《To Truly Be Immortal》 The Reckoning Chapter 1 He had killed too many to count, the blood of millions on his hands, all in his pursuit of power. He had overcome the higher gods, now he has finally reached the staff of creation, but there is one more obstacle in his way, the Oracle. She held the staff in hands that looked as if they were an ancient oaks gnarled limbs A hood covered her face, but under that hood, he could see bright blue eyes, glowing with contempt and perhaps a bit of sympathy. She raised the staff above her head and before he could move, she slammed it against the ground and shouted ¡°You who have shattered the balance of the Nine, you who have killed many that death was not ready for, you who have slain gods, I curse thee thrice; First, you shall suffer as the ones you wronged have suffered. Second, you shall wander with no place to call home. Third, you shall be cursed with true immortality, undying, unending, and unfaltering immortality.¡± He shouted ¡°No, you can not do this to me! I traveled a path many told me was impossible, I killed the unkillable, and I conquered the unconquerable, I will not have this taken away by an old hag!¡± He lunged forward, with a speed that shattered reality, and brought his staff down on her only for it to be reflected by a wall of energy in his rage he took no notice of this and continued to attack her. With a clap of thunder he vanished, the only thing left of his passing was the scars on the terrain and the old woman. That once mighty figure on her knees coughed and slowly crawled to her feet, staring into the distance. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. On the lowest world, a hollow formed deep within a mountain, just large enough for a single man. In that hollow a figure appeared, completely immobile. The figure had striking features, Hair black as the night sky with small twinkling specks of silver, skin pale as if it hadn¡¯t seen the sun in years, pale lips, a slim yet well-muscled physique, and an outwardly calm appearance. Inside this man¡¯s head was a completely different story. She ran as fast as she could from the man who had come to be known as the Slayer, for he had slain creatures no mortal should approach. Now the Slayer has turned on village he had sworn to protect. She held her child close to her chest and shouted; "Inspect!" the status of her child appeared before her Level:3 Age:9 Title: Beloved by all Species: Homo Sapien STR:2 DEX:5 CON:2 INT:3 WIS:2 CHA:7 Status: Terrified (-1 to all mental stats, +1 to all physical stats) Seeing that her daughter was still safe she quickly hid under a table only for it to be removed by the Slayer who readied his quarterstaff and struck out killing the child in an instant. with this, she wailed and attempted to hit him only to be killed. World Building World Building Tutorial on stats: each 1 point in a stat act as an exponent, for example, someone who has a strength of 1 actually has a strength of 2^1, or 2, someone who has a strength of 3 actually has a strength of 2^3, or 8. Here is an example status screen Name: Bob Bob Titles: the Bobbiest Bob, Jedi padawan Class: Bob(Unique, common) HP:160 (Regen 32 per minute) MP:320 SP:320(Regen 1.6 per second) STR:4 DEX:4 CON:4This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. INT:5 WIS:6 CHA:4 Hidden Stats: AGI:8 VIT:5 MNA:9 WIL:7 Skills: Typing lvl. 5 (Master) Skills are really hard to come by, and also act as exponents, for example, a skill (Throwing lvl 1(novice)) acts like this 1^1, or 1. All Throughout (novice) ranks you gain no bonus, but beginning at beginner lvl you instead get 2^1 or 2. All the ranks of skills act as more powerful exponents the skills go (novice(1^x)-beginner(2^x)-Adept(3^x)-Expert(4^x)-Master(5^x)). Once the skills get to level ten you get the option to increase its rank, at the cost of temporarily lowering your skills ability, at master rank, there, is no limit. Some skills get extra bonuses based on their rank and rarity, for example, the skill (Mana Focus (Uncommon)(novice)) you get +10% bonus potency for all spells cast, progressing with skill level x rank, for example, a (Master LvL 3) would get +150% potency. There are Nine Worlds each named after their respective gods. The first: Cosnas, God of wisdom Second: Qyesis, God of Thunder Third: Esoi, Goddess of War Fourth: Ydes, God of Fire Fifth: Ienta, Goddess of the home Sixth: Wateus, God of Water Seventh: Ohtris, Goddess of Traveling Eighth: Utia, Goddess of Nature Ninth: Idon, God of Power Each of the nine worlds first to ninth has an increasing average strength for the people that live there, in Cosnas the average stat is 1, in Qyesis the average stat is 2, Etc. Etc. 314th Reincarnation The 314th Reincarnation He awoke with a throbbing coursing throughout his being only to