Shiro's PoV

November 19, 2023.

I pulled up my muffler, and saw Sinon to the same. We we're standing at the bottom of the Beor mountain. I looked over to Lizbeth, "So, the top of this place has the ore?" She nodded.

"There should be no mobs on the way up, but there is a boss from what I've heard."

I grumbled, "So you just brought us to fight a boss."

We started heading up the mountain that was covered in snow and ice. "Hey Sinon, do you feel at home here?"

"What are you talking about? No I don't feel at home here, what the hell are you talking about." She said, obviously frustrated.

"Well, you have been nicknamed the Ice cold Markswoman. So I figured you would feel at home here."

"Shiro, I swear when we're done with this I will shove this dagger so far up your-"

I clamped my hand over her mouth, and saw her glaring dagger at me, "Lets not finish that sentence when Yuuki's here. Besides, why are you getting so frustrated with me right now?"

She forcefully pushed my hand away, "Because I can. I've had enough of your teasing for one day, so just shut up, or I will rip you a new one."

"Alright, I'll leave you alone for now." I started walking away. 'What the hell is wrong with me, why am I getting dejected over that.'

We continued walking up the mountain until about halfway, where we sat in a cave for a break. I sat in the far part of the cave, watching the three girls talking, sitting around a fire. I saw Yuuki and Sinon getting in a slight argument, before Sinon sighed and walked over to where I as sitting. She sat next to me and we both sat in silence before I spoke up, "So, what now, here to lecture me more." I said, with my voice breaking in the middle.

"I'm sorry Shiro. People have their limits, and you hit mine with your teasing."

"I know, I'm Sorry Sinon, I'm an inconsiderate asshole who only cares about himself." I said, hugging my legs closer to my body with a tear rolling down the left side of my face. I felt a cold pair of arms around me, "Wha?"

"Im sorry, Yuuki said that I hurt you when I snapped. I didn't realize you would take it that way." She pulled me closer, "But, if I may, why did you get to hurt."

I sat in silence. "Shiro, if you don't want to tell me you don't have to, but just like you told me, you have people here who are willing to listen and help you." Her saying that broke me, as tears started selling up in my eyes.

"Sinon, one of my biggest fears is losing the people closest to me. I don't want to lose my family, not again."

"You consider me part of your family? Wait, Again?"

I stood, taking my cloak off and giving it to her. "Later. Here use this, maybe you'll stop shivering up here." I stretched and straightened out my grey long sleeved shirt, with the sleeves being big enough so they hid my hands. We walked over to Lizbeth and Yuuki, "So, we ready to go finish this." They nodded and stood, with Yuuki walking over to me, "So, you sent Sinon over to apologise?"

"Yeah, I know how you get, I've only known you for most of our lives after all." She replied, saying the last part sarcastically.

"Yeah yeah, you're 13 , you think you're great at everything."

She snorted, "Hey pot, meet my dear friend kettle."

We continued bickering until we hit the summit of the Beor mountain. It was mostly flat, with a bunch of blue and turquoise transparent crystals. There was no sign of a boss, but we still all had out hands on our weapons. "Wait." We heard Sinon hiss behind us. "Listen, don't tell me in the only one hearing that."

I stopped walking and focused, and heard something that sounded like flapping, "is that, wings?"

"Sounds like it, means flying boss probably." We waited in silence, until Sinon screamed out, "Dragin, Above!" We ran backwards to see a giant white dragon, covered in small icicles. X'rphan, the white wyrm. It seemed to be regarding us with wise eyes instead of attacking, and I heard a deep voice speaking an older form of Japanese in my head.

'Two legs. Why is thee here?'

I motioned behind me for them to lower their weapons, as I set mine on the ground. I heard the others do the same. "O' wise one, we have come seeking a rare metal that can be found on the mountain you reside in." I was a fan of reading about dragons, and white dragons are the least hostile of the bunch, as long as you show respect.

"So, two legs, thee and they friends have come seeking mine treasure?"

"We are sorry to intrude, O' great one, but we came seeking ore."

'tell thy friends to draw thine weapons, and prove yourselves worthy of my respect.'

I turned around to see the three with confused yet awed looks, "Get ready to fight, but when I say stop, put your weapons away. We must prove ourselves, and we shall be rewarded. Lizbeth, go sit back, you're 15 levels lower than us, let us do the fighting, you just heal us if we need it." She nodded and ran off, while Sinon and Yuuki drew their weapons.

"So, please tell me you have some sort of plan for this?" Shino asked to my side, nervousness obvious in her voice.

"Move, and don't stop moving, onto attack when you see an opening. If you need to, run to Lizbeth to heal. We all have high agility stats, so we should be able to dodge decently. Wyrms aren't the fastest of dragons, so we should be fine. Just dont get Frozen and we should be fine."

'Is thou and company ready?' I nodded, 'Then, let this commence.'

The wyrm flew up into the air, and the three of us scattered as it landed where we we're standing. I saw Yuuki slashing at it's legs then running, and Sinon running around throwing picks at X'rphan. It stomped around, and started breathing frost breath at Sinon, forcing her to run. Me and Yuuki took the opening that was open during the boss' attack. I placed me dagger in my sheath on my lower back, with my hand still on it. It started glowing, as I dashed forward at a extremely high speed, activating Zantetsuken, a quick and highly damaging ability that unlocked randomly when leveling my agility to 150.

I turned to see the boss, and saw it was at half of it's first bar of four bars. I saw Sinon hit it in one of it's eyes, affixing it with the blinded debuff. Both be and Yuuki lunged forward, with my passive for double damage on a status afflicted enemy, called Hex. We both attacked the boss as it flailed it's head, breathing frost breath. When we jumped back due to the debuff ending, X'rphan was down to it's third bar, as to where it flew back. "Guys, stop attacking, I think we're done."

