Jandar, Aldren, and the rest of the remaining suppression force looked at the scene unfolding in front of their eyes with slack jaws. The dragon began to fly with the child, and everything seemed hopeless for the young boy. Then a few seconds later the limp body of this giant dragon crashed back into the dirt like some kind of meteor with light radiating from the inside of the creature.

“Is that radiant damage?” one of the fighters asked.

“How can a kid cast radiant magic? I thought it was reserved for the high ranking religious types?” another one of the fighters pondered out loud.

The boy crawled up from under the dead dragon’s grip and began to mumble some things to himself. The thing that happened next is what terrified the group even more than they already had been from their initial encounter with the winged serpent. The body of the dragon had begun to disintegrate and the particles circled in the air around the boy. Suddenly, all at once, all the particles stopped, then proceeded to enter the boy’s body at the same time. The boy yelled out a bit as if he was in some pain then immediately fainted.

Jandar and Aldren looked at each other, then back at the boy, then back to each other.

“We need to take him back to the city,” Jandar said, “I’ve never heard of anyone taking on an adult dragon by themselves and winning, let alone a child. We need to see what exactly he’s capable of and if we can trust him.”

“He’s just a kid, Jandar, a ridiculously powerful one...but still a kid,” Aldren said, “We don’t need to take him into custody. We can talk to him and start a discussion with him in a friendly manner.”

“I can’t risk it,” Jandar immediately rebutted, “I don’t know if he’s a threat to the Duke or the city right now. He’s an unknown factor and I don’t like unknown factors.”

“That’s exactly the point!” Aldren exclaimed, sheathing his two scimitars. “He IS an unknown factor so why would you try to start off on the wrong foot with him? Especially if he’s capable of this,” Aldren gestured to the torn up jungle around them and the empty crater where the body of the dragon used to be.

“Aldren, I’ve been given control over this operation. I’m going with what I feel is the safest route.” Jandar said matter-of-factly. He gestured towards two of the city guards in the group, “You two. Tie him up, we're bringing him with us back to the city.

The two guards seemed uneasy but eventually nodded in agreement. “Yes sir!”

They trotted off towards the boy who was sleeping soundly and quickly went to work binding the boy's arms and legs. One of the guards slung the boy over his shoulder. “The boy is sufficiently restrained, ready for your order Sir Jandar.”

An audible “Cheh” could be heard escaping Aldren’s mouth.

“You two, stay in the middle of the group and protect the boy. We’re going back home!” Jandar exclaimed.

“Yes sir!” The group responded as they began to move back towards the city as a single unit.

“You sure know how to make an entrance,” Dolos let out a chuckle, “An Adult Black Dragon right out the gate? It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly for you.”

“You asshole! Why would you drop me in front of a dragon?!” Asher exclaimed, “You brought me to this world just to try and immediately kill me?”

Dolos stood up from the ornate chair they were lounging in and walked around Asher. The blank mask moving up and down as if examining him. “I gave you the tools to deal with it and you dealt with it. Anyways, so how do you like it?” Dolos asked as he conjured a mirror, reflecting Asher’s new childlike form.

“I DON’T like it, why am I a kid?” Asher asked as he was giving himself the standard pat down just to make sure everything was real one last time.

“You didn’t specify an age on your application, so I gave you the best of both worlds and made you a ‘kid’,” Dolos gestured in quotations at the final word.

“What do you mean best of both worlds?” Asher’s eyes narrowed.

“You’re a kid, but not a kid. You’ll age at an advanced rate until you’re back in your twenties” the mirror vanished from in front of Asher’s eyes.

“Oh okay, that’s good then. How long until I’m back at my normal real age?” Asher said excitedly.

“Not long just- *cough* four *cough* years” Dolos said as they brought their hand up to where Asher assumed their mouth would be during the cough.

“I’m sorry, can you repeat that?” Asher asked, genuinely hoping he misheard the mysterious entity that is Dolos.

Dolos made a noise like they were clearing their throat. “Four years, Asher. I made it so that you would age at three times the rate of a normal human until you’re back in your twenties. In four years you’ll be back to normal. Anyways, you my friend, are in a bit of a predicament.”

Dolos conjured a large crystal ball and showed it to Asher who was looking curiously. In the ball he could see his limp body slung over the shoulder of some armored person as they were marching. Two people were at the rear of the group and one seemed to be gesturing, giving off the vibe of commanding officers. Asher pointed at the elf, “Who is that?”

“His name is Jandar Yllana, Chief Knight for Duke Bennett. It seems he’s taken you into custody because you may or may not be an unknown threat to the city.” Dolos said as he pointed to Asher’s eyes “Don’t you have other things to settle right now?”

Asher envisioned a window and it popped up with multiple tabs.

