《Reincarnation Flower》 Volume One A Very Long Prologue Part 1: The Heros Peasant Companion A Very Long Prologue Part 1: The Hero''s Peasant Companion I was born a peasant in a small village, technically part of the human kingdom of Alfdorn, a relatively small kingdom bordered by the sea on two sides, a small monster kingdom on one and a large demon kingdom on the only other. Alfdorn was a kingdom that was a harsh place to live for the majority of the human population which were peasants. This was mostly because of the kingdoms high degree of isolation. There were no other human kingdoms close by, or even within long traveling distance. The rare few people from other kingdoms to come to Alfdorn were extremely adventurous and most did not stay long. It was this extreme isolation that enabled Alfdorn to remain relatively the same for thousands of years, and Alfdorn¡¯s usual culture was made up of an extremely strict caste system. A peasant usually doesn¡¯t move a mile from the place thsey were born in so now that I think about it, it was quite the achievement that I a mere peasant was now standing in front of the demon lord¡¯s castle which was quite the distance form Aldorn probably the farthest I have ever been from ¡°home¡± in my life. It had taken us months to get to this point and strangely we had encountered relatively few monsters for an area near a dungeon where a supposedly ¡°last boss¡± type resided¡­So I was not very surprised when upon than entering the castle itself we were utterly swarmed¡­by lesser demons. Hero through luck managed to hit a few¡­and of course a large amount was easily taken down by myself. Lesser demons were not that hard to kill so things were going well. Then as usual Hero had to go and mess things up. It happened unfortunately just as I was reaching out to strike the last of the mob that had managed to survive our first attack; Hero seemly tripped over his own feet and knocked me to the ground. To add to this great blunder he then proceeded to fall in such a way that he landed on top of me and I was knocked unconscious. This was not that strange a situation as Hero was a good deal taller and heavier then I was, plus he was also wearing heavy armor whilst I was just in my usual light leather adventuring clothes. Not to mention I couldn¡¯t dodge because of the position I was in as I attacked that lesser demon. Yes it was not a strange event, but it was my cursed luck and Hero¡¯s stupidity that made it a life ending one. I awoke to the taste of strange ambrosia, strange not because of an awe-inspiring taste but rather because of the breathtaking utter lack of flavor of any kind, it was a godly pure liquid, that felt like the finest of silks on the tongue and gloriously cool and smooth going down the throat. But I didn¡¯t get to enjoy the sensation for long though, because soon after I gained consciousness I started to increasingly become aware of a monstrous pain awakening throughout my body¡­as my own blood was being boiled and was burning the very veins it ran through. I shoved the bottle still touching my lips away and leapt to my feet, I noticed that I was still grasping my sword in my left hand¡­and that as I waved the blade to maintain my balance the great pain I was experiencing temporarily decreased. I looked up and saw Hero who was kneeling on the ground in order to low enough to feed me, the bottles contents¡­a silver bottles contents I noticed with a roar of emotion. ¡°What the @%#$!!! Is this?¡± I screamed at him pointing to the bottle still held in his hand ¡±Potion I th-think¡± he stuttered at me as he got back to his feet. ¡°Don¡¯t yell at me I saved your life!¡± I grabbed the bottle out of his hand and studied it closely¡­ when I confirmed that things were as I had feared I nearly cried out in despair but was able somehow gain control over myself again You didn¡¯t save my life you ended you moron I thought¡­I then turned to face him and said¡­ ¡°Let¡¯s rush the rest of the way.¡± ¡±But you always say that it is stupid to rush, and then every time I rush into things you refuse to cook for me.¡± Hero pointed out confusedly ¡°Don¡¯t worry, right now is an exception to the rule; I promise that I won¡¯t refuse to cook for you again¡­¡± Hero was delighted at this good news but reality was different as I thought morbidly in my head I won¡¯t refuse to cook for you because I will never get the chance to cook for you ever again. As we rushed in, I ended up in front of the hero easily and quickly slaughtering all the lesser demons and monsters in our path. I allowed myself to find some pleasure in the ease in which I was killing. I finally had what I had always desired, power . Power was the reason I had joined the guard with hopes of eventual knighthood and most importantly power was the goal that gave me strength as in every spare moment I pushed myself to the limit training myself in an attempt to acquire it. Power was all I ever thought of until I was cut off from the path of knighthood when Hero looked at the guard recruits and picked me to be his companion because in his own words: Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°I want that recruit, he is so plain that when I am standing next to him I will look even better¡± Knighthood had been intended to be a shortcut to the one possible way to gain social power that someone born as peasant had. That is being in a position to rescue someone of importance and then ask to be raised to nobility as a reward, and Hero for the first time then and many times since blundered in and blocked my path. In Alfdorn to be a Hero¡¯s companion usually meant permanent and eternal peasanthood plus the unpaid honor of servitude to a hero, which meant no longer did I have the chance of earning nobility through knighthood. While hero wittingly chatted with females whom he blinded with his good looks. I worked my @%#$!!! to plan and execute strategies, to defeat our enemies, and solve the missions that Hero¡¯s job entailed, I was the open secret behind Hero¡¯s 100% success rate and thus his high position and rank with in the heroes guild. But did I get any credit or recognition for it? Of course not Hero basked in all the glory and honor of being a ¡°great hero¡± and I stood in his shadow relatively unknown. That is outside of the groups of adventurers we occasionally met with, and the legions of hero''s fans, most people didn''t really know I existed. While probably everyone knew the name of hero (I tell you it as soon as I remember it but as not even the fan''s said it often I easily forgot it) probably...no actually no one outside my family knew of my current name situation. Even though I did not receive any reward directly I probably would have been happy with my hidden success in completely missions, but that was not the only part of my job. Besides doing most of Hero¡¯s work for him I also had to clean up the messes Hero caused, which was almost full time job by itself. So as you can see I speak the truth when I say Hero took away my dream of gaining power in a multitude of ways. Because of him I had very little time to practice or train myself and thus there were very many other people stronger than me and that I didn¡¯t have a chance of being able to fight them. But right now, thanks to the heroic water I was extremely strong and combined with my well trained skills it was a deadly combination. If any of those strong people I mentioned were here now I could probably easily defeat them. So since I knew I wouldn''t be in this life much longer I decided to take pleasure where I could in the small things such as just now beating that ugly high bat shaped lesser demon in one blow despite that I judged by the way it moved it was a much higher level than myself. Yes I decided to take pleasure in my power despite the source of my power being of artificial make. With my heroic water enhanced speedand well researched knowledge of the castles layout from those who had managed to escape the castle with their lives , I quickly and easily reached the demon lord¡¯s chamber¡­it was huge, empty and dark¡­but with glowing red sconces here and there enabling me to easily see the huge gleaming black heavily sculpted and masterfully embellished throne¡­and the man in black armor sitting on the throne. He was even more handsome than Hero with his silky long black hair, perfected milk white skin and features beautiful enough to make any courtesan jealous. This statement was perfectly sound despite his obvious inhumanity which showed with his pointed ears, long black horns and slitted red eyes. To my surprise, he didn¡¯t look angry, scared, prideful or even annoyed. He seemed calm and peaceful as if he was relaxing at home which I guess he was . Hero had very few wits but what he few he had were usually used to judge beauty. Beauty of women and more importantly beauty of his rivals¡­so when he caught up with me a few moments after I stepped into the throne room and squinted at the throne until he noticed the demon lord, he was soon seething from jealously¡­ he pushed me to the side and then dramatically stood in front of me and faced the demon lord with his most heroic pose then boomed in a theatrical voice, he often used when speaking in front of his many fans. ¡°Hail evil demon lord I the great hero¡­¡± What would have followed this interrupted opening line was a dramatic, cheesy and odiously long speech that I only knew because he had liked to practice in front of me every night for painful hours on end before while we camped for the night while we had been traveling to reach the demon lords castle. Knowing the contents of the speech I decided to spare both our ears mine and the demon lords and as quickly as it took to reach him whacked him on the back of his head with the hilt of my sword, and he fell to the ground unconscious. I then took his magic sword I had been greatly coveting it since the beginning and as this would be the last opportunity I would ever have to use it and as that was his fault I felt justified in taking it and prepared to attack the demon lord. Volume One A Very Long Prologue Part 2: A Glimpse of Past Events A Very Long Prologue Part 2: A Glimpse of Past Events Heroes come from nobles family¡¯s with heroic lineage, mages and wizards come with noble families with magic lineage, but the main difference between them and peasants besides being able to legally use magic and skills ,peasants using them is illegal, was the large amounts of training they got throughout their life for free (free in the sense that it wasn''t their money they were spending). I was from peasant lineage but after a lot of research , gained from informally interviewing hero mages and through countless experiments, I had confirmed I was extremely powerful in magic¡­in fact I had calculated that if I had been given any training I probably could have been stood on equal standing with the greatest of Magnus But as reality was different, I through trial and error and illegally sneaking into libraries to read books at night just me being able to read was illegal and had learned a few tricks and enough control over my powers so that they didn¡¯t run amuck and destroy me. I am telling you this to explain how I was able to take the device the pope gave me that was supposed to teleport us back home only after we killed the demon lord¡­and forced it to become a device that would transport only hero back home along with a magical message that would say that they had better keep their end of the bargain the whole of the bargain and send their best priests and paladins to kill the weakened demon lord when I failed¡­ If that is what they really wanted to do. Once hero safely vanished in a flash of light I rushed the demon lord and attacked with the magic sword. The demon lord and I have been battling for three days now, and still neither of us tires. On the contrary, in the case of the demon lord, strangely he seemed to be almost growing stronger. Unable to let my attention lax, I utilize in my thinking only the part of my mind that is distanced from the parts that are battling, thinking of strategies and focusing on my powerful survival instinct and sword skills to keep up against this boss level guy. While I appear basically calm, in that distanced part me I am concerned that soon his steadily growing strength would be enough enough to kill me. Or maybe, I think in that same distanced self¡­he has hiding his true strength from the beginning and he is toying with me. After mulling over this and various other theories I come to a simple conclusion. Whether he kills me or not it doesn¡¯t matter, as I was going to die whether he killed me or not¡­and supposedly I just had to buy enough time that the theoretical army of priests and paladins would be able to make their way here and kill him¡­I strangely felt guilty about this¡­I wondered why? After all it is my job¡­well technically it was my Heroes that I am once again doing in his place, but still under his name, job but that is besides the point¡­I should have no reason to feel guilty¡­especially as no matter what happens I will die but he still has a great chance of living, especially since the armies are so incompetent¡­and once again the whole situation strikes me as really fishy. Ever since I first heard about this suicide mission, I have had a funny feeling that goes beyond the fact that they black mailed me into this by threatening my family. They also unnecessarily and easily tricked the incredibly stupid Hero into going with the promise of that stupid reward, and still no matter how I look at it there is was no good reason to kill me, or more importantly to them risk him ¡­or possibly seeing how things turned out they do want him more accurately they want us dead. I think back to this not so distant past in order to try and figure it out. Flashback: Hero a young dashing and handsome young man with angelic features and a well-muscled body, is casually standing while wearing shining silver suit of armor, a silk blue cloak¡­as well as his remarkable expensive and rare magic sword, in a fancy sheath at his hip. Standing beside him is myself, an extremely ordinary or plain young man in tarnished leather and iron armor that is obviously well worn and is in fact only holding together due to my diligent care¡­by my side is an old dented badly made iron sword, it has no sheath and is held there by a leather string tied to my belt. We are standing in a most beautiful room, with 3 of the four walls having stained glass windows and the 4th wall being mostly a large thick door. There is a large desk made of a golden beautifully polished wood and behind it sits a fat old man wearing masterful tailored ridiculously expensive cloth of gold and the finest silks its color a blinding white. He is the pope¡­a person who is slightly higher in influence than anyone but technically the king. Technically, because the king is only at most , merely half as smart as hero and this sly old fellow has been tugging on his leading strings since birth and he has never made a move in his life without this old man¡¯s say so. The only one who really rules besides him is the carefully chosen queen, but as they control different parts of the government she (the everyday, the cultural, the higher nobility and new legislature), him (the military, the execution of laws and orders, the lower nobility politics). They avoid stepping on each others toes and don''t have any problems with each other. When I look at the man I don''t see his power or the richness of his clothing, I just see a man who has done many things that have been to my disadvantage or sometimes even harm. Someone I would hate if I was a person capable of hating others for any length of time at least. ¡°I have called you here to personally give you an important mission great hero.¡± I immediately became suspicious as he had no reason to lay it on thick for hero or even summon him here in the first place¡­I was the one who decided where we went so for all prior missions I was merely sent a trusted servant or slipped a piece of paper. I waited patiently for him to get to the point. ¡° I have had a vision and " he pauses dramatically"in this vision I was told that you, Great Hero are the best choice to defeat the evil demon lord Violent and save this land from his darkness¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Hero did a fist pump. He probably didn¡¯t even really understand most what the pope said but the words ¡°best choice¡± and ¡°defeat the evil¡± are the kind of things he thinks are cool¡­so he was unconcerned with anything else¡­but I was of course a different matter This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Wait a second¡± I said ¡°¡­demon lord Valiant that makes no sense! He hasn¡¯t done anything evil against us since his arrival and ascension into lordship few hundred years ago¡­in fact from what I have heard without him being our neighbor after the demon wars ended the other demon lords would have killed us all or enslaved this kingdom a long time ago¡­¡± ¡°Heroes companion I insist that you use the demon lords church sanctioned name of ¡°Violent¡± when you refer to him, besides even a child knows that all demon lords are evil and thus legally need no other reason than their continued existence for them to be vanquished¡± the pope smirks at me ¡°Yeah Peasant even a child knows that¡± the hero also smirks but with his beautiful face it comes out as a dignified sneer. ¡° ¡°Besides it is not a companion¡¯s job to worry about minor things like that, it is your job to follow orders, now as an incentive for doing such a great and noble deed, I have been granted power by the king to make the necessary accommodations to fulfill one favor you ask for¡± ¡°Oh! Oh! I know what I want! I know just what I want!¡± Hero calls out excitedly bouncing a bit ¡°So I have been wanting to hire that famous sculptor that is so popular these days to build a golden statue of myself to share my beauty with the public¡­but that guy is really pricy and when I asked my father he said his hands are tied right now as he is building our new and doesn¡¯t have much extra gold so I didn¡¯t have enough saved from my missions. So I want my favor to be that the church builds me a statue showing my greatness!¡± The pope hides a strange giggle behind a palm that completely doesn¡¯t match his image then says ¡°Done and I think it is time for you to prepare for your journey¡± ¡°Nah, Peasant will take care of it he always does¡­and besides I dropped my latest girl because she started to get clingy and I haven¡¯t had time to get a new one yet so I have no one to say goodbye to¡± The pope gives up on trying giving hints and shouts ¡°will you please leave!¡± Hero shrugs and leaves the room. The pope waits until he shuts the door then smiles evilly at me, his eyes looking very knowing ¡°Peasant we have yet to hear your favor¡­might I make a suggestion?¡± ¡°You will do so whether I give you permission or not so why do you bother asking my permission?¡± The pope looks annoyed for a moment then shrugs it off ¡°I hear you still visit your family¡­have they been well¡± I freeze, to the point that I temporarily stop breathing ¡°I suggest that if you want your family to continue to do well¡­that you ask for that as a favor¡± Although I am still a peasant being a hero¡¯s companion makes me a higher status then my family¡­so there has been much awkwardness between us the past few years but even so I love my family and they are the only thing besides my dream that I care about¡­whenever I get the chance I go to visit them¡­I shudder at the thought of what an organization like the church could do to them with all its power and connections and say desperately. ¡°why do you want me to do this suicide mission so badly, even if it the way of it made sense it is impossible for a useless hero and a peasant companion dressed as a guard to defeat a high level demon lord¡± Knowing that he has me beat the pope makes a wide smile, and with a fanatical gleam in his eye he answers me ¡°It doesn¡¯t make sense you say? It makes perfect sense, in my vision a ¡°god¡± asked me to arrange to kill the demon lord Valiant and in return I would be granted the right to ask for one wish¡­oh the many things I can ask for from a god¡­great riches? Kingdoms? Even my cherished dream Eternal youth? So many wonderful options¡­ Now about the solution to this problem¡­I do know that, although thanks to you, your hero has the highest mission success rate that you are indeed admittedly no match against a demon lord ¡­which is why I am going to sacrifice the dearest treasure of my family in order to give you a chance¡­in defeating him but you are right in thinking that it is a suicide mission.¡± He reaches into his robes and hands me a silver bottle. ¡°This is what¡¯s known as ¡®heroic water¡¯ ah you have heard of it? It grants great power, a match for even the demon lord¡­unfortunately it does this by taking all the years you have left to live¡­and concentrating them in a single month, but it only works correctly so long as you are fighting. As soon as you stop to rest for more than a few moments you will die an extremely painful death. The plan is you hold off the demon lord for a month and after that month I will send an army of priests and paladins to kill the demon lord off while he is in his weakened state. ¡° ¡°This makes no sense! You said so yourself that I have the highest success rate, why would you sacrifice me like this?¡± ¡°Calm down and doesn¡¯t worry like I said think of your family¡¯s welfare? This isn¡¯t my first choice¡­either it is a last resort, this is in case you with your great brains and talent in war fare can¡¯t think of a way to kill the demon lord¡­you can take as much time as you want figuring out a way to do it¡­besides think about it won¡¯t the demon lord be angry if you attempt to kill him and fail angry enough to lash out against your family and the rest of this nation after to killing you? It is assurance in many ways besides the demon lord¡¯s death. Now take this¡± He hands me a strange device ¡°That device has been magic to teleport you back here but only after you succeed in killing the demon lord, and it won¡¯t work otherwise only if you somehow succeed it will be activated¡­whether or not you decide to drink the heroic water, I will round up the army and send them after you in a month or so and they should be enough to kill the demon lord¡­but as they are valuable tools I rather not have some of them die in a useless fight just like you feel your family is valuable and you would rather not fight or put them in danger¡­a blessing on your soul Peasant and may the gods smile upon you" Suddenly the sly old man has a most holy and benign expression on his face, this masterful display of acting skill gives me a great hint as to how he became the pope¡­I leave cursing my fate wishing things could be different. Flashback end Volume One A Very Long Prologue Part 3: An Unexpected Outcome before the Expected End A Very Long Prologue Part 3: An Unexpected Outcome before the Expected End I slowly come out of the painful flashback and into the current deadly reality of my one sided death match with the demon lord. I stop thinking using parts of my mind to think about the past and present theories and completely focus on our fight¡­and I soon forget everything but out our battle. At some point after I started to only focus on fighting I look at the demon lord and realize that he is no longer wearing a calm expression on his face¡­in fact he is smiling I realize that I am also grinning¡­I realize that I am happy¡­ As I have said my dream has always been to become strong. And I have thought about it and I think that after I am strong and achieve what I had wanted it would be fun to then be able fight other people who are stronger than me until I am stronger than them¡­and then they would work to get stronger than me again¡­ Most of my dream will remain unaccomplished because I cannot use the power for the purpose I wanted to for but at least right now for a while I am strong¡­and I am fighting against the demon lord who is incontestably strong. Suddenly because my thirst for battle is being satisfied for the first time, and as the potion is suppressing all my body¡¯s needs as long as I keep fighting I won¡¯t¡¯ feel any discomfort or pain. Another urge is making itself known¡­curiosity¡­and another need that I have suppressed except for the rare times I visit home¡­ as hero was not much of a conversationalist; that is my need for social interaction. Words pop out of my mouth before I can stop them. ¡°Do you know if you have displeased a god lately?¡± He is shocked, so shocked that my sword slips past his formally flawless guard and scratches his armor but he soon recovers and says ¡°I don¡¯t think so why?¡± ¡°Because according to the pope that is why I was sent to kill you¡± (( I am putting the large amounts of conversation in spoiler so if you want you can skip over all of it¡­ (some is pretty random and might not interest you) just know they talk a lot over the course of many days and they talk about a lot of different things. So end of 1st day to the 17th day: blah, blah, blah, blah -> )) Spoiler : I explain why I am here, and why I am fighting him like this. Surprisingly he gets angry, strangely not at me, no he his angry at the pope, and he is angry especially at hero for reasons whose source is soon revealed to be simple bias as heroes have always been pests that annoy him. ¡°I have never understood human culture especially of that of your Alfdorn... ¡± He proceeds to then go on a small rant about the stupidity of humans and human culture in general and proceeds to insult human nobility specifically, mostly using digs aimed heroes and their parentage and then gives several amusing anecdotes of hero¡¯s that came in the past that tried to kill him as examples to support his insults. He eventually comes back to my original question saying: ¡°If there was an actual vision and your pope wasn¡¯t lying it probably wasn¡¯t a god that sent the vision, most gods aren¡¯t amused by the whole ¡®hero vs. demon lord¡¯ story anymore and it has been too overdone, and if a god isn¡¯t entertained by something they probably and usually won¡¯t have anything to do with it. Also a god wouldn¡¯t give such an awesome gift as a wish with no limits, just for killing me. It is also probably not one of my rivals ¡­as the only demon lords I know powerful enough to reach a person as full of holy magic as popes are not the kind of people to play that sort of game¡± I think about this for a moment¡­blocking a few attacks while getting in a few swipes of my own¡­It just must just remain an unsolved mystery then, I think to myself disappointed. As I am not quite ready to drop it yet as it is part of the events that led up to my future cause of death, I think on it a few minutes more and then realize something. ¡°Actually now that I think about it, the pope isn¡¯t that stupid to fall for something fakes¡­so it¡¯s possible that a powerful mage bewitched him to start another demon war¡­I have heard there is lots of money in wars¡­and I theorize that if you were gone there would be absolute chaos¡± To my continuing lessening surprise, the demon lord picks up on my conversation theme and continues it. We proceed to talk about our theories to do with why this happened, and also about demon wars. I was surprised to find out how similarly we seemed to think, despite him being much older than me and of another race. When I mentioned this to him he laughed and said he felt the same way. Thus our battle slash conversation continued on and before I know it three days have passed. On the fourth day through the sixth day among many other things I talked to him about my deeper past. I spoke of my happy childhood and the incident involving bullies, my siblings, and my inability to protect us, that eventually sparked my desire to be strong. I also talked about my plan to join the guard to learn as much combat experience as peasant was legally allowed to have and my fantasies of performing such a great deed that I was knighted and eventually elevated up to the nobility. Then I spoke of how I was picked to be the hero¡¯s companion which started him on another rant about the stupidity of heroes. Which I teased him out of with a few jokes, and some of my own personal hero stories that I witnessed, including a version of Hero¡¯s speech with my own comments and opinions included, I ended with: ¡°You know, you probably didn¡¯t notice because I got him out of the action so quickly but Hero was greatly infuriated at you because you are more handsome then him.¡± He got a good laugh out of the idea of a hero being jealous of a demon lord. Then he told me that among demons he is considered handsome but it is not because of his appearance, in fact based solely on appearances to a demon he is rather ugly, his was a father vampire king (he inherited his appearance) and his mother a demon knight (he inherited her strength). Apparently a demons and a humans versions of beauty are completely opposite of each other what is ugly to a human is attractive to most demons, (the reason vampires are so beautiful is obviously to attract humans which is their preferred prey). Anyway the reason why he is considered handsome is because among demons what is attractive is strength, someone who looks strong is attractive whether they are actually strong or not, but someone who actually is strong is extremely attractive to the point that their appearance doesn¡¯t matter at all. On the sixth through 8th day among many other things I talked about, my life after being picked¡­how my hero would make messes and I would fix them, and how when we were given missions I always ended up doing all the work. I then shared that eventually I found out ways to control my hero subtly I would use simple words that he could understand in tricky ways so that he would end up believing that what I wanted to do was his idea in the first place. I also used food as a bribe I am an excellent cook and as long as no one was looking he would let me order him around so long as I promised to make meals for him. I also complained about my hero¡¯s ridiculous problems with women how he is constantly seducing them and then dumping them so that there is always some woman out for revenge that I have to find a way to pacify. I also complained about my interactions with his many ¡°fans¡± that are constantly bothering me. This is because as a noble hero is out of reach to most of them except in fantasies, but as a peasant I am absolutely within reach so they can bother me asking for help meeting or getting together with him. The demon lord shrugged and said with demon females things are simple if one likes you they will attack you and if they manage to make you bleed they are granted permission to court you. By the same token, If you like them you could pick a fight with them¡­to start a process that could end with sex, a mating (demon version of marriage), but usually both. There are very rarely intermediaries in demon relationships and that is only usually in arranged marriages used to seal contracts and treaties. That is unlike humans there are no match makers. He also talked about how females have always been following him around since he started on the path to strength and while it isn¡¯t quite as annoying or as bad as my situation with heroes women it was bad enough to make him prefer solitude¡­and one of the reasons leading him to him having no friends of either sex. ¡°I noticed something, while you talked often of your family and the heroes¡¯ lovers you have never talked of your own lovers¡­or even of that human concept of ¡°girl friends¡± you spoke of¡± I stumble and then proceed to slightly slow down and lose grace in my fighting because I am avoiding looking at his face out of embarrassment and that is where most of his cues small as they are lie. ¡°Well¡­I have never had either of those¡± I eventually admit. ¡°Why are you so embarrassed?¡± he guesses correctly ¡°That is not something to be ashamed of nor is it that big a deal¡± I look at him in surprise, my experience with other men since boyhood is that they all (are obsessed with want women desperately and admitting or allowing others to discover your virginity or even just your lack of lady friends is enough to get you mocked and insulted¡­ The demon lord continues to share about his culture ¡°Among most demons virginity only really matters if you are trying to get married to certain families with high class bloodlines especially in the case of females but some of the stricter family¡¯s won¡¯t accept a male officially if they have had other bed mates. With most demons it is really easy to mate with those you have sex, and since most demons only sex for love or want of bloodlines, most unmated demons are still virgins¡­in fact I am also virgin¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you mention that you are constantly being attacked by women? And aren¡¯t you at least a couple hundred years old?¡± I am shocked ¡°Unless it is wartime and they are seriously attacking with the intent to kill or gain information I am allowed to refuse to fight any women that confront me or block their attacks. I am only 305 years old, which is not very old in demon terms, I am considered as a young man or ¡®teenager¡¯ and I am often called a prodigy for how quickly I became a demon lord, plus none of the woman who liked me impressed me, and I never saw any women who impressed me at all who were unmated. Like I said before it is not such a big deal or even mildly shocking among demon kind, I often wonder especially when I see all the troubles it causes, why humans are so obsessed with it¡­it is no big deal¡± I think about this for quite a while, it seems sometimes that the demon world and the human world are complete opposites of each other which I come to realize in many cases is not necessarily a bad thing. The only areas demon morals greatly clash with human morals is the demon penchant for violence which is twice that of humans (this is mainly because as I later found out, their hierarchy which is based on strength) . To me this doesn¡¯t very unreasonable, but I can understand how in the eyes of someone who has been raised in a world where relative peace is coveted and violence is pretended to be something only criminals do, (unless you are a hero or something similar then it is glorified) the demon way of life was a bit hard to swallow ¡°Wait a moment I have often heard and read a lot about how demons are supposed to be sex maniacs¡­and then you tell me a lot of unmated demons are mortals? Where do all the demon seducer tales come in?¡± ¡°It is as I said all un-mated demons tend to be virgins, but this does not take into account those whose mate dies¡­or the exception of the demon known as the succubus, when demons are at war many mates die...but most of those demons don¡¯t lose their desire to copulate¡­and after one is mated once, it is rather hard for one to become mated again as they are still mated even though their mate is dead. Now when it comes to succubus¡¯s, or more accurate a certain kind of succubus which are probably the source of the majority of the stories you have heard¡­like vampires, they like to prey upon humans but in an entirely different way¡­and instead of blood (though like most demons they won¡¯t say no to blood either) they want energy¡± We discuss succubus¡¯s and a variety of other demon races for a time then end up back on the topic of women, I explain my reasons for not having any, mostly my extreme busyness, when I was young I was always working to help to earn money for the family, later on it was because I was training to enter the guard, then training while in the guard and then when I was picked by hero it was practically non-stop work planning missions and cleaning up messes. It was also because I had plain face (but many woman care more about money and power more than that and as someone with the heroes ear I often received many offers from other peasants, and once this one noble widow who felt like slumming it) but second in importance to being busy, was because I never saw any women that looked like they would be worth the hassle, or as the demon lord put it none ¡°impressed¡± me. Even if the woman in question was extremely beautiful they usually had a horrid personality or didn¡¯t match my tastes in another way. None seemed worth braving all the many dangers involved in the act which I learned firsthand from seeing Hero in action. Which there are surprisingly besides the standard obvious diseases and pregnancy. For example when things go sour in a relationship, things could escalate quickly to the woman hiring thugs or assassins or even taking up a weapon herself and if she was from a good family no mercenaries were necessary because her parents, siblings, cousins and even friends would take up the torch. If they were also nobility and the affair was found out you have to pay a ton of restitution money, it was luckily hero was rich because of his family¡¯s allowance because the income we received doing lucrative hero jobs might not have been enough to pay for all the woman problems alone. Occasionally I would see the other side of the coin when I paid my weekly visit to a bar to enjoy rumors, company that didn¡¯t care who I was and alcohol. This side seemed even more unpleasant then a woman taking revenge, because it was portrayed so well by wretched drunken heartbroken men, whose women left them for various reasons, such as they ran out of money, were demoted in their jobs, or the worst the woman had simply found someone they liked someone they felt was better. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. By the way before I forget, I am 19, hero is in his 20s probably 25-26 if I had to make a guess, and by my calculations based on appearances and those that know them, the pope is in his late fifties to early sixties and the king is in his early forties or possibly late thirties. On the 9th through 12 day among many other things he talked about his past, it was extremely fascinating even though it was abbreviated, like me and for similar reasons (only he killed his bullies) he also wanted to become stronger¡­but unlike me, in the demon world anyone has the opportunity to become stronger, in fact it is greatly encouraged. It seems that nobles in the demon world aren¡¯t usually born, they become. The way you become a noble or even royalty is by earning the right to be called the strongest of your age group, race, or country. He also talked about why he decided on this area to rule over¡­and fought the demon lord who lived here last (a cruel @%#$!!! who only cared about his wealth to the point of obscenity which is why he only bothered the nobles of the time)¡­In order to gain it as his own. It turns out that the @%#$!!! was one of many bullies¡­of his while growing up¡­giving an added revenge incentive and he liked the places¡¯ location as it was far from both human and other demon territories he had helped to end the war¡­but demons liked to fight each other in various ways even during peace time and the dirty politics caused being close to the demon emperors court didn¡¯t appeal to him. He also revealed that he had no servants, no guards, and no military power of any kind other than himself. This was mainly because he was a mostly solitary being but also he saw from many others examples that what most often happened if a lord forms their own court is ends up being a lesser mini version of the emperors court. His parent¡¯s court wasn¡¯t so bad especially as it was made up of a lot of vampires who liked things done in very orderly need, and beautiful ways to the point where it is often joked by other demons that the reason why vampires like beauty is because they have none for themselves personally. But even though their court was nice enough (especially as his appearance didn¡¯t stand out there) he eventually really got the desire to have his own place so he left, he then experienced the horrors of the politics of the emperors court , and decided to look for his own place in a relatively isolated area. I asked why he didn¡¯t become a king or even the emperor then change the court politics to suit himself. I had often thought that if I had real power, like that of the nobility I would probably use that privilege to the limit and change everything that I dislike into at least something tolerable. He was silent for a long time after I told him this, with a thoughtful expression on his face. On the 12th through 15th day among many other things I asked him something that has always bugged me. Why does he and other demon lords always live surrounded by lesser demons and other unintelligent monsters¡­and why do they not count as servants? He decides to explain it to me¡­when a demon or other intelligent monster passes a certain power level and is considered a boss level their innate magic grows enough that it effects the environment around them in various ways. One of them is that their enemies¡¯ are weakened when they enter the places the boss frequently lives or visits, another is that their power overflow or ¡°miasma¡± as it is commonly called because of its appearance, thins the fabric the world itself¡­letting other worlds leak through. Eventually if the place is at least a semi-permanent residence the leaks turn into holes and the lesser demons come out of them¡­the lesser live off of miasma so if they leave the residence they will die after a couple of days unless they are given regular doses of concentrated magic energy. As the source of the lessers¡¯ power they have an instinctive drive to both protect him as well as to fight off rivals, when they defeat a rival or an enemy they gain energy from their death or blood and grow stronger¡­eventually if a lesser kills enough others off they evolve like any monster eventually possibly even to an intelligent or even boss level. Monsters have a similar system to demons except it is kind of opposite because instead of the monster boss making miasma that thins the world fabric, they put out presence which strengthens the fabrics magic until it crystallizes¡­and these crystals then corrupt or mutate other animals or even the earth itself (creating elementals). However any dungeon whether demon or monster in source¡­has the property of slowly growing unless the crystal is destroyed or taken, or the realm hole is closed. The so called dungeons in Alfdorn¡¯s neighbor Milfa a small monster kingdom, that heroes love to visit because it is easy to gain treasure or rare ingredients- are former boss¡¯ residents that were abandoned long ago. Once a hole is made in the fabric of the world it takes an extremely long time to heal unless a boss in full control of their powers (to the point that they don¡¯t make holes unless they will it) or a god decides to seal the hole, and most of that sort don¡¯t bother. It is obvious that they are abandoned old ones as the monsters that come out of it are so weak. On the 16th talk of dungeons to my surprise lead to talk about kingdoms, it seems that kingdoms are basically dungeons that grew large enough that the land itself became a realm gate or crystal bed¡­this of course takes thousands of years¡­unless a boss purposely chooses to quicken things then it can possibly only take a couple hundred years or so. When a dungeon becomes a kingdom the boss is usually no longer in charge the ruler is. How exactly a ruler is chosen is unknown, but it has to do with affinity to the land and a bloodline with leaders in it. Each kingdom has its own ¡°personality¡± and flavor that is determined by the majority of the type of creature that lives there¡­if there are no majorities then it is determined by the race or type of the ¡°ruler¡±. The ruler of a Kingdom has control over the land and the rules of the land. If someone tries to go against the rules of the land (the cultural majority, and the rules the ¡°ruler¡± makes) then the land ¡°rejects them¡± and they are either punished with suffering, driven out or killed. The land can ¡°sense¡± rule breaking and created monsters to kill to execute its ruler¡¯s law. When I heard this great truth about ¡°kingdoms¡± for the first time¡­ (I think because more that humans don¡¯t have the knowledge rather then I not being lucky enough to find it) it was a revelation that had a great impact on me. Many things that I had wondered about before were explained, such as why peasants have never been able to rise up against the king or the church on any great scale, and why despite my many fantasies in my youth neither I nor my family could ever leave even if we wanted to brave the criminal infested Milfa or beg for mercy from our other neighbor the demon ruled Dhemi (Dehmi is where I am currently located). It also (wince) explained a lot of the bad luck that I have continually found myself in. I am known in the hero and adventurer community by the nickname of ¡°monster lodestone¡± In the past I was always able to defeat the monsters that came against me, but after sharing my experiences with others I found out that monsters coming to attack you is not a common occurrence. And for the others they usually had to be the aggressors. Once I found that it was a trait of mine I started to incorporate it into my plans (but those stories are for another time). This must because of all the little rebellions that I do against the church (the pope) and also because despite the king and other nobles making it illegal I taught myself to read¡­and experimented in controlling my magic. This also explained, that one peasant family I met on a monster subjugation mission, who also knew how to read, and were suffering many more monster attacks compared to their ignorant neighbors. It also adds new dimension to back when he talked about how he didn¡¯t like demon politics. Apparently the demon emperor is this kingdoms ruler, but unlike Alfdorn, Dehimi¡¯s ruler and rules can be changed and ¡°often¡± do (for a race of creatures that near immortal at least). As said all a demon who wants to become emperor (and be accepted by the land as the true ruler) is to prove themselves the strongest of all demons. ((<-end of all the skipped conversations)) On the 17th day among many other things I asked him out of curiosity why hadn¡¯t he killed me yet¡­I wasn¡¯t complaining it was most enjoyable to fight him¡­as well as to learn things from him, but I was curious as to why he didn¡¯t especially after I revealed to him the possibility of an army of priests arriving because of me. ¡°Because you are interesting¡± he explains ¡°It has been a long time since I got to fight someone for just the enjoyment, also you are not full of fear, neither at me nor at your own fate, and do you realize how rare this is?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know about rare but I act this way because I am a live in the moment sort of person most of the time I tend not to think of the past or future unless I need to, I usually only think about the here and now¡± I explain this and as I do I have the hidden knowledge that if my body wasn¡¯t in an abnormal state I would have blushed. ¡°So what are you going to do about the supposed army of priests?¡± I ask a lot less concerned then I would have been weeks ago as I now a far better grasp on this demon lords true strength. The demon lord smirks mischievously. ¡°I will leave an almost harmless little surprise for them¡­and while they are distracted I will sneak out the back door that only I can enter, they will undoubtedly then spread rumors of my death which I will kindly not invalidate¡­then after a couple of their lifetimes maybe about a hundred years or so, when all the fuss dies down¡­then I will come back¡­I really do prefer this one out of all the lairs I have conquered so far, and I am not quite ready to give it up.¡± ¡°¡­¡± I don¡¯t say anything at all to this On the 17th through 20th day among many other things he brings up the idea of him raising me up as an undead servant after the potions effects end. Though he is technically not an undead himself (his mother is a living vampire) he has a mostly unused talent to create and summon undead or necromancy. ¡°Being undead isn¡¯t that bad from what I have heard¡± he encourages me ¡°with my type of advanced spell you don¡¯t rot, smell bad or even change much and you don¡¯t feel hunger¡­like the lessors you will survive off of my magic¡­undead are monsters so you would be able to access status and easily level up and quickly get stronger there is also always the chance to evolve¡­I really would like it if you accept this offer¡­this is the first time I have made an offer like this and this is the first time I have had so much fun fighting and sharing things with anyone who wasn¡¯t my family.¡± ¡°I am really flattered but sadly it is not possible.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± he cries ¡°I would be a far better master then your stupid hero ever could be plus-¡° I quickly interrupt him ¡°it is not that I don¡¯t want to or hate the idea of being resurrected that way, but I don¡¯t think it is possible for me in particular. You see my family was really religious and they saved up all their money to have each of their children blessed by a priest when I was young, then when I was chosen as a hero¡¯s companion I received many blessings from various priests bishops and even a couple from the pope. One time we were hunting in a dungeon where the boss monster was a necromancer¡­I had tricked the hero into buying a mercenary priest to come with us to make things easier, and this priest knew the resurrection spell. During the hunt I died, and according to what the priest said later the necromancer tried to raise me as undead¡­and he somehow couldn¡¯t , then when the priest resurrected me he said it all of his mana and it was so difficult that he thought at several points that the spell would fail. I talked to him about it more after words and after a bribe¡­he explained everything he knew¡­apparently there are a few people that are difficult to resurrect and near impossible to raise as undead and I was lucky that he was so high leveled or it would have failed, in fact he was a pope candidate. This is just one of my biggest examples¡­we once fought against a group of warlocks and they tried to use soul capture on me, and it somehow backfired on them and they nearly died¡­so I don¡¯t think you should even try to capture me in that way.¡± 20th through 29 day He is silent for a long time after the conversation about my unique (in this case disability) eventually he goes back to other random topics but now then there are long pauses like he is deep in thought 30th day we are both completely silent neither of us is willing to acknowledge the dragon in the room. That is this is the day of my death¡­but a few hours after the day begins (for your knowledge we had been telling time through the demon lords knowledge as an intelligent monster that guy was as good as a clock) we fight as if we are just beginning as if we had just met and decided to kill each other, harder and faster than we had before. Although the demon lord is much stronger and skilled then I even with the heroic water, 30 days of constant fighting have changed me and I am much more skilled compared to before plus I have learned a lot of his fighting style and cues¡­and am able to predict some of his movements¡­so he no longer has to hold back as I suspect he did. Our movements are extremely fast and we are constantly reacting to each other in such away it is almost like we are dancing. When the effects of the hero water hit me I am lucky because it was my turn to attack and he had yet to counter attack so instead of attacking I just collapsed to the floor¡­if I hadn¡¯t been fighting this whole time I bet I would have been in extreme pain right now¡­but since I had used the water to its max potential I merely feel for the first time in 30 days sleepy and comfortably tired¡­I can¡¯t feel my body or limbs¡­I can barely move¡­and I struggle just to breathe even though I don¡¯t feel the struggle. I force my eyes to see the face of the demon lord who is looking down at me, a complex expression on his face, I smile at it and gather the rest of my breath and strength to say. ¡°Thank you¡± then I close my eyes. In the distance I can hear the pounding of an army of feet and the cries of many dying lessor¡­and the strange musical voice of the demon lord as he starts singing a strange spell¡­then even that fades away and there is nothing at all. Volume One A Very Long Prologue Part 4: A Friend at the End (Side Story) Transition Side Story: A Friend at the End Demon Lord Valiant I look upon the corpse that once held my friend, yes I consider him my friend, in fact my dearest friend, despite having known him for such a short time. Sadly and unfortunately, he lived up to the impression of being a bluntly honest sort; He wasn¡¯t lying in saying that undead spells have no effect on him, and after thinking about it and doing some experimentation with some of my holy artifacts I brought out from my inventory, even if I had holy magic myself or could find someone who did. It would also have no effect. Holy type revival works by restoring the broken bond between body, spirit and soul also known as life force. Heroic water works by consuming those bonds and life-force itself to produce power; even if the revival was successful he would just die again moments after it succeeded, as there would be nothing keeping soul spirit and body together once the revival magic faded. I hear the clanging and thundering footsteps of an army, but am not very concerned. it will take them hours maybe even days to even get to this point¡­I can guess from his humble personality that he would be surprised to hear me say so but he was indeed better than an army better than most demons. for because of the heroic water he was nearly on par with at least an average demon lord and the most surprising thing was despite received very little official training due to his position, he had the skills to match myself who was many times his age. Gazing once more the now empty body and once again being comforted by the peaceful expression on his face. I realize I don¡¯t want to leave it here¡­depending on the slant they take; the humans could do anything from leaving it to rot, to the distasteful custom of burying it in a coffin in the ground. Among demons most are cremated (to prevent others from using the body) and the ashes scattered¡­there is usually no such thing as a demon tomb...on the other hand¡­I think of a solution that pleases me and prepare to leave my dungeon, this mainly consisted of pausing for a moments rest, 30 days of nonstop battle was a bit much even for a demon lord that other demon lords call a monster. After about 10 minutes, of resting, meditation and regulating my ki and mana I feel almost refreshed and am ready to go. I then turn to the body and after memorizing its current appearance concentrate and cast a time freeze spell on it. I considered casting this same spell on him when he was alive¡­but it would have worn off fairly quickly, especially because of all the magic resistance I sensed in him and besides it would have just been a small delay in his inevitable fate. Also he commented several times on how much we seemed to think the alike in many ways, and if I were him I would have wanted to go out in battle rather than to die slowly, painfully over time. I pick up the statue the body has become and place it in my dimension bag, then I concentrate and summon a large lessor demon boss, which has a somewhat similar appearance to a higher demon and although it doesn¡¯t talk it seems almost intelligent because of the serious way it looks at one who is looking at it ¡­ Mischievously I also take out from the treasure room in my dimension bag a shiny and beautiful armor that despite its flashy looks is actually somewhat weak in defense and durability and at least in the demon lands cheap in material and workmanship. I then using magic and a bit of mind puppetry I dress the demon in it¡­I hold him in place with my will easily as I add the finishing touch of a faux gold crown¡­and a large fragile black sword. I then open my escape portal, setting it to vanish behind me so that even if a magic user of my level comes here they will be unable to use it. I step through the portal and find myself in the entrance hall of the lair that is my favorite, after the one I just left. That one is my favorite because of the solitude, but this one is my favorite because of all the creature comforts it provides. I have no servants (most demons hate me because of jealousy or fear me because of my strength) so no servants but a lot of magic so I came up with the obvious solution. I have put many spells in place that automatically keep things clean and in repair for me. If a Human king saw the inside of my lair he would probably drop dead from greed at all the treasures decorating it and acting as furniture. It is not that I myself am greedy and am obsessed with treasure, but with all the bribes, shame payments from demons that lost when challenging me and not to mention all the wealthy famous adventurers attacking me and dying leaving their belongings behind-I have much more treasure then I would ever know what to do with it. So in order to keep it from cluttering up my dimension bag or collecting dust in a rarely used storage room, I use most of my treasure as decorations and furniture, in as my mother would say my ¡°show piece rooms¡±. I walk past the 5 or so rooms I use as my entrance and greeting area and enter the rooms I have set aside for my more personal belongings- things I picked, found or even created myself that I actually liked and found a practical purpose for, many of these things could also be considered treasures in their own right. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Statues and sculptures of demons both beautiful and ugly from multiple cultural perspectives, pose beside window frames and alcoves. Various weapons and armor made by those at least considered masters in their craft sit proudly on stands or hang on plaques and holders on the walls, and most impressively (in my opinion), hundreds of large book shelves stuffed to overflowing stand with military precision making small corridors¡­but the rooms are so big my stuff only takes up a fraction of the space. I reach the end of this set of rooms, and come to the object that most interests me at this moment. Most vampires living and dead fiercely hate sunlight, and while demons in comparison are merely are irritated by it in comparison it still weakens us. I was also weakened by sunlight in my youth¡­but one of the reasons I was able to reach boss level was unlike most of my kind after I realized I was weakened by it instead of avoided it I courted it¡­I would stay out in the sunlight until I felt sick, and thus I eventually developed a resistance that was equal to most hominids. At the end of the room in tribute to this, is a place dedicated to the sun¡­it represents both my accomplishment as well as my awe towards the beauty of that great celestial body in the sky. First off instead of a normal wall I have a large stained glass window with a rainbow and ocean sunset motive, thick and enchanted so that it is almost impossible to break, but thin and pure enough that it easily lets in sunlight in various dazzling colors. Below it are various glass ornaments, shiny metal statues, mirrors and windows each more dazzling and more beautiful than the last, and each angled perfectly in order to catch and display the sunlight when it comes in to its best effect. Then in the middle of what I call my garden of light and glass, is my eye catching center piece¡­the glass coffin. It is an piece with a rather gruesome history, a human kingdom once discovered a kingdom that was ruled by a small coven of undead vampires, but instead of just killing them, in order to make themselves feel safe which I could understand and rarely punish others for¡­they instead did things most obscene. They kept every vampire they successfully captured alive (though only barely) and every day they would try out various torture on the vampires for entertainment. The glass coffin was a particularly cold hearted and ghastly one they thought up and crafted themselves and one they used specifically for the vampire queen¡­enchanted to keep her mute and still while inside¡­they would cover it with a black cloth in between shows¡­then when they felt like seeing her¡­they would slowly take off the cloth while making sure that it lay in direct sunlight. Unlike demons and most living vampires, the undead no matter what they do cannot cure their weakness to sunlight, so every torture never lessoned in intensity for the poor lady. While it has been a long time since I brought justice to those insane sadists, I still vividly remember everything surrounding the incident because I kept the glass coffin as a memento. The glass coffin is strangely beautiful despite being designed and intended as a torture device¡­the inside is enchanted white silk (that is dust and ash repellent) and the lid is an extremely clear glass that easily lets in the light and allows one too see inside perfectly. The coffin itself seems to be some sort of prism or jewel that creates dazzling rainbows when the light shines through. I open the coffin and gently lay my friend inside. The coffin was designed to keep whatever spell is on the victim or corpse in effect longer¡­so I know that as I shut the coffin I will now conveniently only have to refresh the time freeze spell every few years instead of once a month. I carefully arrange the body to look like it is merely sleeping, then slowly and smoothly place the lid back on. I rest my hands against the glass and although I am looking at that person¡¯s face¡­ I speak not to this empty body but to that person¡¯s memory. ¡°I really enjoyed knowing you, and you gave me a lot of food for thought¡­I feel like I need to repay you for the company and friendship you so freely gave so I will try to achieve your dreams in your place, or at least what you recommended I should do. I will once again continue my journey to become stronger, but this time I will not stop in fear of my own strength instead I will accept my strength and learn to control it. I will try to reach the pinnacle of this world and then change the world¡¯s rules to suit myself. Don¡¯t worry, I didn¡¯t have much interest in killing humans before¡­but now I will only fight a human or other of weaker race if it is in self-defense, and I will have those who follow me keep to those same rules. And know this, no matter where your soul travels in your next life, no matter how long time passes in my heart you will always be my friend.¡± Volume One Chapter 1: The Forum Post of Doom (Side Story) The Forum Post of Doom (A mysterious observer) In a forest very distant from the area where the Demon lord¡¯s friend breathed their last. A tiny sapling started to sprout from the ground near the area were the fruit of a particular tree had recently mysteriously fallen as if from nowhere. This was a very mysterious thing for while this was a kingdom of plant magical beasts and plant monsters, out of all the kinds of plants this kind of tree are among the most rare and special. In fact almost all the known ones are hidden deeply in the kingdom and protected by the kingdoms fiercest flower fairies and plant warriors. Also most of these trees even the rare ones that live outside the hidden grove, at least have guardians that would protect and carefully monitor them and any possible offspring they might have. Thus it seems impossible that the fruit and thus seed could have come from ¡®that¡¯ particular tree. But there you go, in a area far from any plant towns or cities a sapling of a breed that could be considered plant royalty was growing in a place completely void of any intelligent life¡­except the sapling which strangely though just ¡°born¡± in a sense, already had a strange ability to think. Not so long ago: The tree was once a young college student name: Brandon. He was someone who would be called ¡°nerd¡± or ¡°bookworm¡±, he was fairly smart but debilitating shy. At least in real life, however online he had a very friendly and outgoing personality, and no matter the community or the forum he would participate in they would soon come to recognize him and be friendly towards him. Strangely, many people online would also greatly admire him. Their admiration would have been absolute if it weren¡¯t for one thing¡­his strange obsession with a particular fanfiction¡­ At first had had disliked fanfiction. He had seen such works as nothing but trash. This was because he felt that fanfiction; or rather at least most fanfiction was basically insulting the work of the original author by stealing their work and then inserting a few subpar to trashy in quality scenes. He mostly stuck to reading translations of light novels, and manga online as his main source of entertainment. But one day he, found out after stumbling into what he thought was just another translation of a light novel, that there were exceptions to his dislike of fanfiction, and this major exception turned out to be high quality original work. Unlike what he previously thought fanfiction was: Original work instead of writing by stealing most of their materials, instead would merely let themselves be inspired by the materials and then would create their own worlds characters and most importantly plotlines based around that inspiration. Of course not all original work was to his liking much of it wasn¡¯t even truly original¡­but he found out that if he searched hard enough he would find pearls among the swine, and he learned to ignore the oinks of some of the swine, (bad spelling and grammar) in order to see if their pearls existed in their hearts. Being an extremely fast reader with lots of free time it soon seemed to him that he had completely read all the completed works that were worth it, and was just waiting on the various ones he was interested in to update. But writing stories takes a lot of time for most people. And while he greatly admired and even idolized people who had the ability to write (especially those who wrote stories of high quality that suited his tastes) he had zip talent in that area himself. This area was the area of writing original and creative works, however this didn¡¯t mean he was a bad writer. Not it all, he was excellent in the basics of writing that is spelling, sentence structure, and grammar and most importantly he was almost professional in seeing the faults in others work. So one day board and tired of looking at other peoples mistakes, he started writing reviews with a great amount of details. Most people who wrote reviews would only share their hate or love of the fanfiction in question, and most of the rest were either insulting the author or begging for more chapters. He was of the minority that would give specific and critical advice. He would pick out each individual error and put them in the order of when you would see them, he would point out plot holes and character flaws and then suggest ways to fix them, most importantly of all he would do all of this in such a way that the authors were not offended and the readers were greatly entertained (by his humor and clear communication skills). He had only done his reviews out of boredom but to his surprise the authors were extremely grateful, and the readers were suitably impressed. Soon his forum inbox on several of the sights he had accounts on were filled with requests for his editor services, or pleas for advice on what he thought they should do with their stories. And so suddenly once more he was no longer bored. Besides going to school, (it was through a scholarship) he spent most of his time online with his new obsession of reading editing and reviewing various fanfics¡­although he found he liked some of them with none did he have a ¡®favorite¡¯ this changed however one day while he was browsing through the forums of his favorite fanfiction site and stumbled upon a strange review.
Fanfic: Kingdom Conquerors by TrueNoobB4 Review: 0 stars Title: ABSOULUTELY SUCKS!! Don¡¯t read this fanfic!! Although you have to actually read the story in order to truly understand (as words can¡¯t describe it) I BEG YOU!! Save yourself some agony and just don¡¯t bother reading this crap at all! I ANTIRECCOMEND IT! Posted by: Awkward-Potato Comments:
(Most of the rest of the comments were of similar bent or angle and after those were comments that agreed with the comments posted above. Hoping to see if at least one comment actually admitted what was so bad about this mysteriously dissed fanfic. (He hadn¡¯t even seen the worst kinds of fanfic get as much bad rep and insults as this one was getting so he couldn¡¯t imagine what could possibly be so bad about it)
Mystique: If I was the author I would hang myself in out of embarrassment¡­I have this theory, you know how they say ¡°like parent like child?¡± Well I was thinking that as her works are so bad, then probably her quality as a person must be bad. If correct this means, that is she probably has no good qualities at all and should go just die.
Tr8TorBOY: Whoa Mystique be careful you don¡¯t want to get banned from this forum¡­I know for a fact that several of the admins are way into anti bullying. (But as surprisingly no admin has interfered with all these negative comments yet who knows what their stance its) But to continue what I was saying, you are being way to harsh, you know nothing about this person besides their fanfiction and I know for a fact that they have at least one good side. Because you have to at least admit that TrueNoobB4 is very brave. I at least wouldn¡¯t be so courageous to keep posting my stories after seeing comments like this . in fact I would be far too ashamed to post anymore on this website (at least without changing my name first).
D¡¯retherbye: I totally agree with you Tr8Tor, besides if you think about it she is doing all the authors on this site a valuable service; her works are so bad that after reading them, even the fanfics you thought were trash material before now look well written. ? Basically she makes the previously thought bad look readable
TheFatal9: This is true I read the BunnyNija series by MorbidLeacher after I attempted her work and it was almost enjoyable to me. I guess it is true that if you eat something edible after eating something inedible the bearably edible suddenly tastes delicious.
JusticeSolidier: I totally agree! Her works make me feel good about myself as they are so much worse than even mine!
Brandon was increasingly curious, and soon possessed a desire similar to wanting to see a train wreck¡­curious as to Why no one had asked him to give a review or told him about this story as he was by now well known as someone who will read anything at least once he decided to post.
Brandon59: Hey guys, I would join the party but I have never read this work. Why it is that no one told me about this? Especially you JusticeSolidier I helped you plenty in the past. Most people would consider your works unreadable and I was able to help edit your works into being readable. Didn¡¯t you promise me that in return for helping you if you find somone who also needs help you will direct me to them?
Mystique: TEACHER! TEACHER HAS POSTED HERE!
Tr8TorBOY: Welcome Teacher
D¡¯retherbye: hey B-man don¡¯t be so hard on JS we all decided anonymously and unanimously that we should keep quiet about this work, though as you can see though we have recently found some positives to reading it¡­we just want to spare people agony as much as possible. Once seen it cannot be unseen and it makes you wish that brain bleach existed.
JusticeSolidier: Sorry Teacher but don¡¯t bother with your charity this person is a helpless case¡­several people have asked if they could try to help before and were refused, besides several tried to edit it without their permission¡­but ¡°all who have faced that mountain have failed¡± I am told that they suffered severe headaches afterward. Please Teacher, have mercy on yourself and avoid this fate!
Brandon59: Thanks for the concern? (I guess) but I think I am still going to read it after all
Mystique: NO TEACHER DON¡¯T READ THAT *&^%^%$!!!&%$%^%&*!!*&^%%$^!!!
[Mystique has been temporarily banned from this forum by a watching Admin]
So Brandon, not wanting to miss any details before he actually reads the story reads the comments for each fanfiction chapter that that TrueNoob person posted. To their surprise after every 100 comments made the notorious authoress herself would come out and post a reply¡­he smirked after he read the first one.
TrueNoobB4: Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.Thank you all for taking the time to comment on my work. As it is so gratifying as an author too see, that people will actually read the things I write thank you!
