The following night, they didn't get any work done because Heisenburgle was still feeling unwell. Lucas didn't blame him for that. It had taken him a week to feel normal after his own brush with death. It wasn't like they had anything that needed to get done. They were stocked up on drugs, and he was still technically in a time-out.

The only thing that would be delayed by taking a night off from the lab were his experiments in supercharged alchemy, but that was hardly the only thing he needed to complete before he could arrange a showdown with Skylara. So, instead of going to any of his labs, they spent the evening in his private study, where he took documents from a wall safe and began reviewing them with him.

"What I am about to show you are state secrets of the kingdom," the gnome explained. "If the Prince ever finds out that you know, he's likely to have me executed. Nonetheless, it is critical that you know the precise, weak points of a dragon if we are to have any success in ending her life."

Lucas studied the documents intently, eager to learn the best place to strike Skylara, but it quickly became clear that the documents were woefully inaccurate. Instead of learning from the gnome, it seemed that he would be teaching him.

Lucas started by pointing to the gaps in her armor that he agreed with, especially on her underbelly near her neck and tail, as well as the areas around her wings; though those would be almost impossible to reach in combat, he took issues with the areas marked around her head.

"These spots are only true of younger dragons," he said, pointing them out. "On a wyrm like her, all of those will have bony growths and horns. Not even a stiletto could get through."

He went through other similar details on the nature of some of her attacks, noting where he agreed and disagreed with the research on her breath and her claws. Despite having the information shoved into his head, it somehow felt authentic, especially when he was describing certain reagents like her fire glands.

It was like he'd lived those memories of butchering her. This would have annoyed him if it had been about alchemy knowledge, denying him the opportunity to learn for himself, but since he expected to hunt exactly one dragon in his entire life, he decided it was very cool. Unfortunately, Heisenburgle was none too pleased by the development.

"Bah!" the gnome declared, "We've gathered this information at great cost from libraries across the known world and had it reviewed by a number of noted dragon slayers! What could you know that they don't?"

Lucas idly wondered if dragon slaying was a talent. I'm sure there are hunters, and I'm sure they can specialize, but is there someone who's just born to slay dragons? He asked himself. Lucas didn't know, so he answered Heisenburgle's question with his own question.

"What does that have to do with what I just said?" he hissed, annoyed at Lucas' tangent.

"Well, I'm only telling you what my talent told me," he answered with a shrug. "Maybe if there was someone with a dragon-slaying talent, they'd know more, and you could ask them."

"Why in tarnfabulation would a talent for the alchemical arts give you inside information into dragon hunting?!" he demanded, raising his voice as much as he dared. "Is this some trick of Lwyn's too? Did you know all of this would happen?"

"If I knew any of this would have happened, I promise you that I would have thrown away the recipe for Blue and made a meager living off of bootleg health potions in Graybottom for the rest of my days," Lucas sighed. "I don't how all of this works any more than you do, but I know that I have a skill that lets choose a preferred enemy for reagent harvesting purposes, and that knowledge comes with the best ways to chop it up."

Heisenburgle grumbled but accepted this information. After that, much of the rest of the conversation was devoted to how none of these weaknesses would do much good. "Even the strongest attack would be no more than a mild cut for her!" he declared.

"What about poison?" Lucas asked. "Inhaled… injected… injected… There's got to be something we can do to make that blow count."

"Yes, yes, poison is a must, but what is a drop of poison in the ocean of her blood? Even if I built a new fire sword to replace the one you destroyed and filled it with the most potent venom I knew, it still might not be enough for her to notice.

"Okay, but what if we put even more in than that?" Lucas asked. "Or what if we got a magic sword and—"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Magic, Pffft…" the gnome harrumphed. "You wouldn't catch me dead with such a thing."

Well, we might both be dead if we don't, Lucas thought, deciding this wasn't the hill to die on right now.

"Well, engineering is a sort of magic all on its own," Lucas said, "And I think that—"

"You take that back!" Heisenburgle growled.

"What, so everything can be alchemy, but engineering can't be magic?" Lucas asked.

"Magic is a shifting shortcut for the untalented," the gnome spat. "True knowledge comes with discipline and repeated experimentation."

