Chapter 7: First Blood and Grim Signs

"Dragons and legends... It would have been difficult for any man not to want to fight beside a dragon."

― Patricia Briggs, Dragon Blood

---

I had expected the portal to open right back to the little camp I made, which I was hoping would allow me to pick up Pyra's eggshell since that had been grating at the back of my mind.

And indeed, when I stepped out of the portal, I had ended up in a forest… Except the surroundings seemed different. Specifically, the trees weren't the same kind as the ones I had seen in the forest I had spawned in.

And there was no clearing or rock formation in sight.

So, I was either in a different forest or another section of the one I was in before.

Sighing, I opened up my [Map] to confirm my suspicions and found out that it was, unfortunately, the former.

This was an entirely new region, all greyed out except the 'region' I was currently in.

'Hmm, does that mean the portal doesn't connect back to the same place where I entered from? That would be… problematic.'

"Pyra, Nixie, watch the surroundings while I figure something out. Let me know if you see anyone or anything."

'Should have done this before entering the portal… haa…'

Sighing, I tried to comb my memories for the information I had been provided, trying to figure out if there was a way to direct where the portal led me to and, lo and behold, there was in fact a way.

Like most structures in DTS, the portal was also considered a structure and had a tier.

Currently, at Tier 1, it could be opened at any place on Remnant to allow me or my dragons to travel to the island. But the other way around was seemingly random. So, I couldn't open the portal from the island to somewhere specific.

At least, not at its current tier.

Sighing, I reminded myself that I had much more saving to do to 'Tier up' the portal. Specifically, 500 thousand Gold.

'Yeah, I can't get that any time soon. I'll just have to work with the random element for the time being and hope for the best. I still have the Earth and Wind dragons to buy to finish up the first of my [Collections] too.'

[Collections]. Another one of the features that got added in the v0.2 update, though it wasn't something that affected anything much. Simply put, it rewarded players if they had a certain collection of dragons. The first and most basic one—that I was aiming for at the moment— was the Basic Elemental set: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind element dragons.

It was just something to check in the background every now and then for some nice bonus rewards.

With another reason to expand and grow the collection on hand, I decided to get back to the present and begin the search for our targets, the Grimm.

After closing the portal, and with Pyra and Nixie in tow, I traversed through the new forest, unlocking more regions on the map and searching for any signs of the creatures of darkness.

The anxiety about the upcoming fight lingered in my head while we walked without any direction other than what the [Map] displayed.

After a while of trekking, I was starting to lose hope and was also mildly disappointed that I hadn't seen any signs of civilization today either.

I knew Remnant had a dystopian setting where only 4 kingdoms remained in the whole world, along with some minor settlements and villages spread here and there— but they tended to not last very long. I could only lament that I would likely have to rely on my Luck and the random aspect of the portal to find them. However, I hadn't really figured out what I'd do once I found civilization. Not like I could simply walk in and pretend like another one of the denizens here. I doubted it would be that easy.

Every now and again, I wondered if I should leave for today and come back, preferably once my dragons were both Level 20, or higher, but I quickly realized that was just me not wanting to deal with this whole mess, so I ignored it and kept traversing the forest.

…

Lady Luck finally smiled at us as we soon heard the sounds of a beast. Or, in this case, likely a Grimm.

I halted and tried to focus on where it came from.

Whatever it was, it was from a single creature and right now, I was hoping to find just one lone grimm, preferably weak, so I could test our skills and assess our prowess.

But, as I have said before, I was no wildlife expert and the sound was too reverberated among the trees for me to figure out the direction it came from.

Sighing, I turned to my dragons.

"Uh, girls, do you by any chance know where that sound came from?"

The two dragons took a moment to process my words and simply pointed north, roughly left of the direction we were currently heading.

"Ah, thanks. Guess we're going to fight soon."

Again, I had a strange feeling that they were awfully similar to dogs, being able to sense the direction from the sound and all that.

Or maybe it was a predator's instinct or something along those lines. After all, they were dragons.

After just a bit of traversing, we came across what we were looking for.

'There it is, the Grimm.'

It looked… kind of frightening, not gonna lie.

A pitch-black body and fur that seemed like it was made out of darkness itself and the contrasting bony mask and other bony armor-like protrusions; it was a scary thing.

Standing at roughly half my height and having some really long and curved lethal-looking tusks, the Grimm-resembling boar was just roaming around aimlessly.

We were still a fair distance away from it and it hadn't noticed us, which was a bit curious since I felt like it could have sensed my nervousness and mild fear. From my recollection, the Grimm were really good at sensing negative emotions and I wasn't exactly filled with positivity at the moment, even when I tried to suppress my feelings.

