The ninth stage of qi. The level of a big boss. Gang master, a bandit leader or an old grandfather.

Posessing a longer life than a mortal yet the body is still not cleared of impurities. What lies beyond is the power of flight.

On a sword the vast lands below are willing to admit defeat to the one above.

It separates a true cultiviator from a mortal. 

One can be sure to get a kingdom for themselves if they only show a bit of support to a faction. To rule the with powers of immortals.

On the other hand there are those that master mana. Great wiseman who know the secrets of nature. Flight is as simple to one as a bird. And others, they can decimate armies...

It is known that gathering mana is terribly hard. One has to travel to find his spirt tempered by a cutting river of time.

Only gathering is not enough one has to hold and claim ownership on mana. Besides lucky ones...

Nerby their home the large tent made of grayish leather Skana reached the peak stage of a mortal and the fifth level of mana.

The mana level of a bishop. Acompanied by a party of zealot soldiers the great church of Ground grinds lesser kingdoms to dust in the creed of their Ground empire.

Meanwhile on another continent the knights of the Righteous Empire use the very ground their enemy stands on as a sword or even the very skies as a cleaver butchering monsters and villains alike, the knights reaching the fifth stage of mana. No wonder nothing stands under the trampling boot of their Empress.

Ghkog saw that the cracks disappear and in his eyes saw a reflection of the trident. It was blinding. He staggered and reflexively tried to close his eyes. 

But what he saw was the gentle morning light.

He rubbed his eyes. Staring at the surrounding tent he thought his mother should already be back and decided to go out to investigate.

He went outside the tent hearing a bird chirping in a tone that would be completely alien on Earth, but by this time he was quite used to this akwardness. He missed the lands near his previous home. The plants here were gigantic sprawling trees of great proportions, one could hardly see the leaves, well, only a bunch of green with all the branches full of vitality. Even the bark was more green than brown.

Full of small vine-like growths.

Besides the small birds other creatures rarely aproached. He once actually saw a small blue animal that looked like a dragon peeking out of a lake. But he dismissed it as merely a water lizard.

Now done with her cultivation Skana was waiting for Ghkog. 

"Mom" He greeted.

She just nodded and went back to skinning the animal. She usually did not talk much but he did not mind her silence.

He was intrigued by his enigma of a mother. How the woman hunted so many of the big beasts every night was a mystery. And today she seemed very happy.

The sunlight seemed to reflect off her flowing hair and her eyes radiated a rare light seeming to dim the sunlight slightly. And the corners of her mouth were curled up slightly.

"Why are you so happy?" He scratched his head.

Not that she was usually unhappy but today she seemed to be incredibly relaxed.

His mother grinned.

"I broke through!"

"Huh..."

"Oh, right you don't know about cultiviation. How silly of me. It is about time I teach you a thing or two!"

Her enthusiasm staggered him. He blinked. Cultiviation? What's next dragons?

Then he saw something move-

There on the left on the ground.

It was a bag the size of a toddler that seemed to have fallen over.

There was something tumbling around inside it. His mother seeing him look at the bag became flustered.

"U-um..."

Ghkog walked over to the bag, which was a similar type to a coin pouch. He grabbed the seams and opened it. He saw a bluish-

*PUFF*

"Augh! My eyes, my goddamn eyes!" Something splurted right into his eyes.

He held his eyes and started rolling on the ground. His mother started laughing in the background.

A few minutes later he finnaly calmed down and managed to wipe his eyes.

He looked at his hands and saw a yellowish liquid. Disgusted Ghkog ran to the nearby lake to wash himself.

"Wait!"

His mother called out to him and created a ball of water with her mana.

Ghkog stared at her. Looked at her and the floating orb. And at her and at the orb. Again and again...

He pointed at the ball with his shaky hand and yelled out in bewilderment: "W-what is going on!?"

"..." His mommy stared at him not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Deciding to just splash him, she guided the ball of water and gently splashed him on his head, which also washed his eyes and arms.

The cold water cooled him down. Again he thought, first cultiviation, now magic... Whutz next dragonz?

Then he saw it-

A small bluish tail, by wiggling it the creature was trying to crawl out of the bag.

It tumbled cutely together with the bag, then a small blue head with white moe eyes popped out of the bag like sack.

It's eyes quickly turned with its' small cute head that had a lizard like snout, which exposed rows of small white oval shaped teeth in its' mouth that looked like they belonged on a herbivore. Its' cutely big white eyes looked around alertly.

But with its' four cute apendages bearing sharp claws with fins between them and small furry wings that looked similar to feathered ones with a few scales here and there-it was undeniable. That was a baby dragon.

His mother went red in the face and coughed to hide her embarassment.

"I totaly didn't know there was a water dragon living in that lake nearby. It must've wanted to eat the berries in my bag. "

Seeing she wasn't convincing him, she blurted: "I totaly don't think she is cute."

"She?"

"Well... it looks female..."

Ghkog got mad. 

"You were HIDING a DRAGON from me!"

"I wanted to keep her as a pet but I didn't want her to like you more than me and leave me alone..." She looked down and said with a dropping voice tinged with guilt.

The dragon used its fluffy limbs and rolled over exposing its's cute scaily belly.

Ghkog was overcome with cutness and snatched her into his arms.

"Well... She's mine now. ...Uh... this... this... water dragon." He grumbled.

Her fur was soft and nice so he decided to name her Fluffy. Little did he know she was not a normal water dragon.