《Reincarnation》 Prologue Prologue. The world I came from was known as Sericis. The world was divided into 6 main factions. The humans, demibeast, elves, dwarf, fairies, mermaids/merman. The world was divided into the territories of these 6 races . I was from the human faction and was the strongest human and arguably the strongest person from all 6 factions at the time. I have managed to overcome all the challenges that happened in my life. Out of all the challenges I have faced in my life I was now faced with the hardest one of all which would cost me my life. Standing in front of me was a dragon that was at least 500m tall and 1 kilometre long. Its body was covered in diamond like scales as it stared at me with its golden eyes. The dragon was known as the strongest dragon to have ever existed. It was a walking calamity whose only aim was the destruction of all living things in the world. In the past it took a dozen great heroes who had to sacrifice their life to merely seal the beast. Unfortunately the seal got weak as the years went by and now its free to once again pursue its goal. I was the only one capable of opposing the dragon in the human territory which was its first target. We were in a deadlock and several days has passed since our match begun. The dragon had already revealed its true form with its eyes now a bloody red and scales that retained its diamond like appearance but was now black instead of white. In its true form any element it controlled will somehow get mutated by its dark mana making it a 100 times more deadly. The battle continued for days and by the climax I was fatally wounded. I knew that the end was near. I still had one last trump card a spell that is know only to me. The spell was extremely powerful but it will kill the user of the spell. I would lose my memory when I reincarnate and I wasn¡¯t even sure when I would reincarnate. I can only hope my next life won¡¯t abuse the dragon''s power since my soul will merge with the dragons, its power will also becomes mine. The risk was immense but I had no other option and prolonging this fight would still lead to my death. The spell worked by allowing me to launch my soul out, entering the entity in which my soul hits, forcing its soul to merge with mine. My soul would no longer be considered just my soul since it would be both mine and the dragons, the dragons soul however would no longer have its personality if I succeed. The process is impossible to reverse. The risk doesn¡¯t end there since its possible for it to fail but whether it fails or succeed I would die but my soul will be absorbed by the dragon if I fail. The spell takes up a titanic amount of mana to cast since in my soul form I would need that much mana to maintain conscious and to not get sent to the cycle of reincarnation as soon as I launch my soul out. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.I had one chance and I intend to succeed. I casted a wide area spell turning the ground the dragon was stepping on with its front claws into mud.The dragon lost balance for a while, at that moment I launched my soul out and it hit the dragon who couldn¡¯t regain balance in time. The mana I currently have in my soul was being consumed at a terrifying rate and it was also the only thing allowing me to maintain conscious. The dragon roared in pain as I started to forcibly merge our souls. Despite the fact it was nearly impossible to kill due to its scales it soul was a different story since it would be a battle of willpower. After a an intense struggle in his soul I managed to successfully merged both our souls together which in turn meant the dragon has died. I somehow manage to make it in time since I started to lose conscious and my soul now merged with the dragon soul moved on to the cycle of reincarnation. Leaving behind both the dragons corpse and my now dead body -2014 years 6 month 27 days 12 min 49 seconds later- In the territory of the demibeast known as Zotsua a child was born. It was a female fox demibeast. The fox demibeast was named Sera. Chapter 1(EDITED) Chapter 1 -5 years later- -Narration- Sera was now 5 years old and living in peace with her parents in a tribe of demibeast. The world was now more technologically advanced with the 5 races using machines to perform magic rather than chanting or spellbooks like they use to in the past. Weapons had also drastically change and swords were no longer blades of metal instead there are various devices that uses the mana of the user to create the blade of the weapon. This makes carrying a weapon much easier since even something as small as a pen could turn into a sword with the use of mana. The demibeast however refuses such change and continue to rely on traditional swords and their naturally higher physical abilities. Their 5 senses were also much more developed than the 5 other races. The demibeast are the only race out of the 6 who refuses to rely on technology. This caused the other races to start considering demibeast to be lacking in intelligence. As technology for magical weapons continued to improve yet demibeast still rather rely on more traditional means for combat, slave traders started to target demibeast more often due to their race being easier to capture due to the fact they do not use any form of magical weapon. As years turned to decades and the slaves market got filled with more and more demibeast some of the other races started to discriminate demibeast simply because demibeast slaves are extremely common. It took decades before this prejudice turned serious enough for demibeast to cut all contact with civilization and lives as tribes in the wild to prevent slave traders from finding them. Demibeast who decided to continue living in kingdoms were unable to get jobs due to the prejudice and lived in the slums as peasants or beggers. -Sera POV- For demibeast their tribe is like family to them. Sera who was a little weird since she could easily control the elements of nature around her without the aid of any medium and she also has strength comparable to that of an adult, was still treated like family by every member of the tribe despite this since demibeast value their families above anything else. Other than that she had a few odd features. Her right eye was golden yet her left eye was blue. She also had a streak of silver hair on the left side of her hair. She was otherwise a normal demibeast. Sera was also a very cheerful person which resulted in her being well liked within the tribe. She would occasionally go hunting with the other kids for small animals like rabbits once in a while. Her best friend was a wolf demibeast who was the same age as her. His name was Jake.In the tribe there are 3 kids 5 teenagers and 10 adults and 5 elderly which meant there were only 23 people in the tribe. ¡°Jake look what I found¡± Sera happily ran to Jake holding on something in her hand. ¡°Cool what is that¡± Jake looked really interested since the object seemed interesting. It was a small cylindrical object with a button that looked like a trigger of a gun. They of course wouldn¡¯t know what that is since they have never seen anything modern. ¡°Where did you find it?¡± ¡°In the forest I was picking some mushrooms for mom.¡± ¡°I think you forgot the mushrooms¡± Jake said as he tried to hold back his laughter. ¡°Oh no I left the basket back in the forest.¡± Sera blushed as she quickly turned around and ran back to the forest with her full speed. She sped through the forest and eventually reached the place she had left her basket at. She suddenly heard 2 voices talking nearby. ¡°How could you lose your weapon like that.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry sir I was just so happy that I found a tribe I must have lost it when I was running back.¡± Sera took a peek at the place the voices were coming from. There was a camp with around 20 humans all of them armed with something similar to the cylinder thing she found. She wasn¡¯t sure if it was safe or not since everyone in the tribe warned her anything that isn¡¯t an animal is dangerous. She continued to hide and listen to what they were saying. ¡°Boss should we capture all of them or only the young ones if they resist?¡± ¡°Kill all of them but the kids since they are the easiest to make into slaves.¡± ¡°What about the teenagers?¡± ¡°They will be too rebellious most people will only buy kids since they are the easiest to control. We will ask them to hand over the kids if not we will kill all of them and take the kids with us by force.¡± Still hiding while listening to what they were saying Sera was horrified. She was close to tears trying to hold back her fear. She immediately ran away to inform her parents of what was about to happen. She ran as fast as her legs could take her. She finally reached her village after what seemed to be a very long 5 minutes to her. She ran into her hut like house and quickly tried to explain what she had just saw. Her parents looked shocked and they too went out of the hut and told the tribe to get ready for battle. Only the 3 kids were told to hide. Sera , jake and his brother all went into a hut to hide. As expected the group of about humans which started to march towards the village had about 24 people. Sera could only see the people who weren¡¯t inside the tents so the fact that there were more people than what she saw wasn¡¯t surprising. Eventually the humans arrived. The adults and the teenagers were all holding either spears or swords made out of iron the spears only had iron tips attached to wooden sticks. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°I¡¯m assuming you won¡¯t just peacefully hand over the kids.¡± The guy who seemed to be the leader said as he looked at the demibeast who were all armed and ready to attack. ¡°Get lost we won¡¯t give you anything.¡± The tribe leader who happened to be Jake father said as he growled at them. ¡°Very well. Kill them¡± The human leader coldly replied The humans all took out something similar to what Sera found and clicked on the trigger. The weapon instantly materialized. Some were using axes some bows and majority swords. The human archers shot out arrows that were made of their mana towards the tribe which instantly killed one of the teenagers. Sera was horrified and wanted to scream at the horrific scene. The demibeast weapons were ineffective and was easily crushed to pieces by the humans. Eventually the humans killed every last adult and teenager in the tribe who tried their best to protect the kids. Sera was was unable to hold back her tears and was crying at the sight of her parents and people who were like family to her getting killed in front of her eyes. The human leader heard her crying and went into the hut he heard it from. Just as he opened the door both jake and his brother who was 7 tried to kill the human leader who had just went in. By reflex or by accident he accidently swung his weapon without looking at them properly. They fell down onto the floor lifelessly. Sera saw what happen she suddenly felt her conscious fading. She felt a mix of extreme rage as well as extreme sadness. She suddenly felt like her body was burning. ¡°Oh they were kids¡­.nevermind at least there is a survivor. I bet I can get a lot for you since you are such a pretty little thing.¡± Sera felt a her body breaking apart. Her conscious slowly faded. -Human leader POV- He could only stare at what was happening. The little girl suddenly screamed. It sounded like a scream out of rage, agony and pain. The most surprising thing was her body was slowly changing. Her hair suddenly got longer and it all turned silver. Both her eyes were golden and it looked like the eyes of a reptile. Her hands was slowly getting covered in white scales that looked like diamond. The scales were also appearing on her legs and neck. Two white horns appeared on her forehead and white wings grew out. Her fox tail somehow mutated and slowly tuned into a dragon tail covered by the scales. Her nails became much longer for both her toes and her finger. After the transformation finished she suddenly stood up. Her face showed no emotion as if she had no soul. Suddenly she said one word while lifting up her finger. ¡°DIE¡± In front of him a huge spike made out of earth blasted out of the ground but he wasn¡¯t prepared for it and tried to break it with his weapon but was unable to since it was covered with mana as the spike pierced through his heart instantly killing him. -Human soldiers POV- Our leader suddenly got blasted out with a huge spike made of earth piercing his heart. We were all shocked seeing him suddenly die like that. A little girl came out of the hut he was in. The little girl had huge wings on her back and she was covered in scales. She had a tail covered in the scales as well. She had horns and fox ears on her head. It was instantly understood she was a demibeast of some kind. The archer were getting ready to fire when she suddenly swung her hand horizontally. The moisture in the air seemed to have collected at where she swung and the blade of water that formed suddenly sped up and before they could do anything the row of 3 archers got instantly killed. A guy wielding a axe rushed forward brandishing his weapon ready to attack. She lifted her hand and grabbed the axe. The guy attacking was shocked as she used her other hand to pierce his heart killing him. The most frightening part is that she showed no emotion as she killed them. She turned her eyes towards a group of soldiers rushing towards her. She flicked her wrist creating a miniature tornado lifting the group attacking her. She then sliced through the air multiple times creating multiple water blades which shot towards the people getting juggled by the tornado. They were all killed. She slowly killed everyone she saw easily. She gathered the moisture in the air around her and froze all of instantly creating a lot of ice spikes floating around her. She shot it out killing everyone else. I could slowly feel my conscious fading due to the wounds cause by the ice spike. -Sera POV- The scales slowly disappeared. Her hair turned back to blonde with a streak of silver but the length remained the same as when she was rampaging. Her tail turned back into a fox tail and she slowly returned to normal. She fell down on the ground where she stood. -3 hours later- Sera slowly regained conscious. It was raining very heavily. She looked around her tribe . Around her lay the dead bodies of both her tribe and the humans. She didn¡¯t know what happened to the humans. But she just sat there the sound of her cries drowned out by the rain. (Author note): The part i edited is the reason demibeast are discriminated against. This was one of the flaws pointed out by previous comments.Hopefully this edit makes it easier to understand if not pls do comment in what way you think i should change it. Chapter 2(Discontinued version. Please go to rewrite dont read chap 2-8 ) Chapter 2 -Several days after the attack- -Sera POV- Sera continued walking north from her village since the massacre. The look on her face however wasn¡¯t something a normal kid would have. She looked lifeless as she slowly walked aimlessly across the plains. She hasn¡¯t eaten anything since that day but strangely she was still healthy. When she woke up in the rain that day her body was never the same. The trauma she had gone through a few weeks ago has probably changed her for the rest of her life. She knew her body has changed but she couldn¡¯t care less. She continued to look lifeless as she continues her aimless journey no longer sure what meaning life had for her anymore. Everyone precious to her is no longer alive. -Narration- The world of Sericis was also home to creatures known as Daema. Daema are ferocious beast which can be found in all 6 territories. They are various species of it of varying power a common trait they share however is that they lack intelligence and will attack anything on sight. The military power of the 6 territories will normally deal with them but since she was in a place far away from any settlement or city the chances she would run into one was extremely high. -Sera POV- Sera just continued walking and walking more days passed yet she was still healthy despite the fact she hadn¡¯t eaten or drink anything for weeks. She initially decided to continue to walk until she died but she was somehow still extremely healthy. ¡°Am I not even allowed to die.¡± Sera quietly said as she curled up on the ground crying again. She continued crying until she finally cried herself to sleep the first sleep she had since the massacre in her tribe. -Next day- Sera awoke to the growling of a creature. As soon as she opened her eyes the first thing she saw was a wolf like creature standing in front of her. She just stared at the beast thinking maybe if it was this monster she could finally die. The wolf launched itself towards her. She closed her eyes thinking she could finally die. She didn¡¯t feel anything. Confused she opened her eyes. In front of her was pair of huge white wings that seem to have come from her back. The wings were covered with diamond like scales. Sera was so shocked she screamed at the sight of the wings growing out of her back. She had no idea what was going on. After some time the wings started to go back into her back and the sight in front of her was shocking to say the least. The wolf like monster was about 30 cm off the ground. It was dead multiple spikes came out of the ground and pierced the wolf. The wolf stayed in that position lifelessly. She started to feel light headed from the shock and eventually lost conscious . -POV of an unknown person- I was walking towards the plain with my friends. The adults always tell us its dangerous but we were pretty mischievious. After we left the forest about 2 km ahead we saw a giant wolf dead with multiple spikes made out of earth piercing it. In front of the lifeless wolf was a girl. She looked like she was still a kid considering how small her body was. We ran up to where she was at. We noticed she had fox ears and tail. ¡°She must be one of those demibeast things.¡± ¡°You mean the slaves of elves and humans?¡± ¡°Yeah. I saw one before when a human came to our city.¡± ¡°Maybe we can keep her if we bring her back.¡± ¡°Yeah great idea.¡± I lifted the girl off the ground. She was really light so it didn¡¯t take much effort. My friends and I was excited so we dashed through the forest and after some time passed through a barrier which hid the great city of Faella. Its one of the cities in the Fairies territory. Its near the border shared by the fairies and the demibeast. As soon as we got into the city the guard looked at us and suddenly stopped us. ¡°Where did you get that demibeast from?¡± he said ¡°We found her in the plains outside of the forest.¡± ¡°Hand her over I its better to throw thrash like her into a cell.¡± ¡°Wait why. What will happen to her.¡± ¡°The thing you have on your back is from a race of savages. Obviously the only place she should be in is prison.¡± The guard didn¡¯t listen anymore and took her from us and walked away. -Guard POV- ¡°What were those kids thinking bringing a savage beast into our town.¡± The guard grumbled as he threw her into the cell and proceeded to lock it. Stolen story; please report. -Sera POV- -1 hour later- Sera felt like the ground was hard and cold as she slowly got up. She looked at her surrounding and realized she had somehow ended up in a small room. The room had one window which was blocked by several iron bars. Other than that window and the door made out of pure iron she was surrounded with stone. It was dark but being a demibeast she could see her surroundings clearly. She once again had a lifeless looking expression as she sat in the corner of the room. She had no intention of trying to escape. Even if she does get out where will she go. She started to think about the wings that suddenly grew out of her back. She was a little curious and tried to make the wings appear to no avail. She eventually stopped trying and just sat there motionless while hugging her own tail. Her face remained expressionless. -Several days later- The only time she hear footsteps is the time they slide food under the huge iron door. She didn¡¯t want to eat it at first until the guard who noticed she didn¡¯t eat forced her to do so. After which she ate whatever was given. ¡°Hey you know that demibeast in that cell is so weird. She doesn¡¯t show any emotion at all.¡± Sera overheard a guard saying. ¡°Its not our job to care we just have to make sure she doesn¡¯t escape.¡± After several more days the iron door slowly opened. A old man stood in front of her. From the conversation between the guards she found out this is a city of fairies but the old man in front of her is definantly human. ¡°Is this the demibeast.¡± ¡°Yes she is the one we found.¡± ¡°Come with me you will enroll into a military school.¡± Cynthia sat there expressionless. The old man handed the guard a pouch that Made a sound when it landed. She assumes its full of some sort of currency. ¡°So I¡¯m just a item to be sold off at their convenience ¡± she thought to herself. -Narration- Despite the discrimination demibeast physical abilities is valued by some of the militaries that don¡¯t discriminate as badly as some others. They are still discriminated against but they aren¡¯t treated as badly as the slaves are treated. Usually the demibeast from the army are made to fight in the front line. -Sera POV- The old man attached some sort of collar onto her neck. ¡°With this you can¡¯t go more than a kilometer away from me so don¡¯t even bother trying to escape.¡± He grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the cell. Eventually she walked at his pace since she disliked being dragged by him. After leaving the prison there was huge metallic object in front of her. He opened a door at the side of it and called her to go in. She listened to him and went into the car. ¡°At least you are smart enough to understand the kind of situation you are in.¡± the old man said looking as if he is satisfied with his purchase. He opened another door and went into that one. The object started levitating and eventually rose up into the air. When it was high enough it moved forwards at a astonishing speed. -Several hours later- The object started to descend. After it reached a complete stop Sera was called to get out of the object. In front of her was a huge building. There were many kids from different races looking at her whispering. ¡°This is to be your school from now on. You will start at the elementary level with people your age. The collar around your neck is now set to prevent you from leaving school grounds. You will be living in the dormitory here. School rules will be explained once you are inside. I trust you won¡¯t hurt anyone here. I made sure you aren¡¯t the aggressive type before buying you. ¡° The old man said to her coldly. Sera didn¡¯t really understand what he was saying but she was clear on one thing she had no choice but to live here from now on. It wasn¡¯t as bad as she expected. Looking around at the surroundings there were some other demibeast inside. They all had the same collar around their neck similar to the one around hers. She felt a little happy seeing people from the same race. ¡°Your name from now one will be Ria. I don¡¯t know about your past but you should forget ever returning to wherever you came from.¡± the old man told her before leaving. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Author note: I will now refer Sera as Ria when I write. -Ria POV- Another human walked up to her as soon as the old man had left. ¡°You must be the new student. Your living quarters has been prepared. Come along now I will show you to your class first. After class your teacher will bring you to your living quarters.¡± Ria obediently followed her since she obviously had no other choice. Magic was used to make her clean nearly instantly. She was also given the school uniform. After changing into the school uniform given to her she was brought into a room located in the building. The room had multiple table and chairs. Each one of them had a person sitting on it except for one. She looked at the people in the class and was a little sad that she was the only demibeast there. The teacher in the class looked a little unhappy when he saw her come in. ¡°Class she will be your new classmate from now on.¡± he said and proceeded to call her to sit down at the empty chair. She wasn¡¯t asked to introduce herself which was a relief since she didn¡¯t want to do so. The students all stared at her tail and ears. They were all kids like her so there was no sign of them looking down on her like all the adults she has encountered. She felt like it was just a matter of time before they became similar to the adults so she had no intention of talking to anyone. She walked to the empty chair and sat there. -Teacher Lesson in the class- All of you are now students in the biggest military school in the world. We are also considered the best . You better not bring down the reputation of our school. Despite being a school we also serve as a form of military that assist the 5 major territories by helping with problems involving with daemas. The students are naturally the one who will be sent there to solve the problem by killing the daema causing said problem. This being your first class I will now explain how this school works. As you are all well aware our school is meant to train you kids into people capable of protecting people from the Daema. The most important thing to take note of is that our school divides our students based on their power. The weakest will achieve a E rank and the strongest a S rank. The daema are also ranked by this same system and as you might have guessed we sent our student according to ranks on missions to kill the Daema. Students will also be assigned weapons depending on their ranks which are in 4 ranks. Low-grade, Mid-grade, High-grade and finally Legendary-grade. It is only given to the student who has enough power to be called S rank. Low-grade are assigned to E and D rankers. Mid-grade to C and B rankers. High-grade are given to A rankers. Since you are all still kids you have not yet been assign any ranks. You will only be assigned ranks after studying for 5 years. Most of you will be assigned E rank at first but the exceptionally gifted might be allowed to skip to D rank. . There also exist a F rank which are for students who failed to reach the minimum standard of a E rank after 5 years. Those of the F rank won¡¯t be assigned a weapon and they will be trained in school until they at least qualify for E rank .Please do take note that every year a exam will take place that will test whether you are ready to advance to the next rank. Students who make it to B rank will be given a title unique to them depending on their fighting styles. Making it to B rank is already a huge achievement that you can be proud of since our school only has 130 B rankers and majority of our students are E to C rankers. Out of the thousands of students here there are only 10 A rankers students and 1 S ranker. Daema are split into different species. E and D rank Daema usually look like a mutated plant or some kind of small animals. They shouldn¡¯t be underestimated since even a rabbit Daema can easily kill a grown man. Daemas that take the form of an mid-size or large animal are at least C rank and could even be a B rank daema. A and S rank Daema are usually called dragons by most. Dragons are extremely ferocious and will normally attack anything moving on sight. Luckily there aren¡¯t that many dragons. Also please remember that daema are normally bigger than their counterparts. A wolf daema might reach up to the height of two grown man and reach a length of 10 metres. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! It is also might not be impossible for a dragon to exceed our ranking system. There has only been one known case and this happen more than a thousand years ago. We found an ancient text depicting a dragon. If the description is true it could be a SSS rank and we would have no way to deal with it. We still can¡¯t confirm how true it might be so you kids don¡¯t have to worry to much about this. ¡°Sir what was the dragon like in the description.¡± a young elf who was sitting in front asked. The description described the dragon to have scales that looked like diamonds. According to the text the dragon could create natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis and many more at whim. Anyways moving on. For your first 5 years here you will be learning basic combat and survival skills. Demibeast are hopeless in using magic so the demibeast in our class will only be taking melee classes for combat training. The rest of you can choose whether you want to specialize in melee, magic or if you prefer to use range weapons like mana guns. Dwarf students are required to take crafting lessons which was something the higher ups of the dwarf territories made us promise them. -Ria POV- ¡°Hopeless in using magic? Magic is easy¡­¡­¡± Ria thought to herself since she was capable of controlling the elements in nature with ease for as long as she could remember. She eventually decided its probably true since she never saw anyone in her tribe use magic and she no longer consider herself normal. -Narration- After the lesson the students were brought to a room. The room according to the teacher will create fake monster students could fight to train. If the monster hit a student a teleport spell will automatically activate transporting them to a room. It was used to train people or for people to practice combat. After more introduction on the various lessons they will be taking the students were dismissed. All the students lived in dormitories which were separated by Race, Gender, Rank and Age. There was however only one demibeast dormitory. So regardless of age, gender and rank all the demibeast attending the school lives in one building. Furthermore the building was in pretty bad condition compared to the luxurious dorms the other students get. The population of demibeast in the school was scarce. At most there was probably only a 100 of them attending the school. -Ria POV- Inside the dorm Ria was given the keys to her room and was left alone as soon as she went in. The room was slightly bigger than the prison cell she was in. Nevertheless it was enough for her since she wasn¡¯t expecting much. The room had one bed, a desk and a cupboard which contained several uniforms for her. She left her room to see what the other demibeast were like. They similar to herself had almost no emotions showing on their face. Most of them probably went through something similar to her or possibly worst. None of them talked to each other. She could tell that she wouldn¡¯t be able to talk to even the demibeast of the school. She felt a little sad about it as she went back to her room. -Narration- Ria continued taking the classes day after day without talking to anyone. During her time in the school she barely spoke at all. It helped that during lessons none of her teachers asked her any questions. During practical she just had to follow instructions. Just like that time flew by. -5 Years Later- Chapter 4 -Ria POV- Ria was promoted to rank E at the graduation ceremony for the elementary class. She was good with a sword but she wasn¡¯t good enough to be a D ranker. The school however didn¡¯t know that Ria was an extremely capable magic user. During the 5 years she secretly practiced her magic and if judged by school standard she would at the very least be a B ranker. Since they had no way of knowing about it she was judged based on her melee skills which was given a E rank. The ceremony wasn¡¯t that big of an issue to the demibeast of the school since unlike the huge party held by the other race the demibeast will just stay in their dormitory for the duration of the ceremony Ria didn¡¯t feel unhappy about not being allowed to go since her classmates had naturally started to get influenced by their seniors since they tried to stay as far away as possible from her. She was by no means ugly as a matter of fact she might be the prettiest girl in the school but the simple fact that she was a demibeast made her classmates look at her with disgust. She knew it was bound to happen sooner or later so she felt no sadness at how she was treated. The day after the ceremony all the students who made it to rank E lined up in a row in front of a instructor for rank E students. They were all dressed with the school uniform meant for the rank E students. The instructor handed a device to the students one by one. The device is worn on the wrist. The function of the device was to allow anyone you meet to know your rank. During missions it could be used to gain the trust of the people involved. Since Ria was a demibeast the device she got was in the form of a collar. The instructor used some kind of device to unlock the collar already on her neck and replaced it with the Rank E collar that had some slight difference to her old one. It wasn¡¯t just her of course all demibeast in the school had a collar to show their ranking. Collars for demibeast with a rank no longer prevented them for exiting the school instead it allowed the school to know where they are at all times to prevent them from running away. The next thing handed out was the low-grade weapons. They were all custom made for the weapon the student in question specializes in. For Ria it was a claymore type weapon. Ria took the weapon handed to here and observed it for a while. The weapon without any mana channeled into it looked like a claymore missing a blade. She attached the weapon onto the belt which the new uniform had built in. The last item given to us was something a small device with a screen on it. -Intructor POV- The device I just handed to you will be used to assign missions. The device will show you what mission you are given as well as the location. As a ranker you will no longer be taking any classes but you can continue using our facilities to hone your skills. This time next year the promotion exam will be held which will give you the chance to reach the next rank. That will be all you are dismissed. -Ria POV- The first thing she decided to do was to take a walk in the forest near the school. For the 5 years she has been here the only thing she could do was look at the forest from the distance. She has finally gained the rights to walk outside of school. The school was built in the middle of nowhere something she found weird but appreciate since she can see the beauty of nature everyday. It didn¡¯t take long for her to reach the forest since it wasn¡¯t that far.She entered the forest walking quite deep into it enjoying the beautiful view nature had to offer, a view she had once enjoyed every day with her friends. When she still had friends. She could feel her eyes tearing up a little as she remembered all the good times she had shared with her friends she know she will never meet again. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Why are you crying?¡± She was shocked since she didn¡¯t sense anyone around her. She slowly looked around trying to find out the source of the mysterious noise. It didn¡¯t remain a mystery for that long since a kid who looked around her age appeared out of nowhere. ¡°Who are you¡­¡­.what are you?¡± Ria slowly said after looking at the boy for a while. He didn¡¯t looked anything like the 6 races. He had crimson hair and his eyes were red in colour. He also had two small horns protruding out of his forehead. His teeth were as sharp as hers but he was obviously not a demibeast. ¡°I¡¯m a demon¡± he said as his faced broke into a smile. Ria was obviously confused since it was a word she was unfamiliar with since she has always learned that the world had only 6 races and right now in front of her was a 7th race??? ¡°hahaha¡±he cheerfully laughed. ¡° Its not really surprising you have never heard of demons before. My race was chased away into a placed called the underworld a long time ago. It was all because my ancestors tried to conquer the land but they obviously failed miserably and they even made their descendants suffer cause of it.¡± he said with a frown forming on his face. ¡°Where is the underworld??¡± Ria was interested in the prospects of a place far away from the humans , elves and everything she has come to hate. ¡°Its in a different dimension. You need to go through a portal to travel there.¡± ¡°Can I go there?¡± Ria was getting excited at the mere thought of getting away from her current life. ¡°Sorry you can¡¯t go there. The 6 races here body contains the holy mana. My race has the demonic mana in our body. Only things with the mana of darkness can enter the underworld. Daema has dark mana as well.¡± ¡°Demonic mana¡­..Holy mana?¡± ¡°Our race discovered that there was a distinct difference between the mana we were born with and the mana the other races were born with. We called ours demonic mana and the other kind holy mana. The other races don¡¯t know about this so it isn¡¯t surprising you don¡¯t¡± ¡°Who chased your race away?¡± ¡°It was a single human. He was extremely powerful according to the historical books I have read.¡± ¡°Humans are evil¡± she slowly said. ¡° That¡¯s why one day I will finish what my ancestors started.¡± he said with a smile. ¡°Whats your name? mine is Sera¡± ¡°I¡¯m called Dalek.¡± The small device attached onto her belt suddenly started ringing. She took the device and saw she had been assign a mission. ¡°Will you be here again?¡± she asked a little reluctant to split with her first friend in years. ¡°Yep you can find me here from time to time¡± He said with a smile. She left the forest feeling happy for the first time in years. She was given a relatively simple mission. It was to eliminate a rabbit daema that was spotted near the school gates. It didn¡¯t take long for her to find the rabbit daemon. She took out her weapon and poured her mana into it creating a blade made out of her mana. She noticed the blade made from her mana had 2 colours. Blue and Black. Normal mana blades she has seen are always only blue in colour. She decided to not overthink things and proceeded to destroy the rabbit daema easily. After her mission was completed she decided to see if Dalek was still in the place they met earlier. She deactivated her weapon and ran back into the forest. Unfortunetly the place was quiet without a trace of life to be seen. ¡°I guess he went back¡± she said to herself as she turned around to go back to the school she have learned to hate. Chapter 5 Chapter 5 -Dalek POV- Seeing the same scenery of lava and huge mountains everyday was dull. He loved seeing the beautiful scenery from the otherworld but the demons were reluctant to go there. Most of the demons has grown cowardly. None dared to attempt to go to the other dimension. Dalek however found an item capable of creating a portal to the otherworld, ever since he found it he will go to the otherworld to enjoy the forest where the portal will always bring him to everytime he used it. He went to the forest as he would on a normal day. For the first time that day he finally saw a inhabitant of the overworld. He was prepared to kill her until he saw her crying silently as she continued walking. ¡°Why is she crying?¡± he thought to himself as he continued to look at her. She had very long hair with a streak of silver on it. Her eyes were mismatched with one being gold in color and the other blue. She had animals ears and a bushy tail. ¡°Wow she is beautiful.¡± he thought to himself. Without thinking things through he said ¡° Why are you crying?¡± She looked shocked to her a voice and even more shocked when he showed himself. He wasn¡¯t surprised since its been a really long time since the demon has been banished. After some conversation with her he was delighted she hated humans similar to how he hated them. At the very least he didn¡¯t think killing her would be necessary since the main aim of his goal is to take revenge on the humans. She wanted to go to the underworld but it was dangerous to go there without demonic mana so he told her she can¡¯t go. He didn¡¯t want to endanger her after all. Eventually she had to leave and he was happy she wanted to see him again. After she had left he went back to the underworld happy with his encounter with her. -Ria POV- She was curious about her mana and decided to test something out. Someone who specializes in magic will have to learn how to release their mana before attempting to cast any spells. She knows this by observing the magic lessons during her time here. Since she was capable of controlling elements at ease she never bothered with this step and just practice controlling the elements. A weapon didn¡¯t require the knowledge of how to release mana either since after pulling the trigger the weapon has a special device in it capable of extracting the mana so she didn¡¯t see the need in knowing how to. She went to the practice room. All the practice rooms were made to be private to prevent any accidental accidents injuring on other students who might be nearby. The service was provided to all the students so even the demibeast were allowed to use it. In the room she started to try to release her mana in its pure form. It didn¡¯t take that long given the fact she was extremely talented in magic. The mana that took form could only be described as weird. She had seen a lot of mana and they usually took the form of some kind of blue energy. Her mana that was released took the form of a orb with the colour blue and black swirling around inside it. No matter how many times she tried her mana always ended up looking the same ,a swirling ball of energy with both colours constantly swirling inside the energy. -Several weeks later- She has searched every book she could find that explains about mana yet she couldn¡¯t find a single book explaining how a mana could turn out like hers. She wanted to ask Dalek but she can¡¯t find him anymore despite going to the forest everyday. Eventually the device started ringing for the first time since the mission to kill the rabbit daema. She checked the device and apparently the quest this time required her to go in a team of 3 to check a town that reported seeing several Rank E daema. The device also stated the use of the teleportation device will be necessary in this mission. In the school there was a device capable of teleporting the students to teleportation points built by the school at various areas. There was a teleportation point in the town in question so it will be easy to go there. The thing that caught her eye is in group of 3. She wasn¡¯t looking forward to doing a mission with people who hated her race with a passion. Nevertheless she was forced to do whatever mission she was given so she walked towards the teleportation point in the school. In front of the room she met the people she was gonna be going with. One of them was a elf and the other was a human. They were both male and they both looked upset when they found out their partner in this mission would be a demibeast. ¡°You will be fighting in the front lines mutt since both of us are long range type.