Alchemical Relics

"There's so much Oil Soil here. It must contain more Black Oil than what's left in the Alchemy Engine."

Garos swished his tail happily, picked up a chunk of Oil Soil, and squeezed it. Black Oil dripped out and into his mouth.

But...

It was nothing like the fiery kick he had imagined.

The foul, gritty taste made Garos frown. It was like eating shit.

He had never eaten shit, but he doubted it could be much worse.

Unlike the Black Oil he had consumed last time, this seemed full of impurities. Instead of releasing a surge of energy when he swallowed it, it had to be digested first. Even then, it would probably yield less energy than the previous Black Oil.

"Why?"

Garos was puzzled.

After a moment's thought, he worked out the likely reason.

"The Black Oil in the Alchemy Engine was already refined. It wasn't crude oil. What I just ate must be natural crude oil, full of impurities."

Crude oil was edible.

But it was less efficiently absorbed than Black Oil, and the taste was beyond description.

Fortunately,

there was a solution.

Garos turned to Samantha and gave her a task. "Use your Alchemy to refine all the crude oil in this Oil Soil into Black Oil for me."

Samantha had studied Alchemy tirelessly to win Garos's favor and earn treasure from him.

She had learned how to refine Black Oil. Her skills were mediocre, but she could manage something as simple as turning crude oil into Black Oil.

At Garos's words,

Samantha licked her lips. "Oh, my dear brother, I'd do anything for you. But would this make you happy?"

She did not intend to work for nothing. She wanted payment.

It was a reasonable request.

Samantha was effectively Garos's follower, a dragon serving another dragon. In Dragonkin society, such followers were different from dependents and servants.

A follower worked for a principal dragon.

The principal dragon had to pay the follower regularly.

Empty promises would not keep one around. Red dragons might be foolish and coarse, but when treasure was involved, they became shrewd and counted every coin.

Garos had not entirely shaken his attachment to treasure. Parting with money still pained him.

But after some thought, he generously laid out several gold coins in a row.

"Do a good job, and these are yours."

For a Hatchling Dragon, those coins were plenty. Samantha's eyes lit up, and she lunged forward to take them.

"My dear brother, you're wonderful! I'm happy to serve you. I'd do anything for you!"

She cried out with delight.

"Wait, my clever sister. Would you like even more?"

Something in Garos's words stopped Samantha in her tracks.

"Of course!"

Her answer rang with conviction.

Garos spoke at an unhurried pace. "Because we're family, I'll give you two choices."

"First, you can take these five gold coins now and guard them carefully, though you'll risk losing them."

"Or you can leave them with me for safekeeping. By the Dragon God, I promise you'll get six gold coins after one year, eight after two, and more with every year that passes."

Samantha hesitated, unsure what to choose.

Garos pressed his advantage. "Think about it. Which is better: wealth that stays the same, or wealth that keeps growing? We Dragonkin should look to the long term."

She wavered for a long time.

Samantha turned it over in her mind, but she could not resist the lure of treasure that grew year after year. At last, she agreed.

"I'm taking it out in a year. You'd better give it to me then, or I won't work for you anymore."

Samantha sounded resolute.

Whether she would still feel that way in a year was another matter.

Besides, Garos was a dragon himself. He knew the weaknesses of Dragonkin and how to talk them around. If Samantha worked hard and did not try to cut corners, he would have no problem giving her a reward.

Garos nodded and put the coins away again, his expression solemn.

"Of course. You know me. I'm no scheming Green Dragon."

Thinking of her growing fortune, Samantha bounced away to work.

She took some ordinary iron ore, plentiful across the Ser Wilderness, melted it with Flame Dragon Breath, then slowly hammered it into shape. After inscribing a few runes, she formed it into a basic alchemical crucible.

She placed the chunks of Oil Soil into the crucible.

Muttering an incantation, Samantha traced symbols in the air with her claw. She formed runes from Magic Energy and sent them into the crucible, then breathed Dragon Breath into it and began refining the Black Oil with Alchemy.

Before long,

Garos had a portion of refined Black Oil.

Samantha had put the thick, pitch-black liquid in a crudely made iron can.

Garos sniffed it, then drank it all in one gulp.

Whoosh!

It was as though a fire had ignited in his belly.

"That's the real taste! Now that's the Black Oil I wanted."

Sparks streamed from Garos's nostrils, and his whole body surged with energy. The dark red patterns on his inner scales grew more vivid, and even the trace of red-hot color along the edges of his Buffer Scales seemed a little brighter.

Garos spread his wings and shot into the sky, landing on a stretch of wasteland at the outskirts where he often trained.

Whoosh!

He used the Silver Frost Ring to breathe cold air over the rocks, freezing them until they were hard as steel.

Brimming with fire, Garos could not wait. He lowered his head and charged into them, beginning his daily training.

Meanwhile,

several people walked slowly along a narrow branch of the Trail of a Thousand Snakes.

There was a blond warrior about two meters tall, wearing heavy armor and carrying a greatsword as broad as a door; a pale, lanky Necromancer wreathed in Negative Energy; a curvaceous female Rogue with a dagger and heavy crossbow at her waist; a pretty priestess in white robes; and a young Spellcaster in pale blue robes.

The five of them made up an adventuring party.

Alchemy Runes were engraved on the blond warrior's armor and greatsword. Both looked to be finely crafted. The others' equipment was plainer, but it was no ordinary ironwork either.

They belonged to the [Tomorrow] adventuring company.

They had heard a rumor that a powerful alchemical creation had been left in an abandoned mine in the Ser Wilderness. They were heading there to explore, hoping to find it.

The Rogue studied the tangled routes on the map in her hand. "There's no proper road ahead. We're about to enter the wilderness, where all sorts of monsters and fierce beasts roam."

The Necromancer grinned. "Opportunity always comes with risk. There's no way around it."

On Bernardo Planet, Necromancers defiled corpses and souls, so the profession faced some prejudice. But they were not automatically condemned as villains simply for practicing it. Whether a Necromancer was evil depended on the person.

"I hear quite a few Dragonkin live in this wilderness. I hope we don't run into any,"

the priestess said softly.

The Spellcaster lowered his voice. "What if we find a Hatchling Dragon? We'd be rich. We could head straight back without exploring the abandoned mine. With my binding spells, I could drag a Hatchling Dragon down to the ground and stop it from escaping."

A Hatchling Dragon would pose no threat to them.

It was older Dragonkin they feared.

"Stop dreaming. We won't get that lucky. Stay alert and keep close to me,"

the blond warrior said in a deep voice. He took the lead, his imposing frame giving his companions a strong sense of security.

They entered the wilderness, alert to every rustle around them, and ventured deeper.

From high above, anyone watching their route closely would have noticed that they were about to pass through the Iron Fir Hills. If they were lucky, the Spellcaster might get his wish and encounter a Hatchling Dragon.