"Just once, Dropper. Please!"

"Master gave us very specific instructions."

"But... but... what if I do it while we're retreating. You know. Like a warning shot to make it back off. That'd be acceptable, right?"

Light has been trying to talk Dropper into attacking the monster that has taken root next to Abi's city. Not that he wants to disobey his master's orders, he just wants to test his strength against a Dragon. Obviously he doesn't share the same panic that Abi felt when the creature first made its appearance above Varona.

"Only once?" Dropper asks.

"Only once!" Her partner nods furiously.

"And if you fail? What if you enrage the Dragon? How will you take responsibility for it?"

"I'll, er... I'll draw it away myself. That's right. That should be good enough, right?"

Light clasps his hands together and pleads to his partner.

'Definitely spending too much time with Noir,' she thinks while considering his proposal. Light is extremely capable, more so than most, in fact, and if he's willing to retreat she can't really complain.

"Fine. But if you fail, I will tell Master that the blame is solely yours." She says as they push their way through the overgrowth. Today marks the first time that anyone has set foot on Abi's mountain since she became a Dungeon Core, evident by the hardly navigable jungle. Trees with bark as dark as Barry cluster together and offer little space for the Assassins to make progress.

"Yes! That's fine. That means the credit will be all mine too, right?" Shadow Stepping past an otherwise uncrossable patch of trees, Light bursts out into a cheesy grin.

"No. That we will share." Appearing next to him, Dropper crushes his spirit with five little words.

"What? Why? That's not fair..."

"Shh." She holds a finger up to her partner and he stops talking immediately. Light is always one for jokes, but Dropper knows she can count on him to be serious if and when needed.

As they listen they can hear breathing coming from behind the next cluster of pitch-black trees. Without wasting any time they make their way through to the area that the Dragon has dug out for itself, only to find it sleeping.

"Er, we gotta wake it up right?"

"Of course we do. The problem is how should we go about it?" Dropper thinks for a second before Light offers a suggestion.

"Shouldn't we just shout out to it?"

"Wouldn't that be a little rude?"

"Not as rude as going over and prodding it."

"True, but what if..." before they can continue the Dragons eyes shoot open. Red irises lock on to the two Assassins who instantly start panicking as they haven't discussed what they should say to the creature yet.

Breathing out a breath of fire that melts the trees, the earth and everything else it touches, the Dragon leaps out of its burrow toward the two separating threats that have awoken it.

"What do we do now?" Light shouts, disappearing into a shadow to avoid the Dragon's tail swinging his way. Dropper appears next to him, Shadow Stepping herself out of the way of the monster's incoming claws.

"I don't know. We should have planned this first." She responds without thinking. Dropper's panic isn't due to the monster spinning around and blowing flames. She's panicking because she doesn't want to disappoint her master.

"Oi! Stop! We don't want to fight you!" Her shouts don't go unnoticed and instead give their position away. The Dragon stops breathing flames and turns to face them. It looks as though the monster possesses intelligence behind her eyes and for a split second, Dropper thought she got through to the creature.

Until she unleashed a roar and charged at the pair aiming to bisect one with her claw and eat the other. The Dragon found neither though as they both sunk into the shadows beneath them and she crashed into the forest wall instead.

"Can we retreat now? She's not listening." Light asks from the opposite side of the clearing to the Dragon.

"I suppose so. I doubt Master will be happy with this." Dropper lets out a sigh from next to her partner who starts jumping up and down on the spot from excitement.

"Ok. One attack. Which one do I choose? Also if I killed the Dragon, then Master will be happy that it won't destroy the town too. Right, Drop?"

Another sigh and another "I suppose so."

The two begin their retreat with a Dragon in pursuit. Less than three hundred meters down the mountain and Light has decided which attack to go with.

As they dodge the heavy foliage leaping over rocks and fallen trunks on their way, Light jumps into the air with a quick spin and releases the tier 4 skill Shadow Spear.

The arrow of darkness pierces through the monster's body and it crashes into the mountain floor with an unholy shriek. Subsequently, when the noise subsided the monster didn't move again.

"Well that solves that. We can just teleport back now. I can't wait to tell Noir about this!"

"Right... First we have to report to Master though." Dropper looks at the corpse of the Black Dragon as it slowly begins to sink into the mountain floor, absorbed by the dungeon. "Why was Master so worried about that Dragon I wonder?"

With that, Light and Dropper teleport to the base of the mountain and return to Abi and Anya.

Dungeon Stories Volume 3

After listening to my Assassins' story, I didn't know what to say. How did I forget that these two, good as they may be, were a constant source of frustration back in my beginning weeks. They are also to credit for the majority of my exp as well, but that still wasn't without its frustrations.

How?

Just... how?

It was a Dragon!

The Defiler, fine. The Troll, ok. Even the Elf I can get behind. But how the hell did he fell a Dragon with one attack!?

