Chương 107: 2-5 A lesson on dragons

"Ugh, someone please turn it off." Josef grumbled, barely fighting his way back to consciousness. The sound of notifications reverberated inside his skull, seemingly continuing endlessly. He barely caught flashes of the information raining down on him, and most of it looked like gibberish to him, containing mangled letters, broken message-boxes and flashing colors. Was he getting an error dump from the system?

"If that's what you want, why don't you will it?" A familiar voice caught him by surprise. He hadn't heard that one for days, not since the last time she failed to give him useful advice. Unsurprisingly, Lapis hadn't even finished speaking when his mind already turned that advice into reality, muting the cacophony and pushing the notifications aside. He would sift through the mountain of data once he finished addressing the dragon in the room.

Looking around, he was confused because he found himself still within the confines of his domain, not back on the cot where he usually came to his senses after fainting. That had become an almost embarrassing regularity since he started working on his inner world, which made this sudden divergence feel even more jarring.

"Guess I shouldn't be surprised you're still around, Lapis." Josef couldn't shake the feeling that the dragoness sounded different from before.

"How long have you been watching?" Carefully getting on his feet, he noticed the gentle sound of splashing water, leaving absolutely no doubt about the success of his latest landscaping project. It wasn't quite the sprawling body of water he had intended, but the crescent-shaped pond hugging his oasis was a sight for sore eyes. Clearly, the local dragoness agreed, because he found her casually floating in the middle of it.

"What? Dragon got your tongue?" Lapis, noticing his gaze, flashed a toothy grin.

"Do you finally grasp the superiority of dragonkind?" Josef had a hard time accepting the fact that the creature swimming in his oasis was the same one that had stood toweringly and immovably within his domain during all those visits. The cold beast that looked down on anyone he cared about. Her scales of blue shimmered like the very water she swam through, colors bending and changing as if they were a continuation of the liquid's surface.

Tufts of colorful corals decorated her legs and back, with the most prominent ones forming horns and frills on her head. A long, serpentine tail propelled her forward, and he could faintly see orange webbing between her claws as she paddled along, proving how she was literally built for swimming. There even were two tiny wings flapping along with her movements. And all of that was compressed into the size of a house cat. Just who had allowed this cold-blooded lizard to look so utterly adorable?

Satisfied by his stunned silence, or unwilling to wait any longer for a reply, Lapis continued.

"I've watched all of your endearing changes to the domain. A nostalgic sight, reminding me of my first steps in building my own. Albeit with way too many breaks. Are you sure your head is alright? The will of a dragon, no matter how far removed from proper growth, shouldn't be this brittle." Her tone, which carried genuine concern alongside the blatant jab, took Josef aback.

"Is the rest of you still in that crevasse over there?" The question slipped out on its own. He really wanted to go over and compare both dragons for similarities. The sight in front of him was just too jarring! A despondent tail-flick was all he got for an answer.

"Well, my head is still killing me," he admitted.

"If only someone had shared some dragon wisdom to help me, maybe things would have gone more smoothly." Unerringly, he poked right back at the dragoness.

"Oh, but I did tell you the optimal approach. You just had your ears closed off," she deflected, putting on mysterious airs.

"That, and my mana ran low soon after."

"You didn't, you just-""Broke off right as things got interesting?" She waved him off, rolling onto her back in the process.

"Perhaps that's how things sounded to you. Have you ever inspected an elf? What do you think about the system's explanation about their abominable noses?" He barely even had to think about that one, still recalling the very first time he used his eyes on a guard in front of Highsend.

"Nothing useful, it was…" Redacted. The information was hidden from him. It didn't allow him to know.

"No way. You can't be serious." That would imply that the system could actively hide information even in a spoken conversation, as well as from written accounts. The thought of being controlled like that was extremely unsettling.

"My translation skill… the thesaurus," he realized, seeing the dragoness's eyes sparkle with amusement as he reached his terrifying epiphany.

"If it can alter anything I hear, speak, read or write, then of course it could also alter the content!"

"Well done, little dragonet. Not entirely accurate, but close enough. Even without a specific skill like that, the functionality still exists for everyone under the system. Also, strictly speaking, the alteration does not occur upon uttering the redacted information, but upon receiving it. The interference to the body would be too extreme otherwise."

"Guess I should be happy it won't just sew my mouth shut if I ever try to say the wrong thing," he replied sarcastically.

"Why is this…" Josef wanted to say 'necessary', but he could already see the use of suppressing unwanted information. This functionality would be something like a wet dream for many factions back on Earth.

"Why did it stop you from helping me?" He settled on the immediate limitation instead.

"Shouldn't you be able to give your Drake some advice?" Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"You would think so," Lapis sighed, lazily raking her claws through the water.

"But alas, some buffoons of ages past have ruined that for everyone." So it was a rule implemented because of a bad precedent?

"Why? What happened? Ah, wait, you can't tell. Right?"

"Unlike what those elven noses might lead you to believe, history is a fairly unrestricted topic. Unless one wants to dig too deeply into details, that is," the dragoness laughed mirthlessly, making it sound as if she spoke from experience.

"To keep it brief, many parents grew overly competitive over their whelps' performance among peers, so they pushed more and more knowledge into their young and inexperienced minds.

"You have surely come across some feats regarding your new heritage. Needless to say, there are many such rewards, both big and small, alongside assortments of tried and trusty spells which can quickly propel even a whelp to great might.

