Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 11th day

After the little ordeal with that centipede, I am limping my way back to my little den. The tall grasses of this area did provide me with some cover, though my large body did retract from that. Hmm, now that I think of it, the grasslands were relatively small. The green grass made way for yellow plains quickly, which was interesting. Though, maybe the grasslands were large, I couldn’t see its exact end, after all. But it did become yellow plains quickly, the briny smell in the air was always there, though, and only got stronger the closer I got to the plains.

After pondering on the limits of mana, which was only the imagination it seems, I realized I was back near my little den-the smell of blood was thick in the air, likely the Hiddle still inside. I crawled through the little opening, getting inside the den. The Hiddle barely moved from where I left him, still not fully recovered from the crippling hit I dealt to him when I left. He was just twitching on the ground; with eyes that were glazed over and he did not even react to me coming inside, weird. His fur, first yellow, was now tainted with the vermillion color associated with blood. The smell of iron filled the room, with it overpowering my nostrils the moment I entered.

“Hey, are you there?” I asked in a tone conveying friendliness, better for him to not completely despise me, though that is likely not possible, trying wasn’t that hard. He did not seem to hear me, so I proceeded to walk up to him, scooping up the little rodent in my claws. He still did not have any reaction, very weird, but nothing I could not fix, I hope. I lifted him up to eye level and squeezed down a bit, trying to knock any reaction out of him. His eyes-previously glazed over-regained their clarity, those eyes then looked at the surroundings, and then finally landed on me.

“No.. no. You-You’re that, that sick-sick thing. Why do you have me again, why!?! I escaped, no, this is just a dream, this has to be-yeah, this is a dream.” The Hiddle yelled out in the beginning, but eventually quieted down by his last few and very confusing words. I couldn’t be bothered to try and reason with this insane rodent, nor was I in the mood to stay any longer in this den. The scent of blood was thick and the air felt heavy, I did not particularly enjoy the stench-the iron was particularly bad to my nostrils-and I would rather leave as soon as possible.

I looked down at the rodent in my hands and seeing that it could walk, it had recovered a portion of the damage and would be in a good enough condition to run away if I went to hunt now. I squeezed my claws again, this time with a much greater force. I could feel his flesh squeezing, bones cracking and blood flowing in my hands. The power I had over another life form felt amazingly good-though I’m not sure that was a good thing. A blood-curdling cry was heard in this small den, only in this den, from the Hiddle, who I then promptly discarded into a corner. He

was murmuring something there, I only heard tidbits of his murmurs: “Oh God why?!? What did I ever do?” was the main thing I heard.

The briny smell outside my hideout was amplified to a greater extent than when I first came inside just 10 minutes ago. The air now held a bluish tint to it, which was hard to get used to. It was very weird, but no danger came with it, so I just put it at the back of my mind-it likely wasn’t much of a problem. The grasslands, or swamps, is my decision when it comes to hunting. Both are equally dangerous yet the swamps are more familiar to me, I knew some of the creatures there. It also doesn’t have the tall grass that can both hinder me, and help those sneak up on me. The memory of that damned centipede was still fresh in my mind, luckily I could stimulate my mana to purge the venom, but if I couldn’t.... I don't like to think about it. The swamp was as inviting as ever, which is to say it wasn’t-but even with that, it was more inviting than the unknown grasslands.

I walked on the pieces of solid land, occasionally seeing some familiar creatures like that little lizard. Nothing caught my eye, though, until I came across a river. A 6-legged creature was drinking from it, the ornate horns atop its head caught the eyes of anyone who saw them. It had pure white fur, red eyes, a red pattern atop its fur, and fangs. It was about as large as me, but its eyesight did not look to be the best. Right under it, inside the water, I could see some manner of serpent. It was long and slender, but the murky brown water prevented me from seeing much more of it-not that I would need to see much more to know not to go near that water.

