《Really? A dragon?》 Day 1, Death and Dragons! Darkness surrounds me as my body flies backwards or at least I think I am flying backwards. The darkness is absolute, nothing with which to gauge the speed of my backwards travel just a gut feeling. I don''t know what I''m heading towards and the memories of where I am coming from are rapidly dwindling. I remember the feeling of a light rain on my face, a cold hard surface on my back, and the noise of people bustling around me. My thoughts race as I try to remember more, a car racing towards a little girl, acting not thinking and then just pain and the rain. My backwards movement feels like its slowing but I have no real way of knowing. A light appears above me as I come to a stop. Like one of those cheesy movie moments with the disembodied light hanging above, creating a perfect circle below on nothing. There is just me and the cone of light surrounded by what feels like infinite darkness. I can hear the clicking of heels from behind me but I cant seem to turn towards it. The clicking gets closer and closer and then she comes into view. She looks like a regular woman, black hair in a bun on the back of her head a dark red dress and black high heels. She turns to look at me as she reaches the other side of the cone of light. "Hello", she says flatly. I try to open my mouth to speak but I have no mouth, no body. My thoughts being to spiral into what I can feel will be a panic attack. "Do not worry", she says smiling, "You are safe now." *Safe!? how can I be safe, I cant move, cant speak, and i have no idea where I am.* "Well I can help with some of that." click I shudder as feeling blossoms in my limbs, I turn my head side to side finally being able to look around. Unsurprisingly it is darkness in every direction other than the light. "What is this?", I ask tentatively "I remember rain, a girl, and a car. Now I am here?" "Well, here is neither here nor there. You haven''t passed through yet but you can if you wish, or you can try again. We always leave it up to you to choose", She states with a calming tone. "Ya... That was cryptic, care to elaborate?" "You died, but you died well. You saved her which is all that really matters now because that means you get to choose." "What do you mean choose?". *Who was the girl? Was she important to me? I try to remember more but nothing more is forth coming.* "You get to choose your next life, or to move on. I cant answer who she was, but yes she was important.", She answers patiently. "Move on?", I hope for more elaborate answers as my anxiety continues to build. I realize I didn''t ask those last two questions out loud, *can she read my mind?* "Yes I can, it helps to make sure that I do not misunderstand you. Moving on is simply that, moving on. The essence that is you gets reabsorbed by the whole. I will try to give you as much information as possible, but I wont be able to answer all of your questions, that is out of my power.", Her eyes soften "You don''t have to be anxious about this part, we can take as much or as little ''time'' as you need." "Okay, that doesn''t sound very good for me, why would I choose that?" "Then you''re choosing to continue your cycle, excellent!", she claps excitedly. "Since you died in a heroic manner you are able to choose what Race you will come back as. Unfortunately you wont be able to come back in the same universe you left, but I think you''ll enjoy this one thoroughly" "Um, I guess you''re correct. Moving on sounds like obliteration.", skeptical of her change in tone. "Yes yes yes. So what race would you like to be?", Her smile growing wider. "What are my choices?", My anxiety dwindles as my curiosity grows. I still cant help but feel like she is leaving things out. "Oh I am, like I said, I can''t tell you everything. As to your question, You''ll be reborn in what you would call a fantasy world. The primary races are the usual; humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, dragons. The reason I think you''ll like is due to how much you enjoyed your RPGs that you spent most of your life playing." *Did she say dragons? Like I can actually be a dragon?!?* "Yes", she says, seeming disappointed. "You can be dragon, terrible choice though. They start incredibly weak for good reason." I cut her off, "I choose dragon!" "Oh come on, not another one! You get a choice and automatically choose the WORST one" "Dragon." "Please choose something else!" "DRAGON!" "Fine. Fine, if you want to die within a week and come back here WITHOUT the choice next time. I think I''ll make you a goblin when that happens, they like to eat their babies after all so it might be a back to back visit if you''re unlucky." She visibly deflates as she seems to realize I won''t reconsider. "What type do you want to die as?" "Well I dont intend to die again, but what types are there?", My mind is reeling that I''ll actually get to be a freaking dragon! I thought she was messing with me after the first few race choices. "They are dragons, If you can think of a type it probably exists", Her attitude has changed to that of some one that is just doing their job and now wants me out of her hair. "Okay, hmm.", I start to ponder my different choices. All the different types of dragons I have ever heard of start rattling around in my brain but one dominates them all, Astral. Ever since I first read about them when playing Dungeons and Dragons I thought they were incredibly cool, minus the whole eventually going insane part. "What about Astral dragons?" "There is no Astral sea so they dont exist as you''re thinking but there are Celestial or Star dragons as some call them. That would be the closest. A word of warning though, You''re choosing a race that already starts handicapped due to it''s infinite growth and choosing a Celestial dragon will handicap you even further due to their rarity." I hesitate for a momemt, her warnings about being weak quickly overshadowed by infinite growth. My mind solidly made up "I choose Celestial Dragon! Final answer" "Well I didnt ask if it was your final answer but I get your meaning. Fine you can be a celestial dragon, but when you''re back here in a week I''m making you into a goblin.", She states as we walks by me "See you soon." The clicking of her heels slowy dwindling to nothing behind me. The light above winks out and I find my self in complete darkness again. This time though I can feel something pressing into me from all sides, a sticky substance coats my whole body and I cant seem to move very well. I start pushing back against the pressure on me but nothing seems to work. I try to wiggle my body around to see if maybe I can push the pressure off me somehow no amount of moving seems to change the pressure though. I move my head around to try to find something that will help me move as I do the tip of my nose seems to catch on whatever it is thats pressing in on me. I push back and there is a small cracking sound from where my nose has gotten caught on. I push with all my might straining my neck and back to shove with everything I have. The cracking sound grows louder and then suddenly the pressure on my head is released as what I realize is an egg breaks open. I immediately stick my head out of the opening I created, and start to try and claw my way out of the hole. The shell easily cracks as my shoulders and then body comes free as soon as my body is half way out of the shell it topples over and spills me onto the ground. My body feels strange as I stretch out my head feels like its on the end of a long noodle and my arms are much shorter than I remember. My noodle neck allows me to turn my head in unexpected ways though allowing me to easily get a look at my body. *I''m really a dragon!* My body seems to be equally distributed into neck, torso, and tail. My scales are a deep purple color almost black with dark reds and blues spattered thoughout making each scale look like it has a small nebula. The three distinct parts being roughly one third of the over all length. My hind legs are much thicker than my fore legs with larger claws on the end. The top of my torso has small wings attached which I immediately stretch out to their maximum width. Dissappointing is an understatement. There is no way these dinky little things could make it possible to even glide let alone fly. *Well, at least my scales are cool!* I flick my tail back and forth to see how easy it is to manipulate and accidently crush part of my shell that was still intact. Maneuvering it comes naturally enough but I clearly need to practice more with it if I expect to use it in any meaningful way. I practice with it for a few minutes gleefully breaking the fallen shards of my shell into smaller pieces. I roll my head around to see what the limits of movement are on my neck and realize that my vision is much different from what I am used to. I can see behind my head quite a bit further than what I expected. Memories of why eyes evolved in the place they evolved immediately flood my mind. *Wait a second, dont prey have side mounted eyes to allow them to see behind them more?? Why does a dragon have eyes that are closer to a preys'' eyes?* I try to bend my neck backwards to see how far it can go and find that I can get my head back almost to between where my ''wings'' are. *Well thats interesting, at least I can scratch my own back! I wonder if I can stand on my back legs* I try to pull my body up onto my back legs and realize that my front legs are not nearly strong enough to just push up into an upright position. I vainly try to flap my wings thinking that might help with the pushing but all I manage to do is cool myself off a little bit. *I wonder if I can leverage my tail to help as well* Pushing with my legs and flapping my little wings as hard as I can a straighten out my tail and flick it trying to leverage the momentum of the tail to pick up the front of my body. My front legs rapidly leave the ground and I perch on my back legs for a millisecond before crashing to the side and landing on my wing.
System Message
[-1] HP {Blunt}
*What the hell is that* I stare dumbfounded at the pop-up window floating in front of my eyes, momentarily distracted from the intense pain in my right wing. After a few seconds the window seems to minimize slightly out of view. Mentaly focusing on it brings the window back up in front of my eyes. *Hmm, is this what she meant by not the same universe, am I in a video game??* I roll myself back up onto my legs and try to assess the damage, the wing doesnt seem to be outwardly broken but when I stretch it out it hurts like sore muscle would. *Well at least its not broken, but maybe I should only use those if I''m starting to get a little warm* Not giving up on standing on my back legs I try to use just my front legs and tail. The second attempt goes much better but I end up putting to much into and flopping onto my back. This time I dont get a notification saying I damaged myself though. *That first one must have been due to me having my wings extended and landing on them* My third attempt goes much smoother, I dont use my front legs at all and just use them to try and balance as I leverage my tail to do all the work. Once I''m upright I use my tail to balance and my hind legs to support my weight. With my body upright I can check out my stomach and legs more clearly. The scales on my stomach are a much darker purple with the nebula parterns being brighter. *Are they moving?* For a minute I sit there dumbfounded as I realise the patterns on my scales are actually slowly shifting, with them bleeding into the scales next to them. Mesmerized by my own scales patterns I sit there for a few minutes just watching them. After finally coming out of my trance I take a better look at my two sets of legs. The hind legs being roughly double the thickness of my front legs and also a bit longer only hve three claws on them, each one being roughly half the width of my front legs. My front legs seem much easier to manipulate though and the five claws on ends look much closer to what a human hand would be. The ''thumb'' for lack of a better term is closer to the fingers but still acts as an opposable thumb. *That''s interesting, I wonder if I will still be able to use tools like I could as a human.* A few memories trickle into my mind of writing and typing but no details manifest outside of that. *If memories keep trickling back in like this that could be a huge boon depending on the technological advancement of this world.* As that thought crossed my mind the pangs of hunger start to grow with in my stomach. *Well so much for exploring myself more.* I take my first real look around the area and realize that I''m in the back of a cave. The walls are quite tall from my perspective with large gouges in the sides and floor. The gouges could easily fit my entire body in them and ran the entire length of the cave. The back of the cave seemed to be a semi flat area with a slope leading down to an opening that had bright light. My egg shell sat almost all the way to the back wall of the cave. *Was this cave dug just for my egg? Did my progenitor dig it and then place the egg in here or did some other massive creature dig this cave out and then it was just used to place my egg in after the fact?* Testing to see if I could dig like that as well I rolled my body forwards and landed back on my front legs. The entire motion feeling incredibly natural. I started trying to dig with my front claws into the rock of the cave, my claws dug into the rock a little bit but only enough to make a small scratch in the surface. *Looks like I just keyed this cave. Keyed? Weird so I can still remember arbitrary things like keying a car but I cant remember my name or anything else actively. It''s good to know the memories are still in there somewhere* I explore the cave for a few minutes to see if there is anything else of note but find nothing. My stomach lets out a small growl as I am searching and the pains grow a little bit. *I wonder if the egg shell is edible for me* I go over and hesitantly pick up a small piece of shell with my mouth and bite down, outside of the strange gritty texture it seems to be fine and I swallow. The fluid that covers the shell actually tastes quite good but the shell itself its bland. *If the fluid tastes good that must mean it has some value to me as nutrition* I start lapping up the fluid with my tongue and realize as I am that my tongue is forked like a snakes. The bottom of the egg shell is filled with a good amount of the fluid and my stomach fills up before I am able to finish more than a quarter of what''s left. *Well that''s good, at least I have some sustenance for a little bit, but food is going to be a problem. I guess it''s time for me to leave this cave and survey my surroundings* As I make my way down the slope out of my little hatchery cave I notice that there are a lot more gouges in the floor and wall towards the entrance. *Definitely a dug cave then and not a natural one that was just added onto. Hopefully whoever left my egg in here at least found a good spot for me.* As I get closer to the exit of the cave I notice that the light is incredibly bright. I have to take a few moments to allow for my eyes to adjust to the difference in luminosity. While I''m waiting for that to happen I start to notice the sounds of the surrounding area. I can hear birds in the distance and the rustling of leaves in the wind. I reach the end of the cave and peer out into what looks like a jungle with massive trees. *Are those redwoods or something!? Those trees are HUGE!* The cave entrance is surrounded by a small wall of dirt and rocks beyond the earthen fortification is a large forest with massive trees and dense vegetation. I climb to the top of my little wall and see that I''m actually up a mild slope and the forest floor is quite a distance below me. Behind me the cave looks like it was dug into a cliff face that is easily half as tall as the trees. *So whoever left me here at least gave me a defensible spot for my little home, how nice of them. I wonder if they are still around or if I''m just expected to survive on my own. No point hoping they come back, I need to start looking for some food.* I listen to my surroundings for a few minutes just taking in the beauty of this forest. The trees alone are an incredible sight but the sounds of vibrant life are what catch my attention the most. I can hear what sounds like running water off to my right and decide that is probably a good thing to check out first. *I''m assuming I''ll need a source of water even though I''m a dragon. Humans can live a lot longer without food than they can without water after all. Hmm, more information that I just know from my previous life but still no more memories.* I climb down the slope with ease and start moving off into the underbrush. After a few minutes of traveling through the brush I come upon the moving water that I heard from my cave. The water is relatively slow moving but it is quite a wide body of water. I can see that it meanders deeper into the forest and that there seems to be a water fall coming off the top of the cliff. I move close to the base of the cliff and see that it drops in a large pond. I can see life moving around in the pond, what looks like fish swimming around and some vegetation in the deeper spots. *I wonder if I can swim* I jump into the water and immediately start sinking. I can feel my nostrils instinctively close and my eyesight becomes much cloudier than I expected as my head goes under the water. It feels like there is a covering over my eyes though because they don''t get irritated by having water in them like I expected. I try to keep myself a float but it seems pretty futile so I start to claw my way back to the edge of the pond. *So swimming doesn''t seem to be that great but at least I didn''t get water in my nostrils. The eye thing is weird though, it''s almost like I have a second eyelid that was protecting my eyes. I wonder if that''s for when I can eventually fly. I would really like to catch one of those fish though, if I can do that at least I have a food source for awhile.* I decide to wait by the edge of the pond to see if any fish come close. While waiting I keep trying to get down the act of getting up onto my back legs. After quite a few attempts I have an epiphany and realize my front legs are a hinderance when trying to get up onto my back legs. They are far to short and I end up putting a lot of my weight forwards instead of rocking back on my legs. After that realization I manage to use just my tail to get up onto my back legs and it feels far more natural than using my front legs. *I have a lot of bad habits I''m going to need to break. Using my ''arms'' to do everything is certainly not helping me.* After I manage to get up onto my back legs I settle in to wait if some of the fish my swim closer to me. It takes a bit but eventually a few of the smaller fish come closer to the edge of the water. When they get within what I feel is my range a pounce, mouth open wide neck extended fully. I feel my second eyelids close over my eyes and my nostrils close preemptively as I jump towards the water. I splash into the water and feel the fish in my mouth as I snap my jaws shut. The fish starts violently flapping in my jaws but I manage to barely hold onto it as I pull myself back out of the water. *Haha, first try! I''m a natural Fisherdragon!* After I manage to pull myself and the fish out of the water I pin it down on the ground. Not wanting it to flop away I keep it pinned down with my mouth and the skewer it with my front claws. The fish keeps flopping around even though it''s been impaled on my claw. The flopping fish manages to overpower my front leg and starts flopping around wildly. I snap at it with my jaws frantically trying to prevent it from getting back into the water. My first bite misses entirely and all I manage to bite is dirt *Well note to self, dirt doesn''t taste good to dragons either* My second bite is much more accurate and I manage to get the fish around the head. Not wanting to lose the fish I bite down as hard as I can severing the fish''s head from its body.
System Message
Level 0 Fish Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
The window popping up in my vision surprises me causing me to drop the fishes head from my jaws. *just like a video game this is so cool! Attribute to increase, that seems interesting* As if the thought itself was enough another window pops up in front of the first
Attribute Distribution
Would you like to distribute earned points to: STR or AGI?
*weird are there only two attributes? That seems like a very limited selection of attributes for a game. I wonder if there is some sort of character sheet* Once again the thought itself brings up a massive window filled with a ton of information
System Message: Character Sheet
Open? Y/N
*well I guess that answers that question, I wonder why I can only choose STR or AGI for the attribute increase though. I wonder if there is a help system* No new window immediately pops up. *um how about TUTORIAL! Nothing there either, hehe GAME MENU! Dang nothing there either.* I turn back to the attribute distribution window that I already have open. *hmm strength or agility, I think strength would probably be better for now it seemed like my agility was enough to at least get the fish*
Confirm Distribution: STR
Y/N
*Sure.*
Y/N
*Really you can read my mind but you need specifically a Yes or No to accept it?* The Y/N system message flashes once. *YES!*
Attributes earned for slaying Level 0 Fish assigned to: STR
STR Increased by 1
New STR Score: 2
*Wow a single fish DOUBLED my strength!? I need to go catch another one, can''t let this farming opportunity got to waste!* I perch back up on my hind legs watching the water intently. The sound of the water fall to my right is quite soothing and I find myself thoroughly enjoying this entire adventure. It only takes a few minutes before another fish starts swimming towards me. I wait patiently hoping that it continues swimming in my direction. When it gets within range I start to coil my body up preparing to launch forwards, feeling the power in my back legs that seems to have grown by quite a bit. I release the built up energy surging forwards, as I start to move I hear a snapping sound above my head and my body is pressed down into the water. Pain erupts from my left shoulder as I feel my body being pressed down into the water and then the mud below the water.
System Message
[-2] HP {Piercing}
*What was that!?!* The pressure quickly releases from my body and I immediately start clawing my way out of the mud. As I reach the shore I can hear the splashing of whatever attacked me in the pond, the waves of it''s thrashing reach up to my belly scales as I get to dry land. *Whatever that was must be MASSIVE* I start running as fast as my legs can carry me back to my small cave. There doesn''t seem to be anything following me, but I still don''t want to risk another run in with something that large. My small home is easy for me to find and I scale the small hill going up into it and go all the way to the back of the cave. *I think I should wait this one out for a bit, I don''t know what that was but clearly it was trying to eat me. I guess it would be a good idea to explore that character sheet in more detail* Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
System Message: Character Sheet
Just focusing on the message cause the character sheet to expand in front of me.
Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 7/10 Stamina: 30%
Stage: Baby
Attributes: Traits: Skills:
STR: 2 Breath: 1 None
CON: 1 Claws: 1
DEX: 1 Jaws: 1
AGI: 1 Scales: 1
PER: 1 Wings: 1
WIS: 1
INT: 10
CHA: 1
*Hmm, Baby Celestial Dragon. So she wasn''t lying, I wonder what other types there are. I guess what they say is true ''haste makes waste'' I really should''ve asked more questions, she did say we had as much time as I needed after all. No point worrying about that now though. The Health portion makes sense, I do need to be much more careful though since I''ve already taken 30% of my health in damage in just the short time I''ve been here, I hope it naturally regens some how. My stamina though is almost completely depleted, that explains why I feel tired after that mad dash back to my cave! It''s nice to have a metric for how tired I am though. I wonder what would happen if I drain it fully?* I start sprinting from one end of my cave to the other, the slight slope making the runs back up to the back of my cave slightly harder, after a few laps it feels like my body is ready to collapse. I start looking over the rest of my character sheet noting the different parts, Attributes seems pretty straight forwards. My intelligence being a ten seems odd when all of my other Attributes are a measly one, except for strength being a two. *I guess that makes sense as to why I can still think though, I wonder what an intelligence of one would look like though. I need to test this new strength attribute though, how much of a difference does that make, is it actually double?* I look around my cave to find something to test my new found strength on and notice the small scratch I had made earlier in the floor. Moving over to it I put my front index claw next to the old scratch and scrape down into the rock as hard as I can. After pulling my claw away the gouge in the cave floor is noticeably deeper. *It certainly seems like it could be double the depth, no real way of knowing without some sort of measuring device.* I stick my claw into each scratch and it does seem to be roughly twice as deep. Looking back to my character sheet I start looking over the different pieces. *Traits and skills, hmm that''s interesting. So I have no skills, I feel like that''s a load of crap, I should at least have a fishing skill! The traits seem interesting though; Breath, Claws, Jaws, Scales, and Wings. Wait a second, Breath? like fire breathing???* I immediately take a massive inhale and try to blow out fire. Instinctually I can feel parts of my body reacting to my desire to breath out a weapon but all that comes out is a dark purple smoke that seems to linger in the air before slowly dissipating. *Um, definitely not fire, but what is that?* My curiosity is piqued by this strange smoke I can breath out so I do it again and try to get a sense for what it might do, sniffing the smoke I find the odor to be not unpleasant but it also doesn''t seem to do anything. Walking into it doesn''t seem to affect me at all, but that''s probably better than me killing myself with my own breath. *Maybe it doesn''t do anything yet? I wish I could pull up more detailed explanations as to what each thing was.* Mentally I picture myself tapping on the "breath" trait but nothing seems to happen. *I''ll have to test this on different things to find out what it actually does.* Looking at the cave surrounding me I try to exhale my breath onto the walls, they seem entirely unaffected by the smoke. So I move onto the other traits, filing "test breath weapon" away on my to do list. *Claws, Scales, Jaws, and Wings; they all seem like normal traits I would be expecting. I wonder how I can go about making them stronger. Does it just happen over time or do I need to actively try to make them stronger?* I guess I''ll have to do more testing with these different aspects after getting some rest, my stamina bar regained around 5% during my testing and introspection. *Well at least that regenerates fairly quickly, I do need to be careful though. I feel like I was lucky that I escaped from what ever that thing was... I hope it didn''t follow me.* With that little bit of anxiety kicking in I start thinking about my day so far. Breaking out of my shell, finding out that my shell contains at least a little bit of nutrients to get me through the first few days of being a dragon was a huge boon. Thinking back on my adventure to the pond I realize I left that uneaten fish on the edge of the pond. *Damn, I was in such a rush I didn''t even think to scoop that up as I ran by. Whatever that thing was that attacked me not only ended my fishing trip but also probably stole my dinner!* I move back to the mouth of my cave and look out, noticing that it has become much darker. Deciding that waiting until tomorrow might be a better idea I decide to curl up just inside my cave and watch the sunset through the canopy. The forest starts to grow a lot quieter over the next hour or so of me just observing, the birds that have been constantly making noise through out the day have dwindled to only a few calls here and there. The wind is still rustling through the canopy but I cant help but feel content in my new environment. Outside of something trying to kill me this has been quite the enjoyable day. As the sunsets fully I notice that my vision starts getting better as the stars begin to come out. *Well that''s unexpected.* My vision continues to grow better as darkness fully takes over the forest, It''s not like what I remember from being a human. The trees and brush seem to have an ethereal glow and I can even see what looks like shapes moving around in the distance. I can''t tell how far away they are but it looks like varying sized clouds of a light purple color moving throughout the forest. When I look up I can see those same purple clouds up in the canopy, these clouds look smaller but seem to have groups of them throughout the canopy. *What are those?* My curiosity getting the better of me I pick myself up and start moving towards a cloud I can see back towards the pond. As I close the distance I can see more and more of the clouds moving around further away. The initial cloud I saw seems to have stopped moving around so I continue towards that. As I get closer to the cloud it seems like it''s actually underground, my suspicions confirmed when I get to the cloud and find that it''s underneath the forest floor. The cloud is about the size of my body and seems to be rhythmically pulsing. Looking around for a few minutes I find a burrow hole nearby. *Am I seeing animals?* The cloud that is now below me starts to move directly towards the burrow hole that I found. I decide to wait at the opening of the hole to see what comes out. I lay my body completely flat within striking distance of the hole, coiling my neck back so that I can still reach it quickly with my jaws. The cloud stops moving as though it''s responding to my movements. *Hmm, So it must have sensed me moving some how. I guess I''ll wait here for a bit to see what else happens. I can''t afford to tunnel vision like I did on that fish though* I keep my head trained on the burrow hole noting where the cloud is but periodically move my eyes around to make sure I don''t see anything else moving towards me. As I wait I notice the clouds in the distance go in and out of existence, some growing larger and then smaller. At one point I notice a cloud start rapidly moving across my vision seeming to chase another much smaller cloud. When the larger one catches the smaller one they seem to merge and rotate around each other for a moment or two before the smaller cloud dissipates. Not disappearing like like the previous clouds had but slowly dissolving into the darkness. *Well that''s interesting. I wonder what would cause them to dissipate into their surrounds like that.* Mid thought I see the cloud underground start moving towards the burrow hole. After a few seconds of waiting I see a large head poke up out of the burrow hole. With the head poking up out of the hole I immediately notice that the light purple cloud that I can see extends slightly beyond being''s body. It''s completely covered in fur with two large ears protruding from the top of its head. One large eye dominating easily a third the side of its head it immediately locks onto me as it appears. I strike forwards snapping my jaws as I feel contact with its head. It''s fast, much faster than me and all I manage to catch is the tips of its ears as it retracts fully into its burrow. I can taste some blood and fur in my mouth, but I fail to get a good hold on it. *Was that a Giant Rabbit? I''ve never in my life... Previous life, seen a rabbit that is that large. I guess it''s a good time to try out my breath* I position my self over the top of the burrow, sticking my head slightly into the hole and exhale my breath into it. I can see my breath exiting my mouth and the purple smoke looks much darker than it did earlier, it''s almost approaching a black color. *Well that''s strange. I could''ve sworn it was a brighter purple color earlier* Pulling my head back out of the hole I can see my breath through the ground as it fills into the burrow, giving me a good idea as to how large the hole is. It looks like it''s only a single passage way the expands out into a good sized cavity where the cloud that is the rabbit is hiding in. As my dark breath reaches the much lighter purple cloud it seems to infect it, veins of dark smoke creeping through the much lighter purple before starting to spread. The veins of darkness spreading and branching into hundreds of smaller veins, fully tainting the light purple of the rabbits cloud. The breath dissipates shortly after reaching the rabbit but the dark veins do not go away. *Well that looks positively evil. I wonder what its actually doing though* The rabbit still stays in its burrow, with the rhythmic pulsing of the cloud now accented by dark veins. The veins don''t seem to grow but as I watch I see that they seem to be sucking the lighter purple away, the light purple cloud slowly becoming less dense. After a short amount of time the black veins seemed to withdraw back along the same path they had entered through. During this withdrawal I noticed that the veins seemed to be much more numerous at the center of the rabbit''s cloud. *That''s interesting, so my breath weapon seems to drain whatever that purple cloud is.* I perched back above the hole and stuck my head down in releasing another blast of my breath. Watching as the dark purple cloud filled the burrow out again I patiently waited for it to hit the rabbit. Once again when my breath cloud reached the rabbits cloud the black veins streaked back through the rabbit. They seemed to follow the same paths they did before but did so much more quickly. The light purple cloud continued to grow less dense as the almost black veins throbbed with the rhythmic pulses of the rabbit. The cloud of the rabbit seemed to be around three quarters of the original density by the time the black veins started to withdraw. Right once I saw this happening I sent another blast down the hole and watched the results. The veins stopped their retreat when my breath hit the rabbit again and surged forwards. They seemed to grow slightly thicker as well before shrinking back down to the original size. *Why did they thicken like that? Was it stacking the effect??* Along this line of thought I sent a fourth blast down the hole following the third. When my breath hit the rabbit while the dark veins were still present they seemed to increase in thickness and then also shoot out new veins of darkness. *So it does increase the effect of it. With that in mind I should just continue to blanket the hole in the breath to speed this up* I perched back onto the top of the whole and tried to send another breath down into the hole to continue the stacking of whatever the veins of darkness were to hopefully reach the conclusion faster but I could feel a sense of fatigue deep within my being. The breath just didn''t come, I exhaled simple air into the hole. *Wait what? Is it a cooldown? A limited use? That''s so annoying.* I pulled up my character sheet to see if any more info like a cool down timer was present and to my dismay no such timer was present. Focusing on the location of that fatigue I gained a sense of where my breath came from. It was deep in the core of my being as a human I would have said it rested around my diaphragm. After locating it I noticed that I could feel a trickle of something entering it, slowly filling the emptiness back up. *Hmm so it''s like a gas tank that slowly refills. Well that''s good to know. At least I can focus on it and find out if it''s close to empty or not.* I sat back and watched as the veins of darkness continued to drain the light purple clouds density. Realizing I hadn''t been doing a great job watching my surroundings I did a quick survey of the surrounding area, the clouds I had seen earlier were still present. None of them seeming to be very close to me but there were a few in the opposite direction of my cave that I noticed travelling in a group. They seemed to be slowly making their way in my direction. *Well I guess I need to finish here quick before whatever those are get to me.* My decision was made for me as I noticed the rabbit start to move. The light purple cloud was easily half of it''s initial density and still draining. The black veins were back to the original size but they were still more numerous than the first breath. I coiled my body ready to strike when its head appeared at the top of the hole. I didn''t have to wait long as the ears appeared followed by its head and then its shoulders. I struck when I saw the top of it''s head appear. Even with my pre-emptive strike the rabbit was still much faster than me. My bite hit it''s upper shoulders, my jaws not large enough to fully enclose the rabbits shoulder but pinning one of its legs against it''s chest. As my teeth sunk into it the rabbit went into a frenzy. Kicking it''s powerful back legs it yanked me from the ground sending both of us tumbling into the nearby brush.
System Message
[-1] HP {Blunt}
I wasn''t releasing my grip. My jaws locked tight on to the rabbits shoulders, the rabbit started kicking... me. The first kick caught my tail, I felt it but it didn''t seem to hurt that much. The second kick caught me just above my hindlegs.
System Message
[-1] HP {Blunt}
*Ouch, two can play that game* Using my forelegs to get purchase on the rabbits body I brought my hindlegs up and raked down the rabbit with both, I could feel the large claws of my powerful legs catch in the rabbits soft belly. I pushed with all my might and I felt a pop as my hind legs ripped free, the rabbit still fighting but clearly losing its energy tried to jump again but could not lift us off the ground again. Another second passed of struggle but the rabbits strength had clearly left it. I noticed that the cloud surrounding the rabbit started to dissipate like the one I had seen previously.
System Message
Level 1 Rabbit Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
*Interesting, so that earlier cloud dissipating must have been that animal dying.* Mentally minimizing the window I checked to see how far away the group was that head been heading towards me. They seemed to have heard my scuffle with the rabbit and were definitely moving in my direction now. They had also spread out, allowing me to see that there were five of them and the clouds were getting much larger. *Crap. I need to get back to my cave fast, but I''m not giving up another meal!* I started dragging the rabbits body using my mouth to hold onto it and dragging it backwards. During this process I noticed why the fight had gone out of it so quickly. My kick had managed to disembowel the rabbit its'' intestines now made a line behind the rabbit''s corpse that I was dragging along with me. I kept dragging the body as quickly as I could while also using my larger cone of vision to try and keep an eye on the rapidly approaching group. By the time I was halfway back to my cave they had covered more than half of the distance to me. They were still a good distance away from my cave but I was cutting it very close. If I gave up and ran not only would they get a free meal but it would be the second time today that I had my food stolen from me. I redoubled my effort of pulling the rabbit back to my home, this increased effort led to the rabbits body starting to tear, with the bottom half getting stuck on branches and rocks in my relentless dragging. The line of intestines and the trail of blood could be easily through the broken underbrush I had plowed through in my haste. As I felt the incline up to my cave with my back legs the large group started to encircle me. The animal closest to the cliff slowing it''s approach to allow for the others to get around me. My stamina was getting dangerously low from all of this effort, but I wasn''t giving up now. As I crested the top of my small earthen wall they rushed me. Out of the underbrush the largest wolves I had ever seen came charging out at me. If I had been standing next to them I might have come up to their knees if I was standing upright, on all fours they probably could''ve crushed me with just a single paw. The purple clouds I could see around them took up almost all of my vision and their mouths snapping with monstrously huge fangs. *Fuck.* The back of my body was barely into my cave as they reached the slope up into my cave, the rabbits lower half still up on the small wall around my cave. As I pulled its head and upper legs into the cave I felt the impact of the wolves mass hitting the cliff side around my cave. Their massive snapping maws grabbing the lower half of the rabbit and yanking. I barely managed to hold onto the rabbit as they began pulling it out of the cave, my claws digging into the stone of the cave as much as I could. The tug of war was clearly one sided, but fortune didn''t abandon me entirely. All of that dragging had managed to severely weaken the rabbit''s connective tissue, the tug of war was the final straw. The body ripped in half, what was left of its intestines and most of its'' organs dropping into the opening of my cave. The release of pressure caused me to roll backwards with the head and arms of the rabbit still firmly in my mouth. Not wasting a moment I sprinted back up the small incline of my cave. I could feel the hot air of the wolves breath as their snapping jaws entered my cave, fortunately the cave was not large enough for them to get more than their snouts into the cave. My survival instincts took over and I dropped what little of the rabbit I had left and let loose a large blast of my breath, emptying everything that had been filled in my mad dash back to my cave. I exhaled for easily double of what I had previously and the dark purple cloud filled the entrance to my cave. The unfortunate wolf that had been trying to eat me took the blast right to the snout, I could see the black veins start to permeate his cloud. They looked miniscule compared to when they had been invading the rabbit, but the wolf immediately pulled back. The whimpers of the wolf could be heard over the growling of the other wolves. I watched as it''s massive cloud started to lose density, but it was nowhere near as effective as it was against the rabbit. The veins pulsing and drawing the density out as the wolf whimpered in pain. The other wolves seemed to take no notice and continued trying to dig into my cave and reach me with their mouths. Having nothing left in the tank I too what was left of the rabbit up into the back of my cave. Hoping that the wolves would leave me alone before they dug all the way into my cave. I laid down at the back of my cave and ate what I could of the rabbit, Most of it being skull and fur there wasn''t a ton of meat left but I still managed to fill up on the organs and little meat that were left. The idea of eating its brain was initially repulsive to me but I was hungry at this point and decide to try it. The flavor was amazing, easily over coming my initial hesitancy I cracked open the skull and devoured every last bit. The wolves were still trying to break into my cave but they seemed to be making little or no progress in their endeavor. Out of spite I threw the remained of the rabbit at the wolf that was currently had it''s snout in my home. The pieces bounced off of its nose but the greedy tongue lashed out and immediately pulled the pieces into it''s mouth and retracted its snout from my cave with its meager prize. I looked up to see if the wolf I had hit with my breath weapon was still being affected by it. At first it was hard to see because it was still in the back, but it seemed to be laying down away from the cave. The black veins were still there but they were now as thin as hair running through the massive cloud that made up the wolf. The overall density of the wolf was definitely less than that of it''s pack but it was hard to tell by how much. It looked like maybe five or ten percent at absolute max. *So clearly this cloud shows its health or something and they have a lot more than that rabbit did. That makes a lot of sense but I definitely hit it with close to 30% of my total breath capacity. So even if I dumped a full load of my breath into that wolf it would only take out a third of its health. I wonder if the deterrence for a smaller dose is the same.* Another wolf took up trying to break into my cave after the second one had backed off with its treat. Noting how full my breath felt I decided to try it out. As I moved forwards to test how good of a deterrent my breath was I noticed that the fourth and fifth wolves seemed to be off to right the side of the cave a little bit close together. *Hmm I wonder what they are doing.* As I got within range of my breath, trying to stay back far enough that the wolf couldn''t get me the snout withdrew from the cave. The wolf''s eye appeared in the cave, looking in directly at me, reinvigorated the wolf launched its snout back into the cave. The ground beneath me shook with the impact it''s front teeth almost catching me as it reached much farther into the cave than I expected. I leaped backwards and expelled around ten percent of my total breath capacity at the wolves snout. Immediately on contact with the wolves snout it bucked and hit the walls of my cave. The black veins shooting through the large light purple cloud of the wolf. As it retreated I could hear it whimpering in pain. *Good, stay the FUCK out of my house!!* With that test out of the way I backed up further into my cave and watched the clouds of the wolves move around, the second wolf joining four and five off to the side all huddled close together. The first and third wolf seemed to be laying down a small distance away from the group huddled together. The firsts black veins had visibly started to retreat from it''s cloud but the third was still riddled with the thin hairs of black. As I watched the dark veins fully withdrew from the first wolf and it slowly moved over to the group that was huddling together. *Are they eating the rabbit? That must be what they are doing, unless they are holding some sort of war council..* I decided to curl up at the back of my cave and try to rest as much as I could. Finally calming down from almost being a wolves dinner I notice the slowly blinking window I had instinctively minimized earlier.
System Message
Level 1 Rabbit Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
Attribute Distribution
Would you like to distribute earned points to: DEX or AGI?
*Interesting so the attributes you get aren''t always the same, It doesnt seem to be based on the attributes used when killing the thing. I definitely used more strength this time than I did last time and it''s still not an option. I wonder if I can choose both?*
Confirm Distribution: 50/50 DEX / AGI
Y/N
*Well that answers that. Yes.*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 1 Rabbit
DEX Increased by 1 AGI Increased by 1
New DEX Score: 2 New AGI Score: 2
*Wait so if I had chosen to split it on the fish I would''ve gotten 1 in each. Ugh, what a waste.* I spent the next few hours curled up like that, watching the wolves a the edge of my cave. During this time my breath organ fully refilled, making me feel whole again, when it was below full it felt like hunger pains but different. At one point two of them went off in the direction of the rabbit''s burrow and then shortly came back, all five of them posting up a short distance from my cave.
System Message
Skill Rank Up: Aura Sight
Rank 0 -> Rank 1
*Wait what? How can a skill rank up that I didn''t have!? Do skills just not show up on my character sheet if they are Rank 0?? So that''s what I''ve been seeing this whole time, their Aura.* The light purple clouds that make up the wolves had resolved into a much better approximation of the wolves, like a child drew some light purple circles and called it a ''dog''. I could now make out the wolves heads and bodies, the limbs could be seen but not made out clearly unless they were standing still. *Well that was certainly unexpected, So just looking at the world through this mode of sight ranks it up. I wonder how it will change as I rank it up, should be interesting to see how my breath appearance changes with this.* An incredibly dumb idea crosses my mind. *I''m probably going to regret this...* I think as I pick myself up off the ground and move to the front of my cave. Keeping a careful watch of the wolves to see if they react to my movement as I slowly walk down towards my cave entrance. Sure enough the closest wolf to the cave, the first wolf based on the density of it''s Aura, reacts when I''m only halfway to the cave entrance. Immediately standing up and moving towards the entrance to my cave. I can see its eyes outside in the dark staring hungerly into the cave. When it sees me it lunges, slamming its snout into the cave trying to reach me. I could see the Auras of the other wolves reacting to this and coming to investigate. The wolves'' snout wasn''t close enough to get me but it was well within range of my breath. I let lose the entirety of my breath organ''s contents into the snout of the wolf. The cloud that billowed out from me was an almost completely opaque dark purple cloud, with my improved aura sight I can see small pin pricks of light within it. It didn''t seem to travel any further than any of my other attacks but it was definitely on a whole different level of density. *Wow, I did not expect it to be that thick, I was expecting a much larger area to be affected. If I survive this I''m glad that I decided to try emptying it all in one go.* The wolf''s Aura was penetrated by dark veins that were easily triple or quadruple the thickness of the veins that had previously affected it. The yelp of pain coming out of it was deafening in the closed space of my cave, the first pulse of the dark veins drinking greedily from its Aura. Visibly diming and doing more damage to it''s density than the previous attack had done over it''s entire duration. The wolf immediately retreated and the other four did not take up the attack on my home. As I watched the wolves Aura dimmed significantly, that first pulse easily taking it down to 80% of the density of the other wolves. As the dark veins continued to pulse over the next few minutes the wolves Aura density continued to dwindle, nowhere near as quick as that first pulse, but by the time the veins had withdrawn the wolves aura was close to a quarter of the density of it''s pack. *That was surprising. The power of the fully charged breath is much more than I though it would be, even though its only roughly three times that initial attack it did well over six times the amount of damage to its aura. It also lasted for a lot longer than I expected it to.* I curled back up in the back of my cave and kept watching as the first wolf laid down a lot closer to my cave than I expected and seemed to fall asleep. The other four wolves seemed to think attacking my cave wasn''t worth it and started going off deeper into the forest. Leaving their injured companion behind. *I think I''m going to be making more bad decisions tonight...* After roughly half an hour of waiting for my breath organ to refill it had reached its max capacity again. I had kept watch on the other four wolves and it seemed like they had all wandered off further in search of food. Two of them seemed to be over closer to the pond that had all of the fish while the other two had headed directly out from my cave. At one point I watched as they came upon a much smaller animal and caught in a pincer between the two of them. The first wolf stayed laying down the entire time, its'' aura slowly regenerating. The wolves'' aura had only regenerated roughly a quarter of the damage I had done in the time my breath organ took to refill. *I will have to try and sneak this time so it doesn''t react until I''m on top of it.* As I slowly crept down the slope of my cave my anxiety started to peak. The "I''ll see you in a week" and "I''ll bring you back as a baby eating goblin" rattling around in my brain, making my anxiety go even higher. I couldn''t let this opportunity go though, the only reason it was within my capability of killing was due to it relentlessly attacking my home. Steeling myself I crept out of the mouth of my cave, still no response from the wolf. It''s aura was very slowly pulsing which made it look like it was in a deep sleep. As I got closer to the wolf it''s head moved, my adrenaline spiked through the roof and I stopped moving entirely. *shit shit shit* Fortunately the wolf was just moving in its slumber, but that made me immediately check my surroundings. The other members of it''s pack were still a long ways away, and did not appear to be moving in this direction. I slowly and carefully began to continue moving forwards, when I was within range for my breath I began to softly inhale, filling my little lungs to their maximum capacity and then I let it all out, fully emptying my breath organ into the sleeping form of the wolf. As my exhalation completed I turned around and sprinted as fast as I could. The wolf didn''t wake up yelping in pain, it woke up howling. The sound shaking my small frame as I put all of my energy into running up the incline to my cave. I could hear it getting up from it''s laying position and turning towards me. *Half way!* I could hear the dirt under its paws crunching and cracking as it turned towards me. My ''almost prey'' eye placement giving me flickering views of its massive form starting to lurch towards me. I could see the black veins pulsing in the glimpses of its Aura. The density of its'' Aura was dropping but it didn''t seem to be enough to stop it from coming to kill me. *Just over the wall and I''m in. Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!!!* I could hear the ground crunching under it''s back legs as it launched itself at me, and then pain.
System Message
[-3] HP {Piercing}
My body was lifted from the ground as its claws caught me in my right side between my legs. I flew, for the first time as a dragon I was flying just not how I wanted to. Fortune was on my side again because I flew through the opening of my cave, smashing into the upward slope inside my cave and sliding up almost three quarters of the length of the slope.
System Message
[-1] HP {Blunt}
*Hahahahaha* *What was that? That wasn''t my voice, it sounded like that woman in the red dresses'' voice. How close was that??*
Character Sheet:
HP: 1/10
*That was way too close, but at least I''m in the cave now and safely out of their range. Even if it does feel like I got hit by a semi truck and then run over by a train.* I turned to look at the wolf, my whole body hurting as I tried to first turn to the right. The wound from its claw in my side preventing me from easily turning that way so I gave up and turned to the left. I could feel the would opening as I turned and fresh blood spilling onto the ground. My left side felt like it was bruised all over but at least the muscles seemed to be working. As the wolves'' Aura came into view I could see the dark veins pulsing throughout it''s aura draining the dredges of density left. Within a minute the density had dimmed to the point where the light purple color of its aura wasn''t even visible over the dark veins pulsing. The only indication of where the wolf was through the cave wall was the mass of dark veins pulsing. It had turned away from the cave and had started to move away, it only made it to the bottom of the slope before collapsing. The veins pulsed once more and then disspated.
System Message
Level 3 Wolf Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
Attribute Distribution
Would you like to distribute earned points to: STR, CON, DEX, AGI, or PER?
*FIVE choices this time?* Was my last thought as I sunk into unconsciousness. Day 2, Wolves, Lizards, and Rabbits Oh My!
System Message
Level 3 Wolf Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
Attribute Distribution
Would you like to distribute earned points to: STR, CON, DEX, AGI, or PER?
The first thing I saw as I woke from my unconscious state is the system window saying I killed the wolf. I minimize it for now in favor of assessing my current condition. My entire body hurts from flying through the cave and my side hurts from where the wolf''s claw penetrated my body. Arching my neck around to see the damage pain blossoms along it''s entire length, feeling like a stiff neck on both sides it causes me to wince in pain. *That was close. I don''t think I''ll be doing much today if this pain lasts.* As my side comes into view I can see the damage, there is a massive wound where the claw hit. My body has already started to heal itself but there are no scales in that area, just a bright purple skin that has crept back over the hole preventing me from bleeding out. I do a once over of the rest of my body looking for anymore damage, I have small holes in my scaly hide but they seem to each have a small scale already re-growing. Each of them are a jet black color making them contrast the bright skin underneath. I stretch out my small wings and feel soreness in both but see no damage to either. *I really need to get up and see if I can move.* Dreading the next steps, I slowly get my legs underneath me and push. My muscles strain to lift my body off the ground, more from soreness than lack of strength, but I manage to get myself off the ground easily enough. I move back up the rest of the slope and into the back of my cave, getting closer to my shell my stomach grumbles in hunger. I stick my head into the shell and slurp up more of the nutritious fluid, finishing off more than half of what is left. *Well that didn''t last as long as I thought it would, now I''m in a worse spot than yesterday with even less food.* I pull up the Wolf message and start debating my options. *It seems that it''s worth it to just choose them all at this point, the Rabbit''s message said 50/50 distribution though so I''m wondering if this will distribute 20% to each.* Just thinking about distributing the attributes that way another message appears over the previous.
Confirm Distribution: 20 / 20 / 20 / 20/ 20 STR / CON / DEX / AGI / PER
Y/N
*No, I don''t think that''s how I want to do it, I''ve already got an extra point in STR, DEX, and AGI. I think it would be better to get the points in CON and PER.*
Confirm Distribution: 50 / 50 CON / PER
Y/N
*Yes*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 3 Wolf
CON Increased by 3 PER Increased by 3
New CON Score: 4 New PER Score: 4
System Message
New Level Achieved: Level 2
2 Trait Points unlocked
*NO! I just wasted so much, ugh. So the level 3 wolf gave me 5 total attribute points, the fish gave me 1 and the rabbit gave me 2! I really wish I had spread that out now. Level? Now thats interesting, I dont remember seeing that on my character sheet before. So is experience for kills only granted when you assign the attributes or is the Level based off your attributes?* Pulling up my character sheet to see my new stats, I''m blown away by the difference they make.
Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 34/40 Stamina: 100%
Stage: Baby Level: 2
Attributes: Traits: (2) Skills:
STR: 2 Breath: 1 Aura Sight: 1
CON: 4 Claws: 1
DEX: 2 Jaws: 1
AGI: 2 Scales:1
PER: 4 Wings: 1
WIS: 1
INT: 10
CHA: 1
*Weird Level now shows, is that because I noted it not being there, or because it''s now above one?? CON seems to give 10x it''s score in Health, maybe choosing that wasn''t as bad as I thought. Fortunately I gain the health difference instead of still being stuck at a low value and having a larger deficit. It also looks like I gained three health back over the night, that''s... troubling. It will take me another two days just to get back to full health. I wonder how PER will affect me though, it doesn''t seem to have made all that much of a difference. The two trait points are far more interesting though, I really need to not just jump into this but my gut is to go with scales and wings. I would love to be able to fly, but that could just make me a target for other flying things. Claws and Jaws are both the same for me, My STR seems to affect that more, but maybe if my STR gets too high they will break which would be horrible for my potential survival. Scales seems to be the best for my survival, I''m assuming they will become harder to penetrate as I level that up. Putting them all into breath could be really interesting, it already seems incredibly powerful even if it does take a long time to fully regenerate. Dumping all my points into that could make it so I don''t have to worry about getting hit, but I don''t know how putting the points into that will actually affect it.* As I mull over my choices I decide to try and take a peak outside my cave. I notice as I''m walking down the slope of my cave that my body is only slightly sore. Checking the claw wound I see that it has been mostly covered back over with scales. Looking around the other parts of my body I can see that those have fully regrown as well. *Interesting, so the bump in my CON attribute seems to have accelerated my healing. I wonder if CON is linked to my natural regeneration or if it''s just a matter of the larger pool. I wish I had been paying more attention.* As I reach the base of the caves slope I can see that the day is well underway. As I reach the entrance to my cave I can once again hear the life of the forest, if anything it seems even more alive than it was yesterday. I can see the birds moving in the canopy more clearly and can almost make out their nests high above me in the canopies. The colors of the birds immediately pop out at me, some of them look like the vibrant blue and yellow parrots that I remember seeing at zoos. *That must be that higher PER attribute. I can clearly see and hear much better.* I look towards where the wolf corpse is and notice that my small earthen wall has been completely destroyed. There are still some sections that are pushed back up against the cliff wall, but the middle section is completely flattened. Moving towards the corpse I can see that other scavengers have eaten away at some of it but the majority of the corpse is still there. Moving over to the corpse I remember how good the brain of the rabbit tasted and decide to try and see if the wolf was the same way. Assessing how to get at the brain I decide that the eyes are probably the best way, them being larger than me makes them look like a perfect way in. Using my claws to dig through them I eventually make my way to the delicious brain and as I thought it was just as good if not slightly better than the rabbits. After a few minutes of chowing down my stomach beings to hurt with the pains of being overfull. *My impulsiveness continues to harm me!* I think groaning as I crawl back out of the wolf''s skull. Realizing I wasn''t looking through my Aura sight and not getting any skill progression because of that I begin looking through it. The world explodes with light. Everywhere I look is just an incredibly bright pink light, I can make out vague shadows but nothing more. Confused by this I look around and eventually look up, which was by far the biggest mistake I had made so far... today. I could clearly see the sun through everything and it was absolutely blinding. I immediately stop using my Aura sight and blink my eyes a few times to attempt to get rid of the after image. Mid blink I notice the bushes near me moving as though something is coming through them. In a panic I turn and bolt towards my cave. As I reach the entrance I turn and prepare to bathe whatever is following me in max density breath. A lizard, roughly half the size of me comes out of the bush, turning its head side to side it makes eye contact with me and stops. It stands there completely still looking at me while I look back. *Is it sizing me up?* I think, making myself look smaller to present less of a threat, or so I hope. After I crouch down and back it seems to decide I''m not a threat and moves towards the wolf''s corpse to get a meal. Debating on the merits of attacking the lizard I decide to just observe it, I turn my Aura sight on to see if I can view it''s Aura through the overpowering Aura of the sun and find that I can. The lizard''s Aura appears as a darker purple form amongst the bright pink permeating the world. *Well at least my Aura sight isn''t completely useless during the day, but I definitely need to be careful not to blind myself again.* Keeping one eye on the lizard I find that I can move my other eye around my surroundings and keep a lookout for any other animals approaching through the underbrush. I begin noticing other dark purple Auras moving around as well, some no bigger than pin pricks in the distance. The small Auras seem to be moving in a line between two points, one of the points has a large amount of the small Auras all moving around each other making it look like a swarm of ants on a dropped piece of food. The other end is approaching the limits of my vision but it appears that they are going down into the ground. *I wonder if those are actually ants! It does seem like a lot of the wildlife here is what I would''ve expected to see as a human.* The lizard had filled itself on the wolf during my observations and decided to start coming closer. *Crap. Here we go* It approaches the base of the slope up to my cave and pauses, completely still. I turn to look directly at it as it stops moving and we make eye contact. Its tongue pokes out between its lips smelling the air. After a few tastes of the air it withdraws from my slope and moves off into the forest. A sigh of relief escapes me as I realize how on edge I was. *It didn''t seem like it could harm me, but I really don''t want to test my luck anymore than I have to after last night. I''m hoping this body doesn''t attract more scavengers that could actually harm me.* I decide to withdraw into my cave and wait out the rest of the day. Reaching the back of my cave I decide to start excavating a small hole for me to hide in just incase some animals that can fit inside decide to attack me. I choose to perch up on my hindlegs and use my forelegs to dig up the wall a small distances. Hoping to create a nook that''s raised above the bottom of the cave giving me hopefully a height advantage if needed. The digging takes a significant amount of time but I lose myself in it, finally being able to use my dexterous front claws to create something.
System Message
Skill Rank Up: Digging
Rank 0 -> Rank 1
The message popping up in my line of sight breaks my tunnel vision on digging, causing me to pull myself back from the hole I''ve created. *Another hidden skill, interesting.* I take a look at what my digging has got me and realize I''ve managed to make a fairly deep nook that slopes slightly up before leveling out and becoming a small room. Climbing up in I can easily turn around at the end so my head is facing towards my main cave. *Well that went better than I thought it would. I really lost myself there digging though. Once again I''m lucky nothing decided to creep up on me. How long have I been digging?* I crawl back out of my new sleeping spot and make my way towards the front of my cave. The light outside is significantly less making me feel as though it''s late afternoon maybe even approaching sunset. I flick my Aura sight on briefly to see if I can locate where the sun is and the blinding ball immediately pops up in my vision, rapidly approaching the horizon. I blink repeatedly to get rid of the after image, allowing me to see normally again after a few seconds. Poking my head out of the cave I take a peak at the wolf''s corpse. There seems to be roughly six of those lizards I saw earlier all making a meal of the corpse. One of them sees me as I come out of my cave and they all stop completely still. I look towards them and bow my head slightly like two men passing in the grocery store. They look at me bewildered for a moment before making the same movement back and then continuing to eat. *Are they intelligent beings, or just mimicking me due to me being non hostile?* The thought crosses my mind when they nod back and I decide to try and vocalize my question but all that comes out is a strange amalgamation of a kitten meowing and a frog croaking. The sound makes them all scurry to the far side of the corpse causing me to internally chuckle. *Well I guess talking is out of the question, hopefully one day I''ll be able to communicate somehow or this might be a very lonely life.* Over the course of the day the wolf''s fur had been completely peeled off and the meat underneath had numerous spots where animals had eaten. *Interesting so the wolf''s pack either never came back or they don''t eat their own, either way more food for the rest of us!* Remembering my two unspent trait points I open up my character sheet and continue to mull over my choices as the lizards continue their communal meal.
Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 34/40 Stamina: 100%
Stage: Baby Level: 2
Attributes: Traits: (2) Skills:
STR: 2 Breath: 1 Aura Sight: 1
CON: 4 Claws: 1 Digging: 1
DEX: 2 Jaws: 1
AGI: 2 Scales:1
PER: 4 Wings: 1
WIS: 1
INT: 10
CHA: 1
*I really just need to choose, If I end up dying with unspent trait points it would be like going home with an idol in my pocket.* With that thought running through my head I decide to put the first point into wings.
System Message
Trait Rank Up: Wings
Rank 1 -> Rank 2
I can feel as my wings expand, growing larger and thickening the feeling causes me to stretch them out to their max width instinctively. I watch out of the corners of my eyes as they slowly grow more and more into the edges of my vision. It has the same feeling of euphoria as a great morning stretch that has you groaning in pleasure. As they stop expanding and thickening I notice they are easily three times the size as they were previously, folding them back into my sides they now cover my front and hind legs where they connect to my body. The outside of the wings have scales much the same as the rest of my body and the inside is still the leathery light purple color. *Well that was a lot more than I expected, I guess its time to test them!* I stretch them out to their max span and flap them down, causing the lose dirt and debris to be pushed off the entrance of my cave. The group of lizards immediately reacts skittering off the wolf back into the brush. I can feel them start to lift me off the ground with just that one beat but I don''t fully lift off, it feels more like my legs are just carrying significantly less of my body weight. *Dang I guess one level wasn''t enough to just fly. Can I glide though?* Spreading my wings out to either side I coil back onto my hind legs and then launch myself forwards while beating my wings once, I end up gaining at least my own height in altitude before starting to glide forwards. I can feel the strain in my wings of keeping my body from immediately plummeting but they do keep me in the air enough to not immediately hit the ground. That combined with the gradual slope allows me to glide before coming down hard on the ground. Remembering my first adventure using my wings I immediately retract them to my side hoping to prevent damaging them and end up taking a face full of dirt.
System Message
[-1] HP {Blunt}
*Yup, that''s basically what I expected* I think as I pull myself up out of the furrow I had created leading away from my cave. The gouge in the earth wasn''t deep but showed just how hard I hit. Walking back to the top of my small slope I get ready for another attempt. Knowing that I have a much larger health pool now makes the one blunt damage I took a lot more palatable. It doesn''t seem to hurt nearly as much as the other times that I have taken one damage. *I wonder if pain is a relation of Health percentage lost and not the numeric value.* Preparing myself mentally for another HP hit I coil my body like a spring. Wings poised to flap as I leave the ground. My previous experience allowed me to make minute changes to the position and tilt of my wings giving me a natural feel for how they should be splayed. *Now or never* I launch myself into the air with all my might, flapping my wings as hard as I can. My initial height is easily fifty percent higher than my first attempt, my memories of falling out of trees come to mind spiking my anxiety. The spike of anxiety is almost immediately suppressed by what feels like instinct. My wings responded automatically as my brain is occupied with trees and broken arms. Snapping down and then back up. I start to gain a small amount of altitude, but the strain is still too much for my baby wings. After the small secondary gain I start to lose altitude, letting my instincts take over I snap my wings down, slowing my downward momentum and transferring it into forward momentum. As the ground rapidly approaches my human memories continue to scream: *Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck* While my dragon instincts brace for landing, my hindlegs... legs, tucking beneath my body bracing for the impact with the ground, my arms pulling in towards my body. As my legs impact the ground my knees soak up most of the momentum and then my body rolls forwards. I snap my arms forwards to catch myself before I plow into the ground. My wings push down arresting my momentum even further. Still not quite enough to bring me to a complete stop I roll forwards my shoulders and neck pressing into the dirt, my eyes closing expecting the pain to come next. No system message stating more blunt damage appears, to my immediate surprise. I snap an eye open thinking maybe its just that I had them shut. Still no window appears in front of my vision. *I flew! I actually flew! More importantly I didn''t blast into the ground like a small meteor!* Picking my head and shoulders up off the ground I tuck my wings back into their more protective position covering my shoulders and hips. Far too self-satisfied I merrily climb back to the top of my hill. Surveying the surrounding area for threats I don''t see anything in normal vision, but with the sun dipping down below the horizon the sky explodes with color. The forest floor is now dotted with shadows from the massive trees and greenery at their bases. Switching to Aura sight I look around for anything I missed with regular sight. I immediately see the Auras of the group of lizards off a little ways in the forest, they seem to be huddled together underground awaiting the advent of night. Further in the distance I can see the larger auras of bigger animals but they are so distant that their Auras seem small. Seeing no immediate threats I start examining the ethereal Auras of the trees and plants. Instead of the purple that comes with animal life they are closer to a bluish grey in color, but so sparse and lacking density that it''s hard to say if they are actually blue Auras or not. *That''s strange, I would''ve thought plants had a green Aura not a slightly blue Aura. I wonder what the different colors actually mean. Every animal that I have seen so far has had a purple Aura. The sun''s seems to be Pink* Keeping my Aura sight on to hopefully continue leveling that skill I start making my way back to the pond. The ability to see Auras boost my confidence in being awake during the night and makes me feel as though my species of dragon is intended to hunt at night. Half way to the pond I notice another Aura that looks much like the rabbit did, deciding to go check that out I start moving towards it leaving the cliff behind me. *I wonder if putting my last trait point into wings would allow me to fly fully, I think that might be worth the investment just in terms of getting away from predators like those wolves. The added defense of them covering my body certainly seems like it would be worth it as well.* Mentally I try to allocating my last trait point to my Wings trait.
System Message
2 Trait Points required for Rank 3 Wings
*Hmm well I guess that answers that question, I guess scales it is then.*
System Message
Trait Rank Up: Scales
Rank 1 -> Rank 2
Freezing midstride I can feel the change start taking effect. Just like with my wings I can feel the changes taking place, my scales becoming noticeable thicker and more dense. My instincts take over and I flex my tail and neck, feeling the difference in the thickness and density. The strangest part being that they don''t seem to be any heavier. *Everything I know about density says that my scales should be weighing me down, but if anything they feel lighter.* Spreading my right wing and looking at the external scales I can see that those have grown thicker and they feel much more dense as well. *Interesting, so that density I feel isn''t a material property it''s a property of the Aura infusing them.* I use my tail to prop myself up on my legs and bring the wing across my chest. Using my left arm I try to puncture one of the outer scales with my claw. The claw makes an almost metallic ''tink'' sound as the scale easily deflects it. *I wish now that I had tested the scales BEFORE upgrading that trait. The only metric I have so far is those wolf claws and I have no desire to test that again* Wincing as I remember vividly the pain of that claw entering my side. Realizing I have spent far to much time not paying attention I immediately sweep my surroundings. Just like the previous night there are other larger Auras off in the distance clearly hunting and moving through the forest. Not wanting to get caught out again I start moving at a slightly faster pace towards what I believe to be another rabbit. After a few minutes of travel I find myself above the Aura I had noted earlier. With my upgraded Aura Sight it looks like a poorly drawn rabbit, the main body comprising the majority of the aura with a circle attached to one end and two ovals on top. I immediately start looking around the area for it''s burrow hole. My vision in these lowlight conditions is just as good as my vision during the day, if not slightly better, reinforcing even more in my mind that I should be doing my hunting at night. It only takes me a few minutes to find the burrow hole of this rabbit, hidden at the base of a large leafed bush. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I perch over the hole and extend my neck and head down into the burrow as far as it will go. I take a large inhale and then release roughly a quarter of my breath capacity into the burrow. I pull my head and neck back out of the burrow and watch as the dark cloud outlines the burrow, diving deep into the burrow and eventually making contact with the rabbits sleeping form. Immediately the rabbit reacts, streaking towards the burrows entrance. Having learned from last time I stay completely still as it continues towards the hole. I can see the dark veins invading it''s Aura more and more as it plows through my breath. I coil my body in preparation of the rabbit''s exit and steel my self for its explosive power. The head of the rabbit appears first followed quickly by the body. It seems from my perspective that this rabbit is much slower than the last one, where as the previous one seemed to be three or four times faster than me this one only seemed half that. I strike, catching the rabbit around its neck as the rest of it''s body shoots out of the hole. My instincts and small amount of experience take over, I shoot my wings out to either side acting as a slowing sail curling my legs up under my body I dig them into the rabbits torso. Raking down with my legs as hard as I can, the familiar catch and pop feeling happens as my claws tear free. Dark veins of my breath pulsing rhythmically as the rabbit''s Aura dissipates.
System Message
Level 1 Rabbit Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
My excitement at successfully hunting the rabbit without taking damage or expending most of my breath is only barely overshadowed by further advancement. I crack the skull and quickly devour the brain first, the delicacy of it clashing with my human sensibilities once again. The human memories are quickly thrown aside as the rich flavor and feeling of eating nutritious food overwhelms it. I rear back on my back legs and let out a tiny meow-croak in victory. Once again my luck shines through as a massive winged aura comes plunging down from the canopy with out making a sound, it snatches my trophy in the short amount of time it takes me to realize what has happened. I lash out with my jaws grabbing its'' closest foot and holding on as hard as I can. Its'' massive wings beat down easily lifting me, the rabbit, and itself off the forest floor. My impulsiveness once again sending me flying, this time strapped to what must be the largest owl I have ever seen in my life. As the owls powerful wings beat down buffeting my whole body with massive currents of air I can''t help but feel like the worlds most pathetic dragon. *Damn it I just want to keep one thing that I hunt for myself!!* We begin rapidly gaining altitude, giving me only a moment to realize just how high up we actually are and how much falling from this height is going to hurt. The owl releases the rabbit with the foot I am attached to and tries to shake me free, rattling my brain with the force of its kicks. My jaws release without my permission causing me to have what feels like a slow motion moment to realize my worst fear just came true. *Fuck* My upward momentum is quickly turned to downward momentum. I try to right my body as the ground starts coming at me faster and faster, I get my body oriented with the use of my tail and wings so that my arms and legs are below me. I snap my wings out to either side and heave them downwards with all my might, slowing me drastically but not enough as my body impacts the ground.
System Message
[-5] HP {Blunt}
The air is blasted out of my lungs from the impact, my wings splayed out to either side I just lay there for a moment. *Why did I grab it? WHY!?* I gingerly pick myself back up and fold my wings back in protectively over my sides. My ribs feel like I just took a torso punch from Mike Tyson as I pull myself up. I look around hoping that there are no other large Auras to contend with and I breath a sigh of relief as none seem close. Getting my bearings I can see that even in that short time we covered a large distance. I''m now more than double the distance from the cliff as I was at the rabbit''s burrow. Resigning myself to a long walk I start trudging back to the cliff, determined to at least get a few more attribute points from fish. As I begin walking I pull up the attribute distribution window for the Rabbit.
Attribute Distribution
Would you like to distribute earned points to: DEX, or AGI?
*Fifty Fifty please!*
Confirm Distribution: 50 / 50 DEX / AGI
Y/N
*Yes.*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 1 Rabbit
DEX Increased by 0.5 AGI Increased by 0.5
New DEX Score: 2 (2.5) New AGI Score: 2 (2.5)
*Wait what, I only got half a point for those??? But I got a full point last time! What a rip off!!! Why such a drastic difference in attributes given though, that doesn''t make sense! Is it my change in level?* Thoroughly annoyed at the underlying system I continue my trek back to the cliff, stomping my feet like a petulant toddler that was told ''No'' when asking for ice cream. By the time I reach the cliff wall my frustration has subsided greatly. *I guess it would be a little over powered if I could just hunt rabbits for two attribute points every time, but it would be nice to know the underlying systems. There must be some sort of math equation behind all this that I just cant see all the pieces of.* After reaching the cliff I assess my surroundings, noting a group large Auras on the far side of my cave as well as back in the direction I came from. I can see in the distance of the canopy an Aura that looks a lot like the owl that just made off with my prize. Looking to my right I see the pond in the distance, or at least the auras of all the fish in the pond swimming around lazily. *The night is young, I should take advantage of it while I still can.* Continuing my night time adventure I start making my way to the pond, I decide to try and keep an eye out for the groups of those larger Auras I can see in the distance having a suspicion that they are more giant wolves. As I arrive at the lake I stand up onto my back legs using my tail so I can survey my surroundings thoroughly. The canopy is filled with small Auras of what look like sleeping birds, I can see other small Auras flying in the distance through a cloud of Auras that look like nothing more than pin pricks. The group of large Auras that were on the other side of my cave seem to have moved out of my vision range and the group that was straight out from the cliff seem to have moved parallel to me. *I really hope they cant see me like I can see them, it seems incredibly suspicious that they seem to have mirrored the distance and direction I have traveled.* With my anxiety in my throat I look back at the pond, keeping one of my eyes trained on the group of Auras hoping they won''t move towards me. As I look at the surface of the pond in front of me my jaw drops, the stars above reflect off its still surface giving a surreal appearance like a perfect painting. I can''t help myself and look up at the night sky, noticing without the covering canopy that I can see a plethora of stars above me in the night sky. *Wow, is this what a night sky looks like without light pollution?* The sky is littered with stars, some large and brilliant others small and twinkling. The most striking piece is the clouds of purple, red, blue, green, and yellow with a smattering of other colors mixed throughout making a line across the sky. *Is that what nebulas would look like with your naked eye? I''ve never seen anything like that before.* Realizing I was still looking through my Aura sight I stopped and just looked up with my regular vision, the colors fade away replaced by a luminous band across the sky. Looking back through my Aura sight the colors spring back into being. *I did not expect the night sky to have an aura as well, it looks a lot like the colors in my scales in my normal vision range.* Having not looked deeply at my scales coloration since upgrading the trait I decided to take a moment to stare at them, the colors of the tiny nebulas slowly swirling across my scales were much more prominent, the deep purple back drop seeming to have a depth that was not there previously. *Wow, I wonder what they will look like if I continue to rank that trait up. Will I eventually have scales that look like the night sky through Aura sight?* My awe captures my attention for far to long before I manage to pull myself back to the hunting of fish. I quickly peek at my surroundings paying more attention to the group of large Auras that had moved parallel to me. They don''t seem to have moved any closer so I focus on the fish in the pond. None seem to be swimming close to the edge so I rock myself up onto my legs and perch at the edge of the water like I did the previous day patiently waiting for the fish to come closer to shore. After waiting for a hand full of minutes I notice that unlike during the day none of them come anywhere closer to shore. I decide to use the tip of my tail as a lure to see if I can convince one to come closer. I turn my body slightly to the left so my back is facing more towards the cliff wall and dip just the tip of my tail into the water. The small ripples spread from my tail causing the reflections of the stars to dance on the surface of the pond. From this position I also have a clear view back to my cave home and can see that the second group of Auras has come closer while my back was turned. They are still far enough away though that it doesn''t raise any alarms for me. Slowly swishing my tail back and forth on the surface of the water I immediately notice that some of the fish start to react. Three of the fish that were in the middle of the pond start to swim closer to my swishing tail tip, the one in front clearly larger than the other two. They stop a short distance from it just observing the tail swishing lazily back and forth in the water. Even after another minute or so of me trying to entice them they seem to be unmoving, just watching as my tail dances before them. *Come on you stupid fish bite!* As if hearing my mental plea for them to forgo any intelligence the front fish darts forwards and bites my tail. Retracting my tail and snapping my jaws forwards at the fish I manage to grab it just as it turns around, with its'' tail firmly in my jaws I yank it from the pond. I arc it over my body and smash the fish on the ground to my left. With a wet ''SLAP'' the fish impacts the ground, I can see its Aura immediately start dissipating as the familiar window appears.
System Message
Level 0 Fish Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
Attribute Distribution
No Primary advancement found
Would you like distribute Secondary Points to: STR or AGI?
*Well that''s a new one, I wonder what it means by ''Primary'' advancement, let''s put it all into STR and see what happens*
Confirm Distribution: 100 STR
Y/N
*Yes.*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish
STR Increased by 1 New STR Score: 3
*WTF, THIS MAKES NO SENSE. So if I had chosen 50/50 I would''ve gotten what, half a point in each, which would still be a full point even though the rabbit only gave me half of what it did previously and the fish is a lower level!?! HOW DOES THIS SYSTEM WORK!!* I hear a familiar laughing in my head that is not my own. *Are you playing with me or something you high heeled Bitch!? What I didn''t choose the race you WANT me to choose so you''re upset, even though you said I get to choose whatever I want!?* Baby Goblin *Ha Ha, very funny. Not going to happen though, even if those wolves come back I''ll hole up inside my cave and die of starvation before letting them kill me within the week.* Silence is all that meets my venting. Watching my surroundings even more carefully after the clear threat from whoever or whatever she is I notice the group that paralleled me is definitely getting closer. They have only seemed to cover ten percent or so of the distance to me but I can start to make out that they are definitely the same shape as the wolf Auras that I had seen previously. They have already spread out at some point, just like the previous night making it easy to distinguish four individual wolves. *I really hope they aren''t hunting me again.* With that thought rattling around in my brain I dip my tail back into the water again. After already having found success I try to mimic the previous movements, the fish react much faster this time to the tail with a group of four approaching this time. The same story plays out again, they wait for a long while just staring at the rhythmic swirls of my tail before one of them bravely shoots forwards. I retract my tail as they bite causing them to come out of the water slightly this time and then my jaws snap around them. I arc the fish over my body and smash it into the ground next to me. ''SLAP'' Watching as the Aura dissipates and my favorite window appears again.
System Message
Level 0 Fish Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
Attribute Distribution
No Primary advancement found
Would you like distribute Secondary Points to: AGI?
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish
AGI Increased by 0.8 New AGI Score: 3 (3.3)
The first window flashes briefly before the second window pops up over it, quickly followed by the third. *Wait what the fuck? I didn''t even get to choose what Attribute it went too? You just auto assigned it? Is this because I called you a Bitch????* Closing the windows in disgust I survey my surroundings again. The four wolf Auras are definitely coming my way, in the time I spent focused on fishing they had cleared easily a third of the remaining distance. Scooping up the two fish in my jaws I start running back to my cave. I flap my wings when I have room speeding up my run by reducing the weight on my legs, after a few of these maneuvers I find that angling them down and back also gives me a good amount of extra forward moment. By the time I''m half way back to my cave I notice that the group in front of me has also spread out making it clear that there are five wolves in front and they have started moving towards me quickly. *What did they do, tell their friends about me?* As I''m working my way up the slope I can see the forms clearly of all nine wolves I''ve moved quickly but they''ve moved quicker. My quick sprint back to my cave aided by my wings only drained half of my stamina this time and I''m starting to feel a lot more comfortable in my night hunting capabilities, but I''m not loving this constantly being hunted. *Maybe this is why she said it was a bad idea. I wonder if dragons taste really good...* As I barrel back into my cave I take a peak over both of my shoulders and realize that the wolves have set up a perimeter. I make my way back up to the flat portion of my cave and turn so that I''m facing the entrance and begin eating the first of the two fish. They aren''t very large fish so even with taking my time and enjoying the meal it doesnt take me long to eat it, but it does give me enough time to take in the wolves more. I notice a few things about the two groups, the first thing I notice is that even though they have created the perimeter together there is a much larger gap between the two groups than there is between the members of each group. The second thing I notice is the size of the auras, the group on my right towards the pond has four Auras that are the same size as I remember from last night, but the group on my left has five noticeably smaller Auras as well as quite a difference in their individual sizes. The two on the outside of the group are the largest, while the one in the middle of the group is closer to only half the size of the others. *Interesting so they are working together, but they aren''t fully cooperating? That one in the middle must be a younger wolf, or maybe the runt of that pack. I might be able to take advantage of that.* My thoughts start racing with my usual terrible ideas, I look down at the second fish still waiting to be eaten. *How many bad ideas am I up to at this point?* I start slowly making my way towards the cave mouth, cautiously trying not to make any sound with the limp body of the fish between my teeth. As I get half way down the slope I see movement from the group on my right, clearly more veteran hunters they all start to pick themselves up from their resting spots on the ground and start to slowly creep forwards. I notice an immediate difference from the previous night, I can hear their movements. *Is that due to my much higher PER attribute? I could definitely only see them through Aura Sight last night.* The smaller group reacts to the first group getting up and snaps up off the ground, creating a ton of noise in comparison. The wolf closest to them visibly turned towards them and growls causing the smaller group to recoil slightly and then start moving much more quietly. I chuckle to myself thinking this is the exact type of situation that you can get a tactical advantage from. *Where did that come from? What was I before this??* I continued my slow descent, pretending like I couldn''t clearly see the wolves and hear them. As I approached the cave mouth I could see the Auras around their legs start to condense and get shorter. *Preparing to pounce?* I slowly peak my head out of my cave, looking back and forth pretending I cant see them before putting the fish down in front of me. Paying careful attention to the wolves that were still back a good distance, but not far enough for me to feel comfortable, I laid down so that my back legs were tensed under my body ready to fling myself backwards. As I take the first bite of my fish the small wolf leaps forwards, the power coiled in my back leg explodes, launching my body backwards. I snap my wings out and down propelling myself even further into the cave, even with all that effort the wolf still hit the cave entrance and it''s fangs came flying at my face. Snapping just above me as I land on my back. Instinctually I unleash the entirety of my my breath directly into its mouth. The dark dense cloud shoots straight into its mouth as it snaps shut. The dark veins immediately start shooting through its Aura, much thicker than in the previous wolf and far more numerous. *I wonder if the effect is based on the size and density of the aura, or if that massive difference effect is just due to it enhaling the entirety of my breath* As the snout retracts I can see it continuously coughing out clouds of my breath, each cough expelling slightly less of the dark cloud that represents my breath. Not waiting to see the full effects I roll over and start pushing my body as hard as I can to get up the slope, knowing that the larger wolves can reach a lot further into my cave. As I crest the slope I finally turn around to see all of the wolves huddling around the smaller one, even from this distance I can hear its whimpers of pain. The massive dark veins brutally pulsing and draining its Aura, the density already dropping to easily two thirds of its initial density. The veins showing no sign of slowing their constant drain of the wolf''s Aura density. *Wow, I expected that to get them to leave me alone, not kill it. I may have just declared war.* As I watch the veins continue rapidly draining the wolf''s Aura, pulling its density quickly below fifty percent. The wolf''s cries of pain growing in intensity. The larger wolf that had initially snapped at the smaller wolves seems to be pressing its snout or face, it''s hard to tell through the crudely ''drawn'' shapes, against the smaller wolf''s side. *Should I feel bad about this?* Its cries of pain peaking as it''s aura hit a quarter of its original density, I begin hear its labored breathing over its weak cries as the veins finally started to diminish. The wolf''s Aura was still losing density much faster than the veins were retreating, in only a few more seconds the wolf''s Aura fully dissipated, the veins pulsing one final time before dissipating as well. There was a long moment after the wolf''s labored breathing stopped. *Well, that went better than expected.*
System Message
Level 2 Wolf Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
Then all hell breaks loose, the wolf that had growled at the smaller group launched itself at my cave entrance. Snapping in a frenzy unlike any I had seen from the night before, I could see the other seven wolves gathered around where the smallest wolf had been, sitting back on their haunches. They all simultaneously started howling, the combined howls barely overpower the sound of the wolf hammering the entrance to my cave. The whole cave vibrating with the force of wolf slamming into it. *Okay, maybe better wasn''t the right word. I really nailed it on the head when I said this was a bad idea though. I get the feeling that they aren''t going to let this go.*
System Message: Realizing you make bad choices
WIS Increased by 2 New WIS Score: 3
*Oh come on that was a low blow!* I noticed at this point that the second fish was half way up the slope, roughly where I landed from my initial launch backwards. *I wonder if I could reach that...* After a moment of deliberation I realized that my low WIS score truly might have been affecting my ability to make good choices because I squash that thought quickly. Taking my win, I turn and move all the way back of my small cubby that I had made earlier in the day and pulled up the system message for defeating the wolf.
System Message
Level 2 Wolf Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
Attribute Distribution
Would you like to distribute earned points to: STR, or DEX?
*Wait what? So the level two wolf only gives me a choice of STR or DEX, even though the level three was all of those options? WHAT IS THIS!? FiNe! 50/50, YES!*
Confirm Distribution: 50 / 50 STR / DEX
Y/N
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 2 Wolf
STR Increased by 2 DEX Increased by 0.25
New STR Score: 5 New DEX Score: 2 (2.75)
System Message
New Level Achieved: Level 3
3 Trait Points unlocked
*Wow, all that complaining and I still managed to level up twice in one day! Wait, isn''t even the same day? CLOCK!* Nothing popped up from my attempt at bring up some sort of ''system'' clock. *Time?* Still nothing. *Dang well it was worth a try* The cacophony of sound coming from the entrance to my cave continued to rattle my bones preventing any chance of me getting rest. With that in mind I decide to start expand my small ''bedroom'' as I dig I notice that it is significantly easier than earlier in the day. My progress is quick, I manage to make a second small room off to the right side of the main room. The sound of the wolf''s viscious attack on my cave entrance a rhythmic sound track for my digging. Crawling back through the small tunnel I had dug I notice that it seems to be a little tighter than previously. *Did I grow in size from that level up?* With that thought in mind I continue crawling having to squeeze a little as my wings and legs are quite tight in the tunnel. Coming out the other side I see the scratch marks I had made the previous day. I use the same index claw I had previously and gouge into the rock, this new gouge was easily five times as deep as the initial and double the depth of the second. Mentally patting myself on the back for giving myself a metric to measure my growth I turn and start widening the tunnel into my small room. As I dig the wolf''s attack on my cave entrance start to dwindle, eventually ceasing. When silence finally takes over my cave I turn and look towards the entrance. I can see the aura of the large wolf still at the front of my cave, it appears to have laid down with its head pressed up against my cave entrance. In the distance I can see the other wolves still huddled around where the smallest wolf''s corpse must be laying. Slowly creeping down the slope towards my cave''s entrance I can see the bottom of the wolf''s eye below the ceilling of the cave. I continue my slow movement forwards until I am staring into its massive orb of an eye. The pupil consumes the entire orb diallated fully and staring directly at me. *Well then, Fuck. Heres to hoping it goes away...* As that thought skitters across my mind the wolf pulls back from the cave and I see a paw come flying into my cave, rapidly approaching where I am standing. Pushing backwards and spinning my body I scamper back up the slope. The wolf''s claw doesnt reach where I was but is still far to close to where I am currently standing for me to be comfortable. Mentally checking in with my breath organ I can see that its approaching half capacity, I let out a tenth of the overall capacity at the paw. The dark cloud of my breath spreads out into the cave infront of me, expanding to rest on the base of the cave like a heavy fog. The wolf''s claw retreats and then shoots out further, clawing at the floor of the cave creating gouges that are deeper than mine but nowhere near the depth of the massive gouges that mar the floors and walls of the cave. It retracts the claw again and shoots it forwards managing to get slightly further, but during this time the dark fog of my breath has moved further and the claw makes contact with it. The hair width dark veins start to permeate the aura of the claw rapidly going up the attached arm, instantly the claw is pulled back. *Please go away, I didnt want to kill that wolf but you guys keep hunting me!* I plead mentally, hoping that it heard but knowing it doesn''t go beyond the confines of my own brain. The wolf''s massive eye appears again briefly looking into my cave before retracting and joining its'' fellow wolves huddled around the body of the smallest wolf. I can see the aura around its center start to contract and gain density before it releases a howl that blasts out of the wolf''s mouth. The sound reverberating through the walls of my cave, a feeling of sadness invades me, the melancholy howl causing me to feel worse about the death of the small wolf. I press down those feelings with all my will. *I shouldn''t have to feel bad about this! They tried to kill me, TWICE!* Rage fills my small form and I resolve to do the same to any of them that come and try to attack me. *It''s not even like I tried to farm them for attributes, I''ve literally just been trying to survive in this brutal world I find myself in. If some fish flopped their way over here and tried to attack me I could at least understand that, or if a rabbit came and kicked me while I was sleeping. At least in those situations I was the aggressor.* I leave the wolves to their mourning circle and head back up into the cavern at the back of my cave. As if waiting for me to work out my feelings:
System Message
Skill Rank Up: Aura Sight
Rank 1 -> Rank 2
*I wonder if thats why I could see the howl before it happened* Turning back to take a final peak at the wolves I notice that their Auras now clearly make out the shape of the wolves bodies. The aura seems to be much denser around their heads and between their front legs seeming to identify the vital parts of the wolves biology. *Well that''s an interesting evolution of that skill* I turn back and continue my trek up to my sleeping spot. Remembering that the tunnel felt tight I decide to spend a few minutes widening it, between the increase in strength and the digging skill rank from earlier I find it quick work to make it slightly wider than my hips with wings folded against my sides. The pile of debris has started to grow in the main chamber of my cave during my excavations over the course of the day. As I curl up in my small room I can''t help but feel satisfied in my gains for the day. *Even if I ignore getting to level 3 I managed to start dabbling in flying, I made neighborly progress with the lizards, hunted another rabbit, got it stolen by an owl, found out that I can survive being dropped, went fishing, and started a vendetta with the wolves. All in a days work! I almost forgot about the most amazing part, that beautiful panorama of the night sky.* I pull up my character sheet to admire my own progress and rest my head thinking about the beauty of the night sky.
Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 28/40 Stamina: 50%
Stage: Baby Level: 3
Attributes: Traits: (3) Skills:
STR: 5 Breath: 1 Aura Sight: 2
CON: 4 Claws: 1 Digging: 1
DEX: 2 (2.75) Jaws: 1
AGI: 3 (3.3) Scales: 2
PER: 4 Wings: 2
WIS: 3
INT: 10
CHA: 1
Day 3, Giant everything. I blink the lingering sleepiness from my eyes and begin stretching my limbs. Being the first time I''ve awoken with no pain, I can''t help but enjoy the feeling of my body as it stretches out. I crawl forwards from my sleeping nook and take stock of my cave, noting the large debris pile from my excavation efforts the previous day and what''s left of my shell. Feeling a bit of hunger pains I move over to the shell and stick my head in, preparing to slurp up the remainder but I find nothing at the bottom of my shell. *I definitely had more left, did something come in and finish it without me waking? That''s not good, they easily could''ve attacked me while I was asleep.* I flick my Aura sight trying to determine where in the sky the sun is being able to see the bright orb through the walls I note that it is well into the sky. The cave makes the bright pink ball much more bearable in my Aura sight but it still feels like looking into a search light. From the top of my cave I can see the wolf''s scratches marring the floor, making the gouges look even more impressive. *The strength of the original creator must be immense, that wolf is no joke but even its power is paltry compared to those. The claw that created those gouges must have been absolutely massive.* Cautiously moving down the slope towards the front of my cave I flick my Aura sight on a few times. Looking to see if any Auras are lingering around the entrance I try to keep the Sun out of my line of vision as to not blind myself. I immediately spot the lizards that live close by but no other Auras seem to be close enough to see over the power Sun''s Aura permeating the world. Peeking my head out I note the one wolf corpse and the drag marks that must be from the smaller wolf being dragged away. The drag marks lead off to the left of my cave entrance at a slight angle away from the cliff. This path into the woods creates a tunnel through the underbrush making it very easy to follow the path of the dragged body. The front of my cave is in ruins, the slope leading up has divets in it and the top looks like it was dug out partially, leaving a small bowl at the top and a lip up into the cave. The lip is no taller than my arm but shows a certain level of ferocity in last nights attack. It has the appearance of an attempt at digging into my cave but the rock face of the cliff must have proven too durable. *Those wolves are definitely going to be back, I''m going to have to find a way to either deal with them or make it not worth it to continue coming after me. The real question is, are all of my decisions going to continue seeming, even to me, terrible in hindsight or is that bump in WIS enough for me to have foresight instead of just hindsight. I could follow that path to at least find out where their home is but that could put me in a very precarious position with their speed advantage. It would allow me to pre-emptively strike back at them or do I wait for them from this clearly defensible position? That assumes that they even come back and give me the opportunity to bait them again like I did last night. I highly doubt that any of the eight wolves that witnessed what happened last night will be so foolish again.* With those thoughts bouncing around I move over to the wolf carcass from two nights prior, most of the meat is gone and what''s left must have already started to go bad but I don''t notice any bad smells coming from it. With my snout almost pressed against the meat I start taking deep inhales trying to see if there is any sour or bad scent. Smelling none of that I decide to try a small bite to see if my stomach disagrees with my choice, the meat is sweet instead of the sour I expect from potentially spoiled meat. *Either dragons don''t care about spoiled meat or it doesn''t go bad as quickly as I would expect.* I decide to take a few more bites before forcefully stopping myself to wait see if it has any negative effects on me. As I finish my small snack I turn back towards the forest and start debating what I should do for the day. *I could go fishing again, but traveling there during the day makes one of my best abilities unusable. Without my full Aura sight I would be limited to my reaction time and ability to notice threats before they are on top of me.* The memory of the owl swooping down in front of my face immediately snaps into my mind. *Ya... maybe relying on my luck to keep me alive isn''t the best idea. I guess I could go back and continue digging out my home, hopefully making it more defensible and take that time to figure out where I should put those trait points.* Making my mind up I start moving back up the slope towards my cave. The new bowl at the entrance to my cave acts as a small barrier that I have to climb over to get into the cave proper, but it doesn''t hinder me entering in any meaningful way. *I could use the debris to fill that pretty easily.* My mind wandering as I begin pushing a pile of dirt and stone down the slope of my cave out into the bowl the wolf dug in its rage. After pushing this pile into the hole I notice one of the lizards watching me from the brush line. I stare at it for a moment before it does a small nod in my direction, I nod back while chuckling to myself. *I''ve managed to bring culture from my previous life into this world without even intending to. I wonder if they even understand it as acknowledgement.* The lizard, maintaining a frightening level of eye contact, slowly walks across the open ground and up the slope towards my cave. When it''s well within striking distance for me it stops and turns its head to the side, staring at me with a large eye. It pauses for a long moment before nodding again, intrigued by its lack of fear I nod back. As if that nod was all it was waiting for it shoots by me into my cave. *Umm, okay?* I think as I follow it up the slope into my cave. It skitters around the cave zig zagging up the slope and then partially up onto one of the walls. When we reach the top it darts straight for the egg shell and crawls in. I can hear the wet slaps of its tongue on the inside of the shell as it licks up the remainder of the fluids, when I peer over the lip I can see it meticulously cleaning all of the left over fluid off the shell. Within a few minutes the egg is completely clear of any fluid and the lizard climbs back out, moving its head back and forth it takes in the rest of the cave. It seems to notice my small bedroom tunnel and darts straight to it, climbing up the short wall and then into the hole disappearing quickly. *Well I guess they are friendly, but I wonder how long that will last.* Moving back to the pile of debris I continue pushing dirt and stone down the slope out into the bowl. I spend easily an hour repeating this process, only stopping when the top is relatively flat. I take a peak up at the canopy of trees and can see that the sun is just reaching its zenith. *I could''ve sworn I spent longer filling that hole, are the days longer here or am I just much more industrious than I remember?* Looking around for my new friend I try to recall if I ever saw it leave my bedroom. Not recalling it ever passing me I decide to go check out what it''s up to and find it fast asleep. *Well I guess it doesn''t view me as a threat either, interesting.* Realizing there is a significant amount of time before I can go out hunting at night I pull up my character sheet.
Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 40/40 Stamina: 100%
Stage: Baby Level: 3
Attributes: Traits: (3) Skills:
STR: 5 Breath: 1 Aura Sight: 2
CON: 4 Claws: 1 Digging: 1
DEX: 2 (2.75) Jaws: 1
AGI: 3 (3.3) Scales: 2
PER: 4 Wings: 2
WIS: 3
INT: 10
CHA: 1
*I really should''ve taken a peak at this when I woke up instead of dismissing it, I enjoyed waking up feeling refreshed far too much. I NEED to start paying better attention, it seems like a motif of my existence at this point. Fishing first day, almost die, NOT PAYING ATTENTION. Second day, enjoying my rabbit snack, almost owl food, NOT PAYING ATTENTION. Third day... what''s it going to be this time.* I audibly sigh out my nostrils, causing the lizard to perk its head up and look at me. I give it a small head nod and it reciprocates before laying back down and closing its eyes. *So I gained back twelve health during my rest? I''m pretty sure that''s correct, which means I gained back nearly thirty percent of my overall health from sleeping, that seems pretty consistent with what I gained the night before. I know that was three when I only had ten health because it seemed like such a small number when I was constantly taking one damage just for falling. Three trait points though, that brings me back all over again to yesterdays long process of choosing. I really want to fly, I think that could be worth its weight in gold if that one rank allows me to fly even only for a limited time. I could bring breath, claws, AND jaws to two, or I could do wings or scales to three and one of the other three rank ones to rank two. I still can''t outrun the wolves but flight might allow me to or at least allow me to get up into the trees to get some form of safety. Putting the points into scales could potentially allow me to stop their claws but I still have no way of knowing how effective those ranks are. Based on how traits have been given so far I expect to get four more at the next level as well, so I could do wings now and one of my rank one traits. Then rank up scales to three and both of the remaining rank one traits when I level up next. UGH this is so frustrating! Video games at least give me DESCRIPTIONS. I need to clear my mind this is getting far to frustrating and I feel like I''m just stuck in analysis paralysis.* "Lots of flat squirrels" flits across my mind, coming up from deep memories that I can''t seem to actively access. I picture a squirrel running back and forth in the middle of the road being unable to decide what way to run as a pair of lights come barreling towards it. Before it can make a decision the decision is made for it and there is a squirrel pancake left. Not wanting to be a flat baby dragon, followed by a baby goblin stew based on her threats, I decide to just go with my first instinct and put two of my three trait points into wings.
System Message
Trait Rank Up: Wings
Rank 2 -> Rank 3
(Maximum Rank for current stage)
*Well that''s unexpected, so I need to grow out of being a ''baby'' before I can progress them any further?* I instinctively stretch my wings out to either side as they begin to thicken and grow. The same feeling of gathering density courses through them, on a whim I turn my Aura sight on and can see as the Aura of my wings visibly thickens. They continue to grow in size and density until they are easily thirty percent longer than their Rank 2 size and fifty percent more Auricly dense. This increase in size presses them against the walls of my small bedroom causing them to arc forwards in front of my vision even more. They''ve grown to being four times larger than their original diminutive size making each one of them area wise the same as my whole body, if it was flattened like a squirrel pancake. The muscles attached to them in my torso begin to grow as well, a strange feeling as the scales around their base bulge outwards. I can tell intuitively that they aren''t just growing physically but the Aura is becoming denser just like with the wings themselves. *I NEED to try these out* Ecstatic about the change in not just size but the feeling of power in my new wings I pull them into my sides and rush out of my cave. I quickly look left and right for any potential threats and then coil my legs under me snapping my wings up. Releasing the built up pressure in my legs and snapping my wings down as hard as I can I feel myself leave the ground. Allowing my instincts to take over instead of trying to force minute changes I can feel as I''m lifted at least double my height off the ground and begin to move forwards. *Holy shit, I''m going to fly* I think as my wings move back up and drag down,. This movement causing the debris I had filled the hole with to be partially scattered down the slope up to my cave. The second beat of my wings causing me to rise even further into the sky as well as increasing my forward momentum. I can feel my tail behind me acting as a rudder flicking back and forth in response to my bodies movements. I pull my arms into my body thinking that will add to my aerodynamics and then pull my legs up and tuck them in as well. The third beat of my wings brings me up above the bushes that ring the open ground around my caves entrance. The euphoria of flying under my own power combined with it feeling so natural and right makes me giddy. The fourth beat is at more of a backward angle instead of just downwards making a ''J'' motion as my wings catch the air and push it down and then back behind me. This causes me to gain even more forward momentum as I move out over the bushes and deeper into the forest. During this fourth beating of my wings I feel my second set of eye lids instinctively close over my eyes, my vision doesn''t cloud nearly as much as it did when I was underwater but is hindered. *So that instense clouding must have been the effects of both the lids and being underwater, that''s good. I was a little afraid that flying would make it so I couldn''t see very well at all.* Looking down at the forest floor a turn my Aura sight on, noting that the second lids don''t affect this form of sight as far as I can tell. The overpowering pink of the Suns Aura still permeates the world but I can clearly make out the remaining lizards down to my right as they rush back into their hole as I fly over them. My wings beat for a fifth time gaining me a small amount of altitude more and continuing my forward momentum. It also brings a feeling of being tired between my wings, the new muscle mass being worked for the first time I can feel the strain building. The sixth beat of my wings brings me in between the towering trees, but more importantly it compounds the feeling of my new muscles becoming tired. *Well then I wonder how far I can go, I should probably turn back though before I get to far and then become a small meteor again.* Bringing my wings back up to level I dip my left wing tip, causing my body to start circling slowly to the left, during this turn I drop easily ten percent of my overall altitude. When I''m aimed back at the my cave I bring my left wing back up to level and begin gliding back. The strain continues to grow in my muscles as they hold my wings out preventing me from plummeting into the bushes below. *I wonder if this strain I''m feeling is shown in my stamina or if it''s just something I''ll need to get a feel for.* With that thought a widow appears in front of my eyes showing my current stamina.
