Let us play a famous TV show, shall we? What is red, has the body of an 18 wheeler (with trailer), a long neck popping from the front, a long tail popping from the back, six limbs (two of them wings), a scaly body and bad temper? Tip: maybe it also breathes fire.

"What is a dragon?" I mumble after my brain goes spinning into full denial mode. I'm frozen. Is time passing?

Indeed, something whose body is the size of an 18 wheeler, with the nastiest temper ever, is just climbing down the mountain. And it is coming straight here. Orcs are running past us as they hurry to evacuate their soon to be destroyed stronghold. I am standing still, mesmerized by the scene of utter destruction. Every thing is in slow motion.

Something bites me. I am startled. A faint numbness and a spreading hot pain awakens me. "Stop gawking and get moving, Grendel! That dragon is not going to wait. Run!!" It is Shraaizar. I look at her, she is already wrapped around me. I am glad she trusts her life to me this much. Maybe she knows she can't outrun the dragon, as snakes have poor max speed. 12 MPH i think?

She whips me with her tail, and clench my spear in my hand and I turn to run. A deep chill goes up my spine. Reality snaps back as the dragon releases a mighty roar. The cracking of kindling is heard all around. Yellow light paints the forest.

"Did the Orc King hit you that bad in the head? What were you waiting for back there? That Gronksomething guy was even coming to talk to you, but now they all ran." I must take care not to make Shraaizar switch her dere from tsun to yan.

"Sorry about that. I almost went all savage against the Orc King, it took a while to switch back to normal. It was too intense." I lost myself in that fight. Something primal was fighting to take over my head.

"You are the craziest monster I've ever seen. Why did you go fight an A rank? We should have left right there. And now there is a fire dragon on the loose. That thing is going to eat half the forest."

"The Orc King had no fire or acid attacks, I would be fine even if he chopped me."

"Don't think those are the only ways to kill you. If your core is broken, you are dead." Do I have a core like those other monsters? It is a scary thing to think about.

We keep running. There are lots of orcs running downhill in front of us. The dragon stopped for a while, but now the sounds of trees breaking and crashing resumed, and the mighty steps shake the ground.

"Is it coming after us?" I put even more power into my legs.

"Yes. Straight at you. It stopped to eat the orc king body and the axe, but now it is coming here."

"I wonder why I have this luck."

"The orc king offered his flesh as compensation. You cut his body, did you take anything out?"

"Only the pemadra." Damn, that thing should be worth a lot of points!!! Of course I was going to eat it on the spot.

"That! The dragon is after the King's core!! Throw it out."

"Can't. I already ate it." I don't know how many points though. System messages are off right now.

Maybe the dragon is listening... because he breathed fire in our direction. Shraaizar used her wind magic, and deflected most of the fire. We were only slightly singed. Still hurts and burns. The orcs are getting further away from us. They are going west, we are going south.

"I won't blame you. You had no way of knowing the dragon would want the core."

"That dragon, it is an S rank, right?"

"Wanna ask him?" Oh, it is the stream near where I fought the orc prince. We are reaching the meadow.

"Nope." I ate a bug. "The dragon is going to give up chasing us after a while, right?"

"Don't go to the death willow meadow. The magic power there is too thick. Go elsewhere with a weaker magical power." Syrup tree is 'death willow'? Oh. What an ominous name. I don't see anything deadly in it.

I take a detour at the stream, and run to the human forest. It is the place with the lowest level monsters, so it should have the lowest amount of mana. Dragon still runs after us. I'm getting tired. But am I running faster than before? Or is it the dragon that is giving up? I'll keep going. Stomp, stomp, stomp, creak and crash. Dragon is mowing down a path in the forest.

Run until the sounds of the dragon get far and far away. My legs give in. It is the dead of night already. I'm sure we ran past some big lizards back there. I use my spear as a crutch to avoid falling, and sit down.

"There is a human campsite over there, Grendel." Oh. I think it is THAT campsite. Did we run all the way back here? That is almost a day of traveling. Panic is an interesting thing, right?

"Any humans?"

"No. Or I would have killed them already." Right. Shraaizar hates humans. It is reciprocal though. They hate us. She is scouting around.

