It ended up taking over ten minutes to kill the six raptors, but she was rewarded with a total of 400 XP and 2 DKP, while I still just got the minimal 1 DKP. Then again, I’d never been in any danger, whereas if I had failed to block one of the creatures she might have been hurt. I couldn’t figure out the system’s logic—but that was the gods for you. They had no real sense of what it meant to be a flesh and blood creature.

  We kept on like that till Cami reached level 7, but she was ordered not to spend her points. We tried some Tier 2 monsters in groups, and finally faced an earth elemental, which was a Tier 3 monster. My bond-mate’s spear did almost nothing to it and electricity didn’t seem to bother it much. In the end, we let her chip away at it for half an hour, but eventually I grew bored and simply ripped it apart with my claws. It was strong enough that I actually had to flex, but that only made for a satisfying result as it slowly cracked and then split asunder.

  Given that it was taking too long to try to get Cami to level 10, the adventurers decided to try another tactic. We only had a couple more hours of light, and didn’t want to waste it. I noticed that Liam had gathered all the saddles and tack from each of the horses together and had them in a large pile.

  Serius then asked, “Nico, can you make a saddle large enough to fit you? Maybe evolving Cami’s class to dragon rider is as simple as having her ride a dragon.”

  All my fears about being controlled came back, but I had to remember this was Cami we were talking about. She would never hurt me. “Okay, I’ll try.”

  Modessa added, “Please try to put a harness on the saddle, to help keep her strapped in.”

  I nodded, and then transformed to my human form to do so. I studied the saddles as they were and thought about what it felt like to ride a horse. Then I realized I’d have to use Fabricate multiple times, because as it was I could only work with two cubic feet of matter. Even compressed and then worked out, that wasn’t going to be enough to make a saddle.

  So, I built the harness first, then a seat for her, and then a set of straps which would hold the small seat above my shoulders, between two of the spikes on my back. I didn’t even think about making any type of bit or stirrup—I would be the one in charge of how I flew and she would be a passenger, not a pilot. Once I made the pieces, I had to give them to Galbrecht and Liam for them to assemble.

  Galbrecht gave me the signal to say that they thought the saddle was ready.

  I wasn’t exactly happy about this, but I’d agreed to it. And then there were the dozens of DKP which I’d just earned through the power of a having a bond. The cheat might not allow me to raise my percent toward my next dragon growth tier without facing actual danger, but it would at least give me a ton of abilities to work with.

  Now, I just had to figure out how to spend these points.

  I transformed back to my natural form again. It was much easier now. I might not have known yet what options I was going to pursue with my DKP, but I did spend four to upgrade Shape Change to three, and then spent another six, eight, ten, and finally twelve to increase it to level seven.

  Shape Change 7: Your mastery of shapes has increased to allow you to take on the form of inanimate objects. Time required to perform a full change is reduced by twenty-five seconds. You may now perform up to ten changes per day. Partial changes still don’t count as a change unless they include at least fifty percent of your body.

  With my Morfi Apprentice title, that meant I could now go from human to dragon in a mere two and a half seconds. Despite that, I still forced the transformation to take the full fifteen seconds it had taken the first time they watched me. I wanted to keep that secret as an ace up my sleeve, in case the adventurers ever turned on me.

  I’d tell Cami about it later, of course.

  They strapped the saddle on me, which was more than embarrassing, but I was willing to accept it. I wanted this for Cami and was also excited to see what reaching level ten in our bond might provide as a perk. It tickled a bit when Liam cinched the straps tight across my chest and under my forearms.

  Lisella laughed. “Good to know that the mighty Nicosandumas is ticklish.” The others grinned, but didn’t comment.

  I looked at Cami and said, “I think it would be better if you and I moved some distance from the others before we try this. Maybe Modessa could come with us to help you up into the saddle.”

  The rogue acted pleased that I was including her. If she suspected what I had planned, though, she didn’t give a hint. We moved a couple hundred feet away from them, and then the two women worked to get Cami up on my back. There had to be an easier way to do this, but the saddle was making me extremely nervous.

  I smiled at Modessa and said, “Stand right there and I’ll see if I can fly a couple loops overhead and then bring her right back to this exact spot.”

  She just nodded.

  I sent a mental message to Cami, “Ready?”

  “I’m so scared, but so excited, too!” Cami admitted. “I guess there isn’t much to worry about since Grand Magus Serius taught me that Flight spell.”

  “There was never anything to worry about. Even if you fell, I’d catch you. I may not always act like it—I am what I am, after all—but I do care about you. Besides, I gave my oath to protect you.”

  “Then why do I get the feeling you’re up to something?” she asked.

  I hummed inside my head and then replied, “I might be up to something… but it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

  Then I crouched back on my rear legs and pushed powerfully up into the air. My wings immediately beat downwards and the innate magic of dragons acted on a subconscious level as I felt the wind sweep under me and pull me up. We were soon a good two hundred feet up and working a circle about half a mile in diameter.

