After I watched the vision Al'Doran had on axe throwing and trying it out for myself a good number of times on an unsuspecting palm tree, we grabbed some rations and water skins, climbed on Al'Doran, and headed out to the mainland. While in flight I spent the points on the three new skills I had decided on.
Congratulations!
Skill Unlocked: Breath Attack
This skill is an activated ability that is given to both the dragon and the rider. The skill breath attack, when activated, will cause the user to expel an elemental breath attack for a distance of 10x the length of the user's body. Damage: 55-75 damage, Element type (Choose one): Fire, Ice, Earth, Wind, Life, Light, Dark, Death (Other elements will be available at higher tiers)
Cast Time: 3 seconds
Cool Down Rider: 3 hours
Cool Down Dragon: 3 minutes
Casting Cost: 25 MP
Skill level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
Congratulations!
Skill Unlocked: Dragon Shield
This is a spell that is given to both the dragon and the rider. This skill allows the dragon and the rider to create a shield to protect themselves from attacks. Each individual skill, at the first level, can create a shield with 200 HP, and when the dragon and rider are one and use the skill together can create a shield with 500 HP.
Cast Time: Instant
Cool Down: 2 hours
Casting Cost: 20 MP
Skill level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
Congratulations!
Skill Unlocked: Dragon Scales
This skill increases the natural defense of both the dragon and the rider. At the first level of the skill, the defense of both is raised by 25%.
Skill level: 1/4
I also took this moment to look at my character sheet one more time as well.
Name: Callan Ryder
Race: Human
Class: Dragon Rider
Level: 7
HP: 200/200 *(+20 Necklace)
MP: 270/270 *(+20 Ring)
SP: 200/200
Total XP: 22,250
XP to Next Level: 5,750
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Strength: 19 *(+7 Items & Skills)
Constitution: 18 *(+2 Skills)
Dexterity: 16 *(+2 Skills)
Endurance: 20 *(+2 Skills)
Intelligence: 25 *(+7 Items & Skills)
Wisdom: 14 *(+2 Skills)
Charisma: 12 *(+2 Skills)
Luck: 13 *(+2 Skills)
Unused Skill Points: 4
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Inspect: Beginner 1
Unarmed Combat: Beginner 1
Dragon Spirit: 1/5
Spears: Beginner 2
Dragon Scales: 1/4
Short Blades: Beginner 2
Dragon Armor: 1/5
Swords: Beginner 1
Dragon Slash: 1/5
Dragon Breath: Beginner 1
Dragon Shield: Beginner 1
Feeling pleased with my progress, I closed the screen and focused on where we were going. Looking out over the side, I could see a land formation off in the distance getting closer as Al'Doran flew. It felt just like flying in a video game where I could see mountains off in the distance with the smaller details getting a bit obscured from our height, but there were many forests in the area.
"We will arrive shortly at our destination. I will drop you on the beach and return to the island. I will return just after nightfall to bring you back. You will be on your own until then. Take advantage of the time to hone your skills."
"Thank you Al'Doran. We will not let you down. We will be stronger when you see us next."
I could feel a sense of intensity coming from Aeolith as she looked out at the land coming closer. She was clearly ready to go and test out her skills. I smiled fondly at her thinking about how cool it would be to watch her hunt and fight. At her current size, I pictured her hunting similarly to a cat, sneaking up on prey and attacking it by pouncing. Then I thought about her wings. That would give her an aerial advantage. That brought up images of her divebombing prey like a falcon. This was going to be super cool. Then I thought about the types of monsters Al'Doran told us were out here, and my heart sank a little. In my first visions, I saw her attacking mice and other small prey, to think of her trying to attack a full-grown wolf, or goblin gave me pause in having her in the thick of the battles to come. I needed to do everything I could to keep her safe.
"Al'Doran, what actually does happen if a rider loses their dragon or vice versa?" I ventured to ask, knowing it would be a sore spot for him.
Al'Doran seemed to darken emotionally across the bond before he answered. "It feels like you have lost part of yourself. I have seen others driven so mad with grief that they took their own lives, rather than attempt to continue on. I must admit that even in my own struggles I have had those thoughts. The only thing keeping me going has been my dedication to trying to keep the Dragonrider legacy alive somehow."
