A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

“Stop.”

However, just when I thought we could move forward, two people immediately raised their arms, putting an end to any hope of a quick resolution. I looked over, seeing both Uncle Guyul and Sieg displeased.

“Ignoring the economic value this invention will bring, I must inquire something—how are you expecting this to be made in Frozen Nest?” Sieg asked.

Ah, he’s asking for the budget. Naturally, I got too hyped up after only persuading one person.

“I know a talented runesmith-slash-blacksmith and two rising artificers, with one of them specialized in making system-based manatech. They’ve all worked with the recorder before and, if we give them the time and funding, they can probably reverse engineer it so we can produce more of it,” I replied, but Sieg’s look just told me to “go on,” so I did. “Once we have the blueprint, I’ll have them train our artificers and then we can start producing them.”

Uncle Guyul sighed as the dragonewts all looked at each other with awkward smiles. Confused with this reception despite how captivated they were by the video, I looked around the room, only to see Mom smiling like always.

“Princess Hestia, I believe you have heard me give you an update on our artificer situation, correct?” Sieg continued. “We lack natural arcanuit deposits, meaning we must import mana batteries, raising the price we would need to sell at to make a profit. Besides, why would any artificer wish to live here, when it is more beneficial for them to be in Ankor-Nazta? Not to mention, wouldn’t it be better for you to have these products made there, instead of here? We do not have the facilities for mass production.”

… Ah. No, this wasn’t to talk about the budget. He’s actually trying to kill the dream.

Well, it wasn’t like I hadn’t expected this. I did just hear everything and could read it in the reports, but I also felt this was such a lacking argument to say otherwise. Here was the thing—Frozen Nest’s only important industry was the fishing industry. Everybody knew this but it also was clear nobody was willing to branch out of it. It didn’t help that the closest thing to a second profitable industry was still exporting raw goods as well; there was next to no manufacturing industry in Frozen Nest.

They were all for improving on the existing fishing industry, but I guess it was different when it came to taking a risk on something different. Which was weird to me since Frozen Nest had more money than Aurora had ever earned! … Which wasn’t saying much since I was comparing a small adventurer party to a whole country that has been alive for over 2000 years now with a thriving fishing industry.

Why am I thinking of fish all the time? Vifi would give me the eww face.

“Then you misunderstand me!” I replied. “My intention wasn’t to bring a manatech revolution. On the contrary, I’m not the best with tech anyways, so I leave those stuff to my friends who know how to bring those ideas into existence. I’m thinking about focusing on the tech’s usage.”

“What is the difference then?” Uncle Guyul asked, his brows softening a bit.

“Because it is my dream to become an idol that can bring smiles to people!” I said, baffling everybody but Pradreo … and in a bad way at that. “Everybody knows my situation; I just learned everything during the visit with Father. I am here not only to learn how to be an imperial princess but also help out Mom, since Frozen Nest is now my home. I have to treat it and its citizens well, because I am the sort of person who wishes for people to smile.”

‘A bit cringe to say that in an official budgeting meeting, no?’ Hikari needled me with a slight giggle.

You’re me! You would do the same!

‘I’m not that bold!’

Shut it, let me speak!

Composing myself as I felt my chest tightening in pain from what I said, I continued confronting these old men stuck in their ways. “To me, music and dancing is everything. I know this might seem weird to hear from a dragon and a princess, but while the succession crisis is important to deal with, I intend on prioritizing myself and my dream right now. Mom asked me to help Frozen Nest progress, to keep up with the rest of the world, but I am also doing this purely for myself. This recording?”

I pulled up the recorder and replayed the video of me singing on stage, huffing loudly with a wide grin as I finished a song. With a beaming smile as I heard the crowd roar into a thunderous applause, I felt proud when I saw myself give them a massive bow. No haughtiness of a dragon princess to be seen, just the humble gratitude an idol had to give to her fans.

I could help myself from smiling. The muscles in my face couldn’t be controlled.