  Cami screamed when I first took off, but by the third loop she seemed to be completely at home.

  “I never knew how amazing this would be. I mean… I hoped, but I didn’t know. Something doesn’t feel right, though.”

  “I feel the same thing, but don’t know what it is we’re missing. Did you get any notifications about your class?”

  “No… I’m sorry. I guess this was a waste of time.”

  “Well, not completely. It will give me an opportunity to do something I’ve wanted to do for quite a while.”

  Then I banked harder than I had before, and Cami squealed in delight. The makeshift harness and saddle might not work long term, but they were sturdy enough for now. Of course, I had made them—so I didn’t have any doubts. When I turned, I aimed myself back at Modessa.

  I dropped a hundred and fifty feet, but sped up at the same time.

  “Nico, what are you doing?”

  “It won’t hurt her,” I promised.

  “That doesn’t’ answer my question.”

  “Just making it rain.”

  It took her a second to figure out what I planned, but then she said, “Don’t you dare!”

  By then, it was already too late. I flew right over Modessa, no more than fifty feet over her head. And just before I reached her, I released my bladder and made it rain.

  My only regret was that I couldn’t see the expression on her face when the liquid hit her because I’d already flown past, but the sounds of her screaming and cursing were like music to my ears. It might not make us even, but it sure went a long way towards making me feel better.

  Chapter 48 - My New Home

  I didn’t enjoy the magic of teleportation any more than Modessa had enjoyed my little joke, not that I wasn’t still laughing about it. My own wings were good enough for getting me around, but I suffered it because it got us to the university days earlier than the horses would have. Not only that, but we would have needed to take another boat across more than fifty miles of the Royal Gulf, which surrounded Urgoi Isle.

  Apparently, both the island and the city had the same name. If I had thought that Taleian was massive, Urgoi was much more so. We appeared on a teleportation pad atop one of the highest towers in the city. The mages of the tower probably liked the idea of looking down on everyone.

  I made sure to stand on the far side of the group from Modessa. Watching the others try to calm her down had been worth it, but just in case… I wasn’t going to stand anywhere near her for a while. I could still feel how upset Cami was with me about my prank, but she’d get over it. Of that, I was confident.

  Serius said, “Modessa and Lisella, you know what needs to be done to check your charges in. I’ll go report to the Arch Magus. I’m sure he’s going to have some questions, which I’ll have to artfully answer. As for Nico, I’d suggest we keep him away from Tolston for a while. There’s no telling what someone at the Arch Magus’ level will be able to determine just by looking at our hidden dragon.”

  With that, the group split up. Lisella held my arm to allow Modessa and Cami to go first.

  “Probably best to give her some space after that stunt,” the priestess murmured.

  I chuckled. “What? I was only doing what comes naturally. At least I don’t put it in a pot and save it like humans do. I help fertilize the world.”

  She rolled her eyes but didn’t respond.

  Then I heard Cami’s voice in my head. “I’m angry, but I can admit that you had a right to get some vengeance. I’ll work on Modessa, but I hope the two of you can get along in the future.”

  I gave some sort of non-committal agreement and then turned to Lisella, “So, are you going to show me around my new domain?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Going to have to tone back the ego a bit, my young friend. You’re likely the strongest student to ever be admitted here, but don’t underestimate the power of a group of adventurers.”

  I saw her point. It stung, but I had to accept reality the way it was. “Fine, what do we do first, then? Is it some of this paperwork that I overheard you talking about? I’ll never understand the human fixation with scribbling stuff on paper. If you can’t remember it, is it really worth knowing?”

  Lisella laughed. “You’ll find that the entire university, and much of the human world, is predicated upon the stuff scribbled on paper. You said you wanted to learn to be human? Well, let me start by introducing you to the joys of bureaucracy.”

  Something about her tone warned me it wasn’t really going to be a joy. And wow, was I right.

  My mentor took me from one small room after another. Each was home to a middle-aged human who acted like their so-called office was their personal demesne and they were dragons jealously guarding their hoard. Finally, after going to one room to register me as a student, only to be told that we had to go to yet another for her to be listed as my mentor before I could register, and then to yet another to get her registered as an official mentor, I thought she was going to lose it.

  The small man behind the desk had a patchy circle of hair around the side of his head, but the center was bereft of any coverage. I wondered if it might glisten in the sun.

  He held his hands up in front of him as he said, “As you’ve no doubt been told, there is a way in which we do things here. In order to be named a mentor, you will need a royal or high-ranking noble to write a letter of introduction, vouching for you. The same from a high priest level church official or a department head here at the university will suffice. You should have thought of that before you came here and took up my valuable time,” he huffed.

