The Second Dragonoid's Tale

Chapter 8: Dreadful Dreams Beside Reality

It was the first morning of the day that was supposed to be our trip to the lake. Sofia's father had the entire thing planned out a month in advance, with reservations for a camping site and everything. And for a week we'd fish, tell stories, and stargaze, quality time spent on simple things together. But on the day we were supposed to leave, a vicious storm hit the area. I had called her father the day before after seeing the coming storm and asked if he thought it would miss us. He hoped in vain that it would.

Getting out of bed, I heard the rain pouring down and checked the window to see what it was like outside. Only my mother was home at the time, she was calm during the storm making it easy for me to continue on as if it was any other day. With little else to do, I sat on the couch and was on my phone. An hour later, the doorbell rang. Mom went over to answer and called for me, it was Sofia with a duffle bag. She was soaking wet from the downpour hitting her and so she was brought inside to dry off and change. The bag made it pretty obvious she wasn't planning on leaving.

Her father, an odd one sometimes, wanted us to spend time together. If we couldn't go camping outside, then the least we could do was camp inside. Rather childish but I didn't argue and neither did she. We set things up in my room, for private reasons, and enjoyed spending time together. Though there wasn't any star gazing the night would be filled with other activities. Less dressed activities.

She made the first move, crawling over to me, her green eyes looking down to me in dim-lit. I brushed my hand through her short red hair before bringing her down to me for a kiss. It was off. Our eyes closed when they touched but I couldn't feel it. From where my hand was, I knew she was there. The moment I opened my eyes everything changed. I was under a vast body of water, closer to the surface, Sofia drifted upwards as I sank more into the darkness. Try as she might, she couldn't reach me, not with her words nor her reach. And when I tried to speak, my lungs felt breathless. Of all the things to dream of, that was certainly not what I wanted.

I couldn't and didn't try to remember most of it. Getting up and heading out toward the training spot, where the old ogre was usually found early in the morning, I mentally put the dream behind me and continued on with the day. But why am I hanging around here in the first place? You might ask. That's a bit of a story.

After I had properly prepared things this time, things went extremely well. Back when Rimuru and I were exploring the cave Veldora was sealed in, we came across several ores and plants. Namely, they were Magic Ore and Hipokte Grass. Rimuru had stored everything that was gathered in his stomach for the sake of convenience. He went so far as to process them too.

Thankfully, both of us aren't thoughtless and had left some of it at the village specifically for trading there and if they were needed. The moment the ogres saw the magic ore sample, enough for a knife I thought, the balance of power in the trade deal went completely to my side. They had expected iron and, metaphorically speaking, were being given gold. Even the small amount that I offered was enough for us to get more than just food for the celebration.

An important bit of information that the chief revealed to me in private after the trade of the sample magic ore, was the intentions of lizardmen, orcs, and ogres. Like them, he was going to have his people make their move to expand their domain. However, he knew that to get to the east they would have to deal with the Lizardmen first, who he hoped would first go east after the goblin villages. This really meant he hoped that they, in the process of heading east, would cross paths with me and be annihilated as a result. Why would he tell me this?

Because that didn't happen and the balance of power in the forest was changing in a different way. Because I had essentially stated that Rimuru, who I mentioned was a strong being without bringing up the fact that he is a slime, and I will both be living on the east side of the forest, was treated the same as telling him two powerful beings have already claimed it. As for the west, that would have extended their domain closer to the Eastern Empire. Not ideal. So they would wait, see how the production of the magic ore goes, and how the situation with the other two races develop while preparing themselves.