{Arthur's POV}

Arthur grasped an iron spike he picked up from town and used his strength to hammer it into the top left wall of his lair entrance. Then he did it again to the top middle of the entrance. The bugbears and the kobolds carried over the heavy sewn together pelts of mismatched animals to Arthur, who turned to watch them.

His minions heaved over Arthur's oversized curtain, and Arthur picked it up without any difficulty. His minions backed up, the kobolds in particular seeming to have a hard time catching their breath. They moved to grab the second curtain and Arthur turned his attention to the spikes.

Arthur hung up the massive 'curtain' using the spikes and stood back to observe how it looked so far. It looked... like an entrance to some sort of hill giant. But it worked as a makeshift door at least. Arthur repeated this process, two spikes hammered into the wall from which up the 'curtain' his minions brought him was hung.

The outcome was exactly how Arthur had envisioned it. A slight gap in the middle of his makeshift door, small enough to provide privacy but big enough where others could slip through easily. Arthur turned back to his minions and said, "That will be all for now. Take a break, all of you." His minions did just that, the kobolds relaxing in their claimed corner of his lair and the bugbears going outside into the camp.

Just a few more improvements and this cavern will be quite a nice place to live. Arthur sentimentally patted the floor of his lair. As he set down his claws after the pat, Arthur suddenly felt magic from inside him explode outward, directly into the floor and expanding quickly throughout his lair. Arthur tried to lift his claws in reflex but found himself grounded to the spot. In a few seconds, it was over. Arthur felt slightly drained before his magic automatically filled itself back up in moments.

Arthur was confused by what just happened. His mind worked at a furious pace, and a tidbit of info came to his mind. Legendary creatures such as dragons affect their lair and control it, and can do a whole slew of things, like making magma erupt at a certain point for example. Arthur certainly felt his lair, felt the pulse of magic around it.

He decided to test this theory. Arthur focused to the left of him, an empty corner, and willed something destructive to happen. Arthur felt the magic pulse in response for a moment before the area Arthur focused on erupted in a geyser of hot magma. The magma faded back into the floor after a few seconds. The kobolds had shouted in surprise but upon realizing it was Arthur, clapped and cheered.

Arthur felt satisfaction. After he completed the Manticore quest, he would definitely test this new power out. The kobolds surrounded him and asked him questions about what just happened, and he quieted them down and said, "I did that with magic, of course. Now, kobolds, I need to leave to finish another quest and collect more gold for my hoard. Tidy up this place, and make it more liveable for yourselves. I will be back in due time." The kobolds heard his non-negotiable tone and nodded submissively. Shaman Leader said,

"Please, my god, come back safely." Arthur couldn't resist patting the kobolds head once with one claw. It was nice they cared, even if it was somewhat delusional. Arthur hoped to make these kobolds better and more empathetic in the future, as he found himself getting attached and wanting to see them prosper.

With a nod of finality to the kobolds, Arthur went outside, the pelts slowly dragging across his back as he passed through. He saw the bugbears lounging around and said, "Go and find Alek and make sure they are safe. I will return." The bugbears nodded, getting up from their positions and forming a group. Arthur shot up into the sky, going faster than was necessary, enjoying the clear skies and passing winds as he soared through the sky.

Arthur passed over Mirfield a hundred feet up. His eyes scanned the ground, looking for the aforementioned Small mountain. He should have asked the town master- Arthur's keen vision spotted a very big hill, which did indeed fit the description of a small mountain. He swooped down, intending to find and end this Manticore quickly. Arthur landed at the rocky top, looking around his surroundings.

It looked much like his mountain, except smaller by a large degree. Sparse bushes sprinkled around, rocky terrain, and a faint smell of blood. Arthur backtracked and sniffed through his snout, catching a definite whiff of blood that was coming to his left, which led directly downwards. Arthur decided this was good a lead as any and followed the increasingly stronger scent.

The further down the mountain Arthur went, the scent of spilled blood and death grew stronger. This smelled like when Arthur had killed that bear, it smelled recent. Arthur picked up the pace, rumbling down the mountain and creating a lot of noise.

Arthur finally found the source of the blood scent, and a hundred feet from him a battle was taking place. Three grotesque manticores were flying in the air, whipping spikes from their tails at four humanoids, who were holding their ground slinging arrows and spells next to a corpse of another manticore. As Arthur drew closer, intending on helping these humanoids, he realized these were the adventurers that had snuck into his lair! Arthur felt himself grow a bit angry at seeing them, but he calmed and focused on the battle, which he was rapidly approaching.

The manticores saw Arthur approaching and froze, fear clear on their creepily expressive faces. The adventurers froze too, though with less fear and more uncertainty than the manticores. Arthur launched himself into the air, letting out a roar as he approached the hovering manticores. They seemed to collectively decide to run and the three turned tail and flew in the opposite direction of Arthur.

