Edgar was handling the golem well enough, but he had come to my aid and still held secrets which I had need of. I fired off my lightning breath, since my epic class now gave me the perfect cover for using it. As I did so, I considered offering Edgar the chance to become a minion.

  The bolt slammed into the golem, knocking it back. I didn’t know much about such constructs, but I suspected it was highly resistant to magic. That made it a good thing that my lightning bolt wasn’t magical so much as it was pure electrical energy by the time it made contact with the golem’s mithril shell. The metal creation staggered back a step.

  Edgar made good use of the opening I’d created and knocked the off-balance golem flat with his tail. Then, I was on it with him. Together, we held the construct down.

  “Glad to see you’re free,” he said.

  “It was inevitable,” I replied with a shrug. “But how did you know this was happening?”

  He grinned. “I’m keeping tabs on you. You’re important to my clan and important to me… especially if half my dreams about you are true.”

  I wondered exactly how much he knew about me, but then the golem disappeared from under us. I looked back over my shoulder to see that Tolston was standing again. His staff was on the ground and he showed no signs of hostility.

  Galbrecht’s sword was in its sheath, and Liam’s bow was across his back. Lisella was still healing Modessa, who was already sitting up. She must have—at least partially—recovered from her brush with death. Cami knelt beside her mentor. It looked like the fight was over and now it was time for more talking.

  I pushed the notification I got about gaining both some XP and DKP off. There would be time for reading such things later.

  Galbrecht walked over to Modessa and gave her his hand to help her up, but then took her in his arms. Apparently, they were okay with everyone knowing about their relationship.

  A dark thought crossed my mind. I hoped they weren’t going to mate right here in public. I didn’t think humans did that sort of thing, but I’d been wrong about human mating rituals in the past.

  Tolston said, “We still have to sort this out.”

  Galbrecht held Modessa close for a moment longer before turning around to face the Archmage. “There isn’t anything to discuss. You accepted Miseria’s condition. The moment of my empowerment may be gone, but you swore to make amends.” He flicked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the others. “You better ask the three of them what they want from you. If you don’t, both the goddess and the system will exact their price.”

  “Wait, a second… what’s going on?” Modessa lifted a hand to Galbrecht’s cheek and shook her head. “And why do you feel different?”

  “Seeing you struck down was the final impetus I needed to reach a legendary version of my class. I’m now a Divine Paragon. The goddess infused some new class abilities and stat upgrades into me directly. For a moment, there, it was almost like I was her avatar… but that was just the temporary empowerment that comes after reaching legendary status.”

  Edgar and I walked the short distance over to the rest of the group. I could hear them just fine from where we’d been, but they might not be able to hear me. “What was that I heard about amends?”

  Galbrecht smiled. “I thought you might appreciate that part. In order to end Miseria’s judgment on him, Tolston has agreed to pay whatever amends you, Cami, and Modessa feel are appropriate. Since you three were the ones harmed by his actions, that seemed only fair. There are limits, though, so don’t go asking for a mountain of gold.”

  I was practically rubbing my hands together in glee until his last words registered. Limits? No one wants to hear about limits when they are about to negotiate for gold or treasures.

  Tolston glared at me. “The boy still has to answer for his violation of university policy.”

  Lisella nodded. “Once you satisfy my goddess, I’ll come with him to discuss your concerns.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I grumbled, “but what I want to know is how much gold he’s gonna pay me.”

  Cami groaned.

  Tolston pursed his lips. “I might have something better than gold, but will need to ask you some questions, first. How about you and your mentor come to my office and we can figure out what will work the best for you?”

  “Better than gold, you say?” My grin stretched from ear to ear, bearing almost all of my teeth. “I’m all ears.”

  Chapter 4 - DKP It Is

  Lisella moved till she stood next to me. “No. First, I need to speak to my apprentice, headmaster. I’m sure you can understand… given the circumstances. I will confirm with him if there have been any violations of university policy, and then I will meet with you to discuss what happens next.”

  “How dare you…” Tolston began.

  Galbrecht cut the Archmage off. “Careful what you say next. You may be the strongest one of us here, but you already tried using force, and you lost. You could just as easily have communicated directly with Lisella about her apprentice.” He stared at the headmaster. “There is something that is just… off about all of this, but I need time to meditate on it. For now, I’ll remind you to be respectful in how you speak to a grand priestess of Miseria and a Princess of Forlay.”

  Tolston’s face turned red.

  For a moment, I almost wondered if he might pop like one of those little skin blemishes that humans get—I think Cami called them pimples… or was it boils? Dragons are blessed not to have to deal with such things. Scales never have problems like that.

