I lay, crushed beneath the rubble of the overhang destroyed by the Dragon as it stood atop the wreckage searching for . Erani and the Dryad were dead, so I knew for a fact that this tiline wasn’t one I’d continue in even if I did survive this. But still, I’d use this opportunity to try and get at least a bit of information from the Dragon.
So I tried to shift myself out from under the rubble that crushed .
But I couldn’t. It was all so heavy, I couldn’t move at all. My arms were pinned under jagged rocks, my torso and legs would’ve been broken if not for Dark Plate reducing the damage and saving my life, and I couldn’t see anything. I tried casting Expedite on myself, but no matter how limber the extra Dexterity made , I simply didn’t have the power in my muscles to move.
So instead, I resorted to coughing the dust from my lungs and shouting out.
“Please,” I croaked, “spare .”
My voice must’ve been weak and muffled, coming through all the stone that was on top of , but I still felt the Dragon move around, the entire layer of rocks covering shifting above .
Its voice ca through again, this ti much louder – it must’ve moved its head closer to so I could hear it better. Its deep voice rumbled my heart. “Who are you?”
“My–” I coughed. “My na is Arlan. I am not against you. I want to take that wall down, too.”
I felt a rumbling from above and the rocks covering were drug out of the way. One sweep of the rubble aside, and I felt the weight lessen. Another, and suddenly I felt like I may be able to move. A third, and finally I could see sunlight breaking through the gaps of the gravel.
I laboriously raised my hands and shifted the dirt and stone away from my face, and I could finally see clearly.
Staring straight down at was the massive scaly face of a Dragon – head taller than my entire body. Its yellow eyes felt like they glowed brighter than the sun, staring through . Its reddish-purple scales glinted dominantly, like the beast was brimming with power. Its nostrils flared with each breath, the heat from its air feeling like it would lt my skin if I let it too close to .
“You are the living one,” it said, its massive mouth opening and showing just how easily it could eat – one bite would be all it’d take.
“Yes, thank you for sparing ,” I said, getting to my feet only to fall to my knees, bowing my head toward it. “Please, I believe I can offer you help–”
“What is my na?”
“I– what?”
“You have told your na. Tell my na.”
“I don’t know,” I looked at it, confused. “You haven’t told yet.”
“No. You have not heard of . Why would you want my help if you do not know why I am?”
Ah. It was a pride thing. This Dragon wanted soone who could stroke its ego. I took a mont to think, then spoke, “I am aware of the great Dragon species, of course. As a mber of such a family of beings, you demand great respect. I can promise that I believe in your power.”
“But you do not know my na,” its deep voice rumbled my heart, teeth shining a reflection of the broken helm of my Dark Plate. It was slowly reforming as the forty-second tir ticked down until it could be used again.
“I’m willing to learn!” I said. “Please, inform of your greatness.”
“I am Mountaintar, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Hoholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker, Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash! All know my na! You are ignorant. You are stupid. You are worthless.”
“Yes, my sincerest apologies,” I committed what the Dragon said to mory, doing my best to rember all ten titles alongside the damn thing’s actual na. The Intelligence Stat helped to increase mory, in the sa way Strength increased physical power and Conjuration increased your speed at casting Spells, so morizing the na wasn’t as hard as it’d be for an Unclassed person.
“Your apology is worthless,” Astintash said. “Soone who does not even know who I am, trying to speak with as though they are my equal? I thought you may be an intriguing Human, since you survived my attack, but clearly your mind is not as strong as your body.”
“Please, educate on your great deeds,” I said.
The Dragon looked down at . “You have no manners whatsoever. No offering, no foreknowledge, all you can do is ask things of . I refuse to hear you out further.”
“Wait, please–”
Astintash opened its mouth. “I hope you are worth a good amount of XP, Human.”
You have been bitten. 2.8k damage.
Your Health is 0.
You have died.
Yeah, I didn’t really expect to survive very long. I tried to ignore the mory of the pain of my body splitting in two, focusing on what I’d gained. I knew the Dragon’s na – that was huge, considering how much Astintash seed to care that I didn’t know it before. But I’d also gathered so other valuable information from our conversation.
Obviously, by looking at the ten titles the Dragon preceded its na with, I could infer so things about its past. Giantslayer – it’d killed Giants. Sa with Kinsbane – it’d probably killed so other Dragons before. It was proud of its physical power, considering how many titles ntioned its ability to destroy things, so we probably needed to specifically ntion that.
And there were so other things I’d learned from small things Astintash had said. Little context clues to give so ideas on what we could do.
But that still left with the question of how it’d found us. Did it sohow see us under the stone overhang, or sothing?
I felt myself begin to fade, and hurriedly selected a ti – the maximum I was allowed to go back, four hours.
And then I was back, lying under so rubble. For a second, I panicked. Why was I covered in rocks? Had I accidentally gone back four minutes or sothing instead of four hours, and now I was still crushed under the fallen stone of the overhang?
But then I realized where – and when – I was. This was during the ti we were hiding from the Dragon the first ti, when it flew harmlessly over us. We were safe.
