The Heart Grows

Dungeon Status:

Tier 2
Level 100/100

Heart 36,000,000/36,000,000
Experience 9,000,000/9,000,000
Mithril 103,202
Adamantine 73,937
Mana 53
Poison, Greater 500
Deadly Scorpion Venom 51

Quest: Bestow 73 classes.
Quest: Grant the King the Supreme Ally class.
Quest: Reach Tier 3.

Situational Quest: The King is within your dungeon! Kill him to gain an extra floor!

"I wish the system wouldn't keep giving me that quest," Travis said entirely to himself. Every time Stewart entered, it would come up. "Hey, god of dungeons, think you can have it at least stop giving kill quests to the King when I have given him a class?"

Situational Quest revoked

sorry…

Having a god apologize was not the weirdest thing Travis had ever dealt with, but he was willing to extend an olive branch given their level of help. "Hey, thanks! And don't sweat it. I know I'm not exactly doing this how a normal dungeon would. And I really like these new quests."

(✿◠‿◠)

Travis quickly updated his list of peculiar things to include a god sending him kawaii emotes. But he had important things to deal with. His focus right now was Penelope's boss room, where Penelope, Fife, Honor, Stewart, and a half dozen of the king's guards had gathered.

Travis moved to get the meeting going. "Alright. The party is tomorrow, but I'm eager to go dormant for my Tier upgrade. Yeah, I know we've talked about this individually, but I want everyone on the same page."

"He means me. I don't listen to anything when I have something shiny distracting me," Fife said.

Penelope looked to her hoard of gold, then stared at Fife meaningfully until everyone except the guards were laughing.

Regaining his composure, and glad that he had people he trusted enough to be able to laugh in front of, Stewart fixed Penelope with his gaze. "I must insist you do attend at least the first day, despite the urgency of this. In the west, the nobles and their armies speak of nothing but the new king flying in on a dragon, and as my army is splitting up and returning to the various cities that tithed its forces, they will carry word of you as well. In the West, there are enough who already speak of your grace that we shouldn't have to worry, but I want to reinforce that for everyone present here. Sorry, I mean in the capital." He was glad no one mentioned his slip.

"What's annoying is you're right. My part in all that was too obvious to everyone. The populace could overlook Astrid's pack's involvement, but it's harder to ignore a dragon." Penelope wasn't sure if she liked how good it felt to lay down on a pile of gold but, like when she was learning to love a pickaxe as a kobold, she wasn't above using it to relax. "I'll attend tomorrow, then when you're done showing me off, I'll be coming back until Trav is done getting his new tier. I won't be out there beyond that day, though."

"That's understandable." Looking at Stewart, Honor explained, "When Travis is expanding like this, he's completely unconscious. He can't see, hear, or react to anything happening. It also puts all his friends on edge as a result. If it would help, I'd guard the only entrance path to his heart myself. He has a deadline for the expansion: the spring thaw. He is providing a staggering amount of adamantine for the city walls." She cracked a smile at seeing Stewart mouthing, "adamantine for the city walls."

"Appreciated," Fife said, "but not necessary. We're going to have all the boss rooms populated, though, and beyond the first floor, I don't think it'd be good for folks to poke around too much."

It was more information that Stewart had on the process. He mused that it shouldn't have surprised him that Honor knew so much—he had left her with instructions to trust Travis and assist him. "Very well. I'll have guards stationed outside at every exit, inside as well, and only trusted and vital shipments will be permitted through. The kingdom has survived a long time without a direct link between cities—we can survive a month."

"Let's hope you don't need to do this again or, failing that, not for a long time." Honor mused on the fact that she seemed more comfortable with Travis now than Stewart was. For one, her cousin didn't seem to know where to look when speaking to Travis. Honor didn't exactly either, but she noticed both Fife and Penelope looked in a specific direction when Travis spoke, so she mimicked that.

There was little else to add, so Travis had Fife lead Stewart, Honor out, and their guards out. "Try not to be too hard on them for wanting to make you a hero. You are," he told Penelope.

"I was a glorified horse for most of it. There was only one— Oh! That was something I forgot to tell you. Will and Peter?" The moment Penelope said the names, she felt a wave of animosity from Travis. Flexing her claws and fighting the urge to spit acid, she managed to say, "Calm down. They're dead."

Travis hadn't realized how much anger he'd been harboring for the first literal killers he'd encountered in this world. When Penelope said they were dead, it stopped his fury in its tracks. "They're dead? Who killed them?"

"I did." Penelope's nerves still jangled with the urge to kill something that Travis' emotions had inspired. "It was in West Reaches. I was flying over the city when I saw Will. When I told Stewart about him—about what they'd both done—he'd ordered his army to find Will and Peter.

"And… he found them. David's militia had pressed them into service and, by the time they tried to escape, Stewart's army had circled the city. I wasn't sure what to do about them. Stewart, though, talked me through it." Penelope laughed. "I think it was seeing how angry he was that they'd gotten away with killing me that made me see I should be angry too. You know what was nice, and scary?"

