An shining golden arrow hurtled through the air, surrounded by a glowing shell of energy that looked as if it was taken from the sun itself. At speeds foreign to its source, it sliced into the tree it was aimed at. And the tree after that. And the very tip struck the third tree, its momentum not reduced at all, when it dissipated.

A bow formed with 200 Qi combined with Dragon Marksman's Judgement really is terrifying. Yi Qiang grimaced. Incredibly draining, though.

Oh well, I'm done with testing for now. All I really need to do now is wait.

Yi Qiang looked to his left. The shining golden dragon egg had yet to hatch, but he could see an increase of activity from the last time he checked it. It wouldn't be long.

He sat down in front of the egg, now moved to the ground, and watched it, deciding to train his Qi Control over the meantime. Head starts were very useful, and that one level could be the difference between life and death.

As he aimlessly drew complex shapes into the air with the brilliant energy Yi Qiang now commanded, the archer pondered what had happened since he exited the abyss of incredible pain.

First, he was overwhelmed by the notifications. How could he not have been? Before gaining a class, he had only received one or two notifications at the time. It had taken him a while to read through them and really understand them, before deciding to gain some practical experience with the skills.

It turned out they were pretty simple. All of his skills were based on Qi, so when he got a grasp of that, it was easy.

And Qi, though a foreign energy to Yi Qiang, was easily controllable given that he already had the Qi Control skill and thus access to the energy.

Empyrean Dragon's Armaments was the first skill he wanted to test out. He figured it would be one of his most important skills to level up, given that it would replace his weapons - his proficiency with the skill would make or break its value.

As it turned out, it was simply a matter of molding the pool of his Qi into a shape with his will. And the skill seemed to give him an almost instinctual proficiency with molding it to form any weapons - the bow, that Yi Qiang had grown even more familiar with over the course of his gaming reality, came as if it was the natural form of his Qi.

And infusing more Qi into the bow was a simple matter, too - Yi Qiang pictured the process like he was packing more and more Qi into the shape of his weapon.

After gaining a good amount of familiarity with Empyrean Dragon's Armaments, Yi Qiang moved on to the skill that had replaced Arrow Pierce: Dragon Marksman's Judgement.

This was incredibly powerful, but also very expensive. Unlike Arrow Pierce, Yi Qiang couldn't use this skill to enhance every arrow - he would have to save the skill for critical moments or instant kills. But the fact remained that the skill was incredibly powerful, and would allow him to turn the tables.

Yi Qiang also looked over the two passives that he gained from the class. They, at first glance, were somewhat obscure, but he understood them eventually - Heavenly Dragon's Physique enhanced all his stats, resources, and resource regenerations, while Qi Control enhanced the potency of his Qi and his control of it.

He also looked over the yet-to-hatch dragon, and agreed with its description in its status screen. It was geared towards taking damage, whatever "tank" was supposed to mean. Its active skills and passive skills enhanced its defenses and allowed it to draw aggression from monsters, simultaneously weakening them.

What Yi Qiang had to always keep in mind about skills was that the effects started out small, but they would rapidly increase. A skill at Master level 1 had 40 times the effects of a skill at Novice level 1 - that meant that the skill Heavenly Dragon's Physique was extremely powerful. If he got that leveled up, combined with naturally high stats, he would be unkillable in his level(he already was, for the average person, but Yi Qiang held no illusions he was uncontested so far. He might be the most capable, but what Yi Qiang found unfortunate was that, like in the real world, luck had an even bigger impact on circumstances than capability. And Yi Qiang doubted that he was the luckiest - the game was huge, after all, and would only continue to grow).

Ten minutes into his training, Yi Qiang stopped. The increasingly common movements of the dragon egg had preluded what he saw on the egg now - golden light slipped out of cracks in the eggshell, forming tiny beams shining onto Yi Qiang's somewhat ragged clothing. The hatching was near.

The hardest part of breaking anything, the initial damage, having already passed, Yi Qiang watched as the cracks rapidly widened and new fractures formed, further hastening the arrival of Yi Qiang's companion.

