Chương 32: Chapter 29: Ghost in the Box

The moment the energy beams started firing at the dragon, Marcus and Beortan retreated backwards, putting more distance between themselves and the ice dragon. They were clearly not the intended target, and they didn't want to get caught in the attack by accident. The idea of helping the ice dragon did cross Marcus's mind for a brief instant, but he immediately discarded it – they may have cooperated to bring down the orcs for a brief moment, but that was due to a spur of the moment.

It was not obvious if the dragon even considered it cooperation. If they intercepted the attacks, they could even end up attacked by both the ice dragon and the unknown assailants.

Unfortunately, with them hastily retreating like that, and the dragon busy avoiding energy beams, the two surviving orcs were free to make their escape. They both turned into black smoke and sped away, taking advantage of the distraction to evade pursuit.

Marcus watched them retreat with frustration in his heart. He wanted to go after them, but Beortan seemed more interested in lingering around to see the aftermath of the battle here. Marcus had to admit he was curious too, so he reluctantly let the orcs go. They would get them later, hopefully.

Marcus had no idea who the unknown attackers were, but he was annoyed with them already. He glanced in the direction of where the energy beams were coming from, but instead of people he simply saw a large quadrupedal shape, metallic and spherical, with long spider-like legs. A barrel-like object sat on top of it, and was the source of the magical beams bombarding the dragon, flashing with bright light periodically.

Marcus frowned. A machine? This cross between a spider and a cauldron kind of reminded Marcus of the various devices he had seen on Sixth Manifold, albeit much cruder-looking than the wondrous devices there.

Beam after beam fell upon the dragon, but now that the initial surprise had worn off, the dragon showed remarkable reflexes for a creature so big. She rolled and twisted herself in the air, avoiding a number of beams entirely, and then set up a pale white force field that deflected two of the beams into the surrounding area. One of the deflected beam hit a nearby pine tree, detonating it and sending wooden splinters everywhere, including in the direction of Marcus and Beortan.

Beortan created a wall of ice in front of them with a casual gesture of his hand, easily shielding them from aftershocks of the attack, his eyes firmly locked on the fight in front of him. Marcus didn't even have to do anything.

The dragon's shield immediately cracked after deflecting the two beams, but it held long enough to serve its purpose. Immediately after creating the shield, the ice dragon dived into the freezing waters of the lake.

The scene was quiet for a few seconds. The thing in the distance stopped firing energy beams. The orcs were long gone, having crossed a remarkable distance in a very short amount of time; Marcus could not see any trace of them from where he was standing, not even with the air of magic. And the dragon showed no signs of surfacing again after it had entered the water.

"Should we try to track down the two orcs or…?" Marcus asked.

"No," Beortan replied, watching the metallic thing in the distance.

"I want to talk with these newcomers first."

So, it seemed that Beortan had the same idea as Marcus – that the object in the distance was just a vehicle of some sort, and that there were people inside piloting it. It was strange to see something like this, though. Usually when adepts made magical vehicles, they either enchanted wagons or ships or made flying platforms. A metal sphere on spider legs was not something Marcus had ever encountered.

Now that he thought about it, he had once encountered a flowerpot with spider legs. The mage who had created it had given it legs so it could carry the flowers in and out of the shade, regulate the amount of rain they got, and so on. So he supposed there was some precedent for it…

Marcus thought Beortan would wait for the vehicle to get to the area, but his friend was impatient. He set off in the direction of the machine, as if to intercept it.

Marcus hurried after him to support him. They weren't too aggressive in their approach, simply walking towards the path of the machine, rather than using the multitude of magical movement spells they had available, but even that proved too much for the occupants inside the thing. The barrel-like object mounted on the top of the machine swiveled in their direction, glowing ominously, as if warning them to back off.

If so, neither Beortan nor Marcus were inclined to listen. Marcus wrapped both of them in a distortion shield that would hopefully deflect any beams fired on them and set a number of gems orbiting around him in case a fight broke out. The object in front of them was made out of shiny, tough-looking metal, and was probably enchanted, so Marcus was not sure if he could pierce the main body of the sphere…

but the barrel-like protrusion on top looked much more delicate and he bet a crystal spear could ruin the beam firing apparatus with relative ease. After that, it was just a matter of figuring out how to break open this giant crab to get at the soft insides.

Assuming the device didn't have more subtle combat capabilities, of course.

After a tense but brief moment, the walking cauldron pointed its weapon away from the two approaching mages. Seeing that, Marcus also dispelled his preparations… at least the visible ones.

