Rue awoke from her nap upon her new stockpile of silver horns well-rested. Many of her wounds shad fully closed and healed with only the deeper puncture wounds still sore. The dwarf was sitting a way off, a small square object and a thin piece of metal in his hands. He was scratching the square objects with the metal while occasionally glancing up at her. It was strange behaviour but if he was going to leave her alone then that was fine by her.

Her collection of shinnies would need to be moved to a more permanent location. She would have kept them down here in the labyrinth, but it felt too open and bright. Despite being underground she would much prefer one of the rooms she had investigated in the complex above. She would have chosen the room she had been confined to but had no desire to go near it again. Perhaps once she had eaten the dwarf, she could reclaim the room.

One of the small rooms near the mithril door perhaps would be a good start. She could keep an eye on the door, to make sure no one else took it and bask in its glory at the same time.

Rue stood up and stretched, making sure to work out the kinks and cramps from tucking her wings up. Once she felt limber she carefully started picking up the precious horns in her mouth. They were quite small compared to her huge jaws and with the dexterity provided by her flexible neck, she was able to fit 7 of her 25 horns in her maw. Some of them poked at her soft mouth tissues but she ignored them. It would be worth some discomfort to safely stash her hoard.

It was not a long journey to her new hoard room. Even with her slow pace to make sure she did not drop the precious cargo it took her only 10 minutes to get there. Deciding that she did not want a door to the room, remembering the thick and unbreakable door of her prison she entered the room and deposited her silver horns. She then faced the door and unleashed a torrent of fire, imbued with the will to turn wood to ash it bathed the door in writhing flames. The flames ate away at the wood with unnatural speed, weak magic flickering and fading as the door was turned to ash within a minute.

As rue looked away from the door to make sure her new hoard was okay, she heard footsteps in the corridor. Using her [Den Sense] she could tell from the powerful signature that it was her dwarven captor. As he came round the corner, he appeared carrying the rest of her hoard. A pain in her chest at seeing someone else touch her precious silver nearly caused her to attack him. She held back, reminding herself that now was not the time. When she enacted her retribution, she would increase her fury threefold for stealing her hoard.

It was then a great surprise as he walked over to her pile and added the horns he was carrying to her pile. She paused, looked over at him as he looked down at her.

“Ya want to purify the metal from these horns?”

Did she want to get the metal out of them? make them purer? Yes. Perhaps she could allow getting something out of the dwarf before she ate him.

“yes” her reply was short and to the point, it brought a slight tightening of his face but he made no comment, what did that mean? Rue felt over the bond for the flow of emotions he was sending and found a slight tinge of doubt, worry, and confusion but primarily curiosity. This emotion quickly swept aside the quiet voices of the other three and she crouched down next to her hoard.

Rue tensed at him coming so close to her pile but he did not go closer.

“Da horns contain high amounts of native silver with low amounts of bone. If ya heat da horns above the melting point for silver but below the temperature needed for da bone to fully disintegrate. It will allow the bone fragments to float to the surface of the liquid and dat can be removed.”

So she could make the silver purer by heating it with fire. Didn’t things burn when she breathed fire at them? Was the dwarf tricking her into destroying her Hoard?

“Look, why don’t ya test it with just one horn, yall see am right”

The dwarf then walked over to a corner of the room and using “[Stone Shape]” to create a small pit in the stone floor.

“Place the horn in this pit, any of your choosing, and then start heating it, slowly”

Well if it was just one horn then perhaps it was worth it to try, just the thought of having some of that pure silver was tantalizing.

Rue carefully selected one of the less important horns.

{Silver 76% + Organic 24%, Impure, Precious, Common}

She walked over and placed it lovingly inside of the pit.

“Now stat with a low heat and watch as the metal will glow and soften”

Rue still skeptical but willing to try, for the prospect of a glorious horde, rumble and breathed a hot stream of fire into the pit. She imbued it with a little bit of her magic and intent. Melt the metal. The fire, while not as hot as the fire she used to fight quickly had the silver glowing an orange-red, losing much of its shine. Just as she was about to stop and swear vengeance upon the dwarf for making her destroy her precious horde the orange-red skin on the metal broke into flakes and a surface so silver and shiny it took her breath away revealed itself.

Small patches of the horn began to blacken even as the shiny rivulets of silver pooled together and ran down into the pit. All of a sudden the process seemed to gain momentum as the horn collapsed into the pool of molten metal and started to dissolve rapidly leaving blacking fragments and chips floating on the surface of the hot shiny liquid.

Mesmerized by its quality Rue ceased to breathe her fire and dipped a claw into the silvery liquid. The silver-coated the tip of her claw, solidifying rapidly to form a shiny coat on her claw tip. When she tapped it against the stone floor it came free from her talon and chimed pleasingly on the stone floor. When she brought her gaze back to the pool of silver it had cooled down considerably and a thin brown-black skin had formed on the liquid metal.

Rue breathed in and send a stream of fire to the metal, she made this one hotter, much hotter, and imbued it with her desire for silver, pure silver. Willing the flakes to incinerate all the black scummy flakes making her silver impure.