realize that it wasn¡¯t his own body, he was merely a spectator. Despite having woken to this situation many times he still couldn¡¯t find it in him to be used to it. His most recent incarnation is a most unfortunate boy, with immense talent, who went by the name of Rai. Rai was born into slavery, his mother a beastkin, while his father was of unknown origin. His mother nurtured him best as she could up until one of the higher-ups took a liking to her when he was only five years old. When he reached the age of ten they collected all healthy slaves between the ages of 5 and 30. The war effort on the Oradai threat was failing, and the king made a decree that all slaves able to would be trained and sent to the front lines after 5 years of training. Rai is a mute, not out of choice, but because his vocal cords were severed by his mother when he was barely a week old, the reason for this being that the guards would have either taken him away or flat-out killed him. Rai¡¯s status was an intriguing thing, one that would occur once every several million years: Name: Rai Titles: Slave (Hidden: Prodigy of the sword, Gifted, Cursed, Marked by Fate) Class: Sword Saint (Legendary, One-Of-A-Kind) (Remember, classes are always hidden unless one wants to reveal them) HP:640(regeneration of 128 per minute) STA:1280(regen of 6.4 per second) Stats: (Hidden) STR:12(6) DEX:18(9) CON:12(6) INT:10(5) WIS:10(5) CHA:2(1) AGI:21(10) WIL:20(10) VIT:15(7) MNA:10(5) Status effects: Malnourished x10 (All stats cut in half) Diffident: 2 (lacks the ability to stand up for oneself) Skills: Sword Arts (lvl 6 Adept) Mining (lvl 3 Beginner) Rai has led a life of misery. Rai¡¯s P.O.V. I had woken up again to an inexplicable feeling of annoyance, for which I couldn¡¯t find the source, ignoring it I went to pick up the Mattock and a crate.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Moving down the tunnels I looked for deposits of ore that were nearby, seeing nothing in the areas that I knew well I moved further down the tunnels into an area with little foot traffic and spotted what looked like a promising spot. Reflecting on the schedule I went pale and realized that tomorrow I would be moved to the front lines. While we were getting taught how to fight with swords we were also forced to mine for ore before and after each ¡°training session¡± which was basically where we would all be given sticks and told to go to town on each other. I would have died a long time ago if it were not for- then it came back to me I AM BEING TRANSPORTED TOMORROW! A cold sweat broke out all across my body, in a rush I sprinted down to where old man Gar is. ¡°Old man Gar!¡± *huff* *huff* ¡°I¡¯m getting transported TODAY!¡± I signed at him. ¡°Keep your voice down, we don¡¯t want to bring attention to ourselves!¡± He replied with a quick snap and then chuckled at his poorly executed joke. I then signed at him ¡°Old man, this is no time for joking around, I need help.¡± His gaze darkened and he ¡°your right, I must help you escape, in fact, I had been preparing for this day for a long time now, come with me.¡± He hobbled down the tunnel and I followed him, taking multiple twists and turns, only stopping at a wall that looked completely untouched. Running his along this wall made of stone his finger caught in a small crevice, pressing down. I waited for something to happen and signed at him ¡°Why isn¡¯t anything happening.¡± only to realize he wasn¡¯t looking at me. Moments later the wall slid down almost noiselessly. He looked at me and said, ¡°Come.¡± Wordlessly, for what else could I do, I followed him. We entered a room with Barren walls and dusty floors. Turning to me he said ¡°I know you may be surprised that I haven¡¯t shown this place to you before,¡± he pulls a latch that causes the door to slide back ¡°but for good reason. You see around four-hundred and thirty-five years ago there was a prophecy that stated that one born into the life of a slave with nothing on his lips would come and create a tenth world, and you fit this description perfectly.¡± Pausing briefly he then continues ¡°The reason why I¡¯ve never brought you here before is that I wasn¡¯t allowed to unless ¡°Drastic Circumstances¡± occurred, for example, this very moment.¡± Rai Raising eyebrows signed, "I still don''t understand why I had to go through such torture." Gar, sighing, breathes out "well, neither do I, but the people who sent me here in the first place said that it was absolutely necessary for your development." Rai then asks "well then, why am I here in the first place?" Gar smiles and says, "For your real training." Real Training The ¡°Real¡± Training Rai signed at gar ¡° what do you mean by real training, haven¡¯t you already taught me how to use a sword?