Typhon was aware he was dreaming. He seemed to be in a room, the bright scenery filling him with a distant, pleasant memory. However, its familiarity was one that also evoked a deep melancholy.

In this space, a voice that sounded like Ophelia called out a name, but he could already tell it wasn't her. Although similar, this voice contained a unique childishness that Ophelia no longer possessed.

Although he could not see the figure, he seemed to look up to her.

Typhon felt the figure reach out and fiercely rub his head, the sensation filling him with inexplicable longing. And then, he was lifted off the ground and smothered in a suffocating embrace amidst his struggle to get free.

But the voice he heard was so warm and pleasant that he soon stopped struggling as the sound of the mellow voice filled him with a deep sadness.

However, before he could figure out what it was all about, the scenery faded to a blur and Typhon opened his eyes to complete darkness. Soon, the memory of his dream disappeared, leaving behind a deep feeling of hunger that wrecked through his senses.

The scent of earth filled his nostrils, and he could feel the sandy texture against his scales. But he immediately felt that something was odd.

He remembered rushing into the crater with his team before he became overwhelmed with sleepiness. But on waking up he was alone, his team members nowhere to be found. He thought it strange that the crater was dark and when he looked up he saw there was something covering the opening.

He was concerned for his team, so he immediately rose up to go outside, which should have been fairly easy to do, but the crater was unusually slippery. His body pressed against the surrounding sand and simply moving caused waves of dust to rain down on his body.

Unperturbed by this, he reached for the opening, pushing aside the fleshy object with his head to see what it was.

Outside, Typhon was surprised to see the corpse of the creature he had killed. It seemed to have been dragged from the place it died back to the crater, before its legs were folded under the grassy mound of its body.

Due to the creature's unique camouflage, this formed a bizarre mound of dark sand, topped with a scattering of grass and flowers that looked no different from a hill from above. And it seemed, it had been used to seal the crater's opening to keep him from harm...

His first thought was that his team members had done it, but he quickly ruled out that idea. The creature was far too big for them to pull, even with their combined strength.

His eyes settled on the creature to see if he could find some clues, but the sight of the corpse only intensified his hunger and soon he found himself chomping on it, and only regaining his sanity after decimating half of the corpse.

It was only then that he noticed something even strange.

His sight had improved!

And his appetite also seemed to have increased. Before, he wouldn't have been able to eat so much, but now, he still wasn't satisfied. It was strange, the creature that once felt large as a mountain, now seemed to have shrunk in size.

Typhon examined his body and discovered it was him that had changed. He was now bigger, and his body was noticeably heavier and wider than before.

The scales on his body overlapped and were a dark opaque colour, rock hard like a gem and so sharp they cut the tough skin of the creature simply by grazing against it. And when he moved, his movement was fluid, with a whole new level of speed.

Typhon couldn't understand what had happened, but he had a feeling it had something to do with 'her'.

She had instructed him to improve three skills to LV10, but he went a bit further and levelled a total of ten. He wanted to get all his skills to level 10, but training the nestlings and hunting had gotten in the way.

With that said, he checked himself with [Status Inspection] and was more than shocked at the results.

--------------

Name: Typhon [LV12 Neonate Cerastes]

Specie: Ailith Vipera

HP: 172/172 Defence: 258

MP: 123/123 Intellect: 120

SP: 196/196 Magic: 100

Attack: 150 Agility: 149

Skills:

[Poison Fang: LV10] [Stealth: LV10]

[Danger Perception: LV9] [Solidity: LV9]

[Impact Enhancement: LV10] [Leap: LV9]

[Strength: LV10] [Motion Perception: LV7]

[Spherical Form: LV8] [Camouflage: LV8]

[Heat Sense: LV10] [Mana Sense: LV1]

[Crushing Bite: LV1] [Poison Synthesis: LV1]

[Farsight: LV7] [Poison Generation: LV10]

[Piercing Enhancement: LV8] [Scent: LV8]

[Imperial Scales: LV1] [Heat Sphere: LV1]

[Rapid Strike: LV8] [Shockwave: LV10]

[Earth Tremor: LV1] [Steel Skin: LV10]

[Silence: LV10] [Determination: LV7]