Eventually the two sides found themselves facing off against each other. Beortan and Marcus placed themselves right in front of the strange vehicle, blocking its path to the lake, and gestured for the passengers to get out and talk to them. There were no visible windows on this thing, but Marcus imagined they had to have some method of seeing the world around them.

They had certainly noticed their approach just fine earlier, and they had been pretty accurate when firing at the dragon from considerable distance away.

The long spindly legs of the device would have allowed it to easily step over the two mages and continue on towards the lake, but it seemed that the people inside were smart enough to realize that would be a provocation and escalate things. The machine stopped in front of them, hesitating.

Now that they were so close and Marcus could get a better look at it, he became certain he was looking at an artificial creation. Him thinking of it as a walking cauldron was not too far off the mark. The main body was not a perfect sphere, and looked more like a big round vessel or a giant egg, with a flattened top. It was held high above the ground by relatively thin segmented legs, of which there was four. They reminded Marcus of the legs of an insect, spider, or a crab.

Unlike those creatures, the machine had a large three-toed foot at the end of each leg, presumably for greater stability and ground traction. At the top of the machine, there was a complicated assemblage that looked a bit like a metal beer barrel with a giant crystal lens and many different pipes and wires connected to it.

Though the entire device looked like it had no well-defined front and back at the distance, up close, Marcus could see there was an outline of a bearded face imprinted onto the main body of the device. Though it looked like a mere decoration, Marcus had a distinct impression that it was watching them.

The people inside the machine seemed reluctant to exit and confront them. The machine had ground to a stop in front of them, but otherwise nothing happened for a full two minutes afterwards. Marcus and Beortan waited patiently. Marcus took an opportunity to circle the machine once to study it thoroughly, while Beortan remained put at the front, staring at the bearded face on the device in silence.

After a while, a previously invisible hatch on the top of the vehicle opened and a small person quickly wriggled out of the entrance. He jumped onto the snow below without any hesitation, not bothering to lower any rope or ladder to get down, despite the considerable height involved. He was quickly followed by three more. Once they were all assembled, the first person to get out barked some orders in an unknown language and all four marched off towards them, looking very grim and serious.

The four people approaching them were all very short, with stocky bodies and short legs that made them a bit ungainly-looking as they walked. They were all male, sporting beards of various sizes and styles, had prominent bushy eyebrows and severe, unfriendly expressions. They all wore heavy clothing, which made sense considering where they were, but instead of fairly crude beast furs like Marcus and Beortan, they were dressed in much fancier heavy leather and sported a large number of metal decorations on them.

Their appearance, coupled with the fact they spoke an unknown language, made Marcus fairly sure he was dealing with dwarves. He had never seen a dwarf before, but they fit the descriptions very well.

Dwarves, much like orcs, did not usually venture this far south. They lived somewhere on the north end of the continent, and had to cross orcish territory in order to access human lands. Because of this, trade and knowledge exchange between the two cultures were minimal. Dwarves and humans once had friendly relations with one another, but these days the only contact were the dwarven kingdoms and city-states clashing against the forces of Crystal Mountain and Giant Thunder Hall – the two northern-most human powers.

Recently that changed somewhat, and dwarf adepts did start venturing deeper into human lands… but even so, Marcus had never heard about them going down this far south. It was difficult to guess how this was going to go.

While Marcus was thinking about all this, the group of four dwarves came to face them. Two of the four were warrior adepts, wielding short halberds and sporting heavy crossbows slung over their back, and behaved like bodyguards, standing just behind the leader to both his left and his right, eyes alert and darting around. The leader carried no weapons, but had an ornate belt from which many different devices hung, and carried a staff with a complicated metal assemblage at the top.

He also had unusual asymmetric glasses with multiple lenses stacked on top of each other. Tiny glowing symbols occasionally flashed on some of these lenses, conveying some kind of information to the wearer. Marcus was uncertain if he was a mage or an artificer – he had heard the artificer adept path was very popular among dwarves – but either way he showed no fear in front of the two unknown mages in front of him.

The final part of the dwarf party was an unassuming man who hung in the back with what appeared to be a notebook and a pen. Although he seemed to be a simple scribe, Marcus sensed a spirit coming from him. This 'scribe' was in fact the most powerful member of the group.

The glasses-wearing dwarf cleared his throat.

"Which one of you two yokels is the leader here?" he asked imperiously.

Marcus raised his eyebrow at him.

The dwarf had used the common language used in the Silver League this time, making himself easily understood. Marcus had covertly cast the translation spell on himself while the group had assembled, but it seemed it wouldn't be necessary to communicate. The dwarf's choice of words, though…

"I am Beortan, High Chief of the White Dragon Clan," Beortan said, folding his hands over his chest and staring down on the group of dwarves. His friend was big and intimidating to even other humans, so he could only imagine the impression he left on the dwarves in front of him.

