Year 1023 of the new calendar, Month of the Sun, 26th day

It was now around 2:00 am, at least that is what I could gather from the position of the moon in the sky. I didn’t choose to return to the village after what I discovered, my eyes darted back to it and the small thing in front of me. While I wasn’t completely sure about my assumption, it was my best bet on what was occurring exactly; my perception around me grew exponentially, and the darker spots underneath the forest underbrush seemed to become much darker. I shook my head a little to remove these thoughts and as I looked back, nothing looked to have changed.

My mind thought back on my plan to go to the Vereth after evolving here, and Tiflis who had to come with me. I had two options in front of me, go back to the village and take Tiflis to go with me now, or wait until morning and see if anything happens. As far as I remembered on the map, the Vereth was a decently large river, so there has to be some secluded spot that I can rule over for the time being. The only problem was that I didn’t know the exact extent of my power compared to others, I had too little a reference. There was a divide in the opponents I’ve faced so far, either extremely powerful or much weaker than I am. There was no middle ground, as yet, nothing that I could directly compare to, let alone test to see my place in the world. One encounter brought me back to those plains near the Redwoods, but still, I don’t think I was in any actual danger during that fight. The venom was horrible, but the physical aspects of that thing weren’t the best.

A sigh escaped me as I kept thinking further about my situation, which was unreasonable in its difficulty. The Almosanguine came back to my mind for a second, but I had no idea where she was as of the movement, and I didn’t have the authority to order her around. Tiflis…should be asleep, safe, and sound in the village right now. I was struck with indecision as the two plans floated around my mind, the pile of crushed bones and debris near me didn’t help the atmosphere. Tiflis was the final push needed for me to get up and go back to the village, I would rather have some deliberation with him than wallow in this area for too much longer. I quickly made my way back to the small village and seeing that everyone was asleep, I dragged myself to the area near the blacksmith.

In the morning, Tiflis would get up, and we can talk about it then. The hunger in my stomach briefly reminded me of my goal for going into the forest in the first place, but that could wait. Eating was more of a luxury than a necessity for my body, so with quite a lot of apprehension, I closed my eyelids and drifted away.

The familiar soreness whenever I woke up came and went as quickly as ever, the light of the sun shone down on the village and my scales. Looking at the people around calmed me down, nothing seemed to have happened, as there was no sign of worry on anyone’s faces. They were all the same, with a slight smile as they greeted one another before going back to tend to whatever daily necessities they had. It was peaceful, though I couldn’t say I was particularly envious of such a lifestyle. Something deep in my bones opposed living like this, the peaceful life wasn’t compatible with what I was. A Dragon, something that - according to those old memories anyway - is fundamentally opposed to this. Shaking my head, I looked around and noticed Tiflis also coming to me, his little legs rapidly dashing across the field until he made his way to the tree line that I was at.

He looked up at me and didn’t speak, so I took the initiative, “How are you feeling?”, he shook his little head to signify that he felt fine. “What do you want to do?”, I continued on, and he replied, “I don’t really know, eat I guess.” Ah, right, the gnawing in my stomach reminded me of that, but I quickly shook it off. “No, I mean our plan. Do you want to leave now, or wait a while longer?” He contemplated as he scurried around in the nearby shrubs to find anything to eat, and as he took a fallen nut of some kind, “You’re more of the type to choose this stuff, what do you want?” He started to eat his nut and left me to ponder on this by myself again. What can I say, except Tiflis is as unreliable as ever when it comes to decision-making. “Are you scared of the Vereth?”, I asked him as he gobbled down the remainder of the nut.

He shook his head as he continued to look around and found another, larger nut to eat. With evident glee in his voice, “No, not really. I have to follow you anyway, don't I?” A laugh followed as he joyfully ate up, “I want to give you a choice”, he looked up at me with a slight narrowing of his eyes, “You can either follow me to the Vereth or stay here and live peacefully.” I decided on going to the river while we were talking, the apprehension of the happenings that go on at night, along with the enjoyment of getting stronger made me choose it. He slowly walked around the area again, looking at the ground and periodically eating an insect, Tiflis looked up and looked at me before saying, “Why are you giving me this choice?”

