Ergo woke up to the sound of chirping birds and huffed in annoyance. The first thing he did when he had claimed his previous cave was eat all the noisy sky rodents so he could sleep in peace. The constant stream of bird meat had even mutated his wings to aid his flight, something he would never admit he was grateful to them for. The survivors now knew to maintain a rough distance from the entrance so as to not instigate another purge. Looking back at the stunted wings on his back, Ergo sighed. He wouldn’t be able to fly yet in order to take retribution on these. Last time he was this young, he hadn’t had the wing strength until he was nearly the size of a small tree.

Ergo walked outside. “Shut up you stupid tree mice!” He roared. When his roar came out as a high-pitched squeak, inspiring no fear in his foes, Ergo returned to his tunnel; butting his head into the walls in frustration. When he began hitting hard enough that a stream of dirt rained from the tunnel ceiling, Ergo sighed, and stopped; flopping to the ground with his paws over his head.

“I think I preferred getting squeezed by that stupid magical egg thing.” He grumbled. When the birds failed to stop their chatter after several minutes, Ergo let out a grumbling grunt, and stood.

“When I grow up again, I’m coming for you first.” He announced to the woods at large.

Satisfied with his vow, Ergo ambled began ambling. Though he was largely walking aimlessly for want of something better to do, Ergo walked in the opposite direction of his former prison; deciding the further away he was, the better. The better part of a day passed as he walked. Finally, he happened upon a stream. Realizing he hadn’t had any water since before he had entered hibernation, Ergo stopped to drink.

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1.35 standard units of water consumed. At 1,000 units, water dragon perk becomes available.

Current Progress; 1.35/1,000

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Curious, Ergo pulled up the information on the perk.

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Water Dragon

Transforms perk holder into a water-aligned dragon. Fire breath is replaced by cutting water breath, and magical tunneling is replaced by water breathing. This transformation is available due to gluttony. Other methods of unlocking the water dragon perk exist.

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Ergo snorted. “No thanks, I’d rather not grow up to be a fish.”

Closing the panel, Ergo looked at the stream, which was inconveniently blocking his path. While it didn’t even look deep enough to force him to swim, Ergo preferred not to get wet. Looking up and down the stream, he saw that it extended as far as he could be in both directions. Making his decision, Ergo backed up ten feet. Ergo steeled himself as he accelerated into a full sprint. Leaping, he opened his wings, using them to add a glide to his jump. This worked. Until it didn’t; at which point Ergo careened downward into the stream with an explosion of water and mud. Hacking up mud that had gotten into his mouth, Ergo pulled himself to the other side of the stream, miserably shaking off mud and water from his body. In a moment of inspiration, Ergo activated his tunneling ability which caused the mud to slough off; leaving him pristinely clean, though still soaked.

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.3 standard units of dirt consumed. At 1,000 units, Earth dragon perk becomes available.

Current Progress: 0.3/1000

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“No. However much a unit is, I am not eating a thousand units of dirt under any circumstances.” Ergo declared with a growl. The notification disappeared instantly as if chastened. Grumbling to himself, Ergo turned his head to breathe a stream of flame; moving it up and down his body before switching to the other side, and repeating the process. Once he was dry again, resumed his journey; mood notably more sour.

“I really need to find a nice cave. These woods are just not for me.” Ergo thought out loud.

Responding to his words, a system box appeared showing a map of everywhere he had been so far. Ergo shook his head. “Now you tell me.” Laying down on the ground, Ergo began fiddling with his new tool. He found he could zoom in and out by pinching and unpinching his claws on the interface. “That’s great, but it doesn’t exactly help me find a cave.”

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New Quest Issued!

Identity redacted, hereby known as Administrator 1, has issued you the following quest:

Title- Find a cave

Description- Follow the quest marker.

Reward- Finding a cave

Accept? Yes/No

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“Thank you?” Ergo called out uncertainly to the empty air, but there was no response. Instead, the box auto-accepted the quest, creating a blue dot on his map, hidden in the fog of war. Shrugging, Ergo stood, and began moving toward the marker. The journey took more than a day, with Ergo creating an underground tunnel in which to sleep during the night. As much as he wished he could just stay in one of his tunnels; they lasted twenty-four hours at most before the magic holding them up wore off, and they simply collapsed.

