The Dragon’s Hoard
I lay on the by back, completely exhausted from battle. Pebble had reverted back to his original body, and the armor he had made for me crumbled off my body now turned into regular stones. Without the armor’s support, I feel all the pain and aching that had accumulated return to my body.
I struggle to get back on my feet. While trying to stand I would lose my balance a number of times before fully getting up.
Pebble had reverted back to his original small self. He acted completely normal, as if he had not just helped us take down a terrifying dragon.
“You are one amazing little guy you know that Pebble.” (Arin)
Pebble covers his face trying to hide his embarrassment.
“Holy shit Arin are you okay?” (Liza)
“Not really, but at least I’m still alive. To be honest Raiden was in much worse shape.”
“Yeah where is he anyway? We need to check on his injuries too.” (Liza)
“He’s alright. The guys made from my [Character] card can recover themselves pretty quickly when they revert back to their card form.” (Arin)
“That’s good at least. I was worried tha… Hold on, you made Raiden from your soul card?!? I thought Pebble was the only one.” (Liza)
“I thought I already mention that.” (Arin)
“No you did not. Honestly though that’s probably the least shocking thing to happen today.” (Liza)
The two of us both look back at the black dragons corpse. It laid on the ground with its right arm missing and the massive hole in its chest being very noticeable.
“We should probably start butchering it now. Something this big is going to take a while though.” (Liza)
“It’s probably a better idea to have someone in town do that. I doubt either of us could disassemble this thing well.” (Arin)
“Obviously but how do you plan on bringing such a big body like that back to town?” (Liza)
“What are you talking about? Let’s just turn it into a card for now. I thought that was obvious.” (Arin)
“Do you think you can card something that hu…” (Liza)
Before Liza could finish talking I had already walked over to the dead dragon and turned both it and its severed arm into a single card.
Black Dragon Corpse
Rank: 8
- The corpse of a large dragon that specialized in fire and dark attributes. Its scales posses a small resistance to magic and its fangs and claws are recommended materials to make weapons. The heart is completely destroy and is now worthless as a material but the flame organ and magic stone are still intact. If dismantled some parts may become more valuable than others.
“There, that takes care of that.” (Arin)
“What did you just do!” (Liza)
Liza grabben me by the shoulders and started shaking me. She stopped once she noticed it was making my wounds worse.
“Man that really hurt. What the hell was that for?” (Arin)
“Do you seriously don’t realize what you just did? For something as big as that dragon it should be impossible to turn the whole thing into a card. Normally people dissect a body that big into smaller parts and turn those into individual cards. To turn something as big as a dragon into a card would require a massive amount of mana.” (Liza)
Is it really that big of a deal? I’ve never had any issues with turning anything into a card before. I guess I never thought about it. Every monster up to this point would turn into a card after being defeated. The black dragon was the biggest monster I’ve fought before but aside from that it should’t have been different to all the other defeated monsters I’ve turned to cards.
“Honestly, just how much mana do you have?” (Liza)
“Not really sure. I’ve never felt like I needed to check before.” (Arin)
Maybe I could use my [Character Appraisal] skill on myself. It wouldn’t hurt to try.
I focus on using [Character Appraisal] on myself but for some reason it wouldn’t activate. It could be that I need to look at who I’m appraising in order for the skill to work. With that thought I walk over to the cavern’s spring and look into it. My reflection easily appeared before me. With that I attempt to use [Character Appraisal] once more. My skill works properly now and I can properly view my stats.
Human?
Name: Arin
Job Class: Adventurer
Rank: ????
Health: 14/100 Attack: 50 Defence: 50 Speed: 70 Intelligence: 55 Mana: ????
Skills Dagger Arts Lv 2, Evasion Lv 3, Pain Resistance Lv 5, Card Craft Lv 3
Unique Skills: Character Appraisal
- ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
What the hell am I looking at! I always knew I didn’t have that many good skills but compared to everyone else I’m basically the weakest. The only good thing out of my skills in now knowing [Character Appraisal] was a unique skill, but everything else makes no sense at all. My rank and mana don’t show anything other than question marks, and There’s a question mark by my race as well. Does that mean I’m not human?
And all my detailed information looks censored out. Why wouldn’t I be able to look at that? Is someone trying to hide something from me, and if so who? My head is starting to hurt now.
“You okay? What are you look at?” (Liza)
“No it’s nothing. I’m all good.” (Arin)
While looking at my reflection I noticed a strange light coming from the bottom of the spring.
“Hey I think I see something down there. What is that?” (Arin)
“Move over. Let me see.” (Liza)
Liza sticks her face in the water, trying to get a better look. She stays under a few seconds before coming up for air.
“I can’t really tell what it is but there’s a chance it might be something special. I’ll be right back.” (Liza)
Liza dives head first into the spring and swims down to the point where it’s hard to see her. Pebble and I relax as we wait for Liza to resurface. Roughly a minute passed before she came back up for air.
“You need to come down here. You’re not going to believe what’s down there.” (Liza)
“I can’t really swim in my current condition you know.” (Arin)
“Don’t worry about that. I got you covered.” (Liza)
Liza supports my body with hers and while holding on to each other jumps back into the spring.
“Liza wait….” (Arin)
In the next moment we had hit the water, but for some reason my body wasn’t wet at all. I open my eyes that were close jumping in to see there was a spherical barrier around us. Right before we touched the water Liza must have used her [Barrier Magic] to make a breathable dome.
We slowly descended deeper and deeper at a steady pace. Pebble sitting on my shoulder was shaking non-stop. I think I remember Pebble’s status saying he doesn’t like water, but he looked more terrified than anything.
“Look up ahead. This is it.” (Liza)
Looking in the direction Liza was pointing at I could now clearly see a massive piles of gold, gems, and other expensive looking items that appeared to be from past adventurers. The variety of items and minerals were overwhelming.
“You know dragons have been known to collect treasures and hoarding them in their lairs.” (Liza)
“So you’re saying all this stuff is…” (Arin)
“Yup, it’s a bonafide dragon treasure hoard.” (Liza)
We had just stumble upon an actual dragon hoard. There was no telling what sorts of things we could get out from that. All this and the materials from the black dragon itself, I couldn’t help but to think what kind of card I could craft from everything. I’m starting to get excited.
I'm back after a short break. I will try to release at least one new chapter a week with the occasional break every now and again. Please leave a comment or review if you enjoy my story so far. I'm planning on a fun new arc in the chapters to come.
