It was like someone had taken a milky honey-colored lens away from Rue’s eyes. The world became clear, and her body tensed. Sleeping next to her was not some benevolent master, not the one who had saved her but a vile creature. She had been ensnared, would have been forced to pander to his will like a common animal. The scales and small spines along her back tensed and stood erect, her pupils dilating as she prepared to pounce on the resting dwarf.

It was only memories of their first encounter that held her back from trying to devour the dwarf whole and chew on his bones. Their first encounter had happened so fast she had barely seen the attack coming, let alone come close to stopping or avoiding it. Rue stood there, on tensed paws looking at the hairy creature. It was sleeping at the moment; so she had some time to consider her situation. Decisions she had rushed didn’t always turn out for the better. Perhaps it was best to think on this matter.

Rue slowly lowered her hackles and returned to a neutral posture, keeping the dwarf in her sights but no longer aggressively posturing at him.

Rue jumped and instinctively pushed mana into her flame aura before withdrawing it, quickly realizing that it was only a skill levelling up. She was on edge in the presence of something that could kill her with little difficulty.

Ding! Ability Evolution Draconic Resistance: Mental [2] => Draconic Resistance: Mental [3]

Draconic Resistance: Mental [3]

Through exposure and strength of will, you have resisted the effect of mental compulsion to at least some degree. Your [Draconic Bloodline] has increased the strength of this skill. Mental compulsion will now be [30%] more difficult and must succeed a successful intelligence check with a [30%] lower threshold.

There was not much of a change to the skill except for the values increasing by 10% but that was significant. It would be far harder for her to fall to mental attacks in the future. Hopefully, this would prevent dwarves and humans from controlling her in the future as well. It did however bring the question of how it leveled to mind. Rue searched her mind and found that the mental link to her “master” was still connected. It felt muted and cut off from her main consciousness, however.

Rue reached out with her mind and touched the thin thread and felt the connection respond. She was feeling the shared emotions once again but gone was the artificial happiness and supplication that poisoned her mind before. Now it was a more mutual link, she could choose to connect and disconnect at will. It was not as bad as the previous link but she hated the idea of having her mind linked with another. She would still have to find a way to remove the skill and she suspected that the dwarf’s death would render it null but for now it would have to stay.

Rue looked towards the dwarf as she spotted movement, she froze thinking he was waking up before he raised a thick hand and scratched his thick bushy face hair before letting out a grunt and rolling over. Rue let out a hot breath and a low snort that made the air shimmer with heat and turned to inspect the room. It was the same grey stone-walled room that she had been starved in and a sudden sense of repulsion made her scamper over to the huge open door and slither through the small open gap.

What greeted her beyond was a grey stone corridor, lit with little glowing crystals in metal cages attached to the walls. It continued forward a short distance before meeting T junction, with a darker passage to the left and a well-lit one to the right. Rue focused on her [Den Sense] and felt the presence of hundreds if not thousands of creatures in the left tunnel. With her basic perception, it was a huge labyrinth of tunnels and passages with many creatures prowling in larger rooms and hallways. The sheer scope of the area was difficult for her to comprehend and unless she focused the whole area was just a giant blur of creatures and space.

She would explore that later; it was perhaps a place that she could level and hunt for food in. But for now, exploring the rest of her new lair was the top priority. Well figuring out what to do with the dwarf was her top priority but exploring was easier.

Rue explored with her den sense and found a set of spiral stairs further up the passage on the right. She turned right and padded down the mana-lit corridor to the stairs, sniffing them as she approached. The smells emanating from everywhere were a mix of old, dusty, and death. The death mostly coming from the tunnel behind her. Not sensing any life in the stairway and passage above she padded quietly up the stairs. Quiet was relative, however, as her sharp claws and large size made climbing up the stairs a slippery affair. The stone steps were worn smooth in some places leading her claws to scratch and clatter as she rose the stairs.

The top of the stairway was much the same as the passage below, still lit by the magical lights. Walking down the passage, the same grey walls of cut stone and a similar intersection approached ahead. The passage entrance ahead seemed to break into a far large passageway however, it was twice as large as the passage she was exiting and had four connecting tunnels instead of three. Rue sensed a large room just to her right, beginning with two large open wooden doors. She peered in and recognized the entrance to the main hall she had first arrived in. The great pillars stood in the room and the unobtrusive passage at the far end. So easy to walk into, but never leading out of this place.

Rue almost felt like trying to walk through the entrance, just to see if she could make it out, to true freedom. She felt the area with her den sense and felt her mood sink. The area was not a passage but a square. What should have turned in a way to make the passage effectively straight instead completed a circular pattern. She could push her senses into the passage and felt its contours for the exit, and then she would be staring at the front of the entrance again. She turned away and headed back down the other passage; the door may have been confusing but if she became powerful enough maybe she could just burn her way through.

