Greed God chapter 178

April 4th 2016 Brightedge City 12:00 PM EDT

I  was so excited to get out and wreak some havoc I headed down into the  tunnels under Brightedge without considering that they had drastically  changed from when they were below Gotham. Luckily for me, I found an  entrance pretty quickly. While the undercity had changed a bit, the  access points were still accessible from specific points, notably, very  low places and very old places.

It took me a bit of time  to track down a neighborhood of run down two stories in the older parts  of the city and search the basements for access. I hit pay dirt on the  fifth house (and got shot at by a meth addict in the third, though he  straight up booked when he realized bullets bounced off me). At the back  of an old basement, behind a torn up mattress leaned against the wall,  was a hole that led directly into a tunnel of dirt.

Following  the tunnel down a ways, the dirt let out into an old sewer tunnel paved  in brick. While this wasn't anywhere I recognized, I could follow it to  see if I could get access to some of the deeper reaches of the  undercity. Based on some of the text in the appraisal for Brightedge I  knew that the underground portions of the city would have changed and  would now contain new and hidden things. Maybe some ancient temples,  maybe some buried alien ruins, who the hell knew.

Because  of that there was no map I could consult or guide I could use. Despite  that, I was kind of pumped to look around. With my perfect recall I  wouldn't get lost, and I was strong enough as a D rank dragonkin that I  wasn't worried about fucking mole people or anything. Unless I ran into a  kryptonian or something I would at least be able to get away. I was a  literal wrecking ball when I wanted to be. Primal Force was nothing to  fuck with.

I wandered around for another hour before I  found an offshoot that led me through another dirt tunnel, and finally  out onto what appeared to be an...underground street? I knew Gotham had  some places underground where houses and streets had sunk and people  used them for living sometimes, but this was another level. I'd been  wandering down this whole time without noticing, and after an hour had  gotten deep enough for there to be a serious cavern here.

The  street wasn't just one layer of buildings, it was four or five. Houses  on top of houses on top of shops and restaurants, and the whole place  was FULL of people. I could see several dozen fae for sure, but some of  them were weird science experiment looking things that I was pretty sure  were formerly human. I could see metallic parts and grafted limbs, and  even a few reanimated corpses stitched together with sutures with  strange looking scientific generators and gizmos in them.

Was  this a group of people from under Metropolis? Or some kind of new  subset of underground dwellers created in the merge? Could that even  happen? I hadn't really been able to consider all the ramifications of  merging a whole fucking city, and I still wasn't sure how it had worked.  Still, I'd found some of the local fae at least, and that meant my plan  to question them about my mother could begin.

So, to fit  in better, I let the Primal Force inside me spill over a bit. I went  with my partial hybrid form. Antlers and fangs, draconic eyes and clawed  five fingered hands with scales up to the elbow. Plus wings, because  the way they draped over me like a cloak was fucking awesome. With all  this, it should be impossible to mistake me for a regular human. Then I  followed the nearest elements of the crowd into what was pretty  obviously a bar.

The inside of the place was surprisingly  crowded. Low light, smoky atmosphere (though smoke from WHAT I couldn't  actually tell) and lots of low murmurs. The furniture was pretty  haphazard and looked scavenger from random places, but it was functional  at least. The bartop itself seemed to have been here to begin with, and  despite being slightly singed and pitted with what I was pretty sure  were laser burn holes, it was mostly in decent condition.

Behind  it towered an absolutely massive grey form, eight feet tall if he was  an inch and with craggy rocky skin. A quick appraisal confirmed this was  a rock troll named Bridger. I had a quick chuckle at his name before I  strolled up to the bar, ignoring all the other patrons, and reached into  my pouch to drop a few low end gems on the bar top. The clink of the  stones on the unevenly polished surface didn't exactly silence the whole  bar, but it definitely made an impact.

Bridger looked  down at the gems, then up at my horns and scales, and I watch him add  two and two and come up with an asskicking if he started shit. He raised  a green, mosslike brow. "Ain't been less than a century since I served  one o' the scalefolk, leastwise one quite as pure as yourself. Beggin'  your pardon o' course, but might ye do me the pleasure of tellin' me yer  name? And either wise what can I be gettin' ye"

I smiled,  showing WAY too many teeth. "Call me Lord. I'm down here looking for a  few things. One of those is information, one is a decent drink. This  seemed like the kind of place where I might find both. As for the  latter...surprise me. You seem like a worldy sort. I'm sure you know  what's good in stock better than I do." I pushed the gems toward him.  "You can keep the change."

Not that I was worried he would  rip me off. Bridger the rock troll would tell me what I wanted to know,  or he'd get my taloned foot up his stony ass. There was no option  three. If he actually didn't know shit...well I'd figure it out when it  came up. He was old based on that comment though, so I wasn't exactly  worried he was completely in the dark. At the very least he could tell  me the name of someone who might know better."

