28 Dragon-chan’s trip, part 4: A real challenge?

I used {Gate} to return to the capital of Ordesia, whereupon I went to the adventurer's guild to sell some more of my Golems. When I got there, however, I was asked to meet with the Queen of Ordesia, and she happened to have time for me at that exact time. I shrugged and went over to the castle.

"I thank you for meeting me on such short notice. I heard about how you, on your own, defeated an Adamantite Golem, and I wanted to meet you. As you also exposed the crimes of a Duke, you seem to have either an uncanny sense for conspiracies, or just extraordinary luck. In either case, I'd like to ask you to resolve another problem my country is facing. You see, there's an evil spirit named Ashdoll, which is sealed underneath the mountain north of the capital, and is stronger than an Ancient Dragon. As you are strong enough to command Ancient Dragons, you are the only one I can ask to defeat it. Normally, the seal would be renewed every fifty years, but... the only ones who can do so are ones with a certain family's blood, and that family got wiped out by a cult that worships the evil spirit a few months ago. The seal will come undone in a week, and there's nobody but you strong enough to take it down that could get here in time" (Queen)

"I will see what I can do. After all, if it is stronger than an Ancient Dragon, it's something that'd need all of the countries on the entire continent to work together to deal with, unless they want to risk destruction themselves... however, there's the problem that it's an evil spirit, meaning that it can get stronger by absorbing other spirits, including the souls of humans. That means that if it wipes out half an army of that scale, it'd get several hundred times stronger... It might even get strong enough to be a challenge for me..." (Nene)

"I didn't know about it being able to absorb spirits and souls... that could mean that we need to evacuate the area around it more thoroughly and a larger area than planned. I'll get right on tha-" (Queen)

"Don't worry, I have the means to trap it and myself in a temporary space, our own little dimension, for us to fight it out. I'll even... yeah, I'll make and give you something to let you watch the battle, though I would like it if you would be the only one to watch it. I guess you could have a select few you trust watch with you, but... I might show off a secret I really would hate to have spread around, though I'll have to reveal it in a few dozen years. Anyways, if you try to do a rushed evacuation on a scale large enough to make enough of a difference, the panic that would ensue would provide a similar amount of power for it" (Nene)

"Mind if I ask something? How do you know about this stuff?" (Queen)

"To put it simply, it's because my family had a similar problem a few hundred years ago... maybe more like a thousand... and so we've preserved the information that we obtained in case of us needing to do the same thing after a few generations" (Nene)

"A thousand years ago... that'd be... No... No... it can't be..." (Queen)

"What's wrong? What did you figure out?" (Court Magician)

"The only spirit that I know of that broke free of its seal in the last 2000 years was the one that was intentionally let free so it could be destroyed by the family that sealed it every 500 years, the Drachen Imperial Family... Could you be... a remnant of the Imperial Family whose Empire collapsed 700 years ago?" (Queen)

"Well... yes, I am, save for one thing: the Empire was alive and well less than a year ago. I am Nene Drachen, the Empress of the Drachen Empire... and one of the few survivors of it. Regardless, I'll deal with that spirit for you. I'm hoping it'll entertain me for a few hours, I haven't had a challenge since... well, I guess when I was trying to hide the fact that I was the princess while I was an adventurer at the tender age of five and a bit, but that was challenging to my skills at deception, not combat" (Nene)

After that, we hammered out the reward for this, she gave me the rights to live on the mountain for the next two weeks, and I went over there to scout out the situation, leaving one of my summons behind to guard her and inform her of my fight starting when it did. She was right, it did have enough power to match a God Dragon, maybe it's even stronger than Lapis. However... I noticed that there was a second barrier set up, one that would fall when the first one did, trapping several thousand souls. With that, it would make the evil spirit strong enough to make Lapis little more than a minor annoyance to it. I then destroyed the second barrier early, so that those souls would be long gone when the spirit was unsealed.

