Chapter 3.6 - Dragon's Approach

Serin was awoken by screams. He checked his status and saw his mana was full. He quickly powered up his defensive spells, grabbed his rifle from under his bed and headed outside. He could see gouts of flame in the sky. It was too dark to see what made it, but he could see all of the Demis retreating into buildings everywhere.

Serin saw two changlings retreating from the mountain. They were carrying a third. If this was the team that took the quest to find metal, there was no fourth to be found. Serin feared the worst.

Serin checked his population on his Kingdom Management Screen and saw the population was down one.

Someone has died. Serin was upset. He looked to the skies and although he was surprised by what he saw, he did not show it.

A Red dragon circled over the town. Serin had heard of these majestic creatures, powerful and evil. Usually it took several powerful heroes to kill, as the flames of the Red Dragon could melt metal, and the tough scales blocked arrows, bullets, and even moderately powered spells. Serin walked calmly. He had his bag of powdered essence, but he felt he might not need it.

Serin could tell that it was an adult dragon. He had studied dragons when he was a child and learned of the various methods to identify them. Though these lessons were years ago they were fresh in his memory, and Serin was able to recall how to tell the age of a dragon. You looked at the ridge on its back. The more spines the older it was. This one had spines down its back but not its tail. So it was an Adult. Regardless of its age, Its marker was still dark red indicating its level was much higher than Serin's.

Serin had long since learned to heed such warnings, but he was angry. The dragon landed near him. And spoke, "Oh, a challenger! You must have some power to so confidently walk into the open as I fly above." The dragon eyed Serin closely, "You do have some power don't you? Much more power than the other boy. He didn't put up much of a fight. A single swipe and he broke like a wooden doll. And his corpse was barely a morsel, light and tasteless. But maybe you will taste better with all of that magic!" The dragon then blew flames at Serin. It exhausted all of its draconic might upon Serin, hoping to turn this imputent young man into ash.

When the flames ended, the grass and shrubs around Serin were scorched. The temperature had to be in the hundreds of degrees around where Serin stood. A layer of soil was turned to hot embers. Serin and a small globe around his feet, were unharmed.

Serin had leveled his rifle at the Dragon, and used 90% of his magic to overpower a single shot. An [Icicle] fired out from under his barrel. It fired so fast the Dragon did not have time to react.

Normally Serin could change the many things of a spell when he overpowered it. He did so based on how he overpowered it. Serin did not increase the size of the icicle much. It was only about 30 centimeters wide and a meter long. What he did change was its hardness and sharpness, turning it into the strength of a diamond. And finally he changed its speed. He spent the remaining magical power he gave the spell into increasing the speed. As he overcharged the spell pointed at the dragon a notice blinked in his vision.

[Notice! Spell parameters indicate it will damage things behind the target.]

Serin didn't care.

Serin fired, and the icicle disappeared. It travelled at such a speed that after the spell completed, it was not seen again. A loud crack was all that was heard, pushing the cold air in its wake to extinguish the burned trees and bushes around Serin. The icicle disappeared and only left a trail of white showing its path. That trail went to the dragon's head, then through it, and off into the distance, drawing a straight line into the sky and the stars beyond. The projectile had travelled at such great speed that when it hit the dragon, everything above the jaw was turned into paste and splatter, a cold pink mist floating from the dragon and a wave of force passed over everything within a few hundred meters. The icicle continued into a straight line until it went past Serin's ability to follow the trail.

The dragon wobbled on its feet for a few moments. It was the last movements of life within its body. Then it fell, leaving a crashing sound to permeate the valley. Serin knew he had leveled up. He knew he had gained quite a few levels of both the [Icicle] and [resist heat] spell, which he had overpowered to survive. But he didn't care. He had lost a member of his town, one of his citizens.

Then he remembered that the dragon had said he had eaten the changeling. As Serin started at the body Jericho arrived, road leathers and sword in hand. Serin had an idea. The attack and battle had happened in mere moments, and Jericho had needed that time to collect his gear and run to aid. Serin looked over at Jericho. "Jericho, there still might be time. Open the thing's belly."

Jericho didn't hesitate or ask questions. He didn't tell Serin it was hopeless for the poor changeling. He simply cut open the stomach. It took a bit to get between the very thick scales, but when he did, he was able to cut into the stomach. Besides a few partially digested animals, there was the missing changeling. His body mangled.

