[Xander – 13 years]

"Hi, Niels," I say as I land on his island.

Now that the weekend is over, I'm back to my regular routine. That means I'm on my SMP right now, and Niels is on right now as well. He's been on a lot in his free time, and his island is looking really nice now.

Almost all of his structures are built out of wood, but he accepted some of the stone and other materials I traded him for more advice last week. The advice is mostly because I still don't understand the trees stuff, but also because I wasn't sure on some things for building houses.

With the materials I traded to him, he's done some work on the island, including in the construction of buildings and trees. They all look way better than anything I've attempted to make.

I don't think he's left the island to gather materials on his own, though, which is really weird. He does have the ability to, he's just choosing not to for some reason.

There's a farm toward the eastern edge of his island, but I can see a barn near the southwestern edge. A grove was created around the pond, which was also altered a little to make it a little bit deeper and wider. That whole thing looks really nice. A few buildings were constructed, and he's kept the trees we built while he was teaching me about them.

Though he's expanded that area and even added in some more plants there, so it doesn't look as odd as it did to me on Thursday.

"Hey, Xander!" he greets me. "I heard there was a dangerous Rift in Kenzibri. The news reports said it was dealt with by the Special Magic Forces and a few contracted mages who were stronger. Were you guys okay? It didn't cause any problems where you are, did it?"

"It was two thousand miles from here."

"Wait, seriously?" He asks.

"Yeah."

"Huh," he says. "So no one there was hurt?"

"No," why does he care? "And Luke went to help take care of it. So did the ninja twins. They live near where it opened up and decided to join in on the fight. From what I heard, they actually did most of the work in fighting the monsters."

Though I didn't know Greyson had gotten the information by hacking the military until after he finished telling me about it. There's a lot of information he doesn't know about, and I knew it was the twins from asking Grandpa Adrian. Greyson just knew that Luke had sensed two younger boys fighting there.

"Oh," he says. "That's good… and who are the ninja twins? I don't think I've heard of any Kenzibri mages who could be called that."

"A pair of cousins on my father's side," I tell him. "They like teleporting around and being ninja. They sometimes show up here 'cause Greyson's got a lot of ninja working for him and they like to mess with them."

They also apparently like playing with the bear being. It's getting too cold for water balloons now, so I let him know that it would just annoy people and make them mad. He promised to figure out something else to play with others with but let me know that there were a pair of boys who teleport around and are throwing snowballs now.

I can only think of the ninja twins, so I'm guessing it's them.

"Ah," Niels says. "It sounded like the monsters were pretty strong – that if it hadn't ended how when it did, a Lumaria King would've been called in."

"They estimated it to have monsters roughly as strong as Luke at the strongest," I say. "And he could handle those on his own, normally. Even in groups. But they had crystallized mana reserves, which made it more difficult for him to face. And they were really good at barriers, too. He broke his left arm in several places just fighting one. They had a healer good enough to fix it up mostly. Then Grandpa Adrian healed it the rest of the way."

I don't care about Luke, but Dad was still telling me about Luke's injury anyway. I don't understand why and can't figure it out.

"That's good to hear," Niels tells me. "The public statement by Kenzibri didn't mention something that was in rumors I've heard. There are rumors claiming a deity showed up and closed the Rift, then killed all of the monsters left alive. Do you know anything about that?"

When I asked Grandpa Adrian why the military lied, he told me that it's sometimes better for them to lie. This is true even when there might be rumors of the truth. That doesn't make any sense to me, so I guess it's an adult thing.

He also didn't tell me I wasn't allowed to say what really happened. Or at least, what I know about it.

"I was asleep when it happened," I tell him. "I was dreaming about gummy bear mages fighting off an army of chocolate cats invading from another dimension. The King Gummy Bear sealed the portal they were using and his army threw a giant fireball at the chocolate cats. It killed them all at once. I told them to use flamethrowers if they didn't have void magic, but even a dreamsage isn't always in control of his dreams. I'm also still really new to that sort of thing…"

Which means it can be hard to remember that I can actually make my dreams do what I want. Remembering how to alter my dreams with my dream magic is also difficult sometimes.

