The next morning, Derek rose early, noticing the clock on the microwave displaying just past five. It wasn’t just the unusual hour that caught his attention, but the stark realization of his newfound size. Standing in a house where he once moved with ease, he now felt like a giant. The transformation was a profound physical experience, growing eight inches and gaining almost a hundred pounds overnight. Every movement carried a sense of unaccustomed power and mass. As he pulled on his shorts, which now felt tighter and shorter than ever, the reality of his evolution truly sank in. The once familiar kitchen seemed smaller, every item placed lower than he remembered. Stepping outside with his coffee, the lightness of the lumber pile was a striking contrast to his increased bulk and strength. Handling the wood, which would have previously posed a challenge, now felt like a child’s play. With each motion, he was acutely aware of how much he gained overnight, turning his routine task into an exploration of his transformed physique.
The truck was piled high with bundled units of lumber and sheets of engineered wood. He shoved some of the units off, causing the units to explode with a racket as the bands around the units snapped, but it was expected. Hopefully, it wouldn’t wake anyone up in the house. He hauled each unit into the storage building and stacked it so that it wouldn’t warp if left for a long time. It might be remodeling time in the summer if their group kept growing.
Maybe it was time to build that shop he always wanted if he could make it to a concrete company. Maybe they could use some of the magic to perform a lot of the construction. Time would tell, but for right now, he had to finish getting the truck unloaded. It took a couple hours, and the sky was still dark, thanks to the Alaskan sun. After moving the truck out of the yard, he paused, wiping sweat from his brow. Despite the cool air, the exercise and coffee kept him warm.
Phil’s shout for him to come in for breakfast summoned him inside, where the sound of laughter and the smell of breakfast wafted from the house, signaling a well-deserved break. Setting aside his work gloves, Derek made his way towards the inviting sounds and smells of the morning meal. He grabbed a towel that Phil handed to him as he came through the door.
“Wow, Derek, you look… uh… intimidating and big,” Janet said, looking him over as he paused at the top of the stairs to look at everyone. “I mean you look…”
“Like he walked off the cover of a steamy romance novel?” Marie finished wistfully.
“Yep, exactly like that. I can see the title now. ‘Captured by a Dragon Daddy’.” Janet snorted with laughter.
“You two, hush.” Derek rumbled, turned to duck into the bedroom to find a shirt.
He heard Janet going on as he ducked into the bedroom for some clothes.
“There he was, making his entrance into the dimly lit room as though he were stepping onto the pages of a forbidden novel. His shirt clung to him like a second skin, accentuating each sculpted muscle and curve as if it were painted on. His tanned skin radiated an ethereal glow, as if kissed by the last rays of a setting sun, casting him in an almost celestial aura. When his cerulean eyes met mine, it was as if he peered into the deepest corridors of my soul, igniting a blaze that rushed through my veins. That gaze—it was a sultry fire, scorching away any façade I might have hidden behind. In that moment, I was acutely aware: he didn’t just see me, he owned me, and… my heart… was a willing captive.” Janet continued as he entered the room to a chorus of laughs and whistles.
He returned as she was finishing her monologue.
Jenny gently slapped the back of her sister’s head. “Stop, you’re embarrassing Marie.” Which caused everyone to look to the Latino in the kitchen. She was filling cups, but her face was beet red.
Marie brought over a tray of drinks and passed them out. Her face was still red as her mind was still thinking about it. The chair creaked a loud protest as he sat. The chair felt small, much like the coffee cups, door handles, and truck keys.
“Who spent their points last night?” Derek asked, shifting the conversation as everyone gathered at the table.
Based on the responses, it seemed like everyone had. “Did anyone reach thirty in any category? No? Well, when you reach thirty points, you can evolve your race based on your imagination.”
“Why did you become a… whatever it is that you are?” Carson asked.
