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Chapter 188: Clan Nordoramsul. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2021-06-10 03:50:44 +0000 UTCEdit: Mostly with how Hestia is flying with her rocket boosters, also a few detail changes with Yorshka's information dump.
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“To explain your mother’s history, we should first start with a general overview of both Loatryx and Kargryx.” Yorshka began while correcting my stance. Just like Farron, she was moving my limbs around and giving me tips on how to wield a spear correctly.
Most of the information Yorshka gave me were things I’d already learned from Cernust, like Kargryx being on the continent Miononbolax, that the Loatryx colony on Altrust is quite different due to the Revolution Queen’s influence, and the history of Loatryx in general. In fact, Yorshka told me that the Loatryx on Altrust shared quite a few similarities with Japan.
“The students called them ‘Sakura Trees’ or ‘Cherry Blossom.’ We in Peolynca call them ‘Hermen Petals,’ and dragonewts used to use them purely for meditation oils or fever medicine until the Revolution Queen turned them into a yearly spectacle. In fact, kimonos and yukatas have become the formal dresses for most dragonewts,” Yorshka explained this cultural cross-pollination caused by a single otherworlder.
That reminded me, Cernust did give me a few of those “hermen petal” seeds, and Tasianna has been growing them inside our garden ever since. They haven’t fully sprouted yet, but maybe we can do something with them later on.
If the dwarves inherited the Revolution Queen’s technology and culinary arts, then the dragonewts inherited her culture and aesthetic choices. The dragon knights, or dragoons, were the most popular discipline and knight order in Loatryx, however, the concept of samurais had spread so much that important personages would usually have one or two samurai guard them 24/7.
While the cultures of the two Loatryx, both the one on Miononbolax and the colony on Altrust, were rich and something Yorshka was willing to teach me later, Kargryx was a different story.
“Let me guess, it’s desolate?” I guessed, seeing as Cernust didn’t have too many fond comments about it.
“Pretty much. Loatryx is the civilization and melting pot of personalities and ideas, while the Empire of Dragons is pretty much devoid of everything you could want.”
Loatryx was founded on the idea of civilization, a side effect of dragonewt human, dwarven, and elven ancestry, and grew to fit this new race’s desires and interests. On the other hand, dragons were usually loners, rarely congregating together in groups of more than three — two parents and their child. The land of Kargryx was filled with wildlife and vegetation, meaning it wasn’t lifeless, but for an empire, it was barren.
While their land was mostly left to flourish by themselves until a dragon came swooping in for their dinner, their lairs were something they cared for quite a lot. Decorated with treasures or artifacts they gathered during their adventures, if a dragon wasn’t sleeping or hunting food, they mostly spent their time rearranging their cave or nest, making it more opulent and comfortable for them.
“Hestia, do you know the concept of true dragonkins and lesser dragonkins?”
I nodded to Yorshka’s question, having heard it from Astalos, that wyvern Kargryxmor sent after me. “True dragonkins include dragons, drakes, leviathans, and adamantoises, while I only know wyverns belong to the latter. I personally don’t know why there is a distinction between them, though.”
My answers were correct, of course, but I was still missing a couple of examples. Ryuukoatls were serpentine, feathered true dragons who can be found in Aelozonia, where the saurians came from, and in the far east of Altrust, where the beastmen alliance is situated. Yorshka even confirmed that Xohulotel, the God of Serpents and Saurians, was the strongest ryuukoatl before his apotheosis. For the lesser dragonkins, there were also the ocean serpents, cockatrices, wyrms, and kirins.
The main differences between a true and a lesser dragonkin were the stats, base rank of the offspring, and the power of their blood. While the former two were important to create a distinction in the first place, the last reason was the pivotal one. Lesser dragonkin blood was potent and quite desirable for their effects in alchemy, but a true dragonkin’s blood was worth a fortune for a master alchemist.
Effects like empowering healing potions to an almost insane rate, reinforcement of the mana paths to increase your natural mana growth or mana regeneration, and also the prospects of prolonged life for short-living races like humans. The stronger and older a dragon became, the more their blood would be infused with their extremely refined mana. While all of this sounded great, dragonewt and levianewt culture considered that using true dragonkin blood for anything other than rituals and tributes, was taboo and blasphemy.
