“What the hell?!” Hops shrieked, Sean and Marge jumping up from the other couch in alarm at the noise. Roge meanwhile, was grinning massively at his own popups, excited for the power boost.
As Hops explained the effects Roge had unlocked, the dragon first looked over his [Draconic Magic] effect, blinking at the odd power.
‘Like I’d want that…’ he thought to himself, moving on to [Screen Hoard]’s effect.
That one was a bit tougher to puzzle out, but once he pulled up his [Ability Hoard], he understood.
Instead of having ‘one’ ‘rank five’ coin, for example, when he deposited it as ‘five’ ‘rank one’ coins, allowing him to better keep track of how powerful a coin would be. He could even withdraw ‘five’ ‘rank one’ coins, but come out with ‘one’ rank five’ coin. It would make things so much easier for his bonded wand as well, as he could fill it up with every element he had access to.
“Hey! Roge!” Sean yelled, pulling the dragon out of his contemplation. The lion seemed… angry, which made Roge dismiss all of his screens to better pay attention, especially since the lion was looming over him.
“Sorry. What wee you saying? I got a lot of-“
“What the fuck was that control you had over Hops?!” Sean snarled, Roge flinching at the depth of the anger in his eyes. He glances over to the elf at that, Hops looking frustrated, though with whom Roge didn’t know.
“I uh… Control? You mean when I moved his mana?”
“No, Roge. You commanded me, and my body obeyed,” Hops muttered, still not opening his eyes.
“I… I did what?!” Roge screeched, backing away from the elf and falling off the side of the couch. Thankfully, he didn’t smack his head, though he did yelp at the sudden twisting of his wings and tail.
“When you told my mana to stop, my body did as well. Every question you asked and command you gave my body did on its own. I didn’t have any control over those actions.” Hops finally opened his eyes, Roge backing away even as his glare was directed at Sean. “And now that he knows that, you can see he’s not going to do it without my permission.”
“I’d rather you take my ash out!” Roge shouted, earning his surprised looks from Sean and Marge, and a sigh from Hops. “I’m not into controlling people-“
“Lie,” Hops grunted, the others’ surprised looks directing to him. “But that’s neither here nor there. The point is that, now that Roge is aware, he’s not going to take advantage of it.”
“But what if someone takes advantage of him?!” Sean growled, clearly still upset by the situation.
“If they could control him with his [Static Mind] ability, they could easily take control of us anyway,” Hops countered, rolling his eyes. “And do you think I had no control? I could have resisted if I wanted to, and I’m glad I didn’t. Elven classes are not a thing in the history books.”
“Still voting for everyone to remove it from their inventories,” Roge chimed in, for one being the one ignored as Sean and Hops stared each other down.
“I’m down to see if he can unlock a deer class for me,” Marge stated, looking the most calm out of all of them. “Especially if he unlocks [Wind Magic] alongside it.”
Sean still didn’t look happy at that, seeming to keep the same reservations about controlling abilities that Roge did. “I still don’t like it.”
“Then you be next,” Hops said, earning him a glare from the lion. “See if you can resist. See how it feels to unlock a racial class. I’m very happy with mine, especially considering it’s a [Legendary] class.” That, if anything, made Sean’s eyes soften, the lion giving Roge a reluctant look.
“Fine.”
~~~
Turns out that Sean could resist, very easily in fact. Any hint of resistance was so strong that it pushed Roge right out. That made both of them feel better about the process, even if it did make it take much longer.
“Got it!” Roge shouted, breaking away from the lion as he flopped back onto the armrest of the couch. “Damn that was hard…”
“Okay. This is awesome,” Sean grumbled, looking away from his screens to give Roge a small smile. “Just don’t abuse it.”
“Of course not,” Roge scoffed, noticing Marge practically vibrating out of the other couch. “Give me a bit. It feels like my will is stretched thin.”
“You push yourself too hard,” Hops grumbled, the dragon giving him a glare for the comment. “You do! You constantly stretch the limit of what you can do, to the point where you shut down earlier today.”
“We’re thinking that, after you upgrade my class, we take a break for the next day,” Marge said, waving Sean off of the couch and taking a seat next to the dragon.
