Unsure of how I should attack a dragon, I approached it cautiously, step after step.

I found myself standing stiff behind the dragon, and only then did I notice a large, deep cut on its tail.

What if I drink a dragon’s blood?

A random thought invaded my anxious mind, and as stupid as it occured to me, I still took the initiative to grab the cup from my cloak.

What if…

I gently placed the cup under the dragon’s tail to make sure there was no sound to be made.

*gulp*

I drank its blood, and in return, power surged within me.

I tried holding myself back from making any noise, but I couldn’t resist.

I shook, trembling at my new power.

“Ugh…” I grunted under my breath.

Thankfully, the dragon didn’t move an inch.

I walked around, grasping at my throbbing chest, looking for an exit, and there it was.

A wooden door behind the dragon.

I made a quick, but silent, haste outside. Well, it wasn’t really outside. I found myself in a dark room with a spiraling staircase ahead of me.

I made my way up the steps, and although it took me a long while, I could finally see a little light just above me through thin cracks.

I struggled and grunted as I pushed and pushed against the rock blocking me from the outside.

Wow!

I covered my eyes from the blinding light of the outside. It felt like forever since I’d last been outside.

I found myself surrounded by new thick trees and a small mountain behind me.

Without hesitation, I flew into the air, looked around, and found the entrance to the dungeon.

Coincidentally, I met Hardstone as soon as I got there. He was holding a small, wooden chest.

“You guys would just leave me if I were trapped?” I blurted, half-heartedly understanding why and half-heartedly being broken.

“Well- you’re a great mage and- uh- I dunno’. Most people don’t come out of those situations! Glad to see ya’ again though!” Hardstone gave an awkward smile and scratched his thick neck.

“Where are the others?” I ignored his response.

“Coming up right- oh! There they are!” And so they rose into the sunlight, holding their arms to their eyes from the blinding light.

“Alaric! There you are!” Celie approached me and raised her fist. I was expecting a punch to my chest, but I didn’t receive one. Instead, I received a pat on my shoulder.

“Don’t leave me again or else I’ll kill you.” She said, and I wanted to see this as a cute moment from Celie but I really couldn’t.

Julie didn’t seem to care that I returned, and Daniel seemed too slumped to care either.

“Uh- Alaric?” Hardstone called

“Hm?”

“What happened to that boy- er- Joseph?”

“Joseph? Oh- Jonathan.” Hardstone nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t see him. He’s probably somewhere around here. I’ll look around.” And so I flew into the air again, scanning the forest. Unfortunately, I couldn’t see through the trees and its thick leaves.

“Who cares? Let’s just go. He probably ran back to the tavern.” said Celie, crossing her arms and anxious to collect the reward.

“Right.” And so we were off. Well- we were supposed to. Instead, we found Johnathan in the forest on our way back, holding a bloody stone while he froze on his knees.

“Well pardon me…” said Hardstone, inspecting the corpse of the goblin who ran with him. At least I thought it was, but the goblin’s head was battered inside. Celie covered her eyes, and Julie looked in amazement.

“Did you kill him?” I asked Johnathan who did not respond or react to seeing us, or even Celie. I gave Hardstone a concerned eye, and he sighed, but he went over to Johnathan, patted him on his shoulder, and helped him up.

“You did a good job, boy. Come on, Joseph.”

“Johnathan.” scolded Johnathan

“Oh, right. Johnathan.” Hardstone gave an awkward laugh and patted him on the shoulder some more, but Johnathan seemed more caught in his thoughts than anything else.

__

We stayed at the same town we previously stayed at, and I tried to find the right tuning for my new power in my room.

This wasn’t the best choice, because I ended up freezing the wall in front of me.

What the…

I put a little mana intensity into it, but I somehow let a whole flurry of icy wind shoot out of my palms.

It looked like a transparent blue mist before it took effect on the wall.

Shivering, Celie rose, still drowsy, and came to my bed.

How cute!

Wrong.

She kicked me off my bed. I slept on her ice cold bed that night, and I didn’t mind it really. After all, it was my fault.

“Alright. 4 silver and 22 copper coins. Here.” Hardstone dropped a bag into my open hand. “WIth that spider we fought in that dungeon, you probably would’ve been paid about 16 silver coins, but we don’t have that much money.”

“16 SILVER COINS?!” Celie and I shouted in disbelief, Hardstone scratching his neck awkwardly.

“Well- you see… The dungeon itself was supposed to be a B- tier mission, and the reward wasn't as great as 16 silver coins…”

“What tier would you say that dungeon was?” I asked, my forehead hot and holding Celie back from doing anything stupid.

“Hm… probably B+.”

“B+?” I didn’t really know the difference between B- and B+, so I couldn’t give an appropriate reaction. “Hey- doesn’t Sir Mason do B+ tier missions?” I asked Celie, who blushed and turn away.

“I don’t want to talk about them.”

“Ok…” I waved it off.

“What do you say about adventuring with us again? We make such a great team, after all!” Hardstone urged as Julie was giving me friendly elbows to my arm.

“Not really.” I blurted. “I mean, I did take down the spider all by myself. You didn’t do anything.” I let the moment get ahead of me, and I soon realized this, but it was too late. Hardstone tried standing up to me, but he was about my height.

“Now listen here, kid…” He considered whether he should scold me or not and then sat back down, sighing. “No- no… you’re right. I suppose you might as well leave us.”

I felt a little bad that we had to leave them, but it was the smartest choice if I wanted to make a good buck.

“Sorry. But we can still adventure sometimes, right?”

“Yeah. I suppose.” Hardstone said with a hard sniff as if he were holding in a cry.

“Right. Well, see you.” I waved goodbye. Celie gave quick glances between me and the adventuring party. Julie looked disappointed that I left, and Daniel was in his own little world.

“Wait for me!” She shouted, and she followed behind me. “What about Johnathan?”

“I’m surprised you're asking about him.” I chuckled.

“Isn’t it wrong to just leave him here though?” Her voice grew more sincere.

“I’m surprised you’re trying to tell me what's right and wrong.” I chuckled once more.

“I’m serious! What the hell is wrong with you?! Sometimes I think there's no human in you!” Celie said, punching my shoulder and running back inside the tavern and pulling Johnathan out by his sleeve as he held his sword.

I received one more kick to my calf by Celie before we set off back to our home tavern.

On the way back, I thought of a few things Celie asked me and was displeased about.

Did I have any humans left in me? Maybe I did, but ever since…

Everything… I lost something of my previous self.

And whatever it was, I didn’t want it back.

I just wanted to achieve my goal.

That’s all I wanted.