Xing Lei was dragged from the cave out beneath the open sky, while Fleet Spear dragged him along, he had to marvel at how untouched the forest that surrounded the base of the mountain tribes home was. The towering trees stretched off into the distance, choking out the horizon in an endless sea of browns and greens. Glancing over his shoulder, Lei looked to the mountain that stood as a sole fang in the sea of trees, the towering peak stretching up into the sky casting a long shadow down over the opening below, the sun peeked from behind the tip and soon bathed the pair in its warming rays.
Fleet Spear dragged him to the edge of the forest where several more stable huts had been arranged, wooden stakes fanned out around the edge of the clearing, a simple but effective enough defensive line if you ignored the fact the huts were practically on top of the stake line. Only a handful of other reptiles were moving amongst these huts, most were either maintaining what looked like crude stone weapons while others dressed and butchered game. Xing Lei felt himself hauled into the larger tent and pushed into its depths, Fleet Spear crossed her arms across her chest and looked him over, "Okay. What do you know and what don't you?" Gone was the earlier crude speech of the cavern dwellers, rather a fluid stream of words soon graced Xing Leis ears.
"Not a lot, Keeper wouldn't answer me, and I was under the impression asking Shaman and Chieftain would not end well."
Nodding lightly Fleet Spear looked somewhat surprised, "So you're not stupid as she claimed. Most new bloods can barely speak let alone not join the chief in being a grunting animal. Makes this easier. Welcome to the Hunters, I'm in charge, as soon as you get it out of your system that you can do better, the better your life will be. There are only two rules you have to learn. The first is, the Mistress is the ultimate authority in the clan, if she likes you, you get to live until tomorrow. The second rule is, get strong but don't show off. You show off Gruck will kill you. Got that Dull Scale?"
Lei nodded lightly understanding the premise easy enough, "My name is Xing Lei, not Dull Scale."
The huntress smirked tilting her head, "Zing Lee? Now where did you come up with that kind of name for yourself?" She slowly stalked around him observing how he stood often reaching out to grab an arm and lifting to inspect his body. "Not many new bloods claim a name the afternoon they hatch. The ones that do usually break one of the two rules and end up dead by the second sun, am I wasting my time?"
Lei smiled and rolled his shoulders shaking his head, "No I understand the rules easy enough, while I'm not sure who the Mistress is, I seem to be in her favor for the moment and Gruck is a little preoccupied. So, I'm under your judge for the time being."
Fleet Spear smiled and gave a short laugh, "Alright Zing Lee. Your job will be to join us on a hunt this afternoon. I want to see what sort of new blood you are. We'll see if you have what it takes to be a hunter or whether you're just bait. Before then..." She motioned to the surroundings of the tent which were strewn with bedrolls and sleeping spots. "This is your home. Your brothers and sisters live here with you. If any of you get the urge to mate get off in the woods, don't disturb the others. The other tent is mine, if I catch you in there without my approval, I'll skin you and feed you to Gruck. Are we clear new blood?"
"Crystal." He answered looking over the sleeping spots, "Mind if I ask some questions, or are there rules about that?"
Fleet Spear broke out in a light laughter, "No new blood, no rules you have to worry about when it comes to learning. Teaching you how to not crap yourself is part of the job so I guess I should answer some of the basic should knows before we throw you to the rabbits."
Xing Lei cocked his head at the mention of being thrown to the rabbits, the bunnies he recalled didn't exactly strike him as a fierce beast. Even the demon beasts of lapine blood lines were cuter and pet sought than chosen as battle companions. "Okay... first off. What am I?"
Fleet Spear gaped and then face palmed. Her slender fingers stroking her muzzle in distain, "Keeper really told you nothing did he?"
Lei helplessly rolled his shoulders, "He only insulted me a lot. Well when the guardian of the rookery wasn't making him soil himself that is."
Fleet Spear tossed her head back pinching her mouth shut but before long was laughing hard, "Guardian? Okay new blood, first lesson, there's no guardian in the rookery, THAT was the Mistress. I assume if she spoke and made old Keeper wet himself that you were a complete mess too huh?"
