Day 59


As the sun just barely began to rise above the horizon, you just stood there in your den. Confused.

You had been somewhere completely different, destroying some disgusting mind controlling creatures that were controlling Lansseax, then you were eating stuff… and then you were back in your den without any marks?

Okay, well. The lack of marks wasn't surprising.

You healed pretty fast after all.

But that didn't explain why you felt like you hadn't moved at all, despite you knowing very well that you did, in fact, do a lot of movement.

So it seemed like it was all just your imagination.

Except you also had new instincts in your head, and your—previously pure gold— scales had specs of pure darkness on them.

Oh well, what happened has already happened.

Special mutation bar: 29/30

[Inherent understanding] returned to normal

Inherent understanding charge will refresh on day 61


Going to the academy was, at this point, becoming a rather routine thing. Somewhat repetitious even.

Though, that didn't mean that you were bored in any sense of the word, quite the opposite in fact. You were actually very happy, especially since you were learning more than ever in all your classes.

"Now, since everyone has reached the required levels of control, we can move on to spell creation."

Like in Neutral magic class, where you learnt how to improve the aspects of any spells you make. Something that would probably come in quite helpful, once you actually made some spells.

Probably. You hadn't done it before, so you weren't too sure.

[Next 2 ranks for all existing Neutral magic aspects learnt]

[Neutral] (Plus)3 level's - [25]

"Alright then, now that everyone's got their shells up just test each othe- wait! Not you Vo - ah… alright, can someone feed him another potion and take him to the healers?"

Then there was the mage knight class, where you learnt how to convert your magic into a thin see-through shell around you.

Sure, it wasn't really all that useful as it was now. Even your human flesh was tougher than the shell created through that spell, but this spell was also only the lesser version, and would get better once you learnt the better versions.

Or so the teachers said.

[Shell aspect added to enhancement magic]

[Enhancement] (Plus)3 level's - [5]

Alchemy too was a class of learning, with you learning how to stick things together on a deep level.

Apparently, it actually made it so that a few layers, on each material's surface, fused together where they touched. Which, in turn, meant that you'd need to rip off the top layer for both of them to separate them.

… you'll admit. You didn't really see the use of something that only held things together with such fimsy connections.

Really, it only took you a second to just rip the material off the desk you'd joined it too, even if the human students in the class couldn't do anything. After all, humans couldn't do a lot of things…

[Alchemy] (Plus)2 level's - [34]

[Glue aspect added to alchemy]

So yes, all in all, the academy was satisfying, even if it was getting repetitious.

Myra hummed as you finished telling her about the day.

"So… it sounds like you've been enjoying the academy," Myra stated, sitting next to you. Her head on her hand as she leaned on the table and prodded her plate of food.

You, eating another spoon and spoonful of food, nodded and agreed. It was pretty good.

"… that's great," Myra's voice came from next to you, "hey, Votusax?"

Pausing your eating, or rather your attempt to pile more onto a spoon, you look at Myra in question, noting how her aura seemed to be very… subdued.

"What do you like?" she asks, causing you to be confused, "I'm just asking."

You think about it, and then immediately reply that you like food and getting stronger. To which Myra gives a laugh.

"Yeah, I should have expected that. That's fair," she shook her head, giving some last few chuckles, "…hey, could you lean down for a sec, I wanna check your face for something."

You do so, tilting your head in confusion, and let her put her hands on the sides of your face, right under the chin.

Then you wait… and wait some more as she just strokes the chin and cheeks of your human form, her eyes wandering over it and looking at it. Eventually, wanting to get back to eating, you ask her if she's found what she was looking for.

"hmm…" she just hums, not letting go of you face, "hey, I know we haven't really… known each other all that long… but if, lets say hypothetically, I stayed with you for at least the next twenty or thirty years… would you mind?"


You consider the question, consider the time she'd mentioned.

Twenty to thirty years… a mind-boggling amount of time for you, hard even to imagine what you would possibly even be in that did you really need to understand how long that actually was?

Did it even matter?

… it did not, you decided after a moment of thinking.

After all, so far Myra had been nothing but good for you. She gave you those crystals that strengthened you, provided various teachers for… almost anything you wanted to learn, she's apparently even actively looking for stuff for you to eat—if you remember her promise of leading you to some good metal right.

So if she was good for you now, what would really change in a year, or ten, or even a hundred? By all rights, so long as you lived, there seemed to be no reason for you to not stay with her.