And he soon found out that, all the comments were like this first one! She never insulted her naysayers back but neither did she ever acknowledge her supposed worthlessness as an author. She also often thanked them for commenting. Of course some people thought she was being sarcastic and slyly insulting them. Still others felt pity for her (or at least pretended too) and offered strange advice that didn¡¯t make sense in a way. Like ¡°try harder¡± and ¡°just give up¡±. Some people made spelling or grammar errors in their posts and now and then she would ¡®kindly¡¯ correct them. This of course made her haters even more angry. But a few humorously said that if she wasn¡¯t such a bad writer to the extent that they were afraid she would taint their work, that they would ask her to be their editor. Finally after reading all the comments Brandon decided several things¡­the first was that the hatred aimed at this person seemed mysteriously unreasonable even if their work really was bad. The other was that no matter how their worked turned out he really wanted to meet that person. They seemed really interesting almost like their personality was straight out of a web novel or a manga. It was almost heroic in a sense how they kept posting their work despite all the hatred¡­and how it didn¡¯t seem to affect them in anyway. In fact they seemed to go out of their way to help the people that tormented them. Lastly he really wanted to not hate the fanfiction. Not just because the idea of being different from everybody else gave him a thrill. He didn¡¯t like the idea that someone who seemed to be working so hard to write a fanfiction (They posted at least once a week usually more) would actually work hard to write a bad one. Plus from their posts he could tell that they were talented and entertaining writer¡­so if the story really was bad they were probably doing it on purpose. So he clicked on TrueNoobB4¡¯s name in order to reach her various fanfics¡­she had three. The first two were ¡°The Mysterious origins of Purl¡± and ¡°The Machinations of the gods¡±. Figuring that these two were basic info dumps¡­he decided to skip them and start with the one the others had been taking about which was ¡°Kingdom Conquerors¡± . He ended up reading for 12 hours forgot to do his homework and almost missed school the next day. His mind was blown and he was hooked. He read all three fanfics and the first two did turn out to be somewhat of information dumps but it was more myths and legends and history rather than an unedited wiki article. Of course after reading and greatly enjoying the work he developed a great desire to share his feelings with someone, however there was the problem to the strange reaction of people towards it. After thinking about it for a while, and weighing the pros and cons he decided to go against the majority of public opinion and state his true feelings in the review he wrote. Needless to say¡­the community was stunned. Here was their admired friend and he for the first time was getting something wrong! However Brandon didn¡¯t really care about what others thought and continued to write raving reviews and comment with a purposeful style that indicated he had no clue what the others were talking about when they said that the story was bad. There was one thing that surprised him though, and that was it seemed liked the author herself had nothing to say about his comments¡­she didn¡¯t reply to a single one¡­ He decided that she must be shy or something similar (or maybe so shocked to have a fan that she couldn¡¯t speak) and so he started to up his comments and reviews¡­and also he started to send private messages as well. They were all about asking questions on various parts of the story that he was interested in and weren¡¯t given as much word count as he would have liked. And too his surprise she eventually answered. He discovered she was a witty and engaging conversationalist and that they had many things in common. He found for the first time that there was someone whom he could talk to and share things with and who would share things with him. They had a very honest and sincere relationship in fact whenever he messed up in writing she would critique him¡­and in such a way that he would become better at writing. In return all those questions he asked about the world she wrote about inspired her to write even more kinds of stories. One in particular (which besides the first thing he read became his favorite) followed the life of a young demon born to a vampire and a minor demon lord. And this demon really lived up to his name which in human tongue could roughly be translated as bravery. It seemed like he knew no fear. When the pure bloods started beating up on him he would just let them and not say anything at all or even make a single noise. On the other hand if they were ganging up on other halfies he would attack and try his best to defend even when he was greatly out powered and outnumbered¡­ Strangely though understandably to Brandon although those he treated kindly those he rescued and they usually would come to greatly admire them. He didn¡¯t befriend any of them. This was mostly because they didn¡¯t¡¯ want to get involved with the bullies but also because he didn¡¯t want to become friends with people who only saw one aspect of him. That was a common theme in TrueNoobB4¡¯s stories, the difference between seeing someone on the surface and seeing someone¡¯s true self. Another story that took place several hundred years later followed a very similar theme. It was about the story of a peasant who wanted to become stronger but was restricted by the law of their kingdom. As explained in ¡°Kingdom Conquerors¡± whoever ruled a kingdom influenced more than just the ¡°human law¡± of the land rather their law would become the lands law. And thus when the law was broken there was often punishment that came from non-human sources. This peasant who actually didn¡¯t really have a name their parents being an unimaginative sort often broke the laws. The land would then send monsters after them¡­but surprisingly usually through wit and plan they would slaughter all the monsters. They would get stronger but as it is illegal for an ordinary peasant to sell monster loot¡­they couldn¡¯t gain much else from it. Things picked up greatly when he decided to become a guard and managed to squeeze into a recruit position when a battle decimated their ranks. Unfortunately for him but greatly entertaining for the reader he was picked to be the companion of a hero¡­which despite what one might think wasn¡¯t exactly a good thing. Brandon continued to read but when he got too the end of a cliff hanger in the story he decided to beg his friend for a spoiler.
OtherWorlds!?.com A fanfiction review and publishing forum (Private Chat) TrueNoobB4: ¡­and so the demon lord Valiant tricked the churches army into thinking that the lesser demon they defeated was him and went home to mourn the friend he had made and lost almost at the same time. Brandon59: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SPOILERS!! TrueNoobB4: Anything for my biggest fan Brandon59: Really? You are too generous! TrueNoobB4: not really, as besides being my biggest fan you are also practically my only fan¡­ Brandon59: I still don¡¯t get why that is you are so good!! TrueNoobB4: please if I was ¡°so good¡± would my fanfictions have only one star? Brandon59: Not true some of them have two¡­ TrueNoobB4: the reviews said that they only gave me two because they wanted to be different from everybody else and they felt pity on me¡­ Brandon59: ¡­ TrueNoobB4: Well moving along from this pointless subject¡­there is something I have to tell you. Brandon59: What is it? TrueNoobB4: I just found out that¡­there is something that requires my full attention, thus sadly I won¡¯t be able to chat with you for a while¡­ TrueNoobB4: Well?! Brandon59: I am really sorry to hear that¡­I will be very lonely and board, why you ask? Without any new ¡°Kingdom Conquerors¡± chapters to read I will be bored out of my mind¡­and if I can¡¯t talk to you¡­my only (sniff, sniff) true friend¡­OH HOW LONELY I WILL BE!! TrueNoobB4: Don¡¯t be so dramatic (smirks) no wonder you don¡¯t have any real friends Brandon59: you are probably right about that¡­ TrueNoobB4: ¡­ Brandon59: Oh wait before I forget exactly how long will you be gone, can you give me an estimate? TrueNoobB4: At least a couple of days¡­maybe even a week¡­ Brandon59: I will be counting down the days, no the hours, no the minutes, no event the seconds¡­! TrueNoobB4: bye B59 Brandon59: B4! NO WAIT! [TrueNoobB4 has left the chatting session] Brandon59: You Little! Oh well¡­guess I will see you later [Brandon59 has left the chatting session]
A few days later Brandon was turning his computer on impatiently, intending to access the fanfiction website. Although Brandon had his own personal copies of TrueNoob¡¯s work however he was of the opinion that it was best read in its original state and thus feeling lonely a few days after TrueNoob ¡°left¡± he decided to reread his favorite ¡°Kingdom Conquerors¡± from the beginning to end. He felt since this would take several days by the time he would be done she would be back. But to his great surprise he noticed that the thread that the story was on had been recently updated (only a few minutes ago in fact). This was a rare thing as most people had grown bored of insulting the work or because they considered themselves ¡°Teacher¡¯s¡± fans they decided to no insult his favorite work¡­ Then they found out he wasn¡¯t impressed with false flattery intended to gain his favor, or in other words ¡°sucking up¡± (you know a** kissing). So instead of starting to read the series as intended, he instead decided to read the post first and see who was posting and what they were saying about his friends work.
MalloryTheGoddess: Does anyone who has read this work like the world of Purl? It is a most impressive world isn¡¯t? If you could travel there would you like too?
Brandon59: I am excited to see that there is another fan of this series besides me. First of all congratulations and welcome to the exclusive club of liking ¡°Kingdom Conquerors¡± I can also see we have different tastes. You seem to enjoy TrueNoob¡¯s world building the most. While I am greatly impressed by the detail and scale of Purl, my favorite part of the story would have to be all the interesting characters. But to answer your question I think if I could travel to purl I would probably be tempted into going.
To Brandon¡¯s surprise the person who had posted replied a few seconds after his post.
MalloryTheGoddess: Oh, so you are impressed by the great Purl eh? So now a much more important question, I as a Goddess have the power to take you to Purl. So right now, would you agree for me to take you to Purl?
Brandon59 : sure but I Brandon didn¡¯t get to finish let alone post the rest of his reply, this was because seconds after he failed to type the rest, in front of his computer, the young man was staring glassy eyed at the screen body limp skin already chilling in death. Volume One Chapter 2: The Egg The Egg (The soul formerly known as the hero¡¯s companion) I gain consciousness very gradually, the first thing that I notice is that It is dark¡­no it is darker than dark it is the complete and utter absence of light¡­the second thing I notice is that I can¡¯t feel my body. I think about this for a while and realize it maybe not so much that I can¡¯t feel a body rather than the fact that I probably don¡¯t have a body¡­ After a while I realize this assumption must be incorrect, I am conscious therefore I must exist in some form because I can think and I slowly soon come to realize that I can feel¡­So then I decide to concentrate solely on feeling rather than thinking. After a while I realize I am feeling a strange sensation, it feels almost like I am floating in a warm soothing water¡­a gentle type of liquid that slowly lulls me to unconsciousness once more. When I awake for the second time since I died, I feel much more than I did before and my thoughts are much clearer. I also confirm that I definitely have a body, though how much of a body do I have is the question. I don¡¯t know if I have eyes or not because it is so dark and I am surrounded by water. I am not sure if I have any limbs or even if I have a head, it is impossible for me to move so I am not sure if I have muscles. I don¡¯t think I am a fish or an amphibian because it doesn¡¯t seem like I am breathing, and it is lucky that I don¡¯t need to breathe because I don¡¯t seem to have a mouth either. Once again I decide to stop thinking, and start feeling¡­and once again the water starts to sooth me back to the almost sleep form of unconsciousness but I force myself to stay awake and try to see if I have any other senses besides touch. After a long while I realize part of what I thought was water moving on me as I floated, was really a very small sound. I stop concentrating on touch and focus solely on what I think to be sound¡­it is a fluttering sound¡­like the wing beats of a butter fly or a leaf gently tapping another in a soft breeze. After a long while after realizing what I am using to hear is probably some kind of ears that are on either side of my head, I am better able to locate the sound and realize that it is inside me¡­that the light fluttering sound is probably my heart beat. I am very thrilled when I realize this; because this discovery means that I am alive again in some way which is something I never expected. Happily listening to the sound of my own heartbeat while being soothed by the warm waters¡­I drift asleep once more. When I wake for the third time, I am much stronger, I first realize this when I listen for the flutter that signifies my life and realize that it has graduated from flutter to a slight tapping. Then I focus on feeling other things and realize that now I can slightly move myself, and after experimenting, and practicing moving for a while, I manage to somewhat confirm my body shape through feeling, I measure by comparing each body part with each other and then forming a rough proportion scale, thus I decide my shape is like this: My head is much larger compared to the rest of me, it takes up at least slightly half of my whole body at least in density. Following after my head is my midsection it is slightly longer and much thinner than my head. On the sides of my body I have at least two small stubby limbs that I can almost wiggle, it isn¡¯t much it but it is much better than like before when I was completely unable to move at all. In-between my two tiny limbs there is a rope of some kind attached to my midsection¡­I know this because every time I move my body I feel a comforting tug. Comforting because if I was not attached to anything and was just freely floating, I feel it would be very scary. I continue to practice moving, but soon I am tired out, once again I fall asleep soothed by water and my heartbeat. I wake for the fourth time. Once again I am many times stronger than I was before, the stubs that are my limbs seem a bit longer, and they appear to have somehow multiplied. I have at least four perhaps 5 because I am beginning to suspect that it is not just that my body is very long it is mostly that I probably have a tail. I use my limbs and eventually even my tail, to move around, it is hard to tell direction floating in a liquid in complete darkness but I try to move towards the direction my belly cord comes from and eventually I find I can no longer go forward. I do not have the best sense of touch at the moment but I brush my body and stubby limbs on the obstacle in front of me¡­it appears to be some kind of wall, it is hard and smooth like stone, but strangely warm¡­however soon after I start touching it I get instinctively uneasy so I gently use it to push myself away back towards the liquid. This instinct that is almost fear, triggers an unknown memory of some kind¡­something about my situation particularly the wall is making me think of something. Something though not personally familiar to me, it is a thought that would probably shed some light on things; However the liquid not only soothes my fears but gently drives away my feelings. I relax, and then once I realize that it wasn¡¯t my choice to relax start to struggle to actively think. I hadn¡¯t bothered to really think much, so far, mostly because my new body got tired really easily, but also because the environment I was in encouraged a thick calmness on me that didn¡¯t really let me feel emotions that strongly even curiosity. Even the joy I felt at realizing that I wasn¡¯t dead but alive had been a peaceful blanketed joy, which had soon fallen back to the sleepy neutral tranquility. However no matter how strange and unknown the situation was I was still myself, and I was a type of person that didn¡¯t accept laziness or peace well. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I constantly struggled against this invisible hindrance that continually threatened to wipe all thoughts from my head, but after a while I realized this was pointless I was just wasting what pathetic strength I had, I also managed to recall that every time I let myself rest when I awake I am much stronger¡­perhaps I should utilize this but instead of somewhat pointlessly trying to move my weak body I shall focus solely on thinking¡­yes that is what I will do next time I think as I allow myself to be swept under again. I wake for the fifth time¡­ (and stay awake for quite a while) I feel a lot stronger but it isn¡¯t as great of a leap in difference compared to my other awakenings. Soon I recall the plan¡­and try to put it into practice. I allow the liquid to soothe my body but I gather all my mental strength and will power to prevent it from affecting my mind. It works to an extent and thinking becomes a lot easier than before. I start with the basics I dredge up all my memories from before my death from childhood onwards and I find it is easy and the memories are a lot more vivid and detailed then my recollections of utilizing my memory in the past. I speed up and flash through all the rest of my experiences¡­and linger on those near the end¡­and I soon recall all the memories I had forgotten of my first and last true friend¡­and he wasn¡¯t even human but a demon lord. I then look at the moment I died over and over¡­just to make sure. It was true, I really had died. Then I started thinking how I am alive right now? The religion my parents raised me in was all about pleasing the gods and respecting nobility¡­and not much else...one of the main ways they keep the majority of peasants in line was the idea that only nobility gets a free pass to the afterlife and paradise, but peasants like myself had to hope that our bosses and masters asked for us personally when they got there otherwise we would be stuck in purgatory or if we have lived a life of evil deeds we would be eventually dragged from purgatory and into hades to be punished for eternity. I didn¡¯t notice any stops in between dyeing and waking up here so I guessed most of what my parent¡¯s religion taught was untrue or at least in my case, which brought me to my second theory: reincarnation. In my rare free time I would often sneak into libraries to read books¡­and once I read a book that talked about various human cultures¡­on lands far away. It had been really interesting and one of the things that had really interested me were the various religions of other lands. I don¡¯t know many foreigners personally as my land isn¡¯t very welcoming to outsiders. However, I having an ear for languages and love of nosiness and eavesdropping, so by gaining info through grey activities and also through some of the books I¡¯ve read I know more things than most people of my land, and theories about life after death is just one of the miscellaneous trivia that I have learned. Reincarnation is basically the idea that after death your soul is reborn into a new body¡­there were various other details about the how¡¯s and whys. And differing opinions depending on the religion involved¡­but the main features seemed to fit what is happening to me perfectly. I am not really religious and am not convinced that reincarnation (at least the how and why of it) and the religions that believe in it are correct¡­I decided to set this aside¡­because unless I meet a god who explains everything to me I probably won¡¯t ever bother with religion s it seems to complicated¡­as well as such a hot topic. So I decided to only pick and choose aspects of things that make sense¡­for example one reason accepting the religions that use reincarnation wouldn¡¯t work for me is that I can remember my prior life¡­and according to the religion supposedly everyone is reincarnated but just don¡¯t remember it¡­and as I do vividly¡­such complicated subjects annoy me so I soon drop that and think on just what being reincarnated means for me personally. A second chance, I now (if things go well and I continue to live) I now have a second chance to basically do things over and hopefully better, to learn the things I never got to learn, to do the things I always wanted to do but never got to. A chance to follow my dream again of being the stronger this time with possibly more time in which to do it in. A second chance, such a beautiful wonderful thing, at first I am tickled pink but soon reality intrudes on my daydreams. First I am doubtful that I am human, besides my strange body shape there was also the fact of my location¡­the walls and liquid still bug me. Then suddenly a lightning strike of brilliance in the back of my mind reveals what was so familiar yet unfamiliar that I couldn¡¯t understand before. I am weak, helpless, and inside a dark enclosed space full of liquid, I must be some sort of baby that¡¯s still inside of an egg. Basically I am something that hasn¡¯t been even born yet, or hatched whatever. I am surprisingly unbothered by the idea¡­I have never really interacted happily with those of my past life''s race and thus besides my family I had no great bond with humans and thus the idea of being human. However I realize that whatever I am could greatly impact my plans, for example if I turn out to be the creature equivalent of a peasant I would be devastated. But what would be the worst result is if this new body wasn¡¯t just weak now but grew up to be relatively weak and impossible to train so that I would be rendered unable by default to follow my dream of getting stronger. Volume One Chapter 3: The Dragon Egg The Dragon Egg (An unborn soul that has yet to have a name continued) As I am thinking about the future, I soon become frustrated, I want to make plans for the future but I have so little information about myself¡­including even when I will be able to hatch, if my egg theory is correct. I want to know about myself, I want to know my potential! I want to know at least my current state of being! I scream inside my head as I am unable to talk aloud. Suddenly to my surprise there is a flash of light appearing, not through eyes (I am not even sure yet if I have them) but inside my head and much too vividly to be imagined. The light almost instantly takes form¡­I appear as the strongest ball of light in a galaxy of stars. I soon realize what it is I am seeing it is a stat window of some kind. In my world humans and other hominids don¡¯t have the natural ability to see their stats. All they could do was guess based upon comparing themselves to others and by how strong of monsters they can fight. Then some intelligent wizard somewhere invented the I.D. card. It was a device that once connected to someone by magic would display the person¡¯s abilities via numeric data or statistics. Of course in my country I.D. cards were immediately made legal only for those of the nobility. Hero in fact had one¡­soon after picking me he had a mage connect me to it by magic to register me as his companion. Although he didn¡¯t really use his I.D. card for things other than its banking feature (where you used your credit with your guild to buy things and then paid the money you owed to the guild rather than various shop keepers) there then opened an option that showed my level and current health¡­but not much else except my name. I had always been curious about I.D. cards; if I could put a value on my strength then I could easily pick and choose what to aim for. A nice quality that these cards had was the ability to convert your stats into not just numeric data but changeable numeric data, as you gain experience your body mind and soul gathers a special magic energy known as ¡°potential¡± without the I.D. card eventually your potential would eventually out grow your current state and you would gain a ¡°level¡± with a level magic would randomly strengthen your various stats usually what you had been training the most before. But an I.D. card acted as an interface and stop gate and prevented the potential from being automatically distributed¡­instead this miraculously handy device let you pick and choose what to give those so called ¡°status points¡± to. I had seen hero use it many times he usually added all his stat points to status like attack power or strength, when I saw him do this I always thought what a waste¡­I had heard through rumors that besides the basics like health strength and attack there were also often utilized by wizards such awesome stats as ¡°magic power¡± or ¡°intelligence.¡± If hero so chose, he could have added points to ¡°intelligence¡± and change the hand he was dealt with but I think he preferred to be stupid, as he was the type of fellow to consider such things as smart decisions unnecessary. And as a hero he could cast magic through his physical attacks automatically. As a peasant if I got an I.D. card of such a high level and was found out I would probably be thrown in prison or executed. And it was easy to find out as there were skills that were enhanced by the I.D. card that allowed you to identify other people¡­and if you didn¡¯t have an I.D. card your name wouldn¡¯t come up but if you also owned one your name and some information about you would be shared. Unlike humans and most other hominids monsters were different they had the natural ability to see their stats, as well as to tell time and other information depending on their intelligence. I had known about this from a few drunken demi human mercenaries who had bragged about it and shown everyone through illusion magic¡­ (This is one of the main reasons demi humans are not widely accepted¡­besides the fact they are at least half monster and have many monstrous traits when monsters are often enemies) they also had access to a privilege the ones in rule wanted only nobles to have. But I had heard that it was thanks to mage study and experimentation on demi humans that the I.D. card was able to be invented in the first place¡­so most people didn¡¯t really have a leg to stand on. Even though it was only allowed to nobility not many people could get it even if it did end up being allowed to everyone as it required various rare and hard to find materials, and the formula is a deeply kept secret that only a few know and fewer can use and thus it was very expensive to make, or I might have even took the chance of being found out to make my own version of the I.D. card. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. In my prior life I couldn¡¯t get much more information about monster stat sense as well as on I.D. cards¡­other than a few tidbits from several drunken half-monster merks and the small amount of sense I could pull from the hero¡¯s bragging. But then towards the end of my life I had several conversations with the demon lord about it. The way he explained it besides allowing monsters to change their stats with stat points¡­their sense also told time, showed your limits in the form of stamina and health, and showed your various skills as data that could also be altered. In the human land they have yet to get the I.D. card good enough to the point where it can show or alter skills. But with monsters they can easily power up their skills effortlessly without training or practice but of course if they don¡¯t train or practice they won¡¯t be as powerful as someone who does, and strength can be no good if it is followed with actual battle experience and knowledge on how to use in the best ways.. Obviously since I had a form of stat sense, I obviously must now be some kind of monster. Looking out into my own small galaxy of stars¡­I wondered how best utilize the unexpected gift of being a monster. First I needed to figure out just what kind of monster I was¡­according to the demon lord who had been born a regular demon and had worked his way up to lord some monsters got stronger faster than others¡­or even ranked up more quickly. Ranking up was something all monsters did when they reached a certain level or did a significant feat or achievement, such as killing another monster that is much higher level than themselves and eating it. Eating someone stronger than them is one of the easiest ways for a monster to earn experience points and stat boosts. Thus cannibalism is common for monsters, because even though there are many different races and variants or sub races, apparently other than hominids the creatures that give the most power are from your own race. The reason most monsters prey on humans is not because of revenge or justice for the monsters humans¡¯ have killed it¡¯s because humans are extremely good and healthy as a food/fertilizer no matter what type of monster you are. However the demon lord mentioned that for many demons and other monster races that consider themselves ¡°civilized¡± it is becoming more uncommon to eat people for food¡­though many of the warriors will still at least consume the heart of a human opponent they felt was worthy¡­I wondered if the demon lord ate my heart? And if so I wonder if I was at least an ok power up¡­the heroic water is something that only affects the person who drank it so he should be fine if he did¡­any way ranking up is another way that monsters get stronger besides the level system¡­the monster that ranks up will evolve instantly and change into a powerful similar but different monster¡­for example a lessor demon might rank up into a lower high demon. Or a zombie might rank up into an undead vampire. A small dog monster might rank up into a dire wolf monster. A giant snake monster might rank up into a lessor dragon (imugi). There were many possibilites and they usually followed a family tree sort of logic¡­it is rare for something to completely change its family tree branch when it ranked up¡­for example a goblin might eventually become a demon, but a mouse beast, probably will never do so unless it is a demon rodent. I ask my small galaxy of stats what race am I, what rank? And instantly a dozen or so stars come falling towards me¡­I ¡®touch¡¯ one of them and information immediately floods into me which my mind makes sense out of the jumble by transcribing it into words.
Self Information
Name:N/A
Race:Gem Dragon
Variant:common, brown dragon
Rank:low ordinary, egg
Gender:neutral
Age:3 weeks since laid
Volume One Chapter 4: The Gem Dragon The Gem Dragon (An unnamed soul) Gem dragon¡­I am a dragon? I am greatly shocked I hadn¡¯t expected that¡­I was thinking that I would end up some kind of lessor lizard monster or more likely one of the (non-dungeon type) lessor demons not a dragon. Dragons are some of the most powerful creatures known to be living even most demon lords are said to be scared of a fully grown dragon. There are many continents and lands (kingdoms) known as ¡°dragon lands¡± because the ones in charge, the rulers of that land and its nobility are dragons. All the other monsters and the few humans and demi humans that choose to live there act as their peasants and servants. Not much else is known about them, because outside of these dragon lands there are only a few rare anti-social dragons that don¡¯t live in a heard or pack and pick a mountain cave to make their nest in. Because most dragons have a nose for treasure and a desire to hoard it¡­there are often suicide attacks against these dragons in attempt to take their treasure, but almost all of it fails¡­because the dragon is too powerful. And this is after knowing that most dragons that live in human lands are brown or green, and they are said to be the least powerful and lowest ranked dragons! I wonder what is the difference between a typical dragon and a gem dragon¡­.I decide to try and see if I my stat window had more information¡­tell me about gem dragons I ask the stars.
Gem dragon: A race of dragons known as the ¡°mages¡± of the dragon species, gem dragons tend to have less physical strength then most dragons, as well as a lower place on the totem pole in the hierarchy of dragon species. However there are advantages, gem dragons are best known for their beautiful and brilliant hides which shine like gems making them considered among the most beautiful of dragons and these scales are not just for show they have better defense compared to a typical dragon. Gem dragons are usually smarter and possess more sensitivity towards magic and are more in tune with it compared to other dragons. However Gem dragons have a smaller population compared to other dragons, as they have a lower egg rate, and as mating outside of their race is uncommon and when it does happen the child is unlikely to have the features of a gem dragon and will likely take after its non-gem parent, as the genes for gem dragons are highly recessive.
Strangely the status window gives me some words that I am not familiar with but when I ¡°touch¡± a word with my mind immediately more information appears!!
Genes: In this word it is more commonly known by the term ¡°blood lines¡± Genes are common traits that are passed down from parent to child or are ¡°inherited¡±. They can be separated into three type¡¯s recessive, dominant and amalgam.
There is more information given then just this¡­ but after reading the basics and a few more of the unknown terms I discover while reading them. I decide to see the rest of it later; as I don¡¯t need to know everything right now, it¡¯s not like I have time limit to learn this stuff. I am happy, being a gem doesn¡¯t¡¯ seem bad at all! I am fairly excited over this. I have a lot more potential compared to when I was born to a normal peasant human family. Wait family¡­I must have a family! A dragon egg usually doesn¡¯t come into existence by itself! Curious to know, I ask the stars family? Relationships? Soon some stars shoot towards me and I happily look at them.
Family
Parents:
Mother:Queen Terabithia
Father:Royal Consort Henry
Siblings (Living):Male: 10 Female: 7 Eggs: 9
Siblings (Deceased):Female: 19 Male: 85
My mother is a queen? I get fairly excited again until I see the large amount of siblings I think that I have at least 17 living? ¡­before I was the oldest of 6 now I am the youngest of currently 27¡­I would probably lucky to see my parents at all when I hatched¡­I wonder what it will be like to have older siblings¡­I have never really had any mentors or people who took care of me, my parents relied on me from almost the beginning and hero was way to incompetent and selfish to do so in spite of being older¡­then I notice something,10 males, 7 females and 9 eggs? So far, based on the amount of information I have been getting, it seems that my status windows have been able to let me see almost everything. So why is it not showing the genders of the eggs, was it some dragon tradition or something? I may not have bothered to find out what it meant, but then I remembered that on my own status it said ¡°Gender: neutral¡± concerned I asked the stat window information on my gender.
Gender of eggs: With many monsters species gender is not determined at conception but rather while in egg or utero. Most monsters including dragons have high death rates, and as one of their genders is usually naturally stronger than the other ( I quickly looked it up, it seems gem dragons are a matriarch society) thus more of one gender dies then the other (in gem dragons case usually the males) to solve this problem monsters evolved the ability to be gender neutral while in the beginning of egg hood, gender is usually given by the first hatching option and is determined by the lesser populated gender of unmated dragons, if population is more or less equal, gender determination will be random. Based on the current population of your dragon tribe, the prediction of the at next hatching option is: 70% of current eggs will be male 20% will remain in egg as neutral and 10% will be female. Of the neutral 20%: 10% gender will be determined at a later date, 9.5% will die due to mutation or weakness before hatching, .4% will die due to weakness or mutation upon hatching, and .01% may survive despite mutation and their gender may or may not be determined at a later date. (70% chance of infertility).
All of the information is interesting but what most grabs my attention is the fact that there is a chance small that it is, that I would end up ¡­wait I stopped myself I shouldn¡¯t think about that as if I say it ¡°out loud¡± or I may jinx myself¡­any way I should put it aside as it seems it is up to fate and there is nothing I can do about it ¡­ however I am curious to know about this ¡°hatching option¡± it speaks of¡­I pull it up onto my stat window
Hatching option: dragon eggs receive a hatching option once a year, the majority of dragon eggs choose to hatch on their first hatching option. Hatching stops egg leveling and begins ordinary leveling. Higher monsters, that reproduce by eggs like dragons with souls have the option to gain experience and strength while still in egg, levels gained while in egg are known as egg level, egg level is changes to level 1 upon hatching but stats and skills achieved while egg leveling are kept. It is possible though difficult to rank up while still in egg. Some skills learned or already known are unable to be used while in egg. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. In order to choose to remain in egg conditions must be met: required, egg level 500, shell defense: 800, intelligence: 500, mana: 1000, skill: summon: mana stone.
I can rank up while still in egg? So instead of starting from a lowly brown dragon it is possible that I could hatch out as a respectable green, or even a nice blue? I will have to see if I can figure out how to raise my stats enough and then if possible, maybe I will stay in egg longer. I look at the one skill mentioned¡­and ask for its info.
Summon mana stone: For dragons in egg this skill is necessary in order to continue to stay in egg, after 1st year a young dragon will starve as they will have by then used up all the nutrients in their yolks¡­summon mana stone summons a mana stone that is used for energy in place of yolk nutrients¡­skill can be learned at egg level 100, with at least a 100 in intelligence and 200 mana, in order for shell not to break from the weight of summoned mana stone shell defense must be at least 160.
That¡¯s interesting I think¡­I gaze out into my small galaxy deep in thought about all I have learned so far¡­then am distracted when I notice that several of the stars that I am not currently directly looking at are brighter than most of the others and are flashing I call them up on my window.
Current affects: Dragon lullaby (spell): you are sleepy and peaceful. A spell used to prevent energetic young dragons from breaking their eggs prematurely Reincarnated(skill passive): several affects and skills are boosted; experience gain is boosted, information window access is at highest setting. Heroic water(skill passive): several affects and skills are boosted; experience gain for some types of skills is boosted
Well these explain a lot, I morbidly decide to look up what will happen if I break my shell early, to my surprise after the first month or so I won¡¯t die however I won¡¯t be considered a dragon anymore but a lesser monster called a wrvm I decide then and there to be really careful. I am intrigued that my reincarnation has an actual affect so I will have to look up information on it later to see if it has other effects on me later I then look to the remaining flashing stars
Status updates +1 strength +1 wisdom +1 strength +1willpower +1intellgence +1strength ¡­
This continues on for quite a while apparently I have gained about 100 strength, 50 wisdom, 80 intelligence, and 200 willpower, I then quickly look up which each stat means¡­and wonder how strong and intelligent I am especially compared to earlier. I see a note that states that while in egg I can¡¯t be stronger than my shells defense, unless I want to hatch early, so my strength is being limited and suppressed to match my shell defense so right now I can¡¯t go higher than 100 because that is my current shells defense At the end of this long list it says:
you have reached egg level one +5 to all stats (some stats have no effect while in egg) +10 status points
Status points! Apparently I have already gained some¡­I pull up the window that will let me spend my status points, apparently the more intelligence I have the more mana and since I am already gaining strength wisdom and a variety of others just by moving around and thinking I decide to put all my status points into shell defense as it seems the stronger my shell is the better.
Statistics:
Status Points: 1000000+10
Level:Egg 0+1
Experience to next level:0/10000
Physical Stats
Health:100 +5
Shell Durability:500+5
Defense:500+5
Strength:600+5
Stamina:15+5
Dexterity:12 +5
Vitality:13 +5
Stamina:10 +5
Shell Defense:800 +5
Charm:20 +5
Foritude:10 +5
Endurance:10 +5
Agility:0 +5
Speed:0 +5
Mental/Spiritual Stats
Wisdom:1050+5
Intelligence:6080 +5
Spirit:5 +5
Mana/Chi:80040+5
Charisma:50 +5
Luck:??? +5
Faith:0 +0
Leadership:5 +5
Fighting Spirit10 +5
Divinity10+5
Will Power:10210+5
Karma:
Good:100000000000000
Bad:2110
Magic resistance/affinity
Fire/lightning:25%
Air/wind:25%
Earth/Gravity:25%
Dark/undead:25%
Magic/Arcane:25%
Water/frost:25%
Nature/life:25%
Spirit/mind:25%
Holy/light:25%
To my surprise I have more than 10 status points I in fact have over 1000000 status points to use how I please! Wondering how that I can happen I decide to wait on using them and look up my skill window to look for reincarnated. Volume One Chapter 5: A look at the Present State of Things A look at the Present State of Things (You know who and it¡¯s not Voldemort) ****Special thanks to Ingro for solving the mystery of the annoying space for me****
Skills
SkillDescriptionSkill mastery
Reincarnated (passive/active)Your extremely large amount of karma as well as the rules given by the gods of your realm have allowed you to have a second life while remembering your first one: Number of times reincarnated: access [restricted]
  • Knowledge of reincarnation: you have knowledge of your past life and know you are a reincarnated because you are able to draw upon your past life¡¯s experiences you earn experience points and learn skills 2X faster than normal +skill: Karma wielder
  • Second life bonus: a small percentage of your past life¡¯s stats, stat points, and skills have been reborn with you Willpower + 499 Wisdom + 999 Intelligence +2000 Mana/Chi +20000 Status points +999990 Divinity + 10 Holy + 10+ Skill: passionate strength+ Skill: instinctive chi/mana manipulation+ Skill: creative quick wit+ Skill: Empathy + Skill: People Herder +
  • 3rd life option: upon time of death you had a total of 100000000000000 good karma, the rules given to this world state that an achievement of an amount of good karma above 10000000000 equals one free automatic reincarnation granted by the gods of this realm if you so choose after this life has ended you can use your karma to buy a 3rd life and can use your unused karma points to buy any sort of rebirth you choose even up to being reborn as a god
  • Racial bonus as a monster you can rank up earlier, and your monster¡¯s status instinct receives a bonus All monsters from moment of consciousness have instinctual knowledge of their own status and are able to choose where they put their stat points
  • information bonus due to mysterious reasons you are able to see the stats of others, even if they wish them hidden ,you can also use your status window to look up additional information of various things at high clearance level +Skill: identify
Max from beginning (cannot be increased)
Monster¡¯s status instinct(passive)All monsters from first moment of consciousness have instinctual knowledge of their own status and are able to choose where they put their stat points
  • Information bonus a bonus due to be reincarnated: you are able to see the stats of others even if they wish them hidden, you can use your status window to look up additional information of and on various things +Skill: identify
Max from beginning (cannot be increased)
Identify (active)
  • You can learn information about anyone and anything
  • The higher the level the more detailed the information given becomes and the less others are able to block you if they like privacy
Level 1 (limited access at this time)
Higher Tier Intelligence (passive)As you are from a Higher Tier race you are able to choose a class and a profession at higher levels you can choose a sub class, and later even more class¡¯s and sub class¡¯sLevel 1, (Unable to be accessed at this time)
Passionate Strength(active)The stronger you feel about something the stronger you become Is activated when you become passionate about something
  • while activated gives a 1 minute boost of 1% to all stats
  • size of boost as well as duration can be increased with practice
Level 1, (Unable to be accessed at this time)
Instinctive Ki/Qi/Chi/Mana Manipulation (active/passive)You instinctively know how to use magic without any special preparation or skills
  • Allows you to create your own magic
  • Allows you to learn any magic related skill
  • Skill prevents you from accidentally fainting from magic exhaustion as you will instinctively stop yourself from going beyond your boundaries
  • allows you to easily learn any internal strength techniques and gives you an instinctive grasp of chi manipulation
Level 1 (limited access at this time)
Creative Quick Wit (passive)You use your out of the box thinking in creative and unusual ways. Being quick witted means you can think on your feet and can make plans up as you goLevel 1( limited access at this time)
People Herder (passive)
  • When you lead people tend to follow
  • You have great adaptability when it comes to interacting with other people
  • You great at understanding others and putting that understanding to good use
  • You are capable at utilizing other people to the best of their ability
  • Stats and skills involving social interaction (such as leadership) are gained 1% faster
Level 1 (limited access at this time)
Empathy (passive)You are able to feel the emotions of others
  • Emotional boost: You are able to draw upon the emotions of yourself and others to temporarily increase or decrease the effectiveness of various stats and skills (This affect can combine with skill Passionate Strength)
  • Soul connection: it is easier for you to tame pets and raise affection in others
  • You may receive various penalties if you are overwhelmed by emotions
  • You are easily distracted by emotion
  • People will feel that you are trustworthy and will confide in you
Level 1, limited access at this time
Heroic water(passive)Drinking Heroic water and dying from it has greatly changed your soul and spirit and this in turn has a great effect upon your mind and body
  • Heroic Energy: your current base willpower is multiplied by 20 Your current base mana is multiplied by 4,your current base intelligence is multiplied by 3, and your current base spirit, base leadership, and base charisma, is multiplied by 5
  • Fighting spirit bonus: it is easier for you to earn fighting spirit stats and all enemies weaker than you are easily cowed no matter who and what they are
  • Strong Body: all base stats relating to the state of the body are multiplied by 10 (must be hatched to take effect)
Max from beginning (cannot be increased)
Karma wielder (passive/active)Your extremely high amount of karma in your past life allows you to freely choose what you do with your karma in this life
  • Miracle buy: use some of your good karma to buy a miracle or "goodness" based skill, or some of your bad karma to buy a disaster or an "evil" based skill (you can gain more good or bad karma depending on what you buy and how you use it)
  • Karma transfer: permanently transfer some of your karma points to another person depending on the reason and person you may gain good or bad karma
  • Karma converter: at a rate of 10/1 in bad/good you can convert some of your karma to the other kind in order to use it in a karma transfer
Max from beginning (cannot be increased)
I am staggered at all the high bonuses I immediately look at my stats and realize it is true¡­I am very powerful in most of my stats¡­though how much I can use that power is debatable as I am still limited by being in egg. To give an example, showing how over blown my stats are, I out of curiosity often asked people with I.D. cards about their stats, and if needed, flattered them into giving me the information. The average strength of a normal warrior is 50 mine is technically over 100; the average intelligence of a wizard is 200 mine is in the 6,000s their average mana is 800 mine is in the 8 thousands. For an even better picture, Hero said that his strength was over 1500 his attack over 800 and his mana was 10000, (mostly because of his highly expensive and greatly enchanted gear, and access to mana increasing mana pills)I believed him, but from my observation his intelligence was probably 5 and his wisdom 1 and he probably had very little defense because he relied completely on his Armor. There were many other examples but I won¡¯t bother going into detail. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. After studying my various skills for a while, I decide to equally divide the stat points into various stats such as intelligence, mana, wisdom, spirit, and shell defense¡­basically anything that doesn¡¯t involve using the physical body. Although I am stronger by far than any human infant especially one unborn I am probably only average for a baby dragon. I decide to learn to use my body and get stronger the natural way (at least physically) one of the reasons I wanted to get stronger was not to be strong but because I enjoy the process of getting stronger, of training my body, and endlessly practicing. Besides I am already leaning towards staying in my egg for as long as possible and as I am just going to be floating in here, I have no need to have a strong body yet. After I put a lot of points into will power I revived a notification:
Notice: You, possessing a strong willpower and instincts have subconsciously learned the skill [mind shielding]. You are now have a choice in whether you allow yourself to be affected by most psychological effect spells such as confusion, attraction, and dragons lullaby
I am happy about this. Although being affected by the lullaby was most convenient in the beginning it is now not very useful at this point in time. I decide, since it is now easy for me to think I should focus on ways to gain information to think about. Using my status window only got me so far as I could only use it on information it had on it¡­and as I was inside an egg I couldn¡¯t use my identification skill either. I decide the best thing to do was to find a way to go outside my egg without actually going outside my egg¡­I use my mana manipulation skill and then focus on trying to fall asleep upon command by allowing the lullaby to affect me. After a while I succeed.
New Skill Unlocked!! Dream Travel
I quickly bring up the skill
Dream travel (active)A form of astral projection where the user, goes to sleep and controls their dreams by dreaming of current reality
  • with higher level can dream of the past or foresee the future
  • Can scry or see things in reality while dreaming or can travel unsenseable and untouchable in a dream body
  • if a fighting skill is learned and attains adequate mastery, you can combine fighting mastery with dream travel to create a creature to spar with
Caution: Some places will be blocked from your view or access if they have a high level of magic power surrounding them this possibility lessons the higher the level.
  • Can learn some kinds of new skills by using dream travel to gain new information then and practice in the dream realm
  • while dream traveling health and vitality are recovered and you may receive the affect ¡°well rested¡± when you wake
Level one
I easily decided to dismiss all the windows I had pulled up in my small galaxy of stats, this was because I was completely and utterly exhausted by all my thinking and now that I had this skill I can relax and allow myself to sleep most of the time without feeling anxious or guilty because I can work while I am asleep. Once again I allow myself to drift¡­ I decide when I wake up in the dream realm, that the first thing I should do is see what happened to everybody I knew after I died, I first try to visit my death site but find that even though it has been a while since my death (I am soon able to calculate from my observances it was about almost month) the aura of the demon lord is still there as well as the dungeons own aura and I am not yet skilled enough to see much inside. I realize since it hasn¡¯t quite been a month and I don¡¯t see an army camped outside the dungeon the army must have started to go home already. I eventually and easily find them, from their talk and their dirty and torn clothing they challenged the dungeon and almost failed it as well as loosing many lives but for some strange reason they are really happy¡­I eventually find out why, it seems that the demon lord did end up doing the trick that he mentioned. It was apparently creating a fake demon lord weak enough that even they could beat it¡­ the leader of the army the paladin general, in fact is so proud of this achievement he has set the flashy crown that the ¡°demon lord¡± had worn on his head on a silk pillow and is carrying it around wherever he goes. The demon lord that I knew, hadn¡¯t been wearing anything on his head but his horns, but I bet as soon as hero sees the crown he will probably claim that he had seen the lord wear it and then claim that biggest of the reason I was able to take the demon lord on because he weakened him for me. When I get bored of watching the weary but happy army, I then go to spy on hero. He is currently on his estate in the main city overseeing the construction of the great statue of himself that he requested¡­I am a bit irritated to see that he already has picked out a new hero companion, he is a (ugly)expected and old(unexpected) retired adventurer who at least looks like he has a good head on his shoulders so I hope he can keep hero in check and wish him well in my heart. Hopefully unlike me Hero won¡¯t get him killed on one of their missions. I lastly try to look at the pope, but the cathedral is so full of holy magic that I can¡¯t see anything and that sly old man rarely goes out, mostly out of fear for assassins. I soon give up¡­I don¡¯t really care about that old man much anyway. However I admit that I really want to know out of curiosity, if the so called ¡°god¡± believed they succeeded and if so did they deliver on the promised immortality? I save my family for last. I was not unintelligent in my choices¡­I knew they often relied on the money I gave them¡­the money that I had earned by being a heroes companion. Supposedly the heroes guild is supposed to give restitution to the family of companions who die¡­but if you are not a noble they tend to forget such unimportant matters. (this was strange as most hero companions now a days were commoners) I had never trusted the society in anything, so while most of my income was sent back to my family I also put some of it aside¡­I would spend a little of this nest egg when I needed a new weapon and hadn¡¯t found any in the dungeons that were to my liking but other than that rare purchase I had managed to save quite the amount. Soon after we as a Hero ''team'' that we were to go on a dangerous mission. I enchanted an envelope to become an endless pocket and I put all the saved money inside of it along with a letter with my last goodbyes and well wishes¡­and then cast a powerful and complicated spell, I had invented on the spot, that would only activate upon my death. The envelope would attract people to it and manipulate them into moving it towards my family¡¯s home¡­all with the strong desire to never open it¡­it would be passed down a line of person to person and occasionally even animals until it reached my parents¡­who were only a week or so from the city. I looked in on them¡­to my surprise they seemed to have already received my last gift and had used my money to purchase an inn of some kind, and were all of them busy serving customers, cooking food, or cleaning. On the surface they looked mostly happy and cheerful, and then to my painful sadness and strange selfish joy I noticed that most of them had red eyes indicating crying. Or in the case of my father and the brother closest in age to me bags under their eyes indicating lack of sleep, both signs of probably mourning. I feeling gratitude for their love for me in my past life wished them all well. I then came to the somewhat selfish decision to check on them now and then in my new life Volume One Chapter 6: A Kingdom of Dragons A Kingdom of Dragons (Continued, obviously) I, having satisfied most of my curiosity of the state of things after my death, decided that the next best thing to do would be to spy on my fellow gem dragons and learn as much about my new race and culture as possible. like most places with powerful monsters there was magic energy everywhere that was spawning more monsters and making it hard to see in some places¡­ However unlike the other places I tried to look before¡­I was located in the place I was trying to see, and the magic was dragon magic which meant I had an affinity for it and after a while of practicing my dream travel rose to level two and I was able to see almost everything in gem dragon land clearly. I first started spying in the room my egg was in, because I was dying of curiosity on what my egg looked like as well as the logistics of how dragon eggs were cared for. As the level one lowest rank egg with a brown dragon inside my egg didn¡¯t really look that extraordinary¡­ It was naturally a dull brown color and it was quite big from my human experience of eggs I had seen before but in comparing to the other dragon eggs it was slightly smaller than average. It was about the height of typical dwarf, and it was slightly similar in shape to a chicken¡¯s egg but slightly more spherical. My siblings were also various shades of brown and not much bigger¡­so there was no need to feel threatened or jealous of them. My egg and my 9 unhatched siblings were situated in a very fancy and lovely looking room with nice decorations on the walls, several spectacular chandeliers on the ceiling and a strangely complimentary sand covered floor. The eggs were constantly and carefully being monitored; pots full of sand were heated over pits of fire then carefully poured and spread around eggs, in order to heat them. (I found out later that keeping dragon eggs warm makings them quicken and then hatch slightly faster). I, having apparently carried my ear for languages to my new life plus my greater intelligence level (and possessing an instinctive psychic ability to read their minds)I was quickly able to learn the dragon tongue and soon understood what they were saying. The ones consistently renewing the hot sand and the ones singing the lullaby had shifts so that there was no time that eggs were ever left alone or without song or heat. As the majority of these people were brown or green I assumed they were servants and of low rank. After the information I had read from my stat window, I roughly knew how dragon rank went there were various exceptions but it generally went like this:
Dragon Rank: Brown => green => blue => purple => red => orange => yellow => copper => brass => bronze => grey => tin => Aluminum => Iron => black => steel => silver => gold => platinum => white => pearl => mithril => diamond/clear => rainbow
Usually plain colors are lower ranked, then metallic colors exceptions being black and white and sometimes grey. Also mixed colors (more than one) are usually higher ranked then basic colors. The rarity generally went like this:
Color Rarity Brown and green: common Blue and purple: uncommon usually nobles and lesser royalty were this color Red through yellow: rare hero type dragons and mage dragons were usually this color All metallic up to iron: very rare usually dragon higher royalty were one of these colors Black through platinum: extremely rare usually the color of those called emperors White and up: Unique only legendary or god rank divine dragons tend to have these colors
After figuring out these facts about ranks it was interesting to see that often various dragons of high rank (blueish greens and blues) would stop by just to look at us¡­it seemed that we were considered fairly large for a clutch of eggs and thus lucky for many reasons one of its which is our royal parents¡­and the fact that according to dragon astronomers we were probably conceived and consequently laid on auspicious days. I was just about done with looking at myself and my siblings and listen to the servants talk and sing¡­when parents came into the room, immediately the servants who were standing on two legs bowed deeply, those on all four laid down on the floor¡­but those were just the ones standing guard or singing, or the ones moving the sand, acted like nothing happened, continued to move sand or their respective work. My mother seemed quite large for a dragon and she could barely fit through the door way¡­she was twice as big as the browns and greens and times one third bigger than most of the blues. She was also a very lovely shade of purple. My father was a blue dragon and he was only slightly smaller than mother¡­he was also well muscled and strong looking obviously a warrior but with an intelligent sly look in his eye. Mother carefully looked at each of us individually I now knew why we were each kept far apart from in each other in rows of three, this was so mother was able to easily fit around us while she closely studied us. Father also looked at us but he didn¡¯t bother leaving the doorway, he looked proud and pleased as he watched his mate inspect their eggs with a tender look on her face. She soon finished, I had been near the middle of the row and when her gaze passed over me I had carefully studied her face¡­and to my joy she gave me an equally pleased look despite my egg being smaller than the others. She turned then and said a dragon expression to the savants which I inferred to believe by their pleased expressions probably meant ¡°keep up the good work¡± and then she and father left. I decided to follow them. I soon learned why they didn¡¯t get to visit their eggs very often, for they were somewhat eccentrically (though not unprecedented) both leaders or in other words co-rulers (my mother logistics and day to day my father head general in control of the armies as well as having various diplomatic duties as the consort ) As a result they were both extremely busy and had had hardly any time in the day to do anything but work. My mother spent most of the day in court hearing complaints settling disputes and delegating to her small army of servants and advisers in order to get a multitude of other tasks done. However, my mother wasn¡¯t a passive queen she was well known as a ¡°battle queen¡± so at least every other day she would join her personal guard (the dragon version of ladies in waiting) and spar with them to maintain her top form as well as everyone¡¯s respect as this served as a reminder of who the strongest was. My father spent the majority of his time with his troops, training the officers personally as well as sometimes a few of the more promising soldiers. He also frequently spent time sparring with others of his size and rank in order to get stronger¡­now and then he would hold strategic meetings with his captains and officers, it turns out that my new family is currently at war with several other kingdoms or more often queendoms of the dragon race. I figured out the reason that eggs are currently more likely to be born male is because of a recent incident. Occasionally troops are separated by gender particularly at certain times of the year when most males and some females would go into heat¡­(and thus end up distracting each other) and not too long ago maybe a few years at most an entire troop of males were ambushed by enemy soldiers and were slaughtered. This was a devastating blow for many reasons, not only did they lose a whole troop of well-trained soldiers (except one guy who was now an officer who had survived to tell what happened) most of the soldiers in the troop had been un-mated and thus there was suddenly a potential mate shortage of the male variety. Soon after the slaughter they gathered together a small army and completely eliminated that enemy in revenge with only small losses. Dragons unlike some demons (and almost all humans) have no problem with cannibalization, and every dragon that participated in the fight at least got a small taste of flesh that day¡­this came with the unforeseen, but fortunate circumstances that all the dragons became temporarily more fertile from the influx of magical power plus the circumstances of victory and defeating an enemy and gaining their territory. Most of the mated dragons ended up with at least one clutch and this fertility was showing no signs of slowing down. I remember learning something about monsters¡­their environment and situation effects their population and strength, so thus the victory over their enemies accompanied by the loss in population led to a dragon-ling increase, and stronger dragons. I learned a lot from both of them while still inside the egg¡­I don¡¯t think anyone could tell what I was doing and, and I didn¡¯t think any of my siblings could do this either as I never saw nor sensed them while I dream traveled. Watching my impressive parents doing very well and skillful at their ¡°jobs¡± plus occasionally seeing their love for one another, and less often when they came across one of my elder siblings or visited their eggs their love for their children, soon made me come to love and respect and have loyalty towards my parents of this new lifetime. Although I was looking forward to meeting them¡­in person but I had decided to stick to my less tentative plan to remain in egg. This was because I had taken some time aside to spy on the new dragon-lings as well as research just what it took to rank up. Like all monsters if a dragon increased their level quickly while still a child their bodies would grow just as quickly to match their strength. However this had a large downside, as if you increased your strength too quickly most would gain negative side effects or just plain wouldn¡¯t be able to handle it. Many young dragons thought if their levels were high enough then everything they wanted would come to them. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The way you gain levels is simple you kill a living being and absorb its life force as well as a mysterious substance that it was granted by the gods¡­together which formed a thing called experience power. A certain amount of experience power leads to gaining a level¡­and it is not that hard to make it up to at least level ten (which is the level minimum to reach adulthood quickly) So they would band together in little packs and chase and kill various lessor monsters together in order to level up as quickly as possible. Thus I saw a lot of large clumsy dragons with the minds of child and the bodies of an adult, people who lost a lot of the important aspects of their precious childhood. My father had intelligently set age limits on whether or not a dragon was allowed to do a job based firstly on age and not level, and thus many of the dragons regretted growing up to fast¡­because their wasn''t much benefit in having body of an adult without the skills or wisdom to back it up. These facts compliment my theme of slow and steady being almost always the way to go. Another supporting fact of these child adults not one managed to rank up¡­those that didn¡¯t bother with leveling as quickly as possible and remained as child¡¯s and relaxed and let their bodies grow naturally seemed to have greater peace of mind. They also seemed to have several rank ups among them. There were also a few recently hatched that had somehow managed to rank up in the egg. Most had only postponed their hatching at most just a few years¡­ This I guessed was because it was too boring for them¡­apparently dragons developed enough to hear things going on outside their eggs but not much else and those outside unless they were powerful physic couldn¡¯t communicate back¡­and while the gem dragon lairs had many mage warriors there were very few dragons that focused solely on magic, besides the basic attack magic. The few that existed were very busy being healers and or doing a monumental amount of other work¡­so none would bother to talk to eggs. Dragons, were harsh creatures (though not necessarily unkind) as soon as an egg hatched the young dragon would be sent for strict training in order to be taught to defend themselves. This may seem cruel to some but the world is a very dangerous place for young dragons¡­plus the speed of the training was done at the young dragons discretion and those that skipped it were restricted in their privileges until they were old enough or were granted an exception. However other then in the beginning age didn¡¯t really seem to matter¡­what determined which stage you were at was ability and proficiency. Dragons like most of the higher species are technically immortal, however a crowded lair is rarely ever a problem as most young dragons in their first few years, would do something stupid, have really bad luck, are a victim of war or take a challenge they fail to overcome and die. Thus, most dragons (no matter their look or form) unless they proved otherwise through their actions are considered infants until their 10th year and children until their late 50¡¯s, and not full adults until their 100s. There are a few exceptions but this is generally the case. So this ends up (unlike humanity) making the majority of all dragons ancient adults¡­and the minority youth, after reading through my stats window, for information regarding those that are deceased, I learned the 17 hatched and still living siblings of mine were the only survivors of several large clutches, had all of my siblings survived they would have numbered over one hundred. At this tragic fact most dragons were fiercely (but happily) jealous of their rulers as most of them were very lucky if one or two of their children survived. And especially lucky if they didn¡¯t hatch as wvrms or were maimed in other ways. So the fact that so many of the royal family¡¯s¡¯ children seemed to survive was seem as a good omen of the great strength of their bloodlines as well as a sign that they held the blessing of the gods. An interesting fact about dragons and religion I discovered is that unlike humans they do not name their gods. Instead if they must refer to one specifically they will just refer to them by what they do, such as the god of good fortune, or the goddess of battle. They also didn¡¯t exactly worship or respect them, or see them as wise, but rather looked at gods as something annoyingly stronger than them with the personality of a whiny child¡­that they must occasionally, appease now again to avoid the inconvenience of them throwing a temper tantrum. I have already mentioned this but the majority of dragons are magic warriors, and relatively few are pure mages (at least in my tribe) thus it took me quite a while to find a dragon to spy upon that could do the mana stone spell (I was concerned that I be unable to do it instinctively correctly and wanted to take no chances). Finally I did, one of the healers a kind old soul named Buford, while having the heart and soul of a healer had very little personal magic to use, thus he would make many mana stones that would slowly gather the necessary magic for him automatically, and whenever his spells required more magic then he possessed he would simply grab one of his stones and drain it dry in order to complete the spell without killing himself. After watching him for several weeks I felt I had the spell memorized. So I returned my consciousness to my body and allowed myself to wake up in order to put what I had learned into practice. *** The mana stone was very beautiful¡­It was similar to a tiny star or a very mini sun. First after summoning it, its appearance had looked like an ordinary grey stone but soon it started to absorb mana and then glow increasingly brighter so I was able to see most of the inside of my egg for the first time¡­after managing to successfully open my opaque set of eyelids the stone had been automatically summoned inside the yolk¡­as I was still relatively young my yolk was huge at least three times my size. After casting the spell I go to check my status but am interrupted in my action by a message.
Egg quest: summon mana stone complete +5 to all stats +10 to egg defense +10 to mana Level up Level up¡­
To my surprise I leveled up to over halfway through my goal. It seems learning more spells would be a good thing. So I went back to sleep and I dream traveled again. And in particular spend a lot of time, spying on Buford and the few other more traditional type dragon mages¡­once I feel I have seen all that I currently need to understand¡­I use my dream travel to search everywhere in this dragon land as well as the human lands I know to look for other people to spy and learn from. Time pasts quickly when you mostly live in dreams and soon it has been a year and it is time for the first hatching option.
Hatching Option: You may choose to attempt to hatch out now, if so your gender will be determined and you will receive the blessing Egg tooth,(attack + 20% of current attack, removes strength suppression, and temporarily nulls all defensive magic effects of your egg that cannot be canceled) Warning! if you fail to hatch out, and if you have not met the conditions needed to continue to reside in egg you may die, If you choose not to hatch out or fail the hatching attempt and have met the conditions necessary to remain in egg, your gender may be determined and you will continue your life in a egg, if you have exceeded the conditions for hatching you may be able to rank up.
Attempt to Hatch?
