Two days after Brekkar consumed the strange potion I cooked up, he was up and full of energy like a child on a summer day. The potion worked perfectly and repaired his magic channels, eliminating those vortexes which gobbled up all of his Magic Energy and turned him into a walking time bomb.

“I feel great!” said the old man while sparring with Seryanna in the middle of the court.

“I can see that grandfather. Alkelios' potion did its job perfectly!” said the redhead with a smile before blocking one of his attacks.

It was getting really dark as we got close to the Draketerus mansion, but it didn't even take us more than thirty minutes to fly there thanks to the Kleo dragon express. She transformed into her big lizard self and then flew us all on her back. While Seryanna threw daggers at Kataryna, the latter barely showed a reaction to her. If I were to put my finger on it, I would say the dragoness found the young knight amusing in a way.

As for me… I was riding on the back of a black dragon, enough said.

“This is so awesome!” I said to myself as I looked around.

One might have found my sudden change of loyalty quite surprising, maybe unbelievable, but from my point of view, I only saw their lack of understanding in the way I thought and felt. To put it simply, I never was particularly attached to The Twin Daggers bandit group even if I was identified and recognized as their official leader. To me, they were just a bunch of youngsters unable to see even the tip of their tails. I could cast them aside like a broken nail or a ripped off scale and find myself another group anytime I wanted.

“The moment you go past the skies, you will find the world to be little and insignificant… while you are eternal like the gods above. Kataryna, please, never try to go past the skies…”

I remember well these words… They were offered to me when I was little and still unaware of what eternity meant. Like all the other dragons, I dreamed about one day making an Awakened Breakthrough and the temple stones to show I had a power over 1000. It was a dream that one day became a reality, but the price… maybe it was too much to bear.

Looking at the strange fire tornado in front of me, I felt an immense pressure emanating from it. The Phoenix was certainly not your typical rooster, but at the same time, I highly doubted it was a bird similar to what mankind imagined in its legends. It was placed right between me and the dragonesses, effectively blocking my sight. There was only me and the Great Phoenix there. The bugs and trees around me didn't count.

Still, something was way off.

Before us was a dragoness of incredible power, someone we couldn't even hope of winning against in a one on one battle. Actually, I doubted I could win even if I were to fight Kleo alone. The one thing I could be sort of grateful for was the fact that this Kataryna fellow had a nice body to look at, but ogling at the enemy's chest probably wasn't considered a priority right now.

With a gulp, I looked over at Seryanna. The dragoness took her stance, squinting her eyes at the enemy and had her sword ready to cut her down. The problem was that she was about five times lower in level than the others. Going by old RPG rules, there was absolutely no way in Hell or Heaven that we could defeat this sort of boss-type character.

“Damn, she's far!” I stopped to catch my breath.

Leaning with one hand on the trunk of a tree, I opened my skills menu and looked at [Speedy Rooster], but something told me it was better to put it off for now. With a sigh, I closed the window and looked ahead. The forest was thick, and I would have honestly ended up lost if not for my [Dragon Tamer] skill.

Fire engulfed the entire mansion while all the servants and some dragons from the town tried to put it out. Summoning spheres of water, they sent them over, letting them splash and pour over the flames.

Even from afar, I could see the effort they made trying to put out the fire. Those few who had no water spells used buckets of water from the local well or helped those touched by the burning flames. Normally, in this time and age, a fire could only be controlled by demolishing the nearby buildings and let it burn out, but with the help of those water magic spells, they had a chance at saving the mansion.

Of all the stunts Kleo had pulled, making me wake up in Alkelios' bed was by far the worst! I don't deny the fact that it felt good to be embraced by him, but why couldn't he just keep his hands to himself? Touching my back scales and grabbing my bottom was crossing the line! A respectable gentleman dragon would never dare to behave in such an inappropriate manner, especially towards an unmarried maiden like myself!

Oh yes! He's not a respectable gentleman, he's a human… How could I forget that small detail? I asked myself while walking down the street.

When I opened my eyes early in the morning, the first thing I saw were Seryanna's sharp, dark-brown eyes. She had an accusing look as though I did something bad. I had no idea what though. But then again, she was still holding me in her arms and I her. It was pleasant, and I had nothing against her big chest pressing against me.

“Erm… Good morning?” I said with a forced smile.

The dragoness didn't reply, she kept throwing daggers at me with her eyes.

OK! What's going on? I'm pretty sure SHE was the one who climbed into my bed, not the other way around! I defended myself in my mind.

