POV BoobaFet's party:
Three players stood in the middle of the burned goblin settlement. New grass had already started to sprout through the ash, and the smell of burned meat vanished a long time ago.
More than two days ago, the elder wyrm showed up, and all of the players participating in the event got a new quest. However, Booba and his party quickly noticed that theirs was slightly different.
//Event quest
Objective: Investigate sites that were visited by the drake.
Reward: +5 event points
//
"We should split to cover more ground," Lili spoke as she looked at the large swatches of burned ground.
Both Booba and the fat dwarf nodded, and all three walked in different directions. They had no idea what they were looking for, so it was even more problematic making them look at every small thing.
As Booba walked through the ash, he spotted something glittering in ash. He walked closer and looked at it. It was a big shiny red scale with green lustre half buried in ash on the ground.
"Hey! I think I found something!"
His two companions immediately rushed towards him. In the meantime, Booba used analyse on the scale.
Ding!
//Analyze result:
Name: Scale of a very young true dragon
Type: Crafting Material/Quest Item
Grade: S
//
Booba's mouth fell wide open before a smug smile appeared on his face. His two companions already reached him, looking at the red scale. Soon their mouth fell open, too, after they analysed it.
"Wow, my special searching techniques are really the best... I found so many clues in these days."
All three of them immediately got an announcement that their quest has been updated.
Ding!
//Event quest updated
Objective: Announce your find!
Alternative Objective 1: Investigate more on your own
Alternative Objective 2: Confront the elder wyrm.
//
"Let's go to the town! We will be rich if there is really a true dragon in this mountain!" The dwarf shouted in absolute excitement. Both Booba and the dwarf immediately sprinted in the direction of the town.
"Stop, you morons!" both of them stopped so abruptly that the dwarf fell and rolled through the ash. The dwarf jumped back on his legs, patting himself to get rid of the ash covering him.
"What, why?" Booba couldn't stop but ask, a questioning look on his face.
The elven mage couldn't help but massage her temples, "What do you think will happen if we announce that there is a true dragon somewhere in these mountains? Big guilds would immediately rush over here, taking most of the profits for themself, giving us only a few crumbs at best and killing us and taking it all at worst."
"Ohh, Lili, I love you. You are mind to my brawn. In that case, what should we do?"
Her mouth curled into a crooked smile, "We will confront that wyrm and see what the other party has to offer us..."
Booba didn't even let her finish as he perked up, "Yes, and that will probably lead us deeper into the unique quest line that we found with my strategy."
FatHammer, who managed to remove most of the as from him, joined them, "Where will we find that wyrm? The last time we got close to the mountains where it lives, we got destroyed with only Fet surviving thanks to his insane luck."
Booba looked at the visible sky as there were no leaves to obscure it as they burned away during the drake's attack on the settlement and shouted, "Hey you, can you please land here!"
His two companions looked where their friend was looking. The wyrm, surrounded by clouds of dark smoke, flew above the forest.
"What, this is too much of a luck to be normal..." The dwarf muttered quietly as he couldn't believe his friend's luck.
Lili remained quiet, thinking, trying to connect all of the dots together and find what was going on here.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon was flying above the thick forest, looking for some meal. There were players in the forest, but that wasn't a problem in the current situation, so he ignored them.
Without any warning familiar voice shouted loudly from the forest under him, "Hey you, can you please land here!".
The dragon slowed down, surprised by that shout, 'What the hell? Is he speaking to me? At least he is not rude...'
"Yes, I am speaking to you! So land here!"
Vesuvius was confused, but he decided to comply and use it as an opportunity to reinforce his lies. He stopped flapping his massive dragon wings and slowly drifted towards the ground, snapping branches that were in his way.
The dragon landed just a few meters before the trio of players, thick smoke immediately spreading to surround their whole location.
The player with the spear opened his mouth to speak again, but the elven girl, with a smile on her face, pushed him away and spoke instead, "Ohh, your draconic highness, we have some questions for you."
Vesuvius had a bad feeling. Luckily, smoke obstructed his head, preventing anyone from seeing his expression change.
The elven girl brought her hand, closed in a fist up and opened it. Inside was the shiny red scale that glittered in the sunlight passing through the leafless branches.
Her smile deepened even more, "We know that you lied and that the drake is, in truth, a true dragon."
Vesuvius froze, his heart pounding. He expected players to find out that the drake was made out, but he never expected players to find out that it was a true dragon. He felt mortified, possible scenarios running in his mind.
The elven girl pointed her staff at Vesuvius, "Then there is a question of your motivation in all of this... As an elder wyrm, you should be compelled to listen to a true dragon and be respectful towards him. In that case, why would you blame some nonexistent drake that was, in reality, a true dragon? That would make sense only if you were that true dragon, trying to mislead us from the right track."
The second bombshell was too much for Vesuvius. He instinctively shouted in his deep voice that caused ash on the ground to swirl, "What, it is not possible; I have evolved. I don't look...". Then it dawned upon him what he had just said. He felt everything crumbling, all of his schemes coming back to bite him. He felt as if some invisible force pushed him to make that mistake, but maybe it was just his excuse. It wasn't a strong feeling, only just as if someone very slightly nudged him to panic more than he should and say something he shouldn't.
'Is the system manipulating even people?' It was so terrifying that he decided to push such thoughts back and focus on the problem in front of him.
Everyone else froze, too. "Wow, Lili? You are such a genius!"
"How, that is too smart?" The dwarf threw a doubting face at his party member as Vesuvius quickly started to think about what to do next.
(AN: Muhahaha, suffer under my recently awakened power of cliffhangers!!! I am just kidding. I will not be misusing such great power for evil. :D)