¡± the elf told her knowing full well all demibeasts are close combat types. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Ria keep silent and just followed them into the teleportation point. It was the first time she had ever used one so she wasn¡¯t sure what to do. Luckily the elf seems to know how to operate it as he typed something into a keyboard which caused the teleporter to activate. ¡°I have typed the coordinates we should be there in a few seconds¡± he said as he stood there impatiently waiting for the thing to start. A bright beam of light shot down from the ceiling above them blinding her for a short time. When she opened her eyes she looked around and noticed that she was still in the same room as she was in previously. It became clear to her that she wasn¡¯t when the elf opened the door revealing the scenery outside. They left the room with the door closing behind them. She looked around the town admiring the buildings around her. It was the first time she has ever seen a city not including the time she had in the jail cell of that fairy city. The elf and human seemed unimpressed as they continued to walk towards the border of the town. The town wasn¡¯t that big since it didn¡¯t take long for them to reach the exit. The guards stepped out of the way after seeing their uniforms. The daemas should be several kilometers away from the town. This information turned out inaccurate since the 3 daemas were spotted after walking for about a kilometer. The worst part was that the daemas looked like dogs the size of a horse. They had flames coming out its feet. Every time itheyexhales flames come out of their mouth. ¡°What the heck they are at least rank C .¡± the elf said in dismay. ¡°Who was the idiot that reported rank E.¡± the human said looking at them with fear in his eye. A second later he was running back to town. ¡°Mutt go fight against them and give us time to flee. ¡° the elf said as he was running back to the town joining the human. She wasn¡¯t surprised at the fact they ditched her. ¡°They are probably gonna report that I died in combat against the daemas¡± she thought to herself. Since no one was around and she was was well aware that she was too weak to fight them with only her sword she decided to try her magic in real combat for the first time. The daemas were already charging towards her provoked by the loud sounds caused by her so called teammates for this mission running away. She created a wall of earth in front of her to block the one of the daema. The other 2 attacked from her left and right. She easily stopped them by creating a blast of air strong enough to push them backwards. She quickly took out her weapon and pulled the trigger to create her mana blade. Compressing the air at her feet and releasing it at one shot she propelled herself forward towards the daema at her left killing it instantly with her claymore thanks to the additional force provided by her speed in which she was moving. The daema from the middle blasted fire from its mouth towards her direction. She easily controlled the fire the daema created and pushed it all back into its mouth. The daema died from its own flames. The last one she easily killed by removing all the air around the daema. She could only do it to a small area so she was unable to use it when there were 3 of them but since there was only one left she could safely use it. The flames from its body disappeared due to the absence of oxygen. Needless to say it eventually died. After confirming they were all dead by cutting out their head she slowly walked back to town. At the entrance of the town she saw the elf and the human looking worried. When they saw her they looked happy and they immediately ran towards her. ¡°Hey mutt we never ran away got it.¡± The elf said to her ¡°Yeah we didn¡¯t both me and Rick killed those 3 daemas without your help.¡±The human added in. ¡°DO you understand!!¡± they said in unison ¡°yes I understand¡± she softly replied to them. Eventually happy that she was so easy to convince they started to walk back to the teleporter talking. ¡°Lucky us nearly though we were gonna get demoted to F class for running.¡±the elf said ¡°Yeah I bet they were really weak anyways. We could have easily killed all 3 of them.¡± The human added in. Ria followed them back to the teleporter thinking that its fine if they take all the credit since she doesn¡¯t intend to let the school know how powerful her magic is.She wanted to help the humans as little as possible knowing she was strong would mean getting sent to more missions so she was fine with the school thinking it was the elf and the human who killed the daemas -The next day- The elf and human got promoted to D rank. Chapter 6 Chapter 6 -Ria POV- The elf and humans were both praised in front of the whole school as heroes for not caring for their own life and bravely fighting the C rank Daema. Ria was called the shame of the academy since the elf and human made sure to emphasize the fact that she didn¡¯t do much, they also emphasized on the fact she ran away as they bravely risked their live fighting the beast. The school did check the corpse to confirm the kill and dispose of the now dead bodies and since they were confirmed as C rank level she wasn¡¯t demoted to F rank despite the fact they thought she ran away. The elf and human were promoted to D rank since defeating a C rank daema is considered to be near impossible for a E rank. The school didn¡¯t really bother to check if their story is true since they sooner admit the human and elf was the heroic brave students who stood their ground against a C rank rather than a demibeast. She didn¡¯t really mind being called a coward by the whole school. She also had a friend to talk to now. She would go to the forest once in a while to find Dalek and if she was lucky he would be there. In a way he was the only reason she could somehow tolerate how she is treated in the academy. -Dalek POV- After his initial encounter with the demibeast named Ria he would now stay at the area of the forest they first encountered one another since she would sometimes go there to find him. He enjoyed her company since unlike the other demons in his world she wasn¡¯t cowardly enough to hide her resentment towards the humans. He isn¡¯t aware of what caused such hate but it was obvious she rather not talk about it so he didn¡¯t ask. -Ria POV- When she was free and Dalek wasn¡¯t at the usual spot she would practice her swordmanship since she was well aware of the fact that when she was travelling in a group using magic wasn¡¯t an option. Since her magic was much too weird to not bring some suspicion on herself if someone sees her using it. Most mages had to recite long incantations to use spells not even close to the power of the spells she was capable of using. Actually she wasn¡¯t even sure if what she was doing could be considered spells since she could control any element at will. She is well aware of the fact she is different but now that she has studied in the academy she become increasingly aware of how weird she was. Just like that she continued her routine and in the blink of an eye she was about to turn 11 and the school was about to hold the promotion test for the students. For Rank E students the test is a simple tournament among the rank E students. The top 100 students in the tournament will get promoted to D rank. There were thousands of E rank students so getting promoted to D rank wasn¡¯t as easy as it seems. The other rank has other forms of test to see if they qualify to get promoted but since it doesn¡¯t affect her she couldn¡¯t be bothered to research what the other rank had to do to get promoted. The school has sent her mainly on solo missions in the past year to kill rank E daema so in the whole year ever since her fight with the C rank daema she hasn¡¯t gotten the chance to fight properly in actual combat. So she was happy about the tournament since it¡¯s a good chance to see how she well she fares against other people her rank. Eventually the tournament was to start and she as well as all the rank E students gathered at the hall for the briefing. -Teacher explaining tournament- The match up for the tournament is simple there are the preliminary a kind of battle royal round involving 100 students fighting and the last 10 remaining will move on to the next round. The next round will be the exact same thing with 100 rank E who survived the first round in a battle royal and the last 10 remaining moves on. The 3rd round will be a normal tournament style involving the remaining students. Any student who makes it to the 3rd round will get promoted to D rank since the 3rd round only involves the top 100 students remaining. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. In the 2 battle royal real weapons aren¡¯t permitted. Instead special weapons that will teleport anything it fatally wounds out of the arena will be provided. The weapon won¡¯t actually injure anyone but any attack that would be fatal will teleport the person who received the hit out of the arena. Mages are allowed to use spells since all students will be given special armor that will automatically teleport the wearer out of the arena if hit by spells considered fatal. The armor will also negate the spell in question to prevent any injuries. The 3rd round however allows the use of real weapons and the special armor won¡¯t be provided. Killing is prohibited but being injured in the 3rd round is common occurrence. D rank students and above will be taking their test at locations outside the school so for the duration of the test the academy will be occupied solely by the rank E students and the there will also be 1 B rank student on standby in the academy in case of emergencies. -Ria POV- The B rank student on standby was introduced by the teacher by his title. Blazing wind is the title of the B rank student. It didn¡¯t really matter much to her since she had no intention of getting close to anyone in the school not as if anyone was interested in getting close to her anyways since she is a demibeast. -Blazing wind POV- ¡°Why the hell do I have to be here to protect this batch of weaklings. I rather go and kill some daema at least that would be a little entertaining.¡± He was thinking to himself as he stood there looking at the students. Suddenly a student caught his eye. She was stunning a real beauty despite her still tender age. She looks to be 9, 10 maybe 11 but he could tell she would look stunning once she grew up. Her eyes were of different colour but that somehow added to her charm. She was however a demibeast since he could easily see her fox tail and ears. She was nevertheless the most beautiful thing he has ever layed his eyes on. Such a beauty a shame she is a demibeast. But nevertheless maybe being here won¡¯t be as boring as he thought it would be. -Ria POV- After the briefing she noticed the B rank student was staring at her. She wasn¡¯t quite sure why but she didn¡¯t want to find out so she left as to her assign arena for her test as soon as they were dismissed. The academy had many such arenas and she was assigned to take her test in arena C. In the entrance of the arena teachers were handing out the armor and weapon to each student at the entrance of the arena. As soon as she was given her weapon and armor she quickly put the breastplate, gauntlets and steel boots on. She gripped her weapon which was a claymore similar to what she always used but it was made completely out of metal without the need of pouring mana into it for a blade. The blade had engravings on it which she assumed was what caused the teleportation. The armor she now wore had similar engravings on it. What greeted her in the arena was a huge open space similar to a colloseum. It was huge and there were 99 students in there all spread apart. She looked at the other students who wore the exact same armor of different sizes but weapons unique to each individual. There was a huge screen like hologram displayed in the middle of the place with the number 10 on it. It didn¡¯t take long for her to realize what it was there for as the number slowly changed. 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0 By the time it reached zero the screen disappeared and the test began. Chapter 3.1 Chapter 3.1 Author note: this is a little intermission that will be relevant on chap 7 -Lionel pov - Its been a some time since the demibeast transferred in. Class goes on like it would normally but there is this tense atmosphere now that didn¡¯t exist before her transfer. She looks really pretty but I doubt she will have a single friend in this class. Everyone knows that demibeast are dumb race who only cares about killing things so its really a pity that she was blessed with such beauty despite the fact that she was a demibeast. Nevertheless she doesn¡¯t approach anyone as well so we just left her alone. Eventually some of the more daring and in my opinion dumber students takes it upon themselves to insult her on a daily basis. Its only a matter of time till she loses her temper and kills them was what I initially thought but weeks turned to months and she continues to show no reaction to their insults which eventually led to more people joining in. Despite what I know of their race I can¡¯t help but pity her maybe she is different from the others? There has been multiple cases of a demibeast in this school severely injuring another student who continues to insult them yet she hasn¡¯t shown any sign of resorting to violence as past students have shown. After several months after her transfer I can¡¯t help but gain a interest in her. She is pretty and in my opinion much more sensible than the other demibeast. Despite my interest I couldn¡¯t bring myself to approach her. After several more months of observing her I got more and more interested in knowing her better and actually talking to her. I was however too much of a coward to work up the courage to talk to her. We weren¡¯t in the same class anymore the next year but once in a while I would observe her from a distance. I wouldn¡¯t call it stalking since its not as if I did it on a daily basis and I was just curious on how she was doing. I regret not getting to know her earlier as the months continue to fly I couldn¡¯t deny my increasing attraction towards her. I couldn¡¯t think of a good reason to approach her however it wasn¡¯t only me some of the other guy seem to started to gain some slight interest in her as her beauty continued to increase as the passage of times continues. There were still people insulting her despite this which infuriates me but I didn¡¯t want my presence to be known nor did I want to create a issue out of it. I came from a prestigious family so I couldn¡¯t possibly do anything that might taint my family reputation so I had to continue to see her receive unfair treatment when she has clearly shown how rational she is since she has yet to resort to any form of violence as retaliation. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
author note: well i''m back after being inactive for such a long time. I''m sorry for being inactive and i will try to post chapter 7 soon maybe in an hour or 2 from now Chapter 7 Chapter 7 The moment the countdown hit 0 students immediately started to attack each other. It was utter chaos as mages were chanting their spells while the melee combatants were locked in combat. People whose weapon choices were of the range categories such as bows or guns immediately ran probably trying to find a spot to snipe people safely. The more daring ones stayed and attacked in plain sight. Ria unlike the rest wasn¡¯t as interested in the rank up as the other students are since it would force her to go on more missions that would benefit the people she hates. She still considered ranking up as something beneficial since ranking up would allow her more freedom. In the end she decided to fight defensively to be able to qualify to the next round. She didn¡¯t attack anyone who didn¡¯t attack her first. Anyone who did attack her would be disqualified as she mercilessly countered with her claymore. Her enchance senses allowed her to detect projectiles that were aimed at her which she would easily deflect with her claymore. Any magic attacks which were launched at her was easily avoided as she used her enchance senses to its fullest. Her swordplay was impressive for someone her age since she didn¡¯t neglect training her swordplay despite having control over the elements. Demibeast were generally unable to cast any spells too complicated so she had to rely on her swordplay in examination such as this anyways. The number of students remaining in the arena slowly dwindled as the intense battle royal carried on. Most of the students who were disqualified were the reckless ones who focused on nothing but pure offence. The smarter ones who paid attention lasted much longer. Mages managed to disqualify many of their fellow students but they were also easy picking for the melee students who went too close not giving the mages time to recite their chants. Ria tried her best to not stand out as she defeated the students who attacked her and just like that there were only 10 students remaining. It didn¡¯t take too long since most of the students weren¡¯t that strong the next round however will not be as easy since all 100 students are capable enough to survive the first round of battle. After the announcement congratulating the 10 survivors Ria and the other 9 students who survived left the arena to the resting room awaiting the next round which would take place on the same day. The next round for Ria batch will be held in arena C as well so there wasn¡¯t a need to leave. The 9 students in the room were introducing themselves to each other as Ria did what she normally did and found a empty seat near the corner where she sat down to avoid the other 9 people in the room. To her dismay 1 of the 9 people suddenly walked up towards her. ¡° Hey I¡¯m Lionel whats your name¡± he said with a smile towards her. ¡°I I I¡¯m Ria¡± she replied stuttering a little due to both the fact that he approached her and also because he didn¡¯t seem to mind the fact that she was a demibeast which wasn''t something she was used to. -Lionel POV- I thought I was seeing thing during the match but it turned out I was right Ria was part of the same group I was in. This was the best chance I would have to finally approach her. After introducing myself to the other 8 people I walked up to her sitting alone in the corner with the same look she always had on her face. When I introduced myself to her she seemed shocked and was a little flustered when she replied back which I honestly found cute. I was estatic with this opportunity to finally get closer to her something I have been dreaming of for years. I wanted to somehow improve my relationship with her so I decided to take things slow and pretended that this was our first meeting. -Ria POV- ¡°Why is he talking to me. What should I do.¡¯ She nervously thought to herself .Since he held no ill will she couldn¡¯t possibly ignore him like she would normally do towards the people who enjoyed insulting her. ¡°Excuse me what do you want to talk about.¡± She manage to say after some time. -Lionel POV- I couldn¡¯t help but find her really adorable as her normally emotionless face suddenly looked nervous. Not as if I could blame her since I haven¡¯t actually seen her actually talk to anyone in school before. She must be shocked for someone to suddenly approach her like this. I decided that she would need some time to get used to someone talking to her so i decided to end this conversation for now. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. -Ria POV- ¡°Good luck for the next round hope to see you in the tournament talk to you later¡± he said with a smile before leaving. I couldn¡¯t understand what has just happened. This is the first time a fellow student approached me without any ill intent. As I continued to sit in solitude thinking of what had just happened time flew by and before I knew it the next round was about to start. I picked up the claymore I had placed resting on the wall next to me. I entered the arena again with the other 9 people from the same round as me. Another 90 people should have also entered since it was suppose to be a 100 student battle royal. Like the previous match there was a giant timer displaying the time left before the start of the match. Since I didn¡¯t want to be near anyone when the match starts I dashed away from the group the other 9 including Lionel had the same thing in mind as they too split up into different direction. When the countdown hit 0 the situation wasn¡¯t as chaotic as the first time around since every single person in the arena already had experienced it once. Ria had no attention to fight offensively and was planning to battle defensively as she had done in the first round. The first person to attack her were a group of 2 people who seemed to have formed a truce to work together. One of them wields a sword and shield the other held a grimoire indicating the fact that she was a mage. The guy using the sword charged ahead as the female started chanting her spell. Ria raised her claymore into a stance as she used her feet to accelerate her entire body forward faster than the guy could react. A single slash through his abdomen and his body disappeared as he was disqualified . The female started to panic since her support was gone. She quickly launched her spell which was a simple fireball. Ria easily evaded the fireball and tighten her gripped as she once again accelerated faster than her opponent could react and slashed defeating her opponent. The timer was replaced with the number of students left in the arena which is apparently a mere 46. It didn¡¯t take very long for more than half the participants to get disqualified. -Lionel POV- I quickly disqualified any students in my sight. The faster I could get rid of them the higher chance Ria would make it to the 3rd round. If she makes it that far we would both be D rank and there would be hope to be in the same class as she was again. With that in mind I lifted the double sided axe I wield as my weapon of choice and effortlessly swung it mercilessly at any who appears before me. I told myself that I would defiantly make sure this round ends as quickly as possible for the sake of the possibility to get closer to Ria. -Ria POV- There were only 13 people left when a group of 5 people surrounded me. They most likely have been fighting 5 versus 1 the whole time to increase their chances. I readied my stance and tried to dash into the blind spot for the person wielding a great sword but the archer from the back shot an arrow towards me forcing me to jump backwards to avoid it. The greatsword user took the chance to slash his blade towards me. I parried his blow only to get shot at by the archer and the mage shot a blade of wind towards me. I dodged the arrow and destroyed the blade of wind with a swing of my sword. I quickly parried a 2nd blow from the great sword and parried another blow coming from a hammer. In the instance I parried the hammer I instantly slashed the wielders abdomen which disqualified him. The other mage shot a ball of ice at me and the fist one shot another wind blade at me. I narrowly dodged it and parried the sword again. Suddenly an announcement rang through the arena ¡°Congratulations to the 10 survivors who will move on to the next round.¡± The attacks from the 4 stopped after the announcement as they walked away just like that. I was relieved that I somehow managed to reach the top 100. The next round was a tournament style battle which would be held the next day so for now I could finally rest.
Author note: i didn''t really have time to profread so pointing out any mistakes i made would be greatly appreciated ^^ Chapter 8 -Ria POV- I decided to return back to my dorm due to the fatigue I have accumulated throughout the day mainly from the examination but a little of it was due to the fact the boy named Lionel didn¡¯t mind talking to a demibeast. This made me curious whether there exist more people similar to him. If there were such people the likelihood of finding more of them in the academy was unlikely since most of the people here seem to come from prestigious families whose education involves teaching them that demibeast are violent and dumb. Nevertheless I was somewhat happy that a person like him exist within the academy. Were humans truly as bad as I have always thought they were I asked myself as I lay in the tiny bed that I have been using since I first moved into the dorm. The fatigue from the day eventually silenced my thought as I slowly drifted off into my dreams. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. ¡°You can¡¯t trust them¡­¡­. You can¡¯t trust anyone¡­.They are all the same¡­ none are to be trusted you have no one in the world.¡± a strangely familiar voice echoed within her mind. I opened my eyes and the figure that greeted me was none other than myself. The surrounding was a never ending abyss of darkness there was nothing here but the reflection of myself which stood in front of me. ¡°Who are you?¡± I said as I stared at the girl who looked exactly as I did. ¡°I¡¯m you, you are me. We are but one being. There is no one for us in this world we have but each other.¡± She said with a voice without any form of emotion within it. Just as suddenly as she appeared she faded back into the darkness, it was at that moment I woke up in the room I¡¯m all too familiar with. It all seemed so real yet now I was alone. I can¡¯t deny the truth in her words I don¡¯t think its wise to trust anyone simply due to the fact he was kind to me. I strengthen my resolve as I got up to get ready for the next round which was to be held today. -Sera POV- I was born in the world the same time as my other self was. Yet I had no control over my body but I saw all that she saw and experienced all that she did. I felt what she felt I loved who she loved. We are one I¡¯m her, she was me. She wasn¡¯t aware of my existence but I was always there. The first time I gained control over our body was when she witnessed our tribe getting slaughtered by the humans. I killed them all I will leave none who hurt us alive. They don¡¯t deserve to live they all deserved death. I protected us from the monster that attacked us by creating the wings from our body I won¡¯t let her get hurt I will protect her. All the beings who have caused our grief deserved death but I never gained full control ever since so I couldn¡¯t destroy them. My other self was too kind for her own good not willing to slaughter the race who murdered our brethren. As the years went by and I watched her endure the torments in the accursed academy, any faith I had for all living things dwindled eventually fading away all together as I watched her suffer day by day. I trust no one everyone is an enemy only her only she my other self I can trust. She no longer used our real name Sera instead she used the name Ria which was given to her by the accursed human. It was around then I decided that i will use Sera our old name as my name. She trusted the demon boy but I knew better he would betray her eventually when that time comes I will kill him and any that hurt her. We have been one since our birth. She who has suffered and I who watched it all happen. One day I will get the revenge which we deserved I will kill all our enemies. Nothing in this world except Ria matters she is the only thing I care about for she is the only thing that matters. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.-Ria POV- The dream I had last night was still in my mind as I walked towards the hall where the top 100 students were gathering at for the briefing before the tournament. The briefing by the teacher was extremely short. The main point to remember was no killing is allowed and that students would use their real weapon in the tournament. The order of the match were revealed and it would all take place in arena A. I had my weapon on my belt as I walked towards the arena. Upon reaching the arena I was instructed on where I should go to wait for my match. They told us that our they would inform us when we were to have our match via the device. When I reached the waiting room a familiar student walked up towards me. He was the boy named Lionel whom I met yesterday. He wanted to know if I was planning to take any of the classes offered to the D rank students. Classes were no longer compulsory but as you advanced through ranks you were given the option to take classes for more advance techniques. I kept the conversation brief by informing him I was still unsure if I want to take any classes. Eventually my turn came and I left the waiting room to enter the arena. There was a crowd of spectators who were mostly parents of the students taking part or nobles who were interested in such a match. My opponent was a human who was took out his weapon and supplied the mana needed to make the blade. His weapon took the form of a katana. I took out my weapon and supplied mana to my weapon as well. As usual my mana was off a weird colour. My blade was a mix of the normal blue mana most people have and a pitch black mana was mixed together which was what formed my weapon. My opponent looked shocked at the colour of my mana which was obviously abnormal. As soon as the match started my opponent dashed forward and swung his katana downwards. I easily parried his blow. I lifted my claymore and countered with a vertical slash. He tried to his blade to block it but my blade easily cut his blade in half. He looked shock and to be honest I was shocked as well since his blade offered almost no resistance to my slash. I continued to cut his blade as soon as he formed one which eventually lead him to give up. It was a really easy win but my curiosity towards my mana peaked since I realized that it seemed to be much stronger than normal mana. Since my match had ended I walked back towards the waiting room for my next match which will be held several hours later. -Crowd- -various different people- ¡°Did you see her blade her mana looked weird.¡± ¡°What kind of mana is that ?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that cheating her weapon is obviously better.¡± ¡°What kind of mana is that¡± ¡°That little girl is really pretty though¡± ¡°That demibeast had weird mana¡± The people who came to watch the match were shocked at the weird mana the girl seemed to possess as their conversations about it continued to spread around the audience. -Principal POV- -From the Vip seat- ¡°Tell me who that girl is I would like to know her background.¡± He said as the match unfolded before his very eyes. ¡°She belongs to noble who bought her from somewhere.¡± His secretery calmly replied after checking the data. ¡°Arrange a meeting with this noble who owns her and tell him I would like to buy her from him¡± ¡°Very well sir I will arrange a meeting¡± The principal grinned because he found this unexpected surprise from visiting the E rank promotion exam on a whim. A never before seen mana he simply must obtain her no matter the cost. Author Note: Any feedback is welcomed and really appreciated ^^ Thanks you for reading :D Rewrite: Chapter 2 Chapter 2 (version 2) Author Note So as the title suggest i''m rewriting reincarnation starting from chapter 2. Why? its cause i would like the fix some of the things pointed out and perhaps wanted to hopefully write something better than this time around. I won''t be changing everything but there will be a significant change. I hope to make the characters more believable and the story flow more fluently. The lack of punctuations in my story is something i have no excuse for since it is a problem i''m well aware of but i find the use of punctuation difficult to say the least. To be completely honest i haven''t written anything since chapter 8 so i hope my english hasn''t gotten worst T^T. Comments on whether the old one or new one is preferable would be very helpful for how i write the continuation of this version. Feel free to voice out anything you disliked i will try to amend it in later chapters since i have no intentions of rewriting the story again. Sorry for this long note and lastly i would like to apologize for the lack of updates. I will try to write more frequently from now on. -narration- The world of Sericis was also home to creature known as Daema. Daema are ferocious creatures which can be found anywhere. Most Daema lack intelligence with the exception of the strong ones, they would mindlessly attack any living thing on sight. -Sera POV- Sera sat there alone in the rain , still unable to accept what is now her reality. The corpse of her tribesmen and their murderers alike littered the ground around her. Her eyes once filled with life and joy like every other kid were now lifeless. She continued to sit there unmoving as she continued to deny the death of everything she has ever cared for her friends, her parents, her tribe. Eventually she got up and started to walk lifelessly forward. She had no reason to stay, no reason to live, everything is gone. Unsure of her goal she continued to walk as if she was a mindless zombie she just walked. She lost her sense of time as her walk continued as the sun set and rised. Eventually she arrived in a town filled to the brim with demibeast who are living in poverty and humans who seemed well off. Despite the presence of humans the mere fact there were other demibeast here had resulted in her decision to stay in this town. Sera was still in a state of utter despair due to the tragedy that befell her tribe, memories that are now so distant still fresh in her mind as she sat in a secluded area where the homeless demibeast seemed to live. She sat as she reminiscence of her tribes slaughter. Unable to hold it back tears slowly rolled down her face as she remembered fond memories of her now deceased tribe. Eventually the tears dried up as she stared into the space in front of her, with eyes befitting one who has lost the will to live. ¡°Hey you what are you doing here¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± ¡°Stop staring at me like that answer my question what are you doing here, you obviously aren¡¯t a resident of this slump.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡± ¡°What are you mute can¡¯t you answer my simple question who are you!¡± Sera just continued to stare at the person in front of her as he continued to yell at her for an answer. The person in question looked fairly normal and was human who seemed out of place in an area littered with demibeast who wore rags for clothes whereas the man in front of her wore clean clothes that seemed befitting of a person with some kind of social standing. ¡°What seems to be the problem Reynold?¡± ¡°Sir you shouldn¡¯t have troubled yourself I could have picked one for you with no issues.¡± ¡°I rather see the demibeast with my own eyes. Anyways that¡¯s besides the point why are you interrogating that demibeast.¡± ¡°It¡¯s simply because it wears clothes that seem to be from a tribe rather than the slumps so I was trying to find out where it was from.¡± ¡°A demibeast spy?... that should be impossible tribes tend to avoid contact with any other race as much as possible. ¡° ¡°Unfortunately, getting a answer from it seems unlikely. It refuses to answer me no matter how many time I ask.¡± ¡°Perhaps it could serve as a suitable replacement. I have heard demibeast from tribes are stronger than the demibeast we can find in cities. You there demibeast would you like to go to a academy for free. Its better than rotting away in the slums and you even get to be educated so much benefits you stand to gain and nothing you would lose. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­. .Will it be alright for me to take your silence as a yes. If no answer is given I will just assume you agree to my proposal.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± ¡°Very well Reynold please escort this demibeast back to my carriage.¡± ¡°As you command master.¡± The man called Reynolds tried to get Sera to follow him but as she showed no sign of moving he ended up carrying her. She didn¡¯t resisted at all easily allowing him to scoop her up and walked alongside his master to the carriage that they had used to reach the slums. ¡°Sir are you sure it¡¯s a good idea to just take the demibeast.¡± ¡°Anything will do Reynolds as long as I have something to offer the academy to allow my son to be pardoned to join such a barbaric place. Who in their right mind would make a institution to train kids to fight those monster. Thankfully the beast didn¡¯t put up any resistance saving us a lot of trouble of having to buy one from a desperate parent in need of money, or take one a lot less willing than this one seems to be.¡± -Arriving at the nobleman manor- ¡°The beast hasn¡¯t uttered a sound are you sure that thing is even alive¡± ¡°Yes it is most definitely alive¡± ¡°Hmmmm¡­.very well give it to Alice to clean I can¡¯t present it to the academy covered in dirt.¡± ¡°Very well sir¡± ¡°Alice our master has commanded you to clean this creature¡± ¡°Yes sir¡± a woman who appeared to be a maid timidly answered back. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. The man handed her to the woman. ¡°Sir can¡¯t she walk by herself?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, she¡¯s been like that since we found her. It doesn¡¯t matter, master orders are absolute.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± -In the bathroom- ~sound of water splashing~ ¡°Excuse can¡¯t you talk?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­.¡± Sera just continued to stare lifelessly in front of her as the maid washed of the grim and dirt that had accumulated ever since her tribes destruction. ¡°It would probably be better if you at least walk by yourself. I know I don¡¯t know what happened to you but you shouldn¡¯t continue as you are. Its only a matter of time until you die if master hadn¡¯t found you¡­¡­.. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± .Are you perhaps incapable of speech?¡± -After the bath- Alice was with Sera in hand walked towards Reynold. Alice asked sera to wait there as she went to talk to Reynold to prevent her from hearing their conversation. ¡°How is its physical condition look like does it seem fit enough to hold a sword?¡± ¡°She seems fine physically, but I¡¯m unable to make her talk.¡± ¡°At least she is walking on her own two feets now. I shall ask master about this matter. In the meantime I would appreciate it if you could bring it to the training room and ask the young master instructor to test it strength¡­¡­.WAIT !!she? It¡¯s a girl..?¡± ¡°Yes she is most definantly a girl¡± ¡°Tch¡­I didn¡¯t notice cause it was too dirty. Its ok as long as its strong gender won¡¯t play a part. Its now all the more urgent to test her abilities please make haste to see if it will meet academy standards.¡± -Reynold and the Noble- ¡°Sir the beast has been washed and is now being tested by young master sword instructor to see if its qualified.¡± ¡°Good..good the sooner I find one capable enough the better. The human boys I purchased didn¡¯t meet the cut unfortunately. Hopefully a demibeast would be sufficient.¡± ¡°Sir its probably important to note that the demibeast we found is of the female gender.¡± ¡°What. No..no it might be fine I heard even the woman of the tribe are dozens of time stronger than human males. It would perhaps be better to witness her abilities first hand. Lets go Reynold to the training area while my beloved son afternoon nap is still ongoing.¡± ¡°Very well sir¡± -Sera, Alice and the instructor- ¡°Hmmm what have we here another one¡± ¡°Yes master hopes a demibeast would perhaps be good enough to pardon his son from attending the academy¡± ¡°Again..¡¯sigh¡¯¡­ this wouldn¡¯t even be happening if the king didn¡¯t make it compulsory for a noble to have to provide one child to the academy due to the ever increasing daema problems. In the end the king is just using the nobles to dig out the cream of the crops among the peasants. They obviously knew such a event would occur with that law of theirs.¡± ¡°Perhaps it would be better if we don¡¯t speak of such sensitive issues.¡± ¡°Indeed. Well moving a long lets hear the little beast name.¡± ¡°We aren¡¯t sure since she refuses to talk.¡± ¡°Refuses to talk? ¨Claughing noise- Where did our dear master pick it from the slums?¡± ¡°Yes¡­¡­Can you please just test the child I don¡¯t have the time to entertain your nonsense.¡± ¡°Fine. Here catch¡± he said as he tossed a short sword to Sera. Sera by reflex caught the sword. ¡°Her reflex seems to be good.¡± As he said so he suddenly rushed forward and delivered a diagonal slash towards her. Sera used the sword in her hand to block the slash. ¡°She seems to be strong too. Well it should be more accurate to test it on a machine. Hey you go punch that thing over there.¡± ¡°¡­¡­..¡± Sera just stood there holding the sword blankly staring at him. ¡°Look here kid I don¡¯t care how tragic your life was before you ended up here but if for some reason you don¡¯t want to be here well too bad you don¡¯t have a choice. Why, simple cause you are weak. Too weak to do anything. Strength is everything the strong can boss the weak around. So if you want to be strong you better listen to me and go punch that thing over there.¡± Reluctantly Sera walked over to the machine and punched it with all her strength. ¡°So what do you think.¡± ¡°I think for a kid she is way too strong that¡¯s what I think. She is stronger than pretty much everybody I know if it just comes down to physical strength.¡± Suddenly the nobleman and Reynold entered the training room. ¡°So how did it go? Is she good enough.¡± ¡°Yes she should be capable enough for the academy to accept.¡± ¡°Good this is excellent news all that weeks of searching weren¡¯t in vain. Please explain whats going to happen to her I rather not stay near one of its kind longer than needed.¡± The nobleman said as he walked away leaving with Reynolds following closely behind him.As he left the instructor turned to Sera and started to explain to her. ¡°Look here kid you now have a life. You are gonna be a student at a place that will make you strong. Strong enough to make people listen to you if you do well. In fact if you do well enough you can work there. So your life is set now. ¡°can¡­.i ..really be strong??¡± ¡°-laughing noise- Of course of course you can. If you do become strong you can kill or protect does weaker than you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a blow to my pride that an obnoxious fellow like you could have succeddd in where I failed but I would appreciate if you didn¡¯t put these strange thoughts in her head.¡± Alice said as she grabbed Sera and dragged her out of the training room. The instructor turned around once more to look at the machine readings he softly said. ¡°how could a child possess such strength I wonder what she will be like in the future¡­¡± Rewrite: Chapter 3 -The next day- A man wearing what appears to be a military like outfit walks towards the manor the noble brought Sera to the day before. In front of the doors to the manor stood the noble who owned the place with Sera next to him. ¡°Sir Albert I believe your son is ready to leave for the academy if not a suitable replacement should have been prepared in advance.