Just get in the Carriage

Oops, This was supposed to come out two days ago with me taking yesterday off, but I guess I hit the save button and not publish... NO! I know I hit publish I can't have possibly made the same mistake twice.

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Its been a while since I evolved to an Elemental Spirit Dragon, but now that I'm level 5, my stats have reached a similar level to what I had before I evolved when I add the Soul Furnace bonuses. As I am lazing about it the pit I dug out a while back, I notice Milla walking over.

"How long until you can transform again?"

I feel like something troublesome is coming, but I still give her an answer anyway.

"In about a day, why?"

"Good, good. The preparations are complete and it's time to officially unveil your affiliation with us. There is a meeting taking place between the Alliance leaders in the Capital in a few days and you're coming with me."

I knew it, I don't really want to get involved with politics. However, I am interested in seeing the Capital of the Alliance. Moreover, completing my System Quest will be difficult if I'm not involved with the politics of the world.

"You will be coming under the guise of my bodyguard, this way you'll be let into the meeting hall."

"Just what are you planning anyways? And I know you've already figured it out, but I'm not really that strong right now."

"I know, but other people don't. And that hidden status of yours together with you large size can serve as intimidation to the weaker people. Of course, I don't expect this sort of intimidation to work on the Giants and Dwarves, but towards the Elves and Humans, it should work as a temporary measure. As for my plans... well, you'll find out, just look forward to it. Just know that it is the first step in my plan towards the completion of our System Quest."

"Eh... I don't know..."

"I'll get you barrels of the finest alcohol available."

"So when do we leave!?"

"Good, we leave tomorrow morning. Since this is an official visit in the capacity of my title as the leader of the Dragonoid Khanate, the participants will be me, you, Lia, and a few others. Ordinarily, we would go by carriage, but this won't work with your limited time, so we will have to figure out a different way to get you close to the city without anyone noticing you. This would be a lot easier if you could sustain your humanoid form for longer or if you were smaller."

"Well... about that, There are actually mutations that I have available to change that. 'Improved Humanoid Shapeshift' and 'Size Modification'. I just didn't take them since they weren't important."

"Yet you choose to carry a bag in your stomach?"

"You wouldn't understand, but it's important. I need it for the future."

For a moment Milla remains silent before she seems to come up with an idea. That bad feeling is coming back again...

"Which is easier to obtain, the 'Improved Humanoid Shapeshift' or 'Size Modification'?"

Doublechecking my available mutations, I see that the improved shapeshift is 3,000kg and the other is 4,000. I actually have enough for either of them right now but Milla doesn't need to know that. But I was originally saving up my biomatter for 'Growth' which is actually one of the required mutations for the Ouroboros.

"Well, I still need another 5,000kg of biomatter to get one of them."

"Hmm... ok, I'll be back later."

Milla leaves my little pit and starts sending everyone out... she isn't really gonna do what I think, is she?

After a few hours Milla and everyone else she sent out return to the base... hauling massive amounts of dead monsters behind them. She really went through all this trouble, just so she can stuff me inside a carriage. Eventually, all the monsters get piled in front of my dwelling.

"Now eat. Eat and get that mutation or whatever it is."

"I... I don't think I can eat all of this."

"If you can't then just eat the rest later. I don't care what you do, just be ready to leave in a carriage tomorrow morning."

Milla leaves to go finalise tomorrows journey, leaving me alone with a literal mountain of dead monsters. I guess I have growth and another mutation now... guess I'll just go with the cheapest one. I starting chomping down on the pile of food, bringing my biomatter up to 6,800 with about half of the pile remaining. Guess I'll take 'Improved Humanoid Shapeshift'.

Confirming my decision with the System, my body grow a little warm. With my Fire Absorption, I remain completely unharmed whenever I undergo mutations, only feeling a slightly warm feeling. As my body cools down, I take another look at what I just got. The 'Improved Humanoid Shapeshift' reduces the wait time for my shapeshift from one month to around 2 and a half weeks. It also increases the duration from a single day to five days.

--

Morning eventually came, as Milla walked over and once she found out I took the improvement to my shapeshift, she asked how long I could sustain it for.

"Five days in total. The duration still gets put on hold if I return to my true form, and the cooldown won't start until the duration has finished. Essentially the only thing I got out of this was an increased uptime and decreased cooldown, pretty much everything else about it is the same."

"That's fine, actually that time frame is perfect. It will take about a day and a half from here to reach the Capital, so to and from will take around three days total. The meeting will only last one day. So if we set out now, the timing will be perfect, as it leaves a full day for any potential accidents that happen over the next few days."

"Why are you setting a whole day aside to deal with potential accidents? What are you planning on doing?"

"Don't worry about it, if the unexpected happens then you get the extra day to do some sightseeing."

"Oh, I see... wait! Did you just say if the unexpected happens! So you expect something to happen!?"

"..."

She doesn't dare look me in the eyes as she claims that I misheard her. In the end, she ignores me and pushes me to transform and get in the carriage. Despite my suspicions and protest, I still comply with her. Weird, normally I'd just bite off the head of someone who does stuff like this to me. But for some reason, I can't bring myself to completely disregard what she says. And it's not just her, many of the other Dragonoids too, I have a difficult time saying no them as well. Strangely, I don't have this same feeling towards some of the Dragonoids, making it rather inconsistent. How can I describe it... it's like that feeling a grandparent has towards the grandchildren, I think. I've only read about this kinda thing before, so I can't really get a good grasp on it.

With that weird feeling in my mind, we reluctantly begin our journey towards the Capital of the Central Alliance, Draelgium.

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Since this was supposed to be released two days ago I will be writing another chapter today to make up for that. As for yesterday I had taken a day off due to a storm and losing power several times.