The four of us flew on Al'Doran's back while Aeolith flew beside us. She looked so majestic now that she had gotten so much bigger. Not only was she larger, with muscles showing under her scales, but she was sleeker. Clearly, all the upgrades had made her a reptile meant for speed. She would also blend in at night with her dark-colored reflective scales with the iridescent sheen. Her face had become more contoured, coming to more of a point than Al'Doran's face did, which appeared to make her more aerodynamic. The scales on the underside of her body had changed from the brilliant shining silver from when she hatched, to a much duller silver that would not be so easily seen, but would almost appear to change colors with the light level so that she would be harder to spot in the day time when it would reflect the light to appear lighter and at night where it would look darker so she wasn't a beacon in the sky. She was absolutely stunning. Every time I saw her my heart was full. Now that we were out of reach of everyone else, Brutus came and rested on my shoulder as well. I smiled looking at him sitting on my shoulder with his mouth open and his tongue hanging out in the breeze as though we were going for a ride in the car together as we did on earth. He caught me looking and suddenly looked embarrassed.

"Don't be embarrassed, Brutus. I was smiling because I was remembering times we spent together on earth, not because you looked funny or I wanted to poke fun at you. Please be yourself. I will never judge you for your dog tendencies."

He looked skeptical for a moment like he wasn't sure he could let go of his feelings.

"I love you for who you are, not who you were or who you want to be."

He smiled at this and I could feel his tail wagging on my shoulder.

"Thanks, Callan. This new life and new world are hard to cope with. I don't always feel like I fit in. I'm a creature caught between worlds."

"I hadn't thought about it that way. I had just been so happy that I had you with me and that I didn't need to worry about you being left in my apartment on earth, that I was just overjoyed to see you, and always have been happy to have you with me. I know your dog instincts are embarrassing to you, but just know that I don't even see it. You just seem like you when I see you. Please don't be afraid to be you. If you change, then who would you be?"

His face changed when I said that. He stopped and looked contemplative. He opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it again. Finally, he replied.

"I just want to be sure that I am better. That I am the best companion I can be."

"You always were, Brutus. And now that we can talk to each other, and that you have more information on this world than I will likely ever have, you are the best. I couldn't ask for more from you or anyone else."

He nuzzled my face and all seemed perfect. I even scratched him on the head for the first time since we came to this world. He leaned into it and closed his eyes, seeming to revel in the feeling again. As we finished this conversation we could see the island coming into view from high in the sky. Al'Doran began to descend toward it and soon enough we were landing in the large clearing in the middle of the old town. Once we had landed we all climbed down from Al'Doran's back and stretched out our muscles.

"So, what should we do first Al'Doran? We need to make sure we are ready for the Shadow Beasts right?"

"The first thing you will do today is to relax. You have been working non-stop for days."

"But Al'Doran, we need to prepare. There are so many things we don't know yet."

"I agree, but if you don't stop once in a while to break, and reset, you will burn out. This was an extremely valuable lesson that had to be taught to all our apprentices. They always wanted to just go go go, learn, fight, and never thought about the ramifications of just being. Your body here can only take so much before it gives out. You must rest to regain what was lost. Even though all your bars are full, your body is not whole without the rest. The time off will allow you to think about your stats, update anything you need to, and truly take a moment to reset yourself to be prepared for what is to come. Take today to do that. Go to the beach, sit in the sun, and play in the surf, there will be refreshments and food waiting there for you all."

That was hard to think about doing. There were people in need on the mainland who wouldn't be getting a chance to take a break. They needed us to be at our best. Then it hit me. That was what Al'Doran meant. If we were tired and constantly going at a hundred percent, we would never be at our best.

"OK, Al'Doran. We will take the day to relax."

I turned and waved for the others to follow me. I showed them back to the dormitories, Vokin and Rutherford staring in awe at the sights along the way and taking it all in for the first time, each one never having imagined they would ever see this fabled place.

"It's even grander than I had heard," Vokin said.

"Even though it has been worn by age and fallen a bit into disrepair, is it still remarkable to see after over half a century with no one to truly care for it," Rutherford said.

"Don't let Al'Doran hear you say that, he's been here the whole time," I replied to their comments.

"Well, don't get us wrong, he did a marvelous job all by himself. There is no way one being could keep up with an entire island this size alone," Rutherford commented, in an attempt to make himself sound like he was on the dragon's side.