The serpent lunged out unexpectedly, coiling its greenish-brown colored body around the specimen. It sank the large fangs it had inside the creature: they were filled with what I could sense was some mana-infused venom. I could see the blue venom make its way inside the blood vessels, and then travel around inside the animal-the venom's blue glow lighting up the insides along the way, what amounted to a sick light show. The animal, after only a minute of struggling, succumbed to the venom in its veins, getting dragged down into the murky depths of the river.

I decided it wasn’t worth sticking around, and looked towards a new area that I would travel in. Just as I was walking, the unmistakable sound of an explosion was heard coming from the river. I looked back towards the source of the sound, only to find a veritable feeding frenzy and chunks of the animal's body spread out-maybe that was a last ditch effort from it to kill some of its attackers. Weird, the mana inside the chunks had not dissipated. I decided to come closer to the river (after a minute or so of rumination) to try and steal a chunk of flesh. If the mana had not dissipated, maybe it wasn’t dead yet?

Before I could come a foot closer, though, a serpent violently erupted and died on the spot, followed in short order by the 20 or so others. The bloody mist, and blood splatters, all around the gore-filled scene started to float around-with every tiny drop of blood being saturated by that

creature's distinct mana. The blood started to form the legs and white fur that had its distinctive swirling scarlet pattern. The entirety of the blood was used up to reform that creature, the serpents were now dried husks or flakes of scales around the area. The fully reformed creature then looked directly at me, fuck, I needed to hide my mana signature from mana-sensitive animals.

I started to slowly back away, hoping that it would ignore me. It looked intently at me, before turning into a stream of blood and reforming as a humanoid creature behind me. It took the newly-formed albino white hands, that still held the same swirling crimson pattern, and placed it on my shoulder-I didn’t dare to move at the moment.

It said in a sultry voice “Oh my, it has been quite some time before I saw one of your kind.”, the seductive voice nearly distracted me from what was most important. “You know what I am?” I asked her. My voice was still shaky from the whole ordeal-even when I tried my best to conceal it.

“Darling,” She started, the word was said in such an erotic tone that it took all my willpower to stay rooted-this has to be some spell she was using. “You have no idea about what I know, but you’re not ready for that yet, you’ll see someday.” she ended. “What day?” I pensively asked her, she was an entity that may hold answers and I needed to extract as much as I can. She shrugged and dismissively shook her head, giving me no clues at all. Fuck.

“I have been meaning to ask. What exactly are you?”I had already tried using my skill on her to no avail-might as well just hear it from her mouth. “Don’t you know it's rude to try and spy on someone?” she said and shook her head, only to continue “I am a servant of sorts, though not yours, at least not yet.” she finished with a wink. “Wait, servant, you’re an Almosanguine? Why-Why don’t you hate me?” I know that the Dragons weren’t the most peaceful of races, the almosanguine were hunted to extinction by us and those left were turned into slaves. Her ever-unchanging smile faltered the moment I asked that, fuck I’m dumb. She has to be a Viscount at least, reminding her of a past she likely isn’t the most fond of was stupid.

“Well, well. Aren’t you the nosy type? Asking so many questions, so many inquiries~~” she said, saying her last word with an extra dose of seductiveness. “Well, if you do want to know so much.” she started her sentence, while simultaneously turning into a stream of blood and appearing before me. “I can always just.. show you what I did with your father Nitherir.”

Her breathing got heavier and heaving the more she spoke, only adding to her charm. “Wait, wait, wait. Father? You knew my father? What? Who is he? What was he? Who’s my mother, how’d you know my father?” I nearly yelled out at the Viscount Sanguine, her demeanor changed from sultry to professional almost instantly.

She frowned, “Aren’t you a bore? Now I'm not in the mood.” she said, her tone being a perfect neutral with no warmth or exceptional coldness. “Tell me. Now.” I said, my voice turning guttural. Her dodging the question infuriated me “Say it.” I demanded again. She sighed and refused, saying “Hey hey, little guy. You’re not ready yet, and if you keep acting like this, you never will be.”

