Pascal blinked rapidly to see if the words would fade away into something else. But no, the words 'Ferocious Golden Dragon Egg' stayed floating in front of him. Pascal took in fast breaths and breathed out slowly, then he began bringing out his rewards one by one.
First, he brought out the Management book. The book was all black, but the words 'Management Book' were written in gold. It didn't feel like the book held much content. He opened the first page and saw – with delightful surprise – that the first page gave him a detailed way to manage the city he now had, which he really needed. There were a lot of new things that he should first learn about before teaching it to the people. Like street night lamps, their constitution was confusing.
When he tried to tun to the other page he couldn't, no matter how hard he pulled the other pages stayed glued together. He figured that he needed to complete some tasks before he would be able to see the other pages, so he kept the book back and brought out the Construction Manuals. He skipped the regal clothes; he could always check those later.
The Construction Blueprints were held drawings of two things; one looked like a cannon and the other was a building. The blueprints had two different colors too, the cannon one had a blue color with white drawings, the building one was gold. After a thought he used [Inspection] to see if there was anything else different about them, other than the color.
[Name: Laser Cannon
Note: Must be built with the help of a Rune Mage]
[Name: Cathedral of Reaching
Only the High Priestess should be allowed into here.
Drop it on the ground for it to build.
Note: Once placed on the ground you are advised to quickly run away]
When he saw their names, he received a vague idea of what the cannon could do, but got nothing for the cathedral. He decided to give it to Sarah later, maybe she would receive the knowledge.
Finally, after a bit of procrastination, he brought out the dragon egg which was almost half his height. Like the name implied, the egg was golden. It was also very smooth with no rough edges. It was less oval than he thought it was going to be and was almost a straight circle. He rubbed his hand on it and felt a dull heat which he was sure was caused by the baby dragon.
[Ding! Physical contact established! Do you want to sync souls?]
Pascal was startled by the sudden prompt and removed his hand from the egg, once he did the message disappeared.
'Sync souls…' Does that mean that the dragon would become his soul pet or something, like how the [Armor of Faith] was his soul equipment?
That didn't seem like a bad thing, so Pascal kept his hand back on the egg and waited for the prompt. When it came again, he didn't hesitate and said yes. He wholeheartedly believed that a gift from his god wouldn't bring him harm. Suddenly, the heat on his hand sharply went hotter, like he was putting his hand over an open flame. He instinctively wanted to pull back his arm but it didn't move. In fact, his whole body was frozen.
Pascal began panicking, he couldn't move, and he couldn't scream for help. If someone saw him, they wouldn't immediately think something was wrong, until they see his frantic eyes darting left and right.
The heat slowly moved through his palm and spread to his whole body. The pain seared when the heat touched his heart, since he couldn't scream all, he could do was pray for it to end quickly.
And end it did. The heat vanished like it was never there and he could finally move. He lay down and breathed in rapidly, the cool breeze on the mountain became a sweet relief.
[Ding! Souls synced. Egg will begin hatching process!]
'Oh, shit!' Pascal quickly sat back up to see the egg trembling. He could vaguely hear soft thumps in the egg as the dragon tried to break out of its shell. The egg began to roll around so he kept his laps on both sides of it.
"Come on, you can do it." Pascal urged. He felt like he was a husband waiting for his wife to give birth. A weird comparison, yes, but that's how he felt. "You can do it, kick, kick!"
The egg was shaking violently now and numerous deep cracks were appeared all over the body.
'It's coming out!'
The egg burst apart with a bang and scattered all over his laps, he looked with wide eyes as a white dragon slowly stretched its body and wriggled the egg fluid from off its wings, some of which got on Pascal.
"…Ew." He said as he took the globs on his body and flung them aside. When the dragon was done cleaning itself, it began eating its eggshells. Pascal wasn't sure if it was healthy for it to do that, but while he was contemplating whether to stop it or not the dragon had already devoured every eggshell in its vicinity and was chewing on the last one.
"I guess its good," Pascal said. He watched as the dragon chewed on the eggshell and suddenly had the urge to pinch its cheeks, "How cute."
He reached out and caressed the dragon's body, its scales weren't too tough, probably because it had just been born.
"What should I call you? Whitey? No, there's golden in your name so you would probably grow golden scales in the future. How about Goldie, Huh? Do you like Goldie?" He said as he cupped the dragon's head.
The dragon looked up at him with its piercing golden eyes, Pascal seemed to enter a trance as he stared into them. Then, from the depths of his soul, he heard a deep and sonorous voice.
"Zahir!" The voice said before fading away. Pascal shook his head softly as the trance ended, he looked down at the dragon that was still staring at him.
"Zahir. That's your name."
The dragon raised its head and crooned.
"Well, Zahir," Pascal cradled the baby dragon and stood up, "We are going to be partners from now on – no, not partners, rather brothers! Let's get along well."
Zahir crooned back.
Pascal laughed and tapped its nose, "Let's go meet the others, they'd go crazy at how cute you are…"
…
In a particular area in the Black Stallion Duchy, at the place nicknamed The Slums by the rich and fancy nobles, a boy was walking back and forth in a worn out shed.
