Chapter 2: The Game Begins

The whole world thrummed with a burst of power, heralding the start of the [Great Game]

I felt something indescribable click into place, and agony blossomed as the rules of the game turned me into a champion, and a [Priestess] of Kolra. Champions have much higher stats than normal people. They are stronger, tougher, faster, and smarter than normal mortals. They also have powerful unique abilities. Even the weakest champion is capable of defeating an army by themselves.

In that moment, every champion became much more powerful as they gained their demigod abilities.

Except for me.

Power I earned over the eons drained away, leaving me weak and exhausted. I was barely able to force myself back to my feet. Upon inspection, my worse fears were realized.

I had become a [Level 1 Priestess].

Just a few seconds ago I was a level 999 primordial dragon. At first I wanted to bellow in rage, but then I read the rest of my status screen, and slowly calmed down. My feelings were ... mixed. Yes, I had lost a great many skills and abilities, and I was undeniably far weaker than I had been. However, my potential had never been higher.

This world may have levels, but it’s abilities and stats that truly determine how powerful someone is. Every time you level up, you gain 2 character points. These points are used to increase your stats, or you can use them to increase the rank of your abilities, spells, and skills. Stats increase at the rate of one to one, but the number of points required to increase a rank doubled every time the rank increased. Rank 1 costs just 1 point, but Rank 10 takes a whopping 512 points. Mortals rarely reach level 50, so even if they are willing to sacrifice most of their other skills, very few pass rank 6. No mortal has ever passed rank 8 in any skill.

As a dragon, I gained double the normal character points when I leveled. Apparently, being a champion also doubles the character points gained. Considering I had 8 character points waiting at level 1, they clearly stacked. I had been level capped, and hadn’t been able to increase my ranking since before the rise of civilization. Now I could level up again. Eventually I’ll be far more powerful than before.

I still had the most important of my draconic abilities, and I had several new demigod abilities. Many of which, like my body, were tailor-made for sex. My water magic had been reduced all the way down to rank 1. But, I retained my previous rank in all of my draconic abilities, and most of my new demigod abilities were rank 10.

Put into terms my old human self would have understood, [Skiing I] is the equivalent of beginner. Someone with that rank is ready for the beginner slopes, but not much else. By the time they reach [Skiing III], they are comfortable on advanced slopes. At [Skiing V] they have reached the Olympic level. At [Skiing VII] it’s become a superpower. They put on a pair of skis in the summer, and snow appears on the ground in front of them. At the maximum rank of [Skiing X], they can ski uphill. Through a battlefield. Without snow. In their sleep.

As a primordial dragon, all of my stats started at 50. As a champion, I received an additional 50 point bonus to all stats. Being a demigod gave me another 50 stat points to spend. Considering that the range of stats for a normal human is 1 to 10, my minimum of 100 makes my weakest stat 10 times stronger than their maximum. I spent one point in every skill, then split the remainder between toughness and will. As a priestess, they are my most important stats, and that’s what I plan on focusing on first. Why did I spend a point in each stat? It was simple prudence. Most people stop at nice round numbers. I wanted to have just a little more in case I needed a tiebreaker against someone with a stat of 100.

I decided to save my character points for now. I need to have a better feel for my magic before I decide where to spend them.

Name: Ciarra
Level: 1
Race: Primordial Dragon (Frost)
Gender: Female
Class: Priestess

Character Points: 8

Ability Scores:
Strength: 101
Agility: 101
Toughness: 124
Mind: 101
Will: 123

Special Abilities:
[Powerful Existence] - Character points gained on level up are doubled.

Magical Spells:
[Holy Smite I] - Holy damage to a single target. Range: Sight.
[Heal I] - Heal single target. Range: Touch
[Storage Magic I] - Spacial Magic capable of storing anything caster owns. Time does not pass for stored items. Range: 5 feet
[Water Manipulation I] - You control water. Range: 25 feet.

Demigod Abilities (Unique):
[Godling] - Has the potential to become a god.
[Champion of Kolra] - Character points gained on level up are doubled.
[Flesh Shaping X] - Permanently alter targets body. Range: Touch
[Empathic Scenting X] - All emotions cause subtle changes in body chemistry, and you can detect them all. Range: Special
[Empathic Sensuality X] - Share sensations with your lovers at will. Range: Touch
[Sexual Insight X] - You understand the most secret fantasies and sexual desires of your target, even things they have not admitted to themselves. Target: Sight

Draconic Abilities:
[Dragon Form VI] - You can shapeshift into a dragon at will.
[Dragons Breath VI] - Frost based breath weapon. Works in both humanoid and dragon forms. Dragon form greatly increases range and damage. Range: 25 foot cone.
[Tremorsense V] - You sense subtle vibrations through the ground allowing you to pinpoint it’s source and likely cause.
[Magesense IX] - You sense the flow of magic around you.
[Dragon Armor X] - Your scales block all but the most powerful of attacks.
[Thermal Immunity X] - You are immune to all forms of thermal damage.
[Protected Mind VII] - You are highly resistant to all forms of mental attacks.
[Magic Resistance VII] - You are highly resistant to all forms of offensive magic.

The [Great Game] just moved onto the next step, giving me two quests.

[Become Kolra’s High Priestess - Part 1] - Travel to Gravestead.
[Path to Power - Part 1] - Join the Adventurers Guild.

I looked around the empty cavern that was my lair. Nothing here mattered to me anymore, other than the hoard I slept on. Stories from my human memories described dragons as sleeping on piles of gold, and I always assumed it was just another symbol of dragons greed. How little I knew.

Dragons sleep on gold for one reason. We are formed from pure creation energy, and that makes us very sensitive to all forms of magic. Gold is soothing. It absorbs stray magic, acting like a small magical battery, it insulates us from the tiny natural fluctuations in the magic field that covers the world. It’s like sleeping in the country instead of the city. The country isn’t quiet, and the night is still filled with noise, but it’s the noise of crickets, birds, and the occasional animal. Not the blaring of a siren, or the crack of a pistol.

I only bothered to gather enough to sleep on comfortably. So, it was a small hoard. To my dragon side. My human side knew better. It was deep enough that I didn’t feel the flow of magic through the earth when I laid on it, and it was wide enough that I could stretch out on it in dragon form. I’m over a hundred feet long, and the pile was about 10 feet deep. My hoard would probably overflow an Olympic sized swimming pool. I vaguely remembered something about how all the gold mined in my old world would only fill a couple of them.

Unless I was greatly mistaken, I was the one percent.

I considered it for a few minutes.

I already knew I was powerful enough to destroy kingdoms, and now I also knew I was rich enough to buy and sell them. My human side wanted to curl into a ball and hide away from the responsibility, but my dragon side wasn’t fazed, it knew it’s worth, and I clung to that assurance.

I used [Storage Magic] to create a dimensional pocket under the pile of gold, and watched as it flowed into nothing. After a few minutes, my storage was filled. I had planned on saving my initial character points, but I decided to spend six of them to upgrade [Storage Magic] to rank three. My newly upgraded [Storage Magic] was barely able to hold my hoard, but it was able to hold it. Thankfully it seemed to be based on volume, not weight.

Upgraded [Storage Magic I] to [Storage Magic III]. Cost: 6 Character Points.

With the gold safely stored, I decided that I might as well leave now. It’s not like I had anything else to take with me. I dived into the water, my fading human instincts insisted that the water must be freezing cold, but now that I was a frost dragon, it felt comfortable against my skin. I swam along the tunnel. The underwater ice cave was beautiful. Daylight shone down on the iceberg, and filled the cave with a blue-green glow.