Part 11

'I still can't fly well,' I sighed in disappointment as I slowly fell back to the ground. I had been existing for a little over a week and a half now, and hadn't really tried to explore my dragon body yet. Once I left the dungeon with Icarus, I decided to begin spending my time as a dragon a little bit more.

I was surprised to find my form was easier to move than I expected. Dragons had four legs, as well as a tail and two wings, but my newfound body moved exactly how I wanted it to. My claws were sharp, strong enough to cut through a tree, and my limbs were strong enough to crush boulders.

My tail, which had a long glaive on one end, was sharp enough to cut through almost three trees stacked together and my teeth were of a similar strength. However, in the air, my performance was less than acceptable.

I felt like dead weight when I was in the air. Even after activating my [ Flight ] skill, my movement didn't really improve. I made sure to practice for several hours every day, even though this would eventually slow down our journey, but I was determined to learn how to fly.

Eventually, though, I had no choice but to return to the ground and resume my trip with Icarus.

"It's too bad you can't fly, bud," I sighed as Icarus hopped on my back, "Otherwise I'd love to fly though the air with you. I wouldn't even mind if it felt like I was swimming through syrup. For now, human form."

After wandering around for a few more days, Icarus and I finally reached what looked to be a main road. Unlike the dirt path we had been following for several days, this road was almost wide enough to fit two carriages on. It was built entirely out of tan stone bricks, each the size of Icarus, while the edges of the road were built out of what looked to be two of the tan stone bricks stacked atop of each other.

The road was well maintained, even cleaner than expected, though it was entirely empty. The road ran endlessly into the horizon in both directions, winding back and forth like the forest it sat on. I had no idea where to go from here. I had already tried opening my dungeon map after a few days in the forest, but it soon became clear that the camera couldn't go anywhere further away from the dungeon's boundaries.

Still, it was nice to see that the dungeon was still doing good. Of course, there were no intruders yet, but both Silfang and Aros were sending out scouts to collect DP daily. That way, I was never running out. I was already getting close to 500 DP again, even though I wasn't really doing anything.

As I thought about that, I came upon a realization.

"Shit! How did I not notice earlier!" I shouted. Icarus looked up at me with a confused expression while I stood still with an angry expression on my face. I thought back to the two rabbits I killed on the first day. The notifications I got from the rabbits were ordinary. One of the notifications was a report for how much XP the rabbit gave me, while the other was a report for how much XP Icarus was awarded.

However, there was no report for how much DP I got from the kill. In fact, over the last few days, I hadn't gotten a single report of awarded DP from any of the kills I performed personally.

"Do I really have to be inside the dungeon?" I sighed, "Shit, that changes everything."

Once I had recollected my thoughts, I stepped onto the road and picked a random direction to walk down. Regardless, both directions of the road would end up sending me to whichever town or city was the first on that side of the road.

Icarus followed closely, still practically attached to my ankles. After a few hours of walking, though, he somehow ended up on my back.

We continued our walk for another two days, walking during the late hours of night and early hours of morning and sleeping or hunting whenever we weren't on the road. I made sure to hunt with my dragon body, as I wanted every chance I could get to get more used to it, but my size and power eventually made Icarus fall behind. After two days, I had finally reached the threshold of level 2.

﹃

Aureys

XP: 197.8/200

﹄

--

﹃

Icarus

XP: 41.4/100

﹄

I was now only one more kill away from leveling up. However, before I could go hunting one more time, we found our first city.

The city wasn't very large, but the walls that surrounded it made it look like a fortress. Had it not been for the line of carriages that seemed to grow from the wall's gates, I would've actually thought it was a fortress.

However, because the walls were so high, I wasn't able to see the roof of a single building. Icarus and I quickly joined the line of carriages, intermingling with the people that were lined up near it as we got close.

Once we got close, I realized most of the people in the line were families. They wore regular clothes and had hardened hands. There were a few individuals that wore armor or carried weapons, but the large majority of them were adventurers- not soldiers or guards.

As I lined up, Icarus hopped off of my back and jumped onto the ground. I sighed in relief as my back was relieved of eighty pounds of weight. After Icarus ended up on the ground, a few of the heads that were around us quickly turned. Most of them had expressions of awe, while a few actually gasped as they laid their eyes on Icarus.

As he saw the expressions of the people nearby, Icarus straightened out his back and flapped his wings. I looked down at him, a smug expression on my face, as I scoffed at him, "Showoff."

Icarus turned to me, almost offended, then whipped his tail against my shin in a playful manner. I chuckled for a moment as I grew amused of Icarus's actions, then turned to the people around us. They were still staring at Icarus with stares of awe. A few of the adventurers nearby had even turned their heads to see the commotion, only to also stare in awe.

"This is kind of uncomfortable," I realized. A moment later, once the stares of awe and shock had gotten too bad, Icarus stopped expressing himself in a prideful manner and began hiding behind my legs as he tried to get away from the stares. Not everybody looked at him with awe or shock. A few of the expressions around us were already showing their obvious greed.

I turned to look at all of these people before bending down and bringing Icarus off the ground. After he was comfortably in my arms, I turned back to the people around us and gave them all a scornful stare. Then I looked around, hoping to find somewhere to hide away from the people.