“But there’s so many thing-“
“Nope. Break time,” Sean affirmed, Roge grumbling about being ganged up on. “We were already discussing it after this morning. Anything you need, one of us will go out and get. You can tend to your hoards all you want, cook potions if you want, but no pushing boundaries. Got it?”
“Fine…” Roge grumbled, remembering his soiled alchemy tools and sighing. “Do you have a cleaning rune Hops?”
“Yeah?” At that, Roge plonked his spoon and cauldron onto the table, the elf giving him an eye roll.
“Now me!” Marge shouted, a rare wide grin on her face. “Let’s see what I get!”
~~~
After unlocking Marge’s two types of magic and upgrading her class, Roge decided to use the newly cleaned utensils to make more potions and bombs. They wouldn’t let him try for other recipes, and Marge had to run out and buy a lot of potion bottles, but it was still worth it for the dragon. She even got the crystal dust he needed for the recipes, needing amethyst for the spark bombs, lapis lazuli for the ice bombs, topaz for the fire bombs, and, strangest of all, black tourmaline for the acid bombs.
All of that brewing gave him another rank in [Magic Tool Creation], his grin teased at by Sean when it appeared on his face. Blowing out a raspberry, he moved on to the boost potions, making three of each. He didn’t want to make any more, as his supply of acorns was dwindling rapidly. Besides, one potion for each person was good for the moment, though Roge kept the bombs for himself. The idea to strap bombs to the end of arrows wouldn’t leave him, though he was banned from experimenting with it at that moment.
“Alright! Time to go out and socialize!” Sean said, grabbing Roge around the waste and carrying the dragon out the door.
“Hey!” Marge and Hops just chuckled at Roge’s misfortune, the dragon feeling his muzzle practically burning with a blush as he lay over Sean’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “Can I at least know where we’re going?”
“Nope.” Roge grumbled some more as he pulled out another blue cigarette, deciding that the lion would be fine with a bit of harmless smoke. When they got outside, he got many looks, increasing his embarrassment and increasing his need for the smoke. He hadn’t even noticed the sun set and the moon come out with his cooking taking up a good bit of his focus, the pink crescent larger and brighter than before.
After only a few minutes, Sean finally released the dragon, placing him down in front of what looked to be a fancy restaurant. They even had outdoor seating, which the lion immediately gravitated to. “Dinner…?” he squeaked out, grateful when Marge and Hops sat down to join them.
“Yeah. Sit down. Relax over good food. You need it.” Roge could feel a bit of himself unwinding at that, sinking into the open chair just as the server came to give them menus. Thankfully, the chairs had a hole in the back to accommodate his wings and tail, a soft smile coming to his face at that.
“Thanks guys,” he said quietly, grabbing the menu to hold up and hide his face.
“Of course my Dragon,” Sean purred, coughing when he realized what he just said.
“Any recommendations?” Roge squeaked out, hiding behind the menu even more.
“Try the mushroom steak. It was your favorite,” Hops muttered, a wide smile on his face as he looked between the two.
Roge did in fact order the steak, finding it to be just as delicious with different taste buds. Conversation flowed a little bit better after the rocky start, the active adventurers regaling Roge with the stories of the places they’d gone to within the past few years. Tales of monsters slain, to the towns they’d explored along the roads. They’d even gone to one of the nearby cities at one point, though Marge seemed to dislike their treehouse based architecture.
Roge wanted more information on it, though, finding the trees to be hundreds of feet tall with the city largely consisting of buildings attached to the middle of the trees with wooden bridges spanning the entire complex. His stomach flipped at the description, though Sean assured him that there were safety measures in place to keep people from falling.
They also spoke of a ruin they wanted to visit in the nearby forest, a place apparently called Koganusan. There were rumors about the town that Hops had uncovered, all about a town dug into the side of a cliff. All of the recent rumors talked about screams coming from the area, as well as the road being lost under the surrounding basalt landscape. Roge didn’t feel as comfortable with that, knowing lava generally made the rock, but he’d be willing to go visit it with them if he had the appropriate gear. After all, he pointed out, his ability to absorb weather effects did not extend to magma.
Overall, the evening was fun, Roge laughing over and absorbing all of the stories with glee. He didn’t even flinch when they showed him a map of the area, showing the he definitely wasn’t in Kansas anymore. After all, he still had a home. He still had friends. And he had a goal to work towards. To become as strong as possible.
Should Sean's windows be a different color?
