After a short span of three days the two of them bonded over their interest in The Pit and he finished reading the book. In this time Shalma also gave him the name "Illupio", which he really liked.
Now Shalma had the choice to either sneak away from her home at night or to outright tell her mother she's leaving and that there was nothing she could do this time.
Shalma brought her mother to the front door and stepped out, "I'm leaving for The Pit. And this time, you can have my bag if you want, but if you want me to survive, you'll allow me to keep it. This time, I won't stop walking and I'll just let go of it, I'm done pretending that you're what's been keeping me still when I know full well it was me all along."
Her mother stood there for a moment and sighed, "Alright, just wait a second."
She stood there for a moment and waited for a bit. Illupio came over and stood next to her as she waited.
Eventually her mother came out and handed her a larger backpack with a bunch of survival gear on it, "I was trying to buy you a bunch of things, so I knew you'd be guaranteed to be safe. I originally planned to give you this on your birthday next year, but I guess I've kept you waiting long enough."
Shalma put the backpack on and hugged her mother, "Why didn't you tell me? Thank you!"
"As I said it was meant to be a surprise. Also, who's he?"
Shalma pulled away and looked at Illupio then back at her mother, "Oh, he's a friend of mine. He's also really interested in the pit."
"Are you sure he's your friend? He looks really old; he could be trying to groom you."
"MOM!" She yelled, "He's a dragon! That's why he looks so old!"
Illussio interrupted, "Actually I should've told you this, I'm a false dragon... So, I have some of their traits in terms of power but buffed. Which is why I have none of the physical dragon features."
Shalma laughed at his modesty, "You didn't think I already knew that? I wanted to make you seem a bit mightier by just saying you were a dragon because my mom doesn't know the difference between the two unlike me."
She walked around him and jumped onto his back and ran her fingers through his hair, "See? No wings nor horns. As for the tail, that'd be too obvious even with a cloak on."
He sighed and looked at her mother, "Don't worry, I'll make sure she's safe Miss... Miss... uh..."
"Sehers, it's Ms. Sehers. Please keep her safe while you're dare. I'm trusting you," she said as she waved goodbye to them.
And just like that they were on their merry way through the skies, through the forests, and through the mountains. The air getting thicker and thinner as they went through various regions, seeing many bright, green, and rocky regions.
Ms. Seher on the other hand was humming a little tune while doing the laundry. Before a fireball suddenly fell from the sky and blew up a building nearby, a bunch of debris flying everywhere. Then another, and another, it was an all-out attack. But from who? Why? Qoatl was just a peaceful town in the middle of nowhere, why would anyone attack it?
Then someone suddenly dropped down from above and pinned her onto the ground while sniffing her. It was some lady she couldn't make out the features of because of all of the dust, but from her silhouette she could see that she had two horns and a long tail with some bits on it that glowed cyan.
"You have his scent... and so does this place. Tell me, where did that false dragon go?" She said as she glared down at her and made sure she couldn't move.
"Who are you talking about? What false dragon?" She asked pretending to be clueless.
"You're useless. I can find someone else," she scoffed, stood up for a moment then sat back down on her.
The dragon lady started charging a cyan blast in her mouth. Ms. Sehers closed her eyes tightly ready to feel that blast slowly melting her face at any moment, then she heard the dragon lady scream in pain. She opened her eyes and saw the dragon girl getting shocked by a shock collar and fall on the ground next to her. Her entire body jolting about as she tried to rip it off but couldn't.
After a couple second someone else came around and pressed a button turning off the shock collar. Then he grabbed a rag, poured an entire bottle of some liquid on it, and placed it over her nose making her lose consciousness.
While all of this happened Shalma and Illupio reached The Pit. They both stood on the edge and looked down.
Illupio offered her his hand, "Are you ready?"
She took it, "This is the readiest I've ever been in my life."
He flung her over his back and jumped down. Their speed increasing ever more slightly as they fell, eventually being consumed by the darkness.
After quite a while they started to see the bottom. Illupio started to expand the muscles in his legs and circulated the air through them to slow down their fall. Thanks to this, they landed safely on the ground. It was like the middle of an altar, the altar resembling the shape of the sun.
They'd already gone through this routine a couple times on their way, whenever his extremely long and powerful jump started slowing down and they started falling, he had to do this, and they were stuck in place for half an hour. So, in order to be able to get to the Dragon Village, also known as the first safe floor in The Pit, they prepared for this. Shalma quickly got some large branches they'd gotten on their way and strapped them together to make some crutches for Illupio.
Illupio started going towards the lit-up passageway, but Shalma quickly stopped him, "Wait! I know of a secret here!"
She quickly started running around the sun on the floor and pressing down on seemingly random floor tiles, then she threw a rifle that was in her back at some random spot on the roof and caught it as it came back down. After pressing on all of these tiles, a secret passageway started to open.
Illupio quickly started flipping through some notes he made about some cool secrets that only books in Qoatl contained about The Pit but found nothing about this.
"Wait how'd you know about that?"
"I got it from someone who's been in the pit. I don't remember who they were because I met them when I was like, two, and they stayed in town for two more years before disappearing. He saw my interest in the pit and told me a couple top-tier secrets about it to help me reach max level."
"I thought Coatl didn't have consoles..."
"Benefits of knowing people in more advanced places like Alterio, now let's go! This way is supposed to be easier than the normal one with flesh melting slime."