Chapter 7: Importance

Footsteps break the silent as an old man in white robe swiftly walks down the empty and dead-quiet hallway. He is a high priest of the Temple of Origin. His hair is even whiter than his robe, proof that he has been living for as long as humanly possible. He doesn't seem to be happy though it's hard to tell whether the wrinkles on his forehead comes from his old age or an unhappy frown. But how could he be happy when their religion's subject just magnificently 'escaped' from their temple?

Escape should be the right word to say... The Religion of Origin is followed by 99% of human population in this world. They all know that once the Dragon of Origin (whose mere presence is vital, is the life force to this world) leaves the world, it would wither and disappears like a flower plucked from the ground. Legend has it that once the human tried to seal the Dragon of Origin while he was asleep, however it also cut off his presence from the world. Famine, disease, disaster happened one after another. Even though they immediately broke the seal as the world started withering, it took the land a few centuries to recover.

The duty of everyone in the Temple of Origin is keeping that dragon from leaving. They even used chains and locks to lock him down during the last few centuries. When the current head came into power, he ordered to remove the chain and also had the cold & hard granite floor altar cushioned. After this incident, he regrets that decision...

Where the high priest is heading is the Oracle's chamber. To ensure the accuracy of the oracles, the chamber has to be far from any distraction and impureness. The chamber is a cavern located at the north of the temple (the same direction the Dragon of Origin flew to).

As the high priest steps off the veranda floor of the temple's hallway, he enters some sort of indoor garden. All the plants growing here are magical plant with high energy purity. Even though the sun couldn't reach this place, the lights from the magical flowers are more than enough to illuminate the cavern. Being an enclosed place near the Dragon of Origin, mana condenses and becomes countless small light-particles that look like fireflies floating all over the place. Most of them are white colored of the Holy element mana.

In the center of a garden, a figure in white robe could be seen sitting. This white robe is different from the others in the temple. It's so long, it cover a small area of the ground around the figure. This robe was made of pure mana so it's weightless while allowing mana to freely flowing in and out of the wearer's body. Even the most crude of clothes give 1 or 2 Def, they can even slightly block magical flow; while the robe the oracle is wearing literally has 0 Def, allowing the wearer's body to tune in with nature.

The robe's hood covers most of the oracle's head and even the eyes but when the high priest reaches halfway through the garden, she raises her hand (which also covered in her robe) telling him to stop.

"I know why you are here.", her voice is neither high or low, neither masculine or feminine. But one could guess she's a female due to the way she talks.

"Then you know what you should do..." The priest says in a respected tone but his words aren't too respecting.

"You know that my power came from the Dragon of Origin, right?" She says as she raises a pure white dragon scale in her hand. "Now that he has left the temple, I can barely see what is happening around the world, long foresight is out of question."

"At least you could give us his location, right?"

"I've already told you that unchaining him is a bad idea, that he would fly away the moment he wake up."

"This time we will chain him down properly. Even though he is even more important to this world than the Gods, he is just a Lv1 Dragon."

"Not for long..." The oracle mumbles then raises both her hands in front of her, holding onto the pure white dragon scale - the Dragon of Origin's scale which is reflecting her element of Holy. "Keep searching to the north. He will be near a human town."

"Understood." The high priest says then steps backward to leave the garden.

"Let's see if you find this world fun." The oracle mumbles without letting anyone else hear those words.

The high priest quickly walks toward the temple's barrack. It's not like the normal army's barrack as only those who ranked Knight are there.

"The Lv60 Squad should be enough."

Chapter 8: Maul

I wonder what the element of the men's swords are. If they aren't elementaless, my scale's would change color. According to the wolf earlier, the men would immediately know my identity as it's unique in this world. I wonder how would they react then. Either collapse and bow because they killed their subject of worshiping or cheer in victory that they killed their target easily. It's not like I care about death, I die immediately after dimension jump all the time.

But that didn't happen. Oh right, it isn't like a 1m7 tall man can cut down a 12m tall dragon in a slash. Even if he can, the wolf that explained common sense to me earlier didn't allow it to happen. He appeared from the dark forest and in a flash, mauled the man that slash his sword at me.

"A lv25 wolf, huh?" One of the men in shining armor says without paying much attention his fallen comrade. "Brown fur, so probably Earth element."

"..."

"A wolf and a dragon, what an interesting combination." Another man says.

"..."

"I don't think they are comrade. Look, the dragon is just lv1 so the wolf will probably target it next after us." Yet another man.

"..."

"Hah. Like it's possible!" And the last man standing. You four can go make a stand-up comedy band with the style of speaking one after another. But that isn't what I want to say.

"...Blood? Blood?! BLOOD?!" Yep, that's what I scream. Stepping backward away from the corpse of the fallen man then trip over a fallen tree, falling onto my butts. It's not like I have fear of blood or anything but living in peace for 53 years pretending to be a weak human had pushed me a bit toward the weak-minded side.

"Im..impossible!" Ah, how cliché.

As I look toward where the men are, there are only three of them standing. The brown wolf has mauled another. Their shining armor did little to protect their body and was merely teared apart like paper by the wolf's claws. Didn't they look down on the lv25 wolf? I thought their levels were supposed to be higher than that. The men's attitude has changed, however they still care little to the fact that another comrade of them has fallen.

"Let's attack together! Delta formation!" The man in center says then plugs his sword on the ground, pointing his right hand at the wolf and starts chanting quietly. A red circle with a single triangle (mathematically) inscribed inside appears. The two other men waste no time and run toward the side of the wolf, their sword slashing side-way. As its name suggest, Delta formation is probably forming a triangle around the enemy.

"Woof!" The wolf gives a short growl.

Before the two men on the side could reach the wolf's side, it dashes forward in the direction of the man in center. Logically, one wouldn't want to run between two enemies who are slashing their swords; so the man in the middle completely dropped his defense for a Fire spell. But the wolf before me is confident of its speed. It dodges the slashing swords and, in the blink of an eye, the man in the center.. disappears. It's like a scene from a fantasy martial art movie.. oh wait, this world is a fantasy one. I really should adapt to it by now.

I am 12m tall when standing on two legs, so by my estimate, the wolf is around 3m tall on all four. At that size, it can easily make the human who is only 1m7 tall disappear with a chomp. The wolf turns back slowly, adding to the horror it has already made. From his closed mouth, two legs stick out and kicking wildly.

Before when it said it had eaten human before, I paid little attention to that detail and focused on how my scale can be used as money. But now it's happening right in front of me. The two men couldn't bear seeing that horror scene in front of them. They drop their weapon and running to where I am sitting. What should I do? Should I block their escape? They didn't really do something bad to me though... nor I can stop them with my miserable stats.

"You can stop now." I call out to the brown wolf who is walking slowly toward me. A grin is shown on his feral face with two kicking legs still stick out from his maw.

"Why should I? They tried to kill you, didn't they?" The wolf growls, its meaning is translated inside my mind so the two men couldn't understand it. However seeing me having no fear talking to the wolf, they decide to hide behind me. However, as they hand touched my behind, they scream out my role in surprise.

"The... the Dragon of Origin!"

Oh well, I wonder what they change my scale color into. I don't bother looking at them but looking straight at the brown wolf who is still walking toward me. However, before I can answer the wolf's question, the men kneel down, their words make me chill.

"Please kill us!"

Screw this world.