The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 12

“Haa…I’m back.” I get up from the floor and look around. I see that I am back in the coliseum room where I fought with the wyvern. Then I feel cold and look down to see that I am naked. “Why am I always naked? Wasn’t I clothed before leaving their domain?” I look around to see if there any clothes nearby. I do not see any clothes but then I realized that I do not see the corpse of the wyvern either. “Where is the corpse? Did the other monsters of the dungeon take it away?” I keep looking and then see a door opposite of the massive door that I came into to fight the wyvern. “Mother said that there was a room that they left gifts in for me. That door must lead to the room then.”

I walk to the door and enter a small room. There was not much to speak of until I saw a chest in the middle of the room. “Very game like if I were to be honest.” I open the chest to find a comfortable looking blue tunic shirt, black pants, and Greek style sandal. I put on the clothes relieved I wasn’t naked anymore and looked at what else was inside the chest. There was a leather bag that when I picked up made the sound of coins. I open it and see gold and silver coins. My eyes sparkle at the coins and shouting, “I’m rich hahahaha! Thank you, mother I’ll put it to good use.” I pour the coins out to count how much money I have now. The total came to fifty bronze coins, twenty-five silver coins, and ten gold coins. I look back to see if there is anything else in the chest and see a letter and an earring. I grab the earring and inspect it. It was blue like Tiamat’s scales and had a sapphire imbedded in it. I look closer and notice circuit like veins that loop around the whole of the ring. “It’s enchanted but what does it do?” I look at the letter and sit down against the chest to read it.

[Dear Little Dragon,

            Welcome back to Marble. In this chest we have left the gifts that we made for you. The clothes are tear and fire resistant. They will transform with you when you use your half dragon form and will be store in the earring when you transform to your dragon form then be put on when you transform back. So don’t worry about them ripping to shreds when you transform. The earring is a storage ring made by Odin and was crafted from one of my scales. The sapphire is mandium shaped into a gemstone. The amount of items able to be stored inside is around one million tons. To place things inside the ring you must first be touching whatever you want to store and then pass mana through the earring. To retrieve things from the ring just think of what you want to take out and pass mana through. Easy enough right. We also gave you some money. We have no use for it, so we hope that it helps you. We are so proud of you son we will see each other soon.

Love Mom & Dad]

I finish the letter and put on the earring on my left ear. Then I grabbed the letter and passed mana trough the earring. With a pop the letter disappeared. “Cool.” I say out loud and then tried to retrieve it from the ring. Once again with a pop the letter appeared back in my hand. Smiling at the convenience of such an item I put the leather bag with coins inside as well. I then remember about my bag that I had before coming into the dungeon. I go back to the coliseum room and look to where I threw it so long ago. There it lay in tatters from being hit from wyvern’s sludge. I hurry over hoping that a least my dog tags from the guild are undamaged. I look through the pieces of cloth and finally find the tags. “Oh, thank god.” I store the tags and just leave the damaged bag behind. “So how exactly do I get out of this dungeon? Do I have climb back up now?” Just as I finished saying that out loud, I was surrounded by a rushing wind and light. The next thing I knew I was standing in the center of the crater where I had hatched. “Well, I guess that answers my question.”

I look behind and do not see any trace of the dungeon. Confused I just shrugged my shoulders and decided not to care. “Now that I am free from the dungeon and no longer with Tiamat or Odin, it is time to head back to Melcox and find the assholes who tried to use me as bait.” I transformed into my small medium sized dragon form and took to the skies. I stayed just above of the canopy of trees so as not to be spotted by adventurers or other people doing jobs in the forest. After what would have taken a day’s worth of walking through the forest, I reached the end of the forest near Melcox by mid-morning. I could see the hills that dominated the south of Melcox along with the road that ran through them. I land atop a hill close to the road and only a couple miles from the south gate of Melcox. I transform back into my human form and make my way to the gate and wait in line with the people who were waiting to go through.

I am getting more stares than when I was here last time as I wait in line. “Haa, I did not miss the stares though I can’t really blame them. I do have horns on my head, and I never saw anyone aside from minks having horns on their heads.” I thought to myself as I move with the line. Suddenly I could hear running from up ahead and armor clanking against itself. Curious I look further upfront to what was going on and notice soldiers running towards my direction. I look behind me to see if monsters or something else was coming towards the line only to see hills and the people and carriages behind me.

“You, there!” I just ignore the soldier yelling trying not to draw anymore stares my way. “Oi!” one soldier a human which applies to all of them, with brown hair and a young face yells again. I look to see where their shouts are directed at to see them, all five of them, look at me. I look behind again to make sure they weren’t shouting at someone else. “You with the horns!” “Fuck.” I point to myself and the one with black hair and green eyes that seems to in charge nods. “Yes, you come with us.” “Haa…may I ask why?” I ask a little confused. “We have reports from ahead the line that a suspicious person is in the line waiting to try to get into the city.” I furrow my brows with confusion and the absurdity with the whole situation. “So, you are assuming that I am the suspicious person?” I asked. He nods in confirmation making my irritation rise. “What makes me susp- ““Quiet! Enough talking and come with us or we will be forced to arrest you.” My eye twitched from being interrupted. “This little shit is pissing me off.” I stand there deciding whether to just rip their heads off or just comply to stay as much out of sight as possible. Then I try to use my dog tags that I put around my neck before I set off this morning from the forest.

