Not What Was Expected II

What the hell do red dragons eat? Rubies? Lava? Gold in glass creates a red color, do they eat that?

The dev tried to get herself back on track with the questions. "The dwarves have sealed themselves away from the rest of the world in order to keep you from escaping. They are working to annihilate you."

"Ah, yes, that would be why they sealed off the cave entrance. It matters none, it's not as if I am averse to eating their people as well." The dragon tilted his head a little and seemed to almost furrow the scales over his eyes as if they were eyebrows. "What do you hope to gain from informing me of this? I will not provide a reward."

"I was hoping that you would be willing to find another place to live." There was silence in the lair, the dragon studying her for a second and blinking once. A light chuckle erupted from his throat that eventually turned into full laughter.

"That is very funny, little human, to even suggest that. Your kind have always been good with jokes."

"That wasn't a joke. We've noticed there are other caves you could build a lair in; we could probably transport whatever hoard you have to it. It's not as if we want anything from it either, so you wouldn't have to worry about anything being stolen." He laughed again… until he realized she was serious.

"And why would I do that? I care not for the issues my lair creates for their people, little human. I also do not trust you to keep your word with my hoard. Touch it and I will smear you on the ground."

"Because if you don't, they're going to find you, they're going to come in force, they're going to figure out a way to end you. To think otherwise would be foolish given the damage I see on your leg. The problem is, they'll have an incredible casualty rate in doing so. I'm trying to get this done peacefully without bloodshed." The iron dragon stood up and sauntered over to them, a massive tower of scales and muscle, his wings folded in yet looking like an old battleship's giant sails. He leaned his head down in front of her and looked the woman in the eyes.

"And what do you get from doing this exactly? There is always a political motive involved when it comes to one race interfering in the affairs of another." Despite he more than likely eating large animals, his breath didn't reek of any left-over meat stuck in a tooth. There was a distinct smell of iron though, the tinted metallic aroma almost akin to blood. Selene sighed and slowly nodded.

"You leave, they open their doors. The elves mine mithril, and if you aren't interfering, everything goes back to the status quo. Involving moving your hoard, I can guarantee you nothing would be lost, I'd even add a little extra for your troubles. I seriously don't need anything from it." The cost of a few thousand gold and silver was a pittance compared to a resurrection for a dwarf that died without a good cause. The lizard looked at each member of the group… all seven of them, with Hrist standing in her peculiar clothing style that only the empress understood as stylish. He couldn't see the cloaked automatons keeping their distance, just the honor guard next to their empress. As of yet, he hadn't yet done anything to cause concern. There was a long pause between them as he decided on what next to say.

"My loyalties are to myself and myself alone, I owe nothing to those specks you call dwarves. However… I am not against negotiation, especially when it involves coming out ahead. The problem is, I cannot do as you have asked. My clutch is here, hidden away. I cannot move them."

"You have eggs?" she asked, taken aback by that information. She was debating whether the deep male voice was actually… female.

"Yes, my mate was killed long ago, and it has fallen to me to await their hatching." He shook his head from side to side as if to dry himself like a dog. His head lifted up and again looked down at the ants below him. "There is no need to explain what had happened to her. Needless to say, the eggs cannot be moved, as they have latched to the ground. If there was an ample supply of iron, they could hatch… quite late it seems."

"Wait… so, the eggs, what, bathe in the iron?" she questioned.

"You clearly do not know anything of dragons, do you?"

"It's not as if any of your kind attempt to educate us on how your people live. By all means, enlighten me on your culture, if you would be so kind." The dragon chuckled.

I seriously probably know more than I should honestly, the problem really is… how much have I read that really can be connected to these dragons from this world? Reading about elves from fantasy novels is different from what I've seen here for instance, and I haven't met the orcs and goblins just yet either.

"I am not just willing to give up the secrets of my race to you insignificant beings" he said, clearly thinking he was the superior creature in that room. He had no idea he was staring at a group that had a Valkyrja amongst its number, that had fought against a particularly powerful undead abomination well beyond the capabilities of this iron dragon. "Moving on, there is no way I will leave my clutch, and given there is no large amount of iron to bring them into this world, I remain. These dwarves will just have to accept I am here to stay."