A jet of blue flames with a lime-colored tinge of mana hit the puddle of solidifying silver. The black flakes and dark skin quickly melting and then disintegrating or burning away from the high heat. The silver became brighter and hotter, the stone around the basin would blacken only to be stripped of the coating by the magical blue flames.

“Jesus, if that isn’t a sigh to see. Spose it makes sense dragonfire’s good for metals with dare obsession and all. S’nother thing to see though”

Rue ignore the dwarf’s revenant whispers as she cut off her flames and watched the metal cool. As it did a dirty layer recollected on the surface.

“Nah, you have either got to cool it fast or in an air-tight environment to prevent the coating of impurities. Usually, you would pour it into an ingot mold, give me a sec”

The dwarf moved out of the room and came back 5 minutes later with a metal box a foot long and a few inches wide.

“made this in my early years trapped here, though I could become a master smith, turns out there’s not a lot of metal available in a library. Didn’t know about the rabbits of course.”

The dwarf muttered [Stone Shape] and shaped a pillar out of the floor before making a bowl in the top. The pillar was only a foot off the ground and he placed the ingot mold at the base.

“Now when the metal is liquid we shape a spigot into da side and da silver will run down into this mold, solidify quickly with most of its side, not in contact with air. Give it a try”

Rue once again heated the lump of silver un till it was molten then the dwarf used [Stone Shape] and the silvery liquid left the dish and poured into the mold. There wasn’t too much liquid and it only filled the bottom of the mold. The exposed surface lost some of its lusters but was still quite shiny. When the silver was freed from its mold the other sides however were beautiful.

Rue looked at the mirror-like surface and felt herself rumbling with joy, it was so shiny so precious. She leaned forward testing the metal. It was hot but not too hot. She licked the warm metal, using [Mineral Assay].

{Silver 99% Fine, Precious, Common}

It was nearly pure, so close but even being this close made it so bright and powerful in her senses.

Ding! Ability Evolution [Mineral Assay [3]] => [Mineral Assay [4]]

Mineral Assay [4]

Used to feel the composition of an object. This skill can identify the composition of [Minerals +%] in an object and their [Properties], [Value], and [Rarity]. Can be used to separate molten [Metals] from each other.

Rue supposed that skill would come in handy in the future, but it did not seem to help with organic substances such as the bone the silver was attached to. For now, she would use the dwarf process of separating the silver from most impurities, her fire would be enough for now.

“Now, more silver we make”

Rue hissed a few sibilant words towards the dwarf and sent her desire over the link they shared. The dwarf flinched at the pure desire and greed for the silver she sent over their link. Rue grinned her teeth at the dwarf scraping her claws against the stone in her anticipation of mountains of silver.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Lokgrod looked down at the ingots of silver they had made over the last few hours. He had ended up carrying more of the horns up from the labyrinth once the Rue had discovered they could be purified. The results were far superior to what he had been expecting. The dwarfs and processes he knew involved either other minerals and metals being used to extract the silver or impurities or highly advanced [Stone Shape] from a dwarf metal mage.

From what he could see the 7 Ingots of silver they had made were nearly pure. They would certainly be fine enough to sell on the market as solid silver. He would estimate each of the ingots being around 1kg of silver, it was certainly no dragon’s hoard of wealth….he looked over to the room’s corner where a red dragon lay curled up around the silver.

He decided to quietly exit the room of the sleeping dragon. He walked down the hallway towards his main living quarters and lay down on his bed. A small use of [Prestidigitation] and he and the bed were clean of any dirt and grime.

He thought back to the time he and Rue had spent making the silver bars, it was one of the few times he could feel emotions filtering through the familiar bond. Mostly greed, impatience, and other such emotions. It was strange, he remembered most familiar bonds with animals had a constant feed of emotions and feelings, and with this came an increase of strength in the bond. Eventually, they would be able to share their senses and communicate telepathically.

It was happening slowly or not at all with this bond, however. With dire wolves, a single hunting session and meal were enough to strengthen the bond for senses. Perhaps a complex creature such as a dragon, with there long lifespans would also take more time to mature. Well, no matter, they would have centuries to figure it out together. For now, he would watch and write notes on the young dragon’s behaviour. He was perhaps one of the few if not first dwarfs to observe a dragon this young, and one collecting its hoard.

With the aid of his skills, the dragon was growing many times faster than she would have naturally and it was clear she had gained a few inches with the well-fed dies in the past few days. He would observe her growth over the following weeks to see if it slowed down at all.

He slipped under his covers and rolled over to get some sleep.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Rue awoke from her slumber as she felt something stir beneath her. She coiled and flexed her limbs and tail before looking at what had awoken her. She looked at her silver and felt something insider herself move, coil, and then relax.

Ding! +[ Collector]

Ding!Ability Evolution [Collector [1]] => [Dragons Hoard [2]]

Dragons Hoard [2]

A dragon’s instinct to collect precious metals is powerful. Sleeping with [Precious] metals within your den will allow your [Mana] to seep and [Saturate] them. You can [Sense] metal that is saturated with your mana, this feeling gets stronger the [Closer] the [Object] is to you.