Refocusing on her, you tell her that you wouldn't really mind staying with her for as long as you lived… and her aura lights up.

And of course Myra, as she often does, turns bright red. This time doing so after she quickly tapped your human form's lips with her own, before then letting go of your face.

"… I… I'm glad that you feel that way."

You just shrug and tell her that it's not really a big deal, even if you don't really understand what even ten years into the future would be like— having not experienced even a tenth of that— you'd still be willing to stay with her. Because all her actions so far have shown her to be someone you would probably never mind staying with.

"… thank you," she mutters once again, looking away from you… before suddenly freezing, "wait. What did you say?"

Hmm? Her actions so far have s- "No, before that."

That it's not a big d-"Slightly after that."

…you don't know what ten years in the future would be like since you haven't experienced even a tenth of that?

"…how old are you Votusax?"

Oh? Well… if you thought about it… you should be about three months old? Maybe four?

The beginning is a bit hazy, but you should be that old.

" Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…"and her aura's going wild again as her head slam into the table.

Oh well, you just continue eating.


By the time it was time for cooking club Myra had, for some reason, decided that she wouldn't go to the cooking club with you.

Which was something she told you after she spent most of the lunch just screaming softly into the table and holding her head. Puzzling behaviour, but ultimately not something that you felt like addressing.

Unfortunately, it seemed like even the black aura'd girl wasn't in the club today either, which just left you with Mina to teach you how to cook.

Which is not to say she was bad in any way, she did after all tech you to cook, but only that she seemed to insist on using the blander ingredients without any of the truly good stuff.

Sure, the end result was… palatable. But it was just not the same.

Doubly so since she refused to taste and give opinions on the food you made using the good stuff.

You'll get her one day though. One day.

[Cooking] (Plus)1 level - (22/30)

Learnt to make Chili and Chili con carne


It was later that you returned to your den, after having made a particularly nice tasting bowl of chili.

When you did however, something… strange occurred. As before you'd even decided on what you would do next, just as you'd actually fully entered your den, an voice rang out.

"I…" it began, seemingly bouncing around inside your head, "…would speak to thee."

Then you were no longer in your den any more, and instead seemed to be on some flat rocky planes. The ground being black rocks with golden flecks, and the sky a deep blue.

Before you was Lansseax, the bigger version that is, returned to her original colour.

You greet her… and get no reply. Instead, she just stares at you.

"Hmm, I see thou'rt finally conceding to the superiority that is draconic scales, Godwyn… albeit with the cost of addling thy mind," Lansseax eventually mused aloud, her voice much deeper than you remember it being.

Maybe she hadn't recovered from the mind control you cured her off?

You asked her if she still hadn't recovered yet.

"Then again, foolishness was always in thy nature," once again you were ignored, "as was lustfulness, which thy death clearly has not divested you of."

You weren't really sure what was going on?

So you, again, ask Lanseeax something. This time asking if she knew anything about your current situation.

She just lifted a claw… and pinched the space between her eyes, "… what are thy latest memories?"

Well, you came to your den. Before that you made chilli. Before that you learnt to make chi-

"What I ask," your recounting is interrupted before you can even finish the day, "is that if it is true that thy memories only extend four moons into the past."

… what does the moon have to do with ti-

"Months. A moon refers to months."

Ah right, in that case yes. That's about the time that you think your oldest memory, of struggling against something hard while not being able to breathe, is from.

"Then it is as I feared, thy mind is lost."

Well, you'd like to think you hadn't misplaced your mind anywhere. But if she thought so…

"… to correct thee, I am not my sister," the dragon, Lansseax's brother—you didn't remember her saying she had a brother—explained, "and to address thy, rather astounding claim, of thy wit… I can only say that what thou gained in achieving the superiority that is dragonhood, thou lost in intelligence… and thou weren't a shining exemplar in it before… this. Honestly, why did thou not choose the proper form of a true dragon?"

You… didn't have a choice?

Wait, so if he wasn't Lansseax then who was he?

"That mistake is even less comical the second time," he says, to which your confusion increases. You were sure you didn't make the mistake, whatever it was, before, "and I am Fortisax, strongest boulder-stone of the ancient dragons… and the one who shall have to restore thou to your previous, weak to women, self."

Wait, you weren't weak to women.

"Thy death was to a group of up jumped bed warmers, that thou insisted on doing all at once in their so called 'dancing garbs' because it was 'sexy'. Thou were most definitely weak to women."

