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Episode 5 — “The Deal”
“This is as far as we go.”
With that, Derkios suddenly fell silent, as if he’d shut down completely.
Sion stared at him in disbelief, but quickly pulled himself together.
He had lived in this world for more than 80 years—what was another couple of decades, now that he already had his answer?
“Fine, I get it. Then let me ask another question—”
“Based on the memories engraved within me, I cannot give you any further answers.”
“What?”
Sion narrowed one eye at the abrupt change in attitude.
“You are an incomprehensible anomaly, one who has deviated from the rules. I made exceptions to answer some of your questions, even ones I technically should never reveal to a player like you.”
“…”
For a moment, Sion was at a loss for words.
Derkios’s lips curled up slightly—he was definitely smiling.
“But if there’s something you’re truly curious about, I might be able to answer within my authority. However—”
“However?”
“From now on, we’ll have to make a deal.”
“A deal, huh… Alright. Let’s hear it first.”
“I call it a deal, but it’s actually a great favor I’m offering you. My condition is this: I want you to deal with the goblins that have dug a nest near my lair. Do that, and I’ll answer one of your questions.”
Sion couldn’t help but snort.
A dragon asking someone else to deal with goblins? That was ridiculous.
“Goblins? Couldn’t you just wipe them out yourself?”
“Based on the memories engraved within me—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.”
It hadn’t been long since he’d met Derkios, but Sion had already gotten a decent read on him.
The dragon was highly intelligent, extremely talkative from centuries of isolation, and endlessly curious. He also loved to hide behind phrases like “engraved memories,” framing himself as a passive being—but Sion suspected he was doing that deliberately.
In Sion’s experience, people as sharp as Derkios never took others’ words at face value.
Why, though?
The thought crossed his mind, but he didn’t bother asking.
If he did, the answer would just be another “engraved memories” excuse anyway.
“How big is the group?”
“The last time I checked, they numbered under a hundred. But some time has passed, so they’ve likely grown.”
“Hmm.”
Sion nodded.
Goblins had short lifespans of around 20 years, but their breeding rate was ridiculously fast—only three months from conception to birth. A single tribe could multiply three- or fourfold in a year.
“The location?”
“About half a day’s walk east of my lair—at your pace, that’s a little over 12.5 kilometers by human measurement.”
The precision was oddly specific, and it should’ve been strange for a dragon from another world to use Earth’s metric system, but Sion didn’t even blink.
For some reason, measurements in this world were automatically converted into meters and grams in his head.
What did surprise him was the distance.
Over 10 kilometers was considered “nearby”?
Then again, Derkios’s territory covered the entire Dragon Wasteland. Ten kilometers probably did feel like next door to him.
“Alright, I’ll leave right away.”
“The sun will set soon. Even for a player like you, the Wasteland at night is dangerous. Judging by your current state, you’d be better off resting for a few days before setting out.”
“…Fair enough.”
After months of wandering the Wasteland, Sion was in rough shape. And besides, resting could give him a chance to squeeze more information out of the dragon.
But Derkios had other plans.
After giving him only the bare essentials, the dragon stopped talking altogether and even dropped him off alone in the lower levels of his lair. For days, he didn’t show his face once.
Sion had no choice but to rest and recover.
Four unproductive days later, he finally set out for the goblin nest.
“Damn it all…”
Sion collapsed to the ground, covered head to toe in blood and gore.
The underground cave, lit sparsely by torches, was filled with goblin corpses.
He couldn’t tell the exact time in the dark, but it felt like at least two days had passed since he’d entered the lair.
And during that time, he’d fought goblins without rest or sleep.
“Not a big group, huh? Less than a hundred last time you checked, huh?”
He hadn’t counted one by one, but Sion was sure he’d killed them by the thousands by now.
Just in the central nest alone, he’d had to fight four to five hundred of them.
“Huff… haah…”
He struggled to catch his breath.
Even if goblins were individually weak, sheer numbers were dangerous—and this was their home turf.
Navigating the maze-like tunnels, avoiding traps, and fighting cunning enemies was brutal both physically and mentally.
