I quickly walk through the field separating the beach from the forest. Small spirit beasts are still hunting each other through the grass. Three big spirit beasts have ganged up and are butchering all of the smaller beasts, one at a time. I stop and watch for a second. Their latest victim is a small light sparrow. It’s slowly gliding down from the canopy, too weak to truly fly. Desperately it makes one last lunge to get to… sigh… please don’t tell me it just landed on my nose. It looks at me pleadingly.

A light sparrow is begging your assistance! In exchange for protecting it, it has offered to accompany you and help you in any way it can for the rest of its life! It is a very rare variant of the sparrow species. Its evolutions are unknown, as , within days of their birth, these variants are shoved out of their nest. Will you help it?

Hmm, alone in the world just like me aren’t you little guy?I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to help you out. You don’t eat that much do you?

After agreeing to help him, I feel a small telepathic connection form. I can’t exactly feel his thoughts, but I can catch some general emotions. I try to think to him to get off my nose. He seems to get the gist and perches on my back, between my glorious spikes.

Now that that’s settled, let me deal with those dishonorable hunters…

Your actions have caught the attention of a goddess! As a reward for your righteousness and honor, Themis has improved your racial passive “Observation” to “Perceiving sight”. It holds all the benefits of observation while also helping discern truth from lie and break illusions.”

Well, that’s just…. Wow! I’m rewarded for my actions? Hmm, I suppose I’ll have to see what these “gods” can do at a later time. Right now, I suppose I’m far too weak to even consider that… Well standing around here isn’t going to make me any stronger. Time to see what this forest is all about.

As I approach the forest, I notice that the beasts that my younger self had seen. They had grown bigger then I remembered, some actually rivalled me in size. Observing them, I see that there are hundreds of different beasts battling. Their levels range from 10-45 with the average around me being about 15. Then I realize my problem: I don’t know how strong I am. My stats could be legendary, or they could be common as dirt, in which case I had no business here. I decide to test myself.

Staying to the edges of the forest, I look for any isolated creatures. Ideally, it should be something as strong as possible, but slow enough to escape from. Eventually, I come across a Wolf-spider. While a bit too fast for my purposes, but it would have to do.

Wolf spider Level 19 common Core intact Chaotic

That’s new. It must be that upgrade to Observation that I was gifted. Well, it should be a fair fight, and I don’t think a being of chaos is very favored by the goddess of justice, so I suppose that this is also a good chance to make a sacrifice to the gods. I grin sinisterly and roar a challenge at the wolf spider.

Quickly turning around It howls and charges to meet me. I raise a barricade of earthen spikes in its path, but unlike the turtle, it simply jumps into the trees using its eight legs to rapidly cross the remaining distance to us. Immediately I form rock spears and launch them through the air at it. Only a few hit, biting deep into its abdomen, that ; however, is nowhere near enough to stop it. It jumps the last few meters between us and lands on my back. Using four of its legs, it stabilizes itself on my back over the spikes. With the other four, it starts to shred the scales on my sides. It is a piercing agonizing pain, but holding myself together I remember one of my past fights and throw myself towards the nearest tree, aiming to impale the spider on my spikes. Unfortunately, it foresaw this and jumped off my back at the last second. Taking advantage of its opportunity, it lunges at me quickly tries to bite open my guts. Luckily, my heavy scales there protect me long enough to stand up.

I turn to it, taking this fight far more seriously now that my blood was slowly dripping onto the forest floor. I quickly swipe at it with my front leg. It jumps back and snorts at me. Taunting me. But that’s okay, it was just a test after all. I continue to put up the pretense of a fight, while slowly building a cage of spikes underground. Continuing the fight, I slowly back the spider over my trap. Triumphantly, I quickly raise the walls and close them Completely squashing the bug! Or that’s what would have happened if the arachnid didn’t simply jump over the walls to land on my back again. Clawing at the grooves it had already formed, it caused me even more agonizing pain. Suddenly another idea comes to me. I run toward a tree again turning to slam the spider into it. Snorting in derision, it jumps off me again, ready to bite into me again. But this time around, I had planned for this already, Quickly planting my legs into the ground, I slam my spiked tail into its thorax. My brutal blow hit, completely crushing the connection three of its legs had to its body, causing the three limbs to fall limply onto the ground.

