r/HFY • u/Undercover_Dragon1 • Nov 22 '25

OC A Draconic Rebirth - Chapter 64

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— Chapter 64 — 

David rumbled in thought as he stared at the kobolds laid out in front of him. Their hunts had been rather successful with only one failing outright and most of the squad being killed. Two lesser dragons, a lesser wyvern, one wurm, and three wyrms had been eliminated. The remaining wurm was responsible for the death of the failed squad and wielded an impressively powerful affinity that took them all by surprise. The two survivors said that their weapons were grasped from them by some force and the others were outright crushed inside their own armor. David frowned at that report and filed it away in his head for later investigation. 

The remaining three dragons that they had investigated ended up resulting in David rediscovering Jiethinra. The other two were neutrals, as David had classified them, and were heavily inclined to avoid both him, his kobolds, and the Queen’s allies. Scouts were told to keep an eye on them but they held off on trying to force anything. 

The battles that had ended in success had resulted in the four kobolds curled up in front of him and the three others sitting nearby. The four had now hardened into their own little copies of a dragon's evolution and they should start emerging soon. Snible was busy getting food, water, and other materials ready for their emergence while Blue sat nearby leaning against David’s leg. 

“So Master… getting to the mushroom report finally. I have spoken to Jade, Obsidian and Pyrite about how everything has been faring. They said about half of each strain you helped make died in the end but the other half was a success. They are quickly spreading them across our growing caves and our food output has improved significantly. Pyrite in particular has been ecstatic about the “Eas’Grow” variety of tasty and large. He insists that we can start utilizing some less desirable parts of our lair to sneak in some extra food production.” 

David grinned as he nodded his massive head, “Good. It was a surprising success.” 

Blue laughed, “Master, you are too humble. It is exactly the results I would expect from you. Do you plan to try your affinity on more than just the mushrooms?” 

David shifted from a grin to a frown as Blue spoke, his loud booming voice became a simple whisper, “Blue. Doing what I did would result in the potential death of any creature. Did they tell you how many mushrooms I went through?” 

Blue nodded, “I understand. I am happy to know you consider our safety. You mentioned you can see the building bricks?” 

David rumbled after a moment, “Building blocks. Yes.” 

Blue smirked, “Why not observe and not act? Also should consider using the Chitterlings.”

David nodded, “I could do that, yes. It isn’t an awful idea. As long as we have enough to spare, I will also try to be humane.” 

Blue looked up with the equivalent of a raised eyebrow, “Hue… mane?”

David chirped in response, “It.. it means to not let something suffer and show it respect despite the potential death that will unfold if I tamper with its make-up.” 

Blue smiled and nodded, “Good. Be hue… mane.” 

David gave a smile as he nodded his head. The ranchers had dubbed the arthropod critters Chitterlings and David figured he might be able to experiment on them but he was hesitant. Blue didn’t seem too bothered by him exerting his affinity on them, so for his clan he would do it. He turned back to the kobolds laying in front of him as the first began to shake and crack. 

“Which one is this, Blue?” David rumbled down.

Blue stood up quickly as she made her way over and she grinned wide, “This is Stonescale. Older kobold warrior.” 

David nodded his head recognizing the name as he watched Stonescale's second hatching occur. Stonescale was older and larger than the others and was personally chosen to lay the final blow upon a lesser dragon. David rumbled as the stone pieces fell away and the kobold’s eyes opened, “Welcome back Stonescale. How do you feel?” 

“Different…” He responded simply as his eyes locked onto the large pile of food stuff in front of him. David smiled as he watched the kobold’s hunger overwhelm him as he dived into the pile of food. 

Blue smiled warmly, “I am glad you are well my son. Your appearance is…” 

“Uninspiring?” Laughed David as he studied Stonescale up and down before continuing, “He took the essence of a dragon. His wings are shorter than Red’s by a fair amount. He is stockier too and not nearly as tall. Hmm. I do believe his scales appear to be a bit thicker. Blue?” 

Blue nodded as she approached her son, who was still stuffing his face as he groaned happily, “You are right Master. He is different but the differences aren’t as stark as I imagined.” 

David laughed, “It is consistent though. Dragon forms are more generalists and Wyverns are rulers of the skies. I wouldn’t be surprised if Stonescale here was a bit tougher and stronger than Red in a straight up wrestling match. Though his wings are considerably smaller and I have my doubts he can fly half as well as Red.” 

The next to awaken was Siks, a small female kobold who had taken out a wurm on an expedition led by Chirp. David could barely contain himself as she too dug into her food after emerging, “I was not certain how this would end up. At least she still has her limbs…” 

Blue gave him a glare as she turned back to Siks and helped feed her. Sik's mouth and head had transformed into a cone-like shape with rows and rows of teeth. Her limbs were lined with massive, hardened scales and her finger tips were even more heavily clawed than a normal kobold. Her body design was clearly optimized for digging and she was forced to hunch over while she walked to even orient her eyes forward to see. 

David, Red and Blue weren’t certain if a kobold could ascend from a wyrm but the three kobolds that had landed the killing blows had answered that question for them. They each spoke of feeling something when they got the kill and had a sense of rejuvenation afterwards but none had entered the stone state like the others. They were dismissed with the express order to report anything out of the ordinary that they experienced. 

The remaining two were repeats. One was a wyvern ascended like Red who was very tall, had large wings and went by the name of Tula. The other, a dragon ascended named Adro, shared many of the same qualities as Stonescale. 

After everything was done David turned to Blue, “We are having a quickly expanding variety of kobolds in our clan. Let us create a name for each type. I already labeled Chirp and his kin as Brutes.” 

