The small dragon walked out of his cave, ‘I need more XP to level up.’
As an experienced player, Vesuvius knew about the conditions to get powerful titles, but with his current level, he was too weak to safely accomplish them.
‘Hunting weak animals in the forest is too slow luckily, I spotted some goblins last time. That means that there should be their settlement somewhere in the forest. There should be a lot of them, and with their crude weapons, there is only a small risk.’
Vesuvius flapped his wings, lifting up from the ground before he flew in direction of the forest. He spread his wings wide, using wind currents to float with minimal effort.
‘They were forest goblins, and they like to build their settlements up in the trees. Normally it would be hard to find them, but with my senses, I only need to find a trace of their smell to track them down.’
Vesuvius made a few circles above the forest, but he didn’t notice anything like a goblin settlement from above. So he found a place where he hatched, and from there he flew to the approximate location where he spotted goblins last time.
He sniffed, but he didn’t catch any goblin smell, so he started to walk in a random direction while stopping to sniff every minute.
After thirty minutes of searching, he finally caught a whiff of a goblin smell. Then he determined a direction by checking to which side the smell got weaker and, therefore, older.
‘Finally, I was starting to fear that I wouldn’t find any.’
The small dragon started to follow the path like a dog, trailing it between trees and through the shrubs.
“Ugaga bugaga!” he caught a weak goblin voice from somewhere in the distance.
The small dragon immediately abandoned the smell he was trailing and sprinted in a direction of the voice. He was avoiding all twigs and shrubs, not making any sound.
He got close to a place from where he heard that voice. With his perfect dragon sight, he easily noticed a spear poking out of a nearby shrub.
He grinned, carefully closing the distance before he jumped directly to the shrub.
“Baga!” a surprised goblin stabbed its spear towards the small dragon. A spear slid at the dragon’s scales and snapped into two. Vesuvius swung his clawed limb, cutting through the shrub and goblin.
[+60XP]
Vesuvius wiped his claws covered in green blood to a bush.
‘I must be getting close. This one was probably a perimeter guard.’
The bustle of sounds accompanied by a plethora of smells like cooked meat came from the south. He spread his wings, launching himself above the trees. Flapping his wings, he flew closely above the trees, which was harder as there were no air currents to help him.
p As he flew, voices kept getting louder ad louder. Soon, he spotted what he was looking for. A small wooden structure camouflaged by twigs and leaves poking out of a tree.
‘Found you!… I need to remove all of the leaves at first.’
The small dragon flying above the trees opened his mouth, and a stream of bright flames intensified by wind flew out towards the trees under him. Leaves and twigs immediately caught aflame before turning into cinders.
[+50XP]
[+40XP]
“Ugaga!”
“Baga!”
[+40XP]
Panicked voices came from trees. Vesuvius flapped his wings, flying in a circle while spitting a stream of fire at the trees under him. Soon whole trees caught aflame, and all of the leaves burned away, giving him a clear view.
Goblins were running all over the place. Some grabbed their weapons while others ran away or tried to put down the flames.
Vesuvius spotted a group of three goblins close to each other. He opened his mouth and released another stream of flames. Flames descended upon the trio of goblins, setting them on fire.
[+50XP]
[+60XP]
[+40XP]
The spear flew, hitting the dragon to his stomach and harmlessly bounced off. Then another spear flew, hitting him on his hind leg.
‘I will not land. There are too many of them down there. One of them could hit me into an eye or other weak spot.’
Vesuvius flapped his wings, mowing towards a goblin standing on a simple wooden platform on a tall tree. Goblin crouched down, but Vesuvius flew about him without stopping and stabbed with his sharp protrusion on his tail, impaling the goblin.
[+60XP]
Goblin remained impaled on the dragon’s tail. Vesuvius shook his tail, and the lifeless body of the goblin fell down.
Vesuvius flapped his wings and swept above another goblin, cutting it with his sharp claws on his leg.
[+50XP]
“Crackle!” electricity cracked, and an arc of lightning shot from a staff-wielding goblin. Arc hit the dragon, and even though most of the damage was neutralised by the dragon’s scales, some electricity still passed through. The dragon’s muscles spasmed, and he lost control over his muscles for a few moments, quickly plummeting towards the ground.
[+40XP] flames still kept wreaking havoc between goblins on trees.
Vesuvius quickly recovered and flapped his wings, stabilising himself mid-air. Enraged, he spewed a stream of fire toward the staff-wielding goblin. Goblins jumped into his flames, trying to shield their shaman. Fire immediately engulfed all three of them, turning them into charred corpses.
[+90XP]
[+70XP]
[+60XP]
More spears came, but they snapped or bounced off the dragon’s scales. He turned towards a wooden structure hanging from a tree that was already on fire. A stream of fire landed on the structure, enveloping it in flames.
[+50XP]
[+30XP]
[+50XP]
‘My mana is dropping fast… I need to wrap this up.’
Goblins kept moving chaotically as they kept running in all directions. Vesuvius flew down, maneuvering between trees as he closed on the two goblins. He prepared his claws and cut off their head without stopping when he flew above them.
[+60XP]
[+50XP]
Vesuvius’s senses alerted him above unusual air movement, so he sharply flew upwards. An extremely fast-flying spear covered in lightning passed under him, narrowly missing him.
There was a large two meters tall goblin with lightning tendrils all around its body.
“Graaah!” Vesuvius roared, accepting the challenge as his dragon instincts overtook him.