[YES][NO]
I choose No then:
Congratulations You Have Ranked up!! You are now a green-blue dragon! Your color has affinity with nature, and water as well as with classes involving healing and other forms of magic
I have almost finished reading this when other windows also pop up;
New Skills Unlocked: +Magical protection shell defense +Deep sleep
Magical protection shell defense: increases magic resistance, as well as blocks psychic attacks
Deep sleep: able to make time pass more quickly (at least from your point of view) as you go deep inside yourself to learn more about yourself
New Options Available Affinity choice: you can develop new elemental and other affinities, and strengthen the ones you already possess Current affinities: Strong: Water, Nature, Holy/light, magic Mid: fire, darkness, earth¡­. Low: N/A
Your gender has been determined randomly by the fates of this world¡­ Congratulations you are now female. Female gem dragons tend to be much more aggressive than the males as well as more dominant and powerful they tend to only pick mates that are at least equal to them in strength or stronger +10 charm +The title of ¡°gem dragon princess¡± has become available it bestows +15 leadership +100 attractiveness +10 to all stats
Volume One Chapter 7: A Message from Brother A Message from Brother (Continued) The announcement of my gender was making me have very mixed emotions, so I decided to set that aside and focus on the other bits of information first¡­apparently staying inside the egg was the right choice as I was able to rank up in only 1 year (only 11 months of which I was actually aware) this should be good, as it usually takes 10 years on the outside for those who are able to rank up to rank up¡­as most chose to hatch as fast as possible that is if they even have a choice because they must have a certain level of intelligence in order to even have the option. Curious I searched through my stat windows and found that one piece of information I had seen before¡­
Siblings:
male:16
female:8
eggs:2 (male:1, female: 1)
Surprised to see one of my brothers had also elected to stay in egg I checked his stats, but other than staying in his egg nothing much about him seemed to have changed as he was still a brown dragon egg¡­which leads me to confirm that I was fast in ranking up. I looked outside, out of curiosity, using dream travel and saw my brown siblings wobble around as they got used to their bodies, they also seemed unable to talk yet as they were mainly making kitten-like noises. My mother and father were there, for the special occasion and were happily watching and laughing at the antics of their offspring¡­I was also surprised to see several of my older siblings there as well: two green males, and one blue female. I decided to look at the eggs of myself and my brother and was slightly shocked to see our new colors. Before we were both dull browns indistinguishable from the other eggs, now my egg was the greenish blue of the ocean with a slight metallic hint as if it were reflecting more sunlight then it was absorbing, my brother on the other hand although he didn¡¯t officially rank up officially his brown was a far different hue than it had been before he refused the hatching option, it was now a much richer chocolate brown with a smooth gleam that was similar to satin. Curious to see if my other siblings were different compared to other (non-royal) dragons, I decided to also look at the more ¡°common¡± hatching grounds for comparative information. I, out of curiosity had already seen them before, other than the room being a lot less private and fancy as well as much more vast in size, it was not so different from the room where my egg rested¡­except maybe the ratio of servants to eggs was a lot smaller, though this was not a big deal as the amount of servants we had were probably somewhat overboard and excessive. I soon saw that the majority of eggs there had also hatched. None of the ones that hatched were rank ups, but all the parents, siblings and friendly onlookers seemed very satisfied none the less, I learned from some gossipers that this was because luckily, to the point of miracles, this year no wyrms or impaired had been hatched. I wondered somewhat bashfully if this was partly because of my excistence, after all several of the skills I had learned had useful effects such as:
Lead by Example: The best leaders do not even need to speak. Those with less leadership than you are effected by your current status; if you are healthy they are less likely to become unhealthy. They are also more likely to make the same or similar decisions as you. Effect increases if they are currently viewing you. Possible negative effects can be decreased and positive effects increased as long as your appearance is maintained during any negative status or your appearance is appropriate for your positive mood
Probably unwarrantably proud of myself I continued to watch my peers, only after comparing the majority to my newly hatched siblings did I even better come to understand the idea of ¡°blood tells¡± compared to the majority them my siblings had been graceful, musical even beautiful. As expected most of them about 60-70% were males (what is with my luck?) there were also out of the hundreds of eggs only 5 that remained unhatched¡­though unlike my brother or I wouldn¡¯t go so far as to call any of them beautiful¡­ they all had slightly different colored hints in their browns and they weren¡¯t quite so dull as they had been. If you are curious as to why I have been avoiding the subject of my feelings for my new gender, it is because that is exactly what I was doing at the time¡­(that is avoiding thinking about it), I had decided to ignore it, sweep it under the rug, pretend it didn¡¯t exist. It is not like I had anything against women personally, it¡¯s just, I didn¡¯t have any desire want to be one either, obviously this was mostly because I was used to being a male. But there were other reasons, feelings of mine that go way back to the past. Where the experience of seeing all those fanatics who followed hero and who possessed no sense of self-worth was fresh on my mind. However this was only the smaller part of the reason behind my feelings of reluctance. Yes they were disgusting, but my disgust was only directed towards them¡­I have never been one to let one bad apple or so spoil a bunch of them¡­I mean what a waste? You could easily take out the bad apple, and feed it to the pigs¡­and then wash and dry the others to make sure they wouldn¡¯t go bad as well. Eh sorry¡­my analogy got away from me a bit there, but basically I am saying I am never one to let my experience influence how I feel about something unreasonably. But basically throughout my entire life I have felt that that I didn¡¯t really understand what it really means to be a what others thought a man should be, but because I was intelligent I could fake it and act like other "normal" males, but I have never once felt like I have fit in with other men. And men on the most part fairly easy to understand Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. But woman on the other hand, even though through necessity I have developed varies ways of dealing with women I have never even come close to even thinking I could understand them. If my male self of the past, had difficulty with emulating the simple straight forward expected behaviors of a manhood¡­how in the world am I supposed to be a woman? From the brief times I have spent with my sisters I know for a fact that being a woman is a very complex and difficult occupation, one that I don¡¯t even want to attempt, especially on top of the fact that I am no longer human and I am having difficulties in learning my new culture. This difficulty in understanding is a big part of the reason I chose not to hatch as I felt I would like to learn more through observational, before I hatch and attempt to put things into practice...as what dragon instincts i might have were obviously corrupted by my ,though strange, human, memories. Later on in the future after thinking about my situation for quite a while, I finally came to decide on my plan of action. It was a simple plan where denial was key. I would no longer be bound by the rigors of gender¡­instead of thinking of myself as male or female I will simply think of myself as ¡°me¡±, and thus hopefully avoid a lot of problems. As to any potential romances I didn¡¯t really see the problem¡­If I didn¡¯t experience any extreme passion in my prior life when I was a guy, which is supposed to be the gender with the higher sex drive. Why should I have any problems now that I am no longer of that gender? My strange nature would probably come into play no matter what I was because from what I could tell who I was hadn''t really changed in anyways except for the minor flesh trappings. I watch the newly hatched for a little while longer, after gathering my information, but soon I grew bored and decided to then go back to sleep, this time utilizing my new skill deep sleeping. 5 years pass A psychic tap, that my shells magic defenses easily blocks wakes me up, I then get a notification
Notice: Your brother:[Name: N/A -Variant: brown dragon Rank: 2 (egg)] is trying to contact you. After calculating your shell defense magic compared to his communication magic the following options of allowing, ignoring or blocking his communication are available.
Available Options :
[accept][ignore][block]
Curious, I thought for a while and then decided to accept. His mind then reached mine, and began to communicate or more accurately attempt to communicate. Unlike myself he hadn¡¯t quite become fluent in basic dragon language. In fact he was basically only able to send me emotions and "pictures". I had learned from my research that you had to have very high amounts of intelligence in order to become a true psychic and they were very rare, however there was a brief exception, while in an egg with thick shell having, made it so that none of your senses were appeased but that of the mind ¡­ your mind would temporarily increase in power in order to compensate. So most baby dragons had a large amount of mind sense or in other words a slight telepathic ability, allowing them to at least hear what was going on outside their shells and close to them. This mind sense was fairly weak and after hatching all the other senses acquired soon overwhelmed it so that most dragons lost most of their mind sense upon hatching. I however apparently according the information I gathered was a true psychic; I was able to ¡°see¡± very far outside my egg even without using dream travel or deep dreaming. And I was somewhat sure that when I hatched I would be able perhaps with a little practice to maintain the same level of mind sense. My brothers inability to use our language as well as his fragile weak mind sense (and my having to bridge the gap) soon gave me a head ache so I formulated a theory and decided to test it out on him. I put into practice my theoretical steps in order to initiate a mind link.
I want to warn/inform you guys. This is the last chapter (at least the last in chronological order) in which I have already completed since the beginning. Thus I have no clue how long it will take for me to write the next ones. So there may be a bit of a gap between this chapter and the next ones. + PLEASE READ THIS: "The Forum Post of Doom" is a side story, the characters portrayed in it are minor characters you won''t see until the next volume. I have updated the names of the side story pages to clearly say: Side Story. They and the other characters that will be shown in the side stories will mainly be used as ways to give more information or background gradually with out me having to do big info dumps. I was thinking about putting it in the prologue but the prologue was already so long already plus the timelines didn''t mesh...so in the end it ended up as the first chapter. Volume One Chapter 8: A Problem With Communication A Problem with Communication (The continuing adventures of the still unnamed dragonling) I gathered all of my mind sense and I used it to form a more direct link between my brother and myself. I then tried to communicate with him again this time on a much deeper level. I started by sending him a simple word. Then along with that word I would send various pictures emotions and other associations in an effort to try to show him what that word meant. I have heard that there are several species of dragons that laid knowing all the languages of the world. Unfortunately gem dragons, are not that kind of dragon. They learn like most other races do, slowly through constant immersion when young. From what I have seen from the already hatched dragons tend to learn fairly quickly it has only been a short while since their hatching and most of them are speaking in simple sentences already. However dragons in an egg are a different story. As I may have said before no one bothers to talk to them, and there is not much mental stimulation inside a dark egg. Eventually for a normal dragon, while inside the egg they might get good enough that they can more clearly hear the ones outside their egg nearby and their mental strength might even become enough that they can communicate psychically with them. I have even heard stories, similar to the linguist from awareness ones, where much to my amusement, there are even dragons considered ¡°legendary¡± that can even preform spells and communicate clearly while still inside the egg. From this rumor I¡¯d bet I could cause quite the commotion if I revealed my true self to others. However getting back on the topic, it is extremely hard to attempt to teach someone how to communicate when there is almost no points of reference to use because he is in an egg. And since because he is truly an unborn infant unlike me he is a blank slate with no past life experiences to rely upon either. So as you could probably guess it was quite slow going. Days pass then even weeks, but despite the difficulties involved my brother and I did not become bored with this new pastime we invented. I guess this is understandable as it¡¯s not like there was anything else for us to do. In the beginning I would have said that my brother regardless of probably being able to instinctively create a mana stone was no genus, (though he seemed like he would be fairly bright once I could get him to be able to speak) unlike myself he could only sense things within a few feet around his egg, and though he could contact me and with a stretch other eggs. After I had finally got him to understand the concepts of ¡°yes¡± and ¡°no¡± I started to ask him questions, one of which was if he had contacted other eggs besides me. After a conversation that had lasted a few days as I patiently got him to understand each aspect of my question¡­and then had to translate his still somewhat crude way of communicating into something understandable the answer I got was this: Yes he had tried, however it had taken a lot of effort and most had tried to shut him out instinctively out of self-preservation. The few others that could be considered ¡°friendly¡± and more open to trying to talk, had run into the same problems I had now that is they didn¡¯t know how to talk¡­and exchanging emotions and pictures got boring after a while because being inside an egg there wasn¡¯t much to share. So eventually deciding that communicating with them wasn¡¯t worth the effort he decided to try me instead. The reason why he hadn¡¯t started with me though I am the logical choice because I am closer? Well it seems on the mental plane of existence I appear somewhat different then I do on the physical. That is unlike with my physical state it seems like I can¡¯t hide my true self, at least from my brother at least. Oh yea, you must be confused, it seems I forgot to mention this but right now on the physical plane I appear just like any regular brown egg similar to my brothers. It should look like that because when I cast the illusion spell I used his egg as a reference. I had decided, ever since I had first heard about ranks, that I would try to get a high a rank as possible. However I disliked the idea that everyone would know my rank just by looking at my color. I am used to and prefer to be underestimated as much as possible. In fact, in my past life, after I realized this tendency in my opponents I would go out my way to encourage it. Thus before I had seriously started training and aiming for not only mana stone creation but a raise in rank. I first researched illusion, and other concealing spells. And after practice¡­ (I would like to be there when one ambitious dragon climbs high enough to see that blue mountain I created) I used all of my magical and mental strength to cast an illusion spell on myself (egg included). It was a spell that can be altered to change the looks as needed. (In some circumstances the only way to not stand it out is to stand out, if you know what I mean). So while I know that in reality I actually look like a lovely shiny green blue color, to everybody else (and I have tested it and so far it has worked for anybody that has seen me) I am the same nice brown color as my brother. Getting back to what I look like on mental plane¡­well for a guy without words my brother is somewhat descriptive. The picture he showed me was similar to the way I sometimes saw my status but with far less stars, but larger ¡°space¡± it was a small galaxy. Then he did a close in on one star in particular¡­and he gave me the sense that it was supposed to represent him. It was a small somewhat dim star, but it was bright in comparison to the many dark moons, and unilluminated planets that guessed instinctively were people that did not possess mind magic. It was even bright compared to most of the stars as well except for a few in a distance¡­they were like glow bugs to his low burning fire. And then he turned his focus in a different direction and I saw a bright glowing sun After seeing this I did a reassessment of my brother¡¯s intelligence and potential¡­he was someone who had instinctively been able to create a mana stone and stay inside his egg after all. This was probably at genius level already. I realized that my perspective must be circumspect because my standards were most probably abnormal, thus I had difficulties making fair verdicts even though it was easy to make assumptions and verdicts. And one other damming fact was this¡­I saw I saw myself in a completely different way than he did...the mental plane in particular had me worried. While experimenting with seeing the mental plane I had taken the time to see myself. Back then I had when I looked at myself saw a swirling mass of darkness like the dark was liquid and swirling down a drain taking other things with it¡­ I saw myself as darkness and he saw myself as a great light. Such opposite points of view had to mean something¡­I wondered if my personality had an effect in how I saw myself and if the black mass of darkness I saw The fact that he could see me at all was a bit disconcerting in the first place as I had put up multiple protections besides my illusion that should have prevented it. Stolen story; please report. It was possible but unlikely that this was because my protections didn¡¯t see him as a threat¡­and thus let him in. However I being a paranoid type of person had thought I had taken steps to prevent anyone of any power level including the weaklings from getting through. In conclusion my brother must be a natural at getting past defenses. But this is a good thing that I found this out this early, he is still a child and we are siblings, even if I don¡¯t manage to learn how to block him out (which is an idea that luckily I find somewhat doubtful as anything can be done with enough time and effort) I can probably earn his loyalty to the point that he won¡¯t use his ability against me. Gazing at the picture of the sun for a while longer, I could see why it would be somewhat intimidating to approach ¡°that¡±. To me, myself as darkness had seemed a bit terrifying, but this sun was even more intimidating. In fact it is hard for me to believe that is me, though with the dark self I had felt that what I had seen was oddly familiar, this grand ¡°sun¡± was rather quite the stranger and had made me feel uneasy. I wonder if, after dropping my various defenses psychics other than my brother would see me that way as well. Shortly after, we had our first conversation. My brother and I had a breakthrough in the communication department. He had realized that rather than me trying to comuincate with a bunch of different types of things at once, I was sending always two types of things a sending a sound (word) and some kind of helping data with it. He figured out the first and most important step that the ¡°sound¡± represented the information accompanied it. Things really sped up after this, I would send out a word and an accompaniment to give him some of its meaning and he would memorize it. After we got bored or tired of this he would tentatively at first and then with more excitement try to use the words I had given to attempt to talk back. The first word he ¡°spoke¡± filled me with warmth because it was the word I had given him to describe myself ¡°sister¡±. ¡°Sister¡­word¡­word¡­¡± Glowing with a bit of familial affection I replied with a guess as to what he wanted with the usual amount of back up to the new word I was using but this time as a test I didn¡¯t use the back up for the words I felt he already knew. ¡°Word-word¡­is talk¡­ Sister¡­Brother word-words. Sister Brother talk now.¡± He replied a short time afterward. ¡°Sister talk Brother¡­¡± not being able to find the words as I had felt emotion too complicated for a beginner in communication, he instead sent to me a feeling of affection and joy much stronger then my own ¡­feeling a bit surprised but even more happy I replied ¡°Sister happy also¡± ¡°Brother happy? Brother happy!¡± he did the mental version of laughing and jumping for joy once he understood, then he said something a bit heartbreaking ¡°Brother one-one now Brother¡­Sister¡­Brother no-no one, Brother happy.¡± I thought hard for a moment then said truthfully ¡°Sister was lonely too, now with Brother Sister is no longer by herself Sister is happy to be not alone.¡± Now that we had the heart to heart my brother was no longer quite as intimidated by me, though this was partly because I had finally figured out some aspects as to why he could see a version of my true self and thus I was able to ¡°clothe¡± my mental self somewhat and thus bushel the light a bit. Now that we started putting various dragon language words to emotion I felt a bit like I had been a moron. As I had said there were no obvious frames of reference while in the egg normally, and I had learned that while in an egg a young dragon¡¯s nonphysical capacities temporarily increases¡­What is the most obvious and powerful of nonphysical feature of anyone that has consciousness? EMOTIONS! I can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t think of it before¡­normal unhatched dragonlings couldn¡¯t use their bodies and could only slightly see what was happening outside the egg¡­so why had I been focusing on the physical things, and the things that are outside when my brother wouldn¡¯t have a clue what I was talking about?! Why hadn¡¯t I from beginning focused on what was inside the egg and and what was inside our hearts and souls, and was currently being communicated through our minds?! As I was berating myself for my foolishness I received a notification
[skill] Empathy¡¯s level has risen By attempting to communicate with your brother you have discovered a fundamental truth: It is not the words themselves that embody communication but emotion. Emotion is the origin of all forms of communication and understanding . +100 intelligence +150 wisdom +1 to all stats
You have unlocked a new stat/affinity: Emotion/soul Emotion: a form of energy with great mystery, what little that is known about it is it has something to do with the soul Soul: No body, exists forever, but the soul does. Souls are indestructible eternal and are one of the greatest mysteries in all of time
You have discovered a new sub-skill of Empathy! Cheer!
Cheer (active)When you are happy share your happiness with others! When others need help or attention encourage them! When you are happy show it and let out a Cheer!
  • can currently focus on one target with higher level you can cheer multiple targets
  • with higher level, you can cheer people even if you are not happy
  • Can possibly cheer up yourself
  • besides temporarily removing negative sate [depression] cheering can provide additional affects depending on the situation
  • Caution: if cheering fails a rebound with negative effects may be applied to you or the target
Level one
Your intimacy with brother has risen, having high intimacy with others can lead to increased improvement in some skills such as [empathy] and [people herding]
*** A few years pass
If you like Reincarnation Flower please try my one shot WMAW (see signiture) I will probably delete the preview version soon...thanks for your patience! Volume One Chapter 9: Intimacy
Sorry for the lateness of the chapter but I am going to write several more chapters then I had originally planned to make up for it :) *** Actually I lied, the reason I am writing more then I planed is because I got into a groove and couldn¡¯t stop writing. But this doesn¡¯t change the fact that I plan to do various other things to make up for it! ;) *** In case anyone¡¯s wants an excuse as why I broke so many promises, by posting so late... (sorry especially to people who PM¡¯ed me, you know who you are) The main and official reason is I have been very busy with homework lately (the last time I was able to post so many chapters at once as I was at home during a break from school) but the unofficial and secondary reason, that I will sadly but openly admit, is that lately I have come down with a very contagious and dangerous disease that makes everyone who contracts it unproductive¡­and it is called: Spoiler : LAZYNESS! Does anyone know a cure for such an ailment? If you do please tell me, at the very least I would like something that treats the symptoms if not the malady itself.
Intimacy (The Dragon Sis in the Egg)
Rank up! You are now a Dark Blue Dragon! +15 to all stats Your current color means that your affinity to water/Ice magic has increased Do you want to bring up the Hatching Option?
After choosing no when the [Yes] [No] options appear, I nod to myself in my head, satisfied at my progress, it has only been less than a year since my last rank up, and I have already increased my rank several times, the last one had been from blue-green to sky blue. Wanting to take a break from the various training I had been doing I send out a psychic message to my brother which he quickly accepts and I begin to chat with him. As the years pass my brother soon came to understand language very well, which handily meant I no longer had to explain very much. Better yet, there is now almost no hesitancy, so our conversations became very fluid and easy. Just before we reached this state, I obviously started to teach him things other than communication. I was mostly giving basic, but important information. I told him some of the information I was able to scrounge up in my past life, particularly almost all the knowledge I had learned from the demon lord about kingdoms and races during our week together. I also gave some of what I was learning now through my dream walking, and occasional psychic spying. The first thing I taught was everything I learned about our own gem dragon race, as well as all I had learned about other kinds of dragons, and all about dragons in general. (I wish someone had brought me aside and explained things about humans back when I was young I could just imagine all the troubles I would have passed on) Now that we have words I am able to easily build up his vocabulary by sending meanings and matching it to new ones. He always listened very carefully, and always learned as much as he was able to, hindered as he was from living inside an egg. Although I could share my memories and force things on him directly, I had decided early on, that other than for the pictures and knowledge necessary to explain words and what I was teaching, that I would avoid giving him anything too ¡°large¡± as it were. This was because, I strongly felt that it would be better for him to experience most things for himself once he hatched, rather than only be given it, so I didn¡¯t really bombard him with information. Now and then we would take a break from this sort of knowledge I attempted to teach him more practical things. Mainly magic. We didn¡¯t get very far, or at least from my perspective. To me my brother seems slow at learning, which led me to doubt his intelligence at first but I soon decided to believe otherwise despite what my mind was continually telling me. After all I had a very small sample of testing subjects on which to base my opinion. But I was fairly certain that besides his one little talent, he didn¡¯t have any powers of the mind and was absolutely certain that he was not a natural psychic and thus would probably loose most of his mental ability when he hatches. He also struggled to do any sort of spell I tried to teach him, besides the few he had learned instinctively already. When I checked his stats through one of my analyze skills I realized the problem wasn¡¯t because of lack of intelligence but wisdom. He had very low wisdom and was spending most of his mana just keeping his mana stone active. (for me, it required so little mana that it was unnoticeable) and as almost all magic and psychic skills required mana to work, and as mana required both intelligence and wisdom to exist, (Wisdom being what brings you the energy that becomes mana and Intelligence indicating how much you can hold) he was out of luck in learning it for now. This was also because I didn¡¯t want to alter him unnaturally, I shuddered to think what would happen if I forced strength and power upon him¡­in the infant state he was in now¡­it could be fatal¡­or it could create a creature with tons of destruction power and little to no control or care of how he used it. Maybe when he is older I decided. As we continued our current conversation, my brother to my surprise brought up the idea of him attempting to contact the other eggs. This time with my support as well as better equipped with the tools of knowledge language and most importantly our experience in learning and teaching others at our disposal. Actually the way he explained it was he would do it by himself and he was just informing me of his intentions. But as I have said my brother has very little true psychic ability and even just talking to I who was in the same room as him was stretching things, and tended to tire him out after a while, if I didn¡¯t always meet him more than halfway. So I immediately offered my support, which he had been strangely reluctant to ask for. Thinking that part of the reason for his reluctance was the fact that I had expressed my desire to avoid contact with others to him before, I informed him that I would prefer he did all the ¡°talking¡± and work, while I mainly acted as just a bridge between him and the one he wanted to contact. He seemed relieved when I said this and gave no more objections, then he explained who the first one who he wanted to contact was. This dragonling or more accurately eggling was one of the ones that had tried to talk back and had been almost friendly when he had managed to reach her. Her yes, this eggling was currently the only other female in this generation besides me who was still in an egg. I had a very strong desire to tease my brother about this, but I just knew that in his current extreme innocence that he wouldn¡¯t understand and that deflated most of the desire because the whole point of teasing is to get a reaction of some sort. I however took my own desires in to account by creating a large mental note to tease him at a later date when he gained the ability to become embarrassed. With my mental bridging he easily managed to reach her mind, which we saw on the mental plane as a small but beautiful spark of light. With my advice, he started with happy and soothing emotions¡­then he moved on to trying to connect those emotions to a dragon language word used for greeting others. After wards he basically did to her what I had done to him, only much more clearly and practiced then how I had been. Although I can be good at leading and controlling others, as I had somewhat expressed to him before I don¡¯t really like to communicate or socialize that much, so I can sometimes have difficulty in expressing myself or communicating. Also he and she were peers, both were innocent infants with no knowledge of a past life prematurely aging and distancing them from others. They would probably be able to empathize with each other easily without the use of a skill. To my amusement after reflecting on this I received a notification that my empathy had skill had raised a bit. After reflecting on the differences between myself and my sibling and his potential new friend, I realized that probably the main reason for my current dislike of social interactions had to do with the fact that unlike in my past life. I no longer ¡®had¡¯ to do it. Before my reincarnation I usually lived surrounded by people, and most of them were forced on me, at the very least by circumstance. Usually there was always at least one other person in the place I was in, but I was usually surrounded by crowds, in the beginning it was my large boisterous family then in my later days there was often crowds of strangers and acquaintances because of hero and our job. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Going from almost always being surrounded to being in most ways completely alone, except for maybe my brother was a refreshing experience. Especially because as more and more I realize the great amount of freedom I have right now and the even greater amounts I will potentially have when I hatch. I have been almost giddy from all the freedom and privacy that I have had, to the point that I guess that unconsciously I had the idea that it was time for me to take a well-deserved break from others. Besides avoiding the presence of others physically (or as the current situation calls for: mentally), Right now I also didn¡¯t really want close or even become friends with others either. This was partly because I had never really managed to do so truly in the past, and thus I felt really unconfident on being able to do it now, at least easily. In fact, the demon lord had been the only person I had ever met that I had felt instinctively that we could possibly become friends and more importantly that I felt that I wanted to become friends with them. (It was just my luck I didn¡¯t meet him until I was on death row) But the main reason I disliked the idea of closeness, was that I feared it. I my past life I had been betrayed many times, by both acquaintances and strangers. Even several times by people who were slightly more than acquaintances, ones of whom I had been hoping that our relationship would evolve into friendship. Of course there was also the fact that I had also been betrayed by the pope many times and in various ways (the last one leading to my death) and the hero had also (usually through stupidity and selfishness) used in me in ways that smelt of betrayal. But what they and the others all had in common was I wasn¡¯t close to them, and our relationships were very shallow. My relationship with my old family wasn¡¯t that close, but it, next to my brief friendship with the demon lord, had been the closest relationship I have ever experienced. To better explain the level I had with them, would be to say that I felt far more love and affection for them, then they did me. If a prime opportunity presented itself to them that would give them more wealth then I had been providing I could not say with any certainty that one of them wouldn¡¯t leap at the chance. But I am fairly certain that one of the main reasons they were crying about my death, was that I would no longer be there to take care of them and make sure that they were safe, well protected and fed. Right now although I was hoping that I and my new brother could eventually become close, he was just one single person and my main reasons for allowing this possibility were because the risk of betrayal from my brother were very low. First of all I was somewhat immorally taking advantage of his very young and innocent state, with the knowledge that the younger innocent and na?ve something is, the more likely it will imprint on the something or someone that makes it happy or gives it affection and become fiercely and unbreakably loyal to it. (This fact is even more effective if the younger creature in question comes from an egg). Secondly I was given even more and even more powerful protection, from my brother betraying me from the kingdom I currently existed in. Unlike in my old human kingdom of Alfdorn which practically encouraged betrayal (as the current rulers the pope and the Queen thrived on it). The kingdom I was in now was a small kingdom in a large dragon country. (a country is when a large amount of kingdoms which are ruled by the same race and have the same or a similar culture are near each other or when a single large kingdom is large enough or isolated enough from being near other like kingdoms or kingdoms of any kind) And most of the rulers of dragon country (which were mostly of course dragons) were fairly big on loyalty and were firmly against betrayal of any kind, especially between those of the same bloodline. Thus the kingdom would pressure those thinking about betrayal and make it hard for them to choose to do it. And If they were driven powerfully enough for whatever reasons (greed, jealousy, hatred etc) to somehow manage to do it, the kingdom would start working against them in various ways. If they were weak enough, it would send mindless monsters to attack them (similar to my own experience) if they were stronger they would experience various forms of ¡°bad¡± luck. If they owned land, the plants on their land would die, if there was a volcano that existed near they lived, it would probably erupt and destroy things. And most terrifyingly of all, most ordinary people, especially the weak minded would get an instinctual urge to dislike them on site, or even hate them without any impetus even if they didn¡¯t know the person personally, or heard of their history. My brother being my sibling and thus of my bloodline would have a harder time than usual betraying me, if for whatever reason he managed to get past his increasingly growing imprinting and started to hate me. The only way he could possibly betray me is if he or someone he befriended managed to become a ruler of a kingdom. And as I have plans to eventually become the ruler of a kingdom myself, (in order to have the most freedom and future strength possible) they or their friend would have to be a ruler more powerful than the ruler I would become (and as I have said I plan to become as powerful as possible) . So as you can see I wasn¡¯t really breaking any of my unofficial promises when I allowed a relationship with my brother to happen. To make up for his imprinting , as whether I really did it intentionally or not I still feel it was somewhat immorally wrong, (as it was mostly done out of loneliness and because of his default state making it near impossible not to happen, I am leaning towards mostly unintentional at least in the beginning). I plan to give my brother the same amount of loyalty he shows me. Even if one day I succeed in my plans to become a ruler and gain the ability to hurt or betray my brother I made a sworn oath to myself that I would never do so, even if my brother for what ever reason decides to betray me first. On a softer and more personal note, I plan to be the best sister I can be, and provide him with whatever he will ever need if it is with in my power. This may sound excessive to some especially as currently my potential seems near limitless. But as I have already admitted, I dislike social interactions and currently plan to avoid them, by having my brother to be my main and only form of contact, at least until I hatch from the egg and gain access to other people besides infants in a way that wouldn¡¯t potentially cause a major scene, so I will end up owing him a lot. More time passes and my brother not only, manages to befriend and teach the female rudimentary language, but also manages to do the same for most of the other eggs. Outside the eggs, most of the adults are mystified as none of the eggs are choosing to hatch early as expected, because my brother and through him myself, are fulfilling the need for companionship and stimuli, that the lack of would make them overcome their fear of the unknown and hatch. Although most are curious, none of them are curious enough to bother a magician with psychic ability to attempt to communicate with the eggs, and all of these magicians are too focused on protecting the kingdom and their training and research to bother to be curious themselves. And thus more time passes without any incidents, at least to the knowledge of those living outside of eggs.
Rank up! You are now a violet colored dragon! +20 to all stats Your color current color means that your affinity to Magic/Arcane has increased Do you want to bring up the Hatching Option?
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On second thought , you guys might dislike the fact that there are more chapters now, because that means there will be more chapters unitil the action/time when she finally hatches My apologies to those who feel this way. Hmmm...oh well, it''s too late to bother with trying to change things now... (the very thought of it makes my disease act up) PS: Once again, if you like Reincarnation Flower (and if you haven''t already) please try my one shot: WMAW (see signature) Volume One Chapter 10: Ten Years Totaled Ten Years Totaled (So sad, still no name) Spoiler : Here is a picture drawn by Pandora Akyri that was supposedly inspired by this fanfiction :) If you like it be sure to thank them by visiting their website. here Special thanks go to thernn thank you for your help and patience Here are the two versions of the covers I have what do you guys think? Do you like cover 1 or cover 2 better? Cover 1 Cover 2 After choosing the [no] option once again, I then returned to my various activities. Looking over what I have told you so far, it doesn¡¯t really seem to truly show my busyness. Thinking about the lack of details eventually leads me to wonder if I have left a somewhat bad impression. For example, I wonder if I am misinterpreting myself as someone lazy. If from the way I speak, that you are somehow getting lost under that or other false impressions. Perhaps you even feel that I am gaining too many results from only minimal effort. I wondered this especially now after I have revealed how I used my brother to interact with others in my stead. Because I came to the conclusion that I am also revealing even more bad sides to my personality, even if some of them are false. While I am not sure about what kind of person I am. (Who can, in truth, judge someone else let alone themselves?) I do know that, in general this is because of my faults. I am not quite portraying myself quite as acuretly as I should. It¡¯s not that I am misrepresenting myself on purpose. I as usual, without thinking things through haven¡¯t given you that much real information about who I am or what I am doing. Most likely, this lack of information is the biggest contribution towards your probable misinterpretations. I think when ¡°She¡± came to me with that request. For me to tell my story, this is not what ¡°She¡± had in mind, for ¡°Her¡± purposes, but as I am doing the best I can. I know that ¡°She¡± will definitely forgive me. (It is also probable that "she" will come after me, to clean up all the mistakes I am making). Yet, despite knowing she doesn''t mind and in fact expects such work. I am hesitant to act in that way. I think a possible compromise would be to write down things in more detail. This has the potential to be much less work for "Her". Then with much more ease, "She" could re-purpose my words. So that they will sound so much better, despite myself. As implied and said, I haven¡¯t talked about myself much. This is on the whole because I don¡¯t understand what kind of person I am. And or how to best describe the little I do know. Most of the time I am just putting down as much information as I can, as quick as I can. I tend to do this while trying not to think about it (to increase my ability to do this at all). But it is for this reason that I am able to consider the possibility of success. Or rather the idea, that I am accomplishing more then I think I am. Still I worry that it is not enough for ¡°Her¡±. Perhaps because some of the reasons for avoiding talking about myself. In my opinion is for other reasons that are much simpler and even shameful. This shameful reason is boredom. Boredom which results from the fact that I have already lived through it before. It is difficult especially to go through it all again. Particularly because at the same time I am trying to edit and censor myself. So with great hope you who are experiencing this are not getting lost. Just because you are facing by a bunch of gibberish¡­ So it is Probable that just like right now... (It seems I have gotten off track again (sigh) such an easy thing to do). Allow me to once again start over. I, not wanting to think of myself as unreasonable, selfish, lazy. Or one who is gains without reasonable hardship. Will share a bit of the details of what I have been doing these past few years. First of all. Until somewhat recently. I had spent most of my time taking of and teaching my brother. Then after I almost finished the greatest amount of his education that I was willing to do. (At least the amount I am willing for now, while we are still in the egg). My brother started taking ¡°students¡± of his own. So once again I am flooded with free time. So I decided to do the same things I did before the brother situation. ¡­ Actually now that I think of it. There were so many things I was doing that I had forgotten some of it. (At least as much one such as I can ¡°forget¡±) Now I with great feeling think to myself that I should manage my time better. I don¡¯t think I can continue talking about what happened with any ease. Especially since it is over such small portions of time. Since that now that I have the opportunity. I will continue the attempt of trying to summarize all the new information. Information which I have continued to gain without stop. Going back from since the time I had first regained consciousness 10 years ago. Most of what I do in an ordinary day is sleep. But with my various skills. When I sleep I am not just sleeping but training and working to learn various things. It was shortly after I grasped the language of my new people. Along with some basic spells. That I decided to stop learning from my people while still in egg. Because if I avoid learning ¡°everything¡±. When I finally do hatch I would still have plenty to learn from the direct sources person. Since then I have been spending most of my time traveling the world. As it is through a dream, every time I ¡°wake up¡± into sleep I am usually in a random place. It only if I focus. And only if I have traveled to the location that I want to go to before. (Either now through dreams or in my past life) that I am able to choose ¡°where¡± to be. The default is random. But even with that to me this is still useful. As with every new place I enter while I dream, there is another option available for me to choose from in the future. While I am dream walking there is almost no danger. Most dream versions of worlds (Or at least those that I know of) are according to fact. Can not affect reality in any direct way. (Though I have certain spells that I can use to bypass this). It is simple. Dream walking is, as spelled out in the name, in the end is just dreaming. That is not to say, that what I see is all lies(dreams). Because dream walking is also different from ordinary dreaming. In that it is a form of ¡°true dreaming¡±. To supplement dream walking¡¯s ability to see the truth. Before I start I focus especially on wanting the truth. And I do this every time I cast the spell. Which I do before every time I choose sleep. What is the dream world if it is not the actual world? It is (how should I say this?) it is an imprint. An imprint, that reality makes on a layer of substance. And this layer exists between reality and dreams. (Dreams are another version of reality that souls with an unstable body fixation see. Which usually happens when a person sleeps). The substance the layer consists of, is a strange sort of energy or material. It is a material that is neither magic nor emotions. But it is probable that it is one that contains a mixture of both. When reality touches and ¡°imprints¡± on this layer. It creates sort of, another version of the reality that has touched it. I think to best describe it would be to say that reality is a big foot. Dreams are the soft ground made up of clay that the foot sinks into. The ¡°layer¡± is the concrete that fills the mold left behind by reality leaving. In time this mixture ¡°hardens?¡± and forms the dream world. Now this process isn¡¯t something that happens now and then, but uncountable times. This is because it happens each time almost any person sleeps. Because their soul is no longer stuck to their body with perfect strength. Thus explaining the lack of lag in the amount of time between dream and reality. This also show cases the main disadvantage of dream walking. (And other forms of dream travel). Because the majority of a dream world consists of sleeping people. (The definition of person is someone with a soul). If there is a place you and no one else has been before. You can¡¯t get to it through dreams. There is also another smaller disadvantage. If you spend too much time dream walking, soon experiencing ¡°normal¡± dreams becomes impossible. Or any other kinds of dreams too unless one it''s forced on you through magic. There are many more advantages that make up for these disadvantages. For example it costs no energy to do (in fact it tends to be refreshing). Getting anywhere is almost instantaneous. While I don¡¯t use it often, as I am not the type to care much about such things. There is a rare dream walking ability that can turn parts of dreams into reality. One somewhat common example is to create renditions of the past through dreams. In reality master level illusions can¡¯t even come close to the details and beauty. Something done is often comes from the idea: if you can¡¯t go to a place that doesn¡¯t exist or know of. You still have the ability to make your own ¡°version¡± of that world exist and travel to it. If you reach a certain mastery in dream walking. You can gain the ability to dream while you are awake. Part of that is having one foot in more than one realities. If you do something in the dream world while in this state it will also effect reality. I currently had a little bit of skill in doing this. (I could somewhat move things about and other small things). I admit that I would often use this ability for mischief. Often I would play ¡°tricks¡± on people I discovered that I disliked. However to make up for it, I would also ¡°gift¡± those I found that I was at least am humored by. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. One time after coincidentally seeing a snobbish man do something I took objection too, I followed him around for days (his time) and when no one was looking or would notice I would do minor things like move his chair slightly so he would fall when he sat back down. Move his ink wells a bit so that when he moved slightly they would fall into his lap¡­ One of my personal favorites was, one time when he was trying to impress a woman I arranged a certain piece of ground to move slightly so that instead of doing the graceful hand kiss he was planning, he slipped and fell into a nearby pond. Another time after I had witnessed a most heart wrenching scene between of a pair of orphans. I got a random stray to carry a basket full of food and get them to chase it all the way to a nice family that has always wanted a child but could never think of getting one through any way but fate. Now and then I feel, someone sensitive to other realms would try to contact me. I would avoid them until they left me alone. Not much later on I was able to come up with better shielding that made it no longer a problem. My shields were already somewhat top notch for everything in the dream world already. While I have said that in general the dream world is safe. And usually for the majority of people for the majority of time it is. There are still some hidden dangers that do exist. The more time spent in the dream world. The greater the increase in risk in coming into contact with these dangers. As I mentioned you can create things in this world. A world of dreams is also in a sense a world of nightmares. As a dream is exactly the same as a night terror the only difference being the levels of emotion. Nightmares are so much more powerful, that in an attempt to raise my skills in empathy. I sought out the nightmares on my own initiative. In an attempt to gain their experience. A task I failed. Probably because unfortunately my mental strength was too high, to enter one by mistake. All nightmares but those ¡°god¡± strength in level don¡¯t seem to affect me. And the gods haven¡¯t felt much like sleeping for some reason. Besides the ¡°fun¡± I have dream walking. What I do the most often is practice manipulating my magic. Back in my past life besides the fact that my magic was illegal and I had no teacher. There wasn¡¯t enough time! Thus while I was a natural at using it, I never much got to practice or experiment to see what I could do. During that life whenever I used magic I was flying by the seat of my pants. (Things were never planned out or chosen). But now that I had about endless time. I spent a good majority of it practicing the things I already know instinctively. Then by working on understanding the things I learned from other sources. This was so that one day maybe I could also understand them. I hoped in the same way or at least a similar version of the way I invented through instinct. When I got bored of magic, I would create myself a fake body. And using Dream Traveling I would fight various phantom enemies with a sword. I know that I am a dragon, but who knows when something might come in handy? Besides why use magic at all, if you are not going to use it to try shape-shifting at least once? I couldn''t find a decent and safe version. But I am sure there is someone out there somewhere. Who I can learn or steal that kind of technique from. In the end nonstop fighting gets boring even for me. Especially as my only opponent is myself. And in my unborn (unhatched) state there are many limitations. One is I can¡¯t the penalty that I see or interact with other living beings in the dream world. An exception to my current no interaction rule. I think this is because I am going to the dream realm on a deeper level than them. A fact I feel that has high probability to do with my lack of a useable body. As I am currently in the state of being in the hibernation of hibernations. As for the dead, because I have the holy element most of the ¡°dead¡± avoid me. As I can kill them with ease and they can¡¯t kill me. And I am not yet strong enough to go against the gods and send them to the afterlife. It is clear that these dead are ones that wish to avoid reincarnation. It is also possible that they fear godly punishment. Don¡¯t wish to forget their memories. Or have too much attachment to the world. Some may want to avoid reincarnation for other reasons. But as I could not figure out what those were. As all dead with this goal would always immediately rush towards the layer. And then try and force their way through. Some seemed to manage it. While others failed, ensnared by strange golden nets and dragged away to somewhere. Seeing such a scene felt odd, as I had a strange sense of familiarity. There were a few other dead that didn¡¯t run away. But no matter what I tried it was like there was a thick wall between us and I couldn¡¯t speak to them. Some of them even seemed like they would want to talk to me¡­but it was impossible¡­ Some of you may be wondering what I look like¡­right now. Well as I can¡¯t technically see myself. And I don''t want to go through the bother experimenting in order to be able to, I don¡¯t know. In the dream world as far as I can tell, I take the form something similar to my mental appearance. Which consists of a strange, illusionary glowing ball that casts shadows. That looks to be made of light and darkness. Occasionally, usually when I am trying to communicate, I take the form of my past self. As this is the dream world that deals with souls not bodies it is rather easy to do. It doesn¡¯t seem to help me in communicating better at all. However for a few rare weaker souls it lessens their fear a bit. Probably because that form is a non-threatening one. Speaking of my past¡¯s life¡¯s form. I forgot to tell you of one other thing that I often did these past ten years. And that is spying on the ¡°remnants¡± of my past life. Well¡­interesting things to speak of¡­oh yeah! Shortly after hero¡¯s companion died of old age, leaving him vulnerable. He got caught by one of his female followers and was forced marry her. I remember laughing for days after I witnessed what happened. It was so humorous that sometimes even now. When I let out a random giggle it is because I am remembering what happened. That female wasn¡¯t a naive or innocent person, oh no. Though she had the face of an angel and the body of a youthful guileless girl. Her heart was made of ice and her eyes were made out of golden coins. Plus her mind craved ambition and she was slier then a trickster fox. Unluckily for you. Every time I try to write down this epic experience. I end up laughing so hard that it becomes impossible to write. Suffice to say she had planned the whole thing out weeks and advance. When it came time for her to execute the plan. She did it most carefully and methodically. Step by step like a chess master or a grand strategist. Maybe one day in the future I will remember to write it down when I am in an extremely morose mood. [FP: side story anyone?] My brother begged me to tell him what was so amusing. But since there was a lot of adult humor involved I was sure that he wouldn¡¯t understand. So I told him to ask me when he was older and hatched. But he will probably forget by then, right? But to continue this woman succeeded quite without much hassle. (In truth though I thought it made for great entertainment. Most of the insurance she took was probably unnecessary. Hero is so stupid after all. Then again he did somehow manage to remain single for a long time despite the odds. So maybe she knew something I didn¡¯t) and was rewarded? By becoming hero¡¯s bride, their first child was born 2 years after that. Around this time. Most of my old family that had been children had grown up. (Even some of the new ones that were born shortly before my death). Most of them were married if they hadn¡¯t been already. As now as a natural result I have many nieces and nephews. In other news it seems that I have become sort of a family legend. I have seen my name used as bragging material many times. Some of my more silver tongued relatives, decided to change the story a bit. With a few tweaks I became a model kingdom citizen and perfect hero¡¯s companion. Then they hung up the portrait of a most handsome guy in the bar of their inn. It was supposed to portray my image. (But it looks nothing like me). I believe that the primary purpose of this act is a gimmick to get in new customers. From the few glimpses I got of the pope. It seems that old age is finally catching up to him despite his powerful holy magic. (I admit it) the weaker he looks the more curious and eager for him to die. So I can see if the deal comes through. If immortally is in his future. So that is just a bit of what happened in these 10 years. Oh except one other thing -towards the end, after a lot of magic practice in dream land¡­:
Rank up! You are now a red colored dragon! +25 to all stats Your color current color means that your affinity to fire has increased Do you want to bring up Hatching Option?
This chapter is not really completely finished yet but I am having more difficulty then I thought,"fixing" it so I decided to just put up this somewhat unpolished version first and then later I will upload the more polished version. You guys may not have noticed but now and then I upload corrections to all my chapters...so this is nothing new...I am just being more obvious/open about it this time Update: I am kind of sorry all I have to give you guys is "this" and a not that great "this" at that. But as I was thinking, it is either "this" or nothing at all and if I were you I think I would want something rather than nothing. But there is hope! After one more chapter (possibly two) we will finally get to the action! :) Update: As said before this chapter isn''t 100% done and I am having trouble fixing it to "be good". So if you have any suggestions or ideas to make it better please share :) Update: see what you think of this latest version... Volume One Chapter 11: The Dream Master The Dream Master (The Dragon in the Full Shell) *** Fifteen years passed since I was reincarnated (25 totaled) I had been experimenting with creating various things in dreams when it happened¡­
You have leveled up! Your proficiency in stat: emotion/soul has increased
And then not long after:
A New Title has been unlocked! [Dream Master] +10000 soul/emotion Your experience in empathy has increased Your Various Dream Skills have gone up 10 levels each.
Curious I allowed the title window to come up
Titles
Title:Description:Effects:
Gem Dragon PrincessYours is the blood of royalty+15 leadership +100 attractiveness and charm +10 to all other stats
Dream MasterA Title Given to One who has Mastered Dreams+10000 soul/emotion Your Dream skills levels increase by 10 You learn dream skills and related skills 50% faster
This title had effects that would be very useful for me. Lately I had reached a bottle neck in that particular branch of skills so I had been having trouble leveling my dream skills any further, but now with this title my skills weren¡¯t only automatically increased but also would now increase faster. This would be particularly vital in the future. Although the most useful thing about Dream Walking was it gave visions in ¡°real time¡± with Dream Traveling on the other hand its greatest usefulness was that you could use it to change the time-frame of the dream and allow years to pass in a single moment. Although I didn¡¯t have much use for it at this moment (being in an egg means I have nothing but time) when I do hatch. I will probably end up pretty busy in some way (I don¡¯t change much) and such I will no longer have time to continue to do all of the training I am free to do right now. As such I will have to rely on my dream skills like dream travel and practice while I sleep. Yes Dream master was a lot better title then my ¡°Gem Dragon Princess¡± Although the +10 to all stats had been convenient the higher I level the less +10 affects me. Comparing the two titles got me to wondering about the mystery of where titles exactly come from. Actually there isn¡¯t much known of the process, but basically there are two ways. One is when after multiple people start calling you by a certain nickname if it describes something you did to make you famous or is descriptive of something unique about you. If enough people start referring to you by it, it becomes a title. The other way was if you overcame a particularly hard challenge or reached a certain point in training of a skill or group of skills of the same type or ones that related to each other. Supposedly the rarer it is the better. It was found that many of these rare titles gave various bonuses of extra stats, made it easier to perform certain actions or even gave skills. As to the how and the why one was given titles it was not publicly known but there are some theories. I¡¯ve heard some say that both stats and titles comes from under the directory of a certain goddess, but to my knowledge she has never been named. (At least to mortals). I hadn¡¯t heard of her at all in my past life and only a few of the many mages I have spied on have even hinted of her existence. But supposedly it is her and her underlings that decide what the ¡°new¡± windows will say, although the actual bestowal of such ¡°gifts¡± seems to be an automated process. Apparently from what those rare wizards said they had performed many experiments in an attempt to find out more about this god. Spending all their money in order to get the status cards and to buy the demi human slaves. Even after years of work they still only managed to find out relatively little. She was defiantly a goddess that existed, she was somewhat lazy and uncreative as one could tell from the way the words on the status screen was written. Most important and to the mages most disappointing she did not accept worshipers and she had never appeared before those who followed her unofficially. Unlike the majority of the other gods I had found out about she didn¡¯t even house a statue at one of the temples that served the whole pantheon rather than one god (my old life¡¯s church being the latter). As there is so little about her I am immensely curious. I then remembered something. Wait a second didn¡¯t one of my opinions say I got the unlocked version of the status screen? Let me check¡­Oh yeah it did. I immediately attempt to look up information about this mysterious title bestowing goddess.
The goddess prudence or Prue is the high tier god that oversees the collecting and distribution of the various status windows of this world. She is also the head librarian of the gilded forest valley otherwise known as the library of the gods. Although she is midlevel in beauty among the goddesses, she is also a lazy bookworm and data nerd that doesn¡¯t care about her own appearance to the point of being slovenly. Although she refuses to actively anoint any mortals as her clergy or servants Prue does have many unofficial followers and she has some popularity (mostly in hidden circles of scholars). There are rumors that if a scholar reaches an extremely high level, or if one risks their life in order to obtain information for knowledge¡¯s sake. That she may give a bonus to the next skill she gives you that offers higher access to the information in the status system as a reward. This is extremely rare however, for the goddess much take a personal interest and permit the new higher access herself. And as said she is very lazy and does not often look over things personally. Added to that, she is very hard to impress. (ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE HER SUBORDINATE!) Further information is personal, and of high security risk, permitted only for other gods with high clearance levels. Do you wish to request more information anyway?
As I am not a god, and I definitely don¡¯t have permission, I know what the answer will be, but out of curiosity I ask anyway.
