Then I invite everyone else, including Lizzy and Leylisha, and gather everyone together. First I explain to the others what happened, then I tell them they are going to be viewing my memory.

  “I will play it twice. First at the speed it actually happened, then at a slower speed so that you all can see more of what happened.”

  No one says anything, so I go ahead and replay the memory of the battle at normal speed. The kids absolutely love it, but my wives are less thrilled watching it and keep giving me looks. The looks tell me that I am about to get another lecture, but at least Lin isn’t here to join in.

  The replay ends and I start it over at a slower speed so that the fight is more visible. At this point, it is more to delay my lecture than anything else, but the kids are really loving it. Their eyes are absolutely glued to the memory, I could probably set off a bomb and they wouldn’t notice.

  As soon as the replay ends the kids immediately start roughhousing and my wives lay into me. Ekard and Mushu are especially excited and keep shouting that they will be dragons when they grow up. It is cute, but it makes me think about what would happen if I gave them part of the dragon’s essence.

  As drakes, they already have a good portion of dragon in their essence, so more shouldn’t endanger them. Drakes are close to being full dragons, so adding more dragon essence should just move them closer. They are still young, so they should be able to adapt to some essence fairly easily.

  However, I am not about to experiment on my kids, I need someone else to test it on. I pay just enough attention to the lecturing to not let my wives know I am not really listening. The rest of my mind is working on who would be the best one to test the essence on.

  In the end, I decide that the best one to test it is going to be Lizzy and I’m pretty sure she will volunteer. Which means, all that is left is to learn the technique to infuse the essence into the blood. That should be easy enough once I can talk to Mulan, but I can’t do that until my wives are done lecturing me.

  It’s not like I can honestly promise it won’t happen again, if I get another chance I will take it. Of course, I am only going to hunt a dragon if I have one on my side to do the heavy lifting. I am not suicidal, at least not intentionally, but I also can’t pass up on something interesting like that.

  Eventually, my wives run out of steam and get tired of trying to convince me to be more careful. They all know that I won’t really change, but it makes them feel better to vent their worries. Besides, for some of them, I am pretty sure that they just enjoy telling me off.

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  As soon as my wives release me, I head over to ask Mulan about the technique. She explains how it works and even uses the soulscape to show me how to do it, but there is a problem. She doesn’t use mana to manipulate the essence, she has a natural ability to do so.

  That means that I will need to figure out how to make it work with mana, but it shouldn’t be too hard. I think it will be fine if I just figure out how to use my mana a little more delicately. Luckily, I have other essences that I can experiment with, so I won’t risk losing any dragon essence.

  I want to ask Lizzy if she will volunteer, but she is in the middle of the play fighting. I will just wait and ask her after I end the soulscape, it will be easier than interrupting the kids. Instead of interrupting them, I shrink down to their size and join in the playing.

  After all, I watched the memory replay as well and got more than a little worked up. The play lasts longer than normal because me and the kids are all worked up and don’t want to admit to being tired. Of course, once the kids finally do give in to sleep, I still have the energy to spend time with my wives.

  However, I don’t open a second soulscape like normal, I exit my meditation instead. I was expecting to be alone with Brightfire, but Grimgar and Asuna haven’t gone to bed. Then again, it isn’t that late, certainly not as late as I normally close the soulscapes.

  After listening for a minute I realize that Asuna is telling Grimgar more about the soulscape. I am not surprised that he would be curious, I don’t think I ever told him about it. I was aware of soulscapes when I met him, but I don’t think it ever came up in our conversations.

  Of course, I am using soulscapes a lot more now to keep in contact with everyone. Lizzy is getting up to leave, but I stop her to ask if she would be willing to volunteer. Since gaining dragon blood would get her closer to what she wants to be, she agrees.

  I let her know I have a few things to figure out, but that I will let her know when it is ready. From what Mulan taught me, infusing the blood is the hard part, absorbing it should be easy. A little will be lost in the absorption process, but that can’t really be helped.

  Maybe after this first attempt I will be able to figure out a way to improve the process. When Everburn gave me essence, I just used Absorb on the blood so nothing was lost. Lizzy will have to swallow the blood and let her body absorb it more naturally.

  That is the part where some will be lost, but maybe I can bypass that part of the process. If I were to cut Lizzy open and place the blood directly onto her core, that should prevent the loss. It will definitely be more painful, but Lizzy can handle it and if it works I can figure out a better method.

  That will be the plan, but first I need to find the time to experiment with infusing the blood. Hopefully, I will be able to find that time tomorrow and the experiment will go well. For now, Lizzy leaves and Leylisha follows her out, but Grimgar and Asuna are still talking.

  I trust them to take care of themselves and take Brightfire into our room to have some fun. Once she is asleep, I open another soulscape, invite the goddesses, and fill them in on the day’s fun. Seronia lectures me about not being careful, but Krenocia takes it in stride.

  I spend some more time with them once Seronia is done lecturing me and then end the soulscape. After that, I return to my normal form and eat more of the heart until I am stuffed. Then I lay down on my pile of gold and almost instantly fall fast asleep.