¡± ¡°Of course I prepared someone who will most certainly be a huge asset to the future of your academy.¡± ¡°I assume it¡¯s the demibeast next to you¡± ¡°Indeed, I have gotten her tested and the results are satisfactory to say the least. She should have no problem in coping up with your academy standards.¡± ¡°Hmmmm.. I shall take your word for it. But if she doesn¡¯t meet academy standards I will be back. Come along now child.¡± The man said as he gestured for sera to follow him. Sera obediently followed the man. As they walked to the carriage the man had used to travel he started to talk to Sera. ¡°If you do get enrolled do not expect to have much freedom as we are very strict with our students no matter their race. If you do well you will climb the ranks if you do badly you will forever remain at the bottom of the heap. Our academy only cares about result nothing else matters so if you do well you will be rewarded accordingly. You will hear the rest at the academy opening ceremony for new students.¡± Sera quietly nodded her head to the brief explanation the man gave her. -The academy- As she arrived at the academy she noticed a crowd of children gathered at the entrance surrounded by adults. There were about 20 of them and they all seemed to be around her age. There were however no demibeast among them. As the carriage stopped the man ordered her to go to the crowd of kids. One of the adults faced towards the group and begin talking. ¡°Now as I¡¯m sure you are all aware you are to be enrolled in our academy to learn how to kill daema to help our world become a better place.During your education you will be living in a dorm on academy grounds ,and you aren¡¯t allowed home except for a break once a year. Our academy will provide you with the knowledge and equipment needed to carry out the missions we provide our students however missions will not be given to children your age. Rather at your age studying martial arts, magic and various other important subjects will be all you will be doing. Another important thing to note is that our academy has a ranking system that starts from E all the way to SS. As kids you will be not given a rank until you reach the age of 12 or getting at least 5 years of education here even if you aren¡¯t 12. Naturally by then you will be given the lowest rank of E. To raise in ranking you are required to participate in an annual exam to rank up. Your education will last until you reach 20 to ensure you are ready and fully prepared. After your education depending on the rank you graduated as you, will be able to choose numerous occupations in the future including but not limited to continue working for us to complete missions involving the extermination of daema. If you continue working for us your rank will continue to play a big part but if you choose else where your rank will determine how good of a job you will be able to secure. We are well known in the entire continent so a high rank gurantee a good future. However anyone deemed A rank or higher are simply too strong to allow to leave. If you reach such a rank you are forced to work for us in the future but we will provide a suitable compensation with a life of luxury when not in missions. Also everyone present here is to be your classmates and the adults are your teachers. ¡° Sera and the group of children followed the adults. As they were walking she could hear them talk about her as they stared at her ear and tails that were in plain sight. ¡°Female students follow the female teachers, male students please follow the male teachers they will show you to your dorm you will be living in for the rest of your life as a student in the academy unless you reach a rank higher than D.¡± After reaching the dorm the teacher gave each student the room number they were assign to. Apparently lessons won¡¯t start today and the students are allowed to get a acquainted with one another. ¡°I can get stronger here. Stronger than the people who killed my family. Stronger, I¡¯m here to be stronger.¡± Sera thought to herself as she slowly walked to the door with similar writing on it as the key she was given. The thought of getting stronger played in her head like a broken recorder. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.-The other girls- ¡°You saw that Demibeast she is so cute.¡± ¡°Yeah she was so adorable. Too bad she looked gloomy.¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t your parent taught you how scary a demibeast is.¡± ¡°Ehhhh. She looked cute though, but are all demibeast eyes like her.¡± Some of the girls who weren¡¯t from noble house hold and were in a situation similar to Sera went to their room instead of gossiping with the daughter of the nobles. They were mostly races like dwarfs and fairies. Fairies were normally around the height 130cm with the ability to create wings on their back that looked somewhat like a butterfly wings. -sera pov- Sera looked around her room which she would be living in form now on. It was a rather small room but it was big enough for her. There was a bed ,cupboard and a clock which by itself took about ? the room space. Not bothered by the noisy chatter being created by some of the girls outside she went towards the bed and lied down. As she lay down on her bed she visualized the horror of the day her tribe got attacked again telling herself if she was stronger they would be alive. ¡°Strength is what determines everything the strong can do what they want and the weak don¡¯t have the power to stop them.¡± This was Sera mentality as of now she believes strength is what she needs nothing else matters. -The next day- Sera awoke in the bed she fell asleep in due to the noise of students outside opening their room door. Opening her eyes she got up and left her room, what greeted her were the other students who were wearing similar attire. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you in uniform yet? The morning briefing is about to start.¡± one of the students asked her. Sera looked confuse since she wasn¡¯t sure where she was able to get a uniform. ¡°Its in the cupboard provided. Just take the size that fits you.¡± Sera went back into her room and opened the cupboard. True enough there was uniform of different sizes. She took one that seem to be her size. She put the uniform on and realized the skirt had no opening for her tail. She tried compressing the wind into a small ball and pushed the ball of wind into the back of the skirt. The wind easily cut a hole through the fabric. She then wore the skirt and pushed her tail through the opening she created. For her undergarment she just continued to use the ones the noble house provided to her during her brief stay there. After putting on the uniform she quickly left her room to go to the morning briefing. Sera exited the dorm and joined the crowd of students who were lined up in front of the teacher they met yesterday. The teacher brought them to a arena like area with a table and some weird sticks on the table. The boys were also brought to the same place by the male teacher. ¡°Today we will be determining the weapon you will be specializing in during battle. Everybody has a weapon that suits them best and naturally it would be beneficial to learn said weapon from young. So today we will be using a device that will analyze your preferred combat style and would transform to a weapon it determines to be best suited for you.¡± The teachers picked up the sticks and started giving them to the students. Eventually the teacher also gave one of them to Sera. ¡°To use the device it requires you to pour some mana into it. So today we will be teaching you how to release the mana that is inside your body.¡± The teacher started explaining how to release mana from ones body. Sera rather than listen to the teacher tried to control the stick the same way she would normally do to elements she would try to control. The stick slowly grew larger and a huge blade extended out of it. The thing had turned into a huge sword about the same size as sera whole body. ¡°Ahh it seems someone succeeded. Her weapon appears to be a claymore. Now the rest of you please try it as I have explained it. The students around her tried to pour their mana into the device but none of them were able to achieve similar results as sera until some time had passed. The rest of the day was the teachers teaching each student the basics of their new weapon. There were also indoor lessons where different teachers taught the class various important things about combat and also about normal education expected out of any other school in the kingdom. That was the start of Sera life in the academy. (Author note: i would truly appreciate some opinions. Its ok if its negative i will try to fix any flaws pointed out. Thank You for taking the time to read this story ^^) Rewrite: Chapter 4 -Several months later- -Sera POV at night- Months had passed by and Sera had decided early on to keep her magic a secret. Rather she was immersing herself solely on her swordplay which was new to her. Sera would normally revise what was taught earlier in the day during the night and it was at this time she was suddenly reminded of the conversation her teacher had with her in private after class on her second day. ____________________________________________________________ ¡°Now Sera as I¡¯m sure you should know Demibeast are discriminated against pretty severely outside this academy. The teacher and students here aren¡¯t affected by the prejudice certain people have towards your species. The reason the academy only accepts children into the academy is to prevent the discrimination within academy wall. The teachers here were all once students here as well and most of us grew up with a few demibeast comrades. However the sad truth is that, it isn¡¯t the case outside academy walls. Eventually when you grow up you will have to leave the academy for missions and be subjected to the discrimination. However I sincerely hope you will not harbor any ill will towards whatever race which had caused you to have gotten sold to this academy. Don¡¯t get strong for revenge rather get strong for the sake of protecting someone precious to you.¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± Sera looked at the teacher with tears slowly trickling down her somewhat emotionless eyes. The teacher slowly hugged Sera as a means to try to comfort her. ¡°Revenge isn¡¯t possible they are already dead¡­.to protect¡­¡­¡± Sera thought to herself in silence. After snapping out of her memories she continued reviewing what was taught and then went to bed. -The next day- -At combat class- ¡°Today you will be forming teams for you¡¯re first mock battle. Alex you¡¯re upperclassman has agreed to help by being the class sparring partner. He is currently a C rank so each of you will be forming a team of 3. Victory is not the goal of this exercise rather the goal is simply to increase the class experience in actual combat. Furthermore since this will be everyone first actual combat experience I wish to stress that safety is and should be your number one priority¡± Sera looked around the class as the guys formed groups of their own as girls formed their own groups. Sera had normally stayed away from her classmates and some stayed away as well. Some who tried to become friends with her she would politely declined since at the time she was still somewhat emotionally unstable, therefore she had decided to not get close to anyone at least until she felt more stable. ¡°Would you like to join us¡± a girl came over to sera as she asked. Sera nodded her head surprised at the question and found herself getting dragged by the girl to the other girl who was probably also in the same group. ¡°I¡¯m Ria and the other one is Clarisse. I tried talking to you few months ago but you looked like you wanted some space alone soooo.¡± Sera looked at Clarisse who seemed human and Ria who is probably an elf due to her ears. Clarisse had short brown hair, somewhat tan skin and was taller than Sera. Ria on the other hand was pale with long green hair and was shorter than sera. ¡°I¡¯m Sera.¡± Sera said in a extremely soft voice in reply towards their greeting Suddenly Clarisse dash towards Sera and grabbed her tail and started to hug it while rubbing her cheek on the tail. ¡° soft¡± Clarisse said with a satisfied expression plastered on her face. Meanwhile Ria suddenly started to touch Sera animal ears on top of her head. ¡°What are you doing.¡± Sera said timidly as she quickly escaped the 2 other girls who were playing with her tail and ears. ¡°Ah sorry I was curious since I first saw you but I didn¡¯t had the chance to touch it before.¡± ¡°Soft.¡± Clarisse repeated again with a satisfied expression on her face. ¡°Sorry if that made you uncomfortable I won¡¯t do it again I promise.¡± Ria said with an apologetic look on her face. Clarisse continued eyeing Sera tail obviously showing she had no intention of giving up. ¡°Ah about Clarisse she doesn¡¯t talk much but she had always told me she wanted to try touching your tail. I hope you don¡¯t mind.¡± Suddenly the teacher yelled out. ¡±Okay are you in groups if so please start to form a plan with your teammates and think of how to work together with your weapons.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you know but my weapon is a bow and Clarisse uses gauntlets.¡± ¡°Sorry.. I didn¡¯t really pay much attention to other people. Thank you for telling me.¡± Sera said with her head facing downwards and her ears were also facing downwards as she said it. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Eventually the mock battle started and Sera and the other 2 girls sat at the sidelines while watching team after team getting called up for the spar against the C rank. His weapon was a mace like weapon that seem to be able to extend by using his mana as the chain which he could freely control the length of his weapon by adjusting the mana he pours into it. Sera watched the match with great interest as Clarisse was once again playing around with her tail. Sera had given up trying to stop her as the teams continued to try to fight the senior. ¡°By the way Sera we hope you will still talk with us after this¡± Ria whispered to Sera. Sera nodded her head in reply to Ria question. Ria seemed happy as she hugged Sera saying ¡°Lets be friends ¡° softly. Sera nodded again this time slower while blushing a bit towards the sudden hug. Eventually Their team turned came and the 3 of them walked to the centre of the training room to prepare for their turn. ¡°Now I¡¯m sure you are looking forward to this fight but don¡¯t forget this is just for practice so don¡¯t push yourself.¡± The senior said that as he took his stance. Ria activated her weapon which caused her mana to extend out of the top and bottom part and a thin string of mana connects the top to the bottom forming a bow. The middle of the weapon had a hole which was how she shot out arrow made out of mana. Clarisse weapon involved the cylinder device splitting into 2. Both of the parts became flatter and they both attached itself to the top of her hands. Mana spreads out of the 2 parts forming a gauntlet shape around both her fist Sera weapon had the cylinder device opening up forming a thin part and a spike like part which was where the mana was released forming the blade of her claymore. Out of the 3 Sera weapon was the biggest. ¡°Ready start¡± As soon as the teacher said it Sera exerted force into her feet launching her towards the senior and going for a diagonal slash. He parried her blow by hitting her blade with his weapon to throw her off balance. As soon as he did 2 arrows were shot towards him. He quickly reacted by deflecting the arrows by spinning his weapon in a circular motion in front of himself. Clarisse had gotten close enough to him and tried to punch him with a quick forward jab towards his stomach. He evaded her attack and proceeded to block Sera next attack that was aimed towards him. To his surprise she suddenly changed her grip and shifted the angle in which the blade was coming form forcing him to enlarge the spike ball attached at the end of the chain to stop both sera and the arrow that were once again aimed towards him. Before they could launch their next attack e suddenly told them to stop their attacks. ¡°Ok enough this match is over.¡± Upon hearing it the 3 girls immediately reverted their weapons back to the cylinder shaped devices. ¡°Sorry it seems that the fatigue of having too many matches in a row have finally started taking effect. I need a break.¡± ¡°Ok class that concludes today mock battles. Please say thank you to Alex who volunteered to help.¡± -After the class had said thank you to alex and they were allowed to have a break- ¡°We did it ¡± ria looked happy as she said that with a somewhat happy face. Sera and Clarisse smiled in reply -Alex POV- ¡°What the heck those last 3 girls. Actually its just that claymore girl blocking her attacks actually made my hand numb. Good thing I stopped the match I doubt I could have held back too long.¡± Alex was thinking to himself as he was walking back to his dorm. ¡°Hey dude how was the mock battle did any of the little girls beat you up.¡± a friend of alex said as he walked up to him with a wide grin on his face. ¡°No way man of course I could handle a few little girls it was easy. Barely broke a sweat.¡± He laughed back in reply. ¡°No way I¡¯m telling him I nearly got serious against a little girl¡± alex thought to himself as he talked with his friend . (Author note: about someone question regarding Dragonic another ff i wrote. I honestly have no intention of continuing it since i realised i enjoy writing a original fiction rather than a fan fiction since it allows more freedom in writing. Also i admit i rushed this chapter a little if possible can you guys point out anything that doesn''t make much sense TY for your time) Rewrite:Chapter 5 Several months later After several more months had passed Sera and her fellow classmates were called forth by their teacher to go to the area in which they would practice combat in. Standing in front of them when they had arrived was a weirdly shaped machine. The machine seemed to have a slot to insert ones arm into. It was probably used for something but what it was for was unknown to the students as they obediently sat in front of their class teacher whom they had all gotten familiar with after having spent majority of their time with the teacher in question. ¡°Unfortunately today is a sad day for today will be, the day we have to split you guys up depending on your potential. Its unfortunate but up to now the cost was negligible so we were able to train everybody , however form this point on training will depend on your potential. Classes will also be split depending on weapon types from here on out.¡± The students looked at the teacher some with a shocked expression some with an indifferent look .Whereas Sera, Ria and Clarisse were somewhat depressed. Sera who was normally quiet, ria who was a chatterbox and Clarisse who was a somewhat odd person made a somewhat odd group nevertheless they got along. They were aware they would be split up regardless due to the fact that they all used different weapon type. ¡°The way we measure your potential is with this machine which allows us to measure your mana. The amount each person is born with is fixed from birth and no matter how much you try its impossible to increase the amount you have in your body. We can train you in techniques and increase your physical strength however your mana is impossible to increase. Therefore we determine your potential with this test. Its unfortunate but people who do not meet our minimum requirement will be expelled. We measure your mana in numerical values and therefore the minimum for a person who fights with a physical weapon is normally 100 and for a spell caster type we require at least 1000. However please bear in mind this is the minimum and with such values you will probably never make it pass D rank. Important thing to remember is that the machine measure the value by absorbing all the mana from your body which would lead to mana exhaustion which will cause extreme exhaustion and in some cases fainting. This is the most accurate method available so please bear with it.¡± Eventually the test started and one by one people went up to get their mana tested. As soon as their arm was inserted into the machine some kind of blue energy started flowing out of their body into the machine. The number displayed slowly rised as the energy continued to flow into the machine. The students seemed to be in pain as their mana was sucked out and eventually when they collapse appearing to be exhausted or fainted the machine would stop at a number. This was basically how all the test went with each student one at a time.The students who finished the test and passed were all allowed to rest for the day and they would return to the dorm. Those who didn¡¯t make the cut would return to their dorm and would be expelled the next day. Since the students who had finished the test would have troubles walking they would be escorted back to the dorms by some volunteer upperclassman. After about an hour it was sera turn to get her mana measured. Clarisse was already done and was already back at her dorm. As sera walked up to get tested the ria gave sera a thumbs up wishing her luck. Sera replied with a small smile directed towards them. As she stood in front of the machine she slowly placed her hand on the small opening meant for the hand to enter. She hesitated for a while but eventually she finally placed her hand in it and the machine whirred into life. -Teacher POV- This batch students were quite spectacular as they had the most students who qualified that we have gotten in a batch this year. As Sera slowly walked up I had quite a bit of expectation for her as she was one of the best students in this batch. If she had talent she would probably be able to accomplish amazing things in the future. As the machine whirred into life I was focused on the number steadily rising. The number eventually passed 1000 which was surprising since she was a demibeast and they normally didn¡¯t have that much mana compared to other races. It eventually came to a halt at 15110 which was outstanding for a melee user. With that amount she would easily reach B rank and if she was skilled enough she could reach A rank. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Eventually I diverted my gaze back onto Sera , to my surprise she was still standing up. I tried to go close to her to see what was happening but suddenly some kind of black mana started to leak out of her body and into the machine. She started screaming at that point and I stared wide eyed as I saw her blond hair slowly turning silver similar to that strand of silver hair she had among her otherwise blond hair. Her hair got longer and scales started forming on her arms, legs and neck. Horns were growing out of her forehead as wings came out from her back. I turned to looks at the values the numbers displayed was 9999999999999 instead of the previous number. The machine started to crackle before exploding. -Ria POV- Sera whats happening to her. I thought to myself as the other students started to panic when she started to change. I didn¡¯t understand what was happening to her but she was a good person I¡¯m sure of it. The months we had spent together may have been short but I¡¯m sure she wasn¡¯t doing this on purpose. If I could somehow help her was in my mind as I ran up to her. -Sera POV- At the start I felt normal as the machine slowly forcing my mana out of my body. Eventually when the blue energy like thing stopped coming out yet I wasn¡¯t that tired I found it weird. When I was lost in my thoughts a sharp pain suddenly ran through my whole body. It felt like my body was breaking apart. The same as it felt that time in my village. I remembered I lost conscious and when I came to everyone was dead. With that in mind I tried desperately to cling onto my conscious. I didn¡¯t want everyone here dead. The pain was getting worse as I felt my skin to be boiling and I felt something coming out from my back and forehead. I could feel my conscious slowly slipping as I heard a familiar voice running up towards me. Without thinking I reached out with my hands to the source of the voice. I felt my hand piercing through something soft. When I turned my head to look at what it was what greeted me was Ria. Blood was dripping out of her mouth as her face was slowly getting paler. My hand was going through her abdomen and went out the other side. I merely tried to grab the source of the voice I didn¡¯t know how it turned out like this, as I stared in disbelief for what felt like hours as I saw her eyes slowly turned lifeless and her limbs going limp. I killed her. Someone I promised myself I would protect, even after I told myself I would protect people important to me I ended up killing her. The last thing I saw was her face as I lost conscious. -Principal POV- There was a explosion coming from the direction of the combat training gym for first years in the program. Myself and several other teachers quickly ran to the site when it happened. What greeted us was the facility destroyed and in its place was a dragon like daema that was slowly growing larger and larger. Its scales looked almost like diamonds and its eyes were a pure gold colour. It let out a tremendous roar as it took to the skies and it flew off towards the mountains. It hadn¡¯t stopped growing in size when it left so we were unsure how big it was but a dragon like daema were always at least a S rank daema so neither myself nor the teachers dared provoke it and was relieved it left without causing anymore damage. Unfortunately it seemed anyone who was in the facility didn¡¯t make it out in time. How it managed to sneak in was a mystery but the higher ups need to be informed of this incident. (AUTHOR NOTE): Well honestly i couldn''t think of what to write initially and when i did i wrote this. I was unsure of how people would react to this so i hesitated to post this for a few days.Well i decided to get you''re opinion whether you guys like this development or want me to write a totally different scenario. If enough people complains bout this chapter i will rewrite this chapter. On a side note still can''t think of a description T^T I''m really sorry Rewrite:Chapter 6 -Sera POV- I opened my eyes and realized I don¡¯t recognize my surroundings. As I looked around I realized I was in some kind of forest. My body aches even to the slightest of movement and I seem to be in the middle of a dense forest. Its hard to explain the emotions I was feeling but the best description would be utterly confused as I continued to survey my surroundings. I realized I don¡¯t even know who I was. I couldn¡¯t remember anything beyond waking up in this forest. Who I was could wait cause for now I realize how vulnerable I was to attack by a daema of some sort. I tried standing up after the pain had subsided and realized something strange. I wasn¡¯t standing on two feet rather I was standing on all four. I could somehow move some kind of appendage on my back. I looked down confused and to my astonishment my two front limbs were huge claws and it was covered in diamond like scale. I don¡¯t really understand cause somewhere deep down I feel that something was wrong yet there was also a feeling that this was how it has always been. It was as if there were two conflicting emotions in turmoil within me. Nevertheless I feel as if a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders and I feel free. I tried moving around the area to see what I could find. As I traversed the seemingly endless forest I wondered what was my name what am I called. No matter how hard I tried I seem unable to recall something as simple as my own name. After sometime I stumbled upon what appears to be a huge lake. Which was exactly what I needed. At the very least I wanted to know how I looked like. My reflection didn¡¯t betray my expectations. I looked like a majestic white dragon covered in diamond like scales. I was rather large proving to me that trees in this area were abnormally large since they even overtower me. I was probably a type of daema. I¡¯m pretty sure even within the daema there were many categories I¡¯m confident I belong to the dragon category. Thinking about it how do I know the humans classifications. Well I rather not think too deep into it so I walked around the lake continuing my walk. I still can¡¯t imagine what had happened to me that would have resulted in me lying down in the middle of the forest. Nevertheless I was in no rush in finding out as I simply enjoyed the fresh smell of the forest. No matter how long I walked I had yet to encounter a single living thing. The only two things I could think of is that the forest was devoid of wild life ,or said wild life was simply afraid of me ,so they went into hiding. The latter seemed more plausible and it would be rather easy to hear me coming since I was making a lot of noise just walking around. My walk had eventually lead me to a huge wall of rock blocking me from advancing any further. It was impossible to walk on since it was pretty much tilted 180 degrees. Thinking back I recall that animals normally make a home for itself. Maybe I could make a home by creating a cave. I simply created a cave into the body of rock by manipulating it with my mana. I recall having an ability to manipulate elements just another one of several fragments of memory I still have. Walking into the newly created cave it looked perfect for a spot to take a nap in. With nothing better to do I simply laid there and entered a deep slumber. -Principal POV- Since the appearance of the dragon I had a word with the director of the academy. It has currently became the military under the academy top priority to obtain the dragon. Among daema dragons are the rarest and the most intelligent. Daemas are generally untamable simply due to their lack of intelligence however the B rank daema has enough intelligence to be tamed if they were caught as infants. Adult daema simply cannot be reasoned with and are to be eliminated for the safety of the general public. Dragons are an exception since they were intelligent and generally avoided being seen. Incur the wrath of one however and it would be a disaster and quite possibly the last thing you would ever do. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The most important fact was that the dragon that appeared that day was most definitely not even a decade old. When dragons were born they weren¡¯t initially covered in scales. The dragon we saw wasn¡¯t completely covered in scales yet. It would normally take a decade before a dragon had all their scales. We were incapable of fighting it then due to the lack of preparations but if we could catch a dragon that young we would have gained a powerful force to be reckon with. Capturing it before the adventurer association hears of it is our top priority. Even within dragons there were many species with varying strength the only one successfully tamed as of now were wyverns that were at most top tier A rank daema. The dragon that day was a full fledge dragon which was definitely at the very least a S rank. It¡¯s a shame we lost some teachers and a handful of students but the information gained was priceless. The dragon was obviously somehow separated from its parents so it would be ideal if we could find it as soon as possible. The adventurer association shares our interest in using daemas as a way to combat other daemas. It¡¯s a new system that very few has heard of. We intend for every B rank to have a partner daema. In the end daema is a general term for animals with magical abilities , not all are savage beast but many unfortunately lack intelligence and are mindless predators. -Clarisse POV- After reaching my dorm to sleep due to the fatigue the test had caused. I was awoken by an explosion. The next thing I knew I found out Sera and Ria were both marked as dead from an accident during the test everyone who were there were dead with no exceptions. They couldn¡¯t even find the bodies cause apparently they had all burned to ash. Everyone I knew died in an instant. I originally lived in the slums with my family and was sold off by my family to a noble family looking to sent someone to the academy. I passed their test and was sent here. It was better than my initial life and I truly enjoyed being with my best friends. They were now dead and it was impossible to see them ever again. I swore to myself that I would definitely live so that at the very least the memories we share will live on. -Sera POV- After waking up from my slumber I had somehow remembered a name. I wasn¡¯t sure if it was mine but perhaps it was cause I felt extremely emotional just thinking about the name. Perhaps Ria was my name. Would sleeping perhaps help me regain the rest of my memories was what I thought to myself. Well since there was no harm in trying I went to sleep a couple more times but as days turned to weeks I realized that the method bore no fruit since I was still unable to remember anything else. Eventually after days of futile attempts in hope of remembering something new, i finally decided to use Ria as my name at least for now. For meals I had created several fruit trees outside my cave with magic. From my memories I don¡¯t recall being able to manipulate plants but after trying it, it somehow worked. As time flew by with me doing nothing except staying in the cave I always pondered what people looked like. I couldn¡¯t exactly remember since my memories were rather vague on that topic. Despite my curiosity I decided to stay in my cave avoiding contact with anything as I tried to piece together what little I knew about myself. My sense of time was rather bad and days flew by like nothing. (AUTHOR note): this was a fun chapter to write for me since i love dragons XD. As usual i appreciate opinions whether you like where this story is going. Rewrite:Chapter 7 Author notes: Everything before this could be considered the prologue arc. This chapter is a new arc -Several years later- -Ria Pov- [(author note) Similar to previous version Sera name will be ria now] As the days turned to months transitioning into years I didn¡¯t feel much as time continued to go by. With no memories or anything I can remember that I could possibly be attached to I didn¡¯t mind living in a cave like this. Once in a while when I¡¯m quiet enough some animals might wonder into my home, during such rare moments I get to savour the taste of meat. I gave up trying to hunt due to my sheer size most animals ran away as soon as they hear or see any signs of me coming. Occasionally I would see a daema wondering into my cave rather than a animal. However there wasn¡¯t much difference in how effortlessly I could kill any which does wander in. This lifestyle is fun in a sense being able to live so carefree in a way. Nevertheless as days pass I start to get more curious of how towns and kingdoms look like. Also what was I like before I lost my memories, is something that I will always ask myself. Do I have parents siblings anybody close with me. Also as the days past I get more used to my abilities controlling it much better than I ever could initially. Yet with each passing day my curiosity on what the outside world is like grew. On a day like any other to my surprise a group of humans somehow ventured into the area which I had somehow considered my territory at this point cause of how long I have been staying here. I could somehow sense the area around my territory by releasing my mana around the area. When anything touches my mana I would be able to sense it. Unfortunately releasing my mana creates a dense layer of black fog. I could see just fine in it but various creatures were unable to do so. The area I covered was just enough for the maximum distance I could see with my eyes. That was how I could see the party of humanoid creatures which entered my territory. I wonder what they were doing here. I continued to observe them from my cave deeper in the forest. After some time I wondered if I could follow them into a town. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard to follow them without them being aware of my presence. It would still be impossible to go into any town with my current appearance though. Maybe I could try to transform into a human. I have never tried it but maybe if I could. With that in mind I went to my self made lake in the cave and looked at my reflection. I concentrated on a human shape and tried spreading mana through my whole my body. A burning sensation was felt as I could feel my body slowly shrinking and a sharp pain spread throughout my body as I could hear cracking sounds coming from my body. The pain wasn¡¯t pleasant and was probably more painful than anything I had experienced thus far. After about five minutes the pain subsided enough for me to open my eyes. I hesitated a little before I finally looked at the lake to see my current appearance. What stared back was a face that looked like a little girl. I was short similar to a child compared to the humans I was viewing earlier. My hair was long enough to reach my waist and it was a pure silver colour. Both my eyes was a golden colour. The one difference between my current form and the humans outside was the presence of a fluffy tail and animal ears on top of my head. The fur was similar to my hair colour. Another huge problem was the fact that there wasn¡¯t a stich of clothing on me. I had expected it but it was still a little embarrassing when I think about it. I don¡¯t know why but my appearance was somewhat nostalgic almost as if I had seen it before. I was a little surprised the transformation worked since I had tried to transform to various things before but it always failed. I had tried it simply for fun but now that it has worked I don¡¯t intend to let this opportunity go to waste. Well either ways I took the fur I used as a bed when I was a dragon and made it wearable by transforming my nails to claws to cut it. After which I put it on and looked at my reflection for a while before I decided I was ready to leave. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. After preparing I went out of my cave and transformed my eyes to see the humans still lost in the fog. I proceeded to climb a tree and travel to them by jumping from tree to tree. It didn¡¯t take too long as I reached the group in a matter of minutes. All that¡¯s left to do is to stalk them until they reach a town of some sort. From a distance I could see their faces and they seemed worried about something and perhaps and argument of some sort was going on between them. Nevertheless since I stopped releasing mana it was only a matter of time before the fog disappear and than they would be able to find their way out After some time the fog dissipated enough for them to be able to find a way out. As they manage to leave the area covered with the fog they seemed relived. I on the other hand had to be more vigilant to avoid detection since there was no fog. -Party POV- ¡°Finally got out.¡± A guy wearing heavy armor sigh in relief as they exited the dark fog. ¡°Its all your fault for suggesting to go in.¡± A girl wearing a robe like outfit said in annoyance to the heavy armored guy. ¡°Well more importantly we are still lost.¡± A guy wearing leather armor said to the other 3 people. ¡°We could be anywhere on the continent. I can¡¯t believe we actually got teleported by a trap due to your carelessness.¡± The girl said once again directed towards the man wearing the heavy armor. ¡°Well at least we made it out of the fog in one piece.¡± A guy wearing a robe similar to the girl said. ¡°All our hard work to reach the 10th floor gone to waste all because of you stupidity of rushing ahead without thinking.¡± The girl said in annoyance once again towards the man wearing the heavy armour. ¡°Oh come on give me a break. Don¡¯t blame it all on me. It was you who suggested to try out a dungeon no one explored before.¡± The man in heavy armor argued back. ¡°If anyone sees you guys in your current state it would be hard to believe we are a famous team.¡± Said the guy in leather while shaking his head while the girl and guy argued. ¡°More importantly a black fog normally means a powerful daema is releasing its mana to mark its territory. We better get out of here before it comes to attack us.