“What did you do to me?”

Mash glared down at the demon, flexing the strength of the dragon form to pressure the monster. The thing tried to respond, but it was unable to even breathe. Still angry, Mash lessened the pressure but kept his hand around the monster’s neck. His claws slightly dug into the demon’s flesh. Black blood slowly appeared where his claws were.

“When you make an agreement with a demon it is binding for both of us. If either of us breaks the terms then that person will die. So, you can let me go, I need to answer your questions.”

The demon sounded confident. It sounded like it had already won, but Mash didn’t see it that way and continued to hold onto the creature.

“Start talking then. We can work out the letting you go part afterward.”

While replying to the monster, Mash sent Priscilla a different message. He wanted her to work on the contract and try and break it. He hoped that with his anti-magic it was something that they could remove. She sent him confirmation by indicating that she was already working on it. Mash refocused on the demon as it began to explain things. It remained calm, its pride seeming to have returned.

“The reason one world would invade another is conquest. Even you must understand that.”

That was a poor answer, and Mash tightened his hand a little. His voice carried his annoyance at having been baited by the demon.

“I need more. Why would everyone want conquest? I’ve been to several places where the people seem peaceful enough.”

The demon started chuckling, but it broke down into wet coughs. It was looking down on Mash, but he didn’t care as he was more focused on getting the answers that he wanted.

“It's for power. What else could make someone like a world owner so eager? They get stronger by subjugating other worlds. We do as well. Every world raises the power of everyone within that world. Letting them grow stronger than before. Judging by your strength, your world must have conquered many lesser ones. To usurp the power of one of the greater species, your world would need great power.”

Mash didn’t doubt that the demon could tell his form was draconic in nature and had already accepted that they were creatures beyond this conquest it was talking about. It reaffirmed his desire to become more like those legendary beings. The way the demon phrased it, there were likely other monsters that could rival the dragons. Mash pushed for more, but in a slightly different direction.

“How do you know?”

While the demon didn’t seem like it was lying, Mash wanted to know how it knew so much about dungeons and world owners. Had it met a world owner in the same way that he had?

“The demon lord, our world owner, has shared with us that information. It is basic.”

The demon went on to praise his lord, but Mash tuned out most of it. He was thinking more about the implications of what the creature had said. It sounded like their world owner was a well-known entity, and their lord no less. His world’s owner seemed unknown, and no one he had met seemed like they even knew that they existed. Assuming the demon had no reason to lie, Mash wondered why his world’s owner was unknown, or why the reason behind conquering dungeons was kept under wraps.

As he thought about the matter, he came up with a few reasons for the secrecy. His people weren’t inherently cruel. Or at least, he didn’t think they would be if the class system didn’t exist. The world owner probably knew that too. Was the system designed to make people crave power? If that was the case, it was certainly effective as it had worked on him pretty well. He might be trying to resist it now, but that was mostly just because of the strange events he had experienced. That and the earrings. They had shown him everything that influenced him and how much freedom he was missing out on.

Just from the little bit of information the demon provided, Mash could feel pieces of his theories slotting together. He understood why more dungeons were appearing now, and why he had felt like they had been growing more quickly. Their world had probably conquered another or perhaps many others. The dungeons that were appearing could be parts of those worlds, and some probably were. Some would be new conquests, but perhaps their world had just finished conquering a few. Mash didn’t know who it did, but the extremely high-level people probably completed dungeons single-handedly. If the world was being filled with new power, it would explain why they had been finding it so much easier to level. He should check if other people had been experiencing the same thing. Niviss had gained levels quickly too, and now that he thought about it, his brother had leveled quite fast.

He was shaken from his thoughts as the demon finished speaking. It looked toward Mash, seeming to realize that he hadn’t been listening. It was only partially true. He had learned a bit about their world owner, and the kind of power he supposedly possessed. From the description, he didn’t seem much stronger than the king had been. Certainly, the demon lord wasn’t weak, but he didn’t sound that strong either. Although, Mash suspected that there was more to a world’s owner power than the demon here could understand. Despite having the ability to transform into a dragon, he didn’t understand a fraction of what made them so powerful. Just raw physical and magical power wouldn’t be enough to understand their real abilities.

The demon probably had more information to share, but Mash didn’t want to waste any more time interrogating it. This whole situation left a bad taste in his mouth and released the demon from his grip. It didn’t hesitate and leapt backward trying to get back through its portal. Mash didn’t hesitate either and held his hand toward the demon. Mash closed the distance in an instant, plunging a wooden stake into the demon’s chest while pushing it through the portal. His stake was as thick as his arm and cut right into the demon’s flesh. Blood splattered as he did so. The demon screamed in agony and anger, attempting to strike back at Mash pointlessly. It was too late, and Mash fired lighting through the stake for good measure.