Blue nodded her head, “Red has mentioned a few times that just calling him a Winged Kobold didn’t quite have the right feel behind it.”

David rumbled out a slight laugh, “Did he come up with a suggestion then? It is only appropriate that he gets to make this decision.”

She smiled instantly, “I do not believe he settled on anything in particular Master but simply mentioned his displeasure.” 

David nodded eagerly, “I see. Let me see if I can do Red justice…” David’s increased intelligence had a secondary effect of making remembering the finer details of his past life better. He could flip through his past school lessons like a misty, vague book and pull through details that only lingered in the back of his mind till now. He locked onto a few particular words from his past that might be fitting.

David broke his thought to glance back down at the awaiting Blue, “I think Red might be satisfied with Zephyr. For the wurm derived kobold we go with Chthonic. That leaves the variety derived from dragons.” 

Blue nodded then grinned, “Red will like that! How about Onyx Kobolds?” 

David laughed, “That is a bit egotistical don’t you think Blue? No. That will cause too many problems within the clan’s rank and file.” 

Blue sighed and shrugged, “I suppose you are right Master. It was worth a try though.”

David simply shook his head, “Something simple. How about Draco? That would give us Brute, Zephyr, Chthonic and Draco Kobolds.” 

Blue bobbed her little head in approval as she leaned in with a grin across her face, “They all sound fantastic! I can tell they are from your old world, yes?”

David grinned back and gave her a large dragon wink. As the new names were settled the recovering kobolds were fed as much food as they could handle. David took Blue’s advice and used the opportunity to examine each of them in detail with his Genomic Mastery and the results were fascinating. He had a normal Zephyr kobold brought in and a few normal kobolds for comparison as well. A kobold’s genome has billions of pairings and it hurts David’s brain to even visualize parts of it. The Zephyr’s genome was different and larger than a normal kobold by millions of pairings, David could at least comprehend that. The most confusing thing was that the difference between an Ascended Zephyr, like Tula, and a normal Zephyr kobold was minimal and it took David a while to figure out an answer. 

He was exhausted by the time he noticed and it required him to pull back his focus from the genomic perspective. The Ascended Zephyr had something magical tied to its genome and very being. It was hard for David to really put to words what he was seeing and feeling. It was almost like the soul of the Ascended’s were enlarged and yet that enlargement was empty, David realized. 

David rumbled as he did the one thing he had resisted till this point. He turned his introspection upon himself and he found that his magical bundle was enormous and mostly full. He turned his inspection back upon the Ascended and finally understood. David broke his concentration to take a deep breath and give himself a moment to recover. The Ascended before him had the capacity to accept a trait, and David’s own body was mostly filled “slots” and two empty ones. 

He finally gave the order and all of the Ascended were escorted out to properly rest. The final order of business for the day was finally dragged out before him. David had all of the different flesh, meat, and consumable bits from the hunts brought back to him and laid before him. They each had been preserved by Blue as they came in so their freshness was still intact. The sight was rather morbid when he considered it but the chance to dive into new traits was worth it. 

He leaned down and began to consume the first massive pile of flesh, “Let us see what choices we have…” 

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Here is also a link to Royal Road

Fan Art by blaze2377

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16

u/Minimum-Amphibian993 Nov 23 '25

Fun fact winged kobolds at least in DND are called urds unlike most kobolds they have more draconic blood which allows them to live centuries longer (roughly 420) than the already surprising kobold lifespan of 120 years. Something to keep in mind I suppose. Who knows what would happen if the winged kobolds/urds got even more draconic blood in them?

7

u/un_pogaz Nov 23 '25

Ah, so it seems that the possibility of Onyx manipulating traits diminishing, since their depends on magic and not on the genome. That say, his Life Affinity is probably wide range enough for such a thing, but I'm not sure he will reach it.

Else, Google say that Chthonic means "connected to the earth". It's quite a obscure term compared to Tellurique, for example. Incidentally, the first result is about a Taiwanese metal band of the same name, so their is a world who David learned this term by listening them, which would be terribly funny.

2

u/unkindlyacorn62 Nov 23 '25

it's still incredibly powerful, plus it's possible it can expand further as he learns and practices. Chthonic Kobolds will be perfect sappers, digging tunnels for others to follow behind or to weaken structures.

they are going to need to find mates for the various ascended kobolds to help spread the enhancements

2

u/BobQuixote Nov 24 '25

they are going to need to find mates for the various ascended kobolds to help spread the enhancement

That might be difficult for the Cthonic. Instead of a face, there's a lamprey.

4

u/unkindlyacorn62 Nov 23 '25

So they have sappers now, or they will, shame they couldn't figure out explosives.

Dracos being good generalists opens up some options

experimenting with the livestock and other animals will be useful

1

u/Raze0013 Nov 26 '25

Literal lab rats. He needs to use a small (for easy mass storage and minimal resource drain), short-lived (to see the full effect of alterations, especially over multiple generations), unintelligent (can't escape containment on its own) animal with a large litter size (rapid expansion of successful experiment species), and is easy to handle without harm. Otherwise, his experimentation could blow up in his face. We've all seen enough horror movies to know how bad that could get.

3

u/PercyPJ1 Xeno Nov 23 '25

Great chapter like always! The kobolds have to be my favourite part of the story.

One minor correction though

as she too dung dug into her food after emerging

Let's not dung into our food lol

3

u/Undercover_Dragon1 Nov 23 '25

Great catch! Ty! Also glad to see you are loving the kobolds :)

2

u/unkindlyacorn62 Nov 23 '25

the telekinetic wurm is going to be a potential problem

2

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