That was a serious consequence. It was nice to know that one didn't simply die because the other did, but I wasn't sure I could handle that form of misery. Aeolith didn't have many attacks that I knew of so it would mostly be up to her claws and teeth. Fortunately, she could use the breath attack much more often than I could, so we had that going for us, but she was likely only level one. It hit me then, I had no idea what her stats were.
"Al'Doran, can I see Aeolith's stats and abilities like I can my own?"
"Of course young rider. Just think of the same thing you do to look at your skills, but think about her instead of yourself."
Feeling like an idiot for not doing this sooner I tried pulling up her character sheet.
Name: Aeolith
Race: Dragon
Class: Dragon Rider
Level: 1
HP: 100/100
MP: 140/140
SP: 120/120
Total XP: 0
XP to Next Level: 1000
Attributes:
Unused Attribute Points: 0
Strength: 10 *(+2 Skills)
Constitution: 10 *(+2 Skills)
Dexterity: 14 *(+2 Skills)
Endurance: 12 *(+2 Skills)
Intelligence: 14 *(+2 Skills)
Wisdom: 12 *(+2 Skills)
Charisma: 12 *(+2 Skills)
Luck: 12 *(+2 Skills)
Unused Skill Points: 0
Non-Combat Skills:
Combat Skills:
Dragon Spirit: 1/5
Dragon Slash: 1/5
Dragon Scales: 1/4
Dragon Breath: Beginner 1
Dragon Armor: 1/5
Dragon Shield: Beginner 1
Dragon Slash. I kept forgetting about that skill as I hadn't used it yet. Not having skills on earth that I could use was throwing a wrench in my thinking here on Hogarth. I needed to get into a hybrid mindset of gaming alongside the real-world aspect where I could die if I wasn't careful. Not using my skills would likely put me at a disadvantage here and I couldn't afford to do that if I wanted to stay alive. That was about to change. It was time to see just how well that skill worked.
Al'Doran began to slow and as the beach came right under us, he flapped his wings harder stalling his flight forward and hovered for a moment until he landed on the sand. I slid down from his back with Aeolith on my shoulders and Brutus flying nearby. Landing in the sand I looked around and took in our surroundings. The beach was nice, but not five-star resort nice. It wasn't sugar white sand, but also not the brown sands you see in some places. The line of trees about a hundred yards away was thick and I couldn't see into the forest to see what lay beyond it or how far it went. Pieces of driftwood lay here and there on the beach, and the water was nice and clear. The waves lapped slowly onto the shore making me want to take some time to get my feet wet, but I knew we had things to do.
"Once night falls, build a fire on the beach and I will find you that way. Stay safe, and I will meet with you about your day when we reach the island again. Remember that you and the hatchling are a team. You must learn to fight together. Also, do not forget the boon you have been given in your fairy companion. He can tell you things you would not otherwise know about this world. Use him."
"I will. See you tonight Al'Doran."
With that, he flapped his powerful wings and took off into the air, and turned back to fly towards the island again. Once he had flown out a good distance, I noticed how quiet the beach was. Eerily quiet. Though I suppose that a creature like a full-grown dragon landing on the beach was going to be enough to drive away most wildlife. It was still eery compared to coming from such a big city like New York. The constant hustle and bustle from the city that never sleeps was a stark contrast to being out here in a technologically devoid world where magic was more prevalent than indoor plumbing. There were no street lamps or big city lights to cause a glow off in the distance at night, and there were no cars or buses or any other vehicles for that matter causing noise during the day. The smell of smog and other gases being given off by pollution was completely gone as well, leaving nothing but the clean crisp air of the great outdoors. Yes the modern comforts of things such as heating and air conditioning were gone, and that was something I would still miss, but there was something to be said about the tranquility of being in nature without all the overbearing side effects that the advances in science had created.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"So, should we check out the forest to see what monsters we can find?"
Aeolith nodded, and I got a mental feeling of ascent from her as well.
