Safiel had thought she had been prepared, but as Aura, the one she had invited here herself, and the one and only living person she had ever met grew closer and closer to her prison, she slowly began to panic. What would she do if he didn't like her? What if she said something odd, or drove him away? What if her appearance scared him away? She had read that humans were scared of dragons after all. Thoughts wrung her poor anxiety ridden mind to pieces that only came to a stop when the detector magic tools showed that Aura had arrived outside the hidden door. Reflexively, she read off her script and asked him to come in and thus revealed the door there. When this occurred, she short circuited, if she were a robot then sparks would be shooting out of her ears and eyes by now to show how little of her brain was working at the moment. Fear, anxiety, anticipation, excitement. All these emotions surged throughout her mind like tidal waves and threatened to drown her mind out as that door she could never leave opened and before her stood the young man who was the cause of these feelings. Driven by instinct alone, the circuits in her eyes flashed and before her appeared a book detailing the status of the one before her.

[Name] Aura  

[Class] Biomancer  

[Subclass] None  

[Race] Human(Half-Monster) 

[Level] 4

[HP] 100/100 [MP] 150/150  

[Vitality] 10  

[Capacity] 15

[Strength] 15

[Agility] 25

[Intelligence] 12

[Charisma] 5  

[Fortune] 2    

[Stat Points] 0

[Unique Skills] Unsteady Life, Abnormal Growth

[Class Skills] Bio Analyze 2, Flesh Reinforcement 2, Notepad, Self-Modification 2

[Skills] Analysis Eye 2, Storage 1, Dagger Combat 1, Unarmed Combat 1, Water Magic 1, Claw Combat 1

Chills ran throughout her body at the mention of that Class. His stats were higher than hers in physical stats, but far from her own in mental ones. Though it seems that could be explained by the fact humans are naturally weak at first, and the odd unique skills he possessed. However she had read books about Biomancers in the study. They were said to be walking calamities to all life. The weakest of them had transformed themselves into unthinking monsters, that could nearly endlessly regenerate due to their overflowing life force and magic. While the most dangerous had caused the fall of countries through disease, or manipulating monsters to do their bidding, or even sheer individual prowess. Not all biomancers became calamities, but every biomancer was a natural conqueror, it only depended on scale. As the best class when using life magic they were unparalleled in it and as they modified themselves or others they became more and more eccentric. 'The Class makes the man'. Or so they say, since a Class that someone chooses or changes to will have a mental effect on the person. This is most prevalent however with powerful classes or those born with classes. Biomancers were so feared because often both of these requirements were met, creating raving eccentrics unable to withstand the natural instinct to hunt all life, and create their own.

She hurriedly tried to calm her breathing. Aura had just appeared here and likely only had the class for a small amount of time based on his level. He should still be quite rational and thus able to negotiate. Thus she focused on the other aspects of him. He was quite tall for the human race she supposed, with onyx hair and golden eyes that threatened to draw others in. It seemed however that his eyes were similar to her own so he must be looking at her own stats right now. He was wearing simple clothing you would see on a typical peasant as far as she could guess, with descriptions from books, with leather work boots and claws gleaming in the light. Wait, she gingerly rubbed her eyes and looked again. Claws!? Was he not a member of the human race? Wait, his status had already said the words Half-Monster, she was doomed. Biomancers rarely kept their sanity after changing their flesh due to incompatibility issues and went insane. And she had basically no fighting capability due to her circumstances. Those gleaming claws would go right through her chest and take out her hear- "Excuse me, are you alright?".

Her despairing thoughts crashed to a stop at those words from the monster in front of her. "You seem a bit out of sorts, did something happen?", He tilted his head as if completely unaware that he was the cause for all these feelings. She rejoiced that he seemed to have his wits still and she wasn't going to die after all. She glanced at her script out of the corner of her eye and spoke quietly. "I am fine, thank you for your concern. Now then, shall we discuss what I asked you to come here for?".

♦ ♦ ♦

Aura was quite shocked to see the beautiful dragon in front of him, but was even more astounded by the status of Safi that he couldn't quite wrap his head around, like how does this even happen?