Stamina: 36%
Mentally trying to move the window out of my direct line of sight I find that I can shift its position at will. I choose to move it down and slightly right so I have a clear line of sight. I turn my head slightly left and right to see if it stays in place relative to my sight and it does. *Interesting so I can move my windows around at will, that''s good to know. I''m pretty sure that I was at full stamina when I started this though I wish I had confirmed that. I beat my wings six times and have been gliding for a little bit plus that turn back there. So each wing beat takes what ten percent of my stamina? I wish I had a way of measuring how far I have travelled gliding.* As I''m mulling over the potential costs for flight I cover roughly a quarter of the distance back to my cave
Stamina: 30%
*Well if that''s any indication it looks like I will be able to easily glide back to the cave and still have enough stamina to beat my wings twice to slow my forward momentum. I wonder if I can slow down without burning the full amount for flapping my wings.* I dip my nose down causing my body weight to shift forwards and begin a shallow dive. After holding this for a moment I pull back up, trying to use the surface of my wings to slow my forward momentum. Keeping an eye on my stamina bar I notice that during the shallow dive my stamina seems to drop more slowly but then the stamina draw cranks up as I pull back. *I guess that makes sense, but it''s hard to tell if that was more or less efficient than just flapping my wings.* During my little trial I cover half of the remaining distance to my cave, I clear the tops of the bushes that ring the ground in front of my cave and start approaching the cave itself. Feeling that I''m a little too high I dip my nose once again and then shortly after pull back to level. This causes me to gain more forward momentum but makes me much more comfortable with my altitude.
Stamina: 12%
*Shit.* Realizing this is probably going to be another crash landing I pull my body into a more upright position as I clear the slope leading up to my cave. Flapping my wings down and forwards as hard as I can and bracing myself for impact I watch my stamina.
Stamina: 2%
Extending my legs out towards the ground as it comes rushing at me I feel my right wing clip something hard. My body immediately tilts to my right and the cave wall comes rushing at my face. The impact of my face hitting is immediate pain that is only overshadowed by the feeling of my neck compressing and then the weight of my body crashing in behind it.
System Message
[-3] HP {Blunt}
The message flashes in my vision, making it the only thing I can see around the stars and darkness dancing. I slowly pull myself back off the cave wall from where I crashed, having to gingerly pull my left wing out from underneath my body. My right wing is still splayed out on the ground next to me the front edge touching the cave wall in front of me. I wince as I pull it back in, the joint where it connects to my body feeling tender from being a pivot point for all of my weight. *So close, SO CLOSE! I will definitely have to practice that more though, being able to fly directly into my cave could be the difference between life and death, it would also allow me to get rid of the slope up into the cave protecting me even more from those wolves and anything else that might want to hurt me.* Nursing my ego and my body I decide to go eat some more of the wolf, having felt no negative effects at this point I feel that it must be safe for me. After filling up on day old wolf I trudge back up into my cave and lay down for a minute to relax and regain stamina while I wait for night. As I enter my cave I notice movement at the top of the slope, my Aura sight flicks on immediately, giving me a clear view of the not one but seven lizards that have now taken up residence in my cave. The anxiety spike I felt realizing I might be in danger and on the low ground quickly subsides. *Let one of them in and they take it as an invitation to bring their whole family!?* Four of the lizards are at the top of the slope as I arrive, all of them nodding at me as I crest the top. Internally chuckling I nod back, moving my attention to the other three that appear to be asleep on the floor in the small bedroom I have dug out. *I guess it''s true that no good deed goes unpunished.* Crawling up the small tunnel I try to find a spot to lay without crushing them, but am unable to find a spot. They all react to me coming in but don''t seem interested in vacating a spot for me to lay in, becoming frustrated with the whole situation and not wanting to hurt them I scream in my own head. *MOVE DAMN YOU!* The lizards immediately shoot past and scurry out of the way. *Umm, what? Could they just sense that I was frustrated or could they actually hear my thoughts.* Hedging my bets and not wanting to make even more enemies than I already I have I just think: *Sorry* Internally it feels like I''m thanking a refrigerator for getting me a beverage, a meaningless gesture. They both nod at me... *No way, am I fucking telepathic?* I nod back and then lay down in my comfortable spot, putting my head towards the tunnel leading into the main cave. After I get comfortable and stop moving for a few moments they all crawl back up into the room with me and lay down around me leaving a small amount of space between themselves and me, quickly falling back to sleep. The thought of being potentially telepathic rolling around in my head prevents me from getting sleep, causing me to go down rabbit hole after rabbit hole of implications. I try repeatedly to try and get some rest but the thought just keeps tumbling around. Having left my stamina window open I can see that I was back up to twenty percent in the time since I had crashed into the wall until now. I decide to try and focus on that, hoping to figure out how my stamina regeneration works. As I stare at the numbers ticking up one at a time every few seconds I feel my eye lids start to get heavy. I wake to the feeling of pressure on my body and neck, I twist my head to the right slightly to look over my shoulder and see one of the lizards asleep on top of me. Finding the whole situation comical I start to slowly rise, causing the lizard to snap awake and shoot off of me down into the main cave. I survey the sleeping area and notice one other lizard laying in the room to my left. One of its eyes is open but slowly closes as it seems to determine it is still safe. I crawl forwards out of my bedroom cave and notice that the egg shell is gone, as well as the debris pile. I had moved easily half of the overall pile to fill in the hole the wolf had dug, seeing none left I do a quick scan of the cave. Two other lizards seem to be waiting at the top of the slope facing down towards the entrance, the lizard that was sleeping on me moves towards them and plops down next to them as I watch. The other three were nowhere to be seen. I flick my Aura sight to get an idea of where the sun is and see that it''s approaching the horizon but still has a bit before it will be fully down. Deciding to post up next to my new friends I start thinking about which of my three traits I should put my point into. *Breath seems like a very obvious choice, however a single rank change in it will certainly be huge. The first rank of my wings tripled their size and then the second rank increased that to quadruple their initial size as well as the density change. I wish I had used Aura sight when my scales changed to get a real scale of the change in Aura density but I will just have to wait until I get another rank. I can only assume that my jaws and claws will under got the same density gain. I wonder how that works as a whole though. The denser it is in Aura the stronger it seems to be but it doesn''t affect the actual weight and density of the object, if anything it inversely affects it. My scales after the rank up felt lighter even though the scales were thicker. I''m not positive but I''m pretty sure that they are much more durable after that change. It must be some form of magic that I just don''t fully understand. Going to have to file that away under the ''figure this out at some point'' list.* I move away from the lizards a small distance and mentally try to push my thoughts to them. *Stay back* All three of them turn to me at the same time heads tilting to their left as if questioning me. *They can definitely ''hear'' me... I wonder what the limit of this skill is.* Filing that away as well on my list of things to figure out I turn to my right so I am facing away from them and look through my Aura sight. I slowly inhale and then exhale what I feel is around ten percent of my breath''s total capacity. The dark purple smoke billowing out in a now familiar way, clinging to the ground.
System Message
Trait Rank up: Breath
Rank 1 -> Rank 2
I can feel the change just like with the other traits, the breath that is still in my breath organ compresses down. Where it was at roughly ninety percent full before its now just under half full. The feeling of it refilling doesn''t seem to change but over the short period I have been paying attention it''s hard to tell. Previously it took what felt like half of an hour to fill from empty. Not wasting anytime I turn slightly to the left and release another breath of what feels like ten percent of the full organ. The cloud is noticeably more dense, which I expected due to the compression, what I didn''t expect were the small strands of other colors within the smoke. Small veins of deep dark red and an almost black green roil within the deep almost black purple of the cloud. Instantly reminding me of my scales I can''t help but feel as though there is a pattern. The coloration mesmerizes me, the different colors rolling around in what looks like a turbulent flow with different colors showing the different movements within the cloud. As I''m enthralled by the cloud one of the lizards almost touches it without me noticing. *NO!* I scream mentally, immediately it jumps back and hides behind one of its fellow lizards. The other two had also moved closer to inspect the breath cloud. I realize my mistake in that they have not seen this before, from their perspective I have done nothing to harm them and now I''m just literally blowing smoke around. I dip my head in remorse and try to find a way to let them know how dangerous it is. I can''t think of an easy way to show them so I try to tell them. *This is dangerous, it will kill you!* All three of them tilt their heads in much the same way as before. *There must be limitations on this telepathy, or maybe it''s just a limit in their ability to comprehend.* Staying guard over the breath until it dissipates I decide to do further testing away from my new friends. With the sun still in the sky I weigh my options of how to spend my time. *I guess I could try and excavate more to allow them to sleep without having to sleep on me... I could also make some murder holes towards the entrance of the cave.* The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The term ''Murder Hole'' seems to fly across my mind, unsure where it came from I try to remember more about them. I can''t seem to remember anything else about them though, the only thing I can see in my minds eye is the image that came to mind as the original thought flew through. The still frame of a man standing above a hole in the floor with a rock poised over head to drop on a soon to be victim below. Thinking on the last nights wolf attack my gut tells me that could be a worth while endeavor. The ability to strike back at the wolves while still being safely behind a wall piques my interest. *How would I even go about doing that though? I would have to excavate a tunnel next to my main cave and then excavate a small hole back to the cave itself for me to use my breath attack into. I don''t think I have the tools or expertise to go about doing that right now. I could end up digging too far in one direction and wasting all of the time or I could end up breaking into the side of the cave causing a weakness instead of a strength.* Feeling that it''s not within my skill set I decide to try and excavate more sleeping area. Crawling back up my bedroom tunnel I take stock of the area. The room I had original dug feeling much smaller with my larger wings and one of my new friends curled up against the wall. *I should probably either increase the size of this room or create small shelves in the walls for them to sleep in.* Feeling that the shelf idea is a lot smaller energy and time investment than expanding the whole room I rock back onto my legs. I begin to dig at my shoulder height from this position, quickly making progress on a shelf I think could hold one of the lizards. Taking a look over at the sleeping lizard I notice it is now awake and staring at me as I dig, head tilted to the left in the now familiar gesture. *Hmm I think it needs to be a little bigger* I think as begin digging again. After a few minutes I do another visual check of the lizard and jump a little when I realize it''s perched on the wall a short distance from where I am digging. *Wow either they are very stealthy or I REALLY need to work on staying aware of my surroundings.* I step back from the shelf and wait to see how the lizard reacts. It darts straight in and starts moving in circular motions seeming to size up the shelf. After a moment of deliberation it turns to me and nods. I audibly chuckle at this which comes out as a rapid short series of croaks. The lizard quickly pulls back, pressing itself against the back of the shelf as though it''s trying to phase through the wall and get away. *Sorry, my friend. I didn''t realize how scary that chuckle would be* , I project mentally Hoping it catches some of the meaning as I also nod my head, pausing at the bottom for a moment to attempt a show of remorse for scaring it. It seems to accept either my mental message or my physical show of remorse and uncompresses its body laying back down onto the shelf. I move to the left of the first shelf and begin digging another, when it is only half finish I notice my digging has produced a noticeable level of debris, some being larger chunks of rocks but most being the dust and small pebbles. I push most of it in a pile towards the tunnel resolving to finish this second shelf before moving all the debris out at once. I finish the shelf, noticing the lizard''s head poking out of the first staring at me. As I step back to admire my work it shoots out of the first shelf and into the second mimicking the movements from when it entered the first shelf. It then plops down and closes its eyes once again, moving into the center of the room I start piling up the new debris on the floor and begin pushing it all out into the main cave. The debris falls out of the end of my tunnel into the main cave like a rock and dust waterfall. It spreads on the floor creating an even layer of debris reaching out the length of one of my wings from the tunnel. Once again there are lizards seeming to keep watch at the top of the slope leading down to the caves entrance. This time there are four of them, two turn towards me as the sound of my rock waterfall crashes through the cave. Both moving over to the rocks and beginning to move them into small piles before scooping them up in their mouths and scampering off to the entrance of the cave. *Huh, so that''s what happened to the rest of that pile. Well no point in complaining about ''free'' labor.* Letting the lizards continue their cleaning I walk down to the cave entrance. The sun has fully set with just the barest sliver of light still left, painting the sky a dark orange through the canopy above. Looking through Aura sight I survey the forest seeing no large Auras I start determining my best course of action. *I need to find where those wolves call home, if there are even more of them I will need to do something before they make my life even harder. I also need to get some more food than the small amount left on that wolf carcass. I could probably try and crack the bones for marrow but I don''t think I will have the strength to crack most of the bones.* Starting to move towards the path made from the wolves dragging their runt I stretch my wings out. Coiling my legs under me and then leaping I flap my wings once, aiming to gain only a little altitude pushing more back than down I gain a good deal of forward momentum. I spread my wings out as far as they will go, gliding towards the bushes that the path goes through. Pulling up my stamina window I keep an eye on it to get a feeling for my flight cost.
Stamina: 89%
*Well that basically confirms that, Each full flap of my wings takes ten percent of my overall stamina and gliding seems to drain a small amount over time.* I''m over half way to the bushes before I see my stamina tick down another percent. My altitude dropping to about half the height of the nearest bushes. Passing over the start of the drag marks I notice that there is only one set of tracks that seem to have pulled the body. Continuing my glide I pass through the bush line, entering what feels like a tunnel with how dense the bushes are on either side. The ground below me is littered with broken branches and leaves that match the dark green coloration of the bushes I''m gliding through. The top of the pseudo tunnel only about a wing length above me as I enter it makes me feel like I''m moving at tremendous speed even though I know it''s not really that fast. By the time my altitude has dropped to roughly half the overall height of the bush tunnel my stamina ticks down another percent. *I have enough stamina left it will probably be worth the cost to allow me to continue at this speed.* Snapping my wings up and then down and back I gain enough altitude to be at three quarters of the tunnel height, my forward speed increased by at least another twenty percent.
Stamina: 77%
*How fast is this, four times my walking speed? Five?* Having no good way to measure that I continue gliding forwards feeling like I''m traversing very fast compared to what I''ve been used to up to this point. The feeling of joy at just flying is beginning to overwhelm me, I feel a smile crack my lips as I just bask in the feeling of air flowing around my body at high speeds. My Aura sight still hasn''t picked up any other Auras and the trail continues straight for as far as I can see. Turning my head slightly to the right to try and see how far I have travelled since entering the tunnel I feel my body start to roll that way. Panicking I snap my head back forwards causing my body to then start leaning left, attempting to use my wings and tail in tandem to steady myself I instead find myself wobbling slow back and forth in greater and greater amounts. Trying to stay calm as I feel my control start to slip I check my altitude. Finding myself only three or four wing lengths up I decide to try to aim for a landing instead of making this death wobble worse. Flaring the front of my wings up to try and act as a wind brake and allowing my instincts to take over controlling my tail I begin to prepare myself for a potential crash landing. Rolling my hips forwards and extending my legs out when I''m only a wings length up I start repeating: *You''ve got this! You''ve got this!* I catch the ground with my legs, allowing my knees to bend absorbing the impact. As my knees compress I push down and forwards with my wings trying to reduce my forward momentum. Rolling my body forwards as my knees have absorbed all the weight they can my arms snap out and catch the ground as well. I do a hop forwards, like trying to play off a trip as a quick step, a few follow up hops and I find myself standing upright.
Stamina: 68%
*I did it. I actually did it!*
System Message
Skill Rank up: Flight
Rank 0 -> Rank 1
*Hahaha, of course there is a skill for it, I wonder if there is a skill for everything you do and you just have to do the actions successfully for them to show up. That must mean I''m not actually telepathic, I should have already gained a skill level for it if I was.* Looking back towards my cave I can still see some of the lizards Auras, appearing and disappearing at the edge of my Aura sight''s range as they move around the cave. *Interesting so that puts me at roughly double the distance from the cave to the pond. So thirty percent of my stamina flying equates to around double my total stamina sprinting.* Realizing how much my travel capabilities just increased I smile and start walking down the path through the underbrush. My Aura sight shows me the location of multiple rabbit burrows on both sides as well as multiple other creatures that I can''t fully identify. Most of the Auras I can see on the ground appear to be either asleep or being very still. The air above is a different story, I can see Auras flying through large clouds of much smaller Auras again. The clouds seem to be pure chaos from what I can tell, but as the larger Auras path through them they leave an empty path behind them, the emptiness is brief as the small auras chaotically refill the holes. I don''t notice any wolf auras as I sweep the forest, having seen them each of the previous nights my anxiety begins to build the longer I go without seeing any. *Where could they be, is their den just incredibly far away or am I going about this all wrong.* As if on cue I hear a single howl in the distance ahead of me, still not seeing anything in Aura sight I realize it must still be a significant distnace from me. Two howls respond to the first, one of them seeming to be further away than the first and the second sound close to the same distance as the first but further into the forest away from the cliff. After a few more minutes of walking I check my stamina to see if it has recovered, it surprises me when I see it full. *So I don''t seem start feeling tired until around fifty percent stamina. If thats true it means I can use it as an automatic warning that I could be getting low. I should be able to traverse further with leaps of flight and then regain stamina while walking in between. I doubt it can allow me to out run those wolves it will certainly get me closer than just running.* Realizing I was falling into analysis mode a little to deeply I decide to just go for it. I start jogging and then leap up as far as I can with just my leg strength. Reaching my wings up into the air above me as I jump I snap them both down as hard as I can, I gain far more height in that single movement than I expect. *Huh, is the flight skill affecting that as well? It would make sense that a higher skill allows me to use it more effectively.* My stamina window reinforces that assumption.
Stamina: 92%
*Huh, so if I assume I drained one stamina in the short sprint and jump that means it only took me seven stamina for a full strength wing beat. Thirty percent reduction in stamina cost for a single skill rank is huge and that is worst case scenario. If the sprint and jump cost more the reduction was even larger. Certainly needs more testing what better time than now?* As I complete my thought I push down and back with my wings again, causing another gain in altitude but a much larger gain in speed.
Stamina: 85%
*Well that confirms my suspicions on that, I started at roughly sprinting speed as well and I''m clearly moving double if not more with only two wing beats.* It starts to dawn on me just how much my movement capabilities have improved. *So wings was the right choice then... finally good choices! No baby goblins for me!* While I celebrate my instincts take over and beat my wings again, bringing me up about halfway to the top of the bushes and increasing my speed by another factor of my sprint speed. Choosing to reserve stamina I maneuver my wings into a gliding position, the movement feeling natural. I think to bring my legs and arms up into my body to hopefully help with keeping my speed up and realize I had already done it instinctively. The third smile cracks my face even wider than the previous two. *I may have not made any progress towards attributes so far today but this feels like I''ve made more progress than any of those attribute gains. I''m probably a little biased based on how enjoyable this has been.* Basking in the glorious feeling of flying I notice an Aura unlike any I have seen so far. It is much deeper into the forest in the same direction as the second howl. It looks like a humanoid from what I can tell with three dense spots of aura one of them is in the head and another is in the chest area, the third surprises me though it looks like its below the stomach. Even with that oddity though it''s the size that terrifies me, the wolves tower over me but this being makes the wolves look small. Knowing it is at the limit of my Aura sight, as it just came into view, and mentally picturing the wolves Auras I put it at anywhere from fifty percent taller to double the size of the wolves. It seems to be moving from right to left from my perspective. *Great, giant wolves, giant rabbits, giant owls, and now... actual fucking giants.* Gliding forwards I see three more of the massive Auras come into sight, as the fourth comes into view a wolf''s Aura comes into view as well. It seems to be only a small distance away from the giants and moving rapidly to the left and away from the giants. Three of the giants seem to be chasing after the wolf but the fourth stopped and is standing with its legs in a wide stance, one arm raised in front of it like it''s point at the wolf. *What is going on over there?* As the thought passes through my mind the wolves aura changes, the dense portion in it''s chest shatters. Like a massive star burst small pieces of dense Aura shoot out through the rest of its Aura before the small pieces can reach the edge of the Aura the entire Aura starts to dissipate. The wolf''s Aura falls to the ground as this is all happening, dissipating fully before it hits the ground. *Did that giant just finger gun the wolf to death!? Nope nope nope!* I roll to the right hoping to give myself enough space within the bush tunnel to do a full 180 degree turn. My right wing tip almost brushes the bushes as I roll back to the left pulling hard to make the turn in time, my wing tip slaps a few protruding leaves as I pull out of the turn. I beat my wings hard gaining altitude as well as speed. Pushing my wings down and back three times in rapid succession I am going far faster than I have before, easily ten times my sprinting speed.
Stamina: 60%
The stamina window showing me that I can keep pushing but deciding that gliding back at my current speed would probably be a better idea than exhausting myself trying to go faster. The exhilaration of my current speed is overshadowed by watching a wolf get finger gunned to death. My brain is a jumbled mess of fear and anxiety. The Auras of the lizards in the cave rapidly pop back into sight one at a time their rapidly growing size showing me just how fast I am traveling. My altitude has dropped to only a few wing lengths off the ground so I snap my wings up and then drag them down, giving myself more altitude than speed. I move them back into a gliding position as I rise back up to roughly five wing lengths.
Stamina: 52%
It doesn''t take long for me to find myself feeling a little too low so I flap my wings again, bringing my altitude back up but also causing me to start feeling the initial stages of exhaustion. The exhaustion doesn''t extend to my whole body though, I primarily feel it in the expanded muscles attached to my wings and my tail. With my cave rapidly approaching I feel comfortable knowing I''ll have enough stamina to reach it. That small comfort is vastly outweighed by an image of me being finger gunned out of the sky by a giant. ''You can''t just tell your brain to stop thinking about something, you need to occupy it by thinking of something else'' flashes across my mind. Trying to find something to think about other than giants and finger guns I remember the night sky above the pond and the multi colored band across the night sky. I can feel as my heart rate finally starts to drop, only now realizing that it has been beating out of my chest this entire time. Feeling my heart rate drop and my mind start to clear I being assessing my current situation. *Well if the wolves are currently occupied I could use this time to do some hunting and maybe get some attribute increases tonight.* Rapidly approaching my cave I realize I need to start slowing down or I''ll be a small streak on the side of the cliff. My body reacts automatically, my tail and legs dropping down causing my air resistance to massively increase as that happens my wings angle slightly back the bulk of the wing expanding backwards like a small parachute. *Wow, so the rank in flight seems to have added instincts, removing my need to constantly think about how to fly. I wonder what the higher ranks bring with it, could I rival that owl in a few ranks?* Rapidly slowing I start to descend into the open area surrounding my cave. Making a few tight circles before I extend my legs preparing to land. My legs contact the ground and I once again roll forwards onto my front legs, taking a few quick jog steps as I bring myself to a stop my wings pulling into my sides into their protective retracted state. Two of the lizards that had been posted up inside the cave come scampering out to check on the commotion, seeing me they both nod at the same time. As I nod back they both turn around and run back up to their watch posts. I can see the other lizard Auras back further in the cave appearing to be asleep. Making up my mind to use the night to hunt for more food as well as power gains I start walking towards the pond. As I reach the other end of the open ground I notice my exhaustion has almost completely gone away peaking at my stamina I see that I am above half again. *Well I guess that confirms my suspicion that the feeling of exhaustion represents the half way point of my stamina.* I decide to sprint for a short distance to see to get my stamina below fifty percent to confirm the hypothesis. After a short time I feel the exhaustion again this time it is in my chest and legs though
Stamina: 49%
*Well that feels good. I finally fully fleshed out one of the systems at play. It would be nice to know how the attributes and levels work at a deeper level.* Mulling over what I have noticed up to this point I continue my nighttime adventure to the pond. I periodically sweep the forest floor as well as canopy with my Aura sight searching for not just threats but also potential targets. I don''t see any close targets but there are more small Auras underground in the distance that I note for potential targets. After reaching the pond I dip my tail into the water trying to attract the fish up from the deep sections of the pond. I decide to try out a few different movement patterns to see if one is more effective than the others. I first try random jerky movements thinking it would be closer to a fly on the surface but they don''t seem to respond at all to that. I then try a slow circular motion like stirring a drink, no interest in that either. Expanding on that movement I try a slow figure eight movement, on a whim I periodically change the speed of my tail. I notice a few fish immediately turn towards this movement. Realizing this might be a winner I continue adding more variation to the speed. Four fish dart towards my tail, stopping a short distance back. *I wonder if my breath will penetrate the water* Crosses my mind as I exhale a tenth of my breath capacity at the surface of the water, aiming for the fish. My breath spreads thinly over the surface, seeming to be a lot less than what I would have expected. The density of the dark purple cloud makes it hard to tell what''s is going on under the water so I stick my head into the pond. The underside of my cloud shows me exactly why it looks so small from above, tendrils of dark purple with dark red and almost black-green veins hang down into the water undulating slowly like jellyfish tentacles. Two of the fish investigate the tendrils, black veins shooting through their aura pulsing twice before their Auras dissipate. Two system messages pop up in rapid succession and I mentally move them off to the side of my vision.
System Message
Level 0 Fish Defeated
Choose Attribute Distribution
The bodies of the two fish float to the surface breaking through the thin cloud of my breath. The other fish either not realizing what happened or being compelled by their curiosity slowly approach the tendrils. The larger of the two tries to take a bite of a tendril and suffers the same fate causing a third system message to pop up creating the start of a stack of System Messages to the right of my vision. The fourth fish seems to realize what has happened and shoots back into the depths. Pulling my head back from the pond I ponder what to do next. *I wonder if those tendrils would be enough by themselves to bait some fish in. I don''t want to wipe out the fish population of this pond though. I''ll have to be careful not to over do it.* Taking another inhale I exhale slowly releasing another third of my breath capacity onto the surface of the lake. It creeps out like a slow moving fog, attempting to disperse it further out onto the surface of the pond I pull my wings up and then slowly flap them down and forwards. My breath expands much quicker with the the air displaced by my wings. *I definitely need to be cautious with how I apply my breath since wind can affect it so easily.* I dip my head back under the water to check on the tendrils underneath. The tendrils hanging much further down than the previous attempt. The tendrils look like an inverted dark purple forest hanging from the top of the pond. The ''trees'' accented by dark green and red veins, closer to the shore the tendrils touch the bottom of the pond expanding out like a dark canopy on over the bed of the pond. It is hard from my vantage point to see how far out into the pond this continues but the influx of messages tell me that it has been incredibly effective. My stack of system messages rapidly growing counting as the flood begins feels futile so I just watch, in slight horror as I decimate the ponds fish population. Pulling my head back from the water I can see the bodies begin to bob to the surface. I pull the windows back into the center of my vision and begin to count. *Nineteen fish total and a crab, seventeen kills in a single breath. Wow, I''ll need to be careful with that in the future.* I begin to work my way through the log of messages, once again running into the strange "no primary advancement available message" with the first fish advancement point being forced into CHA.
Attribute Distribution
No Primary advancement found
Distributing Secondary Points to: CHA
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish
CHA Increased by 1 New CHA Score: 2
*Interesting that''s the first time I''ve ever seen CHA as an option for advancement. I''m assuming that stands for charisma but I can''t think of how that could be useful for me. Maybe it''s a dump stat for me?* The next distribution message muddles the mixture even further for me.
Attribute Distribution
No Primary advancement found
No Secondary advancement found
Distribtue Tertiary points to: STR, CON, DEX, AGI, PER, WIS, INT or CHA?
*Um what? So when it becomes tertiary I can apply it to any stats? That seems strange, that would seem to incentivize committing genocide on weaker beings. Let''s go with INT since I haven''t seen that one yet either*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish
INT Increased by 0.1 New INT Score: 10 (10.1)
*Well that doesn''t seem worth it, if that continues I would burn through half the fish gains for that a single point. I should try another one at least to figure out the system further with my control being the fish appear to be uniform in their power.*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish
INT Increased by 0.09 New INT Score: 10 (10.19)
*That is very interesting, I wish I remembered more of my past life. I know I understood math to a much better degree but I can''t seem to remember how to go about figuring this out! I wonder if goblins understand math...* Continuing with the following messages I decide to pump points into my lower stats. Even with feeling that CHA is useless to me now get the sense that won''t always be true.
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x16)
CHA Increased by 0.5 New CHA Score: 2 (2.5)
CHA Increased by 0.4 New CHA Score: 2 (2.9)
CHA Increased by 0.34 New CHA Score: 3 (3.24)
DEX Increased by 0.36 New DEX Score: 3 (3.09)
DEX Increased by 0.32 New DEX Score: 3 (3.41)
DEX Increased by 0.29 New DEX Score: 3 (3.7)
DEX Increased by 0.27 New DEX Score: 3 (3.97)
DEX Increased by 0.25 New DEX Score: 4 (4.22)
WIS Increased by 0.33 New WIS Score: 3 (3.33)
WIS Increased by 0.30 New WIS Score: 3 (3.63)
WIS Increased by 0.27 New WIS Score: 3 (3.9)
WIS Increased by 0.25 New WIS Score: 4 (4.15)
AGI Increased by 0.6 New AGI Score: 3 (3.9)
AGI Increased by 0.51 New AGI Score: 4 (4.41)
CON Increased by 0.25 New CON Score: 4 (4.25)
PER Increase by 0.25 New PER Score: 4 (4.25)
*Huh, AGI seems to give quite a bit more, wasn''t AGI and STR the original choices for fish?* With that thought I allocate the last fish into AGI as well.
AGI Increase by 0.45 New AGI Score: 4 (4.86)
System Message
New Level achieved: Level 4
4 Trait points unlocked
*No way, a small genocide for a level gain!?! And I still have that crab left... Hmm, what stat from a crab would give the most? Rabbit was DEX AGI, Fish was STR AGI, and wolf was basically everything. I wonder if that''s what they are considered strong in. *
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Crab
INT Increased by 0.09 New INT Score: 10 (10.28)
*Well I guess it''s not INT... I should''ve gone with CON.* Looking to the pond I can''t tell how long I have been lost in my own world of attribute gains and level ups. Most of the fish bodies have found their way to the shore but nothing else gives me any metric for the timeframe of my introspection. I immediately do a sweep of the ground and canopy looking for any dangerous looking Auras. The Aura of an owl immediately pops out to me in the canopy. It looks as though its using its beak on its own feet pecking and then pulling back. *Is it eating something?* Looking back to the pond I realize there are only ten visible fish seven of them on the shore and three still floating a little ways out. *IT STOLE MY FOOD AGAIN!?* I immediately grab the nearest fish and eat it, biting it in half in the first bite and then finishing the rest with the second bite. I look up noting the owl still pre-occupied I quickly devour another two of the fish on the shore. My stomach feeling full I decide to grab another three fish in my mouth and start moving back towards the cave hoping the owl stays distracted with the remaining fish. I start running realizing that I am moving quite a bit faster than I was on the first day. *That must be the AGI score, I haven''t done much running without the fear of death plaguing me but I still should''ve noticed this earlier.* Checking my stamina I see that it is almost back to full after my stroll to the pond and then decimation of the fish population. I snap my wings out mid stride and push myself up into the sky, still feeling euphoria at the sense of freedom that comes with flight. My confidence in my capabilities allowing me to feel even more free than that initial flight. I can''t help but feel as though I will make it the week, even in this land of giant animals and actual giants. I quickly arrive back at the cave noting the lizard guards inside the cave. I land outside of the cave entrance not wanting to have another run in with the cave wall. I enter the cave and walk up towards the lizards, they seem to be crouched down ready to attack before they notice me. I can tell the moment they recognize me because they both nod. Still finding the entire thing comical I let out a little croak chuckle. The fish muffling the sound and making me remember that they are still in my mouth. I drop the fish in front of the two lizards and step back making sure that they understand they can eat. Both of them tilt their heads seeming to question my actions. I nod my head and the both immediately move forwards to devour the fish. I move past the guard lizards and crawl up the tunnel towards the bedroom, I find three of the lizards asleep on the floor and two more asleep on the shelves I had made. *I''m going to need to finish those shelves tomorrow.* I try to vocalize a non-threatening sound and the meow-croak comes out again. The five lizards all snap awake, the two on the shelves shrinking back into the shelves as far as they can and the three on the ground shooting back as far as they can. *Crap, Sorry!* I try to mentally project to them, while nodding slightly. All five nod back at me as they move away from the walls, the two on the shelves immediately lay back down but the three on the ground seem to wait for me to move. I curl up on the ground with my head towards the main cave. I can feel as two of the lizards crawl up onto my body and lay down with the other crawling up onto my neck before falling asleep. *They remind me a lot of cats with their mannerisms. I wonder if it''s my body heat that keeps them close, I certainly don''t seem to be cold blooded like I would have expected.* Finally feeling safe again with the familiar walls of my cave around me I start thinking about where to put my trait points. *I know I was thinking scales next, but the increase in breath from one to two was massive. It essentially doubled my potency with it, I''m assuming that the density will increase by another fifty percent with another rank. There is also those slight swirling colors I can see it in it, hinting at a potential further increase that I either can''t see yet or just don''t understand. Scales makes a lot of sense as well, I could easily just put all of my points into both of those and probably be happy with my choice. Having not touched jaws or claws though I can only guess as to what those with change into. I think my best choice will be either scales or breath and then getting jaws and claws to rank two. I''m definitely going to need to sleep on this though, I''m not going to make another hasty choice that I might regret later on.* I can feel the rhythmic breathing of the lizards laying on me fast asleep, focusing on that I feel as my body grows heavy and my eyelids slowly close. My dreams are filled with finger gun giants and nebulous skies. Day 4, Euphoria and melancholy I soar over the forest above me the night sky stretches to the horizons. The stars accented by a band of nebulous flowing colors, in the distance I can see a massive bean stalk topped by a giant castle. As I try to make out details the space around me begins to dissolve the stars winking out one by one I find myself in darkness for a moment before my eyes shoot open. I am met with the sight of my small cave home and the comforting feeling of two lizards pressed against my left side. I stretch my wings, tail, and neck slowly as to not jostle the sleeping lizards. My attempts at subtlety fail as both lizards'' eyes pop open as I begin to move. Seeing me stretching they both close their eyes and fall back to sleep on the floor. Crawling out of the bedroom I see three of the lizards looking out towards the mouth of the cave, vigilantly watching for any threats. Moving beside them I crouch down as well, looking towards the mouth of the cave I begin to form a plan for the day. *I need to decide where to put those trait points, that should be done before leaving the cave. I also should dig more of those shelves for the lizards to sleep in, but that doesn''t seem pressing since they seem to choose to sleep on and around me. Food is definitely on the menu, those fish filled me up last night but I will need two or three of that size meal to not be constantly hungry. I wonder if the wolf meat is still viable.* Pulling up my character sheet I mull over my choices whilst also noticing how much I truly gained from the fish decimation.
Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 40/40 Stamina: 100%
Stage: Baby Level: 4
Attributes: Traits: (4) Skills:
STR: 5 Breath: 2 Aura Sight: 2
CON: 4 (4.25) Claws: 1 Digging: 1
DEX: 4 (4.22) Jaws: 1 Flight: 1
AGI: 4 (4.86) Scales: 2
PER: 4 (4.25) Wings: 3
WIS: 4 (4.15)
INT: 10 (10.28)
CHA: 3 (3.24)
*So outside of CHA and INT I''ve managed to bring everything up to four times my initial value or more. When I tested strength I felt that a single attribute doubled my strength and five was roughly five times that initial value, so the gains in power seem fairly linear within the attributes themselves. CON clearly affects health as well as my healing capacity. DEX seems to determine my movement speed or finesse but I have not been able to test that much. AGI I assume is in regards strictly to speed but the change in sprinting speed could be from the change in my DEX. PER is definitely my ability to see and hear in the normal spectrum, those bird calls and being able to see the colors of the birds was a dead give away after that first wolf attack. WIS hmm, it seems to affect my ability to make decisions, that System Message telling me I got a bump in it due to making good choices points to that. INT hasn''t changed a full point yet so I have no clue how that could potentially affect me and CHA I can only assume is Charisma from my Dungeons and Dragon days but I have no way of testing how much I''m liked as a dragon. My lizard friends seem to have liked me since day two even if it was apprehensive at first.* Deep in thought my surroundings pass me by. The other lizards come in and out of the cave a few times at one point snapping me out of my thoughts when one of them lightly touches my nose with theirs. My eye snap to focusing in on them and I realize they have brought me a large berry. *Huh, so they saw me not eating and chose to bring me food, maybe they view me as one of them?* I nod and the lizard drops the berry onto the floor in front of me and takes a step back. I slowly extend my neck and grab the berry in my jaws, the berry fitting fully in my mouth but just barely. I begin to bite down and the slightly sour berry juice explodes into my mouth. I can taste all of the sugars within the berry, by far the sweetest thing I have tasted in this short life. Quickly devouring the berry my lips crack into a small smile and I nod. The lizard seems confused by this and tilts its head while maintaining eye contact. *Huh, maybe my ''smile'' isn''t much of a smile...* Closing my lips I nod my head again the lizard immediately reciprocates and then scampers off down to the entrance and disappears from view. *Now for those traits... I really want to test the change to Claws first and then go from there. I think that will pigeon hole me into choose Jaws as well or I''ll be left with an extra unspent trait point.* With that in mind I pull my right arm up in front of my eyes and allocate the point to Claws.
System Message
Trait Rank Up: Claws
Rank 1 -> Rank 2
My claws being to extend slightly and thicken before my eyes flicking my Aura sight on I can see that the Aura is becoming more dense in them as well. They don''t increase by double in Auric density but it is definitely close. Their length grows by roughly a third fearing that might lead to me having difficulty walking I take a few laps around the caves large chamber. There doesn''t seem to be any difficulty created by walking with them so I decide to test them on the cave wall. The claw slides into the rock, there is still resistance but it is significantly less than when my Claws were only rank one. Trying to cut the piece of wall out instead of just brute force digging through it I notice I can fairly easily maneuver my claw through the stone. *Well then, I can only imagine what that will do to a living being if that''s how easily it cuts stone.* Unsure of how to monitor my Jaw rank increase I just allocate the point to it and try to pay attention as well as I can.
System Message
Trait Rank Up: Jaws
Rank 1 -> Rank 2
I can feel as my mouth grows larger to house the increase in the size of my teeth, all of them growing noticeably but with no way to tell outside of feeling its hard to tell the exact change. I feel a change in my neck as well, the muscles growing and moving is the best way to describe it. This change ends up with me feeling like there is something stuck in my throat. Attempting to dislodge whatever the obstruction might be I try to cough it out. This leads to strange sounds that I have not heard before coming from my mouth. *Wait will jaws allow me to make more sounds and eventually talk?* Trying to say hello with my improved mouth I manage to push out a very loose estimation of ''Hello''. The L''s in particular are difficult to pronounce, sounding to myself more like ''Heckah'' unable to move my lips into the necessary shapes to produce the proper sounds. *Well that seems like a bust in terms of increasing my ability to communicate in a way that makes sense, I wonder what other sounds I can produce now though* Testing a lot of different potential sounds I find that I can let out a small roar, it comes from deep within my neck and seems to rumble more and more as it travels up eventually releasing as a roaring sound. The other sounds that I can reproduce from my memory are very limited and don''t seem to have much potential yet. *So, two points left, Scales or breath... Hmm, I still haven''t had my new scales tested so they could already be strong enough to prevent some attacks that come my way, but I doubt they will prevent something like one of those wolf claws. Breath has been amazingly effective though, increasing it''s potency by potentially another fifty percent on top of whatever else seems to be happening with it. I want to survive though, not become a tyrant that murders everything before them.* The last thought sealing my decision I allocate two trait points to Scales. Turning my aura sight on to take note of the Auric changes I crane my neck over my shoulder to watch as my scales improve.
System Message
Trait Rank Up: Scales
Rank 2 -> Rank 3
(Maximum rank for current stage)
Minimizing the message with barely a thought my eyes are drawn to the swirling Aura as it infuses into my scales. It seems as though the Aura appears from thing air a short distance from my scales before being drawn in. Each of my scales has a small whirlpool of aura forming above it that starts as light and wispy but quickly grows dark and dense as it is funneled down into the scale itself. As the aura is pulled into the center of each whirlpool and funneled into the scale it grows slightly in physical size but increases massively in Auric density. The spectacle of hundreds of small Aura whirlpools dancing over my whole body causes me to lose my sense of time completely entranced by the display. The end draws near as the wispy aura stops forming and what is left in the whirlpools condense down and is drawn into the scales. Shutting off my Aura sight I look at my scales in the visible spectrum, I''m astounded by the change. Each scale seems to have a depth like looking up into the night sky itself, not quite depthless but seeming to approach that feeling. The red and green nebulas now appear three dimensional, each scale having its own unique nebula that forms an even larger slowly moving picture across my body. I pull my wing across my chest like before to test the changes and my claw slides off the wing scale seeming to not actually touch the scale itself. *Did I miss?* Flits across my mind as I try again. Clutching the wing within my hand I slowly press my index claw into the scale. I realize I didn''t miss on the first attempt the scales unique appearance causes it to look like it''s farther away than it actually is. Slowly pushing my claw with increasing strain I watch as the claw stays completely still, not being able to penetrate the scale in the slightest. *I guess that''s not particularly surprising, I wonder if I had reversed this if my claws would be able to penetrate my scales.* I flick my Aura sight and locate the Sun, finding it past its zenith and beginning its descent. Realizing I still have a good deal of time I decide to continue my project from yesterday and move back into the bedroom. The two sleeping lizards stir as I enter the room, raising and then tilting their heads to look at me questioningly. *Dig.* I project to them. They tilt their heads even further seeming to not understand. Instead of trying to communicate further with my mind I move over to the wall next to the first two shelves. Standing up onto my legs I being using my empowered claws to start cutting away at the stone. Noting what I am doing the lizards both move off into the main portion of the cave. I turn my Aura sight on while I work hoping to gain skill ranks in it faster, the pink hue of the world under the Sun''s oppressive aura massively diminished while I''m under so much rock. As I cut with my claws I notice that the stone has an Aura as well but it is muted as well as tinted by the oppressive pink Aura. I dig a claw into the stone noting how the Aura seems to part before the claw. Moving my head closer to inspect this oddity further I can see that the Aura is slightly less dense as it gets closer to my claw. Slowly moving my claw vertically down through the stone I can see that the Aura becomes less dense in front of the claws movement, like the bow shock of a boat through water. Slight ripples of Auric density follow the movement, quickly stilling after the claw passes. *Wow, so that change in claws makes them affect the aura of what I''m cutting even before the physical claw touches it. Was this happening before but I just couldn''t see it or is this only because of the rank up?* Pondering the implications of this finding I quickly excavate a third shelf. The debris pile this time is exclusively fist sized or larger rocks. The dust from scraping at the rock in my previous excavation is not present at all. The speed of my excavation causing the falling rocks to make a dissonant song. One of the lizards comes back up the small tunnel seeming to investigate the cacophony, seeing the debris pile it runs over and fills its mouth with small rocks. Shooting back down the tunnel it disappears from sight. The fourth shelf is excavated even faster as I find my stride, quickly slicing the stone into large sections and then shaving off smaller pieces that fall to the ground at my feet. The shelf only seems to take a few minutes before it is completed. Moving down the wall further I start on the fifth shelf, as my claw sinks into the stone a system messages pops up in the middle of my vision.
System Message
Skill Rank Up: Digging
Rank 1 -> Rank 2
*I wonder if it''s possible to have those NOT appear right in front of my face every time. It hasn''t been bad yet but I can see a window like that causing just enough of a distraction in the moment to cause me serious harm.* The system seems to understand my intent as usual and the message moves to the side of my vision, minimizing just above my still present stamina window. It slowly blinks seeming to show me ''Hey new info here!''
System Message: Skill
Stamina: 84%
Mentally tapping on the new location for the system message it expands, noting the information I dismiss the message. *It definitely seems like the skill gains are not just a progression based system but actually a way of acknowledging how skilled I am in that area. My flight skill gave me a stamina reduction as well but it didn''t come until after I successfully landed smoothly. This digging skill up came after I showed a new level of proficiency in digging. My Aura sight seems to not be that way though. I didn''t notice more about the wolves or show a higher proficiency when my Aura sight ranked up, I just happened to have it on and then after the rank up it was massively improved.* During my intense thoughts about how these facets of the system work I finish the fifth and six shelves. A lizard periodically poking it''s head in, grabbing debris and then disappearing down the tunnel again. The seventh shelf is finished in quick order and I turn to the debris pile, noting it seems to only be a third of the size I expect it to be. I start piling it up at the entrance to the tunnel and then slowly push it all forwards, using my wings like a plow. I pay attention in aura sight peeking over my wings to make sure I don''t crush any of the lizards in the process. Halfway down the small tunnel a lizard begins to climb up into the tunnel. I stop moving forwards as it comes into the tunnel, realizes what''s happening and turns around. After it moves out of the way I continue pushing the stones forwards. The sound of the rock waterfall crash through the cave, hurting my ears with the sheer volume. The two lizards on guard visibly recoil from the sound. *Maybe I could''ve done that a little smoother...* I tilt my head down in apology for the painful sound and they nod back in response. The other five lizards shoot over after the rocks have finished their tumbling dance filling their mouths with rocks and then moving towards the cave mouth. Checking the Suns position again I see that it has only moved slightly further down in the sky. *Wow, I was expecting that to take a lot longer. Hunting during the day still feels like a truly bad idea, but I don''t really have much else I could do with my time.* I move to the back of the cave and start drawing a rough map of the area I know with the cliff and my cave being a the bottom. To the right I show the pond and waterfall with the river moving ''North'' away from the cliff. I try to measure with my claw roughly two and a half times the distance from the pond and up at a forty five degree angle where I saw the four giants and the wolf, making a rough line denoting the tunnel through the brush I followed yesterday. *I really haven''t explored much of this forest even though I''ve been here for three full days. I could try and find the wolf den, but that would be a lot more difficult during the day with my Aura sight being diminished by the sun. I could also travel beyond the pond to see what lies on the other side. Grab a snack on my way through...* Feeling that would be worth my time I turn to leave the cave. Two of the lizards are standing a short distance in front of me, staring intently at my crude map. They seem to be confused by my drawing on the wall, unsure of how to communicate what it is I walk past them and move out of the cave. Flicking my Aura sight I check for any potential threats in the nearby bushes seeing none I turn to move towards the pond. Launching myself into the air I begin flying towards the pond soaring over what is left of the wolves body primarily just fur and bones left. Using my aura sight periodically I look for potential hunting targets as well as potential threats. *I don''t love being this visible, I can''t easily see into the canopy for flying threats with the sun still up. Fortunately the largest flying being I have seen so far was the owl and I believe they are strictly nocturnal.* I quickly reach the pond and begin circling down to the far shore, a short distance from the edge of the pond. I move to the edge of the pond and dip my tail in, using the same figure eight pattern and varying the speed of movement sporadically. I turn my aura sight on to see if I''ve got any takers, I can see five fish that have already come to investigate. It doesn''t take long before one of them bites. Pulling my tail back and snapping my jaws forwards I manage to grab it around its mid section. Repeating my previous success in quickly putting it out of its misery I arc it over my body and SLAP the aura dissipates from the fish. Still hungry I dip my tail back in repeating the same process another three times before I feel satiated.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x4)
Stamina: 77%
Quickly pulling up the messages I distribute all four of the ''tertiary attribute gains'' to AGI.