¡± The robed guy said to the other three. The guy in heavy armor and the girl both refused to give in and ended up walking as far away form each other as possible. -Ria POV- Following them was rather boring since they seemed to have no idea where they were so they had to stop several times to discuss some stuff. During such times I test if I was capable of transforming my body back into a dragon like parts. Covering any part of my body with scales wasn¡¯t that painful but growing horns or wings were rather painful. I decided to not transform back to my dragon form unless I absolutely have to since the pain when I transformed to this form was extremely intense. Logically it should be painful to transform back as well. That and testing that now would obviously be giving the party I¡¯m stalking a tell tale sign I¡¯m here. As I continue following them I have to wonder why I look like a child. Perhaps for other dragons I look like a child as well in dragon form. I always thought I was at least 16 or so but judging from my current form I appear to be younger than I thought. Since I was unable to transform to any other human no matter how I try I can assume this form is permanent if I try transforming into a human. The tail and ear as well unfortunately. With the tail and ear it was obvious I wasn¡¯t a human maybe I can try hiding it before going into a town. Putting all these thoughts aside I continued to follow the group of human as they departed once again. (Author note) : I wrote this slower cause of the adventurer part which took a few tries before i got the version above. As usual i appreciate any and all opinion regarding the series as a whole. I try to listen if there is anything you guys dislike so please feel free to voice your opinion. Lastly a huge Thank you to all my readers :) Rewrite:Chapter 8 -Ria POV- It has been a couple of days since I have begun following the party of people whom I believe to be people who specialize in hunting daema from what I have seen so far. Whenever they encounter one which is hostile they would flawlessly work together to kill the enemy before them. I was particularly interested in the techniques used by the man in heavy armor. He wielded a huge blade with two hands and used powerful techniques to prevent the enemy from attacking his comrades and to slowly dwindle his opponent vitality. Their weapons were rather weird however. Each one of them had similar looking weapons yet once battle begun their weapons would transform into one fitting their combat style. The normal form was a short dagger yet once battle begun the heavy armored man weapon would turn into a huge sword. The man with leather armor dagger would split into 2 and mana would create a whole body. The man in a robe dagger acted as a spell catalyst similar to the girl in the robe. From what I could tell mana was important to transform their weapon. I tried releasing my mana into a branch I found and I could form a blade shape but it wasn¡¯t as efficient as their weapons. Another weird change I found was that I was releasing blue mana instead of a black mana. Daema mana was always black in colour yet mine turned blue when I was in my current form. I was still able to release my regular mana if I transformed a part of my body to a more dragon like variation. Even then I could only release it through the part of my body that was in partial dragon form as I decided to call it. After several days of practice as I follow them I have gotten proficient enough to instantly transform a single part. However the more parts I try to transform at any given time the longer it takes and the pain intensifies which each added part. Its probably because the more I transform the more my internal structure changes. In all honesty this transformation is flawless in all ways since I felt significantly weaker and even my control over the elements has decreased to the extent I could only use elements for more simple attacks like a fireball. The problem is easy to solve since I get closer to my original power the more I transform, but I must remember my goal is to blend in so I suppose my current strength isn¡¯t too far off since I have confidence I¡¯m only slightly weaker than the man in heavy armor, not taking into account the difference between our mastery of the sword. If that is taken into account I would have no hope to beat him in a one versus one fight in this form. It was important for me to understand my current body as quickly as possible since I would rather avoid losing control in a place filled to the brim with humans. Its rather unfortunate that I couldn¡¯t test the limits of my current body due to the fact that I was stalking a group of people and didn¡¯t want to be detected. Just to be safe I have been following from a rather huge distance and have been using my dragon eyes to follow them. A couple more days has passed without any particular event happening that peaked my interest. If anything other than testing my ability to partial dragon form I have been trying to remember the technique used by the man in heavy armor. It was a rather dull day today as well as I made sure I didn¡¯t lose sight of them. As usual a daema confronted the group. The daema was particularly big this time. It looked like a huge wolf with huge bulging muscle. It stood on all four and had blue fire blasting out from its back in a straight line following its spine. The very same flames were also covering all 4 of its paws. It looked familiar almost as if I had seen it before. It was rather massive compared to the daema the group faced before. Looking through my memories I somehow managed to remember meeting it once before around the time I first moved into my cave. It was complaining about the fact I was invading its territory and challenged me calling me to leave. I think I was tired then cause I remembered defeating him with a single blow from my tail. Well I can¡¯t really estimate its strength since I¡¯m well aware in that form I¡¯m much stronger than I will ever be in my current form. With the reason I found him familiar out of my mind I watched the battle between them with great interest. -Party POV- (heavy armour=warrior /leather armor=rogue/ male mage/female mage) ¡°Aren¡¯t we being to careful we have only encountered D rank daema so far.¡± The warrior complained. ¡°Its better to be sure rather than sorry. I find it weird we have only encountered D ranks this deep in the wild. A few days ago we encountered C ranks and even B ranks¡± male mage replied If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Whats there to fear all of us are B ranks we can just defeat anything with our flawless teamwork. Besides the trees here are normal sized maybe we are getting closer to a town.¡± The warrior replied. ¡°That¡¯s because cases like this can only be caused by two things you idiot. Its either the area is unsuitable to live in which is impossible since this place looks perfect to live in leaving the possibility of an extremely powerful daema which has claimed the area as its territory. Furthermore your theory is likely wrong since there are still daema here so it means there can¡¯t possibly be a town anywhere near here. Haven¡¯t you learned anything in school.¡± The female mage replied ¡°There isn¡¯t a black fog here though so our worries is that the daema is currently hunting.¡± The rogue said while looking somewhat worried. ¡°True they do stop releasing mana if they were looking for prey, scaring them away would be pointless.¡± the male mage said ¡°Well lets get out of here before it shows up then easy.¡± The warrior said happily. Suddenly there was a rustling sound among the trees before a huge black wolf jumped out from the trees. It looked at the party and a grin seemed to formed on his face as fire exploded out of his back and paws. ¡°I think it¡¯s a little too late for that, It found us.¡± The rogue said as he activated his weapon. The party quickly organized themselves in a formation with the heavy armor guy in front to protect the 2 mages. The rogue was in the middle of the formation to look for openings to attack the beast that now stood in front of them. ¡°Hey what rank is this guy in.¡± the warrior said as he readied himself to charge head on and try to draw its attention. ¡°He is probably a A rank.¡± The male mage replied with a serious look on his face. ¡°This will probably get dangerous. Damn I didn¡¯t think we would meet a A rank here .¡± The rogue said looking worried. ¡°Its ok guys it should be fine. We fought a A rank before we just have to do it like we did then.¡± The female mage said as she prepared to attack. The conversation came to a abrupt end when the daema charged forward towards them. The warrior covered his body with mana and charged forward to meet the attack head on. Meanwhile the two mages both finished their chant for their spell. The girl created a wall of wind surrounding the guy to further enhance his protection. The guy however created ice spikes blasting out from underneath the beast. The beast jumped to easily evade the spikes. The warrior jumped upwards as well controlling his mana to increase his weapon size and aimed it towards the beast with the intention to pierce it. The rogue appeared behind the daema at that moment both the daggers length increased almost like a chain he used it to wrap the daema. The daema easily broke through the mana chain and with its fangs it bit the warrior sword . With a swing of its head he easily tossed the warrior towards a tree. The warrior crashed against the tree snapping it in half. The warrior stood back up seemingly unfazed and dashed towards the daema with his sword dragging along the ground. With a shout he yelled out ¡°Take this Land Crasher!¡± as he yelled it out his blade has left the ground slashing upwards toward the daema. The mana that acted as the blade left the handle and travelled along the ground as a blue wave aimed towards the daema. As the blue wave travelled along the ground it left a huge mark anywhere it had travelled. The daema let out a roar and surrounded itself in a flaming tornado. The 2 mages finished chanting another spell as the girl released 10 wind blades spinning at high speed towards the daema. The guys spell was a huge ball of ice that travelled towards the daema. Before hitting the daema the huge ball of ice transformed into countless blades of ice all aiming at the daema from every angle possible. At the command of the mage all the ice blades went flying towards the daema. Yet as all 3 of their attacks met the daema flame they disintegrated into nothing. -Ria POV- They seemed to be having problems against the daema. If worst comes to worst it looks like I will have to interfere. I can¡¯t go losing my guides after all. Well for now I guess I can observe a little longer before I interfere. (Author Notes) : Finally caught up with the previous version. Thank you for all the support it means a lot to me :) . Hope you enjoyed this chapter if not feel free to voice you''re opinion as usual. Chapter 9 (Author note: This chapter is a continuation from the Rewrite chapters. Rather than a rewrite it was more like a reboot. Sorry for the confusion it might have caused. To understand this chapter you have to read the rewrite chapters.) -Ria POV- The fight has been going on for about an hour now. It doesn¡¯t look good for the group since they were clearly visibly exhausted by this point whereas the daema seems to barely consider the fight up to that point a warm up. They were giving it their all form the get a go without holding anything back so I guess its reasonable they were tired by now. The main problem I have, is how should I interfere without being noticed. It would be a problem if they see me. While thinking about it the daema that was giving me all these problems in the first place charged knocking the warrior out of the way with one swing of its claws. It seemed to be targeting the mages at the back. The mages reacted by creating a wall of ice surrounded by wind to try to stop the daema. Unfortunately it wasn¡¯t enough, the daema easily shattered their defences and attempted to end their lives. Without thinking things through enough I quickly shifted my right hand and controlled the air around the daema and dragged it towards me. The effects were much more flashy than I expected. Rather than nothing appearing it seemed more like a tornado had sucked the daema into it and had dragged it towards me. Since it was too late to regret what I did, I prepared myself to defeat the daema as quickly as possible before the humans come over and see me. I endured the pain and released my wings from my back. As usual it felt as if something ripped its way out of my back. As soon as the daema reached me along with countless leaves and branches from some of the trees that were in way, I shifted my other hand as well and grabbed one of its limbs tightly with my claws. Ignoring its cries of pain as my claws digged into its flesh I launched myself off the tree and flew away from the humans. -Third person POV(Ria)- Ria proceeded to throw the daema in her grasp onto the ground with all the strength she could muster in her current form. A miniature crater formed where it landed. Ria proceeded to manipulate the earth around it with her mana to surround it in a cage made out of earth spikes. The daema growled as it stood back up and proceeded to attempt to break through the earth cage sera formed around it. No matter how many times it broke through Ria simply formed a new one in its place. ¡°I know you can understand me. So I hope you can stop attacking the humans since I need them alive. Also I¡¯m able to understand your speech so feel free to reply.¡± Ria said as she descended next to the earth cage. ¡°They are my prey. I never let my prey go.¡± ¡°Unless you want this to escalate into your death I suggest you reconsider.¡± ¡°As if a little girl demon like you can scare me into submission.¡± Seemingly offended by the reply Ria started transforming even more. Horns started growing out of her forehead. Her feet similar to her hand was covered in scales. Her nails were all currently claws and the scales even covered her neck. Her fox tail transformed into a dragon like tail covered in the same scales. As she went closer to the daema it stared at her surprised in her sudden change. ¡°Unless you want the incident in my cave to repeat itself I hope you understand that you are not my match.¡± ¡°You¡­. YOU!!!That damn dragon who took my territory.¡± The flames on its back and paws intensified as it released its killing intent. ¡°Seems like this conversation is going no where. I can¡¯t waste anymore time. I rather not kill you but if you refuse to listen I have no choice.¡± Ria proceeded to jump towards the daema. She manipulated the earth cage into spikes aiming towards the daema. The daema surrounded its entire body with flames. The flames defended the daema as it charged forward attempting to attack Ria. Ria flew upwards to avoid the blow. After which she quickly flew towards it and used its tail the hit the daema into the ground. After which quicker than it could react she had used her claws to pierce through its head. Stolen story; please report. It was a surreal scene a little girl piercing a huge wolf ten times her size with her arm. As the daema fell lifeless onto the ground Ria quickly flew as far as she could away from the corpse when she heard footsteps approaching her. From a tree quite a distance away she transformed her body back into her demihuman form. Ria yelped in pain a little as she transformed back. With her dragon eyes she easily viewed the corpse of the daema now being surrounded by the 4 humans who seemed surprised to see it. -Party POV- The daema was suddenly surrounded by a huge tornado of air coming form the forest. As the wind died down the daema had disappeared from its previous position. Both mages was blown away by the blast of wind. The warrior and rogue quickly ran towards them to check if they were ok. The female mage was helped up by the rogue and the male by the warrior. ¡°What the heck just happened.¡± The warrior said as he looked at the female mage. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me I didn¡¯t do it. I can¡¯t cast a wind spell of that magnitude yet. From the looks of it a A rank wind mage casted it.¡± ¡°Nevertheless we were saved by whoever who casted it.¡± The male mage said as he let out a sigh of relieve ¡°Don¡¯t you think we should go help. That daema was probably a peak A rank daema.¡± The rogue said seemingly concerned for their mysterious savior. ¡°If we go now we won¡¯t be much of a help. We barely have any mana left. We might become a burden if we go.¡± The male mage said with a solemn look on his face. Suddenly they heard a loud sound coming from the direction the spell had came from. ¡°I don¡¯t care I refuse to let that person die I¡¯m going to help.¡± The warrior yelled out as he ran towards the forest. ¡°That idiot¡± The female mage said as she ran after him. The male mage and rogue ran after the two. Despite their best effort they were rather slow due to their exhaustion. After around 15 minutes they finally reached a clearing in which what they saw caused astonished all four of them. The daema was lying on the ground dead with a huge hole straight through its forehead. ¡°Seems like we underestimated our mysterious savior.¡± The male mage said as he examined the corpse. ¡°More importantly where the heck did they go. Judging from the earth around here I¡¯m guessing it was both a wind mage and earth mage.¡± The rogue said as he examined the surrounding. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if they had a warrior. I can¡¯t think of a single technique that could inflict such a injury on its forehead though.¡± The male warrior said as he seemed deep in thought. ¡°Well more importantly we are all alive. For a second there I thought we were all going to die.¡± The female mage said ¡°Perhaps the group that helped did it on whim. We are lucky that they aren¡¯t our enemy.¡± The male mage said in relief. The group eventually decided to rest for a while before continuing since they were all exhausted. -Ria POV- As I watched the group started resting I was relieved since they didn¡¯t try to find me. Honestly I overdid it, in my anger I transformed most of my body using partial form. I was fine physically but the pain from transforming is quite draining mentally so I wanted to take a short break as well. If possible I rather not interfere but the situation forced my interference. Well at least they didn¡¯t see me. I can¡¯t wait to reach a town. My curiosity towards human place of residence has peaked since I¡¯m so close to my goal. When it was a hopeless dream of mine to visit a town I could somehow contain my curiosity, but with my goal so close I anticipated it coming true all the more. (Author Note) : As usual i hope for some opinions if anything is not to you''re liking. Chapter 10 -Ria POV- Several weeks after the incident with the daema I could finally see a town in the distance. If possible I would run ahead but they were currently out of the forest walking in a plain. If I were to run out to the town ahead of them I would be easily spotted. I somehow endured the excruciating wait. As soon as I saw their figures disappear into the town I got of the tree I was hiding in and ran to the town as fast I could go. To not look out of place when I entered I refrained from running and calmly walked into the town with my eyes glancing at around at the buildings and various human walking around the streets. The sights didn¡¯t disappoint my expectations in the slightest. I looked around in awe to the surroundings. After the initial surprise I noticed there were several eyes looking at me. Perhaps its because of my tail and ears which seem to stick out like a sore thumb in a place filled with humans. They didn¡¯t approach me however so I assume there are species that look like this. I made a mental note to find out what species I looked like currently and walked further into the town taking in the new sights that greeted me. To avoid the attention I seem to be drawing towards myself especially by males for reason I can¡¯t comprehend, I went into a narrow alley that no one walked into. I wanted to explore the town a little more but I feel uncomfortable with all the gazes that were focused on me. With that in mind I needed a way to conceal my appearance for the sake of a peaceful exploration. A cloak of some sort would work but I didn¡¯t have anyway to obtain anything in the town due to lacking any coins that seem to be used to trade for goods from the various shops in the streets. The alley seem to be much larger than I expected as I continued walking for a while. Eventually I reached a wall that left me no choice but to go back the same way. ¡°Hey little girl are you lost?¡± A guy accompanied by 2 others walked towards me as I turned around to go back. The guy who said it seemed rather slim and he wore leather armor similar to one of the humans I followed to reach the town. His though seems to be of much lower quality and on both side of his armor were two ordinary dagger. They seem rather normal unlike the ones used by the rogue. The other two following him were rather huge and bulky. They were however wearing rather ordinary clothing similar to most of the humans in the town they did have two large cloak covering them. They weren¡¯t any weapons on the other two men. ¡°Are you lost I can bring you back to town. Just trust this uncle ok. Follow me I can help you.¡± The slim man said it with a rather suspicious grin on his face. I doubt he could be trusted so I politely declined and walked pass them. As I continued walking I could hear the men whispering something and heard footsteps approaching me form behind. I felt the wind fluctuating a little as the sound of a fist being swung could be heard. I moved my head to the side to avoid the blow, quickly turning around to see have a clearer view of what was going on. What greeted me was one of the bulky man close to me and the slim man had a collar like object in his grasp. ¡°Be a good little girl now and don¡¯t resist. Trust me it will be a lot easier if you just listen obediently. A lot less painful.¡± The man said with a rather twisted smile plastered on his face. I felt immense disgust to the humans that seemed to be attempting to capture me. Did they discover that I¡¯m a dragon if so I would have to dispose of them to keep my identity a secret. Just to be safe before committing the act of killing them I asked ¡°What reason is there to capture me? I have done no wrong deserving of such cruel act.¡± ¡°Well you are such a cute little thing aren¡¯t you. Such ignorance to how this world works. Cute little na?ve girls like you sell really well nothing else matters really.¡± The slim man said with his face full of composure. At the very least I know that this isn¡¯t related to my identity as a dragon. Cutting of my train of thoughts the man continued with ¡°So shall we do this the easy way or must you make us uncles make you sleep for a while.¡± My anger towards these humans has reached its peak and rather than answer I kicked the man in front of me with full strength my current body could muster. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. The man I kicked went flying all the way towards the slim man. He gracefully dodged the man body which crashed into the wall creating cracks on the previously flawless looking wall. The composure on the man face was replaced with a look of shock. I smiled towards them with a cute innocent looking smile while saying¡± You should really pick your prey better uncles, or rather after I¡¯m done with you don¡¯t have to worry about finding prey anymore.¡± My previous smiling face disappeared as I used my feet to launch myself towards the other bulky guy delivering a blow to his cheek knocking him face first into the ground. After which I kicked him in the stomach flying directly into my first victim. All that was left was the slim guy who drew both his weapons now with a nervous smile on his face. He looked like he wanted to say something but I didn¡¯t gave him the chance to as I launched myself towards the man. His reaction speed was faster than I expected. His dagger accurately aimed towards my fist that was spiraling towards his abdomen. To stop the dagger I coated my fist with wind and easily broke his weapon and punched his abdomen with no mercy. The punch was followed by a kick to his abdomen. The men flew to the other two bodies crashing into both of them. All three had lost conscious by now. I wasn¡¯t sure if I had done enough and contemplated whether I should injure them a little more to teach them a lesson. The thought went away when I realize my problem was solved. I could take the cloak one of the men was wearing to hide my appearance. Since they solved my problem I decided to spare them anymore pain as I easily took the cloak off one of the bulky guy body. I cut a huge section of the bottom cloak to prevent the excessively long cloak from dragging on the ground with every step I took. I wore the cloak and pulled the hood up to cover my face. The hood unfortunately was much too big as well, covering my eyes completely. I transformed my eyes to allow at least a little visibility through the cloak. As I walked out of the alley happy with my new cloak I realized a rather huge problem with the limitations I had placed on myself. If there was a situation where I had to fight a human several times stronger than my current form I would be unable to beat them without resorting to using partial dragon form. The humans earlier were much too weak and were easy to overpower simply with the overwhelming difference in our strength. Perhaps I should start thinking of a way to defend myself which I could use to increase my chances of victory in my current form. As I mulled over the thought of a method i could use to fight in combat against any humans that could possibly be a threat to my current form,I noticed the group of humans I stalked to the town entering a huge building. The building looked rather impressive if I compared it to the other buildings in the town. Curiosity once again got a hold on me as I followed suite and entered the building in question. The scene that greeted me was humans everywhere some sitting on tables drinking others at the counter talking. There was a bulletin boards with pieces of paper stuck onto it. The most impressive part was the fact that every single person here were armed with a weapon of some sort. As I stared at the surrounding in awe I heard a voice that seemed to be directed towards me. I looked at the origin of the voice and to my surprise it was the warrior that was part of the group I was stalking. ¡°Hey kid you lost of something? Where are you¡¯re parents?¡± He said as he looked at me with some concern showing in his eyes. (Author Note) : Double digit chapter . [th_084_.gif] As usual feel free to comment ;) Btw i had to go ninja edit chapter 9 and change all the Sera to Ria (its cause she calls herself ria now.) Please point out if i made any mistakes on this chapter as well @@ Chapter 11 -Ria POV- I stared at him for a while trying to think of a suitable response in such a situation. It seems I really do appear to be a child in the eyes of regular humans. It was awkward to hold a conversation with someone I had been stalking for nearly a month. Nevertheless I finally forced out a reply after several seconds¡± I was just curious about the purpose of this building.¡± There was a little lingering feeling of guilt for stalking their group so if possible I rather not talk to him any longer. With that in mind I turned to leave the building, a hand grabbing my wrist stopped me as he said ¡° Chill I¡¯m not asking you to leave or anything. If you are interested in becoming an adventurer in the future feel free to ask me the job requirements.¡± He winked at me as he dragged me towards and empty table seemingly to talk about this job called an adventurer. He was rather forceful since I had yet to give my consent yet he assumed I had agreed. Well I suppose there was no harm in learning more about the humans way of life. I did save their lives after all, that should be enough to compensate for using them for my selfish purpose, was what I told myself as I sat down on the chair he had lifted me onto. ¡°What are you interested in. I might not look like it but I¡¯m an extremely experienced adventurer,¡± he said while smiling at me. Now that he mentioned it I realized he looked rather young and not as buff as he appeared to be in his armor. Without his armor he looked much slimmer yet he obviously had muscles on his body. Since it was the first time I had a close look at him I unconsciously stared a little too much. Well with my hood down he wouldn¡¯t be able to see me staring anyways so I guess its ok. My first question was rather direct and straight to the point.¡± What is an adventurer and what do they do.¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s a rather straightforward question. Well in a way we are similar to the military we have ranks and the higher the rank the higher you¡¯re prestige will be. A big difference would be people volunteer to be an adventurer whereas the military usually takes kids into their academy and train them from scratch. Another difference would be the military only deals with daemas that threaten the livelihood of the people whereas adventures explore dungeons defeat daema and live our live as we please.¡± ¡° What are you teaching to a kid!¡± a girl had approached the warrior from behind and gave him a soft blow to his head. She didn¡¯t have any killing intent so I felt no need to interfere. Upon closer inspection it was the female mage who travelled with the warrior. ¡°Despite the fact we have more freedom we still have rules. Much more lenient than the military but nevertheless there are some things we are not allowed to do. Such as never abusing you¡¯re power to do crimes.¡± ¡°Oh come on its just a small thing. I¡¯m sure the kid ain¡¯t that dumb,¡± the warrior replied back while rubbing the back of his head that was hit. ¡°Come to think of it what is the kid doing here.¡± The female mage asked the male seemingly confused. ¡°For starters I¡¯m not a kid, and I¡¯m here because he offered to teach me about adventurers.¡± I helped the male answer the female question. ¡°What were you thinking bringing a little girl into this place!¡± As she said that she proceeded to grab the man collar and shake him as she questioned his intentions. ¡°Nothing I just saw her at the entrance and since the kid seemed lost I went and try to help her.¡± He replied nervously to the girls question. Hearing their conversation they seemed to have realized my gender. Not that it mattered but perhaps it was because of my voice, since my appearance was covered by the cloak I was wearing. The conversation was unfortunately going nowhere ever since the female mage appeared so I decided to leave since they were starting to attract the attention of the people within the establishment. As I slowly got down from the chair and walked a little to the exit I was grabbed once again, this time by the rogue of the party from the group. ¡°Guys you should stop it look you are scaring the poor kid away.¡± Both of them looked towards me stopping their argument. At the same time I freed my wrist from the grasp of the rogue. To amend the situation I tried to apologize for trying to leave. I proceeded to explain that they were attracting a lot of attention with their argument and I got embarrassed. After a while the girl asked the rogue to help explain their job to me while dragging the warrior away somewhere. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I decided to sit down again since the gazes were focused on the girl dragging the guy away. The rogue sat opposite to me the place the warrior had sat on previously. ¡°Sorry about the two earlier my name is Derek. The other two is Chris and Samantha. What is you¡¯re name if possible I rather not talk to a mysterious cloak kid. Its common courtesy to talk to people face to face and give your name before talking.¡± It seems this man would be much more difficult to deal with than the two earlier. It would be suspicious if I refused to show my face for a simple conversation. Its not as if I have anything to hide in my current form I just wanted to attract less attention when walking in the town. With that in mind I revealed my face and told him my name was Ria. He looked somewhat flustered after I showed my face but he quickly regained his composure and told me I was free to ask him anything I wanted to know about adventurers. He talked a lot more politely and told me it was probably best if I don¡¯t simply show my face in public. Apparently I looked like a demibeast which is normally discriminated against by some civilians. After I got the information I was curious about I thanked the rogue and left the establishment. From what I gathered daema are similar to humans and the other races as in they were living organism as well. I already knew this since I was a daema myself but the other information related to this peaked my interest. Apparently adventurers explores dungeons because in dungeons there were creatures that unlike the humanoid races or the daemas weren¡¯t actual living creatures. In their bodies they held cores of some sort which is used to create the weapons adventurers and the military used. Well now with new knowledge of the outside world, I realized just how much I was lacking in understanding the world around me. Perhaps I should look for a dungeon to understand what the man had spoke of. With that in mind I decided that my new goal was to look for a dungeon. -Derek POV- Seeing Chris messing around with a random kid who probably wondered in by accident was something I had grown accustomed to ever since I met him, he would always try to help people if he thinks they are in need of it. It was probably his biggest flaw yet at the same time greatest side of his personality. I was looking at the distance while Kyle was busy writing a report on the dungeon we had failed on. After a while I saw Samantha walked towards them and proceeded to scold Chris about something. Honestly I wish she just confessed already its obvious she likes him. Well I¡¯m not sure if its Chris fault for being dense or her fault for the way she treats him. Well after a while the kid seemed to have gotten fed up and attempted to leave silently as they continued to argue. I decided to stop the kid but the situation seemed to have progressed to a point I had to answer the kid question. If anything I found it a bother quite honestly especially since the kid looked rather suspicious covering her entire face with a hood. I thought she would refuse if I told her I wished to talk face to face and if she does I could simply say I won¡¯t answer her question and could get away from this bothersome duty, to my surprise she agreed to my request and revealed her face. She definitely looked like a kid but she was at the same time a flawless beauty. One could only imagine how she would look like once she has grown up. Her hair a pure silver and her eyes were was a beautiful gold. I noticed the animals ears on top of her head, which answered my question of why she was cloaked to begin with. Demibeast are generally looked down upon by some racist idiots who existed everywhere unfortunately. Wait she is a kid I can¡¯t she is just a kid I¡¯m not a pervert. I quickly snapped back to reality and controlled myself. After she had left I realized I couldn¡¯t get her out of my head. Is this love at first sight perhaps. Damn it why does she have to be a kid. If she was a little older. If anything at the very least she seemed interested in being an adventurer. I will probably see her again if she becomes an adventurer. (Author note) : This chapter was my attempt at making a info dump interesting. soooo yeah. Sorry if this chapter is boring. Also thank you for all the suggestions on chapter 10 comments :) . Chapter 12 -Ria POV- After leaving the adventurer guild building I continued walking through the town gazing at the various people continuing about their normal lives. Looking at families living about their normal lives I couldn¡¯t help but feel some jealousy. Perhaps I used to have a family if so I wonder where they are now, why was I alone the day I woke up in the forest. Did I have friends before I lost my memory? Probably not since I realized in the years I lived alone, dragons seemed to be widely feared by every species. I even asked the Derek what were people opinion on dragons and it seems my suspicions are true, dragons are creature feared by every humanoid race as well. Nevertheless taking the first step to find people I could possibly call a friend is something I will never regret. Perhaps I should try to find a group to go into a dungeon with, similar to how group of people I stalked were in a team. I could go alone but I will most definitely rely on my partial dragon form if I¡¯m alone. At least within a group I will fight with my current form and there is a possibility of meeting someone who I could get along with. Since I lacked a weapon the only way to defend myself seems to rely on my brute strength. I could also use my minimal control over the elements to my advantage. I couldn¡¯t control the elements to the extent its fatal in this form but I could try to use it to supplement my punches or kicks. If I had a weapon it would be easier but since I lacked the coins needed to trade for a weapon of any sort I decided that for now I will rely on punching and kicking supplemented with whatever element I deem useful for any given situation. A suitable name would be elemental martial arts perhaps. That sounded good enough to me. With a destination set and the method of fighting I would use decided all that¡¯s left is to find a group willing to allow me to accompany them to a dungeon of some sort. According to Derek adventurers normally formed teams to go into dungeons and they normally wore bracelets made of different materials corresponding to their ranks. Derek showed me his and it seemed to be made out of gold. He was apparently gold rank. Adventurers started off with iron and than it goes bronze, silver, gold, diamond, and finally a metal known as adamantine.. Apparently Silver is already considered an accomplishment. Silver would be C rank for military standards according to him. If that¡¯s the case perhaps I should look for a group of people wearing iron bracelets. A realization suddenly hit me as I was about to start looking. I look like a kid. I doubt anyone would agree to allow me into their group since they wouldn¡¯t trust a mere child to be any use in battle. Another thing I neglected to think about before hand. Would they even want a person who wasn¡¯t even an adventurer into their team. My seemingly flawless plan instantly crumbling due to my appearance was rather upsetting but I do intend to go into a dungeon. I should still probably try out my new method of fighting of anyways just to make sure it works. Despite my earlier disappointment because of my brilliant plan crumbling due to my age visually, I still went around the town to asked about a dungeon nearby. It took a while but after asking around I have found out the closest dungeon from here seems to be a rather safe dungeon for new adventurers. I still want to explore the town a little more but since I could always come back after checking out the dungeon I decided to go to the dungeon first. The fact that dungeons contained creatures I have never met before was a motivation. Furthermore I would be able to try out my elemental martial arts. A theory is still after all nothing more than a idea, I would never find out the efficiency nor how effective it is without proper testing. Since I had finished my preparations I quickly walked towards the direction the dungeon seemed to be at. It was apparently a cave like structure in the middle of the plains I had to cross through to get to the town. I wonder how I missed it, then again I was completely entranced by the town at the time I crossed the plains the first time. I was feeling good about the trip despite the fact my preparation didn¡¯t exactly existed. My so called preparations were merely the ideas that were running through my head. Living alone for too long seemed to have cultivated a bad habit. I realized I think too many useless thoughts. I have been aware of it for some time but then again there was never a need to change since it was one of my few entertainments while I was living alone in my cave. Would it be a disadvantage now since I don¡¯t pay too much attention to my surroundings as I get lost in my thoughts. While I was thinking about my problems and started an internal debate whether I needed to fix this problem I had arrived to the dungeon entrance. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I didn¡¯t have a single encounter with a daema on the way which was apparently normal. Well this dungeon was well known in town as a place for aspiring adventures. My main priority this time around didn¡¯t need a strong opponent and my experiments regarding monster from dungeon isn¡¯t affected by the strength of said monster. If anything this place was perfect for my goals. With that in mind I walked through the entrance without a second thought excited for my first trip into a dungeon. Initially it was a rather uneven surface but the deeper I went the more even the surface became and at some point it was became perfectly even. The surrounding walls looked as if it was made out of bricks. At some point I came across a crossroad. Without any hesitation I walked towards the right side. The further I walked the bigger the passage expanded. The smooth brick walls were soon replaced with more cave like walls and the ceiling similarly took on a cave like texture. According to the information I gathered monster should start appearing in this area. True enough I noticed tiny green humanoid creatures started to appear. They were shorter than me yet they had bigger heads than most adults humans have. Their mouth were filled to the brim with tiny rows of sharp teeth. Their limbs were short yet muscle were obviously bulging throughout their tiny limbs. In their hand they held a club made completely out of stone. Their attire consisted of fur wrapped around their waist similar to mine. Their bellies were bulging outwards. To summarize their appearance in one word, Ugly nothing else more fitting could come to mind. I had been warned that being a adventurer wasn¡¯t for the faint hearted. Apparently monster in dungeon were normally repulsive making daema look almost cute in comparison. Since these green creatures were apparently the weakest monster one can find in a dungeon its safe to assume they were the least repulsive I guess. There were only about five of them encircling around me. I made short work dispatching them with five punches coated with fire. Killing them didn¡¯t leave a corpse behind unlike with daema. Instead the corpse had turned into a rock, that looked somewhat like gem stones. When my fist made contact it still felt like real flesh and the fire had burned said flesh leaving behind the smell of burnt flesh. The phenomena was weird and apparently still a mystery that no one could solve. Putting that aside my elemental martial arts seems to be a possible solution to my problem. Creating a little of any element to coat my fist didn¡¯t take as much mana directly launching it would. It wouldn¡¯t normally be a problem but since I couldn¡¯t access my normally infinite pool of mana in this form I had no choice but find the most mana efficient method of fighting. I went around testing a few different elements on a few more of the green things. From the test I had conducted I came a to a conclusion that the green monster was awfully weak. It looked terrifying but they were on par with rabbit daemas. Since I had the chance I conducted a few more experiments with elemental martial arts before calling it a day and leaving the dungeon. Back in town I sold the cores I had collected for some coins. I got about one silver coins from the cores I sold. Good thing I had asked Derek in advance about a place to stay. The establishment known as an inn. I went into the place and paid the women behind a counter one silver coin I had obtained. Apparently one silver was enough for three nights stay. Since I intend to continue exploring the dungeon for a few more days I took the key she gave me and went to the room that I had purchased for the next three days. The room was rather small but it had everything I needed, something soft to sleep on. With that being said I promptly entered a deep slumber as soon as I lied down on the bed. (Author note) : Sorry if there are a lot of mistakes on this chapter. I wrote the whole thing while feeling sleepy :sleepy: If there are any glaring mistakes please point it out on the comments and i will fix it when i wake up. Since i normally proof read and edit any mistakes i find before posting, too tired to do that right now so this is unedited sorry if i make a lot of mistakes. Chapter 13 -Ria POV- For several days I continued a routine of experimenting my elemental martial arts in the dungeon. The cores obtained during my practice were sold for the coins needed to continue staying in the inn. My practice were bearing fruit if I do say so myself. The techniques I visualize during my time in the inn were put into practice against the little green monster. Since they weren¡¯t a threat to me I could freely experiment without any worries of anything going wrong. The time I spent was worth it since some of my ideas ended up a total failure once put into practice. Elemental martial arts will most definitely prove to be useful investment of my time and effort since it was usable even if I use partial dragon form. After several more days had past I had invented several basic techniques for each element I was capable of using. I had even completely explored the town during my free time. Perhaps its time to go register as a adventurer. There are certain dungeons that requires an adventurer bracelet to enter. The more dangerous it is the higher ranking required to enter for safety reasons. I haven¡¯t registered as a adventurer since the test was a mock combat with a examiner. I was afraid of injuring the examiner since the examiner for new adventurers were normally at most D rank apparently. The information I gotten from the adventurer association the day before is certainly useful. If I want to avoid standing out I have to defeat the examiner without revealing too much of my strength. If I become a adventurer I could join a team of some sort , despite the fact I look like a child. My plan this time around is flawless. The dungeon I have been going too is mostly ignored since it had only one floor and the only monster that existed in there were the green man monster which is apparently called goblins. There was one other dungeon nearby which required at the very least to be a adventurer of the iron rank to be permitted entry. This town was famous for being one of the nine suitable for new adventurers. The group I had stalked to reach this town had already departed since they were pretty high ranked in the adventurer community. Since I have planned out everything and took into account various scenario of what might happen I confidently walked into the adventurer guild with the intent of registering to be an adventurer. ¡°Excuse me I would like the apply to be an adventurer please.