Of Greed and Dragons

A few weeks had passed since there was any movement from Vitas's cabin in the center of the woods. Rarely did he need to leave his house and touch grass like a proper human being, mostly contenting himself with any games he had picked up from his last world and enjoying being an overall lazy person. He made it the center of his life to enjoy it, knowing that he would remain isolated for the safety of others.

He experimented with his alchemy knowledge until he was able to make the majority of the potions from the game that didn't require rare monster parts to complete. It wasn't difficult, considering he could simply wish for herbs and plant-based ingredients to simply appear in his home and they would be there in perfect condition a second later. He had all the steps in his memory, and usually, it took 2-3 tries to reproduce it using natural methods a native of this world might use.

Of course, he had been planning to leave his home at some point. And that time would be today.

Vitas felt the familiar tug on his soul that happened when his 'luck break' was occurring and decided to spend the day taking a relaxed hike. The 'luck break' would continue for about 10 hours, considering it had been accumulating for a while before this. He wouldn't have to worry about accidentally killing weak creatures by simply walking passed them. Not to mention... some interesting things always happen on a 'lucky day' like this.

*Deep breath*

"Ah~" Vitas smiled, completely relaxed.

He wore a black and blue modern hoodie and sweat pants, generated by his home's closet. It was perhaps the single most comfortable a modern person might wear. If he ended up running into anything combat-related, he could simply '[Dimensional Step]', to instantly transfer himself back to his home from within 100km away if he needed to run. 

On his hand, he still wore a [Ring of Sustance] to manage his hunger and thirst.

*Whistling sounds*

He whistled as he walked in a random direction, interested in what his luck might help him find today.

...

Guild Base [Greedy Proud], not far from Vitas's home.

A large amount of homunculus NPCs were moving about hurriedly, performing a variety of tasks that were assigned to them. They had joyful smiles on their faces as they had been busy for the past 8 weeks since they had arrived in this New World. They were lucky, that their Supreme Beings had remained with them and had not abandoned them like the rest of the guild. Each day felt like a joy to them all, being able to continue having purpose. And purpose their Supreme Beings brought them, indeed.

Inside a small circular meeting room within the guild base, 7 Player's were seated, seemingly waiting for either member's arrival. Each of them wore distinctive armor and features that were of Divine-Class, showing off their different class builds and styles. They were a combination of humanoid and demihuman races, with two humans among them. 

"Hmm, Romule," A man with a tankish build and a huge tower shield next to him spoke, looking up from some documents.

"What?" A dark elf man, Romule asked.

"Did Merlin mention how the experiment with the High Elf locals went?" The man continued asking.

"No. He must have forgotten while he was working." Romule replied, shaking his head.

*Doors opening*

"Hi-Hi, Sorry I'm late everyone." A High Elf man who looked like a stereotypical wizard sat down in the final seat.

"Oh, Merlin. Titan was asking about you." Romule commented, waving his hand bored.

The high elf man named Merlin turned his attention to the Titan and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"How did the High Elf locals experiment go?" Titan asked, leaning back in his seat and resting his right arm on his tower shield next to him.

"Ah, that worked," Merlin said, a bit of surprise in his voice.

"Looks like it was worth using [Five Elements Overcoming] then." Titan hummed, nodding to himself.

"And how powerful do you think the locals could get?" He followed up asking.

"It's too early to say now." Merlin shook his head.

"But I'm not optimistic," Merlin added, unhelpfully with a wry smile.

"It doesn't matter. The point of a smoke screen is to hide. Remember what we faced more than a month ago?" Titan said, speaking solemnly.

Several of the players at the table clenched their fists in, what seemed like a combination of anger and fear. How could they possibly forget the moment their arrogance was shattered and the novelty of traveling to a fantasy world was crushed?

"We drove them away in the end," Romule spoke, trying to ease the tension in the room.

"Yes... but those 'Dragons'... they used people's souls, just to fuel their weird magic." Merlin clenched his fist tightly.

"If we didn't have our World Items equipped..." Merlin said, but let his words remain unfinished as the silence that hung in the air was thick enough to contain the meaning of them.

"Guys, " Titan called everyone's attention back to him in the room.

"We were ignorant, but now we know." Titan stood up and leaned forward slightly with a smile on his face.

"We can still change this world." He finished.

Their faces relaxed and some of them even let out a smile.

...

*Sounds of sticks breaking*

Vitas had spent the past few hours enjoying a relaxing hike as he walked towards a nearby mountain. He had spotted several animals along the way who would either scurry away on sight of him or stare at him dumbly. One such creature, which resembled a plump squirrel, fell out of a tree and died near him as he walked. It was a very tasty treat after he decided to roast it with some fire magic.

However, Vitas was a bit disappointed so far that the events of this 'luck break' did not seem too interesting. But this changed as soon as he came across the somewhat obscured cave-dwelling on the side of the mountain. No creatures dared to come within half a mile of this area and the plants here were wildly overgrown. It simply screamed 'lucky opportunity'.

Without any hesitation, he stepped through the cave. He felt himself pass through a jello-like barrier of some kind when he did, but nothing seemed to happen so he ignored it. There were tree roots inside here that were even larger than outside, acting as support pillars for the cave's large interior. After exploring deeper inside, he came across a large expanse of the cave with a very noticeable creature lying on top of a large pile of treasure and money.

It was perhaps the most glorious-looking dragon he had ever seen. It had thick, golden scales, which seemed to give off some kind of radiance. Not to mention the incredible level of gear, equipment, and treasure that was surrounding it. Thankfully, this dragon seemed to be dead as its body started to show some signs of rot, even from a distance.

He approached closer intending to take a look at some of the items, but he was interrupted as a 'hologram of light' appeared in front of him of the same golden dragon which was already dead. Strangely, he could understand the words the dragon hologram spoke, despite not knowing the language.

