Roge got back home from a day of training, smiling at the gains he’d gotten to his Strength stat. In just one day he’d received three whole points, leaving him one point away from unlocking his Monk Skill Tree, which he was told would have very juicy Skills he could take advantage of. He’d almost stayed some more, but was reminded by his Status that he needed to be home that night. And tell Mom about his new career.
He already spotted her sitting at one of the tables, the wolfkin’s sharp eyes moving to Roge and making the dragon freeze. He’d been somewhat confused during that first week, not understanding why a dragonkin and wolfkin would just make more dragonkin, but he’d found out from the local library that it was mostly up to random chance and mixed breeds were not a thing. His family had two wolfkin and two dragonkin, him and his middle sister inheriting the dragon genes whole his eldest sister and little brother had come out wolven. It didn’t matter too much, as his family composition stayed mostly the same, and so he’d gotten somewhat used to it by then.
What he had not gotten used to was staying around his mother’s extreme religious beliefs again, having escaped her clutched when he’d turned eighteen. Now he lived in the same building as her again, having almost completely avoided her until that moment. He could tell from her piercing stare at his clothes and snarl coming to her face that she was not pleased. Not pleased at all.
“What have you done child?” she asked sharply as Roge sat down, his gaze firmly on the table as he pulled a wine glass out of his inventory. “You’ve gone and joined the Guild when I had specifically set up a nice slot for you at the Holy College this coming spring. I can see it in your Status,” she barked at his questioning glance, the dragon taking a small sip of his glass to hide his flinch. “After all this family has done for you. What the Divine has done for you. You go throw it away to play with your stupid frie…”
“Don’t,” he growled, cutting her off without even looking up at her. “Don’t insult my friends. They routinely go out…”
It was his turn to be interrupted by, “Oh don’t you talk back to me. Yes they go kill monsters, but even the church bred elf never even goes to sermons. Let alone all of the other filth…” She continued on and on at this, Roge slowly tuning her out as he looked at his glass. Church this and Divine that, acting all high and mighty when she was there spewing hatred at someone she didn’t like. She hadn’t changed at all from how she was before, even with the religion change. She was exactly like that day he’d left…
He then got up at that thought, turning away from his mother and her “How dare you turn your back on me!” to start heading towards the stairs. She continued her tirade as he packed his things, Courage hopping up onto the windowsill to gaze up at the night sky. He was only stopped at the exit to the inn after he’d headed downstairs by his father’s hand on his shoulder, finally looking up at his dad’s sad face as his mother continued screeching.
“I’ll come back every once in a while. Just not while she’s here.” His dad nodded at that, the dragonkin sighing at his wife’s scandalized gasp. “This is why Jenny never comes home Mom. Neither one of us can stand you.” He then left with the final word, his Familiar lifting off of the inn to land softly on his shoulders.
Turns out leaving his mother had been much easier the second time around.
~---~
“Don’t just stand there Arthur! Go after him!” Anne screeched at her husband, the dragonkin sighing at the crowd she had gathered. It would benefit their business in the end, as each of her tantrums had done, but he still hated each and every one of them. And now two had left him with two less children in their house, Arthur feeling the emptiness in his chest expanding at that thought.
“That’s enough hun. Go cool off,” he stated tiredly, hearing several groans as she growled and walked to the back staircase. He then went back to the office, trying to calm himself by handling some of the mind numbing paperwork for a few minutes.
“Now I guess I have to wait a little longer to leave,” a voice popped up from the door, Arthur smiling as he sees his youngest child.
“Do all my children truly plan to leave and never come back?” Arthur asked quietly, Aaron quickly enveloping the older dragon in a hug. “I can’t run this place without her…”
“Not that I’m pushing to break up with Mom, but I do have the Chef Class. I can take over in the kitchen with some practice and Big Sis already handles all of the cleaning anyway.” His littlest whines a little, always having hated the conflicts in the family. “I don’t like how unhappy she makes you.”
Arthur sighs at the suggestion, giving his son a smile and quick kiss to the forehead. “I know you aren’t pushing son. I’ll join you in the kitchen in a bit, but I need some time.” Aaron nodded at that, giving the dragon a wolfy smile before heading out. As soon as the door closed Arthur let the hurt show on his face, glancing down at his papers and wondering what to do.
~---~
For the rest of the week, Roge stayed in the Guild dorms, finding his commute to the smoke shop a little longer, but not minding it too much as he swung back and forth. He continued training each day, having unlocked the Monk Skill Tree the day after he’d left home.
