English Novel
CH.444 SC: Ria and Agunan’s Vacation
CH.444 SC: Ria and Agunan’s Vacation
[Ria POV naturally]
“Miss, do you have any places you wish to visit? And don’t worry, I can fly us anywhere.” Agunan told me.
“... you do remember that I also have a B.E.S. ship, and now that Brian has the Kingdom wide locator system running, I won’t get lost.” I reminded the dragon. “So we can just each go our separate way.”
“No. Master told me to keep an eye on you, so I shall.” Agunan insisted.
“... fine. It isn’t like I had many places to visit. Mostly home and aunty Agatha, but depending on the day, aunty might be at the village anyway.”
“Then that is where we shall go. Would you like me to fly you ..?”
“No! Absolutely not!” I quickly stopped him. “The village is close to Sawyer city, and I don’t know if you remember, but you kind of terrified the city. So no dragon form anywhere near there. We’ll take my ship.”
“As you wish. I shall inform Master of our departure.”
“Don’t take too long.” I told Agunan, as he rushed off, leaving a trail of flames behind him.
… why did I agree to share my days off with him again? Oh yeah, because he teaches me how to really use Fire Magic. And I will fully admit it, without his help, I wouldn’t be half the girl I am now.
Brian is great and all, but he is also a student. Agunan is a combat master, having learned from battles he has had with other dragons.
Thinking about Agunan made me remember a conversation I had with Brian soon after I became his slave.
“When I heard about slaves, I promised I would treat mine well, if I ever had any. That includes not using them in any sexual ways.” He told me.
I remember asking him what would happen to me then. I felt so useless at that time. Despite giving my everything to him, Brian refused me. So what could I do?
And to that, he simply said: “I wish you’ll find someone else to love.”
And after that, the line that has my brain scrambling for an answer.
“You can just marry a dragon.”happened in
Is that really an option? Would Agunan see me in that way?
Visiting the village felt nice. It was so good to see everyone happy and not on edge. We always had been on the edge because of our curse, but thanks to Brian, we were happy. I even learned that two of them had gotten pregnant, because now they wouldn’t have to worry about their children having to suffer the blood curse. I do want to point out/remind you that even if two cured dhampirs have a child, the child will still have the blood curse, until it is cured with True Blood Magic.
I ended up having some practice matches against the few warriors of the village, but it really wasn’t a challenge at all. I was already one of the strongest in the village, and now I could take on everyone at the same time without using any magic.
The villagers looked at my power in awe. I suppose they really haven’t seen me in a while. Unlike Lua, I don’t really like visiting the village. Not like I have anything in here. I always somewhat felt like an outsider here, because I was so quick to snap under my curse.
… I think my mom and dad would be disappointed that I see our home this way, but to me, I only have one place I can really call Home.
We decided to walk from the safe town to Sawyer city. It is a bit of a walk, but we ran way further distances in our daily training, so it is no trouble.
We did have a bit of trouble getting into the city, because I am still a slave and without my master, but luckily this isn’t my first solo outing, so Brian had prepared a permission paper for me, allowing me to enter towns and cities on my own.
His name is also extra effective in this city, as he is quite well known. Especially with anyone who has connections to the Sawyer family.
I somewhat remember where in the city aunty Agatha’s place is, so I got to the general area and from there, I let the scent of blood guide me to the correct house. Her house is the only one that reeks of blood, not that the regular people can smell it. Their noses aren’t made to pick up on a drop of blood ways away. Mine is.
Seeing aunty was nice. She has always been so kind. Too kind for her own good, as the hand covered in dragon scales proves. She gave her arm for our village. Sacrificed it so that Lua’s father wouldn’t get into trouble.
I’m just glad Brian was able to give her a new arm.
We spent the rest of the day, and the following night, with aunty. Agunan even taught her the very basics of Draconic Magic, saying that she should be able to use it, since aunty is half-dragon now. Adding that if she wishes to learn more, she should be in contact with his Master, aka. Brian.
The following day, we headed to where Agunan wanted to go. And that was to the Dragon coast. And he said that this time, he would fly us over.
He was about to transform into his dragon form right outside the city, when I reminded him that he shouldn’t do that. So instead, we had a nice, long morning run, boosted by magic, to get plenty of distance from any town or city, before Agunan took his dragon form, I climbed onto his back, and he took off into the skies.