Arthur pushed himself and easily reached within four feet of all of them, and let out his fire breath, the destructive energy quickly expanding from Arthur's mouth and enveloping them all in burning hot flames. There was a quick, "NO, PLEASE-" That came from one of the manticores before they were all incinerated in the destructive fire. Arthur shut his mouth with a snap, and three steaming corpses simultaneously hit the ground. Well, that was easy, Arthur thought.

He landed on the ground and turned to the adventurer group, who seemed to decide standing still seemed the best course of action. "I assume you four are completing the Mirfield hunting quest like I am?" It was the human woman, the wizardess that nodded first, followed by the others. Arthur took a contemplative expression and rubbed one claw against his chin, saying, "A tough situation. Who is to get the reward?"

The woman spoke up and said, "I believe we would be fine giving you the full reward and corpses-" Arthur shook his head in dissatisfaction, and the woman stopped talking, cutting herself off. Arthur rumbled to them,

"We will split the reward and corpses for their selling value. And your party should loot the lair of these evil creatures since you got here before I. Yes, that seems fair." Arthur nodded to himself at the last part, followed by the woman who bowed her head in deference, saying simply,

"I humbly thank you." Arthur noticed that whenever he talked to humans, they always seemed to be direct and to the point, not dallying the way everyone usually does in a conversation. No quips or jokes, no sarcasm or anger. Just submission. Arthur decided he didn't like it. He completely understood why these things happened, but he didn't like it. He was used to being alone, so Arthur wondered why this bothered him this much. Arthur realized there was a lull in the conversation, so he said,

"But of course. I bid you all goodbye." His usual simple response, Arthur wasn't the most socially adept person anyways. He dug his front claws into a manticore corpse each and lifted them with him as he took off flying towards Mirfield. He made it without issue, and landed in front of the gate in his usual place, setting down the manticores.

As Arthur waited for the town master, Arthur examined the corpses of the manticores. They looked extremely similar as they did of images he saw of them back on earth, and the manticores seemed salvageable. He didn't burn them too badly, though they smelled somewhat like overcooked chicken.

Donald finally arrived with a big smile on his face, saying, "Welcome Arthur! It seems you have soundly defeated the manticores, and in less than an hour! I'm sure no one is surprised by that! Let me tell you, these things really have it coming. They kill anything they want, and they constantly harass things from above just because they feel like it, and they also make deals with evil humanoids..." Donald was elbowed by a nearby old-looking guard, who whispered something, which Arthur picked up on. They whispered, "May I remind you of the present company, Don?"

Donald seemed flustered before sputtering, "Ahem, um never mind. The point being, your quest reward will be given to you in full now-" Arthur interrupted him, saying,

"No, I will get half the quest reward, not full. A group of adventurers was there fighting the manticores when I arrived, and I decided to split the reward with them." Donald seemed momentarily confused before saying,

"This group must have gotten that quest sometime before I gave it to you because I made all of the quests you took off limits for others. Ah well, you are certainly kind to split it with them, Arthur!" Donald smiled his charming smile. Arthur nodded his thanks and negotiated the price of the manticore bodies with Donald, who said he would buy them for 250 GP each, leaving Arthur with 750 GP in total.

He said his farewells and flew back to his lair with a money bag in hand. Arthur landed in the middle of the goblin camp, which seemed deserted. What was that satyr up to? Arthur mozied along into his lair, spying the kobolds as he did so. Shaman Leader seemed to have used mold earth to flatten a sizeable area of stone, which multiple kobolds were fast asleep on.

Shaman Leader walked with Arthur as he approached his hoard, dumping the contents of the bag in the middle. Gold spilled in every direction, making his hoard grow more. Shaman Leader said, "I am glad your back, Sire. I've been using my magic to create a more comfortable sleeping area." Arthur nodded to her, having already noticed that. Arthur's eyes grew more calculating as he stared at Shaman Leader. Something was tugging at his mind, begging to be noticed.

Shaman Leader grew anxious, saying, "What is it Sire? Have I done something wrong? Should I have not used my sorcerer magic?" Arthur briefly said, "No, you are fine Shaman Leader. Something is tugging at my mind..." Arthur was suddenly hit with a flash of inspiration. Dragon blood sorcerers! That's what he was thinking about!

Dragon blood sorcerers are sorcerers who draw magic from a pact or bargain they made with a dragon, usually their ancestors doing so and they inherit it. Arthur could make Shaman Leader this since she was a sorcerer! "Shaman Leader, would you like to make a pact with me? It will make you more powerful."

Arthur was usually serious, but the face Shaman Leader made as he suddenly said this almost made him laugh. She fell to her knees, tears in her eyes almost immediately. "YES! Thank you my god for this blessing! I have read about this and dreamed of this day all my life!"

Now Arthur felt like a jerk...