[YOU DO NOT HAVE HIGH ENOUGH ACESS TO SEE MORE INFORMATION]
Sigh never mind¡­anyway what interests me the most about this information is the part where it mentions that she is also in charge of collecting and storing information. The library of the gods¡­I drool at the very thought of getting to read at a place like that¡­ That¡¯s it! I have decided going to that library and reading there shall be one of my new life¡¯s goals! Wait a second. I paused in my excitement and then reread the information in the status window just a few times to be sure. ¡°There are rumors that if a scholar reaches an extremely high level, or if one risks their life in order to obtain information for knowledge¡¯s sake. That she may give a bonus to the next skill she gives you that offers higher access to the information in the status system as a reward¡± The way the words are written indicates that probably one of those ¡°mysterious¡± underlings wrote it but the implications are obvious¡­at some point in time she somehow found out my illegal book learning as a peasant and put some sort of ¡°blessing¡± on me. I had no ¡°official¡± skills as a peasant. One must fulfill several requirements to have skills, one is ability, and the other is knowledge. Abilities are easy to get but the knowledge is much stricter then it seems as it has many limitations that must be met for it to be fulfilled. A few of the most important of these requirements, is one must have official schooling or training and even more important one must possess a status card or status looking ability. Obviously I had neither of those¡­thus while I had skill I didn¡¯t have any ¡°skills¡±. The first skill I had ever received was after I died, and I received the ¡°reincarnation¡± skill. Apparently whatever she put on me was strong enough to survive after my death. (Or possibly she knew of my death) Either way I got this really rare prized and ultra-useful skill, that up until now I had just been taking for granted. The idea of this goddess taking notice of my actions and liking my desire to learn enough that she even gave me a special gift that she rarely bestows, has really given me some admiration and a bit of respect for the goddess. Being in charge of all these windows sounds like a daunting task, especially as I try to picture the amount of people that have them. Even if the underling that wrote the window called her lazy, the fact that she probably has seen his entry at least once and left it has only made me admire her more. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. From what I have heard of the gods they are supposed to be very prideful, but she doesn¡¯t sound like that at all. I don¡¯t know her reasons for not appointing followers but they are probably good ones especially from the little said she sounds like a good person. I don¡¯t know about becoming an unofficial follower, but I think after reading this I have become an unofficial fan. I think that I would like to meet her someday, (even if she isn¡¯t near to what I have pictured)
Thoughts of a god has led to you getting some faith for the first time congratulations! +1 faith
This makes me smirk to see as I had never really thought about the gods much before, and had thought the only way to gain faith was to worship them and it turns out that all I needed to gain faith was think? You can be certain I will be doing a lot more thinking in the future. Especially now that I am a dragon not a peasant trying to rebel by refusing to pray to the gods. After a bit more reflection which conveniently earns me a few more faith. I decide to get back to my training. I need to work hard if I want to reach my goal of reading at that awesome sounding library. While so far to you my training has seemed very willful and erratic. Actually from the start I have been following a plan that I have created since the very beginning. (Shortly after I gained consciousness and realized what I was). Basically rather than focusing on any one stat, I plan to have an even amount as possible for each stat. I don¡¯t want to specialize, I want to be able to do anything. And as I don¡¯t really have any preferences other than that of favoring the sword over most other weapons and magic over having no magic, specializing in generalizing seems like a good idea. I especially covet the thought of one day when I am hatched and trained and thus truly possess completely freedom from others. I would be far less ¡°enslaved¡± by myself, because I wouldn¡¯t be limited in what I can do because of my stats. Pleasantly my current race is like it was made to help me in this endeavor. Gem Dragons like I said have the racial traits of being good at magic and defense. While they are not as physically strong as most dragons, a dragon is still a dragon thus compared to most other races including demons they are very powerful. And there are no potential penalties to receive when I start training. In fact As Gem Dragons are one of the few kinds of dragons that really do gain a lot through training my parents have been highly encouraging it as all the training was one of the main ways they had kept an advantage over the area. Basically being a Gem Dragon is like having a class without having a class, substantial bonuses in almost every stat. When you add in all the other bonuses I am getting especially because of the ones I am getting from heroic water and reincarnation. Then you can see why I don¡¯t foresee much difficulty in getting what I want. No challenges except the ones I am creating for myself. So I happily train, and with the thought of complete freedom in my mind. Everything becomes painless, even the training I do that is supposed to be painful. *** Meanwhile in the outside world. My brother now has all the unhatched dragons under his control. While recently dragons have been having eggs almost yearly it was only a temporary thing caused by that somewhat recent victory and large male population loss. But now that the fertility rate seems to be slowing down back to normal, it looks like we will easily maintain control over all the new dragons. Ordinarily a dragon tends to have a clutch of eggs only around every ten years or so, and if the dragon lives in a community like my people they all tend to have eggs around the same time. So around every ten years starting at the end of first ten years since gaining conscious. My brother with my back up and the aid of his ¡°friends¡± has been quickly contacting the infants as soon as they awaken to consciousness. Mostly they just comfort, but as soon as it seems they will be able to understand they start teaching them the language and various other things that I had shared with them. I was particularly pleased when our new younger siblings (three of them) had been brought into our incubating room. One of them, (a younger sister) was a very powerful psychic, so after going out of my way to befriend her in a similar way (though less intensive) ,then our brother.A little sweet talk, and my new sister was soon most eager to help ¡°us¡± by using her ability to see outside her egg and then share what she saw with the other infants. Thus giving me even more free time. Soon after the second fifth and third years passed where my brother and I and all of the other eggs didn¡¯t hatch the adults finally began to become concerned. They asked several of their mages capable of using mind magic to come and ¡°check¡± on us. However by that time I had recently developed a new subskill to [lead by example]
Subskill: underneath your wings Share your magic defense with those following your example and offer them a place of security [after hatching you will have the option of sharing your physical defense as well]
So other than being able to sense we were still alive all they came up with was blanks. After our healthy and stable status continued without incident the panic quickly quieted down for everyone except for a few of the more concerned parents. Shortly after this incident I ¡°took aside¡± in a sense my brother and the sister I was closer to (the psychic) and explained several things to them. Such as ¡°our¡± need for secrecy (mainly to avoid any huge reactions) I emphasized particularly the need to keep myself a secret and had them promise to make sure the secret was kept even when they decided to hatch. They easily gave their sworn oath and then proceeded to tell a similar version to their ¡°friends¡±. I cautioned they be careful in who they told and for insurance I suggested this one guy who unlike me had natural instinctive defense against my brother being able to see him on the mental plane. IF even my brother couldn''t see him, there shouldn''t be many who could break through his defenses. I had somewhat expected his gift to appear as, I had noticed it was a common trend if there was a dragon specializing in fire born if not around the same time then soon after an ice gem dragon would be born, the balance was always strangely maintained like that. More and more especially after comparing us to what I had learned about other dragons I realize that Gem Dragons are a very unique existence. Most of the other dragons other than having similar population controls, their births are very random and seem to be decided mostly by genetics, while with Gem Dragons a balance is always maintained in various ways, naturally and effortlessly. *** In the area I refer to as ¡°my old life¡± hero had started to encourage his children to become Hero¡¯s because of tradition. He had become very concerned after his father died and there was no one there to stress about tradition of their house¡­so being slightly more logical and much mellower in his later years he decided to take his father¡¯s place. Unfortunately to hero and his wife the only one interested in ¡°hero work¡± was one of his daughters which offended both of their sensibilities as a noble lady she should not be doing the things she had been deciding to do on the sidelines. However most of their other sons were very lazy and enjoyed the easy life. There was one that was a scholar you¡¯d think might have been suitable as a mage hero or priest hero but although he was many times smarter than his father he was no genius, was weak in body and had zip in magic. More importantly (as those things can be faked with a little effort excellent equipment and a strong companion to do most of the work) he had absolutely no desire for it and actually even hated the idea. So the daughter had a chance and grasped it, she wore both her parents down with her persistence as well as because she was many times intelligent and cunning then even both her parents combined (and as her mother was still a wilily old vixen that was saying something) So eventually she got her wish (begrudgingly) and her father to his credit surprisingly hired the best of the best trainers and instructors. The girl was only 14 when this happened. Back among my former blood relatives there happened an interesting and unexpected side effect of using a flattered version of myself to help bring in more customers. Some of my young nieces and nephews fell for it, and became inspired to become adventures (the closest they could come as commoners to being heroes) when these older kids left some of the adults did too, out of loneliness. (This was I think the first time since myself in memory that so many of my family left that area) Finally, out of old age probably the pope died (or at least it seemed that way), ¡®nuff said. *** My hard work was rewarded and I gained several rank ups throughout these 15 years. I went from red to orange and then eventually I reach the metallic colors at silver. Volume One Chapter 12: Things Start to Change Things Start to Change (The One Still Stuck inside an Egg) *** (An Additional 25 years pass, 50 in total since I was reincarnated) Since the pope died, my old home kingdom has changed a great deal. As the Queen is now quite elderly and doesn¡¯t have the ability to rule from the shadows anymore, her somewhat younger husband is now truly in charge for the first time, at least technically. You would think that there was still the council, but that quite large group of ¡°advisers¡±, had only had minimal face value before this. In other words they were quite incompetent. Basically this council was just filled with supposedly ambitious people just waiting in the wings. And you¡¯d think that now they¡¯d finally have their chance, as that pope guy had been giving orders through letters up till the time of his death. You¡¯d be wrong. Even a child could see that the puppet king actually has more experience with being a ruler then they do. All their big words was just that empty words for bragging. At least king had lived with front row seats to what was going on for most of his life even if he hadn¡¯t ever directly participated. Strangely that wimpy guy seems to know himself very well as he immediately posted a large reward for the whereabouts of his missing son. He was a guy that I had heard about in my past life. You see according to the rumors I had heard a few years before my death. He hadn¡¯t wanted to become king, he had wanted to be a wandering prince, an adventurer, and admiringly he wanted to get there on his own merit. Since almost no one knew his appearance (assassinations when young led to a very sheltered life later on, that had also killed the first queen a nice lady from all reports) when he snuck out of his luxury prison one day, they realized they had no way to find him as they couldn¡¯t get people to search if they don¡¯t know what he looks like. And according to rumor he has such a forgettable appearance that even if they knew what he looked like they would probably be regrettable anyway. So the son was just missing with minimal fuss or panic, this was because back then it wasn¡¯t that big a deal. At that time the king had been young enough to be still considered in his prime. And while the new queen was more aged then one would expect for a second wife and queens bride she could have been still considered to be in her child bearing years. If none of that worked, there were the backups of the many royal mistresses that everyone looked the other way about and pretended didn¡¯t exist. But the years passed and no heirs were forthcoming, (maybe everyone involved at that time was infertile?) and so they started to panic slightly, but as they still had the pope, they figured that he would appoint a successor and the kingdom would just drop the monarchy altogether and openly become a religious kingdom. But that fat paranoid guy refused to appoint a successor (he didn¡¯t want to chance his successor going against him and stealing his power) I theorize that it also was partly because of his belief that he had achieved immortality from his little favor he supposedly did for the gods. Thus when he died there was no appointed successor and what¡¯s more there were no bishops or even priests that stood out in any way. (He tended to collect idiots do his work for him, myself back then being one of few exceptions) And since the church¡¯s pope required a certain amount of magic power in the holy element at the very least, (because it was needed in power to power the relics of the church (special magical artifacts supposedly given by the gods). In fact I discovered by default the existence and purpose of at least one of these items when the pope died. Because almost immediately afterward the holy power on the main churches and temples that had been blocking my dream site started to at first weaken and then vanish. So soon after the king posted a reward for his son, most of the fearful nobles, and even most of the council members also posted rewards as well. If you combine the total amounts you get quite the sum. Even most nobles wouldn¡¯t turn their nose down on it. It was quite understandable as now the church had no head, and the only known direct line royals that were left were fairly feeble and almost ancient. The Queen probably must have a bit of magic in her as she was over a hundred years old. But since no one had bothered to really search for him back when he was first missing any leads were probably dead and cold, so nobody really held out much hope for him to be found. The current de facto rulers were giving it a year, and then it was expected that the higher nobles with drops of royal blood in them would go to war and fight for the right to be crowned the kingdom¡¯s ruler. Then to everyone¡¯s surprised the missing prince appeared, however he had not been found but had decided to show himself. It seems that after he had retired from being an adventurer he had opened up a bar. To my mild surprise I had seen him as an adventurer before but had thought him just an ordinary adventurer like everyone said even in old age he had a most unremarkable appearance. The desperate nobles immediately latched on to him like he was a piece of driftwood, and he was quickly given a coronation and crowned as the new king. But the shocks were far from being over. It seems back in his adventuring days he had gotten married. To their utter and complete commoner her father had been a butler her mother a serving maid, and she herself had worked as a cleaner in the household that her parents served in. They had met when her master had shown the hidden prince the kindness of dinner after he had helped guard him during a protection mission. For what was probably the first time in memory the kingdom had a Queen that was not of royal blood. Then even more ground shaking for the nobles was the fact that they had discovered that they had a single son late in life, and that they would have to face the fact that their new prince heir was had commoner blood. But what made them clinch their teeth even more was the fact that this new prince also had a commoner wife. She like her husband was also an adventurer, and she was also from a certain way of looking at things, my niece. (Yes I also find it very ironic that I who had wanted to be at least a noble indirectly opened the way through coincidences for my family to become higher than a noble, royalty) Remember when I told you about how my nieces and nephews had left to become adventurers? Well it turns out that adventuring may be in the blood for my family. Most of them actually did pretty well at it. At least as well as commoner adventurers can do, in the kingdom at that time. Most just made or got some friends together in order to do things as a team, some even managed to get one of the lesser noble family''s ¡°hero¡¯s¡± to pick them as a companion. My ¡°niece¡± however had gone solo for the most part. Her weapon of choice was the staff, but she had a secret weapon of knowing a bit of instinctive healing magic. She was fairly quick on her feet so when things went wrong, she usually ran away as her main tactic. Until one day she managed by accident to get surrounded by monsters while exploring a dungeon. A swordsman who happened to be in the same area noticed and rescued her. This swordsman was obviously was the one who is now known as the crown prince. Soon after meeting her future husband they partnered up together for their ¡°adventuring¡± and were soon getting along so well together in battle, that they decided that they wanted to be together for everything else as well and got married. Neither she nor her husband knew about his father¡¯s royal origins so they were just as flabbergasted as everyone else when the truth came out. The nobles at the court immediately tried to encourage him to drop his wife and get a new bride but he refused, and then went to his father who immediately made a law that stated that anyone could marry anyone else without consequences so long as that marriage was done legally and with the consent and freewill of both parties. He also made many other laws, including ones that basically abolished many of the former laws. Like the ones, suppressing common people in various ways such as making learning for peasants illegal. Laws which he had learned through his adventuring were completely stupid and actually detrimental. The majority of nobles were against the moves he was making, but due to the properties he had gained as the ruler of the kingdom, it was near impossible to go against him, plus they had problems of their own, without the biggest pope and snobby queen to keep the commoners of the kingdom downtrodden, such as the peasants (because of their influence as rulers of the kingdom). Now that they were gone/lost their power it was like the majority of the ¡°downtrodden¡± had ¡°woken up¡± and many of the more harsh noble landlords were facing uprisings and rebellions. The king took this opportunity to let the noble houses he didn¡¯t like be destroyed, and to also appoint his buddies form his adventuring days into new nobility. As you can probably predict this meant that within a few short years, the kingdom had done a complete 180 of what it had once been like. Embarrassingly, in order to win some of the not-so bad nobles over to his son¡¯s and daughter in law¡¯s side, he pointed out that while she may not be of even lesser noble blood she did have someone that could almost be considered a ¡°hero¡± in the family. With peasant learning no longer illegal while there were many ¡°peasants¡± that kept to their farms and herds because it was familiar to them, there were many more that wanted to better their life or at least the lives of their children. There was a sudden booming of new warriors, potential scholars and mages. The military force of the kingdom almost tripled overnight. And unlike some of the nobles, and their garrisons all these ¡°new soldiers¡± were fiercely loyal to their new royal family. After I saw how fast everything was happening I wondered greatly at that new old man king¡­it seemed to me that he may have actually had planned this from the beginning¡­ But as the kingdom would have prevented a coup while his step mother and the pope were alive he had decided instead to just bide his time. It also made me wonder about the accuracy of the rumors that stated he had wanted to go on adventures¡­and whether perhaps the greedy former rulers had done something to make him leave. It was a strong possibility, because as the owner of several popular adventurers bars he was wealthy enough to be consider middle class during his self-exiled days. And while he hadn¡¯t told his son of his royal origins he had wasted a good percentage of his money hiring various tutors, and teachers in order to educate his son on various topics. If his son hadn¡¯t been blinded by his stories of being an adventurer in the future, and how ¡°you never know what an adventure would need to use in order to survive¡± he probably would have been a lot more suspicious instead of really happy that his father wanted him to follow in his ¡®glorious¡¯ footsteps. Shortly after my ¡®niece¡¯ had become his partner he had started to teach her various ways. Part of the reason they stayed afloat on their income as adventurers is because of this illegal breach caused (like what I experienced) many monsters to go after them. But as they were adventurers of above average skill they not only defeated them, but earned money because of that. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. You may be a bit confused when I speak of the kingdom in such a way, and put such emphasis on how it affects its inhabitants. I think I have already at least mentioned some things before, but let me offer a small supplementary explanation to whatever I have already said. A ¡°kingdom¡± is not exactly an ordinary section of land. While it does not exactly have a mind, it does in a sense ¡°think¡±. A kingdom has influence and power over all of its inhabitants. And a kingdom is in turn influenced by whoever sometimes whatever the rulers are. Some ¡°kingdoms¡± are more intelligent than others that is the way they influence is many more times more subtle then sending a bunch of monsters after whatever it is displeased with. Its ¡°intelligence¡± and power of its influence depends on several things. Its age, that is how long has it existed, (it goes by the age of its oldest part, but it is also effected by the age of any new additions it acquires), its location, and primarily its rulers. As I have said before, a kingdom¡¯s rulers are usually from the current sentient majority species, or the most intelligent majority un-sentient species. Besides the rules written by the ruler are the lesser rulers or those that the main ruler has shared their power with. However the species doesn¡¯t really matter much, what does matter and has the most impact is soul of the ruler(s?). While the kingdom obviously follows written rules. It can only follow such rules to latter, it cannot make decisions or deviations from these written rules. I is sort of like a calculating spell of efficiency (now seeing what I have seen I would even describe it as a program). While adhering strictly to the rules without any deviancy it is always trying to calculate how to execute the laws with the least amount of energy used and with as little trouble and time as possible. However that is only for the more intelligent kingdoms, in the case of relatively unintelligent kingdoms like that one, it can do many things that in the end are actually ineffectual as well as inefficient. So how were things such as downtrodden the masses and preventing betrayal accomplished? It was because the soul of the ruler at the time or the Pope and the queen felt that way about the common folk and they felt that way about their almost peers. And thus the kingdom ¡®felt¡¯ that way too. This is why I say the soul of the ruler is most important. If the ruler is one who is very flamboyant and proud, the kingdom will also feel that way and thus work to guide all the citizens/subjects of the kingdom into being that way. If one acts differently than one has to work against a great force (unless one is a great force themselves) it can sort be compared to climbing a mountain while moving upstream. Then how do I explain myself? I am not sure I can even now I am not that sure, but I do have various theories one of which I will explain to you using the same analogy. Most people are pushed downstream in the direction the water is flowing but what of those scared of moving back? What of those scared of the water? We frightened ones grab a hold of a rock and then slowly try to push our way forward so that we might someday get out of the water. As a peasant I briefly grasped ahold of a log floating downstream. But now as a dragon I possess claws to grip the stream bed with, and I have scales which are water proof. Which is why you could say while it dose still have some effect on most dragons, the kingdom in which a dragon lives in doesn¡¯t have as much of an influence then as a kingdom weak races like humans live in. That has its disadvantages but the great strength of being easily influenced that it brings to the inhabitants of a human kingdom. Is unlike a kingdom of more powerful creatures a human kingdom can easily change what kind of kingdom it is, just by having the ruler change. Which is not usually the case with many non-human kingdoms. Thus it becomes easier and less shocking when you see a most primitive and undeveloped kingdom that was stalled in what another kingdom might call its ¡°Dark Ages¡±, suddenly change into one that is growing and creating various new innovations at a very quick pace. While with a sound practicality is carefully managing its resources and looking for ways to generate or find new ones. You had to think that soul of that old new king was quite something, when you saw the ¡°miracles¡± it produced just by being accepted as the ruler. Speaking of acceptance and the relationship of ruler and kingdom. There are multiple factors for how a ruler becomes a ruler and how much the kingdom accepts it. (That is how much will the kingdom be affected by their soul). First off and most importantly in kingdoms when the rulers have been chosen through bloodline for quite a while is bloodline. The kingdom adapts itself to a certain extent to each new ruler¡­and if it becomes accustomed to a certain time over a long time. It tends to only accept that type¡­and it takes a long time to change this adaption and form a new and during that time where there is no ruler with adaption there is a lot of chaos as not only is there finding and anointing a new lord usually with a lot of messy politics and battles involved there is also the kingdom which refuses to accept the new ruler immediately and thus will often create effects that in turn cause uprisings and so on. So it is generally best, if such is the case that the new ruler be of the same bloodline as the last (unless for that kingdom change of bloodline is a common occurrence). The new old king was of the same blood line of many rulers past, and his son having a common maternal line didn¡¯t really matter as the kingdom was used to rulers being passed down the paternal line. Another factor is the strength of the mind and the spirit. The mind interacts with the spirit and the spirit interacts with the soul. And since a ruler (unconsciously usually) communicates with the kingdom with their soul. The stronger such things are the better and quicker they will gain control over the kingdom. The old new king was a tough skilled adventurer/mercenary in his past. He was also a very sly person who learned from his mistakes. All signs pointing to a very strong fortitude and strength of soul. One of the final factors and often considered the most important, is the current emotional and mental state of the ruler. It is kind of obvious if you look at it, even if the king (or what ever ruler It is) has strong affinity with the kingdom, and has a strong mind and soul and thus can gain control over the kingdom. It doesn¡¯t matter if that person is bat sh**t crazy or utterly unstable in some way. They may have control over the kingdom but how is that a good thing if they don¡¯t have control over themselves? Things in that situation tend to end up as utter chaos, monsters frequently attack everything and each other, and more and more other people end up corrupted by their ruler and also end up also mad or even worse. Even if the person is mentally stable, there are other ways a ruler can affect their kingdom with their emotional state. For example I knew of a king who became depressed when his family died of sickness. Soon after that many of his subjects caught a strange untreatable disease which started out with an unnatural state of depression and lead to suicide if one was lucky. If one was unlucky I led to madness (or worse shudders). Other things were affected as well, many of the crops and plants died, and some of monsters also caught and died from the sickness after causing much chaos and sometimes real diseases. His kingdom quickly collapsed from within and then deflated as all those who could left for greener pastures. Then there is that one king whose favorite concubine was assassinated and was quickly filled with anger and a powerful desire for vengeance. This quickly led to all his subjects also desiring vengeance and agreeing to start a most terrible and bloody war with the kingdom of the perpetrators which they did eventually win but at a great price. The new old king however, was as stated now and many times before was quite old, and he was in a point of his life where the old age he was experiencing brought about wisdom and a great sense of peace and calmness for whatever happened. And his son, who would obviously take over for him soon, and was already somewhat of a lesser ruler seemed unusually mature and clear thinking for his age. Plus he was currently caught up in the happy bliss of young love with his new bride. So despite the chaos of all the new innovations and changes taking place and although the old Alfdorn was for the majority of people a miserable and hard place to live, the New Kingdom of Alfdorn (as many started to call it) was strangely calm, and peaceful, and filled not only with large a large amount of hope but also with many romantic youths in search of love. *** I suppose now that I have told you all about some of the current affairs in the outside world that I knew about at that time, as well as some facts about a kingdom (some of which I didn¡¯t know until later). That you would like me to get back to what was going on for us that were inside eggs. But what was going on for us inside eggs, was the new decision that they would not be inside eggs, for much longer.
Some Info: Spoiler : Sorry, once again I got sidetracked by a subject I didn''t think I would get focused on. (I had thought I was done explaining about kingdoms for now) so I planed to just mention the kingdom getting a new and better king but when I started to write about the ''niece'' getting married to another adventurer things really took off and soon exceeded 3,000 words. ...well...(sigh)... I guess a bit more unimportant random info won''t hurt you... Can you believe that I was planing for this chapter to contain some hatching scenes? I can''t be trusted for anything it seems. But there will definitely be some hatching next chapter!..Yes definitely! (what?! No, don''t look at me with those ''well deserved doubtful'' eyes!) Update: Before I forget, I had better mention results of the poll that is ending very soon. Looks like that for the majority of the time you liked the original slightly more, but recently it changed to you guys liking the new version slightly more. (either way they were almost equal in like, according to the poll) My first plan was that I would continue to use the original for the fanfic page, but I would use the ''new'' as the cover of volume one. However if you guys want to, I will change the fanfic page into the new cover. BUT! Please note, that as I plan to make a new cover for every volume, that it probably won''t be up for long. (As volume one will end soon, in a few more chapters FrostyPine time ''take that as you will'') The covers are as you can probably guess for the possibility in the distant future wherein I publish this story as a e-book. However as I still need editors. (and more importantly some courage) that won''t probably happen for quite some time. Volume One Chapter 13: Crucible of Emotional Tempest
***Warning***Spoiler : The next two chapters (including this one) may not be for everyone (that is I don''t think most people will like them) They also do not do anything to further the plot along much or anything...(at least probably from most of yous'' point of view ) most people will think it looks like an info dump (from my experience in past chapters) Despite what I promised NEITHER CONTAIN HATCHING SCENES! Also: I am getting kind of tired about complaints that seem to lack validity or value. Especially as I take the time to answer the complainers questions and don''t get replies back. (If you have a problem with this story, there is a simple solution: " don''t read it" See how easy that was?) To answer the number one complaints: I do not plan this out much, I write mostly through inspiration. Thus there is no regular schedule as to when I will post chapters. And more importantly I don''t decide what I will put into each chapter (It just happens while I write) Thus while I have some ideas as to what and when things will happen I have no exact dates, so asking me is kinda'' useless. And in my opinion, asking things such as: " speed up the story!", "move the plot line along now!", and or "release chapters faster!" Is even more useless... I am not saying that I mind you sharing your opinions with me, just that I am merely thinking that I am getting sort of tired of the multiple people asking the same things over and over (in what looks to me to be a rude way. ) If however you have a very specific question or opinion that hasn''t been used before (or at least much) I would appreciate it if you would post it. Although this and (probably most of ) my future fanfics/web-novels are definitely not reader interactive. (I am too selfish to let others do what they want or make big contributions in that way, as I am mainly doing this to please myself) I will usually accept and at least think about using any ideas that you might like me to do. (though they may not come out exactly as pictured as I will almost definitely put my own spin on it in order to turn it into ''mine''. ) Anyway to continue if I see a comment I don''t like I may not answer nicely, as right now I am in a somewhat of a bad mood... P.S. Basically this and next chapter are about a certain disadvantage the MC discovers about themselves as well as some post hatching preparation
Crucible of Emotional Tempest (The One Conflicted about their Life Choices Made while in Egg) (50 years in total continued) It started not long after my sister really started to develop her psychic abilities. She and those she passed the information she gathered too started to get more and more curious of the outside world. They started to beg me indirectly (directly in my siblings case) for stories. If I wasn¡¯t too focused by what I was doing at the time I would comply and give them various tidbits, that I felt infants would find amusing or entertaining without causing any mental harm. With also a few minor ugly and scary things to make sure that they wouldn¡¯t think the outside world was all happiness and joy. By this time my ¡®brother¡¯ that I have known since the beginning, had ranked up. My brother was somewhat similar in looks to my first ranking a bluish green but he was slightly darker then I had been at that time. My brother had mentioned he was thinking of hatching then, but fear of the outside world as well as his worry about how the others that were unranked would do had he decided to continue to stay. As he had sort of become their leader, the others also decided to stay as well. Unlike what it had been like before we reached out to them it wasn¡¯t really that bad to be inside an egg. Especially with me and my sister sharing ¡®entertainment¡¯ in the form of pictures we had stolen from the outside world. Also by that time I had used my magic to construct mental roadways that allowed any eggling to communicate with the others no matter how little their mental strength was. So it was easy for everyone to chat and day dream with each other. Some eggs even made up little games where one tried to pass along certain mental data and maintain it as much as possible. Such as a certain color they had been shown, or even trying to maintain a certain emotion. Though they did not yet understand things such as hunger or any great sort of pain. They had learned almost all the emotions including such things as jealousy towards my sister and her great abilities and power to choose what to look at. (Though I had put a sort of mental filter on her to prevent her from seeing anything that wouldn¡¯t be appropriate for children). They also had to my embarrassment and slight sadness a large mix of strange emotions towards me, including fear and admiration. Even though unlike my brother they were unable to see what my mind truly looked like on the mental plane it seemed that they still sensed my ¡®difference¡¯ somehow in some way. Soon after things calmed down, my brother overcame his fears and was even more tempted to hatch. However despite my protests and assurances my brother still had one major obstacle that was keeping him from hatching. And that was his love and loyalty towards me, as well as his concern to my welfare. You see I had decided to stay in the egg a bit longer. My brother didn¡¯t want to leave without me, so we were at a bit of a stalemate. Then an event happened that changed not only everyone else''s decision to hatch but the course of my entire life as well. The younger one is the faster one grows, and the easier it is to rank up and gain experiences one your own. This was the reason I had stayed in the egg, and part of the reason I was able to quickly rise from brown to red, and even more quickly jumped from red to orange. To show you a better example of the magnitude of this event I will say that although this was not the greatest of changes that event caused, the most visible side effect that came with this event was a large jump all the way to silver rank. *** I realized shortly after I shared this information with you that I had neglected to mention, or more truthfully purposely didn¡¯t mention, because I was influenced by my powerful mixed emotions, the event that had led to me making such a big jump. It was an event taking place around 25 years after my death. The parents of my past life had died. I had forced myself to witness it from start to conclusion. I am not sure why, perhaps out of a sense of guilt but the more I watched the worse my feelings became. I started my death side when I realized that my ¡®parents¡¯ had started to enter the prematurely frail old age stage in life that I had seen other peasants enter into before including my grandmother the only grandparent I had known. Seeing my parents in such a weak delicate state tempted me immensely to use my dream skills or even some of my selfishly hoarded karma to at the very less, suppress some of the pain they seemed to be experiencing. But I stuck to my principals to not interfere with those from that life and did nothing. Thanks to my hard work in getting them that money so that they were able to buy that inn unlike most peasant elderly they didn¡¯t have to work that hard. However hard work were what they were used to so they forced their fragile human bodies past their limits until the very end. The first to go was my father, I think the fact that he was much older than my mother led me to believe that it was most likely that he died because of old age and the stresses he was always forced by his life circumstances to put on his body. My mother and my younger siblings sat by him at his death bed. I invisibly along with the others heard his creaky frail old voice, speak to his family, and I remembered that distant time in my old life where his voice had been loud and powerful when (though I had been much younger) that voice had made me feel occasional fear as well as guilt as I was ordered to do various things such as work with him in his job in the fields and to as always ¡°Look after your younger siblings son¡±. I remember how he almost never had even a kind word to me, and never one of gratitude if I did well I was just doing the duty sons owed their fathers. In the rare times I did wrong I was not doing my utmost to give him the rights and duties that sons owed their fathers. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Although he was most cold to me, I had loved him. Actually I hadn¡¯t wanted to admit this as it was hindering my chances to put my past behind me and fully embrace starting a new life but¡­because I still had my memories¡­I still loved him even now. The frail voice of that loved one spoke to all my ¡®living¡¯ siblings instructing them in various things for the last time. Some of the things that were talked about I didn¡¯t really understand or know about them. I had been observing my past family merely as a past time, and had not been exactly studying them. Finally he looked to his wife of many years, my mother and said. ¡°I go now to prepare the way for our masters.¡± My mother replied ¡°You shall do your duty most honorably as you have most faithfully in this life¡± Then after looking at the ceiling for a moment he closed his eyes and breathed his last. I think I may have mentioned it, in the very beginning when I first starting to tell my story, but my parents were fairly religious. Though now that I have been around so long and seen many things, I think what they believed in could scarcely be considered a cult let alone a religion. It was basically a form of brainwashing that many nobles had practiced upon their peasants, it was designed that those that succumbed to the indoctrination were supposed to more happily do their work and thus be much more productive then someone who was miserable and merely tolerating their burdens. It had started to be less common even back then, this was partly because of implications of heroes choosing peasant companions. But it was mostly because most of the nobles who were the type to do that sort of thing to their serfs were also usually stingy. And when the pope had gained power he had started charging the nobles a fee for the priests to preform that service. So my parents had been of the slightly minority of adult peasants who had gone through that sort of service. From what I had heard and guessed from those rare times my parents or their ¡°fellows¡± had mentioned it. It started in childhood the noble would force the peasants to give up all their children around a certain age (when they were most malleable). They would be taken from their lives of drudgery (most of them having chores by that time) and take them to a nice beautiful clean building where there would still be chores but also plenty of food, as well as times in the day they would rest and listen to a priest lecture them. I won¡¯t go into much more detail but suffice to say, they would start with scare tactics and then make plenty of what the children can do to avoid experiencing such scary things. To keep things short, what my father meant by ¡°preparing the way¡± was part of that set of beliefs was the idea that only ¡°masters¡± or in other words nobility went to a sort of rewarding afterlife. However a peasant or commoner could obtain great ¡®joys¡¯ in this and the next life buy doing their duty as a worker for their ¡°master¡± and never disobeying. As my father¡¯s master or the lord of the village my family lived in was still alive, he and supposedly the other dead peasants would have to ¡°prepare the way¡± for him. If the master had died before the peasant the proper last words would have been ¡°I go to join those who serve the master.¡± *** As I had thought then that I ¡°knew the truth¡± about the afterlife and that the sole afterlife was reincarnation I was most upset to be reminded of my father¡¯s miserable life. My emotions began to boil inside me and I almost attempted to spend my karma to perform a miracle to save my father¡¯s life or perhaps guarantee him a great one in the next world. But I stopped myself, firstly I reminded myself that I had sworn to practice a policy of noninterference for those I knew personally in this past life. And secondly and more importantly although my father¡¯s life and even death screamed ¡°Injustice¡±. If I did that for my father how was that fair? I had a lot of karma but it was still a limited amount, I couldn¡¯t do that for every human living in an unfair situation at this point in time. Choosing who would live or die, and what their afterlife would be¡­even if the gods didn¡¯t interfere with what I would do, how could I possibly think that I was smart enough, wise enough and understanding enough to know what would be the best thing for well¡­everyone? Of course I didn¡¯t know best for them, I scarcely even believed that I even knew what was best for me. So I stopped watching my family surrounding my father¡¯s dead body in order to mute my temptation to engage in some sort of action. I not only stopped watching my family but everything else as well. I also stopped my training. Basically after cutting my direct communication channels to my siblings as well I just shut myself deep inside my mind and egg and just gave into my emotions. I soon got annoyed by all the status windows that popped up so I did something with my magic in order to disable them. I didn¡¯t want to look at them ever again. I didn¡¯t want to do anything ever again. I could do something but I didn¡¯t. Even if I had done something I probably would have messed something up and ruined everything. I probably couldn¡¯t do anything right at all, even those things in my past life and now which I had thought that I had done right were probably wrong. I was lost in a tempest of pain, guilt and a deep dense sense of depression and hopelessness. I slept sometimes but when I slept I prevented myself from using any dream skills and thus had brief periods where my mind was turned ¡®off¡¯ and got a small respite from myself. Never in either of my lives had I experienced such misery before. I had been the type of person to never let things get them down. But now I was down and I was almost out. And I was thinking frightening thoughts like whether or not I could do something that would¡­end this new life of mine. I was thinking partly that maybe in the next life if I was lucky I wouldn¡¯t have my memories. But mostly I felt that I didn¡¯t deserve it. That I had no right to have a life with such potential while other people lived in such misery¡­and I don¡¯t even do nothing to help them. The small acts of kindness I had occasionally done for others such as those orphans and their new parents I easily dismissed¡­that was just done out of amusement and didn¡¯t really count for anything. So what? I saved a few kids and made a few others happy¡­there were many-many more where they came from and even more than that in worse situations whom I did nothing for. Now and then I would tamp these emotions down but new and even worse ones would take their place. After I regretted not saving my father from this life I started regretting that I hadn¡¯t done more for him in my last life. Maybe he had been right to say that I was a disappointing son when I had made mistakes. Maybe he should have even chastised me more often. Maybe if I had been punished more I could have become the type of person who would have known what the right action was. Maybe since I was in this next life I had no right to still feel that I was their child. I then started to go through everyone who had ever criticized or even insulted me in my past life and one by one said to myself maybe they were right maybe I should have agreed with them rather than rejecting what they had told me. Rather than the occasional sense of distaste I have had for myself in that past, right then I was feeling for the first-time that I hated myself. Right when it felt like I was at the bottom of all existence and that I could probably go no lower, I was suddenly distracted from my self-inflicted ¡®punishment¡¯ by¡­something. It was an odd thing that briefly distracted me from my maelstrom of pain and thoughts. I being used to them tried to back to being completely enmeshed with them but ¡®it¡¯ wouldn¡¯t stop interfering and distracting me. So although I didn¡¯t want to look and see what ¡®it¡¯ was, I soon wanted it to stop even more so I ¡®looked¡¯ up. It was like I was at the bottom of a very deep well and near the ¡®top¡¯ of this well was a small light. I crawled out of my misery a bit more in order to see it better. Once I crawled out, I started to feel better enough that when I tried to go back into the misery once again out of habit, I found I was no longer desensitized to its level and rejected going back. Now even more free of what had held me hostage I started to move towards the light. Once I had ¡®reached¡¯ it I receiving another shock the further pulled me out the cycle of pain and misery I had been caught up in. The light I had been following was my brother. Volume One Chapter 14: Preparing the Way
***Warning***Spoiler : Just a reminder this chapter is probably very boring to most people (especially if they like action) and dislike info dumps Despite what I promised IT DOESN''T" CONTAIN A HATCHING SCENE! Also because right now when I read some of the comments I have started to get into an increasingly bad mood...if I reply or comment to your posts...you may get offended (don''t be surprised if you are not offended either I am unpredictable) I am putting this in because I have been feeling kinda stifled preventing myself to post really rude/mean comments...and I am worried that some might slip past my self control...so you have been warned. oh yeah...let me know what you think and stuff...(if I didn''t scare you off) I appreciate any comments you might make even if it is critical of this story (though I would prefer if you will be very specific of what is wrong if you give me criticism).
Preparing the Way (The Same One: Now With More Hope) (continued) Once I reached my brother, I held back. I had managed to come out of my depths of despair but the effects still lingered I didn¡¯t quite feel up to dealing with my brother. I had the instinctive knowledge, that if my brother made one little move towards me that ended up hurt me, I would shatter and fall back to the abyss. Although it was not the first time I had felt weak, it was the first time that been aware of my weakness that much as well as the first time it had influenced me to the point where I had felt true terror about another person. And this person was someone I had thought previously was completely safe. My brother however as soon as he ¡®saw¡¯ me in this spiritual pane, rushed towards me and enveloped me in his aura. (It was sort of like he was hugging me on a deeper level) when my mind managed to compute that no intentions to harm were forth coming I relaxed, and managed to take even more steps towards recovery. Some of you reading (hearing?) this may be confused. Others may, through misunderstanding or because they completely lack empathy may find humor in it. Think that I am joking, greatly exaggerating or maybe that I am being ¡°childish¡±. I am not. In hindsight what had happened to me was simple. Although I had given things very little thought when my empath and emotional skills increased. They had a much stronger effect then I had realized. Maybe because I had spent so much time with infants not even ¡®born¡¯ infants that hadn¡¯t really experienced much emotion beyond the shallow because they had not yet experienced life much. But I had no clue as to how those skill was affecting me. In my past life I had been a bit sensitive to what others felt but as I was human I had no official skills. And what I had felt had not been much really just the slight almost knowledge of what that person was feeling or what that persons intentions were. I also didn¡¯t really get myself involved with anyone and as a peasant a great deal of the kingdoms suppression effect was tamping down the emotions of commoners so that they didn¡¯t feel as much. So I had not any experience in dealing with so much emotion. I didn¡¯t realize the warning signs as I watched my father die. I didn¡¯t realize that trying to ignore the emotions I had been dealing with after his death would end up as a trigger effect that would slowly drag me down into that ¡®tempest¡¯. I didn¡¯t have the experience. And I didn¡¯t even really realize what had exactly happened, until much later after much reflection and several instances of sudden insight when I witnessed similar (though lesser) events happening to others. All I had felt then at that instant was increasing relief. Like being in a desert and suddenly receiving water being trapped in darkness and suddenly seeing the light. Then when I realized that part of part of the emotions giving relief where coming from my brother. I wondered if what he had experienced when I had accepted his contact was anything similar to what I was feeling now. I turns out I had been in that strange emotional and mental state for over a year. I theorize that it wouldn¡¯t have been quite as bad if I hadn¡¯t been in an egg or cut off contact with the other eggs but at the time I had felt that in the mood I was in I might have unintentionally hurt them or even worse so it had seemed reasonable to do that action which had so greatly contributed to my downfall. It was quite amazing to me that my brother was able to figure out how to use his special talent to break into to my spirit/mind and reach me after only a year. I was so impressed that I suddenly grew quite concerned with the thought that he might have felt even a fraction of what I had felt. But to my relief although he had impressively gotten pass all of my outer shields. I had closed my inner self off enough that according to him he hadn¡¯t felt anything. He also said that the reason he was able to come so far in a year is after they realized something had happened to me, they had all worked together to come up with a way to get to me. This made sense as my brother was too weak to reach me with his mind on his own so he had to have at least one other person supporting him while he broke into my outer mind. But I wondered somewhat why they had all bothered. It shouldn¡¯t have mattered as much to those other than my siblings. Especially sense all the protections I had put in place were self-sustaining and didn¡¯t require me in order to exist. But I was really grateful to them, and so tried to pay them back somewhat by finding the most amusing images and fun other miscellaneous information that I could, to give to them. Later after my hosted ¡®party¡¯ was over¡­and all of us seemed to be happy and relieved that I was back. My brother asked me to explain exactly what happened¡­and why I hadn¡¯t contacted them. I brought him into a more protected corner of the mental web I had created and tried to explain. I had already given him the basics on death. So part of the explanation was that a person I cared for had died. He attempted to comfort me in his clumsy way and feeling my great love for him, before I could stop myself I mentioned that silly phrase my father had said in his last moments about ¡°preparing the way¡±. At the time that phrase had seemed to represent the whole inequality and injustice of my father¡¯s life and death but I didn¡¯t know how to explain that to him especially since I hadn¡¯t told him about my past life. So I fell silent. Then my brother took those words differently then what I had been trying to convey and said something along the lines of: ¡°Is that why you encourage us to go on and hatch without you? Not because you don¡¯t want to be with us but because you want us to prepare the way for you?¡± I was about to answer firmly in the negative when I had a second thought. I was indeed trying to get them to do what they wanted and hatch without me but they had continued through my brother to stubbornly refuse. What if, however instead of just telling them to hatch I gave them a goal to work toward in the real world? If so maybe they would feel more secure and thus be more willing to feel free to hatch without me. ¡°Yes, in a way yes.¡± I answered After this conversation as the main leader of the eggs my brother started to convince them of his new plan. They would hatch soon yes, but they would all hatch together at the same time, after all of them had ranked up at least once. And in the real world they would all stick together as a group, no matter who or where their parents were and together they would ¡°prepare the way¡±, to make things easier for me. My brother had seemed to have gotten inspired and he started working on the training methods I had given him harder than ever. Quite soon after this he ranked up a second time. His second ranking was surprisingly a very dark colored blue, even darker then my color had been from what I could remember of me at that stage.Then soon after my other siblings, including my sister with the abnormal mind sensing abilities ranked up for their first time. My sister was, as we could see from the minds of those who looked at her from the outside (as well my use of dream skills) was a bright yellowish green. The other two males of her triad were also green but of a more ordinary variety. A few years or so after my siblings first ranked up, slowly but surely one by one the others in the eggs also started to rank up. So far besides one male ranking up to a very light blue, the rest were also various shades of green. Then soon after the majority of the others ranked up, my brother ranked up to an even darker purplish-grey-blue and my sister ranked up into a shocking shade of bright violet that was closer to pink. The only thing that had changed had been the hue, her shade had maintained its great vibrancy. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. My brother even more desired to hatch now, and many of the other eggs did as well. They were very curious about the outside world and slowly many activities were beginning to become boring for some especially for the more intelligent ones. But they were determined to stick to the plan and there were still several stragglers that hadn¡¯t ranked up yet. Knowing how annoying it is to have nothing to do, I recommended to my brother that he and the others work on making it so that most mind mages would be unable to read their minds. That way they would be able to keep the promise they had made to me not so long ago, even if a mind mage attempted to read their minds. There were also other skills they could practice or develop while still in the egg that had various user in the real world After that my brother and the other eggs began to train and practice on a much large skill and with all of them involved. Especially when I gave my theories that most of them would lose their ability to communicate psychically when they hatched, and my other theory that they may be able to retain it if they managed to get those sorts of skills to a high level. While my siblings and ¡®friends¡¯ were all busy I decided to overcome my fears and take another look at my past life¡¯s family. I am not sure exactly what brought me to that state previously but as it wasn¡¯t a fatal outcome and I was prepared and would be cautious this time I felt confident enough to be able to look. Before I dream walked I turned my notifications back on deciding that later if I had the time I would read over all the ones I had missed while in that¡­eh¡­¡±state¡±. To my surprise my mother was still alive though she looked the most sickly that I have ever seen her. Her current eldest son had become officially the head of our rather large family and the main owner of the inns they owned. I was happy to watch them busy taking care of the inn and although several times I felt sad about the lack of my father¡¯s presence. The livelier atmosphere and rougher family dynamics were interesting enough to distract me, and I didn¡¯t go anywhere near the state I had been in before. Then a few months after watching over her again she took to complete bedrest. My mother unlike my father wasn¡¯t exactly cold to me, however as said she had been much younger then my father and since she had married him, she had carried a baby a year. In fact around the time of my death, she had been pregnant once again and even for a few years after my death this had continued. Always having at least one human being at various life stages including toddler and infanthood, not to mention the housework the garden and the occasional field work she participated in she was a very busy woman who understandingly had very little time for me. She didn¡¯t have any time for any of her children once they were old enough to take care of themselves she couldn¡¯t afford to. And once I and my siblings had gotten old enough we had to take care of some of the slack by watching over those weaned and younger than us. My father had taken myself and most of the rest of my brothers that were strong enough aside and had taught us how to do various chores. While my sisters had followed my mother around and attempted to copy what she did or watched over the younger siblings while the men were working. Even if I had been alive when they had bought the inn from what I observed she would have had even less time for me. And my father when he didn¡¯t have something to mend at the inn would be off helping his friends with their fieldwork. *** So I wasn¡¯t completely surprised when now that her children and grandchildren had taken over her work for her and she had nothing to do she showed a most kind and nurturing side that had been probably smothered by her busyness before. Then on her death bed I saw a scene a bit different from my father¡¯s. Unlike his where only my siblings and she had been at his side because he had hinted multiple times that he liked quiet. Not only were ¡®all¡¯ and I mean all my siblings and relatives there but also a few gaggles of noisy grandchildren and cousins which she didn¡¯t seem to mind at all. She also seemed much more peaceful and less miserable then my father did despite seeming much sicker and weaker. And now and then she would quietly chat to whomever was standing watch by her side. Then just before she died she said. ¡°Your father is doing our duty as a family taking care of the master, so I feel that I can afford to decide to do what I desire. I wish to to continue to take care of all of you, unfortunately it seems this will soon be no longer possible in this world. So while your father prepares a place in the next world for the master, I shall be trying to discover how to prepare the way for all you loves no matter what the next life entails.¡± Thus one of the greatest amazing women I have ever met passed on from this world and possibly even beyond others. Unlike at my father¡¯s death there was a lot more noise as almost everyone was crying loudly if not silently. If I had been able to cry in the egg I would have, and this time I allowed the sensation of sadness to go through me and I mourned not only her, but also my father and my long lost past life in a most pure and sincere way. After comparing what comparing what all three people had said about ¡°preparing the way¡± my father, my mother and my brother. I realized the words had a much deeper meaning then what I had thought initially, and I decided in order to truly and sincerely accept my new life, I must not think of my past life with regrets but as something that had prepared the way for this life. Then a status update appeared
You have successfully overcome a ¡®Crucible of Emotional Tempest¡¯ Level up! +1¡­ Emotional and Empathy skills Level up! +1¡­ +You have unlocked a subskill: status check (emotional) +You have unlocked a skill: Equilibrium +Your resistance to emotional pain has increased +Your control over emotions has increased +a class change option is now available
Status check (emotional) It is not just others that an empath must empathize with, but most importantly their self. Now you can check your current emotional state in your status and take precautions to avoid going into a state of instability again.
Equilibrium(passive)If one sensitive emotions, feels too much or too little they may go out of balance and cause damage to their self and possibly others
  • helps one to maintain one''s balance even in the event of sudden large emotional changes
  • +5% emotional resistance
  • +10% increase in willpower
Level one
Class Change Option: Empath
One who is sensitive to emotions or who is able to influence the emotions of others can be considered an empath, but only one who has control on when and where such ¡®gifts¡¯ happen is able to work professionally as an empath
Empathy and Emotional Skills Increase faster and are more effective Some social and magic skills will increase faster are more effective Willpower and Charisma stats increase +50% resistance to personal emotional backlash +20% resistance to the negative effects of the emotions of other people +70% resistance to any attacks that affect the emotional state of the target +new skills available +class tree and class evolution and skill options become available Main branch basic class does not prevent you from learning most other skills and classes
Do you want to change class to [Empath]? ***WARNING*** Know that you won¡¯t be able to change your class or add a new class or subclass until a predetermined time after hatching
Yes?No?
Update: I had thought I had already written this update but it seems I had forgotten? Well for anyone who hadn''t read my comments where I explained my self let me just say my comments in the spoiler are mainly because the combo from writing these sorts of emotions as well as my own personal life lead my extreme negative personality to act up and for my self control to slip a bit. So sorry if anyone got offended or even just disliked them, and thank you to all of those who wrote supportive and encouraging comments! You really perked me up. :D Volume One Chapter 15: The Dark and the Lights Spoiler : Sorry for being so late. As I think I mentioned in my other fanfic first I was busy with exams then I got sick (so was out of commission for a few days) and then I lost the data for this chapter (or what this chapter used to look like) then I finally got inspired enough to think up a oneshot to enter in the may compettion (see notes). Finally I was participating in graduating [th_103_.gif] and moving my stuff first to my sister¡¯s house and then to my parents (or ''my'' house). Then what happened is basically I was tired so I decided to have a mini vacation...which course led to a relapse of my laziness disease...I somehow managed to fight off the disease long enough to post that WMAW chapter...but then that ''darned'' disease it got me in its grips again and it has only been this last few days where I have managed to start working on RF again. Once again I surprised myself on how slow this story is moving...believe it or not I have had other stories (though those two RF and WMAW along with the one shot BR, are the only ones I have ''published'' right now. With a lot of these other stories (especially the ones inspired by dreams) I tend to write really fast and don''t usually even use as much words...but so far I have found that with my day-dream inspired stories (examples: WMAW and RF) my tendency to be wordy has a greater influence on my writing, it is also somewhat harder to ''get inspired'' because with my dream based stories I usually ''hear'' the voice of the characters a lot more clearly plus occasionally I will have a rerun on the source material while I sleep which makes it even easier. (though with both types when I attempt to edit it I usually end up with more words instead of less) So get to the point: I have a ton of stories that are just sitting there in storage...plus I have a few ideas that I had recently created and haven''t been put in storage yet -and I was wondering whether I should publish what I have on Royalroad or some other place. Or I could finally start working on my blog/website and put everything there...or I could just wait until everything is more complete. There was also this one idea I had originally designed just for Royalroad but I am now having many second thoughts about actually going through it with it... So basically I am just mulling things over right now...in the near future I may (or may not) make a poll about it and ask you guys what you think I should do (its just something to keep in mind) Note: If anybody is interested I have entered a oneshot in the current competition Behemoth Rodeo (Just know that it is somewhat different in style then what I have portrayed so far) Note1.5: *Just know that below/beyond this point (at least up to note2) is a bunch of crap that I will probably later erase. * Random Crud: Also I have a comment about the oneshot competition I really want to discuss is some of the so called ''critique'' that I have been reading not just on my oneshot but on other peoples oneshots. Comment is this: I find many of these posts very annoying. I am not talking about the ones that point out spelling errors or give suggestions that the authors ask for...although I disagree with some of the suggestions on the whole I find them appropriate. What I am referring to are the comments/''critique'' that find fault with key elements of the story that are what¡¯s making up the story! Let me give an example (on a oneshot I just made up). Oneshot A is about such and such then such, and then the other of A asks for help in making it better/making their writing better. Critic A instead of pointing out problems within the such instead complains about the use of the And. Why do that?! I think, I mean the whole point of Oneshot A is that it follows a such AND such then Such formula, without the ''And'' the whole thing falls apart , you know?...There is even the strong possibility that without the ¡®and¡¯ or something as a substitute that the oneshot becomes a completely different story! It is not the story they are complaining about it is the style of the story...but they offer no clues as to why the style is wrong nor do they advise any appropriate substitutes Another example is with Oneshot B the author has elements that are obviously fictional, things happen in it that would never happen in real life, and the author does not hand hold and tell the readers everything It is the type of story where one has to imagine some things for oneself. Then Critic B complains about things not being "realistic" enough and also that the author does not give enough background information. Come on! It¡¯s an ONESHOT not a full story A ONESHOT! It is not necessary that things be completely utterly realistic (unless one is aiming for that raw style) In short fiction stories especially oneshots limited to under 10,000 words because of it being a competition it is the NORM to fudge the details and to leave things out. Read any famous or ''official'' short story and I guarantee you won''t see fobs of data, and every camouflaged plot hole plugged. Another annoying aspect of Critic B is that is besides complaining about something that doesn''t really have room for complaint is that Mr(s) B is also finding fault with the back bone of the story, if that part they say to chuck wasn''t there then the story would be a completely different story then What it Is! Finally we have oneshot C. This oneshot is sort of a combo of both A and B but it has problems that neither have, there is a tone of spelling and grammar issues, plot holes so big that they even exceed the tolerance of an oneshot and become plot canyons. Or possibly one shot C is absolutely perfect and has no viable problems. So with all of these problems (or lack thereof) you would think that Critic C would have some good advice to give to the C author. But NOOO! (at least in my opinion) instead of help with the problems or pointing out exactly how the author has no problems Critic C instead decides to focus on a teeny tiny part of the story and complains about it...we are talking about approximately 10/10,000 words...that is how minor this part is...and (at least to mine eyes) there is nothing even wrong with theses ten words. Or maybe Critic C is not focusing on the words but a little bit of fictional trivia that has barely anything to do with the plot...it is just a little flavor enhancer but for no given reason Critic C decides to pick a fight about it... Huff-puff sorry about that, I just went a little overboard I guess...but Once again these oneshots I give as examples and their critics are completely fictional but I hope it helps other people to understand my feelings on the ''subject'' Note2: I think this chapter is kind of boring...but (for those who have bothered to read this far) let me explain. In the original version of the chapter (before it was mysteriously lost) it was in MC''s point of view (as one might expect) it was basically about all the eggs (except the MC and a perhaps a couple of extreme newbies) hatching out. It was titled ''To the Outside!'' (a title I will probably still use in a future chapter probably the next). While I can''t remember much about this (dramatic noise) lost chapter. I think it ''wasn''t bad'' but when I decided to try and rewrite it...for some reason I couldn''t manage to do it. At this time I was also writing the chapter of WMAW from the VM''s point of view...which probably was an influence. Now while I had always planed for WMAW to have at least 2 main POV, I had planned for RF to only have one main one and then only use others in the side stories...but then I ended up writing this chapter (and probably the next few) from that one brother''s point of view. So you probably won''t hear from the MC directly until right before they hatch out...(whilst a lot of action is happening) ...hope the new narrator is bearable... To conclude this: I will say that the MC is still going to narrate the majority of the chapters...but apparently now and then there will be a ''mini arc'' (shall we call it?) where a different person will be the POV/narrator Sorry for anybody disappointed The Dark and the Lights (The ''Favorite'' Brother) I had been since the moment I gained consciousness, I was; despite being only barely able to think: unbearably lonely. Though it is blurry to me now, I can still recall not even knowing what lonely was, despite drowning in its daily. It was a case of being so used to lack that one didn¡¯t know one was lacking. But then lowly, ever so slowly I grew stronger, more intelligent and eventually even being able to be capable of understanding. This state of almost consciousness came in small waves, the intermissions decreasing slightly with each peak in frequency. The main reason I don¡¯t remember much of this time is because there wasn¡¯t really much that was there for me to remember. Most of my time was spent in a sort of ¡®endless¡¯ dream. A dream without any ups or downs, a dream without any knowledge. A dream of pure innocence but also a dream of deep ignorance. But this state couldn¡¯t be maintained, and eventually one then most of my almost conscious states grew long enough for me to actually start the process of gaining memories, gaining knowledge. The first memory was probably the knowledge of my own existence. Though I couldn¡¯t think about it much without ending up in a confused circle. I had started to realize that there must be a ¡®me¡¯ although I was unable to put words to this concept of ¡®self¡¯ I still gained a small amount of comprehension of my own existence. It was a most tiny germ of a germ idea, but it was still something that allowed me to store the concept that there ¡®was¡¯ ¡®something¡¯ thinking and feeling things and this ¡®was¡¯ was myself. Soon after this first understanding the pain from the loneliness briefly got worse, but I quickly acclimatized myself to not noticing it again. From this concept of ¡®self¡¯ in my still brief though longer periods of consciousness I started to develop a concept of ¡®non-self¡¯. This concept included such things as ¡®darkness¡¯ and ¡®sound¡¯ or sometimes the lack of sound. Most importantly eventually it included anything that was not of my ¡®mind¡¯ or ¡®body¡¯ once I realized that some of the sensations I was feeling was because of certain ¡®input¡¯ I was receiving from another part of self, that unlike my mind was more concrete and had boundaries. It was this idea of my ¡®body¡¯ and ¡®boundaries¡¯ that soon led me to the path that led me to the concept of ¡®others¡¯. After I realized and acknowledged the concepts of self and non-self, I started to notice a non-self that was different from what I had already categorized. The main reason this non-self was different, was because unlike those prior to it, it was not something always present but something intermittent. Sometimes in my conscious time I could almost feel it, other times I could not. Sometimes it even seemed to awake me from my unconscious state, especially during times it was more ¡®active¡¯ or ¡®energetic¡¯. Which brings me to the other unique trait of this non-other. Not only was it intermittent in its duration of appearance it was also irregular in the size or type of the feeling I got from it. Sometimes it was most easy to sense, other times unless I was concentrating really carefully and powerfully I couldn¡¯t sense it at all, and even with the focus I could only sense it barely. Actually it was during one of those times where I was reaching to sense it that I had my next major breakthrough. I was trying so hard to sense it that my mind somehow went beyond itself, as soon as it did I felt this warm glow within myself suddenly appearing. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. This warm glow seemed to make me stronger and after drawing off its energy and attempting to sense the strange non-self again, I found myself suddenly stunned by something I would later know to consider ¡®light¡¯. I am not ashamed to say that I was absolutely terrified and almost immediately broke my mind probe. Why should I feel ashamed of how I felt then? I was only a baby after all. After this event for what felt like a long time I hid within myself, and I tried to concentrate on my prior activities excluding sensing for that strange non-self. But soon two new concept grew within me that were detrimental to maintaining my seclusion. They were (dramatic pause) ¡®boredom¡¯ and ¡®curiosity¡¯. Both came about because I had gotten a small taste of something completely and utterly different then what I had experienced so far. Curiosity because I increasingly almost to the point of desperation wanted to know more about those ¡®new¡¯ things, and boredom because I was preventing myself from indulging in that curiosity and was instead trying to do the same old things I had already done before. Eventually of course curiosity and boredom conquered me and I soon found myself once again focusing my mind. I instinctively realized that it didn¡¯t make sense to try to sense that unreliable ¡®non-self¡¯ but instead it would be a much better idea to use my energy to make another mind probe and to ¡®see¡¯ what I could ¡®see¡¯. I don¡¯t know how many attempts it took until I managed, what I had before done accidentally, but this time on purpose but I don¡¯t think it took that long because I hadn¡¯t even started to get bored again before I managed it. Once again I found myself experiencing ¡®light¡¯. But this time instead of running away in fear I managed to get a hold of myself and maintain my ¡®location¡¯ and just ¡®observe¡¯. I soon realized a few things, although the ¡®light¡¯ was everywhere it did not cover ¡®everywhere¡¯ and in fact the much more familiar ¡®darkness¡¯ actually had greater quantities then the ¡®light¡¯. Eventually I even managed to comprehend that the light wasn¡¯t ¡®light¡¯ in fact the light was more truthfully ¡®lights¡¯. I ¡®looked¡¯ at all of the lights, and thought/felt they were beautiful, gazing at those lights for the first time I felt something that I would later identify as ¡®happiness¡¯. For what seemed like an endless amount of time I observed the lights, basking in their glow I was warmed from the inside out. Then while I was for some unknown reason focusing on two lights in particular and then comparing them, suddenly something in my thoughts ¡®clicked¡¯ and with that my warmth was quenched by a abrupt overflow of fear and for the second time I made a retreat back into myself. This time my seclusion was a lot shorter, mostly because there had been no danger so far, my experiences had planted in me a small sprout of courage, and with the knowledge of the boredom consequence and the curiosity temptation I was soon more than ready to try again. This time prepared to see things with slightly less innocent ¡®eyes¡¯. Once I was out and observing again I confirmed the concept that caused my instinctive fear. This concept unlike that of my concept of self and non-self-had been quite shocking and alien. This concept was one that pertained to ¡®size¡¯. I am not sure why but something in me told me that I didn¡¯t have to be concerned about the little ¡®lights¡¯ that were ¡®close by¡¯, and that I also probably didn¡¯t have to worry about the bigger lights that were ¡®far away¡¯. But this ¡®instinct¡¯ told me that the ¡®huge¡¯ light that was bigger than most of the bigger lights combined was most likely extremely dangerous. Of course I didn¡¯t really know what ¡®danger¡¯ was back then, but my mostly untapped instincts knew exactly what danger was, and preformed their purpose as life preservation aids by flooding me with fear to get me to avoid that huge light. So having been taught by that life preserving triggered fear, I decided to be most careful in avoiding that huge light. However I continued to observe it and the other lights. Eventually boredom crept on me again, but although I still thought the lights were beautiful none of the lights seemed to ¡®do¡¯ anything. Thus I didn¡¯t really think about doing anything myself. Then one day as I was watching the lights a majority of the little lights vanished. After I realized that the lights could ¡®do¡¯ things I gained curiosity towards them, but other than some vanishing they still didn¡¯t seem to move, so if I wanted to find out more I would have to be the one to do the moving. So curiosity dragged me to cautiously attempt to ¡®touch¡¯ one of the small remaining ¡®nearby¡¯ lights. But I soon ran into a problem. Despite being ¡®close¡¯ (my concept of distance developed around the same time as my concept of size so I had some rudimentary form of measurement even back then) I still could not reach those lights with my mind probe. The length of my mind reach was and is (even to this day) shamefully short. However despite my lack, I didn¡¯t give up and instead tried to lengthen myself by ¡®stretching¡¯. After a certain amount of stretching there was a ¡®snap¡¯ and I suddenly found myself back inside myself while really and truly experiencing the concept of ¡®pain¡¯ for the first time. The pain was quickly over but it had left quite the impression on me, it had made me learn its lesson much deeper then fear had. But I was quickly able to calculate that so long as I didn¡¯t go as far as I had last time there shouldn¡¯t be any pain when I stretched, a prediction that was soon easily confirmed. However having the knowledge didn¡¯t get me any closer to the light I was reaching for. But when I casually tried again to stretch farther I found too my surprise that I was able to go farther than I had been able to before. So much father that through my excitement I soon heard the ¡®snap¡¯ again and felt its accompanying pain. What followed should be obvious. I would stretch until it ¡®snapped¡¯ and then I would repeat the process, each time ending up a little closer to my goal. However after each time the amount of increase in range decreased until I was barely improving each time, and then until it seemed almost worthless to do as I couldn¡¯t see any betterment at all. But despite this depressing news I continued to keep at it until finally I reached my goal I was able after completely stretching myself out able to barely brush the edge of the light I had aimed for. As soon as I managed to ¡®touch¡¯ the light was suddenly somehow unreachable again. I was confused but as my state hadn¡¯t changed there was only one answer. The light must have moved. Although ¡®I¡¯ was unable to touch it, I could still ¡®look¡¯ at it. I studied it for a long time and then after a while the light slowly ¡®floated¡¯ back into its original place, but as soon as I touched it again it would once again become unavailable to anything but looking. Eventually, after several times I gave up and just decided to watch it. While I started to feel disappointed, for what was probably the first time, and had also felt the beginning stirring of boredom I was determined and sure that there had to be ¡®more¡¯ to the light then what I was getting. Some sort of secret that would explain to me what made this non-self, light and thus different from myself and darkness. Just when I had run over this thought in my head, I felt it again. That strange non-self that had inadvertently inspired me to go outside myself. Instead of stopping the stretching and thus my ability to look at the light closely, I instead held myself still. And unlike what my instincts were screaming me to accept the non-self-did nothing to me, it was like it didn¡¯t even see me. I then noticed that the light had ¡®dimmed¡¯. Almost like it was afraid. That¡¯s when I had my next big revelation. The light and probably all lights were like me. They could feel afraid. That is why the light moved everytime I touched it, it probably had instincts as well and was afraid of me. That¡¯s when getting a question of sorts I looked at myself for the first time in order to get answers. I saw that I, though nowhere near that huge scary light in size, was still actually much larger then all of the little lights I could see, and probably some of the lights in the distance that I mostly couldn¡¯t. I wondered then if this theory was correct, because if these lights were like me why did they continue to be afraid? Did they not get curious? Why didn¡¯t they reach for me when I tried to reach for them? Then the loneliness attacked me with more pain then any of the other times combined. Once I had accepted and dismissed that familiar feeling. I formed a new theory, while the lights were indeed like me in some ways, and the seemed to also ¡®feel¡¯ and possibly they even had selves. They were the same as what I had thought from the beginning they were non-self. They were not me. And because they were not me they were basically random variables that I had no control or concept of. This scared me because if they were like me, even if they were not me, what if what whatever made the majority of the other little lights vanished happened to me? Not wanting to believe these ideas I decided to try and attempt to reach the other lights. Eventually I succeeded with several others, but most were too far away. But for the ones I did succeed with on the whole I was disappointed. Most were like that first light and were terrified of me and would always ¡®hide¡¯ when I came ¡®near¡¯. However with one I could somewhat say it was a success. This light was slightly brighter than the other little lights, and unlike the others when I reached out to them they also reached out to me. Just like how I could guess how the others were ¡®afraid¡¯ I was somehow able to tell that they like me were curious. However unlike me they didn¡¯t seem as curious, and they also didn¡¯t seem to ever get afflicted with boredom. When I was reaching for them, they seemed to accept it. But when getting frustrated with my lack of advancement with them, they never also seemed frustrated. Just confused at my state, it seemed like they couldn¡¯t recognize it. I myself couldn¡¯t recognize my frustration because with the limited amount of things I had learned in my small lifetime there was no reason for me to be frustrated. This bright little light was a new experience, and unlike the other lights it was willing to interact with me. I should have been totally satisfied. However I was increasingly and overwhelmingly dissatisfied to the point that I gave up on it and returned to myself to ¡®rest¡¯ although I never really seemed to need to rest I was still somewhat able to do it. This time, after focusing on myself there was a difference. That warm energy that I had used before to go outside of myself, was still there but this time I actually studied it. Because ¡®I¡¯ had created it I had immediately categorized it as myself and then dismissed it from thought. But now that I studied it I realized that though I created it was not of myself and should have gone under the category of non-self. I wanted to ¡®play¡¯ with it but then my instinct interfered again and I became too afraid to. But thinking about non-selves got me thinking of that mysterious non-self I occasionally still felt. I decided to begin from the beginning as it were and to once again focus on sensing it. After waiting quite a while I felt its presence. I immediately went out of myself, this time instead of being distracted by other things I followed the presence to its source¡­and found a shocking discovery. The presence I had been sensing, my unofficial instructor and guide was the terrifying huge light. Volume One Chapter 16: Dazzling Spoiler : So because of what I read in the comment area recently I am reminded of some really good advice that I often give myself. If it looks like you won''t like something then DON''T READ IT and also, if you can''t stop yourself from reading it and you dislike parts of it SKIP THE PARTS YOU DISLIKE :-rpendraguinRocker:- This of course includes these random things that I put in my spoilers (which strangely enough don''t always include spoilers) So basically if you dislike anything I write you don''t have to read it. In fact I insist that you don''t read it or at least I would prefer you skip most of it... Also another warning I probably will end up offending most of you at some point at time...if not this time then definitely a next time...apologies for that and know that it''s not personal or your fault. It is probably because of the weird way I think or word things *** So I have been noticing several ''new'' fanfics on this site with prologues large enough to come in parts. And so I wondered ... -_- if my long prologue disease is infectious? [th_0pride.gif] Just kid''en Now give you guys a little ''lecture'' :keh: Basically there seems to be some reasons who get a most odd idea. What idea am I talking about? :ano: It is elementary my dear persons'' some people seem to be under the misconception, that they have control over this story :keih: Actually some people even seem to think that they are the writer! :haiha: While I completely admit that I am open to suggestions and advice and that I will even on occasion accommodate some of my readers¡¯ wishes. -_- That is far from meaning that will do anything someone tells me to It also does not mean that I am going to do anything (or not do anything) just because someone says they don''t like it [th_057_.gif] Now besides informing the peanut gallery/backseat driving people of the very obvious secret that when it comes to my fanfics I am in control I also have a message that relates to almost everybody who reads my work, especially you :gimme: "moar-moar-now" guys because you seemed to have missed the memo (or several memos) I currently do not have a schedule I write when "I feel like it" or when inspiration takes me (like when the characters talk to me) I will try to write a chapter a month at MINIMUM THUS I HAVE NO CLUE WHEN I WILL HAVE A NEW CHAPTER UNTIL I AM ACTUALLY WRITING ONE!! And this will probably not change, at least anytime in the foreseeable future Also I am doing this: For fun To express myself To vent or get stress relief To hopefully force me to develop writing skills For entertainment (and because I like the non-monetary material rewards it brings) I am not doing this: As a Job (I don''t expect money and right now I am not selling any of my work or asking for donations) Professionally (mostly because I don''t think I am of professional quality) With the intention to please anyone but myself (obvious right? I think it''s the way to go because other ways are impossible) For insults (although I like criticism I really dislike it if people say I am doing something bad without saying specifically how) And now some more embarrassing admissions :blush: I am not sure how apparent it is (because there are a lot of non-English speakers) but I have many problems and weaknesses when it comes to writing: Sentence structure and grammar (also little mistakes like wrong words, misspellings and repetitions) Example: right now I am struggling with to vs. too Giving too little detail or more often too much (you guys like to call them info dumps) Not sure what to call it but-(it is easy to misunderstand/interpret what I am trying to convey even to the point of me giving the complete opposite of what I actually intended) [th_114_.gif] Once again just because I acknowledge my weaknesses, and even if you point them out to me (doesn''t matter if they are on that list or not) IT DOESN''T MEAN I WILL FIX THEM ***The only thing that I can probably guarantee is that at the very least I will always try to take the time to read whatever comments or critiques that you might leave me. I will also usually try to let you know that I have indeed read them by replying back (usually in the comments area but I might pm you especially if you request it)*** To conclude:
Quote:This is not a Democracy it is an Autocracy
I AM THE ALL POWERFUL GAME MASTER/AUTHOR YOU GUYS ARE JUST THE READERS/LEACHERS/FIC-ADDICTS UNDER MY DOMINION (some of you even admit it) MUAHAHAH HA HA ha ha...ha... [th_0v.gif] Glad I got that out of my system lol If you hadn''t noticed a lot of that was me just fooling around because playing with the smilies got me overexcited :D Dazzling (Hey it¡¯s me MO, Hellen Keller moment, anyone?) (The curious innocent brother) At first my mind refused to accept it. So instinctively afraid I was of that existence that my mind immediately tried to push me into denial. But I had already somewhat conquered my feelings of that light and besides my two companion¡¯s curiosity and boredom had already started to nudge me. ¡°Isn¡¯t this exactly what we wanted? A new thing to ¡®see¡¯ something that we can be entertained and satisfied by? If we don¡¯t go our hunger ¡®to know¡¯ will never be fulfilled¡± curiosity wordlessly whined ¡°If we don¡¯t go not only will we remain unsatisfied but things will continue to be, exactly as they have been so far. Exactly the same¡± Boredom threatened me Confronted by two such fearful yet temping beasts, and possessing my small sprout of courage I could do no other but try to reach the huge light. Actually since the huge light had always been much closer than the other lights, it wasn¡¯t so much an attempt then it was a doable challenge. I slowly allowed my mind probe to make my way towards the huge light. It was a good thing that I had been going slowly because I was only slightly over halfway there when I ran into a barrier. As it was I felt a small pain comparable to ¡®bumping my head¡¯ and I was startled enough to stop. However, although I had yet to really know this; barriers, even the Huge Light¡¯s barrier never really cause any problems for me. I can¡¯t really describe how I got through except to say it was something really natural and instinctive and for me it was almost effortless to do. Then once I got past the barrier I suddenly felt something strange¡­it was a non-self that wasn¡¯t the huge light but something else. Now with all my knowledge if I were to describe it I would say that it was a being that was mechanical in taste. Something that although in a way it had a ¡®mind¡¯ it definitely did not possess a soul. The being shot feelings at me that I roughly translate as asking ¡®my intentions¡¯. I immediately thought things such as ¡®to reach the huge light¡¯ and ¡®to attempt to communicate¡¯. The ¡®thing¡¯ read my mind easily and then I felt it give a sort of ¡®confirmation¡¯ and then it vanished in the direction of the huge light. Soon after a large psychic construct similar to my mind probe headed in my direction. *** At first my interactions with the light were just everything I had hoped for, and then I was given things that I never could even dream to have. In my first encounter, the huge light just seemed to study me¡­and then for the first time in my existence I had something attempt to communicate with me instead of the other way around. Stolen novel; please report. However at that time I didn¡¯t really realize what it was doing or even what I had had been doing before. But I was plenty entertained, was completely free of boredom and most importantly (at that time) it continually engaged and satisfied my curiosity. The Huge Light would send many feelings towards me both familiar and unfamiliar it would also send me strange beautiful things I would later call ¡®pictures¡¯ or ¡®images¡¯. Sometimes as a special treat it would even give me such things as ¡®music¡¯. But most curious of all sometimes it would ¡°speak¡±. The voice it had was so beautiful even now my words fail to accurately describe it. It was like sunlight hitting pure clear water and dancing on the surface, divine bells ringing to the sound of holy flutes playing. Each time one heard it, you lost your appetite, not because you couldn¡¯t handle it but because it handled you so well that you felt satisfied to the point that you no longer needed food. Yes, the voice was that amazing. I think part of the reason it took me so long to realize what the light was trying to do was because I was so enraptured by that voice that I couldn¡¯t think about anything else. But then one day while I was ¡®pressing¡¯ the light a bit, by forcefully concentrating on my own greedy desire to hear their music , while knowing they would be able to feel it and hoping that they would then decide to give me what I wanted. The voice said something accompanied by strong negative emotions and it ¡°clicked¡± in my head what they were meaning. ¡°No.¡± They said No? I sent the feeling back as I couldn¡¯t speak at that time ¡°Yes, No.¡± I got in return In order to confirm my understanding, I tried to concentrate on my desire once more though this time not as strongly as at that moment I wanted the knowledge more then I wanted music. ¡°No.¡± The light immediately responded I then happily agreed and sent back a wordless ¡°yes¡± After that a ¡®game¡¯ started where the light would use various emotions with the occasional picture to ¡°ask¡± a question. And then I would answer yes or no. I am not sure how long it took but eventually I understood that the light was asking me about my experiences with the other lights. While replying I realized something, exchanging feelings, emotions and images with the light was very satisfying and gave me contentment. In contrast whenever I would ¡®send¡¯ to the little lights I would feel a strong sense of frustration to the point where I was almost in pain from it. After thinking about this contrast I realized the reason was because unlike my exchanges with the little lights. I was actually getting things back rather than just giving and giving and not really getting much of anything but more confusion in return. With each exchange with the big light however I was ¡®gaining¡¯ something, I didn¡¯t always understand what I was gaining but I could always feel that I had indeed gotten something. I was suddenly filled with a joyful feeling that I would later call ¡°gratitude¡± and at the same time I recognized something else. My perception of the Huge Light had completely changed. Where I once felt only fear and ¡®threat of danger¡¯ I now felt happiness gratitude and affection. Where I once saw it as something scary and terrifying I now ¡®saw¡¯ the Huge Light¡¯s appearance as something as beautiful and dazzling. *** Although I later would wonder if the Huge Light saw themselves the way I did, at the time I was in a most immature state, so it was somewhat rare for me to even think of anything beyond myself. Actually my way of thinking was very understandable even not taking my age into account, because before I met the light the only ¡®solid¡¯ thing in my world had been myself. The ¡°yes and no game¡± continued and it was never boring. Even if the same thing was repeated multiple times in a row because it came from out of that heavenly voice that was created by the dazzling light, it never got old. Then in what was probably due course things ¡°clicked¡± for me yet again. The light wasn¡¯t mostly just sending random feelings and pictures like I was (unless I was ¡®answering). Similar to the ¡°yes¡± and ¡°no¡± in the beginning the light would give a sound and at the same time it would give ¡°meanings¡± to go with that sound. It was then that we really started to communicate I think that it especially got efficient when I realized there were more ways to address each other than ¡°self¡± and ¡°non-self¡±. It was then that I got my first designation, the light called me ¡°brother¡± soon after I connected myself to the moniker ¡°brother¡± I realized the light¡¯s preference for themselves that of ¡°sister¡±. Soon after I realized both these facts then I attempted to directly communicate with my own ¡°voice¡±. The rare times I was ¡®alone¡¯ I had practiced being able to use ¡®voice¡¯. At first I just mimicked my sister''s voice, but when I tried using it I felt uneasy¡­like it wasn¡¯t ¡°right¡± for me to do so. So I tried to alter the purity a bit, or in other words I instinctively ¡°toned things down a few notches¡± as well as altering the pitch a bit. What resulted was a voice I found acceptable. I then proceeded to practice using it a few times before presenting it to sister. What followed was a conversation that explained what one of the current mysteries of my existence: that of loneliness. I realized that painful feeling I had, like almost everything else also had a label, and more importantly; being able to be with sister made the feeling go away. When I learned that ¡°sister¡± also felt the loneliness as well as its retreat, I started to feel ¡°closer¡± to sister and I also started to feel a bit of empathy for the first time. *** With my newly grown empathy I started to think about contacting the little lights again, however my desire to be with and learn from sister was larger than my idea to see if I could communicate with the others now that I had more knowledge. So I continued to learn, and I learned many various things a majority of which I didn¡¯t completely understand at least at the time. However for all at minimum I did usually at least have an idea as to its meaning. Much of which I learned was about our own race, and thus I was able to rely on my own instincts in order to get a feel for it. I would later look upon these lessons with puzzlement because strangely sister taught in such a way that if you did not know what she was, you would think that she wasn¡¯t a gem dragon teaching about my sister''s own kind but someone from outside the race making conclusions from clinical observations and from reading books. However in my infantile state I just accepted everything she told me without argument or thought to its style or source and just focused on trying to remember it. Soon along with words and their meanings she also showed me the simplest versions of their written form. Or in other words she was teaching me literacy. Fortunately for me, learning these pictures and symbols and the objects or concepts they matched up, to was much easier than learning ¡®just¡¯ words, as visual had always been easier for me to understand then auditory/listening. Once the act of reading clicked together into working ability in my head, I heard a strange jarring chiming or ringing noise and a strange visual appeared in front of me.
