Stephine watched the presentation for a while, but her lack of understanding meant she couldn’t follow it well, so she returned to Lawrence and Sheshes. Their final stop for the tour that day was apparently the “”, where most of the housing was kept. Lawrence led her there on his own, as Sheshes stayed behind to work on whatever she had been babbling about on the way there.

Since there were only two of them and the sun was getting lower in the sky, Lawrence decided to run at a pretty brisk pace. Stephine almost tripped at first, but she quickly modified her stride into a cat-like run, each bound covering several feet. Her instincts told her to extend her wings, but they didn’t do much to help her go faster. She supposed once her feathers grew in, she’d be able to fly with them. Once they reached the main village, she jumped straight onto the roofs in a single bound, impressing even herself. She paused for a minute, as a winded Lawrence gestured for her to stop. Evidently, dragons were capable of running at a rapid speed.

She jumped down, flexing her wings on instinct. Predictably, they do little to slow her down, with the skin merely flapping in the wind. Once Lawrence had a chance to catch his breath, he suggested that they walk the remaining distance. Stephine felt a little disappointed as she had enjoyed “opening up,” and still had a lot of energy. Lawrence did the kobold equivalent of a smile. “”

“” She had learned the word “Frsht” from one of the mages. While it didn’t exactly correspond with a doctorate, the meaning was close enough to Stephine’s nickname for Lawrence from her previous life. While they were chatting, they arrived in the housing sector. The houses were small, and made mostly of wood and clay. The art on many of them was much simpler, probably drawn or painted by young children or those less talented with art. They finally reached Lawrence’s house. It was the size of some of the apartments she had shared before while in college. The doorway was blocked with a curtain, and had many of the same runes from the windows.

Lawrence knocked on the frame, and he was answered by a masculine kobold with scales the color of pencil lead. Stephine did a short double-take, as the man was wearing what was certainly a sundress. “”

The man looked at Stephine, nodded, and gestured for them to come inside. “” The room was small, but well-furnished. There were two sitting chairs placed diagonally opposite each other, with a table in the center of the room. There was a couch placed in a third corner of the room. The final corner was empty and was covered with a rug.

“ He pulled an old-fashioned pipe from somewhere that Stephine couldn’t find. He gazed at Stephine, who was concentrating on listening to what he was saying, as her grasp of Kobold was still heavily reliant on her skill. “” He exalted a large amount of smoke, then spoke a Skill. “[ Souls]” As he finished saying the name of the skill, his voice had somehow shifted into English. “Sorry about that, my dear. Relying on that skill all day has probably given you a headache.” He adjusted a blanket covering the couch, and stepped towards a room in the back of the room. “Feel free to rest on the couch. Would you like anything to eat?”

Stephine jumped onto the couch and relaxed, having not realized how exhausted the [Language Acquisition] skill had made her. Evidently whatever powered skills pulled out of her stamina. “Anything meat, please.” Whatever skill Laxios used apparently allowed her to speak clearly, despite the difficulty of speaking English. “Cooked whole, if you’ve got it.” As Laxios walked out of the room, she took the chance to check her stats. Three things immediately jumped out at her: her mana was apparently entirely empty, her mana generation had gone up, and the level of her [Language Acquisition] had gone up.

Mana: 0/400 (Warning! Further mana usage will draw from your physical stamina.)

Mana Generation: 310/hour

MP: 42

MG:31

[Language Acquisition: 5/10]

Evidently, skills pulled from her mana. She supposed that meant that the “flow” she had limited when she weakened her dragonbreath was probably mana. Maybe she could figure out how that worked later. After about 20 seconds, the mana in her status ticked up once to 1/420.

A few minutes later, Laxios returned carrying some sort of bird. It reminded Stephine of a plucked turkey, but with very short legs and a neck nearly a foot long. He held it up. “Is this good?” She nodded. He placed the well-cooked turkey-like bird on the table, which revealed that he was carrying a tea set in his other hand.

She telekinetically lifted the turkey, but as it turns out, the bird was just too big to eat whole. She took a look at her mana: 30/420. She focused her telekinesis on the bird, and instead of just lifting it, she tried tearing it. She lifted the bird, focusing on holding down one part. She pulled, but she couldn’t pull enough force to make it tear. 28/420. As she tore at the turkey, she decided to try a different approach. She focused on the skill itself, and the flow of mana going into it. Rather than limiting it, as she had with her dragonbreath, she enlarged it, trying to force more mana into it. At first nothing happened, and then the neck of the bird tore clean off, nearly flying into the wall before Stephine caught it. 15/420

[You have amplified the flow of mana to your Telekinesis in order to tear. The skill has leveled up. Telekinesis (1/10) → Telekinesis (2/10)]

As she lifted the head towards her mouth, she looked at the rest of the bird. Tearing off its neck like she had used a lot of her mana, and she still didn’t think she’d be able to swallow its body whole. Maybe if I’m more efficient with my mana usage? She gripped the turkey with her telekinesis, but this time she tried to follow the mana after it entered the skill. As she felt the skill, she ‘watched’ as the mana disappeared into it, but as soon as it entered the skill, it seemed to disappear, like thread being woven under fabric. No matter how hard she focused, she couldn’t ‘see’ where it went. Ready to give up, she stopped activating the skill. As she did that, she sensed the mana rapidly stop flowing into the skill. But, this time, like fabric mending itself, she could see the hole the mana was flowing into rapidly close. What was that? She activated the skill again, then immediately crushed the mana flow to a trickle. The hole rapidly began to shut, but before it could, she followed it through.

