My plan was great. At least in my mind, before I tried to execute it. Dragon's breath, the skill I received from my dragon tame active skill selection, which was also the evolved version of Fireball, wasn't as godly as I thought it would be– at least not at rank 1. The smell of scorched gold fuzzed as I actually burped. I guessed that burping sound was an after effect of using Dragon's Breath and spewing out a spiralling flame mixed with onyx and crimson.

"Sorry, Ezra, I didn't work." I sighed and looked at the pile of treasure I had attempted to melt.

"That– it doesn't matter," Ezra said while shaking his head, filled with admiration for the power the little skeleton, not so little anymore, had received. "We wouldn't be able to move so much gold and throw it down the staircase anyway. It's better to hold the ground with swords and magic. I have my magic and you have yours. I saw the might of your Dragon's Breath just now. It was amazing. While not as powerful as my magic, it's miles better than your peers, the skeleton magicians."

I nodded. The sounds of footsteps grew louder. Ezra stood before the staircase with his sword in hand and I stood beside him. We had barricaded the stairs with the treasures. Gold coins and likewise shiny jewellery and ornate items covered the stairs. If the beastmen kept the same speed while charging up, they would definitely slip. And when I used my Dragon's Breath, I would be able to partially melt the gold, causing the slipping to be even worse.

The thirty stat points I received from my three consecutive gained classes; Mage, Tamer, Dragon Tamer, was placed in intellect. My mana pool rose over 400 and my mind grew clearer. If I used them on any other stats, I wouldn't be able to unleash Dragon's Breath. Now, on the other hand, I would be able to use it six times before running dry on mana. I now remembered that I had forgotten to look at the item given to me from receiving the magician class. Well well, I'll do it later.

"They are coming. Get ready." Ezra's voice made me snap to alertness.

My sword was held high and I was already in position, using the stance taught to me by Ezra. The proficiency hadn't risen since the battle in the desert but I was not so far of from rank 2. Alrunenth Jr sat on my shoulder and gazed out with an excited glimpse in his eyes. I wondered what his thoughts were– if he knew what was going or if he just admired the shining gold on the stairs. I mean, it wasn't a surprise that a dragon's greatest hobby was hoarding treasures.

Soon, we saw the first beastman appear. This one had the head of a jaguar and was very fast at climbing. It used its front paws and human legs to run up each stair like a beast and was level 53. A lot stronger than the scouting party we encountered earlier. Unfortunately, for the jaguarman, not for us, it soon fell under Ezra's sword just as fast as it had gone up. Going against Ezra who was level 126 was a complete suicice– the differences were too large!

As I thought of this and reflected back to the fight in the endless wasteland, why was the vampire taking so long time to complete the fight with the owlman and tigerman? Was perhaps only fooling around? In that case, why would he do that? I shook my head– there were more important matters to think about right now, such as the presently incoming enemies.

"Undead scum! Eat my axe!" More beastmen charged up the stairs. Some of them roared out insults and other merely looked at us with rage and contempt filling their eyes. I decided it was time to use my first Dragon's breath.

Dragon's Breath! My bony lips parted by themselves and a wide flame surged toward the stairs. The flame was as black as the night and as red as blood. The beastmen's eyes widened as they were consumed by the fire. I couldn't see anything during the time I spew out flames but I could hear their screamed as the flames raced across their furry bodies.

As the flames died down, and after my burp, I was shocked to see how my spell totally ravaged those who advanced the stairs. Out of the six beastmen, I could currently see, five of them had become scorched corpses, laying on the ground without moving, and the last one, standing by himself, shook as the flames had licked him black. His eyes, filled with terror, seemed to be distant as if he was having a nightmare.

5700 XP gained from killing Jaguarman Zenith 4950 XP gained from killing Lizardman Rocky 5475 XP gained from killing Boarman Kroll 4725 XP gained from killing Foxwoman Deli 5250 XP gained from killing Goatman Ole

Terrifying amounts of XP surged toward my XP bar. It didn't take long until I levelled up. Ezra looked at me with bulging eyes after he had seen how the beastmen succumbed to my magic.

Level Up! You have advanced 2 levels! Your new level is 10!

[You have unlocked the skill tree feature.]

I wanted to go and check out the skill tree feature that I unlocked now when I levelled up to ten but shook my head and instead focused on the battle. I quickly told Eve to put all the new stat points on intellect. This would allow me to use Dragon's Breath and additional time.

