Baby and Time

Alex watched as John limped away before he finally observed his breast plate. The hit plate was bent out of shape and the dispenser below it was trashed.

Alex took this as a sign, to prioritize skill above physical attributes. Had he faced someone like Bullseye, he could have been seriously injured or even killed.

Alex then proceeded to look at his stats for the first time in a while.

[ Stats ]

Name: Alex Smith

Age: 16

Species: Juvenile Halfling

Rank: 1

Level: 6 (33.47%)

Strength: 6

Agility: 6

Endurance: 6

Energy: Locked

Skills: Intermediate Martial Arts lvl 10, Intermediate Espionage lvl 10, Intermediate Parkour lvl 10, Intermediate Projectile Throwing lvl 10 and Intermediate Swordsmanship lvl 3.

Qp: 323,976

Alex wasn't shocked by the maxed leveled skills, he felt them reach their peak during the course of his several fights.

His Martial Arts and Espionage maxed out while he was discreetly dealing with the guards. His Projectile Throwing was maxed out when he hit John's rifle with the shuriken.

The dangerous situation, the range of the throw and the response time after he was hit as well as the throwing angle was responsible for this.

His Parkour was maxed out due to Alex using his grappling hooks to aid his maneuvers as well as dodging the grenade midair.

Alex didn't accept his quest rewards because he'd have to bear the pain of the addition of five levels. He planned on accepting it when he was in the safety of his base.

Even though he just had a life threatening fight and was shot. Dragon wasn't really injured so he decided to deal with a few more lowlifes before he turned in for the night.

Dragon went on what the criminal community would soon call a rampage. He only used Dragonfang to demolish 18 more strongholds that night.

Two were even burnt to the ground when he found heaps of drugs in one and girls huddled up in the basement of the other.

This night he really struck fear into the hearts of criminals, he used only a sword to cut through over 300 people. The lucky ones only would only have large scars on their bodies.

The unlucky ones would have to learn to live without fingers or in extreme cases without a hand. All of Brooklyn's hospitals were flooded with patients tonight.

On the other hand Alex managed to reach level 7 as well as max out his Intermediate Swordsmanship after he managed to cut through a bullet. He was hit by dozens before he was finally able to but he did it nonetheless.

When Alex made it to his base and removed his armor he was appalled by what he saw. There was a large disgusting looking bruise on his left chest and dozens of relatively small purple bruises scattered across his body.

Alex sat on the floor and before the adrenaline wore off he accepted his quest rewards. Immediately he felt his body temperature rise, he felt like the blood flowing through his body was boiling.

He felt pain in literally every cell in his body, it was almost enough to drive him crazy. Luckily(Depends on your perspective) it only lasted one minute, Alex picked himself up off the floor an wiped the drool from his mouth before he checked his stats again.

He wasn't pleased with what he saw though, instead of reaching level 12 he was at level 10. Fortunately his Exp was still there but it couldn't be used currently.

Just as he was about to inquire about it he heard a sound that made him shudder. A new quest was issued, Alex gulped before he begrudgingly checked it.

[ New Quest Issued]

[ Prepare for your evolution. Part 1 of 2.]

[ Conditions: vast amount of nutrients is required for your evolution, source and prepare them to your liking within 48 hours.]

[ Progess: 0.00%]

[ Rewards: 7 new skills]

Alex dropped his guard when he saw how easy the conditions were, immediately he went online to a website where you could order fresh meat. He selected two cows before checking the mission progress.

Where he only saw it increase to 10%, he ordered another one but saw no increase so he added two pigs and it increased some more. So he ordered two if everything from sheep's and goats all the way down to quails.

But even after ordering samples from all of their farm animals he saw no increase after 25% so he switched to seafood. Where he proceeded to order everything from whole tunas to small lake and river fish but even then that only got him to 40%.

So he moved on to wild game, luckily he managed to find most of the available animals. He bought one of each from elks to rabbits he even found a man offering an entire black bear which he bought. He even overnighter an alligator from Florida which finally brought everything to 45%, the final 5% was filled with various vegetables.

Because all of what Alex ordered was fresh and had to be shipped from several different states it costed him more than $50,000 but that was an insignificant cost to him.

Dragon Technologies was on the rise, new orders and contracts were coming in often. Alex got richer and richer each day.

Looking at the time Alex went to bed and slept for 10 hours, it was the first time he slept that long since he started increasing his stats. When he woke up he saw that all of his vegetables and most of his ordered meat had arrived.

The only hold up was the bear, but it'd arrive in two hours at most. As the food arrived the completion progress increased to 79%, the bear would make it 80% and when they were all cooked the quest would be completed.

The bear arrived earlier than expected, just as Alex was about to head into the base the bear arrived. Apparently the man only killed the bear when he got the order, with the final piece ready Alex ordered the drones to cook all of the food except the extra cow.

As the drones de-boned the meat Alex felt like the bones were necessary too so he got them to make a bone soup with all of the bones, beaks, horns and teeth. It took four hours for all of it to be prepared.

Alex then got another quest

[ New Quest Issued]

[Prepare for your evolution. Part 2 of 2 ]

[ Conditions: yourself with the nutrients and undergo the evolution. ]

[ Rewards: 7 new skills ]

Alex had all of the prepared food moved to the Blast box. This was a recently constructed box made of two feet thick polycarbonate plastic. It had a door and air vents that opened and closed but there was no weak spots in this box.

Alex had a faint premonition that things were going to be bad but he had to do it here and now. Otherwise it would happen out in his lab or worse yet, out in public.

Steeling his resolve he stripped down to his boxers and looked at himself, he was 6 feet tall and weighed 190lbs. He had blue eyes and wavy black hair, his skin was white and flawless and his teeth were perfect. His face still had a little baby fat left that gave him a youthful appearance.

