I appeared in a desert-like area. It seemed to be the same place Wendy and Natsu went to when they were originally told by Gray about the "dragon rumor" in canon. The lizardman golem beside me was gone. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but it seemed to unlock a new skill for me.
Racial Skill Unlocked!
Arcane Resistance
As an arcane dragon, you have an innate ability to resist magic and magical status effects at will. At current level (Hatchling, 10) you are able to resist certain effects, but it is not guaranteed you will be unaffected.
I'm guessing I tried to resist the teleportation then. It must have taken me halfway to the actual destination or something similar. I stood up, looking around. I wasn't alone here. In front of me was the "hotel" where Daphne was supposed to be. I could sense so much magic flowing through it all. Say what you will, but Daphne is pretty smart and must be quite the wizard, considering the fact that she created all of this. It's pretty elaborate.
Hm…you know, I could use this chance to end Daphne's plan. But how to do it? Especially as it seems I have company.
More lizardmen golems appeared in front of me, four of them. One was wearing armor with a sword, another in a cloak with a staff of some kind, one had brass knuckles and was sporting a lot of muscle, while the other was wielding a bow of some kind. I guess they don't have a mini dragon or something like that, otherwise they'd be copying my appearance and abilities. I snarled, a slight smirk coming to my face.
"Let's go!" I roared as I charged forward.
"You did what!?" Natsu yelled, absolutely seething.
After Kilgara had disappeared with the weird lizard guy, Natsu had been on a short fuse. Lucy could hardly blame him for it; they had lost a dragon. A dragon, of all things. On top of that, it may now be in the hands of some crazy dragon-obsessed lady.
Gray had told them everything he knew about Daphne and her plan, how she wanted to use Natsu as a power source for her dragonoid, and how he saw fit to use this opportunity to destroy Daphne's plan and free the City Without Sound. Natsu had gotten a good scolding from Erza about making and keeping promises, and while Lucy agreed with Gray's reasoning, she couldn't agree with his methods.
And now they had a bigger problem.
"You did a very stupid thing, Gray," Erza glared, her arms folded.
"I said I'm sorry, okay?" Gray responded, "I had no idea Daphne would send one of her puppets here to attack you, that wasn't part of the plan!"
"No, your plan was to just have me get kidnapped by some freaky lady to be used as a human battery!" Natsu growled, readying his fists.
"Not now, Natsu," Lucy put her hand on Natsu's shoulder, "Right now, we have bigger problems," She turned back to face Gray, "What would Daphne do if she found a real dragon? One that's a baby no less?" Lucy couldn't help the concern that was bubbling up inside her.
Wendy also got a concerned look on her face, "You don't think…" Kilgara…
Natsu's eyes widened as he heard Lucy's words. He turned his attention back to Gray, a scowl on his face, "Where is she?" he demanded.
"I can take us to her, I know exactly where she is," Gray said, straightening up.
"Let's go then!" Natsu called out, "We have to be fast!"
"I can go back to the guild and let the master know what's going on," Levy nodded with resolve as she started running back to the guild hall.
"C'mon, Happy!" Natsu began running.
"Aye sir!"
"Natsu!" Gray called out, "It's the other way, you idiot!"
Level up!
Geez, there were a lot of these things! I've leveled up at least three times now with how many lizardmen I've taken out. It's a good thing my SP and MP regenerate to full whenever I level up, otherwise I would have run out a while ago!
While I was fighting, I've utilized quite a few runes, and let me tell you, this Mana Ink perk makes casting them so much easier and quicker! I have a rune that I want to write to destroy the dragonoid that I know is currently disguised as the hotel, but I haven't had the chance to use it yet, these stupid golems just keep coming!
I leapt out of the way of a flame attack from a slightly bigger golem, then unleashed my own breath at it. It fell to the ground, smoke rising from where its head was. I jerked my body out of the way of a swipe coming from another golem with large claws; seriously, what are they trying to do here? Are they trying to wear me out? Is that why Daphne hasn't come out yet? Does she even know what's going on? What am I saying, of course she does! She's the one that controls these things.