Selene raised an eyebrow and shoved her hand into her inventory. A quick swap of some extra resources and packing, a little quality control, and there were massive shipping containers brimming with iron ready to bring out. The iron dragon watched with interest as her hand seemed to disappear into nothing, recognizing that move from others long ago. A large portal opened nearby with a container, inside holding exactly what he wanted and didn't expect. "Would this be enough?" she questioned. He was silent for a minute as he inspected the cargo, glancing at her occasionally as if formulating a plan in his head.

"This… will do. Perhaps I will allow this. I tire of the specks attacking at inopportune times." A large clawed paw lifted and pointed towards a far tunnel entrance. "If you want this to be over with quickly, I'd suggest bringing this to my hoard. Beyond it is the secret entrance to my clutch."

Why is he allowing us suddenly to just walk near his eggs or hoard? Shouldn't he want to just take the iron and bring it himself? Something is wrong…

"Then our business will be concluded once this transfer is complete" she said as the container started to hover next to them, the group walking across the dome and reaching the tunnel pointed at. It was dark for the most part, leading on for another ten minutes before widening. There was a line they barely passed on the ground that seemed to have curved metal running along the edge.

Inside, sitting in the middle of the brand-new dome, the iron dragons hoard sat right in the middle. Piles of gold, gems, weapons and treasure chests reached towards the ceiling. There were pieces of armor, equipment, even magical scrolls and potions littering the floor. Morlan was surprised there was so much. Selene, on the other hand, was more interested in the fact the walls were completely covered in an as yet unknown bronze metal, with runic etching that did not look dwarven in the slightest. There were waves noted in the coloring of the bronze, looking almost like Damascus Steel, with structural bracing seen every five meters completely surrounding the dome.

This doesn't look draconic or dwarven… someone else made this… and why do I get the funny feeling there are no other tunnels attached to this…

Just as the container passed the opening, a wall slammed shut, trapping them in. "Son of a bitch, I should have trusted my gut…" Selene swore and sighed, immediately bringing her hand up in a facepalm and shaking her head slowly. Morlan's head snapped to the now closed exit with his eyes widening in fear.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. I knew something was off, we should have sat at the front and dumped the cargo in or something… welp, contingency plans are around for a reason…

"Damn it! That bastard trapped us! There was no clutch of eggs, he played us all!" the warrior snapped and ran back to the door, striking at it with his fist. The empress put her hand up to calm him down. Hrist charged at the wall and tried to strike at it with her sword, seeing if she could somehow pry the metal down enough to get a hand in and push. The dev was surprised that the metal was resisting so well, then observed each strike the battle maiden attempted on a particular point. The armoring of the dome somehow was ignoring every hit. There was no way the material was stronger than Carbyne, not unless the technology was much higher for whoever created this place.

"Damn it!" Hrist growled out in frustration and backed off. Her strength should have completely shattered the armor and probably would have if it was anything below tungsten steel. The honor guard aimed their weapons at the door and lit it up, their weapons doing almost no damage to be seen… it did allow the dev to see small flashes, ripples emanating from the points of impact. The empress stepped forward and brought her hands up, using both her psionics and [Molecular Reformation] ability to attempt to rip apart the metal. Morlan turned around and headed around the side of the hoard, staring at it as well as surveying the area. There was no other tunnel connected to this room.

The armor paneling was resisting her attempts to break through, not because it was incredibly strong… but because it was actually causing her to have a migraine. What damage she thought she caused quickly settled back into position almost as if it was semi malleable and sealed that opening, the size of a small dog if even that. The armor plating seemed to use the structural integrity of the whole dome, not just the point she was attempting to break through. There could have been extra layers she couldn't see yet that were adding extra protective strength. The whole thing didn't seem to act like a vault, more like… a bunker.

That material was causing me significant strain. Granted, I'm not using any amplification equipment, given I haven't done much research into that just yet…

"No way… empress… you need to see this…" Morlan shouted out as the two women turned around. The man made to touch the hoard sitting in the middle of the room… and his hand went right through a goblet.