Minimum requirements have been met Status screen access has been unlocked +Status Access 1st degree: Clearance level (low) +Identification preliminary degree: Clearance restricted
Note: I am not sure if this is a complete chapter yet...I may add more too it...or maybe not I will have to wait and see if the next chapter feels too long...if so I will chop off some of the top and add it this bottom Deiku na deci ne eari ka ''pa Volume One Chapter 17: A Quest after Requests A Quest after Requests (Brother¡¯s story continues) After the first strange visual, that I only much later learned was most often referred to as window popped up. A construct with a message that I could only somewhat understand, many windows started appearing whether I liked it or not. They appeared most often after my lessons with Sister, a common example would usually appear right after I had just gotten sleepy from the work I was doing and often lead to me getting a head ache.
Notice recent activities has resulted in the following stat increases Intelligence +1 Will Power +1
They were so annoying that I thought of bothering Sister outside of our ¡®class time¡¯ to see if they had anything that could help me. But since I was still a bit cautious when it came to Sister for various reasons (mostly because I still couldn¡¯t shake off the instincts that arose from the vast differences between our strengths). But the main reason for my caution was not the old reasons I had since the beginning but because they seemed to have some influence or control over the appearance of the windows. For example one time Sister told me ¡°You remember flower right? Please show Sister that you do. Give me a picture of a flower with the word flower on it¡± Suddenly there was that strange startling ¡°ding¡± noise and sure enough a window appeared
Request Sister wants you to make and give to her a picture of a flower with the word flower located on it somewhere. Rewards: +experience +Difficulty increase in requests + increased access to information about flowers in the status database, +intimacy with Sister Possible failure results: +experience +Challenge level is maintained or possibly decreases +flowers maybe become an unlucky object for you +intimacy with Sister may decrease
During the times that Sister slept or somehow ¡®learned¡¯ without me, I discovered that I could turn off the windows that occasionally appeared when I attempted to practice on my own. However a bit terrifying was the fact that no matter what I tried I could never do anything to the windows caused by Sister. After an unknown period of time, it became extremely easy to communicate with sister and I was even able to take some of what I already knew aside to look at it anew. And then eventually use it to come up with my own conclusions and thus ¡®learn¡¯ on my own. At this point, although in general any time spent with sister was never boring, the repetitions I did to satisfy them were, and thus my old companion¡¯s boredom and curiosity reared up again. And I started to once again think about existence outside myself and sister. I still had the desire to interact with the other little lights, and with my experiences of sister amplifying my power to use as a comfort I knew I probably wouldn¡¯t have to worry about struggling to reach them. However other than our first few conversations about the others. Sister often expressed a bit of hesitancy or possibly even dislike of talking about the others or the idea of talking to the others. So I was a bit worried about their reaction to my asking, but I was much stronger and more informed at this time so it didn¡¯t take long for me to get over this fear. ¡°Sister¡± I said ¡°I want to talk to the others¡± I sent a picture of the little lights to clarify ¡°others¡± ¡°Do you want me to talk to them?¡± Sister said ¡°No¡± I immediately clarified proudly ¡°I want to talk to them by myself, I just wanted sister to know.¡± ¡°If so then you will do all the talking Sister will just help you to ¡®get there¡±
Status data is uploading¡­finished
New Quest You plan to seek out the others to teach and learn from them. Success Requirements: Successfully teach the 5 nearby others [optional] learn from them Failure Requirements: ??? Rewards: +Increased stats +intimacy with others Possible failure results: +others may become hostile +intimacy with Sister may increase
Ignoring the pop up as I usually did, while annoyed because I had thought I had stopped them but apparently I was wrong, I showed them a picture of the intended target. I had decided to start out with the other that had been the most open or ¡®welcoming¡¯ to me. The one that didn¡¯t seem to get upset like I did about our inability to communicate. I probably had an unconscious idea that, this other¡¯s laid back inability to be shocked or concerned was a good thing. As soon as I started to ¡®move¡¯ towards the other, I felt Sister¡¯s power backing me up and my movement became easy and smooth and there was no pain or sense of limitation. In fact I had the heady thought that I could pick any direction I wanted and would be able to go on forever. But I shelved this idea for later and quickly reached the other. When my mind touch theirs I felt Sister using me to do the same. For some reason I got the sense that they found something about this other or my current situation with this other very amusing, but when I inquired what was funny. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°The other is female and you are a male and she is the first one you go to¡± but when this answer was conveyed with even more contained humor. I still didn¡¯t get it. ¡°What is female? And what is she?¡± I asked ¡°pft!...well eh I will explain things later, but it¡¯s not important carry on.¡± Was what I got in reply. Shrugging to myself I once again tried to communicate with this other, but this time I knew what I was doing. And to my surprise once the other realized something of what I was trying to do they got curious, themselves and my teaching went much faster. Once I got the basics done, I tried to tell the other that I would be back and then left to try to do the same with the other lights. With each new ¡®student¡¯ or ¡®friend¡¯ the process got faster and by the end, the fifth and last of the nearby others that I was capable of reaching learned about 2 times as fast as the first one did. Although when I spoke of this proudly to Sister, they merely mumbled something to themselves I couldn¡¯t understand about intelligence levels and a ¡°good job¡± that didn¡¯t exactly make me happy as it sounded kind of empty of feeling (insincere). After we could all communicate with each other, Sister suggested to me that I think up Nick-names or titles to call them by. After I questioned them as to what they meant, they explained but then added that ¡®official names¡¯ should be given by the parents or by ourselves when we were older but it would be confusing to call everybody ¡®other¡¯. In the end we had a meeting and to summarize, we called the first one I talked to ¡®Little Light¡¯ and the other 4 were Blinker, Shout, Hide, and Pain. To keep things simple as suggested by Sister they called me Brother, however unlike what they suggested, instead of calling them Sister the others decided unanimously to call them ¡®Huge Light¡¯. I was a bit annoyed at this, as Sister seemed to dislike the word huge. However Sister said to me that they didn¡¯t care what they were called and it didn¡¯t matter as Sister didn¡¯t really directly talk to them anyway. ¡°Besides, when they get older I will come up with and give them nicknames that they really dislike in revenge¡± Sister said matter-of-factly Although I didn¡¯t understand this completely, I accepted that Sister wasn¡¯t really angry about it and that was all that really mattered. Sister also came up with a moniker to call the group of the whole ¡°We are unhatched¡± she said simply During this time of us getting to know and learn from each other Sister was a mostly silent but completely necessary presence as the majority of us (especially me) did not have the length and power in our minds to reach each other easily. We especially didn¡¯t have the mental stamina to maintain it. However Sister easily ¡®connected¡¯ us so that even when Sister was doing something else, we could still communicate with each other. And this was especially important as Sister was now a days most often doing something else. Because we all slept much of the time (myself included) and because I had become something of a leader to the other unhatched and thus they often wanted my attention, my time with Sister became increasingly rare and short. As I had been in such close and near constant contact with Sister up to this point, when they left I felt lonely in a whole new way. It got to the point that whenever I felt that they were ¡®available¡¯ I would stop or ¡®drop¡¯ whatever I was doing and immediately go to talk to them. If my fear of Sister hadn¡¯t still lingered I probably would have selfishly begged her to be around more often. But my experiences with the other unhatched showed me how annoying that could be and I just couldn¡¯t desire the idea of making ¡®Huge Light¡¯ upset. So whenever I could I would ask for advice over my various small petty problems or sometimes we would just chat. Occasionally I would get to learn a new word or other bit of knowledge that I didn¡¯t know before. Sometimes we wouldn¡¯t speak of anything important or educational, it could even be nonsense! But always when I needed them they would be there, and their advice to my untrained eye always seemed completely correct. Shout and Pain getting annoying? Using a thing called ¡®the silent treatment¡¯ worked like a charm. Hide and Little Light being ¡®too quiet¡¯? Sister would temporarily deepen the link they had formed between us, to the point where I could almost feel their emotions, soon using this I was able to encourage them into as Sister called it; ''participating''. They always had a solution and unlike myself they never really seemed that uncertain or confused. They were always calm, even when something that should have been ¡®world shaking happened¡¯. One day they said to me in a bored tone of voice ¡°Before I forget, I had better warn you, so you can tell the rest of the unhatched. More nearby others are coming. In other words there are going to be more unhatched¡±
Kind of short I know...but I decided after I received a begging/pleading email (you know who you are) that as soon as I got at least 1,500 words I would post... Plus I felt guilty because I haven''t gotten as much done as I planned too. Question: Was there announcement I missed? Because I just noticed that Royalroad went and added automatic page navigation making my originals redundant Update: Hope you commenters don''t mind...but I decided to reply to all the comments I was too lazy to bother with replying to before Volume One Chapter 18: Family Bonds Family Bonds (The One Called Brother) Spoiler : So here is a page about carnations just in case anyone is interested: Carnations Just so you know the flower I picture for the main character is one of those white ones you stick in colored water¡­then they suck up the water and turn that color. A while ago I took a look at this one recommendation page to see if there was any new recommendations (because I had temporarily run out of things to read) and gasp (shock!) the person had put Reincarnation Flower on it¡­(This is referred to as meta or something right?) For people wondering what the holdup is, I shall explain it in this way: In my writing cultivation I have started to run into a bottleneck blocking my way to the next level of enlightenment. (The temptation of cultivating other styles isn¡¯t part of the delay at all¡­yesss~) More nearby others are coming? It took me quite a while to figure out exactly what this meant partly because I didn¡¯t really understand the concept of others completely and I definitely did not understand the idea of there being more of them. It wasn¡¯t until much later when the new ones started to gain their own consciousness that I was truly able to grasp the idea. It seemed instantaneous but it probably wasn¡¯t. Seemly one moment I felt complete emptiness in the mental plain in some places and then the next thing I noticed was that suddenly some of those formerly ''empty'' places were filled with minds that I had not felt before. There were also a lot more minds then I had ever felt before. There were even more in comparison to that dimly remembered time when most of the unhatched vanished. I decided almost immediately to investigate. When I went to study these minds I learned that age really does make a difference. These minds while they could rudimentary convey feelings couldn¡¯t really do much else, or really learn. It wasn¡¯t until much later that they started to have a likeness that was similar to what the others had in the beginning and they started to be able to slowly learn. I had two new advantages in teaching these new ones communication and knowledge. First of all I wasn¡¯t alone, soon after I first started my attempts at communication the other 5 learned unhatched decided to treat it like a game and join me. The second advantage was unlike the original 5 and I, these new ones had no sense of fear or hesitancy. They were well used to experiencing our minds touch theirs and because we didn¡¯t act afraid of ¡°Huge Light¡± they soon didn¡¯t either. Speaking of Sister to my surprise they took an interest in some of the new minds. Three to be precise, two were like me of the ¡°male¡± label and the other was ¡°female¡±. Unlike the others whom Sister only communicated with if it was through me they strangely also directly communicated with them as well. When I asked for an explanation I got another definition for the words ¡°sister¡± and ¡°brother¡± and also a new word ¡°sibling¡±. Apparently these three ¡®were the same¡¯ as Sister and I. That is they were two brothers and one new sister. Other than being like me a bit bigger than the others on the mental plain (the sister especially) I didn¡¯t really notice a difference other than their ''location'' which was like Sister closer than the others. But apparently it had to do with the strange concept of ¡°parents¡± and these ¡°siblings¡± according to Sister had the same parents as us. I gave up trying to understand it, but soon became confused for a different reason, I had started to become somewhat irritable. Sister and I had until now a most special relationship that none of the others had, but now suddenly these new ¡°siblings¡± also had something similar. The irritation started to grow, but then Sister took a break from the siblings and had a talk with me. At first it was the usual various things, but then sister asked me about my new somewhat painful feelings. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Sister first in a serious sort of way gave me the explanation for the word ¡°jealously¡±. Then they told me that they would always love me just as much as they always have and never less. They concluded by informing me that I was special to them in a way that ¡°our¡± siblings weren¡¯t, and pointing out just like Sister took care of and guided me, I could possibly do the same for our siblings. I suddenly had a revelation of sorts and the jealously transformed into a sort of pride. Instead of avoiding the siblings as I had been doing before I too started favoring them other my visits to the other new unhatched. To my surprise not only did I find that my siblings seemed more intelligent and understanding compared to others I also started feeling a strong bond¡­a sort of connection that I didn¡¯t have with any of the others including my 5 friends.
New Skill: + Family Bonds
Family Bonds (Passive )The bonds between those that share the same blood or the same home holds a special kind of power
  • When you are together with your family you are more powerful.
  • While near or mentally connected to your family all experience, stat gain, and point recovery increases
Level one
With this new skill, the differences between whom I called family and the other unhatched quickly grew even more apparent. My new sister in particular really started to shine. Unlike myself they had quite the large mental reach, they could even like Sister see beyond the mental plane and into the physical. They would spy or observe various things and then would show us the things they found most interesting. Although, their reach was long at first they had trouble with the showing part. This sister was kind of my opposite long reach trouble communicating even with the aid Sister gave us. I had no trouble communicating by my reach was rather short and had trouble seeing beyond the mental plane even with Sister¡¯s help. Surprisingly both our problems were solved by family. My two new brothers were just average in both reach and linking, but they had a new kind of ability that we would later label ¡°enhancement¡±. Both usually worked together and were in each other¡¯s heads so much that sometimes they seemed like one mind. And working together they would link up with either I or new sister and enhance us, in that way it was almost as if we didn¡¯t have any weaknesses. While my 5 friends gave various nicknames to the new ones, I didn¡¯t really participate other than occasionally giving an opinion if asked. But with my new siblings I decided that I wanted to be the one to name them. So I along with Sister¡¯s input was the one to give them names. I gave my new sister the nickname Peeper. As for my brothers whom Sister referred to by the term twins I gave the brighter one the nickname Door and the darker one the nickname Hinge. Soon after this, I started to participate once with my 5 friends again as well as the new ones, but this time I was accompanied by my new siblings. . This was a good especially as Sister had started to withdraw themselves again. Peeper soon became greatly popular among all the unhatched because of their ability to see new things and too then through the method I just discussed share them with the rest of the unhatched. Although Peeper could find and share things, they were just like the rest of us in that they were hugely ignorant of the things they found. Soon myself included we all realized there was only one unhatched that seemed to have the answers and entertainment we wanted and that one was Sister. So the rest of the unhatched especially the older original 5 started to pester both me and my siblings to ask Sister various questions. To my relief Sister answered most of them and even started provide new tidbits of information themself. Things such as visuals of stories that they ¡°broadcasted¡± to all of us at once. Most of the stories seemed to be ways of teaching us various things, but some seemed to be just purely for pleasure. Sister chose most of them but they also would sometimes take requests by unanimous popular vote on what they would show us. Volume One Chapter 19: The Oath The Oath (Brother a little later) Time passed and the knowledge of the majority continued to grow, however every so often more new minds would appear and we would wait for them to gain true consciousness before trying to educate them. With each new mind we would gain a new kind of perspective of looking at things and thus with each new mind we would end up with more knowledge then less, because as we realized, through teaching we were also learning. Unlike the original 5 and myself some of the unhatched were unable to instinctively figure out how to make a mana egg. But through experimentation and instruction from those that were able to, soon there was not a single one of us that had to hatch because of default and necessary. It was also in this time of growth that we really begin to think of the outside world not just as a source of information and entertainment but an actual place that we could go to if we wished to. Though we unanimously decided to stay in egg and keep each other company as well as teach any new ones, we also started to daydream and talk about what it would be like to be the participants in the events that we watched rather than just the observers. We grew increasingly excited when we saw that a mind mage was going to try and communicate with us. But not too long before this we received a notice.
Will you accept the protection of being taken underneath the wings of the one called Huge Light (Sister)?
[accept][refuse]
Of course we had all without exception chosen yes, but when we later learned it was this choice that had blocked the mind mage (later mages) from directly communicating with us we were all at the very least a little bit disappointed. However we soon perked up once again when Sister demonstrated her power more directly in a presentation were they used their magic to directly affect the outside world pranking a race that Sister called humans. Our former disappointment was forgotten but the talk and the excitement about the outside world greatly increased. Sister ever our guiding light and voice of caution soon tamped down some of our enthusiasm. Not long after they suddenly requested that I and Peeper ¡®come¡¯ to speak with them. With unspoken agreement we both moved towards the mental plane and were soon enveloped in their power. When I asked why they wanted to speak to us they replied. ¡°I am concerned¡­with how you little ones see the outside world¡± ¡®Smirking¡¯ at their little jab at the ones who use their more common nickname of Huge Light I asked. ¡°What is there to be concerned about? It is obvious that the outside is a very interesting and entertaining place is it not? You even show this to us yourself.¡± Her voice seemed to sigh then she replied ¡°While it is true that the outside can indeed be most amusing there is far more to it then that¡­I am afraid that I may have been limiting what you saw a bit too much¡± ¡°What more is there? Through Peeper here we can see what we wish even without your help.¡± I pointed out ¡°That is not completely true¡­¡± they sounded almost guilty¡­concerned I made a mental gesture urging them to continue. ¡°I have been running an interference on what you have been able to see and¡­access Peeper especially¡­in other words I have been blocking some things from your eyes¡­er view.¡± I was a bit shocked¡­I had thought that I especially was able to tell when they were doing something but I had not sensed any form of ¡°interference¡± as they called it. ¡°Why?¡± I asked simply ¡°The outside world has many things that are painful, and many things that are even worse than painful¡­I wanted to protect you from feeling the misery seeing those things can cause¡± I quickly began to think¡­if there are things in the outside that cause misery, how would Sister know about them? The answer was obvious. Sister must have saw and experienced the misery for themself. Using what my dim recollections told me pain and misery felt like and then imagining Sister feeling such things. I immediately felt a great rejection and dislike of the idea. So I could understand why Sister didn¡¯t want us to also feel what they felt. But¡­there must be a reason they were telling us this now¡­or otherwise they would have just let us continue without knowing about the misery. ¡°Why tell us now?¡± I voiced my conclusion ¡°You all were so excited to see the mind mage attempt to reach us¡­and so when they were unable to because of my protection you all had a great disappointment. I realized then that you had no way to realize that there was a positive of missing out the excitement of that glimpse of the outside¡­and that advantage was safety. You all have been so sheltered by my protection that you don¡¯t yet realize what danger is¡­while I don¡¯t want to be the one to tell you about danger I don¡¯t want you to encounter it because of the knowledge I have shared with you.¡± She fished her speech by giving us a few pictures that we had not been shown before¡­frightening pictures that made me realize the few instinctive times I had sensed danger were actually only the tip of the pyramid of what I could feel. Composing myself, I comforted Peeper who had been so startled by the images that they attempted to hide from them by squeezing their mental self as close to mine as possible. ¡°How would having knowledge put us in danger?¡± I asked a bit hesitant to know ¡°Knowledge is power. I have already explained a bit of what war is¡­though I left out the misery parts¡­right now our kind¡­our family is at war with other dragons. To simplify things¡­I will just say that during war one can become desperate for power because enough power can usually make one safe. If the outside world knows of your¡­no our power then they will want to use it, to help them in the war. You all are too innocent and unready to help them in the war in the manner they will most likely force you to. I feel that even I am not yet ready to help in such a thing as war. If the mind mage knew of our power they would have most likely started us all down the path of entering the war and war is one of the most dangerous things.¡± They said this in a much more neural yet firmer tone then before. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Then what can we do?¡± I asked ¡°You stopped the mind mage now but what about later when there will probably be more mages? And more importantly what about when we all hatch as we are currently beginning to dream of doing?¡± I asked I was a bit concerned because if it was as Sister indicated and power put one into danger Sister would be the one with the most to fear. ¡°First of all there is no need to have any worries so long as we are unhatched¡­I have enough power to protect us from the mind mages and almost anything else so long as you all continue to be in eggs and close to me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a relief¡± I acknowledged ¡°But second of all?¡± I continued ¡°¡­Second of all¡­I am¡­admittedly uncertain as what will happen when you hatch and no longer meet all the requirements for full protection. I don¡¯t even know if I can protect you even half as much¡­as now¡­but I have been making tentative plans. ¡° ¡°What kind of plan?¡± I ask intrigued ¡°A simple and usually effective sort of plan. All of you must think long and hard as to when you decide to hatch, and you must make a lot of preparations in order to be ready for as many things as possible.¡± they said ¡°That makes sense¡± I indicated acceptance ¡°I was also thinking that we needed to do something more before we started to more seriously think of hatching, but that isn¡¯t the only part of the plan is it?¡± I smirked ¡°You know me so well, indeed it is not the whole of the plan¡± they said with amusement coloring their voice. ¡°The other part of the plan is something all of you might find a bit more difficult¡­¡± their voice faded sentence unfinished ¡°What is it?¡± for the first time since the conversation started Peeper spoke up ¡°What is it and why is difficult?¡± ¡°It is difficult because it is hard to do¡± Sister said I winced slightly, I am not sure in what way it changed but something about Sister¡¯s voice definitely changed in the way their voice sounded when they spoke Peeper versus the way they spoke to me. Whatever the difference was it made my ailment of jealousy act up a bit. However Sister immediately seemed to notice this and gave me a winking sort of feeling that acted as effective medicine. ¡°All of you must try your hardest to look ignorant. In other words you must give away the fact that you have knowledge as little as possible and preferably not at all. If no one knows that you have power then there will be no one that will force you to use it before you are ready. Our parents will most likely be able to give us protection in this case and we siblings will then be able to in turn share that protection with the others.¡± After thinking about it for a moment I realized the wisdom of such a plan. ¡°I think I could manage to do that.¡± I said ¡°You only think such a thing because you have not yet faced any true trials¡­but it doesn¡¯t matter¡­in order to make this a bit easier I thought of an oath.¡± She said a bit sadly ¡°What is an oath?¡± asked Peeper ¡°It is a thing most similar to a promise, where you say you will do something and then you do it¡­but it is a bit more binding then that.¡± I could feel Sister look at me most seriously ¡°My Brother would you be willing to hear and take the oath?¡± they asked ¡°What must I do?¡± I inquired But apparently I didn¡¯t have to do much¡­after Sister explained the basics of the oath, what it meant and how to ¡®take¡¯ it, I felt that I was ready to do so, as I had nothing to disagree because I had already acknowledge the soundness of this plan and after the explanation of the oath I felt that it was also something I could support. To our surprise right after I indicated my willingness to take the oath so did Peeper. Hearing that Sister ran through the ramifications of the oath as well as the mechanics once more and as soon as Peeper and I affirmed that we understood Sister gave to us the oath. ¡°Knowledge is a precious treasure and we shall not share this treasure unless we direly must or exceptionally know that we safely can. In order to truly protect this treasure and we the bearers of this treasure you shall promise to hide its light and support and guard each other in this duty. As well as any individual trials and tasks you and any other bearers of this burden honorably commit to doing if there is a need to do so. Do you swear this upon your heart, upon the treasure, and by the authority of the kingdom we are given to by blood right?¡± ¡°We swear by our heart, by the light of the treasure, and also by the authority of our blood right kingdom to hold by this Oath as so long as it is honorable and necessary." I and my other sister said in unison.
You have taken an Oath. Because you have sworn by your blood righted kingdom if you break this Oath such consequences as loss of honor and a curse may result. As a witness and Oath giver Sister¡¯s (Huge Light''s) honor and fate is also tied to yours You have unlocked a new stat +Honor
After this Sister encouraged both us other siblings to give the oath to as many people as possible, but they also cautioned us to be extremely careful on who we told the reason as to why to. ¡°Who do you recommend we tell?¡± I asked ¡°Any one you feel is particularly trustworthy as well as mentally strong¡­More specifically I would say Hide¡­you said that even you can¡¯t get past his defenses right? It is probable that even in the outside not many others will be able to do so either¡­also¡± they added the bit on the end very hesitantly ¡°Also what?¡± I encouraged ¡°This somewhat is embarrassing and shameful to say¡­but I think when you explain the oath to the others it might be a good idea to discuss how knowledge about myself in particular is dangerous¡­¡± ¡°So you are saying you yourself is a big part of our treasure¡± I laughed though in my heart I believed that actuality the true treasure in its entirety was probably the one called ¡®Huge Light¡¯. Sister, probably because of the embarrassment they mentioned, was silent. Volume One Chapter 20: The Terror of Silence Spoiler : Sorry about that strangeness earlier, I am not usually impulsive until suddenly I am, it comes and goes. Here are some nice quotes to think about: ¡°Becoming powerful is much the same as becoming rich. It is a dream that does not require a reason. If a reason is required, perhaps it is fear of being poor or weak.¡±-I shall steal the heavens ¡°A baby eagle who always hides under the shadow of his mother¡¯s wing will never learn what it is to truly be free. It is only through danger will one¡¯s potential burst and take to the skies.¡± ¨CBattle through the Heavens ¡°Meckala selvoka merenay trwa vataspere ¡°¨C ??? Translation: The rulers of just one¡¯s thoughts are often becoming the whole world (If it is one¡¯s thoughts then it is a big part of one¡¯s whole real world) -anonymous The Terror of Silence (Brother: currently going through growing pains) ¡°¡­so right when the evil ¡­cracked scale was about to hit the little kid -er I mean human hatchling I made it so his sh- eh foot coverings were tied together and so he tripped and fell on the floor and the little hatchlings escaped and all the other big humans who saw laughed at him¡± I and the others after hearing and seeing this ridiculous sight also broke out into laughter. Sister really did the funniest things in the outside. ¡°Can I help next time?¡± One of the littler ones asked excitedly and soon there was a chorus of voices emotions and images joining in the begging. Sister seemed a bit overwhelmed for a moment before replying ¡°¡­Well can you see and move things around in the outside? I thought so. I will consider it if you manage to at least see into the human villages and be able to move at least a dust cloud.¡± What was a good word for what Sister was doing? I know she had told me such things before¡­ah yes it was a cop out, an excuse or evasion. I would know because despite our closeness Sister wouldn¡¯t help even me see directly outside and would avoid anything close to confirmation whenever I asked. Because none of us even had the ability to affect things even just outside our shells of course it was completely impossible to do what she said without her help. But when we pointed this out she would just tell us that if we wanted to see we would have to hatch out and see it for ourselves. I also had my suspicions that she continued to block those that could somewhat see outside. And whenever we asked her if she thought we should start hatching she would put us off with those excuse things as well as vague tasks called ¡®preparation¡¯. It was something that frustrated us all but at least in my case it was also very comforting as I was still a bit afraid of this unknown idea of hatching Besides Sister seemed in no hurry to hatch and I was somewhat uneasy on going without her, there were also my five main friends 3 new siblings and not to mention the many other friends I had more recently made. It just didn¡¯t seem like it would be fun unless we all went together. I didn¡¯t feel the need to spend much time thinking about Sister¡¯s hidden reasons because I myself had just gone through changes of my own. It had started when I had started to become the main leader other than sister of the other unhatched. My friends and siblings were also something of leaders but even they for some reason or other all looked toward me whenever a decision was needed to be made. Even if the decision was something as minor as choosing how to play a game we invented. Soon after noticing it my status window confirmed it
You have gained a new stat [leadership] + 1 leadership
I had some sort of qualities that made others want follow me, and now that I had gained that stat those qualities only became more visible. After asking my friends I learned that most of them also gained the leadership stat however none of them had as much as me. When I asked Sister she just replied that yes she had it too and yes it was in larger amounts then I. Even when the amount of unhatched suddenly increased for reasons unknown to us, upon gaining consciousness the new ones would just follow the example of their elders and would just start following me, my friends somewhat and finally Sister. Upon gaining this stat I also started to gain a greater interest in those who looked towards me for guidance, and I basically took what I would later learn was called an unofficial census. There were currently a few thousand of us and this increased at least yearly usually by another few hundred or so. Strangely within the new comers, not only were there were no new siblings but for the majority of these new ones, even after gaining consciousness and learning all they could did not seem to reach the level or capabilities of myself, my friends and most especially not even a fraction close to Sister. When I asked Sister to explain, from the parts I could understand I got this: Simply put if it weren¡¯t for us talking and interacting with them. The majority of new ones would have gotten so lonely that they would have instinctively hatched. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. Myself and my friends had for whatever reason (I suspect my curiosity and boredom but have no clue as to others) we did not immediately hatch but created a mana stone instead. Thus as my sister put it we were ¡®special¡¯ and as such it wasn¡¯t surprising that after a certain point the new ones understood less and at a slower pace than we were able to. This got me curious, if I was ¡®special¡¯ as she put it did that mean that there even more that I could do that the others couldn¡¯t? The answer that came from both Sister and my own logical conclusion was ¡®yes¡¯. Thus when I wasn¡¯t ¡®leading¡¯ the others in games, lessons or mediating in fights I started doing what my sister called ¡®training¡¯ in my free time the results were instantly gratifying in the form of various stat increases and even a few skills but also because after some time I ranked up.
