Chương 131: [Gold and Mythril]

Luka held the egg out for everyone to see before he offered it to Torren.

"I don't know the first thing about dragons or their eggs. Is this how they normally look?" Torren took the egg carefully, turning it in his hands. It was warm, warmer than the room despite the cottage having baked in the sun for the last few hours.

"Growlie's egg was smaller than this," Rika said, moving closer to look.

"A lot smaller."

"Mars found it when it had already been there a while," Torren said.

"This one, I'm not sure how old it is or if it's close to hatching. I imagine if you received it as a reward of some kind from the UI, it can't be too far from hatching."

"Do I need to do anything special? It's a shame Mars is back in town; I'd have liked to have asked him what he did to care for Growlie's egg before he hatched," Luka asked. Shai smiled at him.

"I think it's fine. Dragon eggs are sturdy. They aren't like normal eggs where they need to be kept warm. They do that themselves. It's more keeping them out of harm's way so they can hatch when ready."

"Well, that's good to know. Anything else weird about it? Other than the size, I mean?" asked Luka.

"The colour of the shell." Torren tilted it toward the light coming through the window. The gold deepened as he did, the scales catching it differently depending on the angle.

"Growlie's was dark. Almost black. We thought it might not hatch at first." He set it back in Luka's hands carefully.

"I've never seen one this colour. I'm not sure many people have." Shai shook her head slowly.

"The colour is supposed to give you an idea of what the dragon will look like. Black egg, black dragon. But this..." she looked at it again "... I've never heard of a gold one before."

"The brightness is supposed to be important, too," Rika said.

"Or the depth of it for darker colours. A really deep colour usually means a strong dragon. A stronger one than a pale version of the same colour." She looked at the egg in Luka's hands.

"That thing is glowing gold."

"The fact it's bigger than Growlie's egg matters as well," Torren said quietly.

"Why? Does it mean that one's going to grow to be the size of a house or something?" Luka asked.

"Dragon eggs are usually smaller than that. Not by a huge amount, but enough to notice." Torren looked at him directly.

"I'm no expert. This is about the extent of my knowledge, most of it coming from listening to Mars. That said, I think the size of the egg can show how big the dragon might grow to be. So your egg being this large means the little guy has the capacity to grow much bigger than Growlie."

"How did the UI even have one of these?" Luka said.

"Where did it come from?" He looked down at the egg in his hands.

"I need to find some books. Mars figured out what Growlie needed as he went, but I'd rather go in knowing what I'm doing." He paused.

"I just hope I can do as well as he did."

"You'll be fine," Rika said.

"Growlie took to you immediately, and he takes weeks to warm up to most people." Torren nodded.

"The dragon we saw earlier seemed to find you interesting as well." Phil had been looking at the egg the whole time.

"That is so cool, man," he said finally.

"I'm not even going to pretend I'm not jealous. I really hope I get one someday. I agree, though. You're great with animals; I think you'll do fine. Plus, we'll be here to help."

"Thanks, man," said Luka with a smile.

"Check your message. Let's see what you got." Phil pulled up his UI. His message was similar to Luka's, the same tone, the same style: the name of Monkhaven spreading, progress noted, a reward placed in his inventory. The difference was the first line. Semi final reached. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He checked his inventory and pulled out two short swords.

The blades were a deep red that didn't look painted, the hilts gold with a black gem set into each pommel. He held one in each hand, turning them over.

"Those are nice, man. It's like you got a rare drop or something," said Parmo. Leo nodded, his eyes on the colour of the blades.

"Yeah, they fit the whole Fire battle-mage thing you have going on." Shai leaned in.

"There are inscriptions along the blade." Phil tilted one toward the light. Fine lines ran along the flat of the blade, too precise to have been done by hand.

"What do they do?" he asked.

"I don't know. I'm not an enchanter." Shai straightened.

"They're not decorative, though; whoever put those there knew what they were doing."

"Marcus might know," Rika said.

"He should look at them." Phil kept turning the swords over, already pleased with them even without knowing what the inscriptions meant. Sam checked his own message.

