The next few days were blissful. Minion Cassandra handled all the dealings with the guards and workmen the emperor had sent. There were a few knights amongst them who needed to swear fealty to their new lord. Cami, Cassandra, Galbrecht, and Modessa all discussed with me the relative virtues of revealing myself to the humans here.

In the end, Cassandra believed that it would be best delayed further, Galbrecht thought that it might cause problems but thought that it was still the right thing for me to reveal myself publicly. Cami and Modessa agreed with revealing myself, but only to those for whom it was necessary. Modessa especially said again and again as we discussed it that having a hidden secret would be a huge boon and that there was no reason to give away my full strength.

For me, revealing myself was the draconic thing to do. These lesser beings needed to know that dragons were not to be trifled with. After processing those thoughts and listening to all the counsel, it was likely the fact that my mind evolution seemed to be more of an ongoing process than a onetime event, which pushed me the most one way.

I always said that dragons don’t lie. It isn’t necessary for us, but now I was able to parse out how the humans working for me would feel to learn that they were being lied to about who it was that they were serving. In one way, it would have been easier if I could have turned all of the humans on my island into minions, but that wasn’t an option now.

My minion cap now was set at 100 plus 1 exalted minion. There were 100 knights and soldiers who were meant to be the beginning of the household guard of Lord Sandumas. In addition, there were nearly two hundred builders and a number of sailors. Fortunately, none of them had brought any of their mates or offspring, but even still, it was beyond my number. I already had taken 33 out of my available 100 minions. Of course, adding on the extra 31 minions had resulted in me gaining 315 DKP, and Cami had gotten 35 as I let her offer the contracts. I felt it was rather magnanimous of myself and proof of further growth that I shared 10% of my DKP with her.

It also put a new perspective on minions. While I could only gain the benefit for each minion that I filled, the higher level minions had definitely been worth more DKP. Getting a hundred level 5-10 apprentice minions might give me 1000 more DKP, but I could get the same amount for 20 high-level minions.

I would, of course need lower level minions, but I also needed to focus on finding the best minions. This could actually end up being a significant stream of DKP. I had my bond to accelerate DKP, but for most dragons this was it. Even considering this possibility, I didn’t spend any of the DKP. I had experienced enough growth recently and still needed to adapt to that.

After taking those few days to bask in the glory of my new hoard and to ponder issues of minion management, I came up with the solution of having the knights, building foreman, and ship captains brought to me so they could see the real me and decide if they wanted to become minions or food.

Well, I made sure that the second part was disclosed differently, but it was what was in the back of my mind. It wasn’t that I would actually eat them. I didn’t have much of a desire to eat humans after having lived as one. I simply couldn’t allow them to leave the island knowing my secret without a minion contract.

At the appointed time, I sat there atop part of my hoard. Cassandra and Galbrecht led a group of six humans to my lair. I could hear their voices before they even reached us.

One of the men asked, “Are you sure about this? Why would a nobleman want to live inside of a cave?”

Another said, “We could easily have built him a temporary home.”

Cassandra said, “Our lord is a unique individual.”

Galbrecht added, “Stop asking questions. You’ve already been told everything would become clear once you meet your lord. I will however remind you that this is your last chance to turn around. Once you see him, it will be a done deal.”

The first voice I didn’t recognize said, “No, I’m not going to be dissuaded. The emperor himself offered me this opportunity and told me that Lord Sandumas was only going up. I am happy to attach my family to a lord who has the emperor’s respect.”

There was a bit more grumbling, but in the end, none of them turned around and left. I could smell Cassandra’s scent far more than the others. She smelled of various herbs and plants, which were used in her alchemy as well as the earthy scent of ground bone.

She bowed when she saw me. “Lord Sandumas, I present to you, new potential liege men and employees or, as you like to call them, minions.”

Cami was already with me. She chuckled, as she must have found Cassandra’s words to be humorous. For me, the dragon-minion relationship was too vital to make light of it.

I didn’t say a word though and instead basked in the absolute shock and awe upon the faces of all six men. Two were dressed heavy armor as knights, another was in the uniform of a servant but with a blue dragon imprinted upon their tunic, one was wearing clothing I associated with a sailor, one was obviously a soldier but not in the same heavy armor. The final was in what I took to be the attire of a laborer.

There was an initial moment where the knights fumbled for their swords. Cami moved to intercept them, but Galbrecht was faster. He slapped down their arms as he said, “Don’t be a fool. This is your new lord, and even if he wasn’t, do you really think you could threaten him?”

The servant in livery was the first to bow. Then the knights and soon the others followed. The taller of the two knights stood up after bowing and asked, “I’m still confused. Are you a wizard, Lord Sandumas?”

I chuckled. “I eat wizards for breakfast.”

The two knights glanced at each other and once again, their hands went to their swords. Cami stepped up again, lowering her spears.

