Devon

[System Profile Scanning]

The runes started to rearrange.

[System Profile:]

• Level: 1

• Class: Draconic Swordsman

• Race: Human

• HP: 150 / 150

• Dragon Bond Slots: 1 / 5

• Summons: None

• Weapons Equipped: Golden Iron Sword (Tier: SSS)

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[Core Stats]

• Strength: 17 [+5]

• Agility: 20 [+6]

• Endurance: 15 [+4]

• Intelligence: 14 [+4]

• Willpower: 19 [+6]

• Charisma: 11 [+2]

• Luck: ???

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[Dragon Codex]

Rank: Active

Progress: 1/???

Bonded Dragons:

– SSS Rank – Fire Dragon

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[Skills & Abilities]

• [Draconic Blade] – Active – Tier: E

• [Dragon Bond] – Passive – Tier: D

• [Summon: Lesser Flame Wyrmling] – Locked – Tier: ?

• [Flame Surge] – Passive – Tier: C [New]

• [Bond Vision] – Passive – Tier: D [New]

• [Heat Resistance] – Passive – Tier: A (Granted by Dragon Bond)

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[Inventory]

• Golden Iron Sword (Tier: SSS)

• Torn Cloak (Tier: F)

• System Starter Token ×1

Drahon peered at the runes more intently. He had gotten some added points to his core stats, but the thing that baffled him the most was why they were so low to begin with.

He had gotten SSS for almost everything he'd awakened since just an hour into the game, but his core stats still seemed pretty low.

Drahon might have been surprised that he got a system, but that necessarily didn't mean he didn't know about systems.

He had explored many fields of literature back at the orphanage, and if there was one type of novel he loved so much, apart from dragons, it was system novels.

The MCs he read about usually started with high numbers in stats. Like, strength would be over fifty and the rest. The lowest might be thirty or thereabout.

---

A line of towering trees stretched before them, their trunks dark and grotesque-looking.

Overall, the place looked inawed grotesque, like some horror nightmare-terrifying forest where any foul beast could sprout at you at any given time.

The branches of the trees spread out, interlocking high above, forming a sort of canopy so thick it dimmed the light.

The place where they had fought the Skeleton Monsters was without trees. Well, trees surrounded it, but then, one could see the place.

The remaining players, now reduced by three, walked into the trees, the leaves falling down at their feet. They had unsummoned (if that was a word) their dragons and were now alone.

Nevertheless, they were wary, as anything could happen here. Who knew, a skeleton might sprout out from one of the trees and attack them.

Drahon squinted his eyes and looked at the umbrella-looking branches. He was hit with a thin line of bright light straight at his face. He closed his eyes altogether and looked forward.

Other players had formed pairs and were talking to each other, leaving only the two of them.

Devon, the Demon Dragon rider, seemed bored, and Drahon too. But then, it seemed they were shy to actually start an actual conversation, and so all Devon did was occasionally steal a glance at Drahon, and the latter did the same.

Some seconds later, Drahon suddenly felt nervous. Were his horns suddenly back onto his forehead? That could also be a reason Devon was looking at him.

Drahon touched his forehead, feeling the place his horns had earlier been. Seeing nothing, he gave a sigh of relief.

When he had first awakened the Horn Shroud, he read that when in battle, it would come on. During the fight with the Skeleton Monsters, it didn't though, and thinking about it, Drahon seemed to know why.

He wasn't the one fighting. Of course, he did some fancy stuff and all that, but he wasn't actually fighting. Instead, he was using his dragon to fight. He attempted to use the sword though, but that still didn't count as a fight.

A skill had ended the fight, a combo at that. And before that was the wingbeat skill he did. And then the flame roar.

Of course, fighting on a dragon counted as a fight, and his horn ought to be out. But, that was when they actually did the fight, like using his sword to cut off a monster's head and stuff like that. That was when it actually counted.

Well, luck was on Drahon's side then, and if this was to occur (his horns suddenly on his head), he would lie it was a skill (even though it was part of who he was and what gave him the name 'Drahon').

A breezy, almost bold voice interrupted his thoughts of assumptions.

"I'm Devon, as you heard the voice say."

He was extending a hand. Drahon stopped walking and took it, beaming a smile.

"I'm Drahon, like you probably heard too."

Devon grinned and said:

"Nice to meet you, I guess."

"Thanks." Drahon replied.

An awkward silence followed, and the reason was pretty simple. This was the first time both of them were actually trying to start a conversation that would lead to friendship.

---

Devon grew up with an alcohol-addicted dad and a cigarette-addicted mother. His upbringing wasn't so pleasant, and most of the time, he was the one bringing himself up, as his parents were incompetent.

They fought every day. Devon did a daily timetable in his head for when they would fight again. All the fights were physical, with them exchanging punches every goddamn time. His father, with a bald head and large belly, was good with punches, and his mum, lanky and bony-looking, was good at kicking.

And so he grew up mostly alone, if not for their neighbor, just a stone's throw away, who came to settle the fights. For some reason, Devon expected his parents to divorce like how other 'normal' people did.

But then, they never divorced, and anytime they were back from work, they would exchange words and fight. Devon felt somewhat abandoned. His dad never played with him like his friends' fathers did, and his mum always scolded him, well, both of them actually.

He mostly stayed at the neighbor's house with their son, his age mate, who later died of an unknown illness. A week after the neighbor's son died was when his mother stabbed his father right in the chest in a fight over who was supposed to do the dishes.

Devon had run out to call for help, but someone had already phoned the police, and his mum was to be arrested.

In his painful and hopeless state was when Devon found an egg beside a wrecked and smoking car, and taking it, a portal appeared, leading to the Dragon Game.

---

"Sorry for asking this, but how old are you? Seems weird, I know," Devon said. "I'm seventeen, by the way."

Drahon too widened his gaze in surprise. Why, he was seventeen too...