Chapter 315 (Patreon)

Chapter 315

Sophia took Cirrus to her domain in the hope that it would get her interested in creating her own biome in there, just like her other elder dragon friend, Kel. However, as usual, the tiger overloaded her with information, and the cloud dragon wasn't sure what to react to first. To make her understand better, Sophia decided to show her around and use Kel as an example of what elder dragons can do in her domain.

“That certainly is a change of scenery." The tiger had brought Cirrus to the beach next to Kel’s ocean, and the dragon was quite impressed by their surroundings.

“Yeah, our big guy is going all out on the ocean.” Sophia also stared at the seemingly never-ending water right in front of them. “He made all of that in so little time, too.”

“Kelrax created this place?”

“The ocean, yes. The beach was mostly me and some friends.” She nodded once. “Before he started working on it, it looked exactly the same as the all-white place we were earlier.”

“Okay, no, I actually understand the water.” The dragon paused for a second. “As I mentioned earlier, as the elder dragon of water, he is perfectly capable of doing that. How did the sand, palm trees, and all the other stuff come from, though? Also, what happened to the white?”

“The white of my domain is just a placeholder. It automatically disappears once regular biomes are created in the area. It's still fresh in the making, but we've been experimenting with creating more than just water from magic lately. Like, why could you create water but nothing else? Otherwise, as you probably already know, if you stimulate flora with magic, it rapidly grows and expands, with magic creating more soil and similar things to sustain the growth. That way, you can create entire domains with just a few trees or plants.”

“Yes, I was aware that you can enlarge trees and plants with magic. Some of the forests on my floating islands had been enhanced like that.” Cirrus had some experience in that regard. “I hadn’t considered creating entire biomes like that, though. Well, to be fair, I wanted some forests as decoration, but otherwise, I’m entirely dedicated to my cloud craft.”

“Fair enough.” The blonde could follow her logic.

“The sky looks slightly odd, though.” Cirrus looked up and tilted her big head at the very pale-looking light blue above them. “I don’t think I’ve seen a blue hue like that before.”

“Ahh, well, that’s because it’s not a real sky.” The tiger scratched her cheek. “Just like everything else, the sky has been created, as well. Right now, all I can afford with my powers is to literally color the domain above us. Even that takes a lot of effort, so it only gradually gets more blue over time whenever I have magic to spare. It already looks a lot better in other, more developed biomes. It’s easier for smaller places, too. A gigantic ocean covers a lot of ground after all.”

“Wow, that’s quite something.” The dragon never would’ve guessed that being the reason.

“Don’t start teasing me about that now, though.” Sophia pouted for a moment. “The others do that enough already. Especially when it comes to the all-white default color.”

“I would never!”

“Thank you very much.” The blonde smiled at her. “Would you like to see some more places?”

“You certainly have my curiosity, so I wouldn’t say no to that.”

“Great!” Sophia clapped her hands and transported them to their next destination.

The tiger wasn’t looking forward to it, because it was way too cold for her liking, but as it was definitely one of the prettiest places in her domain, especially when it came to the sky, Sophia brought them to the mountain valley with the cozy log cabin and the permanent night and northern lights Chloe and Fen made together. Naturally, they didn’t go inside the hut, but instead went near the small river and the snow-covered forest.

“Ohh!” Cirrus seemed to be an immediate fan of the area. “This is such a pretty night sky.”

"It really is." She had to agree with her. "It's permanent night here, too. Just like before, it is basically painted up there as well. This one is actually purely made by friends of mine. They really did an excellent job. Well, I could do without the snow and the cold, but I see the vision they had.”

“I would prefer some movement in the sky, especially for the lights, but I can see how that wouldn’t work with the limitations.” The dragon took another look at it. “That aside, I agree, I’m a fan of the composition.”

“Okay, then, how about another place?” Sophia’s entire body shivered for a second. “I like the looks here, but my inner cat disapproves of the coldness.”

“Why would someone with so much authority be bothered about temperature?” Cirrus seemed confused. “Just adjust the air around you to your liking.”

“It looks cold, so I’ll feel cold!” She glared at her. “I know it's stupid, so keep any comments to yourself."

“Okay.” The dragon reacted with a slight nod. "Anyway, if you have any other interesting places to show off, I wouldn't say no to it."

“Great!” The blonde immediately cheered up again and happily clapped her hands.

Sophia decided to do the finale in a place she had created entirely on her own, without any influence from the others. She brought Cirrus to her never-ending cherry blossom forest and portalled them to the biggest of the floating islands above, where the dragon could fit on to give her the best overview of everything.

“This is also handmade?!”

“Yes~.” The tiger liked her reaction. “In fact, this is my lair or something like this. It's the largest and most involved part of my domain. I take great pride in it, too. It’s still a work in progress, though, so please don’t be too harsh just yet.”

“There’s no reason to be harsh.” Her eyes wandered between the countless floating islands and the sea of pink, white, and purple below her. "I adore cherry blossoms, and I see that you're a fellow floating island enjoyer.” She gave her an approving nod.