"Mine's the same except it says final. It's been watching us again," Sam said, already checking his inventory. He held up what he found. Perfectly circular, the size of his palm, with a hole through the centre like an old Chinese coin. The surface was a pale cobalt blue, covered in white runes. They weren't like the ones on Phil's swords or the stone training dummies they used for magic target practice.

These were straighter, more precise, like whoever made them had tools or knowledge far beyond what Marcus worked with. Sam passed it around. It was lighter than it looked and cold despite having been in Sam's inventory. The disk felt closer to hard plastic than stone or metal, but the texture felt coarse, like a pumice stone. Leo turned it over in his hands, looking for anything he could make out. The runes continued around the edge, along the inside of the hole, across both faces. Nothing gave anything away.

He passed it back.

"It's beyond anything I've seen," Torren said.

"Beyond anything Marcus could do," Shai added.

"Not that he isn't skilled. Just... this is something else." Sam held it for a moment, then put it away.

"Looks like I know what I'll be doing in my spare time for the next while."

"Good luck with that, man. Makes the Rubik's cube I gave Rika seem like child's play," said Parmo. Leo checked his message last and grinned.

"Mine says tournament winner." Phil shook his head, rolling his eyes. Shai chuckled.

"There's an extra part on the end, though. I have the same bit about checking my inventory, but there's also something about checking my magic." He checked his inventory first and pulled out a sheathed sword. The sheath was white, the same silver-blue as Sam's disk running through it in patterns from tip to throat. He drew the blade. The metal caught the light as it came free: silver-blue, unmistakably metal where Sam's had felt like stone. A single line of runic script ran the length of the blade.

The handle was wrapped in white, the binding tight and precise, a dark wood showing through underneath where the wraps crossed. Small runes had been inlaid into the wrapping itself, fine enough that you had to look closely to make them out at all. Torren gasped and Shai's eyes went wide.

"What?" Rika asked, looking between them.

"I could be wrong," Torren said slowly.

"But I think that's mythril."

"It looks just like how it's described in the stories," Shai said.

"The colour. The way it catches the light."

"Holy shit, mythril. That's sick. I know it's rare; you said so yourself. What does it actually do, though? Is it hard as dragon scales?" Phil asked with a grin.

"The reason it's rare," Torren began, "and the reason noble houses hoard it, is because it absorbs magic. They use it for protection. You hear about it used for weapons in old stories. Armour made for great warriors. But nowadays it's mainly used as a way to protect nobles from each other. I've never seen it myself, but some of the people who come here from the core have mentioned it. Their keeps stand out for their size anyway, but when large parts of it are this colour, it's easy to tell."

Leo looked at the blade, then at Luka.

"Can you make a shield? I want to try something." Luka cast Standfast. Leo brought the blade across it in a clean horizontal strike. The blade went through it like it wasn't there, the shield dissolving instantly. As it did, the blade began to glow, a faint blue light running along the edge for a moment before fading.

"That confirmed it," Shai said quietly. Leo remembered the last line of his message. He pulled up his magic tab. Where his spell descriptions had previously said Lightning, they now showed???

"My affinity has three question marks. Doesn't say Lightning anymore."

"That's new," said Phil.

"So my magic type changed, apparently." Leo looked at his hand and called a small arc of lightning. It came easily, the same feeling as always, but the colour was wrong. Not the blue-white he was used to. Deeper, more purple than blue, the white gone entirely.

"Still looks like lightning. Maybe you have a unique form of it instead of a totally different element?" proposed Sam.

"There's a noble family in the core," Shai said.

"Famous for their lightning magic. Generations of it. I've never heard anyone say their lightning was purple, though."

"Yet another weird UI thing. I'm sure we'll figure it out at some point," Luka said. Leo looked at the arc for a moment longer before letting it fade.

"Right," Phil said.

"We should take the swords and Sam's thing to Marcus at some point. He might know more about the inscriptions at least."

"After the archery?" said Luka.

"We could do that now. The archery competition doesn't start for another hour or so," said Shai, looking at her wrist. Leo nodded.

"Sounds good to me."