Her voice oozed with condescension, it was veritably soaked by a feeling of superiority. She was a race ruled over and killed by us, she had no right to talk to me like this. “You’re just a slave, you have no right to not follow an order. I am a Dra-” she cut me off there “No. You aren’t. You’re just a wyrm, and until you’re a dragon. You aren’t my master.” I narrowed my eyes.

“A lowly Viscount Sanguine dare talk to-” she gathered up mana before I could even sense it, unleashing a binding spell on me. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by a prison made up of blood. She had left without saying a word, the only thing here that signified she was even here was the blood prison around me and the dried-up husks of the serpents. I tried to touch the blood cage around me, but it singed me before I could even get half my claw through.

The blood had a special property to it, it would ruffle up the mana of anyone who touched its bars. It, effectively, made it the best low-level bind for someone like me who had a lot of mana. I had never before wished to be mana-less, but by the Primordial Dragon, I wish it now. I stimulated a tiny amount of my total mana, it was the minuscule amount I could use out of my mana pool, and dragged it through to my claw. My claw turned slightly translucent, and I stuck it on the blood.

Hmmm, nothing happened this time beyond the feeling of blood being on my mana-infused claw. Is it that my mana can override hers? Damn, the blood of the Primordial Dragon is awesome. It could be something else, but that should be the main reason my mana can just overpower hers. Now, the problem is.. I can’t even use enough mana to do this to two of my claws, goddamnit. Sighing, I tried to stimulate more of my mana. I could feel about 2% of it in my control at the moment-a much higher amount than necessary to infuse my claw. I ever so slightly moved the mana, trying to reach my claws on my right arm.

The moment I even tried to stimulate that much, and move it, was when it completely got out of my control. The mana crashed right back into my own mana supply before I could redirect it to hit a non-essential organ. The mana hit the entire reserve in the very fiber of my being, I could feel it gushing out into the space around it. Fuck, I forcefully guided the mana that escaped from my pool-though not completely in control, it is more like hitting certain points that were gushing out in order to redirect it-making it reach all into my arm. The unstable mana then completely lost control, disintegrating my entire right arm up to my shoulder.

A non-lethal injury, but damn it hurts. Is all mana this dangerous, or is it the Primordial Dragon blood. Fuck that Dragon now, goddamnit, I want his blood out. If I can’t even control my mana, what's the point of having it? I tried to dig underground and see if it was just above ground, but the blood prison was all around me. Sighing, I curled up and started to sleep, no creature would get anywhere near here after the little display by that Sanguine.

When I woke up, my right arm was still not fully functional, only about half of it had been regenerated. It was pitiful, I had to find where that Sanguine had gone to when I’m stronger. Whatever, that is all for the future and I shouldn't worry about it for now. On brighter news, the blood prison around me had dissipated. I guess the mana for it ran out as I was sleeping, it was fortunate I wasn't attacked.

I got up and started to walk to the grasslands, any place that didn't reek of the smell of that Sanguine was a better alternative. Its stench was thick in the air, and it was horrendous on my nostrils. Maybe she infused her mana to turn this sickly smell that would turn off most, into an easy way to influence and seduce anything. Mana did seem to be limitless, or atleast, I know of no limits for what one can do if they have enough mana or the talent. A Viscount Sanguine though, very interesting, no wonder she could reform up from just blood and mana.

After my light musing on what she was doing, I realized I was back in the grasslands. The bluish-tint had stayed the same, with the briny undertone of the air being the only thing to change. It had gotten even stronger, so strong that it started to become a slight annoyance for my sensitive nostrils. Shaking my head, I trekked further and further into the unknown. The memory of that Sanguine kept popping up, to my endless annoyance, and it only further dampened my hunting ability.