"This is our land you are trespassing on. Who are you people and what are you doing here?"

"High chief?" one of the bodyguards mumbled in their native tongue.

"So just a pair of barbarians then. Is there any point in talking with these savages, then?"

Unfortunately for him, thanks to the translation spell and his sensitive hearing, Marcus had no trouble understanding him.

Well, not that Marcus was going to reveal that. Advantages like this worked better when your opponent didn't know you have them.

"Shut up Dishmab," the leader warned him.

"They're both spirit manifestation mages. It's best if we can resolve this without a fight."

"I am Etur, an emissary of the Emerald Hall – the most powerful and preeminent of the dwarven kingdoms," Etur said, waving his mechanical staff theatrically.

"The dragon you saw stole one of our ancestral treasures, and we have been pursuing it ever since. We are acting on orders of His Highness, King Urist himself! I suggest you leave us to our task and vacate the area. We will deal with the dragon for you. We won't even charge for the favor!"

"You're quite an arrogant little man, Etur," Beortan told him.

"This Emerald Hall of yours might be mighty, but you're a long way from home. I've never even heard of your homeland, and I have no regards for decrees of some distant king. How about you vacate the area instead? We will give you back your treasure when we retrieve it from the dragon. We won't even charge for the favor! Just tell us what it looks like."

"Don't tell them about the transmutation box," the scribe told the leader in their dwarven tongue.

"I know!" the leader hissed back in the same tongue.

"You don't have to remind me!"

He turned back towards Beortan.

"I'm sorry, but that is not possible," Etur said.

"This item is sacred to us, and we can't let anyone lay their hands on it. It has to be us who retrieves it. It's not even that valuable, it's, ah…, culturally important to us."

Somehow, Marcus doubted that.

"Well I'm not going to back off either," Beortan said firmly.

"This is my territory, and it's important to me that I handle any problems that crop up personally. You know, for cultural reasons? How about we confront the dragon together then? We can share the spoils equally."

"No," Etur said immediately.

Just a straight no. The dwarf didn't even have to think about it. Whatever this group's real goal was, they didn't want anyone to be around when they confronted the dragon.

"Do you want to fight?" Beortan threatened.

"Look, we are offering to deal with a dragon for you, and we aren't menacing your people," Etur said, backing off slightly.

"I'm sure I don't have to explain to you what a terrifying monster that is. We will take on the risk of taking on that monster, and we will leave immediately afterwards. Isn't that a good deal? Don't be stupid! Just stay back and let us handle this."

That was the wrong sort of argument to use, Marcus thought to himself. The dwarf seemed to think that Beortan was here purely out of fear, and would be anxious to make this problem go away with as little danger to himself as possible… but the truth was that an appearance of a dragon like this was almost as exciting to Beortan as it was worrying.

Sure enough…

"Sounds to me like you're being incredibly greedy and want to claim all the spoils," Beortan said bluntly.

"What do you intend to do with the remains of the dragon once you kill it? Claim the entire corpse for yourself, I take it?"

"Well, it's obvious, isn't it?" Etur looked at him like he was stupid.

"The one doing all the work should get all the rewards. It's just common sense."

"It's also common sense to announce your presence to the natives instead of skulking around like bandits and thieves, and to seek the ruler's approval before you bring a magical war machine into his lands, yet you have failed to live up to either of those," Beortan said.

"Tell me one good reason why I shouldn't get rid of you immediately."

After that, the meeting unfortunately degenerated into shouting and not-so-veiled threats from both Beortan and Etur. Despite having only a single spirit-rank adept compared to two on Beortan's side, the dwarves refused to budge on their demands. They didn't want to leave, didn't want to cooperate and share the spoils… they didn't even want to exchange information. Perhaps they felt their war machine evened the odds, or perhaps their own adept, the one pretending to be a scribe, was unusually powerful.

They may even have another spirit adept inside the war machine, waiting for the right moment to get involved. Taking two spirit-rank adepts was almost common sense if you intended to confront an adult dragon… provided you had multiple of them to spare, of course. Marcus had a suspicion that if Beortan had met them alone, they would have straight up tried to bully him away with force.

As it was, they clearly had at least some reservations about fighting them, but still obviously looked down on them and would not cooperate in any way.

As for Beortan, for all his threats and bluster, he was not willing to risk attacking the strange war machine and the dwarves accompanying it. The dwarves were annoying, but they weren't actively harming the White Dragon Clan. Making an enemy out of an unknown spirit-rank adept, at least when you didn't have to, wasn't wise.

