"Hyup!"
With earth shaking indifference, Momo tossed the giant rock that she had excavated onto the forest ground, sending dozens of birds flying off into the dusk sky.
"Turn it a bit to the left a little." Roko instructed, "Bit more..."
"Are we sure this is going to amount to anything?" Isla said as she watched from afar, munching on some chips.
"Well, Roko usually has a good eye for things like this." Kaguya smiled, "I'm sure this will mean something to at least him."
"You're all princesses right?" Isla said indifferently, "Why do you follow a nobody like Roko?"
"He's very helpful."
"Looks like you're helping him more than he does you."
"Think of it like an investment."
"Investment huh?" Isla scoffed, "I'd like to see him do something by himse-"
"SHHHHHHH!" Corissa hissed as she seemingly appeared out of nowhere and covered Isla's mouth, "Don't say that! Roko will spend all night hitting this rock with a pickaxe if he hears you say that!"
"Right, that looks good, Momo." Roko called as Momo climbed on top of the rock, "Go ahead and crack it open. Also, Corissa, no I won't."
"Yes you will!" Corissa said in an almost traumatic hysteria.
"Alright everyone!" Momo called, "Ready? One...Two..." She raised her fist, the swirling red of reinforcement magic covering her fist as she focused her attention on the structure of the rock and after adjusting her attack, smashed into the boulder with a quaking strike. The rock cracked and split cleanly in two, as if it had been sliced by a large blade, falling off to the side as Momo landed right in the middle.
"Easy as pie." Momo grinned, "Haven't split a rock with my fist since my childhood but this might be a new record."
"This chick's crazy strong." Isla gulped.
"Yeah, I guess you didn't get much of a chance to see that since Corissa took care of everything." Helena smirked.
"Hm? This is..."
Perry frowned as he walked up to the split boulders where dirty brown bones were entrapped in stone.
"A dinosaur." Kaguya mused, "Some sort of medium-sized raptor."
"I've only seen these in museums." Corissa gulped.
"How much?" Roland asked.
"Quick maths say..." Helena mused, "About 10 million gold for such a complete skeleton. Price may go up or down based on what kind of buyer you can find and how well the remaining excavation will go."
"That's a lot." Isla nodded.
"Could've gotten double of that." Roko remarked as he turned to the other half where grooves had been left in the stone that all but proved the existence of a second skeleton.
"So this is your explanation for why the oil monsters found and moved into the cavern?" Isla asked, turning to the cavern they had left behind them.
"Exactly." Roko nodded almost proudly, "They sensed the fossil here and moved to begin converting it."
"And your proof is..." Roland asked.
"Aside from the second skeleton that's missing?" Roko rolled his eyes, "Look here. There's a hairline crack leading from the surface of the rock to the fossil grooves. And there is no second skeleton to be found so it must've gotten successfully converted."
"But how do we know the skeleton wasn't also destroyed by the Corissa nuke?" Kaguya pointed out.
"Can we not call it that?" Corissa said, a tad flushed.
"Hmmmmm..." Roko closed his eyes and thought about it, "I suppose there isn't really any proof for that not having happened."
"So we good then?" Isla asked, "No more threats?"
"Possibly." Roko frowned, "I'd hate to leave if there was still a threat around though..."
"We have been spending a lot of time here for what's supposed to be a short stop though." Kaguya remarked.
"But a dinosaur would be really dangerous if it was brought back to life." Momo added.
Perry watched as Roko's group thought to themselves, unsure of how to handle the situation before he stepped up to make a proposal.
"I've finally received a response from my party. They're sending nearby reinforcements that will arrive in two days. If you will just stay for one more day, I can explain the situation and prepare defenses and even a hunt for the monster after you're gone."
"Perry?" Isla frowned, seemingly surprised by his earnestness.
"Please." Perry bowed humbly before Roko's party, "I don't think I can find a prehistoric monster on my own."
Perry expected a bit of silence as they deliberated. And the few seconds after his plea felt long enough that he got what he expected. But in reality, Roko replied surprisingly quickly,
"That's perfect." Roko nodded, "We'll stay for one more day and if we don't find the monster, we'll leave it to your party to handle it."
"Win win for both of us." Momo grinned, "We get to move on quicker than we expected while preparing to fight or find this dinosaur."