“Well, in fantasy literature, what is stronger than a dragon?” Derek asked, but nobody answered. “Well, a deity, I guess.” He answered with a shrug. “Taking that train of thought, I added dragon scales which came with the horns. I did not choose them.”
“I bet Marie will like it,” Janet commented quietly.
“Janet for the love of god, will you please keep your mouth shut!” Carson said, looking angry.
“After some additional body reinforcements, I added some archangel parts to my body in an attempt not to look like a dragon.”
“So you’re what? 1/3 human, dragon, and angel.” James asked.
“Yeah, something like that.” Derek shared the notification that he received last night with everyone.
“Echo of the Divine Dragons?” Carson asked with a wry smile. “That sounds like something a Chevy driver would come up with.”
Derek grinned, but didn’t rise to the bait, instead taking he took a bite of his breakfast burrito and smiled at Carson as he chewed. Chatter rose, and the lively atmosphere continued.
Breakfast passed quickly and Janet got stuck on kitchen duty cleaning up the huge mess of dishes that would take two rounds through the dishwasher to clean. Once everything was cleared and the dishwasher running, they began the morning meeting.
Marie explained what Derek had told her about the class system as told to him by the interface and her thoughts on the evolution.
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“Wait, you can ask your interface questions?” Phil asked.
“Yeah, didn’t you read the interface manual?” Derek asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No…” He replied.
“Anyway, Derek. Was there anything else you want to share?” Marie asked, shifting the conversation.
“Yeah, a couple of things. When your monster slayer titles reach rank 4 at 1000 kills, it says that the monsters will actively seek you out. I’m assuming that they would have to know where we are, but we should prepare. The second thing is that I think we need to build a dojo or training area out there.” Derek pointed out the window, passed the well. It would free up the garage and addition and we could turn the addition into another set of bedrooms. We could easily put four small bedrooms out there. The heating wouldn’t be that big of an issue. Then we could enclose the garage and turn it into a family room.”
“We’ll think about it.” Marie said. “Does anyone have anything to discuss before we adjourn for magic training?”
“I do.” Jenny announced. “Last night, I got word from a couple of friends. They have lived because they boarded up their doors and windows and haven’t left the house. They are rationing a small pantry and are eating about 2 cans of whatever is in their pantry per day. I have another set of friends who are doing the same. The first group is a young couple, been married about two months and the other group is a couple with three kids ranging from 5 to 10. I didn’t say anything about rescuing them, but I told them about what we’ve learned so far.”
Derek watched the look on Marie’s face as her sympathies were warring with her logic. She knew that we could support them, but she also knew it would make things tight and there would be more personalities to balance. Derek knew she would fail, and they would be on a rescue mission soon.
“Tomorrow, we go after both.” Marie announced.
“Didn’t we agree to only taking on two more?” Carson asked. “Sorry, Jen, but the house is feeling a little small as it is.”
“We put them out in the addition. I know it’s not super comfortable, but we can make it work.” Marie stated firmly.
Everyone seemed to glance at Derek as if he were in charge. Marie was the figurehead of the family, even though Derek held the real power.
“If that is the matriarch’s decision, then I will make it happen.” Derek said, nodding his head with deference.
“For now, magic training. Everyone spread out and get comfortable.” Marie ordered.
Derek got up and walked over to the empty corner of the living room, and sat cross-legged on a pillow. Causing everyone else to follow his lead.
Marie started, like she was talking to a yoga class. “Start pulling your mana. Think about how it’s spread throughout your body, then how you can manipulate it, slowly moved it around your body. Focus on analyzing how you manipulate the mana. Continue doing this until you can manipulate the mana easily.” Marie went silent as she watched everyone struggle through the exercise.
Derek hadn’t done this particular exercise or any magic exercises. He had felt the mana in his body and had been able to easily manipulate it, but hadn’t used it for anything. His mana channels had changed with his new body, and it was now like the mana was already at his fingertips. He pushed it into his hand, then pushed it through his palm to create an orb of lightning. Within a second, an orb of crackling lightning grew from nothing.