"So you don't know what happened?" Niels asks.

"Grandpa Adrian said it wasn't a god," I tell him. "Just that it was a really, really, really powerful nonhuman person who lives on Earth."

"So something like a dragon, then?" He asks. "No… I'm not sure there are any dragons who can close Rifts. Based on what the spirits told me, it was probably some sort of greater spirit, then?"

So it was spirits who were his source of information. Were they just gossiping, or did he actually ask them for information?

"Dunno," I answer. "Grandpa Adrian was really vague. All he would really tell me is that they ain't hostile and ain't gonna cause problems. Also that he didn't just close the Rift… he apparently put a seal on Earth itself preventing dimensional tears. Grandpa Adrian said it's temporary and will fade in a month or so unless a really powerful force causes a tear. So there ain't even gonna be microrifts until then."

"Waitwaitwait," Niels says. "The entire world is going to be Rift-free for about a month?"

"Unless something really strong causes a tear or the seal is removed, yeah," I say. "Grandpa Adrian said that the being had never done that before and may not have even been aware that it made one. That it was likely thinking 'no more Rift' and that is what its magic did. Only it was influencing such a large area that it just… covered Earth with that."

The amount of mana it must have taken to do that would no doubt be vastly more than the amount of mana I used up while I was dreaming about the chocolate cat army invasion. When I woke up after, I was drained. Grandpa Adrian said I was using my dream magic to view the world's dream and was probably interpreting its nightmare of the battle as a chocolate cat invasion.

A fireball being used to kill all of the chocolate cats at once instead of flamethrowers may have been my dream self's way of interpreting that other being killing off all of the monsters. I just wish my dream wasn't realistic enough that I could smell burnt chocolate in it.

At least the banana bread was delicious.

But putting a seal on Earth itself? Even I don't have that much mana. Earth is way too big for me to affect even with a proper spell, much less by subconsciously affecting reality itself.

"So something like that is possible, huh?" Niels mumbles a little. "Wait. Xander? If a seal like that is possible, then do you know why Magus Adrian hasn't done it? It'd save Earth a lot of trouble."

"He said it'd bring about the apocalypse if a seal like that was on Earth for too much time," I answer. "Apparently, the seal would require affecting certain aspects of Earth's functions and cycle. A temporary seal lasting only a month is fine, but not for any longer. Or repeatedly."

Although… magic can be weird. Would redirecting Rifts to a designated area have that same issue? It could be that it's anything which would interfere in the natural process for a Rift to form, but it could also be specifically outright blocking their formation. He never told me not to close Rifts again after closing the one so it has to do with their formation.

I think.

More information is needed, but that'll have to wait until Grandpa Adrian decides it's time for me to know. I can ask him, but that doesn't mean he'll answer.

"Also," I add. "Grandpa Adrian said that a month would be pushing it for that, but he can substitute for a few days using his own magic. If it gets too bad, he'll just remove the seal – but he wants to leave it up just so we've got a monthish of rest. Also out of respect to that other being. I guess they're old friends or something."

"Huh," he says. "Well, alright! By the way, did you need something? Or just came to chat? Sorry I got us side-tracked. If you wanted something, we can chat while we do that."

"Oh," I say. "Um… what did I want again? Oh, right! I wanted to try making my house look better, so I wanted to look at your house again. Is that okay?"

"Go ahead!" He says. "You don't need to ask if you want to take a look. You might have given me this island, but it's still a part of your domain."

"My bedroom is mine, but it's still Dad's house," I state. "And he still asks me before opening the door. Mostly. There are some times where he doesn't, like if I'm having really bad dreams."

"Like the chocolate cat army?"

"I was at Isaac's house then," I tell him. "And that wasn't a nightmare, just a bad dream with a happy end. Also a weird dream. I only ate one cheesecake after waking up."

"How many slices do you eat after nightmares?"

"Not slices," I say. "I ate a whole cheesecake. For the nightmares… I sometimes eat three? But it's been awhile since I had an actual nightmare. Now it's mostly just bad dreams when they're not good ones."

