Dragon Sorcerer 3- Chapter 108 (Patreon)

Chapter 108- Storm Rider?

The power of the storm buffeted me about as I tried to master its air currents. The lightning couldn’t hurt me in the traditional sense, but I quickly realized that the sheer force of the impacts could affect me. I was thrown out of whack a couple times by errant lightning bolts while at the same time trying to find my balance in the air again.

Never before had I experienced a storm like this. Sandstorms were something I’d seen. I’d even been caught out in one. It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Sure, it cleaned my scales, but bits of the grit inevitably would get stuck and take weeks to work their way out. There was never enough water in the desert.

No storm I’d been exposed to had this degree of rain and wind. Even the storms at sea had been less… concentrated I guess was the word. Yet, I was determined to master the storm. My will pushed my body to strive against the storm, but, I kept falling short.

It wasn’t until I finally realized that I needed to learn the storm before I could master it. There was so much information swirling around me, that my mind couldn’t take it all in. An increased Mind stat didn’t make me any smarter, it mostly increased my magical power. It did however give me the ability to process data a bit faster. It was hard to put a claw on exactly, but I knew it was real.

As I opened my mind to it, I was gradually able to track the wind, rain, and electricity around me. The forest below simply endured, while I rode the dark clouds high above Ileria. I cheated a bit, because the storm was not entirely natural. There were currents of magic running through it as well. They didn’t control the storm, rather they simply set parameters for the storm. At least that was how it seemed to me.

Yet my ability to see magic proved invaluable. By tracing the swirling threads of magic, I was able to eventually track the wind. Then, with practice, I was able to predict it. The storm riding went on and on for hours. During the process, I received notifications about two different classes that I was offered.

Storm Seer was the first, but it was only an uncommon class. It seemed to be centered around an innate ability to detect weather patterns. I scoffed at such a thing. Why would anyone want such a limited class? Then it occurred to me that perhaps it was because of their fragile nature. Storms could be a bad thing for them. Or maybe it had to do with the reliance on growing crops.

Seriously, who would waste time growing food, when you could just go and kill your own food? I mean my food eats their food, just another indicator of draconic superiority.

As I rode the storm for a longer time, I was offered a rare class. Hours had passed, and by this point I was perfectly… well at least excellently blending my control of the world around me as I flew with the chaos of the storm. I took a second to inspect this class but then rejected it just like the other.

Storm Rider- this class centers around the power of the storm. Your power will never be greater than when in the midst of a raging storm. This is a combat class with some water, wind, and lightning based spells. It possesses a number of abilities to make you the perfect representation of the storm. Chief among those abilities is Storm Strength: all your physical stats are boosted by 7% per level while you are in a storm.

This is a rare class. Stat gains at each level are: Strength: +1, Agility: +3, Durability: +2, Mind: +1, Free: +2.

That was not who I wanted to be. I wanted to be more of a mage. My natural body already gave me a tremendous amount of power and while the physical boost would have made me massively powerful, it was far too situational.

As I felt the storm weakening, I descended in slow lazy circles, easily riding the softer air currents till I landed just a few feet from Rizal. My mass hitting the ground even lightly, set off small waves of water rippling out in every direction from the puddles and saturated ground.

It was amusing to see Rizal jump back and snap out his arm as he cast some type of barrier spell that protected him from the rush of muddy water. That is it might have been funny, but for the fact that my mass sucks a solid foot into the bog like ground beneath me. I pulled one foot up and saw that I’d gotten mud all over me. It had even splashed my underside. This was not acceptable.

It wasn’t that I had anything against Rizal. In fact, for a non-minion human, he had been one to treat me quite well so far. He was a bit demanding a couple of times, but I supposed that was his teacher role coming out.

Logically, I knew that this was the natural result of hours of hard rain pouring onto the already soft forest floor. We were in an opening and the ground even seemed lower than the surrounding area, resulting in more water pooling here. It was simply, that I’d never experienced this. Knowing something from the dream and knowing it from personal experience were not quite the same thing.

Once Rizal righted himself from the miniature wave, he laughed out loud upon taking a look at me. I started to growl, but he waved his hand and said, “Don’t we make quite the pair. The mighty dragon, a creature from myths and the powerful storm weaver. Well, give me a second.”

A moment later, he chanted a quick spell. I got a notification asking me if I wanted to learn it. This appeared to be a lesser version of the spell he had used before to enable both of us to travel.

Do you wish to learn the spell: Hovering Nimbus? (Tier 2)

I declined it, since I didn’t have enough spots to waste, but it was interesting how a small cloud formed under him which was just large enough for him to stand on, well until he sat down on it cross-legged.

Then he cast another spell.

