Afir's Past, Parting Trip

I decided, while I'm here, why don't I take a dip in the world of politics. I had Doh teach me and I taught him how to fight. It was mutually beneficial and over time a bond like brothers grew.

I spent days, then months, and eventually, years growing in that city. I made some pretty incredible contributions, and voted most popular and most handsome 13 years in a row. I also had a beautiful and amazing wife. That was about 200 years ago. Haaah, good times."

"Dayum, you were cool? So how come you're living here all alone? Life in the city sounded pretty great for you. And where's your wife then?"

"Well, it all ended very abruptly." Afir closed his eyes like imagining it was difficult, "Dissop Vonnear saw how well I was doing in the city and felt jealous. He had hoped for me to fall into misery and die. His original plan was to have me charged with attempted murder on his son and have me executed. But that didn't go so well, he is a powerful man, but not strong enough. The achievements I've made at war helped me a lot, like killing 5 enemy commanders and capturing 5 more, helping them get valuable information that changed the tide of the war.

Although, admittedly, five were total accidents. I just got too far into the enemy ranks and killed them unknowingly. The other five was because I was awesome.

When he saw that I was happy and marrying Delle Jarose, his childhood friend who, I later found out, he had a crush on since they were kids but she rejected him. I assume that was the last straw. He couldn't stand that I was doing so well after injuring his son. He hated everything about me. How everyone else loved me and how much higher I was rising. I was meant to be street trash that was to die from hunger, but instead I succeeded. I was almost as high as he was on the political ladder and he couldn't handle it.

He saw my wife as the perfect tool to getting me out of his way and for him, hopefully, dead." he took a long sip of his drink and continued, "One night, he gathered some professional assassins and carried out his plan. One shapeshifted into me, two sat in other buildings and recorded my room.

They planned it perfectly. On a secret work trip, they snuck into my house and brutally murdered my wife. On the one night where I wouldn't have an alibi.

That night, when I got home and found my wife dead, blood soaking the bed, I didn't handle it well. I blew up in a fit of rage and destroyed about half a block. Thankfully, I didn't kill anyone, but I did injure many and cause a lot of issues. My entire fiasco was recorded by those two and many more. they were all released to the public and I was framed for the murder of my own wife.

They even had the perfect cover, my wife and I were having some arguments about a kid. I didn't want one and she did. I wanted to build up my career first so that we wouldn't be in danger of anything but she wanted to start a family. This argument was leaked to the public a little before and it did gain some popularity with the people. They used this against me to further solidify the accusations. The court and the people judged me guilty and the destruction caused by me was undeniable.

I was eternally banished from the kingdom, narrowly avoiding the death sentence with the help of a few final favors and close friends.

Thankfully, many of my close friends are still in the kingdom and the people that really knew us don't believe I did it. Apparently, they are still secretly working on the case but it's been over 200 hundred years. its a lost cause.

Well, anyway, I'm assuming this girl was sent by Dissop Vonnear. He is part elf so his long life span is expected. I don't think he likes the thought of me enjoying my life in the woods so he's sent people after me."

"harsh. this could be a drama book. you should write your life stories for others to read."

Afir lightly chuckled, "I've lived far too long for me to even tell them all at this age. And we both gotta leave this place soon. I'll destroy the Breadcrumb she laid down but they already know I live here and it's too dangerous for either of us to stay in the forest. I'm just curious as to how he convinced someone to help him track down me, a Sage Dragon.

Well, I'm gonna go to my brother's place for some information sharing. I'm afraid it's still too dangerous for you to even attempt to get in, I advise you to head for the city. It's not far from here, its called Jarlon and it's also the first city that I went to when I was suspended from war.

It's the first city that I started making connections in and my influence and reputation are still quite strong there. All the people that I've helped all believe in me instead of the rat bastard."

When he said "rat bastard" his face turned into a pleasant smile but a tail twice as long as himself grew from his back and smashed into the ground, sending chunks of dirt and stone flying into the air and creating a long crater.

"Oops." he casually remarked, dragging back his tail as he restored the ground, the dirt climbed back in and new grass grew again.

It was quite miraculous, most magicians would've needed all their focus, a few hand gestures, and a mana scepter to reconstruct the ground like that.

"How do I reach Jarlon?"

"Just walk in that direction." Afir pointed, "At some point, the forest will clear up and you'll enter a vast plain that gets drier as you go. Eventually, all the grass would disappear and rocks would cover the floor. At your speed, that should take about 2 to 3 days if you pace yourself. Make sure not to go too fast on the first day and get burnt out or you'll be vulnerable to attacks.

But when you get to the rocks, that's when you've entered Jarlon, although the actual city would take another couple of hours of walking. When you enter the area of Jarlon, you must not go too fast. Any foreign object going more than 50 miles an hour would be seen as a possible threat and neutralized. Violently. Heh, I actually set up the motion sensors for them.

Here, I put a stamp on your hand. when you get to the city, don't go through the gates, go to the left side. there should be a soldier there, call out 'I'm looking for some wild furbow! is anyone willing to give me some for free?' most people would ignore a ridiculous claim like that, some may even get mad at you, so don't say it too loudly. just enough for the soldiers to hear. that's the key phrase for those that still follow me to let them know that you're secure. the stamp is another form of proof."

