Despite the battle having just ended, we were already forced back to work. - raising up a camp, securing corridors to allow our supplies a safe passage, and taking care of wounded and dead. Only once we finished all of these tasks were the other knights allowed to rest.

Yes, you heard me right. Other knights.

Captain Godric very roughly dragged me out to the center of the newly erected camp, in front of everyone, before rebuking me loudly.

“Alabaster. You violated the orders and left formation, weakening the line and risking the lives of your comrades for the sake of executing a risky tactic which had low chances of succeeding. Only because your plan succeeded shall you not face any harsher consequences… Still, a punishment must be delivered. Alabaster, half of your quest’s rewards shall be taken by the House, also, for the next few hours, scavengers are temporarily re-established… with you as its only member. I think you know what this means?”

That we are in the chamber with the dragon's corpse ready for harvesting, and it will be my sole task to gather each and every piece of it, all by myself.

“Sir, yes, Sir.” I answered, lowering my head.

He did tell me that he would be forced to emphasize the consequences of my actions for the sake of maintaining hierarchy within the group. For now, I was merely the cadet. If someone like me became encouraged to ‘fight however he pleased’ during the raid, the possible future consequences could be disastrous.

“And you better remember - you are part of the team! Soon to be part of the House. We fight side by side, we fall side by side. Absolute trust in your comrades is something that distinguishes us from other guilds. Where one Lion falls, the silver capes start their dance… Now, begin, if you finish your task quickly, then maybe you’ll manage to catch an hour or two of sleep before our departure.”

He was already more than just lenient by just punishing me with a cut in finances - for which I had barely any use for as all my gear was provided by the House, and by assigning additional work and lack of rest, which I also didn’t mind as I could keep on going for days without noticing even sliver or fatigue. Captain was truly a wonderful man and a great leader, truly caring for those serving under him, regardless if they were humans or… undead.

Godric turned around, making his cape flap in the air like wings of a bird, heading towards the commander’s tent, the rest of the officers quickly followed him, leaving only regular knights all around me.

And, then, in perfect unison, without a single word or order, the other Lions dropped everything that they were holding, grabbed tools, and stormed the dragon’s corpse, digging under the dragon’s scales, separating them from its body. Naturally, I was very taken aback.

“W-what is the meaning of this?” I asked Agnes, who was just walking past me with two other knights, ready to help in harvesting “Hm? Oh, it’s our own small tradition. See, it’s like this, you can easily tell when officers are actually mad and want you to get punished and when they are just playing around for the sake of ‘maintaining order among knights’. For example, if you really-really fucked up, you would be kicked out, if you ‘just fucked up’ you would have some long punishment supervised by a few officers, so they could make sure that you have learned your lesson… And then there are times like this when they just say a few harsh things, deliver punishment, and then leave right away. That is their way of saying - I am legally obliged to punish you, but if it was up to me, then for the thing you just did I would let you marry my daughter. Now, come on, the dragon is huge, and harvesting their scales is one hell of an annoying job.” she answered me, grinning from ear to ear.

Still not fully believing in what I was seeing, I started moving towards the corpse, already surrounded from all sides by dozens of adventurers, as I was getting closer, some of them patted my shoulders or dropped a few nice words.

“That was insane… Literally insane, you are crazy, man, but the good type of crazy!” one of the duelists chuckled. “You used a spell back then, right? Never seen it before, would you mind teaching it to me once we return? It seemed really convenient.” a man in mage robes followed. “Before the raid, I bet quite a sum that it would be Agnes acting all wild and crazy during the boss fight, but you sir have outcrazed her crazy. Made me lose quite a sum, but, to be honest? I regret nothing. That was great, champ.” some shield bearer yelled, passing me with a comically large claw he had managed to carve out of one of the limbs.

This was… nice.

Really, really nice. After my last few rather upsetting experiences with the Lions, this was something that once again made me remember why I adored this Order as a child. In the end, their sense of unity was legendary - well known among the citizens of Londern.

Scales started falling onto the ground next to the body, just to be quickly picked up by a waiting line of adventurers, taking them away, cleaning, and ultimately storing them nicely in a corner of the camp.

