Sovereign of the Karmic System

The man did not respond, and Instead, he took a good look at Daniel’s attire before turning to look back at his wife with worry and unwillingness. After a long minute, he shook his head with resignation, and said "We are mercenaries. This job pays well.. That’s all."

Daniel sat next to the middle aged couple, and said with a matter-of-fact tone "You are not a mercenary.. You’re a slave. You were found by the current sky blue thorn when she came to test her poison to your planet, and found out that your family was oddly immune to her poison. She took you for examination.. There is no need to lie."

The man looked at Daniel with shook, but before he could say anything else, Daniel added "No I’m not wrong. You have been sent here because the sky blue thorn has no more use for the two of you, except for this. She also has all three of your children under her custody.. Again, there is no need to lie."

At this point, the man became extremely alerted. Daniel knew too much, and the man would have suspected that he already knew about him and his family before, if not for the fact that they were a secret well kept by the sky blue thorn, and that Daniel was responding to him as if he already knew what he was going to say in advance.

He laid his wife carefully on his jacket, and stood in between her and Daniel.

Daniel ignored this man’s threatening behaviour and thoughts. If he had truly wanted to kill them, the man would have not been able to defend himself. Instead, he looked at Aeron, which said to him "You were right.. There are only a few spiders here, but there are more in the ring of one of his companions."

"How many?" thought Daniel the very next moment.

"Hundreds."

Daniel nodded his head casually, and stood back up. He then turned back towards the man, and asked "Where is the guy that keeps the ingredients that you have come to look for in this cave?" He already knew that this individual was not here, as Aeron had already told him that the husband of this couple had lost track of that person at some point when they were running away.

The man looked at Daniel with confusion, and said "One of the researchers of the sky blue thorn has it.. They told us we had to take him with us, because the venomous glands are extremely fragile, and any form of damage to them would turn them useless."

"What happened?" Asked Daniel with curiosity.

"We were never meant to fight the strong ones.. We were meant to keep the weakest away from the group, but after we entered, we discovered that they had evolved. We were told to stay back and keep the bodies after the researchers took the venomous glans.. So after a few hours, we ended up being left behind by a few hundred meters. It was then that we heard the screams, and saw them running back towards us at full speed. We turned around and left, but when we arrived to this area, it was filled with even more spiders." Explained the man fearfully.

From the way the man described what had happened, Daniel could feel the fear he had felt in that moment, and that, had left him perplexed. They had come here to hunt for spiders, and had successfully done so for hours.. Why be that scared of them, then?

"What does the researcher look like?"

"An old man with burned hands, white robes with a light blue stripe on his left shoulder, and the patch of the Jeje family.." muttered the man with a hateful tone. This man was part of the family lead by the woman that had virtually destroyed his entire world, and taken his entire family as prisoners. They then had to withstand one test after the other.. The simple idea that their children would have to suffer the same fate.. But for longer, as they were just kids.. Filled the man with an indescribably deep hatred.

"Fine.." muttered Daniel with a good deal of annoyance. They had come so far, and they were not going to go back without what they were looking for. With a steady pace, he turned towards the corridor opposite to the direction where the bodies were laid, and walked straight into it. He then turned to look back at the middle aged man, and said "Come on."

"We can’t go back there.. It’s too dangerous for us.."

"And you think that staying here alone with an unconscious woman is going to be safer than staying close to us?.. Suit yourself." Responded Daniel while entering the corridor.

Aeron, which was still in the large cave, turned to look at the man, and while reading his mind, he learned that the man did not trust Daniel enough to simply follow him to a dangerous situation, as he had his wife to protect.

One of the reasons why this man did not trust Daniel, was because he could see the white robes he was wearing. The two had stayed in Ton Bes for over a day, and had quickly gotten tired of receiving odd looks due to the way they were dressed. So, they had decided to buy a set of clothes in one of the city’s shop, which mostly sold white clothes whose only major differences, were the ways the pieces of cloth had been sewn together.

Instead of saying anything to convince the man, Aeron injected into his mind the idea that, no matter what they feared at the end of the cave, something much worse was waiting for them at the entrance.

The moment the bright green color disappeared from the Aeron’s eyes, the man’s face changed from one of alertness, into one of fear. He quickly picked up his wife, and followed Daniel into the corridor in a hurry.