You were pretty sure none of that happened.

Wait, did it happen?

"… by the greater will, I can't believe I say this, but I miss the intelligence of thy previous self," the space between eyes was once again pinched by Fortisax, "and no. Thou has't not been stabbed in the back by thy own lust… not yet at least."

That's good.

"Yes, now thy only worry is not eating something that will choke thee."

… well.

"Just… just be silent and listen as I explain now."

You did so, and so learnt some rather interesting things.

Like how, for starters, you were actually Godwyn. The person who you'd heard tales about from Lansseax.

But actually not.

But actually, you were close enough.

Like, you had previously known that you were apparently his reincarnation, and it turns out that wasn't exactly the case.

Instead, according to Fortisax, you were just the bits that were left of him, after his encounter with some 'dancing harlots', that grew into an entirely new soul. Which actually made you a new person, since most of your soul was just new, and technically made wholesale. 'Like how a seed was not the tree' as Fortisax explained. As for how Fortisax knew this?

"This place is thy soul, there is no better place to discern that."

You'll admit. You didn't quite understand, and apparently, according to Fortisax, it didn't matter either.

"For now I shall rest and recover," he told you, finally finished explaining everything, "once I have recovered enough I shall allow thee to enter again, this time at thy own whims. Then we shall get thee back up to snuff."

You nodded. After all, you'd be happy to learn some new stuff that'd make you stronger.

Which is how your little meeting ended, as you were, as suddenly as the first time it happened, back in your den again.

[Fotisax met and identity confirmed]

[Fortisax SL gained] (primarily due to association with Lansseax)

[Fortisax "Dragoning 101" lessons will become available in two days]


The first thing you notice upon coming back to your den is that… someone had been in here while you were away(?) talking to Fortisax.

Now, the reason you didn't decide to wipe someone from existence right there and then was very simple.

The intruder had apparently left a letter behind, the very thing that told you someone had been in here without your permission, telling you that they were meant to lead you to the metals that Myra had promised to show you. But since you were 'sleeping' they decided to come to you tomorrow.

So all as good, except you were a tad… annoyed at not knowing someone came into your den.

So, before you went hunting like you'd planned to, you marked your den to make sure that you knew when anyone came in. In fact, you also went ahead and marked that room you had in the academy too.

You didn't use it much, preferring to stay in dragon form as much as possible, but it was still yours.

And so, with that out of the way, you took of into the black skies to do what you wanted to do… which was find a particularly strong enemy to destroy, seeing as it had been a while.

And after a while of running from things that your instincts made clear you could not win against, and ignoring a couple of weak prey, you spotted the perfect prey. Your instincts telling you that it was both weak enough to be fightable, and strong enough to actually put up some form of resistance.


Looking at the long fish floating there, unaware of your presence, you realised that you had grown quite a bit stronger. At least, compared to the last time you fought something that could fight back.

From just getting bigger and stronger from hunting weaker things, to gaining control over your whole 'death' thing… why not test how strong you were?

You saw no reason not to, and so you began doing so.

A deep breath was taken, more out of habit than actually getting any air into your lungs, as the core in your chest began to pulse as it rapidly shot off multiple infusions. Each infusion burning something fierce, a pain that was compounded on with each phantom head that seemingly sprouted from your shoulder.

One phantom head, two phantom heads… more and more heads appeared until, finally, there were eleven heads, stretching from eleven necks, arrayed atop your shoulder. One real, ten phantasmal.

Your core, at this point, was humming under the strain… and you pushed it over the edge, following instincts to channel all your vitality into more power.

You died… and returned, as you knew you would. With destined death surging through your veins.

The breaths you were holding, now so powerful that you could barely contain them, were ready to be loosened. So you did so… after adding a final boost in the form of converting your stamina and magic to further amplification.

What left your maws, phantasmal or otherwise, were pillars of black, with edges tinged in a chaotic mixture of darkened colours…

… and then nothing.

No retaliation, no big fight… just a moment of blackness followed by the cessation of the fish, with the only thing left of it's existence being a single small crystal, floating in the void.

Which you collected as you dropped out of your deathly form, the taste of disappointment on your tongue.

Well, at least you knew that you were very strong now.

…or maybe the fish was just weak, despite your instincts saying it really wasn't.

Oh well, you still got this core crystal.