Congratulations You Have Ranked up!! You are now a green-blue dragon! Your color has affinity with nature, and water as well as with classes involving healing and other forms of magic
Strangely after ranking up most of my fear and hesitancy mysteriously vanished. I became filled with a strong sense of confidence in myself. It was an almost completely groundless feeling that was to the point that you could consider it arrogance. And I am slightly ashamed to say that to supplement that arrogance I also started cultivating a choosy ignorance and pride. I had decided that I knew all I needed to know and what I didn¡¯t know wouldn¡¯t harm me in fact it was unnecessary. Even more unusual, was that many of the things that I had once found intriguing suddenly became boring and many of the things that I had once mostly feared or felt indifferent about suddenly became almost unbearably interesting and tempting. Things such as the outside world. When before my fear had filled my vision to the point that I could not even think about the outside without feeling at least a twinge or two of fear. I now possessed the ability of ¡®tunnel vision¡¯ as my sister would call it. I could now think only of the possible delights of the outside and temporarily and conveniently forget about the possible dangers which had so concerned me before. I began to badger Sister unsuccessfully for information and when she asked for the reason for my sudden fervency I let slip that I was thinking of hatching. To my frustration even that did not seem to have the effect I hoped for, because instead of giving me information about the outside world or giving her blessing on my plan hatching out. Instead she merely started to give me more of her ¡®preparation¡¯ tasks and told me to complete them. They were simple tasks, most of them were about learning something she told me was probably useful or teaching it or lesser knowledge to the others in her stead. When before I had found joy and pleasure in her sharing with me, and in displaying to the others her trust in me by teaching them things she had only directly taught me or a few others (usually my siblings). I now only felt irritation and exasperation. I could probably learn all I needed to know in the outside world when I hatched I thought often and even complained to her when my frustration got too much to bear in silence. And in my defense I was probably correct in some respects. Sister did and does tend to often be overcautious and over prepared later I would consider this style of living quite wise and would even mostly follow it myself but back then I was going through what I would now call ¡®growing pains¡¯ and I had the notion that because I hadn¡¯t thought the idea it must be at least inefficient if not downright incorrect. But despite Sister¡¯s ¡®faults¡¯ I still admitted even my strange state that she was too useful to me, to want to willingly hatch without her I forcefully thought this not wanting to admit the fact that I would miss her in my revelatory state of understanding. Besides the strange flush of confidence in myself that I had gotten from ranking up and the growing pains that came with it, my position as the more direct leader had probably had much to do with why I had suddenly gotten so full of myself. I had even started, because of my frustration of Sisters ¡®lack of ambition¡¯, to think that Sister wasn¡¯t as important as I had thought she was. That even, if Sister wasn¡¯t there I would have wound up in the same position that I was now in (though I begrudgingly admitted to myself that it would have taken longer). I probably didn¡¯t even need any preparation I thought to myself. I could hatch right now even without Sister or her help and would do just fine. I had even started to seriously think about asking several of the others to hatch with me and without Sister. And then suddenly it happened. Immediately and without warning there was complete and utter silence. Terrifying Silence. Volume One Chapter 21: A Dance of Minds A Dance of Minds (A Clumsy Ashamed Brother) Spoiler : So I spent around three months writing this oneshot. Despite all my hard-work I am not that happy with the results.. The oneshot''s title is called Bitter Blood and those that read Behemoth Rodeo may or may not hold a major clue/giveaway especially if they remember a certain character, because that character is not unrelated to one of the characters in Bitter Blood. Although I feel it is a bit of a failure hopefully you will still find it enjoyable to read it. Here is some fanart by Lemyngue in two differn¡¯t versions version 1 And here is the fanart version 2 ;) Also just a small warning as Lemyngue might tell you, if you send me a message don¡¯t be surprised if I go crazy when writing back and please don¡¯t be offended if you read something you think is insulting I sometimes have a hard time with communicating and will say things in ways that make them misconstrued and or say something one way when I meant to say something else¡­ At first the shock prevented me from doing anything other than existing. In the beginning if I wanted to contact anyone I would have to do so through my own power. Which always too a lot of time, effort and sometimes pain. However soon after I met Sister, she started taking care of all the pesky details and strength needed to communicate. And after we met the others she took care of them as well. Convince became habit and soon other than in the case of some ¡®secret¡¯ passing games no one used the direct links much anymore and so everyone had relied on Sister. And as I started to panic I realized that we still did. While I could still sense a bit of my surroundings on the physical plane through my egg and although I could still look out upon at the field of stars from a mental perspective essentially, for all intents and purposes I was blind. If Sister had left me a short while after we had first met I bet there wouldn¡¯t have been that much of an affect. I probably would have felt a bit pained and also even lonelier but other than taking the next opportunity to hatch I don¡¯t think I would have been that effected. But that was if then and this was is now. I had completely gotten used to and adapted to all the stimulation I had been receiving from Sister and later to a lesser extent from the others. It had gotten to the point where their presence and their companionship became not a desire purely from curiosity and boredom but a need that I had acquired after fulfilling it continuously on a regular basis. I had come need those connections and stimulation in the same way that most people needed to breathe and so right now I was breathless. I was so deep into my panic that all my thoughts even my ability to use my mind at all, basically just shut down and left me in a frozen black limbo. But apparently not everyone was as helpless as I was. At first I was so distracted by the silence that I didn¡¯t notice but eventually I managed to feel a strange mental brush across my mind that felt somewhat familiar. After feeling it several more times I managed to gather up enough strength to comprehend what it was. Or rather who it was. It was the presence of my other sister. The sister that I had started to neglect since my rank up along with my other siblings as well as my friends. It was Peeper. As one of the stronger at seeing on the mental plane, though not at making connections Peeper had several difficulties to overcome. The first was the shock at seeing all the bright colorful mental strings and pathways that had connected all the ¡®stars¡¯ suddenly disappearing. The second was deciding what to do about it. First she had to recover fortunately being a seer of a sorts (instead of the past or future she sees the present) she was better equipped to handle this. Although as Brother suspicioned she was blocked by Sister in seeing some things there was plenty left that she could see. While watching as much as she could she soon got used to changes of all kinds and speeds. So instead of letting herself worry about the repercussions of what she saw she instead focused on pretending that what she saw on the mental plane was merely something she was viewing that was someplace else. This was difficult to do, as without Sister much of her reach in seeing was also gone although she could still view much of the surroundings around her egg, beyond that, not very far. So she tried to pretend even further then she had been. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Not only was she ''seeing'' someplace else besides realty but she was merely following an assignment given to her. She wasn¡¯t supposed to and couldn¡¯t see someplace else because if she did Sister would be disappointed. Now enabled by her self-deception she was calm and better able to make decisions. The next thing she had to tackle was harder for a different reason, it was outside her expertise. But she realized the answer for that through the reason. If taking action wasn¡¯t what she was capable of doing then she would have to find a way to contact someone who was. And obviously she contacted me. Luckily we were relatively ¡°close¡± and because of that she was stronger than in her ability to link, for as soon as we connected the majority of my panic vanished and I was able to start to come up with several strategies. First we had to contact as many of the others as possible. Specifically our siblings and friends. With peeper to help me with the distance I managed to reach first Door and Hinge and then in turn, Little Light, Blinker, Shout, Hide, and Pain. Hinge and Door helped enormously with their skill of ¡®enhancement¡¯ they could make it so almost anyone had the distance and clarity of even the most skilled of any of us. This became especially important when we started the attempt to connect to the weaker ones. It was then that I realized better the wisdom of Sister. When Sister had first spoke to me and to us about ¡®preparations¡¯ I had thought they were redundant and pointless. But I did them anyway and encouraged my siblings and friends to do them as well for at that time I had yet to rank up and become arrogant. Of course immediately when I started to think of myself as enlightened and great I also stopped following most of Sister¡¯s advice, which included the exercises and assignments of the ¡®preparation¡¯. This training had included repeating various skills multiple times, and such as working to link together our minds as well as improving our ¡®distance¡¯ without Sister. Also large part of ¡®preparation¡¯ was ¡®teamwork¡¯ games. Where we had to work together in doing various projects and exercises. While I had stopped doing most of the ¡®preparation¡¯ other than a few teamwork exercises when the others begged me to. The others (as I had sneered) were still in awe of Sister and so still continued to do the exercises. As such they did a lot better than me. It got to the point that I had to ¡®step aside¡¯ and let Peeper lead until I figured out how the ¡®dancing¡¯ worked. Dancing was a more recent ¡®preparation¡¯ technique that I hadn¡¯t even bothered to hear about. Basically it was a method of keeping a net of minds without Sister. When dancing you continually formed and broke connections with others, in a rhythmic way. Because there was a pattern, once one got skilled, it allowed you to have consistency in your mental state while maintaining energy efficiency. However it is a bit more complicated then I described, because while consistency was a requirement the participants of the experience were far from consistent in their strength and ability. So in order to maintain the rhythm of the dance one had to take steps to compensate for anything your partner lacked. For example there was this one move called a ¡®twirl¡¯ it involved a weaker partner using the strength of a stronger partner to spin and thus gain enough momentum that they could use their speed as strength and temporally act as the strong one for their next partner who was equal in strength or even weaker. Another move called a ¡®leap¡¯ involved had an unhatched of great skill and strength temporally disconnect their mind from the ¡®net¡¯, send it up forcefully and then steer themselves back into the dance at a further appropriate place. Because it was a matter of skill, some of the ¡®weaklings¡¯ were better at dancing then their stronger compatriots. I myself had the strength but not the ¡®reach¡¯. Embarrassingly even some of the weak ones did much better then myself who continually stumbled many times in the beginning. Eventually I managed to discover after several more stumbles, what my problem was. I figured out that in order for me to do well in the dance that I should be ¡®tossed ¡®often (helped someone into a leap) as well as toss others. It helped that Peeper and the others had been endlessly patient with me, and that the little ones had decided to think of it as a really fun game instead of the desperate matter near to being as serious as life and death that it was. After a short amount of time, but not as fast as I would have liked for the sake of my pride, I completely figured out how to dance. Not to long later everybody was dancing. We danced and were not lonely. We danced and it fought off our pain at Sisters appearance. We danced and we learned wisdom especially me. We danced so much that it got to the point that we did it without thinking. Dancing became instinctual as easy as breathing was for the hatched outside. When we were able to think of things other than dancing, we started by thinking of a plan to get Sister back. Volume One Chapter 22: Back Into the Dark Spoiler : Queese kara dehsta Sorry folks but it seems the egg MC shall continue muahahah! Anyway let me clear up what seems to be a common misinterpretation of the beginning prologue chapters especially for you non English speaking peoples. Only three people appear if you discount the flashbacks. Three people, that is by my definition intelligent life with souls. The Demon Lord, the ''hero'' and our MC. THE LESSER DEMONS ARE NOT PEOPLE BUT ANIMALS! That is they do not have a soul and they cannot really make decisions other then eating, emitting waste, flight or fight and other actions of that tone such as mating. If you really read through you will notice a mention that these creatures were basically ''created'' or got there because of the miasma that the demon lord is creating through his existence. Thus the MC was not evilly murdering other people but just slaughtering some pests. Actually they are more like parasites then just plain pests so the demon lord leaving was practically a death sentence for them anyway, so somewhat ironically the MC was actually putting them out of their misery. Also I am sorry about my slow speed/lateness but various factors came up, first I was sick and then I was starting school and then I was having a bad time at school...yeah. But luckily for you (prideful assumption based on the fact that you are reading this) I have mostly gotten my problems cleared up and thus you should be seeing more of me in the future :). Back Into the Dark (Little Brother on a Mission) We began by solidifying our foundation. Although all of us had become at least competent there was infinite room for improvement. Or at least that was the way it seemed. While I had learned to do multiple things at the same time if I went beyond a certain point to complexity in actions my clumsy disease would return. So I and the others worked on various tasks while in our dance. Some were things that Sister had left behind for us but a few were things we made up ourselves through a lot of trial and error and occasionally accident.Peeper had discovered that the limitations put on her and the other seers were not so much as blocking the world from them, but somehow blocking the person from making the choice to see the world. This actually cleared up quite a few questions. Although I could presumably ''see'', for the geas upon me wasn¡¯t quite so strong ,probably as a result of my weak skills in ¡®sight,¡¯ Peeper and all of the other ones skilled in that couldn¡¯t help me. But we found a loophole of sorts, I and the other with weak ¡®blinders¡¯ combined our powers together and were able to somewhat see beyond despite still being blocked to a large degree it was better than no access to the outside world so we rejoiced as we were able to gather some information despite our limitations of being unable to see as far. To my slight surprise the outside world remained much the same as before, Surprise because though they had no real reason to change before as I was quite used to how everything changed I came to expect it. But I guess as they didn¡¯t know what had happened and they even didn¡¯t know of her the surprise was illogical. It took quite sometime to find information, and after the novel of the outside wore off it became quite boring. But after feeding some of what we saw to the others we saw the appeal anew through their eyes and we could always search out a distraction if we got too bored. Eventually though despite the side trips we finally we found information relevant to what we wanted. It was a pair of mind mages. Because they were the kind of dragon that Sister said was currently the most similar to us in our mentally connected unborn state, we eventually had logically deduced that they might have what we were looking for, and we were right. After focusing on overhearing conversations between the clan''s mind mages, we soon got we wanted. It was during a conversation they had about breaking into an enemies mind. Even now I shudder when I recall their viciousness and the cruel way they treated their apprentices made me glad for sister¡¯s protection, and very glad that the protection seemed to be not only firmly holding but seemingly automatic because most of it did not disappear when she did. But as getting past Sister''s probable shields was our goal, we listened on despite our fear and disgust. Even though later on,after I experienced war some of their actions and feelings grew more understandable, they still continued to be the reason that I tend to dislike all mind mages with the exception of those in my group and some of those who came after us. However when it came to their magic there was no denying that they mostly knew what they were doing. New vocabulary was eventually conveyed by their talking, words like shielding and hacking were defined. It was astoundingly easy to overhear even their mental conversation. When they tried to teach their clumsy apprentices was the most helpful as they then included specific instructions on how to do what they were talking about. We who ease dropped quickly memorized as much as we could and passed it back to the others. Soon a large part of our practice became practicing blocking and breaking past defenses of each other as well as trying to block the attack of the other with shielding and other methods. And since it was no longer as necessary we cut back greatly on our spying. To my shock, although I had many weaknesses as stated before apparently, breaking past defenses and defending mentally was not one of them. I would instead say this mind combat soon became one of my greatest strengths. When it came to both shielding and hacking I was unparalleled no matter how many I took on at once or even how much they improved individually they couldn¡¯t stop me and most of the time they couldn¡¯t even make a dent in my defense and those that could didn¡¯t manage to do it twice . As this was practice and as they were just trying to learn, as I was trying to learn. After I broke through I would usually tell them their weaknesses. They would soon plug up the holes and I would grow hopeful as I would be hoping for a challenge as the ease of it was starting to bore me. But even when they plugged all the holes I could still somehow always find my way in and thus was always disappointed. But this was not to say there was no improvement. Those that I taught usually eventually could block out everyone else with the exception of me and some of the stronger ''mind hackers''. Although no one else seemed to be able to completely block others out with those stronger the invader at least had difficulties in getting in. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. After a lot more practice to the point where we were sure that we had perfected near our abilities to the point we felt there at least wouldn¡¯t be a risk to us or sister we decided that it was time. The dance temporarily speed up creating more energy and power we could use to direct to the support group which would amplification and send it to the ones who would form the ¡®bridge¡¯, a large mental pathway that we would aim to wards sister and use as a ladder to reach her. My job was to use the bridge like a ramp and propel myself towards the place the seers estimated sister to ¡®be¡¯ or at the very least find an access to her mind. I would then use my ability to break in and find her. The dance reached it''s peak speed and the energy was flawlessly handled and formed into the bridge. I and a few other jumpers then immediately rushed towards the bridge and used the inertia it gave to fly out into he darkness. After a brief trip where the plane of stars became a colorful blur of streaking lights. I sadly reached the darkness where Sister''s light had been. Despite the fear and painfully remembered sadness I felt, I now under my own power as most of the energy the bridge had given had faded, forced myself to move forward anyway. I soon found myself blocked but I somehow managed to feel my way in through this first barrier and was then lost in a strange kind of darkness. That while still dark also had an strange tinge to it, that made me feel that the color wasn''t quite what I was familiar with. Endlessly It seemed I moved in a random directions in that strange dark. Hoping and not hoping. Just when I was about to give up and use my connection to the others to attempt to got back. I noticed something. It was a dim barely there glow so unpredictable and hard to discern that I first thought it illusion. But when it continued to remain within my ''vision'' I grew tightly full of unspeakable emotions. For as the only one in this empty place besides myself who else could it be but her? Realizing that this ember had to be Sister I moved towards it, and suddenly faced the difficulties of a strange pressure pushing me away. But thanks to the support of the others and my own dim memories of my first time facing the darkness unknown. I managed to overcome not only my fear but the pressure and slowly make my way towards her. I wasn¡¯t even close to it when I felt it. Pain endless unrelenting pain. There was only some of this horrid emotion that I could identify. But it included such flavors as frustration, self-doubt incompetence and the sharp biting pain of fear of the unknown The pain and various other emotions battered at me and seemed endless like they would go on for ever. It was bad, but it wasn¡¯t as if I had never felt anything like it before. The things I had felt when sister had vanished had been much worse. So using those memories for comparison I was eventually able to overcome it to the point that I could think again. Where was this coming from I asked? But though I greatly didn¡¯t want to admit it, the answer was once again obvious as who else could it be but sister? Sister currently felt this way? I was filled with a mixture of various feelings including grief and I soon felt ashamed for I started to wonder, while I had been caught up in myself had sister been feeling even a hint of this already? No wonder then that she had been unable to maintain the links, no wonder then that she had gone. What was amazing was not that she had left but that she had somehow had the capacity left despite the pain to block this off from everyone else. With my experience living as a almost purely mental being, where everyone could feel what the others were feeling I could somewhat understand what she was doing and why, and I was filled with admiration. How brave, I thought. Most of us never even bothered to hold back anything. Thus when one of us was sad we soon all became sad and when when one of us was happy we all became happy. I realized then that we never had that problem with Sister before, I only knew her emotional sates from the ''tone'' of her ''voice, but without hearing that I felt nothing from her, and as usually I was normally the only one that heard her, essentially we usually knew nothing about her emotional state. I shuddered, with sudden realization. What if Sister hadn''t been like that always holding herself back and blocking us from feeling what she felt. We would have all been feeling ''this'' and perhaps we probably would have died from the shock of it if we had felt this from the very beginning especially the weak among us. Instead although our stint in the darkness had been slightly bad we were able to handle it quickly and thus recover from it nearly equally as fast, thankfully so and only because we had the assistance of Peeper and the others with long reaches. But if what we had felt was had been ''this'' instead that? To give you an idea of the obvious result I say with strong belief that we probably couldn¡¯t have been able to handle even a fraction of ''this.'' Especially if like with the darkness we hadn''t been prepared for it. Another thing to keep in mind was that Sister was probably stronger then all of us combined and if even she wasn¡¯t able to handle it, how could we have possibly stood a chance? That''s right. I then suddenly more fully comprehend the current situation. What I had just felt was probably not even the entirety of what she was really feeling. So she must be protecting us from the worst of it. At this stunning revelation, I felt wonder but more shame. But instead of letting my emotions overcome, I instead use them as tools to shock and motive me into feeling my own emotions more clearly. The more I focused on myself the less I felt Sister''s pain and the clearer I could think. I wanted now even more desperately to help her. I recalled fondly how although they had been shy of most of the others they had often personally talked and taught me. I also reflected on how although sister was stronger there were also more of us. Especially that I had experienced being on a team It came to me that sister was only on her own team. I had the backing of everyone behind me I steeled myself and then stubbornly tried to move past continue despite the still exist pain. It was quite difficult but when I got into a rhythm similar to dancing but without the without partners, as most of them were supporting me from a distance, it became possible. I continued to move towards her. Suddenly I reached a wall a wall even I couldn¡¯t get through and I felt helpless and near disrepair. What now? I thought, and if in answer the dim glow of sister became too slowly strengthen. Volume One Chapter 23: Returning Spoiler : So, sorry for not coming out with a chapter sooner, what was holding me up was of course partly school but actually mostly WMAW. Basically with WMAW I have a lot of the problems that people accuse me of having with RF, I have not much of a clue on what will happen in the story. This is because unlike RF and now BE WMAW started out as a one-shot that I came up with for no reason. Thus my thoughts aren''t really as clear on it when compared too my other ideas, and I easily got trapped in a writing cultivation bottleneck. But then I had a flash of enlightenment, a nice story twist appeared in my mind for the plot. It was something that I had considered before but didn''t really have the guts to do, but I decided let''s just roll with it, we can always change it to something else if it doesn''t work out, and suddenly I was able to start writing again. Hopefully I can keep this inspiration ball rolling. Also part of my enlightenment involves my posting ''schedule''. What I have been doing is just writing whenever I feel like it and then posting it whenever I finished editing (or rather my best attempt at editing). Thus sometimes I would post two chapters, rarely I would post 3-4 chapters and usually I would post one. Because this method relied solely one when I got inspired, in order to maintain my once a month minimum plan that I decided to stick to, there were times that I would have to force myself practically at the last minute to write a chapter. And led to those annoying "empty chapters" where I would just claim that I was going to post soon and include a spoiler. BUT, with this ''revolutionary'' new method I shouldn''t have that problem anymore. Basically instead of feeling sorry for you moar-moars out there crying, I shall stick to my principals and only post one chapter even if I have more then one waiting. This way I shall have a backup of at least one chapter that is post ready at all times. But don''t despair just yet, while I plan to maintain one back up at all times, knowing myself I will probably end up in a writing fever now and then and produce 3 or more chapters. In such a case I will consider releasing a second chapter ''early''. Also since I still carry hopes that the more I write the better I will get at it, maybe one day in the future those hopes will be fulfilled and I will be able to manage write a chapter for each story once a week or less. Currently the way I have my ''schedule'' is thus (in order of priority): RF: once a month WMAW: once a month BE: once a month at maximum once every two months at minimum I just realized I didn''t really talk about it in detail yet but there is another thing to keep in mind. I really prefer posting all chapters for all my stories at the same time. This is where the ''WMAW held me up'' comes into play, event though I had RF and BE chapters done since I didn''t have any WMAW chapters finished I decided to put off posting what I had until my WMAW chapters were done. The reason I am like this is mainly because I don''t want any one story to get too far ahead of the other stories. Among other reasons it puts guilt and pressure on me to write it and I don''t do that well under pressure. As my main writing method is by inspiration if I force myself to worry about one story while I am being inspired to write another, I usually end up self sabotaging myself to not only kill the inspiration of the story I force myself to write dead, but also even more tragically the story I was naturally being inspired to write about as well. Okay and now some information specific to Reincarnation Flower. Firstly, for all those complaining about the length, pace, and subject matter of the story. Sorry I cannot help you. To start with, most of the things you dislike are because of a direct result of my writing style, and since I can''t really ''choose'' to change my writing style, you are out of luck, even if I wanted to change it I can''t. Plus, and this is the most important reason, I don''t want to change my writing style and don''t see any reason as to why I should even bother to try. This is mainly out of laziness/convenience it is much easier to continue my own writing style rather then work to create and utilize a different one. It also seems to me to be more efficient to fix problems in my own writing style with it''s well known weaknesses and slowly improve it over time rather then having to bother to figure out the unknown and hard to understand weaknesses (and strengths) of a writing style that is not my own. While I can''t change my writing style, I can change the format. For example right now I am mainly writing in first person, I could easily switch to third person it isn''t that difficult for me. However believe it or not I can be even more ''bad'' at writing when I switch to third person just look at Bitter Blood or Behemoth Rodeo. For some reason first person tends to be a bit easier to use plus it enables me feel safe enough to make mistakes, because when I make a mistake I can just blame most problems on the narrators faulty nature/biases. I am not only aware of it, but I also openly acknowledge my own tendency to make mistakes. To help me deal with this I try to give myself the space and room to make them. For example, A really big pet peeve of mine is when an author makes a ''genius'' character of some kind and then makes them act worse then an idiot in all facets of their life. My attempts to avoid this often end up helping me to make even worse mistakes, while my characters might be called ''geniuses'' by other people they will never admit it themselves. They also all have loads of flaws and will admit those flaws willingly as well as how those flaws affect their lives. By having such flawed characters I hope to maintain a large margin for error and thus be able to more easily avoid mistakes. But having such ''strange'' characters often means that just like myself my characters are often easily misunderstood. ...got a bit off track there but in conclusion, until I myself am free of flaws (impossible) then my characters/characterization will also be full of flaws. There is a saying "write what you know". While I like to think I "know" a lot, most people tend not to see things in the same way as I do. Then when it comes to my tendency to go overboard with the amount of words and such I write, I probably won''t be able to change this either, but I don''t necessarily think this is a con. In my mind it is harder to add more words to an already written story then it is to par down an over-inflated piece of writing. One day I may be able to come back to what I write and slim some things down to make it better, but that time is definitely not now. Returning (Brother) After a brief period of time of uncertainty of what would happen, strangely nothing much in the end did happen. Sister, soon after I reached her became nearly like her old self again. Though I was happy I secretly admit that it was a bit anticlimactic for my tastes. And although Sister insists that the actions that we took saved her, I hold some doubts as to how helpful we were. It could be we had come coincidentally, just at the time that she had recovered on her own and was about to come back out. More importantly, and more shocking then her gratitude, I was dumbfounded by one of the first things she did after returning to us. She apologized. I was thinking, as she did so most sincerely, is this something one should apologize for? I mean from my perspective wasn¡¯t what happened to her unavoidable? When the darkness, I was panicking and full of fear should I have apologized for going to pieces in such a situation? Thinking about this only make me feel more ashamed of myself, and as I believed I had better reasons then emotions to feel ashamed, I forced myself to stop. I had already mostly apologized for those actions, and had redeemed myself through my large part in the mission which to the others only looked to be a success despite my misgivings but maybe it is as Sister says and I am just thinking too much. Anyway, when I say that Sister apologized, I mean that she apologized to us all even the really young ones that had still had difficulty communicating in words. And in a direct way, I believe for most of them I was the first time they had actually heard the words of our big light directly. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Some of them even felt that the despair the darkness was made worth it just because they were able to hear her speak. It seems that after recent events the majority of them had started to realize the importance of Sister and felt that she shouldn¡¯t be taken for granted. As if to confirm their feelings she also assured us that such a thing would never affect us again and to enable this guarantee she created an extremely large mana stone, to power our mind paths so that even if she left or was unable to maintain her connections with us for any reason, we would still be able to communicate without ¡®wasting¡¯ our energy on the dance. This was no ordinary mana stone, for starters its size couldn¡¯t even really be fully comprehended. Rather than saying that we created conduits to it to draw energy it was more like it itself became the conduits. Unlike an ordinary stone it did not have any physical component. The theory and details of how it is exists is more complex than I am capable of fully understanding but let me make the attempt. Basically she took the idea the essence of what a mana stone was and used her magic to recreate a purely mental version, on the mental plane. She called it a mana inspired spirit stone, or a MISS for short. To speak more planning, she basically had created a soulless mind without a body and permanently fixed it in a place that only mind mages and unhatched could get into. Of course she also wove a lot of protection into the construction of the ¡®stone¡¯ so that only we or in the future our mind mages could get into it. According to her it would also help when we would hatch. It was already known by many though mostly ignored that when we hatched the majority of us would start to lose our mental strength as our powers would be directed more into our bodies rather than our minds. With this MISS or as what we now referred to as our ¡°hearthstone¡±, all we¡¯d have to do is create some special mana stones and synchronize them to the hearthstone. With that even if we completely lost our mental strength we would still continue to be able to link up with each other and communicate on the mental plane. There were also many benefits that we could take of advantage of now. For example using the hearthstone as a base she created many much sturdier and many times more permanent mental paths and large roads which she referred to as ¡®highways¡¯. Now when we communicated no matter the strength or skill of the one ¡®speaking¡¯ the connection was really clear and easy to use. In the past it was not uncommon for someone weak in making connections to accidentally ¡®drop a connection¡¯ or be hard to understand as I can personally attest to with embarrassment, but that was definitely no longer even a possibility. All the paths, roads and highways that connected to the hearthstone in organized patterns with very high stability. In the past whatever one felt would be felt by all, when one of us was happy we all were happy and when one of us were sad we all became sad. With the exception of Sister, who none of us could feel, we all would have an effect on each other. But with these new mental paths there was a principal that Sister defined as ¡®insulation¡¯ that would work to dampen the negative effects. Now unless the people in question were ¡®close¡¯ together you wouldn¡¯t feel what they felt. Most intriguing and I would later think to be best of all these new conveniences was the gain of a privilege that until now only Sister processed and that none of us had experienced before, it was the concept of privacy. Part of this new system was the ability of each of us to use it to create and destroy new smaller paths for our own personal uses. These paths were so small that only two at most could use them. So if one of us wanted to ¡®talk¡¯ about something that we didn¡¯t want everyone to know all you had to do was set up one of these smaller paths and talk to them using only it. If you wanted to keep things to yourselves but wanted to share with more than one person, no problem. Just set up any size of dead end path that was referred to as a ¡®room¡¯, and invite who you wanted to talk to into it. With the discovery of privacy anyone who wanted to could block the others or some out from interaction if they wished too. All you had to do was ¡®close¡¯ the room, break the link or refuse to form a link in the first place. Well anyone with the exception of maybe I and I presume Sister. But then Sister created another feature that even helped with that. Basically they were small mini rooms that you placed around you mind or your mental projection. Because they offered additional protection in addition to more ensured privacy we called them shields. Sister liked to call them ¡°helmet hats¡± she laughed a lot after saying this but I didn¡¯t really get the joke, despite the explanations, how is something having a name similar to its purpose funny? Anyway as with the paths and rooms anyone could set one up, without skill or mana or mental strength drain because it was done automatically through the spells encasing the hearthstone. Even I had a lot of difficulty breaking past one, and it took so much time and effort that I don¡¯t really see what could possibly engage my curiosity enough that I would even bother to try and break past one in a situation outside of practice/testing. Add into that the warning Sister gave against me ever doing so, I would have to be suicidal in the future if I ever so much as considered it. Sister also set the shields up so that they would react automatically if even one of us received a mental attack. They would also sound an alarm to Sister and the rest of us in case of any kind of danger. I was somewhat happy despite the limitations it placed on me, because it was covering a weak point that I myself had thought of already before. Besides the personal shields that anyone could manifest, there was also now a really huge shield that would appear to protect us in the case of a more major attack. Sister gave as an example rather than one or two mind mages a large joint effort involving spells and not just the basic instinctual magic. Like everything else the great shield was powered by the hearthstone. Sister was already protecting us a lot with her passive skills and spells but as she had stressed repeatedly what if something put her out of commission and we no longer had her to protect us. It was a most scary thought. I mean what sort of existence could possibly put her out of commission. Seeing my doubt she also pointed out that although she was taking preventive measures she couldn¡¯t completely guarantee that what had happened to make her leave in the first place wouldn¡¯t happen again and the next time my even disable at least some of her skills. Recalling what she had told me about the incident I could agree more easily. During the time she had just returned and was more vulnerable I had asked her to tell me what happened and had actually gotten an answer. ¡°Remember when I told you about our people?¡± I conveyed my yes. ¡°Remember what I had also told you about wyverns?¡± This was a bit more difficult to think about as it involved unhatched who were injured by circumstances or some other mysterious form of fate while still in the egg, hatched prematurely and became disabled or at greatly restricted dragons, that were looked down upon in society and seemed to generally have a rough life, and although our clan didn¡¯t do so, as far as Sister knew, she had learned that there were some clans that exiled any wyverns that survived their childhood and there were some even more evil clans that would just kill them on sight. I once again but with a bit more hesitancy indicated that I did indeed know of them. ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Well there were a few¡­human equivalents of wyrns that I would often spy on¡­they were sort of a comfort to me and I greatly enjoyed watching over them...and they...well¡­they died.¡± I continued to keep my composure (or I at least thought I did) but inside I was a bit confused, that was it? As if in answer to my puzzlement she continued. ¡°I was sad, and then for various additional reasons I just couldn¡¯t keep back the emotions and well you saw how it ended up¡­¡± Well I had seen only a little of it, but in my opinion a little of how she ended up was enough. Even though I didn''t really understand why she got so emotional over a couple of wyrns as not even the newly awakened unhatched got that emotional when they got upset, i decided to just accept it as it was and think about it more later. Wanting to change the subject and still ashamed and worried about my past behavior I decided to ask her opinion on the situation of my exaggerated pride and the downfall it lead to. Volume One Chapter 24: Rising Rush and Descending Doldrums Spoiler : I know I have probably lost most of my credibility by this point but, believe it or not this is the very last chapter of brother in an egg. I am not sure yet if he will narrate again but there will be a few "side stories" and then we will get back to the sister and hopefully finally some real action :D I will now mention something, just in case of the unlikely event you did not notice, this fic is a work in progress a slightly polished rough draft, I consider it very far from being actually readable so congrats to those who actually read it ;), I admire you really...now to get to the point, I have been planning to start editing of this fic from the very beginning and attempt to make it at least "readable". In addition I actually have someone who volunteered to help me with the edits. Though I don''t know how or if this is going to work out, but since I will enter winter break soon, there is at least a chance, because I will at least some real free time available to get some work done. Anyway, here is some nice artwork done by that ''prospective'' editor I mentioned Fireraven Rising Rush and Descending Doldrums (Brother) After I had finished explaining to sister all that I had experienced, she was silent for a moment then said. ¡°¡­eh it actually affected you that much? That is kind of surprising I didn¡¯t even notice¡­¡± I was a bit happy that my actions hadn¡¯t affected her anywhere near as much as I fear but I still wanted answers so I remained silent and waited, and as expected she soon answered me. ¡°Well¡­the best way to describe it would be to call it growing pains I guess?¡± ¡°Growing pains?¡± I asked intrigued. ¡°Yes, according to my research it is a burden for the majority of our race, and a great number of our species. I suspect that most dragons go through it at least one time in their lives.¡± She paused for a moment before asking. ¡°The ¡®problems¡¯ started when you ranked up right?¡± ¡°Now that I think about it, yes that was indeed the beginning of it all¡­¡± ¡°Well it is much more likely to happen when one ranks up, especially if you are also young. Another probability increasing factor is if the rank up happens during a level up to a number that is considered a milestone. If you don¡¯t rank up during when you meet the milestone it can still happen. Also being afflicted during a mere level up can also happen but it is less likely¡± I didn¡¯t like the thought, I mean it is easy for me to level up in fact it happens all the time, if the affliction only happened during the much more rare rank up, it would be bearable, but if I started to return to that strange behavior any time I level up, that would be bad to say the least. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, the effect happening during leveling is said to be rare and when it does happen the side effects are usually only to a much lesser degree.¡± She hurried to reassure me. She went on to say that, side effects like increased self-assurance or arrogance were common as well as feeling indestructible and reckless. Some of the more major rarer but more severe symptoms included delusions of grandeur, egomania and feelings of apathy towards all others but oneself. Hearing that list I felt quite a bit better because the others including Sister didn¡¯t even really seem to notice any my changes so they must have been much more minor then I had made them out to be. As Sister had mentioned to me before that she had ranked up multiple times in the past, I asked out of curiosity. ¡°Did this er ever effect you?¡± ¡°Well ¡®it¡¯ is usually referred to ¡®Rising Rush¡¯¡­and as far as I know I have never really been effected much by it¡­¡± Some of my happiness deflated at those words but I continued on regardless. ¡°Not even once?¡± I asked. ¡°Well I am not really sure why, but it seems probably not. Occasionally I would feel a brief hint of the feeling of indestructibility but it would quickly pass, and I don¡¯t think I have ever felt any form of recklessness or even a hint of unintended arrogance at least, at least definitely not anywhere near the extreme side like I heard others getting¡­¡± She seemed to be lost in her memories. ¡°¡­anyway I was wondering are you sure that you got the ¡®Rising Rush¡¯? I mean I didn¡¯t really notice that you had it¡­ ¡°I am sure.¡± I uncomfortably admitted Hearing my reply she immediately came up with a theory. ¡°Maybe if I am immune, perhaps you are resistant? It would make sense we are siblings after all¡­¡± This made me happy until she went on to say. ¡°While never really got the Rising Rush I did always at least somewhat get the second part of the illness¡­the ¡®Descending Doldrums¡¯.¡± Hearing this I realized that I had also experienced the ¡®Descending Doldrums¡¯ for myself, it was when the shock happened and I started to sober out of the giddy feelings that had produced by the Rising Rush. Hearing her admit some of her failings got me to thinking about her a little more deeply then I usually did. If she was really as all-knowing as I had misled myself into thinking she was, she would have known about my ¡®Rising Rush¡¯ situation and knowing her she probably would have immediately taken preventive measures to negate or at least lessen the effects of what would happen to me. And during the time she was lost to us she told me it was because some wyvern like human creatures that she had been fond of died. She had also recently ranked up so there was also the possibility that the downers had something to do with what happened to her but still. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Even though undeniably she had all that ¡®power¡¯ she still couldn¡¯t manage to save herself, so in reality she wasn¡¯t all knowing and she wasn¡¯t all powerful either. Though she did have awe inducing strength that was to be admired, and had a maturity beyond all of our years that we respected as seniority despite our ages. She was absolute far from perfection, and was just as fallible as the rest of us. Then I had another realization. If she fell so far down from the deaths of a few wyvern that she liked what would happen if lost one of us? I had always thought her desire to shield us from everything was overprotective and excessive but now I am having second thoughts on that premise I may even have to reverse my stance. Wanting to understand better her feelings I got her to speak of her reasons of delaying hatching as well as the preparation I had once found so pointless. And I learned of the wisdom of weakness, and how one must prepare the way for those greater then oneself. Sister didn¡¯t say it explicitly but despite my prompts she did not deny it either. I now believed that she had been planning her own mission all along and it was the real reason she had been putting off hatching and insisting that we ¡®prepare¡¯. I then got all of my main group together and shared with them some of my experiences with ¡®Rising Rush¡¯ as well as about my thoughts on Sisters fallibility and my suspicions of her vulnerability which was losing one of us. I also discussed with them just how we would prepare in the future. Exactly how we would prepare the way. First of all was the concern of equality. While not all of us were of the same level and I don¡¯t mean just in the literal sense but also in what few skills we could have as well is in their learning speed. As things have been going so far, it looked like we were to have two sections one with speed and strength in most stats, which was basically my group and those close to our level. And the other group which would contain almost everybody else with the exceptions of a promising few who seemed like it was only a matter of time. We were thinking about adding the promising ones to our group, and giving them additional attention to make up for whatever lack was keeping them from quickly belonging to the first group. Then while we were discussing this. The idea of additional attention giving results was then talked about in more detail and we wonder if it would work with others besides the promising candidates. We also thought about things the situation further and wondered whether continuing in this way would be the best choice. As I have seen with those that continue to play games or dance, or get lessons on the sly, they all showed more results, even if they were of the slow growth type. What if we then showed everyone this additional attention and encouraged them to get lessons. Rather than continuing to expect the slow ones to be able to keep up with the fast ones, wouldn¡¯t it be better if we instead let them go at their own speed? Thinking that we might have good idea here I asked Sister who had been unusually available since her return. She agreed with me and also gave a nice proverb in advice. ¡°We are only as strong as our weakest link¡± Before participating in the dance of minds I proudly wouldn¡¯t have understood this anywhere near as well as I do after that beautiful experience, and I could somewhat understand. When one is part of group if someone makes a mistake or is exploited then we all are mistaken or exploited. So in conclusion, we would continue the preparations even though some of us felt quite ready, and we would wait. We would wait until all of us, instead of just some of us, knew at least the bare minimum of information and skills Sister felt was required and also had at least the first rank up in power. Of course though it wasn¡¯t required having higher rank and more power would be better. Even though we knew that having and meeting such requirements would take much longer then if we had just gone without any preparation all of us if not in total agreement with the plan at least accepted it, and although we lacked in speed, the fact that our overall quality greatly improved made up for it. We stuck to the plan even after a certain time period more unhatched were suddenly added to our number and our speed decreased even more, as we had to wait for the new ones consciousness¡¯s to awaken and then for them to mature enough that we could teach them. There were not more siblings this time but there were a few comparable to those in my group and they quickly ranked up when they gained reason and learned from us. However it didn¡¯t even take long for even the ¡®average¡¯ and ¡®untalented¡¯ to rank up as well. For with us experienced ones and their talented peers to help them it was almost as good, then if they were talented to begin with During this slow period, my group made another decision. Instead of our old plan of just picking out from the others ones we felt were ¡®better¡¯ to choose who would be part of our group. Instead other than a few exceptions we would just see who would be brave and desiring enough to be a part of our group to ask. so first some, then a large amount then most of the majority and finally all of us had ranked up at least once, and met at least most of the other requirements. I myself had managed to rank up an additional time and Peeper the rest of my siblings and a few of the others in my group also managed to do the same. After we met our goal we still didn¡¯t rush to leave immediately but took some time to insure that we had all acclimatized to our new strengths and those of us that suffered ¡®Rising Rush¡¯ or ¡®Descending Doldrums¡¯ had completely gotten over our illnesses. Then finally we were really ready. Finally we would hatch.
P.S. My apologies for my indicates hopefully I will be able to do better in the future. I tell myself just so long as I don''t give up then anything is acceptable even though they reveal just how weak my meager writing skills are... Volume One Chapter 25: Slumbering under a Great Mountain (Side Story) Slumbering under a Great Mountain (Hey it¡¯s me MO, it¡¯s been a while:)) Spoiler : Well today is my birthday! Happy birthday to me!! [th_091_-2.gif] Anyway I decided to celebrate by doing the Hobit tradition of giving people presents! So here is a chapter (hopefully I will be able to do another one by the end of December making this at least a two chapter release month, but no promises unfortunately) As part of the party I am even including a bonus illustration!! (OOOOH!) Done by me (Sarcastic yay) I know I suck. (please have mercy) Nooo! Don''t attack! I can do better I swear!...(eh cough cough) I also have this er wonderful artwork that is RF themed it is basically a bag thing that I had the opertunity to paint and for some reason RF was on the brain, see if you can tell what I was trying to portray: And here we have a contestant called: Paint thing 1 (applause cheers) Answer: Spoiler : yes it''s an egg! And here we have the (lovely?) contestant number 2 Answer: Spoiler : the red thing is a bit harder right? Well it is ''obviously'' my very sad attempt at a carnation Well hold on to your seat''s ladies an'' gents'' because I am about to re veil the shocking truth!! Can you guess what it is? Spoiler : Both pictures are on the same bag... Congrats you got them all right (right?) You win an ''amazing'' prize!! It''s this pathetic ugly picture that is kind of related to this chapter... Anyway I hope you like the chapter (or chapy as I have heard it called) P.S. We are now entering the Bleckscmeil Side Series mini arc (yaaaay), it is basically a series of chapters 2 or 3 or so which follows the ''exciting adventures'' of a ''god'' named Bleckscmeil, it is an arc that will kinda explain some of the mysteries as well as introduce some of the antagonists. Deep in the depths of the caverns of one of the largest mountains of the planet, located in a small kingdom in the dragon lands, slumbered the one called Dragon God Bleckscmeil. He who was known by many titles as the one often said with awe: ¡®The Great Dragon¡¯ as well as the softly spoken in fear: ¡®The Greedy God¡¯. For this intimidating sounding fellow, it might not also be inappropriate to refer to him as the Slothful god for he spent much of his time napping. Right now he was sprawled out in what would be a most ungainly fashion, if his appearance wasn¡¯t so dreadful. The Great Dragon God Bleckscmeil, had six sturdy legs the width and height comparable to the thickest and highest of trees, an each leg had a thick foot about a fifth as long as his limbs, with at least 5 gnarly digits each sporting equally as long silver razor blade looking claws. His body might be mistaken as a smaller sized black mountain if one were to see it in the light, for best effect it would be better that it were an area with no large elevations, such as a plain. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. This would also make it easier to spy his somewhat stumpy tail which was about half the length of his long streamlined body. His head looked even smaller, when compared to the rest of him but it was many times bigger than any ship on the planet that the current technically of the mortals and minor immortals could produce. It was also somewhat shaped like the body of a ship, if the imaginary ship in question were broken lengthwise more than halfway with a huge crack, and the crack¡¯s edges lined with thousands of sharp thick silver great sword like blades, several times taller than the body of an average humanoid. His body was plated with pitch black and sand paper textured scales. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view several nearby lava pools, as well as the dimly glowing gemstones embedded in the caverns ceiling would allow most people to be able to see him perfectly in all is glory. Many would assume that since he was sleeping one wouldn¡¯t be able to see any of his four bolder sized eyes that sat slightly above the pits that were his nostrils. But they would be wrong. For Bleckscmeil was of the species of dragons that held the nickname of Meteor Muncher. This species had no need to possess eyelids for the eyes themselves were harder than diamonds. The eyes had no organic functions, the way they were used to perceive the dragon¡¯s surroundings was by conducting mana, in patterns similar to natural spells. Thus they glowed dimly with a dull red light slightly brighter than the lava even while he slept. The light of his eyes was enough to shine on what he slept on. And because the contents of his ¡®bed¡¯ mainly had reflective properties it was also easy to see what it was. Treasure. Mounds and mounds of treasure. Enough treasure that one could make at least three life sized statues of their owner out of it and still have enough left to buy out almost any human kingdom in the world twice over. As per suiting a dragon¡¯s taste the treasure was made mainly out of gold, however at least a third of it was made up of other various precious metals, minerals and gems. Most of the treasure, had no form nor was crafted into any shape. It seemed to be various sizes of gold and gem gold colored rocks but if one were to look closely on some of them you could almost see the mostly eroded and faded evidence of sculpting and smithery of the probably ancient. To prevent the treasure from falling into the lava, someone presumably Bleckscmeil had set up several large black pig iron barriers with spikes on top. Which not also conveniently served as a thief deterrent, but also a decor meshed well with the theme of his cavern which was built to best ¡®flatter¡¯ the sight of the vain dragon god. The barriers proved their worth as every time Bleckscmeil moved even the slightest bit in his sleep, mountains of treasure would dissipate into gold avalanches that would crash downward and form new smaller mountains. The cavern was mostly quite except for the dull rumbling of the liquid earth moving, and the occasional tinkling thunder of showers of treasure clinking against each other as it fell. If one were the type that wouldn¡¯t be afraid at the sight of Bleckscmeil then you might could say that, seeing him sleeping there was an almost peaceful, and perhaps beautiful sight. Such peace was soon broken by the sound of an ear breaking shout. ¡°BLECKSCMEIL!!¡± Bleckscmeil stirred slightly but otherwise seemed unaffected, the owner of the voice was not disawaded by a lack of reply for he screamed even louder to the point that the cavern shook, the ceiling cracked and several large boulders and rocks fell down. To usuessly bounce off Bleckscmeil¡¯s scales, splash the treasure away in waves at the point of impact or get destroyed by falling into lava. ¡°BLECKSCMEIL WAKE UP NOW YOU WORM!!!!!!!¡± Never one to let an insult slid no matter how petty, Bleckscmeil moved a bit uneasily in his sleep, however he still did not wake up. ¡°BLECKSCMEIL YOU WORM!! IF YOU DO NOT WAKE IMMEDIATELY YOU WILL DEFINITELY REGRET IT!!!!!!!!!!!¡± That scream was louder then both the former two combined, it was to the point that several of the weaker treasures in Bleckscmeil¡¯s collection even shattered from the vibrations alone but except to shove his head into a mound of treasure in an attempt to protect his tiny unseen ears the dragon god stubernly continued to slumber. ¡°THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!!¡± The voice was only as loud as it had been the first time, but that amount of sound was plenty , it would have made almost any mortal and even some lesser immortals go death by bursting their ear drums, sadly it did not have even near such an effect as Bleckscmeil¡¯s tiny ears were well protected by several false scales. A few moments later after seeing that his wake up calls had no effect, the owner of the voice appeared. Volume One Chapter 26: Fisticuffs (Side Story) Fisticuffs (The Narration of the Mysterious Observer Continues) Spoiler : So Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all the rest of the various seasons greetings depending on your culture ;) Here is part two of this side story, I was going to have a part three but then I decided suddenly to just leave at 2 parts things will end up with more mystery this way ;) Anyway you may or may not be happy to know that I am slowly accumulating chapters...maybe in the near future I will be able to have a double or more-ple release? Anyway hopes you like He who attempts to wake Bleckscmeil was also a god, albeit he was a lot more human looking. Though when I say human looking I mean this in only loose in general terms, at least unlike Bleckscmeil he had skin instead of scales, and wore clothing thought it was only a loin cloth, albeit one made out of the finest of immortal woven cloth, but still just a pair of old fashioned underwear. He was taller than most of even the tallest of ¡®mortal¡¯ giants existing in the world, he stood at about a third of Bleckscmeil¡¯s height. His proportions and looks were quite perfect, the color of his flesh was a lovely glowing cream that draped elegantly on his impressive, artfully arranged streamlined muscles. Even not knowing what he was, it was almost guaranteed that if almost any mortal saw him they would immediately call him a god, his body just looked that sublimely sculpted, but it was his head that stole the show. His face was perfectly symmetrical, yes, one side was utterly identical to the other. He had a roman nose of the optimal size, his lips were like delicate peach blossoms resting elegantly above his chin. His beautiful cheek bones subtly drew attention to his stunning eyes. Those eyes were masterpieces, they were shaped like the setting sun, and the colors only served that image, being of a glorious orange yellow color mixed with white silver and dazzling gold. He also had very luxuriously long eye lashes. Thick and black, the bottom ones were slightly longer then the top, but such uniqueness was in no way displeasing. Besides those handsome eyelashes the god was 100% hairless, and his slightly shiny pate gleamed from the dim glow of the lava as he stood staring daggers in front of Bleckscmeil, the sight of such a handsome creature was quite incongruent in the dark ugly setting but he made it work with the magnitude of his charisma. If one weak to such things were to see him, they would scarcely notice even the mounds of treasure and would instead prefer to continue look at him. He stood there for but a few moments, then quickly cementing his decision for coming out of hiding, the other god, pursed his lovely lips in childish dissatisfaction, then gathered all his power winding it back into one of soon muscle swelled arms, then he did what was only to be expected. He leaped In order to reach better and punched Bleckscmeil. In the face. ¡°BOOOOM!!¡± The resulting noise, was heard by approximately 30% of the planet¡¯s population, 0.000001% of that population died, specifically those living within a 1000 miles within the blast area. The majority of the remaining were absolutely soul shakenly terrified. As a result of that sound, mass hysteria reined and another fraction of the population died from either mental shock alone, or the accidents the hysteria had caused. Keep in mind that this chaos was only from the effect from the initial little fisticuff. Though the reverberation of the cavern they were in had magnified the results which would have been dreadful enough on their own worst was yet to come, that was just about the sound. The process that had been initiated had to end. Actually it was kind of amusing to watch. The punch from the seemingly much smaller god, actually blew Bleckscmeil¡¯s body into the air, and he was slammed against the cavern wall. Unfortunately the nearly indestructible material wasn¡¯t able to hold against the dragon¡¯s weight and it exploded outward. After flying for several hundred miles completely not by his own initiative, finally having completely woken up long ago he was able to angle his wings enough that his ascent slowed into a decent and he ended up blasting into the ground, creating a huge crater. Luckily because of the strange geologic nature of Purl, the whole planet wasn¡¯t destroyed, unluckily almost every single living creature in the small kingdom he was in was. And the shock it caused made the planet wide population total go down by another few percentages. In case you were wondering what the ¡®gods¡¯ thought about such a tragic loss of life, allow me to illuminate. The possible repercussions of their selfish stubborn actions in regards to anyone but themselves didn¡¯t even once cross their minds. The puncher only admired the situation as a demonstration of his own strength, as to Bleckscmeil the first thing he said as he, opened his scaly eyes and sneered at his unfortunate alarm clock was: This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°You had better pray to the first gods that I haven¡¯t broken a scale.¡± He then proceeded to petulantly crawl out of the newly made hole whilst lashing his ginormous tail at the ground in anger. Think of a picture of an angry snarling cat twitching its tail only covered in scales and stuff. Seeing the one who had woken him through his eyes, and actually trying to identify him he snorted in disgust. ¡°Eferinant, so it¡¯s you! YOU DARED?!¡± Quick as a flash he leaped with all of his strength into a better position and before the other god could so much as blink he had already inhaled deeply and breathed his most deadly breath attack straight at him. However although the side effects of this attack wiped out an additional 8% of the kingdom¡¯s remaining population, (AKA the survivors of the first catastrophe) other than his loincloth ending up looking slightly singed Eferinant was perfectly fine. ¡°Moron, trying to burn a god of the hearth, with such a pathetic flame? Are you joking with me?¡± Not only did Mr. B. seemed unsurprised but he also seemed strangely a lot calmer, he almost gracefully shrunk himself into a much smaller and somewhat more humanoid form and then using the nearby broken mountain as a chair he casually sat down with a splayed and relaxed posture. ¡°Of course not, why would I do such a boring thing, I was just blowing off some steam.¡± He said as he casually scratched one of his forelegs that was now almost an arm with a miniaturized but equally as sharp finger nail version of his claw. It was a sight kind of at odds with what had just happened, but the other god didn¡¯t seem disappointed, in fact he also made himself comfortable, summoning a large stone slab out of the grown to use as a seat, he raised one hand and a large beautiful clear glass appeared out of nowhere filled to the brim with wine that looked like liquid flames. He sipped the drink thought fully in silence. Snorting at the sight of the wine, Bleckscmeil, continued the conversation as if the break hadn¡¯t happened. ¡°Besides, if I had really wanted to kill you, you would be dead. You may have a slight flame defense but I doubt you could so easily withstand my fangs and claws, or resist my poison. " ¡°True, that may be so.¡± Eferinant admitted without any sign of fear ¡°But, as Firmament would be able to take you down without a sweat, and the fact remains that I am his favored personal messenger I doubt you would enough the pleasure of killing me for long, he would be most put out, especially as lately we have lost to many of the pantheon already.¡± ¡°Which is why you are still alive. Bleckscmeil said affably, for no other reason could I endure such insults as what you have already done to me. Now I am running out of patience with the small talk, speak messenger then be gone from here.¡± He was only speaking the truth though the insolence and insults rankled, the fear of the name mentioned by e was enough to calm him down when he realized who had woken him. ¡°Well as I was going to say before you so¡­rudely interrupted me, I bear an urgent message directly from Emperor Firmament himself.¡± ¡°Obviously¡± (he said, drawing the word out with no small amount of sarcasm) ¡°Oh what is our illustrious leader¡¯s command.¡± Eferinant was already quite satisfied with the hit he had gotten on the dragon earlier, and was feeling generous so he easily ignored the sarcasm and implied insult towards their lord. Also Eferinant considered himself to be of the agreeable and laid back type. As a god that was only a lesser member of the pantheon he obeyed orders without complaints. But getting involved with politics as he assuredly would if he snitched the worm out? No thank you. He much preferred drinking his wine and playing with his many women then to be bothered any more then he currently was with more work because of an action that would be seen only as a sign of ambition. He shrugged and lifted his glass in a silent toast towards someone only he knew. ¡°This news should surprise even a NEET such as yourself Bleckscmeil.¡± He said unable to resist putting in the dig. Impatient to hear what looked to be most juicy news, Bleckscmeil merely snorted and gestured for him to go on, decided to put of getting compensation for the insults later. Eferinant, smirked and drew out the moment for a few seconds, partly for dramatic effect, but mostly because he was enjoying the sense of power the current situation temporally gave, him. But knowing that he couldn¡¯t put it off any longer without potentially endangering his life, he finally shared the news in a most casual way. ¡°The treasure soul has disappeared.¡± For a moment there was silence, but only a moment for the information soon sunk through even Bleckscmeils thick head and he screamed so loudly that probably not a so much as a mouse remained in the kingdom. ¡°WHHAAAAAAAAAT??!!!¡± Volume One Chapter 27: Perfect Peridot *Bday Cntst Ancemnt* Perfect Peridot (MO: So what if this is another dumb sidestory take it up with FP I''m just a lowly narator) Spoiler : Happy New Year''s Eve. I am humble to announce the first ever (and probably last) Rein Carnation Flower Anniversary Celebration My fic Reincarnation Flower is turning one years old, one month from now on the 31st of January. So I¡¯d thought I have to celebrate such a sad pathetic occasion somehow, so why not do it on royal road? Why not right? So, I am planning on releasing more chapters then I usually do as a bonus for those of you rare folk who read it, but this is just the tip of the ice burg of what I want to do. :) Then what is the rest of it you ask? Well I want to host a RF contest! (yay¡­) basically almost anything goes, however all entries must adhere to the rules of Royalroadl, plus they cannot have a mature rating in their content. (In general keep it PG), and obviously plagiarism is also a no-no, with the exception of fanficting to a certain degree, but it can¡¯t be copied straight from whatever work you are sourcing from, in other words you can use characters and their names but not much else. In the likely event you need some clarification of what I am talking about here are some examples ideas/loose guidelines of what you can submit. A fanfic of the/a fanfic! (Min 1,000 words max 2,500 about a RF chapter¡¯s worth) Fan art, or fic inspired art! Poetry (no word limits unless it is supposed to have them: like for haiku) Gratuitous beautiful flattery/compliments for the work or the author Painful Clever Criticism for the work or the author Almost anything else you can think of! Now the reasons you would want do this: Well¡­there isn¡¯t really any...especially if you don¡¯t read or like RF however you are free to participate without having read or liked any of my works¡­you probably just won¡¯t appreciate the prize as much if you win. Now having said that¡­here are the prizes! 1st place: Almost anything that is within my power! (So long as it isn¡¯t illegal and doesn¡¯t go against any of my beliefs or willingness) And it can be broken up into segments. That is, you could ask for one big thing, or you could ask for a bunch of smaller things it¡¯s your choice. 2nd place: One ¡®medium¡¯ sized thing, can also be broken up into smaller segments 3rd place: One ¡®smaller¡¯ sized thing. Potential Things: Big Sized An actual physical thing¡­(can¡¯t be expensive, extremely limited not recommended) Help with something through the internet Free story written by me you decide what kind (don¡¯t see why¡¯d you¡¯d want it¡­) Inclusion of a character you created in a future work of mine, your choice which Inclusion of a plotline or event that you want to see happen your choice which fic Medium Sized You decide my next chapter release date or receive the next chapter before other people (minimum of 1 week after last release or we can debate further) The ability to name/custom create minor characters that will appear in the future of any fic of your choice. Art made by me, your choice as to what (once again no clue why¡¯d you want it but¡­) Poetry made by me, guidelines same as art Song Lyrics, you decide contents and can provide the music I will leave a review on a fanfic of your choice, warning: I will be neither cruel nor extremely complementary (essentially I will just be myself) Smaller Sized Free spoilers, completely spelled out for you and explained just message me anytime you are curious Consolation Prizes Not only will I include each and every name in the spoiler section of my next RF chapter I will also: Judge each entry and give you feedback (tell me if you want the feedback to be private) Give to you an invisible party favor, in the form of a tiny sized prize of your choice (message me if you wish to redeem it and we will work something out) Other Instructions You can email me your entry or post it on one of my fics, all works must include the FORM in order to be valid and each participant is limited to one per category, max of 3 categories. All entries are due by January 31, all entries submitted after will achieve honorable mentions at best. Judging will will start as soon as entries are received so time depends on amount of entries received. FORM: Have You Read Reincarnation Flower Before?: Yes or No Tell the truth, have you read all/most of it?: If No for either of the former 2 questions or in the case that the reason for yes is really interesting, why are you entering this contest?: Entry Type: Art, fic etc. Why this type: What prize do you want if you win?: Judgment Guidelines 1 As said all valid entries must use the FORM (see above), other things that will be judged include quality, what it is vs estimated difficulty and emotional appeal 2 I am the head judge and my word is final. 3 Depending on how many entrants there are I may have to resort to a popularity poll to narrow things down, in such a case anyone who votes by default becomes a secondary judge. (See number 2) 4 I will do my best to remain impartial but as I am human please forgive me my biases if they so happen to arise ****IMPORTANT**** Keep in mind that unless you say otherwise, I will consider your entry to be a birthday gift, and thus I may end up using it in the future (especially if you win) in such a case, though I will give credit, the work will now essentially belong to me and I will do with it what I please. Peridot was perfect or at least that is what he thought. In his opinion his perfection should be obvious to whomever who was lucky enough to gaze upon his great visage or even those who had heard of his greater feats. This undeniable fact was not a surprising one either he felt because being an elder son of the current reining monarch of the gem dragons, it did not take much work to become perfect because he was almost so from the very beginning. In fact he was so perfect that when he occasionally wondered why he had no close friends and no followers other than a few pathetic cowards that were eye hurtingly imperfect, he could always comfort himself with the ¡®true¡¯ thought, that all the dragons that were of a quality that actually deserved to serve under his perfection must be so intimidated by his greatness that they felt unworthy of becoming his servants and thus were fearful and slow to approach him. He had every confidence that they would one day get over their fear and to be with him, after all who can resist being near perfection? In the meantime he would go and win over the hatchlings first. They were all young and na?ve enough that even his perfection shouldn¡¯t be as off putting, and thus as long as he showed them a little affection and gave them a little help, at most nudge here or hint there, they would all be tripping over themselves to become his followers. It was the perfect plan as befitting the most perfect of dragons. And just as he expected it worked pretty well, and the only reason it didn¡¯t work perfectly was of course because of reasons outside of his control. It was understandable for as everyone knew not even the plans of geniuses worked 100% of the time. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. To migrate failure as much as possible he decided to make his move around the time that the hatchlings grew large enough that they were no longer closely guarded and allowed to go mostly where they pleased as long as it was within hatchling walking distance of the complex of dens. During such a time, the little ones were usually excited yes but also fearful and wanting to seek comforting things. Since their parents would be busy with the war, he would selflessly step in to provide that comfort. And for the majority of those young minds he was quite this method worked quite well. Usually the few he didn¡¯t succeeded with were mostly loners, the unsocial ones, who wouldn¡¯t work well in his group even if he did manage to recruit them. Strangely there were some dragons who oddly enough disliked his methods, for some incomprehensible reason they even disapproved of them! But luckily for him they couldn¡¯t do anything even if they wanted to, for as said before he was essentially a prince! And they were of the loyal sort that couldn¡¯t even entertain the thought of hurting the Queen¡¯s feelings and by default his feelings. And although Mother herself frowned and father snorted in disgust if they really did disapprove no matter how busy they were wouldn¡¯t they intervene, or at least order him to stop? But of course they didn¡¯t. Which implied they must actually secretly admire the beauty of his plan and were only disapproving to reward the loyalty of the dimwits who did strangely disapprove. Perhaps when his followers started to grow up and mature a bit they would even end up admiring not just his brilliant plan but he himself and rightfully so. For wasn¡¯t there so much to admire! They might even reward him for his efforts like they did for some of his siblings and give him a position in the military like Gold, allow him to rule his own village like Silver, or perhaps send him out as an ambassador to the other neutral dragon races as they did for Lilly. Maybe even, with a bit of luck he would gain enough power, prestige and personnel that he could take the same route as big brothers Gold and Silver did, but solely through his own power too. Wouldn¡¯t that be just delicious?! If such a great thing happened unlike his poor confined brothers, he wouldn¡¯t have to be obedient to his imperfect parents anymore and would be able to make his own perfect way without their hindering influence. So he continued to work on winning over the young dragons, and training them to be acceptable enough to serve him. Several times he would lose a few to death, or to his other siblings or even a rare few who left to become loners. But it didn¡¯t matter, all he had to do to make up the numbers was patiently wait there was always a new generation waiting wings that would hatch every few years¡­until there wasn¡¯t. Strangely and suddenly, this time around the expected time for hatching none of the eggs hatched. At first he wasn¡¯t worried, these things happen now and then he thought. That the lesser young creatures are occasionally lazy and late to show is natural, he thought. But when weeks and then months passed, without any further hatching he became a bit uneasy. So he started to be a bit more cautious with the underlings he already had, and even started to organize some training for the more talented among them. It was only good business to hedge ones bets, besides if the lack of new recruits continued, he may end up at a disadvantage with his opponents. The majority of them unlike himself relied on quality rather than quantity. He soon realized that he was right to worry when the months turned into years. And he was far from being the only one concerned the Queen mandated that essentially that all offensive measures would no longer be allowed, they were allowed to defend only. She also seemed to be working harder on her alliance negotiating efforts, there wasn¡¯t a day going by when he didn¡¯t see at least one messenger dragon flying off, in the direction of a more neutral neighbor. He didn¡¯t quite approve, why should the superior they, ever want to beg the help of the lesser races? In fact it should be them coming to the gem dragons and begging them to deign to even speak to them let alone form an alliance with them. Unfortunately when he tried to point this out to his mother, she had only smiled and said. ¡°I see, well the next time one of the ¡®lesser races¡¯ comes to beg our aid, I will consider asking for your wisdom.¡± She then made the justified excuse that she was busy and politely told him to leave. Though the thought of being recognized for his wisdom pleased him, he eventually realized with his keen mind that she had been merely mollifying him and not taking him seriously at all, and had become a bit put out until he realized all that had to happen for flattery to become fact would be for one of those lesser races acting properly and coming to beg for their alliance. Something that should happen anyway and if not then he would look in the remote areas himself and come to them, for perhaps they were shy or so in awe of the beauty of his people, that they were intimidated into not coming. It made sense for him to do, and he would only be doing his duty as someone of his greatness should. A few more years passed, well possibly more than that but he never kept track of such menial things. Their enemies had apparently been baffled at their lack of movement for other than a few token skirmishes there had been no major battles. In other news, as he had expected there had been no new alliances made. In his opinion this had to be a direct result of great ones lowering themselves to lowly ones level. Even his mom¡¯s trusted Lilly hadn¡¯t managed to do more than maintain the friendships of the neutral parties she worked with. Fortunately the village that Silver ran, was not experiencing any unnatural lack of hatching so they were able to receive a good amount of new blood to make up for their casualties in the form of an influx of villagers who wanted to taste the luxury of the capital as well as better defend their homeland. He of course had taken advantage of this by seeing if there were any promising village hatchlings to recruit. Although he had great success with the orphans to his surprise the uncivilized villages practiced the most uncouth habit of directly rearing their young, and as a result the majority of those with parents wouldn¡¯t even speak to him, and the few who did would be quickly collected in by their parents who would even give him dirty look as they did so. But what else could one expect from mere uncultured villagers? He had been relaxing in his suite of dens, whilst pondering his brains for ways to wean the little barbarians off their parents when there was a knock on his entrance rock. He flicked one of his hands utilizing the minor magic that would roll the stone aside. ¡°Enter¡­¡± he lazily said. ¡°Prince Peridot, Prince Peridot!¡± The little fellow shouted in excitement as he ran into the room. It was one of the few of his minions that he considered acceptable, the way the little one addressed him verified this fact. For amongst the others besides those of his noble sort of mentality it was considered a bit conceited to be addressed by one¡¯s title unless they were ranked at least general and sometimes even kings felt it. ¡°Yes what is it?¡± He asked with a bit more energy, seeing that the fellow was so excited the news he was bringing had to be interesting at the very least. ¡°THEY HAVE FINALLY HATCHED!¡±
Check the spoiler at the top of the page for information about the RF Happy Birthday /1st Year Anniversary Contest Volume One Chapter 28: The Class I have Chosen Spoiler : Welcome to the offical start of the RCF birthday party (unenthusiastic yay). As those of you who read the spoiler section of chapter 27 should be aware of this party will be over on the 31st, after which we will no longer be celebrating...and we will go back to having only 1 chapter a month. (ducks and hides from the boos and hisses and I don''t cares) Anyway despite the rare opportunity I am handing you reader guys, surprisingly (or maybe not that surprisingly) not that many of you seem to care, about the b-day contest despite the fact that I am giving exactly what a lot of you said you wanted. (that is among other things; input into where this story will go/how fast it will take to get there.) Back to the news on this and the next few chapters...basically I am going to be making a whole lot of you unhappy...sorry/that''s too bad. This is because though it is back to MC POV they ''sarcastic gasp'' don''t hatch and possibly some info dumps are also involved. As to the theory that the reason why I am doing it this way being because I want to show you exactly why I switched POV''s because MC is not at an interesting point at the moment...well who knows? I do in fact have a chapter of brother''s hatching mostly written...as well as some ideas for what will happen to him in the near future...but sadly MC''s hatching looks to be a long way off... Maybe the reason why I am being so slow is because I started college again but on the other hand...maybe...maybe the reason why I am not writing is because I am lying on the ground wounded and bleeding my heart torn to shreds by all the...mean nasty(?) comments and reviews I have been receiving! JBADQ (just being a drama queen) Though I don''t deny that some of them did hurt, even the ones that did aren''t enough to stop me from writing, it is not like I am writing for the praise anyway. But...don''t worry I shall have my revenge ...you won''t know when, you won''t know how and maybe you won''t even know why...but I will have my revenge muhahaha!! The Class I have Chosen (Back to the one called the MC by the author) My deepest desire in regards to classes has always been that I become a swordsman. No other weapon or way of fighting has ever called out so greatly to me in the way that the sword does. In my past life I could even remember from my earliest memories picking up wooden sticks and waving them about pretending they were swords. My ability in magic was mainly due to my natural talent, which had primarily resulted from a desire for knowledge rather than a desire for magic in and of itself. In the beginning as much as I hate to admit this I had practically no natural talent for the sword. Unlike with magic, my abilities and skill in sword play were all completely as a result of my hard work. This is something that I feel even now, in my new existence, that it is something I can be proud of. And despite being in a ¡®new life¡¯, I don¡¯t think my desires in regards to swords have changed, in fact they have even gotten stronger. In fact if I hadn¡¯t had that timely breakthrough in my ability to travel through and manipulate things in the dream realm. I probably would have lost to my temptations and would have hatched out a long time ago. How well I shall do with a blade in reality, I probably wouldn¡¯t find out for quite some time. First not only would I have to hatch but I would also need to figure out the method to transform into human form. The former was inevitable despite my excessive amount of delays, the later did not seem impossible especially now as royalty I could practice magic . without any fear of reprisal. (Somewhat oddly I slightly am disappointed in this as I used such trials as training and now I would have to search them out an action that is a bit contrary to my nature.) I have not talked about it much but there are laws, though unclear to me what the exact content of these laws are, nonetheless these laws have greatly limited my actions. I call them laws for they seem to be so. You can do this but not that. You can do up to so much with this, but not that. I myself didn¡¯t find out about these laws for quite some time as I had never felt the desire to do anything big. But when once out of curiosity I tried to effect the outside world on a grand major scale that made my childish prank with the mountains look like hot cakes in comparison to my great shock I found I couldn¡¯t. Not ¡®it seemed too hard for me to do it¡¯ couldn¡¯t do it but actually clear no nonsense ¡®it¡¯s completely impossible¡¯ couldn¡¯t do it. There went my fantasies of completely destroying the enemy dragons without a trace¡­that had run through my mind¡­once. Well more than once but they were enough of a threat now and had been quite the enemy before that I could be quite excused for my feelings right? It also probably sheds new light on the strange though not completely unfamiliar instincts which had been egging on my paranoia to stay hidden, and not show myself to anyone unless we have already ¡®met¡¯ in this life. Well this whole discussion was moot point anyway when I learned the truth that I had not known before. For a short time I couldn¡¯t believe it, but soon I had to accept it. And I put my dreams and desires completely out of my mind. As I now knew what I could do was a lot more limited then what I had thought I had to find out how things really were. So after quite a few experiments I was able to figure out my limits. It turns out though I could be a real help to my siblings, in the real world perhaps even be able to save them from most dangers. If enemies appeared that were of a certain level¡­there was nothing I could do. So frustrating! What¡¯s more the laws which limited me were probably unique to my situation. Thus it was possible that my decision was the wrong one, perhaps things would have been better had I hatched if not immediately then maybe after my first rank up? Well it was much too late now, I had made my decision and I was sticking to it. what¡¯s more I had no way of knowing if it was being in egg that was limiting me, but just in case I decided that if my siblings or family encountered any major situation I would hatch regardless of how much potential time I had left. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. You see I eventually found out, that dragon eggs (at least those of my species) could spend a maximum of 100 years in the egg without any problems. There were methods to spend even longer amounts of time but if I chose those I would lose conscious and enter a deep sleep for thousands of years. And even for this me, with my strange new comprehension of time, while a few hundred years might be acceptable, thousands would be unbearable especially since I wouldn¡¯t be able to contact my brother during that amount of time. While it was possible due to our race for him to survive that long it was also quite unlikely especially with the war going on. So I had accepted the limit of 100 years and after discovering it I decided to make my siblings and followers train even more, I also developed the mental connections in order to optimize my ability to interfere with the outside world. Even if I could not directly do major things with my magic at the very least I could easily convey information and information is in and of itself a kind of power. Despite all the preparations and plans, I still felt most uneasy and eventually I pinned down the majority of the reason for my unease, I did not like having no class. Though I never found out officially, in my old life a friend of mine who possessed some sort of observer skill once told me that my class had been ¡®villager¡¯, he had looked a bit peeved for some reason, and wouldn¡¯t tell me anything further, but it wasn¡¯t that hard to find out more. It seems that in Alfdorn, those of lesser nobility and below except perhaps hero families were limited to one class. I deduce, from the information that the demon lord gave me that it is probable that this limitation among other reasons probably came about because of the choices of the royalty. This was somewhat confirmed when I saw the royalty change in the outside world, soon many people even of the ¡®lower¡¯ class were able to change their class, have more than one class, and sometimes one would even become as strong as someone from a hero family. Even without royalty limiting such things, in general humans, for their whole life usually can only have a max of 3 jobs and around 2 or so sub jobs. Only for certain kinds of heroes or other exceptions was it possible for them to have more. Where am I going with this? Well such a limitation is not the case for dragons and other higher class monsters, even if currently it seems most of them are not taking advantage of it. Basically so long as your level is high enough there doesn¡¯t seem to be any real limitations in the amount of classes¡¯ subclasses and jobs you can have. Of course there is the obvious fact that if you dedicate yourself to too many things at the same time you may end up many times weaker than if you had only focused on one or two. However in my option if you have almost unlimited time then why not? Other than swordsmanship I planned to eventually try out many skills and the classes that potentially empower them. However I would have never of thought of ¡®Empath¡¯ being one of them, but I had to keep in mind several things. First of all was the fact that the reason I had lost control of myself in the past were because of my Empath related skills. When I had come to myself afterwards I had been terrified. I had always prided myself in control and had always taken said control for granted. Then I felt what it was like not to have any and it unsettled me greatly. If I didn¡¯t choose the Empath class I would still possess that skill, however I would have little hope of controlling it. If I hatched before I had such a skill theoretically I probably would have been fine and my emotions would have settled into if not similar levels of when I was a human then at least much more stable ones. Unfortunately this was not the case. Second of all rather than just gaining a bit of control wouldn¡¯t it be better if I could turn this weakness into a strength? All people seemed to have emotions and things that didn¡¯t usually had no intelligence either. If I could learn to use these gifts wisely I could have a trump card that would be effective on almost all of my enemies that had the potential to do me harm. I could also then, continue my incubation a bit more securely as I had found and then verified through testing that although similar my Empath gifts seemed to fall under a different category then the ¡®magic¡¯ that the invisible ¡®laws¡¯ prevented. In other words I could use them to the fullest. So after a lot more deliberation I decided to accept ¡®Empath¡¯ as one of my classes.
warning changing your class is most likely to be a permanent decision will you still continue? [yes][no]
Yes
Class has changed to empath Will Power, Wisdom, Charisma +30% Mental (emotional) defense +40% Empathy and all other skills related to emotion will have their experience gain speed increased by 50% and their potency increased by +45% Emotional Affinity has Increased to 100% You now have increased immunity to all magic or charisma based emotional attacks You now have increased weakness to all other emotion based attacks You have gained the skill set: [Empath Tools]
Empath Tools The basic skills that all Empaths are capable of: [Sense]: Perceive the emotional state of others as well as the current state of energy in the envirement [Project]: Project your current feelings onto other people so that they can feel what you are feeling, or create artificial feelings for them to experience [Drain]: Drain the emotions of other people **warning can have negative results** [Homeostasis]: It is a passive skill that helps you to maintain a mental, emotional and spiritual balance.