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x4)
AGI Increased by 0.41 New AGI Score: 5 (5.27)
AGI Increased by 0.37 New AGI Score: 5 (5.64)
AGI Increased by 0.35 New AGI Score: 5 (5.99)
AGI Increased by 0.33 New AGI Score: 6 (6.32)
Dismissing the messages I decide to test my prior hypothesis on how AGI affects me physically. I sprint away from the pond trying to gauge how fast I''m moving compared to sprinting last night. *It definitely feels faster, I''m not entirely sure if it is a full third faster or not though. It''s hard to tell with no measuring devices. I wish this system had a clock or better yet a stop watch! At least that confirms that AGI does affect speed, I wonder if it affects my flying speed as well. I haven''t even tried to max that out though, the fastest I''ve flown being roughly ten times my initial sprinting speed.* Realizing the bushes will prevent me from being able to take off I turn back towards the pond, doing a quick sweep in Aura sight of the area for any threats. I don''t see anything that I feel could threaten me but do note a significantly larger quantity of small Auras on this side of the pond. I move towards the cliff and put my back to it while I wait for my stamina to regenerate fully. When I see my stamina full again I launch myself forwards and into the air. Gaining altitude as I circle above the pond I take note of roughly how many fish are still in the pond. Even after I killed so many last night the pond is still teeming with fish. I begin flying away from my cave again East based on my arbitrary orientation I chose for my crude map. The forest flying by below me as air whips past my body I begin feeling the same exhilaration I did every other time I''ve flown. Pushing my body I continue gaining altitude as I rapidly approach the canopy. Blasting through the canopy I find myself in a completely different world than the one below the canopy. The forest continues in all directions, the cliff being lined with trees on top just like down below. Clouds cover the sky above me, light and grey but thick enough to cover the sun. A bright spot in the distance showing where it is in the sky but preventing it from being overly bright. Looking back towards where I think my cave is I can see the top of the waterfall that fills the pond and river below. The cliff continues to the West until I cant see it anymore seeming to continue beyond the limits of my vision. To the East I can see that the cliff dips down into the forest eventually. Far to the North, almost at the limit of my vision, I can see what looks like a stone castle raising from the forest. *Is that where the giants came from?* Picturing the the wolf being killed again I shudder slightly. I circle back towards the cliff and begin my flight back towards my cave feeling a little better about my understanding of the area surrounding my home. As I''m crossing back over the pond far below me I feel exhaustion begin building between my wings. On a whim I decide to circle back down to the pond and try to catch some more fish for later. I land on the West shore of the pond and begin my fishing technique, it takes me what feels like twenty minutes to catch five more fish. I dump all of the gains into STR this time remembering that the Fish had that as a Primary distribution.
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x5)
STR Increased by 0.4 New STR Score: 5 (5.4)
STR Increased by 0.37 New STR Score: 5 (5.77)
STR Increased by 0.34 New STR Score: 6 (6.11)
STR Increased by 0.32 New STR Score: 6 (6.43)
STR Increased by 0.31 New STR Score: 6 (6.74)
Grabbing the five fish with my mouth I take off into the air above the pond. Circling back towards my cave after I get enough altitude to clear the dense bushes. The flight back takes almost no time and I land outside before climbing the slope into the cave. The lizard guards react to my presence by coming forwards and nibbling on the fish I have hanging from my mouth. I drop all the fish on the ground and then pick up three of the fish and continue moving up the slope. The lizards both begin feasting on the two fish I left. *I should''ve gotten more. They are definitely going to eat these three if I leave them unattended. I guess that ''free'' labor isn''t so free...* As I reach the main cavern another lizard comes out from the bedroom, seeing the fish it shoots over to me but doesn''t immediately start nibbling on them like the first two did. Resigning myself to not getting much of this meal I drop all three on the ground, picking up one with my left claw I toss it over to the lizard. It slaps off the ground and slides towards the lizard, as the fish stops in front of it the lizard tilts its head to the side maintaining eye contact with me. I nod my head and it immediately begins devouring the fish. I turn so that I am facing the cave entrance and begin eating one of they two remaining fish. Savoring the meal this time from the safety of my cave I realize that this is actually quite nice. I have company, ya they can be a little needy but at least I''m not alone constantly worried about being attacked while I sleep. One of them even brought me the most delicious berry I''ve ever had. I eat half of the second fish before my stomach feels sore from a little too much overindulgence. Leaving the half fish I move back into the bedroom and decide to nap while the sun goes down. I wake to the ground shaking, thunderous booms coming from outside the cave. The four lizards sleeping around me all snap awake at the same time, all four of them shooting out into the main cave. Following them into the main cave I flick to my Aura sight trying to determine what is causing this and my heart drops. Standing outside of the cave are two giants their massive Auras consume my vision through the rock. The seem to have stopped moving and are now standing outside of the cave entrance. I can hear their voices now that they have stopped walking around. Surprisingly I can understand the language they are speaking. "I''m tellin'' you Nulvilm I seen one of them flying around!", The booming sound of it''s voice crashing through the cave. "I seen it come down by that pond only a hunn''ed feet o''er there." "Baldren, I believe you that''s why I''m here. I''m just saying that the odds of it actually being a baby celestial dragon are not very high and this is the only cave we have seen so far and I am NOT sticking my head in there to find out!" The second''s booming voice replies *Are you FUCKING kidding me!? The one time, ONE TIME I fly above the trees I get spotted!?! I KNEW going out during the day was a bad idea.* Now knowing that I am the reason they are here I run back up into the bedroom placing my back against the wall for the small amount of comfort a solid object at my back produces. Not daring to show myself knowing that if these things are hunting me they will not stop if they see me. Relying on Aura sight to see what is happening I watch as one of them drops down to their knees and peers into the cave. Being so close I can see the dense portion of the giant that must represent its brain, this close I can see that the aura is actually moving within the dense cloud. Focusing more intently on it I can see small tendrils of dense Aura snaking down through the rest of its body. The dense Aura seeming to flow down into its body and then back up into its brain along these tendrils. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Unsure as to what these tendrils represent and why the Aura seems to be moving I turn my attention back to the lizards. I can see six of the lizards, all standing at the top of the caves slope, fortunately leaving them out of the line of sight from the cave entrance. From my spot in the bedroom I don''t see the seventh lizard''s Aura. Scanning the portions of the terrain outside that I can see past the massive Auras blocking most of it, I see the lizard''s Aura. Barely able to make out its Aura as it passes between the legs of the giant my breath catches in my chest. *Please stay hidden, please stay hidden!* As if my mental pleas alerted the second giant it turns. The giant clearly sees the lizard as they takes a massive step towards it clearing the entire open area in front of the cave in a single step. It raises its arms above its head and then brings them down rapidly, stopping roughly at its own waist. The lizards Aura opens into a empty hole around its middle before I lose sight of it behind the giants Aura. *NOOOO!* I mentally scream. "Baldren, I caught one of those tasty lizards! I haven''t seen many of them around recently, this might be the last one around!", The second giant ecstatically booms. I can see the first turn from their kneeling position and then exclaim, "They tiny but definitely tasty!" He picks himself up off the ground, towering above the cave. Moving to his comrade they both stand shoulder to shoulder for a moment, before beginning to move away. The booms of their steps shake the cave as they walk away from the cave to the north. My mind reels, realizing that it''s entirely my fault that lizard died. I move out of the bedroom cautiously, joining the other six lizards in the main cave watching the retreating forms of the giants through Aura sight. Even after they are beyond the limits of my Aura sight I wait. The image of the giant finger guns and the wolf''s aura bursting playing over and over in my head. One of the lizards darts forwards, making it to the front of the cave before turning and coming half way back and nodding back to us. I nod back to it acknowledging that I understand but I can''t bring my legs to carry me forwards. *They''ve done nothing but be good companions staving off loneliness and now I have repaid them by bringing death. I NEED to get stronger it''s not just about my survival at this point.* Finding the courage to finally move I leave the two remaining lizards in the usual guard spot. The other four having left the cave during my fear induced paralysis. Walking slowly down the slope in front of the cave, I note the sky darkening, a light orange reflecting off the cloud cover above. I reach the spot where the lizards Aura dissipated and see a huge hole in the ground, easily half the width of my torso it ends in a sharp point, the sides of the hole stained red. *Was it some sort of spear that the giant used and I just can''t see it in my aura vision? It must have been massive for the point to make a hole that large.* Moving away from the hole I scan the area for the other four lizards, I can see their Auras a short distance off to the North. They are spread out across the forest, two of them seeming to hang up in the air like they are climbing up in the bushes. *Maybe that''s where the berry came from? I need to figure out how I''m going to get stronger. My most effective method so far has been the fish and based on my search of the pond earlier it didn''t even look like I had affected their population. I could go use that for some immediate gains and then maybe try to lure a predator and try to take that down as well.* Beginning the short trek to the lake I watch as the sky changes from a light orange to a dark orange slowly darkening as night falls on the forest. Sweeping the forest with my Aura sight and seeing no large Auras I begin fishing, dipping my tail in and drawing fish over to the edge of the pond. My first attempt I try to use only a small amount of my breath, focusing on keeping the spread contained. I use what I feel is five percent of the organs capacity, easily blanketing the area around the fish that had come to investigate.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x4)
Stamina: 77%
The message appearing again above my stamina, slowly flashing alerting me to it containing unseen information. The bodies of the five fish bob to the surface shortly after. Reaching out with my right wing I scoop them up out of the water, depositing them a short distance away from me. I dip my tail back into the water falling into the motion easily, more fish react to my tail and I repeat the same process. Exhaling a small amount of breath, covering the pond slightly further than where the fish are, and then watching as the bodies bob to the surface.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x10)
Stamina: 94%
Briefly noting the number I scoop them up with my wing and deposit them again. Returning my tail to the water continuing my previous motions. My mind starts to wander, thinking about the lizard and how it was described as ''tasty'' by the giants. *So that would explain why I haven''t seen any others in the forest in my travels so far. I''ve seen plenty of rabbits and other animals I haven''t been able to identify but the seven... six lizards are the only ones I have seen. That makes me feel even worse about bring death to them again. I need to keep them safe, they are the only thing that has shown me kindness in this world so far and without them these past few days would have been much more lonely* I''m pulled from my thought as one of the fish takes a nibble of my tail. Breathing out, the dark purple smoke with slight reds and greens blankets the area above this new group of fish.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x14)
Stamina: 98%
Repeating my previous actions of scooping up the fish and depositing them into a pile I note that the pile is growing larger quickly. Deciding to try and bait the trap I eat one of the fish and scoop the rest up with a wing. I cradle them in front of me with my wing underside facing up, creating a large basket. I move a few paces away from where I was sitting and drop them on the bank of the shore. Moving back to my spot pressed up against the cliff I take stock of my surroundings, paying close attention to the canopy above. I notice a few owls in the distance perched in the canopy but none that look very close. Moving my eyes to scan the ground I don''t note any large wolf Auras or giants. Feeling relatively safe I continue my fishing, dipping my tail into the water I continue thinking about the lizards and how to keep them safe. *I could dig small fortifications for their guard posts that they seem to always be in. I''m not sure how I would communicate its purpose to them though. I also could expand the cave system to have a smaller passage for them to move more safely in as well as potentially making a small area that they could see out through, It would have to be my size though so that might open them up to other animals I haven''t seen yet.* A nip at my tail brings me back to the present and I exhale onto the top of the pond.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x19)
Stamina: 100%
Noting that I''m at the same amount of fish from the previous night I scan the pond to see how many are still left. The pond is still teeming with life a massive quantity of fish still existing at the heart. *Huh, I could''ve sworn I had done a number on the pond last night and now I''ve gotten the same amount again but it doesn''t seem to have impacted it at all.* Scooping these five fish up with my wing as their bodies surface I deposit them next to me, scanning the canopy again as I do so. The owls I noted earlier have moved closer. One of them perched above the pond. *Well then here we go.* Moving my tail back into the water I focus on the owls, trying to pretend like I am fully invested in fishing. After a short period the one above the pond swoops down, entirely silent to my ears and snatches two of the fish from the pile I had deposited a short distance away. *Wow, not only completely silent they are incredibly fast. I don''t know if I will actually be able to catch one. When I managed to latch on to that one two nights ago it may have been even more luck than I initially thought. It might be better not to anger them...* A nibble on my tail brings my attention back to the pond exhaling onto the surface of the pond again.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x20)
Stamina: 100%
*Hmm only managed to get one that time, unlucky or are they learning?* I snatch it up with my mouth, choosing to eat it in one massive bite over trying to scoop and deposit it. Dipping my tail back in I take stock of the current level in my breath organ. *Hmm only down roughly a third, well that is significantly more efficient than I though it would be...* Dipping the tip of my tail into the pond for the sixth time, I begin the now familiar process. Paying more attention to the owl I see that it has finished the two fish it already took and is perched above the pond waiting. I can see the second owl flying through the canopy towards it. Another nibble bringing my attention back to the fish.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x26)
As I reach my wing out to scoop them up the first owl swoops down again, snatching another two fish before rapidly ascending back into the canopy. *I can''t believe that they are completely silent! Is it a limit of my ability to hear them or are they truly just completely silent!?* This second snatch and grab is just as quick, seeming to move so fast that it is difficult to fully track their movements. The second owl follows behind the first, swooping down and grabbing a single fish from the pile now only half the size of when I first dropped the fish there. Using my wing like a basket again I deposit the eleven fish in front of me into the now much smaller pile. I watch both owls stop eating as they focus on me. Feeling incredibly vulnerable I quickly move back to the cliff wall and continue fishing, hoping they will take the easy pile of fish over me. *Maybe I over judged my own capabilities in thinking I could bait a trap and actually manage to take one of them down.* Dipping my tail back in I begin to allocate some of the fish. Starting with CHA to bring it up to the same level as my other attributes. Doing a single fish at a time it ends up taking only three fish to raise the score to four.
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x3)
CHA Increased by 0.3 New CHA Score: 3 (3.24)
CHA Increased by 0.28 New CHA Score: 3 (3.28)
CHA Increased by 0.26 New CHA Score: 4 (4.08)
*I guess I should''ve expected that based on last night but I was expecting it to take more than just three of the fish, I guess I''ll just bring that up to five and then focus on the other attributes*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x5)
CHA Increased by 0.24 New CHA Score: 4 (4.32)
CHA Increased by 0.23 New CHA Score: 4 (4.55)
CHA Increased by 0.21 New CHA Score: 4 (4.76)
CHA Increased by 0.21 New CHA Score: 4 (4.97)
CHA Increased by 0.2 New CHA Score: 5 (5.17)
*Took a bit more than I expected but that leaves me with sixteen more fish to distribute.* I feel another bite on my tail, exhaling a breath I go back to my thoughts.
System Message: Level 0 Fish (x20)
Expecting to only see sixteen fish available seeing twenty surprises me. looking out to the pond I see another four fish bobbing in the water. *Right, that makes sense.* Scooping the fish out of the water and dumping them on the bank in front of me I watch as the owls in succession swoop down and grab more fish from the pile. *So my other attributes at four, CON, DEX, PER, and WIS. CON is an easy choice, if I bring that to six my Health should be sixty, it will also give me an opportunity to test that confirm that hypothesis.*
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x9)
CON Increased by 0.23 New CON Score: 4 (4.48)
CON Increased by 0.22 New CON Score: 4 (4.7)
CON Increased by 0.21 New CON Score: 4 (4.91)
CON Increased by 0.2 New CON Score: 5 (5.11)
CON Increased by 0.19 New CON Score: 5 (5.3)
CON Increased by 0.18 New CON Score: 5 (5.48)
CON Increased by 0.18 New CON Score: 5 (5.66)
CON Increased by 0.17 New CON Score: 5 (5.83)
CON Increased by 0.17 New CON Score: 6
After burning through nine of the fish my CON score hits an even six. *Well that''s satisfying. Took quite a bit to get there, only 11 fish left, seems like I can get one of the other two to six or two of them to five with just what I have. WIS seems to have benefited me a lot, allowing me to recognize a bad idea before deciding to act it out. Maybe if my WIS was higher the seventh lizard would still be alive.* Guilt wells up inside me the lizards Aura splitting as what must have been a massive spear stabbed through it. The image burned into my brain even when I close my eyes. A nibble at my tail brings me out of my melancholy. Breathing another breath over the pond I watch as two more fish float to the surface. Dragging them to the shore I drop them next to the previous four fish next to me. I look around to find where the owls are and almost jump when I see them both staring at me from the other side of the swiftly dwindling pile of fish. Making eye contact with them I do the only thing I can think of and nod my head. Their heads tilt almost ninety degrees to the side both looking at me with what I can only determine to be confusion. *enjoy* I try to mentally project. Unsure of the reception of my message I dip my tail back into the pond and continue to fish, not taking my eyes off the owls. After a moment of staring the larger of the two goes back to eating the fish, the smaller of the two follows suit shortly after. Twin nibbles at my tail make me turn towards the pond and breath onto the surface. My breath organ feeling roughly half full after that breath I decide to hold off on fishing more before investing the points and seeing where I''m at. Four more fish float to the surface giving me fifteen total to allocate. Turning back to my stats I choose WIS to pump up to five, only using four of the fish in the process.
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x4)
WIS Increased by 0.24 New WIS Score: 4 (4.39)
WIS Increased by 0.22 New WIS Score: 4 (4.61)
WIS Increased by 0.21 New WIS Score: 4 (4.82)
WIS Increased by 0.2 New WIS Score: 5 (5.02)
*PER should be my next target, being aware of what''s going on around me could''ve been the difference between being spotted or not during that flight. If the math continues to be four fish per attribute I''ll be able to do PER and then DEX as well, ending up with all my stats at five from this trip. That should leave me with another three fish to allocate.* Moving ahead with my plan I distribute PER first.
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x4)
PER Increased by 0.23 New PER Score: 4 (4.48)
PER Increased by 0.22 New PER Score: 4 (4.7)
PER Increased by 0.21 New PER Score: 4 (4.91)
PER Increased by 0.2 New PER Score: 5 (5.11)
The process taking the expected four fish and I move onto DEX.
Attributes earned for slaying: Level 0 Fish (x4)
DEX Increased by 0.23 New DEX Score: 4 (4.45)
DEX Increased by 0.22 New DEX Score: 4 (4.67)
DEX Increased by 0.21 New DEX Score: 4 (4.88)
DEX Increased by 0.2 New DEX Score: 5 (5.08)
*Interesting, so those gave me almost the exact same gain per fish. The amount gained must be based on some sort of formula involving my current stat.*
System Message
New Level Achieved: Level 5
Advancement Available
5 Trait points unlocked
*Um Advancement? That''s a new one, What am I advancing exactly? Mentally choosing the option that has been brought up I get another message.* Instead of the usual succinct message I am used to this contains a large amount of information, "Stage advancement is now available, To advance in Stage find a safe location and confirm Stage Advancement. This process will take an extended period of time during which you will be vulnerable. Continue: Y/N" *Umm, okay. Well I guess I''ll minimize that for now and do that back in my bedroom.* Looking to the owls I see that they have made a sizeable dent in the fish that are in front of them. Grabbing the four fish that have now washes up on the shore I being my trek back to the cave. I arrive at the cave a short time later, my eyes flicking to the hole where the lizard was killed as my chest tightens. Forcing myself to look away I make the short trip up the slope into the cave. As I reach the main room of the cave I see the usual lizard guards and drop the fish in front of them nodding, they nod back and begin nibbling at the fish. Moving past them and up into the bedroom I pull the advancement window up in front of me choosing yes. "Warning: Current area not large enough for stage advancement. Continue anyways? Y/N" *No! Why does the area have to be large enough?? That doesn''t really make sense. I hope the main cave room is large enough...* Crawling back out to the main cave I move to the back where I had begun drawing a basic map. I pull the advancement window again and choose Yes again. The world goes black instantly, I''m surrounded by the infinite darkness again with a light shining down from above. Click Click Click I can hear the high heels clicking closer from behind me, I turn towards it and realize that I am still in my dragon form not the human form I was given the last time I was here. "Well well well," She says as she steps past me. "I didn''t expect you to survive even this long, let alone make it to an advancement stage! Hopefully this time you will ask more questions..." "You really want me to fail don''t you?" I respond coldly. "Come on now, don''t be like that! I just think you made a poor choice in being a dragon that''s all, If you had chosen basically any of the other races you would''ve started in civilization with people there to help you instead of bumbling through trying to figure it all out." Her response surprises me, I expected her to continue laughing at me or ridiculing me not to be helpful. "Oh, well I guess that makes sense. So what is this whole advancement thing?" "There we go, asking questions! If you had chosen a different race this wouldn''t be happening for a much longer time but with dragons you advance on a much more regular basis. It increases your stage giving you access to more of your innate powers as a dragon. You''ll be going from Baby to Wyrmling. It will increase your size but more importantly it will massively increase your power. Those attributes that you''ve been ''farming'' are proportional to your stage." She states, seeming for the first time to be honest and open with me. "Like your strength attribute, as a baby a strength is very tame, but as a wyrmling it will grow by a factor of three. Most of your other attributes will as well but that will be based on the choices you make." "Wait so STR really is just strength, Like any RPG?" "Yes, I can see the questions coming so I''ll just cut you off and answer them. Constitution as you figured out is your health and your regen. Dexterity is pretty self explanatory, you haven''t had much use for it yet but you will. Agility is your reflexes and in a way your speed, but that is also based on your strength. Perception you figured out pretty quick as well, it increase sight and hearing but also your ability to process those stimuli. Wisdom affects your reasoning, watching you make bad decisions was quite entertaining. Intelligence is pretty self explanatory, it covers your memory capacity as well as your general ability to understand things, you started at ten because Dragons are considered an intelligent race, almost all sapient races start at least at ten. Well, goblins start at three but I don''t think you''ll have to worry about that. Charisma you guessed correctly as well from your previous experience, it''s how well you interact with others and how they respond to you. If you hadn''t leveled that you probably would''ve been killed by those owls." Her rant coming to a close I feel at least semi-satisfied in my deduction of those abilities. "What about how leveling works and how the attribute gains work?" I question hopefully. "No, that one is on you to figure out. Nice try though, any others?" "What''s with all the giants?" She laughs finding that question absolutely hilarious, but she doesn''t answer me. Her laughs slowly dying down before she wipes tears from her eyes. "Any others before we get going?" "Am I telepathic?" "Yes and no, all dragons have a certain level, but that varies based on your upcoming choices." "Do I have parent dragons?" "Yes not plural though, your progenitor deposited fifteen eggs as they passed through this area. You were the thirteenth to hatch the twelve that hatched before you have already been captured or slain." "Wait so the other two haven''t hatched yet, and where can I find the ones that have been captured?", I jump on the idea of having siblings to help fend off my loneliness. "Yes but trying to find them before they hatch will probably just end up with you wasting years. Your progenitor was very old and could cover large distances very quickly. The ones that have been captured are being held in multiple different cities. Your kind is hunted relentlessly for your capabilities, if you are found by dwarves the will try their hardest to capture you. For elves you''re kill on sight." Her response disappointing me greatly. "Where is my progenitor now?" I ask hopeful again. "North", She smiles. "The North of my map or was that wrong?" "It isn''t right but I meant your North" Realizing that finding my progenitor would have me travelling past that giant castle I shudder. Fear gripping my whole body remembering how easily the wolf died. "Any others before we get started?", She askes clearly trying to pull me out of my fear. "What is this process exactly?" "Well you''ll be presented with choices and you get to choose what you want from things applicable to your race. If you weren''t a dragon they would also be applicable to what''s called a class but dragons don''t get those like other sapient species. Are you ready?" "I guess..." System windows appear on either side of her showing different images with text. The one over her left shoulder showing a dragon head that is bulky with large fangs. The scales being much larger each one dominating a piece of the face. A single scale between it''s eyes appearing almost to be a nasal from a medieval helm. A scale on each side of its head like massive cheek plates. Over the top of the head is a single scale curved to cover the entire top. The word "Physical" floats above this image. The other showing a more slender head with much smaller fangs the scales looking more like chain mail to the plate helm of the other image. It''s eyes are much larger and seem to be more intelligent "mental" floats above this image. "Here is your first choice, I can''t answer many questions on the effects of either but I will answer what I can." She says after giving me ample time to look at both. "Which one is more powerful?" I ask immediately. "Obviously physical, just look at it" She says flatly. "Ya I guess that was a poorly worded question." I sigh back "How about, which one has more potential?" "There we go", She smiles coyly "Mental has a much larger upper bound but that is only if you reach that far." "I choose mental then." I can feel as my head changes, a mirror appearing before me to show me the change of my head to match that of the image. "Good choice", she says as the mirror disappears ,"That means the next selections are a lot more intriguing."
System Message
Trait Mutation
Jaws -> Mental
System Message
Mana Unlocked
"Wait Mana, Like magic?" "Yes, exactly. You get to choose two affinities from here. One major and one minor, these are based on your dragon race choice, which once again is the weakest at this level but has great potential. If you had chosen red or black you would''ve been given very potent affinity options. Instead you get these." She motions and the words Space and Gravity appear over each shoulder. "Gravity seems pretty self explanatory but what is Space magic?" "Gravity is as you expect manipulating gravity wells, and in a manner matter as well. Space is related to Dimensional magics, warping space or changing its properties. Once again both of these are incredibly weak at your current stage." She sighs, seeming disappointed. "What will they be able to do?" She smiles, "Perfect question, if you had said ''what spells do I get you would''ve been met with silence'' asking what they can do opens the door for me to answer. Gravity magic will allow you to warp the gravity around you, think indefinite flight and floating mountains. Space will allow you to teleport eventually but also allow you to create pocket dimensions, eventually creating permanent portals and massive pocket dimensions." "Wow, that is a difficult one." I being pondering my choices, pocket dimension and teleportation or the ability to fly indefinitely and make a floating fortress. Teleportation tips the scales for me, the power to escape as well as to be where I need to be could be huge, pocket dimensions is a cherry on the top, depending on its functionality it could allow me to create completely safe areas. My mind wanders back to the lizard. "Space." "Why are you so attached to them?", She askes as the words disappear.
System Message
Affinity Gained: Space
"Attached to who?" "The lizards." "Oh, I could feel loneliness begin to set in and they remind me of having a pet. The comfort of waking up with them sleeping on me gave me a weird sense of familiarity.", I respond fondly remembering the first time I woke up with them piled on me. "You said If I asked what spells I would get you wouldn''t answer, but do I gain any spells with this? Or is it just potential." "It''s more potential than anything else, but you will find quickly that you can instinctively do some things, like open and close small dimensional spaces. Teleportation and the further capabilities will come through experimentation but you''ll understand that more when you begin your inevitable testing.", She smiles "That''s all I will say on that. Next is your minor affinity. For you these will be more impactful immediately so choose carefully." The words ''Raw'' and ''Soul'' appear over her shoulders. "Well Soul I can guess at a little, but Raw has me stumped. Any chance you could give me a high level on what they mean?", I ask hopefully. "You surprise me, after that first interaction I expected you to just scream your choices at me and tell me to fuck off.", She chuckles "Raw is what humans in this world would call Arcane, its the manipulation of mana directly, either to produce force attacks, or create magic shields. At higher levels it allows for manipulation of ambient mana to produce power enchantments on objects and beings. Soul on the other hand is akin to Necromancy, offensively it can be used much like your breath, sapping the Aura or life force from enemies. It can also be used to raise the dead, true resurrection capability will be a long way off for you but raising thralls and the undead will be available fairly quickly. It also allows for a level of Soul manipulation on yourself, but that''s a quick way to find yourself hated by all" She looks off over my shoulder, "Come on! They have been asking good questions and I''ve been good the whole time. Don''t sanction me because of one answer!" She sighs deeply. "Choose." Looking over my shoulder I see nothing but darkness, "Who are you talking to?" "Choose." She says no emotion showing where she was previously animated. "What just happened?" "CHOOSE!" Her voice booms, but her face is still completely blank of any emotion. "What the fuck just happened!?" "You have one more opportunity to choose, or you will get none." "Fine, Raw.", I say confused by this massive change in demeanor.
System Message
Affinity Gained: Raw
"See you at your next advancement!", She says, emotion coming back to her face she smiles. She starts to walk by me, heels clicking. "Wait, what was that?" She pauses by my shoulder "We all have limits, I just got in trouble for surpassing mine. Good luck, 3 more days, baby goblin!" She laughs as she walks away Click click click The light slowly dims as my eyes become heavy and I fall into a deep slumber. Day 5, Blood and Magic My eyes pop open, it feels as though I had a long restful nights sleep. I can see the sunlight coming from the cave entrance. In front of me two of the lizards stand in their usual guard spots. Beginning to rise from my spot at the back of the cave I notice that the cave feels smaller. My head reaches easily half way to the top of the cave when I stand on my legs making me feel as though I''m roughly three times larger than I was before going through advancement. *Well that explains the space warning before advancement. I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed in the bedroom.* A shudder runs down my spine as I mentally picture imploding from the pressure, my innards being jettisoned into the main cave through the small tunnel. Moving to the small tunnel and peering in I notice my head and neck can fit inside but that''s it. Even though only my head and neck can fit in I can still manage to reach the bedroom area. I see a sleeping lizard on one of the shelves that opens an eye to start at me and then falls back to sleep. Pulling my head back into the main cavern I try to see how far my wings can extend, they unfold roughly half way before they are touching the walls. *Well there goes flying into this cave. I''m going to have to make this larger if I intend to stay here after another advancement.* Pulling up my character sheet I see the mana bar and remember the conversation about affinities and magic. I can feel the pool of mana within myself, it feels like a roiling ball of energy just below my stomach. I turn my Aura sight on and look at the spot, it is a deep dense ball of Aura. *Huh, so was that the third point of density in the giants then? They all seemed to have it, so do they all have mana if that''s the case?* I begin mentally poking and prodding the ball of energy, it reacts to my mental manipulations but it doesn''t seem to do anything major until I try pinching it. As I mentally pinch it a small tendril begins to form, trying to mentally pull the tendril it forms into a thin thread. *Huh, well how do I use this then. I chose Raw as one of my affinities, she said that was in regards to using Raw mana, maybe that''s where I should start.* Trying to pull the thread out and into my hand I can see it appear in my palm. Aura sight shows me the thread stretching from the ball of mana, extending through my arm and then out of my palm. Wondering what I can do with this my instincts tell me I can make it into a ball. The intent to make it into a ball is all that''s required, the thread swirling around itself creating what looks like a ball of yarn. The ball continues growing until it covers roughly half of my palm, the threads begin quivering. The ball continuing to grow as the threads start flailing around inside the ball wildly. I try to focus on them and still them but there are too many, the chaos of the ball growing by the second. The ball detonates in my face. A loud pop echoing around the cave.
System Message: [-3] Health {Raw}
*Ow, how do I stop it? do I have to throw it or something?* Looking around to assess the damage I see the two lizards on guard staring at me. Both of their heads tilted almost ninety degrees to the right. It doesn''t look like anything was damaged so I continue experimenting. Pulling another thread of mana I begin forming the ball, before the threads start to quiver I try to imagine the flow of mana stopping, the flow slows down and eventually stops. The thread of mana cutting off at the source of my mana and then moving fully into the ball. *Well now what do I do with it??* I try to throw it at the nearby wall but the ball just stays in the exact same spot hovering over the palm of my hand. Realizing that physical movement seems to do nothing I turn to mental. Picturing the ball floating away from my hand it begins to slowly rise off of my palm. When I stop focusing on it the ball stops moving and continues floating where it is. Imagining the ball shooting away from me it zips off my palm and slaps into the ceiling of the cave. When the ball contacts the ceiling it explodes into a bright purple light. *So it''s not a large explosion then. When it does hit though it hurts, that''s good to know.* Pulling mana again I wait until the ball starts to destabilize, then ceasing the flow of mana. The ball continues to quiver in my hand, mentally trying stabilize it the threads of mana seem to slow slightly. Focusing on it and bending all my willpower I manage to stop most of the threads from quivering, when my control slips the threads quickly destabilize again. Mentally drained I focus on the ball shooting off into the wall. My palm still facing up the ball shoots to the side and smashes into the wall. The light explosion is even brighter than the second balls explosion. *So more mana means more damage, I guess that makes sense.* Once again tapping into my mana I try to make the mana flow faster into the ball, pulling harder the thread visibly thickens in my aura sight. The ball starts to destabilize much faster so I stop pulling mana into it and focus on seeing if I can compress the ball. As my willpower pushes down on it the threads start to flail wildly. Releasing the pressure on the ball it resumes it''s dancing but at a much more sedate pace. Wondering what the ball looks like without Aura sight I flick it off. The ball looks solid instead of like a ball of yarn, the light of the ball flickering. It is also a light blue color not the purple color that I expected. Sending it at the wall the explosion is much less bright, the sound is the more obvious of the effects without Aura Sight. Going to check how much damage I''ve done to the wall I notice three distinct craters in the wall, not very deep but knowing how much the one that exploded in my face did I have no doubt they will be effective. Moving back to my spot in the middle I begin focusing again, this time trying to pull two threads of mana, a head ache begins quickly forming. I am able to bring both threads into my palm and start the formation of a ball but the threads start vibrating much earlier. Not wanting to have another explosion in my palm I cut the mana flow and watch as the threads slowly stop vibrating. The ball begins to spin slowly, the threads arranging themselves into an overlapping pattern.
System Message: Skill Mana Manipulation 0->1
*Oh. I mean I guess I shouldn''t be surprised by that but that makes me think there are probably more mana related skills. I wonder if I can push more mana into it with two threads and it will naturally stabilize. What happens if I add a third now as a shell?* Seizing the idea I pull a third thread, the head ache slowly going away as I continue to work. I try to wrap the thread around the outside of the ball but it seems to just slip off. After multiple attempts at integrating the thread I try to stab it into the ball, the third thread of mana gets immediately grabbed by the spinning ball. It begins to be wrapped around the ball quickly, covering the original ball of two threads. As the ball becomes completely covered by the third thread of mana the vibration starts in the third thread. I can still see the center two threads spinning around but the shell formed by the third thread has stilled since I stopped the mana flow. *From my attempts to manually wrap the mana around the ball I''m guessing that a fourth thread of mana will do nothing.* Deciding to try anyways I pull a fourth thread of mana, no amount of attempts allows me to add it to the ball. Growing frustrated and feeling my head ache grow even worse I decide to stop and let the ball go. The light from the ball impacting the wall is easily four times brighter than the previous ball. *Well then... I did not expect that to be the result. It felt like even with adding all three of those threads of mana that it was less over all mana than any of the previous balls.* Going to check the wall the damage is significantly larger easily three times deeper than the previous craters. *So don''t let one of them explode in my face. Got it.* Trying different shapes I find that right angles are impossible. I can bend the threads but when I try to bend it sharply like a corner the thread snaps, the mana of the thread outside of my body already either dissipates or explodes depending on how long it is. Fortunately on my few attempts at right angles I only had short threads and the explosions were more like small light shows. These small explosions don''t seem to have enough energy to actually damage me. I find that I can make straight lines of mana that look like a stick of mana that hovers over my hand. I can then wrap other threads of mana around the stick. My first few experiments ended up looking like cylinders. Expanding on this further I find I can make a cone shaped object by wrapping the mana at the base of the stick making a single circular thread at the base of the stick. I then take another thread of mana and connect it just above the first layer of thread and twist it down and then around the circular thread. Repeating this process over and over I eventually cover the core stick of mana so that it forms a cone. Looking at the base of the cone it looks like a mass of concentric circles, from the top it looks like a spiral of mana surrounding a central dot of mana. Feeling a slow throbbing head ache at the completion of this cone of mana I release it at the wall. The cylinders had much the same effect as the ball, exploding on contact and creating a large bright light under Aura sight. When the cones tip impacts the wall it implodes, the center stick of mana driving forwards into the wall and the layers collapsing inwards. *What the fuck was that.* Checking the wall I see that the other marks were mere divets compared to the damage this most recent construct did. The hole easily four times deeper than any of the previous attempts the sides of the hole being much steeper in angle than the craters created by the balls and cylinder. Moving back to my spot I try to pull a much thicker thread of mana, creating a rod that is double the thickness of my first attempt. The rod easily stabilizes as I expected from previous attempts, beginning to wrap the first thread I think to do multiple at once like with the ball. No head ache comes from drawing multiple strings. *Interesting, is that the effect of Mana Manipulation? I''ll need to continuously draw more threads at once if that is the case* That thought running through my head I pull a third thread, a small pressure forming in the center of my forehead but not growing to the previous level of head ache. Taking this to mean I can pull more threads I pull a fourth. A headache immediately starts throbbing in my head, causing my focus to start slipping. Pushing with all my will I begin trying to wrap the threads as quickly as possible. The first and second threads I quickly wrap around the rod and cut the mana flow. As the flow stops I feel the head ache start to reduce in severity but the throbbing continues making focusing on the longer threads difficult. Finishing the third and then fourth wrappings the cone shines bright in my eyes, the outer threads slowly revolving around the center. Pulling four more threads simultaneously the head ache intensifies greatly, pushing through the pain I begin to wrap the threads. The first and second threads I complete with great difficulty but as I begin wrapping the third my vision starts to blur. Wrapping the third thread as fast as I can a move to the fourth, my vision starts to tighten, blackness encroaching on the edges. Realizing I am about to pass out I send the projectile towards the wall, the fourth thread begins to stretch. I try to stop the flow of mana but it snaps before I can end it. The end attached to my mana snaps back, impacting the mana in my core causing ripples to spread each ripple making my stomach lurch as pain racks my body.
System Message: [-6] Health {Raw}
As I fall to the ground I watch the projectile wobble around the thread as it flies through the air. On impact the rod is driven into the wall at an angle and implodes and blackness takes me. As I open my eyes my head throbs at the slightest movements. Deciding not to push my limits again I decide to check the suns position and go get some food. My stomach growling in rhythm with my throbbing head. Moving to the front of the cave I can see that the sun is very low in the sky, rapidly approaching the horizon. My gaze catches on the spear hole where the lizard was killed. Dipping my head as I move towards the pond I find myself walking in sadness, regret weighing heavily on my shoulders. As I arrive at the pond I take stock of my surroundings the sun is still just above the horizon painting the sky in a dark red. The owls are nowhere in sight but the balls of bone from their feast yesterday sit a short distance away. Dipping my tail into the water in what is now a familiar action I get to work. My first breath sends five fish bobbing to the surface, extending my wing over the surface of the pond a pull them all close to me. I devour all of them quickly previously it would take me multiple bites to get a single fish down, with my increased size I can easily eat a whole fish with single bite. My stomach growls for more so I dip my tail back in. In a short time I''ve got another small crowd of fish and release my breath again, only catching four this time. I snatch them up quickly and my stomach seems to be approaching full. The third time I watch as six fish bob to the surface I get a prompt I wasn''t expecting.
System Message: Skill Rank up: Fishing; Rank 0->1
*Huh, so there is a fishing skill! I wonder what changed and how it will affect my ability to catch them.* I eat three of the fish, filling my stomach, and grab the other three to bring back to the lizards. Quickly arriving back at the cave I''m met by one of the lizards at the entrance. Seeing the fish they do what I can only assume is a ''happy'' dance. They follow me into the cave and up to the main room. I drop the fish at the top and the lizards all dig in, happy to give them something in return for their companionship I return to my spot at the back of the cave. I begin to experiment with my mana again, making more of the cone shaped projectiles. After easily an hour slips by I get another system message that surprises me.
System Message: Skill Rank up: Aura Sight Rank 2 -> 3 (Max)
I immediately start looking around and notice that there seems to be no difference, disappointed at the seeming lack of change I shut off my Aura sight. Instead of the Aura sight snapping off like I am used to it seems to rapidly dim. Instead of shutting off entirely as it allows me to see Auras as well as see in the visible spectrum. I try to turn my Aura sight up like a dimmable light and find that I can control the level of my Aura sight fully now. *Does this mean I can use it during the day now? That would be a huge boon.* Setting it to the lowest setting I begin experimenting again with my mana. Only seeing faint lines instead of the threads I was able to see before I turn it back up fully and try to expand on my cone construct. Releasing my current experiment I can feel my Aura sight automatically flick to the lowest setting as the missile impacts the wall. The flash I''m used to is almost entirely negated making it so I can watch exactly what happens as the rod is launched forwards by the implosion of the spiraled threads. Insight flashes across my mind and I begin making a new missile, this time building it two threads at a time, wrapping them in opposite directions around the central rod of mana. The missile seems to vibrate with anticipation as I complete the new construct. Sending it at the wall I watch in amazement at the destruction caused by the small missile. Beginning to rapidly craft new missiles and send them at the wall I find my ability to craft them rapidly increasing, my speed being the major change. I get to the point where I can craft a missile in roughly three heart beats. *I wonder if I can make multiple at once.* The thought inspiring me I begin trying to construct two at once, the mental strain brings back the headaches but not enough to prevent me from pushing forwards. Making two at once causes my speed to be cut by far more than half. Unable to focus on my heart beats to time it I can''t tell exactly how much longer it takes. *It''s much more difficult but I can create multiple, that might be worth exploring. I wonder if I can hold them and create more.* Creating two missiles I move them to float next to my head, crafting two more I feel the strain grow, it is much more than the crafting of two by themselves and I find myself struggling to complete them. My head starts to pound as I complete the third and fourth missiles. Knowing that making more would be a terrible idea I move these missiles up next to the other two, having two missiles floating on either side of my head. Even trying to draw another thread of mana shoots pain through my head. *Interesting so even though it''s not connected to my mana anymore these both seem to put a strain on me.* Checking on the reserve of mana within me I notice that the density of the mana leaves it almost entirely transparent. Releasing all four of the missiles in quick succession I watch as the mana rapidly regains it''s density. *So I can maintain for missiles currently, and that puts my mana at essentially zero. Trying to pull beyond that makes the headaches unbearable. It must be possible to increase that maximum amount. Mana manipulation was upgraded by trying to pull multiple threads so that doesn''t seem to be the skill related to maximum capacity. It will probably be worth it to focus on increasing the amount of threads I can pull at once. If I could get to eight threads simultaneously I could create a new missile within a single heart beat.* Howls in the distance bring me back to the present. Sounding close I move to the front of the cave, sweeping the horizon with my Aura sight. I can see a large group of wolves approaching the cave. Looking over my shoulder I see only five of the six lizards. *Not again* Searching the close bushes I can see the final lizard running towards the cave. I start making missiles, crafting one at a time to do it as quickly as possible I quickly have four floating around my head. The wolves rapidly close the distance in the woods much faster than the small lizard. I snap my wings out and glide down to where the lizard is. *Stay still* I mentally project to the lizard. It looks at me and stops moving. Picking it up gingerly with my mouth I turn turn towards the cave. The wolves crash through the bushes as I launch towards the cave I can feel the breath of the nearest one as it snaps at the spot I was in. Sending one of the missiles at it I can see over my shoulder as the missile impacts the wolf at the base of its neck. The blood sprays out from the wound and the wolf cries out in pain. Sending two more of my missiles at it the cries intensify. I land at the caves entrance lizard still in my mouth and dash inside. Placing the lizard down slightly up the caves slope it shoots off to the main room, I turn to face the wolves. The wolf I already hit three times is walking with a limp but still very much in the fight. I count the wolves now that the lizards are safe and find myself facing nine total wolves. None of these wolves are small like in my previous encounter all of them clearly fully grown. Not wasting anymore time I launch my last missile at the wolf I previously injured, it leaps to the side as the missile flies at it. My shot goes wide popping as it hits the bushes behind the wolf. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Retreating into the cave I craft another four missiles before moving back to the mouth of the cave. I launch all four in rapid fire at the wolf two of them making contact as the other two fly wide. The wolf is limping heavily as I retreat back into the cave again. *Are they really going to let me get away this?* I think as I craft four new missiles. Watching my mana density to make sure I don''t knock myself out again, I find I can craft one missile at a time with the rate at which my mana density recovers. Stepping forwards I take aim and then I see movement to my right. The wolf having crept up on me as I was focusing on my mana density and crafting the missiles. My two of my missiles are already in the air towards the first wolf. I try to jump backwards but the wolf is to fast. It grabs my wing and I can feel the intense pain as it''s fangs close on the wing. My scales seem to be holding for a moment before the fang punctures the wing. My mind blanks as the pain becomes all I can focus on. I let the other two missiles fly at the wolf hoping it will release my wing, the blood splashes as the missiles impact the top of its head but the pressure doesn''t release. Falling back on my best defense so far I release the entirety of my breath into it''s face, since ranking it up I haven''t seen the entire cloud at once. It blasts outwards the deep purple accented with dark reds and almost black greens. Where it touches the wolf the dark veins shoot through its aura. The pain is finally enough to get the wolf to release my wing. Pulling it back in and retreating into my cave I see another one of the wolves lunge from the left of the cave. It''s body impacts the cave wall before retreating so that the dark cloud of my breath doesn''t touch it. My wing is pure agony, curling it back into my side I try to survey the damage. There are four puncture wounds along the length of the wing, all large enough to fit my fist through. Checking the system message to see how much damage that was, my jaw drops.
System Message: [-18] Health {Piercing}
*Wow. If they had caught me like that on day one I would''ve been dead twice over. Looks like those ranks in scales were not enough. I need to increase their strength!* Watching from the safety of my cave I can see the wolf''s aura is drained of its density. The dark veins rapidly drawing the density out. Just like with the smaller wolf it''s howls of pain continue until density drops below a quarter, after that the sounds of whimpers take over before the silence comes. From my vantage point it looks like the wolf tried to retreat to the bushes but did not make it. Looking at the other eight wolves I can pick out the one that I hit with the missiles, it''s Aura patchy where the missiles hit it. Watching intently I can see that the Aura from the surrounding area seems to pump into the holes. This dims the surrounding Aura but doesn''t seem to fill the holes. *Do wounds drain your Aura?* Watching through my Aura sight I see the wolves waiting at the edge of the bushes, the wounded one hanging back slightly. I begin crafting another four missiles two at a time as I finish the second set I step forwards so I have line of sight of the wounded wolf. Sending one missile aiming for it''s left shoulder the other three I send just behind the first, aiming towards the right of the wolf. The wolf sees the first missile and immediately dodges right, the next three missiles slamming into the side of its head. Impacting one right after the other, the wolf''s head lifts to the right before the body drops limp. I watch as the dense Aura of it''s brain shatters like a star, blasting out into the rest of its aura before it dissipates. *Is that what the giant did to that wolf??* The seven remaining wolves still show no sign of backing off. A head ache slowly growing I realize I can''t keep this assault up. *Fuck* Crafting four more missiles I move back to the front of the cave, choosing one of the wolves to be the next victim I let them loose. Instead of just sending them in a straight line I attempt to control them along their flight. They curve slightly as the wolf dodges, all four impacting the thigh of its back leg. The wolf lets out a yelp as the missiles impact not expecting it''s dodge to fail. *Homing Missiles!* Checking my breath organ I can feel that it''s roughly a quarter full. Knowing that''s not enough to kill I decide to not try to bait another attack. I pull back into the cave creating another four missiles and then step forwards and let them loose on the same wolf. Only two manage to hit, the wolf having learned to continue moving instead of dodging and then stopping. Repeating this process another four times I manage to landing a hand full of hits, the wolf clearly showing that the hits are taking a toll. Checking my breath organ, as my headache pounds inside my skull, I see that it''s approaching three quarters full. *Fuck I hope that''s enough.* I create another two missiles, not wanting to risk losing focus and having them explode due to my rapidly growing head ache. Instead of stopping at the cave mouth I take two steps forwards as I launch the missiles. The two wolves closest to the cave''s mouth both launch forwards, expecting this result I am ready and launch myself backwards. Releasing the entire contents of my breath organ for the second time today I land on my back just inside the cave. The wolves being mid lunge are unable to stop as the cloud expands outwards, both flying into it. Watching in satisfaction as the dark veins shoot through their auras I roll over and start walking back up to the main room of the cave. *Don''t leave* I project to the lizards, trying to send the thought to all of them. They nod back at me, my telepathy clearly much more effective since choosing the mental mutation. Hoping that they fully understood me I lay down at the back of the cave. My brain feels like it is being repeatedly stabbed as I watch the two unfortunate wolves. Their Auras dissipating quickly as I watch. Pulling up the system messages I have been ignoring I see that I have fifteen fish and four wolves worth of attributes to distribute.
STR +0.29 = 7.03
AGI+(0.31 +0.3 +0.28)= 7.21
DEX +(0.19+0.18+0.18+0.17+0.17+0.16) = 6.13
CON +(0.16+0.16+0.15+0.15) = 6.77
The fish out of the way I move onto the wolves.