[Colossal Strength: LV1] [Persistence: LV5]

[Bite: LV10] [Frightful Presence: LV1]

[Rugged Scales: LV10] [Anger: LV1]

[Shadow Shroud: LV1] [Grip: LV9]

[Deadly Poison Attack: LV1]

[Shock Enhancement: LV7]

[Serpentine Grace: LV1]

----------------------------

Titles:

[Pit Member] [Captain] [Assassin]

Attributes:

[Invulnerable] [Status Inspection]

Magic Skills:

[Poison Magic: LV1] [Earth Magic: LV1]

----------------------------

Resistances:

[Piercing Resistance: LV10]

[Pain Resistance: LV10]

[Impact Resistance: LV10]

[Faint Resistance: LV9]

[Shock Resistance: LV10]

[Pain Nullification: LV7]

[Heat Nullification: LV2]

[Acid Resistance: LV3]

--------------

He couldn't stop staring at it.

Was this what 'she' intended when she'd given him such a strange instruction. And had he gone overboard by going over the specified limit?

A scary thought crossed his mind.

What if 'she' didn't take too kindly to how strong he had become and chose to kill him instead?

Also, where had his team members gone? The stampede was long gone, the only trace- the imprints left in the ground now looked small to him.

Typhon began to fear they had gone after the herd in his absence. Likely under the influence of the two mischievous snakes whose recklessness he loathed. He still couldn't get over how they had driven the stone creatures to attack the base of the monster.

A brilliant plan, but a reckless one, nonetheless. It could have killed them both and he couldn't wait to find the two to punish them for their actions. But he did have to thank them for the quick thinking that saved his life and led to the creature's defeat.

He stared at the imprints across the grassy field, deciding to follow them, in hopes they would lead to his team. However, it took only a few minutes to make it across the landscape with his speed.

He sped past a cluster of grass, when he heard someone calling out to him.

[Typhon! You're awake!]

He stopped, taken aback after seeing one of his team members poked her head out of the grass. But he was surprised and stared at her curiously.

She looked... so small!

He realised he had to be a similar size to their leader, if not bigger.

[Where are the others?] he asked

The snake grinned excitedly. [Everyone is hiding and waiting!]

[For what?] he asked.

[It's here! It's here!] The snake trembled in excitement and Typhon began to recognise the other members of his team poking their heads out of various grass clusters. And then the ground began to tremble with the sound of heavy footsteps.

Typhon saw dust clouds in the distance where many creatures rumbled. And leading the charge was a group of stone creatures, who were running like their lives depended on it.

Wasn't the stampede over?

Typhon looked up in the air to see a fully formed shadowy creature. It had the shape of a snake, but with large wings on either side and the stone creatures seemed to be trying to outrun the shadow it cast on the ground without success.

Typhon sighed in disbelief. 'She' had changed again.

[Shoo, Typhon! Go away. You'll scare it away, looking like that!]

To his surprise, his team member was hissing at him to leave and Typhon was in shock.

So, this was how quickly he was cast aside, simply because their leader had come?

He twitched with annoyance but did as he was told, moving out of the way before the stampede got close.

The stone creatures were driven towards the clusters by their leader, giving each nesting a chance to test their strength and inflict their bite on them, before chasing them down.

Typhon watched their progress from afar. Their leader continued to chase the herd across the field, giving him the impression she was having fun instead of hunting.

And the distrust he built up towards her, immediately dissolved.

She had to have been the one who used the creature to cover him while he slept, because no one else could drag it but her. Which meant she had already seen his new form and wasn't threatened by him.

With the nestlings far away in pursuit, the shadowy figure swooped down to land beside him. There seemed to be something on her head and now that he was a similar size to her, Typhon peered closely at the buzzing thing on her head.

An insect?

His immediate thought was to swat it away. However, before he could do so, a dark wing stretched over to rest on top of his head, patting briefly before retreating. For some reason, the gesture stunned him, before he instinctively shook his head in annoyance.

[Go home.] she relayed her message.

She didn't seem annoyed at him, rather she seemed to be grinning. And with her instructions relayed, she sped off into the air once more, disappearing with the insect before he could ask where she was headed.