Time left for Tier 1: 6 Days,9 Hours.

  The king only had eyes for Marco. He started off with what I could tell was suppose to be a scowl on his reptilian face. a basic “I’m going to fuck you up in no time” face. It slowly turned into sheer terror. I didn’t know dragons could turn white but all the color rushed from his face. He began to shiver and shake. Like shaggy from Scooby doo when he saw a ghost. It was honestly both strange as hell and kinda comical.

  The King leaped to his feet and dashed behind his Throne of Salvage. Cowering behind it like a toddler hiding behind their parents legs. he peered around the side periodically checking to see if Marco had moved any closer.

  “Marco, what did you do to this guy?” My eyes kept shuffling between the King and Marco trying to figure out what I had missed. This was weird and extremely unexpected.

  “I don’t know Stryder. I’ve never met the king or any Kobalt before today. This is weirding me out also. Why is he scared of me.” Marco was the picture definition of surprise and confusion.

  The king must have finally noticed me when Marco responded because he started yelling at me.

  “You, Voyager. You came here to dual me right?, you want to take my kingdom or something like that. Remove the Incubi, get rid of him. PLease I’ll give you anything you want if you just get him out of here and away from me. Kill him, remove him. something, anything please. Just please” He continued to plead to me semi coherently for a couple minutes while I tried to get my thoughts together about the situation.

  “Wait, I get rid of my buddy Marco here and you surrender to me?”

  “Yes, I’ll give you anything you want just please don’t let him charm me. I can’t go through that again. please, just please get him away from me.” He was nearly in tears with fear and stress. While I was still shell shocked that I wasn’t about to die trying to fight a boss creature this early on.

  “Marco can you please wait in the hallway, so I can talk to this guy.” I asked Marco politely.

  “Sure, I guess. I’ll wait till your done in here.” He managed to respond while still fully locked into a confusion that hadn’t passed since we watched the giant king crawl behind his throne.

  Marco stepped through the doorway and turned down the hall. The second he was no longer within eye sight the King rose back up to his full height. Which was absolutely terrifying. I mean shit a brick or two terrifying. He was roughly ten feet tall and just as wide. He wore a gold crown on his head and a flowing regal cape of red satin with a dalmatian pattern fur lining. He oozed King Lizard guy. Had he not basically already surrender to me I would probably have peed myself by now. Which would be one hell of a feat on it’s own since TAI had informed me earlier today that I don’t have those kind of needs within the Trials. Doesn’t do well having Voyagers pissing and shitting in the hallways. VR did have it’s advantages I guess.

  “Welp, I sent him away for now. You going to hold true to the bargain? Am I like King now or something like that?” I tried to muster as much bravado as I could. he had basically already surrendered to me but you couldn’t be sure.

  A XP notice bounced into my field of vision leveling me up again as it marked my defeat of the King. It had given me the full XP amount. So I stand corrected, I could be sure of these things sometimes.

  “Yes, Voyager. You have defeated me, The first to ever do so. Congratulations. I have a proposition for you though. If you will allow me to keep my kingdom and remain king, I will reward you in kind.” He sounded both defeated but also hopeful.

  “I’m listening your kingliness. what do you have in mind?”

  “If I simply surrender my crown to you then another will try to take it from you. you would have to duel every one of my former subjects until you either died or massacred the entire race. As you could probably guess this would be both time consuming and probably a death sentence. However if you allow me to remain king. I will instead instruct my subjects to give you free travel throughout our territories, Granting you unrestricted access to any and all Kobalt territories and villages or towns. This means you would be able to go anywhere and find safety within a Kobalt stronghold.Is this more appealing to you than an empty Castle and surrounding land?”

  This honestly sounded way to good to be true. I wouldn’t have to fight them anymore I could just coast straight through. No worrying about a property or whatever responsibilities that came with.

  “That sounds fair to me. First though I want to know why?”

  “Why what?” He asked with clear confusion

  “Why were you so afraid of Marco? What got you spooked like that towards his kind? Let me know that and I will accept your deal.” I was way to curious I had to know what this dudes deal was with Marco.

  “Ummm, okay” he confusingly replied “Well it happened a long time ago…..”

  He plunged into a long tale about his younger life. when he was much younger and only a normal sized Kobalt on one of his first guard routes for the former King, he and his partner had come across a Incubi. The incubi charmed him and convinced him to kill his partner, then abandon the Kingdom to go traveling with him all over the Tier. He couldn’t remember to many details about this life as he was in a permanent charmed stupor. He fought for the Incubi, guarding him from all that would appose him. The Incubi was a charming man and also an amazing fighter.

  He continued keeping the King with him and taught him how to fight and defend the Incubi. As time went on The King rose in level and power from the experience of combat and innate ability. Eventually the King grew so high in level that the Incubi could no longer keep him permanently charmed. The King broke free and began to realize what had been happening.

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  “It’s not how you would normally think it is. I didn’t quite remember doing the things I had done. It’s not like possession where your fully aware and trapped in your mind trying to get out. This was like waking up from sleeping, Not remembering even laying down for bed. Then having all the memories of the dreams you had had come flooding into your mind all at once. none of it feeling like you had actually been there the entire time.” He somberly stated.

  “That sounds awful. I’m glad your not stuck like that anymore.” I patted his giant forearm, It was as far as I could comfortably reach. He was definitely crying now. I noticed that his tears were thick and prismatic in nature. I pilled an empty bottle and caught a few. He was very patient while sobbing.

  The now Item appeared in my Inventory when I was done.

  “Crocodile” Tears- I know he isn’t really a crocodile but cut me a break here Kid, I’m doing you a solid one for this.

