The morning light filtered through the cave entrance in pale golden shafts that caught on floating dust motes and made them glow. Barjuchne woke slowly, her body still adjusting to the previous day's exertions. It seemed she had awoken later than the others today, given that she was left alone on her pile of gold. Veliah had covered her again with the quilt during the night, it seemed.
She stretched, her claws flexing against the stone floor, and opened her eyes to find a window hovering before her face.
[EVOLUTION ACQUIRED]New Form Available: Wyvern Transformation (Small)Current Form: Demi-Human DragonWarning: Transformation will significantly increase your physical size.Barjuchne stared at the notification, her heart rate increasing. Finally, a proper dragon form. Not the awkward half-human shape she currently inhabited, but a true wyvern's body. Stronger. Faster. More powerful. She had been waiting on this. It felt more fitting for a dragon queen, obviously. It had taken a few days after destroying the fairy kingdom’s castle, but it was finally unlocked. She guessed her organs had finished doing whatever it was they needed to do to prepare for this.
The dragon girl dismissed the window with a thought and rose to her feet, moving amongst her treasure piles. The gold gleamed in the morning light, each coin perfectly separated and stacked, apart from the large lump that sat on the sidelines like an unconventional statue.
Maybe it was starting to grow on her, actually. The melted gold told a story.
She would get to that in a moment, but first she had to do her morning routine. Barjuchne reached the largest pile and began counting. One hundred. Two hundred. Three hundred. The familiar rhythm soothed her nerves. Five hundred. Six hundred.
What would it feel like to transform? How much larger would she become? Would she still fit in the treasure chamber? She paused mid-count, lost the number, and had to start over. This happened three more times before she gave up with a frustrated sigh.
The evolution window reappeared, pulsing gently.
She could ignore it. Continue as she was. The demi-human form worked well enough for navigating the dungeon and interacting with her collected princesses. Going full dragon might complicate things. She’d finish her morning ritual and then go outside the cave to do it there, in the open. But her instincts sang a different song. The dragon heart in her chest was overpowering the mundane desire, born of the exact same source, to undergo her usual morning ritual.
"Fine," she muttered to the empty chamber.
She selected the evolution option in the system window.
A bomb went off.
All around the dungeon, a blaring white light blasted through the corridors from its core. Hundreds of goblins and monsters down on the deepest levels went into alarm, running around in surprise and panic from the magical aura’s light. 'Pain' was not quite the right word for what followed. Her bones stretched and reformed with sounds resembling cracking ice. Her spine extended, vertebrae multiplying, whilst her tail thickened and lengthened. Wings burst from her back with renewed vigour, the membrane spreading wider than before. Her muscles swelled, her claws grew, and her entire body expanded outward in all directions. Her arms withdrew, leaving her without secondary appendages other than her tail, legs, and wings.
The treasure chamber, which had seemed spacious moments ago, became cramped.
Very cramped.
Barjuchne's expanding form knocked over the pile she had been counting. Gold coins scattered across the floor in a cascade of clinking metal. Her tail, now easily three times its previous length, swept through two more piles before she could stop it. Her wings scraped against the ceiling, dislodging stalactites that crashed down around her.
She tried to move forward and her shoulder crashed into a support pillar. Stone cracked. Dust rained from above.
Her voice came out as a deep, resonant roar that shook the entire chamber. More treasure toppled. A chest split open, spilling its contents across the floor as if vomiting gold. The fairy princess's cage toppled over, rolling across the floor with its inhabitant letting out a distressed cry as she tumbled around inside it. "What the hell?!" yelled the imprisoned fairy princess, tumbling around her cage as it clanked against the wall, toppling dangerously close to falling into the hotsprings. "Hey! Hey! Hey!" shouted F.P. as the cage wobbled on the edge and then fell in.
The cage bobbed up and down in the springs; the fairy spluttered around inside, splashing the water. Like a rising swamp predator, a pair of yellow eyes rose out of the disturbed water. Blibli, the slime princess, stared. "Swimming friends!" she yelled happily and wrapped herself around the cage.
"No! Let go, don't—" started F.P. before the two of them vanished beneath the surface.
Barjuchne looked at them, watching the bubbles in the water for a moment, wondering if there was a need for concern or not.
A new window appeared.
