Chapter 87
“Ah, great red dragon!” I called out, stepping forward. “I believe it would be that woman over there who is looking at taking your flower.” I pointed across the outcropping that was divided in half by the dragon’s massive form poking out of the cave to where the wildmen woman was crouching behind a bolder, trying to hide.
She poked her head out as soon as the dragon looked where I was pointing and then narrowed her eyes hatefully. The red dragon didn’t immediately kill her though. Instead, it glanced back at me.
“You also desire my flower, or you wouldn’t have come up here.” The dragon accused, its hot breath brushing against me.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say the dragon was intimidating. I may be unusual in many regards, but I still grew up a human. To face a living, breathing dragon was a horrifying thing. Furthermore, in the world of evolution, size mattered. The red dragon was so large that I had a feeling even if its status was lower, it’d still cause significant damage. An ant couldn’t kill an elephant no matter how high its evolutionary status was, and I could tell it’d be difficult to defeat a dragon, even with my status.
Thankfully, I had a few cards up my sleeve, or I wouldn’t have tried to deal with a red dragon. However, discovering it could talk also caused me to reevaluate my plan.
“I would never steal your flower,” I claimed, the dragon narrowing its eyes. “Rather, I only wanted to study it. For that, I was looking to trade with you, otherwise, I wouldn’t have called you out.”
“Trade?” The red dragon’s eyes glittered, but then it shook its head. “You have nothing I want, and I refuse to risk allowing a stranger near my flower.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Do you think the flower will be enough?”
The woman across from me frowned, but the red dragon shook slightly as she stared at me suspiciously. “What are you suggesting?”
“You wish to incubate your offspring to hatch. However, you’re injured and unable to produce the dragon flame necessary to incubate it. You’re nurturing that flower in the hopes of being able to produce the flame long enough to incubate the egg, correct?”
“The dragon reeled back. “You, how could you know that?”
It wasn’t too hard to figure out. My mana might be low, but my other senses were top-notch. I was able to determine this was a female dragon. She would have detected us the moment we came, but yet she remained inside her cave until she had to emerge. That told me she had something to protect. Thus, I sent a sensory item into the cave and was able to see an egg. The egg showed no signs of life, but there were countless burn marks around it as if someone was trying to incubate it with flames.
I knew little of dragons beyond the stories from my world, but I did look up the properties of the fire-cleaning orchid before arriving. However, just from the name, I was able to guess the rest.
“It doesn’t matter.” I sighed. “The fire-cleansing orchid will create a fire that is capable of incubating the egg, but that fire wouldn’t be sustained long enough for it to do any good. Within a week, you’d need a new flower. In fact, by my best guess, you’d need forty or more flowers to finish to hatch your child.”
The red dragon’s expression turned dark. “If that is so, then I will find more flowers.”
“How far and how long did you search for this one?” I asked innocently. “I can already feel your life is weakening. How much longer do you have to search?”
“Is that why you came here, human? To take advantage of me while I’m weak?” She roared, her body finally emerging the rest of the way from the cave as she stood up on her hind legs, towering over us. “I’ll have you know, I may be weakened, but I used to be the level of a sovereign! My husband was the dragon god! I may have fallen to the strength of a King, but I still can kill anyone who dares threaten me!”
To punctuate her words, she raised her head up and then erupted in dragon fire. The wildman woman couldn’t help but gasp at the site of the dragon, a massive pillar of fire erupting in the air. Even my eyes couldn’t help but flash at that. There were other gods? This was the first time I had heard or encountered anything stronger than a Lord, and even a Lord I had never seen, only heard about. Then again, this wasn’t the real world, but rather a trial created by some high-rank evolved, so it was unlikely it could be any stronger than him.
As the pillar continued, I took a closer look at it. It was hypnotic in some ways, a swirling of three different colored flames that seemed to be spun around each other like a braid. It was very unique, but I could instantly tell that there was something wrong with the fire. It had holes in it, and seemed to come out in sputters. However, I watched it very carefully, making sure to track it all with my senses thoroughly. The dragon finished her stream of fire and then looked back down at me with a glare.
