Damian jumped on the distraction, “Design blueprints?”

  Viktor nodded, “Da, engineer skill tree focuses on the designing of blueprints for mechanical items. Can I put items together from blueprints? Yes, but I won’t get perks that assist vith that. My perks focus on making my designs more understandable, and give me more advanced study material. It is more intellectual skill tree as opposed to practical.”

  “My artificing skill tree is the opposite of that.” Damian said. “All practical applications, limited knowledge gain. Think I could borrow some of the books you were given after you’re done with them?”

  “Of course! I vould be delighted, ve can design your new arm together.” Viktor beamed at him.

  A hand on his shoulder let him know Arushi was done with bandaging his arm. She helped him to his feet, and with putting his shirt and coat back on. Bronze landed next to Damian and looked at him with large watery eyes. She leaned into him and wrapped her wings around him, in an imitation of a hug. She let out a few mournful caws, which put a small, touched smile on Damians face.

  “It’ll be fine girl. You preformed wonderfully. You got the dragon’s attention off me when I needed you.” Damian reached out and pat her head.

  Gaining a vindictive gleam in his eye, Damian turned to the dragon’s corpse, finally getting a good look at the thing for the first time. The beast was the length of a football field, and half as wide. Its scales were a gleaming crimson, though some looked faded and more brittle than they should, that faded to a cream color on its underbelly. Its claws were the size of motorcycles and had a wickedly sharp cutting edge, even in the beast’s death. Damian swore he could see a slip stream form from where the wind blew against the things.

  Damian circled the beast a few times and turned to Viktor. “You ever do any butchering work?”

  Viktor looked at him, unsure where he was going, “Some, vhy?”

  “I want to eat dragon steaks as we escort princess pain in my ass, back to her father. Along with some other choice cuts to keep for a later date.” Damian said.

  Viktor just barked a laugh and spent a few hours carving up the dragon. Over the course of the activity the princess woke up, and demanded to be taken home immediately. So, Damian punched her in the face, knocking her out once more. Arushi gave him an exasperated look but said nothing, she did take over princess duty however to prevent Damian from doing it again. The next time the princess came too she was much quieter and hid behind Arushi. Once Viktor passed them the last of the dragon meat, skull, forelimbs, and a few scales, they made for the cave to investigate the creature’s hoard.

  The dragon had gathered precious gems and metals too numerous to fully count. Piled into a mound the size of a small hill, the group could make out items poking out here and there. The trio grinned at each other and started looting, each taking an equal share of the monetary gains. The items came in three varieties, first was items clearly tailored to a specific person, second were random items that the dragon found neat. Lastly, were items that had a certain look to them, they were clearly steampunk in design but all had wilderness themes, these must be from the Thrillbark Empire’s treasury. The trio sorted the treasures and took stock of the ones intended for them in particular.

  Viktor found a pair of axes with a dragon motif, one being the head of the dragon the other the tail. They were proper battle axes instead of the great axes he was previously using. The two axes when swung left a trail of dragon fire in their wake, and much to Viktor’s delight, could be combined together into an oversized great axe. In this form the axe blades looked like a dragon roaring its dominance to the world.

  Arushi, was given a box full of seeds for various, unknown plants with potion formulas that could be made from them. Each packet of seeds had a detailed description and illustration of the plant they would bloom into. Damian only caught a brief glimpse of some before he turned to his own reward. There were flowers that seemed to be made of dreams, trees that created floating gardens among their canopies, and a fruit bearing vine in the shape of a goat. Upon reading through the descriptions, and some of the formulas, Arushi began to hop up and down, squealing with excitement.

  “The floating garden trees will look amazing around my home, and will allow me to finally have the garden Maa and I always wanted to start. Oh, I can’t wait to tell her!” Arushi gushed.

  Damian’s reward was also in a box, upon opening he found three books and a set of jeweler’s tools. The books were titled ‘Gem crafting, a Practical Guide’, ‘Artificer’s Guide to Creating Gem Batteries’, and ‘Franklin Blackhammer’s Primer on Runic Gem Craft’ respectively. Damian’s mind whirled at a frantic pace, already brainstorming possible ideas before even reading any of the books. He was definitely going to make it the power source of the arm he and Viktor would design.

  The group next turned their attention to the dragon’s knickknacks next. They were mostly interesting mechanical items, an ornate grandfather clock, a moving mosaic of colored glass attached to moving gears, and whirring teeth that, thanks to an ever-burning flame in the center, would release dazzling light that changed hues every few seconds. A music box whose dancing couple seemed to have their features changed at every different stanza. A few other items like these littered the floor, the group just deemed them potential trade fodder and divided them evenly between themselves.

