Extra

by Stayrr

Third

26. Other Transmigrators In My H Fic 1-32

What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy? #Chapter 1 The Giant Truck-Kun - Read What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy? Chapter 1 The Giant Truck-Kun Online - All Page - FREEWN

"That's the one?"

"Yeah… Lives alone… Parents left years ago…"

"Damn…"

"Don't look… Something bad might happen to you if you do."

"So it's true then?"

"Yeah… Just do your own thing… Don't say anything. Otherwise you'll regret it."

I ignored the whispers and the gazes of my schoolmates as I walked down the hallway, this was a sight I was already used to seeing so it didn't bother me much.

Every start of the school year when new students would come in, they would all be curious about me and it ends up roughly the same way. The scene where they watch me like I'm some kind of exotic animal on display.

Since the last bell had already rung and I wasn't in any clubs whatsoever, I was already on my way out of the school grounds while this was still going on.

Walking past the students who were obviously keeping out of my way, I made my way back home on foot without minding the stares that I've already grown used to. Even the finger pointing by the crowd was not new.

A few minutes of walking later and I was already pushing open the door to my home.

"I'm home…"

Not like I would get a response from an empty house anyway…

I was already living on my own from a really young age.

Father had a gambling addiction and blew all of our savings on it. Mother decided that she couldn't stand it anymore and fled after finding another man.

Then Father decided that trying to live a debt-ridden life was too much for him so he simply just up and left one night without another word, handing over his debt to me.

At least he was too spineless to even consider taking out his frustrations on me so that's good I guess.

Normally I would be shoved to my relatives but after what my parents did, no one wanted to associate themselves with me. Mother was labelled as a gold-digger and Father was the spineless coward, thus by extension, the child must not be any better.

Yes, I was judged before they even got to know me.

Which actually suited me just fine because…

I closed the door behind me and sucked in a breath, "Hell yeah! Independent living! What should I eat today?! Oh! The groceries I ordered are already delivered! Guess I'll make fried rice today then!"

I hummed a tune as I put my school stuff away before arranging the groceries into the kitchen, leaving out the ingredients for my planned dinner.

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Heh, heh! Gonna have some dessert later too! I had been saving a really nice vanilla strawberry cake I bought yesterday too because no one's here to stop me! Living alone is the best!

Yep, life was pretty crappy after I literally got dumped by both my parents, but at least they did leave me with one very important thing! A rather beaten down but still usable computer with access to the internet!

I've always been an avid fan of books at that time and when they left, I was so frustrated with my situation that I just went ahead to vent about my situation on an online book forum.

Somehow, my writing got mistaken as the premise of a novel and I had fans clamouring me for updates.

At first, young me thought they were mocking me so I got a little angry and went ahead to write more about what I was going through as an outlet. Sure, there were a few embellishments here and there, but hey, I was young and impressionable!

I strung them along with this incredible tale and even more people got more invested in my writing.

Then, as I went on, I finally realised what was going on and found my calling in writing novels.

From that day onwards, I wrote like I was possessed, penning down anything I could think of and weaving my ideas into a story that I could use to captivate my audience.

I would go so far as to try and experience as many interesting things as possible just so that they could serve as my writing materials. Be it climbing mountains, camping in the wilderness, learning every kind of skill I could and even travelling to remote places in the name of gathering research materials!

I may or may not have almost lost my life once or twice in doing such research but hey, the books I wrote from that all ended up being top sellers! You think you can become a good writer just by cooping yourself at home?! Don't underestimate a professional!!

And through that… Well… I not only managed to pay off that deadbeat father's debt, but I'm basically making more than enough on my writing to live comfortably. So much so that I moved out of that old dingy room my 'parents' were stuck with and into this detached house in this nice neighbourhood.

Jumping through the legal hoops was honestly a pain, who knew a fourteen year old trying to buy real estate was this hard? But well, it was nothing money couldn't solve in the end.

I still go to school of course, since I realised there was no such thing as too much knowledge when it came to life. I wanted to experience as much as I could outside just so that I could make my own writing much more interesting than the previous one.

Sure, the first year of highschool was pretty annoying since I get idiots who think that I was some kind of sad and pathetic human being for having no parents. Then there were those who thought they could get their own amusement through the suffering of others and made me their target since I looked weak.

Those idiots learned how quickly one's social life can be destroyed when I had the attention of several hundred million followers, not to mention the fact that I learnt how to physically hurt someone too. I did not write that BDSM novella without research you know?

Don't ask how.

Still, they should at least thank me for being immortalised as one of the most 'interesting' characters in that story.

That event did earn me quite a bit of infamy and most people stayed away from me after that, which was something I had no problems with.

Part of the reason was also because of the fanclub that formed later on, mostly consisting of my fans who sought to prevent more arrogant idiots from disturbing me again.

I honestly don't really need that protection but whatever, my writing was more important to me than anything else.

Still, it feels kind of weird that now I'm some kind of small celebrity within my school where my peers are both in fear and awe at me.

Which leads me back to today.

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After a sumptuous dinner, I took a nice long bath before taking out that slice of cake I had been saving and sat down outside on my balcony.

Ah… Peace and quiet.

I'll need to get started on my homework soon but most of the teachers give me a pass since they knew I was mostly doing the school thing for fun and to find more research material. It's not like I'm a nuisance or disruptive in classes anyway and I wasn't depending on my studies to get further in life.

I looked up at the night sky, smiling as I brought the cake into my mouth.

Sweeeeet~ The blend of vanilla and strawberry just explodes in my mouth!

I smiled to myself while leaning back on my chair. Everything was perfect and there was nothing else I could ask for.

Hmmm?

That star… Is glowing brighter than the other stars… Like significantly brighter…

Is it just my imagination… Or is that star getting bigger and bigger?

Wait a minute, that's not a star?! Something's falling towards us! It's definitely falling towards us! What the hell is that thing?!

Eh? Is that… Is that… IS THAT A GIANT TRUCK?!!

That was the only thought I remembered before the giant truck crashed right on top of me and my vision went black.

The next moment I knew, I was in an empty room sitting on a couch.

I panicked, looking around all over hoping against all hope that it was not true, tears already starting to stream past my cheek.

A figure appeared in front of me as I was still looking, not even noticing my current state of duress.

"Greetings. Unfortunately, I do not have goo-- What are you doing?" The figure asked.

I sniffed, finally accepting the undeniable fact, "My… My cake… It's gone… I didn't even get to finish it…"

The figure blinked at me for a bit before snapping his fingers, causing my cake to appear in my hand.

I knew it was my cake because it even had that little bit that I had cut off for the first bite.

Immediately, I started digging in, moaning in delight as I tasted its sweetness once more.

That was when I finally took notice of the person in front of me.

He was definitely male, as evident by the fact that he was bare chested to reveal his muscular form, wearing only a pair of pants that ended at his ankles. Might have thought he was human with that except said ankles were not human ankles but cloven hooves.

His face was also one that people might call handsome but in the roguish way with his long hair cascading past his shoulders, hiding the roots of the antler horns that sprouted from the top of his head.

I gasped, "Are you… Not cold? Dressed like that?"

He blinked a few times at me before suddenly breaking out into laughter, "Ahahaha! You certainly are unique! First, the cake! Not even going to ask any question about your current predicament! But cake! And the next question is this? Ahahaha!"

What's wrong with this guy? It's cake! Cake! It's not even a cake that was a lie but an actual one! A Real cake!

How rude!

Ah… Wait a minute… Where am I again?

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It took him a good full minute before he finally stopped laughing.

By then, I had also finished my cake, just in case it disappeared again.

"Oh by the Creator! I have not laughed like that for a good while! Tell me, do you have any idea what happened to you?"

I looked around me, then tried to recall what had happened before I came here.

"Err… A Dream? Ah, this is a dream right? Did I fall asleep on the balcony and I didn't realise that? Oh damn, that means I'm lucid dreaming right now? Then I want more sweets! More cakes! More--"

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is not a dream," The guy informed me seriously.

"Ah… Then I guess that means I'm dead and you're a god aren't you?"

"I'm surprised you're not panicking about that? Or have you just not accepted that yet?"

"Well, would crying and denying about it help my situation?"

"Not really, but I would have understood if you needed a few minutes to have a mental breakdown or something."

"Pffft, I'm adaptable. If I can't do something this simple, I wouldn't be able to write my books."

He looks up into the air for a moment before looking back at me, "So I see… Really interesting hobbies you have there."

I huffed, "First of all, they aren't just hobbies. Second of all… So you really are a god?"

"My apologies for that and yes, I am Drebann, one of the gods of Erednay."

Ok… Erednay… Is that a religion or something? I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing.

He noticed my perplexed look and his face settled into a wry smile, "It seems like things have gone completely out of order. Shall I start at the beginning again?"

I nodded for him to go ahead, it's not like I have any other choice anyway.

"First, you died. Not only you, but your entire World was destroyed."

I frowned, "By a… Giant truck?"

"I'm surprised you could see it for what it was but yes. It is sad but as mortals, you are all subject to the whims of the Gods. There was a… Dispute with your World's Gods and another World's. They fought and one of them thought it would be a great idea to conjure such an abomination to throw at another God. Unfortunately, they missed and… You know the rest. Because the mistake was Divine in nature, we are offering all the souls in your World an option of living a second life."

I blinked a few times at him, "Does that mean… The entire world is going to get isekai-ed because of a giant truck-kun?"

He smiled, "I should have expected you to make that connection. You did write several of these stories before, after all. I guess I can skip the introduction of the second life concept?"

Oh damn! A real life isekai experience! And it even involves the legendary truck-kun on a global scale! Who knew this would actually happen to me! If we go by the normal route, that means I'll be given an op power and I get to live my new life however I want right?

Viva la isekai!

I nodded quickly "Yes please, I think I've read and written enough of that. So let's just move on. Although you said 'all the souls' in my world are being given the option?"

"That is correct. We are transmigrating the entire world."

Ok… I kind of glossed over that part once I heard about the truck-kun… But…

I looked around again, checking that we were obviously alone in this strange, featureless, white room.

"Ah, looks like we skipped some steps again. Your entire World is getting transmigrated, but not all of them will be to the same World. For my World, which is known as Erednay, we're taking in about a few hundred thousand of you. I am also dealing with each of you individually, much more personal you see?"

"That sounds very inefficient? Won't that take a long time to get through all of us?"

He chuckled, causing his antlers to sway a little, "Oh, splitting my consciousness is a small feat for me. I am currently talking to all of you transmigrators at the same time, so it's no big deal."

"Ok, I shall not ask how you prevent yourself from getting confused having several hundred thousand conversations at once."

The god in front of me smiled but said nothing.

I shrugged, "Alright, let's get to the fun stuff then! I suppose you're not just going to dump me into this new world and call it a day, yes?"

"Indeed that is correct. Here."

He waved his hands and a translucent screen appeared in front of me.

I gasped, "Oh nice! Do I get a system?! With quests and skills and all that jazz?"

"Not exactly. For our World, we decided to let you all have the choice in creating yourself, it's meant to be your new life after all."

I looked at the screen, moving my fingers across it to realise it functions like a touch screen.

Quickly scrolling through its contents, I realised this was like a character creator of sorts where I can make my own character. That's cool.

It uses a points system where I can use them to pay for boons and also pick some banes to give me more points.

I've played Role Playing Games before in order to gather research material for a video game novel I was writing about, so I at least have a decent idea on creating characters. From this, I can already see some options that are really exploitable.

I frowned at the god, "Does everyone get the same options?"

He nodded while maintaining his smile, "But just for you… Since you've been able to amuse me and your stories are indeed interesting, I'm willing to give you some bonus points just for that."

Drebann snapped his fingers and, sure enough, the points listed on my screen increased by quite a bit.

"Are you sure this is ok?" I asked with a bit of scepticism. "Won't the other gods raise any questions?"

"Oh no, they've entrusted this to me so I am in control of all the initial proceedings. You don't need to worry about that."

"And what are you expecting of us by letting us enter your world? Surely this is not done purely through the kindness of your hearts?"

"Careful there. Any other God and they might not take your words kindly and perceive that as an insult."

"Which only serves my point that they are not as benevolent as they try to pretend to be."

"Ahahaha! As true as that might be, I would really advise you to watch yourself in case you meet other Gods in the future. Otherwise, unpleasant things might happen."

I nodded, "I'll keep that in mind. Now, what's the real reason you let us into your World?"

He smiled lazily and propped up his chin with a hand, "Honestly? It's really just for fun. Things have gone a little stale in our World and we figured… Why not put some transmigrators from another World and see what happens?"

I blinked, "Really? Just because of that?"

"Just because of that," He affirmed, his smile growing wider. "So it's not like we have some grand plan in store for all of you, thus you can feel free to do whatever you want with your new life. Be a hero, conquer the world, become a merchant or even a homeless beggar, we care not. There are over a hundred thousand of you people, surely there's a few of you who would do something interesting?"

"Even if it means destroying the entire World? You know about how we were killing our world before this right?"

His smile turned a little sinister, "If anyone is able to do it under our noses, then they are welcome to try. Anyway, it's not like all of you are people who have ideas in the first place, there's a good chunk of you transmigrators who are new to the very concept of transmigration."

Hmm… I can't tell if that was a challenge or a threat, not that I have any intentions of destroying this world in the first place.

I mean, look at this!! A real life isekai!! The one situation that I've written multiple books about and now I get to experience it for myself! There's no way I'm passing this opportunity up! Think of all the research materials I can get simply by living in this world!

Ahhh! I can't wait to write more stories too!

OHH!

I almost forgot the most important question.

"God Drebann…"

"Please, for you, it's just Drebann."

I smiled wryly at him, "Drebann. I have a very important question and I hope you will answer me honestly with the truth and nothing but the truth."

He raised an eyebrow but nodded his head to show that I should go ahead and ask my question.

"Are there sweets and confectioneries in Erednay?"

"Yes."

"Alright!!! Time to create my character!!"

I set myself upon the screen in front of me, dedicating my concentration fully on the task at hand.

It's a little sad to know that the things I've done in my previous life basically got erased, but at least I got a second chance in life! And in this new life, I'll surely become even better and write lots more stories and eat lots more sweets! With this new--

I stopped at one of the sections.

"There's magic?" I muttered.

Drebann chuckled, "Funny that this didn't even catch your attention earlier. You didn't even ask me what kind of World Erednay is."

I grimaced, "I didn't really think too deeply about that."

"Well, I suppose your books did give you a template to expect from already, but yes, Erednay is like your high fantasy kind of World. So expect magic and dungeons in what is sort of equivalent to your mediaeval setting. Except there's also automatons but that's beside the point."

Even better then.

Moving on… Choosing my race, my body, my skills… Add some boons and take some banes… A few good items…

It took me a while, but I was finally done, even taking the time to double check everything before I looked back up at Drebann who was just smiling at me the entire time.

He waved his hand and my screen disappeared to reappear in front of him.

"Oh, how interesting… Are you sure you don't need any more time to reconsider your options?"

I shook my head, "I'm sure. Hit me."

He stood up and snapped his fingers, "Very well then! I wish you the best in your second life! Be sure to let us see an interesting one!"

As soon as the words left his lips, my vision went black.

Time for a new life! New life here I come!

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Darkness all around me.

I wondered if I was supposed to feel anything?

In the character creation, I had decided to choose reincarnation instead of a transmigration as my entry method since it would be easier to integrate myself into the world.

I get to be born to a family and then either use their connections to learn more about the world before venturing out on my own or just live with them and take over whatever they're doing to earn my place in life. I even made sure to take the extra option of allowing me to be put in a good family too.

In addition, I also took the route where my skills will come to me over time, just so that I can get used to them as I receive them instead of getting overwhelmed from the very start. I'm the kind of person who likes to lay out the foundations properly first before building my tower, after all.

With that said… How long am I supposed to stay in this darkness? Is something supposed to happen or what?

Hmm… Maybe…

I tried to reach out my hand and surprisingly felt some resistance.

Oh? There's something like a barrier of some sort. Is this like a shield that is keeping my consciousness in or something? Maybe if I push it hard enough I will awaken?

With that determination, I started to push against that barrier with all my might, sometimes even rearing my fist back to punch it.

My efforts were not for naught as soon enough, cracks of light appeared in the darkness and I redoubled my efforts.

Slowly, the cracks started spreading as I pushed even harder until finally, a part of the darkness broke off. I concentrated my efforts on that part and managed to create a big enough hole for me to jump out of the darkness and straight into something soft.

"Ara, ara? Aren't you an energetic little one? Ufufufu~"

The voice prompted me to look up.

There, hugging me in her embrace was a beautiful woman with hair as dark as night, partially covering a side of her face which made only one of her amber eyes visible. Two red horns jutted out from the sides of her head and a pair of black leather wings was furled protectively around us.

She was also wearing a form hugging black dress that showed the top of her shoulders and cleavage, accentuating her charm as a woman. It was the kind of dress you would expect to see a woman wear in a high class function.

Right now, said woman was busy wrapping a towel around me.

"Mama…" The words came unbidden from my lips.

She gasped and I was immediately pulled deeper into the hug, her bosoms big enough to have my head completely sink into the valley between.

"Ahhhhh!! My little darling!! Yes! Yes! I'm your mama! Call me your mama!!"

Uwaaa… This… This is my mother?

I never really had a maternal figure in my previous life but… Is this considered normal?

I turned my head to look behind me, spotting the remnants of a large obsidian egg that had been my 'prison'.

The woman who is supposedly my mother realised what I was looking at and giggled, "Oh deary me, what a bad mother I am. My cute little one is hungry aren't you?"

She sat me down on her lap before picking up pieces of the eggshells, breaking it into smaller chunks before pushing it to my lips.

"There, there~ Eat up now my little darling~"

Err… I know I picked this race that was similar to dragonkins but is this normal for them? I also realised I seem to be pretty big for a baby? Like… I think I could be considered at least a year old in human standards considering my hands looked to be rather formed already.

Oh whatever, when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

I opened my little mouth and let her feed me the eggshell.

I was fully expecting it to crackle and taste like a chicken's eggshell but… Oh? This… This texture? It's soft! And… And sweet?! It's like eating a macaron! More!! Me want!

My cries came out something like "Ababa" but she understood, picking up even more of the macaron tasting eggshells to feed me.

Too soon, I had ate up everything and a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over me.

Ugh… Does eating that make me sleepy too?

"Fufufu~ Is my little darling sleepy now? Sleep, mama will protect you my little dearest~"

I wanted to protest, but my eyelids grew heavier and heavier before I finally succumbed to the sweet embrace of sleep.

I woke up slowly, finding myself somewhere warm.

My stirring caught the attention of the woman hugging me to her chest.

"Oh my, oh my, is my little darling awake already? Ufufufu~ How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok… Eh?"

I didn't actually expect words to come out from my mouth and I immediately looked down at myself.

It seems like while I was asleep, my body had grown from a one year old to the equivalent of a two or three year old. Is this… Normal?

I suppose from the fact that the woman hugging me isn't freaking out about it should be a sign that it was.

"Ufufufu~ You're already growing up so fast my little cutie~ Mama is proud of you!"

I'm barely even a day old you know? Is this even something to be proud of?

Oh whatever, this is the start of my new life after all and I plan to make the most out of it! Nothing's going to stop me!

Not noticing my internal monologue, the woman planted a kiss on my forehead before pulling back with a smile.

"My dear little one… You shall be Aster, the conqueror of the stars. My most dearest, cutest child."

Aster? I guess I can shorten it to Ast or something. But what's with that conqueror of the stars thing? Is that a pseudonym? A title? Or an expectation from her? I already said this but I'm not going to do anything grandiose you know?

Once again, I was pulled into her bosoms as she hugged me tight, lifting me up in her arms so that she could stand up from her seat that was a rock.

It was then I finally got a good look at where I was.

I wasn't in a room like I had initially thought but in a cavern of some sorts.

The only opening I could see was the large hole in the ceiling, big enough to offer a clear view of the night sky above us where two moons could be seen hanging amongst the stars.

That drove home the fact that I was no longer in my original world.

While I was distracted by the sight of the moons, there was a rush of wind and I realised the woman carrying me had spread her wings wide open.

The black wings looked as though they were absorbing all the light around them with how dark they were, giving it an ethereal look.

She raised them up and I felt her arms tense around me before we were suddenly catapulted into the sky with a single flap of her wings.

I couldn't help but let out a startled gasp.

We were flying… Up in the night sky… The mountains below us, the stars and moons above us, the air rushing around us and… And the woman just dropped me…

I GOT DROPPED?!!!

This crazy woman actually opened up her hands in midair and dropped me!!

Did I do something wrong? Did she not like the way I looked? Is this some coming of age ceremony for my race? I'm not even a day old you know?!!!

My skydiving instincts immediately kicked in, prompting me to open up my arms and legs to adopt an arch form.

Questions were going through my mind at a thousand words per second as I tried to find a rational reason for my predicament while also trying to come up with a way to survive at the same time.

Did I have wings? No! I can't feel any wing-like things on my back at all! I'm still too young for my race to gain wings right?! That means she's not throwing me like this to fly, so why?!

Is she really trying to kill me?! But she named me! Does she have some sick fetish of killing the children she names?! What can I--

Right then, the wind stopped for just a slight moment before picking up speed again, this time going in the opposite direction as she had swooped to catch me under her before flying up again.

I didn't even have time to feel relieved that this might have just been some kind of prank when she unceremoniously let go again.

This time, I screamed as I floundered helplessly in the air, watching the ground come closer and closer towards me while the wind rushed past my ears.

Again, before I dropped too far, she had swooped down to catch me before flying up to the sky.

I bit back a curse, what kind of mother would-- She dropped me again!!!

Is she tormenting me?! Why is she doing this?! Is this some kind of joke?!

For the third time, I was picked up again in her arms, she flew for a little longer, making me think that the end.

Of course, the moment those thoughts manifested in my head, her fingers loosened and I found myself falling again.

It was already my fourth time falling so the panic wasn't really as great, the annoyance at being dropped being more prominent than fear.

I began counting the seconds right as I got scooped up into the air again.

The fifth drop and the sixth drop confirmed that she was doing this deliberately and also only letting me fall for exactly three seconds before swooping in to catch me.

She does not allow me to ask any questions though, since the moment I try, I would be dropped.

This continued for quite a while and I began to actually start enjoying it.

There was this thrill in it, now that I knew that she did not intend to kill me with this. I couldn't help but even let out a laugh the next time she dropped me, enjoying the rush of the wind and the scenery of everything below me.

It kind of felt like a rollercoaster ride to be honest and yes, I do quite enjoy them.

I must have let that joy show on my face because the next time I was caught, I heard her giggling above me, "Ufufu~ It feels good to be a ruler of the sky, yes?"

Ah… So this really is some kind of initiation for a newborn dragonkin?

You guys really put a less than one day old newborn through this kind of torture that could mentally scar one for life?

Ugh… But… But… I guess I'll admit… This is… Kind of fun…

Wheeee~

I continued to enjoy the feeling of flying through the sky as she brought me to who knows where.

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"Welcome to our home, my cute little dearest~"

I looked around in wonder, still snuggled up in the woman's arms.

In the character creation with the god Drebann, I picked the race of the Meslatars, otherwise known as dragonkins for my new life.

What can I say? Dragons are cool, ok?

Anyway, when I picked this race, I wasn't really sure what to expect since there wasn't really much information about how they lived aside from the fact that some "Mahuns", which is their equivalent of humans in this world, decided it would be a great idea to fuck a dragon.

Thus, the race of Meslatars was born as a hybrid between dragons and Mahuns.

But… Did we live in caves? The fact that I was hatched in one gave me the idea that we did. That's why I thought that cavern would have been our home.

Instead, this woman had flown me over some mountains until we reached the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, revealing a rather homely cottage built near the edge of it just outside a forest.

It even has what looks like a vegetable garden and a chicken pen at the side.

She landed in front of the house, holding me tightly in her arms.

I suppose if we really were living in a cave, she wouldn't be wearing such a dress that looked like it belonged more in a royal ball than anything else.

Then again, it doesn't fit living in a cottage either so I'm not sure what to think now… She's even wearing a pair of high heels you know? Not something you'd expect a woman to be wearing with such living conditions.

With me still cuddled in her arms, she pushed open the door to the cottage, surprising me with how it looked inside.

It was… Err… Normal?

Like precisely what you might expect of a cottage house I guess?

The entrance led to a small parlour that opened up to the living room that doubled as a study on one side with its bookshelves and table, the room also sharing a space with the dining room which was simply a rectangular table with four chairs.

Separated by an open doorway on the left was the kitchen with various different ingredients stored in jars and containers within the shelves nailed to the walls.

A staircase was pushed up against the far wall at the right side of the living room, hidden by a small alcove which led to the second floor where I assume the bedrooms would be.

The thing that stood out was the fact that the furniture were all of exceptional quality, something you might expect to be made by a master craftsman with how detailed they were decorated. Also… almost all of them were decorated in some way with gold.

I'm assuming that's a dragon thing.

That was when I realised there was something missing.

"Papa?" I asked, the word feeling especially weird even when I uttered it.

The woman simply smiled at me and booped me on the nose, "No papa, just mama my cute little one~"

Single parent life huh? Again, I don't know if this is a Meslatar thing or just my family in particular.

With me still in her arms, the woman carried me up the stairs to the only room above. Just as I had thought, it was the bedroom with what I guess to be an attached bathroom at the side.

Oh damn, there's a giant four poster canopy bed here that has gold trimmings too… All of the furniture in this house looks really expensive…

She unwrapped me from the towel and tucked me into the bed, stepping away to strip herself out of her dress to kick it into the laundry basket at the corner of the room.

Without an ounce of shame, she turned to me in her naked glory, picking me up in her arms before tucking me into bed with her.

"Good night my cute little one~" She whispered, hugging me close to her… Very generous chest before her eyes closed shut.

She sleeps nude… Ok then…

Hmm… Although… I'm not exactly sleepy at the moment… Maybe I can use this time to actually think about what my plans are for this new life? Sounds like a plan.

Main objective!

I'm literally living the isekai life! Use this opportunity to gather real fantasy research materials and write the best story ever!

Second main objective!

Eat all the sweets!!!

Yes! Sweets! Cakes! Candies! Ice cream! All the sweets and desserts in the entire world! I want to eat them all!!

I need to build a life for myself where I can eat them whenever and however I want! Discover all the sweet delicacies of this new world and have the time of my life enjoying them!!

And just because I couldn't do it in the previous world… I'm gonna have someone make the biggest cake in the entire world and let me dive right into it!!!

Yep. Solid plan. Perfect, no regrets. Best second life here.

Heh heh heh heh…

Ok, on to more immediate matters. First thing I have to do is be able to explore this world on my own, that means I need power.

I've read and written enough stories to know the dangers of such worlds so I need to be able to defend myself.

I'll get the boons and banes I've bought with my points at random amounts every year, so I'll have to make sure I make the best out of training and learning about each one I get for each of my birthdays.

In that case, since I also have the fortune of not starting out in the body of a hapless baby who can't do anything themselves, I can use this first year to learn all that I can about this world before I get my first skills.

Thus, my first year shall be dedicated to training my mind, hopefully this is something my mother… Hmm… It feels weird to have someone I can call 'mother' now… But I suppose I'll make do.

I hope she would be open about me wanting to learn. It would be quite troublesome if she says something like me being too young and unable to learn.

I inadvertently looked down.

Huge…

I hope I don't need to be breastfed… That would be so awkward for me…

Putting that aside… Even if she wasn't willing to teach me… I believe I should be able to learn some things on my own. The books in the study should at least help me learn some stuff, though I certainly hope the language wouldn't be a problem.

So far, I've been able to understand what she was saying and she understood me too. But I don't know if this was some kind of magic at play or we are actually speaking my own native language.

Guess I'll find out in the morning.

So with the first year planned, my next step would have to depend on what boon or bane would be manifested on my first birthday.

That is what happens when choosing the option of "Skill Reincarnation" in the character creation. At least the lewd ones will only come in after I turn eighteen so I don't need to worry about those making my baby years weird.

That is already putting aside the fact that I seem to have already skipped the infant stage anyway…

I have quite a number of boons I've bought that would be quite useful to me so I hope I gain those early, even better if it's one of the magic or skills I had bought so I can train with them even earlier.

I sure hope my luck isn't terrible to the point that I would only gain banes on my first birthday…

Speaking of birthdays… Guess I popped out from an egg huh? Does that mean my children would also come from eggs too? How would cross breeding work?

Err… Hold on, why am I thinking about such things now? I'm not even a day old in this body yet! Nasty thoughts begone!

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that my face is currently being squished between two weapons of mass destruction right now.

