After the shock caused by the dragon’s breath the friends swiftly turned the tables. Violent attacks came from all sides, leaving the dragon soul no room to evade. It didn’t take long until the lord-tier monster fell below half HP.

At this moment the dragon soul let out another roar. However, it had lost its intimidating fierceness. The dragon soul quickly returned to its green colour. As soon as it did so all attacks landing on the dragon bounced back, surprising the friends.

“It still has such a trick up its sleeves?!”

“If it would have done that from the start, how would we be able to fight?”

Liam and his friends were tense as they waited for the dragon soul’s next move. Luckily it didn’t attack. Its rage seemed to have been vented. The dragon only glanced at the painting, scoffed, and returned to flying below the ceiling, joining its brothers and sisters.

Cyclone let out a long breath:

“Phuh, that was close. Bloody Edge really almost got one-shot there. I told you guys, we mustn’t underestimate our enemies.”

“Oh really? Did you say that? Strange, I don’t remember…”, said Silver Blade. Cyclone froze for a moment before expectedly changing the topic:

“Anyways. We clearly made a mistake with that painting. Any ideas? Anyone?”

Cyclone looked around and met a bunch of contemplating faces. Her gaze stopped on Liam. But before the veteran could give a hint, Balm spoke up:

“I have a guess. Earlier, didn’t it sound like the dragon was saying something to us? However, the word sounded weird as if it was another language. Now I understand why I couldn’t decipher the text written on the pillars. It should be in a different language as well!”

“You got a point.”

“We should have thought about it before.”

Silent Acacia looked around finding everyone’s eyes light up. But he still felt a bit puzzled:

“But what good does it to us to know this? We still can’t translate the text, can we?”

Silent Acacia’s question stumped everyone. Right, they didn’t know the language. What were they supposed to do? Leave the dungeon and go study? How long would this take?

Seeing his friends momentarily lost, Liam knew it was time for him to chime in. Although they were in a game and he wanted his friends to experience the joy of solving puzzles by themselves, there was still the pressure brought by GalanTen, who might reach level 65 every moment. Thus, Liam decided to drop a hint:

“Guys, perhaps you should think back to what Therim told us.”

“Therim…?”

Balm furrowed her brows, guessing what Liam could be hinting at. Out of all the things Therim told them, what might be helpful in the current situation? Suddenly Balm’s eyes lit up. She flipped her wrist and a large green dragon scale appeared in her hand. With a single look she noticed that golden text was shining on the dragon scale.

“Hey, what’s that?”

Cyclone watched Balm’s actions and leaned towards her friend, studying the text, prompting Balm to read it out loud:

“Draconic – common. Revrexc = Flame. Loravre = Catastrophe...”

Balm continued reading, listing more than fifty words.

“Who would have thought that our dragon scales come with a built-in dictionary?”

Quickstep’s comments caused her friends to chuckle. Their mood was great as they understood how to solve the puzzle. Balm approached a nearby pillar with her dragon scale and started translating. Although the dragon scale didn’t contain every single word, it was enough to get a rough understanding. The text was a short story about a dragon burning five void dwellers to ashes. Instantly, Balm’s eyes fell on a painting nor far away which depicted exactly this scene.

“That’s it!”

Gesturing at Cyclone, Balm approached the painting. But when she looked back, she noticed that her friend appeared reluctant. Balm rolled her eyes.

“Cy…”

“Ok, ok. Coming.”

A moment later the two women grabbed the painting showing a ferocious, large red dragon facing a group of void dwellers. Flames came out of its mouth, vivid and lifelike. Balm and Cyclone next to the painting had the misconception as if they could feel the heat transcending the painting and affecting reality.

Afraid that their hands might get burned, the two friends hurried up and placed the painting against the pillar. Their faces showed a hint of nervousness as they gazed towards the ceiling. Would a dragon attack them?