Once we got to the dormitories, I let them pick from the rooms, and each one choose rooms close to where Tristan and I were staying. I looked into my room and was absolutely certain that Aeolith wouldn't fit in with me. To my surprise, the doorway was wider than it had been before and a new alcove had appeared in the room with a bed that looked perfectly sized for Aeolith. I stood there staring in awe at the changes that had happened. I wasn't sure I would ever really get used to the magic that made this place run.

One thing that I did anticipate though, was the wardrobe. I had checked in them when I first arrived and there seemed to always be clothes in there that were fit for me for almost any occasion. I told the others to check their wardrobes and pick out some beach clothes. I found a pair of swim trunks that looked similar to the ones I had on earth and changed into those. I walked back out into the hall to find the others already waiting for me. Tristan had on some kind of full-body suit that looked like something out of the nineteen-twenties that went down to his knees, and up to a sleeveless tank-top kind of suit that was alternating white and red horizontal striped. Vokin was wearing something similar, but Rutherford was still wearing his coconut shells and grass skirt.

"Rutherford, don't you want to take off your...armor, for something more suited to the beach? The wardrobe should show you what you need."

"That's the thing though, my wardrobe was totally empty."

That was weird. It should have clothes he would need for any situation. I shrugged.

"Well, technically you look fine for a luau, so you should fit in fine with the beach.

"What's a luau?" Rutherford asked.

I stared at him for a moment, not believing he would ask me that question dressed like that. Then I had to stop and remember, right, earth.

"Oh, it's a type of beach party where I come from."

"Beach party? In this armor? You come from a strange place, Callan. But I do love a good party, this one time I was at a party and the bards got so drunk they started playing children's songs for the crowd, which wouldn't have been so bad except most everyone else was drunk as well so they were tired and a little bit sleepy and began to drift off to sleep while they were playing, except this one guy in the corner, Ralph, who suddenly stood up on the table and started screaming in a high pitched voice and banging his head back and forth like it was the greatest music he had ever heard, which couldn't be the case because the greatest music was of tales of great adventures, like the one I went on with my good friend Edgar a few years ago where we had to hunt down and kill a basilisk, but it had a cold so it couldn't smell or hear us and it wasn't as epic an adventure as we would have liked. Poor bugger was so clogged up that ole Edgar got monster snot all over himself when he stood in front of it to kill it and couldn't get out of the way as it sneezed, which was weird now that I think about it because it sneezed with its eyes open which I thought was impossible or that at least your eyes would pop out of your head like my mom always said they would, but I guess that isn't true since its eyes were still in its head, or maybe all the swelling from the cold kept them in its head, you know it's one of those...."

"RUTHERFORD! If we keep going like this we won't have any relaxing time. Let's hurry out to the beach."

"Right, sorry, I do get a bit carried away sometimes."

"We noticed," I said, chuckling at the same time. "It's alright, let's just go focus on our day off."

With that, we headed down to the beach. Sure enough, just as Al'Doran had said there was a new small stone building on the beach where drinks and food were laid out in the shade for us to partake of. Chairs similar to the lounge chairs of earth, but made entirely of wood were laid out as well in the shade of some of the palm-like trees, as well as hammocks for us to relax in.

I went down to the water first and waded into the surf for a bit to let myself relax. The water was just the right temperature not too hot, but not too cool. It felt so good to just be almost weightless in the water for a bit. As I was wading there I saw Aeolith come running down the beach right at me. I was excited to see her for a moment and the prospect of spending some time with her was something I really wanted. Then I realized she wasn't slowing down. She was coming faster, and faster until she unfurled her wings and began to glide out and up. Suddenly she pulled her wings in and began to plummet toward the water, right over me. I swam as fast as I could to get out from under her and she splashed into the ocean right where I had been a moment ago, her bulk pulling me under the water as well. Floundering for a moment, I tried to right myself. Then I remembered the old adage, let out a little air and follow the bubbles. Just as I did this and saw the bubbles going toward the surface, Aeolith appeared in the water near me. She swam like a monitor lizard, or a crocodile on earth, swishing her body and tail back and forth for propulsion. I grabbed onto a spine on her back and we went for a swim under the waves. We saw a reef with many brightly colored fish and even a shipwreck way out in the distance. We surfaced for air, then dove back down to see what else we could find. She was perfectly in sync with my breathing needs because of our mental bond and this time was magical.

