Growth complete. Wyrm has evolved into Lesser Dragon.

David's eyes slowly opened and he let out a groaning roar. His eyelids were heavy and his stomach was starving. The first thing he noticed is how much larger he was and how he filled the chamber to its entirety. In fact, he was positive that it expanded even more since he started hibernating. His roar immediately attracted a surprised little head of a kobold poking into his chambers followed by a little gasp! David didn’t recognize the color pattern or head shape of the little kobold, which was worrying.

Before his hunger started to register the cute little head as food it dipped away and then the most wonderful thing happened. David’s chamber was filled with pills of meat, and other foodstuffs. Filled being a generous term as the kobolds began to literally toss it into the chamber without him even seeing who was doing it. His blurred mind did not complain as he ate his fill and more. As his stomach was about to burst he let out a heavy sigh.

David’s voice BOOMED as he spoke, “I believe I am under control now. Blue…?”

Soon a familiar kobold came walking out to greet him. It was Blue except she appeared to be a bit bigger than he remembered and she was followed by a horde of smaller kobolds. He counted at least a dozen before he looked down confused at Blue.

“Blue. How long was I out for…?” David’s head scraped against the top of the massive chamber as he rumbled.

“Master. You have been asleep for close to four hundred cycles…” She smiled warmly up at him. He was stunned and lost in thought as Red, a very muscular and fit Red at that, burst into the camber. He was followed by a small army of bone equipped warriors.

“Master! Red is so happy to see you again!” Red beamed up at David. He had grown a considerable amount as well and his speech had become more crisp.

“It is good to see you both as well. I did not realize I would be out for so long… How many are there now?” David eyed the swarm of different sized kobolds that all peered up at him with a gaze of admiration. He spotted a few familiar faces, such as White’Yellow, who stood a head taller than the rest. Two sharp bone shards strapped to either side of his hip.

“We number thirty three now. We have lost a few over the cycles but we remained strong for you.” Blue nodded with confidence.

“Go about your duties. I need some time to adjust and think… Thank you all.” David rumbled as he dismissed them. If his math was right then the kobolds had probably lost more than just a “few” but they were resilient. David let out a sigh as he finally brought up his prompt. His future growth phases would probably be longer and longer… something more to consider and prepare for then.

David “Onyx” Manning - Otherworlder

Species: Lesser Dragon

Str: 25.5 (28.5 Jaw)

Int: 14

Speed: 10 (Flight Speed: 12)

Toughness: 16

Affinity: Life (5/5 Charges) - Fine Motor Control

Healing Breath (Fog) - 1 Charge Cost

Healing Breath (Focused Cone) - 1 Charge Cost

Lingering Regeneration - 1 Charge Cost

Traits: 3/6

Condensed Musculature

Rupturing Jaws - Death Roll Ability

Thagomizer Defenses

His sheet had changed in a lot of ways. His strength had climbed even higher, his intelligence and toughness both had increased as well. The intelligence increase explained a lot actually as he was having an easier time now visualizing his past memories and his math was coming quicker. While intelligence didn’t appear to have any physical benefit to him but he was glad it wasn’t neglected either.

Moving on he noticed that his affinity capacity had increased. His larger body would be able to naturally hold more magic so that made some sense. Finally he was delighted to see that his traits had doubled in capacity as well. Wonderful. How many more growth phases were there in a dragon's life? How many traits would he have when he reached his max size? As David glanced over his stats a final time he caught the Flight speed stat and grinned. It was an odd sensation having an extra pair of limbs to move, but he wondered how long he would struggle before mastering them. His head shifted as he eyed his majestic black wings hanging from his back. David definitely wasn’t disappointed in this aspect of his new life. He always wanted to fly!

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After he finished examining the details of his new changes he then made his way out of the lair. There had been a new “main” tunnel connecting his chambers to the exit made and it was very large. David felt like it was a proper dragon lair now as he made his way into the open cavern of the Sanctuary. The kobolds had built up inside the cavern over the last four hundred cycles and it included a new little mushroom garden off to the side and barricades of dirt, bone, rock, and even some pointed wood stakes around the perimeter. Most importantly David was able to finally spread his large wings and examine himself in detail.

His forward facing horns and his upper horns had all grown as he did. His body was thick, muscular and most importantly still lined with sharp, deadly spikes. His wings were able to rest against his body safely, the spikes lining that portion of his back were present but blunted. He imagined they would still offer some protection but he happily traded the complete body coverage in exchange for flight. All wasn’t bad though as his wings were covered in small but sharp spikes of their own. As he began to practice spreading and flapping his huge wings his favorite pair of kobolds came up to him.

