In the name of his imperial majesty, the emperor, Vale Fanath, the 126th squad of the 3rd legion is to:

  Cross the Iralen mountain range and the northern border and take control of the [Uncommon] core 53 units from the last mountain. It is commanded to not interfere with the populous, report back to headquarters after completion of task. Further orders are to be given afterwards, if there is any confusion then request parley with headquarters, follow standard procedure for [Rare] cores; if any complications appear the squad leader holds the right to request parley or chose a course of action beyond standard procedure.

  No discrepancies to be found within her memories, though the order still felt strange even after she confirmed it with the notary before setting off. It gave her far more authority than usual along with noting no deadline when she had to contact headquarters or abandon the mission. Truly free reign over how the objective was finished, or they didn't expect them to be able to take over the core.

  Understandable, truly, they were indeed created only a year earlier. With lower than average levels for the third legion, it could be for experience for the five of them until a more experienced squad or team was available.

  Iralithen Hasturnal Benenthin, or shortened to 'Iralen' for the ease of fellow dragons, yawned as a slightly annoying bell rang. The air reverberating from his shuddering breath, the rock and snow dancing along in tune.

  "Silence your ringing." He stated calmly, his words gruff from the very nature of draconic speech without skills to aid it. And the next moment it had, such were the pleasures of being born of a greater species.

  Stretching out a singular leg, Iralen pulled himself up roughly. The dragon didn't know for which reason the humans had come this time, but the benefits that came with them let Iralen bare with the bell.

  All that was important to him currently was whether they were a delegation of the empire instead of the scant few merchants that crossed through his desolation, taking a moment to fully purge any drowsiness as he looked about.

  In early hours of the day he had been rudely awoken, an irritance only affordable through gold and silver. And Iralen expect a moderate sum as reperations as he crawled out from the small shining hoard he had accrued and dragged himself out of the cavernous opening in the mountain adorned with eternal frost "State your business, humans."

  Iralen's eyes shifted downwards along with his head, revealing to him a mere five runts. But seeing the pale yellow reflection revealed in a crease of one of their burdens, the gargantuan monster was pleased enough not to kill them.

  "Great dragon Iralithen Hasturnal Benenthis, me and my compatriots request safe passage through your do- Desolation," The dragon's eyes flickered slightly at the almost misspoken word, but decided to not kill the insect for it "In exchange for this grand magnanimity we ask of you, we come baring tribute."

  The little sentient looked to its four friends, and as if coordinated they directly emptied the contents onto the polished and newly shoveled platform carved into the second highest mountain peak.

  Taking a moment to properly inspect the items, Iralen's low level supported his review of their quality, small tidbits of information directly entering the beast's brain along that which he himself had found. With hop Iralen descended from the entrance to his place rest to the polished, ornate and level surface below.

  The snow subtly shook from the impact of his weight striking stone, an insignificant fact in comparison to the design and quality of a specific goblet. Though not studded by any gem, its every contour was refined and with only minor hiccup and despite whatever age it might've been still reflecting the light of the dawn sun as a horizontal jagged line through the middle of bowl.

  The image offered from the small streams of fact was far too discordant for a dragon to be satisfied, especially for such a craft. So, though it grated on the dragon's pride, he took and used it in its parodied form; the caricature used by those lesser.

  None of the rest of the tribute could compare, though some were [Uncommon], with one or two [Rare], they were all created by talents who were climbing their way up to the peaks of mastery. Although the chalice was merely [Common], the creation of a master was more valuable even if one or two ranks below.

  Gently stretching out a claw, he took it up to level with his snout. Now that it was closer, its quality even more apparent. Though he couldn't properly appraise its exact worth, though that word held far more connotations than merely the amount it could be sold for in a human market. But it was sure to be a great adornment as a figurehead of his collection, to think he'd be able to get it from some random human tribute.

