The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage

[18] The Caravan

Bjorn jumped awake, hissing and confused. He needed to protect Freja from the wolves, they had to get out of there now. Why was he asleep, what happened? What about the wolves? What about the gate? He quickly looked around with both of his heads and it was darker than normal. Okay, night had already fallen. He was on Freja’s lap and his sudden jostling woke her as well. He tasted the air, there was blood and death, and the faint char of smoke. Luckily magic fires don’t spread like normal ones, and it seemed they were all out.

“Bjorn, thank the Forest Father you are awake.” Freja said as she nuzzled the confused lizard. “It is okay, baby, the wolves are all dead. You killed them and I… I took out the druid. We are safe.” She paused for a long moment. “You saved me again. I wish I knew you could breathe toxic fire earlier. The containment in the academy only marked you as venomous.” 

Bjorn calmed down at that as Freja talked about what happened while he was unconscious. She had apparently followed the steel wolf and killed its master. He could tell that she was shaken up by the experience. For some reason he could feel her emotions intimately. The confusion, the sadness, the regret all clawed at her mind. He could feel that taking a life so brutally had left a deep scar on her heart. Bjorn wished he could speak to her and let her know it was alright and that he was with her. The desire to help her caused him to feel something in him, the familiar bond had grown exponentially. 

“Failsafe you there?” Bjorn thought.

“Yeah. I am just organizing a few things.” Failsafe responded aptly. “Doing some updates and running some diagnostics on your body. Before you say anything.” He sounded like he was guilty of a crime. “I know that I may have missed a few things regarding your skills.”

“Oh, you don’t say.” Bjorn said sarcastically. “So, I breathe fire now?”

Failsafe responded like a kid being scolded by a parent. “Toxic purple fire, yes.”

“Any explanation as to why that is and how you didn’t know?” Bjorn asked incredulously.

“Okay-okay, let me explain. So, I may have been slacking off a bit on analyzing your skills ever since I got my own head. I assumed that both the left and right ones were the same so…”

Bjorn pointed out. “You slacked off? Aren’t you a spell, how can you slack off?” 

“When I am in control of one of the heads I can’t monitor everything. It is like I have blinders on and I can only focus on the physical sensations.” Failsafe stated. “From what I have discovered the right head is poison puff and the left one is toxic fire breath. Also, you leveled up, you should take a look.”

“Fine but we are going to be limiting the time you get you to control either head.” Bjorn stated.

“Fair enough.” Failsafe responded disappointedly.

Status Menu

Name: Bjorn Salstar
Species: Unknown
Level: 4
Vitality: 2
Restoration: 20
Constitution: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Stamina: 2
Magic: 1
Magic Regeneration: 2 (+100 from bond)
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Skills Analysis

Reincarnation Failsafe
An incomplete reincarnation magic and your best friend that has your back no matter what!

Venomous Bite
Magic Cost: 0
You have a neurotoxic venom which can be injected through a bite with your fangs.

Poison Puff
Magic Cost: 1
With your right head you can mix your venom into the air using magic creating a small area of poisonous gas. This gas will reduce the health of those inside. The wider the area of effect, the less effective the poison.

Toxic Fire Breath
Magic Cost: 1
With your left head you can breathe a plume of superheated toxin which will ignite enemies and infect them with your neurotoxin. Flames lose their toxicity with time and using this ability will also drain stamina. 

Poison Scratch
Magic Cost: 1
You can infuse your claws with your neurotoxic venom making even small scratches fatal overtime.

Delta Familiar Contract
Magic Cost: -100
You are a bonded delta class familiar. You gain +100 to magic regeneration. Your bond has grown allowing you to convey your emotions though your bond. Your bond is more resilient to outside influences and can not be forcibly severed by outside parties. 

King of the Reptiles
Passive Skill
Dragons, lizards, amphibians all show hesitation and fear around you going so far as to run away from you. More study needed.

Head Regeneration?
Magic Cost: 40-ish (Was kinda decapitated at the time so numbers may be off.)
Currently only usable if fallen beasts powers the regrowth. Major wounds including decapitation can be healed. (More study needed but not recommended we try again.)

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A second pop up covered the first screen.

Unassigned Cultivation Points Distribution

You have leveled up 4 times before assigning your UCP.
You have 40 UCP
Please assign all UCP within 1 day(s) or UCP will be automatically assigned.
Assign [yes/no]

 “Is there any reason not to put all of this into magic?” Bjorn asked Failsafe.

“Your magic core is currently not capable of holding forty points in magic.” Failsafe said with some consideration. “Your body is too immature right now. At most you can hold five points in magic.”

