Over the past hour, I have managed to upgrade my storage skill.

 

 

Level two of the skill doubled its storage, level three tripled its storage. The first extra five and a half minutes to level it up to level two, eleven minutes to level it up to three, and now my thirty-three minute wait to fill up to level four. 

It was about another 8 minutes before it was filled up, and I was good to upgrade it again.

I know I have a bunch of other skills I haven’t looked into yet, but that can wait until I get back to the village. Speaking of which, I now see lights in the distance, so I start to walk a little faster. 

Soon I pause mid-step with a blank expression.

‘I’m way too undamaged to have fought a Change-wing. Oh, this is gonna fucking suck.’

I quickly pull out the Change-wings body, place my forearm in its mouth, and clamp it shut with most of my weight. Its razor-pointed teeth slipped into my flesh with ease.

“Mnghh.”

A muffled moan escapes my lips, and I forcibly yank my arm back. The jagged teeth shred a good portion of my forearm, and blood starts to pour out of my wound.

“Mnnggghhhh.”

A muffled groan escapes my lips again, lasting longer than the last one. I had to try a fair bit harder to keep it muffled this time too.

I quickly pulled my arm free once I opened its mouth and lightly used [Healing hands] just to stop the bleeding. I cut off a part of my shirt and wrapped it after making sure there was enough blood on it to make it look real.

The cuts around the Change-wings body looked nice from my angle, along with the ruptured eye. Although it looked good, it didn’t look like enough to be dead, so I went to the head and examined its empty eye socket.

I placed the blade against the bone at the end of the hollow, picked up a rock, and slammed it into the hilt. I felt a little crack and hit it again, with even more force this time.

*WHACK*

The blade slid even deeper in, and I left it there. That looked way better, plus I can tell them I beat it into its skull, which would be completely true.

I look down at the rock, breathe out, and ram it right into my forehead. A ring in my ears starts, and blood pours over my right eye.

I once again staunch the bleeding with [Healing hands] and lightly wipe the blood away so it will dry as I walk the rest of the way here in a minute.

HP: 403/540

At least I can see how close I am to dying with numbers which is nice.

Although the [Gamers body] originally, if I remember correctly, just took damage but didn’t show it, I don’t actually mind it doesn’t do that with me. I still seem human because of that, which is, by all means, welcome.

I start to scruffle around the ground dirtying my clothes up even more, put some in my hair, and smeared it over my makeshift bandage. I am basically trying to look like hammered shit.

After a couple of minutes, I successfully complete what I was doing, and wonderfully looked like beaten shit which is even better. Now that I’m ready, I tighten the vines around me, getting ready for the next hundred meters or so left.

“Toothless, I’ll be back right here tomorrow morning,” I say, pointing to the ground.

“I’ll bring you fish and all kinds of stuff, but if you see somebody, run away, okay?”

I point into the woods after trying to do charades with my right arm and hand that’s not throbbing.

I once again got a nod of his head in response, showing that his already super smart mind was growing even faster due to the mana.

I reach out and open my palm. Toothless reaches his paw out and lightly smacks it, showing that he has already learned how to high-five.

‘Childish, I know, but I don’t care.’

Trudging forward with the Change-wing tied to me was absolutely horrendous. My legs were on fire, my breathing ragged, and the throbbing in my arm was seriously starting to piss me off.

Thankfully I chilled out quickly due to my awesome skills and abilities. I start to even my breathing out and lull into step and rhythm.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been walking, but when I came out of my stupor, I saw the village about ten meters away (a little over 30 feet).

Before I could yell out, a box popped up in front of me.

‘…Nice. OH WAIT- SHITTTTT, I can use [Meditation] to fill up my storage soooo much faster…*sigh* I’m such an idiot.’

*SMACK*

A heavy smack from my facepalm reminds me I hit myself quite hard in the skull with a rock pretty recently.

“Ughhhh.”

Yeah, it didn’t feel very good. Having realized I stopped dead in my tracks in the middle of an open field, I started my walk again.

“Help!” I hollered loudly, seeing if anybody was awake.

I stumble about putting on quite a good act.

‘Well, that was short, sweet, and to the point. I like it.’

I hear a thumping noise coming from a house nearby. The door is flung open, and outcomes, you guessed it, not Gobber. It was Astrid, the up-tight, rule-by-rule, who thinks she’s better than everyone else at the moment, Astrid.

“Sup, good lookin’? You seen my dad anywhere around here because I’m about to pass out, and I can’t use my left arm all that well?”

