I quickly got out a few health potions and gave all of them to him, even though three or four was what he needed at the best. His health bar quickly went back up to green, and the young one’s breathing steadied. His eyes fluttered open a few seconds later, and he looked at me.
“Zoran,” he said, his voice still weak.
“Hello, young one,” I smiled.
“Where am I?”
“The Ulhur mountains, if you know where that is.”
“You didn’t know where that was till a while ago,” Freya chuckled.
“Shhhh,” I smiled.
“What’s going on?” the Kobold asked.
“You got yourself into quite a bit of trouble,” I said.
“The men,” he jerked up, and immediately caught his chest, pain striking his body.
“Rest,” Freya pushed him back down. “What happened with those men? What did they want from you?”
He looked at me for a second, as though he was recollecting everything that had happened. And then he spoke. "They said there was something only I could open,” he said. “A door that led to something important. They said they'd give me wealth and riches beyond my dreams if I played along. And when I said I didn’t care they bound me."
“What the heck?” I blinked.
“What did they want you to open?” Freya asked. “Was it those rock doors we saw before?”
“I…I don’t know,” he said. “It could be.”
“Why are you supposed to be the only one who can open them?”
He looked at me, with an expression that said he was as clueless as I was.
“Oh my god,” Nyx froze, his voice showing he was not as clueless and actually very concerned instead. “It all makes sense now,” he said. “The doors. That roar. The symbol.”
What? I asked, confusion already riling my mind.
"Those doors of rock were sealed by the Dragon Clan. The sign in that chamber attests to that. The fact that an Eternal, a being stronger than a Dragon, can open those doors is not a surprise. However, there was originally only one way one could open a door sealed by a Dragon. You had to be a descendent of the Dragons themselves."
Oh no, I whispered, realizing where this was going.
“That boy,” Nyx said. “He has Dragon blood in him.”
***
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
It’s always fun to find out you’ve got dragon blood.
Unless of course it happens after you had been kidnapped, bound and almost killed by someone you’d never met before for seemingly no reason at all.
And so it was understandable, that when I told Nazu what Nyx had said to me, the young one’s reaction was to look at me as though I was crazy. Freya on the other hand handled it easy, almost as though she’d actually expected this outcome.
“I’m not a Dragon,” Nazu said, looking at me.
“You’re a half-dragon,” I said. “Based on your appearance, you certainly aren’t a full-fledged dragon, but based on what just happened, it is certain you have dragon blood in you.”
“But you’re saying this just because I might be able to open that rock door?”
“All this because you summoned a dragon roar out of nowhere when you touched that rock door. That door was sealed by the Dragon Clan. The fact that it had any response at all to your touch is indicative of your connection to the Dragons, and the fact that the response actually saved you and us from the Dark Alliance and the Black Guardians provides an even bigger testament to your connection to the Dragon Clan.”
“Also, that roar back there was totally a Dragon roar,” Nyx said.
I figured that was the case, I chuckled.
The young kobold, however, didn’t say anything in light of my statement. He stared at the ground beneath us, grasping the not-so-cold snow in his hands and crunching it into tiny balls. He thrust them back into the white, the sound of soft mushing entering the silence around us.
“So, I’m a half-dragon?” he asked, sounding a tad more receptive to the idea.
I nodded.
“And that’s why those men kidnapped me?”
“Most likely,” I said. “We still don’t know why exactly they wanted you to open those doors for them. We went down those doors ourselves but found nothing more than a symbol from the Dragon Clan. I didn’t see anything of value that they’d have wanted to possess down there.”
Nazu stared at the floor. “Dragon...” he mumbled softly. “Is that why the kobold elders tried to kill me? Because I wasn’t them?”
I blinked, taking a few seconds to realize what he was talking about. Honestly, what he said actually made sense to me. It was possible that if his colony was strict about being a ‘pureblood’, someone who didn’t seem to be completely a Kobold would be treated as an outsider and sometimes even a dangerous threat.
“Maybe,” I said in reply, not wanting to validate any of his worries. I wasn’t sure how he’d feel if I told him that was why he’d been nearly murdered by his own people.
“We should have seen something odd in him from there on,” Nyx said. “It was such an obvious tell-tale sign that he wasn’t normal.”
Yeah, I agreed. But it wasn’t enough to tell us he was from dragon blood though.
“True.”
DING!
You have obtained the quest: The Purpose of Dragon-Blood. The Dark Alliance and the Black Guardians seem to have been after Nazu for his Dragon-Blood heritage. Find out why. Reward: Unknown.
I’m going to find out regardless of whether I get a quest or not, I sighed and closed the screen.
“How do you feel, Nazu?” Freya asked, a little worry in her tone.
“Mmm,” the young kobold replied, not saying much.
I silently used my Analyze skill on him, hoping that might give me more insight to who he was.