By the time he reached the cave, Ergo felt ready to collapse. Even with his newly youthful body, as far as Ergo was concerned, he was still in the middle of his seasonal hibernation. As a result, when he finally dragged himself into the cave, he barely gave it an investigatory sniff before entering. It smelled clean. Too clean, perhaps, but he wasn’t about to complain about that. Taking the first turn, Ergo found himself in a small, empty stone room. It was everything he wanted. Wedging himself into the corner, Ergo was soothed to sleep by the pleasantly cool stone that offset the excessive temperatures generated by his fire-breathing organs.

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Crys the dungeon core wasn’t sure what to do with himself. He had been born only a week ago; spawned by an automated part of the system with all the knowledge he needed to create a thriving dungeon. Just two days ago, he had managed to break through into the outside world; the ambient mana from the flowing air accelerating his development with a vengeance. His instincts had told him he should begin creating monsters before he broke through, but Crys was impatient. The soil provided only a trickle of mana compared to the large quantity he would need for monsters of any worth. Arrogantly, Crys believed he would have time before anyone noticed his entrance. After all, why waste mana on lame monsters when he could use the outside mana to create far better ones? Only the best for his dungeon.

At least that’s what he’d thought before the dragon had entered. A real, honest to gods dragon. The worst thing was that there was nothing he could do. His menu only stated “invader present, functions locked.” When he tried to create anything that might help him. Crys had exactly one monster available, and he doubted his single level one slime would be able to do anything against a dragon. Even a fledgling dragon as this appeared to be. Crys sighed. At least the dragon was leaking an absurd amount of mana into his mana pool. Once the thing woke up, and hopefully left he might even be able to build a second floor, complete with monsters. That was, until Crys saw his slime, acting on its preprogrammed instructions.

“No! Go back! Let it sleep!” He cried futilely at his unheeding monster.

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Ergo woke with a snort to a strange… gooey sensation on his back. It tingled a bit uncomfortably if he was being honest, but not enough to hurt. Ergo turned his head to find a small pile of slime attached to him, seemingly attempting to eat one of his wings. Ergo snorted derisively, which emitted a small puff of flame. The flame impacted the creature, causing it to wobble in pain; falling off Ergo’s back. Ergo casually backhanded it with one of his paws, sending it flying into a cave wall. The slime, apparently having suffered critical damage, fell off the wall with a splat; disintegrating from a cohesive mass into a puddle.

Padding forward, Ergo sniffed the creature; reluctantly deciding whether it was edible. His nose came back with the answer “probably not” until he found the slime’s core; at which point his nose responded “maybe? This might be meat?” Deciding this was close enough, Ergo swallowed the core in a single bite. It was chewy and bland like tough gelatin, but at least it didn’t taste as bad as he feared such a creature might.

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1 slime core consumed. At 250 cores, slime dragon perk becomes available.

Progress: 1/250

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1 slime core consumed. At 100 cores, slime rancher perk becomes available.

Progress: 1/100

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Despite knowing he would never actually choose such a thing, Ergo’s morbid curiosity got the better of him as he opened the description for “slime dragon.”

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Slime Dragon

User essentially becomes a slime that just looks very convincingly like a dragon. Lose the ability to use wings for flight, but keep other abilities. In exchange, you become nearly invulnerable in the sense that a slime without a core is very hard to actually kill. Your slime body is highly acidic, and anything you dissolve triggers gluttony as if you had eaten it normally.

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Ergo shivered. In his old world, anyone who suggested such a… transformation would be dealt with harshly. Sighing at the fact that no one was readily available for him to personally eviscerate for the offense, Ergo investigated the other perk.