“I want this to spread to the entire world. I want people to see me everywhere, at any time, til the end of always. I want them to hear my voice when they have a bad time or when they need some peppy hype. I want them to consider what song to play for their current mood, but also just leave my playlist on auto-loop in the background while they work!”—I clapped my hands in excitement—“That’s right, I’m suggesting something only I and the people around me can do! A musical revolution through the power of videos!”

I then pointed at Uncle Kary. “That love can also become part of every industry in Frozen Nest! This is the power of videography that Earth possesses, and that I now want to bring to this world. I don’t need the factories of Ankor-Nazta to achieve something like this, I just need a focused crew to bring this ambition to life!”

Standing up, posing with my fist raised in the air, I was trying my best to sound as passionate as possible. Maybe a bit too much, but I wanted to hide the whole awkward succession crisis stuff and capture their imaginations with my reasoning.

I needed this to get greenlit. I meant it when I said this was a selfish idea I was only doing for myself. Music videos and song recordings were my next goal now. Seeing how I was stuck on Frozen Nest made me wish for a way to contact not only my friends but also my fans.

Entertainers going on hiatus was just part of showbiz, with many going out unannounced. At least in my case, my friends and allies notified my fans, but it also meant that for the next two years, I wouldn’t be able to sing to them. Such a long time without fanservice would make it easy for people to forget me, especially with their daily workload.

After seeing Neill and Yuilengreill meet, I really felt this fact drive home even further. Sure, with Tasianna around, the mother-daughter duo could continue speaking to each other, but what about when Tasianna returned to Frozen Nest? I felt bad for Yuilengreill, which made me wish we had a phone network in this world.

This idea then expanded into what I had now after I saw and heard the reports.

The world of Peolynca needed video streaming. I needed it!

“… So, instead of the manatech industry, you’re intending to expand on the cultural management and service industries?” Uncle Guyul asked as he leaned his chin on his hands, hiding his mouth in the process.

“That is the basic idea, yes, but, frankly speaking, we should do something to help our artificers. We don’t need to make it part of our main financial backbone, but we really do need to make sure they would want to stay here with their family. Doing the bare minimum won’t cut it with how the importance of manatech development is rising with every year,” I answered, thinking how obsessive Grimnir was as a Saint of Chihiro.

Uncle Guyul closed his eyes, tilting his head from one side to the other, taking his time before speaking, “This video recording would also help with education, no?”

“Yes. You can record people giving lectures; back on Earth, there was a wide collection of videos on just about every topic imaginable that you could learn from.”

“… Karydrinos, this would solve our issue with hibernating dragons.”

Huh?

“Elaborate,” Mom interjected.

“Yes, your majesty,” he stood up. “As we are quite aware, it is rare for the older dragonkin to attend certain meetings due to their need to sleep and rest their souls. In other cases, they might be watching over their children and grandchildren hunting to level up. Anything can happen, and that can disturb the senate assembly, forcing the different clans to send dragonewt representatives. As a republic, this is far from the ideal situation, since, for certain decisions, we will need the patriarchs and matriarchs to speak up.”

“You wish to record their words?” Mom asked, making the entire room realize where this was going.

“Correct. Video evidence of the person speaking would help us when we dragons must convene. It won’t help right now, but for the future, I can see a use for it. Not to mention, when one of us goes to our eternal slumber, leaving behind a piece of yourself like this sounds quite enticing,” Guyul argued, bringing up one of the things I hated hearing the most. “We can leave behind training advice for future generations, without needing them to rely on their memory or aging books. We can immortalize the beautiful sight of our country for everybody to see. The potential is massive.”

“… Of course, it would be.” Mom glanced at me with a quick smile, reminding me she was recording me when I was hunting my first mammoth. She probably wanted a recorder for her own selfish reason …

“I agree with the proposal,” Guyul stated, followed by Uncle Kary and Pradreo. “I would like to suggest diverting the innovation funds into cultural management. How much can we afford?”