Xing Lei shook his head, "I will admit that she is imposing but unlike Keeper I managed to restrain myself. What is it anyways, other than its eyes I couldn't see through the darkness."
Fleet blinked and shook her head, "Okay no wonder Shaman had a bug up her tail hole around you. First off lesson one. Whenever referring to the Mistress refer to her as such. As for what she is, the Mistress will let you know when you should know, you poke around the rookery without her consent and you'll join the ranks of those that don't see the next sun. Next?"
Xing Lei nodded softly before motioning between him and her, "What are we?"
The face palm was becoming a habitual ritual at this point as Fleet Spear grumbled under her breath something about shoving her foot up Keepers tail. "Okay, I'm not a shaman so I don't often tread on the question of what I am or where I fit in the society of nature, but you can find it out yourself and should to see if you're a variant. Just look straight ahead and think about your status, not how you feel and what not, but the concept of status. Your innate knowledge should kick in, everyone has it."
Xing Lei frowned and focused, closing his eyes he focused on the concept of 'status' and was quite startled when an illusionary scroll slowly unfurled in his mind...
==========================
Name: Xing Lei (Dull Scale)
Gender: Male
Race: Kobold (Variant)
Level: 1
Job: Soul Traveller Rank: Mithril
Strength: 3 Dexterity: 3
Constitution: 3 Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 18 Charisma: 14
Charm*: 15 Luck*: 10
Innate Abilities: Varied Voice (Supreme) Rank: Mithril, Alchemy Flame (Basic) Rank: Copper, Inspection (Basic) Rank: Copper
Skills: Alchemy (Basic) Rank: Copper, Crimson Mountain Sects Body Tempering (Basic) Rank: -, [Sealed], [Sealed], [Sealed], [Sealed], Herbology (Basic) Rank: Copper, Cloud Dragons Spear Technique (Basic) Rank: Bronze
Charm - Hidden Stat, cannot be manually raised.
Luck - Hidden Stat, cannot be manually raised.
Varied Voice - King Yama believes you should be fluent in all languages, while you cannot read individual scripts, any language you hear can be spoken.
Alchemy Flame - Basic pill flame for alchemy.
Inspection - Viewing entities allows for information to be learned.
Alchemy - The study of concocting medicines and poisons.
Crimson Mountain Sects Body Tempering - Universal body strengthening practice.
Herbology - Understanding of plants, their cultivation and harvesting.
Cloud Dragons Spear Technique - Mid level spear practice.
===========================
Xing Lei blinked looking to Fleet Spear, before returning his gaze to his 'status'. His physical traits all seemed miniscule but considering his body that wasn't a huge surprise. What was more startling was his intellect, likely due to the rebirth he had become a 'Kobold Variant' he had possibly a human brain instead of a kobold? Nodding to himself, his eyes scanned down the list a puzzled look appearing on his face at some of the information. "Fleet Spear, how are skill and ability options ranked?"
"You have some?!" Fleet gaped and shook her head, "Gods be damned freak. Alright pay attention. Likely due to whatever blood line you have you started off ahead of the race, usually we must awaken these abilities over years of use. They generally start off at a mundane level with a single rank..."
"Mundane level? Single rank?" Xing Lei blinked the status scroll snapping shut as his focus turned to his fellow kobold, "Mine seem to start at basic and have two different rankings, copper and mithril."
Cocking her head Fleet shrugged helplessly. "Every status is unique for the one its for. My own start off at Mundane and end at Master, each level has a rank between one and ten. Oddly enough your status sounds dwarven, I heard from an old slave that the dwarven status often used ore quality to determine the rankings, so you'd have to consult one of them to find out how theirs works. Assuming the smelly, hairy bastards don't kill you on the spot. Kobolds and Dwarves don't exactly have friendly relations. So, what did you get? Hopefully its something useful, the village idiot got 'Talk with Plants' years ago and was so assigned when he started whispering to the shrubs around the outhouses."