“You’re lucky it's your blood you gave to Saori, Hestia. While most dragonkins wouldn’t care for it too much, we dragonewts can become irrational when we see our revered dragon’s gifts being misused. Honestly, I met Saori before you purely ‘cause I mistook her scent for yours!” Yorshka explained. “Honestly, when I heard from Saori what happened, I couldn’t be more baffled. She drank your blood and she then evolved into a form that grew scales and sent out pheromones smelling exactly like yours? Crazy. She honestly sounds just like a kirin, but she doesn’t have a horse form, and I don’t think she could become a drake purely from that alone.”
Hey, Saori and I were quite surprised our little idea even worked out in the end.
Ingesting my blood unlocked the [Young Stygian-Scaled Fenrir] option for Saori’s B rank evolution was just a random idea Saori had after seeing kobold druids drinking monster blood. We didn’t expect it to actually work, but it somehow did. She grew scales, received the unique skill [Stygian Voltage], and gained a stronger body in general. Apparently, she also smelled the same as me, but neither Saori nor I could confirm this.
Yorshka had a simple explanation for this. I couldn’t smell Saori’s pheromones since they were identical to my own, something which I’d been constantly exposed to since my birth, and then she concluded that Saori’s blood wasn’t pure enough to allow her to smell a dragonkin’s or dragonewt’s pheromones. Dragonewts in general could only smell a dragon’s pheromones if their bloodline was strong enough, which Yorshka and Priscilla’s was. Saori, on the other hand, only drank a pint full of my blood, and her evolution hasn’t turned her completely into a dragonkin yet. Yet.
“Both of you are mutated monsters. There has never been a sunfang dragon nor a stygian-scaled fenrir before, I believe. Actually, I’m absolutely sure with your race, Hestia,” Yorshka nodded in admiration, stating how I’ve fused both my “father’s” and “mother’s” traits to become an entirely new dragon type. “In any case, tell Saori to be careful. There can be some misunderstandings if you aren’t with her if she meets another dragonkin. She fooled my nose, after all.”
While we were talking, my spear training began. Training was mostly focused on how I could fully integrate the spear into my current fighting style, which was a hybrid of magic and close-quarter dragon abilities. Of course, using the spear as my primary weapon wasn’t the goal here, Yorshka told me, mentioning how the spear-catalyst fusion I should get for myself would be the objective.
There was also my scale-dust I had to complement my fighting style. Yorshka’s silver scale-dust was quite different from my own, but my scale-dust was still a derivative of Nordoramsul’s scale-dust at the end of the day. Including giving me suggestions on improving my rocket booster control, she also gave me much-needed aerial combat tips.
“O-Okay, thi-shit! Too much, too much!” I blurted out, struggling to control the explosion rate of my scale-dust under the scales of my wings. “Was flying always this hard?”
“I wouldn’t call this flying, but shouldn’t you be using your [Pyrokinesis] to control the amount of fire?” Yorshka suggested, holding onto my tail to prevent me from flying off.
“It’s not that easy. [Pyrokinesis] isn’t the issue here, I am regulating my body temperature perfectly with my core and the intensity of the flames is manageable, but the problem is the amount of scale-dust explosions is hard to manage.” The issue here was that an explosion from my scale-dust was like a spark, and to reproduce these rocket boosters, I needed a bunch of scale-dust to explode simultaneously and continuously. My problem was that I couldn’t tell how much scale-dust I was causing to explode, and the “feeling” necessary to control it like a master wasn’t there yet for me.
“Ahh, that’s understandable, it’s not like the System gave us a counter or something to keep track of how much powder we are using up. You know, maybe this will help. Whenever I do one of my dives, I usually fortify my scales with powder to make my body sleeker and more aerodynamic. Not only does silver powder make them sharp as a dagger but they also help a silver dragon fly faster,” Yorshka explained the function of her version of the scale-dust before displaying their function for me to inspect. Her white scales seemed to start shining like silver as they hardened up. “Sharp, less friction, and also shinier like silver. During prolonged battles, I usually keep track of my silver powder amount by the glow of my scales. Silver powder would fall off over time, dulling the silvery glow. When my scales start to resemble my hair color, that’s when I know I need to let them regenerate.”
