Chapter 40 - Dragon Emperor Set
Lance crawled away from the long and curly luscious locks of light gray hair.
Elliot and Connor had woken up from his scream, wondering what made a strong person like Lance to shout.
"W-What… is that?!" Lance stuttered.
He hid behind the two while scrunching his face. "And Hope. Where is Hope?"
Lance stood and looked around for his dragon. "Hope? Where are you boy?"
"Papa," a voice came from the flock of hair. Lance grabbed his swords and pointed at it.
"Overdramatic," Elliot remarked and walked over to the hair. "Is this even a person? Because I heard a voice from here."
The flock of hair moved again, making Elliot jump in fear. It turned around, revealing a young boy. He had the fairest skin Elliot had ever seen. And his eyes were heterochromatic. The left was black, and the right was white. His long hair covered most his body, only revealing his pale face.
"What in the…" Elliot trailed off, looking closer. "What are you doing here, kid? Are you lost?"
"Hope?" Lance was still looking for his dragon. "Where are you, bud?"
"P-Papa!" the kid called and tried to stand but failed. He let out a yelp when he fell to the ground, seemingly unable to walk or use his feet.
He scrunched his face and looked at his hands, only for his eyes to widen. "I… have hands! Hope has human hands!"
Lance snapped his head when he heard his pet dragon's name, "Did you just say, 'Hope'?"
"Papa!" the boy called. "Hope is me! Mr. Moon made Hope human!"
"What?" the trio gasped.
"Impossible," Lance muttered. "I have never heard of such things. A human can morph into beasts, but I have never heard of beasts transforming to humans."
Elliot was about to speak when he saw a couple of unread notifications.
'Gray Dragon Emperor has requested to Morph.'
'Creator Permitted the Morph.'
'Morphing…'
'Morph complete.'
'Gray Dragon Emperor now Morphed by APRIL.'
'Gray Dragon Emperor is now APRIL's Companion.'
'Congratulations, APRIL.'
'Companion can be contracted as an Adventurer.'
"What in the world are you talking about?" Elliot grimaced after seeing the notifications. "I didn't even say anything because I was sleeping."
"What do you mean?" Lance asked.
"I think I caused this," Elliot said. "But this needs permission from me. A voice confirmation. But I was asleep. How was it even possible?"
"You do talk a lot in your sleep," Connor grinned awkwardly. "You often say 'Yes', 'That's it', and 'Absolutely'. I thought you knew."
"Well I didn't know," Elliot said. "I'm sorry, Lance. I don't know how I did it but I accidentally morphed Hope into a human."
"Well, I did not know," Elliot sighed.
Hope ran to Elliot and hugged him. "Thank you, Mr. Moon!"
The long curly locks of Hope covered both him and Elliot. Elliot looked like he was wearing a dress made of hair because of the long thick locks.
Elliot looked at Lance who held no expression in his face. He was asking for help. There was silence, Hope kept hugging Elliot, repeating his thank you.
"Well," Lance finally spoke. "I guess a child needs less care than a dragon?"
"Plus, didn't you mention that you always wanted a kid?" Connor snorted.
"It's too soon, don't you think?" Lance glared at him, narrowing his eyes. "You two are going to raise him with me.'"
"What?!" the two gasped.
Lance seethed and pointed at Elliot, "You caused this and you," he pointed at Connor. "You didn't actually anything but you're still coming with us. You. Will. Bear. My. Pain."
Elliot scoffed, "Fine. But if we're raising him, I'll call the dibs on being the father."
"No," Lance and Connor said at the same time.
"I had always been carrying the pants in this… tri-lationship," Lance said. "I'm always at the front lines! I have high HP, but I have feelings too if you must know."
"But you were the one who hatched him!" Elliot argued. "You even told us you're basically his mother. And Connor… err, you be the godfather."
"I'm Connor the Godfather, yey!" Connor cheered.
"This is so messed up," Lance tsked.
–
"That is so messed up," Midnight said after they returned to the guild.
Hope was still stuck beside Elliot, hugging him tightly.
"I know, right?" Lance scoffed. "I should be the father."
"That's not the part that's messed up," Midnight said. "Why should you even have roles? Why not all of you just raise the kids like normal people?"
"Because–" Lance stopped. "That's actually a good point. Fine. I'll be Hope's official dad and these two are co-dads. Or assistants. Yeah, let's go with assistants."
"You three are hopeless," Midnight said. "And have you heard?"
"About what?" Elliot asked.
