There are few things in this world as lonely as being a newborn on their own, no one to turn to in their moment of need, and that was exactly the predicament that Cobalt found himself in as Kor faded away into a dark and dreamless sleep.

The dungeon core who had made him was unconscious, barely any light left in the red crystal that sat in an alcove in the surprisingly smooth wall, leaving him all alone as he went through the process of being named. It wasn’t a painful process thankfully, but it was certainly a confusing one to go through when one was newly created and hadn’t had time to adjust to the general idea of being alive.

Cobalt had barely existed for a single moment yet, and now he was finding the body that he hadn’t even had time to learn was changing and shifting into something different.

He felt hot, like lava was flowing through his veins, weighing his limbs down so much that it led to him slumping against the hard packed earth of the dungeon floor, eyes like glowing embers squeezing tightly shut as he tried to process the intensely uncomfortable sensation squirming through his extremities.

The darkness behind his eyes was almost comforting, and he bent his head at such an angle that he could press his forehead to the floor, the end of his snout smashed almost painfully into the ground as he took deep breaths. That small bit of pain gave him something to focus on, something to help distract from the shifting in his body as it changed and morphed into something new.

He felt strange, beyond strange in fact. He felt weak and powerful all at once as his body began to change, bones elongating and muscles thickening, his horns growing ridges as they curled further back along his head and became weapons rather than mere decoration. His scales became an even richer blue than before, shifting until they matched his namesake perfectly, the dark stripes along his back and tail darkening into a pitch black.

While being named hadn’t changed Cobble much at all, with her biggest changes being the fact she had grown a bit larger and her scales became harder and tougher along her back and tail, Cobalt was going through a much more in depth transformation thanks to his [Dragon Heritage]. Small bumps of thickened scales rose up along his spine and the front of his snout, which shifted a bit more to hide his wickedly sharp teeth. Small nubs appeared along his shoulder blades, and then those elongated and stretched, becoming a small pair of nearly black vestigial wings, leathery and rough.

All kobolds can be said to be descended from dragons, but Cobalt had particularly strong dragon blood running through his veins, and the process of being named had only brought that to the forefront. His [Dragon Heritage] had already made him more dragonlike than most kobolds, but now he had become something even more so than that.

He was left panting for breath, his dark claws digging into the dirt, as the changes finished and his new form was completed. While the process had been entirely painless it hadn’t stopped it from being draining, with his own mana completely emptying into helping to create his new form.

Cobalt licked his thin scaly lips, his mouth feeling strange now that his teeth had shifted into a new position, and slowly pushed himself up and off the floor.

He got to his feet carefully, every bit as shaky and unstable as the newborn that he truly was, and began to give himself a quick once over in order to puzzle out his new body. Since he hadn’t had much time to get used to the one he was born in it didn’t feel as strange and unusual to him as it had for Cobble, who not so long ago had found herself in the same position he was in now. While she had been clumsy and wobbly at first, trying to get used to a form that had a new center of gravity and weight behind it, Cobalt found himself feeling oddly lighter.

While his first steps in his upgraded body were a bit off, it didn’t take him long before he was practically dancing around the room, running in circles with his arms spread out as he laughed and spun in tight circles. The air felt good against his new wings, tiny and useless for flying though they were, and he put all his teeth on display in a grin as he flapped his wings, bouncing from foot to foot as if he might defy gravity and logic and take flight anyway.

Now that he was newly born once more Cobalt found that he wanted to get out and explore! He wanted to see what his sharper claws and fangs could do. He wanted to fight, and hunt, to put his horns to use and ram them into something just to see how strong he really was. Cowardice, it seemed, was not something that he had anymore.

No. Cobalt was a miniature dragon through and through, full of dangerous bravado that would likely bring him harm unless he learned to curb it. As far as he was concerned, so long as he had his pack and his dungeon then he had all the confidence in the world and nothing that he would ever need to fear.

That thought caused him to stop his celebrations, his attention turning back to the small crystal sitting on the little shelf of dirt. The dungeon core had mentioned only one other kobold, one named Cobble, and he was supposed to stay and wait here in this room for their arrival. As much as he wanted to explore the world around him he simply couldn’t bring himself to go against his core’s wishes.

If this Cobble were to tell him the rules when they arrived, Cobalt decided, then that must mean that they were the chief. Next in charge after the dungeon core itself.

Letting out a long suffering sigh, the almost fin-like structures that made up his ears drooping, Cobalt moved to the wall beneath the core to sit down and wait. He didn’t really want to, of course, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He was to wait in this room until the arrival of Cobble, and then he was to help them in gathering food for the dungeon.

He could tell just by the scent of the air that the dungeon was new, young, just like himself. It would need all the material, mana, and food that it could get in order to reach a good size before it was found. Cobalt couldn’t wait for the opportunity to prove himself to the dungeon core, to prove himself worthy of the name that it had so graciously given him upon his birth. How lucky he was to serve a core that had given him a name at birth. Why would he even dream of disobeying any orders it gave him?

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His lamp-like eyes swept the room around him, pupils eating up much of the orange space, as he studied what he assumed was the altar room to the dungeon core.

A disgusted scoffing noise left him as his snout wrinkled up. “Is terrible room, no altar at all. What is Core thinking?” Cobalt muttered to himself, the sound of his own high pitched yet raspy voice echoing off the walls and briefly surprising him. Was that really what he sounded like? It didn’t quite match the voice in his own head.

As he looked about the room his gaze swept down to the floor in front of him, and finally he saw the rough diagrams that Cobble had sketched out as she planned out her trap placement in the dungeon.