He looked at himself like this might be the last time he'd ever see himself before stepping into the box and closing it. He sat for a while waiting to hear the notification sound but instead he felt a familiar warmth, he sat still in anticipation as the barrier that blocked whatever it was that called to him crumbled.

Alex felt energy slowly seep into his heart, he felt warm and comfortable for the time being at least. As the energy seeped into his heart after a while it went from comfort to slight pain to extreme pain to finally pain that had him spasming on the floor.

While this was happening his vision changed, instead of the marble walls of his base he saw purple lightning constantly flashing. He was still in pain he just wasn't in control of his body anymore.

Alex could feel the pain in his heart but it felt somewhat distant, after looking around he realized why. He was in a new body floating around this mysterious place filled with lightning.

Alex was entranced by the places beauty his attention was caught by the flashing lightning when he felt a shock. It was strong but not debilitating, he was shocked by lightning but before he could finish process the pain and think about where he was, he was struck again.

The frequency of the lightning strikes increased until eventually he was constantly being struck. As time passed and more attacks landed on him. The amount of electricity passing through Alex's body at any moment kept increasing.

At first the pain was unbearable for Alex but as time passed the pain receded slowly. It was weird because he was getting struck by more bolts of lightning with each passing second.

After an unknown amount of time passed, every single bolt of lightning in this space was striking Alex. In the beginning all Alex felt was pain but now all he felt was warmth and acceptance.

More time passed and the lightning was slowly absorbed by Alex and stored in his heart. When all of the energy was absorbed all that was left behind in this mysterious space was a purple egg.

Alex's heart an the egg pulsed at the same time, they were connected and perfectly in sync. White energy was flowing out of Alex and into the egg and purple lightning was flowing out of the egg and into Alex.

Alex nodded at the egg and a purple energy door formed before him and he walked through it. When he arrived on the other side he was back in his real body.

When he looked around the box was a mess, all of the food containers and pots were scattered and there was some form of mysterious and foul smelling liquid in the box. All of a sudden Alex froze, upon looking closer all of the pots were bigger than him.

He immediately looked at himself and saw shiny golden scales, golden claws, golden wings and a tail. He wasn't too shocked, he knew he was slowly evolving into a Dragon and he was fine with that, however he wasn't fine with being tiny.

Alex sensed his body for a bit before he found the way so shift into human form. However this time everything around him felt a bit smaller, he looked at his body and realized why.

Previously he was 6 feet tall, now he was 6 feet 2 inches tall. His muscles grew slightly larger but he was a hell of a lot more ripped now. Previously he had a 6 pack, now he had an 8 pack.

All of his muscle groups were mostly visible, he looked like he didn't have an ounce of fat on him and that was indeed the case. He observed himself for a while before the foul odor made itself known and Alex swiftly left the box.

He got dressed and immediately checked his stats.

[ Stats ]

Name: Alex Smith

Age: 16

Species: Golden Dragon (Baby)

Rank: 1

Level: 1

Strength: 1 ( worth twice previously amount & 2 times the current amount in Dragon form.)

Agility: 1 ( Same as Strength)

Endurance: 1( Same as Strength)

Energy: 1000

Skills: Dragon Instinct*, Dragon Senses*, Dragon Breath*, Magic Heart*, Elemental Affinity (Lightning)*, Cloud Steps* and Transformation*, Etc.

Qp: 423,976

Alex was shocked by the increase in strength, he then checked his new skills

Dragon Instinct: The wielder of this skill is granted enhanced reflexes and a sense of forewarning.

Dragon Senses: The wielder of this skill is granted the heightened senses of a Dragon.

Dragon Breath: The wielder of this skill is capable of breathing Fire or a hybrid element of Fire and their natural element.

Magic Heart: The wielder of this skill has bonded his heart with the core of a magical dimension forming a symbiotic Master/Servant relationship. The dimension's element is chosen based on the wielder's Elemental Affinity.

Elemental Affinity (Lightning): The wielder of this skill is granted the ability to control natural lighting or lighting fused with the wielder's magic energy.

Cloud Steps: You are a Dragon, the heavens pave a path for you. The wielder of this skill is granted the ability to make two steps midair.

Transformation: The wielder of this skill is granted the ability to switch between human form and Dragon form.

Alex saw something that stood out, It was his Magic Heart skill. If a magical dimension submitted to him that meant his affinity for magic would be monstrous. Then something clicked for him, he finally found his path.

He'd fuse magic and technology, that would be his way foward. But he'd have to learn how to utilize his magic power first.

The only thing he wasn't satisfied with was being classified as a baby, but he was satisfied with the rest so he took a sample of the liquid in the blast box and had A.N.G.I scan it.

Meanwhile he looked at himself in the mirror and was even more shocked than when he saw his eight pack. He shed all of his remaining baby fat so his face was more angular, his blue eyes now had a faint purple outline around his pupil that he could pass off as light refraction.

His teeth also saw some change, his canines grew slightly longer and much sharper. His teeth were now a shiny pure white instead of pearly white, indicating their hardness.

Overall he had a perfect yet smug face that women loved, but it was also the kind of face most men wanted to punch. His hair didn't change appearance but Alex could tell that it was stronger than before.

A.N.G.I soon finished the analysis and other than some stuff his body shed( fat and impurities) the remainder was water and the nutrients his body didn't need.

Alex had her figure out what his body did take since he couldn't go back to eating normal food, it would affect his performance.

Time flew quickly two months passed and Alex/Dragon noticed a huge drop in crime. So he decided that it was time to move on to the next phase of his plan.