by Sami Dougish
Able to increase effectiveness of sense of smell by 45% for a cost of 1000 blood points
Able to increase effectiveness of sense of smell by 60% for a cost of 2500 blood points
Predatory Smell
Able to increase effectiveness of sense of smell by 100% for a cost of 4500 blood points
Nocturnal Predator
A one-time cost of 250 blood points, provides the ability to have increased vision at night
Drake Claws
A one-time cost of 175 blood points gain the ability to replace hands with Drake claws. These claws will grow back over time if broken.
I looked over the list of available upgrades, and I quickly saw that the first-tier upgrade of agility was written in a much bolder script. I guess that was an easy way to keep track of what I had already purchased. I quickly looked over to the dragon upgrades and was disappointed to see that I still didn’t have enough points to purchase the Nocturnal Predator ability. I should have let him absorb all of the blood and damn the consequence. Oh well, too late to change it now, At least I knew for the future that the more discreet the harvest, the less it yielded.
I debated whether I should keep saving up for Nocturnal predator, or just spend some on an upgrade now. The ability to see at night, was something I desperately wanted. It would allow me to travel longer and farther than usual, as I wouldn’t have to rely on the sunlight to keep my vision clear. Plus, any fight I entered, where light was limited, would be heavily weighted in my favor with most opponents. Still was it worth forgoing any upgrades now that could aid me in the last leg of my journey out of Thuum?
I debated back and forth for a bit, before finally deciding that I wanted an upgrade now. I quickly reviewed, my options. I threw out strength for now, as of, yet I hadn’t really needed to be physically stronger than I already was. I would hold off on investing any of my points there for a bit. Skeletal integrity was an interesting Idea, but once again, I didn’t think that I would be needing to have stronger bones anytime soon. Plus, if I was in a position where I needed my bones to be 15 % stronger, I was probably in worse trouble already. What did interest me though was the increase to the durability of my scales. My scales already provided a certain natural armor, but they wouldn’t stand up to any direct blows with a weapon. I would feel a lot safer if under my armor there was a second layer of protection keeping me alive. I was very tempted to invest fifty points to reach the second level of agility. The current boost of 15% was already incredible, and I could only imagine what I could accomplish with a 35% boost to my speed. It was over double the cost of the tier one upgrades though.
I held off for now though as I went over to the dragon page again. The same issue presented itself to me on this section as well. All the tier one upgrades in the dragon section were fifty points. My eyes drifted down to the drake claws upgrade. The idea of being able to produce large drake claws was enticing. It would mean that I would never really be without a bladed weapon again. Plus, just the idea of what my enemies would think when I sprouted claws in front of them made me smirk evilly. It also felt like a rebellion of sorts against the hate for my kind. The more draconic we looked, the more hate we received. If I grabbed the upgrade, it would be spitting in all their faces.
I nodded to myself and decided to buy both the tier one upgrade for my scales, and the drake claw upgrade. First, I picked the scale upgrade, and I eagerly watched, as blood flowed out of my body, and seem to flow into the words in front of me. The flashed briefly, and the moment they returned to normal, I felt a tingling all over my body where my scales were located.
Eagerly, I pulled my sleeve up to reveal the black scales that replaced skin all over my arm. I watched as the scales seemed to become a seemingly deeper, and darker black, which I didn’t think possible. I could feel as the pliable scales became tougher, and more durable. I couldn’t really put it into words, but they also felt as they were somehow interlocking in a tighter pattern now as well. The tingling continued, getting more and more pronounced, making my scales itch. Still I didn’t mind as long as at the end my scales were together.
Then suddenly, the tingling disappeared as suddenly as it had started. I ran my hand over the exposed scales on my arm and smiled as I felt the difference in the texture of the scales. They were still flexible, but they felt harder, and when I pushed done on them, there was definitely less of a give then there used to be. I reached down for a dagger at my belt, but then remembered that my weapons and armor didn’t follow me to my mindscape. Looks like I would have to test their durability against a blade once I was back in my body.
