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Published at 29th of June 2022 05:34:00 AM


Chapter 21

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AbyssRaven With how much larger the Profiles are getting, I've decided to put them in spoiler tags for easier reading. If you want to see them, you can open the spoiler box. Also, I learned from the collab yesterday that you can make author notes like this. Pretty embarrassing.

The early bird catches the worm. Petal Flame. Earth Crash!

I do admit I had no idea about any real combat tactics as all the “strategies” I’ve learned from fighting and living in the world was purely guesswork with a few prior testings.  I didn’t think my limited video game knowledge would help me that much here. However, what I did know was that taking out the leader first would heavily demoralize the rest of the group.

The "petals" from my spell [Petal Flame] shot towards the wolf monsters, giving me an opening to materialize a massive boulder above me to squash one of them.

“Kraaaaah!”

Remembering what happened during the bird encounter, I cast [Wind Blast] behind my wings, shooting myself forward like a rocket. With the distance closed between the garm and myself, I activated the spell and let the spell fall right onto him!

“Grrr! Graouh?!”

Urgh, shit!

With a big squish sound, my boulder smashed on something, but it wasn’t the one I wanted. I missed the hit on the garm but… with all the blood and viscera lying around and under the boulder, I frowned, seeing as I killed one of the wargs.

It suddenly tackled the garm, taking his place and sacrificing its life to save its father. I heard wolves would try to protect the alphas in a pack to safeguard the entire pack's future, but losing their life for them? Maybe that was why the garm suddenly acted so weirdly, lashing out and destroying any chance for diplomacy.

Flame Spear! Flame Spear. Sacred Smite!

Having avoided my attack, the garm lunged forward with his mouth, trying to crush me with his razor-sharp fangs. Spears of flames shot out at the last moment, prepared in advance by my parallel minds, forcing the garm back unless it wanted to lose the other half of its Health. Tracking its movement, I then shot out the [Sacred Magic Lv. 1] spell, [Sacred Smite]

“Grrrrr. Graouh!”

But instead of jumping away as I wanted him to, he ducked under my spell, realizing I had to aim up due to our height difference. He was around the size of a horse, while I was kinda like a komodo dragon.

And when he ducked, he began to howl as a black magic circle appeared underneath me. The magical words on it formed, probably from the mana running fueling it at this moment; it was a spell! And a dark elemental spell, too!

Shi—!

But when I jumped away from the circle, multiple thick, black tendrils erupted from the shadow of a tree. Before I could jump back again, they slithered through the air and entangled me in their shadowy grasp, preventing me from moving away.

Argh! Owwww!

“Kraaaargh!”

Verdammt, it hurts like heeeeeeeeeell!

[Dark Magic]! I knew it, it had to be one of his dark elemental spells, specifically, [Dark Tendrils]! From my time trying to get [Water Resistance], I knew my titles gave me two terrible weaknesses in water and dark.

The pain, just from the touch alone, was dreadful! The tendrils felt like glowing red metal rods wrapping themselves around my limbs and tail. Agony, pure agony. It could be described as unholy fire, honestly, with how they seared themselves through my scales, right onto my skin and flesh.

But, at the same time, it gave me the confirmation I needed. That [Sacred Smite], it probably would have done equal damage to any of my fire spells on him. He was a dark elemental wolf. Holy was his weakness!

We were our counters.

Gritting my teeth, I took advantage of [Battle Mind] calming my senses and shot out three [Sacred Smite] towards the garm.

… And all three were dodged. Unlike my fire spells, [Sacred Smite] needed more time to materialize for some reason. I should have probably accounted for that, but mistakes were meant to be made and learned from!

While I was complaining about my inability to hit the garm, it managed to prepare another dark-colored magical circle for its next spell, which I was only able to recognize in this creeping darkness with [Night Vision]. [Petal Flames]’s fire was completely extinguished, and the lack of light was troubling.

