The journey was going uneventfully, relatively anyways compared to what the group could handle. Gregory had gained a couple of levels, but even with that could still tell that the group he was in were practically dragging him. For them to be this dedicated to helping him meant one of two things; it was either extremely beneficial for them to have a part dragon in the party, or he really would be useful in some ways with his ability to heal them and not need to pull from their reserves. He was boosting INT every level, and using his newfound mana to grow his strength by putting on enough gravity that he was barely able to walk. There were notifications that he was gaining points in STR, AGI, and CON as they traveled, which made it that much easier to keep walking as they got continuously closer to the dragon’s mountain sanctuary.
‘It does seem that the new luck curse on me isn’t working, which is a good thing. I will need to make sure to not passively use my luck though, otherwise it might become stronger.’
Inside the cave they were traveling through were numerous side-paths, not to mention multiple invisible paths that couldn’t be seen and had to be gotten into. Some of the invisible paths were in areas that seemed to have traps, needing to get hit by what would be a trap to get into the path. Still, being able to just follow behind the others made things very easy for him. It took no mental effort to follow them, and it was impossible to hit traps if they were going first and making sure to show him there were no traps first.
Gregory considered this entire experience since he met this new party a major honor. Not only did he gain huge amounts of knowledge from these people that would have been otherwise unknown to him, but they were doing what they could to make him more powerful as well. They did freely reveal though, that all of them were stronger than him in every way with modifiers, which had made him visibly distressed. The demons, faeries, and celestials all had x5 modifiers to their stats compared to humans. The beastkin, gnomes, and dwarves were a bit more varied. Beastkin had x15 to AGI, with x10 to CON, PER, and STR, and X5 to their WIS and INT. They were also the only ones with natural weapons. Dwarves had x15 to CON and STR, x10 to AGI and INT, and X5 to PER and WIS. Gnomes on the other hand had X15 to AGI only, then had x10 to all other stats except PER, with a x5 to that. Basically, Gregory was much weaker than other races, and would remain that way until he could become one with another race to improve his power.
‘The curse of the humans, even though they can level faster, their power is so much weaker it is basically a non-factor. Even the man who we met recently, had he not had gravity magic, and enough mana to use it consistently, our group would have been far too much for him to handle. They were all faster, stronger, and definitely more perceptive than he was. On the other hand, I think the bonuses I have to my stats right now are only true until such time as the planets fully connect. The people in this group, even with their massive boosts to power, probably have just about all their stats at a higher point than I do. I do wonder though, why do all the races put modifiers on their stats in comparison to humans? I mean, it makes sense when speaking to me, but it seems almost second nature for them. Unless humans are a base race, and it makes it easier for them to measure off of a base instead of measuring from a point that has a less clean reference point.’
Deep in thought, Gregory almost missed it when a massive creature plummeted to the ground from the ceiling. Its body was at least 50 feet tall, and had muscles that made it look as if they would rip from underneath the beasts skin. Its skin was a sickly dull gray, appearing as if it were stretched too thin to make it cover the entire body. There were thick scars covering the body of this creature, making the already sickly gray skin look like it had gone through whirling blades to get here. The head of the creature was disproportionately small, with three eyes and large sharp tusks protruding from its lower lip. It had long curved claws adorning its hands, with visible jagged edges along them. Instead of legs, it had tentacles keeping it up. It was hard to say how many there were, but they were large and slammed the ground with massive force with every move it made.
When the fight between this monster and the group started, Gregory began watching intently. He was looking for any openings to use magic against it, trying to find a way to help beat it. It attacked violently, his team barely managing to avoid attacks that would have likely obliterated them. As it attacked, Gregory saw that it also swung and slammed with the tentacles. It always had at least a third of them on the ground, but often more. When it had less than half, the creature visibly wavered whenever it had to move. It gave Gregory an idea on how to beat it, but it would require teamwork. He called out to one of the people to use a wind attack the next time it had only a third of its tentacles on the ground. During this time, Gregory gathered half of his mana to prepare to use Gravitas against it and hopefully topple it with the combined attack. If they could topple the beast and destroy its eyes, they could likely beat it after that. Before too much time had passed, it had once again brought up two thirds of its tentacles and Gregory used half of his mana to apply pressure to the creature before them. With the added gravity and the wind to knock it over, the beast fell to the ground. The group moved almost before he could even notice them doing anything.
It took some time for the monster to get back up. Despite its hulking figure and massive strength, the extra gravity made it impossible for its arms to make up the difference of using its tentacles. However, the extra gravity made it almost impossible to get its tentacles under its body. By the time Gregory had used Gravitas for a minute and the monster got up, it had already been severely damaged. The eyes that adorned this creature were all sliced out slashed leaving it nearly blind. A number of its tentacles had also been lopped off, leaving it with no choice but to attack only with its arms and claws. Even then, the blood it was leaking from its body was having a noticeable effect on the speed it had displayed before falling to the ground. Suddenly, it seemed like it was possible to defeat this beast and make it to where the dragons live. Its speed was slowly dropping and it was definitely losing health. Even the attacks it performed were getting easier for the rest of the group to dodge. They continued fighting, making ground against this massive beast that prevented them from making it to the home of the dragons. It was nearing a quarter health, but the group was getting tired. Despite it being severely weakened from the earlier attack, it was a monstrously powerful foe.