Plus, they didn't actually get the dragon yet. Perhaps they could even take advantage of the dwarves and their strange machine to weaken the dragon before swooping in and claiming the prize.

At least, that's what Marcus guessed was running through Beortan's mind.

Marcus had hoped that his secret knowledge of their dwarven tongue would give him insight into their real goals as the conversation went on, but alas – after those initial exchanges Etur had had with his companions, they became a little wiser and no longer discussed anything important amongst themselves. As such, Marcus eventually decided to draw attention to himself a little and ask some questions of his own.

"One question, please," Marcus interrupted their latest shouting match.

"Why are the orcs after the ice dragon? Are they also after your…

sacred treasure?"

Etur gave him a sour look.

"You need to keep your followers under better control," Etur told Beortan.

"Why is he interrupting our conversation? I thought you were the leader here?"

"It's a good question," Beortan said.

"You said the dragon stole your sacred ancestral treasure. Why would the orcs want it so desperately too? Enough to risk coming all the way here like this?"

"How would I know?" Etur asked rhetorically.

"I can hardly guess what vile thoughts are bouncing around in those thick, demonic skulls of theirs."

"You should have waited until the orcs were dealt with before launching your attack," Marcus told him.

"It is the duty of all true children of Tasloa to curb the abyssal incursion to the best of their ability, even on foreign lands."

"Do you think I don't know that!?" Etur snapped at him.

"I hate the orcs more than you can believe! But the moment was too perfect, and our orders are absolute! I couldn't pass on this opportunity! Why didn't you focus on finishing the last two dregs while we dealt with the dragon?"

"But you didn't deal with the dragon!" Beortan pointed out.

"Even from an ambush, using what you admit was a perfectly moment, you still let the dragon slip away. What makes you think you can even handle it on your own without our help?"

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Etur let out a frustrated curse in his native tongue, implying that Beortan's mother engaged in bestiality with the mountain goats.

"What are you talking about? It's right there, trapped in the lake!" Etur said, sounding incredibly frustrated, pointing at the frozen lake nearby.

"It dove in and never left. We just have to wait for it to surface and take a breath. This close to the lake, we can't miss. Just you wait!"

Beortan and Marcus glanced at each other dubiously. Even the two halberd-wielding dwarven bodyguards seemed a little dubious about their leader's statement, though they didn't actually voice any disagreement.

Marcus definitely didn't believe the dragon was still in the lake. Sure, they never saw her surface and fly off, but the thing was… they had no idea how the dragon had ended up in the lake to begin with. Marcus had a clear view of the entire lake when they had lured the orcs to its shores, and he hadn't seen the dragon enter its waters and set up an ambush. It made perfect sense to Marcus that she would also be able to leave the lake equally stealthily.

Maybe there was an underwater cave passage somewhere in there or something, who could know. Adult dragons were a bit like powerful mages, in that they often accumulated strange and powerful abilities over the course of their long lives.

Marcus and Beortan eventually left the area, allowing the dwarves to set up their machine on the shore of the lake. Neither side wanted to start hostilities or back off, and Marcus and Beortan both agreed with each other that the dwarves were wasting their time by setting up an ambush spot near the lake. Instead, the two of them attempted to track down the two surviving orcs so they could finish them off.

Unfortunately, it was just as Marcus had feared. The two had completely vanished without the trace. After only a short distance from the lake their trail disappeared, and could no longer be followed.

Beortan and Marcus made a couple of big circles around the area, trying to find any clues, but did not notice anything.

Since there were no signs of battle coming from the direction of the lake, it was apparent that the dwarves had not had any more luck in their task than Marcus and Beortan had in their own. However, neither side was interested in seeking out the other.

Eventually the sun started to set and the two of them decided not to return to the village and instead set up a temporary camp in a small cave to spend the night in. Dragons had better night vision and other senses in the dark, so confronting one during the night was the height of foolishness.

They would continue this in the morning.

The two of them huddled next to a campfire at the mouth of the cave, basking in the warmth of the fire… or at least Marcus did. Beortan was sitting some distance away on a rock, looking pensive. He was innately more resistant to cold, so he didn't need the fire nearly as much as Marcus did.

The warming spells Marcus employed did a lot to take the edge of the cold mountain air, but spending an entire day out in the wind and the snow was still unpleasant. He was glad for a little break like this, especially since tomorrow would mean more of the same.

"A group of orcs, suspicious outsiders from afar, and an adult dragon," Beortan said out loud.

"These are such dangerous waters. Perhaps I should send word to Great Sea of what has transpired and seek more assistance."

"You probably should," Marcus said.

"But you won't."

"I won't," Beortan admitted.