I know this is a fantasy world and all but is this the normal size?! I think these are at least K cups in size! Then again, she is part dragon so… Err… Does that actually help with back problems? I sure hope it does.

Speaking of which, who is this woman anyway? Aside from obviously being my birth mother of course.

The furniture in the house was by no means cheap, even if the exterior looked like a modest one. No, that was incorrect. Modesty did not seem like it was the main concern for its construction, it looked like practicality played a bigger part in its creation.

This place was effectively self-sufficient and also located in a rather defensible location. The only way to come and go from this place easily was if you could fly or somehow traverse through that thick forest without problems.

And yet, despite the fact that it looked like this place was focused on practicality, the interior was focused on luxury, a direct contradiction to the former.

Coupled with the fact that we encountered no other signs of civilization during our flight here with nothing but the mountain, the sea and forests all around… I have a feeling the nearest town or city is an ocean away.

And then there's the absence of a father too…

Which brings to the question of…

Is my… Mother… A wanted criminal?

…

Oh well, not like I can do anything about it. Guess I'll just sleep for now.

Goodnight!

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"Ara, ara? My cute little darling wants to learn already? Of course you can!"

That was the answer I got when I asked her if I could start learning stuff, absolutely throwing all the arguments and counter-arguments I had prepared in case she rejected me out the window.

Instead of the black gown that she wore yesterday, she was wearing a simple black one piece dress where the skirt reached her ankles. The design of it was simple enough that it wouldn't be out of place to be worn at home like this.

"Rweally?" I gasped, my words coming out weird since I still had bread stuffed in my mouth.

Hey, the bread was awesome ok?! It's even homemade and fresh from the stove!

"Fufufu~ If my little darling were to ask me with such a cute look on your face, of course mama will agree~" She giggled while hugging my face to her chest.

After almost suffocating me with those weapons of hers, she pulled back and wiped my mouth with a napkin, "Dear me, my cute little one. Only a day old and you're already aspiring for greatness. As expected of my dear child~"

I'm not sure how to feel about her words… She's really taking all this in stride too. Is a one day old child doing this normal?

Ugh, this is what I need to know, my common sense of this world is entirely nonexistent. Hopefully that can change when I start learning about it.

After clearing up the breakfast table, we relocated to the living room where I could see a clear view of the sea from the window.

I ended up sitting on her lap while she cuddled me from behind, not that I had a choice to begin with.

Incidentally, my body didn't change much when I woke up this morning, still looking like I was a two or three years old instead of growing any more.

I really don't understand the rules of this world…

"Fufufu~ So what does my cute little one want to be when you grow up? A conqueror? A destroyer of Worlds? Or maybe the bringer of the apocalypse?"

…

Is this woman really my mother? What kind of things are you saying to your one day old child? Are you really a criminal like I thought?

Ahem… No, err… Let's see… I probably should just tell her my main objective, which is to find interesting stories to write about.

Before I could, I felt a hand rest on my head and began patting me, "What does my cute little one want to be? You can tell mama anything~"

Hmm… Maybe I should reconsider… Perhaps she's also joking so I should try and maintain a look of a young child?

Honestly… Because of those good for nothing parents from my previous life, I'm still hesitant on acknowledging her as my actual mother in this one. I guess it's because I'm subconsciously expecting her to abandon me sooner or later?

I didn't expect myself to have abandonment issues… Oh well, I'll deal with that later.

"I want to eat all the sweets!" I blurted out, thinking this should be the safer choice.

"Ufufufu~ Mama understands~ My cute little one wishes to claim all the sweets in the world for yourself, yes?"

"Yes!"

"Fufufu~ Then that means you will want to be strong enough to conquer the world and make everyone gift you tributes of sweets! Yes~ Mama shall teach you the ways of a conqueror!"

What.

Not noticing my utter confusion, she stood up and walked over to the bookshelf with me still in her arms.

"Ufufufu~ To be a conqueror, you will need to be strong enough to make others kneel before you and to crush any opposition who dares raise their hands against you. This is perfect! As expected of my child~"

She pulled out a folded sheet of paper from the shelf before returning us to the couch, opening it up to a and spreading it on the table to reveal what I guess to be a map of the world.

"This is the World of Erednay, my cute little one. And this World is yours for the taking~ Mama shall teach you how~"

I ignored her words in favour of looking at the map for now. This map is actually quite detailed, something I wouldn't expect to find… Ah.

One of the options that I could buy in the character creation screen was a "Trusty Map". I'm assuming this is it. To think that this would be how I would find it… I was actually assuming that this would be just like the other options where they would just appear out of thin air on my birthday or something…

Then that means the "Pack of Folding" I bought might also be somewhere in the house? Not that I'm in a hurry to find it now and if I really need it, I'll just ask my birth mother if this thing exists.

While I was still occupied with my thoughts, the woman placed a finger on the bottom left corner of the map labelled 'Dragon Sanctuary', specifically at the rightmost edge of the island.

"This is where our little nest is my little one~ Mama built this home just for us, you know?"

Oh? She… Built this place? By herself?

"Amazing…" I gasped.

"Ara, ara? Ufufufu~ To hear my little one's praise makes everything worth it~"

She picked me up so that she could set me on one of her thighs, allowing me to face her as she leaned back on the couch.

"Now, I suppose mama should start from us, yes? We are Meslatars, the ones with the blood of dragons running through our veins. And you, are my cutest little one~"

She booped me on the nose.

I realised she was expecting a response so I humoured her, "I'm a dragon, mama?"

"Ufufu~ Yes you are, my little one~ And mama shall make you the strongest dragon there ever will be~ That is why…"

She waved her hands in the air and several books flew off the shelves to land on the table in front of us.

That was… Magic. Definitely magic. I so badly want it but I doubt I have any of that potential in me yet until they manifest later on.

Also… Why didn't she do that just now with the map, did she just want to carry me?

I took a look at the books wondering what she had brought out to… Eh? I… Don't understand the words…

"First lesson! My little one shall learn how to read!" She declared proudly.

I looked up at her, "Mama… Why can I speak and understand?"

"Ufufufu~ That's because it's a blessing from the Creation God. He had made it such that everyone in this World is inherently knowledgeable about the Common Tongue, allowing everyone in this World to communicate with one another."

"And the words?"

"Ara, ara? My dear little one is so smart! The words are different as these are a creation of the denizens of this World. Thus, it is not something that everyone will inherently know. For that, we must learn it the long way~ Now, shall we? This is the letter 'a' and 'a' is for 'armageddon'!"

…

Did I really sign myself up for this?

"Ara, ara? It seems it is time for lunch~ Come now my little one~" She giggled before prancing away to the kitchens.

I put the notebook away after I had finished practising writing the alphabets. Honestly, they weren't really that hard, they look quite like the alphabets I knew in the previous world except more cursive and with a little bit more extra details.

Needless to say, my birth mother was utterly ecstatic to see how fast I was learning everything that she kept patting me, praising me and also hugging me every other second.

I thought I would be annoyed by the praise but… I have to admit, it actually felt nice.

I can't remember the last time I had a parent praising me after all.

Ugh, putting aside my sad past, let's see what my birth mother has made for lunch.

She surprised me by coming out again, this time with woollen gloves on her hands and a pair of boots on her feet. There's even a straw hat resting on her head…

"Mis… Mama? What are you doing?" I asked.

"Ara? Mama is going out to get lunch of course~ Does my cute little one want to follow mama?"

I'm a little curious why she needed to dress up like that so I nodded my head.

Taking me by the hand, she brought me outside and headed straight for the chicken pen. Ah, she's coming out here to take ingredients, I guess that makes sense.

Although I'm also wondering why the chicken pen's walls have to be as high as our house's?

The answer was evident the moment she opened the gate.

"Bock?"

That sound should have belonged to a chicken… Unfortunately, the things in front of me definitely do not resemble chickens in any way.

It sure has the head of a chicken, the body of one, heck even the legs of one… But the fact that the three chicken-like animals were about half the size of a house definitely meant they were not normal chickens.

One of them immediately turned to me, giving me a glare that looked like it could kill me alone with its gaze.

That moment was broken when the woman beside me literally punched it in the face, sending it sprawling onto the ground with a loud squawk.

She then turned around to hug me, "Oh my poor sweet little cutie! Did the bad chicken scare you? Don't worry! Mama will protect you!"

Right… It seems like this woman is rearing three cockatrices in her backyard like normal chickens… I just hope her vegetable garden isn't filled with carnivorous plants or something.

Did I really sign up for all this?

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After lunch was another study session where I learnt words and how to write them, something I did easily since it was pretty simple to do after I memorised the letters.

Again, she was utterly ecstatic about it and spent quite a bit of time simply praising and hugging me.

Dinner was also rather normal, if you consider her gushing and constantly patting me as normal that is.

Then, it was a bath where I was pretty much manhandled into joining her before being changed into a set of children's clothes I most definitely do not remember seeing the day before.

Like the previous night, she tucked me into bed while she joined me with nary a shred of cloth on her, hugging me close as she hummed contentedly.

I thought this would be the end of the day and prepared to sleep when she suddenly spoke up, "My little baby… Does mama scare you?"

I was a little surprised by the question so I looked up at her, seeing nothing but concern in her eyes.

"Why do… Why does mama say so?" I asked.

"Because you have not accepted me as your mother, haven't you?"

I grimaced mentally.

I suppose it's no surprise that she realised that, being a mother and all, but what can I say to that? How is a one day old Meslatar supposed to act?

Err… Do I just start doing some baby talk? Damn it! I should have tried to find some books about the habits of Meslatars or something.

Before I could say anything though, she ran her hand through my hair.

"I know who you are, my dear~ You're one of the souls who came from another World, are you not?"

I froze.

"Ufufufu~ Do not worry my little one. I understand it's a little scary being born in this strange and new World with strange and new sights, but you are still my child. I will never hurt you."

I looked up at her, finding nothing but pure, motherly love in her eyes.

"How did you know?"

She smiled at my question, "You were in that egg for quite a while and I have the ability to sense the going ons of this World. It has been a few months since the first of the people from your World arrived. I've done some digging and found out about the circumstances revolving around your World and our Gods. Besides… A normal Meslatar would not show as much intelligence as you have at birth, my sweet, much less even say their first words barely a minute out of their shell."

I frowned, "Then does that mean others know of our arrival as well?"

"Oh, I have no doubt there are others out there who have also known about this. There are people who serve the Gods directly and they would most certainly be privy to such things. But worry not, most people in this World remain in the dark about this."

"And… And what about you… Mama?"

With the current topic of our conversation, I was definitely not expecting her to lean closer and kiss me on the forehead before pulling back with a smile.

"My sweet, sweet dear. You are my child, nothing will change that. I understand if you still feel attached to the mother of your previous World, I do not ask of you to replace me with her. But you are born from me in this World and I will see you as my beloved child and nothing else."

Seeing that we've already reached this stage, I see no reason to keep this secret either.

I sighed, "My mother left the family for another man. My father abandoned me after racking up a debt he was unable to pay back. The reason why I'm hesitant to acknowledge you as my mother is not because I am attached to my previous one… But more because the concept of loving parents is foreign to me…"

My words had an instantaneous effect on her.

I was brought into a crushing hug while she cried, "My sweet, sweet child! You have suffered so much! You need not worry any more while I'm here! I swear I will protect you and you will never need to fear being abandoned anymore! Even if the World were to turn against you, I will always, always stay by your side!"

I was quite stunned by her declaration. Why would she go so far for me?

Before I could ask her, she had sat herself up so that she could put me on her lap, taking the time to pat my head as she did so.

"It was supposed to be impossible for me to have a child," She explained, a sad smile materialising on her face. "I prayed to the Gods for a miracle and they gave you to me. I will not give you up for anything in the World."

"Is that why… There is no father around?"

"Ufufufu~ That is correct my dearest~ I am… Your virgin mother."

Ok… I don't actually know how to feel about this.

Her fingers moved to brush a strand of hair away from my face, "No doubt, the Gods probably saw me as a convenient piece to bring you into this World. But to me, you are my miracle, my one and only sweet child."

I can understand her sentiments at least, I was the child she had always wanted and never thought she could have.

But for me… Even though logically speaking, I knew she would never be like my previous mother, I still could not simply just accept her so easily.

"I'm sorry…" I whispered, though loud enough for her to hear.

Instead of getting angry or upset, she leaned forward to kiss me on the forehead again, "It's ok my little sweet, I understand."

I shook my head, "It's not that… I… I just need some time. I've lived on my own for so long, I have never expected to receive any sort of familial love before… I just need to get used to it… Is that alright?"

"Ufufufu~ That is more than I can hope for my little one. I will shower you with so much love to make up for your lack of it in your other life~"

At this point, I don't know if it's just her or if this is what a normal mother is like. I most certainly cannot imagine my mother from the other world would ever do this for me.

She held me in her arms while a low hum resounded from her throat, an emotion I recognised at contentment flashing on her face for a split second.

Since she already knew everything, I decided to simply go ahead and ask her, "Now… What should we do?"

She giggled, "If my little one is referring to this immediate point of time, I think we should simply go to sleep. But if my sweet child is asking about the plans for the future… I suppose I should ask what your real objective for this World is?"

I smiled, "I wish to travel the world and experience it for myself, recording down all the interesting things to write a book that will be remembered for ages. Though… The sweets and cakes is also one of my objectives… I like sweets."

"Ufufufu~ I suppose my little one would want to have enough power to venture to places that others dare not tread?"

"Well… I believe that the strong thrive here while the weak grovel right? In that case, I would definitely like to have power that allows me to stand above all else. I don't suppose you… Mother… Could tell me how to do it?"

She smiled at my attempt in trying to change my perception of her but decided not to comment on it, instead she simply addressed my question.

"My sweet, sweet child… If it is power you seek, you need not look further than Mama~ You did not think that Mama got this land and everything around it outside simply through purchase, did you?"

I suppose not.

According to the map, the closest place of civilization was literally a sea away. She must have fought tooth and nail against the other inhabitants of this island for this piece of land and built it up with her own hands.

In such a place literally called "Dragon Sanctuary", someone like her being able to live here means that she's most likely one of the strongest existence in this part of the island at least. Thus learning from her would be the best choice.

"If… If mother does not mind… I would very much like to learn from you."

"Ufufufu~ In that case, how hard does my sweet little one wish for me to teach you? I could do this slowly with plenty of assurances, care, love, cuddles and validation; or I could push you to be the very best that you can be, doing all that I can to train you to be someone that others will kneel to in the shortest time?"

"I don't suppose there's a third option that is both fast and also filled with plenty of assurances and validation?"

"Ara, ara? As much as I wish to say there is, this is unfortunately not possible. These two methods are polar opposites, exclusive of each other."

In that case, there isn't really much thinking required in order to choose. I needed power, enough power such that no one could stop me from going to places I wish to go.

Especially since there are other transmigrators here too, meaning they would have the same cheats I have. Some of them might have even found better exploits than I had too and who knows what they plan to do to this world?

My previous life wasn't filled with rainbows and roses either, so if I could deal with that, I think I can deal with her harsher teaching method.

"Please… I want to become strong… Mother."

She smiled and hugged me closer to her naked chest.

And that was the night I thoroughly regretted my words.

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"These are the books that have most of the recorded history of the Lehcarouc Kingdom including the names of the most prominent people within! Here also lists their customs, their policies and also what each of their villages, towns and cities are known for!"

Waving her hand, two more stacks of books were dumped on the table, "These are the same except this one is for the Shendhala Oligarchy while this is for the Democratic Republic of Modgnik! These are the three biggest civilizations that consist of Mahuns!"

I looked at the two stacks that were at least thirty books high each, each book being as thick as a dictionary.

Before I could even say anything, another stack of books that were bigger than all three combined appeared on top of the already creaking table.

"And I'm sure my dearest little one would also wish to excel in magic as well, yes? These here cover the standard curriculum of the Aerialla Academy from the basic to master's level! Now shall we start, my little one?!"

…

Just to put it out there… But her eyes are bloodshot…

Also… Where did all these books come from? The number of books here definitely couldn't have fit in the small bookshelf beside the study table… In fact, they definitely do not look like they came from that particular bookshelf either seeing the bookshelf was stil full.

"Umm… Mother… Maybe we should do this one by one?"

"Ara, ara? It seems like mama has gotten ahead of herself. Ufufufu~"

I gestured to the books in front of me, "How did you even get all of these? I don't think just anyone can get a hold of these books, can they?"

"Ufufufu~ That is correct my sweet, little one. But mama has her ways~ Don't worry, they aren't stolen or anything like that."

That actually makes it more suspicious… The fact that she could get all of these books legitimately is already putting a big question mark on her real identity…

Should I be worried?

Oh well, I should just thank my luck that because of her, I get access to all of these research materials even before I start hunting for them.

Looking at the map, Lehcarouc Kingdom was the closest to us so I thought I could learn more about it first.

"What's the kingdom like, mother?"

She smiles and picks up the first book on top of the pile, flipping through it to stop on a page before handing it to me.

Written there was a short summary of the kingdom's form of governance. It was basically the textbook mediaeval fantasy kingdom where the country is ruled by a king or queen where lands are given to a few nobles who govern the lands granted to them in the name of their liege.

"Their primary export lies in food, livestock and precious metals while their primary imports are processed ores and slaves," She added.

"Slaves?" I repeated, looking up at her.

"Yes. Criminals, prisoners and other such slaves are brought in from Shendhala Oligarchy to be used in their mines and farms, depending on the slave. The ones who are sold because of debt would usually be put in less demanding work to earn back their freedom while the criminals are put to work in jobs that have higher mortality rates, depending on their crime."

Ok, so slavery exists in this world, not that surprising.

You definitely won't see me picking up the pitchforks to demand an abolishment of it anytime soon since I'm not going to try and impose my own world's ideals here, but I have a feeling that there might be a few transmigrators who would try to do just that.

In the end, it's still none of my business anyway, we're the outsiders here and if the people of this world never tried to change it, who are we to decide our ideals are better than theirs?

I was broken out of my internal musings when she moved to sit on the couch beside me, "When my little one grows older, mama will bring you to walk around the kingdom together~"

"Are they racist?" I asked.

A smile materialised on her face, "Unfortunately, that does exist though it's not as rampant as my child might think it is. There will always be a few that carry the idea that their own race is superior compared to the others, just so that they can make themselves feel exclusive. Even amongst the Meslatars, there are plenty of them who feel superior simply because of the dragon blood in them. But to answer your question, my little sweet, you need not worry about being ostracised for your race in this world… Mostly."

I did not miss the last word that she added in at the back but I knew what she meant.

Looking at the map of the world that was spread out at the side, I noticed the floating continent that was to the right of the Shendhala Oligarchy.

"What about Aerialla Academy? Are they like some kind of magic school?"

"Ufufufu~ I knew my little one would be interested in them! They are, for the lack of a better term, an academy that teaches everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything," She confirmed with a smile. "The place was founded with the idea that anyone could learn anything there, its founders gathering the brightest and greatest minds of that time to create such a school. All forms of magic, every professional skill and every subject could be taught there."

"And it's an independent organisation?"

She patted my head, "Ara, ara? What did I do to deserve such a genius? You are correct, they are not tied to any country but remain independent. Unfortunately, that also means that they have strayed quite a bit from their initial policies."

Such a change was normal of course, no one could survive on just purely hopes and dreams. The Academy needed a way to secure funds and also avoid conflicts with other governing bodies while pushing their own agendas at the same time.

That means politics. Ugh.

She lifted one of the books in the Academy pile and placed it in front of me.

Looking at the title, I managed to figure out that it's a book about the history of the aforementioned Academy.

"Before, they used to accept any kind of student as long as they wished to learn. Now, it's seen as the most prestigious school that only the best or most influential students could attend," She explained, opening the book up to show a picture of the school. "They have set up branch schools in all the capital cities of the major civilizations and students who excel there would be granted permission to further their studies on their little floating rock."

"Was mama a student there too?" I asked, a little curious.

"Oh by the Creator, no. I never really saw a point since they could not help me attain my dream."

Ah, that's right, her dream was to have a child.

"Was it not something that could be cured? Even with magic?"

She reached forward and hugged me to her chest, "No… Mama's condition was… Special. But it doesn't matter now, you are here and that's the important part."

I didn't know how to respond to her so I turned back to look at the map, "I… I think I would like to go there. To learn everything I could."

"Ufufufu~ I do not doubt it, my little dearest~ When you are of age, Mama shall bring you to attend one of the schools. You will definitely get there, my little sweet~"

I'm not sure where her confidence in me comes from but I definitely wouldn't give that up either, her confidence does give me quite a boost to my own too.

That was when I noticed something else on the map, "There's dungeons?"

Her gaze shifted to where I was looking at, particularly a city located on an island in the middle of the lake, the one labelled 'Dungeon City'.

"Ara, ara? There are dungeons in this World, yes. Adventurers had explored that island and discovered one of the biggest ones in existence, prompting even more people to go there to seek riches and fame. Over time, they started building a settlement there until it blossomed into the Dungeon City you see there now."

"So there's also an Adventurer's Guild?"

"Ufufufu~ Not quite. Here, it is just known simply as The Guild. It's a neutral organisation with its headquarters set up in Dungeon City with four subsidiaries operating under them. One of these four is the Mercenary Group that are exactly as they sound like. Anything anyone wants done and has the coin for it be it escort, monster slaying or even just simple odd jobs, the people in the Mercenary Group will handle it. And yes, they do have a ranking system there."

Ah, so that's their version of the Adventurers in most stories. Good to know.

"There is also an Adventurer Group but they operate very differently. People who join it are explorers who seek out relics and ruins, most of them aiming to document and record the world as their purpose in life."

So basically archaeologists and historians of sorts? I can see why they are called adventurers since they venture into the unknown.

"The third group is the Merchants Group, which as you might have guessed, is a group that focuses on trade and money. They are hired by people to manage businesses or organise trade between companies as a neutral party. But most of all, they are the middlemen for auctions."

So accountants, brokers and business managers. Interesting.

"Last but not least, the Dungeoneer Group. These are the people who would dive into the dungeons to obtain treasures and Mana Crystals from slaying monsters within. They too, have a separate ranking system similar to the Mercenary Group. Also, there is no restriction on a person joining multiple groups too~ You could join all four if you like!"

Quite an interesting system they have set up here.

Argh! This world is already so interesting!! Simply hearing about it isn't enough! I want to explore it so badly!

She stood up suddenly, "Now, my little dearest, I think that's enough morning lessons. Shall we head on to our afternoon training?"

I looked up at her, "What afternoon training… Mother?"

She smiled and her clothes suddenly shifted to something resembling leather armour.

"Physical training of course~ Now why don't my little one start with a ten kilometre run? Then we'll come back and do some light warmups of a hundred push ups, a hundred situps and a hundred squats before we move to sword training?"

…

I feel like I need to say this… But I'm only two days old in this world, you know?

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It's been about a week ever since I've woken up in this world but I think I've settled into a cycle that I've become accustomed to.

After a hearty morning breakfast, it would be time for my training as I did the exercise regime that was supposed to make one go bald.

Then I would come home and she would train me in fighting. For now, it was just some basic drills as I got used to having a weapon in my hands and also knowing how to handle it, so it was still manageable for me.

A sword was still too big for my current body so I was given a wooden sword that was scaled down to my size.

At first, I thought I would probably be suffering a lot from this, but I had totally forgotten that I was no longer just a normal human but a Meslatar instead. The 'warmup' exercises did tire me a little but it was not to the point that I could not do the rest.

She definitely knows what she's doing.

After the morning exercises, it would be a lunch break before I'm left in the study to read through the books that she had showed me that day. She really did expect me to read through all the books she had pointed out, though she left it up to me on which books I would read first.

I've tried asking her about magic but on this point alone, she told me that I was still too young to learn about it. Not because I could not understand it, but because my body's mana was not formed yet to even perform any sort of magic.

Despite that, learning about the theories on magic was on the table, that's why the books from Aerialla Academy were also left in as part of my studies. I decided to leave those be for now though, since I'd like to know more about this world first before diving into that.

Then at dinner, I would be quizzed on what I have learnt and she would correct me or add in information I might have missed.

I realised that during my reading time, she would be missing from the house and only return in time to cook dinner.

My question of wondering what she was doing during that time was only answered with a silent smile, before she started gushing about how cute I was worrying about her.

That brings me to the point of our relationship.

In this week, she had trained, taught, fed and clothed me with a gentle smile on her face, something I had never experienced in my previous life.

I don't think I'm ready to see her as my mother yet, but I've at least stopped being wary of her.

And for this particular morning, instead of doing sword drills like normal, she had announced that it would be different today.

"We'll be going to the forest today, my little one~ Hold on to this, just in case~"

I looked down at the small dagger wrapped in a leather sheath she had just handed to me. I'm guessing she was busy preparing this when she was missing.

"Mother… You just handed a one week old child a weapon," I pointed out.

"Ufufufu~ The smartest and cutest one week old child I might add~ Ahhhh~ you're so, so cute~"

"You're gushing again," I sighed, a phrase I've grown accustomed to saying after bearing witness to this scene over the week.

"Ara, ara? Mama can't help it when my sweet little one is so cute~" She gushed, patting my head excessively.

"Umm… Anyway… What are we doing today?"

"Oh, Mama is going to take you in the forest today! It's still too soon for my dearest little one to be fighting monsters, but to simply hunt some wild animals is fine~"

I looked down at my dagger that was not much longer than my forearm, "I'm supposed to hunt with this?"

"Ufufufu~ A sword would be too long for your current body right now, remember~"

My gaze shifted to my own body and I knew she was right.

Unfortunately, I did not go through any more growth spurts aside from the first day.

I did ask her if this was normal for Meslatars and she confirmed that it was indeed normal. In the wild, dragons were hunted from a very young age so they had to grow quickly or they would die. Even their own siblings and parents might kill them.

For Meslatars, the growth spurt of the dragons carries over in set stages of our lives but it would slow down due to our Mahun blood for the rest of the time.

It was only because I had my previous life's memories that I could act like this, otherwise, a normal Meslatar baby would still act like a baby despite having the body of a two year old child.

Must really suck to take care of one.

I do have to point out one problem though…

"Hunting and swinging a sword are two different things, mother… And are you sure I'm ready for this?"

"Ufufufu~ There's no need to worry about that, Mama shall be the one luring the animals to you~ Just having you swinging your wooden sword around without using it in practice is useless too~"

That's not really my point but what do I know? She has yet to do something that has hurt me so I'll just go with it for now.

I strapped the dagger to my waist before following her into the forest with my hand being held in hers.

If it wasn't the fact that we were dressed like this, you might have mistaken us for a mother and her child visiting the market with how carefree she looked. She was even humming a tune as we walked.

She moved through the forest without hesitation, as though she knew it like the back of her hand. It didn't take us long before we came to a clearing with a small stream flowing through it.

"Wait here, my little one and be ready~ Mama will go find prey now~"

And without so much as another explanation, her wings exploded out from her back and she shot up into the sky, flying deeper into the forest.

It's a little late but I realised that her wings aren't always outside of her body. When she doesn't need it, it seems to retract itself under her skin.

I wonder when my wings will start growing… I don't want to admit it but I actually missed flying.

Remembering where I was, I unsheathed the dagger and held it in my hands in a standard grip.

I did a few practice slashes with it and found that the blade was quite nicely balanced in my hands so I don't need to worry about it flying out of my grip. This was definitely custom made.

Right as I was wondering how long I needed to wait here, there was a loud rustle in the bushes and a rabbit-like animal jumped out from it.

I say rabbit-like because while it certainly looks like one, the sharp horn on its head definitely sets it apart from any normal rabbit I knew.

Also, it looks like it's coming to attack me.

I quickly lowered myself into a combat stance with my dagger held in front of me, just in time as the horned rabbit leapt towards me with the sharp end of its weapon pointed straight at my face.

Have you ever been in a position where something sharp was flying towards you? Like right at your face?

If you have, then you might understand why at that moment I froze as my mind blanked out after seeing that animal with its sharp horn leaping right at me.

Before it could skewer me however, a hand reached out and grabbed it by the neck, pulling it away mid flight and flinging it away to smash into the tree nearby.

"Oh my dear little sweet~ Are you ok?" Mother asked, fretting around me as she checked me for injuries.

I blinked, "I'm… I'm fine, mother. Did you… Did you expect that to happen?"

"Ara, ara? Perhaps? I don't doubt you would face such things on a daily basis in your other World, yes?"

I sighed, "Could I try again?"

"Ufufufu~ As expected of my little one~ Of course you can! Wait here!"

