Lizard Cave

Draven needed a moment to collect his thoughts so he used that time to regen his mana. after roughly 15 minutes he was filled up again and thanks to May he was fully healed. Looking at his father chatting with his group made him smile as he had apparently said something to make Jennifer blush while sneaking glances toward him. Draven then took in his dad's new form his horns were a lot different from his own. They were more noticeable and stood out a lot as they reached pretty high up while Draven's horns were more sleek and only really stood out toward the back. What made Draven more jealous than anything was those wings and how he enveloped himself in flames. "That was so cool!" he thought to himself. 

System why does my Dad have wings already? 

<Beep! Unlike the User, He is not required to obtain SP points further skills or physical attributes. The excess energy from leveling up enough provide those changes as that does need be split among three other species.> 

Do I also need to worry about the Dragon Rage? he questioned the system again.

<Beep! Most negative traits that are not compatible or could affect the User's mind have been filtered and suppressed through system. However, it is an impossibility to still trigger such instances in extreme cases.>

Nodding Draven stood up and stretched his limbs. Seeing everyone already gathered up and rested he decided to get a move on. He wanted something to do right now. "Alright, guys let's get all of you to level 10 today." after the four cores he gave them last night they were all between levels 8 and 9 so it wouldn't take long. "You're still going to go hunt?" James asked looking a bit worried. "I'm all healed up and I could use the distraction. Plus these guys need to level up. They also moved into the Town hall and we will be forming a party together." James just shrugged hearing that. "It's your house do what you want bud," he said. James was actually pretty happy to see Draven some real friends instead of online friends it was a nice change and he didn't mind the house becoming a bit livelier. 

"If you're still looking for reptile creatures I found a cave last night east of here if you follow the trail you should see it on your left if you take the main path up the mountain. There were a bunch of Lizard humanoids and I didn't go all that deep into the cave so there's a good chance of being more," James explained. "Thanks that helps a lot actually I want to get some wings of my own seeing that my horns are way cooler than yours I bet my wings will be as well," Draven said with a smirk on his face. James looked a bit confused "what do you mean my horns?" He asked as a bead of sweat started to drip down his temple. He slowly raised his hands to his forehead and with a trembling hand, he felt a hard object protruding out of his skull. 

With the grace of a robotic neck, he turned his head around to face Draven. "Make a mirror Draven," He commanded. "It's not that bad..." Draven tried to say. "I said make a damn mirror!" James yelled frantically he needed to see how bad this was he couldn't even reach the top of his horns. Draven did as he asked and formed a mirror made of still water in front of James. "What the fuck! these things are huge. I look like some kind of demon." James was pacing back and forth as he was freaking out. He could deal with the wings they at least allowed him to fly. How cool was that? But the horns were too much he was a professional man and was taught to never mess with your face. "What would Jasmine say if she saw me like this? She would run away I'm sure of it," he said in the most depressing voice he could muster. "Get over it Dad, if you hate them that much cut them off," Draven said jokingly. Thats it! He said as he grew his claws out and started swiping at his horns but other than a few scratches he wasn't able to make a dent into cutting them off. "Fuck why won't it cut?" he said as he kept swiping at his horns over and over again. "Guys let's go this will take a while," Draven said to the group. They nodded as they moved to follow Draven while unable to look away from James' bizarre actions.

They began to climb the mountain according to his dad the entrance wasn't all that far away from where they were so he didn't see a need to create the flying brick version 3 yet. Walking up the mountain Jennifer hurried up to walk beside him. "So do you want to talk about what happened back there?" She asked looking at him from the side. Without missing a beat or turning his head Draven said. "Nope. You guys already know more about that than I would have liked to tell you so let's leave it at that and move on." Draven was not in the mood to talk about all that. Being able to breathe the awkwardness in the air Greg moved up "So why are you looking for reptiles in particular?" he asked. Glad that the topic had changed Draven eagerly answered. "You see how my dad has wings and I don't?" He nodded "Well I have to earn my physical changes and other racial stuff by spending Skill Points in the System. I earn those by killing things related to my three races. Right now I want some things from my Dragon race so I need to kill reptiles or other things related to Dragons."

"So is your system like those in novels? like are there quests and rewards?" Greg asked eagerly. "No nothing like that it's more of an interface with an AI that allows me to control the changes occurring in me when I level up. Besides the starting gear at the beginning, it hasn't created anything for me out of thin air yet." Draven explained. "Well, we all got a starter set some dry food for a week, leather gear, and a sword right?" Greg asked. "Yeah, that's what I got too," Draven confirmed. "Maybe the system didn't create the starter kit at all and just stored it for him." He thought. Draven decided to take a look through the menu again to see if he missed anything.