I looked up at her and met her eyes. I could feel a pressure pushing down on me, but it was rather insignificant. It was much more exaggerated on the wildmen woman, who was on the ground, her face red panting as if she was struggling to breathe.
“I already said that I wanted to trade,” I responded. “I need to study the orchid. After I do that, I will be able to replicate it. If I can make more, then I could create as many fire-purifying orchids as you want. In that case, you would be able to incubate your egg.”
The pressure reduced considerably, and the red dragon frowned. “Impossible! Duplication? Could such a mutated ability exist?”
“I hadn’t considered Replication…” I muttered under my breath.
I had planned to break down the individual components and determine the ones that contributed to the purification. This would allow me to create a cure for the poison inflicting me. Once I created a potion, I could make as much of it as I wanted. It’d be simple to differentiate a patch of cells designed to create that antidote. As for the promise to create more flowers, that had been a bit of a lie. I could create the chemicals, and hopefully, that would be sufficient to satisfy her in the short term. I never actually needed to replicate the flower, because the trial would be over by then.
However, the red dragon’s words inspired me. I had the skill Replication. It was a knowledge skill, allowing someone to replicate something. I had managed to use it to replicate the words of a book, but could I get the complete structure of a flower and then recreate that structure using my cells?
“What did you say?” The red dragon demanded.
After thinking about it for a few moments, I gave a nod. “I am capable of duplicating this flower. Even if I failed, I’m confident that I could I could fix the damage and allow you to incubate the egg.”
“Who do you think you are, human?” Her eyes grew enraged. “Do you think I’m a fool? Your claims are outrageous!”
I opened my mouth and using Mimic, I caused a fire to erupt. It was much smaller than the fire the dragon had sent out, but it had the same spiraling form. It only went out about three feet from my body before dissipating. In truth, it was a pale imitation of the fire the dragon had made, but the dragon couldn’t help but gasp.
“Y-you’re a dragonkin?” The wildman woman cried out.
The dragon war a frown. “I don’t smell my kind blood in your whatsoever. All I smell is human… human… and something else.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I am a human… all I did was mimic the ability you showed earlier. I just wanted you to see that I’m not a normal human.”
She looked at me warily. “No, you are not… can you create copies of the flower?”
“I can try, but time is short. My nation…” I paused and then glanced at the wildmen girl. “Both of our nations are about to collapse. I asked for a trade. I need a ride. During that ride, I will analyze the flower. By the end of the trip, I will give you your answer.”
“A ride…” Her eyes flashed as she looked to the army, and the smoking castle. “Hmm… the distance for me will be nothing. I can be there in the time it takes an incense stick to burn.”
“That time will be enough. If I fail, then I offer my life.”
“Hmph, what could I do with your life?”
“You saw the flame I made, if I could dedicate my entire body to that flame, I could become a furnace to hatch your egg.”
Her body shook for a moment. “You would do that?”
“Only if I fail. Don’t see it as a gift but as my confidence in completing the task.”
She nodded. “Then, get on! There is no time to waste.”
A light wrapped around me and I was pulled onto the dragon’s back. A similar light wrapped around the flower, picking it out of the ground and then placing it in front of me. I couldn’t understand the magic at play, but I had a feeling it was preserving the flower as I analyzed it.
“That…” The wildmen girl looked longingly at the flower that ended up in my hands.
“You too!” The dragon roared, and she was wrapped in light and tossed on the back too.
She let out a cry, her arms wrapping around the first thing that could keep her from falling off. That turned out to be my waist. I glanced back at her, and her face turned red as she looked away, but she also didn’t let go of me. If anything, as the dragon kicked off from its perch on the side of the mountain, she grabbed on harder.
My eyes focused on the flower. I had a promise to follow through on.
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