Mature Content Warning: A little foul language, graphic violence that might be disturbing to some readers.

Author's Note: This is probably the last update I will make this week. I might put up 11.1 tomorrow, but I don't intend to update anything but Origin and one more Galataea chapter this week. Origin volume 3 needs to be finished up soon so that I can clean it and put it up on Amazon. :)

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Chapter 10.3: The Girl Next Door

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Sonja had merrily slaughtered the slowly fleeing zombies then they had regrouped and headed into the tomb chamber. Another six zombies shambled around inside. The place still looked like it had been violated recently blood stained the blood and the coffin remained open.

Blackthorne smiled at his companion then walked inside. He wanted to take them out with his swordsmanship. He had not used his new sword on anything yet. The vitality draining effect probably would not work on the undead, but it would be nice to find out.

The dragon who walked as a man trotted down the stairs then pulled his sword from his bag. He grinned at the shambling idiots then ran toward the closest of them. He lashed out with his sword and found that the raw damage potential was almost absurd. He neatly cleaved its head from its shoulders in one swing.

He turned quickly and leapt toward his neck opponent. His jumping power was quite high and he easily leapt over to the oncoming monster. His sword crashed down atop its head and slammed through its skull and continued down to its neck. Between his strength, weapon attack stat, and actual weapon his damage potential was far higher than even the damage resistant monster could withstand.

“I should either dual-wield or get a heavier sword so my strength and agility won’t be wasted.” said Blackthorne.

The other zombies were shambling close enough for him to be interested now. They were no sort of fit challenge for him, so he dealt with them quickly.

He turned to tell Sonja that they should go find somewhere else to hunt when he heard a surprising whisper. “Due to your hard work, your level has increased.”

“Whoa, let me see that...!” He opened up his status menu then stared at the information presented. He really had increased his race level by one. He was level two now.

<<< Status >>>

Name: Blackthorne

Race: Mahorela Abaivonin

Title: Gentleman of Darkness

Level: 2 [Hatchling] Skill Points: 8

Vitality: 65[65]

Weapon Attack: 22[22]

Durability: 38[38]

Speed: 19[19]

Spirit: 92[92]

>>

“Holy shit... Those stat gains are...” Blackthorne could scarcely believe what he was seeing. He had already surpassed his level seven human self.

“What happened?” called out Sonja.

“I gained a level!” called back Blackthorne.

“Already?” she asked in surprise. Sure, the zombies were higher level than onions and rats, but they were not that much stronger.

“Yeah, seems so. I was just admiring my new stats.” he replied. Blackthorne started to strip the corpses. He wanted to get out of there and be off to find new prey.

“Was it that much of an increase?” she asked, before heading down to help with the corpse stripping.

Several minutes passed before they collected everything worth collecting. They dragged it all to one corner of the room and left it there. They could pick it up later. Right now, they had other things to do.

They headed out into the grassland. “Sonja, do you know of any other good training grounds nearby?”

She placed her hand to her chin. “Well, there is the mine you mentioned.”

“Really? Won’t the scorpions be too much?” he asked.

Sonja grinned at him. “They are tough, but we should be able to handle it. You’re a dragon now, after all.”

Blackthorne laughed a little. “Yeah, I suppose. Still, my stats aren’t that much better than the last time I fought one. It beat the snot out of me.”

“Alright, maybe we should train further from town. The deep grass has more plentiful and varied monsters.” she said.

“Sounds good.” he said.

They left the burial grounds and headed north into the deep grass. Blackthorne could immediately tell that they had arrived because he heard a change in the background music. It had gone from a light and airy tune to a more serene type of song.

“Out here you have to worry about leapers and Grass Serpents. The serpents are not poisonous but they do like to constrict.” said Sonja.

“So, the serpents take after you?” asked Blackthorne with a smile.

She quirked her eyebrow at him then unleashed a grin. “They wish they had my skills.”

Blackthorne laughed a little. “I don’t think I’ll be able to hold this transformation too much longer.”

“Does it take a lot of vitality?” asked Sonja.

“Not really as much as it should. I seem to replenish my vitality faster than metamorphosis drains it. It gets to the point that it is hard to concentrate and my whole body hurts after a while, though. I probably just need to train it more or raise my level a bit.” replied Blackthorne.