I sheathed my dagger, and kneeled infront of the boss. 'Congratulations, two legs, thee has proven thyselves worthy of my treasure, and my blessing. Come, follow.'

X'rphan walked over to a large pit, and jumped in. "Hey, we need to follow, anyone have a rope."

"No, why would we think to bring a rope with us. We weren't expecting to have to jump into a pit"

I walked forward and started to slide down the side of the hole, which was tilted and enough if an angle to not fall strait down.

Once I hit the bottom, I heard the others fall behind me. We saw X'rphan looking at us, than retreat into a cave. I started walking forward before an arm pulled me back, "Shiro, how do you know this isn't a trap?"

"Because, I loved reading about dragons when I was younger. White dragons are the most peaceful of the chromatic dragons, if you catch them after they've eaten something. Dragons are also unable to tell a lie, as is their nature."

I walked into the cave, and the others soon followed. We saw X'rphan sitting surrounded by treasure.

'Two legs, thee has proven thyself worthy of mine treasure, and as the keeper of mine kin.' He moved to the side, and revealed a light blue egg that looked like it was made of ice. 'Two legs, thee is now known as friend of dragons. Take care of mine, and he shall protect thou and thy friends.'

"O' Wise one, what will happen to you.?"

'My time is at an end. I ask of thou, take thy sword and end mine life. Mine treasure belongs to Thee.'

"Thank you for your generosity, O' Kind one. I will take care of your kind, as long as I am in this world."

X'rphan hummed in acknowledgement, and I Rose my dagger to stab right where it's heart would be. X'rphan turned into blue polygons, and a reward screen appeared. It gave health crystals, and a pitiful amount of Exp. "Hey guys, we can look around here, take what you want. Lizbeth, go get your ore, it should be back in the pit under some snow." I walked forward to where the egg is.

I placed my hand on it, and felt warmth emanating from it. It soon started to glow, and make cracking sounds. I backed up, and soon saw a wyrmling appear out of the remnants of the egg. It had light blue, ice like crystal-esque scales, and dark blue eyes that looked like sapphires. It regarded me as I walked closer and held my hand out, and in response it held out it's head for my to rub, and when a did a menu saying enter familiars name with a text box. I entered Shiva and pressed the blue circle, and a new health bar appeared under mine. Shiva chirped and jumped up on to my shoulder, and I could help but grin as I turned to introduce the newest member of our little Gang of misfits.

"Hey, Sinon, Yuuki, meet Shiva."

Sinon reached forward to rub Shiva's head, and the familiar let out a purr like sound. "For something so dangerous, it's quite cute."

"Yeah, she's warmer than what you think an ice dragon would feel like." I looked at Sinon and noticed she had a bow slung over her shoulders, "Sinon, is that a bow?"

She smiled as she pulled it over her shoulders, "Yeah, it's called Khione's wrath, and it said that the arrows become like icicles when they leave. Yuuki found a new sword that slows enemies it hits, she said it's called Diamond Dust." She looked at me apologetically, "No new daggers though."

I shrugged, the motion startling the familiar on my shoulder. "Sinon, I have a miniature ice dragon on my shoulder I couldn't give a fuck about any daggers right now."

We gathered up the rest of the treasure in the room, which in total amounted to about 3 million col. We found that Lizbeth had found multiple different bunches of ore, and we headed back to her shop. She told us to wait in the main office room of her shop, where the three of us we're admiring Shiva, who could apparently create icicles out of thin air. Shortly after, Lizbeth came out holding a light blue dagger with a pitch black sheath. "Here Shiro, consider this your payment. It's enchanted to raise your agility, so it should help you." She handed it to me, then leaned forward and whispered, "Its early, but Happy Birthday."

I jumped back shocked, "How did you?" she just pointed to Yuuki, "Of course she did." I just put my hand on my head, "Anyways, thanks Lizbeth. We'll see you later." She nodded and went into the back of her shop, and we left the shop. We went back to our inn on floor 63, and accounted the total money we had.

"Hey, I think we could finally buy a house!" Yukki said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, it would be peaceful, not having to deal with a npc everyday." Sinon added, with Shiva chirping from her shoulder. She started giggling, "Hey Shiro, I think your dragon likes me more than you."

"Ahh, she just likes you because your cold. But I do think we have enough to buy a house in selmburg, so how about we go do that."

We stood up and teleported to Selmburg, where we headed to One of the most expensive districts, that ran at around 5 million col for one house. We bought one on the edge of the neighborhood, and we entered. It was just a basic house with three rooms, and basic furniture.

"I have a bed now, it's great." I headed over to the bedroom farthest from the living room, and went inside. There was only a bed, but that's all it needed for now. Shiva flew onto the bed and curled up at the edge like a cat would. I heard two pairs of footsteps behind me.

"So, did Liz confess her unending love for you?" I heard Yuuki say in a teasing voice.

"I could ask why you told her anything about our Irl lives, you know that we shouldn't."

"It wasn't on purpose, I swear. She overheard me talking to myself, so yeah." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

I saw Sinon with a questioning look on her face, but it soon disappeared. "So now we need furniture, who's job is that?"

I shrugged and shooed them out of my room. "I want sleep, so figure it out yourselves."

I laid down on my back, and felt Shiva land and curl up on my chest as I drifted off to sleep.

So, there's a new addition to the crew, if familiars count. Also, apologies if i butchered using old english, i dont know it very well. Anyways, onto reviews

Tl34lt12: The nobody isn't really sentient, as it is a quest, and is kinda in this certain nobodies character. Also, there will be a minor action scene next chapter, but Chapter 9 has a bigger boss fight that I've been working on for a while, so it should hopefully be decent.

This has been TheExoticCake, Signing off.