I wonder how I should describe the man sitting in front of me. I mean, it should be obvious. The man opposite me is ancient.

  Compared to the commander, (Who is the oldest looking man I have seen.) The man basically looks young. His body looks fit, like the man has been exercising. Even his face doesn't do much to tell his age. If I had to place it, I would say the man looks like a middle-aged man. (For whom age has just begun to show.)

  I can still tell that this man's appearance is a lie. There is no way that the man in front of me is as young as he looks. There is no way that a middle-aged man would have such heavy eyes. Even the commander did not have such heavy eyes.

  What the man has passed to me is also suspicious. I think that it is supposed to be some kind of stew. It is too thick in consistency for that. Well, likely, the man doesn't want to poison me. There is no way that he would need to go about killing me in such a roundabout manner.

  Well, I eat a spoonful of whatever and almost wish that I could gag. Well, the taste itself is not too bad, if I am being honest. The main issue is that the flavour is too much. There are so many spices stuffed in the thing that taking a bite makes me nauseous.

  "Well, be careful, little kid." The man begins speaking. "I am sure that you have never eaten something like this."

  "Who are you?" I ask the man, directly to his face. "What exactly are you doing cooking outside of a dragon's tomb?"

  "Well, I was bored, little kid." The man speaks. "I knew that you would be coming here. The only thing that I did not know was when. I ended up landing here almost a month early, it looks like."

  "That doesn't answer any of my questions, old man." I reply, getting a bit irritated.

  Even as I say this, I can feel my heart drop. If the man is as old as I expect him to be, this insult will be enough for the man to attack me. Unlike my expectations, though, the old man begins to laugh as I say this. It is a hale and hearty laugh that makes it sound like the man has just heard something funny.

  "I am sorry, kid." The man replies, as he finally brings that laugh of his under control. "It is just very rare to see you young ones being cheeky with me. It was worth coming here just for this. Do continue eating. You won't get to taste something like that ever again."

  I had stopped eating as I looked at the man in front of me. Well, even as I take another bite into the stew, I have to admit that the stew certainly has a very unique taste. The man seems to be a very unique figure, as well. I mean, who laughs at being insulted?

  "Well, why are you here then?" I ask.

  "Well, I guess that I am here as a favour." The man speaks. "I was sent to give a message, you see."

  "A favour. From whom, I wonder." I ask the man. "Was it my master?"

  "That tree-obsessed fool." The man replies. "He is wise enough to stay away from us all. He especially doesn't come near me. After all, he has offended me quite a bit the last time we met."

  Well, the man gives such a look while mentioning this offense that I can feel a chill crawl up my spine. I wonder if he plans to attack me.

  "Well, looks like you are not as bad as your father feared you to be." The man speaks. "You have done an admirable job resisting them, it looks like."

  "Resist who?" I find myself asking, as I stare at this strange man in front of me.

  "Well, you are better off not knowing, kid." He replies. "It is a heavy duty to know such things. Especially for you."

  "What is this about my father?" I press on. "Was he the one who made you do this?"

  I have too much experience with having information being hidden from me. The man won't be saying anything more about this.

  "Well, your father made me do nothing, kid." The man speaks, a look of seriousness finally on his face. "He certainly requested that I meet up with you. I decided to come and meet up with you."

  As he says this, I can feel my shirt sticking to my back. That single look made me wish that I could run away from this spot. Something tells me that would be a very bad decision.

  "Well, the man couldn't have bothered to come up himself, could he?" I reply, wondering if the man opposite me could detect the quiver in my voice.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "I told you, kid. To know is to be burdened." He says. "From that perspective, he is the most burdened of you all. Anyway, the reason that he sent for me was so that I could make a judgment on your present condition. Even he won't be as precise me on that front."

  "Well, what is this message then?" I ask.

  "I will get to that. That is the problem with you young ones." He commands. "This much impatience won't serve you at all. Complete the stew before you continue speaking."

  With that, both of us fall into an uneasy silence. I begin to eat into the stew. Even though I am trying to stuff it down, I can't eat more than a spoonful at a time. It is just too spicy for me to go any faster.

  The old man opposite me studies me as he matches pace with my eating. He eats the stew with an ease that makes it clear he has eaten this many times. If I did not know better, I would say that the man could even have been enjoying this.

  Something tells me that the man doesn't really like what he is eating. That makes me wonder why the man is forcing himself like this if that is the case. Finally, I complete the stew. I will be honest, by the end of the stew I had actually begun to like the taste of it. The only reason that I struggled to eat it was the strangeness of the taste.