Despite himself, Yi Qiang found his heart jumping in anticipation. The emotion was not reflected in his face or his body, but the vibrance of the emotion surprised him - he had experienced everything so far, minus select moments, in muted emotions, seeing the world as made up from dull shades of emotional color. This was normal for him, and it had been this way since young. It was baffling, truly, to Yi Qiang to feel this level of emotion. He had expected something of the sort from a fantasy world were he was free, and allowed to grow nonstop, but not so soon - his 21 years of experience with his own emotions told him it would take a while for those barriers around his mind that he built up to crumble down.

Suddenly, Yi Qiang twitched as he discovered exactly why.

A link was forming, connecting and binding his mind to the still confined dragon. And emotion, raw and unadulterated, was spilling through just like the light flowed from the cracks in the eggshell.

And it was still blocked by the baby dragon's prison. What will it be like to share a mind like this fully?

Yi Qiang was scared, he had to admit. Throughout his entire life, the one safe space of his was his mind, and for that to be... not invaded or intruded, since Yi Qiang could feel the intent of the yougn dragon, and it was impossible for him to feel intruded upon with such emotions flowing from the hatchling, but instead -

Not alone.

Yi Qiang heard a child's voice in his head, full of warmth and raw love. Then the baby dragon's consciousness hit him like a meteor striking a desert.

"Shenyu."

That is your name?

"Yes."

I am Yi Qiang.

"No. You Brother. Brother."

Yi Qiang looked around, overwhelmed by the new consciousness connected so intimately with his.

Shenyu, a tiny golden dragon, waddled in front of Yi Qiang. Though still a hatchling, Yi Qiang was awed by the creature of beauty and might and grandeur. Grandeur that I now share, Yi Qiang thought, happy to be both allied and melded with the dragon as he surveyed Shenyu.

Each brilliant scale was as if crafted by a divine artisan, overlapping perfectly, rippling like ripples on a golden lake with every slight muscle movement. Shenyu, as a baby, was still undeveloped - he was around the size of Yi Qiang's foot, but despite his size, he was a piece of art. Tiny wings sprouted from his shoulderblades, the bone covered with scale but the skin of the wing itself pearl-white. Shenyu's underbelly was the same shade of white, as were his eyes, round as full moons, gazing up at Yi Qiang with the curiosity of a child seeing, smelling, feeling everything for the first time.

The bulky tail was simple, unadorned, just like the rest of the dragon. It was a beast of simple strength; straightforward, just what it had to be, nothing else. Every feature of Shenyu was finely crafted by evolution to serve the beast in battle - the thick scales, ever-so-finely overlapping so as not to inhibit movement, the jade teeth and claws sharp enough to sink into flesh like it was soft dirt, the writhing tail with thick muscles like a club, a fatal attack for the dragon to swing around and strike opponents. Every inch was optimized, tyrannical, strong. It was truly the Empyrean dragon.

What Yi Qiang had mixed feelings about, though, was the dragon's simplicity and naivety. It had no wiles, and even though it was young, Yi Qiang held no illusions that the Empyrean dragon would grow up to be a beast of restrained strength and sophistication, or of careful actions and logical decisions. Empyrean fit it best - ingrained in Shenyu's personality was pride, recklessness, and a love for battle that dwarfed even Yi Qiang's own.

Truly, the dragon's talent or potential was no less than he, who had been carefully trained and artificially crafted to reach the peak of human capability. No, Shenyu was a worthy partner.

"Brother?"

Yes, yes, sorry. Let's go.

Communication was easy, yet difficult. The intimacy of their bond made it difficult for Yi Qiang to guard his private thoughts from Shenyu, even taking into account his self-control. He had to do so, though, not because he wanted to hide any of what he thought from the baby dragon, but because he did not want to taint the pure personality. He hoped that Shenyu's mind would mature along with his body, lest Yi Qiang have to make the decision to start exposing him to the real world and its ugliness.

He cast the dark thoughts out of his mind, though, and picked up his brother. Holding the tiny golden dragon in his arms, Yi Qiang headed out, looking towards the future.