Draven Stats:

User Draven Morgan

Rank: Iron

Race: Human, Djinn 45 SP, Dragon 32 SP, Raiju 8 SP

Level 18

Class: Magus of Shadow and War 

Stats:

Health 6000/6000 (600)

Mana: 17500/17500 (350)

Strength: 610 (61)

Agility: 360 (36)

Stamina: 300 (30)

Intellect: 35

Spirit: 40

Unallocated Stat Points: 136

Armor: 42 (11)

Racial Skills:

Wyrmling Scales raises armor rating by 31

Djinn Mana 5% multiplies base mana by 50

Dragons Vitality 5% Multiples base health by 10. Health regeneration +200%

Raijus Agility 5% Multiplies base agility by 10

Raijus Stamina 5% Multiplies base Stamina by 10

Draconic Bones, Muscles Fibers, and Tendons 5%: Multiplies base Strength by 10

His stats went up a lot since the last time he checked Draven was happy to see his progress. 

He was unable to access his Town Screen while outside of Ironforge. His inventory consisted mostly of various meats, ores, and other profession resources. His skills tab was just a list of everything he had learned so there was nothing new there. Lastly the shop. Like before it contained the Djinn, Anchient Dragon, and Raiju Tab. Since gaining his class another Tab was made available called Class. Here he could learn new skills relating to his class. He saw two skills listed there that he hadn't seen before called Shadow Manipulation and Shadow Knife.

Shadow Manipulation: The user learns how to change the shape of his shadow or any shadow he inhabits. - 50 Shadow Essence.

Shadow Knife: The user can form a knife made of the shadow of another being that can be utilized to attack while inhabiting a shadow. The Shadow knife must remain within a shadow. Shadow Knife becomes stronger relating to the amount of shadows in the User's possession. - 100 Shadow Essence

How do I gain Shadow Essence? Is it like how I gathered them for the class quest? Draven wondered.

<Beep! Correct for each Creature the User drains of its shadow it will empower User's magic once Shadow Essences are spent to purchase a new skill become weaker in relation essences lost.>

Okay, that's easy to understand he thought. Continuing through the race menu he noticed a sub tab in the Djinn skills that he hadn't seen it had the picture of a book on it titled Lost Knowledge. In this tab, he found a few books that he could purchase.

Basic Life Magic: 100 Djinn SP

Basic Ice Magic: 100 Djinn SP

Basic Transformation Magic: 100 Djinn SP

There it was Life magic if Draven learned this then he wouldn't have to rely on May to save his life and not being able to use the Med Pods wouldn't be that bad anymore he absolutely needed to get his hands on that book. The question was if he would get it after learning the rest of the Djinn skills still available or before. in 2 levels he would hit Level 20 and more than likely even more skills would pop up putting him behind where he should be. 

"I think I found the Cave," Rebecca called out. She pointed towards a cave a bit off the path that led into the mountainside. Draven closed the menu he would think about it later. Right now he was focusing on Dragon SP having wings would be a game-changer for him. Flying cost a lot of mana with wings he could fly indefinitely and still cast large spells. Plus they were badass. Draven walked into the cave and allowed himself to sink into the 

Shadow the entire cave system was connected through this shadow making it easy for Draven to create a map and see how many enemies were there. As he exited the shadow his eyes went wide in shock. "There is an entire civilization of Lizard Men in that cave. There is a huge tunnel system that leads deep into the mountain that then opens up to an open space with a flowing river. That is where they live. Several patrols roam the tunnels to protect that area. Roughly 50 Lizard men are patrolling the surrounding area. We will focus on them and thin the herd we will decide after that if we want to enter their village." Draven stated. "How many are in the village?" Ross asked. "About 500 There is also an area leading out of the village that was disconnected from the shadow so I couldn't see in there it is most likely another exit to the mountain so there could be more beyond that point."

"Here's the plan I want you guys to get some experience here it doesn't help you if I go in there and do everything for you. I will target the patrols that are far away while you guys explore the cave normally. Here is your marching order Greg, Celine, May, Jennifer, Rebecca, then Ross to protect the rear. I'll be able to keep an eye on you guys whenever I travel through the shadow so don't worry I can be by you guys anytime if something happens." They looked reluctant at first, exploring a cave was dangerous but he was right they needed to step it up a notch if they wanted to get stronger faster. After hearing Draven say he could reach them anytime he wanted to made them sigh in relief. They were even hyped up to give it a go now. "Alright, you guys know what to do I'm going in." Draven said as he sunk into the shadow of the cave and shadow-stepped to a part of the tunnel that had him surrounded by patrols in the nearby area.

Draven dashed through tunnels, traveling through the most efficient path that would lead him to his prey. Shadowstepping cost a lot of mana in a shadow this large so decided to keep it to a minimum. He flitted from one patrol group to the next not wasting any time as he severed their heads and hit loot all before their heads even hit the floor. Draven was close to the village so the patrols were stronger and more numerous than the scouts. His victims were between levels 15 and 19. within 20 minutes he had killed 30 Lizard men he left the rest to his party to take care of as they were barely at iron level and Draven wouldn't waste his time farming orbs that were useless to him. He wanted to run into the village and farm everyone inside if he did that he would easily hit level 20 or beyond but he was worried about the area he couldn't see into that was connected to that space. 