Volume One Chapter 29: Class Paths Class Paths (MC: Now in New Empathic Design!) Spoiler : Referring back to chapter 14 it was said: "Know that you won¡¯t be able to change your class or add a new class or subclass until a predetermined time after hatching" For those of you who may not know, class advancement is different from a sub class. For certain kinds of monster rank job and class can all be the same thing but in this situation they are all different things, things that have an affect on each other but different none the less. Anyway... So, after choosing the Empath class at first I didn¡¯t really notice any differences. Actually to be fully truthful I think any differences would have to be really major for me to be able to notice them, in some ways I am not the best at being aware. Besides in my current state any changes that took place, would be taking place in my mind and soul, places that are hard to ¡®see¡¯ even if I could actually see the mental plane it doesn¡¯t¡¯ mean I can clearly see myself. However after quite a while passed, I noticed a few conveniences I hadn¡¯t had before. One of them was as I expected, it became slightly easier to control my emotions and I even got the status updates to prove it such as:
Skill [Emotional Control] has increased
Actually to my surprise it wasn¡¯t just my empath related skills that increased in leveling speed but even those that did not seem directly affiliated. It¡¯s a fact, that when skills level up, they then contribute to the experience increase of your overall level as well. So even though I was of a very high ranked silver color and thus my leveling speed should have been abysmally slowed, my level as an egg, instead increased many fold then it had ever been before. I ended quickly climbing up into the thousands. It seems that coincidentally that my current existence, of living in the mental plane, while not conductive for practice, for most skills and classes, was absolutely perfect in the purpose of nurturing the empath class. So it wasn¡¯t really a surprise that right around the time that my siblings were about to hatch that a new possibility opened up.
Class Advancement Now Available You can now advance your class by choosing a path to follow. Current Paths Available for Empath Class: [Perception][Projective][Vampiric][Balancer]
I was really lucky that Lady Prudence decided to take a liking to me, for with my unlocked, high clearance status access I was easily able to see the available details of my possible paths. I briefly held a moment of silence in thanksgiving. (++faith) and also took the opportunity to express my unheard condolences to those poor sucker- er I mean souls who unlike myself had only the names of the possible class options to rely on when choosing their next step. (those who didn¡¯t even have a choice in their class advancement were too painful to even think about)
[Perception Empath]: Sensitive type Empaths more commonly known as Perception Empaths are among the most intuitive and insightful classes. Learning new things can be easy for a Perception as they don¡¯t have to directly learn things in order to know them thanks to the quickly gained skill of [Intuition]. This is helpful as most Perceptions are often so distracted by what they are able to sense that they tend to have memory problems. If Perceptions are not consciously choosing to stand out then they tend to seem nearly invisible or are at least hard to notice. This is because they can so open themselves to their environment that they can blend in and thus can learn skills from silent classes such as thieves and rouges. Perceptions tend to be best out of all of the empaths in sensing the emotions and reactions of others. A skilled Perception Empath can often be mistaken for the more commonly known mind mage, as this class often develops the ability to mind read. Perceptions are actually usually more skilled then most mind mages in reading people and skills such as [Truth Seeker] and [Secret Finder] are part of the reason why. Even those with high resistance and defense against mental and emotional skills usually can¡¯t keep a secret from a skilled Perceptive Empath for long. Perception Empaths are not just perceptive about the present but also about the past and future as well. Their commonly gained skill [Insight] allows them to sense into the future enabling them to dodge attacks before they are completed and exploit weaknesses before they are protected. They also are often able to develop the talent [Psychometry] a skill which helps them feel out the past and sometimes future of any object or person they touch. Perceptions can also develop their future sensing ability enough that they can learn some of the same skills as Seers Fortune-Tellers and Soothsayers. Like [Foresight] and [Mythic Eyes]. Perceptions are very sensitive in various ways and tend to develop an enhanced ability to feel touch, identify smells, taste flavor, see in detail, sense magic and experience pain. However Perceptive can turn this disadvantage into an advantage with such skills as [Sacrifice] which converts any pain experienced into power and [Whetstone Mind] a trait that improves concentration and mind clarity when pained. A major weakness of the Perceptive AKA Sensitive Empath class is that they often develop a huge side effects. One of the more common ones includes an utter reluctance to hurt or cause pain to others, and sometimes this reaction can be disabling enough that they can¡¯t wound others let alone kill them. They also tend to be more emotional, as well as mentally unstable. It is known that some SE suffer from oversensitivity and have to wear specially made gloves, glasses and or other custom clothing to protect themselves from outside energies or risk shock, fainting, insanity or even death.
The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.[Projective Empath]: The Projective Empath is good at making other people relate to them, by force if necessary. The projector has great control over what they feel, which is a good thing because they project what they are currently feeling onto other people. Projective Empaths are good at giving various emotional buffs including ones with healing effects enabling them to be considered a healing type class. Projectives are also considered under the damage dealing class category as they can make their opponents emotions get out of control, leading them to pain and insanity. One of the first and most terrifying skills a Projective Empath gains is [Shared Fate]. When activated all damage and pain received before and after the skill is used is shared with all targets and or nearby enemies. This skill can also help with healing as it can essentially ¡®cheat death¡¯ by halting the decline of the target if the user is healthier. Projective Empaths also tend to be very charismatic and usually make loyalty inspiring leaders. Even those with high fighting spirit will probably feel awe when a Projective uses [Intimidation] or [Aura of Dominance]. The commonly gained Projective skill [Influence] can allow them to manipulate others if they are skillful, sometimes to the point of making them their slaves and or puppets. Projectives skilled in manipulation can also eventually learn some of the same skills, as such classes as; Illusionist, Puppet Master or Trick Magician. Those who choose Projective Empathy run a risk of psychopathy, that is they may start to lose their ability to empathize as they force others to empathize with them. This potential disability may even develop to the point that they will no longer feel remorse or guilt, making their behavior less inhibited and leading to an increased risk of them preforming what they once considered immoral behavior.
[Energy Vampire]: One of the only ways to become a vampire without being born one or having to go through a ¡®change¡¯ or binding ritual, Energy Vampires are usually considered a very uncommonly chosen class outside of the various vampieric races and are thus rarely seen. Most cultures (besides vampires) tend to see this class with fear and distain, as it tends to hold a negative reputation similar or worse than necromancers, and death mages. Despite that, Energy Vampires are often acknowledge to be the Empath class with the most practical utility in battle. Energy Vampires rely mainly on de-buffs and Status Point drains in order to fight. E-Vamps, are quite good at slowly weakening their opponents then going for the kill when they are at their lowest. Assassination skills are often complimentary to this class, as E-Vamps are capable of tracking targets by their ¡°emotional scent¡± and are able to find their prey no matter how or where they choose to hide. They also possess corrupting auras which means that their very presence can unsettle even wound their enemies increasing the effect of their surprise attacks and their ability to ¡°latch on¡± during a status drain. Classes that gain power through anger and other emotions like the Berserker tend to be at an utter disadvantage when facing an E-Vamp as they can take away what makes the opponent strong and use it for themselves. Skills such as [Mental Leach] and [Emotional Drain] can be used not only for compulsion and attacks but also for a healing effect as well. If classes outside the Berserker run wild or fall into confusion due to side effects from a skill or illusion, an E-Vamp can easily ¡®calm¡¯ them down or remove the illusion. [Curse Eater] allows E-Vamps to remove buffs and de-buffs and empower themselves from it. Making E-Vamps either your best ally or worst enemy. Energy Vampires often develop sadistic personality traits for obvious reasons. They come to love the pain of others and in their attempts to engender such pain, they may end up becoming excessively violent and aggressive. E-Vamps like P-Empaths also tend to suffer low impulse control. A rare but somewhat positive side effect of E-vamps is that they cannot be ¡®made¡¯ a true vampire without their consent and if they do choose to artificially become of that race they will show very high adaptability and increased compatibility compared to others.
[Balancer]: Is a hidden path. Not much is known about it other than it is supposedly a mixture of all the other Empath paths and hidden and regular Empath related classes and paths combined, and that similarly to it''s name it involves ¡®maintaining ¡®balance¡¯ .
An update before I forget: Birthday Contest is still going on! Reminder: The contest is not a specific one, so the entry/birthday gift can be almost anything! See chapter 27 spoilers for more information/ideas By the way a small clarification, if you are feeling shy/desiring privacy, you don''t have to share your name. Me sharing your name was and is completely optional, it was intended to be a reward/party favor for those who like attention/fame etc. also if you wish I don''t have to post/display what you give me. The purpose of the contest is not to embarrass anyone or for me to get gifts (though I am tempted to make that the reason) the purpose is to celebrate Reincarnation Flower''s birthday Frostypine style :) and for anyone and everyone who wants to, to have fun. Spoiler : AA: might I submit we celibrate AA style instead? KNG: Oh...brother...well we still have about 2 more days...there is still time :) AA: AA style is more fun, classy, cool and awesome you readers agree right? FP: Yep until the very last moment there is always still time! AA: Come on FP style is so boring... FP: You know maybe AA is onto somthing here? AA: Really?! FP: Yep I also think I am boring so why don''t we do KNG style! KNG: I am not amused. AA: Waaaa! Volume One Chapter 30: Appearances Appearances (A dragon putting things off for later) Spoiler : So...if my last chapter made you upset this one should infuriate you... As I have spent most of my time monitoring my recently hatched group. I have recently realized that I have been remiss on what gem dragons look like and thus would like to make amends with at least a bit of description, after all, although appearances do not mean much to me I know they can be vital for other folks. I guess I should start off with the basics. Gem-Dragons have four legs. Although such a fact may seem like a silly statement to some, when I said I would start off with the basics I really meant it, once more Gem-Dragons have four legs. On two of those aforementioned legs, specifically they have feet, or the remaining two they have hand like appendages that can also when necessity musts moonlight as feet. But as it is many times faster to walk on all fours then it is to waddle on two, most of the time I have spied er -observed them with the exception of when they are in a formal occasion or are relaxing in their houses, they usually are on all fours. That isn¡¯t to say that they don¡¯t use their hands, Gem-Dragons are natural craftsmen. Although there are a few other of the dragon race that can rival them in this respect, I don¡¯t think I would be out of place in saying that Gem-Dragons can be considered the dwarf to the more fragile race¡¯s human. Gem dragons unlike some clumsy non dexterous dragons are able to easily hold a weapon in their hands and even fight with it. However it is quite uncommon for a Gem-Dragon to hold a weapon in their hand. Mostly because of the large speed penalty¡¯s, involved such as having to stand upright on two legs, as well as the drag resistance caused by flying. There is also the risk that during battle the dragon will drop their weapon and from such heights as dragons fight, if not destroyed the weapon will definitely be lost. Despite the use of weapons being rare, it is not so rare for there to be a Gem-Dragon smith that would craft them. Actually it is considered to be fun hobby or pastime, though not currently a practical one, as with few exceptions most gem dragons don¡¯t use metal weapons. After all Gem-Dragons have their own natural inbuilt armor in the form of their sturdy scale coverage, as well as their own easily accessible weapons, as close as the tips of each of their digits, sharp strong claws with the ones on the ¡®hands¡¯ being longer than the ones on the ¡®feet¡¯. The color of the claws is either the same as the majority of the hide, or a more metallic and lighter version thereof. Let¡¯s not forget the tail, which besides acting as a leverage for balance can also be used as a powerful and deadly whip. Actually the tail is one of the Gem-Dragons favorite tools, mainly because it is long, at least twice the length of the rest of the body on average, not to mention it¡¯s dexterity being flexible enough that it can be considered equivalent to a third hand with one finger. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. There are some Gem-Dragons who are so skilled in the use of their tail that they make, or request the make of tools that can be strapped on to the end of their tails, to be used for various purposes. But despite this notable exception, as hinted, most things Gem-Dragons craft are used for decoration or for recreation. I think I may have mentioned this before but allow me to say it again. Compared with some naturally greedy dragon races Gem-Dragons don¡¯t care much for treasure. They may decorate or beautify but they don¡¯t embellish. They may collect or store but they don¡¯t hoard, and the times that they do stockpile wealth it is usually collectively as a group, rather than individually. The common theory for this is because just like their weapons in armor Gem-Dragons have their own treasure built right in, it is also the reason for their somewhat ostentatious name. Gem-Dragons look to be made of gems. Every scale from the larger chainmail like plates, down to the tiny pin-tip size found on the eye lids, looks like a remarkable jewel. This beauty does not invalidate the defense strength of their ¡®armor¡¯ at all. Rather it tends to be the more beautiful the hide the stronger the defense. However even the most ¡®dull¡¯ (and dull as in polished river stones versus more traditional jewels), is normally at least a many times stronger defense when compared to an average dragon of the same rank. Basically in other words, while Gem-Dragons may look like glass cannons to some, they are in reality more akin to diamond tanks, tanks that can fly. Yes, let¡¯s not forget one of the most advantageous features that most dragons possess, Gem-Dragons being no exception, that of wings granting the capability of flight. Gem-Dragons have two wings that are usually 4-6 times their body length. They are arches made up of ribs and flaps that start at the Gem-Dragons shoulder blades. The top and foremost rib sticks out from the rest of the wing and has a little movement capability, so much so that like the tail Gem-Dragons can use them to grip and manipulate things that are beyond the reach of their hands and tails. Sometimes, and this is more commonly seen in the males these wing tips have small spikes, sort of like additional claws, but made of bone rather then nail. The ribs of the wings are usually the same color as the majority of the body, with the occasional exception of the belly and possibly the throat. The flaps however are different. Besides being a much lighter color, the skin on the flaps is unique in one other way. The tiny almost invisible scales have an amazing capacity to reflect light. So much so, that a common Gem-Dragon battle flight tactic is to fight during the day in order to angle their wings towards the light in such a way that their unprepared enemies are blinded.
RF b-day party continues! Volume One Chapter 31: More About Appearances More About Appearances (A dragon concluding their procrastination) Spoiler : You, are terribly upset right now aren''t you? Well the next chapter is the real continuation of the end to chapter 29...and tomorrow there will be three chapters :) A Gem-Dragons flight speed is not bad, being anywhere from average to above average. Actually it can be considered quite good as unlike some flight enabled races Gem-Dragons are not hollow boned or light in weight, rather they are quite heavy. The reason they are able to remain up in the air at all let alone at their decent speeds is because of the races instinctive ability to compensate their weight and not quite aerodynamically designed build with magic. This build is not sleek and serpentine like many dragons but rather more feline and perhaps in the more bulky examples even canine. Of course most Gem-Dragons (myself included) prefer to use such descriptions as lion akin, or wolf sleek. Meaning of course the most handsome examples of that breed such that which even the vainest of dragons would not be ashamed to be compared to. Continuing this theme that is shared by many species and races, unlike many races of dragons rather than having a reptilian style hidden earhole. Gem-Dragons all have a pair of large pointed ears. Some of described them as bat like, but I would say instead exaggerated deer like or perhaps even look outside the animal kingdom entirely for inspiration and go with ¡®leaf like¡¯. Whichever description method you prefer, the ears of a gem dragon point upwards and are angled slightly to the sides, they are also shaped resembling spoons or perhaps shallow cups or bowels. As one might expect from such a description Gem-Dragons have quite excellent hearing. Hearing is considered one of their best senses, only inferior to their ability to sense magic. After their hearing their sight and smell are about tied. Like most dragons they have great sight and smell, however amongst dragons these two senses are just average. This is partly because they only have two of each. Nostrils and eye balls that is. Both which are located in the unexciting place of on top of their heads. Being predators their eyes face more forwards than to the sides, but being a flight enabled creature their eyes are positioned more towards the sides than most other kinds of predator. This gives them a decent degree of vision, as well as avoiding the hassle of having no forward blind spot unlike a few dragons. The snout and head shape is similar to a horses but not completely as it has its own different charm. I will next speak mainly of the more superficial traits, or at least the ones that tend to greatly vary between individuals. First is the horns. More or less than 50% of the Gem -Dragons population have horns, one sometimes two but never more than that. It is also uncommon but also possible for a Gem -Dragon to have a line of small spikes following the ridge of their back bone. Both traits of horns and spikes are more common for the males of the species. As females are generally larger, it is often seen as impressive when a female has both ¡°thorns¡± and weight. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Then is color. Gem-Dragons color runs the gambit of the rainbow and many more besides. As I have mentioned in the past color most often has to do with rank. Though the rule is not absolute usually a ¡°prettier¡± color equals an indication of a stronger dragon. There can be one color, several different colors, or more than several mixing together in various ways. The most common pattern is one single shade of color covering the whole body. The next most common pattern is two colors, one covering the majority of the body and other covering the belly and sometimes neck, in this case the belly color is usually lighter than the other. The less common patterns are too numerous and unique to count, stripes, spots and splotches are possible. Unlike color patterns are usually maintained even through rank ups. With just the hue and purity changing but not the vibrancy or shade. Then comes one of the most unique features of Gem-Dragons, in fact it is believed to be one of the main reasons that Gem-Dragons got their name. That is the large gemstone found in the middle of their forehead. The gem varies in transparency, luster, and brilliance but all gems are mesmerizingly beautiful. The color never changes, no matter the rank or other changes of the dragon, it remains the same from hatching to death, upon which it vanishes. It is believed that the gem is the embodiment of all the dragons magic, and it is certain it is one of the main reasons that Gem-Dragons have such great magic sensitivity. The gems are also seemly indestructible, no one has ever seen be broken. It is thought that the gem confers some ¡®gem affinity¡¯ on to Gem-Dragons, for they usually find it quite easy to do magic and skills related to gemstones, and the Gem-Dragons jewel smiths and carvers are considered some of the best in the world. An interesting fact about the color of the gems, is that it is also usually shared with the eyes. That is usually the eyes and the gem are the same color. A somewhat confirmed myth about this coloring trait, is that this color is an indication of the dragon¡¯s potential. For example if a dragon hatches with a brown color with blue eyes and on their forehead is a blue gem, it is thought that it will be likely that they will rank up to a blue dragon. Once they reach their max/full potential their gem will turn clear like a diamond, and it is then thought it will be much harder for them to advance in rank, for any further advancement would be ¡®going beyond their potential¡¯. The reason this myth isn¡¯t completely confirmed is mainly because there are many dragons who don¡¯t seem to follow these guidelines in their coloring or ranking. Also because Gem-Dragons have been at war for most of their history there have not been many dragons that lived long enough to ¡®reach their potential¡¯.
Reincarnation Flower Birthday Party Continues! Volume One Chapter 32: Determining My Path Determining My Path (If we can trust what they say: MC really takes their time when they make their decisions right?) Spoiler : Last Chance To Participate In The Contest To find out more about the details either go to chapter 27+ and read the spoiler section at the top of each chapter...or you can be lazy like me and just go down and read the re-posted spoiler section information in the notes area below. By the way I think I have been lied to...many of you commenters claim that I don''t allow enough reader participation in my story, so what do I do? I host this contest which is basically a great big reader participation encouraging event (no I did not intend that acronym whoops) And what happens...well I get one entry, and one email telling me that most readers are too shy to want to do it, and another message saying that most of you are just lurkers and don''t care about participation. See all those commenters lied!! Well anyway, to say my piece about this chapter...well I don''t think it is as aggravating as the last two chapters so there that...I plan to post three chapters today...(possibly a fourth if I get it done in time) and the fourth is about brothers hatching event...(yay?) You may have noticed that I am once again rambling on about information that is different then what you expected me to talk about. (MO: I noticed) The truth is I did not have any further information to share with you on the subject of the next path I chose for I was at an impasse. That is I had no clue which path to choose, and my struggle was such that I couldn¡¯t even really say anything about it through the confusion. But after taking quite some time, thinking about it¡­months of agonized conflict I think I have organized my thoughts enough about the subject that I can coherently speak about it. In my mind all four paths were intriguing in various ways. I was also apprehensive to pick them for some of the same as well as different various reasons. With the [Perception Empath] path, I liked the idea of becoming more aware of my surroundings. In my somewhat dim memories I had of another life¡­I had many an experience where such awareness would have come in handy. I also felt that the discipline of my future second job as a swords wielder would be a good compliment for the discipline it required had the potential to help with controlling my emotions. I also liked the subtlety of the way the class would make its bearer fade into the background. That aspect was perfect for someone like me who preferred to observe rather then, be in the thick of things with the exception of close combat fighting. The side effect of being reluctant to harm others, wasn¡¯t as big of a draw back to me as it would be to some for it was a weakness I had already somewhat had in the past. When facing a human or humanoid enemy I would often find myself holding back, especially when if they looked to be of lesser skill then myself. Which most made me apprehensive to pick this class, was not the potential insanity from oversensitivity nor was it the increased ability to feel pain for I have always thought myself a bit insane and am well used to getting used to pain and overcoming it. What made me pause was the mention that becoming a Perceptive would mean becoming more emotional, more empathetic and basically more sensitive to emotions in general. With just my own emotions to worry about, I had already discovered that I was extremely unstable. My self right now was already extremely empathetic as well as emotional¡­and this class would make me more so? As I said in the past, one of the main reasons, I wanted to choose the empath class was because I was hoping that it would negate some of that instability, choosing this class would practically invalidate the reasons behind that choice. In effect instead of continuing to try and circumvent the potential weaknesses such sensitivity entitles as I had been doing. Upon choosing this class I would be flat out embracing them instead. Not exactly a choice that is within my plans. On the positive side such a choice would be a big show of bravery if not straight out courage. The impressing thought of doing something I thought I was incapable of, is one of the most tempting motivations for choosing this class. I tend to really like a good challenge. Then moving on to the [Projective Empath] class. I must admit that, to me, this was one of the more appealing choices. I had already long since gotten a taste of what it meant to control the emotions of others through my experimentation with my brother and the rest of the group, and I had found it to be a mostly pleasurable one. This class also better suited my planned future ''main class'' of swords wielder far better than Perceptive or Energy Vampire because not only just the strengths or just the weaknesses but both of them could potentially be complementary. A true swordsman was often someone with great dominance and thus was usually seen as someone overbearing and worthy of awe, and Projective seemed to rely on that type of feeling. I don¡¯t know how my self-created style will change when I try it outside the dream realm, but my old style was all about exploiting the weaknesses of others with my skill. Projective would also come into play during the times that I could not find a weakness to exploit on my own, I could then if I so chose use it to create one for me. It also really suited my personality as well, I still can fondly recall using my ability to charm(read make delicious food for) those susceptible to it, and thus get myself or far more often hero out of too many troubles to count. I was also not that bad at leadership, and others seemed to agree with me for I would often find myself suddenly in command of other people. Usually people of similar or lower rank then me but there were times, (times that I knew not to talk about) where I would temporary be allowed to command other heroes as well as my own openly. I think the only major limitation that was preventing my skills in that area to shine was the fact that I was just a peasant, even a ¡°hero¡¯s peasant¡± wasn¡¯t technically that much higher in rank then an ordinary peasant. However I was definitely not a peasant any longer. Although I had done some spying (ehem research observations), I still wasn¡¯t too clear on how dragon politics worked. Even so I believe that as being of a dragon bloodline of noble blood and a royal noble at that, the ability to control others would come in handy at the very least. Another element that is attractive is the idea of sharing my feelings and sometimes my fate with others. In my past life I always felt so alone, in this in-between state of a next life I have allowed myself to feel a lot more, but have still felt a degree of loneliness due to the fact there was an imbalance between myself and those I felt for. Perhaps following this path would teach me the way to finally truly and completely lose my sense of loneliness. As to the side effects, I didn¡¯t think I would have much trouble with them. Mainly because of my rough life as a peasant I base all my moral decisions on logic rather than empathy (that is before this lifetime I didn''t really consider myself to be an emotional person, and though I could fake it I was often rather emotionless). The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. There is also tend to be not the sort of person to get caught up in petty things like my own pride and desires. And just in case either of those checks lessened or got removed entirely, if I turned into a completely different person for instance, I had a contingency plan. Which included a plan for the future that was in essence finding or making companions and friends that I could see as equals and who would call me out on my (Bad Word), if I ever stepped over that grey line.
Reminder: Last day to do the Birthday Contest! The difference between giving me something on the day of the contest and any other day, is that if you do it on the day of the contest you have an official guarantee that you will get what you want from me (with possibly a few restrictions) if you ask on almost any other day, your results rely entirely on my mood. If you want something and didn''t participate, at most you can increase your odds by referencing this contest by asking for a party favor (tiny level prize) and by the way the consolation prize is quite a bit bigger. Right now I have only one entry (form included, thanks by the way) however I would like at least two more entries that way I can do a 1st, 2nd and third place like I planned. Something to keep in mind, guys who complimented/critiqued me/sent me emails is that if you had wanted to participate in the contest all you had to do was add a form to your post and it would have counted (aka I''m not picky) For your convenience here is the original contest post + update post Spoiler : Well I want to host a RF contest! (yay¡­) basically almost anything goes, however all entries must adhere to the rules of Royalroadl, plus they cannot have a mature rating in their content. (In general keep it PG), and obviously plagiarism is also a no-no, with the exception of fanficting to a certain degree, but it can¡¯t be copied straight from whatever work you are sourcing from, in other words you can use characters and their names but not much else. In the likely event you need some clarification of what I am talking about here are some examples ideas/loose guidelines of what you can submit. A fanfic of the/a fanfic! (Min 1,000 words max 2,500 about a RF chapter¡¯s worth) Fan art, or fic inspired art! Poetry (no word limits unless it is supposed to have them: like for haiku) Gratuitous beautiful flattery/compliments for the work or the author Painful Clever Criticism for the work or the author Almost anything else you can think of! Now the reasons you would want do this: Well¡­there isn¡¯t really any...especially if you don¡¯t read or like RF however you are free to participate without having read or liked any of my works¡­you probably just won¡¯t appreciate the prize as much if you win. Now having said that¡­here are the prizes! 1st place: Almost anything that is within my power! (So long as it isn¡¯t illegal and doesn¡¯t go against any of my beliefs or willingness) And it can be broken up into segments. That is, you could ask for one big thing, or you could ask for a bunch of smaller things it¡¯s your choice. 2nd place: One ¡®medium¡¯ sized thing, can also be broken up into smaller segments 3rd place: One ¡®smaller¡¯ sized thing. Potential Things: Big Sized An actual physical thing¡­(can¡¯t be expensive, extremely limited not recommended) Help with something through the internet Free story written by me you decide what kind (don¡¯t see why¡¯d you¡¯d want it¡­) Inclusion of a character you created in a future work of mine, your choice which Inclusion of a plotline or event that you want to see happen your choice which fic Medium Sized You decide my next chapter release date or receive the next chapter before other people (minimum of 1 week after last release or we can debate further) The ability to name/custom create minor characters that will appear in the future of any fic of your choice. Art made by me, your choice as to what (once again no clue why¡¯d you want it but¡­) Poetry made by me, guidelines same as art Song Lyrics, you decide contents and can provide the music I will leave a review on a fanfic of your choice, warning: I will be neither cruel nor extremely complementary (essentially I will just be myself) Smaller Sized Free spoilers, completely spelled out for you and explained just message me anytime you are curious Consolation Prizes Not only will I include each and every name in the spoiler section of my next RF chapter I will also: Judge each entry and give you feedback (tell me if you want the feedback to be private) Give to you an invisible party favor, in the form of a tiny sized prize of your choice (message me if you wish to redeem it and we will work something out) Other Instructions You can email me your entry or post it on one of my fics, all works must include the FORM in order to be valid and each participant is limited to one per category, max of 3 categories. All entries are due by January 31, all entries submitted after will achieve honorable mentions at best. Judging will will start as soon as entries are received so time depends on amount of entries received. FORM: Have You Read Reincarnation Flower Before?: Yes or No Tell the truth, have you read all/most of it?: If No for either of the former 2 questions or in the case that the reason for yes is really interesting, why are you entering this contest?: Entry Type: Art, fic etc. Why this type: What prize do you want if you win?: Judgment Guidelines 1 As said all valid entries must use the FORM (see above), other things that will be judged include quality, what it is vs estimated difficulty and emotional appeal 2 I am the head judge and my word is final. 3 Depending on how many entrants there are I may have to resort to a popularity poll to narrow things down, in such a case anyone who votes by default becomes a secondary judge. (See number 2) (as I thought definitely not likely but felt I had to put it down anyway) 4 I will do my best to remain impartial but as I am human please forgive me my biases if they so happen to arise ****IMPORTANT**** Keep in mind that unless you say otherwise, I will consider your entry to be a birthday gift, and thus I may end up using it in the future (especially if you win) in such a case, though I will give credit, the work will now essentially belong to me and I will do with it what I please. update: The contest is not a specific one, so the entry/birthday gift can be almost anything! See chapter 27 spoilers (or just look up) for more information/ideas By the way a small clarification, if you are feeling shy/desiring privacy, you don''t have to share your name. Me sharing your name was and is completely optional, it was intended to be a reward/party favor for those who like attention/fame etc. also if you wish I don''t have to post/display what you give me. The purpose of the contest is not to embarrass anyone or for me to get gifts (though I am tempted to make that the reason) the purpose is to celebrate Reincarnation Flower''s birthday Frostypine style :) and for anyone and everyone who wants to, to have fun. Volume One Chapter 33: Serious Consideration Serious Consideration (Same Person As Last Chapter) Next I will share my considerations for the [Energy Vampire] class. I am a bit ashamed to admit this but upon first reading the title of this path I felt an outright rejection, due solely to my own hidden prejudice. For most of my past life demons like vampires have always been my enemy and although I managed to conquer my unwanted feelings in the matter somewhat, I had the most success in my considerations towards enemies who like myself took a more direct mode of attack. That is those that didn¡¯t use obvious weapons or flashy magic always made me feel uncomfortable. I am actually being kind of hypocritical here because while I prefer the direct method I am not above using everything and anything that I am capable of doing in order to survive. I am thinking that it has to do with my rebellious tendencies that were strong enough that they weren¡¯t even suppressed by the forces keeping me down as a peasant. I absolutely despise the thought of weakness in myself. It is one of my greatest fears and an ability that seems to be able to prey on that fear is a bit instinctively abhorrent to me. To show you more clearly what I am talking about, I can say that an ordinary common garden variety blood sucker doesn¡¯t really bother me at all for some reason, but when you take the blood and replace it with pure energy¡­it terrifies. From what I can remember from my conversations with the Demon lord I am not alone in this attitude either. It seems amongst demons, energy vamps are often found to be the lowest class of citizens even among their own sub race. Only the poor succubae who can manipulate physical feelings such as lust ever rival them for being disdained. However the Succubae redeem themselves in the fact that despite being a mostly monogamous society, demons are no exception in their love of ¡®you know¡¯. And thus they are often seen as concubines or mistresses or you-know-whats of the widowed or merely more perverted demons. There is also the little fact that with manipulating another¡¯s feelings of attraction it can be done without any magic at all, it can be about giving such as displaying your looks to give your beauty. While no matter how you say it vampirism, especially energy vampirism will always be about taking, sometimes rarely with permission but most of the time through theft. However after considering the path quite a while as well as having many arguments with myself I finally managed to get over my constrained thinking and was able to judge with much more clear eyes. It was a process of multiple steps and complex processes. Firstly I acknowledged my hypocrisy of various varieties. Such as the fact that the path I currently favored the [Projective] path was just as bad as the Vampire path when it came to taking. While like the seductive techniques of a succubus it had the ¡®can do something similar without magic¡¯ to soften it up, the glaring fact remained that like Vampirism and usually unlike ¡®charming¡¯ techniques it can directly take away the targets free will, and power. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Yes it was a different and more subtle power but a power none the less. Actually to be truthful in many ways the Vampire path may suit me better than the [Projective] path does, when it comes to offense at least. It was mainly about taking the power of others and making it your own. Secondly being good at killing and causing pain is not necessarily a bad or evil thing. I can easily understand the reason why the status database says it is considered the most ¡®practical¡¯ option. Vampirism isn¡¯t exactly pretty but it is the most obviously combat oriented of the [Empath] class paths. It may be a bit brutal, savage even, but when it comes right down to it, the main purpose of fighting is self-defense thus it defiantly doesn¡¯t have to be anywhere near pretty. And if I ever end up wanting pretty there are many ways that vampirism even energy vampirism can be made pretty. When it came right down to it, I could see myself modifying and customizing several things about the class, enabling it to even better suite me. Thus I would probably be seriously tempted to choose it, if combat were my only reason for choosing the [Empath] class. All my paranoia aside, I highly doubted that I would have any need to fight while still in egg, and I plan to have magic and later swordsmanship be my main self-defense methods. Getting used to using my mental powers as my main offense doesn¡¯t seem very efficient. Also unlike with [Projective] the weakness seems seriously dangerous. Finding pleasure in others pain¡­it is a usually hidden but definitely present part of my ¡®darker side¡¯. Although in my past life the discipline of my work and training usually kept it in check, I wouldn¡¯t want to chance things in that way. I imagine giving into that side of me would be similar to someone addicted saying they will have just one then stop. I would probably keep pushing the restrictions I would place on myself more and more until they broke. At that time I would either fall into bouts of insanity based on fighting my depravities. Or something even worse I would completely succumb and thus no longer be myself. However, though choosing such an option would probably make it easier for me to encourage my faults in the end they would still be my faults, and I do have quite an amount of faith in myself. Thus I believe it quite within the realm of possibility that I could not only overcome my faults but turn them all into strengths that compensate for any remaining weaknesses. After seriously considering the [Energy Vampire] path I knew I was least likely to choose it, however my reasons were no longer based on flimsy emotional based rejection but rather sound logic, and more true deep feelings based on my true tastes instead of the ones cultivated by my past life.
Second to last warning before party/contest ends Volume One Chapter 34: A Decision to Make A Decision to Make (" "...so what if I am lazy?) Finally I must speak regarding the [Balancer] option. Frankly I was quite a bit put off that unlike the descriptions of my other options just a small flimsy vague explanation was all that was provided. But after grave consideration I came to the conclusion that it had to have something to do with the ¡®hidden¡¯ part of the descriptor. In all of my past life and not to mention in all my observations in this new one I have heard only a pitiful amount of information as to just what a hidden class is. myths and folklore even Valiant a demon lord I think can be highly judged for their wisdom and knowledge alone said once he didn¡¯t know of what it was when I (as a peasant) asked him. All I know is what I have heard from rumors, and myth. To summarize what I have heard about what it means to be ¡®hidden¡¯; a ¡®hidden¡¯ class or class path is one whose complete details are hidden from all, including from (and here comes the most controversial part) even the gods themselves. There were no specific examples of anyone having such a type of class. However from what hints and scraps I managed to piece together¡­having a hidden class can be shocking enough that those who possess it can change the entire world¡­or something of that magnitude. I have also heard it theorized that those who choose such a path eventually have the option to break all limitations including death. Yes, I have heard that one who advances down such a path can have true immorality. In other words, those with hidden classes, are basically gods in embryo. Seeds that grow into new gods. According to one legend or myth that I once read¡­hidden classes are basically where gods come from. However I don¡¯t put too much of my faith on these theories as there was just that one legend and the few resulting essays that came from it while there are nearly endless other information that agrees with the other theory that once this land had no gods and then they appeared. Whether gods came before mortals or mortals came before gods is a ¡®chicken and the egg¡¯ sort of mess that I can¡¯t be bothered to try and untangle, especially since as I think I have told you before I am quite unreligious and don¡¯t really care about the answer that much. So to get back to my evaluation of [Balancer], since I do not have a large summary to read between the lines of and also because I cannot research it. All I can do is go with using my intelligence alone, in predicting and theorizing what potential traits the path could possibly contain. Firstly and obviously the [Balancer] path, being a step down a branch of the empath class, must have something to do with empathy, exactly what is a mystery especially as most of the ¡®empath related classes¡¯ are unknown to me but It can also be logically deduced that if it is ¡®a mixture of the other paths¡¯ then it must have at least some of each of the other¡¯s strengths and weaknesses as well. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! It would be nice to have all of the strengths or aptitudes that I had admired, but what if instead of getting mostly strengths I got all weaknesses instead? What if [Balancer] was an utter trap instead of a cheat? It is easy to pick a class but extremely hard, near impossible to get rid of your class once you have chosen it. In other words [Balancer] was an extremely risky choice, a much better bet was to choose one of the other options and then work on gaining the skills that I had admired in the other choices on my own. Rather than changing or getting rid of your class path, it would be far easier to just enhance the one you already have. Also when I picture the word ¡®Balancer¡¯ the first picture I see is usually someone standing on unstable ground and trying to keep their balance. Or perhaps some child stacking wood scraps on top of each other building a tower that always looks to be in danger of toppling. Both of these images are quite discouraging. If it is as I think and [Balancing] is about well balancing then I don¡¯t think such a class will be that suitable for me. Whether what is balanced is the consequence of what the powers of the class is used for or all the different parts of the class itself doesn¡¯t really matter. Maintaining balance seems like a lot of work. Stability is a state of being which generally takes care of itself if you get it to a good place, and chaos tends to change often enough that it doesn¡¯t matter if something happens that you don¡¯t like because it will change soon enough. Balancing on the other hand seems to scream future heartbreak. There is also the question that as [Balancer] is a ¡®mix¡¯ of many different things no matter the mix, it doesn¡¯t seem conductive to mastering skills, for its seems you would be required upon taking the class to focus on many things. While I don¡¯t mind being a jack of all trades, needs had even necessitated that in my past life and I believe I adequately rose to the occasion. But now that I actually have a choice rather than hopping all over the place, in order to keep on top of things, I think that I would prefer to find one thing and stick to it from the very beginning and only add a new thing if I feel that I have enough space and time to work with it. Perhaps, I reflect I would be more encouraged to choose this class if I were planning on focusing mainly on my empathy related skills. If I were it would make sense to choose this class because it seems like it would make it easier to truly figure out and master all the potential the Empath class has to offer. But I will say it again¡­I don¡¯t want to focus on empathy, I want to focus on swordplay and perhaps even one day master it. After I finished with thinking about [Balancer] I realized I had evaluated and considered all four classes, and thus it was time to make my decision.
Last Warning Before Birthday Contest/Party Ends Volume One Chapter 35: The Hatching Process The Hatching Process (Brother) Spoiler : Happy Valentine¡¯s Day! I LOVE ALL OF YOU!! (even those of you who hate me meheheheh) First let me apologize for not posting for so long. All I have to say on the matter is first I got caught up in school work, and then more recently I got sick and so all I did the whole day was sleep. Also I have been feeling kind of lackluster about writing¡­for various selfish and possibly not so selfish reasons. Sorry about the suckiness of this chapter¡­I am working on getting to the point of having the MC hatch but as you have probably realized I am having troubles writing it out¡­I think this chapter could have been worse though¡­ Now for the CONTEST UPDATE! So I got a total of four entries, Ok so just another little warning¡­as I said specifically before, if you want to remain anonymous then you have to ask, so if any of the people I post here wish for that but forgot to ask for it please tell me and I will remove it immediately. So here are our lovely entries in the order in which they received (along with some of my comments) if you don¡¯t like my comments I of course could remove them too, also if I made any mistakes (like got your name wrong, please don¡¯t hesitate to correct me. Entry Number One: A Short Story and a Poem Form: Source: Lycoris Have You Read Reincarnation Flower Before?: Yes Tell the truth, have you read all/most of it?: of course Entry Type: short story and poem stanza Why this type: I <3 stories. What prize do you want if you win?: spoilers~! Minor influence on Reincarnation Flowers sounds cool. Recommendations of good books if possible and not troublesome Thanks for your stories! They''re super fun to read~! Story/Poem: It was more than fifteen years ago I first walked into that room. When I was five, to be exact. When I first came here, it was some nondescript waiting room, the chairs not too hard, but not too soft either. The air didn¡¯t assault you with a tidal wave of floral fragrances. There were only a few people, but they were genuinely mournful. You wouldn¡¯t recognize anyone now. Or even anything, really. Translucent curtains darken the room just enough that it¡¯s barely dim, but you can still see the way the women¡¯s attire glisten and glean. Plush chairs and spacious sofas you could drown in line the walls with first rate paintings are draped above, depicting my father¡¯s life. People fake sob, casting covetous glances at whatever priceless antiques my mom has in here. It¡¯s ridiculous. ¡°Well, son, I am sorry for your loss. He was a great man.¡± One of my father¡¯s older business colleagues roughly pats me on the shoulder, his wine glass sloshing a bit. ¡°Thanks,¡± I say back, but he¡¯s not paying attention. Well, can¡¯t blame him, that¡¯s a deep v-neck he¡¯s eyeing. When my grandfather died, the people who came didn¡¯t make a poor joke of it. I suppose Grandpa forgot to teach Dad how to tell who your real friends are. Or Dad didn¡¯t bother to learn, wrapped up in his dreams of never-ending gold and diamonds. Look where it got him now. Even though the waiting room is packed with people, no one stops at Dad¡¯s corpse long enough for me to recognize them. They just sink, bow, and slink away, the shadows dripping off of their veils and bowler hats. A record player starts, the slow rhythm seeping into the guests, causing them to sway. Voices grow louder as the sunlight fades and people get more intoxicated. I stand close enough to Dad¡¯s resting place that I can prevent any mishaps, and far away enough from the crowd that they seem like a black cloud, wraith-like mist rising from the plentiful cigars and water bongs. Even the smothering rose stench can¡¯t mask the smell of smoke now. And none other than mother is in the center of it all, the center of a crowd of powerful elitists, the center a global billionaire corporation, the center of a self-made-man¡¯s fortune. She couldn¡¯t even wait for him to eat dinner, what I had specially ordered to be so good the chef said it would was so ambrosial it was to die for. Ah well. There¡¯s a reason why mom insisted having Dad buried with his childhood scarf that smelled so sweet. Said he couldn¡¯t go to hell without it. To the same fires that burned the divorce papers to crisp. Tragic. At least the makeup hiding the bruises on mother¡¯s neck get washed away- unlike these sins that stain us. To me, dreams are only of A blank world filled with Coalescing and dying vapor, their storms Drowning all shards of hope Short Story Author¡¯s note: What a dark story. Originally, I was planning on only submitting the short story, but after a while, I came to thinking that as an avid fan, why not show something nice~ I just really adore the unnamed MC and the story (especially the beginning, man the beginning is dope) you¡¯ve created, hence a cute poem. Other note: You see, to me, poems are far more personal than stories. Poems retain much of the poet¡¯s raw voice unlike prose, the beauty of language magnified by simplicity. So I ask (on the small chance of this being relevant) for this poem to not be used for not nice purposes (idk how that¡¯d happen). Gracias por su amabilidad, y feliz cumplea?os! Thanks for your kindness, and happy birthday! Frostypine Commentary: Pros: Well I felt the quality was quite good, I like the simplicity yet vividness of the descriptions they are interesting. The poem really made me think, yet wasn¡¯t exactly impossible to understand both qualities I like to find in poetry I read. Don¡¯t worry I definitely won¡¯t use it for any bad purposes :) Cons: Well it was a bit too short for me, even for a short story, I may have to dock you points for that. Also is that in addition to being short¡­it doesn¡¯t really have any plot to speak of, thus rather then calling it a ¡®story¡¯ a better way to describe it in my opinion would be a ¡®scene¡¯. As a result of being so short, it is kind of vague I can¡¯t really tell whether I should just be stereotypical and assume the father is a rich bad man who beat his wife, and that wife is now merely guiltily happy that he is dead. Or if the wife was some sort of evil gold digger who gave as good as she got in that relationship, and is not wearing any make up because she wants to play the victim/engender sympathy and attention. I am also not quite sure what or possibly who killed him¡­did they both work together to poison him? And if so why are they not facing justice for it? Other: If you want it to be a short story what I recommend is adding in some conflict that is still in motion¡­for example does is your character angry at his father? Empathizing with him? Is he still getting over his death/agonizing over what might have been? Does he wish he hadn¡¯t gone to the funeral? What does he hope/expect for his own funeral? Another option I could see happening with these sorts of stories is that the father decided to have his will read at the funeral and something happens that no one expected. Or if he or his mother did kill the father maybe police barging in and arresting them or something, like mentioning their connections that got them out of trouble. Entry Number Two: An Observation on Reincarnation Flower Form: Source: OshieteKudasai Have You Read Reincarnation Flower Before?: Yes Tell the truth, have you read all/most of it?: Yes If No for either of the former 2 questions or in the case that the reason for yes is really interesting, why are you entering this contest?: I don''t want to be a lazy reader. (I am arleady, to late for me :p ) Entry Type: My thoughts abour Fiction (clever criticism and litle flatery) Why this type: I''m bad with writing and making any kind of art. ;( What prize do you want if you win?: Medium sized - painting/picture of MC after haching Let the flame (akemhhh i mean clever criticism....) begin: When i first found your fiction i thought that this will be another boring reincarnation story, where MC is kiled in a accident, then reincarnated, becomes op, fight with final boss, and ends with a happy ending with harem. Damn i was sooooo wrong. First chapters (0-14 in one go) were a masterpice, i couldn''t get myself away from it. But then something hapend, and each next chapter was less and less entertaining. At first i didn''t knew why, but after a long thoutght i realized the reason. TOOO much informations, to litle action and to slow plot development. Don''t take me wrong, i still like your fiction and i will still read it no matter what, it will just be litle less entertaining than at the begining. Propably after a while, i will look back to this post and cry becuse of my stupidity but well. And this is it, i hope that ur not sad or mad at me, but if u do and u want to discuss this with me, i will always reply to your messages. One last thing before the end, WE NEED MOOOOORE CHAPTERS. THE END teheeeeee...... Frostypine Commentary: Pros: Well¡­I am kind always open to some flattery, in particular I had a five second fantasy centered around your use of the word ¡®masterpiece¡¯ Cons: Come on, it was only after a ¡®long thought¡¯ that you realized all my weaknesses? I think that is kind of exaggerating I think my weaknesses are actually quite apparent. Other: Well I am definitely not sad or mad at you, but it is slightly annoying that people focus just on a single part of my story (in your case the first four chapters) and then say they found the rest (boring etc.)¡­in my opinion it is far too early to make any concrete decisions on it. However I don¡¯t really feel a need to discuss it with you¡­I don¡¯t really see anything you said that can really be argued about. Entry Number Three: A portrait of ¡®Perfect¡¯ Peridot Source: Nibbles Form: Have You Read Reincarnation Flower Before?: Yes, It''s one of my favorite stories Tell the truth, have you read all/most of it?: All but chapters 32-34 ..... May have skimmed over those ones..... If No for either of the former 2 questions or in the case that the reason for yes is really interesting, why are you entering this contest?: I felt like drawing some fan art for this series anyway since I thought gem dragons sounded interesting. I wasn''t going to submit it at first since I have like zero confidence in my art and thought it would look stupid if there were a lot of better ones submitted and I got a little intimidated. But when there turned out to be less entries than I thought there would be, I figured, YOLO Entry Type: Fan art of prince Peridot Why this type: Because my drawing skills are okay, but my writing skills suck. What prize do you want if you win?: Another chapter soon I guess? Preferably one where something actually happens and not another filler chapter. Honestly, I just entered the contest cause I love this series and wanted to participate so the prize isn''t really important for me. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Frostypine Commentary: Pros: I think it is quite pretty and actually kind of close to what I think gem dragons look like, Perry in particular. Cons: The shade of green used is not my favorite color¡­but actually now that I think about it, I created Perry to be a disliked guy to begin with, so maybe this isn¡¯t a con. It is a small one, but although it is close to what I imagine it isn''t exact ( and I have to admit exact is probably impossible even by me) Other: Only picture entry, makes it kind of unique. Entry Number Four: Source: Prajit3 FORM: Have You Read Reincarnation Flower Before?: Yes Tell the truth, have you read all of it?:till Chapter 32 If No for either of the former 2 questions or in the case that the reason for yes is really interesting, why are you entering this contest?: Entry Type: why I like the friction/book (which ever you prefer) RF Why this type:can''t think of anything else. What prize do you want if you win?:more chapters and soon (please) I really like this friction because:- 1) it has really good world and character building. 2) the author does not rush the friction like some (most) people do 3) the releases are stable (ie. Do not happen like no chapters of months or weeks or days and then releases all at once. ) (though slow for my taste. ). 4) the grammar is very good (almost perfect but for the rare mistakes which are almost instantly fixed after posting .) 5) you resond to messages fast and do not keep the person waiting. Ps. Btw I hate waiting for a reply to my comments 6) you are open to suggestions and do not ignore them. 7) the story is good (very good) 8) etc.......... Will stop hear because I think I went over the character limit (sorry if more or less RRL does not have word/letter count and I am to lazy to count. Thanks for the chapter, contest, book and more chapters if I win. Keep writing this great great friction/book (sorry if you don''t like either of the words for it.) Ps. I like the current chapters as much as the previous once or more keep at it. Btw I like the balancer path. Frostypine Commentary: Pros: I like how I have both a (somewhat criticizing) entry and a more complimentary entry (this one). I also like how you are complimenting and me and not just the story. Cons: You didn¡¯t tell the truth (I mean answer the question that asked you too), while I liked hearing from someone who likes my weakness (too much writing etc.) I would have appreciated it, if you had included a bit more on what I can improve on. You complimented me and I don¡¯t like myself, (I am just being difficult I know). Other: Just so you know although there were guidelines on the preferred character amount, they were guidelines not concrete rules and as long as your entry wasn¡¯t pages and pages long its fine, with perhaps the exception of shortstories/fics. Also I am glad that you like the balancer path, It is my favorite as well ;) So I think I will get back to the winners/what prizes they won in the next chapter see you then and happy reading! It was somewhat embarrassing to be a hatchling once one got over the shock. We had all tried our best to choose the option in unison, but once chosen it was unknown if we succeeded. For right after the hatching instinct took over and all my body could think of was focusing all my energy and using the small egg-horn on the tip of my nose. To hit against the shell of my egg with all my strength. Although my shell was supposedly quite strong and according to sister it was even stronger than most of the others eggs, with the exception of possibly my other siblings, I was also strong and thanks to the buffs that came into effect when I started the process I wasn¡¯t unable to make some progress. After a lot of struggle and an unknown amount of time which to me it felt like days. I felt and heard the first success of a crack. Encouraged I homed in on the newly appeared weakness with my egg-horn and was able to widen the crack and then even break off a few actual pieces making a small hole. With that little hole everything changed. There never was much room inside of my egg it was quite crowded for my body, and in fact I could barely move. However until that moment when my egg first became opened to the elements of the world for the first and the start of the last time, I had not known it. Engaging on the mental plane, had always kept my mind distracted enough that I had barely felt my body and even more rarely thought of it. But with the air coming inside and touching the liquid I was immersed in as well as some of that liquid dripping through the hole to the outside. The environment I existed in, since before I could remember cooled all so slightly. But that tiny temperature change was enough for me to become aware of my body, in a way that I had never done before. The hatching process was also in play. It of working to slowly drag my mind from the mental plane and into that of my body and unlike before once inside I could not go back. An equivalent experience I could only say was to be found in a barely remembered dim memory, old enough that the shock of it was akin to have never have felt being in a body before. I now understood that strange preparation sister had forced us to do before. She had required us to each force our minds back into our bodies and let ourselves get accustomed to feeling them, for as long as we could stand it. We had all hated this feeling but had forced ourselves to do it anyway as we were long used to obedience. With Sister¡¯s caring present there to guide us, it had been easier for us to find the will power the first few times as well as endure, long enough that we became quite accustomed even practiced to most of the feelings. Never had I felt as grateful for her wisdom as now for, although this claustrophobic sensation was horrible. I knew it could have been much worse. I might perished from the feeling of being enclosed, penned in. possibly even done something drastic and potentially injuring if I had tried to hatch with no body feeling experience. Her training held me in good stead now, for after a brief panic I was able to force my mind to think over my extreme feelings and focus on instead of my current situation, the hole and going about making it wider. The more I worked on making the hole wider the easier it became, the leaking of the liquid out of the egg increased so much so that I felt air on my flesh for the first time. It started with a burning itchy feeling of coolness on the top of my head, but over time the area that was effected slowly started to increase, until I felt the coldness all over my face. This caused me to at first slow down my speed greatly and then to stall for quite a while. Though then I thought it cold, I realized not to long latter that the outside temperature that was my hatching place, was actually quite warm. It just was, contrasted with the perfect exact temperature that I had always known before it was a few degrees lower and to my young tender flesh, covered by thin delicate scales the difference seemed quite apparent. Besides the newly experienced temperature difference there were other new distractions that were affecting me. Such as a strange feeling of almost irradiation, on the part of me I later identified as my eyes. For although it was quite dim, the crack was indeed letting in a minuscule amount of true or at least physical light into what had before been complete and absolute darkness. Luckily I possessed eye lids, and thus instinctively squeezing my eyes shut even tighter, I forced myself to ignore my various irritations and begin my laboring again. My panic and the claustrophobic feelings now used as motivation, rather than hindering. My shell became merely annoying rather than intimidating, and rather than fear at the unknown outside, my long term companion curiosity was itching to explore. And thus, after that one long pause my speed quite increased, and soon the hole was large enough that with a little effort I was able to slip my small thin body through it. I flopped out of my egg and onto the floor, soon after my egg also toppled over and having lost much of its defensive power, as it had been powered by my magic, I heard the sound of it cracking, and then there was silence. A few moments after that I instinctively coughed the remaining fluid out of my lungs and had started to breath for the first time. At first each and every breath was all that I could think about, but then as I grew accustomed to the sensation after some point I stopped thinking about even that and just ¡®existed¡¯. I lay there on the warm, though it was cool to me, soft sand covered floor, desperately tired as I had never been before, after all my exertions. After a long time during which I may have slept a bit, because I did feel like I had started to awake, or at least become more aware and conscious. It was quite uncomfortable, I had never felt so helpless and weak before. For most of the time since I had first gained consciousness in the egg I had always been the strongest of the unhatched not counting my Sister. Maybe not when it came to having powers, Peeper and the others beat me there, and I admit freely that I believed several of my friends to be more intelligent, but I had always been strong in such a way that everyone relied on me, and counted on me because of that strength. But right now I felt vulnerable and felt quite unreliable besides. Though I could dimly sense the presence of at least several other huge beings (at least from my current perspective) but those creatures, those ¡®adults¡¯ were completely unfamiliar and foreign to me. I felt quite alone. I had broken my connection to the mental plane quite some time ago, but since the challenge of the hatching process had taken up most of my focus I hadn¡¯t been that bothered at the time but now with no mission to distract myself with, I was beginning to realize the reality of my complete and utter isolation. In the mental plane I was constantly surrounded by others, the few times that I ¡®wasn¡¯t¡¯ because of my shallow attempts to seek out privacy, all the others were still just a thought away. Right now, the only one I could hear was myself, besides my own thoughts it was utter silence. This feeling was quite painful. Though in the beginning I tried to distract myself from my singleness with the new feelings of my body, trying to focus on the sensation of breathing¡­and the extra novelty that was smell that came with it, it was too overwhelming, too unfamiliar and I started to crave my old familiarity that was now forever lost to me. I even came to mourn it, it was not like I could go back inside my egg and become unhatched again. But just when I had barely begun to feel depressed, what I had missed the most was suddenly returned to me joyously when I heard the sound of what was the most familiar thing of all. ¡°So how does it feel to be out in the world?¡± It was the voice of Sister, and at the same time I heard this reassuring voice I felt the bond of the mental link snap into place. Volume One Chapter 36: Without Regret Without Regret (Currently The Only Unhatched in the Clan) Spoiler : Happy very belated Easter and or spring time I was really cutting things close right? Well, anyway I think I mentioned I would announce the contest results/prizes in this chapter right? Here are the winners: 1st place in the literary category we have: Lycoris Yay (applause) Tied for first place in the compliment/critism category we have: OshieteKudasai and Prajit3 Yay more (applause) Finally first place in the artwork category we have: Nibbles Yay (one more round of applause) Yes a big round of applause for these four readers who were nice enough to humor me and my contest. Anyway now the moment ¡®you¡¯ have all been waiting for¡­.(drum roll) LET¡¯S ANOUNCE THE PRIZES! Okay because of popular demand the main prize is: RF chapters! Yay! (AA: Boo!) shh you! Anyway with in the month of April I plan to try and release at least four chapters (one for each contestant), if I succeed please thank these lovely people who will be a big reason for why it was possible. But wait I am not done! Besides the main prize each nice contestant will eventually receive: A unique character artwork, done by Frostypine and 1 FrostyPine Coupon Book, containing 5 Blatant Spoilers 3 Sneak Peakers 2 Early Releasers and one Author Favor Once the coupon book is received, coupons can be used at any time, however if the early releasers or author favor coupons are used during my school period I retain the right of refusal, due to the possibility of real life constraints interfering. Basically if the coupons are used at any time outside of the time between June and August they may be considered invalid. I think this is obvious but if the coupons are used once they may not be used again. (However this does not mean I will not accept requests outside of coupons just that I have an obligation to do what a coupon user requests of me while whether or not I will do something for someone else depends on various factors such as my mood) Also depending on how the coupons are received I may hand out more or better products in the future. I will hand out the prizes sometime between April and June at the very latest. Finally¡­here is the chapter enjoy (or not) I chose to follow the [Projective] path. I chose this path mainly because the thoughts and feelings it conjured in me felt most familiar. In my past life when I happened to ease drop on those who knew about the true me even a bit, or those who had high deductive reasoning when talking about me, I would hear myself being called such things as: ¡°The Hero¡¯s Conniving Puppet Master¡±, or ¡°The Hero¡¯s Staining Shadow¡±. Though outwardly in public I always made sure that it seemed like I was following the hero¡¯s orders, and basically played the part of the ditzy toady lackey to a T, in reality obviously it was usually the other way around. The rare times it wasn¡¯t, I always made sure that we were doing something that even that Hero couldn¡¯t mess up, and even then I didn¡¯t entirely relinquish my control. Of course despite the fact that I was always limited by my position in life as a peasant, my manipulative ways, or perhaps I should say because of them? Well they were quite strong to say the least, from the moment I realized my place in the world at that time, despite the fact I didn¡¯t know the truth of the lands influence, or the system itself, I started to think of ways of subverting the system. And as I have already mentioned I found mild success, at the cost of what little I ability had to feel shame. Actually, let alone shame, though I think I hid it quite well, I think, no I know, especially when compared to now, that I never really felt that much emotion in the first place. I remember dimly some hazy memories about being insulted and bullied when I was very little and not yet that strong, because they found my emotionless disturbing. Of course that quickly ended when I started to grow up, I was a most sturdy and intimidating child, and soon I found myself with many younger siblings and we quickly outnumbered any who would think of bulling which quickly nipped the bud of the plans of all but the insane. Also around that time the calculative side of my nature had started to sprout, as the oldest child I had to keep the others in line, keep in mind that most of them were only slightly smarter than the hero I met in the future though most were definitely slyer. Because of this, and also to avoid the wounding concern of my parents, who were already probably picking out at least in their heads a peasant wife for me, to go with what they were certain would be my peasant life. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I started to learn how to fake having emotions, or at least more emotions then I really possessed, and I got so good at it that I got to a point that I could almost like fake became reality, though I never got to a point that I could say that I felt like a ¡®normal¡¯ person. Then that minor event happened that made me make ¡®becoming as strong as possible¡¯ as my dream, and that small sprout was then watered and nursed by my desire to succeed, then sharpened by various events and happenings until it reached a point where it really started to bloom. That calculating manipulative side of me who would go one to one day be called by the underbelly of that world ¡°Puppet Master¡± and ¡°The Soulless One.¡± Whenever I thought of my emotionless I never felt it was a disability, rather I felt it was a great advantage, in my past career of hero¡¯s peasant, though those who knew me better, called me quite scary and somewhat insulting names those who knew little of me often referred to me as ¡®the fearless one¡¯. I made up for the potential problems my lack of well empathy caused, through my constant observing of other people and my relentless improvement of my ability to fake my emotions and reactions. Yes, I fondly remember myself as being someone who was quite good at turning even what seemed like weaknesses into strength. Moving on, besides my nostalgia of who or rather what I used to be like, there was also the fact that ever since I was reborn I have felt much more strongly and I have felt also things that I have never felt before. I am not sure if I gained something or possibly that I lost something, but either way, more so then the race, more so than the new position in life, and even more so than gender, I had changed, in a major way that I couldn¡¯t quite identify or even point too what it was except perhaps the more obvious fact that I was much more emotional and¡­well empathetic then I was in my previous life. And such a change, I can easily admit that it completely scared me, terrified me to such an extent that until that experience of falling into that pit of despair forced me to face the truth of my new life, I was basically in complete and utter denial. I didn¡¯t want that to happen again, I definitely don¡¯t want that to happen again. As I have said before that desire is the main reason why I accepted, the empath class in the first place. And so it is obvious the advancement path of [Projection], and its emphasis on control and manipulation was what called to me the most It is also why that the mention possible side effect of losing some or all of my ability to feel emotions wasn¡¯t a con so much as it was an appeal, and this is even after considering something else that I didn¡¯t expect, but something that I have to admit also came with feeling more emotions then before. That sensation of joy and pleasure I often felt as I came to be closer to my brother and some of the other dragonlings. It was that joy that made the thought of facing that pit of despair again almost bearable, if I hadn¡¯t had my past memories my fear of losing that joy would have probably trumped my fear of feeling all those bad emotions again or possibly worse. However I did have those past memories, and because I did I knew that even if I became worse in that respect and lost every single scrap of emotion that I had, I knew I would still be able to feel pleasure, though admitting not as much as I could with emotion, more importantly I knew that I would still be able to experience love. In that prior life though I couldn¡¯t quite say that I felt ¡®it¡¯ I know most firmly that I definitely had it, and the ability to give it, love that is. It was that capability that all those with souls have to give and receive love, and I think that it was my acceptance of love, even when understanding it was completely beyond my ability that kept me from becoming a great evil. And I know that then and even now that I am defiantly capable of becoming something to be righteously feared, hated and disgusted by. On a smaller scale it was why I didn¡¯t ever abandon my family even when I reached the pinnacle of success that was possible for a peasant, and why despite all my manipulations, complaining and insults I never actually considered doing anything truly harmful to that hero, was never even tempted. Though most peasants hated their heroes and tried their best to sabotage them, I never did. Though I could not really feel it, in that life and now in this one I was never in doubt of receiving it and of my ability to give it. Thus when in the end I decided to take the [Projective] path I was able to take that first step without even a bit of regret or worry. Volume One Chapter 37: Managing Their Hatching Managing Their Hatching (The MC who''s story was not dropped) April Fools Post 2016 Spoiler : After getting so many critical reviews, and nasty comments (breaks down and starts crying) I just can¡¯t take it anymore so I have made up my mind, I have decided to stop writing forever! And soon I am also planning to take down all my prior chapters, so they can¡¯t hurt the eyes of the readers on royal road anymore! As a not so fond farewell to all you haters I have written in these spoilers a long rant about what I really think of all of you! (Warning: includes hate, more hate and many snobbish and obscene curses) Spoiler : April Fools! I love you guys! (Even the haters) A Spoiler of the next real chapter: It actually wasn¡¯t that hard to set up the mental net again after all my underlings- (excuse me) er young friends and my siblings hatched, no that was the easy part. However it was not long after the hatching first started I realized what I had done in some ways could be considered a mistake. You see when normal and natural young dragons hatch their brains are empty and they are full of innocence, thus they o rely 100% on instinct, there is indeed something to be said for not thinking of all. But what I did was basically fill the minds of my siblings and friends up with various knowledge, while I did not give them everything I could have, there is still no denying that in the end I did take away a bit of their innocence, or na?ve that they should have had. For example if they were the empty little dear infants they should have been, they would have never known fear, and thus they wouldn¡¯t have been at all pained by the experience of hatching. For my strong minded brother and a few of his compatriots, after losing their instincts temporarily due to shock and having a small and understandable amount of panicking they quickly recovered and were able to focus so completely on hatching. If there is anybody curious on what would have happened if I had continued to write, I will be posting the rough draft of what the next chapter would have been: P.S. just before I decided to retire from writing I had been thinking of starting another fanfic, and because I hate for all my hard work to go to waste I will be posting the chapters I have for it, for one day and one day only. RMHS. Just a warning this fic is the worst of my work to date so unless you want your eyes to start bleeding right before you start puking all over the place, there is only one solution DON¡¯T READ IT!! The end and goodbye! FOREVER!! P. P. S. Don¡¯t you readers even think of coming crawling back to me when you realize just how good of thing you had (sniff, sniff) Author Notes: Spoiler : For those of you who did not read the spoiler yesterday I am sorry if that caused you any distress...as you can see I am not really dropping my writing. Though in my opinion it should have been obvious that it was an April Fools joke, after all at the very least one should take everything online on April 1st with a large grain of salt. Actually originally my April Fools post was just going to be about the rough-rough draft page picture. The joke was that: "I am so tired of working hard for my readers, that I decided to be lazy and give them the first draft to read, and if they want a better chapter they had better edit it/write one themselves" However some of the comments I read put me in a bad mood and so, a few months ago in 2015 I started to plan out a new and meaner version of April Foolery. To the people I wanted to target: It would serve them right if they believed it for a second. As to those who were innocent of ever making me angry? Well wasn''t the first day of the fourth month always full of victims anyway? Besides it was only some words, and it would only be up for around 24 hours they would survive. P.S. One part of the joke wasn''t a joke I wonder if you guys can figure it out and if you will even care when you do ;) Okay at least 4 chapters in April maybe 5 if I am lucky, not to mention the artwork and the coupons I still have to make do you think I am up to the challenge? FP: Maybe... AA: nope
You have chosen the class advancement of the [Projective] path of your [Empath] class. Your Projective Skills have evolved. They are no longer classified under [Empath¡¯s Tools] but instead now fall under the purview of the skill [Projective¡¯s Implements] included in which, are the following sub-skills: [Mental Manipulation] [Emotional Influence] [Free Will Override]¡­ All Projective aligned skills are more powerful. It is now much easier and energy wise cost effective to use [Empath] related skills, especially [Projective] related ones. You have received a large boost in states to the following stats: +Emotion +Willpower +Spirit +Leadership You have received a new stat: +Mental Resistance
Due to your class advancement and other factors you have developed two potentially detrimental traits: [Insensitivity] and [Emotional Detachment] Depending on your future choices these traits may lessen or increase in severity. These traits have various effects, it is recommended that you see their database articles for more information.
