Dink climbed the stairs while whistling a merry tune. He could feel Estra's annoyance at the sound through their bond. She remained silent as Dink led them to a random door. He approached the door and knocked to the beat of his whistling.

He could hear the sound of someone inside coming to the door. It opened a short time later to reveal the haggard form of Flea, the Gnome woman he had interrogated earlier. She was wearing a thick robe with a bloodied towel pressed to her bruised lips. Her expression of shock was priceless as she removed the towel covering the lower half of her face.

"Oh, fuck. What now?" Flea hesitantly asked, she had a slight lisp from the tooth knocked out by Martha.

"It's you! That's fortunate. We need to borrow your quarters for a little while. You still have business at the mine. Or, of course, you could stay," Dink suggested with a lascivious stare. The look on his face caused the Gnome woman to pale with fright.

"Nah, mate. It's all yours. Be my guest," Flea invited, stepping to the side and gesturing inside.

The moment they passed her, she stepped outside the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Dink's ears twitched in time to her footsteps fleeing down the wooden stairs. Inside was dark from the drawn curtains. A ray of sunlight from between them revealed the room’s contents.

It was bare except for a wash basin, bed and a pile of discarded miner's clothes. The only decoration is a large mercury mirror on the wall. A grin slowly formed on his face as he turned to face the two women.

[Explicit content Chapter 43.1 Obedience Training found at Patreon.com/jackofheart]

Martha sprawled naked at Dink’s feet with her tantalising ass on display, her hands delicately chained behind her back. She was resting while orbs of light circled the kneeling Estra. Mana swirled within her, visible beneath her skin as she processed the Draconic Bloodline she had just ingested.

Dink could faintly feel the formation of a draconic aura emitting from her. It was almost imperceptible, nowhere near enough to be considered a bloodline. It did have a very real effect on her physique, filling her already flawless skin became with vitality. Her connection to the mana in the air surrounding her was strengthened to its peak. Her trance lasted long enough for Martha to begin drifting off to sleep on the hardwood floor.

Dink shook himself alert, waking Martha before she could fall asleep. She groaned in objection as he helped her to her feet. Her eyes opened wide with surprise after seeing the lights hovering around Estra.

“What’s she doing?” Martha asked.

“Something that I hope doesn’t attract the wurm’s attention when it gets here. I may have to ensure that doesn’t happen. Which is very frustrating, I’m not equipped to hunt a dragon,” Dink replied, waving away her question. He quickly got dressed and equipped his bastard sword discarded on the floor. “Stay here and make sure she wakes up. I’ve got a job to do.”

Dink left the room and descended the stairs. At the bottom, he discovered an enraged Gorg being easily restrained by Axion. The other miners had already left and the common room had been tidied to its previous condition. Dink felt magic coming from the kitchen, he ignored the struggling pair to walk toward it. Gorg noticed him almost at the same moment, becoming calm as he watched him pass.

Axion loosed his grip allowing Gorg to break free. He tactlessly leapt at Dink, throwing a punch. Dink hardly spared him a glance, pushing a bar chair toward him. The chair tangled in Gorg’s feet, tripping him to the floor. Dink shook his head after hearing the loud audible crashing of Gorg’s body weight breaking the chair into pieces. He continued to stroll across the common room without pausing.

“Hey! I just paid to have that fixed. Academy mages aren’t cheap, you know!” The voice of the innkeeper shouted from the kitchen.

The innkeeper opened the newly repaired door to look into the common room. Seeing Dink, his face dropped retreating back inside. There was the sound of something barring the door on the other side. Dink stopped with a heavy sigh, he changed direction to head toward the exit. Riva noticed him heading to the exit.

She was attending to the weakened Tahlea at a table by the fire. She made to get up, but Dink waved her back down. He stepped over the groaning form of Gorg to walk to their table, Axion joining him.

He pulled out a chair and sat on it reversed, resting his chin on the back atop his interlaced fingers. He considered the iron cage on the table, the mushroom monster looked content.

It was cooing happily after the chaos it caused by consuming Tahlea’s mana.

I have an idea. I don’t like it but it’s the only option I have. What I didn’t tell Flea was that putting the eggs back won’t spare Burrowton from the wurm. It’ll only give them until the eggs hatch, plenty of time for us to be long gone. Now, Big mama is coming. I could feel her presence at the moment of my climax. She felt the signal sent out by my Draconic bloodline.

“What is it, Dink?” Riva asked, looking at his depressed figure with concern.

“Sigh, I’m going to have to kill the wurm and I don’t really have the energy for it,” Dink replied with a heavy sigh.

“A wurm can destroy castles, how do you intend to fight that?” Tahlea asked in shock, forcing herself alert.

“With that,” Dink said, gesturing at the happy Myconid on the table.

“Dink old-boy, I don’t think that’s wise. You’ve seen it yourself what happens to Insipid addicts, what makes you think this would be any different?” Axion objected.

“We just have to roll the dice. The wurm is coming for me now, the eggs are secondary. We’ll never outrun her. So, it’s this or becoming dinner while we’re on the road minding our own business,” Dink said, pushing himself to his feet and grabbing the iron cage.

“Dink, I’m coming with you. I can’t let you go without backup,” Axion firmly stated, standing from his seat. Dink nodded in agreement.

“We’re coming too,” Tahlea weakly added.

“No, you’re not,” Dink replied.

“I’m a sense-amplifying Attuned. I’ll be useful for warning you when the wurm is coming,” Riva objected.

“We have to go into the mines to the wurm nest, your crossbow won’t be effective against it. You’ll be putting yourself in needless danger against a foe you can’t even harm. Only Axion will be coming with me. Murkuk, you stay too,” Dink said, glancing at a form curled in front of the fire.