“You want me to kill a dragon?” Arad gasped, glaring at Merlin.
“Yes, I need its heart, so it needs to die,” Merlin replied. Smiling, “Or do you want a reason to kill it?”
“I’m not killing dragons,” Arad growled.
“Not all dragons can be reasoned with.” Merlin pulled a few papers from her chest, “Forest fire, attacking travelers and even scaring monsters outside the forest. That thing wants the entire forest for himself, and he caused the death of many people.”
Merlin leaned back on the couch, “I need to finish the heater before winter, or hundreds of commoners will die of cold. The dragon’s heart will make it possible to heat an even bigger area.”
Aella looked at Merlin, worried, “You’re saying that the dragon’s death is better for everyone.”
“Everyone except him. I doubt he will sit and let you take his heart.” Merlin smiled, “So, will you take him down?”
Arad looked down, thinking. ^What do you say? Mom,^
[It’s not like we have a choice. It’s a chromatic dragon, so you don’t have to feel guilty.]
Arad sighed, “Fine. What do we know about the dragon?”
Merlin smiled, pulling a small book from her chest.
“This one talk about chromatic dragons. You can read about the red dragons in general.” She then took another paper from her chest, “And those are for our target.”
****
Creature type: Red dragon(Fire Dragon)
Age category: Very young.
Location: Gorana forest.
Flight: Yes.
Breath weapon: Yes.
Fire magic: Yes.
Intelligence: Capable of ambushes, trickery, and complex thoughts like making traps.
Minions: Direwolves, Goblins, slimes.
Draconic relations: Non.
Origin: Unknown but expected to have come from the north and most likely escaped an adult dragon trying to kill him.
The expected value of the corpse is 70 gold coins.
Treasure horde: Unknown but expected to be at least worth twenty gold coins.
Live capture bounty: 100 gold coins.
Hunt owner: Merlin Ashborn.
****
“That’s a lot of information. Were you spying on him?” Arad put the paper on the table and stared at Merlin.
“No, I got the quest from the city near Gorana forest. Sadly we don’t know if it’s she or him.” Merlin smiled.
“How did they miss that?” Arad sighed.
“Have you never looked at your body?” Merlin looked at Arad, puzzled. “Dragons are supposed to be optimized for fighting. Hardened scales cover their reproductive organs and rear end. You can’t tell their gender by look unless the dragons allow you.”
Aella giggled, “We trained to aim for them when fighting a monster with hard scales or tough hide. They are an easy weak point that dragons don’t have.” She remembers when she popped the griffon’s marbles.
“Yeah, that would be a problem.” Arad sighed, standing up. “I will take this book with me,” He lifted the dragon book.
“Feel free to read it when you have time.” Merlin said, “You need to learn about dragons, as you will fight more of them in the future.”
“I don’t intend on doing that,” Arad replied.
“Of you would.” Merlin stared at him, “We humans kill each other each day, the same for dragons. Even if you evade it, the stronger you become, the more dragons try to kill you.”
“My problem isn’t killing,” Arad turned around.
“I know. You don’t like the idea of eating your own.” Merlin stood, “Dragons are territorial. The first thing the red dragon will do when you enter his forest is an attempt to kill and eat you. That is their way of establishing dominance over the land. You either serve the dragon or be its prey.”
[She’s right. Don’t expect goodwill from any dragon except the void dragons. Since we’re on the verge of extinction, we are protective of our kind.]
^You’re saying I can trust a void dragon. But not the others?^
[Yes. Take anything that a dragon says as having ulterior motives that it will never say. That also includes Claug, don’t trust her.]
“Fine, I will be going.” Arad walked toward the door.
“Where are you heading? The paper would take a while to be signed,” Merlin stood. 𝚍ｏ𝚟𝚕.ｏｒｇ
Arad and Aella glared back at her, “Is there anything else you need?”
“You have the meat and blood. How about I teach some magic?” Merlin smiled, “I can do better than Amber,”
“I can already control my flames,” Arad stared at her.
Merlin shook her head, “No, I wasn’t talking about fire magic.” She smiled, “Care to learn gravity magic? I wasn’t able to master it, but I’m sure you will do better than me.”