Well, that was certainly useful, it would prevent anyone from being able to steal her hoard, and if they did she might be able to track her precious metal down depending on how far away they were.

Rue considered trying to grow her hoard, she could kill more rabbits, now that all of them could be refined into silver. It would have even been tempting had they given her any XP for killing them. Devourer of flames could be the solution, but it would probably still not make killing them worth it. And she would need to level up to kill the dwarf, even at her new max cap of lv35 she did not know if that would be enough. She still couldn’t tell what his level was so he had to be more than 30 levels higher than she was.

Rue left her silver hoard with a backward glance and promise to return and sleep with it some more before heading to the labyrinth. The dwarf had left to sleep, and she was unwatched for the moment. Now was her time to grow in power while unwatched.

When Rue reached the labyrinth she decided to test the new restricted on kill XP, by slaying a few rabbits. They were common beasts level 5 and less [Horned Rabbits], they contained so little to no silver in their horns she felt no need or desire to collect them. With the use of her flames, each rabbit yielded a 1-2xp from a kill. It would not work to just rely upon devourer of flames to kill and level up, she would need to find more powerful prey.

She decided to move further into the labyrinth.

As Rue stalked along the wide tunnels with grass-covered floors, she noticed a junction up ahead. The path split into multiple new tunnels much like the corridor outside in the main complex did. She was not afraid of losing her way, [Den Sense] would help her navigate back to her den/hoard room. Rue chose the left-most passage at random and padded through the lush grass. Many small animals such as mice, rabbits, and birds seemed to call these tunnels home. The birds she noticed seemed to hop about everywhere, never flying. They were also quite large for a bird, maybe they tasted good.

[Chicken Lv2]

Rue stalked up to the bird and it, upon seeing a half-ton of red dragon looking to eat it wisely decided to run. It let out a squark and flapped its wings to gain extra speed along the ground and it hopped away. It was no match for Rue’s speed however and was quickly crunched and ended with a bite. It was not pleasant to eat, the feathers got everywhere and were left sticking to her scales with the chicken’s blood. The meat inside was an interesting slightly bland flavor, the feathers just made it too easy, however. The next stream she went past, if there were any would be the only salvation from the feathers. She would have tried to burn them off, but being covered in burned feathers sounded worse than waiting for a body of water to appear.

Now covered in drying blood and feathers Rue made her way further down the passage. She passed another den full of rabbits but left them alone for now. If she found nothing worth her while further in then she would harvest the rabbits for their shiny horns.

After taking the left-most passage another few times and nearly an hour of walking the foliage began to change. The tunnel she was walking up began to grow wider and taller, the grass having more frequent bushes and even small trees sprouting out. The light sources in the tunnels seemed to appear less on the walls and more on the now high ceiling. The power of the magical lights grew, still managing to light the now foliage-dense tunnel floor.

After more travel, the now 40-meter wide tunnel was over 50 meters high until it suddenly gave way to a huge cavern. The small trees and bushes gave way to larger trees that created a proper canopy. Rue quickly used [Den Sense] to check if she were outside, but she needn’t have bothered. Just looking up she could still make out the dark grey stone of the ceiling, now over a hundred meters above the floor. The lights that covered the ceiling were nearly as bright as the sun, huge globes of light radiating from the false sky. What her [Den Sense] did reveal was a dense group of individuals in the center of the cavern. The cavern itself was a few square miles of forest with some clearings. Deciding to investigate the group of monsters in the center of the cavern Rue navigated towards them.

As she got closer signs of the creatures became apparent. Felled trees and tramples pathways led towards what she assumed was their nest. As Rue crept up to the edge of the clearing they seemed to inhabit she gazed upon wooded and mud nests that the creature had built. The little green creature was swarming around, lots of small fires and objects were being worked around and carried. It was a hive of activity, she spotted nearly a hundred individuals roaming around and could sense more inside their nests.

[Goblin Lv6]

…

[Goblin Lv9]

[Hob Goblin Lv10]

…

[Hob Goblin Lv39]

Rue sat back and identified many of the individuals, they had a huge level variety with many of the smaller, probably young goblins being below level 10. Then there were the hulking masses of muscle nearly the size of a human that were all above level 25. They reminded her of humans, they carried objects that looked like smaller versions of human weapons.

She felt no danger for any one individual, confident that she could rip or burn them to pieces, but when she looked at the group as a collective the idea came to her that she could be overwhelmed. These were the first creatures she had found that were past level 25, ones that could help her grow strong enough to beat the dwarf. She would not just give up on that strength.

She would wait for some of them to leave the group and then ambush them. Soe of the special variants she had seen, perhaps it was best to avoid those. The goblin shaman and warlords had far more weaponry and were at the high end of the levels in the goblin camp. It would take longer, but she felt free in these tunnels, perhaps she could stay here for weeks and the dwarf wouldn't be able to find her.

Rue retreated and patrolled around the camp, waiting for the unsuspecting goblins to fall into her maw.