The dragonewts took a while discussing amongst themselves, crunching numbers with their abacus and [Mathematician] skills before finally coming to a number. “After calculating the wages for the necessary artificers, new hires, and also the potential needed material, this is what we can offer at a low risk to our treasury.”

Pradreo handed me the parchment.

Okay, let’s see, how many … 50 large goldite coins!

50.000.000 Davi! That was about almost double the amount I had to spend for my [Crystal of the Divine System]. This was so much money!

“Why only 50?” Mom asked for some reason as my widened eyes were glued on the parchment.

“We expect to spend over 100 large goldite for the initial investment into the plans, your majesty,” Pradreo answered, shocking me even further. “Thrahasa expects to spend money on acquiring another divine crystal, as we overheard Princess Hestia mention a System-based artificer. I can confirm this, as I saw the need for the crystal to enlarge the video. Connected to one, you can project it to the point a crowd larger than a plaza can see it.”

Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. Good thinking Pradreo.

He continued, “We could borrow one from the kinkyuro, but I presume we would like to have one ourselves for this new industry.”

“E-excuse me, but 100 goldite? I spent about 26 large goldite for mine. Do we lack dungeon core shards?” I asked.

“No we don’t, my lady. We actually have enough to make three more [Crystals of the Divine System],” he answered. “But aside from the crystal, we will also need to spend quite a bit of money to produce more of these recorders, especially spares in case any of them break. The 100.000.000 Davi is a precaution, the maximum we are willing to spend on materials, since we are unsure what is needed. I suspect you will need this amount.”

“10 large goldite is on employment fees and training, which means we are allocating about 150.000.000 Davi for this entire project,” Thrahasa summarized. “This is what the senate can approve once we have an agreement between clan Nordor, Liandsee, Ievfuchsdra, and Thalaxarus.”

Hearing this, everybody looked over to Sieg. To me, this was a large sum of money that was enough to keep my idol tour afloat for multiple concerts even if I took losses on each one. This would be enough for Grimnir to go absolutely crazy without having to worry about the costs. So, what was this amount to Sieg? Was it too much to risk on my idea?

“… Princess Hestia, let me remind you that this isn’t clan Nordor’s money, this is the city’s and country’s. The citizen’s taxes,” he said, making me feel nervous. “Empress Melloxtressa, to ensure the proper procedures are held up, may I accompany her in the execution of these plans? She is still inexperienced with Loatryx’s bureaucracy.”

“A fine idea. Do that. Pradreo, her siblings will soon arrive from the mainland to help her with her [Battle Frenzy] training as well. Act as her assistant and make sure she follows her duty while training. I want her to be strong, do you understand?”

Considering my first action as a princess was to jump right into this project, Mom should be happy for now. Still, since I had personal investment in this project for my career, I had to make sure it worked.

After this decision was made, the assembly continued with Mom discussing other points she wanted to be updated on, but nothing substantial enough for me to contribute to. Once the meeting was over, my first order was to have Sieg gather up the artificers needed for this project and to tell them a meeting will happen soon.

When that meeting would happen was the question though, as I needed Grimnir, Ellaine, and Haruka together all at once. The issue, as Tasianna explained, was that every single member of Aurora and the students were all on their own long-term adventures. In the three weeks that I’ve been awake, Neill was truly the only person I’ve met, and that was ‘cause she was just culling dungeons around a city I had a portal stone in.

Grimnir and Ellaine were with Saori in Carmaniate, and the students were wandering around investigating the supposed demonic-influenced dungeons. All I could do right now was to ask Neill to send a missive to the students and have Svena send a letter to King Drangleic for information on Saori and the others.

Which meant waiting for two days until I got a reply.

“‘Tatsuya and the others are currently deep inside a dungeon with Yorshka and Farron. Too many intertwined dragon paths for me to find there any time soon,’ Neill wrote,” I read the letter to the rest of my party. “‘So, here’s the warning. I’ll be going in, bye!’”