"Phased out of the physical realm to stop others from taking anything. Smart" the empress commented. It was a good security measure; she was already thinking of doing the same with the royal vault back at the castle. Morlan started walking along the edge of the dome they were now finding themselves trapped in, looking for any seam or rivet that wasn't set right. His hands dragged across the metal, hoping they would somehow find a crack they could pry open.

"Are we really trapped in here?" Hrist asked her quietly. Selene simply shook her head and closed her eyes for a little bit. She had made sure there were a great many contingency plans in place just for such an occasion, requested by none other than Bronze Team. If she should ever find herself captured somewhere that she couldn't get out of, there were tools ready for those eventualities.

"Morlan, can you come back here please?" the auburn-haired woman asked. The man turned around and did a double take in the direction he was heading, resigning himself to head right on back to her. "Everybody put your hand on my shoulders. I'm going to see if we can't teleport out of here." She started to cast a teleportation spell, bringing both Morlan and Hrist, as well as her honor guard, with her if it was possible. The spell failed almost immediately.

And there is a teleportation block grid in the metal. This proves it, it isn't the material that is doing this, it's magically enhanced somehow… but this is even past tier 10 magic, hell, it's even beyond super tier magic… the only reason I was able to get something like this was because Orlo figured it out with weird science and a whole lot of steampunk tech. Is this dimensional magic that is reinforcing the dome?

Her next attempt was to use her amulet, which… worked. Selene appeared in the castle, with Jeeves turning and gazing at her. "Madam, are you alright? You just appeared." Hrist and Morlan, along with her honor guard, were nowhere to be seen.

Well, shit.

She reused the amulet and went right back to her previous location, sighing in frustration. "Damn it, can't travel in a group using that with my amulet. Guess we resort to an emergency plan."

"There are restrictions in place just for those who try and teleport" a male voice said from inside the hoard pile. The group turned around and peered at the glistening gold, iron and precious gems, only to see a man sit up and look at them. Half his body was still hidden by the phased treasure, but from what they could see, he was incredibly disheveled.

He had somewhat shoulder length very dark purple hair with one light purple streak from his bangs through the middle of the parting near his left temple, and an even darker full beard, though it was possible that was due to how long he had been trapped there, just like them. His clothes, while looking as if they might have been considered elite quality at one time, were little more than worn from what Selene observed with her scanner. His level, however, was what interested her, as he was a level 90. She had thought no human could reach above the high thirties, but this man was an exception to that rule it seemed. Though most of his face was covered in hair, he did look a little gaunt. "Trust me. I tried." His age registered as 22.

"So it seems" Selene replied to him, her automatons turning and aiming their weapons at him; she put her hands up for them to calm down as she walked up to him, the man slowly standing up and stumbling a little. He looked like he wasn't filling out his clothes as much as he should have. "So, you couldn't find a way out I take it?" she asked.

"The material the vault is made of diverts the energy you aim throughout the structure; that also causes any… oh what was the word my teacher used… coordinates, yes coordinates, it disperses all of that around so that you can't teleport either, probably took a hefty ritual to get it done too. I don't have the power to diffuse enough destructive force right now to pop it. I doubt there is a spell right now that can be detonated without killing myself in the process, at least without some extensive defensive spells that I… sadly… haven't quite worked on well enough I'll admit. I take it you were caught just like I was? He seems to like gather living creatures as toys if he can sense the power they wield." His voice had a British accent, though the fashion he had didn't look like it was from Artinia.

"Or he's afraid of us enough to let anything trapped in here simply to starve to death" she replied. A dry chuckle came out of his mouth.

"Sure enough, I nearly did just that. You would have found my corpse eventually in a few days, hidden under all of… that."

"How long have you been here?"

"I'm pretty sure that comes after introductions. My name is Gabriel. Gabriel Turkanos." He put his hand out for her to shake, dirt and grim caking it. He thought carefully after seeing how disgusting his fingers looked and cast something she never expected to see anyone else use. The [Scrub] spell was cast, a dimensional magic spell. She had already learned that tier magic and dimensional magic were repulsive to each other, and she hadn't attempted to teach anyone anything beyond [Nutrient Replenisher], which failed and was replaced with a tier spell of likeminded nature instead.