Do you wish to learn the spell: Streams of Water? (Tier 3)

I declined again, but that didn’t mean I lacked appreciation for the spell. Water blasted out from each of his hands. With a moment of concentration, he adjusted the force. One of his hands became little more than a minor spray of water, which he directed to himself, cleaning muck from his boots and such.

Meanwhile, the other became a powerful stream of water. I felt like it might have been strong enough to cut down trees if he narrowed the focus. That thought left my mind though as he turned the stream on me and quickly washed away the mud that was splattered all over me.

It was impossible to get my feet completely clean, but it was his effort which mattered. This human was definitely growing on me. Once I was clean and the storm was little more than a light drizzle, he said, “That was more impressive than I had imagined. It is hard to believe that a creature as large as you can maneuver so sharply in the air.

“I couldn’t detect any spell, yet, I could feel you weaving the essence of the world around you. It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever seen and I can only try to relate it to the way that I weave a storm. It isn’t like you force anything but more like the world air began to move to accommodate you. I even felt it affecting the threads of my spell.”

“Does this mean that I passed your test? I find that I’d like to learn more about this storm magic of yours.”

“It does and truthfully, I’d like to learn more about dragons if you’re willing to share. Like, for starters, why did the system just give me a quest to help you obtain a class?”

I grinned. Teeth or not, he seemed to get the meaning, but he still continued, “I thought you said that dragons ranked up through age categories, so why would you need a class?”

“I don’t really know. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve spent such a prolonged period of time in human shape. I can’t share everything, but I know many things from my ancestors and it leads me to believe that while many dragons have changed shapes, it is typically for the shortest amount of time possible. Then again, that may not have been the reason at all. But whatever the case, I have the ability to gain classes.”

“Classes? As in a class and a crafting class?”

“No, as in two combat classes. I haven’t discovered yet if I’m able to gain a crafting class.”

He tapped his chin with his finger as he was thinking. “Do you already have a class?”

Then I told him about Edgar, and the class that I had obtained there. I even went into detail about how I needed to sync my expectations. There was something about Rizal that made me feel it was okay to give more information. Never once did my instincts suggest otherwise, so either he was deceiving me and I didn’t realize it, or I had finally met a human worth interacting with.

Well, Cami was great of course, and Edgar was good, although his devotion to clan worried me a bit. I got the feeling that the clan almost worshipped dragons and was nervous how he would react when he knew for sure that I was a dragon. More than that, they seemed to cherish the concept of the bond.

“So, this would be your second class.”

“Yes, and it’s important that it be a magical class. I need to be able to deal with magical threats and have versatility. As much as I want your storm related spells, I also want to be able to deal with a variety of issues.”

He sat there on his floating cloud and didn’t say anything. Much like Edgar, I appreciated that he wasn’t one for quick words. I chuckled. The two of them would likely get along quite well.

“Hmm… well, the better the class that I can help you to obtain, the better my reward. It is clear that you had a very high instinctive ability to deal with the magic. I wonder though, may I ask what your Mind stat is including any gear you are wearing?”

I thought about it for a second and then decided there was no harm in sharing that. “It’s currently 158, but I don’t really have any gear to boost it.”

He smiled. “Dragons really are powerful.”

I knew there was a reason that I liked this guy.

“That is truly impressive without a Mind based class or a bunch of magical items. I can’t wait to see how far you can go with some help. Heck, I might just go commission an item just to help you along, Yet, as good as that is, if you want to be sure of getting an epic mage class you’ll want to get your Mind over 200.”

I nodded while listening. The air was cool enough that my breath came out almost like a warm mist from my nostrils.

He continued. “Common and even uncommon mage classes are pretty easy to obtain. Hybrid classes which use a combination of magic and melee are much harder to obtain, but all of that pales in comparison to what it takes to reach a high level magic class. Your priestess mentor got her epic class by skill, but also because the goddess helps her faithful.”

“What would it take to get a legendary mage class?”

Rizal whistled. “Glad to know you don’t set your sights too low. I admire that.”

“I already have a path to a legendary upgrade for my first class.”

“Then you understand that legendary classes are a step above. If it weren’t so, the empire would have more legendary classes. The only public legendary combat classes are the emperor and the headmaster, but I suspect that the high priest or priestesses of at least some of the gods have legendary classes.”

I didn’t offer that Galbrecht had just obtained a legendary class. It seemed like his thing to share or not as he wished. Nor did I talk about Cami’s legendary crafting class.

“I can’t tell you the exact path to something I haven’t achieved myself, but I believe it has to do more with refinement. Sure, you’ll need to have a high Mind stat, but you’ll need to refine or perhaps evolve it is a better term. By that, I mean you’ll have to find a way to focus it and a concept to work that around.”

My attention was split as soon as he said the word, ‘evolve’. Could it be that simple? Perhaps my Mind evolution would provide me that path forward.