"She should be here by now," he muttered "What's taking her so long? Could she have been captured? Oh, gods…"
He sat down on the straw bed to calm himself, but just after a few moments of sitting his legs began fidgeting. The thought of his friend being whipped or murdered would not let him rest even for a moment. He closed his eyes and tried not to think of anything, but that just made the images more vivid.
'I shouldn't have let her go by herself, even if the viscount isn't around. Oh, gods, if something happens to her…'
Suddenly, a knock sounded, and he started to his feet. He reached down under his bed and grabbed the small knife he kept hidden there. The knock sounded again, this time urgently.
"What the hell, Damon. Aren't you going to let me in?!" A voice said from the outside. A voice which he recognized very well.
"Jasmine!" Damon dropped the knife on a makeshift dresser and rushed to the door and unlocked it, a girl dressed completely in black came rushing in, then she slammed the door shut and fastened the latch. After locking the door, the tension on her shoulders visibly lessened. Then she turned and gave him a bright smile.
"Hey," She reached up and pinched his cheeks, "Did you miss me? Were you worried?"
"Stop!" He slapped her hand away, "You were supposed to be here ages ago."
"I'm just a few minutes late, no big deal." She pouted.
"Why were you late anyway?"
She walked to the bed and dropped on it, "Nothing, just had to lead a few people on a wild goose chase."
He sat down beside her, "You should have left the minute you saw trouble; I don't like you stealing from the nobles Jasmine."
"Said the person who almost got killed because he stole from a noble."
"That's different!" Damon stood up in anger, "I wouldn't have done that if you weren't sick."
"What about the time you picked pockets just to by me a bangle I wanted?" She rebutted.
"That's…"
"Or the time you spent the night with that viscount, just so you could feed me with the bronze coins he gave you."
"I didn't steal that!" He yelled.
Jasmine stood up and yelled back, "So what? Do you think you are the only one allowed to make sacrifices for us?" She reached out and grabbed his hands, her white skin contrasting with his light brown's, "We are family, and family does what family does."
He scoffed softly, "Which is what exactly?"
"I don't know," she shrugged, "I got that saying from you, and you never told me."
He laughed and hugged her, "I'm glad you're safe."
"Thanks." She smiled up at him, then she grabbed his wooly hair and pulled.
"Ow! Why did you do that?!"
"Why were you giving me shit for coming late."
"So, you tried to scalp me?!"
"Don't be dramatic," She sat back down,
While rubbing his head, Damon asked, "Did you even get the coins?"
Sarah reached into her coat and pulled out a sack of coins and tossed to him, "Boom."
"Yeah!" He shook the sack, "How much?"
Jasmine raised two fingers, "Two hundred gold coins."
"What–!" Damon's eyes bugged out, "How did Viscount Victor get that much gold coins stashed?"
Jasmine shrugged, "This is the Black Stallion Duchy." She grabbed his legs and dragged him down, "Just imagine what we could do with this money, we could leave this dump for a start – "
BANG!!
Something strong hit their door so hard it broke off and fell, then bunch of men with swords drawn came rushing in. The one who broke that door scanned the room, he sneered when he saw the sack on Damon's hand.
"Shit, its Laker!" Jasmine said and Damon grabbed his knife.
"Capture them!" He waved at the others and they all rushed in. They were about twenty of them so they quickly overpowered Damon and Jasmine. They dragged them outside and forced them to their knees. Laker wrenched the knife and sack of coins out of Damon's hands.
"That's ours!" Jasmine yelled.
Laker walked up to her and slapped her face so hard she only saw white for a few seconds.
"Jasmine!" Damon tried to struggle against his captors, "Don't touch her you bastard – oomph!" One of the men punched him in the stomach, making him fold.
Laker grabbed Jasmine by her hair and pulled her head back harshly. She forced herself not to cry out and glared at him.
"You almost got away, y'know?" He leered, "We had initially gone in the wrong direction, luckily," He dropped her head and walked towards a man in rags who was shivering, "…we found a good citizen who told us that he saw you sneaking into that house." He brought out a few bronze coins and flung it at the man in rags.
"Thank you so much my lord!" The man said as he frantically picked the coins from the floor then scurried away.
Laker smirked at Jasmine, "Stealing from a viscount, you sure are brave. Too bad you didn't bother to change your clothes when you came back here, or I wouldn't have recognized you. I still would have killed you, yes, but it would have been a quick death. Now, you get to follow me to the basement."
Jasmine shuddered as he laughed gleefully. Everyone knew that Viscount Victor had a basement where people he dubbed as trouble makers get sent to. They get taken in alive, and leave mutilated and dead. She looked at Damon with tears in her eyes, he was also looking at her but his face was filled with determination. He gave her a long, hard look.
'Oh, no. I know that look!' Before she could dissuade him, Damon suddenly flung his captors away, he elbowed one guard in the face before grabbing his sword. He spun around quickly and slashed two throats, with his body still rotating he threw the sword at one of the men holding down Jasmine. The sword entered his chest and he fell back.
"Aargh!" With a roar, Damon threw himself at the rest of the men around her, forcing them to free her.