"Things spiralled out of control quickly, and many younglings died, both to their own peers and to magical accidents. Then, some whelp with the air affinity wanted to flee Aurum and tried to take most of its atmosphere with them. They claimed they didn't know any smaller spell!" Lapis huffed and snorted as she spoke of that last detail, as if almost ending the world was a hilarious joke. Was that a genuine smile on her face?

"The attempt was pathetic, sure, but the council of elders wasn't amused by that, and soon decided to force a new rule through the system. And that's why we can't have shortcuts to power anymore. For no one, no matter the circumstances. Believe me, if I could speed all of this up, I would." There was a lot to unpack for Josef here. For one, dragon history was terrifying, if potentially ending the planet was just a side note to them.

It spoke of just how powerful their race was as a whole, if Aurum was like a playground sandbox to them. After all, if one could wreak havoc on such a scale even as a whelp, then where were the limits of their elders? Those very elders, who apparently also had control of the system which influenced all life on the planet and could change parts of it.

He had suspected something like that, considering his feat called it the birthright of dragons, but it was a different matter to hear that it was really just some kind of tool for them. Also…

"You were there?" From the way she talked about it, he assumed as much. Her retelling felt too emotionally connected for a simple retelling of history.

"I was," she confirmed.

"I saw many good dragons die back then. Killed a fair share of bad eggs too." Josef gulped. Apparently, his patron was a war veteran with blood on her claws. Was that part of the reason she was so indifferent about killing, or did other dragons act like that as well?

"And one child could have really ended the world?" Confusion marred Lapis's face for a moment before she burst into a very uncharacteristic giggle.

"Oh mana, no! Even if he- they succeeded, creating more air isn't exactly hard with the right affinity. Besides, all they had was the correct spell frame. Even an elder would have to drain themselves considerably to enact magic on that scale. The whole upset was more about the absurdity of things. A whelp in their first century holding magic that could harm the whole planet." Josef pictured some spoiled child getting blueprints for a magic bomb from their parents, only to turn it into a public threat.

Even if the materials weren't available, the outcry would be far reaching. It also meant that not every dragon, perhaps only those elders, had magic power on a planetary scale. That didn't exactly make those guys any less frightening, but at least the remainder of dragonkind wouldn't be quite so volatile. Hopefully. Why exactly was he saving them again? Right, because he bought his heart on credit.

"Enough of ancient history, though," she concluded.

"What matters is that you did well in using the wyrm to your advantage, however limited his understanding of domains is."

"His name is Onyx, and I'm not-" Lapis flicked a splash of water at him, cutting Josef short.

"Yes, yes. Your mortal friends and their names. It makes no difference, does it?" She sounded exasperated.

"With the blockage on your mana loosened, your recovery speed has increased manifold. If you continue like this, we will soon have some wiggle room to-""No," Josef cut the dragoness off, causing her to look up at him with indifference.

"We're not doing this. If you want me to work with you, then stop acting like that! Why do you have to demean everyone when you open your mouth? You already turned him into a slave! What would it have cost you not to insult him even further? And don't think I forgot how you tried to put a hole through Zippa before. As if upending my life wasn't enough, you just have to take the piss on anyone I care about.

"You want me to save your entire race, but you didn't even care to call me by my name even once. How about an apology for messing up my memories?" Lapis's snout wrinkled in disgust." Whelp, your stubborn tantrums are only entertaining for so long. A real dragon never apologizes. And don't imply I would care enough to demean those who are beneath my-" It was her turn to be interrupted, as the entire oasis rippled with an invisible force.

"Don't even try to deny it. You're going out of your way just to ensure you insulted everyone you talked about. I don't care what your problem is, but I'm not listening to that crap." Josef was resolved to force the issue then and there. He was more than happy to leave anyone to their own broken worldview if they didn't make it someone else's problem. Hitching a ride inside him, Lapis was very much making it his problem.

"So unless you have something nice to say, don't bother talking about anyone close to me." Josef determinedly crossed his arms. The dragoness snorted.

"You think you can forbid a dragon from-""You're not even a real dragon," the sucker punch landed with precision.

"Just a simulacrum. You said so yourself." Finally, Lapis rose from the water, as she literally stepped onto the surface of the oasis. Those cold, blue, slitted eyes were fixed on his own, gleaming with a challenging spark.

"You should mind your tongue, whelp, or there will be consequences," she growled from deep within her throat.

"Really? Will you withhold help you aren't allowed to give, or will you take back the heartstone and doom yourself?" With another shudder of his domain, the dragoness plunged back into the oasis, now struggling to tread water. He was the master of this realm, and only now did that understanding truly sink in.

"I really hope we can work together properly, but that doesn't happen unless you lower your snout to talk on equal footing. Until then, I have people I trust to help me get stronger. And you," he extended his hands in concentration, "are going into timeout." As the oasis swirled and dragged the dragoness away, Josef didn't even bother suppressing the image of a flushing toilet bowl. He embraced it, because it fit his intentions perfectly.

After Lapis disappeared, the water level merely increased slightly, indicating the addition of new mana. That was, after all, what her current appearance was made of. Hopefully, this was going to give him enough time to sort through those notifications, which had finally stopped flooding in. After that, it was high time he worked with his chaos affinity to fix himself and, if it worked well enough, Zippa.

Just as he sat down, swaying dangerously from exertion, and started reading, he was grabbed by the trembling paws of Nibbles. The rodent had been all but forgotten during his conversation with Lapis. He was about to calm his familiar when the rodent squeaked with excitement.

"Boss beat dragon. So awesome!"