I woke up in an unknown place. Although I was happy about one thing, I was in a bed. I had bandages all over my body and I couldn't see my armor or weapons anywhere. I tried to get up, but the pain in my back prevented me from doing so. After a moment I decided to get up no matter whether it would hurt or not.

It hurt. A lot.

After letting out a groan because of the pain I looked outside the window. I could see a lot of scorched buildings.

Could this be the village I arrived at?

Besides the burned building I could see people rebuilding everything, at least the villagers survived.

I turned my attention towards the door, as I heard someone coming in.

The person that came into the room was Cole, he looked happy that I was fine, but that emotion quickly changed into slight anger.

Cole: What are you doing? You're supposed to be laying down! You'll be in more pain if you don't!

I chuckled a little, annoying him.

Y/n: Fine, fine. I'll lay down, no need to yell.

I went back to my bed and proceeded to lie down with a bit of pain. I decided to ask:

Y/n: Is this the village we were planning on going to?

Cole: Yes and don't worry, all of the villagers are fine. Some are Injured but there weren't any casualties.

I let out a sigh of relief after hearing his words, I was happy that everyone was fine.

Cole: We almost had a casualty though.

Y/n: And who was that?

Cole: That would be you.

I smiled at him.

Y/n: Well, sorry that I worried you.

Cole: Worried would be an understatement, if I found you a minute later you'd be dead.

My smile faltered after hearing that, I really can't afford to die in this world.

Y/n: By the way, where is my equipment?

Cole: The blacksmith asked to examine it, I thought it was okay. Sorry.

Y/n: Don't worry, it's okay. As long as he doesn't break it.

Cole laughed a little.

Cole: I'm afraid you won't be fighting for a while, your injuries are no joke.

Y/n: I know, I can feel that very well.

Cole: That aside, it's amazing that you took down a dragon on your own, you're really strong.

Y/n: I wouldn't say that, I simply got lucky. By the way, what happened to the dragon's corpse?

Cole: It's still laying down where you killed it, why do you ask?

Y/n: I just thought that we could get you some dragon scale armor out of it.

Cole got excited at the thought of that, it wasn't hard to tell.

Cole: It would be nice, although that's not our priority right now. Until you get better, how about we walk around the village?

Y/n: I thought I was supposed to lay down in bed and not move?

Cole: And you are, this is an exception.

I smiled and wanted to put my hood back on, I didn't realize that it wasn't there. Cole simply laughed like at me, I smiled awkwardly, clearly embarrassed.

Y/n: Is there some shirt here I could use? I don't want to walk around in bandages.

Cole pointed at a wardrobe while saying:

Cole: The villagers left some clothes for you as thanks, I'll wait for you outside.

I opened the wardrobe to find some clothes, I put them on and walked outside of the room. Cole was leaning on a wall, waiting for me.

Cole: Ready to go?

Y/n: Yeah, let's go.

As we walked out of the house I could feel a cold breeze of the wind, it was a nice feeling.

Cole: First of all I think we should pay a visit to the village elder, he wanted to thank you for what you did.

Y/n: I don't know the way around here, so I'll trust you to lead the way.

Cole: Don't worry, I already know my way around here.

Or so he thought, we spent 10 minutes walking around the village before we found the right place.

Y/n: Finally, my back is killing me because of all that walking.

Cole: Sorry, I really thought I knew where it was.

Y/n: Well, at least we finally arrived.

We entered a rather larger building compared to the other buildings in the village. An older man instantly noticed us as we enter, or should I say, he noticed Cole. Sometimes I wish I could turn off that presence concealment skill.

Elder: You are the knight that helped us, what brings you here?

Cole immediately realized that the elder didn't notice me.

Cole: I brought the person who took down the dragon with me, you said you wanted to meet him, right?

The elder looked next to Cole and noticed me standing there.

Elder: Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't notice that you came in as well.

Y/n: It's okay, that's because of a certain ability of mine, I don't blame you at all.

Elder: Please allow me to thank you from the bottom of my heart, if you didn't lure the dragon away from us, who knows how many people would have died. We are currently collecting money to offer as compensation, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little for that.

Y/n: Use that money to repair your village, I don't need any compensation for what I did. If you really wish to offer me compensation, I'd like to take materials from the dragon's body.

The elder looked happy after hearing my words.

Elder: You're too kind, even though it feels wrong for me not to offer anything, I'll respect your decision.

Y/n: I suppose we'll be going then, goodbye.

Cole: See you later!

The elder waved us goodbye as we left.

Cole: You know, it was really nice of you to do that.

Y/n: It just felt like the right thing to do. Well then, where are we going next?

Cole: It's your choice.

Y/n: Why don't we go to the blacksmith? I'd like my knife back.

Do you know the way around this time?

Cole: Don't worry, I know where to go this time.

Thankfully, he didn't lie. After a minute or two of walking we arrived at the blacksmith's shop, it was a little burned from the attack but overall it was fine.

The blacksmith welcomed us both as we entered.

Blacksmith: Hello there! I assume you're here to get your equipment back?

