In the next ten minutes, monster meat filled my stomach. A minute after my plate was clean, the system generated a message.

[Rare creature consumed. 2 Mutagen gained]

I happily gasped at the message. "Was my kanastone mutable?" I thought. I couldn't even rest, as the black dragon gestured for me to leave before I could even spend the mutagen. My stamina filled sluggishly, spent intermittently to heal my lost tail. I stalled the climb, feeling it grow back to the tail and climbed, both [Stamina cap] and [Rapid Healing] going up Level to 3 each. As I climbed, I pulled up my System. The comfortingly familiar azure windows greeted me, navigated through with ease for mutations. Though as I read the formula again, I remembered- I needed 4 mutagen to get a new mutation or rank up a current one. Sighing, I put it away, but more mutagen was definitely something to watch out for. At the top of the slope, I saw the squad of dark-scaled kobolds playing cards around a table. I waved a flipper, starting to speak when I realized I needed a way to actually communicate. A mental bridge to all six sounded unfeasible; the cost to make it wasn't something I could throw around, and the cost to maintain even one took up an even bigger slice of my mana gathering. That, however, didn't stop me from making just one. I reached out with my mind to the halberdier still in good condition, bridge formed more easily. Was he more willing, or was it simply familiarity?

"Hi... Your boss says I work for you now"

[Old Zyr? Of course he'd recruit you. I barely trust you after what you did to my wife, but we're under the same boss now. What's your job?]

"Queen..." I answered with a sad tone.

Concerned Yipyaps resounded through the dark kobold squad, and I elaborated

"He wants me to train. get strong, and evolve into a being who can have his eggs"

[I don't care who you bit, nobody needs that. Zyradon making us evolve from kobolds to 'Zyrbolds' was at least helpful for us, but I've got just enough morals to let him steal someone's future like that.]

I breathed a sigh of relief, but pressed on about the oddity I noticed "How did he... Make you evolve?"

The head kobold shrugged. [We don't know. We've been serving him for a year, and he's always been going on about Stats, Skills, Levels, Class, and Tier. We also don't know how and why the world puts this power in numbers, but he says the Zyrbolds were the best choice for evolution]

"Has he, by any chance, bragged about his stats?"

[Oh absolutely. He evolved a few weeks ago. Said he's tier 4 now, with a strength of... 250. The number stuck out from how round it was. Sounds like a lot.]

My left head gulped, and my right growled. My highest stat wasn't even a tenth of that. Yet as I remembered he had mentioned my quantity of Skills, some hope remained.

"If you train me enough, I think I can take him"

The leader-kobold almost dropped his mug. "You?" he asked incredulously. [You lost to us, how do you expect to-]

"Why do you six follow him again?"

The leader shrugged. [We're kobolds. He's the biggest, strongest dragon around. It's the rules]

"Look at how he talked about your berserker. Like a broken tool, not a fallen ally"

I could feel a pulse of uncertainty through the mental connection, so I pressed it.

"Does he even know your names?"

The leader scratched his head, right over one of his horns. [I... can't remember when he said mine last.]

"Well I will. I'm Valerie, what are yours?"

[I'm Cinzek. My wife's Cilgris. Croc and Drox fight with two axes, and Chec and Khirc with a sword and shield. You killed Ximok] Cinzek explained, last part delivered with a glare.

"And I care more about you than he does already. Ready to train me into the biggest, strongest dragon you can?"

[I'm on break.] Cinzek rolled his eyes, but turned to one of his opponents. "Drox!" he barked, before giving some instructions in his language and going back to his hand.

A more feminine looking kobold set her hand down, scooped her battered coins into a pouch at her side, and picked up her stone axes. Cinzek said something that made Drox smile with glee, and she charged at me with reckless abandon. I staggered backwards, tail not even fully healed yet, and moved my heads like a weapon and shield. My left one moved back, using a bit of magic to spray a distracting burst of water into her face, while my right headbutted an axe, flesh giving way bug the axe repelled with a painful clank. I pulled my right head back, out of range of her other axe, and lashed forward like a harpoon to deliver a barely-dodged shoulder bite. The kobold stepped too close, between my heads, and giggled manically giving me all the chance I needed. I closed my necks together, wrapping them around her torso and arms. Drox flailed, lacking leverage, and I moved my mouths over her neck and very gently bit. While not enough to break the layer of scales, she could tell when she'd been beaten.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[That's enough, let Drox go.]

"Chec" Cinzek ordered, kobold swordsman walking towards me with caution. I barely had time to heal, and he was already throwing another enemy at me? Chec kept his shield high, more cautious than Drox was. I took advantage of the lack of charging forward to charge up a classic combo. Small sprays of poison, the mixture corrosive enough to be annoying, sailed the distance between us. The first earned a yip of pain and forced the kobold to raise his shield to just below eye level, letting my lower head charge up a spell in peace. The shield kobold approached, trading caution for speed at every step, and that's when I made my move. A ball of water with the force and feeling of a speeding tire struck the kobold point-blank, overwhelming his strength and knocking him over. I threw myself forward, bellyflopping on his legs and in the same motion grasping at his neck and sword-arm with each of my heads.

