Dancing with the Dragon
[You have obtained 'a small red dragon egg.']
The one I chose was the egg on the far left—
its shell gleamed faintly with a reddish hue.
The reason was simple.
"A Red Dragon would be the best."
Right now, I needed a dragon focused on destructive power.
Of course, a red egg didn't always hatch into a Red Dragon, but—
...you know the feeling, right?
In this World Forsaken by Gods, there were five known dragon species:
Red, Blue, Gold, Green, and Black.
Each had its own unique traits,
which meant dragon riders had to keep summoning new dragons until they got the one they wanted.
The infamous and exasperating process known as dragon rerolling.
I always preferred Red Dragons.
The red lineage generally had low health and defense,
but they made up for it with overwhelming offensive power.
Given the situation now, Green or Blue dragons wouldn't have been bad either—
each was specialized in different types of magic and would have paired well with my support, Tyrbaen.
On the other hand, the one dragon I didn't want at all was a Gold Dragon.
They're all defense-oriented, which makes them pretty useless right now,
especially since Kals and I already cover that role.
And with Kals now at seven stars, that was even truer.
I went through all this trouble to get a dragon. It deserves a role where it can shine, right?
So my only wish was: anything but Gold.
...Ah, and Black?
That one had a less than 1% spawn rate—and though rare,
it came with such a nightmare of problems that it wasn't even worth mentioning.
***
"All right, let's head back!"
I slipped the red dragon egg into my inventory and turned around immediately.
Once we got out of the lair,
the quest would auto-complete with a system message,
and I'd receive all the remaining rewards.
Title:Master of Dragons
Blessing:Supreme Protection
Skill:Dragon Riding
"Heh heh heh…"
Heading back was, of course, much easier than getting here.
All I had to do now was safely bring the egg to Aurux and feed the hatchling when it woke up.
"I wonder what color it'll be?"
I was about to leave without a shred of hesitation when—
"…Hold on there, you damned disciple."
It was Tyrbaen,
who had been quietly staring at the other dragon eggs,
suddenly calling out to me.
Because of her, I had to climb back up the rocky spire I'd just descended.
"What is it? Let's just go already."
Then came her question.
"Do you know what will happen to the remaining eggs?"
"…The remaining eggs?"
I frowned.
That was a strange question coming from her.
Obviously, the other eggs would stay here.
And if I thought about what that meant—
...They'll never hatch.
As I'd said before, it was because of each other's presence.
Sensing potential competition nearby,
the unhatched eggs would remain dormant forever.
By the time another dragon came to this lair,
only empty shells would remain.
Eggs rot if left unattended.
"..."
In the end, they'd end up like the countless broken shells buried in the darkness below.
Poor things.
Feeling oddly unsettled, I muttered irritably.
"Master, you already know that—so why bring it up?"
But Tyrbaen made a completely unexpected suggestion.
"Let's take them all."
"…?"
I couldn't help but furrow my brow.
She was the one who'd explained
that the dragon eggs couldn't hatch in each other's presence.
And now she wants to take all three?
…Then I wouldn't be able to hatch my own!
Even if you stored them in your inventory,
dragon eggs could still sense each other's faint magical emissions.
That was how inherently magical dragon hatchlings were.
She knows that perfectly well. She's a witch of the Five-Colored Spire, for god's sake.
So why this now?
Because she pitied them?
"..."
Yeah, judging by that look in her eyes, that was probably it.
I sighed deeply.
"Master, what exactly do you expect me to do?
If I take all of them, I won't be able to hatch mine."
Her reply was a masterpiece.
"Then we'll take them out one by one and hatch them separately, that's all!"
…She wanted me to hatch them individually?
"Wouldn't that mean you'd end up with three dragons following you?"
Kals immediately chimed in to support her.
"Your Highness, I think Lady Sui's idea might actually be good.
The more dragons on our side, the better, isn't it?"
Yeah, right.
There wasn't even a need to think about this one.
I shook my head.
"All three? No way."
"Why not?!"
"It's too dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
"Yes."
I honestly never thought I'd be the one saying that word.
But this time, it really was dangerous.
There's a reason dragon riders go through the hassle of rerolling dragons the long way, you know?
Just as Tyrbaen said,
taking all the eggs wasn't strictly forbidden.
Sure, I could try hatching them separately.
But if I did, it would trigger a total disaster.
The moment multiple hatchlings—still undeveloped and barely sentient—were in the same place,
they'd start tearing each other apart.
And then a chaos event called "Dragon Hunt" gets triggered…
That event was pure hell.
Once it activated, the dragons would begin to hunt me down—
following a special frequency emitted when more than one hatchling existed nearby.
Those dragons—each at least level 60—
were basically falling meteors compared to me.
And the event wouldn't end
until the dragons killed me and reclaimed the hatchlings.