Yorshka’s snow-white hair was practically the same color as her scales, much like it was for me, so using this trick was quite smart. The fact of the matter is that there was too much scale-dust for me to manage, so having something to make this micromanaging easier would be helpful for my situation. Color would be a good indication but it's not like my crimson flames could change to my white or purple flames automatically to tell me when I was running low on scale-dust.
“However, I do have a tip to help you out, though,” Yorshka announced, giving me hope for her next words. “Wind magic, although mana extensive, is your best option until your body matures enough. You luckily have already acquired [Tailwind], so I would follow Tasianna’s example in this matter. Using [Fluid Cast], alter [Tailwind]’s effect of always facing in front of you. You have these weird parallel minds, right, have them control the spell and use the wind to not only slow you down but also accelerate yourself to reduce your total scale-dust usage.”
The idea was similar to my [Wind Blast] option, but I forgot I could be creative with my spell usage. Morphing a spell’s form was [Fluid Cast]’s most important feature, the reason for why custom spells could be made so easily. Considering I was the mage, I should feel embarrassed for not figuring this out earlier, but then again, Yorshka was far older than me. With age comes wisdom.
Moderating my scale-dust usage and keeping it constant, I cast [Tailwind] around me. At first, the wind coming from my back was making me move a bit too fast forward but once a parallel mind began controlling it, I felt stable just hanging up in the air. Since this was the first time we’ve used the spell in this way, I needed the proper “feel” for this new movement ability, which meant a lot of practice. If I added [Wind Blast] to my usage, I’d probably be able to emulate flying.
Still, this uses up a parallel mind. [Aerokinesis] requires two to keep up my music to share my buffs, so if I’m flying and also playing music, that’ll leave me with seven remaining. As the ‘body-controlling mind’ I need to regulate the scale-dust and move my body around.
“Practice, practice, practice. Young dragons and dragonewts usually can’t fly as neither your wings nor their muscles are fully developed yet. You can offset this with mana, but I saw you had injuries with your mana paths on the party screen. Tragic.” Yorshka then let go of my tail, allowing me to fly around a bit and get some practice in. She then followed me up into the air, flapping her wings while moving like a butterfly; it made me a bit envious, I admit, making me imagine how it would feel like soaring through the sky again. “Anyways, while the spear is good and so on, we can’t forget the fact that as a dragon, you have three additional appendages besides your arms and legs. You need to know how to use them properly.”
“I already know how to use my tail, if you’re talking about that, but, my wings? I usually hide them when I’m walking around town, and I don’t see too much use of them as weapons when my claws and tail can do it better,” I responded while balancing myself using the rocket boosters.
“Oh come on, Hestia, your wings are beautiful, it isn’t something you should be hiding. If you use them to wrap yourself like a robe, they can even act as a defensive shield. Anyway, as you should have noticed with your wings, the scales on them are pretty sharp.” I inspected them as Yorshka pointed them out. The scales on them were sturdy and sharp, similar to those on my tail, while the two sharp spikes on the edge of them could be used as spears. “A dragon’s body is a living weapon, a fortress full of scales and cannons spewing fire. With wings and a tail strong enough to act as weapons, why shouldn’t you utilize them to make yourself more unpredictable? Even if you were more focused on your spells, wouldn’t it make you less nervous, knowing even in melee nobody can best you?”
True, that does sound pretty good. That’s why I became a hybrid in the first place, so it won’t hurt to train more.
Training was training, I couldn’t complain about it. As Yorshka went through her tips and it was time for me to train my muscles through repetitive tasks, Yorshka continued her explanation of dragon culture, now it was time to speak about our ancestor.
“Nordor, or his real name, Nordoramsul, was an SS rank silver dragon who lived during the time of Kargryxmor’s reign as the black emperor of the sky, becoming one of the dragon empire’s first vassals. He was over 6000 years old when the origin gods descended to Peolynca, and joined God Kargryxmor as an angel with his apotheosis. To usher in a new age, most heroes and beasts of legends left the mortal realm willingly for an immortal life in the divine realm,” Yorshka scratched her head, trying her best to remember all the details she needed to tell me about this part of our history.
