The dragon's harem

”ARAD! COME ON PLEASE!” Arad could barely walk with Meryem hanging to his back, dragging him back. “Don’t leave…Just once!”

“I said no and that means no. It could end with a disaster.” Arad turned back at her with an annoyed growl, “You’ve heard Merlin. You have nowhere near enough mana for that. How many times do I need to explain it to you?”

“That isn’t fair, can’t you help me with your mana? I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She was about to cry.

“Crying won’t grant you anything.” He looked at her, “Even with both of our mana combined, we won’t sustain ten, let alone hundreds or even thousands.”

“Meryem…” Aella said, staring at them. “I’ve told you it’s a bad idea. He won’t do it no matter how much you ask.”

“Aella! Help me convince him.” Meryem stared at her with a near-crying eye.

“Someone would die.” Eris said, “I don’t mind you dying, but I can’t have Arad die before I kill him. So stop it.”

Merida nodded, “Yeah, I can understand how you feel, but you must be patient, and get more mana. You’re just too good for it that it backfired on you.”

Meryem could lay ant eggs on her own without needing a mate since she’s a dungeon boss. But she could still mate, and her wanted partner was Arad. But that had proved a huge problem.

While working on freeing Zephyr, Merlin did some studies on Meryem’s body and how she functions and discovered several troubling things. She’s both similar to normal ant queens and different.

Meryem has to lay eggs one week a month, with around 200-400 eggs a day, resulting in a total of 1400-2800 eggs a month. This is the bare minimum, but she can choose to lay eggs each day without stopping, of course as long as she has enough food. But she only does that when the colony lacks workers.

But, if she was to mate with Arad, a disaster would occur. Even if only 1% of the eggs came as void dragons, that would still be 14-28 at once which would drain both her and Arad dry of mana and kill them. He’s now using almost a third of his mana to sustain the egg in Mira, and if Aella is pregnant, the child would be most likely an elf or a human as doesn’t need that much mana.

Meryem keeps asking Arad to sleep with her, but he has to remind her each time that they can’t sustain the eggs, and he isn’t going to let his children starve to death before they are even born.

“Without any of us having enough mana to sustain such a number, we can’t do it. And even if I had such mana to support them all, I wouldn’t do it as that would leave me with nothing to fight with. I want to wait until I have at least double what is needed so we can stay safe.” Arad added and turned toward Meryem. “Do you understand?”

She let go of him with a sad face, “I do…” She gently shifted into her ant form and looked up. Her mandible tapped each other before she released a deep roar, calling half of the ant workers. “Dig the ground, spread across the land, and find me mana crystals. A boss is a mirror to the dungeon, if we had a lot of mana crystals here, my mana might start increasing.”

The ants rushed everywhere to scavenge for mana crystal.

Arad and the girls headed to Merlin’s tower as the ants went out to search, and they found Merlin with Amber in the lab working on a spell. Strangely enough, Merlin was in her underwear while Amber’s whole body was made of blazing flames.

“Hot!” Aella, Mira, and Merida gasped as they hid behind Eris and Isdis’s ice magic. “What’s going on here?” Arad asked as he approached Merlin.

“ARAD! It’s been a while.” She rushed toward him and jumped at his chest, hugging him. “Do you know how much I missed you? I’ve been left alone to deal with her magic.”

“Master!” Zia jumped out of Arad in her nun’s outfit, “I sense a fiend around you!” She grabbed Merlin by the hair and started pulling her back. “Get away from him! You wizard!”

Arad turned toward Amber, “Can you turn back to normal? It’s a bit hot for them.” He pointed at the girls.

“Well… we’re testing fireproof clothes…there is a possibility of me being naked.” She replied.

“So you two were testing clothes that won’t burn when you transform.” Arad looked at her, “Just looking at you now, I say you’re naked. There is no trace of clothes around you.”

“I don’t really want to try my luck…” She looked at the girls, “I not as shameless as that woman. I won’t strip in front of any man, let alone a married one.”

Merlin turned toward Amber, “Do it, it’ll take a lot to calm your flames. Just pull them back and let’s see if the clothes I enchanted had remained.”

Amber turned toward Eris.

“Do it, we don’t really care at this point.” Eris replied.

When Amber shifted back, she still had her clothes on and Merlin gave her a thumb up, “It worked.”

Amber looked at her robe, “You crazy woman it worked…” She giggled, “You’re really something.”

“Even you underestimate my skills.” Merlin let go of Arad and approached Amber. “Yep, they are stable. But I doubt they’ll survive if you get hit when in fire mode. I’ll add some extra enchantments,”

Merlin then turned toward Arad the girls, “Sit down. What brought you to my humble lab today?”