There is someone from Arcanic's Wizardry out there!

He put his hand out for her to shake one more time, but she looked at him as if he was an alien. His eyes glanced at Hrist and Morlan, who were both wondering what she was thinking. "Where… did you learn how to cast that spell?" she asked calmly, making him feel awkward as she didn't accept his shake.

"I… I… learned it from… my master, another wizard. Why?" he questioned, taking a small step back. He looked a little worried now.

"That was dimensional magic, do you know that?" His mouth dropped open for a second, surprised she knew it was different from tier magic. Selene immediately activated multiple features in her scanner to look for something, anything that told her he was casting dimensional magic. One such feature she had overlooked before that could be enormously useful was verifying if someone had the registered title of "player." It could also tell her if something was brought over from Yggdrasil, like an NPC or equipment. She hoped it would work on Gabriel.

As the feature came on, the dev was greatly confused when it didn't register him as a player or NPC.

Is he a native from here? Who the hell is his master?! They have to be a player that was brought over! I have to learn more about who this man is, maybe meet his teacher.

"Umm… yes? Look, I know we're all stuck in here, but if we can just remember I'm not the enemy… that the big scaled living weapon is the reason we can't leave, I think-" Gabriel started to stammer out.

"I can use dimensional magic as well." She opened her pocket dimension, his jaw dropping. Apparently, this was a spell he hadn't learned, more than likely due to not figuring out how to control the dimension of reality to create it without disintegrating everything inside. His eye kept jumping from the portal to her over and over.

"My… m… Master Teagan could do that… b-but how… we had th… we had thought that no one else around could do what he could. This… this is… who are you?" he asked her.

"I'll explain inside, given it might be our ticket out of here." She ushered the group through the portal, waiting for every being, including her honor guard, to file through. As Gabriel stepped in, he was greeted with a cozy home with a newly installed garage, a few vehicles and a small warehouse to store an assortment of gear and items. Selene walked in and left the portal open, heading towards the door of the house. The entrance swung open to show three automaton maids waiting and bowing to her as she walked in and stopped, waiting for everyone to come in after.

Just as the last guard entered, the empress stepped right back out and let the door close. "Wha… what?" Gabriel questioned, wondering where she was going.

A muffled "be right back, going to ruin the dragon's day" was heard outside as the dev headed to the warehouse. A trailer was pulled out with what looked like an unarmored cruise missile strapped to the top. A truck was backed up and hitched to the front, allowing it to be carried to the portal and driven out. Once the vehicle was parked, the auto crane picked up the munitions on the back and carefully lowered it to the ground.

As the woman stormed over and activated the decoupling of the safety locks, effectively arming the low yield thermonuclear weapon, she grumbled something about trying to play nice with the iron dragon and all it did was get her stuck here. Now he was going to pay the price. Remote detonation was prepared, with the signal able to be used as long as she was outside of her pocket dimension. That was the only issue with her plan, however that would be sidestepped with incorporating part of another plan.

Hrist sat down on the couch in the house and waited as Gabriel just walked over to the dining room table to rest his weak legs. Just as he sat down, they both heard the truck and trailer pull back through and park, the door slam shut, and the empress come right back inside. "I still feel as if I gave you more information than you are willing to share with me, my lady" he commented, looking at her with raised eyebrows and blinking, waiting for a reasonable response. His brain was still trying to grasp what she had just done or had used outside.

"Ah, right. Sorry, busy getting revenge in order, hope you understand. My name is Empress Selene of the Clockwork Empire." She was expecting him to say something along the lines of he had never heard of it, but the apprentice just sniffed.

"Your… majesty, is it? I… appreciate the… hospitality of the chairs here after sitting on the hard ground for so long… thank you." There was a long uncomfortable silence as the clock in the corner ticked and the maids got something ready from the kitchen.

