Kent

I breathed in deeply, filling my lungs to the bring before letting all of the air escape slowly through partly closed lips. I closed my eyes, hands held in the simple lotus position, and I connected with my inner dragon.

Instantly my breath started to come faster, and my hands started to twitch from the mental strain from being in the presence of the inner dragon. Even though it existed inside of me, it still took considerable brain power to maintain a connection with it.

The first time I had connected with my inner dragon, I had been able to unlock both the endurance and vitality parts of my inner dragon. Endurance allowed me to enter my dragon form and vitality allowed it to have physical matter, though it still couldn’t fight very well. The claws, teeth and tail were still incorporeal.

I felt my dragon brush over my shoulder, ruffling my clothes. I held up my hand, sliding it along the dragon's scales. With a jolt, I realized that I hadn’t seen Storm in a while. Looking around, I felt a jolt in my heart as I didn’t see him.

Oh no. We had lost him in the confusion of the Night-Mare. I felt sick to my stomach. How could I have forgotten about my wolf? I took a steady breath. I would just hope he was fast enough to escape from that horrid creature.

Focusing on my dragon I tried to think of what aspect I should upgrade. Last time it had been random as I just thought about the dragon, but this time I wanted to be intentional.

I decided to aim for the mental stats this time. I didn’t really care which ones though, maybe intelligence?

Dragons in stories were cunning creatures, and could talk and plot with the best of them. Was that a dragon specific trait? Not really, but it was close. Dragons were also masters of mind games and they could weave their words in such a way that you were bedazzled and couldn’t think.

You have found insight into your Inner dragon!

Intelligence Upgraded! +10 Int.

I smiled, one down, who knows how much more to go.

Popping my now stiff neck, I dove right back into it.

Dragons were creatures of myth and legend, and Chinese emperors considered themselves to be descendants of dragons, or so I had heard.

Just that fact made them connected to royalty in a grand way. Dragons were hoarders of gold and other precious artifacts. They loved precious things and liked the power that those hoards signified.

You have found insight into your Inner dragon!

Charisma Upgraded! +10 Cha.

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Charisma? Not what I was expecting but I'll take it I guess. Just as I was about to try and find another aspect of myself, someone shook my back.

“Hmm?” I asked absentmindedly, turning around.

Drake was crouched down beside me. “You have been at this for 2 hours now. We are thinking about advancing to the next room. Are you done or do you need a little more time?”

“I’m good. I got two bonuses so I am feeling pretty great, one more wouldn’t hurt but it’s fine.”

Drake looked surprised. “You got two that quickly?”

“Yeah, I think I was just in the right headspace today, might be either slower or faster on other days.”

He nodded, helping me up. “Okay everyone! Let’s prepare to leave this room, end your meditation or in Brock's case, wake up!”

I laughed a little, looking on as Brock shot awake, arms raised in a defensive position.

“Calm down, we aren’t under attack quite yet.” I joked with him, punching him in the shoulder.

He just smiled at me. “The really funny thing is that joking punch could have sent a normal person flying into the wall.”

I froze looking down at my hand. “When we get back into civilization, we are REALLY going to hold ourselves back from accidentally killing anyone.”

Minya nodded. “We haven’t even found our own limits yet, that's the real frightening part.”

We stood in front of the door, waiting for someone to go and open the door.

It was nerve wracking.

I didn’t like it.

Deciding that I didn’t like this, I stepped forward, grabbing the door by the handle and yanking it open. What lay behind made me gasp reflexively.

It was gold. Piles and piles of gold. There were also gems and other precious items.

Everyone gathered around me and looked in. There were gasps of astonishment and joy.

Minya stepped inside. “That’s a lot of trophies…” She said, trailing off.

I blinked. Trophies? There were no trophies in this room. What was she talking about?

Drake caught on before I did.

“Nobody touch anything!” He yelled, grabbing Minya and pulling her back.

“What? Why?” Minya asked him, clearly confused.

I was the one to talk this time. “Because, we are all seeing different things, so it is most likely another test.”

“Oh.” Minya said, face turning a bright crimson.

She was probably embarrassed about falling for the trap so easily. I felt a little bad for her, she had been so excited about what she saw and got sidetracked.

“Now what do we do? Seems like we are supposed to do something.” I said, peering around the room.

“Yeah, but what?” Drake looked into the room as well, and his eyes stopped on the far wall.

I couldn’t see what he was looking at, there was a giant mound of gold in the way.

Drake let out a soft sob before wrenching his eyes away. “It’s nothing.”

“Are you sure? You don’t look so good.” Drake’s face was tight, and he was looking anywhere but the spot he had seen.

“It’s fine.” He was a little more forceful this time.

I backed off. I didn’t want to end up in a fight with Drake, it wouldn’t end well for either of us and I liked him. He was a good guy, though slightly odd. Then again, all of us were. A normal person would be dead by now.

Minya walked into the room reaching down and pushing a button on the floor I hadn’t seen before.

There was a loud thud and one of the walls opened, revealing a corridor behind it.

Minya turned, grinning at us. “Well? Let’s go!”