INVENTORY ( NEW! )

CLASS ( NEW! )

CLASS SKILLS

CHARACTER STATS

CHARACTER SKILLS

He opened the ‘CLASS’ tab and a list of classes presented themselves:

~3 POINTS AVAILABLE~

Artificer -[ 0 ]+

Barbarian -[ 0 ]+

Bard -[ 0 ]+

Cleric -[ 0 ]+

Druid -[ 0 ]+

Fighter -[ 0 ]+

Monk -[ 0 ]+

Paladin -[ 0 ]+

Ranger -[ 0 ]+

Rogue -[ 0 ]+

Sorcerer -[ 2 ]+

Warlock -[ 0 ]+

Wizard -[ 0 ]+

“The classes in green are the ones you can currently put points into. It was originally just ‘Rogue’ but using the scroll has allowed you to put points into innate spellcasting classes and your base stats are high enough to put points in Wizard if you wanted. The other classes you haven’t attempted to learn yet and Druids deal with nature magic, it’s a bit different.” Dolos said to Asher who was extremely deep in thought.

Asher paced back and forth as he simulated the different combinations of classes.

“I could go pure rogue, but I can already imagine situations where I’d want magic,” he mumbled to himself. “I’d rather be prepared than sorry.” Asher selected his classes and the options that weren’t chosen dimmed out. “Wait, why were points already put into Sorcerer?” Asher looked towards the masked figure. Dolos tilted their head as if in thought for a brief second then snapped their fingers. “It is most likely from the nature of the scroll you used, typically most people in Solaris have to train to even feel their mana...let alone use it,” Dolos said while walking around Asher. “Typically people choose their classes through training, or random accidents that give people power, like how some superheroes in your world’s picture books randomly get powers. I imagine that simply using that scroll has at least put you on par with that type of innate caster...so the world itself decided to distribute those points accordingly.”

Asher didn’t argue and the logic seemed to follow, he thought, as he put the rest of his points into Rogue.

~0 POINTS AVAILABLE~

Artificer -[ 0 ]+

Barbarian -[ 0 ]+

Bard -[ 0 ]+

Cleric -[ 0 ]+

Druid -[ 0 ]+

Fighter -[ 0 ]+

Monk -[ 0 ]+

Paladin -[ 0 ]+

Ranger -[ 0 ]+

Rogue -[ 3 ]+

Sorcerer -[ 2 ]+

Warlock -[ 0 ]+

Wizard -[ 0 ]+

Asher exited his ‘CLASS’ tab to see a new notification appear next to ‘CLASS SKILLS’.

He looked over it briefly:

ROGUE:

Expertise, Sneak Attack, Thieves’ Cant(Pending), Cunning Action, Feat Earned! (Giant Slayer),Uncanny Dodge

SORCERER:

Spellcasting,Metamagic, Feat Earned! (War Caster)

Asher was sifting through the different tabs before Dolos called his attention. “Looks like our time is up, you’re getting the hang of things. You’ll be fine and remember, live how you want. The world is your oyster - like your world says.” The sinking feeling overtakes Asher and he is thrust back into consciousness. He was still draped over the shoulder of the guard. Up close, Asher could see the guard was a human male who looked to be in his late teens. Their eyes briefly met and the guard slightly gasped and suddenly broke eye contact continuing to face forward. Asher looked around and was taking in the sights of a large city. The smell of spices invaded his nostrils, the hustle and bustle of city life creeped into his ears, and he could see people re-opening their shops and stalls.

“That’s strange, why would people just start opening their businesses around...midday? Maybe that’s how this culture operates,” Asher thought to himself.

“Hey, looks like you’re finally awake. You gave us quite the show didn’t you?” The elf Asher had noticed in the orb asked as he was approaching him. “Can you walk on your own?” the elf asked. Asher nodded ‘Yes’ at the man. “Good!” the elf beamed, “You can let him down now.”

The guard gently set the boy down on his feet. Asher looked down towards his feet which had been expertly bound in rope. “Uhm, I can’t walk if I can’t move my legs.” the boy said.

“Of course, how could I forget,” the elf said as he unsheathed his sword and quickly cut the rope binding the boy's legs together, “That should do the trick.” The boy raised his arms and said “What about these?”

“Those stay on, sorry, can’t afford to take any risks” the elf said as he reached out with his free hand and patted the boy on the head, “My name is Jandar. Jandar Yllana, Chief Knight.”

The group continued walking through the city for a bit, passing buildings, businesses, and the occasional fight between lovers. The boy looked back towards the elf and said “My name is Asher. Uhm where exactly am I and where are we going?”

Asher was pushed into the cell and the jail doors slammed shut. He immediately turned around grabbing the bars, “Hey! Come on Jandar, this isn’t necessary! I’m just a kid, your everyday normal kid...come on this can’t be legal and jails are scary!”

Jandar immediately walked up to the cell with a stern expression. “You’re an unfamiliar face, and the things you’ve done are far from normal and definitely out of the ordinary for a ‘kid’. I’m going to ask around and see if anyone claims you, but regardless, I WILL be back and we WILL talk.” The elf turned and left the prison. Asher pouted.

“Oi, OI! Ya gonna cry little man, whadya do eh? Steal some apples from a stall? Gonna cry fer ya momma or somethin?” one of the other prisoners jeered from the cell across from him. Asher glared at him and simply said “Killed a black dragon.” The man burst out into laughter “Yeah little man yeah, and I’m actually rich and popular with women,” the man laughed some more.

“This sucks..” Asher mumbled to himself as he sat down and waited for Jandar’s return.