"I know this is putting my clan in danger just to try and claim a bigger slice of the pie, but I can't help it. Does that make me selfish?"

"Somewhat," said Marcus.

"I can't say I wouldn't do the same in your position, though."

"Ugh," Beortan grunted unpleasantly. He didn't seem all that comforted by Marcus's words.

"What do you think of the dwarves?"

"They're hiding a lot," Marcus told him.

Beortan hummed in agreement.

"I couldn't peer into their war machine at all. Who knows what they're hiding inside? They certainly seemed eerily confident in the face of two spirit rank adepts. Maybe we should have revealed our real ranks to them? I think they took us both for spirit manifestation mages."

"That's exactly what they did," Marcus confirmed.

He told Beortan what little he found out about the dwarves and their goals from their conversations in their native tongue. He did not want to mention anything while they were out in the open, since he had no idea if someone was spying on them, but they had placed a number of wards on this cave when they set up the camp here so this should be a safe place to talk.

"Interesting," Beortan said, rubbing his chin.

"Transmutation box you say? So we're looking for a square-shaped object, then?"

"We are?" Marcus looked over his shoulder at Beortan, raising his eyebrow at him.

"You want to claim their sacred relic too?"

Beortan scoffed.

"Sacred relic…" he said derisively.

"Who knows if it's really theirs to begin with? If they were more polite, I would be more inclined to help them out, but as it is? They can get their king to send a diplomatic protest to Great Sea Academy and see if they care to press the issue. Did you figure out anything about their war machine? You have more experience with those kind of things than me. You said that recent place you visited was full of complicated magical devices like that."

Marcus had told Beortan about his visit to the Sixth Manifold and what he had seen there. Right now, aside from Helvran and his students, Beortan was the only one who knew about his trip to another world. Alas, while he had seen a lot of mechanical wonders there, Marcus was not an artificer, nor even all that interested in mechanical devices. He was more fond of personal magic spells and did not bother looking too deeply into Sixth Manifold's technological achievements…

not that there had been that much time to do that in his brief visit.

That said…

"I can tell you one thing about that walking cauldron of theirs," Marcus told Beortan.

"It's not just a magical vehicle. It has a greater earth elemental bound to it as a living spirit."

Beortan gave him a surprised look.

"Is that why I couldn't see past it? I could tell it's made with powerful magic, but…"

"I understand your confusion," Marcus nodded. It was easy to look at a large magical vehicle like the machine the dwarves were piloting, which involved heavy magic use by powerful crafters, and conclude that the powerful spiritual signature it gave off was normal.

"But I have interacted with earth elementals often, and I've had plenty of time to check out their vehicle. That device definitely has one bound to its frame, and it's not a weak one like my Chompy either. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether the earth elemental serves willingly or if it has been forcibly bound into service."

Personally, Marcus was a bit skeptical that this had all been mutually agreed upon. In his experience, elementals did not like to be bound into items like that, and greater elementals were very prideful beings. Marcus had tried for years to entice one to make a contract with him so he could summon something more powerful than Chompy, and he had never succeeded. What could the dwarves have possibly offered to a greater elemental to make it agree to be bound to a mere machine?

"I guess the face wasn't just decorative," Beortan mused.

"I also suspect, though this is just speculation, that their device can glide through the ground with ease," Marcus said.

"It's an ability all earth elementals have. I'm not sure if the earth elemental can confer that ability to the machine it is bound to, but it would make sense. You saw how that thing moves over terrain. It's surprisingly agile for something so big and mechanical, but it's not enough. It's too slow and ungainly to pursue a dragon, and it would attract a lot of attention everywhere it went."

"Unless it travels underground," Beortan said, completing his thought.

"Right," Marcus confirmed.

"They can likely move around much more freely than it seems."

The two of them were quiet for a few moments.

"What worries me the most is that I still can't think of any reason why the orcs are so far down south, chasing this dragon," Marcus suddenly said.

"Is this transmutation box really so important? If so, I have a feeling we might see more people make their way here as time goes by."

"Ugh. I hope not," Beortan said.

"I'd really need to call for backup if that happens."

His friend frowned a bit for a few seconds.

"Did you ever hear about the old dwarven citadel buried beneath our mountain?" he asked Marcus.

Marcus gave him a strange look.

"No? Why are you only mentioning this now?"

"It's an old ruin," Beortan shook his head.

"It's been looted a long time ago. The dwarves we met didn't even ask about it, and seemed only interested in getting the dragon and this treasure she supposedly stole. I didn't think it mattered."

"But?" Marcus asked.

"There is a vault there that has never been successfully opened," Beortan said.