[ (Plus) 7,562,686 xp]

[You've reached level 137] (Plus)4 level's

[ (Plus)60 to all stats]

[ (Plus)20 agility]

[ (Plus)60 Strength, Constitution, Spirit, & Magic]

[Core crystal gained (tier 5)]

[Achievement: Singularity] gained

[Stella mortis ultimate is on cooldown (will recharge on 5th 1/7 of day 62)]


You returned to your den a bit later, having stowed the crystal for later consumption.

Of course, you considered trying to find something else to hunt, something strong enough to actually challenge you at all… but in the end you decided against it.

You just weren't in the mood anymore.

So instead you decided to just do… whatever else you could think of. Which, as it turns out, was to play around with your eating ability, Forge of stars as your status calls it.

Not train it, you knew from both the status and your instincts, that the ability had reached its peak. No, you just… felt like playing around with it.

So you just left the den and… well, you ate stuff. A bite from the ground here, a nibble on a building there. It was a night tasting many things for you, though you'll admit that most of the things didn't exactly taste all that nice.

It was nice.

What's more is that, despite you not actually trying to train the ability, you'd noticed something as you were taking a bite out of the sword dropped by a random human who'd seen you and run away.

That being a sort of fuzzy feeling floating within your stomach… a feeling that seemed to be attracted to the core in your chest.

You had, in a moment of curiosity, tried and guide the feeling towards your core… and found that it just easily sunk into the core, giving you a feeling that you had a sort of 'charge' in your core.

A charge that you knew would allow your core to do an injection without consuming the vitality it usually does.

… frankly, you felt that the only reason you had even discovered this little thing was because you weren't trying to train the ability. A fact that made you wonder that, perhaps, there may be similar things for your other abilities. Something you'd only discover if you just played around with the ability without trying your best to increase its raw power.

Still that was a thought for later.

For now, you simply returned to your den so that you could finally munch on that crystal you'd gotten from that fish you'd destroyed.

You were expecting that doing so will result in you going unconscious, though you weren't completely sure, what with the massive changes you'd undergone since the last time you'd eaten such a core.

Turns out?

The changes really didn't matter, with you falling asleep within moments of swallowing the core.

[Charge Aeter Sum] synergy unlocked for [Forge of stars]


Day 60

You woke up, something you had already gotten used to not having to do, to new changes. An expected thing, seeing as it had happened every other time you'd fallen asleep after eating a crystal.

And, just like those times, it took you a moment of exploring your new instincts, this time also using your status, to understand what changed…

… and the first thing you did upon doing so was to mark your den as your abode, immediately causing the whole place to feel a lot more comfortable all of a sudden.

As for the other change… you'd test it next you fought something that, hopefully, wasn't a disappointment.

[Sleeping in your den under the castle now gives (Plus)10 to first roll of the day]

Causality: 8/15


The academy was a… mixed bag.

For one, Myra was not with you for any of the classes you shared. Which, after her being present for those classes every other time, was rather disconcerting.

Not enough to not learn new stuff in your classes, you still did that in your neutral magic class.

"Alright, that… is a perfect stat boost… now please release this. It is disorienting."

[Neutral] (Plus)1 level - [26]

[General stat boost (lesser) Spell learned]

[General stat boost] aspect added to neutral magic

The magical boost spell you learned was something you did easily enough despite Myra's absence... but you felt that what happened in the mage knight class probably wouldn't have happened if she'd been there.

Mostly because the classmate who approached you when the teachers were focusing on something else had said that he 'didn't need to avoid Votusax now that the princess wasn't here to stop him' when he'd challenged you to a duel without holding back.

You'd accepted the duel of course, mostly because you'd thought about testing your new ability since there was going to be no 'holding back'…

Admittedly, you'd done that. But the fact that the teachers ended up no teaching anything for the whole class was annoying.

They really should have just let the human alone after the duel.

You hadn't destroyed his core, at most you'd moved it around in his body a bit— judging by the sloshing you heard. He would've recovered in a bit.

[Nothing learned in mage knight class]

At least the alchemy classes were still normal.

You just took off your clothes and got to work learning the best way to handle materials of all kinds.

[Alchemy] (Plus)3 level's - [37]

So at least now, as you ate by yourself in the cafeteria, you weren't that annoyed from the lack of learning during mage knight class.

"Hello," you blinked, before looking towards your side and down.

The black aura'd girl had come and sat next to you, her own food in a tray in front of her… you had not heard, nor felt, her do that. You hadn't even realized she was next to you until she had spoken.

