Gregory was ordered to train under the dragons for a time, since there was much that they had to teach him. Their knowledge and abilities were great, and that meant that Gregory would be able to vastly improve his power if he would stay there to learn and train before leaving. The group wanted to leave, but they also knew the importance of this training. Every person took a different amount of time to train, but there were magical circles that could be drawn to slow the flow of time for training. These circles were rarely used, since full maturation was required for peak ability, but Gregory was an exception. For most races, it was a necessity to train; the only ones that didn’t were the humans. That was less out of not being necessity though, and more because they were ignorant as to the benefits of training themselves. They ignored it because it took time, and it gave very small boosts without being a “primary” ability. Since Gregory now had WIS, INT, AGI, and PER as “primary” abilities, he could train them to higher levels at a faster pace.

The dragons told the group that they would be training him for a week, and then let him leave with their group. The group was tired of waiting, but they also wanted to see their group safe. Since Gregory had reverted to level 1, and of a race with low constitution in the first place, he would be in serious danger in any kind of fight. At least with some training, it would only be a similar risk as it was originally for him to join them.

Gregory was headed to the place where he would be trained, following Xano to get there. One plus was that he still had all of his original classes, and access to one more unique class. He did notice that he could pick another class though. Probably for having been reduced to base level again. He decided to take the Summoner class for his basic class with the Gamer unique class. However, with the other class, he saw that he could retake a class he already had or get a new class. He would hold off on it until such time as he was told by the dragon which would be a better option.

Xano stepped onto a large area surrounded by a strange cloak of magical energy, and it seemed as if his speed had been increased by about three hundred times. Stepping into the area to follow Xano, Gregory realized that it wasn’t their speed that increased, but the flow of time in here that was highly sped up; which made it look like they were moving very quickly to the outside world. It made this place an ideal place to train, especially since Gregory was so far behind the others in experience and skill. It was at this moment that Xano would explain exactly how Gregory would be spending his time here.

“You are here to grow Gregory, we all want to see you survive to become much more powerful. You are currently equal to but a normal dragon at your equivalent age of maturation. We can train you most in wisdom and perception, since those are what you have equal to a dragon’s. Your intelligence and agility will be harder to train, but should still be much easier to increase than when you were human. Also, you likely got a new class option for becoming a dragon, I want you to invest it in the class you already have, which I assume would be sorcerer. It will open up the second level of sorcerer, which will give you access to stronger sorcerer spells and also some of the classes only attainable through having other classes adequately leveled. Dragons are also naturally third level wizards, meaning you will have access to very strong elemental spells.”

Gregory immediately did as Xano said, adding the level to Sorcerer. Xano then continued on with the beginning of the introduction to Gregory’s training.

“You will be getting training in wisdom, perception, intelligence, and agility. With an emphasis on wisdom and perception because of your affinity for them considering you are only a half-dragon. It seems your constitution and strength dropped to the levels of an actual dragon, but your body is growing nearly full-body scales and gained the full draconic bonus to wisdom and perception. I can tell because of the aura you give off, us elder dragons and stronger can see the aura of dragons. You give off an aura that tells me you gained very high bonuses for your risk, even if intelligence and agility did not gain the full bonus. If I had to guess, I’d say you received a bonus to intelligence of about 5, and a bonus to agility of about 10. The reason for this is your skills in comparison to a regular dragon, and what I can sense from your body. The bonus to agility for a full dragon is 15 from humans, as is our intelligence bonus. The reason you probably don’t see the bonus to agility is probably because it only affects speed, reflexes, and the rate of stamina recovery. If you were to begin running, you could probably run almost indefinitely and not grow tired. That is one of the things you will be doing, but not until you have done your training to wisdom and perception. I can tell on the full body scales mostly because they are already covering a good portion of your legs, and are on various parts of your chest and growing on your neck and face. Unless they would cover your entire chest eventually as well, they would not be so full across the rest of your body.

One more thing, your body will only age at the pace the outside world is moving, so you will not have grown any older by being in here. That is part of the reason why this isn’t used for conventional training, since it is made to be done alongside growth. Even if you will be spending the equivalent of two years in here during the one week I will be training you, your body will not have grown any more than a week older. Without being fully matured, this would be a waste since it wouldn’t improve you as much as aging would. It will let your changes fully take hold though, which probably wouldn’t be a bad thing considering your current vulnerability to physical attacks.”

Gregory was patient during the first portion of the training, learning how the dragons made their decisions. It was part of their wisdom as much as the modifier was. Not only that, it improved his wisdom score by learning it. It was like they knew how to train other dragons to unlock their fullest potential while at the weakest actual level. Of course, doing it for years was likely why they could train Gregory as much as they were. For the first year to Gregory, the training was a combination of increasing his intelligence and wisdom. Getting him to a point where he could match a dragon with the same stats as he had. There were lessons on magic theory, draconic history, the languages of the world, intricate draconic grammar and writing, the order of draconic thought processing, and lessons on magical spells. These lessons had allowed Gregory to reach an intelligence score of 172 with modifiers, and a wisdom score of 397 with modifiers. They also gave him access to a large variety of new spells that he had previously no knowledge of. During this time, his body had also grown to be covered completely in scales aside from the center of his face. This had granted him resistance to physical attacks where scales covered his body equal to his magical resistance. His magical resistance was complete because it was based upon draconic mana, which meant that he resisted 39 percent of magic directed at him by beings with up to equal magical strength as he had. Beings with weaker magical strength wouldn’t allow any more resistance, but beings with stronger magical strength could still affect him as if he had less magical resistance.