[Name] Safiel

[Class] Shut-in Researcher 

[Subclass] Alchemist 

[Race] Moonlit Dragon

[Level] 1

[HP] 50/50 [MP] 20/20 

[Vitality] 5 

[Capacity] 2

[Strength] 5

[Agility] 5

[Intelligence] 56

[Charisma] 10 

[Fortune] 10   

[Stat Points] 0

[Unique Skills] Supreme Mana Efficiency

[Racial Skills] True Language Proficiency, Mana Trapping Scales (Locked), Breath (Locked), Moonlight Magic (Locked)

[Class Skills] Notepad, Shut-in 5, Research Proficiency 5, Alchemy 1

[Skills] Analysis Eye 6, Fire Formula Magic 1, Water Formula Magic 1, Earth Formula Magic 1, Wind Formula Magic 1

What the fuck is with this minmaxed character sheet? Have you never exercised before? Go out and touch some damn Mana Grass you shut in dragon! The dragon in front of me was also quite small and thin for what I would expect to a dragon to be. Also, why hadn't she said anything the whole time? Now that I'm thinking about it, she seems... panicked? Oh now her eyes are darting around. Is she unused to people? Thinking about it, just who in the world would come down here, and she surely isn't going anywhere with a class like that. Now she looks like the world is going to end, she sure is a funny one huh? I must admit, seeing all these emotions appear and disappear was quite amusing in a teasing kind of way and relieving that she's even more open than a book.

I should probably call out to her now though. "Excuse me, are you alright?" I tilted my head in askance as she froze and looked at me again, great now she's listening. "You seem a bit out of sorts, did something happen?" I watched as her eyes darted to a piece of paper sitting next to her on a small end table and read something off of it before responding with "I am fine, thank you for your concern. Now then, shall we discuss what I asked you to come here for?". Now that's all well and fine, but that's totally a script like for a customer service call center isn't it? I focused my eyes slightly and read the title of it she had put in cutesy writing and flourish 'Safiel's Guide to Making New Friends!'. Oh ma god, I'm gonna die, I haven't been in this world for even a day and I'm gonna die of cuteness overload. How does someone even weaponize adorableness like that!? That's unfair I say! I swear I took HP damage from that being too precious. Alright, I've gotta make sure I become her friend and help her make some new ones.

♦ ♦ ♦

"I see, so you've been here alone this whole time?" I sat in a quite fancy wooden chair with a comfy cushion across from Safi who was sitting on the ground next to the table. She had just finished explaining the basics of who she was and why she was here, all while still glancing at her script like I couldn't see it. My first impressions were that she was intelligent, but basically an airhead and prone to anxiety fits if something didn't go the way she imagined. So without her realizing, I was also reading and going along with her script to keep things easy. Plus the way she was trying so hard was honestly heartwarming. You go Safi!

I had also pulled out some of the cooked wolf meat that I had left over and shared it with Safi, who had never eaten anything besides raw alchemical ingredients before. Dragons apparently can eat anything with mana and digest them, which sounds cool as hell, I'll need to get me one of those in the future it seems. But even though my cooking was not great to put it nicely, she scarfed it down with relish before getting embarrassed about it and eating a more timid way but her tail was swinging to reveal she was just as happy as before. She was similar to a dog that was friendly, but nervous around new people I guess.

"So what do you think?" She asked, anxious for my answer. "Well, I'd be happy to help you, I don't know how I can help you out of here just yet, but I can at least help you get healthier and bring you things from the outside as I get stronger. That was sugarcoating it though. Using Bio Analyze, I had realized just how bad her situation was and how hardworking a dragon's life force could be. She needed mana, and badly. She wasn't going to make it maybe another month with her circumstances. Her mana core and physique were severely under developed and close to failing. And from what I could see, the mana core of a monster is essentially a second heart, which is especially true for dragons. Dragons took in mana in place of food and transformed it into the nutrients her body needed. This was how dragons were so strong and long lived it seems. They could live anywhere and everywhere with mana, and past a certain age they could even somewhat generate it themselves. What a goddamn cheat. But that was only at a certain age and power. Which Miss Anxiety Bundle here didn't meet the requirements for. Her core was at a critical point of cracking and self imploding from lack of mana at this point. Imagine your heart suddenly exploding in you chest and you'll get the picture of how bad this is for her.

"Really!? That would be great!" Safi happily exclaimed as her tail thumped against the ground. The girl herself seemed to know she was in a bad situation but not how bad. Hopefully she would never need to since I would be bringing her mana and mana filled food from now on. I'm no coldblooded beast, and she was the first person I had met so naturally I wanted to help her. Did it help that she was a girl with a cute personality? Maybe, but I will forever deny it henceforth! But it looks like I'll really need to start scouting out the forest and hunting prey soon. "For now I'll transfer small amounts of mana into your core to try to satiate it. We can't go too fast, or the core will shatter from the impact.". She shivered slightly from my diagnosis and nodded. "Then please and thank you very much." Too cute really.