"Well, it's not talks with plants, but I can identify plants for medicinal use. Beyond that there's a skill to use spears." Lei replied reserving some of the information. No sense telling her that he reclaimed his primary cultivation method or his old alchemy profession from his old life. Knowing plants and the use of a weapon should be enough.
Fleet Spear was nodding lightly, "The weapon, at least, will be handy for when we hunt. As for the plants I suppose its better than chatting with the things just don't go spreading it around unless you want to fight for the village idiot job."
Xing Lei smirked leveling a rather withering stare at her, fighting for the job of village idiot? Not on the plan. Fight for dominance of the tribe... maybe. He'd have to see how things worked out. Looking to Fleet Spear he shrugged, "Beyond that I can't really tell what anything else means, maybe I should compare against yours for an average?"
Fleet frowned and shook her head, "It's considered rude to directly ask for another's status. You're a new blood so I forgive you this time. If you need to know what the average is... well most of our new bloods tend to average a point or two in each stat, Gruck tends to boast his strength is around eight or nine. Depends how drunk he is and what females are around at the moment. Shamans intellect is somewhere around six, again depends how high she has her nose stuck."
'Eight or nine? Six?' Xing Lei asked himself, physique wise he averaged high for a kobold but as a variant that would make sense, he surmised but his other stats were clearly broken for the race. "So, when do we go hunting?"
Fleet Spear laughed, "Eager to show off Zing Lee? We must wait for the other group to get back, they'll go on guard duty and we'll go rustle up supper. So, for now, grab a sleeping spot and rest up. I'll find you a spear and get the rest ready to move out." Turning she ducked out the flap her slender tail holding the tent flap up a bit while she glanced back inside from over her shoulder, "Don't disappoint me Dull Scale." With that her tail withdrew letting the flap fall and returning Lei to the solitude of his mind.
Looking for a relatively clean sleeping spot he tidied the area a bit before settling down and focusing on his old Sect's technique for refining the body. This world was strange, the quality of the heavenly energy was remarkably pure as if no other in the area used it. He found the thickness of the spiritual energy almost crushing in how dense it had accumulated. Between the pressure of the spiritual energy and relearning the path through his new body to apply the technique it was several minutes before he even succeeded on putting a sole revolution of the technique through his body. With eyes closed he felt his meridians opening like starved prisoners, greedily sucking in the energy of heaven and earth like a lush sucked in beer.
His breathing slowed as the minutes ticked by, each pass drawing more energy into his body his blood boiling as the energy infused with his thin frame. The scales bulging as the power of Heaven and Earth mingled with his mortal coil. Between his scales leaked a dank oily material that reeked of foulness. Such was the case with cultivating, the first stage of modifying the mortal body into a cultivator's physical form was preceded by the expulsion of impurities. Sighing he wiped it off as best he could focus on his status to see if anything had changed. Sadly, to his gaze nothing really had changed, but it wasn't a true shock. This was the first chance this mortal form had had to cultivate; he was hardly going to rush into the heavens in a short half hour of meditation.
Stretching slowly as he rose, he felt and heard his bones crackling, the comfortable feeling of once again touching the boundary of heavens and earth was always relaxing. After dying being reborn and becoming some sort of reptile kobold thing, it had been a hell of a day. And it wasn't over. Slowly standing up he walked slowly towards the tent flap, getting use to the changes in balance and gait just moving with another appendage brought with it. Reaching for the flap he was rather surprised when a slender kobold rushed in crashing up against him in a flurry of curses.
"Mistress damn it.... oh, you new blood Dull Scale? Here, boss say you gets these things. Meet by forest edge, over that way. Glancing over Xeng Lei slowly the new kobold seemed to pause a moment, its eyes looking a little hurried as it turned and rushed back out, "Get clothes on first!"
Blinking Lei watched the flustered kobold rush back out and glanced down. Sure, he was naked but this reptilian body didn't exactly scream inappropriate for public viewing even if he was bare as a new born. Shaking his head, he looked at the package in this arms. His eyes going fuzzy for a moment as he looked over the bundle of hides and the simple wooden spear clutched in his arms...