Rue headed straight into the depths of the complex, sensing the other connecting tunnel holding only plants and a few animals. The deeper parts of the complex had much more to explore and what she felt was a vast space at the deepest part, her senses were unable to penetrate a barrier of some kind.

Rue explored many small rooms at the next intersection but ultimately just found rooms with wooden objects inside them. She bit and chewed on a few of them, but they seemed to serve no purpose. She was getting to the last few rooms when she discovered a door. Made from a shiny metal it was radiant in her vision. She quickly padded over to the door, feeling a strange excitement building in her chest. It was a white substance, and she felt a sudden overwhelming desire to lick the door. She reached out her forked tongue and tasted the metal. It was good, high purity, very well looked after.

Ding! +[Mineral Assay]

With the acquisition of the skill, the vague feelings she had been getting from the metal solidified into clear understanding. Mithril, Pure. And very valuable. It sparked a desire within her, and she found her claws scratching against the hinges and faint seems in the door’s edge trying to pull the door free. Her maw was salivating. She kept going, getting more and more agitated in her efforts until she finally gave in and sent a huge blast of concentrated fir jetting at it. Anything to get such an object. The fire roared against the door but was ineffectual at changing it in any way, it did not even grow warm.

Thinking that perhaps her latest skill could help her with extracting the shining object she inspected it.

Mineral Assay [1]

Used to feel the composition of an object. This skill can identify the composition of [Minerals] in an object and their basic [Properties] and [Value].

That told how she knew what the material was but not what made her want it so much. She briefly froze thinking perhaps this could be another form of mental manipulation, but the familiar link was no longer working, and she had not encountered anything else since then. Well, either way, she would be having that door, even if it took her years to gouge it out of the wall. Perhaps she would find something to help her get it out deeper in the complex. Either that or maybe more shiny objects for her to find.

Ding! +[Draconic Greed]

Rue paused at the acquisition of the skill. Two skills in such a short amount of time? Perhaps they were related?

Draconic Greed [1]

Awakened when a dragon first sees a truly valuable metal and their thoughts turn to acquire such objects. A hallmark of all draconic breeds you [Lust] after precious metals such as [Platinum], [Mithril], [Silver] and [Gold]

Rue looked at the skill. It provided her with no benefits whatsoever. Not even an attribute increase. It at least explained her sudden desire for the door, and now that she knew the source of the hunger and desire it became less insistent. She still wanted the door but understood that it could wait, at least for a while. Even knowing her desire was from a skill it still felt too natural and had happened before the skill had appeared. Either part of her personality, or a feature of all dragons? Rue looked over her [Hereditary Dragon Knowledge] and found many references to the importance of precious metals such as gold. She let out a low hungry growl…. gold. The memories and information were heavy with desire. She had not noticed before, but now having seen such objects in the metal she could see the lustrous appeal.

Rue padded back down the corridor to head the last strangest place in the complex, a huge void in her den sense, far more noticeable than the door she had just approached. It was vast, and she could feel all the space around it, including a small room that lead to a door into…nothing. At least nothing was there in [Den Sense].

As she approached, she could feel the air get heavier, the lamps grow brighter. Every stone block in the walls grow heavier. As if the very world itself was pressing down, trying to get into the passage. Mana radiated from everything and she could feel it like viscous honey flowing around her body. She experimented by pushing some mana into her [Flaming Aura] and found the magic in the air hungry to replenish her reserves. She was filled up again within seconds.

Rue paused just before the room she could sense and inspected the door; it was covered in scratched markings far too symmetrical and intricate to be mere accidents. Apprehensive to enter the room with so much obvious magic flowing in the area she pulled on [Hereditary Dragon Knowledge] trying to find some explanation as to the strange door. Her older ancestor seemed to have known a similar set of markings, calling than a language. Meanings and intent are written down. He had known how to write in one such language, but the set of markings was not available to her through the skill, just the knowledge that they existed.

Rue decided that if they were just meanings and intent, they could not be dangerous, perhaps they were merely decorative. And with no places left to explore save the monster labyrinth, Rue decided to enter the room. There were no monsters inside, so how dangerous could it be?

She padded up to the door and swung it open with her muzzle, it swung smoothly and with no resistance, and she peered inside. It was just a room, with nothing inside it. Nothing to fear and she let out a deep breath which heated the mana-filled air causing a shimmer as the tension left her body.

She crept further into the room sniffing and discovering no smells or even dust in the room, it was spotless. That was until a huge boom and ping resounded at the same time causing her to jet flame from her maw and spin around to face the door.

It was closed,

Ping! You Have Entered Annorak’s Trial Of Magic!...