I went silent, grimacing.

“Haha.” The only person bemused by this was Vifi. “That kirin knows exactly what she needs to do. Really makes me curious what’s going on back there, but I guess we can learn about it later when Wolfboy comes back.”

“Yeah … Well, that means Haruka won’t be around for a while, but as long as we have Grimnir, things should work out just fine. Okay, second letter. Please.” I took a moment and prayed before opening King Drangleic’s report on the situation. Please be good news. “‘I greet the third princess of the Dragon Empire of Kargryx, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor. When I first heard from Arcanuess Helvas that you’re—yada-yada-yada-fluff.’ Oh, here we go. Ahem, ‘With the formalities done, I wish to grant you a report of the current Carmanite envoys. As you have mentioned in your letter, Miss Saori, Lady Ellaine, and Master Grimnir have been sent by the alliance to allow us to make formal contact with them for our future war with the Empire of Folschreck.’”

Urgh …

I shook my head, dispelling those thoughts for now and continued, “However, something that we hadn’t expected is that Carminate is currently facing severe conflicts within. Another religious war, in fact, between two separate factions of God Danterno’s church.”

[“Shiterno? What abo… Ow!”] Beth blurted out, prompting her brother to lightly smack her on the head for copying my naming habit.

“Oh no, Shiterno!” Vifi added to support Beth, as Shay wasn’t brave enough to provoke the lightning beast.

Eyeing them for a moment, I refocused. “‘As you might know, the Church of Danterno isn’t quite as widespread as the other Origin Gods’ religions, mainly due to the negative stigma surrounding fire mages. However, this is less the case in Carmaniate, where the destructive might of a fire mage is considered a virtue for the nation’s war efforts. It isn’t their national religion though—Carmaniate worships all Origin Gods, save for Aurena, mostly equally. Some of the tribes even still pledge their loyalty to the old elemental emperors. Carmianiate is a nation not driven by religion, but rather through emotions and pride.’”

Then why is a religious war happening over there?

“‘Which is why none of us expected something like this to happen.’” He wrote, making me weary for my friends. “‘The two factions Lady Ellaine reported on were called the ‘Phoenix’ and the ‘true church of Danterno,’ with both seeming more like cults to her. In case of the former cult, they are gathering under the teachings of a ‘prophet’ while the other is led by the various blessed of God Danterno. Incidentally, this latter group is still trying to hunt you down, your grace, so your stay on Kargryx is quite fortunate, less we have more assassins attempt to take your life.’”

… Are you kidding? Even after I literally let two of their blessed return to Carminate alive? Sheesh, being nice to these zealots was just idiotic, huh!

“‘Meanwhile, the ‘prophet’ is confronting the main religious body in an attempt to stop these assassinations. Lady Ellaine mentioned this ‘prophet’ isn’t even properly leading his faction, but that people have been gathering under his wings due to his various good deeds in helping the tribes of Carmaniate’s savannah,’” he wrote. “‘Strangely, this person is an arvisian with wings on his back, similar to my family, but instead of normal feathers, his are constantly on fire.’ In addition to how he claims ‘to not harm the Crimson Saintess in the west,’ people have called him the prophet, as he acts as if he knew God Danterno’s thoughts, despite not being a blessed. In fact, aside from his fire manipulation, he is known to be quite weak. We can continue talking about the reasons behind this religious war for a later time, but for now, allow me to explain how all this has affected your party member’s situation.”

Essentially, due to the religious war, reaching the capital has become impossible for Saori, Ellaine, and Grimnir. Why? ‘Cause rumors have spread far enough that they know the “Stygian Wolf” is a constant companion to the “Crimson Saintess.” If they got to her, they would get to me, which was why Saori wanted to avoid going deeper into Carmaniate until everything cooled down.

