When Edward finally awoke, he found himself lying in the center of the forest. He quickly gazed at his surroundings, confused for a moment. Then, when he remembered what he was doing before he collapsed he quickly sat upright and smiled. When he looked at his feet he quickly recognized his pet dragon. Ikarus rested against his ankles as his blue eyes continually scanned the environment around them.
"Ikarus," Edward spoke, his accent conforming to the accepted standard of the Dragon language. Ikarus quickly looked at Edward, surprised. Then, Edward opened his mouth once more. This time, however, he didn't speak English. Instead, his tongue and throat moved in a way he had never moved them before. The words that escaped his mouth didn't belong to humans— but he had still managed to pronounce them perfectly, "How do I sound?"
Ikarus bolted upright, his eyes widened in utter shock. The young dragon was still too young to speak, but it was evident that Ikarus understood Edward perfectly.
'Finally!' Edward thought to himself, his thoughts also conforming to the dragon language. Strangely, he found the language easier to understand than English— as if he hadn't spoken his native tongue in a decade. Draconic felt too comfortable and familiar for him to dislike— especially now that he was able to use it to speak to Ikarus.
He opened his mouth and spoke a few words in English. For a moment, he worried that the unfamiliarity with his first language would give him an accent, but he was quickly relieved. His knowledge of both Draconic and English was perfect— as was his accent in both of them. Edward stood up and dusted the dirt away from his clothes before he turned to Ikarus once more.
"Have you already allocated your stats?" He asked in Draconic. Ikarus quickly nodded and jumped up to Edward's shoulder. He did so in one leap— never touching Edward's legs or arm in the process. Edward looked at Ikarus and inspected the young dragon's stats.
︽
Lvl: 2
XP: 10%
Race: Platinum Dragon
—
HP: 20
MP: 40
SP: 70
HUNG: 20/20
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DMG: (Breath) 18
DEF: (Dragon scale) 29
—
POW: 2
AGI: 14
END: 4
WIS: 8
LUC: 2
︾
Ikarus had put a focus on his Agility and Wisdom, unlike Edward. Because of this increase in stats, Ikarus was now much faster than normal. His dragon breath— which was once far too weak to use normally, did 18 damage in total because it was considered a magic attack. Ikarus left his other stats mostly alone— only increasing them by the bare minimum. Edward didn't mind if Ikarus chose this method, as he had done the same for his stats upon leveling up, but he was disappointed to find his familiar without a new skill.
'Perhaps it'll only apply to me? Can Ikarus even gain skills?' Edward wondered.
"Do you want to fly up and see how close we are to town?" Edward asked. Ikarus quickly shook his head and gazed at Edward as if the man was crazy.
'This place is far too dangerous,' Ikarus's gaze seemed to shout. Edward nodded in understanding before turning back to the path in front of him. As Edward continued forward, his sword comfortably in his hand, Edward opened his game menu and looked at the time.
"Two more hours until it's time to get off," Edward muttered to himself— his language still focused on Draconic. Ikarus curled up around Edward's neck and began to sleep. The dragon's eyes would twitch whenever a sound echoed through the forest— signaling that he was still awake.
As Edward walked through the forest, he heard a familiar chime echo through his mind. He opened his menu and found a message directed to him from Markus's account. When Edward opened his chat box he was excited to find two images posted on the chat box. One image was of a map of the world's dungeons while another was of major cities.
Both of the maps were painfully undetailed— neither accounted for the geographical features of the world— but they were detailed enough to help Edward navigate through the world.
'I hope this helps,' Markus had told him. Then, only a moment later, his icon went dark. Markus had logged off. Edward smiled in delight and began scanning his eyes through the dungeon map. The world of Avalon was massive. In terms of landmass, it was close to Earth's size, only it wasn't limited by seven continents. Instead, all of the landmass on Avalon's surface was located on one massive continent— one easily the size of Pangea. Therefore, although Edward had been given a map that focused entirely on dungeons— he was still overwhelmed by how many dungeons were located on the continent. In total, there were over two thousand of them.
He didn't have much information on the dungeon he came from— save that it looked like a natural cave system— so he began to list all of the dungeons that matched that description. Most of the dungeons on Avalon had some sort of atmospheric environment— meaning they mimicked the outside world. Some were based on snowy mountains— some on tropical rainforests. Only a small percentage of the dungeons mimicked an underground environment. Most of these underground dungeons were crypts or mushroom labyrinths.
Only three mimicked that of a cave. The first dungeon, located far to the north of Avalon— Watchkeeper Tower. This dungeon was said to have been surrounded by a snowy mountain range— which caused Edward to immediately cross it out. The next dungeon, located near the southern side of Avalon— Poseidon's Trident— was said to be an underwater cave dungeon. Both of these options didn't seem accurate to what Edward had seen so he focused his attention on the final option.
Located near the western plains of Avalon was the cave dungeon known as the Dragon's Roost. It was a cave system dungeon with absolutely no monsters. Because it was so empty of both materials and monsters it had never been fully discovered. The last adventurer to explore it managed to make it to floor seven hundred before giving up.
This was where Edward had been teleported. The Dragon's Roost. Once Edward confirmed this information he turned to his other map and compared the two. As the two maps overlapped the information on both of them combined. Edward gazed at his location— just north of Dragon's Roost— and drifted his gaze to the first city above him.
Detome.