{Arthur's POV}
Arthur was surrounded by fire. Wait, he was surrounded by things ON fire. He was standing in the middle of the town of Mirfield atop multiple dead guards. He shouted in surprise, stepping off of the pile that his front legs were standing on. Arthur looked up and he was suddenly in front of a tavern that was being consumed by roaring flames, and he could spot humanoids banging on the front glass windows before he watched in horror as they were consumed by the flames.
When he tried to turn away he once again found himself in a different place and position, releasing his breath attack on the town masters house. Arthur belched blue-red flames from his mouth, a never-ending torrent. Arthur couldn't stop himself, he felt rooted to the spot.
When he finally managed to stop himself, all that was left of the house was ash and blackened debris. Arthur felt himself move to the middle of the debris in a daze, digging around briefly before finding a big pile of shiny golden coins. Arthur felt a massive wave of satisfaction enter his mind, followed by an insatiable lust for more gold coins.
Usually when Arthur felt these surge of uncontrollable emotions come from his instinctual mind, he stamped it down quickly and quietly, but he felt like he had no control over himself. He tried to fight whatever was keeping him from resisting, but it surprisingly fought back. Arthur felt himself try to wrestle control of his mind from himself..? He wasn't sure what it was but Arthur came out triumphant, roaring in victory.
He felt his mind come back into his control, and he also felt the world blurring together. Arthur felt his eyes open slowly, and he was back in the cavern, his head resting on his gold. He stood up quickly, smoke billowing out of his nostrils as he looked around his surroundings. It was morning if the light coming from the outside of the cavern was any indication.
Arthur gathered his wits, remembering what just happened, and realizing he felt like he just woke up from his sleep. Did he just have a nightmare? But it felt so real! Arthur took a deep breath, calming his nerves. It was just a dream. Arthur would never do that to Mirfield. He decided to head outside, get back in touch with reality.
Arthur walked outside into the beaming sun, which seemed to immediately warm his scales. He observed his camp and saw his bugbears and goblins going about, doing their regular tasks, if somewhat sluggishly. Seems they woke up earlier than him. His minions all looked at him as he walked out of the cavern, but Arthur nodded to them and they continued to work.
It seemed they were cleaning up last night's mess and gathering more wood. He saw a bugbear organizing the goblins to go on patrols around the mountain. Alek seemed to still be in his tent because he didn't see him around anywhere. Arthur turned to his plans for the day, which were to learn more of his spell scrolls, and he wanted to find some sort of dungeon or ruin to loot. He was thinking of going to town and buying a map of the world as well, and maybe info on locations of dungeons or ruins.
Nodding to himself, he said to the bugbears around him, "I'm going to be learning more magic this morning. Don't interrupt me for anything menial." He turned back into the cavern and headed back to his scrolls. Once more Arthur reclined on the ground and picked his second favorite spell, enlarge/reduce. Arthur chose this spell because he used it all the time as a wizard when he was human, and it also could come in handy when he needed to fit in tight spots or wreak havoc by becoming bigger than he already was.
The scroll was the same as fireball, if not less complicated. It took him less than ten minutes to fully decipher the words on the scroll, after which his magic inside him once again burst out and consumed the scroll in a burst of light. Arthur felt the familiar flow of knowledge flow into his brain, the steps to cast it and wield the magic properly, as well as the difference between the enlarge part and the reduce part.
Arthur decided to test it on himself, standing up and casting the reduce spell on his body. He felt and watched himself quickly shrink down to half his original size. Arthur felt more light on his feet than he ever did, his power being compressed into a smaller form made it easier to be more dexterous, though he felt slightly weaker than usual. He took a quick flight around the room and found it extremely easier to maneuver.
Arthur went back to his original size after a minute, and Arthur reviewed what happened internally. He felt a sizeable chunk of his magic flow into that spell, and his magic felt less fiery than when he had cast fireball. It regenerated at a much slower pace than when he had cast fireball, but it was back to a full tank within five minutes nonetheless. He waited for it to regen fully before testing the enlarge spell on himself. Arthur quickly swelled to double his size, absolutely massive.
Arthur felt pure, unadulterated strength flow through his body. Arthur slammed his fist down into the ground, creating an indent of his fist after he pulled it back up. Arthur felt nothing when he did that. When the spell ended, he once again reviewed his feelings and thoughts.
Arthur could tell now that there was a slight tugging at his mind whenever he was under the effect of his spell, forcing a small part of his unconscious mind to concentrate on the spell and hold the magic there. That must be the concentration part of enlarge/reduce, he wondered if he could concentrate on two spells at the same time, perhaps his brain could handle that? Anyways, Arthur was very pleased with the results of his experiment, glad he had learned another of his favorite spells.
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Now that Arthur had learned his offensive spells, it was time for him to dig his claws into his utility picks. He picked up the next scroll he picked, unrolling it and deciphering it. He smirked to himself. Invisibility would come in handy many times in many situations, it was simply too good for him to pass up. He deciphered it in roughly the same time as enlarge, and once again his magic consumed the scroll in a flash of light. As the knowledge flowed into his mind, he stood up and tried this new magic once again.
