As I kept my eye on the dragon I slowly moved back towards the cave I’d exited a minute ago. When I was about ten metres from the cave, the dragon reached the cliff.
With eyes as big as the wheels of a truck, it looked right at me. It opened its mouth, revealing dozens of teeth, each one as long as my forearm. It extended its forked tongue and seemed to taste the air.
It closed its eyes, seeming to think about something. After a few moments, it opened its eyes and looked at me again.
“Human, why are you here? Your kind is not allowed in this world yet.” The dragon hadn’t opened its mouth, but I could hear its voice in my head. I was unable to respond, I couldn’t even move. The voice had contained so much power that it left me paralyzed for a few moments.
“You have a connection with Adon… Has he started another of his games?” When the dragon spoke this time, its voice contained less power than before; it didn’t leave me unable to speak.
“I… I’m not sure, he did say something about a game, but I don’t know if that’s what you mean. I… I might be able to ask him if you want.” The dragon told me to do so and I used my ‘Devine message’ skill.
It took a few moments but eventually, the air near us started to warp and Adon appeared.
“Dogri, what brings you here?” Unlike his overbearing behaviour from a few days before, he behaved quite meek and polite, he made me think of a bully that was called to the headmaster’s office.
“Adon, what game are you playing? What is this human doing in this world?” This time I couldn’t hear the dragon’s voice inside of my head, instead, it used his mouth and spoke like normal.
“I, I’m just borrowing your world for a little bit. It’s just a bit of entertainment, I’m sure you understand, right?” Dogri, the dragon, didn’t seem pleased with Adon’s excuse and exhaled a stream of smoke on him.
“Have you not learned from last time? You have to ask me before you use one of my worlds. What if you screw one up again? How are you going to explain that to father?” The anger in Dogri’s voice had decreased and she seemed more annoyed than anything else.
“It’s fine, I’m just using humans this time, they can’t do that much harm. Nothing has happened for the past few millennia, I’m sure you’re bored too, right? How about I tell you my plans at my place, it might take a while.” Dogri agreed and Adon disappeared.
“Human, I’m sorry you have to put up with my foolish brother’s game. I don’t yet know what he plans to do but it probably won’t be any good for you. Take this, it might spare you from a lot of suffering.” As her voice rung out in my mind, Dogri breathed in deeply and soon a fast amount of smoke was escaping from her nostrils.
Before I was able to respond she opened her mouth and an inferno escaped from it. A giant pillar of fire surrounded me and as the burning heat entered my body I fell to the ground. As I supported myself with my arms my eyes fell on my hands.
My hands had turned completely black, like a piece of meat that’s been left on the grill for way too long. My hair was on fire and the water in my body evaporated as my blood was literally boiling.
After what was probably not even a second, the moisture in my eyes disappeared and my sight went black. As my eyeballs dried out and shrunk, as I lost feeling in my limbs, as I felt my tongue swell up, prevent air from reaching my lungs, as I felt my heart slow down, I lost consciousness and all pain slowly disappeared.
When I woke up I was still on top of the cliff.
I looked down at myself as I remembered the torture I’d gone through before I blacked out. The first thing that stood out was my skin. Around most of my joints, it was covered with dark red scales. I touched the scales around my elbow, they were somehow both though and flexible. They didn’t hinder my movement at all, but they still felt incredibly hard. I felt that even if I swung my dagger at them with all my strength, I would probably not be able to cut through them.
I felt around my back and discovered that a strip of scales ran up my back. It covered my spine and went all the way up to the base of my skull.
When I felt around my face to see if there were any scales, a sharp pain flared up in my cheek. Startled, I withdrew the hand that had been feeling around there and looked at it. A small drop of blood was hanging off the nail of my index finger. I studied the nail and realised that it had changed, all my nails had. They had grown slightly longer and were way sharper, they were more like claws than nails. To test, I raked them across the rock I was sitting on. A hellish sound, like nails on a chalkboard, rung out as I created several grooves. I checked my nails and, even though they had just cut rock, they didn’t seem damaged.
After a few more minutes I finally remembered to check my status.
Name: Hella
Lvl: 17
Class: Adon's advisor, Challenger
Strength: 60
Endurance: 141
Dexterity: 81(83)
Mental: 216
Titles: First blood, Marksman, One-man army, The first smith, Assassin, General killer, Executioner, High judge, First hunter, The pioneer
Skills: Language translation, Shooting III, Devine message II
Racial traits: Night vision I, Tough skin I, Mana absorption I, Regeneration II, Voice I, Transformation(Locked)
I froze for a few moments. All my stats increased by insane amounts, even my dexterity, which had changed the least amount, had increased by 27. The biggest change was my ‘mental’ stat, I still wasn’t sure what I could do with it, but it had quadrupled since last time.