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Taking a long, slow breath, Penelope waited for Travis to ask her what before she replied. "That he took my word over both of theirs. I didn't even ask him to, he just did. Elanor told me that's what it is like being a noble."

"He ordered them killed?" Travis asked, enthralled with the story.

"Stewart would have. It's hard to remember, sometimes, that he could order anyone put to death and his words would be followed to the letter. But, he offered me the opportunity. I melted them, Trav. They were tossed to the ground for me and Stewart made sure everyone knew I had his authority to execute them." Saying it aloud reminded Penelope of that moment and knowing that while it was revenge for her, it was also Stewart dealing with criminals. "Now I have to go to a party tomorrow to celebrate him trusting me with that kind of power."

"I'm sorry you had to—"

"Trav, don't be. That was cathartic and a reminder that I need to get used to one thing: I'm a dragon. The part of me that would have felt remorse over killing Will and Peter? Well, they killed it the day they shot me and left me for dead. I am nowhere near the biggest dragon on record, but let's take this all the way so I can make sure no one ever hurts you, me, or those we protect ever again." Penelope was snarling the last words out, feeling her nature freed once again and finding herself feeling every bit as violently defensive of all their allies they'd made as she did the gold under her talons.

Yawning, not because she was tired, but because it was morning and that's a thing she'd done for a lot of years, Penelope looked around the city street of the capital. The mining teams were a constant flood today, and had been working all night to get the last of their mining done before Travis shut them out for his upgrade.

"That's the dragon the King rode back on."

"They say the King fought the entire army with the dragon."

"Well, I heard the King fed two men to it in West Reaches."

Penelope rolled her eyes at the last one, but decided to have some fun. Turning her head in their direction, she pinpointed the man who'd spoken. "I killed two men at the King's order. They were criminals who killed a woman and stole her talisman."

"That so?" Another teamster asked.

"It is." Reaching one wing up to the wall beside her, Penelope hooked her thumb-claw into the stonework and began to climb over into the keep. Rumors, she knew, would not stop. She could spend all day talking to people, and all she'd get from it is new rumors about the dragon making up stories or eating children. "One day, in the distant future, people won't freak out about me. If I'm going to get known for eating people, I should get to taste one or two."

Travis, hearing her easily enough with her own senses, replied, "I am sure they would have tasted terrible. At least bring any humans back to be cooked properly."

"Just humans?" Penelope asked, nodding to the King's Guardsmen she passed on top of the wall.

The question surprised Travis. "Huh. Where I'm from, we only had humans. Does this mean I've still got a ways to settle in?"

"Well, you're not alone. We're all in this one together now. Kobolds, gnolls, and centaurs are all people. There's even Heart, a dryad, as a city avatar." Dropping to the courtyard, Penelope held still while the people there took a moment to get used to her presence. The guards themselves looked alert, but not worried by her presence.

"Sir Penelope," one of the King's Guard said. "Please forgive my intrusion, but the King's equerry here, Mr. Laurence. He's here to escort you and see to your needs today."

Laurence reminded Penelope of the man who'd been Stewart's bodyguard while he visited Northridge. He was a half-elf with dark, sharp eyes. He was dressed in what she assumed was the height of fashion, given it looked similar to what the nobles she'd seen in the West wearing. Though he wasn't a noble himself, that said something about his wealth and position. "Please, don't rest on formality with me. Under all these scales and wings, I'm just a dragon like any other."

Doing his best to keep a straight face, Laurence strained against the urge to laugh at the joke. "H-His Majesty has informed me that you'd rather not spend the morning with the court ladies trying on dresses, having your makeup applied, and gossiping about all the young men they've met." He bowed. "His Majesty will see you now to break his fast, if you'll oblige?"

"'If I'll oblige'?" Penelope couldn't help her wry grin. "I'm following you?" When Laurence nodded and began to lead, Penelope attempted her best non-waddle. "This is going to be the rest of my day, isn't it?"

"Yes and no. Today is for the heroes of the war. Each city that sent soldiers will be personally thanked by the King, with specific leaders singled out for special citations. But, yours will be first. He wants all eyes on you as an important reason why so many families will be able to sit down together to celebrate." Having memorized the route he'd need to get a dragon through the keep to the main dining hall, Laurence went over the events for the day in his head too. "There is also going to be a citation for Lady Astrid, of your dungeon."

Penelope froze at that, covered her mouth with her right talons, but rumbled in laughter despite her best efforts.

Seeing, and hearing, a dragon laugh for the first time, Laurence could only ask, "Did I say something wrong?"

"You've met Lady Astrid?" Fighting back the urge to giggle more, Penelope followed Laurence again.

"What's the joke here? The King was very particular about addressing her so."

"Picture an eight-foot tall half wolf-kin, half dragon who literally charged a group of cannons and won, and you will get a good idea of what it will mean to call her lady."

Stepping through a set of double doors that were opened for her, Penelope saw Stewart and Elanor sitting at the head of a table beside each other, while Honor was alone at the other end. "Good morning, Your Majesty, Your Highness, Lady Inquisitor," she said, just as Honor tossed a slice of meat to a wyvern that snatched it from the air while its sibling wiggled their whole rump in excitement.

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This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.