My instincts screamed and hammered at me to turn back and run away. This creature— no, this monstrosity, this thing of darkness and malice was dangerous. Deadly.

I sucked in large amounts of air and raised my grip on my primitive spear, my heart racing faster and faster and sweat dripping from my forehead and brows.

'I can't do this. I can't fight that thing. I'll die. Damn it, I'll fucking die! I—'

I was suddenly brought out of my panic when I heard two guttural growls coming from right behind me.

Turning back, my eyes widened when I saw Pyra and Nixie both bearing their fangs and looking the most threatening I had seen them.

The cute red and blue dragons I had seen grow from pup-sized to young dragons looked downright murderous at that moment.

I was taken aback by their reaction and felt their sheer rage. And it was not even directed towards me, not at all. It was all directed towards the monster in front of us.

Concentrating on our bonds, I felt more emotions from them: one of protectiveness and concern.

'They… they want to protect me… They're worried about me and angry at the Grimm because it's causing me discomfort…'

"Nixie… Pyra… I… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have acted like that."

Petting their necks I sighed and chastised myself.

'Damn it, me. Have some goddamn courage!'

With another breath, I finally calmed my nerves enough, while a small part of me was still confused as to why the Grimm hadn't sensed my swirling negative emotions until now.

But it didn't matter.

Because I was about to end its existence.

"Pyra."

Hearing her name, my fire dragon understood my unsaid command and moved forward.

Once it walked out of the small hiding we were in, the Grimm finally noticed us and growled, eliciting another, shrill growl from Pyra.

I watched with bated breath as it started to begin its charge towards us, towards Pyra. Before it could get too close, I yelled.

"[Ignite]!"

Pyra roared and then opened her maw, spewing a ball of crackling cinders toward the opponent that traveled too quickly for it to react to.

The attack hit the mark and the next moment, the Grimm's charge halted on its track as it started to writhe in anguish from the fire that had spread through its entire body, visibly evaporating its tar-colored skin.

I didn't know if it could actually feel pain or fear, but it seemed to react in that manner.

Knowing from my experiments that the effect of the ability was short-lived, I moved on to the next attack.

"[Ignite]!"

Another ball of cinder hit the beast and its suffering continued while I decided to strike while the iron—or Grimm, in this case—was still hot. So, after another short interval when I felt like the effect was going to die down, I made Pyra do it again.

"[Ignite]!"

The boar-like Grimm released a loud roar before it shattered and dissolved into pieces of pitch-black smoke.

"Yes! We did it! We won!"

I pumped my fist in joy, finally relieved that it went smoothly and without any complications.

I went and rubbed Pyra's neck, getting a pleased rumble in response.

"Good job, Pyra. You did great!"

After a small victory celebration where I fed both some Dragon Berries, I checked on the notifications I had been ignoring.

[Notice! Your dragon Pyra has defeated a Level 11 Boarbatusk.]

[Pyra has gained 3300 XP!]

[You've gained 900 XP!]

[You've reached Level 9!]

[Skill "Taming" has leveled up!]

'Nice! I am level 9 now. Only 1 more level before I unlock Tier 2 and magic.'

Seeing the results of the fight, I couldn't help but find this endeavor fruitful.

Pyra herself had filled a substantial amount of her XP bar, almost going over halfway through it. It confirmed that fighting was a much better way to gain XP. Just defeating one enemy was comparable to 10s of thousands of Berries at this point. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Berries were only reliable at early levels.

And then there was this.

[Quest "Win a Battle" completed!]

[Title: Win a Battle

Description: The path to becoming the Legendary Dragon Tamer requires not just feeding and caring for your dragons but also training their battle instincts.

Show your dragons' might in real battles and prove your mettle.

Objectives:

- Win your first battle with one or more enemies with the help of your dragons

Rewards:

- Perk "Heart of a Dragon"

- Chain quest continuation.

- XP

- 500 Gold

Failure:

Severe Injury/Possible Death]

I got the quest a few days ago when I was reading the guidebook and came to the conclusion that I might have to let my dragons fight the Grimm to gain XP faster now that it was harder to gain XP from eating berries.

The rewards from this quest were pretty good. Especially the perk.

[–Heart of a Dragon–]

This perk allows you to have the courage, resilience, and determination of a dragon.

You'll not be easily phased by perils and can look directly at the face of danger and smile without fear.

This was exactly what I needed at the moment.

I felt the perk take effect immediately as my fear disappeared and instead, the feeling of determination filled my mind. I could think more clearly and felt like I could overcome whatever dangers might lie ahead.

