Alexander the Dragon Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - At the scene of the crime

We arrived at the area where the clash between Pinea the dryad and the corrupted treant had begun. I was coming down from my high now, but not too quickly that I couldn’t savor my accomplishments.

I had leveled up twice in one day, which was blisteringly fast even at these early levels. In my studies, most creatures would gain a level in their Class or Subtype once every month or two months. Even at the beginning levels. I was breaking barriers with my pace.

I supposed having the stats of a dragon gave me more leverage than most other creatures. Additionally, I was placing myself in extraordinary scenarios with high level challenges. That had definitely been the case with facing the corrupted treant. Maybe it had been less so against the boar, but I figured the System might’ve given me a bonus for fighting a higher level enemy and risking spell failure to cast Lightning Pulse. That had been a unique scenario most adventurers in their right mind would’ve avoided. Most creatures fought enemies or prey below their level.

Perhaps more of my father’s gung-ho attitude had rubbed off on me than I’d initially thought. Nonetheless, my mood was high in the clouds. Then it gradually dropped as I looked at the scene of destruction that had once been an open field of flowers.

It was all tarnished now.

There had been little babbling brooks that flowed through and water the field. Now the brooks were filled with defilement and poisonous sludge. Stuff that only the corrupted miasma could conjure from the aether with a touch. There had been patches of bountiful flowers here. It was all trampled. Desecrated. Left in a field of decay where nothing good shall grow.

The miasma still lingered, too, until King Jaden called upon the Heavens to shine bright golden beams down on the mess. He cleansed what he could, but it was too late to reverse the damage. It could take many years for the natural mana of the land to revert the field back to its former glory.

At the center of it all was a wide and deep hole. I peered down into its depths and found the remains of torn roots. This had been the place the treant rooted itself before it became corrupted. We were at the heart of the issue now. We just needed to find some evidence to lead us to a resolution.

“Forgive me if I’m imposing, Alexander,” the King said. “But I need you to change into your human form now.”

I sniffed in an act of arrogance, giving myself time to think. I noticed the tone in the King’s voice was not suggestive. I decided to hold back from questioning him and looked inward. I stuffed away the insecurities crawling around at the back of my mind and ignored the cooling furnace in my chest.

“I’ve done it once already,” I grumbled. “Twice, actually. To test if clothing transferred over. It does. It is still strange. But I digress, here I am. Alexander the human.”

I used my Skill: Shift Between.

System magic worked differently than spells. It was almost instantaneous. Like pushing a little rock with my claw. All that it required was the appropriate amount of mana. I still had plenty even if my core was halfway empty after all the spell casting.

Magic flames rushed up from my paws and around my body with a whoosh. I felt the embers weave between my scales and brush against every fiber of my being. My bones shifted and shriveled. My scales flaked off into ash that swirled away into the aether. New skin grew to replace the scales. But it wasn’t enough to cover a dragon. No, it was reserved for what I would become as my frame continued to shrink. The muscles changing, contracting, preparing to serve a different entity that was still me. Then the six seconds came to an end with a flourish, the flames flashing away as my curly black hair sprouted. The tunic, leggings, and boots snapped onto me as if they had always meant to be there.

I stood awkwardly, still not used to standing on two thin little legs. The world around me was vastly different. The ground was closer. The sky was farther away and unreachable. King Jaden was now a head taller than me. Even Pinea’s eyes were a few inches above my own eye level.

I shifted back and forth while holding my right elbow with my left hand, trying to shrink into myself to disappear. Being a human was so … pathetic.

“Oh, wow,” King Jaden said.

I looked away, waiting for disapproval.

“My son’s handsome,” he said.

Wait, what?

He drew closer and clasped his rough hand on my shoulder, cradling Rocky in the other arm. “Heavens, boy, you got the best features of your mom and me. You’re going to grow up into a lady killer.”

“I don’t want to kill ladies,” I muttered. That sounded inefficient for a courting and mating strategy. Did King Jaden have to battle women before they were allowed to join his bed? I supposed that would make sense with Tiamat.

“Heh. You know what. We’ll talk about this more later. I’m glad you listened to me.”

“You sounded serious.”

“I would’ve explained if you asked. The reason why I needed your smaller form is to look at foot tracks. Maybe catch something left behind.”

Oh! Of course! In my dragon form, I would’ve stomped all over any clues or tracks we could’ve followed. I wanted to kick myself for not thinking about that, especially when I considered myself well read in the legends of heroes and villains.

“What are we looking for?” I asked, searching the area hastily.