"You ate an entire cheesecake after your nap?"

"Yeah."

"What kind?"

"Caramel swirl with a blueberry crumble crust."

"Sounds delicious!"

"It was," I confirm. "But I think I overdid the caramel. And the blueberries. I'll have to use less next time."

My thought was that more blueberries and caramel would make it better, but there's apparently a thing such as too much. Well, not in terms of taste. More was definitely better for that. Unfortunately, it had a bad affect on the texture of the crust and the cheesecake.

"You made it?"

"Yeah."

"Neat!" He says. "I'll let you get to your inspection. Lemme know if you have any questions!"

"Okay."

I look at Niels's house again and ask him a few questions about it, then use my warpstone to head to Central Plaza. Thankfully, the others call it that now and there's even a sign at each of its entrances calling it that.

"Spawn" is such a weird thing to call something and that's why I wanted to call it "Central Plaza" instead. Another name I considered was "the Market", but it's not just a market. There's also a bank, and there might be other stuff in the future. Like the bathhouse, which is now fully finished.

And another building labeled as "PRISON"… which wasn't there on Thursday. I'll avoid that building as best as I can. It must be something Mom or the other admins decided on in order to punish players who broke the rules.

I have zero intention of breaking the server's rules.

Rather than staying in Central Plaza, I leave it and walk to the village Lexi is also building up. She added in a home for Abby, while Kyle and Leif each built their own homes. Of course, there's also Lexi's own house, then the houses for the villagers.

All of which make for good examples of what can be done for a house. They all fit the theme Lexi's using for the village, which is different from the theme I'm going with for the fairy village. That's fine, though. I mostly just want to see how they detail the exteriors of the houses and shape them. The block choices will be my own.

In the videos I looked up for guides, the creators were saying they were texturing their buildings. They did that by using different blocks with a similar color palate when making walls. No one here has done that, though.

Niels used cobblestone to build a foundation for his house, and he has a brick chimney and fireplace. The rest of his house was built from wood stuff. When he built it, he did use a few different wood types, but it was all from the fairy forest's wood types. That's similar to the fairy villagers' houses, except his is a little bit fancier. And his house isn't just a small square or a rectangle, either. He has some parts of it which protrude out, so that it's not too plain.

There's even a porch on the front, stopped on one side by the living room jutting forward a few more blocks. The differences of materials were for things like trim, rather than within individual walls or the roofs.

In Lexi's village, the same thing was done. They didn't just use a square or a rectangle for the full outside, they built it with some variation in depth.

One difference between here and Niels's house, however, is the block choices. They used wooden frames and a wooden border for the roof (I think the roofs are made with stairs?), but stone-type blocks for the walls and the rest of each roof.

This looks a lot cleaner than in the videos, but the ones in the videos still looked good, too. The players on here are using decorations to break up the monotonous design. Plants, lanterns, barrels, hay bales, and more. It doesn't look cluttered, either.

"Hey, Xander!" Abby jumps as she approaches me.

One day, I'll figure out why people jump as they run in this game. But I don't want to ask because it's probably supposed to be something everyone knows and I'm just dumb. Admitting I don't know would make people make fun of me.

Even if automod will prevent their messages from going into the chat, I still want to avoid them being sent more in the first place.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Most of the server members are online right now, so encountering at least one while in the village was something I figured might happen. Not as a guarantee as they do go off and do other stuff, but I knew it was possible.

Since it's been a week since the new members joined, Dad suggested I ask them how they're finding the server if I come across them. I think that means to see if they're enjoying it.

"Hello, Abby," I greet her as she comes to a stop. "Are you having fun on here?"

"I am!" She answers. "The roleplay's a bit fun! I'm really enjoying the coins system, too. Haven't played with that particular mod before, and it's fun trying to figure out what I need to do to earn enough for what I want."

"That's good," I say. "No one's being mean to you?"

"Nope!" She answers. "Though I do complain a lot in my roleplay, that's all just the character I'm playing! So if you overhear me complaining, just know that I'm in roleplay and am having fun!"