… Okay, maybe it was a little too effective. Or I was growing overconfident from that win.

Shaking any delusions of being invulnerable or Overpowered and keeping my head under control, I glanced at the updated quest.

[Title: Win 10 Battles

Description: The path to becoming the Legendary Dragon Tamer requires not just feeding and caring for your dragons but also training their battle instincts.

You've shown that you can win a battle. But can you do it consistently? Show your dragons' might in real battles and prove your mettle.

Objectives:

- Win 10 battles with one or more enemies with the help of your dragons

Rewards:

- XP

- 5000 Gold

- [Bestiary] unlocked

- Chain quest continuation.

Failure:

Severe Injury/Possible Death]

The new quest's rewards seemed quite tempting.

What was in the Bestiary? Perhaps the description of the various Grimm in Remnant? Maybe even Dragons? Either would be great for future reference. Both would be ideal.

'Yep, time to grind.'

Now much more confident in our ability to fight, we began searching for our next opponents. I was going to steadily make progress on this quest and also gain the much-desired XP for myself and my dragons so we could grow stronger.

***

-Taiyang Xiao-Long-

The next day.

Walking up to the cliff facing the forest, he was distracted by the thoughts of his daughters.

He had prepared for the fact that his oldest was going to Beacon this year. She'd been very excited about it.

Seeing her so motivated made him proud. He knew she had the talent for it and if she could learn the things taught there, she could become one of the best of her generation.

It was all good. Even if she had to stay away from him and her sister for a few years, it was something he had come to terms with.

What he hadn't prepared for was for Ruby to be admitted along with her.

Ruby, his younger daughter, and the adorable ball of goodness was still 14 and was still learning at Signal Academy until recently. However, even he knew she had surpassed her peers and was closer to Yang's age group.

The little red reaper with her custom-built self-designed scythe Crescent Rose was, in one simple word, a prodigy. Though he still felt weird about her weapon of choice. Seeing a little girl handling a Scyth bigger than her body was… definitely something.

…

And gods did she remind him of her mother. She was very much a mini Summer Rose. Even her semblance resembled her mother's.

In a way, both of his daughters had taken to their mothers' beautiful looks. And while he loved them more than anything and tried to give his all for them, it was hard not to make the comparison and whenever he subconsciously did, it tinged his heart with melancholy.

How terrible was his luck that he met two incredible women in his life and neither stayed with him…? It was just like him to go and choose the most amazing women as his partners, even if they couldn't be life-long like he had imagined.

Sighing, he reached the place he had come to visit and paused.

Kneeling in front of the place that was Summer's final resting place—even if it lay empty, much to his anguish and despair sometimes— he picked up the fresh flowers at the bottom of the gravestone and inspected them.

He didn't remember putting them there. No, it was someone else.

'Who?'

Very few people came to this place due to its isolated and dangerous nature—even if Patch was generally considered quite safe when compared to the mainland— and fewer were people who knew Summer personally. Who would come to drop flowers for her?

It couldn't have been his daughters since they were in Beacon, going through their first semester there. And if they came to Patch for some reason, they would have told him first and foremost. It wasn't Qrow either since he was somewhere out of Vale for another one of his missions. The flowers were quite fresh and Qrow had been gone for over a week.

… Plus, he rarely came here….

When asked, he once said it brought him unpleasant feelings and caused him to drown himself in alcohol for the next few days. He had apologized for that, but Taiyang knew better than to be angry at his friend. No, he was more like a brother to him. Qrow, like him, blamed himself for Summer's death. He always regretted not joining her on her mission that day. If only he had, Summer might have been still alive…

He himself had had those days in the past though he was slowly coming to terms with it. There was no point in drowning oneself in what-ifs. Summer wouldn't have wanted them to be gloomy and depressed like that.

As for the last member of the group who was close to Summer… he didn't think she was the type to do such things. Flowers weren't her thing. He knew from experience.

So, back to the question. Who was it that put these flowers here?

After a while of thinking, he couldn't figure it out so he left the topic for a later contemplation.

With his palms, he rubbed the stone, clearing some of the dirt that had accumulated from the weather in the past week.

"Hello, dear."

He spoke, his voice low.

"How are you? I see someone came and dropped you some flowers. But they clearly didn't know you only like one type."

He lightly chuckled.

Summer had a special liking for the Silver-eyed flowers, the ones he was holding onto right now.

"Not sure who placed them. Not many come here because of the Grimm in this area. It must have been some huntsmen on a mission, maybe?"

He placed the flowers beside the existing ones and sighed.