It hit me at that moment that I had a dragon familiar who I could communicate with. This really fulfilled the deepest desire of my gamer nerd soul in a way I never thought would be possible. Just from the time that she had hatched, I felt more complete than even on earth when I thought I was satisfied. Our bond was growing with the new skills and would continue to grow as she did I was sure of it. Between having Aeolith and Brutus with me I wasn't sure how much happier I could be. I wondered how much of that was due to the new piece of my brain I had been told about, though for the life of me, just like the A.I. lady had said I just couldn't bring myself to care, and that bothered me a bit. I put it to the back of my mind for now, not much I could do about it anyways and I needed to focus.
"Sounds like the best place to start. Monsters will generally form dens and stay near those and protect them. They venture out to find food and bring it back to their den to eat. Again though, with the exception of the more sentient creatures like goblins which have what is more like settlements. We will have to be careful if we run into any parties like that. If one gets away they will tell the rest of the tribe."
"Thanks, Brutus. I will make sure to keep that in mind. Now let's get going."
I unsheathed my sword and began moving toward the forest. The trees were taller than I had expected. They had looked like pine trees from a distance, but when I got closer I could see the trees were clearly over a hundred feet tall with the lowest branches being at least ten feet off the ground. I had no need to duck under any limbs and was grateful for that at least. Looking around I realized, I'm not so great at tracking. I had never been hunting before. I lived in a big city.
"Brutus, how should I go about finding something we can gain XP from? It feels like a bad idea to just walk around randomly and hope to bump into something we can kill."
"That is a good thought. Walking around hoping to find something to kill, having never actually done much killing, is a great way to get attacked by a surprise predator and end up dead. I would recommend looking for tracks on the ground. I can help you identify them and we can see if we can track anything that way."
I nodded and set to looking for tracks on the ground. It didn't take too long for me to find what looked like some kind of dog track.
"Is this a wolf track Brutus?"
"Yes, that is actually good work, how did you know it was a wolf track?"
"It looks a lot like your tracks did, but bigger. And since it appears to be pointed this way and I can see a few more off in front of it, I would guess it went that way."
"Also correct. You are doing well at this already."
Congratulations!
Skill Unlocked: Tracking
This skill allows the user to see tracks better. Tracks you have identified will stand out more in your vision showing you the direction they went. The older the track, the harder it will be to spot.
Skill Level: 1
Skill Rank: Beginner
"I just got the skill tracking. I can't help but think that you helped with that Brutus."
"All I did was give you a little guidance. You learned the skill by making logical conclusions."
"Either way, now I can see the tracks better, so let's follow them for a while."
I stood up from my crouch, and we set off following the tracks deeper into the forest.
"Um, Callan, if you would just crouch slightly and focus a little more on where you walk so as not to break branches and step on so many leaves, you would be able to move with more stealth. And I believe concentrating on this will allow you to eventually learn the skill for it as well."
"I already have the stealth skill, but all it takes to learn the skill is to focus on something for a bit?"
"For the skills that are not class specific or race specific, yes, focusing on them will almost always yield the skill."
"And I'm guessing that continuing to focus on them is how I raise the skill level?"
"Exactly. Focusing on a skill is the best way to raise its level. You can't just go sneaking around wherever you are, but in any real-life situation where sneaking will help you gain the upper hand, you can get XP for it."
I hadn't thought that I had gotten the stealth skill from thinking about being stealthier, but I guess that made sense. When I had gotten the skill I was trying to sneak around and not be found by the Goblins in the dungeon. I tried out what Brutus had mentioned and crouched slightly so that I wasn't standing straight up and moved more cautiously. I watched where I put my feet down and moved more slowly as I went forward. I avoided stepping on twigs and sticks and big piles of leaves and I felt like I was moving more quietly.
Congratulations!
Skill Level up: Stealth
This skill allows the user to move more quietly and makes you harder to detect. Continue to practice these methods to get more efficient at moving quietly to level up this skill.
Skill Level: 2
Skill Rank: Beginner
"I just leveled my stealth skill. This seems really easy."
"Basic skills that anyone can learn generally are very easy to obtain. Training them up to the higher levels is the much harder part. Since getting them simply requires you to focus on the basics of the ability most people acquire them fast and can even level them to level five or maybe even ten without much real effort. getting past that point though is where the hard work comes into play. Think of it like cooking back on earth. If someone put even a modicum of effort into it they could make mac and cheese from a box. But making a souffle is really tough. It takes time, effort, practice, and honing of skills to make a souffle, and the same can be said for mastering a skill here."