"You're complaining in roleplay?"

"My character doesn't like hard work," she tells me. "She prefers an easier life where everything's simple and she doesn't to do much but watch TV, scroll on the internet, pick out pretty outfits and stuff, post online, and so on. Getting stranded here was awful for her and she's in an adjustment period."

"I'm not going to pretend to understand that."

Abby laughing and the transcription chat on my side showing my words in Zrebzialan lets me know I said that out loud. Oops. Also, I should probably set it so that the transcriptions either don't show the user's own words, or it doesn't if they're speaking in the same language it translates to. The purpose of it is so that their viewers – who presumably speak the same native tongue as them – can understand when other languages are spoken.

"Are you having fun?" Abby asks.

"I'm trying to figure out how to improve the house I built for me on the islands," I tell her. "So I was taking a look at the ones here to see how better builders did it. I'll probably still do a bad job, but at least it won't be as bad as if I didn't look at others' stuff for reference. I hope."

"Good luck!" She tells me. "Did you want to do anything right now? I'm not in roleplay at the moment, was mostly just talking with chat and saw you hanging around."

"I'm sitting."

"Sitting?" She asks. "What do you mean by that?"

"I'm not hanging off of anything," I tell her. "I'm sitting."

"Oh!" She laughs again. "No, I mean that you were just here, in the game. Not that you were literally hanging off of something, and not in real life. Just hanging out, in the game."

"Oh," I say. How do I properly respond to this? "Thank you for the offer, but I want try and get my house improved. It's looking horrible compared to the others and that's bothering me."

"Alright!" She says. "Have fun!"

"Thank you," I tell her. "You have fun, too."

I teleport back to the main fairy village from the islands, then start working on attempting to improve my house. It's just a square, but I didn't like that shape in the first place. Since it doesn't have to be a square… I tear out all of its walls and turn it into a circle. I do need to use another site so I know how to make it a circle properly, but I like how it looks after… sort of.

The interior needs a lot of work to fix it up, too, since there's a lot of dirt blocks for the floor since I didn't touch the inside yet post-change. To avoid having to rearrange the inside, I made the diameter wider than the house had been before. That made it so that everything was still within the boundaries, even with the circle's shape making it smaller than if it were a square of the same width.

Stupid me. I didn't even think about the fact that I'd need to rearrange the inside as well, to make everything look nice in there, too.

"It's missing something…" I say as I look at the outside to see if I'm happy with it or not. "Other than the roof, I mean."

[GarbledGargle]: If you didn't strip all of the logs, it would look kind of like the trunk of a tree, minus branches, leaves, and roots.

Oh! So he can say stuff that's not asking me if I'm a black belt.

Chat just started their messages to indicate laughter. I said that out loud, didn't I?

"That's a lot of stuff that'd be missing for a tree trunk," I say. "It'd either be a really short but fat tree, or I'd need to make it a little bit taller. And then all of the branches, and the roots… and there ain't a single window… but I can figure that out after I fix up the inside. But a tree would probably make it fit into the naturey look more… um… I need help."

I fly back over to Niels's island, where he's currently breeding cattle.

"Hey, Xander!" He says after I land. "Gimme just a sec and I'll be right over there."

"Okay."

I wait for Niels to come over.

"Someone in my chat said my house would look like a tree," I tell him. "If it had branches and leaves and roots and if I hadn't stripped the logs. I didn't like it being square and wasn't sure how to do the parts where a room sticks out more. So I made it a circle instead. But that's so much different from a tree, especially since it'd need a lot of change. But then I was thinking… what if I did make it a tree? It would fit with the nature look I want the islands to have, right? But my attempts at doing custom trees on my own were bad, and I ain't sure how to do a house that's a tree. So I was wondering if you'd be okay with helping me?"

"Sure!" He says. "Is it on the main island?"

"Um… lemme put some teleport pads down."

After I do that, I let Niels they're ready. He uses the one on his island to reach the main fairy village, then the second one there to go to the island with my in-game home on it.