PER (Primary) +2 =7.11
CON (+0.73+0.66) =8.16
STR +0.99 = 8.02
System Message: Level 6 - 6 Trait points gained, 11 total available trait points.
*I completely forgot about those trait points with the excitement over my magic. Now I have some real choices to make. I could bring wings and scales to rank four and then breath and mental to rank three. I rarely use my claws outside of digging at this point. If I keep tinkering with these mana constructs I have no doubt that they will be much more powerful than claws anyways.* I put three traits points into scales. The same whirlpools of Aura appear above all of my scales. The density of the scales growing to the point that I can see each scale distinctly in aura sight. Turning my Aura sight down to the minimum I watch the patterns on my scales become much more three dimensional. The appearance of looking into something that is deeper than it should be grows as well. The small nebulas growing more distinct and small pin pricks of light begin to appear within them. *I hope that doesn''t make me more visible at night, that would be terrible.* Looking back towards my tail I can see that the pin pricks of light are not visible beyond a short distance. No longer concerned with being a beacon at night I turn to my wings. Putting three trait points into wings the familiar feeling of stretching starts. The cave preventing me from being able to fully extend them they press against the walls. They grow in size but not nearly as much proportionately as before, the major change is the growth of three digits at the bend in each wing. Each of the digits is tipped with a claw, flexing the digits I find that I can articulate them fairly well. Folding my wings back into my body I notice that the pain is still there but the visible damage is gone from my right wing. The wings wrap around my sides fully now, the three digits on each wing interlocking in front of my chest. It feels like I am wearing a scale mail cloak now, but I still don''t feel as though I''m all that protected after watching what happened with the wolf. Moving to breath I allocate two of my remaining trait points, focusing on my breath organ I feel the breath currently inside of it condensing further. It now feels like it is approaching a liquid state within the organ. *Huh, I expected the red and greens in the breath to grow and the density to increase again but I didn''t expect it to start feeling like a liquid. I hope this doesn''t make it function more like a liquid when I breath it out. The smoke like effect has been very effective.* I put two of my remaining three points into mental, unsure of the effects of this because of the mutation, hoping it doesn''t make my head ache worse. I can feel something changing but I can''t put a finger on exactly what is changing. My head ache lessens as the change happens but that is the only change I can feel distinctly. *Huh that was weird did it change my mana at all?* Looking to the ball of mana in my core I can''t see a noticeable change to it, with my lessened head ache I choose to risk making more missiles. I can still only make four before my mana is a wispy cloud instead of a dense ball. *Well that is very strange.* I think as I move to the cave entrance, not wanting to waste this new set of missiles. Two lizards had posted back up on guard duty, which feels more like an alarm duty than guard duty at this point. As I pass close to them I can feel their fear, I could tell they were afraid before but that was just body language. Now I can actually sense it coming off them. Focusing on both of them I try to project *Don''t worry, I''ll keep you safe* they visibly relax as I message pops up in my vision.
Skill Telepathy, Rank 0 -> Rank 1
*So she wasn''t lying when she said I could become telepathic based on my choices. I''m assuming if I had picked physical I wouldn''t have gotten it to this degree, but I also probably wouldn''t have been a chew toy either... I wonder if that was due to the rank up with Mental or if it was just successfully using telepathy that caused the rank up. I wish there was just an experience bar at this point.* Turning my Aura sight up I locate the previously injured wolf noticing that it''s moved off to the side of the cave. The wolves closer to the cave are pressed close to the cliff wall and much closer than the previous two were. Knowing if I show my self outside the cave that I will not make it back in, I line up on the wolf in the center position. Releasing all four missiles at once I notice that they fly much faster than previously. All four surprising the wolf and slamming into it''s side as it tries to dodge away. The impacts visibly moving the wolf as it''s mid air. *Wow, so mental made it so I can move the missiles faster as well? It must have something to do with the manipulation of the constructs then as well.* The wolf is clearly not impressed but the pack still isn''t leaving. Peaking around as much as I can without presenting myself as a target I try to assess my current situation. *They don''t seem like they are going to just leave this time. I wonder if it has something to do with the giants hunting them or if this is just a grudge against me at this point. I don''t seem myself making any progress on this tonight, I might be able to bait another two into my breath but if they catch me again I''m done. My scales and wings are definitely stronger but that wolf''s fangs tore right through my wing the last time it got me. I might be able to take off and fly out of the cave but I would have to gain some serious altitude to get away from them and my starting point would be below them. Maybe I can make a side tunnel or dig up to the top of the cliff, but that would take days of digging to get that far.* Unsure of my next move I decide to go back into the main room of the cave and focus on testing out my magic more before going to sleep. Hoping that the wolves decide to leave during the night. Knowing that they probably wont and if they don''t we will either starve in the cave or die trying to break out. *I still haven''t tested my other affinity, but how do I even go about shaping a construct to use ''space''.* I pull a thread of mana, my head ache still present but not overwhelming. Thinking about how I would go about using the affinity I notice that the thread feels strange. Looking down at my core I can see that the thread is very different, instead of a thread its more like a flat ribbon. The ribbon of mana having the appearance of being a black void. Pulling the ribbon up into my palm I being to bend it and try to shape it like I did with the initial ball. I find that it does not react at all like the Raw mana threads did. It has a weird sensation that comes along with it, like I can move it in and out instead of just in three dimensional space. Pushing in on the ribbon I notice that it bulges inwards, creating a small amount of space in the ribbon itself. Turning it over I can see that it is still completely flat from the side. When I manage to look at it straight on the edge it appears to have no thickness at all. Pulling my left hand up I poke the side of the ribbon I had pushed in with my index claw. The claw goes into the space I can feel I had created but doesn''t come out the other side. *Um, okay. So that must be how pocket dimensions are made. Now how do I actually form this in a useful way. Can I stretch it to be wider?* As the thought crosses my mind I pull my claw out, not wanting to experiment with my body parts inside it. Trying to stretch the ribbon shows immediately results, the ribbon rapidly becoming as wide as my palm. As I continue to stretch it the throbbing head aches being to grow. I stop stretching the ribbon not wanting to find out what happens when a ribbon of Space mana catastrophically fails. I cut a rock from the wall and place it in the ribbon, it floats where I release it. Looking at the side of the ribbon I still see no edge, and the rock is completely out of sight. *Can I use this as storage? I wonder if I can place living things inside as well.* I try to fold the ribbon closed and it easily folds like a piece of paper would. Unfolding it I can still see the rock in the same position relative to the edges. I cut the flow of mana to the ribbon hoping it doesn''t explode in my face, it just hangs there. I can still move it around with my mind and fold it but I can''t seem to push it in anymore the feeling completely gone. I pluck the rock form the center and watch as the ribbon does nothing. *So it''s essentially a ribbon of dimensional storage? That''s... amazing. I need to test this further, but I''m not going to test it on the lizards, I''ll have to go get a fish to test the living creature part.* Briefly checking on the wolves I note that they are still circled around the cave. Knowing I won''t be able to leave I decide to start an excavation project. I dig into the left wall of the cave opposite the bedroom tunnel. I make the tunnel wide enough to easily fit my whole body as well as long. I continue digging until I can stretch my head out and touch the far wall with the tip of my tail barely inside the tunnel, using this as a basis for my measurement back to the main cave. The pile of debris growing rapidly as I dig. I fill the small ribbon of space I have with as much rock as it can hold and then turn it so the hole is facing down, the rocks fall out of the space and clatter to the ground. The lizards come out of the bedroom to check on the sounds. *Don''t worry, it''s okay!* They seem to understand and they pile back into the bedroom. Filling the space ribbon back up I fold it and then turn it upside down, nothing happens. Unfolding the ribbon without changing it''s orientation causes the ribbon to discharge its contents onto the ground. Pulling a ribbon of mana from my core I try to attach it back to the ribbon I have in front of me hoping it allows me to modify it further. The new ribbon snaps to the old ribbon I can feel the new dimension again in the stretched ribbon and try to push it as far in as I can. The depth easily three times more than previously before the strain of pushing becomes to much. I release the mana flowing into it again and fill it with rocks. Folding it into itself I move to the front of the cave, and upend it just outside of the cave. The wolf on the left must have thought it was me coming out because it lunges, snapping up the ribbon of space mana and the remaining rocks. Unsure of what is about to happen I watch as the wolf looks around in confusion before it starts convulsing. It cries out in pain as I lose my connection to the space ribbon, turning my Aura sight up I can see a deep gouge through the wolf''s aura it seems to stop around it''s stomach area. The wolf begins to vomit blood as it tries to run into the forest. Making it to the edge of the bushes before it collapses, a trail of blood follows its path from the cave entrance. *What. The. Fuck.* I notice that the normal attribute distribution window doesn''t appear for that kill. Surprising me because that''s the first time killing something hasn''t lead to that window appearing. *Can I not use the space ribbons to kill things, or did it not die to the spell itself and the rocks are what killed it?* I move back up to the debris pile and begin forming another space ribbon, I expand it as far as I can before pushing it in as far as it will go. I fill this with more of the debris and then fold it into itself. Trying to move it with just my mind I find I can move it roughly two wings away from myself before it doesn''t go any farther. I take a step back wondering what will happen, it moves roughly one step closer to me. *Interesting so it''s attached to me, that''s really good to know.* I have to walk only half way down the slope before the space ribbon is outside the cave, unfolding it and upending it I watch the four remaining wolves. They seem to have learned from their friend and none of them attack. *I wonder if I can have multiple of these and if it impacts my Raw missile amount.* I test the Raw missiles first and find that I can still form four before the head aches start. Sending them into the wall I being to pull a space ribbon, as I bring it up before me I try to stretch it like I did on the first one and immediately the headache starts pounding away in my skull. Releasing the entire construct I resign myself to having only one active at a time. It takes another five trips before I''ve cleared the debris from my excavation. I walk back into the new tunnel and when I reach the end I turn to the right and begin digging. After a few minutes inspiration strikes and I walk back to the main cavern and put my head up into the bedroom. *Can one of you stand guard?* I project to the lizards. They all snap awake and start moving towards me. *You don''t all need to come. How about you.* I project looking at the closest. It nods back at me and I retract my head from the tunnel. Moving back into my new excavation I turn my Aura sight up so I can see the lizard at the guard spot. Using it as a reference point I continue digging the new reference point allowing me to realize I was digging off at an angle away from the cave. I keep digging like this for a long time, periodically filling my space ribbon, Space Bag, up with debris and dumping it outside the cave. I use the wolves Auras as a marker for how close I am to the edge of the cliff. As I approach what I feel is the edge I slow my progression, digging a small hole in the middle to make sure I don''t break through unexpectedly. As my claw breaks through I watch to see for any reaction from the wolves. They don''t seem to notice yet but I know they will in a moment. Sending my Space Bag through the hole I dump the debris I have stored inside. They all react to the clattering stone jumping away from the sound. This new tunnel comes out roughly a wolf and a half high. *They can definitely still reach me up here but only if I''m not careful. They will have to jump and should be limited to just biting at me.* With that thought in mind I begin excavating a larger area behind the small hole making a room that allows me to comfortably turn around in, periodically dumping the debris out of the small hole. After I finish excavating the room I go back to the lizard on guard duty. *Go get some sleep we should be okay for now.* It nods to me as I project that, scampering back up into the bedroom area. *This telepathy is super helpful for communicating with them, I''m surprised they can''t respond though. I wonder if it''s part of the telepathies limitations or their limitations. Can get attributes from killing like I can? I''ll have to try and catch a living fish and find away from them to kill it instead of me. I could make the Space Bag into a Space Aquarium to carry one from the pond. It would also allow me to test the living things portion.* Moving back to my new fortification room I being making the hole larger so that I can shoot out of it. I begin crafting two missiles at once, trying to make them as complicated as possible to work on my ability to create them. I find that I can now hold four threads of mana at once with only a small head ache instead now, I keep layering more and more threads onto the central rod attempting to make them as large as possible. After a significant amount of time I see the threads begin to tremble slightly so I stop building them. They are easily three times larger than the previous ones I''ve created but they have lost the sleek cone design of the smaller ones. Focusing on one of the missiles I try to compress it down getting it to roughly half the size and making it much more aerodynamic looking. I pull a single thread of mana and wrap it around the missile hoping that it will keep it compressed. I am elated when it works, instead of just blowing up in my face. I line up the bulky missile at the closest wolf and launch it, the wolf doesn''t even see it until it is half way to the wolf. It dodges to the right as I shoot the second condensed missile at where I think it will be landing. The first missile grazes it''s hind leg blood shooting from the wound. The second missile catches it in the shoulder as it lands, spraying a massive amount of blood into the air the wolf pitching forwards as the leg loses its ability to carry its weight momentarily. It''s able to pick itself back up but is clearly favoring the leg. *Well then, I doubt I''ll be able to get away with that sneak attack again but at least I''ve improved my ability to make missiles as well as my ability to control threads.* I feel exhausted, this siege on my home becoming very frustrating with its protracted nature. Knowing that it''s a matter of time before I can clear them out I realize that it is inevitable but it will be time intensive. My body and mind are both feeling the effects of this protracted defense as well as the digging required to make my new attack tunnel. I move back to the main room of the cave and laydown at the back wall. As I lay there one of the lizards pokes its head out of bedroom. Seeing me laying down it walks over and lays down pressed against me. The weight of it''s body giving me a massive sense of relief and comfort that I didn''t realize I needed. *I guess I''ll have to dig the tunnel out into the bedroom at this point. I wish I could have left it the way it is to protect them more, but if they like sleeping next to me I''m not going to tell them not to. Their companionship is priceless in this world of wolves and giants.* My mind finds peace for the first time since the siege began and I drift off to sleep. Day 6, Blood and Gore In my dreams I hurtle through the sky eastward, towards a massive chain of mountains. I dive in between two of the mountains down to a raging river. The river flies by below me as I approached a massive waterfall, plunging through I find myself in a cave. A single egg sitting in a cave much like my own. I hear a receding *Click Click Click* of high heels behind me as the dream fades. My eyes snap open my right wing still sore from being a chew toy yesterday, I try to stretch it to relieve some of the soreness. The stretching bringing new pain before the soreness slowly recedes. *Was that real or is she just fucking with me?* The thought flits across my mind as I remember the dream, trying to keep the images in my mind as I begin assessing my surroundings. Two of the lizards are in their usual guard spots I start turning up my Aura sight to check on the wolves. None are visible seeming to have left during the night I begin walking towards the cave entrance. The wolf bodies are in the same spots that they were the night before, my cave entrance beginning to look like a zone of death. Chunks are missing from most of the bodies, showing that scavengers have already started to make meals out of the wolves. I move to the one close by the cave entrance on the right, eating my fill before taking a few massive chunks back up into the cave. I drop the chunks by the lizards as I move to the back of the cave thinking about what my next moves will be. The lizards begin feasting as I lay down. *I''ll need to go test the Space Bag on the fish. Should be easy enough to catch them but how do I get the lizards to kill them?* I watch the lizards eat, enjoying the moment of relaxation after the constant anxiety of the night before. After a few minutes of enjoying the moment I get up and begin moving towards the pond. Quickly arriving at the pond I take stock of the fish, their numbers seem to have not dropped at all. *Where are they coming from? I''ve had multiple rounds of fishing and no matter how many I take it seems to not make a difference.* Filing the thought away as another thing I will need to investigate I dip my tail in, beginning the now familiar routine of fishing. Instead of using my breath this time I slip my folded space bag under the group of fish as they stare at my tail. I snap it open and the water and fish rush in as I fold it back up. Moving the folded Space ribbon up next to me I begin slowly unfolding it. A fish jumps out, slapping off my snout as it makes its escape. Chuckling I fold the Space ribbon back up grabbing the fish in my mouth and beginning my trek back to the cave. The walk is short enough that the fish is still fighting within my jaws as I get back inside but is clearly starting to fade. I drop the fish between the two guard lizards, hoping they will catch on. They both skitter away from the flopping fish though. Which makes sense as I watch because the fish is easily three quarters of their size. *Kill it* I project at the nearest lizard. It tilts its head in response. *Kill it* I project again, this time shaking my head back and forth. The lizard seeming to have caught on picks the fish up in its jaws and begins thrashing back and forth. The fish''s tail slapping the ground causes the lizard to flip over but it doesn''t let go. It continues to shake its head back and forth before eventually managing to bash the fish''s head off the ground of the cave. The fish goes limp, its aura dissipating. The lizard drops the fish from its mouth and tries to lick the air. *Holy shit it worked, it must be trying to lick the system window.* It licks the air two more times before I notice an immediate change, the Aura around the lizard solidifies slightly, it''s muscles growing before my eyes. The muscles finish growing and then the Aura of the lizard as a whole starts to condense. It''s Aura density easily fifty percent denser than the others now. *So it chose strength... Was that intentional or did it just happen to hit it? What was that with its Aura too??* Unfolding the Space Bag I look in and see that the fish are still swimming but seem lethargic. I pull one out and hold it out to the lizard. *Choose INT this time* I project as I push the fish to it. The lizard snatches it up by the tail and vigorously shakes its head back and forth. The fish rebounding twice off the cave floor before its aura dissipates. The lizard licks the air again, unsure as to what it picked I watch intently as the denser spot that represents its brain seems to condense further. *Yes! If I can get them to be more intelligent they might be able to respond!* Pulling the final two fish from my Space bag I project again *Choose INT both times!!*. The lizard grabs the first fish by the tail and arcs it over its body, slamming it into the cave floor. The move seemed intentional where as the previous two kills seemed to be just coincidence. The lizard licks the air again but the Aura showing it''s brain doesn''t seem to alter that much if at all. It picks up the final fish and does the same move, arching it up and over before smashing it down into the cave floor. Licking the air for the fourth time I watch as the aura around its brain condenses again. Its easily triple the density of the other lizards brains at this point. Hoping that it worked I project *Did it work?* There is a moment before I hear a timid *yuss* back. I jump for joy, finally able to communicate with the lizards or at least one of them. *Do you have a name?* I question the lizard. It''s head tilting to the side in response *Fuck, I guess it''s not that much more intelligent I''ll need to got get more fish, but if it''s anything like my attribute gains it''s going to take more and more to increase it''s intelligence further.* *Can you communicate with the others?* The lizard shakes its head in response. *Damn, I guess that was a little to much to hope for. Stay here I''ll go get more fish, make sure the others eat and try to stay in the cave.* Hoping the message wasn''t to complicated I move to the back of the cave and dig a small bowl, unfolding the ribbon of Space I upend it over the bowl. The water pours out quickly leaving an empty pocket of Space. The bowl quickly fills with water, unintentionally giving me a metric to measure the capacity of my Space bag. I dig the bowl even larger so that I can fit my torso within the bowl. After completing the excavation I gather up the debris and move back to the front of the cave. Dumping the debris at the entrance I survey my surroundings. The sun is still high in the sky, imbuing the world with a pink aura. I can see bugs and insects flying around as well as crawling all over the wolf corpses. *So that Aura sight increase must have also increased what I can see on top of the greater control of its intensity.* Seeing nothing that looks like it could threaten me I make another trip to the lake. After a short time with my tail dipped in the water a group of six fish have come to check it out. Maneuvering my Space bag beneath them I unfold it and watch as they get sucked into it. Quickly folding it back up I move back to the cave. Trying to move quicker this time I use my wings to do small hops and then glides, staying below the top of the bushes that are nearby to prevent me from being spotted again. Arriving back in the cave I unfold the bag and upend it into the large bowl, the water and fish falling out. The water is not nearly deep enough for the fish to thrive but they still seem to have a lot of energy left. Moving up to the lizard from the previous test I project *Kill these too, choose INT again* The lizard moves into the shallow puddle and grabs one of the fish by its tail and smashes it into the ground. Repeating this process two more times I watch as the density of its brain slowly grows before rapidly gaining density on the final fish. It moves to the last three fish and I watch as its brain density slowly grows again. *Interesting, so rapid density gain must be when it gains the full attribute value. That puts it at three increases in its INT since this started, the density is now easily quadruple the density of its fellow lizards. Does that mean it''s now at a four INT and the other lizards are at a one? It was able to respond at three if that''s the case. It also seemed to become much more efficient at killing them after gaining a single point.* Thinking of how I can test its increase in INT I project *Can you understand me better now?* *Yess* The responding mental voice seems much more coherent, previously it sounded closer to a mouth that was full responding to me. *Can you speak more than just Yes?* *I try* Its capability still limited but clearly more advanced than it was before these fish. *Can you tell how many more fish it would take to level up your INT again?* Its head tilts to the side at my question. *Well that was worth a try but I guess I should reduce my expectations. I''m guessing one more fish to five based on the amounts that it has taken so far. Then it will probably be roughly five fish to six INT. That''s a lot of trips to get them all to that point. If I can get them to the point where we can all communicate that would be hugely beneficial. It would also provide a constant food source if I do it slowly over time instead of just all at once.* *Do you need to leave the cave if I bring food?* I project to the lizard *Water* It sends back. *Okay, can you drink this water?* I project while pointing with my wing to the puddle. *Yess* *Stay in the cave then, I don''t want any more of you getting injured.* It nods its head in response, feeling that I have made massive strides with the lizards for the day I turn back to my magic. Connecting a Space ribbon to the large sheet of the unfolded Space bag, I try to stretch it more, the strain on my mind less than the previous day allowing me to stretch it further. Thinking that the capability with my mana must be like a muscle I continue to stretch it. As I slowly stretch the sheet of Space my head ache continues to grow, I push myself to where my vision begins to blur before releasing the attached ribbon. The sheet of Space is only marginally larger but it feels like a step forwards for improving my capabilities. Giving me at least a direction to work towards with my Space affinity. After the head ache subsides to a dull ache at the front of my skull I reattach the ribbon from my core of mana to the sheet of Space, this time I try to push in further on the sheet of space. This dimension already being stretched to the maximum the head ache immediately come back with force, not relenting though I continue to push. I try to keep focus on pushing in more as the head ache becomes all consuming and my vision begins to blur. Knowing this is my stopping point for the exercise I stop. I cant tell if I made it any deeper and I don''t have a great way to experiment on how much if at all it''s changed. Hoping I didn''t just give myself a head ache for no reason I lay down in the main room of the cave and try to relax. I watch as the lizards explore the cave expansions, shooting up the defensive side tunnel on the West side of the cave before shooting back down and splashing around in the puddle. The enhanced lizard watching protectively as the others splash around in the puddle it never joins in though. *Do you have a name?* I project to the lizard *Name* It sends back as it tilts its head. *Something I can call you* It stares at me for a long time before the response comes *Grek my name* *Grek, I like it! I will need to go get more fish and water to help the others become more powerful as well, can you make sure they don''t leave while I am gone?* *Yess Grek watch* The response coming quickly, giving me hope that the lizard understands more than it can communicate. My head ache having subsided I being moving back to the entrance of the cave. Making sure there are no threats close by I turn East to the pond and launch into the air, staying just below the bush tops hoping it prevents me from being seen. The single launch allowing me to glide to the edge of the pond. Setting up again I begin fishing, this time only four fish take the bait, I move the Space bag under them and unfold it. I manage to catch them all in the bag folding it back up and moving it beside me. I slowly unfold it trying to prevent them from getting out and peer inside. I can see that there is a lot more water than what I expected there to be inside. *So that stretching made a lot more of a difference than I thought.* I launch back towards the cave taking large hops with the assistance of my wings I quickly arrive back at the cave. I walk to the back and upend the fish and water into the small puddle. The fish having enough water to swim around gives me confidence that they wont just die due to not enough water. I take two more trips back to the pond, only catching another six fish between the two trips. More importantly the puddle grows significantly in depth, the ten fish now swimming around happily inside. The lizards having finished off most of the previous fish before getting their fill leaving three untouched fish, I scoop them up and eat them. My head ache having subsided to a dull ache I reattach a Space ribbon to my bag and being stretching it again. I stretch it slowly but the headache begins immediately, the pain growing quickly but I can feel a small degree of progress being made. I end the mana flow as my vision begins to fade again. The head ache raging doesn''t stop me from feeling like I am still making progress. This progress making me feel like the pain is worth it even if it is only incremental. As I wait for my head ache to subside I decide to keep digging out the cave, focusing on my defensive area. I make the room behind my small shooting hole even larger, the room now allowing me to spread one of my wings out while inside. I continue using the Space bag to dump the debris out of the small hole. My head ache slowly recedes as I work on the space. Feeling that I''m ready to continue practicing with my mana I start pulling threads of Raw mana. I attempt to pull five threads at once but it is still beyond me to have five going at once. Using all four of my available threads I try to make missiles as quickly as possible. Making them as large as I can before the threads begin vibrating within the missile. I then compress them down before wrapping more threads of mana around them. I find that I can do this process twice before the missile feels incompressible, turning my aura sight down to the minimum I see the missile as a sleek blue cone. With Aura sight turned up to the max I can see the individual threads that make up the missile, each layer spinning in an alternating direction. This first construct giving me confidence I begin working on another, each missile taking a significant amount of time to create. I finish my fourth missile as the world outside of the cave begins to darken significantly. Checking my core of mana I see only wispy mana left my capacity still seemingly limited at holding four missiles, even though these are significantly more advanced constructs. I move back to the main room of the cave, the lizards still playing around in the water even though they have to swim in the middle. The ten fish are still alive but they seem to be swimming much slower than previously. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. *They seem almost sick, I wonder what is causing that. I thought it was just the amount of water but they have a lot of room to swim in there. There must be something else going on.* Focusing on their Aura I don''t notice a difference leading me to believe there is something I''m not understanding about their needs. *Are they hungry? I''ll have to investigate it later.* *Grek, come kill fish until you get to the next INT level.* I project towards them They nod as they jump into the water, dragging one of the fish out of the pond. I notice that the fish doesn''t even fight that hard against Grek. Grek quickly dispatches the fish, licking the air I watch as its brain rapidly grows in density. *Huh Grek was only one fish away...* The other lizards move over to the fish corpse but defer to Grek before eating. *Grek can you show the others how to kill fish?* *Yess* The response comes quickly. I watch as Grek shows them each how to grab a fish and then slap the fish off the ground, the five lizards quickly picking up how to do it. They all have the same response after the fish dies, licking at the air in front of them. I watch as each lizards muscles grow in thickness making them all look significantly stronger. With only four fish left I project to the nearest lizard *Kill the rest and choose INT* It looks at me confused for a minute before diving into the water and pulling a fish out. It dispatches the fish much quicker with its increased strength. It pauses after the fish dies before licking the air. I watch as its brain grows in Aura density and it moves back into the water repeating the process three more times its brain only growing in density once more. The final fish only marginally increasing the brains density. *Good job, Can you understand me better now?* I project to it. *Yuss* it responds. The same speech patterns that Grek had before their intelligence was increased more. *Well that means this is repeatable and I have a good way to increase their capabilities. It comes at the cost of my own progress but this certainly feels worth it. I will have to make it a regular part of my time to bring back fish for them. Hopefully the Space bag will continue to grow and I will be able to bring back more fish for them to safely gain attributes from.* Noting the difference now in the Aura density between Grek and this second lizard I notice that Grek''s brain is still roughly two thirds more dense. I try to communicate with the second lizard to get a name from it but after repeated attempts I can''t seem to get it to understand what I''m asking. My attempts to get it to understand are interrupted by a loud howl that seems to be very close. Maxing my Aura sight I can see the Auras of another group of wolves, much larger than the previous nights moving towards me. I move to the front of the cave to mount a defense, hoping they will be foolish enough to come in range of my breath. The wolves spread out, giving me a moment to realize there are twelve of them tonight. The wolf in the middle is larger than the others, as it moves into the clearing before my cave I can see that it is easily thirty percent larger than the other wolves. Making it so I would barely come half way up its legs if I were to stand next to it. It sees me immediately and it lets out a howl that rocks my bones. The sound causing dust to rise slightly from the loose soil around it. I flare my wings out to the side and roar back, my attempt at being threatening comes out as a loud hiss-croak. The wolf tilts its head in confusion as I do this, sitting down and just staring at me as the other wolves complete their surround of my cave. Pulling my wings back into their protective layer I watch intently as the wolves stay out of my range. *Why do you keep attacking me* I try to project to the larger wolf, hoping that it''s within range of my telepathy and understands. It tilts its head again as I project the thoughts to it but it either doesn''t understand or choose not to respond. The two wolves closest to the cliff begin slowly edging towards me. My expanded vision cone allowing me to easily see them as they creep closer. *Well I guess that explains why my vision is set up between a predators vision and a preys vision.* I take a step back into the cave to see what their reaction is and they both stop right as I move. Trying to pretend like I don''t see them I keep my body relaxed staring at the lead wolf. I move one of my advanced Raw missiles out into the space between us, raising it up into the sky until my control on it begins to slip. All of the wolves turn to look at it, as they do this I shoot it down at the lead wolf. I can see it''s muscles tensing through density changes in its aura giving me a hint as to what direction it is going to try to dodge. I try to alter the course of the missile but find my control of it has fled. Realizing this I immediately shoot the other three missiles at where I think the wolf will be landing from its dodge. The missiles shoot off at incredible speed, much faster than the previous missiles I have created. The first missile impacts the ground where the wolf was originally, its sharp angle causing it to impact the ground sending dirt and debris flying in a wide arc into the bushes. The impact creates an audible boom as air is displaced around it. The three missiles I sent at the wolf are almost at it as it realizes they are coming, the detonation of the first having caused its attention to slip. The first missile impacts its shoulder blasting it to the right as a cloud of bloody mist sprays from the wound. The other two missiles flying through where the wolf was and impact a tree behind it. The wood cracks as the missiles explode into its trunk. Causing the tree to being to creak as it starts to lean. The trunk is so massive that even the power of those missiles weren''t enough to drop it. Two of the wolves that were towards the back of the pack run at this exchange. Seeming to have decided this isn''t worth it. The wolf on my left begins to rapidly get closer trying to close the gap as all of this is going on. It pounces when it gets close, I release a quarter of my breath at it as I launch my self backwards. The stream of my breath surprises me, instead of the billowing cloud it is closer to a stream of cloud with a central column of liquid in it that quickly evaporate. The liquid causes the cloud to expand outwards as it evaporates into the usual smoke that I expected. This change in consistency leads to a massive increase in range to my breath, easily going fifty percent farther than I expected and impacting the wolf mid leap. I watch as the dark veins invade its aura but I can immediately tell that they will not be enough to kill it. The pained whimpers immediately start coming from the wolf even before it impacts the ground in front of my cave. The pain seeming to cause it to lose its control of its body momentarily. I quickly form a single Raw missile, making it as large as I can before it tries to get back up. I manage to compress it once before the wolf starts to get back to its feet. Realizing my moment is slipping away I release the missile into the side of its face, aiming for its eye. I miss the eye, the missile impacting just below it explodes into it''s cheek bone. From this close of a distance I can see the bone of it''s skull showing through the large hole that is now below its eye. The eye doesn''t re-open as the wolf scampers away. *Well two cowards and now that wolf is definitely fucked. Even though it probably won''t die it certainly won''t be joining in on this fight again.* Forming one missile at a time, limited by my mana''s regeneration I slowly form an advanced missile. The wolves seem to be debating if this is worth it or not as the first missile is completed. I find that I can complete the advanced form of the missile much quicker than previously but it still takes easily two or three minutes to complete even focusing on just a single missile. I create two more missiles that are only a single compression before I start on another advanced missile. Planning to use the two single compressed missiles as distractions. I focus on the lead wolf, the blood pouring out of its shoulder having caused a large puddle of blood at its feet. I lock eyes with the lead wolf, sending a single compressed missile directly at its face. I follow that missile with one of the advanced missiles, hoping that it reacts before the missile leaves my control. The wolf lunges to the right, its injured leg clearly slowing its movements. I curve the advanced missile towards its new location and see its eyes open with surprise. The missile slamming into the left side of its face. The spray of blood temporarily blocks my vision of the wolf as it howls in pain. When the bloody mist clears I can see that its jaw is now hanging loosely on that side, blood pouring from the new wound. I launch my last single compressed missile at it, once again following with the advanced missile. It sees the first one coming and tries to dodge left this time. I correct the second missile for its new position but have to pull my focus early as the wolf to my right lunges. The wolf clears the distance to the mouth of my cave quickly, but its mad dash leaves it open. I unleash a third of my breath capacity, surprising myself again with the increase in distance. The liquid not even fully evaporating before it hits the wolf. The difference in the liquid form is immediately apparent, it sticks to the fur of the wolf. The wolf backs away as the dark veins begin to permeate its aura, the splotches of liquid evaporating as it pulls away. The liquid doesn''t evaporate into clouds though it evaporates into the wolfs Aura. Instead of veins I can see the dark smoke clouding the aura near the liquid. The veins continue to grow until the liquid breath has completely evaporated. The wolf doesn''t even make it to the edge of the forest before it collapses and dies. Turning my attention back to the lead wolf I see that my second advanced missile impacted its back right leg. The wound just above its knee gushes blood as the wolf tries to back into the bushes. I immediately being forming two small missiles, sending them once they are completed at the wolf. They are only wrapped four times making them as weak as the initial missiles I made but allowing me to continuously make more. The first two half way to the wolf before the second set complete. The wolf tries to dodge the first two but its two injured legs prevent it from moving very far. Both missiles impact its front left shoulder, causing a small amount of blood to spray from the wound. This wound seeming almost superficial compared to the others. The second set of missiles fly wide, managing to hit another wolf that was in the bushes that was seemingly unaware of the missiles and unlucky enough to be in the wrong place. I watch as their Auras slowly pull back from the cave, taking this as a a sign they have decided it isn''t worth it tonight I decide to go on the offensive. I pull back into the safety of my cave, and begin crafting an advanced missile. After I craft four new advanced missiles I find that my mana is regenerating density at a faster rate than previously. Not wanting to miss my opportunity I push the thought away. The wolves were getting towards the edge of my Aura range and I didn''t want to lose them. I launch from the entrance of my cave, flying slightly North West in pursuit of the wolves. My upgraded wings allowing me to gain more altitude and speed per beat. My stamina drain still seems to be consistent with my previous findings. Gliding though, takes almost no stamina now, my stamina drain is so slow that I feel I might be on the verge of gaining stamina while I glide. I try to keep my missiles between my hands as I fly, hoping to prevent the glow from being too obvious to any observers. I catch the wolves quickly and decide to stick to gliding to hopefully prevent them from noticing me. It seems to work because they don''t respond until I''m almost on top of them. The first wolf that notices me jumping up towards me but I am fortunately far out of its range. The largest wolf looks back and sees me flying above it, it tries to move faster but its wounds prevent it from moving all that much faster. As I fly above it I unleash all four missiles at once, I have full control of them all the way to the wolf, sealing its fate. The first two missiles impact its two uninjured legs, causing massive damage to the tops of its shoulders. Hoping that by injuring them I will prevent it from getting away. The last two smash into the back of its skull, causing the wolf to go rigid for a moment. Before the Aura of its brain explodes outwards, the little starbursts of dense Aura causing the rest of its Aura to dissipate. *RUN!* I project to the rest of the wolves. Still unsure if they actually understand me I watch as the death of their apparent leader and the telepathic scream cause them to dash in all different directions, the only common theme being away from me. Hoping that this has ended the feud I bank back towards my cave. Mid bank I see something that causes my heart to skip a beat. Three giants are at the very edge of my aura and are headed in this direction. I push my body hard to get back to the cave, I impact the ground outside hard and run up the slope into the cave. I turn to see the giants are no longer within my aura sight. I survey the ground outside of my cave and feel that they will be investigating this area thoroughly. The four day old wolf corpses, and fresh wolf corpses showing that something is clearly killing wolves near my cave. *Fuck.* I launch down to the nearest body and being shredding it as best I can with my claws and fangs. Chunks of gore flying around as I rip the body to shreds. Checking to see if the giants have come with in range and not seeing them I move to the next body. Shredding it quickly and then moving to the third and fourth. As I am finishing the fourth body the giant Auras appear at the limits of my vision, clearly moving towards me. I use my Space bag and fill it with blood from the now massive puddles on the ground before grabbing one of the wolf heads. I launch myself into the air dragging the wolf skull beneath me. The brain and blood dripping out as I travel west, away from the cave and pond. After traveling a short distance I drop the head and barely unfold the bag and upend it, causing a small stream of blood to pour out as I fly, periodically closing the bag and then opening it for a short time. The blood trail is easily visible behind me as I continue flying away from the cave. The giants still have not arrived at the cave as it leaves my Aura sight. I continue doing this as I travel two or three times my Aura sight before the blood runs out. When the blood runs out I stop flying low and begin gaining altitude. I crest the top of the trees and then the cliff quickly. I drop onto the top of the cliff and being watching as I allow my stamina to regen. The mad dashes causing my stamina to drop below twenty percent. I rest there until my stamina is full and begin doing short flights to conserve it as much as possible. Launching myself into the air and flapping once before I glide until I land. I then walk for a short distance as I regenerate my stamina and then repeat the process. I only do this two times before the Auras of the giants appear again. They are moving slowly through the bushes, one of them periodically bending down to look at the ground before continuing to move. I stop my journey back to the cave to watch their progress. It takes them a significant amount of time before they reach the end of the trail. They continue for a bit before turning around to where the trail ends. They stand there seeming to talk to each other for awhile before eventually splitting into two groups. One of the groups continues along the cliff face going west, and the other heads north back into the forest. *Either I tricked them, or I am fucked. If those two from a few days ago mentioned my cave to these ones then there is no way they don''t eventually figure it out. I really hope that isn''t the case and this is just a group hunting wolves.* Hoping my ruse was successful I continue flying back to the cave, trying to stay low and out of sight. When the cave comes back within my Aura range I drop over the cliff face and fly just above the bushes. Arriving at the cave I see the scene I caused for the first time without being fueled by panic. It looks like massacre took place, blood and gore paint the cliff wall and the bushes ringing the opening. The foot steps of the giants are the only thing that break up the puddles of blood, causing it to pool in the depressions of their foot steps, leaving prominent ridges of their foot prints. I notice a single patch coming from the cave entrance that is small. It only seems to leave the cave not go back in though. Panicking I check the lizards, seeing the Aura of Grek stand out immediately and the second lizard I had begun leveling up, but there are only three other normal lizards. Hoping that the lizard that foolishly left the cave made it away I jump back into the air and fly into the cave. Snapping my wings in as I reach the cave entrance and landing hard. My gamble pays off though because I don''t have a line of blood following me into the cave. I move up to Grek and project to them *What happened* They stare at me, their sadness rolling off them in palpable waves. *Friend no listen, die.* *FUCK!* All of my effort to prevent this cave from being investigated more probably wasted by the presence of the lizards. On top of losing one of my companions my rage fills me. The roar comes from deep within my chest, coming out as a true roar this time not a meow-croak. The sound reverberates through the cave as my rage is replaced by deep sadness. *I''m sorry* I project to all of the now frightened lizards. Moving to the back of the cave I lay down next the large bowl of water. Two fish corpses remain and I snap them up, slowly chewing before I swallow them. As I lay there the lizards all come and lay down next to me, pressing up against my body. Their presence helps me control my emotions but make me even more sad that I wasn''t able to protect them. After awhile of just laying there my mind doesn''t stop turning, preventing me from being able to sleep. I slowly lift myself off the ground and get Grek''s attention. *Come help me* They follow me without responding as I move off into the west cave. *Stay here* I project as we reach the large room with a small hole looking out into the forest. I being digging, excavating upwards and away from the cliff. I fill my Space bag over and over with debris as I continue digging, making trips back to the room with Grek before dumping the bag out of the small hole. I keep digging until I am back even with the lizards sleeping in the main cavern before I make a room that I can turn around in easily and then dig upwards back towards the cliff face. As I approach the area above Grek I slow my digging insuring I only make a small hole in the cliff face. It takes me two more trips before I break through the cliff wall. I only leave a hole roughly two claws wide before I stop allowing me to easily start dumbing from my space bag out of the hole. I create another large room here before before going back to get Grek. *Come with me* They follow me up the new path the steep slope giving them no problems. When we come to the new room I stop and tell them to wait there. I travel back down the slope and out into the main cave, passing the sleeping lizards. I stick my head out of the entrance and look up, searching for Grek''s Aura. I see it, roughly a third of the way up the cliff. *So another three or four of those and I''ll be at the top of the cliff. That will at least give another exit, but could lead to problems with things entering from the top.* Walking back to the top of the path I collect Grek and move back to the sleeping lizards. *We will work on that more tomorrow. For now we should rest* They nod back to me so I go lay down at the back of the cave. As I am laying there brooding over the events of the day the lizards slowly move to lay up against me, the pressure of their little bodies allowing my mind to finally relax as I drift off to sleep. *Click Click Click* I shoot out of the cave again, curving straight up into the sky before flying South over the cave. I can see the mountain range now in the distance to the East even though it is far out of my normal vision. I fly over the much shorter forest that covers the top of the cliff, the trees seeming to be stunted version of the trees below. Accelerating as I approach another mountain range to the south I dip down to ground level. I shoot along the ground as a massive gate appears before me set into the side of one of the mountains. The gate opening as I approach I shoot into sprawling underground tunnels. Massive worked caverns open before me as I go deeper and deeper into the ground. Eventually arriving at a gilded set of massive doors, they slowly open revealing a large cage with a dark purple dragon inside of it. The room is cluttered with tools and crystals, the dragon I notice has the Physical mutation. It''s wings lack the front digits that would allow them to wrap around its body. The snout of the dragon has a silvery metal chain wrapped around it, with gems set into the chain every few links. It makes eye contact with me, its eyes going wide before the dream fades to black. Day 7, Safety in progress I awoke from my dream surrounded by my lizard friends slowly rising from my spot I noticed my body didn''t hurt. The two dreams occupy my attention, an egg to the east and a sibling to the south in some sort of underground city. My thoughts are interrupted by the flashing notification over my stamina, I had never allocated attributes from the wolf kills. Checking my attributes and remembering that STR and PER were the primary for the first wolf I killed I decide to put the first wolf into PER.
PER +0.98 = 8 (8.09)
Seeing that it gave just less than one full attribute point I decide to put the last wolf into it as well. Hoping it would be enough to bring PER up to nine.