"So, anyway… Ruby called yesterday. Said she and Yang are enjoying their time together in Beacon. Heh, still can't believe the two got into the same team. Or that Ruby became the team leader. I still suspect that that man had something to do with it. Not that I'm against it or anything. Them being on the same team is the best thing I could ask for. From their words, I believe the other two members are quite talented too. I mean, seriously. She really got into a team with a Schnee. I hadn't expected that. And from what Ruby told me, the girl seems decent. That's nice. Though she and Ruby seemed to have some trouble, Ruby was sure she could handle it. She's just like you in that regard, Sum. Always full of positivity. Nothing can break her morale and just like you she is likely going to be a great team leader in time.

The other member is a quiet but decent girl. I've been told she likes tuna. Not sure what to do with that information. I guess I'll learn to cook some nice fish curry in case they visit with the other members.

Anyway, they had their first team battle and won. Not that I would expect any less from my daughters. They're both strong and talented, just like their mothers… I…

… I just hope they don't push themselves too hard. Yang's obsession with finding her mother still worries me a little. I fear that she might actually succeed in the near future and get her answers… she probably won't like it though. Gods, I hope she doesn't cause too big of a mess when she meets Ray."

Taking a deep breath, he looked up at the early morning sky, seeing the sun rising up from the horizon.

"Haa… I just want them to live happy lives and enjoy it. And to not forget their poor old man. It's been… lonely since they left. The house feels so empty… It's been on my mind for a while now. I think I'll take some overtime at Signal. Maybe teach some promising students after classes. It'll keep my mind occupied and not think about unnecessary thoughts."

He caressed the grave once and then stood up.

"I'll see you again in a week, dear. I love you."

***

Bonus Scene: A grim sign of the Civilization

I had finally found it! I had found signs of civilization!

I hurried my pace towards the rectangular piece of stone with some writing on it, proving it was made by someone and placed there. Laying alone on the cliffside, I had barely noticed it while passing through the forest and finding the opening that led to the cliff overlooking more forest.

Reaching closer, my joyful attitude mellowed down a little as I realized it was a grave.

There was something to say about the fact that the first thing relating to this world's civilization was someone's grave.

Still, I was somewhat happy to see something that proved the place I was currently in had people and settlements.

Reaching the grave, I read its contents and my remaining joy mellowed down to contemplation.

"Thus Kindly I Scatter."

It was a nice, poetic thing to have on your gravestone. The meaning was quite simple, yet there was something deeper behind the obvious gist.

Once upon a time, I had wondered what my gravestone would read. But later dropped that idea once I realized how grim that thought sounded. Admittedly, I was not in the most positive state of mind back then, still recovering from my loss and spending my days in the hospital bed with not much to do.

My eyes moved up and I re-read the name on the stone plate.

"Summer Rose… Heh, is this some sort of joke? How did I randomly stumble upon her grave of all things?"

Taking a deep breath, I pushed down the sarcasm and something else back inside and looked at the map I had been filling of the place.

'Well, this gives me an idea of where I am. If my memories serve me right, this is an island near Vale where two of the main protagonists lived. Did the island have a name? I can't remember.'

Zooming out, I stopped when it wouldn't let me zoom further.

The place I was currently in was southeast of the place where I was dropped into this world. It was hard to judge the exact distance, but if the exponential nature of the map and the fact that I had zoomed out the max allowed, I could hazard that the place I was now was a long distance away from the first forest.

… On second thought, that sounded a lot more sensible in my head at the time.

'Well, at least I can be sure that I'll find a town or something if I search more. But… should I risk it now? What if someone saw Pyra and Nixie? There's a chance there might be people nearby. Not that I've seen any. I can leave them on the island and go alone but…'

The unsurity won in the end and I decided to leave for today. I had enough on my plate with all the fighting we had done today. I was mentally exhausted.

So, after giving a short prayer for the dead woman and putting a couple of flowers I had gathered from the Apple trees on the island as a pastime, I opened the portal back home.

It wasn't like I was going to lose my access to this place forever. This island seemed like a nice place to get acquainted with the civilization of Remnant.

All I had to do was grind for a couple weeks and gather enough money to upgrade the portal, allowing me access to places I wanted to visit.

…

Today had been an exciting and nerve-wracking day. But the things and experience—both the real thing and XP— I earned from today's venture into the wild had been so worth it.

"Let's go home and rest."

With a promise to come back to this place in the future, I, Pyra, and Nixie walked toward the swirling portal and it closed behind us.

"I think I've scratched my itch for adventure and action today. Time for some chill island building montage."

Since I already had the Gold for it, I would likely buy another Dragon egg. Maybe two, even. If I could afford it.

***