¡± Gar shook his head and said ¡°yes I have taught you everything that I know about the sword, however, you know nothing about how to act. Your entire life the closest you have ever come to actual interaction was with me, and even then you know nothing about how to dress, how to blend in, or even how to handle money.¡± Rai with a questioning look hesitantly signed ¡°And how exactly are you going to teach me this?¡± Gar, looking slightly more excited now said: ¡°while I might seem to just be a hermit who just so happens to know what end of a sword to hold, I¡¯ll have you know that I was a member of the Ardaenian royal guard¡± with a proud flourish he bows. Ra, still confused signs¡±Well what does that have to do with anything?¡± Gar, now in a slightly put down manner says ¡°this is exactly what I mean, you have no idea what the requirements are for being a royal guard and how amazing it is, the king of Ardaen is one of the strongest people to exist, and only people who have managed to land a blow on him and gain his trust become royal guards¡± Rai, still confused, signs ¡°well, I still have no idea what this is supposed to mean to me, but ok.¡± Gar says ¡°oh, and you will also need to learn how to write and read, for while I may know how to read Frytrin Hand language, very few others will. While with writing many who you will need to communicate with will know it already, and I¡¯m sorry that I didn¡¯t teach you this before, but we needed to make sure you could defend yourself first.¡± Slayer¡¯s P.O.V. Rai was an interesting person to watch, he attacked learning with a ferocity few could match, consuming anything Gar attempted to teach him.i already know how this story is going to end. Despite this, I was facing a problem, I had no way to affect the outside world, or Rai himself, I already know how this story is going to end.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. I remember fighting Rai, he was good, really good, one of the few that managed to actually hold me at bay for just a moment, but like all the others I still killed him. Now I¡¯m living in his head, I hear every thought that he has and I feel every emotion that he feels. He has to be one of the most unfortunate people I have ever occupied, his emotions are so intense that they leak through the neural link between us. Rai¡¯s mother had been forced from him in a cruel twist of fate, his vocal cords were cut and removed when was but a babe, the lack of food has forced him to be less than he really is, and to top it all off the only person he has an emotional connection to is dying, even if he can¡¯t see that. Despite all this he still pushes through, he has a motivation that comes from the bottom of his heart, the desire to no longer have to suffer, the desire to no longer be pushed around, and the desire to have a purpose all drive him to be better and to try harder. Whether or not I want to admit it, seeing his struggle really has changed me. Gar¡¯s P.O.V. I was dying, the boy may not be able to see it, but the system doesn¡¯t lie Name: Gartr Darien Titles: Slave (Hidden: Guardian, Strong As An Ox, Royal Guard, Diseased) Class: Red Knight (Rare) HP:320(32 per min) STA:320(3.2 per sec) Stats: STR: 16 (12) DEX:12 (9) CON:20(15(5)) INT:12(9) WIS:16(12) CHA:12(9) AGI:12(9) WIL:16(12) VIT: 20(15(5)) MNA: 12(9(3)) Status effects: Mana Corruption x3 (Con Vit and MNA at one third) Malnourished x2 All stats at ? Skills: Sword Mastery (Master Lvl 8) Mining (beginner Lvl 4) Bodyguard (Master Lvl 5) When he first entered this mine in order to find Rai he was attacked by a strange creature of which he did not know the origin which he swiftly killed, but not before being bitten by it and contracting something that was only spoken of in legends, Mana Corruption, A disease which slowly turned your mana, Life Force, into something else. Last Day After nearly a year of training, Gar had deemed me ready to go out into the outside world and not immediately be swindled out of all of my money. This is what my status looked like Name: Rai Class: Sword Saint(Legendary, Unique) Titles: Unbound (Successfully escaped slavery), Sword Prodigy, Student Of The Red Knight, Gifted, Cursed, Chosen Of Fate, Master Of The Sword Dance Stats: STR: 12 DEX: 18 CON: 12 INT: 11 WIS: 11 CHA: 3 AGI: 21 WIL: 20(22) VIT: 15 MNA: 13 Status Effects: Disciplined x2 (increases WIL by 2) Skills: Math (beginner Lvl 3) Sword mastery (Expert Lvl 6) Mining (beginner Lvl 3) Writing (Novice Lvl 5) Lowering his head in a melancholic fashion Gar said ¡°there is something that I have not told you yet, I am diseased with mana corruption that I contracted from a strange creature made from black matter and am unlikely to live much longer, at this point my constitution has reached 1 as well as my vitality and my mana.