I was staring the lion right in his eyes, or rather the dragon… and a general at that.

“Hm…” he said while squinting his eyes at me and rubbing his chin.

Seryanna kept silent. She wasn't saying a word. Standing in the back of the room, next to the lit fireplace, she had her arms crossed at her chest and her eyes closed.

After the old man got the friendship confirmation message pop up in front of his eyes, we walked into the nearby reception room. It was big and luxurious.

Looking up at the sky, I couldn't tell what time it was. Thinking about it, this world had more hours than Earth, so thinking in Earth-like terms was a bit wrong to begin with. Looking back, the road was mostly empty. We saw only a pair of grumpy looking lumberjacks. I had to say, those two were quite tall and the axes they carried on their shoulders were big enough to cut down a Khosinni in half. A tree wouldn't stand a chance if struck with a direct blow from one of those things.

All I could say was that every single bone in my body hurt like I got stomped on by a dragon. Well, technically speaking, she fell on top of me when I made the wrong type of wish in my head.

That's 100 Luck for you, being the least bit reliable when you needed it the most. Why couldn't a cute nekomini girl or big-breasted innocent elf fall instead? I wanted to scream out loud, but a certain dragoness was giving me a strange threatening glare.

“For some reason, I want to punch you right now.” said Seryanna.

Morning dropped by like a rock or rather a bucket of cold water.

“Whoa! That's cold! Huh? What?” I shouted as I got up soaking wet and shivering like a puppy in the cold season.

Looking around, I thought for a moment that it was raining and my tent had a hole in it, or we got flooded by the river, although, we were quite far away from it. Unfortunately, the only thing wet there was a skinny shivering human, meaning me.

For some reason, that night I had a very HOT dream. When I say hot, I don't mean I went all tomb raider style with a whip in one hand and jumping on sinkable platforms over a lava pool, but in the sense that I dreamed of Seryanna. White nightgown, sultry look in her eyes, the body movements of a vixen, and the rest was pretty much history. When I woke up, I was hugging and kissing an imaginary friend. My brain took a few minutes of loading time before it managed to process what was happening. The color in my cheeks went from pink to red, and I slapped my forehead.

Once again, morning greeted me with a dark sky outside, but for the first time in two days, I felt a terrible pain rushing through my body. It wasn't too bad, more like the feeling I got after pushing myself too hard at the gym. My muscles were rejoicing when I moved, but at the same time, they were cursing me for daring to move. The good ol' muscle fever was a paradoxical sensation, which felt rather good.

Getting up from my simple bed, a blanket spread across a patch of grass, I crawled out of the tent and stretched my arms and legs a bit. The refreshing feeling rushed over me immediately, which was followed by pain. I groaned a bit and shook my hands and legs, hoping to get rid of it, no chance though.

The Bloody Mushroom wasn't categorized as a Magic Plant, so Seryanna was able to pick up and store as many as she desired inside her [Purse], however, she didn't take more than twenty. A lot more were left behind, but from what she explained, that much was enough to help cure her grandfather. The disease he suffered from was curable, but if left untreated, it could prove fatal.

I also carried two of those mushrooms in my backpack, just in case something happened to the ring. Although Seryanna highly doubted such a possibility, it did happen before, so she didn't want to see a repeat of her past experience. When I asked her about the full story, she simply glared at me and kept silent. It must have been a rather embarrassing one as far as I could tell.

As I slowly opened my eyes, I stretched my arms and forced my body to wake up. My mind was a bit confused as to where I was, but the memories of the previous day slowly flowed back, and I remembered I wasn't on Earth anymore.

With a heavy sigh, I got up and scratched the back of my head. I let out a big yawn and looked at the entrance of the tent. It was still dark outside, but I felt like I had slept a good 6 hours or so.

Oh yeah… A day here has 32 hours, so long nights. I remembered what Seryanna told me the other day.

The one walking in front of me, the dragoness by the name of Seryanna Draketerus, was really scary!

There was this strange powerful aura around her, the type which told you to stay away or else you'll end up as minced meat ready to be served to some kind of fearsome monster. It scared me and made my hair stand on end. If I could compare it with something, maybe it was like being in the middle of a cage with lava ready to poor down from the top while hundreds of professional assassins were ready to jump in to land a hit on you?

A loud and angry growl came from behind me. A pair of sharp teeth tried to take a bite out of my succulent flesh just as I ducked under a tree. Only the splinters remained from it as I continued to run through the dense forest.

What was I doing exactly?

Running for my life as fast as my legs could carry me, of course!