Si'janrii, vulpes sagax

This race of intelligent monsters came about after a particularly bored draco rubrum taught their ancestors how to set things on fire, then decided that the result would be far more entertaining if they were intelligent enough to not set themselves on fire too, engaging in biomancy and animancy to boost their intelligence. This particular specimen has greater strength and endurance and slightly increased dexterity than is usual for the species, but has below average intelligence and no affinity with magic.

Health: 148/148

Mana: 6/6

Stamina: 122/122

It still rankled that I could see exact numbers for the health, mana and stamina of others, but couldn't see my own. Appraisal didn't work on myself, for some reason. And to add to the insult, given that they didn't have skills in the same way as me, quantising their stats didn't even make sense. For that matter, I wasn't sure my own health quantisation was particularly meaningful. My stamina and mana did seem to be, at least.

"We've met before, but I doubt you remember me. Can't say I was expecting to see you here," I answered, not wanting to let the silence drag on for too long.

"Why not? This is my post. Where else would you expect to find me?"

"It was a long time ago. I didn't know your post. But out of interest, what would you do if it was a human trying to get in?"

"Never really thought about it, actually. I can't imagine a human lining up politely at a gate; they'd try to sneak or stab their way in instead. I suppose I'd have to arrest them, if one ever was that odd."

"Hah. Well, keep up the good work."

I walked away from the fox-kin with Si'janrii's name and face, wondering what he'd think if he realised he'd just had a conversation with one of the aforementioned humans.

A fact which drew attention to the elephant in the room. These people were supposed to be enslaved drones, yet here they were having normal conversations. On the other side of the gate was a wide street, lined with buildings that were obviously inns, taverns and stores. Side streets were lined with houses, children playing happily in them. There were no signs of anything abnormal.

A burst of childish laughter caught my attention, and turning towards it, I saw the nameless girl again, playing ball with a small group of similarly aged kids. The memory of her dying, half her body burnt or outright missing, came flooding back, causing me to gasp audibly and attract the attention of the group.

"Are you okay, miss?" asked the girl, running over. "You're crying!"

Was I? I wiped my eyes and felt my hand come back wet. "I'm okay. You just look very much like another little girl I knew. She was killed by humans."

And her family was killed by me, was a fact I carefully didn't add.

The children looked at each other. "What's a human?" asked one.

"Daddy says they're evil monsters," said another.

"Mummy said they're why daddy can't come home," added a third.

"Mmm. Humans are bad!" exclaimed the nameless girl. "That's why I need to grow up into a big, strong mage, like mummy, so I can protect my little brother from the nasty humans."

I felt a big smile bloom on my face, despite my tears and the fact she'd just called me bad and nasty.

"Would you mind telling me your name, little one?" I asked, foregoing appraisal in favour of holding an actual conversation.

"Mmm! Ancora!" she answered happily.

"What a nice name," I answered on general principles. All fox-kin names sounded like random collections of syllables to me. "But don't you worry. I'm pretty strong myself, so I'm not going to let any humans hurt you, your little brother or any other children, okay?"

I spread my wings behind me, doing my best to show off and successfully eliciting a few awed exclamations as the sunlight glinted from my rainbow scales.

"I wish I could fly," said Ancora.

"Well, you did say you wanted to be a mage," I said, thinking back to how the human mages seemed able to fly around under their own power. "I'm sure you can find some magic to let you fly if you try your hardest."

"Mmm!" she exclaimed in agreement.

"Thanks for cheering me up, and sorry to interrupt your game."

The group of children waved and ran back off, and I resumed my slow walk down the street. That settled it, then. These people were in no way mindless slaves. There was no way I could kill them.

I poked my head into a couple of shops as I continued down the main street. I had none of whatever the local currency was, unless it happened to be the same shards that the abyss used, but I hoped to learn more about the way the town worked. The first thing I noticed was that shops generally lacked shopkeepers. The customers simply took items from shelves and dropped coins into a bowl at the exit. It wasn't even a locked box; just a large, open bowl. The crime rate here must be miniscule for that to work, which was just another point in these guys' favour.

A single glance into the bowl was also enough to tell me that their currency was, alas, not shards.

It was sufficiently suspicious that when I walked back out to the street, I kept watch in one location for a while, making sure that when someone came out of a house, they didn't come out a second time a while later without going back in first. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any abyss-like unrealism going on. I did note there were a lot more women on the street than men, and couldn't help but suspect that was the fault of the war.

At the end of the main street was a temple. The architecture was similar to the fox-kin's dungeon temple, but this was built from stone instead of crystal. The doors were open, and I wasn't going to ignore my chance to unlock a respawn point in demon territory, so I walked straight in.

New respawn point activated

The inside was equally similar to the dungeon temple, complete with the statue of the Goddess at the front, arms outstretched. Did it produce a barrier? If so, did it keep humans out?