I saw many different kinds of creatures on our journey under the water. Some looked like fish we had on earth, and others were strange creatures I had never seen before. We happened upon a creature that looked like a shark but had two heads and a tail that the top half was about four times longer than the bottom half. It saw Aeolith though and swam off as quickly as it appeared to be able to. There were so many colors in the reefs that we swam through. When we went back to take a look at the shipwreck, I noticed something inside one of the rooms near the back of the ship. I was running low on air, so Aeolith took us to the surface and I mentioned the room to her mentally. She dove back down and went straight for the room. We opened the door and it appeared to be some form of captain's quarters. At the foot of the iron-framed bed that was apparently bolted to the floor, likely to keep it from moving on rough seas, was a small storage chest. Aeolith was able to use her teeth to break the rusted lock off, and as I opened it I saw a few small items inside. I grabbed the items and we headed back to the surface.

Having finished our underwater tour, and wanting to know what the items were we found, Aeolith swam back to where I could reach the bottom and I walked back up to the shore and laid out the items I found on the beach. One appeared to be some kind of water-logged book, likely a journal or diary, but it was completely ruined by the saltwater. There was also a compass, a picture frame where the picture inside had also been ruined, and a saber. Inspecting the saber I got a pop-up letting me know what we had found.

Item:

Captain Nero's Saber

Captain Nero was a pirate over a thousand years ago. He blamed the Dragonriders for his family's death and swore to take revenge on them. He searched the seas for many years until he found out just where they had been hiding. Unfortunately, he was unable to even get to the island as the defenses around it were too great. He was said to have sunk somewhere off the coast.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Item Type: Weapon

Durability: 50/200

Attack: 45-67

Item Quality: Excellent

Item Rarity: Rare

Enchantment: This blade was forged using all the hatred an individual had for dragons and their riders. Therefore it gains an additional +100 damage per attack when used against a dragon or a Dragonrider.

I almost dropped the blade in shock. This was terrible. I couldn't let this blade exist. I called to Al'Doran who came to the beach and gave him the blade. He looked upset at seeing it but agreed to take it and have it destroyed. He took the blade in his hand and flew off toward the city.

After dealing with that, I walked back over to the building and saw a tray of what looked like really big margaritas. I took one and took a sip. It was definitely not a margarita, but instead a sweet fruity drink that did have a bit of an alcoholic flavor to it. Even in this world the ideas of the perfect beach trip included fruity alcoholic drinks. Which I supposed made sense if you thought about what people everywhere did to relax, which was drinking. I popped a few pieces of sweet fruit into my mouth from another tray, took my drink over to one of the Hammocks, and laid down in it sipping the sweet liquid slowly while facing the ocean.

Aeolith came over to where I had decided to lay out and relax, and Al'Doran, who flew back from the city, without the sword I noticed, was standing watch at the path leading back up to the city. She walked over to me and nuzzled my neck with her nose and I scratched her scales. She let out that deep low growl from her chest that signified she was happy. Almost like a purr from a cat. That was going to be a hard image to get out of my head now, but I didn't focus on it for too long as she laid down beside me and I swung slightly in the ocean breeze. Laying in the shade with a big fruity drink I didn't think life could get any better.

"Maybe now would be a good time to look at those notifications?" Brutus helpfully added.

"Good idea. I can enjoy my drink while we look at those."

Pulling up the notifications, the first thing I noticed was that I had leveled five times since I had last looked at this. That couldn't be right. The only fight I had really been in was the one with the guys at the warehouse. I scrolled through the other messages quickly trying to find the source of the XP boost I had gotten. It had to be a massive amount to have leveled me that much with each level costing more and more XP to level up. I finally found where it had come from. I read the notification several times to really let it sink in.

Secret Quest Complete!

Taking over from the shadows:

There have been rumors that the unrest happening from within some cities was the work of some nefarious group. You have unknowingly figured out the root cause of that threat and exposed it to those in charge of the city, Shadow Beasts. Due to your actions, you have been awarded 50,000 XP. Due to the fact that you were able to eliminate the threat without it being able to notify others of its kind of your existence, all rewards have been doubled. 100,000 XP awarded for completion of the secret quest.