¡± ¡°Excuse me may I know you¡¯re age. The minimum requirement is at the very least 13 years old.¡± ¡°I¡¯m already 15 years old, I¡¯m just naturally short. May I please take the test.¡± ¡°Ok please wait for a moment I will prepare the test.¡± My prepared age and excuse seemed to have worked flawlessly. Since I¡¯m unsure of my actual age I had prepare a fake story even if they decided to pry more into my background. Luckily I didn¡¯t need to resort to using it. After some time I was called into the a room behind the counter to take the test. The examiner testing me looked rather young and in his hand he held a wooden sword . As soon as she said we could begin the man seemed to be relaxed as he swung his sword lightly towards me. My movement was somewhat restricted right now since I was wearing my cloak but to counter such a halfhearted blow like this didn¡¯t require much effort to begin with. I used my arm to continuously block the wooden sword he wielded rather poorly if compared to the warrior I was observing for weeks as I stalked him. After counting to about two minutes or so I decided I could end this now without seeming overwhelmingly more powerful than the examiner. He seemed to be taking the fight more seriously now but I easily delivered a soft punch towards his abdomen causing him to faint. ¡°Did I pass?.¡± ¡°Ah yes please fill in you¡¯re information into this form and you will officially become an adventurer.¡± I happily took the form and filled it with things I had decided before hand as my backstory. After I gave the form back to her I was given an iron bracelet with my name carved into it. I took the bracelet and wore it on my wrist and proceeded to leave the adventurer guild satisfied how well my plan had turned out. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. -Staff of the adventurer guild POV- Recently the there has been a child wearing a cloak that has been coming to the guild to ask me some information such as the minimal age required to become an adventurer and about the dungeons in the area. She was probably an aspiring adventurer so I didn¡¯t hesitate to give her the answers she needed. It wasn¡¯t harmful since the information she wanted was general knowledge honestly I was rather surprise she didn¡¯t know about it. Today however the child wanted to apply to be an adventurer and even went as far as lying about her age. I didn¡¯t believe her but it wasn¡¯t the first time a child tried registering as an adventurer before reaching the age of 13. From experience the best method was to show the child that she was far from ready to become an adventurer. I told the examiner to take it easy on her since she was a child but to make sure he didn¡¯t hurt her. Showing her that she was currently powerless and need to work harder normally worked. The entrance examiner had a day off today so I asked a D rank adventurer I know to help conduct the test. After I allowed her to into the testing room inside the guild she eagerly awaited for me to start the test. I honestly expected the test to last for a few minutes at best. She would be able to learn her lesson but the situation that unfolded before me was the opposite of what I expected. She easily overpowered his strikes and flawlessly blocked all the attacks as if she was the adult and he was the child. After some time had passed she made him faint in a single punch. A D rank losing to a single punch from a child was something I never thought possible. Maybe I was overthinking things and she was really 15 years old. I still couldn¡¯t believe it but I was snapped back into reality by the kid asking me if she had passed. Since she did win I had no choice but to allow her to officially become an adventurer. Even as she happily left I was still in shock in all my years I have never seen anything like that happen before. -Ria POV- The first part of my plan was completed now that I¡¯m officially an adventure. The second part would be going to the dungeon I couldn¡¯t go to before. The entrance was actually in town but there were several safety measures taken to prevent children or anyone who isn¡¯t a adventurer from going into it. The place was normally filled to the brim with new adventurers. It would be nice if I could make a friend while exploring the dungeon. The dungeon this time was 3 floors deep and despite the fact the monster are weak enough for new adventurers it was a maze similar to any of the higher level dungeon. So most people would prepare food and water before attempting to enter. I was no exception I bought some rations with the money I saved up from selling goblin cores. I bought a small pouch I could wear as a belt. I stored the water in a canteen which I could attach it to the belt. The dry meat I stored in the pouch. I didn¡¯t buy any weapon since I ran out of money. I was allowed through the various blockade set up to prevent non adventurers form entering. Once I passed through the last one there was a rather big open space in front of the entrance. I could see various people forming groups to enter their first real dungeon. Needless to be said I was rather excited since it was much lively over here compared to the one with the goblins in it. (Author Note) : early release. As usual any feedback is very much welcome. Thank you for sticking with my story to this point i''m honestly extremely happy that you guys(hopefully) enjoy what i write :D Chapter 14 -Ria POV- The entrance was similar to the previous dungeon however the deeper into the dungeon I went the more apparent just how different this dungeon was to the other one. This dungeon consisted of multiple different pathways. It felt like a network of caves that seemed to be naturally created. The monster that appeared so far was similar to the other dungeon though. There was no sign of anything other than goblins, by now I could easily kill goblins with my eyes close. Occasionally I would find a group of people fighting a group of goblin. It didn¡¯t require much effort as one would expect but they still took several minutes to kill a single group of the monster. I¡¯m well aware of my current overwhelming strength if I were to compare it to a adventurer who just started. If anything joining a party with one would severely restrict the amount of power I would allow myself to use during combat. I was desperate for a friend, someone to talk to but I still prioritize my own safety before my personal desire. My current strength in this form is comparable to Derek party so my current form should be at least B rank or gold rank if I followed the adventurer ranking system. Staying on the first floor won¡¯t hold any benefit to me so I continued exploring the rest of the floor and eventually found a stairway to the next floor. The second floor finally had monster I was unfamiliar with. Similar to the goblin it was green however it was much bigger than the goblin perhaps around three times bigger. Its arms were long enough to touch the ground. It had two tiny horns on its head and a tail similar to a cow. Its teeth looked rotten almost and a putrid smell lingered in the air around it. Its green skin was covered in what looked to be dead skin. Some of its flesh was even rotten. The monster was surrounded with goblins which seemed to listen to its orders. It took a little longer but I was easily able to defeat the monster just as easily as I had expected. After further exploration I finally reached the 3rd floor which was apparently the last floor this dungeon had. On the way I had also been diligently collecting the cores to sell. I still needed to buy a weapon and clothing of some kind. I currently still wore the animal skin I took from my cave and the cloak I had taken from the human that day. The 3rd floor had an increase in monster and even some kind of demonic bat like monster. Adventurers I come across on the 3rd floor seemed a lot more experienced. I glanced at the wrist of some of them and they were mostly bronze rank. The end of this dungeon was a large throne room of some sort apparently. There were quite a number of people who reached the end only to find an empty throne room. Its pretty well known among the adventurers as dead end dungeon. Most dungeon normally held some kind of enormous monster several times stronger than any monster that could be found in the dungeon. These so called boss monster cores were normally worth a fortune since they were extremely difficult to reach and to defeat. Despite this dungeon fame of an empty final room , the dungeon continued to have adventurers trying to reach the end as a method of determining their current strength. The 3rd floor I was currently in had a much wider variety of monster unlike the first two floor. Which allowed me to enjoy myself seeing new and different monster every once in a while as I explored. The so called maze like dungeon was much easier than I imagined. The maze in itself was not complicated if one made a mental map in their head as they travelled around. Despite this I encountered several adventurers who were lost. I was making short work of the dungeon since the monster here were simply too weak and it seems my memory is much better than the average human. Around one day after entering the dungeon I finally reached the empty throne room that I heard about only through the word of mouth. If anything I felt this entire experience was underwhelming to say the least. Nothing particularly interesting happened part two of my plan bore no fruit and it was much easier than I expected to reach the end. I had collected plenty of cores but despite the difference in size and monsters it didn¡¯t feel too different from the dungeon no one went to cause it only had goblins in it. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Was it a complete waste of my time probably, did I enjoy it not as much as I had hoped I would. I went ahead and sat on the throne situated in the middle of the room and started thinking of what to do next. To get promoted as an adventurer I needed to pass another test. It shouldn¡¯t be too hard but I wanted to do something fun not take another boring test. Isn¡¯t there anything interesting I could do. I could try making friends but a cloak individual isn¡¯t easy to approach and without the cloak I looked like a demibeast which is discriminated against. Thinking back on how excited I got about entering this dungeon I felt silly. As I placed my arm on the armrest of the throne I suddenly felt a sharp pain running through my arm. Looking at my arm I was surprised to see my claws and scales covering it. I hadn¡¯t used partial dragon form intentionally rather it transformed against my will as soon as I touched the armrest. The throne didn¡¯t look particularly fancy since it was made of stone with weird carvings running throughout the armrest towards an arc above the throne. With caution I tried touching it again with my arm that was already in partial dragon form. As soon as I touched it I saw black energy leaving my arm into the patterns carved in the chair. It was my mana that gradually flowed into every single line of the pattern throughout the throne. By now I was standing up looking at the throne with a little interest. Red lines gradually extended from the throne covering the walls in the rooms. The entrance had been closed off as soon as the pattern started spreading. Several things were running through my mind simultaneously. How did no one discover this before. Whats happening right now. Is it because I¡¯m not human that the throne reacted? There should have been thousands who reached the throne room yet this phenomena is unheard off. I was rather meticulous in my information gathering and I¡¯m certain this dungeon didn¡¯t have such a feature. The red light from the patterns surrounding the room started to transform to a liquid like substance oozing out of the very pattern surrounding the room. It looked somewhat like blood rushing towards the throne in the middle which I had backed away from. The blood like substance gradually formed a human like shape sitting on the throne. My mana the throne had taken earlier turned to black liquid surrounding the human shape. It gradually took the form of some kind of black armor. A black blade had also started to form in its grasp. The throne did sap quite a lot of my mana but I could do nothing but stare at the armored knight forming in front of me. The light gradually faded and in the throne sat a black knight with its arm resting on the blade that was currently piercing the ground. Several minutes passed yet the black knight continued to sit in the throne unfazed and unmoving. All to suddenly the black knight stood up and launched itself towards me. I quickly blocked the blow with my arm that had already partially dragon formed. My arm was able to take the blow but my currently normal legs was unable to take the force and I was sent flying towards the wall. It seems I need to get serious if not this could get dangerous. Bearing the pain my other arm and both legs started to partial dragon form. The scales covered my neck as well. My canines started to grow longer as I continued to cover my body in scales as well. ¡°Lets spar shall we.¡± I smiled as I got out of the rubble left from my impact on the wall. (Author Note) : Well i decided to spice things up a little since i was worried it was getting boring :3 . I already have the general plot in my head but if you guys don''t like this development please comment before i write the next chapter. I don''t mind changing it if you guys don''t like it. Chapter 15 -Ria POV 3rd person POV ¨C Ria proceeded to launch herself forward after taunting the dark knight. Her fist was immediately surrounded with fire and the target of her punch was the helmet of the dark knight. The knight immediately responded by lifting his blade to block the blow. Ria didn¡¯t stop proceeding to swing her feet towards his arm holding the blade. The knight easily evaded the blow but the path her feet had swung turned into a blade of air launching itself towards it. It swung its blade releasing a black coloured shock wave breaking through the air wave created by ria. Ria was however already behind the knight and proceeded to grabbed the knight gauntlet. Planting her feet firmly into the ground she used her full strength and threw the knight to the entrance. The knight smashed through the wall blocking the entrance smashing into the wall on the other side. Ria didn¡¯t stop her relentless assault as she blasted forwards using her claws scratched the air releasing blades made of air towards the knight. By then the knight had already recovered and it easily destroy the blades with a single swing of its sword. Ria tail transformed into its partial dragon state as she went into close combat against the knight. The knights blade couldn¡¯t penetrate her scales and her claws couldn¡¯t break through the armor worn by the knight. The longer their fight went on the more their surrounding got destroyed. Their blows were evenly matched and no matter how much elemental attacks ria threw towards the knight it had close to no effect. At some point Ria started to recklessly blast huge amounts of fire turning their battle ground into a sea of fire. Their battle wasn¡¯t confined into a single area since whenever their blows connected perfectly one of the two would be sent flying. Their fight had reached deep into the 3rd floor of the dungeon, any monster that was close to the fight instantly died merely from the shockwaves caused by their exchange of blows. The ground rumbled almost like a miniature earthquake whenever one of them collided towards the surface. Ria could hear the screams from adventurers on the 3rd floor but the situation didn¡¯t allow her to let her guard down as the dark knight was slowly proving to be the strongest thing she had ever faced. Ria horns started to grow out as well as she mercilessly tried to destroy the knight which was releasing shockwaves of dark energy with every single one of its swings. The shockwaves released easily sliced a huge chunk of the walls or grounds of the caves it had landed on. If it connected and hit Ria she would be sent flying smashing into a wall. It was however insufficient in strength to break through her scales. In ria case she released a torrential amount of fire with every swing of her claws or feet, scorching the area. Both Ria and the knight seem barely tired as they continued to duke it out. The ceiling of the dungeon started to rain down around them. Ria didn¡¯t allow her opponent a single moment of rest continuously dishing out attack after attack. If one saw their fight they would perhaps mistaken ria as the monster and the dark knight as the hero saving them, since ria was currently somewhat like a miniature dragon if one saw her from a distance. Since pretty much her entire body has partially dragon formed excluding her head. Neither had the upperhand as the battle continued to rage on. Ria was as of now flying and the knight could somehow stay airborne even without any wings. At some point ria was launched upwards breaking through the ceiling. Therefore their battle had changed location to the 2nd floor of the dungeon. -Random town person POV- I could feel tremors occurring. The tremors continued happening at random intervals causing quite a bit of panic among the towns people. The only thing stopping the situation from getting worse was a few people from the military that came to our town recently. They were helping to evacuate the town because of the tremors. They seemed to have been sent here on a mission of some sort. It was most likely about the daema problems we had been having recently that had already been solved by the B rank adventurers that came to our town recently. The evacuation was going smoothly initially until adventurers started to pour out of our town dungeon in panic. Apparently the cause of the tremor was caused by our town dungeon suddenly caving in. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. -Alex(military person) POV- I was initially sent to the town due to reports of daema attacking the town. Upon my arrival the problem seemed to have been taken care of by a group of gold rank adventurer. Myself and my partner were B rank so it was to safe to assume they could handle the problem. As we were about to leave tremor started occurring within the town. Initially we ignored it until it reached a point severe enough for us to help evacuate the town. When we were around half done with the evacuation adventurers started to run away from the direction of the dungeon. I manage to catch one of the copper ranking one and got information that the dungeon was apparently collapsing. I ran towards the dungeon entrance with my partner to confirm the situation. Upon arriving at the entrance the tremors got worst. By now most of the townspeople have left the area due to possible danger in the area. This was the first time I have ever heard of a dungeon collapsing if what that adventurer said is true I have to report this back to the higher ups. Suddenly the ground in front of the dungeon started to have cracks forming in it. Several seconds after which a body blasted its way out of the ground. The entity that shot out of the ground wore some kind of black armour and wielded a giant sword. The knight used its sword to pierce the ground to stop rolling almost as if he was punched through the ground rather than broke through it. My suspicions appeared to be true as a creature unlike any other I have ever seen flew out of the ground mere seconds after the knight. The creature looked humanoid yet it had wings and tails like a dragon and even had scales running through majority of its body. The weird thing was that despite how terrifying she appeared she looked beautiful. If she was human she would perhaps be comparable to a 16 year old. She wore an outfit made of fur of some sort so it obviously had intelligence. Her eyes a beautiful gold had it looked like one a reptile would have. Her long silver hair flowed out behind her. After a while I broke out of the trance when she flew towards the knight slamming her entire body against his smashing through a wall. The area in which she flew to suddenly burst into a giant pillar of flames. Even from this distance I could feel the intense heat being radiated from the pillar of flames. As a matter of fact the mere shockwave form her colliding with the knight had cause myself and my partner flying away. -Ria POV- The longer the battle went on the more my body involuntarily transformed into its partial form. At some point I even grew bigger for some reason. The longer it went on the more intense the pain that was running through my body not caused by the knight rather, it was from staying in partial form for too long. It appears partial form doesn¡¯t completely change one part of my body into its real form rather it force my demihuman form body to be able to gain access to my dragon powers. In my demihuman form I was somehow biologically more similar to a human than a dragon. The strain felt from prolonged combat such as this was intense as I could feel my body screaming in pain. It has to be several hours since our fight had started if it went on any longer I probably have to transform into my real form otherwise I fear I would permanently injure my current body. At some point I don¡¯t know how I fight had brought us back to town. Completely relying on my instinct rather than technique had caused me to lose track of my surroundings. It does appear there is no one here except for those two humans at the dungeon entrance beforehand. The worst part of the ordeal was the fact that the black knight in front of me showed no visible exhaustion as a matter of fact it seemed barely damaged. Isn¡¯t this unfair having such a powerful monster in a apparently low level dungeon. (Author Note) : Well i tried my best. If any part of the fight was written badly feel free to tell me i can rewrite it. Chapter 16 -Ria POV 3rd person POV- Despite the immense pain running throughout her body ria showed no intention of backing down releasing wave after waves of fire in the now burning town. The peaceful looking town in a matter of seconds had turned into a sea of fire. Every building around them ignited some sliced in half by the dark knight attacks. Within the sea of chaos the presence of life was absent as their fight raged on. -Alex(military guy)POV- The pillar of flame disappeared as quickly as it appeared the surroundings of the pillar of flame instantly became surrounded by fire as huge streams of fire blast out from every direction imaginable. Dark energy waves were also blasting out from the same area as the fire. None of the buildings around the area seemed to have been spared as most has turned to mere rubble on those further away are burning some sliced in half by the dark energy waves. Visually and from the destruction that I could see in front of me I assume both the monster and the knight in front of me are at the very least S rank in terms of strength. S rank daema are rare enough to be considered almost legendary, from history there has only been about five daemas reaching the s rank recorded all five are dragon type daema. As for the knight he was obviously not one of the three S rank our country military has and he doesn¡¯t appear to be the one of the two adamantine adventurer from the country adventurer association. Let alone S rank even A rank or diamond rank, there are at most about twenty or so reaching that level of strength. Even my current strength as a B rank could be considered as one of the elites. If so these two S rank in front of us can only be assumed to be from another country. If I recall about a decade ago an order for the A ranks in the military to search for a dragon was announced and to lower ranks like me we were to immediately report if we saw a Dragon during our missions. From the short glimpse I had of the dragon like girl she could very well be the very same dragon. A daema transforming into a more human like form is unheard of, if so is she a variation of some sort. These thoughts were running through my head as I quickly tried to stand up. If she is indeed a dragon my partner and I aren¡¯t a match against her, even if she wasn¡¯t a mere B rank challenging a S rank is courting death. It was frustrating but we could do nothing but retreat and report back to the higher ups. ¡°Dude we gotta go.¡± My partner seemed almost frantic as he urged me to hurry up and run away. True merely spectating their fight could be considered lethal. Somewhat regretting my current strength I followed my partner running away from the town. -Ria POV- The longer the fight went on, the more unbearable the pain wreaking me internally. I estimate I could last for at most another hour before collapsing altogether. The dark knight in front of me appeared to be just fine but then again it didn¡¯t seem to have intelligence and is merely acting on instinct similar to monster in dungeons. It could very well be near its breaking point as well. I knew better than anyone else that I needed something stronger to finish the dark knight off. As our exchange remained in a permanent dead lock I tried focusing more mana into the flames I was creating. Rather than directly burst out my mana in huge waves of flames, I compressed as much mana as I possibly could into a miniature fire ball throwing it towards the knight. The result was an explosion of flame as soon as the fireball touched its armor. The fireball expanded in an instant the resulting explosion even blew me away as I flew smashing into a the ground creating a crater. As soon as the smoke cleared away in the middle of the huge crater stood the dark knight seemingly undamaged by the explosion. The body of armor however suddenly started to convulse as the red blood like substance that had created it started to leak out of the armor from the cracks in the armor. As the liquid oozed out it seemed to evaporate into a red mist around the body. Slowly the armor fell into pieces showing its hollow insides as if there was never anything in it to begin with. Since the dark knight seemed to have died somehow, I released partial form transforming back into my demihuman form. The sight that greeted me wasn¡¯t pretty. My skin seemed to have been ripped apart and I could see my own blood flowing out from numerous wounds covering my entire body. It seems using partial form for too long had negative side effects to my body. Perhaps its due to me pushing my current body to become more similar to my dragon body. If I used my dragon form I would have been fine no matter how long a fight had lasted, but my size would have been much to big. Also I couldn¡¯t completely hold back in my dragon form as well, so perhaps this is for the best. My body is a wreak but at least I won. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. It hurt to simply stand but I somehow forced myself to limp away from the giant crater with the armor pieces and the black sword. I would take it with me but the armor is simply to big and the sword would be impossible to carry around without looking weird with my current height. I seemed to revert back into looking like a kid as soon as I released partial form so the set of armor and sword are definitely useless to me. What I needed was a new cloak since my old one burned away in the fight. The fur I was wearing was from some kind of daema and apparently its fur is resistant to fire since my makeshift clothing was still fine. The blood flowing out from almost every part of my body had dyed it red though. What was once a town was currently a blazing inferno with various craters and cracks running throughout the town. Rather than a town it looked more like a ruin. As I continued to limp out of town I looked around realizing the destruction I had caused to a once beautiful town. In my defense I had no choice but I still regretted destroying hundreds of people home. For now I needed to find a place to recuperate since my wounds though not fatal was still severe enough for concern. The saddest part of it all was that the wounds were caused by my own powers rather than the knight blows. I had barely exhausted the mana I had as a dragon but drawing out just this much had damaged this body to this extent As a matter of fact I wasn¡¯t completely sure how do I transform back into my dragon form. To partial form I merely had to draw out my dragon mana and run it through the body part I wanted to shift. When I had transformed into human form I had to run an immense amount of my mana to revert to this form, the pain was almost unbearable. Did I have to do the same to revert back into my dragon form if so I pray I never had to find out. I eventually reached the plains and I continued to limp into the forest. In the forest I followed my memories to reach a cave Derek party had camped in when it rained. It was about a thirty minute walk yet I somehow persevered through the pain and reached the cave. My wounds have ever stopped bleeding but it still looked horrid as I finally rested my exhausted body against the wall of the cave. It was a ordinary cave with nothing special to pay attention to. It wasn¡¯t the best environment for an injured person but I suppose it was enough. I circulated the very mana that caused the injuries around my body in minimal amounts. Too much of it was simply too much for my body to handle but in small amounts of it should help the recovery. Eventually I dozed off when my exhaustion finally caught up to me. -Military academy( much much later when alex report arrived)- ¡°Sir a we had received a report on a dragon like daema appearing in the town of Fortaare.¡± ¡°Elaborate on the report.¡± ¡°He merely had a glimpse but from the short moment he saw it he described it as a beautiful female with diamond like scales surrounding her body. She even had horns ,a tail and wings. From spectating for several seconds he claims the female entity was at the very least a S rank. Her opponent looked like a knight wearing jet black armor. It wielded a huge sword that seemed to be made of the same material as its armour. He stated due to safety reason he and his partner had immediately retreated from the town.¡± ¡°The dragon then had diamond like scales as well. Very well sent a team of five B ranks and at least one A rank. This mission is of upmost importance. Visit the town and find traces of that dragon girl. After investigation help the reconstruction of the town by sending around a hundred or so D ranks. How long ago did this happen.¡± ¡°He stated he witness the events written about three days ago.¡± As the man giving the report left the man who looked to be a high ranking official within the military broke into a grin. ¡°Finally our military very first dragon daema to capture. From the report she seemed especially interesting. Can other daemas transform into a human like appearance. So many questions and she holds the answer to it all. If it comes to it S rank seem to have to be deployed to capture her. ¡° (Author Note) : Hello(i''m running out of things to say :I) Hope you guys enjoy this chapter Btw i''m not sure how long i can continue daily release, i will try to continue as long as possible but i''m writing every chapter the day its released. Don''t have a secret stock of hidden chapters unfortunately :( Chapter 17 -Alex(military guy) POV- I was assigned into the group that was to investigate the town I reported about. Including myself there were 19 other B ranks in the group and a single A rank. The A rank assign to the mission was known as Mjolnir . He specialized in lighting and used two special broadsword. He could combine both of them to form a large hammer he called Mjolnir which is the origin of his title. Mjolnir drastically increase the destruction caused by his blows, in exchange he sacrifices his speed while wielding his trademark weapon. He is extremely famous as expected of an A rank. Anyone with that level of strength are normally famous and known by plenty of people which made me all the more curious of the identity of the dark knight that day. Most A rank were given a title based on their weapon and element they specialized in using. Its hopeless for me to hope to be able to become a A rank since I didn¡¯t have any affinity with any element. It was defiantly hopeless for me. Seeing a battle between S rank was somewhat of a wake up call. I would never amount to anymore than just another B rank in the military. Perhaps i was a fool dream of trying to reach A rank despite not having much talent but I should have known I could never go any further than this. I mean more than a decade ago I was having trouble when I was fighting against little girls. Come to think of it one of the little girl was beautiful as well I imagine she would be as beautiful as that dragon girl if she grew up. Well she died in an accident along with another one of the three girls that day. The only survivor was now an A rank of all things. So much younger yet so much more accomplished than I would ever be. If anything I wasn¡¯t even qualified to help the new system implemented a few years back. A few years back all the A ranks in the military and a few selected talented individual in the B rank were given a choice of multiple daemas to form a bond with. It was a special magic seal developed by the researchers within the military that allowed a master contract towards daema that has submitted, by defeating them and getting them to acknowledge the caster. Once the contract was sealed the daema will apparently be loyal towards the master who used the seal. Its my own hypothesis but I assume the reason the higher ups is obsessed with my report is because taming a dragon would be a huge accomplishment and give them the fire power to protect the country from more than just daema possibly even other countries that might attack us. Our country is controlled by humans which could be considered one of the weaker ones compared to the countries belonging to the elves, fairies and dwarfs. The demibeast country probably stand no chance since they didn¡¯t have much technological advancement . In fact rather than a country they were just various tribes scattered across a large area. They don¡¯t have a proper government of any sort. If anything their primal ways are the main reason demibeast are discriminated in the other countries. The mermaids and merman country is underwater hence they most likely have no interest in taking over land above their underwater domain. Our country military needs to even go as far as to rely on daema as a safety measure to have means to fight back if we do go to war. Despite my lack of talent I¡¯m still one of the upper tier ranks purely from working hard so I do have access to information not available to people lower than B rank. Slavery is still common within the elf country and the human country but it is mostly enjoyed by the royalty or nobility of the countries. Our country is the only country with some of the other races who migrated into it for various reasons. This isn¡¯t true for humans who all stay within this country due to the fact we are indeed the superior race in the country. Despite that our countries S rank are all not of the human race. They were still under our country simply because they were born in this country. I have been thinking a lot lately about the relationships between the countries because of the various different measures our country military is taking to increase our strength. The journey to the town took some time anyways so these are the various things I had been thinking about while we journeyed to the town. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Eventually our group finally reached the town in which the battle took place just several days ago. Due to the fact that we had reached our destination I was asked by mjolnir to show them the area which their fight had took place. My partner wasn¡¯t part of the group since he had gotten injured on our way back. I lead the way to the area where the pillar of fire had appeared. As we made our way there we had time to look around the town which was now in ruins. We could see some people trying to salvage as much stuff from what was probably their home before the incident. The military had sent aid to the town which had set up some temporary shelter in the plains outside the town. Reaching the site of the battle we could see the various craters almost as if there had been a meteor shower. Large scars were littered across the ground. There was one crater in particular that was several times bigger than the rest. Mjolnir went ahead and jumped into the largest crater to see what could be found. Shortly after he had jumped in he called me to follow suit. I went ahead and jumped in to see what he had called me for. What greeted me in the centre of the crate were various pieces of armor scattered around the center. A sword was piercing the ground in the middle of the crater. ¡°Is this the armor and weapon of the black knight from you¡¯re report.¡± ¡°Yes sir¡± without hesitation I replied the truth since the armor does look like what the black knight I had saw was wearing. After which mjolnir called the rest of the B rank down to help transport the armor back to base. After searching the rest of the town we could find no traces of the Dragon as I had expected since she obviously had no reason to stay. Well we still had the armor and weapon of the black knight which we assume had been killed by the dragon girl. -Ria POV- It has been several days since the fight yet, my wounds have yet to fully recover. They were however for the most part good enough for me to leave the cave. The various wounds I had then has already closed up leaving no traces of a scar of any sort unlike what one would expect with injuries that severe. I could stil however feel some internal damage that hasn¡¯t fully heal. It should heal in another day or so. Nevertheless I had no intention of remaining in the cave so I left my hiding spot and walked back to the town to see if the villagers were alright. It was stupid I know, but I couldn¡¯t get rid of the guilt I felt for destroying their home. I just want to make sure they were alright than I will leave. I did spent a rather long time in the town so I recognized a few people. I had walked all the way back to the plains when I spotted a group of twenty one people leaving the town. They were also carrying the armour and sword of the dark knight I had defeated. Staying at the border of the forest that separated the plains and the forest I stared at them for a while. Thinking about it with the town destroyed I currently have no idea where to go. I had no fixed goal as well. After contemplating several things I could do. I decided to use my stalking skills I had somehow mastered to see where the group were going. It could be an interesting town of some sort. The people of the town seemed to be fine as well so I had nothing holding me back. With my mind made up I started to stalk a new group of people. Bigger than before but that should make this much easier than before since it will be harder to lose track of such a big group. I can¡¯t help but wonder what this new place would be like. (Author note) : A boring chapter i know but i still haven''t fully explained the world from my imagination and i hope to make it believable to the best of my current abilities. Still a fairly new writer since this is the longest story i have ever written in my life . If there are flaws please do point them out i really do appreciate the help. A sidenote i suck at making names :''( . If you guys can think of a better title than mjolnir feel free to comment it. Chapter 18 -Ria POV- It had been about two days since I had begun following them and as expected I was able to remain completely hidden from them. Its nothing to be proud of but I had some confidence in my ability to follow them undetected. Like usual I watched in interest as the group of humans began to set up camp for the night. Unlike the group I followed before this group were much more organized almost as if they were taught things like these in advance. Observing humans was one of my favourite past time as I stalk them. To prevent excess noise I normally limit myself from doing anything that could possibly generate said noise. From my observation so far it seems the man with the yellow hair is in charge. He didn¡¯t look particularly strong yet he radiated a faint aura around him. It seemed familiar to mana I normally leak to detect movement in my territory back when I lived in the cave. If anything the difference was that he had a much better control over his mana than I did. I had honestly expected it to go smoothly. After they had reached their destination we were never to meet ever again. Not as if they had ever met me to begin with. Things however didn¡¯t go exactly as planned. Call it a moment of carelessness if you will. I had accidently entered into the range in which the yellow haired man could detect me with his mana aura thing. I had no one else to blame but my carelessness but having lighting bolts shot towards you¡¯re general direction isn¡¯t what I would call a pleasant way to spend the night. He was shouting words such as show yourself coward and various other things as he continued blasting lighting towards me. The rest of the group didn¡¯t seem worried as they didn¡¯t even bother to get up to help. Eventually the man who I have decided to call zappy, since he seemed to like zapping his enemies dashed forward towards my direction. He was much faster than my current form could ever hope to go. I didn¡¯t use partial form in fear of the uncertainty whether my body could bear the strain. I might have fully recovered but I wasn¡¯t willing to use it unless it was absolutely needed. He was after all intelligent unlike the monster knight I had fought. Perhaps we could come to a mutual understanding of some sort. Since we could never have a conversation at the speed we were going and also because he would have inevitably caught up I stopped hoping form tree to tree and instead jumped onto the forest floor. As I soon as I landed I saw his imposing figure battle ready standing in front of me. ¡°Hmmm. a demibeast?. What are you doing here?.