[Skill: Water magic has risen to level 4]. As if in reward, water magic was so close to evolving. My mouth watered at the thought of what it could become, as Fundamental skills had many options. The kobolds who hadn't fought whooped and cheered for the fight infront of them, until Cinzek pushed them both forward. Croc and Khirc grabbed their weapons from the nearby table, realized they had the wrong gear, and switched them around. Despite conjuring and accelerating a lot of water, it was unusually easy on my mana, and I could feel more come back from the delay. Not willing to let them coordinate on how to defeat me, I picked up speed with a few jumps and threw myself into Khirc. His eye narrowed, stance widening and lowering, and I crashed into a far larger shape than his shield would imply.

[You got a Skill out of her. impressive.] Cinzek complimented. I bounced off, one head pointed to each practice enemy. They made a noise and both charged, fighting my heads as if they were allied snakes. Near-autonomously I weaved out of the way of sword and axe strikes, taking nicks and scrapes from a set I just barely dodged. I didn't have the stamina to keep on the back foot, so I had to change the game. My left head made several distracting nips, and my right faked a bite. The attack curved right past attack the shield-kobold, teeth lighting up with their red glow, and whipped around towards the axeman. The full effect of the skill caught him in the leg, and while I didn't do anything more painful, that was enough to slow him down. Khirc threw her shield aside, jumping over a spur-of-the-moment spray of acid and landing on my back. I turned my heads around with awkwardness, but could already feel the slightly curved blade of bronze press to the back of my left throat.

[A win for the duo!] Cinzek exclaimed, shouting something in kobold and gesturing for my two foes to leave. Though from the loss, a tide-turner arose.

[Skill: Twin minds has risen to level 3. Mind bonus has risen to 5].

I could feel my mental fatigue start fading. The connection took up enough of my regeneration, and just from that tiny rise could feel more magic available to me. Cinzek picked up his halberd, looking very much ready to try his hand, and I knew i needed to stall.

"Can you give me a minute or three to heal?" I asked through the mind bridge.

Cinzek shook his head. [A real enemy would not give you this courtesy.] he denied, spinning his weapon from upright to forward with a practiced gesture.

"You're not a real enemy. You're trying to test and train my skills, and you'll get a better-" I dodged his first stab with a sideways jump, righting myself in the air. "-chance to see them if I have my whole tail"

[Of course it's that way with you dragons.] Cinzek slashed wide over my heads, which I could tell was a testing strike. He was feeling out my speed and reflexes. [All you care about is your own might and control]

I spat another blast of water to Cinzek's face to disorient him, disciplined kobold striding through the spray. "And that's where you're wrong." I defiantly contradicted. Cinzek gave a quizzical expression, next stab faltering.

My heart began to speed up, words shining like polished copper. Even across the mental connection my voice sounded stronger, wiser. "I seek the defense and stability of Gaham. For how long have kobolds like you have been raiding it?" I challenged, headbutting forward and striking Cinzek's forearm.

[As long as we need. There's not enough food to go around, and what's one dwarf in the face of many?] The axeblade came down too close to my neck, striking my shoulder. Yet I persisted, wound seeming to hold itself closed.

"Of course there is. Have you seen how much your boss is hoarding?" I asked with a hipcheck, sending Cinzek off-balance. "He creates a problem and makes you clean up his mess."

["And how are you different? You made a fine mess of Ximok"]

Something dark in me reared it's ugly head. Something that wanted me to pull race, to make the kobold submit, intertwined with my desire to protect and support. But like my two heads, those two beliefs could coexist.

"Leave the thinking to your superiors, Kobold." I ordered, bite wrenching the halberd from his grasp. Cinzek drew a dagger, slashing at me in his pitiful range.

"My will for the flourishing of myself and my people is absolute. You may either join me in this unity, where none hoard food and even the littlest hatchling gets their needs met, or you may starve under your boss's claw."

I advanced with every important word, delivering small bites to his extremities. And with every puncture of his scales and his argument, his motions began to lose speed and certainty.

"Whereas under my loving wings will be freedom. To help your fellow kobold in any way you like. Does Zyradon offer you art? Music? Good food? Culture? Anything but his shadow to hide in?"

His loyalty was broken. His words, spilling into eachother. And his allegiances, shattered. I slid towards the crying Cinzek, wrapping my heads around him in a strange embrace. Only then did I see the others kneel. My heart sped back down to normal, and only then did I notice my wounds had healed.

But not before I notice the kobolds kneeling. A tear fell from Cinzek's face, and he joined them, knelt down in the safety of my heads.

[Gained title: Lord.] the system awarded. I opened my character sheet again, satisfied to find a new box.

[Army]