So yeah, no way anyone could survive that.
Three baby dragons aren't worth summoning a death event for.
There was absolutely no reason to invite that kind of disaster.
I exaggerated the whole situation in the simplest way possible.
"The Dragon Lord will come after us. We'll all die trying to save a few quail eggs."
"...!"
"So let's just head back."
A calm and decisive conclusion.
"...Haa."
Tyrbaen's expression darkened instantly as she looked at the remaining eggs.
She must have really pitied them.
But I ignored that and started climbing down the rocky spire.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!"
Now it was Kals calling out to me.
And honestly, I was starting to get annoyed.
"Oh, what now?"
"Isn't there really any way? Lady Sui is being too…"
"Hey! Do I look like some kind of magic vending machine to you? You think I can just snap my fingers and come up with a plan? If we hatch them all, the Dragon Lord comes after us! Are you gonna handle that? You'd need to level up two whole ranks first! Well?!"
When I snapped at him, Kals' face fell gloomily.
Ugh, and now I felt guilty again.
"...Great. They're the kind ones, and I'm the villain. As always."
But Kals was even more persistent than Tyrbaen.
"Your Highness, then at least…"
"I said no."
"Can't we at least take the eggs with us?"
I snorted.
"What are you talking about? Why take them if we're not hatching them? What's the point?"
They'd just rot together anyway.
"You can't even fry them like real eggs! Once they rot, what's the use—"
And right then.
"…Huh? Fried eggs?"
An idea flashed through my mind like lightning.
Wait. There actually was a method like that, wasn't there? I've never tried it, but…
As long as I didn't hatch more than one at a time, the "Dragon Hunt" event wouldn't trigger.
The only issue was that the dormant eggs would all decay over time.
But that's easy to fix.
After all, we had a skilled mage—and convenient magic at our disposal.
And if it didn't interfere with hatching, carrying a few extra eggs might actually be a great idea.
I might really be able to raise multiple dragons after all.
"Kals, not bad!"
"Uh, what?"
Of course, he didn't even realize he'd said something useful.
Figures.
I grinned and shouted toward Tyrbaen, who was still staring wistfully at the eggs.
"Master!"
"Hm?"
"Freeze those eggs with ice magic and bring them down!"
"...!"
In other words:
freeze two of the three eggs to suspend their life force,
and hatch them one at a time later.
As the first hatchling grew,
I'd make sure it didn't resonate with the next one.
Simple, right?
[You have obtained 'a small blue dragon egg (frozen).']
[You have obtained 'a small black dragon egg (frozen).']
***
It didn't take long to leave the lair.
By the time we passed the shattered Stone Golem, a new quest message appeared.
[Chain Quest: "Nest of the Evil Dragon" completed.]
[Quest rewards granted.]
Got it!
At the same time, a cascade of beautiful messages filled my vision—
the kind every player loved to see.
[You have obtained a new title: "Master of Dragons."]
[You have learned a new skill: "Dragon Riding."]
[You have received a new blessing: "Supreme Protection."]
First, the title Master of Dragons increased my resistance to the dragons' Dragon Fear.
Now that I was officially a dragon master—
It means I can stand up to that overwhelming aura as their rightful lord.
This title would prove its worth whenever I faced other dragons in the future.
And then—Dragon Riding!
As the name implied, it allowed me to mount and fly with a dragon.
This was the true highlight reward of the quest.
...Ironically, I can't use it yet.
I chuckled to myself.
Naturally—
my hatchling hadn't even hatched yet, so I had nothing to ride.
Next was the new blessing, Supreme Protection.
Now this one's the real jackpot.
I considered it the true treasure among the rewards.
***
[Blessing] Since ancient times, fear of dragons has been deeply etched into all living beings.
Now, that fear belongs to you—the Master of Dragons.
Special Effect: Prevents most enemies from initiating combat first.
***
In other words, it gave me an "anti-first-strike" effect.
It's similar to Dragon Fear, but more defensive.
Where Dragon Fear suppresses an enemy's actions through sheer intimidation,
Supreme Protection creates an aura that prevents enemies from attacking first at all.
This blessing would give me a tremendous advantage in future battles.
Basically, no one's getting the first hit on me anymore.
Everything was finally going smoothly again—it felt refreshing.
"Your Highness, we've made it. Whew, that was rough."
Kals, stepping out of the cave, inhaled the fresh air with a smile.
"Let's see... we tied our horses up around—"
His words cut off suddenly.
Before I could ask why, Kals drew his sword like lightning.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
From behind the bushes, a few figures appeared, holding our horses by the reins.
I recognized them immediately.
"...Hekster? Elaine?"
"Shan Aledro."
"You—you really went into the Dragon's Nest…"
Why did they look so stunned to see me?
Of course, I already had a good guess.
"You're here because of Eve, aren't you?"
"...!"
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