Author's Note: "Boyzilla-sama, Boyzilla-sama, we want the next chapter!" Well don't you worry by loyal readers, I'm on a roll concerning Life of a Zero Dragon, chapter after chapter I've been pumping out day by day, hopefully, I won't break this new habit. Now, concerning my other stories, don't worry, I also have Saiyan of Equestria and Be Hybrid being typed. Anyway, to the story!
Life of a Zero Dragon
Chapter 7: Orangebark Consequence
The quiet surrondings with the exception of but a very few birds in the air caused a uneasiness to settle within Saito Hiraga's stomach. This was an incredibly terrible idea, and unfortunally because he couldn't, at least, he thinks at the moment, speak. Saito could not warn Louise and Siesta of the dangers lying within the Orangebark biome, it was for many new players, the first taste of the creeps outside the safety of the starting cave.
Normally, in the map, Life of a Dragon Sequel, the five Chosen Dragons began their adventures as hatchlings within the safety of the player-named starting cave. This enchanted cavern held very weak mobs for the hatchlings to kill, grow, and have time to make up their draconic roleplay characters.
The Starting Cave was safe guarded against all creeps and players outside of it.
But not in this case, now he is a hatchling, with two teenage girls, in an enviroment filled with terrible dangers.
'We're screwed,' Was Saito Hiraga's first thought upon entering the currently-for-himself high level area. 'I didn't expect to see an entire area get ripped from the game and placed in this new world! If we are not careful we might run into its monsters… Ogres.'
In versions 1.1 and below, the Orangebark area included the Ogre Maulers and Magi, level 7 creatures. Fortunally only the Ogre Maulers respawned after killed before players became simply too powerful for the monsters early on.
Saito had bad luck however, in 2.0 that issue was rectified, all the Creep Respawn triggers were fixed up, improved, and altered. Monster vairety increased drastically to include more powerful creatures latter down the line. Good news for the new version of the map, but a terrible predicament for his current situation.
He felt his heart attempting to pump so harshly that it would burst out at the slightest provaction.
Terrifying.
"Rwar!" The Chosen Dragon player tried again to alert the teenagers, but to no avail.
'That have no idea, no idea what they are getting themselves into! Damn it!'
The horse suddenly jerked, causing Louise to pull on the riegns, "Whoa! Calm down!" Louise said as the creature tried backing away from an unseen threat.
"What's going on?" Siesta questioned as she held on tightly to Saito, her legs gripping the sides of the horse.
"Something is spooking him... " Louise said.
"How about we just run for it?" Siesta said, "It'll get us out of here faster." She sugguested.
Louise whipped on the riegns, "Yah!" She yelled, causing the horse to lean back before rushing forward with great speed as if its life depended on it.
"It's clobberin' time!' A stupid, yet comedic sounding voice said from out of the trees. Louise, Siesta, and Saito had no time to dodge the incoming wooden club that came swinging and smashed headlong into their mount's chest region.
"Aaaah!" Louise and Siesta yelled as they are both sent flying off the horse, the creature falling to the ground while the two girls rolled against the grass before calming to a halt.
Saito Hiraga had heard his instincts scream had him, his wings taking flight which avoided the possiblity of him being sent against his will to the ground.
'Hatchling Instinct is such a useful ability!' Saito commented on it, as he lowered himself back towards the ground, moving to Louise and Siesta's location as the two girls got themselves back on their feet.
He turned to see what had attacked them…
An Ogre Mauler, about nine to ten feet tall, one head, tanned skin with crude tribal markings around it. A large wooden club carried in its right hand, the stench alone that came from the Creep, or monster could make grown men faint if taken in long enough. In short, a disgusting, stupid creature.
Louise brought out her wand, "Erisdar!" She shouted the dragon hatchling by her side. She looked towards the monster that had brutally smashed in her previous mount's chest.
The Ogre smashed in the body of the horse with its club, before noticing more beings alive around it. "So angry!"
The pink haired teen pointed her wand at the Ogre, "Be angry at this! Fireball!"
The repugnant creature raised its club only to lose it as it exploded into sawdust, the Ogre falling back on its rear end in total confusion at the loss of its main weapon.