Name
Nazu
Race
Half-Kobold, Half-Dragon
Level
63
Health
350
Mana
210
Stamina
470
Sure, it says Half-Dragon NOW, I thought. My Analyze screen hadn’t been that great at revealing hidden information to me, and to be honest, it seemed like that’s how the Ga’em wished to work at this point. Things that were very secretive or things that no one really knew about were things that weren’t displayed through Analyze screens.
“Yeah,” Nyx said. “If you’d used Analyze on Nazu before, it wouldn’t have said anything about him being Half-Dragon.”
Yeah, I mumbled. It’s annoying how that happens.
“The Ga’em doesn’t reveal any information about a person if that person themselves is not aware of the info.”
Oh. That actually makes sense, I said.
“The Ga’em is a lot more thoughtful about these things than it seems.”
You don’t say, I grinned.
DING!
Congratulations! Your skill, ‘Analyze’ has advanced to Level 14. Due to your ability, Spirit King, the details from the Analyze screen will now be fed directly to your mind. No physical screen will be summoned when you use the skill. A mental image will be presented instead.
Damn, I smiled. I’ve needed something like this for a while now.
“That’s a pretty neat upgrade to the skill,” Nyx said.
It is, I agreed.
“We should probably get a move on,” Freya said, looking at Nazu, then at me. “We don’t know how long it’ll be before the Dark Alliance and the Black Guardians decide to come after us.”
“Mmm,” I nodded, silently making a note that the Black Guardians were a part of this as well. I’d dealt with Jalel so much I’d forgotten there was a group other than the Dark Alliance involved in this too.
“I don’t get what’s in this for them,” Nyx said.
Same, I said.
“So,” Freya said, interrupting my conversation with Nyx. “Which way do we go?”
I looked bo
th ways on the mountain, up and down. A storm of clouds stood at the mountain top, lightning striking the darkness between them and thunder rumbling the air within. Beneath us was a calm slope of snow and nothing else. For now.
“I think it’s obvious,” I said.
“Fine, let’s head down,” she said and we began our way down. I glanced through the tunnel we’d exited from as we passed by it, and heard nothing but silence within. It was almost as though the Knights within had all disappeared.
Maybe Jalel retreated after Nazu did the dragon roar thing, I said.
“It’s possible,” Nyx said. “That attack was quite a stunner.”
Yeah, I agreed.
“Going back to the Black Guardians though, I’m just as unsure about what they’re doing this for,” he said. “Moreover, the Dark Alliance is not a group that likes collaborating with others. If they’re working with another group in this endeavor then what’s the motivation behind it?”
First thing that comes to mind is that they need the additional manpower, I said.
“I was thinking along the same lines. They want the Black Guardians’ strength, but the Dark Alliance is honestly very strong even without them. What exactly are they trying to do to make them feel paranoid enough to get the Black Guardians to help them out?”
So you’re saying whatever this task is it’s beyond their capabilities? I asked.
“Well that would be an apt explanation.”
That doesn’t make whatever they’re doing sound any better to me, I said.
“I should hope not.”
My eyes turned to the young Kobold at my side. Nazu walked silently alongside me and Freya, keeping his eyes down to the ground. I hadn’t really conversed much with him before so I couldn’t really tell what his thought process was. And to be honest, I doubted I could help him even if I did.
It was likely he was still trying to process the fact that he was a dragon. I was sure he had plenty of questions, and not many answers to any of them. A part of me couldn’t help but relate. A few months ago, I’d woken up in a weird forest with no memory of who I was or how I’d gotten there. It took me a week before I knew I was the Phantom Lord, and when I did find out, it wasn’t really as comforting as I’d expected it to be. Rather than be happy I’d finally found out who I was, I had a lot more concerns and questions about what my identity meant for me.
And in a similar vein, I could see the young Kobold questioning his place in the world, especially now that he had a new identity.
“It took you quite a while to get adjusted,” Nyx said. “In fact, I’d argue you still haven’t completely adjusted.”
I know, I sighed.
A thundering boom sounded from all around us, as if the sound was being generated from everywhere. We immediately stopped and looked around, but found no source to the sound. I heard the ground rumble an instant later and in a rush of instinct I pushed everyone away from me.
The ground beneath me collapsed in a flash, and I dropped down fast. I tried pushing myself off of one of the falling pieces of ice, but it crumbled under the force of my jump, leaving me stranded in my fall.
The walls around me changed from ice to rock as I fell, and I dropped down to the ground. I heard a loud crack as I met with the floor, and when I opened my eyes again, I was lying down in a crater on the ground. The snow beneath me had broken my fall a little, but the speed I’d come down with was too fast to be subdued by just snow.
I could feel that a part of my health had actually gone down from the impact, and that was amusing to me. It’d been a while since something as simple as that had taken away my health. You’d think the immortal Phantom Lord was immune to anything, but no. I could die from a vital blow just as easily as the next man. It was just that I had a ton of passive and active skills to call upon to make all of that a lot easier to prevent.
