Whether the god who was helping me was trying to tell me something didn’t really matter. What mattered for the moment was that there was still a lot of work to do. After leaving the dungeon core room, I told everyone to get started. While I would love to have been able to tell them what to do, I really didn’t have the slightest clue what to do.
Instead of making a fool of myself, I just sent them off and let them do whatever they thought they needed to do. The only thing I did was empty my backpack and spatial storage space of any items that weren’t mine, such as supplies I had carried. Then I tried to think of what I could do to look busy, or at least to look like I knew what I was doing.
It wasn’t as if I could tell the mushroom farmers anything they didn’t already know. Each of the mushroom farmers had brought “spawn,” which were spores or root-like mycelium stored in sawdust or grain. While mushrooms were among the least objectionable foods I had eaten as a kobold, I also knew that creating the mushroom farm from scratch would take a while.
In fact, none of the normal food sources would be available in the near future. The worm farm would also take an extended amount of time to establish as well. Because of that, my group of kobolds would need to depend on my dragonberries and whatever the foragers could find.
I wandered around and “inspected” what the kobolds were doing, pretending to act as a supervisor. The blacksmiths had started creating a room near the lava flows using the Mold Rock spell. The broodmothers left in search of reptiles, bats, insects, spiders, and even fish that could be nurtured within the city. The miners split into small groups and started searching for mineral and ore deposits that they could mine.
The various rangers, rogues, and fighters started patrolling the area and killing any monsters that could be considered a threat or a food source. Those kobolds who didn’t have particular skills, such as the domestics, stayed busy by helping one of the other groups. Not a single kobold loafed around. Every kobold was doing their part.
During the time I spent walking around and observing the other kobolds, I regained some energy. Since I didn’t want to be considered lazy, I decided to go ahead and start casting the other rituals I knew that might prove useful. While they wouldn’t be permanent, at least they would be useful in the short term.
The ritual that I cast the most was one called a Glyph of Warding. It created a magic sigil that would explode when an intruder approached too closely. As for what triggered the glyphs, I set it to activate when anything that wasn’t a kobold, a dire weasel, a giant spider, or a giant bat.
I exempted those creatures since those were the animals that kobolds were the most likely to use. The only drawback was that if the sigils were set off, I would have to spend another hour recreating the glyph. Also, the spell couldn’t differentiate between friendly and hostile creatures. Needless to say, I stayed busy since I wanted to prepare for any possible invaders.
This pattern repeated day after day. The kobolds would wake up and bathe in the hot water pools. To avoid the promiscuous advances by female kobolds during this time, I tried staying in my dragon form most of the time. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to bother them though. Still, once I indicated I was there only to bathe, they quickly looked for other targets. After seeing this, I realized why creating a hatchery for kobold eggs had been one of the first rooms created by the kobold builders.
After tiring themselves out “bathing,” the next thing the kobolds would do was to meditate in order to get in touch with their inner dragon. To help with the meditation, dragonroot would be burned as an incense during that time. Each kobold would sit down and imagine how a dragon looked or acted while breathing in the calming smoke. Once the Time of Contemplating My Inner Dragon was complete, the kobolds would then try to incorporate any insights they received during their meditations.
Some of the kobolds tried to emulate a draconic roar. Others would try to breathe fire. The leather workers would often use giant bat wings to create fake dragon wings. These kobolds would then run around the room flapping their wings while leaping into the air. Other kobolds would pretend to cast spells with their imaginary draconic magic. Other kobolds would spread copper coins on the ground and then take a nap on top of their dragon hoard. Each day, I found endless amusement watching their antics.
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After what I considered to be their playtime, I would cast the Dragonberry spell until every kobold was fed. Then they would get to work. Of course, even when they were working, they appeared to be having fun. One day, just because I was bored creating magical glyphs of warding, I followed the miners.
I could only shake my head at how grown kobolds were dancing and singing through the tunnels like it was Friday night at the dance club and everyone was in a conga line. Although they did sing the highly inappropriate songs off key, they were definitely enthusiastic with their suggestive dance moves. If it wasn’t for the x-rated lyrics, I could easily have imagined the kobold miners as being related to the seven dwarfs.
