Jake tossed the token up and down as he looked at the beautiful carving of a red dragon on it. It was clearly made of high-tier metal, produced as a show-off piece for the Emberflight to display how wealthy and powerful they were.
Which was just the problem. They were large and powerful. Annoyingly so.
Could Jake just use the token, contact Helen, make her meet him, and force her to take him to some superior who could make everyone fuck off? Potentially, but in order to do that, Jake would have to show he had enough backing to not either get himself thrown out or killed outright. Considering he was a member of the Order – or at least it was believed he was a member – they probably wouldn’t kill him. Not wanting to meet him, however… yeah, that one had a big chance. In fact, chances are they would use this opportunity to have Jake bring out his backer to discuss the issue in his place. They believed Jake’s backer was an S-grade, after all, which wasn’t something the Emberflight was afraid of in the least.
“Why is this so damn complicated,” Jake muttered to himself. He needed that damn Helen woman to just back off. That was the crux of it. It wasn’t like the entire Dragonflight bothered him, just her. As long as he could make her not bother him or Meira, that should at least buy them some time.
Of course, there was always the option of just outing himself as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, but he wasn’t that keen on it. Not yet, at least. It would also make life even harder for Meira if everyone knew he was the Chosen and would get her flooded with people wanting to use her to get to him. Reika and the others would also get bothered if anyone found out they had arrived at the Order together.
Jake himself also didn’t see himself living a quiet life, but he at least had some countermeasures. Shroud of the Primordial would allow him to hide his level and presence from everyone, and he was a human, so as long as he changed his clothes a bit and still wore a mask, no one would be able to figure out who he was.
I need to approach this differently… Jake thought after thinking for a while as he considered different things he could do. He needed to get Helen off his back and…
“Oh!” Jake suddenly realized. A big grin appeared on his face as he took out his black token to contact a certain someone who would be able to offer more than an adequate distraction. Someone who had shown interest in the dragonkin before and wasn’t someone even the Emberflight could disregard.
Draskil.
He had not seen the Malefic Dragonkin for a while but hoped he was doing well. Jake also wanted to check in to see if he was a potential candidate for the Nevermore party he was assembling, though he felt Draskil already had other plans.Making a magical phone call, Jake soon got a response.
“Why does the Chosen contact me?” Draskil responded in an odd mix of annoyance, respectfulness and snark.
“I was wondering if you remember that Helenstromoz woman,” Jake answered.
“The hot dragonkin with the large tits and sexy tail? Yeah, I remember her,” Draskil confirmed.
“Great, I have some issues in that department and wondered if you could assist me,” Jake asked, kind of happy that Draskil remembered her, though he wasn’t sure how to feel about the way he remembered her.
“Sure. Meet up? Can be my place or yours.”
Jake thought for a moment. “Let’s make it your place.”
When he considered it, Jake had never seen the residence of another member of the Order besides Reika. Plus, he wanted to see if Villy had done some weird stuff with his mansion or if getting a huge compound of several buildings really was the standard for those with black tokens.
“Fine, I won’t bother cleaning anything up, though. Also, there are others around, so be sure to hide your status,” the dragonkin said, sending over his address.
He reconsidered meeting at Draskil’s place for a moment but still decided to go.
As for what his plan was when it came to the Emberflight? Well, to distract Helen by setting her up with Draskil, or to, at the very least, have her feel what it was like to have someone annoying you the same way she annoyed him. Draskil also had a Divine Blessing, while Jake only displayed himself as having a lesser Blessing, so if some old ancestor did decide to get involved for some reason, Draskil would offer solid backup when it came to status. Plus, the dragonkin had joined the Order proper.
Going to a gateway wall, Jake activated his token using the address of Draskil. It took a bit as the dragonkin had to give permission for him to come, and Draskil wasn’t the fastest, it seemed. A few minutes later, he was allowed to open it.
Jake walked through, and immediately, an odd smell hit him. Frowning, Jake observed his sphere and saw the source straight away as his eyes went wide. Bloody hell.
“Thayne!” a voice came from the side as Draskil walked over, wearing what looked like a bathrobe. “You evolved too!”
Looking at the dragonkin, he indeed had also evolved, though that wasn’t exactly a surprise.
