Although, if I can kill the hundred giants trapping Bull and get their essences, that might be a different story. I am fairly tempted to feed all the essence I have to the dragon essence to see the effect. However, that feels like it would be a waste at this point in time, so I don’t do it.

  Once the blood is ready, I put it away for the moment and discuss the next step with the others. Before I go cutting into Lizzy, I want the opinions of the others to see if there is a better option. I still want to apply the blood directly to Lizzy’s core if possible, but I would prefer to do it without cutting.

  Leafa says “That’s easy. I know a spell to make something intangible for a short time. You could put the drop inside the core if you wanted to.”

  “That sounds like the best way to do it to prevent loss of energy. Can you teach me that spell, please?”

  Leafa says “Of course! I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I wasn’t willing to.”

  The spell is fairly complex, but she manages to teach it to me in the time remaining before we stop for lunch. However, I have no idea how the blood will affect Lizzy, so I don’t plan to use it until later. We already lost a day of travel yesterday due to my issues, I don’t want to lose any more time.

  I will wait until tonight when we stop for dinner, that way if she takes some time to absorb it, it won’t delay us. Of course, if it takes more than a few hours, that could cause some problems. It didn’t take me much time to absorb Everburn’s blood, but as everyone likes to point out, I cheat.

  When we stop for lunch, I leave everyone else to eat together and head to meet the rulers. When we sit down to eat, they go over what plans they have made for defending the north. Queen Mavel and King Cecil are the ones who do most of the talking, but that is a mistake.

  “I think you are all forgetting something.”

  Emperor Amn says “What would that be?”

  “If the desert nomads abide by what we suggested, the northern desert will be practically abandoned. In that case, there will be no one to stop the beasts from using the desert to move south. All of your kingdoms will be in danger if that happens.”

  Queen Mavel says “You’re right, we didn’t think of that! If beasts take over the desert, we will be in worse shape than we were originally!”

  King Vex says “I am shielded from the desert, but I will certainly help as much as I am able to. I will provide some forces to aid Cecil and Estel.”

  King Cecil says “We appreciate it. We are going to have to heavily guard any caravans that try to cross the desert.”

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  “Don’t think of it as all bad. After all, the stronger the beasts the more valuable the materials that they can supply. If it is handled well, this could be a boon for your nations’ economies.”

  Emperor Amn says “That is a very good point. We have already seen an increase in tax revenue since we became able to kill the beasts of the living desert. This should be similar. Having advanced knowledge will make it easier.”

  Queen Mavel says “We will need to set up infrastructure to support hunters and the craftsmen who will buy what they bring back. We just have to get things started, after that it should support itself as long as there are beasts to hunt.”

  King Gremshow says “It would be more accurate to say that it will last as long as there are hunters who can successfully hunt the beasts. A lot of young hunters are going to die when facing stronger beasts.”

  “Probably true, but it is their choice to become hunters and the risks are not hidden from them. If they can’t handle it, they can always take up a different trade.”

  Emperor Amn says “There will always be fools who rush in without being properly prepared. It is not our responsibility to try and save them. We just have to make sure resources are available, if they don’t use them that is their own fault.”

  Queen Mavel says “Agreed! We will have to put things in place both along the north and along the desert. At least we have a few weeks to work and the beasts should take a bit longer to move south. I would say we make the announcement in two weeks. That will give people a little time to get used to the idea.”

  King Cecil says “I agree. We have already issued the orders, we will just need to expand on them, but that doesn’t have to be done today.”

  Emperor Amn says “Fair enough. Alright, let’s get back on the road.”

  I head back to my carriage and rejoin the others so that we can get back on the road. I cuddle with Sero and Kreno, while Bella cuddles with Damona and Leafa. Kirito is sound asleep after having his lunch and Asuna and Mulan are playing a card game.

  It is a nice peaceful time and it lasts until the caravan stops to make camp for the night. I set up the cabin, but no one goes inside, they want to watch how the experiment goes. Lizzy also knows what is coming and she is almost dancing in place from excitement.

  “Alright, settle down. This won’t work if you don’t hold still!”

  Lizzy stills and says “Sorry, I can’t help being excited!”

  “I wouldn’t be too excited, this is probably going to hurt. The essence is fire attuned and you are earth attuned. They are probably going to conflict with each other and that will hurt.”

  Lizzy says “That doesn’t matter, I will not stop me! Now, do it!”

  To keep Lizzy from freaking out on me, I take the drop of blood infused with dragon essence out of my pouch. Then, I use the spell that Leafa taught me to make it intangible and move it into Lizzy’s body. I move quickly, but carefully to get the drop of blood into Lizzy’s core before the spell ends.

  Once the drop is in place, I let the spell end, but I continue paying close attention to her core. It starts out looking like a rotating ball of dirt, but as the blood is absorbed it changes. The various shades of brown are soon broken by a few small red lines across part of the core.

  It takes me a second to recognize them, but when I do I realize that I miscalculated. Earth and fire aren’t opposing elements, in fact they sit next to each other and between them is a sub-element, magma. Her specialty is going to remain earth, but from now on she will have magma as a sub-element.

  If we can get her some more fire element aspect essence her magma abilities should get stronger. Of course, that isn’t the only change that happens to her core, just the most obvious. I’m sure that other things have changed, but I’m not good enough with cores to tell what.