There was one thing that Richard had entirely ignored this whole time and it was his wings. Yes, despite being a dragon, he hadn’t even flown once. Perhaps flight could’ve been a great boon for him in the fight against the rat, making what was hard simple.

He hadn’t touched them for a simple reason: they felt funny. Despite having used them multiple times to enact wind slash he’d never use them for anything else. They still felt foreign to his back, if crawling around on all fours wasn’t weird enough. But he’d need to start using them eventually, and he’d rather use them here, where his only audience were slimes, versus being outside, an adult dragon, failing to fly. That would be embarrassing. And once he used shapeshifting, he had no idea if he’d actually be able to use his wings. It’s true shape shifting after all, so who knew if he could still use his wings or they would feel nonexistent the whole time. This may be his only chance to enjoy the wings for a while.

Deciding that the way birds did it was too dangerous considering he had no guardian who would intervene if he failed. Richard decided to start sprinting and as he did so, started flapping his wings. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. While he certainly didn’t fly, he hovered a little if he timed his flap to line up with a jump, which was a better start than nothing. Richard’s wings however, felt a little sore, which kindly reminded Richard that one had to practice and stretch for limbs to work, and his wings were clearly no different.

So he spent a few weeks working his wings. One does not simply stretch, but they must also build. He started attaching rocks to his wings as he raised them up and down, and started to flap them while standing still. He became capable of hovering, and while it was only for short spans of time, it was an improvement. Gliding had become a thing too. After mustering enough courage, he managed to leap from a tree, allowing his wings to spread out and carry himself as he glided.

He was filled with delight, going through the air. It wasn’t too long ago he could barely stumble and here he was gliding. It was beautiful, and elating as the air brushed by him as he pierced the air. It was a great feeling…

Shame he didn’t know how to land, resulting in dozens of crashes and a mouth now experienced in eating dirt. Not that he minded. One step forward in a long path for the future.

Richard found that using the air element in the air would allow him to glide longer, and even push him upwards if he pushed it. Interestingly the system didn’t register it as a skill, and it left Richard wondering what the system counted as a skill, and what it didn’t. The system didn’t flood him with knowledge when he learned a skill on his own, in contrast to when he had been fed knowledge whenever he purchased a skill. Then again, it said supplementary, it wasn’t going to be taking everything over. Speaking of skill, he did learn a few more on his own. Richard tried wrapping his claws with water, and although it worked, it didn’t really do anything. It required too much effort to focus the water to cover the claws, let alone be sharp. At some point he realized like wind, both needed speed behind them to be anything effective. Otherwise, they’d merely be gusts of wind or splashes of water. On the other hand, he found that by infusing his claws with ice he gained [frost smash] and infusing it into his teeth resulted into [frost fang]. The result of both cases where fangs and claws covered in a thin layer of ice, and using them on slimes turned them into ice. Sadly, he couldn’t find a way of imbuing electricity into his appendages yet, though he was sure he’d figure something out eventually. He was still only level 2 and had plenty of time to practice.

…

A month after the beginning of his flight practice Richard found himself capable of flying. At some point he stopped hovering, as if something just clicked. Using his wings, he pushed himself through the air, utilizing his wings imbued with magic he pushed hard. The exercise and stretching of his wing muscles had been worthwhile as his muscle strength in the wings had improved, allowing them to cut through the air with ease, and he found himself excited. The sky was far different when one looked down, rather than looking up. To fly above all, to stand above them was amazing, and seeing things looking down was a sight to behold. He wasn’t flying that fast, and any bird would’ve laughed at him. He was a dragon trying to fly, and the best he could do was slowly traverse the air. Nonetheless it was more exciting than falling with style. It was a start, and the journey to true flight would be no doubt exciting.

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He found a way to land by observing the birds, flapping slowly before he crashed to re-orient himself. It was a greater workout than merely crashing, but it meant he didn’t crash every single time. Of course, crashing would be very useful in the future. He might only be around 5 feet tall now, but dragons grow far larger, and an adult dragon barging into anyone could be dangerous.

Richard had spent a long while of flight practice, and he had spent plenty of time thinking. How to spend those 400 points, as well as those 2 skill points. Looking through the skill shop Richard had found a particularly weird spell. It would be weird to call it a spell in the first place. [The Book of Oaths] which at first would come off as a spell based on contracts. And in a sense, it was.

The Book of Oaths was the familiar contract with extra benefits. A familiar contract merely bonded a familiar with its human master, forbidding it from attacking its master and allows one to track the other. The Book of Oaths does the same, but also has a “beast space” where familiars could reside and even heal in, albeit slowly. Of course, this didn’t make any sense to Richard, as it didn’t even use mana to create this area. It even slowly helped the monster’s level up while they resided in the space. The system’s explanation was:

[Much like dungeons, the book of oaths feed on the mental energy, and in its case, the master’s mental energy]

‘Wait, mental energy? Would that affect me in any abnormal way? Also, what do you mean dungeons feed on mental energy? I thought they fed on anything that goes in? The bodies are absorbed by the dungeon’

[The mental energy will not affect you in any abnormal way. Mental energy is inherently generated by any being as they live, which is what the beast space relies on. Dungeons feed on the mental energy of any creature lured in by the mana it generates. However, no dungeon would allow invaders to stay long. Most dungeons are too young, or too cautious to allow invaders to stay too long, as the closer they get to the core, the more freaked out cores will get. Dead adventurers are converted to mana, and the rest of the mental energy is absorbed by the dungeon, with the monster that killed the adventurer gaining the mana of the slain, pushing it towards its evolution.]

‘Another revelation huh? I’d be more surprised, but considering you seem to be a god level entity, you knowing this information seems a little less surprising.’ It helped that the system had brought him back as a dragon, so a few months of talking with this system certainly made Richard believe in it’s power. Still, he was amazed by this revelation. Dungeons aren’t dependent on killing people, but feeding on the energy they produced. On one, hand, it seemed counterproductive to lure food sources in, but also kill them out of fear. On the other hand, the core is the most fragile piece of any being, and Richard knew he wouldn’t let anyone just start approach his heart if it was out in the open.

Regardless of all this, the book of oaths had another ability, and that was skill share. According to the system, skill share allowed one to use 1 skill of its familiar partner, and the deeper the bond, the stronger the skill becomes. Another amazingly useful ability. So why was it so cheap?

Richard didn’t need the system to put two and two together for him. The spell requires familiars to be of use. Not only that, although it would allow his familiars to grow in the beast space, the system emphasized slowly, so clearly, it’s not an automatic route. What’s more, the skill share could work, but it’d be dependent not only on his connection to the familiar, but the quality of the familiar. Getting a skill from say, a kobold, would not be nearly as great as the skill received from a karkinos crab. But it was only two skill points, and excellent storage could be great in the future depending on what kind of familiar he has.

Richard was planning to head to human civilization again one day. With his shapeshifting, and the fact he has the template of his original body, he could easily blend in with society again. Locked away in a temple, Richard never truly got to witness society, and this new body could let him do so. However, if he constantly had giant monsters following him it could be a problem. And while not all monsters get large, the ones that do, become huge. The space would also allow for sneak attacks and could cover for healing without consuming mana.

If anything, the skill was too cheap. That was obviously because he needed to raise or gain the familiars himself. Slimes of course, didn’t make very good prospects. So, it would be just his luck, that the system provided a nice easy way to get what he needed…