"It cannot be blasted with force, phased into, or have its lock mechanism tricked. Mages from outside still come to our lands occasionally to try their luck at opening it, hoping to claim whatever treasure is waiting within. We usually let them try their luck, if they're not too disruptive. They're often ill-prepared for the conditions here, so we can earn quite a bit by selling them food and other supplies until they run out of money and have to go back home empty-handed."

And, Marcus mentally added, if they actually succeeded in opening the vault, Beortan would surely show up and demanded a share of the find for himself and his clan… whether this had been agreed upon beforehand or not.

"I didn't think this was connected to the dragon coming here, but now that we've talked to the dwarves I can't help but think the ruins are somehow connected to this whole thing. I think we should check up on them, at least," Beortan explained.

"See if there is something there than can explain all of this."

"I see nothing wrong with that," Marcus said.

Now that Marcus thought about it, he had to admit that these kinds of dwarven ruins were not too rare, at least in the Bloodstone Mountains. Although they were now limited to the north-most part of the continent, dwarven states used to be far more widespread in the distant past. Many, if not all of the large underground complexes scattered around the Silver League were known to be of dwarven origin… though most of them don't have an intact vault such as the ruins beneath this mountain.

At some point, most of the dwarven holds had gotten completely destroyed by some ancient enemy, and their reach had shrunk and shrunk until they were limited to their current territory.

It would be interesting to ask the dwarves what they knew about the downfall of these ancient kingdoms… but it would probably be pointless to ask this particular group.

"It's settled then," Beortan said, nodding.

"There is already someone in the area, studying the vault. Some guy named Kasir, a foreigner. A logos mage. I sent a clansman to warn him about the dragon, but he refused to leave, saying it doesn't concern him. Hopefully he'll be able to tell us something, whether someone has been visiting the vault, have the dwarves bothered him, things like that."

After that, the conversation died down and they settled in to rest and wait for the morning.

When the morning came, Marcus and Beortan checked the area around the mountain by flying around at great height, as well as scanning the land with long-range divination spells. The dwarves and their war machine were nowhere to be found, either on the shore of the lake or elsewhere. The orcs and the dragon were similarly absent.

Just hidden, Marcus was certain. He doubted any of the three parties was really gone from the area, and Beortan agreed.

Nonetheless, they did not search for them. Acting on the suspicions they discussed yesterday, they set off towards the ruins of the ancient dwarf citadel beneath the mountain.

It didn't take long for Marcus and Beortan to arrive at the entrance. It wasn't particularly close to the camp site, but they could both fly and Beortan knew exactly where to go.

In retrospect, even if Marcus did not have Beortan to aid him, finding the entrance would not have been too difficult, because there was a small fort built over it. According to Beortan, it was built by the mad mage Erasmil, who was obsessed with finding a way to open the ancient vault and even enslaved several of the local clans in service of his quest.

"This was before my time, of course," Beortan clarified.

"He would never be able to do this if I had been around."

The fort was fairly derelict in modern times, though still structurally sound. The outsiders that periodically came to research the ancient vaults used it as a base of operations, but the White Dragon Clan had no use for it and let it decay and get inhabited by wild animals when there was no one around.

They entered the small fort, calling for this Kasir to come and meet them, but nobody answered them. After exploring the interior, they soon found it completely empty. There were plenty of signs of habitation, including a room full of books and notebooks, but Kasir was not around.

"Curious," Beortan said, picking up a notebook on the table and leafing through it.

"He was there when I sent a scout to warn him of the dragon. Do you think one of the outsiders got to him before we could arrive? Well, he can't say I didn't warn him…"

He handed the notebook to Marcus with a sigh.

"Nothing," Beortan commented.

"Just a bunch of notes. About slimes, of all things!"

Marcus leafed through the notebook, more slowly and attentively than Beortan had. There was indeed a lot written here about the local slimes. Kasir seemed to have great interest in them, and spent a lot of time observing and researching them. He also spent a lot of time investigating the vault, as well as the local wildlife and plants. Marcus looked through the other notebooks and found similar things.

It struck him through reading the notes that while Kasir was ostensibly here to try and open the ancient dwarven vault and claim its treasure, he didn't seem to be totally focused on it. It seemed to be more of a hobby to him, really. He even remarked at one point that even if the vault remained stubbornly closed, this trip had been worth it because of all the other observations he had been making.

He seemed like a nice guy. Marcus hoped he just fled the fort, rather than being knifed in the back by the orcs or something.

"I'm going to take these notebooks with me," Marcus told Beortan.

"If he shows up later, looking for them, tell him where to find me."

Marcus had something of a slime problem back at his tower. Maybe the notes would provide him with some insight into dealing with them more efficiently.