[Malefic Dragonkin – lvl 204]
What was surprising was that he was only level 204. Given the level advantage he had on Jake, he would have assumed the dragonkin would be further ahead by now. Then again, maybe he had purposefully delayed leveling due to Nevermore.
“Yeah, not too long ago,” Jake confirmed, though he cared more about the two other people he saw in the background. Two heads peeked out a doorway, spying on them as they talked. He recognized neither of them, but he knew why they were there.
“Say, Draskil… can we find somewhere private to talk?” Jake asked.
“Sure,” the Malefic Dragonkin answered with a large grin. “Follow me!”
He turned around and motioned for Jake to follow, and instantly, Jake noticed the way the dragonkin chose. It wasn’t the fastest route, but it went through the large living room quite purposefully. All done for the Malefic Dragonkin to show off.
Draskil had said there would be other people around. When he had said people, Jake had assumed he maybe had some friends over or something… what Jake had not expected was for these “people” to be seventy-six women of different races. Humans, elves, dragonkin, beastfolk, even a vampire…
The Malefic Dragonkin proudly let Jake through the room as the many women directed their gazes at Jake, making him feel awkward.
“If you see any you like…” Draskil said with a grin as he turned to Jake.
Jake didn’t even give him a response but kept a stoic face as he tried very hard not to look anywhere. Oh yeah, had Jake forgotten to mention that less than half of these women wore any clothes whatsoever?
Luckily, they soon reached what in Jake’s mansion was the laboratory, but Jake quickly saw that Draskil had transformed it into a training chamber. On the topic of the layout of the mansions, Draskil’s wasn’t entirely like Jake’s, but it was pretty similar. The most significant difference was that in the main mansion, Draskil had removed a number of walls to make a massive living room, and some of the other buildings around the place were different. Jake’s library was far bigger, too, something he was certain Villy was the cause of.
“Really? Not interested in any of them?” Draskil turned and asked the moment they entered the training chamber. “I didn’t want to say anything out there when they could hear, but that is kind of cold; a lot of them seemed excited when I said I would have a human friend over. It isn’t like they need to know who you really are or anything like that.”
“No, I am not interested,” Jake quickly made clear. “And… who are all those women?”
“None of them are slaves if that’s what you are asking,” Draskil said as he took a seat on a sofa off to the side of the chamber. “They are chicks I met, liked, and asked to come back to my place and stay around. They come and go as they like.”
Man, is having a damn harem really that common? Jake asked himself as he also went over and took a seat in a chair.
“I wasn’t accusing you of anything; I was just curious,” Jake said with a sigh, now beginning to doubt his plan of having Draskil distract Helen. He seriously doubted the proud dragonkin woman would want to be one in an army of mistresses.
“Yeah, so don’t worry, a lot of them seemed interested when I mentioned you,” Draskil once more made clear. “Though a lot also aren’t, as they prefer a more… scaled companion. Though I guess with Scales of the Malefic Viper, you cou-“
“That isn’t what I came here for,” Jake quickly shut Draskil down.
“Oh yeah, it is about that dragon woman, Helen, right?” Draskil asked with a grin. “You decided to take her up on the offer and take her as your woman? Or is it the opposite, that she won’t take no for an answer and leave you alone?”
“Primarily the latter,” Jake answered as he roughly explained the situation of how Helen had approached Meira to get close to her and learn about Jake plus whatever backer he may have.
After Jake was done explaining, Draskil just looked at him weirdly. “And?”
“And what?” Jake asked, confused.
“I don’t see the problem here. Helen goes to the elf girl, helps and befriends the elf girl, and just wants some information in return. What is your issue here? Sounds like it is a win for both and and the elf if the elf girl knows how to keep a secret,” Draskil shrugged.
“It is about the intentions,” Jake made clear. “That someone close to me got led behind the light and used to try and get to me.”
“Everyone uses everyone; that is how things work,” Draskil shook his head. “You think those women out there all like me for who I am? Fuck no, they like that I have a Divine Blessing, that I am a Malefic Dragonkin, and that I have a black token. Luckily for me, I do have all these things making at least half of them want to carry my offspring. It sounds like the elf girl only benefitted from this encounter, and if she only benefitted because someone wanted something from her, then who cares? As I said, everyone wants something from everyone.”