¡± ¡°Ummm I¡¯m sorry sir but I lived in the town that was destroyed. I thought if I followed you I could reach a new town.¡± With my childish persona I intended to full him into believing I¡¯m but a child who was a victim of the destroyed town. Surely he would have some pity and not attack me. I had even dropped my pride and acted as such. Something useful I learned from my stay in town was that kids seemed to be less suspicious. My current appearance finally had a use for once. ¡°I won¡¯t fall for such tricks. If you had indeed been following us since the town I would have noticed you a lot earlier. Do you take me for a fool after seeing you¡¯re display of speed earlier. You are anything but a mere child. Now speak who and what are you. You might as well release you¡¯re foolish illusion.¡± Well there goes my brilliant plan. I should seriously start thinking my plans a little more thoroughly. There always seem to be a flaw somehow. ¡°I wasn¡¯t lying about following you to reach a new town, and this is my true form so I can¡¯t change my appearance. So I suppose you can¡¯t just let me go just this one time.¡± He seemed to be contemplating something before finally he spoke. ¡°Only if you follow me to the academy where you shall be interrogated shall I spare you.¡± I have heard the about this so called academy from the town. It was a place where they train people for the military and had strict rules and such. A boring place with no fun or excitement to be found. With all that said it only took a second before I answered. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°No.¡± ¡°If so I have reason to believe you mean harm and I will forcibly bring you back as a criminal until evidence shows otherwise.¡± Before I could even reply he dashed forward once again with both his sword in each hand. Like the adventurers before the sword transformed somehow when he poured mana into it. The sword broke into pieces held together by his mana. Each individual piece seemed to be manipulated by him with his mana. Along with that troublesome weapon of his he even coated every single piece with electricity using his mana. Is he a idiot of some kind not even letting me try to explain myself a little more. Well since it was too late for words I was forced to rely on my elemental martial arts. Surrounding myself with a barrier of wind to deflect the blades. For combat I had mainly practiced nothing but fire much so I coated my fist and legs in fire and tried to hit him. The result I missed every hit. He seemed to be capable of moving at high speed even in battle which proved to be annoying. ¡°Double element user? To have affinity with two elements it seems it was right for me to suspect you. Demibeast normally don¡¯t even have a single affinity with any element.¡± After saying his part , without even waiting for a reply he connected both of his swords handle. The handle had become extremely long with both of them combined. The pieces of the blades however all gathered at the top of the handle forming what resembled a hammer. As it was forming he yelled out ¡° Smite the souls of the wicked with the wrath of heavens thunder. Mjolnir !!¡± The pieces of the blade formed the shape of a hammer head and his mana provided the body. After his hammer had formed he swung it directly towards me. I somehow jumped backwards in time. The hammer crashing into the ground releasing lighting bolts in every direction on the site of its impact. He brought his hammer back up and proceeded to swing it releasing a huge bolt of lighting towards me. It was a direct hit. I tried to maintain my balance but the shock had disorientated me, before I had the chance to regain my balance he swung the hammer towards me almost instantly. Well if this situation wasn¡¯t considered urgent I don¡¯t know what is. Hesitating could mean my death so I partial formed my hand and stopped the hammer with it. My hand wasn¡¯t injured but the force of the hammer wasn¡¯t so kind to my legs which had to bear it. I could feel my leg bones fractured. The current that flowed through my body from my hand, made my entire body numb except my partial form hand. ¡°What you¡¯re hand how.¡± Similar to what he did to me over and over again I didn¡¯t allow him to complete his sentence. Using my partial formed hand I had punched him as hard as I could. I had no idea what he was wearing but it was certainly hard to pierce through. Instead of my desired result of piercing through his body, he was merely sent flying quite a distance. My legs were however at this point useless as a method to escape. Instead I formed my wings and flew off into the direction they had been travelling to. I had no intention of staying when he recovered. I could however hear him mutter something like the dragon girl while spitting out a mouthful for blood before I left. -Mjolnir POV- The dragon girl was a demibeast. It was useful information but not as useful as actually capturing her. That last blow from her had seriously injured me to the point I didn¡¯t even have the strength to stand. If it wasn¡¯t for my armor I would have perhaps died. After five minutes or so I limped back to the rest of he guys. I seriously regretted telling them to stay back and just continue what they were doing, and that I would handle it. Well at least we have a clearer picture of what the dragon the higher ups want to capture look like. (Author Note) : hello. As usual i really hope i can get you''re opinions and stuff you would like changed and so on. I''m seriously running out of things to say by now i seemed to be repeating. Btw do you guys think i should name all my chapters?. Fair warning i''m terrible at naming things. Chapter 19 -Ria POV- After flying pretty far away from zappy I landed at an open space far away from the forest. It was a grassy area with some normal animals littered around the place. As soon as I landed on my feet I immediately fell flat on my face. With the numbness from the shock gone I could feel the pain of having both leg bones fractured. I didn¡¯t realize it but even my arm that blocked the blow had gotten dislocated since I didn¡¯t fully shifted the arm there were some injuries on it. How did I punch someone with a dislocated shoulder. More importantly how long will it take for my injuries to heal. I don¡¯t know if there were any shelter around this area. I had already popped my dislocated shoulder back into place and had created a stick made out of earth to support myself as I walked to the place with buildings among it. Its what I assume to be zappy and his gang destination but for now it has shelter exactly what I needed. This new town was huge in comparison with the one I was in before. If this town was a tree the other one would be nothing more than a leaf among its branches. They shouldn¡¯t be able to find me here if I¡¯m careful I hope. If they do somehow find me I swore to not underestimate zappy again and go all out if we do fight again. My first priority would be to obtain clothing that stand out less and a cloak to replace the one I had burnt to ash. I had however lost all my money as well from the fight with the knight so I needed a method to procure some. Maybe getting a few easy quest from the adventurer association would help. My iron bracelet survived the fight, but its shape is somewhat deformed due to being expose to extreme temperatures of my flames during the fight. Actually upon closer inspection of the entrance its probably a city rather than a town. The whole place was surrounded by high walls that were possible for me to climb but it would attract unneeded attention if I do so. I waited until it was morning before I approached the entrance. There was only one entrance with multiple wagons and such with goods on it that had to inspected before being allowed in. I went towards the entrance to enter only to be stopped by the guards asking for my identity and reason for visit. I told him I was a adventurer that wanted to visit the city. I showed him the proof I was a iron rank and my flawless childish act worked. As I thought it was zappy that was weird for not falling for it. Externally I didn¡¯t look damaged and even the fractures were healing so I could pretend to be perfectly fine in front of the guard. Once in I proceeded with my plan and went into the adventurer guild that took me about thirty minutes or so of wondering around before finding the emblem the adventurer guild in the other town had as well. I went to the board with various quest posted on it. The boards are separated by rank so I went to the board for iron ranks. Most of the quest are simple gathering quest and some E rank daema subjugation. There weren¡¯t any quest for dungeons since there weren¡¯t any easy ones around here. There are after all only nine in this entire country easy enough for a E rank to safely venture into. Well eight now since I had completely destroyed one of them. I took the gathering ones without hesitation and went to the counter to register myself for the quest. Within the thirty minutes of wondering around town I had manage to get used to the various stares I was getting. It was no exception here either as people stared at me from all directions. The person behind the counter had to except my request since I had a proof I was a adventurer even though I was child like in appearance. She did look shock but that quickly faded back into her professional smile as she finalized my request. I quickly walked out of the building and out of the city to complete the quest. The quest reward depends on the amount I could gather. The more I gather the more I would earn. There was even an example picture on the quest which I recognize as I had seen it all over the forest countless number of times. As a matter of fact rather than hunt for it I had a better idea. Once out of the city I ran to the forest with my legs being reinforced with mana to allow such a feat. It didn¡¯t exactly got rid of the pain but it was bearable compared to the pain of over using partial form. As a matter of fact partial forming hurt more than the fracture currently did. Once in the forest I put my idea into action. I picked one of them that was needed and buried into the ground in front of me. I then poured my mana into the plant and tried to multiplied it as I had done to fruit trees when I was a dragon. My plan for once actually worked and the plant continued to grow in huge bundles in front of me. I repeated the process a few times using my demibeast form mana which was inferior to my dragon one but good enough to create more than I could carry. Carrying my spoils gained by cheating I ran back to city with a huge bundle of them. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Going into the adventurer guild with a huge bundle of them I went to the counter to get my reward. This time she had a look of shock which lasted much longer than it did before. ¡°How did you gather so many of them in a mere hour.¡± Oh¡­¡­. A drawback to my plan I seemed to have overlooked. It seems my plans are fated to forever be flawed. I knew that everything was going to well for this to be true. ¡°I found a huge bunch of them in the forest.¡± I quickly lied to hopefully save myself. She looked at me suspiciously but said no more as she counted the amount of them I had gathered and awarded me accordingly. My spoils had given me about 50 silver coins. I took the reward I hurried out of the building before she could question me any further. Using the reward I bought some cheap equipment from a armor store for adventurers. I bought equipment made of leather. It had a iron chest guard and leather shoes and gloves. Since I was so small the man had to adjust the size for a while around three hours or so in which I merely waited patiently. The total came to about 30 silver. I put the equipment on over my fur clothing, since the fur clothing had proven itself to be able survive if I go all out. The armor shop owner seemed to have gone to the trouble of making it a leather skirt rather than pants for me. Whenever he talked to me he had a weird smile but I thought nothing of it since I finally had normal clothing at least what the humans consider normal. It was similar to what the new female adventurer I saw in the other town wore, other than the fact it was smaller since I was after all the size of a kid. I also proceeded to go into a clothing store next and bought a small cloak perfect for my size for 10 silver. I thought demibeast were discriminated against. People seemed to be treating me strangely well when I pretend to be a child. Well it doesn¡¯t matter since I had managed to complete my objective. All there is to do left is find a inn to rest and allow my injuries to recover. After a little more wondering around as I had done to find all the places I needed to go to, I found the inn. The price for a night was 1 silver which was much more expensive compared to the inn in the town. I didn¡¯t hesitate to pay 3 silver for 3 nights and went to the room to rest. The room was much nicer than the other inn so I guess it was fair to charge more. I went for the bed and finally had a good rest for the first time in ages. -Alex POV- When mjolnir had come back form what we thought would be a easy win for him against the unknown entity he had detected, he was to our surprised injured. He limped back into our camp we had set up slowly resting his back against one of the tree. ¡°It was the dragon girl. She looked like a demibeast child.¡± What a demibeast child? The one I saw looked like a teenager at the very least. She looked no way liked a demibeast as well. ¡°Alex did she have silver hair and golden eyes.¡± ¡°Yes sir¡± According to my memories she did indeed possess silver hair and golden eyes. ¡°Than she is truly hiding herself as a kid. She seemed to be able to freely change back into her real form on any part of her body. At least I now know her weakness. When she is disguising herself as a demibeast she is much weaker than a dragon. Even I could injure her when she is in that form. We must report my findings to the higher ups at once.¡± After saying so he tried to stand up before collapsing onto his knees. All of us advised him to rest before heading back out. Rushing would after all get us nowhere since she had ran away. ¡°Very well. We will head out as soon as my injuries get better.¡± After a while he finally listened to our persuasion. Thinking about it Clarisse the youngest A rank ever was friends with a demibeast back then when she was a kid. She was part of the trio which gave me a problem in the mock combat all the way back than. I still remembered it vividly since nearly getting serious on children was a huge blow to my pride back than. She didn¡¯t have silver hair though I recall that demibeast having blonde hair with a streak of silver running through it. (Author Note) : Hello its me again with a early release today :D . I really love reading all you''re comments :) one of my favourite part of my day. About last chapter comments about getting captured and such will remain a mystery for now ;) Chapter 20 -Mjolnir POV- It took a while but I managed to recover enough from a night of sleep. We set off to go to the city as soon as we finished packing our supplies. There wasn¡¯t anything worth mentioning as we traversed the forest to reach back to the city in which the academy was based in. Most of the military higher ups and the A rank were based at the academy so it was naturally our destination. It wasn¡¯t until we reached the border of the forest where some adventures venture into for their quest did we stumble onto a peculiar sight. There was a huge patch of medicinal herbs used to make medicine in the middle of the forest. Even some of the Iron rank adventures were looking at the patch with some confusion in their eyes. Though common the herbs were known to never grow in large groups, hence the reason why it was left to Iron rank adventurers to help collect it. It was certainly a sight to see iron rank adventures gathered there plucking out the medicinal herbs. It was simply too bizarre to simply ignore. Was it a natural phenomena or the work of a nature mage. I couldn¡¯t think of a reason such a high ranking mage would bother to make a patch of low grade herbs in the middle of a forest. More importantly our country lacks any powerful nature mages. Most of the more powerful ones belong to the fairy country. Eventually we left the area since we had a urgent report for the higher ups. Reaching back to the city we walked straight for the academy in the heart of the city avoiding any detours. The citizens naturally made way since the military was well known. As soon as we entered the academy we happen to encounter Clarisse. She was better known by her title Astra. The element she had affinity with was darkness. Her weapon was famous as the most unusual even among the A ranks. She rarely used her weapon true form so even I wasn¡¯t that well aware of its abilities since any she had used it on seemed to have died. The battle location where she used her weapon normally looked as if it had melted in various locations and the daema she kills are normally bones by the time she was done with it. She worked solo so we naturally wouldn¡¯t know what her weapon looks like other than the fact it could melt daema down to their bone. A ranks titles are based on the weapon in which we acquire upon reaching A rank. The weapon changes forms based on our own capability and mine was a hammer hence my title mjolnir. The weapon we acquire are custom made to suite us and uses a A rank monster core that we have to acquire by ourself. My weapon core came from a thunder lizard monster, Clarisse seemed to obtain hers from some kind of skeleton monster. Clarisse herself was quite a looker if I do say so myself. She had brown hair at shoulder length. She was very tall for a girl around 170cm and her skin was slightly tan. Well the dragon girl was prettier but beauty will not cloud my judgment. Clarisse was a dangerous entity, anyone with a affinity with darkness tend to be dangerous. After all element affinity normally affects ones personality. A lightning affinity like me tend to be rather overconfident and make quick judgment of situations. Elemental affinity affect mages more than a weapon user type anyways. Most dark mages are wanted criminal after all. As usual she ignored us and carried on walking past us as if we didn¡¯t exist. She was famous for being cold and ruthless. Its better if I don¡¯t mess around with such a dangerous person. After having reached the academy I dismissed the squad and went directly to the principal office to report my findings. -Ria POV- Waking up on a nice comfy bed was truly the best feeling ever. After waking up I would wash up in the bathroom provided. It took trial and error but I finally discovered all the functions a bathroom provided. Much better than cleaning up in a river as I had done as a dragon. After having finished everything I left the inn to take a better look around the city. With my new cloak on I attracted less attraction. After exploring the city I happened to notice Derek and his group going in the adventurer guild. Just like before I decided to follow them in. It has been awhile and they could probably provide some information I would like to know. ¡°Excuse me.¡± Derek looked at me who was tugging at his sleeve due to the difference in our height. ¡°Ah, nice to see you again.¡± He said smiling at me with the same creepy smile the man at the armor shop gave me. ¡°Hey it¡¯s the cloak girl¡± The warrior known as chris smiled as he walked towards us. Removing the hood revealing my face I did a small bow as I greeted him. I thanked him for helping me last time we met. The male and female mage however seemed to be busy as the three of us went to one of the empty table to sit. ¡°Thank you very much for all you¡¯re help. I had managed to become a iron rank adventurer thanks to the information you provided.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you a kid why did they allow you to take the test.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry for failing to mention it before, but I¡¯m actually 15 so I was qualified to take the test. I just looked younger than most people my age.¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Oh you are just 4 years younger than Derek.¡± As I revealed my fake age I made up Derek suddenly seemed happy as if he had heard good news or something. Well putting that aside I think its about time I asked them about the reason I had decided to approach them to begin with. ¡°Is the man in the military who wields a hammer and uses the lightning element famous by any chance. If so who is he exactly?¡± ¡°Oh you must mean mjolnir. We don¡¯t know his real name but yeah he is famous in the military. He is after all one of the few people in this country who could legitimately say he is a A rank after all.¡± It seems zappy is known as mjolnir. ¡°Ah thank you for answering my question I will be off then.¡± ¡°Ah wait whats you¡¯re name?¡± Derek seemed flustered as he asked me. ¡°I¡¯m Ria¡± I said with a smile on my face to not appear rude, they have after all helped me immensely. Derek started to blush for some reason. Maybe there was a girl he liked behind me or something. Turning around I saw the female mage from their group. Perhaps he liked her or something. Well with my question answered I had no reason to stay. Actually come to think of it I do have one more thing I¡¯m curious about. "I meant your full name you already told me your name the last time we met." ¡°Oh i''m sorry i don''t have a full name. Also before I leave may I know how many people there are who are as strong as mjolnir.¡± ¡°Around 9 or so in the military and we the adventurer association have a grand total of 12 people who are in diamond rank. There are five other people stronger than that though.¡± Chris replied as Derek seemed somewhat depressed. So little people with that strength. What are the odds of having an encounter with one of them. My luck must have been really bad. At least it wasn¡¯t one of the stronger people. Thanking them again I left after greeting the female mage. I wouldn¡¯t want to disturb Derek if he had a chance with his crush after all. I don¡¯t particularly understand this so call love and such. All my knowledge on the subject came from eavesdropping other people conversations. After having left the guild I wondered where I should go to next. Maybe I should just go back and rest since my injuries hadn¡¯t fully recovered yet. Its injuries after injuries with me. I should probably be more careful if I meet one of these A or S rank people. -Principal POV- -After receiving mjolnir report- What a demibeast is the dragon. How¡­ it couldn¡¯t be. I quickly checked the students record from back than. The victim of the dragon having entered the school. The list consisted of only about 30 or so people so it didn¡¯t take long to find the only one with demibeast as her race. After finding the race I quickly went to the records and found the file on the demibeast called sera who was assumed to be dead due to the dragon incident. I quickly showed the picture of her to mjolnir. ¡°Is this how she looks like.¡± ¡°Ah yes she looked like that. She looked a little older but at most only 3 or 4 years older than the picture. Her hair wasn¡¯t blonde its the same silver colour as that streak of silver on her current hair. Also both her eyes are golden she doesn¡¯t have a blue in coloured eye.¡± That demibeast was the dragon we were looking for. How is she only 3 or 4 years older it happened over a decade ago. A decade of fruitless searching when we had the information on you right under our very noses. ¡°MJOLNIR!! Go investigate this man At ONCE!¡± ¡°Who is he sir.¡± ¡°He is the man who provided the demibeast to our academy all those years back. Find out where he found that girl. A dragon in the guise of a demibeast is unheard of. Place top priority on the mission and make sure no one finds out. Especially the adventurer guild. You are permitted to bring you¡¯re daema along for extra support. Other than you¡¯re daema you are to go alone.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± (Author Note) : Surprise a extra chapter today :D . Not any chapter its chapter 20 a second milestone for me. I''m not sure if its shameless for me to ask but since i have seen some author on this site do it, if its not too much trouble can you leave a rating? so that i know how much you guys are enjoying it. I really didn''t want to ask but there aren''t many people who are leaving me a rating. It could help me to improve if you guys leave some constructive critism for me. If you don''t not want to its fine i''m just glad you guys are still enjoying my story :) . If you guys think i need to write more chapters before you guys will leave a rating feel free to tell me that at the comments of this chapter. Thats pretty much all i wanted to say. Thank You my dear readers who gave me the willpower i needed to go on writing up to this point :D p.s i ain''t stopping anytime soon i just felt the need to thank you guys since for the first time ever i have reached chapter 20 this wouldn''t have been possible without you''re support. Sorry if i offended anyone with this comment i really didn''t mean to. I don''t know if asking for a rating is offensive though :/. Chapter 21 -Principal POV- ¡°Sir the armor Mjolnir brought back has been analyze by our researchers. I think you might want to go to the lab sir. They stated they would like to tell it to you directly.¡± The armor of the knight that fought the dragon to a stand still is definitely something that peaked my interest so I didn¡¯t hesitate and went to the lab. The analyze took a while however since it has been several hours since I had ordered mjolnir to interrogate the noble who had given us the demibeast known as Sera. If my hypothesis is correct its most likely true that the dragon is Sera or at the very least related even if they aren¡¯t the same entity. As of now Sera origin is of upmost importance. The armor is from an entity capable enough to be a S rank level. Since it isn¡¯t from our country we might learn the technology used by one of the other major countries. I suppose the fact the dragon killed another country S rank is beneficial. As long as the country the knight belongs to doesn¡¯t find out we were involve. Damn it why does everything have to be so complicated. If they seek revenge we have no choice but to go into war. If it truly does happen what is the odds of a mere C rank such as myself to survive the ordeal. My thoughts were a train wreak ever since I found out one of our presumably dead students looked identical to a dragon we had been chasing for more than a decade. Arriving at the lab I went back into my calm state to prevent any information from being leaked. If possible I don¡¯t want too many people to know, since the more people that knows it the higher the chance a rumor might spread. Preventing any possible mishap is my duty as the principal. We might be a academy for students to learn combat but we are also considered the army of the country so I have a huge responsibility placed on my shoulder. ¡°Sir this armor. If its indeed another country technology we are unsure how they made it.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°The armor and sword alike are made by giving mana a physical form. The mana is densely packed somehow and its capable of maintaining a solid form without the assistance of any parts. We are unable to analyse the mana because we couldn¡¯t revert it to mana form. We have also tested the ability of the sword and armor. They have no special feature to speak of other than the unusual ability of being virtually indestructible. We have requested the assistance of several B rank yet none were able to even leave a scratch on it. Unfortunately that is the most we could find out. Anything else is simply beyond us as we are unsure how the weapon is even made. Its simply to advance for us to understand.¡± Well that knight did fight with the armor against the dragon. If it could withstand the blows of a dragon I suppose its enough to believe it is indeed indestructible. Damn it this didn¡¯t amount to much. I need better information. The armor and sword is useless in the hands of a weakling if it indeed only has the property of being resilient. I hope mjolnir has better news for me that what I have obtained on the armor. -Mjolnir POV- The noble manor the principal told me about was situated around the border of the city so it took a while for me to reach it. I had my partner with me. It was a B rank daema who I nicknamed sparky. A discovery that was made when the system was started was that daema were capable of changing their appearance to their animal counterpart and it made them look less intimidating. Its impossible to see a daema assume such a form in the wild so it makes sense it was a new discovery when we started to tame them. Sparky was a lizard type daema and in his current form he looked like a normal lizard. Most daema were animals in form except for the dragon.. The wyvern the lowest ranking dragon and the only one the military has successfully captured and tamed transformed into a miniature version of itself rather than a humanoid form. We assume its similar for all the dragon type daema but the latest discovery seems to state otherwise. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.Arriving at the nobleman manor what greeted me was exactly what I expected. A extravagant looking house with a elaborate garden. Noble disgust me believing they hold all the power in the world simply because they were born into a family of power. I who was born in a poor household and had to work my way up to the top detest these people who got to where they were without any effort. I went up to the door and knocked on it a few times waiting for a response. After a couple of minutes a woman opened the door. She seemed to be the maid of the house as she introduced herself as alice. ¡°Excuse me but master isn¡¯t expecting anyone today.¡± ¡°I¡¯m from the military and I have a few question I would like to ask your master.¡± ¡°Please wait for a moment sir I will go inform my master of your presence,¡± I waited for a couple of minutes in front of the house before I was finally allowed in guided but a man who introduced himself as the butler. He guided me to a room and inside of the room resided a single man sitting behind his table. ¡°Good day sir. I¡¯m a representative from the military who would like to ask you a couple of questions.¡± ¡°What sort of questions do you have for me on this fine day.¡± ¡°I would like to inquire about a demibeast you sent to the academy all those years ago.¡± ¡°Hmmm I don¡¯t recall doing such a thing. Reynold would you kindly answer this gentlemen questions.¡± ¡°What would you like to know?¡± ¡°Where did you acquire her from?¡± After an hour or so of questioning them the result was a wasted trip and a waste of my time. The noble himself didn¡¯t know anything and from the butler all I found out was that she was from the slums. Back then the city walls had yet to be built, allowing people to wonder into the slums at will. The walls was built to prevent more peasants from wondering into the city which increased the crime rate. They didn¡¯t seem to remember anything else since it wasn¡¯t important to them. I wouldn¡¯t have hesitated to arrest them if they had been lying but they simply didn¡¯t care about her. They were truthful as well so I had no valid reason to do so. They didn¡¯t even do anything illegal, it¡¯s the sad truth that people living in the slum weren¡¯t even allowed simple rights. No one would care if someone kidnap people from the slum and sold them as slaves, even more so demibeast. The law has improve of course but slave trading is still a thriving business despite the fact it is now considered illegal to kidnap people to sell as slaves. The only information I got is that her origin is a mystery. We have no more leads to go on from here on out. I don¡¯t think the principal will enjoy hearing my report. -Ria POV- The next day I went to the adventurer guild to take the promotion test. Needless to say I flawlessly passed the test. With that I was officially promoted to a copper ranked adventurer. Walking back to the inn after passing the test I was in a rather good mood. I hummed a little tune to myself as I enjoyed my casual stroll down the street. On the way back to the inn I passed by a scary looking person who was walking towards the entrance of the town. I couldn¡¯t help but have the feeling that I have seen her before. I can¡¯t remember where but somewhere deep down I just felt like I recognized her. She didn¡¯t even notice me though. Well not many people would bother looking at someone wearing a cloak. Should I try following her? Well the last time I followed someone it ended up a disaster. Resisting the urge I went back to the inn to relax a little. Just like how I was like living alone I slacked a lot in my cave not doing much. It had somehow turned into a habit to relax and not do much if I had nothing better to do. I couldn¡¯t get the girl face out of my mind though even as I was rolling around on my bed in the inn. (Author Note) : Thank you for the ratings. Also thank you for the comments. :kyaaaa: Chapter 22 -Clarisse POV- Time flies by in the blink of a eye. I who was once a na?ve innocent child have grown up to understand the cruel reality of the world. My very best friends who I thought I would spent the rest of my life with died as I was safe in the dorm sleeping due to exhaustion. My vow to keep them in my memories forever deeply rooted in my mind I endured the hellish training awaiting me as I slowly but surely advanced through the ranks. I was called a prodigy as I exceeded my instructors expectation. Eyes looked at me with envy, jealousy and respect. I who kept to myself ever since my friends death ended up being considered a lone wolf. I don¡¯t know when but as comrades fall in combat in missions assigned to us. As soon as I finally reached A rank I could finally go on missions all alone. Being alone is much better than relying on people who will eventually die. There were even some who tried to backstab me due to jealousy. I retaliated in self defence killing of the traitor. I wasn¡¯t punished but I was known as ruthless among my peers ever since. It doesn¡¯t matter I didn¡¯t need friends all I need is strength. I had never truly understood Sera obsession with strength when she was alive, but now I myself sought after power. I craved for the absolute strength needed to live. I detested the world. My own parents abandon me leaving me all alone in the world. When I was offered to join the military academy as a child I had no idea what it meant. I was told I didn¡¯t need to be alone living in the slums. My very first friends left me all by myself. I will always be abandoned only my strength will never leave me. The fond memories I held of my friends seemed so distant. Once I reached A rank they asked me to form a contract with a daema. I immediately refuse. No matter how they tried to persuade me I would refuse. All I needed was my weapon Astra. Astra dormant form as the higher up called it was in the form of two gauntlets. To revert to its real form I needed to create a chant. All A ranks would invent one apparently. It didn¡¯t take me long to decide my own chant. Due to my apparently brutal nature, I would always be assigned a elimination mission. The goal was simply to eliminate any high ranking daema nearby. It was perfect for me since I wasn¡¯t particularly good in any mission that needed to do anything but destroying my target. It was on a day like any other. I was assigned a mission to eliminate a daema. I left the academy only to run into Mjolnir a man I had no particular interest in. Ignoring him I walked passed him to fulfill my mission. I left town and went looking for the daema in which was spotted nearby. It was supposed to be a Wild boar type daema that was estimated to be at least a B rank daema. As soon as I spotted my target I didn¡¯t even hesitate and rush straight towards it. ¡°Rend my foes and dissolve my enemies Astra.¡± The gauntlets I wore with elaborate patterns started to break apart. The various pieces formed a gauntlet with a claw like appearance. Whereas some pieces floated above me forming two extra gauntlets hovering above me. My mana connected the gauntlets above me to claw like gauntlet. From the elbow area of the claw gauntlet a blade made of my mana extended out. As soon as Astra finished forming I proceeded to grab on the skin of the daema. The claws teared into the flesh and the two blades from my elbow extended digging into the daema flesh. The daema attempted to throw me off my starting a mad charge through the forest. Not letting it go any further both the gauntlets hovering above me increased in size. Both gauntlets came smashing down onto the daema planting its body into the ground. Dark magic was one of the most complicated type among the elemental magic. Dark magic is the only one that could manifest in various forms. Mine was a kind of acidic substance I could coat every bit of my weapon in. It was formed from my mana so I could create it as I please. The daema started struggling as I proceeded to use the clawed gauntlet to pierce through its heart. The rest of the daema was dissolved by the acid that it was currently covered in. The acidic substance by itself wouldn¡¯t do much against enemy with magic resistance but if its dead, the acid could easily tear through its corpse. It also doubled as a poisonous substance. It was the only thing I was capable of creating with my mana when I tried during my days as a B rank. Astra reverted back into its dormant form as I went back to town having completed my mission. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! As I was about to return to the academy I noticed a demibeast girl in the adventurer guild. She looked familiar almost as if I had seen her before. I wanted to find out more so I went to the entrance of the guild and peered in. It seems she was about to take a promotion test. I saw her leave into the testing room found inside the guild. She looked just like the sera I knew from my memories. It was definitely a different person since sera wasn¡¯t that young if she was still alive. She had a cloak on so I assume she had been hiding her appearance, but the guild attendant most likely wanted to know her appearance. It was my theory of what happened I could be overthinking things and she didn¡¯t even hide herself. Sera was always the quiet type. I wonder what she would be like now if she was alive. I stayed around the area between the inn and the adventurer guild. As I had expected she did head towards the inn when she left. I casually passed by her feigning ignorance as she passed by. She was humming a cheerful tune as she passed by me. My earlier prediction came true as she had covered her head with the hood. She was definitely not sera who would usually nod in reply to things. She barely spoke let alone start humming. I knew deep down that having false hope such as this would lead to nothing but pain. I was still somewhat in disbelief that they resembled each other so much from a mere glimpse of her. Sera is dead its impossible. At least I was able to see her face one more time. She truly did look like a mirror image of her. I couldn¡¯t get a clear look but her hair colour was different anyways. After having a short trip down memory lane I went back to the academy to report the successful elimination of my target. On the way in I ran into mjolnir again. He seemed worried not that it mattered to me. -Mjolnir POV- After working up the courage I finally went to report to the principal of my findings. As expected he didn¡¯t take the news that well. Apparently the armor and sword didn¡¯t reap much information as well. The best we could do right now was wait until we find more reliable information. ¡°Sir the adventurer association is holding a Tournament in a few weeks perhaps you should attend to relax a little.¡± The principal seemed stressed out so I suggested to relax a little. He did get invited as a vip after all. The tournament itself was being sponsored by the adventurer association. It was a annual event in which adventurers were allowed participation. The tournament was held for iron to gold rank adventurers. ¡°Very well. I had intended to attend either ways,¡± -Ria POV- -Rolling around on the bed continuation form last chapter- To get my mind off the girl I had met I started to think about the tournament. It was a large scale event the adventurer guild was holding in a few weeks from now. It seemed like a good way to test my normal form strength. It seems like a good idea. After some time I decided I would go register for the tournament tomorrow. (Author Note) : I wrote this chapter feeling sleepy. Might be some glaring errors due to that fact. Leave a comment if there is anything like that i will change it when i wake up. Also yes the chant is a thing i made up a day ago i think here is mjolnir one which i ninjaed in chapter 18 yesterday ¡° Smite the souls of the wicked with the wrath of heavens thunder. Mjolnir !!