Therefore, they’ve concentrated on the rhytilic acquisition, and managed to find something pretty interesting during it. They’ve reunited with the beastmen slaves they’ve rescued from the grimgarians, of which some of them are acting as guides to help Saori avoid the Shiterno worshippers. During this time, they learned one of the tribes living in the northern parts of Carmaniate was related to a certain somebody.

“‘Belzac. One of the local tribes was part of the original cult created around him when he defeated the archdemon, Klea’Hatma. This was confirmed by the two named figures. Therefore, Miss Saori has been preoccupied with multiple duties. At the time of this letter’s arrival, your party members should be ready in three days. Thus, I conclude this report. Many greetings from Artorias, and may the Goddess always keep you in her favor, Princess Hestia.’”

With that, three more days passed for us rather uneventfully, although I did use this time to finally go hunting. Fresh battles against other rank Bs kept my [Battle Frenzy] in check, but most importantly, it taught me how to fight ice-aligned monsters.

Overwhelming them with fire was entirely doable, but it did become a bit hard to fully rely on it, as the rank A dragons showed me just two weeks ago. I needed to adapt to how monsters in this country fought and also learn how their ice attacks interacted with my spells. Yet, most importantly, I had to go back to my roots when it came to leveling skills.

Right, tanking attacks and increasing my resistances. Even if this damn skill required such a long time to train due to my natural ice weakness, I didn’t care! Bear through the pain like a champ, and I would come out of it stronger and better! This was Earth-style skill training!

Well, the training also included a beat down.

“Owch!”

“On your feet, soldier,” Vifi clapped as she shook her body, lightly jumping around like a boxer’s footwork. “Empress Yuilengreill told you to train, so train you must. On your feet! Your mother is watching, you know?”

“… You’re just enjoying this, aren’t you?” I grimaced as the impish wrathie flashed me a mocking grin, clearly enjoying this.

Since my evolution required me to not only be five-years-old but also have [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 10], [Hellblade Dragon Lv. 10], [Solar Core Lv. 10], and [Royal Presence Lv. 10], my priority was to raise their levels to the max as soon as possible.

I did manage to reach [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 7], [Hellblade Dragon Lv. 7], and [Solar Core Lv. 7] after Yuilengreill personally trained me, but stopping here wasn’t an option. The goal was to train enough so that I could at least solo a rank A dragon, even if that idea seemed a bit far fetched, but being a dreamer wasn’t a bad thing.

Also, having somebody 30 levels over me to drive me against the wall every single day was a blessing in disguise; Mom barely breaking a sweat while training me was more of a mood breaker, in comparison. Vifi, despite wanting to be my guard at first, was acting more like a personal trainer at this point.

As Vifi helped me up, I frowned as I saw the piles of broken crimson scales littering the grounds. Some had turned black from being scorched by Vifi’s red lightning, while others were nothing but dust, pulverized by her lightning hammer.

“How would you rank me compared to when we fought for real?” I asked.

“Without your spell songs, you wouldn’t have beat me then, you know?” Vifi bluntly said while stretching. “You are strong for your rank, so don’t look so down, yeah? I’m far weaker than back then, so I can’t accurately give you a proper answer.”

“Have you ever heard people tell you that you’re stronger than your age?” I said, prompting her to ask me the same question, prompting both of us to sigh. I pulled out some fragassa milkshakes and donuts for us to share. “For survival.”

“Heard it right, Donut! For survival, cheers!”

With a fine afternoon of training down, it was finally time for us to reunite with the rest of Aurora. To me, it had only been three weeks, but to my friends, an entire year had passed. Therefore, when the subspace portal opened and I saw the silhouette of a wolfkin woman, a dwarven man, and a human woman who was just a bit taller than I was used to, I almost jumped inside … but didn’t, as the twins blocked the path.

“Saori!” I screamed, jumping around like an excited bunny, trying to find a gap in the twin’s defense to slip by, but against these defensive specialists, it was impossible … Also, trying to force myself through would only hurt them. “Grimnir! Oh, and is that you, Ellaine?!”