A week came and went, and I felt the seal coming loose on the tenth day. I waited for a day, and the barrier broke. As soon as it did, I had my summon tell the Queen, as I took Ashdoll with me into the space made by {Lost Paradise}. Once inside, I blasted it with {All-Consuming Flames}, to find that it had no effect. I guess that it truly is as strong as a God Dragon. Thankfully, so am I. I removed my clothes, placed my hand on it, and used {Draconic Invite: Genesis} which is the light version of {Abyss}, in other words, a spell to create an area filled with holy light. As it's an evil spirit of darkness, it was hurt massively by that attack alone. I then compressed the area to cover just my fist, and started pounding away at it. In other words, the battle ended after just a few minutes, and I returned to the normal world feeling quite sad, as I was expecting more of a challenge.

I went back to the castle, met with the Queen, and obtained her seal (Seal of the Ordesian Royal Family) and the title Hero of Ordesia from her, as well as the title of Spirit Shredder. In addition, I was given her assurance that, whenever I needed the backing of a country, so long as it wouldn't negatively affect her country, she'd give it. The kings and queens of this world are too willing to give support to random people who they've only known for a few days at most... Still, I now have 29 titles and three seals. I think I'll go and look for some interesting food, or some good books... Wait, I never did actually sell off my Golems... Looks like that's first on my list of things to do.

"Who's that? Looks like some little girl, but she has on some cool looking armor... no, it's probably a costume, as she has a Dragon plushie with her too. Looks like she's not an adventurer, but just some girl who likes Dragons and wishes that she could be one, or wishes to be an adventurer or something" (Adventurer A)

"Wait, that thing she's carrying is moving... it's a real Dragon?" (Adventurer B)

"Would that mean that her armor is real too? Fat ch-" (Adventurer A)

"Yes, it is real. In addition, I am a real adventurer, probably a higher rank than you, if I had to guess. Regardless, you don't have to worry about me taking the quest you wanted, I'm only here to deliver a letter and sell some materials I'd gotten" (Nene)

"HA! That's rich... There's no way you're a higher rank than I am, as I'm rank C! You're probably a D rank, feeling confident because everyone else in the town you lived in was an E rank at most. This is the capital, girl, where D ranks are considered small fry" (Adventurer A)

"So, in other words, I am a higher rank than you are. I'm a B rank, and if you'll excuse me, I have about 250 Mithril Golems to sell, as well as over a thousand Iron Golems. Now, I don't expect that I could sell even a tenth of that here, but it can't hurt to try, right?" (Nene)

I screwed up... Why am I so blind to common sense? Now, everyone in the guild was either on the floor laughing, or on the floor in a dead faint, save for the one receptionist who had enough professionalism to get the guildmaster before she fainted. The guildmaster invited me to his office, and then spoke in a disdainful manner.

"So, you have more Mithril Golems than I've ever dreamed might come through here in 2000 years, and loads of Iron Golems too. What next? Orichalcum Golems? An Adamantite Golem?" (Guildmaster)

"Well, yes, I do have Orichalcum Golems to sell, and I did beat an Adamantite Golem, though I'm not planning to sell that one. I also have a letter for you, from the guildmaster of Ferritea" (Nene)

I handed him the letter, which he read, reread, and then set down while holding his head in his hands.

"You... You know, thanks to you, while the country is better off due to the mines being usable again, I am troubled because you made a guildmaster retire, so I now have to train a new one" (Guildmaster)

"It wasn't my intention, it just happened. How was I supposed to know that killing an Adamantite Golem would turn his hair grey all at once?" (Nene)

"You should have known that it'd be very surprising, and that there being that many Golems at all would be enough to evoke that kind of reaction, regardless of type. A thousand Earth Golems would be enough to destroy a small town. A thousand Stone Golems could destroy this city's walls. A thousand Iron Golems could destroy an entire country. We'd need to call in all of our S ranks, armed with mithril weapons. A hundred Mithril Golems... well, this country would be screwed. We have two adventurers and three knights who could take on a single one, and even if we sent out all of our knights, soldiers, and adventurers, we could deal with 50 or so at most. A single Orichalcum Golem... we could handle that. We could handle two or three, maybe. But fifty or more? I can't think of any country that could deal with that. I can't think of one that could deal with a single Adamantite Golem either. Looks like we lucked out big time with you being here" (Guildmaster)

"Even more so, considering that I dealt with the spirit Ashdoll when it broke free this morning..." (Nene)

