"Why can't I be a good dragon?"

Destroying the heads of two Golems in one bite, Rebecca releases her frustrations on the Ringmaster's puppets.

Randy has been dedicating extra time to the Rebellion Dragon. Out of all the other members of his family, she's the one struggling hardest. Her species makes life extremely difficult for the young girl.

Feeling power swell up inside her from receiving another level up, Rebecca revels in its warmth. Swinging her tail, she crushes a further two Golems and takes out twice that number with her large claws after landing.

"Haha. I'm unstoppable," she boasts raining fire down on the remaining opponents and ending the match.

Randy the Ringmaster appears next to her clapping his hands. Some of his head is missing and the moon shaped crescent looks slightly disturbing even to the large Rebellion Dragon.

"Well done, Becca. You're definitely getting stronger." His voice is easy to hear even from her higher position, not that he has a mouth in the moon he calls a face. "Don't get too cocky though. As strong as you are, there could always be tougher opponents."

He clicks his finger and a single Mythril Golem appears in the ring. "What level are you now?" He looks at her status. The ringmaster is one of a few that can check the status of another person and is used in his role to help the denizens of the dungeon grow stronger.

"Level 43 is extremely good. Well done, Becca. Unfortunately, I still don't think it's going to be enough to beat Barry Mark 2 over there."

Becca looks at the Golem who does resemble the now evolved Barry. Rebecca sorely wanted to evolve herself. She thought that if she could, all of her negative emotions would go away and it would take her disobedient attitude with it. All she really wanted to do was talk to Abi. But every time she saw her, mixed emotions clouded her judgment and forced her to act out.

Randy returns to his seat as Rebecca charges toward the Golem. Picking up speed with each step and using her wings to propel her forward, the first attack she lands on Barry Mark 2 does more damage to her than it did the golem and she screams in pain.

On contact the Mythril Golem was propelled into the arena wall whereas Rebecca claw was mangled in a gory scene of broken bone and flesh. Seeing her own hand/claw, the agiated teenager screamed ever louder.

The Golem simply pulled itself out of the wall and slowly began walking toward her. Not even a scratch had been left on its frame. Not from the impact nor from Rebecca's propelled attack.

"That's fucking bullshit that is, Randy and you know it. How is it not even damaged?" She screamed in the Ringmaster's direction.

"It is made from pure mythril. One of the strongest substances on this planet. I did say you weren't ready for this, did I not?" His voice echoes in her head as she watches the golem draw nearer.

"No, you said you didn't think it would be enough. You didn't say anything about not being ready!"

"Well. Seeing how that is the case, I must apologise. You commenced the battle yourself when you charged into the fray after misunderstanding my statement. At no point did I tell you to fight that Golem. Now, you will have to do your utmost best to defeat it or die trying."

She couldn't know if she was correct or not, as the Ringmaster had no face, but Rebecca was sure he was smiling at her. The bastard.

"I don't want to die here, Randy. Get me out now." Rebecca tried to fly out of the arena but a barrier stopped her from escaping. The same barrier that protects civilians from stray spells in the Coliseum above ground.

"Let me out you bastard! I don't want to die." Rebecca dreamed again. Fear seething through her tone.

"You don't actually die in the Coliseum, Becca. Well, you do, but you come back to life afterwards. It's a special feature that was created when the master upgraded this feature.

"Fuck that bitch. Get me out now, Randy!"

"Sometimes death is good for the soul. It teaches us things that life itself can not. Like cocky Dragons who think they're invincible for example. Now, get down there and fight. We're not going anywhere till one of you kicks the bucket." Randy claps his hands and the barrier turns black.

Rebecca can no longer see the seating area and instead turns to look down at her opponent.

Cursing Abi, Randy and Abi once more for creating the torturous Ringmaster, Rebecca steeled her nerves and attacked the Mythril Golem below with a rain on fire. She kept going, painting the ground black until she eventually ran out of juice.

Steam coated the Golem's frame as it stood motionless. The fight hadn't been that easy however as the barrier was still trapping Rebecca inside. Deciding to try another speed/power attack on what she presumed to be a now-brittle Golem, the Rebellion Dragon shot down from the air like a bullet. Her good claw impacted her opponent's chest and shattered like the first as the Golem was pushed into the ground.

Rebecca wanted to cry. Both her claws were broken and as she tried to take flight, she felt the cold grip of death latch onto her wing. What followed was the worst twenty seconds of her life. The Mythril Golem broke bone after bone as it made its way toward her neck before finally ending her suffering.

Her eyes snap open and immediately lock on to the only other person in the room, Randy. He's sitting beside the bed currently she's laid on and they're in a small, featureless room.

"I fucking hate you, Randy." She glares at him.

"Yeah. A lot of you say that, but I'm not sure why? All I'm doing is helping." Rebecca has a disbelieving look across her face. "Anyway, did you learn anything from your fight?"

"I did," Rebecca answers sarcastically.

"Do tell me then. I would very much like to know." The crescent moon on top of his body comically bobs away in anticipation.

"Don't trust the gods-damned Ringmaster!" she jabs before quickly porting back to the Dragons Daycare before Randy can stop her. Rebecca's fighting for the day is over after that last moment of horror. Maybe even for the week.