"How wide is it?" He asks as he looks at my attempt at a circular house.

"Twenty-seven blocks," I tell him. "That's three times three times three, and it was big enough to fit the stuff that's already in there. But now I need to rearrange the inside, too."

"Alright," he says. "There's not a lot of time left until you're done streaming. If you'd like, I can help you replace the stripped logs with regular ones, then Wednesday, I can help you build up the branches, leaves, and roots."

"Okay," I say. "Let's plan on that, then."

[Sig – 13 years] → starts around the beginning of Xander's PoV.

There's no Axel in the cove even though he's marked as online, so he's probably out doing something on his own. As for Niko… I'm fairly certain he's responsible for the light blocks spelling out "SIG" with an arrow pointing down to a chest.

Also for the lighting in the cove itself. It's not super bright in here, but it's good enough to see by and to make the cove feel like an actual cave… one with no visible exit.

My ship is in here, but the cove's entrance is sealed over at the end of the tunnel leading into here. Since Axel's ship is gone (it's not as grand as mine), I hope he's raiding some stuff, but wouldn't be upset if he's not.

It would just be cool to see what he brings back. Though… doesn't he normally log on right around now as well? He left pretty fast.

"Wasn't he going to close up the entrance so that it's not visible?" I ask out loud. "Lemme check the chest."

In the chest are two message books with a message from Niko along with some other items. The message books are signed, so I know they're from him. One of them is titled "Seb", the other is just "Announcement".

I open the one with my name on it first.

Seb,

The entrance to the cove is two-part. They open through different methods.

When exiting the cove, look for three connected glow lichen on the upper wall to the left of the tunnel. Throw a water bomb at it. It'll open the entrance, and you'll have ten seconds to pass through before it closes on its own. I tested with Axel and his ship can make it through in that time.

For the exit from the tunnel into the ocean, look for the five connected glow lichen with a darkslate block behind them, on the lower-right. Throw an earth bomb at it. Ten seconds before it closes up again.

For entering the tunnel from the ocean, look for the mossy block with a pink flower atop it. Throw a wind bomb at it. Ten seconds before it closes up again.

For entering the cavern from the tunnel, look for the trio of connected glow lichen by where the water meets the wall on the right. Three blocks down from that is a block which matches the rest. Throw a trident at it.

Thanks for commissioning Niko's Base Concealment Company! We hope to serve you again!

"Goofball," I snort after I finish reading the book to chat. "Also, hold on!"

I open the chest back up.

"He put three of each of the three bombs into the chest," I say. "But no trident! Aren't those rare? Why'd he make it so I can't reenter all the way? And now I know why you were laughing, chat! You knew from his streams!"

Chat starts laughing even harder, and I just shake my head a little.

"Okay," I say. "Lemme read this other book."

Niko's Combat Emporium, now open for business!

Check out our inventory today!

Elemental Bombs – 1s apiece!

Tridents – 1g apiece!

Books of Return – 20s apiece!

And more!

"This brat!" I exclaim, then quickly shift back to character. "Thinks he can con a pirate captain, does he? Sets up an entrance which requires stuff he sells to open? And it doesn't come with much more than enough to leave? Especially after stealing more of my money? We'll see about that!"

I hop on my ship and set sail for spawn, making sure to be as precise with the bombs as I can as I leave. The tunnel really does open up when I hit the designated spots with the designated bombs, and it closes back up after ten seconds. It takes me less than that to go through, so I might ask him if he can shorten the time.

After I raid his shop, of course.

As spawn's beach comes into view, so does Axel's ship.

"Oh! He must be here!"

As I draw even nearer… I notice that some chains were attached to his ship, linking it to steel blocks on the shore. Signs were set up around it as well, including stuck to it, all of them in vertical pairs. They all say the same thing.

Property

of the

Federation

Do Not

Touch

"Excuse you?" I say. "That ship belongs to my minion! Who does the Federation think they are, stealing his ship?"