I show them my tags and ask, “Does this still make me a suspicious person?” The one with brown hair comes and looks at the tags then goes to whisper something into the black hair’s ear. He narrows his eyes at me and brings out a Scroll of Law confirming my name and if any criminal record which shows nothing. He was confused seemingly not wanting to believe the scroll was right. He looked around and saw the people in line watching the debacle take place. “So, you are an adventurer?” “Yes, I am.” I say letting the tone in my voice sound as annoyed as possible. “Very well.” Then his troop walks back the gate saying nothing else. “What the hell was that about?” I mutter.

Before long I am back in the city and making my way back to the guild wanting to take care of Noah and his team as fast as possible. Once there I go inside and am met with silence and murmurs. Suddenly I hear the thud of ledgers and papers hit the floor and a shout, “Ladon!” I look to see where the shout came from and saw Sherry the receptionist who I went to about jobs and various other things. I smile and say, “Hello Sherry. I’m back.” For an older woman she moved rather quickly through the adventurers and slammed into me and hugged me. “I thought you were dead. Noah and his team said you died when you were cornered by a horde of kobolds.” She leans back to look at me closer and noticed my horns and was surprised. “What happened to you?” She said in a low voice. With a kind voice and glad someone in this world was worried about me, I say, “Well a lot happened but Noah did not tell the guild everything nor what they did to me I assume.” I see Sherry face wrap in anger and turn around saying, “Follow me.”

She leads me upstairs and knocked on the door. A low bass voice answered, “Come in.” Sherry opened the door, and I saw an office with monster trophies on the walls, furniture for guests, and a desk with a window behind it. At the desk was a dwarf man with scars on his face and hands. “This is the Guild Head if I remember right. I cannot remember his name.” I try to remember his name, but no memory comes forward. “Ah, Sherry, what I do for you, my love.” The Guild Head says to Sherry who blushes, “Jon we are work, please.” Jon smiles and then looks at me and studies me for a few seconds with an intrigued look on his face. “Who have you brought me? He is rather peculiar; I have never seen his race before.” Sherry snaps out of her pink daze and returns to the present. “This is Ladon who was thought to be dead after Noah’s team came back from that peculiar dungeon that disappeared about a two years ago.”

Jon’s eyes widen and gets up from his chair and walks around his desk motioning for us to sit on the chairs in front of his desk. Sherry closed the door and sat with me in the chairs. Jon takes out a ball from his pocket and with the training from Odin I used my mana sense in my eyes, that he and I called Dragon Eyes, to see him pass mana through it. “What the hell did he just do? Should I be cautious right now?” Seeing the concern from me watching the ball Jon says, “This is an enchanted item that has the silent room spell imbued into it. Be at ease Adventurer Ladon.” Still a little weary I just nod and wait for the questions to start. “Now Ladon I need to know every detail about what happened to you and what happened to the dungeon.”

And so, I explained how we explored the dungeon up to the eleventh level. How Noah sliced my back with his sword and then how Abel threw me across the room to use me as bait and how the rest of the team just ran doing nothing. How I survived the horde and then noticed I was trapped in the dungeon. I explained that I had no choice but to proceed through the dungeon hoping that if I conquered the dungeon, I would be able to get out. After finishing with the tale of how I killed the Ancient Wyvern I deliberately left out how I met with Tiamat and Odin opting to just say that I transported out of the dungeon a couple of days ago. 

Silence filled the room after I finished my side of things with Jon had his hand on his chin thinking staring at the floor. “I am so sorry for what you went through, Ladon. It must have been incredibly hard and terrifying.” Sherry said with tears of sympathy rolling down her cheeks. I didn’t know what to say to her kindness and empathy, so I just nod my head and say, “You have nothing to apologize for Mrs. Sherry. I knew they’re about their reputation and the rumors that surrounded them. I was desperate for some money and my greed got ahead of my reasoning and sense of caution.” Jon then looks up from his thinking process and says, “Your appearance and telling of your side of events have already proven that they are guilty of attempted murder and abandoning a fellow adventurer. Though all I can do is take away their status as adventurers and ban them from the guild.”