"Quicker than you expected?" Isla frowned, "How long were you planning on staying here to fight this dinosaur?"
"This is pretty unprecedented and dangerous so maybe like a month?" Roko shrugged.
"A month?!" Perry cried, "Weren't you in the middle of a journey?"
"It's not particularly urgent though." Helena shrugged, "Plus, we're all pretty influential people so it's not like we're hurting by staying for a month."
"If anything, we'd feel even worse about leaving such a threat unaddressed while we move on." Kaguya stated.
"Also, because we're so well known, it wouldn't look good for any of us if we just left this alone." Corissa added.
Perry stared dumbfounded at the group before breathing a sigh of relief, "Thank you. Should it come that we cannot locate this dinosaur by tomorrow evening, I sweat to do my best to protect this village the best I can in your absence."
"Sure! We'll be counting on you!" Helena grinned.
"At any rate, it's getting late." Corissa remarked, "We should head back before it gets too dark."
"You gotta prepare dinner too right?" Helena said, "Let's go then."
"I'll take watch for tonight." Perry spoke up quickly as they began to leave, "You can all rest for tonight and prepare for tomorrow night."
"Thanks for the offer but I'd prefer to have someone I trust come along if we're keeping vigil for tonight." Roko said.
"Ya want me to do it?" Momo offered.
"Anyone would do but if you're offering then I don't see why not." Roko shrugged.
"Leave it to me!" Momo grinned, "I've done nightwatch before like it's nothing!"
"We all have since we've gone camping." Kaguya pointed out.
"Yeah I know. I was just letting Perry know."
"Do you all ever run out of energy?" Isla sighed.
"We only look energetic next to Roko."
"Ah, speaking of Roko." Corissa said as she turned to him with a stern look in her eyes, "Roko, I don't want you staying up late doing research again!"
"He does that?" Perry blinked.
"All the time." Helena nodded, "This time he'll probably be trying to figure out what kind of dinosaur we're dealing with here."
"No need." Roko sighed, "I already know."
"You do?!" Helena cried, surprised, "I mean, I know it's some sort of raptor but I figured you'd want to go deeper into it!"
"It's not an actual raptor, at least, not in the way you're probably thinking of."
"Then what is it?" Momo asked excitedly.
"It's pretty obvious for even casual dinosaur buffs." Roko sighed, "It's raptor-like but it also had feather-like impressions along the arms. Thus making our little monster an Archaeopteryx."
That night ended without much of an event. Well, dinner at least passed without much event but it wasn't until Roko went to sleep that something interesting occurred. Once he fell asleep, Roko felt his mind drawn to a separate space. Nothing like a normal dreamscape but a void of nothing that he was left standing there for a while. And just as his sleeping mind was beginning to question where exactly he was, it appeared. An Archaeopteryx. In flesh and blood in his dream. Were this in real life, Roko would've probably began panicking but in his dream he remained strangely calm. The Archaeopteryx not seeming hostile was also a huge contributor to that. It regarded Roko with curious head tilts and just walked around him, sniffing him or something before going to peck at the ground. It was a peculiar experience and Roko felt drawn enough to the prehistoric animal to approach it and begin petting it. The animal remained docile enough but it was upon closer inspection that Roko recognized several things wrong with the creature. Not in any sort of abomination way but simple errors in it's form that made it look off. Things like the head seeming to look more like a traditional raptor instead of having a beak. Or the wing arms seeming to be missing their claws. It even had a giant toe that resembled more of a Deinonychus than an Archaeopteryx. But each of these errors seemed to be fixed the moment Roko recognized them until what was left standing in front of him was unmistakably an Archaeopteryx.
And then the morning rays woke Roko up.
"Morning Roko!" Corissa greeted him as he came down into their inn's foyer, "You're up early!"
"Not as early as you it seems." Roko yawned, "Preparing breakfast again?"
"Yep! Breakfast is ready for you and for all of the inn." Corissa smiled, "Have a bite whenever you're feeling hungry. Breakfast doesn't open for another 20 minutes but I can sneak you a plate or two."
"It's fine, I'll wait." Roko said, sitting down on the table across from Corissa, "How's Perry and Momo?"
"They arrived basically the moment dawn broke and headed off for a quick nap." Corissa nodded, "I gave them a quick snack and sent them off to bed."
