World: Wings of Fire ~ Marked for Trade

….alright, I can work with this, it's bad, but not too bad, the biggest problem are the dragons, and even then, even with their size and special abilities most dragons have in their tribe, be it Ice Breath or Scorpian Tail.

Their too damn slow, or as slow as I believe their are, the books never actually mentioned them being too fast, hell normal humans with swords were able to kill Queen Oasis of the SandWings, so they obviously can't be too beyond us.

And with Hinokami Kagura? Oh, cake walk, I can dance around them all day, or as long as my enhanced stamina will hold out.

As for what I can get here….I don't actually have an idea, I don't remember the actual map of the continent beyond the shape and where everyone is.

Humans are seen as animals by the dragons, and then there is the magic of this world…

Animus Magic

It's beyond broken, where it essentially turns a battle between two users into a game of pretend like "the crabs attack you" "nuh ugh they turn into rocks and fly at you" "well my scales are invulnerable".

Absolute insanity, from what I remember the only limit was you could not resurrect…unless you enchant them to come back immediately beforehand.

Whatever they say is basically law, spoken Reality Warping with two back draws to speak of.

Resurrection…and the after effects of the magic.

That part was always vague in the books, apparently every use uses a piece of your soul, or well your sanity and morality, depending on how big the enchantments, will determine the amount taken.

But then it was revealed someone tried removing the magic out of them and placed it in a scroll to write the magic out without affecting them.

But that was part of the backstory of the second storyline villain, and it was never even made clear if he went evil from the constant careless enchantments, or he was just going morally corrupt to the point he started commanding people to obey him.

The only upside is that it apparently only does that if you enchant something for personal gain…like invulnerability or a great power and…potentially heals the user if used selflessly…is what I think I remeber from one of the protagonist of the second story line.

Dragons…the older ones anyway, display heavy amounts of sociopathic traits…and you can't even be mad about it.

They are barbaric, fuck, the way one inherits the throne of their tribe is barbaric, if the queen, yes ruling power is female here, does not die via natural causes like old age or illness.

The heir, be it their sisters, males can't challenge, or their daughters…to the death.

See what I mean? The structure is set up that the dragon that wants to inherit the throne, typically one of the daughters, has to kill the mother…who is more likely to be bigger and more experienced.

Its a structure that basically promotes manipulation and not showing care for others, and pretty much does nothing for goodness.

There are exceptions…but those are spread thin and far.

And I practically know nothing of the humans, I only read the first ten books, which were about storyline 1 and 2 , I was aware of the next five books making up the 3rd storyline but never got around to reading them.

And also side stories on humans I also didn't get around to reading, just a few spoilers here and there.

…now that I think about it.

I smirked at the direction of the mountains before me with a wide grin.

Isn't there literally a magical NightWing that is turning to stone because he didn't want his power somewhere around here?

…I can work with this.

I teleported down to the forest, and spend around an hour searching for some kind of wild life, preferably a big one.

I spend around a day, with me taking a break a few times and picking up some snacks, I managed to catch a glimpse of a particularly large boar…I immediately picked up a sword I got from kagaya and decapitated it.

My fingers grasping the fur of the creature and slowly lifted it up, shivering slightly in disgust, I haven't seen a decapitated body before that wasn't a rat my cat caught, especially one this big.

Shoving the feeling aside, I thought about my next course of action, I imagined a cave, a dragon that used to be colored obsidian, now looking like a living, fossilized-looking scale draconic creature of the name Stonemover.

Yeah, they have weird names, pretty sure humans have that custom here too.

I was transported…and immediately spot movement as a dragon, very much 2 dozens feet tall moved slightly backed up when I showed up, probably startled by my transportation.

Despite the first time seeing the creature, I could make out bewilderment in its strange eyes.

Stonemover, if I recall his personality, was slow, depressed, and pessimistic, most likely wouldn't try to eat me immediately, he even had a fox enchanted to bring food every few days.

Which was the plan.

