Chp.12: A dragon's greatest gift

Rhaegal moved his arm, admiring the armor of great basilisk bones that covered it. "It's been a long time since I've used this body. I forgot how inflexible it is"

Efren rolled his eyes. The giant body of Rhaegal's avatar was extraordinarily flexible for a human, but to dragons, who possessed greater flexibility than even that of cats, it was rather crude with armor restricting its movement. "If you could move more flexibly, you'd be a liquid"

"Yeah. And anyway it's your fault, brother. You should have created comfortable avatars like ours, instead of that beast" Corgorin teased him as she stretched. Unlike Rhaegal, her human body was much more agile and had more mobile protections, so she suffered less from 'lack' of flexibility.

Rhaegal blushed. "When I created it we were meant to blend into human society! I created an avatar that mirrored the beauty standards of that species so I could more easily put others at ease! You did too, the only difference is that between humans for women it is enough to have a pretty face to be adored by everyone, men need more mass and exhibitionism!"

Efren and Carlos looked at each other with knowing eyes, pitying each other; as much as they wanted to blame the dragon, and tell him that you didn't need to be tall, muscular and with abs to attract attention, they knew that was false. While women could also fall in love with skinny men, they were much more likely to feel attracted to those who were strong, big, and handsome. Sure, it was just about attraction; for love, it was necessary to get to know each other and talk to each other, and above all to hang out for a long time, and in that case all men had equal chances since the one with the best personality won... but to attract women and therefore have a vast choice it was still better to be physically attractive. And to prove it was the fact that Rhaegal using his avatar had driven crazy... well, practically the entire female gender that had crossed his path, except for those who knew his secret.

Corgorin pretended to be offended. "Look, Serengal and I have difficulties too! You can try to fight with these useless pockets of fat stuck to your chest!" she exclaimed shaking her boobs. "These too are part of human aesthetic canons, you know? Just a pretty face isn't enough!"

"Hey! This isn't true!" Martha screamed as soon as she heard it, turning as red as a ripe apple. "You don't need to have indecent breasts to respect aesthetic standards!"

"Really? It seems to me that people liked Serengal and I. And Sarah too" Corgorin said looking at the red-haired woman, who also had a rather prominent breast, and then staring amused at Martha and Lisah. "You two instead had fewer suitors... your face isn't bad and your body is also quite toned, so the only thing you were missing is the meat on your chest... there must be a connection of some kind, am I right?"

Martha blushed even more, so much so that her face looked like the inside of a volcano's caldera, and Lisah, who had been trying to stop her sister up until then, blushed too and couldn't help but stare at her breasts. , which compared to that of the other women in the room was quite small. "Urgh... that's ridiculous! Guys, tell them! The first thing a man looks at in a woman isn't boobs at all!"

Efren and Carlos froze when they were called out. They'd tried desperately to ignore this conversation, but still they couldn't help but chuckle from time to time; but now, they felt strangely in danger. Efren tried to say something: "Well, you see..."

"Guys, a little advice: think carefully about what you are about to say" Sarah stopped him, almost blocking him with her gaze. The red-haired woman had remained unmoved the entire time, and even now she didn't seem to care much about the situation, but for some reason, danger signals seemed to be emanating from her every pore. And the fact that she was doing it while sharpening a knife didn't help the man's courage.

Efren thought maybe it would be better to keep quiet, but he knew the girls were still waiting for an answer, so he tried to come up with something that suited everyone and didn't seem too offensive... but unfortunately Carlos didn't think so and in some cases he knew he was completely devoid of survival instinct. "Of course we don't look at the boobs, who do you take us for? All the true experts know that the first thing to analyze in a woman is the ass! This not only prevents you from being discovered immediately, but also gives you a clear idea of ​​the softness of that body, because observing the oscillations it emits when she walks..."

He couldn't say anything else: Sarah's punch went full in his face and sent him to the floor in pain. "I warned you" the woman said with no emotion in her voice, as if she had just swat a fly.

"Ok, that's enough. Continuing would damage the brain of most of the people present here" Serengal intervened trying to restore calm, silencing Corgorin who was already clearly about to burst out laughing. "Come on, guys! After a long time we're finally leaving for a new adventure! Aren't you happy?"

Efren and Rhaegal smiled at those words. Just a few days before they had discussed how nice it would be to go back to an adventure, like when they were simple adventurers, and almost as a joke fate had now offered them one: they should go down into the hole created by the sand worm and go and investigate the underground water system and the life forms that inhabited it. It felt like one of the classic scout quests the guild would sometimes post. Well, it wasn't quite an adventure but more of a site survey, but it still provided that thrill that characterized the work of adventurers.

"What do you think we'll find down there?" Carlos asked, standing up and rubbing his sore nose. "I mean, we already know that in this desert there are walking sharks and giant worms. Who knows what absurd life forms are under this cursed sand!"