I made a hard dash and flapped my wings forward, attempting to get away from the large group that was beginning to overwhelm me. Ya know, in hindsight, this really wasn't my greatest plan. I've barely been hatched for two days, I'm level 13, and I jumped right into known enemy territory. Quite literally. Yep, not my best work.
As soon as I made that dash, I wrote out the rune for explosion, sending the group of creatures flying.
Level up!
Thank goodness, I was running low on mana. I ran as fast as I could, which honestly wasn't all that quick. I was still so small, and my DEX is my lowest stat. They were catching up to me quickly. Not good! What am I even supposed to do against Daphne if I do manage to catch her? My best bet is throwing rocks at this point! Which is exactly what I was doing to the lizards that managed to catch up to me; having a small pillar of rock jut out from the ground to make them trip. This really is bad.
To make things worse, I sensed a new spell taking effect right in front of me. I came to a hard stop, but still didn't quite make it in time. I rammed right into an invisible barrier. It wasn't anything like Freed's from the show; even with my limited knowledge of magic and runes, I was able to tell that this barrier was crude. I turned to run the other way only to sense that same barrier now surrounding me. Fetch.
"Yes, yes, yes, are my eyes playing tricks on me?!" Double fetch. I turned my head in the direction of that decidedly annoying voice. Daphne.
"Oh, yes yes yes!" Daphne's eyes were so wide, she came right up to the barrier, putting her face right up against; if she looked any harder, my body would be crushed from the pressure! Geez, girl, now I'm kinda glad there's a barrier!
"My, my, it's true! A living dragon, and a strong one!" She looked around, "You have done quite the job destroying my lizardmen! You may not be as impressive as what I saw as a child, but my my! You are simply breathtaking!" When she grabbed the barrier in a hug, I had seen and heard enough.
I roared my arcane breath right at her face, keeping the beam up and going. It rammed into the barrier, making her jump back.
"My, my, you are a feisty one-huh?" A shocked look came over her face as a crack appeared on the surface of the barrier. It was working! I've got less than half my MP left, but I can't let up now! I kept my breath attack going; it was rapidly draining my remaining magic, but I was almost there! More cracks began appearing in the barrier.
"Well, well, we can't have you escaping, little one!" I sensed Daphne's magic flow through her, before sensing another barrier appearing. As soon as this barrier came up, my breath attack vanished, "There, that takes care of that!"
Notice!
MP related skills have been nullified due to anti-magic barrier.
No duh, Sherlock! Dang it! Are you kidding me? An anti magic barrier is enough to cancel out almost all my racial skills! I was still able to sense the magic around me, but I couldn't activate anything! I racked my brain for anything I could do as Daphne started speaking to me.
"Now to take you inside, I've got big plans for you, my little precious!" She beamed at me. I hissed in response, glaring at her; then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I glanced at the earth beneath her. Only MP related skills…
I formed a fist and punched into the air, sending a pillar of rock ramming right into Daphne's stomach.
"Hrk!" Daphne shrieked, her eyes rolling into the back of her head as she coughed up blood; she was sent flying back, knocked out cold. Jeez! Say what you will about earth bending, you really can't beat getting a rock thrown into you.
As soon as Daphne hit the dirt, her barriers disappeared. I cautiously looked around for any more signs of lizardmen appearing, but they all vanished when she was knocked down.
"Ho, man," I sighed, relaxing as I plopped down on the ground. Gamer's Body and Gamer's Mind may protect me from physical and mental fatigue, but that whole thing was nonetheless exhausting! And a real eye opener. Dang. If it weren't for my earthbending skill, I'd have been defeated…great, now I have this sour taste in my mouth.
The magic that made up that hotel thing was fluctuating; I rose, then walked my way towards it. I want to destroy it, and I have a little experiment that I want to try out. I want to create a runic mine. I don't know if I can do it at my current level, but I'm going to try creating it regardless. The sky is getting dark now, so I'll have to hurry. I brought up my mental map of the draconic kanji system. To be on the safe side, I wrote in the dirt as well as using mana ink to create this rune. I was going to make it pretty big too. Time to get to work.
