NOVEL NEXT New World, Dumb Cave.
Note: Apologies for the delay, my job caused delays on my own writing schedule. Next chapter is coming, albeit a bit late.
Scarlet woke up slowly, the grogginess that filled her body slowly clearing. The cold stone floor soothed her body as warm sunlight reflected off the pool’s surface causing her scales to glitter. She uncurled her new body and stretched wings and tail unfurling, during this stretch she let out a loud yawn before smacking her lips, “Ah, feels like I just got a massage.”
She yawned again, her maw opening to reveal a sharp set of teeth. It was strange to Scarlet how different this new body was, but at the same time it felt as if she’d always had it.
Blinking a few times to remove the last of her sleepiness, Scarlet stared around her new territory and home, ‘Huh, this isn’t half bad.’
The cave she was in was mostly sparse, devoid of anything except a few stalagmites on the floor and hundreds of stalactites on the ceiling. It was also fairly large, even in her new form she could tell dozens of like-sized dragons could live in this space without it feeling crowded.
There were only three things of major note. The first being the half-dozen tunnel entrances leading either deeper or out of this mountain. Second was the large opening that provided the cave with sunlight, a perfect size for her to fly in and out of the cave in a pinch. Lastly there was the large pond that sat below the opening, it was surprisingly deep, enough where Scarlet couldn’t see the bottom, but the pond was also beautiful in a way, little gemstones adorning the waters and sparkling under the sunlight.
Scarlet walked up to the pond, bowing her head low to take a nice cool drink before going back to her observations, “Pretty nice overall, but it can use some work. I’ll definitely have to map out the tunnel system, maybe block a few of them off until I can explore them fully. Plenty of space for later upgrades or little additions, just wish the tunnels were larger.”
The seven openings that she saw in the cave were all far too small for her dragon form, she’d likely have to transform to the humanoid version to make it through, but Scarlet didn’t want to do that. What she wanted was to test out her new wings, go on a flight through some clear skies and enjoy the world below her.
‘Locals might be a bit scared when they see me, but that’ll be fine. I’ll just do a quick flight, one lap around the mountain then come back.’ Scarlet had of course originally wanted to stay hidden, but something about her new body just felt as if it needed to fly. Unfurling her wings she took slow but power flaps, her body slowly lifting from the ground, “This is pretty easYEH!”
She fell back to the ground hard, crushing a few stalagmites while dozens of stalactites fell from the ceiling. She had gotten overexcited, the moment her feet left the ground she had done a strong push with her wings, sending her directly into the ceiling, "Ow…you think being a dragon something like this wouldn’t hurt much.”
“Okay, this time keep it gentle, not too much, not too little, just enough to carry yourself across the lake.” She started off gently barely getting enough lift to take her from the ground before moving to the opening above the lake, ‘Steady Scarlet, just keep yourself stable and you’ll do gr-’
She was halfway over the lake when it happened, one of the stalactites from the ceiling came down directly on her left wing, sending diving into the lake with a loud splash. Spitting out some of the water Scarlet glared at the ceiling, there were still hundreds of the little traps waiting for her to try again, likely to strike her down the second she began.
Dragging herself from the lake she sighed as her body’s yearn for the clear skies would have to wait, “Guess I won’t be flying until I can clear these damn things out of here.”
While her wish for exploration through the air was gone, she still had her other form, she just needed to know how to change into it. She remembered the goddess’s words from earlier, and tried to summon the blue screen, her status once more, “Status!”
With it appearing the moment those words left her lips. She was taken aback by what she saw.
[ Name: Scarlet Garnier Race: Silver Dragoness Sex: Futanari
Titles: Reincarnator, Holy Dragon, Saintess of Amia
Job: None
Job History: None
Stats:
HP: 889/895
MP: 72/72 SP: 443/453Vitality: 326 Intelligence: 26 Endurance: 221 Charisma: 20
Strength: 243 Wisdom: 20 Dexterity: 11 Luck: 5
Active Skills: Flight Lv 1
Passive Skills: Dragon Tongue Lv 1, Dragon Eyes Lv 1, Dragon Ears Lv 1,
Dragon Scales Lv 1
Unique Skills: Blessing of Amia, Form (1/2), Territory
Traits: Dragoness, Futanari, Genius Magician, Master Trainer, Lion’s Heart ]
“Wow, okay that’s a lot to take in.” It was like a system in those videogames she saw, she hadn’t played many, but a few of the more… adult oriented had interested her enough to take a gander.