She flew off again into the sky, giving me time to look at the rabbit that she had just thrown at the tree.

Over there was the corpse of the rabbit that had splattered into literal meat paste on the tree, a very noticeable indentation on the wood from where the body had impacted.

The rabbit literally exploded from the force of being thrown… Just how strong is she?

Another rustle of the bushes brought my attention back just in time to see another horned rabbit leap out to rush towards me.

This time, when it tried to skewer my face I was prepared.

Remembering one of the moves I was taught by her, I lowered my centre of gravity and leaned my body to the side, just enough to allow the rabbit to sail past me.

At the same time, the hand with the dagger slashed out, cutting the rabbit across the side of its body as it leapt past.

It landed in a heap and rolled onto the ground, making a shrieking noise from the pain.

I turned around to face it and it looked like the wound was deep enough that it wasn't getting up any time soon.

"Ara, ara~ As expected of my dear little one! You did it!!" She cheered, appearing out of nowhere again. "Now kill it~"

…

I looked down at my hands, expecting to see them tremble or something, but somehow, the idea of killing it did not repulse me.

In fact, there wasn't any joy or fear either, it just felt… Normal?

I gripped the dagger and knelt down in front of the rabbit, slitting its throat and ending its suffering quickly.

"Should I… Should I be worried that I felt nothing doing that?" I asked.

She came up from behind and hugged me in her arms, "Why should the strong feel anything for the weakness of their prey? Such is the way of the ones that stand at the top of this World. Remember that, my little one. This World preys on the weak and if you do not wish to be prey, you'll have to be strong."

Yeah… I'll need to get stronger.

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After that day, mother would bring me on hunts every other day. She even taught me how to skin and process my game too, in case I needed to survive in the wild… Which technically we already are.

The rabbits were quite easy to deal with since they were quite predictable, always leaping towards my face and trying to skewer me with their horns.

Once you learned their pattern it was quite easy to simply prepare for it.

And precisely because she didn't want me to get complacent after easily killing those rabbits for the nth time…

"MOTHEEEERRR!! I THINK A BOAR IS TOO MUCH!!" I screamed, clinging tightly onto the tree trunk while the boar growled underneath me.

Of course, she was nowhere to be found, leaving me to deal with this angry beast that was intent on murdering me for some reason.

The only upside was that it wasn't a big one, its size comparable to myself.

I don't doubt she was watching from somewhere nearby, ready to jump in if I were to show signs of being hurt. That means this is most likely another test of hers to see if I was ready for the next step in her lessons.

As much as I'm happy with the amount of trust she has in me…

But what the heck, I'm not even a month old yet and I'm already fighting wild boars?! With a dagger?! What am I supposed to do?!

They're meant to be hunted with spears you know! Things that have a much longer reach than a dagger?!

I looked down and the boar was still there, glaring at me.

Ok, let's not look at it for now…

Ughhh… Don't tell me that it's not even going to leave me alone? I've been hanging up here for at least five minutes already…

Does she really expect me to take on this boar on my own?

I looked back down again.

Yep, it's still there.

Seriously, what the hell am I supposed to do with this?

Ok, ok, calm down now. Let's take stock of what I have, maybe there's something I can use to turn this situation around?

p I have a dagger.

Yep. Ok, I'm screwed.

No wait… I got it.

I climbed a little further up the tree, reaching one of its branches that was around the length of my arm and the thickness of my wrist.

Hanging onto the tree with my legs, I pulled out the dagger and cut off the branch, holding it with my other hand while I started sharpening one end of the branch with my dagger.

It was rather awkward doing this while still clinging to the side of the tree but I managed to do it in the end.

Sheathing my dagger, I climbed back down until I was low enough to reach the boar with the improvised spear.

The boar thought I was climbing back down to the ground and started readying itself to ram me, only to have my spear stab into its face the moment it looked up.

It let out a squeal of pain as I pulled back the spear to stab it again, this time nicking it near its eye.

Obviously, the stick wasn't strong enough to pierce through its skull but it was still sharp enough to make it bleed.

I was hoping that this would convince it that I was not worth the effort and then it would decide to leave me alone.

Unfortunately, it only made it even angrier and it rammed its head against the tree.

And with only one tiny hand holding onto the trunk, it was no surprise the force was enough to cause me to lose my grip on the tree and fall towards the ground.

The bad thing was that I lost my grip on the spear as I flailed while trying and failing to hold on to the tree.

The good thing was that I landed on top of the boar, straddling its back.

Both of us paused for a moment as our current situation suddenly clicked.

The boar tried to shake me off but my dagger was already unsheathed while my other hand had grabbed on to its tusk for leverage.

With my dagger, I started stabbing it at where I thought its neck was repeatedly while hanging on for dear life. If I were to be tossed onto the ground, I would definitely be done for.

It ran around the clearing, bucking and tossing, trying to throw me off. It even rammed into a tree nearby but I managed to hold on.

Eventually, I must have struck something important as the boar finally toppled over, almost crushing me with its body before I could jump away.

I panted, feeling winded from the unexpected boss fight out of nowhere.

But heck, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel accomplished.

Right as I was celebrating my victory, a figure swooped in and lifted me up in their arms, raising me up into the air.

"Ahhhh~ I knew my sweetest little one could do it! Mama is so proud of you!!"

I knew it, she was watching nearby.

"Mother… Could you at least warn me before doing this in the future?" I pouted.

"Ara, ara? But it would defeat the purpose wouldn't it? Besides, these are only small fries~"

I can't argue with the fact that it does help my growth so I decided to leave it at that. Also because she looked so happy and proud that it also kind of made me feel just a little bit accomplished too.

She gives me another kiss on my forehead before moving towards the boar, easily lifting the beast with one hand.

"Ufufufu~ It looks like we'll have boar meat for dinner today! Look forward to it, my sweet~"

Indeed, I was already looking forward to it. One thing for sure though, her cooking was definitely first class.

You know, when they say the quickest way to the heart is through the stomach? I'm quite inclined to agree since eating her cooking everyday just about made me open up to her already.

Now… The only thing missing was sweets.

Unfortunately, sweets and cakes were a little difficult for us to make here since we don't exactly have an oven and the stove was not enough to make such delicacies. I don't know how she did it but the bread she made the other day was without the use of an oven.

Oh well, I can wait.

We made our way back home and I hopped into the bath while she prepared dinner.

The bath itself was similar to a typical Japanese bath with the bathtub on the far end and a shower area in between the door and the bath.

Obviously, there wasn't any plumbing system involved but the water came from Mana Crystals.

Recently I had learned that these Mana Crystals are basically the crystalized form of mana, allowing them to act as a battery of sorts to magic tools. These Mana Crystals are usually found in monsters though there are places where they naturally form in places of high mana concentration.

Because of its utility, the people of this world had learned how to use them in conjunction with their daily lives.

For example, the shower here has a Mana Crystal that was imbued with a water enchantment that conjures water with a touch. Coupled with another Mana Crystal that is enchanted with the fire element, it also allows the user to control the temperature of the water as well.

Naturally, a battery would eventually run out of power and the depleted Mana Crystals would disintegrate and need to be replaced after a while. But if you knew how to enchant the Mana Crystals yourself, all you need is to get an unenchanted Mana Crystal and you would be able to replace them easily.

With the help of these Mana Crystals, even people like me who are unable to use magic are able to enjoy using magic tools.

I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to enjoy such luxuries in this world but I'm just glad that it wasn't the case. You really don't know the value of such simple things until you lose them.

Coming down from upstairs, I was greeted with a mouth watering smell that filled up the first floor of the house.

Spotting me, mother immediately waved me over, "Dinner is ready~ Come and get it my little dearest!"

As expected, she had used the boar from today's hunt as the main ingredient.

The two of us enjoyed the dinner with mother telling me about how I could have handled the boar better such as laying a trap for it. Nevertheless, she was still impressed with how I handled it.

When I was finishing up the last bit of my food though, her demeanour suddenly turned serious.

"My dear? Mama has to leave home for a little while starting tomorrow…"

The tone of her voice made me understand that her trip isn't going to be a one day thing.

"How long? And I don't suppose you… Mother is bringing me along?" I asked instead.

She sighed, "Most likely a few days to a week and no, the place Mama is going is somewhere you're not ready to go yet."

I nodded, not even asking her what she was going to do since she most likely wouldn't tell me anyway, "Don't worry mother, I can take care of myself. There's food, water and I'll also occupy my time with my training so there's nothing to worry about."

She did build this place to be self-sufficient after all and I've already grown used to living here, there shouldn't be any other problems, right?

I was immediately pulled into a hug before I could even see her move.

"Oh my sweetest, cutest child! Mama loves you so much!! Mama promises to get you something nice when I come back! Look forward to it!"

"Mmmfffmmmhhh," I replied, not having much possibility to talk since I was stuffed inside her bosoms.

Well… Looks like I will have the place to myself for the next few days huh? I wonder what I could do?

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I saw mother off in the morning, wearing a black gown that was similar in quality as the first one I had seen her in.

She wasn't carrying any luggage with her so I don't know if she didn't need them or she had some kind of magic that allows her to store her things elsewhere.

"Mama will be back soon my sweet~ Please don't do anything reckless, Mama loves you!"

"Mo… Mother… I got it… Please… Have a safe… Trip…" I gasped, trying and failing to break free from her hug that was threatening to asphyxiate me because of the two things on her chest.

She stood up while dabbing her cheeks with a handkerchief to stem her flow of tears, only to stop and hug me again while crying even more.

This repeated another three times before she finally flared her wings and flew off, I had even expected her to turn back around to repeat that but she didn't.

I stood outside and waited until I could not see her anymore before going back into the house.

This time, the place felt empty, reminding me of my previous home in my other life.

It felt weird actually, seeing something that was so familiar yet also foreign at the same time. Oh well, it's not like this would be my first time living alone and this would only last for a few days or a week at most anyway.

There was food prepared for me and stored in the kitchen and if that wasn't enough, I already knew how to make use of the stove and I could hunt and gather my own food from either the garden or the forest.

Unfortunately I wasn't very confident that the cockatrice's wouldn't try to hurt me while mother isn't here so the best I'll do is just toss some food over the fence to feed them in her absence.

Now… Since mother isn't here, I'll probably just stick to the usual routine. It might be a little harder now considering the prey from the hunts are usually lured by mother but now I don't have her to rely on for that.

Actually… I think this might be the best time for me to try hunting for myself, it's not like I can rely on her to always come and help me after all, which was probably why she made me fight that boar in the first place.

Now that I think about it, could that be a test for her to see if she could leave me alone?

Mmm… Despite knowing that I'm a transmigrator, she still hasn't treated me any different. She really must have been quite desperate to want a child of her own.

I was a little worried that she may stop seeing me as her child after that day but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Putting that aside for now… I decided to go hunting the day after Mother left, since I felt a change of pace might be nice.

Before I set off, I had to do some preparations of my own.

My dagger would obviously be one of the things I'm bringing along, but I guess it doesn't hurt to bring some extra things just in case.

Looking through the house, I found some rope, several pieces of cloth and a leather bag that I decided to bring along. The bag wasn't the "Pack of Folding" that would have functioned as an infinite storage bag, but it will do for now.

I also took along the Trusty Map even though it doesn't show my location, but at least it does show the intricate details of the land and it even has a zoom function too.

Just in case, I also brought along some snacks including a few pieces of dried meat inside the bag if I got hungry or needed something to lure the animals alongside some tools that would help with foraging if I came across some edible plants.

If I was just a tad bit older, I would have brought along more things but it's just a quick trip anyway so I don't think too much preparation would be necessary.

With my things prepared, I made my way towards the forest.

I've already been here enough times that I could practically reach the clearing with the stream with my eyes closed.

This place served my purpose well since animals would sometimes come here to drink from the stream and there's also enough space around for a fight too.

I could choose to wait here for prey to show up and ambush them, or I could search for tracks and hunt one down myself.

Hmm… If I could get a rabbit today, I should be able to make some rabbit stew for myself.

Speaking of food…

I want sweets… It's been a month already and I've yet to eat any sweets… I would even settle for a cupcake or something but even that is an impossibility here…

Ughh… Whatever, I just need to be patient and hopefully I'll come up with something when I get some of my abilities.

Getting back to the task at hand… I decided I'll go with the trap approach and laid down some of my snacks on the ground.

I then used the rope to lay a noose around the food before flinging it over the tree so that I could pull the other end and capture whatever comes along.

Alright, now all I got to do is wait and--

Rustle*

Oh… There's already something coming here, that's faster than I anticipated. It's barely been a minute you know?

Now let's see what I--

…

A bear.

A mother freaking bear is coming towards my trap.

Isn't the jump from boar to bear a little bit too high? What is this? Who went to change me difficulty settings?

Yeah, there's also absolutely no way I can kill a bear with just a dagger either, so I guess I'll just make my escape here…

And just to prove that the world was conspiring against me, of course I just had to step on a dry twig that was directly behind me.

The bear snapped its head towards my direction and let out a loud roar.

Ok, I think it's time to bail.

I immediately started running and the bear gave chase.

Why the heck are you even chasing me?! There's food there! Go eat that instead!! What's wrong with you?! Are you a pedo bear or something?!

As though hearing my thoughts, it let out another roar behind me.

Unfortunately, the bear was at least five times my size so there was no way I could outrun it in this small body.

Guess I have to resort to tree climbing aga--

Pain exploded from my side and I found myself tumbling away from where I had been.

I gasped as I held my side in pain, looking up to see the bear with its paw outstretched after having smacked me with it.

Fuck, how the hell is that big thing so fast?

A gash had opened up on my left arm and blood flowed freely from the wound. I quickly dug through my bag and tied the strips of cloth over it, hoping that it will hold out for now while I deal with this pedo bear.

Going on a hunt for the first time without mother and I already found myself in this situation, how ironic.

The dagger that I unsheathed might as well be a toothpick against this damned pedo bear. Seriously, I left my snacks behind you know? Couldn't you have just gone and ate those instead? Are you really a pedo bear?

It let out another roar and charged towards me, its posture looking like it was trying to body slam me.

I leapt out of the way desperately while trying to slash at its side with my dagger..

The attack barely nicked its hide, giving the bear nothing more than a superficial wound.

It turned back and slashed one of its giant paws in my direction, only to miss me as I ducked under the swipe before I leapt back to keep my distance from it.

Ok, there's no way I can get out of this normally, so I'll have to fight smart.

I rummaged through my bag with my free hand and pulled out a jerky that I threw at the bear. The dried meat hit it on the snout, surprising it for a moment. I honestly did not mean to throw it there but whatever.

While it was distracted, I immediately booked it again.

Unfortunately, it seems like it really was a pedo bear since the jerky barely distracted it for more than a few seconds before it was hot on my trail again.

I briefly considered running back home and letting the cockatrices deal with it but I don't think I'm fast enough to outrun it especially once I get to the open field. Instead, I turned and headed towards the deeper parts of the forest, hoping that the thick undergrowth would eventually cause it to lose sight of me and give up.

Although the forest did prevent it from catching up with me, the bastard was relentless and still continued to chase me, myself barely ahead of it.

At least the undergrowth did slow it down enough such that I could maintain my distance from it.

Unfortunately, that made the bear even more pissed off.

Ok, I need another plan…

I continued to run, coming across a tree that had fallen at an angle that created a small opening under it.

An idea immediately formed in my mind and I slid under it, turning around to see the bear diving straight for the hole.

As expected, its head got through the hole but the rest of its body was too big to push through, making it stuck in that… Heh heh… That defenceless position.

I hefted my dagger and made my way towards it, smirking when the bear finally realised it was stuck in a very precarious position.

"Fuck you," I spat, right before I stabbed it in its eye.

I pulled back as it roared and thrashed out in pain, trying its best to get free from its prison only to trap itself more as it made the tree dig into the ground even deeper.

My dagger was then thrust into its other eye the moment the opening presented itself, blinding it.

It thrashed around as I twisted my knife into the gaping wound, making sure to deal as much damage as I could before pulling the blade out.

Maybe in your next life you'll learn not to chase little kids huh?! Suffer as my punching bag!

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I sighed, munching on the bear steak I had made myself after killing that stupid bear three days ago.

The wound it gave me on my arm was completely healed already, which confirms the fact that Meslatars possessed enhanced regeneration.

Honestly, killing that bear was nothing short of luck, I really needed to get even stronger if I wanted to go around the world eating all the sweets I wanted.

But hey, cut me some slack, I'm barely more than a month old you know?

I should get myself a journal to write all of my adventures down, something I've neglected doing ever since I came to this world. Unfortunately, none of the books I've found in the house were empty and there weren't any stacks of papers I could find either.

Anyway, I've finally gotten around to reading the textbooks from Aerialla Academy which gave me a basic understanding of how magic works here.

There's multiple types of magic ranging from pyromancy, electromancy and even chronomancy, a few of which I had invested points to obtain a head start in on the character creation.

A mage's proficiency in their magic is separated into four tiers with the first tier being able to manifest it and use it to a basic degree and the fourth tier being a complete master at said magic.

To be able to ascend one's proficiency from one tier to the next would require years of practice and study, most never reaching beyond tier two in their lives with only the very dedicated ones reaching tier four in a single area of study.

What's interesting to know is that the type of magic one can use is not determined at birth, you just need to know how to learn it and you would be able to gain proficiency in it.

If only my mana was already formed, then I could already start trying to learn some magic…

Hmm? Hold on… If the requirement is just to have mana, then don't Mana Crystals also have mana in them?

In that case, couldn't I just substitute waiting for my own mana to form by making use of the mana stored inside the crystals themselves?

Well, it's worth a shot at least.

Forgetting about my steak, I picked up the book on introduction to magic and went to find our storage of Mana Crystals that mother kept in the bedroom.

There was a box full of it and I took out a handful before moving to the area outside the house, just in case I blew something up with my experiments.

Let's see now… According to the book, mana is basically just magical energy that can be converted into other forms according to the users' purpose. The usage of a chant or a ritual would help in that process, or in other words, a spell. Sometimes a magic tool like a staff or wand would also be used.

The more I looked at it, the more I thought that wasn't this simply just using one's imagination or something to form the magic?

The chant or ritual is probably there to help focus the caster's senses and the wand and staff most likely served as a catalyst to help form the mana better.

Sounds simple enough… Except it wasn't.

I've been staring at this Mana Crystal in my hand for a good ten minutes already but I have no idea how am I supposed to access the mana stored inside.

Reach out my senses to feel the mana? What the fuck does that mean?

Do I just stare at it and think that something will happen or what? Why does it have to be so damn vague?! It's so easy to say something like 'as long as your mind wills it, it will be so', like explain more damnit!

I've been sitting here trying to imagine all sorts of things to try and get it to work.

I used the mental image of conjuring a ball of fire, a ball of water or even just anything related to magic and nothing worked at all. I mean, I usually write these kinds of settings in my books and this would be how my characters obtain their magic, so why isn't it working now?

Is it really a must for me to have my mana formed before I could even do magic?

Hmm… Maybe I'm trying too hard?

Alright, if intense concentration doesn't work, then maybe if I were to relax my mind it would have a better effect?

Well, not like my current attempts were yielding any results anyway so I might as well give it a shot.

I gathered all the Mana Crystals I had into my hand and settled down in a cross-legged position to start meditating.

I tried to just let my mind wander, looking for anything within the darkness that might be related to mana.

Not finding anything, I decided that maybe actively trying to search for it might be counterproductive.

Concentrating on my breathing, I worked to slow it down as much as possible, remembering something about breathing being an integral part of meditation.

Now I'm inhaling deeply before exhaling slowly, thinking about nothing but my own breathing.

Inhale… Exhale… Inhale… Exhale…

…

Oops, I almost fell asleep there.

Am I even doing this right? Scratch that, is there even a point in me doing this or am I just wasting my time?

Hmm? Hold on a moment… I'm seeing a small white glow at the bottom of my vision.

Is that… The Mana Crystals I was holding in my hand?

I forcibly fought down the excitement that almost spilled over, maintaining my concentration to focus on the balls of white light in my peripheral vision.

Ok. I can see it, now what do I do with it?

I tried to poke it with an imaginary finger and, to my surprise, the balls moved.

Ok, now let's try to lift them up… Oh! They moved!

I quickly opened my eyes and sure enough, the Mana Crystals that had been on my hand were floating in front of me.

Unfortunately, the moment I did that, the crystals immediately fell back down since my concentration was broken. One landed back on my palm while the rest scattered around around me.

That wasn't the point though! I did magic! Magic!! Holy shit! That's like mana manipulation or something! That counts right?!

Ok, this is like the first step, I just need to focus and change it or something.

I tried placing one Mana Crystal on my palm, meditating to get to the same state I was in just now.

It took me a shorter time to see the white light, though it seems like I could only see the one on my palm as the other Mana Crystals that were scattered around me did not show up as white orbs.

Again, I prodded the white orb mentally and saw it move in accordance to my mental prod.

Emboldened, I made it float up in front of me again.

Gathering my concentration on that one white orb, I tried to imagine it turning into something else, specifically a ball of water since that should cause the least amount of damage if something goes wrong.

I don't feel any changes and neither does the orb of light look like it went through any changes.

I tried again, this time focusing more on it and willing it to change.

The orb wobbled slightly but that's all it did.

Again, I tried imposing more of my will on it and it wobbled even more violently.

Sensing that I might be onto something, I kept focusing on the light orb, willing it, demanding it to change its shape and form into that of a ball of water.

Slowly, the light expanded and shifted, bubbling like the surface of a pot of water being boiled.

More and more I felt the light change, getting closer and closer to what I wanted it to be.

Right as I was sure I was getting it, the light suddenly exploded outwards and I found myself violently hit with a blast of water in the face, strong enough to send me falling on my back and soaking me to the bone.

I groaned out in pain, sitting up and looking down at myself, completely drenched from head to toe in water.

On the ground in front of me was the shattered remains of a Mana Crystal, no doubt the one I tried to manipulate.

I am so glad I used water and not something destructive like fire, otherwise I think I would have burnt my face off.

I rubbed my face to try and get rid of the stinging sensation that was still there, getting hit by a blast of water was still quite painful.

Picking up the broken pieces, I wondered what happened to cause this? I wanted to change it into a water ball and it most definitely changed to water, but why did it explode like that?

Could it be the Mana Crystal itself being the problem? In that case, how does the Mana Crystal in our bath generate water? Even one of these was enough to produce enough water for us to use for a week.

Ugh… The book doesn't say anything about that either, perhaps I'm going into new territory here?

That can't be right? Or else how did someone figure out how to use magic tools?

Maybe I should read the rest of the books first before attempting this again.

At least the good news is that I actually managed to do something akin to magic today so that's something.

I guess I'll need to learn more about it before I can properly use this… What I need now is a change of clothes and to also finish my bear steak I left back at the table…

It's a start at least.

Still… Magic!

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Another two days passed and my practice with the Mana Crystals have progressed somewhat.

I no longer need to close my eyes to move the crystals around but everytime I try to change it to another element, it will explode quite violently.

On the plus side, I now have improvised elemental bombs in the form of these Mana Crystals. If I ever have to fight another bear, I could use these.

Although I don't think that time would come soon since mother finally returned today.

There wasn't any warning to her return at all, in fact, she simply burst into the house when I was absorbed in studying about magic.

The next thing I knew, my face was shoved in between two weapons of mass destruction.

"Ahhhhh!! My dearest, sweetest child! Mama missed you soooo much!!" She squealed, busy hugging and kissing my face.

"Mnnnnhhhh… Welcome back mother…" I managed to gasp in between her fervent displays of affection.

"Ufufufu~ Look what Mama brought back for my cutest darling!"

She lifted her palm and instantly, I was ready to proclaim her as my real mother and follow her for life.

"Macarons!!!" I screamed, already eagerly eating out of her hand as I stuffed my face full of those sweet, sweet treats.

Pure. Utter. Bliss.

"Mommyyyyy… I wuv you…" I spluttered in between the bouts of me stuffing my cheeks with the macarons.

That came out so unexpectedly that even I was surprised.

Although it looks like mother was even more affected by it with how she took a step back as though she was physically struck.

She quickly recovered by hugging me to her chest again, "Yes! Yes!! Mama loves you too! Mama loves you so much my dearest child!! Call me mommy again!! Please! Mama will give you more sweets!!"

Well… If it gets me the sweets…

"Mommy…"

"Kyaaaaa!! Yes, yes!! I'm your mommy!! My little child is soooo cute!!! Have all the sweets you want!!"

Oh, more macarons!! Me want!

I happily munched on the sweets that she had taken out for me with relish.

It's been sooooo long since I ate sweets. In my previous life, the longest I've ever gone without sweets was a week and that's because I was on a trek up a mountain and had already eaten all the sweets I had. That had been torture!

"Ufufufu~ My child is the greatest~" She giggled before moving towards the kitchen. "Now, Mama brought back some nice ingredients as well so we'll have a nice dinner tonight~"

She went towards the storage that functions as a fridge, the air inside kept cool using a Mana Crystal with a frost enchantment.

The moment she opened the door however, she stopped moving and gasped at what she saw inside it.

"My dear… Did you kill… A bear?" She asked, looking at the leftover bear meat inside.

Honestly, I forgot about that. In fact, I'm surprised she could even tell what it was with just a glance.

I wasn't sure how she would react but there obviously wasn't any way for me to deny it when the meat was right there so I nodded.

"Did you get hurt?"

I decided to remain honest, "It swiped my arm but it was more of a scratch and I already healed up from it."

"How did you kill it?"

"Umm… I got it stuck under a tree and stabbed its head with my dagger."

She fell silent after that, as though trying to register what I had just told her.

There were only two possible reactions from her, one is that she gets angry at my recklessness and the other was excessive praise.

She went with the excessive praise path.

"Oh my dearest sweet, sweet child! Mama is so proud of you!!" She squealed, pulling me into a hug and gushing all over me.

I'm not sure if I should be concerned that she wasn't even worried that I was hurt albeit with just a scratch or happy that she had that much confidence in me.

She pulled away with a smile, "In that case, I think we can ramp up the difficulty of your training now! Let's go with a fifty kilometre run, five hundred pushups, five hundred situps and five hundred squats as a warm up!"

… Five times from the get go?

I should be scared, maybe even protest the increase even… But for some reason, a part of me was telling me to do it… And do it I shall.

But first… There's one thing I need to know.

"Mother, there's a question I want to ask…"

Unexpectedly, she started pouting and looked away from me. When I say pout, I really mean pout, like she actually puffed up her cheeks and crossed her arms kind of pout.

Why? Did I say something wrong? I didn't even ask my question yet though?

Oh… I get it…

I sighed, "Mommy…"

Her demeanour did a one eighty and she was all smiles and gushing at me again, "Ara, ara? What is it, my sweet child?"

"I tried to practise magic on my own by making use of Mana Crystals… I managed to change their forms but they all exploded when I did it. Why?"

My words made her eyes widen with worry.

"My little one manipulated mana inside the Mana Crystals?"

I have a feeling it's going to be a long while before she's going to leave me alone again but I nodded.

She immediately started fussing over me again, "Is my little one hurt? What element did you change it to? Where did you do it? What happened? Are you hurt?"

She was panicking so much she actually asked if I was hurt twice.

"I'm ok… Mommy… And I tried changing it into water so I was only drenched by it. I'm fine, really."

She sighed in relief before hugging me again, "Already trying to use magic at such a young age? Ufufufu~ My little one is surely destined for greatness in the future~"

She released me from the hug before materialising a Mana Crystal from thin air, prodding it with a finger, "The pieces explode because of the crystal themselves. Does my dear child know how Mana Crystals are used in normal magic tools?"

"I know that the magic tool draws out the mana inside the crystals to power them."

"And what happens when one is depleted?"

"The crystal disintegrates into dust?"

"Ufufufu~ Not quite. You see, the outer shell of the Mana Crystal is crystallised mana that is formed to contain the more malleable mana inside it. When used in a magic tool, the tools are also designed to break down the crystallised mana after they are done using up the mana inside them. Thus, what my little one has done is changing the 'soft' mana inside the shell but not the shell itself, and changing the mana into another element would definitely expand it bigger than the shell~"

"Thus, the change causes them to explode out from the shell," I concluded, finally realising what I was doing wrong.

"That is correct! Ufufufu~ As expected of my child! You're already trying to circumvent your lack of inherent mana by using an external source!"

I smiled wryly, "I suppose someone else has attempted to do this before?"

Her own smile matched mine, "Ufufu~ That's precisely how the magic tools came to be, my little one. To allow those without mana to use mana~"

That makes sense… At least now I know how I could practice with it. Maybe if I were to become more proficient in one of the magic elements I bought at character creation, I'll get a bonus when the skill actually materialises for me?

