Chapter 1302 Find Your Place
"I have made you a map of the space so that you know where the major landmarks are, and where the eggs are incubating. However, these lovely ladies are the caretakers of the space, and in charge of the alchemy ingredient fields.
All the fields, actually, but most of what we grow is Alchemy ingredients." Karl explained.
"Is there formal housing? Or should we construct something?" Axel asked.
"We have a replica of the Drodh Guild House here, and that will work for a base of operations, but there is also a small city built inside the mountain. That is much larger, and suitable for an orphanage facility, as it has dragon sized entrances on the upper levels.
I don't know how all the species react to being underground, though." Karl explained.
"What was your plan if the Church didn't send people?" The red dragon asked curiously.
"To have Tessa gather them for meals and lessons, then to let them just do dragon things for the rest of the day. It's worked out alright for Button, and she's becoming a responsible member of society." Karl's explanation fell flat when everyone turned to see that the little dragon had not transformed to use cutlery, and was face deep in a bowl full of breakfast.
"Bad example. But you get my point."
Lyric laughed, and Button shrugged. She intended to keep playing in the water and didn't want to put on her dress until she was dry again.
"Why don't we go look at the housing situation, and then we can decide if we need to make more, or if it is sufficient?" Axel asked.
Karl took a bowl of breakfast, and nodded in agreement. "First, take a moment to get to know the locals, then we will head over. It's a bit of a walk, or we can fly.
Is everyone in the group a dragon? Or do we have dragonkin?" "All dragons in this group. Your Guild already had dragonkin, I believe. Or humans that were becoming dragonkin as they gained favour of their Gods. Which is really the same thing from our point of view." Axel agreed.
"Wonderful, then we can fly instead of taking the portals." Karl announced.
The dragons immediately got excited, and even Button hurried to finish her food and run into the lake to wash herself clean in anticipation of a morning flight.
If Karl was here, then Cara was here, and she would fly at an appropriate speed. Hawk too. Hawk thought that he might really enjoy flying with her, and not just because she stopped every fifteen minutes to beg for snacks.
Karl finished the surprisingly tasty combination of eggs and tomatoes over potato, and handed his plate back to the cleanup staff. "Alright, everyone ready to transform? Dana, you can hop on my back, or fly along with us." He suggested.
Dana laughed at his suggestion. While she could fly fast enough to keep up with casual dragon flight, it was exhausting to do for long. They might be headed to the housing areas, but they certainly wouldn't go straight there.
That was never how it worked.
Karl transformed, and the other dragons stared at him for a moment. "What sort of spell effect is that? I swear he's turned into an actual dragon." Bertie remarked.
{It's called Avatar. It gives me this wonderful World Dragon form. I thought that it was only proper to go as a dragon, since everyone else is.} Karl joked.
The young red dragon transformed, and then laughed when she realized that she was less than a third of Karl's size, despite being an Overlord.
Red dragons were among the larger of the chromatic dragons, but Karl's Avatar form was naturally oversized, even for a Mythic Rank dragon, though he wasn't using any skills to increase it.
Dana leapt up onto his back, and Karl locked her in place with [Eternal Lightning] so that they could fly freely without any need to hold on.
Then, the rest of the dragons transformed and Cara came out to join her partner in pranks for an outing. Now that everyone was going to be distracted by the inspection of the Tiny World, it was a perfect opportunity for them to 'explore' as well.
As they flew away, one of the dragons discretely cast a tracking spell on them, so she could find them later. A sensible measure to keep track of the most likely troublemakers within the Tiny World.
Unfortunately for her, the moment that she turned away, Cara also discretely dispelled the effect so that she could sneak off with Button to play in the mountains. The dragon sighed dramatically as she realized what had happened the moment the spell vanished, but didn't try to chase them down.
This was a restricted space, and they would come back when they got hungry.
Or bored.
{The first thing we should do is the grand tour. If you follow me, we will cross the lake, and then view the grassland region, which is mostly open, with some alchemy crops in it.} Karl began as he led a casual procession through the sky.
'Some Alchemy crops' was a massive understatement at this point, as almost the entire region was full of low grade magical plants. But they formed the basis for the most common healing potions that the shop sold, so they needed a lot.
Not the hundreds of acres that they had, but perhaps one day in the distant future they would have enough alchemists to make that many.
{Then we have the tropical forest, where you will find more alchemy ingredients, as well as a number of clusters of dragon eggs that were aligned to the nature element. Down there on your right, you will see some of our workers checking on them now.} Karl continued, while he waved down at the druids.
They waved back, pretending that they weren't confused by the group of twenty dragons that had suddenly appeared above their territory.
{Next is the swampland. This is one of our busiest regions, as there are so many rare ingredients that love the hot and humid atmosphere. There are also many dragon eggs along the shore here, next to that camp.
Finally, we have the food crops, the training areas and the Guild House before we reach the mountains.
Near the top of that flat peak is the entrance to the underground city, with more dragon eggs, and behind the ridge is a collection of hot springs for relaxation.
I will let you tour a while on your own, and then we can explore the underground city.} Karl finished.
{Is the delay so that you can find the forest dragon and undo whatever she got up to with the badger?} One of the red dragons asked.
{No, we will find them soon enough. It's just so that everyone can pick the place where they feel most comfortable, free from my pressure.} Karl explained.
That was perfect. They could pick their own spots, and the blue dragons could argue about what would be the best place to put the school, given the options of terrain and existing structures.
They might also opt to build a whole new school here, but that was up to them.