The sun had just finished setting when I felt a fast moving magic power blasting in my direction.
Natsu put his hand over his mouth again as they hit a large bump. He, Lucy, Gray, Wendy, Happy, Carla, and Erza were all piled into a magic mobile, with Erza behind the wheel. Natsu was just as eager to get Kilgara back as the rest of them, but did they have to let that red haired demon drive!?
"Hrmp!" Natsu clutched at his stomach, half tempted to just fall out of the vehicle.
"Hang in there, Natsu," Lucy rubbed his shoulder, turning to face Gray, who was out front directing Erza, "How much further do we have?" She called out.
"Not much, we can see it in the distance!" Gray answered, and sure enough, when Lucy looked out from the window, they could see some kind of hotel in the distance, but then Erza had the vehicle come to a screeching stop, her mouth parted open in shock. Lucy's own mouth parted as her eyes widened. It was the hotel. It was fading.
"What's happening?" Wendy asked, her face morphing into confusion and concern.
"I don't know…" Lucy trailed off.
"Daphne's illusion is fading," Gray stated.
The hotel had vanished, and in its place was a massive, strange looking dragon. It was still a ways in the distance, but they could see it clear as day. The thing was pretty big. Erza resumed their pace, but soon had to stop again. Strewn about the clearing were several bodies of the weird lizardmen, all of them similar yet different from the one that attacked her earlier that day. They looked to be made of the same material as the dragonoid.
"That's Daphne's dragonoid, and these are her lizardmen constructs," Gray said, jumping off the magic mobile, taking a stance while he put his fist against his palm, "Get ready; Natsu was supposed to power it, but if Daphne somehow managed to make Kilgara the power source this'll spell trouble for all of us!"
Natsu rose up to his feet, his energy back now that they'd stopped moving,
"Calling this thing a dragon is an insult!" His fists lit as he down the door, charging forward, racing with all his might, "Hey lady! Where's Kilgara!?"
"Natsu!" Lucy was getting tired of Natsu charging in blind, it was getting ridiculous! And dangerous! Hasn't he learned anything? She thought as she scampered out of the vehicle, "Hold on!"
Erza just sighed as she said, "Come on, everyone."
Natsu inhaled, latching onto a scent he was now very familiar with. Kilgara was just up ahead. He lost all thoughts of charging the dormant, fake dragon; he immediately altered his course sliding to a hard left. He looked on, and 'lo and behold, there was the very dragon they had lost. Twice now.
"Kilgara!" A large smile came to Natsu's face. He bolted forward.
Kilgara made a happy roar, and ran forward as well; at least, Natsu assumed it was a happy roar. In all honesty, it didn't sound much like a roar. Sounded more like a cross between a bark and a roar from a very small reptilian dog.
Kilgara jumped up at Natsu, landing on his shoulder and arm, making Natsu stagger back a bit. Natsu let out a little chuckle at the hatchling's antics, before he caught the scent of blood.
His smile vanished instantly. He grabbed Kilgara from his shoulder, inspecting him. Kilgara tilted his head in confusion, but Natsu didn't notice.
"Natsu! You found him?" Lucy came running up to him with the others behind her. She had a relieved smile on her face, but she stopped short, "Is that Daphne? What happened?!"
Natsu turned to face where Lucy was looking. Lying on the ground, and the source of the scent of blood, was a woman with black hair and broken glasses. There was something else about that woman's scent too…It was the same flowery scent that was on Gray earlier.
"Yeah, that's Daphne," Gray confirmed, "But what happened here? Is she…dead?"
Erza stepped down, putting two fingers against Daphne's neck, while setting another just under her nose, "She's alive, but barely breathing," Erza confirmed.
"I'll see if I can do anything," Wendy knelt down next to Daphne's body. Kilgara gave a slight hiss, rearing back up Natsu's shoulder, making them all turn their heads in his direction.
"Now hold on," Carla said, ignoring the hissing dragon in favor of addressing Wendy, "You mustn't strain yourself, child!"