He then explained a few more things about the trip, jumped up, popped out a pair of majestic, silver wings, and flew away.

"Alright. It's time to pack up the house and go.

Hey, Zeeth. As a parting gift, you can take one object from within the house."

"Oooh! Yay! Can I take the table?"

"Wow, you picked that fast. Oh, right. I forgot that you forgot all your manners. Haa. Listen, kid. It's alright with me, but usually, when someone offers you something politely, you should reject the offer at first. If they really want you to have it and you really want it, then you can take it after a few more offers. It's kind of common courtesy."

"Aaah, okay. Soo, I don't want anything from you…? Is that right?"

Afir chuckled and picked up the table for him and folded it up small enough for his slime armor to hold it.

He now had 5 medium-sized slimes covering his entire body, from neck to toe, compressed to be harder to damage. Each slime coated him like a layer of thick frosting layered on top of each other, making a near-perfect, skin-tight bodysuit. Zeeth tugged at it but Afir reassured him, "Bodysuits are pretty common in Jarlon, it's the sign of a middle-class family. you'll fit in just fine."

Each slime was translucent because they were made out of water and mana and five slimes layered on top of each other obscured his body and the slimes just enough to hide his skin and blend the slimes around him. And all the little condensed slime balls and flowers scattered in the suit blurred him even further.

He slipped the table, which was now the size of a chessboard, under the fourth layer, and wiggled around to get it's weight-adjusted.

"Why do you want the table? You should be able to skin and prepare animals pretty well. After all, you had to live in a forest by yourself for quite some time."

"It's not just for preparing animals, I also want to use it as a training buddy. On my trip there I want to practice my punching and fighting against something. Rocks and trees are too weak, and trees need to be kept alive for the oxygen. This is why this table is perfect, it can move around by itself using the mana filled strings and if it can handle giant creatures and carefully cut them up like that, then it can take all my attacks and fight back pretty precisely. Besides, you said that as long as I give it sufficient mana and materials it can heal itself."

"Hmm. I never thought of using it like that. Yeah, that's actually really cool. Alright, we'll have fun on your trip."

"M'kay." Zeeth nodded and turned around to leave. He crouched down, getting ready to launch himself further.

"*sigh* Zeeth, you're supposed to say 'you too'."

"Oh. Another one of those manners? They seem so needless. Oh well, then you have a fun trip as well. I wish I could go with you, there is so much more to learn."

"Heh, I wish I could show you to my brother as well, but this is better for you. It's good to develop your own way of doing things instead of learning to be a carbon copy of myself."

"Yeah, that's true. When we meet again, I will be sure to show you a new me, way stronger and way cooler than you!"

"Haha! I look forward to it. Here, kid. Take this before you leave." he pulled an orb out of his sleeve and it floated to Zeeth. "It's an artifact I built by myself, nowhere else in the world should anyone else have it. It's a multi-purpose tool, it can hold up to 100 gallons of mana, a shield generator, generating a shield that perfectly coats you and it can block one of your medium-strength water jets and it's also a grenade. Don't use the grenade function, it destroys it forever. It's more of a last-ditch effort thing. The more mana, the stronger the shield and grenade.

When it's destroyed it will also alert me instantly since it has so much of my mana. With that much, it's basically an extension of my body, although I can only feel really strong impacts. Like the thing exploding. One of my proudest creations. It can also turn into a robe to cover you up so that no one can see your slimes. don't worry, robes are a pretty common clothing choice here so you won't seem out of the ordinary under that. Alright, this is my last long speech to you in a while. Take care of yourself and do me proud."

"Thanks, da- I mean Afir! Have a nice time with your brother!"

With that, Zeeth unfurled the ball into a big brown robe, threw it onto his body, crouched back down, and dashed away once again using various methods and objects to help him speed up. A propeller made out of his slimes spun in front of him like an airplane (although he didn't know what that was, Afir gave him this idea) and shot him forward.

When Afir was sure he was out of earshot he muttered, "Not when. If we ever meet again." And he turned around, opened a giant dragon mouth, and swallowed his house. He then removed all the layers of magic protecting it by punching them all at once, breaking them all, and dashed away in another direction.

Towards the end of his first day, as Zeeth was speeding away, he slowed down a bit since his mana was getting below 80% and he knew he needed it up to at least 95% to fight an enemy properly. At his level, this was totally not true. This was just his standard when fighting Afir, he could pretty easily defeat most monsters in the forest with just his body and hardly any magic. After all, this was a beginner's area. Dragons liked the slimes so much that they went and killed all possible threats nearby, cleaning out the forest of all of the most dangerous creatures and only leaving the weak behind. But since his estimation was way off, he decided this was a good place to rest up and compared his Necklace to Afir's orb. The necklace was clearly stronger, it can block any single attack and it can call god once a day.

Not to mention, it boosts his luck by that much.

But the orb must be something else if Afir, a super old Sage Dragon, made it and called it one of his proudest creations. If that's the case, then the necklace would be godly, it was true. It probably helped him meet Afir and land on his better side when they met.

It sure has helped him out a lot. So why did it allow him to tame 100 slimes?! Luck is a fickle mistress.

Just as he was thinking about luck being fickle, a rustling noise was heard behind him.