Once Gregory neared the group, they he could tell they weren’t all human. Three of them had visible tails, one was shorter with a bulkier build, two were just very short and were wielding bows, another one had white wings coming from their armor, and the last one looked to be a regular human. Another thing that was blatantly obvious upon getting closer was that five of the seven were female, and the two males were both in the middle level range. Seeing that the group was a potential threat to him, Gregory prepared all of his defenses. He began channeling his magic, drawing in the mana to attack in case they were to attack him. After he got to within ten feet, he could tell that they were all magically attuned, and wondered what their next move would be.

‘I need to keep vigilant, never know what they might try doing with me. They are all magically attuned, but I can’t quite tell how much so yet. Perhaps this ability to feel mana from other people comes from WIS, yet another unknown secret power it has. Perhaps all abilities have unknown secret powers that become more apparent at higher levels. If that is the case, how much stronger will this get as I level WIS? What kind of powers will I get as I level PER and INT?’

One of the women in the group also spoke up as Gregory got to within ten feet of them. Her voice was gentle, but with volume. It had a certain kindness to it, but also a fierceness that seemed implacable for him.

“Who are you, and what are you doing out here? We can tell you aren’t any stronger than we are, and probably even a little weaker than some of us considering you are a human. Of course, if you want to join our group, then you will need to prove your worth as well. Perhaps a show of your adventurer’s guild card?”

Gregory reached into a pouch he had on his belt, pulling the card from the pouch. He walked closer and then handed it over to the woman that spoke up to ask for it. They all took a turn examining the card carefully, and then gave it back. Again, she spoke up to make another comment.

“Seems you have some healing magic, that is always helpful. I would like to know how you have access to so many different forms of magic though. It is very rare to have access to more than a couple, and even then it is usually much later on for humans. What kind of ability do you have that you can use so many abilities?”

Gregory’s eyes moved slightly as she finished speaking. It was quite obvious that what he had was rare, even if multi-classing did seem possible for other people. Nobody seemed able to have more than a few classes, which also meant that others would be very skeptical of his powers on a whole. Gregory knew he had to say something, so decided he would try telling as much of the truth as he could. His voice came shakily, nervousness over what they might think or do getting the best of them. He knew he couldn’t lie to them, but the truth seemed just as bad in this situation.

“I am one of the new arrivals here, it seems that the humans were being off-balanced. I am one of the people they sent here early, probably to prepare us for the rest of the humans to get here. As for my abilities, I just have lots of potential.”

The woman who had been leading the group gave a small laugh, the rest of the group joining in. The woman then took off her helmet, revealing her identity to some degree. She was a beastkin, she had a wolfish face with rough and thick gray fur covering what would otherwise be visible skin. It was hard to tell her age, especially considering that he had no idea how any of the other races aged in comparison to humans. She again spoke, though some of the fierceness seemed to be gone without the helmet on her head.

“No reason to be concerned Gregory. Nobody on this planet has roots that are all originally from this planet anymore. Well, most humans are an exception, but only because their personalities breed arrogance. Also, some of the books they have are woefully inaccurate, aside from actual historical information. Gnomes for example are in the proper bracket, but the bracket should really be considered a hybrid bracket. Gnomes have skill in magic and ranged physical combat due to their skills, they are not primarily physical attackers. We beastkin too, we are skilled in magic as well as close-ranged physical combat. Humans are one of the weaker races, simply because the three races they list as being physically based with higher intelligence are actually hybrid races stronger than them in every way. Well, humans do have the largest potential to merge with other races though. They are however outcast by other humans at that point, so many prefer not to gain the benefits of merging with other races.”

Gregory was shocked, he couldn’t believe that this woman was so honest with him, more so than any of the humans were, and didn’t even seem to expect anything back. While it does outcast me with humans to merge with another race, it seems that the benefit would far outweigh the negative. Other races wouldn’t look at me with disdain, I’d grow immensely in power, and the drawbacks would likely be small. Gregory responded to this woman with a couple of questions for her.

“What are your names, just out of curiosity? You mentioned mixing my race with another race; how would I do that, and which race would you recommend? Being so new here, I really appreciate any information, and I would love to travel along with you to begin growing more powerful.”

The wolfish woman smiled, she would give their names, but was surprised that this human was so civil and even considered not being a total human.