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Slime Rancher

Gain the ability to summon slimes. The power of the slime is proportional to the mana invested. As you invest more mana into a summon, additional traits become available to that slime. Slimes can be bred to create hybrids depending on the individual traits they hold. Anything consumed by a summoned slime contributes to your gluttony score, though it doesn’t actually provide you with nutrition.

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Ergo cocked his head back and forth indecisively. This option had potential if he could bring himself to do it. After a minute of deep thought, Ergo shrugged. However one earned perk points, he had none available. He also assumed it would take some time to find a full hundred slime cores, so there was that hurdle as well. Weighing his options, Ergo decided it was entirely too much of a bother to pursue.

“Unless there’s a nest of the things farther in. Perhaps they’re communal creatures?” Ergo thought out loud. Having nothing better to do now that he was awake, Ergo began exploring his new home; sparse as it may be. After exploring four side-tunnels that led to empty rooms, Ergo was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable with how… exactly identical the proportions of everything were. It wasn’t until he reached the fifth room, the last at the end of the hallway that his confusion was answered.

“Impressive. This has to be the largest diamond I’ve ever seen.” Ergo muttered with grudging respect. The gem was nearly as tall as he was long, and several feet wide. It was uncut, yet clear. A faint glimmer in the center hinting at something contained within.

That was when Ergo heard a faint voice, barely at the edge of his telepathic range. “Please leave. Please leave. Please leave.” The voice muttered over and over ceaselessly, tinged with panic.

Ergo sat down in front of the large crystal, taking the time to make himself comfortable before he turned his head; a single one of his side-facing eyes staring directly into the crystal.

“You know I can hear you right?” Ergo asked with amusement; using his telepathy.

The voice squeaked, and went silent.

“I’m assuming you are the crystal since there’s nothing else in this room.”

“Errrrr.” The voice said uncertainly.

“Good. Now, this can go one of two ways. The first option is that you become mine. I don’t seek to enslave you, and I don’t particularly care what you do with yourself. The mere symbolic fact of ownership is enough to satisfy me.” Ergo went silent, and the silence stretched for almost a minute.

“What’s the second option?” The voice asked tentatively.

“The second option is that I eat you. I would have to do that in pieces, most likely breaking the intrinsic value of what you are in the process. Since I’m sure there is some mystical value to you beyond the raw materials you are made from, I’d rather go with the first option.” Ergo said dryly.

“Is there a third option where neither of those things happen?” The crystal asked hopefully.

Ergo cocked his head. “I could always break you for being in my future territory without permission. Then I would claim the broken remnants of your being for my hoard.”

“But that’s so unfair!” The voice yelled in outrage.

Ergo snorted in amusement; emitting a small puff of fire that bathed the crystal. It didn’t do any damage, but did serve to drive home the danger the young crystal was in. “Life’s not fair. Again, I don’t actually care about what you do. Perhaps we could even be of mutual benefit if you cooperate. Really, I only need the benefits of claiming you as territory. As long as I get that, and you stay quiet enough to not interrupt my sleep, you can do as you wish.”

The voice sighed in resignation. “Fine, if you insist. My name is Crys by the way, not that you asked. I do have a question before you start. Can you actually claim me? I thought it was supposed to be impossible to own a sentient being the way you’re talking about. The gods have written that into the fabric of the universe.”

Ergo huffed. “With a flesh and blood being? I’d normally say no, even in my original home. With a talking crystal, and consent given? I don’t see why not.”

Ignoring the crystal’s continued jabbering, Ergo looked deeply into the facets of the gem. “You are mine.” He announced authoritatively. This declaration rippled through the cavern. It wasn’t so much a ripple of mana, as the mana that already existed in the cave being altered on a fundamental level; that change itself flowing farther and farther until it reached the mouth of the cave. Crys stopped talking as he felt some fundamental aspect of his nature subtly altered.

Rolling on the ground in joy with a rare slip of his more seasoned persona into the whims of his physical age, Ergo breathed in his territory. The scent was overwhelming, and if he’d been physically equipped to do so he would have cried. A dragon without a proper territory was only a shell of a creature as far as he was concerned. More importantly, he had imprinted his essence on this space. It smelled like… home.