Rhaegal laughed. Until a few days ago he would have replied to Carlos that there was no point in expecting to find who knows what, given that the desert was an inhospitable place and could at most give shelter to some very small creatures. But now that he had discovered that the food chain of the Yuthia Desert was much more complex and extraordinary than they had imagined, even he could not help but fantasize about strange creatures that lived under the sand feeding on those strange mushrooms that ate sand worms or perhaps by preying on other animals. The underground ecosystem was likely to hold big surprises for them.

Rhaegal was happy that Haku had chosen the now former 'One day' party for that mission. His brother thought that since they had been adventurers before, they were the perfect people to explore underground. Of course, the best choice would have been left to the dragons, who could gather multiple information easily thanks to their superfine senses... but obviously Haku would never have climbed into the hole without knowing what was down there, and the same was true for almost all the rest of the family. Rhaegal had been tempted to use his real body, but he knew it would have been a reckless move and that after what had already happened to him, not only Haku, but also his sisters would have scolded him harshly. Indeed, probably Haku shouldn't even have bothered and it would have been enough for him to leave the task to the girls, who had already been furious with him before and if he had shown recidivism they would have made him pay; in particular Rhaegal was quite sure that if he tried to propose such a thing in front of Serengal, who still partly blamed herself for his kidnapping, she would probably try to bite off his horns. So, this time he would go with his old avatar, which he hadn't used for over a month now.

However, he didn't like the idea of ​​his friends risking their lives while he didn't; and indeed Serengal and Corgorin didn't like it either. So the three had made a decision. "Um, guys…before we go we wish you had these" he said as he pulled out five vials as tall as a human thumb and handed them to their friends.

The five adventurers looked at him confused, but then took the bottles. Even though the glass was dark it was easy to see the viscous liquid inside. "What is that?" Sarah asked.

"Our blood" Rhaegal answered. The five adventurers widened their eyes and stared at him in amazement. "Yeah, you know... dragon's blood. It's not as powerful as an adult dragon's, but if we tried to take some of that the others would have noticed immediately, so you'll have to make do with ours. If the cap will increase your strength. But I warn you that it will be a painful process. We have to leave in an hour, so there should be enough time"

Rhaegal remembered what had happened when Haku had given his blood to Sarpa: it had taken hours for the process to complete and the ogre had only advanced one level of strength. But that had happened more than a year and a half ago: now the dragons had grown a lot, and with them also the amount of mana contained in their blood and its efficiency had increased; and based on their experiments on their avatars, they knew he could now advance a newcomer nearly two levels of strength in just an hour. This meant that their fellow adventurers, who were more or less in the middle of the silver level, could go all the way up to the diamond level. While they would still be far from level adamantium, they would still be much safer than they were normally.

Efren, Carlos, Sarah, Martha and Lisah fully understood how precious that gift was. It could easy be called the greatest gift that a dragon could ever do to someone. "Are you sure about...?"

"We are! Now drink it up, we don't have much time!" Corgorin snapped. "And get yourself something to bite into so no one hears you scream"

The five adventurers were a little hesitant, but they knew the properties of dragon blood and wanted to try it at all costs. So they did as they were told and swallowed it. They fully understood why the dragons had told them to find something to put in their mouth to avoid screaming: as soon as they drank it, the blood seemed to become molten lava that descended into their body and spread to every corner of it, burning everything it found. on his way. In particular, their hearts seemed to explode in their chests. They didn't know how long that torture lasted, but when it stopped and they recovered they were lying on the floor of the tent where they were, in an unnatural position that suggested that they had had convulsions.

"Uuungh… I'll never, never, never drink that stuff again" Sarah grumbled as she stood up, but she quickly realized that there was something different about her. Moving had become… easier? It was as if her whole body had become more elastic, more resilient, and stronger. And she could clearly feel that the mana in her body had increased dramatically. She tried to use an elemental spell, and not only it required very little energy from her, but it was even more powerful than usual.

"Wow... I feel like everything inside of me has increased in an instant!" Carlos exclaimed as he looked down at his hands and moved his fingers much faster than normal.

"These are the effects of the dragon's blood. The mana in your body has increased, and as a result all of your abilities have increased, especially magic" Rhaegal explained. "Please don't let it be known that we gave you our blood. Our siblings would go crazy if they knew about it"

"Don't worry, we'll keep our mouths shut," Efren replied. "Why did you want to give us this gift just now?"

"Well... you've helped us so much in the past, and we don't want you to take unnecessary risks. Besides, we trust you" Rhaegal answered. "Until now we have never given our blood to anyone for safety reasons, but in your case we want to take this small risk. Although I doubt our siblings would see it the same way"

He expected a thank you, but for some reason tension seemed to rise inside the tent. "Wait...so up to this moment, despite everything we've done, despite everything we've shared, you didn't trust us?" Sarah exclaimed. "Why didn't you give it to us earlier? Maybe when we took considerable risks going to rescue the beastmen?"

"What? No! That's not what I meant..." Rhaegal tried to explain, but then a series of thuds came from outside the tent. Haku's voice was heard from outside: "Guys, are you ready? You have to go, you can't waste any more time"

Rhaegal wanted to stay a moment longer to clear up the misunderstanding, but he knew their time was limited; so he decided that he would clarify the situation later and replied: "Yes, brother. We are ready"