A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

The concept of Atlantis, the sunken Greek city from fiction, had practically taken over so many stories back on Earth. Whether it was games, movies, or stories, where the idea didn’t make sense, but you could still see glimmers of that idealized utopia.

Most stories, though, only spoke about what happened after the city sank, describing how the beautiful, marble-made city was either returning to nature by having its architecture turned into a home for fish or how it continued to thrive for some reason. In the latter, you would have mermaids and seapeople living in the sunken city, transforming its Greek-style buildings with underwater creatures and plants.

Well… Lecullius sure scratched the itch of the former, ‘cause what I was seeing through this subspace portal perfectly resembled what I imagined the aquapolis of Caedhul would look like. Massive with so much water, you would think this place would sink at any minute. Kargryxian and Loatryxian cities incorporated flying cities held up with runes to accommodate dragons, wyverns, and flying dragonewts, while Caedhul had underwater cities for the many marine races living here.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Wendriosa asked as she gave us a bird’s eye view of the aquapolis. She and Nong were both flying over the city to please the tourist in me. “There are three main layers—the clerical stratum, the artisan and visitors’ city, and, lastly, the pier and underwater hub where most of the inhabitants live. In case you haven’t learned it yet, Lecullius was founded by God Lecullantis’s followers, and since the republic is dedicated to Goddess Plesia, the upper stratum is quite an important area for the entire city, and, really, the republic’s order. The Goddess of Order, Honor, and Tradition would, naturally, have her clerical members oversee what she wishes to bring to the disorderly and ruthless oceans.”

Was that last part really necessary? That reeked of sarcasm!

Well… disregarding Wendri’s problematic words, ahem, she was right that Lecullius was a sight to behold.

Built on top of multiple small islands in the middle of the ocean, like the Canary Islands, although far closer together, Lecullius was a city that stretched around inside this area. It was so long and large that I wasn’t surprised that the city had its own public transportation, using train-like cars that moved along aqueducts made from the same brown-white rock the majority of the city was built with.

A foundation was placed on each of these five small islands. Pillars were erected on them and in the shallow water between them, making the entire city look almost like an oil rig, with how everything was elevated over the water. Between the ground and the city’s surface, you had multiple layers where people lived and worked.

“The outer shell might look beautiful and mesmerizing, but the inner parts are gross,” Nong commented. “The fairnite walls covering everything hide the metallic skeleton inside. From what I heard, Caedhul has tried to keep everything pristine and beautiful, but the cost of maintaining everything would bring the city down. Already hard to keep everything looking like this when salty winds, crashing waves, and various monster attacks demand the city to spend a fortune yearly to maintain the pillars holding the city up.”

“Ah, of course. When it gets gritty, you’ll actually learn a bit about a place’s culture,” Vifi said. “The stench already makes me want to puke. You can count me out when you want to visit the place.”

“Ask Grimnir for his mining mask,” Shay chastised her, causing the latter to scoff.

“Tell me when he invents a mask that doesn’t block out your eyes without compromising the breathing part.”

“He would if you asked him.”

“The man’s preoccupied with Donut’s new armor. You want to delay our princess’s protection?”

“You…”

Those two sometimes felt like cats and dogs…

Ignoring those two dummies, as Wendriosa mentioned, the city was divided into three levels, although the first one—the clerical stratum—was the only one that felt like it was made with the intention to divide the city. Though considering what I’ve come to know about Caedhul, this theocratic republic would assure the church of Plesia would seem as important as New York’s Statue of Liberty.

Essentially, the main government building was a humongous cathedral dedicated to Plesia, and was located on the eastern side of the city. A waterfall fell from there, similar to other places, and was used by the people to not only slide down into the water below, but also ride up like in that Asian story where a koi became a dragon.

Moving away from the clerical area, you had the rest of the city. The “artisan and visitors’ city” only showed a small bit of itself since, as Nong said, the majority of the city was located within the fairnite walls. Although I couldn’t see what was there, what I could see told me that the city had an extremely diverse populace with the merfolk, nagas, levianewts, and so many other aquatic and semi-aquatic races.

When Wendriosa mentioned the “visitor” side, she meant that a huge swath of artificial land made with earth magic was created to act like a resort for people. Whether they be leviathans or humanoids, people came here to enjoy themselves as if it were a holiday.