By this time the townsfolk had come out to investigate. They saw as Serin laid out the Changeling. Serin cast [regenerate] to bring his body back to perfect condition. Then they watched as Serin cast [Bring to Life].

As Darkness consumed Serin, the changeling woke from the dead.

***

2 days. Serin had passed out for 2 days. That was his penalty for using high magic and ignoring the cost. He had used his power to absorb the magic from the world to finish powering this spell, but it looked like this came at the cost of him losing consciousness for 2 days. If he did not have such mastery of magic, it would have instead cost him his life. It was definitely a last chance play, but he was happy to know it worked. As he looked around one of the changelings seated near him had run out exclaiming "He's up! He's up!" Serin got up, noticed that there were fresh clothes for him, and let out a sign as he realized he was naked in his bed under the blanket. Serin put on the simple clothes and soft leather shoes. Then he walked outside to see tables being set up and a banquet being prepared.

Serin had woken up to a celebration.

"Our hero awakens!"

"Master Serin is the savior of the changeling people once again!"

"The great dragonslayer!"

Serin looked around.

There was a banquet being quickly setup now that he was awake.

Serin sat. He could not celebrate. Even if it was for just a moment, he had failed to protect his people from a threat within his own domain. He just thought about what things had he failed at to cause one of his people to die on his own land. Did I not perform enough reconnaissance? Was there not enough security in place? Have I not developed enough to protect my people? Serin pondered questions endlessly as he tried to figure out how he could have stopped this attack.

As people noticed his unhappy look, everyone who had gathered slowly stopped what they were doing and began to come to him. They started to ask what was wrong, and as his people gathered, he explained. "I have failed you. I have failed all of you. One of you died because I was unaware of a threat in our valley."

They looked surprised, but they responded to his statement with fire. "It wasn't your fault master Serin! Who could have predicted a Red Dragon was roosting in the highest cave on the mountain?"

Serin thought it sounded surreal. 'It had been here the whole time? I had never investigated. I had been too focused on the economy and not on security.'

Serin then looked. His people were not angry or upset. The dragon had done very minor damage to the town since most of it was built of stone. "No harm was done to us, and in the end our town has gained a great blessing."

That was when Serin saw the food being brought out. He then realized. The banquet *was* the dragon.

Serin looked over, and noticed a collection of trophies being brought out. At first was a set of armor that Ephraim had worked on, light armor fashioned using the dragon scales. Serin had not used armor before, but this looks like it was built for maximum maneuverability while still providing protection. It could even be worn over simple clothing. Several cloaks made from the dragon's leathery wings had also been made by the Demis Weavers. The bones of the dragon had been carved into several dozen melee weapons, as well as smaller cutting tools.

It seemed nothing went to waste.

Serin then thought, "Was there anything in the cave? In the place the dragon roosted?"

The changelings that were on the mission to find metal, who had initially run into the dragon, were up front excited to submit their report. "We have been carrying it down for the last two days. There is a vein of mithril running through the mountaintop. And although we could not work it out of the stone, we did bring back 200 kg of this as proof. It's waiting at the guild for you to pickup. We also found much, much more."

They then pulled up a blanket. It was a dragon's horde. Large chunks of every type of precious and semi precious metal. Thousands of platinum and gold discs from before the world adopted the divines' credit system. Hundreds of Large chunks of Magical essence. Magical tomes. Then there were crates marked with the symbol of the Sarween Technocracy. "There is also hundreds of kilograms of iron made of, we think, molten goblin weapons, as well as a primitive foundry. Our thought is that the dragon was paid handsomely by the goblins to craft their weapons." This was Bilol explaining what they found.

Serin stared at it. It was a veritable horde. The counsel had come to him while he viewed it. 9 members of 3 races. They all looked at Serin. "We the counsel, following your previous guidance, decided in your absence that the spoils of the dragon and its horde belong equally to all who defeated it. Since that is solely you, we recommend that these spoils were prepared specifically for you."

Serin knew he could have demanded it. The counsel knew it as well. This was the will of the people that he be given the spoils of this conquest.

Serin looked at the banquet of food, Bilol smiled," We were unaware when you would wake up, and we did not want all this extremely high level meat to go to waste."

Serin then shook his head. Of course he wanted to share the meat. Although they had not killed the creature specifically, it was of such an extremely high level it would positively affect the Changelings. Serin realized that it was probably a delicious meal judging by the looks on the faces of the Demis.

So with that Serin smiled, "I will figure out what to do with the spoils of this battle, but for now, we celebrate."