I cast [Terra Magic Lv. 1]’s [Terra Wall] to block a dark projectile-like spell that was shot at me. However, it seemed the garm wasn’t done with the assault, rushing around the wall to continue shooting more of those [Dark Bolt] bullets.

With my mana supply, I could afford to counter each attack with a new wall, but this would be a burden on myself due to arcane corruption. I had to be careful with my mana usage… but I could worry about that later, the warg pincer coming from behind had to be addressed first!

For fuck’s sake, [Dark Magic] is really pissing me off! Minor Heal. Shine!

“Groouu!”

Surrounding my body in incandescent light, the shackles dispersed into thin air. Holy spells countering dark ones? Checked and noted.

Once they were off me, I healed the damage I received from them before constructing a miniature “Great Wall of China” with [Terra Wall]. The giant blocks of dirt and rock separated the garms from the wargs, giving me ample time to attack the small ones. Reluctant or not, survival came before all my feelings.

Shooting it at the advancing garms, [Flame Explosion] sent ripples of heat and flames accompanied with a giant boom  in front of them. Some felt the danger and stopped advancing, but two were far too close to the spell and were caught by it. Grimacing as their bodies flew into the air, I shot two [Wind Slash], ending their short lives right there.

With two garms down, I dashed into the lingering fire and used [Pyrokinesis] to wrap myself in it like a protective coat. I honestly would have preferred fabric, but clothing made from my own flames probably would be more destructive and defensive.

Warm-up is over. Spark Flame!

Sparks went flying around as I bashed my jaw plate together, forming flames inside my mouth to unleash multiple draconic fire balls at the fleeing wargs. The ground shattered from the impacts, scattering singed grass and earth into the air like a fountain, splitting the wargs into smaller groups as they tried navigating through everything. Together they may be annoying, but alone or in a pair?

Easy enough.

Oh, you should stay put Mr. Garm. Have a taste of your own medicine. Earthen Shackles. My head snapped around when my [Detection Sensor] beeped-warned me about the garm jumping over my walls.

In response, a brown magic circle collected the earth around it, morphing them into roots as they burst out. Like an octopi’s appendages, they flailed around, chasing and threatening the garm. The garm might be a tricky foe to kill if all these wargs were willing to lay down their lives for him. However, his children were far below me when it came to stats.

Fire magic was amazing to take out fodder. It was almost like a speciality. It really didn’t matter which warg I targeted, but the one closest to me would be the best bet.

Locking onto one of the candidates, I pursued them while manipulating my fire jacket to create small bullets. Like a gun, I began taking potshots at the wargs, missing here and there, but once my parallel minds managed to discern a proper parth, [Accuracy Correction] just took over and my target was gunned down.

With its life ended, I marked next closest one and sprinted over.

This is close enough, and now br…arck!

[“““rIwaREc lE EWuCaSe rOn; Bo oFoneTe tIP To siMoMiD mI TerEElAr rEtE dINa HeRa”””]

‘Ahhhh, too much information. Too much information!’ #3 screamed out as I recoiled from the stinging pain ringing my brain!

‘These damn wargs are attacking us with [Telepathy]. It’s a mental attack!’

[““rIwaREc lE EWuCaSe rOn; Bo oFoneTe tIP To siMoMiD mI TerEElAr rEtE dINa HeRa””]

Numerous information, all scrambled together into something like a large wrecking ball to punch right into my mind. It was an information overload with no coherent way to make them out. It was like a chaotic typhoon inside my head, swirling around, giving me the worst headache I’ve ever had.

My parallel minds had to fully dedicate themselves to push this information into the bin. Like a vacuum cleaner, they swept anything that was giving me discomfort away, alleviating the massive information dumps. Once they identified where all these mental attacks came from, they stuffed the hole up like a leaking boat.

Ooooooh, yes! It’s over, it’s finally over!

As I could feel my mind being cleared up a bit, meanwhile, the wargs began to whimper in pain like innocent, little dogs.