“Lecullius is an aggression-free city for all of Caedhul. You are forbidden from fighting inside the city’s perimeters, which includes the underwater city. Many leviathans and adamantoises stay inside the city to simply enjoy their lives from all the danger, but as you can guess, age can do much to a dragonkin’s sanity. Peace is stress-free, but it is also stagnation. As dangerous as the open waters are, it does fulfill the base instincts of us dragonkin—conflict,” Wendriosa explained. “Though that doesn’t mean the resort is a waste. Caedhulens love to swim and bathe, so public baths and swimming areas can be found everywhere.”

“Yes, I can see children playing inside that fountain over there,” Tasianna pointed, directing me to see a bunch of people lounging inside a fountain’s water. You had the entire beach-goer group there—sunbathing women, bear-belly men dipping their legs into the water, and children splashing around while a water mage created waves for them to surf on.

This liveliness within the city didn’t stop since everywhere you looked, you could see some kinda water amenity, whether it be those aqueducts, though smaller to be used by the populace for shorter distance travel, or giant water bubbles for people to swim in or… play sports in. They had an aquatic type of football, or something with a ball… game.

“That’s sphereball!” Wendriosa said out loud, sounding quite excited. “Quite on the nose with the name, yes? The arena is inside a magical water sphere, and they throw, kick, smack, and blast round balls between your teammates and then into a small hoop for a point. Two teams play against each other, and if both are quite skilled, a battle between skills and spells will guarantee a small quarrel to really liven up the audience. Very fun to watch. Quite, hehe.”

Big sis, you’re letting the leviathan side of you out, I thought as Neill and I grimaced at the creepy giggle Wendriosa accidentally let out.

Anywaaaays, these sphereball arenas were the perfect segue to the third layer of Lecullius—the underwater city, or to the Caedhulens, it might as well be the main city. Below the upper city and away from the resort, you would, probably, the largest and busiest port you would ever imagine. Even from up here in the sky, I could feel and taste the salty fishiness the place exuded.

As Nong said, although the city tried to hide the grossness of living in a sunbaked city in the middle of the ocean by creating a white-brown shell over it, you just couldn’t hide it forever, especially if money came into play. Whether the marble-like shell was being darkened by the salty waves or covered in so much barnacle, algae, or growing corals, it looked like a bush; the sea had little wish to keep its goddess’s city “clean.” Furthermore, you could even see hints of the inner city with the metallic entrances and stairs in certain spots, almost like a leakage.

However, if you ignored all of this and just focused on the people and the ships, then you could really understand why Caedhul remained the number one maritime country.

Elyonda, Iceskale, and even Coral Beard—ports that I have visited—couldn’t even compare to the number of ships docked in this place. There were so many of them, ranging from merchant vessels to war-faring galleons, that I couldn’t even start counting. You even had submarine-style boats here and there, mostly used for fishing or other aquatic food gathering.

Naturally, you couldn’t forget about the leviathans and adamantoises living here, acting similar to Uncle Kary and his fishing operations, where the giant dragonkin would act as rides for the levianewts to dive deep or travel somewhere. And, well, I had to admit that, similar to how diverse marine life was, the appearances of leviathans were just as varied.

Although I could tell dragons and drakes apart, to a human, our heads might all just look like overgrown variants of other lizards and reptiles. We dragonkin could easily tell each other apart due to our carapace, horns, bone spikes, and scale shape and color. Not to mention our pheromones, but that wasn’t part of our appearances.

Adamantosises, as I could see here, had a similar issue where all of them were variants of turtles and tortoises, whether they be snapping turtles or Galapagos tortoises. However, unlike their turtle relatives—if they even were in this world—they didn’t have flabby and stretchy skin, but were completely covered in scales while protected by a giant shell. They were dragonkin, after all, and that almost meant they had horns, boney carapace, and some even had tusks.

Meanwhile, the leviathans… well, there was a reason why the two leviathans I’ve met before coming to Miononbolax looked so “hybridized.” The one in Belzac forest was a crocodile-faced monster with an army of serpentine “fins” and “legs,” while the one in Elyonda, Kahalantheel, had the body of an eel but had the head of a fish that came from the deep ocean. The ones I could see on Miononbolax and Lecullius sure didn’t disappoint, and trying to describe each of them now would be like trying to describe the appearances of all the fish in a coral reef.