  “Fine,” the Archmage eventually ground out. “I shall await you in my office this afternoon, Princess Forlay. Remember that we all serve the empire. It is for the good of its people that we are here.” Then he disappeared on the wings of a teleportation spell.

  Lisella looked at me for a moment but didn’t say anything. She did, however, introduce Edgar to the others. They all chatted in the way that humans did, while I mulled over what would be the most valuable thing I could get from the Archmage.

  Gold was always desirable, of course. But as shocking as it was, I figured that might not be the best choice. Tolston was old for a human—I was certain of that. And, of course, given his class and position, he likely had access to powerful and rare magical items. Those would be a better reward than whatever amount of gold he could come up with.

  Liam eventually left, saying that he needed to let Serius know what had happened—and through the mage, the emperor would know as well. Galbrecht left after hugging Modessa once more. A moment later, Cami and I headed towards Lisella’s apartment with our two mentors. I made sure to let them all know that I was hungry and would need some food.

  All of the humans laughed, but I didn’t care. They could stress about other things. I would worry about what was important.

  It didn’t take long for Lisella’s servants to bring us some food. While we waited, Cami told Lisella and Modessa about our trip to visit Draconis—without giving away the location or anything about the Dragon Dream. The two women practically sat on the edge of their seats while listening.

  When the food arrived, I considered again how useful minions could be. I definitely needed to get some more minions. I started gobbling down the food, listening with half an ear as they discussed the best choice of rewards for the battle. XP or DKP?

  I found it rather interesting to see the difference in perspectives that Lisella and Modessa had.

  The rogue argued that, “The choice is obvious. They should pick XP. That would get Cami almost to level 10, and she’d gain access to 5th Tier magic at level 9. When she reaches level 10, she’ll gain double stat points. It would benefit Nico, too. I don’t know exactly how close he is to another level, but he would gain 10% toward his next age category.”

  “That last part is exactly why they should choose DKP,” Lisella replied. “They should hold off on Cami’s leveling up until we figure out if it is possible for her to gain a legendary class in the dragon rider pursuit. She also has yet to pick a second class, so that means she should be working on getting the best options for that she can. DKP gives them options that we don’t have.”

  The priestess stared at me and then at Cami. “Also, they should save the 10% bonuses for as long as they can. At least from the way they explained things, a bump up once Nico is an Elder or an Ancient dragon will go much further than anything he could get now.”

  The two women continued to argue about it for a while.

  I reached out to Cami mentally, “Why do they think they have any say in this?”

  “They are our mentors,” Cami responded. “I know you’d rather have some gold for your reward for that fight, but either of these two have more knowledge about classes and levels than the two of us put together... not to mention more fighting experience.”

  “I’ll humor them, for your sake, but what I really want to talk about is what we can get from Archmage Tolston.”

  “Oh, Nico… I hope you aren’t going to ask for some gold. You know you’ll get a ton of gold as soon as you claim the lair,” Cami said with a mental sigh.

  “I know. I’d already decided that if he has any really good magic items, that would be better than gold.” Better than gold? I still found it hard to believe there was such a thing.

  “No, seriously… oh, wait… you did?”

  “Gold is delightful, but I am learning that there is more to be concerned about than precious metal . Don’t think I’ll ever turn into a big fat lizard like that lazy red, Draconis.”

  “Never while I’m around.”

  Modessa suddenly asked, “Are you two even paying attention to anything we are saying? Or are you doing that mental talking thing?”

  Cami shrugged, but I spoke up. “The decision has already been made. We will be taking DKP. I’ll need to use most of my remaining DKP for my Mind Evolution, and we should take advantage of every chance we get for more.”

  My lips twisted into what I think humans called a sneer. “We only got a small amount for surviving our first encounter with legendary magic.”

  Cami nodded as I spoke. We had been leaning that way, although neither of us had actually agreed on anything. But I acknowledged that my Anti-magic Pulse had been the deciding factor. With DKP, we had options, whereas XP was a straightforward path.

  I glanced at the notification and read it out loud, if only to shut them up.

  You have encountered legendary magic for the first time. Resisting its effects and undoing even part of the spell has resulted in you gaining both XP and DKP. This is a onetime bonus.

  XP: +1000

  DKP: +5

  Rewards are similar for your bonded companion.

  “Now,” I said, “can we talk about something more important?”

  “You mean whatever you can get from the headmaster by way of recompense?” Lisella asked.

  “That, too, although something else has been weighing on my mind for a while now.”

  Cami pinched the bridge of her nose. “Nico, don’t ask them if they want to be minions.”

  Modessa snorted, “Minions?”