“The Vereth is dangerous, so I was wondering if you were willing to come with me.”, the reply came naturally, but he shook his head, “You aren’t the type to give me a choice, I still remember what happened when we first met, so I’m asking you why?” The urge to sigh came over me, but I suppressed it and replied, “Because I’m not sure if you were willing to go, so I asked you this.” He shook his head and looked down on the earthen floor, scrutinizing it in hopes of catching another insect to bite. “I’ll follow you.” I could feel that he wanted to ask me more, seemingly not satisfied with what I said, but refrained from it and opted to follow me. “When are we leaving?”, the question came right when he pounced on a twenty-centimeter-long beetle of some sort, slurping it down, exoskeleton and all.

The idea of reaching level 20 came to me, but as I looked at the interface, my confidence in that plan being feasible dropped tremendously. “Do you still have the map?”, he asked me, and I shook my head to remove the idea. I nodded to answer his question and walked to the area I last left it in. Some soil was on it, but it was quickly shaken off. Tiflis stared at the map of the area and looked at me, “The Vereth is relatively large, and it's a bit away from here. It should take us about a day to reach the banks of the Vereth.” He nodded and understood what I said, “Huh, there are even islands in the river.” The map showed that some land was present on the river, especially in the areas where it was the widest. The largest river island was present where the river was the widest. The island’s width was around fourteen kilometers according to the map, with the river being around thirty kilometers across, including the island.

“Why don’t we go here?”, I told Tiflis as I pointed at this large island. He asked me, “Can you even swim?” Ah…, that problem evaded my mind perfectly as I looked at the map. We would have to swim across at least five kilometers of water just to reach the island. Not to mention five kilometers, I’m not sure if I can even swim fifty meters. “You can’t, can you?”, Tiflis asked me and I nodded. He shook his head and pointed at another, much smaller river island that was far closer to the shore. It was around four kilometers across. "It would be less dangerous as well.", he added on. I nodded and looked at the map, it was only about thirty meters away from the shore and should be something that we can swim to.

“Can you swim?”, I asked Tiflis, and he nodded confidently. Good, that would mean only one of us needs to learn. “Is swimming hard?”, I asked him as I pondered on where to put this map. It would definitely be very beneficial if I could carry it around, but I didn’t know how to. Tiflis shook his head as we both walked back to the village, this map was of great importance and I needed to keep it. When we came back, the entire area was still as peaceful as when we left it. A small length of rope caught the corner of my eye, it was in a shed near the blacksmith's house. Tiflis caught what I was looking at and, without me needing to, he ran to it and ran back with it quickly. His eight legs carried him swiftly, and the small rope that was right around a meter was in his mouth.

He dropped it and I looked at the entire length of the rope, it was slightly smaller than Tiflis. Wait…, Tiflis was less than a meter when we first met, he can still grow? I quickly checked on him, and he was now level twenty, though that only confused me more. I didn’t realize it before, but why does he have levels even though he doesn’t have the system. It was weird, but even if it was, I couldn’t do anything about it for now. I shook my head to clear my mind and looked at the rope and the map in my hand, it was relatively small, so I took the rope and picked Tiflis up easily. Ever so carefully, I put the map on Tiflis’ back and wrapped the rope around his body, tightening it and making sure the map was secure on his back. “This feels… degrading”, he said.

I laughed at his new look, “You can’t fight anyway, you gotta be of some use.” He found some humor in the situation and laughed with me, looking around and then heading in the direction of the river. I looked at the village behind me, it was peaceful and the sun's warmth shined readily onto the village; it was going to be the last time I was here for a long while. My thoughts of this place were mixed, a sigh escaped me as I quickly looked back into the forest and followed quickly after Tiflis. I didn’t know what to make of my current situation, but I suppose I should just keep following what I was born to do. Sunlight fell through the canopy over us and I quickly caught up to Tiflis, who even while briskly walking with his eight feet, was slower than I am.

The size difference was too great, and he was slower than me despite exerting more effort. He looked up at me and grumbled, “Stupid big lizard.”, as if he was cursing the entire universe for his small size. I picked him up and put his body on my back, it slowed me down a small amount, but I made up for it and hastened my pace, so I could reach the river earlier. It came to me that it was a long while since I killed anything large enough to stimulate me, my entire body felt like it was itching to grow stronger. Tiflis was surprised when he was on my back, but he snorted slightly and settled down immediately. I could feel his small feet hanging onto the scales on my back. Not having to walk made him much more talkative, “Say, why do you want to go to this river anyway? Why not just stay back there?”