That definitely sounds too good to be true. In that case… I'll try to use it and learn magic that I've not bought with my points. In case I don't awaken those elements when my mana is formed, then I can simply practice the new ones first to get a better understanding of how magic works.

Yep, perfect plan!

I looked up at mother with glee, "Does that mean I can practise magic now, Mo… Mommy?"

She giggled, "Ara, ara? I suppose we can have a head start in it~ Although it's ok if you wish to wait until your first birthday to start though, that should be when your mana will form."

I pumped my fist together, "There's no reason not to excel right? And starting early wouldn't hurt either, yes?"

"Ufufufu~ It most definitely wouldn't. There have been some scholars who have theorised that children who start learning magic at an earlier age would grow up to be much more capable at wielding magic than one who has started later. Unfortunately, no concrete proof has been brought forth in regards to such a theory~"

"Have others tried like I have?"

"Ara, ara? There most certainly isn't a lot of children that can measure up to you, my little one~ My child certainly shines brighter than all the rest~"

Right, I suppose normal children at my age would still have trouble forming cohesive words and worrying about pooping their diapers than actually learning about magic.

I almost forgot I'm not even two months old and yet so many things have happened to me…

"Now, now, does my little one want to help me with making dinner? I brought something nice along~"

I've already figured that she most likely went to the Lehcarouc Kingdom for her trip because of the sweets but I wondered what else she brought back.

Waving her hand at an empty space in the kitchen, an oven materialised out of thin air. An oven that was specialised for making pastries.

I could not love my mother more at this moment.

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Today is shaping up to be the best day ever.

I got to eat a bunch of sweets and mother even brought back an oven that both of us could use to make even more sweets with, nothing could get better than this~

Even the sudden increase in my training intensity was a positive one as I found out I could actually complete the exercises. Sure, I was a mess and I pretty much blacked out at the end, but I still managed to complete regardless.

The fact that mother promised to make even more sweets tomorrow had nothing to do with my good mood of course.

I even let her cuddle me to sleep and called her 'mommy' without much complaint.

It was quite deep into the night when I woke up unexpectedly.

This wouldn't be the first time I woke up in the middle of the night but I had fully expected myself to sleep until morning considering how worn out I was from the training today.

That was not the most surprising thing though, because I realised I was alone on the bed.

Looking around the room, I realised the light enchanted Magic Crystal inside the bathroom was activated, part of the light peeking through the door that was left ajar.

Muffled sounds of crying seem to be emanating from inside, suggesting that might have been what woke me up in the first place.

Was mother crying? Why?

I got curious and crawled out of bed, trying my best to sneak towards the door as quietly as I could.

Reaching it, I peered through the gap between the doorframe and the door, trying to see what was happening inside.

What I saw almost made me gasp out in surprise but I managed to bite my hand in time to keep quiet.

There, sitting at the edge of the bath closer to the wall and without a shred of cloth on her was the woman who had brought me to this world in the form of an egg.

Her legs were spread wide apart while she leaned her back against the wall, the fingers on her right hand thrusting in and out of her dripping honey pot while her left hand was busy groping her own chest.

Mother was masturbating inside our bathroom in the middle of the night.

I knew mother was an attractive woman even though I've yet to meet any other woman in this new World. If someone like her were to walk down the streets in my old world, all heads would turn just to watch her pass.

I understood that a woman has her needs as well and without a man in the house, she has to look for ways to please herself. Now that I'm here, she would need to find more convenient times to satisfy herself.

And now, she's making such lewd sounds while her fingers plunged in and out of her pussy inside our bathroom.

I couldn't help but watch, enthralled at the sight. My body might not feel anything from this but my mind was able to comprehend the scene in front of me.

This was art.

I watched as her legs lifted themselves up into an 'M' shape, her hips thrusting out to give herself a better angle while her index and middle finger slid in and out of her.

Her muffled moans that I had initially mistaken from crying escaped from her lips that she was trying desperately to keep shut.

She brought the fingers on her left hand towards her mouth and sucked on it, making sure the entire length was coated with her saliva before she switched out the hand that she was using to plunge into her pussy.

Conversely, the hand that was dripping wet with her own juices was brought up to her mouth, her tongue darting out to taste her own juices like it was the best delicacy she had ever tasted.

Her moans echoed out before she could stop herself, the pleasure overriding her own desire to keep herself quiet.

My sight was glued to her honeypot as she pulled out her fingers to rub against her clit, her tempo starting out slow at first before it crescendoed into a furious speed, causing her to moan even louder.

Her fingers then disappeared into her pussy again, thrusting themselves with the same ferocity as before.

She was now biting down on her finger to keep herself quiet and I could tell from the way she was bucking her hips and how her head was thrown back that she was most likely going to cum soon.

It didn't take long before she had let out a cry of pleasure, her hand tearing itself away from her pussy to hold herself steady while she orgasmed.

From where I was, I was treated to an unobstructed view of her bare, clean shaven pussy that was quivering visibly as she came, her entire body rocking along to ride out the orgasm.

It was a good long minute before she finally stopped spasming, settling down on the edge of the bath while her breath came in loud gasps, her hair draping down to cover part of her face.

She let out a soft groan as she sat herself up, picking up a towel she had left at the side to start cleaning up herself.

The sight of her melons jiggling when she wiped them with the towel was tantalising in and of itself.

With a heart full of regret, I had to pull myself away from the door and sneak back into the bed, trying to act like I hadn't just caught her pleasuring herself inside the bathroom.

I heard the sound of water running and shutting off before she reappeared in the doorway, not a single strand of hair dishevelled or out of place.

You would have thought she simply went in there to wash her hands.

I tried my best to pretend to be asleep as I felt her slip into the bed again, still naked. Now I kind of regret laying down facing the bathroom since that meant she was laying down right in front of me too.

The hands that she had been using to touch herself were now wrapped around me, pulling me towards her in a tight embrace.

That caused my face to be pushed up against one of her boobs, her still erect nipple pressing itself against my face to let me know she was still not fully satisfied despite her time in the bathroom.

"My sweet, sweet child~" I heard her whisper before she buried her head into my hair, planting a kiss at the top of my head.

I stayed absolutely still, not like I could move anyway when she had me wrapped up with her arms and legs like a cocoon.

Well… At least it's comfortable…

As long as I stop thinking about the sight of her fingers pushing in and out of her womanhood…

I woke up the next morning to find mother acting the same as before, maybe with a tad more enthusiasm than normal with how much she was fawning over me.

That could be explained away by the fact that she had been away for almost a week so she just wants to spend more time with me.

It was a little problematic for me since every time she hugs me, I get reminded of what I saw in the bathroom last night.

Oh well… I guess I'll get used to it eventually.

In the meantime, training proceeded as per normal and I passed out again after completing the physical exercises.

Mother revived me by bringing out cupcakes that I finished up ravenously, they were even made with different flavours too!

A change in our schedule came in the form of our afternoon lessons where several Mana Crystals were placed in front of me instead.

"Ufufufu~ It's time for magic lessons my dearest~" Mother giggled, though she continued to hug me from behind.

I tried to take my mind off the heavy objects being pushed against the back of my head to focus on the Crystals in front of me instead.

"What do I do, mot… Er… Mommy?"

"Ufufufu~ Call me mommy again and I'll tell~"

She's enjoying this way too much…

"Mommy…"

"Ahhhnn~ My child is really the cutest! Ufufufu~ For now, we will simply concentrate on manipulating the mana within the Mana Crystals themselves."

I looked up, "Does that mean I don't change them into other elements?"

She shook her head, "We could do that if my child is intending to only specialise in one particular study of magic. But I believe that is not what my little one wants, yes?"

I shook my head to confirm her thoughts.

"Ufufufu~ In that case, we will simply work on my sweet child's mana management! With this, any magic you decide to learn down the road will be supplemented with this skill! It will also make it easier for my little one to sense, control and manipulate your mana once it forms, making it easier to learn other forms of magic!"

I remember seeing 'Mana Management' as one of the choices I could buy in the character creation sheet, but I had chosen not to buy it since I felt it would be something I would practice anyway while I was learning other magic. That allowed me to spend the points elsewhere instead.

Looks like I was right in not choosing to take it.

"Do you think I can learn this before my first birthday?" I asked.

She gave me a genuine smile, "I have no doubt about it my child. Mother shall make sure of it!"

That's great, hopefully I get a magic skill once my birthday comes along and I can start training it!

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"Happy birthday my dearest child!"

I couldn't help but let out a giggle as I saw mother present the giant cake she had made for me.

Today marks the one year anniversary of my arrival into this World, which honestly passed by in a blink of an eye.

Mother continued to train me both physically, mentally and also magically, which was what made this past year fly by so fast I suppose.

In this one year, I've made great progress with my physical training, which I assume it's thanks to my dragon heritage.

On the other hand, my magic wasn't really seeing much progress. Or at least, to me it did not look like I had much progress.

The best I have done was to extend the range of sensing the mana from the Mana Crystals. Before, I had to be touching them first in order to manipulate them, but now I could move Mana Crystals that were left on the other end of the room too.

The reason why I said I don't feel like much progress has been made is because all I've done with this is just moving them around.

Even though mother kept praising me every time I did it… She's a little biassed so I can't really take her praises at face value.

Like seriously, she's already gushing and fawning over me for blowing out the single candle on my cake.

I thought her affections for me would mellow out in this one year but it feels like they only intensified instead.

Oh well, I don't exactly hate it after all and knowing that she really does love me does soothe me quite a bit.

One good thing is that my mana has formed so I could actually learn magic now, something I was already looking forward to doing.

After I had my fill of that wonderful cake mother had made for me, the moment I had been waiting for finally arrived.

I thought I would receive it in the morning but I guess they take the time of my birth into account, which meant I only got the things I bought with the character creator some time in the evening.

At first, I wasn't sure how I would know I received it, but the first thing I got was already quite obvious.

A translucent screen appeared in front of me while I was in the bath with mother.

[Happy birthday!]

[Boon obtained: Screened]

[Magic obtained: Umbramancy tier one]

Oh neat. I got a boon and a magic skill, the boon being one of the useful ones too.

[Screened] is basically similar to a game's menu screen, thus the reason why I received these notification messages. [Umbramancy] is, as the name suggests, the power to control and manipulate darkness.

I had chosen most of my skills to start at tier one with the consideration that I would be learning them while growing up anyway so I could afford to spread out my specialties to learn more instead of just specialising into one.

With the choice of having these skills brought to me over the years, it will give me a whole year to learn the new skills before I get a new one. By then, I should be proficient enough in the previous skill to be able to learn efficiently while dealing with the new skill.

I know this would later snowball as I get more skills down the years but I did take some boons that should help me deal with this.

The fact that I got only boons in my first year is a blessing too, until I realised that most of my banes were in the 'lewd' category so I would only start receiving them when I turned eighteen.

Totally did not plan that, by the way.

Mother noticed my change and nudged me with her chin affectionately, "What happened, my little one?"

"Ah. I just learnt a new magic, Umbramancy."

"Ara, ara?! As expected of my little one! Already learning your first magic as soon as your mana formed! Mama is so proud of you!"

I was thinking if I should tell her about the system and how I'm just receiving items I purchased in the character creation before I got here… But I decided future me could deal with it instead.

She could tell I was already aching to test my magic out so we quickly got out of the bath after drying and clothing me. Mother still remained unashamedly naked which I already got used to… Which was a little concerning now that I think about it.

At least my body's still too young to react to the sight of it.

Putting that aside, we were now seated on our bed and mother was watching me expectantly, my own anticipation matching hers.

Because I bought this option in the character creator to start at this tier, knowledge of what this magic was was already present in my head, allowing me to know what I could do at this tier.

If I am right, this magic should help me hide in the shadows when starting out, so I tried imagining doing something that would hide my hand to start out first.

A system window popped up as soon as I tried to cast it as the magic I had envisioned.

[Shadow Wall]

Despite it being called a 'wall', a ball of darkness formed around my hand, hiding it from view.

I was expecting it to be something like a shadowy mist or sludge but the darkness looked pretty solid, as though I was holding a vantablack ball in my hand.

I suppose the 'wall' is that it blocks out light or something? It certainly is hiding my hand from view and in the darkness of the room, it may as well be invisible.

Almost immediately, my face was shoved in between mother's bosoms as she hugged me excitedly.

"Ahhh! My dearest child! My little genius! Mama is so, so proud of you!!"

Honestly, this is all just given by the character creator so it's not like I learnt it from scratch. But I know that from now on I would have to practice the skill diligently if I want to get stronger with it.

Right now, at tier one, the magic skill itself was still useful. I could hide myself in the darkness and snuff out light sources for me to sneak around, perfect for hunting.

What's more, this magic also gives me the added bonus of being able to see in the dark, so night time hunts are viable now.

At higher tiers, I could also summon shadow minions to do my bidding. Who doesn't want to have a summonable army at their beck and call?

Speaking of which, there's the boon that I got too.

While it functions similar to a game's menu screen, it is not exactly a system as it does not give out quests and neither does it let me manipulate my stats or even possess an inventory either.

Still, it has the functions of telling me another person's name and skills as well as my own. It also doubles as a task organiser in the sense that I can use it to write notes which would be extremely valuable to me in collecting materials to write my book with, especially when I still do not have a journal to write with yet.

There is also a clock and calendar too, with the calendar also available to be used as a planner. Very, very useful for me to keep track of events.

Since my face is still buried in mother's chest, I tried to see if I could summon up my own stats to see in my mind.

The image of a screen popped up in my mind and I immediately took a look at what was displayed.

[Name: Aster Nilm

Title: None

Race: Meslatar

Stats:

25 Strength

30 Dexterity

50 Endurance

50 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 1), Umbramancy (Tier 1)]

Aster Nilm huh? I guess that's my full name. I also have the feeling that if I were to concentrate, I could pull up more or less information according to what I wanted to know.

Ok, pretty cool. I don't really have anything to measure the numbers against so those numbers are pretty much arbitrary for now. In fact, I realised there's a few missing stats like 'intelligence' or 'wisdom'. Heck, even 'charisma' and 'luck' aren't there either.

Then I was reminded this wasn't exactly a system and those stats aren't exactly quantifiable like the four above is.

As for the skills, I'm not surprised to have those three since I have been hunting and training with the dagger for quite a while but the cooking one was surprising. I've only cooked during that time mother wasn't around and it was just really simple meals. I guess that counts?

For my magic, Mana Management was a surprise since I didn't really think what I could do so far could even qualify as the first tier.

I won't complain, of course.

That brings me to mother's stats…

I tried to use the Screen on her while she was still busy gushing over me.

[Name: ??

Title: Mommy, Mama, Mother

Race: ??

?? Strength

?? Dexterity

?? Endurance

?? Magic

Skills:

??

Magic Skills:

??]

I stared at the screen for a while, frowning slightly.

Either I was too weak to see mother's stats or she was strong enough to hide her own stats from this Screen of mine, both of which are quite frightening prospects.

Just who really is mother?

Oh well, I'm already looking forward to trying out my new skills tomorrow!

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Before my first birthday, mother had slowly given me more freedom in my hunting until eventually letting me hunt on my own.

Today would be the first day I will use my magic in my hunt and also use the [Screen] to compare my stats with the animals I have been fighting against.

At first, I tried using [Shadow Wall] on myself to hide, but a moving mass of darkness is much, much more conspicuous in the daytime.

Fortunately, once I enter the deeper parts of the forest, this would stop being a problem, although the idea of switching my hunting time to night is a possible alternative.

Considerations for another day I suppose.

The moment I went deep enough, I used [Shadow Wall] again, blending myself to the shadows of the forest and moving as stealthily as I could.

I could feel the drain on my mana but it was not to the point that I needed to worry about it running out quickly. I suppose my tier one proficiency in Mana Management helps in that sense.

Speaking of, I didn't need to go very far to find my first target which I immediately used my [Screen] on.

[Name: Horned Rabbit

Stats:

5 Strength

20 Dexterity

2 Endurance]

Huh, not only is the list shorter but I was actually right about its name, which I suppose replaces the 'race' entry since that is its race. The magic stat is also most likely left out simply because it has no magic to speak of either.

Still… Knowing that I was five times stronger than the rabbit was a good sign and the dexterity probably also means I could outrun it… Probably?

Hmm… I suppose it makes sense, if we were both to run on an open plain, I would most certainly outpace it without any problems. But in a forest such as this where the vegetation would hinder your movements, the rabbit had the advantage of it being smaller and thus more manoeuvrable.

Then again, it's not like I'm planning to have a race with it anyway.

With the shadows still hiding me from view, I tried to get as close to it as I could but unexpectedly, it lifted its head and sniffed in my direction before suddenly bolting away.

Ah… I suppose the shadows only hide me from being seen, but the other senses would still be able to pick up my presence.

Welp, it still allowed me to get closer than I normally would without it so that's still a bonus, I'll just have to be a bit more smarter on how I use this.

Not wanting to waste mana, I dropped my [Shadow Wall] for now.

I went deeper into the forest until I came across a giant rock. In front of said rock was another horned rabbit and a boar that was currently cornering it.

I said another because the rabbit was different from the one before because the stats were different.

[Name: Horned Rabbit

Stats:

3 Strength

15 Dexterity

5 Endurance]

[Name: Berserk Boar

Stats:

15 Strength

13 Dexterity

15 Endurance]

This tells me two things.

First, animals or monsters of the same species have different stats, which I suppose makes a lot more sense than each of them being a carbon copy of one another.

Second, I'm actually stronger than that boar now. But how big is the rift between ten units of strength?

The fact that this boar managed to chase and corner this rabbit despite the rabbit having two more points of dexterity could mean that it's not that much. But I also needed to factor in the fact that I did not know if there were external circumstances that led to this rabbit being cornered.

Perhaps the rabbit was already cornered here when the boar appeared?

While I was contemplating this, the boar let out a roar and charged at the rabbit with its head lowered.

With such a straightforward attack like that, the rabbit easily scampered off to the side after being presented with that opening, disappearing into the undergrowth entirely.

The boar then turned around, enraged that its prey had escaped from its clutches.

Unfortunately, that also meant that it was now aware of my presence since I was standing right behind it.

And naturally, it was now aggroed to me.

It charged me and I instinctively dodged to the side, letting it run past me to ram itself into the tree.

Unperturbed, it turned around to try again but this time I was more prepared for it.

While dodging its second charge, I cocked back my fist and punched it at the side of its head, trying to test out what the extent of the strength difference is like.

Surprisingly, my punch was enough to send it rolling away from me with a fist imprint on the side of its head. So that's the difference between ten units of strength.

I thought I managed to knock it out in one blow until the boar got up from the ground, looking even more pissed than before.

I guess this is where it got its name from… It really is a berserker huh?

It let out a loud squeal of rage before charging me again, the charge apparently being the only thing it can do.

I had my knife out in my hands and I side stepped its charge to slash its side with my blade, scoring a long gash along its hide that drew blood.

I immediately wrapped myself in darkness with [Shadow Wall] and hid myself in the shadow of a tree, disappearing from sight before the boar could turn around.

When the boar did turn back, it looked confused at my sudden disappearance and simply stood there looking around the place for a few seconds.

The few seconds I used to sneak up behind it before jumping on its back.

The boar was in the midst of making a surprised squeal before my knife dove home into its right eye, piercing straight into its skull.

Using my thighs to hold on to its back, I pulled out my dagger and stabbed it into its other eye, pushing it in all the way to the hilt, twisting it, then pulling it back out.

This time, I managed to leap off its back before it fell over on to the ground, dead.

I sucked in a breath before breathing out slowly.

Not too bad, though I certainly feel my umbramancy would definitely be of more use in darker environments or when I reach a higher tier with it.

Just in case, I checked my own stats but I found that it was still the same as before. Not that I'm surprised since it's not like there's a levelling system or something.

I bent down and tried to pick up the boar, it was a little heavy but I was still able to carry it by hefting the carcass over my shoulder.

I did a quick check to see that all my equipment was in order before retracing my steps back home, having secured my game for today.

I reached home just as the sky was tinged red and mother was waiting outside, dressed in her normal home clothes.

Immediately upon spotting me, I was picked up in a hug with the boar still slung over my shoulder.

"Ahhh~ Mama is so proud of you my little one!"

"It's not my first hunt, mo… Mommy…"

"Ufufufu~ Mama is still proud of you! My sweet child even brought back such a nice boar all by yourself! Ufufufu~ Put this in the backyard and Mama will deal with it while you go take a bath~"

She finally let me down and I went to do as she told, hanging the carcass up on the rack at the back of our house.

Mother came back in an apron with a belt of knives and tools around her waist, patting my head before shooing me back to the house.

Before I went in though… There was one last thing I wanted to check with my [Screen].

I opened the door to the cockatrice pen and used my [Screen] on the first cockatrice I saw.

[Name: Bad Chicken

Race: Royal Cockatrice

Stats:

220 Strength

160 Dexterity

180 Endurance

175 Magic]

I shut the door quietly.

Ok… I definitely can't beat that.

But I'm more surprised that it has a name… Is it because mother called it a 'bad chicken' the first time I saw it and thus gave it a name recognised by my [Screen]?

I don't even know how this thing works…

Just in case, I opened the door again and used my [Screen] on a different cockatrice this time.

[Name: Royal Cockatrice

Stats:

212 Strength

162 Dexterity

175 Endurance

170 Magic]

Huh… So I guess because this one was never named, the name of its race became its name instead.

This one also seems to be weaker overall as compared to Bad Chicken, so maybe Bad Chicken is the leader?

I checked the third cockatrice's stats and found its numbers quite similar to the second one albeit with a few points of difference, so that means Bad Chicken should be the leader here.

I shut the door quietly and snuck my way up the stairs, not that I really needed to sneak but I somehow felt it was the natural thing to do.

Seeing the cockatrice's stats actually raised the biggest question I have right now…

Just what kind of strength mother possessed to be able to keep monsters like that in her front yard?

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[Umbramancy: Absence holds a certain power. To strike on one's own terms and to vanish without a trace. To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 1%)]

I swiped my hand at the window to close it.

At least [Screened] tells me my progress with the skill, but the description to level it is rather vague…

Hmm… Then again, I shouldn't be seeing it as a level since this isn't exactly a game system but an information screen.

I get the 'master the shadow' part, but what does it mean by 'the emotions within it'? Does darkness have emotions? How does one master that?

But I don't need to worry because I have the biggest cheat available right here!

"Mommy… How do I get better at Umbramancy?" I asked sweetly.

"Ara, ara? Call me mommy again~"

"Mommy…"

"Ahaann~ My little one is the cutest! Ufufufu~ As for your question, it's quite simple. You need to understand the very being of Darkness and Shadows, including what they represent~"

"What does that mean?"

"Ufufu~ What is darkness usually associated with, my little one?"

"Evil?" I answered without thinking.

"Ara, ara~ While that is true for some but that is not entirely accurate. Why is darkness associated with evil?"

Now I started to think.

Usually in books the evil characters would usually use some dark power or something associated with darkness. Even if they don't they would still be referred to as 'Dark Lord' or something similar. But why? What made darkness into the deciding factor that it should be used to refer to evil?

Hmm… In some stories, those evil characters would turn evil because of the power they have over darkness as well, even if the person themselves were not evil to begin with. Most of the time it's due to people fearing their powers or…

Ah! That's it!

Darkness, it inspires fear! The fear of the unknown! When you see a dark corridor, you do not fear the darkness itself, you fear what is in the darkness!

It's normal for anyone to fear something that they do not know and darkness is the one that hides most things!

Of course!

"Fear, people fear the darkness," I answered, more confidently this time.

Her response was to hug me to her chest and start gushing again, "Ahhh~ My cutest, sweetest, smartest child!! Mama is so proud of you!"

"Mnnnff… Mother… You're gushing again…" I groaned, though I did nothing to pull myself away.

"Ufufufu~ I can't help it if my little one is so cute! Now, that's only one part of it of course, you still need to gain mastery over the control of darkness itself~"

She released me before bringing out a candle stick from a nearby drawer, lighting the wick with a snap of her fingers before placing it in the middle of the table.

She then gestured to the candle, "Right now my child is only able to control darkness you are directly touching yes? Try and see if you can extend that darkness from your body and snuff out the candle~"

I nodded and summoned darkness into my hand with [Shadow Wall] before trying to exert my will over it to stretch towards the candle.

The ball of darkness covering my hand wobbled, but aside from moving a few inches forward, it never detached itself from my wrist.

I put more of my will into it and instead of moving more, there was a 'pop' sound as the darkness disintegrated into nothingness.

"Ufufu~ If my little one does it like that, it won't work~" Mother chuckled.

"Why is that, mother?"

She smiled at me but stayed silent.

"Why is that, mommy?" I corrected myself.

"Ufufufu~ My little one used a spell to summon the darkness, yes? Shadow Wall, if I am not mistaken?"

I nodded, not surprised that she knew.

She raised her hand and casted the same spell, conjuring a ball of darkness that covered her hand as well.

"To do this, you would have to cast a spell and the spell functions as a command to your mana on what you wish to do. Because of that, the magic is locked in the moment you cast the spell and to change it is to try and destroy the spell itself, which would cause the magic to unravel and disintegrate~"

To demonstrate that, she also moved the darkness away from her hand but the moment it did, it disappeared.

Ah, so it sort of is running a program script with a set function and if you try to make it do something out of its function, it would crash.

I looked up, "But who created these spells?"

"Ara, ara? The God of magic, Isre of course."

"Then is there a possibility to create new spells?"

"My, my~ Already asking questions that even most students at Aerialla Academy wouldn't think about~ It is possible of course, a mage simply needs to craft the spell from scratch and if successful, Isre would accept the magic as a spell. There is an entire study dedicated to this called Spellcrafting and as smart as my little one is, I would say that it is a little too early for you to study this for now~"

As tempted as I was, I agreed with her since I don't know enough about magic and how it works yet anyway. But that brought me to another point.

"But how did I learn [Shadow Wall] in the first place, mommy?"

"Spells made by Isre are instinctual to mages proficient enough to cast them. As long as you have the image and idea of what you want and the spell is something created by Isre, you will be able to cast it. Spells made by others however, would need to be learnt by studying the spellcraft itself before a mage can cast them."

"Doesn't that mean if the creator does not teach anyone the spell they made, it will be lost?"

Mother patted my head, "That is correct my little one. There are magic families who guard the spells their ancestors created zealously and only teach them within their circle to make themselves more special. Such families are always trying to steal each other's spells and sometimes these conflicts can get violent. There are examples of magic families being wiped out and their family spells being lost in such conflicts~"

I guess such a thing is to be expected.

"Now, shall we try again, my child?" Mother asked, gesturing to the candle.

I nodded and stared at the candle, my mind focusing on what I wanted to happen.

There was the slight feeling of my mana stirring within me but other than that, there was no other change.

Frowning slightly, I tried to recall what happened when I first casted [Shadow Wall].

Both mother and I wanted to see the magic and I knew beforehand that this was something that I could conceal myself with. So I tried to use the magic to conceal my hand which allowed me to cast this spell.

Oh? I get it, I have to keep the kind of magic in mind as well.

Just now I was only thinking about wanting the candle to be extinguished but I never thought about what I wanted to use to extinguish it and how I wanted it to happen.

Changing my line of thought, I focused on the idea of wanting the flame to be snuffed out by darkness.

[Shadow Wrap]

A tendril of darkness sprung out from thin air near the flame, wrapping around it to encase it in darkness and snuffing it out before disappearing altogether.

My face was once again buried into mother's bosoms as she hugged me enthusiastically, "Ahhh! I knew my little one could do it! Mama is so proud of you!! Mama shall make some cupcakes later for my little sweet child!"

Oh cupcakes! Hell yeah! This makes everything worth it!

"Ufufu~ Feel free to practice a little more on your own my little one~ Mama shall go and prepare now~"

She gave me another pat on the head before heading off to the kitchen with a spring in her step.

Hmmm… Let's see if there's any progress with my Umbramancy?

[Umbramancy: Absence holds a certain power. To strike on one's own terms and to vanish without a trace. To bring fear to the hearts of those who don't know what lurks inside. To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 15%)]

Oh? The description of the magic changed.

And just by having this short lesson my progress has improved by fourteen percent?

I guess the main reason why it started so low lay with the fact that I didn't have a clear idea of how Spells work and the emotional aspect of Umbramancy.

I smiled despite myself. Now that I have a better idea of how magic works, I just need to come up with even more spells!

And they even claim that it would take years to increase a tier in proficiency! I don't think I even need till next year to get my Umbramancy to tier two!