You still return the greeting.


There was silence as you just ate the food, savoring the metallic taste of each spoon. The slight variance in each one… sure the food itself wasn't the most stimulating to your tongue, but it was still food and so you ate it.

Food was food, and food belonged in your mouth and stomach.

"My name is Athalia," eventually the girl is the one to break that silence, "it is nice to meet you."

You considered just ignoring her and eating… but considering the quality of your food, a conversation may be nice right now. The black aura'd girl, Athalia, was interesting enough anyway.

So you turn to her and introduce yourself too. Then another moment of quite.

"I heard that you nearly killed a student for challenging you. Is that true?"

You nod, telling her that it had also resulted in you not learning anything that class, which you found rather annoying.

"I am sorry to hear that… I am sure you were looking forward to learning something new," you nod at her, telling her you were, "but in the end it is good that you gave retribution to someone who challenged you. It was the right thing to do."

You tilt your head, and consider that.

Was that what the other student was trying to do? Challenge you?

Really?

Shrugging at her, you tell her that you had just wanted to test something.

"Is that so… and you love testing things?" you look at her after she asked that question.

Well… somewhat?

You do enjoy testing things you've just gotten.

"If that is the case would it be possible for you to tell me wh-"

But what you actually love far more is something else.

She tilted her head, similarly to how you did moments before, "oh? And what is that?"

You love food.

Eating food, making food, learning about food… you love doing all of that… in fact, what about her. Does she like food too?

She was in the cooking club too after all.

"Of course, I love food," you… look at her, specifically her aura as she said that. The way it shifted.

Now, the aura's around people tended to shift and move. That was something you knew. But normally, the constantly shifting color of the aura surrounding people also made it near impossible to see what those movements were exactly, since the shifting colors made it seem that it was always moving.

But with Athalia, whose aura was a single uniform color, you could easily tell when and how it shifted.

So when you saw Athalia's aura shift like that, you found your instincts telling you what that shifting actually meant. That she…

She was lying.

"…I do not know what you mean," once again her aura shifted in the same way.

That was another lie… so that meant that she didn't actually like cooking?

"Of course I love it," the same shift in the aura. Another lie.

A thought, one that slightly angered you, popped into your mind.

Did she hate food.

"No, I… am ambivalent towards food."

There was… no shifting in that aura. Which meant that she was, probably, telling the truth this time… you asked her what she did love then, your curiosity peaked as you wondered what she could like other than food.

"…nothing," another truth.

Well, that didn't sound like it was a nice way to live. How does it even work? You couldn't really imagine not loving food.

"Possibly, I would not know."

… maybe she should eat some food? It might let her get something to love.

"Alright… may I try some of your soup?"

You consider it, looking at the spoonful of soup in your hand… the bland tasting soup that you hadn't even put crushed plates in yet.

You shrugged and offered it to her.

"… it tastes pleasant," her aura doesn't shift to show she lied.

Which was confusing, since she hadn't even eaten the spoon you'd given her so how could she even taste anything good?

[You can now tell when Athalia is lying or telling the truth]

[Speechcraft] skill learnt


Your talk with Athalia continued for a while as the both of you ate, mostly with her just telling you how some of the food would taste… mostly just her saying it was pleasant really.

Still, lunch soon ended, and with it your current day at the academy, as you left…

"Greetings, lord astral dragon."

Or rather, you started to leave before you were stopped by some humans, two women and two men, suddenly started walking next to you and talking to you. All wearing similar white and gold clothes, asking if you had time to follow them.

You decided, in curiosity, that you did indeed have time to follow them. Mostly because they offered you a some snacks for the journey.

[Light steel] added to creation

[Light steel: [1:1 (causality:volume in m3)]]

"It is just a little further," one of the human women, the one leading the whole group, informed you just before you turned a corner, "there, that building right there."

You look at the building pointed out, a large one covered in various golden sculptures and white stone carvings of all sizes…

… wait, you remembered this sort of thing.

A vague memory of… a town? Yes, you remember sneaking around and eating things, especially eating something from a building like this.

Hmm, yes. You remember it tasting nice… maybe you should take a b-

"Please enter the building, my lord."

You break away from your contemplation, seeing that three of the four guides were holding open the door for you. So you went in, following the one that was still leading, while putting off eating some of the things on the building later.