"Greetings, If this recording is playing, then I am already dead." It stated, staring lifelessly in the air.

"It pleases me that my descendants have someone strong enough to resist the ilk of those parasites." The dragon hologram said.

'Did this dragon expect to only have natives enter this place?' Vitas hummed, quite pleased by the effects of his 'luck break' being a menace.

"You may have already... guessed what happened to cause all this." The dragon hologram continued, with a somewhat guilty tone.

"And you would be right if you heard that it was me who attracted these 'Players' to our world." The dragon hologram hung its head in shame.

"Despite being the Dragon Emperor of the 16th generation and possessing the strongest [Wild Magic] ever recorded, I failed you all. I failed this world." The dragon emperor's hologram spoke sadly.

"In my greed, I hoped to bring abandoned items of great power into this world. To lead the Dragons into another realm. But the cost... was too great." It explained.

At this point, Vitas had somewhat ignored the message of the hologram and was looking through some of the equipment while listening half-heartedly to the message.

"The [Wild Magic] required more than the souls I provided, taking my lifespan and overburdening my body due to the magic's level needing to be so high. The 'Parasites' were brought along with the transfer, and they will soon warp this world into something that will harm the Dragon race and its interests." It explained with some regret and anger in its eyes.

"I can only hope, that by entrusting all my wealth and knowledge to you, my son; Platinum Dragon Lord, the future of the Dragon race can be maintained. " The hologram stated with a smile.

"Huh? Platinum Dragon Lord? I seem to recall this name" Vitas mumbled, throwing down a chalice-like treasure into the pile of gold.

"I have already divined the future enough to know that you will find this place and lead the remaining Dragons of [Wild Magic] to become Lords. It can only be you son. Only you have inherited my blood and possess the strength at this point to find my tomb." It stated, with pride in its tone.

"Son, please fix my mistakes. Take back this world from the hands of those parasites." The hologram of the dragon emperor asked solemnly.

Then the hologram dispersed, leaving only silence in its place.

"Um," Vitas scratched his head.

"I feel kind of bad now," He looked at the horde of treasure in front of him.

He felt like he had interrupted some kind of father-son moment now that he had found this place. His home hid him even from the likes of 'fate' so it was obvious that the dragon emperor's future vision did not account for him finding this place. Add onto that the circumstances of the barrier at the entrance thinking he was a native because of his earlier wish, and you get a series of 'lucky' coincidences that happened to stack up and ruin this dragon emperor's carefully laid plan for giving his son his inheritance.

"Well, I don't have any need for all this gold. How about I just take the interesting items and... this corpse should be useful, right?" He asked himself aloud.

He then gathered up any items he could find that were interesting enough, which surprisingly were 2 World Class items along with quite a few Divine-Class items and Legendary-Class items from Yggdrasil. Perhaps the World Class Items had arrived in his very cave when he cast the [Wild Magic] he mentioned. It didn't matter, the point was that Vitas had made money off of this.

He even absorbed the huge corpse of the dragon emperor into his inventory magic dimension, thinking of it he could use it for potions of some kind. He finished picking off all he could, before glancing one last time at the large horde of gold that he had left alone.

"Forget it, it's not like you're using it. " Vitas mumbled, giving in to the temptation to simply take the rest.

He absorbed the rest of the gold in the treasury and left the cave with a spring in his step.

...

Elf Tribe Newly Acquired Territory.

The 'shaman' boy paced in his room anxiously, waiting for the appearance of his teacher. He had been working hard and even managed to capture the territory of the Wolfkin. Surely, he would be please with him, right?

*Buzz*

A round gate appeared in the room and the 'shaman' boy immediately knelt, trying to calm his excitement. The high elf man named Merlin stepped through the [Gate] and smiled at the boy.

"Rise, you don't need to kneel. Since I've taken you as a student, you can treat me as you might a father." Merlin said with a calm cadence in his voice.

"T-thank you, Lord Merlin" the boy stuttered, glancing at the man out from under the corner of his eye as he stood up.

"You did well," Merlin commented.

And for a moment, the boy felt his head swell with pride.

"But you still have a long way to go." Merlin finished, and the boy felt his excitement calm.

"Is there still more?" The boy asked excitedly.

"Of course, you have only managed to perform 1st Tier magic," Merlin explained calmly as he conjured a seat and sat leisurely.

"Oh, how many are there?" The boy asked curiously.

"9, but I don't expect you to be able to make it so high," Merlin answered.

"I can do it!" The boy answered with confidence.

*Chuckles*

"We will see," Merlin said, nodding.

"Take this, it is your reward for a job well done," Merlin said, pulling out a Low-Class item [Apprentice Robes] and handing it to the boy.

The boy took it and quickly slid it on over his body. To him, it felt incredibly comfortable and something he could have never dreamed of wearing until now.

"I promise, I'll never take it off." the boy swore boldly.

"Well, I hope you can at least wash it," Merlin said, scratching his cheek awkwardly.

"I will." The boy nodded.

Merlin felt a headache coming on, this was why he never liked talking with this boy. He treated him like he was a god descending into the mortal world. Taking all his words like gospel, not too unlike the NPCs in the guild. He stood up from the seat he had just conjured, intending to escape from this encounter now that his job was done.

"You have done well, so keep it up. I will visit after a while to see how well you progress with the tomb I gave you earlier," he said, once again creating a [Gate].

"Ah- teacher will you be leaving so soon." the boy asked, sadly.

"Yes, well... I have other business to attend to." Merlin responded with a lie.

"Alright, I'll continue working hard." the boy promised.

Merling nodded, before disappearing into the [Gate].

'This is so troublesome. I should see if I can make a homunculus NPC teach in my place for a while,' he thought as the gate closed behind him.