  “Crocodile” Tears X5 – These tears were shed from a giant reptilian monarch and caught by a twitchy little Voyager with Bipolar luck. They say Crocodile tears can cure cancer and other ailments of that caliber, and this time they were right. These little drops of sadness will cure anything that ails you except death or a loss limb. Seriously don’t try to regrow something, they will try and it will not be worth it.

  I just stared at the tiny bottle. Holy shit that actually worked. I need to do this kind of thing more often. I continued to pat the giant monarch for several more seconds as he did what resembled Lamaze breathing exercises.

  “There, there buddy. It’s all over now. I sent away the incubi and your safe from them ever showing up again. I appreciate the story as well. I can’t believe creatures like that exist on this Tier. that’s some scary shit. Marco can’t do anything like that. As far as I know anyway, he just learned to throw fireball at level one earlier today. “

  “Don’t trust it. Incubi and succubus have insanely high charisma and can charm the pants off anyone. Don’t let what happened to me happen to you.”

  “Can’t if I’m not off this Tier in less than a week I’m dead. speaking of which do you know where a exit gate is? I was told to find one by someone.” I decided to ask while I had his attention. I mean if anyone knew of one it would be this guy.

  “I don’t remember any being within our borders. Maybe beyond out in the other territories you will find one. Thank you by the way. For listening and giving validation to my story. Take this gift as added appreciation. To think I would have simply killed you without another thought had you not brought that demon with you.” He said so casually it made me shiver in fear at what almost had been.

  He reached out and handed me a small pile of scales. It took me a second to realize they weren’t just scales, but gloves. Fingerless gloves that had a shimmering green and blue scale construction to them. They matched my shirt. in both aesthetic and in rarity.

  Fingerless scaled gloves of the Kobalt guard’s Kobalt guard gloves for short.

  these scaly covers for your two top appendages are used to make Kobalt guards just a little better at their job. They one make your grip stronger. Reducing the likelihood of being disarmed reduced by Ten percent. They also increase your strength by five percent and your damage output another ten percent.

  No one knows why Kobalts have a strange fascination of trimming off their own scales to make clothing and armor for their own kind to wear, It’s weird and a little fucked up. It’s like you knitting a sweater out of your hair and giving it to a family member to remember you by. They definitely won’t forget you after that Christmas but they also aren’t going to invite you to the next one. However, in Kobalt society it is a normal activity and some of the best loot you will find on them will be gear made in this fashion. It’s weird but hey its also great for you.

  That was getting more common. The A.I talking to me in my head when I examined things. Last time I mentioned that to TAI she seemed really surprised. I wasn’t sure why it was doing it but it was getting more casual about it also. I tried to ignore it, I had more pressing things to deal with.

  “Thanks King uh, What do I call you?” I asked the monolithic sized mini dragon.

  “Colton, I’m king Colton” He answered kindly.

  “King Colton the Kobalt? Seriously. That’s uhhh, fitting I guess. I appreciate everything and I really appreciate letting us pass through safely. It means a lot to me. I can’t even tell you how much.” As I said that i got four more notifications in a row. I had just gained four more levels. taking me up to level NINE! I was moving through levels at this rate. I didn’t know what had just happened but I wasn’t complaining either.

  “Thank you, both for listening and for keeping that Demon out of here. Go with safety and also. Happy Trials, Voyager. We are going to be rooting for you.”

  “Thanks” and I waved as I walked out of the throne room and down the hall to where both TAI and Marco was waiting. TAI had stayed back with Marco as to not add any other layers of surprise to the encounter with the King.

  “What happened with the King? Why was he so afraid of me?” Marco asked immediately.

  “Not now, let’s get out of here and back on the path. We are safe from the Kobalts now I guess. Let’s not waste it before he changes his mind. He seems like a pretty cool guy but I don’t want to over stay our welcome and have to fight him.” I started moving through the castle with haste. We were being ushered by a couple of Guards who kept a weary eye on both me and Marco. We weren’t going back the way we came.

  “Where are you two taking us exactly?” I asked the two guards.

  “Through to the other side of the castle. You said you wanted passage through our territory, so we assume you needed to be on the other side of the castle to continue your journey.” He responded in their gruff snake sounding voice.

  “Gotcha, Thank you” We were guided down another corridor and out a big gate into a courtyard of sorts. It was full of shanty houses and shacks. Kobalts of all shapes and sizes were walking about. AN entire village of women and children Kobalts, some males were about also. They all seemed to absent mindedly step out of my path leaving a decent birth between us and the crowd. They all went about their daily lives. Shopping, selling, haggling and working. It was an incredible sight to behold. It felt like a medieval village or at least what I imagine it would feel like.

  “Marco is your village like this? Crowded and busy?”

  “Not this crowded. also we don’t have a castle. We prefer wooden structures, ours are usually raised above the ground and smells better.” He was talking about what I could only assume was the body odor of hundreds of tiny dragon creatures wafting all around us.

  “That’s a plus, this place is cool to see but not to smell.” As I finished up my tactful observation we stopped at a giant scrap metal gate.

  “Here’s where we let you go. Never come back. By the Kings orders, we won’t attack you but we also will not let you back in ever again. Especially you Incubi. So be on your way and best of luck Voyager. Happy Trials.” The same guard as before spoke bluntly as the gate rose from the ground and showed us the other side of the Atrium and a clear path to the next hallways we needed to head down.

  “Got it.” I gave the guard a thumbs up as we walked away.

  I had been too mesmerized by the juxtaposition the Kobalt castle village had been on a space station, to notice the notification symbol blinking on my HUD on the far right. I was about to take a look when TAI flew directly in front of me.

  “Open your menu, Voyager” She said in a calm and ominous tone.