  Really, those damn humans, always focused on the rare and glamour of a work instead of the subtle details. It was telling that not even a single human with inspect was able to figure out the true worth of the piece despite having skills like at their behest, with a proud snort of flame expelled from his scaled nostrils Iralen felt quite happy with today.

  But, the goblet- Which he carefully placed down near the entrance of his not so humble abode- Would not make him forget an important task he had set upon himself "Are you humans vassals of the empire?"

  The little two legged things, at least the front one, seemed to not be prepared for his question "Yes- Yes we could be said to be vassals of the empire."

  "Good, I've been thinking of something," He explained "Took a long time to ponder and contemplate, so, how would the empire feel about taking over that kingdom right of me?"

  ...

  "What?" The little human rat asked, putting into question their non-deaf qualification.

  But as a dragon he understood their pain, though he couldn't sympathize, and gracefully explained "Recently, a little group of you humans come into my desolation and tried to steal one of my treasures in my nest, and they came from that kingdom. Those little locusts have always been a bit too arrogant for their own good, always grating at my patience. And, I've decided, that 'Kingdom' shouldn't exist anymore."

  ...

  This was starting to grate on his patience, and here he had thought those empire humans had the slightest bit of smarts to understand who was at the top of the food chain "Get to your senses and answer, does the empire want to conquer that kingdom to my right, with my assistance of course."

  "Umm, Great dragon Iralithen Hasturnal Benenthis, me and my companions... Do not have the authority to decide on this." The dissapointing words left the pest's mouth.

  "Then tell someone with that authority to come here!" He yelled out, almost outraged that his very obvious intentions had not been noticed. The snow, long since disturbed before, started to tumble down to the realms below.

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  The roars of the avalanche below accentuating the scene about, the human was obviously scared. As it should be, at least it seemed to have gained some sense in the last few moments, perceived near death experiences usually did quite well in that regard "Yes, yes, right away. I'll report to my superiors at once!"

  Not formal enough for his tastes, but it was enough due to the fact that Iralen himself had inspired their current state intentionally "Off with you, begone from my desolation."

  "Absolutely, me and my companions will go; post-haste!"

  With that done, he ignored the scared whispers of the travelers and looked towards his newest treasure.

  Once again carefully taking it up with two claws, it being unknown how much of a beating the chalice could take before it started to malform, Iralen began to ponder where to put the chalice to make sure he didn't accidentally destroy it in his sleep. It wasn't as if a mere human would look towards this meagre chalice when far more qualitatively impressive goblets were within his pile of old and silver.

  Though, with the words of the humans growing louder and louder with urgency, he gazed back to see what the problem was. Two of the five had already made haste as promised, while three remained. One stood there and was proficiently clawing off the other two who were dragging him away.

  "What is it human?" Iralen asked, though he might've acted as if enraged previously, he was not truly angry at the humans themselves.

  Just their intrinsic nature as inferior beings.

  "Iralithen Hasturnal benenthis! I request for you to grant me !"

  Iralen dropped the chalice, it slowly falling down to the ground and reaching the floor cup-first, after which bouncing near perfectly back onto its base where it hopped and rotated somewhat as the force of the fall diminished.

  With the shock at the human's audacity cleaned away in seconds in response to the far more important fact that he had dropped the perfected chalice from multiple meters high, the dragon's eyes fell on the upright goblet without the slightest sign of harm. It seemed that the 'Resistance to all non-magical damage' meant a bit more than just being hardy, increasing its value even more.

  The dragon quickly decided that it needed to meet with his mother to get it properly appraised for its worth.

  "You are lucky that this small goblet was of higher quality than expected, human," He spouted with annoyance and disdain clear "I am indeed a descendant of the ancient dragon Garth'ul Hasteron U'u'l and have learnt of the . But what makes a worm like you think yourself worthy of it?"

  "I wouldn't know," The human said himself, how two other companions having already run away "I'm just a human, you tell me great dragon Iralithen Hasturnal Benenthis, whether or not I am worthy. For this great honour I offer as tribute this single coin."