"Back to your pillaging ways, I see," Beortan commented, giving him a knowing look.

"I'll give them back if he asks," Marcus defended himself.

"Sure, sure," Beortan shook his head.

"Let's move on. The entrance to the tunnel system below is over there."

He pointed at the heavy wooden hatch in the floor. When they lifted it up, they were greeted by a long stairway leading down. Magical torches lined the walls, illuminating the stairway with bright light.

The tunnel at the end of the stairway was clearly artificial and comfortably wide, with smooth walls and plenty of illumination. There were a number of storage rooms branching off from it – the place clearly doubled as the fort's basement – but they were all completely empty. There weren't even boxes and barrels inside. Continuing on, the tunnel became increasingly more irregular, with uneven floors and sharp rocks jutting from the falls at many places.

Eventually, the singular tunnel began to branch out into a confusing network of different tunnels. Normally Marcus would summon Chompy to help him navigate a place like this, but with Beortan leading the way, there was no need.

However, Marcus was a bit concerned. Certain places were also inexplicably coated in thick layers of ice, despite this being deep underground at this point.

"Was the ice always there?" he asked Beortan.

"Yes," Beortan confirmed.

"I don't know how that works, but some of the walls were coated with it even when I first visited this place as a kid."

"Why did you visit this place as a kid?" Marcus asked dubiously. They hadn't encountered any monsters yet, but he knew from Kasir's notes that there were slimes and ice mites crawling around the place. Not the most dangerous opponents, but for a child…

"I did it as a dare," Beortan said simply.

Well okay. In all honesty, that did sound like something Marcus would have done as well…

"Are you worried we'll encounter the dragon here?" Beortan asked him.

"Yes," Marcus admitted.

"It occurs to me that if we meet the dragon here, we will have to fight it in a confined space where there is not a lot of space to maneuver. Do we really want to risk that?"

"Surely the dragon doesn't want that any more than we do?" Beortan said.

"They love to fly in battle and use their mobility against their opponents."

"They're also well-known for lairing in caves," Marcus pointed out.

"I doubt fighting in one is an alien experience for her."

"That… uh…" Beortan fumbled.

"Okay, you got me there. But still, it's hardly a disaster for us either. It just makes it harder for either side to retreat from battle. Can she even squeeze herself through these tunnels? She's pretty big."

Eventually they came to a cavern with several geothermal ponds inside. The ponds were all raised above the ground inside short rock cones, looking almost like mini volcanos. Steam rose incessantly into the air, and the sudden rise in temperature inside the cavern was fairly shocking to Marcus. He found the sight really strange, considering all the ice-covered tunnels they walked through to get here, and it really emphasized that that was something anomalous in these caverns.

Normally he would just take such things in stride, but considering his recent experiences in exploring strange underground tunnel networks, he found it impossible to take it easy.

Beortan insisted there was nothing dangerous about the cavern, however.

"It's a nice place," Beortan said.

"A group of us came here to bathe and relax one time and nothing happened."

"Well, something certainly happened to that dwarf over there," said Marcus, pointing at one of the geothermal pools.

There was a dwarf floating inside of it. He was face-down and unmoving. Dead.

Beortan approached the pool, staring at it for a second. He flipped the dwarf over to get a better look at his face.

"Not one of the four we met yesterday," Beortan commented.

"Hmm."

They continued on their way soon after. Rather than being intimidated by the dead dwarf, they found themselves spurred to keep going. They were clearly on the right track. Their biggest worry wasn't that they were going to have to fight someone here – it was that they were wasting their time on a side-tangent with no relation to anything that had been happening. However, if the dwarves had been here, then clearly this was not a false lead.

Their determination was further strengthened when they found a pair of dead orcs in one of the tunnels. They had both been wielding spears, and were slumped over a nearby wall and covered in a layer of ice. Marcus was pretty sure that was the work of the ice dragon.

"We're getting close to the vault," Beortan warned him, suddenly slowing down.

"We need to be careful. If the dragon is really here, we should-" His words died when they stepped into one of the caverns and the ice dragon suddenly materialized in all of her ten-meter glory right in front of them. One moment the cavern was empty, and the next one she was right there, lazily lying on her flank and staring at them with her pale blue reptilian eyes. Like a big draconic cat watching a pair of mice who had wandered into her den.

They actually had spells scouting the tunnels and caverns in front of them for enemies. Beortan also had his magical lantern, which should have theoretically revealed things like this, too. However, an old dragon like this wasn't just a big magical beast. They were intelligent, spell casting, magic-item-using schemers that loved clever ambushes almost as much as they did overpowering their enemies with their innate size and might.

