POV ???:
Glowing magical projectiles and arrows flew through the forest, exploding all around with the tall ancient trees breaking and falling down. Sounds of metal banging against another metal constantly resounded through the woods.
Dozens of corpses, some of them torn apart or burned, were sewn all around in the mud and fallen leaves.
The chaotic battle engulfed the whole forest as more and more players joined the different sides of the conflict, with a few even mindlessly attacking everyone.
Dozens of players hid behind the trees, holding crossbows and bows in their hands. None of them was moving as they quietly waited for their enemies. Their brown mud and twigs-covered outfits made it easy for them to blend with their surroundings.
Many steps were quickly closing towards their positions, their anticipation rising.
“Hold the line! This is our territory!” dark-robed shadows moved between the trees, their dragon-shaped masks hiding their faces. They moved in as a single line, slowly advancing through the forest, the dry leaves rustling under their feet.
The players hidden behind the trees waited as the masked players kept getting closer and closer.
Finally, at once, they unleashed a swarm of arrows and bolts. Dozens of arrows whistled with a deadly rain falling upon the masked players.
Multiple masked players with staffs waved them in the air, their glowing tips radiating through the shadows thrown by the trees.
With bangs, waves of magic rushed forwards, all of the dry leaves lifting from the ground as the waves of magic smashed against the swarm of incoming arrows, striking them down from the air.
The lines of masked players advanced even further, their steady steps rustling as they kept marching forward. They kept quickly advancing towards the broken carriage in the distance, with dozens of trees obscuring a large portion of their view.
The spearmens kept pouncing against the last remaining player in the shiny and battered brass mask. Steps came from behind the line of masked players, a rustling of leaves and robes getting closer and closer.
A figure in red robes that were so eyes catching that no one could help but look at the newcomer. His shiny masks made of brass signified their high rank.
All of the masked players quickly parted, creating a large empty space between them and the red-robed newcomer.
“Hahaha! Finally, something to burn!” a burst of laughter erupted in the forest, the empty space around the red-robed maniac growing even larger.
Suddenly a large portion of the local players that came to help their friends from the county capital with their quest ran out of their hiding spots behind trees, running away as fast as possible with clouds of dust rising behind them. Only their panicked shouts remained after them.
“Shit! We are dead! He is that maniacal wyrmkin!”
“Ohh, not that psycho. I thought that they locked him in an asylum. Run for your lives!”
The players from the capital hidden behind the trees looked at each other, almost bursting into laughter at how scared their friends were, the feeling of their superiority at them gaining residence in the capital growing even stronger.
“Hahaha, look at these cowards! They are scared of one player!”
A bright orange light suddenly flared up in the forest, all of the dry leaves bursting in the fire. The flames ignited around the hands of the pyromaniac in red, their intensity quickly growing as magical orange circles formed right above his palms.
Flames and magma started gathering in the space between his palms forming a sphere of magma and fire growing in size.
“What are you waiting for? Attack!” the players behind the trees draw their bows carefully, aiming at the caster in red. They unleashed their arrows at once, all flying straight towards their target.
The arrows and bolts whistled through the air before piercing through the red robe and stabbing into the flash of the pyromaniac.
Everyone had already expected him to fall to the ground, but he just stood there while chuckling as the fiery sphere between his hands grew.
“Hahahaha.” The bright orange light was brightening, with the laughter getting louder and the flames more intense.
The panicked players hiding behind the trees started to shout in panic, more and more arrows whistling through the air, turning the player in red into a human hedgehog.
“Shit, he has poison immunity!”
“That is not the worst thing! He is full of arrows, yet he is still casting as if nothing even happened!”
“What the hell, look at these flames! They are so bright. His fire affinity must be through the roof!”
The image of their friends running flashed before their eyes as they realised that the player before them was extremely powerful.
With waves of his hands, the massive fireball moved, propelled by a mighty wind, launching like a projectile from a catapult flying at a highly accurate angle through the gaps between the trees.
It quickly vanished into the distance before a small explosion flashed across the forest from the direction of the carriage with hostages.
“Ahhhh!” screams of NPC soldiers echoed through the woods, their whole formation vanishing in flames, leaving behind only the brass-masked player defending the carriage.
His angry shout came from between the flames, “Pyro! You maniac! You almost blew up the carriage!”
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon stood in the cave, filled with light glowing out of his body. The dark clouds of smoke slowly spread out of his body, filling the cave. His two glowing eyes that penetrated even through the smoke were looking straight at the kobold.
After finishing his interrogation, Vesuvius felt relieved as he found out that his worries were unfounded, ‘It inherited some knowledge, but it is only some basics, such as sense of hierarchy and languages together with specifics of draconic culture.’
Seeing how successful the project was, Vesuvius wanted to expand his experiments even more, ‘Goblins are weak, so they are not the best base for transformation. Maybe other species would be better, leading to even more powerful transformations.’
His mind was brimming with plenty of options that he wanted to try, ‘What about my dracodactyls? What will be their transformation? Also, what about regular humans? They are mundane yet much stronger than goblins, with their highly adaptable genes.’
His instincts were telling him that he was on the right track. The whole world was filled with hybrids of humans crossbred with dwarves, elves and plenty more races. They were bland without any too distinct racial powers, but that turned them into a sponge that could easily suck in new properties.
The dragon turned towards his elven assistant, his two golden eyes falling upon her weak-looking body.
“Alesia, spawn more kobold and try various different concentrations of marrow and blood to see if it has any effects on the end result.”
‘Now that I am looking at her, elves might be even better. They are also highly adaptable, with them always turning into new adaptations suited for their environment within a few generations, like ice elves and dark elves. So why not draconic elves? They are an even stronger base than humans, sadly, there are too few of them in this region, and they are slow breeders. It would take centuries, maybe even a millennium, for them to spawn large enough population.’
The dragon started to realise how perfectly fit elves were the more he thought about it even with the shortcoming of their small population.
‘They are kinda similar to dragons with their highly above-average life and magic force. They also have an affinity towards life, nature and natural elements like dragons. ‘
Vesuvius felt his heart already nudging him to test it on the one elf in his reach, ‘No, I need more assurances before transforming her. But elves feel like an ideal group to be transformed, even in just a small number, to become my elite force.’
The dragon stepped towards the black tunnel as he felt like he was done, but he abruptly stopped as there was one more thing he wanted to try.
‘Maybe I should try to give her rank with the title. That could turn her into an even better asset. Yes, I need someone to be in charge of the research and manufacturing.’
Vesuvius didn’t take long to find a good name for the title, ‘Dragon of Craftmanship. It fits with the theme of my officer ranks and has a nice ring to it. She might not be a dragon, but It is only a symbolic name anyway.’
Ding!
//
Choose one of the descriptions that describe the title. (Be careful effects will be generated based upon the description):
1st: The strong mind is not enough for Dragon of Craftmanship. They also need a powerful body to protect themselves against threats and to wiled heavier tools.
2nd: Dragon of Craftmanship needs to grow faster than anyone under them to keep their esteemed rank.
3rd: The mind of Dragon of Craftmanship is their greatest tool that needs to sharpen to a maximum degree.
//
Vesuvius quickly read through the three descriptions, instantly finding out the one that was most fitting, ‘She doesn’t need to protect herself; my other minions and I can do that better. Runesmithing is also not in need of muscles. It is more about precision and skill with mana. The boost to her mind would be best if she was a player, but with her being NPC, that growth has much better potential. I can change the effects of it in five years anyway.’