“H-Hestia! You did grow!” Saori was the first to rush over, prompting the twins to step back for the both of us to see each other in the eyes.

Saori, despite the long time skip, hadn’t changed all too much aside from her skin looking drier than usual. Probably the cold air in northern Carmaniate. The same could be said about Grimnir, but Ellaine? She had the same growth spurt as me, as she was still only a bit taller.

Wait, that’s a buncha muscles!

However, the most prominent change was definitely how muscular Ellaine had gotten. Unlike Saori and me, where our [Humanize] also compressed our muscles to not compromise our ideal look, her body was starting to look very similar to the many female knight’s I’ve met in my life.

Arms that looked like they could carry full crates without becoming tired, pronounced abs showering through her casual wear, and legs fit for an Olympic runner. She wasn’t massive like a bodybuilder, though, as I wager she could perfectly fit in a dress without sacrificing too much femininity.

Although, what mattered was how she looked in her armor!

“Lass, wahaha—By Crustacia’s twin tails, just look at how much you’ve grown! Makes me regret we couldn’t come with you,” Grimnir said, stroking his, now, regrown beard! That orange luster shined under the manatech lights, reminding me it was the exact length when we first met! “Ha, get a good luck at this beauty! Back to normal, eh, lass? Mightier than ever, I say!”

“Yeah, sure as heck! At least, it’s not splattered in mead and ale, and I can’t see any soot in it. Great work keeping it tidy, Grimnir!” I praised, prompting him to shyly scratch his cheek. He probably was quite embarrassed of his past.

“Josine and Svena practically forced him, hehe,” Ellaine added. “‘As our Mistress’s master, you must look presentable whenever you meet with your clients!’ they said, before even invoking your name. As Aurora’s blacksmith, and so on.”

“I need not look good when I work!” Grimnir snorted. “Work’s hard; can’t always look like what you want, especially with those calluses.”

Grimnir pointed at Ellaine’s hand, causing her to giggle a bit, not out of embarrassment, but out of pride.

Seeing all of them here really made me want to hug them all, but it seemed they understood the situation, probably from Tasianna or somebody else. Knowing their problems as well, I told them we could skip the catching-up phase and directly jump into the “what you need” stage. Without a single complaint, my friends firmly agreed.

Therefore, I gave them a quick rundown of why I wanted to see them so urgently. As I retold what happened at the assembly, Saori noticed that I didn’t fit in my new clothes, reminding her how Svena had told her about it when she visited the subspace for the first time in two months.

“Do you remember Shizar? She’s the same leader of the beastmen slaves we freed. I thought she had returned to her home, but it seems that she faced some prejudice from being ‘enslaved by goblins and kobolds’ and was seen as a disgrace to a Carmaniate soldier. She didn’t even excuse herself, taking the discharge without a complaint,” Saori said. “So, now, she’s a simple mercenary alongside her former subordinates. We’ve hired them as guides, but I’ve been hiding our subspace from them, and we also didn’t want to go away for too long. A short visit was okay, but not long enough to sleep or take a long bath.”

Wait … Saori is using abbreviations? In casual speech, when she’s not agitated or tired? What?

Apparently, something did change for Saori during the time skip.

In any case, as Saori ordered Beth to take my measurements, I continued speaking with Grimnir about my music video idea.

“Sure, can do,” Grimnir replied to my elation. “Haruka actually did reverse engineer the thing, but we’ve slacked on making more since we’re kind of lacking in funds. Got a missive from Goddess Chihiro, most of her prototype inventions were made with her unique skill, but I can mostly emulate it with my own. Just gotta get some more dungeon core shards…”

Urgh! Thank goodness I’ve got 50 large goldite for this project. My lord …

“Also, Daichi, the smart lad, knew you wanted this eventually, so we already finished the first prototype on how to sell your music!” Grimnir said before rushing into his forge, bringing back what looked like an ID card. “This here is the answer!”

