Nanu was quite the cuddlebug that night. Apparently, showing just the basic level of dignity, respect, and affection can have that effect on a person. That was of course after she voraciously indulged her passions of the flesh with me. Skull likewise had an extra twinkle in her eye that suggested she liked something that I said or did. We would not have normally slept that night, but it turns out that fighting for your life can tucker you out enough that you need four hours of sleep. It-Has-Pockets slept like the dead in her own tent, and I am pretty sure she had passed out before her head even hit the pillow.

By morning, the bodies of the dead were taken care of. Basically, all the “greenskin” races have no problems eating other humanoids, although at least in civilized society, they don’t go out of their way to increase supply by bumping people off. I have no real qualms with them eating the dead, however, the bones were not part of the food and were kept immaculate as gifts for The Bone Wardens. With everything packed up, we headed back to the main camp.

Chooka swarmed me as soon as I got there, a torrent of questions, slaps, hugs, kisses, and curses coming from her faster than street urchins will run off with your purse. She clung to me like a remora as I walked over to the pond for The Boys and summoned them back, for the mana drain on keeping them in The Void had increased over time and had become quite the burden. I had waited until now because I wanted them to be safe and comfortable within the walls of camp, for they were closer to death than I felt comfortable with.

Then the gang and I went to debriefings where we were both complimented and chewed out about the events of the previous day. Even my [Social] Skill, [Gag Order], would have been as useful as bee farts before a hurricane at stopping the rumor mill from churning out tales of what happened, so I put Gambino on the case to control the narrative. His troupe gladly set about creating a new play to immortalize the battle, so I expected that I would see their performance before too long.

With all my pressing business taken care of, I retreated to my house, where Skull and Nanu stood vigil as I meditated, retreating into my mind as I held a cup of coffee in my hand. Well, it looks, tastes, smells, and otherwise has the same properties of coffee, but they grow on short trees, just like potatoes, so I suspected some powerful [Farmer] genetically engineered the plants to be easier to grow and harvest. Either way, I had in my possession the proper token for the “egg-dragon-person” that Gambino whispered about into my ear while under the most stringent of privacy barriers.

I soon found myself in my inner world. I could not definitely say when or how I got there, as if I had zoned out and stopped paying attention to anything and everything, only to find myself there. The scenery had rearranged itself to a degree. The ten statues of my supposed companions were arrayed around a tiered dais, kinda like a wedding cake I suppose, but larger in diameter and perhaps only three inches high between layers. One layer down from them were what I assumed to be my Kings and Princes, for Nanu was the only one among them that was not a silhouette.

I examined my companions more closely. The most noticeable change was how the kobolds were no longer silhouettes. Instead, Gambino and Bambina were clearly visible, the pair of them frozen as if captured in the middle of a dance. Likewise, the elven female shifted between more than two people, but the exact number remained elusive. Perhaps it was my choice through Fate, or perhaps Destiny had yet to decide for me.

Considering that this only happened after sharing my blood with people, and all the people I had done it with were here, I deduced the means to bind them to me and me to them quite easily. However, my instincts told me not to use it willy-nilly or to force it, that the moment would come when my blood would spare them from death. Considering that one mistake separated them from actual death, trepidation at the future flooded through me for a moment as I considered what circumstances would lead me to binding with Chooka.

My Skill webs were also visible all across the floor around the dais. [Age], [Hoard], [Survival], [Social], [Deeds], [Harvesting], and [Flight Management] were my current webs, each with their own Skills. They appeared like constellations, with lines showing the connections between nodes that had Skills within them. And, like errant stars floating in their midst, Abilities that I had learned through practice and tutelage also appeared amongst them, with vague and translucent lines connecting them to the web, although they dithered and shifted where they would connect. This led me to believe that perhaps every Ability ever could be found in my webs if I found out how to unlock them as Skills.

All around me, outside this courtyard of sorts, the cityscape shifted, never when I was looking at it, but behind my back as I turned away. Buildings would change from the most primitive of huts to the most advanced megastructures of the distant future, and everywhere in between. The statues of presumed past versions of me lined the exterior, forming a barrier between this island of stability and the chaos of the outside.

