Lugging Granite through the sky was a chore and a half, but Sable got it done. She took care to memorize landmarks. Without Aylin there to guide her, she had to manage the trip herself. It’d be awfully awkward if she lost her first companion because she couldn’t remember her way back.

Unlike Aylin, Granite took to flight naturally. Though, with only a rough sort of intelligence, it made sense he wasn’t as bothered. He allowed himself to be carried from thousands of feet into the air with tranquil placidity. No reaction at all. Like a big sack of rocks. The golem was growing on her, but Sable had no delusions over his intelligence.

She set him down onto the plush grass of Lake Plateglass’s miniature island unruffled, his collected load of gemstones cradled in a cloth bundle.

[Over here,] she instructed him, indicating the center of the island, on a flattened patch of grass. [Set them down.]

She hoped this worked.

Granite ambled over, then placed the bundle on the ground.

Sable waited with bated breath. How long would it take? Would it happen instantly? It’d already been a second, so not instantly. But did that mean it wouldn’t at all? Or did it just take—

***

Hoard: Progressed from BARREN to SCANT

***

She felt the change wash over her. Her muscles had been the slightest bit sore from the burdensome trip across the forest, but that discomfort vanished—and so did the aches from her crash-landing. Strength washed through her, and other, less obvious empowerments, which she couldn’t put a finger on. The massive increase to her stats was plain as day.

***

~ Hoard ~

Your hoard is SCANT. A few measly gemstones? Not quite as pathetic as destitution, but something to be proud of? Proof of conquest, or opulence to make a king weep? No. Your hoard remains inadequate, a damning reflection of self. Venture out. Take what is yours and build a mountain from the riches of creatures even more miserable than you.

[ 50% REDUCTION TO ALL STATS ]

***

Sable grimaced. She’d experienced having her mind played with twice before, and, expecting and bracing for it, the wash of negative emotions weren’t quite as overpowering. Which wasn’t to say she was immune. For a few moments, before the feelings sapped away, she readjusted priorities: maybe she would pillage a few towns. Just this once. The hoard needed to grow. Such a tiny collection made her look so … pathetic.

She shook it off.

Ninety percent to fifty percent. A huge boost—effectively multiplying her working stats five times over. She checked.

***

Sable

Juvenile White Dragon

Level 1 - Frostfire Sorceress

[ Hoard ] - SCANT.

[ Notoriety ] - UNKNOWN.

Stats (base):

Might - 100 (200)

Grace - 100 (200)

Resilience - 100 (200)

Intellect - 100 (200)

Wisdom - 100 (200)

***

“Bigger,” Granite rumbled.

[Indeed,] Sable idly agreed. [We’ll need to keep working. A few gemstones isn’t nearly enough. The hoard needs to grow.]

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Though, why had he brought it up? It seemed out of character for Granite to comment on … well, anything. He mostly responded, not formed his own thoughts.

“Bigger,” he repeated. “Mistress is bigger.”

Wait. What?

She looked down at herself, then over her shoulder. He was … right. It wasn’t a huge increase. Maybe a foot in length and a few inches in height. When had that happened? How? Right after the hoard had formalized, and her stats had adjusted? The boost in strength, then inspecting her hoard stat, must have distracted her from the sensation.

Weird.

That was confirmation, then. Her hoard—and her notoriety, if she had to guess—determined her size. Or maybe her stats, with the debuff’s lifting having massively increased them? Either way, if she collected enough riches and earned an impressive enough reputation, would she move from ‘juvenile’ dragon to ‘adult’? Or were there intermediary steps? ‘Teenage’ dragon?

She shivered at the idea.

Did the stages—or size in general—come with benefits?

Wait …

***

[ HP: 21,480 / 25,000 ]

[ MP: 1,351 / 1,500 ]

***

Okay, that suspicion rejected, then. Her hoard, and her stats, hadn’t increased her health or mana. How did it work, then? Probably actual stats and levels. And maybe items? There were surely other ways to increase health and mana than just raw advancement. Dungeons existed, so magical items likely did, and surely some of them had mana regeneration effects. Though she was only guessing.