“And ID card?”

“Exactly! However, instead of storing your Profile information, it stores the visual replication from the recorder. In other words, we’ve made a memory stick only for recordings!” Grimnir burst in laughter. “Just like a normal ID card, stick it on a party bracelet’s chain and you can play the video, with visuals and sound. Attach it to a crystal like the recorder’s memory, and you can stream things!”

I was honestly speechless, but also moved. My entire party had already started making my music video dream come true while I was asleep, probably since I did mention it when we first found the recorder. Still, to pull this off even if they had no incentive to do so? Sheesh, it made me wonder how I even deserved all of them in the first place.

Especially the students! Haruka and Daichi … they weren’t our strongest members, but since they came from Earth just like me, they knew exactly what I would want. The students weren’t always powerhouses, but they brought their own value to our party that we couldn’t live without. Haruka with her ability to understand System-based manatech easily and Daichi’s cradle of ideas.

Seeing how this discussion wasn’t needed, I went to my idea—streaming these videos worldwide. Fortunately for my pride, Grimnir had no idea how that was supposed to work, so Daichi probably hadn’t told him anything about the internet, yet.

“I actually have a starting point. Maverina, you know, the guild master of Artorias’s mage’s guild—she once asked me to help her develop a method to send messages instantly to a faraway recipient. Even faster than manatech birds!” I said, intriguing Grimnir. “Thing is, I don’t know how far they’ve gotten with the development, but if they aren’t done with it yet, we could—”

“Monopolize the development method once we copy the foundations! Got it, lass!” Grimnir laughed, before patting Ellaine on the back. She understood she had to be the one to make contact for us.

With my part done, I was ready to help them. Their request though, was surprisingly convenient to fulfill!

“I need materials to make some ice resistant armor for our trip to find those flowers needed for the rhytilic alloy. Saori needs it to venture deep into a temple people built for Belzac. Ellaine needs it to retrieve the damn demon!”

Demon?

Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t heard Klea’Hatma at all. When I asked Ellaine about it, she told me they actually were ambushed on their way through the snowfield of Carmaniate. The fur armor and runes Grimnir prepared for them weren’t enough to fend off a sudden blizzard, so strong that even the locals were surprised by its intensity.

In the skirmish, Ellaine lost the rings Klea’s mana lived in, sadly. Surprised by this, I wondered if Ellaine was okay with this, seeing as without those rings, she couldn’t access Klea’s power. However, instead of looking embarrassed by it, she shook her head and showed me a small smile, before showcasing she could still use stuff like [Musclemass] and [Blade.]

Fleshy growth happened on her arms despite the fact she needed demonic mana to create them. When I asked her about it, Ellaine told me it was a long story, one she was a bit too tired to tell. She told me she could tell me the story another time, once she has Klea back so she could explain the important parts.

In any case, my friends needed to acquire strong ice gear, but Grimnir was having some trouble making the armor, as he wanted to include some of my leftover dragon scales on it for protection. Supposedly, normal “ice” armor would melt in combination with my scales, while fur from ice-aligned monsters wasn’t enough of a defense. Even with his runes. Enchantments were too expensive, apparently.

Which was why this request was so convenient. On Frozen Nest, we had the more common evernight ice stones and the rare true ice created by the ice dragons here. I could ask Mom for some true ice, but I did remember I had to repay her with a favor of some kind. Therefore, for now, I decided to get some evernight ice stone, and to get some free ones, I had to visit a nearby mine.

However, for some reason, Vifi stopped me.

“Uhh, better send the twins to get it, or buy them, Donut,” she said, surprising me. “The only way you can get the stuff is by going deep under, so deep, you’ll have to face your first real Frozen Nest blizzard. You aren’t surviving it with just [Ice Resistance Lv. 1].”

It was a bloody challenge, then.