At times, Rohan was grateful for being born as a noble. He couldn’t imagine being dirt poor in this era where everything was an inconvenience. The soul from a different world had no doubt he would fall into depression if not for his status as the son of Lord of Brightfort. One of the things that made him grateful was the freshly squeezed juice in the dining hall and what was in front of him wasn’t a fresh squeeze.

“Thanks,” Rohan said, unsure. Nodding at the waitress for his order of apple juice. It was an unusual thing to order in a tavern, but in Rohan’s book, it was a bit too early for drinks. Nonetheless, the local brew wasn’t any better unless it was cold and icy. How he wished right now he picked the mage class and perhaps gained access to an ice element skill. That would definitely put a smile on his face.

“You need some company?” a sultry voice drew Rohan’s eyes. A woman stood before him with tits spilling out to the sides from the loose dress she wore. She blew smoke from her thin lips as her hand held a long narrow smoking pipe, eying Rohan with her eyes decorated with thick eyeliners.

‘Ah, yes, the local whore,’ Rohan thought. He flashed his business-like smile and rejected the advance of this daring lady. He heard a dissatisfied harrumph as she left, swaying her hips left and right. Rohan glanced for a while taking in the sight of those bountiful hips, but he knew better not to touch it. One of the things that he kept in mind was not to get involved with potential factors that would make him suffer through the rest of his life. And STDs were one of them. He never had one before but from a past acquaintance’s experience, he could say it was Hell. In the absence of modern medicine, that kind of Hell was even worse.

The door to the tavern swung open and a person clad in a cloak entered his line of sight. The cowl covered the upper half of this person’s face yet Rohan knew who it was just from that height alone. The cloaked figure drew closer to the counter and Rohan made his move. He slid right beside the person and leaned on the countertop. Before he could say a word, a voice cut him off.

“For the thousand times, you’ll not fuck me,” the cloaked figure turned and revealed her green eyes at the grinning Rohan. Her glare was fierce like a tigress eying its prey.

She beckoned the tavern owner to hurry on the order as she turned her head away from the staring eyes of Rohan.

“Ouch,” Rohan said. “I’m not that of a pervert, you know?”

“Says the man who kept begging me for my hole,” the woman said.

“It’s not begging, it’s called flirting,” Rohan defended himself. He wasn’t the type to simp much less beg for sex.

“Well your wooing is like a pansy,” she faced Rohan for a brief second just to show her smirk. “And I doubt there’s a rod down there and more like a needle.”

Rohan narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Today this woman really let her lips go loose. “Vulgar as always,” Rohan said.

“You’ve got a problem with that?” she glared at him as if his words were more offensive than hers.

“On the contrary, I think I’m falling in love,” Rohan grinned, winking at her.

There was a deadness in her eyes. Out of a sudden, she opened her mouth and shoved her own fingers down her throat.

“What are you doing?” Rohan asked.

She stopped and replied with the flattest tone of hers. “I’m trying to puke over that man-clit comment of yours.”

“Wow, you never cease to amaze me,” Rohan said.

“Don’t get used to it,” she stood up from the barstool and her height went down a couple of inches. She grabbed her order and stashed it inside her hand-woven basket. Without a second to waste, the short woman left Rohan by the counter and made her way to the tavern entrance.

Rohan shook his head as the woman was sassy like always. He took a chug out of that juice he ordered and he frowned. Bad was an understatement. He left the tavern. The young man chased after her outside and blocked her path going forward.

“Step aside if you still want your balls intact,” she meant her word.

“I need your help, Vhaerla,” Rohan said.

“Why do I—”

“You owe me a debt,” Rohan smirked.

Vhaerla sighed with her hands on her hip. “I don’t know how am I going to get through that thick skull of yours, but I’m not going to satisfy your horniness with my body,” Vhaerla made it clear.

“It’s not that,” Rohan said. “I really need your help here . . . you and your winged friend.”

She narrowed her eyes, trying to see through that shameless Rohan. “Is this one of your tricks?” she asked. “If it is I’m—”

“It’s not. Lord Dunmer himself requests your assistance and your work will be handsomely paid in gol,” Rohan said with the sternest of voice.

“Gol? Not sil or bron, but gol?” Vhaerla asked as a hint of excitement bloomed in her. Yet that fire died down replaced with a frown. “Wait, you told them about me?” It seemed the knowledge of her existence was much more precious than valuable coins.

“Of course not, but I did tell them about Mcvey Scale and his dragon,” Rohan snickered.