"Hehe, it seems I underestimated the power of your magic. Look." Ezra pointed at the surviving beastman. A Rhinoman.

Terror filled the Rhinoman's eyes and his whole body shook. As Ezra went forward to him, he didn't react.

"What's happening to him?" I asked.

"Not happening, happened," Ezra remarked. "And it was your flame that caused it! My guess is that Dragon's breath, or whatever you called that spell, contains the element of darkness and that it makes victims go into a state of incapacitation. I'm not too sure about the specifics but it's clear to say he's not able to react to his surroundings. Like now for an instance."

The vampire cleanly stabbed through the Rhinoman's eye into his brain. The beastman fell onto the floor with a loud bang, as if proudly showing off how heavy he was before never moving again. "As easy as cutting through butter." Ezra laughed. "I really like this magic of yours. Don't hesitate to use it in the future, okay?"

The beastmen kept swarming up. Eventually, Ezra and I had to retreat from the staircase. As we stood opposite to them, we had killed over twenty. There were thirty or so of them left and they were lead by an eaglewoman and a lionman. The eaglewoman was level 100, a number making me worried, and the lionman was not too far off, at 96.

"We cannot let them escape." the eagle woman told the other beastmen. "Their hands are covered with the blood of our kin and our ancestors would be ashamed of us if we don't slaughter them and eat their hearts... charge!"

The thirty or so beastmen surrounded us. This didn't look good.

"Since you made me do this," I heard Ezra saying loudly. "You better take responsibility."

Ezra roared. "Blood Seals; Release!"

The vampire's eyes filled with crimson and black wings sprouted on his back. He became a monster and stepped forward, shielding me from the beastmen. All our enemies except for the eaglewoman and lionman stepped back. They held their ground firm and watched Ezra with squinted eyes.

"John, I can't do much more than this. It's up to you if you can survive this ordeal." Ezra told me and lunged toward the eaglewoman and the lion man. I watched him ferociously swipe his claws at them. They dodged by a hair's breath and that's when I understood the gravity of his words. This fight would not be an easy one. It would be the hardest one for me so far.

"Kill the skelly!" As the vampire left my side, the other beastmen charged toward me. Attacked from all sides, I was quickly overpowered. My bones began to crack at certain places and my health slowly plummeted. There was nothing I could do except trying to dodge and strike where I could, and doing this was hard enough.

I released the last bit of mana I had in a Dragon breath but they had gotten used to it. The only one died and it wasn't enough to fill my XP bar to the max. I understood that each level demanded more xp than the previous. I was already level 11 and the XP needed to level up was more than killing a level 50 beastman gave.

[Varning! You have entered a critical condition with less than 20% HP left.]

Eve's voice brought me to clarity. That's right, I had to quickly escape. If I didn't, I would die. And I had just arrived at this world. This was merely my starting point. I had so much more to do. I dodged an axe and rolled down the floor, between a polarman's legs, hearing his angry roar as he missed me. Alruneth had left my shoulder but I didn't have time to look for him. My life was more important than the dragon I just met.

"Don't let him escape! Kill him!" the beastmen gave chase, blunt weapons of all sizes hurdling after. I took cover behind piles of treasure, their weapons causing gold to splatter in every direction as they missed. I didn't know how many cracks I had in my bones. It was nothing short of a miracle that I could still move. Luckily, I didn't have any blood like them, or I would have died from blood loss ages ago.

In the end, however, I was left with no way to go. I was chased to the corner and they had surrounded me. I readied my sword, held it high as I always did in the stance, and looked the beastmen without fear in my eyes. Knowing that death was coming made me achieve a special calm. I would kill as many as I could. That would at least help Ezra getting out alive.

"Come at me," I said to the beastmen, taunting them with my middle finger, a thing I don't know why I did. It just felt natural.

However, despite my clear taunts, they stood unmoving. A smaller beastman stepped forward from the group. It was the dogman who belonged to the scouting party, did I remember. His eyes were cold and indifferent, and yet, filled with a sort of rage I couldn't understand. Had the death of his party members affected him this much?

"We finally meet again, Skelly." the dogman spat out. He held a sword in his hand and advanced without hesitating. "I don't know which of you two killed them but it doesn't matter. I will have my revenge nonetheless. doesn't matter. So, are you ready to pay for your sins? "

I stared at him without blinking. Then I said. "I have no sins to pay for." And it was the truth. It was my earnest thoughts.

"Then we don't have anything more to speak of." the dogman said and charged.