(3rd person PoV)
(When returning to the Hearth Manor, at 9 years and 3 months old)
"Granny Hestia! I want to update my falna!" Nephelont busted down the door to Hestia's bedroom, too excited to care about the beauty sleep of the goddess.
"Huh?! What?! Is the world ending?!" Hestia woke up scared from the sudden noise.
"No!" Nephelont was still too cheerful to realize what he had done, or to care if he did notice. He turned his back to the bleary-eyed goddess who gathered her wits for a moment before starting to update the little guy's falna.
(Line Break)
(AN: For those wondering, his status was maxed out by the time he ranked up. Fighting the monster and the infant dragon, coupled with the empowerment from its heart, has pushed him to the maximum of his parameters on his Lv.1 sheet. Also, this sheet has the cumulative active effort of over a year and a half and the empowerment of over 40 wyvern hearts to back it up)
Name: Nephelont Cranel
Familia: Hestia Familia
Level: 2
STR: I0 --> A897
END: I0 --> A820
DEX: I0 --> S948
AGI: I0 --> S998
MAG: I0 --> A899
Magic:
Dragon Heart Magic
Ariel
Skills:
Drakókardi (Greek for Dragonheart):
(Corrupt text description)
Drakónteia Thysía (Greek for Draconic Sacrifice):
(Corrupt text description)
Evlogía tou Aiólos
(Line Break)
"So it was the case!" Hestia exclaimed. It was something they expected since Nephelont first displayed draconic traits. Of course! Why were they ever doubtful of it?!
"What is?" Nephelont asked while humming his favorite melody. It was from a lullaby Ais hums for him when he could not sleep as easily.
"The names of your first and second skills have appeared!" Hestia started jumping from joy.
"Whoa! WHOA!!" Nephelont also started jumping from joy. Scratch that, he started flying in circles at dizzying speeds.
(After the excitement calmed down a bit)
"Ahem!" Hestia coughed into her closed fist, acting as if she was calm and collected this entire time. The knowing look Nephelont gave her was not helping. "Although the names are the only things that appear to be readable, we could try to understand some of the descriptions from the name. Skills are names after what they do, after all"
Nephelont stopped the knowing look and sat down, listening very attentively.
"The first skill's name is {Dragonheart}. I think this one is the one responsible for all the powers you displayed beside your affinity with the wind" Hestia said.
"And why is that? What does the other skill do, then?" Nephelont was puzzled. If the first skill did everything, what was the use of another one?
"Don't dismiss the other skill so quickly. We will know it once the description clears up, but its name sounds dangerous even without interpretation, {Draconic Sacrifice}. A sacrifice made by a dragon, and you are the holder of the skill, a dragon. I don't know what the price of the sacrifice is, or what it represents, but one thing is clear. Try not to use it when you feel like you would activate it by sacrificing something. Its name is ominous" Hestia got the goosebumps from that skill. If her guess was right, which she believes to be the case here, then this skill would cut his life short. How much would it take from his life? For what purpose? Nobody knew yet, not even the holder of the skill.
"Now! Unto your development abilities!" Hestia said with excitement. The sheer amount of excitement in her demeanor bled into Nephelont's, shifting his attention away from his second skill.
"Development abilities!" Nephelont threw his hands into the air in excitement... They were both too excited... again...
"Two of them appeared here! The first is Hunter! The development ability you worked so hard for has appeared!" Yep, there was no stopping all that jumping.
(After unloading most of the excitement)
"The second one is called Eidolon. I don't know what it does, but even if I did, I'd still recommend Hunter. You can't get Hunter later, but Eidolon would remain here on the next rank up" Hestia was still giddy. Their little bunny got what he worked for, and the sight of his bright smile made her shed a happy tear.
Nephelont agreed with her, picking Hunter.
(At 10 years old)
"Oh, come on!" Henryk was pulling Nephelont by the arms. "It's been a whole year since you said you'd meet my kids!" No matter how hard he pulled, Nephelont did not budge. Well, he was not going all out anyway.
"No! Golden Bunny is my friend!" Eucleia, who was pulling from the other side, was not helping. She started wanting to be Nephelont's only friend after Amber had some free time to dote on him instead of letting him play with Eucleia. She did not want him to have even more friends, even more people to take their time together away from them.
"Crimson bunny, we can all be friends!" Nephelont, who was caught between the two, was genuinely okay with meeting those new friends. He just could not turn to dust now. His gut feeling told him not to.
"Then Lia will be your best friend!" As she uttered those words, she thought of how close they would have been if she was the same dragon as he was. And just like that, Eucleia's body shifted to that of a dragon much too similar to Nephelont's.