I shook my head, “Do you want to deal with whatever is happening there at night?” He shuddered, I could feel him on my back, shaking for a second before he calmed down. The events of that night took a large toll on him. He glossed over the topic and went back to asking me more questions. “I wonder, why didn't you kill me?”, he said, and I was about to say that I knew him for a long time, but he likely didn’t remember much of that ordeal in the underground city. I couldn’t even imagine what he was thinking when I didn’t kill him, “Don’t worry about it.”, Tiflis laughed at my answer, “That just makes me want to worry about it.”

From his perspective, I suppose that this entire situation was weird, but I didn’t bother to keep talking about it and after my silence at his next question, Tiflis took it as an answer. Ever talkative as he is, “What even are you?” “A big lizard”, I laughed a little at what I said, and he found it amusing as well, before continuing on with his near-interrogation of me. “Sure you are, but what are you really?” I disregarded the question as I looked at a small stream, no more than ten meters wide and only a few meters deep. Large enough for Tiflis to swim in, but for me, I could more or less wade through the water. “This should be an offshoot of the Vereth, didn’t expect to come across signs of it so early.” Tiflis looked at the stream from atop my back, “The map did show that there was a pretty big offshoot from the main river.” I thought back to it and nodded, it should be about a kilometer across at its widest, right after going off from the main river, and peters out.

“You want to test those swimming skills of yours?”, he said. I shook my head, “It’s too small for me, I’ll try it further upstream.” I slowed down and went next to the stream, stopping for a minute in order to drink my fill. The water was refreshing and Tiflis took the opportunity in order to drink as well. He scurried up my side and onto my back again, settling down on my scales and turning back to talk. “I thought I was dead when I saw you, especially after you left me.” Tiflis still had fear in his voice, seemingly reminiscing about that time I put him in my small den as a cripple. I wasn’t bothered by it and snorted, “You’re quite lucky to have met me. Who knows what would’ve eaten you.”

He didn’t find that amusing and opted to just stop talking, after a few minutes of silence, I could hear his slow, steady breaths on my back. I’m surprised he has the guts to sleep on my back after what we just said, a small chuckle escaped as I slowed down to accommodate his sleep. The sun was still high up in the sky, and it reflected beautifully on the running water of the stream. It was a peaceful scene and I noticed a relatively large fish swimming near the shore of the stream, it was just under the size of Tiflis with a white underbelly and silver scales that reflected the sunlight on his back. Its head was rather large, but it had a small mouth and looked Hunger invaded my mind, so I put down Tiflis near the shore and silently went to the shore.

The fish, who was completely unaware, still happily swam slowly. This part of the river was too small to accommodate anything even slightly larger than this small guy, so it was the apex of where it was. A big fish in a small stream, but it lacked any awareness of its surroundings, and didn’t react as I waited downstream for this fish to swim near me. My claws rested slightly above the water, and with a swiftness fit for me, I skewered the fish with my claws and quickly put it in my mouth. It didn’t die immediately and flailed around my mouth for a few seconds before I bit down, its blood flowing down my throat. My claws were bloody, so I cleaned them in the pure stream water before picking Tiflis up with grace.

The fish, now firmly in my mouth, stopped moving, and I picked it out with my claws. I started to eat it from the head and finished half of it swiftly. My mind thought of Tiflis and his needs, but he ate smaller things and there should be an abundant amount of food for him, after all, he was different from me. He had to eat every day, but I didn’t need to; the fish was left with nothing a minute later. The bones weren’t nearly strong enough to hurt me, so there was nothing left of the fish beyond some of its blood still on my teeth. Tiflis didn’t wake up, so with a slightly faster pace, I kept walking near the stream to the Vereth. An hour passed, and then another, and another of me simply walking upstream. The stream widened to thirty meters, and it was a bit deeper now. A degree of exhaustion hit me, and I would rather test swim in an area far safer for me.

Tiflis was still asleep on my back, so I put him down on the floor as I also laid down next to him. A yawn escaped my mouth as I could see the tint of evening set down on the area, the sun's rays were slowly going below the horizon. My eyelids closed where I laid, a meter away from water.