He submerged himself into his shadow and checked on the party. They were engaged with a group of 3 Lizard men and were doing just fine it was almost too easy for them. With Greg tanking and Celine going stealth and backstabbing them unaware while being backed with 2 Ranged damage dealers they were set. Ross was even getting bored asking to lead the group for a bit so that he would have something to do. Draven then saw 2 groups of 4 Lizard men come into contact with each other and decided to give them something more difficult to deal with as 2 of them were at Iron veteran rank. Draven appeared in front of them and after having been seen ran towards the party before disappearing again. He then found himself a nice spot to hide in and watched the show.

Greg POV

"No Ross we are keeping our formation I'm the tank I have more health, you're the off tank in case something happens to ambush us from behind its an important job," Greg said for the umpteenth time Ross was getting annoyed as there wasn't enough room for him to charge past everyone when they engaged with the scouts. "Fine let's keep going down it's not like this place could get any worse the smell is disgusting like rotten meat or something. "Seeing this place littered with bones of animals and creatures it probably is rotten meat that was smelling," Rebecca said as she skillfully removed an orb from one of the lizard men. 

"Skreee!" They could hear a screeching echo through the tunnel. "Another group is coming," Greg called out for everyone to get ready. Greg raised his shield in case one of them through another spear he learned the hard way to keep his shield up and protect himself all the time as he was lazy with the first group and was punished with a spear glancing off his helmet. it wasn't a direct hit but it was enough to make the room spin for a moment. Luckily Celine had been able to trip them with some spider silk she shot through her fingers giving him time to recover. The group of 8 Lizard men had reached them and the party was taken aback this was more than double the number of enemies that had been dealing with since coming down here. Did they call for reinforcement? 

The first 6 charged toward Greg this was too many enemies for Greg to handle at once so he changed the formation. "Ross get up here and take at least 2 off of me. Celine fall back and cover the rear," He ordered. Celine wouldn't be able to do her backstabbing antics with such a large group putting herself in danger so it was better to get another front liner to help with aggro control. They did as they were told and quickly swapped positions. "Finally some action!" Ross said excitedly as he charged in and stabbed the first to arrive in the gut with his 2 handed sword. There wasn't enough space to properly swing such a long sword so ended up banging the sword against the wall next to him as he tried to parry the attack from the next creature. This mistake earned him getting stabbed in the arm with a spear. The tip of the spear was made with a small sharpened stone so it didn't pierce his arm completely but it did leave a large gash that began to bleed. 

May cast a small heal on Ross it wasn't as effective when she didn't touch the person she was healing but it was enough to seal smaller wounds like that. Rebecca then shot an arrow that pierced the Lizard man's head from the side before it could attack Ross again. Greg had his hands full as he was currently blocking 3 Lizard men with his shield while trying to stab them from the side of his shield whenever he could but with 3 banging on him at the same time he couldn't find an opening to counterattack. Jennifer had already melted the face of one of them as she formed a hand made of fire that trapped the head of the creature and burned it alive. She was inspired after seeing Draven Earth fist earlier and wanted to make a fire version of it. Seeing their numbers dwindle the last two Lizard men came charging in. They were quite a bit larger and their scales were deep green while the others were blue. Seeing Greg still has two on him Ross intercepts the 2 newcomers. He swung his sword wide hoping to cleave right through the middle of the first but the creature backstopped to avoid the attack and charged forward punching Ross in the stomach causing him to crash into the cavern wall. 

He could taste his breakfast coming back up as he struggled to fill his lungs with air. Seeing this Greg quickly stabbed the last lizard men he had on him as Rebecca shot another down. He then ran over to get in between Ross and the two Iron veteran Lizard men before they could charge him again. Be careful these two are stronger Greg called out. Rebecca let another arrow fly but it glanced off its scales leaving the creature unharmed. "Their scales can stop my arrows Rebecca called out. She felt useless now if her arrows did work then she had no other way to attack. Celine launched a Fire arrow and managed to pierce their hide but she had to dump more mana than she wanted to achieve that. The arrow had barely penetrated its hide and the fire soon went out. A trail of blood ran down the creature's chest but it was not badly wounded. The Lizard men saw Jennifer as a threat and began to charge towards her as the other was engaged with Greg. He was unable to get away from it even after bashing it with his shield the creature wouldn't budge as it continued slashing at him from all directions. It was even pushing him back and further away. Celine was hiding in stealth and appeared next to the creature as it got closer to the main party. she managed to stab the creature in its left side with her dagger causing it to scream in pain. It smacked her with the back of its hand causing her to slam to the ground with a loud thud. It then raised its hand to finish her off as another even stronger Fire arrow pierced the creature through the neck. It burned its throat from the inside before collapsing to the ground dead.

Jennifer was spent and didn't have a drop of mana left in her as she panted for air sweating profusely. Celine stood back but was wobbly on her feet. Ross had circled around the last Lizard men who were doing their best to break Greg's guard but couldn't get through. Greg was holding on for dear life as each attack forced him further back he was almost pressed against the wall now. Ross slashed its back and made a deep cut into its hide. The creature turned to face him only to get counter-attacked by Greg who stabbed into the wound Ross made penetrating through to the other side.

Draven materialized in front of them. "Well done"