Midnight leaned in, "Someone stole a quest from the master. He was very furious."
The trio gulped in fear. They forgot that they stole Frederick's secret quest.
"There he is now," Midnight said. "I wonder who the unlucky thieves are."
There was a flaming burst of aura from the doorway. The footsteps got nearer, and nearer.
"You three," Frederick roared, making the whole guild house shake.
"Oh, it's you three," Midnight smiled awkwardly. "Of course, it's you three."
The trio turned their heads around, only to be greeted by the fiery aura of Frederick. The guild master fired three fireballs, hitting the trio in the face.
It wasn't painful, but just enough to knock them back.
"Papa!" Hope yelled and ran to Lance.
Frederick sighed, "I needed that reward. That's why I told you not to go."
"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Lance asked. "You can have half the reward as our punishment or whatever."
"Keep it," Frederick said.
No one has ever seen him act like this. He was angry– no, he was furious. Even the pioneering members were scared.
"Yo," Luck entered and slung his arm around Frederick. He glanced at Lance and placed a finger on his lips, mouthing, "I got this covered."
"What was that all about?" Elliot asked, rubbing his cheek.
Midnight walked over and handed them a wet cloth. "Use this. It has medicinal properties."
"Thank you," Elliot said. "Why is Frederick so angry?"
"He is kind of hot-headed these days," Lance said.
Sun entered the room with a glass of coffee. "And he goes on more missions too."
"Does Luck know why?" Lance asked Midnight who only shrugged.
"Papa… okay?" Hope asked.
Lance was surprised, forgetting about Hope. "Yes, bud."
"Err." Elliot scrunched his face. "You still call him that?"
"I don't think it's right," Connor added.
Lance pursed his lips when Hope's long curls tickled his neck. His hair was bigger than his body and it annoyed Lance for some reason.
"Hope?" he called out. "Is it okay if we cut your hair? It irks me."
"If papa wants cut hair, Hope okay," the child responded.
Lance looked at the main doorway once more. He was worried about Frederick, but he shoved those words in the back of his mind for now.
I have to get rid of all this hair. He thought.
Lance went to the barber with his friends. Wood, the barber, was speechless when Hope came into his shop. The messy hair made him gulp in irritation.
"What is this?" he asked.
"We need to cut his hair," Lance answered. "Make it something like Elliot's."
Wood looked at Elliot, "They do have similar hair types. Thick and curly, but not that curly."
Wood made Hope sit on one of the chairs. He took his scissor out and started to cut the hair. He started cutting from the bottom and he whistled in astonishment when the hair he cut vanished as if it was turned to dust.
"Woah," Wood let out.
That was when a notification popped out on Elliot's console.
'« Dragon Emperor Set » Unlocked.'
"Dragon Emperor Set?" Elliot asked and opened the notification.
[ « Dragon Emperor Set »
<< Dragon Emperor Top >>
<< Dragon Emperor Pants >>
<< Dragon Emperor Boots >>
<< Dragon Emperor Cloak >>
<< Dragon Emperor Gauntlet >> ]
Elliot selected the first item.
<< Dragon Emperor Top >>
Recipe:
Dragon Emperor Scales
Dragon Emperor ( Human Form ) Hair
Dragon Emperor Heartstring
'! Dragon Emperor ( Human Form ) Hair must be at least 1 meter long'
Elliot's eyes widened. Wood was about to cut Hope's hair in half, but he stopped him. In the nick of time, he managed to hold Wood's hand before the barber could continue.
"Elliot?" Lance called. "What's wrong?"
Elliot panted, "Cut from the top. At least one meter long."
As instructed, Wood cut the hair nearer the base. And unlike before, the cut hair did not disappear.
"I have never seen a hair like this," Wood said. "So peculiar."
Elliot leaned into Hope's ear, "Can I have your hair?"
Hope was silent for a moment, thinking why Elliot would need his hair. "If Hope's hair makes Mr. Moon happy, Mr. Moon can take all of Hope's hair!"
"You're adorable," Elliot shook his head and grinned. "Thank you."
He collected the hair manually, not putting it in his Inventory just yet. There were other people in the shop, a lot of spectators. The news might spread and might cause a stir.
A few minutes had passed, and Wood was done.
"I'm done!" Wood informed. "That was one hell of– ahh!"
The trio ran to Hope's seat and their faces grimaced.
"A-All this time?" Lance stuttered.. He took his coat off and covered Hope. "All this time, you were naked?!"