As expected, Yorshka wasn’t old enough to have experienced all of this, neither were her parents. Only the founder of the dragonewt clan of Nordors, my dragon uncle, witnessed his father’s ascent first-hand. He wrote about it in a book for any future generation to learn about the feats and life of Nordoramsul, wanting his father to not be forgotten in time due to not being an SSS rank in his last moments as a mortal.
“Do you remember when I mentioned the ‘kinkyuro?’” I nodded to Yorshka’s question. “The status of a dragonewt clan is determined by the strength of their ancestor, and this hierarchical system, acting like the humans’ caste system, has pretty much dominated Loatryx’s society. The kinkyuro are the clans created by the six SSS rank dragons and drakes before the appearance of the Origin Gods.”
As expected, Kargryxmor’s dragonewt clan was a part of the kinkyuro. If Yorshka was related to me, then the dragonewts from the Kargryxmor clan were relatives, too. However, since Nordoramsul never reached SSS rank during his lifetime, his clan was a tier lower than my father’s side. As Loatryx was a republic, this difference in tier wasn’t too important.
Now, why was Nordoramsul’s name shortened in the first place? Well, apparently, silver dragons seemed to prefer the company of humanoids more than dragons, especially short-lived humans and their fast-paced lifetime. It creates a juxtaposition between the two races; one could sleep for hundreds of years and they wouldn’t feel it while the other would die out before the former woke up. Silver dragons found this interesting.
As such, Nordoramsul had plenty of connections with humans, dwarves, elves, and other beastmen during his life. Although used to the tragedy of losing his human friends, he still kept on living that way as his life would have been far less interesting without them. In honor of all the friends he has lost in his life, Nordoramsul asked his son and daughter to take on his humanoid form’s name: Nordor.
“Now let us speak about your uncle, Odlesstrus Malborous Nordor, and your mother, Melloxtressa Wisperia Nordor.” Yorshka then flapped her wings, sending her flying up a few feet before twirling her body around like a ballerina, sending a shower of silver dust down. It was extremely excessive. “Being 500 years older than her brother, the over 3500 years old Lady Melloxtressa lived before the Origin God came to this world and experienced with her brother the treacherous life of a dragon before before Kargryxmor ascended to godhood and living conditions for dragonkin significantly improved. In this time your mother made one vow: to become strong enough to protect her children.”
In Yorshka’s words, the history books and first-hand retelling from dragons gave dragonewts a good enough overview of how Peolynca looked before the Origin Gods introduced the Divine System to the world. As you would expect, a world without the game-like System was pretty similar to Earth, except that Peolynca still created mana. One part of the System the dragons of today loved was the dungeon system.
Monster spawnings have always been a natural phenomenon in Peolynca, but for a dragon who required immense resources to survive and grow in strength, this process was still extremely slow, especially with multiple competitors prowling the sky for their next meal. Conflict between dragons and sometimes even with other monster races occurred often due to territorial disputes or to fight over a carcass.
My dragon “mother,” despite living inside the dragon empire with her own father and mother, still had to experience fighting against other dragons for food. These harsh times tempered her body and mind, preparing her for the power vacuum left behind with the introduction of the System. Levels, monster ranks, and stats were quickly integrated into Peolynca’s world, where monsters and humanoids were finally able to receive a quick overview of their stats. System-specific skills like [Identify] or stat growth enhancers were, of course, not included, but it still gave the Origin Gods a good idea of who the most powerful beings were.
Several were offered to become subordinate gods, to aid the world’s new gods in shaping the future. Many beings, even those already extremely powerful, had already begun to revere the Origin Gods for their ability to create the Divine System in the first place. When the gods demonstrated their powers to their new followers during the demon wars — an event that led to the creation of the demonkin — the majority of the skeptics were won over.
Regardless, some weren’t so easily impressed. Able to compete with the seven demons’ invasion without the need for the gods’ powers, Kargryxmor was one of the beings of Peolynca able to create a bargain with the Goddess of Light, Aurena. For accepting her proposal to become her subordinate god, Kargryxmor asked in return for a dungeon to feed the creatures of Kargyx, so the conflict inside his empire could finally end.