“My name is Elise, the cat-like one of us is named Katherine and goes by Kat quite often, the other of us is named Atlas and is tiger-based. The dwarf’s name is Alfred, the two gnomes’ names are Caitlyn and Tim. The demon’s name is Lily, and the last one is actually a faerie by the name of Aurora. We are going to keep other information about us secret, but that is what we will tell you for now. As for mixing races, one race will bestow upon another race their power. It is a unique process, and one that isn’t always successful. Many have died trying to merge with a race, although humans do have the highest chance of success. As for which race would be best, I’d recommend either an elemental, dragon, or an elf for you with your magical powers. We will let you come with us, but you will need to gain our trust if you wish to learn more about us.”

Gregory bowed at the chest, responding to the party as humbly as he could.

“I appreciate your answers, and know that you gave me information you didn’t need to. By the way, if I were to decide to choose a dragon, what would be the benefits to me?”

Elise gave a smile before looking to Tim and giving him a nod. The gnome began his answer to Gregory’s question, a much higher-pitched voice coming from the gnome that what would have been expected from a man.

“Dragons are considered very strong among the three magical races, they have the highest boost to wisdom, as a dragon’s wisdom is unparalleled. Their scales grant near immunity to physical damage, their bodies are near immune to magic, and their perception is considered incredibly high. Unknown to the general public, Dragons are actually similar to elves in their capabilities when it comes to physical power. Their strength and constitution are very weak, but their speed is actually quite high. Their size though adjusts those to make them harder to tell. It is known by all that a dragon’s constitution is low, as they are easily damaged behind their scales and can die after just a couple of semi-critical strikes without being very old and having gotten their constitution to unbelievable levels. Their strength seems much higher due to their size, but are actually much weaker than even elves if they were both the same size. Their speed is actually higher than an elves, but not by much. Their speed is considered low though, because their strength does not support their size, and that makes it impossible for them to move any faster than a normal creature of that size.

All the races of magic have some advantage, the elves are the most intelligent and have the largest pool of mana at their disposal. Elementals are immune to physical attacks and magical attacks of their element, making them very powerful. Even gnomes are very strong magically, and only have physical strength as a limitation. Of course, any of the ‘magical’ races would make us look like an absolute novice in the magical arena due to their natural intelligence and wisdom being so far above our own.”

Gregory was amazed to learn this information. It meant that he would have even less to consider now, as the races were basically similar to each other. The only real difference for him would be the physical differences and which areas he wanted to be stronger in. Of course, the gnome mentioned one other thing about dragons that he had almost forgot.

“I almost forgot, a dragon’s magical power is determined by its wisdom, not by its intelligence, and gain more power from their wisdom in magical power than elves gain from their intelligence. This makes a dragon’s magic the most powerful in the world.”

As Gregory smiled at this new information, the group could see Gregory’s obsession with power. The blind obsession that drove humans to do horrible things to other beings, waging wars just to eradicate other races that only ended in their own demise. However, it was a different kind of obsession, it was an obsession that led him to be obsessed with gaining true power instead of power through destroying others. He did not hate them because they were different, if anything their group intrigued him and drove him to grow even more. This human worried them, but he also intrigued them almost as much as they intrigued him. His potential was immense, and he didn’t hold onto humanity as other humans did. He was willing to grow stronger even if it meant breaking bonds with the other humans.

Humans were so weak, because they were the only race that weren’t able to multi-class until level 50, and even then have no advantage to their abilities in the grand scale. Their only balance was their ability to level faster, but it also came at a price since they were so much weaker in total than any other race. If they were willing to merge with other races, it may not be so bad for them, but they were too arrogant to even consider ‘soiling’ themselves as they called it.

Elise spoke once more to get a general feeling of what Gregory would like to do.

“There are a few things we could do. You seem to be set on becoming a part dragon, so perhaps we could head toward the land of the dragons. There are a few trails we’d pass on the way, perhaps those would be a chance for you to show what you can do and gain our trust. We can also give you information about magic, especially some magic that the humans do not know of. There is magic that has long since been lost to time, perhaps one of you will have access to it, and can perhaps teach others how to access it as well.”

Gregory nodded as she spoke, and then made some small mumblings that couldn’t be understood before a resolved look spread across his face.

