As the priestess led Stephine to the cliff, she continued to talk about her village’s history. The village had been founded a few hundred years before by the servants of two dragons, referred to by Karaxia as “The Horned One,” who was Stephine’s father, and “The Darkwinged One,” who was Stephine’s mother. They were fighting something known as the “Dragon Wars,” and wanted to protect their egg from their enemies. They instructed the Kobolds to defend the egg, and in return they would help build their village, and bestow them with treasure from their hoards. Karaxia continued with less relevant information, talking about who became priest and when. Stephine stopped paying attention to hang back and follow Lawrence, who was pointing out objects and saying their names in the kobold language, which was much easier to pronounce with her draconic mouth than English was.
They eventually arrived at the base of the cliff, and Stephine was able to get a much closer look at the paintings covering the cliff. First off, they weren’t exactly painting. The stone simply appeared to be that color, which Stephine assumed was done via magic. The dragons depicted in the “painting” were almost certainly her parents, based on Karaxia’s descriptions. At the base of the cliff, the “painting” culminated in both of the dragons breathing fire, surrounding a carved out doorway in a pattern of fire. “Honored dragon, we have reached your abode. We shall leave you here, and we will have servants sent up to serve you.”
Karaxia and Lawrence began to turn around and head towards where Stephine could see a village in the distance. Before they could walk away, Stephine uses her limited grasp of Kobold to say “
Karaxia turns to Stephine and bowed. “As you wish, honored dragon. Lawrence shall stay here and guide you. I will take my leave now, and tell the good news of your successful hatching to the village.” She bowed once more, then began to walk along the path away from the cliff.
Stephine turned and looked at the door, trying to figure out how she was supposed to get in, as the door opened outwards, but there weren’t any handles. She spotted what looked like a window in the door, and, thinking back on her legs’ catlike appearance, jumped up and managed to land on the windowsill. After being surprised at how agile she already was, she jumped inside the door and pushed it open with her head. Lawrence pulled the door open the rest of the way, and followed her inside. As soon as the door slammed shut behind him, a row of runes running along the walls suddenly began to glow, illuminating the entire hallway in pure white light.
‘Wow.’ As the lights illuminated the hallway, it revealed that the entire passageway, large enough to fit two semis going side-by-side, was covered in paintings, art, engravings, and writing. ‘The stuff before was cool-looking, but this is really impressive.’ The art appeared to depict kobolds going about daily life, and every time there was a doorway, the art around it was relevant. The room that looked like a kitchen was surrounded by kobolds making bread.
At the end of the hall, there was a massive circular chamber that was covered wall-to-wall in images of kobolds giving gifts to two dragons. The room was circled by a massive staircase. As she climbed up the staircase, she found it was connected to higher levels. Unlike the first floor, the upper floors were much sparser, but much larger. They were clearly designed to be inhabited by dragons, as opposed to the first floor, which was likely servant or guest quarters. One of the floors was a big cave whose entire floor was covered in shiny objects. Another had a large spring, and what looked like a glowing tree. Every single floor was covered in art like the first. One floor had a wall that opened into open air. It was covered in images of flying dragons, and what looked like kobolds operating something similar to hang gliders. Its floor was covered in circles and runes that Stephine couldn’t read.
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The top floor was the least extravagant of them all. Rather than the action scenes of all the floors below, it was painted like a landscape. The roof looked like a starry sky, and the sides showed a beautiful meadow complete with trees and grass. The floor of the chamber, rather than rock, was covered in a green plant that was soft to the touch. All of the light in the room was provided by a hole in the wall that appeared to lead outside, providing the room with some natural light. The only living beings painted on the walls besides plants were a number of kobolds sneaking to a side room that, when Stephine peeked inside, looked like sleeping quarters for kobolds. After further inspection, Stephine found what looked like a bed intended for dragons. It was a massive cushion, easily 10 or 20 times her size, and maybe a foot or so taller than her. She jumped up onto it and found that it was incredibly comfortable.
After finishing exploring what she supposed was now her home, she curled up-- another instinct, like how to walk-- and tried to talk with Lawrence, using a mix of butchered English and what Kobold she knew. “Sshhooo. Do’ ut ‘afe misssht?”
Lawrence began to explain his story to her using a mix of English and Kobold. Every once in a while, he’d introduce a new Kobold word, in order to “teash zha language fashteh,” and also, Stephine suspected, because English hurt both of their mouths. About halfway through the story, Stephine was interrupted by a notification from the system.
[Congratulations! You have earned the General Skill: Language Acquisition! Do you want to keep it?]
When Stephine told Lawrence, he emphatically told her yes.
[You now have the General Skill: Language Acquisition. You have seven general skill slots remaining!]
As soon as she took the skill, she began to learn Kobold words faster and faster. The skill seemed to help words and grammar stick in her mind, and before long Lawrence was telling almost the entire story in Kobold, and she was mostly able to follow along. The [Language Acquisition] skill eventually reached level three out of ten.
Lawrence had reincarnated three years earlier. Kobolds also hatched from eggs, so his awakening was similar to Stephine’s. He’d also received a message from Galaxos, with Galaxos also asking him not to become a “Devoted Kobold.” When he hatched, he met his new parents. When he managed to learn the language, he told the high priest what had happened. The high priest had been told something similar would happen by Galaxos in a “divine message”, whatever that was, and decided to wait, “in order to see the will of the holiest ones manifest.” Lawrence suspected she didn’t know what to do and didn’t want to admit it, which made sense to Stephine. She had dealt with a couple professors like that when she was studying for her Master’s. A degree she’d never get, now, she realized.
Lawrence also explained a little of how the System, called “Laxia’s Gift,” or “Tyrsht i Lazia” by the Kobolds, worked. The system granted “stats” which fueled “skills”. You had 8 stats, eight general skill slots, and eight racial abilities. Skills and racial abilities could be learned and trained. If you trained a skill hard enough, it would level up. You used class points to turn maxed general skills into classes, such as [Tailor] or [Warmage]. Racial abilities let you evolve when mastered, instead. You also had affinities, and titles, but Lawrence didn’t know much about the details of those, other than that you had them.
By the time they were finished catching up, the light from outside had turned dark, and it was late. The darkness revealed that the stars painted on the ceiling actually had little runes on them, which glowed faintly in the darkness. Lawrence went to the alcove to find a comfortable bed, since it was a long walk to the village, and Stephine found a spot to sleep on the massive pillow. She was having difficulty sleeping with the lights from the fake stars keeping the room lit, and she growled at them. Apparently, growling was the sound that turned them off.
‘It’s like the Clapper but for angry people,` was Stephine’s last thought before she drifted off to sleep. She dreamt that burritos were trying to kill the president of the U.S.A.