Then the time came for it’s “soft tissues” - tendons and organs.

“Careful with the heart! It’s a very rare, very pricy alchemy reage… What in heaven's name…” one of the mages gasped as soon as the mentioned organ was taken out of the corpse's rib cage.

The heart was still beating. Not only that, there was something growing all around it - plants. The heart was ‘locked’ within a cage of vines and wood, with just enough room to fully expand every beat, not pressing on the cage’s wall.

“Mutation, just like in case of most previous monsters…” he mumbled to himself “... heart is also purple, instead of red, probably injecting the same weird substance, but this time directly into the bloodstream instead of its intended tissue… We will need to take blood samples.”

Almost no part of the dragon was left, even bones were harvested. Everything was done in less than two hours, leaving us almost the entire day to rest and rejoice before we would have to dive deeper into the dungeon.

At the other end of the cave the stairway waited. Almost glowing ominously.

Inviting us deeper within.

In the meantime, low, very low, at the deepest floor of the dungeon, in the last room, a huge semi-humanoid lizard creature rested, meditating under a tall, black oak. The Mother of Cold Ones whimpered, sensing one of her most precious childs having just died.

“Why…” it hissed in non-human-speech while looking at the tree “... You promised me power! You promised me that…” “...That I will grant you and your children strength that normally would take you decades, if not centuries, to achieve…” a human stepped out from the tree’s shadow “... tell me, Mother of Cold Ones, did I lie? I gave your children magic. I planted the Black Oak in your den, so you could feast on its sap.” “...But humans… Hated humans killed my sons and daughters! Again!” “And how many did they kill back? Look at the numbers, little mother. How many humans died on the very first floor of your lair in the past three days? Ten? Almost ten? Compared to one or two from last year, I would say that’s quite some progress.”

A man in rags smiled, looking at the scaled creature with amusement, but also pity.

“It is not enough!” the creature roared. “I am already interfering more than I should. I can only give you tools, it is up to you how you use them!... But, maybe I overestimated you? In the end, once a monster - always a monster. You could do so many things with everything I granted you, and instead, like a savage you are, you pumped everything into making things bigger and stronger… Such a vulgar use of my powers…” Zariel shook his head to the side “... maybe, I should just take em’ away from you? Grant them to someone else, someone more deserving?” “NO! Please! I beg you! Don’t!” she dropped on her knees, lowering her head “... mighty God of Beasts! Please, have mercy!” “Mercy? Now, you must be joking. It wasn’t mercy nor pity that brought me to you. No. We have a deal, and now I am very, very curious if you are going to meet your end of the bargain. Now, how is it doing?”

The Mother looked towards the bottom of the tree, there under its roots, a single egg remained still.

“J-just a couple more days! Two or three, that’s all it takes to…”

The God in Rags leaned forward, appraising the quality of his prize, before smiling and nodding his head, pleased with what he saw.

“Magnificent. This surely will be your greatest offspring. I am more than happy with your work, Hirsia.” “T-then… I have been wondering if…”

The man chuckled.

“Greedy one, aren’t you? Well… give me a moment…”

Before him, a game board was visualized alongside character sheets, dice, pawns, and other game elements.

“I think that I can indeed waste one more action token on you…” he mumbled more to himself than to the lizard-creature “... very well. Ask” “My children! I need more children! My daughter's eggs have been smashed! The new generation won’t manage to hatch! They will kill them all! My babies!” “So… all you need is to accelerate the time of incubation? Lucky for you, time is my specialty.”

The God known as the Beast in Black approached a pile of nicely stacked eggs, bit his finger, and dripped the smallest amount of blood over them.

“I did what you wanted to, now I need to leave, I can’t exist in this realm much longer. I will be back in three days. Hirsia, protect this egg. In this entire dungeon, almost nothing matters to me more than it.”

The man turned, white hair moving and shifting without any apparent wind, and started walking towards the chamber exit, though, he never really reached them - on his way, he was turning into smoke, dispersing into the air, and after several steps, only the sweet smell of grass and honey betrayed that he had ever been there, to begin with.