章 15: Bribing the Way Out of Death

"That…won't be necessary. I actually formed a temporary contract with Rialyne on my own volition."

The dragon scrunched his face. "Rialyne? This tree has a name? Hah!! Has this tree deluded you that a mere plant could even have a name?"

"No, really. She's not an ordinary tree. I—" Kyferne stopped himself from saying that he was the one who had suggested that they fight the wyrm. "—she was just testing her powers, and she really did sort of suddenly kill the wyrm… Just look at her HP! You can see that it's not normal, right?" Kyferne hurriedly gestured toward the floating health bar above his head.

Dragons didn't usually care to look upon lowly creatures' HP, so this particular metal scaled dragon had not paid any attention to the numbers above the human boy's head either. But as soon as the dragon did, he was utterly shocked by the six digit figure that was well above half a million.

Although he still had several times that amount in his own HP, it was certainly not a number to be expected of mere plants, even for the toughest of trees! None of the trees in the valley had a HP higher than this tree which was perplexingly inside a willing human body!

Seeing the dragon's reaction, Kyferne felt embolden and continued, "And if you ever saw her Domain HP, you'd be shocked beyond belief! She has over 300 billion HP!"

Again, the dragon thought this must be a lie for sure, but no creature would ever be able to lie to him, a God-ranked dragon! This human was telling him the honest truth. However, he had no idea what Kyferne meant by a 'Domain.' Was this the tree's territory and subjects?

Of course, Rialyne also had never explained to Kyferne that her total Domain combat strength did not rise in proportion to her individual strength as a former Dielweiss Tree. When fighting, the individual stats of the plants were used; the stats were not accumulated into one big overall status.

The first time that Kyferne had seen her full stats was when she evolved into a Eldarine Tree after the wyrm battle. And they had been too focused afterwards in their journey to the chasm for him to question why the screen didn't show the rest of the Domain's stats.

In fact, Rialyne could access this accumulated number if she pressed on a [ + Details ] button next to the Domain HP line, but it was a misleading representation. She was better off sorting her list of captured plants by strength in descending order and analyzing groups of similar ranked or types of plants.

She would explain this later to Kyferne, but certainly not to this dragon if they wished to play the intimidation card.

"You are not bluffing either, human boy. What is your name and relationship with this..Rialyne?" The dragon could not resist the temptation of this baffling curiosity before him.

"Kyferne. And like I said, we are temporarily contracted to help one another before I return to the kingdom of Arvon."

"Arvon? What is this kingdom that you speak of? Is it a place beyond the valley entrance?"

"Yes, and Arvon is not the only kingdom that exists. For instance, the forest that Rialyne resides in is Ghevirres, the natural border between the neighboring kingdom of Cinquelier. We found a cave in the forest that led us here."

Hearing this, the fascinated light in the dragon's eyes drooped. He had always wanted to know about the outside world, but the cave tunnel was too small for him, and he couldn't break through the cave rock no matter how hard he or his brethren all together tried.

Many years ago, only the chasm existed in this space. After breaking through the walls at the top did the earliest beings discover that it could be expanded. Soon, the valley was born, carved straight out of the earth. And the chasm's many mysterious qualities such as its aquatic properties also created an atmosphere similar to a sky.

The cave entrance was excavated, but like the deeper walls of the chasm, the rock could not be demolished nor eroded. Thus, the valley could only expand southward, eastward, and westward. But except for the south, the other directions would simply reveal more unbreakable rock faces along the northern border.

Since the creatures and monsters of the chasm made themselves a flourishing valley home, they had no desire to descend into the abyss's endless depths. They themselves did not know how they came to be inside the chasm, nor where the abyss led. They only knew that no one returned when they went down, so going up was the only option.

The metal dragon was part of the third generation who founded this valley. While he enjoyed continually expanding the land and prospering in it, his gnawing curiosity of the outside world did not alleviate one bit over the hundreds of years lived.

Now that he had encountered these intelligent ants of the outside world, he was secretly itching to let them go on the account of killing a kinsman in return for telling him tales of the world they lived.

And both Kyferne and Rialyne sensed this. She felt an urge to ask Cardisys about whether the dragon could view the Ghevirres forest through her. But she had previously declared that she wouldn't contact him for hours. Throwing away her shame, she called out to the cell.

"Psst! Cardisys! There's a dragon here!"

At first, Cardisys didn't wish to respond to his master's call. She was the one who had cut him off after all, and he wasn't about to let it go. But as soon as he heard 'dragon,' he flew into a panic.

"A dragon?! Just where the heck are you two to encounter such monsters?!" And since he began talking, he couldn't help voicing his earlier worries when she cut off communication. She had less than half of her HP, but somehow the tree had evolved and leveled to 35 in an instant!

"Ahh that. I killed the wyrm, and this dragon ended up finding and trying to kill us for slaying his kin."

"Why are you so calm and casual about all this? That monster is trying to kill you, so what are you doing right now?! You've escaped, right?"

"Nah, we're still in front of it. But I'm pretty sure its interested in our world beyond the cave. Maybe he's unable to travel outside?"

Interested in our world? This was curious indeed, thought Cardisys. "What are you planning to do? Bargain with it?"

"Basically. I was wondering if I or Kyferne could form a contract with it and allow it to see our world through the Domain or his eyes?"

Cardisys deliberated for a moment before affirming, "I don't see why not."

If Rialyne had her own eyes, they would be sparkling in this instant. "Great! Thanks so much Cardisys!"

"Ah—" Before the little cell could say anything else, Rialyne cut the connection. Why this girl…she just does whatever she wants now!

"Okay Kyferne, I think we can get out of this situation and possibly get a dragon on our side. What do you think about me forming a contract with the dragon to allow it to see the world through the Domain. Then, you can offer to let him see the kingdom through your eyes at the end of our two week contract?"

The idea sounded feasible, so Kyferne agreed. If they could get a dragon on their good side, then if they ever found a way to transport it into their world… Then the coup could easily be quelled! And for Rialyne, world domination would be one step closer.

"Mr. Dragon," she politely began, "this is Rialyne by the way, how about I let you see our world through my Domain right now?"

The dragon's eyes gleamed in anticipation. "That is indeed…tempting. But don't think you can get out of this so quickly! I will not be fooled by you!"

"Sir Dragon," Kyferne even more courteously addressed, "If I also offered to let you see the world through my eyes when I leave for Arvon, then could we put this issue behind us? We did not mean to offend you purposefully. We are just too used to fighting monsters in order to become stronger."

The dragon straightened himself a little. Maybe these ants weren't so uncouth after all. And he couldn't blame them for fighting monsters. Even though he was angered that it was one of his kin, it was only natural in this kill to survive world. In fact, if a kinsman ever acted out against the Dragon's moral code, then he would not hesitate to slay the turncoat.

"Very well. You strike a hard bargain and support it with indisputable realities. I will accept your offer. But never again, shall I see you kill another of my kinsman, are you clear?" The dragon's severe eyes drilled right through them. They could only gulp and nod.

"Now then, show me your world."

Rialyne sent forth a temporary contract lasting twenty minutes to the dragon who now introduced himself as Vyrd'Tempestionel. He was called Lenodryv for short. A family member had bestowed him that name by writing the first and last letters backwards.

As he read and accepted the contract conditions, Rialyne couldn't help asking with a hidden, stifled snort, "How about just Leno instead?"