Mid Morning - Late Spring : Central Sirathan Mountains

"Nnngh-AHH!" As I jolted awake, my instincts were screaming at me.

Before conscious thoughts could even come to mind, I felt a slight warp in the fabric of space behind me and threw a colossal breath spell at it.

Utilizing space mana to instantly create the huge amount of cubane, there was tons of excess, but instead of pulling it out before firing, I left the dense cloud around the cubane.

*crackle-BBBBOOOOOMMM* The roof of the cave instantly vanished as the blast removed a huge chunk of the mountainside and ripped apart the fabric of space in its wake.

As the holes and tears formed, countless crack-like gates opened up and sucked in everything nearby before quickly vanishing once again.

*Splash-Blub* As the water came crashing back into the area, the fabric around me finally finished healing, now missing the warp I had previously felt.

Finally having a moment for my nerves to calm and for my consciousness to kick in, a deep anxiety and discomfort filled my chest. -J..just what did I dream of..- In search of what kind of event could cause such a violent and instinctual reaction from me, I tried to dig through my mind to remember what the dream was about.

But it was a futile attempt. I simply couldn't remember anything besides the indescribable feeling I woke up to. -What an awful way to wake up..-

Looking back out towards where the fabric was ripped apart, my anxiety worsened. -That could have been.. really.. really bad..-

Quickly making sure all of the fabric had healed itself, I sat back down and let out a deep breath.

“Hooh..” Trying to desperately pull myself back together, I glanced down the mountainside and noticed the thick blood that covered the shelf had been washed away.

Peering through the darkness, I saw that what used to be a reef had become a lurker graveyard with half eaten corpses and bones being everywhere.

But, to my surprise, you could see the bone eating coral growing on the bones like fungi.

-Those things sure do grow fast..- Seeing something that could distract me from what had just happened, I was quick to hop up and make my way down to the shelf.

As I walked, I quickly realized just how much stronger I had gotten. Although still extremely restrictive, the water was far less annoying to move in. -To think fighting down here would be so effective at building strength… Now I understand why some other crazy dragons do it.- Although I did think that, I was completely overlooking just how abnormal my ‘training’ had been.

-Strength aside though..- Finally looking at my physical changes, I quickly realized that I not only put on a little muscle mass, but my horns and the spikes all across my body had gotten longer as well. -Hm.. I thought I already hit puberty for dragons since Im adult stage but maybe not..-

Half joking with myself, I finally got my mind off the way I woke up and started walking across the shelf looking for things to fight. -At this point, Id even fight lurkers again..-

To my disappointment though, the only things around were small fish and some medium sized scavengers trying to capitalize on the opportunity to eat the meat of lurkers.

Still desiring a fight, I started contemplating going even deeper. -Considering how rough it was fighting those lurkers, I really shouldn't go any deeper but..- As if there was an angel and devil on my shoulders, there was a battle in my mind between my rationality and my nigh endless curiosity.

Although I'm not sure if it was expected or not, it didn't take long for me to give in to my desires.

-Alright, to the depths I go!- Walking up to the edge of the shelf, I looked down into the abyss with a growing excitement. -If lurkers were that strong, just what’ll be even deeper?!-

Extending my wings, I hopped off the edge and started gliding down the mountain slope once again.

Somehow, time felt as if it passed extra quickly this time, since before I knew it, I got to about 30 kilometers deep and met a huge and extremely bulky octopus-like creature that sat in a large cut out in the side of the mountain. -That must be a kraken... To think they really exist in this world..-

The instant it saw me, it attacked with its full force, but the fight didn't last long.

Setting my paws on its bulbous head, I fired a shotgun of railgun darts into the creature.

*th-th-th-thoop*

The sonic booms of the darts made unusual noises because of how deep I was, but that wasn't what caught my attention. -Isn't this thing a bit too weak?-

Although its tentacles were extremely strong, they were incredibly easy to cut through and it was overall quite slow which made it a rather one sided fight. -I guess the lurkers would get destroyed by it though..-

Its soft body, that was nearly impervious to blunt attacks, would have been the perfect counter of the lurkers. -Plus this thing has a huge size and strength advantage..- Coming in at around 130 meters from tentacle to tentacle, it was the biggest creature I had seen to date by a huge margin.

Watching it sink back to the bottom, an excitement built within me. -Now lets see if I can find its mana core!-

Quickly sinking down to it, I glided over the body in search of a heavy aura.

Thankfully it didn't take too long, but there was something unusual about its location. -Where is that coming from?-

Casually brushing aside the colossal corpse with water magic, I looked down to see a giant mana core that was coated in eggs laying on the ground. -Ah.. that's why it was super aggressive yet wouldn't follow me when I backed off..-

The kraken was nesting and protecting its hundreds, if not thousands of eggs that were wrapped around what I assumed was its own mana core.

-Well, life's opportunities can’t be given to everything..- With a short ‘oh well’, I casually brushed off the eggs and popped the core in my mouth.

Considering the core was as big as the one I ate in Kaelallan, I was extremely careful not to break it and was instead just slowly sucking the mana out of it.

The volume of mana was still not small though. My reserve quickly topped itself off and started stretching itself out before I knew it.

Although having the walls of my reserve as thin as possible would allow me to absorb mana more quickly, I kept it at about half thickness.

This was to allow it to stretch more comfortably, smoothly and safely, at the expense of the time needed to absorb it. -But time isn't an issue currently..-

Since I didn't want to continue to explore or go any deeper with the giant, volatile core in my mouth, I just sat down and thought of ways to kill time.

Eventually, I settled on doing simple exercises to try and adjust to the depth again. -I’ll be happy as long as I can move somewhat comfortably..-

And with that lackluster excitement, I started my training to pass time while I absorbed the core.

Things ended up taking longer than expected though. About 4 days into the training, I realized the core was only about a quarter the way absorbed. This didn't end up being much of a problem though, since my training was also far less rewarding than I had hoped.

The next day though, some larger creatures finally started coming out of the depths to eat the kraken corpse I had pushed into the corner.

The creatures were each bordering the strength of adult dragons and were quite large on their own, but for some reason, they weren’t attacking me.

Over the next couple days, the number of fish gathering to eat the kraken had increased, but so did my disappointment of not having anything to fight.

-Even though there are so many over there, not a single one wants to tussle?- As I thought that though, I noticed what could only be described as a literal sardine swimming towards me.

-How the hell are you alive down here..- Although big for a sardine, being around a meter long it was as weak as could be.

-Just what..- The instant I moved, it vanished from in front of my eyes. -W..whut..-

Quickly looking around, I found it around 100 meters away, still staring at me.

It took my mind a second to catch up and realize what happened. -h..hoLY F*CK YOU'RE FAST!-