[EVOLUTION COMPLETE]Current Form: Young WyvernCapabilities: In this form, you can fly for longer and at much greater speeds. Your much larger gaseous nodules inside your expanded lungs allow much more powerful breath attacks. In addition, your skeletal frame and especially your skull have enlarged and hardened significantly.Note: While in the battle-capable Wyvern form, you are incapable of using dungeon magic inherent to your standard Drakinoid form in exchange for massive increases in raw power.
Carefully choose your desired evolution according to your plans.
[EVOLUTION ACQUIRED]Objective Complete: Reach your second transformation stage, evolving into a fully non-hominid dragon type. ✓Ability Unlocked: [Meteoric Speed]
Your sizeable wingspan allows you to achieve extremely high aerial speeds; combined with your robust skeletal frame and stature, you can violently crash into surfaces midflight to create a catastrophic impact at no harm to your own well-being.
Barjuchne tried to turn around to examine herself and her tail smashed through another support pillar. The ceiling groaned ominously. She froze, her new body filling nearly the entire treasure chamber, her wings pressed against the walls.
This was a problem.
She’d better change back before she hurt somebody.
A window appeared as she tried to change back.
Transformation LockedGiven the hard magical nature of a significant evolution transformation on your body, you are only able to change forms once every {08} hours.Woops.
She needed to get out of the chamber before she brought the entire ceiling down on her hoard. Moving carefully, placing each massive claw with deliberation, she began inching towards the corridor entrance. Her shoulder scraped against the wall, gouging deep furrows in the stone. Her tail knocked over three braziers, sending burning coals scattering across the floor. The entrance that had seemed perfectly adequate, even grand, for her demi-human form now looked impossibly small. She was significantly larger by a full order of magnitude.
The massive dragon squeezed through anyway, stone grinding against her obsidian scales that didn’t budge an inch. They were so hard and sharp that they actually cut grooves into the stonework where she moved.
The corridor beyond was worse. Built for goblins and human-sized occupants, it forced her to crouch low, her wings folded tight against her body. She moved forward and immediately knocked her head against a hanging lantern. The metal shrieked, then tore free from its mounting and clattered to the floor. Fire spread in all directions past her feet as the fatty oil spread and burnt, not hurting her in the least but offering quite the dramatic display as she emerged from the depths.
From somewhere ahead, she heard voices. Goblin voices, speaking in their native tongue.
The goblin who had stolen Barjuchne’s coin months ago and begun all of this stood there in the group. While at first he had felt like quite the fool after those days, he had readily made the best of the situation.
“If you think about it, I am the one who brought us to the Dragon Queen,” he explained, his arms crossed and his expression proud. The others exchange glances. “This makes me the greatest of the tribe." He smiled a toothy goblin smile. "In fact, I am even greater than the dragon herself, as I brought her to our service,” he says, unaware of the massive shadow behind them rising from the depths.
Barjuchne tried to call out to reassure them that everything was fine as a few goblins sighted her from the midst of their conversation. What emerged was a thunderous, violent roar that echoed through the dungeon with world-shaking force.
The voices cut off mid-sentence.
They looked up at the massive dragon squeezing through the corridor, saw the glowing eyes and smoke rising from her nostrils, and reached the only logical conclusion.
They had angered the dragon queen.
"Mercy!" one of the goblins shouted, throwing himself prostrate on the ground. "I meant no offence, Great Queen! My life is yours!" he pleaded.
“Run!” yelled one of them. “Save yourselves from her wrath!” he shouts, scrambling.
The others followed suit immediately, scurrying as fast as they could from her. Mothers grabbed their children and fled towards deeper chambers. Elders pressed their faces to the floor, muttering prayers. Within seconds, the entire living area had been evacuated as they ran in terror from her, the dungeon falling into alarm.
Barjuchne stared, confused.
It was much later that night, long after she had managed to escape the dungeon’s tight confines and stretch her wings in the freedom of the outside world.
Below the mountain, the dragon clan goblins were hard at work, expanding the dungeon's tunnels to accommodate her new size.
Night fell across the mountain in shades of purple and deep blue. Stars emerged one by one, pinpricks of light against the darkening sky. Barjuchne stood at the cave entrance, her massive form silhouetted against the twilight, wings spread in preparation.
"Are you certain you wish us to accompany you, my queen?" Rou-ya asked with careful respect.
"Yes," Barjuchne replied flatly. "Get on."
Her princesses looked at each other, uncertain.
