Outcast

*6 months later*

Thinblood peers into the dark cavern and asks

" Whhat is thhe tasks I neeed to accomplish?"

"Hmmm hard to speak still? It seems like your bloodline really only is in your eyes. Don't worry as you get stronger it should go away as for your task. At the end of this cavern is a small crack that should open up into a large open area.

The family that bought this area is large so they want a large common area. You need to squeeze through the crack clean up the common area and then dig back to the entrance making sure that it's wide enough even a Wyrm can get through.

Normally you wouldn't get such a difficult task however I currently don't have any small Kobolds that can squeeze through. Because of that, I will give you six months to finish it. Because it will take you so long you will receive 2 pieces of meat every week.

However, if you fail to meet the deadline it will be added to your debt. If you succeed at the end I will give you either a common grade magic item, or a commonly ranked beast to consume" finished talking the overseer crawls away.

After 6 months of eating rats and low-grade food, Thinbloods internal injuries are fixed. All of his bald patches are covered with thin translucent scales, And he is much more muscular with a healthy look to him.

Thinblood slowly makes his way through the small crevice occasionally getting scratched by a jagged rocks. He eventually makes it to the opening the overseer talked about. Panting from his still weak body he looks around in the pitch dark.

"If only Snake hadn't disappeared, He could have checked it out for me first. I hope he escaped, we talked about it all the time. Finding a crack that leads to outside, leaving this horrid place, and never coming back." Thinks the Thinblood

Using his dark vision he scans the cavern planning how to start excavating.

As he is exploring the cavern he smells prey nearby similar to the rats he catches time from time.

Similar but... more dangerous, suddenly something almost as heavy as he lands on his back, and bites his shoulder. Hissing, he rolls over trying to catch the attacker off balance.

Quickly as he can he gets to his feet, and gets a good look at his attacker, Confused he takes another look. It is a giant rat but not like he has ever seen or heard of.

For one it had splotchy dark grey scales all over it. And instead of the large two front teeth rodents have, this one has large fangs like a dragonkin. It growled and stalked Thinblood getting closer and closer.

Hissing he looked for weaknesses and found one, The belly of the drake rat "a name he came upon the spot" was bald, It had neither fur nor scales. Seeing his opportunity he turns and wh.i.p.s his thin tail across the drake rats face catching it off guard.

He then rushes forward and using his claws tries to tip over the drake rat. Hissing with just the hint of a growl he manages to tip the drake rat over and starts to eviscerate his enemy. As he tears into the dying rat he catches a claw to the face feeling 5 claws tear into the right side of the face.

Staggering away from his vision fading he looks over at the drake rat one last look seeing it in its death throes before passing out.

....

....

.....

The first thing he felt was a dull throbbing pain on the right side of his face as he wakes up. Very slowly he gets up and limps over to the drake rats corpse.

He inspects the dead rat curious as to how it managed to mutate so much and gain a dragon lineage. For a creature that had zero dragon blood flowing through them, they would have to consume large amounts of high-grade dragonkin in order to mutate and gain a dragon lineage.

With his throat, parched Thinblood drinks from the puddle of blood that pooled around the Drake rat. Lapping at the blood he realizes how close he came to dying. How easily he could have been killed.

"I need to get stronger. Strong enough to leave this place. If I stay here all that's waiting for me is death, or forever being a slave"

Already he starts to plan how to escape the mines and leave the clan. His thirst quenched he goes back to lay down as his limbs still are trembling with exhaustion.

Ripping a piece off from the rat to snack on. He starts to convert the flesh he is eating through his dragon core. He feels it repairing his wounded face, healing it so that all that is left is scars.

Then it starts to fix the deficiencies in his body. As this is happening he slowly drifts off back to sleep. While he is sleeping his scales start to change becoming thicker while still a translucent color. His forelimbs become slightly more muscular.

He is now the size of a 4-month-old Kobold with low dragons blood. However, if anyone from the Red Fang Tribe were to look at him they would immediately realize something was different.

The Kobold did not have the same bloodline as them, Because he was born a Thinblood his body besides his eyes had no Dragons blood running through his body. As such that means his dragon core has not already gained a dragon lineage.

This means that the Kobold will get to choose what kind of lineage he wants to have by consuming magical treasures, and beasts that have a lineage that uses the particular element he wants to gain. For example, if he wanted to become a fire dragon.

He would need to consume large quantities of fire attributed to beasts or treasures. The only other way would be to consume a high tier Dragons core with the particular lineage he wishes to have. Dragon lineages change the appearance of the dragonkin to best suit the element they use.

For example, Selena Blood Fang has a rare lineage of a poison dragon. Her red fangs can inject a corrosive liquid that can melt flesh and rock. As kobolds that have her blood running through their veins, When their dragons blood reaches a certain level they will gain the poison attribute as well.

Though obviously, their poison is not as nearly as effective as hers yet.

Waking up to his stomach growling Thinblood stands up and starts to walk towards the rat's corpse when he feels the changes in his body. He feels stronger, less sickly, and taller.

He looks down at his claws and notices that his scales are thicker, he looks back at his tail and notices that the tip is swollen and itchy as is the top of his head.

Realizing how much he gained, he crawls over to the rat and consumes a large portion hoping to gain even more. However as he waits he realizes he doesn't get the same rush of energy as he did before, All he feels is his head and tail start to itch even more.

Looking through his inherited memories he realizes what happened. Kobolds live in a world where they are the bottom of the food chain. As such, they need to grow up fast. So all newborns experience a large growth spurt at first until they can for the most part handle themselves.