Careful not to disturb the drawings, Cobalt reached out with his claws to trace the rough map of the dungeon layout. It was strange so far, that much was certain. A door blocked the way to a very narrow tunnel and an oddly round room, and then there was the secondary entrance to think about as well. Really, what was the dungeon core thinking? All he could see so far was delightful chaos.

As Cobalt looked over the sketches of pitfalls and various other potential traps to be added to the dungeon, Cobble herself was finally returning from her first adventure through the ruins and into the forest.

She had explored the forest once already, but the ruins were something new entirely, and once she had moved up to the floor above where the dungeon entrance was dug out she had learned very quickly why humans still frequented the area: mushrooms and berries.

The ruins were full of all sorts of edible mushrooms, and the vines of plants that snaked through gaps in the stone had revealed themselves to be full of sweet and tasty fruit. Cobble had been unable to resist nibbling on them as she searched for the way out of the ruins, and she had been delighted at the flavour that greeted her upon doing so.

While the food would lure in plenty of animals, humans amongst them, and that was potentially dangerous to the growing dungeon core, it was also a blessing. If she found nothing worthwhile in the forest then she had plenty right here in the ruins to bring back to Kor, enough to hopefully help fuel the dungeon in its latest endeavour. Kor had requested food, after all, though Cobble had her hands full enough with trying to gather trap building supplies.

Cobble still didn’t understand why Kor had suddenly rushed ahead with plans, potentially putting itself in danger, but she didn’t want to question the dungeon. If it said that it needed to do something then it needed to do it, and regardless of whether or not she thought it was a good idea there wasn’t much she could do in the way of arguing.

It was her job to protect Kor, not to boss the dungeon core about.

“Kor, I am the returned with lots of the foods for you! I still need to look for trap making, but this should the help with digging!” She called out cheerfully as she stepped into the dark tunnel, her arms heaped high with various mushrooms and bunches of berries.

Silence greeted her.

The ridges over her eyes pulled down, narrowing her substantial eyes, and she did her best to frown with a mouth ill suited to the task. “Kor? Are you the awake? You cannot be the sleeping, yes? Kor isn’t guarded! Protected! If Kor is the sleeping then Kor is also the vulnerable!” She stomped one foot to show her disapproval and disappointment.

More silence was the only answer she received.

Puffing her scaly cheeks in protest, Cobble headed towards the main room of the dungeon to double check that Kor was actually alright. While she firmly believed that the dungeon core had just drained itself again she also couldn’t completely dismiss the idea that someone had come into the dungeon while she was out and had done something to the dungeon core. The smell of the air told her that the core was alive, but that still didn’t dismiss the potential of trouble.

And so with those thoughts in her mind she entered the room and laid eyes for the first time on a strange kobold, sitting beneath her Kor.

For a breath Cobble was ready to fight, and then she remembered that Kor had mentioned making and naming another kobold, and she relaxed again. The stranger seemed too preoccupied studying her trap designs to notice her, and so, being extra sneaky and quiet, she ventured further into the room before dropping her armload of food practically at his feet.

“You are much much too easily the distracted. If I were a danger you would be much the vulnerable, yes?” She said by way of greeting, her tail thumping the ground in silent amusement as the strange kobold flinched and stared up at her with wide eyes.

“Cobalt knew you were there, Cobalt was merely letting you get close for a surprise attack, that’s all.” He sounded downright pouty as he protested.

Cobble made a tsking sound, shaking her head slowly as she crossed her arms and gave him a judgemental stare. This new kobold she didn’t much approve of, not yet. He was a liar it seemed, because she had seen the genuine surprise on his face when she snuck up on him, and it seemed that she didn't much like liars.

“I am not the impressed if you were planning surprise attack. What was plan? Try to breathe fire at me? All you did was hang mouth open in shock, yes?” She asked, feeling rather smug and proud of herself as she watched his face morph through several emotions before finally stopping on something that seemed like simple amd genuine embarrassment.

“Cobalt is sorry for lying… Cobalt was just thinking too hard, is all… You are Cobble? Your trap designs are very nice. You have big talent. Cobalt was looking them over while waiting for you. Core said that you were the rule giver here.” He did his best to appease the other kobold with his words, trying for a slightly more honest approach, his eyes open extra wide as he tried to look innocent. It seemed to work in his favour, at least, as the green scaled kobold before him seemed rather pleased by the praise.

It was a much better expression on her face than the pure disappointment she had originally greeted him with, Cobalt thought.

“Yes, I am Cobble. Core is Kor, just so you are the know, yes?” She explained, and while the dungeon core itself couldn’t pick up on the subtle shift in pronunciation between its name and what it was it seemed as if Cobalt could, because he nodded so hard that his ears flapped. “Well, be the getting up, yes? I will give tour, explain what rules are so far. Did Kor tell you what you should be doing?”

Eagerly he clambered to his feet, a hopeful expression on his face, tail swaying slightly with his desire to make Cobble proud of him as well. “Kor said Cobalt go with you, gather material.” He said, causing the slightly taller kobald to nod slowly as she tried to figure out just what the dungeon core was thinking. If she had to guess then it was probably to have plenty of things ready to eat when it awoke from its nap. It seemed in a rush, and the more mana the better.

“Okay okay. Tour and rules first, then we will do the gathering together, yes? Yes.” Pleased by how eager to please he seemed Cobble fixed him with a wide, open mouthed, smile.

Cobalt fell in love instantly.