I park my ship and head into Central Plaza, where two new shops and a prison have been set up. Something tells me I should check out the prison first, but I head to one of the new shops. The other one is Niko's construction company, while this one is his emporium.

Niko's inside when I enter, and waves. He didn't have school today, which is probably the only reason he's able to be on right now.

"Welcome!" He says. "Got anything you want to buy today?"

"Give me a trident and a book of return," I tell him. "As well as five stacks of each of the three bombs I need for entering and exiting my base."

"That'll be fifteen stacks and twenty silver, plus one gold!" He tells me.

"I don't comply with con artists who scam innocent people out of their money!" I switch my main hand to my sword. "Nor who steal from me!"

"Innocent?" He asks. "Since when is a pirate innocent? And I didn't steal anything not already stolen."

"I stole that money fair and square!" I tell him.

"So you admit to a crime?"

"You rigged my base so that it needs stuff you sell to access!" I tell him. "And gave me what was essentially a one-use key! And you didn't even give me one of the keys!"

"You didn't ask for that to be included," he says. "Only that the entrance opens and closes, to prevent others from finding it. I followed the contract."

"You scammed me!" I say. "I'm leaving your company a bad review!"

"I look forward to it!"

I start attacking him from this side of the counter and learn that PvP has apparently been turned on. That was definitely off before. Regardless of the reason for the change, I manage to kill him fairly fast. Niko's just laughing the entire time so I'm sure he's okay with it.

Once he's dead, I loot his shop. There isn't much in stock here, so I guess the items might not be that easy to farm in just a few days.

For good measure, I take all of his stock, including the three tridents he had in a chest in the back. There was only one in the front, so I know he was hoping to fool me.

With his shop looted, I leave and make my way over to the prison. Inside… I find Axel in a cell. Yup. Had a feeling this was why I hadn't heard from Axel. He got captured somehow, as I doubt he turned himself in.

"Captain!" He exclaims. "I got careless and captured! The Agent took everything I had after that builder kid dropped me in a trap!"

"Builder kid?" I ask. "Niko?"

"Yeah, that thieving bastard!" He says. "I went to his base to steal back what he'd taken from you, then found myself in a hole with an Agent showing up! I failed you! But if you give me another chance, I promise I'll earn back everything I let that thief steal!"

"As long as you don't betray me," I say. "I won't ever turn my back on you. Let's go, man!"

I break through the bars, then we flee Central Plaza. I toss Axel some gear and he breaks the signs and chains on his ship, then boards it. Once he's got it moving, I set sail on my own. The Agent shows up as we leave, but they're on the shore and doesn't seem interested in warping onto the ships.

"We might need to change the code to the base," I tell him after moving my ship closer to his as we sail. "Keep that con artist out!"

"No worries about that, Captain!" Axel says. "I already changed the trident one! Attempting that will result in death!"

"Nice!" I exclaim. "A booby trap! Wait. So how do we get in, then?"

"Put a living cod in the water on the opposite side!" He answers. "It'll die and the door will open! Though I guess I'll need to reacquire some buckets of it. They might have emptied out my ship's storage, too."

"I've got iron down below," I tell him. "We can make buckets to catch more with."

"Nice!" He says. "Let's go raid more villages!"

Something I realized last week is that the admins are definitely upgrading any of the villages I looted already. They've also destroyed some of the shipwrecks and put in new ships. The upgrades aren't immense, but they're enough to show the village has gotten better after being raided… most of the time. Some of the villages seem to be in an even worse state than I left them in.

However, this only applies to the ones I've raided only once. Any I've raided a second time is still suffering from the raids.

This is a pretty nice touch to the lore, and I really like that they're doing that. It shows that some villages begin to fail after the raids, while others manage to build themselves back up and even upgrade their security.

There may be a time where I'll actually have to fight against the golems or whatever is being used as the village's security during the raids.

Which I am absolutely looking forward to. If they don't eventually set it up so that I have to, I'll ask them for that addition.

Once we've returned to the cove, we put our booty away.

"Thanks for rescuing me, Captain!" Axel says. "Been in there for two days now!"