That was how Kargryxmor became the God of Dragons and Oaths, according to the dragonewts’ history books, for he made an oath to serve Aurena if she could help him. Many of Kargryxmor’s vassals and trusted friends followed him to the divine realm, which consisted of nearly all SSS, SS, and S rank dragons, leaving their children behind to rule the mortal realm as their parents defended the world from the otherworldly threat of demons.
A dungeon aptly named the “Dungeon of Infinite Feasts” was soon created in Kargryx, creating enough game for the new age of dragons to fill their stomachs; however, Kargryxmor overlooked one major thing during his time as the absolute emperor of Kargryx. Food was one major problem, but dragons also enjoyed power. With the strongest dragon emperor leaving his throne behind for his son, a war for the throne began.
This power vacuum was brutal, especially for Melloxtressa and her brother Odlesstruss, who had barely reached A rank before their parents ascended. Luckily, the heir apparent, Eltharion Tyranoid Kargryxmor — my dragon “father” — was a capable and ferocious dragon in his own right, being one of the few S rank dragons who remained in the mortal realm. Allying themselves with him, the Nordor siblings survived through this turbulent time that ended with Eltharion’s victory and coronation.
“The war began during the year 123 after the Origin Gods’ descent to Peolynca and truly ended in the year 319. Your mother, during this time, learned about the harshness of this world and how her father’s choice to leave them behind brought her and her brother great hardship. They had to fight even before this war, but this war tore families apart into different factions. Emperor Eltharion had to slay his siblings for the right to his throne, while families lost their loved ones during this war. Silver dragons weren’t ferocious warmongers, so this affected your mother quite a lot, according to your uncle.” Yorshka and I had already stopped training for the day. I was breathing heavily and, mid-way through her storytelling, I began getting immersed.
She continued, “During the last years of the war, she made a vow. She couldn’t prevent this from happening with others, but she would for her children. To give her children a good and healthy environment, she swore an oath to herself to become strong enough to defend them while seeking out the strongest mate she could find.” Yorshka brows then curved downwards, as she showed me a wry smile. “Little did she know that Eltharion’s rule would be an extremely peaceful one, to the point that Kargryx became rather barren of life, conflict, and progress. The dragons enjoyed their life either by sleeping, decorating their caves, or socializing with Loatryx. It got to the point that dragons simply shut themselves out from anything not happening on Miononbolax and the Ancient Elven Kingdom, Kel’Thun, the original home island of the elves of Saelariel.”
In other words, the dragon empire had begun to become disinterested in the world’s affairs. They had an infinite source of food and fighting in the form of the Dungeon of Infinite Feasts, they had entertainment with their relatives the dragonewt and the leviathans docking on Miononbolax’s land, and most importantly, peace. With how much the world was evolving outside their continent’s shores, they were isolating themselves.
Becoming a world-famous idol would be impossible there…
“Your mother understood her child would be safe in this new world, nevertheless, she had to continue her original pledge. As a follower of God Kargryxmor, the God of Oaths, she had to keep hers. And for that, she trained herself inside the Dungeon of Infinite Feasts, obsessively seeking more and more experience to finally evolve into the world’s second SS rank dragon of the current age,” Yorshka showed her pride as Melloxstressa’ relative at this point, nodding in congratulations for her achievement. “Your father, although once a proud warrior, had, ahem, the emperor has, uhm, become lazier during these peaceful times. Still, a Kargryxmor child was strong, extremely strong purely from their bloodline alone, so your mother became your father’s newest empress despite the backlash of the other, more established empresses. Being the daughters or granddaughters of the five other SSS rank dragons who ascended with God Kargryxmor, they did not appreciate Lady Melloxstressa’s intrusion into the imperial family.”
She trained to become an SS rank, went against a bunch of empresses’ opinions on something, and got into bed with a lazy, once-strong emperor for his genes, just so her kid could become so strong they wouldn’t have to worry about their safety? That’s… actually respectful. Actually pretty badass.
“Please, keep in mind, all of this happened while her brother married an elven woman. Your mother, yearning for a child for herself, saw not only her sister-in-law but also her closest friend become mothers before her. When she finally reached her goal, everybody from clan Nordor celebrated this goal with her. We were all happy for your mother and the newest addition to the family, you, Hestia.”