He could only use his killing intent—a wide-area attack that consumed immense focus and emotion—six or seven times a day at most.
And aside from that, Sion had no flashy abilities like sword aura or magic.
All he had were the combat skills he’d learned over his long life.
Under favorable conditions he could handle a few hundred, but fighting over a thousand goblins in these conditions was exhausting, even for him.
He hadn’t felt this worn down in over a decade—he’d nearly been killed several times.
“That damn dragon. He made it sound like a casual stroll.”
His anger boiled as he recalled Derkios’s smug face.
Of course, to a dragon, goblins were little more than pests.
“Still, this was way over the top.”
He wanted to curse him out, but he understood why the dragon had asked.
With his massive size, Derkios couldn’t physically enter the narrow goblin tunnels, and the maze was too complex to simply collapse from the outside.
This was a job for humans, elves, or dwarves.
“…Wait.”
Something clicked.
Derkios had said this “deal” was him doing Sion a favor.
Could this be… a quest?
It made sense.
According to the dragon, this world was still in the prologue before AWS’s main storyline began.
As a sort of GM-like being, Derkios had given Sion a quest decades earlier than other players would ever receive one.
Technically a deal, but definitely a favor.
“Let’s head back.”
After catching his breath, Sion stood.
He hadn’t wiped out every last goblin, but it would take years for the survivors to recover.
That would be good enough for Derkios.
“You’ve done well. Your proper reward will be given when that day arrives.”
Hearing the dragon’s satisfied voice confirmed Sion’s guess—it was a quest.
Not bad. Even if the reward comes later, it’s still profit.
And as agreed, Derkios answered one of Sion’s important questions in return.
It was about something crucial to his future, and the answer was satisfactory.
He had more questions, though, and sensing the pattern, he made another proposal.
“I still have a few more questions. Want to make more deals?”
“I like that. Very much.”
Derkios looked genuinely pleased.
Sion thought the dragon might actually be a little lonely and bored.
After that, they continued their trades: Sion would complete quests, Derkios would answer questions.
He fought desert orcs at the edge of the Wasteland, hunted a giant scorpion undermining the lair’s foundations, and more.
Since he’d left his horses behind at a border village, Sion traveled everywhere on foot.
Some quests took nearly a month.
Before he knew it, completing five quests had taken almost a full year.
Eventually, Derkios began refusing to answer some of his sharper questions, and Sion knew it was time to move on.
“I see. Then I’d better start preparing.”
“Yes. Others might call it unfair, but given what you are, there’s no helping it.”
“Let them try living in this world for 80 years like I did. No one would.”
Sion slung his backpack over his shoulder.
“Well, then. Take care. It’s been fun.”
“It has indeed. I hope you live well until the day the players arrive. And after that, too.”
“Thanks. You hang in there too. Well, you’ve managed for centuries already, so twenty more years shouldn’t be too bad.”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“What do you mean, what do I mean? You’ve been alone here for centuries. It must’ve been boring, but only twenty more years until the other players arrive, right?”
“You seem to be misunderstanding something.”
“…Misunderstanding?”
Sion tilted his head.
Derkios gave him a knowing smile.
“Ah, I never told you something important, did I?”
“Something… important?”
An uneasy feeling grew in Sion’s gut.
This was exactly the kind of setup where some major plot twist dropped.
“As a thinking, emotional being, even I couldn’t endure that kind of solitude for centuries.”
“What? Then are there others here?”
Sion was shocked—he hadn’t seen a soul besides Derkios.
“Haha. No, there’s no one else here. I’m talking about the time you mentioned.”
“Time…?”
His unease deepened.
“One of my powers is to accelerate time within my lair—about tenfold faster than the outside world.”
“…Ten times!?”
“Yes. So for me, the actual waiting time for the players is only a few more years. That’s easy to endure.”
Derkios grinned.
But Sion felt like his brain had short-circuited.
If time here flowed ten times faster…
“…Then I haven’t been here for one year. I’ve been here for over ten!?”
(To be continued…)
