Vesuvius looked at the minion in a wooden mask standing in front of him, and his senses easily caught the increased sweating and rapid pulse.
‘Well, someone I suspected of being a spy wants to talk with me. That makes it much more interesting.’
As a dragon Vesuvius sometimes felt like a walking lie detector. He could quickly notice the slightest changes in a human body, discerning a nervosity or lies.
“We shall talk after the ceremony.”
The dragon looked at the five minions in front of him, “Kneel before the divinity of the dragon god!”
All five of them immediately fell to their knees; their hearts loudly beating.
The dragon spoke ina cloud and clear voice, “Will you spread the glory and the name of the dragon god and their draconic servants??”
“Yes!”
“Will you fight for the dragon god and punish these sinning against their greatness and the greatness of the draconic servants serving them?”
“Yes!”
“In that case, I ordain you as the priests of the dragon cult in the name of the great dragon god!”
‘Wow, dang… how many times did I praise the dragon god today… Well better to flatter someone who is basically my boss.’
When the dragon finished his words, his eyes changed. Albright golden light radiated out of them, covering the five future priests, their whole bodies basking in the golden brilliance. The iron masks of the iron-masked minions changed, a scale-like pattern of shiny metal growing over their masks. Then the wooden masks of the rest changed into stone ones with the same glittering scale-like pattern of glittering metallic lines.
‘Luckily, I set up ranks presets when I was recovering.’ Vesuvius couldn’t help but admire the number of options that the faction system offered. Originally he was distributing masks through quests, only to feel like an idiot after finding out that he had a small budget for faction uniforms that he could automatically distribute to respective ranks.
‘Well, these items are shit, without any enchantment and from mundane materials. If I want some high-quality uniforms that are not only cosmetics for my minions, then I will have to set up a chain of craftsmen to make them.’
Vesuvius continued, his voice vibrating with magical energy, “Now you are the priests of the dragon cult!”
Vesuvius ignored the players forming a circle around the new priests, bombing them with questions and looking at the suspicious player in the corner.
POV RadiantHero:
Hero in the heavy armour radiating white brilliance stood panting, his whole face covered in burns with a portion of his armour melted.
Suddenly an orange light glowed in the mouth of a large armoured beast hovering in the air above him and on the staff of the evil player on its back, the magma quickly gathering around them.
He looked around, seeing that there was no way to doge as the two other evil players blocked his path.
Knowing of his incoming doom, the rage surged through him, “I will return stronger and punish all of you!”
Hero felt angry with himself that he got defeated after relentless attacks from all sides, but he still felt that he gained something out of his adventure, ‘I am alone… that is too few people to suppress all of the evil players. I need to find more of like-minded players and create a powerful force to contain the sprawling evil of players!”
Two bright spheres of magma descend from the sky. The heat radiating off of them was searing Hero’s skin.
A wide grin formed on his burned face, “Hahaha!” as he watched two blazing spheres descend towards him.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon was lying on the red glowing stone, his long tail curled around him. His large reverse-slitted eyes were looking at the suspicious minion in the corner of an empty cave chamber. Everything was dark except for flickering light from the dragon and torches on the walls.
“Yy-your draconic Highness… I broke your law…”
Vesuvius unleashed his aura, torches on the wall flickering with the temperature in the room quickly rising. The treacherous player fell to his knees, his body trembling under the magic passing through his body.
“Pp-please, let me explain!”
The dragon ignored his pleading, already analysing the severity of the leak, ‘Hmm, it should be alright. I kept most of my secrets from most of my minions, but why is this one admitting his crimes… that makes no sense unless he wants something from me in exchange for being quiet.’
Vesuvius snickered inside, ‘As if I care about the leak of some low-level information, I expected such leak from the very beginning.’
Vesuvius remained quietly observing the player that was trying to explain himself in a shuttering voice while frying in the dragon’s aura.
“I have lots of… friends, and I couldn’t resist but to tell them about how glorious and great it is to serve you, your Highness.”
‘Was I mistaken? It looks like he isn’t here to blackmail me…’
“Ehm, your highness, my friends, eh, couldn’t resist your ben… majesty and your magnificence. Please, your highness, let them join they are organised and well trained. They will be a great addition to your forces!”
Vesuvius, with his senses, could read much more from the body language of the traitor, and when connecting it with his words and knowledge from his previous life, he came to a conclusion, ‘Ohh, now it makes sense! He is likely a scout from some guild, scouting for potentially profitable organisations to join. For them to even care about this shithole region, they have to be pretty new into this game.’
Vesuvius felt pretty happy about the situation as he was looking for some competent leaders for his faction, like the guy with the weird haircut, and now he got a chance to recruit a whole organised group at once. Of course, he couldn’t just show that, to keep his image of arrogant elder wyrm.
“You broke my rules, and now you are asking me for a favour?” the silence fell upon the room, the player profusely sweating.
The dragon continued, “Luckily, I am in need of more minions, and I may accept your so-called friends, but you will not escape your punishment.”
Vesuvius raised his tone, the whole cavern shaking, “Now get out of my eyes until I find how to punish you!”
The player bowed, running out of the room, almost tripping, “Thank you, your highness!”
‘This way, I will get some extra minions that are already organised, basically for free.’ Content with how the situation ended, Vesuvius sprawled on the floor.
“How is this possible!” a loud, almost squealing feminine voice came from the darkness as the small elf with heterochromatic eyes and long curled horns poking from between her blonde hair rushed inside. Her eyes were glued on the smoke around the dragon.
“I can feel it. The runes on your body are even stronger! How?”