This was her way of making things right again after the mishap this afternoon. Plus, it would be fun.
Veliah got on first, grabbing onto the tip of her massive tail and then walking up its length, using the flat, spiky protrusions as grips to climb onto the dragon’s back. None of them argued and followed after the elf. They climbed onto Barjuchne's back with obvious trepidation, settling between her shoulder blades where the scales formed natural handholds. Veliah positioned herself at the front. Rou-ya sat behind her, gripping a dorsal spine with white-knuckled hands. The slime princess melted herself down into a sludge that dripped between the gaps in the scales, with only her head poking up through the openings.
“...Why is she here?” asked Veliah, looking at the fairy princess’ cage that was dangling from Barjuchne’s horn like an ornament.
“Would you rather I leave her behind unattended in our home?” asked Barjuchne.
Rou-ya opened her mouth to say something and then decided against it.
Stuck inside her dented golden cage, the fairy princess grabbed the bars, looking at the goblin. “Your people were always afraid of us. I’m glad to see that hasn’t changed,” said the fairy with a sharp-toothed grin.
“I’m not afraid of you,” replied the goblin. “My tribe still exists. Yours is gone. Our superiority is obvious.”
F.P. didn’t like that at all, judging by the sharp, agitated buzzing of her wings. The two of them glared at each other with cold, icy daggers in their eyes.
"Are you ready?" Barjuchne asked.
"Yes," responded Rou-ya, Veliah, and the slime in near unison. F.P. just sat down on the perch inside of her cage.
Barjuchne crouched low, her massive, taut muscles coiling. Then she launched herself from the mountainside with a powerful leap, her wings snapping open to catch the air with enough force to roll aside the boulders scattered below the cave’s entrance.
They dropped.
For three terrifying seconds, they simply fell whilst Barjuchne's wings struggled to find purchase in the air. Behind her, she heard sharp intakes of breath and felt her passengers clutching desperately to her scales and a unified collection of screams from various voices. She was sure one of them was from the fairy, funnily enough, given its proximity to the thin slits that were now Barjuchne’s ears.
It was hard to pretend to be brave and cool-headed when you were plummeting toward the world from a mountaintop at breakneck speed.
Then the dragon’s wings caught properly and they soared upward, climbing fast into the darkening sky.
No one spoke. No one dared for fear that their hearts would vomit out of their lips.
Barjuchne levelled out, her wings beating steadily. This was different from her previous flight attempts. Her larger body moved through the air with more power and more control. She could feel the wind resistance, the subtle shifts in air pressure, and the way her tail acted as a rudder.
After a minute of gliding, suddenly the voices came from her back. At first, they were uneven, nervous laughs at each other’s faces and then in the excited chatter of what they saw.
“We’re so high up!” said the slime princess.
“Don’t tell me that!” replied Veliah, having lost her cool. She’s pressed down tightly against Barjuchne’s back, her face smushed against the scales as she holds on for her life. The elf had apparently misjudged her ability to stay cool at such heights. Barjuchne, glancing back with her ruby eyes, could see the contrasting pale whiteness of the elf’s face to her own scales.
Rou-ya seemed less phased, having already flown with Barjuchne once before in her other form. Seeing that she has an advantage over Veliah, the goblin princess can’t seem to help herself. She smiled at the elf. “What’s wrong? This isn’t so bad,” she said entirely calmly in a sort of sideways, rivalling quip. “Are you scared, Veliah?” asked the goblin princess. “I’m not.”
“We’ll see about that,” replied the dragon for Veliah’s sake. “Hold on tight.” Barjuchne pulled her wings in, elongated her form and tightened her flying posture as she activated her new ability, Meteoric Speed.
You have activated: [Meteoric Speed]The world blurred as she shot forward like a cannonball.
One moment they were climbing steadily above the mountain. The next instant they were blasting through the sky at impossible velocity, the wind screaming past with enough force to steal breath and make even screaming impossible. Barjuchne's passengers flattened against her back, holding on with desperate strength whilst she fought to control the new ability.
Below them, the crack of a sonic boom utterly ruined a kilometre-wide stretch of forest. Trees collapsed in the hundreds, broken by the force, and a dust cloud blasted into the air. It was like a bomb had fallen beneath the crack of the dragon’s wings.
They rocketed upward, punching through a cloud bank in an explosion of moisture. Higher. Higher. The air grew thin and cold.