“I see.” replied the Valkyrie.

They wandered the deep grass for a while without incident. Eventually, Blackthorne started to pant. Holding his transformation had begun to be tiring and it even hurt a bit. He had felt similarly when he had forced it to last for an hour and a half during his chat with Shara. That was beyond the amount of time that his vitality should have allowed for and had proven that his vitality regenerated quicker than it was drained through metamorphosis.

He finally succumbed to the strain and allowed his metamorphosis to come to an end. Once more, he was a Mahorela Abaivonin. The tiny little terror of midnight made a cute growl then huffed out a sound that sounded like a sigh.

Blackthorne glanced up at Sonja and noticed that her eyes had widened and had begun to sparkle. She leaned left and right and bit her lower lip.

He rolled his eyes at her then said, “Fine, you may have one hug. If you don’t let go I’ll bite you.”

Sonja squealed then dived for him. Blackthorne suffered the delightful indignity of being cuddled by an over-amorous Valkyrie for a while then told her to let go. When she refused he started to bite her but thought better of it. He could injure her badly even by accident. Instead he rolled his hips then whipped his tail a little. He had to practice it for a moment, but eventually he got the hang of the tail whip. He put it into practice by cracking his forked tail across her shapely backside with as much force as he could muster.

His tail connected with a loud *crack!* Sonja yelped in pain but refused to let go. Blackthorne whipped her three more times before she finally relented.

The Valkyrie rubbed her stinging backside and pouted at him. “Most men would appreciate me more...”

“I hope so, you have a lot to offer.” replied Blackthorne. He then turned away from her just in time to miss seeing the bridge of her nose become tinged with a light pink color.

The dragon had other things to do. His time in this world was limited and as fun as it was to be cuddled by an overly amorous Amazonian Valkyrie, he needed to train or life would be a lot more difficult when he was awake. For that matter, things were problematic now. He may have to move soon, or find some way to keep people from entering his home when he was asleep. All it would take was one home invading asshole to break in and see a dragon. His whole world would turn to shit in an instant, or he would have to wake up and eat them. Either way, he was certain that the end result would not be to his taste.

He sniffed the air then his eyes widened in realization. He smelled something familiar. Not everything was mentioned in his information screens. There had been no mention of his senses and possible enhancements to them. However, he could definitely see further and smell things in greater detail. He could hear the blades of grass moving. It seemed that all of his senses were heightened in this form; or was it that they became dulled in human form?

Blackthorne knew that his stats carried over, but other things might not. Either way, it was time to rustle up some more monsters. He followed his nose for a moment. He had scented a familiar monster. They existed in the deep grass as well, it seemed.

He stalked his way through the grass as best he could given his incomplete understanding of his own body. A few minutes later he parted the grass before him and saw five large orange onions walking randomly in a small clear patch. They were easily the size of a pumpkin.

He gestured to Sonja and she crouched down. Blackthorne wanted to check a few things before the battle began.

The black dragon’s breathing slowed a bit and he focused on the closest onion. Its name and level became apparent. He could also guess at how healthy it was based on the rainbow fire of its vitality. It was level eight and had suffered no injuries.

It was time to put his power to the test. He slowly and quietly took in a deep breath. After a brief moment, the onions waddled closer together and Blackthorne judged it to be the right time. He roared out as loudly as he could. Even though his roar was more adorable than terrifying, the onions screamed in panic then fell over. Their spirit was nowhere near high enough to resist his dragon fear.

Blackthorne raced into the small clearing and attacked the onions with tooth and claw. He tore into one and was surprised to see that its armor repelled his claws slightly. What it lacked in spirit it made up for in durability.

Dragon fangs succeeded where claws had failed. However, when Blackthorne bit into the big screaming onion his eyes immediately watered. It was incredibly pungent.

“Sonja!” called out Blackthorne. He was a little underdeveloped for this fight, or at least for this many monsters. Before the paralyzing effect of his roar wore off, they needed to finish these creatures.

“Coming master!” called Sonja. She raced in from the grass and started to cleave into the onions. Their biological attack did not faze her at all.

They cut through the onion herd with skill and ferocity after Sonja joined. Blackthorne bit and clawed at the monsters, while Sonja hacked and slashed. The battle was finished in well under one minute, but the little dragon continued to cry.

