Dragon Tale - Chapter 5.1 (Patreon)

"Are you sure you want to do this now?" Enna's voice was worried as she looked at Brody with a frown, "Why don't you wait a bit more to recover some more? Or at the very least, have some breakfast."

"I'm fine," Brody reassured the old woman with a smile, holding up his left arm, covered from the wrist to bicep in a thick bandage, "And I'll get something to eat later, I'm just not really fond of eating in the morning before I go out anywhere, especially when there won't be many bathrooms."

"Just shit in the woods," Garrick rolled his eyes and snorted, "Or is that too low class for the great and mighty 'Dragon Fist'?"

Brody rolled his eyes right back, "No, but I still don't feel like it." he replied. Though he supposed, with his Requip space he could bring camping gear and toilet roll and other necessities, it wasn't like he was really using up the space with anything else.

Eight days had passed since the Wyvern attacked Onibus, and things had…changed.

For one that name, 'Dragon Fist'. It was a nickname the towns people had given him for defeating the wyvern. Many of them had seen him defeat it first hand and the state he'd been left in afterwards. Apparently, it had left an impression.

Especially since mages were rare to see in Onibus, never mind one capable of fighting a wyvern.

Albeit barely.

Ever since, he'd had tons of well wishers wanting to see him and whenever he was out on the street, the few times he had been over the last few days after recovering as much as he had so far, ended up with him swamped by towns people.

He wasn't really going to complain about the name, It was better than something stupid like Black Steel Gajeel.

"Stubborn one, aint ya?" Garrick snorted, before turning to his wife, "He's fine woman see? No need to mother hen him, he's a big monster killing boy after all. I hear the mayor even wants him to start a guild here."

…Yeah, he'd hard that too. He wasn't sure how to feel about it though. From what he'd gathered, making a mage guild in a town, needed the express permission of the authorities, such as the mayor himself, otherwise they'd need to do so outside the settlements.

He'd always figured if he was going to join a guild it would be Fairy Tail, never even considered making one himself.

Enna clicked her tongue, "He's only one boy, what is that twit thinking?" she huffed, "Strong or not, one mage does not make a guild."

"Can't blame the man," Garrick shrugged, "Ol' Dragon Fist here killed that big lizard right in front of everyone and showed just how strong mages are compared to normal folk like us. And we ain't had a single vulcan attack since he showed up. People are safer thanks to the boy here doing his thing and they know that now."

"I mean, if I did, I'd have to stop working here." Brody pointed out with a grin.

"Oi, oi, oi let's not be hasty here," Garrick quickly turned back to him, "It's not like you have enough cash to get your own guild base or something, unless you want to operate outta a rickety lil' shack. You can just work outta here, and continue being the bartender until you build up enough to buy a nice grand place. Sides' we already have a mage job board and everything, be a shame not use it."

Brody snorted, "Yeah, sure." he waved him off. It wasn't like he'd even decided on such a path anyway. And guild business was out of the question right now, especially joining or being involved with Fairy Tail.

A lot of shit was going to go down around them. Like…

Brody frowned as nothing came to mind.

'…What?' he blinked. No, that wasn't right. He remembered some things. Like, Galuna Island, Lyon was there trying to awaken Deliora. But, before that…Lullaby?

Something about the demon Lullaby. Someone was going to use it? But, why couldn't he remember who? Or why?

Or what happened after Galuna Island.

He knew there was something to do with Lucy. And, Lisanna was in Edolas after getting almost killed by Elfman.

But, how did they get to Edolas again? Lisanna was alive and came back…he thought? Or did she stay in Edolas?

'…What the fuck is going on?' Brody felt a pit of dread well up in his stomach as he realised something.

He'd forgotten a ton of things somehow.

He could remember Zeref created the Etherious. He was Natsu's older brother and brought him back from the dead. Igneel was inside Natsu and he and the other first generation dragon slayers had been sent four hundred years in the future. He was cursed by a god. He met Mavis. Fairy Heart. Lullaby and Deliora were Etherious, and he could remember the other ones in the guild of Tartaros, and their abilities. But, not what they would do in the future.

…He could only remember things that had already happened then? It was a recent thing to, because while he could not remember them, he could remember, remembering them and thinking about plans before.

Someone, or something was doing this, actively suppressing his memory of future events.

Ankhseram?

'Fuck.' Brody cursed inwardly.

____________

Later, Brody rested his forehead on the cool glass window of the train he was riding in. It was going to be a long journey, a frown on his face.

'It's not all bad.' he thought to himself. From what he could put together, he could remember all of his knowledge of things that had happened up until now. And had vague recollections around things that would go down in the future.

And he could feel it in his bones, that Acnologia would one day destroy the world if he wasn't stopped.

‘Well, you win some, you lose some I guess.’ he shrugged internally.

It was fine anyway, because beyond getting involved in whatever crazy nonsense would sweep over Fiore in the future, none of it changed any of his plans for the most part.

Because the things he'd decided on, were based on events that had already happened.

And provided some benefits too.

Like, the fact he knew God Serena was a second generation dragon slayer, with eight dragon lacrima, meant the man had already obtained all eight of his dragon lacrima.

It was hella convoluted though and gave him a headache for sure.

