[Darganth's cave]

Lying in his cave, Darganth continues to observe the tribe during their travel. After being attacked by goblins yesterday, they were even more on edge during the last night. While he was slightly nervous for Serania during the attack and constantly ready to intervene, her actions showed him that this was unfounded. While her quick thinking during the attack already made him proud of her, when she created an alarm system with vines, this became even more so the case.

Because she didn't tell anybody else, she was one of the only few who managed to get enough sleep. Despite this, they managed to travel through the most dangerous part of the mountains surrounding by now. Now that they reached far enough that he was confident that they would encounter no more large problems, he decided to deal with the goblins.

While he initially only bothered with them when they would enter his territory, he wouldn't let an attack on one of his women go unanswered. Despite not yet being truly together, he already considered her to be one of his women. This protective attitude, especially towards their mate or mates, was one of the ways a dragons greed manifests itself.

Those that a dragon considers his, something that doesn't necessarily mean that he views himself above them or views them as his property to do with as he pleases, enjoy a great deal of protection from said dragon. It doesn't even matter if the being is the dragons wife or husband, a friend, a subordinate or anything else, the dragon is likely to protect them.

Taking flight, Darganth made his way around the mountain. While he could have directly made his way to the goblins layer, he first wanted to ensure that there were none currently outside of it. Finding them grouped up in one of the deepest parts of the cave system. Smiling at his luck, he made his way towards the nearest goblin controlled entrance to the cave system. Using earth magic, he sealed it before making his way to the next one.

Finishing sealing all but one entrance, he stood in front of this entrance, scanning its layout. While he could always polymorph himself should it be too small, he would prefer to fit through the entire cave with his true body. Otherwise, he would stage an ambush here at the entrance once they come out.

Finding no problem, he made his way down the tunnel. Once inside, he also sealed the entrance behind him, creating a small ball of light to allow him to see. While he could always rely on his other senses and mana sight, he wanted the goblins to see who was the one killing them. Once he reached the first point at which the way split, he used the knowledge he received from his prior scan to choose the quickest way towards the gathered group.

After about twenty minutes, he was quite close to the goblins. Casting a simple mind reading spell of the psychic element, he quickly found the reason for this gathering. Laughing at the irony of him crashing the ceremony they are holding before trying to kill him, he simply walked into the room. Sealing every exit of the cave, in case they connect to an entrance he didn't know about, he waited for the goblins to notice him.

After a few seconds, the first of them noticed the glowing orb, before his gaze fell onto Darganth. Despite being a pitch black dragon in a dark cave, he was quite well visible from close up. The only reason they took this long to notice him was that he emerged behind them. Hearing the goblins scream, those gathered tuned around just to react similarly when they saw Darganth. While they planned to fight him, they wanted to first use their ceremony to gain enough power to achive it. While this ceremony wouldn't give them any power, they still believed it did.

Seeing the goblins reactions, Darganth made a small jump forward, before swiping his claws across a few of them. Without even using aura, his claws cut through multiple goblins without slowing down in the slightest. This brought the rest of them out of their stupor.

Shouting, they charged towards him just to end up sliced into pieces like those before them. Some were intelligent enough to try and attack him from behind, but they were greeted with his tail. The lucky ones would simply die due to the spikes on top of it, while the rest would be flung around like a rag-doll. After a short while, they started to try and throw everything they could towards his head, but this achived just as much as their charge.

Without having a powerful body like beasts or the ability to enhance their projectiles with aura and no spell casting, their attacks didn't even faze him. When they found even this to have no effect, the goblins started to run. Unluckily for them, the only remaining exit was right behind Darganth. Every goblin that tried to reach it was quickly killed by a strike from his tail, while the rest thinned in number more and more as his rampage continued.

After not even ten minutes the goblin population around the mountain was reduced to zero. Standing among the remains of thousands of goblins, Darganth searched one last time for survivors. Finding none, he conjured a flame on one of the body's, before making his way back to the surface. By the time he reached the clear sky again, the underground was thrown into chaos, with every species trying to take over as much of the former goblin controlled parts of the caves as possible.

 

While he was making his way up the mountain, he noticed a familiar mana signature. Only remembering it to belong to one of the White Fang Tribe's third order warriors, he made the decision to investigate. Making his way towards the mana signature, he noticed a women standing just outside of his territory while a snake was constantly trying to get closer to her.

Every time the third order beast would try to get closer, Allaire would fire an arrow, forcing the snake to pull its head back once more. Landing behind her, Darganth used a small lightning bolt to fry the snake, before turning his attention the female archer in front of him.

