"An adventure sounds fun. But isn't that a little out of tone when somebody is sick?" Sergu stares at me with a deadpan expression. "I mean, uhhh. If you have to do something anyway, you might as well enjoy it?" There is an awkward silence for a few seconds before she perks up and smiles.

"I knew you'd understand if you thought about it!" She claps her hands and walks to the door. "Now grab a bag, in case we find more stuff than I can fit in mine, and let's go!" I don't actually have a bag, but I'm sure a basket will be fine. I step into the storehouse and grab a spare basket. When I walk back out Sergu is yawning broadly. It's an almost terrifying sight. Her mouth opens far wider than I would have guessed it could, and her fangs seem similar to those of a large feline. When she closes her mouth I notice, that while she doesn't have lips exactly, there is a slight overlap of the top part of her mouth over the bottom. Her mouth opens back up slightly and she sticks out her tongue. "What're you staring at? Never seen a girl yawn before?"

"Well. Not a Koryuu. Your teeth are pretty impressive." I laugh slightly. "They look very sharp. Do you have a potion you use to keep them white and shiny?" She shakes her head, but then takes on a thoughtful expression. I adjust the straps on my basket then walk to the door and open it. "Alright, now where are we going?" She steps out of the door I'm holding, and I follow along.

"To start with, we'll head to the Canza mountain range. They're short for mountains, but from the peak we're going to, we'll be able to see the western coast of Dvera, for now at least. From what I've heard it'll be too far in a couple decades, so we should enjoy the view while we can!" She leads the way west through the town. "I don't usually go by foot when I'm on my own, but I think it's about an hour and a half at a comfortable run. Going by my Agility, which is at twenty."

"Is that so? Mine is at twenty four, and I don't get fatigued the same way a more conventional living thing would. Er, not that that quite matters. We can go at your pace." Wait, is it normal to just discuss your stats like that? . . . Well, now I want to check her other stats with scan.

Speed and magic focused huh? A bit low level too, but I suppose that makes sense for a non-combatant. "Are you kidding? If that's all the advantage you have, I could just fly and leave you in the dust!" She flutters her wings and laughs. "But yeah, not much purpose in having an escort if I don't stick with him, huh?"

As I think about how to respond to that, we reach the edge of the town. "I, uhmm. I'm not a man. I don't have a gender, and certainly no reproductive anatomy. So, could you stick with they and them pronouns in reference to me?" She pauses, then turns towards me and raises her muzzle to the air, seemingly showing off her throat. "Sorry, what are you doing?"

"Ah?" Her hands go to her muzzle and she pulls her face back down. "That was a gesture of submission. Like a subconscious apology in this case. Don't worry bout it. If you don't know how to respond, that's okay. I'll just say, I'm sorry. I uhh, I use female pronouns, while we're on the subject. In case you weren't sure how to address me." She lifts her hands away from her face and shakes them. "Now, can we continue?"

I sigh in a soft, melodious tone. "Well, you don't have to take it quite that seriously. And I had already been thinking of you as a girl." I scuff my foot against the ground. She grins and her tail wags under her robe. "Setting that aside. Yeah, let's move on." She nods, then takes a moment to stretch out her limbs before bolting west at an impressive speed. That's a comfortable pace? I take off after her at full speed. It takes me several seconds to catch up, then when I slow to her pace, I consider the energy drain. It is just barely outpacing the conversion of my passive SP generation to electricity. "Guess I couldn't keep this up indefinitely myself. Though a few hours shouldn't be an issue."

"Good for you! I'll want to take a break before scaling the mountain myself." We run for a while without talking. The land to the west of the town is a bit, hilly, but around half an hour into the run, we reach a hilltop where we can see the mountain range she mentioned. She pauses for a moment to point towards one of the taller peaks. "That's the one we're heading for. Specifically there's a pass over, there." Her finger moves to the gap between two other mountains a bit to the north of the first one. "Once we go through there, we'll head south to that first mountain, and climb up to a sort of landing, about three fourths of the way up on the west side."

She pulls a canteen out of her bag and takes a quick drink. After she's done, she looks at me, then down to the canteen, then back to me. I laugh softly and shake my head. She smiles, nods, and puts the cap back on before putting the canteen away. She flaps her wings, hard enough that her feet come off the ground for a second, then she resettles them behind her back and starts jogging. I follow along, once we get going again we gradually speed back up.

