The closer we got to the beastman village, the more deserted of Mana the air became.
It was also a little bit warmer.
The village itself reminded me a lot of home.
It just felt similar in vibe.
It appeared as if it was empty.
It was confusing to see not a single person outside.
We looked around and tried to a call out a few times but no one responded, then I got a very uncomfortable feeling out of nowhere.
There was nothing when I looked around, and I couldn't get this weird anxiety to go away.
Suddenly, a slim woman jumps out from behind a wall with daggers in hand.
I could hear the sudden noise all the way down to the blade cutting through the air, and for a few seconds it felt like the entire world was moving slowly.
I didn't have a conclusive idea what was going on, just that there was danger behind me and that I had to move.
I barely flinched out of the way and saw the woman recovering from the miss.
She had sewn up clothes I would expect from a village like this and cat ears to go along with it.
But that aside, 'Sneak attacking a child, what the hell is wrong with you?!'
"What are you?!" She demands. "Are you that dragon Valgore warned us about? Your trick won't work here!"
Oh, my earlier mistake is really making this difficult.
How does she even know?
"I'm not here to-" This annoying woman won't even let me say anything.
You made me do this...
"
I have more than enough Mana, this should work!
Maybe because there's almost no Mana in the air? So I just need a spell that uses my own Mana directly...
"
If this didn't work, I would have had to start using projectile spells.
The woman was frozen and unable to move.
Does it make me evil if I use her to test how magic works? Just one thing...
If you think about it, saying
But, what if...
"Drop your weapons,
I was completely surprised that worked, just putting the order as the chant to the spell seemed to work well enough despite not sounding anywhere close to a chant.
There's probably all kinds of limitations to this kind of spell like willpower and relative strength but that's something I'll have to figure out later.
"I'm not here to cause trouble, so stop attacking me. I just need some spungite from your village."
This time she finally calms down when I let her move.
"So you've come to steal from us instead.." She complains in a deathly tone.
"No, we can both help each other." I say.
"Why should I believe that?" She questions back.
"I would have forcefully taken whatever I wanted already if that's what I was here to do. "
"Fine! But don't even think of trying anything!"
These guys must have had some kind of bad experience with another dragon.
"I'm not! You can calm down!"
The people that were hiding were quick to realize it wouldn't do any good for them, though they looked completely scared.
This was completely different than back home, they are acting like they knew for sure something bad was going to happen.
"Can't you at least tell me why I'm such a problem?" I ask.
"We don't need to explain ourselves to a monster like you. If you want to be helpful then find a way to save our future chief. Otherwise, get out!" She growls.
I can understand lumping me in with the last dragon, but why are you so bold if you think I'm that much of a monster?
"I can't promise anything until I see them, but I'll try my best."
Aya and Ria regrouped luckily unharmed, since they seem to think they were hostages or something.
"Are you sure it's okay to lead a dragon to the chief's son?!" The rest question the woman, not even bothering to keep it quiet.
"He'll die if we don't do anything anyway, we might as well take our chances." She responded to their doubts.
'Jeez, have some faith!'
We were led to a decorated shack that was larger than the rest.
Inside, a young boy with light colored ears laid comatose on a bed.
"Here he is. He's gotten weaker over time, now he's rarely awake." She says blankly, clearly not expecting anything from me.
Aya was the first to try healing spells, but it didn't help.
What could be the problem? He's physically fine, maybe it's a magic problem?
Ah, he looks completely drained of Mana!
Now that I think about it, all of the inhabitants here barely have any magic.
Is a certain level of magic required to be healthy?
"Have you tried giving him Mana potions?"
"Yes, we all use them regularly." She answers.
"When did he start getting weaker?" I ask.
"Around the time we got our spungite supply." She says.
The metal must be absorbing all the Mana around.
What I'm not sure of is why a Mana potion didn't keep him healthy like the rest.
Maybe the potions they are using just aren't good enough for him to hold onto his Mana like the others can.
It should fix the problem if he was given a high quality potion.
With that in mind, the ingredients for the best potion possible were readily available.
By grinding up a dragon scale into a potion, we can easily create a top quality potion on the spot!
"Try giving this to him." I say.
After being administered such a strong potion he slowly wakes up.
"He's awake! It's a miracle!" Some of the observers cheer.
I'm really not a miracle.
"You really did it..." The woman mumbles in shock.
"Of course I did, why wouldn't I? You should give him extra potions in the future or it might happen again."
"Follow me." She orders.
"Could we at least exchange names? Mine is Lava." I ask.
"And mine is Neya, but it's not going to matter because you aren't going to be staying here long." She answers.
"I understand that I'm not welcome, but I'd like to know the reason." I request.
"The last dragon to come here constantly harassed the village and devoured even the children. No one knew the reason, if there even was one." Neya explains, "Then, one day, these rocks fell from the sky, and the dragon became weak enough for the village to defeat."
Meteorites? They really lucked out, then.
Wait before that...
"What did that dragon look like?"
"It was large, with orange scales, why?" Neya answers.
Oh, thank god! Thank god it wasn't my mother!
I would have wanted to kill her myself if she did that.
She was probably attacking humans, but at least I can hold on to some faith that she wasn't a lowly child eater.
"This is it." She declares.
A mass of black rock with a faint red glow around its surface sat on the ground.
It's very warm around it.
It makes sense why they had no Mana around their village, these boulders of spungite seem to be absorbing Mana and converting it to heat and light.
And then once there's no more in the air, it starts pulling it out of people directly.
Neya takes a pickaxe acquired along the way and chips off a large chunk.
"Here."
The chunk of spungite gets much hotter when I'm holding it.
Finished with our business here, I gather Ria and Aya to leave and say goodbye to the village, which is visibly relieved that I was leaving.