Y/n: Yeah, I don't feel comfortable without my armor on myself.

Blacksmith: So you're the one who took the beast down? You're one tough guy you know? Taking a dragon down alone is no easy feat.

Y/n: Yeah, I know. I'm really lucky to be alive right now.

Blacksmith: That armor of yours is very interesting, it fixed on it's own! I hope you don't mind that I examined it, it's really good armor, the same can be said for that knife of yours.

Y/n: I have no problem with you taking a look at my armor, I'm glad actually. At least I know that it was in good hands, rather than laying down in my room.

Blacksmith: Well then, I'll go fetch your things for you.

After a minute he came back with my equipment.

Blacksmith: Here you go, take care of your things, they're really great.

Y/n: Thanks, a lot.

I went to a separate room to get myself changed, as I came back I saw Cole and the blacksmith chatting with each other.

Blacksmith: So you want to make armor out of the dragon's scales? That's quite the idea, did you come up with it?

Y/n: I did, actually.

They both turned their attention towards me.

Blacksmith: Well, if you're gonna do that, you're going to need to find one mighty blacksmith to craft that, such a thing is beyond my ability.

Cole: Now then, we should get going. See you!

Blacksmith: Goodbye, thanks for protecting the village again!

As we walked outside of the shop Cole said:

Cole: I think that's all, is there anywhere you still want to go?

Y/n: Well, we still have to skin the dragon, right?

Cole sighed, knowing that this was going to take some effort.

Cole: Do we have to do it right now?

Y/n: If we don't do it now, we're still going to do it later, well unless you don't want your armor.

He had a defeated look on his face.

Cole: Alright, let's go then.

The dragon's corpse was next to the village, on a grass field.

Cole: How are we even going to get the scales off of it?

Y/n: You have a knife, right?

Cole: Yeah, but what does that have to do with the question?

He instantly realized after asking the question, he sighed and started prying the scales off with his knife.

I realized something very important.

Y/n: We have a bag to gather these scales, right?

Cole: I think I have one, don't worry.

I was relieved, I didn't want to go back just to fetch a bag.

I walked past Cole and went towards the dragon's mouth.

Cole: Hey! You're not making me do this alone, are you?

Y/n: Don't worry, I'm just going to quickly check something.

As I was in front of the dragon, I cut off a part of it's tooth, which wasn't an easy feat and put the piece into my knife.

I decided to check how it looked and switched my knife into my new one.

The handle was made out of scales and the blade was a sharpened tooth of the dragon. It looked quite good, in my opinion. I switched back to my normal knife, and went back to Cole.

Y/n: I suppose I should get started.

Timeskip

After half an hour, we had a bag full of scales.

Cole laid down on the ground, exhausted.

Cole: I am never doing such a thing again, let's hope the armor is worth it.

Y/n: You need a sword too, right? Why don't we take a tooth with us, too?

Cole: Good idea, but you get the tooth, I'm really tired.

After about two minutes, I managed to rip out one of the dragon's teeth. I came back with it afterwards.

Cole: Okay, we have everything but do we know a blacksmith that can actually make this thing?

I instantly thought about Erhard, he seemed very skilled at blacksmithing.

Y/n: I think there is one person, although he's back at the capital.

Cole: This is way too heavy to carry all the way back to the capital.

Y/n: Don't worry, I have an idea that can help us with that, can you hold my shoulder for a moment? Make sure to hold on the bag as well.

Cole was confused, but decided to do as I told him.

I focused on my ring and used the option:

-Entrance

We were instantly surrounded by a blue light, Cole was very confused by this. Suddenly we were in a cave, I noticed the giant gate in front of me very well, thankfully Cole noticed the exit instead and proceeded to head that way.

I caught up to him after a moment.

Cole: We're all the way back! How did you do this?

Y/n: That's a secret.

He was annoyed by my response, but didn't question me any further. After a few minutes of walking, we walked through the gate.

Cole: So, who's this person that you think can make this armor?

Y/n: Erhard, you know him pretty well, don't you?

Cole: I don't know him as well as you think I do, but considering the quality of his products, he should be able to do this.

After some time we arrived at Erhard's shop.

Erhard: Hey there! You two have been gone for a while, how is everything.

Cole: Erhard, could you make me armor out of this?

He said as he handed Erhard his bag.

Erhard: Dragon scales? Where did you find those? Don't tell me you two took a dragon.

I showed him the dragon's tooth, he sighed as his suspicions were confirmed.

Erhard: I assume you want a sword out of that?

I simply nodded.

Erhard: I can get both of these things done in a few days, it's going to cost about 10 gold coins...

We didn't have that amount of money, Cole had a sad look on his face.

Erhard: But, if you give me all of those scales instead of what I need, I'll do it for free, how's that?

Y/n: We have ourselves a deal then.

Erhard grinned widely.

Erhard: Well then, I should have everything ready in two days.

Cole: Thank you so much. We'll be going then.

Erhard: See you both in two days!

We exited Erhard's store afterwards.

Cole: What should we do now?

Y/n: I think we should take a break.