Now, Nephelont was hanging from one arm while Henryk was clinging to his other arm. As for Eucleia, the size of her dragon form was like Nephelont's current size in the same form. Their dragon forms were now as high as three Ottars stacked on top of each other. When standing, they were as tall as around five Ottars stacked on top of each other.
"My... daughter... *thus*" Hephaistos said with a shaking voice before passing out.
"Hephaistos?!" Welf, having seen her through the still-open door, rushed over. "What... happened..." He was stunned to silence. Before him, he saw his daughter transform. He recognized her with her eyes. There were none as cute, but that was not the point right now. Her eyes were foggy, as if she was in a trance.
"LIA!!" He called her.
Whatever trance she was in, her father's loud voice snapped her out of it.
"Huh?!" She started looking around, shocked by how small everything had suddenly become.
"Crimson bunny is also a dragon!" Nephelont was saying as he assumed dragon form as well.
The differences between them were few. One such difference is that Nephelont was always displaying four wings, but Eucleia has only two. Another is their color. While Nephelont's scales were both a gravel-scale layer and another transparent layer of crystal scales over it, Eucleia's outer layer of scales was shimmering with different colors occasionally.
That was pretty much it, besides a negligible difference in height in Eucleia's favor.
Well, Nephelont did not know why, but his happiness was tinged with a small amount of a bittersweet feeling. He was genuinely happy regardless. He now has another person like him around. He can play so many different and new games with her now.
Eucleia's massive frame collapsed to the ground once instinct stopped guiding her movement. She was not prepared to be digitigrade. Having to balance solely on her toes knocked her off balance.
Nephelont, innocently mind you, was still standing on his hind legs and looking expectantly at Eucleia.
"Crimson bunny, you could do this! Walking on your hind legs is easy!" He tried his best to cheer her on, not knowing that his pure attempt almost made it worse.
Hearing Nephelont's words and not wanting everyone's image of her to be painted as a girl with so little control over her body she could not walk on her own, her skill activated. She struggled for a few seconds as she picked herself up and learned to balance on such little footing. Although a little wobbly, she was now standing on her own again.
"Let's go somewhere alone! You might need a change of clothes!" Welf said urgently. Assuming that, like Nephelont, she could return to a mostly human form, his palpitating heart gradually calmed down.
"... !" Looking down, Eucleia was mortified. She just realized that, like Nephelont, her new form rips her clothes apart when she transforms. The patches of torn clothing scattered around her confirmed it for her. "AAAAAA!!" She dissipated into gravelstone dust.
There was an entire go- no, dragon chase through the day, with Nephelont searching for and finding Eucleia using the wind as his limbs to feel around. Eucleia would then dissipate again and escape somewhere else to try to assume human form again. The moment she figured it out, she teleported directly back to their room and locked the door.
'Lia... should never become a dragon again...' She was blushing heavily, embarrassed about many things that she saw normally before this day. She did not want to be nude in public like that, and she came to never look at Nephelont's dragon form the same ever again.
After calming down, Eucleia expressed her desire not to assume dragon form again to avoid ripping her clothes off every time it happens. Her secret (not so secret) desire to assume the form without her clothes being destroyed, coupled with her skill activating, fueled the falna to create a new skill to fit that purpose.
(Line Break)
(Before you continue, you should know that I will divide Eucleia's status sheet into two copies. One when she ranked-up to Lv.2, and another for this chapter. The rank-up happened off-screen, having teleported a poor infant dragon for her to defeat in the frozen forest directly south of Dragon Valley. Also, she was told about her limit-breaking skill on their 10th birthday)
Name: Eucleia Crozzo
Familia: Hestia Familia
Level: 1 --> 2
STR: SS1157 --> SSS1415 --> I0
END: SSS1268 --> SSS1492 --> I0
DEX: SSS1349 --> SSS1575 --> I0
AGI: SS1011 --> SSS1404 --> I0
MAG: B784 --> SS1032 --> I0
Magic:
Sklírynsi Flóges
Skills:
Crozzo Blood
Arete Agon
(Line Break)
Name: Eucleia Crozzo
Familia: Hestia Familia
Level: 2
STR: I0 -->
END: I0 -->
DEX: I0 -->
AGI: I0 -->
MAG: I0 -->
Magic:
Sklírynsi Flóges
Skills:
Crozzo Blood
Arete Agon
Euplokia (Greek for Well-Weaving):
Clothes become part of the new form, coming back when going back to the form they were worn on.