There was a loud cheer.

Ephraim looked at Serin. "Another thing you should know. The Demis have unanimously decided to contract under you as protectors of this land. We must grow in power if we are to ensure future generations."

Serin blinked. It seemed that this dragon was what some might call 'Luck'.

***

Serin was correct in his assumption on the Changelings. After consuming meat from such a high level and dangerous creature, even if they did not slay it themselves, they still received a portion of the magic.

And it seemed even a small portion of such a high level creature was extremely significant.

Every single underdeveloped adult Changeling received its plate. All in an instant. And because it was from eating the same creature, almost all of them received one of three classes. Some came out as Mages, with a set of fire magic spells immediately available. Some came out as Monks, which were like fighters but they did not wear any armor. And the rest were Delvers, which were rogues that specialized in Mines, Dungeons, and underground environments.

If that wasn't strange enough, the changeling that had been killed by the same dragon he now ate, received something different. He began to glow with a pale white light. Then his eyes whited out. Bilol was stunned. He looked at the changelings, "Rejoice! A Scion has been born!"

As a black cloth was brought out to the changeling, who Serin learned was named Ansar, Bilol explained. "There are tales of such people, champions of the changeling race. It seems that eating a creature that had previously taken your life made Ansar into a Scion of Retribution." Bilol looked.

"There are very few of us that remember, but Scions of our people excel at a singular purpose. In a normal fight, the scion of retribution is no more powerful than any other changeling of similar level, however If the Scion fights to avenge a wrong to the changeling people, he is granted an immense boon to his power."

Serin had never heard of such a thing. When he looked at Ansar's class he saw that his class had changed to "Spellsword", which Serin knew to be a fighter/mage combo class. He then saw that there was a perk under his racial perks.

[Scion of Retribution: Oh, by my blurred sword and burning spell, in name of kin who hath just fell, my quarry, traitors, devils, and foe, you shall breath your last sigh of woe.]

Serin had never seen a Perk as a poem. He then chalked it up to being from another world. He was sure this wasn't the end of the confusing parts. For now, Serin watched as Ansar covered his now useless eyes. Serin saw that he had two new skills called [Blindsight] and [Tremor sense]. Serin just wanted to go back to sleep. He still felt exhausted and his body felt a little weak, even after 2 days. So looked over to the representatives that were seated with him. "I am still quite tired. And after this feast and celebration, I really want to sleep a normal night."

Serin got up and started to walk towards the Transient Bunkhouse. Jericho looked at him "You are going the wrong way, boy." Serin stared confused. At that point Jericho motioned for him to follow, and they went out to where Serin had placed his plot for his cottage.

***

"I worked with Lord Koni to finish your 'cottage' per your requests." Jericho grinned at Serin.

Serin stood in shock. Before him looked to be, at best, a two bedroom cottage with an attached greenhouse and a small field for grazing animals.

It was something he would have seen back at his burb. When he opened it up, he saw what was really amazing, it was an entry hall, with a spiral stair into the earth.

Following the lighted stones Serin realized that the boulders in the grazing field were glass covered ports to reflect and let natural light in below. Lord Koni was with them and beckoned Serin forward. He began the tour, "This large open area is designed with your [Hard Lessons] perk in mind."

Serin looked around below and saw a large empty chamber that must be a training room. Hallways down the sides must lead to the various rooms he requested. Lord Koni commented, "There are two one-way escapes from this facility. One is in the waterworks, it is an extra tunnel that ejects downriver and is disguised to look like sewage. The other leads under the mountain and ejects on the other side. There is about 3 meters of natural rock between the end of the tunnel and the exit, so it will only allow someone with Terramancy to use. "

Lord Koni continued the tour. "A Master bedroom, six bedrooms for guests, as well as two additional bedrooms for servant's quarters All with washrooms. Additionally a grand bath has been constructed at the end, but is only basalt. We will need to import tile as we have not found no one has shown the aptitude to work clay. The greenhouse you saw outside is actually just the light opening for the true greenhouse below, half as large as the greenhouse we use for our food production. Irrigation included. I had spoken to Allister and we have made it so the greenhouse is split into several natural climatized glass rooms with humidity and temperature controlled, so you can grow a variety of produce, spices, and medicinal herbs. All of which are separated by glass to reduce light loss."

They passed down a hall. "That leads to your crafting room, magical study, and of course a Gate room. We have moved your crafting tools and magical materials from storage into those rooms but other furnishings such as tables and chairs could not be made in time."

