Chapter 2 Part 2 - Something to Protect

A few days have passed since #2 and I had evolved and a I'm finally starting to get used to being a dragon although I still am unable to fly so I still have to learn how to do that eventually.

After some deliberation I decided that I would put the extra 20 attribute points I received from evolving into my [Agility] and my [Intellect] since now I can use magic and I don't want my [Agility] falling too far behind my other attributes.

Also I figured I should give #2 a proper name instead of just calling them #2 even though I can't talk it just feels wrong referring to them like that all the time. Thus I chose the name Reis since I'm not sure whether they are male or female yet and I think that one fits either way.

Reis and I have pretty much explored all of this cave and it's actually rather small, apart from our nest's room there is only 3 other rooms; a room filled with what looks to be ore deposits, a large open area connecting everything, leads to the outside and has a large pond in one corner as well as a whole colony of cave bats, lastly one small room which had a strange contraption in it but Reis and I couldn't figure out how it worked so we left it alone.

Recently one of the other hatchlings has come out of the nest so I expect the other 2 to leave the nest in the next few days. Which would be great since throwing fish and scraps of rat into the nest every day is a bit of a hassle.

Today Reis and I took along the newbie to go training on some rats and hoppers, during which I had leveled up from level 10 to level 11 and the newbie got accustomed to both Reis and my battle rhythm, after a few minor mishaps. That aside Reis had also gotten a new kind of spit attack when they evolved that seems to melt the enemies so it is actually quite deadly; mine isn't as cool since it's basically me shooting frozen green rocks, although if I land a direct hit on any vital part the effect is pretty gruesome.

Hunting has gone fairly well though since we haven't run into any large groups of Cave Rats or Cave Hoppers but the other day we were swarmed by a group of Cave Bats which gave us a slightly more difficult fight since they flew away after attacking, the good thing was that they died if they were hit directly with either Reis or my spit attacks.

Thankfully we haven't seen another Cave Stinger which leads me to believe that that one was alone although I can' let my guard down too much.

Race: Baby Twilight Dragon (Dragon)

Name: ??

Level: 11/15

Condition:

Status:

Hp 246/246

Mp 229/229

Physique 67/67

Vitality 71/71

Agility 53/53

Intellect 63/63

Resistance 61/61

Titles:

• Reincarnated- Death comes to all some just experience it more than once.

• ???- An Overlord of Sakast has marked you as their own, will you end up as a Pawn or something more?

• Dragon Kin- A species at the Apex and will either become a Bane or Blessing to the world in the future.

• Brawler- Give as good as you get!

• Rare Evolution- You have evolved into a rare species of your race, the path you tread is not a normal one.

Skills:

• ???-???

• Draconic Bloodline- +20% Growth rate of attributes per level.

• Night Vision- can see in the dark as if in bright light.

• Tactics- +20% damage dealt when fighting in a group.

• Evasion- Agility scaling for reflexes and reaction time has been doubled.

Artes:

• Bite lv. 2- 37-54 physical damage.

• Claw lv. 2- 30-36 physical damage.

• Cryo Spit- 22-27 cold damage.

• Charge lv.2- 29-34 physical damage, 3-5 physical damage to user if successful.

Magic:

• Dark magic, basic-

1. Dark Slash- sends out an arc of darkness energy, deals 19-25 dark damage/ costs 7 [Mp]

2. Obfuscate- disorients the target for 4 seconds if successful, costs 22 [Mp]

• Light magic, basic-

1. Light Shot- fires a mote of light, deals 16-22 light damage/ costs 5 [Mp]

2. Ward- coats the target in a protective film, absorbs 21-28 damage/ costs 27 [Mp]

A lot has changed since the day I hatched from the nest but Reis has been progressing equally with me so far and I think our other sibling should be close to evolving, anticipating what kind of species they will evolve into fills me with excitement since I still don't know how monsters normally evolve aside from me I don't think they can just choose any they want I think they have to meet certain requirements first.

Regardless as long as they don't become [Evil Dragons] I think I can get used to having a dragon family, though not being able to actually talk with anyone is getting kind of lonely but I still prefer my current situation than having been alone this whole time.

Thinking back it has been a long time since I could say I had a family, after my parents died during an expedition in the depths of the Great Castra Dungeon it was just my older brother and I who were left with the treasures and money our parents had saved up and a small house nestled in between Bondrick's Tavern and the Iron Bull smithy. Both of the store owners had been close to our folks so when they died they made sure to check up on us once in awhile and since the owner of the Iron Bull worked closely with many adventurers he asked a party he was friendly with to take in my older brother as an adventurer but after only 2 years his party had ended up falling into one of the Castra Dungeon's infamous [Monster Room] traps.

Everyone aside from the party's witch were killed and eaten, the witch only made it out since she had a rare magic item known as a [Warp Crystal] that was gifted to her by my brother as an engagement present. After she had survived the annihilation of her party she fell into a deep depression and stopped showing up at my house and no one would talk about her around me anymore, I had tried to find her when I turned 14 but my search only lead to a grave in Messia's cemetery apparently she died only a year after my brother died and since no one told me I think she ended up taking her own life.