Arthur said the words to activate the spell, and the magic flowed into his hand, which he tapped himself with. It instantaneously spread across his body, and Arthur watched in glee as his body simply disappeared. He made the same noise when he walked, but he found if he took it slowly and purposefully, he could be surprisingly silent in that regard.
Arthur experimentally lashed out at the cavern floor with his claws, raking it lightly. The magic on him faded almost immediately, dissipating into nothing. As he suspected, the magic ended whenever he attacked something. Arthur decided to test if he could concentrate on two spells at the same time. He first cast reduce on himself and then cast invisibility.
He felt the magic of each spell seem to resist each other like magnets before the reduce spell was forcibly replaced by invisibility. Hmm, it seemed impossible for now. He could experiment more, he felt ready to take on any threats today. He really wanted to test his spells out in combat.
Arthur stepped out of the cavern once more into the sunlight. He estimated it had been about half an hour, though he wasn't sure since he last spoke to the goblinoids and Alek. He spotted Alek, eating some leftover meat and sitting on a log. Arthur felt a pang of shame. Alek didn't really have much to do, and Arthur guessed he was probably extremely bored or lonely, or both.
Alek looked over to Arthur when he walked out and waved at him. Arthur plodded over and sat next to him, saying, "Good morning Alek. I hope you aren't too bored here. I could organize for you to be included in a hunt if you would wish." Alek swallowed his food, waving his hand in the air and saying to Arthur,
"It's fine. I'm good at amusing myself, trust me, hehe. I was actually thinking about foraging for some berries in the forest, I'm getting kinda tired of this meat-only diet." Arthur felt embarrassed he hadn't thought of ordering his goblins to pick berries. That should have been obvious, but he overlooked it as he had a lot going on yesterday. Such as being reincarnated into a dragon. It had only been a day since he was reincarnated, it felt like at least a couple of days ago! Arthur realized he was spacing out in the middle of a conversation and turned back to Alek, saying,
"I apologize. I should have thought of that. Anyways Alek, I had wanted to ask you if there were any ruins or some sort of dungeon in this forest. I have need of gold and magic, of course." Alek looked at him briefly in surprise before shrugging and replied,
"I think there's some sort of ruin somewhere, said to be hidden in the forest. I'm pretty sure there's a quest for it in Mirfield. There are a lot of quests in Mirfield about slaying things and such, if you're looking for a way to get some easy gold. Well, easy for you." He grinned at Arthur, who smiled back, careful not to show teeth. Arthur pondered his words and decided he would do these 'easy' quests for the gold, which seemed to fill his dragon side with satisfaction.
"I've decided I'll do these quests you speak of. Would you like to come with me?" Alek shook his head quickly, saying to him,
"No, no. I would much rather prefer picking berries. I'm a pacifist at heart. Well, most of the time." Arthur nodded and said, "Take some goblins with you. If they give you trouble while I'm gone, tell me, and I'll deal with them. Tell the bugbears what I'm doing and to hold the fort. Thank you for the information, friend Alek." Alek told him it wasn't a big deal, and hopped to his feet and started to head down the mountain after saying his goodbyes to Arthur, which he returned. Arthur took to the skies and flew to Mirfield, intent on taking a quest.
He drew closer, circling the town once before dropping down in front of the gate at his usual spot. Queue the guards scrambling down their towers, cue the town master hustling towards him. The town master made it in front of the gate, shouting to him, "Fine morning, Arthur! What brings you here today?" He looked up at Arthur, smiling. Arthur always found it amazing how quickly humans could adapt to a situation. He felt as if the town master was treating him as he would a guest in his home! "I have been told your town has minor quests involving the slaying of beasts in exchange for gold. I would like to take these all, if possible." The town master raised his eyebrows in mild surprise before he replied with another kind smile,
"Of course! Although usually, adventurers can only take one quest at a time, we can make an exception for you as I'm sure you'll complete them in due time!" Arthur nodded his thanks, and the town master ordered a guard to fetch the quests. Arthur wanted to buy a multitude of things here, but the only problem was he had no way to carry it back beside his hands, and he didn't have the gold right now to purchase them. Arthur and the town master waited in silence for a couple of minutes for the guard to come back.
They eventually did, carrying three scrolls in their arms. The town master briefly read through each one before holding them to Arthur, who carefully and slowly pinched them in his claws each time. "Those scrolls involve the hardest and most difficult beasts that have been giving us problems, and the entire reward for all three of them is two thousand gold in total. I hope that's to your liking?" Arthur nodded, looking down at the scrolls in his palm as he replied, "Yes, thank you. I assume I can sell the body's materials as well, right?" The town master nodded, smiling up at him. Arthur thanked him before flying into the air once more.
He hovered, reading the first scroll at random. A group of giant spiders has recently moved in near Mirfield and have been messing up the ecosystem, and killing hunters. 1000 GP in total for driving or killing off the spiders. A good start to the day, and he suspected these spiders wouldn't be too appreciative of his fire. He memorized their suspected location, and set off in that direction, scrolls still clutched in his palm.
He hoped their lair had something good hidden inside of it.