The screams cut off as the demon passed into the portal. Mash didn’t know if the demon would die from the attack or not, but from his understanding of the species, he expected that another demon would finish it off. The portal closed, but his prediction was proven true as he felt a rush of power. It quickly dissipated as he still hadn’t advanced. Well, at least he felt the contract thing end, and Priscilla told him that much as well. She was also angry that he didn’t give her the time to break it properly. According to her, she was getting close, but his solution seemed much better to him.

Either way that was dealt with, and he prepared for the next monster’s entrance. His plan would be to capture it as well and recover some of the energy from maintaining his dragon form for such a long period of time. Thankfully, there wasn’t much actual fighting, so he still had some energy to expend for this next monster.

What he didn’t expect to step through was a dragon. A blue scaled head started appearing from the portal, and Mash raised his hands defensively. If it was a dragon, he needed to be prepared to flee. There was a chance for peace though considering that he was still in his dragon form.

Although, he realized that it wasn’t a dragon. As the monster fully stepped through the portal, he could tell that it was a wyvern. That was good because he stood no chance against a dragon. Honestly, he wasn’t so sure about his chances against a wyvern either. He could tell it was a wyvern because its mouth was shaped more like a beak and its wings were connected to its arms. Those were the major differences between dragons. The chicken-like talons on its feet were a little surprising though. The creature was easily twice as tall as he was, and it stared down at him before letting out a roar. The power the creature was radiating was no joke. It probably wasn’t a lesser wyvern. Killing a wyvern was something legends were made of.

Mash considered fleeing as his portal was still available to him but stopped when he realized that he understood what the wyvern saying. The monstrous roar was just a casual greeting.

“Greeting’s champion.”

The voice was on the feminine side, and Mash managed to keep the shock from his face. Was the item he had letting him speak to any intelligent species? He assumed it would only work with humanoids, though he realized that there was no basis for that assumption. As he thought about it, he realized he could understand some of the emotions from all of the monsters he had fought so far. Was that just how the item worked or was it due to his strange body? He would need to check with the others when he saw them next.

“Hello, uh, champion?”

Mash phrased his words more as a question than anything else. The wyvern seemed to accept the greeting though. Mash let his shoulder relax a little and thought that he might not need to fight the wyvern. However, those hopes were crushed as it narrowed its eyes. The monster’s eyes were like red gems, and Mash couldn’t see anything like a pupil in them. The monster's next roar conveyed its thoughts.

“Let us fight! Your body will provide me great power.”

Lightning started bouncing around the creature, as it charged at him. Mash was quickly learning that most species seemed inclined to violence. The wyvern opened its mouth, and a blast of lightning was released toward him. Mash jumped straight towards the wyvern. Lightning wouldn’t be able to do much to him. His overconfidence was a mistake, as the lightning struck him and sent him flying back like a thrown rock. Mash crashed into the wall, lightning buzzing about his body and stunning him.

The lightning was a lot stronger than he expected. While his scales were mostly undamaged, he felt pain across his body. It felt like the lightning had targeted his nerves, and pain surged from within his body. Mash started pouring energy into his earrings and necklace, trying to lessen the pain as much as he could. He wasn’t given much time to rest, as a talon crashed into his chest. His scales held better than his bones, and he felt his ribs crack from the blow. Lightning was released from the wyvern’s foot as it pushed off of him and surged into the air. The lightning seemed solid, pinning him to the ground.

Focusing on his anti-magic, Mash managed to break the lightning around him. It fizzled out, as he rose into the air. The Wyvern was strong, but he had yet to see what its defenses would be like. The wyvern zipped away, moving faster than Mash could. The arena was large, and neither of them had any trouble flying inside. The problem was that Mash was actually slower than the Wyvern. That surprised him. His dragon form had usually just made him physically better than just about any opponent, so this was a change of pace. Actually, being slower than another creature was making the chase pointless. Instead, Mash decided to use his own lightning to fire back at the wyvern.

Mash charged his lightning carefully, however, I released it without aiming at a specific target. He just wanted to hit everything in front of him. The wyvern stopped, turning to face him as he let out his attack. The whole arena seemed to flash a blinding white for a second, but he could see despite the light. That allowed him to see as the wyvern caught the nearby strands of lightning and somehow turn it back towards Mash. This all happened far faster than he could ever hope to react. The lightning struck Mash in the chest his own power, leaving burns over his scales as he fell from the sky.