“What does your tribe want from me?”

Despite hearing his question, Allaire didn't answer, being too scared to do so. While they knew that he had grown, the current Darganth was large enough that his head could reach over four meters above ground. This combined with his sudden appearance made her freeze due to a mixture of shock and fear. After about a minute, she managed to gather her bearings.

“We had hoped that you would lend us your aid.” She said in a respectful tone. While she hated to change her attitude just to appease others, the danger of offending a dragon, especially one they were asking for help, made her do it.

“Yes, your little escape with a ship plan. Let me give you a piece of advise. As long as you don't even manage to reach my cave, give up on crossing the oceans. Should you manage it, I will even considering to offer my help.” With these words, Darganth made his way back to his cave.

Despite sounding like an unnecessary condition just for his entertainment, his little task actually held a purpose. The oceans were well known for their danger, especially far away from the coast, with mythical rank beasts lurking around. When someone that was part of the tribes strongest fighting force didn't manage to cross through his dragons fear, which by now had deteriorated to the point that some first rank beasts managed to cross into it already, then their journey was doomed from the start.

Landing in front of his cave, Darganth looked towards Allaire, just to find her truly trying to reach his cave. While it surprised him, he quickly noticed that she would not reach far. Despite being a third order warrior, she was still quite young. While this showed her talent, it also meant that she had very little experience and likely never faced the preasure of a second rank individual. While they were attacked by a basilisk at the peak of said rank, there were many reasons that could have prevented her from partaking in the battle.

After a few minutes, he stopped spectating her progress and made his way inside. While he would normally use his time to train, by now he had outgrown the mana density in the area. Thinking for a short moment whether he should hunt despite there being only first rank beasts in the area, he decided against it, instead going to sleep.

Depending on the result Allair achives tomorrow, he would decide whether to help them or if he has to make an alternative plan. If its the second case, he would have to find a mana dense area without powerful and aggressive inhabitants. While he didn't want to waste time on this search, if he were to simply offer his help without making sure that they could at least pull their own weight, this crossing could be dangerous even for him.

Five hours later he woke up again, when he noticed someone approaching the cave. Quickly finding out that it is Allaire, he was surprised by her once more. He didn't really expect her to reach here, his initial plan was to see her resolve and bring her here in a few hours. Now she had reached the ledge in front of his cave, before falling unconscious due to exhaustion.

Impressed by her progress and determination, Darganth decided to use a healing spell on her to speed up her recovery. At the same time he transformed into a humanoid form, carrying her inside. Lying her down in the cave, he sat down while leaning his back against a wall a few meter away. While he waited for her to wake up, he inspected the bow she was currently using after noticing it to be enchanted.

While no artifact, something that was created by combining special materials and enchantments, a magic weapon was still a powerful tool. Even though the bow he was currently holding was of a low level, it still allowed her to nearly be equivalent to some of the strongest beings below the second rank, despite only reaching the third order recently. The reason why Darganth was currently inspecting it was that its design seemed familiar to him, but he was not sure what it reminded him of.

When he noticed Allaire starting to wake up, he placed the bow back down, deciding to simply ask her. After a few more minutes, Allaire shot up while trying to grab her bow. Don't finding it at her left where she had always placed it while sleeping in an unsafe environment, she quickly searched for it. Finding the bow, she had already gotten up half way, before her gaze shifted to Darganth.

“Who are you?” She asked after a few seconds.

To this question he raised his eyebrow. While he was currently in humanoid form, it was the form he would use in the past when he wanted others to realize him to be a dragon. While looking largely like a human or elf would, his eyes were still the same as in his true form. Additionally, his neck was partially covered in his scales, while he had wings on his back. His arms were covered in scales from the elbow down and his hands, while structurally the same as with humans, ended in claws similar to his true form. Additionally, there were also scales at other areas of his body, mainly protecting vital organs, that were currently covered by his clothes.

“I'm sorry I didn't recognize you at first.” Allaire said after a few seconds, once she connected the dots. Nodding, Darganth threw the bow back to her.

“Two things before we talk about me offering your tribe help. First, you don't need to keep up this facade of over the top politeness. At least I believe it to be a facade. While I understand you reason for this, I prefer it when people don't change themselves for me. Of course I still expect a certain level of respect, but not those empty words humanoids use.” This made her sigh in relieve due to no longer having to force herself to be polite.