Without waiting, I willed the blood points to now flow into the drake claw upgrades. This time, there wasn’t a tingling, instead once the upgrade stopped flashing, my hand immediately began to burn horribly. It felt as if I had stuck my hands into a flame. I shouted in pain and fell to one knee as the pain impossibly seemed to intensify. What the fuck was happening? Did something go wrong? Those were my last clear thoughts, as the pain shot up to an entire new level, and my shouts turned into howls of pain.
Just when I thought I would pass out from the pain, it vanished. I leaned forward and placed my hands on the floor, gasping for air, as my body still twitched from the terrible pain it had just been through. I took several minutes to get control of myself, and once I had, I pushed myself shakily back to my feet. Once I was steady, I was surprised to see Raskorian looking over me in what seemed to be approval. I raised an eyebrow in question at him, and the dragon let out a pleased rumble.
“It is good to see you have decided to invest in your dragon side. Those upgrades will make you more bearable to be around, as the further you invest into that section, the closer to being a true dragon you will be.”
He had a way of insulting me at the same time as he showed his approval, “Thanks,” I said warily as I returned my focus to my hands. They didn’t look any different, and there certainly weren’t any claws to speak of. I tried flexing my hands, as if willing something to shoot out of my fingers. Still nothing.
I heard a snort from behind me, which was quickly followed by a voice filled with judgmental scorn, “Use your mind, imagine your hands morphing into scaled talons. Feel the energy flow into your hands.”
Doing as he said, I imagined the power in my hands as I shredded my enemies with talons as I flew through the air. Immediately, I felt a rush of some sort of power flow into my hands.
Eagerly I looked down and saw as my hands rapidly changed before my eyes. That was when the pain hit. Again, I felt a burning pain in my hands, as my flesh began to tear and distort. The pain wasn’t as bad as it had been when I first purchased this upgrade, but it wasn’t pleasant. I gritted my teeth, and did my best to ignore the searing pain as the process continued. Where there had once been smooth light brown skin, now I saw that the scales on my arms had seemed to have grown on my hands. My fingers became larger, followed by my hand themselves as heavy scales replaced skin. My human fingernails were pushed out, replaced by elongating claws. I watched this all with rapt attention, as before my eyes, my human hands, morphed into a dragon’s talons.
The entire transformation took only a few seconds, and I now saw my new hands in all their glory. The pain was still there, but it had receded greatly once the process was complete. My hand and fingers were now completely scaled, there wasn’t a hint of human skin anywhere. They had also seemed to have expanded to the point where my hands looked about one and a half time larger than they had been before. I flexed my fingers and was amazed by the strength I felt in my hands now. When my hands were human, I had always had an iron grip, but now when I clenched my fist it made my previous grip feel flimsy in comparison. Thankfully the claws seemed to detract a degree to keep me from stabbing my own palm.
I looked at the claws, and was fascinated by what I saw. They were each two inches long and curled down slightly towards the end. They were as white as bones, yet they seemed to gleam as well with an almost polished look to them. From wha
t I could tell they were wickedly sharp, and I couldn’t wait to see what I could do to human flesh with these. I wondered how they would stand up to different armors as well.
I took a fighting stance, and thought about how I would need to adjust my movements, now that I had claws. I gave a few practice swipes, and I smiled as the claws cut through the air with a satisfying hiss. Soon enough I was swinging my hands wildly, form forgotten, and just enjoying the feeling of strength in my hands. My joy was interrupted though by Raskorian’s indignant huff of disgust.
I shot him a look, and the dragon wasted no time, and said, “You have been blessed with the claws of my kind, and what is the first thing you do with them? Swing them around as if you are trying to swat a fly! Pathetic!”
I was too excited with my new ability to care much about what the overgrown lizard thought, but I did have some questions for him, “So how long will these last? And will it hurt like this every time?”
