Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 182: How to Trade with a Dragon

CH182 How to Trade with a Dragon

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”You...!”

[Knight’s Bastion]

Jared instantly stepped in front of Alex, raising his tower shield with practiced ease.

”Are you crazy? Do you have a death wish?” he snapped.

”Stand down, Jared. I know what I’m doing,” Alex said calmly, attempting to walk past.

He didn’t get far.

The Knight’s Bastion was active—Jared’s protective technique rooted Alex behind the wall of steel. And with his mana and spiritual force currently sealed, Alex couldn’t brute-force his way out.

”The hell you do,” Jared growled.

”Calm down and look. He isn’t attacking, is he?” Alex gestured ahead with his chin.

Jared’s eyes narrowed, then widened in surprise. Over fifteen seconds had passed, and Zilbris hadn’t moved. The livid Silver Dragon, still radiating divine pressure, stood frozen.

Fifteen seconds... enough time for Zilbris to kill them both ten times over.

Yet the dragon did nothing.

”You... How is that possible?” Zilbris asked at last, his narrowed eyes fixed on Alex.

”You’re not blind. You should be able to tell,” Alex replied with a faint smile.

He was using the same psychological trick he’d once used against a grief and wrath-consumed Wendigo—”borrowing the tiger’s skin to command the forest”—well like back then too, a dragon’s skin.

Zilbris, as a Coloured Dragon, could no doubt sense the faint yet undeniable traces of Elder Dragon essence within Alex. And more than that... the unmistakable aura of the Ancient Dragon, Uthvaazgol.

According to Merlin, when he’d slain the Elder Dragon, who he passed on its heart and blood essence to Alex, he had also issued warnings to the upper hierarchy of Pangea plane’s Dragon Race.

Which meant every Elder and Coloured Dragon in the realm was at least aware of Uthvaazgol’s presence—and wary of anything bearing his mark.

So here stood a human not only carrying the residual essence of a dead Elder Dragon, but cloaked down to his soul in the aura of an Ancient Dragon.

That Ancient Dragon!

Even if Zilbris didn’t correctly deduce Alex was Merlin’s True Disciple, any other conclusion he drew would be no less alarming.

A representative... or even worse, a vessel... of an Ancient Elder of the Dragon race across the myriad realms? No one in the Pangea Realm’s Dragon lineage was better positioned to enact punishment upon a wayward Drake.

”I hold my master’s mandate to act in his name,” Alex declared. ”And we fought under the rules of a Dragon’s Duel. I have every right to kill him.”

He deliberately used a vague term for ’master’—a word laced with meaning, but devoid of specifics. Just enough to invoke Merlin’s weight without overstepping his boundaries by revealing his true connection to him.

Something which he was warned not to do, unless permitted otherwise.

”And by those same rules,” Alex added, ”I have claim to whatever was the Drake’s. His possessions now belong to me.”

Zilbris looked like he’d just been struck in the gut. His chest rose and fell in shallow breaths. For a being of such stature and arrogance, being silenced so thoroughly left him stunned.

Doubt crept in behind his fury. Ghosts of old humiliations, the ever-present scar of inadequacy, began to slither up from the depths of his psyche.

Alex noticed.

It was the perfect moment to press the advantage.

”If there’s something in the Forest Guardian’s possession that’s important to the Dragon race...” Alex paused for effect, ”then I don’t mind parting with it—for a price.”

Zilbris, who had thought his mission a failure due to the inviolable rules of the Dragon Race, brightened at the unexpected opportunity laid before him.

”Speak. What do you want, human?”

”I want something of equivalent or comparable rarity... something useful to me,” Alex stated plainly. Then, as if just remembering, he added, ”Oh, and information.”

”You...!” Zilbris glared at him.

The demand was steep.

Whatever had prompted a Legendary Dragon like him to act must’ve been no ordinary item—even among the rarest and most exotic treasures. And then there was the matter of information...

Depending on what the knowledge entailed, who it was about, or to whom it was given, its value could easily rival—or surpass—the rarest item in the world.

”What kind of information do you seek?” Zilbris asked with a tense expression.

He had to fully understand the cost before agreeing... even if he had limited choices.

”Nothing too extraordinary,” Alex replied, his tone measured. ”I simply want to know why the Law Guardians at the heart of Dankrot Forest remained still while goblins roamed unchecked.”

His gaze didn’t waver.

”I refuse to believe that Legends and above such as yourself failed to sense their presence. Even if somehow you did not, the upheaval they caused in the forest couldn’t possibly have escaped your notice. Surely, you would’ve sent out your subordinates to investigate... yet you did nothing.

”I want to know why.”

Alex had chosen his words carefully—neither servile nor arrogant. One would feed the dragon’s vanity to unbearable levels; the other might invite hostility.

Zilbris studied him, then gave a slow nod.

”Very well. I will accept your proposal—on the condition that the nature and identity of the item I seek remain unknown to you.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. ”And how will I know it’s truly of equivalent value?”

”I am a True Dragon!” Zilbris thundered, slamming his forepaws into the air.

Bang!

The space around under its forepaws quaked from the impact, a pressure wave rippling outward.

”I swear upon my blood—I will present you with something of equivalent value to you, as promised!”

Alex grinned. ”Alright, I accept.”

In truth, he wasn’t too bothered by the mystery surrounding the item the golden energy had pointed him toward. That chance had passed. The item was already lost to him.

Sure, he was curious—but curiosity wasn’t worth dying over.

Especially not when the likes of Zilbris was being all cloak-and-dagger about it.

If even a Legendary Dragon treated the object with such secrecy, it was likely the kind of thing one couldn’t afford to be known for possessing.

So Alex decided to take the loss—and profit from the situation in a more manageable way.

Zilbris nodded and reached into the air. His claws sank into space itself as though piercing through a fabric, and he rummaged around for a moment.

Then, with careful movement, he withdrew an object.

It resembled a crystalline mammalian heart.

Were it not for its size—roughly that of a human head—and its translucent, faceted sheen, Alex might have mistaken it for a real human heart.

The heart was motionless as stone, but with Spirit Sight, Alex could see Mana and Space themselves ’beating’ around it.

Even those without such special vision, a warrior like Jared no less, could feel the powerful undulations spilling from the heart’s mere presence.

”This,” Zilbris announced, ”is the heart of a stillborn child of a Class 8 Void Beast.”

***