Even when they were alone, a lot of the kobolds would sing and dance. It was as if they were living the dream. They had enough food and water, and they were also able to stay clean and “bathe” in warm pools every day. The kobolds even seemed like they enjoyed working. No one complained and everyone seemed happy as they continued to work hard throughout the day.
Then all the kobolds would return back to the pool to relax and release any extra pent-up energy. Afterwards, those kobolds who were skilled in telling stories would take turns entertaining the kobolds who were interested while the other kobolds would enjoy their free time. Most of that freetime involved talking about how they are going to work extremely hard so that they will become a winged kobold in their next life while they created nick-nacks and toys.
It was during one of these storytimes that I heard a story that gave me an idea. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it might actually be possible. I had been able to give Alsvartr my bloodline, so after some consideration, I guessed that I might be able to imbue the kobolds with my blood. However, I didn’t want to get their hopes up though. Because of this, I chose one of the kobolds to make the attempt with.
After pulling Geyma to the side, I tested out my theory. I pricked my finger and willed my bloodline essence to collect in the bubble of blood. Then I placed my finger onto her tongue. As soon as I was able to wrestle my finger back, I realized Geyma had reacted almost the same as my bloodsucking familiar when Alsvartr first tasted my blood. Fortunately, she grew weaker as drowsiness overcame her. I still couldn’t believe she was able to put up a fight for my finger considering my increased strength.
A few moments later, she curled up into a ball on the floor. Worried, I watched as her scales started to ripple. The moan I heard was definitely not the one of pain I was expecting. In almost every cultivation serial novel that I read, when a creature absorbed a bloodline, it was painful. Apparently, that wasn’t the case in this instance. After watching how she reacted, I decided that I definitely needed a different way to bestow my blessing upon the male members of the kobold tribe.
The changes begin subtly at first but soon become unmistakable, marking her evolution into a more dragon-like form. Initially, her scales, which were once a vibrant red, begin to darken in random sections. It started to remind me of mahogany obsidian, with streaks of black and dark red colors. The scales also began to change shape, becoming more feather-shaped, but still retaining their thickness and durability.
Along her spine, these feather-shaped scales grew into jagged ridges, much like an alligator tail but more distinct. At the end of her tail, one of the feathers grew thicker and more bladelike. While I didn’t know if she could whip her tail and throw the bladed feather, I didn’t doubt that she would be able to swing it like a sword. I just hoped that she wouldn’t accidentally injure herself with it.
Her body underwent other gradual changes as well. Her arms lengthened slightly and much more muscular. However, it wasn’t like a weightlifter’s body. Before, she had looked malnourished and scrawny. Now she looked more like a trained Olympic athlete in comparison, not bulky, just well defined. I could clearly see that she retained the agility and quickness typical of kobolds but had also gained the enhanced strength and resilience of dragons.
Even her facial features shifted subtly, becoming more angular and pronounced. Her snout elongated slightly, revealing a set of sharper, more prominent teeth that can tear through flesh with ease. However, it also began to show a similarity to a hawk’s beak with a downturn at the end of her snout that could be used to rip and tear into flesh more easily. Her eyes began to change color, becoming ice blue, almost seeming to glow. The short stubby horns and ridges on the back of her head became longer and sharper.
However, neither of these details were as amazing as the bumps that were growing upon her back. Soon, vestigial wings began to grow upon her back. They were covered in feather-like scales much like when I had been hatched. Slowly, the growth of the wings began to slow down. By the time her wings stopped growing, they resembled my own wings when I was a newly hatched wyrmling. I doubted they would be large enough to give her the ability to fly, but she might just be able to glide with them.
Once she gradually regained control of herself, she stood up and started inspecting herself. She quickly ran past kobolds who trailed along behind her. Curious, I also followed her to one of the pools of water where she gazed at her reflection. Needless to say, her new appearance caused a lot of uproar. Their screams of excitement and joy were deafening.
Geyma excitedly told them what I had done. While at first, they had quieted down in order to listen to her, as soon as she finished her story, the cave echoed with their screams of delirious excitement. Immediately, all of the kobolds started approaching me. Well, not all. One of the kobolds was dragged toward the pools by Geyma.