I stood on the bridge of the Scorpion Dream Galleon, the same one that took us on our journey towards the far away continents. With the breeze of the ocean washing over me, I came to remember the time when I met Shelly, of her kidnapping and then her rescue.

It saddened me back then to leave her behind after such a traumatic event, and I knew that my words might not have been the most appropriate ones to give to a child. Back then, all I wished for was to let the young relliar know that she was strong enough not to let such an experience force her in a world filled with fear.

I flew straight towards Sagar, stopping for nothing on the way. Tanarotte was right behind me, and I was surprised to see that she was able to keep up with me. Within my arms I carried the sleeping Shelly, who was covered in a warm blanket. Her bleeding had stopped thanks to the potion she was given, but she was still in dire need of healer. My own healing spells were far too weak and far too dangerous to use when I did not know what her actual condition was.

As I carried her like this, a frightening thought crossed my mind: What if instead of Shelly it was my own child? What if at that time I would have no healers around me to help me take care of his or her wounds?

As the night grew closer, and the sun was about to set over the horizon, I spotted something shining in the distance. If I had blinked, I would have missed it.

My wings spread wide, and I stopped in midair. Squinting my eyes at those feeble scattered rays of light, I spotted some sort of tower. For a moment, I wondered if it was a relliar outpost or maybe a small village, but I highly doubted it to be so. This could only be the hideout of the humans, but even if by some far-off chance I was wrong about this, I could ask those living there for directions.

Thus, I flew towards it at my usual speed.

In my half-beast form, I flew through the clear sky, flapping my wings as I gained speed and with each passing moment, I got closer to Mashat Town. It was not long before the relliar settlement was in view, but if I had decided to travel here by carriage, I would have reached it in two days at best.

The bastards who took my fluffy ball of cuteness had probably already left this place, but I was not here to extend a courtesy call to the Akutan Empire. No, my goal was simple: find the human hideout, burn it to the ground, and rip the information out of the bastards who dared to kidnap the cute relliars of this country.

Obtaining proof to use against the human delegates was going to be tricky, but as it was with any big city in the world, there were always those with the needed information who would be willing to talk for a certain price.

Although as a dragoness I had often been called to be a bit hotheaded, this did not mean that I did not understand the fact that these bastards already had a couple of days head start. In the little time I had left to spend in the capital of the Sarakus Kingdom, I had to make sure I obtained all the information I needed to incriminate them before I launched an attack on their group. As such, I decided to pursue the idea that not only did they had the means to kidnap the princess, but they also had accomplices here in the capital willing to take such a risky mission.

The King couldn’t risk having us dragons in the same room as the humans, so our negotiations were postponed for until they decided to leave the capital. This did not mean that Princess Elleyzabelle couldn’t go to the Palace and try to engage in casual talk with the various nobles who could be found here. On the contrary, she used this opportunity to get to know the various political faces in the Sarakus Kingdom. If she could gain their support, then the King would be more inclined towards signing the treaties.

“Found you!” the fluffy princess said as she grabbed the tip of my tail.

I was hiding inside the castle behind one of the velvet window curtains. I intentionally allowed myself to get found by this cute little golden furball because she was just too cute when she pounced around and smiled brightly.

“So you did!” I replied with a smile as I pulled the curtain away.

“Ehehe!” she showed me a bright smile that warmed me up completely, and I could not abstain myself from picking her up in my arms and snuggling her.

We safely dropped anchor in the Knitkat Port of the Sarakus Kingdom. The most excited one to see land again was Tanarotte. She has proven herself to be a true bundle of energy, most notably by constantly trying to find some way to get close to the silver-scaled dragoness. Because of this, I had to stop Kataryna several times already from throwing her off the ship or turning her into an ice cube.

Leaving that part of our journey aside, Princess Elleyzabelle was also glad to see land again. Despite her putting up a strong front she suffered from sea sickness for a while until she got used to the rocking of the ship.

The soft breeze of the Zarvarea Ocean washed over me as I took a deep breath in and listened to the waves below crushing into the hull of the Scorpion Dream Galleon. The crew moved about the deck, taking care of their daily chores, but for me, they were nothing but mere background noise I let fade away in the back of my mind.

As I sat here on the quarter deck, leaning on the rail, Kataryna walked up to me and said “If I didn’t know any better, I would say our duchess here was trying to seduce the sailors.”

