Bel: Not that simple, huh? Let me ask you something, Cai. Do you enjoy constantly being taxed to your limits because you have to do this constantly? Because I sure don't enjoy seeing it. You could spend a lot more time with me or anyone else if you didn't have to do that.

-Taking a moment to adjust his position, he continues.-

Bel: Aren has the right of it. It could be solved without too much of a hassle. I hope. The sooner the better. Anyone gets irritated when they're tired and/or exhausted. And normally I wouldn't force anything upon anyone but in this case I won't take no for an answer. You need to rest and that's that. Only problem is, does said focus have to come from you or could I do it if you're resting?

-Bel gets up and walks towards to the building.-

Bel: I heard what you said earlier, Zarik. I'll get to that in a second, but to be honest it was surprisingly uneventful. For the most part, anyway. -The wizard walks inside the building and comes out with two glasses of water shortly after. He goes back to his seat next to Caionna, takes a few gulps of water from his own and proceeds to speak while putting the other glass in front of Caionna.-

Bel: Like I said, not much happened aside from one thing. I did run into two dragons at one point. They didn't seem to like me traveling through what I could only assume to be their "territory". Tried talking my way out but they wouldn't hear of it. So I lost patience and just told them to attack me with everything they got on the condition they'd stay out of my way if I were to live.

Sure enough, they began to charge up for two breath attacks. They actually fused together and got much stronger than they'd be on their own. Not that it helped. You should've seen their faces when the smoke had settled and they noticed their attack did next to nothing. Was a whole other tune after that. Normally I'd have attacked in return but I really wasn't in the mood to waste more time there. And that's pretty much it.

-Bel takes a few more sips of whatever. His expression gets notably sour when he hears about the dragon's advances. He lets out an audible sigh.-

Bel: I swear, they don't know when to quit. You'd think they keep what happened before in fresh memory. If not, they're dumber than I thought. Tempted to go over there and tell them to stay in their lane. Unless they want to lose a few more colors. And regarding Copley, even if they SHOULD manage to get there, they'd find nothing. I could swear I told you the place was destroyed. If anything, it'd be overgrown by now. But maybe it could be an idea to go over to that location and set one giant, explosive trap.

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There is nothing that can stand against my Zankantou!

Bel: Ah, that's right. You weren't there for when I explained what happened. It was way before we found you in that godforsaken hellhole of a dungeon. -Bel said in response to Neris.-

Bel: As for how those two dragons attacked, I'm not sure they even meant for that to happened. Their breath-attacks kinda just wove together. Doesn't really matter, though. I couldn't care less if they did it on purpose. Supposedly they just took my word for it or got pissed because I had the gall to tell them to use their full power.

-Bel takes a short break to drink some more water while pondering Zarik's mention of rings or why the dragons would target his home.-

Bel: What, you mean something that'd control each aspect of reality? Mind, Power, Soul, etc. Also, why did I say that? Either way, if there were something like that there, I've never heard mention of it.

Regarding harnessing that energy we'd need to find some sort of crystal with a near-infinite capacity then. Preferably several. Only question is where something like that could even be found. We may need to resort to less than ideal methods of procuring something like that. I'd prefer not to but I will if it'd be the only way.

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There is nothing that can stand against my Zankantou!

-Bel does a bit of a mental facepalm when he sees how Neris reacts to the mention of said dungeon.-

Bel: Probably shouldn't have brought that up. Sorry about that. I didn't think it was still bothering you that much. As to why I'd "want to be around people like you", I've never been one for the whole solitary elf thing. Always chosen my own path. That's not to say that I don't appreciate some alone time every now and then.

-The wizard takes some more gulps of water from his glass before continuing.-

Bel: Even if there were powerful artifacts around my old home, you'd think they'd keep an eye on them or even mention them at some point. I haven't heard a peep about anything like that. So either there's nothing of the sort or they didn't know about it themselves. For all I know, it'd be this blade on my back.

As for crystals, they'd have to be blank slates then, so to speak. Maybe I could swipe something from those dragons. -Bel says and grins.-

Bel: To be honest, I'm just looking for an excuse to go over there and knock them down a few pegs. As if their advances aren't already bad enough.

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There is nothing that can stand against my Zankantou!

-The wizard puts his hand on the side of his head, resting on it for a bit.-

Bel: Hmph. I'm more concerned about the areas that are now the New Dragon Highway, so to speak. Or do you mean to tell me they treat their new territory well and the people in it. Also, speaking of Twem. I may not have been there but I was about to say that if the dragons even put a claw over that border, the gloves are off. You did tell me the stay out of there, right?

-Adjusting his position, he continues.-

Bel: Military power, huh. We're literally one man/woman armies. I mean, I don't mean to downplay people I don't know but....if they're not close to our capabilities, how could they even help defend us? Not that i wouldn't appreciate it but I'd not feel good about others basically acting as fodder, should it ever come to that. Also, you're making it sound like the Reach would still be a threat to us. I haven't been lazying around when I was gone, though.

-Bel finished his glass for water and takes a few breaths.-

Bel: And speaking of crystals. I'd say we'd first have to determine if crystals that could mimic your....magical wavelength, for lack of a better word, even exist. To be honest, I haven't really thought about such potential crystals before. After that, try and find ones with high enough purity. This is, of course, the best-case scenario. Getting something like that to work autonomously is probably next to impossible. At the very least we need to find something that'll ease the burden. Preferably by a lot.

Aaand when you put it like that, I'm not sure I could swallow my pride and go over there to ask if they have something of that caliber.

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There is nothing that can stand against my Zankantou!