Date Wednesday, December 25th, 2261

A bit short of two months later.

Looks like Christmas is finally here.

I thought as I awoke from my sleep.

If I was a normal kid, I would've been as excited as can be. But since I'm an adult mentally going through my second life, I've long lost that giddiness I would feel whenever this holiday rolled around. So sadly this holiday and most others have simply turned into just another day for me, although one gives me a reason to take a break and spend the day with the family... Well I better get up and get my workout in before I get held up for the entire day.

Getting up from the bed that Alice and I were sharing without disturbing her, I stretched my arms above my head and went into the bathroom. Speeding through my usual routine, I proceeded to the gym in the basement to continue making progress. I could've taken a break like any normal person would have in my position if they had been going constantly for days on end. However, because I'm a bit of a self improvement addict, I just couldn't help myself. Especially nowadays, since I can literally see and feel myself increasing in power and strength after each session.

...

The hours quickly flew by from when I first stepped foot into the gym. And as I was about to finish the last swing I needed to perform with my heavy training sword, the monitoring equipment I had set up in the incubation room for my colossal gila monster egg alerted me that the creature within was finally attempting to break out of its shell.

"Ohh, that little guy is finally hatching." I thought aloud, excitedly.

I better get there as fast as possible so that the Collosal Gila Monster's offspring will imprint on me.

Finishing that final swing with my several hundred pound heavy training sword, I hurriedly placed it in its stand and raced off to the showers. Washing all the sweat off my body, I dried myself, threw on another set of clothes and utilized Ghost to phase through the walls of my home and whatever obstacles I encountered.

As soon as I was outside, I forwent my car because it wasn't the fastest possible method to get there and made a beeline for the Genesis Foundry at breakneck speed on foot whilst using all the abilities at my disposal. What would've normally taken 25 minutes at least to get to my facility was cut down to a mere 10 minutes flat.

Alright, I've made it. Time to help this little one break out of its shell.

Proceeding inside swiftly, I didn't waste a single second and continued sprinting through every physical object that stood in my path. The instant I made it to the incubation room, I had the sliding doors open for me via Mechanical Domination and entered inside.

What came into view was the same huge black and orange egg I extracted from its Collosal Gila Monster mother many months ago, with several cracks beginning to appear on its top. Walking up to it checked it out with my perception field to see if there were any issues or if the baby within was experiencing any trouble.

Mm, that's good, the little guy hasn't encountered any problems. Nonetheless, I'll still help him out since I don't have long before Alice's family and my own wake up and gather.

Short for time, I activated my all element mana core and began supplying the lizard with my all element mana, the main reason this guy was hatching so soon. As I was feeding my mana into it that I hoped would have some other positive effect on it, I began carefully dismantling the egg shells piece by piece to assist in welcoming my new friend into this world. Laying the pieces off to the side, a pair of glowing orange eyes eventually appeared and peered back at me from within the partially dismantled shell.

"Nice to meet you little guy the names Dom." I greeted it, not expecting any sort of response.

Unexpectedly, the not so little one responded with a sort of chirp similar to a baby gator, although much deeper because of its many times larger size.

This wasteland creature might actually be pretty intelligent.

"Can you understand me?" I asked.

*Chirp.*

"Can you actually?"

*Chirp, chirp*

That's not exactly definitive. However, it seems this little guy isn't just some normal mutated reptile. Maybe the mana I've been pumping into it over these past months has something to do with its seemingly increased intelligence... Well whatever, I won't be able to figure it out right this moment even if I wanted to so let's worry about that later and get this scaly friend out of its shell.

Delaying my investigation until a later time, I restarted my efforts of helping my new pet out of what was left of its shell. It took some time, but the newborn and I made quick work of it. And once the not so little one was fully out of its egg, a 3 and a half foot tall and 12 foot long from head to tail black and orange colored wingless draconic looking lizard stood before me looking around inquisitively. Checking the guy out while it was looking around and taking the incubation room, I discovered its gender.

Guess I'll have to find you a female in the future if I want to add any more dragon-like lizards to my lineup.

Continuing to look him over, I noticed something.

Now that I'm giving him a good look over, he appears to have even more draconic features than his mother did, and his limbs are longer and more built. Besides that, he has small underdeveloped horn-like protrusions on the top of his head and spikes running along his neck, back, and tail. Yeah, there is no way he is the same species as his mother. So he must've evolved into something else most likely due to all the all element mana I've been supplying him over the months. And if not that, maybe his mother mated with a stronger species I have zero knowledge of.

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He looks even more impressive than his mother did, so I'm not complaining. Let's check out what species he is with my Observant perk.

Happy with the changes my new pet had undergone in his time in the egg, I utilized my perk.

| Newborn Colossal Monster Drake |

Health: 1,000

Damage Threshold: 100

Resistances: ???

Description: An offspring of a Colossal Gila Monster that has undergone a mutation and evolved into an entirely new species due to certain unknown variables. This species-???.

A Colossal Monster Drake, huh. Guess I'll be the owner of an actual dragon one day if I can figure out how to evolve him further.

Moving on from the species name, I turned to the stats.

Damn, that's a lot of health and look at that DT, this newborn can almost tank 50 cal right out of the egg... The resistances are blank for some reason and that description leaves a lot to be desired, but whatever I'll figure things out in due time, as I always have.

Not finding anything else of value from my Observant perk, I turned it off and watched on as the little dragon I gained began to eat his egg for some reason. As I watched him chow down, I had a sudden idea come to me.