“Then that’s me you idiot,” her hand went for a wide swing and Rohan easily dodged it. She almost stumble and Rohan held her by the waist. It was a pity his hand didn’t grab an accidental boob.

“Get off of me,” she lashed out and, refusing the kind gesture. Her eyes continued to glare and if it could kill she would do so a long time ago.

“I thought you hated that name, and come on, it’s a good deal, Vhaerla . . . It’s not like anyone know the real Mcvey Scale is standing right in front of—” a hand went over Rohan’s lips as Vhaerla stopped him from saying else.

“Are you crazy? You’re talking so loud people could hear you,” Vhaerla whispered as her eyes darted around the vicinity. “Do you really want me to get killed or something?” She pressed her body over to Rohan as her eyes glared up to Rohan’s grey jewels. She was shorter than him by a head, five feet one or five feet two at most.

“Wait, are you smiling?” even with his lips out of sight, Vhaerla could see it from those eyes of Rohan. She realized a bit later that her breasts were pressing against the young man. Her face flushed and she pushed him away while at the same time swinging her leg up high. The end of her boot kicked Rohan in the crotch and the man knelt.

“Fuck, that kinda hurt,” Rohan mumbled under his breath. Despite the rise in defense, he still felt it in the nuts. But unknown to him, the damage inflicted had been considerably lessened.

“Get on your feet, we’re leaving,” Vhaerla said. Her eyes never stop glancing at the road, at the people, and at every tight corner. She aided Rohan on his feet and shouldered him further away from Shamrock Town.

They dove in the woods further away from the cradle of civilization. It wasn’t a short track through the greens but not that far to be called a long track. They reached their intended destination, a huge waterfall that flowed through the small river of Anon and continued until it flowed back to the Great River of Rene.

“Still can’t believe you like living here,” Rohan said. Staring at the majestic waterfall with the loud thunder of water falling.

Vhaerla took a quick scan at Rohan who was perfectly fine and still latching on to her. She pushed him away as the glare was like a common thing to her. Pressing her lips together, she whistled a tune. The piercing sound fought against the booming waterfall and then a shadow emerged from behind the waterfall. It flew upwards like an eagle taking flight. It spread its wing in the sky, bathing itself in the glory of the sun. It folded its wing and dove like a speeding peregrine falcon, and yet before it could plummet through the ground the wings spread apart and it floated for a few seconds before planting its claw feet on the ground. Right there in the flesh, a wyvern was in front of Rohan.

“Hell of an entrance,” Rohan said.

The wyvern snuggled its head at Vhaerla as the size difference was like a stallion to a child and reality wasn’t far from it. She patted the wyvern by the head like it was your usual house dog. Then she scratched it vigorously under its jaw and its tail wagged in response, showing it was pleased.

“Is Mcvey getting bigger?” Rohan asked.

A glare came piercing right at him. “Stop calling him that. He’s not Mcvey, he’s Makvreiss. Show some respect as the name once belonged to a dragon that braved through a hundred wars,” said the overprotective mother of wyvern.

“So what is it? What kind of job that even the honorable Lord of Elad needs the assistance of a guildsman?” Vhaerla asked.

“Don’t you mean the honorable thief?” Rohan teased her.

“I am not a thief!” she defended her reputation, stomping her leg on the spot. Makvreiss looked over to Rohan with its slit yellow eyes. Its razor-sharp fangs unraveled a bit as the creature showed it was there for Vhaerla. “I just took back what’s not theirs,” she claimed casually.

Rohan just chuckled. The wyvern woman didn’t change at all even the slightest bit. “Have you felt any earthquake these days?” Rohan asked.

“Earth, quake?”

“The ground rumbling, shaking, things like that,” Rohan explained.

“Not a clue . . . In the day I’m mostly in the skies running errands,” Vhaerla said. “But I did see something odd though.”

“What is it?” Rohan drew closer. The guttural growl of the wyvern echoed as it sensed the approaching male.

“Come on, Mcvey, we’ve met before,” he said, trying to ease the lizard with wings.

“Down, Makvreiss,” Vhaerla ushered her wyvern to stand down and thankfully he complied. “North of here, I spot a tower that shouldn’t be there. Through my days of living here, I’ve never seen or noticed a tower like that before.”

“Good, then you know what your job is,” Rohan said, smiling. Rohan summarized to her what he had been through in the first dungeon. He explained to her the phenomenon of this tower and what it signified. Her task was scouting for these structures and marking them all on the map. The sooner she covered most of the land of Elad, the better her reward would be.