I have a nostalgic feeling, and remind myself of the whole story this far. I hope Helen is fine. That sniper guy seemed like a leader by the way he was bossing everyone around. I have a score to settle with him, right? But I can't go there, or Helen will be troubled.

The forest is quiet. Some bug sounds here and there, but nothing else. No smell worth of note either. Shraaizar finishes her patrol, and coils herself next to me.

"Hey, I'm all sweaty." She looks at me puzzled.

"And what is the problem with being a little damp? You are very warm." She slithers closer. I pass an arm over her, and pull her closer.

"Are we sleeping here tonight?" I can't move anyway. But I'll ask just to be sure.

"There is nothing to worry about. The dragon is gone, this is a low magic area, there are no humans around. I don't see why not."

"I'll sleep then. Are you tired?"

"Not much. I'll keep watch for you, so rest at ease."

And while cuddling with my snake pillow, I get some victory sleep. The dragon doesn't count.

... ...

I wake up, and feel very hungry. It is morning already. Shraaizar has hunted some wolves. She offers me some whole wolf, and after fidgeting for a while about eating it raw or not, my belly gets the better of me. My descent into monstrousness deepens. I feel the characteristic crunchiness and energy of the pemadra as I chew the skull. No points message. Are wolves worth zero points? I check my status. Right I had system messages turned off. Better switch it now.

Skill Long Spear level 6 acquired.

Technique Spinning Slash learned.

Skill HP Restoration level 6 acquired.

Technique Vitality Booster learned.

Skill Max HP increase level 2 acquired.

Skill Evasion level 5 acquired.

Skill Combat Awareness level 2 acquired.

Skill Pain Resistance level 6 acquired.

Skill Tough Skin (innate) level 4 acquired.

Skill Dirty Tricks level 2 acquired.

Skill Regeneration (innate) level 5 acquired.

Skill Athletics level 3 acquired.

Skill Damage Resistance level 5 acquired.

Title Dragon Bait (curse) awarded.

Those cursed by an enemy's dying breath to attract dragons.

Greatly increases chance of being detected by and entices dragons to eat the title holder. Yummy.

Title Duelist awarded.

Those that challenge a stronger entity (rank B or above) and achieve victory at bitter end.

Increase attack accuracy and evasion by 10% during a duel.

Title Kingslayer awarded.

Those that have slain a rightful ruler in single combat.

Grants 50% more damage against royalty.

Grendel has leveled up. 5 skill points gained.

Grendel has leveled up. 5 skill points gained.

Grendel has leveled up. 5 skill points gained.

+1200 pemadra points added.

+2 pemadra points added.

And the biggest wall of text so far goes up. Some nice and juicy skills come up. And... Ominous titles and a curse? [Dragon Bait (curse)] !?!?!?! The Orc King did a number on me, right? Went down flying the bird, he did. Oh, well. If it is a curse, maybe there is a way to remove it. Let's not hope for it. I doubt the world would be so kind. But he was worth a whooping 3 levels and 1200 points.

"The Orc King cursed me with his dying breath." I vent my worries out to the wind. Shraaizar is wolfing down her last wolf. Oi, why did I get only one?

"He chanted some weird spell at the end. I couldn't figure out what that was. So it was a curse..."

"Yeah. I got [Dragon Bait (curse)] cast on me. This might be why that dragon was coming at me so eagerly."

"It is astonishing your ability to get yourself into trouble. At least it is not boring." It is endearing to have your friendship too, Shraaizar. Even if it is coated in cute murderous intent. Being alone in this world is not something I desire.

I get up, and reach a hand at her. "Shall we return home? The monkeys are waiting for us." Shraaizar raises both her hands.

"I just ate three wolves. Pick me up." I get her on both arms, the famous bridal carry and ask her to hold my staff. Then we hustle back to the meadow.

As we reach the meadow, I take a good look at the syrup trees. Are those willows? I've never seen one on Earth. And why the 'Death' part? The syrup is only slightly poisonous. See? The monkeys frolic at ease in those trees. But the slimes avoid them. The hardened syrup amber coated spear wasn't even touched by them the night it spent in there.

We enter the meadow, and some monkeys come to greet us. "Ook Mook. Woolkoome" Oh. I got some quasi-word there. Are they learning to speak?