“Let’s get going then, I can’t afford to let that war that the humans started continue. Even if it means I need to get strong enough to stop it, I will find a way to prevent this imbalance and death from happening again. Let’s head to where the dragons are, I feel like I am being drawn to it in some way.”

They all nodded before starting to head in a direction almost straight north and away from where the map showed any dragons were at. He was confused, but didn’t say anything. He would see what this group was like before deciding if they were lying or not. That, and he doubted he could get that far on his own anyways, all the maps showed that there were beings in the level 200s around where the dragons were, the direction this group was heading ramped up, but at a pace he could probably make it to with the rest of the group to help him.

__________________________________________________________________

As night fell and the rest of the party headed to sleep, Elise and Lily were taking watch duty for the night. They kept an eye on Gregory, Elise listening to him carefully and waiting for him to fall entirely asleep. Once she could tell based on hearing that he was no longer awake, she turned toward Lily who also was watching Gregory suspiciously.

“He seems to be rather honest, and I know for a fact that he is not of this world. You can tell by his smell that he is from a different place, he doesn’t have that same scent as the other humans I’ve met do. That, and you can tell that he looks past our outward appearances. He was more intrigued than anything by us, he even gave you glances, and humans consider you the largest abominations.”

Elise snickered a bit at the last line, knowing it was true and that Lily would do whatever she could to defend herself. Which of course, came almost instantly.

Lily’s face was midnight black in color, the same as the rest of the demons. She was rather different from most of her race, far more willing to compromise and much friendlier overall than any others she had ever met of them. Her voice was soft and gentle, much gentler than would be imagined by ones so feared as the demons.

“You know that is just because my race likes warmongering. It doesn’t make us evil or abominations to like to fight, especially when they are the ones that started the fighting in the first place. If anything, they should be considered the evil ones for trying to destroy the other races. Also, the demons are not evil and shouldn’t even rightly be called so. Yes, we were made from the evil creatures of this planet, but we have just as much potential for good as anybody else does.”

She blushed when she saw Elise almost ready to start laughing. Lily knew that Elise had intentionally pushed her to defend herself, and that she often made that argument whenever she got upset about this subject. Lily made another remark before she left it up to Elise to hopefully finish with making her upset.

“Yes Elise, you are the queen of the party, you know exactly how to break me down, just like you can break down everybody else. I just wish you would quit being so ‘human’ about it, and act like one of your own.”

Elise made a motion of mock insult before they both started laughing amongst themselves. It was almost impossible to imagine a demon and beast-kin getting along so well, but they didn’t know these two if they believe it was truly impossible. The two of them were inseparable, and never truly fought even though they joked together so often.

Lily and Elise took another look at Gregory, trying to decide how they should test him. Lily spoke up, knowing that she could give an answer to the question.

“We could bring him to the hidden dragon city that we are planning to bring him to, it is easy to get to. There are only level 50 dungeons around it, so we could get him back to his current level quickly enough, and he would keep any class advancement he has. If anything, he would grow stronger. If he truly does accept, we know he isn’t like the other humans. He would be one that would be capable of stopping the war, perhaps not right away, but eventually if he will move to fight. The magical races refuse to fight, and the physical races are all too dumb to know where to swing. They are just as likely to attack us as they are to attack a human.

With him, it may finally be possible to bring peace to this world and prevent it from being destroyed again by the greed and anger that corrupts the humans.”

Elise shook her head.

“No, peace can never be truly achieved. We can perhaps keep a balance and not have the planet moved again, but true peace will never be achieved. Also, only if he truly melds with the personality and powers of a dragon will he be able to have their true powers. We should tell him of the ancient magics though, he may be able to learn them eventually. The powers of temporal, spatial, and gravitational magics were lost, erased by the same mages that erased their own existence. They were considered the strongest, but realized that their powers were too great and removed themselves to equal the world. If he learned those powers, then he may be able to stop the war that plagues this world and finally bring enough peace to stop the wars and protect the humans from themselves.”

Lily looked toward Tim and then back to Elise, wondering if those magics were really right for a human to bear.

“You really think a human would be capable of handling those without falling to the greed and lust they bring, they are all weak. Perhaps if he were a dragon I would reconsider, but as he is now I wouldn’t trust him with gaining any powers like those.”