Regardless, you followed the woman into the building, going through a few more rooms, before you finally ended up in a pure white room.

As in, not a room that had nothing but the four house walls, but rather a room that was fully furnished like all the other rooms in the building, except everything was the exact same shade of white… it was very weird to look at.

"This is it my lord," the woman who was guiding you said as she stopped at front of the room and spun to face you. Then she extended a hand that was glowing with a white-gold glow, "now I ask you to place your hand upon mine."

You asked her what for.

"It shall take you to the one who wished for this meeting as a way to parlay with you."

Oh, so it was like those teleporting crystals?

She just nodded, which was good enough for you to place your hand on hers an-

And then blink, as you found yourself on a path in a field, with a white castle a short distance away and floating mountains on the horizon.


You looked around… where was the person who wanted to talk with you? Did you have to go look for them?

You shrugged and began walking towards the castle that was close by, assuming that the inhabitants of this place probably lived there. If they were human you'd be sure that they lived there… but your instincts told you that they, whoever they were, weren't human.

This whole place just gave that sort of feeling to you, of beings who lived here not being human.

So yes, after turning into your full dragon form just in case, you walked towards the castle… and you took some bites out of some trees, rocks, a particularly shiny rock… really, you tried some of anything you could pick up and eat as you walked.

It tasted… weird. Everything from the trees to the dirt. Weirdly better tasting than normal versions of the stuff too.

But in the end it was all still normal food.

What wasn't normal was the way that, as you got closer to the castle, it seemed to… warp? Shift? It was a weird sort of movement, one that your eyes could see happen but you couldn't really describe.

But what you could describe was how, when you were at the entrance of the castle, you were able to fit through the castle gate. That was while you were still the same size relative to the trees a short distance away, and while the castle had not actually grown.

It was weird, but since it just let you enter the castle without having to turn human, and thus weaker, you ignored it and stepped through the gate.

… then you stepped through the second, also open, gate. Then the open door, and a couple more open entrances and doorways. Until, finally, you began to hear some voices.

"-why must you disappoint every time Chloe!" a higher pitched voice, similar to a human woman's—yet clearly not— shouted as you got closer to it.

"I'm sorry!" another voice, also a similar to a human woman's—this time without the non-human feeling—replied, "he was just really hard to pinpoint so I just grabbed the general area he was in…"

"He's two and a half meters tall and was directly touching the realm! How in my name was he hard to pinpoint?" you were close enough now to make out the whooshing sound of arm movements.

"I'm sorry!"

"He's eating the trees Chloe! The trees! He even ate the shiny rock!" wait, were they talking about you, "and, because of that stupid fucking ability, I can't even find him! Does your sorry fix that?"

You noted that away, that one of your abilities was stopping this being from finding you, as you finally stepped into the room that the argument was happening in.

"I mean… you have a lot of shiny rocks my lady? Losing one isn't…"

"Don't you fucking start that again! I do not have a fucking problem!"

There were two women in the room, one human looking and the other the same one who had brought you to this place. And, continuing the weirdness of this place, they were both about the same size as you, while also barely being the size of one of your draconic claws according to your senses.

You made eye contact with the woman who brought you here, apparently named Chloe, and her eyes widened as she froze.

The other human-looking woman was facing away from you.

"-and how the hell do you not find him immediately?" the blonde haired human-looking woman shouted as she grabbed Chloe by the shoulders and shook her "he's going around as a giant dragon, considering he's eating whole ass trees! That is not subtle!"

"U-uh, m-my lady?" Chloe stuttered, trying to point towards you.

"And he not just a giant dragon, no. He's also colored a shiny gold!"

"M-my lady, please."

"Plus that's not even talking about the ridiculous amount of energies he's blasting into the air everywhere. That should have been like a beacon to you and the angels!"

"Lady Lysha!"

"What!"

Chloe doesn't say anything further in reply, instead merely pointing over the other woman's, Lysha's, shoulders… and in turn she slowly turns around.

You… blink as you make eye contact as, for a single moment, her form wavered and was replaced by a white bird of some kind. Then, the next moment, it was over and her form was just similar to a human again.

You… asked her if she was the one who wanted to talk to you?

"…yes… actually, do you mind just… waiting there a second," before you can even reply she has grabbed Chloe and left the room, "thanks. I'll be back in a second."

"Why didn't you tell me he was behind me!" you hear her shout in the next room, "the image I wanted is gone! Gone!"

"B-but I did do that…"

"… you should have done it better!"