"I'll be fine, Carla," Wendy smiled, concentrating on healing. Wendy did admit, she didn't like the sight of such violence; she didn't like fighting at all, to be honest, but if she didn't do something, then there was a chance this person would die. She didn't want that either.
Wendy's healing magic began taking effect, "I think she's broken several ribs…I won't be able to heal her completely, but I can minimize the damage."
"While you're doing that," Gray turned to the dragonoid, which was still several yards away from them, "We can take care of this thing."
"Dang straight we will," Natsu punched his fist into his palm, igniting his flames, "This chick wants to see a dragon that badly, we'll show her one!"
Lucy glanced at Natsu and Gray; Kilgara was still on Natsu's shoulders. Lucy could have sworn she saw a brief smirk on the reptile's face, but that surely was her imagination. Could dragons, or any kind of animal, even make such facial expressions?
Kilgara leapt down from Natsu's shoulder, after which Natsu and Gray began to charge the dragonoid. Kilgara walked over to Lucy's feet, before he glanced back at Natsu and Gray. Lucy was kind of proud. Were Natsu and Gray actually working together here? It was as these thoughts went through Lucy's head that the two rivals…tripped?
Natsu and Gray stumbled, but it was dark enough that no one could see what they tripped on. They both went down, then immediately leapt up and accused each other.
"Outta my way!" They banged heads, pushing on the other to establish dominance.
"Geez, those two!" Erza slapped her forehead. Lucy just laughed nervously.
"Darn, for a second I thought they were going to work together to take this thing down," Happy shrugged with a smile from where he was hovering in the air, "But it looks like I gave them too much credit again!"
Carla hmphed, "Those two hooligans-" she was cut short as everyone felt an intense magic flare, before a large explosion rocked the ground they stood on.
The dragonoid crumpled, having been the source of the explosion and taking the brunt of the blast. Natsu and Gray froze in their bickering, as everyone stared wide eyed at the remains of the dragon-like machine.
"Huh?"
Hidden Quest Complete!
Stop Daphne from using the Salamander
Objectives:
Stop Daphne from capturing Natsu (Complete)
Stop the rampage of the Dragonoid (Complete)
Destroy all Daphne's lizardmen (Complete)
Free the City Without Sound (Complete)
Rewards:
4 Gacha Tokens
10,000 XP
20 Stat points
Spell Skill Gained: Hidden
Level up!
Holy cow! I didn't realize hidden quests were a thing! Come to think of it, Katie did say this was all designed for me to discover secrets. And wow, four gacha tokens! Is that even allowed!? Heck, I ain't complaining, but wow! Wow, wow, wow! And that XP! And a new spell?
I'll have to check all that out later, I think to myself as I glance at everyone. All of them are staring at the remains of the dragonoid with wide eyes, except for Erza. When I glanced at her, her eyes looked at me, then back at the site of the explosion.
"Huh?" I turned my head back up to Lucy, before flapping up as I leapt on her shoulders. I growled low in my throat, which came out as another one of those gurgly "dragon purrs."
"What the heck?" Natsu said, before shrugging, "Fire Dragon Roar!" He exclaimed as he began incinerating the rest of the remains.
"Well, guess that takes care of that," Gray brushed off his hands, "Must have malfunctioned or something," He shrugged.
"Hold on!" Carla exclaimed, "You're not even going to question what just happened?"
"Nope," Gray said, "I've never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I'm ready for home."
"You know, I kinda agree with him," Lucy said, "All this stress has exhausted me!" She stretched, then brought me down into her arms, cradling me, "Besides, we have Kilgara back safe and sound now!" She rubbed my neck and back, causing me to pur again. I've said it before, and I'll say it again! Being this small is awesome! I'm kinda not looking forward to the days when I'll be bigger than a house…
"Yeah, let's go relax!" Natsu cheered, "C'mon, Happy!"
"Aye sir!" Happy pumped his fist.
"Everyone get back in the magic mobile, and I'll take us home," Erza smiled as she began walking back to the car.
"Wait, we're still taking the vehicle!?" Two guesses for who screamed that.
Getting Natsu back in the car was entertaining. Erza had to knock him out, the poor guy. Because his motion sickness stems from dragon slayer magic, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd get motion sick as a dragon. I was very happy to report that I did not!
