capsaicin in its blood? After a few minutes, I'm finally able to feel my tongue again, and I turned back to my dungeon partner.

"Groewell." She had what looked like a terrifying smile on her face, and I could tell she was giving me shit.

"Ha. Ha. Laugh it up, you overgrown lizard. Now, come on. Let's get to the core room."

Leaving the volcano, we made our way to the core room. The core was sitting on a pedestal, just like in the other dungeons. This core room had some shelves with armor, weapons, and sacks of coins on them. There were also some miscellaneous items. Looks like the old vampires used this as a storehouse or something. 

On the floor in front of the core was the letter I was hoping for. It said 'To my lovely Dalia and the adorable Mitena' on the front. I opened it and read it out loud to Mitena.

Dalia! Congratulations on beating another dungeon! You're collecting dungeons and princesses it seems!

First things first, you beat a reset dungeon and have the fastest time with the least amount of participants to clear it. Mitena was also the first dragon to conquer a dungeon! 

I'll start with your reward. As you were wanting, I'll give you some info to the question you've kept in your head. The answer is no. There aren't any princes or princesses that aren't already indoctrinated. I know you wanted to ask and were hoping that there was a human royal that could be handed the throne for an easy transition. Unfortunately, they're all brainwashed from birth, and I'm not sure if you could even bring any to their senses.

Well! That was simple! Sorry for not having an easy answer for you, and no, we can't tell who would be a good choice for the next human ruler. Too many choices and that's way too open ended of a question. With that out of the way, the rest of your reward I'll put towards the cute little Mitena. 

Mitena! Yay! Great work on growing, learning, and beating the dungeon! We should be able to just eke out two skills for you with the accomplishments you earned. First, you'll get the same communication ability that Talon has. Enjoy talking with little Anastasia! 

The other skill you'll receive is a basic transformation skill! You and Dalia were both hoping to receive something like it. Dalia, so she wouldn't have to build you a landing or a barn. You, so that you could stay with your bestie in the castle. 

Here's what it does! Being that this was only a twenty-five floor dungeon, it can't be extremely great or instant. No magical dragon girls. To balance the skill with the rewards left that you both are due, it's a slow transformation skill.

When activated, you will fall unconscious for a time ranging from hours to days. Maybe even weeks when you're done growing. While you're knocked out, your body will change in size to what you desired when you activated it. The transformation will be slow and when you wake up, you'll be more sore than you have ever been. Probably even stuck sleeping for a couple days since your entire body either grew or shrunk. So no, 'hiding in a bag, then bam! Massive dragon out of nowhere,' shenanigans.

You can only transform into a size you've been before. Your true body will continue to grow at its normal rate even while transformed. You just need to think about returning to your real size to change back to it. When in your smaller size, your muscles, bones, and scales will all be the strength they were when you were that size. 

There you have it! That skill should be able to be used to stay with Anastasia inside of the castle, but isn't something with any real militaristic applications. At least not straightforward ones.

Th-th-that's all, folks! Good luck!

"Nice!" I turned towards Mitena. "This'll—" 

I watched as she smirked at me. I had a feeling she just activated her new transformation skill. A second later, her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed.

I let out a sigh at the impatient dragon. Hopefully she chose a size that we could still use to fly home. I really don't feel like fucking walking home just because she couldn't wait a day.

I took out a couch and an advanced magic book to do some reading while she's knocked the fuck out. No soft furs for her tonight.

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