Its intensity pulled everyone’s attention, as they could feel the power radiating from the spell. Derek closed his hand and the orb of lightning collapsed as the mana feed was cut. It seemed that the user’s will had a part to play in the formation of the spell. His imagination determined the spell’s formation. There was a part of the process that seemed wasteful, much like in his chemistry and science classes. He broke it down into components.
He broke down the process, creating the same lightning orb using a step-by-step process. He gathered the mana, cycled it through his body using his blood as a carrier, gathered it into his hand, built the spell formation by using his imagination… He was right back to where he started. How was he supposed to build a spell formation from mana itself? It wasn’t like an SOP or program, where there were clearly defined steps.
Dismissing the breakdown process, he moved onto something more practical, spell development. He imagined a fireball in his hand, pushed the mana through the skin, and there it was, a fireball floating a few inches above his hand. It was hot, burning Derek’s mana to maintain its shape. As soon as Derek cut the mana link, the spell collapsed.
Wondering what he should try next, he remembered Marie’s shield and Carson’s healing. He gathered the mana, and while imagining a shield that floated right above his clothes, he pushed the shield out of his skin. A dim blue transparent shield wrapped around his body. He cut the feed, and the shield turned from blue to yellow then to red before fading. He gathered his mana again and imagined it healing a wound, but as he placed his hand on his leg, nothing happened. Maybe it was because there wasn’t a wound or it wasn’t possible to heal himself. He didn’t know.
While Derek was engrossed internally, the rest of the family was scattered around, focused on their own magics. Leroy was poorly mimicking someone meditating while loudly humming. If that wasn’t enough, his face was bunched as if constipated. Marie almost laughed at his display, but she gently walked over and grabbed his attention so that she could guide him properly. James smirked at his brother. James himself didn’t need to meditate after dumping fourteen of his stat points into magical capacity. He was sitting at almost thirty, and the mana that flowed through his body was more like a limb than a tool. Regardless, he still used the opportunity to practice his magic in a rare moment of relative silence in the house.
In contrast to the two boys, Janet moved her mana like wind, it flowed through her body like a gentle breeze through the trees. Jenny’s mana was like a warm fireplace that’s gentle heat radiated through her. In complete contrast to Derek, Carson treated his mana like it was a gift, a precious thing that should be used to lift those around him. He remembered healing the dying Derek, the feelings of desperation for the first person who ever sacrificed themself for his life. He recalled praying to God or any god that would give him the power to heal.
Derek’s felt like his exploration of magic reached a natural pause. His mind was feeling a little tired and he needed a break. He wondered if he should bump up his mental ability, but that was a problem for another day. He opened his eyes to find the others already finished with their own exercises and he was the last one.
Marie, noticing his completion, asked, “So, what did we learn?” As if he were a toddler.
“Magic is both very simple and infinitely complex at the same time. Spell formations are really bloody complicated.”
“Spell formations?” James asked, adding himself to the conversation.
“Yeah, I was trying to break down the spell creation process into its components to figure out how it worked and to learn how to manipulate the magic, but I never got past the ‘imagination’ part.” Derek explained.
James pondered that for a while, then turned, running downstairs and slammed the door to his room. Derek didn’t think he even touched a single step the whole way down.
“Well, we won’t see him again until dinner.” Jenny said, with a laugh from the sofa where she was cuddling with Carson.
Turning back to Marie, Derek asked. “Is there any reason that I shouldn’t have been able to heal myself?”
Marie shrugged. “No idea, but we can figure it out later.” Then her tone shifted subtly. “But right now, I need your help with something in the bedroom.”
Derek caught the hint in her voice, a clear deviation from their usual post-training routine. He raised an eyebrow, understanding her cue. Without a word, he stood up, following Marie as they excused themselves from the group.
Phil catcalled, as they retreated to their bedroom, “Dragon Daddy in the house!” but Derek paid it no mind, focused on the sway in Marie’s step.