Roge groaned as he woke up, finding himself somewhere in the forest as he tried to jolt upright. Shockingly, his exhaustion had made it so he didn’t even spend any time in the hoard, though thankfully he felt completely rested.

  “Morning, my dragon,” a voice said right next to him, Roge squeaking and almost falling out of the lion’s arms. “Whoa there.”

  “Uh… how long was I out?” Roge asked, looking around the area and seeing all of the adventurers with his blue flames surrounding them. He also noticed the massive amount of snow coming down from the canopy, the dragon kobold tempted to activate his [Storm Body] skill before he saw the look Sean was giving him.

  “No skills or abilities until we get to the drake,” Sean commanded, Roge sighing as he slumped in the lion’s arms. “I’m also carrying you. You need to not overextend yourself right before a fight.”

  “Fine…” Roge growled out, pulling up the notifications he’d minimized when he was shoveling snow.

  Roge winced as he realized he probably went over his upgrade quota for the day, peaking up at Sean who was looking over the screens as well, a frown on his muzzle.

  “Master Roge is fine,” a voice piped up, Roge having not even noticed the kobold butler sitting on the shoulders of the charisma buff adventurer. “Though he should still be careful about adding more, he still has a few rank ups before it gets dangerous.”

  The adventurer gave a chuckle at that, his canine and feline head still looking a bit odd to Roge. “Run into that problem often? You must really like your classes.”

  “Well… a bit,” Roge grunted out, giving the other adventurer an assessing look. “What’s your name by the way? Don’t think I ever got it.”

  “Houston, at your service,” he purred, giving a theatrical bow that instantly put Roge on edge. “An adventurer just passing through. Looking for interesting stories to tell.”

  Even though Roge’s hackles didn’t lower, that did make him feel a bit better. Getting theater kid vibes from someone in a magical land made him feel uneasy, especially since Houston’s magic seemed to work on the dragon kobold. He knew because he could already feel himself being calmer around the man. “Can you not use that please?” Roge asked, the wolf cat giving him a confused look. “Your charisma buff.” He didn’t want to freak out the rest of the party, so he gave Houston a significant look when he said it, hoping the others couldn’t see his face.

  “I see… your bard class must be very powerful.” The aura of friendliness around Houston quickly faded, Roge frowning at his word choice.

  “It’s not a spellcasting class, if that’s what you’re asking,” Sean growled out, the lion putting more space in between them and Houston.