She doesn't seem terribly talkative this time, so perhaps she is a bit winded. Content with the silence I run on, occasionally looking over at her to make sure she isn't pushing herself too much. A bit before we reach the mountain pass, I start to feel a strong mana signature near the edge of my senses. "Hang on a second." I slow to a walk, which she mirrors a moment later. I focus on the sensation to figure out where it's at, then turn my head to the side to look north by northeast. "Oh for fucks sake. Again?!"

"Eh, whats up now?" She looks the same way I am. "Oh, a lesser dragon. Looks like she's just shed recently. I'd be jealous if my scale oil didn't keep me that soft and smooth all the time." She shrugs, faces forward, and keeps walking. "That aside, what are you freaking out about?"

"Last time I saw a lesser dragon, it was after me because I'm shiny. Note to self, build a body with a matte surface. . . How do you know it's a female?" I think a moment, then look forwards. "Say, how wide is that mountain pass?"

"About twenty meters? Might technically count as a ravine? Or a gulch? And that's suuuuper obvious. Female dragons are bigger than the males. Same with Koryuu. At least, on average." She continues to walk for a moment more, then her wings pop open. "Crap!! You are shiny! Uhhh. Let her take you back to her nest and run away when she falls asleep?"

"That doesn't seem practical. More importantly, she wouldn't have an easy time flying in the pass, right?" She thinks a moment, then nods, a little uncertainly. "Good, then I'll test a couple things out. See if my preparations so far will make a difference." I make a ticking noise as I think things through. "Probably haven't improved my magic enough. Not sure the extent staves boost spell power. The giant body might work though. And I'd like to see what my gun can do."

By the time we get into the entrance of the pass the lesser dragon is close enough to scan. She is a couple levels lower than the last one, but she has the Slow Regeneration skill on top of all the skills the other one had. Though Claw Arts and Force Breath are both a level lower. I remove Sapph's pouch from my neck and hold it over to Sergu. "I need you to take this, and Sapph as well. Head to the other end of the pass and try to hide, I guess. Sapph, no complaining this time." She pouts, but conveys a feeling of understanding. I take the giant body out of my storage a short ways into the box canyon after they pass the point, then I move to the entrance, pull my gun out, and take aim.

The dragon is drifting along in the sky, looking down. She only takes a moment to spot me and begin easing herself closer to the ground. Alright, can I use Sure Aim and Hobble at the same time? Both the gun and my right eye light up with Vitality. Then I draw out a hundred points of mana and condense it into the musket ball as well. I line the gun up with the center of the dragon's left wing membrane. Here we go again. I pull the trigger.

The dragon's head jerks up from the noise a bare moment before the round hits her wing. The lump of magic iron pierces through the wing, leaving a series of tears in the membrane starting from the impact point. She roars, messes up her next flap, and falls most of the way to the ground before managing to adjust. I settle my main body in a pose where it'll stay steady, and transfer to the giant body.

I hear a heavy thump as the dragon lands, then I move to the opening, walking as lightly as I can in the huge body. I stick close to the edge, hiding in the shadow of the cliff. There is another roar, then audible impacts as the dragon runs towards my other body. Just as she starts to lunge, I punch towards the air over my abandoned form.

Despite the current difference in agility, my timing was spot on. I can feel a heavy jolt as my massive fist impacts the dragon's chest, sending her tumbling back with an indignant squawking noise. I decide not to let up and charge after her, relying more on strength to push forward rather than movement speed. She writhes and growls before righting herself and facing me. Now that we're standing on an open plain, my huge body seems almost unfair. The comparison between us is similar to the difference between a greyhound and an adult human. The difference in our weight is probably much more extreme, given my metallic composition.

Her mana condenses in her throat, it feels faster than the other one did. She's probably going for a fast shot to hit me before I close the gap. So I lower my stance as I continue running, and surround myself with a crude cloak of mana, ready to pull it together to one spot once I can tell where she is aiming.

Her aim seems to be for the center of my mass, I put my arms in the way, radiate more mana into my cloak, and draw the mana already out together as fast as I can. The breath attack nearly nullifies my momentum, and leaves a heavy dent and cracks radiating from the point of impact on the arm it hit, despite my attempted defense.

After a momentary stagger, I continue towards the dragon. She rears up, mouth agape, so I shove the hand of my damaged arm into her mouth, then drag it down to lower her head. I raise my free hand up, and slam it down on top of the dragon's head, breaking several of her teeth against my other hand.