Draconic Magic Skill Tree
Rank 1 -
Obtained: Combat Focus (Con), Unarmed Fighting (Str)
Available:
Attack (Choose 2): Unarmed Blow (Str), Fury of Bros (Cha), Magic Punch (Int)
Defense (Choose 2): Dodge (Dex), Thick Skin (Con), Bare Handed Parry (Dex), Glistening Muscles (Cha)
Mobility (Choose 1): Fast Travel (Agi), Swift Foot (Agi), Matching Steps (Agi)
Strength: 22 (1/2 Skill Slots Used)
Dexterity: 40 (0/3 Skill Slots Used)
Agility: 26 (1/2 Skill Slots Used)
Constitution: 41 (3/4 Skill Slots Used)
Intelligence: 55 (5/5 Skill Slots Used)
Charisma: 16 (1/1 Skill Slots Used)
Roge nodded at the different options, noting he couldn’t choose certain options due to those stat slots being full. No matter, he’d decided to select some, but not all, just to increase his combat effectiveness after that week.
Unarmed Blow (Str): Unarmed strikes now count as metal weapon strikes in terms of combat effectiveness.
Effect: Changed unarmed damage type from skin to metal.
Dodge (Dex): Your body automatically moves to dodge some blows.
Effect: +1 Dodge per Rank
Thick Skin (Con): Your skin is better able to resist damage.
Effect: +1 Defense per Rank
The ones he was having trouble with was the movement options, having had no chance to even test the first mobility skill he’d gotten the week prior.
Nature Walk (Agi): Filling your body with Plant Magic, the flora around you will mistake you as one of their own.
Effect: +2 Speed Per Rank
Cost: Very Low Magic
Duration: 1 hour per Rank
Turns out almost nothing had been known about his Draconic Mage Class other than it had existed, so most of the skills had to be tested to find out what they did. He’d activated Nature Walk before, but never felt it actually do anything other than take a bit of Magic from him every once in a while. Until he could properly test it in the woods outside of town, he’d decided to not take any of the mobility options so as to not cause any overlap.
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He’d left his last offensive point to try and get the Magic Punch Skill, having been excited to get another Magic option, and one for offense as well. It rarely appeared in the Skill Tree, as you needed some kind of Magic Class to take it and people generally didn’t go hybrid like he had.
The team had finally decided that Roge was ready for a short mission, Madam Madrid giving the okay to skip one day due to the backlog he’d given her after his Accelerate had Ranked up. They met up that morning at the job listing board, Roge eager to get a decent job as his savings were starting to get too lean for his tastes.
“We could do this goblin village? Looks like an easy Quest…” Sean muttered, the others giving a bored look before Hops pointed at another listing.
“There’s also this herb gathering one in the same area. Should be pretty simple with Roge being able to sense the plants around him.” Roge nodded at that, his Nature Senses skill having let him sense through any plant that was within a specific range of him. He could somewhat see and feel around them, but it was easy enough to recognize a plant and what it was from Identify. They found a total of three quests in the same general area that were herb gathering quests, the group deciding to take all of them for after the goblin village was taken out. They were all listed for copper adventurers, but with the amount they were taking, it seemed reasonable for a silver team to do them all in one day. Some of the Quests were pretty old, the younger adventurers having passed them up for combat listings.
After copying down the description of each plant from the receptionist and marking a spot on their parchment map well outside the city, they all decided to head out, Roge pulling them up to the roofs to have a faster time through the city.
“You really need to make more of those,” Marge complained, the dragon shrugging and smiling at her.
“Not my fault the Guild wanted to study it first. They’ll let me know tomorrow if I can sell them through the Guild and once it’s approved for that, they said I can give it to you guys. Just remember the eating downside. Food costs will go up for everyone then.”
“Oh I doubt that,” Sean grunted, picking himself up after having launched himself over a street. “I can tell you already have plans to get rid of that side effect, as not a lot of people will want the extra food cost.” Roge ducked his head at this, indeed having been thinking of temporary versions or ones that needed water or dirt in a backpack to feed. Like a pet.
They finally made it to the outskirts of the town, Roge gasping as he saw the landscape from atop the wall. It was almost the same as he’d remembered, mostly forests with winding roads through the hills. The stark difference was in the noise, the wild sounds of the forest coming out with the car sounds missing. With no headphones or car to dampen his hearing, the forest was a different experience as they headed out.
