Dragon Reincarnated (Working title)

Skill Points Well Spent

Before I knew it, two months had passed. I learned a few things about this world in that time as well. For one, there were both animals and monsters. Though many animals were foreign to me, and a few I even mistook for monsters a time or two, there were differences that separated the two.

There were the obvious: magic and crazy super powers and the like. But just because a creature looked like a monster did not always mean it was one, and just because a monster had no magic, didn't mean they were animals either.

The single, biggest difference was in the fact that, killing a monster afforded a person experience, while killing animals- much like those fish I ate that day and many days since- does not. A person can not gain levels by simply killing animals, as far as I could tell, at least. I wasn't even sure if I was getting 'levels' at all really. Not in the traditional video game sense at least.

I could tell I was getting stronger, and that was a kind of 'level up', even if it didn't come with a tangible number I could track. I just wished there was some kind of 'status' menu that I could examine. But I have yet to discover one.

And I tried everything. Even asking the universe with a big, loud, "Status!" shout. Glad I was alone, as it had been pretty embarrassing. Still, no status menu.

But there was one very big thing that came from gaining experience: Skill Points.

I knew I had them, the same way I knew that I gained status levels; I would hear a voice in my head, telling me so. It sounded like Lottie, but when I tried to speak to it the first time I heard it, she did not answer back. That probably meant it wasn't the elderly guardian angle, but rather my own mind selecting a voice from my memory to use in the situation.

Either way, I knew about skills from it. But, I had not used them yet, even though I did see a few skills that looked like they would be quite helpful or fun...

Oh, right. When I thought about wanting to spend my points, I could see a a list of options in my head. it was disorienting at first, given I had my eyes open at the time. But closing them made it much easier to do. It also made me hopeful that there might be a skill menu in my future. Maybe I could spend points to get it, though that wasn't an option right now.

There was a reason I had been saving up my points, however. And today was the day I planned on spending them! After taking out a strange fox like monster that had been sniffing at my hiding place yesterday evening I had finally reached twenty points!

This morning, I hurried myself back down toward the lake. I kept my eyes open for monsters, especially those bears and snakes, but saw none. Though exploration I have come to realize that the monsters were normally fairly thin around here. If I had to guess it had been due to my mother's presence, scaring them all away. I wasn't sure why they still kept away, unless they were afraid of me, though I rather doubted it.

I gazed into the reflective waters and admired my pink scales. I had doubled in size over this last two months, but I was still too small to be a thing to fear for many monsters. I had not dared to take on those bears, for instance. But I was big enough to take on just about any animal now.

I spent much of my days training my body while searching out enough food to feed myself. I, apparently, had a surprisingly voracious metabolism, and had to eat an awful lot to keep myself going. An instinct told me it was because I was still in my baby stage. If I had to guess, dragons likely grew like weeds until they get to a size where any normal being poses no threat. I was still a ways off, so I had to eat a lot. 

I shook my head and then stretched out my lithe body. I was about the size of a large dog now, and getting in and out of my tree was becoming difficult. It may be time to find a new hiding place. Besides, dragons were not birds and it felt strange to be nesting like one. Though, I would miss my little feathery neighbors...