"You will have to kill anyone?" Ning asked with a weird look on his face. "That's not something you thought of on your own, right?"
"No," the dragon said. "I have those thoughts not because of myself."
"I see," Ning said. "Thankfully, you've been able to control your wits. If the will had fully manifested, you would've likely had a hard time controlling your own thoughts."
"What will?" the dragon asked.
"Hmm… explaining that is a little hard," Ning said as he thought a bit.
"Tiny human! Don't you dare try and go without answering me? I will rip your flesh apart with my—"
"No, no, I'm not saying I won't answer. Explaining will be hard because you don't know what I'm talking about in the slightest, but I will explain," Ning said. "Just, not right now."
"Why not?" the dragon asked.
"This place is poisonous and I don't want to continue healing them," Ning said. "So, let's talk after they've left this place."
"Hmm… are they… weak?" the dragon asked as it looked towards the Apostles behind Ning. For some reason, the Apostles were very scared by the Dragon's gaze.
It was as if they were looking at a figure who could only be beaten by their god and no one else.
"They're quite weak when compared to you," Ning said. "We should talk after they leave this dun…"
Ning's voice trailed off as he saw a problem in his plan that he hadn't noticed earlier. "Wait… how do you leave a dungeon again?" he asked.
As far as he knew, the only way to leave a dungeon was if the boss inside the dungeon had died. Did that mean they had to kill the Dragon before they left?
Ning turned around. "Is defeating the boss the only way to leave a dungeon?" he asked.
They all shook their head. Kim mustered up some courage and spoke, "Y-you can use an Escape-stone too," she said.
"Escape stone? Hmm, do you guys have any?" he asked.
They all quickly checked their inventory and only two of them nodded. The rest of them didn't have any escape stones.
"Why do you not have any escape stones?" he asked the remaining 3.
"We… we don't usually need it," Park said. "After all, we are the strongest people in our guild. So we leave it for some weaker members that need it."
"You should still keep one," Ning said with an annoyed look.
"Escape stones are as rare as they are expensive. You can't just get one, and most of the time, it's not even worth it," Bak said.
Ning shook his head. In a sense, even if they had escape stones, it wasn't like the problem would've just been solved since he didn't have one himself. He asked the system to see if it could make one, but the escape stone seemed to be made up of mana, and thus his system was useless in that aspect.
'Whatever, I will think about it later,' he thought. For now, he needed to find a way to get out of this place without using an escape stone.
"System, any idea how I can get out of here without using escape stones or killing this dragon?" Ning asked.
<There is a way. This dungeon is tied to its boss. So as long as you get rid of the boss, you can leave this place.>
"What? No, I meant without killing the dra—" Ning paused. The system surely wasn't giving him the wrong information. Then there was a way to get rid of the Dragon as a boss from this place.
"Ah!" he thought. He quickly turned around towards the dragon. "Do you want to get out of this place?"
"Yes!" the dragon said enthusiastically. "Can you take me out? I can't find a way out of this place."
"I can," Ning said. "But… you will have to become my subordinate."
"Nonsense! I will not become your underling. A Dragon looks up to no one," the dragon shouted.
"Well, then I will have no choice but to kill you so I can leave," Ning said. The air suddenly fluctuated as Ning's cultivation base opened up in full fury, pressing on the Dragon.
The dragon didn't understand what was happening. After all, it couldn't feel Qi at all. Still, it knew that it was in danger.
The dragon immediately opened its mouth to attack. It sent a massive blast of water toward Ning. However, all Ning did was move his arms a little, and the water disappeared.
In the same instance, the water appeared from the right of the dragon and blasted its body. The Dragon handled the water but it was still surprised by what had happened.
As it was confusing, Ning jumped next to it and punched the dragon in the face, sending it flying away.
The massive dragon created an earthquake when it landed further away. Waves of swamp water were pushed away, forcing Bak to focus on his barrier.
Ning moved and arrived on top of the dragon's body. "Don't randomly attack me," he said. "I wasn't going to kill you."
"What the hell are you?" the dragon asked with a fearful expression on its face.
"I'm really just a human," Ning said. He looked around him and looked at the body of the massive dragon. The dragon was so large that one could play football on its stomach and still have enough place for an audience.
"You can change your size and shape, right? Become smaller, and if possible, become human," Ning said.
The dragon grumbled, not knowing if it should obey Ning's orders or not. "If you do that, and become my subordinate, not only can I take you away from here, but I will also help you understand everything you want to know."
"On top of that, I can even help you improve upon your mana collection ability so you can improve even faster," Ning said.
The dragon was starting to wonder if it should do as asked or not. The more he heard Ning, the more he began to feel that it might just be a good idea.
"If that doesn't persuade you, then you will only have to be my subordinate for 12 years. If you want to leave after that, you are free to leave," Ning said.
"Are you… telling the truth?" the dragon asked.
"I never lie," Ning said. "Now, what will be your choice?"
The dragon was all but persuaded now. "What… what will I have to do if I were to become your subordinate? A dragon has his pride, and you cannot make me do anything that I will not do," it said.
"Oh, you won't have to do anything really. Maybe help me here and there, help protect my family, and such. Most things will be your choice," Ning said.
"Make an oath," the Dragon said. "A blood oath."
Ning quickly asked the system to learn what a blood oath was and was surprised to learn what it was.
"An oath where one person dies if they break it huh? Not bad," Ning thought amusedly. "I accept. Let's make the oath."
Ning cut open his palm and dripped blood onto the dragon, who did the same. Then, both of them did a magic ritual where an oath was placed on Ning as per the Dragon's request.
