A Kingdom of Dragons
(Continued, obviously)
I, having satisfied most of my curiosity of the state of things after my death, decided that the next best thing to do would be to spy on my fellow gem dragons and learn as much about my new race and culture as possible. like most places with powerful monsters there was magic energy everywhere that was spawning more monsters and making it hard to see in some places…
However unlike the other places I tried to look before…I was located in the place I was trying to see, and the magic was dragon magic which meant I had an affinity for it and after a while of practicing my dream travel rose to level two and I was able to see almost everything in gem dragon land clearly.
I first started spying in the room my egg was in, because I was dying of curiosity on what my egg looked like as well as the logistics of how dragon eggs were cared for. As the level one lowest rank egg with a brown dragon inside my egg didn’t really look that extraordinary…
It was naturally a dull brown color and it was quite big from my human experience of eggs I had seen before but in comparing to the other dragon eggs it was slightly smaller than average. It was about the height of typical dwarf, and it was slightly similar in shape to a chicken’s egg but slightly more spherical. My siblings were also various shades of brown and not much bigger…so there was no need to feel threatened or jealous of them.
My egg and my 9 unhatched siblings were situated in a very fancy and lovely looking room with nice decorations on the walls, several spectacular chandeliers on the ceiling and a strangely complimentary sand covered floor. The eggs were constantly and carefully being monitored; pots full of sand were heated over pits of fire then carefully poured and spread around eggs, in order to heat them. (I found out later that keeping dragon eggs warm makings them quicken and then hatch slightly faster).
I, having apparently carried my ear for languages to my new life plus my greater intelligence level (and possessing an instinctive psychic ability to read their minds)I was quickly able to learn the dragon tongue and soon understood what they were saying.
The ones consistently renewing the hot sand and the ones singing the lullaby had shifts so that there was no time that eggs were ever left alone or without song or heat. As the majority of these people were brown or green I assumed they were servants and of low rank. After the information I had read from my stat window, I roughly knew how dragon rank went there were various exceptions but it generally went like this:
Dragon Rank:
Brown => green => blue => purple => red => orange => yellow => copper => brass => bronze => grey => tin => Aluminum => Iron => black => steel => silver => gold => platinum => white => pearl => mithril => diamond/clear => rainbow
Usually plain colors are lower ranked, then metallic colors exceptions being black and white and sometimes grey. Also mixed colors (more than one) are usually higher ranked then basic colors. The rarity generally went like this:
Color Rarity
Brown and green: common
Blue and purple: uncommon usually nobles and lesser royalty were this color
Red through yellow: rare hero type dragons and mage dragons were usually this color
All metallic up to iron: very rare usually dragon higher royalty were one of these colors
Black through platinum: extremely rare usually the color of those called emperors
White and up: Unique only legendary or god rank divine dragons tend to have these colors
After figuring out these facts about ranks it was interesting to see that often various dragons of high rank (blueish greens and blues) would stop by just to look at us…it seemed that we were considered fairly large for a clutch of eggs and thus lucky for many reasons one of its which is our royal parents…and the fact that according to dragon astronomers we were probably conceived and consequently laid on auspicious days.
I was just about done with looking at myself and my siblings and listen to the servants talk and sing…when parents came into the room, immediately the servants who were standing on two legs bowed deeply, those on all four laid down on the floor…but those were just the ones standing guard or singing, or the ones moving the sand, acted like nothing happened, continued to move sand or their respective work.
My mother seemed quite large for a dragon and she could barely fit through the door way…she was twice as big as the browns and greens and times one third bigger than most of the blues. She was also a very lovely shade of purple. My father was a blue dragon and he was only slightly smaller than mother…he was also well muscled and strong looking obviously a warrior but with an intelligent sly look in his eye.
Mother carefully looked at each of us individually I now knew why we were each kept far apart from in each other in rows of three, this was so mother was able to easily fit around us while she closely studied us. Father also looked at us but he didn’t bother leaving the doorway, he looked proud and pleased as he watched his mate inspect their eggs with a tender look on her face.
She soon finished, I had been near the middle of the row and when her gaze passed over me I had carefully studied her face…and to my joy she gave me an equally pleased look despite my egg being smaller than the others. She turned then and said a dragon expression to the savants which I inferred to believe by their pleased expressions probably meant “keep up the good work” and then she and father left. I decided to follow them.
I soon learned why they didn’t get to visit their eggs very often, for they were somewhat eccentrically (though not unprecedented) both leaders or in other words co-rulers (my mother logistics and day to day my father head general in control of the armies as well as having various diplomatic duties as the consort ) As a result they were both extremely busy and had had hardly any time in the day to do anything but work.