The King glanced around. “Anything that stands out a little. Even if it’s mundane. It could be small stuff beyond just tracks. Pinea can help you if you’re willing to accept her bad Common.”

I turned to the dryad. “You can speak Common?”

She nodded shyly. I was irritated that she hadn’t done so earlier. It probably showed on my face since I wasn’t good at controlling human expressions. There was no choice in letting the issue go.

“Well, I will be satisfied with whatever you can tell me. I have no doubt my fey-speak will be an atrocious crime to all languages. But it will still be worth the attempt. How else will anyone get better?”

“Then you wouldn’t mind trading pointers on fey-speak with her then?” The King said with a gleaming smile.

I tilted my head up, which felt natural even as a human. Some things transferred over regardless of the body. “I’ll gladly take on the challenge.”

King Jaden left me and Pinea to search around and learn whatever we could. He took Rocky as his partner, which I thought was more so for Rocky’s benefit since she was starting to fall asleep. It was her nappy time, which I might’ve found adorable if she wasn’t drooling all over our father’s shoulder now. Her being a slobberer was a small point against her. Just a small one.

“This field. Cleanse flower. Good against the bad funk.” Pinea did her best to speak to me. I encouraged her to use her natural tongue as well so I could learn while also patient with her attempt at Common.

From what I could gather, this field was home to an important flower. A cleansing sort. In fact, it was good against the same corruption that had destroyed it.

I felt a wrinkle in my brain as I turned over Pinea’s words and looked around. By mere chance, I found one of those flowers on the edge where the field met the forest.

“This. This.” Pinea pointed, crouching down.

I joined her and looked over the lone survivor. It had a tall green stem, a pink bud, and petals that shifted from pink at the middle to white on the edges. The floral scent it gave off was strong and herbal. With a few sniffs, I felt my nostrils clear of the lingering funk of the corruption that had plagued this place. Looking back at the damaged field, I noticed now that the area was scarred with dents and ruts. The dents would’ve matched the size of the treant’s feet. The ruts could’ve been left behind by the lashes.

“Pinea, where did the treant start chasing you?” I asked slowly.

Pinea pointed down the way we came. “I come. Looked. It saw me. Chase.”

“It was already active in destroying this place, then.” I stood up and looked around the field.

Outside of this area and the trail of destruction we’d followed, there weren’t any other signs of damages. This place was the origins of the corrupted treant, but I couldn’t grasp how or why it would focus so much on attacking the field.

I waved at King Jaden for his assistance. When he came over, I pointed at the lone flower.

“Do you know what this plant is?” I asked him.

He traded a few words in fey-speak that I tried to pay close attention to. I noticed there was a section of words surrounding the flower that could be its original name. King Jaden translated a moment later:

“The Loving Flower of Purity.” He stroked his chin. “I know about it. Well, I should know about it. It’s a very important import from the Charmed Forest the sprites trade to us. It’s one of key ingredients to our Advenire Cleansing Potion. We stock up on that stuff when going on campaigns to keep the corruption at bay among the ranks.”

“What would happen if the imports are cut off?” I asked.

“I’m not sure. Maybe the court alchemist could find a substitute.” The King grimaced, making it obvious that he wasn’t the expert in that arena. I wasn’t an expert either, but I figured it would be difficult to alter a recipe that worked for many. Trying to find a new one that could be less efficient, costly, and time consuming.

“It’s a strong flower. For cleansing. Good.” Pinea said with more emotion, clasping onto my forearm. Her eyes radiated a violet light as she gazed with deep emotion into my face. “Supposed to protect. Not ruin. Not good.”

Rocky snapped awake with a start. She was still in a daze as she blinked and looked around. Her eyes settled on the flower as she took in some big sniffs. “Pretty flower smells nice. Way better than the bad stuff. Keep the pretty flowers.” She returned to her napping.

“I think I can piece it together from here,” I said. “The treant was supposed to be the guardian of this important product of the Charmed Forest. It was corrupted and turned into an attacker, destroying the very resource that could be pivotal for our campaigns. I imagine this isn’t the only field with the Loving Flowers of Purity. But it could be the start of a bigger plot.”

All of those words came out in a rush. My brain was lit up and bright from the thrill of putting together a mystery.

It was a strange mystery. Most adventures dealt with mysterious monsters terrorizing a village and trying to figure out the hiding place of the monsters and how it conducted its hunts. Half the time, the monster was amid the villagers the whole time, hiding behind a human form. I supposed those stories were popular because they dealt directly with the fears of the wider populace.