'Well, no need to worry about it right now.' he mused, holding his hand out and concentrating on his Requip space, a second later, a book appeared in his hand.

A thick, heavy book that went into a lot of detail about lacrima's and the creation of them.

He'd had it over a month read it multiple times by now, but wanted to keep his knowledge fresh and review what he knew.

Lacrima were fascinating.

At the basic concept, they were simple things. Just a storage of magical energy. But from there, the sky was the limit. They could be used to power devices, the could be used to trigger explosions, the magical energy inside could be converted into spells. The magical energy could be linked with other magic in other lacrima's to communicate over fast distances.

They could even be designed to draw in magical energy passively to restore their own energy, akin to a solar charger, and the same way a mage's body passively took in ethernano from the air to refill their reserves after using it.

Which was important, because that was a process that would for sure need to be used in the creation of a Dragon Lacrima.

Which he'd also found out the process of. Frankly, it was actually simple. And not really unique to dragons. They could actually be made from almost any creature with magic. But in this regard, it was a body part seeped with the magic of the creature the lacrima was made out of, generally the heart was the best to use because that tended to be the most magically rich part of a body.

…Technically speaking, it would be possible to make a lacrima out of a human heart as well.

'And to think that's still not where the amazingness of lacrima's end.' he mused to himself.

No, as he said, the sky was the limit. And there was even an organic way to use lacrima's. Or, the creation of a pseudo lacrima in the body.

What he was referring to, where Magic Eyes.

Quite simply, they weren't any inborn ability or even all that special. What they were, was generally a magic spell or effect ingrained into the eyes and triggered instantaneously through them.

The only down side was that, to create them, one would need to know how the creation of lacrima were done and have more or less mastered the spell or effect one wanted to use.

It was why most mages apparently tended to store a powerful effect or spell that took a lot of effort or even a chant to use. Because they could be triggered instantly.

Which was really quite unfortunate for him because besides Take Over and Transformation magic, he didn't know jack about any magic spells.

It would be a while before Brody could hope to create an Eye Magic of his own.

__________

It was mid afternoon when Brody arrived at his destination. The popular and bustling home town to Blue Pegasus.

It was tempting to go pay them a visit, after all, one of their main sources of revenue was being a host club. And maybe check out the local weapon places and magic shops, a place like this, should have some good ones with how popular Blue Pegasus was.

He could probably even get his hands on some magic weapons like the type Erza Scarlet tended to use to supplement his inability to use offensive magic right now.

But, they'd be hella expensive and while he had a total of nine hundred thousand jewels, that would go bye bye very fast buying stuff like that. After all, even a simple book on Requip magic cost him a hundred thousand.

So, instead of visiting anywhere that interested him, he instead left the town behind and made his way out towards the towering mountains in the distance.

Mount Hakobe.

About thirty minutes into his walk there, Brody could feel the temperature in the weather begin to drop the closer he got and paused, "This should do." he mused to himself.

He focused for a moment, and a warm winter jacket shimmered into existence in his grasp and he slid it on. He still was nowhere close to skilled enough with the magic to change outfits with it after all.

Jacket on, Brody focused again, deep inside himself for a moment, before opening his mouth as he pulled on his magic power and something else, "Beast Soul: Wyvern!" he declared.

Green light enshrouded his body, before massive green wings erupted from his back and a long scaly green and spiked tail jutted out from his backside.

Power rushed through his veins, strength filled his muscles and Brody for a moment, closed his eyes and luxuriated in the feeling.

It was only a partial take over, adding only a portion of the Wyvern's strength to his own, but even still, he was stronger like this, than he was with his full vulcan form.

That was how truly powerful the wyvern he'd devoured had taken over had been.

He could assume the full wyvern form too of course, but he could only hold the transformation for around two minutes at most. The sheer strength of it, coupled with his magic being passively used to give him the same resistance to magical and physical attacks that the wyvern itself had, meant his magic power was drained rapidly.

The partial form, he could hold for a good fifteen minutes though. Which would be plenty enough time for him to ascend the mountain peaks.

'And the perfect place to hunt too.' he grinned to himself. After all, Mountain Vulcans tended to live in large groups throughout Mt. Hakobe. And if he was lucky, he might just run into a Blizzardvern.

They were rare monsters with a low population, but their habitats were limited to cold places, so Mt. Hakobe was one of the few places they actually lived in Fiore.

With a jump and a flat of his massive scaled wings, Brody whooped as he ascended into the air and shot upwards at a breakneck pace, like a racing bullet towards the peaks of Mt. Hakobe.

___________

Only gonna get this one out tonight sadly. Was busy all day today, and gonna be busy all day tomorrow as well preparing since we bury my grandfather on May 2nd, just two, well one day away now. 31 hours until then to be exact. 

Anyway, what do you guys think about the title being changed to 'Dragon Tale'? I think it might be a good word play in contrast to Fairy Tail being a play on Fairy Tale because the motto behind the Fairy Tail guild is the question of if Fairies have tails or not, and because nobody could tell because they'd never seen a fairy, it was an eternal question, just like Fairy Tail would be an eternal adventure together. In this case, Dragon Tale would come from the fact we know Dragon's actually have tails, and this is the story of a dragon. I don't even know why I explained, that, you probably already knew that, you guys aren't dumb after all.