“Stupid onions...”

Sonja laughed a little then started to carve the onions up into pieces. Blackthorne stopped her, however. “Are these things worth anything?”

“Not really, but you wanted to collect everything else.” said Sonja.

Blackthorne nodded. “True. Still, space is at a premium. Let’s see if they dropped those green stones instead.”

“Ah, alright.” Sonja started to root around among the corpses.

Blackthorne joined her. They only found one stone, but it was a little bigger than the stones that he had found in the smaller onions.

The party left the area so that Blackthorne could sniff out a new monster. The scent of the onions was overpowering and they had to keep moving for a while in order to reach a minimal distance that would not make the little dragon break out into tears.

A new scent reached his nostrils. Blackthorne was not certain how to categorize it yet, so he followed his nose to see what it was. A few minutes later the grass began to waver just ahead of them. The dragon looked up just in time to see a lizard the size of a mountain lion leap up from the grass. Blackthorne’s tail instinctively whipped out and lashed against the creature mid-leap.

The leaper fell to the ground, hard, but it righted itself and moved quickly. It jumped toward the black dragon once more. This time it was too close to whip properly. The leaper landed atop Blackthorne and immediately tore into his wing.

Blackthorne roared out in pain then bit the lizard in the thigh. He savaged the creature even as it gnawed on his wing. A power struggle ensued and the leaper was soon put on the defensive. It had greater overall agility than its intended prey, but that meant little when it was grapping.

The black dragon clawed fiercely at the creature’s side, greatly bloody tears appeared on its flesh. He savaged the leg briefly with his teeth then tore a large chunk away.

The leaper cried out in pain, releasing the wing in the process. Blackthorne rammed into it then struggled with the creature on the ground. He clawed at it furiously while the monster desperately kicked and squirmed. Finally, his fangs found the leaper’s throat and tore into it with great strength.

Blood spurted out in a hot thick arc when Blackthorne ripped the creature’s throat out with his teeth. Its struggles ended quickly after that. Out of instinct, Blackthorne ate the chunk of flesh he had bitten off of the monster then blinked. That had tasted pretty good.

“You alright?” asked Sonja. She hated to see the little dragon with an injured wing.

“I’m good. I have not gotten used to being like this yet, so I am not sure how to fight. I have some basic ideas but they mostly involve me being bigger than my opponent. That’s not the case right now.” said Blackthorne.

He extended his short wing and craned his head back. There were a few minor scrapes and tears, but nothing worth noticing. The leaper had caused him pain but it was not strong enough to do major damage in such a short amount of time. He checked his status and learned that he had only lost five points of vitality throughout the entire fight. It had seemed worse than it actually was.

After chewing on chunks of leaper he was able to completely restore his vitality. After about five minutes, give or take, his wing was pristine and beautiful once more. Sonja skinned he beast for him and chopped up the meat. It would be useful for keeping his strength up.

“Let’s keep going.” said Blackthorne.

“Right.” said Sonja.

Blackthorne returned to sniffing out monsters. After a few minutes he found a small group of leapers in the grass. They tracked them down and managed to get the drop on them since the wind shifted. He roared out and saw the quarter of leaping monsters freeze in place. They had become paralyzed with dragon fear. Their level was higher, but their spirit was lower.

The dragon ran in and tackled the closest leaper. He quickly went for the throat. His fangs tore at the creature as best he could and despite its weak struggle it died quickly. He managed to take down another one before the fear effect wore off.

He was now facing two monsters. His tail lashed out to knock one of them out of the air. The other one bowled him over and rolled with him in the grass. The battle was a blur of fang and claw. He tore at the beast and the leaper clawed at him in a desperate bid to penetrate his scales.

The first leaper recovered and joined the fight. It snapped out and bit into Blackthorne’s rear left thigh. He could not whip in that position.

Forced on the defensive, Blackthorne felt a strange primal instinct. He took a deep breath and felt his vital essence draw to a singular point. A sphere of black energy, a ball of fire and lightning, formed inside his mouth.

He roared like he was going to use his dragon fear, but instead of a fear effect, the ball of energy erupted outward and slammed into the leaper attacking his leg. The monster screeched in absolute agony while it was blown backwards with great force. It caught fire and burned with black flames for a moment, but it had already died. Its ribcage had exploded inward and sheared its organs.