It shouldn't be possible. Or so logic dictates. But then, when does that ever happen around here? Logic is a word that doesn't even exist in the Varonian dictionary, apparently. The part about Dragons summoned by me causing calm to all who see them proves that fact hands down.

Again, how?

I stop debating the better qualities of what should and shouldn't be possible as Anya, Light and Dropper are all staring in my direction, waiting for me to say something.

"Er... Good work?"

I mean the city is safe now, so yeah. Good work!

"Anya, come here." Stupefied by my words, the Rainbow Mage puts up no resistance as I grab her hand and run down the closest alley. Out of sight I teleport us to my tower on top of the Academy for Dark Arts.

I wonder if the name will become more rounded after an upgrade. I mean, we do teach more than just dark magic here after all.

Flopping down next to the gang of cute and cuddlies, Anya is still looking at me as though she is waiting for a proper explanation. Which is fair enough. It's not like she received the same notifications I do.

"What they said is true. Light killed the Dragon and I absorbed it. I can summon Black Dragons now with the bonus effect that people who see them feel calm and peaceful."

It's funny watching my friend as her face cycles through many different emotions. Even though I kept it short and sweet, not a single piece of that information was easy to digest. Hell, it wasn't even easy to say.

"What do you mean by peaceful Dragons?" Is the first question she arrives at.

"I'm not too sure to be honest. One sec..." Looking down on the masses, quite a few of them are still hyped up over what they thought was an inevitable death so I summon a Black Dragon to see how well they can manage the peace.

Anya didn't seem very happy at first to see the monster materialize above the tower. After a second though she didn't appear frightened of the creature and had in fact calmed down quite fast.

Wow. That was easy.

Not only has my bestie relaxed significantly, but the noise from below has also quietened down. In fact it's almost ceased completely and the only sounds I can hear now are a few "ohh's" and "arr's."

Seriously!

It's a Dragon. How is that even possible?

Anya hasn't said a word yet as instead is still captivated by the would-be predator's magnificent glory. Not that I can fault my friend for knowing beauty when she sees it. From close up, the Black Dragon is even more beautiful than I had imagined.

Her scales glisten in the midday sun, dark black with a tint of red hidden inside. Only as I'm looking at her do I realise that she's also looking back at me. Intelligence is clear in her eyes as she knows I'm the one who summoned her.

'Master,' she communicates and bows her head to me.

Definitely intelligent. No doubt about it.

"Hi," I wave at the Dragon for some reason. Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking. The look Anya is giving me makes me want to laugh though.

"So, er..." obviously I didn't think this through.

Shit.

"For now, you can make a nest, or a lair, anywhere you want on my mountain," I pointed to the multicolored spectacle behind her. "Sorry if that's insensitive. I'm not sure what Dragons call their home, but you're more than welcome to make one up there. Also, your job will be to patrol the sky. You will be the eyes in the sky protecting the dungeon and the city."

'Yes Master. I will do as you command.'

"You don't need to be so formal. You're part of the family now so don't worry about it."

'In that case, may I make a request?'

"Sure."

'Can I transform so that I may match your own height. I feel slightly uncomfortable being above you like this.'

Transform? Like... into a cute and adorable little Dragon? Fuck yeah you can. In fact, I implore you to do so right now. I won't take anything less.

"Absolutely," I reply, cool as winter's evening.

'Thank you, Master.' The Black Dragon begins to glow before she starts to shrink. I can barely contain my excitement as Anya watches on in shocked silence.

To my dismay, I don't end up with a cute-little Dragon, but instead a gorgeous loli. She has black hair and bright red cheeks and is smiling more than Light when he came back from killing the source of her summoning material.

What the hell? Where's my adorable little Dragon that I can carry around in my arms? And why have I got what looks like a ten-year old girl instead? Why is fate so cruel?

Noticing that I look rather down, Anya puts her hand on my shoulder. She still doesn't seem to have anything to say and instead is staring at the small child now sitting on my futon playing with Dire Wolf.

We watch as the Dragon loli rolls around on my futon, wrestling with stuffed animals as she does so. In a way it's extremely adorable. Too cute in fact, if you can forget she's a nation ending disaster underneath that bundle of gorgeousness. As I'm trying to process how crazy this whole situation is, our latest family member suddenly remembers where she is and her eyes lock into mine.

"My Master. This one is ever so sorry. This form is... very hard to control, but I couldn't bear to be above you. Also what is this?" Her eyes sparkle as she thrusts a white unicorn teddy in front of my arms. "It looks delicious!"

Erm...

Anya? Help?

The rainbow mage is looking at me as though I have all the answers, which implies that she isn't going to be of any help whatsoever and demonstrates that by waving her arms in an exaggerated manner.

Thanks, Anya. Thanks. Well, I suppose a trip to Ali's is on the menu. Wait...

Were the townsfolk still watching when she transformed? There's no way someone didn't catch that happening. A closer inspection shows that everyone has calmed down and daily life has resumed throughout Varona.

Huh? Peaceful Dragons, eh?

I could get used to that.

"Ok, you two. To Ali's!"