Hit the Road, Jack! : Hit Hummingbird!

Jack needed to become a Level 34 Druid, meaning he had to grind 4 levels as a Nature Magician while being on Human Form. Of course, if one was to look up to it, that meant he would become a Druid 5/ Nature Magician 28 / Mage 5, with a total Level count of 38. If he had any Level Caps on him, that would be a nightmare - as he would have a lot less main levels than other people who choose to train only as Nature Magicians.

The situation would become even worst if he were to choose the Monster Druid sub-sub-tree, which became available as at Druid level 50, that is, Druid 11 / Nature Magician 34 / Mage 5 - something he would need to do in order to unlock the Goblin Transformation.

The reason he didn't need to become a goblin at all?

Well, because Elicia had found something better!

It seems like one of the highest-metabolism beings on Another World wasn't a monster, but rather a bird.

Hummingbirds. They had a metabolism 10x faster than a human, so a single day as a hummingbird would be the same as 10 days as a human.

Way better than a goblin, and they could get it a lot faster as well!

So, let the hummingbirdzation begin!

Or, at least, let Jack…

[- I can't take it! I can't take it babe! I can't!!]

- Shhh, shhh, it's fine, it's fine, here's what - why don't you drink a little bit of these here?

[- I… i…. *snooore*]

- WAKE UP!

[ -OUCH! BABE!]

- Don't you "ouch!" me! Who will I send to steal your stuff the next time you fall asleep? Another skeleton?!

[- Well, that's not that bad of an idea… they do spawn naturally after all..]

- Really… what about if you sense the residual magic on them and come to me, eh? Do you really want that?

[-… I'm sorry. It's just that…]

- I know. You're tired. Just do it a little bit more, okay? Then you can have some dragon coffee.

[- Fine, fine…]

Dragon coffee. A regular five-ton gallon of coffe, but with a few gold coins inside. It tasted delish.

Of course, Jack and Elicia were currently training their Druid magic. Only a few dozen repetitions and Jack would finally get there - and, this time, faster than Elicia.

They had decided to do so in order to guarantee that they had precise data.

A dragons' metabolism was something difficult to measure. Dragons, after all, didn't work like humans - they didn't need to eat and didn't absorb nutrition from eating, even if it was possible, pleasurable and common for them to eat.

In fact, the extreme conditions inside of a dragons' stomach would destroy any kind of food that came in. Fire dragons had magical fire on their stomachs, while green dragons had magical acid. Those kinds of stuff.

So, how could one measure the metabolism of a dragon?

They needed to sleep, they liked to eat, they liked to mate and they liked to play around. But that was all.

They didn't even have a long lifespan. They were immortal unless killed! How to deal with it?

A clue was that both hers' and Jacks' metabolism had increased once they assumed human form. Jack took a long nap, and she herself wanted to sleep a few hours after transforming.

In dragon form, she had felt no desire to sleep even after being awake for six months.

However, in human form, she wanted to sleep around twelve hours after transforming - just as if she had been overtiming until dawn.

So, six months as a dragon translated roughly to 12 human hours in her case. So, one day as a human would count as a year as a dragon in terms of metabolism.

With the difference that she wouldn't feel sleepy until the last minute of those hours, and then feel extremely tired right after they were due.

Then came the question of her activity time. If she was to be awake for a year, then how long would se be asleep for?

As an Ancient Dragon, she would have an sleep/activity ratio of 10:1, in the minimum - probably more, since she was a Red Dragon.

So, as a human, she should stay 1 day awake, and then 10 days sleeping. But could she really trust that idea? How much would the fact of she being a Red Dragon - the most powerful species of dragons - weight on this matter?

She had to test it to see.

It would be too dangerous to let Jack handle these kind of things, since both her and him knew he might have gotten a little better - but not much. What if he started to doze off and sleep while she was sleeping?

He could just try and return to his dragon form, but how long would it take for him to sleep once he had done so?

It may be a lot worse!

Instead, she decided to have him take on the 'humming bird test' first. Humming birds needed to eat every half-hour and had a heartbeat ten times higher than the human one.

One could infer that they had a metabolism which was 10x the one of humans - except that they only slept for eight hours a day straight, instead of sleeping some little every two hours.

That meant it would be the same as a human who was able to stay awake for an entire week and then sleep for three days and be ready to go again, except transformation didn't work like that - a human turned hummingbird would need to sleep every one and a half hours or so, for a little bit under an hour.

Still, it was the opposite of a dragon! Lot's of activity time, and little need to sleep! A 1:2 sleep/activity ratio, just like a human, but 10x faster!

If turning into a human would make it so her activity time decreased by a whole 360 times and thinking that it should mean that her sleeping time would reduce as well, then becoming a hummingbird, which lived ten times faster than a human, should mean her sleeping time would be reduced over three thousand times in total!

Of course, for then to know exactly how much she would need to sleep after that, Jack would need to, first, get really sleepy - instead of just bored.

- So, have you gotten some sleep resistance levels already hon?

Resistance skills were part of the Resistances' Skill Tree, and also had numerous intersections with other trees.

For instance, "Mental Fatigue (1)" would intersect with the Mage tree as "Mental Fortitude", but also with the Warrior tree as "Warriors' Heart".

Of course, the way to get resistance levels was to go through pain and suffering.

So, as long as Jack felt very tired and resisted with his own willpower, he would then receive the possibility to purchase the "Sleep Resistance" skill on his Resistances' Tree, and then would unlock the possibility of getting some nice sleep resistance skills from other trees as well.

[-…]

- Keep working hard then!