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I might not be able to get my Umbramancy to tier two by next year…

I looked up from the magic book I was reading to raise my hand, summoning the [Screen] to check my status again with Umbramancy again.

[Umbramancy: To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 57%)]

I've reached fifty-five percent two months ago and this number has only risen another two percent after so long.

I realised that the first fifty percent was basically knowing and understanding the magic of Umbramancy itself, which translates to knowing the theory about it. That was something easy to do especially when I have the cheat in the form of mother guiding me.

Then I came to realise the other fifty percent was nothing but pure grinding.

It wasn't even the fun kind of grinding either.

According to mother, the saying that it would take years to increase one's magic proficiency from one tier to another was true because of this particular step.

The reason for that was because the mana within the mage's body needed to get used to the magic being used before the mage could cast spells that were of higher tier.

It was like trying to shoot water out from a water hose but the tube starts out full of holes which would automatically patch themselves over time as long as you keep the water running.

That was easier said than done since I've been using all the Umbra spells as much as I could all this time and that only netts me a measly seven percent in terms of the grinding stage.

I looked down at my hands and both of them were clad in darkness that stretched all the way to my upper arm. If this was night time, my arms would have been practically invisible in the darkness. This was something I would just maintain throughout my day as an attempt to grind it.

Doing this does drain my mana so I have to stop every few minutes to rest and recover before starting again.

There has to be a better way to do this but so far I've not come up with a better idea aside from simply using my Umbramancy as much as I could. The good thing is that this also increases my mana with its constant emptying and replenishing so I would be able to use it for longer and longer.

Speaking of which, I did gain a few new spells aside from [Shadow Wall] that cloaks me in darkness and [Shadow Wrap] that I can use to wrap around light sources to either dim or extinguish them.

Naturally, my train of thought had drifted towards being stealthy so I wanted a spell that could help me move quickly and silently.

[Shadow Glide] was thus created, allowing me to muffle my movements and also increasing my speed in darkness, making me feel like I'm gliding over the shadows.

Unfortunately, teleporting through the darkness seems to be out of my reach at the moment.

Instead, on the more offensive type spells, I managed to get [Darkness Paranoia] which, according to my [Screen, disrupts a target's senses to make them perceive as though they are wrapped in complete darkness.

It also increases their level of fear though what they do while under its effects varies.

I've tried it on my hunts and there were rabbits that simply ran around blindly while others just stayed very still.

A boar simply started charging into a tree and ramming against it repeatedly without a care while another one was clearly panicking but also stood rooted to the spot like that rabbit.

I even tried it on a bear and it curled up into a ball and stayed there, shivering in fear.

Best part was, it was so paralysed with fear that I went up and killed it without it moving from its spot.

Pretty interesting.

There was also [Madness Infusion] which does exactly as the name says. The target that gets hit with this loses all their sense of reasoning and simply starts rampaging around with no care for their own health or anyone else's for that matter.

Aside from these spells, gaining Umbramancy also allowed me to see in the dark. It wasn't to the point that night time still looks like daytime to me, but more like the veil of darkness actually enhances my vision than obscure it.

I did realise that there was a lack of direct offensive spells but nothing came up no matter how hard I tried.

That was when I realised that the darkness I controlled were all intangible, which I guess is why they use the word 'shadow'. Thus, throwing shadows at things wasn't going to leave much of an impact.

I'm pretty sure in the higher tiers I should be able to summon minions and even create weapons using the darkness to make them tangible, but right now such a thing is unfortunately still beyond my skill level.

Putting that aside, my lessons with mother continued as per usual though she ramps up the intensity whenever I start getting used to the training. So it's not like much has changed.

Actually… There was one thing that had changed.

I turned to look at the kitchen where faint sounds of moaning could be heard emanating from there.

Yep… The one thing that changed the most was the fact that mother started masturbating more frequently now.

Just the other day when I was practising my magic alone, I realised that mother was nowhere to be found in the house.

When I went out to look around, however, I found her shlicking herself at the back of the house, her hand rubbing furiously in between her legs as she tried to muffle her moans.

Then there was another time I went hunting and found her leaning her back against a tree, also busy masturbating herself there.

Naturally, I quickly left the place before she knew I was even there.

But right now… To think that she was getting herself off inside the kitchen while I'm out here reading my books… Did she want to get caught or something? Or she just plain doesn't care that I knew? Or is she really just that backed up?

I ignored the sounds and opened up the [Screen] to check my stats.

[Name: Aster Nilm

Stats:

28 Strength

32 Dexterity

54 Endurance

52 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 1), Umbramancy (Tier 1)]

It wasn't a lot, but considering that the bears had an average strength stat of forty, I was already more than half as strong as one despite only being a year old.

Which reminds me of my other magic skill…

I waved my hand and the [Screen] changed to display the information I wanted.

[Mana Management: The raw energy of magic swirls within you. Some believe it to be the manifestation of the very soul. Spells you weave take a little less out of you. Spell casting is demanding work, but your efficiency with the magical world makes it easier. You can also lend this ease to other spellcasters, albeit temporarily. To gain proficiency, grow your internal mana pool and claim mastery over it. (Progress to tier 2: 40%)]

For this skill, mother said that the way to increase proficiency was simply having a larger mana pool and being able to control it.

She claimed that I already have a larger than normal mana pool from the start though she never gave me the reason why. Something tells me it wasn't as simple as just genetics.

I have my own hypothesis that it might have something to do with the fact that I started practising magic practically almost when I was born, increasing my compatibility with mana.

Which is why I have several Mana Crystals on the table in front of me right now.

As much as I wanted to do this outside, there was no way for me to exit through the door without going past the kitchen.

And if I did that, I have no doubt I would see whatever she was doing inside there so I would rather not.

Oh well, I just need to be careful not to screw this up!

'This' being my idea of increasing my mana pool by using the Mana Crystals of course.

Since there's already mana inside these crystals, it should make sense that I could somehow absorb the mana inside them to supplement my own right?

I lifted one in my hands and concentrated, quickly settling in the state where I could see the mana as white blobs of light.

Slowly, I extracted a little of the mana from the crystal and directed it through my hands, pushing it along my arm until it reached the centre of my body where my own mana resided which looked blue in my current vision.

I nudged it into the pile of blue mana and waited… And waited… And waited…

The white blob remained there, sitting on top of my blue blob without being absorbed at all.

Ok… How about I try directing the blue mana to absorb the white one instead?

I did just that and… Oh! It worked! It honestly looked like a white blood cell attacking a bacteria or something with how it consumed it. It actually looks kind of cool.

Emboldened, I directed the rest of the white blob inside me, careful to also disintegrate the crystalized mana outside the shell as well to join the blob.

I repeated the process again and my blue blob of mana ate up the white mana without any problem, though it didn't look like anything else changed.

Opening my eyes, I brought up the menu again to check my progress.

[Mana Management: To gain proficiency, grow your internal mana pool and claim mastery over it. (Progress to tier 2: 40%)]

Well… I expected that to be too easy to be true…

One thing I could get from this is that it definitely replenishes my mana, which means I could use this method to replenish my mana even faster.

That means faster grinding! Speedrun here we go!

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A week later I opened up the [Screen] to check on my progress.

[Mana Management: To gain proficiency, grow your internal mana pool and claim mastery over it. (Progress to tier 2: 80%)]

[Umbramancy: To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 60%)]

It was quite a slow process to be honest and I felt a little bad draining through so many Mana Crystals in such a short time when we wouldn't even use this many in a year.

Mother assured me that it was fine and was even praising me for finding such a method to increase my proficiency in Mana Management, though I felt the praise was a little exaggerated since I'm sure anyone could have thought of this.

One thing I found out quickly was that if I were to use my Umbramancy to drain my mana until there was nothing left, then top up my mana using the mana from the Mana Crystals, it helped increase the proficiency in both skills by quite a significant amount.

Not by a whole lot but enough that I might be able to make it within maybe the next two years for Umbramancy?

Well, I've got time after all~

As for what I'm doing tonight… I'm out hunting again but not for food this time.

Mother is now confident that I am able to fight monsters now so she's bringing me deeper into the island to hunt some. She even took my Umbramancy into account and chose to do this at night.

I still don't have my wings yet so I'm currently being carried in her arms underneath her.

Unlike the first time, she did not drop me but simply flew normally, not that I'm complaining of course.

Eventually, we came to a valley that had a river running through it, sparsely decorated by trees around the river bank.

Even from this height, I could see several figures skulking around the valley, which I guess must be the monsters we were hunting today since mother immediately descended.

,m We dropped at a small cliff overlooking said valley, giving me a clear view of just what was waiting below us.

Truth be told, I did not know what to expect when I knew I was going to fight monsters. Aren't cockatrices also considered to be monsters? Or are they considered to be animals? Or maybe even a subspecies? I'll have to go read up on that later.

But down below in the valley, the monsters here look like wolves with black fur and red eyes, though there's definitely an odd feeling coming from them that I've not felt in the animals I've seen so far.

"Are those the monsters, mo… Mommy?"

She giggled, "That's right my little one~ Do you think you can hunt one?"

I brought up my [Screen] to check their stats.

[Name: Hell Wolf

Race: Monster

Stats:

20 Strength

20 Dexterity

20 Endurance

20 Magic

Magic Skills:

Pyromancy (Tier 1)]

The base stats were all lower than mine so I believe I should be able to take one out by myself. The fact that it has access to magic shouldn't be a surprise considering they are a source of Mana Crystals so they should possess magic too.

I did notice that unlike the other animals that would have varying stats despite being of the same race, every single Hell Wolf I inspected with my [Screen] had the exact same stats and magic skills.

My surprise must have shown on my face since mother chuckled, "Ufufu~ My little one is wondering why all of them have the exact same strength, yes? That's because they are all created the same."

"Created?"

She nodded, "Hell is under the domain of the God Hiandoca, whom many believe is seeking to destroy the world as monsters come from their domain. That could not be further from the truth. Tell me, little one, what do you think happens to mana when it is used?"

I thought for a moment, "It… Disappears?"

"Ufufu~ That's not quite right. When mana is used, it is actually returned to Hell, where it will remain before crystallising into a mana crystal. The mana crystal then forms into a monster and appears somewhere in the world according to the type of monster it forms. Since the exact same amount of mana is used to create each species of monster, they would all be similar in strength."

"Does that mean that the more mana is used, the more monsters there are in the world?"

"Ara, ara? My little one truly is smart! That would of course be the case but it still takes time for the monsters to be formed and Mana Crystals that have been dropped from monsters do not reform back into monsters until they are used up and return to Hell. Unless there's a sudden boom in mages, the number of monsters in the world should remain the same. Not to mention the fact that mages also contain mana themselves so not all of the mana would return back to Hell"

I was about to nod when I suddenly gasped, "But… Us… The ones who came here from another world…"

Her smile widened, "Yes, it has already happened. The monster population in the world has significantly increased because of that. Not to worry, my little one, for the Dungeons are there for this purpose as well. It would certainly make the dungeons harder to clear now but no one would need to worry about monsters taking over the world any time soon~"

I nodded in understanding before turning back to look at the valley, already trying to find a suitable target for me to hunt.

Eventually, I settled for a Hell Wolf that was near the foot of our cliff.

It should be far enough from the other wolves that it should not aggro them during my fight; but also close enough to the cliff that if anything goes wrong, like if the monsters have some kind of hive mentality that will cause them all to attack when one of them is hit, I could still escape up here.

I took out my dagger and did a final check of my equipment before leaping off the edge of the cliff.

I learnt that as Meslatars, we are able to fall from a very high altitude without even taking damage, so there's really no need to have a fear of heights.

Landing on the ground without a sound because of [Shadow Glide, I made my way towards the Hell Wolf silently and quickly.

In addition to cladding myself with [Shadow Wall] I was practically invisible right now… Except for the other senses of course.

I wasn't sure how well its sense of smell is given that it was still a wolf, but whether that aspect of wolves carry over to monsters was something I have not confirmed yet.

Thus, I was still cautious when approaching it, which was proven to be worth it since the monster suddenly spun around and growled when I reached within five metres of it.

Ironically, it got confused when it found no one there but darkness, even though it most definitely smelled me.

I moved closer to it and it was getting more reactive as my smell got stronger, which seemed to confuse it a lot more than actually making it cautious.

I briefly considered testing if [Darkness Paranoia] works on it but decided against using it for now since it would be bad if this one runs off somewhere else and alerts the other monsters.

Continuing to approach it, the wolf snarled and swiped at my direction, only to hit empty air since I wasn't even close enough to be in range yet.

It was definitely confused now which was a good sign since it proved that they were susceptible to mental effects.

While it was still trying to make sense of what was happening, I leapt the last metre towards it and stabbed my dagger into its head.

It tried to let out a howl of pain but I wrapped my arm around its snout in a choke hold and slammed the wolf down like a wrestler with my superior strength.

That silenced the wolf and I took advantage of that by pulling out the dagger and stabbing it into its throat, making sure to give it a good twist before pulling it out again.

The monster wolf started thrashing around but eventually went limp after a while.

I quickly checked my surroundings and breathed out a sigh of relief when none of the other Hell Wolves had even reacted to my kill.

Yep, stealth is good.

Perhaps I should start learning archery soon, everyone knows stealth archers are also completely broken too.

I looked down at my newest kill wondering what I was supposed to do with it, right before I was brought in for another hug from behind.

"Ahh!! I knew my little one could do it!! Mama is so proud of you!!"

I mean… I've already fought bears before and they're stronger than these monsters in terms of stats. Though I guess the fact I did not let it use its magic might be a prime factor on how easy it was.

"What about the Mana Crystal?" I asked. "Do we need to cut it out ourselves?"

Mother giggled, "Yes we do, they are usually located on where the heart would be. Thus, when the main aim is to gather Mana Crystals, it's usually a good idea not to strike there, although destroying it would also kill the monster instantly."

Cool, I'll take note of that in case I meet with a monster I need to prioritise killing in the future.

"In that case… Should I start cutting this wolf up?"

Mother gestured to the other monsters, " Ufufufu~ We can do that later, my little one. First, I want my child to kill all the monsters in this valley!! Then Mama will show you how to cut these monsters up to get their Mana Crystals!"

All of them?

…

Alrighty then.

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With the task of eliminating the rest of the wolves around the valley, I climbed back to the cliff to scout out the valley proper.

I counted around fifty or so of those Hell Wolves, most of them scattered in groups of one or two, the biggest group being a pack of five wolves in the middle.

The good news is that the smaller groups of wolves were all spread out around the outer perimeter of the monster group with progressively bigger groups nearer to the centre, all of them maintaining a distance from one another. That meant that I could work my way around the circle dealing with the smaller groups first before moving on to the larger groups.

Dealing with the solo wolves was easy enough, I just basically used the same tactics I did with the first one and they fell over dead without knowing what hit them.

First, using [Shadow Wall] to make myself invisible in the darkness, then [Shadow Glide] to increase my speed and muffle my footsteps to get close to my target.

While they were confused over the smell of my presence, strike at their weak spots and kill them quickly.

I didn't need to worry about collecting their corpses either since mother seems to be picking them up behind me, allowing me to simply focus on wiping the monsters out.

With the solo monsters dealt with, it was time to move on to the duos.

I decided this might be a good time to test out how the monsters react to fear.

I intentionally chose a duo of wolves who were further away from everyone else to test this out. Even if the fear made one of them run off, it shouldn't run to any other groups close by that would force a bigger fight.

This also serves to test if anything would change if they had a companion nearby too.

Again, I approached them like how I have been for the other wolves, but instead of killing them, I used [Darkness Paranoia] on one of the wolves.

The wolf affected by it let out a yelp before swivelling its head from side to side, its vision suddenly robbed.

Its companion noticed its odd behaviour and let out a low growl in response.

The sound startled the blinded one so much that it immediately lunged forward and tried to bite its friend.

By pure luck, the blinded one managed to bite its companion by the throat, crushing its neck with its jaws and killing it instantly. But because the fear was still in effect, it did not let go of its dead friend's neck but continued to bite it while swivelling its head from side to side, looking for an enemy that wasn't there.

It was a simple thing for me to just sneak up near it and slit its throat from under it.

Easy.

For the next pair, I tried to kill them without resorting to the fear spell.

Using my invisibility again, I first killed one of them using the same tactics on sneaking up on them with my [Shadow Wall, which in turn caused the second one to panic even without me using any skill on it. I still find it a little ironic that monsters are susceptible to fear.

It tried to escape but I moved faster than it could with my [Shadow Glide, my dagger plunging into its neck before it could get far.

And just like that, both wolves were dead.

Hmmm… Am I starting to get a little too reliant on my magic now? I know there are cases where people obtained power and got so accustomed to using them that once they lose said power, they become utterly useless.

Alright, let's try the next fight without using magic.

For the next pair, I didn't use my magic to hide myself and simply walked up towards them. The two wolves spotted me and immediately started dashing towards me, one of them heading straight for me while the other flanking to my left.

Seems like they are still intelligent enough to use tactics, I'll have to keep that in mind when fighting the bigger groups later.

I lowered myself with my dagger held in an underhand grip, the tip pointed towards the wolf charging straight towards me.

Either it was confident of its own prowess or simply did not register the knife as a threat, it leapt towards me with his jaws opened wide.

I reacted quickly by driving my knife into the neck of the wolf while it was mid flight, using its momentum to swing it to my left just in time to smash it against the other wolf that had tried attacking me at the same time.

Unfortunately, I misjudged the weight of the wolf and I was unable to pull out my dagger before the body was sent flying away with it still embedded in its throat.

The good news is that the first wolf died quickly, the bad news is that the second wolf had recovered and I'm now without a weapon.

Ha… I got reminded of the description for [Martial Skill]

[Martial skill. Your armour will crack, your arrows will run dry. Your magic will fade and all your good luck will be of no more use. Your allies are nowhere to be found and your enemies have you surrounded. When you are against the wall, with nothing to your name, you will still have your body. And with that, you can win.]

Right now I only have dagger proficiency at tier one for it… Guess it's time to get some unarmed combat proficiency.

I moved into a wrestler pose with my arms stretched to my side and fingers opened, ready to grapple it the moment it leapt at me.

Predictably, it did just that and I was ready to grab it by its foreleg with my right hand before slipping my left under its belly, allowing me to utilise the momentum to flip it and slam it to the ground.

Cocking back my fist I immediately punched it in the snout, dazing it but not yet killing it. No, the killing blow came in the form of me holding the wolf's neck in a choke hold before snapping it with a twist.

…

Open [Screen] please.

[Martial Skill - Dagger Proficiency (Tier 1), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1)]

Nice.

This also confirms that eight extra points of strength seems to be quite significant, or at least significant enough to overpower the other person or creature in a contest of strength.

I reclaimed back my knife and as much as I wanted to continue this, that short fight had taken more energy out of me than if I had used my magic. If I wanted to kill all the monsters by tonight, I'll have to leave off the physical training for a later date.

With umbramancy, the fight became much easier especially now that I wasn't holding back.

With [Shadow Wall, [Shadow Glide] and [Darkness Paranoia, I'm able to sneak up on two wolves and kill them before they even have a chance to know what was happening.

Then when I moved on to the groups of three, I would start the fight with [Madness Infusion, causing one of them to go mad and start attacking one of its companions.

While those two were busy fighting each other, I would just simply kill the last one that was unaffected before killing the remaining one that won the teamkill.

After the group of three wolves would be the final group of five wolves, the last remaining group of monsters within this valley.

Unfortunately, all of the spells require channelled concentration of the spell for them to take effect. In order to cast it on multiple targets, I would need to split my concentration to cast it while also moving at the same time, a skill that is currently beyond me at the moment.

Still, just using one instance of [Madness Infusion] to turn one of their own against them was enough of a distraction.

While their attention was turned to the one I had affected, I had slipped in and killed one of the Hell Wolves that was in the outer fringes.

As luck would have it, the one incited with madness went in for the kill, bringing their numbers down to two when it was put down by its own brethrens in turn.

Right as I was moving towards the next wolf to slit its throat, a gout of flames was blasted towards my direction, forcing me to leap away to avoid it.

I've been killing them so quickly that I've forgotten they actually could use magic too.

I frowned, both my [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] was still active, so either the wolf who used the spell managed to sense exactly where I was or it got lucky.

Just in case, I checked its stats.

[Name: Hell Wolf Alpha

Stats:

50 Strength

25 Dexterity

20 Endurance

50 Magic

Magic Skills:

Pyromancy (Tier 2)]

Oh… Of course there's an Alpha… What's with that ridiculous strength though?! It's stronger than a damned bear!

While I was busy protesting its stats, it opened its jaws and another blast of fire came out from its mouth, barely missing me as I used [Shadow Glide] to dodge it.

The fact that it had to pause and sniff in my direction before locking on to me proved that it still could not see me, which meant I still had a chance, I just needed an opening.

An opening which I already thought of and hoping it would be enough.

Casting [Madness Infusion] on the last wolf, it did as I expected and lunged at its Alpha, biting it in the leg.

I was hoping it would go for the neck but whatever.

With the opening secured, I leapt onto its back, stabbing my dagger into the side of its head while it was distracted.

It let out a howl and tried to buck me off, only to find that it couldn't since its comrade was still biting on its leg.

I switched my grip on my dagger and started stabbing it repeatedly in the neck, ignoring the blasts of fire that it kept shooting out of its mouth.

A few more stabs later and I've got two more dead moves, the one incited by madness dying as soon as I stabbed it in the eye.

Hmm… That was easy.

Still, this was quite a workout, surely this--

"Ahhhhh!! My little one is truly the best and the cutest!! Mama is so proud of youuuuu!!"

Right… I forgot she was still around. Oh well, this feels good and I'm tired anyway, so I'll let myself be pampered.

This feels nice…

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[Name: Aster Nilm

Title: None

Race: Meslatar

Stats:

32 Strength

35 Dexterity

55 Endurance

60 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 1), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 1), Umbramancy (Tier 1)]

[Mana Management: To gain proficiency, grow your internal mana pool and claim mastery over it. (Progress to tier 2: 94%)]

[Umbramancy: To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 85%)]

I squinted my eyes at the numbers, making sure I wasn't seeing things.

My stats increasing after fighting those monsters was normal I suppose, even though there's quite a jump especially in the magic stat. But the tier progression for these two skills increased by quite a significant amount in just one night.

Now that's definitely weird.

"Mommy… I feel like I grew a lot stronger last night compared to usual…" I muttered, looking up from my bowl of beaten butter and sugar.

We came back quite late yesterday and mother also took the chance to teach me the method on extracting Mana Crystals from slain monsters too. Because of that, we decided to take a break today which is why I'm with my mother in the kitchen early in the morning to bake cookies with her.

Mother smiled at me, "Ara, ara? That's normal of course. My little one wasn't fighting normal animals but actual monsters yesterday. So it's natural you would be able to get stronger than just hunting animals~"

That's not really what I meant but… I don't really know how else to explain this jump. Perhaps if I go and hunt more monsters I might find out why.

I was brought out of my thoughts when something was brought in front of my mouth.

I instinctively opened my mouth and that something was pushed into my mouth.

Ooooh! Chocolate!

Mother giggled like she had successfully pulled off a prank before returning her attention to our baking. At this point, it was simply adding the chocolate chips into the bowl before mixing them thoroughly.

Mother and I then rolled them into balls before putting them on a baking sheet. The fact that they look like chocolate chip ice cream makes it especially hard to resist the temptation of tasting them.

I managed to hold out until mother brought the tray to the oven, leaving it there to bake.

"Ufufufu~ Now we just need to wait fifteen minutes before we can enjoy it~" Mother giggled, untying the apron from her waist.

Uggghhh… I wanna eat them now… Isn't there a way to speed it up?

I let mother wipe my face that had been caked with flour with a cloth before she took off the apron from me. Honestly it has way too many frills for my liking but well, it functions well. It's not like it'll change the flavour of the cookies anyway!

After we finished cleaning and washing up, we still had about ten more minutes before the cookies were done. Thus, mother took me outside the house to enjoy the fresh air and the view of the ocean.

I looked out towards the waves crashing against the cliffs below us. From here, the sea stretched far beyond the horizon with no land in sight. Yet, I knew that beyond there lies the main land where the rest of the world was, a place I would very much like to explore once I am older physically.

"Mommy? When do you think I could explore the world?"

She turned to give me a smile, "Ufufufu~ Anytime my little one is ready to spread your wings, my child. Mama will definitely not hold you back."

I turned to her, "Even if I were to say I wished to go right now?"

"Ara? Then mama will pack our bags and fly you to the mainland right away!"

"Even if I say I wanted to go alone?"

"Ufufufu~ Then mama will prepare a seaworthy ship for you to sail wherever you wish, my child~"

"Are you not afraid that I might be hurt? Or maybe even… Lose my life?"

She reached up and patted my head, "My sweet, little one. You are my child. From the moment you are born, you are destined for greatness. This World will not be able to hold you back, thus Mama shall not hold you back as well. Just know that Mama will always support you, my little one. Mama has no doubt that my little one will stand at the top of this World eventually, but for now… Allow Mama to protect my sweet, little one~"

I paused, my mind returning to the night when I hatched.

"Mo… Mommy called me the conqueror of the stars. What does that mean?"

"Ufufufu~ As Mama has said, this World will not hold you back. Soon enough, my little one shall go beyond and reach for the stars themselves~"

Hmmm? I'm not sure if this is a metaphorical expectation or she's actually expecting me to be able to go into space eventually.

While I was still wondering about that, mother suddenly picked me up in her arms and cuddled me.

"Does my little one wish to explore the world already?"

I quickly shook my head, "I want to, but I know I am not ready yet… At this time, if I were to go out into the world, I would be swallowed up. That is not the state I wish to be in."

"Ara, ara? In that case, Mama shall do her very best to prepare my little one!"

That's right, if I want to be able to explore the world for interesting stories to write and eat all the delicious desserts and cakes I can get my hands on, I need to be able to stand against any adversary this world might throw at me.

Yes, until then, I will have to train myself, temper this body of mine until even if a giant truck were to be dropped from space, I can punch it away!

"Ara, I think it's about time the cookies are ready~"

Oh! Cookies!!! Finally!! Let's go, mommy!!

I practically leapt off mother's arms and dragged her back into the house, watching impatiently as she pulled out the tray from the oven with her magic.

Ahhhhh~ The smell is already so heavenly!! And just look at them!! These round little cookies with little chocolate chips embedded in them… Ahhhh!! I can't wait!!

Mother raised her hand and casted a spell again, creating a wave of cold air that quickly cooled down the cookies on the pan.

She then picked up one of the cookies and presented it to me, something I received quickly and bit right into it.

Ahhhh~ This is heaven~ The way the chocolate melts in my mouth… Mmmmnnn!!!

"Here is more, my little one~"

"Yayyy! I wuv you mommy~~" I cried out, taking all the cookies she offered for me.

Ahhhh~ These are soooo good~ I wanna stay here forever~

Nom nom nom nom…

Hmm? Oh… There's no more cookies… Noooooo…

Mother wiped my mouth with a napkin while I was despairing over the fact that there were no more cookies.

"Ufufufu~ My sweet, sweet little one~ Were the cookies nice?"

"They were very nice, mommy…"

"Ara, ara? No need to be sad my little one, we can make more later on~ In fact, my little one's birthday is coming soon isn't it? Ahhh~ Time really flies, before I know it, my little one is already two years old!"

That's right, in just a few more months I will turn two, officially catching up to the looks of my current body.

Hopefully I could get my Umbramancy to tier two before it comes and I get my new boons for the new year. With any luck, I might get some good ones that will help me increase my proficiency skills faster!

Mother wiped the cookie crumbs off my face. "Now, does my little one have anything you'd like as a birthday gift? Mama will do her best to get it!"

I thought about it for a moment before shaking my head, "There's nothing I need, mommy. I'm happy just spending the day with you."

"Ahhhh! My little cutie!! You're the absolute cutest little thing!!!"

Can't say I didn't expect such a reaction, but it's true that I didn't really need anything, at least not right now.

If I didn't have my [Screened] to let me write notes in it, I would have asked for a journal but I don't need that anymore.

In fact, I think it's high time I start recording down my daily stuff just so I don't forget them. I should start it today.

"Oh! Mama knows! Does my little one want a dress? Mama thinks my child would look beautiful in a dress! Perhaps it's a good time for mama to teach my little one how to dress up?"

I paused…

I think it's a little bit late to mention this… But I actually picked the futa option in the gender choices…

Hey! Best of both worlds right?! Even though it's hard to tell now since my body still resembles that of a two year old, but I have my feminine features too!

Besides! I'll get boobs and a nice ass! Judging by how mother looks, I have a very bright future to look forward to! Plus an extra package between my legs too! Who's gonna say no to that?!

