Somewhere deep in the Oberon Undermountain, in one of the larger caverns, two forces of kobolds were having a face-off. On one side of the cavern there were brown kobolds and on the other side were red. The brown kobolds vastly outnumbered the red kobolds, but the reds were better equipped; they wore leather armour and wielded short spears.
“Meow! Submit to me, I am the Dragon!” A certain Greater Desert Wyrm bellowed in intimidation.
“We serve the Dragon!” Brown kobolds shouted in unison.
“Rebels! I’ve defeated your leader and married her. You must listen to me, yes-yes.” The Kobold Leader tried to reason.
“Meow? Surely, kobolds are born to serve dragons. And I am a dragon!”
“We serve the Dragon!”, “We serve the Dragon!”, “We serve the Dragon!”
“You’re not a dragon, no-no. You’re just a desert lizard!” The Kobold Leader didn’t recognise the wyrmling’s authority.
“Take back your words, meow!”
“You can’t fly, you don’t even breathe fire, you’re a fake dragon! Brown kobolds, you’ve been deceived.”
“Yeah? But I can do this, [Sand Tornado]!”
The attempts at negotiation broke with the first bout of hostilities. Since the wyrmling was in an enclosed cavern the spell failed to take its full power and just blew debris and sand particles towards the reds. However, that didn’t mean that the spell wasn’t powerful, it managed to knock off the first few lines of the red kobolds, including the Kobold Leader.
“Traitors!” The Kobold Leader cursed hitting the stony ground. “Kobold Warriors go! Subjugate the rebels.” He commanded.
“Meow. You don’t stand a chance against a Dragon. Submit to my power! [Stone Cannon].”
The reds launched their attack sprinting towards the browns. The browns didn’t have any armour or decent weaponry, at best they had their claws and rocks for throwing. The throwing rocks rained on reds, but due to their superior gear, they were able to shrug the projectiles and continue their sprint. However, Stone Cannon was a proper spell and thus it managed to do serious damage to the target.
“[Stone Cannon], [Stone Cannon], [Stone Cannon], Meow! Too many.” The wyrmling meowed in frustration. “We have numbers on our side. And I am a Dragon! Charge!”
The browns ran to meet the charge of their adversary.
“I’ll free my people from your trickery, lizard!” *Nom-nom, *Gulp “[Dragon Strength]! Now I am a Dragon too!” The lean muscles on the Kobold’s leader bulged growing big and taunt.
A volley of Stone Shaped rocks rained on the Kobold Leader but he shrugged the projectiles off as if they were nothing.
“Rawr!” He roared feeling the power of dragons.
“Meow!” The wyrmling hissed at the annoyingly persistent kobold.
“For the Dragon!” Shouted brown kobolds.
“For the Leader!” Shouted red kobolds.
The two forces clashed in a melee. The browns used Claw to damage the armour of the red kobolds. The reds retaliated with swings of their spears, for mercy or whatever reason they used only the butt end of the spear, but even then, it was quite effective.
Since the Kobold Leader was leading the charge he was the first one to clash with the Greater Dessert Wyrm. The wyrm wasn’t a part of his tribe, it wasn’t even a kobold, so without hesitation, he used his spear to stab at the wannabe dragon. However, the wyrm scales were rather tough and hard to pierce. Even with the Dragon Strength he did only superficial damage.
“Auch, meow! I’ll bite you!” The wyrmling bit at the spear wielding hand latching firmly on it.
“[Claw]!” He swung at the side of the wyrm's head.
“Meow!” Wyrmling winced in pain and let the arm go.
The kobold leader used that chance to thrust the spear at the wyrmling.
“[Stone Shield].”A plate of earth manifested in the air blocking kobold’s attack.
“[Piercing Thrust].” He shattered the stone plate with a second attack.
“Meow?” The wyrmling meowed in surprise, it shouldn’t have been possible.
“I have the power of dragons! Begone lizard, out of my caves! Rawr! [Supercharge], [Impale].” He threw his ace combination.
The spear shattered a sandy yellow scale piercing deeply into the side of the wyrmling!
“No! [Stone Spikes], meow, [Sand Cloud].”
A ring of spikes shot out from the ground forcing the kobold leader to jump back, but even then it grazed past his armour scaring his chest, a few inches closer and he himself would have been impaled.
“Lizard!” he cursed struggling to see where it went, the sand was clouding his vision. Worse, the wyrmling pulled his spear with him in the retreat; it was firmly stuck between the scales.
“Meow, auw-auw! Retreat!” It cried behind the cover of sand clouds.
“Really?! You give up now? You are no dragon, no-no.” The Kobold Leader charged into the cloud, his both hands were ready to use Claw. “I’ll find you, and I’ll rip you apart.”
“Meow! [Stone Cannon].”