I slowly walked around the table over to her as to not startle her like a small animal, and gingerly placed my hand just below her long neck where the core was located. I had to be careful or my claws would accidentally harm her brittle scales. I imagined my mana flowing out of my palm and it reacted by slowly trickling out as gorgeous stream of blue, green, black, and gold. I was mesmerized by the sight like a nebula in space when I noticed Safi staring at it as well with a pondering look in her eyes. After I finished I asked her what that had been. "Hey Safi, currently I can only use water magic, so why was my mana so many colors?" She took a moment to think and then nodded as she came up with a response. "Mana Cores have the ability to give attributes to items or living beings, but the human races have no mana cores, so how do they use magic you may wonder? Well the answer is in 3 ways. Natural Attributes, Formula Magic, and Spirit Magic. Natural attributes are similar to how mana cores work, in that the whole body is attuned to a certain element and they can use it as naturally as breathing, like a monster. Formula magic is magic anyone can learn as long as they try, it is the study of translating magic into magic circles and the reverse. Spirit magic is when you enter a contract with a spirit, a being of near pure mana, and they create the phenomena for you." At some point she had gotten a pair of glasses and put them on and was teaching me with a diligent expression on her dragon face. The whole teacher aesthetic was kind of ruined by her wagging tail that revealed her happiness but I'll pretend I didn't see it.

"My guess is that you're natural attribute is Life Magic, considering it's one of the requirements for the Biomancer Class, while the black and gold are the basic color of your mana.", that was news to me, also what did she mean by basic color of mana? Perhaps noticing my confusion, she continued. "Individuals with high amounts of mana at birth will have different colors to their mana as a kind of indicator. No one knows why but it's been proven. So when you would cast a spell without an attribute, Neutral Magic, it would come out as black and gold, instead of transparent. Researchers seem to think the body may be subtly changing the mana in their body to better suit themselves, and thus making it easier for them to manipulate it while it's harder for other to interfere."

I quickly added the explanation to my Notepad, and nodded in understanding. Thank you for the lesson Ms. Safi, I appreciate it. Oh her tail is hitting the ground harder now, I suppose she likes being a teacher?

♦ ♦ ♦

After giving her some of my mana as a treatment Safi had been a bit more energetic and had tried to teach me even more, but I had to escape. It was certainly interesting, but after everything that  had happened I felt like my brain would explode and I needed rest desperately. Safi allowed me to use the former bedroom of the asshole alchemist that used to live there, so I cleaned up slightly and decided to use this place as my forward base to conquer this cave system. I got up early and headed out to scout the forest nearest to us and plan my next move for hunting and Self-Modification. I also had added finding a magic interfering monster to my To Do List in my Notepad, I figured something like that would be my best bet to break the field trapping Safi in there.

Incidentally I had learned to contain my aura (no pun intended) so I wouldn't be attracting monsters like that Boa again. Apparently, it had been attracted the huge amount of life magic in my body, which was guaranteed to have great effects if any living monster ate me. So it seems like both the monsters here and myself only saw each other as wonderful meals to have. I stepped out of the cave passage gingerly into the forest cavern and kept watch. But it seems that the Boa had given up or gotten such a bad trauma from the meal I so generously threw into its mouth that it had equated being near me with that sensation. I wasn't quite sure how to feel about that but I decided it was for the best. I slowly made my way through the trees taking care not to make a sound on the leaves littering the ground. Interestingly, since the trees themselves had the hardness of stone in their bark, their branches could only really be broken by large beasts coming through and wouldn't break under my foot either, so none of that cliche branch snapping for me, no sir.

Hughghghgh, I'm so bored. Am I just thinking stupid things to entertain myself. Yes, yes I was. But it had been 2 hours and I saw absolutely nothing at all. I've been traveling in arcs, so from above the section I'd explored looked like a half circle with the middle being the passage back to Safi. I was pulled out of my thoughts as I heard high pitched howls and branches swaying ahead of me. I stilled my breathing and hid behind a particularly wide tree as I observed my new prey.

[Stone Howler Monkey, a type of monkey type monster that has stone-like skin, greatly increasing its durability, but it can still stretch like normal skin so it doesn't inhibit the monster's movements and agility. It prefers to attack using throwing projectiles.]

A wide grin made its way onto my face unbidden as my claws spread open in preparation for my fun.