The spider screeched in agony lurching backwards and reaching for a tree to climb. But now that I had felt its blood, I wasn’t going to just let it escape. I pivot and pounce on it, carving its exoskeleton with my claws while ripping off its remaining legs with my powerful jaws. Looking at its pitiful remains, I decide to finish it off with a Spirit Blast.

Opening my jaws, I gather my remaining energy into a sphere. Then, roaring triumphantly, I release a cone of energy in front of me. In hindsight, I realize it was a bit foolish to use fully half of my energy in one blast…

The blast flashed forward disintegrating everything in its path for 50 meters. Trees collapsed, crashing down to the forest floor, which was now slightly lower. My one blast had carved out a cone of death, starting from my jaws. Fortunately, the wolf-spider’s core was still intact. Something I was quick to rectify, by devouring it completely of course.

The power gained from this raised my level by 8 and the sparrow’s level by 10 evolving it into a light sparrowhawk. It nearly doubled in size, and could now comfortably perch on my shoulder.

I decide to return to the beach and analyze the fight I had just been in. Definitely nothing to do with licking my wounds or recovering the energy I had consumed. Definitely……

Lying on the sand, I realized that I had grown about a foot in height. Quikly rushing over to the water I looked at my reflection in the water. I looked even more powerful and awe-inspiring. My horns had a small split about halfway along their length. The split grew a small forward-facing serration on each horn. My scales had grown thicker,harder, and more defined, while my muscles were far thicker. I could feel that I was far stronger in every aspect of the word.

Interesting how a change in stats could affect me so much. Oh yeah, what were my stats again?

S: 116 A: 54

C: 139 R:126

D:23 I: 106

Well they’ve certainly grown haven’t they? Well my agility was said to be average, so I suppose my other stats are terrifying aren’t they? It does make sense. The wolf spider was probably invested in agility and dexterity with a bit of constitution as well, if I consider that exoskeleton. So one of my blows completely crushed it. Then my spirit blast just annihilated everything that remained. So I suppose that’s a successful experiment then. But I suppose I have to see if I can duplicate the results, don’t I?

Impatiently, I waited for my force to recover fully. My spirit blast was my trump card, allowing me to be far more daring than I would normally act. When I was ready, I walked to the forest to pick my next prey.

But before I could get there, I saw a bovine creature wander into the meadow with me. It was purple in color and had long streaks of jagged yellow down its sides.

Storm Bull lvl 24 rare chaotic Core Intact

It was cruelly stomping down on all the little beasts and devouring their cores. Hmm, what a perfect target, completely unaware of me and morally bankrupt! I pounce on it, ripping huge tears in its flank. I bite down ripping out a huge chunk of flesh. This was too easy! Of course that’s when it used its power. It couldn’t be called a storm bull for no reason now could it?

The brute’s skin electrified shocking me. Because of my high resistance and Earth affinity, It barely surprised me, but that was enough for the bull to rip out of my grasp. It ran and then wheeled, turning its broad horns on me. It began to charge, building up speed and a vast amount of energy around it.

Hmm, an energy attack ehh? Well two can play at that game now can’t they… I grin maniacally and prepare a spirit blast with my full force. From seeing the effect of the last blast, I decide to aim it slightly above him and concentrate the field further.

When the bull was barely 5 meters away, It lunged forward pushing all of its power into one attack just as I released my own blast.

My blast splashed around it pushing it back away from me. Straining against the power, the bull actually began to push forward. 5 meters…. 4….3…. 2….1 and then it was nearly touching me when it finally collapsed. It had been a very close run. If my stats had been just a bit lower, I’m not sure which one of us would have one there! As it stands, I’ve used all my power to fight this bull to a standstill!