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When it finally hit a quarter of its health, after what seemed to have been an hour of combat, four arms grew out from its body and the swinging of its arms was reinvigorated. Instead of barely being able to keep up, the creature was actually just about catching them now. Had it not been so heavily wounded before, Gregory doubted they could even kill it. Even with its eyes ruined, the creatures other senses had managed to give it enough accuracy to be able to easily get around the sight it had lost. The fight was quickly turning around from Gregory’s group being in the lead, to their group going hugely on defense. Even the tentacles began swinging again, nearly hitting anybody close enough. The claws had even scratched some of them, and there were deep cuts in the armor that some of them were wearing.
Just as it looked like the entire group, including Gregory, were going to die, a massive dragon came into the area through a door and absorbed the creature that was attacking them. It was an amazing creature, covered in green and gold scales. Everybody thought this dragon was impressive, but none knew for sure how powerful it was. That was until Gregory saw it restore the creature they had just been fighting as it was before the fight. The dragon turned toward the group, explaining the situation.
“This is an ancient golem I keep summoned to keep humans from entering this place. No so far have been able to defeat it, though you have come closer than I have seen anybody come in a long time. That raises the question though, what brings you here? Most people don’t bother coming, and those that do are usually well aware that this place is a very dangerous one to visit. Of course, many say it is the easiest dragon home to gain access to, that is only without the golem that we keep guarding it at all times.”
‘That explains the monster that attacked us, but to think it was created by that dragon makes the dragons even more frightening. How long has this dragon lived? Does its age have something to do with why it is so strong? Does how magically strong it is have something to do with how physically strong the golem is? I have so many questions, but I probably can’t ask all of them. Nor would it make sense to ask all the questions, I have far more important things to think about.’
Elise spoke up in response to the golem, being the de facto leader of the group.
“We came because this human wants to become part dragon. We found him alone in the wilderness near human territory, and discovered that he is from a different planet. He says it is called ‘Earth,’ and that it is home to enough humans to stop our planet from dying. He said that whoever told him what is going on never specified what they were, but did give them very vague information about what was happening. It also seems that whoever brings them here is responsible for humanity’s destructive tendencies. He told us that they mentioned danger and monsters before anything else as far as this world was concerned.
If you would be able to help him, we’d really appreciate it. We have traveled with him, and know that he isn’t lying to us. He is also not so foolish as to attack us without provocation and try to cause intentional harm.”
The dragon looked curiously at Gregory, having never personally met a person born from another planet. Had it not been for Gregory, he likely never would have. Still though, the request was something that proved him legitimate. It was something a human born here would never request, even to gain power, since they were all so incredibly stuck up because of their ability to level up faster as pure humans. Turning to look at Gregory, the dragon decided to really test him with the power that comes from being part dragon.
“You know you will be giving up a serious ability to level faster, not to mention that you could die if it doesn’t work. This may be something you understand, but I don’t want you going into this decision blind. I’d really hate to be the cause of a death, even if it is a human death. Choose to become one of us though, and I promise I will do all I can to assist you with it.”
When he paused, Gregory decided to ponder his words for a moment. What the dragon said was true; he was giving up some things, but he was also gaining power. Even if it risked his life, who was to say he wouldn’t die because he didn’t do it later on. It also seemed that dragons had much longer life spans than humans, meaning that he wouldn’t have to worry about death of old age anytime soon. He wouldn’t be able to go back to Earth like this, but he would be able to survive much more easily on this planet.
“I do want to become part dragon, I believe it is the only way for me to survive this new world. I also don’t want to live in fear, and need to forever live in regret of a decision that will only bring me momentary doubt. If I decide not to go through with this, I will only be weaker in the long-run. Leveling will eventually get too hard even if I can get to much higher levels easier. Once I start to plane off on leveling, I will continue to get weaker in comparison to if I were part dragon. I am sure there are even some creatures that are entirely immune to anything a human could do to them, and that would make me being part dragon an even better thing.”
The dragon was surprised, not once did this human refer to anything as a monster. He gave a logical response to the question, and even admitted that he wasn’t a perfect being. It had proved that he was at least worthy of an audience with somebody that could choose to accept his request. Not to say that he couldn’t accept his request, but he would be banned for accepting the request. Only the head dragon was allowed to accept other races to become part dragon. For a human like this, it was actually quite like the boss would say yes, but policy was policy.
“My name is Xano Nox Lux. The name of the dragon who will be deciding the acceptance of your request is Aurum Rex Sanguinus. Now, I wish you the best, and hope you will become a powerful dragon.”