Every day that he had spent during the first part of this training had been torture brought on by Xano, an ‘endless’ training that continued to go on no matter how much Gregory got done. Even when a year had passed inside this slowed time zone, Gregory had still not ‘finished’ the training, but had done enough that Xano let him go onto the next portion.

The next part of his training would be even more intense, training his agility and perception to the absolute limits of what his body would allow without becoming stronger through leveling up. Xano spent the first ‘month’ of the ‘year’ they had forcing Gregory to run, avoiding obstacles as they were coming at him. The obstacles were in varied places, would come from out of nowhere, and designed to hit Gregory with enough force to knock him off his feet. All these things made for a challenge any Gregory had faced previously, but were all designed to be barely dodgeable by Gregory if he would keep getting better. Difficulty was designed to ‘reset’ to Gregory’s current level every morning after he would awake, meaning that Gregory would have a chance to catch up the next day if he would fall behind. Over the course of this month, Gregory had improved rapidly, every day getting better at avoiding the attacks. Even though the difficulty increased at the same rate as his own growth, his wisdom in how to handle these situations grew as he continued gaining more experience.

The next ‘month’ gave a new challenge. Gregory was required to stand in place, blindfolded, and dodge attacks coming at him. The difficulty was that only one attack would actually hit him, so he would need to rely on his increased perception and wisdom to dodge the attacks. Again, it was difficult at first, but he kept on growing at a steady rate. Gregory did not achieve the same level of perfection doing this as he had achieved while running with his eyes open, but the task was fundamentally more difficult. As he had not yet achieved mastery over this challenge, Xano left him with this challenge for another month. Gregory again continued gaining more skill and eventually was able to complete this ‘test’ flawlessly.

“It is time for the next set of challenges Gregory, you will need to catch weapons that are coming at you with your eyes closed.”

Gregory responded in protest this time, curious as to why such tests were suggested or even done.

“How is any of this even possible, if it weren’t for my body, I would have died countless times over already. Even still, the attacks constantly do massive damage to me. Why are you putting my life at risk like this? I thought the whole goal was to make me stronger, not to daily put me in risk of death.”

Xano laughed at this, knowing that Gregory really did fear for his life. It was true that Gregory feared death, but not once was he actually at risk of death. Xano had made sure that the traps would not kill Gregory, even though they ‘were’ designed to test and push the limits of Gregory’s constitution. Xano replied courteously once he finished his short laugh to Gregory’s fear.

“You will not die, you are simply being pushed to your limits to improve. If you wish to survive in the world, at least this much is required. Your strong team pushed you far to get here, but the enemies you will face in other places are so much stronger. Creatures get stronger at exponential rates, the ones you faced were barely on the cusp of that edge. Once you go farther, you will encounters enemies the likes of which would destroy you even if your entire team were to try keeping you alive. What is am doing now is to keep you alive, and prevent you from being a burden more than an asset to the team you are in. By the way, there are some magical secrets I didn’t teach you. There are combination classes and evolution classes that can only be attained through reaching higher levels of other classes. For example, a warlock can only gain their power through a combination of five levels, at least two of each, in summoner and sorcerer. There are other such classes, but most humans can’t get them because of the requirements they have to unlock more classes, and their naturally weak power.

Now, don’t question me and begin this training. I want to see you grow and survive here.”

Gregory still didn’t like this idea, but couldn’t deny that he continued to grow stronger daily. Even though gains were low, he knew his constitution certainly had gone up some because of this. Gregory still had to grow stronger, but he couldn’t call Xano a liar about his own power growing. He started the next test, taking three months to reach a point where he could even consistently catch the projectiles, and a fourth to get to the point where he would not miss over the course of three days. Every day he awoke sore, his muscles slowly growing. Pain still existed in this world, even if most normally permanent damage could be healed through spells.

To be honest, Xano hadn’t even expected this much of Gregory. Most dragons were too afraid and did not possess the determination to run into potential danger. It was the blessing and curse of their wisdom. Even though he did definitely inherit the full wisdom of the dragons, this boy was also far more mature than the young dragons using this training. The last test was about to start, and this training would end when either the full week outside finished, or when Gregory could go three days without missing a single projectile while running.

“The last test is the hardest, I want you to catch every projectile fired at you, while avoiding obstacles. The projectiles will come at you from various angles and directions, and you will be expected to catch even the ones coming at you from behind you.”

Gregory did what the dragon told him to do. Avoiding the obstacles seemed easy at first, until he realized that the projectiles flying at him were more numerous and from stranger directions and angles than expected. He knew there would be projectiles flying at him from the front, even the top and sides were expected, but he did not expect them from the ground or his back while going through this obstacle course. He also did not expect that they would come from obstacles, or that there would be traps in or on the obstacles that he had to avoid as well. This entire test seemed impossible. His first two months saw very slow progress from Gregory. He was almost constantly in bed from exhaustion and the beatings the challenge gave him.