To Aeron, there was a bigger chance that this couple would die while on their way back, than by following Daniel. He also knew that Daniel had no bad intentions towards them, and that he wouldn’t simply kill someone even if they had a small amount of negative karma.

The four followed the corridor in silence, until finally, after more than an hour, the woman woke up. She was then quickly filled in by her husband about what had happened.

On their way into the corridor, the group had met with a few large spiders, but they were quickly killed by Daniel, which would rapidly keep their bodies, and keep going deeper. They had yet to reach the required number of venomous glands to complete his quest, and killing just a few every now and then, was clearly not enough.

Interestingly enough, there wasn’t any trace of fighting in the area, only a few steps, and signs of dragging.

After almost half a day of walking, the four found themselves into a second dimly lit cave. This cave was a lot bigger than the previous one, and it had a circumference of at least a few kilometers. What was shedding light in it, was a big pool of magma, which simply enlightened a portion of the cave.

From what Daniel could feel by sensing the walls of this cave, there wasn’t any other exit, aside from the path they had just came in.

The four entered the massive area, and looked around carefully.. but found nothing.

"Why are you killing my source of food?.." Said a disembodied voice, as a deep, and guttural rumble sent a terrifying feeling down the backs of all of those who heard it.

The four turned around, and saw two large, and yellow reptile eyes just a few meters away from them.

What shocked Daniel and Aeron the most, was the fact that they hadn’t felt this entity at all, no matter how much they had looked around for.

"Of course.. Things were going too smoothly.." muttered Daniel with a low voice, while internally cursing at the unconscious Sewah one more time. He then stepped in front of the others, and said "We didn’t know that these spiders were your source of food. If you don’t mind, we would like to recover the bodies of our dead, and leave." Daniel did not know what this being was, but the stealthy behaviour, and the large reptile-like eyes, were never good signs.

As soon as Daniel finished speaking, the two yellow eyes slowly approached his position, and entered the area illuminated by the small pool of magma.

Around the left eye, Daniel could see scaly skin, horns, and the side of an enormous mouth filled with many two meters-long teeth.

"You smell like trouble.." Said this being after taking in a whiff of Daniel’s smell, and growling in a newly found hostility towards him.

This reptilian being did not appear instinctively aggressive at first, and yet, it had shown hostility after smelling him. This event looked familiar to Daniel, but now, he was not in the position to delve into memories.

"Do you make enemies with people based on how they smell?" Asked Daniel while raising his hands, and taking a few steps back.

A green flame suddenly appeared inside what looked a slightly opened gigantic mouth, but only for long enough for Daniel to have a better look of who or what he was talking to. The flame appeared only because this being scoffed in amusement, before asking "Do you think that you know what kind of being is able to alert me, or what they smell like?"

"No idea.. Do I look like I could hurt you?" Daniel asked right away. He wanted to be clear about a simple fact.. They were not here to cause trouble. His luck was already bad enough without him having to fight a beast of unknown power.

The beast suddenly became completely quiet, and the eyes slowly closed. A few noises of flesh being ripped and twisted could be heard coming from just a few meters in front of Daniel, and resound in the surrounding area, until suddenly, they also stopped.

The two eyes reappeared right at Daniel’s height. They were still reptile-like, and still of a bright yellow color, but now, they were human-sized, and not anymore as big as boulders.

Moments after the eyes reappeared, a humanoid being walked out of the darkness, and into the area illuminated by the magma pool.

The first thing that Daniel noticed, was that this being was not human. His body was that of a humanoid, but it had arms and legs covered in black scales, dozens of small horns right where his hairline was. His chest was bare, but with a few dark red marks that appeared like tattoos on his skin, and defined the muscles of his lean physique. His facial features gave him a stern expression which showed a young good looking face, marked by thousands of years of age..

The first thing this humanoid did, was to approach the magma pool, and after putting his hand into the molten rock, he scooped a handful of it with his hand, took it up to his mouth, and sipped on it calmly. He then sat in front of the pool, and muttered "Your smell brings back bad memories.. Damn chosens of Iewah.."

It was only after hearing the last few words uttered by this individual, that a particular memory emerged from the depths of Daniel’s mind.. That he finally remembered what other being had talked to him, just like this being had..

"You are a dragon.." muttered Daniel fearfully.

After hearing Daniel’s words, Aeron opened his eyes wide in shock, and prepared to fight his way out of this cave and out of this planet. If there was something that was common knowledge in the universe, was that the dragon kin, was a slave to The Tamer.