They continued, "additionally a medical recovery room, a room for your familiars, and kitchen are down this hall."

Serin would need a map of this place, and as if he was reading his mind, Lord Koni then handed him a map. "There are several more storage rooms, as well as a trophy room. We have included several more rooms for future planning, and we can always dig deeper."

Serin was shocked. "You completed this all in two days?"

Lord Koni chuckled, "Jericho led the effort. The entire town stopped what they were doing to accomplish this. Moving stone, creating a second pumphouse, running waterworks, and digging. Even if most of the demis knew a bit of terramancy, it took Rachel, Allister, and Jericho to assist as well. And although it's just the bones, you will be able to decorate it yourself. For now, there are no doors other than the front door. And the only furniture included is the Master bed." Lord Koni showed him to the master bedroom. The bed was quite the sight. An iron bed frame held a large soft mattress with pillows, a wool blanket, and a few fur blankets. It was regal. Serin had never slept in such a bed.

Lord Koni continued, "There is still quite a lot of work to do, but you now have a place to lay your head."

Serin was proud. The whole town came together to give him not only a house, but a home.

***

From then on, Serin started leaving more quests. Not as powerful, but he never made a quest that took less than 3 people. And although it was a questboard, He didn't make every quest a combat quest. He knew that the changelings that had become plated all had some combat ability, but some were more suited for subtler arts. So Serin created quests that allowed for the Changelings, and Demis to lean on their general skills as well as their combat skills.

Each morning, Serin would make a quest that drained roughly 75% of his magical power. Some of the quests were to get detailed maps of an entire square mile. Some were extermination quests for creatures that had become overpopulated. And then some were to provide goods for the town, or his various planned ventures. Enchanting Lightstones, pressing glass panes or bottles, or making clothes and tools using iron provided by the quest. Everything was available. And always a person to skirt the system, Serin provided a reward of Luck attribute points.

He created a quest once in the morning, and once in the evening. With his time during the day, Serin tried his best to improve both himself and the environment he had. Starting with the greenhouse, using the Nature spells he had learned, Serin used the knowledge he learned from the Demis farmers to build up his greenhouse. Inside the {Kingdom point screen], he was able to use KP to purchase seedlings, as well as planting guides for each plant. Using this, he was able to develop different biomes based on what the needs of each plant were.

Serin was surprised by the requirements. Some required a wet and hot climate, some a wet and cold climate, some a dry and hot climate, some a dry and cold climate. Some required essence infused in the soil, some had to be barren of magic. In all, Serin divided up the four biomes in his greenhouse into two parts each, creating 8 planting sections. He divided these with the stone and ensured the plants had roots to expand. Serin realized that due to the height of the greenhouse, he could adjust how much light each plant got.

In all there were two hundred varieties of plants that were able to be put into this space. Most of them were medicinal, alchemical, or poisonous in nature. Some were just very unique spices and fruit for cooking. Serin knew he would not have time to care for all of these plants. So he made a plan.

With his second homunculus voucher redeemed, Serin spent time teaching the homunculus about the food, light, soil, magic, and water requirements of every plant he planted. He taught the homunculus how to care for, prune, and harvest from each plant, and how to prepare each plant's resources. He gave both bad growth and good growth examples, and the allocated space that each plant should take. And in the end, Serin imbued a few glass balls with the spell [Maturation] and placed them in the center of each biome. Even if he overpowered the spell, Serin's enchanting magic was weak. This glass ball would last about a week. Serin then learned that by casting overpowered versions of weaker spells it greatly increased his aptitude for that spell, and his level in that magical archetype.

Serin spent about a week preparing his greenhouse and teaching his homunculus. In that time he had also put out 14 quests on the board. Serin ensured nothing he posted was damaging to the ecosystem. Any kill quests he posted were for overpopulated creatures. For every tree that he requested be brought in from the forests outside of the valley, two had to be grown to maturity in its place. Serin understood forests could starve themselves, so planned thinning was put into place per Lord Koni's ancient text instructed. Serin thought how he could speed along the economic ecosystem. His ideas were endless.

***

A few weeks went by like this with not much change. Serin posted quests and worked to set up rooms in his house one at a time. Serin had wooden doors constructed for his bedroom, a guest room, and for the baths. Serin knew that to make it look like something other than a very well lit dungeon he would need to start turning it into a more inviting space. However his period of lull did come to a halt almost a month after the dragon's banquet that change happened. Specifically, there were two things that happened at once.