My mother spent most of the day in court hearing complaints settling disputes and delegating to her small army of servants and advisers in order to get a multitude of other tasks done. However, my mother wasn’t a passive queen she was well known as a “battle queen” so at least every other day she would join her personal guard (the dragon version of ladies in waiting) and spar with them to maintain her top form as well as everyone’s respect as this served as a reminder of who the strongest was.
My father spent the majority of his time with his troops, training the officers personally as well as sometimes a few of the more promising soldiers. He also frequently spent time sparring with others of his size and rank in order to get stronger…now and then he would hold strategic meetings with his captains and officers, it turns out that my new family is currently at war with several other kingdoms or more often queendoms of the dragon race.
I figured out the reason that eggs are currently more likely to be born male is because of a recent incident. Occasionally troops are separated by gender particularly at certain times of the year when most males and some females would go into heat…(and thus end up distracting each other) and not too long ago maybe a few years at most an entire troop of males were ambushed by enemy soldiers and were slaughtered.
This was a devastating blow for many reasons, not only did they lose a whole troop of well-trained soldiers (except one guy who was now an officer who had survived to tell what happened) most of the soldiers in the troop had been un-mated and thus there was suddenly a potential mate shortage of the male variety.
Soon after the slaughter they gathered together a small army and completely eliminated that enemy in revenge with only small losses. Dragons unlike some demons (and almost all humans) have no problem with cannibalization, and every dragon that participated in the fight at least got a small taste of flesh that day…this came with the unforeseen, but fortunate circumstances that all the dragons became temporarily more fertile from the influx of magical power plus the circumstances of victory and defeating an enemy and gaining their territory.
Most of the mated dragons ended up with at least one clutch and this fertility was showing no signs of slowing down. I remember learning something about monsters…their environment and situation effects their population and strength, so thus the victory over their enemies accompanied by the loss in population led to a dragon-ling increase, and stronger dragons.
I learned a lot from both of them while still inside the egg…I don’t think anyone could tell what I was doing and, and I didn’t think any of my siblings could do this either as I never saw nor sensed them while I dream traveled. Watching my impressive parents doing very well and skillful at their “jobs” plus occasionally seeing their love for one another, and less often when they came across one of my elder siblings or visited their eggs their love for their children, soon made me come to love and respect and have loyalty towards my parents of this new lifetime.
Although I was looking forward to meeting them…in person but I had decided to stick to my less tentative plan to remain in egg. This was because I had taken some time aside to spy on the new dragon-lings as well as research just what it took to rank up. Like all monsters if a dragon increased their level quickly while still a child their bodies would grow just as quickly to match their strength.
However this had a large downside, as if you increased your strength too quickly most would gain negative side effects or just plain wouldn’t be able to handle it. Many young dragons thought if their levels were high enough then everything they wanted would come to them.
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The way you gain levels is simple you kill a living being and absorb its life force as well as a mysterious substance that it was granted by the gods…together which formed a thing called experience power. A certain amount of experience power leads to gaining a level…and it is not that hard to make it up to at least level ten (which is the level minimum to reach adulthood quickly) So they would band together in little packs and chase and kill various lessor monsters together in order to level up as quickly as possible.
Thus I saw a lot of large clumsy dragons with the minds of child and the bodies of an adult, people who lost a lot of the important aspects of their precious childhood. My father had intelligently set age limits on whether or not a dragon was allowed to do a job based firstly on age and not level, and thus many of the dragons regretted growing up to fast…because their wasn't much benefit in having body of an adult without the skills or wisdom to back it up. These facts compliment my theme of slow and steady being almost always the way to go.
Another supporting fact of these child adults not one managed to rank up…those that didn’t bother with leveling as quickly as possible and remained as child’s and relaxed and let their bodies grow naturally seemed to have greater peace of mind. They also seemed to have several rank ups among them. There were also a few recently hatched that had somehow managed to rank up in the egg. Most had only postponed their hatching at most just a few years…
This I guessed was because it was too boring for them…apparently dragons developed enough to hear things going on outside their eggs but not much else and those outside unless they were powerful physic couldn’t communicate back…and while the gem dragon lairs had many mage warriors there were very few dragons that focused solely on magic, besides the basic attack magic. The few that existed were very busy being healers and or doing a monumental amount of other work…so none would bother to talk to eggs.
Dragons, were harsh creatures (though not necessarily unkind) as soon as an egg hatched the young dragon would be sent for strict training in order to be taught to defend themselves. This may seem cruel to some but the world is a very dangerous place for young dragons…plus the speed of the training was done at the young dragons discretion and those that skipped it were restricted in their privileges until they were old enough or were granted an exception. However other then in the beginning age didn’t really seem to matter…what determined which stage you were at was ability and proficiency.