When we got back to Magnolia, Erza and Gray volunteered to go tell Master Makarov what happened, as well as turn Daphne in to the Rune Knights, while everyone else went home. I was tagging along with Natsu, who deemed this a good night to sneak into Lucy's house. In the middle of the night, that's exactly what Natsu and Happy did, with me in tow. I kinda felt bad, but then I realized this would be my first time going to her place, and I was curious how it would look in real life as opposed to the anime and manga.
When we got there, Natsu scaled the wall up to Lucy's window; peeking inside, we saw that she was fast asleep, a small smile on her face. Natsu really can be a ninja when he wants to be, cause dang! I was watching him do it, and I could barely hear him opening the window at all! Was it even locked? With how often he and Happy sneak in, you'd think Lucy would lock the windows or something.
Just as quietly as he opened it, Natsu closed the window. Happy flew over to a pillow and claimed it for himself, curling up and quickly falling asleep. Natsu grinned at his feline friend, before his eyes went to Lucy. His smile became noticeably softer, but no less genuine. He then looked at me sitting next to him.
"G'night, little buddy," He grinned at me before settling into the bed next to Lucy, Happy just above his head.
Wow. I didn't think that Natsu had developed feelings like this for Lucy this early. Or maybe I'm just reading into things too much.
I sat there for a moment more. I couldn't really describe what I was feeling, but I almost felt like I was intruding on this moment. The original Team Natsu. Natsu, Lucy, and Happy. A part of me wanted to feel envious of the bond they have; could I ever form genuine connections like them? To be honest, there's a part of me that still considers them to be fictional characters, but then I have memories of them. They look and feel so real.
I shook my head of these thoughts, before more exciting ones came to my mind. I leapt from the bed, landing on the ground. I had no trouble making my way through the dark (thank you darkvision!) and settled on the ground near the bed.
"Status," I whispered.
Name: Kilgara
Age: 0
Race: Arcane Royal Dragon
Rank: Hatchling
Alignment: Neutral Good
Level: 25
Class: Runecaster – LVL 25/100, 82%
HP: 200 [Regens 40 per minute]
MP: 2450 [Regens 340 per minute]
SP: 200 [Regens 40 per minute]
STR: 55
END: 20
DEX: 10
INT: 98
WIS: 68
CHA: 50
LUK: 20
Points: 125
It's so beautiful! My INT is two points away from one hundred! I've almost hit the triple digits! And look at all those wonderful points, simply a masterpiece! Mwah! Not to mention my MP is now above two thousand! Ooh, I love it!
After admiring and considering what to do with them for a minute, I pulled up my skill list. I'll decide what to do with them in a bit.
Spell Skill:
Hidden
Upon casting, the user is rendered invisible and impervious to attacks; however, other spells may still affect the user.
This is definitely an OP skill! Impervious to attacks? This is the same spell that Daphne and her village was able to use, right? I had no idea the spell was so powerful! I shouldn't get cocky though; there are ways for people to still detect you through magic or other means. Daphne was able to curse her whole town when they were all under this spell, that was something else to consider too.
Hm…now for the gacha tokens. I looked up at Natsu and Lucy, who were still snoozing away happily, with Happy sleeping peacefully above them. There's no telling what these things will bring with them, I shouldn't do this with them right there.
With my mind made up, I decided to put my new Hidden spell to good use. I rose from where I sat, casting the spell. It felt as natural as breathing, every time I used magic. Must be an arcane dragon thing. I turned invisible, which didn't take nearly as much MP as I was expecting. It took a second for me to get used to not seeing my feet, but I could still tell where my body was, not only because I could feel it, but because I could "see" it with my blindsense skill. Dragons really are OP.
I went out through the door, because I was not as confident in my ability to go through a window as quietly as Natsu. And what do ya know, the door was locked. Lucy locks the door, but not the window? I guess most people are like that, actually.
Under the effects of Hidden, I practiced flying and gliding as I made my way to the nearby forest, jumping and flapping as I leapt up.