  “Of course not. He’d not be out and about if it were.” The conversation ended there as a roar could be heard in the distance, all of the adventurers freezing in place before rushing forward all at once.

  ~~~

  They soon arrived at a clearing in front of a cave in a hillside, Roge being set down and staring at the ice coating the inside of the rock. Thankfully, he’ given all of the potions to Bert while they’d been clearing snow, the League Master having the forethought to have a hundred or two potion bottles on hand so Roge could fill them. He’d even had to stop his relaxation the previous night to make more wooden bottles for the rank one potions, as he’d completely run out of space multiple times. Each person now held multiple potions on their belts, Roge noticing that almost everyone had one of his wooden potion bottles along with the normal glass ones.

  He noticed the League Master waving him forward, so Roge moved up close, making sure to try and keep as quiet as possible. “I’m going to need you mainly in the back line with the healers,” Bert whispered, pointing at several people in robes. “They should be bale to keep you safe. Just try and blanket your effect over as many people as possible, and try not to get hit. Can you do the storm absorption again?”

  Roge concentrated, feeling the air around him as he started activating [Storm Body] again. “I can, though I’m going to have to constantly be using magic to get rid of the excess. I assume this thing is weak to fire?”

  “You are correct. Your team will be right next to you as well, as this monster is outside your pay grade.” At that, he was waved off to the group of healers, where his party members were already gathered.

  “At least this time I’m not going to get beat up,” he mumbled to himself, not liking the fact that he somehow always got injured during every combat encounter he’d been in.

  The main tanks with swords, shields, and armor went forward towards the cave first, the noise they made loud as Roge started sucking up the surrounding magic in earnest, as well as extending his aura. As he started funneling the absorbed mana into spheres of solid flaming spark, he kept an eye on his mana bar, noting that, this close to the epicenter of the magic source, it didn’t even go down, even ticking up over his maximum limit. “Hey hops?” Roge called out, the elf giving him a calm look. “How far over my maximum mana can I go without hurting myself?”

  “About double, if I remember right,” he commented, grabbing Roge’s resource screen and giving it a frown. “You’re still getting about one mana a second. Are you using the max you can on your wand?”

  “Yup,” the dragon kobold replied, glancing worriedly at the balls of magic that were steadily growing. “I think it’s a little over four per second?”

  “That’s not good,” Sean grumbled, the lion moving closer with a worried look. “You’ll have to constantly do magic, and you’ll still only last…”

  “A little over eight minutes,” Hops said, a slight frown on his face. “Maybe set up some-“ He was cut off by a loud roar coming from the cave, the ice practically exploding as the creature came out. Thankfully, Roge’s [Inspect] range had increased over time, allowing him to pull up a screen for it, even though he was standing a good distance away from it.

  “Level nine…?” he muttered, glancing at his spell effects and frowning. The drake looked mostly like a dragon, though Roge noticed that its torso was slightly elongated. It’s white scales made it hard to see in the snow, which thankfully was starting to fade at least. “Will I even be able to hurt that thing with these?” he asked himself.

  “I’d recommend finding out,” Marge stated, holding her bow at the ready with a flame arrow. Taking her advice, the dragon kobold took aim and fired one of his spheres, the increased speed making him overshoot and hit the top of the cave behind the creature. This, unfortunately, pulled its attention away from the tank who were loudly shouting at it, the creature shooting out a beam of ice in Roge’s direction. He didn’t even have time to think of teleporting as a shimmering golden shield sprung up in front of the healers, all of whom were constantly sending out healing spells.

  “Maybe don’t fire those?” one of the healers called out, a slime woman wearing a light lime robe.

  “Then how am I supposed…” Roge trailed off, his heart pounding as he realized that his aura was not extending to the frontline. He tried to push it forwards, even trying to funnel mana into the effect, to no effect. He could see the main front liners having to pull back and recover in his aura, their limbs and armor quickly freezing over that close to the creature.

  “You need to get closer…” Hops mumbled, tapping his chin as he glanced around the battlefield, his voice barely heard over the shouts, clangs, and the occasional explosion from one of the mana-focused classes. “What’s your cold resistance at?”

  “One thirty five.”

  “Than that should tank any ice-based attack from anything below level thirteen, including its ice beam,” Hops said, Roge blinking at him in surprise. “Now go. The frontline is going to collapse at this rate.”

  Roge growled as he broke formation, moving forward the twenty feet to the mana casters at the back. He thought the drake wouldn’t really care if he did that, but he was proven wrong as his aura finally encompassed the creature. It let out a loud *SCREECH*, Roge getting the feeling that it was offended before the power of the sound hit him, knocking him on his ass. The next thing he knew, several of the adventurers up front were flying through the air, flung aside as the drake set its eyes on the dragon kobold. Roge was able to let fly one of his projectiles right into its face, the creature letting out another screech as it flinched, even as the other adventurers tried slashing at its scales.

  Roge’s heart sank as he saw that the weapons were barely leaving any scratches, realizing that, with the beast’s high constitution, they needed to either be powered by stronger skills, or an element it was weak to to be effective. ‘It probably has a constitution skill that enhances its scales…’ he thought to himself, right before another shriek heralded an ice beam right to Roge’s face.

  ‘That’s… not that cold,’ he thought to himself, even the ice clinging to his clothes in the wake of the beam felt mildly warm to the touch. Unfortunately, the spell effects he’d been maintaining didn’t share his unharmed fate, the balls popping and freezing before dropping to the ground in a glittery dust. The beam only lasted a second or two before a fireball rammed into the drake’s side, cutting off the attack and revealing Roge on the ground, but unharmed.

  “Roge…!” Bert’s voice called out, the dragon kobold barely hearing it over the sounds of the fight as he got to his feet. “Keep it’s attention! We’ll keep it off you!” Sighing at the plan, Roge still did as ordered, grunting as he fired bolt after bolt of his flaming spark attack to keep the drake’s attention, all while the others used skills to push and force it close to the cave. It used whatever the charge skill was to get close to Roge multiple times, each time letting out ice beams that just felt like mildly colder breezes to the dragon kobold.

  ‘We can win this…’ Roge thought to himself after a few minutes of the brawl, grunting as, right after, he felt a stinging pain in his chest. ‘What…?’

  “Shit…” Roge muttered, the pain getting stronger as he gained another point every second. “Maybe I can drop-“ His inattention cost the dragon kobold, however, the drake having gotten close once again. Presumably after seeing its ice beam not be very effective, it had gotten close enough to use its charge attack right at Roge, pushing multiple people aside and ending up right in front of him. Double unfortunately, none of the pushers were on Roge’s side of the line, them having to waste time trying to get around and in front of Roge to push the creature back. Thankfully, Roge was able to dodge the two claw swipes, pushing him down below the pain limit of his mana. Triple unfortunately, right as he activated his teleport, he felt a pull come from the drake. Instead of reaching the back line like he wanted to with his second teleport, he instead only moved enough to *just* dodge the attack, leaving him confused until a screen popped up at the extreme wrong moment.

  That momentary distraction led to Roge getting hit full on by the drake’s horn attack, several screams being heard as he was forced into the ground. Pain blinded him to anything else going on, all four of his limbs feeling broken in some way, as well as his chest feeling caved in. All he could hear was his name being shouted along with a triumphant roar, his eyes momentarily focusing through the pain to see a claw coming right towards him. He didn’t have enough time to comprehend anything, even as he felt himself slipping into his hoard. ‘Welp… that went to shit fast…’