Riding on Agunan was interesting. He isn’t quite like Brian’s dragons. He flies faster and higher in the sky, but it still feels great to ride on his back. I assumed there may be adverse effects, because when Brian told us about the HomeBase magic circles, he explained that one of them keeps the air pressure or something at a good level where we won’t feel altitude sickness.
When Lua asked about it, Brian explained that the higher you go into the air, the thinner the air becomes. At first I didn’t really understand how air can be thinner, because air is air, right? But Brian told us that air is in fact not air. But instead, air is a mix of different gasses, and while he said he wasn’t completely sure if the air in this world is the same as in his old world, he said that air is mostly two different gasses, nitrogen and oxygen. There were a few others, mainly carbon dioxide, or what I would call smoke.
But the important thing was that the higher up you go, the less air there is. Something about gravity and so on, but I honestly didn’t fully understand it. Agunan then said that he had noticed that the higher up you fly, the easier it is to fly fast, but the more difficult it is to breathe, so he has to use some Wind Magic to assist in that.
Brian then told us another important fact, and that was the importance of that oxygen stuff for most burning reactions, and thus Fire Magic. He told us that by burning oxygen specifically, we could potentially make our Fire Magic more potent.
Sadly, I don’t know how to use Wind Magic, so I couldn’t even try. But it did get me to consider asking Brian to install one of those attribute cards into me.
Agunan did try to learn how to control oxygen, but he is still struggling with it. On the other hand, Cailie knew how to do it. She said it is knowledge she gained when she became a half-spirit.
That is what allowed us to finally try if using oxygen boosted fire magic, and it indeed did. To a massive level, making a weak spell quite powerful. Mixing two attributes is really crazy. I just wonder how powerful Lua’s spells will be when she learns how to mix different attributes.
It didn’t take us all that long, but still much longer than it would have if we had used my Big Core MK-2, to arrive at the Dragon’s coast. And that is after Agunan has been learning how to fly super fast. Had he flown at his regular speed, this trip would have taken like … half the day. On the other hand, according to Lua, with a B.E.S. monster, you can make the trip in 25 minutes.
It was my first time visiting the Dragon’s coast. Brian always comes here alone, and sadly I couldn’t come the last two times when they headed to where Cailie’s clan lives. I know it is just a bit further out to the sea, but I don’t think we will be visiting.
The Dragon’s coast is a massive mountain range very close to a thing called the ocean. Something like an infinite lake, but where the water is salty. Why would the water be salty? Lake and pond water isn’t salty, so why is ocean water salty? Brian probably knows, so maybe I’ll ask him.
Once we arrived, it didn’t take long for a flock of dragons to surround us. Sadly, I couldn’t understand them, but they seemed to be questioning Agunan.
Eventually they let us go and Agunan headed for a mountain off in the distance.
As we got closer to it, I realized it wasn’t just a mountain, but one of those fire mountains, a volcano. And this was Agunan’s home. His mountain.
We landed on the hills of the volcano, and I was very happy that I’d put my armored jacket on before I climbed onto Agunan’s back, because it was hot here. It reminded me of those fiery floors of HomeBase.
Agunan then transformed into his humanoid form, before we climbed a bit, so that we reached the edge of the volcano. We both looked down, and it really made me appreciate the power of a volcano.
Because I could see into the depths of the earth, and I even saw some lava down there. It must be super hot inside, and that is where Agunan lives.
“... Master. What did you do?” I heard Agunan ask.
“... what did Brian do?” I asked him.
Agunan simply pointed at something in the volcano, and it took me some time to realize, but there was a golem monster made of lava there. And the monster was holding a large cage that seemingly had someone inside of it.
“... should we save them?” I asked.
“No. Absolutely not.” Agunan said. “Remember when Master told us about miss Cailie’s sister? That mermaid is said sister.”
“Oh?”
“Master did tell me that he made a prison for her inside my volcano, but I didn’t expect this.”
“... then … I guess it isn’t our business. Just … remind me to never betray Brian. He can be quite cruel.”
“He is less cruel than he is letting on.” Agunan said. “Anyone that cannot resist fire couldn’t survive a day in that prison. And from what I recall, Master said that he sealed all of that mermaid's skills. So he must have done something that is keeping her alive, and she doesn’t even seem to be in constant pain.”
“... I guess it isn’t all that bad then.”