It actually wasn¡¯t that hard to set up the mental net again after all my underlings- (excuse me) er young friends and my siblings hatched, no that was the easy part. It was not long after the hatching first started, that it was really driven home to me that what I had done, in some ways could be considered a mistake. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.You see when normal and natural young dragons hatch, their brains are empty and they are full of innocence, thus they basically rely 100% on instinct. And there is indeed something to be said for not thinking of anything at all, for not having to consciously choose hatching is an easy though admittingly wearying thing. But what I did was basically fill the minds of my siblings and friends up with various knowledge, while I did not give them everything I could have, there is still no denying that in the end I did take away quite a bit of their innocence, or natural protective na?ve that they should have had. For example if they were the empty little dear infants they should have been, they probably would have never known fear, and thus they wouldn¡¯t have been at all pained by the experience of hatching. For my strong minded brother and a few of his compatriots, after losing their instincts temporarily due to shock and having a small and understandable amount of panicking they quickly recovered and were able to focus so completely on hatching. However for the majority of the now hatching dragonlings it was sadly quite a different story. Their panicking could not be said to be of a small degree, and many were in danger of if not going into catatonic shock then even worse, moving their bodies because of that panic and potentially injuring themselves. I was quite glad as well as relieved to discover that my choice on my path was not a bad one, at least in this situation, for I quickly figured out how to control the emotions of those that were a danger to themselves and force them to calm down, and because of the choice I had made this was quite easy to do especially when I compared it to the last time I tried to interfere with others emotions. Not only in the power but also in the scale, and especially on the details and control I now had over this ability. I was also very calm, calm to the point that I supposed others might call it strange, it allowed me to take my actions efficiently and without any pressure so I didn¡¯t think on it much other than to quickly formulate the likely theory that it probably was caused by those traits the windows mentioned earlier. After making another mental note to remember to read those articles which I had yet to read in depth, I continued control a good majority of all the dragonling minds, however I would like to now take the time to point out that I only ¡®grabbed hold¡¯ of those minds that were truly in danger. Those that were ¡®merely¡¯ panicking and looked like they had the power to calm themselves down, as well as those who like my brother were strong enough on their own mentally to shake of the panic by themselves I left alone. I am not completely sure why, but I had a certain feeling or perhaps should I say instinct? That using my powers in such a way, while not exactly damaging was certainly not good for the ones inflicted by them. More simply put, I somehow felt that it would somehow be more beneficial for them to overcome this obstacle by themselves. However I continued to carefully monitor their minds status and the moment I felt one take a major downturn I would quickly and near instantly move to take full control of them to prevent them from accidentally harming themselves. After my brother hatched, I was able, with his permission, to take his memories of his hatching and carefully show or in some cases directly implant them in some of the dragonlings that were the worst off. Upon receiving it, most of them no longer needed my control and were even able to start hatching again on their own. I continued to monitor all the minds of the still unhatched, the newly hatched, and the hatching, taking control or implanting memories when needed or also merely observing. Surprisingly my brother was more of an exception than the rule for not all of the dragonlings that were strong in other ways were also strong of mind. Or at least strong at mental resistance. In particular the sister that I referred to as Peeper, took her hatching pretty rough. It was so bad that I think if I was only a bit slower in taking control¡­that I may have had lost her. But after thought, it isn¡¯t as surprising as it may have seemed for Peeper in particular was one of the few of my dragonling group that had access to information comparable to myself had I been unable to read the status database. To support this correlation a majority of the other ¡®seers¡¯ also had a hard time with their hatching. Like I said earlier setting up the mental net¡¯s connection to dragonlings on the outside was the easy part as well as the most satisfying, in some ways. For me at least, because to my happy surprise one of my many theories about the next had been proven true. It created in a large loophole in the many hidden limitations I had been experiencing (presumably because of my unhatched state). Basically I found that so long as I focused my mind through one of theirs, I could not only experience the outside more thoroughly through their minds I could also use them as a conduit and though it was untested I was confident that I could perform various magic, that I could only dream of before (and I mean that literally). Testing my new freedom over magic would have been the first thing I did after discovering it, however there were still a few dragonlings that were being a little slow in their hatching and out of obligation and possibly caring I decided to wait until all my dragonlings were hatched and healthy before allowing myself the leeway to focus on assuring myself if it would be a permanent effect as well as satisfying my curiosity. It was situations like these which made me tempted to see if I could force myself into learning the skill, [Mental Split]. I had been quite excited when I first read about that skill during my browsing through the status database, however a little further research later and I found myself quite disappointed. It seemed that unfortunately my chosen class [Empath] and my class advancement choice of [Empath: (Projective)] in particular were a really uncomplimentary combination. It seems those of my class choosing that skill would often find themselves developing not only split minds but split personalities as well. That wouldn¡¯t seem that bad, but the article then went on to say that such unnatural personalities were likely to be very unstable. Instability could lead to at the very least insanity, and terrifyingly enough one closer to the worst case side of the scale, one of the more horrid possibilities was that one of the personalities develop to the point that they surpass being personality and become an entirely different person. And this new person was also highly likely to be if not insane then prone to corruption and evil. It was likely that it would keep information from the other personality(s), to the point it would seem like you were experiencing memory loss, during which you had no control over your actions. And thus to the control loving me, my dream of having more than one ¡®me¡¯ of which to do things with was completely given up on. Also multi-tasking, though useful was a bad idea for the same reasons. Volume One Chapter 38: Like a Pool of Water Like a Pool of Water (Sister) Spoiler : 4/30/2016: Due to annoying things like real life getting in way (curse you final exams):angry: I am currently unable to release the additional and bonus chapters for RF and such as planned. [th_0gotas.gif] Also I currently don''t have anything for regular chapters for any of my other stories either, notably and most tragically (at least to me) is the fact that I haven''t released the chapters I have in reserve for the new thing you guys aren''t probably even aware of yet. :criesBo: The good news is school will be done in a few weeks and when that happens, I will have lots more free time and hopefully thus I will able to write more chapters ;) My apologies (to those of you who actually like my stuff) for the delay orz 5/31/2016 Not much to say...except I am embarrassed that I am so late in posting and you have my sincere apologizes for that... Leaving off the other benefits the mental web gave to myself for later, I will now discuss how the web worked for those who were now hatched. I think to describe it as best I can I will use the analogy of a pool of water. While you are in water whether it be swimming, wading or just floating it is like being in a different world in some ways when compared to being on dry land. I wasn¡¯t that much of a swimmer in my past life (mainly because of lack of opportunity Alfdorn didn¡¯t have many lakes or large sized rivers and we rarely visited the ocean) but I do think that I have enough experience that I can use it as part of my analogy. Basically while in the water you feel the liquid all around you, in some ways it is more distracting then air, with air you can even forget that it is there sometimes, but with water especially when presuming that you are not accustomed to it, at least some part of you is always aware of it. Water makes everything harder and easier. With water it is harder to move because it is thicker then air, but at the same time it bears part of the burden of your weight in place of you, in river side towns I often see children use water to ¡®carry¡¯ large heavy packages downstream that then then take large muscle bound grown men to transport it once it is grounded. So with the mental web, while they were unhatched they were basically being carried by the water. When they hatched they were by default pushed out of the water and no longer able to truly enter except for wading. However wading was perfectly sufficient to use the water to help them ¡®carry¡¯ and transmit things. When they were unhatched they could speed the ¡®packages¡¯ along, with their own strength because they were also in the water. Now that they were unhatched they could only place their things in the water and let the water do all the work of carrying it along. The way I designed the web, was as its name declares as a ¡®web¡¯, if you were to use rope in place of ¡®mental paths and connections¡¯ you would have thick ropes tying everything together in a complex pattern that in the end led to both me and the hearthstone. And attached to these ropes were a bunch of much thinner strings and yarns making even more connections, (though more fragile). These are the smaller more private individual paths made by the dragonlings of which I solidified into a more permanent form from out of their original transiency. Now coming back to my original analogy imagine those ropes and threads not things made of fibrous materials but instead creeks streams and rivers, and even lakes. While the hatched dragonlings are no longer floating in the rivers, and are not affected by the currents. They can still dip their hands¡­er minds into the water and thus are still though by choice, affected by the ¡®temperature¡¯ and ¡®speed¡¯. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Obviously this ¡®new¡¯ effect is nowhere as near strong on them then it was when they were unhatched. But it should be possible for myself and those among them who are more sensitive, whether anyone who is ¡®wet¡¯ or simply put connected to the web is in trouble or greatly upset. Basically their emotions are a lot more separated then when they were unhatched, this is one of the advantages, what affects one of web connected no longer completely destabilizes the rest of them, yet they can still if they wish, even for the most insensitive no at least the gist of what the others are feeling. I am curious to see, just how this new ¡®distance¡¯ will affect them, I theorize that their personalities will give more leeway to develop and thus the group will become much more diverse then it was in the past, because I think the deep connections kept most of them from ¡®acting out¡¯ as it were. For the main disadvantages, at least those not already mentioned, should be obvious. As I have said going from being directly in and a part of the mental web to outside of it and only connected by choice, is comparable to being in water, and then getting out of the water. Without the ¡®water¡¯ to help support your weight, you will feel like you ¡®weigh more¡¯ on dry land. Moving around and carrying things all take more energy and effort. What I am trying to convey, is basically if it weren¡¯t for me and the hearthstone I created, connecting to the mental web would be a very energy and perhaps mana guzzling activity indeed. As it is, even with the support of the hearthstone continually providing energy, unlike before when it felt natural, interacting with the web now is mentally straining at the very least. Potentially dangerous at worst. However with the many failsafes I added the danger should be accounted for and minimized. And even if there are potential fools, who because of their future extravagant and constant use of the mental web, whilst ignoring their bodies and the web¡¯s many warning signs, unavoidably eventually encounter problems that result from what risk remains. It is not like there are no options. I can always decide to interfere personally, booting them from the web or restricting their access. And if I am a less ethical mood I could always just let them experience the painful reasons why they shouldn¡¯t not follow the rules for themselves. Of course that is only with the expectation that I should be able to heal or help them out of whatever torturous hole they dig themselves into. Though I am not sure if I made it completely clear, the main purpose of the web is to act as an intermediary for communication, and the exchange of knowledge. Without the web, I would have to contact them individually or in groups if I wanted to talk to them. Possible but quite inefficient, also it was quite a different story if one of them wanted to contact me. For a few like Peeper it might have been doable though a bit of a stretch depending on the distance and how ¡®open¡¯ I was to others at the time of the attempt. However for the majority it would have been near impossible and they would have to group and work together as they did before to stand even a chance. However without the sensory deprivation of being in an egg, for most of them their psychic powers would have greatly faded at best, so especially when compared to what they did before their chances would be dismal. So much so that in order to allow them to connect to the web as before I altered the bodies of each of the hatchlings with magic so that with the help of the hearthstone they would be able to connect to the web, no matter the level of their psychic ability. I also had plans to make a physical object that would get the job done even better. But that is a topic for another time. Volume One Chapter 39: Movement Movement (Brother) Hearing the voice of Sister, the big light who had been the center of my whole world as for long as I could remember, I was filled with joy and relief so much so, that for a few moments I forgot to breathe. Once I had recovered from that shock of joy, I eagerly reached for the mental link in order to reply to her, and soon ran into another surprise this one much less joyful. The ease of speaking mentally was completely gone, instead just reaching for the ability to connect to her, a gift that had been simple in the past was now akin in difficulty to reaching over to another across a great distance without the support of the mental web. I struggled for a short while, which no doubt would have been much longer if Sister hadn¡¯t quickly noticed my troubles and after she her strength with me for a temporary ¡®boost¡¯. I was able to, though clumsily at first grasp the method to connect to the web of minds. This new first time that I connected I was unable to hold myself there longer than a few moments, and neither was I even able to use any form of words, in fact I was only barley able to transfer some emotions and feelings in the short time I was able to hold the connection. Despite this fact, I was pleased with my success and strangely proud of myself for being able to do it at all. Sister didn¡¯t seemed surprised or even troubled by my current inadequacy and instead of answering my reply with more words she came down to my level and instead sent to me, a small rush of love, patience with a little bit of amusement, after which she ¡®left me. However I no longer felt the unease that I had felt before, for I now knew that though it was more challenging than it had been when I hadn¡¯t hatched, I was still able to connect to the mental web. Also I felt a reassurance in the clarity of her first reply to me. It was obvious that even if I continued to remain completely incompetent in being able to link up with the mental web now that I was hatched, that Sister would still be able to easily link up with me. Nonetheless I decided to practice linking up from outside the web until it became if not as effortless as it was in the past then at least not as much as a struggle as it was now. Satisfied in this promise I made to myself, I let my mind drift back to focusing on my body. Part of the reason that I had such struggles with linking up is that the sensations and feedback I was getting from being able to truly and completely feel my body, not through choice but rather than the lack of it, were very distracting. First of all, and most noticeable was the temperature. It felt really cold. If I were a mammal my fur would have been standing straight up and I would have been shivering. Later on, when I was older and came back to a hatching camber for a visit, I would wonder that I had ever felt the place as cold for in actuality the hatching chambers were kept to be quite warm. But apparently the shell of my egg was quite insulating for the difference in temperature was to me extreme, and it took me quite a while to adjust to it enough that if I didn¡¯t feel warm at least I didn¡¯t feel distractingly cold either. Along with the temperature, was the feeling of feeling anything, I had been completely desensitized to the liquid in my egg to the point that I didn¡¯t even notice it was there the rare times I practiced ¡®feeling¡¯ my body. But now that I hatched, having air touch me instead of liquid, was strange or odd to say the least. Even stranger then feeling the air on my scaly hide was having to breathe it in. It was very good that my body possessed many instincts else I would have suffocated from not knowing how to breathe. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Once I adjusted to and got over the feelings of temperature, air and breathing, other sensations made themselves known. Such as the things underneath the skin. I started to recall what it had felt like to move my muscles and I experimentally attempted to see if I could move now, without the instincts of hatching imposing their will on me. At first my expectations were so low that I felt quite pleased when I managed to twitch, but soon I was able while lying on my side to kick my legs and swing my tail. I don¡¯t think that it was to much long afterwards that I somehow managed to flip from lying on my side to lying on my belly. And from there it wasn¡¯t much of a leap to begin to move my legs against the floor, and slowly but surely through trial and error learn how to crawl. I don¡¯t know how long my fixation on teaching myself to move lasted, but it must have been not that long because by that time I had begun to feel hunger. If a dragon hatches with in their first year, they will usually have an egg sack still attached to them. Thus they don¡¯t have too eat during their first few days of life because the egg sack continues to supply all that they need. However I, and my fellows had stayed in the egg much longer than a year. We had not used an egg sack for quite some time and were instead relying on the mana stones that we had created for substance while in the egg. As a side note the hatchery workers had already taken my abandoned mana stone and shell remains, and put them in a safe place. Later as per gem dragon tradition they would be given back to me and I would then have the opportunity fashion them into some sort of jewelry or weapon for good luck. Right now though I had completely forgotten about both mana stone and egg shells, and all I could think of was my hunger. I am told that there are some dragon species that require the consumption of metals and minerals in order to stay healthy. With such species after hatching they would immediately eat their egg shells, (and mana stone if they create them). Gem dragons, though we do on occasion consume small amounts of precious minerals or metals, it isn¡¯t a main part of our diets, so unfortunately even if they hadn¡¯t been taken away and I had been able to see clearly at that time (I was currently near blind and kept my eyes closed for convenience sake) my shell and mana stone would not have looked edible at all. However it was soon proven that there was no chance of me starving. For although I hadn¡¯t really noticed their existence until then the hatchery room was filled with servants, egg watchers. And since as I later found out my egg was located in the more private and luxurious hatching room reserved for royalty, there was even more ¡®nanny dragons¡¯ then there were eggs, and hatchling (and not too much later) hatchlings and eggs. As soon as the servants noticed that I was showing signs of being hungry, they acted. It is to be noted and commended that all hatchery workers out of all dragons that have somewhat servile positions in the clan, they were the most trusted, most loyal and for the overwhelming majority they were the most devoted to their jobs. I heard a small thump right in front of me and after stumbling back a bit as much as I was able to in statement and froze in place from that unexpected sound. I learned a new aspect of being unhatched when the extremely delicious smell of raw bloody meat gently wafted into my nostrils. Volume One Chapter 40: First Meal First Meal (Brother) As someone who can remember the first thing that they have ever eaten. Let me tell you what it was like, three words: It was heavenly. At first my instincts had overwhelmed me and during those moments that when as fast as I was able to I stumble crawled closer to the meat and then took some jerky bites I do not remember much. However when that first bit of juicy flesh touched my tongue, I can recall most clearly even now. Let me repeat myself, it was heavenly¡­so so delicious. I ate and ate until there was nothing to eat, the first few times this happened there would be another small ¡®plop¡¯ and another serving of meat would appear and I would eagerly start on it without any hesitation, but eventually I became completely stuffed. Now starting to become accustomed enough to the temperature enough that things felt warm, and with a full belly tiredness overcame me and I fell asleep. When I woke up, there was food again. By the time I ate to my satisfaction, I felt clearheaded enough to start thinking again, and noticed something different. I think I mentioned before that during these early moments of my ¡®real¡¯ life I had been blind. Well allow me to elaborate, I am not sure if I was truly blind at least technically for everytime I had tried to open my eyes I had gotten such headaches and dizziness that I had soon enough given up trying such a pointless thing. After all it wasn¡¯t like I really needed to see, there was nothing for me in the hatchery that I needed to avoid in the space limited by the amount that I could crawl, my every need was taken care of by the servants at and being a dragon my many other senses served me quite well. However after awaking nap after yawning I felt again the urge to open my eyes and so without thought as I was still in that realm between awake and asleep that I had brushed during my egg days and now was coming to know even more intimately, but this time to my surprise there was no need to close my eyes again after I opened them. The headaches were gone. I still couldn¡¯t fully say that I could see, however for things were very blurry. Unfortunately because the hatchery did not have much light, I did not have color vision either, however I was still in the end very excited I could see! During my egg days I had been given ¡®visions¡¯ primarily from Sister and then later, those we referred to as seers such as Peeper also shared with us some of the things they saw with their abilities and what I was seeing now was nowhere near even a quarter as beautiful, enlightening or useful. However the fact that I was seeing it through mine own eyes and without anyone else¡¯s help or generosity made it priceless to me. I stared and I stared, at all the blurry nothing that I could, I stared for so long that my eyes grew tired because of their newness and the headaches came back with a vengeance. Disappointed that I couldn¡¯t use my eyes anymore I nonetheless closed them, and without sight to distracted I realized that I was hungry. I sniffed the air and soon enough found another chunk of oh so delicious meat and as I was consuming it I realized with some bitter sweetness that I had already gotten used to the taste, as evidenced by the fact that it no longer held my full attention and I could now think and eat at the same time. After eating I spent a moment or two reflecting on the imaginary scenario where I, having never gotten used to the taste and meat, food always felt so mesmerizingly tasty. If so having meals would waste a lot of time but on the other hand, wouldn¡¯t the deliciousness somewhat make up for it? However such silliness only held my attention for only a short time and I was soon enough urged by my old pal curiosity to move on to other things. Unable to experience sight for the moment as my eyes were still tired I decided to test out a theory that I had formulated not long after hatching. That is, the theory that practicing linking back up to the mental net would make it easier to do, despite no longer being intimately a part of it. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. I had somewhat mixed results. I was correct in that the second and third time in connecting was indeed somewhat easier than the ¡®first¡¯ time. However it was still depressingly nowhere near easy, and it didn¡¯t look as if it would become easy for quite some time if not ever. On the bright side, after my fourth attempt I heard the voice of Sister. ¡°I was thinking that perhaps you might want some help?¡± she said in an almost teasing way. ¡°Yes please¡± I shamelessly would have replied, if I had the energy to speak, but she undoubtedly knew what I meant anyway for almost immediately I felt myself sigh in relief at the sensation of her supporting me more fully, this time not only with energy but also with her strength. Though it was not through my strength or skill the ease was reminiscent of the former world that I had already started to miss and that more than compensated for the dint in my pride that I had felt at that fact. Once I had ¡®caught my breath¡¯ mentally that is, I proceeded to share with her through words as well as memories everything that I had been wanting to share with her, taking special care with my fond recollections of what it felt like to eat the meat. ¡°So food is that delicious¡­I had been wondering¡­¡± She said in such an odd tone of voice that I was somewhat disappointed and puzzled at her reaction, but my disappointment was quickly dispersed and puzzlement forgotten or at least set aside for later when she said. ¡°I have been thinking that I might be able to help you with the problems you have been having with your sight.¡± ¡°Really?!¡± I asked with excitement? ¡°Yup¡± She said casually ¡°first of all I can heal the tiredness of your eyes as well as do a few things to help you cope with it, basically make it so you get tired a bit more slowly and recover from it more quickly. I don¡¯t think that I can help you with your headaches, and I wouldn''t if I could unfortunately I have reason to believe that those are necessary for the guaranteed health of your eyes but the second thing I can do to help, is well¡­I think I can do something to encourage your mind to recognize what you see a bit better and start to remove some of that ¡®blurriness¡¯ you said you felt. " I immediately agreed, and with her prompting I disconnected my mind from the net after she ¡®gently¡¯ stopped supporting me and I opened my eyes in the real world. This time my eyes no longer ached, though I did feel headaches they were nowhere near as bad as before. She hadn¡¯t even started helping me to see better as evidenced by all the blurriness but I was still satisfied at the fact that I could see with minimum disconcert. ¡°Are you ready?¡± She asked. ¡°I am.¡± I was quick to assure her. ¡°Then sight training experiment trial one start!¡± We didn¡¯t really exceed until the 10th attempt but until then I couldn¡¯t really say that we had failed either. With each attempt I was able to recognize or at least understand more of what I was seeing, and each attempted seem to making the following one easier. Eventually I got to a point that I could recognize shapes, and shades. Distance and other more complex aspects of sight were still beyond me, but with Sisters guidance I was able to understand that the large blurs were the servant dragons who had been caring for me. And that several smaller blurs were actually my other siblings who had also hatched not long after me. Peeper had been second so I had been informed and strangely though somehow unsurprisingly door and hinge had hatched around the same time. Odd yet to me beautiful was the moment when Sister pointed out to me a round blur that though much smaller than the servants was still larger than us unhatched and said that is me. Volume One Chapter 41: Acclimatization Acclimatization (Brother) Spoiler : Ha ha ha it is still today technically because clock says 11 still so yay! My apologies for the wait. Beside the usual shameful reasons there was also the understandable excuse of a power outage at my house today which prevented me from accessing the internet and even my computer. It might satisfy your Schadenfreude to know that sadly right before the power outage I ran out of battery on several of my mobile devices so I had to go on electronic cold turkey...so painful ;) As on update on the contest rewards (which probably almost none of you care about) I have just finished drawing them and am soon going to use the scans I made of them as materials for photo shopping which will hopefully result in somewhat palpable art. And I will even more hopefully get to post said art in a few days or so... I also have one more chapter which I will post tomorrow and this is one of my rare guarantees :) . It was not long after the first time that we first succeeded in using my sight that I was able to completely acclimatize to the use of the new organ and my vision greatly cleared. As the majority of you who read or hear this are probably human or at least humanoid might curious to know, I will mention here that dragons grow up fairly quickly for such a long lived species, or rather at least our physical bodies especially. To make a comparison between a just hatched dragon of almost any species and a human baby: while a dragon will develop from helpless infant to the stumble crawling equivalent of a toddler after only a few days, from what I understand for the human to get to that point would take months if not years. Regrettably for many dragon species the human will usually catch up after that time and then quickly exceed the hatchling in the mental department. For some especially slow to developed dragons they will have the mind of an infant still after 5 to maybe even hundreds of years. Thankfully I am not boasting when I say that gem dragons are happily not of one of those sad kinds. Even if we hadn¡¯t stayed in the egg for over 50 years and developed almost completely mentally before we hatched, the majority of us would have still reached the age of reason after around 1 year and as I think you might have heard before the time of Gem Dragon adolescence takes place from 30-50 years with full adulthood at around 100 years. Okay maybe I was boasting a little bit, but the point is that Gem Dragons are quite superior in some ways even for dragons, and though I didn¡¯t know the reason I was born one I was quite thankful to be one. Especially as I got to meet my sister. I of course was somewhat on the higher side of the superior spectrum as indicated from my hatching first, in fact by the time they started hatching not only was I able to see clearly I was also able to almost without mistake move around on my own legs. Thus it ended up that I got to see the rest of my siblings with the exception of sister hatch. I wasn¡¯t able to understand all that I bore witness to at first , being as I could only see what was happening on the outside, which for the majority of that time wasn¡¯t much but with sister¡¯s commentary I was able to know enough of what was happening to become concerned. However to my relief Sister assured me that though the hatching process was even more difficult for them then it was for me she was monitoring them and lending her strength when needed so it was almost close to a guarantee that they would be fine. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. My sense of time hadn¡¯t quite settled into a more measurable trait so I didn¡¯t really feel that it was a long time or short time later when first Door and Hinge almost at the same time and then Peeper made their way out of their shells and into the experience of clumsy weakness that I had just gone through and wasn¡¯t fully out of if I need to be honest. But I do know that with the exception of around at least 5 or 6 more meal times, I no longer bothered with my observations of the room and instead watched them. I could only watch as like me they were probably having trouble connecting to the mental web. I would have moved closer to them but Sister had quickly warned me not too. It seems that the servant dragons would have stopped me because they would worry about me harming them. With some dragon races just after hatching the hatchlings would have an instinct to fight to the death. While Gem Dragons did not share this unfortunate trait, there supposedly had been cases where an over exuberant older hatchling accidently or otherwise knocked over a much weaker and comparatively more fragile just hatched and injured them. Now that I know that it was a danger I wouldn¡¯t have hurt them, but as Sister wryly pointed out the servants didn¡¯t know that, and as I was yet unable to use my physical voice for anything other than a sharp yelping chirping sound, I wasn¡¯t able to tell them either. Also even if I disregarded my oath to my Sister about keeping our uniqueness which she referred to as ¡®treasure¡¯ secret, especially now that I had hatched I was simply not strong enough in my psychic powers to ¡®reach¡¯ them anyway. Luckily Peeper was comparatively much quicker in reconnecting to the web then I had been due to her talent in that area, and thus it wasn¡¯t long before I was able to talk with her again. Although I was far less talented I had been practicing for longer and thus had more mental stamina, so the amount of time that we were able to talk unassisted was for a decent amount of time and each time we spoke the next time we would be able to speak longer. Though currently I had an advantage gained through time in my mental stamina, I had a not unsupported feeling that Peeper would quickly be able to surpass me. Of course both before after and during the times that we rested from the struggle of mental communion Sister was easily able to talk to us regardless of our individual states. She could also upon request lend us her strength in order to make the conversation longer, but most of the time we refrained, as both I and Peeper agreed because of our shared experience it was better to practice without her help. We both wanted to become strong for our Big Light Sister how could we ever ¡®prepare the way¡¯ enough to convince her to hatch if she had to continually help us out with everything? The conversations the three of us shared weren¡¯t that interesting, though they seemed riveting to me at the time. They were mainly about our thoughts of what the ¡®outside world was like¡¯ and 8 times out of 10 the conversation topic would be focused around food and how good it tasted. This repetitive commentary that at the time never got old was increased to 9 out of 10, when my brothers managed to finally connect to the web, and I was satisfied to note that they took a while longer then I had to do so. Volume One Chapter 42: Color Shock Color Shock (Brother) Spoiler : So here it is...have I mentioned before that I am nocturnal? Well when I am allowed to I always end up staying up too late and then when I go to sleep it is technically the next day...and then I sleep in until the afternoon which makes it easier to stay up late which...well you get the idea... So what does this bad habit have to do with you guys? Nothing really except I keep finding myself sleeping or otherwise wasting time when I could be doing something productive like writing chapters ! :) This chapter resulted from an idea I had a few months ago...I found myself writing an arc of chapters from a new point of view...when I tried to figure out how to connect the arc I had written with what I had already had...(not sure if that is correct grammar but whatever) it eventually lead to me coming up with this...or at least the *spoiler* ending of this...which after which comes that arc I spoke of... Still not done with the art...but good things take time :) or at least thats what I hopes... Not much longer after my brothers connected, then the rest of our company of former unhatched started to do so as well. The first were shall we say were Peeper¡¯s friends, the other seers and ones that were quite talented in psychic and mental magic abilities, a while after them one by one the rest also managed the feat. Happily my ¡®inner circle¡¯ of friends Little Light, Blinker, Shout, Hide, and Pain were among those who had been on the quicker side of things and so before I could even begin to really miss them I was able to talk to them again. It didn¡¯t matter that they were in a different room from myself and my siblings, for with the aid of the mental net they felt close to me, still. A while after we had all hatched and accustomed ourselves to moving around in our bodies, the servant dragons brought in some glowing rocks that though at first hurt my guys from their brightness I quickly got used to them, more importantly the rocks gave just enough light that my night vision switched off and I was able to see in color. At first I was so discombobulated and puzzled by the new change that I couldn¡¯t figure out what was different, but with a smirk Sister gave me an obvious hint when she sent over to me a picture familiar to me from one of her many lessons that of a rainbow. After that it was similar to the time that I experienced when I was first able to see all over again, I couldn¡¯t stop staring at everything. The walls of the hatching cave we were in was a smooth light grey, the sand we sat, stood or crawled on was a cool white and the glow stones that enabled all of this vision candy to happen were dull and dim yellow, but to me still nice to gaze upon. However what attracted my attention the most was neither the cave surroundings nor the glowing stones but the other dragons. With the addition of color even the servant dragons that had begun to fade into the background became riveting. Most of them were entirely brown and a few of them were green but no matter the color to me they became quite a sight to see. However I was soon completely distracted from the servant dragons when out of curiosity I glanced in the direction of my siblings and was stunned. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Peeper had a bright colorful I guess you might call it an electric pink hide and her diamond shaped forehead gem was a fiery orange gold. Door and Hinge on the other hand were a mix of blue and yellow green, only Door was a bit bluer and Hinge more green, the square shaped stones on their heads were both silver. I am not sure I can describe how but my siblings completely outshone anything I had seen yet. Their colors were not just different in type but also in vibrancy. Some of the servant¡¯s scales seemed a bit dull but all of my siblings almost seemed to glow themselves. The fact that they were much smaller than the servants rather than diminish their beauty rather showcased it and to mine eyes they became the focus point out of the entire scene no matter who I was looking at. I myself curious to know what I appeared like to others requested an image from Peeper, like them I am not ashamed to say I was beautiful. I was one of the largest of our group Door and Hinge being only a little smaller, and Peeper much smaller. My main coloration was a dark deep blue, and my forehead gem was black, like Peeper it was diamond shape however the ¡®cut¡¯ of the gem as it were was curved instead of straight like hers. Don¡¯t get me wrong here, while I was indeed quite pleased with my appearance that was it. I have not and don¡¯t think I will ever be a vain dragon. While hubris was and continues to be a threat, obsession with self-beauty was luckily not one of my many faults. My thinking is basically this, while in a few cases it can be quite useful, to me power skill and the confidence to use them is far more valuable. Also in many ways your own beauty isn¡¯t something you can really change so why bother caring about it? I am sure of course I would think differently if I wasn¡¯t beautiful or handsome as many other males call it, but I was I was lovely enough to satisfy my own great pride and then some and I am not bragging. In fact as I will soon tell you about in the future I think I got even better with time. However, no matter how stunning and fascinating experiencing color for the first time as well realizing my own beauty was, I only consider it a minor moment in my lifetime. This is because what I think to be one of the most surprising and important events of my life to happen even now occurred only a short time after this incident surrounding color, happening just as all of us had started to settle and become almost completely accustomed to this new life on the outside. We had just finished eating a meal as per usual and had been calmly chatting, as you would expect about today¡¯s meat when suddenly and strangely one of the servant dragons entered and made a few gestures with their front feet, and they all in unison left the room. Then a few moments later after a warning from Sister another dragon entered. She was much larger than any of the servant dragons that I had seen before, her hide was a stunning purple far more vibrant then any I had seen her round forehead gem was a black so dark that it almost seemed to shine, and when she spoke her voice was like divine music which made the occasional baby talk or lullabies heard from the servants seem like grating ear pain in comparison, I held my breath in shock. ¡°It is as she told you, I am your mother Terabethia, and my heart is most gladdened to meet you all at last.¡± The Dragon Queen said. Volume One Chapter 43: Terabethias Tale Part 1 Spoiler : Have been forgetting to post chapters mainly because have just started school again but will post chapters and probably apology/explanation (excuse) soon Terabethia''s Tale Part 1: The Terabethia Flower (Terabethia Riverstone, Queen of the Riverstone Queendom of Gem Dragons) The thing I remember most clearly from all the things my dear mother said when she was alive was: ¡°Life is always worth living.¡± Quite simple yes? But these seemingly simple words held a great deal of power at least to me. After all they are probably the only reason I survived back then. In the past, my mother would say these words to me often. So often in fact, that at times I got tired of hearing them to the point of feeling ill. Though I said that it¡¯s funny that now whenever I have the opportunity to hear those words from someone else or even an expression that merely sounds similar or contains a near meaning, I am filled with nostalgia and a joy so fierce in its intensity that I can barely stop myself from grabbing whomever spoke and demand that they repeated again and again for me, so that I can be filled with the deep and strong sense of satisfaction, that is sadly despairingly brief. For the only one who could possibly say them in such a way that I would be satisfied for longer is now dead, and though the words said by others indeed gives some consolation it pales utterly to any one of many of the dim fading memories I have of the person in question saying to me with her usual pure and steely conviction. ¡°Life is always worth living.¡± I repeat them to myself whenever I am alone, and lonely or occasionally when I once again hit one of my life¡¯s inescapable moments of despair where I hit a rock bottom so deep and dark that my beloved words become empty and I start to want to refute them. But then I continue to repeat them to myself. ¡°Life is always worth living.¡± Over and over I chant them, like some spell or enchantment and though technically the words are not magical eventually they always work like a charm, and I start to believe in them again and more importantly believe in myself again and thus am able to climb back out of my dark hole and continue onwards. Yes they are definitely not magical but it is my opinion that ¡®magic¡¯ as most who consider themselves mages think of it is not the only power and is not the only ¡®magic¡¯, and I know in my heart that my mother knew this, and it must have been why she had said them to me so much. She wanted to pass them down as probably what she considered her most important legacy, though sadly I can¡¯t know for certain as being a private, and mysterious kind of person I don¡¯t think I ever knew her well, and because during the time I knew her I was dwelling in the self-centered narrow vision land of childhood and adolescence I didn¡¯t even often have the desire to ask. So the main and most important thing I know about her can be found in just these words. ¡°Life is always worth living.¡± And keep in mind that these words were not just good advice and hidden legacy to me her beloved and only remaining daughter but also I believe her catch phrase, her motto and her lifelong decree rolled up into one. So it came as no surprise to me that they were also the last things she said. ¡°Life is always worth living.¡± Was what she usually said to me when I came home back to the den we shared, miserable, ashamed and lonesome because my peers looked down on me for many reasons but most painfully for not just having a ¡®low¡¯ hierarchy mother but having an insane ¡®low¡¯ hierarchy mother, who had given to her solely surviving child such an extravagantly ostentatious name as ¡®Terabithia¡¯. Insane for obviously the clumsy daughter of two low hierarchies, must obviously be a low hierarchy themselves. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Terabithia is, in case you do not know of it, a small quietly and ordinarily pretty little pale purple colored flower, with greenish blue leaves and stem. At least that is what it looks like in the day time, but at night the flower glows just like a small miniature purple star floating close to the ground, or occasionally dangling from a dead tree or clinging to a cliff. It was an averagely pretty flower that you might pass without a second thought in the daytime, and at night it would for a short time become something worth admiring, but only until you looked at it long enough that it was no longer a novelty and then it became part of the barely remembered or noticed background, quickly seen and quickly forgotten. Especially as in this world of magic and magical plants it was far from being the only one that was purple and glowed in the dark. Despite its enchanting quirks, if it were just that ¡°Terabithia¡± might have even then be slightly suitable for a name for one such as me. As after all, low tier or not, I was definitely still a gem dragon. Yes, the terabithia bloom might had been suitable, if it had just a charming appearance as its main and only quality. But this by fate wasn¡¯t the case, for a terabithia was an extraordinarily famous and somewhat rare plant, and the reasons behind this was definitely because of a small a thing as beauty. As indicated from its glowing at night, terabithia was a magic plant. However it was a magic plant with thousands maybe even countless of different uses and utilizations with more being discovered all the time even now in modern times, but to name a few: Its sap is currently most commonly used in healing potions that are strong enough that they usually can immediately maybe even instantly and completely heal a deep wound on any creature most importantly even a gem dragon. Even to the point that the notoriously hard to grow scales, grow back astoundingly quickly even on a dangerously injured dragon with sadly few of them left. Its petals can be brewed into a tea which instantly restores and fills up the mana stores of those who drink it even if one has a dragon sized storage. Its pollen can be used to polish delicate magical items without damaging them and usually even improving them, and also uniquely has the trait of gently awaking one to magic even if shockingly the one it is used on was a decidedly non-magical creature to begin with. Its stem and leaves both have many uses but coincidently the most famous ones are ones which we gem dragons don¡¯t actually need to use ourselves but because of its great effect can be sold to other races for high price, or a great trade. Notably the leaves can be made into an ink which greatly enhances the power and success percent rate of inscriptions and certain kinds of enchantments. The stem I am told makes quite the excellent material for a wand or staff, and though it of course nowhere near compares to the power of a dragon gem for control and enhancement of spell casting, it does currently reign as the ruler of the plant category in this regard. The roots¡­well they are practical and useful to the point of being sometimes irreplaceable in certain circumstances for they work quite well when it comes to sealing magic power¡­magic power such as ley lines that have gotten wild and out of control, dungeons and other power spots starting to overflow. And on a more personal note, if used intelligently and with the right plan one can even use it to bind ones enemies from using magic, even if ones enemies have a dragon sized mana pool or even larger. In conclusion though not that much to look at in the day time, the terabithia flower plant was worth many times its weight in gold (or whatever equivalent valuable currency you happened to be using). Just imagine for me that you are the sort of person who cares about ones place in the hierarchy, and looks down on those who are below you in it. Now then suddenly a lowly person names their child such a name with glorious undertones and you might be able to understand why my mother was considered insane. Volume One Chapter 44: Terabethias Tale Part 2 Terabethia''s Tale Part 2: Suitable? (Terabethia''s Riverstone) My mother¡¯s color had been the dull brown slightly purplish color commonly found on wet river stones before they dried. From what I can remember my father had also looked ordinary stone-ish, actually he had been of even lower hierarchy then my mother and while he had a side job as an amateur rock carver and she as a little known healer, they both had made their living like most low hierarchy¡¯s of our clan back then, in the back breaking work of mining rocks form canyon sides and chopping down trees for firewood for the blacksmiths. Neither of them fighters, neither of them contributing anything of great value to the clan, or ¡®kingdom¡¯ as it was back then. More important than contribution was the fact that both were one of many war refugees who had only recently joined the clan, and thus they both lacked connections or ¡®inns¡¯ of any kind. The only light they could be seen under was their own and what a dim light it was. And then these two obviously unimpressive people had a daughter whose color was only slightly less dull then them only if you looked at her in the best of circumstances and lighting, and they were so excited by this unexciting hatchling that they decided to name her after a mythical and extremely valuable flower? If not insane just how outrageously presumptuous was that? Or at least that is what, in that past, I have heard many others say within my hearing range, and this was the least insulting and kindest of what had been said. And this only got worse when my father died for then she was looked on not just as someone insane, but someone who was insane and also pitiable/wretched depending on your kindness level. My mother when I confronted her about the inappropriateness of my name in those days always denied and even rejected this obvious truth and said instead, that my name wasn¡¯t inappropriate in fact it was completely appropriate. Yes, my mother said she named me Terabithia because she felt it was the name that suited me the most, no one outside of our small family of three, later two, knew this, but my mother had a small touch of sight. Though she never claimed to outright see the future she often knew many things. Inexplicable things that even the most ¡®superior¡¯ and knowledgeable brighter colors and higher hierarchies didn¡¯t. Big things like, what choice would get the best result, or the times when danger was near or coming closer. And small convenient things, like when and where a hunter-butcher union has too good of a harvest so their goods were on sale, or the location and knowledge of when certain kinds of rare herbs were about to reach their peak and best time to be harvested. Which is how, I think, despite the deaths of my siblings before my hatching, and my father not long after, as well as great deal of unknown family members besides we had always been able to somehow survive, far longer than even skilled, talented, or ¡®lucky¡¯ dragons had been able to. She said she first thought of the name, when we first met immediately after my hatching, (a privilege gained from her occasional work in the hatchery, most low hierarchies at that time could only see their children after they started to gain the ability to reason and after all the nobles(those dwelling in the second to highest hierarchy level) had gone through and checked if there were any hatchlings with talents obvious enough to urge them to adopt them) after she confirmed our blood relation and right to name me through a small gem dragon magic that all adults are taught how to do, and after she had admired my ¡®gem¡¯. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. All gem dragons as you may already know possess a single large gem on their foreheads, and there is an old folktale that says that the color and brilliancy of the gem, has much to do with the personality and future power level of the dragon in question. There seems to be some truth to the story, for most famous gem dragons in our history are often accompanied by mentions of how beautiful their gems and scales were. However in my opinion, there have been also far too many examples of dragons with that were ¡®ugly¡¯ at least by gem dragon standards, who easily managed to move quite high in the hierarchy as well as became famous for their strength and or talents, as well as their contemporaries who were nothing but pretty faces, to be able to say that gems were an absolute indicator of a gem dragon¡¯s future. This obvious truth didn¡¯t stop many, particularly colorful high hierarchy nobles, and bright skilled dragons from using it as an excuse to flaunt their superiority and continue to perpetuate the myth into becoming undying. I am not sure which belief my mother truly held but it doesn¡¯t matter if she thought that color usually indicated greatness or not for the result would be the same. For he said that when she saw my dark purple gem that almost seemed to be glowing with its vibrancy, she had a feeling that I would be one of those, whose gem was an indicator that held true. I thought sarcastically at the time that it was lucky for us, that there mysteriously seemed to be no colorful gem offspring lacking nobles around at the time, or at least ones who were willing to take a chance on an otherwise ugly colored hatchling. Or perhaps it wasn¡¯t luck at all for my mother had hidden depths that I didn¡¯t even really know about until at the very end, and she could have possibly had done some unmentioned thing that prevented the nobles from seeing my gem or picking me. But the me of that time, only thought my mother was being ridiculous and plucking reasons out of the air and the final straw which confirmed my mother¡¯s stupidity to me was when she confirmed that the reason why she named me thus was because she felt that I was indeed special. She told me at that time she had also had a small flash of sight before she had seen my gem, and felt from it that I would be someone whose true worth was hidden, but still would shine at the worst and darkest of times, and solve many problems, just like the beloved and beautiful terabithia. And according to her this ¡®prophecy¡¯ was partially fulfilled by the color of my gem. That was the reason she gave me my name, and because my many doubts at the time, I didn¡¯t believe her or feel that I would ever really be anything important. I accepted her love for me as my mother but the rest I pushed aside and tried not to think about it. Wasn¡¯t I, as so many told me including especially those that bullied me, just an ordinary lowly low hierarchy? Someone that would never amount to anything? A distasteful creature that was not good for anything but trying to support the strong, and sadly in my unusually clumsy case was even incapable of being even the tiniest bit helpful, and not even good for being an amusement for them? Indeed, the greatly misnamed Terabithia must as they say be worthless to the point that she was better off dead. Volume One Chapter 45: Terabethias Tale Part 3 (Terabethia Riverstone) Though I think it would be hard to understand for some people, it is true that even though I had much faith in my mother when I was young I greatly doubted my own worth. No, I am ashamed to admit this, but I didn¡¯t just doubt, but rather completely believed in my own lack of worth, to the point that at times, (times usually exacerbated by constant bullying) I felt like I wished to die. My mother being perceptive, would always notice when I felt like this and would come to me, to try and comfort me as well as try to if not remove at least lessen my feelings about how my life was worthless. ¡°Life is always worth living.¡± She would say among other things, but that was usually the main topic, and the other things were usually just reasons to support why she thought that. But although sometimes I could be comforted, most of what she said, especially that line, seemed to be just useless air to me. For she wasn¡¯t experimenting what I felt, for if she did wouldn¡¯t she know that life is definitely not worth living? The main reason why I didn¡¯t become truly suicidal and actually seriously attempt to seek death, was besides not wanting to make her sad, by leaving her alone, was partly because of her other advice that occasionally accompanied her mainstay. That was: if I continued to live, it would be like a slap on the face to those who didn¡¯t like me. So when she said what I basically took to mean complicate condonation that I should live to make my enemies lives miserable. I took it this advice to heart. And used it ever more so then any other of her more commonly said advice of course including her said catchphrase of. ¡°Life is always worth living¡±. I must say, that although, I couldn¡¯t do much about the bullying, and for good reason. I was outnumbered and weaker after all, and I never gave in and submissively became a plaything of those who would abuse me, unlike most of the other low hierarchy children. Instead I would always find myself ending up struggling and fighting back no matter and despite how futile it was. I possessed a most sharp tongue and since being pinned down by at least four others I would be unable to fight back with my body, I usually fought back with my words and mind. I do not know if those hatchlings knew it, but many of the incidents in which they got in trouble with their own parents and one time with the guards as well, they were at least partly and indirectly because of me. Or at least I took certain steps to make it so the incidents were more likely to happen.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Though I don¡¯t know if they knew about that, they defiantly knew about the more obvious rest through my actions, and they couldn¡¯t stand how I would thwart their authority even thought it was only in the smallest of ways. So, unlike their other ¡®friends¡¯ and play things I think they truly did hate me, and as I hated them back, anything that made them miserable seemed like a good thing to me, and clever as I was, for all those times that I directly got my hands dirty, I was never caught. I don¡¯t know how I would have reacted if they ever faced me one on one, for they never did. But having to come to know myself a little better over the years, I think I may have fought them¡­if things had turned out only slightly different and I like to think that I¡¯d probably would have won. Perhaps they instinctively realized that, even if I did not at the time and so as to bring some actual logic into the unknown reasons as to why they had treated me and some of the other lower hierarchy¡¯s that way. For as , I only much later reflected on, if I was as weak, talentless and worthless as they insulted me to be, why did they always face me in groups only? With the narrow selfish sight of my youth, I had always assumed that the reason my mother never protected me from the bullies was because the majority of them were higher hierarchy then us with higher hierarchy parents, that were impossible for her to face. But now with the wisdom of age, and the caring tender heart bestowed by motherhood, I know that this can¡¯t possibly be the case. First and foremost, as a mother she couldn¡¯t possibly be able to just stand aside and let those hatchlings harm me if the only reason holding her back was just that she was scared of their parents. Even if I discount what I know of her and more importantly her abnormal bravery she could have bought for me private tutoring like so many lower hierarchies did rather than letting me go to partake of the free services whose location allowed the bullies to track me down. Worst came to worst she could have decided to move to a different clan or even another kingdom and we could have hitched a ride on a well-guarded supply train. So, the only answer remaining is that she didn¡¯t protect me, and purposely let me face those bullies for her own reasons. Or according to my more likely theory is that even if she wanted to protect me she couldn¡¯t. How couldn¡¯t she, you ask? Well this is where her ¡®sight¡¯ again comes into play. Maybe she saw the future, or at least a version of the future, that was more likely to be avoided if she did as she had done. Or perhaps it wasn¡¯t something as strong as a vision and she just felt that she shouldn¡¯t do anything. But either or any way, because of what she did or rather what she didn¡¯t do, growing up was an experience that I continue to carry to this day. The wisdom I gained from that suffering, is always guiding my decisions, and it is the reason I am who I am. By the time I had deduced this knowledge, any anger that may have appeared had already dulled to the point that I could only remember my bullies with nostalgic fondness and amusement. And for my mother, I only felt what I had always felt, a warm glowing feeling of love and awe. For no one, still living knew my mother as well as I did, and even I did not know her well enough that I could be anything but filled with admiration at the person she was. And even when later some of her mystery faded because of me being able to relate and empathize because of what I had experienced, neither did the love nor the awe ever do so. RCF: Taking a Hiatus It wasn''t planned but I think now that it has gotten to this point I might as well admit it: I am (and have been) taking a hiatus...I feel kind of disappointed in myself but things kept popping up one after the other, and then it became final exam week(s)...and studying took priority. Anyway I have set for myself as a deadline my birthday which is December 17. Hopefully I can take enough time in-between studies to write all the chapters that I should have written a long time ago...Originally I was just going to continue to lie to myself and pretend like nothing happened when I started posting chapters again...but then a little voice whispered that isn''t being very fair to the readers is it? And while I don''t really care what the readers think, I also at the same time really care about what the readers think, so I decided to just confess to you guys the truth before things got any more ridiculous. My apologies now, for the past, and sadly probably in advance. Hopefully I will come back on the 17th with lots of new chapters, maybe something extra, and at minimum an explanation of what has been going on with me lately (the past few months).The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. As a mostly unrelated side note, I have been slowly starting to move a copy of my fictions to Novel Updates Forums, starting with my ¡®newest¡¯ story RMHS (3 chapters out of the 7 total have been moved so far, so I¡¯m like almost halfway done for that novel) and ending with my oldest RCF, and while I have been doing that I have found myself taking the time to edit and polish the chapter a little bit, so essentially currently the ¡®newest¡¯ version is on NUF, I will probably also update my RoyalRoadl version after I have finished editing and posting the ones on NUF, but before then, if you are interested you can always check out the ¡®new¡¯ version on NUF. update: So because of the weather I am heading home later then planned and will have no internet access so the chapters will probably be late... Hiatus Update There was an unfortunate incident that happened a while ago and led to me having to prolong the hiatus...sorryStolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Because of that I don¡¯t know when I will get the new chapters rewritten and posted and so I can¡¯t give an end date yet but hopefully it is soon