¡± Gar in my eyes looked older than he ever had before, the wrinkles and hunched stature became more pronounced to me, his age was clear to my eyes, and in a way, I felt as if I could feel the corruption in his spirit. At that moment I was unsure of what to do, whether I should say something or if there was nothing to say. Finally, I decided ¡°I am confused with the way that this world was, you were my closest friend, a father to me, and I thank you for everything you have provided, if there is anything, anything at all that I can do, please tell me now¡± Gar sighed and said ¡°you know I expected a bit more of an extreme reaction from you¡± with a dry chuckle. I signed ¡°I¡¯m sorry, no words can describe what I feel right now, a pain so great that it claws my heart and tears me to pieces.¡± Gar chuckled once more and said ¡°If I had to guess then I would say I had about a day left to live,¡± pausing for a moment he then continued ¡°if I could have one wish it would be that you were to fulfill your destiny and to never let go of hope, for hope is what allows us to cling on, it allows us to reach higher, and keep fighting¡± He sighed once more and continued ¡°I have one inheritance for you, it is my sword, I hid it down here long ago, I want you to end my life with it.¡± ¡°Where is it?¡± I asked. ¡°Look to the far wall, you will find it there, you must reach one of your fingers into the cracks, this will open the wall, then you will be greeted with a stand and a puzzle, if this will be my last test for you, you must solve this puzzle in order to have my sword.¡± To Rai this seemed strange, had he not been tested enough? But in the end, he decided that he trusted his master, after all, Gar had guided him throughout the last seven years of his life. Pushing his finger into the crack a low hiss escaped the wall directly behind him, in an octave a normal human wouldn¡¯t be able to hear. Turning around he saw a strange board then Gar said: ¡°to win all you need to do is beat me in a game of chess.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Slayer¡¯s P.O.V. I knew it was going to happen, that creature was a Fosc Fiend, the only way for them to find their way into the nine worlds is either through a summoning or slipping through a place where the veil is thin, these creatures are dangerous not for the reasons that most people would think. Fosc Fiends are the second lowest ranked fiend of the Shadow Field, and in their teeth, they carry the shadow corruption, a disease which corrupts one''s mana and slowly leeches away their lifeforce, I of course though am, was, immune to this, and even learned how to harness it. While Rai was learning how to survive, he was learning how to project his soul and had succeeded in it as well. Slayer could now observe things outside of his host body, but he still heard and felt everything Rai was thinking or feeling. The Slayer went in order to see how the conflict between the two warring empires was going and so far it seemed to be at a stalemate. With neither country being able to push the other back, the attrition was slowly killing them. Neither side was doing well, and no clear winner was evident. At this rate what was most likely to happen would be another country swooping in to finish the job. In fact, that was exactly what was happening, the country Eblau was coming in with a force of 200,000 bronze ranked soldiers, 30,000 silver ranked soldiers, 1,000 gold-ranked officers, 200 platinum ranked officers, and 10 diamond ranked generals. Even before the war, neither country would be able to hold against this army for long, but now their fall is inevitable. The Eblau empire had already expanded quite a lot, and he knew that this is only the beginning of their campaign for controlling the lower continent. Eblau had many changes in governance and rulership in the past century, but now they had settled into a despotic government, their once peaceful and steady economy now being transformed into money for a war machine that would be relatively unstoppable for all of 25 years before Rai is sent to defeat them. Ardaenia would assess the threat and turtle down for a while, and act as the only obstacle for the Eblau nation¡¯s attempt to conquer the 8th world. The king of the Ardaenien Empire was truly impressive, having achieved what this world''s ¡°limit¡±, where one would be forced to ascend unless they have an artifact of ¡°limiting¡± which would keep one at their current world while keeping them from gaining power. The Eblau nation actually came from the third world, and has worked its way up, collecting valuable and rare resources from each worl- ¡°Hah! Victory is mine, I have finally won!¡± Rai mentally shouts Swiftly I returned to find that Rai has beaten Gar in a game of King¡¯s Men, or chess as it is called in this world. Gar gives Rai a small smile and says ¡°now, you can have my sword.