"Wait, you're 17?" Sara asked, confused, while pulling her new 'Dragon' fang dagger from the neck of a freshly slain monster that had the appearance of a huge black lion. "That would make you the youngest in the party. You know that we know that you are a 'Greater dragon', so why try lying?"
"Give him a break, sister. He must have his own reasons." Diana interjected. "'Dragon' or not, he's still a part of the party, so let's leave it at that."
"For the last time, I am not a 'Greater dragon'. Yes, I possess the power of a 'Dragon', but that, in itself, doesn't make me a 'Dragon'!" At this point I was becoming pissed.
"Don't worry about it, if you say that you're not a 'Dragon' then you're not a 'Dragon'. We'll keep your secret." Clive said, with a wink.
"I just feel kind of bad that we're using his literal body parts for our weapons though… It feels weird… Like we're connected in some way." Diana added, looking all shy. This girl…
"Yeah, with this overpowered equipment we're unstoppable, it does feel weird." Sara said with a villainous smile. "Let's see what we can do with it before it breaks!"
"Just don't get ahead of yourself, Sara, good equipment is nice, but don't forget about your body's limitations and get overconfident. It might kill you." Zen spoke for the first time in forever.
For some reason, these people, these pests, think that I am a 'Greater dragon'. While I understand the reasoning behind it, but it's still annoying. No matter what I say or do, they are adamant.
Diana started constantly asking about my biology, the way my wings work, how I transform etcetera and Sara is pleading non stop for me to transform into my 'original' form since she always wanted to ride a 'Dragon'. I hope that she wants to ride on its back. The guys seem pretty chill with me, so at least that's nice. I do occasionally show off in front of the girls by demolishing a mountain or two if asked, but, all and all, my days as an adventurer are pretty peaceful.
The party's growth has skyrocketed after obtaining items from the materials that I provided and we are slowly approaching the 'mithril' rank. Sara has used the 'Dragon' fang to make herself two daggers, Clive got a staff of petrification, it was decided that, Since Zen is the defacto tank of the party, he should get the 'Dragon' scale armor, and the rest were given light leather armor made from the hide of an 'Owl bear'. While Diana usually used her bow, for the tougher monsters she would bring out the spear gun.
After a party reaches the 'gold' rank they can try and promote not as an individual, but as a whole party. While my 'gold' exam consisted of a one on one fight with an adventurer of an equal rank, for a party promotion you are given a mission that is of the rank that your party is trying to get promoted to. In other words, since we want to be promoted to 'mithril' rank we'll have to complete a 'mithril' ranked mission.
But until then we still have to complete one 'gold' ranked mission, so that's why we're here - at the 'Great labyrinth'. We have to collect the fangs of ten of these black lion-monsters and we'll be eligible to take on the rank promotion exam. We would be the only 'mithril' party in this city and one of only a few in the whole kingdom.
While we were collecting teeth from the fallen monsters, I sensed another pack approaching and informed the rest. We quickly took formation and got ready for the attack. Since I had proved my versatility to the rest during our numerous quests together, I was used as a Jack of all trades, taking the front when dealing with a frontal attack or a big enemy, I was left to bring in the rear when surrounded or even as a mage against big groups. The monsters that we were fighting weren't particularly bright and all of them went at us from the front, so that's where I was stationed this time.
As usual, Clive opened the battle with some wide range 'ice' and 'earth' spells. They wounded some of our adversaries and slowed down the others by creating an uneven footing. I was about to unleash some fire as well, but was cautioned by Sara against it since it wasn't smart to use fire in enclosed space due to the 'poisons' that burning stuff creates won't be able to leave the dungeon and will affect us as well. So that's why I feel lightheaded when using fire in the dungeon.
The monsters got to us, they jumped on me and Zen. One of them bit Zen's left forearm and was immediately punched in retaliation by him bursting its head open. The ones that attacked me were swiftly sliced to pieces by my short sword, during all this Diana and Clive kept attacking from the back.