All of this was but a pitstop to my true destination. I carefully navigated my way up the dais, mindful not to bump into any statues, so that I could get to the doorway on the top level. Two wooden doors, simple of concept yet masterwork of execution, were closed within the doorframe that stood at the top. The doors had not been here in any of my past visits, so perhaps I had just recently unlocked the means to see them.

The knockers of the door were in the mouths of golden dragons. The doors themselves were sized for me, and without much further ado, I grabbed ahold of the knockers and pushed the doors open. Inside was a simple stone room, with another set of doors, the whole thing matching what Gambino had described. I likewise opened that door and found myself in a hallway filled with statues of past [Emperors], for I knew within the core of my being that is who they were, even if I did not know their names specifically.

“Ah, the Outlier has chosen to visit. Finally! Now, where is my coffee?”

I was already facing forward, and though it started from a great distance, an egg quickly rolled up to me, just like the manner in which it had been described, as if the distance between us had been made artificially shorter. Likewise, the egg flickered through patterns and colors frequently. I offered the egg the cup of coffee that I had been holding in my hand in the real world as the egg’s various appendages burst through the egg’s exterior, sans the arms. Instead, translucent yet corporeal hands were conjured by the egg to accept the cup offered to them.

Using the opening of its left eye hole, it poured the coffee into it. A satisfied smacking sound of tongue upon lips sounded from within as it eagerly guzzled down the coffee. A bellowing belch followed promptly upon the vessel being drained of its ambrosia.

“Ah, that hits the spot! You must be here to establish your flight. I hope you thought of a name for it. Also, you can’t take any of the names already used here, them’s the rules. Come along then, let me show you to your statue.”

The egg half rolled, half waddled its way to turn around, and then the occupant waddled forward on his stubby legs. As I took a step to follow, the distance quickly diminished as a slight feeling of vertigo introduced itself to my senses. However, in only three steps, I had made it to the end of the hall, or at least, where the statues ended. Of the final eight statues, all but one, which was mine, were rectangular blocks.

“You are not allowed to see them because they are still alive,” the egg-person answered before I could even ask my question. “And I won’t give you my name, as there is no one else to talk to here and you won’t ever be talking about me outside of this place, ya hear? No, I’m not reading your mind, but I have literally done this a thousand times before and you all ask the same things.”

The egg-person turned to me, seemingly standing straighter as he rattled off his next speech in a slightly droning monotone as if reading from a script.

“Welcome, Emperor, to this place, name redacted. This is your statue, and with it, you will establish your flight. There exists a large list of Perks to choose for your flight, where you gain something presumably advantageous and lose something presumably worthy of sacrifice. There is no limit for how many Perks you can take, and while some are custom-made for you based on your personality and achievements to date, the bulk of them are available to all Emperors. Your Perks adjust how the Template for your flight will work, and based on what you do to it, you can unlock Bonuses, which are free benefits.

“You have an infinite amount of time to make your choice, for while you are here, time stops in the real world. You can freely see all Perks and Bonuses, and you can play around with them as you choose until you find the combination you want. You will likewise be able to preview how your choices would impact your Skill webs.

“When you finalize your choices, a Capstone will be generated for you, which will give a powerful boon to your flight. You cannot view your capstone before finalizing your choice. Regardless of what you choose, you may not discuss the choices you did not take with anyone else, even other Emperors. These rules are enforced by the gods; may they smite you down if you break them. Good luck, new Emperor, and may your flight reign forever.

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His speech apparently over, he continued to talk in a more personable tone.

“With that over, feel free to take your time making your choice. I have literally nothing better to do and will be here to answer any questions you may have, provided the answers are not forbidden. I don’t mean questions like, ‘What is beauty?’, but questions pertaining to establishing your flight. Any questions?”

“Not at this time. I guess I just touch the statue where there is an outline of my hand to start.”

“Yep. Also, you can look at the statues of dead Emperors. It shows their name, the name of their flight, how long they lived, what Perks and Bonuses they had, who killed them, and it gives a brief overview of the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Maybe use it for inspiration or as a warning for what constitutes poor decision-making.”