=====
Poor Hide Armor
Rank: Copper
Defense: 1
Specials: Basic defensive clothing, badly made. Might fall apart after heavy damage.
=====
Poor Kobold Spear
Rank: Copper
Attack: 1-10
Specials: Poorly made, the spear will likely break when striking anything even remotely tough.
=====
Shaking his head Lei blinked, looking to the crude gear in his arms again the invasive information didn't return until he started to stare and truly 'look' at the things. Hauling on the hides he scratched at a bit that seemed to jab at his hip, the information didn't lie. The armor seemed to be thrown together of garbage material that no one else wanted. The spear, little more than a thin stick with a sharpened point, a bit of energy put into his hands he could snap the thing in half. Sighing, he slipped out of the tent and did his best to hurry to the meeting spot, awaiting him seemed to be Fleet Spear and that rather excitable kobold that had brought this gear to him, but there were also a pair of other kobolds. One was rather large, looking like a more muscular Gruck. The fourth was an average looking kobold that was adorned in animal skulls, twigs and herbs... A shaman? Unlike the great shaman this one didn't look with arrogance upon the newcomer, rather it held a rather pitying gaze, Lei had seen similar looks before in old soldier veterans fully expecting the new bloods to die on their first battle.
"Ah lazy Dull Scale finally here. We hunt, you help." Fleet Spear had reverted to the typical stilted way of talking amongst the group, it was rather obvious that at least one of these kobolds was in Grucks or the Great Shamans camps. "You meet Leaf Dancer already, she scout. This Grull, son of Gruck, son of Hurl. He lead warriors. You fight well maybe you work for him. That Whisperer, healer of hunters. You do well, maybe he keep you alive. Maybe not. Whisperer bit of arse."
The one called Whisperer had puffed up his scrawny chest at the start of Fleet Spears introduction, but her continued words made the kobold level a withering gaze at her instead, "Watch words Fleet Spear. I, Shaman. Respect or me curse you, maybe Leaf Dancer take spot as head of hunters..."
"Leave Leaf Dancer out of this." The other female kobold piped up quickly waving her hands to deny the possibility. "Me happy being scout. Head of Hunters too dangerous. Now hurry hurry, sun setting soon. Need find tracks of fleet foot and hunt fast. Snarl teeth active at night." Quickly she moved towards the forest displaying an agility that seemed to put Fleet Spears to shame, Xing Lei could well understand why she was a scout. Between her speed, smaller size and apparent ability she seemed almost bred to be the role.
Grull and Whisperer nodded to each other and followed while Fleet Spear came up beside Lei, ever the 'doting teacher'. Leaning over slightly she whispered softly, "Beware those two. Grull is Grucks direct offspring, ANY male that gets near another female in his presence usually gets beaten. I can get close like this cause I'm your guide and he can't beat me, yet. But avoid getting close to Leaf. Whisperer is, as mentioned, an arse. He's a skilled healer for the hunters but he's constantly licking the Great Shamans tail. Do not display your intelligence in front of him, do not expose your variant nature. He's fond of poisons which he calls 'curses', silly myth. Just cause the others don't understand what's happening he has a lot of the other hunters fearing him as some specialized 'cursemaster'. We're hunting a relatively easy prey this evening, its quite fast as you can guess by the name, the hunter group that returned caught sight of it but had to return."
Nodding lightly, she glanced over, and Lei followed her gaze. Grull was staring death at him. a clawed hand was gripping the obscenely large stone club on his back. He was making it plainly obvious that he wanted this new blood away from Fleet Spear, guide or not the killing intent that flashed in his beady little eyes didn't escape Leis notice. Seems he made a friend and already has some glorified royalty wanting to end his new life. Kind of nostalgic in a way, when he was growing up originally he had pissed off a young master and been hounded for most of his teens with barely competent traps, assassins and various relatives that were stronger than the young master.