The third month saw a marked improvement, Gregory seemed lighter than before, like he had released a great burden weighing him down. What had happened, was that he had reached true ‘adulthood’ according to the sentient races. Adulthood was reached when a being tossed aside the fears that held them down, while holding onto those that kept them alive. The fear of death was a fickle thing in people, it could keep children alive, but also put them in more danger. This was why the adults of non-human races could fight at such higher levels. They did not have the same fears weighing them down. The fears that put limiters on what they could achieve, whether it was the fear of failure, the irrational fears that haunt most people, or even the rational fear of death that may prevent staying when it is a better option.

Gregory’s continued improvement surprised Xano to some degree. He was expected to improve, but to this degree when he had been a human previously was very impressive. He was gaining the full wisdom, and perception that a dragon of his age would have without leveling up. His intelligence and agility were lagging behind, but even they were impressive from a human standpoint. Still, his level was not to that of the rest of his party, their purity and added experience gave them a huge advantage over somebody who had just gained such powers.

The fourth and fifth months went by quickly, Gregory continued to improve, and barely finished the training before the full week on the outside had transpired. In fact, it had taken only a day less than a year inside the training area for him to get to this point. This was a very rare feat, but some had managed it in just a year and three months when using the method of entering the sped up time zone. Now that it was finally over, Gregory was curious as to what his status looked like. Xano had forbidden him from checking it, going so far as to casting a spell on him that prevented it. Now that he could, Gregory wanted to know just what he had gained during this time.

‘Status’

Name Gregory Jeffrey Drake

Age 19

Level 5

Class Wizard(3), Sorcerer(2), Cleric, Enchanter, Summoner

Unique Class Gamer, Master Scout, Arcane Warlock

Race Human/Dragon

Title Fearless, “Outnumbered, not Outgunned”

Health 141/141

Stamina 382/382

Mana 12900/12900

CON 39(34+5)

STR 8(3+5)

AGI 152(147+5)

INT 172(167+5)

WIS 556(501+50+5)

PER 421(379+37+5)

FTH 15(10+5)

LUK MAX

Passive Skills Life in a Game, Passive Luck, Reverse Engineer, Multi-Casting(N5), Observant, Skinning(N1), Filleting(N1), Barrier Vision, Photographic Memory, Cloth-Working(N1) Armorer(C/L)(N1), Repair(C/L)(N1), Clothier(C/L)(N1), Embroiderer(N1), Metal-Sewing(M-A)(N1)

Feats The Wise One, Perceptive, Lucky, Kingslayer

Traits Trained, Educated, Boosted

Debuffs N/A

Active Skills

Riftwalker N/A[10M,10S]

Flare Novice 9(23%)[10M]

Bolt Novice 3(37%)[10M]

Slice Novice 8(46%)[10M]

Flame Engulfment 3(27%)[20M]

Identify Novice 2(17%)[N/A]

Healing Novice 1(0%)[20M,10S]

Self-Healing Novice 1(0%)[30M,10S]

Mana Bolt Novice 1(0%)[10M]

Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[15M]

Mana Manipulation Novice 2(3%)[VARM]

Homing Mana Sphere Novice 1(0%)[75M]

Homing Mana Bolt Novice 1(0%)[50M]

Expanding Explosive Mana Sphere Novice 4(0%)[1000M]

Spiraling Mana Javelin Novice 2(19%)[700M]

Spiral Mana Bolt Novice 5(4%)[20M]

Stealth Intermediate 1(0%)

Portal Walker N/A[30M]

Enchanting Novice 1(0%)[VARM]

Stat Buffing Novice 1(0%)[VARM]

Defensive Buffing Novice 1(0%)[VARM]

Damage Buffing Novice 1(0%)[VARM]

Teleportation Novice 1(15%)[VARM]

Chrono Shift Novice 1(0%)[VARM]

Gravitas Novice 1(23%)[VARM]

Fireball Advanced 3(1%)[1000M]

Inferno Novice 1(0%)[100000M]

Lightning Chain Advanced 2(3%)[1000M]

Grand Lightning Spear Novice 1(0%)[100000M]

Tornado Advanced 1(98%)[1000M]

Vacuum Novice 1(0%)[100000M]

Frozen Lance Advanced 2(0%)[1000M]

Blizzard Novice 1(0%)[100000M]

Barrier Journeyman 5(39%)[500M/S]

Aura Journeyman 8(72%)[500M/S]

Unspent Stat Points 44

Unspent Trait Points 7

‘Status’

Gregory couldn’t help but smile. Even though his body ached, now more than when he was in the training zone, he was happy that he wouldn’t be a burden to the rest of his team. Gregory rushed to the castle, his new speed easily allowing him to move at levels enough to better keep up with the rest of his team. All of them had agility levels that were at least double his through their training, but at least, as Xano had said, Gregory would be less of a burden to their team with his newfound abilities.