Then their growth slows dramatically. Being a Thinblood who then consumed large amounts of dragonkin flesh experienced the most dramatic growth one could have. Going forward it will take lots of high tier flesh or years before he can go from being classified as Low blood to being a Mid blood.

As a Low blood once he left the mines he would be classified as the lowest and most common class, as Thinbloods do not count as being in the tribe. Deciding that this is where he will live until he can escape the tribe. He drags the corpse over to a wall and digs out a den for himself, so he can store the corpse while he explores.

Pushing a large rock to cover the entrance he suddenly has a thought, the rat must have a den where it slept and kept treasures. More than likely it was the "king" of this area and having killed it he was now the most dangerous being here.

Following the odd scent of prey, and predator, the Kobold quickly found its den. Just as he is about to charge in he has another thought

"Rats usually live in families!"

Quickly crawling over to one side of the entrance, he listens to see if he can hear anything.

Large rustling noises and an increase in the stench of a drake rat convince him there are one, maybe two more in the den. The Kobold tries to figure out what to do.

"There must be some kind of treasure in there.

If I sneak attack the first one that comes out I should be able to kill it fairly quickly. Then there is maybe only one more to deal with and I'm stronger now compared to when I first killed the drake rat"

After deciding on a course of action he then bites his forelimb just hard enough to cause some of his blood to drip out.

Letting it fall in front of the entrance he then crouches off to one side hoping the bait he left will work. Within minutes he hears something coming up, but when he gets a look at what it is he panics slightly when he sees what comes out.

Larger than the Kobold with segmented scales covering most of its body, small horns coming out of its crown, large fangs, and a thick tail with a bulge at the end.

"The one I killed must have been the outcast! They are both male so this must have been the alpha that kicked out the weaker male.

More then likely the 3rd rat that is inside is a female"

Trying to see if there are any weaknesses he can exploit the Kobold notices that the throat has thin scales covering it and the eyes bulge out a little. Knowing he will only get one chance at this he crouches waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.

The Alpha raises his nose to sniff the air to determine where this delicious blood came from when the Kobold pounches his serrated teeth tearing into his opponent's throat.

At the same time, he slashes his claws across the drake rats eyes blinding it, jerking his head side to side tearing as much as he can the Kobold quickly releases and quickly backs away dodging the frantic slashes from the Alphas claws.

Blood gushing from the large wound and blinded it only manages to take a few steps before collapsing. Within minutes it dies from blood loss and shock, unable to believe that worked so well the Kobold cautiously approaches the body worried it's a trick. Picking up a rock it throws it at the Alphas head.

Bouncing off the head doesn't move, getting closer he quickly bites down on the back of the neck and jerks it to one side break the neck. With still no movement the Kobold is convinced his opponent is dead. Dragging it off to one side he turns the Alpha over and rips open his c.h.e.s.t curious how far this rat has mutated.

Looking at the space near the heart he finds what he was looking for. A small round dark gray crystal with veins of silver and dark blue, a dragon stone. Looking through his inherited memories the Kobold realizes this is a dragon stone for the storm dragon lineage. A rare lineage that lightning and air dragons are descended from.

They have control over wind and lightning, and thunder capable of calling down large lightning strikes and tornadoes. Known for their quickness and powerful attacks. They have decent defense the only weakness is that it is extremely difficult to cultivate a dual elemental lineage especially two rare elements like lightning and wind.

Generally speaking, very few natural magical treasures have these elements. As such the only way to gain a storm dragons lineage is to kill magical beasts with either wind or lightning elements countless times, or to find a high-grade storm dragons core to gain its lineage.

Normally kobolds don't have to worry about what element they cultivate in as they are usually born with them. However for a Kobold that was born a Thinblood who had no dragon lineage this is the chance of a lifetime. Taking the low tier mutated dragon core and crushing it the Kobold swallows it already feeling the energy surging through him.

His scales on his back, head, and limbs turn a dark gray with his belly turning a dark blue, his head itching even more before the tips of dark black horns poke out. The Kobold can feel himself getting more muscular and his fangs getting longer. While still considered Low blood the Kobold has gained a high tier dragon lineage, though a very low level of it.

Curious why the 3rd rat still hasn't come out the Kobold cautiously enters the den. Slowly entering the cave the Kobold cautiously scans around afraid that the last drake rat is hiding waiting to pounce. As he turns the corner he finally finds the female.

Her belly is bloated to the point walking is not an option, blood oozes from sleeping wounds, thin grey scales grow in clumps all over her, just smaller then the kobold it's clear that the female's body is rejecting the dragon's bloodline. Stalking the dying female the Kobold creeps closer his muscles bunching up preparing to pounce.

Exploding forward the kobold slashes at the extended exposed belly when he feels terrible pain coming from the side of his neck. The female had set a trap by turning on her side to give an obvious target. Then when the Kobold attacked she countered by lunging forward and biting down on the Kobold's neck.

Hissing and thrashing about the Kobold slashes and bites any part of the female he can desperately trying to weaken the females bite on his neck as it becomes harder and harder to breathe. As his vision starts to dim he feels his claws rip through something soft and hears the female screech in pain and release his neck.

Scrambling backward and gasping for air he looks at the female and sees she has died. Exhausted he slowly goes back outside and drags the Alphas corpse back inside before collapsing and shaking.

As a 4-month-old Kobold, Today was the day he had come closest to dying. Sure, there had been close calls but nothing like this. It began taking its toll as the Kobold started panicking. Eventually, he slowly manages to get ahold of himself

"breathe in.... and out," he thinks "I survived that's all that matters. And I have enough meat to last me several weeks while I get strong enough to get out of here".

Calmed down the Kobold makes a resolution to find a way out before the overseer comes back