"It seems I'm becoming antithetical to death and killing because another day is another corpse," I thought to myself as I finished my construction. It's kind of unfair but I decided to cheat and prepare a circular pit trap ten metres deep with spikes at the bottom, mirror-smooth walls to prevent climbing and bait on a pedestal in the centre. Despite the fact it was useless for catching intelligent creatures or birds it was perfect for the elimination of large amounts goblins. That's right goblins. Small, fast-breeding little humanoid monsters that make rocks look intelligent. I found a goblin dungeon and decided to exploit the hell out of it.

Now do not mistake these creatures as weak because despite the fact that any normal person can kill an individual goblin they are ruthless and relentless pack monsters. Imagine a hundred creatures running at you, that do not stop no matter how many are killed or injured and seek nothing more than either eating you or breeding with you. Add to this the fact that they evolve quickly with multiple variants and it become clear why they are eliminated as soon as they are found.

According to identify several system worlds have already fallen to the goblins so I have no problem hunting this particular species to extinction. Especially when all I have to do is dig a hole and watch them throw themselves into it, giving me experience in the process.

While waiting for the more dangerous variants to appear I was crafting potions from the rare plants I had gathered. Luckily the potions I was making were not some complex temperature perfect chemistry experiment, rather they were more akin to cooking. As long as all the ingredients were mixed in the correct ratio and heated until the solution changed colour it was usable, not the best tasting but usable. With six potions of strength, two potions of dexterity, a potion of purity, a potion of rebirth and five potions of constitution all I needed was two more potions of purity and a few potions of forging to complete the next task.

The purity potions were easy since the ingredients were locally available the problem was the ingredients for the forging potion could only be located at a literal volcano. Despite finally being able to create single-use short-range space gates as my affinity approached 30 it still needed a person to have been to the location at least once and gave you the worst case of nausea possible.

Hours later after killing the last hobgoblin variant that emerged with the same invisible magical needle I had used on the archers, I used echolocation to pinpoint the dungeon core. Unlike the two I eliminated at the first forest this dungeon had developed basic defence instincts despite only having an entrance two feet wide.

As I dug towards its core it tried to strangle me with its tendrils while attempting to produce more goblins. The misshapen, unformed creatures approached me occasionally only to be put out of their misery. I eventually reached the core and sealed as I did the others, I had no use for it at the moment but it might just come in handy.

A few days later with two levels under my belt and a shattered Time Binder, I decided that I needed to level faster. Knowing that I could not accomplish too much staying here longer due to the average monster level being around 15 I set my sights on the only active non-oceanic volcanic area on the planet located in the north. the volcano apart from having a higher level danger zone nearby also happened to be a sacred location of the dracon. housing one of there grand temples it would be guarded by their holy knights. This allowed me the opportunity to gather two different exploit materials while also allowing me to grow stronger.

I was not too worried about getting to the region since thousands of dracon would make a pilgrimage to the sacred site every year. The hard part would be entering the crater and extracting the earthfire found there and getting a dragon stone from a holy knight. I took three weeks travelling in a carriage to arrive at the base of the mountain. I hired transportation while acting as a mage for the sum of twelve gold coins.

Where did I get twelve gold coins you ask? I made them from the leftover gold, some stone and a pheonixian ritual. Yes that is forgery and if it gets discovered later someone will get screwed, but the dracon that used them technically does not exist and I did not have the time to screw around.

Arriving at the base of the volcano I looked upon the towering mountain and the equally impressive temple. Crafted into the mountainside from what appeared to be black marble and volcanic glass the six-story pagoda looked like a dark blade rising from the earth. Further down the mountain, there was an entire town crafted in an oriental style with sharp features. And at the base of the mountain, there was a vast array of large tents.

Entering the tent city I approached a sign depicting rental. It was not to hard to hire a single tent for a week at the cost of a silver. I planned to take a temple tour that was offered for a gold coin but first I had to strengthen my disguise as the holy knights might be high enough level to see through my pendant.

Among the many potions I created was a transformation potion that would allow me to physically transform into another person, there was no need for the transformation to replicate someone specifically and the results would last until a counter potion was taken. The downside as there always seemed to be one was incredible pain when changing forms that lasted an hour, physical stats being limited to ten and feeling terribly uncomfortable itching for the duration.