That little memory didn’t stop me from seeing some eggs left out in the open-weird, why did no animal go for it? It was on a small tree top, only a few meters off the ground, and was perfectly ripe for the taking. I looked around again, just to make sure, and nothing was even near these blue-ish eggs. I started to climb up to the eggs atop the tree, their nest was normal-looking. The eggs were of a blue-ish color, but I didn’t know if it was because of the tint in the air or because the eggs were naturally blue. I took one look at them, contemplating my next move. Releasing all the air inside my lungs, I pounced upon the eggs, using my claws and jaw to completely dig into the yolks of the eggs. The flavor of the eggs flooded my tongue, it was pure ecstasy and I gorged myself on all 3.

Level up 7 -> 13

The notification brought me out of my little stupor, what were these things to give me this much experience? Whatever the answer was, I had already licked and lapped up every piece of these eggs. Sighing with contentment that was palpable, I climbed down from the tree and started to head towards the den. Before long, I saw a thundercloud forming over the area I just came from. I could see that same bird from the day in the redwoods, the memory flashing back to me. I could feel its pressure again, the same amount of force put upon me. I felt like thousands of tons were put on me at once, its force sticking me to the ground. A primal fear of the strong came over me, compelling me to move out of the way. My instincts saved me at the nick of time, a lightning bolt from that storm over the grasslands struck down right where I stood. Oh dear God, that was his eggs?

I immediately began to run away from it, it may be futile but I had to try. The torrential amount of mana spewing out of the storm hit me instantly, turning my entire body into disarray. Mana started to slowly leak out of my reserves, controlling it was harder and harder by the second, and my cells started to deteriorate. The bird came after me quickly, and swooped down in an attempt to catch me. It had created a lightning ring around me, trapping me inside its own area. The bird narrowly missed, its unbelievably sharp talons grazing the scales on my back ever so slightly. That little miss allowed me to reach my den underground, safely away from the bird.

I looked around for the Hiddle and found it instantly, taking it with my-now fully regenerated-right arm. I clutched it in my claws and ran to the far side of the den, choosing to dig further and further down into the ground. I could feel the downpour of lightning above me, the thunder trumpeting on my eardrums made me lose focus for a split second. In that time, the big Osprey managed to hit a bolt of lightning inside my little den, but instead of dissipating as usual, the bolt transformed into a ball that then quickly formed into the 20 meter behemoth of a bird. Its entire body, now underground, crumbled the remains of the den.

I grabbed the Hiddle and put it inside the new tunnel I was desperately digging, trying to go deeper underground. The bird chose to shake off the bindings of earth around it first before going after me again. While it was ruffling around, trying to remove all the debris, I managed to dig down nearly another 8 meters. The soil turned to rock quickly, but I barely managed to control enough man to infuse 1 claw that allowed me to expedite this process exponentially. My reserves were leaking, and I could feel some of my cells disintegrating. The bird got up again to my horror, and looked straight down my little tunnel.

Its eyes, filled with hatred, looked directly at me. The bird formed another ball of lightning, flushing it down my tunnel, but it soon stopped. The bird stopped controlling that ball of lightning and immediately lost control over it. The unmistakable odor of the Viscount Sanguine

assaulted my nostrils, but she would be able to hold him for only a few seconds though. In those precious few seconds of time she held off the big bird, I tunneled further and further into the ground, eventually reaching what looked to be a metal construct. I hurriedly tore through it with my claws, the new blob of mana that was that Sanguine turned into a wave, of presumably blood, and exited the battle.

I took the Hiddle in my claws and crawled through the small opening I made. The bird threw down an incredibly fast spear of lightning through the newly made hole. It then instantly formed back into a ball, and then the bird. It wasn’t the smartest, though, so when it formed in the tunnel-the roof above fell down upon it. A landslide started, firmly putting the bird on one side and under tons of debris and me and the Hiddle on the other. I could feel the massive amount of mana under those debris teleport back to the surface, I escaped that bird. For now at least, and after that whole ordeal, I started to look around my surroundings.

Me and the Hiddle were in a decayed room, vines growing everywhere but what was most striking was the 4 skeletons huddled around… is that a scale from a gravity dragon!?!?