¡± The table and the chess board split in two and, with an overly dramatic shine, a sword rose from between the two halves. This sword before him is a katana, made for slashing, this one was obviously enchanted, the runes along the back of the blade glimmered and twisted, the blade was enchanted with a rune of sharpness lvl 5 (lvl 5 runes are worth around 160 gold crowns), and a much more rare rune of mana slicing at level 9. The sword itself is made from thornium and was obviously smithed by one of the best, this sword is worth a kingdoms treasury. Rai¡¯s P.O.V.: I looked towards my master, not wanting to take the sword, for in my mind it would be admitting that he truly was unlikely to survive this disease and that he is condemned to death, however, in the end, I grasped it, and slowly slid it into its sheath, which I strapped to my hip. Gar nodded towards me and said ¡°before you leave there is something you must do for me, you must kill me¡± I was confused and concerned ¡°Why must I kill you?¡± I signed towards him Gar responded, ¡°Well, I don¡¯t want to die a dog''s death, I wish to die like a true warrior, with a sword in hand and my honor intact.¡± I understood, Gar had taught me how important a warrior¡¯s honor is, and to lose one''s life to a disease rather than through combat is considered shameful. I handed him a sword from the wall and reached for one of the others, but he stopped me and said: ¡°I wish to die by my own sword, please, allow me this small grace.¡± Nodding my head I readied the sword he gave me and lunged forward. Gar swiftly raised his sword and parried my blade, despite this there still was a large gash left in his sword. Gar dove in for a counter attack, I moved to block only to realize it was actually a feint! He twisted his sword and changed the direction of the attack incredibly fast, coating his blade in weak, yet sharp mana. This time he is fully committing to the attack, putting all the torque and force he can muster into this blow, my sword no longer in a position where I can block him, I toss my blade into the air and dodge under his sword and use a mana thread to pull my blade back to me, I swiftly turn and bury my sword into his shoulder, I step into him and pull out the blade, using a mana thread I pull the sword in a wide arc in order to get as much force behind it as possible. Gar changes into a blocking stance and deflects my sword, at the costs of six inches of his own blade, now using a much shorter sword he moves in closer and takes advantage of the far shorter blade by moving in past my defenses He attempts to dig his own blade into my side only to see it stopped by a sword breaker I pulled from my belt, grinning, I attempt to snap his blade only for him to twist the dagger out of my grip, showing that I Obviously needed more practice with one. I pull my hand from my side and swiftly take several steps back to see Gar panting heavily, yet still grinning like a child on Regalo Day morning. Gar lunges towards me once more, however, I dodge out of the way, only to see that he was expecting me to do so all along. Gar sends his blade out in a last ditch effort and slices into my side, still smiling he says ¡°I lost.¡± as I stab him through the heart. Leaving the cave Leaving The Cave (Because I am terrible at creative names) Rai¡¯s P.O.V. I leave the cave, my master''s body in my hands, tears falling from my eyes. I glance down at Gars body on last time. His eyes still open, I see a smile on his face, the last expression he¡¯ll ever have, slowly, I close his eyes with my hand. Looking upward from my master''s face see the forest, browns, and oranges all around me, and while sight brings awe to my face, I quickly become grim, the fact that the trees are changing colors means that when night falls, it will become far colder. While I may have a large health pool, that will not help me face the numerous debuffs that come with being in an environment that is too cold for my body. I cautiously climb a tree and rest my master''s body on some of the limbs, even up here his body is at risk of predators. I drop down from the tree and begin searching for wood as I travel throughout the forest, leaving small stones from the cave behind me, I smell a scent that puts me on my guard, orcs, however, with my rudimentary tracking skills I have no idea how many. As I begin searching for these sapients I see five tents, and five orcs sitting around an extinguished campfire. Breathing a sigh of relief that these are not wild orcs I slowly approach, before making me presence known with a small rock pulled from the others that I brought with me from the cave. Turning towards me one of the orcs raises his hand and says ¡°Hello, small man,¡± continuing ¡°what brings you to our humble camp?