How do you like the taste of your own medicine, dogs?

These wargs were really testing my limits with this information dump. I honestly thought my head would split apart from all of that noise in my head. That fog of information made it literally impossible for me to cast spells or move around.

Luckily, my parallel minds launched a counterattack with my own [Telepathy]. In a clash between five wargs and my comrades in arms, my side was quickly pushing the balance of power to my side. In a mental warfare, they probably were more experienced, but nothing beats the mind of a teenager who has been exposed to the internet and social media! You can find more junk in there than what these five wargs could even imagine.

With them occupied by my mind attack, all I needed to do was—

[“STOP RIGHT THERE!”]

STOP SCREAMING IN MY HEAD!

I flinched from the powerful mental attack. Loudly shrieking and yelping in anguish, I desperately rotated my head to each side, until I saw the garm smirking, still dodging every single root from [Earthern Shackles]! He was the culprit!

I wanted to take the garm out now, but understanding that it was simply distracting me, I calmed down. The garm wanted me to take my attention away from the wargs. I couldn’t do what he wanted. I wanted to, at least, complain about that attack but I didn’t have the time nor concentration to do that correctly.

I need to kill these wargs before the garm is freed. Flame Spear…

["DO NOT IGNORE ME, CHILD!"]

[“STOP DOING THIS! SCHEIßE, it hurts…!”]

The pain inside my head grew and grew. Why the hell was the gimmick of these damn dogs mental attacks?! Why did they have to have something obnoxious to begin with! And from the fact at how much I was complaining about it, the garm smirked once again, knowing he had me taunted.

[“It seems taunting you is far easier than I thought.”]

[“ARGH, what you’re doing is unfair as hel…”]

By instinct alone, I stopped my thoughts and lowered my body, avoiding an incoming [Dark Bolt] from sniping my head while I was unaware.

[“Hmph, you dodged it… You are certainly a pest with your [Telepathy], especially with how you countered our hunting strategy. Even beasts far stronger than a simple warg would be overwhelmed by this.”] he stated with a dismissive tone, even clueing me in to how these mental attacks were more ingrained in these wolves than I thought. Maybe [Telepathy] was a racial skill for them?

Seriously, why did the description not tell me this? HEY, System Voice, this was important information that you should be putting into the description for these monsters. If this was how he fought and hunted, then how unfair was this for monsters without [Telepathy]? If that’s the case, then to hell with it!

Come, my flames!

All the surrounding fire began swarming around me, burning anything flammable into cinders to fuel its growth. I began beating my wings, hoping that the updraft caused by my flames will be enough to bring me to the sky.

“Kriaorrrrrrhhhhhh!”

Gather my flames. Burn this forest into ashes. Burn brighter than anyone who dares to steal my spotlight!

W-What?! Uuhm, how the— Fuck it, Imperial Hellfire!

Roaring the name of this sudden spell in my head, I flew up into the sky and gathered all the fire that was in this area into a huge cloud of inferno above me.

With the wargs and garm still attacking me mentally; my mind, parallel mind included, has fully descended into anger and chaos from all this pain. All moral decisions were cut off as I fully embraced my draconic wrath. With my mana being released and used to activate this spell, I turned my body and began diving towards the ground.

On impact, the inferno cloud crashed and started to spread across the ground similar to the shockwave caused by a meteor crashing on a planet. A sea of fire was all that I could see. The grassland we were fighting in, the trees of the forest, and all life were consumed by this unnatural disaster created by those taunting words of an arrogant, piece of shit garm.

He speaks so noble but behaves like a common street thug!

Something died… and coincidentally, all the pain in my head vanished. This irritation, though, was still there. My mind was throbbing, pulsating like mad.

And it became even worse when I looked at the level I’d gotten. Only one, meaning the garm did not die. How did he dodge that attack? He couldn't possibly have tanked this attack if a mere glancing hit from my [Inferno Blast] was enough to shave off over half of his health. He probably had the chance to heal himself a bit, through [Health Recovery], but there was still a zero chance that he could survive a hit.