Arad stared at Merlin, “Gravity magic?”
Merlin lifted her chair and dropped it, “See? The power pulling it down is gravity.” She then pointed up with her finger, [Reverse Gravity]. The chair started floating with a purple aura around it.
“This one of the most basic tricks this magic can do.” She smiled, “I’ve seen more powerful spells, but I don’t have the aptitude to master such spells.”
“Aptitude?” Arad looked at her.
“Everyone can learn any magic. That is, as long as they study hard enough. And since 0-tier magic doesn’t need MP, you can use those simple spells even if you are born without mana.” Merlin explained.
“A fire sorcerer would find it easy to learn fire spells but hard to understand ice magic. You claimed to be one, so most people will only expect fire from you.” Merlin looked at Arad, “So having gravity magic will be a nice trump card.”
Arad looked at Aella, and she smiled, “I have an aptitude for wind magic.”
“Most high elves have an aptitude for light, wind, and water magic. Drow, on the other hand, has fire, earth, and dark aptitude.” Merlin approached Arad, “Come to my office. I would help you study gravity magic there.”
“Office? We won’t train?” Arad stared at her.
“Train? You aren’t a fighter. Is this how Amber attempted to teach you fire magic?” Merlin facepalmed, looking down as if having a headache. “Magic is theoretical. The deeper your understanding is, the faster and more intuitively you can use it.”
Arad imagined himself sitting at a desk for hours, “No thanks, I’m going to kill the dragon.”
Thud! Merlin caught his shoulder, “The carriage would only go there tomorrow. Today you’re studying with me until the guildmaster comes to sign your order.” She smiled, “I want to see how far a dragon can go with human efforts.”
Aella stared at her, “What do you mean?”
“Dragons are lazy. They live for thousands of years, so they barely spend time studying or training. I want to see what will happen if I got you to work hard.” Merlin giggled.
[She is on to something. Your mother is powerful since she spent many human lives honing her skills.]
“Fine,” Arad pushed Merlin’s hand away, “But why are you trying to help me like this?”
Merlin smiled, looking up and tickling her cheek, “You’re a unique dragon. I can feel that. I have other reasons, but I’ll keep them for myself.”
“That’s suspicious,” Arad sighed. “Fine, let’s go.”
They walked out, heading toward the city’s magic tower. The guards there greeted Merlin, “Archmage, welcome back.”
Merlin waved her hand to them, “Good job. Were there any troubles?”
“Nothing worth reporting,” The two guards saluted her as if they were seeing a war general.
“I see, thank you,” With a smile, Merlin walked in with Arad and Aella trailing behind her like ducklings.
As they walked in, every person in the tower bowed to Merlin. “Are you just an archmage?” Aella asked. “The way people treat you here is strange.”
Merlin looked at her, smiling, “The soldiers here, they joined wars before. My barriers saved them from rains of arrows, and my magic blasted the enemy. So they won’t charge to their death. And now, if I finished the heater before winter, their children won’t suffer from the cold.” Merlin explained, “I have become more respected than the nobles. Do you remember the two guards at the door?”
“Yeah,” Arad replied.
“The one at the right is expecting a child at the end of autumn.” Merlin stopped looking at her lab door, “He’s been staying overtime to guard, rushes around the lab to help carry heavy stuff, and even suggested multiple times if he could help in the experiments. Without the heater, his child might not survive.”
Merlin pushed the door with both hands, “I must finish the heater before winter, and to do that, I need you to bring me that dragon heart. I can’t waste time hunting for resources on my own.” Merlin looked at Arad.
“You have to stay here to work on developing that heater,” Aella said, staring at her.
Merlin smiled, looking sad, “It’s a bit of too much responsibility.”
“You could have hired other people. Why me?” Arad stared at her.
“You’re more relaibale. And you have dimensional storage like me. You can bring the dragon’s whole corpse here fresh.” Merlin smiled.
“How much do you know?” Arad sighed.
“I know you still keep wolves inside your storage. I watched you pretend to bury them while sucking the corpses inside.” She giggled, “I even watched your show at the goblin mine,”