PER +0.86 = 8(8.95)
*Damn so close.* I check the position of the sun and see that it is still low in the sky, the day barely begun. I move to the cave entrance and survey the carnage of my mad dash to cover what had happened. The ground is covered in blood. A drizzle of rain causing the ground to start becoming a slurry of mud and blood. I check for any potential threats, seeing none I launch towards the pond. *Maybe I should dig through the cave to get behind the waterfall, that would massively reduce my exposure as well as the lizards exposure.* Mulling over the pros and cons of that I get to fishing, catching five fish in the first attempt. Moving back to the cave the drizzle quickly becomes a downpour of huge rain drops. The rain not bothering me as I expected it to. The water droplets splash off my scales and my eye caps naturally close to keep the water out. My memories of being wet and uncomfortable clash with my current feelings towards the large droplets falling on me. The large droplets hinder the use of my wings, the weight of them making me think it might be a bad idea to try flying in the current weather. Arriving back at the clearing in front of the cave I can see the rain has washed away most of the giant footprints. The slurry of muddy blood becoming thick, I try to use my wings to clear the gap but end up landing hard about half way to the cave entrance. The mud covering me up to my underscales as I pick my self up out of it. Reaching the top of the slope rising up to the cave mouth I try to shake myself off, much of the mud comes off quickly. I spread my wings out catching as much of the rain as I can and allowing it to run down my body. After a few minutes the natural shower has me relatively clean. I move to the back of the cave and upend the Space bag with the five fish and water. The puddle of water quickly becoming a miniature pond. I direct the lizard with the enhanced brain to kill fish until it gets another full attribute point of INT. It follows the directions quickly, the already enhanced INT allowing it to quickly dispatch fish. It only takes two of the five fish for its INT to raise another level. Grek''s brain density now only appearing to be a quarter more dense than this lizards brain. Attempting to get a name out of it I project, *What should we call you?* Its head tilts, making me anxious that the new INT wasn''t enough before it responds *Clessh* *Excellent, Clessh, welcome to the family! This is Grek* I project pointing one of my claws at Grek. Grek nods in response, to my telepathic communications. Moving to one of the three remaining lizards I direct it to do the same. Just like Grek and Clessh the first attempts at killing the fish are sloppy but after it puts the first point into INT the lizard is able to quickly kill the remaining fish. Watching its brain density carefully I watch as the first fish increases the density by double, the remaining two fish increases the density by another fifty percent. Confirming my suspicions that the lizards start at one INT, which puts this third lizard at three, Clessh at four, and Grek at five. *Does that mean Grek is half as intelligent as I am? That would be assuming the increase is linear. At three they seem to have a good understand of language but their ability to respond is incredibly limited. Four intelligence seems to be the break point for actual communication even if it isn''t that polished.* I snap out of my thoughts as I notice all of the lizards staring intently at me. The five fish piled in front of them as though they are waiting for permission to eat. *Are you hungry?* I project to all of them. Grek and Clessh both respond *Yess*. The third lizard responds *Yuss*. The remaining two nod emphatically. Chuckling to myself I send *Then eat!* *I keep thinking like they are pets, but I feel like they are much better mannered than any pets I can remember* The briefly memory of a dog snatching an unattended sandwich flashes through my mind. I try to focus on that memory more but the details surrounding it are nowhere to be found. It''s like a single moment in time that I can remember without remembering any of the details about the dog or sandwich, just the moment itself is available to my memory. It is a strange feeling knowing that my memories of my previous life must still be there, but only being able to see small instants of time with no supporting information. Coming back to the present from my reminiscing I find that the fish are gone, all of the lizards laying in different spots of the cave seeming very content. Unsure of what to do with myself today with the rain, I decide to work on my Space affinity. Attaching a ribbon to the Space bag and then slowly stretching it until the head ache becomes to much. It doesn''t take long for the head ache to prevent me from pushing any further but I once again can tell I have made some incremental progress. I decide to start excavating as I wait for the head ache to subside enough for me to continue practicing. I start enlarging the tunnel on the east that leads to the bedroom I can no longer access. Keeping the tunnel sloping upwards slightly but find that expanding the bedroom to fit my new size leads to the tunnel being only a slight increase in elevation from the main cave. The seven shelves now at head height for me but much higher off the ground compared to the old lay out. The extra shelves fill me with sadness, the first death being fully my fault and the second being something I should''ve tried harder to prevent. After removing the debris from the cave with my Space bag I being tunneling towards the entrance of the cave, using the bedroom as a junction point. I try to angle down slightly but realize after the first filling of my space bag that I am not doing a good job at it only being a slight angle down. As I move through the cave to dump the bag I send to Grek *Can you come stand towards the cave entrance for me.* They nod back not bothering to respond mentally. *If you see anything that looks dangerous outside the cave do not hesitate, just run back up to safety!* They nod again. After dumping the bag outside I move back into the new northward tunnel, realizing my angle is a lot steeper than I had intended, I''m almost level with Grek even though they are quite a distance in front of me. I had left them at roughly three quarters of the way to the entrance and I am no more than half way. Mentally patting myself on the back for not just continuing I start to level off the tunnel once I''m at the same height as Grek. The second filling of my Space bag brings me almost to Grek, I move back out to the cave mouth and dump this second load. I try to gauge how far in terms of my strides Grek is from the cave entrance and find that they are roughly twenty strides. Using this measurement I continue my excavation and begin slowing when I am roughly fifteen strides past Grek. Moving back to the main cavern I find Clessh and ask them to go to the end of the new tunnel and wait there until I come get them. They shoot off into the tunnel without hesitating. Moving down the cave and dumping the bag outside I notice that Clessh is only three strides from the cliff face. *Perfect! That went better than I expected. I wonder if I can communicate with them through the wall.* I project to Clessh *You can go back now* I can see their Aura snap rigid for a moment before they shoot back up the tunnel. *Huh, I''ll have to test the range on that as well as the limitations for communicating through objects.* Moving back into the eastward tunnel I being my excavation work again. I make three trips of dumping my bag before I have Clessh move to the end of the tunnel. The rain has significantly lessened by this point so I attempt a quick flight towards the pond to gauge how far I have left. I can see Clessh''s aura roughly a third of the over all distance to the pond and a little bit lower than where I expected. Moving back to the cave I decide to continue the slight downward slope but aim to make a small hole to dump the debris from instead of making the trek all the way back to the main cave. The sky is still heavy with rain clouds but I can see the aura of the sun has reached its zenith by this point. When I arrive back at the main cavern I realize my headache is almost completely gone so I start stretch my sheet of Space mana more. It doesn''t take long for the headache to come back, but the small incremental gains certainly seem worth the small pain. Arriving back at the end of the tunnel towards the pond I tell Clessh they can go back or stay if they want. They choose to stay and watch me work as I turn to the left and start making a small hole that can only fit my arm, after I get as far as I can I widen the hole and then repeat the process. It takes another five repetitions of this before my claw goes through the cliff face, I widen this hole a very small amount before seeing if I can fit the folded Space bag. Finding this to be enough I pull my body out of the cramped space and begin digging towards the pond again. Clessh watches this whole process intently. As I''m digging I feel Clessh climbing up my tail and perching between my wings. Looking back I can see them watching intently as I dig. Chuckling at the comedy of a small lizard perched on a dragon I continue digging. The next three Space bag dumps take significantly less time with the shorter distance that I need to travel. Using Grek''s position as a marker I feel confident that I have not deviated too close to the cliff face but I decide it is worth it to make sure. I have Clessh hope down and wait at the end of the tunnel as I make the trek back to the main cave and then outside. I briefly check my surrounding before moving towards the pond, the heavy rain drops making flight impossible. Finding Clessh''s aura I can see that I have made more progress than I expected, now easily three quarters of the way to the pond. I decide to make this trip worth it and I continue to the pond, I dip my tail in and begin the nearly automatic movements of fishing. I take stock of my surroundings again, turning my Aura sight up higher than I normally can during the day due to the cloud cover. In the distance North East of my poistion I see an Aura that causes my heart to seize in my chest, two giants moving to westward. I check to see if there are any fish taking the bait and there are only three, I snap the bag out under them collecting them as quick as I can before folding it back up and sprinting back towards the cave. As I arrive back at the cave I check my Aura sight again and find that I cannot see the giants any longer. I turn my Aura sight up more but find that the bright pink aura of the sun prevents me from seeing any further. Moving to the back of the cave I tell Grek as I pass them that there are giants outside in the forest. They immediately run back up to the main cavern as I follow. I dump the water and fish into the makeshift pond before telling the three INT lizard to kill them and put the points into INT. They happily oblige and I eat the fish after they are done dispatching them. My stomach still feeling hungry after the small amount of food. I can see that the density of this lizards brain has reached the same level as Clessh after these fish. I project to it *What should we call you?* It looks back at me and without nearly as much hesitation as Clessh I hear back *Mektha* *Welcome to the family Mektha, this is Grek* I project pointing towards Grek *and Clessh is down the new tunnel. Please stay inside the cave and help Grek and Clessh keep the others inside, it is very dangerous outside.* Mektha tilts its head in response before sending back *Yess* Hoping that the message wasn''t too much for them to understand I move back down the tunnel towards the pond, it takes a minute before I reach Clessh. I warn them about the giants outside before I turn my Aura sight up to the max and look for the giants'' Auras. I can see them further West of us still moving in that direction, hoping that they don''t turn towards the cave I continue digging. As I fill the Space bag I begin to hear the sound of the waterfall crashing into the pond. Clessh watches from my shoulders as I dig and begins to turn their head to the side as the sound gets louder. *What sound?* Clessh askes me, surprising me with the mental question. Up to this point I had thought they could only respond if I asked them a question. Now wondering if my telepathy went even further and allowed me to read their surface thoughts or if maybe they were telepathic as well. *A waterfall* I respond. *Waterfall?* They question back. *Yes, it is a large river of water falling off the top of the cliff* It seems to ponder that for a while as I continue to dig before settling back in as the sound continues to grow. Having filled the bag to capacity I turn back to my dump spot. I check my Aura sight again before dumping the bag, hoping to prevent the giants from noticing rock appearing from nowhere. I can not see the giants any longer in my Aura sight, hoping that means they continued to the west on whatever trek they were making. I dump the bag and move back to digging. The waterfall quickly becomes an overwhelming sound in the small tunnel as I dig. The bag filling quickly I move back to dump it and look for the giants again. This time I see the giant auras but instead of moving West they are now moving East, they seem to still be on the far side of the cave so I dump the bag and move back down the tunnel. As I dig I notice the sound of the waterfall begins to lessen slightly, assuming I have dug beyond the waterfall I stop digging and move back to where it is at its loudest. The exact point hard to discern because the sound fills the tunnel and echoes. I start digging a small slope up to the south away from the water fall and create a room that I can turn around in. Not wanting to have to continually back my way up this tunnel every time I go to fish. This fills the rest of my bag so I move back to the small hole I have been dumping debris from. The giants Auras are clearly visible standing around the small hole I have been using to dump debris. My heart drops into my stomach my anxiety spiking causing my blood to feel like its on fire. *Stay quiet* I project to Clessh *The giants are just outside.* I watch the giant Auras as they seem to walk around the area, one of them kicking at the ground. This goes on for a few minutes before they finally start moving away from the cliff to the north. I stand there, heart pounding, as I watch them leave my Aura sight. *Fuck that was close* Hoping that this excavation hasn''t piqued their interest even more I dump the debris before telling Clessh to go wait in the new room. They bolt off down the tunnel as I make my way back to the main cave. I pass through the old bedroom and see the two unnamed lizards resting in the shelves, Mektha and Grek are by the edge of the now larger pool of water in the main cave. *The giants seem to have left the area, but I don''t think it is safe yet. They may be back* I project to both of them. They both clearly understand as they move back to the guard spots the lizards had used previously. I move to the front of the cave and notice the rain seems to be coming to an end. *I need to be quick about this, if the giants catch me out there is no way they leave. Especially after those first two investigated because they thought they saw a celestial dragon. I wonder what is so special about us that one race will imprison us and another will kill us on sight. She didn''t tell me what these giants will do, I''ll have to ask next time I see her.* Making sure the coast is clear more thoroughly this time I launch back towards the pond, as I fly low to the ground I notice boot prints outside of the cave. Flying over my debris pile I can see that the giant had kicked it flat, the small pile of my most recent dumping standing out to me as I soar over it. Arriving back at the pond I can see Clessh''s Aura behind the waterfall, closer to the far side but still thoroughly behind it. *Perfect* I think as I check my surround. *Be greedy or not?* The thought shoots through my mind as I dip my tail back into the water. Hoping the fish become interested quickly so I can get back to the safety of my cave. Six fish quickly respond, I shoot the bag out under them and unfold it sucking them into it as I refold the bag. I pull it up next to me and then start moving back to the cave. I arrive back at the small pile of debris and do my best using my wings to spread the pile out, hoping to disguise the extra debris I have dumped. I then launch into the air hoping to prevent myself from leaving a trail up into the cave. I land just outside before moving up into the cave and dumping the six fish and water into the growing pool of water. Hopeful this trip will be much safer and the progression of my lizard friends much more secure. Still feeling the pains of hunger I go and get one of the two unnamed lizards, giving them the same instructions as the previous lizards I watch as they grab one of the fish. The lizard has a very difficult time killing the fish, it doesn''t get thrown to the ground like when Grek did but it does flop around the cave for a bit. The fishes head ends up impact the cave wall hard enough to cause its Aura to dissipate and the lizard allocates the points to INT. After the first attempt the following five fish are quickly dispatched. That first point of intelligence does wonders for their ability to effectively dispatch the fish. I eat all of the fish as they finish killing them still hungry but no longer suffering from hunger pains. I watch as the lizard''s brain reaches the same density that seems to correspond with a four in INT. Realizing that fortunately the six fish were enough for that. Asking the lizard for a name to call it by leads to an interesting result. *Flough Karack Befithifle* Was it''s instantaneous response. *Umm What?* The three distinct names catching me by surprise. Its eyes seemed to twinkle at my response. *Karack okay for you* It says, the twinkle still present in its eyes. *Are you fucking with me right now?* A nod the only response forth coming, the twinkle in its eyes growing. *God damn it, you really had me there Karack. I didn''t expect humor from one of you.* Deciding I liked the lizard even more after that I chuckled as I walked down the tunnel towards the waterfall. Clessh was still in the room I asked them to wait in they had laid down and seemed to be sleeping when I reached them. *You can go back if you''d like but stay in the cave, those giants probably aren''t far away* *I stay* Clessh responds as they stand up. *Okay, Just stay back a little, I''m not sure what will happen when I break through.* Hoping Clessh listens I begin working on the wall aimed towards the waterfall. Knowing that the water fall center is slightly to the left I begin digging slightly left with a fairly steep slope down. It doesn''t take long before my claw breaks through the wall and a small amount of water begins to splash into the tunnel. Widening the hole so I can see out I see that I am still quiet a distance up from the ponds surface. I turn so that I am digging parallel to the cliff face and continue my steep angle down for roughly my body length before making a small landing and then digging back East at the same steep slope. Turning towards the cliff wall I continue digging until my claw breaks through the wall. A much larger amount of water beings splashing in as I widen the hole. Peering out I can see that the hole is just barely above the surface of the water. Realizing that if I break through all the way down to the floor that the area would flood up to my belly I begin to work on making a small area that will be above the water line. I move back up the slope and begin digging to the south. I don''t get far before my bag is full of stone. Moving back to the lower hole I slip the bag through and dump the contents into the pond. The splashes of stones dropping into the water cause a few waves of water to splash up into the hole, coating the floor with water. I continue my excavation leading to a small landing on the south side of the sloped tunnel down where I can easily fit. Expanding the lower area so that I can stretch my snout and tail out and barely touch the walls, I once again fill the Space bag so I dump it out the hole. Causing more water to spill in, satisfied with the size of the area I begin slowly digging the opening down until water begins to cascade into the area. I widen the hole just above the water line so it is roughly the width of my shoulders before I cut it down to just below the water level of the pond. This causes the pond to create a small waterfall as the lower room begins to fill. I perch up on the small area I had made above the water level and watch the room begin to fill. My head laying on the stone as I relax I feel Clessh climb up onto my shoulders and lay there. We both watch as the water bubbles and splashes as it slowly fills the room. When the water has risen to the hole I pick my head up and start to rise. Clessh dashes off of me as I slide into the water, I begin digging down into the water so that the hole goes a small distance under the water. I push the extra debris out into the pond instead of filling up my bag. Hoping this ledge allows fish in while preventing easy escape I perch back up on my ledge and wait. In my Aura sight I can see fish coming to explore this new area but they are unable to swim up in or unwilling. Realizing my hope for a passive fish trap is probably not going to work I dig the rest of the wall out and push this debris into the pond as well before getting back up on my perch. While I wait to see if fish will swim in on their own I begin stretching the sheet of Space mana again, the headache comes much faster than previously making me think I''m approaching the end of my ability to stretch the sheet any further. As I wait for the headache to subside I notice that some fish are coming up to the lower lip of the room. They edge in slightly before shooting back out after a few minutes the first brave fish swims all the way into the room exploring the edges before it swims out into the pond. This leads to more fish coming into the room and swimming around. My plan to have a safe fishing spot as well as a potential escape route a success I start climbing back up the slope to the tunnel. The slope is wet from the water splashing in from my first hole but doesn''t appear to hinder my climbing. Afraid that this will eventually become to slick I gouge a small line into the middle of the slope, giving the water a controlled path down into the room below. After making the modification I move back to the main cave and inform the lizards about the new area. Telling them they can go check it out if they would like. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. *Can you swim?* I project to Grek, hoping his higher intelligence allows him to understand my meaning. *Yess, not well* His response comes quickly. Hoping ''not well'' means well enough to escape that way if they have to I lay down and attach a ribbon of Space mana back to the sheet of Space mana. I begin pushing in this time instead of stretching the sheet itself, the head aches warning me of my strain start much slower than I expect. I make my way back to the waterfall to check on the lizards, finding them all lounging by the edge of the water watching the fish swim in the water below them. The water filled portion of the room has seven fish swimming around in it, I place the Space bag at the bottom of the water and unfold it. Six of the seven fish get sucked into the bag, the final one shooting out through the waterfall. I fold the bag back up and tell the unnamed lizard to follow me. It seems confused for a minute but eventually seems to catch on. We trek back to the main cave and I upend the fish into the small pool, the water getting deep at this point I worry that the lizard wont be able to catch the fish. I project to it the same instructions I have to all the others and it seems to catch on. The depth of the pool making it difficult for it to catch one of the fish but after a few attempts it manages to grab one. Flailing about the cave before it finally manages to hit the fishes head off the ground hard enough to kill it. The further attempts at catching the fish go much smoother, bolstered by the increase in intelligence. When it kills the sixth fish it finally reaches the same brain density as the other lizards excluding Grek. I immediately project to it *Welcome to the family, what should we call you?* *Limaea* The mental voice replies after a short pause. The mental voice of this lizard seems much softer than the others. The progress for the day seems astounding, even though I still have not progressed personally. My added excavation allowing the lizards safe places to go if we get attacked again. The safe fishing provided by the small cave behind the waterfall feels like a massive step forwards. The back of my mind is still plagued by the increased presence of giants around the cave, as well as the potential for another wolf attack tonight. *I really hope killing that large wolf made them decide to leave us alone. Nothing good can come from more of them attacking and bringing the giants attention even more to the cave.* I move to the entrance of the cave, checking the suns position I find that it is almost set. The sky tapestry of purple and red peeking through the remaining cloud cover. The area in front of the cave is a horror show, bloody mud now drying causing the ground to be a red-brown. The remaining corpses have been picked almost entirely clean by scavengers at this point. Fur and bones being the majority of what is left some partially sinking into the mud. I move back just inside the cave and watch as the sun sets, as I watch the sky change colors I work on trying to pull a fifth thread of Raw mana. Each time I fail my head pounds on the fourth attempt I finally find success. The thread is difficult to hold and causes my head to pound continuously as I draw it forwards I use all five threads to make a quick one compression missile. The missile snapping together in half a second, I astound myself with the speed.
System Message: Skill Mana Manipulation Rank 1->2
A smile cracks my lips as I dismiss the message. The breakthrough coming faster than I expected. I immediately try to pull five threads again and find that the fifth thread is just as solidly in my control as the others. My head still pounds but it doesn''t grow and seems to just be residual from my previous creation. I let the threads go as I send the missile I already created into the ground, not wanting the illumination to give me away. The sun''s final rays disappear shortly after as night takes hold over the forest. Maxing my Aura sight out I see that the wolves have definitely not given up their pursuit. My stomach growls reminding me that I have not eaten all that much today. I walk back up to Limaea and start eating the fish they killed. With two left on the ground I project *Are you hungry?* They nod their head so I leave the last two fish for them to eat before I start crafting advanced missiles. The fifth thread of raw mana allows me to complete a missile in roughly a minute and a half. The speed increase of only a single thread surprises me until I realize its the new thread compounded with my own experience at creating them. I find that I can utilize all of the threads at once, it looks like a maypole being made with the threads all spinning around the central core. As I am finishing the third advanced missile I hear the howls of the wolves from just outside the cave. Turning my attention to the entrance I see easily twenty wolves, all of them seem to be sitting a good distance from the cave well out of range of my missiles. *Well, I guess they aren''t completely stupid, but what is their plan? Just hope I run out and jump into their jaws?* Hoping my new scales will at least give me some protection I decide I will have to take the fight to them. I finish the last missile and then move towards the cave entrance. As I pass Limaea a though crosses my mind, *Limaea, please make sure you all stay in the cave* The reply comes quickly *Yess* I launch out of the cave mouth quickly gaining altitude as I soar above the wolves. I notice quickly that the sizes of the wolves vary greatly, outside of their second attack this is the only time I have seen this much variation. Finding one of the smaller wolves I fly lower over it, hoping to bait an attack. It immediately obliges me and leaps up trying to snap up at me. I release only a tenth of my breath directly into its mouth, the liquid visibly sticking to the inside of its mouth before it snaps it shut. The pained cries begin almost immediately but I can already tell that the wolf is dead. The mass of dark veins easily taking up half of the overall Aura of the wolf. As the wolf falls to the ground the other wolves start leaping up at my now much lower altitude. My low dive putting me within range of the larger wolves, as I notice this I being beating my wings attempting to gain enough altitude for them not to catch me. I''m just barely too slow as one of them bites into the end of my tail.
System message [-3] Health {Piercing}
I immediately send a missile at its left eye, hoping to cause it to let go. The missile explodes into its eye quickly shooting through the orb and into its brain. Fortunately the wolf releases its grip before it dies, unfortunately it pulls me almost all the way to the ground before doing so. I attempt to gain altitude again but can tell the next closest wolf will reach me well before I get out of its range. I release my breath straight up into the air, the cloud portion of my breath creating a barrier around me as the liquid portions shoot up like a fountain. The wolf immediately pulls back from the dark purple cloud seeming to understand how deadly it can be. The liquid portions rain back down, some sticking to me as I gain altitude rapidly. The portions sticking to me cause me to have a trail of dark purple smoke as I raise back up to a safe altitude. It is only after I am above the wolves range that I realize how close that was, three wolves had closed the gap and were ready to pounce, held back only by the dark purple cloud. *Two down... eighteen to go.* I look for another smaller wolf and find one close by. I maneuver over so that I am above it circling around it to try and bait out another foolish attack from it. It doesn''t take the bait, having just watched me easily kill one of it''s packmates. Checking on my breath I realize I only have half left. *Shit, I didn''t mean to use that much as protection.* I move my missiles under my body so that I can obscure them with my front claws. I then dive at the wolf, pulling up as I watch it''s body go taut. My sudden move causes it to prematurely jump up at me. I shoot a missile into its mouth, aiming to have it impact the roof, hoping for it to blast through into its brain. As I push my wings hard to get out of range of the larger wolves I lose sight of the small wolf. When I feel safely out of the range of the wolves I look back to see if the missile connected as I wanted it to. The wolf is convulsing on the ground, it''s Aura looks strange. I can see the wolves body in my normal vision but the Aura doesn''t go below its neck region. *Huh, I haven''t seen that before. I wish I had been able to watch what happened to create that result.* Having two more missiles and half my breath I realize the seventeen more wolves still in fighting shape are going to be far too much for me. Hoping to score at least one more kill before I try to get back to the cave I move towards the edge of the pack. Aiming to be on the far side of the wolves from the cave so I can lead them away from it. I see one of the wolves that is a little farther from its pack and start to dive bomb it. Unleashing both missiles before I see its body tense, the wolf leaps to the side. The missiles are still within my control range though so I just change their trajectory. The wolves eyes shoot open in surprise, making my target that much larger. The missiles each impact an eye, causing the wolves head to snap back as two geysers of blood shoot from its head. The body being rocked backwards from the force of the impact and the final attempt to dodge. *Sixteen more.* This drives the wolves into a frenzy, they begin jumping at me even though I am well out of their range. I continue flying away from the cave hoping that I will be able to out pace them. I feel the beginning signs of fatigue growing between my wings. Checking my stamina I see that it has just dropped below fifty percent. I gain a little more altitude before banking back towards the cave. The wolves still snapping at the air beneath me. As I come around in the bank I aim straight for the cave entrance, using all my might to gain as much speed as I can. The wolves lose a little bit of distance as the slip in the mud and bushes below me, but quickly regain their footing. I blast back towards the cave, quickly reaching the clearing in front of it, I snap my wings out once trying to slow myself as much as I can. The cave entrance rapidly approach me far to fast. I shoot another quarter of my breath out below me as I hear the wolves breach the bushes at the edge of the clearing. Snapping my wings back into my sides I brace for impact, my legs catching my body but quickly becoming overwhelmed with the force of my body. My head swings forwards like an upside down pendulum, my shoulders impacting the ground first. The rest of my body arcs up and over my head making me look like a large misshapen scorpion. I slide forwards, quickly stopped by the upwards slope of the cave.
System Message: [-6] Health {Blunt}
*Less than I expected* Shoots through my mind as I pick myself up, trying my best to ignore all the new pains. I don''t even bother looking over my shoulder as I dash up the incline, stopping when I know I am out of range. As I turn I immediately see that three of the wolves ran straight into my breath, they must have been close enough that they couldn''t stop in time. Two of them lay on the ground in a heap while the third walks off to the left off the cave. Another wolf is picking itself up off the ground closer to the cave. *Did it fall over the other two in their mad dash??* I think as I watch the wolf it starts pacing back and forth in front of the cave. Small veins of darkness quickly recede from its Aura seeming to have done little to the wolf. The other two wolves slowly recovering from their much larger doses behind it. I quickly craft four single compression missiles and send them at the wolf, aiming to damage its legs, hoping to reduce its maneuverability. The wolf being well within my range of control doesn''t stand a chance. The first missile impacts its front right shoulder as it tries to dodge, the next three following it through the air and slamming into the same spot as the first. I craft another four as the wolf''s limp begins to show, still pacing close to the cave it seems to think it is not in danger. Looking to prove it wrong I unleash my second volley the wolf immediately jumps up looking like it is trying to jump over the missiles. All four of them once again slam into the right shoulder, this time impacting into the pit of the leg instead of the outside. The effect of the missiles shows itself as the wolf lands, the leg snapping at the shoulder joint causing the wolf to pitch forwards and to the right. Leaping on the opportunity I quickly form a missile and send it straight at the wolf''s eye. The wolf doesn''t have any time to react as the missile slams into the orb. The eye explodes at the impact bloody fluid spraying from the eye as the wolf cries in agony. Unfortunately for me the missile does not have enough power to kill the wolf, but it is very clearly out of the fight. During this quick exchange the other wolves Auras that went into my breath have recovered, losing the dark veins, the Aura still showing a large dip in density. They seem cautious compared to the other thirteen uninjured wolves still stalking towards my cave in the bush. I craft more missiles watching as the wolf closest to the cave begins to pull itself off the ground. Only having three good legs makes the process take a significant amount of time allowing me to complete another four missiles. I release them as I complete the last one, sending them at the small joint just above its foot. The missiles all impacting at the same time cause a loud cracking sound as the joint bends the wrong way. The wolf once again eating the dirt in front of it. Realizing this wolf is out of the fight probably permanently I begin hunting for a new target. I see the two that took large doses of my breath stalking behind the front line seeming uninterested in pursuing this attack. I quickly craft another four missiles before checking my stamina. My stamina sits at seventy percent, with four notifications flashing above it. *Did the one I paralyzed die? I only confirmed three of the kills* I still have sight of the wolf that is heavily wounded but it is definitely still alive. The approaching wolves are within my missile control range giving me comfort in my capability to maim them. I choose the closest wolf and begin trying to hit its eyes with my four missiles. Being uninjured the wolf easily dodges the first missile but I redirect it quickly into one of the other wolves, the missile doing little damage. The second impacts the side of the wolf as the third and forth hit the snout, one of them barely missing the eye. The wolf''s wounds seem superficial from my vantage but the wolf begins to back away from the cave. Crafting yet another set of missiles as they continue creeping forwards I realize my only chance is to fight a war of attrition. I unleash all four missiles at the same time once again trying to take an eye with them. My luck seeming to have run dry I only manage to do superficial damage again. I retreat back into the cave, beginning to construct more of the advanced missiles as the wolves stalk around the outside of the cave. One of them begins digging at the entrance the wolf manages to dig away at the slope leading up to the cave but doesn''t seem to damage the cave itself that much. It gives up a short while later as I am finishing the second advanced missile. I watch them start to roam farther and farther from the cave entrance, a large group waiting in the bushes near the cave preventing me from being able to safely take flight again. I complete the fourth missile and move to the cave entrance again. The wolf''s digging has entirely destroyed the slope leading up into the cave, preventing me from having a space to stand on outside of the cave without moving to the ground. *Shit, now I can''t even safely fly out of the cave at all with them here. I don''t have a good launching point to spread my wings on now.* My plan for bombarding them while in flight falls apart as I start brain storming other ideas. Moving up to the western tunnel I start looking out of the small hole I had created previously to shoot missiles from. Directly below me is one of the wolves crouched down facing the cave it seems to be unaware of me. I send one missile out of the hole and aim for the base of its skull, hoping to hit the spine where it connects. The wolf next to my target notices the missile at the last second and tries to warn the target. It is far too late though as the missile impacts the base of its skull, blood exploding from the impact as the wolf''s body goes rigid for a moment before fully collapsing. Its Aura of its body collapses inwards, leaving Aura only showing its head and brain. Watching intently I can see the density of its brain slowly begin to lessen before it blinks out, the remaining Aura dissipating into the air. *Well that was effective... a single advanced missile to the eye or spine seems to be enough to kill one of them, but successfully hitting those areas seems to require quite a bit of luck.* My System Messages now flashing saying I have five notifications. Knowing that the wolves will now be on guard for another attack I begin excavating the room further to the east, hoping to open another hole to attack from. I fill my now much larger Space bag quickly as I dig, moving back to the hole I watch the wolves below. I push the bag out as far as I can, positioning it above one of the wolves, they seem to be unaware of the folded Space mana hanging above them. I flip it over and unfold it, dumping rocks and debris from a good height down onto them. The earthen waterfall impacts them causing them to cry out in pain before moving back into the bushes. I can''t tell how much impact the improvised attack had on the wolf. I fill the bag once more as I excavate farther East before I start to try and make a new hole. My impromptu tunnel is clearly angled away from the cliff wall because it takes me a lot longer than I expected to break through. After I break through I dump the contents of the bag and begin filling it with the debris from making the hole. I then begin widening the hole to allow me another shooting spot. As the hole widens I can see that I have over shot the cave entrance by a good margin I find myself roughly half way to the bushes to the East of the caves entrance. Down to my right I see another pair of wolves crouched in the bushes, both staring up at the hole where the rocks just rained down from. *Shit I shouldn''t have been so lazy and gone back to my previous hole. Now I can''t sneak attack them from up here.* I watch the wolves for a moment hoping that they will stop paying attention to the new hole. I am not that fortunate, both of them keeping their eyes on the new hole while staying completely still. Pulling back to my initial shooting hole I begin crafting a missile to replace the one I shot. The process being almost automatic at this point I pull up the five notifications and being allocating attributes. I put the first one into PER, having barely missed get that to nine from the previous wolf.
PER +0.78 = 9(9.73)
The reduced amount not surprising me as it follows the same pattern as all of my other attributes to this point. Knowing that STR will give me the next best gains from a wolf I mull over getting that to nine as well but end up deciding that raising WIS or CHA from five would probably be more worth the investment. Knowing WIS affects my decision making abilities I opt to go with that over CHA.
WIS +0.19 =5(5.12)
*WHAT!? only 0.19 for a full wolf?? Now that seems wasteful compared to continuing to pump PER and STR. I need to find something that gives me more points towards WIS... or I guess I could go kill a few hundred fish again.* Not wanting to waste the remaining three wolves I put points into STR.
STR +(0.87+0.78)=9(9.67)
Taking two of the remaining three wolf attributes to get it above nine, this does not surprise me after the PER fiasco from the day before. *Hmm it seems like I can get STR to ten or PER to ten, PER will probably be more likely to save my life.*
PER +0.71=10(10.44)
Breaking ten points in PER makes a huge different in my hearing as well as sight. My Aura sight seems to extend instantly further, sounds become much more distinct as well as hearing sounds I didn''t hear before. *Interesting, so there is the linear affect of the points themselves but also seems to be a threshold, I wonder if all the stats have a threshold at ten or if only some do.* Hoping to get one of the lizards INT to ten in the near future to test that theory I focus back on the problem before me. The wolves have moved away from both of the holes I created, the nearest wolf to each watching the holes intently. Realizing my attacks will be much harder to hit with them paying attention an idea pops into my head. I unfold my Space bag and try to put a missile inside as the missile passes the barrier my control over it severely reduces. I can still control it but it feels sloppy and slow. Folding the bag up I can still feel the missile but trying to control it doesn''t feel like it does anything. Unfolding the bag I see that the missile is in the exact same position. I test this further, pushing the folded bag out through the West hole I position it above the nearest wolf. I flip the bag over and partially unfold it, I feel my control again over the missile as I unfold it and being to move it out of the bag. Even trying to make the missile go as fast as possible I find it moving incredibly slow until it crosses the threshold. As the missile crosses the threshold it shoots off, surprising me at how quickly it sped up after leaving the bag. The wolf doesn''t even see it coming as the missile impacts the top of its skull, barely missing the base. The wolf''s head is driven into the ground by the impact of the missile. It cries in pain as it begins to pick itself up off the ground and look around to try and find the source of its pain. *Well, that is a fun trick.* I pull the bag back to myself and put the other three missiles in. The confused wolf is staring back up at the hole, seeming to be unaware of the attack coming its way. I slip the folded bag back out of the hole and position it again above the wolf. This time moving it down closer to the wolf until it stops moving, having hit the limit of my control on it. I notice at this moment that my control range on my missiles is easily five times further than my control on the bag. Moving that thought to the back of my mind I unfold the bag again, unleashing another missile onto the unsuspecting wolf. This time I catch its spine, the same Aura implosion happening in its body, leaving just the head and brain''s Aura before they slowly disappear as well. I fold the Space bag back up and pull it back into the cave. The nearest wolf on the West side being out of easy range of my attacks. As I move to the East hole I can see that these wolves have crept up, seeming to have determined that the rocks were not a threat. They are now only slightly East of the hole itself, both staring at the cave entrance. Moving the folded Space bag out of the hole again I position it in between the two wolves nearest the cliff face. I push it all the way out to the limit of my control again as I unfold it above them. I unleash both missiles aiming again for the base their skulls where the spine connects. The wolf nearest the cave moves at the last second, causing the missile to left of where its spine is. The second wolf is not so lucky, the missile severing its spine and leaving it paralyzed on the ground as it dies. The first wolf reacts immediately, leaping over the other wolf''s body as it runs back into the bushes away from the cave. This attack finally seems to break the packs spirit and they all begin moving away from the cave. I watch as they run into the distance only getting a short distance before more Auras appear at the edge of my newly expanded Aura sight. I watch in horror as six giants enter my Aura sight, they are spread out in groups of two, walking directly towards the cave. The wolves seem to be unaware of the giants as they continue to run in that general direction. I watch as the giants and wolves notice each other at roughly the same time. The wolves all turning sharply trying to move away from the new threat. They are not nearly quick enough, four wolves dying almost immediately. It happens so fast I can''t even tell what the giants actually do to kill them. Not wasting anymore time watching this, I fold my Space bag and pull it to me. I rush down the tunnel and through the cave. Quickly moving down the Eastern tunnel towards the rooms behind the waterfall. The lizards are all still in the lower room watching the fish swim around below them. *The giants are coming* I project to all of them, the fear rolling off of them is easily picked up by my telepathy even though they do not respond. I expand this lower room so that we all have enough room to hide down here to weather this new storm, I fill my Space bag half way from the expansion but don''t dare to empty it with the giants outside. Watching through the rock, my aura sight severely diminished by the amount of rock between us I watch as the giants arrive at the cave. They move around outside the cave for a long time, bending over and inspecting different things which I can only assume are the wolf corpses. Two of them move towards the pond along the cliff face while another two move west. The last pair stays at the cave entrance, walking around the area but not going far. I can hear the two giants outside of the waterfall as the approach. "This is very strange, this cave seems to be the epicenter for some strange activities." The first states "I agree, whatever is killing these wolves is something we haven''t seen before. The way those corpses yesterday were shredded means it must be big to be able to take so many down." The second responds, "They did say they found one of those lizards as well though. I wonder if the wolves and this thing are fighting over who gets to eat them." The first one chuckles, the sound booming off the cavern walls. "That is entirely possible, they are very delicious after all. It does seem that the last of those lizards lived in the cave based on the two sightings of them here. The captain is pretty set on sending out a large hunting party to find whatever the thing is that killed those wolves though" "I hope I am not on it", The second responds as they begin to move back towards the cave. They continue talking but I can no longer understand the now muffled words. *My luck holds apparently. The clearly don''t expect the wolves killer to be little old me. Those first two that came upon the cave definitely saw me though. Were they just not believed?* I watch as the giants regroup before moving West following the path of the other pair. I cautiously move back up to the main cave as I watch the giant Auras continue West. I peak my head out and notice what they were doing, the wolf corpses from tonight are all gone. The drag marks to the west showing that the giants must have gathered them up and taken them. *MORE THIEVES?* The irrationality of my instant reaction giving me a small respite from the anxiety of the giants appearance. Surveying the damage I realize that this entrance has been made much less useful. The slope going up to it is almost completely destroyed. *I might be able to still fly out of this but coming back in will almost guarantee I take damage. Either from clipping a wing or impacting the ground to hard. I will have to work on getting an entrance on top of the cliff, but that might get me spotted again.* I begin making my way back to the waterfall rooms as I think about how I would go about making a new entrance that is still safe. The waterfall protecting the egg gives me the idea of making my entrance up high behind the waterfall itself. I arrive back in the lower rooms and lay down next to the lizards, watching the fish swim in lazy circles as the exhaustion of the day begins to weigh me down. I pull up my character sheet, looking at my gains from the past few days as I slowly drift off to sleep.
Race: Celestial Dragon Health: 71/80 Stamina: 100%
Stage: Wyrmling Level: 6 Mana: 10
Attributes: Traits: (1) Skills:
STR: 9 (9.67) Breath: 3 Aura Sight: MAX
CON: 8 (8.16) Claws: 2 Digging: 2
DEX: 6 (6.13) Mental: 3 Flight: 1
AGI: 7 (7.21) Scales: 4 Mana Manipulation: 2
PER: 10 (10.44) Wings: 4 Telepathy: 1
WIS: 5 (5.31) Affinities:
INT: 10 (10.28) Space (Major)
CHA: 5 (5.17) Raw (Minor)
Day 8, Mutations. I awaken to the now familiar feeling of my lizard family''s weight on me. I stretch my neck out and watch as a few fish swim around the small room. The blinking notifications of two system messages pulling my attention away. Realizing that it''s the attributes for the last two wolves I killed I open them both and distribute the first one to STR knowing that it will easily push me above ten.
STR +0.72 = 10(10.39)
Hoping that putting the last wolf into PER that will get it to eleven I allocate the last wolf.
PER +0.67 = 11(11.11)
The satisfaction of being right makes me smile slightly. Which is promptly cut short by my stomach growling. I start slowly rising from my spot on the ground, all five of the lizards dart off me as I begin to move. They all quickly resettle onto the ground at the back of the small room. I put my Space bag under the water and unfold it, sucking in only three of the fish that are swimming beneath me. I move up to the small room I had made to turn around in before opening the bag. I unfold the bag upright and start slowly tilting it to the left, the water running out and going down the slope behind me towards the water fall. Eventually the first fish flops out, I immediately snap it up with my jaws and eat it. I repeat this for the other two fish, the final fish require me to invert the bag slightly before it slides out. I allocate all three of the fish attributes to WIS.
Wis +(0.18+0.18+0.17) = 5(5.84)
My stomach is still growling and I know I''m only a fish or two from being six in WIS. Moving back down below more fish have filled the room but there are less since the commotion of my first catch. I still manage to snag another three fish and move back up top, repeating the same process. The six fish seem to be enough for my stomach to stop hurting from hunger but I will definitely need more to be full.
WIS +(0.17+0.16+0.16)=6(6.33)
System Message: Level 7 - 7 Trait points gained, 8 total available trait points.
*Well that is certainly a bonus. Scales seems like the obvious choice, but that would only leave me enough to do one other trait. I could do Mental, Breath, and Claws that would round me out as well as increasing my most potent weapons. I do wonder how Mental will continue to improve my telepathy as well as hopefully my magics. I''m assuming Breath will continue becoming closer to a liquid which could potentially allow me to use it as a defense by covering myself in it. I still haven''t had the opportunity to use Claws in combat but the difference between one and two was huge for digging.* Moving back dow the ramp and wanting to test the effects of mental further I pull a ribbon of Space mana and attach it to the sheet of space mana I have been using as a bag. The ribbon attaches and I begin pushing in on the sheet, the head aches as expected begin immediately. My focus rapidly dwindles as my head begins to pound, my vision beginning to shrink as the pain grows. I cut the flow of mana not wanting to risk losing control of the mana and finding out what that leads to. I then allocate three trait points to Mental.
System Message: Mental 3 -> 4
The strange feeling comes back again, it feels like my brain is expanding without actually growing in size. My thoughts coming slightly faster but more importantly the pounding head ache reduces massively in severity almost instantly. I pull another ribbon of space mana and attach it once again to the sheet. I begin pushing in again and notice that the head ache grows much slower even though I am expanding the space at the same rate. I can feel the massive different in focus the trait improvement has provided me. Not wanting to suffer more severe headaches for now I cut the flow of mana. *So this Mental trait allows for me to have greater control and power with my mana. I will have to test my missile crafting speed in the future as well. I might even be able to pull a sixth thread...* The thought is interrupted by feelings, but not my own. I notice I can sense the feelings of the lizards around me, giving me vague sensations of comfort and relaxation from all of them except for Karack. They have a feeling of anxiety or fear coming off them. I notice that the others are sleeping soundly but Karack seems to be twitching slightly in their sleep. *Huh, are they having a nightmare?* Carefully using my snout I nudge Karack awake. *Were you having a bad dream?* *Giant chase, Karack run* The response comes after a small pause. *Don''t worry Karack, I''ll do my best to keep you safe* I try to project a sense of security and comfort with the thought. It seems to work as Karack lays back down and quickly goes back to sleep. *Scales or Breath and Claws. I guess I could do wings as well but I don''t even have a good take off and landing spot at this point. If they grow even larger that would be even more work to make a new landing spot. So... Scales or Breath and Claws, damn. I''ll have to do some grinding if the fish population keeps replenishing then at least I can just keep farming that. Breath will help me further that, and Claws will greatly increase my excavation speeds.* Making up my mind I allocate two points to claws first.
