I recovered my flight after Sensei's unexpected interruption, my thoughts perplexed.

Was he saying that he would protect me?

That just seemed strange…and absurd.

As I glided between the trees, I counted the number of times he had done so, and they were not many.

Sensei was the type to let me make mistakes and then correct them afterwards. He was the same even in my memories as a human and perhaps, this hands off approach had taken an extreme turn since our rebirth.

But it was odd that he would say this now.

If he wasn't a system, I would guess that he was drunk.

Why else would he say something cringey like this?

I had the suspicion that he was playing a trick, but his serious tone threw me off guard.

«You seem surprised.» Sensei said. «What's so strange about what I said?»

Was he kidding?

"Everything." I deadpanned.

«Why? What did I say wrong?»

"That you would never let me die." I bluntly replied. "I don't believe it."

«Why would I?» Sensei nonchalantly replied. «You're my precious student.»

This bastard.

My surprise faded, replaced by irritation as I quickly came to my senses.

I'd already nearly died countless times because of him!

"Liar! If you don't have anything useful to say, then don't speak at all."

What exactly was I hoping for? That he's suddenly turned over a new leaf?

He likely meant to say, 'you're my precious vessel.'

He hadn't changed at all!

«Why are you upset?» He asked.

"I'm not." I replied and continued to fly without another word.

What a shameless guy! And he had the nerve to be surprised.

Here I thought he'd learnt to feel something – but really he was simply getting my hopes up for nothing!

I passed the raised slope where I encountered the elf party, and the steep forest around it, travelling past it until Sylrin's cave came into view.

It was pretty isolated, the cave situated between rocks and overlooking the forest below. The elf hunting party was no longer present and although I was eager to meet my leathery counterpart, I surveyed it from the air before landing, in case of anything I needed to be wary about.

But so far there was nothing.

The area was quiet and noticeably devoid of creatures.

There was a flowing stream by the cave entrance, and I landed there to take a look inside. But to my surprise, the cave was empty.

I scanned it with [Heat Sense] to make sure there was nothing inside. The rocky cavern walls were scorched, and they radiated with heat where noxious fumes gathered in a purple fog.

The majority of the cave was burning hot and rendered my [Heat Sense] useless.

Why did it feel worse than a sauna in here?

But suddenly the system dinged.

〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Detox LV 5』has become『Detox LV 6』〛

And then.

〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Heat Resistance LV 3』has become『Heat Resistance LV 4』〛

Hmm.

Was breathing in the poisonous air that bad? Or the stifling heat clinging to my scales that horrible that both skills had increased?

Where was the dumb lizard?

It was still hot, so he couldn't have gone far.

I looked around the cave, eager to find any clue as to where he went.

As the smoke dispersed, I saw a sliver of light coming from a crack above the cave, but most of it was dark.

Everywhere I looked, the ground was stained with poison and as my vision adjusted, I began to make out other unsavoury things.

In the far end, I found what looked like the scorched remains of a Hesperia. Its carapace was cracked open in large savage bites, and all of its innards were eaten, leaving behind only a hollow shell.

There were more carcasses of all kinds, some of creatures I'd never seen before and others that were familiar. One thing they had in common was that they were all of a similar size as me, or much larger.

Hmm…That was a comforting thought.

I looked around in confusion.

The last time I was here, I was much larger than Sylrin.

So, what happened here in that time?

My survival instincts were already blaring loudly but I ignored it for now.

Perhaps, Sylrin was no longer here, and I'd wandered into another creature's den?

I began to retreat when I noticed something else in the corner.

There were gnarly, chewed bones, the remnants of what looked like a crushed skull and the distinctive shape of a femur attached to a hip bone.

I paid far too much attention in biology class to not recognise that they were human bones and I felt my heart skip a beat as my eyes went wide with panic – this couldn't be Sylrin's den!

He would never do this.

Then my senses picked up a faint, low growl from behind, and before I could even turn around, something slammed into me with force.

Bowled over on the heated ground, I felt a sharp pain as large fangs clasped around the back of my neck as a smoky hot breath scorched my wing scales.

The system dinged once more as I yelped with pain.

〚Skill Mastery Achieved: 『Pain Resistance LV 9』has become『Pain Resistance LV 10』〛

Aah!