One monster jumped on to Zen, knocking him down, but Sara immediately spilled its guts with a slash. While Zen was down some monsters breached our defense line and were trying to attack the squishies that were protected by Sara. I was about to intervene, but Sara, using her overwhelming speed, was dispatching them with relative ease, so I turned to my objective - Guarding the front.
I stepped forward in order to give some time to Zen to stand up and unleashed a barrage of 'Air slashes' to thin the herd and to buy some time. After the dust settled, the remaining monsters decided that it wasn't worth it fighting us and left. All that was left was collecting the fangs and pelts.
At this point I had become accustomed to skinning so while everyone else was resting I started working. While the pelts weren't part of the quest, they were valuable, so we decided that since we had already killed the things, we might as well take everything that they had.
We were currently on the 40th floor and we still had some energy in us, so I suggested going a bit deeper to, let's say, the 50th or the 60th since it would be good training. The idea was quickly shot down since, according to Diana, on the 48th floor lives an incredibly powerful monster and that going there is tantamount to suicide for someone of 'gold' rank.
While I was trying to remember what kind of terrible monster lived there, we packed our things and left. I would really love to show them the lower floors though.
At the guild hall, after reporting in and getting our reward we decided, as always, to celebrate. At first I didn't understand the need to celebrate every completed job, so I asked about it and Sara answered. "We adventurers put our lives on the line every time we go to work, so it's not that we're celebrating a job well done, it's more like that we're celebrating the fact that we've returned alive. It's a tradition that almost all adventurers follow."
This surprised me, while I understood the dangers, I never considered that the mortality rate would be so high that you'd need to celebrate just not dying.
Then it hit me. "Did you guys… Also lose someone?"
Sara, who was already drunk, answered with an unsatisfied look. "Of course, newbie, probably everyone in this room has lost someone already. You're not special! Oh, right, I forgot that you wear that mask to hide your incomplete stranflormasss…" She fell asleep.
"Don't worry about it." Diana interjected. "It's an old wound and it sometimes festers a bit, but we have learned to live with it. I-I should probably get my sister to bed, I'll leave you guys for the night."
I wonder whether it gets better with time.
We were left alone - the always silent Zen, the always closed off me and the very uncomfortable Clive. You can imagine the fun and engaging conversation that we had. After ten or fifteen minutes of suffocating silence, we all on queue, without a word stood up and dispersed. Drinking without the girls isn't fun at all.
After drinking in the guild I went to the local brothel. I started frequenting it whenever I had the chance. The girls were pretty, the booze was sweet and, best of all, If you had the money, you were a king there. Sex was fun, but there was something lacking, it simply wasn't as good as I had expected it to be.
I did it with all the girls that I thought were beautiful, I even went for two, three, four, or even more at the same time. Because of my monstrous body, my stamina and regeneration was god like letting me do it for days on end without breaks. They even gave me a nickname there -the 'Unrelenting demon of the night'.
Some girls, not believing the stories about me, would challenge me to 'duels' of attrition to see which one would last longer. I found out that after a few hours most of them would beg for mercy. Some lasted longer, but none had the ability to best me in 'battle'. There was one that deserved my respect though. While she wasn't beautiful enough for me to choose her, after challenging me, she lasted for a better part of a week. After losing more than 20 pounds of her body weight and spending many sleepless nights she finally gave up.
That was my life now - Adventuring, eating, fucking and sleeping
After finishing my 'business' in the brothel early, I went back to my inn where I was greeted by a straw bed, a chair and a small table. I layed down on the bed, complaining internally about the lack of a mattress, and closed my eyes. Hey, Alex, it's been a while since our last conversation, how have you been? Is heaven treating you well? As you can see I've made some new… Friends? Comrades? Pests? Something like that. You'd probably love them if you got the chance to meet them and I'm sure that they would love you. After all, they do tolerate my presence.
We went to the 'Great Labyrinth' today, and I got to fight again. We fought monsters that looked like big, black lions, there was a ton of them and it was very fun. It's a shame that you weren't with us. I'm sure that with your guidance the fight would have been won in less than a second. Good talking to you, good night.