Author’s note: Hey, I have no excuse. I know I wrote I would return yesterday, but I was unable to write anything for these days. Also, kudos to Simon the PR, person responsible for some changes in the text. Mind you, he worked on a part of it, so not everything was proofread. Since he is doing proofreading, I renounce my promise about second chapter coming today, PR will look over it first. Tomorrow however, 2 chapters at least coming out. Point out any mistakes, and enjoy!
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I regained my memories half a month ago. I still couldn’t get used to my new eyes. I managed to grasp Shapeshifting enough, to absorb scales and force my hair to grow out normally, but my eyes remained pale purple, with dark golden irises. When people saw them the first time, they usually jumped back from fright, until they recognized who I was. Yeees, I have grown quite famous throughout Rasgar Hold, changing my fame to over 4000 and gaining a few titles like Rasgar Bane. While it all sounded nice, these things didn’t grant me anything, they were more of a vanity stats. Fame simply stated how many people would recognize me upon seeing me, while titles… Pretty self-descriptive, they were my pseudonyms, nothing more.
Ever since I got to Rasgar Hold, I had a carefree life, which gave me a lot of time to consider the future path I should take. I often met and drank with Romulus and Brom, who had lots of stories of their own to share. Surprisingly, even though my first impression of him was rather negative, I made friends with the Lord of Dwarves, who’s proven to be gracious host, sharing his vast knowledge and experience in his free time.
The topic of my new skill set was of course one of the more important. Some of the information I gathered were as follows:
- Life Gambler offered me Divine Protection from Farran and +100 to all my stats. Supposedly, it was given to the first person who, as a player, chose to pick random skills and stats.
- Unfortunately, shapeshifting didn’t allow me to change my form drastically, I had to operate in boundaries of a reason. I couldn’t change myself into a full size dragon, because one has totally different organ placement and bone structure, but dragon sized dwarf was a possibility. However, gravity affected me all the same, so unless I had strength around 1000, I should think twice before doing so.
- Ancient magic was connected with Dragon Legacy. It was a common knowledge that runes used in dwarven Portal and Artifacts were actually Dragon Tongue. So in future, I may be able to teleport. Jump from one place to another. Disappear and reappear. Do you get it?!
- Dragon Aspect lets me obtain some of the dragon’s skills temporarily, at the cost of my mana. Specific information is unknown, since no one ever gained Dragon Aspect, so I will have to experiment with it on my own. However it comes at a high mana price, and if I overused mana, losing my consciousness was the least dangerous thing that could happen to me. There is a high risk of lapsing into coma in such situation, so until I gain much more mana, I will abstain from using that skill.
- Adaptability makes me calmer and a bit faster during a sudden development. It didn’t raise my intelligence, I still had to analyze and calculate things by myself, but it allowed me to do so without risk of panic clouding my judgement.
Race Progenitor, Ascendency Candidate and Dragon Legacy remained mysteries. Durin told me, that I should visit Wisdom Depository in human ruled Desert Kingdom. Depository has always been a neutral ground, not connected to any faction or race, to all peoples benefit. Everything known to all races was documented and kept there.
Sounds too good to be true right? Well, lots of things remained mystery concerning Avalon, so the so called everything wasn’t really that much. Also, to enter Depository, you had to meet either of two requirements – either pay 10 gold or offer a new piece of information with proof validating it. For an average settler, saving one gold per year was considered being very well off. Not that it concerned me. I was offered a small fortune, 100,000 gold for killing the dragon and selling most its remains to the dwarves.
The dragon’s corpse was mine, since I was the one to slay it. The lord offered to buy it from me, and after establishing a couple of additional conditions, I agreed. I wanted to learn from best forge master, as well as magic and melee instructors. Overall I felt need to get stronger. Dragon attack made me realize, what danger Avalon posed to settlers. I killed dragon, but it was due to a fluke. If I ever encountered similar threat, I had to be better prepared.
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My urge to become stronger was also influenced by my stats. Brom said I was too weak to pose a problem to Rasgar Hold, and I was too weak, to be a danger to a whole city. As one of the settlers, I was on the stronger side, since my stats put together gave me over 1400 points. 1400! Average person gained approximately 300 in a lifetime, unless they became a mercenary. But even then, they wouldn’t go over 1000 very often.
Races blessed with longevity like elves and giants had an advantage, so passing 1000 points overall points wasn’t so hard for them. I could be considered weak by them, because my stats were split evenly between all seven attributes, which made me unspecialized. From now on, I needed to focus on few stats. And that was the problem, because I had no idea what would fit me best.
Every single time I fought in this world, I would either grab a wooden stick or some other close quarter’s weapon. Magic was never in the picture (and no, dragon breath does not count). I never saw any mages in action, so I couldn’t even compare its potency with any hand-to-hand or ranged combat. Magic usage was rare, because it was hard to manipulate mana in the correct way. The first people to experiment with it usually died from their own magic, doing harm to their surroundings as well as themselves.
An interracial mage guild did exist, but it comprised of just a bit over 100 members, and it was in decline. Few spells they managed to grasp were not very powerful, simple elemental manipulations like fireballs and such. Healing spells were basic at most, because you needed to know how the healing process worked, not mentioning the targets anatomy, to perform the spell correctly. And none of the initial settlers had vast medical knowledge.
All that information should discourage any power seeking individual from learning magic right? Well, not me. After all my dragon’s breath was magic based. Teleporting as well. Monsters were magical creatures. This whole world was permeated with magic. My assumption was that magic was the fastest way to gain power in here. Even though learning melee was so much less risky.
For now though, having requested both magic and physical combat instructors I decided it would be best to wait and see how really talented I was in both of these fields. At the moment I perfected my smithing, learning from one of the best dwarven artisans throughout Avalon. He, Tovrik, agreed to teach me only after hearing about possibility of smithing Dragon Ore. He still demanded a hefty sum of 3000 gold, but he was the best.
Week spent with him, was like a year with my previous master Lars, may he reincarnate soon. I had opportunity to work Mithril, Orichalcum, Black Steel and of course – Dragon Ore. Dragon scales, to my surprise, after their owners’ deaths changed into an alloy, possible to melt and manufacture. And they were the best known crafting material. A whole dragon corpse was priceless.
Durin informed me, that the most accomplished instructors in melee combat resided in the Academy, a human school for mercenaries. Academy was based a day from Magic Guild's headquarters, so going there would be killing two birds with one stone. I wasn’t very happy about travelling altogether, but Durin pacified me, stating the he could always bring someone less capable to teach me. No way. If I wanted to learn, I wanted to do so from the best. So I grudgingly accepted the reality.
To get into Academy, you had to become one of its students, or have something to qualify you for special case training. Also, since it was a mercenary training facility, you had to be at least C rank, registered in a guild. All of these requirements were fulfilled, when I slew the dragon. I was granted an A rank as a mercenary, as well as title (Dragon Slayer) and recommendation for special training in Academy, signed by Durin II. I tried to protest, since the dragon's death wasn't associated with my combat skills, but no one listened.
For now, since I already began smithing training, before travelling outside. I had my scales and claws, so no equipment was really a necessity, it would rather slow me down, since I had to carry it all with me. However I wanted to use chance I got, and finish something, perhaps for the first time in my life. I liked smithing, and I learned it really fast, so I didn’t think it would take me a lot of time to master it, and it may come in handy someday.
My plans consolidated somewhat, only thing left now, was to incorporate them.