I strained to turn around but there was something heavy pressing against me, keeping me down.

I slowly succeeded in turning my neck slightly to my side and saw the cave entrance, which was now blocked by the shadow of a large, fearsome beast

Such a large monster and I didn't even sense it…and that made me go into panic.

The creature must've emerged from outside and it managed to sneak up and pounce on me before I could even realize its presence.

My heart began to pound. Could I defeat such a scary monster in my current state?

I quickly shook off those thoughts and immediately generated a poison blade to attack the creature.

But then I heard a deep rumble from above me as the beast's wide chest heaved. I felt some of the weight lift off me but just as I was about to take a much needed breath, I felt more hot smoke filling the cave, seemingly emerging from the beast's maw.

I soon began to choke, as the cave was slowly turned into a blaze of fire.

A plume of noxious flame emerged from the creature's mouth, illuminating the cave in a flash of purple and I had a glimpse of the beast's large shadow and the massive height of a clawed, tattered wing drowning the entire cave in darkness.

Another deep rumbling filled the air, followed by a thunderous roar and I was beginning to go into a full blown panic.

What the heck was such a fearsome beast doing in Sylrin's cave?

Wait, the creature's scent was vaguely familiar, but everything else was wrong.

Was this... Sylrin?

No… he was not this big, and he had no wings.

Did he... evolve?

If this wasn't him, was he eaten by this monstrous creature? And I'm about to become its meal too?

The heavy weight of the monster on me, made me feel I was much closer to being smothered first!

I tried not to struggle as more noxious fumes began to seize the last few breaths out of my lungs.

But then, as if I was pulled out of a nightmare, the weight was lifted off me and I could breathe again.

Then I felt myself getting tackled by tough claws and turned around to face the beast, bringing me up close to its searing hot breath.

I winced in recoil as I examined the creature, while gathering my energy to launch a poison blade at a moment's notice.

There were several rows of sharp teeth, inside a mouth that burned with purple flame. Its body was covered with hard bristly scales that overlapped, with several spiked growths alongside its pitch-black leathery skin.

The creature's eyes blazed a greenish golden hue, but they were overshadowed by the large leathery wings tipped with sharp claws, and the powerful winged arms that held me in place.

A Dragon?

No...

Its tail was excitedly wagging behind it and that gaze was far too playful, which was a dead giveaway!

This big, dumb-scary lizard.

When did he get so big? What level was he now?

Several questions needed answering, and I ignored the tiny squeal going through my head, because first of all, he did not deserve it!

The arrogant brat of a drake was still clutching me like I was his toy!

I hissed loudly to show my anger, hoping to get him off me, but Sylrin stayed put, seemingly grinning as he continued to stare at me proudly.

The heat radiating off him was incredible. Standing taller than twelve feet, he filled the entire cave. If not for the fact that he had leathery wings in place of his front limbs, I would have thought I was staring at a dragon.

Eventually, he let me go free and my scorched scales were able to breathe.

There was no way he had evolved more than once, because it was simply too soon – which only meant he was a fast growing monster.

Was the attack payback for getting larger than him?

Heh...So he took that much offence that he decided to grow even bigger.

Aside from being larger, I was curious to find out how much stronger he had gotten.

But in my current state, duelling him was out of the question.

What had he been up to? I couldn't believe he'd been killing mortals.

I suppose I never told him not to go after them.

I tried to question him using [Commander] but he didn't seem to understand me as he tilted his head to give me an amused look, before strolling past me to move deeper into the cave.

He then let out a roar to scorch the ground with flames, before settling down to rest.

Was this brat ignoring me? I couldn't believe it!

Did he think he could make fun of me, just because he had grown a little?

I slithered over to him in anger, generating a poison blade to shoot at him.

However, instead of moving, he stayed put, peeking at me with one eye open with an amused smirk on his face.

My poison blade sizzled off his scales but the shallow cut that appeared was regenerated almost instantly.

I was gobsmacked. I wanted to examine the wound closely, but Sylrin got up before I could.

He swerved around me at an incredible speed and grabbed hold of my tail, much to my annoyance yanking me over to his side to rest beside him.

I stared in shock at the lizard that was now fast asleep, his large wings resting over my head.

«A sleepover? How cute.» Sensei dryly remarked.