And speaking of progression. Notoriety was the next item on the docket, so that her experience debuff loosened. From there, she needed to start leveling up. And find a magic tutor so her [Arcana Specialty: Frostfire] skill could do something.

She would organize those thoughts while flying back to Aylin. The goblin girl still needed to be picked up.

[I’ll be back,] she told Granite. [Stay here and guard the hoard.] Then, considering it for a second, [But only if you can. Don’t get killed if something too strong comes.]

Granite rumbled his agreement. He walked a few steps over and took post with a straightened back. With a slow, careful gaze, his eyes swept the shore, then higher, in the sky, watching for intruders. He’d taken his role instantly and seriously.

Sable nodded to herself, then took off.

The increase to her stats made itself noticeable in a new way. Flying hadn’t been hard, besides when lugging Granite around, but now, she parted the air so easily that she felt no resistance at all. It had been a smart idea to accrue a small hoard as her first priority. For the short time she’d spent doing so, it was probably the fastest way she could’ve grown stronger.

Soaring through the sky and idly picking out landmarks as she made the trip to where she’d left Aylin—much faster than the trip over—she considered her next steps.

Magic tutor, notoriety, and leveling up.

She chewed over which order to tackle them. She didn’t need to learn to cast spells, not urgently. While she wanted to do so—who wouldn’t?—she was more than strong enough to work on her other goals without spellcraft. Even when she’d been massively crippled by the hoard debuff, she’d won easily against Granite, who was a level four golem. Which, from how Aylin had acted about the things, weren’t push-over monsters … though probably not fearsome foes, either.

Plus, she needed to find a tutor, which wasn’t a simple task. Who would it be? A monster? Or could she find a sapient creature, like a goblin spell caster? Someone from Aylin’s clan?

She guessed she was back in her original position: she needed to talk to Aylin to make an educated decision. It was pointless musing over it herself.

So, she turned her thoughts to something else. Stats. Might, grace, resilience, intellect, and wisdom. [Inspect] didn’t give a run-down on what each of them did, but assuming they worked on RPG principles, it was pretty obvious. Or, mostly. Intellect and wisdom could be hard to differentiate. The rest, though, easy. Strength, agility, constitution. What they affected were obvious.

How did she increase them? Besides further increasing her hoard and removing the debuff. Levels were one obvious way. But what about other stuff? Magical armor and weapons, or trinkets and such? Aylin had mentioned a dungeon. Did it drop stuff like that? System-linked loot that she could put on to increase her strength?

Did she want to tackle a dungeon, if she could find one? That might be difficult, for both the obvious reasons and mundane ones. She suspected the tight squeezes of dungeon corridors would quickly become a problem. She had fit down in the catacombs, so maybe she could do the same for a dungeon, but in the future? When she became larger, possibly several times the size she was now? Some dungeons simply wouldn’t fit her, right?

And … a silly thought entered her head. What if she leveled while venturing a cramped dungeon hall, and it notably increased her size? Would she become trapped? That would be a funny way to die—random massive growth, then being stuffed into a cave tunnel and immobilized. Hopefully, the system accounted for quirks like that. While amusing, it’d be a terrible way to die, even without a particular case of claustrophobia.

Then, she considered something else. Would she ever get a more convenient form? As in, a human—or half-human—transformation? She was adapting to her giant, scaly body with surprising speed, but there were a whole slew of reasons she’d want a more manageable form. To name the one that had triggered the thought in the first place: for dungeon exploration.

And, to be truthful, she’d rather not be permanently stuck as a lizard, simply for the matter of her mental health. To accommodate her human half. Things like ‘making friends’ and ‘romance’ were comically low on her list of priorities, but they hadn’t disappeared. She was still fundamentally human, and would prefer to have a form that reflected that. For now, she was concerning herself with survival, but survival wasn’t living.

She didn’t dwell on those thoughts too closely. Mostly because she had no guarantees—why worry over something that might not be possible? And, they brushed against her past life. Everything she’d lost. Which was obviously dangerous waters.

Ignoring trauma. Definitely the best way to handle it. Psychologist certified.

Thinking about stats, loot, levels, and magical dungeons—and her future plans for world domination. Much easier.