Ah, but just so you know… I only like girls, though I can be convinced if it's another futa too~

As for that dress… Erm… I guess… I can try that… I'm still wearing pants now but I heard skirts actually feel… Nice…

I still like girls though!

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[Happy birthday!]

[Body Mod obtained: Flap-Flop]

[Boons obtained: Machine Learning, It Only Takes One]

Well, not too bad, though I'm a little sad that I didn't get any new magic or skills this time.

[Flap-Flop: You now have a pair of retractable wings!]

Mother absolutely gushed over my wings when I revealed them. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but I realised my wings were exactly the same as hers in both colour and material.

Both of us had leathery black wings that sprung out from our shoulder blades, big enough to wrap ourselves up in a cocoon if we wanted to.

I also learned that I received my wings early, since normal Mesletars would only have their wings sprout when they are six years old. Even then, the wings will start out small and useless first before growing bigger over the years.

But for me, I was given a fully mature pair of wings that was proportionate to my current body right from the start.

Definitely a cheat.

Speaking of mother… She really went and got me a dress.

It's not a simple one either, it's the kind of dress you might wear to an especially formal function, which means I doubt I would wear it aside when mother requests me to. She did say that she would start dressing me up real soon when I hit my next growth spurt, whenever that may be.

[Machine Learning: Your mind is now in learning mode. It will pick up issues with anything you're doing and try to incorporate solutions into the next time you do it. It's mostly subtle and subconscious, like readjusting your sword swing a few times to find the most optimal way to strike. However, this accelerates your learning far beyond what most can manage, even with diligent focus.]

[It Only Takes One: You cannot be one shot. Any attack, any magic, any poison or illness. No matter what it is, it cannot kill you in one go. It will instead put you close to death, in a very weakened state and dissipate. If anyone else were to attack you in this weakened state, you would be easy to kill. But if you are able to recover and heal, you can return to a healthy state. Once you've done that, this boon will return and you'll be able to take another lethal blow without dying again.]

[Machine Learning] would definitely help me with speeding up my learning process, so I'm quite confident that by next year, I will gain even more progress than I did last year.

[It only Takes One] is more of a safety net for myself, just in case I meet with some bullshit enemy or situation like another giant truck falling on top of me again, I could still survive that.

Naturally, I don't intend to do anything stupid even with this skill since it does leave me weakened at the end, but it's still nice to know that I have a backup for the worst case scenario.

Of course, when one gets new stuff, you would definitely want to test it out!

By now, mother isn't too worried about me going out on my own, even when it was night time. In fact, night time is currently where I'm at my best so there's even less things to worry about.

For tonight, I plan to hunt some monsters to help get my [Mana Management] and [Umbramancy] to finally reach tier two.

During my hunts, I found a small cave that gave off the scent of monsters so that's where I'll be heading tonight.

It's unfortunate I couldn't get it to tier two before my birthday like I thought I could, but because I didn't get any new skills, I can still focus my time on increasing my proficiency for this magic.

With my new wings, I'll be able to simply fly there without worry too, so reaching that wouldn't be a problem.

I mean, it's just flying right? Mother already acclimatised me to the feeling of flying already so it shouldn't be that hard right?

FLYING IS HARD!! ARGHHH!!

I raised up my hands to protect my face as I smashed through the tree canopy for the sixth time in a row.

Thankfully, my endurance is high enough to prevent me from taking too much damage.

Ugh… I thought flying would be simple… Just flap your wings and you should be able to fly, right?

Turns out there's a lot more to flying than just flapping your wings… I need to take into account the wind, the strength of each flap of my wings and even the currents too. If I don't, then I'll get thrown around like right now.

At least [Machine Learning] is helping quite a bit but I still need to try a few more times before I get it.

I guess… I guess that's enough flying for now… Maybe I'll ask mother to teach me how to do it if I still don't get it tonight… The cave is already nearby… Just need to walk a few more metres and I'll be able to see it…

I checked my stats again.

[Name: Aster Nilm

Title: None

Race: Meslatar

Stats:

35 Strength

36 Dexterity

57 Endurance

65 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 1), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 1), Umbramancy (Tier 1)]

Oh? I realised it doesn't show me the boons I bought from the character creation as part of the base stats. Although if I were to concentrate on it, I would be able to see the boons and the information about them.

Now to check on my progress with the two magic skills…

[Mana Management: To gain proficiency, grow your internal mana pool and claim mastery over it. (Progress to tier 2: 99%)]

[Umbramancy: To gain proficiency, master the shadow and the emotions within it. (Progress to tier 2: 92%)]

I am so goddamned close!

If nothing goes wrong, I'm sure the monsters in this cave will be my catalyst to reach tier two for both of these skills!

Heh heh, I'm already looking forward to it!

Unsheathing my trusty dagger, I once again made use of my [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] to move through the forest, aiming for the monster cave I found.

I reached it in less than a minute and standing in front of the cave was one of the monsters I am aiming to kill tonight.

[Name: Cave Goblin

Stats:

15 Strength

12 Dexterity

12 Endurance

5 Magic

Skills:

Martial Skill-(Club Proficiency (Tier1))]

Yep, goblins, the bread and butter of every fantasy world, can't go far without seeing these green things.

And yes, I am going to become the goblin slayer tonight.

Though individual goblin stats are low, their power lies in their numbers. I'm pretty sure there's at least about a few dozen or more goblins inside this tiny cave alone. Most likely there's also some kind of goblin boss too, so I'll have to be careful. Fortunately the only armour they're wearing is a piece of rag around their waist and their weapons are rather crude clubs, swords and bows.

Still… For them to only leave one guard outside? They must be either really confident or really stupid. My money is definitely on the latter.

In the blink of an eye, my hand was clamped over the goblin's mouth and my dagger sliced through his throat cleanly, allowing him to drop onto the ground without nary a sound.

This is way easier than dealing with those Hell Wolves since the goblins don't have the wolves' sense of smell. I could have even simply walked past the sentry and he would have been none the wiser.

I slipped into the cave, my dagger ready to claim more goblins tonight. The cave itself wasn't really brightly lit, with a few torches dotted periodically on the walls which was the perfect environment for me.

Turning round the corner in the tunnel, I nearly ran straight into a patrol of three goblins carrying crude spears.

Thankfully, I had kept to the darkness of the tunnel so they did not notice my presence and walked on by.

That gave me the perfect opportunity to slip in behind them and assassinate them one by one from behind.

I drop them onto the ground, leaving a note using my [Screen] on the locations of the bodies so I can claim the Mana Crystals later.

Going deeper into the cave, I kept my senses peeled and killed any goblins I came across, all of them not even knowing I was there before they died.

Thankfully, the cave wasn't a network of tunnels but a simple straight tunnel that had a few small caverns that were dug out to function as rooms for the goblins.

Due to the fact that it was night time, several goblins were also sleeping in the caverns which surprised me a little since I didn't think monsters had basic needs. I'll have to go read up more on them later.

Did I have any remorse killing these goblins in their sleep? Not at all.

There is absolutely no reason to feel anything for monsters, especially since they are akin to recycling waste in this world.

Moving deeper into the cave, I found the tunnel widening into a large cavern at the very back of the cave.

Inside were at least thirty other goblins, each of them holding onto a weapon with a few of them even wielding shortbows.

And at the very end of the cave, sitting on a throne carved out of rock, was most definitely the leader of the goblins.

[Name: Cave Goblin Light Mage

Stats:

10 Strength

10 Dexterity

10 Endurance

80 Magic

Magic Skills:

Lumenmancy (Tier 2)]

Are you serious? They just had to give me a light mage that's a direct counter to my dark magic?!

As though reading my thoughts, the goblin light mage raised his hands and a ball of light appeared at the roof of the cavern and illuminating the area, effectively negating my stealth.

All eyes turned to me.

Fuck.

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Even though [Shadow Wall] was useless now, [Shadow Glide] still allowed me to move faster using my own shadow so I kept that spell up.

Using that, I managed to move out of the way before the arrows fired by the archers could hit me.

I did a quick check of the numbers and weapons of my enemies.

Five archers, six spears, eight swords and shields, six clubs and five daggers.

This might be a little troublesome…

Right when I was considering how I should proceed, the hair at the back of my neck suddenly raised and I leapt to the side.

Just in time too as a laser passed through where I had just been standing, fired from the goblin light mage himself.

Well, two can play at that game you stupid light bulb.

The first thing I tried was casting a quick [Madness Infusion] on him.

It definitely worked but that resulted in him firing lasers indiscriminately all around the cave, a few of which barely missed me when he did so.

Ok, perhaps inflicting madness on him isn't an entirely good idea.

At least that resulted in him killing three of his own archers and two of his shield bearers, plus it seemed like he used up most of his mana as well which means it's a prime chance for me.

Casting [Shadow Wrap] on the light ball he had created over head, I had once again plunged this cavern into darkness, the torches alone inadequate from preventing me from slipping into the shadows again.

My first target was, of course, the boss himself.

Slipping past the guards who were panicking over my disappearance, I rushed straight towards the goblin light mage with the tip of my knife ready to plunge into his throat.

Unexpectedly, a light barrier flared up to light the moment I neared it, bouncing me back from my attempted assault.

Drat, this lightbulb has a light barrier too, I'll need to come up with a way to either break this or drain his mana to cancel this.

The goblin mage summoned another ball of light again, lighting up the once dark cavern once more.

The other goblins had yet to realise I had moved behind them and were thus still busy searching for me.

That gave me enough time to slip in and kill the last two archers from behind, without anyone else even knowing I was there.

I wouldn't be able to close in the distance on the other melee goblins before they found me but an idea sprung into my mind.

With quick movements, my dagger was sheathed and the fallen archer's bow was in my hands. It was crude and obviously low in quality but it will serve my current purpose.

Drawing back on the bowstring with an arrow nocked, I took aim at the closest goblin wielding a spear and let the projectile loose.

Unfortunately, my inadeptness with the bow showed here as the arrow flew wide, passing to the right of my intended target.

Fortunately, there was another goblin holding a club there and the arrow buried itself into the back of its head.

I was quick to nock another arrow as the goblins started to turn around, finally realising I was behind them all this while.

This time, I managed to hit my target but only wounded it in the shoulder.

Meh, good enough.

The other goblins were quick to react as they charged me, not giving me the time to fire a third time.

I threw the bow at the closest goblin and smacked him in the face, giving me time to unsheathe my dagger before leaping away, avoiding the laser that came from behind me.

Just as planned, the laser missed me and pierced through two spear goblins, bringing down the number of enemies even further.

Four spears, six swords, five clubs and five dagger wielding goblins left.

Once again, I casted [Shadow Wrap, plunging the cavern into darkness once more.

The goblin mage seemed to have anticipated that as he immediately summoned another light ball a second later.

That one second was enough for me to slip to the other side of the goblin shield wall though, giving me the perfect opportunity to stab one of them in the neck.

Shifting my dagger to my left hand, I quickly picked up the fallen goblin's shortsword with my right, its size just right for me given that the goblins were also rather small in size, making this a rather long dagger in my hands instead.

Alright, never really dual wielded before but first time for everything… Could have gone for the shield instead but I don't have time to unbuckle it from the goblin's arm and having two weapons would be better since I'm outnumbered.

I repositioned myself to keep the normal goblins between myself and the light mage. This way, he'll have to kill his own people if he wanted to fire his stupid laser beams at me.

Three shield goblins moved to surround me with three spear goblins backing them up.

A solid plan of attack, except I possessed the spell [Madness Infusion] that I could cast on the spear goblins behind the shield goblins.

Taking a risk, I split my concentration and casted it on two spear goblins simultaneously which was taking all my mental capacity to do.

With only one target in front of them, it was obvious the crazed spear goblins would stab their own shield brothers in the back before the others jumped on them to stop their berserk state.

The third shield goblin quickly turned around, expecting to be stabbed by the spear goblin behind it after seeing it happen to two of his brothers.

Conversely, that made the spear goblin panic as he thought the shield goblin had betrayed him, prompting him to start attacking him in turn, both of them killing each other.

Damn, just like that, six goblins are dispatched with just two applications of this spell.

Taking advantage of the opening, I dashed in and swung the shortsword in an arc, decapitating one of the reserve shield goblins while my knife buried itself into the guts of the last spear goblin I had wounded earlier.

One of the goblins wielding a club rushed at me with his weapon waised, a truly stupid move as it left his torso wide open for me to stab with my shortsword.

I pulled back my sword to let his corpse drop onto the ground, just as two more goblins rushed at me with daggers in their hands.

The one on my left leapt at me, giving me the perfect opportunity to move the sword in his flight path and letting him skewer himself on the sword.

I then moved the sword to my right, using the corpse as an impromptu shield against the second goblin.

The goblin hesitated and that was enough for me to slip into his guard and stab my dagger under his chin.

I was about to face the other goblins when a flash of light came towards me. It was only due to my superior dexterity and [Shadow Glide] that I even managed to react to it and leap out of the way in time.

I cursed under my breath as I felt the skin on my left arm burn, having just narrowly avoided the giant laser beam of death shot from that stupid goblin mage. It seems like he had decided he didn't need his subordinates anymore since that beam had also wiped the rest of the goblins out.

I hefted the sword that still has the goblin impaled on it before throwing it like a javelin towards the goblin mage.

The shield flared to life again and my sword bounced off of it without even leaving a mark.

Light began gathering in his palm again and I knew the goblin mage was going to try blasting another giant laser at me.

Hmm? Light? I wonder…

I casted [Shadow Wrap] on the light he was trying to gather and, just like what I was hoping, the light was snuffed out before the spell was formed.

No more lasers for you!

I dashed forward even as the goblin frantically tried to call upon the lights again to form another laser. Unfortunately for him, my [Shadow Wrap] has a much faster casting time than his laser spell so that was quickly stopped too.

My dagger stabbed forward as I tried to gut him, but unfortunately his light barrier stopped me again.

It seems like we are stuck in a stalemate now, with him being unable to attack and myself unable to get past his shield.

Which means the one who runs out of mana first would be the loser.

While his mana pool is definitely higher than mine because of his higher magic stats, I had a way of making sure he runs out of it quickly by continuously attacking the barrier and he must have used quite a bit because of the earlier [Madness Infusion].

If only I had a skill that bypasses this barrier to hit this stupid goblin from inside.

Oh wait, I do!

[Darkness Paranoia]

[Madness Infusion]

The goblin let out a panicked scream as his senses were robbed from him while his mind became clouded with both madness and fear.

His concentration broke for a split second but that was enough for me to dive through his broken barrier to stab him in the chest.

And with that… The last of the goblins fell.

Goblin Slayer title earned!

…

Or I hoped it would happen but it didn't. I guess titles don't work that way?

Oh whatever, this better be enough to bring me to the next tier for my magic skills!

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[Name: Aster Nilm

Stats:

35 Strength

36 Dexterity

57 Endurance

67 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic:

Mana Management (Tier 2), Umbramancy (Tier 2)]

[Umbramancy: Absence holds a certain power. To strike on one's own terms and to vanish without a trace. To bring fear to the hearts of those who don't know what lurks inside. To gain proficiency, materialise the shadows and don yourself with darkness. (Progress to tier 3: 1%)]

[Mana Management: The raw energy of magic swirls within you. Some believe it to be the manifestation of the very soul. Spells you weave take a little less out of you. Spell casting is demanding work, but your efficiency with the magical world makes it easier. You can also lend this ease to other spellcasters, albeit temporarily. At full power, you can cast spells that are much more powerful than it normally should be. To gain proficiency, grow your internal mana pool, claim mastery over it and go beyond the limits of your magic. (Progress to tier 3: 4%)]

Yeeeesss!! Finally! Not only the two skills I was aiming for increased in proficiency, my dagger proficiency increased too!

What's more, I know exactly what to do to increase my proficiency with Umbramancy for this tier!

I reached out my hand with my palm facing upwards, focusing my will to imagine a dagger similar to mine forming in my hand.

[Shadow Forge]

A black blade formed exactly how I had imagined it, falling to rest on my palm. The shadows I'm controlling have become tangible now.

That's not all this can do either!

I dispelled the dagger and concentrated again, this time thinking about making a copy of myself appear in front of me.

[Shadow Summon]

The shadow on the ground converged to form a black puddle before stretching up into a figure matching my size.

There was a moment where it was simply a blob but the surface of the shadow shifted and I was soon staring at a figure that looked like me.

Yep, the summon had my features except for the fact that her skin colour was chocolate brown and her hair was black instead of my white.

Oh… I suppose I never did mention that, did I? My hair colour is silver white in colour and I'm planning to let it grow out. I think it looks nice, right?

Putting my own appearances aside, I looked at the summon up and down. Aside from the obvious change in colour scheme, the summon was also devoid of irises, giving its eyes a sort of empty look.

The summon stood perfectly still even as I walked around it, not showing any reaction to me at all.

Hmm… If I'm correct, the summons should be able use the weapons I've created with [Shadow Forge] too. But how do I get it to equip it?

As though responding to my question, a dark blob formed on the underside of her right wrist before shifting towards her hand to morph into the dagger I made.

Perfect! Now could I order it to do something like gather the Mana Crystals for me?

Before I could even vocalise my thoughts, the summon had already knelt down by the body of the goblin mage and started cutting it open.

Her movements were similar to how I would have handled the corpse, meaning my summons most likely drew the knowledge directly from me to do their tasks.

Oh damn, doesn't that mean my summons are just as good as I am? How many of them can I actually summon?

I tried casting [Shadow Summon] again and lo and behold, another shadow version of me appeared.

Now let's try and summon a third-- Owwwww!

When I tried to summon a third one, a sharp pain hit me right in the cranium, causing me to fall onto my haunches.

Ok… What's wrong now?

Oh… I'm out of mana… Apparently [Shadow Summon] eats up like half of my current mana per summon. I'm not sure if it operates by percentage or the cost just so happens to be half of the total mana I had.

Speaking of which, now I know what happens when you try to use mana that you don't have… Before this, I always stopped the moment my mana nears empty, but I was so excited with the summons just now I didn't even check my mana reserves.

Still, being able to summon two of myself is already a huge bonus.

Wait a moment… I was so excited by the summon that I forgot to check its stats to see if it actually is as strong as I was.

[Name: Aster Nilm (Shadow summon)

Stats:

18 Strength

18 Dexterity

29 Endurance

34 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))]

Ah, so they only get half of my stats… And they don't get my magic skills either which I suppose makes sense.

They do get my normal Skills which is nice, but that also means that if I want to equip them with a different weapon, they would suck at it unless I know how to use that weapon too…

I knew there would be no way they'd let me have summons that have the exact same stats as me.

…

Or would they?

I used half of my mana to summon them… Could that be why they're only half as strong as I am?

What if I put in less mana?

I took the Mana Crystal that my summon dug out from the goblin mage and told the two of them to start gathering from the rest of the goblin's inside the cave. Too bad the ones hit by the laser had their bodies vaporised but there's still quite a number I can get from those that were left.

Now… using the Mana Crystal to replenish my own mana, I concentrated on only using ten percent of my mana to do the summon.

[Shadow Summon]

The darkness coalesced in front of me and a shadow version of me appeared.

[Name: Aster Nilm (Shadow summon)

Stats:

4 Strength

4 Dexterity

6 Endurance

7 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))]

Oh daaaaaamn! I could have a whole bunch of weak little mes running around! This is so good!

Actually, do they even need to be like me? What if I tried summoning one that isn't like me?

[Shadow Summon]

Once again, another summon appeared but this one had no features aside from a humanoid shape. Sort of like a three dimensional shadow.

Since I only put ten percent of my mana in this summon, it had the exact same stats as the previous summon too. The only difference was that instead of being called "Aster Nilm (Shadow summon)", its name was simply "Shadow summon".

Damn, if I have high base stats, then even a one percent summon could potentially be strong too!

This is so good!

Now I just need to know if they have a limited summon time before they disappear…

In the meantime, let me summon more to gather all the Mana Crystals from the goblins!

I walked out of the cave with about seventy or so more Mana Crystals in my bag.

In that time, I found out a few things…

First, there is no limit to the time they can remain summoned.

Second, I can store the summons in my shadow and they'll remain there until I call them back out. I did try putting them in the shadow of another object, but either I wasn't strong enough or that simply wasn't possible.

Third, this skill is so damn good!

Just imagine! I could get them to bake sweets for me and they'll know exactly how I like my sweets! I will never need to worry about the sweets being unsuitable for my tastes! This is perfect!!

I still remember my dream of baking the largest cake ever and jumping in it, that dream kind of looks doable now!

Mmm… Cake… Big cake… Hehehe…

Oops, I should concentrate on getting home first before mother worries about me.

Truthfully, tonight's haul was exceptionally great and I was in the best mood possible.

Until I remembered I still needed to fly back home…

Ugh… Whatever, the sooner I get home, the sooner I can get a nice hot bath and go to bed!

Materialising my wings from my back, I unfurled them to their maximum length before shooting upwards with a flap of my wings.

Ok… Easy… Easy! The winds are blowing in that direction… I need to maintain this form and note those air currents too…

Good, now I just need to head towards that direction where home is and maintain my flapping with this amount of strength while maintaining my balance…

Just flap… Flap… Flap…

Eh?

I'm… Flying.

I'm actually flying!

Somehow I knew what I needed to do this time to stay up in the air, even the flapping of my wings had become instinctual and I could hold myself aloft now!

But what changed? Was it because of my increase in stats? Or was it my summons? My new proficiency?

Oh, wait! Of course!

[Machine Learning: Your mind is now in learning mode. It will pick up issues with anything you're doing and try to incorporate solutions into the next time you do it. It's mostly subtle and subconscious, like readjusting your sword swing a few times to find the most optimal way to strike. However, this accelerates your learning far beyond what most can manage, even with diligent focus.]

Of course! I almost forgot about this one!

This is great!

I'm flying!! Woohoo!!

Things can't get any better than this!

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The next day when I told mother about my new proficiency in Umbramancy, I was almost hugged to death.

"Ahhhh!! My child!! My sweet, sweet child!! Mama is so, so proud of you!!"

"Mmmffff!!"

"We should celebrate! Mama will make some cakes today, just for my little one!"

"Mmmnnffff!!"

"Ufufufu~ As expected of my child! Already making such progress even when you're still so young!"

"Mnnnggg…"

"Now, why don't my little one go and play while Mama prepares the cakes?"

I was finally allowed to breathe after being released from her bosoms while she made her way to the kitchen with a skip in her steps.

Ugghh… Those things are dangerous…

I looked down at my own chest, patting them a little expectantly. I already knew mine would be just as impressive as mother's which actually soothed me a little.

Hopefully I get the boon to prevent backaches before it grows out.

Following mother's advice, I went outside to play with myself.

… That came out wrong, I meant play with my summons.

Standing a short distance away from the house, I brought out all the summons I have currently.

Right now, there's two summons who have half of my stats while five have ten percent, including the featureless summon too.

All of them were summoned after fighting those goblins yesterday.

I also did a little bit more reading on monsters and I found that even they had different classifications.

For the cockatrices that mother were rearing in the chicken pen, those aren't classified as monsters but instead, they're known as magic creatures instead.

The main difference is that magic creatures still reproduce normally and they're basically animals that possess mana.

Monsters on the other hand are creatures that have been formed from mana and are born in Hell. They can't reproduce, but some still possess a semblance of intelligence.

This comes from the fact that the monsters are basically copying creatures that exist in the world, like the Hell Wolves basically being formed using wolves as the template.

Goblins on the other hand, used this world's equivalent of Imps as their base, otherwise known as Yoblins.

Whichever creature the monster adapted from, they would also carry a little bit of its traits over, like the wolves having the tendency to form packs and their superior sense of smell.

That also means the monsters are susceptible to the maladies of the flesh, meaning they do have to sleep and eat too, though most of them are driven more by instinct than anything else.

Which also meant that goblins do capture and rape their victims if they were given the chance to do so because the emotion of lust is present in them too.

Oh well, putting such thoughts aside, I focused on the more important matter right now.

What would happen if I were to use a hundred percent of my mana to do my [Shadow Summon]?

I concentrated my intent into the spell and casted it, feeling the entirety of my mana reserves draining away rapidly in less than a second.

The shadow under me stretched forward until it formed a blob, bubbling up to morph into the shadow version of myself.

I quickly checked her stats and… Oh yeap… This summon has my full stats and skills minus the magic.

Right now, with my level of Mana Management, it'll take me about an hour or so before I get back my maximum amount of mana again.

But that's why I have the Mana Crystals I got from hunting those goblins last night with me right now.

I was just about to start absorbing them to summon more when a thought entered my head. Would my summons have their stats increased when my own increases? Or are they locked to the stats I summoned them with?

Hmm… Is this world kind enough to give me the former option?

…

Something tells me that my summons would remain at the level I summoned them at…

Ugh… I'll ask mother later before I commit to this. If they do not grow stronger with me, then I want to increase my stats a little more before I commit to mass summoning them.

Right now my max strength is still lower than a bears and my ten percent summon is also weaker than a goblin. I think I'll set the base where my one percent summon is at least as strong as a goblin before I start spamming them out.

Although I guess it wouldn't hurt to do a max summon from time to time, just in case. There doesn't seem to be a limit to however many I can have, after all.

For now, I don't really see a point on having featureless summons and they honestly look a little creepy. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be able to create any other kind of summon aside from the faceless one and the copy of myself either because it was not possible or I just needed to grow stronger.

For now, I decided that my time would be best spent training my unarmed proficiency in my Martial Skill, especially since I have sparring partners right here! What better way to train myself than to fight and defeat myself, am I right?

Later on, I might even use them to train my other skills too. I get sparring partners who are on the same skill level as I am all the time! How cheat is that?!

I let the rest of my summons return to my shadow while leaving the one with the same stats as me out, instructing her to spar with me.

She settled into a combat stance similar to mine and we started circling each other, our hands outstretched in a wrestling stance.

I was the first to move, stepping forward to try and make a grab for her arm in an attempt to kick her feet.

She knew what was coming so she took a step back to avoid the grab before rushing forward to attempt a lariat.

Thinking fast, I lowered myself quickly and punched my fist forward right into her abdomen, sending her skidding back.

Pressing on to my advantage, I tried to pursue her for a follow up attack but got a kick in my own abdomen that also sent me stumbling away.

And precisely because I'm fighting myself, she had the same idea for pursuing me while I'm trying to recover, so I returned the favour with the same kick she did.

Learning from my previous try, I moved towards her flank while she was distracted, aiming a kick at her shins.

She avoided that by raising her foot before kicking it out at my waist.

That was enough to unbalance me and send me toppling over onto the ground, prompting her to leap on top of me and straddle my waist. Her fist was cocked back but I punched her in the face first, sending her rolling off me.

Even though I know it was a summon, punching her in the face still caused me to wince a little. Still, I reminded myself that this was a summon and pressed on.

Now it was my turn to straddle her, except I managed to block her punch that she tried to throw at me to give her another one across her face.

Unfortunately for me, it seems like shadow summons do not get dazed since she barely reacted from that and used her other hand to grab me by the collar.

She pulled and I found myself back on the floor again with her above me and one of her hands grasping my throat.

I pushed my arms against the inside of her elbow, forcing her to lower herself because of the bent arm before giving her a headbutt.

The force was enough to send her reeling back and I managed to pry her hand away from my throat.

Using the same move she did, I grabbed her by the collar and pulled her down beside me, using the momentum to flip myself on top of her.

This time, instead of straddling her, I decided to go for a submission hold instead.

Grabbing her by her right hand, I wrapped my left leg over her neck while my right leg was pushed against her armpit, using that as a lever to lean backwards.

She held there but could not break out from the hold, though she did not tap out either so I had to instruct her to stand down, cementing this spar as my win.

Honestly, from just this fight alone, I already know my fighting style is entirely unpolished and more akin to street brawling. If I were to meet someone who is actually trained in unarmed combat, I'll most likely lose to them.

Most of my knowledge from this came from watching videos back in the other world after all, though I did take a few classes just to get a feel of it for the sake of writing fight scenes in my stories. Unfortunately, I never committed to learning it since I wasn't exactly aiming to learn it for the sake of becoming good at it after all.

Maybe I should find someone to teach me some unarmed fighting styles, just so that if I lose my weapons and I run out of mana, I wouldn't be completely helpless.

What are the odds that mother would be able to teach me?

I got up from my summon as she melted into my shadow as I instructed, giving me time to brush off the dirt on my clothes right as mother appeared at the door.