Curious, I walked back a few steps to look at the statue of Mehczeczi of The Secret Stalkers, who was the Emperor of Nanu’s previous flight. He had a laundry list of Perks and Bonuses themed around Kings and Princes, to the detriment of pretty much everything else. No wonder Nanu felt weaker now, because with his death, she was stripped of those boons. Looking at his death, his killer was ‘Mehczeczi’, and the circumstances around his death was, ‘Failed apotheosis that triggered a large explosion of primal magic within his demiplane, killing everything inside.’. Okay, so that was one mystery solved, I made a note to tell Nanu about it, since the egg-person did not list that as forbidden knowledge.

Continuing my streak of curiosity, I went down the line and looked at every single Emperor since the dawn of time. I had infinite time at my disposal, and it only took an estimated 5 hours. Some made wild choices that, on paper, should not have done well, yet they lived for centuries, if not thousands of years. Others seemingly made sound choices, yet died within years, or for one poor bastard, just 8 days, since the statue reflects the age of the flight, not the age of the Emperor. I did notice certain trends though. Anyone who made it past the 150 year mark tended to live for at least 500 years, for there were very few deaths in between those numbers. The flights near the beginning of time lived longer, often thousands of years, with those in recent years living 4 or 5 centuries on average.

With that knowledge stored away, I began experimenting with the mechanics of making a flight. In tabular data, I could see the base layout of a flight, as well as a twin to that data which reflected my tentative choices. Past me could not talk about things in detail, but present me is a demigod and thus I have permission to talk about things to you, my dear readers.

I could write whole books on the mechanics of flight building based on what I saw, and indeed I experimented with hundreds of combinations before I found one that spoke to me, that I knew felt right for me, which I will outline for you.

There are a few mechanics to understand. Flight Power is a number that reflects the total individual power of the peerage of my flight. Ergo, not whelps, drakes, or wyverns, but everyone else, sans the Emperor. The Power of a dragon involves how many Traits I can put into a baby dragon, with different Traits having different costs. Ergo, more Power means stronger dragons. Every rank of peerage has its own baseline level of power, which could be increased by a global Flight Power Multiplier, or rarely, specific multipliers to that rank. Likewise, the non-peerage dragons have Power as well, although I guess their Power doesn’t count for the most part when considering Bonuses.

The Perks I chose were as follows:

[Elites - Flight roster has reduced numbers. Barons have been removed. Flight Power Multiplier increased by 100%. Benefits of Baron Traits available for all ranks of Peerage.]

[Elites II - Viscounts have been removed. Flight Power Multiplier increased by 50% (Total of 150%). Benefits of Viscount Traits available for all ranks of Peerage.]

[Open Borders I, II, III, IV - Your flight has (75%, 50%, 25%, 0%) wyverns. Whelps increased by (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). Whelp Production Rate increased by (20%, 40%, 60%, 80%). Whelp Power increased by (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%).]

[Tithe of Whelps - Your progeny have half as many Drakes. Your whelps are doubled. Your Whelp Production Rate is doubled. Your Whelp Power is doubled.]

[Tithe of Whelps II - Half of the whelps of your progeny are your whelps. They gain the same bonuses as your whelps and you control them. However, your progeny still create them.]

[Burden of the Masses - Your Viscounts and Barons no longer have Drakes. Your Whelp Power is doubled.]

[Dragonkin - You have no drakes. You may choose to produce Dragonkin via coupling with humanoids. You can have as many of these half-dragon offspring as you desire, but they have no inherent loyalty to you.]

Some of you may notice a theme here. Since I have no Barons or Viscounts in my flight, there is no real penalty to them having no Drakes. Likewise, I doubled down on making whelps. That was because of the bonuses I got, which are as follows:

[Power Overwhelping - (Requirements: 20:1 or higher ratio of Whelps to Peerage) - Your flight is mostly made of whelps. Legends say that if you look hard enough, you may spot an actual dragon among them. Whelp Power doubled.]

[Hoard of Whelps - (Requirements: Personal Effective Whelp Count >= 4000) - You have so many whelps! Some say too many. Your total whelps is rounded up to the nearest thousand. Your Whelp power is increased by 25%.)]

[The Few, The Proud, the Critically Endangered - (Requirements: Flight Peerage <= 500) - Your flight has very few members of Peerage. You are one disaster away from extinction. Have a boost to help keep you alive. Flight Power Multiplier increased by 25%.]

[Honor Guard - (Requirements: Flight has no Wyverns) - You kinda need to have wyverns to protect your hoard. You somehow managed to have 0. Have a dozen Imperial Whelps as a consolation prize. They have double Power. Additionally, Flight Power Level increased by 25%.]