System Message: Claws 2 -> 3
I watch my claws intently as they grow slightly in length but to my surprise my front claws shrink in width. This change in width causing them to have a more oval cross section instead of the circular crpss section that they had up to this point. I check my leg''s claws and watch as they grow in thickness as a whole, keeping the circular cross section. The Aura density of both sets massively increases, but the physical appearance is much more profound. The purple becoming much darker, seeming to approach black in color. I expect this to come with the same nebulous appearance as my scales but they lack any other markings. Wanting to test this improvement I move over to the wall and dig my left index claw into the wall. It slides in easily with only a slight resistance letting me know it is even in the wall. It takes almost no strength to cut down, the weight of my arm enough to slice through the rock. *Wow, that is a massive improvement. The change to the shape seems to allow it to cut much easier.*
System Message: Breath 3 -> 4
I focus on my breath organ, watching intently as the familiar compression happens, again not appearing to have as much of a compression effect as I expect. The major difference comes in how it feels, as I expected the previous gaseous feeling is almost entirely liquid feeling now. Not wanting to test in close proximity to the lizards I slide into the water and poke my head out under the waterfall. I flick my Aura sight up to check my surroundings before swimming out into the large pond. Swimming to the closer East shore I pull myself up into the shallows. Standing up onto my legs I dip the tip of my tail into the water and begin fishing. There are quickly a group of six fish interested in my bait. I turn and blow, feeling closer to spitting than blowing at this point. I try to release the smallest amount of breath that I can onto the top of the water, the majority coming out as liquid now and only a small amount still being gaseous. It is less than five percent of the total organs capacity now but it is hard to tell exactly how much I just used. It travels a lot further than I expected and begins sinking into the water. The dark liquid forming small droplets as it sinks beneath the surface before forming bubbles that cause dark tendrils to make a lattice of my breath under the surface. As the smoke breaches the surface after bubbling up it forms a thin fog on the surface. All six fish are caught in the under water lattice quickly succumbing to the breath. I quickly snap the bodies up as they float to the surface. The six fish being enough to fill me up for now, but I know that won''t last long. I quickly allocate all six to WIS, still hoping to level that up in the hopes that it will help my survival
WIS +(0.15+0.15+0.15+0.14+0.14+0.14) = 7(7.20)
The affects of the change are not obvious to me. Unlike PER it doesn''t change how I experience the world but I know it helps in decision making. *I wish I could find a way to get more of those free attribute upgrades like on that first day. I still haven''t had that happen since though. Getting attributes without having to kill would be nice.* I look back to the waterfall and notice that without Aura sight I would never find the cave entrance. The thickness of the waterfall completely obscuring the entrance the only thing I can see is the five Auras sleeping within. I slip back into the water, submerging myself and swimming below the surface towards the entrance. I find that I can use my partially folded wings and tail to massively increase my swimming capability. Rather than swimming like a dog I end up swimming closer to an eel with large fins. My speed surprising me after my previous swimming experience. I am able to make it all the way to the cave underwater without my lungs even beginning to burn, leading me to believe that I might become quite the capable swimmer. Opening up avenues for concealed access to the cave. I notice my Aura sight is also much more effective when I am under the water, the suns bright pink aura massively subdued just like when I am underground. As I enter the cave I realize that I have made quite a nice little grotto. I decide expanding on it further would be beneficial so I start excavating the lower section that is filled with water further. My claws make the digging drastically faster than my previous excavations. I find I can make large crude blocks with dimensions roughly equal to my claws length. I quickly double the size of the pool, the makeshift blocks now filling a large section of the pool. I begin pushing them out and dropping them down into the depths of the pond, watching them sink before they disappear into the depths. After clearing the blocks out I try to measure the new size. I am able to stretch my body out east to west now and not touch the walls, the entrance to the pool still only being the width of my shoulders. I notice that the lizards are all now awake and watching me work. While still in the water I begin expanding the ledge that we all slept on. Expanding it around the edge of the pool to the south so there is an ''L'' shaped ledge ringing the pool. The ambiance of the waterfall mixing with the shifting sunlight on the wall makes for a relaxing atmosphere. I save some of the blocks from this expansion hoping they can be used to make a way to prevent the fish from escaping the pool later on if needed. I continue expanding southward, away from the water fall. I make the roof higher allowing me to stand inside the area. I also make a shallow basin to dump fish into for the lizards to get easy attributes from. I dig a small channel from the basin back to the pool so the water will drain out of it, hopefully preventing flooding. This makes me think of the switchback ramp going up to the cave, moving up the ramp I can see that my drain in the ramp is working but the top of the ramp is still getting slick from the water splashing in. *Would it be better to just make the area slope towards the waterfall and make a drain or will that just make it worse?* Hoping the small problem doesn''t become a larger one I move back down to the pool. I notice as I come back down that Grek and Limaea are on the far side of the expanded ledge close together. Clessh and Mektha are close to the edge both watching the fish swimming in the pool below. Karack seems to be on their own, closer to the ramp going up. *Well that''s interesting, is this just something that I have not noticed before? I''ll have to keep an eye on it.* The larger size of the pool makes me feel that using my tail as a lure in here might actually work. I begin my first attempt at fishing with in the grotto and find that within moments a group of fish are staring at my tail. Slipping the sheet of Space mana under them I unfold it, I only manage to capture two of them the others darting away as the sheet unfolds. I pull it back and upend it into the basin. *Karack would you like to kill those and put it into INT? I would like to get one of you to ten.* The lizard doesn''t respond as they move over to the basin. They easily grab the first fish by the tail, the shallowness of the basin making it hard for the fish to get away. Karack doesn''t even leave the water before cracking the fishes head against the edge. The fish goes limp and Karack''s brain density goes up marginally. The second fish is dealt with just as quickly, the other four lizards moving over to the fish. *You can all eat what you want. I plan to catch more.* I project to all of them. The thought barely leaves me before the four begin to eat. Karack comes back over next to me and plops down on the ground, seeming to wait for me to catch more. *Karack are you okay?* Worry seeping into me as they choose not to eat. *Yess* The response comes back feeling almost curt. I can feel the sadness and maybe even fear on them though. I go to dip my tail back into the water but find the pool has very few fish. The disturbance of the first catch seeming to make them skittish. *Damn, I guess I can''t just do this entirely safely.* *I''ll be right back* I project to Karack, as I slip into the water. Instead of trying to go to the shore I continue swimming under water, aiming for the large grouping of fish towards the middle of the pond. I slide my folded sheet of Space mana out into the middle before unfolding it. Managing to suck six of the fish into it before folding it back up and returning to the cave. Pulling myself out of the water I can see that the lizards have finished off the fish and are lounging around the pool. Karack is still laying where I left them. I move to the basin and drop the six fish in. Karack without needing to be prompted moves over and begins dispatching the fish one by one. After the second fish Karack''s brain density noticeably changes, now appearing to be the same density as Grek''s. The remaining four fish not having causing another large density change, just the small changes I noted from before. *Karack must only be one fish from six INT at this point.* *Eat if you''re hungry* I project to all of them and notice again as Karack does not join in. *Are you not hungry Karack?* Karack just shakes their head in response. Now very concerned that they are not doing okay I try to ask what is wrong. They only give vague answers though about the giants and being sad about what they did. Assuming it is about the two lizards that were killed I try and push further. *First giant kill other, Second giant kill friend* Confused by the term other I try and find out what they mean, quickly finding out that the first lizard the giants killed a few days prior was Karack''s mate. Realizing this is probably why Karack had nightmares I start trying to think of ways to help, but I quickly find that I don''t have any real options. *I could vow to ''kill them all'' but that isn''t realistic at all. I can''t bring them back from the dead either.* *I''m sorry.* I project to Karack, my feelings of remorse growing deeper as I realize that I am the reason they are feeling this way. *I can try to make you stronger if that would help* *Okay* The one word response giving me at least a little hope. I slide back into the water, using the same technique to just try and suck as many fish into the bag as I can. This time I manage to get seven, concerned with the quantity of fish left in the pond I quickly survey it. Once again I am surprised by just how abundant the fish are. Even after multiple days of fishing the quantity does not seem to have dropped. As I make my way back into the cave I see that all of the fish have been eaten and just some bones and scales are left. I dump my newest set of fish into the basin and watch as Karack gets to work. The first fish leads to the increase in density that I was expecting. The following six allow for Karack''s brain to gain another level of density. *So Karack is up to seven INT now? I wonder if that is enough for more advanced thoughts.* *Karack, do you have a window that shows your stats?* I question. *Yes.* The mental voice much more advanced than I am used to. *Can you tell me what they are?* Karack lists their stats: STR 3, CON 2, DEX 3, AGI 3, PER 2, WIS 1, INT 7, CHA 1. *Well that is better than I expected I started at one in everything except INT. The fact that you''re able to recognize them is huge.* I respond to the list. Realizing luck had a lot to do with those first days I understand how of the twelve siblings that have hatched half of them are dead. Remembering that first day and how the wolf''s claw did almost half my health in a glancing blow. *I was closer to being a baby goblin than I realized* *Karack, you should eat.* I project as I move over to the fish and eat three of them. They don''t immediately move but after a moment they come and start eating one of the remaining fish. *Do you want to become stronger, or would you rather me not continue bringing fish for you to progress with?* I ask as they eat. *I want to be stronger.* The response comes quickly with a feeling of steeled resolve. *If this continues I will have to get another twenty four fish to get them to ten INT. I could probably do that today but the fish population must not be infinite. After that I will have to figure out what stats will help them survive, as well as progress myself. I can easily use my breath to progress though, but that comes back to the potential of wiping out the fish as well. Which would end my progression and easy food.* I pull a ribbon of Space mana and connect it to the sheet of Space mana while I debate the idea. I start stretching the sheet like I have done many times by this point. The head aches I expect don''t immediately come, allowing me to make a lot of progress before the head aches start and then become too much. The original sheet was roughly half the width of my shoulders, the sheet of space mana unfolded is now easily as wide as my shoulders. The progress over the past few days making the internal space seem massive. This most recent stretching after increasing my Mental trait easily account for ten percent of the total size. *If that continues it will be absolutely massive in no time. I also need to find out what the other direction does as well with Space mana. I can''t imagine what pulling it out will look like in practice, it doesn''t seem that useful.* I once again find myself slipping into the water to go catch some fish. I slip my folded Space bag out into the group of fish in the middle of the pond, unfolding it underneath them. I watch in amazement as twelve fish get sucked in. I fold it back up quickly and make my way back to the grotto and lizards. As I crawl out of the water I can see that Karack has finished the three fish that were left. I upend the Space bag into the small basin. The water spills over the edge of the basin as the fish fill the basin to the top. Unable to swim around due to the quantity of them. Karack immediately starts dispatching them, making quick work of all twelve. After killing all twelve Karack''s brain density goes up by one large step, when this happens their entire Aura goes up in density as well. *What was that Karack?* *Level up?* The response comes with a feeling of uncertainty. *Wait you leveled up from that increase as well, did you get trait points?* *Yes, two of them* Their response seeming more confident. *What traits do you have??* My interest piques at this development. *Sticky Toes, and Mutate* *Um what? You only have two traits and one of them is called Mutate?* I respond in disbelief. *Yes, What should I do?* Karack responds. *I don''t know, Mutate seems interesting, but which one do you think is worth it?* Karack doesn''t respond as they collapse to the ground, their entire aura beginning to slowly swirl inside their body. *Well that was unexpected, but if my experience was anything to go by they will be out for awhile* I eat the rest of the fish, ending the feelings of hunger that had been growing in my stomach. With Karack asleep I decide to continue my excavations, the grotto seeming to be in a good spot I decide to start digging up. continuing the tunnel I had made previously, heading East. I dig at a steep angle, making multiple trips with my Space bag to remove debris as I dig. Not sure exactly how long I had been digging for I try to measure the distance I have dug. Using my body length as a measurement tool again I slowly make my way back up the slope, my crude measurements come out to roughly four times my own length. At the top of this steep slope I turn north and start digging up at the same angle towards the cliff face. It takes very little time before I have broken through the outer wall. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Sticking my head out of the hole I can see the waterfall to my left and the pond below it. I haven''t made it that far horizontally but I find myself a fifth of the way up the water fall. Expanding the hole so I can fit my whole body I feel comfortable with being able to launch myself out of the hole and take flight if need be. Landing into the hole would be very painful but I don''t intend to use this as an entrance, the pond giving me an excellent way to enter my home without giving away my position. Moving back down to the grotto I see a sight I did not expect, the lizards are fishing. Limaea and Clessh have their tails in the water, flicking them about while Mektha and Grek lay next to them ready to try and grab the fish. I watch them for a bit before a fish nibbles on Limaea''s tail. Limaea shoots from the edge pulling the fish a little bit out of the water as Grek tries to grab the fish with their mouth. Grek misses the fish and it shoots off, both of them immediately set back up and start again. I notice two fish behind them, partially eaten leading me to believe they have already been successful. *Wow, I''m impressed that they picked it up that fast. At least I don''t have to worry about them being fed now, assuming the fish population continues to be replenished. I really need to find out how there hasn''t been a noticeable dent in their population. Is this a spawning ground of some sort or are they swimming up the river from somewhere else??* I watch the fishing for a long while, enjoying the relaxing nature of the grotto''s sounds as well as the self sufficiency of the lizards. It doesn''t remove my remorse about the two that didn''t make it but it makes me hopeful for their future. I fall asleep shortly after, I fight the feeling for a bit before allowing it to take me into a blissful sleep. I wake to one of my eyelids being pried open, it takes me a moment to realize that it is Karack. Their skin has changed dramatically, the other four still have the light green color they started with but Karack now has streaks of dark purple. The streaks make multiple large swirling patterns across their whole body. The change making them look drastically different than the other lizards now. *What happened after you fell unconscious?* I immediately project to them. They tell me in detail about what followed them choosing to put a single point into mutation. Their mutation trait went up to two and they found themselves in a dark void, just like where I found myself. The lady in the red dress was there as well with her clicking high heels, but instead of being human sized like she is for me Karack says she was massive like one of the giants. "Hello little lizard, I see our dragon friend has done the unexpected." Her smiling face dominating the space above Karack. *Dragon?* Karack thinks in response. "Yes, our purple friend with wings, they are a dragon. That is tangential to what we are doing here though. You chose mutation, which makes you one of only a few of your kind to ever even get to this point. Most of you die before you even get a level up, and the few that get to this point most choose to increase your Sticky Toes trait." She monologues. Karack interrupts her, *What does Sticky Toes do?* She laughs as she responds, "You are much better at this than our friend. They don''t ask many questions and then get upset with me afterwards. Though I guess they did do a much better job of asking questions last time. Sticky Toes is what allows your kind to climb walls, the second level of the trait allows much better adhesion as well as control over the level of stickiness. That though is irrelevant right now, we are choosing a mutation." She takes a deep breath before continuing, "Mutations are a massive list of things that can change you at a fundamental level. For your race a lot of them have to do with basic things for a lizard, you could get Scales, Amphibian, Frog Tongue, Chameleon, Venom, Poisonous, or one of many others that come with your basic race. Your interaction with our friend has opened up another set of traits as well these are more interesting; Breath, Wings, and Mana." She stops talking and just stares at Karack as their mind tumbles from all of the options. The lizard traits alone seeming very interesting but the first two dragon traits immediately pop out at them. *What does Breath, Wings, and Mana do?* Karack finally askes. "Well the first two are pretty obvious, Breath allows you to utilize the same breath that our dragon can use as well as being immune to it, Wings would allow you to eventually fly, but Mana is different. In your current state Mana would do nothing, but eventually it would allow you to fashion spells. The nature of them would be different than what you have seen so far though." *Breath* She laughs hysterically at the instant response, "Just like our friend, you get your mind set on something and ignore everything else." Karack''s retelling ends there, they awoke shortly after and found me sleeping close by. *Well it sounds like you made a good choice then! She is right about the wings thing, it took me multiple trait levels just to be able to fly and even that was pretty limited. Have you tried it yet?* *No, I don''t know how* Karack responds. *Oh, for me I can feel it inside myself and if I focus on it while breathing out it just works. Be careful though it''s incredibly deadly. I do want to test this though with you, She said it would make you immune to mine which is huge.* Karack moves off to the far side of the grotto by the ramp, the other lizards are all laying in a jumble by the East wall. A small pile of fish bones lays close to them, showing that they were very successful in their first day of fishing. Karack takes a large inhale before blowing out hard, the familiar dark purple smoke billowing out of their mouth. The smoke is much lighter than mine and lacks the additional green and reds but otherwise looks the same as my initial breath. From my vantage I can see the tendrils of smoke going down into the water the same way mine did initially. A few fish are caught in this and quickly overcome by the dark veins in their Auras. I stretch my neck out and touch the breath with my snout, feeling nothing I breath in briefly. I can feel the breath enter my lungs but it doesn''t seem to affect me anymore than my own. As the breath clears two fish bodies are floating on the surface. *Nice job!! First try and everything!!* I enthusiastically send to Karack. I can feel the joy coming off them for the first time as their eyes twinkle. *Is your breath empty after that?* *Yes* Comes back quickly *Okay well controlling the amount released will help with that, also as you level the trait it will become more dense. Speaking of traits, you still have another point right?* *No, the mutation took one point and I had to put a point into the breath trait as well. It started at zero.* Karack responds sadly. *Well that''s okay! We can get you more levels pretty easily now!!* I beam at Karack excited at this new development. *Now comes the potentially dangerous part, we need to see if you are immune to mine.* I try and spit the smallest glob of breath as possible onto the ground in between us. The much denser and liquid nature of mine letting off a much darker cloud of purple with the reds and greens spread though out it. Karack tentatively moves their face forwards. *Wait! Try your tail first just in case! It doesn''t have to be inhaled to be effective.* Karack takes to the directions well and spins around, gently extending their tale into the cloud of breath. No veins appear in their aura as I watch, excited about this I urge them to go further. Karack is fully immersed in my breath before it begins to dissipate with no veins ever appearing in their aura. *That is amazing, I don''t have to worry about using my breath around you now!!* Karack seems less happy about this than I am but they also haven''t seen the devastating effects of my... our breath first hand. *We should work on getting you leveled up again as well! I would put those attributes from the fish into INT still, I think it is important to get that to ten, but we can start pumping up some of your lower stats as well. CON is very important for surviving, and WIS will allow you to make better choices.* I use my wing to scoop the two fish bodies out of the water, depositing them in the small basin I had made. With this new development I debate taking Karack with me when I eventually leave to find the egg to the East. *It will probably be worth it to get Karack at least one more level though for the upgrade to Sticky Toes for holding onto me as I fly.* The thought making me realize I should make sure the other lizards are set up well here before worrying about that. I feel that they are in a good spot right now but I don''t know if all of their needs are met. Thinking back to when I asked Grek initially about what they would need and the only response was water I feel that they are in a very good spot. I try to ask Karack but they can''t seem to think of anything and are very intently staring at the water. I realize that they are waiting for their breath to refill so they can get some more fish. Appearing addicted to the ease of the process just like I was. *I wonder if I could store breath in my Space Bag and release it underwater.* I decide to test this and unfold the now large sheet of Space mana upright in front of myself. Pushing some of my breath into the space fills it partially with the dark smoke, the liquid portion seeming to be suspended in the void at the bottom. It continues to evaporate producing more smoke, as some billows out of the bag as I fold it up. I wait long enough that I think it would have all dissipated naturally before slowly opening it again. The smoke of my breath billows out at me, all of the liquid having evaporated into just the smoke. *Well that is interesting, maybe this will allow me to use this more offensively then. Slip it into a wolves mouth and unfold it... or a giants. I need to test this further.* I fold the Space bag back up as the breath is continuing to billow out. I swim back into the center of the pond wanting to try out this new method as soon as possible. I find a large group of the fish and unfold the bag, the cloud of breath exploding outwards as water is sucked in. I have to check my notifications to get an accurate count and find that this has managed to kill twenty of the fish. *Wow, That was effective. The fish genocide continues I guess...* I surface and unfold the sheet of Space mana, dumping the water back into the pond as I try to collect the fish. I manage to get most of them by dipping the sheet of space mana into the water next to them, but a few float away. Deciding it is not worth the time to collect them all I fold the sheet back up and swim back to the grotto. I pull myself from the water and dump the fish into the basin. The four lizards are awoken by the sound of fish slapping off the stone. Karack is not present in the grotto. I snap up a mouthful of fish and move up the ramp to try and find Karack. I find them back in the original cave, standing at the entrance looking out at the forest. *What are you doing back here?* *I was going to try and test my breath. I didn''t know the ramp had been destroyed though. I''ve just been looking out at the forest thinking since then.* They say sadly. *Thinking about what?* I project as I lay down next to them. *What to do next.* Their response quick and short. *Oh, well I was thinking of going East. I had a vision of an egg for another of my kind. I was going to ask if you wanted to come with me. It will be a bit, I want to get your sticky toes to the next level so you can hold onto me as I fly. If that is something you''re interested in at least.* They turn and look at me for a moment before sending *Yes.* We lay there in silence for a long time, the sun going down during the long silence. The sounds of the day are slowly replaced by the sounds of the night. Only interrupted by the growling of my stomach. *Well, I guess that''s my sign to go get some food. Do you want to hunt some more fish?* *That sounds like a good idea.* They respond, lifting off the ground. *Climb on.* I send as I lift myself up, Karack climbs up onto my shoulders and I move back to the grotto. We arrive back and see the lizards lounging around the grotto. They all shoot over and begin inspecting Karack, seemingly interested in the new patterns on their body. I can feel the confusion coming from them as Karack climbs down. *Karack chose to Mutate, if you all keep hunting fish you will eventually be able to as well.* *Grek change too?* Grek sends immediately. *If you want to, you can.* I respond. All of the lizards seem to understand this and begin fishing. I eat the remaining fish from my earlier trial and then remember my notifications. *Twenty attributes to allocate, should be enough to get a few attributes up. WIS seems like a good choice to keep going with.*
WIS +(0.13+0.13+0.13+0.13+0.12+0.12) = 8(8.08)
WiS +(0.12+0.12+0.12+0.11+0.11+0.11+0.11+0.11+0.11) = 9(9.1)
Having gone through fifteen of the twenty fish I decide to put the rest in my lowest stat, CHA.
CHA +(0.19+0.18+0.18+0.17+0.16) = 6(6.05)
*Well that worked out well. Three attribute points for a small genocide. I''m really hoping the fish population doesn''t stop replenishing.* I flick my Aura sight to the maximum checking the fish population and seeing that it still does not seem to have diminished. I notice for the first time that the fish seem to form a massive column in the middle of the pond. I can''t tell if it goes all the way to the bottom or not but the auras of the fish are mere pin pricks at the base. The water prevents me from seeing to the bottom with my Aura sight, I can only tell that it is much deeper than I can see. The realization that this pond from my perspective may not actually be a pond dawns on me. Seeking more knowledge I dive into the water, surfacing towards the middle of the pond for a large breath before diving beneath. My wings and serpentine body allowing me to quickly dive deep. In moments I realize the truth, the mud and muck of the shore ends quickly becoming stone. The stone then drops away beneath me shear sides stretching into the black waters beneath me. I start swimming up to the surface after making this discovery. On my way to the surface I unfold the Space bag in the center of the column of fish aiming for a dense spot. A handful of fish get sucked in before I fold it back up and continue swimming. As I am approaching the base of the waterfall a notification pops up in my vision.
System message: Skill Swimming Rank 0 -> 1
*Huh, that didn''t really take long. I wonder what the effects of that will be. If it follows the same line as other skills it will probably just be able to swim faster. I wonder if there is something that determines how long you can hold your breath for as well. Could I use the my Space bag as a source of extra air?* The thought making my mind reel at the potential, realizing that Space affinity was majorly undersold to me when I was making my choice. I reach the grotto shortly after, my lungs beginning to burn as I reach the waterfall. The distance I can swim without needing a breath surprises me, proving even more that I have been under utilizing this capability. As I pull myself up the ramp and out of the water I can feel the tension in the air. Karack is in back right corner near the basin and the other four are in the back left corner, surrounding Limaea. I can immediately tell that her Aura is significantly less dense than it should be. *What happened?* I try to gently ask Karack. Their remorse invades their thoughts as they respond. *I was using my breath to fish and Limaea came to inspect it. She touched it and immediately cried out in pain before she fell unconscious.* *Yes, our breath is incredibly dangerous. Try to be more careful in the future, if Limaea had inhaled it would have killed them... Wait did you say she?* *Yes.* Karack responds. *I have been thinking of you all as androgynous this entire time. So that makes Grek male then?* I can feel the mental chuckle as Karack informs me that they are a he, as well as Grek and Clessh. Mektha and Limaea are females as were the two lizards that died. *Are you all the last of your kind? The giants made it seem like they had hunted you to extinction.* *Yes, we used to have a large colony, they found us shortly after our tunnels flooded. They killed many of us as we fled.* *Where was this colony?* *Deep in the forest that way* He points with his left arm aiming roughly North West. My curiosity satiated for the moment I remember why this conversation started. I move over to Limaea and check on her condition. Grek puts himself between me. *I''m not going to hurt her Grek. I am sorry that she got hurt.* He seems to understand me but doesn''t move from his spot. I can fortunately see past him and can tell that her Aura has no veins left in it. Having not seen something survive the breath and ble close enough to see how the Aura reacts I pay close attention to her. She seems to be sleeping but it is hard to tell, I watch her for a long time and can see that her Aura is slowly regaining density. Feeling that she will be okay I turn back to Grek. *When you get strong enough you may gain immunity if you choose Breath.* His head tilts at my mental communications. *Trait, Mutate, Breath* I send to all of them emphasizing each piece. *Yess* The response seems much more confident. Hoping that was enough for them to understand what I was saying I move back to Karack. I upend the space bag into the basin before allowing Karack to kill the fish. I see now that it was nine total fish that got sucked into the bag. *Keep doing INT until its ten.* I remind him. The first fish causes him to gain another level of density. Putting his INT at nine, the following eight fish unfortunately leaving him one away from ten by my estimations. Looking to the pool I see a few fish swimming around and use the Space bag to grab one of them before dumping it into the basin. Karack immediately kills it and his brain density grows massively. Much more than what I expected but my curiosity is more in how their thoughts have changed. *Do you notice a difference?* I immediately ask. *Yes, it is like my thoughts before this were cloudy. Now I am able to think so clearly.* His words coming through much more clearly than before. The vocabulary doesn''t seem to have increased by that much, but after the changes before in speech, I didn''t expect that much of a change. *Thank you* He projects to me. *For what?* *Helping me, helping us. We would have been dead without your intervention.* *You helped me more than you know.* I respond sincerely. *Do you know who it was that nodded back to me on that first day?* The question randomly coming to my mind. *Yes, It was my mate, I can''t tell you what she would have been called though. At the time we did not think in that way.* The response gut punches me. I recognize that I will probably regret this but I ask anyway. *If you don''t want to answer this, don''t. Was she the first or second one that died since you met me?* *The first.* My heart clenches as my blood seems to become hot in my veins. She died because of that impulsive flight. I curl up on the ground as my emotions take over my whole body. I lay there for a long time before I reach out to Karack again. *It was my fault. I had just gained the ability to fly and lost myself in it. The giants spotted me flying over the pond and ended up finding the cave. I am sorry Karack. I wish I could undo it.* I can feel how shaky and unstable the words are. *Without you we would all be dead.* He responds with no hesitation. *We had been losing more of us every day, I think it is why she was so willing to trust you. We had nothing else.* His response shifts the weight on my soul. It doesn''t remove it but it does lessen the burden slightly. It also strengthens my resolve to insure the others have a solid home before we go hunting for the egg. *What will they need to be successful while we are gone?* I ask him. *This is more than enough. They can use the upper tunnels if they need a safe spot for eggs. The fish swimming into the pool are more than enough for food. They may get bored but there is probably nothing you can do about that.* *Thank you.* The night now well under way I decide to go farm on some more fish, hoping that maybe I can get another level as well. I swim out into the pond and move to the Eastern shore, when I get there I unfold the Space bag and begin filling it with liquid breath. I fill it easily a quarter full before folding it back up, intending to unfold it underwater in the column of fish. As I re-enter the water I look up at the night sky, seeing the multihued band across the night sky once again I bask in the scene. During this I notice two large owls in the canopy, seeming to watch me as I continue swimming out into the pond. I dive beneath the surface, swimming down to where the drop off is. I send the folded Space bag out into the column before unfolding it. My dark purple breath explodes outward from the bag, water rushing in to displace the liquid. Large bubbles of liquid breath escape the bag, quickly expanding as they turn into gas. The column of fish is covered in the dark tendrils as notifications begin streaming in. The bodies of fish begin floating to the surface as I swim up. I can see that the bodies begin moving away from the waterfall and towards the river to the north, eventually being taken away from the pond. The owls begin swooping down and taking bodies of fish before moving back up to the canopy. The owls take a large amount of fish but there is still a ton floating down the river. I check my notifications and see a flashing forty-seven. I feel surprise at the number, thinking that it would have been more based on my previous experience but happy with this new tactic for leveling my attributes. The column of fish is now slowly swimming in a circle below where I unleashed my breath, seemingly content in staying at that depth. It takes nine of the forty-seven to bring WIS to ten. The breakpoint for the stat coming in as a massive influx of where I went wrong, but also pointing out what I did right. It also allows me to evaluate more the state of this pond and what could be happening. I immediately regret my decision to undergo such a massive hit on the fish population. I can still see there are many many fish left but they seem to be content staying lower in the pond. Fearing that I may have just made a massive mistake I decide to pay close attention to the fish over the course of the next day. I spend eight to bring my INT to eleven, leaving me with thirty fish left. The single point not feeling like it has done that much, checking my character sheet I notice that my mana has gone from ten to eleven. Realizing that my mana quantity must be linked to the stat I make four simple missiles at once before trying to make a fifth. I find that my mana is still two wispy to make a fifth missile but after releasing the four missiles my mana regenerates a good deal faster. I then look to my lowest stats DEX sitting at just above six and CHA sitting at just above six as well. I spend fourteen of the fish bringing DEX to just over eight. Leaving me with sixteen fish left, this last increase causes another notification to pop up.
System Message: Level Level 8 - 8 Trait points gained
Surprised by two levels in one day I allocated the remaining sixteen fish to CHA. This brings CHA to just over eight as well. Looking at the final messages I see:
WIS 10 -> 11
INT 10.28 -> 11
DEX 6.13 -> 8.05
CHA 6.05 -> 8.23
I move back into the grotto as the fish bodies continue to filter into the river before being swept away to the North. I look to my trait points and for the first time make my decision on what to level very quickly. I decide to go with Wings and Breath, Wings because I intend to be flying for a long distance soon, and Breath because it has become my most potent weapon outside of magic. Putting the four points into wings causes them to expand again becoming thicker and also larger in width without grown that much larger in length. The Aura becomes much denser as well, as I have come to expect at this point. My wings now feeling like a solid suit of armor when I have them folded against my body. What I did not expect was the message that came with this.
System Message: Trait Wings 4 -> Max, Mutation available
I try to choose mutation and I get another system message telling me I need five trait points for the mutation. *Well that is interesting.*
System Message: Trait Breath 4 -> 5
I can feel the breath still inside my breath organ compress again, this time it finishes the conversion and becomes completely liquid. Knowing that this will lead to a large increase in effective range, as well as the potency increase for attaching to targets I am satisfied with my choices. Feeling a level of immense satisfaction at my progression for the day I look to the four lizards curled up at the far end of the grotto. I don''t see Karack so I go looking for him and find him in the original cave. He is practicing controlling his breath, he lets out very small amounts over and over as I watch before eventually laying down. It looks from an external perspective like he is waiting for it to recharge. *Practicing your control over the amount you release?* I question from behind him. He startles for a moment before replying *Yes, I don''t want another incident like earlier. I don''t know what I would do if Limaea had been killed by that.* Fully understanding his feelings I just plop down next to him. *I know. Practicing over here instead of near them is certainly a step in the right direction. Have you noticed any improvements?* This seems to open him up a little as he starts describing how he has been able to get a much finer control over the exact amount that he releases at once. He found that he could fill his mouth with the breath and then open it to just release a mouth full at a time. His main hurdle right now being that he is having trouble controlling the direction and distance, it just seems to spill out of his mouth. *Well if yours continues like mine it will condense until it eventually becomes a liquid. Then you will be able to control the direction of it more, but it also becomes a lot more potent. Let''s go back to the grotto for the night though. We can practice more tomorrow.* *Okay* He responds, slightly dejected. *If we can get your Sticky Toes up to rank 2 we could try flying tomorrow if you want to do that.* His demeanor changes greatly as he responds with a quick, *Yes.* *Alright, lets get back to the grotto and sleep. The others are already asleep. Climb on.* I send to him. He scampers up my right arm and onto my back, positioning himself between my wings. I make the short trip back to the grotto, positioning myself so I can see out through the waterfall and then laying down. I watch the fish intently with my Aura sight, the large grouping of fish still not close to the surface like they had been before I annihilated the top of their column. They do seem to have moved up close to the surface from what I can tell, giving me hope that I didn''t mess it all up. I watch as the night sky reflects off the pond through the waterfall with the fish dancing beneath the surface. The rollercoaster of a day slowly giving way to the heaviness of sleep. Day 9, Fishy Source My dreams are of giants slaughtering lizards en masse. My eyes snap open to the familiar feeling of the lizards pressed against me. The major difference being that four of them are on one side and only one on the other. I look around and confirm that Karack is by himself on one side, the others clearly giving him a wide berth now. The thought makes me sad, but I realize that even without the mutation he was still a fifth wheel in the group. I move my head so that I can see the pond turn my aura sight as high as I can. The fish population seems to have refilled the pond, but I am still wary of how infinite that supply actually is. I can feel the affects of the new WIS helping me put the pieces together. I watch the fish trying to figure out what is actually going on in the pond as I wait for the lizards to wake. I sit there for what must be an hour before they finally wake, during the time I notice a lot of small details that hadn''t stood out to me before. The first is that the fish are slowly moving towards the river, they also seem to be growing in size as they get closer to the surface. They don''t move straight to the river, they just leave the center grouping of fish. Some of them come into the grotto before eventually leaving. They appear to be meandering around the pond before eventually finding the river and disappearing down it. Still not sure as to the mechanism that allows for this I am sure that the fish are actually growing as they move from the depths up to the surface. They don''t seem to move out of the center of the pond until after they pass a threshold of size. *Is this some sort of spawn point, like in a video game?* The thought making me scoff at the outlandish idea of that being true. My gut tells me that it is not a spawn point like I am thinking but that there is something much deeper and more intricate going on than that. Knowing that without diving deep into that massive hole I won''t find my answers I file it away as yet another thing I will need to investigate. My curiosity in my surrounding world seeming to have grown with my WIS attribute. That revelation sparking the idea that WIS is not just the ability to put pieces together for decision making but also the desire to learn more. The four lizards moving off to the far side before dipping their tails into the water and beginning to fish. I can tell that they have all grown greatly in the skill, but still have a significant failure rate. I notice during this that Grek and Clessh seem to be bulkier than before, not like when they gained STR but their bodies seem to be thicker overall. *Grek, did you increase your attributes?* I question *Yess, we all get strong!* *What attributes did you choose?* The question seems beyond him and he just tilts his head. Realizing that it probably wasn''t INT for either of them I move to Mektha and Limaea, knowing that both of them still only have a four in INT. *You should both focus on INT for attributes.* I send to the two of them. They just nod as they continue fishing. Hoping that the message was received and they remember to do it I slip into the pond. Leaving Karack laying on the ledge as he watches the others fish. My hope to get him to the next level is the only thing on my mind as I slip below the water. I use my Space bag again to catch six fish and bring them back for Karack. *You should focus on your low stats, but the fish will give you more AGI and STR than anything else.* He nods back at me as he gets to work on the fish. Quickly dispatching all of them he turns to me. *It only took two fish to get me to four STR, and it gave me extra.* He sends to me. *That makes sense, when I use them for attribute gains they always give significantly more STR and AGI.* *AGI was the same thing, it got me to four and then some. What should I do with the last two?* I didn''t notice a massive change to his aura for the AGI increase, but the STR increase gave an obvious increase to his muscle mass. Not nearly as much as the fist fish he killed two days ago but easily a quarter increase. I ask him to tell me his new attributes and I tell him to put the last two into WIS, it being one of his stats at two outside of CHA which is one. Hoping that by increasing WIS it will help him make better decisions. The change in Aura is strange, it has the appearance of his Aura flowing better within his body, not faster but smoother. The attribute increases not giving him another level I decide to slide back into the water and get more fish. I manage to quickly grab another six for him, I pay close attention to the fish as I do. This allows me to confirm some of my suspicions about the difference in size of the fish at the top of the massive column comparatively to the bottom. The process piquing my interested even more as I swim back to the grotto. *How would I even go about getting down there? My Space bag could hold air but I doubt it would be that much air.* Dumping the bag in the basin again I watch as Karack repeats the same process. Four of the fish bodies are still sitting there from the previous trip. *Did they not want to eat these?* I ask Karack. *They seem to be keeping their distance from me, which I don''t blame them for.* *Are you able to communicate with them telepathically?* *What is telepathically?* He askes, tilting his head. *In your head, like we are talking now.* I explain *No, I try but it doesn''t seem to work.* This answers one of the questions that I had earlier, the lizards are not telepathic. My own telepathy allowing them to communicated with me must be how the process works. I move to the four lizards as I think about that. *You are welcome to the fish that I brought for Karack.* They all look at me but don''t move towards the fish, continuing to try and catch some with their method. *It was an accident. He is sorry.* The words are clearly understood but they still do not seem interested in being anywhere near him. I realize now that his ostracization my be permanent over a simple accident. I can''t help but feel bad for him, he clearly regrets the mistake but has no way of making it right. I turn back to Karack and notice that his aura is condensing again. Realizing that he must have leveled up again I watch him. He picks one of his front legs up and looks at the toes, seeming to inspect them. After a moment of this he moves to the wall before quickly climbing up it and onto the ceiling. *Sticky Toes?* I send to him. His head snaps to me, upside down making it look comical as he stares at me. *Yes, It says MAX now instead of two though.* *Does it allow for mutation at MAX?* Wondering if it is like my Wings trait. *No, it just says max. Do you think I should do Mutate again or breath?* He questions back, still hanging from the ceilling. *That''s up to you, but if you do breath you will probably have one trait point left if yours cost the same as mine.* He climbs down to the ground before laying down, seeming like he has made up his mind. He slips in to unconsciousness as I watch. Clearly having put trait points into Mutate. *Well this will be interesting.* I turn back to the others, they still have failed to catch any fish so I move over to the pile behind Karack and grab four of the fish. I drop them by the other lizards and tell them they should eat. They look suspiciously at the fish before Grek moves forwards and takes a small bite. He waits a moment before taking another and then the others dig in as well. Hoping this is a step forwards in trust I move back over to Karack and wait for him to wake. I watch the fish in the pond as I wait, hoping to find more insight about them. Not wanting the time to go to waste I pull a ribbon of mana and attach it to the sheet, stretching the edges until the head aches come. I don''t push myself like previously, planning to continue doing this as the head aches dissipate. The sheet doesn''t increase by much but it is definitely larger. My head ache doesn''t take too long before it goes away, significantly less time than when I pushed myself to my limits. I repeat the process another four times before Karack wakes up, the overall change seems minimal compared to the size of the sheet but I know by now that even minimal changes make a massive difference in the total capacity. Karack awakes and seems disappointed. *What''s wrong?* *I chose wings, she laughed when I did and told me that it was a good choice but I would get nothing for it now.* *What do you mean nothing for it now?* *It is rank zero. I didn''t have extra trait points to bring it automatically to one.* I chuckle remembering how disappointing rank one of wings was. *Don''t worry, rank one did nothing for me, it wasn''t until rank three that it actually made a difference. Next level you should get four traits so you''ll be able to bring wings to three or wings to two as well as a breath to two.* He seems to be in higher spirits after that. Having an idea I have him follow me up into the room above the grotto. I open my Space bag and have him stick his head inside and release all of his breath into it. His breath only fills half of the bag before he is out, I pull his head back out of the bag and quickly fold it back up. We go back into the grotto and I let him know of my plan to open it inside the column of fish, hoping that it will speed up the leveling process. I follow this and watch as his breath spread out into the column of fish, nowhere near the efficiency of mine but still managing to get quite a few. I can see roughly ten fish floating the the surface from his breath. I surface and empty the bag before diving back down and using it to catch another eight fish that I bring back into the grotto. When I get back I can feel the satisfaction rolling off Karack. *So it worked?* *Yes! Eleven from that!* *That''s awesome, have you put the attributes in yet?* *No, I was waiting for you. Should I keep upgrading the lowest?* He questions. *Yes, but if they are even I would do STR and AGI.* I watch as he increases his attributes, trying to determine what he increases by the changes I can see. I can tell his STR goes up at least twice, the strange Aura smoothing of WIS happens at least once. Hoping that''s not all he got out of them I ask him what he did. *STR went up by two, AGI by one, WIS by one, and CHA by one.* I dump the eight fish into the basin, motioning for Karack to kill them as well. I eat the remainder from the last batch. Hoping these eight will be enough to satiate me, still afraid that my continual decimation of the fish population will have a lasting effect. Fortunately the eight fish are enough for Karack to hit level four. He puts two of them into AGI bringing it to six, and three into PER and CON bringing them both to four. This batch causing him to go up another level. He immediately puts two trait points into wings, the change from the outside being instantly obvious. Unlike my wings his sprout from his sides, connecting to his front legs. The first rank makes them look like just a webbing. The second rank makes a hardened protrusion extend from the wrist of his front legs. When his wings are retracted the protrusion is flush with his arm, ending in a small spike that extends slightly beyond his forearm. He can extend them out to almost double the front edge of his wings. The webbing connects from the tip of the extension to where his back legs begin. We go outside to test them out and find that he can glide well but is unable to take off from the ground on his own. Taking off is made difficult due to him having to stand on his back legs to extend his wings. He tries and fails a few times to move while flapping his arms but each time he is unable to get any lift. The first time ends up with him falling onto his back from the force of his wings. This is improvement enough for me to feel much better about flying with him on my back, if he falls he will at least be able to glide. *You should put the last two into breath, or save them for another mutation.* I tell him *If I put them into wings I might be able to fly on my own though! The breath is already strong!* He insists. Feeling like I am not going to convince him otherwise, I watch as he puts the remaining two points into wings. I watch as the wings'' membrane grow in thickness as well as slightly in length. Unfortunately this still does not allow him to take off from the ground on his own but it certainly seems like it will allow him more control and glide time in the air. He seems disappointed by the change from the third rank. *Don''t worry! We will keep making your stronger, you could also try climbing. It might be a limit of your anatomy for ground based take offs.* This seems to give him hope. I watch as he scampers off to the cliff face, easily scaling the cliff before turning back and launching himself into the open. Realizing his is much more courageous than me, I watch in delight as he snaps his front legs out and the wings catch the air. His first flight is quite tumultuous reminding me heavily of my own. He rocks back and forth trying to figure out the small movements to right himself. He seems to get better at it before he hits the ground and bounces once. I run over to him, *Are you okay?* *Yes, but I took blunt damage, what is that?* I chuckle remembering my own run in with blunt damage. *Blunt is just impacts and stuff like that. How much did you take?* *Four, I''m only at sixteen health now.* *Wait what? Your CON is four right??* *Yes, why?* *What is your max health?* *Twenty, Why is something wrong??* I can feel his anxiety through the telepathic link. *No, yours just functions differently. Each point of CON for me gives ten heath, yours seems to only give five. That is very good to know though, it means we need to get that attribute up even more so now. One of those wolves would easily kill you if they hit you. Do you want to try swimming? I find I can use my wings partially folded to help me swim.* *Sure!* He sends as he slides into the pond. He seems to be a proficient swimmer, which surprises me after being told they can not swim well. It makes me question the other things Grek has told me. I don''t suspect foul play, just ignorance. We swim around for a bit before diving down and swimming back to the grotto under water. The force of the waterfall makes it much harder for Karack to swim into the grotto but he is able to get inside by attaching himself to the cliff face under water and walking up in. The others are startled by our sudden appearance but quickly go back to fishing. Behind them I can see eight fish bodies from their endeavors. I am surprised by their quick increase in capability but also excited that they are clearly able to feed themselves. I try to converse with them and find that it is very difficult after having been with Karack for the past few hours. Their vocabulary and understanding is incredibly limited. *We need to get one of you to a higher INT and allow them to lead you in my absence.* The tilted heads in response tell me that was a little too much for them. Trying a different approach *Who do you want to lead you?* They all just keep staring at me and I realize I need to be more specific. *Who should lead?* They all seem to look towards Limaea, she is still staring at me as she realizes the other four are staring at her. *Me?* She asks seeming to be very uncomfortable. *Okay, that works!* She seems to understand this, bobbing her head up and down. I slip back into the water as Karack moves up the ramp. I assume he is going to practice with his breath and leave him be. I swim out into the fish column. It once again has replenished itself increasing my interest in the origin point even further. I slip the folded Space bag out into the column and unfold it before rapidly refolding it after a bunch of fish get sucked it. Quickly swimming back to the grotto I dump the bag into the basin for Limaea. *Focus on WIS and INT!* I send to her hoping that the message gets through. I can see that there are nine fish in the shallow basin flopping around, she quickly works through all nine. I eat them after she is done killing them, continuing to fill what is beginning to feel like a bottomless stomach. After she is done I watch as her Aura begins to flow more smoothly just like when Karack put points into WIS. This transition only happens once before her entire Aura condenses, signaling to me that she just leveled up. She continues allocating the fish before turning to me. *What did you get from them?* Her speech has gotten notably smoother, *WIS is four and INT is six, and a level?* The last part comes with the feeling of confusion. *That is awesome, Do you have the mutate trait?* *Yes, should I choose it?* *That is what Karack chose, he then chose breath.* I send to her hoping that the six in INT is enough for her to understand. She slowly drops to the ground in an unconscious state. *Mutating seems like it could be a death sentence if you just suddenly drop unconscious...* The thought coming to me as I think of getting a level up after killing something in the wild. I watch as the purple swirling patterns begin to show on her body. They start at her neck and slowly grow down her back, the swirls much smaller than Karack''s. I can''t take my eyes off them as they slowly expand into much more complicated swirls. Eventually her whole body is covered in hundreds of thin dark purple swirls. Her eyes snap open as she wakes up, suddenly going from unconscious to fully awake. *Did it work?* If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. *Yes, I can feel it. It''s... strange.* She seems to contemplate something before letting out a small puff of dark purple smoke. *Be careful!! The others are not immune. Only Karack and I are.* I try to position myself between her and the others so they do not get injured. They seem to understand my intent and stay back. She seems to understand the gravity of this having been on the receiving end already. *If you are comfortable swimming you can let the breath out underwater, it is very effective like that.* She immediately dives into the pool of water and swims towards one of the fish. She grabs it with her front left leg and breathes a small amount of breath directly onto it. It takes a moment with her low rank breath but the fish''s Aura eventually dissipates. The body floating to the surface, slowly dragging her with it. Her aptitude for swimming astounds me, Karack seemed to be a capable swimmer after his wings mutation. Limaea seems to be a natural in the water though. Some of the fish take notice of her in the pool and try to stay away but she continually catches one after the other. She quickly finds the right amount of breath to use on the fish, she used too little on one of them and it ends up taking her for a ride around the small pool. The comedy of a small lizard being whipped around by a fish three quarters their size is too much and I start chuckling. The low rumbling sound coming out of me startles the other three before they realize what it is. Having success with both Karack and Limaea makes me think that I can get the other three to level two quickly as well. I slip into the water to go collect more fish from the pond, I stay underwater the whole time trying to work on my swimming skill as well as stay concealed. This trip I only manage to catch seven more fish before I turn back to the grotto. I can see Limaea pulling herself out of the water as I surface inside the grotto. *You seemed to enjoy that* I project to her. *Yes, swimming is fun, I feel free.* I can''t help but wonder how much she will enjoy flying if she ends up going down that road. I dump the seven fish into the basin before signaling Grek to come over. He seems to understand what to do and gets to work without any prompting. *WIS and INT, this time Grek.* I send as he is flipping the third fish over his head and smashing it into the ground. I watch as all seven are quickly dealt with, snapping each one up as he kills it and swallowing it in one bite. His Aura goes through two drastic changes in the smoothness of its flow before his entire Aura condenses. I am caught by surprise at how close to level two he was but I reiterate to him what to do. His brain density didn''t seem to increase but I hope it was enough for him to understand. Not waiting for him to finish the process I make another trip to the middle. I once again stay underwater the whole time, the idea of surfacing outside strikes me as a very bad idea. Not sure where that comes from I decide to follow the feeling, assuming it comes from the WIS threshold. I manage to catch eight fish this time and bring them back dropping them in the basin again, repeating the same steps I did with Grek and Limaea but with Clessh this time. His aura flows much worse than the other two leading me to believe his WIS score is naturally lower. Hoping that doesn''t negatively impact this I watch as his brain density goes up first, alarmed that he isn''t putting anything into WIS I almost interrupt him. Before I can his Aura begins to flow much more smoothly. The change is massive compared to the others making me feel that he just went from one to two in WIS. His Aura smooths once more before the entirety of it condenses. The progress of the lizards today blowing me away after such slow progress on the days before. The realization dawns on me that they must have all been so close from the fishing as well as the initial INT progression from a few days ago. I inform Clessh of what to do and watch him fall unconscious next to Grek before swimming out for what I hope is my last trip. I only manage to grab six fish this time before heading back to get Mektha to level two. When I get back into the grotto I notice both Limaea and Mektha standing by Grek and Clessh, watching intently as the dark purple swirls grow on their bodies as well. Both of them have much thicker swirls than Limaea but not as thick as Karack''s. Mektha begins killing the fish as they pour into the basin, not even waiting for me to say anything. Unfortunately this doesn''t get her to level two, her WIS going up by only one from outward appearance. I look to the pool and only see a handful of fish left from Limaea''s hunting. I partially unfold the Space bag under one of them and watch it get sucked in before folding it back up and dumping the fish into the basin. I repeat this process four more times before there are no fish left in the pool. The first fish was enough to increase the density of her brain, telling me that she had only been one away. This doesn''t increase her over all Aura though which surprises me. Fortunately the other four are enough to increase her WIS causing the now familiar Aura condensation. She immediately falls unconscious, giving me hope that she already knew what to do. A moment later my hope is reinforced when thin swirls of dark purple begin to appear on her skin. Relief floods over me as I realize that all of my friends are now immune to my breath. Hoping that this allows Karack to be more welcome within the group I go to find him. As I walk back through the main tunnel I begin getting anxious as I realize his ostracization may only be party due to the breath incident. Realizing that him being alone when the others are all paired off may be a larger portion of that. I find him in the main cave where I expected, but doing something I did not expect. He is launching himself from the main room of the cave and gliding down the slope towards the entrance. I don''t interrupt as I watch him do this the first time, I can feel the elation rolling off of him in waves as I watch. He lands almost at the cave entrance before turning and running back to the top. He doesn''t even notice me until he is almost all the way to the top of the cave''s internal slope. He slides to a stop, startled at my ''sudden'' appearance. He stands still for a moment before what I can only describe as a smile cuts his face in two. *Don''t let me interrupt you!* I send to him. Immediately he finishes the trip to the top before launching down the cave again. I watch him do this over and over before he starts to get visibly tired. When he reaches the top again, I explain stamina as I understand it and how I have mine always visible. He is confused at first by this but quickly seems to figure it out as he starts telling me that the number is slowly ticking up. A sudden thought comes to me, *Did you have access to this information before meeting me?* *I don''t think so, but I also never had any notifications before. The first one I got was when you had me kill the first fish.* *Was that the first thing you have killed?* I ask him. *Yes, we mainly only ate berries before.* *What about when you lived in the colony, did you only eat berries then?* *No, we had meat, but I never went and got it, others always did.* The idea of that intriguing me greatly, *Did they look different, like they had mutated?* *Some did, but not like we do now. We had a lot of different lizards in our home at the time, sometimes it seemed like we were completely different types. Looking back now it seems like they just had different mutations.* The line of thought bringing up an image of this massive lizard colony with a ton of differently mutated lizards within. *How did you all communicate with each other?* *We didn''t, or at least I didn''t. Others probably did some how but I wasn''t that old when the giants found the colony and started killing everyone.* His thoughts seeming to grow dark as we talked about the destruction of his colony. *We don''t have to talk about that, I was just curious as to how you didn''t interact with this system before. We should go back to the others, they should be close to done their mutations by now.* Karack crawls up my front leg, the motion becoming much quicker now, and we make our way back to the grotto. As we come down the ramp I can see Limaea standing guard over the others. Grek''s new pattern seems to cover almost his whole body, Clessh''s and Mektha''s seem to be getting close as well. It is only a moment before Grek''s eyes snap open, he stands up and looks around before approaching the water and diving in. His swimming is nowhere near as graceful as Limaea''s and it takes him a significant amount of time before he latches onto a fish. Clessh and Mektha both wake up during this time and we all watch as Grek struggles. After latching onto the fish he can''t seem to get his breath to work. He ends up riding the fish around the pool as the fish tries to buck him off, making it look like an underwater bull riding ring. We all find it hilarious to watch and lose ourselves in it for a bit. He eventually surfaces and askes me how it works. I give him the same run down I gave Karack, he immediately lets out a large belch of purple smoke. Just by the size of it I can tell that he has probably expended his entire organ. My assumption is proven correct when he sullenly pulls himself out before laying down. We all find amusement in this, well almost all of us. Clessh jumps into the pool next, his swimming is much better than Grek''s but nowhere near as graceful as Limaea. It doesn''t take him long before he latches onto a fish and exhales onto it. The fish being bathed in a large cloud of purple smoke that it quickly succumbs to. Clessh swims out of the pool, the self satisfaction rolling off of him. *How much breath do you have left?* *None* He sends back, the feeling of a beaming smile coming through. Limaea shakes her head from next to me, seeming both amused and disappointed at the showing. Mektha wastes no time jumping into the water. Her swimming is much closer to Limaea''s but still not as good. Unlike Grek and Clessh she seems to have a good amount of restraint like Limaea did with the quantity of her breath that she uses. She manages to catch two fish before she has to surface and then swims back to the edge. Only catching two fish seems to be more limited by the amount of fish in the pool and not her capability. Grek''s fish riding scared a lot of them out and Clessh did the same. I decide a little more excavation is in order and I spend the next hour expanding the pool. I make the pool into a big ''U'' shape around the ledge. The ledge now protruding out into the pool like a peninsula and the pool surrounding it. I easily move the large roughly cube shaped blocks out of the grotto and dump them into the pond, the pile of blocks at the base of the entrance still out of sight in the depths of the pond. I dive down to make sure that they are not piling up too high and find that the pile isn''t even a tenth of the way up to the entrance. This gives me confidence that the pile will not alert anyone as to the presence of the grotto from the outside. I swim back in and begin making the entrance a little deeper, hoping to allow the lizards to easily swim in as I remember Karack''s difficulty with the waterfall pounding down on him. I then move deeper into the pool towards the North Eastern corner and being making the pool deeper. My hope is that the pooling be U shaped and deeper on the Eastern and Southern portions will make it harder for fish to easily escape. By the time I am done the Southern portion of the U is easily double the depth of the Northern section. My head is barely above the water when I am on all fours with my neck extended all the way up. I crawl out of the water and lay down on the peninsula, all five of the lizards having fell asleep as they watched me work. To my delight I see that they are all in one big group, Karack having finally been welcomed back into the group after the breath incident. My thoughts turn to what my next moves should be. *If Karack is still welcome here I shouldn''t take him from them, but that is assuming he is still welcome. I need to check with Limaea to make sure I have covered all their basic needs before leaving them alone. I also should figure out what is going on with the fish, that is something I could probably work towards right now.* Darkness is beginning to fall outside of the grotto as I settle on trying to find a way to make it down to the bottom of the column of fish. I slip into the water and begin swimming, I dive down into the hole in the bottom of the pond, swimming until I feel that my lungs will start burning. I turn to the walls of the shaft and begin digging into the wall at an upwards angle. I don''t make much progress before I find my lungs starting to burn. I make my way up to the surface, taking a couple of breaths and then diving back beneath the water. It takes me a moment to find the spot I was digging in but when I do I continue digging into the wall at an upward angle. After digging far enough that the front half of my body is inside the area I put my space bag facing up into the pocket. The water floods in as air explodes outwards the water being displaced in the small tunnel as the air fills the space. I pull back and make my way back to the surface, above me I see large bubbles of air that escaped the small enclosed space. I empty the bag of water above the surface before swimming back down to my small air pocket. Now that I have a spot with some air I spend more time digging, the water level rising in the tunnel as I excavate more stone from above me. I enlarge the tunnel so that my body can fit within before I unfold the bag under water again. The air goes from being a thin layer at the top to filling most of this area. The water is still higher than the entrance to the area making me believe I managed to capture all of the air this time. Not wanting to waste the air I have I swim back to the surface and refill the space bag with air. I repeat this process two more times, the final size of the tunnel allowing me to spread a wing out to one side, my head touching the ceiling when I am on all fours. Realizing I may have gone a little over board I begin diving deeper. I make another tunnel much deeper into the shaft having to leap frog from the first as I repeat this process of surfacing for fresh air and then using my space bag to fill the tunnel with air. After completing this second air stop I begin swimming deeper. The Auras of the fish becoming smaller as I go deeper. I continue swimming down and see a massive Aura come into the edge of my vision. My lungs begin to burn slightly as I swim towards it, not wanting to make another space just yet I decide to flip my sheet of Space mana over so it is facing down and unfold it. I blow most of the air out of my lungs to the side before sticking my head inside and taking a deep breath. My lungs now feeling refilled I continue swimming down. As I am swimming the sides of the shaft cut away suddenly as I enter what feels like a large void. The Aura below me growing and now appearing massive in size. I can tell now that the Aura is spherical and incredibly large. As I swim to it I an see that small fish appear at its edges before moving away and then slowly up towards the surface. I get a little bit closer before I see that it is not a single Aura that I am seeing but thousands upon thousands of strands of mana woven together. The strands are many different colors, some the purple of Raw and others the black of Space. Most I don''t recognize but it is a rainbow of different colors some appearing to be more than just colors. I watch this mesmerized for a long time before my lungs begin burning again. I repeat the same process as before and notice that my Space bag is still easily ninety percent full after two breaths. *I probably should have tested the bag before wasting all that time digging* Not wanting to test the limits I begin swimming back up. I get notification roughly half way up the shaft as my lungs begin to burn.