I shook my head. “No, it’s good that they are ready to fight, just so long as they know where to direct that energy. I was only making a small joke about wizards. I am a true born dragon, unlike the kind that you’re familiar with, but I would only ever eat a human in the most dire of circumstances. I’ve never partaken, but when I bit down on one in battle, it left a nasty taste in my mouth. Some might say that humans taste like chickens, but I personally prefer cows.”

None of them seemed to know what to say until the sailor burst out laughing. “You’re messing with us, Lord Sandumas?”

I quickly changed into my human form and walked forward. “No, I truly am a dragon, but my magic allows me to change shape. I didn’t ask the emperor to be named as a noble, but I am seeking minions. I’ll let my dragon knight explain things to you.”

Then I shifted back and laid down on my gold. I only partially paid attention to their words and spent more time reading the body language of the various individuals. Human non-verbal communication was still a foreign language to be, but even I could pick up a few things.

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In the end, they all wisely agreed to accept the minion contracts. Sir Michael was the senior of the knights, while Sir Thomas was the other knight. Each of them had a cavalry company of 60 soldiers. William was the captain in charge of the infantry and archers. Emilio was a trained butler and while he seemed unsure exactly what my needs were, he had a serving staff of ten cooks and groundskeepers.

Amos was the owner of the three ships and captain of one of them. He wasn’t sure what a dragon would need with ships, but after we talked about my ideas regarding commerce as well as shipping he seemed open-minded to the opportunities. The final member was Bob, the head of a construction crew which had already built the docks and were now started on building housing for the workers and others.

We discussed plans, and I listened to each of them after they became minions. Many were surprised by the benefits, but I pointed out to them that I couldn’t take on everyone as a minion and so they might want to keep some of it as secrets. We made plans to bring more servants after they talked about how they could keep my hoard polished. Additionally, I gave permission for them all to have their families brought as long as they followed the orders. For now, the chain of command went from me, to Cami, to Cassandra.

All of this was very alien, but I couldn’t help but believe that I would grow this lair faster than any dragon had in the past. Willing minions with people working for their own benefit in addition to my own seemed like it would be a strong path forward even if other dragons hadn’t ever considered it.

Again, we settled in for a few days. Things went well, and I was surprised at how much Modessa was actually helping to work with my minions. I was beginning to wonder if perhaps I should try to make her a minion. I wasn’t sure if it would help and it seemed that her pain was manageable as long as she didn’t move too quickly or use any of her spells or abilities.

Cassandra tried to get me to practice alchemy each day, but I educated her upon the great custom of the dragon nap. Looking this good didn’t come easy, after all. Finally, though, I started to feel a most undragonlike sensation, impatience.

With that in mind, I decided to take a look at the crystal created by Tolston. This could be used to create a signature spell. The question was were there any of my spells which were good enough to use the crystal on? A signature spell needed to be one that I would cast frequently.

The mana cost reduction wasn’t a large incentive for me because of the size of my mana pool. So it would either be about a spell that I used very frequently or one which I could get a lot more punch from. Many of my new spells were simply that — new. I didn’t have any idea about their value.

That left me with Malcor’s Wings of Darkness. It was a powerful spell which would only grow more powerful. If it became a signature spell, it would hit even harder. The reduction of cast time would be nice, but not game changing. The cool down going from sixty minutes to thirty minutes wouldn’t really matter. No battle was likely to last even ten minutes, so it wouldn’t help me use the spell more often.

In the end, I decided to hold off on using the crystal. But that made me think of another item that I had in storage which needed to be used. The evolutionary goo was something I’d obtained quite a while ago, and my idea was to use it with the bears. They were good friends to Cami and had showed a remarkable amount of intelligence for such creatures. Sure, they were a bit more hairy than humans, but of the two mammals, the bears definitely had far less attitude.

With that in mind, I went out and stretched my wings. I flew around the island for a bit. All the workmen and soldiers stopped what they were doing and stared up at the sky. I knew that the freed dragons regularly hunted along the coastline, so the humans were used to seeing dragons. Then again, I was far more massive than those dragons, so it wasn’t surprising that they might be surprised to see me.

My minions had decided to tell the other humans that I was a dragon bonded to Lady Cami, their lord’s companion. What all that meant, I didn’t know, but I figured was a good idea to wait until we were sure of the loyalty of non-minions before revealing my true identity to them.

I quickly found a hilly area where the now grown, cubs were laying under the shade of a tree. Cami must have sensed what I was doing, because she arrived there not long after I landed. I transformed into human form simple because it would be easier to administer the goo to the bears. This was a bit of trial and error on my part. In fact, with that in mind, I decided to get Cassandra to come help as well.

