Tolheim is considered to be the capital of the dwarves though they have never admitted it. It is the largest of the dwarven towns and the only one that does not have to import food. Like all of the other dwarven cities no maps of them exist outside of dwarven hands, so the extent of the city and its defenses are unknown to any save the dwarves themselves. It is also rumored that the dragons in the mountains around the city have made an alliance with it but this like most rumors about the dwarves it cannot possibly be true.

Lykou

The Rite of the Full Moon started almost identical to the previous test though we are given more time to hunt. A few days before the full moon we were kicked out of the village and told not to return before the dawn after the full moon.

It took me a little over a day to reach the mountains even with the shortcuts that Analais marked on a rough map for me when I asked him where I could find any draconic creatures in the mountains.

When this is over I can rest and think of other things, but first I need to kill and eat as many draconic creatures as I can. I open up my map of the small section of the mountains that is close enough for me to hunt in and return at the dawn after the full moon. The closest draconic creature is a nest of ice drakes a few more miles north.

I look over the nest of ice drakes in the cave Analais marked on a map for me. There are a lot of them there but that only makes me smile and drool more. Six adults and five clutches of eggs. Now how to kill them?

I could probably snipe one or two with some mana enhanced archery but once they are airborne it will be difficult to win. Inside the cave though it’ll be too many of them in close quarters. I doubt my ability to survive melee with six enraged drakes at once. One or two maybe ,rrbut I can't take the full nest on at once. For now I will have to sit and wait. Perhaps I can pick some off in their sleep. . .

Hours pass as I force myself to be patient. A few hours after the moon rises, four of the six are asleep while two guard the mouth of their cave. This is likely the best I am going to get.

I nock two arrows in my bow while filling the mundane arrows with mana bringing a dull glow to the runes scratched on them by my own hand. They will fly fast and hit harder than they should but this won’t be enough. Not alone anyways, the mana begins to slowly leak from the shoddy work I did as my mind shifts in a different direction.

I can’t do it as easily as I saw in my strange dream memories but the world seems to slow and I just know exactly how far my targets are from me. I know where the arrows will land and how much gravity and wind will deviate them from my intended path. I adjust my shot and perform a trick I could not do without this strange state of mind. The arrows fly true and sink deep into the right eyes of the two drakes before I snap and the mana held in both arrows turn into fire.

The two drakes fall to the snowy ground and I smile, it cost me a bit of mana and two arrows that won’t be recoverable but they had their brains burned.

It takes a few minutes for me to get to the cave and I have to struggle against my stomach’s protests for both my desire for the taste of dragon and regular hunger to pass the two horse sized lizards. I have to get them all or I could get ambushed.

I slowly walk inside the cave and while I can see it is difficult. The four sleeping drakes are on top of the clutches of eggs near the back and I smile while standing far enough away to keep them from sensing me in their sleep. I’m thinking of repeating the trick I used on the two outside I might even get lucky enough for a chance to get all four without a fight.

Repeating the mana enhanced archery from before, two drakes meet their end but the other two wake up and they are pissed. I swear under my breath, all my plans for causing as little damage as possible leave my mind. I’m going to have to use fire, even if it will mean there is less for me to eat.

I drop my bow, it won’t help me in melee. My thumbs touch as I pour an abnormally large amount of mana into Burning Hands. One of the drakes hiss in pain but the other has moved to flank me.

I try to dodge a rake and barely manage to save myself though the taste of iron fills my mouth. My vision turns red and I let out a growl. I feel my bones pop as I charge at the drake.

[Kill it, eat it. How dare that lesser dragon hurt us] a voice rings in my head.

Somehow my direction changes midair as pain and the sound of ripping leather comes from my back. I land on the drake's back and thrust my hand into its spine. Somehow, my hand actually pierces the white scaled hide and I pull on something.

I glance down for an instant to see a blood covered bone in my hand. But my hand looks different, it is covered in black scales and my nails have become claws. My stomach growls as a hunger unleashes it’s claws on my insides.

I throw the bone to the side as the dark blood staining my hand drips onto the cave floor. I want to lick my hand clean and almost get hit by the last drake before I start dodging. I promise myself that I can gorge until I get sick once the last one is dead. A feral grin bares my teeth at the last drake as my stomach grumbles. I lick my lips as the two of us circle around the cooling corpse of its fallen kinsman.

Hunger makes my patience short but anger drives the drake to charge me at the first opening I make. Which was a bluff. I drop to the ground and coat my claws in mana, it just felt right for this. The belly of the drake is exposed and while I thrust my hand upwards.

At first my claws just scrape against the scales, just because they are weaker than other areas does not mean that they are not hard but when the drake stops moving I manage to pierce through. My clawed hand enters into the intestines, spilling blood, guts and partially digested food all over me but I enjoy it.

A roar of pain echoes in the cave, louder than when I burned its face. I push forwards, rending internal organs and reaching towards the pulsing heart of the beast on top of me. A hind leg of the drake steps on my own and I hear a crunch. I let out my own scream of pain just as my claws pierce what I was seeking.

The overgrown lizard falls on me and while it hurts I just smile and begin to eat. The taste of drakes’ flesh filling all my thoughts. They comfort and warmth I feel as it slides down my throat is good enough I would do it even if it was detrimental rather than a benefit to me. Meanwhile the pain of my likely broken leg is forgotten.

