Exp And Other Drugs

Sooo after Dennis the dragon heard everything Yail Voct had to say he decided to give a hand in my 'Tutoring'. Turns out he's a bit of a legend in the druidic arts, but I don't think he uses them for their intended purposes....

"First you must cast your Mana to the surroundings and try to make a connection with the nearby Flora once you have accomplished this let me know." Man his voice is so commanding yet relaxed, the true voice of a leader!

The lessons went how I thought they would at first, you know one with nature and all that jazz. About an hour in to the lesson.. "Okay now that you have made a solid connection Command the plants to grow.. oh and tell them to grow thorns that drip poison, and while your at it see if you can feel under the soil for any fungus to grow and rot the surrounding trees."

Huh? Wait What... I thought druids were pro-tree? and what's up with the Frankenflowers!?? "Umm that doesn't sound very druidish to me.." Intalru voiced his concerns only to illicit a chuckle from the Allstate spokesman.

"What would a Lizard so fresh from the egg that he's got yolk dripping off his scales know about being a druid? Listen here runt! No matter how diluted it may be you have Green dragon blood coursing through your veins! the forest is ours to do with as we please, not only that but you're also backed by the two most powerful dragons in existence. Do you honestly think you need to 'ask' a Measly plant anything? No! you Command them to bend to your will and if for some reason one refuses to obey you, you pull it out of the ground and cause it's roots to rot for not knowing it's place!!"

Ooookay.. kinda extreme but with the way he's staring at me I think he's looking for more than one word as a response. "Well when you put it like that.." After thinking about it for a second I realized he may have a point, a somewhat evil sounding one but a point nonetheless. But what should I expect from a green dragon they are considered one of the most wicked and cunning species in their mythology and I've had a DM run a game where a green dragon wiped the party without even leaving the cave just by using the forest and it's poisonous fog to pick us off one by one... As I go back to concentrating on my surroundings Yail Voct shepherded Sha Na and Lilan Ka away to go hunt for food.

A few hours of mind numbing practice and I finally make some progress.. one thorny vine is wrapped around a tree covered in some rather scary looking skull shaped mushrooms. "Hmmmm" Oh boy Dennis is staring at the fruits of my hard labor, I hope we can move on to the next exercise.

"Again, but this time don't take so long.." There's no pleasing this guy!! And why haven't I got a skill for this yet?!? Oh cranky maiden why haven't you graced me with your presence? ... yep no response still.

My training goes on like this for a few days and it feels like I'm making progress but still no skill notification... The section of forest I have been training in looks like a cross between 'Alice and wonderland' and the 'ardennes forest' Brightly colored mushrooms and gnarled thickets of briar growing from rotten trees everywhere..

"Well you're finally making progress.. now we're going to control vermin." As the Green dragon filled me in on my learning curriculum dozens of rats started crawling out from the gnarled tree roots around us and crows filled the sky. Kinda feels like I'm watching the omen. Now I know you're wondering what Mr dragons name is, but I couldn't tell you if I wanted to.. I've tried appraising him a few times and all I get is question marks and Danger!, so we're just gonna call him Dennis for now.

As Dennis trained me in the druidic arts Yail Voct trained my siblings in basic survival and took them hunting daily. The days turned to weeks and slowly my clutch mates achieved level 10 Sha Na being the first amongst all my siblings. Upon reaching level 10 Yail Voct sent them one by one to our tribes main camp so that they could be trained for the specific classes by our 'Elders'.. While I get to stay in the forest of noobs with Dennis slowly turning sections of the outer perimeter into a hellish fetid swamp.

"Well runt You're never going to get the hang of controlling animals but I must say you're a prodigy when it comes to plant life manipulation.. Strange for most it's the other way around, maybe Bahamut was worried he would use pets to do all of his fighting he is on the lazy side."

Dennis whispered the last part but when your vocal cords are the size of power lines whispers are basically impossible... "Teacher why does everyone in this world give negative compliments? Does it hurt to hold in snide remarks or something?" No I didn't screw up and reveal I came from another world.. Dennis knew from the moment he laid eyes on me. Yeah apparently dragons have this neat inborn passive skill called soul sight so the secret that I was contemplating about keeping to myself was basically screamed in his non existent scaley ears... The only reason he didn't out me right away was because he has already seen a few demi-humans and monsters like me in the past strangely enough though I'm the first non-asian..

Well I think they were asian if they came from my world, most of them had kinda Asian sounding names. there's a goblin that was born in the western continent about 600 years ago that went by Aiko she became a high Oni priestess then later a demon lord before carving out a piece of land for her race to live 'peacefully' (Basically it's one of the few places you can't hunt goblins but they still go after the odd human who's dumb enough to try passing through there turf alone...)

Then there was the Slime named Rim in the Eastern islands from 2,000 years ago... Dennis doesn't talk about that one in a nice light apparently he sided with a chromatic dragon (then became a demon lord) and helped lead to a few centuries of peace among various races before he disappeared, many believe he became too powerful to be held in our realm and either ascended to join the gods or left for a new reality all together..