She took one look at me and smiled, "Ufufufu~ As expected of my sweet child~ Always so full of energy! Come now, Mama has made some cakes for my darling little one~"

Ohhh! Cake!! Of course there's no way I would say no to that!! This is the best!

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I found out the harsh truth… My summons will remain at the stats I summoned them at… That means they don't grow with me…

Oh well, I guess I can still just resort to the once a day max stats summon plan until I reach the level where my weakest summon is at least at a goblin's level.

I've also just used them to spar from time to time, even sometimes having a few of them attack me at once to train my skills in handling situations where I am outnumbered.

The good news is that mother agreed to teach me unarmed combat in addition to my dagger skills.

The bad news is that her combat style basically revolves around simply beating the target until it dies so I don't think I'll be learning much in the way of martial technique from her.

Then again… It does do wonders for my strength training at least so I still get something out of that.

She also took me flying to teach me how best to use my wings and I learned how to execute aerial manoeuvres after a while. We even had an aerial spar which was an eye opening experience.

I've also been making use of my [Shadow Forge] to craft shadow equipment for my summons to use including weapons and armour. Even if my physical armour were to be torn to shreds, I can still make a new one using this spell.

The best part is that I could use this to train my archery since the arrows are made of shadows too so I didn't need to worry about ammunition.

Coupled with the [Machine Learning] boon, I was basically speedrunning my training too.

And after following this training regime for six months, I was much stronger than a bear already.

[Name: Aster Nilm

Stats:

60 Strength

56 Dexterity

77 Endurance

95 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 2), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1), Bow Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic:

Mana Management (Tier 2), Umbramancy (Tier 2)]

[Hunting: You are able to come up with traps to ensnare or kill your prey using basic tools at your disposal. You will also be able to discern and identify the type of beasts that a track may belong to and follow them unhindered. As long as your prey makes no effort to cover up their own tracks, you are able to track them. To gain proficiency, embrace the ways of the hunter. (Progress to tier 3: 5%)]

One surprising skill is the bow proficiency under Martial Skill.

When I was creating my character, I remembered seeing a separate 'Marksman Skill' so I thought I would be getting that instead. But it seems like simply using a bow isn't enough to get that skill.

Putting that aside, I'm going out to hunt monsters again tonight.

This is something that I've been doing every other day since I killed those goblins months ago. I would simply fly out at night, search for any signs of monsters, deal with them, then come back home.

Mother always waited for me to come back home before we went to bed, despite me telling her that she didn't need to.

Flying through the air on this particular moonless night, I looked down at the mountains below me searching for signs of monsters.

Hmm? I'm feeling a rather large surge of mana coming from below me.

Most of the time, this would mean a monster had formed nearby and because newly formed monsters have quite pure Mana Crystals and would be weakened quite a bit, it's worthwhile to hunt them down just for that.

I furled my wings and dived towards the ground, spinning around to land on my feet without a sound thanks to my [Shadow Glide].

I quickly cast [Shadow Wall] as well, allowing me to melt into the darkness without a trace while I tried to find the source of that mana surge.

That's odd… I definitely felt the surge of mana around here, but yet I don't see any monsters around?

Was I mistaken?

Just as I was thinking of flying back into the sky, I heard the sounds of music coming from behind me.

Turning around, I spotted a man seated on a fallen tree while strumming a guitar.

Now that I think about it… This is the first time I've seen another person aside from mother.

He looks human I guess… Or in this World's terms, he would be known as a Mahun.

I didn't really recognise the song but I kind of got the feeling that it's some kind of anime opening theme song, or at least it's giving me that kind of vibes.

That means this guy is most likely a transmigrator from my world too.

Looking at him, he looks like he's probably around his twenties or so, most likely he either let himself be dropped into this world or transmigrated into someone else's body instead of reincarnating like myself.

Out of curiosity, I tried to use my [Screen] on him.

[Name: Relliks Nart

Title: Champion of Srii

Race: Mahun

Stats:

380 Strength

244 Dexterity

200 Endurance

652 Magic

Skills:

Alchemy (Tier 2), Martial Skill-(Longsword Proficiency (Tier 2), Bow Proficiency (Tier 3)), Marksman Skill (Tier 3), Music Skill-(Guitar Proficiency (Tier 2))

Magic Skills:

Aeromancy (Tier 3), Electromancy (Tier 2), Chronomancy (Tier 2), Pyromancy (Tier 3), Somatomancy (Tier 2)]

I couldn't help but be amazed at his stats. He could even beat the cockatrice back at home on his own! If he had [Shadow Summon, his ten percent summon could also be able to fight a bear too!

Damn, this guy really must have been living the good life here, huh?

Right then, he strummed the final notes and let the song fade into silence before turning towards my direction.

"How did you like my guitar skills?" He asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. My [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] were still active so how did he even know I was here?

As though hearing my thoughts, he continued, "Oh, no need to panic, I had an air barrier set up so that I could tell if something was moving around. Kind of like an advance warning system."

Huh, that's pretty smart. I turned my senses to the air and indeed, there were traces of a spell being cast here. I guess this was what I mistook for a monster just now.

Since it was useless, I dropped [Shadow Wall] and let myself appear a short distance away from him.

He whistled, "Damn, you went the reincarnation route huh? I'm Relliks, and you are?"

"Aster," I said simply. "How did you know?"

"Know that you're also an Off-Worlder? Simple. You weren't surprised or even curious about my guitar here and I'm guessing you know the anime this song is from too?"

'Off-Worlder'? I guess that's the term they're using to refer to the people who came here from my world.

I shook my head, "I don't know which one it's from but I think I've heard it before… What are you doing here?"

"Oh damn, seriously? You're the first one who doesn't know about it!"

"I've never really watched anime back then, I prefer reading more. Are you going to tell me what you're doing here?"

"Hmm? A cautious one aren't you?" He grinned.

"If you could forgive me, I'd hardly think anyone would come here in the middle of nowhere and start playing a guitar for no reason, even if you are an Off-Worlder."

He barked out a laugh, "Hahaha! You're right, this does make me seem suspicious doesn't it? I would say you're just as suspicious though! I'm guessing you're what? Two? Three years old? I'm pretty sure you're not a Rejmar, a Yoblin or even a Rizzie either. Yet, here you are speaking like an adult."

Rejmar are this world's equivalent of dwarves and Rizzies are basically fairies. Yoblins are, as I have mentioned, the imps.

"I'm not the one going to random places to play my guitar," I pointed out. "So, what are you doing here, really?"

He grinned, opening up the guitar case he had left on the ground to store his instrument.

"I'm just here to look around, really. Do you know what this place is?"

"The Dragon Sanctuary," I answered.

"That's right, the place of dragons. I thought there would be other Off-Wolders around here and even if there wasn't, I didn't mind taking a look around here. Who would pass up the chance to see a real dragon, right?"

I shrugged, for the past few years I've been here, I have yet to even see a single dragon around this place and I'm not sure why.

"In that case, I can tell you that there's barely any dragons here, at least in this area. You're better off going northwards. But why did you even want to find other Off-Worlders anyway? You seem plenty strong on your own."

His smile widened slightly, "Is there anything wrong in trying to find other Off-Worlders?"

I shrugged, "I don't suppose so… What are you going to do now? And before you ask, no, I'm not going with you."

He laughed, "Oh don't worry, I think if anyone else were to see me with you, I would seem like a lolicon or a kidnapper! No, I've other things to do."

"Like?"

"Like killing you."

An arrow was shot directly at my face.

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It was all thanks to my own instinct and also my [Shadow Glide] that I was even able to move out of the way before the arrow pierced through my head.

I immediately activated [Shadow Wall] again, allowing myself to disappear into the darkness and retreating from the asshole.

I tried leaping up into the sky, only to find that I couldn't no matter how I flapped my wings.

I quickly realised that he must have controlled the air around this area to prevent me from gaining any lift under my wings to fly.

Just as that thought came to mind, my air supply was also suddenly cut off as no air was allowed into my lungs.

This son of a bitch…

I sent out one of my max percentage summons to charge at him, letting her equip a pair of daggers and some leather armour made of shadows.

At the same time, I made a dash in the opposite direction, my shadow summon only managing to dodge the first arrow shot at her before the second arrow pierced through her neck, instantly dispersing her into nothingness.

The area of effect for his stupid air spell was relatively big, too big for a normal person to escape the radius before running out of breath.

Thankfully, I am experienced in moving through this terrain and I had [Shadow Glide] to speed up my movements too, allowing me to escape before I started to pass out.

I gasped as air finally reentered my lungs, breathing in lungfuls of air.

There was no time to rest as I ducked my head, avoiding another arrow that would have skewered me from the back of my head.

I cursed under my breath, spreading my wings in an attempt to fly.

A jolt of pain came from my back as I realised he had caught up to me, kicking me in the back to send me crashing against a nearby tree.

I rolled away onto my feat, barely missing the impossibly fast arrows that nearly pierced me from above.

That must be his Chronomancy at work, using some kind of time manipulation to speed up his arrows.

Another arrow was shot in my direction, but this one flew too far to my right to hit me.

I glared at the trash who had already knocked another arrow with inhumanly fast movements, taking his time to aim his next shot at me.

Seriously, [Shadow Glide] and [Shadow Wall] may be simple spells but they've been proving to be extremely invaluable so far.

I'm still invisible to him, so he should be using his Aeromancy spells to guess my location by reading the movements in the air. As I was moving around quite a bit just now, he managed to pinpoint where I was accurately but not so much when I'm staying still or moving minimally.

Deciding to take a risk, I used twenty five percent of my remaining mana to cast [Shadow Summon, materialising the new summon behind the bastard.

The summon immediately swiped at his legs with a shadow dagger, managing to nick his ankle before he turned around and shot the arrow right between my summon's eyes.

I did not let that opening go to waste as I leapt into the air with my wings outstretched, already flying away from there as fast as possible.

I was most definitely not delusional enough to think I even remotely stood any chance against him with my current stats.

But before I could even flap my wings a second time, a force hit me at the side of my head, sending me crashing back down into the ground with enough force to create a large crater.

I groaned, feeling pain all over my body as I tried to recover from being kicked. The bastard could even use the wind to propel himself into the air…

He landed at the edge of the crater my crash made, an amused smirk on his face.

"I admit, I didn't think you would put up much of a fight. You picked Umbramancy didn't you? I admit it has its uses but seriously, the main strength of that magic is to rely on summons, summons that are weaker than yourself. Just numbers aren't going to save you from a stronger opponent."

I really want to disagree with him, especially if I have the time to summon a million of me to jump on him, let him decide if numbers don't mean anything then.

Instead, I croaked out, "Why?"

"Why do I want to kill you? It's my task of course. Not all the Gods are happy that we are here and the God of Death in particular doesn't like our presence in this world. I was given the task to hunt down and kill other Off-Worlders in return for more power and the promise of an afterlife that is filled with bliss."

"You would… Urk… Kill your own people?"

He snorted, "My own people? Please. Like as if humans weren't killing humans for their own selfish benefits back in our world."

"But… Why? You could… You could live a good life here… Why go to the effort to hunt others?"

That's when his smile turned feral and he lifted his bow, "It's simple really… Because it's fun."

The arrow flew straight in between my eyes, my head thrown back from the impact as the fatal blow connected with me.

All strength left my body and I felt myself collapse back on the ground, my [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] dispersing as well.

I was not dead of course. The boon [It Only Takes One] had made sure I managed to survive that death blow. My only hope is that he thinks that I am truly dead and leaves without checking.

If he does… Well… The drawback of this is that I am literally too weak to move my body right now…

I laid there, as still as I could, hoping against all hope that he wouldn't come here.

The sound of feet stepping on gravel got closer and closer to me until it stopped right beside me.

"You're not the first one I had to deal with that has the boon to escape from a death blow once, you know?"

Fuck.

I racked my head, what could I do? I was literally weak and exhausted, I couldn't even move any part of my body even if I wanted to.

Wait… I think I can use my summons that I've stored in my shadow to carry me away… Yes, I'll have a max stats summon carry me and run away while sending the rest of my summons to distract him.

Yes! This could work! I just need him to be momentarily distracted to pull this off!

I groaned as pathetically as I could and turned to him, "So… Am I… The first child you killed?"

He scoffed, "You're no child. And if this is an attempt to play at my conscience, you can save your breath, I don't feel any remorse for killing children in the first place. I am, after all, a serial killer back at our world. Ever heard of the Midnight Slasher? That was me."

The bastard who had been killing people indiscriminately at night. He got caught recently and was put on death row…

"You… Really are… Trash…"

"Well guess what? This 'trash' gets to live while you don't. How does that feel?"

"You really… Like to talk about… Yourself huh… Let me guess… You were a complete loser… In your previous life too…"

I must have been right because his face immediately scrunched up in anger, "You know nothing about me."

"Do I? You had no job… No girlfriend… Your parents probably never talked to you… You just stay at home… And live your days counting the hours… When you're not killing people… Am I right?"

He let out a roar and reared his fist back, ready to strike down on my face.

I got ready to unleash my summons when unexpectedly, the asshole was sent flying away to crash into the wall of the crater.

There, standing in his place with her wings outstretched protectively was my dearest mother.

"YOU DARE HURT MY CHILD?!" She roared, the entire ground shaking with her voice alone.

"Mo… Ther…"

She was immediately at my side and holding me with concern clear on her face, "My sweet, sweet child. Mama is here now, you are safe. Nothing can hurt you now."

I still don't know how strong mother is and whether she could even beat that asshole. But for some reason, I felt completely safe now that she's here. A feeling that I was most certainly not used to.

Is this… What a mother's love is like?

The bastard stepped out from where he crashed, dusting himself off.

"So… You're the mother of that girl? Do you know that she's an Off-Worlder?" He asked.

"I do not remember letting you speak, trash," Mother glared back at him. "You dared hurt my precious child. You will not live to see the next day."

"Hmm… You are indeed strong, but unfortunately for you, I have ways of dealing with you as well."

He disappeared and reappeared beside mother, lifting a finger that was clad with darkness to touch mother on her shoulder.

"Touch of Death."

I didn't need my [Screen] to tell me what that was supposed to do.

And yet, even with that spell touching mother's skin directly, nothing happened to her.

Mother placed me gently on the ground and stood up, the bastard's expression shifting from confidence to confusion to fear within a second.

"Im… Impossible… This… This touch is supposed to--"

Mother interrupted him, "I said I never allowed you to speak."

She grabbed him by the wrist and twisted, the sound of bones snapping reverberating around the area.

He screamed out in pain and mother did the same to his other wrist, this time the crack sounded even louder.

He tried to run, only to fall forward as his feet had been separated from his body, leaving bloody stumps behind as mother swung her hand down to her side.

He pulled out his bow and shot several arrows at her, only for all of them to be incinerated with black flames the moment they got close to her.

She slapped his weapon away and picked him up by the throat to lift him up into the air, holding the trash up with a single hand.

"Ple… Please… I'm sorry… I'll leave… I'll leave… You won't see me again… Don't kill me… Please…"

"Pathetic trash… You're not even comparable to my child."

"No… No, please…"

"I'll tell you one thing, trash. You aren't going to your little paradise with this death."

She clenched her hand and her fingers pierced his skin, her other hand reaching up to hold him in place before she ripped his throat out.

He gurgled and clawed at his throat before he got tossed aside like trash, being left there to bleed out.

…

Mother is… So cool.

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"Mommy~ I'm going out!" I called out from the door.

"Be careful, my little one~" Mother answered back from the kitchen.

I dashed out of the house and spread my wings, leaping up into the air with a single flap.

After that night, I had lost all my hesitation in recognising her as my mother, something she could tell almost immediately.

Needless to say, she gushed all over me and coddled me excessively after that. Not that I would complain about it anymore.

I half expected Mother to be overprotective of me after that near death experience, but aside from being much more affectionate with me whenever she got the chance, she did not stop me from going out on my own.

That fight gave me quite an awakening as I realised how weak I was compared to everyone else. I'm sure those who have chosen to transmigrate instead of reincarnating here have already used the time they had to grow even stronger.

And if that asshole isn't the only one among them who thinks it's fun to go around killing people to make themselves feel like the 'chosen one', then I really need to be much stronger than I currently am.

I doubt that guy is the strongest amongst them after all.

[Name: Aster Nilm

Title: None

Race: Meslatar

Stats:

62 Strength

62 Dexterity

85 Endurance

102 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 2), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1), Bow Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 2), Umbramancy (Tier 2)]

My dexterity, endurance and magic stats got quite a boost because of that asshole it seems. It makes sense considering the difference in stats between us and how much I was pushing myself just to get away from him.

Still, this is not enough.

With the news that some of the gods aren't as welcoming as Drebann is, I have to prepare for even god level threats.

My benchmark has thus moved from the bear to that prick.

I'll need to train until I can get my ten percent summon to match the strength stat of that transmigrator killer guy. That means at least three thousand eight hundred in my own strength stat.

How strong would I be then? I have no idea, but I sure hope I can at least punch a god in the face if I need to, though I think even that would not be enough.

Not that I'm planning on doing it, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, right?

Unfortunately, that's something easier said than done.

It's not like I can just keep doing push ups all day long just to increase my strength right? That's why I'll need to think of another way to increase my stats somehow…

Putting that aside, I've got something more important to do this morning.

Because Mother was so concerned with my well being and also because I was too weak to do anything, I didn't even get to loot that guy after he died! For sure he has some nice gear on him, right?!

That's why the moment I was done with breakfast, I immediately flew towards the location of where we had fought last night. It's hard to miss the place considering there's a rather conspicuous crater in the middle of a forest.

Descending there, I realised there's a bear standing over his body, sniffing it curiously.

"Oh no you don't! Scram!! That's my loot!" I shouted, getting the bear's attention.

It turned around and growled at me, obviously pissed that someone would distract it from satisfying its curiosity.

It reared up on its hind legs and roared but I had already taken advantage of that opening to dash forward and drop kicked it in the chest, sending it crashing into the wall of the crater.

Ha! This two year old is stronger than a bear now! You don't scare me!

The bear growled and picked itself up from the wall, looking even more pissed than before. Looks like it doesn't understand the difference in our strength and is picking on me simply because I'm smaller in size.

It charged towards me and I stood my ground, staying still until it got within range to swipe at me.

The massive giant paw flew towards me and any other normal two year old kid might have been blown away by that, but I'm not a normal two year old kid.

With one hand, I stopped the paw in its tracks, the force enough to throw up a cloud of dust at our feet.

The bear was understandably confused that something less than half its size had managed to block its attack, but I didn't give it time to fully comprehend what was going on before spinning around to toss the bear over my head in a judo throw.

Four of my summons appeared with swords in hand, leaping on top of the fallen bear to skewer it with their blades.

Using [Shadow Forge, I created a bardiche and hefted the pole with both hands.

The bear turned to me just as I lifted it up above my head before chopping it down, the blade cleaving its neck cleanly in two.

Didn't even break a sweat.

With the annoyance dealt with, I dismissed my summons and turned my attention back to the trashy asshole who tried to kill me last night.

The first thing I found was his bow which was quite high quality, no doubt something he needed to kill other transmigrators with.

[Tornado Bow - A bow enhanced with air magic to boost the speed of arrows fired from it. A wind is also created to guide the arrow towards the user's intended target.]

Not exactly a legendary artefact, but it's a magic weapon so that's something.

Putting it aside for now, I turned to the body that had its throat ripped out.

The unfortunate thing is that there's no menu pop up to let me pick and choose items to loot and I have to search through the corpse myself manually. Thus I simply went ahead to strip it naked so that I wouldn't miss anything, going so far as to dump the contents of his backpack on the ground too.

Too bad the bag was a normal bag and not a magic bag with unlimited storage.

Aside from the guitar inside his guitar case, he was also carrying an enchanted sword, an enchanted dagger, some provisions and tools, a pouch full of coins, a rather crude map and a magic ring.

[Storm Sword - Sword infused with the power of lightning. Channel mana into it and lightning will shoot forth from the tip of the blade.]

Pretty cool and flashy, I admit.

I tried it and the lightning managed to blast a sizable hole in the ground. Too bad it's still too big for me to use it properly but I guess I can just keep it at home until I grow up.

[Assassin's Dagger - A dagger enchanted with paralysis poison on its blade. Chanel mana into it and strike at your enemies to inflict them with paralysis. The effect varies according to the target's Endurance, multiple applications might be needed for stronger targets.]

Ah, now this I can use! I'll have to try it out on some targets later but this would definitely help me a lot!

In fact, if I had this dagger when facing this guy last night, I think I might have stood a chance against him.

Too bad my [Shadow Forge] only allows the creation of normal weapons and not enchanted weapons… Or at least.. I'm not able to do that.

I wonder if things might change if I learned how to enchant equipment?

Strapping the dagger on my other hip, I picked up the magic ring.

[Arcane Ring - Ring enchanted with mana. Increases wearer's mana regeneration.]

Oh, another good one! And it even shrinks itself to fit my finger too! Even better!

Unfortunately the leather armour he wore was not enchanted and I also find wearing a dead person's clothes a little distasteful.

Leaving only his armour on top of the corpse, I picked up the rest of the loot before moving a short distance away from it.

Taking out a Mana Crystal from my own bag, I concentrated for a moment, turning the mana inside it into fire before tossing the crystal at the body.

A second later, the Mana Crystal exploded into flames and started burning the corpse and the armour.

Leaving it there to burn I flew towards the location of where I first met him.

I was a little curious why he would even stop there in the first place since it didn't make sense that he would simply just wait there for someone to appear. There must be something there that would have made other people pass by him at least.

A short flight later, I was back at the clearing where I had met the bastard, only now I realised there was a cave nearby that I didn't notice the night before.

Was this what he was counting on drawing other people here?

Moving closer to it, a screen actually popped up without me bidding it to.

[Dragon Sanctuary Dungeon - Small]

I couldn't help but let a smile crawl onto my lips.

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[Happy Birthday!]

[Magic obtained: Electromancy tier one]

[Electromancy: Your veins feel like they're charged. Energy courses through your body, both magical and the raw, pure thunder of reality. To gain proficiency, obtain mastery over the energies of your own body and direct them elsewhere. (Progress to tier 2: 0%)]

I waited for a bit, but that was all that appeared on the translucent screen in front of me.

Seriously? Just one this time? Oh well, at least it's a new magic that I can train for this year.

I dismissed the screen even as Mother hugged me closer to her naked chest, her leg wrapped around me like I was a pillow.

Since it was going to be my birthday soon when I found the dungeon, I wanted to hold off exploring it until I received my new batch of skills. I suppose being able to control and summon electricity might be useful even if it starts out at tier one.

With that in mind, I should prepare for my first dungeon dive tomorrow morning… Just let me get some sleep…

I woke up with a start, feeling more lethargic than usual.

Mother was already awake and looking down at me with a blissful expression on her face.

"Ara, ara? My little one can continue sleeping for just a while more, you know?"

Hmm? Is it just me or did she shrink?

A few seconds passed before I pulled back and looked down at myself.

My body had grown significantly last night.

Before, I could have passed off as a two or three year old, but now I've doubled my size and I look more like a ten or twelve year old. I could also see the bumps of my chest growing out, although right now they can barely even be considered to be a handful.

I guess part of the reason why Mother wasn't bothered by our skinship was because she saw me as her 'daughter' or something? Though that's still excessive unless it's normal around here.

[Name: Aster Nilm

Stats:

112 Strength

85 Dexterity

105 Endurance

110 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 2), Cooking (Tier 2), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1), Bow Proficiency (Tier 1), Sword Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 2), Umbramancy (Tier 2), Electromancy (Tier1)]

Oh, it seems just by growing bigger my stats had also increased by quite a bit. That makes sense I suppose.

"Ah… I grew…" I muttered, checking myself out. "Sorry mommy… I don't think I can fit in the dress you bought for me last year anymore."

She giggled, "Ufufufu~ My sweet little one~ You worry about the smallest things~ That dress is enchanted so it will fit you even if you were to grow more~"

Ok… When I looted the asshole's corpse and got that pouch full of money, Mother decided to teach me about the currency in this world which was pretty straightforward.

The universal currency is called 'Creas' and there's four different materials and sizes for coins to denote its value.

Normal bronze coins are worth one Crea, medium bronze coins are worth five Creas and large bronze coins are worth ten Creas.

Then the value just increases by a hundred for silver where a normal silver coin is a hundred Creas, a medium one is five hundred and the large one is a thousand Creas.

Gold functions the same with it being ten thousand times more valuable than bronze. The smallest gold coin worth ten thousand Creas, the medium ones worth fifty thousand and the large ones being a hundred thousand Creas.

Last but not least is the Platinum coin that doesn't have three sizes and is limited to only one size, each of these being worth a million Creas.

From what I know, a loaf of bread would be worth two Creas here, so I guess we can roughly convert one Crea to a dollar back in our world, though that isn't exactly that accurate either.

Why do I need to talk about the value of money? Because enchanted items here are hella expensive, the smallest ones costing at least a gold coin.

The dress mother had bought for me would at least be worth a dozen gold coins since it's enchanted. If it was just a normal unenchanted dress, a few large silver coins would have been more than enough.

What I really wanted to say is… Where is mother getting all that money?

Unfortunately, even when I asked her, she simply smiled and placed a finger on her lips, then proceeded to smother me in between her breasts and calling me cute, so I never managed to get an answer from her.

"Unn… I… I guess I should go and prepare for my dungeon run," I muttered a little lamely, deciding I didn't really need to know whether she's stealing all these things.

"Ah! That's right!" Mother gasped, hopping off the bed without even bothering to dress herself.

She reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a set of leather armour

"Tadah~ Mama thinks it's time my little one has some armour of your own, yes?"

I blinked at her, "Where did mommy get that?"

"Mama made it of course~ Using leather from the Alpha Hell Wolf and also the bears that my little one has hunted! It's a mark of my little one's achievements!"

First of all, I didn't know Mother knew how to craft. Second of all, seems like she already expected me to grow today.

Third of all…

"When is my next growth spurt again?"

"Ara, ara? Not to worry my child~ By then, you would have hunted even greater monsters and Mama would be more than happy to make new clothes for you!"

"Then… Did you make my dagger as well?"

"Ufufufu~ Unfortunately, Mama did not make that one. If my little one wishes for Mama to make one though, Mama will gladly oblige!"

I smiled, "In that case… Could mommy teach me?"

"Ara? My cute little one wishes to know how to forge? Ufufufu~ But Mama is not that good with it~ If my little one truly wishes to be a master of crafting, Mama recommends visiting the Rejmars of Frostiminir Kingdom~"

Rejmars, basically the dwarves. Seems like they conform to the standard fantasy principles of being master smiths. In fact, they are also known as the neutral kingdom since they focus primarily on their craft. Thus when leaders of other nations decide to meet each other to hold talks, they usually meet there.

If I'm right, to reach the Dungeon City, you will also need to go through the Frostiminir Kingdom to reach their port town unless you can fly over the mountains surrounding the island.

Since I intend to go there anyway, I can also make a stop there to learn their crafts too.

"Come now! Let Mama see how you would look in this!" Mother beckoned me over.

I let Mother dress me and I'm glad I got used to my new growth pretty quickly. I don't even need to worry about my sudden increase in reach and height being a problem too so going into the dungeon straight away was of no issue all thanks to [Machine Learning]

The armour even sported two holes at my shoulder blades to allow my wings to sprout out should I wish them to.

There is just one problem…

"Mommy… Did you do this on purpose?"

"Ara, ara? But it looks nice, doesn't it, my dear?"

It seems that while my boobs have not yet grown out to their full size, my butt certainly has a head start and the tight pants made it even more pronounced. These buns are more than a handful at the very least.

My silver white hair had also grown out until it reached the small of my back, which surprised me a little since it stopped growing when it reached my shoulders previously. Like I didn't even need to have it cut.

But then… Seeing myself in the mirror… I have to agree with Mother that I do cut quite a stunning figure, especially with those muscles.

I'm definitely not aiming for the bodybuilder type of look, but right now I have what looks like the beginning of an athlete's body where my body is streamlined with the fats in just the right places.

One can only imagine how I would look when I'm finally an adult.

With my two daggers on both my outer thighs, the lightning sword on my left hip and the bow on my back alongside my backpack of provisions and tools, I was ready to go dungeon diving.

"Ufufufu~ Just in case you get hungry my sweet child~ Here's some cookies to bring along too~"

Ahhhh!!! I love you mommyyyyy!!

Mother saw me off at the entrance as I took to the skies, my new wings also grown to match my new size.

On the way, I also tried out the new Electromancy magic skill and it seems like I'm currently limited to what I can do with it until I reach tier two.

[Lightning Clad] literally wraps a body part of my choosing with electricity, enhancing the power of my attack. Right now it seems like I am limited to only one part.