Finally, she regained control and levelled out at an altitude she had never reached before. Silence fell, broken only by the gentle sound of her wings beating against thin air.
From behind her came a loud, audible crying from Rou-ya and Veliah, who were holding onto each other now for life instead of bickering. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” cried the goblin, clinging to the elf as if she were her only lifeline left between the dragon’s back and free fall.
A dragon’s ways can sometimes be a little frightening. But none could doubt the effectiveness of her methods.
The slime princess, however, was having the time of her life. She was spread out, catching the wind against her body and stretching outward like a sail. Her excited cries filled the air, a cheerful contrast to the crying.
F.P., of all people, whispered. Although it was likely just meant for herself, not for anyone else. "The stars..." muttered the fairy, surprised.
Barjuchne noticed it then too: what had stolen her prisoner’s voice.
The stars hung above in impossible profusion, so numerous and bright they seemed close enough to touch. The sky was not black but deep blue, fading to purple at the horizon. Below them stretched a sea of matte clouds, their tops painted silver by starlight. The moon hung huge and perfect, its cratered surface visible in stunning detail.
Even in her terror, Barjuchne heard Veliah's breath catch in full dissipation of the fear at the sight of it. Felt Rou-ya's grip on her spine loosen slightly as wonder overcame her terror.
Barjuchne banked gently, gliding through the thin air of such heights. It was cold, very cold. But her body radiated a deep heat from inside of itself that caused the air around them to steam visibly as she flew.
She flew slowly now, letting her passengers absorb the impossible vista. She could feel Veliah leaning forward slightly, still afraid but unable to resist the wonder. Rou-ya's breathing had steadied, her terror giving way to awe.
The dragon Barjuchne stared out of the side of her eyes at the golden cage dangling from her horn, blowing in the wind of their flight. Its inhabitant, for once, looked small and vulnerable in the face of the majesty of the sight of an entire world.
Some beasts, once taken out of their element, lose their fearful auras. A lion is hardly frightening when stuck in the middle of the ocean.
They stayed aloft for perhaps twenty minutes, sailing through air so high and thin that each breath came with effort. No one asked to descend. This moment, this perfect crystalline moment above the world, was too precious to end.
Finally, Barjuchne began a gentle descent. They dropped through the cloud layer, emerging into the darker air below, where the world became real again.
And that was when she saw them.
Scattered across the landscape in every direction, campfires dotted the darkness. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. They formed rough circles and lines, converging on her mountain from north, south, east and west from far across the land. Torches moved in organised formations along the roads. Larger fires marked what could only be command camps.
"Barjuchne," Veliah said.
"I see them."
"That's... that's a lot of people," Rou-ya whispered, her eyes scanning past the camps and toward the cities and towns.
She wasn’t so much talking about the movement of a sea of bodies and more so about the sight of the world of the ‘big peoples’ as her tribe called them. She didn’t seem to really understand the full nature of societal dominance over the world as a whole from her previous perspective as princess of the mountain goblin tribe.
People were everywhere.
Towers were on mountains, cities in ravines, boats moved along rivers and even the distant sea shone with the lights of movement out on the black waters. The wilderness of this world had been fully conquered by humanity and its ilk.
“I never knew…” she muttered.
"At least seven distinct groups," Veliah observed, focusing instead on the problem at hand, her analytical mind working despite her fear. "Different formations. Different approach patterns. They're not coordinated. Barjuchne. These are multiple factions all arriving simultaneously. This is bad."
F.P. said nothing. But Barjuchne could see her situate herself more comfortably in her cage, exchanging a knowing look toward the dragon. Barjuchne ignored that silent gaze and circled higher, her new eyes counting the approaching forces. Adventurer companies with their scattered campfires. Church expeditions marching in disciplined columns. Noble armies with their orderly camps and supply trains. Magical academy groups are identifiable by the strange lights hovering over their positions.
They were coming from everywhere.
The peaceful romance of the personal moment they had shared shattered completely. Barjuchne turned back towards her mountain, towards her dungeon.
They’d never been attacked like this before. This wasn’t just a troop of soldiers and a few knights. These were legions, armies. It seemed that word of a dragon’s presence had gotten out and the real siege of her dungeon core was about to begin.
She landed at the cave entrance with more care than she had shown all day, settling onto the stone with barely a sound despite her massive size. Her passengers dismounted quickly, bowing respectfully before retreating to safe distances.