  Well, I returned the bowl to the old man. Even as he takes it, we return to an uneasy silence. A few times, I feel like speaking, but I know that I shouldn't. Finally, I gather the nerve to speak again.

  "What is this message that I need to know?" I ask the man, wondering if that will piss him off.

  "Well, do you know what the term dragon's fear is?" The man asks.

  My mind blanks for a few seconds as I try to think.

  "Well, I have read about the term a few times." I reply. "I never managed to get what exactly it is other than that it is some magic of the dragons."

  "Well, I guess you can call it magic. It doesn't really seem like it, though. After all, dragons can use it right after birth." He speaks. "Well, a dragon's fear is an aura that all dragons can emit. A person in this aura feels a sense of overwhelming fear. Fear that can cause a person to even stop thinking. Even great heroes are not able to save themselves from peeing their pants. Yet against such magic, I see a man oddly resistant to it today."

  "Well, if it is a magic that they cast, then it is pretty unlikely that it would remain after their death." I reply.

  "Well, how sure of that are you. I have visited hundreds of dragon's tombs till now." He replies. "I have never seen them defiled by human hands. Whether the people worship the tomb or stay away from it, nobody ever enters the place."

  "Well, the magic must have failed here." I continue insisting, as he speaks. "It is known to happen with magic."

  "Well, have your people dared to enter this place. I have heard the argument that happened on that ship of yours." The man replies. "The strongest two of your people dared not come here. They avoided it like death stood here waiting for them. Yet, you entered the place of your own decision. Have you wondered what prevented you from feeling that fear?"

  Well, that causes a little shiver to run up my spine. Just like all ships, my ship has protections against spying. They are not something anybody should be able to penetrate like that.

  "Well, I am the most durable among my group. I am the natural choice if you want to explore a place." I insist. "That doesn't really mean that there is nothing wrong with me now. I am sure you must hear my heart pounding even as we speak."

  "Well, a paltry aura maintained after death can be ignored quite easily." He speaks. "You want to know the truly unique thing about dragon's fear. It is the strongest inside the flesh of a dragon. Anybody that a dragon eats feels such pure fear, they die before they pass into its stomach."

  "How does that affect me. The dragon in that tomb must be pure skeleton by now. Even if it had flesh, how exactly is it going to eat me? It is dead." Even as I am saying this, I realise the place that I am in. "Do you thin....."

  "That the dragon has been resurrected?" The man interrupts me. "Naturally, though you don't need to bother about that now. The dragon is not in the tomb. That is not what I was getting to. My point was that a dragon's flesh is poisoned with dragon's fear."

  "And why exactly would I be eating dragon's flesh?" I reply. I really wish the man would get to the point already.

  "Well, it is not that you are going to eat it. You have already eaten it." The man replies as he looks at the bowl in my hand. "A single bite should have been enough to leave you a paranoid mess, little kid. Yet I see you here chatting with me as if you were my friend."

  "Where in the hells did you get dragon meat from?" I ask, as my stomach threatens to empty itself.

  "I just warned you that dragon's meat is poison enough to kill you." The man chuckles. "Yet the thing you are worried about is the age of the meat. Well, like father, like son, I guess. Don't worry, any effects of dragon meat would have shown themselves already."

  Well, I just stare at the man, wondering what his angle is. He clearly doesn't want to kill me. Yet the man has tried to poison me just now.

  "What is the message that you meant to give me?" I ask again.

  "Well, what did I say about rushing?" He growls at me. Before I know it, I find myself on the ground, trying to get as far away from the man as possible.

  "Well, you are much better off than I expected, at least." He speaks. "You have been resisting them quite well, I must say. You are going to lose consciousness in a bit. Once that happens, I will leave, and your fellows will rush to save you. You don't need to worry about the dragon's meat. If anything, it will be quite beneficial for you to cultivate for the next few weeks. You really should make use of this time to cultivate. I have never seen a young one that doesn't want to cultivate as much as you."

  As he says this, I look inwards at myself. What I see there shocks me. My vital mana feels like it is boiling. I try to move it a bit, as the vital mana leaps out of me, beginning to cycle on its own.

  "Finally, there is the message that I was meant to give you." The man speaks, even as my vision blurs. "Now, this won't make sense to you any time now. The day you do, let's hope you are smart enough to follow it."

  Even as he says this, I can feel my mana boiling inside me.

  "Be wary of what the voice says." The old man recites as the world becomes black around me.