System Message: Skill Swimming Rank 1 -> 2
The sensation of burning in my lungs massively reduces as I find myself swimming even faster. *Well I guess that answers my previous thought on if it allows me to hold my breath longer.* The surprise of this making me happy that there wasn''t another skill called ''breath holding'' or something like that. I hadn''t put it past this system to have some foolish skill like that. I only need to use the bag twice more before I reach the surface. Having seen the magical construct at the bottom of the long shaft I begin to think of how to take advantage of it. The fish seeming to be created by magical means leads me to believe that I don''t have to worry about them not coming back. I can feel the effects of my new WIS threshold as the depths of my mind shout "You don''t know that" back at me. *That was a strange one. It''s weird having these new reactions but its weirder knowing why I have them. I don''t know why it works but I do know that the fish come from that massive sphere of magic. For now I can at least assume it will continue doing what it has been doing for the days I have been here though.* My certainty in the fish being a fairly renewable food source cemented I decide to start ramping up my progression as well as the lizards progression. My gains after hitting ten in the attributes seems to be greatly diminished but the lizards still have quite a few attributes that are low. Knowing that going overboard will draw more giants to investigate on top of those already investigating I decide to continue taking it slow. *If I do one or two full bags of liquid breath into the column a day I will get massive gains. I can use most of that for feeding myself and the grotto''s pool seems to fill with fish enough for the lizards to survive. I could get a few bags worth of fish from the column to help their progression as well. I wonder if I could make friends with those owls? They seemed friendly enough... well except that first time.* Deciding to act on making progression I empty the water that is left in my Space bag and begin filling it with liquid breath. I find that I can float on the water with the sheet of Space mana facing up and allow my breath to just roll into it. I stop filling it when the liquid begins to over flow and I fold it back up. I see a few fish bodies bob to the surface from the overflow of the bag so I snap them up to help combat my ever growing hunger. I smoothly dive back under the surface, finding the swimming rank increase to have made a massive all around difference in my capabilities under the water. *I wonder what the lizards'' skills are, Limaea must have a high swimming skill compared to the others.* I perch on the edge of the shaft and move my folded Space bag out into the center of the column. Remembering that the liquid breath sank in water I flip it over so that it is facing down and unfold it. The breath begins cascading out, a few fish caught in the liquid breath as it drops out. I can see from this distance that the normal veins don''t appear in their aura, instead it is like their aura is replaced with a dark cloud starting at the contact point. This dark cloud rapidly fills their aura was before blinking out. I snap fish off the surface filling my stomach before swimming back to the grotto. Thinking about my next steps as I pull myself into the grotto I realize I could leave the lizards in relative safety now. *They have access to a seemingly limitless food source and the safety of the grotto and cave. Their access to my breath allows them to defend themselves even if only against smaller predators. Their progression will definitely slow but it will be continuous now.* The brainstorming ends when I realize I haven''t been practicing with my mana much today. I immediately begin pulling threads of Raw mana, instead of producing missiles I focus my effort on pulling a sixth thread. My attempts grow slightly better as my head begins to pound. At first I can barely pinch the ball of mana in my core before it slips away. After what feels like hours I can start to form the thread before it slips from my grasp. When I stop I realize that it was nowhere near hours of practice, the pain of my throbbing head just made the process feel overly long. Knowing from experience that if I keep pushing I will have a catastrophic failure I decide to lay down keeping my eyes on the waterfall and watching for any activity. I notice that the lizards are all in the water darting after fish trying to hit them with their breath. Limaea is still far more proficient in the water than the others but they are all improving. This goes on for awhile before they have scared most of the fish out of the pool. The new shape of the pool seems to help keep the fish from easily darting out but they still find their way out eventually. We all lay there for a long time eating the fish they managed to catch and just enjoying the grottos ambiance. The night sky illuminates the pond on the far side of the water fall and the waterfall distorts the image further. The end result is a cascade of different lights and shapes creating a continually changing pattern on the water fall. The progress we made as a whole today making me feel over all content but there is still a deep pit of anxiety. *Something made that magical construct, but what?* I notice the slowly flashing notification of my fish kills from earlier, fifty two attribute distributions await my decision. Pulling my character sheet up briefly to check what my lowest stats are I settle on increasing AGI, CON, DEX, and CHA. Starting with AGI it only takes three of the fish to bring it up to eight and another four to bring it to nine. Moving to CON it takes eight fish to bring it to nine, the massive increase in the amount required reminding me of the fishes efficiency in STR and AGI. Moving on to DEX it takes nine of the remaining thirty five fish to bring it to nine as well. CHA only takes seven of the fish bringing my remaining fish down to nineteen.
AGI 7.21 -> 9.15
CON 8.16 -> 9.06
DEX 8.05 -> 9.07
CHA 8.23 -> 9.01
With my four lowest stats being at nine I realize that I now have the opportunity to decide which of the stats to reach the threshold of ten. *CON seems like an interesting choice to bring to ten, the threshold for that could be very good. AGI is just my movement speed so that is probably not that big of a threshold. DEX is how dexterous my movements are so that could be worth it but I don''t really use that much. CHA doesn''t seem to have affected me much up to this point either. I might be able to get AGI and one other to ten as well based on how quickly that was brought from seven to nine. CON seems like the choice.* My decision made up I begin allocating the fish to CON. It takes ten fish before my CON hits ten. I try to watch my body to see if any physical changes happen.
CON 9.06 -> 10.07
System Message: Level 9 - 9 Trait points gained
The second message takes me by surprise causing me to briefly lose my focus. I quickly minimize it before looking back at my body. I notice for the first time while leveling that my aura grows in density just like the lizards have been. This seems to overshadow any changes that the CON threshold made, disappointing me slightly from the loss of that information. Pulling up my character sheet I can see the major difference though.
Health 150/150
*Wow, so the threshold made my health massively increase per point of CON. That single point in CON gave me what amounts to sixty more health.* I then begin putting fish into AGI, hoping to get that to ten as well and find that it only takes five of my remaining nine fish.
AGI 9.15 -> 10.17
The ten point threshold doesn''t seem to have any effect other than things moving slightly slower. Realizing that they are not moving slower and that I am actually just moving faster in all aspects makes me think that I have been missing out by not raising this stat sooner. With one more regret now I put the last four fish into CHA on what feels like a whim.
CHA 9.01 -> 9.42
*Now after just making those decisions I get to make another big decision... nine trait points and that wing mutation hanging over my head. If it takes five like I expect it to that would allow me to mutate that as well as do a rank up of Scales or Mental. It seems like all of these traits are massively important, even claws that I have mostly ignored has been amazingly improved each rank up. Five being the max rank for Wings is interesting as well, do the others have different rank maximums? Breath is five and still hasn''t maxed out implying that it either doesn''t have one or is at a different rank. I''m definitely doing wings though, that is far to intriguing not to go forward with, the question is do I want to do Mental or Scales on top of that?* I sit there for a long time tossing the two options back and forth in my mind before the squirrel pancake comes to mind again. The image happens as I am thinking about doing Scales so I go forward with that as my decision and put four of the trait points into that trait.
System Message: Trait Scales rank 4 -> MAX, mutation available
*Fuck...* I think as I realize I just made another decision for myself. I begin watching my scales improve, enjoying the show of the small whirlpools forming over each, sucking aura down into the scales. The density of each scale now shows against my Aura making me look like a dragon even more from my Aura''s shape. In the visible spectrum I begin to look more like a hole in the world. My individual scales looking like they are small voids each with it''s own nebula floating around. The effect is jarring when I move, making it seem like I am not as close as I actually am. After the whirlpools dissipate I decide to find a comfortable spot, expecting to go unconscious when I choose to mutate my wings. I don''t allow myself to second guess this knowing that I will just spiral again into analysis paralysis. My spot found I put the points into Wings mutation and watch as my vision shrinks to black. Click Click Click Day 10, No Kids Allowed. I once again find myself in endless darkness, a single source of light making a cone of light in the sea of black. The woman stands in front of me her clothes have changed, the fabric appears to be space itself. Countless stars that create nebulas and galaxies dot the fabric. The more I focus on a single area the more detail I can see. The increase in detail makes me feel like I am diving into the field of galaxies, moving my focus I feel the detail snap away. She smiles at me, "Don''t get lost." I blink a few times trying to get my bearing again. Trying to focus my thoughts I remember why I am here, "Why did Karack see you as a giant?" Her laughter is loud and abrasive, "Really!? That is what you ask??" "It''s just what came to mind first, why did he?" "You''ll have to figure that one out on your own. We are here about your mutation." She speaks flatly, her earlier mirth gone. "Okay, What are my options?" "You can enhance their physical traits; heavily armored scales, thicker wings, and stronger bones. Or you can make them more magical this would be based on one of your affinities. If you had more affinities you would have more choice but that is too bad for you." Her response is flat until the last part where a smile cracks her lips. "Why do my misfortune and failures bring you joy?" I question realizing she seems to have some sort of shadenfreude going on. "Because you fail spectacularly but some how seem to always pull out ahead. It makes for a great show." Realizing she just likes watching me flounder I ask, "So Physical, Space, or Raw?" "Yes. Now choose." "Wait, you make fun of me for not asking questions and now you try to force me to make a choice without elaborating? What do they do?", I plead. "The physical one is the only consistent one. Affinity based wings change greatly based on you. It''s how you view those things." Imagining my wings turn into massive cones of raw mana on my back I can''t help but chuckle. "Well probably not that..." She says smirking. "So if I choose a magical mutation for this I could end up with some random change?" "Not random. You definitely won''t feel like that at least. It will be based on your understanding or image of the magic." The idea rattles around in my brain, *My only use so far of Raw mana has been my missiles and Space has been exclusive to creating a bag for holding things. Neither of them seem to be good for mutating my wings. Physical feels like the most reliable choice but both magics have shown to be incredibly helpful. I wonder what my breath is considered for magic type...* "Soul.", Her flat response clearly answering my thoughts. "I guess it makes sense that you can understand my thoughts. Will any of these choices be bad?" "No. They might not be better or worse compared to other options, but none of them will be bad.", She replies with no hesitation. "My gut is saying Space, I use it the most right now and I can''t imagine how Raw would help me. Physical feels safe and boring." I think out loud. Her body language doesn''t seem to give me any hints. "Space." A smile cracks her lips, "Are you sure?" "Yes." My vision rapidly dwindles to a single point of light before blinking out. My eyes snap open the light coming through the waterfall tells me it is at least late morning. I stretch my body, my wings coming into view as the wrap around in front of my face. The membrane of my wings doesn''t seem to exist, the area it occupied now seems to just be a hole in space. The membrane replaced by what looks like a infinite field of small pinpricks of light, much like my larger sheets of space mana. As the wings stretch in front of me the feeling of floating in space over takes me. I test the effect by moving my wings closer to my head, completely covering my eyes and head. I move my head back and forth and the sea of stars moves with it, the view reminding me of a no light night sky. I look down towards the ground and can see the massive slash of dark purple, red, and green that usually shows up in the night sky. My investigation is interrupted by the feeling of a sticky paw touching the outside of my wing. Surprised I snap the my wings down, causing Karack to go flying forwards into the pool. *Are you okay?* I send, watching as he rights himself underwater and surfaces. *Yes!* His response comes with deep mirth. I can see the other lizards swimming in the pool below me. The fishing seems to be going well based on the amount of bones that surround us. My stomach growls loudly as I watch Limaea exhale onto a fish and then gobble it down. I slip into the water towards the water fall and begin swimming towards the column of fish. My wings seem to work the same in the water but there is a strange tightness in them that wasn''t there before. The sensation makes me think there is a muscle in my wing but that doesn''t seem to be true. Trying to flex the area like I would a muscle seems to make no difference. I continue swimming trying to get a feel for this new sensation but it seems to be out of my grasp for now. As I dive into the column I open my mouth, snatching multiple fish up in a single bite. Hunger driving me to eat them immediately instead of using the more effective breath method. After what feels like a long time of being under water my lungs begin to burn. I look up to gauge how far down I am and find that I am a significant depth down in the pond. I begin my ascent to the surface, the burning growing more intense as I swim towards the surface. The sensation grows from uncomfortable to painful quickly and I strain to push my body further. Using my wings I push hard with them and notice that as I''m pushing down with the wing I feel the sensation on the tip change. The instinctual reaction of trying to get to the surface making a break through that my conscious mind was unable to make. The sensation in my wings is close to how ribbons of space mana feel. With space mana I stretch the ribbon''s physical dimensions but there is also a fourth dimension that I can interact with. It feels like an in and out sensation as though I am creating depth where there wasn''t any. With my ribbons of mana pushing in seems to create space within the mana to store things. Pushing in on the areas of my wings seems to create a pulling sensation on the area around it. This is very small compared to the overall power of my wings but still adds to the propulsion. My wings allow me to notice something as well that I haven''t noticed with my ribbons of mana, when I push in on one section another section on the opposite edge has the sensation of pushing out. I push in on the entire leading edge of my wing and feel as the trailing edge to expands. I look over at my right wing and see no difference in the wing itself. The water seems to be pulled into the leading edge of my wing and as it comes close the it is then pulled down the membrane and expelled out of the trailing edge. The starry expanse of my wing membrane makes this look like the water is being pulled into space and then shot out the other end. The feeling of my lungs burning brings me back to the present. I use this new push-pull feeling to help swim to the surface. Expanding the effect to the length of my wings makes a massive difference in my movement. Previously I felt like swimming came naturally but with this new effect I slip through the water incredibly quickly. I breach the surface of the pond, my speed launches me from the water. My body breaches the surface to my back legs before gravity starts pulling me back down. I splash back into the water, slipping back beneath as the ripples of my passage spread across the top of the pond. I start playing with the pushing and pulling along the length of my wings. I notice after a short time that it isn''t actually a pushing and pulling, it is closer to a contraction and expansion. I also find that I can reverse it, contracting the trailing end and expanding the leading end. This reversal causes the water to flow backwards close to the wing itself. This makes swimming strange as my wings try to flip my body around the axis of the wings. I find that I can hold my wings out rigid and contract the front edge creating a small amount of thrust forwards. By itself this doesn''t make me fly through the water but it allows me to coast through the water with what feels like no effort. I use this to move myself back into the fish column, snapping up any fish that get close. As I glide through the column I notice that the fish are impacted by the movement of the water around my wings. I watch multiple times as fish get very close to my wings and seem to shrink down before they expand back to normal. The fish are seemingly contorted like in fun house mirrors the degree of the distortion seems to be based on how close to my wings they get. A few fish seem to brush my wings, their bodies contracting and expanding massively before they pass. None of the fish even seem to notice the compression and expansion effect on themselves. I fill my stomach quickly and notice that I can stay under a lot longer when I''m not using my wing muscles and whole body to swim. My stomach being full I continue testing out my new capabilities. I keep my wings extended and tip the front edge up, causing me to start making a wide arc towards the surface. When I''m pointed directly at the surface I flatten the wings back to the plane of my body. I quickly arrive at the surface, this time I don''t breach and my head just breaks the surface as I take a quick breath and as I begin to dip back below my eyes catch something that makes my heart drop. Sitting on the northern edge of the pond is a giant. This giant looks much smaller than the ones I have seen previously, appearing to be a child. They have their arms wrapped around their legs and seem to be crying, the sobs making their body shake violently. Hoping that they haven''t been there long I dip back beneath the surface and turn my aura sight up until I can see them clearly from under the water. I being moving back towards the cave underwater, keeping the giant child in my sight as I move to the cave. I make it back to the grotto without having to surface, the giant never seems to react to my presence giving me confidence that they didn''t see me. I slip back up on the ledge and find all five of the lizards collapsed in a pile, half eaten fish surrounding them. *Did they all go into food comas?* I chuckle as I realize that is definitely what happened. *I wonder how much they have managed to increase their attributes.* I lay down a short distance from them and watch through the waterfall as the child lifts its massive form of the ground and moves closer to the cave wall on the eastern edge of the pond. I lose sight of it through the rock of the cliff as I lay there. Wanting to keep an eye on them I move into the water, the sound of the water fall drowning out the child''s sounds. I slip into the pond, diving down beneath the waterfall before surfacing. I allow just my eyes and nostrils to breach the surface. The spray of the waterfall rains down around me, hindering my vision slightly but making me feel secure in it obscuring my form. From this distance I can see that the child''s arms and legs have large quantity of seemingly superficial scratches. I feel pity for the child it is clearly in distress and seems to have been through quite a bit of harm getting to where it is now. Unfortunately for both of us, there is not much I can do about its'' plight nor do I think helping these giants would be good for my long term survival. I watch for a long time as the child cries, my mind tumbling as to what to do about this. The child staying near by would be worst case scenario for me and the lizards. They will inevitably draw more giants to this area and that will always be dangerous. The safety of the grotto making that seem like less of an issue, but if something happens to the child here then the giants would most certainly scour the area. Feeling as though there is nothing I can do I slip back under the water and move into the grotto. The lizards are all awake again and swimming in the pool. *Don''t leave the grotto.* I send to all of them. *What is wrong?*, Limaea sends back immediately, I watch as her form launches from the water. Landing next to me she looks up waiting for my response. *There is a child on the edge of the pond. I''m not sure what to do about them yet, but it seems like there is nothing we can do.* She nods at me and jumps back into the water. The lizards are all swimming in the pool but don''t seem to be hunting fish. Finding that strange but feeling like there are other things I should work on I move my attention back to the waterfall. I lay down once again facing the waterfall, this time I pull a new ribbon of Space mana to work with. Thinking on the interaction of my wings with the fish from earlier I realize I have only been using half of my Space affinities capabilities. The novelty of being able to create pocket spaces eclipsing the intuition that Space mana can be pushed in and also pulled out. I begin widening the end of the ribbon making another small sheet of space mana. This time I begin pulling out on the sheet of mana. The sheet of mana is still there but the center feels as though it protrudes out perpendicular to the plane of the sheet. In visible light there seems to be no difference, the sheet of Space mana still has the appearance of being a hole in the world. I watch the sheet, holding the feeling of contraction I begin moving it around in the area around me as I would my Space bag. As I move the sheet around me the stars showing through the sheet move giving the impression that this sheet of mana is actually a window through the universe. I continue moving it around beginning to feel that there is nothing different when one of the pinpricks of light seems to morph slightly. The pinprick of light expands and then shrinks back down again as I move the sheet. I immediately move the sheet back and see that the pinprick does the same thing but in the opposite direction. I move the sheet so that the center of the distant star is expanded, making it look like an eye. I reach my right index claw out tentatively, the impact with some force catches me by surprise. I find that there is something preventing my claw from getting any closer to the sheet of space mana. Moving my claw slightly to either side cause it to slip closer to the sheet. I bring my left index claw up on the other side of the sheet, as my claw slips behind it I lose sight of it the space mana visually hiding the claw. I move my head so that I am positioned edge on to the sheet of mana. The mana itself having almost no depth I can see my right claw hovering a small distance from the sheet. I bring my left index claw so that it looks like I am trying to touch the tips of my two claws. As my left claw passes the plane of the sheet it feels as though something is beginning to slightly pull at the tip. The force grows slightly more intense as it goes further beyond but it still doesn''t grow to more than a small tug. The tip of the claw barely enters the backside of the mana before it is prevented from moving any further. The force of pulling is still present but I can''t move it any further forwards. Flicking Aura sight to max I can see the structure of the sheet of space mana, it looks as though it is a hankerchief and some one has pinched the center ever so slightly. Moving my claws away from the sheet of mana I pull hard on the sheet. I feel as though I can do a lot more when I pull than I could when I pushed at the start of my Space bag. Unsure if this is from my skill with Space mana or some other unknown factor I continue pulling. The feeling of contraction continues slowly as I focus, my sense of the sheet of mana growing over time as I focus on it more. It doesn''t feel difficult like when I push for more depth in my Space bag, it is mentally taxing but pain doesn''t follow as I expect it to. The sun begins to slide towards the horizon as I focus on the sheet of mana. The lizards hunt the fish population down to almost nothing around me and then nap, waking shortly after and then repeating the process multiple times. The world moves around me as I focus fully on making the sheet of space mana contract more and more. The physical size and shape of the sheet of space mana stay the same through this process never seeming to deviate even slightly. The first distortion to the field of stars was a pin prick in the sheet, by the time my stomach growls with hunger the entire sheet of space mana has a small amount of distortion, the amount of distortion growing at the center of the sheet. I do the same test from earlier, a claw on the front and a claw on the back. This time the pull on the back claw is much more significant. The front claw is held off the sheet by a, still small, but much larger than before distance. I find myself unable to touch any of the sheet''s front side, the claw stops at an increasingly larger distance as it gets closer to the center of the sheet. Feeling intuitively that it is not dangerous I stop holding my left claw from being pulled into the back of the sheet. The claw moves forward at a increasing rate, eventually impacting something solid. The impact creates a resonance in the sheet, the sound of tinkling crystals coming off the entire sheet before cracks shoot from the center. The cracks all hit the edge of the sheet at the same time, the tinkling crystal sound abruptly ending. The shards of the sheet all evaporating in an instant. What is left is an area where my left claw is visually distorted. It seems to stretch from the second joint, massively elongating the closer as it gets closer to the tip. A small stretch of claw is regular sized at the end of the elongated portion. Tapping my right claw against it I find that I can push from the right but there is significant resistance. Even pushing as hard as I can I find it nearly impossible to move. Hoping my claw wont be severed I move the entire claw through the distortion at an angle. All of the claws on my left hand are distorted as they pass through the area, It doesn''t feel as though anything happened but the visual effect is jarring. The middle claws on my hand distorting the most and the outer claws only marginally distorting. I grab a nearby fish bone and throw it through the distortion. The same jarring visual effect occurs, the bones seeming to expand and contract in impossible ways. The bones accelerate as they enter the effect. The bone towards the center of the distortion seems to accelerate slowly initially and bone towards the edge of the area accelerate quickly before reaching its final speed. The bone ends up going the same speed across its'' length as it exits the area causing it to be shot perpendicular to the plane of what was a sheet of space mana. *Well, that is interesting.* Unsure of how long the effect will last I begin throwing bones into it watching them get shot towards the water fall before impacting the water and skipping a few times. As I am throwing bones I notice a bone I didn''t throw flying through the air. My single minded focus snaps and I realize all of the lizards are looking at me. My probably crazy looking bone throwing having confused them. Based on the positions of the lizards it appears it was Karack that through the other bone. *You guys can all join in... its actually kind of fun* I send to them mentally chuckling as the absurdity of my actions hit me. They all have been going about their day as I stare at a hole in the universe before slapping it with a claw and causing it to shatter and evaporate. Then I started throwing fishbones at it causing them to be launched across the grotto. The distortion acts as a static cannon, we quickly clean what was becoming piles of fish bones. When the bones run out Karack throws caution to the wind and leaps into the distortion. The bones having been primarily linear had a very strange effect. The distortion of Karack going through the area is orders of magnitudes more strange. His limbs undulate around his head as he goes face first into the area. The four limbs and his tail look like a jumble of spaghettis around the central wedge shaped head. The stark contrast from the bones going through to Karack going through gives me pause for a moment. He shoots out the other end and splashes into the pool by the waterfall. His swimming capabilities have improved a lot in such a short time. The webbing of his folded wings allowing him to easily power through the water. He lacks the mobility underwater that Limaea has but is a good deal faster in a straight line. Where Limaea used finesse to launch herself from the pool Karack uses pure power. The water being sucked up behind him and splashing down onto the peninsula of rock. *Karack were you moving your limbs as you jumped in?*, I ask him. His mirth is very clear as he responds, *Yes! I was flapping all four of my legs like I was flying!!* He scrambles out of the small pool of water he created and lines up to launch himself again. The other lizards seem to all be content watching. Mektha moved forwards as he was lining up and began closely inspecting the area. She stretched her body to reach the distorted area and as her nose came close her head started to be slowly pulled towards it. Her head snapped back to the left as she recognized what was happening and pulled away from the distortion, putting far more than he required effort into the motion. As Mektha jerks her head away Karack takes off running. He bounds across the small ledge and leaps using his back legs as a spring board. His front legs extend out snapping his wings out to either side. Karack''s body is accelerated briefly before coming to a complete halt half way through distortion. He hangs in mid air front legs splayed out to the side with extended wings, rear legs stretched back behind him from launching off them. He is held there for a moment as the distortion seems to unravel. His head appears smaller than normal initially and his shoulders are much larger than they should be. The distortion unraveling causes the proportions to snap to their original size before his head grows slightly in size and shoulders shrink to a slightly smaller size. This growing and shrinking effect reverses a few times. Each time the magnitude of distortion is significantly less. The entire thing looks like the space of the area is bouncing between compressed and expanded before finally settling in an unaltered state. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Gravity takes hold of him as the bouncing proportions stop and he lightly impacts the ground. The wet slap of his belly hitting the ground is the only sound as the rest of us watch him. He lays there for a moment as my concern for his well being grows. I watch as his head turns towards me, a sparkle in his eyes. The feeling of joy explodes from him, washing over me, as he jumps back to his feet. He looks at up me clearly expecting me to do something. *Are you okay?* *Yes! Make another!!!* His response not surprising me as his body language gave him away. *It took me a significant amount of time to make that. It would take me a long time to make another of the same. We will make another, but not right now*, I respond, feeling like a parent telling their child ''No.'' His disappointment is evident as he hangs his head and turns away. He only goes a few steps before plopping down at the edge of the water and swirling his front leg in it. The hilarity of the ''petulant child'' playing out in front of my eyes makes me chuckle. The low rumbling of my chest and throat surprising me again. *I keep forgetting that I can make actual sounds, I''ve been stuck communicating in my head for what seems like such a long time without the ability to physically speak. I''ll have to add that to my ever growing list of ''things I need to explore''* I move so I can see out of the waterfall attempting to locate the sun and judge the time of day. The orb of bright light is easy to find as it continues its trek down through the sky. I estimate that there is an hour or so before it reaches the tops of the trees and begins to throw the world into darkness. I slip into the water swimming towards the waterfall before I remember the giant child. I stick my head into the raging water falling from above, flicking my aura sight up as my second eyelids instinctively snap shut The child is still there, now laying on its'' side instead of sitting. I can''t hear it over the raging waterfall to tell if it is still crying. The childs'' presence causes me massive anxiety as I think of the possible outcomes again. My hope that the child leaves on their own is almost entirely dashed by their continued presence. *It''s going to be dark soon, this child has no shelter and there are probably still some wolves out there. I can''t just leave them to the elements and potential death. That feels wrong, but it would also lead to even more problems with the Giants as a whole. Hopefully they decide to go back home soon.* I dip back into the grotto and walk up the eastern tunnel to the small exit I had crafted previously. The child is laying directly below the exit, their still form rhythmically moving with their breath. It is hard for me to tell through only Aura sight so I move up until I can see down the cliff face. Their eyes are shut, body curled in the fetal position, clearly deeply asleep. *Shit. There is NO way they are going to leave before dark. I need to do something, but what can I do??* Ideas start tumbling around in my head but they all center around one thing, ''Can I even communicate with them?''. The anxiety of trying builds as I steel my resolve to trying to telepathically communicate with them. My body can''t physically sweat but I still feel as though my hands are becoming slick with nervous perspiration. *Hello?* My mental voice feels unsure even to myself. The child stirs in their sleep slightly, giving me hope that they can at least hear me. My initial prodding doesn''t rouse them immediately. The idea to try and disguise my mental voice snaps into my head, feeling like a gut reaction instead of a mental one. The feeling is strange, I know it came from me but it feels like it is some sort of skill or ability instead of a natural thought. I immediately think of the WIS threshold and realize that the attribute is probably worth investing in more. Going with the intuitive nudge, I try to disguise me mental voice as a wise old man. Even as I send the thought I can tell that it comes across not as wise, but as creepy. *Hello young one!* I watch as the child jerks at the slightly louder thought. Their eyes snapping open as I continue. *Why are you sleeping by my pond?* The child claws at the ground as I finish speaking, they snap up to a sitting position before jumping onto their feet. I can''t see their eyes from my perch but I can see as they nervously move their head back and forth. Their shoulders are hunched forwards arms held in front of their chest. Even from this distance I can feel the anxiety blasting off them. I watch as they slowly relax their shoulders dropping down and back as they drop their arms down to their sides. Their head begins slowly scanning the forest, the quick harsh motions replaced by a slow steady motion. The anxiety coming off of them in waves slowly diminishes as their body language changes. *Can you hear me?* I send in the wise... creepy old man voice. I watch the child''s head jerk to the pond, staring into the water as their body goes rigid again. Their hands tighten slightly at their sides with muscles tensing. I wait hoping that the child will respond in some way. Anxiety blasting off them again but this time it is not alone, fear and wonder come with it. The feeling of wonder catches me off guard. *Why would this child be feeling wonder when everything else points to terror? Telepathy must be a rare thing. I''m impressed that they can even feel wonder with the level of anxiety that I can feel from them.* *HELLO!?* The mental old man scream makes the child jump back a full pace. "S-s-sorry!", The child''s meek voice escapes their lips as they collect themselves, "Please don''t hurt me Sir Marquart!" *I will not hurt you young one! I am sorry for my gruff response, I was afraid that I was going unheard!* I send much more softly, trying to also send feelings of security and safety. "Th-thank you Sir!" Their response sounds much more confident now. The deepness of their voice surprises me. I expect a smaller and higher pitched voice, but their voice is much deeper than I expect. The unexpected voice causes me to wonder if maybe this isn''t actually a child. *It is getting dark, the forest is full of dangerous predators! You need to go home to safety!* "I will leave your pond if you wish sir. I won''t go back to them though!.. Sir! I can find another spot to sleep" The child doesn''t move to leave but their tense posture relaxes as we continue to converse. The realization that if I can''t convince this child to go home then I would just be sending them to die where I can''t see them dying hits me. The thought sits poorly with me causing me to fall into analysis paralysis. *The Giants terrify me. They killed Karack''s mate as well as another lizard. They tried to find me after seeing me fly around but they haven''t hurt me. They view the lizards as food so I can''t hold that against them. I terrorized the rabbits when I found them and have done what would probably classified as a genocide... genocides on the fish. I wonder if I can at least find out more from this child before deciding if I''m okay with them dying due to my inaction.* "Hello?" The now much smaller voice searches out from the child. *Yes, sorry! I was lost in thought.* My old man voice being played again, it feels different even to myself though. *Why did you call me Marquart?* "Because that is your name, the ghost of the pond Sir Marquart the Fisherman.", their response coming with conviction. *Wow, what a fucking name.* "There are two of you!?" The voice exclaims excitedly. Realizing my internal thought had been an external thought I mentally face palm. *I just managed to change a ghost story by being careless, impressive.* Being careful not to project anymore unintended thoughts. *Yes, but I don''t like to speak to people* I send in my normal mental voice, changing to my attempt at an old man voice *They are just shy! Tell me more about myself, I love hearing my own story told to me by others!* "Oh, that makes sense, I get shy too! You want me to tell you the... your story? Um, okay!" The child''s voice gaining a large dose of confidence, "My mommy told me this story a while ago so sorry if I get some details wrong. A long long time ago, like a really long, you were a fisherman at this pond. You had a small boat that only fit you and mommy said you would go and fish all day and you didn''t like people so you spent most of the night fishing too! My mommy said that you were really bad at fishing and never caught anything one day you went to fish and there was a bright flash in the sky. When the town came to find out what happened the pond was gone, and a BIG BIG hole was where the pond was, the hole was really deep and nobody could see the bottom. They could all hear you moaning from the bottom of the hole. The town people ran back to town to get rope to try and get you out of the hole. They tied it all together and started to let some one down but the water started rising again they went really far down but still couldn''t get down to you before the water filled up the hole! Mommy said the bright flash was you being cursed for being mean to everyone in town, but some people said it was you casting magic that bounced back on you! I think you were casting fishing magicks though, that is a lot cooler after all. The next day the pond had filled back up and the creek was running again there were so many fish though! That''s why I think you casted a spell you must have succeeded and made all the fish appear! Mommy says that you were cursed to be a ghost at the bottom of the pond and that you sit down at the bottom in your boat with all of the fish swimming around you that you cant catch. The curse gave the town endless fish and you endless misery. I don''t think that''s true though, I don''t like that you don''t get to catch any fish!" I knew even when asking that the story would be like a run-on sentence. Based on the child''s rapid breathing I can tell the only reason they stopped talking was a need for oxygen. I can''t even fully digest the story the child speaks so quickly, leading me to let the silence hang. It wasn''t my intention but the child took that as me telling them to continue. "I just don''t get it though why would you be cursed? Who cursed you? You just wanted to fish and they cursed you? That''s mean! That''s why I think you really were doing a big spell and the spell just messed up. You wanted to fish to bring everyone fish so you really came out here practicing the big spell and it worked! We get all of our food from you! We just walk to the creek reach in and the fishes just swim into your hand there are so many!", the child pauses again. This time it seems to be a pause because they ran out of things to say and not oxygen. I let out a raucous mental laugh to break the silence, *You are smart! Of course it was a spell to make the fish!*, I say in my old man voice. Connecting the dots as the child continued to talk of this ghost story to the massive magical construct at the base of the pond. *When I lived in the town all those years ago we never had fish, I really liked fish as you know! So I started learning a spell and cast it to create the fish for you to eat! It is really a shame that people think I was just some no good fisherman that deserved to be cursed though!* "I know!", The child''s exclamation cutting through the air. *So can you do me a favor then?* "Um, well I can try! I don''t know if I''ll be able to though!", Thier responses are full of energy but they seem unsure. *Can you go back to the town and tell them I wasn''t cursed?*, I send back to them trying to make it seem like is really important to me. *I don''t want to be remembered poorly.* "I think I can make it back before it gets dark!", The child starts moving back into the trees. The area around the pond is relatively clear of vegetation. As they walk away I can tell that they must have injured their left leg recently. They only briefly put weight on the leg, giving them a noticeable limp. As they reach the bushes on the North side of the pond they stop and turn their head back towards the pond. "I''ll come back tomorrow to let you know how it goes!", They yell over their shoulder as they step into the thick vegetation and it closes behind them. *Fuck. I didn''t think that one through, of course they are going to want to come back and talk to their new ghost friend! fuck fuck fuck. Well I guess what''s done is done.* I exhale a massive sigh at my ability to mess it up spectacularly. A small plume of breath is unintentionally released with the sigh, the purple smoke drifting down the cliff wall and dissipating after a short distance. *Will they even be able to make it back?* The thought smashes into me, the realization that the child has a bad limp and it is already getting dark. Our conversation having taken more time then I realize. The shadows are growing long and the sun isn''t even visible over the canopy anymore. I pick myself up and leap from the cave, snapping my wings out and down. The difference in my wings is immediately apparent, the difference is so much more than just what I noticed while swimming. My wings feel light, not weightless, but close compared to how they used to feel. It is as though three quarters of the mass is just gone. *What makes it so much lighter? The membrane portion was the only visible change, that could be roughly that much weight. Nothing else seems to have changed. Is the new flesh... is it even flesh?* My body takes over at a subconscious level, bringing me up into the canopy of the trees. I can''t go nearly as fast, having to dodge branches, but it makes me feel much more concealed. I quickly catch up to the child as I think about my wing changes. *It must be that the flesh of the membrane is no longer an actual substance but is some how made of Space mana. That would explain the similarity with the contraction and expansion feeling. I wonder if I could leverage that expansion and contraction in air like I did in water. That could allow me to glide indefinitely.* An image of me effortless gliding through the sky forms in my mind. The child''s pace has slowed down significantly, the darkness engulfing the forest has made them slow to being painfully slow, the limp has become worse as well. I notice the left steps each being followed by a grunt of pain. Trying to remember how far away the town was from my short flight above the trees I guess we are no more than half way there. I feel that estimation is being liberal with how far we have actually traveled. My thoughts center around trying to figure out how far we have to go, swirling around in a whirlpool of self doubt. The darkness having fully swallowed the forest at this point I max out my Aura sight. The familiar sights meet me, the distant swarms of small auras being flown through by much larger Auras, the sleeping animals in the canopy as well as the ground, and the other nocturnal animals beginning to move around. My vision is not bad during the day, but the clarity with which I see the world in Aura sight always gives me a sense of comfort. I can see an animal through even just leaves with normal vision, but with Aura sight I can seem them through solid rock. It has always been the most powerful tool in my arsenal allowing me to survive things that otherwise would have killed me. *I really should spend more time out flying in the night. The night is so much more enjoyable than the day, the sounds of the forest are calm instead of cacophonous and the air is so much nicer. Aura sight letting me see everything just adds even more to that. I wonder if all celestial dragons enjoy the night as much as I do.* We continue moving at a slow pace through the forest. The child doesn''t seem to be that adept at moving through the forest, but that could just be that it is a dark night and clouds now cover most of the sky. I continue slowly flying behind the child, dropping down below the canopy to allow for easier flying. The darkness of the cloudy night allowing me to feel fully concealed. I begin testing my wings, contracting and expanding different areas of the wings. Initially I contract the front edge and expand the trailing edge. I expect this to operate in the same way it does underwater, but find that the effect in air is almost non-existent. Wanting to test it fully I continue to fly with this configuration for a short while, what I notice is my wings gliding easier through the air. The lightened load coupled with the contraction and expansion of space makes it feel as though it only takes a fifth of the energy to bring my wings up. I notice that when I bring them down, to gain altitude or speed, I seem to get a bit more for the same effort. Wanting to test if it''s just my mind playing tricks, I release the contraction. Immediately it feels like I lightly applied the brakes and every movement through the air is just slightly more difficult. Realizing now that what I initially disregarded as almost non-existent, was a in fact noticeable difference. The speed increase as well as the efficiency increase begins to make me feel like I made the right choice. I focus on condensing the contraction on each wing to a smaller area towards the center. Each wing feels like it has a bulge in the center when I do this. The wing doesn''t appear to be any different visually. The point of contraction is mirrored by a point of expansion on the trailing edge of the wing. Making the assumption that the effect is therefore limited to only the center of each wing I begin to test the effect. I raise my wings up, the folding motion and upwards movement feels incredibly smooth. It takes a moment for me to get the mental image correct and apply it, but I keep my left wing contracted in the center and contract the entire front edge of my right wing. I notice the difference instantly, I begin turning left slowly. My wings both extended to my sides the instant feedback letting me know that contracting the entire edge causes much more forward acceleration. The first flap of my wing shows me that the central contraction allows me to move the wing up with far less energy. I begin testing how quickly I can change between the two I find I can do it quite quickly if I am trying to make both wings the same. I practice as I follow behind the child and after only a handful of minutes I find myself doing it with minimal intentional thought. After realizing how much I improved my flight with just a few minutes of testing I continue to test points of contraction. After a few more minutes I find that I am not limited to having my contraction and expansion points being mirrored, I can move either in physical relation to it''s polar opposite. This movement of the two points allows me to find an interesting reaction where both of them are next to each other on the top of my wing. This configuration causes my wings to rotate towards the point of contraction. This allows me to slowly pitch my body without changing the rotational angle of my wings. My experimentation gives me another surprise that makes me giddy with excitement.
System Message: Skill Flight Rank 1 -> 2
The act of flying is instantly easier, I felt before that I was proficient in flying but now I realize I was so wrong. It is the micro adjustment of different muscles during different parts of flying that stick out the most. Actions that previous were strenuous become much easier, the small adjustments causing my stamina drain for flapping my wings to half again. Each flap only taking roughly one percent of my stamina now. My increased constitution as well as the use of Space affinity has dropped my flying stamina drain already and the skill increase causing it to feel almost trivial. Gliding now allows me to slowly regain stamina as well and if I contract the entire front edge the altitude and speed loss are greatly diminished too. *Well then. That was worth the trip by itself. My fears surrounding more giant interaction have certainly hindered my growth in this area. I''m surprised I don''t feel worse about that though... I love flying but it just doesn''t feel super relevant right now compared to my other abilities.* Scanning the area close to the child as that thought rolls through my head brings me back to the present. Scanning even further out and not seeing anything I decide to fly up through the canopy to check our progress. Crashing through the thick canopy I find myself flying above a sea of trees. The air above is noticeably colder than the air below. In the distance I can see the lights of the town and behind us I can see the trees on top of the cliff. I quickly realize we are only a little more than half way to the town. My heart sinks as I realize how far we still have left to go. Then I hear a sound that makes my heart drop through my stomach, a loud and clear howl from the East. Dropping through the canopy towards the child I can see they have picked up their pace, taking many more hits from branches in the process. I continually check to the east, hoping the wolves don''t come this way. My hope is quickly shattered as two wolf shaped Auras appear within my Aura sight range. This attempt at quick movement goes on for a short while before the child''s increased haste causes them to trip over an unseen log. I look to the East as the child picks themselves up off the ground. The wolves have covered easily half of my Aura sight range in that time and they seem to be heading directly towards us. I look between the wolves and the child a few times trying to decide what to do. Leaving the child to their fate crosses my mind briefly, the thought causing shame to flood my body. Knowing I would have a difficult time forgiving myself for not trying I decide I have to do something. I begin preparing as I glide behind the child, my space bag snaps open in front of me. The bag''s opening faces up towards the stars and I push my head slightly into the bag before releasing a slow stream of liquid breath. The bag fills quickly and I snap it shut sealing the liquid breath inside. I begin crafting advanced missiles, using my forelegs to hide the slight glow of the missiles. When I complete the fourth missile, maxing my current capacity, I turn towards the wolves and begin beating my wings hard. Gaining as much speed as I can as I hurtle towards the wolves I find myself traveling at speeds that begin to slightly scare me. The massive trees being spaced far apart feel close at this speed. I close the distance in what feels like only a minute but the rush of dodging trees at high speed gives the impression that my estimation of time could easily be wrong. I slow as I approach the wolves, watching to see if they seem to notice my approach. Neither wolf looks up as I fly over them, being so high up that I am almost in the canopy of the trees seems to have allowed me to get here unnoticed. I slowly turn above them, matching their slow pace as I come around. I begin slowly dropping altitude as I close the gap between them and myself. I check on the child and see that the wolves have covered easily a third of the remaining distance to the child in my mad dash to them. I move all four of the missiles so that they are between my shoulder blades hoping this keeps them hidden. I extend my space bag to the maximum range and continue dropping altitude. My slow and steady descent allows me to be unseen, but as I get close I am forced to used my wings to slow down. The wolf on the right hears this and immediately turns, my plans ruined by momentum, I react. The wolves mouth is slightly ajar and I decide to leverage that by shoving my folded space bag into its'' mouth and unfolding it. The liquid breath pours out, the dark purple liquid filled with small pinpricks of light spills from the wolf''s mouth. The pain causing the wolf to jump back as more liquid breath pours from the bag. A cloud of dark purple explodes outwards from the liquid as it evaporates into its'' gaseous state creating a smoke screen between me and the wolves. I can see from the wolf''s Aura that it is probably dead, darkness from the liquid breath filling the entire Aura of the wolf''s head. Dark thick veins fill the body of the wolf''s aura as its'' cries of pain begin. It continues moving away from me and the Space bag but the damage is done. The second wolf only hesitates for a moment watching its'' companion before it howls, loudly. The pure volume of the howl at this range causing my head to pound. Taking the opening I launch two of the missiles at its'' raised lower jaw. The missiles leap across the distance but not before the wolf begins to bring its'' head back down. The first missile impacts its'' upper jaw just below the nostril burying itself into the tissue and bone before imploding. This creates a hole in the wolf''s snout that the second missile enters, slightly higher than the first. The second missile finishes what the first started, blasting into the jaw bone before it implodes as well. The core rod of mana being driven into the bone and blasting outwards, the right side of the wolf''s upper jaw is obliterated by the second missile. The wolf''s tongue begins hanging out of the side of its snout as the container that was its mouth is catastrophically damaged. Even though the pain must be horrible the wolf still goes on the offensive. It leaps towards me, mostly clearing the growing cloud of breath as it lands in front of me. Its paws and lower legs go through the breath, the brief contact causing dark veins to appear in its legs. The veins are far to small to do real damage but do seem to sap some of the wolves speed and leg strength. The wolf''s ferocity surprises me for a moment before I let loose my last two missiles. They leap off my back straight at the wolves head. Even from the close range the wolf is able to throw itself to the left, the first missile manages to graze its right shoulder but the second goes wide. The realization that I won''t be able to get out of its range by flying up hits me and it fills me with terror. Snapping my wings down hard I dive forwards, attempting to fly by the wolf as I aim for my cloud of breath. As I begin moving forwards my mouth opens and I allow breath to roll from it. The liquid covers my head and shoulders as I fly forwards. Even as it hangs to me it evaporates, causing a trail of gaseous breath to follow my flight. My left wing explodes with pain as my forward flight quickly becomes sideways falling as the wolf crashes into me. The massive momentum of the wolf supersedes my forward momentum. As my body folds around the point of impact I see it''s lower right canine puncturing my left wing. The only reason it didn''t bite through my wing was its missing jaw above that canine. If I had been even a millisecond faster it would''ve bitten through me with the still complete portion of its jaw.
System message [-30] Health {Piercing}
Our movement continues as I, now moving backwards, ragdoll off the wolfs'' lower jaw. The liquid breath sticking to its fur as it continues to spill out of my mouth. Thick veins of darkness begin shooting through its aura as it lands. I manage to get both of my legs pressed against its lower jaw, claws sinking easily into its skin and bone. Using this as leverage I push myself up and off the canine, without it holding me up in the air I begin to fall away from the wolf. As I fall beneath it I unleash the full power of my breath. The full exhale causing a solid stream of dark purple liquid to spray up and impact the bottom of the wolfs'' head. I slam into the ground, the base of my tail and hips impacting first. The force of the impact whips my head backwards. The fountain of liquid breath has begun falling, causing a small misting rain of liquid breath to fall around me. The last thing I see is dark rain falling around me as my head rebounds off the hard ground. The force impact causing my head to bounce as pain shoots through me.
System message [-10] Health {Blunt}
Is the last thing I see as the world is ripped from my vision. Author note Falling behind currently in how often I want to get chapters out. When I started I had a lot of time and motivation to pump out chapters (as can be seen by the release dates). I am currently running into a problem with time to write as well as motivation to push myself in that regard. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Still working on the next chapter, it is almost done but still needs to be finished and then edited. I just don''t want to dissapoint you all with timeframe expectations. I am unsure as to how long I should give myself for each chapter right now but it is looking like it will be closer to once a month unfortunately.