One hundred thousand XP all at once was such a large amount of XP. Though it didn't exactly account for all the XP that I should have needed to get to this level. I was level nineteen now, which should have taken...

"Brutus, how much XP does it take to get from level fourteen to level nineteen?"

"It would take one hundred and fifty-six thousand XP to get from level fourteen to level nineteen."

That would mean since I had been needing fifteen thousand four hundred XP before, that I had already gotten sixty-six hundred of that XP so that was at least one hundred forty-nine thousand four hundred XP that I had gotten. With one hundred thousand coming from the secret quest, that left almost fifty thousand XP from the fight with the men in the town. I went to look at the combat logs. I had turned them off since I didn't want to see the notifications every time I hit or killed something. Sure enough, each person in that warehouse had been worth way more XP than monsters were.

"Brutus, why are people worth so much more XP than monsters?"

"That is something that no one is truly sure of. Some believe it's because of the sentience. Others believe it's the presence of a soul that causes them to be worth more. Whatever the actual case is, killing a sentient creature will always end up giving more XP. But killing people is frowned upon. No matter their race."

Thinking of killing those men made me a little upset. They had attacked us so it was self-defense, but at the same time, they were men. They didn't deserve to be cut down like that. And they were likely being controlled by the Shadow Beast, so it may not have even been their fault. I felt horrible now.

"I see your face and feel like you are struggling with what you did, Callan. Am I right?"

I nodded.

"Just remember what you are going to be standing for. Remember that even though you had to take lives to survive that you saved so many others. That Shadow Beast would have taken over the whole town, and many more would have died if you hadn't stepped in. I shudder to think of how many innocents would have died in that process. And not just men, women and children as well."

Brutus was right. It didn't make me feel a lot better, but it helped move me from those thoughts. I couldn't stop to think about those things for too long or I would never get moving again, and we had things to accomplish now. Steeling my resolve, I pulled up my character sheet to look at while I took a big gulp of my drink, hoping the alcohol would help numb some of the feelings I was having. I had twenty-five attribute points to work with and ten skill points. I had been moving my build towards more of a combination of magical and physical fighting. My spell repertoire had grown a good bit, so I had to be ready for a useful spell when it was needed. That meant more mana, of course. And more mana should mean more mana regeneration. At the same time, I needed to be strong, fast, and durable. So That meant again focusing on Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Unfortunately, I couldn't just throw five points at each of those. So, what was most important? I did have both Vokin and Rutherford now for help with tanking. So maybe it was time to see what I could do with more spells. I always worried I would have regret later on, but I could always add more points to the physical attributes later. With that decision, I decided to dump thirteen points into intelligence all at once.

My brain froze. I had never put that many points into one stat all at one time. I dropped my drink out of the hammock.

"Callan!?" Brutus asked with shock and concern.

I felt like I had the worst migraine I had ever experienced all at once. I could feel my mind shifting and changing and being torn as it changed then healed as it was put back together. After what felt like an eternity, but was likely less than a minute, the pain left and I was able to speak and move again.

"What happened?" Brutus asked again.

"I'm not sure. I just put points into my intelligence stat and suddenly everything was pain and I couldn't do anything."

"How many points?"

"Thirteen."

Brutus did a face-palm with one of his paws and shook his head.

"You can't add that many points at once. You have to do it more slowly. Five at a time is the recommended number with ten being the absolute max anyone should add at once to a single attribute. Every time you add points to an attribute it has to change you to make the new adjustments. Adding even ten points at once to intelligence is the equivalent of having your brain rearranged like a furniture store to make it more efficient as well as give it more storage space. Not to mention your mana network. You could fry yourself doing things like that."

"Now you tell me."

"That is a bit of my bad. I should have warned you since you were new to this world and don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of its workings, but you could have asked as well."

"You're right. I'm sorry Brutus. I won't make that mistake again. Especially since I was just about to do so with Wisdom."

"This time add the points five at a time and wait about five minutes for your body to adjust."

I did it that way and this time it was much simpler. It took a while longer as I had to do it in three chunks instead of all at once, but there was no crippling pain this time when adding twelve points into Wisdom. I decided to get up and grab another drink since I had dropped my original one and then came back to the hammock. Priorities, am I right?