The good part about Soldra Town was the fact that even though the monsters around it weren’t that powerful, there were countless things we could do here. The Quest Board never seemed to go empty with requests as there was always someone in need of something. Most adventurers around here weren’t as excited about completing them as I was, they were waiting for that big fish to pop up.

While going on these quests and running through town, I learned the local language little by little. Thanks to my skill [Dictionary of Turnips], I could make good progress and by the end of the week, my knowledge about this language allowed me to understand it for the most part and hold a simple sentence conversation.

We set up camp in a spot Kalderan found suitable. I was curious about how he managed to survive in this world for so many years despite being such a low level and only those weapons of his, although, what made me curious was the actual process with which he managed to make them.

If the people of this world got a hold of gunpowder technology and modern weapons, then the next best thing to do was to find a way to protect ourselves against them and also a way to use them in combat against monsters.

We set up camp in a spot Kalderan found suitable. I was curious about how he managed to survive in this world for so many years despite being such a low level and only those weapons of his, although, what made me curious was the actual process with which he managed to make them.

If the people of this world got a hold of gunpowder technology and modern weapons, then the next best thing to do was to find a way to protect ourselves against them and also a way to use them in combat against monsters. I was not of the type to think that modern tech was bad, after all, I was a walking nuke launcher... What modern weapon could be worse than this? Biological ones could not even be made without the proper equipment and there were things like the Cure All plant, which basically made a lot of diseases and viruses not to be a threat anymore.

On the cold battlefield, I waited and waited for my husband to return. My gaze was focused on the land ahead, often switching to the sky above. Yet, there was no sign of that foolish man no matter where I looked.

My heart, although cold towards others, was burning for him like a bright fire in the middle of the night. For me, there was no other dragon I would rather be with. No matter their fame, no matter their lineage, they all paled in comparison with Alkelios.

These Dayuks were far weaker than those found in the Seculiar Forest. Actually, none of them had manes made out of metal needles, so I was wondering if they were indeed the same type of monsters in the first place.

Seeing them reminded me of the one I saw back when I first met my love, Seryanna. although it was the corrupted version, it was still far more powerful and fierce than these mutts. The difference in levels was probably huge.

From atop that cliff, the village was just a smudge on the horizon. By my guess, it was at a distance of at least ten kilometers away from where I stood. If I flew, I could easily reach it in a matter of minutes. If I ran through the forest, thanks to my agility and speed, I wouldn’t need more than half an hour.

True, I was rather eager to meet another human being, but when I remembered my previous encounters with Kronius Zevedar, I didn’t know what to expect anymore.

“You will die HERE!” growled the Skeletal Wyrm, but I ignored his worthless threat.

Razor-sharp bone spikes detached from its back and pointed their tips at me. In but a blink of an eye they hissed through the air, aiming for my heart.

The bone spears the monster threw at me were so slow I could easily change their path with a single nudge from my sword.

Upon hitting the ground around me, they rose a cloud of dust into the air. I jumped forward and slashed diagonally. The Skeletal Wyrm, which was only a gigantic animated spiky snake skeleton, didn’t had enough time to avoid my strike.

I did it... I thought as I was falling from the sky.

With that last burst of Magic Energy, I was completely depleted and wasn’t able to sustain my flight. The ground was approaching fast, and my only chance of survival if I didn’t want to end up a simple red splat on the ground was to drink a potion that would restore my Magic Energy.

“Come on!” I struggled against the wind as I took out a small blue bottle, but in my weakened state, I wasn’t able to hold on to it, and it flew out of my grasp “NO!” I screamed as I tried to catch it again, but it was to no avail.

Since this fellow wanted to start his murder spree with me, I decided to lure him out into an open area where I could fight unhindered. Although he could have stopped me from doing so, it did not seem to matter to him where we fought.

“Are you trying to avoid senseless killing?” he asked me on the way there.

“What of it?” I replied.

“It doesn’t matter, you know? Once I kill you, they will be following shortly after in Hell!” he laughed.

In this battle against the former human Alkelios, my job and duty were simple. All I had to do was help master Draejan get a better position so he could land the good strike on his foe. It was a combo attack I was forced to learn while traveling around the Dragon Continent to raise my level, see important strategic location, and to fight against various terrifying monsters. It was highly unlikely there was a dungeon I had yet to set foot in either Albeyater Kingdom or Embryger Empire.

When I first awakened to this ability, my master immediately ordered me to train it until I had complete control over it.