15

Copper hid behind Bryce's legs. A pathetic attempt considering how large he was getting.

"When did I say that was a bad thing?" I chuckled with a smirk, "Personally I don't have enough patience to deal with too many people at once without loosing my temper."

Copper straightened, and looked at Bryce cautiously.

"I'd like to gather some intel from Sekka," I shrugged, "But we really should get that forge moved first."

The non committal way I spoke probably caught them off guard.

"Let's go," I gestured for them to follow me, "The sooner we get done the sooner Bryce can work up some new weapons for you. Dragon scale does make an excellent base material, but Bryce has yet to experiment with any alloys. Plus I think that proper cores would make more powerful weapons."

"Are you going to make them?" Copper spoke up for the first time since I'd come up.

He actually sounded a little excited.

"Sure why not?" I smirked, "But Bryce will owe me some sweet weapons in exchange."

"You don't need weapons," Bryce complained as we went down the steps, "You're strong enough to crush just about anybody with your bare hands."

"That doesn't mean I won't need any weapons," I held out my right hand, and gathered a massive amount of poison mana in one hand.

A purple crystal formed above my hand, and than dropped into my palm a few seconds later. The amount of mana I'd just spent was over half of my reserve, and considering how much my reserve had grown that was more than a little impressive. I tossed the small crystal over to Bryce for him to catch. Copper caught it for him, and handed it over.

"What kind of core is this?" Bryce looked more than a little confused.

"Poison," I smirked back at him, "The right runes, and you could create a weapon that kills your enemy with a single scratch, or puts them to sleep with a single scratch. Poisons do have a lot of applications. Killing is just the only application that most people know about."

"I don't think this core packs enough of a punch to make anything particularly deadly," Bryce complained a bit.

"I can make two or three a day once I'm not worried about coming under attack," I countered as I headed down the steps, "Place cores of the same power next to each other, and they'll fuse creating a stronger core."

"I've never seen something like that happen before," he hit the landing with me since we were walking side by side by now.

"Beast cores aren't pure," I answered the unasked question, "They can't fuse because they aren't made of the exact same materials. That core is pure poison mana condensed, and solidified into a crystal."

It only took us a few minute to clear the lower floor, and make our way over to the forge. One touch was all it took for me to apply a gravity spell to the whole forge. Making the whole thing weight about a pound total. The group was able to pick up the forge, and take it into one of the large rooms. I placed a hand on the wall, and merged the smokestack with a tunnel in the wall that led to the outside.

"We can build a proper forge later once we establish trade with the rest of the world," I stated mainly for the people with us.

It was a good way to let them know that I intended to make peace with the rest of the world. Talk would spread throughout the camp, and people would use that as hope. Humans tended to like strength in numbers. The idea that more people would come here would be a sign of hope for humans. My muscles tensed as I went back to the steps, and sat down at the bottom.

I waited for Sekka to come to me. He knew I was looking for him so he would come to me eventually. When he did we would discuss anything, and everything about the world he'd born on. I returned to my true form, and laid down at the foot of the steps. My scales scaped on the stone.

I was glad that I'd made it so dragons could reach all of the lower floor. Going up the steps would be difficult for any creature larger than myself. That was intentional. I figured the humans would feel safer that way. All this peacemaking was beginning to piss me off.

I needed to blow off some steam somehow. My wings flared slightly when I sensed Sekka approaching me.

"It really is kind of funny how they fear you more than they fear me," Sekka chuckled as he approached.

"You look human while I'm just a big scary monster," I raised my head to look at him, "I'm sure you don't mind that though. This must be the most freedom you've had your entire life."

"You're the only person I know that just lets your prisoner free roam," Sekka leaned against the underside of the stairwell just out of my line of sight.

"Not much reason to tie you up when I can just recapture you anytime," I flicked my tail.

"Literally anytime," Sekka nodded agreement.

"Something about you're name bothers me," I started tapping my talons on the stone steps, "I wasn't planning on saying anything, but I'm getting a little tired of referring to you as garbage in elvish."

Sekka tensed, and went silent.

"Something tells me that you don't like the name either," I tapped my talons on the stone floor, "Why haven't you changed it?" I shrugged creating a whole lot of scaping sounds with the motion, "You could have called yourself anything. Literally anything, and no one would have known any better. Yet you kept the name. Why?"

"If I want to call myself something else than I think I should earn it first," Sekka responded.

"I'm tired of being civil," I snorted as I stood up, "I think you are too. Ethan grab Sekka. Let's go break some shit."