While she initially remained wary, she quickly realized that there was no reason why he would make her offend him. If he wanted to attack her he could do so without tricking her, why would he fabricate an excuse when there was no one who could and would prosecute him if he didn't.

“The second concerns your bow. It reminds me of somethings, but I am not quite sure what. Do you know where it is from or who created it?” This question shocked Allaire.

“Why would a dragon find my family’s heirloom familiar? I highly doubt that you have inherited knowledge concerning our tribe, as this bow was created by the first generation of my ancestors who were part of it.”

This answer surprised him, because it either meant that the tribe was descendent from a group so powerful that he had known about them, or that they at least came into contact with remnants of one such group.

“Have they maybe created it by imitating another weapon?”

“I don't know. Maybe they received divine inspiration.” She joked. Despite her saying it only as a joke, this brought him an idea.

“Try and infuse your mana into it. Don't enhance it with aura, just let your mana flow through it.”

“Do you think that it may have been some divine inspiration that allowed my ancestor to create a weapon only we could use?” Despite her dismissive tone, she did as he instructed.

When nothing happened after going through half of her mana, she stopped. Looking towards Darganth with a face that said 'Could have told you so', she noticed him staring into the air.

“Everything alright?” When she received no answer, she grew even more curious. Suppressing her urge to stand up and shake him out of his trance to ask him what is going on, she waited for a few minutes, before he turned to her.

“While I wouldn't call it divine inspiration, I highly doubt that your ancestor crated this weapon completely alone.”

“What else, a devils whisper?”

“An angels help, but still quite close.” Darganth's words shocked Allaire. Even among those that don't revere the primordial goddess of light, angels were still a well known and respected race.

“You are saying that an angel helped create this bow?” She asked, her joking attitude gone.

“I'm saying that an angel imbued a spell into this bow during its creation. Probably only a low ranking soldier, but this was what made it look familiar. While I know the more powerful angelic weapons better, I am quite sure that it is a least inspired by a standard issue bow of the angels. That is also why I didn't recognize it, as their standard issue weapons follow a quite different design pattern to the more powerful ones and my knowledge mainly focus on the better weapons.”

“Then can you tell me what this spell does?” She asked after a few second.

“Lets say that it would do you quite well to use the light element more.” This made Allarie's excitement dull a bit. While simple enhancement enchantments can be powerful, they are some of the most common ones and lack in comparison to other enchantments.

After a few minutes, during which she complained out loud about having a low light element affinity, she focused again on the reason she came here.

“Right, what is it that you want to talk about concerning our plan and your help?”

“That it is a stupid idea. Does anyone of you have even a shred of an idea what kind of beasts live below the waves? You may have experienced the parts of the ocean near the coast, but as long as there is no particularly large concentration of mana in the area, none of the truly dangerous beasts would come here. But on the open seas the situation is different. You have neither the knowledge to build a ship robust enough, the power to defend it or any way to mitigate the beasts advantage of fighting in their home environment.”

His words dashed all hopes that Allaire had. Not just because they made it clear that he wouldn't help them, but because it made her aware how much they truly risk. They know nothing about the open sea and had hoped that the crossing would work with a bit of luck and effort. Of course she didn't know how accurate his word were, but it still made her doubt their plan.

“Then we are stuck on this continent? Doomed to one day die at the fangs and claws of a beast more powerful than us?”

“Largely. Of course there is a chance to manage the crossing, but when you follow your current plan it likely wont work, even with my help. But I am going to offer you an alternative. Wait for a few weeks longer and I will help you.” This shocked her, after all just a few second earlier he had said that this crossing would be dangerous even to him.

“Why? While it would take a while, I doubt that you can't reach a level of power to reach the central continent by yourself?”

“Of course I could do that, but it would take time. No, instead I will wait until I am confident to at least save me in case of an emergency before I am going to help you. I don't care if you take up my offer, but a delay of a few weeks should be acceptable if you are receiving my help in return.”

Thinking for a moment, Allaire nodded. While they risked more attacks by beasts during this time, it would still be preferable if it meant an increased chance to succeed in the crossing. Having received an answer to her plea for help, Allaire stood up and made her way towards the caves exit. Just before she left, Darganth called her to stop.

“I wouldn't make my way back now if I were you.” Raising an eyebrow, Allaire turned back to him.

“While it is already late, whether I spend one night or two in the forest makes no large difference.”

“That wasn't what I was talking about.” With these words Darganth conjured a small ball of water that he threw over the ledge. Following it trajectory, Allaire recoiled in shock when it turned to stone a few meters in front of her.