Speaking of reefs, what came after the port was the underwater city. From up here, you could really compare it to a coral reef. Wendriosa explained that while the upper city was made with “land-dweller” materials, the building materials below were made with anything you could find underwater, including the scales, carapace, and other aquatic dragonkin materials. They would mix them together with sand, rock, and corals to create the building blocks for aquatic houses.

“Aleistunum and the dwarves have always been in the forefront when it came to technological advancements, which is why you can only find industrialized centers in the upper city. It was easier to simply adapt the machines to resist salty winds than the mana-filled basins that are our oceans. That is why the upper city is considered more of a status symbol and where you go to work,” Wendriosa stated. “The real beauty of Caedhul and Lecullius is, most definitely, what you can find underwater. Where their people argue, eat, and sleep.”

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Preach, preach; I fully agreed with her on that point. Not only about the people part, but also that the underwater city was a beautiful sight to behold.

Bioluminescent was just like neon lights in how they become the most eye-catching during the night, where their bright, multi-colored palette created a strong contrast with the darkness. Watching the underwater city and how it was glowing like Las Vegas or Times Square really made me wish I could see the city at night. Sheesh, I could already imagine renting an inn room in the upper city and watching the sky turn orange and then dim, allowing the bioluminescent buildings in the underwater city to turn the ocean bright green, blue, red, and other colors.

“We’ll not be visiting the underwater city today,” Nong said as our tour ended. “Still much to do above water. I think I figured out where that elf is hiding—definitely inside the inner city.”

“Then, when do we start?” Beth asked, giddy in excitement.

Shay turned to her, holding a complicated look. “Her Highness’s dragoons and fire wyverns are drilled on what they must do and how to accommodate her needs, but your impatience is showing. We’re still needed to help her train, especially now that Lord Uriahn dwells with us. He hasn’t approached Her Highness for ‘training’ just yet, but it is only a matter of time.”

“Aren’t you being a bit too paranoid, again?” I said, wincing a bit. “Our main concern with Uriahn is that he will do something with [Providence’s Will], but doing anything where he could be detected will possibly damage the alliance we just made with Sacred Nest just a week ago. He isn’t, and shouldn’t be, that stupid. On the other hand, our main issue with my doctor is that he not only sabotaged Frozen Nest, but is also working with the demonkin. That is what we should be looking into.”

“Anything concerning the draconic succession can be dealt with by me and the true dragonkin,” Tasianna said. “Lord Rhekkraxus and Lord Kyluvanus are said to visit us soon to keep Lord Uriahn under surveillance. I can manage Lady Hikari’s training at this point, so you two, if I may be so blunt, aren’t needed here. Similar to Vifi.”

“Not much to defend if there aren’t any threats,” the latter agreed. “Nordor Valley is a humongous fortress, at this point. Greater elementals, who swore loyalty to Tasianna as their king, are everywhere, having the ability to rival a rank A dragon in ice magic. Not enough dragoons and wyverns to keep watch over everything, sadly, but enough to just keep watch of the nest. I would rather defend Donut, but I’m not gonna deny the fact that I am better used on the field.”

“Furthermore, if there are demonkin—” Nong wanted to add, but was immediately interrupted by Vifi.

“Yeah, I’ll hunt them down, sure.” As blunt as always. “Besides, most of them will be hunting me, anyway. I’m a deserter, don’t forget.”

“… Hmm, if that’s the case, then I have to relent,” Shay said after he heard Vifi. “Then it’s only a matter if we can enter the city.”

Although those two argued a ton, they knew how to get along when it came to their work.

“Already made sure of that,” Nong answered. “Thanks for lending your IDs to me. The trip from Nordor Valley to Lecullius shouldn’t cost too much mana with the subspace teleportation, so come over whenever you have the time.”

“‘Come immediately,’ is what he wanted to say,” Wendriosa interjected, sounding a bit annoyed. “He’s been impatient since the moment our ship arrived. In any case, this trip is also for Hestia to enjoy herself a bit, even if it’s mostly work. My maternal relatives are still trying to find my faction’s usurper, so we still have some time on hand for a few days of relaxation. Is there anywhere you would like to visit?”

I thought about it for a moment, dwelling on what I wanted to see, before Hikari reminded me of a small promise I made to a few kids back in the Belzac forest. It was innocent back then, but I finally had the chance to do it.

The lizard—

“Lass! Need you for something!”

However, before I could finish my thought, a certain dwarven runesmith and his two Earthling apprentices burst into the room, drawing everybody’s attention to them. Grimnir, Daichi, and Haruka were rushing to me with a piece of silver armguard.