  ~~~

  “Roge! You need to get back out there!” Alton screamed, having just barely pulled Roge into the hoard right before the final claw attack. He didn’t know how he was doing it, but he could feel his haste resource slowly draining as he looked at the portal to the outside world. The claw was moving at a snail’s pace, Alton feeling like he didn’t have much time left before the beast ended Roge’s life.

  “Alton… I’m sorry,” Roge murmured, coughing up blood at the effort he used to speak. Alton felt a wave of guilt run through him at that, knowing that Roge was feeling bad for killing the minotaur, and not for dying.

  “Roge… there’s not much time. I thought we’d have more time.” Alton’s voice hiccuped as he pulled up the screen he’d been staring at every so often, knowing that Roge wasn’t in a good state for it. “I think I can keep you alive if you accept this.”

  Alton could feel more from the screen than it was telling him, the information practically being shoved in his brain. He was told that was a normal part of using the system, the information it gave being able to be absorbed instantly if desired. The box would add Alton permanently to Roge’s hoard, similar to how the trees and coins could be bonded. The minotaur would also gain certain benefits from the relationship, including the ability to keep Roge alive as long as one of them was alive.

  “But you don’t… want that,” Roge rebutted, giving Alton and the portal to the outside confused looks.

  “I… I do want that, actually.” Alton sighed, glancing at his haste and seeing it dip below half. But Roge deserved a full answer. “Being out there in the real world. Being forced to fend for myself, even when I had friends to help me. It never felt… right. Fulfilling.” Alton chuckled. “I thought it was just because of my nature, needing more time to myself and not desiring too much social interaction. But being in here, with you? Being able to choose to follow someone else’s lead and giving them some authority over my life? Being able to hide away and not talk when I want… It completes a part of me that’s never been full…”

  “Oh…” Roge mumbled, understanding coming to his eyes. “You need a caretaker… Someone to serve… like Proton.”

  At the mention of the butler, Alton sighed, but nodded. “I don’t want you to control every aspect of my life. But I want to stay in your hoard. I want to have the freedom from real life you’ve given me. I want to stand beside you and support you. So… if I can do that *and* save your life? Please let me…?”

  Roge looked at the screen for a few seconds, Alton not rushing him even as his haste started running dangerously low. “Then yes, I accept,” the dragon kobold muttered, giving a smile even as he coughed up more blood. “I’ll take care of you how you want. And in exchange, you help me. But… we need to talk after. About what you expect. And what I expect. A contract.” For some reason that amused Roge, him chuckling and coughing once again. “Deal?”

  “Deal.”