“And that is fine,” Jake clarified. “As long as those intentions are made clear beforehand and not hidden. If she had come to Meira and tried to bribe her or something, I really wouldn’t care, but this shady shit isn’t okay.”
Draskil just shrugged. “I still don’t see the big deal, but sure, if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. So, why did you want to meet me, and what do you think I can do about it?”
“I don’t want to reveal myself as the Chosen quite yet, but I still want to throw some weight around. With my lesser Blessing, I don’t have much clout, but with your Divine Blessing, the Emberflight might just decide to listen and back off,” Jake explained. “Plus… if I can get Helen to be less interested in me and more interested in you…”
A smile toothy smile broke out on Draskil’s face. “I wouldn’t complain, though she seems like the type of woman who would demand to be the wife and not just another mistress. She is from the Emberflight, after all.”
“Who knows, maybe she has her own harem already,” Jake smiled and shook his head.
“Doubt it when she has a Bloodline. The faction wouldn’t wanna risk her making a dumb emotional decision and getting knocked up by someone unvetted,” Draskil shook his head.
Jake considered for a moment and nodded. That kind of made sense. He had already suspected she was a honeytrap but based on all Draskil said, she seemed like a really high-level one. That is if she even was a honeytrap or just meant to set Jake up with someone else. Considering her talk of Jake having mistresses, Jake began to suspect it may be the latter. She was trying to offload a bunch of mistresses on him, wasn’t she? Entirely possible.
“But what do you want me to say or do specifically?” Draskil asked. “Would be weird if I just tagged along and told them to leave you alone because we are friends or something.”
“Say you came with orders from the higher-ups,” Jake said with a smile. “As a Chosen, I am technically your higher-up in the Order of the Malefic Viper, and it will play into me having a powerful backer within the Order itself. Someone able to even make someone with a Divine Blessing do something. Chances are they will also have someone or something capable of detecting lies present, which would only help us as you will technically be telling the truth.”
“Hm, could work,” Draskil nodded. “What will our explanation be for you not wanting any chicks? I assume that will be what you want them to stop with, right?”
“That I am not interested and will wait until the time is right,” Jake simply said. This, too, was the truth. Jake having any kids right now, even if he wanted to, would be an objectively bad idea if he wanted his kids to be as powerful as possible. It was best he did it when he reached the grade his race was meant to be. Humans were naturally considered at their peak when C-grade, so his reasoning was still a bit suspicious, but he believed it would still fly as the partner’s race still mattered if they were of a higher-tier race.
Villy had also said that Jake should wait. Plus, the ultimate reason of all: Jake just wasn’t interested.
“Seems like the kind of explanation some master who wants to remain anonymous, while still being extremely powerful, would give,” Draskil smiled. “Fine, when do you want to head out? And how do you want us to act?”
“What do you mean want us to act?” Jake asked, a bit confused.
“Who is superior?” Draskil asked as if the question was obvious. “One party is always superior to the other. This is one of the Nine Dragonflight of the Draconian Accords here, not some minor faction. They will read into what we do.”
“Hm,” Jake considered. “If I am superior, it would indicate my backer is superior to someone with a Divine Blessing by quite a lot, and if you are superior, it would indicate my backer may not be as impressive. There is also some suspicion you may actually be the Chosen…”
Draskil just grinned at him saying that. “Ya could just come out as Chosen and tell them to fuck off.”
“Yeah, no,” Jake dismissed the idea. “I think we will go as equal friends as I don’t doubt they know we did a dungeon together.”
“To be viewed as an equal with the Chosen of the Malefic Viper,” Draskil said in a joking tone as he shook his head. “Fine. We can do it whenever you want.”
Jake smiled and nodded. “Thanks, mate.”
“You make it sound like I could reject you without being a moron,” Draskil shook his head. “Everyone wants something from everyone, and me helping you benefits me too much to turn this opportunity down.”
“I won’t complain that it is mutually beneficial,” Jake said and shrugged as he once more took out the token he had gotten from the Emberlight Clan and infused some energy into it. There was no response right away, and Jake chatted with Draskil for fifteen or so minutes before the token finally reacted. Jake infused his energy once more as a connection formed.
“Hunter… or should I say, Mr. Thayne. It gladdens me to finally hear from you,” he heard Helen’s voice through the token.
“You have done quite a lot to get my attention and get a meeting, haven’t you? Fine, you got one.”