A few hours later Azrael sat at the table, his head in his hands. Not only did his head hurt from the amount of information he’d accessed, but his experiment wasn’t working as he’d expected it to.

Raising his head from his hands, he looked down at the small stone tablet on the table before him. On its surface a rune lay clearly defined. Scattered on the desk around him were dozens of such small stone tablets, each with a different rune on them.

Using [Stone Shaping] he’d shaped some stones from outside into smooth stone plates, before engraving them with different runes. All of these newly carved runeplates however lay there inert, no different from any other common stone.

It seemed that while {Rune Master} gave him knowledge of all the lesser runes and their correct forms it didn’t give him information on how to use them. Dipping into what he’d dubbed the ‘rune library’ he double and triple checked the rune, making sure that all of the lines were perfect. They were. He’d already tripled checked before that triple check before and yet the stone plates still sat there, mocking him.

For the life of him, he couldn’t think of what might be missing. Was it was something about the process? [Stone Shaping] hadn’t interfered with levelling [Crafting], so he didn’t really be a reason for it to change anything. He formed a spare stone into a stylus. Maybe if he engraved it by hand? It never hurt to check.

Picking up another stone he flattened it into a square plate and was about to carve the basic rune for ‘light’, when he paused. Azrael looked out the window. He wasn’t sure why, but some instinct compelled him to.

Outside, light filtered through leaves, illuminated greens, golds and oranges to create a stunning show in the light autumn breeze. The dancing leaves threw gentle dappled shadows onto the forest floor below. Everything was peaceful, yet something felt off. Something had changed.

It was while he was observing the soft shadows in the silence when he realised. It was too peaceful. Other than the wind through the trees, the usually lively forest had gone silent. The birds, so happily singing away a minute ago, were nowhere to be heard. Even the insects seemed to hold their breath. The itch at the back of his mind grew to a tingling, urging him to… He ignored it.

“Sera? What’s going on?” he asked as he put the stylus and stone plate down. In the past month he’d become a lot more comfortable speaking with her, as she would always be there for him, reminding him of the villager’s names, or other things he’d asked her to remember.

She was never invasive, taking a step back as so not to intrude on his privacy, but always there when he needed her. This time however she didn’t answer him, as if she too were holding her breath for what was coming.

Azrael slowly started to stand, trying to bury the sense of rising foreboding. Then, in the stillness he finally heard it. He froze, still half seated.

Silent at first, but growing stronger, it was like a slow drumbeat. It was slow and deep, resonating the very air he breathed and sending a tremor through the earth, like a giant’s footsteps. Each stroke tore the air, like suppressed thunder. The sheer noise drowned out the waterfall and caused his house to shake.

Freeing himself of whatever force held him captive, Azrael ran out of his small cottage and looked up, as a giant shadow blocked out the sun. Majestic and fearsome the red dragon dominated the skies. Almost 50 or more meters in length, the sun glinted off its rubine red scales.

It was the largest creature Azrael had ever seen and yet it still carried itself with a fantastical grace.

Azrael gasped as he collapsed to his knees. The sheer overbearing pressure that the red dragon exuded stole the breath from his lungs. Fear paralysed him and its aura forced him down.

He knew now why there wasn’t anything more dangerous in this forest. Anything stronger or smarter than an average animal had long since fled before the might of the dragon. If its presence alone was enough to incapacitate him, then he’d hate for it to turn its attention on him. Nothing in the forest dared challenge the might of the dragon. Everything that lived in this forest survived purely because they were simply too insignificant for it to pay attention to them.

Azrael watched the dragon swooped down, briefly alighting on the plains beyond the forest’s edge, before taking off again, a Bulla in each front claw. It flew back towards the mountains it had come from, back to the west, its prey bleating in its claws.

For a long time after the dragon’s departure the forest stayed quite, before the bravest of insects began chirping again. Like a breaking dam sound returned, the dragon forgotten. Azrael however stayed laying on the ground where he had collapsed for a good while longer. For some reason the forest no longer felt as safe as he had believed it to be. It was funny how a dragon could do that.

Turning his head, he looked at his house, where small stones had been shaken loose from the walls. He then looked at the sky where the dragon had vanished. As he did so the tingle at the back of his head returned again. This time he recognised it for what it was; The urge for adventure, for glory, for the thrill. It compelled him to follow the dragon.

The old him would have chased after it, searching for its lair and hunted it.

For the glory, the thrill, the adventure. That was the old him. The new him had a home, a place to look after and at the moment it was in need of repairs. He would leave the dragon the wannabe heroes and dragon slayers.

“What a hassle” he said with a weary sigh.

“Why’s that?” Sera asked.

He snorted derisively. Now she bothered replying.

“A dragon sure puts a dampener on my peaceful slow life, don’t you think?”

“Then why are you smiling?”

Azrael shrugged with a begrudging grin “Well, it’s still a dragon.”

With the same grin still plastered on his face he rose and began to use [Stone Shaping] to fix his house. Using the skill he reattached the fallen stones back into his wall and shored up the entire building. He used the task to take his mind off the dragon, or the fact that he was effectively sharing his backyard with it.

With extreme patience, he started to carefully melded all the walls together into one single solid piece. After all, if the dragon was a regular occurrence it wouldn’t do for his house to collapse with every passing. Resigned to the grind, he began the arduous task. But hey, at least he was gaining levels in [Stone Shaping].

Once his house was fixed and his mana pool empty for the second time, Azrael headed inside to clean up. His mood had been dampened a lot since waking up this morning. It had even been such a good morning too!

He looked at the stone walls from the inside. At least they’d been strengthened now. As one block they were now a lot stronger than they had been individually. A bit like how a forest could weather a storm, while a lone tree would bend and snap.

In a way felt thankful that the dragon had inadvertently pointed out such a flaw in his building. This was a world where magical beasts roamed. Mana was like magic steroids. Even lizards got supersized into fire-breathing hegemons. Living in a world of magic meant that everything needed to be stronger and more durable. Maybe he could find a way to strengthen and enhance house. He smiled at the thought. A dragon proof house. Now there was a worthy challenge.

A sudden realisation struck him as his thoughts turned to anther subject. He moved over to his desk and his thoughts shot off on a complete tangent. He rushed over the last little bit to the table and picked up one of the blank stone plates. He was an idiot!

Grabbing a small thread of mana from his recovering mana pool he flooded the plate with is mana, before imprinting his will upon it using [Stone Shaping]. The rune for ‘light’ slowly began to emerge, as if an invisible stamp was pushing down on clay. Completed, he channelled a little of his remaining mana into the rune. The problem he’d realised hadn’t been about how he’d made them, but how he used them!

Threading the mana through the rune he suddenly had to squint as a bright light exploded from the rune, bathing the interior of his house. It dimmed as the mana ran out, only lasting as long as his mana flowed through the rune. Pushing more mana into the rune he tried to see how bright he could get it to shine.

The light from the rune intensified, reaching blinding levels, before the stone plate suddenly fractured. Small shards burst out across the room, while the rest of the stone crumbled to dust in his hands. With the rune broken the light vanished. He smiled. It seemed that stone had a natural capacitance for mana.

Eagerly he looked at the rest of the stone plates on his desk, old ideas reignited. It seemed that it was time for some more experimentation. A dragon proof house suddenly seemed a lot more feasible to build!