“Haha, don’t just look at it. Try it on! Gonna need you to try it out for us to proceed,” Grimnir pleaded as he handed me the armguard, looking at me with expectations. “What? Didn’t think I would try to do it? Heard it from your mother. Considering your body can switch between two dragon subspecies now, it just made sense to have an option to use your silver scales in your crimson form. Idea came from your bombs and how they allow anybody to use your scale-dust.”

“Also, sword!” Daichi snapped his grease-covered fingers, looking nowhere close to the same Daichi I first met about two years ago. He had fully transformed into a smithing apprentice, even growing some decent muscles from the last time I met him.

And, to be fair, it has been months since we last truly met. Even after he followed Grimnir back to Inkoran-Tazul, he hadn’t left the smithy unless he needed to shower, use the toilet, or sleep. Anything he could do inside the workshop, he would do there, like eating and reading.

“Well, that might be a bit more difficult to do since you won’t have access to your [Cyrokinesis] as a crimson dragon, but the silver scales should be able to attach themselves to your tail or glaive to toughen yourself up once you apply the silver powder,” Haruka explained what Daichi wanted to say. “That’s the ideal, really. Improve your melee capabilities as a crimson dragon.”

Haruka, as well, had changed her appearance, but mostly towards the work attire of a manatech artificer, even if her main job was to be a Divine System artificer. Technically, it would be more convenient for her to come to Iceskale to work with Jadhund in the digital media guild, but she was currently holing up in Inkoran-Tazul just to stick with Grimnir and Daichi until those two wanted to go to Frozen Nest.

In any case, Aurora’s artisan crew really was just missing Ellaine, but it was mostly together again and was now pumping out equipment for us. Right now, Haruka was helping out with the recorder and the improvement of the stream under Forminaxtrass and Jadhund, while Grimnir and Daichi were trying to finish my armor.

“Does she really need that?” Wendriosa grimaced a bit, disliking the fact that I, a dragon, was wearing armor when our scales should be our armor. It was a very dragonkin-like way of thinking, but I disagreed.

Putting the armguard on my left arm, I could feel the mass and weight behind the rhytilic alloy. As it was meant to expand and adapt to my draconic form, the armor was insanely heavier than something of a similar size. Grimnir was decently leveled, even as our smith, and he was wearing his manatech power gauntlets, but for a normal person, these armguards would be impossible to lift.

Well, that was why it was made for me, right? Armor made specifically to complement somebody’s Profile was the best. Tasianna’s glacial wardress, even if it was a random dungeon loot, made her near impossible to beat anywhere that was drenched in ice-aligned mana. I was technically very hard to kill or beat as long as I was under the sun, but I wasn’t invincible. A strong enough attack that could destroy my solar core would wipe out all my advantages right there.

As an adventurer, staying alive was more important than pride. Armor was just cool, as well.

… Although as cool as my breastplate was, the armguard could use some work.

“I can control them,” I said as the armguard’s silver color started to break off, since they were just my silver scales. They hovered over me as I used [Scale Manipulation]. “They still recognize me even after I shed some of them. I can feel some of the solar ice gas, but I can’t control them. Not to mention how it’s leaking, so there is barely anything left in them to control. As for the silver powder—” I attached the scales on my tail and hardened the silver powder, reinforcing my tail. “I think we have a problem.”

I ignited my tail, causing the silver powder to be used up as they tried to maintain the silver scales’ integrity, but were ultimately unable to do so. My silver scales didn’t melt, but the silver powder wouldn’t be able to last long.

Grimnir stroked his beard. “I see, so you need to have an extra pouch of silver powder to even use your scales. I can apply a resin to improve the scales’ fire resistance, but I think that might also ruin the mana connection on them. Might make them harder to move around. You can’t exactly move the scales on Ellaine’s armor, right?”

I nodded, remembering that Ellaine’s dragoon armor had a bunch of my crimson scales.

“Hmm, I think I can resolve this with a rune, but we still have to think about how to do it with your silver powder. Can you donate some of it for me to test out?” Grimnir asked, to which I agreed. “Good. I’ll see what I can do to give your armor the perfect finishing touches. Also, later this evening, I’ll need you for the subspace runes, lass. We gotta make more since your mothers took them all. The forge is nearly ready.”

“Awesome, thanks!” I thanked them before seeing the trio off. Once they were outside, I returned to the portal and finished where I left off. “Would you know where the lizardmen live?”