I kept silent. The feelings inside me were conflicted, one side wanted to admire Melloxstressa while the other wanted to reject her. I-I couldn’t understand what my emotions and thoughts were trying to tell me, struggling to understand the tug-of-war I was going through internally. Even my parallel minds were arguing in my stead, the different pieces of my personalities were unsure how to proceed with all this information. It felt wrong to learn all of this.
“Due to you being the hatchling of the emperor, a ceremony of being transported and presented to all the allies of Kargryx was a traditional undertaking. They had to know of your existence to prepare for your adulthood pilgrimage. This was done a few years after your youngest half-sister had hers, so most countries already had the formalities in place, since the laying of a Kargryxmor egg wouldn’t happen just twenty years after the previous child. After all, your mother broke the usual process,” Yorshka laughed out loud, mentioning how her great-great-whatever-aunt literally broke every rule established by the five dragon empresses. “Unfortunately, that was when misfortune finally hit us. The transporter for this imperial duty was a powerful dragon, who had done his duty since Emperor Eltharion’s first child. After visiting Saelariel, the levianewts reported how they found his corpse washed up on their shores, with no visible wounds. The royal transporter had died and your egg went missing.”
I clenched my hands together.
“Your mother… she did not take this very well. She tried to search for you, but was stopped by the other empresses. Although she was now an empress herself, she couldn’t bypass the ruling of the first empress, the one responsible for keeping the peace in Kargryx’s throne room. The other empresses might have only been S rank, however, they were still the children of SSS ranks. Your mother, on the other hand, had only reached SS rank, she was still nowhere as powerful as the emperor himself.” Yorshka then began messaging her temple, looking distressed as she reminded herself of the past. “That was why an imperial notice was sent to all of our allies: to find your egg. Personally sent by the emperor and all his empresses, apparently. In any case, none of the Nordor clan needed a reason, and we have been searching for a year now. Your uncle, Lord Odlesstruss, scoured the ocean with the levianewts while the elves and clan Nordor searched through the Belzac and Saelariel forests. I had my own responsibilities as the kids’ guardian, but I was praying for your safe return the whole time. How glad I was when I heard how my husband beat everybody else to the job, all while sitting in a chair! How I would marry him all over again if I could, ahaha!”
But her enthusiastic mood did not infect me. I was still trying to work through my emotions. This conflict of trying to be a good person while wanting not to betray my mama was corroding my heart, causing it to ache more and more.
That was when I asked Yorshka something. “That message… my mother would undoubtedly come looking for me now, correct? She’ll come to Artorias and find me through my smell, correct?”
“Huh? Oh yes, however, I made sure to inform her and my clan that you’re in good hands with the Artorians. Plus, your mother is quite friendly to humans, just like her father, so there is no need to worry, Hestia. So…” Yorshka paused, finally noticing the emotional conflict I was feeling. “I’m sorry, I got too enthusiastic about it. Uhm, knowing your situation, I think I can imagine how you might feel about all of this, although, that is because I am calm enough to think through everything. Hestia, I won’t condemn you for whatever you decide to do; however, I ask you to give Lady Melloxstressa a chance. She has been longing for a child for so long, her heart must have broken when she heard your egg was lost. Please, have patience with her.”
“… I’ll try. I’ll try my best.”
“Thank you, Hestia.” Yorshka gave me a warm hug, despite how cold I’d been to her. It was… comfortable and helped me relax a bit.
She was my niece, I was her aunt. Melloxstressa was my mother. Eltharion was my father.
I couldn’t accept any of those statements. Right now, it was impossible.
We then decided to end the day inside the dungeon after noticing a giant white, humanoid salamander walk into the area with an entourage of slazzanbals. It was as I expected, the slazzigula had become the dungeon’s new boss master.
<Dungeon Core Guardian: The last bastion of defense for a dungeon’s core, a monster who has received the dungeon’s most valuable resources to become the strongest defender in the dungeon. While in possession of this title, the owner received a 5% increase in all stats and is entirely immune to all psychological effects>
It glared at us before continuing its hunt for food. It didn’t seem to be in the mood to fight me like before, and seemed more interested in nurturing its entourage with experience. Maybe the rebellion orb did cause its increase in aggression.