Lucas smirked at that and thought of all the ways he could cut the man's argument to pieces, but instead, he continued with his original point. "What if there was a way we could pour gallons of poison into her?" Lucas asked.

"Explain yourself," the gnome stated, obviously unsure of where he was going with this.

"Well, like, what if we hallowed out a lance or something similar and filled it full of the biggest badest dragon poison we could find?" as he spoke, he sketched out what he meant in the margins of one of the gnome's top secret pieces of research. "And then we just sort of… eject it into her."

The gnome studied the schematic a few seconds before announcing it wouldn't work. "The friction alone," he insisted. "Would require monstrous strength. Even if you get the tip into her, you'd never deliver your foul payload."

Lucaus skipped the part where he explained just how monstrous his strength could become for a few minutes at a time and instead got to his real point. "Not me, the gunpowder… I mean, highly explosive fire dust. You pack a little in the bottom. You light it off, and it forces all the poison straight into her bloodstream, along with smoke and whatever else."

Lucas didn't expect smoke or fire to do much to the fire-breathing dragon, but he had no idea if magical creatures were immune to air embolisms. This idea was more persuasive, and with a flash in his eyes, the gnome started to work through some complicated equation. It took several minutes, and every time Lucas tried to ask about it, the alchemist ignored him. Still, when it was done, and he looked up, there was a smile on his face.

"All this time and you finally come up with your first good idea," Heiselburgle said, coming as close as he ever had to congratulating Lucas. "I didn't know you had anything in there but drug knowledge and a bad attitude."

Lucas laughed it off. "Even my surprises have surprises, man. You'll see."

Lucas tried to push the gnome to talk about other ideas, but he became obsessed with this one, eventually becoming hyperfocused on the wall thickness of the lance. Its walls had to be thick enough to withstand the blast, as well as the force of the thrust, but thin enough that someone could actually wield it, which made for a fine balancing act.

Of course, Lucas pointed out that she would simply incinerate anyone on horseback before they could close the distance with her, but Heisenburgle seemed much less concerned about that than the ability to hurt her.

"On that, at least we have some options," he declared. "Insulated shields, smoke screens, etc. Reaching her isn't the problem; hurting her is. With any luck, we can simply distract her and strike the fatal blow before she even realizes there's an ambush."

Lucas was a little skeptical of that, but the gnome assured him it was possible. "We'll have to use you as bait, of course, but it shouldn't be too difficult to seduce her with a series of letters and convince her to—"

"No way," Lucas balked. He didn't mind being bait, but having to seduce the woman who had burned down Parrin Manor felt like a bridge too far.

"You dragged me into this mess, and you will do your part!" Heisenburgle insisted. "That woman loves herself more than anyone else, and she loves to see people crawl. So, you will crawl. You will beg her for another chance, and she will be happy to give it to you. Then, when you have it, we will strike, and we will end her."

"Even if I was willing to do that, and I'm not," Lucas clarified, "Where would we ambush her? It can't be at one of the parties at the Castle in Lordanin. Hundreds of people would die and in her lair…"

"No, not her lair, I think. Familiar turf would offer her too much of an advantage," Heisenburgle mused. "Perhaps we will use one of the Prince's rural properties. There are a few that are quite romantic, but since taking charge of the kingdom he has little use for them."

"Hey, since we're on the subject," Lucas asked, "I have to ask. What is his dad's deal? Why isn't the Prince just the King already?"

"That's a state secret I'm not at liberty to disclose," Hesenburgle answered with a shake of his head. "I betray my patron enough by engaging in this ludicrous activity. Do not think for a moment that I will betray him in any other way, though. I do this for the good of the kingdom and, indeed, the world. Nothing more."

And so you can finally get your hands on alchemy talents, Lucas added silently.

He didn't force the issue. Instead, they continued to discuss all of the details they could agree on, and a few hours later, they had the start of a workable plan. There were a lot of things that would need to be tested and fabricated, but it was a good start.

By the time Lucas left that night to go work on his sword drills, this had become the plan. Theoretically, he wouldn't even need superhuman stats for it, either, though he had no plans to give up that line of research. Plans went to shit all the time, and even if they made a weird medieval cruise missile and launched with a man on horseback, he still wanted a strong sword on his hip to gouge out Skylara's eyes if the opportunity arose.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.