Her mouth was flapping like a fish out of water. It was hilarious, and it took all I had not to laugh.

“Wha- huh?” That was all I needed.

“Pfft, hahahaha! You should see the look on your face right now, hehaha, oh my Thor, hahahaha!”

I was straight-up cackling without restraint. This is the funniest shit ever. So funny, in fact, I didn’t realize I said something I never had before like it was second nature.

“Oh man, I’m gonna pass out now, so if you could, would you mind getting my dad?”

*PUFT*

I flopped to the ground, acting like I had passed out.

I quickly made the skill [Sleeping Beauty] for 1000 concept points.

I cast it right after telling Linda to automatically upgrade my storage skill when it reaches full if I don’t wake up by then. She can do a lot of things that I never would have thought she could, and I love it.

Since that was the wonderful case, I set the time for 10 hours.

• • •

“Mnnn...”

I wake up with a content sigh flying from my mouth without care.

“HE’S AWAKE!”

I hear what I can definitely discern as Astid’s voice screaming in my ear. Turning my head in a flinch, snapping my eyes open, she was five feet away from me, so it made sense why my right ear was now ringing. 

“Hey, if you’re gonna scream, can you do so when I’m seven inches deep inside you and not five feet away?”

She stopped mid-everything. Reaching out next to her, she grabs a mug and throws it as hard as she possibly could at my head. The world slowed down as I watched it make its way toward me end over end. 

‘This is so fucking cool.’

I brought my hand up in front of me, braced my palm, and easily caught the mug before it hit me. I showed a shit-eating grin and moved the cup out of the way, revealing it to Astrid. 

She once again looked stupefied and stood stock still.

“You should see the look on your face right now, PFTHAHAHAH!”

I was having so much fun, and it’s only been two days, maybe less than that. 

She closed her mouth, turned toward the door, and proceeded to walk out. Before she could even take two steps, I called out-

“Nice ass.”

Another pause, and then she resumed walking with definitely more sway in her hips than before.

‘Oh shit, that actually worked?!’

I slowly raised myself up off the bed with a dumb look and brought my feet to the smooth wooden floor. I was in the room that OG Hiccup woke up in for the last few bits of the first movie.

I slid over to my boots and whipped them on before heading to the front door. I reached for the handle and pulled it open, squinting into the light.

When my eyes adjusted in but a moment courtesy of my lovely skill [Sight adjustment], which happened to have leveled up quite nicely.

This definitely got me excited, who the hell wouldn’t want eyes as cool as that? One very peculiar thing I noticed is that with all my skills and abilities that can level up, they receive a two times increase in effectiveness per level up.

It seemed to affect Toothless as well if we take his flight skill, for example. Simply divide it by two, and you’ll get the base increase of speed the skill originally gave him for level one, which was ten percent.

Anyway, back to the sight that was now splayed in front of me. 

Every single villager was standing before me with a gaze that showed something akin to reverence. I would say more of shocked respect in abundance.

I stepped forward and realized too late that I was completely healed from my wound, although a jagged scar was now in its place. Apparently, [Healing hands] only get rid of the scar if you heal the wound completely.

No one seemed to really care while the crowd started to part right down the middle. Hicc- my father, appeared from their midst, looking at me with only what I can assume was pride overflowing from his eyes.

“My boy, it seems you ‘ave finally becom’ a man, aye?” his gruff voice called out to me.

I beamed a smile because this was the most recognition I have ever gotten, and I can say it was amazingly intoxicating.

“Hah, dragon killer maybe, man, mmm, not yet.”

A mischievous smile sticks to my face.

"WAHOHAHAHAH, atta boy! It seems killin’ that dragun did far more to yuh’ than I thought.”

He walked up to me and slapped my back with his big meaty paws, but it didn’t hurt. 

“Come, you get to skin the beast in front of the whole village! As for tonight, when we feast, you will tell all of us the battle of your killin’ a mighty beast with but a dagger and escaping with your life, almost completely unscathed!”

---

Over the course of a few hours, I had skinned the Change-wing, got a few girls to ask me out, had more congratulations than I could count, and had a solid bruise forming from all of the whacks and smack I’d received on my back. I was exaggerating, but it was starting to get annoying.

A lot of the young girls, which seemed far more than in any of the movies or shows, tried to make advances, some outright, asked to be fiances.

I turned all of the girls down because I wanted only a certain one...and she was conveniently absent from everything that involved- me.

‘Damn...did I scare her away? I really hope not, I mean, she did sway her hips more and didn’t yell at me or throw anything when I said she had a nice ass.....’