Raskorian eyed me, as if debating whether or not to continue berating me about my use of the claws, but eventually, he blew a puff of smoke at me, and said, “At our current state of integration, they will last for fifteen minutes at a time. In the future when we enter a greater state of integration, you will be able to maintain such forms for longer periods of time. However, once the time is up, you will not be able to bring the talons back for a half hour, so be mindful of when you form them. The pain will be there every time, but do not let that discourage you, uses that pain to fuel your anger before a fight, soon you will welcome the pain”
Well it was a bit of a let down, that I couldn’t form the claws at will, but I wasn’t going to complain too much. I still was able to have fifteen minutes of use with these new weapons, and they only had to wait for thirty minutes for them to reset. Plus, he had said once we integrated further, which I still didn’t fully understand, I would be able to use the claws longer and more frequently. I would need to get some practice in though, as I assumed fighting with a weapon in hand would feel different now that I would have to account for a clawed grip. I could also see what he meant about the pain. I had used pain in similar ways in my previous fights. Pain could usually drive me further into a rage in a fight, and was an effective motivator. My musings were interrupted by Raskorian as the dragon caught my attention.
“Now that you are here, we it will be easier to instruct you in the proper use of language, sit and I will instruct you.”
I looked at him incredulously, and said, “It can wait, I’m exhausted, and want to clean up, eat, and get some rest!”
Raskorian puffed a cloud of smoke in my face again, and said, “Bah, stop your complaining, time moves slower here, so you will have plenty of time to rest once we finish our lessens, now sit down, and stop your pathetic whining!”
I was tempted to tell the dragon where he could shove his lessons but decided that if I wanted lessons in the future, antagonizing the dragon wasn’t currently in my best interest. Still, I couldn’t help poking the dragon a bit.
“Fine, I guess that I could keep you company for a bit, you must get lonely here. With nothing but your inflated ego to keep you company!”
Raskorian bristled, but instead his usual indignant tirade, he instead said, “It is not my fault that your head is as empty as it is. The credit for that is solely yours. Perhaps if you heed my wisdom more often, your mind wouldn’t resemble a canyon of ignorance!”
“Oh shut up and let’s get this started then!” I said with a glare at the dragon.
Raskorian chuckled and proceeded to instruct me in the common tongue.
We spent nearly an hour on the lesson, and by the time we had finished, I was thoroughly ready for a wash, and some rest. I willed myself to return to my body, and a moment later, I was back in the guest room in Orizmad’s underground mansion. Thankfully my hands had returned to normal both in my mindscape and the real world. I didn’t feel like trying to wash with a shar set of claws quite yet.
With a slight groan, I stood up, and moved to the door that the serving boy had indicated was the wash room. I pushed the door aside, and was greeted with a wash room, unlike any I had ever seen. In the slave pens, our washrooms had consisted of a pit, and that was about it. This was nothing like I had seen before.
What looked to be a mass of metal pipes ran from the ceiling of the room, down to several different items that I had no idea what to do with. One such was the large bowl like hole that had been carved into the stone floor of the room. It was about five feet deep, and at about eight feet in width. Two of the pipes ended in large spouts, which hung over the large basin. At the bottom, I saw what looked to be a grated drain of sorts. Was this a bath?
“Ah it appears the dwarves have maintained their love of intricate plumbing I see. This should make washing much easier, which is a blessing, as from even inside you head, I can tell you reek.”
Ignoring the dragon, I reached out to one of the chains hanging from the first pipe, and when I pulled it, I felt a slight rumble reverberate through the pipe, and several seconds later, a stream of steaming water fell from the pipe in a steady flow, and began to fill the bath. My eyes widened in surprise. I had heard that nobles in Thuum had readily available hot water to wash with, I never thought I would experience anything similar though.
Before I could take a bath though, I needed to deal with my wounds. I knew Orizmad said he would send a healer, but I had no interest in some human or dwarf poking and prodding me as they attempted to fix me up. I had been taking care of my own wounds long enough.