After looking at my new stats my eyes went to the new tab called ‘Racial traits’ and expanded it.
Night vision I
Effect: be able to see better in the dark.
Tough skin I
Effect: Along with your level, your skin will grow stronger.
Mana absorption I
Effect: I, absorb the mana in the air around you.
Regeneration II
Effect: Increase the speed at which injuries heal.
Voice I
Effect: Your voice can influence the world around you
I wasn’t sure what had happened, but Dogri’s flame must have somehow changed my race. I didn’t know what race exactly it was, but it was probably some kind of dragon-human race.
‘Is this like a dragon’s voice from stories?’ Reading the description of the ‘Voice’ skill I couldn’t help but try it out.
I looked at a rock lying next to me and spoke, “Rise!”. As I spoke, I felt my energy being drained and got very drowsy. I looked at the rock expectantly but all it did was wobble a little bit.
Even though the rock had barely moved, it completely drained me, it took me at least half an hour before I could even stand up again.
The sun was starting to set so I headed back into the caves. I stoked a fire and cooked some of the leftover food. As the smell of meat reached my nose, I realised how hungry I was. Without even waiting for it to finish cooking I stuffed the meat in my mouth and gobbled it down. After that, I devoured all the leftover food.
Even though the food should have been enough for a few days, I still felt hungry. I got up and headed to one of the wolf-corpses that I hadn’t dismantled yet. I took out my knife and cut its belly so I could take its skin off.
However, when the smell of blood hit me, my stomach howled out once again. The hunger, which had decreased a little bit after eating, came back stronger than before. As my hunger grew increasingly I eventually gave in and bit down. I tore off a chunk of meat from the wolf and, barely chewing, swallowed it. Even though it was raw meat, it tasted like the best thing I’d ever eaten.
Losing all resistance I tore off more and more of the wolves meat. After a few minutes, the entire wolf had disappeared, all that was left was some of its skin and bones. Every bit of meat had been eaten. I didn’t think about this, however, since I was still hungry.
I lunged at the two leftover corpses and devoured them. Even though I’d just eaten at least three times my bodyweight, it wasn’t enough. As I licked up the last bits of blood I felt the hunger again.
I looked around for any more food but couldn’t find any. As I hesitated about what to do, a smell tickled my nose. I walked to the entrance of my cave and looked down. At the edge of the forest, two direbears were fighting off a small pack of wolves. One of the wolves was injured and the smell of its blood had reached me.
With new sources of food in front of me, I couldn’t resist. Without even thinking about it I jumped.
It was at least a 20-metre drop, but it didn’t hinder me in the least. Upon landing, I absorbed the impact by slightly bending my legs and used that energy to propel myself forward. With my increased stats, it took me just a few seconds to reach the fighting group.
Even though I wasn’t using my ‘first blood’ title, none of the animals noticed me. I lunged at the nearest wolf and bit down at its neck. I tore out its nape and quickly swallowed it. The wolf dropped to the ground and before any of the others could react, I jumped at a different wolf. This one was bigger than the others so it was probably the alpha.
Using my claws, I tore open the wolf’s stomach and flipped it over. I bit down on its throat and swiftly ended its life.
The wolves had long since forgotten about the pair of bears they were hunting and surrounded me. Since I had just killed their leader they seemed to hesitate. Taking this opportunity, I got up and ran at them. As I swung out my arm, the wolf I’d been targeting jumped back. It landed a few steps back, but before it could find its footing I had once again reached it.
It tried to jump again, but this time my foot smashed into its side. It was sent flying and hit a tree a few metres away. It struggled to get up but, because two of its legs were broken, it had to give up.
I turned towards another wolf and prepared to run at it when one of my legs was pulled out from under me. One of the wolves had appeared behind me and tackled me.
The wolf’s jaws were locked around my thigh as I fell to the ground. Using the momentum, I swung my arm and smashed the wolf’s skull.
Its muscles relaxed, and my leg was freed. I looked down at the wound, but thanks to ‘regeneration’ the wound was closing before my eyes. In just a few seconds the wound was gone and only my blood-soaked leg was evidence of an injury.
As I was distracted by my regenerative ability, the rest of the wolves pounced on me. I rolled over and tried to get up, but before I could do so one of the wolves landed on me and bit my throat.
Luckily my throat was one of the places covered with scales, and its teeth didn’t puncture it.
I didn’t have the room to swing my arms so I gave the wolf a giant bear-hug, crushing his ribs. I pushed the wolf aside and attacked the leftover two wolves. I used my claws to puncture their skull and they died simultaneously.
