“Why won’t you let me rest, oh so busy goddess?” asked Raven, quite annoyed. Although she said that she would be there for him to ask some questions, he didn’t think she would haunt his dreams and nightmares alike.

“I was bored in heaven.” she said in a matter of fact tone.

“Aren’t I one of the 10, isn’t there anyone else?”

“Dragonmen grow the fastest, it’s been only a year and you can already run and fly. The others grow up slowly, so take my word for it. I’ll be here for 2 years minimum.” Dragonmen grew faster than others, who would 4 times as fast as humans for 4 years, meaning they would be 16 biologically and would grow slowly from there; a perfect example of a warrior race.

She was here for the last year, which annoyed him to no end, but it’s not as if didn’t have any uses. He learned almost everything he needed to know to survive in this world.

This world was called Terra, and was roughly 4 times the size of Earth. It housed the races he could choose from, and many types of monsters and creatures.

There were 5 continents and was named differently according to which continent you were in. From the viewpoint of those on the Central Continent, the others were known as Desolate East, Misty North, Land of the Fallen(West) and Incendium. The main continent was in the shape of a plus, and only few hundred meters of water separated them.

Magic had many forms, and was created on daily basis. A fire mage who compressed fire into a laser would have created [Laser] magic and so on.

The inhabitants of Terra worshipped titans instead of gods, who are capable of direct help. Although powerful, they don’t have the ability to directly harm mortals, but can use collateral damage aka natural disasters to keep mortals in check.

A person with a talent for magic could use it to create skills, and someone without talent in that particular school of magic could use spells to achieve results. Skills would need the user to control and manipulate mana particles to a certain degree while spells would need, often long, incantations.

That was all he could get out of that airheaded excuse of a goddess. But now that he thought about it, it wasn’t a small amount either. But for 12 months of nightly conversations, it didn’t add up.

In a years’ time, the goddess gave him 2 books. The titles were: “How to Magic for Dummies”, “Friendly Goddess’s Guide to Survival”. Although he felt humiliated at first, it soon turned into thankfulness after reading the content. The only downside was that he could only read it while sleeping, in the same room as that noisy girl.

A light shone on his eyes as he opened it. It was morning. It didn’t feel like he slept, except the fact that he was energized.

Raven’s black scales glistened in the sunlight as he fully opened the curtains. His half meter body had large wings for its size and they were hunched back, as if protecting him from the cold. His hair was cut short and was messy, as he didn’t bother fixing it, but it didn’t hinder the handsomeness he inherited from his mother.

A mountain tipped with snow could be seen, and below were dozens of tall and short concrete houses with triangular roofs. A few people could be seen roaming the streets of Eaglemouth. Raven was already used to seeing many types of beastmen, humans and some Chimeras up to the level someone would have towards an Asian or Native American.

Seeing that the sky was clear, he decided to go out. His room didn’t have much furniture, just a bed, a lamp and a small table. It was the room he first found himself in.

Raven turned the doorknob and pushed the door open, revealing a wide, but short corridor. The house was structured so that the second floor had a corridor that led to 3 rooms. One was on the right, one on the left and one at end of the corridor, opposite to the stairs.

He lived on the right side, the left side belonged to his sister, who went travelling before he was born. The other room was the storage room. The ground in the mountainous area was hard, so basements weren’t broadly used, resulting in storage rooms.

At first, he was creeped out staying on a floor all alone, but started enjoying the newfound freedom soon.

He descended the stairs, and was met by his mother cooking breakfast. His father could be seen lying on the sofa, looking at something similar to a TV. It was typically called a Crystal Vision, and was shortened to CV.

At first, he was taken aback by what magic could do, but was used to it soon enough. After seeing the lamp, he expected something like this, but not this much. Stoves were common, while CVs were expensive, and only the rich could afford it. These worked by using a special magic conductive type of crystal, and could be powered by mana. But these could only be made by those talented at [Lightning] magic.

If his father wasn’t a Crystal Smith, he wouldn’t have known about this for a long time and would have been taken aback in the future.

“Good morning Raven.” greeted a woman with a gentle voice. It was Elenora, his mother

“Good morning.” answered Raven as he headed towards the door. They didn’t mind him being too intelligent for his age, and actually supported him. He just shook it off as dragonmens’ maturing speed was as fast as the aging.

“Eat your breakfast before you go.”

“Kay, then call me when you’re done.’ he answered as he jumped at his father.

“Sup, little drake.” said Tristan, as he caught him with one of his hands. Although he was the size of a 2 year old, Tristan was big, standing a half meter higher than a muscular adult human. The size difference between his father and mother weren’t small; one would wonder how they could have fun.

