The massive green dragon with black horns came into view and immediately landed in front of Thrym.
“Hello little guy, I’d like Michael back, so do step aside now” The dragon said and suddenly began transforming into what appeared to be a human form, one that had long white hair and the familiar black goat shaped horns.
‘Fafnir..? What’s he doing here?’
“What business do you have with my guest?” Thrym didn’t back down and stood his ground against the pressure Fafnir was emitting.
It seemed like Fafnir was much stronger than Thrym, Michael wasn’t sure by how much, but the gap was definitely not little.
“How dare you question my intentions?”
“I am not… it’s just not every day I personally accept a guest, you know how it is, don’t you?” Thrym said with a small smile, as if there was a deeper meaning behind his words.
“I don’t, now are you going to step aside or should I make you?”
The two powerhouses kept blabbering amongst themselves, chatting nonsense that Michael could not understand.
He could finally move again, the pressure seemed to dissipate quite a great deal.
And as it did, he finally took notice of the surroundings.
The entire mountain was shaking, albeit slightly, however, the entire peak where they were all currently at, seemed distorted.
Whatever Fafnir was doing, it was influencing the surroundings, as if his mere words were enough to twist the space around him.
Astraea had long went beside Michael, she escaped from the clutches of the pressure a bit earlier than he had, she was a bit stronger after all.
“Are you okay?” She went up to him and asked, a worried expression plastered on her face.
Michael was confused for a moment, but suddenly, he saw a stream of red appear over his eyes, heading down his face and falling onto the wooden ground.
‘..What happened?’ He was a bit confused, he definitely healed up right before casting his Heavenly Judgement.
And even then, his passive regenerative factor was enough to heal any external injury he suffered.
When Fafnir appeared your HP decreased by 20% from just his pressure alone, from what I can tell, he might have blown your eyes up, they just regenerated way too quickly for you to notice.
Michael shivered upon hearing that, he lost his eyes just from the pressure alone? That seemed unbelievable.
As he was lost in his thoughts, Fafnir suddenly appeared in front of him, seemingly having already finished talking with Thrym.
“Long time no see kid, how you been?” He said nonchalantly as if they were the best of pals.
Yet, aside from meeting him twice, Michael couldn’t really say that they knew each other that well.
Quite frankly, he was not sure if being associated with a temperamental dragon was in his best interests.
But nonetheless, he nodded, keeping the act up.
After all, as much as this place could provide opportunities for him, it was not exactly pleasant, the cold was slowly getting to him.
The house was not heated up either, most of the cold went through, he was surprised that Thrym was able to cook the food up here, much less light a fire.
Training… with this mana density you might be able to increase your mana core progress by leaps and bounds.
Michael took a glance at his status and noticed that he was currently at 40% progress towards the next tier, with only 60% remaining and he would reach Tier 2.
However, he had some doubts, after all, he had been training via sunlight and moonlight, such a direct approach to the cold could potentially kill him.
Don’t worry about freezing to death, let’s just wait a bit longer till your mana is fully restored, I can at the very least try my best to keep you alive.
Michael rolled his eyes ‘Very reassuring…’
But he was honestly considering it, there were a still a few days left until he had to go back to his world.
Going back now would feel like a waste and if Fafnir was able to enter the rift somehow, he likely had a way out too.
The two of them chatted a bit, Fafnir was simply asking him how he had been, the sort of stuff Michael would expect to hear from his relative he hadn’t seen in a long time.
It felt kind of strange, after all, he didn’t have anyone left in this world.
Rebecca was nowhere to be seen, for all he knew, she was dead and he could not do anything about it.
As for his father? He is likely still well, he was a resilient one, rarely even becoming sick.
Michael smiled a bit while thinking of the past, they were good memories, but at the same time, they were ones he wished to bury deep inside his mind.
He doesn’t want to be haunted by his past, the way he left his father was way too… abrupt.
“Michael?” Fafnir called him out of his thoughts.
“Sorry… spaced out for a moment..”
“That’s fine, anyway, are you ready to head out?” He announced and stretched out his hand, his green wings appearing from his back even while he was still in human form.
“Actually… could I stay here for a couple more days? There’s something I need to do before I go” Michael said with determination.
He decided he would go through with the training, it was too good of a chance to pass up.
Though he was not exactly sure what to expect, the moonlight felt pretty cold past a certain point, how would the actual cold feel?
Fafnir looked to be contemplating for a moment before speaking up “Hmm… that’s fine, there’s something I have to do here anyways, I’ll be back in 3 days, will that be enough time for you?”
“Yes” Michael nodded with a small smile, he was beginning to think the system and the books he read were wrong about dragons, Fafnir was just way too nice.
He watched as Fafnir turned around and headed over to Thrym, picking him up by the collar and suddenly flying away.
‘Uhh…?’ Michael was pretty confused, though it seemed like he was not the only one as the giants around him were too.
Dragons like to fight… a lot.
‘I see…’ He sighed to himself and looked at Astraea who had been staring at him this entire time.
Her eyes seemed a bit unfocused, she was most likely regaining a memory or two.
Michael moved around and noticed she was not tracking him with her eyes, she really did seem like in some sort of trance.
He decided to just leave her be, creating a warm coat with what little mana he had left, he placed it on her shoulders before heading outside.
“Do you guys have like a cave or something I could use for training?” Michael turned to one of the giants, the only one who seemed the smartest of the three.
Also, the only one who didn’t want to eat him.
“Hm? Sure?” He gestured with his hands to follow him and Michael did just that.
They went behind the mountain and there was some kind of a little staircase that led inside of the mountain.
It seemed way more spacious than he initially anticipated, the mountain didn’t exactly look that big from the outside.
But he was mistaken.
There were all sorts of giants gathered there, all of whom were thankfully in their human forms.
All around him were a bunch of little houses, some made from wood, others carved directly into the walls, with only wooden doors being visible from where he was.
Eventually, they arrived at what Michael assumed was the middle part of the mountain, there was a single door leading to the side and it was much bigger than the previous doors.
“You can come out whenever you want, it seems like you are the guest of our leader so we will treat you as such, if you need anything, inject mana into the odd colored wall, I’ll come get you” The giant explained and began walking away.
“Hmm…” Michael stared directly at the giant door.
‘Now how exactly am I supposed to open this?’