Turning on his Nature Senses took some time to get used to as well, Roge finding himself aware of everything going on around him, even the small creatures flitting through the underbrush. He could even sense some burrows through the roots of some plants, not to mention how strange everything looked and felt through everything. After about an hour of walking and getting used to the sensation, his party suggested he try out Nature Walking to see if it needed to work in the woods.
He activated it with a nod, not feeling anything at first until he stepped onto the grass off the side of the road. He instantly felt himself move several yards into the forest, not even having touched the intervening space, much to the outcry of his party. He could see about ten yards in each direction with his Senses, so he tried moving to the edge of the path instead of just a random direction, finding himself at the road within one step.
“That…” Sean muttered, having stepped off the path himself to presumably find Roge in the packed forest.
“Okay if it’s going to be teleportation, the skill could at least tell me that!” Roge ended up shrieking, several birds nearby flying off at the noise. He growled at the Skill description with ample frustration, Marge nearly bursting out laughing at his expression. “Testing time.” He moved back onto the dirt road and felt the Skill deactivate once more, ready to go as soon as he stepped onto the grass. “What about contact…” he muttered, moving forward along the road to touch a tree that he could reach from the dirt. He still felt nothing, the Skill only activating once his feet were on the grass.
“Can you take me with you?” asked Hops, the elf moving up next to Roge as Roge grabbed his shoulder. With one step, both of them were several yards in the woods again, Roge not detecting any difference in the Magic taken but assuming it would escalate with each person he took.
With both of them back on the road, Marge had the idea of all of them grabbing onto Roge’s extended vines, trying to see if it could be used as a faster method of travel. Within five steps and 25 yards down the side of the road in only a few seconds, Roge ground to a halt, finding that it had already taken up almost a quarter of his overall Magic to do that one stunt. All of them cringed at that information, Roge sighing in exasperation.
“Guess it’s just a personal teleportation Skill designed for me to move short distances,” he summarized, all of them starting back up down the road. “So my Monk movement option should compliment that.”
Fast Travel (Agi): Takes one step and turns it into three!
Effect: +1 Speed per Rank
Cost: Very Low Stamina
Duration: 1 Hour per Rank
Swift Foot (Agi): Your feet move faster across the ground, making you appear like a blur to most.
Effect: +1 Speed per Rank
Cost: Very Low Stamina
Duration: 1 Hour per Rank
Matching Steps (Agi): Follow the steps of your enemies and never lose track of them in battle.
Effect: Keep the same distance from a target, even through teleportation effects.
Cost: Very Low Stamina (Increases with teleportation effects)
Duration: 1 Hour per Rank
Roge frowned at all of the descriptions, having been given the lowdown by the Guild for these ones and once again feeling irritated. He pulled out his notebook to confirm.
Fast Travel: Increases the distance of your stride.
Swift Foot: Increases the speed of your stride.
Matching Steps: Really weird. Forces you to move exactly the same as your opponent. Only good against teleporting enemies.
“Who comes up with these…?” he distractedly muttered, the other three part members too distracted by their own conversation to hear him. He then frowned at the last description, feeling tempted but needing clarification.
“Hey Sean?” he called out, the tigerkin turning away from their previous conversation. “Oh sorry. So um… can the definition of an enemy extend to a training partner with other Skills?”
Sean thought about it for a moment, nodding his head as the other two gave Roge questioning looks. “Yeah, I’ve never seen a Skill not work in training. Why?”
“I’m thinking of getting the Matching Steps Skill to help with training and learning fighting moves.” All three looked surprised at that, Hops, especially as they considered the idea. “I also may help with stat training if I can get it to latch onto a training partner, but this Skill may get around my block towards no mental effects.”
“That’s… actually not a half bad idea,” Hops admitted, pulling out a notebook to write ideas on. “It can only be used for the first part of learning the moves, as you need to train them until they become habit, but it would definitely make up for that shortcoming. Very interesting.” He muttered the last part, Roge looking a bit amazed at how fast the elf was writing.
“I’d say take it just for that and then only use it for follow teleports,” Marge added, a grin slowly stretching across her muzzle as she likely thought of other applications Roge didn’t want to know about.
“Yeah, go ahead and take it,” Sean agreed, Roge tapping the screen to select that Skill from the list. “All that’s left is increasing your intelligence for that Magical Skill right?” Roge nodded. “Then once we get back into town, we’ll start you up on Intelligence training at the library.” Hops stopped his note taking at that, giving Roge a grin.