I find myself standing in front of a large black winged lizard in the cave now stained with the fallen blood and yoke of the drakes and their eggs. Everything seems slightly off though. My peripherals are blurred as I look at the creature before me.

“Finally managed to wake up?” the beast asks in a tongue I had not heard before but it makes sense to my ears.

“Who are you. What’s going on?” I ask while shifting to a position to dodge if I am attacked.

“Why I am you, a part anyways. As for what, have you really forgotten so much Mage?”

“You’re that voice in my head while I was fighting. You were messing with me, why should I trust you?”

“I’m a part of you.”

I glare at the dragon. Should I try to eat him? This could all be a lie and I did plan on eating every draconic thing I run across while in these mountains. . .

I begin to slowly walk forwards, if this is some sort of fucked up dream it doesn’t matter. If this is real though, eating the other me or whatever this is should be good for me. The dragon doesn’t react at first but then it smiles and laughs as just before I jump at it.

“Yes, embrace your beast. Embrace me; that is all I ever wanted. Not the coexistence you started doing before” it says as my claws tear a wing while I ignore its words. They make no sense.

The dragon turns and bites at me but misses as the weight on my back shifts allowing me once more to turn in midair. I growl and feel as if I had sat on my tailbone for a moment before the sound of tearing leather fills my ears. My balance shifts again as I duck a claw swipe from a smiling dragon.

I charge again and sink a clawed hand into the side of my foe, ripping out a chunk of meat. I stuff it in my mouth and swallow. A groan of pleasure leaves my throat involuntarily, he tastes even better than the drakes. I want more. All of it will be mine.

Blood flows out of the dragon’s wound but I don’t notice how it flows towards me. Not at first anyways, only after I rip a few more chunks out of the dragon and eat them. Each time I feel stronger, faster, better in every way; more complete as the dragon itself gets slower but seems to be putting more into this fight.

Soon enough though, it falls and I feast.

I bolt upright and look around the cave, at the bones and blood and fallen scales but all I can see are the remains of the ice drakes and they all seem smaller than before. I can still taste that other creature, it was so much better than these pathetic creatures but there are no marks left in the cave from that fight. It was just a dream, the first real one I can remember and I don’t know why I would dream such a thing.

I look down and inspect my own body, I felt myself changing as I fought but didn’t pay attention to it at the time. I am covered in small scales, dark black scales but they seem to almost glow with a color I don’t remember. I find myself with a reptilian tail and a pair of large wings on my back. I can’t go back to the village looking like this, even as awesome as it is they wouldn’t recognize me.

No sooner does that thought cross my mind than I feel my body shift and find myself human again. I smile, but the other form will be better for hunting, and there is so much hunting to be done. But first I should review the changes through the Architect’s System. That will be the fastest way to know what’s changed.

Gain: +300 XP Apprentice, +200 XP Brawler, +300 XP Man-at-arms, +500 XP Woodsman, +8200 XP Dragon Knight, +25 XP Ranged, +25 XP Archery, +25 XP Bow, 50 XP Melee, +50 XP Hand-to-hand, +150 XP Claw, +50 XP Evasion,

Woodsman 6 -> 7 (7SP), Dragon Knight 7–14 (Majority Recovery of Void Dragon Body, Alternate Form: Draconian, Draconic Longevity, Void Ability: Void Cache, Void Grip, Void Slip), Hand-to-hand 6->7 (7SP), Claw 0->2 (3SP),

Lykou

Gender: Male

Race: Void Draconian?

Age: 11?

Strength 22

Intelligence 19

Mana Potential 13

Skills

SP: 616

Dexterity 20

Wisdom 18

Mana Potency 12

Languages

Titles

Agility 20

Cunning 17

Luck 20

Traits

Options

Endurance 20

Willpower 21

Perception 16

Magic

???

Vitality 20

Alertness 19

??? 1

Classes

Racial Class

Appearance 23

Charisma 15

Health 270/270

Mana 91/91

I smile and I somehow immediately recognize what each thing is. As soon as I look at the text I seem to remember what it is and how to do it. I immediately dismiss the screens and end my meditation.

My mind’s eye turns to my Void Cache like it was something that I have done all the time and I just stare at the vast pile of things. Clothes, money, jewelry, books, armor, weapons and devices I can’t remember the use of fill the empty space but it doesn’t feel full. There is so much in here, but now is not the time to go through it all.

Then I notice something that catches my eye, a dress that I saw the silver-haired woman in my dreams wear. I will in into my hands as I turn my focus back to the real world. I am literally holding an object that I have dreamed of. Those dreams all happened. But why do the two Kythias look so similar?

I smell the dress, its the only way I can think of confirming it. I can smell Kythia on it, not the one in my dreams but the one that I know, though her scent is not the only one and it is slightly different, but clearly her at least to me. My own is on it almost as strong as her own. The two are the same person, but how? I’m holding a dress that an older version of Kythia wore. One that I was sleeping with.

Wait I dreamed of other girls too. . . I had a harem? Why am I here then? Something has to have gone terribly wrong. No one would ever choose to lose their harem to run around as an amnesiac. Someone did this to me but who and why? And more importantly how do I fix this?