This mystery, however, was more layered, more nuanced. If my theory was correct, this was a problem that could dismantle our greatest fighting force against the Corrupted West. I looked at King Jaden’s face for confirmation, but his expression was a stone mask that I found … scary. Worrisome.

Had I been wrong? Should I apologize?

“There are no tracks. No other evidence. I checked around.” His words came out cold.

He lost me now. What could we do without tracks or more clues to follow?

“Whelp, I think I know how this is going to end now,” he said with a sigh. Then a small smile lit up his face, which was a comfort to see. “Alexander, you have a new skill, right? You’re Level 5 now.”

“Ah, well, yes.” I looked at him strangely for the change of subject but didn’t make a fuss. “It’s Common Quality, however. It’s called Swipe.”

[Swipe (Common) - This Common Quality Skill delivers a swiping attack with your body. It uses both stamina and mana to hit with more impact than normal. Each swipe has a one second cooldown between uses.]

I grimaced after explaining the new skill. It was an ability any common beast would have. It was almost embarrassing, really. This was the reason I wanted to learn wizardry. The system could dump anything on me and I wouldn’t have much of a say against the trash I could receive.

“Now, now, don’t sell the skill short because it’s Common Quality. To the Hells, boy, that’s the fun part of having the System. Getting what others call trash and training it up to become bigger and better in the later levels.”

“I could get a different skill in the next five levels. Or in the next ten levels.”

“True. You could. But the System will also take notice of the skills you already have and can give you nifty upgrades. If you play around with them enough.”

I snorted. “Why would I want upgrades for Swipe?”

“As a useful attack option when your enemies get in your face and you can’t always wizard your way out of the problem.” The King slowly removed Rocky’s sleeping form from his body and handed her gently to Pinea, whose tree-trunk armor shifted and softened for Rocky’s sake. Then the King pulled out a knife from his dimensional storage  and waved for me to follow him out into the desecrated field. “You can shift back to your dragon form. Or you can show me the Heavens and Hells one.”

The Heavens and Hells form was even stranger. It had an in-built spell I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to use. The implications were troubling. I supposed I could get the King’s opinion, but I was already shifting back to my dragon form because it was more comfortable for me.

Just like before, magical flames sparked into existence and roared over my body. The flames grew taller and thicker like a raging bonfire. My skin peeled off as flakes. Scales replaced the weaker flesh. My bones shifted, snapped, and crunched with greater girth. My frame expanded with new muscles filling in the empty areas. I grew mightier, greater, and more secure with my own health. Six seconds passed with me slamming down on all four paws, dragon head held high with my wings spread fully. I whipped my tail behind me vigorously as I looked down at my father, his stature drastically reduced compared to this proper form of mine.

He had an odd and funny look on his face. “Magical girl transformation.”

“What?”

“Ignore that,” he quickly said. “Listen to these words: we’re going to have a big fight by the end of today. So I need to know you got what it takes.”

I stomped all my paws and snapped my tail some more. My blood boiled, my chest burned. I was more than ready as I huffed small streams of smoke and fire.

“Now that’s a face a father can love.” He raised his knife. It was a long blade with one sharp edge and a thick spine. It covered his forearm while he held it in the reverse grip. “You have a spell now. Prepare it and then attack me using mundane strikes mixed with your Swipe Skill. You can throw in your dragon blasts in the mix, too.”

I nodded eagerly. Before I got started, I shifted my free points to my other stats. +5 to Endurance to raise it from 45 to 50. +1 to Might, raising it to 50. +2 to Attunement to raise it to 50 as well. I figured having more Endurance would be important in a mock duel against the Adventurer King. It was also kind of him to let me prepare my spell.

There was nothing different about having a System-recognized Spell other than one factor. Once I conducted the same ritual of raising the necessary mana output and formulating the symbols in my head, I ordered the System to lock it. Thus, it would be considered prepared, alleviating me of the burden of concentration. A section of myself would be devoted to maintaining the spell, storing it for later. The hard part was judging if I had room to repeat the process and prepare another charge of Lightning Pulse.

I decided to be ambitious and prepare a second Lightning Pulse. I strained against my limitations, of course. Regardless of my prior success, I was still lifting a boulder the size of my body spiritually. But I managed it somehow without failure and locked in another version of the same spell. I felt a little more wrung out and mentally weighed down, but after a minute of calm breathing, I regained some of my composure.

“I wouldn’t have been given so much time in a real fight,” I said.