Quickly, I crush its skull in my jaws to keep it from taking advantage of my temporary weakness. As I eat through it to find the core, I think back on how strong it had been. And this was just a small-fry! It was half the strength of some of the beasts I saw, and those probably weren’t the strongest in the forest either! That rare tag probably had something to do with it, but still, I need to get stronger. Anyways, here’s that core.

I devour the core, and immediately level up nine times. The sparrowhawk leveled up eight times. Interestingly enough, it seems that the rate of leveling only increases after I evolve. It also probably doesn’t hurt to have an SS growth rate, if I do say so myself.

I lie down by the bull to rest. Turns out, consuming all my energy at once, is not a sound strategy if I want to continue to fight afterwards. As I’m resting, my sparrow hawk launches itself off of me repeatedly, trying to fly. I do need to name him don’t I? Let’s see, his feathers are reddish-orange with golden streaks running down. Hmm, how about Lum?

He screeches at me and pecks my head. I think that’s a no. Okay then what about Albert? Screech! Bob? Screech!! Brighty? Screech!!! Ow ow stop pecking me in the eyelid! What about Sol? The sparrowhawk moves around, seemingly in deep thought. Eventually Sol screeches triumphantly into the air and then…. Sits on my head. (sigh) Why did I help this guy again?

A while later, I climb to my feet. Fully rested, I ready myself for a grind. I only pick off weaker chaotic beasts from the sides of the huge battle royale. Over the course of a few days, I split my time between hunting and resting to steadily level up to level 47. I grew about three feet taller and even stronger. My stats had all grown insanely frankly:

S: 354 A: 171

C: 411 R:364

D:57 I: 310

Sol had reached level 45, growing to about four feet tall and gaining more light golden feathers. As I grew higher in level, I had to hunt beasts in the chaotic battle as the ones weaker than me couldn’t even give me any experience anymore. Now I was nearly master of the forest. All that was left was to hunt the strongest monster. I had seen it only once before, and it did look like it would probably put up quite a fight.

level 59 Three-tailed Shadow-Wolf Ultra Rare Chaos Core-Intact

It stayed in its own personal pit at the edge of the outer forest. I made my way there. All the other beasts ran away from me, remembering their kin. Soon, I arrive at the clearing. The wolf has pitch black fur and three tails. Its slobbering face is fixed in a snarl as it closes in on some… Wait what are those things?

level 15 Human “Adalyn” Princess Order

level 27 Human “Jaydan” Guard Order

level 21 Human “Bartan” Guard (Betrayer) Chaotic

Hmm, human…? That sounds familiar somehow… Ehh thought for later, anyways, two of these humans have “order” on their names. If chaotic is evil, then order would be good right? I suppose it doesn’t matter I need that wolf’s core anyways. Roaring a challenge, I charge forward towards the wolf.

P.O.V. Adalyn

I can’t believe it! How could Bartan betray us all like this? Why did I follow him this far into the forest? If Jayden hadn’t followed us, I would be dead by now. But it doesn’t look like he will be able to save us either.

“Princess run! I’ll hold it off!” Jayden yells to me as he braces himself. The wolf had cornered us in this pit and was slowly closing in. It seemed almost gleeful, even though, with its size we’d barely be a snack for it.

Behind me, in the corner, Bartan is mumbling to himself fearfully,” No! No! No! They said it would only kill the princess! It would spare me! It would…”

What a worm of a man. I can’t believe I actually fell for him. It’s really too bad that now, in the last moments of my life, I finally realize…

A booming roar interrupts me as an honest-to-goddess Dragon slams into the wolf, dashing it into the pit’s wall. Oh my goddess, did a dragon just save us? No wait, that wolf is still alive…

The wolf fades into shadows, appearing at the far end of the pit. The wolf slashes it claws in the air, launching tears of shadow at the dragon. The dragon seems to just snort. It stomps the ground, and a huge wall of earth rises in front of it. The tears crash into the wall, destroying it but losing their power completely. Next, the dragon attacked: launching spears of rock and raising spikes under the wolf. It promptly dodged these attacks by fading and reappearing in a different corner, but this time it was hit by a beam of pure light, burning it deeply. The beam came from a bird that was flying above the battle. It was shining too brightly for her to identify it. The wolf howled in agony and, covering itself with shadows, threw itself towards the dragon. It landed, and began to run around the dragon, scoring glancing blows on the dragon’s scales.