  Taking out a grey-ish coin, Iralen could not fathom why he would ever care about something so crude and dull.

  The human obviously noticed his disdain for the coin "This coin is made of a special aspect-born metal formed within the earthen crust, Acel, said to be lighter than lithium and stronger than iron, making its holder faster if made into an armament. And really expensive due to its rarity, as in how hard it is to find natural Acel."

  He did not see the appeal, humans used tools and the like, why would a dragon like himself need such a thing? Even then, considering the difference in scale the amount of it he'd require for even a single piece of equipment was far more than he could bother to gather from what he heard about armoured dragons from the days of old.

  Well, if the humans thought it was so valuable, it was probably somewhat good in the way that it was rare. It could probably be given to Rathjin for something actually worth something "Fine, show me your status and I'll see."

  With the dull pebble of metal thrown into the pile, with making sure it wasn't just some random piece of iron.

  The human was actually pretty good, an [Epic] skill at level 27 was- As Iralen had heard from his parents- A grand achievement for a non-dragon. Then came the amount of skills, especially the variety. From the most random to the surprisingly high-level .

  "...Impressive for a human," he had to admit "But, a single, little problem.

  Your class isn't [Epic]."

  The human, obviously not clear on the details of the skill he asked for, quested "Huh? Why is that so important?"

  "The is only usable with an [Epic] or [Legendary] class, at least for you humans it is." He explained casually, starting to look at the treasures that had been given to him as to get a proper gasp as to where to put them.

  The news though, telling from the human's tone, did not seem to diminish their mood "So, as long as I have an [Epic] class you'll give me ?"

  Iralithen Hasturnal Benenthis, the dragon who ruled the Iralen mountain ranged, paused for a moment at the words. Considering the humans large amount of skills and probably pretty good stats along with the previously unknown , it was possible that the would bring him a good amount of of experience "...Sure, if you upgrade the rarity of your class in whatever ways you humans do it, I'll give it to you. Now; begone."

  With a swipe of his hand, mana poured out of the outstretched claws which engulfed the piles of trinkets and were turned into something a little more physical though still immaterial as they dragged the gold and silver off the ground.

  Considering the conversation over, he took the goblet into his grasp once more and flapped his wings; flying up back into his abode, ignoring everything else behind him.

  Ben, {Jack of all trades} and master of one, found himself falling down a worryingly large incline by draconian influence. Though with his 46 physique he would still be harmed and it could potentially permanently kill him if unlucky, he was not even thinking about that fact. Instead, thoughts about how to go about removing his class were all that were inside his head, though that didn't stop him from taking out an ice pick from his belt and tying a top around its handle.

  He spun the newly created climbing implement before launching it below him when he was a mere 30 meters above where he would land, but felt that the ice pick would only leave a grevus wound in the stone. From the worry came a thought, his breath tightening his focus sharpened and his spirit flared at his mastery of other arts.

  The ice pick slammed into the rocks, and as if distorted by some force the power behind the ice pick dimmed after it had entered its new resting place.

  A second or two later, his body finally caused the rope to tighten which in turn caused his body's kinetic energy to arch towards the wall just below his personal property.

  Though the landing did in fact hurt, for both Ben himself and the rock that had dared to clash with him, it seemed that he had survived. Though he hadn't expected anything in specific, it was good that he lived without much damage.

  'I guess... Kinetic climbing law.'

  "Yooo! Nothing is gonna top today while! Dragons be praised!" He yelled out, sadly not causing an avalanche himself due to a recent one having taken away all the snow that could cause one.

  He pulled himself up with a wide smile all the way to the ice pick, holding it with one hand while undoing the rope attached to it and putting it back in one of the pockets of his gold-lacking bag. With that done he put his free left hand to the rock and forced his fingers into the stone with brute force and , after which taking the ice pick back to its original spot at his side.

  Now just to descend and find that [Uncommon] dungeon, since he had not a single clue where the others would go after passing through the mountains.