Dragon Sorcerer 1- Interlude 9 (Patreon)

Cami is listed as being 15 in this chapter. That is intentional. After some feedback the decision has been made to age her a year from her original. So now she will be 15, nearly 16. The marrying age in her village will also be changed accordingly.

Interlude 9- Cami

Cami had settled into the university with far less distress and hostility than Nico faced. While her mentor didn’t have the political clout that Lisella did, she did have something else. No one could have proven it, but Cami was pretty sure Modessa threatened to kill any of the girls in her dorm who were rude to her.

She found most of them more than willing to hang out with her and never had to eat a meal alone, despite not having seen Nico for the entire first week they had been here. She would have panicked except for the fact that she was able to telepathically communicate with him.

Today she was sitting down to do something she had been putting off. She had promised Modessa that she wouldn't spend her XP unless the system made her. Because she had two classes, it would periodically ask her which class she wanted to assign the XP two, which was something unique from what her mentor told her.

Now she was going to at least spend her DKP. She didn’t have the amount that Nico had received. Getting at least one from every battle he was in had created a great way for him to cheat the system. Although she couldn’t complain, she had gained a great deal of Strength from him. Three percent of his other stats weren’t enough to make a huge difference, but it did help all the same.

Looking again, the notifications were the same as before.

You have 3,894 XP available. Which class do you wish to assign this to?

She just pushed it away for the umpteenth time. She might want to reach the next level as a dragon bonded sorceress, but she would keep her word and hold off. So she moved onto the next notification.

You have accrued DKP: 22. Do you wish to peruse available skills and abilities?

This time, she accepted the prompt and got a list of options.

Chain Cast

Energized Cast

Contingency Cast

Enhanced Olfaction

Power Attack

Tough Hide 3

Meditation 3

Concentration: 2

True Rider

There weren’t as many options as she would have hoped for, or more to the point there weren’t any new options. That bummed her out. New things were always good, but as she thought about it, Cami realized that there probably weren’t any new options because she had to reach level 10 with her bond and become a proper dragon rider before new options would open up.

She started trying to puzzle that out. She had ridden a dragon. Oh sure, she hadn’t been any good at it and Nico had done all the work but she was still one of very few people who could say she’d ridden a dragon.

The experience itself had been thrilling. It was something radical to know that your life could end with the slightest mishap. Nico was much faster than she had expected a dragon to be, and the simple rush of the air around her had been amazing. It was made even better by the fact that Nico seemed to be surrounded by a bubble, which made it so the air didn’t directly affect her. She could still breathe just fine, but the turbulent air around her didn’t so much as mess up her hair.

When she had asked him about it, he acted confused by the question. It took a bit of explaining on her part because of course Nico didn’t have hair or soft bits in his natural form. She was finally able to get her point across and Nico had explained it in that superior tone he adopted sometimes. Cami swore, as much as she liked Nico, there were times she wanted to slap him upside the face. He had told her that dragons were just so magical that even the world around them had to respect them and move.

In fact, she remembered his exact words. “It isn’t so much that a dragon flies as that the world moves around him to better fit his desires.”

She was actually proud of not having laughed in his face then. The more she got to know Nico, the more she learned he was just as flawed as any of the humans she had known, just as flawed as she was herself. But that didn’t stop her from liking him. In fact, it made her want this bond all that much more, even if she didn’t understand exactly why his mistakes made her feel that way.

She looked over her list, and it leapt out at her. She had not taken this ability before because she was worried it would be seen as presumptuous. The images Nico had  shown her of the orc dragon rider, Tra’vis had not included a saddle. The orc had been riding the dragon while deftly fitting between the bony protrusions on her back.

The more Cami thought about it, the more convinced she was that this was the truth of the matter. She needed to be a true rider, so she spent the 3 DKP and selected the skill.

True Rider (DKP: 3)— Choosing this talent gives you the ability to ride on a dragon without a saddle. You will stay connected at least as well as if you were strapped in with a saddle. This is an upgradeable ability.

Something settled over her and she felt another notification pop up.