Clearly, whatever magic she was using couldn't be seen through by typical detection magic.

Immediately as a reaction, without either of them having to consciously react to things, a bunch of defensive spells wrapped themselves around them as a contingency against an ambush like this. A whirling sphere or crystals, water droplets, and interlocking hexagonal force fields sprung to life around Marcus. The ground cracked beneath his feet, a gem orbiting him lengthened into a crystal spear, and- The dragon remained lying on its stomach, watching them calmly.

She raised her giant clawed hand in a human-like gesture of peace.

"Wait," she said.

"I do not wish to fight you."

Marcus and Beortan remained silent, staring her intently. They didn't drop their defenses, but they also didn't attack.

She rose from her position and settled into a more sitting position with slow, careful movements, peering down on them from her new position.

"Out of the three groups pursuing me, you two seem to be the most reasonable one," she commented.

"I believe we can assist each other. The orcs and the dwarves are determined to see me dead. So long as you are not so extreme in your desires, I we can come to an agreement."

"I thought the dwarves want their sacred treasure from you, the transmutation box?" Marcus asked."

Their sacred treasure?" the dragon asked, amusement evident in her voice. She didn't clarify what was so amusing about that.

"Well, from my perspective, wanting to claim the box and wanting to kill me is entirely the same. Are you after the box as well?"

"Until yesterday, we didn't even know you have it," Beortan said.

"Put it out of your mind, then," she said, shifting her gaze towards him.

"I cannot and will not give it to you. I know what you are truly after… you practice a dragon ascension technique, do you not? You need a true dragon's blood to strengthen your feeble human physique."

Beortan stared at her for a second.

"Yes," he finally admitted.

"And a scale or two, too."

"Hmm," he hummed dramatically, tapping her jaw with one of her large claws and studying him.

"A spirit unification mage? I suppose that is not so bad, particularly in this fallen era…"

Marcus's eyes widened a little. How… how could she tell Beortan's rank so precisely!?

She shifted her eyes towards Marcus, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"I shall not ask why you are travelling with this mundane human peasant," she said.

"I suppose everyone needs a loyal follower. He has managed to reach spirit manifestation, so he ought to be of some usefulness."

Marcus didn't react to her contempt, his mind instead racing with various thoughts. She could tell Beortan's exact rank, but she couldn't tell his own… was it because Beortan practiced a dragon-aspected foundational technique and he didn't?

Before they could say anything more, the dragon's massive form rippled and warped, collapsing upon itself and shrinking down. In just a few seconds, the giant ice dragon had instead transformed into a tall, beautiful human woman with long white hair and piercing blue eyes. A flowing white dress decorated with scale patterns fluttered around her in a non-existent breeze.

They were in a cavern, after all.

Her transformation complete, she floated down to the cavern floor and slowly walked up to them. Marcus and Beortan decided to finally dispel their defensive spells and assumed a less hostile stance.

"I am pleased you are amendable to reason," she said as she approached them. Her voice was much more quiet now that she was no longer in the shape of a giant dragon, but the unshakable confidence was still there. Her attitude, combined with her unusual appearance and her flowing white clothes, gave her an unearthly appearance. She looked more like a spirit from the outer planes that had descended down to earth than a mortal woman.

"I am Irdrith, a dragon elder from the Broken Sky Palace. Although I imagine you have never heard of that place. No matter. I will give you the blood and scales you need, but if I am to do that, you need to open the vault for me and help me reunite with my flesh-and-blood body."

Marcus blinked in surprise.

"What?" Beortan asked, confused.

"This is not my real body," she shook her head.

"As I am, I am but a disembodied spirit. An… avatar or sort. My true body is trapped inside the vault, and I obviously cannot give you any blood or scales until I reclaim it. In this way, our goals are aligned. We both have a reason to find a way into the vault."

"That's why you can just appear and disappear so easily!" Marcus realized.

"This half-state I am in does have some advantages," Irdrith admitted.

"But I would still prefer to be a whole dragon again."

The dragon seemed to prefer talking to Beortan, but she didn't seem to hold Marcus in such contempt that she totally snubbed him. She was willing to answer his questions and talk to him, at the very least.

Anyway, Marcus had no intention of trying to disabuse her of her misconceptions or try to get her to acknowledge him. He didn't really believe she was this friendly, and it was best if she looked down on him for now. That way her inevitable betrayal would be less likely to finish them off when they least expected it.

"So how do we open the vault?" Marcus asked.

"I do not know," Irdrith said.

They stared at her, unamused.

"Oh, do not look at me like that," she protested.

"I am a dragon. What would I know of locking mechanisms? I sought you out for help for a reason. I am certain that together, we can think of a solution…"