“You also resurrect when you die,” Nyx added.
I’m aware, I said.
I heard another rumble, and before I even looked up, a river of snow showered down onto me, burying me fast. I pushed to the side, knowing it was the fastest way out from beneath the pile. A few quick steps later I dropped from the side of the small snow-hill that had formed, and filled my lungs with air once again.
“Well that was unfortunate,” Nyx said.
Tell me about it, I looked up at the hole I’d fallen through. It was too high up for me to be able to tell whether Freya and Nazu were looking down onto me.
“I hope they’re okay,” I mumbled.
DING!
You have received a new message from: Freya! Would you like to open it?
I tapped ‘Yes’ and a new screen opened up.
Is everything okay? Nazu and I are fine. Do you want us to come down or do you think you can find a way out? You might be able to climb up or jump up on your own actually. Pretty sure you’re strong enough for it.
I replied back almost immediately.
I’m fine, no injuries. I don’t think jumping is an option. The floor here is already cratered from just my fall. I doubt it’d be able to sustain a jump strong enough for me to come back up. And I certainly don’t want to break something down here and end up in a chamber even deeper down. I don’t think I can climb the walls either as long as I can’t affirm how sturdy they are. I’ll try to see if there’s a tunnel I can walk through.
DING!
She sent her reply.
Fine. I and Nazu are going to try heading down the mountain. When you get back to the surface, use the map and find me. We’re still registered as a party I think.
“She said ‘when’ not ‘If’,” Nyx chuckled. “That girl has some mighty confidence in you.”
Well, it’s warranted, I said.
“Whoa there, Mr. Hotshot,” he laughed. “Lot of confidence you have there.”
I smiled quietly and looked around the chamber I was in. I saw a few entrances but only one of them was large enough for me to fit through, if I crouched that is. And so I headed in, using my Night Vision skill to look through what was in the tunnel.
Darkness and rocks greeted me for the mile or so that I walked through. The rocks were dry and musty, the dust on them spraying into the air as I moved. A mile and a few sneezes later, I was finally out on the other side of the tunnel.
The chamber I was now in was a lot larger than the previous one. The ceiling was made of ice, with a rocky covering atop it. The ice itself though had a faint glow to it, an extremely dull, but existent, glow.
A hiss echoed through the air and I froze up, not making any sudden movements. I alerted my senses and moved my eyes around, keeping my head still. From what I could tell, whatever this creature was, it wasn’t in front of me.
I heard a snap and I immediately ducked and dived. My body rolled across the rocky surface and I picked myself up just in time to see a snake of translucent blue surge at me. Its eyes were a deep purple, and glared as it thrust its ten-foot body right at me.
I put all my force into my legs and pushed to the side, crushing a few inches of rock across the ground as I slid to a stop. The snake seemed confused about my speed but it surged at me anyway.
I had enough of a distance between us to use Analyze on the creature, and what it brought up was quite intriguing to me.
Race
Venomous Tundra Python
Level
71
Health
610
Mana
110
Stamina
570
A Venomous Tundra Python, I said.
“Huh,” Nyx said. “It’s probably a rare creature. I’ve never heard of it before.”
The snake surged at me once again, but this time I didn’t dodge. I’d seen it jump and push forward enough times to know its movements. I sidestepped and jabbed my hand out at the right time, catching it right behind its head. It thrashed out immediately, its tail coming up to smack me.
I wasted no time and summoned a spell. “Oskis!” I yelled.
>
A burst of flames shot out of my palm, burning straight into the snake. It heated up before me, its body glowing orange and then turning into liquid in a flash.
DING!
Congratulations! You have defeated: Venomous Tundra Python (Lv 71). Reward: Fangs of the Venomous Tundra Python. Reward: Vial of Tundra Poison.
DING!
Congratulations! You are the first person to have killed a Venomous Tundra Python! You have obtained a new bonus: Exotic hunter. Hunting skill has automatically been increased by 4 levels. Fame increased by +50.
DING!
Congratulations! Your skill ‘Hunting’ has increased to level 5! Agility increased by +10% while hunting. Strength increased by +10% while hunting.
What, I blinked.
“Wow, look at you, paving the way for future huntsmen,” Nyx joked.
“Well, at least I got those sweet buffs,” I said.
“Sure, you definitely needed that 10% increase in strength and agility to help you hunt better.”
I chuckled. “We better find a way to get back to the surface.”
“I already did,” Nyx said. “Look up above you. There’s a section up there that’s made of just ice, no rock. That’s the only thing separating this chamber and the mountain slopes. The ground here is sturdy enough for you to jump off of it, so you should be able to head up through that section of ice.”
I looked up and saw the section he was talking about. There was a bit of light coming through it, but it was very faint so you had to strain to actually notice the rays of light. I placed myself right beneath it and bounced a few times on the patch of surface just to make sure it was sturdy enough.
The Eternal: Dragonborn - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 2) Page 14