A thundering roar echoed through the hall. One of the dragons descended from the ceiling. Yet it didn’t attack the players. It shot to the pillar, coiling around it and swaying its head with a hint of pride, clearly very pleased. The friends let out sighs of relief. They were on the right path!

With one successful example everyone brought out their scales. They split up to solve the puzzle faster. Everyone was responsible for a pillar. A few seconds later another roar resounded. Quickstep was startled. She had just started to translate the first few words, and someone had already gone ahead and placed another painting? However, as she looked to the closest pillar to her right and saw that it was Liam she simply took it for granted and went back to finish her own job.

For a while the roars continued to spread through the hall, announcing one success after another. However, the friends soon slowed down as the most obvious paintings were correctly assigned to their pillars. What remained where those looking too similar to each other.

“Expert!”

Cyclone’s shout reached Liam at the other side of the hall. He glanced over his shoulder, noticing the mage waving wildly. He chuckled inwardly and made his way over.

“Expert, look. I can’t solve this one. If I understand the text correctly it is about a green dragon bestowing wisdom upon a bunch of bandits who later became heroes? But there is no suitable painting. Only that one over there is similar where a dragon gives some books to a group of mages. But it still feels wrong.”

“Let me see…”

Liam threw a glance at the pillar. In his eyes the draconic language didn’t have any secrets. In his past life it was expected of pro players to know all the common languages. Draconic, elfish, orcish, universal common, etc. It could happen during a tournament that they would be thrown into randomly generated ruins, which hid certain helpful items. There would be hints to find which had to be translated from other languages. Thus, the current puzzle didn’t seem difficult to Liam. He easily spotted Cyclone’s mistake.

“Here, look at this word. Gedrec does indeed mean bandit. But you misinterpreted the ending. Gedrec’il does not mean a group of bandits. Instead, it means a small bandit. Which is a playful term for an energetic child.”

“Ohh, so the dragon bestows wisdom upon a child who later becomes a hero!”

Cyclone’s eyes lit up. She looked around and quickly spotted the correct painting. She asked Liam for help and together they carried the painting to the pillar,

A dragon descended, coiling around the pillar with happy roars. Cyclone smiled gladly.

Now, there were only seven pillars left. Quickstep and Silent Acacia stayed at the side while Liam ran around to clear his friends’ doubts. At this point he might have as well finished the puzzle by himself but since everyone was happy it was alright to delay five minutes or so. Surely, they wouldn’t lose the first clear because of that.

Soon, all twenty pillars had dragons coiling around them. Content roars sounded incessantly. The dragons were joyous for having their achievements recognized. Their mood raised the entire atmosphere and the invisible pressure which had lasted until now dissipated like smoke.

“I feel so much lighter.”

“Yeah. We should be able to advance now.”

“Alright, let’s go. We wasted enough time here.”

The friends didn’t feel like staying much longer. Commanding their flying mounts they rose towards the ceiling. But just as they got close, an angry shout shook the entire room.

“Halt!”

Boom!

A person jumped through the hole in the ceiling, crashing into the ground. The walls trembled but the person stood stable as a mountain on their two feet. The friends studied them, startled.

The newcomer looked extremely strange. He was smaller than an average human with an extremely burly figure, even disproportionally so. He wore a rather simple black armour, its surface reminding one of dragon skin. His dark green face had small tusks like some orcs but the long beard of a dwarf. Looking closer one couldn’t help but consider whether this person was the child of a dwarf and orc couple, extremely peculiar.

“Adventurers! How dare you to wake up these sacred dragon souls! Do you know the extent of your crimes?!”

“Well, we didn’t really wake them up, right? And look how happy they are…”, argued Balm.

“Silence! I don’t want to hear another word. You desecrate this temple and awake these heroic souls, disturbing their rest. As a guardian of this temple and disciple of the benevolent Nexkra’nar it is my duty to punish you! If you admit your mistakes and leave now, I can show some leniency. But if you insist on fighting back, don’t hope for mercy!”