Pov Rafe

"We are about to take to the sky, and after that, it won’t take long before we reach our first target," I heard Enn say from behind me. I was meditating and at the same time converting energy into mass so I could become a bigger creature, which will help me fight against the dragon.

I stopped my inner process and opened my eyes to see the sea in front of me. It should be covered in darkness, but this ship allowed us to see quite far out. The way the waves hit and the way the ship moved through the water over the past two months has made me like this form of travel more than any other.

"Why would we take to the sky?" I asked her in genuine confusion. There was a moment of silence before she answered.

"It’s to keep the ship safe from the fight. Although dragons can fly, it’s easy enough to ground them and make the fight easier for us. Also, dragons usually nest well above sea level, so we don’t want to give them the height advantage. This ship is a big target for them to go after, as they usually find the biggest thing they can to attack when they get angry."

"But am I correct to understand if we take flight, it would be easier to track us because of the mana usage and the active mana crystals?"

"You are correct in that, but the disadvantages are too great."

"I still recommend we stay on the sea, as I can handle the dragons without any problems, and that way, we should be able to hit a lot more nests and keep our presence a secret. I presume we could take more than just a few nesting dragons with us?"

"Are you certain you can so easily handle dragons? They are unusually strong for their size and, even more importantly, much faster than you would expect, especially if you haven’t faced one before. Otherwise, our holds are empty and filled with devices that could hold a living dragon easily enough. This ship was built for this kind of purpose, and we’ve taken thousands of creatures back to Father with this ship in a single trip."

“I know that there are rumors about me, so I want to clear something up. When I descended toward the bottom of that trench in the most holy pilgrimage of the underwater world, I didn’t make it to the bottom—quite far from it, in fact.”

“But that was in my human form. After I changed to my preferred underwater form, getting to the bottom was easy enough. I even got a few wonderful patterns from down there. It was dangerous, even for me to be down there, but not because of the crushing pressure—it was because even there, there was too much life that wanted to eat you.

I turned around to see how her eyes were a bit wide. “So, to make this clear, I’m not going to fight in my human form. And while I think I could still win against a dragon in it, I would not be able to do it easily. So, let's stay on the sea and bring back a whole flock of dragons?”

Of course, she didn’t agree immediately. We went and called the meeting, but after I explained myself more, the change of plan was accepted. We would continue to sail the sea while our scouts would start working nonstop to find more nests, but also male examples of the species to bring back, not just the female ones that nest.

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It took us a bit longer because of this to make it to the nest site, but I was ready to jump off the ship while three teams were ready on the two transport boats and my own small airship to follow me and take the eggs and use the device on the subdued dragon that I could feel was already starting to focus on us. "Get ready everyone, it's about to start."

I jumped into the air and transformed into an eagle, leaving behind most of my clothes except for my pants. They were specially enchanted so they would transform into a small patch of clothing that would stay on my changed body and then transform back into pants when I went back into human form. Those shape-shifters were lucky that their talent allowed them to keep their clothes without any problems.

As I continued to climb, I increased my size and started to transform myself from an eagle into something that more resembled a dragon. In less than 10 seconds, I was nearly the size of the ship, with black and purple scales. My front legs were more like arms, even having thumbs with large claws on them.

The scales weren’t from a dragon, as one of the underwater serpent species had even stronger ones. I also protected my chest and most of my head area with the shell from a giant snail that lived 30 kilometers below sea level.

The only reason I managed to kill it was with poison, as nothing I did could get past that shell. I also had many more organs inside of me than would be normal, most of them from creatures that lived in incredibly toxic environments, so there was basically no way someone could kill me without dealing a physical attack, and I was incredibly resistant to that.

Underneath the scales was a thick layer of fat-type tissue from a creature in the North where the temperatures were incredibly cold. Not only would it help insulate me from any cold or heat-type damage, it reduced blunt damage so much that I was certain I could barely feel it if a dragon struck me.

Fortunately, it won’t take long for me to find that out, as the dragon on top of the cliff of this small island roared its defiance. It was dark yellow with red spots periodically along its spine. It looked fierce, and there was some intelligence behind those eyes, but that intelligence was more that of an animal than a sapient creature. I roared back and mimicked its noise patterns, but changed it a little bit. That should make it sound like dragons were having a disagreement and not adventurers attacking a dragon.

It took a step back when it heard my roar. It understood that between the two of us, I was the stronger. But I also saw her prepare to defend her nest, even if it meant her death. I respected that a lot. I didn’t attack immediately, but flew around her nest a few times, making sure she didn’t go completely crazy and crush her eggs.

I started to swoop down, getting ever closer until I saw an opening. She was positioned just right, so I swooped down. I was a bit bigger than her and tackled her away from her nest so I could subdue her without damaging the eggs.

She hit me and tried to claw me, but as I suspected, it barely registered. While she still had some mass on me, as there were even now limits to how much mass I could exert, my skills were making the difference.

I pushed her down. She tried to breathe fire, and I let her, but it did literally nothing. To my surprise she started to calm down a bit. That anger of hers turned into fright.

I held her down and saw that she was trying to look towards her eggs, so I let her. Her actions kind of reminded me of a cat. She tried to struggle more when she noticed people around her nest, but no matter what she did, she couldn't move as I was still holding her down.

Then it came to me, and I communicated with Enn who was preparing to take the eggs into one of the devices. “No, use the one meant for the dragon. We'll put them both in the same one. I think she will go in without much trouble if she sees them going into the device.”

I didn’t think she would have a way to communicate back. I was only able to project my thoughts, and even that badly, and anyone who knew anything about mind magic would be able to pick up on my transmission, but fortunately, there wasn’t anyone around here.

She did as I told her, and the dragon started to struggle even more as her eggs disappeared. Enn came closer and held the device open that looked kind of like a chest that opened in the front instead of the top.

A creature, if they were conscious, could resist going in there, but they would also understand what the device wanted from them. The dragon struggled a bit more, but when the pull got stronger, I finally saw it click in her mind.

The next moment, my claws hit the rock as the dragon I was holding down disappeared into the device. They would be in stasis there, and I believed she would continue to take care of her nest whenever they were brought out in the dungeon.

"Good job, Rafe, on to the next one then?" I gave her a nod and then communicated with my mind once again.

"I will be staying in this form, it will be easier.” It will also allow me to cultivate mass, which should make it possible to contend with bigger dragons with more ease.

Dragon sizes could be quite different even if they were the same age, so while I was certain I could win against bigger dragons, subduing them would not be as easy. Also, it's better to get used to this body a bit more, and it would be easier to make changes as I test things out.