¡± If you guys don'' like this chant thing feel free to tell me i still don''t mind removing it since only 2 of em right now. Okie bye bye :sleeping: Chapter 23 -Ria POV- The tournament registration wasn¡¯t open until a week from now. Within the week I did simple quest to get enough coin to continue rolling on the soft comfy bed everyday. Simply put I didn¡¯t accomplish anything as I started going out less and less. The week passed in a flash as I wasted all my time relaxing. Rolling around on a bed is addictive. So much softer than when I was a dragon and easier cause of my current shape. After the week had passed I went to the adventurer guild to register myself for the tournament. The registration took a while due to the sheer number of adventurer who were registering for it. Since I was officially a copper rank adventurer now and also because I¡¯m recognized in the guild as a legit adventurer not just a kid , my registration didn¡¯t cause any problems to arise. With that I was officially part of the tournament. The tournament itself was to be held at the colosseum structure within the city. It was also apparently the place used by the academy for certain exams. The tournament itself had 3 rounds. The very first was a battle royal to lessen the number of participants. The second round is one on one combat between several groups. The third round was a tournament style match with the participants with the most wins in the second round. There were no special section for certain ranks so its almost assured that the third round will only be filled with gold rank adventurers. The lower rank adventurers participated mainly for experience or for fun. I was participating for both the reasons. With my registration officially completed I had free time for another two weeks before the tournament officially started. Registration ends three days before the actual tournament started. With that being said time to continue doing nothing for another two weeks. I could come up with an excuse like I didn¡¯t want to get injured before a tournament but truthfully I was just feeling lazy. Ever since I left my cave I had no time to relax at all. Therefore I wanted to be lazy a little. My excitement of being surrounded by humans have died down by now so I could relax without my curiosity getting in the way. So as my two weeks of laziness came and passed the tournament was about to start. Adventurers who registered were all rushing to the colosseum and people who weren¡¯t part of it were rushing to spectate. I was taking my time walking to the area in which the tournament was to take place. I was now completely refreshed and ready to test my self invented techniques. In the two weeks I did try to think of new ways I could use it. I did invent a few new ones but none of them were tested in actual combat yet. Now is a good a time as any to test them out. Arriving to the colosseum it seemed much bigger up close than it did from afar. The building was used for special events such as this so I never actually had a chance to visit it. The sheer size of the building was mind blowing. It was that big . I couldn¡¯t put it into words but the best description I could think of was that it could easily accommodate at least several hundred thousands of people. I stopped for a while to admire the sight of the building before I continued through the entrance for participants. The visitors or guest entrance I would assume leads them to the seats. The entrance I went through lead underground into a huge space. The size of the space could accommodate every single one of the participants. The tournament wasn¡¯t set to start until about another 2 hours from now so I went to find a corner and sat down. I wore my cloak to hide my appearance as a precaution if mjolnir happen to be here. Well even if he recognized me he has no proof I stalked them. Its not as if the entire military wanted to arrest me it was probably only mjolnir. Since I had free time I indulged in my usual habit of staring at the people within the room. Some were thin and tall, some big and there were plenty people of different shape and sizes. Despite that it appears I¡¯m the only one who looks like a kid participating. Well it shouldn¡¯t be a problem since my goal was to hide my appearance for the rest of tournament. With my hobby I was able to pass the time quickly until the tournament was about to begin. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°The first round of this tournament is a all out battle royal. We will sent everyone onto the stage at one go. The battle royal will stop when there are a 160 participants left. There are possibility of injuries. You aren¡¯t allowed to kill. You are considered to have lost if you have fainted. The bracelet we handed to everyone of you will be used for us to detect whether you are still conscious so please have it on at all times. If you remove it you are considered out as well.¡± As soon as the tournament official finished stating the rules and all the participants had put their bracelet on, the ground shook the ceiling above us slowly opened as the floor beneath our feet got lifted upwards. I assume it was done by earth magic since I could feel the mana under our feet. The bracelet I was wearing around my wrist suddenly started to glow. The floor eventually stopped as we reached onto the higher level. There were about a thousand people who were lifted up. The surroundings wasn¡¯t anything special just a huge open space. There was a kind of barrier separating us from the audience sitting on a elevated area. A voice rang through the colosseum. ¡°Start.¡± A number 1243 was displayed on the air as I realized that there were various other platforms which also rised up into the area. The entire place was filled to the brim participants. This initial round was meant to take out people who definitely stood no chance in the one on one round. With that in mind I decided the best course of action was to avoid standing out too much. If someone stood out some of the participants might team up against them since there was no rule stating it wasn¡¯t allowed. Without hesitating I ran out of the crowd as people started mindlessly fighting against each other. It was pointless chaos which I assume was considered entertaining since there was countless cheers from the audiences. The number slowly went down not at a constant rate, rather it went down randomly. I assume it was to measure the remaining number of contestants. Sometimes I get targeted as people charge towards me which I dodged easily. Compared to mjolnir their speed could be considered child play. I punched a few of the iron ranks who came after me , making them faint. The round wasn¡¯t that hard as I just continued to nimbly dodge all the attacks aimed towards me. There weren¡¯t that many aiming for me since I was obviously not seen as a threat. After several hours of continuous dodging the match eventually ended when the number on display finally hit a 160. Bodies were littered around the floor as the audience cheers continued to get louder. Well this first round was pointless for me. I joined for the one versus one which was the next and third round. I didn¡¯t feel like I achieved much just dodging around the area. After the round ended we were allowed to exit the stage from the entrances at the side. What I assume to be medics started to flood out of the various doors to tend to the unconscious people. The hundred who made it past the first round including me were given new bracelets for the next round which was to be held the next day. We were instructed to rest as much as possible before tomorrow round before we were allowed to leave. I wasn¡¯t sure what they were going to do but I already knew what I wanted to do, go back to the inn for a undeserved rest. (Author Note) : Back to normal daily release double release is too tiring. The tournament i never completed in previous version is back XD. well last time it was a test.... Chapter 24 -Ria POV- The next day the surviving contestants gathered around the tournament person in a different room this time around. I don¡¯t know how many rooms and entrances this colosseum has but suffice to say it had a lot more than I would bother to remember. I simply went with the group of contestants to reach the room we were to gather around. They explained the rules to us within this period of time. ¡°For the second round we are separating the 160 people here into ten different groups. Group A to J. The groups are by no means to decide how strong one as a matter of fact its random. Therefore there will be sixteen per group. Within each separate group each person must draw lots to determine who each person must fight, furthermore it will be held in similar fashion as the third round. The winner of each group will advance into the third round. The 10 runner up from each group must fight in a battle royale among themselves. Once four contestants faint the remaining six will also move on the third round. There will be only one group participating per day, from A to J group. The rest of the contestants will be provided a area to view the fight." After he had given the explanation he proceeded to press a button. As soon as he pressed it the bracelet which we were given when we advanced yesterday lit up. The various bracelets lit up in a different colour. ¡°The colour in which your bracelet lit up will determine the group you are in.¡± He proceeded to say the colours for each group one by one. The colour my bracelet lit up was red. Red was apparently in group J. That means my match will be in fifteen days from now. The people who were in the A group were gathered for further briefing whereas the rest of us were shown to another door leading to a section of the seats at the colosseum. It seemed to be a area reserved for us contestants as there wasn¡¯t a single person to be seen in that area, despite the fact everywhere else was packed. I picked a seat and went ahead and sat myself down. The rest of the contestants sat down as well. The person who sat next to me wore a robe. He seemed quite old compared to the rest of the contestants. Eventually the display that showed the numbers before displayed a chart with the participants names. It showed the order in which they would fight and who their opponents would be. In the middle of the area a huge platform raised up from beneath the ground. It was slightly elevated compared to the rest of the ground around it. It appeared to be the stage in which the fights will all take place. With a huge cheer from the audience the fights started. The fights were rather dull as there wasn¡¯t any magic being used at all. Instead they were simply fighting each other with their weapons. The fight was slightly more interesting than watching copper rank adventurer fight monster in groups but that was about it. There was no use of anything that looked cool at all. The third round it was a battle between a mage and another swordsman. I seem to have found a recurring pattern among adventurers. Its apparently popular to pick a simple weapon like a sword. I haven¡¯t really seen any cool weapons from any adventurer other than Derek party. That mjolnir guy had a pretty cool weapon as well. The fight between the mage and swordsman was pretty anticlimactic. The mage easily dealt with his adversary with a single spell. He merely blasted the swordsman with a single fireball. The crowd went wild at the mage display of magic. The other contestants around me were talking among each other rather than observe the fight. There were one or two among them who watched the fight but majority were busy talking. After all the matches had taken place the final winner was the mage who continuously took out his opponent with a single spell. The second day the only participant who caught my eye was a guy who was using a scythe. Like the day before the scythe guy claimed a overwhelming victory as he easily finished all his fights in a single blow. The days passed as I went to the colosseum everyday to watch the group match for that day. Sometimes there was a overwhelming difference in strength sometimes it was a close fight. Eventually it was group J turn to fight. Instead of heading towards the viewing area we were guided towards a different room. In that room we drew lots to determine who we would fight. I was in the first match against another generic swordsman. Out of ten contestants there was about seven swordsman. Why is using a sword so popular. It isn¡¯t even all that good in a fight. Its too thin I could easily break one in a single hit. Why isn¡¯t a huge sword like the one the knight monster used more popular. It was much more destructive compared to the tiny sword. At the very least use a special sword that could transform like some of the people I met have. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. When the fight started as expected I easily broke his sword using nothing but brute strength. As soon as I broke it I used my hand and punched him hard enough to cause him to faint. The audience broke out into a loud cheer as it happened. Well from the past few days I have learned how easy it was to make them cheer so I didn¡¯t felt too happy. I still had my cloak on of course to conceal my appearance. Well with my first win secure I left the platform and went into the waiting room for my next match. -Clarisse POV- It was somewhat a change of pace being given a bodyguard mission. To assure the safety of the principal who was invited to watch the annual tournament two A ranks were sent to guard him. Me Astra who was famed for my offensive ability and Svalinn who was well know as the ultimate A rank in terms of defensive ability. Svalinn was a petit girl who had fiery red hair. She was rather short despite being twenty. She was a mere 140 cm. Her hair curly hair reached all the way to her heels. That was all I knew about her since I wasn¡¯t that well informed due to my lack of interest in others. The first 10 days were rather boring as we simply stood behind him to protect him from harm. Nothing happened of course. We were merely a precaution. The principal of the academy actually held a rather high post within the military as well so with this many people around he would naturally need some guards. Svalinn tried introducing herself to me initially, but after I had harshly refused her advancements to be acquainted she hadn¡¯t approach me. The last day for the second round was held. As usual the name list of the contestants floated in the middle of the place. The first name from the left immediately caught my attention. It was a short name yet it was one of the two which I had kept buried deep in my heart ever so deeply for all these years. The word Ria simply floated there as I clenched my fist. ¡°That¡¯s the first time I seen anything but a poker face on that boring face of yours. What happened?¡± Svalinn suddenly said as soon as I had reacted to the name. ¡°It¡¯s none of your business.¡± The conversation ended there. My shock didn¡¯t end there however. When this so called Ria walked out the person whom I saw was the cloaked demibeast who look like sera. I recognized the cloak she wore its without a doubt her. A person with the same face as one of my deceased friend and the name of the other couldn¡¯t be mere coincidence. I need to investigate this a little more. -Svalinn POV- Due to my ability I was always assigned a bodyguard duty for some high ranking people. I was capable of fighting but my offensive ability was around the level of a B rank. That¡¯s why I always worked in a pair. This time I was paired with Astra that scary A rank from the rumor who brutally killed the people who attacked her. I tried my best to act nice to her initially but she just said some rude things and left. After that I was forced to stand next to her day after day for the mission. This mission is bad for my heart. On the last day for the second round of the tournament I noticed she looked upset about something. I wanted to try to ask what happened , but I ended up being sarcastic. I was sure she was going to attack me to the point I clutched my weapon ready to defend myself. Luckily she didn¡¯t seem to offended. I hope this mission ends soon was what i thought to myself, as I stood there next to the scariest A rank of us all. (Author Note) : Hello its me again. Well i''m not that good with writing a tournament style thingy since its my first attempt. Previous version not counted since i never did finish it. Any advice on how to make it intresting would be nice. Like what part of it should i write maybe write more of the battles in more detail or something. Edit Note- I edited the contestants in round 2 from 100 to 160. Because when i was writing the next chapter i realised 10 per group its impossible to hold a tournament style match. 16 is possible so i switched the numbers to make it logical. I''m Sorry T^T I had to add in a new rule to make it logical. Cause if 160 10 groups winner 10 people 10 can''t hold tournament >.>. Therefore runner up battle royale get 6 more to make a tournament possible. Gah i''m confusing myself ._. Chapter 25 (Author note) : sorry for a note on the top but i had to go change the tournament 2nd and first round rule when i realised it didn''t make sense. first diff is that there is 160 people who advance form first round and second diff is that the 10 runner up from the 10 groups will have battle royal to determine 6 more people advancing. Yeah those are the major changes. so third round has 16 people and each group on second round has 16 people as well -Ria POV- We couldn¡¯t see the other contestant compete from the waiting room. That was the main reason most of the people started forming groups to talk. I wasn¡¯t that good with holding a conversation with people on random things, so I kept to myself. The rest of the eight matches for the first part passed rather quickly. The old man who sat next to me on the first day was also part of the group. My next match was against a mage. He seemed to be a silver rank adventurer from the bracelet he wore on his wrist. He raised his wand and started chanting a spell. During his chant I had already dashed to his location delivering a punch straight into his abdomen. He fainted with white foam coming out of his mouth. My initial reason for joining was to test my elemental martial arts against actual people. It turns out most people are actually really weak. I had a general idea what it would be like from watching all those matches, but I hadn¡¯t expected it to be this easy. I didn¡¯t even have the opportunity to use elements in my attacks. Its too late to withdraw at this point so I mine as well get this over with. The rest of my matches were just as boring as I had expected. Eventually it was the final round. I realized something by the time it was the final round. Unlike the other groups with some gold ranks at least most people in my group were silver ranks. The only gold rank in my entire group was the old man who was my opponent in the final. Gold rank should be about the same as Derek party. That would mean in raw strength we should at least be equal while I was in this form. Derek party seem to be among the elite from the gold ranks though, since the gold rank from the other groups were lacking compare to Derek group. The old man weapon was a double sided spear. As soon as the match started the top of his spear suddenly launched itself towards me. I quickly dodged the spearhead and rushed forward. He had however already switched to the other side of the spear and aimed it towards me. I deflected the spear by hitting the flat part with my fist. The second I had done so, I heard the sound of something flying towards me from behind. The only means I had to evade at the time was by jumping upwards. From the air I saw the spear head he had launched earlier flying back to his weapon by a line made of his mana. He didn¡¯t waste time as he quickly launched it towards me while I was in the air. I aimed upwards with my fist releasing a blast of fire to propel myself back down while dodging him attack at the same time. Once I was on the ground, I propelled myself forward using fire from my feet and delivered a punch straight to his abdomen like I have done in every single match so far. This time however I didn¡¯t hold back using the fire and my full strength the old man was sent flying to the wall. Medics ran out and confirmed he had fainted. With that I won and earned myself a spot in the third round. According to the rules he had to join the 9 other runner up in the groups and battle for the 6 more spots for the third round. Since I had won I was allowed to join the other 9 winners in the contestant seats to watch the battle royal. -Svalinn POV- That copper rank Ria person overwhelmed all her opponent. She even revealed what her affinity was during the finals for her group. If only I could create normal flames as well. She was obviously much to strong for a copper rank, I imagine she trained for a long time before entering the adventurer guild. As she left the platform Astra suddenly approached me. It surprised me and what she said surprised me even further. She had suddenly asked me to go get acquainted with that Ria person. Astra released a somewhat intimidating aura which had suppressed my urge to decline her request. She didn¡¯t exactly requested it in a nice way, but at least she didn¡¯t threaten me to help her. She wouldn¡¯t answer me when I asked her why she wanted me to approach her but she did ask me to use my real name instead of my title. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The reason she asked me for this favor was a little bit upsetting . She told me it was because I looked young and didn¡¯t seem threatening unlike her. Well at least she knows how scary she looks. The principal was leaving already to go back to the academy so our mission actually ended here for the day. We were only required to protect him while in here and a squad of B ranks would protect him on the way back since the only reason we were required was the fact that he wasn¡¯t allowed to bring anymore than two bodyguard. I didn¡¯t really have a reason to decline and I was a little curious about her interest in this Ria so I accepted her request. Her only request was to get acquainted and find out where she was from. It didn¡¯t seem harmful to anybody was another reason I decided to comply with her request. I waited for the battle royal to end and stayed at the exit for the participants, it didn¡¯t take long to spot the cloaked person who was short compared to the other contestants. I went ahead and went up to her after she separated from the group. ¡°Excuse me I¡¯m a fan if it doesn¡¯t trouble you may we talk for a while?¡± I picked the only believable method of approaching her I could think of. I had even bought a cloak during the battle royal to hide my military uniform. Since she was wearing a cloak maybe if I wore a cloak as well it would be more believable. ¡°Eh? I¡¯m sorry but who are you?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Amber. I saw your matches it was amazing how you could beat up all those adults with one hit. So if possible could we talk?¡± ¡°Oh¡­. Emm sure why not.¡± Step one complete. Now step two is to befriend her and I would be done. We chatted for a while at a table in the adventurer guild. It was the place she brought me to and I had no reason to decline. It was awkward since it was the first time I had ever talked to someone who was cloaked. ¡°If possible could you show me your face?¡± ¡°Oh.. sorry if I appeared rude.¡± After she said that she removed her hood. She had silver hair and gold eyes which was pretty unusual but it looked nice on her. I couldn¡¯t help but notice that she was a demibeast. Actually I felt like I saw her face before. It suddenly hit me she looked like that demibeast the principal ordered my brother to find. He was like me an A rank and his title was Gleipner. Should I tell him about it. Well he wasn¡¯t here right now and Astra seemed to know her. If I told the principal about it would she attack me. For now I will keep quiet about it, but I felt as if Astra just dragged me into something troublesome. This mission is truly bad for my heart, problem after problem just because of my current partner. -Ria POV- After the tournament ended for the day and the remaining six contestants moving on to the third round was chosen I left the place, intending to return to the inn. My plan was cut short however when a girl with fiery red hair suddenly approached me, claiming to be a fan cause of my wins. She looked to be about 17 or so but her height is much to short. She was only slightly taller than me. She wanted to talk to me about something so I decided to bring her to the adventurer guild where we sat down on one of the small empty table. She seemed like a nice person as we talked a bit. She looked a little uncomfortable, the reason I found out when she asked me to remove the cloak if possible. I guess talking to someone who was hiding their face could be seen as somewhat uncomfortable. There wasn¡¯t any harm since she seemed like a nice person so I removed the hood showing my face. After which, we talked a little more before she thanked me and left. I saw her back disappear into the crowd. It was somewhat unexpected but nice that someone had approached me first like Chris from Derek party had. I decided to go do some quest to make some more money before retiring back into the inn for the day. (Author Note) : If my writing has gotten worst please do tell. I will try harder if it is :/. On a side note i might make a glossary soon cause i''m starting to get confused, even though its my own story :I Chapter 26 -Ria POV- The next day the last remaining 16 contestants got ready for the third round. This time around each contestant will only have to fight one match a day. The fights are expected to last a lot longer this time around since pretty much everyone who moved on to this round were gold rank adventurers. I was the only one who was still a copper rank. In the first day there were a total of eight matches and through lots like usual I ended up being in the last of the eight rounds. I went into the waiting room same similar to the day before awaiting my turn. -Svalinn POV- As usual the display showed the order in which the contestants would fight and who their opponent would be. This time however it looked much more extravagant than before, it was the final round of the tournament after all. Ria was in the final match of the day. The first was between the fire mage who won in the first round and a man wielding a huge axe. Whenever I watched a fire mage fight I couldn¡¯t help but feel somewhat upset. I was after all a fire mage initially. I had a affinity for fire since I was in a D rank. Weapon user became one because they normally didn¡¯t have a affinity for any element. Once they reached B rank they would have to get a affinity before they were allowed to take the test to become a A rank. I was ecstatic when I learned I had a affinity to fire. My joy became my embarrassment very soon after when I found out my mana was unique compared to my peers. It was considered a rare case to get a unique mana, hence causing the element to have a special added property, but its known to happen. The fire I made when I chanted a spell had a special property which made it useless for combat. The fire I made were solid somehow and they didn¡¯t really burn anything they simply radiated heat. When I casted a fire ball I was basically throwing a solid ball radiating heat towards my enemy. I remembered being mocked by some of the meaner students about my useless ability. While I was called useless, my brother encouraged me the whole way without him I wouldn¡¯t have tried so hard to reach where I¡¯m today. The better one becomes in controlling mana usually allows to cast stronger spells in the case for fire it would allow the creation of flames of higher temperature. In my case the flames I created would become harder the better I got and it wasn¡¯t particularly heavy so I started to use my own flames as a mean to fight melee combat unlike other mage. The flames did become hotter so it was similar to getting hit by hot metal so I guess it wasn¡¯t completely useless since I could hold the flames I created without getting burned. The people who mocked me I surpassed them through my own hard work. At some point I started using to create a shield shaped flame and attached it to one of my arm to fight against my opponent. I did use a gauntlet as well. I became well known as a unusual fire mage as I proved myself through missions. With my unusual method of fighting the academy decided I wasn¡¯t exactly a mage and I was transferred into the weapon category being given a shield type weapon. At some point along the way I finally reached A rank but my weapon Svalinn was an extremely good weapon for defending so I ended up getting only bodyguard missions. I prefer actual combat but I guess it couldn¡¯t be helped as I stared at Svalinn dormant form on my hand. It was a metal gauntlet with a circular shield on the top of it. The entire weapon was red in colour and in the middle of the shield was a hole. While I was daydreaming about my past the fire mage had defeated the axe wielder. I didn¡¯t really pay attention to the rest of the matches until it was Ria match for the day. Her opponent was using a rather large scythe. As usual she was wearing the cloak hiding her appearance. I couldn¡¯t be sure if she was hiding her appearance because she is wanted by the principal or because she looked like a child and simply didn¡¯t want to be looked down upon. I mean I doubt she would dumb enough to participate in such a large scale event if she is wanted by the military, which brings up the question on what does the principal want with her. I haven¡¯t inform the principal of the matter since Astra was here and I wasn¡¯t sure if she was truly a bad person. She seemed nice when I had talked to her. The match between her and the scythe user was a little bit unexpected. The blade of the scythe used mana to form. Using that he continued to launch blade after blade with his attacks. Ria herself didn¡¯t seem to have a range attack as she continued to dodge every blade aimed towards her. She did eventually reached him and defeated after several blows. She was getting well known as the mysterious cloaked girl, within the tournament audience. -Ria POV- My opponent today was somewhat annoying. He kept using range attacks preventing me from getting close. Maybe I should buy a weapon. I did have a lot of money saved up from doing quest from the adventurer guild every once in a while. Since I didn¡¯t see any demerit of using a weapon myself I decided to go to the weapon store to buy a simple weapon to use. The moment I stepped out of the colosseum, I saw Amber running towards me. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Hi Ria. I saw you¡¯re match today, it was amazing as usual. I find it hard to believe you are still a copper rank adventurer.¡± She seemed cheerful as she greeted me. I suppose there was no harm if I asked her to join me to go pick a weapon. She seemed to harmless enough so I asked if she wanted to join me to go do a little shopping. She agreed to my suggestion and so we, were soon off to the weapon store. Once there I explained I wanted to acquire a weapon to use. Well apparently weapon store only sold regular weapon used by iron rank and copper rank adventurers. If I wanted anything more complicated capable of using my mana for a special feature I needed to acquire gold rank in the adventurer guild or be part of the military where they provide such a weapon even to the kids learning in their academies. Well a weapon is better than being unarmed so I decided to buy a huge sword that was apparently called a claymore. I don¡¯t know what it reminded me off but I felt as if I had used it before. Our shopping didn¡¯t stop there however as Amber started dragging me around to some food stalls she recommended. I would probably consider myself a rather big eater but I was nothing in comparison to Amber who seemed to be a bottomless pit in which food go never to see the light of day again. Well she ate a lot was basically what I was thinking as she continued to show me to some of the stalls she told me she frequented. At one of the stalls I happen to saw a mask that looked pretty cool, being sold at a store nearby . It was a simple mask with some markings around the eyehole and nothing more. Currently I had to pull the hood down far enough to block my face which impaired my vision somewhat, so I decided to purchase the mask putting it on immediately. With that I pulled up the hood enough for me to be able to see properly. Amber didn¡¯t seem to mind the change, she just casually ask me what it was for while munching on a stick of meat. Eventually we parted ways, after a rather fun time just having fun. I wonder if this is how having a friend felt like. If it was, my journey thus far was most definitely worth it. In the inn I took out the comb I had also bought at the same store as the mask. I removed the cloak and mask brushing my tail a little. One of my discovery I made, during my hours of staying in bed, was that my tail was incredibly soft. I enjoyed hugging it so I decided I should probably at the very least maintain the fur by combing it. After which I went to sleep in preparation for the next day. The next day I went to the colosseum to continue the match from the previous day. The match was against a man who wielded a bow. He skillfully shot arrows made of his mana one after another in a none stop volley. I used my newly acquired claymore to knock each arrow away. Even though the weapon itself isn¡¯t affected by mana, it doesn¡¯t mean I couldn¡¯t coat it with mana to strengthen the weapon. With that said I easily launched my opponent off the platform using nothing but the flat side of the claymore. I think I overdid it a little since I could hear something cracked upon contact. With that I won the match on the second day as well. Another two more and I would be done. This tournament is turning out a lot like that dungeon I went to. Started full of hope and it ended up being boring. On the bright side I did make a friend thanks to my participation. Another two more days and I would be done anyways. If I win I could even get enough money to be more lazy than I already currently was. After the my match I proceeded to go out of the colosseum and looked around expecting to see Amber maybe. True enough she did appear running towards me, after having waited only a while. I would be happy just leisurely spending my days with a friend of some sort. Due to the tournament I was slightly well known in town by now so I attracted a lot more attention than I initially did. Well it was comparable to the amount of gazes I got when I didn¡¯t have a cloak on. The looks I got were however different from before. Well a few stares won¡¯t prevent me from getting along with Amber as almost as if it was a continuation form yesterday she seemed to have plenty more stalls to recommend. Well it was a big city after all. It was somewhat tiring but I couldn¡¯t have been happier spending time like this. (Author Note) : Some people requested for longer chapters so here it is longer chapters. I will try to increase my chapters length. I''m truly grateful for all the comments.(I read every single one). With that said i hope you enjoy bye for now ;) Chapter 27 -Ria POV- The second last day of the tournament wasn¡¯t any different. My opponent did give me a little trouble but I still manage to defeat him with ease. Afterwards I would meet with Amber again and hang out. I had asked her about herself but she didn¡¯t told me much. I guess I couldn¡¯t expect someone to reveal anything personal if, I was pretty much someone she knows nothing about. I did truly enjoyed her company and wished days like these could go on forever. The times in which I was always alone seemed like a distant memory as we were together. A friend is indeed what I yearned for, all those years living alone, scaring everything that approached me had left me wanting a companion of any sort. My wish being granted just like that seemed almost too good to be true. Nevertheless I indulged in the happiness I had for I never knew how long it could last. With that the last day of the tournament finally arrived. My opponent was the Gold rank fire mage who managed to defeat all his opponent thus far. From his matches it was evident that he was extremely skilled. Since it was the last match for the tournament there were a lot more cheers from the audience as we both took our sides of the platform. -Amber/Svalinn POV- It was finally the final day and the last day of this mission. Astra didn¡¯t seem to happy that I didn¡¯t obtain any information she wanted. Well to be honest I had greatly enjoyed the time I had spent with Ria so I had completely forgotten to ask. A rank in the military are seen as a somewhat unmatched existence within it, so most people would merely admire us from the distance. Therefore most of the friends an A rank would ever make were people we were friends with since our early days or our fellow A ranks. My condition had caused me to neglect my social life in favor of training to prove to them I wasn¡¯t useless. Having another friend was always nice and she was definitely not evil, as far as I could tell from the time we had spent together. Luckily Astra wasn¡¯t here today on the last day since there was a emergency mission she had to accept. It was a group of B rank daema having appeared that had appeared. All the other A ranks were out on their own mission except for mjolnir who was around. Astra was the better choice for a elimination mission so mjolnir who had just finished his mission was to replace her on the bodyguard mission last day. There wasn¡¯t anything stopping me from reporting about ria to the principal, but I couldn¡¯t deny the fact I had grown somewhat fond of her so I decided to withheld the information. I wouldn¡¯t say I got along with mjolnir but there there was no animosity as well so I didn¡¯t mind the change in partner. The mutation in my element had some other effects as well. Most fire affinity were hot blooded and fearless. I was the opposite and someone as intimidating as astra I would rather stay away from so the change could be considered pleasant if I looked at it from that perspective. The match between Ria and the fire mage called Alfred started. Alfred didn¡¯t hold back and immediately chanted the spell for the fire tornado spell. It was one of the higher grade B rank spells and his chant time was remarkably short compared to some I had seen. The flames shot out in a spiral akin to a tornado. Sera used her feet and with a diagonal kick downwards the flame somehow dissipated. The mage himself seemed shock by it as he created several fire balls firing it towards her. Ria skillfully evaded each and every one of the fire ball that was being shot towards her and reached her target and was about to punch him but he somehow managed to finish the chant to yet another spell surrounding himself with a vortex of fire. Ria had no choice ignored the fire and punched Alfred sending him flying away. It was a overwhelming victory but¡­. Her cloak it caught fire. The entire thing was on fire probably due to the fact it was made of some kind of flammable material. It was a miracle it hadn¡¯t caught on fire from her own attacks. Then again she didn¡¯t really need to use any elemental attacks much since she had always ended her matches with a single hit. She easily extinguished the fire with a wave of her hand but by the time she had done so most of her cloak had already burned off, revealing her tail and ears. Her face was however still hidden by the mask she bought on what I assumed a whim that time we were together. This can¡¯t be good. Her face was hidden but I¡¯m pretty sure her silver hair was a dead giveaway since it isn¡¯t a colour one would see everyday. ¡°Sir its the demibeast!¡± Contrary to my expectation Mjolnir was the first to notice rather than the principal. How was he involved in this. Astra being here would spell trouble but I hadn¡¯t expected mjolnir to be related to her in some way as well. ¡°Quick evacuate the citizens we must capture her now!¡± The principal seemed really intent on catching her as he yelled to mjolnir, as he quickly got up with a look of both surprise and joy. The audience was still cheering but it seems he didn¡¯t want to wait as mjolnir himself took out his weapon preparing for combat. What could I do in such a situation. Luckily for me mjolnir was to capture her as I defended the principal. I didn¡¯t want to capture her directly nor take part in it. I didn¡¯t know what she did wrong but I had no right to go against him. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Sir I doubt I can capture her alone. It would be best if Svalinn helped.¡± Then mjolnir had to go and say it. I seriously didn¡¯t want to get involved if possible. I really did consider her a friend but there wasn¡¯t anything I could do but listen to orders. Well at least he said we had to capture her alive so I wasn¡¯t so reluctant. Maybe they just wanted her for some questioning or something. It was overly optimistic but I couldn¡¯t exactly decline. The military doesn¡¯t do anything evil so I¡¯m sure nothing bad will happen to her. -Ria POV- The last thing the guy did, had caught me off guard. The flames of that degree couldn¡¯t hurt me but It wasn¡¯t me which I was worried about. What I feared happened shortly after as my cloak was on fire. I easily got rid of the flames but the cloak was in tatters. It no longer served its purpose as took it off and threw its burnt remains. I did buy it from a normal clothing shop so it being flammable was as expected I suppose. The ground around me was scorched but the man had fainted. Well I wouldn¡¯t have been having such a easy time against B rank if I hadn¡¯t cheat somewhat. I had circulated a minute amount of my dragon mana before delivering my punch each time. It wasn¡¯t enough to cause a change but enough to boost my strength above the level they were capable of resisting. The only thing I had to look forward to recently was meeting with Amber so I suppose I had rushed through all my matches to speed things up. What happened shortly after I was announced the winner was unexpected. A man and woman jumped off from the audience. The man broke through the barrier and landed right in front of me. He was Mjolnir of all people, the one I had hoped wasn¡¯t here was. I knew he had a grudge against me but the girl next to him shocked me. It was amber but she was wearing an attire similar to mjolnir. Before my surprise had time to set in mjolnir had already started. ¡°Smite the souls of the wicked with the wrath of heavens thunder, Mjolnir!!¡± After he recited that line his two swords just as before merged into his oversized hammer. This time however the parts that made up the hammer had a circular ring spinning around the hammer head generating electricity as well. He sent his hammer crashing down at me. I had managed to react in time dodging his attack and like before it was destroyed the ground and generated lighting bolts flying in all direction. I know I had to take it seriously but I was unable to think straight. The only thing I had in mind was why was Amber there. Furthermore if I partial dragon formed here it wasn¡¯t just the case of one or two person seeing me it would be everyone present right now. If everyone here witness my transformation, it was bound to be a famous story and everyone would know about me. I looked at amber with confusion in my eyes as she slowly walked up towards me. ¡°What are you doing svalinn help me capture her.