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We’re led to a large mansion that clearly stands out from the rest. I don’t really mind getting a room there, but…

“Eww, it’s the same in here too.”
“Make some space please.”

This place reeks of alcohol. There’s a lot of half full glasses and bottles everywhere, making the owner’s vices obvious. The furniture and utensils I can see look like they’re high quality, but the stench ruins their presence.

“This isn’t a hospital, is it?”
“Hm? Not at all, this is Lady Fan-Yen’s house.”

I ask a nearby dragonborn, and the reply isn’t really all that unexpected. Thinking back, Fan-Yen came out complaining that we ruined her time drinking.

“We don’t really have hospitals around here, actually. We dragonborn hardly ever get sick, and our injuries heal pretty quickly on their own. But don’t worry, we do have medicinal knowledge even without hospitals.”
“And it would be rude of us not to treat the champion who bested Lady Fan-Yen with the respect and honor she deserves. Now, let her sleep here, carefully.”

I follow their orders and place Olivia on top of the table they just freed.

“This is probably the most urgent injury.” Saying that, the dragonborn removes Olivia’s gloves, which is followed by a loud splash of blood hitting the floor.

“…Will she recover?”

Her skin is torn apart, her fingers smashed flat, and pieces of bone are jutting out. Just seeing that makes me shiver, and I can’t stop myself from asking that.

“It won’t be easy, but I’ll try my best.”
“…Please do so.”

I bow deeply to the dragonborn who’s treating her. He just nods back and gets to work. There’s nothing I can do to help at the moment. First I thought I could help mix medicine with my alchemy knowledge, but the medicinal herbs they use around here are completely different from those I know, and I don’t have any deeper knowledge of medicinal treatments.

I’ll just get in the way if I linger around here, so I decide it’s best to leave the room. But I also don’t feel right going too far away, so I just stand in the corridor outside and pray that the surgery is successful.

“They’re still not done?”

I turn to the voice and see Fan-Yen, who’s already been taken care of, her whole body covered in bandages. I saw how badly hurt she was earlier, so the fact that she’s standing there on stable feet is a testament to the dragonborn’s resilience.

“I’m aware it’s not my place to say, but please don’t look so distraught.” She tells me that, but there’s no mirrors nearby so I have no clue what I look like right now.

“Actually, would you come with me for a moment? I’d like to explain why everyone in town was so hostile to you when you entered.”

To be honest I’d like to stay here until Olivia’s treatment is over, but maybe it’s better if I get caught up on things first, so I can explain everything to her more easily once she wakes up.

With a bit of reluctance, I follow her to another room, where I find an unexpected person.

“Hello Natalia, it’s been a week, I think?”
Christina is sitting on a chair in that room.

“Christina, why are you here?”
“It’s a complicated story, but I’m mainly here to escort Mathias.”
“Mathias is also here?”
“Yes, but he pushed himself a bit too hard, so his wounds opened up. He’s resting in another room here until he’s better.”

It seems Mathias is in pretty rough shape too, but I don’t really understand why either of them are all the way here in Longshan.

“The little tiger would do better to stay still for now. Squirrel girl, you can tell him everything later.” Fan-Yen says that and turns around.

“Wait, I thought you would explain what’s going on?”
“This is better seen than put into words. Follow me.”

I’m still as confused as before, so I have no choice but to follow her. She takes us out of the mansion, and out of the city, until we’re in front of the cliffside.

“It’s up there.” Saying that, she starts to fly up.

Umm…I get that it’s normal for dragonborn to fly, but pretty much no other species can do that.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It completely passed my mind.”

I’m starting to think she’s not the brightest one around.

“If we just have to go up I think we can manage.” Christina takes out a small magic device that fits on the palm of her hand, and once she activates it she starts to fly up. It’s the levitating device Annabelle was researching. I helped design it too, and it was a prototype of it that saved Olivia during the Rufu attack.

I guess I’ll have to use that too.

“Celaeno, activate.” I open my magic storage behind my back, and a shadow emerges from it. I jump up and the shadow wraps around my back, connecting directly onto my nerve threads. Once I establish a flow of mana with it, the folded black wings spread out and begin scattering blue mana dust.

This is the levitation magic device Celaeno, which I built with the research I did with Annabelle, and the Black Rock materials Olivia gave me. It’s essentially a pair of wings with propellers that give me some basic flying capabilities.

But it requires a large amount of mana, and produces even more mana dust than my Sorcery Core, so it has various exhaust ports to avoid any clogging. And actually controlling it is difficult too.

“Ohh, I didn’t know the world outside of Longshan had developed items like that.” Fan-Yen looks impressed by it, though this is something I developed together with Christina and Annabelle, based on Ophelia’s research, so no one else possesses them.

When I explain that, Fan-Yen says that that’s still plenty impressive.

“Let’s get going then. Come with me.” Fan-Yen takes the lead, and we follow her up alongside the cliffside.

As we get higher Christina starts to frown a bit. At first I assume she’s getting cold, but then I also start feeling like I’m cold and something is weighing down on me, even though temperature changes don’t do anything to me.

“There’s a lot of concentrated mana up there, so it might be a bit overwhelming for you until you get used to it.” Hearing Fan-Yen’s casual comment only makes me wish she had said that sooner.

“Christina, are you alright?”
“Yes… It feels a bit suffocating, but it’s not too bad.”
That’s what she said, so I won’t say anything more.

We break through the clouds and land on the summit, where we approach an opening into the rocks. The place is surrounded by a large glowing sphere, which I quickly understand is a barrier.

Fan-Yen touches it, and an opening big enough for a person to get through appears. “Through here.”

We cross the opening into the barrier, and soon notice that the concentration of mana is even higher inside.

“Keep alert now, it might get dangerous here.”

There’s a light mist in the area, which suddenly takes the shape of a dragon and flies toward us.

“These are Draconic Specters, a low level monster that is born from highly concentrated mana. Almost any attack is enough to dissipate them, so just stay on your toes and you’ll be fine.” Fan-Yen punches the incoming Draconic Specter, literally making it disappear. But there’s more of them taking form around us that continue approaching fearlessly.

“I really wish you’d tell us things like that beforehand.” I’m still a bit baffled by her lack of preparation, but I take out Black Hawk to shoot at the monsters, while Christina prepares herself with her earth magic Stone Shot.

Just like Fan-Yen said, they’re pretty easy to take down.

“They hardly even count as living beings after all. Though after a few millenia they’ll gain corporeal bodies of flesh and bone.”

That sounds like it takes a long time.

We continue defeating the Draconic Specters until we reach a rocky wall. And on the ground, the white skeleton left behind by some creature.

“That’s the progenitor of all dragonborn, and the source of all the mana filling this place. The skeleton of the Sky Eclipsing Dragon, Lord Saiken.”

Even as a skeleton, the remains of that gargantuan dragon looked imposing and terrifying.