I walk over to Jayden and ask,” What is that dragon? It looks so strange, but can it win this fight?” The dragon was not at all like what she expected. It was wingless for one, but it was also so much… thicker. Its scales were bigger and its body was far broader than what her lessons had taught her.

“Princess… th...that’s a legendary dragon variant. An Earth Dragon. It’s far more powerful than a normal dragon and has a huge mana pool. It can only willingly bond to a human and is considered a class SSS beast.” Jayden answers with awe in his voice.

“So can it win?” I’m a bit impatient. I mean, it’s a rare lizard, but that doesn’t matter if it becomes a dead lizard.

“If it was an adult, it would easily win, but by the size of its horns, I would say it’s a juvenile. I give it about fifty-fifty odds.” Jayden eventually answers again.

The wolf and dragon were locked together. The wolf had its jaws around the dragon’s throat, but the dragon didn’t seem too perturbed. It simply dashed its tail into the wolf repeatedly, crushing ribs and other bones. The wolf was forced to let go, but the dragon was bleeding heavily now. Both titans looked at each other, ready to end the deadlock.

The wolf curls its three tails up to its mouth and begins to form a sphere of shadows and chaos. All the shadows in the area are pulled in, and take the shape of wailing forms in the sphere. The dragon condenses pure mana into a massive sphere. Two tyrannical auras are clashing and pushing against each other. Then both attacks are released. The dragon’s sphere turns into a pure cone of energy, while the wolf launches the sphere as a wave of power. The two attacks meet in the center of the pit. Pushing back and forth, strain could be seen on the faces of both beasts. Slowly, the wave begins to win out, pushing closer and closer to the dragon. The exhausted dragon, uses his final scraps of energy and stamps the ground in defiance, but is overwhelmed by the wave of chaos.

It floods over the dragon, ripping of scales and burning deep into its flesh. It put its body between us and the blast, shielding us but taking the full brunt of the attack. With the final vestiges of the wave’s power, the dragon is pushed to its knees, where it lies panting.

“No! Please You have to get up!” I desperately scream at the dragon. Our lives were tied to its. An arm lands on my shoulder.

“Princess look at the wolf!” Jayden says ecstatically. Glancing at the wolf, I was surprised to see it dead: completely ripped to shreds by dozens of spikes from underground. That last stamp from the dragon hadn’t been a futile act of defiance! It had won!

P.O.V Terrus

Well that was a painful fight! I’m covered in wounds, and the entire front side of my body is missing scales and my neck was actually pierced by those fangs. My flanks were covered in grooves from the wolf’s claws. I stand up and stumble over to the wolf’s corpse. Just to be sure that I’m not interrupted, I growl at the humans and motion towards the pit’s entrance. They seemed to get my message, as they immediately stood up and scampered off. Strange little things really, but somehow familiar really…

I turn back to the business at hand, and devour the wolf and its core.

Congratulations you have defeated the strongest monster in the Outer Woods! Your dragon blood rages with your foes power! You have gained 25 agility, 15 Dexterity, and 30 intelligence. You have also gained +1 to Dexterity, Agility, Strength, and Constitution, while gaining + 2 to Intelligence and Resistance. Keep fighting and awaken your true potential!

Your actions have again caught the attention of the Goddess Themis. To thank you for defending one of her followers and removing a scourge from the forest, you have been granted the passive ability Aura of the Guardian.

Above all that, I leveled up a whopping 14 times. That’s amazing! Now if only I wasn’t so tired… My vision begins to black out and I feel myself collapse to the ground. As my eyes close, I see Sol land on my snout to “protect” me…

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Stats: Terrus

Strength:466(+8) Agility:252 (+4)

Constitution: 537 (+9) Resistance: 490 (+9)

Dexterity : 100 (+2) Intelligence: 452 (+8)

Whew here’s chapter three!