“Why so curious?” Wendriosa asked.

“When we were still in the Belzac forest, we met a group of lizardmen. Formerly enslaved by the grimgarian army settling in western Altrust,” Tasianna explained.

I nodded, continuing, “They taught me quite a lot, including how some people view the church of Aurena. I also got my first taste of scalekin speech from them, and also how some of the gestures mean to other scalekin. For example, how you shouldn’t rub your tail with a guy’s unless they’re family.”

“… I see I must thank those people for doing that.”

“You don’t have to say it as if I would have done that anyway! One of their kids did that to me,” I protested, but Wendriosa was already moving with Nong laughing his tail off in the back.

Fair to say, the portal did attract a lot of eyes. After all, Wendriosa was carrying the runes on a small cloud, making the portal stand out a lot even without me peering through it. I was slightly embarrassed when some of the people were questioning what was going on, but that was just how it would go. Space-time magic was too rare, and a huge majority didn’t know who I was, even if a good chunk of the levianewts must have returned to Lecullius after Neill’s welcome back celebration.

“Normally, you won’t find many lizardmen in the city. The marshes on the Altrustian colonies are far more similar to the ones lizardmen usually reside in, so many stay inland. Similar to the saurians, really. I have not forgotten about your mentor, so don’t worry,” Wendriosa said, prompting me to giggle and thank her. “However, just like the saurians, some lizardmen do stay here because the pay is better. Though, unless you’re an aquatic race, you do have to deal with objectively unfair rent. A few buildings are state-owned, but the majority in the inner city belong to wealthy landowners willing to ‘take on’ the maintenance cost of the city. They raise the prices to unsustainable levels for many, just because the underwater city has an abundance of land for people to live in.”

Haaa, of course, that is another problem. Vifi isn’t wrong about the ‘icky’ side of a city showing you its real color.

“So, to subsidize some of the cost, those land owners employ their renters. They have a tighter leash on them, and it also allows them to give these employees jobs that others wouldn’t want to do, even if the state forces employers to raise the minimum pay for those dangerous tasks. Saurians, due to how many ‘flee’ Aelozonia to find a better life under Plesia’s care, are a good chunk of these renters. Far too religious, in my opinion.” Wendriosa’s brows curled up as she stared at one of the many metallic entrances near the port. “Some have the money to travel to Altrust, and that allows them to live a better life since the Altrustian colony has plenty of land, but not enough people willing to live inland. They welcome lizardmen, saurians, and other beastmen.”

“So that is why Priest Kushlek’zar is so willing to earn money,” Tasianna said, causing the lightbulbs to brighten up for me, as well. “Money to transport the saurians from Aelozonia to Caedhul, and then more money to help them find homes on Altrust.”

“Now that you mention it, I never asked Master Kush about this, but why isn’t Caedhul willing to colonize Aelozonia? A colonial charter there would help everybody out. Is it just not worth the money? I would be surprised if that massive landmass didn’t have anything worthwhile to export,” I asked, but Wendriosa simply shook her hand.

“The answer is simple: it’s land,” she stated in an obvious tone. “The colony on Altrust worked because they had the dragonewts there with them. The levianewts settled the coast, while the dragonewts developed inland to the mountains, where they felt more at home with dragons, drakes, and wyverns. Eventually, clear borders were created to differentiate the two due to past conflicts, but the idea is still there. The Caedhulen and Loatryxian colonies still work well together, with levianewts and dragonewts intermingling a lot to the point that the border just doesn’t matter to the common people. It’s different when the dragonewts aren’t inclined to travel to Aelozonia. There are more reasons why we aren’t importing some of the products from there, but that is a lesson you can ask your teacher. For now, let’s see if you can find your friend. Welcome, little sisters, to the port.”

Well, with how crowded it was, it will—AH! Apsala!

And just like back then in the forest, the green-scaled lizardmen woman, who towered over her male counterparts, stood up like a sore thumb in the middle of this port. It has been three years since I last met her, but the lizardman alchemist who gave me my first taste of being a doctor and surgeon was right there, arguing with a few levianewt sailors.

“You can’t just skim us like this, scalekin! Many of the ingredients and alcohol inside are used for potions and other alchemical usages. The guilds are already mad enough; you can’t do it for another week!”

And her voice was the last straw. The search never had to start—a lizardman friend was right there.