Chapter 2 - Interfaces and Bounties

Chapter 2

Unknown forest, location unclear.

Campsite.

Samantha tossed another branch into the fire, and settled back on her log, which she was currently using as a chair. She'd turned back into her human form for ease of movement, and thankfully it seemed everything she had on this body when she'd switched to the dragon one had been safeguarded, including her clothes. Oddly enough, she could see just fine outside of what she assumed would be the fire's circle of light, which meant that she had a form of night vision, which was very nice.

They'd spent a few minutes gathering wood, with Samantha picking up branches, and Anabelle simply felling a tree with a spell, then having her slice it into logs in her dragon form. They'd then assembled their campfire, and Anabelle had hastily declined teaching Samantha how to use her fire breath, and lit the fire with a simple spell -at least it seemed simple, the diagram was tiny and there weren't many runes on it.

"So, your interface." Said Anabelle as she raised her hands above the fire. It was a bit odd, the girl seemed to be cold, in fact she had been slightly shivering by the time they'd lit the fire, but Samantha felt just fine. Maybe it was due to her nature as a great dragon, whatever form she was inhabiting. "It's...I didn't understand the terms, but the way I was told to explain it to you was 'think of an old, intuitive-adaptative interface, then layer some hardwired systems, and you have your interface. Logistics, monitoring, everything you need is in it.'"

Samantha blinked.

"That...does make sense to me." She frowned. Intuitive-adaptative interfaces were indeed old. Well, they were still in use, but now you usually just connected to an AI, and they fitted an interface directly according to your preferences and reflexes. The intuitive-adaptative interface did the same thing, but using a non-sapient program that slowly adapted to your input using good old machine learning. It was slower, but the end result was more or less the same. "So, how do I turn it on ?"

"You can use your voice, but my teachers recommended using your mind. I have to agree, it's much more practical, and smoother."

Samantha nodded. Neural interfaces were always more effective than voice commands. Then she froze.

"Wait, do you have an interface too ?"

The girl shook her head.

"No, only the high priests, and important people have them. But I can interact with the temple's when I'm withing it's precincts."

"Ah." That made sense. Sort of like a ship network, the giant system that kept the systems of a warship working together. "Well, here goes nothing." She focused, and then tried to connect to the interface the same way she would have used her implants.

And instantly, her vision was filled with a screen covered in icons.

"Okay, I'm in ! There's, uh...a whole bunch of options here."

"Right. Let's start with the simple one. There's an icon with a human silhouette surrounded by light. If you think about it, it'll give you access to your metamorphosis menu."

Samantha focused on the icon, and she was suddenly...aware of things. It was weird, like when she connected directly to the tactical computer of her flagship, or communed with it's AI. It wasn't that she read the information, she just knew it. And she knew the detailed status of all her forms, what they had with them, and if they were ready to deploy. She took a few seconds to take it all in, before selecting her elf form. She hesitated to use the dragon one, but she didn't want to demolish the log she was on.

Her vision whited out, and she looked down at herself.  Indeed, Syranis did like them stacked. Although this time her skin was a pure white, almost like marble. She heard Anabelle's cough, and smiled as her advisor pointedly looked at the sky, and switched back to her human form.

"There, you can look down. So okay, I can use it. What's next ?"

"Next are the bounties." She sighed. "Her divinity said she would tell you the basics...Alright, so, you know what bounties are, basically ?"

Samantha nodded as she hid a smile. She had a feeling that Syranis had been perfectly honest...but considered her mission to be the 'basics', and expected the poor girl to explain the little details. Like say, how magic worked, that kind of thing.

"Yes. You get paid to accomplish an objective. Usually it's retrieve or destroy someone or an object."

"Exactly ! Well, dragon bounties as we call them, aren't that different. See, the people that tend to accumulate the most...sedimented essence of creation, that can't be taken through prayer and such, are usually pretty powerful. Plus, on top of that, there is a lot of stuff and artifacts the Gods, for various reasons, wouldn't like in the hands of their current owners. As such, they put up dragon bounties, with an artifact, whoever is possessing it, and a bunch of information. In exchange for it's capture they will pay you a bounty. And then they will pay you a daily subsidy if you keep it as part of your hoard. That way not only it effectively takes dangerous artifacts out of circulation -or at least ones that a deity doesn't want to see around-, but it also lures people to you !"

Samantha blinked, and frowned. The bounty and subsidy sounded nice, but...

"What are the bounties and subsidies paid in ? And isn't that, like, super dangerous ? I mean, obviously people will try and stop me from taking them, but I don't want a target painted on my back for every greedy asshole on the planet to aim for." She'd already had that when her industrial consortium had become so successful, and people tried to kidnap her for a juicy ransom. There was a reason why her maids, before she got into the navy, had more implanted weapons than some coalition marines.

"The payment varies. Sometimes it's in gems, precious metals, that sort of things. Sometimes it's pure essence and boons. Others it's knowledge, spell books, grimoires, enchanted objects, ect. It depends heavily on the God that put the bounty up, and a lot of other factors. But usually it's well worthwhile. And don't worry, they won't kill you. As long as you pay them a dragongeld that is."

