Chapter 15

Earth
Lehua, Hawaii
August 13, 2019
15:02 HST (21:02 EDT)

My sisters were very excited, and I think Omar, Yuki and my mom were as well. They’re just better at hiding it. I found that with my long neck, I was able to get a good look at myself. Where Ilnod was a carmine red like his mother, my scales were varied in color. I wasn’t quite rainbow colored, but it was close. There were small swept back spines running along my back and all the way down my tail where they tapered off into a large, blunt, club-like tip. It seemed like my wingspan was bigger than my overall length, but it was difficult to tell with my current perspective. There may be an easy way to find out, though.

[Hey, Abi. Are you able to tell how big I am with your sensors?]

[Indeed, I am. Your current form is roughly twenty-four meters long and seven meters tall, with a wingspan of twenty-six point eight meters.]

[What about Ilnod? How big is he?]

[Eleven meters long, three meters tall, with a wingspan of twelve point three meters.]

[Cool, thank you.]

I gave my large wings a few test flaps and then began shapeshifting back into my human form. It took around the same amount of time, but felt a bit easier. When I was done, I walked over to Selalea, Ilnod and my mom.

“So, what’s the verdict, did it feel uncomfortable for him?”

Selalea shook her head. “He said he could feel you enter his mind and navigate to wherever you needed to go, but it didn’t bother him. The rest of your group can go ahead with their own scans.”

“I’ll let them know,” my mom said.

[Selalea said you all can come forward and scan Ilnod. One at a time though, please, ] I heard her say.

“The color of your scales was interesting,” Selalea said. “Not many dragons are born with the characteristics you exhibited.”

“Is that important?”

“Not particularly. I’ll fill you in more the next time we meet.”

“Ah. So how are you going to carry the gold back for the Precognition Skill Gem?” I asked. “I don’t see a dimensional storage ring, or something similar.”

She pointed to the top of her head, where a jeweled pin was holding her hair up. “I use a hairpin rather than a ring or bracelet. It can easily store that entire stack of gold and have a lot of room left over.”

She held her hand out and the familiar orange of a Legendary Skill Gem appeared in her palm.

“Here you are. If I am not mistaken, seven bars are equal to five million credits?”

I picked the gem up off her hand and channeled my mana through it, as my mom answered her.

“That is the current exchange rate, yes. You can take all one hundred bars, however. They’ll benefit you more than they will us. Use them to buy whatever you need to help your people when they’re relocated to your new home.”

“All of them?” Selalea gasped. “Are you sure? That’s a lot of money.”

“I’m sure,” she said with a nod. “I was prepared to give you all this gold if you allowed all of us to scan a dragon anyways.

“Thank you,” Selalea replied, kneeling down and running her hands over the gold bars. As soon as she touched one, it would disappear, allowing her to load them all into her dimensional storage very quickly.

While we were talking, my sisters, Omar, and Yuki were in the process of scanning Ilnod. When I looked behind us, I saw that my sisters had already finished their scans, and were in the process of shapeshifting into their new forms. Their transformation was a bit faster than mine, and soon there were three identical dragons standing side by side. They had the same coloring, swept spines and club-like tail as I did, though seemed just a tad smaller overall.

Once everyone was done scanning Ilnod, we chatted for a while before deciding to depart. While it was still quite early on Lelua, it was almost 22:00 EDT. We allowed Selalea and the rest of the dragons leave first, and as I watched her fly away, I couldn’t get over how massive she was. They all flew for a short while before blending in with their surroundings and becoming invisible. Abi made her own way back to the moon after activating her shroud, and the rest of us returned through via a portal.

Immediately upon arriving back at the base, we all split up to do our own things for the rest of the night. I teleported outside of my room and pulsed the lock, allowing the door to open so I could get out of my armor. I put my spear and shield back in their respective spots, and then channeled mana into each piece of armor to loosen them, allowing for removal. As soon as the armor was off, I realized how hungry I was. I hung up my armor, redressed in normal clothes, and then proceeded to the cafeteria.

When I arrived, I noticed my friends were all seated at a table eating their own dinner. I waved at them and continued over to the buffet. Rather than just go through with one plate, I picked up two and went through the line loading them up with a variety of different foods. When I was done, I made my way over to my friends.

“Hi, guys,” I said, sitting beside Anja.

“Hey,” Anja greeted. “Where were you? We tried to contact you to see what you were up to, but apparently Telepathy doesn’t have the same range that Mindspeak does.”

“Just meeting some dragons in Hawaii,” I replied nonchalantly, taking a bite of fried chicken.

Ben was about to take a drink when he processed what I said. “Dragons?!” he exclaimed. “I thought they were a myth!”

Swallowing, I shook my head. “Not a myth, just very hard to find.”

I filled them in on my day, though glossed over scanning animals earlier in the day. I figured it wouldn’t be very interesting. They were very interested in my encounter with the dragons, and their size and ability to blend into their surroundings, in particular. All of them thought that I was joking when I told them how big Selalea and some of the other dragons are. I told them that I had learned that dragons never stop growing, and that Selalea is very old. I also said I’d show them my own dragon form later.

“So what’ve you guys been up to today?” I asked.

