I teleported back to my room and breathed a massive sigh of relief.

The only thing I had done after the dragon had lifted the restriction on my abilities was use my ability identifier on her. I thought with all the mess that had taken place the least I could do was find out what kind of abilities the dragon had! But the only thing I managed to do was get a failure message…

Ability Identification failed.

After the failed attempt I immediately teleported out of there as soon as I could. I moved across the room to the full-length mirror and took off all my upper clothes to see what this ‘mark’ was.

The mark was much smaller than I anticipated. With the way my whole chest had felt like it was burning up I had thought it would entirely be covered, but the mark was only about 3 inches in height and 4 inches in width, though the location was worrying. It was situated exactly over my heart. I guess it makes sense regarding what the dragon said about how this mark could be used to kill me instantly.

If not for the ominous way with which the mark could be used, I would actually have really liked it. It looked absolutely beautiful! Exactly over my heart was the shape of a dragon in some sort of light-blue ink…? I know it wasn’t ink but I had no idea on how else to describe it, maybe my skin had changed colour…?

Anyways, the light-blue dragon had two majestic wings open as it stood proudly on its four sturdy legs and seemed to be roaring with its fierce mouth open facing upwards. The tail was about half the length of the rest of the body and had spikes sticking out of it on the top. The details of the mark astounded me. The closer I looked the more details I could see, the sharpness of the white teeth, the flared nostrils, the smooth scales, the individual spikes on the tail, the fierce look in the eyes… I think any tattoo artist would have died happy if he had successfully made a tattoo with this much detail!

Tearing my eyes off the beautiful deathly mark, I used appearance manipulation to cover the mark up. Although it was quite cool to see, I didn’t want anyone else to know about my mark, so covering it up would be best, even though I don’t think I would be going topless in front of anyone else anytime soon, still it doesn’t hurt to be careful.

Careful… yeah….

I had been so utterly stupid lately. I think it was my overconfidence getting to me. I had been having such an easy time dealing with both humans and most of the monsters that I encountered that I felt as if I was the strongest thing on the planet and nothing could hurt me. How utterly foolish of me!

The unfortunate meeting with the dragon at least brought me back down to Earth. Another good thing to come out of the meeting was the information. The fact that I could get ‘unique’ abilities from monsters was exciting, though it was not as exciting as the other things the dragon mentioned!

She said something about this world and how it won’t remain as it is now, and she also mentioned that it was foolish to think the otherworldly monsters have no purpose here. These things mentioned by the dragon excited me a lot!

The world could be merging with another world, Earth could be evolving, powerful beings could be at work changing our planet, some sort of inter-dimensional gate could have opened up on Earth… The numerous novels I had read and the countless animes I had watched were all coming back to me as I thought about all that could happen in the future!

As the inner nerd in me thought of all the exciting things that could happen here, I suddenly remembered about Gray. He had been with me when I teleported to the mountain, but the overbearing presence of the dragon made me completely forget about him until now!

I used the summoning ability at once and saw to my relief that Gray actually appeared. Questioning him I found out that he had been unsummoned as soon as we reached the mountaintop, which made sense since all of my abilities had immediately been disabled.

I then thought about how Gray was from a different place and asked him if he knew anything about what was going on with the planet with high hopes. However, to my disappointment he simply answered that he knew nothing since he was born just some time ago. I then unsummoned him with instructions to ask around his own world if anyone there knew anything.

Thinking once again back to the conversation with the dragon, I got frustrated at myself. If I hadn’t been an idiot and gone there I won’t have had to basically be a sort of captive for the dragon to do with me whatever she liked. This mark she gave me was basically a death sentence. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that she was going to let me live after I had done what she wanted me to do. She herself said she killed off every single other ice dragon so that she was the only one remaining, which shows that she is ruthless when it comes to dealing with anyone or anything that could be a threat to her.

As such, I needed to find a way to get rid of this mark. I would need to do two things in order for me to have a chance at achieving this goal…

Firstly, I need to stop lazing about and instead start actively hunting monsters once again. I remember I used to be so diligent in training any new ability I got earlier, but recently I had been slacking off and basically doing nothing productive. This needs to change, right now! Apart from training and being pro-active, I obviously need to start drinking A LOT of blood once again...

Secondly, I can no longer be alone wherever I go. I need companions. No matter how much I hate being with people, the situation I am in requires me to suck it up and get allies, and the first person I need to ‘recruit’ would be Ariel. Her ability will help me a lot when fighting against monsters, and also when fighting against the dragon. I also need to start paying more attention to the growth of Gray, if I can make him stronger I could gain another useful ally.

I still don’t want too many people around me, but I think I will need more, especially in the inevitable fight against the dragon I have to kill. Although I know the potential I have of getting powerful may be enough, I still would like a few people I can trust backing me up. I guess I could rely on James and my other friends for help…? I don’t know how strong their abilities are apart from James, but I could always go and find out.

So uncharacteristic of me to think about having people constantly around me, but my back is against the wall right now! Desperate times call for desperate measures as they say…

I really am desperate right now. Although the dragon didn’t say it, I think she probably won’t give me much time for me to get stronger. I can’t get strong at a leisurely pace, I need to go about this quickly.

As soon as it is morning I think I am going to go and speak to Ariel.

I laid on my bed and drifted off to an uneasy sleep…

__________________________________

Next morning I greeted Ariel and immediately after we had breakfast I asked her to sit down for a chat.

“Ariel, I need your help.”