Rebecca and Randy

Dungeon Stories Volume 5

By the time I had unlocked the rest of Ishda, my daily DP was closing in on the 200,000 mark. Increasing my spending limit once again. The amount I can accomplish in a single day is becoming larger and larger.

Less than a week after acquiring my third city, I've already managed to connect us more than we have ever been before. I spent a few days placing roads and bridges between all the cities that fall under my domain. I even added a few rest stations at set locations between each city, giving my inactive guard members something to do while also making traveling routes safer.

I even went ahead and set up a few guard patrols in Tune and Ishda. Both were on the worse end of Soul Guide's scales of righteousness so I ended up stationing about a thousand guards in each city. That's only a small number compared to their respective populations, but it's enough to keep more of my family busy. Plus, it was just the other week that I was complaining that too many of them had nothing to do except keep the peace in my city.

Which isn't really much of a job seeing as how my dragons have that front covered and sourcing them out to the two cities should help prevent any more negative-coloured souls from cropping up.

Building roads and pushing work onto the guards isn't all I've been doing this week. I've been slowly upgrading the shoddy-stone wall that surrounds Varona in between tasks. I'm about a tenth of the way done and the parts I have finished are all solid mythril bricks. That's right, mythril. Nothing will be able to break through these walls by the time I'm finished. I might even throw some magical enchantments on there while I'm at it.

Well, that won't be until I've finished changing all the bricks to mythril, but it's still a good thought for afterwards.

Tune's count on souls that need guidance has also been dropping well and I'll soon be able to move councilman Raff over to Ishda. I don't know how he does it without Soul Guide, but working together with the treasurer Goode, the wise councilman can spot corruption from a mile away. Once he's finished with the fishing city, Raff's second task will be twice as big as his first due to Ishda's been double the size of Tune.

Although, it wasn't all that long ago that Noir had to go stomp out some major corruption with his sisters. I've even seen the destruction first hand at this point and it wasn't pretty. Not that Carrie and Dropper were as heavy handed as the dungeon-loving loudmouth had been, but Lord Aldor still seemed more than a little sour over Noir until I dropped that gold in his lap.

Anyway, that act alone had curbed a good deal of evil from the region's capital, but it wasn't anywhere near enough to cleanse the city completely. It was a good start though and Raff should easily be able to pick up where the experienced trio of Assassins left off. Not to mention the Vampires are already doing a fantastic job of making behavioural changes.

It's amazing what flattery, unmatched beauty and a little bit of magic can do. Especially when you're a drop-dead gorgeous Noble Vampire. Speaking of, Clara ended up joining us for our morning meetings and updates.

Me asked for another budget increase which I happily provided. With the extra 40,000 coming in daily from Lord Aldor's city, I didn't mind upping Me's allowance to 15,000. He was using it to fuel our adventurers and further my goals after all.

All in all, other than that weird kid that keeps watching me eat, everything was progressing smoothly until the triplets hit level 40.

It broke my heart and, honestly as selfish as this sounds, I didn't want them to evolve. I wanted them to be my three, little adorable babes forever. Sadly, that couldn't happen as evolution was as much a part of their life as I was. Plus, I didn't want to see a repeat of what happened during the King's attack again.

I'd rather them be rebellious than go through that again.

I watched as three, cute Oblivion Dragons evolved into their next tier. Growing in size, each one transitioned into teenage-sized versions of themselves. Violet's hair had a white streak running into her fringe, a tell tale sign of rebellion if I've ever seen one. Although, out of the three she was already the hardest to coax into doing anything unless Bear was involved.

Blondie, for some unknown reason, had a pair of glasses hanging around her neck. I didn't see why she needed them as all my creations have superior senses, but when she put them on damn did she look cool. Amber seemed to be furious and it isn't far-fetched to say that I was a little worried. Fortunately, when she turned her scornful gaze my way she only said one word and it was more of a question.

"Dinner?" Shattering my illusion that every Rebellion Dragon would be like Rebecca, I instantly moved us to Ali's and watched as the teenage Dragons demolished plate after plate in the most peaceful eating display ever seen. People watched in silent happiness as plates came out as fast as they went back until they eventually slowed down. Normally the crowd would be rambunctious but because my Dragons are involved, it's a different story.

Two out of the three girls had finished. Amber continued to eat and I was beginning to wonder where it was all going until Violet asked me a question. Violet!

"Can I go for a run with Bear?"

As scary as the prospect of a Rebellion Dragon riding a fully-grown Bear was, I didn't dare say no. I also didn't want her kicking up a stink in Ali's restaurant so soon after her evolution so I agreed, but told her to try to stick to the forest. Not that people would care much about running through the streets, that peaceful-vibe aura they have going on is some pretty powerful shit.

After watching her dash off, I turned back to Blondie missing. The chatterbox doesn't normally leave my side, but now they've evolved of course that's bound to change. Scanning the crowd, I find the Blonde talking Ali at the counter.

I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my chest. Other than Violet wanting some alone time with Bear, nothing else seems to have changed much. Blondie's still talking someone's ear off and Amber is stuffing her face.

That's my girls.