¡± ¡°I¡¯m really sorry Ria¡­.. Burn with the prominence of the sun, Svalinn¡± As amber apologized to me she said a weird phrase similar to mjolnir. Wait doesn¡¯t that means she is just as strong. Also did mjolnir just say they are trying to capture me? After saying the phrase the circular shield on her arm starting to change. The red gauntlet on her arm released circular parts floating around her and the shield on her hand split into several parts and floated in in a still circular shape. It had a hole in the centre which was soon covered by a floating fireball in the middle of it. The fireball started rotating and released fire going through the space made my the shield splitting. The shield looked almost like a miniature sun and the circular objects floating around her also caught on fire turning into ten floating fireballs. I don¡¯t know why is she doing this but I will not let myself be captured. I could feel the stabbing pain in my chest at the thought that Amber betrayed me but I can¡¯t be sure unless I asked her myself. The audience around us started cheering louder perhaps assuming this was some kind of special show at the end. There was nothing I could do as I assume a stance ready for battle. (Author note) : My initial plan was to prolong things and not reveal this so fast but when i started writing this chapter today i was sleepy and somehow as i wrote it happened a lot sooner than planned XD(It isn''t easy to think of intresting things when your mc could beat anyone in the tournament in one hit .... so instead of prolonging boring things i accelerated the plot. If you guys wanna see some ria with amber for second last day of tourney, which i pretty much skipped do tell i will write a short bonus chapter along with tomorrow daily if you guys want it). Oh well hope you guys enjoy this chapter and with that i need sleep . Bye Chapter 28 -Ria POV 3rd person POV- Mjolnir rushed smashing his hammer repeatedly striking nothing but the ground sending lighting flying everywhere. Svalinn on the other hand was controlling the ten fireball to shield the audience who were currently evacuating due to a announcement. The fireballs she controlled could spread into a wall like shape and block the various stray shots mjolnir was leaving. Ria on the other hand could do nothing but dodge until all the citizens evacuated at least. She had no intention of letting too many people know of her ability. To support her ability to dodge she was pumping as much of her dragon mana throughout her body, not enough to cause a partial transformation but enough to boost her physical strength. Using her ability like this wasn¡¯t efficient due to the fact it would cause similar strain as using partial form. Its affects much weaker but in the long run it could potentially injure her. Mjolnir continued to fight with recklessly smashing and releasing lighting throughout his wake, Svalinn was supporting him by both preventing him from injuring the people who haven¡¯t finish evacuating and blocking the few attacks Ria could throw out towards Mjolnir. -Ria POV- During the entire exchange of blows I was looking for an opportunity to escape since I clearly didn¡¯t stand a chance if I didn¡¯t use partial form, but between mjolnir absurdly brutal attacks and Amber fire walls I couldn¡¯t find that opening I was desperately looking for. I still didn¡¯t want to believe Amber had betray me but situation has forced me to accept the reality before me. As a matter of fact the fire Amber has been creating was extremely weird. No matter how I much I punch or hit it, it felt like a solid, a extremely durable one at that. The pain of what seemed to be a betrayal was there but I couldn¡¯t even stop to think about it since they didn¡¯t give me the time for anything but to plan on how to dodge the next attack. Eventually I couldn¡¯t see any audience left which gave me the freedom to partial form without being seen by to many people. I didn¡¯t want to use this against Amber but they weren¡¯t exactly giving me the luxury of being picky. I quickly partial formed both hands and both legs after which I aimed my attack towards mjolnir. The flames appeared between us almost instantly but it didn¡¯t matter as my claws easily pierced through it smashing straight into mjolnir hammer. I could see cracks start forming on the hammer head as he was easily sent flying. Amber revealed a look of shock as both my boots and gloves were torn due to the transformation. The mana I circulated around my body to strengthen my body started to have an undesirable effect of forcing the rest of my body to change. It was slow but I could feel my body forcibly transforming. I have never mastered partial form to begin with. I could never fully controll it. I had always simply poured mana to transform certain parts so it came to no surprise to me as I was slowly losing control of the transformation occurring to my body. I could forcibly stop circulating my dragon mana but that would make me a sitting duck against both these A rank who wanted to capture me. Almost to mock my current situation people wearing somewhat similar uniform started to rush in. Their uniform looked less fancy so I could assume they weren¡¯t as strong I suppose. The situation was however I looked at it dire. I couldn¡¯t fly out due to the ceiling and blasting through the ceiling is sure to attract unwanted attention in a huge city. I continued to fight easily defeating the people who had swarmed in and mjolnir who had stood back up and was punched straight back to the ground. I couldn¡¯t bring myself to attack amber and honestly she was doing me a favor by creating shields before my attack landed. I could freely attack without worrying about killing anyone. ¡°I guess its time for me to join the party.¡± A voice suddenly echoed throughout the area as a huge man jumped down from a seat quite high up. It was nearly impossible to see from below as a matter of fact I didn¡¯t even realize that there was a space of some sort over there. The man who jumped down wore a bracelet which showed he was a adventurer. He wore normal looking clothing but the moment I saw his bracelet, I couldn¡¯t help but curse my luck. His bracelet was made by a material I have never seen before. Its safe to assume it was adamantine. The bracelet was black in colour with a gold pattern drawn throughout. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°Well you military folks better have a good reason to ruin my tournament.¡± The very moment he had entered the fray all movement had ceased from the military people who were trying to capture me just moments ago. ¡°A Adamantine rank adventurer. What are you doing here?¡± Mjolnir chocked out as he coughed some blood out. ¡°Why can¡¯t I attend my own tournament. I attend annually I just normally don¡¯t make a appearance.¡± I was starting to reach my limit and the transformation I was holding back started to slowly spread. The scales from both my arm and legs started to slowly spread. Every passing second caused more scales to form. Should I try to escape now? It seemed like a good chance as I accelerated the partial form and allowed my wings to form blasting out of my back. I didn¡¯t give anyone the time to react and launch myself from the ground aiming to blast out of the ceiling. Now that there was a adamantine adventurer around, escaping had become my number one priority. The man however reacted fast enough blocking my path and landed a kick sending me crashing into what was once the audience seat. The shock of the impact had broken my concentration allowing the partial form to spread faster. His kick had shattered my mask as well revealing my face not that it mattered much at this point. Currently my body had pretty much fully partial formed similar to my fight with the knight mosnter in the dungeon. My height had grown as well and I could feel my body filled with strength and the pain of the recoil of using my demihuman form as a catalyst for my dragon power ¡°So that¡¯s the reason you ruined my tournament. A dragon girl. Well she looks hot.¡± The adventurer started spouting nonsense at the sight of my complete partial form. The military hasn¡¯t made a single move, Amber included ever since that man appeared. As expected joining this tournament was truly a bad decision. Well I was never really that good at that kinda of stuff anyways. Since its probably impossible to leave without defeating the man I charged straight into him. -Ria POV 3rd person POV- Ria launched her entire body crashing into the adventurer which he blocked using his weapon which he took out. The weapon was a giant claymore. He started his chant to unleash his weapon true form. Ria didn¡¯t wait a second longer and continued her assault this time coating each and every one of her attacks in flames. Similar to her fight with the knight her attack had caused fire to blast in every single direction. Svalinn immediately reacted and protected everyone on the ground by creating a huge wall of flame separating the fight between ria and the adventurer which was taking place in the air. -Ria POV- As I attacked the adventurer I could vaguely see his weapon transforming but I couldn¡¯t tell for sure. My body was just moving in response to his attacks. I felt almost as if, I was in a dream like state. This has never happened before but as the fight went on I had a flashback of a smaller version of me not in dragon form rather partial form killing people in armor and the place was littered with demibeast corpse as well. Was it a memory from my past? (Author Note) : Okay sorry this chapter was shorter but i started writing it late and was super tired. I might need to check back tomorrow to heavily edit this chapter :I. Okay i seriously need to sleep need to wake up in 4 hours from now...... I will try my best to keep up with the daily release but i''m seriously not sure how long i can do so... sorry :/ Chapter 29 -Amber/Svalinn POV- The battle was going smoothly as Ria continued to evade our attacks. With this we should be able to slowly exhaust her and capture her without harming her in any way. What happened after every single person had evacuated answered one of my questions at least. The reason the principal was wanted to capture her was as clear as day as all four of her limb no longer resembled anything humanely possible. Scales covered her limbs and claws replaced her nails. After having assumed the form she easily overpowered mjolnir. The B rank who were meant to escort the principal joined the battle shortly after. Her powers were however simply overwhelming. It shamed me to say it but at that moment in time I truly saw her as demon incarnate. Perhaps fear clouded my judgement but I had truly attempted to hurt her as I no longer held anything back. In the end even the best I could muster wasn¡¯t enough to even faze her in the slightest. All my hardwork I had put in amounted to nothing in front of true overwhelming power. Around the time I lost hope a voice rang through the area and a man had jumped off from the area reserved for extremely important people during any event held in the colosseum. The man who had jumped down looked rather relaxed as he reprimanded us for ruining his tournament. The man who founded the tournament all those years ago was one of the legendary adventurer in adamantine rank. It can¡¯t be possible. Just as suddenly as the man had appeared ria had suddenly attempted to escape. She at that point in time had suddenly obtained wings. The man blocked her and easily kicked her back down. Ria who broke out of the rubble had completely changed. She no longer looked anything like she had before. Her entire appearance had shocked me. Without even waiting she had charged straight towards the Adamantine adventurer who took his weapon and blocked the attack. Adamantine and S ranks were so powerful they were normally never used unless there was a truly urgent situation, naturally they weren¡¯t well known. This was the first time I had saw one in the flesh. ¡°It seems she is around an S rank in terms of strength¡­. I guess it can¡¯t be helped. Be prepared to see the strength of a Adamantine rank adventurer. You should count yourself lucky¡± After saying so he held his claymore with both of his hands its blade pointing downwards. ¡°Raging flames shroud me as I bring ruins to all who dares oppose me, Angurvadel!¡± Ria however didn¡¯t wait and tried to intervene. Her fist cloaked in flames she rushed forwards and tried to attack. Flames blasted everywhere as Ria continued to attack. Her efforts were met with merely too words. ¡°Too late.¡± He knocked Ria away and there he stood. His sword blade had numerous areas opened as if there was scars on his blade. The areas in which had the opening were soon flooded with flames. With the flames filling in the void a pattern on the blade had been made more apparent. The flames soon spread to both his hand slowly engulfing his entire body in flames stronger than I had ever seen. Once the flames had dissipated he could be seen wearing a full body of red armor. The armor looked majestic. It was a good thing they were both fire element types otherwise I couldn¡¯t protect my comrades even if I had tried. Since they were fire their stray attacks shouldn¡¯t be able to breakthrough my shield if I gave it my all. Since they were both focus on each other that was all I could do. I immediately controlled the ten fireballs from svalinn and created a huge barrier between us and them. It had exhausted my mana and I likely couldn¡¯t pull off such a feat once more. I could nothing but pray they don¡¯t involve us in their fight. -Adamantine Adventurer/Angurvadel POV- The longer I fought the girl named ria the more apparent her strength was. I have no idea how she had obtained such a form but it was most definitely S class level strength. Both of us were clad in our own flames as our battle continued. Neither of us were backing down giving it our all. Each swing of my blade, that normally caused all that stood before me to turn to ash had no effect on her as she merely burst through the flames attacking me. My armor created from my weapon was actually my mana compressed into a armor. It was a technology discovered by the dwarf decades ago but the sheer consumption of mana to do so was too much to be practical causing the technology to be abandoned. I had stumbled upon it and from it I made my sword Angurvadel. That armor which was normally unbreakable could be dented by her attacks. This fight doesn¡¯t look to be an easy one. My initial impression of her from my view on her bout with the military placed her around the level of an A rank but it appears I have underestimated her. -Ria POV- I don¡¯t know what was happening as the fight went on my mind slowly wandered off. Eventually I had totally blacked out. I had regained conscious in a empty white space that seemed to go on forever with no ending. In that empty space there was no one but me. I was there all alone until I heard the sound of someone crying. I turned around and what greeted me was a small demibeast girl. I looked at myself and realized I was in my full dragon form once more. No longer in my demibeast form and what stood before me was the demibeast form I had always assumed. She sat there weeping repeatedly saying it wasn¡¯t her fault. The only difference between us was that she had blonde hair and blue eyes unlike my silver hair and gold eyes, while I was in that form. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Where is this? Why is there another me? So many questions yet no answer as she continued to cry endlessly. I don¡¯t know how long it had been but the person who stood before me started to try to kill herself, but no matter how much she got injured it healed back in almost an instant. Her weeps soon turned into craze laughter, while she repeatedly said that she was useless, unable to protect those she cared for. The once white space had now almost been completely tainted black. Despite the fact I was I was there it was almost as if she never even noticed my presence as she continued to switch between crying and going mad. Time continued to pass as I saw the girl going crazier with every passing second. She didn¡¯t notice my existence as she continued to blame herself and soon started to blame humans. She started to curse the world as a whole which had given her such a life. All I could see was a young girl turning insane unable to accept reality. It was weird that the girl looked identical to my demibeast form but I don¡¯t understand what was happening eitherways. Eventually the entire space had been tainted black. I could slowly feel my conscious fading once more as the black colour from the surrounding slowly started to creep up onto my body slowly transforming my white scales into its polar opposite. The demibeast in front of me was no longer crying nor laughing instead she stood there in front of me smiling. Her smile didn¡¯t seem to stem from happiness but rather her own despair had caused her to fall into insanity. The length of time I had spent watching I could no longer tell but her insanity was the result of events she seem to have experienced. That was the first time since I had saw her that she was looking straight towards me unblinking as if acknowledging my presence. With my conscious slowly fading I manage to ask her one simple question. ¡°Whats your name?¡± ¡°I¡¯m Sera.¡± With a smile she answered my question. I could feel my mind drifting away. Perhaps I would no longer remember my experience here once I regained it, but for now I kept her words in my head as I drifted off. -Angurvadel POV- The intense battle raged on but suddenly a burst of strength erupted from her body pushing me back. After which she merely stood there, as a dark aura started to be released from her body. The scales that covered her body started to turn black, her hair as well was black rather than silver, and her eyes went from gold to red as she suddenly smiled at me. ¡°I¡¯m Sera.¡± Suddenly spouting out that sentence she disappeared from my sight. The very next thing I could feel was my body being tossed aside. Its almost as if everything she had done until now had been a lie. I tried to regain my balance but once again she had suddenly appeared right next to me and threw me down to the ground. I smashed through the fire barrier the A rank from the military had set up straight towards the ground. The horrified faces of the people from the military could be seen, as I had suddenly appeared. I wasn¡¯t even given enough time to completely register my surroundings before the girl had come crashing down on me from the sky. In her hands she held my blade Angurvadel. The flames that was willing it was slowly replaced with a black flame that she spread throughout my sword. The scariest thing was that unchanging smile on her face throughout the entire thing. Despite the armor I was wearing I could feel all my bones had been broken from merely three attacks from her. I couldn¡¯t move as she slowly raised my claymore above my heart. ¡°Plea.sssse. ssp¡­aaree me.¡± I abandoned my pride and beg her to let me live. Yet she merely looked at me with a single glance before saying a single word. ¡°No.¡± As she said it she continued smiling while she stabbed my own weapon through my heart. I could feel my life seeping away. Before I drew my last breath I was able to squeeze out one last word. ¡°Monster¡­¡± (Author note) : for people who don''t understand the black scale red eyes refer to prologue. I hope the chapter turned out well :/. If you don''t understand anything in this chapter please tell me i will try to make it easier to understand. Okie bye bye. Chapter 30 -Clarisse POV- The mission that I had been sent on was to simply subjugate a group of daema that had appeared. The timing couldn¡¯t be any worst since I had intended to approach Ria that demibeast today since it was my last chance. I couldn¡¯t decline a mission that was given to me by the higher ups so I had to reluctantly accept it and leave, my previous mission to mjolnir and svalinn. If I could finish it quickly I could possibly make it back on time, therefore I didn¡¯t hold anything back and rushed to complete the mission. The mission itself didn¡¯t take too long but the time taken to travel to the location was the main reason it took more time that I hoped it would. After I had finally reached back to the city I intended to rushed straight to the colosseum to possibly ask ria whats her connection, if she had any, to Sera or Ria. Svalinn didn¡¯t obtain any information that I wanted so I no longer had a choice but to ask her myself directly. The situation that was occurring was beyond my expectation as soon as I had arrived. People were running out of the colosseum and I even saw the principal saying something to the B ranks who were escorting him. After he was done with his talk he calmly walked away with the B ranks rushing in rather than accompanying him. What the heck was happening. I couldn¡¯t restrain myself as I rushed straight to the principal to ask him what was happening that had caused such chaos. ¡°What happened here?¡± ¡°Ah its merely to capture that demibeast girl.¡± ¡°Why! Why would you want to capture her.¡± I could feel my anger boiling up as he casually declared he wanted to capture her. There must be a reason though as I questioned him again. ¡°Its confidential. Though I suppose a A rank like you is entitled to know¡­. We believe she is the cause of the incident claiming the lives of several students and teachers all those years ago.¡± The incident¡­ was it the incident in which sera and ria died in. Thoughts raced across my mind and before I could settle it down. ¡°Why don¡¯t you make yourself useful and aid mjolnir and svalinn in her capture.¡± Just as he completed his sentence a huge tremor could be felt with the epicenter originating from the colosseum. I didn¡¯t wait any longer and rushed straight into the colosseum leaving the principal behind. What greeted me as I entered was a scene unlike any other. Mjolnir and svalinn were on the ground exhausted and all the military b ranks were on the ground unconscious. Amidst the military was a man wearing red armor laying down on the ground. A girl that resembled Sera but had features only a dragon could possess stood towering above him. In just an instant she claimed his life by stabbing what appeared to be his own weapon directly into his chest. The girl looked exactly what I pictured sera would look like if she hadn¡¯t lost her life that day. ¡°Sera?¡± Without even thinking the words just came out almost as if she stood before me once more. ¡°Clarisse.¡± As soon as I had said her name she turned in response staring at me with a smile plastered across her face. She looked so happy despite having just killed a man in cold blood. After having turned towards me she proceeded to pull the sword out and kicking the corpse aside. Gripping the handle she just smiled at me. Without another word, she simply turned and flew away. -Sera POV- Ever since I killed Ria i found myself in a empty space. It was a world with nothing but a vast empty space that seemed to go on forever. I don¡¯t know how long I had spent here, but during the time i was in it, I have realized what really matters. Nothing, nothing matters. If I hadn¡¯t cared for my family their death wouldn¡¯t have mattered. If I wasn¡¯t close to Ria killing her wouldn¡¯t have caused so much pain. In the end my ideals of having power to protect is nothing more than a pathetic dream. Even with power could I possibly protect the person I cared for. What if I killed them myself. Why did I care. Life is such a fragile thing. It could disappear in the blink of a eye. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I should just smile. Smiling will make me feel better was what I told myself as I suffered all those years thinking of what I had done. Smiling will help me numb the pain was what I tried to believe in. I could tell I was slowly losing my mind but why would it matter now? I was in a empty space with no one but myself. Was I dead? Did I die if so why am I still alone? Is it my fate to be alone for all eternity? There was no meaning in life. I didn¡¯t want to live. Yet I couldn¡¯t kill myself no matter how I tried to. The pain felt real yet the injuries would go away in the blink of the eye. Why was I fated to live like this? Was it because I killed the person I cared for. I could no longer feel the pain and I was numb of all emotion as I awoken in the world outside once more. The first thing I had saw was a man attacking me. Since he attacked me I killed him. I had no reason to believe he wouldn¡¯t do it again. All the while I had maintain a smile, a smile I had learned to maintain. As a matter of fact it wasn¡¯t even difficult as if it had come naturally. Did I hate him? Was I angry at him? No I was simply defending myself. He was courting death by attacking me. After which a familiar figure appeared in my line of sight. She had called out my name and the appearance looked almost like Clarisse. Did I feel joy? Was I happy? Did I still care? I couldn¡¯t be sure but I didn¡¯t feel anything. I remember her but why did I considered her important? Why is she important? Should I care? I was confused as I took the claymore the man who attacked me had used and flew off with it. I had no particular goal in mind as I flew away from the place with buildings. I simple flew far far away from there. Why did I have wings , why was I so strong? Did it matter? What was strength for? Did I need strength? Nothing mattered. Why was I still alive. I didn¡¯t know how long I flew but as soon as I landed there was nothing but a wasteland around me. I didn¡¯t know where I was, anything that attacked me as I traversed the wasteland were met with a brutal end. Eventually passing through the wasteland I had entered a area with plenty of grass. My vision was failing as I realized I shrunk and my body returned to how it should be. Blood was flowing out of my body and my body seemed to be suffering injuries. I couldn¡¯t feel the pain though as I walked leaving a trail of blood. Eventually my I blacked out awakening once more in the world I was all to familiar with. The world I have never had to think of anything. Nothing will ever happen here. Nothing will hurt me. My very own world where nothing else matters. I simple exist nothing less, nothing more. -Random Demibeast POV- ¡°Dad there is a demibeast here.¡± ¡°What?¡± True enough, just as my son had said there was a demibeast lying in the middle of the plains. We were somewhat nearby to our tribe and perhaps we could help her, but she looked as if she was in critical condition. She was bleeding from every place visible. In her hand she was tightly gripping a claymore. My son and I were merely collecting some meat from the animals for the tribe, yet we had stumbled upon her. My guess was that her tribe was attacked by humans and she had somehow escaped. As a fellow demibeast I had the obligation to at least try to help a fellow demibeast in times of need. With that said I carried her on my back and walked back to our tribe with my son slowly following me carrying her claymore she had with her. (Author Note) : sorry for no chapter yesterday, some real life stuff came up. With this chapter i have finished what i consider one arc maybe. Also chapter 30 milestone. Thank you for all the comments sorry for not replying yet. About a proofreader i do not understand how that thingy works exactly XD, that and my writing time is super random, that and i don''t know how to find one to begin with :I . p.s.Thank You for all the support :D also if there any problems please tell me Chapter 31 -Clarisse POV- Even though I had believed she had died. Believed I would never see her again. She was there, for several seconds yet it felt like a decade worth of pain and frustration had lifted itself off my shoulders. My happiness of her knowing my name was short lived. Just as she had suddenly appeared in my life once more, she had decided to disappear in a flash. However now that I knew that she had somehow survived, I couldn¡¯t help but allow several droplets of tears stream down my face. Words couldn¡¯t describe the mixed emotion I felt. I was happy, sad, angry and so much more. Despite the short encounter, it had sparked something in my heart. I was sure I wanted to search for her. I just needed to confirm it. Confirm it was really her. She reacted to the name Sera and knew my name, but was that truly enough to decide it was Sera. I couldn¡¯t be sure of anything unless I spoke to her once more. To venture out in search of her would require me to desert the military which was treason. I knew all too well the price of doing so, but I had no attachment to the place. The only thing worth noting was the memories I had made with Ria and Sera. I knew the risk, but the possibility of the reward at the end was enticing enough for me to disregard what could result in a futile journey. If she was truly Sera, I would regret nothing. Svalinn and mjolnir still lay there unconscious. Mjolnir seemed to have been injured significantly enough to pass out as soon as the threat had left. As for Svalinn she seemed to have exhausted her mana from protecting all the B ranks from the shockwave created as Sera flew away, and the rubble that followed soon afterwards. If she was truly not Sera I could perhaps lie my way out by stating that I gave chased due to the principal order. If that fails I could simply escape. With nothing to lose I left in search of the friend whom I had until recently, believed to be no longer of this world. -Amber POV- Ria flying out had cause a shockwave and consequently rubble from the ceiling she had broken through. To protect the B ranks who had fainted, I had no choice but to expand the rest of my mana activating Svalinn one last time before losing conscious. When I had regain conscious, I found myself in the bed located in the medical building for military personnel. Since I was no longer in the threat of death, I could sort through my memories of what had happened. The main issue was what exactly did Ria do. She somehow could transform into a creature stronger than someone on par with a S rank. My brother was still out there searching for her. If that was Ria real strength, I fear for my brother safety. A ranks might be feared as some of the strongest entity of the countries, but if I had compared it to Ria earlier display of strength, A ranks were nothing but insect to her which she could easily kill. In the end I had decided to request to search for my brother. If I left there would only be two more A ranks left in the academy. Mjolnir and Astra, the rest were at other branches. After I had recovered I went to request to help my brother. I was turned down because apparently Astra was missing ever since she went to help us. I didn¡¯t see her help us so I couldn¡¯t be sure if she had indeed entered the colosseum. Normally I would obediently listen and not pursue the matter any further, this time however my brother life was in jeopardy. My brother and I had been orphans ever since our parents died in a daema attack. The fact the military could allow us to prevent it from happening to other people had motivated us to join. He was all I had left and I had no intention to allow him to die a pointless death all because of a order to search for someone. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. I continued to pressure the principal into letting me leave and search for my brother. Eventually he finally broke down and allowed me to do so when I stated the possibility he was allowing a A rank to die if no one was sent to warn him of the demibeast strength, that defies all logic. It had resulted in the academy defence to be significantly weaker, with only mjolnir remaining but my brother safety came first. My brother had told me, that he would first enter demibeast territory to search for her. Since I had that information my destination was naturally the demibeast territory. -Ria POV- I wasn¡¯t sure what had happened. The last thing I could remember was starting a fight against the adamantine adventurer. The next thing I knew I found myself in a small house covered in bandages. I couldn¡¯t make sense of what had happened exactly, since the minute I tried to get out of the bed I could feel my entire body screaming in agony. It was several times worst than the aftereffect of the fight with the knight. In the end I gave up trying and allowed my injured body to lay down on the bed. The first thing that came to mind, was the ever so important question of where was I at exactly. The house I was in seemed to be made of natural things like wood unlike the fancier ones in the city made of stones. The house itself seemed behind in times if I compared it to the town and city I was in. Knowing that I could conclude I was no longer in the city. After merely laying there I heard a person entering the house. The person in question was a female that had both ears and tail that demibeast were suppose to have. She was of average height and had a wolf like ear and tail. Her hair is a grey colour and the clothing she wore seemed familiar. ¡°Oh my. You finally awake?¡± ¡°yes.¡± I weakly replied as even a word as short as that had required me to strain myself to be able to whisper out. ¡°I was worried you weren¡¯t going to wake up. My husband suddenly brought a half dead girl back, you can only imagine my shock. Well its nice to see you somehow survived. You had been asleep for one whole week now. To be honest I thought you weren¡¯t going to make it. Your wounds were just too severe.¡± The woman started explaining to me as she helped changed the bandage covering my body. After having finished changing my bandages she told me to take it easy and get some more rest. I couldn¡¯t understand why they were showing so much kindness to a mere stranger, but I wasn¡¯t exactly in a optimal condition to refuse so I simply accepted their kindness. I did feel gratitude for it since I couldn¡¯t be sure what would happen if they hadn¡¯t help me. What she had told me did however caused more confusion. She said I was apparently lying down half dead not far from their tribe. The area I was in was nowhere close to human territory, as a matter of fact we were so deep in that humans were almost never seen. My memories were cut off abruptly during the fight, so I couldn¡¯t understand how I ended up here. Also I was apparently holding onto a sword when her husband and son had initially found me. That very same sword was resting against the wall directly to the left of the bed I was laying down on. I didn¡¯t know for what reason I was holding onto it, but the claymore belonged to the man I fought before my memory got cut off. The claymore itself was black except for gold lining tracing across all the lines on the claymore. For some reason it had ended up in my possession. (Author Note) : A chapter to explain what happened. sorry that its shorter and that it was released really late compared to usual. As usual any feedback would be nice. Okie bye Chapter 32 -Principal POV- It¡¯s a disaster a utter disaster. What I had expected to be easily accomplished or at least a failure with no casualties had taken a turn for the worst. Mjolnir ended up in the hospital and apparently that dragon defies all logic. She didn¡¯t even assumed her real form yet she had easily overpowered a S rank. There was only one death but out of every possible victim it just had to be an adventurer not even related to us. Not any adventurer one of the only two adamantine rank adventurer our country has. I had underestimated her. A clash between S rank should have left her with injuries that would take at least a year or so to heal from. I had expected it to be the optimal time for capture, since we could have possibly captured an injured S rank with two A rank and dozens of B ranks. She wasn¡¯t even slightly injured. How could a young dragon possibly survive a battle with another S rank unscathed. My miscalculation had caused the relationship we had with the adventurer guild to become rather strain. It was to be expected since they lost one of their strongest trump card. For now since her strength obviously surpassed the S rank perhaps we should call her a legend class in strength. She wasn¡¯t even an adult dragon yet her strength was already beyond logic. Gleipner was currently looking for her. If he does somehow find her I could do nothing but pray he survives the ordeal. Astra was missing ever since that day. Mjolnir was severely injured and now even Svalinn was requesting to be dispatched to warn Gleipner. The four A ranks stationed here dwindles down to only one capable of protecting the academy if a situation was to arise, but she wanted to leave as well. I can¡¯t get the S rank to be dispatched just to be protecting the academy and the rest of our A ranks were stationed at different branches. I eventually broke down and gave in to Svalinn who was getting angrier every time she had visited, to request to be dispatched. With her departure the academy no longer had a single A rank capable of protecting us. Astra wasn¡¯t someone I understood so I can¡¯t automatically assume she had deserted. Even if she had, A ranks were to precious to be given the death penalty for deserting. Damn it all these problems. I was getting majority of the blame, by the higher ups for giving the missions that had lead to this situation. If anything I was lucky if I wasn¡¯t demoted. I could do nothing but pray that both Svalinn and Gleipner can return safely. If they both died or never returned it could be said that I had caused the disappearanced of three of the military A ranks. Including Astra. -Gleipner POV- The mission I was assigned was simply to find a demibeast. The picture I had been given was of a young girl but it was apparently how she had looked like more than a decade ago. The principal gave me the time limit of two months. If I couldn¡¯t find her I was to return after the time I was given was up. My first destination would naturally be into the demibeast territory. It was dangerous for any race other than demibeast to enter due to the hostility shown by their race in general. Well their caution towards other races stemmed from the slave trading that continue to be a problem till this day. I was fairly confident I could survive any encounter as long as they weren¡¯t S rank. According to the briefing I had been given the demibeast I was looking for is suspected to be at the lower level of strength in the S rank. Approach with caution, but the likelihood of her being injured was high as well. The goal was to find her, not to capture. Since I was going to be gone for a long time I had brought my daema companion along with me. It currently looked like a normal rabbit grabbing onto my shoulder. The journey to look for her was a nice change of pace, compared to staying in that stuffy academy. I naturally treated people around me coldly and was rather hard to approach. The only exception was my cute little sister of course. Well after more than a week had passed I finally found, what could possibly be a place she had passed by. There were corpse of daema of all sorts laying dead. They were all killed in a similar manner, a part of their body had a gaping hole as if something had hit it with enough force to cause such a effect. It seemed my suspicion was right as I traversed the wasteland that acted as a border of sorts separating the human country and the daema territory. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. -Ria POV- It had been several days now since I had regained conscious. Currently I have recovered enough to walk normally. The injuries themselves were several times worst this time around so I haven¡¯t fully recovered. If possible I do not want to encounter any enemies , since having to fight in this condition would do nothing but worsen my condition. I would rather avoid permanently damaging this form, with the possibility of it affecting my real form. I didn¡¯t even know how to revert to my full dragon form, but eventually I would. Furthermore since I couldn¡¯t remember what happened, I could only assume my current injuries was from sustaining partial form for too long. I couldn¡¯t understand how my body works at this point in time. My dragon form suffered no drawbacks no matter how long I used my mana yet partial form had such a restriction. How could the very same body have such vastly different tolerance. Putting these question aside, most important thing to me right now was to fully recover and I was slowly doing just that. The people in the village of demibeast were extremely kind despite the fact I was a stranger to them. After having walked around and introducing myself most of the villager had kindly offered letting me stay as long as I wanted. They weren¡¯t my family yet perhaps this is what family felt like was what I told myself as I lived with the family that had found me to begin with. The days continued to peacefully passed by as I played with the children once in a while and helped around with the fields, once my injury were for the most part ok. It didn¡¯t take too long to get to know everyone in the village and they were nice to me, so it also didn¡¯t take long before I had befriended most of them. One of the things I had notice was that my hair and eye colour was truly unique even among people with similar race as my current form. It was to be expected since my eye colour actually belonged to my dragon form and my hair colour was similar to my scales somewhat. Well I wasn¡¯t planning to stay in this place for too long either ways. From what I could remember, the military was after me. I was apparently currently in demibeast territory but we weren¡¯t exactly far away from the human territory either. Returning to the human country wasn¡¯t in my top to do list so I would most likely go to the elf country that was in the opposite direction. I didn¡¯t want to trouble the kind demibeast who had helped me so I would leave as soon as I had fully recovered. As usual I had also gathered some intelligence on the demibeast territory in general. Apparently most demibeast lived in tribes as families of sorts and are scattered all over the area. Recently however there was a large group of demibeast who had gathered together and started the construction of the very first city of sorts for demibeast. The other races weren¡¯t aware of it, but most of the tribes were invited to go and live together in the city. The goal of the city was to prevent the kidnapping of fellow demibeast to be sold as slaves. The city itself was build in a hidden area that was only told to fellow demibeast. Since I was a demibeast in this form, I was easily able to get information by simply asking the man who had found me. Not all the tribes were joining but the demibeast who had started it was apparently a survivor of a tribe destroyed by the human slave trader several decades ago. There wasn¡¯t any harm in visiting the city since I was here anyways. After the city I could go to the elf country but for now that was my next destination. After several more days of recovery I was finally ready to leave. Though I was somewhat reluctant to part, I didn¡¯t want to get them involved if the military are looking for me. The farewell was slightly painful but meeting new people and saying farewell was something I probably had to get used to, if I wanted to travel around the continent looking for new things. (Author Note) : Sorry bout yesterday. I don''t think i will be able to keep up with daily releases since i''m still thinking of the plot for this arc. I will still try to released daily but i doubt i can. With that said hope you guys enjoy bye.