Next, I looked at my skills. I had the ability to get three more of the tier two skills or I could start to look at the tier three skills which I hadn't even looked at yet. But without any hesitation at all, I took the Dragon's Hope Skill. That was going to be a necessary addition for killing the Shadow Beasts. That left me with enough points for two more skills and seeing how big Aeolith was getting, I took the Dragon Riding skill so that I would be ready when she was to ride her into battle and the Aerial Combat skill to compliment the Dragon Riding skill.

Looking over my character sheets again I smiled with satisfaction at the progress we were making.

Name: Callan Ryder

Race: Human

Class: Dragon Rider

Level: 19

HP: 270/270 *(+20 Necklace)

MP: 420/420 *(+20 Ring)

SP: 250/250

Total XP: 314,000

XP to Next Level: 37,000

Attributes:

Unused Attribute Points: 0

Strength: 23 *(+7 Items & Skills)

Constitution: 25 *(+2 Skills)

Dexterity: 25 *(+2 Skills)

Endurance: 25 *(+2 Skills)

Intelligence: 40 *(+7 Items & Skills)

Wisdom: 39 *(+2 Skills)

Charisma: 12 *(+2 Skills)

Luck: 13 *(+2 Skills)

Unused Skill Points: 0

Non-Combat Skills:

Combat Skills:

Inspect: Beginner 3

Unarmed Combat: Beginner 2

Dragon Spirit: 1/5

Spears: Beginner 2

Dragon Scales: 1/4

Short Blades: Beginner 2

Dragon Armor: 1/5

Swords: Novice 11

Stealth: Beginner 2

Dragon Slash: 1/5

Dragon Breath: Beginner 4

Dragon Shield: Beginner 2

Thrown Weapons: Beginner 1

I also gained some levels in some of my skills. I had progressed with Swords to the Novice rank and hadn't noticed. I rummaged through the notifications to find that one as well. It had happened during the fight in the warehouse apparently.

Congratulations!

Skill Rank up - Swords:

Your prowess with the blade has reached level 10 and you have now ranked up from Beginner to Novice rank with the skill Swords. Continue to practice your skill to rank up again.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. I wish I was able to get more skill points per level, but I guess that would be really unfair of me to have almost all of my skills unlocked by this point. Eventually, I would sit down and look at the tier-three skills, but I could save that for another time. For now, I was going to shut down the thinking and focus on the moment. Now that I took care of the most important business I hoped that the others were doing the same. Thinking about this I realized I could be sure of it.

"Rutherford, Vokin, Tristan, have you all already checked in on your attributes and skills? It is important that we are prepared for the next battle."

"Aye, I checked on mine already lad," Vokin called from one of the chairs, a large drink in his hand as well.

"Of course I checked mine. That was a lot of XP from the fight at the warehouse." Rutherford replied.

"Oh, right. I'll do that now." Tristan called from the shoreline where he was standing letting his feet get washed in the waves of the ocean.

Glad that I had said something now, I went back to relaxing in my hammock. The rest of the day was extremely peaceful and we passed it by laying out in hammocks or chairs, swimming in the ocean, and having more drinks and food from the small stone hut on the beach. When the sun went down, Al'Doran called to us from the main road and told us to go into the hut. When we went in, there were torches lit and a huge feast set out on a table in the middle of the room. We ate and drank more while just enjoying each other's company. Once we had our fill we walked back up to the main road and towards the dormitories to sleep for the night. We showered to get the sand off of us before going to our rooms and bidding each other a good night in the hallway. I laid in bed and Aeolith curled up in her new bed in the new alcove. Everything was perfect for that moment in time. For a fleeting time, there was nothing to worry about, there was just a group of friends enjoying what they had. Good food, good drinks, warm sun, sand, ocean, relaxation time, and no pressures. That would all change in the morning, but Al'Doran had been right. Taking this time was absolutely essential. It helped to wash away the worries, the torments, the anxiety, and the pressures. I drifted off to sleep with that thought in mind as I dreamed of the day we had and the enjoyment each seemed to get from the time we spent together. I had finally found somewhere I belonged with people who were just as willing to accept me as I was them.

There was no judgment about race, there was no condemnation for how someone acted. There was just comradery and a willingness to work together for the betterment of a world that needed us. They looked to me almost reverently sometimes, but still with the same understanding that I was someone who would fight beside them when the time came. We would make a difference here, and we would do something to ensure that the world didn't fall into darkness. I would be sure of it. As I passed into unconsciousness I dreamed of the adventures we would have.