I peered up from underneath the stones and sticks I’d piled up on top of myself and gazed at the soaring beast that I’d just seen up close. And as I did so, I saw its glowing yellow eye shift ever so slightly, eting mine. Then it looked away and kept flying.
It was then that I realized. It had seen just now! Before, when this had first happened, I thought I may have seen it glance down at , but hadn’t been sure. And when it left, I’d just assud I was mistaken. But that ti I was sure. Astintash had seen .
It’d probably noticed us on the mountain, but didn’t want to attack until it was sure we were headed for it and not just making our way through. Or it wanted to get a gauge on our abilities, or had been weakened from its previous assault, and wanted to make sure it was in top shape before engaging with a group of unknowns. Whatever the reason, it knew we were here, and it seed like it’d co and ‘talk’ with us in about four hours if we were still around.
Part of wanted to go back again with my second use of Ti Loop, four more hours back, that way we could be sure it didn’t know where we were. But if we did that, we’d either have to engage with it when we had no uses remaining, or wait until tomorrow to get my uses back, which would just delay our plans and give the Demons even more ti to establish their defense.
No, we needed to try this now, when the timing was right.
I knew what Astintash wanted from us. I also knew that, at least this ti, it was willing to talk. Sort of. It’d made a single surprise attack that had killed Erani and the Dryad instantly, but when it realized I’d survived, it was fully willing to discuss things with for a bit. And it only killed because I didn’t navigate the conversation correctly.
Now, I could say the right things and actually get to negotiate with it if we survived that initial attack, so all I had to do was get it to land in a way that didn’t kill us. And sothing it’d said back there gave an idea of how to do so.
“Arlan?” Erani said, leaning over to look at .
I blinked. I was still lying under cover, long after Astintash had flown away.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry,” I said. “Ti Loop.”
She imdiately glanced back up at where the Dragon had disappeared. “What happened?”
“You can probably guess. Dragon killed us all. And I think it saw us when it flew over just now. At least, I can’t imagine how it knew where we were when it killed us. We were well-hidden at the ti.”
“Well, if it saw us, what are we supposed to do to stay alive this ti?”
“Well, I learned a good bit about it before it killed ,” I said. “First, its na is Astintash. Well, really, it’s Mountaintar, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Wastelayer, Ashbearer… wait. No, there was another one in there. Hoholder? Yeah, Hoholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, and then it was… Earthquaker? Or no, was it sothing else? Fuck.”
My Intelligence Stat clearly wasn’t helping quite as much as I hoped it would with rembering all of the titles. Even if I did rember most, I suspected that if I missed one or even just didn’t get them in the correct order, it’d be seen as a massive insult to Astintash.
“It’s, uh…”
Index spoke up. “Mountaintar, Giantslayer, Kinsbane, Hoholder, Wastelayer, Ashbearer, Chasmcreator, Earthquaker, Humanslaughterer, Wisdomholder, Bearer-of-the-Heavens Astintash.”
“What?”
“That’s the correct order. I’m looking through my logs right now. When you heard it, that’s what you repeated back to yourself to try and rember.”
“Oh. Thanks.” I’d forgotten Index not only experienced what I did, but had an immutable log that’d forever hold all information I took in. It effectively gave a perfect mory, as long as Index had the ti to look back through and find it. That was… useful. I hadn’t even considered that when I first thought about what Index could do for .
“What is it?” Erani asked.
I repeated the full na back to her. “Index just reminded . Pretty useful to have around, honestly.”
“That’s what I’m here for!” Index said cheerfully.
“Anyway, yeah, that’s the Dragon’s na. And it’ll get pissed if you don’t rember, so we should probably all go over it a few tis to make sure.”
“Okay, so if we know the na, it won’t kill us?”
“...Not quite. It killed us instantly without even giving us a chance to talk, but Dark Plate saved . It was only after it noticed I was still alive that I could get so info out of it. So if we can get it to avoid attacking initially, then we can show off that we know about it, and from there we should be safe.”
“And how do you suggest we keep it from killing us at first? Should we just find a deep cave we can hide in so it can’t reach us, or sothing?”
“That may work, but I think I have a better idea,” I said. “When it was talking to , it kept talking about how insulted it felt that I didn’t do any of the ‘good manners’ stuff. I didn’t know its na, didn’t know its history, but most importantly, it said I didn’t bring an offering.”
Erani slowly nodded. “An offering. So we just have to find sothing to offer it.”
“Exactly. We put out an offering in a big, visible area, and then when it flies by to kill us, it’ll see that we’ve left the offering out, be impressed by our good manners, and co down to talk. Then we can negotiate about taking down the wall and stuff. If that still doesn’t work, then we can just go back, run away, and try again tomorrow. It’ll suck to be set back another day, but that way we aren’t risking anything.”
“Okay, that makes sense. But what can we offer? Not really much of value that we have on us. And definitely not anything big enough to draw its attention from up in the air.”
“We don’t have anything on us now, but we can gather sothing to offer.”
“Like what?” Erani frowned.
“Well,” I said, “Dragons have to eat, don’t they?”
“Okay…”
“And we saw quite a few Drakes on our way up here.”
Erani looked at .
“I think it’s ti to do so big-ga hunting.”
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