You have met the last requirement to become a dragon rider by acquiring the skill: True Rider. Do you wish to move to level 10 of your bond? If you do, the bond will be permanent.

Cami was on her feet and jumping up and down on her bed while squealing before she even realized it.

“Yes, yes, a thousand times over,” she shouted out for the empty room to hear before realizing she had to do the mental acceptance thing.

As soon as she did, she felt a buzzing inside her head, and then another notification popped up.

The dragon, Nicosandumas, has accepted you as his rider. You are awarded the epic class: Dragon Rider. This is one of the most powerful classes in all of Ileria, but you will have a difficult line to walk. Your power comes from your connection with your dragon companion. He will be your mount, your protector, and in many ways your child as dragons are willful creatures and it will be your task to keep his energy directed into a productive way.

There is much for you to learn about this class, and your quest to learn has only begun. You will find that your dragon is the one closest to you and yet the one most infuriating. Many have found that the relationship is closer than any marriage.

With this class, you gain a martial skill based upon your experience.

Spear Mastery: 1 – attacks with the spear will be more accurate and your damage will be a little better than before. Accuracy, damage, and armor penetration all increase as you level up the skill.

Dragon Riders gain stats per level as follows:

 Strength: +2
 Agility: +2
 Durability: +2
 Mind: +2
 Free: +7

 You retroactively gain:

 Strength: +6

Agility: +6

Durability: +6

Mind: +6

Free: +6

You have gained new choices for the use of your DKP. Do you wish to examine your choices now?

She was about to select yes, when she heard Nico’s mind in her head. It felt like he was much further away than before, but maybe now they could speak further apart than before. She listened carefully because of the tone of desperation in his voice. Her dragon needed her.

Cami longed to rush to his side. She even tried to argue with her, but he told her what he needed and then she got the sense that he had stopped listening to her. It was like there was a wall between them, one which he put up so he could focus. She’d have to learn how to do that, but not now.

She was already running down the hallway. She had to find Modessa. She felt like she was running on the air. She was scared for Nico, but so excited and her new power only made her feel amazing. No, fifteen-year-old girl had likely ever been as strong as she was now.

She covered the mile to the building where Modessa spent most of her time, training, of course, in under three minutes flat. She scoffed and wondered what her da would have said if he’d seen her. He’d always complained that she was too slow at her chores. She’d like to see him say that now. Then again, she was undoubtedly stronger than he’d ever been, so maybe it was better that she wasn’t around him.

If he said the wrong thing, she might have overreacted. She let that thought go as she raced into the training building and found her mentor throwing daggers at moving targets.

“Modessa, Modessa.”

The rogue whirled on her. “What have I told you about being quiet?”

Cami wasn’t even breathing hard from the exertion or not much. Actually, her rapidly beating chest probably had more to do with her concern for Nico than her physical exertion. “That the shadow is quieter than a whisper, but…”

Modessa cut her off. “I didn’t think you were supposed to be here for training for another hour, anyway.” The entire time the rogue had been using her keen eyes to look the girl up and down. “You look different, stronger, but also more lithe. Did you level up? I told you it was a mistake.”

“No, I kept my word, but I did use some of my DKP and it worked. My class evolved, but that doesn’t matter now. You need to listen to me.”

Modessa got a big grin on her face. “It doesn’t matter. You just got an epic class. Not only that, but an epic class which has not been seen in a couple hundred years at least. You’re going to have to…”

This time it was Cami who cut the other woman off, “Nico’s in trouble. He won’t let me come to him. He said you were the one who would know what to do. He’s at a place called the exotic stables. Do you know where that is?”

Modessa’s eyes grew wide. “Yes, it’s where they keep the other dragons.” Then she disappeared in a puff of inky shadow.

Cami shook her head. That was so dang cool. She didn’t really want to do the whole shadow thing, but being able to shadow step like that was pretty amazing. Now she just had to figure out what a dragon rider could do. Not that she could think about anything other than what was going on with Nico.

 Oh, why did he have to be stubborn?