I wonder how much of the mana I gave him he's been able to keep ahold of.

Turning on my magic senses that I've been ignoring for a while since it was overwhelming to deal with all the time, I saw that my new drake had a large All Element Mana Core sitting in his heart many times bigger than the one I possessed. Alongside that, I noticed the egg shell he was consuming was flooded with all element mana as well as the yolk; the stuff was literally shining.

That egg and yolk he's eating definitely has magical properties to it, thus it's probably very valuable in the field of magic. That said, I can't do anything with the stuff right now since I won't be exploring the path of magic for quite a few more years. So I suppose it's a good thing he's eating it instead of letting it rot away and go to waste.

That aside, I should probably keep myself in tune with my magical senses going forward. Don't want to miss out on spotting anything that is magical in origin. Although that relies upon me actually coming across something that is of that nature... Yeah, there may not be any instances of that occurring, on top of it being a pain in the ass to deal with the overwhelming senses at this given moment.

Nevertheless, I'd rather get used to them ahead of time instead of missing out on the chance to pick up a rare magical item or some other sort of treasure. I'm sure doing that will improve them over the years too, which my future self will certainly be thankful for later on when I begin exploring and pursuing that path.

Several minutes later, whilst I was distracted by my thoughts and managing my growing robot army slash workforce, the newly hatched drake finished cleaning up the eggshell and its other bits.

"You hungry little guy?"

*Chirp*

"... I don't know what that means, so let's try this. Nod your head up and down if you're hungry and if you aren't, shake it side to side."

*Chirp*

"Alright, let's try this again. Are you hungry?"

Receiving a nod in response to my question, I now knew definitively that the beast was, in fact, intelligent and that I could communicate with, albeit simply.

"Okay, we'll get you fed in a second here. Let's give you a name before we do. Now what would be a good fit..." I said while the baby drake looked at me with its head tilted.

Unwilling to give my newly acquired drake a run-of-the-mill name, I began brainstorming and recalling all the information I had read previously on various mythos. After doing so for a decent while, I found a few that would work, thus I got to deciding and ended up liking Vritra the best amongst them.

A legendary name picked out for my pet to grow into one day, hopefully. I crouched down in front of him, bringing myself to his level, and said. "How does Vritra sound to you, little one?"

*Chirp, chirp* The newborn drake responded happily from what I could tell.

"Welcome to the family then, Vritra." I told him, rubbing his scaly head.

While Vritra was enjoying my head rubs and making a sound equivalent to a cat purring, my CZ-7 Armored SUV that I upgraded into a self-driving vehicle arrived and parked itself in the parking lot out front. With the clock ticking, I brought my new family member with me to the planning and relaxation area and started preparing a high protein breakfast.

I got everything whipped up in no more than 15 minutes and the instant it was all prepared; I laid several plates of freshly grilled meat in front of the hungry reptile. Which he immediately started ravenously tearing apart and scarfing down.

As he was giving me a run for my money in terms of what he could put back, I began eating my own meal and started thinking about how I no longer needed as much food and nutrients for the growth and recovery.

I like eating but it was getting to be a bit much. Thankfully, my Wildman perk came in the clutch and cut the amount of food and drink I need to consume to fuel my gains these last many months. That perk has honestly been a godsend. I was actually beginning to dread meal time whenever it came around because of the amount of food I was having to shovel and the innumerable protein drinks I was downing each and every day.

Happy as can be that I could continue to enjoy food, Vritra and I speedily ate everything in sight. Two bellies full, I left the mess behind for my robots to manage and lead the way through the gray halls of my property, with my reptilian friend following right behind me. Reaching the car, I loaded him into the large trunk of the SUV and hopped into the driver's seat, and started making my way home.

It took longer to return home than when I had left earlier, but I made it back, nonetheless. Unloading my pet, I opened the garage door and led him into my home and upon entering; I found everyone up and already gathered in the living room that had been turned Christmas themed with a big fake pine tree and the works.

"Nice of you to join us, sweety. Where'd you go this early in the morning?" My mother inquired as Vritra peeked his head out from behind me.

"Oh, who's that following behind you?" She asked before I could respond to her initial question.

Placing my hand on Vritra's head, I introduced him to the rest of the family. "This here is Vritra, our new family member."

Following that, I got our new family member acquainted with everyone here currently and gave them a rundown of what he was, which got a round of gasps from mom, dad, and Alice when they learned of what his species was. After that, the rest of my grandparents showed up and soon thereafter, Alice's family arrived as well.

Once they arrived, I went through the entire explanation a second time and when they heard that Vritra was a drake, the kind from mythical legends, they all shared the same reaction Alice and my parents showed, which I found to be quite amusing.

Introductions dealt with the women of the family, went to the kitchen and prepared a grand breakfast for all those gathered here today. I was still full with what I had eaten not too long ago, but due to it being a holiday and me not wanting to upset the cooks who put their hearts into the meal, I put my discomfort aside and stuffed myself. Thankfully, my drake didn't have any issue with going for round two and tore into whatever was put in front of him happily.

What a glutton.

The remainder of the day was spent festively and at 12:00 AM everyone departed for their respective homes and turned in for the night to catch some zzzs.

...

The next seven days following Christmas were spent at home with Alice and Bella since I decided we could all use a break from the grind. After spending generally just having fun at home with the family and occasionally going out, we once again returned to the Genesis Foundry to continue making progress.