"That...really makes a lot of sense. So I should expect to get a bunch of skills really fast?"
"Any that you focus on. You aren't likely to get many skills just randomly thrown at you, but it's not totally out of the realm of possibility either. But we can focus on some of the easy ones soon to get them in your repertoire. You can also level some of the skills at the same time so that you get more efficient growth. Specifically, the ones that go together like stealth and tracking. Both are needed in hunting and you can level them both at the same time."
We walked further into the forest, me crouching slightly and working on watching not only where I was going and what was in my path, but also watching the tracks at the same time. Eventually, I heard some growling up ahead through some of the underbrush and we stopped and I crouched low behind a bush to see what I could see. I got a notification that my tracking skill leveled to two after finding what appeared to be a couple of wolves. They were sniffing at a hole in the ground. They must have cornered something in its den and were working at getting it out. I set Aeolith down next to me on the ground and told her mentally to go climb one of the nearby trees and wait. She was my backup if things went sideways. I told her to wait for my signal and give a breath attack if I did. She nodded and scurried off to climb a tree and wait.
I looked through at the wolves and where they stood. One was a good bit further away than the other now. Clearly, there were two openings to the burrow they had something trapped in and each one was standing at one of the openings. So the Slash was out for the moment. And the other wolf seemed to be too far away for the Shocking Bolt as well. So I needed to focus on the one that was close and try to bring it down before the other charged me. Then I could try to use the Dragon Slash as it charged me. Which I was pretty sure would happen.
I reached out from behind the bush and cast Shocking Bolt on the wolf that was closest to me. As I cast it, I charged it with my sword pointed directly at it. With my sword raised, the Shocking Bolt hit the wolf in the side and it froze for a moment. As it froze I closed the gap and jammed my sword into its side up to the hilt. The blade lit up in a black flame that I hadn't seen before the moment the point touched the side of the wolf. Normally the flames were similar to regular fire, more of an orange color. This black flame was a bit of a shock, as it wasn't what I was expecting. Though I managed to hold onto the sword as the wolf died with my blade in it. As it fell, I could see the power of the fire and the corruption working in tandem to both burn and destroy the wolf's fur and skin. Unfortunately, the wolf fell with my blade in its side at an angle and I was not able to pull it out of its side. It appeared to be stuck between the ribs and the twisting of the wolf's body turned the rib cage to where it grabbed onto the blade somehow. I frantically pulled on the sword as the other wolf started to run my way. There was a growling sound coming from the beast that was charging my way. Just as it lept and opened its jaws to bite down on my flesh, and I felt the spittle from its gaping maw coming toward my face, I felt what seemed to be a forceful wind buffeting me. I looked up to see something in the air hitting the side of the wolf. It looked like a crescent moon-shaped formation of wind made solid that not only smashed into the side of the wolf but appeared to be cutting it at the same time. It was transparent, though, so it wasn't a solid line, and it wavered like how one would think the wind would look if one could see it.
The wolf was thrown away from me and it crashed into a tree about twenty yards away from me to the right. It hit hard. Leaves were floating down from the tree that it hit as it fell to the floor. I managed to yank my sword free right as it was getting up from where it fell on the floor, the combination of fire and corruption deteriorating enough of the bones the sword appeared to be stuck on for me to free the blade. I could see in its eyes that it was ready to bolt. It didn't want to fight anymore. It was ready to run back to its pack scared of what happened. Right as it was about to turn and flee, I cast Shocking Bolt on it again and ran at it with my sword. Right as it was recovering, I rammed my sword into its side as well. Clearly, I had not stabbed it in the same spot as the last wolf as it began thrashing wildly and biting at my hands holding my sword. The only thing keeping it from biting me was the fact that I was pushing my weight onto the sword itself and pushing it down. It thrashed and shook my hold on the sword trying to get at me. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, that there was more blackening of the skin around where the sword had pierced its side, and it appeared to be spreading.