I shoot up from my seat and angrily shout, “WHAT!? They should be imprisoned and made to pay for the injustice they reaped upon me!” In my emotional outrage I released my full aura as a dragon that I learned to control from Tiamat. Surprised by the amount of power escaping me both Sherry and Jon instinctively moved into defensive stances and started shaking. My eyes pierced Jon’s very soul with anger. “Ladon calm yourself we are not your enemies!” Sherry shouts with a staff in her hand. I look at Sherry and finally realize what I was doing. “Fuck. Controlling myself seems harder than ever. Mother would bop me on the head if she saw this. They have done nothing wrong. There must bureaucracy or something else from further action against Noah and his team.” I take a deep breath and blow out seeing smoke come out of my nostrils. I do this a couple of times to rein in my aura and power before sitting back down.

They are still in a defensive stance and shaking so I decide to defuse the situation, “I’m sorry for that outburst. I am still on edge from being in the dungeon for so long and have been waiting for justice against those pieces of walking wastes.” Once they saw that I had calmed down and was talking in a calm voice again they dropped their stances and with a pop their weapons disappeared. “They must have storage rings. Good to know that some people will also have them.” Wiping sweat from his brow Jon moves back in front of his desk and says, “It is okay, it seems I am getting old. I could not sense your power when you first came so I reacted instinctively. If I may ask, what is your rank in the guild?” “E” I say shortly. He looks at Sherry who nods and sits back down. Jon speaks again saying, “Concerning Noah and his band, they seem to be sponsored by the lord’s son now. After they came back without you, they seemed to have made an impression on the lord’s son after taking escort jobs for him. I’m afraid that if even if you bring up your case with the local courts the lord’s son will block any justice to be had on them.”

I could feel my anger rise again and I quickly douse it with deep breaths. I close my eyes and think for a moment. “How the hell did those assholes get sponsorship from the ruling class? Have they become stronger? Probably. I am not the only one with a system, everyone does. Those who choose the path of a warrior like adventurers and soldiers can become stronger faster than say a blacksmith who only gets soul essence from crafting. Do I push my luck and take my case to the local courts? That would leave me exposed to the lord’s son and possibly the lord. I still want to stay in Melcox a little longer. I need to learn more about monsters and the people that now inhabit Marble. If I stay here, I need some people to watch my back, but I just can’t trust anyone. I like Sherry, she feels like what an aunt would be like but I don’t necessarily trust her, and I just met Jon who seems to be her husband she spoke about a while back. If the justice system here is corrupt, then I need to defend myself from when Noah and company decide to retaliate. I just have a hunch that they won’t take getting kicked out of the guild lying down. I need to buy some weapons and potions for when the time comes.”

Finished thinking I look at Jon with serious sharp eyes, “If you can do nothing else than that I appreciate you hearing my side the story and taking appropriate action concerning the guild.” Jon nods and says, “This may be of little conciliation, but I will raise your rank to ‘D’ considering you conquered a dungeon by yourself. I would like to give you a higher rank, but you need to be tested first by a ‘C’ rank adventurer. Right now, Melcox’s ‘C’ ranks are not in the city right now. If you can wait a couple of days some of the ‘C’ ranks should be back by then.” I nod, “Thank you. For now, I will take my leave. I have other things I need to take care of before finding a room at the Drunken Elephant.” They both nod and I walk out of the room and guild heading towards the weapons shop I bought my weapons from before.

[Sherry’s and Jon’s POV]

Once Ladon closed the door behind him both Sherry and Jon relaxed from the tense atmosphere. “My Gods Sherry, my love, who did you bring me?” Sherry straightens her guild uniform skirt and says, “Someone who I had been watching over since he registered almost two years ago. He always seemed lonely but driven to succeed and to survive. His jobs consisted of just population control and collections. When I asked if he wanted any better jobs, he would say no and that he wanted more experience and knowledge before taking on risker jobs.” Jon goes around back behind his desk and sits down with his arms bent with his chin leaning on them.

Jon then asked, “What was his results when he first registered?” Sherry thinks for a moment and then says, “Well I don’t have his file in front of me, but I remember he did well with the weapons portion but didn’t have much knowledge about anything else. Though he participated in the training we provide with Beau and Don. He also used the library often when he wasn’t training or on a job. When I would look at what he was reading, it varied from monsters and herbs to geography and dungeons. It was like he was trying to catch up to basic knowledge for adventurers.” “Hmm.” Jon made a sound thinking. “I understand that he must have conquered the dungeon since he was trapped but how does that explain the amount of power that he just showed us?”

Sherry shakes her head and says, “I do not know darling, but I would advise not getting on his bad side. I felt something primal almost predatory from him. Even if we were once ‘S’ class adventurers his power made me shake to the bone.” Remembering the aura that wrapped around his very soul Jon shuddered. “Yes, I felt the same thing. Do you know what race he is? I do not know of any race with horns on their head aside from minks and some mythicals.” “I’ll check his registration form, but I think he wrote down human as his race…Maybe something else happened in the dungeon that he did not tell us, or his body had not caught up to his true race showing. Either way he will catch the eye of people whether he likes it or not.” “Mm, yes.” Jon sighed and leaned back in his chair and stare at the ceiling dreading the paperwork about hit full force from this whole situation.