It takes a good thirty minutes just to remove all of the scales so that I can start skinning it. It then takes a couple of hours to break down the rest of the corpse, but I get a treat at the end. The dragon’s heart is almost half as big as I am when I am in my normal form.

  I am not going to be able to eat it quickly, but that also means the treat will last longer. I should be getting back, but I can’t resist taking a bite of the heart and then I’m hooked. It is by far the most delicious thing that I have ever tasted, but I almost forgot something.

  I quickly take out one of the containers holding a lesser essence and take some of the glass from it. I use that glass to make a couple of small vials and fill them with blood from the heart. The blood is coagulated by now, but I am able to get it flowing again with mana.

  Once I have filled and sealed the vials, I start putting everything away in my pouch and ring. It turns out to be a very good thing that I upgraded both of them or I wouldn’t have enough room. Even with the upgrade, after putting away everything I am almost out of space.

  Considering how good the materials are, I am just fine with having that kind of problem. I am half tempted to explore that volcano before I leave, but I’m sure Brightfire is worried about me. Instead, I take out a gate platform and bury it away from the lava lake in case I get a chance to come back.

  I take out another crystal and use it to open a gate to the lodge on the vacation island. I go through my crystals and take out all of the ones that are not fully charged. I have to check all of them because I tend to just grab one and not pay any attention to which I grab.

  It turns out that I only have seven crystals that are completely full, the remaining six need to charge. So, I place them on the platform and activate the wards to protect them. They won’t charge as fast as they would on the platform on Athena, but they will be safer.

  However, the sun is setting and I need to hurry, so I use my own mana to gate back to the main continent. I have to make multiple jumps to be able to get back to the east side of the continent. Still, that allows me to get back into the area without having to use mana from a crystal.

  As I arrive, I realize a problem, the sun is already down and it is dark on this side of the continent. I quickly drop shapeshift and fly as fast as I can to catch up to the caravan. When I catch up, the caravan has already stopped for the night and set up camp.

  The problem is that I didn’t think of leaving the cabin with Brightfire, so they are standing around. Brightfire, Asuna, and Grimgar are standing by the carriage and talking with Lizzy and Leylisha. Kirito is running around, but comes running to me as soon as I land and jumps on me.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  I shapeshift to take him in my arms and pet him as I throw out the cabin for the others. Everyone heads inside, even Lizzy shapeshifts so that she can join us and Leylisha joins too. I know that they just want to hear the story, but I can’t exactly not tell it to them.

  Brightfire isn’t about to let me get away with that, even though I will have to tell it again in the soulscape. The worst part is I know that I am going to get lectured multiple times and I can’t avoid it. Brightfire is giving me impatient looks as I take out food for everyone from my pouch.

  I am actually going to be greedy and keep the dragon meat for myself and maybe for special occasions. Once everyone else has food, I take out some beast meat and dice it up for Kirito. He goes nuts as soon as I put it down for him and Asuna gives me a dirty look.

  Asuna says “Is that why he wouldn’t drink the milk?! You should have told me that you changed his diet!”

  “I meant to. I changed it last night, but I forgot to mention it and then I got called away. Sorry.”

  Brightfire says “Enough of that! What was going on and why were you gone so long? You had me worried!”

  “Well, Everburn got attacked and I had to help him out.”

  Of course, they don’t let me get away with that and I get bombarded with questions. Brightfire is the worst, she keeps asking the questions that I really don’t want to answer. She manages to drag out of me that I went with Everburn to help against the gold dragon.

  That leads to a ton more questions and every time I try to leave something out she somehow knows. The only thing I really manage to leave out is our side trip to the mountains to hunt giants. They focus on the fight between Everburn and the gold, but I try to hide my involvement.

  Brightfire says “I told you to be careful! Getting involved in a battle between dragons is not even close to being careful!”

  “I was on Everburn’s back the entire time. That was the safest place to be! If I had tried to get down, I would have ended up stomped flat!”

  Brightfire says “You should have stayed out of the fight altogether!”

  “Everburn is my friend and I don’t abandon my friends!”

  Brightfire says “You mean you couldn’t miss out on a chance to see what a battle between dragons would be like!”

  “Yeah, it was terrifying, but at the same time it was simply amazing. I will replay my memories of it once we are in the soulscape for everyone.”

  Lizzy says “You had better invite me and Leylisha, we want to see too!”

  Grimgar says “If possible, I would like to see it as well?”

  “Sure, we can do it as soon as everyone is done eating.”

  Everyone except Kirito starts eating noticeably faster, Kirito was already eating as fast as he could. I would like to invite him to the soulscape as well, but I am waiting for him to show signs of intelligence. Not that I will love him any less if he doesn’t end up sentient, in fact a non sentient kid might be nice.

  He would be much simpler to raise and I wouldn’t have to worry about him anywhere near as much. I have no idea how things are going to turn out with him, I will just have to wait and see. He hasn’t been on solid food for long, but I could swear he has already grown some.

  Kirito is the first to finish eating, so I take him in my arms and pet him until he falls asleep. By the time I have him settled into his nest, everyone else has finished eating. I quickly enter meditation, open a soulscape, and invite Grimgar first to give him some pointers.