Contrary to his body size, Tristan had a gentle face and was a kind person. The villagers were friendly towards him and the children liked to play with him.

“Sup.” answered Raven and Tristan put him down on his chest and both turned towards the CV. Raven nearly vomited blood when he saw the news. It was about a kingdom of vampires.

(Due to the mysterious disappearance of villagers around the borders of Desolate East, a recon team consisting of 10 experienced personnel was sent to gather information. However, only 2 survivors returned. One was unable to make sense of anything, and is currently in an asylum, whereas, the other survivor is our special guest for today.) She said, as the camera moved to show a drow with dark lines under his eyes. He wore a black cloak, a black trouser and black shirt with grey lines under it. He was clearly shaken up by the experience. (Mr. Claudis, can you tell us what you have seen in detail?)

(Yes, of course. When we landed there, there was no sign of life. Then we decided to go deeper to check for the missing villagers and found a trail of blood.) he said, with an emphasis on the last part (We followed it and reached a cave and we could hear screams. That’s when we should have turned back to call for reinforcements. But we thought it was just a normal bandit group, oh how wrong we were, and decided to engage in combat. Having 2 clerics on our side, we didn’t fear for minor injuries, everyone was strong enough to take on a hundred men, after all.)

He paused for a while, and took a deep breath, as if bracing himself.

(But what we saw were people inflicted with the vampire curse, biting into the flesh of boys and girls. We rushed in, without thinking of the consequences. The battle was fierce, and 4 corpses were left. And our captain asked the children “Are there any others?” he didn’t get a reply. The children were too scared to talk. Even when we told them that they were safe now, they didn’t run. We went in even deeper and reached a clearing. It was a sight I shall never forget. There was a kingdom, those inflicted with the vampire curse. There were children and men and women, they were being kept as slaves. Then 2 approached us. Their skins were as pale as snow, their eyes were as red as blood. They started running towards us. We fought and then … it was a slaughter fest. They left 4 of us alive.) he halted speaking right then.

(May I ask where the other 2 are?) the newswoman asked.

(I’m not finished yet!!!) he shouted and started bracing himself again (They threw us in a cell, and each day, they tortured one of us. I survived it with my sanity, while Theodore left his sanity on that accursed table of hell.) his fear turned into rage (They forced us to eat our fallen comrades, and tortured anyone who didn’t listen. Soon, I was the only one who was sane, but we were all broken. Martha and Serenity were too scared to move, and resembled the children we met before entering. They brought me and Theodore to their king and he told me “I am Ulacarnne, king of Khuruth. I will be the ruler of this world, and the sky needs only one moon.” and sent us back.)

Tristan and Raven were both shocked to their cores, one realizing his future foe’s power, the other hearing his old enemy’s name.

“Breakfast’s ready, you two.” said Elenora with a cheerful tone.

They both stood up and walked up to the chair.

“Why the long faces?” she asked, surprised. As if caught by surprise, they just noticed that there were others in the same room and started acting cheerfully.

“Nah, just upset that I’ll be leaving you two for a while.” said Tristan with a carefree tone.

“Oh, when are you going?” asked Elenora.

“After half a year or so, and I think I’ll be gone for at least a year.”

“Well, it’s still a long time until then, cheer up, would you?”

Then they started gobbling up the food. It was fried pork with eggs, of some wild bird. As for a drink, they had juice right out of the cooler. It tasted like a mix of apple and orange.

After a while of awkward silence, Tristan started “I think it’s time for us to teach Raven combat.”

“But he’s not even 2 years old.”

“I want him to be able to protect himself in absence.”

“That’s why I’m here for.”

“Do you think that you’ll be with him 24/7/365?”

“I-I don’t” she said with guilt.

“Don’t worry mom, I want to learn.” Raven accepted, truthfully, it was exactly what he wanted. He had started training from when he learned to fly. Raven would train at a place no one would disrupt him and would come back during the afternoon, and would play with other children.

Currently, he had created 2 skills: [Spark] and [Shadow Pull]. The first one would create a spark of lightning, not really a combat skill as much as it is a utility. It was only useful for starting small fires, not unlike what a match would do, or pranking other children. The second one wasn’t that useful either. It would pull a shadow out of the ground and make it corporeal for a second. It was only useful for tripping people.

As for his physical prowess, it would easily pass as that of his old body, a week teenager’s. His claws, were however, quite sharp. It left a mark on a tree. His flying was quite good; he was equal to a bird in terms of flying, but a dragon would be capable of much more.

“Then meet me at the yard this afternoon.” said Tristan, as he went into the storage room.