“Ehehe~.”

“How did you make them float, though?” Cirrus concentrated on the island right next to the one they were on. "I have my magically infused clouds, but there doesn't seem to be anything below yours here."

“I’m actually not quite sure about that myself.” Sophia scratched her cheek. “I can feel that they’re held up directly by magic itself. It’s probably because the ambient magic around here is incredibly high.”

“Besides the all-white room from the beginning, I had the feeling the entire time since entering your domain.” The dragon paused for a moment. “However, it is true that the magic concentration feels extra high around here.”

“Yeah, as the forest below is completely created by using magic, rather than being naturally grown, it constantly pumps ambient magic everywhere, which keeps the amount high at all times.”

“That would explain a lot.”

“Also, as you noticed on me earlier, I’m constantly transporting more magic into my domain from the regular world. That's why it felt to you like the magic around me was moving, because it was. From outside to here.”

“And that would explain the rest of it.” Cirrus nodded a few times.

“So, what do you think about my domain?” Sophia eventually got back to the main topic.

“It’s certainly interesting. Fascinating, even.” She took yet another look around her before focusing on the blonde. “The previous area aside, I’m really not a fan of the skybox, though. I don’t mind the white, the odd blue, and it being static, but there’s not a single CLOUD! I can’t approve of that!” The cloud dragon couldn’t deal with that.

“My domain is still extremely young, so it doesn’t have a working weather system yet because I can’t supply this place with enough magic. A domain is usually the playground of fully established overseers. I just somehow managed to accidentally unlock it early, even though I’m way too weak. Because of that, there are those white patches, or the sketchy sky. I mean, I could probably paint some clouds at some point, but would that make it better?”

“Only marginally.” Cirrus wasn’t too convinced about the plan. “Also, that’s the first time you gave me a semi-decent explanation on why you’re not a full overseer.”

"Glad to hear that me admitting being weak while providing examples helped." The tiger scratched her cheek. “We recently got some high- and low-pressure areas working, thanks to biomes vastly clashing in temperatures, which occasionally create a bit of a breeze, but that’s the extent of it right now. Functional natural clouds likely won’t be a thing for a long time in here.”

“Understandable, but I have to deduct quite a lot of points for that.”

“Fair.” Sophia couldn't blame her for that. "However, if I could get the help of the Cloud Elder Dragon, I’m sure that would speed things up significantly.”

“Cheeky.” The dragon replied with a chuckle. “My services aren’t cheap, you know? What is in it for me?”

"Well, it starts with bragging rights." She paused for a second. “If I ever become an overseer, which definitely won’t happen, you could claim that you’re a founding member of my domain and significantly developed it.”

“As a dragon, I do like myself some bragging rights.”

“Kel had a similar view on the matter.” Sophia gave her a thumbs-up. “Other than that, as I mentioned before, you’ll be able to create your own biome and lair nearly without any limitations. You can also freely experiment with magic while not having to adhere to Mira’s rules.”

“Enticing.”

"Then, there's the thing Kel fully won over." The blonde made a short, dramatic pause. “Your magic growth inside my domain is greatly improved. You using magic in here, or me growing and influencing everyone inside the domain, will lead to a growth that is impossible in the regular world."

“How big and fast of a growth are we speaking of?"

“How much is your regular growth?”

“It’s roughly one percent every 50 years or something along those lines.”

"Kel's been mainly living in my domain for a couple of weeks and is closing in on that one percent growth already.”

“I’m in.” It seemed like the elder dragons shared some traits, as hearing that immediately convinced Cirrus.

“Let’s go!” Sophia’s eyes were sparkling. “I guess that’s how you get elder dragons to cooperate, huh?” She learned something rather important.

“With an offer like that, you can entice every stronger being to work with you.” Cirrus reacted with a hearty nod.

“That’s great to hear, but I’ll focus on you elder dragons for now.”

“You want to get more of us to work on your domain?”

“Of course!” Sophia gave her a big smile. “You all have different specializations, right? I want as many different biomes in my domain as possible! You all are the best I could ask for there! Also, befriending a lot of elder dragons sounds fun!”

“If you want multiple different biomes that each hyper fixate on one specific thing, we’re definitely the right bunch to ask.”

“Hehe~.” She was happy to hear that. “By the way, speaking of which, do you know any of the other elder dragons and where I can find them?”

“I do know of some, but I’ll first have to get to know you a bit better to tell you about them.”

“Fair enough.” The tiger couldn’t blame her for that. "Alright, let's give you a place in my domain where you can go wild on! I'll also put some portals there to visit Fen's place and, of course, be able to return to the floating island where we met earlier whenever you want.”

“Ohh, I was about to ask if I can return, so that is reassuring.”

“Naturally!” Sophia vigorously nodded. “I want you to live here, but I’d never force anyone to do so. You can go back and forth between my domain and the regular world whenever you want!”

Afterward, Sophia brought them back to the all-white area the two had gone to at the very beginning, as it was the easiest course of action, since there was already a portal back to Cirrus's cloud lair, so she decided that would become her area in the domain.