At first I just followed Redline through the mansion as she went about her normal routine of what looked like a workout, but spanning the entirety of the property: She did some laps around the mansion for a good hour, and then she went inside to one of the lower floors and spent another two hours lifting magically enhanced weights and testing herself against dummy targets that actually fought back. Putting them at different levels each time until she seemed to be fighting against ones that literally created blurring after-images when they moved.
I thought about joining her but ultimately decided against it just in case something horrible happened where--since she couldn't see me--she fell or stepped on me and got both of us killed. Me because I envenomed her due to my spines, horns, or even just accidentally scratching her with a claw and her father coming down upon me like the devil he looked like, and her because of...well...me.
I decided to come here again when she was sleeping and waste time seeing what I could and couldn't do in here. Hopefully it would be something I would be able to keep using in the future rather than something completely pointless due to the nature of everything's make and purpose for use.
I ended up getting bored with her routine and decided to go outside to explore...not of course I couldn't leave the property without angering her, or her father, so I just stayed within sight of the mansion. That turned out to be anywhere, so I let go of my worries for a moment and just decided to enjoy myself, and by enjoy I mean tearing up every living flower I could see, rolling down several of the hills and in several fields, and stalking the local wildlife for a while before hissing in their ear and watching them flee in terror. All for entertainment.
I lay in the field several hours later looking at the twin suns in the sky, what was I going to do now...It wasn't like I could go about testing my abilities randomly against the air, right? I shot up in realization, the reason why Redline was fighting those living dummies was probably to train her magic and skills, so why couldn't I do the same on my own...
...And I was alone in a giant field spanning for at least a half mile in every direction, other than the way to the mansion--that was around a quarter of a mile, maybe more, maybe less. I looked through my skills and resistances to decide which ones I wanted to try training first:
Skills: Flame (Lv. 1), Toxic Slash (Lv. 4), Tail Smash (Lv. 2), Bite (Lv. 2), Flight (Lv. 1), Toxic Breath (Lv. 3), Hindrance (Lv. 3), Stealth (Lv. 7), Patient Hunter (Lv. 2), Steal (Lv. 3), Tracking (Lv. 4), Paralyzing Touch (Lv. 3).
Special Skills: Void Storage (Passive/Activated), Fear Aura (Lv. 2 (Passive)), Spy (Lv. 4), Reap (Lv. 2), Soul Devour (Lv. 3).
Resistances: Toxin (Lv. 2), Hunger (Lv. 3), Physical (Lv. 2), Magic (Lv. 2), Fire (Lv. 6), Fear (Lv. 23).
So all of my Special Skills were out, as most were either passive or reliant on the inclusion of another effected party. That also struck out (Hindrance), (Steal), and (Paralyzing Touch) for the moment as if I could find some poor creature, or a group of them maybe I would be able to train them easier, but (Steal) wasn't going to be used really unless I was somewhere I could train it without being caught...I guess taking things from the mansion and hiding them for a time might help train that one a little and it would be fun...but only items that didn't seem to have much value, or maybe food since I was starting to get hungry again.
I took out a few strips of the meat from the planet I 'saw' in my (Void Storage) and devoured probably ten of them before deciding that that might not be the best of ideas if I was going to be moving around a lot or training. Than again did the negligent value I had for Stamina apply towards muscle cramping and pain too? I figured that would be an effect towards Health and not Stamina but I didn't want to push the boundaries of what I could and couldn't do.
I looked around at the giant field that I was in and at my skills again. Did I just think about using it when I attacked or something or was it just something that activated immediately upon attacking with my (also) negligent Mana stat?
...I guess the only way to know what to try it...I swiped through the air with a claw and watched to see if anything happened while doing so.
Nothing. I didn't even get a feeling that any skill had activated or anything!
I swiped and clawed at the air until I was snapped out of it upon landing on my snout, laying there in confusion for a few moments as to what just happened before looking at my skills again. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Nothing changed...It was like they were just staring at me and I could swear that the voice was laughing at me in the background of wherever it was hiding in...
I took a few moments to calm myself down before I lost my mind and destroyed more of the poor flowers that I had been terrorizing for the past few hours. The first thing I thought about was what caused my skills to level up and when. I'd been attacking something almost every time, and the ones that didn't directly involve me attacking something else were caused by when I was going after something with a purpose...
Intent! I didn't really have a purpose of doing whatever it was that I was earlier besides just clawing at the air and throwing a fit miserably when nothing worked...Now I really wondered how dragons taught their young? Was it the common let them fight it out and then throw them off a cliff when they're old enough to fly kind of thing or did they actually feed them for a good while throughout their lives and then get them to go out and fight things themselves to learn hunting and other skills?