Dragons like most of the higher species are technically immortal, however a crowded lair is rarely ever a problem as most young dragons in their first few years, would do something stupid, have really bad luck, are a victim of war or take a challenge they fail to overcome and die. Thus, most dragons (no matter their look or form) unless they proved otherwise through their actions are considered infants until their 10th year and children until their late 50’s, and not full adults until their 100s.
There are a few exceptions but this is generally the case. So this ends up (unlike humanity) making the majority of all dragons ancient adults…and the minority youth, after reading through my stats window, for information regarding those that are deceased, I learned the 17 hatched and still living siblings of mine were the only survivors of several large clutches, had all of my siblings survived they would have numbered over one hundred.
At this tragic fact most dragons were fiercely (but happily) jealous of their rulers as most of them were very lucky if one or two of their children survived. And especially lucky if they didn’t hatch as wvrms or were maimed in other ways. So the fact that so many of the royal family’s’ children seemed to survive was seem as a good omen of the great strength of their bloodlines as well as a sign that they held the blessing of the gods.
An interesting fact about dragons and religion I discovered is that unlike humans they do not name their gods. Instead if they must refer to one specifically they will just refer to them by what they do, such as the god of good fortune, or the goddess of battle. They also didn’t exactly worship or respect them, or see them as wise, but rather looked at gods as something annoyingly stronger than them with the personality of a whiny child…that they must occasionally, appease now again to avoid the inconvenience of them throwing a temper tantrum.
I have already mentioned this but the majority of dragons are magic warriors, and relatively few are pure mages (at least in my tribe) thus it took me quite a while to find a dragon to spy upon that could do the mana stone spell (I was concerned that I be unable to do it instinctively correctly and wanted to take no chances).
Finally I did, one of the healers a kind old soul named Buford, while having the heart and soul of a healer had very little personal magic to use, thus he would make many mana stones that would slowly gather the necessary magic for him automatically, and whenever his spells required more magic then he possessed he would simply grab one of his stones and drain it dry in order to complete the spell without killing himself. After watching him for several weeks I felt I had the spell memorized. So I returned my consciousness to my body and allowed myself to wake up in order to put what I had learned into practice.
***
The mana stone was very beautiful…It was similar to a tiny star or a very mini sun. First after summoning it, its appearance had looked like an ordinary grey stone but soon it started to absorb mana and then glow increasingly brighter so I was able to see most of the inside of my egg for the first time…after managing to successfully open my opaque set of eyelids the stone had been automatically summoned inside the yolk…as I was still relatively young my yolk was huge at least three times my size. After casting the spell I go to check my status but am interrupted in my action by a message.
Egg quest: summon mana stone complete
+5 to all stats
+10 to egg defense
+10 to mana
Level up
Level up…
To my surprise I leveled up to over halfway through my goal. It seems learning more spells would be a good thing. So I went back to sleep and I dream traveled again. And in particular spend a lot of time, spying on Buford and the few other more traditional type dragon mages…once I feel I have seen all that I currently need to understand…I use my dream travel to search everywhere in this dragon land as well as the human lands I know to look for other people to spy and learn from. Time pasts quickly when you mostly live in dreams and soon it has been a year and it is time for the first hatching option.
Hatching Option:
You may choose to attempt to hatch out now, if so your gender will be determined and you will receive the blessing Egg tooth,(attack + 20% of current attack, removes strength suppression, and temporarily nulls all defensive magic effects of your egg that cannot be canceled)
Warning!
if you fail to hatch out, and if you have not met the conditions needed to continue to reside in egg you may die,
If you choose not to hatch out or fail the hatching attempt and have met the conditions necessary to remain in egg, your gender may be determined and you will continue your life in a egg, if you have exceeded the conditions for hatching you may be able to rank up.
Attempt to Hatch?[YES][NO]
I choose No
then:
Congratulations You Have Ranked up!!
You are now a green-blue dragon!
Your color has affinity with nature, and water as well as with classes involving healing and other forms of magic
I have almost finished reading this when other windows also pop up;
New Skills Unlocked:
+Magical protection shell defense
+Deep sleep
Magical protection shell defense: increases magic resistance, as well as blocks psychic attacks
Deep sleep: able to make time pass more quickly (at least from your point of view) as you go deep inside yourself to learn more about yourself
New Options Available
Affinity choice: you can develop new elemental and other affinities, and strengthen the ones you already possess
Current affinities: Strong: Water, Nature, Holy/light, magic Mid: fire, darkness, earth…. Low: N/A
Your gender has been determined randomly by the fates of this world…
Congratulations you are now female.
Female gem dragons tend to be much more aggressive than the males as well as more dominant and powerful they tend to only pick mates that are at least equal to them in strength or stronger
+10 charm
+The title of “gem dragon princess” has become available it bestows +15 leadership +100 attractiveness
+10 to all stats