A huge red body, a clean wight beard, massive wings, and terrifying fangs and claws .....so that's a dragon
"What's the matter little one, Scared?" Says the dragon in a mocking tone
"as if. The only scary thing about you is your size, your stats on the other hand are nothing impressive"
Is what Alpha said, but..... The truth couldn't have been further than that, the dragon's level alone was over 500! more than twice the level of the demon Lord ! Alpha was just a special case for not feeling scared
"HAHAHA! Nothing impressive you say!? You haven't only trespassed into my territory! allowed yourself into my cave! Looked at my status screen! And yet still not running away!?"
" Hm? I mean... I can just leave if that's what you want"
"....no, please stay...."
The dragon immediately changed his attitude, lowered his head to the ground, and switched to a pathetic tone, with tears on the side of his eyes
"You know, I'm supposed to be a dragon, an ancient dragon! No one would dare approach me, even the demon Lords fear me, even though I'm harmless and Friendly, and just wanted some company, please don't leave me, please, I don't even bite, please, I don't wanna be alone anymore"
"Sigh, can you stop whining already, I won't leave if you don't want me to, I don't even feel like walking anymore, so I was thinking about crashing here in the first place"
With Alpha's remark, the dragon's mood changed immediately
" REALLY !!? you're not leaving?! You're not running away ?!! Are you really going to stay ?!!!"
" Yeah yeah, I'm not going anywhere, so calm down already, and who said that all demon Lords fear you? I'm a demon Lord and I'm not scared of you"
Then a moment of silence appeared, both Alpha and the dragon were silently staring at each other .... then
" Eh? EEEEEEEEEEEEH!? Y-Y-Y-YOU'RE THE DEMON LORD !!!!!!!!? HOW !!!? YOU'RE NOT EVEN A DEMON !!!?"
" HOW WOULD I KNOW ! APPARENTLY ANYONE CAN BECOME A DEMON LORD NOW DAYS ! DEAL WITH IT !"
"HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO DEAL WITH IT ! EXPLAIN TO ME ! IF YOU DON'T MAKE YOUR SELF CLEAR THEN FORGET ABOUT LEAVING !"
"WHY DO I EVEN NEED TO EXPLAIN ANYTHING TO YOU ! IT'S NOT LIKE I WANT TO LEAVE IN THE FIRST PLACE ! I'M STAYING HERE WETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT !"
" YOUUUUUU!"
Despite the conversation heating up that much, the two of them quickly made up, and told their life stories to each other
The dragon's life wasn't that much, he lived for a very long time, hibernated for a few decades every once in a while, spent most of his time in a cave, and would make a quick trip outside every day to hunt for food then immediately go back inside
No big deal, until..... You give it more thought, the dragon lived for hundreds of years, Wich means, he must have gone out for TENS OF THOUSANDS of hunting trips
And for a monster of his size, his prey must also be big, and big monsters tend to be strong with high levels, and high leveled monsters are naturally rich in experience
Yet, he's only at around level 500!? he should be at around 800, or 900, if not over 1000 !
For this! Alpha could only come out with one conclusion
"You.... You're an introvert aren't you?"
"W-W-WHAT?! W-W-WHO ARE YOU CALLING AN INTROVERT! YOU'RE THE INTROVERT! YOUR WHOLE FAMILY IS AN INTROVERT! BAKA! I-I-I'M A PROUD DRAGON! THERE'S NO WAY I WOULD BE AN INTROVERT!"
Alpha was staring in disbelief, he was not prepared for that response, as such, he could only lough
"Pff, come on, so you were a tsundere too?"
"w-w-who are you calling a tsundere ? I told you I'm a proud dragon!"
"calm down, I'm not making fun of you, you see, my only friend was a tsundere, that's why, it's kinda nice to talk to you"
Alpha was still smiling when he said that, yet his words held a hint of sadness, and the dragon noticed
"I see... Then, if I may ask, where is this friend?"