Then the Kobold demon lord Rei from our very own southern continent, She almost wiped out the 'Galatians' (I think that was a Book in the Bible so it's kinda weird to know that the smooth skins race that dominates the Southlands go by that name) until the other smooth skins banded together and summoned a hero named Hiro.. (Insert pun here)

There are so many more too primarily with Japanese names but there is a black dragon that went by Akira that generally stays in his cave deep in a swamp on a continent to the far west across the Great sea. Dennis told me most dragons consider him a coward and a fake but he has always helped his brethren with knowledge from his past life, He even taught the Draconians that were under his protection how to make firearms! and I'm not talking Flintlock muzzle loaders..

Dennis calls them 'Rapid fire death bringers' the bullets are most likely made with large amounts of phosphorus and have an easily ignitable tip seeing as they burn anything they hit, During one of his tests weapons tests a group of five Level 20 Draconians managed to kill a level 40 giant before the sand could run all the way through a minute glass!!!! From what I can gather he possibly designed guns for a living or maybe he was a serious otaku with a fixation on modern weaponry... either way he earned most of his races respect and fear shortly after... Currently he's working on something that he calls 'The end game option' and has been in seclusion out on a barren island in the middle of the abyssal sea that separates most of the 'Civilized' world from the demons of the frozen hells..

I need to learn more about the demons later, Dennis said one of the greatest demon commanders is a massive black wolf with chains wrapped around his maw tying him to an immovable stone and a great golden eagle eats his Liver every day.. why does this world mash all the religions together like this is some kinda Moba style game I used to play!!! can't I have a semi-peaceful life with out divine or demonic interventions!!?!?

But getting back to me... Dennis believes his goddess 'Tiamat' the dragon queen and birth mother of the chromatic tribes is using a former human to help the Draco races as a whole better understand humans in a nefarious plot to find common weaknesses to ensure their eradication/enslavement...

While I'm not nor have I ever been pro-human I don't know if I feel like being someone's pawn in a plan to basically destroy human life as they know it... Don't get me wrong I'm no hero and I never really liked people back on earth, no really I mean it! I mean I wasn't a serial killer but 99 out of 100 of my problems in life were caused by my fellow man/woman. We basically r*ped our planet to suit our needs until people started realizing that if we destroyed it we wouldn't have anywhere to live.

While I was still an orphan we were forced to do community service every weekend by our care taker, there was this huge corkboard on the wall with all kinds of different ways to help our city. Most people picked working the soup kitchen or sitting with the elderly at hospitals. Me though? I would always volunteer to do nature clean ups, You know when groups of people get together and walk by the lake shores, riverbeds, fields by the road and pick up trash.

Now don't think I was some kinda granola smoking hippie thou I'm not an environmentalist I just wanted to be alone and I enjoyed the silence in the woods or next to the water, Listening to the leaves rustle as squirrels ran about in the tall pines or hearing the waves of the lake slap against the shore line.. Most of my fellow volunteers were on the quiet side too because everyone kept there mouths closed while picking up trash to keep the mosquitoes and gnats from flying into them...

Actually thinking back on it I may have been a bit of an environmentalist.. I mean I may or may not have snuck into the city zoo a few times at night to see the poor animals that they kept locked up in cages. I hated how people claimed zoos where there to educate us about the animals so people would donate.. It's called Discovery channel people!! if you're gonna rot your brain watching T.V. or browsing the internet mindlessly you may as well learn about the world your in...

Zoos are just ways for people to look at these creatures that were either ripped from their homes or never lived outside of captivity.. so basically they were concentration camps for the already endangered species that we endangered!!

Wow didn't realize I felt that way so... passionately before. Maybe I'm just going crazy due to my lack of ability to make reality less miserable. I want my drugs back!! I'm thinking too clearly!! I hate understanding my feelings D*mn*t!!

As soon as Dennis and I finish up my crash course on the druidic arts I'm going to smoke sooooo much weed!

"Why are you grabbing your head like that? your face looks like you swallowed a live Rot scarab and it's making it's way out through your *ss.." Dennis asked after appraising me to make sure I wasn't hurt or sick. Well seems like I still wear my heart on my sleeve..

"I was just thinking about some unfinished business and began regretting it.." Yeah I don't know if my teach would approve of nor appreciate his student day dreaming about getting high during classes so we're going with unfinished business.

"Oh then go finish it I taught you everything anyone could possibly teach you about nature crafting and controlling familiars.. All you need now is to learn the odd spell or two and pick which aspect of nature you want to represent and you'll be a full blown Druid.. well You'll at least be better than a novice maybe on par with an acolyte as long as we don't count your miserable animal handling but going by your control of plant life you are most likely going to be the most powerful two legged druid to walk the world in the last.. I'd say close to 15,000 years maaaybe, But if you take to the other elements of the natural order as well as you did with Flora then you may walk amongst the gods after a couple centuries."

Dennis dropped this massive ego boosting bombshell just before turning around and taking to the air, His massive frame circled above me twice before flying in the direction of his cave.

After standing in silence imagining how powerful I could become I realized something extremely important. "WAAAAAIIIITTT!!! YOU'RE MY RIDE HOOOOOME!!!" my voice echoed through the empty forest and the only reply to be heard was a cricket chirping...