The dragon backs away, shaking her head and whimpering. Then she turns around and whips her tail hard against my right leg, tripping me. My giant body slams into the ground hard, and by the time I reorient myself, I spot the dragon flying away. I scoff, and scan her. She still has a bit over half of her health. Meanwhile I'm down almost to a quarter. And all four of my batteries have been drained by nearly a third. "Damn. The only reason I could be seen as winning, is because I could afford to take more damage."

I sit down, then transfer back to my main body. When I stand up I hear a surprised shriek next to me. I turn to look, and of course, it's Sergu. "What happened to hiding? No wait, don't tell me. You wanted to watch the show." I sigh and shake my head, then walk back out to the giant body. I take a moment to collect the fallen dragon fangs from the ground, as well as wrenching a couple that were lodged in the body's hand before putting it back in my warehouse. "Don't suppose you have a use for dragon teeth, do you?"

"When would I have ever tried them out? Still, I'll take one for some testing if you're willing to share." She holds her hands out and smiles broadly. I pick out one of the more intact, and therefore larger ones and place it in her palm. "Thankies!" How'd slang like that come across? I shake my head, and drop the remaining fangs into my basket. After that, she hands me Sapph's pouch, which I place back around my neck. Sapph herself floats over and gives an aloof 'Hmph' before landing back on my head.

I walk back towards the pass. Sergu is distracted by the fang for a bit, but she comes running over quickly enough. This time, things are fairly uneventful as we go. Eventually we reach the stopping point before the climb. Sergu sits on a fallen log, and retrieves the fang to stare at it more. I can feel another, much stronger mana up on the mountain from here, so I look up that way while she rests and fawns over the fang.

After a bit, I decide that I can't figure it out from here, so I ignore the mana sensation and focus on Sergu. "Hey. You said you were missing two of the basic magic types, right?" After a moment she nods and half looks at me. "I know them all. So, I was thinking. If you have Mana Perception, I could probably show you the two you're missing."

"Oh? That'd be great! And since we're talking magic skills, they should be easy to pick up as long as I experience them a bit! I managed to learn fire that way. The rest I know I got from the classes." Her tail wags under her robe. "The two I don't know are Light and Wind."

"You're, running a potions shop, which likely involves selling healing potions, and you can't even use Light Mana? From what I read in one of Marel's books, Light Magic is the one with healing abilities. That should be huge for potions!" I rub my temple fruitlessly. Then I draw out a blob of twenty points of mana and convert it to the light attribute.

"Synthesis isn't always that straightforward. But I'm sure it'll open a lot of options up for me!" She scoots as close to me as she can while remaining on the log. "Ooooh, it feels. Shiny?" Not quite what I think it feels like, but perhaps different people feel different about each mana type? "Guess this is Light then?" She plays around with her mana for several seconds before converting it right, then a moment later she squeals excitedly. "Skill get!" She casts the flash spell out into the open air. "Wind?"

"You're pretty excitable about all of this. You, really like potion synthesis huh?" She nods energetically. Then I convert the light mana I already have floating around back into normal mana, then into wind. [Mana Preservation Field 1›2] Sergu looks serious as she focuses on the mana.

"Mnn. It feels kinda like the ticklish sensation of wind on my wings when I'm flying." Her wings flutter and she converts some of her mana to wind in a couple seconds. "Yay~ Thank you! Oh, new title? Ack, now I've got two magic titles! I need to get another one for Potions. Or, more than that, hopefully." She plays around with wind and light mana for a few seconds, then switches over to dark. "Now I just need to level my Dark Magic, then switch to a class more suited to potion making."

"Right, class skills. . . Are Classes, a good way to get skills?" She looks over at me with a questioning expression. "I seem to have picked up a fair few skills, but I've only had one class so far." I tap my foot against the ground and look around.

"Uhh. Yeah? From what I've heard, the more skills you have, the harder it is to pick up new ones through effort alone. Though things like magic types are probably an exception, since you just need to figure out the new mana type once to get the skill. Plus, sometimes class skills are things you'd never figure out without the classes. Right?"

I hum, then nod. "I suppose that's true. And, I take it that it's pretty easy to train the skill and switch to another class even without leveling up, based on you having at least a couple skills at level five despite your own level being the same."

She nods, then gasps. "Oh! You've got Scan? Great, I'll need you to tell me everything you can about the thing we're here to look at. Okay?" I snicker, then give her a thumbs up. "What's that gesture mean?"