Bridged  shoots me a grin, exposing flat stone teeth that gleamed like obsidian.  "Well now, aren't ye polite for a dragonkin." He turned to reach into a  crate behind the bar, digging around to the clink of bottles before  pulling one out and blowing it off. "Somethin' appropriate then." He  pulled out an amber yellow mug and popped the cork on the bottle,  pointing it away from him to avoid the puff of smoke from the top before  he tipped it into the glass.

A waterfall of something  that looked halfway between lava and molten gold gushed from the  bottle's opening, surprisingly watery in consistency. He topped off the  glass nice and full and pushed it over to me, being extremely careful  not to let any slosh over and get on him. "Shaltegrim's Hoard. Dragon  brandy. Ye'll never find a drink more suited to yer kind. It's real gold  from a dragon's trove, melted with dragon's breath in a secret  alchemical process. Only certain species can even drink it and it's  always a risk, exceptin' them what it was made for o' course."

The  glass was...entrancing. The way the liquid bubbled and shifted. Like a  golden version of quicksilver mixed with liquid sunshine. The smell was  amazing too, like fire and treasure and the roar of victory. I didn't  even know how the hell I could smell that last one, but I could, and it  was divine. I gave him a nod, picked up the glass, and tipped it back,  taking a long swallow of the elixir inside.

My eyes  widened as a torrent of blazing energy rolled down my throat. Power and  joy and strength and fury mixing together into a cascade of unimaginable  glory rolling over my tongue and bringing with it a thousand flavors  that all belonged to things I couldn't understand. I tasted sorrow and  elation and heartbreak and several other emotions I couldn't even put  names to, mixed in with the flavors of a thousand of my favorite foods.

I  finished swallowing, realizing I had lost track of what was happening,  and stared wide eyed at Bridger, whose grin had widened. "Aye. Always an  experience seein' a dragon taste the hoard. Now, while ye enjoy your  draft, why not ask me about this information ye came seekin'. I can't as  promise I can give it to ye, but I can certainly try my best." He eyed  the gems greedily. "Maybe ye find yer way to leavin' me a more generous  compensation if ye feel my information is up to it. Though I'm not  insistin' o' course."

Taking another sip, I reveled in the  feeling of conquering nations. Whichever dragon created this shit was  absolutely fantastic. Out of curiosity, I appraised the bottle that was  still on the counter out of the corner of my eye.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Shaltegrim's Hoard- E-ranked  Dragon Brandy. A specialty brandy made from gold and dragon fire by the  dragon alchemist Shaltegrim. A distillation of his life's work this  brandy uses the principles of infused intentions to intoxicate  Shaltegrim's draconic kin with feelings of victory and domination. Also  has the effect of strengthening scales over time when consumed.]

Huh.  This stuff was E rank right out of the bottle. Impressive. Also no  fucking wonder I felt so powerful. I surreptitiously checked on my  scales, wondering if they had improved yet. I couldn't see too much  difference, but it did say over time. I'd have to check back in a while  to see if something had changed. "Before we start, any chance I could  buy that bottle off you?" I wanted some of this shit to take home. I  might be able to make something like it myself or barring that merge it  into a much bigger supply. It would be expensive but I'd spend that for a  comprehensive upgrade to my scales.

Bridger looked  amused, at least until I started withdrawing and laying out G ranked  gems. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, multiple powerful stones I had in  stock from my trip to Gemworld. I didn't have too many of these around,  but Amy and I could make a trip back to stock up whenever. I had more  than a few earth products in mind that I wanted to set up distribution  channels for, and being paid in gemstones worked well for me.

After  a few stones, he hesitated, but eventually grunted his assent. "Oh,  aye. I suppose so. Ye happen to be the first of yer kin I've seen in  quite a while, and as I said, most things can't drink it and survive."  His tone was magnanimous but his eyes were greedily drinking in the  mystically empowered stones. I had to try not to laugh. Utility or not  trading a bunch of G ranked rocks for an E ranked bottle of booze was a  hell of a deal on my part. An extra hundred thousand points was a nice  addition to my total.

With that taken care of I slipped  the bottle into my pouch with satisfaction. I liked it down here. These  people knew their places. I grinned widely at Bridger. "I appreciate it.  Now, for the reason I was down here. I'm looking for information on  someone called the might behind the mirror. Though you guys might know  as Tsaritsa." Everything stopped. If there'd been a record player it  would have scratched. Putting down the gems hadn't derailed the whole  bar exactly, but asking about Tsaritsa had. An eerie quiet had descended  over the bar as a whole. Unfortunately all the faces around me had  turned decidedly less friendly, even Bridger...well it would be  unfortunate for them anyway.