The dragon kinda knew what the answer would be, that's why, he asked as politely as he could
And although Alpha didn't want to talk about it any further, he still answered
"My friend? she's dead, and I'm alone.
You know, heh funny thing, she was my only friend yet, I don't know her name, I didn't talk to or befriend any one else in this world other than her, yet I never thought to even ask the only one I had about her name, do I even still have the right to call her my friend though?"
During the five years Alpha spent in the dungeon, the only thing he kept trying to do other than gaining power, was overcoming the sadness from the death of the mask
But unfortunately, he could only suppress it
For five hole years, he could only hide it
He could never forget it
The first ever regret he had in this world.... he never lost it
And now, all of those pent up feelings are coming out!
The Alpha that was not scared by the giant appearance of a dragon, was now crying his longs out for a different reason!
He was kneeling there, holding his chest, squeezing out every last tear he had left!
All the suffering he went through the past year as a slave, was no where near the pain he felt with the death of the mask
He blamed him self for it over and over again, while the dragon was watching
And he didn't move a muscle, nor say a word, he just stood there, silently watching over Alpha, patiently waiting for him to calm down
It took some time, but he finally stopped, he looked at the dragon and apologized, then, they both went silent
After a while, the dragon desided to speak
"I don't know who your friend was, how she looked, or how she behaved, but I know you miss her. I might not be much but, if you don't mind, let's be friends. We're both alone anyway, might as well stick together"
Alpha was still in a daze after crying so much, but he still answered
" en , thank you "
He answered with simple words, without adding anything to them, after all, he just remembered some painful memories, and didn't wanna talk much, Wich made the dragon worry
"Hey, why don't you take a nap, when ever I'm too it exhausted or stressed out, I just slumber, I don't think humans can do that but, sleeping for a few hours should do the trick, no?"
The dragon's idea was good, but what caught Alpha's attention was not sleeping
"Slumber? How do you do that"
"Oh, that? Quite easy, you just pour a large amount of Mana around your brain, that will shut it from the outside, keeping it away from any noise or interference, just keep in mind that you need to pour everything you're planning to use at the start, otherwise you'll end up waking up in the middle of it, but it's not like I recommend it to you or anything, if we're talking numbers, you'll need to pour 50MP for 1 day! Wich is far beyond what any human can handle, so just forget about it and sleep, ok?.....kid? Are you listening?.....OH MY GOD! DID YOU JUST SLEEP ON ME ! AND I WENT THROUGH THE TROUBLE OF EXPLAINING EVERYTHING TO YOU ! AM I SO BORING THAT PEOPLE WOULD FALL ASLEEP LISTENING TO ME NOW ! I KNEW I SHOULD'VE TALKED TO SOME PEOPLE THE PAST FEW YEARS. Tch, what ever, I have you as a friend now, I'll just have to use you in practicing my communication skills, but don't think I've forgiven you, as soon as you wake up, you'll get bombarded with complaints, just you wait, hmph baka......but, you know, it's not that bad, sleeping with someone else, maybe, I'll forgive you, just this once"
And finally, the dragon closed his eyes, and waited for Alpha to awake, he was really happy, it's been ages since he last talked to anyone,
he could barely wait for Alpha to wake up and continue their conversation, and so it began
1 hour passed, 2 hours passed, 5 hours passed, 10 hours passed! then eventually.... A hole day passed, and Alpha still hasn't woken up yet
The dragon was getting worried, and began to question his own knowledge about humans
" Is this normal? For How long will he sleep? How long do humans sleep? Should I do something? Should I wake him up? But how should I wake him up? Should I nudge him? Should I blow some flames on him like my mom used to do? But wouldn't that kill him? How much heat can humans handle?"
More and more questions kept coming to the dragon, but unfortunately, he was worrying about the wrong thing
Alpha, was not asleep, he was slumbering !
And he didn't just pour 50 or a 100MP to it, nor did he use too much ether, he just used 5% of his Mana pool
He just poured 500,000 MP in it !
That's 25 years of slumber !