Upon awakening in the mundane world he so loathed, Scott stripped down to his bare necessities and took a shower. He took care of all of his necessary body efforts then chugged a dose of cold medicine and crawled into bed. He was a bit worked up, so it took a moment but soon the cold medicine kicked in and he returned to the world of his dreams.

When he opened his eyes in the dream world the sight before him was an odd one indeed. No longer in the stone chamber, he sat on the edge of a granite cliff in a dark cavern. Bats chittered and squeaked nearby. The sound of innumerable clacking and clawing feet came to his attention. The world somehow seemed larger than it used to be. Rainbow hued fire blazed around various moving shapes and the echoes that came to him from the dark painted a strangely clear picture of the area inside his mind despite the near total darkness.

He became aware of other changes soon after. “What?” He looked down then blinked. Blackthorne’s first awareness of his body change was the fact that he had a bit of a snout, for lack of a better term. He looked down and saw thick, but somehow delicate, arms that could double as legs. He raised up one arm and took stock of the glossy black scales and large golden talons.

“Whoa...” He felt something itch along his back and he wiggled a little. A tiny wind blew against him and he felt as though he had moved something similar to an arm.

Blackthorne turned his elongated neck and looked at his back-end. He had a long tail that had a tiny fork at the end and two small black wings like those of a bat. He leaned sideways and gazed upon his belly and saw tiny golden scales.

“This is pretty damned cool...” he said aloud. He voice was strangely high-pitched, childlike in quality. He had taken on the form of a western style dragon, a small one it seemed.

“Oh, better check my status!” he said in a voice that sounded like an excited toddler with a slight lisp.

STATUS [Uninjured]

Name: Scott Logan

Dream Form: Blackthorne

Race: Mahorela Abaivonin [new]

Age Category: Hatchling [new]

Level: 1

Ability Points: 4 [new]

Talent Points: 2 [new]

Skill Points: 60 [new]

Life Force: 116/116

Armor Class: 11 [21] [new]

Strength: 19

[+6]

Agility: 13

[+3]

Vigor: 18

[+6]

Intellect: 15

[+4]

Charisma: 21

[+7]

Luck: 14

[+4]

His bright red eyes widened appreciably. "Holy shit... My level one stats as a dragon fresh from the egg are better than my level three stats as an adult human..."

There were several sections with the word 'new' next to them which caught his attention. Randomly, he chose to tap the skill point section with one of his golden claws.

Mahorela Abaivonin racial restrictions.

- Bonus skill points are only granted upon reaching a new age category. Level-based skill points are achieved by multiplying the intellect multiplier by [5].

Blackthorne groaned loudly. "Really? They nerfed my skill points?"

Curious to see what other restrictions he'd been hit with at the moment, he checked his armor class.

Mahorela Abaivonin racial restrictions.

- You may not wear typical armor, only special accessories, when in dragon form.

- Your armor class will increase based on your age category and your level.

- As a hatchling, your base armor class is [10] plus [1] for your current level.

- Dragon armor class is removed when you take on your Midnight Shadow, or humanoid form. You may wear normal accessories in human form. Only special accessories may be equipped in Midnight Shadow form.

"I can work with it," he said. His actual defense at the moment was quite high. There was something which added bonus armor class to his current status, enough to raise it above twenty. Quite frankly, it was higher than anything he'd been able to cobble together. Even his base defense rated high enough to compete with some of his better gear.

Talent points were another situation where he would only gain new points when he increased his age category. Humans received them at certain level based intervals, and frankly his starting talent points were quite low in comparison. There was no issue in this for him, however, as his starting stats were exceptional.

Ability points were also a welcome sight. He would receive four of them per level due to his status as a true dragon celestial. So far it was the purely best upgrade he'd receive, as there was no secondary restriction or requirement.

Blackthorne checked the hatchling information and nodded. "I was a little afraid of this, but it can work."

Mahorela Abaivonin Age Categories

As a newly hatched dragon you will undergo changes throughout your life. These changes will occur during certain intervals of time. The higher your level goes upon reaching the beginning range for these age categories, the sooner you will advance to the next category.

Here are a few of the age categories for the Mahorela Abaivonin species:

- Hatchling – Hatching Day

- Infant – 3-4 Weeks old

- Young - 6-14 Months old

- Juvenile – 2-4 Years

- Young Adult – 20-40 Years

- Adult – 100-400 Years

This is not an exhaustive list. There are many more age categories for the Mahorela Abaivonin species, up to and over one million years of age.