Then, while I was looking around, I heard a voice call out,

"Boy!" A voice said. I turned to the source of the voice, only to find a tall middle aged man with a scruffy beard. The man wore farmers clothes, but his body was far too muscular to be a farmer, "Can we talk for a moment?"

"Talk?" I echoed. Both Icarus and I looked at the man with suspicion. The man sighed, then held up his palms in defense as he nervously laughed.

"Don't worry," The man chuckled, "I'm not hoping to take that dragon away from you. Hell, it looks like he doesn't want to go anyways. I just want to talk. In return, why don't I give you somewhere to rest while you wait for the line to shorten."

"Sure," I said after thinking about it for a moment. The man nodded, then took a step forward and stretched his hand out. I took his hand in mine, then looked at it with surprise as I felt the strong grip. The strength of his grip didn't match with the farmer's clothes he wore on his body.

"My name is Casey Forsyth," The man said, introducing himself. Then he pointed his thumb behind his back, gesturing to a small family behind him. There were three others in total. One, the oldest and most likely the wife of Mr. Forsyth, waved at Icarus and I. The two others were about my age, but they both seemed to have their eyes glued on Icarus. As I looked at them, I realized they both had deep red hair, almost the color of blood, and looked extremely similar, "That's my family. The beauty is Abigail, my wife. Then there are the twins, Evelyn and Jonathon. Careful of the boy, he has the mouth of a smartass."

"Arthur," I said, introducing myself with the first name I thought of. Then I held up Icarus, who yawned at Mr. Forsyth, "This is Icarus."

"Arthur? That's a rare name," Mr. Forsyth said, "Why don't we go into my family's carriage. We can talk more inside."

I nodded, then followed Mr. Forsyth as he led me to his families carriage. The carriage was about the size of Silfang- much larger than the ones surrounding it, and even had a cushioned exterior. Inside was enough room to fit about six people, so there was barely enough room for everybody once they all got inside the carriage.

I sat near the window while Icarus sat on my left. To the left of Icarus was one of the twins- Evelyn, who seemed nervous to be around Icarus. Opposite of me was Mr. Forsyth and his wife, while Jonathon sat in the direct opposite corner of me. Once everybody was seated, Jonathan closed the door and opened the curtains to let some light in.

"Now then," Mr. Forsyth whispered with excitement as he leaned forward. He clasped his fingers together as he leaned his elbows against his knee. He looked into my eyes with a large grin on his face, "I'm sure you're wondering why I brought you here. I'd like to offer you a job. Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself?"

'Should I lie or make something up?' I wondered. After a split second of thought, I eventually decided to fabricate a story. After comparing how I've acted thus far and what I look like, I soon created a fake story to support my existence.

"What do you want to know?" I asked, hoping to alleviate some of the pressure around me.

"Anything," Mr. Forsyth shrugged as he leaned back in his chair.

"It's not every day we see somebody with a dragon wyrmling," Mr. Forsyth's wife, Abigail, chuckled as she lightly held her fingers in front of her mouth, "So what's your story?"

"I'm a nobleman," I lied, "My full name is Arthur Aureys. Icarus is my familiar, but there's not much more I can tell you."

"The Aureys family? I'm not familiar with it," Mr. Forsyth said, a confused look on his face.

"It would make sense," I laughed, "We gained our nobility through merit a few generations ago, not by public service or through money, and we've been trying to keep ourselves under the radar since."

"Still, with a dragon wyrmling like yours, I'd expect to find your family with numerous coffers?" Mr. Forsyth said as he turned to Icarus, "Dragons are supposed to be extinct, yet here's a dragon right here."

"No, not really," I said as I clung Icarus closer to my body. As Mr. Forsyth revealed his greed, my opinion of him dropped a little, "I was the one that found Icarus. His mother wasn't nearby, so I've been taking care of him since."

"Hmm," Mr. Forsyth said as he began to submerge himself in thought. I nervously stared at him, hoping that my storytelling was enough to satisfy him. Eventually, Mr. Forsyth sighed and closed his eyes as he leaned his head back. A few moments later he turned back to me and shrugged, "That's good enough to satisfy my curiosity. Forgive me, Arthur, but I was hoping to get in contact with whoever was the one that caught your dragon for you. Now that I know you were the one that found him, I'm afraid I have to confess."

"No, that's alright," I said, "Was that the only job you wanted to offer me?"

"That was the main one, yes," Mr. Forsyth said as he sighed, "A dragon would serve as a good gift for my daughter. I have another, but it's a bit more complicated. But first, let me tell you a bit about myself."

"As you can guess," Mr. Forsyth said as he looked to the carriage around him, "We're nobles as well, but we're newborn nobles. I'm a soldier while my wife is a teacher."

"A soldier and a teacher? Those aren't noble positions, are they?" I asked, "Unless you're a high rank?"

"No, I'm just a captain," Mr. Forsyth laughed, "The one that got us our nobility is actually my oldest daughter, Cathy. She's a beast tamer under the service of the kingdom."

"Beast tamer?" I said. I looked down at Icarus, then turned back to Mr. Forsyth, "Is that why you wanted to talk to me? To see if you could get her a dragon herself?"

"Yeah," Mr. Forsyth nodded, "You're quick, young man. However, I can't have my family depend on Cathy forever. Considering how you've tamed a dragon, it must mean you're strong, right?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, a loud noise interrupted me.

"I know you're in there, you little punk! Get out!"