  I thought Lisella was going to lose it then. She stepped up to the desk and pushed it—with the man still behind it—until he was shoved hard up against the wall behind him. The sound the wood made scraping against the stone was dissonant but oddly pleasing, as was the way his eyes rapidly expanded.

  “Valuable time? Valuable time?!” Lisella hissed, “I’ll show you valuable time. Do you even know who you’re speaking to? By all accounts, you shouldn’t even be allowed in the same room with me. You want a royal or high noble to vouch for me? How about the princess of Forlay, daughter of the king’s brother, Duke Reginald Forlay, and third in line for the crown?”

  The man started to sputter out an answer, but she pushed against the desk again, making him gasp. “No, don’t talk. You said you wanted a church official? Well, how about one of the three grand priestesses of Miseria? That’s right, I have even more rank than the local high priest. Only the matron of Miseria herself outranks me in the church. So I’m vouching for myself.”

  The poor man trembled.

  I took a moment to Identify him and learned he was only a level one administrator. Oh, and interestingly enough, he had the status condition: Scared. How interesting.

  Something hardened in him. “I’m sorry princess, or do you prefer grand priestess? Did you bring a letter vouching for yourself? It will need to bear an official stamp.”

  I’d heard enough at that point. As funny as it might be to watch Lisella rip him in half, I didn’t want to spend my entire day stuck in this rat’s warren of bureaucrats. I cast Adoration of the Fearful.

  I’d wanted to test it out, anyway. As I did, I projected an ample serving of Dragon Fear that stacked on top of his already existing status. As soon as my spell went off, everything about him changed. He was still shaking in fear, but his eyes were pulled from Lisella and he now stared at me.

  “Oh my. I’m sorry, student Nico, is that what she said your name was? I don’t know what came over me. Clearly, I can make an exception for you. Just give me a moment and I’ll get the forms ready.”

  If anything, his sudden acquiescence made Lisella even more upset . Her face got red, and narrowed her eyes and glared at me.

  I just shrugged. I was already learning how to make life simpler amongst the humans. Picking this spell had definitely been the right choice. Soon enough, she had her voucher, and we retraced our steps back from office to office.

  “Never do that again,” she said softly, “or at least not without a better understanding of how things work here. If you’d tried that on the wrong person, you might have ended up getting expelled. Using charm magic—or any other type of mind effecting magic, for that matter—on staff or your fellow students is a serious matter. Otherwise, all of the older students would use it on the new ones. The rules exist to protect you as much as they protect others.”

  “I’d like to see them try to charm me.” I snorted. “But I will honor your instruction.” She let out a sigh of relief, so I had to add, “Unless I see a good reason to ignore it.”

  She trembled for a moment, but I couldn’t tell exactly what she was feeling.

  After I was fully registered, I had to be taken to a testing chamber, but apparently Serius had already submitted my result. I was listed as having shown images in Storm Magic, Divine Magic, and Illusion Magic. I smirked that they had left off the double wings. We were pretty sure now that it meant I was an actual dragon, but who knew for sure?

  Then I had to get a uniform. Apparently, all the first-year students had to wear a type of robe over their shirt and trousers. I took one look at the blue robe and said, “Yes, this will do nicely. The brown pants aren’t quite as nice. Do you have those in blue, as well?”

  The clerk looked from Lisella to me and then shrugged. “Nope. Everybody wears the same thing. Blue is for first-year students. If you have your pursuit picked out, you’ll be able to wear more specialized uniforms in the future. For now, just get used to it. And let me say, that all the children of nobles have to wear the same thing, so it helps to even things out.”

  Once we were back outside what she called the quarter master’s shop, she paused. Laying a hand on my arm, Lisella murmured, “Nico, try to remember that these are little more than children.”

  “Children with magic,” I replied as we started walking once again across the university grounds.

  From there, Lisella took me to a much smaller wing of a nearby building. “This is the dormitory for first year male students. You’ll likely be the oldest one there. Most of the first-years are much younger than you… children with the potential for magic.”

  Then she stopped and forced me to stop next to her. When I turned towards her, she put her hands on both my arms. “Nico, look at me.”

  I sighed, but did as she asked.

  “Promise me you won’t hurt any of them. Even if you think it’s self-defense, just escape and come find me. I promise if it turns out they were actually attacking you, they will wish you had killed them. But I worry you might misunderstand a joke and end up killing a child by accident.”

  I stood there without saying a word for long enough for it to become awkward. “Fine, I promise.”

  She smiled then and hugged me.

  It was still odd to me how this human body of mine reacted to small gestures like that. I wasn’t entirely ignorant and understood the concept of arousal, it just wasn’t something that a dragon male had to worry about for a couple hundred more years. The joke amongst some of the other males in my clutch before they died was that it was hoards before whores. Understandably, our sisters didn’t like that characterization—but then again, they referred to it as hoards before hotties.