Back then I had cried by her grave until Bondrick's wife found me the next morning passed out curled into a ball covered in dirt and tears, a week later I had become an adventurer instead of working at the tavern or at the smithy since I couldn't cook and I didn't have any talent for working metal, that said I had no intention of dying like my parents, brother or being overcome by survivor's guilt like my sister-in-law so I had remained in the so called Beginner Woods instead of seeking riches in the dungeon or challenging deadly monsters no matter what the people said behind my back… but in the end I too had died, no matter what I had done I probably was still fated to die a dog's death, it's not like I could have lived forever but I at least wanted to settle down and start a new family, I wanted to make enough good memories to forget all the bad ones I had growing up… it wasn't nearly enough yet.

I felt Reis' hot tongue brush over my face and when I turn my head to look at them I notice that my vision is completely blurred, I had begun crying before I realized it, I never knew dragons could cry.

Reis lets out a weak cry as they rub their head against mine, I think gradually I have gotten so used to Reis always being by my side that I don't want to be separated from them.

After I was done crying the two of us curl together and I end up falling into the deepest sleep I've had since I reincarnated, that night in my dreams I vowed to protect my newfound family even if it kills me.

In the early morning we were woken up by the whole cave shaking as something immensely heavy crash landed. Right in front of us, not even 6 ft away from where we were there was a giant black dragon about 20 times my size. Surprisingly one which was covered in wounds and had one of its wing's membranes completely destroyed. The dragon was dripping thick purple blood from various slash wounds and looked as if it could die at any moment, it's breathing was weak and labored however it was still able to limp over to us, Reis let out a cry but I couldn't understand the meaning behind it so I ended up taking up a defensive posture in between the unknown dragon and my siblings.

When I did so the large black dragon began to cry out as well but it's not like I can understand what it means, I didn't want to just let it die though since it hasn't attacked us yet but if I have to fight I think it would just barely be possible given it's current state. Reis cried out again and before I could stop them they ran towards the black dragon and began licking the wounds around it's fore leg, I wanted to scream at them to get away but all I could manage was a confused 'kyaaa' sound, really not being able to speak is such a pain.

When the dragon was licked by Reis instead of eating them like I thought it would do it just licked them back once and kept on walking towards our nest, my brain kicked into high gear as things began to snap into place in fact if I was thinking as a dragon instead of a human it would have made perfect sense. This dragon was probably our mother and for some reason it had returned wounded. However as I was lost rationalizing our situation the mother dragon collapsed about 10 ft away from the back of the large bowl shaped nest.

Reis, our newly evolved sibling, which I hadn't realized until now, and I all rushed over to it, Reis being the closest began panicking and letting out pained cries trying to decide whether they should continue licking the wounds or the head of our mother to keep her awake, when I was just about to reach mother I heard a woman's strained voice echo through my head.

"Behind the nest… dig for a black box… bring it to me."

Realizing by how weak her voice was that I didn't have time to think about how she just spoke to me in my head, I rushed over to where I had previously assumed her treasures were and began clawing at the dirt and even used my mouth to help clear out rocks that were in the way.

Reis and our other sibling had followed after me a few moments behind but luckily I had already began digging through a pile of gold coins from various countries and some magic items that I knew and some that I had no idea what they were, there were a few weapons and pieces of armor that almost seemed like they were shining but I couldn't stop to gawk at them I was focused solely on finding a black box.

When I reached what seemed the bottom there was nothing save for a shiny silver buckler, in frustration I tossed it to the side and was about to begin searching through the pile again when I saw something black sticking out of the clay, quickly I dug away at it's surroundings until I could grab it with my mouth and being careful not to clamp down too hard I yanked it out with a squelching sound. I climbed back out of the now 8 ft hole and galloped as fast as I could with my stocky legs towards the barely breathing mother dragon and when I brought the box close to her face I once again heard her voice in my head.

"Potion inside…Feed it to me."

Luckily having once been a human I understood how to open this box with it's simple latch, it not being locked was a blessing since I was able to undo the latch easily and using a combination of claws and fangs to pry open the little, dirty, black box.

Inside was a small, teardrop shaped bottle which held a golden liquid, I knew whatever this potion was had to cost more than all the money I had made throughout my entire career as an adventurer. As carefully as I could I removed the glass stopper and held it in between two claws as I poured it's gel like liquid inside the bloodied mouth of mother.

All of the potion was gone in one swallow, well due to her size you would have needed an amount akin to a keg for it to need anything else, however when she swallowed I could instantly see the meter long gashes begin closing and her tattered wing returning to it's complete, smooth, luster.

The sound of clattering metal startled me but I realized that it was just shards of weapons which were being forced out of her skin that had fallen to the ground. Even though she had drank the potion and you could see it was being effective mother had yet to move or say anything else, but her breathing was sounding a whole lot better than it had only moments before so I took it as a sign she was in the clear, that said Reis was still flustered and began nudging our mother with their snout making soft cries while doing so.

Clearly she still needed to rest but Reis couldn't understand that of course so I wrapped my tail around their's and lightly bit their leg, when I did so they must have understood that I was telling them to back off but they were still clearly worried, enough to only move a few feet away before laying down as if to keep watch over her.

Seeing that I began to look over the rest of our cave realizing that I had neglected our surroundings due to the appearance of our mother, as I surveyed with the little light coming from the rising sun I cleared my mental checklist and decided things were safe for now but laid on a rock to keep watch on the tunnel entrance.