Whatever the fox catches, it isn't enough for this rock, so the boar should be enticing.

I smiled cheek to cheek, as I dragged the boar over, and spoke out, "here! A treat from me!, in exchange for it, if you accept it I get your unwanted powers, what do you say buddy?!".

I was fully aware he couldn't understand me, I could also see surprise in its expression with how I was acting and me desolating obvious speech patterns, considering what I would imagine most other humans would've just ran by now.

This was basically my best choice, most other humans are likely living in small communities I would imagine, none that I am aware of, and even if I went and found one, I would also be going in blind, which isn't ideal, and lastly, I don't speak Dragon or Human, which is what I recall is literally what the language is called here.

He may not understand me, but I don't have the Merchant Essence where that would've been an issue, I'm a broker, despite my title, if he takes the boar that he is probably wanting have a few days or less of hunger, he would've effectively agreed to my offer.

For about three minutes we just stood there the dragon at times mumbling in its own tongue, and me just fearlessly staring at it with a patient grin.

Until eventually…it took a bite.

And immediately took a claw and touched it to his other claw in confusion, as if it had felt something was off…while at the same time, I felt a tingling feeling run down each of my fingers and thumbs and smiled.

I took it for a spin.

"I Enchant myself to be capable of understanding any language and whenever I desire, to be understood"

And felt something shift, around me, this shouldn't be that big of an enchantment, but now I actually have to be paranoid about this, I can't just go ham with spell, they have to be something that doesn't just benefit me so that the drawback doesn't happen.

Or when I make a deal, suddenly, what I can provide is practically endless, except if they do ask something that would require me to use this, I would ask for more from them….as I'm literally giving a piece of myself away for it.

It's only fair in my eyes.

The idea of me turning into a sociopathic, sadistic murderer of all ages, served as a good deterrent.

As for my draconic friend here?

He kept the stone scales, he effectively turned any damage he did to his own soul, to instead be reflected on his scales to turn to stone, …maybe I could do something similar at some point.

Now that I take a closer look…yeah he looked cool, if he wasn't more stone-like I would honestly have a harder time seeing him, now it was just a nuisance than anything else.

He had silver scales on the underside of his wings that gave an image of a starry sky, very nice.

I did a gentleman bow, "good evening my scaley friend, how's the cave treating you?"

You should've seen the expression the dragon did as his eyes widened, and its long jaw dropped open.

After a minute, I heard a deep voice rumble, "am I dreaming?~".

I myself chucked, "no, no you are not, then again, if I were you who assumed that humans like me are dumb, I would also be weirded out if rabbits came out of nowhere yapping about a buisiness opportunity,".

"…Buisiness Opportunity?" After a moment the lump of rocks sorted through my words and paused at my choise of words.

My smirk turned devious, "o, we already finished, the trade you accepted when I offered you the boar,".

His tail flicked thoughtfully, funnily enough it was also matching the expression on him as well, before his eyes widened as he touched his claws.

"…you took it, my curse of animus magic,"

I nodded with no change to my upbeat attitude, "I sure did, I was made aware (by a book series), that you did not want you reality altering magic, so I thought I'd take it off of ya,".

Now his eyes were really wide in horror, "no…no no no, you don't understand, the power might sound great, but it is a curse, that twists you away from who you are, the consequences for it are too dire-".

Before he could continue, I gave the halt gesture, with a serious look in my eyes, "believe I am aware of it, but, between you, who hates it and is punishing themselves for using it, and me who while is aware of the cost will use it sparingly,…I CAN use it to do some good,…I figured it was a good trade,".

After a minute of tense silence, the dragon let loose an enourmous, laborous sigh, "I truly hope you do,".

I jumped up to his shoulder, the dragon shifted and moved back a bit, started by my actions.

I sat down and returned my cheery grin, "now this is my first time seeing a dragon, speaking to one too, so let's taaaalk,"

"Especially the fucked up trash you guys call politics and heir inheritance,".

Might as well relished my knowledge of the world and potentially learn some more.