With the ashes and embers starting to settle down and began to disperse itself from my view, I could only watch in horror how black everything now looked. My eyes widened up enough up so much I thought I was shooting them out of their sockets. I swallowed my dry spit, now realizing what my actions had caused.

This green and lush piece of the Belzac Forest was eradicated by my spell. The damage was widespread, still burning away more trees during this night. I hastily stopped the spread with [Pyrokinesis], letting them eat their last trees before stuffing up their lives, leaving only ash and dust behind. My efforts still weren’t able to prevent this place from becoming a fleeting memory of a once beautiful woodland.

[“You…how could you?”] A voice filled with horror entered my mind.

I flinched upon hearing those words, but my guilt was quickly overshadowed by the remnants of my anger. I defiantly rebuked his words with an emotion filled answer. [“To survive, you must use all that is at your disposal without consideration of what is fair or not. That is what you wanted to tell me, right? That’s what you tried to tell me with how you wolves hunt!”]

My voice was quivering, but it wasn’t transmitted through telepathy. I still couldn’t believe I lost my temper, and let the flames act without properly controlling them. I could have prevented all of this destruction. I could have done it!

[“Our ancestral home… There is a limit to what you can and cannot do!”]

I knew he was speaking the truth. I knew it, but honestly, what the hell was this garm speaking to about there being limits. If you try to kill me, it wasn’t only my fault for going too far. You also owned the consequences of my actions!

[“Don’t lecture me on this. I know what I did is rather cruel, but the forest will grow back after a few years while my life will not. To survive, I will do what I must. Don’t try to patronize me here once again, you damn hypocrite! You started this fight! You wanted to kill me!”]

[“… It seems I have made another mistake. I shouldn’t have provoked a dragon, no matter how young. Maybe it was also a mistake to not make peace with you, considering your titles…”]

My titles? What did he mean by that?

[“If I had taken your offer to leave in peace, maybe my young wouldn’t have perished. The pride of my bloodline compelled me to repel you. Maybe… we have lost our grace in the eyes of our ancestor. Maybe even to the God of Darkness. Is the extinction of our bloodline the only future left, for us Belzac garms? Our undoing?”]

It was somber. Crestfallen. Sad. I felt pity merely by hearing it… but it was too late. All of this, too late. I couldn’t hear an ounce of trying to make peace with me.

[“… Blame your stubbornness. This is the end. Come at me already!”]

[“Of course, this is the last thing left I could do…”]

With our words spoken, the garm pounced at me. While it might seem like a simple frontal attack, it was actually a feint for his true intentions. A magical circle began forming under my feet, no, in my shadows. This spell couldn’t work in darkness or in a shadow.

He probably expected me to not notice this [Dark Tendril] while in my anger, but the same trick wouldn’t work on me twice. [Dark Bolt] was invoked around him, like any of my normal spells, while his [Dark Tendrils] could only be cast from a shadow. It only took me one glance to understand the functionality of his spells. It helped that I had seven minds.

It also didn’t help that he didn’t have [Silent Casting]. Magic circles, when formed, produced a small sound from the whirling mana, not including the spells materialized themselves. [Silent Casting] made it so they didn’t produce any sound to anybody but for yourself. It was essentially [Stealth] and [Presence Killer] for mages.

And whether the garm thought I wouldn’t notice it or not, he stopped his pounce midway byt stomping the ground, and jumped to the sides, as if to circle around me. He was trying to take away even more of my attention while the spell was being cast.

However, unlike the garm, I wasn’t just an animal. I was a dragon with the mind of a human.

Bombs away!

To the garm’s shock, I threw out the two fire bombs I had stored inside my storage. As they flew in between us, I produced a spark.

Air Shield! Spark Flame!