“Then let this be a lesson to always be prepared before a fight finds you,” the King said with a smirk. “Are you finally ready?”

I answered that cheeky question with a lunge. My right forepaw came down like a falling boulder ready to cave in the head of a prey animal. I held nothing back against the Adventurer King, and he didn’t disappoint.

He used the flat of his knife to knock aside my first blow before turning quickly to intercept my second paw strike from my left. Each glancing impact between my claws and his knife rang loud and clear across the desecrated field.

My opening volley of attacks was no bother to him, which I expected. I wondered how that would change when I activated my Swipe Skill in between the volley.

One forepaw surged forward with a burst of speed and power that was nearly surprising. I was almost jerked into the attack since I wasn’t exactly prepared for the extra output and how instantaneous it felt. I suspected if I was surprised, the King would be, too.

That was far from the case. He smoothly pivoted to the side and dodged my skill-enhanced attack altogether. The lack of impact threw me forward, leaving me exposed on my flank. I felt a hand press against my ribcage before my entire body was violently thrown to the side and sent tumbling like a runaway log bounding down a hill.

“Another lesson among the many I’m too lazy to number. Always make sure to hit your mark if you’re going to commit to something stronger than usual. Or you’ll get caught out of position and take a counter you might not be able to walk off.”

I nodded my head as I returned to standing on all four paws. My body was coated in the smudge left behind by the miasma even after the worst of it was cleansed away. I would’ve thought myself dirty if I wasn’t quick to lunge back into the fight, leading with a blazing burp.

My strange fire breath came out with a whoop and crackle that the King cut in half with a swipe of his knife. I pressed forward and slammed a paw down at his head like usual. He deflected like usual, but this time I insisted with the same paw, pressing it against him instead of striking a second time. The moment he moved his arm to block, I grabbed hold and jerked him toward me.

“Lightning Pulse! Lightning Pulse!” I chanted, doubling up on the spell with a back-to-back attack.

I gleefully took in the look of surprise on my father’s face as a current of lightning shot through my paw and into his body. The high whine of crackling energy lasted twice as long, chaining together the two attacks.

It was a satisfying maneuver.

It was also a dangerous one. I was flirting with spell failure again.

Even with the System’s assistance in locking in the prepared spells for me, unleashing spells back to back risked overheating. When facing magical overheat, all spell uses become more inefficient and costly. The same Lightning Pulse I was mastering before could cost me more if I was suffering overheat. If I failed to meet the new demands, I would face a backlash similar to what I suffered earlier today. Or worse.

For this occasion, I might’ve gotten lucky and avoided overheating.

“Ballsy, boy,” the King said after taking two direct spell casts that would’ve fried up a Level 30 monster no doubt. Of course, King Jaden was far, far stronger than that.

“Why didn’t you use your Swipe?” he asked.

“I didn’t want to risk overheating,” I said, gasping. I might’ve avoided overheating, but I was worn down from the successful attempt.

“Sure, okay. But that was during lightning magic. Right when you finished using both spells, you could’ve added a Swipe for good measure. You wouldn’t overheat using a skill by itself.”

He was right. I supposed I was so satisfied with my double casts that I didn’t think of following up.

To emphasize his point, the King reversed the grapple and held my forepaw tight in his grip. The world whirled around in my vision as he flipped me onto my back. The slam was hard and jarring, but I could still recover well enough.

I tried to roll out of the situation and reply with a Swipe, but he was already jumping me. He mounted my neck, the point of his knife pressed to the softer scales against my throat.

“Don’t stop unless you’ve defeated your foe. Most defeats end with death. Most enemies are worth seeing dead. Don’t stop, okay?”

I nodded my head slowly. “I will retain this lesson for the rest of my days, Father.”

“Atta, boy.” He dropped down from my neck. “We got a bit more time. Try to practice mixing in regular swipes with your Swipe Skill. Then we’ll take a break. Eat. And see this adventure finished by tonight.”

“How do you know it’ll finish tonight?” I asked as I raised up on my hind legs, my fore paws poised like some draconic pugilist.

“I have a solid hunch. Your theory on the flower and this whole scenario is giving me a good idea on where to find the culprits. They really screwed themselves over by not leaving any tracks to follow.”

I found that curious. I was glad that my theory was serviceable to the Adventurer King, but I couldn’t imagine how he would know the culprits when they themselves left no evidence. Who could corrupt a treant purposefully and get away without leaving a trace, all while having important potion ingredients destroyed?

That would require a crafty and sneaky enemy.

Hm. Curious, indeed.