I also learned [Static Shock] which delivers a numbing current from my fingertips. While it does not do much damage on its own, it does serve to slow or paralyse my target for just a second which I would be able to capitalise on in the thick of a battle. Especially useful if I'm against a large opponent or someone I wanted to freeze in place for a moment.

Unfortunately, that's all I have for now because of my low proficiency with the magic skill. All the kinds of spells I was imagining seemed to be too high tier for me to cast, even shooting a lightning bolt from my hands seemed to be too much.

Oh well, that comes later! Now it's dungeon time!

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[Dragon Sanctuary Dungeon - Small]

The reason why I was cautious of this place was the fact that I don't know how strong the monsters inside are.

Even after being here for so long, I've yet to see another dragon flying around this place. So either they are exceedingly rare or they are located deeper inland. We live at the very edge of Dragon Sanctuary where the mountains are the smallest after all.

But for all I know, the dragons might be found in the dungeons themselves.

I did ask Mother about this and she confirmed that it was a possibility to find them in dungeons but she never confirmed where the other dragons are for some reason. I assume it's because she doesn't want me going to find them.

Though there are dragons that are considered magic creatures, there are monster variants of dragons as well.

The worst thing is that unless you try to talk to it, you can't be sure whether a dragon you see in the wild is an intelligent magic creature that is open to conversation, or a monster variant that would attack you on sight.

Not that the magic creature types wouldn't try to kill you either if you piss them off.

Dragons in this world are basically treated as forces of nature, similar to how you would treat a tornado headed your way.

One does not fight it, you simply hole up and hope it passes you by.

Unless you are strong enough to challenge a tornado of course, which is a possible level in this world.

But from what I can tell, even if you are at tier four for a particular skill, you would still be in a fight for your life against a dragon determined to kill you.

I just hope there's none inside this small dungeon and even if there is, I'll be able to escape.

My dagger proficiency is higher right now so I'll be using the two daggers as my main weapons. If the situation calls for it, I'll switch out my normal dagger with the sword to dual wield both enchanted weapons.

Giving my gear a final check, I made sure to tie up my long hair into a ponytail to avoid it being a nuisance while I'm fighting.

I have a boon that would prevent this from being a problem in the future but unfortunately it has yet to manifest itself. That's why I'm not cutting it either.

With everything ready, I stepped inside the cave.

The first thing I noticed was that I felt like I stepped through something thin, as though someone was dangling a cling film at the entrance of the tunnel.

I tried stepping back and got the same feeling again.

Good, I was a little afraid that I might be stuck here until I clear the dungeon or something.

With my worries assured, I stepped deeper into the cave where the tunnel eventually tapered into a set of stone steps.

Considering that the dungeons were made by gods, I wasn't too surprised by this change so I continued my descent.

The stairs eventually ended at an opening which opened up into a large cavern, giving me a clear view of the monster that was guarding the entrance to the dungeon.

[Name: Infant Frost Wyvern

Race: Monster

Stats:

120 Strength

70 Dexterity

100 Endurance

100 Magic

Magic Skills:

Cryomancy (Tier 2)]

How handy, it actually tells me it's a monster under its race.

Also… This is a Wyvern… Albeit an infant one… That's literally guarding the entrance to the rest of the dungeon… And it's supposed to be a small dungeon too…

Is this normal for all dungeons or is it just the case for this one in particular?

Can I… Oh, I can still leave. Although I'm not sure if it's because I have not stepped into the cavern yet or because we're allowed to run away from boss fights, assuming this is a boss fight and not just a random mob in the dungeon of course.

Still, if it's just one on one, I believe I can beat it. Heck, even the cockatrice back at home can beat it.

Stepping into the cavern with both my [Shadow Wall] and [Shadow Glide] activated, a solid wall of fog rose up from behind me the moment I did so.

Ah… So this is a boss fight after all…

Well, because I was still in stealth, the wyvern did not react to my entry and continued standing guard at where it was.

There's another wall of fog behind it so I assume that's the entrance that will open up the moment I beat this boss.

Now… I'm pretty sure those scales at the top look kind of hard so I'm going to aim for its soft underbelly instead.

Dashing through the cavern, I did a twirl and slashed both my daggers across its neck, drawing blood.

I continued past its neck towards its belly and continued slicing it several times even as it reared up its neck for a roar.

Feeling the temperature drop suddenly, I dashed out from under it just as the area under the wyvern exploded with ice. Had I been a second slower, those icicles would have skewered me.

It's a boss mob alright.

The wyvern reared back its head and blew out a breath of frost aimed at the entrance, which was the opposite of where I currently am. I guess it's just blindly blasting away and hoping to hit something.

Summoning my shadows, I commanded them to start attacking the Frost Wyvern while casting [Darkness Paranoia] on the wyvern.

Sixty of them immediately ran towards it, armed with a variety of weapons. It's so unfortunate that I don't get weapon proficiencies from making my summons use them.

It's a little funny that the summons were still in my younger form so it looked like a pre-teen was commanding a group of preschoolers in a schoolyard fight.

All of them stabbed and hacked away at the wyvern, landing blows all along its length.

The wyvern roared and swiped its tail in an arc, catching two of my summons in its attack and dissipating them.

I leapt onto its back, using both hands to slam my paralysis knife down but it only dealt a shallow cut. At least I know I can still cut through its scales but its underbelly is still the prime location to attack.

Taking advantage of it being distracted by my summons and its blinded state, I slid below it again and started slashing my knives along its belly.

A few of my summons also joined me in poking at it with spears.

The temperature cooled again and I had to leap away once more, commanding my summons to do the same.

Unfortunately, not all of them managed to get out in time and at least five were caught in the ensuing ice explosion.

Ugh… I know I can just summon more but seeing my summons die like that also feels like a waste.

Once the ice settled, all of us leapt in again. As big as the wyvern was, it was quite slow while it was on the ground.

While several of my summons kept its attention in front of it, the rest of us slipped under its belly and continued attacking it.

Just as I felt the temperature drop again, the body of the wyvern suddenly froze up and toppled to the side, unmoving.

Oh! The paralysis finally kicked in! That was faster than I thought. I didn't even need to resort to my other spells.

I called out the rest of my summons and we immediately started whaling away at the wyvern's unprotected belly, giving up on technique to simply smash at it with all we've got.

Finally, after a good minute of all of us attacking it, the fog wall finally lifted after the wyvern died.

Oof… Only the first room and I'm already beat…

Are dungeons supposed to be rooms where you challenge monster after monster? I had the impression that it would be some kind of labyrinth though…

I left a few of my summons behind to disassemble the wyvern while putting the rest back into my shadow to descend deeper.

It was another flight of stairs before I reached the next opening.

Oh? Ask and you shall receive it seems… The stairs tapered into stone walls with three corridors leading towards different directions.

Seems like I would get my labyrinth experience after all.

I unslung my bag and took out a chalk, using it to draw a mark on the wall.

Unfortunately, the mark disappeared after a while, so it seems like leaving traces on the walls to mark where I've been is not possible.

Guess I'll have to do this the hard way.

Using my [Screen] I opened a new journal entry and titled it as [Dragon Sanctuary small dungeon, Second Floor Labyrinth].

I then proceeded to record down my turns as I explored the corridors, using my summons to scout ahead in case of traps.

Turning a corner, we spotted a bunch of monsters down the corridor at the same time as they had spotted us.

[Name: Labyrinth Goblin

Stats:

Stats:

15 Strength

12 Dexterity

12 Endurance

5 Magic

Skills:

Martial Skill-(Sword Proficiency (Tier1))]

Huh… Their stats are the same as those cave goblins… This kind of feels like a letdown especially after fighting that wyvern…

And who designed this dungeon that you'd put a boss fight at the entrance and give such trash mobs right after?

Oh well, they're still a source of Mana Crystals and I'm definitely not going to say no to that! Go and attack my summons!

What? That's the whole point of summons right? So you can relax and have them fight the battles you don't want to?

In the meantime, I'll just be back here, creating more summons!

Let's breeze through this dungeon!

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One good thing about hunting monsters, they're basically walking mana batteries for me.

While my summons attack the monsters we find in the dungeon, I would take the opportunity to create maximum stats summons at the back of the fight.

Once the monsters are defeated, I'll have my summons collect the Mana Crystals and replenish my mana that way.

The downside to this arrangement is that only my Magic stat is increasing since I'm not training myself physically, but having more summons makes it worth it.

Of course, I didn't use up all the Mana Crystals I collected and kept a few in my backpack just so that I get a net profit in terms of Mana Crystals for later use.

The curious thing is that despite being able to transform the mana inside these Crystals to other elements, I have yet to gain the magic skill in said elements.

Perhaps I have to do this to my own mana instead of just the mana inside the Mana Crystals? The problem is that Mana within living things are much less malleable than the one found inside Mana Crystals so it's easier said than done.

No wonder it's so hard for people to learn magic.

I guess this is also why the mana inside Mana Crystals are known as malleable mana since they can adapt easily.

Oh? That actually gives me an idea!

I used [Shadow Summon] to create another shadow that used up all of my mana, allowing her to join the ranks of the other summons within my shadow.

Now that I'm out of mana, I picked up one of the Mana Crystals and imagined it turning into water.

Just as I felt the crystal stir, I tried to direct the mana inside it into my own body instead.

The moment I did so, however, my insides felt like it was on fire, burning me up from the inside out. I gasped and quickly pulled the mana out, just as the crystal exploded into a shower of water, drenching me in the process.

Ok… That wasn't good. That really wasn't good.

I think if I didn't react fast enough, the water might have exploded inside my body and brought me to the brink of death.

At this point… I think I'm being a little too reckless… Even if I wish to get stronger, I shouldn't be rushing with it just to end up dead. I do have Mother to consult after all so such things are better left to a time when I have someone much more competent than I am to watch over me.

There's no need for me to do everything myself.

Shelving that idea aside for now, I went ahead to receive the newest batch of Mana Crystals from my summons.

Hmm… I wonder if I can just get my summons to go dungeon diving while I do other things? Automating your farms is a standard thing in games isn't it? The fact that I could leave summons behind to dismantle the wyvern while I'm exploring the rest of my dungeons…

Holy shit, I just realised I'm basically a one man raid party!

Sure, my summons can't use magic which is really sad, but who needs magic when I reach the level where my summons can punch through concrete with their bare fists?

Not that I'm at that level yet but I'm working there ok?!

But just imagine that! If each of my summons were on the level of that asshole who tried to kill me, I could very well take on a dragon myself! Maybe… Since I don't know what a standard dragon's stats is at the moment.

Damn! Ok, Time for me to join the front lines to train my stats!

We've yet to find the way down yet so we'll just need to keep going until we--

Click*

I looked down at my feet, seeing a particular panel on the ground sinking downwards.

Ah… Nothing had been appearing except goblins so far that I forgot about the possibility of a trap.

Before I could start wondering what trap it was, the floor underneath me opened up and I dropped in.

My wings exploded out from my back and I tried to fly up, only to have the floor close up before I could even fly out of the hole.

Spike also appeared on the newly formed ceiling and something tells me it would drop on me very soon.

I furled in my wings and quickly let gravity retake me, dropping myself down right as the spikes began to fall.

The spikes seemed to propel itself towards me as it slowly got nearer and nearer to the base of my feet, even as I was already trying to drop as fast as I could.

Salvation came in the form of a hole at the bottom that led to a large hall, allowing me to fling myself away from the spike with a twirl and a flap of my wings.

I looked up and it seemed like the spikes stopped right at the hole, sealing off my exit. Deciding to find another way out, I looked around the hall to realise I was not alone.

The fact that the two opposite ends of the hall were blocked by a thick layer of fog also told me where I was.

There, in the centre of the hall and looking up at me with its amber eyes was the boss of this floor.

[Name: Infant Crimson Dragon

Race: Monster

Stats:

Stats:

450 Strength

250 Dexterity

180 Endurance

300 Magic

Magic Skills:

Pyromancy (Tier 3), Aeromancy (Tier 2)]

Are you shitting me?! This thing is four times stronger than me! How am I supposed to kill it?!! And isn't it unusual to have it jump to a dragon after the wyvern boss?! Who the hell made this dungeon?!!

When I made that comment about taking on a dragon, I meant after I got those stats you know?!!

I wasn't using my [Shadow Wall] so I lost the element of surprise too! Do I even stand a chance against this thing?!

It let out a challenging roar accompanied by a blast of fire towards me, the fireball barely missing me as I dove towards the ground.

The fortunate thing was that it wasn't a wide and empty hall but a place that was littered with debris, some of them looking like broken marble columns littered around the landscape.

I immediately called out a group of my summons and gave the order to attack, a few of them staying behind to shoot bows from here.

I joined the archers, pulling out the Tornado bow and using [Shadow Forge] to create my arrows.

We let loose the first batch of arrows at the same time, mine flying much faster than the rest because of the enchantment.

Unexpectedly, a gust of air blasted out from the dragon and our arrows were deflected away from it before they could touch its scales. That must be its Aeromancy at play.

The summons that were wielding melee weapons finally reached it, beginning their assault on the much larger creature.

Though my summons were attacking it with all their strength, the dragon looked more annoyed than in pain, rearing up one of its forelegs in an almost casual way.

I commanded the summons to immediately retreat but the swipe came slashing down before they could, the claws protruding out of the limb slicing through ten of my summons easily.

Those were my max stats summons too, meaning if that had been me, I would have already died.

I cursed, directing the melee fighters to charge in again while focusing on evasion.

The archers and I began drawing back our bowstrings again, taking aim while the dragon was distracted before letting our arrows fly.

This time, without the blast of air to stop us, our arrows hit our marks.

The dragon roared out in anger as our arrows penetrated its scales, burying themselves into its flesh. As much as I wanted to think it was doing damage, it probably felt like toothpicks poking at it with its size.

The dragon opened its maws again and I felt the air heat up before a fireball was launched directly at us.

With my [Shadow Glide] I was able to get out of the way in time but the other summons were not that fortunate, all of them consumed in the raging inferno before dissipating away.

I called up more from my reserves to replace them, this time making sure all of them were spread out and not clustered together like before.

As for the front lines… It was not going well.

Even the summons outfitted with a shield and plate armour died to a single hit from the dragon, that means our only defence was our speed.

Thankfully the dragon's superior dexterity can only be utilised while it's flying, so we stood a decent chance of outmanoeuvring it while on the ground.

Switching to such tactics, it got a little bit better as less of my shadows died while holding the dragon's attention, allowing us to continue peppering it with our arrows.

,m I do not, however, have unlimited summons so it's a matter of whether I will run out of them first or the dragon dies first and the prospects are not looking good for me. I've already brought out most of my summons with only a handful in reserve in case I needed them and yet their numbers are still diminishing rather rapidly.

While I was drawing back my bow again, the dragon smashed its tail on the ground and a large marble column was sent airborne.

I wondered what it was trying to do with it when air exploded behind the column, propelling the giant block of marble to fly directly towards me.

Fuck.

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I groaned while looking up at the ceiling of the boss room.

My left arm was broken from trying to defend myself against the attack, the column having blasted me all the way to the other side of the hall.

At least I avoided a death blow that would have left me helpless for a long while.

Using my good arm to push myself up, I surveyed the battle and found the situation less than ideal.

Half of the melee fighters were already wiped out and even though the archers were shooting it non stop, the dragon showed no signs of slowing down.

With my broken arm, I won't be able to draw my bow as well so I'm either going to have to hope my summons are enough to kill it, which is very unlikely, or move to fight it in melee range as well.

I grimaced as I got a summon to take out the rope from my backpack, directing her to tie my broken arm against my side to prevent it from flopping around.

If I can get out of this alive, I'll think about making a splint then. Mother should have something to deal with this.

I equipped my Assassin's Dagger, the paralysis poison being my hope in killing this thing before it kills me.

I quickly cast [Darkness Paranoia] to rob it of its sight before dashing under it, aiming for its softer belly that was not protected by its scales.

The dragon let out a roar as its loss of sight caused it to rampage, swiping the area around it blindly in an attempt to get rid of the darkness. It seems like fear wasn't affecting it as much and the spell was only effective in blinding it.

My melee summons had already backed away and switched to ranged weapons as well, leaving me to fight it alone to minimise the damage. As long as I remain under it and it doesn't decide to do a belly flop, I should be safe from--

A gust of wind blew out from under it, blasting me out towards its tail.

I struck out my hand and impaled my dagger into the flesh where the tail joined its body, using it as an anchor to hold me in place even as the wind spell buffeted against me.

The pain of having something impale it from below caused the dragon to drop itself down on the ground, very nearly squashing me if it wasn't for the fact that I was not directly below it.

The movement still slammed me against the ground painfully though but I managed to hold on to my knife.

"Bastard…" I gasped, releasing my grip on my knife to channel electricity into my hand before punching on its tail.

[Static Shock]

It didn't do much damage of course, but the current still managed to make the dragon pause in its movement of rising back up, giving my summon enough time to smash its head with a battleaxe.

The summon didn't have time to pull out its weapon before the dragon twisted its head and caused the summon to lose her footing, giving the dragon the opportunity to snap her up by her leg.

It reared up its head and slammed her into the ground, instantly causing her to dissipate, although the battleaxe remained lodged partway in its head.

What does it take to kill this damn lizard?!

I pulled out my blade and straddled the back of its tail, using it as leverage to start stabbing the fleshy side repeatedly.

Arrows fell on top of its back at the same time, puncturing through its scales and annoying it even more.

Just as I stabbed the dagger back in again, the dragon shrieked and its body was suddenly lit ablaze with fire, blasting me into the air and away from it.

I tumbled across the ground, the pain in my broken arm intensifying as I felt the stones digging into my skin.

Recovering from my roll, I did a quick check on myself to see that I was relatively unharmed. It seems like the armour Mother made protected me from the worst of the blast.

I was just about to get up when I realised there was a weight missing from my shoulders.

Looking back, the backpack that I was supposed to be carrying was no longer there. That means…

I swivelled my head back frantically, spotting my backpack laying near the dragon's hind legs.

No… It better not…

The dragon lifted up its leg even as I was rushing towards it, my hand reaching desperately out towards it even as the foot was brought down right on top of it.

No…

No…

No, no, no, no!!!

MY COOKIESSSSS!! YOU BASTARD!!!! YOU BITCH!!! YOU PIECE OF TRASHHHHH!!!

[Lightning Clad]

My dagger was sheathed in favour of cladding my right arm with electricity, the current sparking off the entire arm and buzzing around angrily.

I leapt on top of its head, uncaring of the roar it let out the moment it felt me stand on top of it.

Pumping my mana into the spell until I felt it reach its brim, I punched downwards and unleashed all the lightning I had charged straight into the dragon's cranium.

The roar changed into a shriek of pain but I was not done yet. I needed something stronger! I needed a spell that could make this dragon feel the pain!!

[Body Current]

[Body Current: A spell that allows the mage to make use of the body's electrical current to strengthen specific body muscles.]

[Lightning Clad]

I roared and punched down again, hearing a loud crack as the blow dazed the dragon.

Still keeping [Body Current] active, I reached out and pulled out the battleaxe that was still stuck in its head.

Lifting the weapon up over my head, I gave another roar for my destroyed cookies as I slammed it down with all the force I could muster, impaling it even deeper than before.

That wasn't enough so I lifted my foot and casted both [Lightning Clad] and [Body Current] on it before stomping down hard on the axe's handle.

The blade of the axe buried itself all the way to the shaft, but judging by how the dragon was still thrashing around, this cookie destroying turd is still too lively for my taste.

I leapt into the air and unsheathed the Storm Sword from my waist, pouring every bit of mana I had left into the sword as I overcharged it with its lightning enchantment.

Instead of shooting it out, I concentrated the lightning to the tip of the sword and flew down, plunging the blade through its head.

The dragon shrieked as lightning coursed through its entire body, frying it from within.

My sword shattered from the attack but the damage was done, the dragon collapsing onto the ground soon after.

I tossed the broken blade away and dragged myself to the side, kneeling down at the crushed form of my backpack.

My cookiessssssss… Waaaaaaahhhh…

I didn't even get to taste them… They were raspberry flavoured ones too…

I turned to glare hatefully at the damned piece of trash that killed my cookies.

Fine!

You didn't let me eat them?! I'll eat you!!

I got my clones to start working on disassembling the dragon while I worked on a splint for my broken arm. There wasn't any wood around so I had to fashion one from some broken pieces of marble.

Picking up my torn backpack, I then started climbing up the stairs to move back to the higher levels of the dungeon, feeling a bit annoyed that the map I made in my [Screen] was now useless because of that trap.

It took me about half an hour of wandering around and having my summons take care of the goblins before I finally found the exit, the summons I had left there already finished with the disassembly of the first wyvern.

My initial plan was to have the materials gathered outside and fly home to bring Mother here to help me bring them back since my summons don't have my wings, but I decided I was too tired to fly back home today and I'll just sleep outside tonight.

I used [Shadow Summon] to create several weaker shadows of myself and instructed them to help me gather wood and to prepare a large campfire, there's a dragon I need to cook after all.

The fire was just beginning to roar into life when my summons reappeared from the dungeon carrying a large chunk of meat.

I knew that particular piece was from that cookie destroying trash so I immediately skewered it and let it roast over the fire.

I didn't really care about the taste but I suddenly got an idea to get back at this piece of trash.

Carefully opening up my back, I took out my poor, crushed cookies that were not nothing more than fine pieces of crumbs.

Grabbing a handful of it, I sprinkled them over the meat before picking it up from the fire and biting into it.

Oh? Oh… OOOHHH!! I can taste it! I can taste the cookies!! It's back!! My cookiessss!! You've returned to meeeee! Om nom nom nom nom~

Ehehehe~ I'll forgive you just this once you stupid dragon~

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[Name: Aster Nilm

Title: None

Race: Meslatar

Stats:

185 Strength

120 Dexterity

165 Endurance

220 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 2), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1), Bow Proficiency (Tier 1), Sword Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic Skills:

Mana Management (Tier 2), Umbramancy (Tier 2), Electromancy (Tier 1)]

I rubbed my eyes before squinting at the screen again, making sure I wasn't seeing things when I checked my stats the next morning.

I wasn't surprised that I got stronger but seriously, isn't this a bit too big of a jump in stats? My Magic stats literally doubled you know? This also means my ten percent summon is now stronger than a goblin too.

Was it because of the dungeon? Is this level of growth even normal? What are the average stats of people my age?

Scratch that, I'm pretty sure there's no normal three year old out there with even half my stats… Anyone who does is most likely a transmigrator as well.

At my current strength, I can probably solo that first wyvern boss already. Actually… Do they respawn?

Just for the sake of science, I descended into the dungeon again and there it was, the same wyvern with the exact same stats appearing after a day had passed.

I guess this made sense since there are people making a living out of hunting in the dungeons so it wouldn't be profitable if the monsters take exceedingly long to respawn.

Coupled with what Mother told me about the amount of mana in this world increasing because of Off-Worlders like myself, there should be even more monsters in the world now.

Deciding that it would be a better idea to just ask Mother about it, I left the dungeon and extended my wings before flying back home, leaving the carcasses behind to be picked up later.

Mother was already up and tending the garden when I landed, the woman immediately dropping her watering can to run up and pull me into a hug when she spotted me.

"Ahhhh~ My little one! Welcome home! How was your first dungeon?"

"Mnnnffghh!! Mnnnggghh!!"

She pulled back and I finally managed to breathe.

"It… It was good, mommy… Although… Is it normal to grow exponentially when hunting monsters in the dungeon?"

She paused and her eyes widened before her grip tightened on my shoulders, causing me to wince slightly for the pain that shot through my broken arm.

"My dear… Did you eat monster meat? Wait, is your arm broken?!"

My breath hitched, already fearing the worst, "Ye… Yes?"

Mother immediately spun me around and smacked me on my back, hard. I would have been sent flying if it wasn't because of the fact that her other hand was holding onto my shoulder tightly.

Something churned inside my stomach and I spat something out.

The 'something' turned out to be a Mana Crystal except it was black in colour compared to the standard blue.

"Monsters are made from pure mana, my little one. If you wish to eat one, you would need to drain all of the monster's mana first or you would be ingesting pure mana as well. When a non-monster does that, they will turn into a monster themselves after a while."

I shivered, "Was I…"

"Unnn… It seems like you did not eat enough to turn you into one. If you had avoided monster meat for another five days, that mana would have dissipated from your body naturally."

"And that Mana Crystal?"

"I forcibly crystalised the mana to expunge it from your body my child. Though such a thing is cursed and should not be used."

With a wave of her hand, the Mana Crystal burst into flames and disintegrated completely.

I checked my stats again, expecting to see some changes but surprisingly… There wasn't any change?

"Mother? My stats are still the same? Perhaps some of that mana is still inside my body?"

"Ara, ara? My little one must have grown to accommodate the ingestion! As expected of my child!" She beamed, hugging me to her chest again.

I know that wasn't true and there was another reason for it, but it seems like mother was not willing to tell me.

It's the same when I tried to ask what her real name was, she simply smiled and dodged the question by constantly telling me "Mama's name is Mommy of course~"

Oh well, at least now I know not to eat monster meat before draining their mana… However that is done. I'll need to ask Mother to teach me that since I do intend to dive into dungeons in the future.

She then ushered me into the house and applied some kind of salve on my broken arm before properly putting it in a splint. She claimed that this would help my broken arm heal quickly.

"Mommy… I still have the materials from the monsters I slayed, could you help me bring them back?" I asked with my face still stuck in her bosoms.

"Oh my? Of course my little one! Let's go right now!" She answered immediately.

The both of us flew back to the entrance of the dungeon and mother immediately started gushing over me about beating the two bosses on my own.

Technically I had help using my summons but I'll take it.

I was thinking she would put all the materials into a dimensional storage or something but a bag appeared in her hands instead, a bag that I most certainly did not expect to appear at this point in time.

It was the Pack of Folding, the bag of infinite storage space.

"I think it's about time my little one has a proper bag of your own, yes? It would be terrible if another monster were to crush my dear child's bag and the sweets inside it, wouldn't it?"

I gasped, "How does mommy know?"

She giggled and gestured to my previous backpack that lay smashed and forgotten by the campfire I had made last night.

Ah… I see.

She then gave the bag to me and I started stuffing everything into the bag.

Like I mentioned, the pack of folding has infinite capacity but there is one drawback to it.

[Pack of Folding: A backpack with an infinite storage capacity. If you can push something inside of its stretchy opening, you can comfortably store it in its endless depths. However, everything inside the backpack is turned into a flat disk and sits on top of each other like a stack of plates. In order to take something out, you need to remove everything you placed on top of it. Just shake the disk, and it will unfold back into whatever it once was. If you hold the backpack upside down, the item you pull out will start from the bottom of the pack rather than the top. This backpack cannot store living creatures without killing them, but will preserve food for a very long time.]

That means if I were to store the wyvern scales, the wyvern meat and the wyvern bones in that order, I will need to remove the wyvern bones at the top before I can get the wyvern meat below it.

p At least they appear as disks which are smaller than my palm so it's still manageable if I do have to start removing stuff to get to the things below.

In no time, all the monster materials were safely stored away in the bag.

"Ahhh~ My sweet, sweet child~ Already slaying dragons and you're not even an adult yet~ Mama is so proud of you!"

Mentally speaking, I'm already an adult though… And I think in just a few more years, this body of mine would catch up to my mental age as well. I wonder if I could be considered an adult then?

As though reading my mind, Mother booped me on the nose, "My little one does not need to worry about the number so much. In a World such as this, long lived races and Gods exist. When your body is grown up, you can already call yourself an adult~"

Well, I'm not too worried about that, it's just that the things I bought using the character creator would still only appear on my birthday every year and the lewd ones would need to wait until my eighteenth birthday… Unless it takes into account of me maturing faster than normal?

I guess only time will tell.

As for now… I'll just continue training myself until I'm strong enough to solo a dragon! Just so that my sweets will never be threatened again!

"Mommy… I want to be even stronger…"

"Oh my~ As expected of my little one! Such a small achievement is definitely not enough for you~ In that case, how about my child register in the Guild as a Dungeoneer?"

"Eh? They have no restrictions on age?"

"Ufufufu~ As I said my little one, the number is negligible especially when there are races who are mature the moment they are born~ As long as you are aware of what you are doing, the Guild will not turn down applicants who passes their tests!"

I guess that makes sense… But…

"I think I would like to be a little bit more prepared before I go there. Could you teach me to be stronger, mommy?"

"Ufufufu~ In that case, I think my little one is ready~ Mama shall train you seriously now~"

Umm… Something tells me I might regret this…

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