Arad sat down and Zia stood beside him, still glaring at Merlin with a growl. She’s extremely protective of Arad.

“I actually came he to ask you about magic…” Knock! Knock! Knock!

Everyone stopped talking and stared at the door. “I sense no magic.” Merlin stood, approaching the door, “No, it’s Nina; I can recognize the mana flowing in her from a mile away.” She opened the door.

“Oi! Long time no see, did your boobs grow larger again!” [=w=] Betty stood there, lifting her hand and waving it at Merlin.

Merlin immediately kicked Betty in the face and smacked the door shut, panting like she saw a ghost. “I must be dreaming, yeah! She’ll never come here.”

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Merlin remained silent, hearing her heart beat like a drum.

Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!

She rapidly opened the door and threw a low kick followed by a mana blast. She hit Nina straight in the ground and blasted her clothes with the spell.

Nina lifted Merlin by the face, “What’s the meaning of this? Why attack me out of nowhere.” She growled. “AW! AW! AW! Wait, what happened to that brat?” She growled.

“What brat?” Nina growled.

“She must be talking about me.” Betty replied while sitting on Arad’s lap. “I got in before she closed the door.” Betty stared at her with a proud face, “I’m fast!”

While still caught by Nina, Merlin pointed her foot at Betty and charged a spell to blast her with teleport magic. “Get out of my lab!”

“Nope!” Betty disappeared and she appeared sitting on the table with Merlin on her lap. SMACK! She spanked her, “When it was last that I spanked you? Since the days of school You problem child! I guess graduating never taught you to respect your teachers.”

DING! DING! Merlin teleported out of Betty’s grasp and appeared behind Arad, “Where did she go?!” She gasped.

“I’m standing on your head.” Betty replied, standing on Merlin’s head.

Merlin pulled Betty down with a gravity spell, and swung an enchanted fist at her, trying to get a punch in.

Betty disappeared and appeared behind Merlin, slapping her butt again. “Sorry, I’m short and can only reach your butt.”

SWOSH! Merlin spun with a kick, but Betty appeared standing on her chest and face, “You’re too slow for me. I only came to visit you, calm down.”

Thud! Arad grabbed Betty by the head, “Stop causing trouble. How did you come here, I didn’t bring you.”

“I ran to here! It only took me a second, I swear.” Betty replied as she wiggled like a worm lifted by her head.

“Why am I always cursed with those Halflings making my life hell?” Merlin growled.

“You have a history with them?” Arad asked.

“A long one.” She growled.

“That’s a lie, it’s a short history.” Betty said and Merlin grabbed her by the face.

“She was always told she’s a magic genius and she came to the university quite arrogant with her power and mastery over the arcane arts. She annoyed me so I gave her a reality check every time she thought she made an achievement. She then graduated and went to Magic Tower to get higher education to come to humiliate me, but she ended up treated the same way by Lilia, the archmage of the tower. And even after leaving the tower much more powerful, she still can’t reach my level of mastery.” Betty explained everything as shortly as she could, but it wasn’t shorter than her.

“Lilia, that red-haired Halfling?” Arad asked.

“Yeah, but she’s a half-elf half-Halfling, and is one foot taller than me.” Betty said as Merlin let go of her face.

“How strong is she compared to you?”

“Far stronger. To start with, Lilia is at level 1000, knows all the spells in existence, and always makes new ones. Her mana seems infinity and her efficiency makes her able to cast level 9 spells without consuming any mana at all. The shorty seems to have mastered all the elements of magic, even holy and curse because she’s a fanatic believer of the overgod and his paladin. She’s the pinnacle of magic; some even call her the avatar of the goddess of magic Yog.”

“Is she really that strong? I find it hard to believe. Last time I saw her, she did beat me, but she didn’t seem that far ahead, I bet I could punch her in the face now.” Arad replied.

“You don’t know how scary she can be.” Betty stared at him. “Catch me first, and then we can talk about how to beat her if you have that potential.”

“Is my power really that hard to imagine?” Lilia appeared standing on Merlin’s head just like Betty.

Everyone froze in place, barely able to move as a huge wave of mana seeped from Lilia’s body. “But…” She stopped the leaking mana. “I admit one thing, he has the potential to beat me if he tries really hard.”

“Why do you love standing on my head so much…” Merlin growled, sparks of lightning crackling on her hair.

Lilia stared down at her. “Because your mana is cleanest of everyone here. It’s also the purest, calmest, and most refined. Targeting you as a landing position of teleportation magic couldn’t be easier. Be proud, Merlin, not many people reached your level of mastery. Otherwise, I won’t even bother showing here, would I?”

Merlin gasped.

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