"I can probably count on being a juvenile dragon at some point soon, but adulthood is a long time coming," said Blackthorne. "Wonder if I'll look like a kid in human form as well?"

He checked what his racial section had to offer then blinked. "Man, really?"

Mahorela Abaivonin Racial Weaknesses and Strengths

A primordial being of celestial darkness, only the light may pierce you with ease. You have acquired many new strengths and weaknesses. Please observe them below.

Weaknesses

- Light based spells and item effects will inflict 350% more damage.

- Light damage that exceeds your life force will inflict severe injuries, and will easily kill you.

- You cannot learn light based spells, and may be weakened in the presence of light based artifacts.

- Skills not related to combat or magic will have the lowest growth rate possible for their skill tier.

- Each age category above [Juvenile] will greatly increase the amount of experience that you need in order to gain a level.

- You may only equip special accessories and weapons in dragon or cloud form.

- You will lose your draconic natural armor class when you are not in your draconic form.

Strengths

- Dark magic spells will inflict half damage when used against you.

- Dark magic spells are twice as powerful when you use them.

- Dark magic spells require one-third of the typically required vitality or mana when you use them.

- Magic other than dark magic will require half the normal vitality or mana cost.

- Illusion magic effectiveness when used against you is reduced by 40%

- You cannot be compelled by a creature with a level lower than yours regardless of their charisma score or charisma score modifiers.

- Combat and magic related skills will be learned twice as fast as before.

- Experience growth is accelerated until age category [Juvenile] has been reached. However, this growth will slow with each age category increase until it is even with normal human standards at the point of growing into your [Juvenile] form.

It was a lot to take in, but he believed that he understood the gist of things. Blackthorne scratched his draconic chin. “So, stay away from the holier than thou types, and make sure any mind flayers that I meet are lower level than me... Got it.”

Blackthorne thought about how calm he was about all of this. He had just become a different race altogether. Shouldn’t he freak out or something? It was one thing to choose a thing. It was another to truly accept it.

He raised up his clawed hand. Would he be like this forever now? Would he ever be able to look human again? Maybe his skill window would tell him? He opened his skill menu up to have a look. An annoying itch tormented his reptilian nostrils when he realized both the extremely good and the somewhat bad of the current situation.

MAHORELA ABAIVONIN RACIAL SKILLS

Mana Sense

Rank: 10

- Sub-Skill: Life Sense

Rank: 1

Mana Manipulation

Rank: 10

- Sub-Skill: Draw Mana

Rank: 1

Mahorela Abaivonin Magic

Rank: 30

- Sub-Skill: Draconic Racial Ability Mastery

Rank: 20

- Technique: Aura of Terror [LVL 1]

***

- Technique: Breath of Darkness [LVL1]

***

Metamorphosis

Rank: 20

- Master Form: Midnight Shadow

Rank: 1

- Master Form: Human Form

Rank: 1

Draconic Combat

Rank: 1

PRIMARY SKILLS

Dark Magic

Rank: 20

- Sub-Skill: Basic Dark Lightning Mastery

Rank: 10

- Technique: Imperious Jolt! LVL 1

***

- Sub-Skill: Basic Dark Fire Mastery

Rank: 1

Conjuration Magic

Rank: 1

Synergy

Rank: 20

- Sub Skill: Improved Synergy Refinement

Rank: 10

- Technique: Metal Salvage and Refinement LVL 1

***

- Sub-skill: Improved Low-Grade Material Synergy

Rank: 1

[Empty]

[=]

SECONDARY SKILLS

Heavy Armor

Rank: 1

Blade Mastery

Rank: 20

- Sub-Skill: Basic Longsword Mastery

Rank: 1

- Sub-Skill: Basic Shortsword Mastery

Rank: 1

Arcane Ring Mastery

Rank: 1

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

TERTIARY SKILLS

Jewelry Crafting

Rank: 1

Enchanting

Rank: 1

Alchemy

Rank: 1

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[Empty Slot]

[=]

On the one hand, he now possessed several new amazing skills. On the other hand, all of his other skills were downgraded in rank to the minimum required to prevent him from losing them. From what a few of the little blurbs told him, the racial skills were considered to be primary skills for the sake of skill point expenditure. Normal skills could not be added to the racial list, but he would learn new racial skills upon achieving reaching certain age categories. There were also several abilities in the current lists to be explored.

"What else?" he asked curiously. It dawned on him after a moment that he needed to check out his talents. He had the points to burn after all.

Blackthorne brought up his talent list and noted that his two original talents were no longer listed. Instead he had six pre-selected racial talents.