Saito charged forward, now was his chance to attack. He felt his wings beating madly as he activated his agility ability, increasing his speed by a large margin. The Chosen Dragon player zipped over the dirt and grass and made head-on contact with the downed creep.
With paws to bear, Saito clawed deep into the Ogre Mauler's skin, blood pooling to the top as the outer layer was shredded by the sharpened weapons. The Chosen Dragon suddenly felt himself lighter, faster, and more skilled in his methods of attack.
The runes on his left paw glowed.
"Argh! Lizard hurt me!" The Ogre cried out, lashing its fist and smashing it into the body of the hatchling, sending dragon spinning through the air and smacking into the trunk of an Orangebark tree.
"Grawh!" Saito cried out in pain, even with the loss of its weapon the damage he took was notable. Truly the Warcraft creeps used on the map are very formidable, meanwhile, the creep stood up again.
"Erisdar!" He heard Louise cry out, before she yelled at the Ogre, "How dare you harm my familiar! Fireball!"
"Ooh!" The Ogre staggered back from the explosion force that met it, before charging in rage at the pink haired girl.
"Watch out, Miss Valliere!" Siesta cried out in alarm as she noticed the large creature charge at them.
"Fireball! Fireball!" Louise chanted, again and again, black smoke appearing with an explosive power behind each blow at the Ogre.
The Ogre stopped its charge, its injuries very apparent.
'Now!' Saito yelled in his mind as he flew up its backside and bite it in the head.
The taste was disgusting.
"Get him Erisdar!" Louise and Siesta both yelled, the former breathing slightly heavy from the continious use of her willpower.
"Aaargh! Ugh! Get it off!" The Ogre yelled as Saito bite down with all its might, he stabbed his claws to the monster's backside and the Ogre fell forward with a dying cry.
Saito lets go, a golden light enveloping him and suddenly… Darkness.
He couldn't see…
Yet it felt very familiar to him…
He heard that voice again, divine, yet sounding artificial…
"Chosen Dragon, there comes many times where one's identity is more important than the power one wields. Now, newly grown Dragonet, choose the gender that will mark your future self."
Just like the first time, choices appeared in plain words before him.
Male? Female?
It was an obvious choice as he pressed a paw against Male, the choices vanishing before him after doing so.
"Now that you have chosen your future identity, Chosen Dragon, you must find yourself your element, a color that represents yourself. Be wary, Chosen Dragon, for such a decision is permanent upon doing so. Will you seek forth one of the six dragon nests, or perhaps a different hue belongs to you? The choice lies with you, Chosen Dragon."
A bright light caused him to close his eyes before he found himself within the Orangebark Forest once again, both Louise and Siesta staring at him in wonder.
He noticed they appeared smaller than usual, still taller than him, but then again, he had grown into a Dragonet. Thank goodness that Growth System still worked for him.
"What?" He said out loud with his normal voice, although it sounded a bit draconic in nature.
"Wha- Did you just talk?" Louise sputtered out.
"Huh?" He questioned, before noticing something. "You understand me!?"
Siesta nodded while Louise stood up tall once again.
"What you mean I can understand you," She seemed to take this in well, "You're my familiar, Erisdar! Of course, as your master, I can understand you!" The Valliere girl said.
Saito couldn't help but sweatdrop a little, "I get it Louise, I get it…"
A twitch in her forebrow, "I'm your master, Erisdar! You will treat me as such!"
"It's Sai- Actually, Erisdar is fine." He changed his mind, he didn't want to make the situation worse right now. After all, they were still within the Orangebark Biome. "Well, Master," He said with sarcasm, "We best leave this place, it's dangerous and more of those Ogres could appear at any moment." Saito finished, pointing a claw towards the corpse.
Louise and Siesta paled a little at the mention of the creature's now identified name.
"Good idea, Erisdar," Louise said, patting the dirt off her noble clothing. "Come on, commoner. We've tallied here long enough and I'll rather not meet with any more of those monsters…" She said the last part rather quickly.
"Y-Yes!" Siesta replied hastily while she and Louise grouped up with Saito in the lead.
"Erisdar…" The pink haired girl began to say, unused to her familiar speaking, "Explain to me how you've managed to age in such a short period of time and what is the golden light that surrounds you time to time after combat?"