“Master” Blue smiled up at him, “We are overjoyed you have returned but we need to bring up something important. We are pushing the limits of what this place can provide us. Wyrms and Wyrmlings have started preying upon us more and more because we are thinning out the critters around here too much.”

Damn. David had thought this might happen but he didn’t think he would have lost so many cycles so suddenly. He was about to respond when the barricades nearby erupted as large stone spikes impacted against the earth work. David jerked his head instantly and spied a pair of Wyrms rapidly charging towards his lair through the freshly created hole. Both were clearly malnourished but one was larger with dark brown colors with specks of gold. The other was smaller and a soft silver white coloration. The silver one roared as a flurry of stones, and rocks swept forward crashing into a line of armed kobolds rushing to intercept them. The brown one coiled back on its hind-legs and launched itself straight up, twisting mid air to burst forth a freezing wave of cold breath that lightly iced and slowed everything below it.

As its trajectory hit its apex and it began to fall back to the ground the Wyrm braced itself. Just as its feet touched the ground the black, large form of a winged David intersected with it. When the Wyrm had initially catapulted itself into the air, David had spread his wings wide and leaped forward. Flying or even gliding was not an easy skill, but David had gathered enough momentum to catch the unaware Wyrm by surprise. His massive jaws locked around the belly of the Wyrm and as he landed he activated his Death Roll. As David finished his full roll the Wyrm was no longer a single entity but a squealing, split in two mass of dying flesh.

At the sudden loss of its companion the silver Wyrm gaped its mouth in shock. David used that momentary pause to let loose a coned healing fog that shot over the small line of fallen kobolds. Little gasps filled the ranks as stones, and sharp rocks forced their way free of their bodies and their wounds rapidly healed. The little pack of armed kobolds quickly regained their barring and blocked off the Wyrms exit route using their spears in a small phalanx formation.

David strolled forward, the gore of the enemy Wyrm still in his mouth, as he towered over the remaining Wyrm, “You have picked the wrong enemy.”

The silver Wyrm practically curled into a ball and chirped, “Mercy! Starving… Mercy!”

David angrily stared down at the Wyrm but slowly calmed himself as the silence stretched on. Could he really blame the Wyrm for doing what it did? David could easily see the creature's rib cage pushing against its flesh and significant lack of muscle clinging to its body. David let off a big sigh, “Mercy then. Tell anyone else out there that one… Onyx and his kobolds are not prey. Two… we will be moving from this place. Restrain yourselves and we will be gone.” The silver’s eyes grew wide and it simply nodded. David motioned for the kobold phalanx to open the way and allow the Wyrm freedom. As it dashed off into the distance David turned to find a fully bone armed, and towering Red with his spear at the ready.

“We leave…?” Red perked his head as he asked.

“Yes. Start packing up everything. We will head to the Nile and head down into the valley below.” David’s voice boomed.

David peered down at the brown-gold Wyrm corpse as he let his thoughts drift. His prompt had appeared after he tore the Wyrm apart and it was called a Cold Wyrm. It would be a waste not to at least see what traits it had. He leaned down and took a few sizable chunks of the meat. He kept eating till his prompt pinged him again.

Cold Wyrm slain and trait available.

Coiled Legs - Your legs become reinforced by coiled muscles. They store energy like springs and allow you to leap your full speed stat in a vertical or horizontal distance in a moment's notice. Your speed while walking is reduced by 3 but increased by 6 when running.

Coiled Legs trait available. Absorb Y/N?

He blinked at the prompt. He was both thrilled and disappointed. He had just checked off one of the many things on his list and confirmed that you can in fact get the chance to pick up a trait again that you refused before. Unfortunately this Wyrm only had the single trait and it was not one he was interested in. Mentally he declined it and then moved on.

The kobolds had already started pulling things out of the lair and organizing them. David was surprised when two Crusher Moles emerged from the lair and both were being ridden. Blue happily informed him that two of her beautiful little genius children had been born with animal taming and rancher skills. Most of the tunnel expansion had only happened recently with the aid of the two moles and their little riders.

As the kobolds spent the next few cycles packing and organizing everything David practiced his new wings. After sleeping for so long he didn't feel particularly tired and kept going. Gliding was simple enough but the actual dynamic of flight was a bit harder to grasp. The cavern was large but he had gotten so big that he didn’t have much space to actually fly. By the time the kobolds were ready to move he had experimented enough to keep himself balanced and coordinated while generating lift with his massive wings. The real test would have to wait till they all got outside…