The surviving leaper did not give up the fight, however. Its fangs tore into Blackthorne’s exposed neck. Only his scales saved him from an ignoble death. In response he reached up with his hand-like forepaws and clawed the creature’s eyes. It screeched in agony and released his neck.

He continued to gouge its eyes and ripped its face open. After that brutal assault it did try to flee, but all that did for it was provide Blackthorne with an easy opportunity to bite down on the back of its neck after it rolled over. His fangs ripped through its flesh and he tore out several of its vertebrae.

As soon as the battle ended Blackthorne rose up on his hind legs, planted one firmly on the corpse of his opponent, pulled one of his forearms down and punched the other one into the air. “Graaaaw-ENK!” he roared out in victory.

Sonja clapped for him. “Good job!”

Blackthorne blinked then turned to look at her and she gasped loudly. The scales across the bridge of his nose had turned a light pink in tone.

“You’re blushing!” she cried out, followed by a silly giggle.

“Madam, you are imagining things.” replied Blackthorne, the pink tinge changed and several of his scales turned bright red.

Sonja burst out with a laugh. That was the cutest thing she had ever seen. Who knew that a dragon could blush? She had never heard of such a thing. How was it even possible?

Blackthorne made a strange motion with his mouth that looked suspiciously like a draconic version of a pout. “It’s obviously the blood of my enemies.”

“Obviously.” replied Sonja with a small adoring snicker.

He decided to ignore her after that. Instead, he focused on devouring the flesh of his enemies. Unlike when he was human, eating raw meat actually tasted good now. Though, he did have a strong desire to eat barbecue for some reason.

Once his wounds healed and Sonja finished cutting and carving the monsters, they moved on. They made their way through the deep grass and found several more leapers, and a small herd of onions. Once the final onion was felled, he received another exciting whisper. He had leveled up again! The combination of fighting higher level monsters and accelerated growth made him rise in levels quite quickly.

<<< Status >>>

Name: Blackthorne

Race: Mahorela Abaivonin

Title: Gentleman of Darkness

Level: 3 [Hatchling] Skill Points: 12

Vitality: 76[82]

Weapon Attack: 33[33]

Durability: 53[53]

Speed: 28[28]

Spirit: 110[110]

>>

“Sweet deal... another level.” said Blackthorne.

“Are you serious?” asked Sonja. That speed of level increase was insane.

“Yes, seems so.” replied the dragon. He smiled in a toothy way. This was great. He wondered how long it would last.

When would he become an adolescent? How hard would it be to gain a level after that? He had many questions and hoped that he would have answers soon.

One answer that he wanted, he could get right now, however. He had chosen to wait until he had a spirit stat of one hundred to try to generate mana once more. It was time to give it a try.

The black dragon gestured for Sonja to stay where she was then ambled away. Once he had reached a decent distance he began to concentrate on the rainbow fire that represented the life of the creatures around him.

Motes of light began to wave in the air as he concentrated. He started to draw those motes to his right hand but instinctively he changed and drew it to his mouth. He breathed in slowly and motes of light streamed toward him. The motes of light began to converge at a point a hands-span in front of his mouth. The light grew dimmer and then darkened to black. Shadowy flames erupted from the rapidly forming sphere of energy. Dark lightning crackled around the edges. He had achieved the same effect as his natural breath weapon through drawing mana.

He was not done, however. He continued to breathe in and more motes of light were drawn to his sphere of collecting energy. By the time his lungs were as full as he could make them, he had managed to create a sphere of energy several times larger than before.

Blackthorne roared out and the shadow fire breath weapon that was native to his race, exploded outward in a cone of force that traveled several times the length of his body. Wherever the shadow fire passed, grass wilted and died. The life force had been drawn out of it and only brown husks remained.

He checked his status and noticed that his vitality had decreased by a single point, but that was to be expected. Even if he used mana instead of his own vital essence, he would still need to expend a little of his energy. It would be pointless to use it for a spell like jolt now, but it would be of obvious use for his breath weapon. He was also interested to see what else he could do in coming days.

However, he was also a little unnerved by his own power for the first time. He was a hatchling, a newborn child of his new race. Yet, he could already do this much. What would he be like as an adult?