"A dragon..." Samantha blinked, and dredged up her old Earth history knowledge. One of the disadvantages of hailing from humanity's homeworld was having to absorb a metric fuckton of historical knowledge on it's cultures and ancient history. Mostly because every damned colony out there who had taken inspiration from one of those cultures expected you to know everything there is to know about it. Because, you know, you were from the motherworld ! You had to know !

After a few seconds, she finally found the echo of familiarity that had made her look. The danegeld, a bribe/tribute during the medieval ages to pay off the vikings so they would fuck off and do something else. Worked horribly, since the danegeld basically just funded the next viking attack.

"It's...a bribe. A tribute."

"Essentially, yes. Fortunately, the Gods, while not intervening directly, do show their disfavor for those that kill dragons, and even more for those that try to squeeze them dry with dragongelds. So as long as you're canny, you should be able to get out with your life and most of your hoard."

"I...see." For some reason, the thought of loosing some of her non-existent treasure made her furious. She had always hated losing assets, but usually not to this degree. She was the I'm-going-to-hire-assassins-to-kill-your-friends type of vengeful bitch, not the I'm-going-to-nuke-your-hometown type. And yet she had the urge to incinerate everyone and everything that ever knew the bastards that would DARE-

She shook her head, and suppressed the thoughts and emotions that had almost gotten out of control. Reflexes indeed, this whole 'great dragon thing' did seem to come with a few strings attached. Maybe that was why she wasn't curled up in a ball crying about all she had lost. Although she had already made her peace when she'd retreated to the PDC, so there was that.

"Well, there's no point worrying about that for now." Said Anabelle. Her tone made Samantha look up, and her eyebrows rose at the girl's slightly terrified look. It seemed like some of her emotions had slipped through. "There's also one last thing. Depending on the total value of your hoard, regardless of if there are bounty items or not, you'll also receive a daily subsidy from the Celestial bureaucracy."

They had a bureaucracy ? May whatever being created this universe have mercy on her, she hated bureaucrats. Not the military kind, even the worst of pencil pushers in the Coalition had at least some modicum of training, but the pure civilian ones were a royal pain in the ass. Or maybe that was her French heritage speaking.

"That's...interesting. So I'm just encouraged to have a giant pile of everything in my pocket dimension ?"

"Uh, no. Your pocket dimension has a limited capacity. That's one of the reasons dragon holds exist in the first place."

"Dragon holds ?"

Anabelle sighed, but at least didn't curse her goddess.

"It's where great dragons put their domain stones, and store their hoard. Or at least part of it, since most great dragons have several holds. They're...basically forts crossed with bank vaults. Some are gigantic fortresses, while others are a small castle on top of a giant hole filled with gold. It depends on the great dragon and their resources."

"That's...fascinating actually. Wait, how do they build those ?"

Anabelle shrugged.

"Depends. Some dragons pledge to protect some towns and cities in exchange for manpower and resources. Some on the other hand extort them. There's also always the option of just hiring builders and mercenaries. Lastly, a lot of dragons make contracts with the dwarves."

Samantha tilted her head, making a note that there were indeed fantasy races.

"The dwarves ?"

"Yes, the dwarves. They run a lot of manufacturing and banking stuff, and as such they're always in need of secure sources of investment. The banks in particular love to make contract with great dragons. In exchange for help, usually building and manning dragon holds, they get to use the dragon's hoard to guarantee loans against, or in some contracts outright loan some of it. Everybody wins, the bank gets a massive stack of currency to use for their business, and the great dragon gets their hold built and secured with little cost to themselves."

Samantha blinked. That was...not what she expected. In all the fantasy stories she'd read, dwarves hated dragons. Usually because they took all of their gold and precious artifacts, and since they tended to live in the same mountains, feeding off of their herds. She hadn't expected them to be on good terms.

"That...wasn't what I expected. Do other races do this ?"

"All those that can, yes. A lot of nations also try to make deals when they can. But dwarves are usually those that succeed, because they have the best fortresses, and they're really, really loyal. It's very rare for a dwarf to betray the great dragon they are helping, and usually their comrades stop them before they can do anything."

"I see...Well, that was fascinating. And now, what am I supposed to do ?"

"What do you mean ?"

"Well, I'm a great dragon. Sure, I know how to sustain myself now, but I don't think standing around eating elks is going to get me anywhere. I have a mission, and I need to get started. So, do I need to create a domain stone ?"

Anabelle shook her head.

"Not yet. You're too young, and quite frankly not powerful enough. A domain stone takes a lot of power, and takes a serious toll on the great dragon that creates it. I think it'd be better if you and I roamed the land together for a while, to build up your knowledge and power."

"So, going adventuring ?"

"In a way, yes, I suppose. Although you'll understand if I don't recommend joining the adventurer guild just yet."

"I have no idea what it is. Well, I have some idea, but I doubt it'll be accurate."

"I'll explain on the way. But, if you are so eager to do something..." She smiled. "Let's teach how to fly then."

Oh this was going to be fun.