¡± leaving the question in the air, I make a motion for ¡°wait¡± and pull out my pocketbook and charcoal. In orcish runes, I write ¡°I was looking for some logs, in order to build a funeral pyre.¡± looking at the sheet he glances back up to me and says ¡°Me and my brothers will help.¡± turning to the orcs he says ¡°This Outlander needs help building a funeral pyre, gather the logs and follow him.¡± glancing around I see a Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! large pile of logs. I write ¡°Why are you helping me?¡± turning to me he says ¡°We were going to light a large fire this night because we were luring a young fire drake, but if you need a funeral pyre, this will allow us to make an ally and lure the drake at the same time,¡± pausing for a moment to glance at his brothers, who are carrying two logs a piece he turns to me and asks ¡°My name is Urmug, son of Grukag, And my blood brothers are Torgan, son of Rogdul, Zurgug, son of Urgul, Toghat, son of Olog, and Silug, son of Aguk. Now, what is yours?¡± Writing swiftly I reply ¡°Rai¡± He then asks ¡°Why do you scribe rather than speak?¡± I write ¡°I am a mute¡± Nodding his head he then turns to his brothers and walks over picking up two logs under each arm. I then walk over there and lift up two logs and sling one over each shoulder. Seeing this Urmug looks at me and grins. I could probably lift more than this, but there were no more logs. Umug asks me ¡°where are we going?¡± I start following the pebbles and motion for them to follow me. The trip back to the tree in which I hid Gar¡¯s body was uneventful. When we arrived there I motioned for them to stop lowering the logs I was carrying to the ground I climb the tree and let out a sigh of relief when I see that his body was untouched. Grabbing his body and moving it as gently as possible, I descend from the tree. When I reach the base Umug asks ¡°Shall we begin?¡± nodding my head solemnly I begin building a funeral pyre with Umug and his relatively quite brothers¡­ other than the occasional grunts. As the pyre is finished Torgan offers to carry Gar ¡°I would be willing to put your friend at the top of the pyre¡± refusing, I climb to the top and rest his body on the wood. When I climb down I see Silug begin chanting quietly while closing his eyes gesturing with his hands, as he does this the heat in the area gradually rises, until the pyre caught fire. As this happens I pray to Otris, to give Gar a safe travel to his next life among mortals, Idon, in order to assure that Gar will not be powerless in his next life, Cosnas so that he is not without wisdom in his next life, and Lenta so that he has a family and a home. As I do this the fire¡¯s heat intensifies, finishing I look up just in time to Gar¡¯s ashes float into the sky. Unknowns P.O.V. That asshole had done it again. In his search for he screwed us over¡­ For The Third Time! The first time was when I first invited him into my body, binding our souls together. After being bound to my body he went and immediately that the chief of ou- scratch that -my village and demanded to be given the village elders staff, which of course, me being an orphan, not having any real ties to the village, and pretty much been freeloading this entire time, got us- me kicked out immediately. The second time was when he attempted to take on an ANCIENT FUCKING DRAGON with all our stats below ten, and described as ¡®a humbling experience¡¯ we got our fucking ass handed to us, and he called it ¡®a humbling experience¡¯. Then, came the third time, we had ascended to what may as well have been the top of this universe, for there was no other better than us in any attribute, be it spellcasting, farming, or banking, and everything in between, we were unstoppable, and of course, it just wasn¡¯t enough for him and he went for the Staff Of Creation. I imagine and the results of that ¡®Escapade¡¯ were the worst so far. Not to mention his stupid name I mean seriously, who gives themselves the name ¡®Slayer¡¯? Slayer¡¯s P.O.V.: I feel my nose twitch, which is quite strange considering that I don¡¯t have one. Ignoring that I continue to watch as Gar¡¯s ashes fly into the sky. Despite the massive amount of lives I¡¯ve ruined, I never really thought about the consequences of my actions. Feeling a genuine pang of grief in my soul for just the briefest moment. AS I see this, I quickly turn and ascend into the sky and watch the ground, eventually, I see movement amongst the trees. I zoom in on the movement and see what looks like a brownish mottled red lizard raising its head to taste the air, a perfectly normal sight... other than the fact that there is smoke rising from its entire body and it¡¯s around 60 feet long. I recognize the lizard that has trace amounts of dragon blood, a greater fire drake.