[Four Heavenly Kings - (Requirements: King Power Level >= 50,000) You Kings are quite powerful. Let's make them even more powerful! King Power Level increased by 25%.]

[My Kingdom for a Drake, Lesser - (Requirements: Drakes <= 500) Your flight has very few drakes, but not 0. Here is a little boost to help you out. Flight Power Level increased by 20%.]

[Many Whelps, Handle With Care - (Requirements: Personal Whelp Production >= 5.00) - You have made great sacrifices to produce many whelps. They better be powerful to make up for it. Personal Whelp Power Increased by 25%]

[Flight Power Benchmark IV - (Requirements: Flight Power Level >= 400,000) You have a decently strong flight. A bonus for your flight has been automatically determined based on your choices. Whelp Power increased by 40%. Whelp Production increased by 40%.]

The cool thing was that bonuses could trigger other bonuses, which is how I got [Flight Power Benchmark IV]. It only took me like 30 minutes of playing around to figure that out for myself when the math did not add up. Finally, I ended up with this capstone after I confirmed my Perks.

[Capstone - You have 5,000 whelps and 12 Imperial Whelps. You managed to get your Personal Whelp Power Multiplier over 50.00. Your Whelp Production is over 5.00. Your flight has no wyverns and barely any drakes. Clearly, you have a goal in mind that involves whelps playing a central role to its fulfillment. You even elected to be able to spawn dragonkin and reduced your Peerage to dangerously low levels. Evidently, you are not a True Dragon-supremacist. A few boons have been granted to your whelps. Whelps under your control gain practical immortality. Should they perish, they will respawn in your hatchery after 24 hours. Your whelps are extra adorable; people will appreciate, protect, and respect your whelps far more than normal. Your whelps can summon your Imperial Whelps, and your Imperial Whelps can serve as conduits for your Abilities.]

Okay, that is well and good, but read that part carefully. “...your Imperial Whelps can serve as conduits for your Abilities.” That single part brought the most power to the table. Whelps serve as mobile eyes, ears, and noses for dragons. Whatever they know, I know. The fact that I could send my Imperial Whelps wherever I wanted AND I could use any of my Abilities through them felt overwhelmingly powerful. My only concern was that no other flight on record had even dabbled into whelps, much less went all in like I had. Either I had stumbled across something powerful beyond understanding or I would be dead in like 2 weeks tops.

Now, a basic, unmodified whelp has 100 power. My whelps have a 50.3125 Power Multiplier, with Imperial Whelps being twice that. That’s just over 5,000 power, which is on par with an unmodified Marquess, which has 4,500 power. Keep in mind, Power just allows more Traits, assuming one has enough Traits to use all that Power, and at the end of the day, whelps have a rather pathetic frame to slap bonuses upon compared to a dragon. Like, a field mouse, no matter how many drugs you slam into it, cannot take a blue whale in a fight, even a sickly one. My modified Princes have 12,000 power, which is a little more than the 10,062.5 that my Imperial Whelps have.

And I did not make my choices on a whim like a madman. I checked and double checked my [Flight Management] web before committing to the choice, and I had veritable cornucopia of potential Skills to modify whelps, to research or straight up unlock new Traits for them, or to otherwise find ways to cram 50 to 100 times as many or more potent of Traits into them.

I reasoned that, since my flight was already completely exposed to the mortal races, I could not depend on dragons as much as normal. However, with extra cute and cuddly whelps that I could hand out like pets to promising mortals, I could slowly build an army of loyal humanoids who could be monitored by my whelps. I would be outsourcing labor to humanoids while raising them from birth, if I could, in an environment that would most likely engender loyalty to me, and all it would cost is a cute and seemingly harmless little whelp per person, one that could probably wreck a Gold Adventurer with a glance. With 5,000 of them at my disposal once my flight was fully grown, that yielded almost triple the number of True Dragons I would have had with the basic flight.

Granted, while it seemed overbearing, other Emperors also had their own powerful Perks and Bonuses. While I could not see their Capstone, I could see what they were aiming to do and how strong they would become if their Capstones were on par with mine. It was anyone’s guess if I would succeed or not with this approach, and now committed, I readied myself for what was to come.