“With what?” She immediately asked back with narrow eyes.

“Why so suspicious? Don’t you trust me?”

“No.”

Oh….

She didn’t even hesitate before answering! Usually when I use the ‘don’t you trust me’ line on people they get guilty looks and answer awkwardly in return, and I get whatever I want from them capitalizing on their discomfort. Some people take a bit of extra persuasion but in the end with some manipulation everyone comes around eventually.

Now though, as I looked into Ariel’s eyes, I could see that no amount of manipulation would get me the permanent reliable ally I need. It makes sense, considering what she had been put through all those months at the hands of her mother and those men. She obviously will have a hard time trusting anyone now.

*Sigh* It looks like I’m going to have to tell her the truth.

“I need to inform a few things to you and to ask for your help. Please listen carefully.” I said before I started explaining all the events that transpired between me and the dragon. I left nothing out, and in the end I even showed her the mark by cancelling the effects of Appearance manipulation that I had used to cover it up.

“Hmmm… You want me to try and heal you to see if the mark would disappear?” She asked when she looked at the mark.

“No! Don’t do that, not yet.” She looked a bit surprised at my answer so I explained my thoughts. “Let’s say you use your ability, two things can happen: either the mark disappears or it doesn’t. There is no third option.

Let’s say the mark disappears and I am free from the dragon’s hold over me, what would be the result? Fiora would obviously realise the mark disappeared since she told me she can keep track of me using it, and then we could have a mighty dragon hunting us down to kill us. She wouldn’t just let me walk away if I found a way to deal with the mark, trust me on that one!

Now, the second option is even worse. Your healing ability doesn’t work in removing the mark and Fiora finds out that someone tried to tamper with it, she gets angry and instantly kills me. Poof, done and dusted.”

I could see Ariel starting to nod slowly as she agreed with me.

“So, I think we should wait till I get stronger than Fiora. If I am stronger, then if the healing works I will at least be able to protect myself. That’s at least one possibility where the outcome is favourable for us. This also gives us time, so we can find other ways of getting rid of the mark rather then relying on your healing powers alone.”

“Alright, sounds good. Though I have to ask, how will you know when you are stronger than Fiora when you don’t even know what kind of abilities she has?”

…..

Good question. Ummm… How would I know again…?

….

Can’t think of anything actually.

“I guess we could wait till Fiora herself calls for me. She said she would call for me when I get powerful enough, so we could wait till then…?”

Ariel nodded hesitatingly. I had to agree that this wasn’t the best option but I could think of nothing else as of this moment. Perhaps we could brainstorm for ideas later…

“So, will you help me get stronger…?” I asked Ariel.

Though I could probably do it alone, Ariel’s help would be a huge asset in reducing the time it would take for me to do everything by myself. Especially against stronger monsters, where I could rely on her healing abilities in case shit hits the fan.

“Sure, I have nothing else to do. And you did save me after all, so I guess this way I can pay you back.”

Whew… one ally gained. Wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be...

I think I will just work with Gray and Ariel for now. Being near these two is already a step forward for me in terms of staying in close proximity with other living things. I can delay on getting more allies for now…

The rest of the day me and Ariel spent on strategizing on what to do next and where we should head to. I immediately shot down her idea of going after the T-Rex! I just faced an encounter where I barely survived against a dragon, I was NOT going to do something stupid once again by heading straight to London!

Sure, the dragon was probably stronger than the T-Rex, but I wasn’t taking any chances! Not until I get stronger at least…

We both went to sleep in our rooms at night, thinking about the days to come….

_________________________________

Next morning after some breakfast we were both on the roof of the building, ready to teleport to our first location. We were only on the roof because Ariel wanted to see the view of New York City one last time before heading out…

I was just readying myself to start the journey when suddenly out of nowhere a group of people appeared! They were all around us! Then just as suddenly as they arrived they all vanished once again, leaving an elderly lady standing alone! I tried using all my vision abilities but I couldn’t spot even a single one of the people who had just been visible a few seconds ago!

The elderly lady stepped forward and spoke up, “No need to get alarmed. We are simply here to talk.”

Yeah right! As if old lady! You don’t surround two people with whom you just want to have a chat with!

I wanted to retort to her but I kept my mouth shut, mainly because I had just used ability identifier in a wide range and found out that every single person surrounding us had unique abilities! Some of them were ridiculously overpowered! I was completely outmatched over here!

I immediately used telepathy and informed Ariel of the circumstances so she would keep her mouth shut and not say something stupid which could anger this group. We need to stay calm and see what they want for now...

“We are simply a group of people wanting to help humanity, and we were wondering if the both of you could join us too?” The old lady continued. I had the feeling I had seen her somewhere before, and when I identified her ability I realised that she was the lady with the true immortality power I had seen all those months ago on my laptop!

A group of people that want to help humanity huh…? Sounds like a load of crap to me. But I have to stay smart here, I need to figure out some way to get out of here unscathed! I can’t simply teleport because I know they can find me again…

Oooh! Maybe that could work!

_______________________________

Author's note:

In case there is some confusion over his ability identification, let me remind you of how he had been using hiding presence at the time when he got this ability. The woman he got this from was still able to tell what kind of ability he had even though she couldn't see him. It can either work on identifying one specific person/creature, or it can be used in a wide area to find out all of the abilities that living things have in the area.

Anyways, council and MC finally meet! Thoughts about the chapter? Let me know! Also, point out any mistakes that you spot, thanks!

As always, thanks a lot for reading! :)