“Is this a prank?” yet our maiden here had a hard time believing that these towers hosted monsters of unknown ferocity. While Rohan didn’t exactly explain everything that included the power that would be given.

“I’m being serious here, Vhaerla, can we get on with the job?” Rohan said.

She was caught off guard by the change in Rohan’s aura. His voice, his body, his eyes, everything pointed him in being serious and not joking like he used to do.

“Fine, I’ll come back to you when I’m—”

“No, I’m coming along,” he cut her off. As then he was met with a frown from Vhaerla.

“Makvreiss will bite your head off if you even try touching one of its scales,” Vhaerla warned. “You know well he doesn’t like you after that last stunt you pull off when we’re up in the air.”

“What? I tried being a dragon knight, and throwing a lance is one of those things that makes one a true dragon knight,” Rohan explained.

“You hit Makvreiss on his tail, and I can’t even fathom how it was even possible to do that,” she said.

“Then be a good dragon mother and bribes him with something . . . What does he like? A goat? A bull? Or perhaps a barrel of ale?” Rohan gave his one-two advice. “And we also need to get up into air fast, time is ticking, Vhaerla.”

Rohan stood by the side waiting. He peeked every now and then at Vhaerla as she whispered something close to Makvreiss’s ear. Not like he knew where it was as he just assumed the ear was somewhere around those numerous scales.

“It’s done,” Vhaerla said. “Just don’t do anything stupid up there, Rohan.”

Rohan nodded to her warning and after saying hi to the grumpy wyvern, the young lord sat on the saddle with Vhaerla at the front. He could feel Vhaerla’s ass rubbing against his crotch as he kinda missed that feeling after that flight ban imposed on him.

“Ow,” he yelped. He turned and found the end of the wyvern’s tail that had smacked him right at the back of his head. He glared at Makvreiss and he swore that overgrown lizard just smirked at him. ‘One day I will end you,’ Rohan mouthed silently at Makvreiss as if the creature could understand him.

“What’s going on?” Vhaerla asked, oblivious to what happened.

“Nothing,” Rohan replied, flashing a smile. “Shall we go then?” His hands naturally wrapped around Vhaerla’s waist and held it tight.

“Don’t get any ideas, Rohan,” she warned, leering at him. He nodded. Then the huge wings flapped.

Soaring in the sky, Rohan felt the strong wind against his skin. Yet unlike before, the higher defense provided quite a lot of comfort in his present ride. Usually, the wind would be slapping at him if he didn’t cover himself with a mask, but now it wasn’t a problem.

“Are you fine?” Vhaerla asked. Her whole face was shrouded in thick fabric with only a slit showcasing her green eyes.

“I’m a-okay!” Rohan shouted through the wind. “Hey! would you mind flying slower? I need to mark it on the map!”

Vhaerla controlled her wyvern and the speed went into an effortless glide. They covered the known ones first from Vhaerla’s previous sighting. Later on, they flew further in the skies above Elad, searching for more weird-looking buildings.

“Lend me your far-sight,” Rohan asked.

Vhaerla picked something from the bag hanging on her saddle and handed him over something cylindrical.

The young lord looked through the lens and the view came clearer. It was a telescope. And despite the lower quality of it compared to the modern one, it was still useful.

‘Wait, is that tower glowing?’ a sense of foreboding swept his mind. After mapping these towers, he came to realize that none of them had ever acted like the one he was seeing right now. It pained him to do this as throwing himself to danger was unlike him. Yet for some reason he had to know. “Take me down there,” he said.

The wyvern landed close to the tower and Rohan jumped without a care of the height between the saddle to the ground. Vhaerla was alarmed and shouted, “watch out!”

Yet Rohan landed like stepping down from a single step of the stairs. He pumped his legs and he flashed right towards the glowing giant door. It opened on its own as if detecting the presence of Rohan. There he saw the inside of the dungeon. A vast swampland subtly covered in mist.

“Rohan! You sure that’s safe?” Vhaerla asked as she finally took her step on the ground.

Rohan ignored the word of reason and pulled himself closer to the gate. His hand reached out to the shimmering barrier and as he touched it, the screen appeared. But this time it was different and his eyes went wide.

[1.5-Star Dungeon]

[31:45]

[Would you like to enter?]

It wasn’t there before, and now it was. Time was ticking, and the worst-case scenario fell on his lap. A dungeon break was coming.