Master Of None

By sitting in the sun the first slowly melted and the shudders stopped shaking Midnights' body. She regained her normal body temperature in time to see that Illia was beginning to struggle. The distance she was pushing herself was much further than that of any other dragon Midnight had seen and it left a permanent imprint in how determined dragons were to train their affinities. For a dragon, levels would come in time. But strengthening their elemental understanding and purifying their bloodline could make them much more powerful in the long run. That was how a dragon could become an ancient. Levels would not be enough. 

The scales that fell off were already showing their strength when it came to water elemental mana. The frost that formed around them did not leave them and traveled to the ground beneath them. Illia herself didn't heed these cracked scales since she knew her body would replace them with stronger ones over and over as she trained. The safety of the village gave her the ability to train to this extent without much worry. 

After another hour of watching and learning, Midnight witnessed Illia finally breathe out a deep breath of frost that precipitated in to a soft snow. The centennial ice she had in her mouth had been completely consumed and her body showed the cold ice as a sign. Unlike Midnight, Illia did not shudder after the training. She was a frost dragon and the cold was natural to her even though she had dropped herself well below what she was used to. 

"You appear to have taken the training well. For your first time, you were already ahead of where I was when I began. That is a champions' blood showing. You are lucky not to have broken scales. It seems you were very adamant about strengthening them with elemental crystals  before." 

Midnight growled a few times in response to Illia's words and praise. "And bones? Yes, that's right. Your father is a skeletal dragon. You can strengthen yourself with the bones of another creature. That would make your elemental training even smoother since the bones you eat will contain some of the mana they absorbed in their life time." The connections between this and how a dragon trained explained why skeletal dragons were thought of as very powerful wandering dragons. 

They were more of a lone wolf and would jump at any battle. The fact that they could process the mana within bones was why they were able to make leaps in strength and could survive without a village or the traditional training of dragons. It was also why they were such a rare dragon species. They did not care to join a village nor to have a partner most of the time. 

"You should use the bones of other monsters to jump in strength. Your body can grow much faster and you will properly grow in to your stats. I am sure you have noticed that you have higher stats than your family member and the lord. But that is because they are pushing your body higher than it should. For about forty levels I was not gaining a single stat point because I was pushing my body beyond the limit." This was common knowledge for most dragons when they were being raised by their parents or elders. 

The dragon blood would force them to have higher stats earlier so they could survive. It would spur their bodies to always be pushing themselves higher than they should so they would grow faster and stringer. It was one reason why the dragons were one of the oldest and most powerful races. However, it did come with a downside. 

If a dragon did not train and make their body grow in to those stats, then they would become weaker instead of stronger. It was one reason why dragons were always lower in numbers when it came to population. The power and longevity was the reason that this was not an issue for them. That and the dragonkin race was always near them assisting and growing with them. As much as they were separate races, they were connected closer than any other two races. 

The dragonkin had once been a humanoid race similar to lizards. There were lizardmen in the world but they were unintelligent monsters. They found refuge with dragons and split off from the lizardman race following and learning through generations. Once they had done so they received the blood of dragons and changed forever. This brought an unshakable loyalty that never left them. Even the dragonkin that were exiled from villages would never betray or shame the dragons. It was something that even in shame they would hold true. Loyalty was more than just a promise to a dragonkin. It was a vow.

Midnight considered this and understood that her level was capped for now because of her body's growth. It also explained why she was always hungry and needed to sleep to absorb the elemental mana crystals. Her body was weak and she was not even close to being able to properly use her stats. She may be stronger but it was just on the surface. She could not actually use that strength to properly defend her family. 

If Midnight could strengthen her body more using different elemental manas and also improve her elemental breath attacks, then she would be able to grow in to her stats. The chance of her flying sooner would also increase. 

"We have rested long enough. I hope you were able to grasp a new understanding. I expect you to be able to battle against me in a few years. I wouldn't mind saying I could defeat a champion." Illia was surprisingly playful now that she had seen Midnight was able to train the same way as her. It was a new occurrence for her. "Time for you to try and fly again. I want to see you flap your wings at least three times while you glide. You will do it ten times." Before Midnight could process the words, Illia swept her ice covered tail and knocked Midnight off the edge of the gardens and in to the air. 

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