Terror gripped my heart as I looked into the eyes of the wolf. Its eyes were bloodshot as though it had lost all sense of sanity and was looking at me with no semblance of intelligent thought anymore and was only relying on its ancient brain's fight or flight responses attempting to save its life. It was the truest form of brain functions of survival I had ever seen and it almost unnerved me. It was as though I could feel its last thoughts and all I saw was desperation to stop the pain and escape. I jumped on the hilt of the sword and drove every bit of my weight down on the blade in an attempt to keep it off of me. I must have twisted or shifted the blade just enough because it barely did the trick and the creature struggled a bit more and then died as the sword stuck into the ground and the wolf died skewered on the blade.
I slumped to the ground as the body stopped thrashing. I felt drained but relieved that it was over. I noticed I had used a fair bit of stamina holding onto the wolf, and as it ticked back up I felt better. I looked up to see Aeolith giving me a nod of approval for the kills. That must have been the Dragon slash. It was what I would have expected and didn't seem to have an elemental aspect to it. That was an amazing ability now that I had seen it. It even tossed the enemy back as long as it wasn't too big apparently. I was absolutely looking forward to using it myself. At the same time, I looked down at the wolf's eye and saw it staring back at me with emptiness. The glazed-over look and lack of emotion behind the eyes staring at me were shocking. When you look someone in the eye you can get a least a feeling of life or emotion or...something. Looking at this dead, unmoving eye, felt odd looking at it. I suddenly felt a little sick. I told myself that after seeing those teeth and feeling that spittle hit my skin, it was them or me, and I had to do what I had to do to survive. The sickness subsided and I stood up over my fallen foes. I wrenched the sword free of the body and set to cleaning it before I put it back in the sheath.
"You didn't wait for my signal," I said to her.
She looked at me with a look that only women can give that says, really dude? Without me, you'd be dead. And it was true. I couldn't hold it in anymore and a smile broke on my face.
"I was only kidding. We are a team and you made the right call to help at that moment. You are the best partner already."
She puffed up a little bit with pride at the praise. Then she saw me looking down at the corpses again. The smile had left my face.
Aeolith came over and climbed up on my shoulders and nuzzled my face. She was clearly trying to make me feel better about the actions I had taken. I looked lovingly into her eyes and gave her a sense of love across our bond. She had saved me after all. Still, I was no hunter, I hadn't been a hardened criminal or war veteran that had seen killing. I was a construction worker from New York. While crime happened around you all the time it didn't prepare you for killing. Even reading about killings in the paper or hearing about them on the news every day didn't prepare you for this reality. At the same time though, it was at least a little bit exhilarating. In a world of kill or be killed, you had to do what you needed to in order to survive. I held onto that feeling rather than the empty feeling and began to feel a little better. The prompt waiting for me also made me feel a little better.
Congratulations!
For killing 2 level 8 wolves you have been awarded 1,000 XP.
One more step towards leveling up. The second prompt though I wasn't expecting.
Level Up!
Your dragon familiar has reached level 2! Continue to train hard with your familiar to reach greater heights.
That was awesome news! She was going to level up faster than me at first of course, but eventually, we would get to a similar pace.
"Aeolith, would you like me to put in your attribute points or would you like to do that yourself?"
She looked contemplative for a moment, then sent me a mental image of herself.
"That sounds good. I will leave you to do that yourself. I hope you and I can strategize over your points once we get to higher levels to be better together though."
She nodded and nuzzled my face, making a light purring sound from deep in her throat. She then sat up for a moment and then glowed slightly for a second.
"What was that?"
"That was me using my points," said a light female voice in my head.
I looked at Aeolith in confusion for a moment.
"That was you?"
"Yes. I put a point into intelligence and got a notice I could use basic language now mentally with you. I can't communicate with anyone else yet, but this will make things easier between us."
"That is amazing! I am so happy we can talk now."
She nuzzled my neck and made her purring noise again showing she was happy. She also felt a little heavier.
"Are...are you bigger?"
"Maybe. I also put points into Constitution, as that skill was lacking. Constitution is a defensive trait so I may just have heavier or harder scales, but might be slightly bigger or have slightly thicker skin, there are a lot of ways it could affect me. Leveling up will increase my size as well according to Al'Doran, so it may be a combination of the two."
"This will definitely make hunting monsters easier. How about we go looking for some creatures to help us level? I think the more I hunt monsters, the easier it will be for me."