  I scowled at Cami, then changed gears. “That wasn’t what I was going to bring up. What I really wanted to talk about was how much longer it is going to be a viable option to keep my identity hidden. The villagers to the north were very welcoming, and you all have adapted. I have taken steps to protect myself and it seems like we have the support of your Emperor.”

  I nodded to Lisella. “Your uncle even invited me to visit Forlay.”

  “He did what?” Lisella squawked. “He didn’t tell me that.”

  I shook my head. “For as much talking as you humans do, you seem to skip a lot of the most important parts.”

  Lisella’s eyebrows rose, and she pursed her lips. “I might have been open to you revealing yourself before today, but Galbrecht is right… something about how Tolston was acting doesn’t add up. I think we should wait until you both have your second class and have gained a bit more strength.”

  “For once,” Modessa added, “I agree with the Princess. You saw that even having us as mentors isn’t always enough to stop threats to you. You either need to become much stronger, or get stronger backing.” She sighed. “I didn’t want to push you even more into the Princess’ camp, but perhaps you should consider forging a formal alliance with Forlay. That would give you both the extra protection you will need.”

  I shook my head. “I need to be able to fly free.”

  Lisella asked, “How would you rate yourself compared to us? I know you don’t like revealing too much information, but how strong do you think you are compared to a level 20 adventurer?”

  I smiled for a second. The urge to transform and show them just how strong I had become surged through me. I ignored it. That was a childish impulse, and while I might be young, I had to be wise. “I am confident that I could win against any single level twenty that I’ve met, so far. I don’t know about Tolston, though. His spells were much stronger than what I’ve seen before today. Speaking of which, I need to learn some new spells.”

  “Yes, you do,” my mentor said, “and if you want to take a class related to the church of Miseria, I’ll get you the rest of the spells you need. I’m sure we can even get you an epic class. Unfortunately, I got the impression that wasn’t what you wanted.”

  I shook my head.

  “If not, I’ve got a storm mage prepared to train you.”

  That sounded much more appealing than what I knew was expected of a healer—which is what I knew Lisella was offering.

  “That can start tomorrow, but for now... I need some rest. Being this amazing isn’t easy, you know?”

  All three women rolled their eyes.

  “But seriously, what do you think we can get from Tolson?”

  Modessa waved her hand. “No, before that, I wanna know what this is about minions?” She arched an eyebrow at Cami, whose face grew red. “Is this something he’s been planning?”

  My bonded looked at me, but I shrugged. “I have nothing to hide regarding this. It is a good deal—both for those who become my minions, as well as for me.”

  Cami explained about Daggin and Ruben.

  We’d already agreed that she wouldn’t tell them about my choker—the one that protected me from the one thing that scared me more than death.

  Modessa nodded at me. “I can see why he’d like the idea of having humans running around doing things for him, but I can’t figure out why anyone would. I mean, you said that Ruben got some valuable crafting ingredients, but you were pretty vague about it. And that certainly doesn’t explain why Daggin would want to do it.”

  Cami started to speak again, but I laid my hand on her arm.

  Some things were better to get out in the open. I was already starting to chaff at having to hide my true nature. Something about meeting another true dragon and seeing that there were others like me living free had affected me deeply. Though, to be honest, they weren’t quite like me.

  A red could never compare to a blue, after all.

  “Minions enter into a contract to serve and not act against their dragon. For their part, the dragon agrees not to intentionally harm the minion. In exchange for their service, minions gain an extended life span and bonus levels.”

  The two adventurers blinked before looking at each other.

  Lisella was the first to speak, “How much extra life span are we talking about?”

  I shrugged. “That depends upon the age of the dragon. Right now, it’s only an additional 20%... but once I reach the great wyrm age category, it will grow to 200%. The same bonus applies to additional levels. Right now, it’s only two—but eventually it will be seven.”

  Modessa frowned. “Wait, you’re telling me that if someone agreed to become your minion, that they’d gain two levels? What if they are already at the level cap?”

  Cami said, “Don’t let him fool you; he really wants more minions. You’d gain effective levels—it doesn’t change your class or grant you new stats, spells, or abilities. What it does do, is make it so that everything you do is treated as coming from a level 22, rather than from a level 20.”

  Modessa whistled. “It might not be the same as gaining a legendary class, but that is still a big deal.” She glared at me. “Not like I’m ready to start bowing to Nico or anything.”

  “I don’t demand any bowing from my minions.” I grinned. “Kneeling is sufficient.”

  Modessa groaned but didn’t reply. Her spark of interest had caught my attention. To be honest, I would have expected her to be the last one to take it seriously. Of the two of them, I had thought that Lisella might be interested—if only because she really wanted me to look favorably upon her goddess and her country.