"That's good." Roko scratched his head, "Nothing else happened last night?"
"They didn't report anything if that's what you're asking." Corissa mused, "But..."
"But?"
"I had a dream." Corissa said, her face scrunching as she tried to recall it, "It was like...I came across a dinosaur."
"An Archaeopteryx?" Roko frowned.
"Yeah, probably." Corissa said sheepishly, "I only know what it generally looked like so I wasn't exactly sure but since we're dealing with an Archaeopteryx this time, it'd make sense if I dreamed about it."
"Varis, did you have a dream like that too?" Roko asked seriously.
"Eh?" Corissa looked surprised at the question and even more surprised when she turned to Varis and he nodded.
"Oh..." Roko covered his mouth grimly as he looked down at the table in thought, "This might be bad."
"W-What is?" Corissa asked nervously, "Did I do something wrong?"
"Not you in particular." Roko replied, "Not any of us really. But if we're all dreaming of an Archaeopteryx..."
"You think we're all dreaming the same dream?" Corissa asked, "But why?"
"...I'll need to check with the others first." Roko nodded, "Once they wake up."
"Wake up? But if this dream we're sharing is serious then surely we should wake them up quickly right?"
"No." Roko held his head as thoughts swam around like slippery fishes escaping his focus, "They deserve to finish resting. And if I'm right, hopefully the dream won't be too dangerous."
One by one, the members of the inn began waking up and Roko went into questioning them as they trickled in. Posing as a dream researcher, he asked each of them if they had a dream and if they recalled anything. Strangely, none of the other regular inn residents seemed to recall a dream with a dinosaur. But the moment the members of his own party came down and he asked them the question, they reported having a dream with an Archaeopteryx as well.
"So what does that mean?" Helena asked as she munched on some country potatoes.
"It means that what ever eldritch force took the dinosaur skeleton is using our dreams to communicate with us." Kaguya explained, "Using our ideas of what an Archaeopteryx looks or be like to reform it in real life."
"Oh." Helena blinked, her face growing a bit pale, "Uhhh...I uhhh..."
"What did you do, Helena?" Kaguya frowned.
"I might've put a saddle on it and rode it into battle."
"You what?" Kaguya repeated, dumbfounded.
"I mean, it was a dream right?!" Helena said, "I figured I'd have a little bit of fun with it!"
"Unbelievable." Kaguya sighed, "Roko, thoughts?"
"It's probably fine." Roko replied as he was writing in his notebook.
"Y-You think?" Helena asked guiltily.
"If that's the extent of your dream then I doubt the eldritch god will bother replicating an entire human being riding the dinosaur to fight us." Roko replied, "The entire point of this shared dream is to gather information about how an Archaeopteryx looks and acts like so it can actually accomplish forming it. Presumably because it's surprisingly hard to do so without any actual information to draw on or because it's actually outside of the god's usual expertise to reform it. If it's having so much trouble that it reached out to us to help finish reviving it then it's not going to bother putting a human on it so it matches Helena's dream."
"Hopefully that's true." Kaguya nodded, "But what if it isn't?"
"Then we fight an extra human on top of it." Roko shrugged, "No big deal."
"What if it copies me?!" Helena gasped, "With my awesome sniper abilities?!"
"Not something it's done before but in that case we just get close and fight it." Roko replied.
"That's true." Helena nodded, "Even if it copies me, it doesn't have it's own Roland."
"There's only one of me." Roland flexed with a sausage in his mouth.
"Are you collecting information on what kind of modifications we made to the dream Archaeopteryx?" Kaguya asked.
"Yeah." Roko said, looking over the list he complied, "Thankfully there might not be any huge differences between an actual Archaeopteryx and what might show up but that depends on which of our dreams it chooses to take as precedent and also..."
"What the Perry and Momo are dreaming about?" Kaguya guessed.
"Exactly." Roko nodded.
"Are you sure we shouldn't wake them up?" Isla asked, sipping on some orange juice as she sat there listening to the conversation.
"They deserve the sleep, I'm not going to deny them that." Roko repeated, "More importantly, I need to figure out more about this Archaeopteryx. Maybe if I know more about them, I can still correct it to a more simpler and easy to handle monster."
"You think the eldritch monster will listen?" Roland scoffed.
"Probably not but one can hope." Roko scowled.