Mahorela Abaivonin Racial Talents

Draconic Body

Draconic Mind

Draconic Soul

Draconic Vitality

Draconic Senses

Metamorph

Innate Magical Existence [Max]

"Whoa, no wonder I only get two talent points..." he said in surprise. He looked through what the talents offered and found them to be pretty basic. Given how the talent system worked, he deduced that a first level critter of his race was granted nine total talent points. The first seven were spent on the racial abilities and then he could upgrade two of them since each upgrade would cost more points after the first.

The body, mind, and soul, talents added plus two to the modifiers of almost all of his attributes. If he increased one that would increase the relevant stats by an addition plus one modifier. There were other benefits as well, such as the ability to resist knockback and improved eye-hand coordination.

His vitality modifier added quite a bit to his survivability. It added physical status resistances to things like poison, disease, and being burned for starters. His regeneration rate was double that of his vitality modifier. Further it added one hundred life force automatically, and two points to his vitality modifier.

Were he to further increase would grant him twenty additional points of life force, greater resistance to physical status afflictions, faster regeneration while in dragon form, and an additional vitality modifier point.

Even as a hatchling his senses allowed him to operate his draconic form natively. He instinctively understood something of the nature of his immature wings and how to use his limbs. He could see in total darkness, had infrared vision among several other vision types, could echo-locate and was capable of smelling a drop of blood from ten miles away. There were several other simply inhuman senses as well. An increase to that talent would boost his sensory capacity another ten percent.

Innate Magical Existence was already maxed out. However, it allowed him to attack supernatural creatures when in his dragon form as though they were normal creatures. He could literally claw zombies or ghosts to death.

The Metamorph racial talent caught his attention the most. If he increased that talent, he would double the speed in which he could Metamorph into other shapes. Further, it would reduce the strain of maintaining those forms by reducing the life force needed for the effect to remain in place.

"Two points..." he remarked. Out of the current crop of talents that he possessed, he absolutely wanted to upgrade Metamorph. The other talents all had their useful points, but the one thing he always lacked was life force. Draconic vitality became his new target.

Mahorela Abaivonin Racial Talents

Draconic Body

Draconic Mind

Draconic Soul

Improved Draconic Vitality

Draconic Senses

Improved Metamorph

Innate Magical Existence [Max]

He checked his status to see how it changed the situation then grinned. Things were certainly looking up!

STATUS [Uninjured]

Name: Scott Logan

Dream Form: Blackthorne

Race: Mahorela Abaivonin

Age Category: Hatchling

Level: 1

Ability Points: 4

Talent Points: 0

Skill Points: 60

Life Force: 137/137

Armor Class: 11 [21]

Strength: 19

[+6]

Agility: 13

[+3]

Vigor: 18

[+7]

Intellect: 15

[+4]

Charisma: 21

[+7]

Luck: 14

[+4]

Blackthorne closed his status window then looked around. None of the creatures in the area had chosen to bother him yet, but that did not mean that he was safe. If anything, there was a chance that he was trapped underground.

"Maybe not completely trapped... I mean dream world or not these things still need to breathe." Blackthorne took note of the bats and scorpions. Now and then a bat would dive down and attack a scorpion. On rare occasions the scorpion would fight off the bat. Most of the time however, the bat would tear off the scorpion's pincer and it would lose any chance of survival.

"Scorpions... probably like the ones that ran me away from the mine that day. If my resistances aren't high enough this might as well be my grave," remarked Blackthorne.

All things told, his main body was not much larger than one of the scorpions in the pit below. A bat might easily confuse him for its typical lunch.

He checked his Metamorphosis skill. It was tempting to change into human form or to become a cloud of darkness.

Metamorphosis

The ability to take on another form and state of being. There are limits and restrictions on the alternative forms taken and it should be noted that base statistical scores do not change when taking on another form, though certain abilities and skills may be adjusted or become non-functional when you take on a form other than your dragon state.

When you master a state of being, you can will yourself to take on that form as a free action. However, doing so is strenuous. There will be a time limit on how long you can maintain that form.

The higher your metamorphic skill, the longer you can maintain an alternate form and the easier it is to learn new forms.

You may not learn new forms until you have achieved young adult status.

Current Mastered States

Midnight Shadow – Elemental Cloud of Sentient Darkness will cost [80] Life force for the first minute, plus [40] life force per [1.1] minutes to maintain.

Scott Blackthorne - Human Form will cost [50] life force for the first minute, plus [25] Life force per [1.1] minutes to maintain.