And with a might fire, the bombs were set off, sending an explosion to shroud the field in smoke and flames.

“Garoouuuh!”

Sensor! Found you! Sacred Smite.

“Grou—!”

It was over.

“— ork?! Uiiiieeeek!”

Something hard fell on the ground. I could hear it. No System messages appeared, since I knew already even in this dark that I was the winner.

[“H-How…?”] I could hear his voice in my head as I approached him.

[“You need to see my shadow to activate the spell. Nothing hard to counter.”]

While it wouldn’t stop the spell after it activated, anything to obstruct the sight of the caster would prevent a shadow-based spell to be cast, was what I got from the situation. To be honest, I could have probably done the same with [Terra Wall] or used [Humanize]’s mana mist to obstruct his line-of-sight, but both options would have prevented me from dealing the finishing blow.

[“… [Storage Magic]. I couldn’t appraise its description. I was beaten…”] His voice sounded weak.

And it made sense when I moved out of the dust cloud, where I saw the garm lying in a puddle of his own blood, leaking from his open chest. [Air Shield] protected me from my grenades, but it also left the garm flying in a predictable direction. Just like the wargs I killed with [Flame Explosion].

Even if [Sacred Smite] was slow to cast, if I had a way to lock down his movements, it was all over. His weakness just made my advanced spell even stronger. Obvious to see, seeing as the spell created a bagel hole in his body.

[“Young dragon…”]

I stood over him. I saw his Health and status. With all the blood he was losing, even I couldn’t heal him in time with [Moderate Heal]. I was still protected by my [Air Shield], too. He couldn’t kill me for a life-saving level up.

He was destined to die.

[“… It shouldn’t have been that way. You… you’re the first person I talked with. The first person I could actually speak with. Why? Why was I like that? I could have…”]

[“Sadness?”] I heard something enter my mind, but my thoughts were already far gone. The opportunity of a lifetime, wasted.

I wanted to cry. The answer to my solitude was there right before me, I could have finally been free from this lonesome life. Four months of being alone. Four months of being attack by everything in this place. All I had was myself. I had to speak with myself.

Where are my parents? Where were my relatives? Where were my friends? Why was I here in this world. This was not how life should be. Humans were meant to be surrounded by other people, as living alone was too much torture. This win? It felt hollow. I felt empty. The anger and my want for revenge disappeared, and nothing was left inside me but the gnawing guilt.

The kobolds, the orcs, and now these garms. I just… wanted a friend. Somebody.

[“… Reincarnator.”]

[“What?”] His voice brought me back to reality. My sad reality.

[“My newborn. The… only survivor of our newest litter. All the other died, but one lived. Our last pup. She is exactly like you. She has the same title.”]

[“Huh? Wait, what did you say?! Hey! Hey!”]

[“… Forgive this fool of a beta, my partner. Don’t be angry at her… I did this.”]

[“No! Stop! Don’t die! Answer me!”]

Moderate Hea—

“Whroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

[“… What?”]

Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why did we have to fight? This doesn’t make sense. Nothing makes sense. The kobolds, the orcs, these wolves. Why? Why? Why?

I don’t understand.

But, did it need any reasoning but “it was to survive?” To remove a threat from their lives, in a forest where everything could kill you. Why couldn’t I get this thought in my mind? Why couldn’t I accept this was how animals lived out here.

And I should have. How many monsters have I killed to gain levels and to eat? How many of them were probably too unintelligent to understand me, even if I had tried to befriend them? Why didn’t I try to do so? Was it ‘cause I was scary looking?

No, ‘cause deep down, I knew they were nothing more than experience fodder for me. To help me grow stronger.

The kobolds and orcs only saw me as an intruder. Instead of simply fleeing, I let my anger out and killed them while holding back my guilt. I egged the garm on to fight me, until it was too late to realize “maybe I could have made friends with these wolves.”

With [Telepathy]… 100%. I will 100% not start a fight with something I could communicate with.