I took off my armor, and gingerly, began to pull out the load of fabric I had shoved into the wound in my rib area. I had been ignoring the pain up to this point, but as I started pulling all of the cloth out, the pain got a whole lot worse, and I gritted my teeth as the wound started to bleed again. The wound wasn’t serious, it was just a flesh wound, but it was still painful, and would most likely scar up and require stitches. I reached over to my pack and pulled out the stitching kit I had bought in town. I had learned how to stitch my own wounds years ago. Most slaves had a designated doctor among them, who would provide any medical attention to the salves when the main owner’s physician was busy, but I had generally been denied such services by the other slaves due to my race. Granted once I was moved to the fighting pits, and began making money for my owner, he had assured I was patched up enough for any fights. I had heard tell that he had a doctor who was skilled in healing magic, but I had never been given the privilege of using him. Which had always infuriated me, as my owner seemed to have never been able to figure out what he really wanted for me to have access to. He would give me extra food, and training to make sure I was always ready to fight, yet he would never allow me a magical healing, which would have kept me in better fighting form as well. Until that time though, I had been forced to learn how to stitch my own wounds, and while I was now able too, the stitches I did didn’t look too pretty at all.
Still it was better than bleeding out. I reached up to the pipe above the basin, and pulled the small chain attached to it. Water came gushing out and I pushed one of the clean towels, in the washroom, into the flow of water. Once the towel was wet, I did my best to wipe away any grime from the wound. Finally, I grabbed the bottle of hard liquor I had bought and poured a measure of it directly into the wound. I hissed in discomfort as the alcohol did its work, and just grit my teeth until the alcohol had finished, once done, I threaded the cord through the needle and began to quickly stitch the wound closed. I repeated the process with the wound in my thigh. This task was a bit trickier then my ribs though. The wound on my though, had cut through scales, and the soft flesh below. Stitching scales was both easier and more difficult than stitching skin. For one the scales had a much higher tolerance for pain and made the that part of stitching easier. Unfortunately, they were also thicker, and made it harder for a needle to pierce them. And now with my scales further enhanced, I would have an even harder time, getting a needle through them. Sure enough, when I attempted to f
orce the needle through the scales, I was unsuccessful. Growling in irritation, I had to settle, for just binding the wound instead. Taking the bandages, I had purchased, I set about, tightly wrapping the wound. I knew that when I got in the water, the bindings would get wet, and I would need to change them out afterwards, so I used the bare minimum needed to cover the wound. Once both wounds were clean, and covered as best as I could manage, I decided to finally take a bath.
I fiddled around with both pipes, one of which spewed out hot water, while the other, cold. Eventually I had the bath at a temperature that suited me, and I quickly stripped out of the remaining grimy clothing I was wearing. Once free, I placed a dagger, hammer, and my naginata within easy reach. Then I slipped into the bath and groaned in satisfaction as the warm body soothed my aching body. The hot water did sting the wounds I had, but it felt too relaxing everywhere else, and I gladly ignored the sting from my ribs and thigh.
I spent a few minutes just relaxing in the warm water, before I reached over, and grabbed the bar of what I assumed was soap that sat in a dish next to the bath. I soaped myself down, and once I was done wiping the grime off, the water was a mix of red and black. I reached down, and pulled the plug over the drain, and the water quickly drained away. Now that I was clean, I wanted to enjoy the feel of the water again, and I once again filled the tub.
After a time of enjoying the waters, I decided to try and summon my claws again now that I was back in my body. The process was no different though then when I had summoned them in my mindscape. My hands felt suffused with energy, followed quickly by the pain of the transformation. I was prepared for it this time though, and it didn’t affect me as badly. When the process ended, once again, scaled talons replaced my hands. Deciding to also test out my newly improved scales, I reached over, and picked up the dagger. I pressed the blade into my scales, and while there was still a slight flew from the scales, the blade didn’t penetrate enough to draw any blood yet. I continued adding pressure, until I felt a sharp prick from the dagger.