When I woke up, it was around 3:00 am of the next morning and Tiflis was next to me, his eyes awake and seemingly expectant. He said in a low voice, “Uh, try not to move too quickly.” His tone alerted me of something, so I slowly stood up and looked at where he was now staring. The tree line in the distance had a sinister feel and a large snake of some sort slithered out, it was slightly longer than me, sitting at six meters, and its eyes were locked on Tiflis who was sitting next to me. “When did you see this guy?”, a whisper came from me and Tiflis slowly shuffled his eight feet even closer to me, “Just now, a minute ago.” The snake slithered and slowly lifted its upper half to a point where it was even taller than me.

The moonlight reflected the brownish-green scales on its back, and the white, rough scales on its underbelly had a red line running down. Its head had a crest of some sort around it, a reddish-orange color permeating it. I could hear it hiss menacingly, not at me but at Tiflis, who it still had its eyes on. I tried to observe it, but unlike every other time, it failed. Shocked, I tried it on Tiflis, and it failed again. A mixture of relief and anger washed over me; relief at the snake not being an insurmountable opponent, and anger at it failing at this moment. This snake, it had been a while since this feeling came over, a feeling of something near me. The forests around that village were tame, and as soon as we left, we encounter this thing.

Tiflis had now completely shuffled behind me, a comical scene with the map on his back, were it not for the snake in front of us. Finally, it looked at me and hissed again, this time less as a threat and more as a warning. I could tell that it didn’t wish to fight me, but it was still going after Tiflis behind me. The snake slithered and encroached slower as I also moved up in order to intercept it. The snake hesitated for a few seconds, whether to retreat because of me or continue to pursue Tiflis. I didn’t make a noise as it hissed again, subduing its hesitation and carrying with it an urge to kill Tiflis.

It looked at me again, with much more hostility in its eyes, and with a surprising amount of swiftness, slithered at me. I ran out to meet it and burst forth with my claws against its body, which was thick and robust. It tried to slither onto me, its thick muscles were flowing smoothly. My claws scratched against its body and stopped it for a second, but I could feel that no real damage was dealt. My claws met its scales, not its flesh, and then it rapidly went to constrict me. Its mouth opened and bit down on my back, but it too was met by scales instead of flesh. The pain coursed through my body, but I raised my claws again, it quickly moved out of the way and further wrapped around my body.

Its eyes showed a fierce determination and in a few seconds, half of its body was wrapped around me, and it squeezed down. The pressure felt was unlike anything before, as was the pain, but I endured through it and grabbed its body with all my strength. My claws wrapped around it and tried to pry it off, but it stubbornly clung to my back and squeezed even harder. I could feel the bones and organs inside me start to compress with the force this thing was exerting. I quickly channeled some of my mana into the claw and rapidly stuck it deep into the snake, my claw smoothly went through the scales and into the flesh and organs.

It squeezed down tighter with an even more ferocious force, trying its hardest to flatten me under its weight and muscles. I grabbed its body and sunk in my five claws deep into its back, mangling the flesh and going straight through the bones and organs. My hand was stuck deep in its back and I clawed my way through. The snake hissed with pain, but its body was still wrapped around mine. I took this chance and shook it off with my full force in its momentary weakness. It fell off, and I could see the spots where my claws penetrated its body clearly, five huge gashes on its back and a river of blood pouring down from it. I quickly picked it up and bit down on the wounds, it shrieked again. I could feel its bones cracking and buckling in my mouth as it bit down hard on the side of my cheek.

I felt its fang come into my mouth as it rushed through my cheek. The hole was horrendous, but its injuries were far worse than mine, and I rushed up again, bracing through the pain and digging my teeth fully into the back of the snake. The snake tried to stop me in a futile effort to move, but its back and bones were nearly broken and it could only flail around its mouth. It bit me hard on my leg, but my claws and mouth tore through its body, and it struggled for a final time as it was cut in two. The adrenaline from the fight was still rushing as I looked down on its body, the entirety of its middle back was a deformed mess with broken bones and mangled flesh. The putrid stench of its organs lifted into the air, and I could feel air flowing through the fang-sized hole in my cheek. Tiflis gulped at the side and asked in a low voice, “Are you ok?"