"Should we take 'em out while they're distracted?" Konrad muttered, keeping his voice down.
He tried to count the goblins, but gave up after a few dozen.
The beasts were all focused on a single thing—digging.
They discarded their weapons, nails, and fingers already bloodied, torches littering the ground.
Some still provided a sliver of light, illuminating a drug-fueled orgy.
Without any of the sexy parts—and twice the delirium and sweat he'd expect.
"They're in a trance, or something," the captain noted, too, clutching his sword. "I've never seen anything like this before. Whatever they're looking for, it's not salt."
That much was obvious—because salt didn't sing, or beat drums.
Konrad wasn't even sure if those sounds were real or only existed in his mind.
The rhythmic beating at the very least felt tangible, echoing off the damp cave walls.
Something must have been in the air, too, on top of the monsters' musk.
It was suffocating, but also—
"Can't you smoke them out with a fireball?" Vargas asked, his voice louder than Konrad expected. Panic tinged it, and a wave of nausea hit him at the same time.
"Won't that blow the whole place up?" He reversed the question—but why the doubt now?
He had already used his flames in the previous chamber.
"This ain't a coal mine, kid, blast them," the captain almost shouted, not that the goblins cared.
His face distorted, like he was fighting something on the inside.
Konrad also struggled with lifting his hand and finding the correct runes. His casting was never this slow, doubts flooding him every second, but he was too stubborn to fail.
When his spell was finally ready, the flames wiped all the goblins out in one fell swoop.
He ended up using way more mana than necessary, but it was worth it for the silence that followed. For exactly one second, then—pain.
'Are you for real?!' A scream of a girl inside his head—it felt like an electric shock.
Konrad dropped to his knees, but whatever that was, it knocked the tribesmen out, too.
As if someone tased his brain, random thoughts flooded in.
Like a probe—one with the subtlety of a jackhammer.
It only lasted a moment, but it sure felt like eternity—then it was all over.
Only smoking goblin corpses, charred limbs still trying to widen that fissure.
But they no longer moved—nobody did.
His body felt too heavy, yet hollow after that flood of emotions.
'Okay, I'll be good,' the voice claimed, much calmer now, but still untangible. 'Please let me out? I'll behave, I promise.' A chill ran through Konrad's spine, pushing himself off the cold floor.
The others were still down, some tribesmen even passed out, and Vargas was shaking like a leaf.
"W-what the hell was that?" he asked—and he was the one claiming he knew the mines.
"Did you hear a voice, too?" Konrad took a hesitating step forward. "Like a young girl's—"
Who raged, then calmed down, trying to bargain after they caught her doing something nasty. The captain nodded before he finished, his hand still clutching his sword.
'Okay, so now that we established that you can hear me, can you please let me out?'
It was a polite request from a voice echoing inside his head, sweet, but also commanding.
Lily's strange powers came to his mind, and, for some reason, the dragon she slayed about a month ago. When that thought came, a shiver ran through him, but it wasn't Konrad's.
'I'm not a bad dragon, okay?' the voice pleaded now. 'Don't let the big bad demoness kill me.'
"What?" The pressure disappeared, and the impossible discussion took yet another weird turn.
'Look, the goblins? It wasn't me, okay? In fact, when they attacked those people, I would distract them. All I want is to get out of here—I won't hurt any of you, I promise. Dragons don't lie.'
"You're a dragon?!" Konrad asked, yelling to nobody in particular.
Vargas looked at him as if he were an idiot.
Which meant the others didn't hear the same discussion, only his half.
'Would that be an issue? I'm not the dungeon-spawn, mindless killing machine type. Those are insults to our very existence—if I'm out of here, I'll take them out, too. Please?'
This was getting ridiculous, but there was a strong pull he had only felt with Lily before.
He only realized he had walked up to the fissure when he stared down and into the abyss.
And the abyss stared back—with huge, yellow eyes, on a lizard-like, red face.
Horns, long nose with smoke coming out of it—the whole package.
As if it were the carbon copy of the dragon Lily killed in that dungeon.
And when he thought that, the face shuddered, pulling back.
'Who even kills dragons for fun? I'm pretty sure we're an endangered species.'
But didn't she say—
No. Nothing made sense—but Konrad's brain went into overdrive.
Welf said dungeons copied real-life creatures. That Griphlets actually existed on the other side of the Halaima pass. The greater dungeon might've copied this particular monster, too, and—
'Wow, that's rude,' the voice interrupted. 'Calling me a monster? I'm an intelligent, powerful, and beautiful ancient being. I could be the last of my kind on this continent.'
And she didn't lack any ego, either.
"Then how did you end up in here?" Konrad asked, raising an eyebrow.
He was shaking with fear a moment ago, but now it was all gone—replaced by curiosity and skepticism. He almost forgot that they were in the deepest chambers of a salt mine, too.
'A mage tricked me,' she claimed—after saying she was intelligent and powerful.
Konrad never imagined he'd see a pouting dragon, but there it was, pulling back from the fissure. He hated when people could read his mind—whether it was Lily or Gabrielle.
Or dragons. Pouty ones. What was even going on?
'I'll answer everything once you've let me out. I'll even help you rescue those miners the goblins captured. Or join your harem—I'm quite pretty for a dragon if I do say so myself.'
An image of a redhead flashed through his mind.
And by red, he meant crimson red, not the ginger like Lily. She was taller, too, more mature with horns and a tail, wings, but still a humanoid. And a sexy one at that.
'See? I can transform into that—once you let me out. But I'm stuck, and can't use my powers.'
"How do I know you won't murder me the moment you're out of there?" Konrad asked, drawing some weird glances from the people behind him.
They were all up on their feet by now, Vargas walking up to him, legs still shaky.
"Who the hell are you talking to?" he asked, and Konrad nodded at the fissure.
When the captain noticed the dragon's head below, he jumped back, landing on his bum.
Not the most graceful thing from a guard captain in his mid-forties, but then—
That reaction was much more fitting than what Konrad felt when he first saw her.
The dragon puffed some smoke, but no fire, as if he offended her.
'I told you—dragons don't lie. And apologies if dungeon copies of me made me look like a bloodthirsty beast. I'm not. You have my word—and whatever else you want. If you let me out."