When we returned to the surface, Ellaine and Grimnir were still discussing the different materials she wanted for her armor to include while Grimnir had to plan out what materials he would be using while giving a more reasoned, professional response to her requests. Tasianna finished a snack using the mushroom and small root-like vegetables she found in the depths, which was quite delicious actually, although surprisingly spicy.
We then decided to return to our inn, the one the students and Yorshka were staying at. It was quite expensive and almost looked like a hotel, so if Yorshka hadn’t said “fuck it” and rented us rooms using the Church’s money, we wouldn’t have been staying here. It was really comfortable so it was amazing.
On our way back, I also told Grimnir and Yorshka about everything Aurora and the students already knew, which included all my interactions with Aurena. Yorshka was quite baffled with all of this, but decided to keep all of this a secret from her boss for now in deference to my wariness of the situation. I decided to trust Yorshka now, but not her boss. Grimnir, on the other hand, gave a mild answer, saying he didn’t care if we had to eventually face demonkins or not, saying war was war, whether it was caused by the gods or mortals. He decided to join Aurora knowing he would be dragged into stupid shit like his own request, for example.
Back in the inn, we met up with Saori and her students. Yorshka suddenly asked me to wait, telling me she needed to give me something. Upon her request, Tamae took out what seemed like a talon claw and a root with a ghastly, weird face. She then handed me both of them.
<Jabbermight’s Bloodclaw: A mighty jabbermight’s bloodclaw, meticulously harvested without any issue. A gland inside the claw produces a sweet enzyme that breaks down blood, turning into a regenerative jelly the jabbermight uses to regenerate from the most serious wounds. The gland deteriorates over time>
<Hellscream Mandragora: A mandragora found in the depths of a mana polluted swamp or forest, where this mandragora can grow big and fat. Usually found in areas without any other plants, as this mandragora consumes any competitor. When attempting to harvest, the mandragora releases an ear-busting and mind-destroying scream, preventing most from harvesting it. Useful in making the finest medicine>
Hold on! Aren’t these two of the five ingredients I needed?!
I quickly took out a piece of paper from my storage, the list of ingredients Farron needed for a potion to cure his crystal lungs disease.
Ingredients: Crystal Basilisk’s Heart (Of course), Jabbermight’s Bloodclaw (The gland inside it!), Hellscream Mandragora (Rare as fuck, also the worst thing to harvest. Prepare your ears), Evida Oasis Cactus Water (Highest quality with the highest mana content), Draconian Oil Rum (Loatryx exclusive, on the Miononbolax continent. Can even knock out a dwarf!)
I looked back up to Yorshka.
“Don’t give me that look, did you think I’ll leave my husband in that state forever? These two ingredients alone cost us a fortune to get, and if it weren’t for Tamae’s [Storage Magic] I wouldn’t have ordered them over so soon. They degrade over time, yo-” I immediately took them from Yorshka’s hands and placed them in my storage. Yorshka couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh my, you read my mind. Anyways, Farron didn’t want you to take on this request, as I was already doing it, but I think it would be better if you took them, Hestia. Considering what you told me today, I need to figure out how to handle things now, especially what to do with the kids.”
Yorshka let's look at the students behind their room’s door. “However, I believe there is still a need to work with the church for now, while it’s still just the propaganda spreading phase. They still aren’t strong enough for any conflict. This means our movement will be severely restricted while you may travel freely. I will trust you with the last three remaining ingredients, although I ask you to contact the Nordor clan or the Kargryxmor clan for help once you decide to confront the crystal basilisk. That beast is no ordinary monster, and who knows how much it grew over the years.”
I nodded. “Thank you, Yorshka.”
“No, I should be the one to thank you. You’re not giving up despite knowing what the basilisk did to my husband and Tempestclaw. Don’t risk your life for us, alright?” She then ruffled my hair once again. “Alright! Tomorrow, we’ll continue your and Ellaine’s training while I’ll also try to help you with your Draconic. Honestly, you sound like a mumbling idiot with those pronunciations!”
Hey, come on, give me a break. I only had two days to learn it!
