And poke the Dragon is precisely what she did.
As soon as she left the space, Cara flapped her wings and extended one black claw to poke Orthos in the nose, then she flew away across the room, laughing as the clerics tried to at least track the Chaos gremlin in Badger form as she explored.
The ancient Dragon simply stared after her in shock, unable to process the fact that he had been booped by a juvenile Void Badger.
“That creature is not afraid of anything, is she? I could eat her in one bite.” Orthos growled as Cara dove through a slime monster priest as she evaded capture.
They were making a valiant effort to capture her, but now that she was covered in slime, even when they could get a hand on her, they couldn’t get a grip, and she would just fly off to explore another room, leaving slippery blue footprints everywhere.
It was utter chaos, but other than avoiding capture, Cara was pointedly ignoring the clerics.
Rae made herself silk socks for the end of her legs so she didn’t destroy the floor, and then she also began to wander, but by using her silk to lift herself to the second floor, where the Acolytes were watching from.
“They are under control, right?” Orthos asked nervously as he watched the nonsensical scene in his temple.
This was a Beast God temple, but not all beasts were capable of rational thought.
“Yeah, they won’t hurt anyone, they just want to explore. They spend too much time in their own spaces, and they need to stretch out now and then.”
“Well, most of them.” Karl amended.
Thor had settled onto the floor so that the Clerics could pat him and take measurements.
A Commander Rank Lightning Cerro was rare, but a mutated Royal Rank Lightning Cerro that gave off holy energy was a unique find. However, the examination process came with Clerics stroking his scales, patting his head, feeding him snacks, and praising him.
In short, Thor had no intentions of moving.
“Does the Bloodbath Spider enjoy terrifying children?” Orthos asked as he looked up at the balcony.
“Not just children, she just loves terrifying people in general. But I think she’s going to make them some sort of playground. At least that’s what it looks like. You can take it down later.” Karl explained.
The dragon smirked up at the balcony as Rae started to make a silk play area for the acolytes.
“Fortunately for me, I am an Elder of the church. It is not my job to take down decorations or clean the upper floors of the temple. However, adding that net just made it a lot more tempting to order them to thoroughly clean the fresco paintings.” Orthos joked.
Karl looked up and realized that the entire ceiling was covered in ancient murals that portrayed either religious or historical events. As he wasn’t familiar with either, it could be both. Damaging one was unthinkable, but every decade or so, they would need to be carefully cleaned so that the colours didn’t fade and a fresh coat of clear protectant could be applied to any spots that had flaked.
Like Karl, who hadn’t realized they were there, the clergy rarely looked up at them. They were more for visitors than the daily residents, but with the acolytes playing up there, someone was bound to notice that there were spots that could use some cleaning.
After a few minutes of exploring, Cara was the first to call it quits. People kept bothering her, but now she had the perfect defence mechanism. She could just go back to her space and watch them while they couldn’t see her.
For the solitude – loving badger, this was possibly the greatest thing that ever happened to her. She could now speak with nobody but family, while still watching everything that happened around her.
“Did the Void Badger, Cara, I believe you named her, retreat to her space?” One of the clerics asked.
“Yes, Cara is her name. Unlike the others, who I got as infants, she had already picked a name when we met.” Karl explained.
“So, your class lets you capture older beasts as well?”
Karl shook his head. “I can’t capture them at all. I brought the others in as eggs, and we bonded when they hatched. Cara stayed for the buffet.”
That made both the cleric and Cara laugh. The bond was solid now, but when she had first awakened in the space, she could have chosen to leave and fight off the effects of the class ability bonding her.
“Is that how it works?” One of the younger acolytes asked.
Karl reached into Cara’s space and cut a small strip of meat from the roast pig, then held it out for her.
“Ooh meat. Thank you.”
The Acolyte gobbled down the snack, and Karl patted her head while the older clerics facepalmed.
“Alright, I see your point. Sometimes our nature can be used against us.”
Once she finished eating, the Acolyte realized that was precisely how Karl had convinced Cara to stay, and that she had fallen for it as well.
“You’re not going to try to take any of our clerics, are you?” An older woman asked suspiciously.
“I have no idea where the cutoff is, but one of my beasts tried to claim a human for the team, and it didn’t work. So, I suspect that most or all of these demihumans would not be considered beasts by the system, even if I wanted to try.”
Orthos’ eyes lit up with excitement. “Do you happen to have a piece of equipment that you obtained while you were sent back through time?”
[Did anyone grab any loot while we were there? I don’t really want to give him my bracelet for whatever experiment he’s got going on.] Karl asked.
[Oh, yeah. I’ve got lots, they’re tasty.] Cara announced.
Karl had thought she was just gathering random bits from the battlefield, but she had been cutting limbs with magical items from the fallen Giants. All of the bits in the pile at the edge of her space had a magical item on them.
[You can eat that?]
Cara nodded happily. [Void Badgers have a strong stomach. Magical items are good for growth, but not really worth going to look for. Here, you can have this ring. I’ve got too many of that flavour.]
Karl took the Giant Strength ring and handed it to the dragon.
“Yes, this is perfect. The system stats are still active on it.” He declared, then slid it on his finger.
He blinked a few times as a smile grew on his face.
“Yes, that is perfect, the System Interface refreshed. Thank you for this. Do you mind if I hold on to it for a while?” Orthos asked.
“Only if you tell me honestly what you want it for. It’s just a Giant Strength ring. They make new ones every year.”
Orthos tilted his chin toward where the children were playing with Rae.
“System imbued items, like this one, have a chance of awakening the children, the same way that your Divine Injection does. If the children wear it, there is a chance for them to awaken a class until the effect of the old times fades.”
Karl nodded. “So that is how you kept awakening more systems during the first generation or two after it couldn’t happen naturally. Then eventually the system energy must have only brought partial effects, or no effects at all.”
“I am glad you catch on quickly. Your stay here might not be so bad.”
Karl frowned. “I have half a year left on a contract with the Red Dragon that requires me to stay near my teammates, and do something that pleases her every few months. We’ve already been separated for a while during the time that I was gone.”
Orthos was a Dragon, he had to understand. Or so Karl hoped.
“We will work on something. The Beast Gods and the Dragon Clerics don’t always get along, but the Red Dragon should understand that you are unavoidably detained and not deliberately leaving them behind.”
“How did you know that was the terms of the contract?” Karl asked.
“Bronze Dragon. It’s part of our thing.”
He was going to have to accept that as an answer for now because it didn’t seem like Orthos was going to give him more answers, or let him just walk out of here and into the Divine Beast Nation’s wilderness.
