"You have been listening in on is the entire time?" Drake said, sounding utterly unsurprised."Well, you can't really blame me." Rillo said. "I couldn't bring myself to interrupt your moment."Turns out the red haired boy had arrived ahead of time, killed the new Frost king and was waiting for the others to come out so he could surprise them with an epic entrance."Anyways, as I said before it would be for the best if you dont revive the kid now." Rollo said, eager to change the topic. "No." Drake said. "Why do we have to listen to you? You think you can just come here and make demands? Fuck you and your council bullshit! Go deal with them and leave me the fuck alone.""You dont really have much of a choice." The boy said, ignoring Drake's outburst. "You think those guys care about your circumstances? You're just a nuisance that could be removed any time. The only reason you weren't killed is that you are considering a part of my family, which let us decide what punishment you get. T
"Just to be clear, you must join our family afterwards." Rollo said pointing a finger at Drake."This doesn't really make sense." Drake said. "If I remember right those deities from the upper realm choose some individuals and give them powerful souls, right? Isn't that basically scouting? Is there any point to it if the challenger can choose which family to join?""Well one of the rules prevents families from sponsoring someone and forcing them to join their family later. It gives the challenger the right to join a much more powerful faction if it turns out they aren't satisfied with the one that chose them." The red haired boy went on with the explanation."Sounds like a pain." Drake commented."It is." Rollo said. "It's all because the powerful families are afraid those weaker would discover someone talented before them. This way they can always negotiate with the challengers they wand and offer them better deals increasing their chances of obtaining highly valuable talent.""Your s
"Roland, I'll be relying on you." Drake said to the tall guy. "You got nothing to worry about." Roland flashed a wide grin.After much discussion it was decided that Roland and Layla would be hiding in the tunnels under mount Icewyrm. Going back to the Blue Giants village would be too much trouble as wanted posters with their faces must have spread by now. "Just to be clear, dont you dare lay a finger on my wife." Drake said jokingly, however the aura leaking from him said he was rather serious.He then turned to the old man with a wry smile."Sorry for dragging you all the way here for mo reason." "Nah it was quite the nice experience." Ragnar said. "With this I'll be finally able to retire in peace.""Even though you didn't get the adventure you were looking for?""Who cares about that? Someone my age wouldn't be out here in the first place."The old manlet out a throaty laugh then patter Drake on the shoulder. "Stay safe, lad. Be sure to drop by when it's all over."Drake then
The trip using the shadow guy didn't take long, though one could argue that, for something akin to teleportation, two minutes was indeed a long time.The black smoke disappeared revealing the new scenery. Same as the first time Drake had traveled with the shadow he felt that he had been taken into a completely different world. The sky was red. Varying shades of Crimson danced around like Aurora lights. The mysterious lights didn't reflect on their surroundings though as everything seemed to have a natural color as if the lighting didn't matter at all. In the distance Drake could see boulders and chunks of earth floating around weightlessly. Strange beasts flapped their wings as they flew around. The two, three including Kage, were standing on a hill covered in bluish green grass some strange plants were growing here and there including mushrooms with strange patterns. All of that didn't matter though as what caught Drake's aattention wasn't any of those things.Standing ahead of t
"Shit…" After walking for a while Drake found himself at the edge of a cliff. Apparently he was on a small floating island the entire time with the black castle being quite far in the distance. From that hight he didn't even see the surface down below. A sea of clouds was down there with some floating boulders and islands here and there. Compared to the islands he had traveled to so far the ones he was seeing now were much smaller. No island big enough to carry a single city was around. That made him wonder if the Dragonspears were living in isolation, cosimg this place specifically because it was away from the rest of the world. After thinking about it for a while Drake decided to use his flight skill to reach the island with the black castle. He stepped away from the edge of the cliff, took a deep breath and prepared himself, then when he was ready he began dashing forward using Flash step to increase his speed then jumped with one lef on the edge reaching the highest point he c
"Hey! What do you think you're doing!" Drake yelled. "Who said you can eat someone else's meat!!!?"Looking up from her plate, the girl with long Rave hair stared at him with a blank expression."The beasts living in this area all belong to the Dragonspears." She said. "Thus none of it belongs to you.""What are you talking about!? I'm the one who hunted them!!!""That's a punishable crime, you know. You're stealing important resources." Forking another piece of meat to her mouth, the girl looked down and added. "This tastes really good though so I'll let you go with this much.""Damn it…" walking over to the fire, Drake took out another piece of meat and started preparing it when he threw it in the pan he noticed that the girl was looking at it with a drolling mouth. "What? You have already eaten an entire portion! Dont tell me you want more!?"Edda looked up at him, stayed silent for a moment then said."I'll be confiscating the stolen goods." She said, her eyes sliding down to th
After three days Drake finally reached the gates of the black castle. It was a tiring trip that weighed on him mentally, but at last he finally made it.The castle was as imposing as it looked from afar. That said, after spending nearly a week flying toward it he no longer felt as amazed as before. He could only wonder what kind if magic destroyed space so that the construction would look close from afar but took longer to get to it once one tried to approach.Shaking the thought out of his head Drake looked at the gate once more, took a deep breath then walked a step forward."HALT!" A voice thundered from above. Drake looked up and saw something falling toward him so he jumped back the ground quaked the next moment as it hit the spot where he was standing. Once the dust settled an armored figure was revealed. It was a man wrapped in steel plate from head to toe with a large halberd in his arms. His chest plate had what looked like a symbol depicting the head of a dragon."YOU DARE
Drake followed behind the maid named Randa as she led him through the hallways of the castle. Just like the outside, the walls from the inside were covered in a black color. He noticed that most of the paintings, curtains and decorations had red as their primary color. If the Dragonspears were trying to achieve a certain aesthetic then they had achieved that.Along the way the two passed several maids and servants who would always step aside and bow their heads. At first Drake wondered if the maid was someone important that deserved their respect, however he soon realized that he was the one they were bowing for.The two soon arrived at a large set of stairs covered in aa red carpet. In front of them was a white haired old man dressed in a black suit. Randa stopped before him and bowed her head, after which he spoke."Good work, Randa. I will take it from here." Though his voice was heard to Drake it only looked like the old man's mustache had moved slightly. The maid bowed once agai