"Run!" He shouted.
Jasmine could have stayed and protested, she could have grabbed a weapon and tried to fight them off with him, but she knew it would be pointless. So, she turned and ran. She focused ahead with tears running down her eyes and didn't look back, because she knew if she did, she would never be able to leave.
"Dammit, after her!" Laker yelled and a few men ran after Jasmine.
Damon chuckled under the grips of the remaining men, "You'll never find her."
Laker slowly turned and glared at him, "You should be more worried about yourself." Then he signaled the men to take him away.
"Do your worst, Laker."
"Don't worry," Laker watched as Damon was dragged away, "I will."
…
"Stop right there!"
Jasmine couldn't run fast enough to lose the men that chased after her. She zigzagged through the crowd and kept her eyes out for anywhere she could sneak into and hide. Even though it was night, the moon was full so she could see quite fine. She huffed and pumped her legs, there were many times when she almost tripped while running. She needed to find a place soon because her stamina was running out, she didn't want to waste the opportunity Damon gave her.
Damon… Just thinking about him made her chest hurt. She needed to survive, for him.
'There!' She spied an alleyway in the corner of her eyes, 'maybe I can lose them there.' She made a sharp left and sprinted into the alley as fast as she could. She gathered every energy she could muster and ran straight forward, but what she met wasn't the opening to another street but a wall too tall for her to climb over.
Jasmine stood in a daze for a few seconds before laughing.
"Of course!" She smiled as tears rolled down her cheeks, "Of course something like this would happen! Why would a slum rat have good luck? Oh, gods…"
Gods? A sudden rage took her. What had the gods done for her? Absolutely nothing!
"You… Are all useless!" She glared at the sky, "You are useless! I'd ask you to strike me down but I know that you're too cowardly to do anything!" Jasmine was having a break down without noticing it, "Come on, strike me, I dare you!"
"You didn't help when my parents died, you didn't help when I got sick. Damon did!" She grabbed her chest and slowly slid to the ground, "Damon did, so please, I don't want anything, just save him. Please I'm begging you, just save him…"
She could here rapid footsteps and knew that they had figured out where she was. She didn't try to fight; all she did was close her eyes and wait for the inevitable –
[Ding! The God of Origins has seen your plight, and has blessed you with his power!]
After those words rang in her head, new information appeared in her mind. She didn't know why, but a god heard her. And instead of punishing her for her blasphemy, she was blessed instead.
"Thank you," She said softly, "Thank you."
"There she is!"
"Bitch!"
They had reached her. She wiped her tears and slowly stood up with her back still facing them.
"Don't try to do anything funny, otherwise we will kill you here!"
"Not before we have a little fun, hehe!"
She stood still and didn't turn even with the lecherous words thrown her way. The men slowly inched towards her.
"That's it," the closest one said, "Be a good girl and stay very still – "
Jasmine whipped around suddenly, in her hand was a long whip. She twisted her arm and the whip round his neck, she then pulled the whip back really fast with both hands and heard a loud crack as his neck snapped.
In those few seconds ago, she wasn't standing still and doing nothing, she was choosing her class and her weapon. She was also given a quest.
[Ding! New Quest Unlocked – Kill the men trying to kill you!
Quest reward: (1) Blade-tipped Whip
(2) Smoke bombs x3
(3) Fake cat ears that enhances Perception]
A warmth spread across her chest when she skilled the man, signaling that she had leveled up. She quickly dumped all her status points into strength and continued her attack. When she chose The Whip, she had been given basic whip control knowledge, she wasn't just waving the whip around.
She swung the whip and used it to grab the sword form one of the men's hands, she spun her hand in a circle then swung it down hard, the sword was tossed in the chest of another man. The other three tried to shorten the distance between her and them, but she began swinging her whip haphazardly. It looked like she was just swinging disorderly, but the whip didn't hit her at all, the men however, where a different story. When she stopped, they were a bloody mess. They were moaning and twitching from the pain.
Jasmine picked up one of the swords on the ground and stabbed them in the chest, one by one.
[Ding! Quest completed! Rewards have been automatically kept in the Storage Space]
[Ding! New Quest Unlocked – Save Damon from the Viscount's basement!
Quest reward: (1) Night vision goggles.
(2) Gloves with retractable claws
(3) A clip-on feline's tail (Not really useful but quite entrancing)]
'I would do it even without rewards!'
Jasmine summoned the attire she was given when she chose The Whip and changed into it right there in the bloody alley. When she was done, she now donned sleeveless turtleneck top and tight-fitting trousers, with fingerless gloves that stopped at her elbow and hard combat boots. All in black. She brought out two of the rewards she got when she completed her first quest; the cat's ears and the Blade-tipped Whip.
When she kept the fake cat's ears on her head her senses immediately got shaper. Even though it was dark, and she couldn't see well she could sense when things where in her way. The Blade-tipped Whip had three blades that curved on the tip. She swung the whip up the wall and it hooked on the top; then she began climbing.
Soon, she was crouched down at the top of the wall. She glared straight at the viscount manor not too far away.
"Wait for me Damon, I'm coming."