I waited while Cami got the older minion and spoke to the bears for a while. They were still sharp, but not as bright as humans. I could respect their simpler minds, though. They didn’t have pretenses. They slept, ate, crapped, and played. It was an easy life. As I waited, though, I had another idea. Would I be able to do something further to enhance them, something as a surprise to Cami? She loved the bears, and I wanted them to be around for as long as possible for her sake.

Minion hood seemed like the immediate answer, but I wasn’t sure if they were eligible to become minions. I thought about any memories I had from the dream about whether any dragon had ever used creatures other than humans, elves, dwarves, or orcs as minions.

I had a vague recollection of a story, but it wasn’t a direct memory, so not one of my ancestors. Apparently, though there were rumors of a black dragon who had lived high in the mountains of a different continent and had tiger people as minions. In my memories of the dream, my ancestor had seemed confused about whether the creatures were natural tigers who walked on two legs or if the dragon had done something to alter them.

Oh, well, I could only try. If it didn’t work, then they wouldn’t become minions. But if they did, then I would be able to extend their lives and perhaps even increase their intelligence.

By the time I’d reached the decision, Cami and Cassandra were back. The older woman had her mobile alchemy kit with her. I produced the Transformative Evolutionary Goo.

“Ohhh… what’s this?”

I explained about the battle I’d been in and how I obtained it as loot. I shared the system message I had gotten about it from my archives.

Goo is a rather inglorious name given to the base building blocks of all system recognized life. Only the designates and representatives of the Pact may use it. This particular goo has been purified of all influence which the horror had instilled into it. The ‘transformative’ title means that this goo is not creative—that is, you cannot create life with it.

Although it cannot create new life, it can take an existing life and transform it according to the designs of the wielder. The ‘evolutionary’ aspect of this item’s title means that whatever transformation it accomplishes will improve the being modified.

Exercise care in its use.

Then we had to wait for half a dozen more hours while she performed a series of tests on the goo. I paid partial attention to her while at the same time watching Cami frolic with the bears. It was yet another reminder that she was still young, even for a human. She might have been considered an adult by their laws, but in dragons terms she’d still be a wyrmling.

Cassandra got annoyed with me at one point and said, “You know, if you don’t pay more attention, you’re never going to learn how to do alchemy.”

I sighed, which sounded more like a geyser about to erupt than a human sighing. I liked that. It was fairly intimidating. “I want to learn. I need to improve, but here, in my true form, it seems distant. For now, I’ll be content to have you handle the alchemy.”

“Fine, but you’re missing out. This substance is truly remarkable. It should elevate most traits of the bears and push them to a higher evolutionary rung.”

“Will it give them souls?” I asked.

“That, I can’t answer. I don’t even fully understand what a soul is. No one does, or if anyone does, it might be necromancers and they aren’t exactly famous for sharing their secrets.

“What I can say is that this stuff is amazing. I expect that you’ll need to use most of it to be sufficient to affect both the bears, but I’d like you to give me a blood sample and let me create an elixir combining the blood, goo, and the elements of a regeneration potion. I think that will give it the best chance of turning them into something useful to you and I think there will be just a bit of goo left over for me to experiment with.

“Oh, and don’t try to make them minions until after they’ve taken the elixir.”

I thought about it for a second and then partially transformed one of my forelegs so that the scales pulled back. Once exposed, I used a claw and produced a tremendous amount of blood for her. She soon had an entire pot of it, but given my size, that was literally less than a vial to a human.

I explained the plan to Cami, and we both talked to the bears. As always, they seemed to understand more of my speech than I expected they would be able to. This time Cassandra only ended up taking twenty minutes to combine two doses of the new elixir.

Cami then fed the potions to Rollie and Patch. The two obediently slurped them down and immediately, I could see mana being pulled from the very earth beneath their feet into them. Deep beneath us, there was a stream of magma, which may also have altered the nature of the mana entering them.

Either way, once they had the potions, I extended the offer of minionship to them. I held my breath, waiting to see if they would even be able to accept.

When the notification popped up, I got my answer.

You are attempting to create minions out of soulless beings. You may modify the minion contract to infuse a soul seed into each of them. The seed will be a sliver of your own soul. Note, they will die if you ever die. Further, they will experience different benefits from the minion contract than normal. Do you wish to continue?

I triggered yes.

You have formed a minion contract with a previously non-sapient being (x2). Initial minion rewards are doubled for you. You gain 75 DKP… recalculating… presences of new substance identified in your new minions. Potential growth is exponentially greater. DKP gain has increased to 150, with 15 of that going to your bonded companion.

Rollie and Patch are being transformed. Their race is being modified by the system. Soul seeds are being implanted.

With those last words, I felt a tearing pain inside my chest, but it was gone as quickly as I experienced it.

Then odd pink cocoons rapidly formed over both of the bears.

Chrysalis stage has begun. Countdown to completion: 126 days