“I’m heading down to Jaesowen,” said Veliah. “I’ll collect as many swords and tools as I can from their stores,” said the elf, quickly making her way down the mountain path. She reached down, picking up a partially cold-crystalised Blibli and taking her with her.
Rou-ya headed inward toward the dungeon’s obsidian gate. “The dragon clan will be prepared, Dragon Queen,” said the goblin princess before running in and sounding the alarm.
Barjuchne watched them go.
“And?” asked a sharp voice from next to her ear. “What do you think?” asked F.P., carefully examining her nails. The dragon slowly turned her eyes, looking out of the side toward the source of the noise. “I can give you something to help with this,” said the fairy, looking at the dragon. “Your other ‘princesses’ are cute, but, you know, useless,” she said. “Some goblins? Really?” she asked. “A slime? An elf of common blood?”
The fairy stood up, reaching the bars of the cage as she stood as close to Barjuchne’s massive eye as was possible. "Those aren't going to save you from the armies of nations."
“Mind your tongue when you speak about what is mine, or I might just decide to chain your cage underwater instead,” warned the dragon, looking at the fairy inside the dangling cage.
F.P. didn't seem phased. “You need power beyond what you have now,” said the fairy, half of her smile hidden below the long, flat bang of dark-blue hair that obscured half of her face. “Even in this transformed state, how many people can you realistically fend off?” she asked, pressing her face to the bars. “A hundred? A thousand?” The fairy tilts her head, looking at Barjuchne’s eye that scans the darkness, looking for answers. “What will you do when ten thousand come?”
“Quiet,” said Barjuchne.
The fairy didn’t stop. “When a kingdom falls, it’s plundered,” she warns. “Those invaders? They’ll bash in your doors, they’ll kill your little goblin pets, and they’ll drag your ‘princesses’ out by the hair past your harvested corpse,” said the fairy. “Humans are beasts. They’ll destroy it all,” she said. “You haven’t done anything but exist, and they’ll make you pay for it in blood. That’s what they’re like.”
“I said be quiet,” growled the dragon. “Let me think.”
“My kingdom is dead because of them. I know these things. But my power is real. My magic is real, and I can give some of it to you,” promised the fairy with a wicked grin.
“I will not help you restore your kingdom,” said Barjuchne. “Understand that, you little demon.”
“You big, dumb animal.” F.P. reached out of the cage with a small arm, touching the side of Barjuchne’s scaled face. “Then let me rule in yours,” she countered. The cruel fairy princess looked at her. “In exchange for a seat of power in your dominion, I will give my bloodline to you in marriage. The crown of the fairies.” The two of them held their gazes. “I will give you my magic, my guidance. I’ll give you the doors to the fairy kingdom and all of its secret ways and passages.”
“I’m not making a kingdom. I’m content with my cave,” replied the dragon.
F.P. narrowed her eyes like a predator having seen a mouse. “You can deny it. But your heart is like mine,” said the fairy without faltering in the least as she spoke to the dragon a thousand times her own size. “You are going to want a little more gold, a few more pretty princesses to tear apart than you had before, and a little more territory to stretch your wings out in. But it’ll never be enough to last. Sooner or later, your blood will start boiling, your heart will start aching, and you’ll wake up knowing that you need to take just a little more again today so you can feel content again for a while," promised F.P. "You can’t escape that cycle repeating itself forever. It’s in your blood.” Her fingers clenched the bars of the cage. “Like it is in mine.”
“The makeup of my blood does not influence the content of my heart,” replied Barjuchne, turning her head to look down over the valleys below the mountain.
“But it does poison it. Drip by drip by drip. I know what you are. I know what you were before, reincarnator,” said the fairy princess with a sharp tongue.
Barjuchne immediately and quickly studied the fairy. She was the first person to ever speak of such a thing to her in this world.
“There were so many others like you, and all of them began to lose what they were in their old selves with enough time," explained the fairy, tilting her head. Her crazed eyes never blinked as they stared, manic and wide. "Sometimes it took weeks; sometimes it took months, but all the other dragons who made it past their first few days became beasts before their end.” Her azure, fairy eyes widened. “The only difference between us, you and I, is that I accept my birthright. I need it,” the fairy explained, pressing her body against the bars, the flesh of her legs and torso pressing against the warm metal. “I am a beast above others. I wake up every day and I yearn for the sensations of power over what is mine without remorse, as if it were my desperate lover,” said the fairy princess, her gesticulations and writhing matching her words and tone.