I was worried but couldn’t really do anything to someone who wasn’t near me, so I went to the forest to see Toothless.

It was about a ten-minute walk later, and I realized...I had no way to call for him. Well, not one that wouldn’t attract attention anyway.

I was roughly a quarter of the way there. The reason for that is because of a wonderful miscalculation on my part.

Yep, so that means for a solid few thousand seconds, I was pumping out 75 concept points a second. Specifically, 43.75 mana and 31.25 chakra per second, and it felt great. I have so many concept points at the moment that I can’t wait to get some more skills.

At this moment, however...I wanted to move. So did exactly that.

I found a small clearing, closed my eyes, and slowed my breathing. I felt my heart beating rhythmically in my chest, the slight breeze on my skin, and the coarse fabric of my clothes sliding and folding with each breath.

I lower my center of gravity and widen my legs into a partial sumo squat. 

*Inhale*

*Exhale*

I place my right hand close to my chest, ball it into a fist, raise my left in front of me, and open my eyes.

I push the ball of my right foot into the earth, pushing my leg up and forward, rotating my hips, tightening my core like a spring, drawing my shoulder close, and exploding with a straight right punch. 

*SWIP*

Riding my momentum, I bring my left leg off the ground and whip my hips around into a kick.

*WISHK*

As soon as my right foot hit the ground, I brought my knee to my chest, rolling sideways into a leg sweep.

Pushing up with my hands, I bring my knees to my chest, kick up, whipping into a crouched position, and launch my left leg to the right with a cross-kick.

I kept moving, familiarizing myself with my body, flips, kicks, sweeps, punches, chops, grappling positions, anything and everything I did.

I was starting to pant after six minutes, sweat beading on my body in multiple places. I was so zoned out I hadn’t noticed the gray dot approaching on my mini-map, nor did I recognize its presence with mana and chakra detection.

While it definitely was sneaking, it couldn’t escape my detection skills, yet it did because I wasn’t ‘there,’ along with a green dot right behind the gray one.

A few more minutes went by, and by now, I was ragged-breathed, my limbs were on fire, and God did I love it. I was so engrossed I didn't hear the notification sounds, and Linda, it seemed, wasn't going to let it interrupt me visually.

I dropped to the floor, heaving for air, and a shit-eating happy smile displayed on my face.

*Clap clap clap clap*

I rocketed over onto my stomach, popped up, and settled into a defensive stance.

"I can honestly say, that was spectacular. I never seen moves like that before from anyone."

Seeing who it was, I lowered my guard. Yep, you guessed it, because cliches will never stop existing and happening, Astrid, in all her glory, was clapping while sauntering over.

"I believe you killed that dragon now, I was skeptical at first, but...that was pretty good."

"Well, what can I say, I have my moments."

She was slowly getting closer until she was within reaching distance. She quickly gave me a rough shove, and I wasn't prepared at all, especially with my now slightly shaking body. 

I tried to put up any kind of defense when she pulled a knife and pointed it at my throat.

"Well, I prefer the element of surprise, because it always gets the job done."

I now noticed the green dot and the actual guy that the green dot represented. He was about to launch himself at her, but I tried with all my might to reach for the bond I could now feel between us.

I had felt it earlier, but it was very clear now that we were so close. So, with everything I could muster mentally, I tried to tell him to sneak up on her and not to pounce because I was fine.

"Well, that is absolutely a good plan, but I think mine is better."

*HUFFF*

Toothless was so close she felt his powerful exhale hit the back of her neck.

"Overwhelming strength and teamwork."

She was, ONCE AGAIN, rooted into place as she jerkingly turned her head to stare at those eyes.

"Of course," I smirk- "having a dragon on your side definitely helps."

In the few seconds we were sitting there, I felt my body rejuvenating itself rapidly, thanks to my absurd regeneration. I grabbed the knife, pulled it gently from her limp grasp, and sat up, which left her in my lap. 

I placed my forearm on her shoulder, pointing at Toothless with my hand behind her.

"Astrid, meet Toothless, Toothless- this is Astrid."

I pointed at her, then at him, then back to her.

I pulled my hand back, hooked my finger onto her jaw, and brought her gaze to mine. Her eyes drooped with a dull gaze and looked at my lips.

"Eyes up here, beautiful."

She looked into my eyes with a light blush and bit her lower lip.

"You can't tell anyone about Toothless. Even if you do, no one would believe you over me, much less after I just killed a Change-wing. So please, keep this between us, I'll train you and owe you massively, deal?"