...wasn't like I was going to know that anyways. I didn't seem to have a parent when I hatched so what was there to say that I still had a parent figure left? The feeling that left me was like a hole gouging itself into my heart and I could see the Condition status change to Saddened/Homesick.
Stupid system.
Alright! I got back to my feet again and looked at where I assumed my claws were. I just needed to have an intent for when I wanted to train something and then maybe it would be different...but what was I working towards?
I didn't really have a family that I knew of--half of my name being hidden was no help in that regard--and I was for sure not going to be able to just walk around mostly in plain sight without repercussions...so I guess that left just trying to get stronger to kill things? No, I didn't want to kill things that I didn't need to...despite the nagging feeling I had in the back of my mind to do exactly that...but I did want to get stronger.
So that left just getting stronger and finding things stronger than me to fight against?
Maybe...I just wanted to be someone Redline could depend on in the future...we may not be friends at the moment but I sure wanted to be, and not because she was a cat-person, but because she was the first being that I've come into contact with.
I just didn't want to be alone...but if I got stronger than wouldn't I eventually eclipse her and end up alone anyways? I shook my head of the thought, as long as I could convince her to get stronger along-side me then I was sure that that wouldn't be a problem...the only thing I could see going wrong if her seeing me as a rival in the future and trying to challenge me to fights every time we met afterwards.
There was also the next evolution...I was anticipating being able to see that happen again; to feel the rush that happened afterwards, even if the first stages of it made me want to die.
...was the trade off of having to stay conscious through evolution but getting stronger because of an evolution worth it?
I decided to think about it later, as well as why I didn't seem to be having any sort of crisis...
Okay, so the first thing I need to do is have an intent right? I looked at my claws and lifted my right forelimb off the ground, splaying my digits and striking the air with the purpose of doing this to get stronger.
...Nothing happened. Again.
I did it again with my Left forelimb and finally got what I wanted to see
Oh. I didn't expect the second one to increase as well. What did it do anyways.
(Patient Hunter): Hunters are one of the most patient beings in the field of killing, having to wait hours, even days or more for a single kill. Patience is a staple of their existence and as the first tier in being a true hunter/huntress many have risked life and limb for a chance of acquiring it.
(Grants a 50% boost in all related hunting and training skills when in the wilderness and a passive presence nullification when stalking something).
Wait. Why did I have this? I wasn't patient at all, in any way...not that I've realized anyways. I've often gotten distracted by the littlest of things since my rebirth in this world and wasn't able to stay still at all. Maybe it was a heritage thing that I got just from being a dragon, I mean I wasn't about to complain about the huge boost it gave, but it made me feel like I was cheating a little in a way...
Okay back to cutting at the air like a fool...made me glad that nothing could see me at that moment, since cutting at the space in front of myself like I wanted to kill the air was sure to have made me look like a crazy dragon.
I continued to do this for several hours...the stupid clock in my system 'ticking' by slow as ever with every swing I did. Eventually I got to the point where just swinging my limbs--yes all of them, I made sure that I was able to attack with my rear-limbs too just in case--and tail wasn't getting me anywhere. Even with the 50% boost I got from the skill I was only able to get a few of my skills just above level 30, I guess being in a field with bunnies and the like just going about without a care in the world counted as being 'in the wilderness'.
Not that I was complaining, but I was not going to just go about biting at the air like a lunatic to train (Bite) up. I'd already gotten around five levels just from going around and giving the local wildlife more than a few scares with (Paralyzing Touch). I couldn't help it. The bunnies just hopped over to me, even if they could see the area moving around abnormally I guess their curiosity got the better of them in the end and I ended up succumbing and grabbing a few lightly intent of keeping them from moving to train that as well.
In the end I ended up with (Toxic Slash) at level 33, Tail Smash at level 29, and Patient Hunter at Level 22. Still didn't know what it did in a sense of its passive effect since that didn't show up in my skills, and the skill itself seemed more like a title than a skill, but it was helping me get stronger and I wanted everything I could take to do so.
I looked at the clock to see what time it was and sighed:
1:12PM
It's barely the afternoon?! I growled and looked back at the mansion to see if anyone was going to be coming out to get me or something...nothing.
The grounds looked as bare as ever and I was starting to wonder how they were so well kept all of the time...maybe there was a party of maids that came through once a week or something to clean? Or they just did it themselves?
Maybe the place took care of itself? It sounded impossible, but this was a fantasy world with magic...anything was possible now.
I took out a carcass that looked like a giant pig of sorts and then looked at the mansion.
...maybe I could try cooking something.
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