Barjuchne thinks it is fair to assume the fairy certainly had some lingering issues.
But F.P. was right.
— At least in some regards.
It would be foolish to think she herself could defend her mountain alone with a few goblins and slimes against this many invaders, even with her new transformation.
She had a bargain to make, but she was still not powerless enough to need to accept all of its terms and conditions.
"Do you know why the humans began hunting the dragons into extinction two hundred years ago?" asked the fairy princess. "It's because of that one dragon, those centuries ago. It wasn't just content with taking princesses for its collection anymore after it got its first dozen." F.P. almost squeezed her face between the bars. The metal pulled her features taut, making her look like a feral animal. "It needed more. It always needed more." Her wings buzzed excitedly. "First it took from them. Then it took them, and then, when its endless hunger screamed that it needed more than they could provide with their bodies, it ate them. That's about when the humans stopped thinking it was funny."
"I'm not going to eat the ones I love, you maniac. That does exclude you, however," warned the dragon.
F.P. put on a playful pout, holding a hand over her heart as if it were hurt.
Barjuchne smouldered, her eyes narrow as she looked back over the horizon toward the light. "But I will, ungladly, accept your help in a strictly limited capacity,” replied the dragon after a moment’s longer contemplation. “I will allow you to help defend what is mine,” Barjuchne proclaimed, her pupil narrowing into a perceptive slit. “If I find your efforts serviceable, I will allow you to linger and share in the same quality of life as my other princesses do,” she promises. “But if I even smell that you are a threat…” growled Barjuchne, the tonal vibrations of her long throat shaking the mountainside.
The fairy princess grinned wickedly. Manipulated by the dungeon's magic, the cage swung open and she stepped out onto its precipice, her wings buzzing as she took flight. “You will find that I am very serviceable,” replied the fairy princess.
A moment later, F.P. floated over. “What’s mine is yours,” she promised. The fairy leaned in, bracing her hands against the black scales and planted a kiss on the side of the dragon’s massive maw.
A wave of magical energy pulsates out from the bonding spot, the fairy’s magic entering in through the gaps and openings beneath the dragon’s scales, flowing deeply into her heart as the fairy princess poured herself into Barjuchne.
[QUEST COMPLETE]Objectives Achieved:
• Reach your second transformation stage, evolving into a fully non-hominid dragon type. ✓
• Collect 4 new unique [Princess]-class brides. ✓
• Destroy a castle. ✓
Reward: [External Overflow]
Because of the power gathered through your collection of gold and the inherent magical power of your princesses, your dungeon’s draconic magic has grown significantly. Variations of several new monster types will now passively spawn in the immediate regions outside of your dungeon, within your territory, in order to defend it and serve your cause.
[Lizardman] [Fire Elemental] [Draconic Whelps]
A massive spew of lava burst out of the obsidian gate that guards the dungeon’s entrance, now constantly running down the side of the mountain like flaming drool from a beast’s hungry maw.
Barjuchne watched from above as it ran down the mountainside, large swathes of the forest transforming into scorched lands.
[MONSTER]LIZARDMANA bipedal reptilian creature standing roughly at human height, covered in coarse, overlapping scales that range in colour from dull brown to deep forest green.
Lizardmen are territorial by nature and highly aggressive toward anything that enters the bounds of the dragon's domain. They move with a low, prowling gait. While possessing clawed hands capable of gripping weapons, many fight with their natural armaments alone.
By instinct, they are drawn toward draconic magical auras; they gather and hold ground in such places without being commanded to do so.
While not intelligent in any meaningful social sense, they are coordinated enough to act in loose groups. Lizardmen pose a credible threat.
Rank: C+[MONSTER]DRACONIC WHELPSA small, territorial creature spawned from the passive overflow of a dragon's accumulated magical aura.
While not of a dragon’s actual brood, they resemble a miniature dragon, covered in rough scales ranging from deep charcoal to dull amber in colour. Four-limbed with a short, whip-like tail and vestigial wing membranes not yet capable of sustained flight, instead it moves in quick, jerking bursts on all fours. Draconic whelps hunt in loose packs and communicate through high-pitched clicking sounds and posturing.
They are highly aggressive toward anything that enters their territory without the scent mark of their parent dragon.