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  They turned to the last two items, the ones from those Thrillbark assholes. The first one was an overly intricate and detailed crown that, according to the system description, granted the wearer access to all secrete vaults of the Thrillbark royal family. The crown looked like a laurel from the roman empire, the ones their leaders would wear. Each individual leaf was made of gold, and the vein like patterns were etched in actual emeralds. Attached to each leaf was a miniscule gear that when activated, made it appear as if the leaves were caught in a favorable wind. All three Inducted shared a devious, dastardly idea, locking eyes with a wicked grin shared between them. With a thumbs up and a smile, Viktor walked over to the princess and covered her ears, allowing Damian to speak freely to the audience.

  Holding up the crown, Damian said, “As many merchants out there should know the Integration Market will be happening in roughly a month Earth time. If you want to have a chance to ransom the crown back to those douche canoes in the Thrillbark empire, make sure you show up so you can participate in the auction.”

  Finishing his little taunt, Damian turned to the last item, a large saddle that looked like a throne made out of living trees, if the trees were pure silver, and covered in gems. From what they could tell, from its structure, the saddle was meant for a flying avian mount. While Damian wasn’t a fan of its overall aesthetic, he would eventually need a saddle for when Bronze grew to her full size.

  “Do you guys’ mind if I keep this? I can use it for Bronze in the future.” Damian requested.

  “Sure, I have no use for it.” Viktor said.

  Arushi nodded, her voice slurring slightly, “I don’t mind either, but I do have one unrelated request.”

  Damian raised an eyebrow, “Sure, what do you need?”

  “Catch me.” Arushi said, as she started to sway from side to side.

  Damian barely managed to get to her as her legs gave out. “What happened? Are you okay?”

  “I am fine, the talisman effect finally wore off. I didn’t expect it to last that long, but I think it absorbed some of the dragon’s vitality so it lasted longer than usual. Which probably means the period of weakness will be prolonged as well.” Arushi said as she leaned into Damian’s chest.

  “Nothing, involving that dragon went to plan. My crossbow’s ability did nearly nothing to it.” Damian grumbled.

  Viktor cleared his throat, “It didn’t do nothing, it just didn’t kill it. Dragon’s have more metaphysical veight to their souls as they are seen as fonts of magic. While it could shrug off your attack it was not without cost. Did you notice the brittle and faded scales on the carcass?”

  Damian saw where he was going with this, “So, the ability drained its vitality and made it more vulnerably to our follow up attacks.”

  Viktor nodded in agreement, “That is likely the case, and something you should take into account next time. Creatures with certain level of strength or metaphysical weight will likely have similar reaction to your weapon.”

  “Yeah, I’ll have to keep that in mind. Let’s get goi-“ Damian trailed off as he noticed something in the corner of the cave. Setting Arushi gently against a wall of the cave he made his way over. When he arrived, he saw a large, reaching roughly to his mid-thigh, ruby colored, scaled egg. He reached out to touch it and a system prompt appeared in his vision.

  “Fuck, the hell, no! How could you even think offering that would land well you stupid system!” Damian said venomously.

  “I’m going to fucking eat it!”

  “That bastard ate my arm. I eat its child, seems like a fair trade to me.”

  A piece of paper fluttered to the ground in front of him and landed atop the egg. He picked them both up and marched over to Viktor. He tossed the egg to him then passed over the recipe.

  “Think you could make that for me?” Damian asked, a manic look on his face.

  Viktor, after glancing at a system prompt, looked at Damian, and slowly nodded. “Da, I can do that. Are you sure you are, okay? You are vorrying me, my friend.”

  Damian took a deep breath, “Sorry. I’ll be fine, but I want some petty revenge at the moment. Petty, delicious, breakfast-y revenge.”

  Viktor looked at him a moment longer then shrugged, “Sure, vhy not. Go rest I vill cook.”

  Damian returned to Arushi and sat down beside her. She shifted her posture so her head landed on his shoulder. “How are you really doing? No bravado, no shrugging it off, be honest with me and yourself.”

  Damian was silent for a moment before responding, “I’m hangry, and the thought of how my family is going to react keeps playing in my head. We just reconnected, and now they are going to see how close to losing that they came again. I’m worried that with this injury, I’ll be useless in our final battle, and we will lose lives I could have saved if I was fully capable.”

  Arushi gave a commiserating hum, “It may sound like an empty platitude but, everything will get better. This injury won’t hold you back for long, Viktor already promised to help you design a new arm. You now know you need a stronger weapon, the Integration Market is around the corner, find one, or the means to make one. Don’t mope, it will only drag you down.”

  Damian chuckled, and rested his head on top of hers, “Thanks, Arushi. You’re right. Can’t promise I won’t be a moody bastard for a while though.”

  “Of course, I’m right, I always am, and you’d do well to remember that mister. You can be moody all you want as long as you carry me out of here, with care mind you.” Arushi giggled.

  The two sat there in silence, taking comfort in the others presence, until Viktor brought over their portion of the omelet.