“It would still be a terrible fate. She can’t use her skills and she is isolated. No one to talk to, nothing to do. She can’t even hibernate like dragons can. She will just be there, alone and bored, likely also uncomfortable, for the rest of her life. The best part of her day must be when someone brings her food.”
“... okay. Yes. That would be awful.” I agreed. “But she did make many others feel worse.”
“You can feel bad for both parties. Master really should have put her out of her misery.”
After a bit more, Agunan took my hand, before pulling me into his arms. I think Brian calls this a ‘princess carry’.
“Come on. I want to show you my treasures.” He said, before he jumped into the volcano.
I let out an instinctual scream, because while I could stop my fall if I was free to move, I wasn’t. So I had to trust that Agunan wouldn’t dive into the lava or something, because I don’t think I’d come out of a lava bath unharmed.
But Agunan spread his wings and slowed down our fall, and then dove for a cave entrance inside the volcano. Inside the cave wasn’t much, mostly just large piles of dragon scales, but there were some items that looked like they were made by humans.
“... do you like it?” Agunan asked.
“It's … kind of plain and there really isn’t much other than scales.” I answered honestly. “... are all of them from you?”
“No. Those piles.” He pointed at a few piles in one corner of the cave. “Are my scales. The other few are from the adolescent and child dragons that sleep in the caves of my volcano. I’ve asked for a molting of scales from each as payment, and that is what those piles are.”
“... And the other stuff?” I asked.
“Traded my own scales for them. Most of them are from my younger years, when I still liked things like that. Now they are just memories.” Agunan said.
“... actually, I have something I wish to give you.” He said, quickly heading for one of the item piles. He tossed around the stuff, and I was a bit worried that something would break, so I did my best to catch anything that flew too high up, and placed them onto the ground gently.
“Found it!” He called out. He came out with something that looked vaguely wing shaped.
He brought it over and handed it to me.
I instinctively put my hands out, before he plopped the thing onto my arms. It was a bit heavier than I expected, but I managed to not drop it.
…
…
“... aren’t you going to try it on?” Agunan asked after a while.
“... what even is this?” I returned the question.
“Wing armor, for my human form. I got it way back in the day, but I really didn’t like it all that much. But maybe you would.”
“... I guess I can try it on.” I said, as I used Vampiric Body Modification to bring out my wings.
Agunan then helped me to put the armor over them, and it didn’t feel bad. It would protect my wings, but I feel like it is going to reduce their effectiveness and I’ve just barely learned how to fly with them as they are.
“It feels nice, but … I’m not sure I can fly with it on.”
“If you like it, you can keep it.” Agunan said.“Try to put some mana into it.”
I did as ordered, and when I did, the wing armor made a pair of larger fiery wings extend outwards. It looked like I had a pair or large, flaming wings now.
I tried to flap them, and they were much more effective than my regular wings, so I shot off towards the roof of the cave. I was just able to open my wings and bring myself to a stop before I hit the roof.
I then flew a lap around the cave, before landing next to Agunan.
“... Thank you. I really like it. But … are you sure I can keep it?” I asked.
“Yes. As I said, I was never really a big fan. For dragons, our wings are a sign of our power. To cover them is to show that our wings are weak. But your wings. They are frail constructs made by a skill, so I think something like that will be perfect for you.”
“Hey! Don’t call my wings weak!” I demanded.
“If they aren’t weak, prove it.” Agunan said. “Let’s have ourselves a little race. You can wear the armor, as it did seem to help you.”
“You are on!” I agreed.
Naturally, I ended up losing. Despite the fact that Agunan stayed in his human form, which does mean he is slower.
Our flying race also got some attention, so we both got some challenges from the dragons. Luckily Agunan both translated for me, and also denied dragons who can’t or won’t control their power in fights.
So I ended up fighting a few dragons. They weren’t fully grown like Agunan, but even the young dragons are strong. I won against one, but lost against the other two.
Against the adolescent dragons, I didn’t stand a chance. Yet. But I’ll get there.
Because of the slight injuries I got in the fight, Agunan brought me over to a sky dragon that knew how to heal humans. His magic felt quite nice, while also being different from Lua’s healing magic.
By the end of the day, we retired to Agunan’s cave. He was sleeping in his dragon form, while I got out my sleeping back, and took position, sleeping close to the base of his wing.
It was a bit too warm of a sleeping position, but it wasn’t bad in any other way.
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