It was late afternoon when Roko was buried in archaeological books when Perry appeared and quickly sat down in front of him.
"Roko! I heard the situation! I had a dream about an Archaeopteryx too so I've come to help out!"
"Write down what you recall of your dream and I'll take it into consideration." Roko said as he slid a piece of paper and pen across to Perry while not looking up from his book.
"I...Is that it?" Perry asked, confused.
"Yeah." Roko said, looking up for a moment, "What did you expect?"
"I thought we would start discussing countermeasures. You know, like what kind of weapons to bring along or what tactics to use..."
"It's a dinosaur. It's powerful but nothing we can't handle with Momo's reinforcement magic." Roko shrugged, "There's a ton of us too so it's going to be outnumbered. Unless someone dreamed up something really weird, I don't think we're in actually too much trouble."
"But what if it attacks now?" Perry frowned, "In the middle of the day?!"
"These monsters prefer to act at night with less witnesses. They prey on isolating loners and dragging them off to get converted while not alerting the main group too much until they've grown to a certain amount. Since we just eliminated their main and secondary nest, I doubt it will show up in the middle of the day."
"...Are...you sure?"
"I'm never certain about anything with these creatures." Roko shrugged, "But there's no point in raising a panic where there doesn't need to be one so long as we remain vigilant."
"...You're very different from the bureaucrats I'm used to."
"How so?"
"..."
"If you don't want to talk about it then don't worry about it." Roko added.
"Perry used to be a palace guard."
"Isla!" Perry said as the doctor walked up to their table.
"His country was surrounded by enemies so they were always vigilant against enemies, especially around the borders." Isla continued, "Unfortunately, their undoing came from within their own capital, within their own castle as they were experimenting with various similar eldirtch monsters which broke free and tore down his country from within. The princess that he was ordered to protect died as well."
"I see." Roko nodded, "There was a similar situation in Cordis, though not one that was backed by Corissa's parents."
"Isla..." Perry sighed, "...I tried to tell them to leave those monsters alone but they never listened. They tried to silence me by sending me to guard the borders instead but even then, they refused to send much of any help or relief when we actually needed it. When the outbreak began I...I tried fighting my way back to the castle and the whole time, the nobles and bureaucrats were too busy trying to pulling resources away to get themselves out. By the time I got back to the castle, I found out that the royal family were actually among the first to die."
"That's why he was so humble trying to ask for your help." Isla teased, "Because you folk never seemed to listen to good old Perry."
"Isla!" Perry hissed.
"I got that." Roko replied simply, "But even if the other princesses wanted to move on, I'd still be here trying to keep things safe. Thankfully, they're more reasonable than that. I get that you have experiences with the worst of humanity but a lot of vigilance is simply having the right people at the right place at the right time. My job is just to make sure the pieces are in place and well informed so just leave it to me."
"..." Perry looked down.
"You can't pull one over the old Perry-ster!" Isla continued to tease and she placed her hands on Perry's shoulder, "You bureaucrats are all the same! Slimy snakes who only care about themselves!"
"Stop it." Perry scowled as he shrugged Isla's hands off his shoulders, "It's fine. I trust Roko."
"Oh? Why's that?" Isla continued.
"Because." Perry said with a knowing smile, "Roko doesn't remind me of those bureaucrats. He reminds me of those people. The citizens trying to hold everything together as they ran towards the monsters trying to save others. Those people that did their best for each other. Those people, I'd trust no matter what."
"...Well, thanks." Roko said, unsure of how to respond to this endorsement.
"Look at you, old Perry-ster, old pal!" Isla said, shaking Perry by the shoulders in a mockingly friendly manner, "Look at who's gone through some character development."
"Better developing my character than somehow reducing my breasts." Perry said, irritation creeping into his voice.
"OHOHO. Look who grew some teeth today!" Isla said, clearly offended, "Why don't you say that when you grow a few inches first?"
"How much taller do you want me to be than you? You're already the shortest grown woman in the team."
"Alright, Perry, put up them hands because it's time to pay for these years of abuse I've suffered under your 'leadership'."
"I'm only leading you because no one else can deal with you!"
And then the two began fighting with Isla's ferociousness all but overpowering Perry's stronger build.
"And they call us lively." Roko sighed as he returned to reading his book.