A round stone shot out from the cloud but the kobold leader used Claw to shatter it in mid-air. After all, there was no need to conserve his stamina anymore; whatever tricks the wyrmling had he had seen them all by now.
“Give back my spear!”
“No! Meow!” The wyrmling dodged a swipe of claws. “[Sand Cloud], [Stone Cannon].”
The sand coverage got even thicker and the wyrmling slimed out of the kobolds swipe once again. A stone projectile hit him on the shoulder, doing some damage but the kobold just shrugged it off. -10HP, so what, he could take at least three more hits.
He sensed something crawling right behind him. “[Flurry], [Claw]” He launched a rapid attack and this time he could feel his claws taking pieces of scales off.
“Meow!” The wyrmling jumped away from the attack. “Retreat!” He shouted once again.
“I won’t let you!” Despite the sand dust he managed to catch up to the wyrmling and grabbed him by the tail.
“You tarnish the good name of dragons. I’ll end you, yes-yes!” The Kobold Leader was definitely angry by this point.
“No! You can't. I’m the King's pet. You’ll make him angry.”
The Kobold Leader hesitated and it was all it took for the wyrmling to slip out of his grasp and disappear back into the sand cloud.
“Retreat. Retreat.” It meowed from a distance.
The sand began to settle revealing the outcome of the fight. Prone forms littered the sand-dusted stone, most of them were brown. There was no surprise that the reds came out victorious. After all, they were well-trained and well-equipped. Of course, if the Kobold Leader didn’t keep the rebel’s magic caster occupied the outcome might have been totally different.
“The pesky desert lizard escaped like a coward. The strength of dragons is with us, we won!” He announced his victory.
The slightly battered kobolds cheered with big smiles on their faces. However, the kobold leader wasn’t smiling. At best they captured only a half of the rebels, the rest had escaped at the lizard’s command. So they will be back, and he was all out of Slug Jelly now. Without Dragon Strength, he doubted he could take the fake dragon on, after all, even if juvenile it was still a wyrm.
His musings were interrupted rudely by the Monster System message.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
[Congratulations! You have defeated a ‘fake dragon’ and proved that the blood of dragons is strong with you]
[Achievement: Defeat Legendary Monster: Great Desert Wyrm >
>[Requirement (Monster Race: Dragonoid) has been met. Hidden perk unlocked]
>[Perk Dragon Blood obtained]
“Yes-yes!” The Kobold Leader jumped flailing his hands. “My second achievement!”
Incidentally, the first one was: [Achievement: Kobold Harem > Reputation with Kobolds +50]. But the second one was so much more awesome.
“I have Dragon Blood! Inspect me!” The kobolds ran to check their leader. And meanwhile, he himself just had to see it. “Status.”
Monster Race: Dragonoid
Variant: Red Kobold
Magic Affinity: none
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[Evolve?]
HP:35/50
MP:50
STA:20/100
Active Perks
[Stone Shape], [Claw]
Passive Perks
[Skulking], [Stone Sense], [Dragon Blood], [Dragon Strength]
Resistances
[Fire Resistance: Lesser], [Physical Resistance: Lesser]
Yeah, it definitely was there. Oh, and now there is a little dragonoid on the right side.
‘Some sort of improvement?’ – the Kobold Leader scratched his muzzle. ‘What is this [Evolve?]’ – He concentrated on the red text.
[If they deem you worthy the Monster King can grant you an evolution.]
“Guys. I can evolve!” The Kobold Leader jumped again flailing his arm. “I might become a real dragon, yes-yes!”
A splatter of darkness moved out of the darkest corner of the cavern. The flat shadow shot up taking a humanoid shape. And suddenly out of nowhere, the Spider-King was standing in front of the Kobold leader.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” He said with a frown.
‘Why was he frowning? This was a joyous occasion!’
Similarly, spiders sprung out of the shadows surrounding the kobolds. The Glowing Spider came from one of the tunnels and cast Recover on the unconscious and otherwise hurt kobolds.
“Now explain why my pet wyrmling is leading a rebellion.” The King asked with a tinge of confusion in his voice.
“Why would I know? Ask him!”
“Right, good idea. [Call Familiar].” Obviously nothing happened straight away. “It might take a while, so why don’t you tell me your side of the story.”
…
“I see.” The King nodded at the Kobold Leader's explanation.
As per Kobold Tradition, the Kobold Leader had conquered a rather large tribe of brown kobolds. They lived just on the other side of the mountain face bordering the Scorpion Desert. Naturally, the Kobold Leader married that tribe’s leader, hence joining the tribes together; by the way, the King had met the wife on his earlier visit. And all was well for a moment. The brown kobolds were even better diggers than the red kobolds, conveniently so, a large group of them were entrusted to dig the Oberon Mega Tunnel. That’s where they met their supervisor, the wyrmling, and that’s where the trouble began.