The first was that two teams of three changelings reached level 50 with luck. Jericho had started providing honey wine to adventurers, and these changelings figured out that the best way to snag up one of Serin's quests was to sit at the outside seating near the questboard and wait until Serin dropped off his morning quest. Because of this they spent quite a bit of the money they made from auxiliary quest rewards (mostly kill quests) on mead. Because of their penchant to grab up kill quests, and their high probability of being slightly inebriated while waiting for a quest, they had garnered a nickname of 'Bilol's Rowdy Bunch'.

So, the Rowdy Bunch were the first protectorates contracted for his nation. And with that, they learned of Serin's Secret.

Setting up the nation to have protectorates was fairly simple. Serin had gone to the adventurer's guild and asked about how to remove the cap from his guild, the Bone Arrows. Serin had learned he could have his guild converted into the Nation's defense force, with no change to the rules surrounding his guild's admittance. So when Serin did this initially, he discovered his membership cap was removed, and it simply showed his current Roster. Additionally, it showed, like a military, a organizational rank structure and how members fell in. Most of the positions were blank, but Serin was at the top, now the [Sovereign] instead of the [guild master], and Rachel, Allister, and Jericho were listed as [ Independent Operative] rank.

When Serin contracted the rowdy bunch, they fell in as simple [soldier]s under Serin the Sovereign. Then Serin showed these six changelings the true secret to his power.

"You have probably figured out how I am so powerful. The first skill I raised above 50 was luck. What you don't know is why I am able to grow so powerful so quickly, or how I can share this with others. And that is because I can learn any skill or spell by simply watching it be performed."

The six changelings stood shocked.

Serin continued, "I can also teach any skill or spell I know at will to anyone. I can do this as much as I desire and a target can receive their skill once every four hours."

One of the changelings, a mage named Edel spoke to Serin. "There must be a cost."

Serin smiled, "Very observant. Anyone receiving a skill will immediately suffer moderate brainburn the entire time. This will last for four hours. You cannot receive another skill until the brainburn wears off."

The mage looked less than pleased. Four hours of mental pain for a new spell or skill was still a great bargain, but it was still a painful price to pay.

Serin then continued, "Additionally, any spell or skill that I know that you use near me will level up faster. It will continue to do so until it reaches my level."

Edel and the others perked right up. Serin then looked at them. "Being a protectorate simply means that when our nation needs you, you leave your tools at your home and pick up your weapons."

Serin then looked at them. "I designed my training room so that if I stood in the very middle everyone within it would be under the power of my developmental aura. Additionally I will give you one new spell or skill a day. That way you are still functional most of the day."

Edel then looked at Serin, "What must we give in return?"

Serin smiled, "If you take water from the well, you must refill it. I only have so many spells and skills. Any spell or skill you learn, if I do not already know it, I wish to learn as well. But more importantly, every spell or skill you learn I know is made available to all protectorates, made available to your entire team, and will be passed on to every changeling that graces these halls."

The changelings beamed with pride. "What will you teach us today?"

Serin chuckled. "You can learn from anything on my list, however I recommend skills and spells that increase willpower, as until your willpower reaches 50, you will suffer brainburn every time."

Edel perked up, "do you happen to have a passive willpower skill? Something we can practice without you around?"

Serin laughed, "I do, and it is always in short supply."

That is how the Rowdy bunch, a group of 6 combat oriented adventurers, left Serin's training room with a severe headache and Serin's only passive willpower skill, [Housekeeping].

***

As for the second thing of great change to happen that day, it happened as Serin prepared to leave his house to check the quest board. He was attacked.

Specifically, he was tackled to the ground by an overjoyed Olma who hugged onto him. She just kissed his cheek repeating, "Its all your fault! It's all your fault!"

Bilol, and other representatives that stood over Serin and Olma burst into laughter. Serin shot Bilol a pleading look. "Alright Olma, give the man some air."

Serin stood up. Thoroughly disheveled and very embarrassed he straightened his shirt, adjusted his pants, and then looked at Bilol, "Any explanation would be helpful Bilol. As I am not sure what I have done wrong."

Bilol laughed, "Sorry. Sometimes the word 'fault' is used like consequence, which the changelings see as a neutral word, to mean good or bad. Olma was thanking you as she believes your training, and the youngling program she was put in, are the reason for her plate."

Serin then looked confused. Bilol continued, "Olma has become a Scion."