That question prompted them to explain what they were doing while I was off doing my own thing. The reason Sonja needed a large open space she couldn’t easily damage, is because a few of the skills she received are in the Air magic type. Windblade is an example of Air magic, and so is Ride the Lightning, the movement skill she now had. The ability allows her to turn herself into pure lightning and move very quickly. It also allows her to move through enemies along the way, provided they’re not immune to Air magic. She was practicing moving around with the ability where she wouldn’t damage anything. Like Mason, she also acquired a summon ability, Summon Air Elemental.

It seemed like there was a theme going on with each of my friends. Each of them received abilities relating to a different element, including an ability that summons an elemental. Ben got Summon Fire Elemental, and Anja received Summon Water Elemental. Ben also acquired a few fire spells to allow him to do some damage, rather than relying purely on auras, and Anja got a couple of frost magic spells.

Mason spent part of his day on the firing range, and then found somewhere to practice using his Seismic Shove ability. That was good because the ability could be very useful, or a hindrance depending on how it’s used. Anja spent a portion of her day with Yuki, practicing Precognition. She too, got a legendary Mana Regeneration Skill Gem, which helped a lot. She was able to raise Precognition from rank two up to rank thirteen over the course of a few hours. It was similar for Ben. He spent awhile teleporting around to get used to it, and then spent the rest of his time leveling up some new auras.

We had all finished eating and were just sitting around while they all gave me a quick rundown. When they were all done, I led them to the sparring rooms so I could show off a little. Sparring Rooms one through three were occupied, but room four was available.

“Can one of you take out your phone and keep track of my stats when I change forms? When Scyftans shapeshift, our stats change to reflect that. I know what my stats are like in the first two forms, but I’d like to know how much they increase in the third form.”

“I got it,” Ben said, already having his phone in his hand.

“Thanks. Alright, up first is a hybrid form I’ll probably be using in dungeons.”

With that, I started shifting into my Seotross-human hybrid form. After a minute or so, I was standing in front of them as a nearly eight foot tall version of myself, with two extra arms.

“That’s so fucking cool!” Mason said. “Man ... you’re making me wish I was a Scyftar.”

“It does have its perks,” I said with a laugh, and flexing my arms. “If you look at Ben’s phone, you’ll see how my stats have increased while in this form. I think I’ll actually be able to use two shields and two spears, or even go with four swords instead. It will be cool to experiment with it. Alright, here is the second form.”

I triggered the change to my Seotross form, and watched their reactions as I grew in size. When changing my form, I’m still able to keep track of everything going on around me, I just can’t move until it’s done. Soon, I was dwarfing all of them and covered in a thick coat of fur.

“Holy fuck!” I heard, drawing my attention to Ben, who had his eyes glued to his phone with his mouth wide open. The others were looking over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

“Seriously?!” Mason exclaimed. “That’s insane!”

[Not really, if you think about it. This form is way too big to use in a dungeon. Maybe I can use it for bosses, but that’s about it. That’s why I’ll be using the hybrid form. I’ll get some nice bonuses, while still being able to move around, ] I sent to all of them.

“Why are you sending?” Sonja asked.

[I can’t talk in this form just yet. Apparently I’ll be able to, with time. For now, I’m stuck with Mindspeak.]

“Oh.”

“I don’t imagine that we’ll always be fighting in dungeons. Sooner or later we’ll be in a real fight. That form will be absolutely devastating,” Mason said. “I definitely wouldn’t want to go up against you, or another one of those things. What is it, anyway?”

[It’s called a Seotross. They’re a predator found on Nedovis. Apparently they have impenetrable shields. My mom has been trying for years to scan one, and I was able to do it right away. Ready for my dragon form?]

They all nodded and I began my transformation into my dragon form. The mana draw wasn’t quite as intense, and it didn’t take as long either, making me think my current size has something to do with it. After maybe a minute and a half, I was done shapeshifting, and stood before them in my dragon form. The ceiling was high, but I had to be careful not to hit it. When I looked at them, they took a step back before realizing that it’s me.

“That’s just not fair,” Mason whined. “Do you know if other races can be turned into Scyftans? If so, sign me up!”

[I don’t think it works that way, sorry, Mace. So, what are my stats looking like?] I asked, looking at Ben.

This time, he was rendered speechless and didn’t even look up when I called his name. The others looked at his phone and the reaction was even more pronounced than when I was in my Seotross form.

[Ben? What’s it looking like?]

He finally looked up at me. “Uhh ... strength is sixteen times higher, agility is twenty times higher, intellect is one point two times higher, constitution is eight times higher, and endurance is twenty times higher.”

My jaw dropped. I was expecting things would be higher, but not by that magnitude. The agility and endurance makes sense since dragons fly, but I didn’t think I would be as strong as in my Seotross form. The slightly higher intellect was interesting as well. Having shown off a bit, I started shapeshifting back into my human form. When I was back in my human form, I walked over.

“You said there are around eighty thousand dragons on Earth? That’s incredibly scary if they’re as strong as you are, or even stronger,” Ben said.

“They are, which is why we’re going to help relocate them to a new planet. My mom was going to meet with Tich to find a good home for them close to Scyftan space so Abi can relocate them there. They may be very good allies in the future, so it’s worth helping them out. Besides that, part of the agreement we made with Selalea is that they help us man the ships on their way.”

“You said they can’t level, right?”

“Nope,” I replied with a shake of my head. “They do get stronger and stronger as they age, though. One on one, Selalea may be able to match my mom. It would be interesting to see them spar. On another topic, have you guys been to your rooms here yet?”