Developmental States

[Locked]

"Need to increase that a bit before I can really use it for much," he said thoughtfully. His upgraded Metamorph talent was incredibly useful. Had he not increased it, his cloud form would have been impossible to use for quite some time, even if he still could barely use it now, and his human form would have only lasted two minutes.

He looked at his Metamorphosis skill. Hoping for a miracle he added a skill point to it. Nothing changed at all.

Annoyed at the loss of a skill point for no visible effect, he could only sigh as he pushed nine more points into it. Even at rank thirty it showed no visible change to the effectiveness of the skill. "There's not even a new skill to acquire..."

Blackthorne growled in a strangely adorable manner then looked to his human form sub-skill. "Eighteen more points just to see if you'll do anything."

Unable to deny his need, he spent the points. His eyes lit up, however. Even before he could choose a technique, he finally saw a difference in his metamorphic capabilities. He now had two minutes of human form per twenty-five life force spent. Given his regenerative capacity, as long as he did not dip too low on life force to maintain the skill he could be human indefinitely. Of course, should be lack the twenty-five life force whenever he needed to expend it, he would be forcefully reverted back to draconic form.

It was akin to tensing a muscle. His vitality was great enough that he could do so indefinitely. However, if someone punched him in the face he might lose focus and the muscle would relax. In the case of his metamorphosis, if he took enough damage or used too many spells, he would not be able to maintain his form. Otherwise, he could just switch back and forth whenever he pleased.

He looked through the offered techniques. "Some of these are pretty decent..."

Blackthorne could acquire some of his draconic abilities in human form as a limited technique. The time limit for his human form did not change, however. "Mana sense and mana manipulation sound like real winners..."

His stats mostly crossed over from one state of existence to another, but his abilities varied wildly. Mana sense and mana manipulation would allow him access to their techniques and sub-skills as well. He already knew they would prove to be incredibly useful in the long run, as mana draw alone would allow him to use life force from external sources to power his spells. It would not be powerful enough to maintain his metamorphosis, but he would be able to rapidly cast a lot of weak magical abilities.

"Six points left," said Blackthorne. Honestly, there was little doubt of where those points should go. They went nowhere, as he wanted to save at least a few of them for later.

Since the critters in the pit, and the bats for that matter, paid no attention to him at the moment Blackthorne decided to try out his metamorphosis. Instincts that he never knew himself to have before allowed him to focus on the lore of his old life. He recalled what it was to be a man. He remembered the limited senses, the hairy knuckles, and the unprotected testicles.

Blackthorne drew upon the memory of what he once was and slowly began to reshape himself in that image. Dragons could sweat, surprisingly, as liquid condensation began to bead up along his scales. He narrowed his eyes and strained to perform the action, giving a strange appearance of tension to his form. Much like a man who knew nothing but the worst case of constipation, the struggle proved to be real.

The very essence of his life was ripped away as his innate magic caused his scales to burst. Blackthorne hissed in pain as black electrical sparks skittered along his glossy exterior. Slowly, inexorably, he grew in size and stature until his body split open and voluminous gouts of black mist rose up. His flesh faded away, becoming part of the mist. Soon a new body reformed in the image of his old form.

Scott Blackthorne, rather the former Scott Logan, gazed down upon his nakedness. He looked very much like he had before, save for one important fact. His eyes widened. "Dreams do come true..."

He swiveled his hips from side to side and rejoiced in his glory. While he had already improved that particular attribute, during his new life creation, it was now beyond the realm of humanity and quite supernatural. At least, he liked to think so. There were no doubt many porn stars in the world who could put him to shame.

"That was fun," he said lightly. He now knew that his human form remained largely the same outside of a few minor enhancements. He would need to find a proper mirror to know the full extent of the differences.

There was one thing that bothered him, however. "Where the hell are my clothes?"

Naked in a cave full of bats and scorpions, Blackthorne looked out into the darkness. His visual acuity was much lower now as he'd lost the vast majority of his draconic senses, but his decisions to keep his life sense ability allowed him to at least detect living creatures.

"Shit..." he muttered. Getting out of this place as a naked human was pretty much impossible. He would need his draconic senses to navigate. He also did not trust whatever the midnight shadow form would prove to be, though in the innermost corners of his mind he held a niggling thought that it would be exactly what he needed to escape.

He spent a moment reveling in his strength and the way his manliness glowed with rainbow hued fire for a moment, then sighed. Gone, gone, the form of man... once again he became the adorable dragon.

"Weird, this is so much more comfortable..." remarked Blackthorne as the sense of tension flowed out of his body. The dragon stretched like a cat then cutely waddled forward like the newborn that he happened to be. It was time to face the dungeon and become the darkness that reaches for the light.