"Thumbs up? It's just an affirmation. Suppose that's not really a thing around here then? Oh well. Point is, I can do that." I turn to look up the mountain again. "Speaking of, have you rested about long enough now?"

"Jeeze, you're in a rush. But I'm excited now too. So let's go!" She jumps up and leads the way to a small trail leading up the mountain. Things are uneventful on this leg of the journey. When we're getting rather close to the mana I could feel from the base of the mountain she pauses in front of a thick hedge. "No fighting, okay. Just as a heads up." With that, she starts pushing through the bushes. I follow behind, helping move branches out of her way whenever she's having trouble.

Once through the hedge, we enter a clearing with a crystalline tree in the center. It starts black at the roots, and fades to a midnight blue at the top. Upon a closer look, I notice that the tree doesn't have leaves, but it does have odd holes at the ends of the branches, as well as a larger one at the top. Sergu runs into the clearing and calls out. "Erlulu! Are you awake today?"

A moment later a purple cylinder rises from the top of the tree. It wiggles around a moment before facing Sergu. At that point I realize that it is an eye stalk. A second one rises to look at her. Then a third? A moment later one of the eyes looks towards me. Looking back at the eye, I get the impression of an old and intelligent being. Less so than the Wise Balms, perhaps, but more so than any of the monsters or animals I've met. It's even above the Royal Ampagu.

More of the creature rises from the top of the tree. It looks like a purple slug with a white star twinkle pattern. Long thin tentacles emerge from the branches, one of which reaches for Sergu. She grabs a jar from her bag and strokes the slimy appendage with her other hand. It feels like her magical power is decreasing? A moment later she scrapes mucous from the creature into the jar. "Oh. That is, it's just. Gross. You're not making potions people drink from that, are you?"

She giggles and grabs the tentacle again. "Sometimes! Most of my uses for it so far are topical though." She raises a wing and makes a beckoning gesture with it. "C'mon over and say hi! And scan her. Him? Them? Afraid I'm not really sure about that. And we can't communicate that well."

"I think, I'll just hang out back here. No offence to your oh so slimy friend, but I don't see any benefit to that." She huffs, but then shrugs. "M'kay. I'll scan them and tell you what I find then."

"Oh, this gal's got a lot of defensive and counter attack skills. Guess I can see why you said no fighting. And how an immobile creature can survive on its own out in the open like this. She's even got a Unique Skill. Should I go ahead and list everything off?"

She shakes her head and scrapes more slime into the jar. "Gimme a minute to finish filling this jar. I'll want to take notes!" While I wait on her, I try scanning the tree instead of the slug, but I get the same result. I guess, the tree is just its shell? Making it more of a snail than a slug? Mmm. How about Deep Scan?

[Nebula Nudibalmua Eddu: A hybrid of tree and mollusk that has undergone multiple mutations and become a unique being. It has already passed the baseline intellect required for the Races, but due to its mutations it will need to evolve more naturally to qualify.] [Deep Scan 1›2]

"Done!" Sergu puts a lid on the jar and places it in her bag. "Sorry Erlulu, I'm going to step back and talk with my other friend, okay?" She steps out of the creature's reach, then creates a little water mana. "Splish, splash, and wash. Clean away the slime~" Water spirals around her hand and wicks away the mucous before dropping to the ground a ways away.

"Hah. Cute spell incantation." She smirks, then pulls out her notebook. "Right, right. I'll start with the description." I repeat the results from Deep Scan back to her. She records it, but as soon as she is done writing it down she stares up at me, her eyes seeming to twinkle. ". . . Oh. Right. I have the Deep Scan advanced skill. Didn't just come up with that on my own." After that, I list off all of the Scan information for her. She seems rather interested in its unique skill. So I Deep Scan that and repeat its description to her. "Starlight Absorption. A unique skill that uses starlight in place of sunlight for plants, or when used for its active effects, converts starlight into mana. Level 1, Mana Generation, creates raw mana from gathered starlight. Level 2, Spell Assist, uses starlight to strengthen cast spells beyond their normal limits. Er, wow. That sounds pretty strong. Maybe? Guess that depends on how it works. And, I suppose its mutations happened from it using Mana Generation and Mana Absorption."

Chaos_Sinner777

Sorry that took so long. My whims are a fickle mistress. And my motivation is even more unpredictable. Plus a bunch of other stuff. Like doing two chapters in my other story, and reading new volumes of Light Novels I like, and so on.