Taking the potion I created a physical form exactly the same as my latest illusion. The pain was intense but felt mild in comparison to gaining my class, the itch, however, would drive anyone who used this potion for a long time mad. Joining the rich, overdressed and overcompensating nobles we proceeded with the tour. Every stop was an explanation about why a certain royal or noble family was venerated and should be worshipped while no one bothered to mention the builders of this wondrous monument.

As we crested the volcanic creator and the holy knights came into view my heart nearly stopped. Identify listed even the weakest of these dracons at level 55 while the strongest was 70. Knowing dracon society the ones doing the actual work would always be the weakest or least politically connected. Yet, I had to steal a dragon stone, the holy relic used in the creation of their armour, from these people. I might come back for that exploit later because I was sure as hell not doing it any time soon.

Watching them and asking a few subtle questions I came to the conclusion that they guard the “dragons sleeping place” or volcanic crater with eight groups of three. These groups are positioned in the cardinal directions and rotate every six hours the only exception would be the dragons dawn ceremony at which time only those chosen as sacrifices will and the head priest will be there. Yes, these dracon sacrifice other dracon to the fires of a volcano four times a year. As for the stupid idea that a dragon would live in the volcano, even lesser dragons need more mana that this layer provides. At most, it would be a lesser fire wyvern or a magma salamander.

Luckily for me, this takes place in five days time but it's not like I could take the place of one of these sacrificial zealots as they are extremists that have been raised for this purpose and are guarded by holy knights. Even if I managed to swap places with one any misstep would give me away. But what I can do is teleport into one of the large cracks while the ritual is underway, exploiting the chaos to mask my spell while using my sensory shrouding to hide from the much lower levelled head priest and teleport back out after grabbing the earthfire.

We all know what happens to the best laid plans of men, heaven decides to fuck it up. I waited 5 days in my tent preparing several runic spells from a spell shield tasked with stopping nearby people from noticing me cast a spell to a backup random teleportation spell in case I need to get out of dodge. On the day of the big event, everything was going well right up until I teleported over.

The volcano began shaking seconds after I arrived and the heat had obviously increased since the tour. Knowing things were not going to plan I attempted to teleport back to the hut but large mana waves were disrupting my prepared spells. Looking around for another way to escape I spotted the head priest viciously throwing a man into the lava obviously hoping it appeased whatever was causing the tremors, unfortunately, it did nothing.

My mana sense that I almost never used due to identify pinged, telling me that a ridiculous amount of mana was building below the surface. as I looked on from inside my crater crack I noticed a holy knight sprinting towards the head priest, reaching out as if trying to arrive in time to protect him from was coming. Realising everything was about to go wrong and there was nothing I could do to stop it, I resigned myself to face whatever was about to happen. As the mana and magma burst, I activated everything I could including my wings and managed to cast two barrier spells. I watched as the massive pulse turned the head priest to ash, engulfed the holy knight and travelled towards me.

The wave seemed to bypass my magic reduction sphere before it destroyed my Proto-Phoenix Wing enhanced water barrier in an instant. It stalled for a second as my space shield disintegrated the lava before failing and finally allowing the eruption to come in contact with my skin. The magic invalidation of my Proto-Dragon Skin activated removing the mana from the equation but the physical matter still remained. It burned through my Ki barrier at a visible speed. I relied on a healing spell to stay standing but doing so drained all of my remaining mana. All I could do was watch as my health fell into single digits before it zeroed out. It burned! Without the heath shielding, I was literally on fire with the only things keeping me alive being my Physical Resistance and Natural Regeneration.

As the flames finally passed I realised I was alive, horribly burnt but alive. Even as I stood there entombed by volcanic debris my body was fighting for survival. The second I regained enough mana from Energy Syphon I began to cast a healing spell. As my eyes and skin regenerated I realised I was trapped so I diverted enough mana to earth magic to break the shell and stop myself suffocating. After breaking out of the rock cacoon my sight returned to me and I could see a dome of perpetual fire surrounding the crater. I slumped onto the ground revelling in my survival, knowing that without everything I had chosen I would be dead by now.

Either through luck or fate, I had chosen the exact skills I had needed to survive this experience. If I had not levelled up I would have lacked the health, mana and Ki. If I had not caught the dumb turtle as a familiar I would have not been able to reduce the magic to the point it could be invalidated. If I did not have space speciality I would not have been able to disintegrate the majority of the lava. Though I survived, this moment cooled my swollen head and made me realise I was not strong, I had a very long way to go.