I finished off the injured wolves and was finally able to do something about that insufferable hunger.
After about an hour I finished eating all the wolves and managed to fill my stomach. As I did some of my rationality returned to me and for a few minutes I felt awful; I’d been behaving like some sort of wild animal, not being able to control my own actions.
‘Where’d the hunger come from?’ I thought to myself as I got up from the ground. ‘I can think of a few reasons.
It could be because my race was changed today. If this is the case it’s fine, it’s just a one-time thing.
It could also be because of the ‘voice’ trait that I used. In that case, I’ll have to pay attention when using it in the future, but it’s not a huge problem.
Lastly, it could be because my new race simply needs a lot of food. This would be bad, I would have to spend more time hunting and making sure I’m fed. This would especially cause a problem with others in the future, I don’t think I would be able to differentiate between human and beast when I’m hungry like before.’
The last rays of the sun entered my eyes as I exited the forest. ‘Didn’t I jump down from there before?’ I looked up at my cave as I thought. ‘My stats have increased dramatically, I might be able to…’ I hesitated but eventually decided to give it a try.
I walked towards the cliff, straight at my cave. When I was about one hundred metres away I started to increase my speed. I quickly reached my max speed and when I judged the distance to be right, I jumped.
‘No way…’ I flew through the air and my cave quickly approached me. I stretched out my arms and prepared to catch myself. In the end, I didn’t manage to directly jump into my cave, I landed about 5 metres below it. Even though the cliff was as flat as a pancake, I still managed to hold on. My claws had sunk into the rock and allowed me to cling to it.
I pulled out one of my hands and inserted it higher into the cliff, leaving behind five small holes. I made my way up, and after a few minutes, I was lying in my cave. Although I was covered in wolf blood and bits of meat were clinging to my hair, I couldn’t spare the energy to do something about it. I just lied there and after a little bit, I fell asleep.
They were right there.
I hid myself, making full use of my ‘first blood’ title, and moved closer.
The first time I came across them I had just barely managed to escape. This had happened in the first two weeks, however, so I was considerably stronger now. The me now, and the me back then aren’t even in the same order of magnitude.
I still decided to be careful though, they might’ve just been playing with me back then. They might be stronger than me even now.
Having arrived behind one of them I sat for a moment, observing their actions. I had already done so for the past while and there was no way I was going to be detected, but I still did it, I couldn’t be too careful.
I raised my dagger, I still had the same one as in the pit, and quietly cut the reptile's throat. I was about to move back to hide again when something suddenly struck me.
Stunned, I was unable to hide and quickly raised my right arm. A sword, about twice my size, made contact and the shield I was holding broke apart.
‘Dammit, it was a unique as well.’ I threw the remnants of the shield aside and rolled backwards, dodging another attack.
I looked at my assailant and raised my dagger to a defensive position. The monster in front of me was huge, even compared to the others around me. It was at least three metres tall and its muscles made it look like a bodybuilder. Even with its throat cut, it was still standing strong. Because, although the dagger I used to wound it blocks regenerative abilities, the wound was still closing rapidly. The reason for this was obvious. A white light was surrounding the wound and healing it.
I had seen similar things before, so I knew instantly that there was a magic-user amongst the monsters. One that could use healing magic.
‘Shit, I chose the wrong target.’ Having wasted my sneak attack, I quickly looked around for the healer. I found him a few steps behind the leader. It was significantly smaller than the other lizards, just a bit taller than me, and was holding some kind of staff.
I had to get rid of that one first. I quickly formulated a plan and put some strength into my legs. Although those monsters were all around me, I wasn’t trapped.
I kicked off the ground and jumped over the monster in front of me. It seemed surprised and wasn’t able to attack me in time. An escape like this wouldn’t work so easily a second time, they would attack me when I was in the air.
I landed behind the healer and quickly turned around. I grabbed its tail and threw him at a nearby rock. The monster hit the rock straight on his neck and stopped moving.
‘Tsk... Tough bastards.’ The monster hadn’t died yet, I’d merely knocked it out. It woke up after just a second.
The others were about to surround me again, so I ran towards the rock. I had experience with other monsters that use magic so I quickly stabbed the knife in its throat, preventing it from formulating spells.
I was about to pull out the dagger when I heard whistling behind me.
Right when I rolled aside, an arrow embedded itself in the healer. If I hadn’t move it would have pierced my skull.
I jumped up and raised my arms. An axe was making its way towards me as I did. I had to let go of my dagger and my shield had already broken. Not being able to dodge, I raised my hand towards the axe.