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She nearly threw up, since as soon as the mana entered the ‘interior’ of the skill, it began to loop and split and curve. It split into a complex multicolored knot of twists, turns, and intersections, which she supposed was the skill itself. She couldn’t figure out what was happening with the knot, but there were a few threads of mana that sprung out from the knot that were a lot simpler. They flowed into another hole, and she followed it through. They followed thin threads until they suddenly exploded into a burst of threads like a ball of yarn. She couldn’t figure out what that was, until she opened her eyes and saw the turkey. That’s the turkey! I guess the skill covers the turkey with mana and then manipulates it that way, somehow. Maybe if I… She tried moving the mana like she had when limiting its flow, but it was incredibly sluggish and difficult to move. She followed the flow of mana back into the skill, and where it left the skill and merged back into a knot, she tried pushing that mana. It moved much easier, and so she tried hollowing out the center of the mana flow heading to the turkey. As she felt the mana, the mass surrounding the turkey seemed to hollow itself out. Yes! As she pulled her focus away from her mana, she was assaulted with a series of notifications.

[Congratulations! By sensing the mana within a skill, you have earned the General Skill: Skill Mana Control! Do you want to keep it?]

[You now have the General Skill: Skill Mana Control. You have six general skill slots remaining!]

[You have manipulated your Telekinesis in order to increase its efficiency. The skill has leveled up. Telekinesis (2/10) → Telekinesis (3/10)]

[You used your Mana Control to manipulate the mana inside a skill. The skill has leveled up. Skill Mana Control (1/10) → Skill Mana Control (2/10)]

As she got the notification for Telekinesis leveling up, something seemed to shift inside the skill, and maintaining the hollow area inside the turkey suddenly became much easier. She lifted the turkey, and pushed inwards with her telekinesis. The turkey let out a sickening crunch, and shrank. She swallowed the crushed turkey whole, then realized she wasn’t alone.

“Lawrence wasn’t kidding about the ‘eating things whole’ thing, earlier, it appears.” Laxios was looking on with a pleased smile on his face, and Lawrence was looking away. “Sorry for tricking you. But I assume you managed to level up your skills?” Stephine looked surprised as she realigned her jaw, but nodded. “[Skill Mana Control]. Very useful skill. It helps you manipulate the mana that is used by skills, so it allows you some more fine control over the more finicky aspects of your abilities, like crushing that neckbird.” He takes a sip of his tea. “If you want to become a mage, you’ll want to evolve that skill into something like Attuned Mana Control, and get a skill for mana sensing.”

Lawrence nodded. “Dad knows his stuff when it comes to classes and skills. He helped me get a [Attunement Mage] class, and I’ve only been here for three years.” Thinking back, Stephine realized he had been carrying something that looked like a wand around all day. She was unsure when he had slipped back to tell his father about the fish thing, though. “He refuses to tell me his main class, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with souls. Soul magic is really hard to get, so I know that’s impressive.”

“Oh, where are my manners?” Laxios leaned forward and set his tea down. “You probably have so many questions! Please, ask away!”

Stephine had too many questions to count, but one question leaped to the forefront of her mind. “What happened to the kids? Are they okay?”

“The summoned?” Laxios nodded and blew in his pipe. “I suppose you would be curious about them. It’s been hard to get reliable information until recently, thanks to the dragonstorm becoming more intense to prepare for your hatching, but not difficult enough to prevent transit. Last I heard, they were all safe and sound in one of the human kingdoms.” He paused, and leaned forward. “Well, as safe as anyone summoned to fight the Lord of Demons could be. Galaxos was opposed to that, from what I hear. He believed we could raise our own fighters here on Laxia. I suppose the fact another world within summoning range was discovered a few decades ago alongside the ease of training a bunch of confused teenagers meant he was outvoted. Reincarnating you as a dragon was probably a statement.” He adjusted his shoulders and looked proud. “‘We have powerful fighters on this planet, don’t need to steal another’s.’” He relaxed back into his chair. “Now that I think about it, I’ve heard rumors that the summoned conquered a dungeon somewhere in the Elfwoods, but I have no idea how true that is.”

Stephine, Lawrence, and Laxios continued talking for a long while, nearly an hour if her mana was an indicator. She was about to leave when Laxios reached out and said, “Stay. Sleeping alone in that big empty cave can’t be very pleasant. We have a guest room, and I would be ashamed if I didn’t offer it to a guest.” Stephine was about to say no, but she had felt lonely when she was sleeping in the cave.

She nodded, and let Laxios show her to the guest room. As she fell asleep, she felt the influence of Laxios’ language skill leave her.

Stephine

Race: Ghost Dragon Youngling

Age: 0

Mana: 420/420

Mana Generation: 310/hour

Affinities: Fire, Force, Gaia

Stats:

[Mana: 42]

[Mana Generation: 31]

[Mana Control: 25]

[Memory: 25]

[Perception: 22]

[Strength: 0]

[Dexterity: 0]

[Constitution: 40]

Titles: (6)

[Primary Title Unallocated] [Secondary Title Unallocated]

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Racial Abilities:

[Young Dragon Scales]

[Gliding]

[Water Breathing]

[Fire Resistance]

[Dragonstorm]

[Attuned Mana Sense]

[Dragonfire (1/10)]

[Telekinesis (2/10)]

General Skills:

[Language Acquisition (5/10)]

[Skill Mana Manipulation (2/10)]

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Class Points: (0)