"No problem, Axel!" I say. "You ever need help out of a pinch, you let me know! No member of the Federation will ever hold my crew for long!"

Neither of us have something to say after that so we're quiet for a few moments.

"So," Axel says. "What was it like, to meet a real dragon in its real form? Or did you not go visit? Heard that old guy made a public appearance at Xander's request."

It doesn't surprise me that people from other countries heard about a dragon making an appearance and revealing their actual existence. The same thing happened when a unicorn decided to stop hiding from sight and reveal to the public that they're real and not mythological.

It's even less surprising to me that someone who's mostly dragon heard about such a major event relating to his own kind.

"It was so strange," I say. "The feel of his scales… it was like they were both liquid and solid, yet neither. And not solid like ice, but as if water was just… a solid."

"Water-type dragons are like that, yeah," he says. "Though I've heard it's people who are mostly human who find it strange. We're sun-type, so we're both light and fire. My girlfriend said that my scales are what she'd imagine fire to be if it were a solid… yet also not hot. Warm, but not hot."

"Like early summer sun on your skin?" I ask.

"Yup," he says. "I've felt a sea-variant dragon's scales before and they didn't feel strange to me. I can agree about how they feel, they just don't feel strange to me."

"Probably because you're mostly dragon," I say. "Though now that I think about it… I'll ask Xander how they felt to him. There's no way he didn't feel them at some point. Oh! Speaking of Dragon River, how close is his name's approximation?"

"Uh…" he says. "Well, magical languages don't transmit over the internet. Tech – even magitech – isn't designed for that. And I think the only time it's been said in a way I could hear it was on the stream. Since I was watching the VoD and not there in person, I didn't actually hear what was said."

"So no one there knows it?"

"I'm sure someone does," he says. "Dragons tend to travel a lot rather than abiding by territories for the extent of where they go, or countries. We might not be full dragons, but our ma is and we've got plenty of it in us. Even with the dairy and beef farms, we've traveled to twelve different countries. I actually speak seven languages… dragons are good at picking up new ones."

"But not Zrebzialan or English?"

"Nope!" He laughs. "We've never been to your continent, and as for English, well, we never went to the Kingdom of Britain so never really needed it. Give me a few months, though, and I'll probably be speaking both as fluently as Xander. I can actually already understand some of what you're saying without the transcriptions."

That's insane.

"Seriously?" I ask. "I can pick up a word here and there, but not enough to understand what you're saying."

"As I said," he says. "Dragons pick up languages fairly fast. I've got enough in me that I have that trait, too. If we ever head over to Kenzibri, I'll let you feel my scales. That way, you can know what a sun dragon's scales feel like! The choice of whether it's one still on me or one I've shed will be up to you."

"Is there a difference?"

"In the warmth, yeah," he answers. "And the coloration is slightly different. The coloring of a dragon's scales is partially influenced by the mana running through the dragon. It's what can make it look a little more like what our variant is of, like a water dragon's scales possibly having an appearance similar to a riverbed."

"Dragon River's did."

"There are some rivers with that coloring, actually," he tells me. "Those tend to be more magical in nature. Good for swimming in. Anyway! It's almost the time you say goodbye to your chat so you can meet up with your friends, so I'll let you go! See ya Wednesday!"

"I'm actually staying on a few minutes longer than normal today," I tell him. "Rather than hanging out with my friends, I'm taking my aunt to the spa again. Since I got paid, I can do that!"

She said it wasn't necessary when we were planning my budget, but she really deserves it and I can afford to take her.

Especially since I earned even more this time, thanks to the rest of the payments from August, plus the verified payments from September.

"Oooh, nice!" He says. "Have fun with that!"

"I'll do my best!" I say. "Now before I go, why don't we quickly figure out a good spot to add in a chicken room? That way, we can have our own supply right in here, without needing to rely on the emergency rations in my ship!"

"Sounds like a good idea!" He says. "We should have a farming room as well, to grow seeds for them."

"We can have that attached to the chicken room," I say. "Let's pick the spot, then I'll sign off and we can build them Wednesday."

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