She nodded and we began looking around for more tracks. We went on finding the footprints and following them to find more creatures for the next six hours. Follow the signs of the creature's movements, sneak up on the monsters, attack as a team, and take down the enemy. We fought more wolves, some large snakes, a mountain lion, and even a large bear. All told we fought about forty creatures, which seemed like a lot compared to the few times I had gone camping in a forest in my time on earth. Al'Doran did say they were overrunning the area though, so I guessed it was supposed to be this way. We had been lucky not to run into any of the more sentient creatures up to this point, but it looked like our luck was about to change.
We were walking through the forest, stealthed as best as my newly leveled-up ability would allow when we heard the sound of fighting off in the distance. This didn't sound like animals fighting though. There was clearly the sound of weapons hitting each other and the sounds of a battle of some kind. We decided to just see if we could sneak close enough to get a look at what was going on. Surely if they were involved in combat, they wouldn't be looking for people sneaking up on them.
As we got closer we could see there were five goblins, fighting off three skeletons. I didn't remember Al'Doran saying anything about skeletons. A quick mental check with Aeolith and she didn't either. I asked Brutus, and he didn't remember but mentioned that Al'Doran's list didn't feel all-encompassing. Maybe he just was giving us the worst ones.
"Are skeletons common monsters, Brutus?"
"Not really, but not super rare. They are usually brought about by some kind of necromancer, or necromantic power, like if a great evil was committed in a certain place."
"So that means there is a necromancer nearby?"
"Not necessarily. But also possibly. These seem like pretty low-level skeletons, so if they are we likely don't have too much to worry about."
We watched the battle play out a little more until it was clear the skeletons were going to win. The skeletons had the goblins outclassed with their longer reach and taller frames. They killed all but one goblin, while the goblins had only managed to take the legs off of one skeleton and one arm off of another, and it wasn't its weapon arm. The last goblin was up against a tree when we made our move. With practiced ease, we jumped from cover and sent a dragon slash at each of the skeletons. I then jumped in with my sword and took the heads off the two standing skeletons. The third one was crawling towards me with its teeth chattering threateningly at me. Or what I assumed it thought was threatening. I curb-stomped the chattering head, smashing it into pieces that clattered away in all directions.
While I was dispatching the skeletons, Aeolith had taken flight on her wings and dive-bombed the goblin, tearing at it with her claws and teeth. The little creature didn't stand a chance. It just screamed and screamed until Aeolith got her teeth on its windpipe like a lion taking down a zebra, and it went quiet.
Congratulations!
For killing 3 level 10 skeletons and 1 level 4 goblin you have been awarded 3000 XP.
Level Up!
You have earned enough XP to advance to the next level. You are now level 10! Continue to work hard and push yourself to gain more XP to continue to level up. For hitting this milestone, your attribute and skill points for this level have been doubled. 10 attribute points and 4 skill points awarded.
Level Up!
Your dragon familiar has reached level 7! Continue to train hard with your familiar to reach greater heights.
Our levels were coming along nicely. Aeolith had been assigning her attributes as we went, but I had been holding off for the time being. With my new level, that gave me twenty attribute points to play with and eight skill points to distribute. I looked over at her to check on her after the fight and could tell she was a good bit bigger than when we started the day. She was definitely not going to be sitting on my shoulders anymore. She had grown from the size of a house cat to about the size of a pit bull. She had to weigh at least fifty pounds now. At this rate, she would be able to support my weight for flight in no time. I couldn't wait until we could soar in the skies together.
It was at this moment that I heard someone from behind me scream.
"My skeletons! What have you done to my skeletons?!"
I turned around to see where the noise had come from and there was this scrawny little man with glasses standing at the edge of the clearing. Actually, man was a bit of a misnomer, the person standing there seemed to be barely sixteen. He wore black robes and a black pointy hat that reminded me of a witch's hat from a Halloween costume. He had black gloves, and black boots, and carried a staff that looked to be blackened wood. Really pulling the whole goth wizard look together. He fumed at me and yelled again.
"What did you do to my skeletons?!"
I just stared at him for a moment. We weren't supposed to let anyone see Aeolith. Maybe he hadn't seen her yet.
"Is that...is that a dragon?!"
Well, shit.