"Well, aging would be putting it mildly. But let me explain it like this," He decided to withhold the information he used to be human, didn't want to put on more than necessary. "I'm a Chosen Dragon, a very special type of dragon. Chosen Dragons like me grow in a special way, by the process known as Leveling."
"Leveling? So it's a growth process and not some type of magic?" Louise questioned.
"In a way, Leveling is the earned experience gained by defeating enemies that pools together to Level up. With an increase in level also increases my Strength, Agility, and Intelligence. Those are the three attributes."
"Alright, Erisdar, but that still doesn't explain how this growth works," The Valliere girl pointed out.
"I'm getting to that, anyway, when I reach a specific Level, I grow up so to speak. I was a hatchling from level 1 to 4. Now I'm a Dragonet from levels 5 to 11."
"So assuming that you just becaome a Dragonet you're level 5?" She had a hard time believing this, as to be expected, but she oddly tried her best to understand her draconic familiar.
Saito nodded, "Yeah, but leveling takes time. I can't just grind the same creature over and over because the creature always stays the same level as I increase. Each level needs more experience than the previous level to obtain."
Siesta placed a fist in her hand, "That explains why you said Erisdar kept taking longer to have that golden light appear each time."
"Yep," The Chosen Dragon player replied, "The golden light means that I leveled up. Anyway, follow me, I know a safe way through this forest that avoids the Ogres."
Meanwhile, within the safety of an enchanted cavern…
"Finally, I've grown into a Dragonet. Now I can leave this cave without having to worry about getting killed easily." A male Chosen Dragon, Player 4, said.
Player 4, also known as Artos Archway, had spent the last few days leveling up within the safety of the enchanted cave. It was odd how he was now in the game, none of the other Chosen Dragon players seemed to have been sucked into it either. Not that he minded much, all he cared about was being alone and to his own devices.
He feeds himself on the beetles first, before moving past them and heading straight for the large lizards the size of him. They tasted pretty good but he occasionally at the move back to the safety of the Healing Hay, a powerful pile of hay that would regenerate health and mana of nearby heroes and units at an incredible rate.
The problem is, its a building, so it can be destroyed.
He knew that the first thing he should do is head to the nearest Dragon Nest upon exiting the cavern, there he could rest in safety in the hands, well paws, of the Dragons while he selected his color.
"But first, I'll get that special unit in this cavern so I can get the Tome of Power," Artos said as he rushed to the breakable rocks, destroyed them easily, and found the black sludge monster which attacked him upon sight.
But as a Dragonet, the starting area creeps are easy prey, so he dealt with it easily.
Upon death, the creature withered and died, vanishing into nothing but a black puddle, hovering above it, glowing in magical light with a golden hue, a single tome lay there above the puddle.
Artos felt a thought itch the back of his mind, telling him the item before his sight.
Tome of 2 Levels.
He touched the book, and a bright light surrounded him as it tome vanished. He didn't know that the old book from the alpha version of Life of a Dragon Sequel still existed, the Map Maker must have forgotten to remove it from the item drop list of the starting area creature.
Now he was level 7, perfectly able to leave the cavern in safety.
"Perfect indeed… Perfect indeed…"
Current Status:
Chosen Dragon Player 1: Saito Hiraga - Alive - Dragonet (Agility) Level 5
Chosen Dragon Player 2: Alex Storm - Unknown - Hatchling (Strength) Level 2
Chosen Dragon Player 3: Asuna Godiva - Alive - Hatchling (Unknown) Level 1
Chosen Dragon Player 4: Artos Archway - Alive - Dragonet (Agility) Level 7
Chosen Dragon Player 5: Cora Rune - Alive- Hatchling (Intelligence) Level 4
Dragon Slayer Player 6: Celdrahil - Alive - Slayer Level 3
Dragon Catcher Player 7: Rosina - Alive- Catcher Level 2
The Human Kingdom Player 8: Aylmer and Abigail - Alive - Royalty of Human Kingdom
The Fel Empire Player 9: Grom - Alive - King of Fel Empire
Mercenary Player 10: Elizabeth Loyal - Alive - Sorceress Level 1
Observer Map Maker: Map Maker - Alive - The World Editor