"Go tell everyone to gather near the slime area. I want to talk to you guys." The monkeys depart swinging on the trees.

I have to cherish what companionship I have. Also to set some rules for living together.

Everyone gathers in the area where I took down two steelwood trees training [Emperor's Might]. I think this can be cleared up to make some huts. At least I want a hut. And a bed. And a laundry. My clothes are brown with dried blood. Helen's former woolen robe was gray.

Then I begin to set the rules.

Regarding corpses, I want the pemadras. This will be my tax as a leader.

Food is to be shared among everyone. Specially the weak, sick or wounded.

People are not to be attacked, unless they attack first. Even if they attack, retreat. Someone must run back to warn us of incoming humans. Shraaizar is not happy about this, but she stays silent.

Anything that smells of humans is to be brought to me.

Anything made of metal that is found around is to be brought to me.

Goblins are to be captured alive. I want someone to craft more toothpicks, or to at least teach me how to make them.

Strong monsters are also to be avoided. Come and warn me.

If I am not available, Shraaizar is to be obeyed.

Infighting is forbidden. If some problem arises, consult with me or Shraaizar.

I may change or make new rules anytime.

I think this is enough for now. The low level monkeys were making funny faces as they didn't understand most of what I was speaking, but they will follow the stronger and smarter ones. I count how many monkeys are here. Fifty seven. But then one thing worries me. All the burly monkeys and the ones that I took in the orc hunt are badly burned by the slimes.

"Shraaizar, ask these guys why they went into the slime area on their own?" She talks to the monkeys. I try to pick up and learn their speech patterns. After some exchanges, she turns to me.

"They think that getting burned by the slime's acid is a sign of a great warrior, and those scars are proof of strength." What I feared has came to pass. The monkeys are taking my antics and raising them to the status of some urban legend or like a path to enlightenment. I have to use rule 10 right now.

Only those that receive my permission may undertake the slime's purification ordeal.

I don't want monkeys dying because they are seeking some stupid glory. They look excited. Have I made some mistake in the rule's wording? Have I just created some kind of weird ritual? I did, didn't I?

No use crying over spilt milk.

I clean and cut the orcs we harvested, build a makeshift stove with stone and a campfire and have a grilled pork & bacon feast with Shraaizar and the monkeys. Everyone was delighted with the taste of bacon. I fear orcs might go extinct from over-hunting.

A couple days go by, and we cleared some trees. But neither the steelwood or the syrup willow are good enough for building. The syrup willow's wood is like a honeycomb, full of syrup. It is nice to coat weapons or maybe making some amber tools, but they are not useful as building materials. And steelwood is too hard. They make good weapon shafts and maybe we could make shields out of them but we can't make planks. The iron tools will be ruined. We will have to harvest trees from outside the meadow.

There are some already broken trees in the path the dragon raged. But that is too far away. I think if we mark on a map the meadow, the (former) orc stronghold and the adventurer's campsite, it will make a regular triangle. We need to get some trees from around here. I take out 20x [Merchant Tool Crate (2pt)] that have the best odds for craft-related tools. One woodsman axe, two hammers obtained. Some weird whitish dull crystal also came. It is not a skill crystal, but I have no idea what it is used for. There are other things that cannot be used right now. I'll put them in my trash pile.

I teach the monkeys how to use the axe and after some hours they are cutting down trees. I just need to use my claws they grow back in minutes now.

Between hunting, foraging, logging and preparing the wood for construction, three days go by. The monkeys broke an axe and were fearful of a scolding but I knew those tools had a poor durability.

I was about to lay the foundations for my hut, when some wounded monkeys rushed in the clearing: Strong humans are coming.

Active technique info.

Active techniques are activated at the discretion of the skill user. Some skills have a chance of learning a technique upon level up starting from level 5.

Technique Ward and Counter learned.

Increase evasion rate by +20% against a single attack. Should that attack miss, allows one attack at +20% accuracy. Cooldown 2 minutes.

Technique Vitality Booster learned.

Increase HP restoration rate by 2x and divide HP restoration tick by half. Lasts minutes. Cooldown 10 minutes. During this time, HP recovery skill level is halved.