If angered, can breathe a weak but painful gout of flame, more useful for harassment than destruction.
Fiercely loyal to the dragon whose magic produced them, though this loyalty is instinctive rather than reasoned. Will die defending territory without hesitation or apparent self-preservation instinct.
Rank: B-[MONSTER]FIRE ELEMENTALA fire elemental is a creature of living flame, born from concentrations of draconic magic that have saturated the surrounding stone and soil.
It takes no fixed shape, shifting constantly between a vaguely upright column of fire and a low, spreading sheet of heat that rolls across the ground. Its core burns white at the centre and bleeds outward into deep orange at its edges. It leaves scorched stone wherever it passes and produces no smoke, only a dry, intense heat that can be felt several metres before the creature itself comes into view. It does not speak and shows no evidence of complex thought. It moves toward sources of cold and moisture with single-minded persistence, consuming them.
It is drawn instinctively to the boundaries of draconic territory and patrols them without instruction, destroying anything that crosses inward without permission.
It cannot be harmed by conventional weapons, as blades pass through its body without resistance. Sustained water or ice magic will disperse it temporarily, though it will reconstitute near a heat source within the territory given enough time.
Overloading its elemental core with a magical influx is the only reliable way to destroy an elemental.
Rank: A-F.P. wanted to fly away but didn't make it further than a few feet. She stopped in mid-air, as if pulled taut. Confused, the fairy looked down, grasping at herself. She might now be free from her cage. But a golden collar was bound around her neck, a small chain of the same metal leashing her to the dragon.
"What- What is the meaning of this?" asked the fairy, pulling on it to no avail.
"I told you," said Barjuchne. "Your help is only accepted in a strictly limited capacity," she explained coldly. The dragon transformed back down into her usual demi-human state and rolled her shoulders. Barjuchne grabbed the chain in her hand and pulled it in, abruptly yanking the fairy in and then grabbing her, holding closer toward her sharp-grinned face. She squeezed her palm, the wicked fairy letting out a strained gasp at the pressure crushing her. "So, how about we rephrase this little situation?" Barjuchne suggested. "This was my deal, and you have accepted it. But I haven't yet mentioned my conditions before your full agreement to this pact."
Barjuchne held F.P. close, opening her mouth and biting down right in front of her captive with her razor-sharp teeth as a clear threat. "I have taken you in to spare the world your evil and for this saintly mercy, I expect a little gratitude," warned the dragon. "My terms of the deal. You are mine," said the dragon. "Your magic is mine. Your powers are mine. All three to do with as I please", stated Barjuchne clearly. "You will do what I say. You will always act in my interests. And you will suffer at the pettiest of my whims and those of my favourites as we set you to toil to begin making your amends to the world."
"- You- You tricked me," choked the fairy, grasping at the golden collar.
Barjuchne shook her head. "I did no such thing. This was simply your mistake for thinking you could reason with a wild animal," replied the dragon coyly, turning the cruel fairy's words back at her as she squeezed her palm just a little tighter.
"Okay, wait-wait-wait!" said the fairy. "I'm sorry!" Barjuchne lessened the pressure, loosening her hand.
"Pardon?"
"I'm sorry, okay?!" pleaded the evil fairy. "I won't cause any trouble," she pleaded. "I'll do what you say."
Barjuchne stared at her and then, just like that, loosened her grip. She smiled. "Good girl," praised the dragon in a sudden change of tone, putting a kiss on the top of the fairy's crown. She let her go, F.P. falling down to the ground, gasping for air with wet eyes. F.P. sat on the ground, catching her breath. She sat there for a moment, recovering. But then, a moment later she yelped, the golden leash pulling her away after the striding-away dragon.
[NEW QUEST]Objective: You have entered into the middling stages of your transformation into a dragon. Your realm is secure. Your power is certain. Your next goal is to undertake measures to make sure it stays as such.
Your next goals:
Defeat a [Hero]-class entity who will come to steal your princesses.
With the help of your princesses, produce at least one egg for your brood.
Conquer 10 cities.
Time Limit: You have ninety days to complete these tasks.Failure Penalty: Failure to do so will cause you to stagnate where you are forever, leading to a severe midlife crisis roughly thirty years from now that will cause you to deeply stagnate and spend the rest of your life reminiscing about your early peak.Wait.
…What was that second objective?