It was a promise to myself. And promises were things I would always keep. What was done, was done.

I’m so sorry. I apologized to the garm and closed his eyes.

It was a dog-eat-dog world as I told myself in the beginning. Maybe it was time for the dragon to stop acting like a dragon, and more like a human.

Yeah.

“Whroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

But before I could bring myself to find the remains of the wargs to bury them, a cold suddenly went down my spine. I was frozen into place with fear as that howl became louder and louder, as if it was coming closer.

I slowly turned my head around. There, looming over me with the size of an elephant was a huge being. Fur as black as the ebony night with the presence of even the most imposing generals.

My fears had come true.

Spoiler

Name: *    Level: 28   Race: Darkness Garm

Age: 9 Years

Status:    Health: 1498/6998   Mana: 403/3609

Strength: 3461    Intelligence: 1903

Vitality: 2102    Wisdom: 2269

Agility: 4901    Stamina: 431/4590

Effects:   [Exhaustion (Major)] [Bleeding (Moderate)] [Adrenaline (Moderate)]

[Arcane Corruption (Minor)] [Infection (Moderate)]

Skill:  Magic skills and related:

[Arcane Mind Lv. 5] [Mana Control Lv. 7] [Mana Efficiency Lv. 6]

[Arcane Mind Lv. 5] [Wind Magic Lv. 6] [Wind Amp] [Dark Magic Lv. 9]

[Dark Amp] [Dark Magic Efficiency] [Cast Revocation Lv. 4]

[Mental Stability Lv. 4] [Mental Warfare Lv. 4]

Physical skills and related:

[Stamina Strike Lv. 9] [Mana Strike Lv. 7] [Sundering Enhancement Lv. 6]

[Piercing Enhancement Lv. 7] [Enhanced Claws Lv. 10] [Enhanced Fangs Lv. 10]

Senses and movement skills:

[Accuracy Correction Lv. 4] [Concentration Lv. 8]

[Prediction Lv. 7] [Danger Perception Lv. 5]

[Probability Correction Lv. 3] [Detection Sensor Lv. 2]

[Primal Senses] [Tracking Lv. 10] [Night Vision Lv. 10]

[Silence Lv. 1] [Odorless Lv. 1] [Evasion Lv. 7]

[Acrobatic Lv. 9] [Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 9]

Resistances:

[Physical Resistance Lv. 7] [Pain Resistance Lv. 6]

[Arcane Corruption Resistance Lv. 3] [Bleed Resistance Lv. 5]

[Poison Resistance Lv. 2] [Paralyze Resistance Lv. 4]

[Torpor Resistance Lv. 8] [Fire Resistance Lv. 2] [Earth Resistance Lv. 5]

[Wind Resistance Lv. 7]

Stat growths and related:

[Health Recovery Lv. 5] [Mana Recovery Lv. 6]

[Stamina Recovery Lv. 7] [Enhanced Health Growth Lv. 5]

[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 3]

[Enhanced Mana Growth Lv. 5] [Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 3]

[Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 5] [Enhanced Strength Enforcement Lv. 4]

[Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 5] [Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 3]

[Enhanced Vitality Growth Lv. 4] [Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 2]

[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 4] [Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 2]

[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 8] [Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 5]

[Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 7] [Enhanced Stamina Capacity Lv. 4]

Other:

[Identity Blocker Lv. 8] [Identify Lv. 6] [Terror Aura Lv. 6] [Telepathy]

[Leadership Lv. 5] [Kin Controller Lv. 3] [Dismantle Lv. 3]

[Thought Acceleration Lv. 4] [Pregnancy Lv. 5]

Spell List: Dark spells:

[Dark Bolt] [Dark Tendrils] [Shadow Dash] [Dark Slash]

Wind spells:

[Wind Bullet] [Wind Cutter] [Air Shield] [Wind Slash]

[Swift Winds]

Titles:  [Pack Leader] [Belzac’s Successor]

Information Blocked

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