However, how to progress to the next step depended on the fate of the battle on the surface.
I turned my attention to the detection wards even as I continued to heal her, trying to understand the changes. The battle was still ongoing, but with a lower intensity.
The group of three tried to retreat, the group of five followed after them, and the berserk one split his attention between the two groups. With that, they moved away, leaving the fake body on the ground without even bothering to check closer, taking its fate as given.
Interesting development after putting all that effort to defeat her.
With them drifting away, but the immediate danger was gone. But I didn’t hurry up to share that nugget with my guest.
“Well, it had been a good talk, but they discovered the tunnel and coming down. And I’m exhausted healing you. I should be going. Best luck to you,” I said as I stood up, even taking a step toward the tunnel.
The tunnel was too small to contain her. I wanted to see what she would do under the risk of being left to her devices.
‘Wait!’ she wrote. ‘Are you going to abandon me?’
“I don’t want to,” I said, stretching my acting capabilities to the limit to actually look sad. “However, healing you exhausted me. And you can’t exactly follow me through the tunnel, can you,” I added, pointing at the tunnel that was barely enough large enough for her head.
‘Still, you can’t!’ she wrote.
“I don’t want to, but after all that healing, I’m hardly at a point of joining another battle,” I said, having no problem misleading her about my mana capacity. “Too bad you’re too big to follow me,” I said.
There was a point to the dilemma I was forcing her. The way she had explained her own situation, carefully skirting over the reason for her presence, both in terms of her capture by the undead, and her objectives in the Mount Dread, was enough to show that she had a good idea about the value of information.
I was trying to goad her into offering something valuable, enough to ‘convince’ me to rework the tunnels, enough to allow her to pass. I could have directly blackmailed her for it, of course, but that would set a tone I wanted to avoid.
She didn’t say anything for a moment, before gesturing me to stop, her pasture determined. I expected her to offer a bargain. ‘Turn your back, and don’t look,’ she said instead.
I followed her order, and turned my back, my eyes closed. Amusingly, she thought that it would actually prevent me from watching her in a room covered with my own runes.
With my back turned to the dragon, I stretched my magic to see what was going on behind me. Partially because, even after saving her life twice, I didn’t trust her enough to ignore the flare of magic that was going behind me.
Although, that wasn’t the full explanation. There were many ways of detecting the nature of magic that was going behind me. Direct visual confirmation was hardly required.
My instincts — the same instincts that were telling me that the dragon was female despite having no real reason to think so — poked me to watch it to catch a show.
I watched as her magic covered her skin, turning her into a glowing silhouette of a dragon, before she started shrinking. It was not a spell I recognized. I forced my examination ability, trying to get a feel for the mana pattern, trying to understand what was the spell she was using.
It was certainly not elemental, and despite the glow it created, it wasn’t light magic. Despite the way her body shrinking with great speed, it wasn’t a Biomancy spell either. Not even close. I stretched my mana, letting it touch the glowing aftermath, trying to get a better feel.
Only to realize it wasn’t a spell at all. It was hard to explain as I didn’t fully understand what was going on. The closest I could categorize was a healing spell, and that was only because of the effect, rather than the working principles. She was using the unaltered nature of her magic to pull her real form.
Weirdly, that didn’t make her dragon form any less real. The simplest analogy was like flipping a coin. The faces were different, but it was still the same object.
However, I abandoned that trail of thought when the glow abated, and revealed her other form. A regal beauty that would have fit perfectly in any noble event if it wasn’t for her bright, emerald green hair. Her eyes matched the same emerald tone. Not her irises, but all of her eyes, glowing with an emerald glow, giving her an exotic aura.
And her nakedness, revealing a short yet deliciously curvy frame. Her hips were wide, almost to the point of being termed excessive if it wasn’t for their glorious perfection, enough to reveal her extraordinary origins. Unfortunately, the treasure between those hips was hidden due to the way she had positioned her legs.
I could have changed the vantage point of my magical observation, but I let it slide. It was good to have mysteries. Instead, I let my attention wander upward, her smooth and inviting stomach at first, followed by equally huge breasts that dangled on the edge of being too big on her small frame, yet somehow, looked deliciously sexy instead.
Unfortunately, that nakedness didn’t last long, as she easily conjured a spectacular dress to cover her nakedness. However, the dress wasn’t the first thing she conjured.
She first conjured a pair of elegant shoes, ones with excessive heels, adding almost four inches to her height before she conjured her dress.
She said something which I failed to understand. “You have to use my language,” I said. “I have learned that language from the book, and unfortunately, they don’t come with a pronunciation guide.”
The way she sighed somewhat reminded me of Cornelia, dismissive of anything she saw under her rightful prestige. “You can turn again,” she said, her accent noticeable enough to echo her previous words.
I did so, only to meet with her expression shifting expression, a smugness that expected a big reaction from me — though the ease I could read her expression was interesting. It meant that not only she shared the classical human mannerisms in this form, but also she had little experience in controlling them.
I decided to tease her a bit, and the great care she had put in conjuring these elevated shoes before she even conjured a dress for herself gave me the perfect excuse to do so. “You’re a bit short for a dragon, aren’t you?”
And just like that, her smug expression shattered, replaced by pure fury. “How dare you!’ she exclaimed, magic already gathering in her hand.
“You know the wards that preventing their detection has a limit, right?” I said with a dismissive tone, like I didn’t even care about her growing attack. It was deliberate, and not just to see her cute expression. If she couldn’t control her anger in such a situation, it meant that I needed to handle her more like a hostage than a partner of opportunity.
Luckily, she seemed to have some self-preservation, as her magic dispelled quickly, replacing itself with an angry stamping of her foot instead, which hardly made me take her more seriously. “Don’t call me short!” she threatened, her tone carrying the echo of a growl.
“As you wish,” I said as I took several steps forward, until I stood in front of her. She tensed, expecting an attack. Instead, I put my hand on my shoulder, before dragging it toward her, showing that she was not able to reach my shoulder despite her shoes. “I beg your pardon, your dragoness, you’re definitely taller than me.”
Her furious shriek was amusing enough to compensate for the sudden punch I received in my stomach, throwing me back several feet — though mostly because I didn’t bother to resist.
[-46 HP]
I received the blow to test her further. And despite the pain it created, I could see that she actually held herself back and didn’t hit as hard as she could manage.
“You pack quite a punch for such a … tall person,” I said, with no intention of relenting. This time, it was purely to tease her, with no intention of assessing her. She didn’t answer, but the way she bit her lips as she raised her hand suggested that I might have pushed her as much as I could manage before she exploded completely. “We need to move, before our friends arrive,” I said.
“Do you expect me to crawl away like a rat just because of some rabble?” she said as she looked at the tunnel in distaste. But before I could point out that she was free to stay here and wait for the arrival of the enemy, she was already walking toward the tunnel.
Clearly, her pride wasn’t important enough to risk her survival. Not that I was surprised by it, as she had been against using the tunnels, she wouldn’t have transformed to her human form in the first place.
I shrugged. “Of course not, you’re a great, prideful dragon. The last thing I expect you to escape.” I smirked. “Feel free to stay and deal with that rabble,” I said with a widening smirk.
Her frustrated expression was simply beautiful.
[Level: 31 Experience: 493210 / 496000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 63
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 6226 / 6324 Mana: 6831 / 7750 ]
SKILLS
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Tantric [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
Expert Craft [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (1/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Cornelia - Level 22/26]
[Helga - Level 22/26]