All Kobolds instinctually look up to Dragons and they see it a great honour to serve one. Well, it was debatable if wyrms were dragons or not. If you asked red kobolds they would say that wyrms weren’t dragons, well maybe fire wyrms but definitely not the desert variant; those were just glorified lizards in their eyes. But brown kobolds didn’t see it that way. They lived near the desert for a long time and recognised the power of the Great Desert Wyrm. A select few tribes even had the pleasure to serve one, so when the opportunity presented itself they jumped to serve even if it was a juvenile at the moment.
“That sounds complicated.” The King paused to digest it. “What does your wife think about it? The brown one.” He specified.
“Oh? She wants the tribes to come together. It’s better for all the kobolds.”
In other words, she wasn’t on the side of the wyrmling.
“But the brown kobolds don’t listen to her anymore.” The kobold leader complained. “They don’t even listen to me, no-no. King Evolve me so I can become a dragon!”
“Well… oh look, the culprit is here.”
The wyrmling slithered towards the spider encirclement with its head down, a few of the brown kobolds poked their heads out of the tunnel entrance but didn’t come out to the cavern. The spiders parted letting the wyrmling through. The Kobold Leader scowled at the approaching rebel leader but didn’t say anything.
“Meow, I’m sorry. Don’t take my minions away.” The wyrmling meowed failing to meet King's gaze.
“Oh, so you know you are at fault?”
“Yes, I am an adult.”
“Is that so? When you apologise you need to look in the eyes.”
The wyrmling met the King's gaze again. “I’m sorry, meow.”
“No, apologise to the Kobold Leader. You caused him trouble.”
The wyrmling repeated the apology.
“Now, return my people to me!” The Kobold Leader demanded.
“Meow! No!” The wyrmling hissed. “They want to serve me.” The wyrmling raised the bruised chin higher. “You can take them, meow, but I know they will be back with me.”
Yeah, even wyrms could be too proud for their good…
“Hmm…” The King was thoughtful for a moment. “Kobold Leader, I will Evolve you.”
“Yes-yes, I will become a real dragon! Then the brown kobolds will learn their mistake and come back.”
“Yes. But if…” He paused momentarily. “If they still choose to be with the wyrmling here, please let them, okay?”
“Hah! Okay!” The Kobold nodded.
“Meow?”
Right, so the King now was certain of one thing. The Monster System granted evolutions to their users, and he somehow was a part of it. Was this because he was a Monster King? – It was a good explanation. But when he tried to evolve the Lamia it wouldn’t let him, so there were some prerequisites to be met. And Johny evolved on his own, spiders too fell in that category. However, if a monster wasn’t yet sapient, he could use Evolve with no problem, so there was that as well. So in other words he had a lot of power, but that power came with limitations. And there was a saying that with great power comes great… “Evolve” he invoked showering the Kobold Leader in purple light.
“Ugh!” The King groaned at the sudden drain of mana. “I don’t know if I can keep it up.”
“You must! I must become a dragon! You can do it!” The Kobold Leader cheered demandingly.
Yeah, he went to negative -500 mana, so in other words it took him 5000MP to evolve a single kobold. With that expense, it better be a dragon evolution! Needless to say, he almost passed out from the mana drain.
The kobold continued to glow ever so brighter.
“This is it! I can feel it! Yes-yes!”
The light dimmed and… there was the same old kobold here, maybe a few inches taller.
“Did it fail? [Inspect].”
Monster Race: Dragonoid
Variant: Royal Red Kobold
Magic Affinity: Fire
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HP:100/100
MP:200
STA:200
Active Perks
[Stone Shape], [Claw], [Tail Swipe], [Breathe Fire]
Passive Perks
[Skulking], [Stone Sence], [Dragon Blood], [Red Scales]
Resistances
[Fire Resistance: Medium], [Physical Resistance: Lesser]
Okay, there were a few ways to look at this. Obviously, he didn’t become a Dragon, that would have skipped too many steps. After all, the kobolds were weak creatures. But let's not look down on this evolution. The kobold had essentially doubled his stats and gained access to Fire magic. And the King was sure this was only the beginning.
However, “I’m sorry I couldn’t do better.”
“What? I’m a dragon now! I can breathe fire, [Fire Breath].” He spat a cone of flames blackening the stone ground in the process. “And look at my scales. Red and shiny! I’m also royalty now! Kobold King!”
Huh, the kobold seemed happy by the evolution.
“Kobold King!”, “Kobold King!”, “Kobold King!” – the kobolds chanted in celebration.
Curious about all the noise the brown kobolds emerged from the tunnels.
“Minions, meow, do not be deceived!” The wyrmling purred.
The King slapped his naughty pet on the back of its head. “You be quiet!”