"Right. So… introductions aside… um… let's see…" the empress looked over at the kitchen, expecting the maids to bring out some food for him. One brought a small basket of soft bread, in which he grabbed a slice and immediately started eating. His face looked like he was in pure bliss, despite there being nothing on the bread. "Easy, slow down, there is more than just that, something more substantial." He stopped eating and put half of the slice down, his cheeks filled. A glass of water was put down for him to drink, which he eagerly drained to wash down the food.

"Her eminence is generous with her food, you're a miracle to arrive when you did. I was afraid I'd have to start eating… well... there are spells that can create food, though it isn't exactly that appetizing. My digestion is the very reason I was ready to perish due to starvation."

"It's perfectly fine, don't worry. Now, when did you arrive?" A plate of spaghetti and meatballs was placed in front of him with a small salad to the left. His left hand shot for the fork and proceeded to stuff his mouth.

"I arrived in the month of November… some… somewhe… scuse me…" he muffled out in between bites.

"Slow down, you're going to kill yourself like that." He looked as if he hadn't eaten in two weeks. That was probably quite close to the truth. The purple-haired man calmed down and carefully swallowed after chewing well, waiting for his mouth to be empty.

"I'm very sorry, your majesty. I just… my rations were exhausted more than a week ago, at least I think it was a week ago… what day is it?" he said, picking up a napkin and cleaning his mouth and beard.

"The second of December" she replied. He seemed to blink at her in incredulity for a moment.

"Oh my. I've been here for a month then…" Gabriel seemed to be lost in thought for a little bit. "That would explain how difficult it was to keep my food and water rations from disappearing. Blast it, here I am constantly telling my master that he should always plan ahead, and I didn't pack well enough this one time…"

"You carried enough food and water for a month?" The man reached to his side gingerly and grabbed a small bag and slowly expanded into a decent size satchel. "Whaaaaaat… that's a bag of holding!" she chuckled out, realizing what that was.

"So you know of it? Of course you do, you're an empress. You probably have all sorts of artifacts available to you. Most people tend to look at it as if it was a gift from the gods."

"It takes some effort to craft one of those, but no, it isn't something given by a deity."

"This one was made for my master supposedly, by a god. I'm not arguing with you, your majesty, just explaining." The dev paused for a moment and looked up at the ceiling above them, trying to figure out if any of the gods here would provide something like that. Then it hit her. There was a quest in Arcanic's Wizardry that gave an endless bag as a reward, from a sea serpent deity. The avatar was so large most of the body couldn't be seen, given it stayed coiled through an underwater mountain. It was like that because the dev leads couldn't agree on the aesthetic design of the god, so they hid most of it inside coral and rock. A long sigh escaped her lips as she realized her mistake. "Endless like the ocean" was the catch phrase she remembered.

His master is a player. He has to be. I've got to find him.

"I didn't actually carry a month's worth of rations. You'd be quite surprised how long you can stretch three days' worth." He continued eating his meal provided to him, not really causing concern to the empress as an autodoc in the house gave him an all clear. Once he was finished, he put his hands on the table and looked at her. "Well, thank you for the meal, your majesty. Now… I'm a little worried we're all still stuck here, however."

"I'm dealing with that right now, no need to worry. You should know how a pocket dimension works though, don't you? That we aren't really stuck here?" she said to him, a slight hint of a grin curling on her lips. His jaw dropped a little as if to say something, then thought long and hard as his hand went up to his chin to rub his scruffy beard.

"Master Teagan had once said… what was it… oh my studies always passed over the spells I hadn't needed to learn just yet… ah… a pocket dimension had the capability to store vast amounts of anything the mage required… no… entering and exiting required a portal and a connection to the real world…"

"You're getting warmer."

"Hmm… oh my…" he exclaimed as he looked up at her, his eyes widened. "A pocket dimension has a secondary exit in case of emergency. Where is your secondary exit placed?" The spell itself was quite complicated, requiring a ritual for each sphere crafted. This was one of the few dimensional spells that required reagents other than mana as well. The more resources funneled to create it, the larger it could be, theoretically capable of creating a Dyson Sphere, provided an extreme amount of materials were used.