“Only five?” Bjorn asked.

“You are only like a week old.” Failsafe responded. “Six maybe, but that would be pushing it. You are currently the strongest newborn I know.”

“I guess you are right and I don’t want to stress out this young body too much.” Bjorn stated as he thought about it. “That leaves thirty five points. Do I have any other limitations on where I can place them?”

“Yes, all of them with the current amount of points you have.” Failsafe said.

“Add an automatic limiter to prevent me from being able to put more in one stat than my body can handle.” Bjorn stated.

Failsafe responded cheerily. “That shouldn’t be a problem. I will make it so the first number is your current stat and the second is the limit with your maturation. If you ever reach a point that you level faster than your maturation I can burn the extra point on maturing you faster.”

“Sounds good, and what about the Familiar Contract?” Bjorn responded. “A hundred to my magic regeneration isn’t causing any issues?” Bjorn asked.

Failsafe responded in a dismissive way. “No, but that is only because of the contract itself. Any magic you can’t absorb from it is just being recycled into the bond making it stronger over time. You still have a while before it is irreversible, but unless we get Freja talking about it, anything I say is based on observation.”

Bjorn selected [yes] and placed his states so he would be able to make best use of his body. He needed to be able to move faster and strike with his venom without being hit back in return. When he wrapped himself around the first shadow wolf it managed to react and claw at him. 

If he had been faster he could have escaped the troll and not gotten his head ripped off. Then again he had his regeneration which could even regrow his head. For now he needed to be all around better. His pup body could not keep up and at least for now a strong foundation would be the way to go.

Status Menu

Name: Bjorn Salstar
Species: Unknown
Level: 4
Vitality: 7 / 20
Restoration: 25 / 50
Constitution: 8 / 15
Strength: 6 / 15
Dexterity: 7 / 20
Stamina: 7 / 15
Magic: 5 / 5
Magic Regeneration: 5 / 20 (+100 from bond)
Page 1 of 2

 “There, all set.” Bjorn said.

“So… we gonna talk about that dream you had?” Failsafe asked. “You know were you were a kid and all.”

Bjorn looked at Freja and she hadn’t stopped slowly petting him since he woke up. Her eyes were hollow. She needed to get out of here. Well, that and he didn’t want to talk about the memory he uncovered. Something about how it ended brought him so much shame and fear. Like he was on the precipice of doing something horrible and everything was his fault.

“Later.” Bjorn said with a breath. “For now we need to focus on getting out of here.”

Bjorn uncurled himself from her lap, stretching his body as he did. He could immediately feel the difference in strength, flexibility and magic in his core. It wasn’t overwhelmingly different but everything felt crisper, each motion slightly more deliberate. 

Freja just got up and chanted the words of power to resummon her wind hands. She picked up the staff she got from killing the druid. It took a few minutes to find her alchemy case which luckily survived the assault. While she looked around for the case Bjorn examined the corpses. 

He started with the druid or what was left of him. The body was being held together by his magic so when he died things started falling apart. The fact his head was smashed in only slightly added to the already grizzly scene. What Bjorn was looking for was on the man's waist, a combat knife, the common companion to many soldiers, spell casters or not. This one was a large blade forward with a full knuckle guard and several runes that allowed it to be used as a wand if necessary.

When he rejoined Freja she took it from him. She had the wind hand that carried the rock drop it and take the blade while the other carried her alchemy case. She quietly held onto Bjorn’s tail allowing him to guide her through the dark woodland. Twenty minutes later he tasted something in the air. A different aroma than the water and the natural scents of the forest. It was pack animals and someone cooking. He led Freja in that direction and after another few minutes they saw light in the distance and heard the sounds of a group of people laughing and talking.

A deep hardy voice said loudly. “And you should have seen him. Swore up and down he could push the cart out of the mud then I turned around and turned back just to see him sunk in…”

“W-wait wait. You hear that?”  A second man said.

“Don’t stop the story just because you're embarrassed.” The first man said. 

“No, seriously you hear that?” A woman’s voice this time.

Bjorn and Freja got down low peeking from behind one of the bushes. They saw a small caravan, three horse-drawn carts in a semi-circle and six people huddled around a fire. They were settled in a small clearing beside a road. 

“Aye, we know you're out there might as well come out.” The woman said. “Yeah, you, behind the bushes.”

“You can see whoever it is.” The first guy asked.

“They ain't exactly masters of stealth over there.” The woman said.

Bjorn didn’t know what to do, the people didn’t seem hostile, none of them even got up from their seats. Freja took a breath and stood up Bjorn followed suit. The group all turned to face the newcomers as they walked out of the brush.

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