The axe hit my hand and a metallic sound rang out. This was not surprising of course, my hand was, just like my feet, completely covered in scales. It actually looked like a dark red gauntlet.
I looked at my opponents. There were just five of them, but they were more troublesome than any other monster I’d faced so far. These lizardmen had incredible physical abilities and worked together perfectly. There were two forward attackers, the leader with its massive strength and a lizardman with an axe. Besides them, there were two lizardmen with bows and the now disabled healer.
I moved closer to the lizardman with the axe and swung my claws at him. They made contact with the lizardman’s chest and left four long cuts. Blood started to pour out, but it quickly stopped. I don’t know why, but lizardmen somehow have the ability to prevent wounds from bleeding too much, it must be some variant of a regenerative ability.
I was about to swing at him again when the giant one attacked me. I couldn’t afford to be hit by that sword, so I quickly rolled backwards.
As I did so I picked up a rock from the ground and when I stood back up I threw it at one of the archers. It wouldn’t hurt it but that wasn’t important. Because it flinched, its arrow missed me by at least a metre. Using the opening I rushed towards it and kicked it in the stomach. The lizard only took one step back however, so I quickly swung my claw.
I wouldn’t get a third attack and I wouldn’t be able to kill it in one hit, so I didn’t aim for the lizard itself. Instead, I aimed for its weapon. It was an archer so if I broke its bow it would be put out of the fight.
With a loud sound, the bowstring snapped, and the bow turned into a useless stick. Having achieved my goal, I rolled backwards, dodging another attack, and faced the giant swordsman.
It had its sword raised, but before it could swing it down I swung my claws and managed to hit its hands. It was a lucky attack, I had intended to just injure its hand so it would drop the sword, but I ended up cutting off four of its fingers. It now had three fingers on his right hand and five on its left.
Despite the injury, it swung its arm and hit me on the chest. As I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, I flew away, landing in the bushes.
‘Hah, thanks!’ I thanked the lizard in my mind. It had given me the opportunity to hide and I gladly made use of it.
I made my way back to the clearing and moved towards the healer. Even though I had cut its throat a few minutes ago, it was still alive. The archer whose bow I’d destroyed was putting a bandage around his wound.
My dagger was lying a few steps away so I quickly picked it up.
I moved to the lizard with the axe and swiftly cut its throat. Because it was a sneak attack, the damage increased, and the lizard died in just a few seconds; there wasn’t a healer to save him this time.
The leftover archer instantly spotted me and fired its arrow at me.
The tide had already turned in my favour, however, and I simply hit it out of the air.
I quickly jumped at the archer and stabbed the dagger into its left eye. Because these lizards were incredibly though, there was no way for me to kill them with one attack. Instead, I stabbed its eye, putting him out of the fight.
Now all that was left was the giant lizard who had lost its sword and the archer without a bow.
The giant had a sword in his left hand, it was a smaller sword than before, but for a human, it would still be a twohanded sword.
The archer had picked up a club and was silently moving to my back.
I decided to save the giant for last and pounced at the archer. It didn’t stand a chance as I slammed the club out of its hand whilst simultaneously stabbing its face.
As I finished off the archer the giant reached me and swung his sword.
I deftly jumped over it and landed on the giant’s head. I brandished my dagger again and stabbed it in the neck.
With all the lizardmen defeated all that was left was finishing them off. They were really resilient, so it took a while, but eventually, I managed it.
<Congratulations! You have obtained the ‘King of the forest’ title>
‘It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a title’ I gathered the corpses and opened my status.
King of the forest
Description: successfully defeat the ruler of a forest
Effect: Creatures living in the forest will be put under the ‘domination’ effect upon contact
Considering I was probably going to live here for quite a while, this was a very useful title.
‘I’ll test it out on the way back.’ I put the bodies and weapons in a large pile and tied them together.
“Decrease gravity!” I used my ‘Voice’ trait to make them lighter and hoisted them on my shoulders. The last while I’d been experimenting with my abilities and discovered some uses for this trait.
Using it would drain some kind of energy from me, which I’m assuming is mana, and would leave me hungry and tired. I found out that directly manipulating object, such as moving them, would use a lot of mana and, because I don’t have enough, would fail.
Slightly decreasing gravity upon objects was one of the most useful uses I’d found so far. It would drain a lot of mana, but wouldn’t leave me starving, just a bit hungry. If I used it in combination with the ‘mana absorbtion’ trait, I would be able to quickly get the used mana back, especially if I used it around recently defeated monsters; The mana concentration in the air would increase, allowing me to absorb more.
I looked at the horizon and started running.
‘Let’s see if I can get back in time’