She was quite surprised at the sheer scale of it all, normally that stats would always start at ten, but hers were in the hundreds. At the same time for not picking any skills she had quite a few of them.
Scarlet decided to explore this status fully later on though, for now she wanted, no practically needed to explore the world, and she knew her ‘Form’ skill would let her access that.
With a single thought she activated the skill, her body going through a magical process of change. It began with a simple magical mist, appearing from nowhere and surrounding herself completely, for just a moment, before vanishing just as quickly to reveal her new human form, unfortunately said form was completely bare to the world.
Scarlet immediately began to examine her new body, her hands sliding across herself to examine it. With the pool providing a perfect point for reflection Scarlet could only say one thing, “Man, Amia knows what she’s doing.”
Gone were the days of wear and tear, instead what she saw was a reflection of motherly beauty, wide hips, large breasts, and an elegantly mature face. The only thing that took away from this motherly physique was the monster Amia had spawned between her legs, just staring at herself had caused it to harden slightly, and while Scarlet desperately wanted to test it out, now wasn’t the time.
‘Okay, start from the closest entrance, mark any branching paths, explore each one, and maybe I’ll make it out before nighttime comes.’ Scarlet thought to herself, wishing that the night wouldn’t come before she made it out. Already her body was beginning to shiver from the cold pool and stone floor. With nothing to cover herself she decided to just start the journey, taking a few steps before stopping kneeling as a sharp pain flared from the side of her leg.
Looking down Scarlet could see one of the broken stalactite shards had cut her leg, causing it to bleed. She took a sharp breath while muttering to herself, “How in the hell? I don’t know how strong they are, but shouldn’t my stats have prevented this?” deciding to immediately pull up the status screen, and once more be shocked by its contents.
[ Name: Scarlet Garnier Race: Silver Dragoness Sex: Futanari
Titles: Reincarnator, Holy Dragon, Saintess of Amia
Job: None
Job History: None
Stats:
HP: 70/86 MP: 72/72 SP: 67/69
Vitality: 32 Intelligence: 26 Endurance: 22 Charisma: 40
Strength: 24 Wisdom: 20 Dexterity: 33 Luck: 5
Active Skills: Flight Lv 1
Passive Skills: Dragon Tongue Lv 1, Dragon Eyes Lv 1, Dragon Ears Lv 1
Dragon Scales Lv 1
Unique Skills: Blessing of Amia, Form (2/2), Territory Tracker
Traits: Dragoness, Futanari, Genius Magician, Master Trainer, Lion’s Heart ]
“What?” Her stats, ones that once rained in the hundreds, had lowered by a tremendous amount, even one of her skills were disabled. She looked around the cave floor, seeing the thousands of rock shards now littering it, letting out a small curse under her breath as she transformed back into a dragon.
Her claws once more racked across the stone floor, with her boosted defense preventing any other injuries. At the same time the pain had died down significantly, but Scarlet could only focus on her stupidity, “Ahh dammit, what am I supposed to do?”
If she had just stayed careful, examined the cave and tried to exit out of it first she would be fine, but now she was practically trapped in a cage entirely of her own making.
She racked her brain trying to figure out a solution to the puzzle, “Clear the ceiling before flying out? No, I’d starve before I’d escape. Could I just clean out the shards in this cave and then travel through it? No, likely there’d be dozens of shards out of my reach, I’d just waste time.” Scarlet paced back and forth for nearly an hour wondering just how to solve this situation before slouching in defeat, “Ah who am I kidding, it’d take either a genius or a god to fix this.” She was silent for a few seconds, her mind slowly processing what she said, “Wait that's it! I can call Amia.”
She wasn’t sure exactly how to approach calling Amia, but it was worth a shot. Scarlet cleared a space on the floor, her hands raised to the heavens before shouting, “Goddess Amia! Your lone saint has gotten herself trapped. Grant me a sign of how I can escape this damn cave!” Small echoes of her plea bounced off the cavern walls, practically mocking her for the stupidity of trying to call the goddess with a simple plea, “Figured, well time to get started on destroying the stalactites then, if I don’t starve, I should escape… eventually.”
She turned to one of the nearby walls, walking to it before leaning against the stone surface. Her arms stretching to pluck the first of hundreds of these stone spikes down. Before she could grab a second one though, a brilliant golden light enveloped the cave, causing Scarlet to freeze in place.
Slowly the light faded, replaced with two golden screens floating in front of Scarlet, each with a mission on it for her. Missions that once accomplished would allow her free access to the outside world.