"I think I'm going to retire too... This one little girl dealt with an Adamantite Golem in a mine, a Spirit on par with God Dragons, and probably also some Ancient Dragons, all on her own... Kids these days... You gonna start your own country? Go to another world? Meet a God or two? Become a God? None of those would surprise me at this point... I'm getting too old for this shit..." (Guildmaster)

"Well... I have killed several Ancient Dragons, but... I'm not planning to start a country, nor rebuild my own. I see no reason to try to go to another world, and I've met a God... kinda. It's a long story, and so is the one that explains that I will indeed become a God" (Nene)

"... That's it, I'm done. Please... just, sell your Golems, then leave, and try not to make anyone else go grey anytime soon, for the good of us all" (Guildmaster)

I did as he asked, then continued on with my trip. A few days later, I came across some adventurers who I remembered had seemed interested in my body, in a perverted way, and decided to give them a few grey hairs by landing in the road around the bend ahead of them, and watching their faces as they stumbled across a God Dragon.

"What the- ! A Dragon!?" (Adventurer A)

"It's pretty small, so it must still be a child. It's only a newborn Black Dragon! There's nothing to fear from it! We're A ranks, we can take this thing on!" (Adventurer B)

"Look at my scales. They aren't a solid black, they have a gold border. Don't presume to think I'd go down easily, even though I'm young. I can beat any Gold-Red in existence without any chance of losing" (Nene)

I took a deep and loud breath, then continued.

"Hm... upon you, I smell the scent of human children... female children... their fear, pain, anger, and embarrassment... mixed with the lustful scent of human males... I dislike those who have those types of strange and perverted hobbies... But, I'm not hungry, so I'll let you go. However... if I still smell that upon you when next we meet, I will roast you alive. Discard that desire, and live a better life. Don't worry about me, I dislike harming humans or their livestock. I live on monster meat, Orcs, Krakens, Wolves, and so on. They taste much better than humans or grass-eaters... The same is true for most other Dragons. Now... Leave. Report that I was here if you want, but I will be long gone before anyone could get here" (Nene)

They fled, and I laughed. I couldn't smell any of that on them, but there's a chance they'd change for the better. I hid my form as I flew onwards, stopping at small towns and trying their local specialty foods, solving their problems if I could. Those whose food I liked, I asked to teach me how to make that food. However, I never learned it, probably because they wanted to keep a monopoly on whatever they made. Eventually, I made it to the border, and found... a wasteland, with areas covered in blue flames, and a small town off to the side of the wasteland. Curious, I landed, shifted, and walked to the gate.

"What's going on here? I never heard that there was a wasteland of blue flames here. I always heard that in this area, there was a forest, filled with an abundance of valuable plants and monster materials" (Nene)

"Yes, that's how it was, up until a week ago. That's when the Metal Lizard showed up... I'm not here to prevent people from coming into the town, I'm here to watch out for the Lizard coming this way, and to then tell people to run if it does" (Guard)

"That... can't be a pleasant job. Do you know where it tends to make its nest?" (Nene)

"Girl, you'll want to just keep going along the edge of the wasteland to get wherever you're going. Don't try to fight this thing. It's a B ranked threat, and that's if it's just a Bronze Lizard. This one seems to be a Mithril Lizard. It's on par with a Young Dragon" (Guard)

"If it's spitting blue flames and looks somewhat silvery, it's an Orichalcum Lizard, on par with a Dragon, actually. Mithril Lizards, like Platinum and Silver Lizards, spit ice. Don't worry about me, I can deal with this thing, just point me at it and I'll haul its corpse back here" (Nene)

It took another half an hour trying to convince the guard to let me see the town head, and then an entire hour to convince him to tell me where the thing might be located. After all, it might give me a challenge... no, if something on par with a God Dragon wouldn't, that thing won't either. After I got its approximate location, I ran to that area, found it, and learned that I was right about it being an Orichalcum Lizard. I then cut its head off and did exactly what I said I would, by dragging its corpse back the three kilometers to the town by its tail. I didn't really want to show off my Hoard, and this made for a better entrance... re-entrance? Whatever. I got thanked profusely, then moved on to the next town, and the next, and the one after that. Working my way across the continent, a month passed with me checking in on the Roost and orphans every now and then, and I used {Gate} to return to the capital of Erufanica for Eleanora's request.