The room wasn't empty, with a few fox-kin dotted around, standing or sitting in silence. Against one side was a long table, with rows of lit candles. A sign above it read 'in memory of the fallen.' Some sort of war memorial?

I hadn't really considered it until I read the sign, but neither the guard nor the children had difficulty understanding me. These fox-kin spoke exactly the same language as the humans.

"You look lost, child," came a voice from behind me. An elderly voice, and one that I recognised.

"Greetings, Dru'niryeal," I replied, turning around and giving a polite nod of my head.

She raised a quizzical eyebrow, just as I felt a burst of mana from her.

Soul magic resistance advanced to level 18

That notification set off all my alarm bells, and I leapt backward in shock, immediately activating trigger respawn. I left my destination set to the human castle, this shrine far off limits now that I knew this version of the arch-priestess used soul magic.

"You are not marked," she said, not commenting on my reaction at all. "Tell me, child, are you human?"

Shit... Not only a soul mage, but she's also not basing anything on my appearance. Does she have the same truth discerning powers as the dungeon priestesses? And what was that about a mark? Discern danger hadn't triggered at her spell. Maybe it was a scan, rather than something harmful?

"The humans certainly don't seem to think so," I answered truthfully, the best response I could come up with on short notice. No doubt she'd see straight through it, but it was better than risking a straight answer.

Her expression remained unreadable. "Do you intend us harm, or to carry out espionage?" she asked.

"No," I answered, this time the truth being exactly what she'd want to hear.

"So, an exile from your own people. Presumably due to your appearance. I wonder how that came about? You sought power, took what did not belong to you, and paid the price, perhaps?"

That made me scoff, despite my situation. "I didn't seek out this power. I had it thrust on me unwillingly."

"An experimental test subject, then? Used and discarded?"

She stared at me for a bit before continuing, "No. Not that. And even if you initially didn't want it, you value it highly now. You carry regret and hope in equal measure. A mystery, to be sure, but you are not a threat to us, and that is all I care about. As far as I'm concerned, you are welcome here, but I must report your existence to our lord. It is likely he will have questions as to how a human obtained the power of a dragon, even if incomplete. If you require food or shelter, register yourself as a war refugee at the city barracks, although in return you will be expected to work for the town."

"Thanks?" I answered, somewhat taken aback by the offer. My trigger respawn activation had been too hasty. Now I was going to drop a corpse somewhere, and then have to either respawn here, with the divine lighting display that entailed, or else fast travel in, which was less showy but would still draw attention.

If I wanted to live here long term, I suppose registering was an option, but I had food and water in my item box, and still had the secrets of the country to unravel. I was able to truthfully answer no to espionage because I wasn't reporting back to anyone, but I still needed to discover the answers for myself. What was I supposed to do next? Question people on what started the war, to see if they thought it was the humans? Well, I already had a priestess in front of me.

"What started the war in the first place?" I asked. "Humans consider you mindless killing machines, but that is very obviously false."

"Is it?" she asked. "We serve our lord, and should he demand our deaths, our deaths he would willingly get. It was the lord of our lord who started the war, unwilling to stand by while human bandits pillaged our lands, thieving, kidnapping and killing. He declared that since the human leadership was unwilling or unable to do anything about those who trespassed maliciously into our territory, he would need to do it himself."

That matched well with Ortho's explanation, with the exception that Ortho hadn't included the bit about the demons being provoked.

"I had noticed the lack of crime here," I commented, thinking back to the overly trusting stores.

"I know not how human settlements compare, but if you will forgive the interruption, you are wanted outside."

Huh? Wanted? By who, and how does she know?

Perceive presence advanced to level 18

A humongous presence appeared on my radar; one of the largest I'd ever felt. Dragon sized, in fact.

"Wait, I thought you said you were going to call him, not that you already had. And how did he arrive so quickly?!"

"It would pay not to underestimate our lord," she said with a smile. "He sees everything that we see, and knows everything that we know. Sending any sort of signal was unnecessary."

Oh well. Let's hope that this version of the red dragon is slightly less of a pyromaniac than the dungeon version.

I walked outside, followed by Dru'niryeal. Was she an arch-priestess here? She was still in the temple, and still had the Dru attached to the front of her name, but the robes were styled differently and she was missing her entourage of young priestesses.

The red dragon was already circling around the temple. The fox-kin cleared the road in silence, lining up against the buildings, and the dragon landed with a crash, his weight shaking the earth. The black dragon had claimed to be stronger than his original, but I saw no reason to believe this red dragon was any weaker than the version that had torched me repeatedly. But things had changed since the days he could melt me with a snort. I was immune to his fire breath and had the means to fight back now. And, of course, I was immortal. I wouldn't want to bet on him if we were to fight.

"So it's true," he boomed. "A human, here in my territory, posing as one of our own. A human who has somehow obtained some of my power. Before I end you, you will tell me how that happened."

...It seemed that despite Dru'niryeal's acceptance, the dragon would be harder to convince.