I made it about half way to Natsu and Happy's house before I felt satisfied. I ended the effects of Hidden, pulling out one gacha token from my inventory. I grabbed the bar and snapped it.
You have obtained a large pile of rubies and sapphires!
A pile of said gems of all shapes and sizes appeared out of nowhere in front of me. Holy moley! I'm really glad I had the foresight to come out here to do this, this is a lot! The pile was maybe six times my size, which means it's nearly over two times the size of your average human. I immediately put all of it in my inventory. Grabbing out the second gacha, I snapped it.
You have obtained a Twix bar!
A Twix candy bar fell in front of me. Well. Cool. I guess. I slipped that baby into my inventory, it was weird being able to sense chocolate like that. Epic though. With that, I snapped my third gacha.
You have obtained a monster card!
Wait, monster card? A single card dropped in front of me. I picked it up; on the card was a picture of a young girl. She had red eyes and dirty blonde hair wrapped in a ponytail, with some parted bangs hanging out. She looked barely older than ten, wearing a kind of black dress with black boots that came up to her thighs. She had black gloves that were just as long as her boots, going all the way up to her elbows. She was wielding a kind of shortsword. The sword was a deep blue color, save for the edges of the blade, which were black. Though the most noticeable feature of hers were the dirty blonde fox-like ears on her head. Interesting. I used Observe on the card when I got no other information.
Monster Card: Tyrfina
Well, at least I know the name of the card. Is that girl supposed to be the monster? This is interesting. Does this card summon her? I tried pouring some MP into the card, but nothing happened. What am I supposed to do here? Throw it like a pokeball? Just for the heck of it, I threw it to the ground like a shuriken. To my shock, something actually happened! The card glowed gold, before the golden light took on the silhouetted form of the girl in the card; the light faded, and standing before me was the girl. I quickly used Observe on her.
Tyrfina
Race: NeoMonster
"Hello, master," She bowed politely, a small smile on her face, "My name is Tyrfina." Wait, what?
"Sorry, what? Do you mean me?" I quirked my brow, pointing at myself. She was taller than me, about the same size and age as Wendy. Except she was holding out that cool looking sword.
"I do, sir," She nodded her head, "You are my master. You are the one who wielded my card."
"Oh…Oka-hold on!" I raised my voice, "You can understand me?"
"I'm afraid I don't understand your words, but I know you're speaking Draconic. I can sense your feelings though, master," She laughed at me softly, "If you can somehow communicate your questions through gestures and feelings, I can discern your intentions from there. You are also able to give me basic commands, and I will understand and follow them due to our bond as monster and master."
"Oh…darn," I said, "Though I guess that's better than nothing. And hold on, you're a monster and I'm your master?" I pointed at her, then me before shrugging in confusion.
"Hm…If I understand you correctly, then you're asking about our bond. I am a NeoMonster, one of several of my kind. We come in almost all shapes, sizes, and types. We exist in another world, and can only be summoned to others via our cards. Those we deem worthy find our cards when we wish to be summoned. A NeoMonster can only grow with training in another world, as their card holder also grows. That's why we allow other worlders to find our cards; when we want to grow." She then gave me a big grin, "Which is why I chose you master! In all NeoMonster history, a master has never contacted or asked if we wanted to come with them! And though you're a baby, you're a dragon that I know will grow big and strong!" That was the most animated I'd heard her speak. And chose? I didn't do any…the gacha token. It must have done something.
"In that case, I look forward to getting to know you!" I said excitedly, holding out my claw. She seemed to understand, holding out her own hand. I shook her hand and smiled, trying to convey that I was happy she was here. A thought came to my mind; I pulled the Twix bar from my inventory and held it out to her. She grinned big as she grabbed it excitedly, as she was once again enveloped in golden light, her form morphing back into the card. I placed her card in my inventory, switching it out with my last gacha. I snapped it.
You have obtained a companion gem!
A companion gem? A cylindrical crystal fell in front of me. I picked it up; there was a picture here in the crystal, almost like some kind of projection…wait, what? Is that…? Observe.
Companion Gem: Ymir Fritz
Holy shoot.