When I woke up the next day Yarm was laying next to me. Looking up I saw that the sun was just barely coming up. ‘Why can’t I get a good rest. Oh well, I guess that this would be a good time to level up skills. Or at least to see if I can figure out a good way to train them. Maybe grab some food for Yarm’. Getting up I stretched, several of my scales had broken from when Mom beat me up. But it seems like she didn’t want to eat Yarm right now. my scales were still mostly broken right now, I looked more like a deformed boar than a dragon.

‘Well I won’t be hunting much today, I would rather not get my scales shattered’. So instead of hunting through the morning, I went over to the large stone wall. I had wanted to get more skills for a while but always found hunting more enticing. I was going to try and climb now. Looking down at my paws though, they were not made for climbing. All of my toes did have joins, but I don’t think I can climb rocks right now. Instead I would have to do with climbing up a tree.

Going to the nearest tree I sank my claws into it. Slowly I started to climb the tree, managing to get all of my feet off the ground, but when I tried to keep climbing I fell to the ground instantly. ‘Let's just keep trying, repetition is the mother of learning’. So I spent the next hour or so climbing the tree. By the time I noticed Yarm waking up I had gotten about seven feet up the tree and fell down, earning more bruises.

Yarm made her way towards me lazily as I kept trying and failing to climb any higher than that. I didn’t stop climbing to greet her though. Instead I waited for her to say what she wanted to. “Um, Mr. Glen would you happen to have any food stored that I can have?”. I blinked a couple of times. Falling backwards to the ground I got up and said “well no I don’t. I will go find something for you quickly”.

‘Yarm is useless to me if she starves, best I find something for her’. Quickly I thought of another skill I could try to learn. As I walked through the forest I saw a jackalope. Quickly I sprinted as fast as possible, even putting some mana into it. I caught the jackalope right after it noticed me, snapping its head off with my teeth. ‘This is a good time to check out my STATUS’.

When I noticed checked the status screen I saw two additional skills. These were Climbing level 2 and Sprinting level 1. Happily, I roared, realizing that my morning hadn’t been wasted on useless things. Afterwards I got a notification from the system.

[Congratulations the rank 1 skill Roar has reached level five. Would you like to evolve the skill into rank 2 Yes/No?]. I blinked a few times, wondering when this happened before selecting yes. Suddenly a couple of options appeared to me. The two that stood out to me were [Rallying Shout] and [Frenzying Roar].

In all honesty, the rallying shout would be useless to me. It would just give any ally’s who heard my roar my current location. On the other hand, when I used Frenzying Roar it would lower my intelligence. It wasn't just a downside though as I would gain increased pain resistance, lowered fear and lastly, my strength would increase all of it would get better as I leveled the skill. ‘This skill sounds great but, there is the lowered intelligence… well to be honest though if those buffs get strong enough than not being able to keep my head on tight all the times would be ok. Fine, because Rallying Shout will not always be usfull I will pick Frenzying Roar’.

With a tap from my snout the skill was acquired. I suddenly felt the mana that surrounds me change. Near my head it felt a little bit more like static. ‘I guess that my Frenzy needs mana, that is great. I am going to need to get a lot more mana than I have on hand’.

Now that I was satisfied with my little hunt for jackalopes I went back to the nest. “Took you a while, need any healing your grace”. I threw the Jackalope at her for that snide remark. “You have food now, you can bug me again if you need more later”. Now it was time for me to keep training.

‘Alright, time to test out this frenzying roar’. I took in a deep breath, feeling the mana get sucked inside, I let out a roar. Suddenly I lost my ability to think straight. I snapped at the air, growling in confusion and looking around, it felt as if something was squeezing my brain between their fingers, it made me angry.

‘Weird… feel weird, want thoughts, can’t think, can't think… not hungry, not thirsty. What I want?... I want everything!!!’. I roared several more times, I wanted everything. At least I felt like I did until my mana ran out. Stumbling to keep standing I got a small headache. ‘I guess that frenzy makes me think less… I do want more than I have though. I want to keep my siblings safe. I want to kill the goblins and I will create a massive hoard! Until I have that nothing will be enough. Lastly I will become the king of this forest and devour my enemies!!!’.

With those thoughts in my head, I continued my training, climbing until I was too tired to climb. By then my mana had returned and I used heated scales until I ran out of mana. After that, I ran until my mana was back and I rinsed and repeated until it was nightfall and I was exhausted.

After that I went back to the nest and laid down. Drifting peacefully to sleep and dreaming. As I dreamed I saw myself as a giant red dragon, burning the forest to the ground.