The whole arguing in the other room continued for a while.

At first it was just more of Lysha talking about how Chloe messed up, and then Chloe talking about the various issues Lysha had, from things like impulsive usage of 'divine revelations' to get her 'ships' together to hoarding things.

You didn't really understand half the issues this Lysha being had, but you were fairly certain hoarding things was a good thing?

Well, regardless of what you thought on the argument going on in the next room, it still continued for some time. Long enough that you began to get a little… bored. Maybe even a bit peckish, despite not actually needing to eat anymore.

So you just took some 'snacks' from the room.

A teapot here, a painting there… you ate a particularly nice table too. You also took some little, unnoticeable bites from more some stuff too.

But eventually, even that didn't really distract you from the boredom. So you just decided to lay down on the ground and just… let go. Just stare at the ceiling and release every ounce of tension in your body without actually sleeping, you still wanted to be able to defend yourself.

You relaxed even further.

You relaxed even more.

You relaxed even more, achieving a form of relaxation you, nor any dragon, has probably never achieved. A form of nirvana.

"Ah… my lord?" then, the voice of Chloe knocked you out of that state of nirvana. Strength returns to your tongue as you withdrew it off your eyes, before getting up and looking at the woman standing at the door, "lady Lysha is… ready to see you?"

Nodding at her, you follow her through the door… and somehow find yourself in the open, a quick look around telling you that you were at the very top of the castle.

"Welcome Votusax," and on the roof, sitting on a weird gold and white winged arch, was Lysha. The sun shining behind her, as she floated above you, "I am Lysha, humanities light of creation, and I am the one who called you here to discuss… things."

…wait, so why did she summon you outside the castle, in the forest, instead of just summoning you here?

"… that was to give you time to think about… things," she says, her gaze turning to the side, seemingly to look at something else.

Wasn't she saying to Chloe that she couldn't see you, and that you were summoned to the wrong place?

"…okay, listen here you little shi- no. No, calm down. Remember, technically not his fault." she began loudly, before stopping and talking to herself in a more calm tone. Then she arch she was siting on lowered to be at the same height as you, "okay, look Votusax. Gonna be real with you, I just want to ask some questions about what you want to do in the future. If you answer them I'll give you some stuff and send you on your way."

You perk up at that. What stuff was she going to give you?

"Good stuff," she paused, "tasty stuff too, if you tell the truth."

Well, in that case you didn't see any issue with answering some questions… you ignore the light shiver that, for some reason, goes down your tail at the thought of lying in answer to those questions.

"Alright, great. Great," she nodded, smiling at you… before becoming serious, "so first of all, what are your intentions for humanity as a whole?"


Humans?

Well, you never really thought about them all that much, but if you had to answer… you don't care?

She looks at you, before pulling out a piece of metal and handing it to you, "could you elaborate."

[Luxium (lesser) added to creation]

[Luxium (lesser): [2:1 (causality:volume in m3)]]

You happily nod as you chew on the, really nice tasting, metal.

The reason you didn't really care about humans was because that they were just… really weak.

They also didn't really taste good, and while the metal they had tasted pretty good sometimes that didn't change the fact that the metals, too, were really weak. To the point where you'd been able to damage, and tear apart, those metals with your bare hands in human form—when you were physically the weakest.

They were just… sad excuses for a species. You couldn't even imagine actually being one and not being pathetic.

Once again, she just looks at you. This time giving a weird look… and you only now realize that you couldn't see her aura at all, "I see… and yet you have contracted with Myra, and you still learn from them at the academy?"

… but Myra and the academy teachers only look like humans?

If they were actually humans then they wouldn't be able to give you actually good food, in the case of Myra, or teach you anything, in the case of the teachers. If they were humans they'd just be weak and sad… like the rest of the human.

"… it's like looking at a distorted mirror image of him," you tilt your head, "except you don't hate us do you? Not yet."

Well, not really? You did like the food you were getting from her… though you'll admit that you found the various bird themed imagery on everything she had weird.

"… in what way is it weird."

It's ugly.

"You little s-" she began before stopping and covering her face with her hands, "okay, fine. You think birds aren't beautiful-"

Yes, they aren't.

"… you are entitled to your opinion…,"

But it's not an opinion? Birds are ugly.

She clapped her hands, "anyways! Next question, which I can probably guess the answer to, what would you want in exchange for doing tasks of varying difficulty?"


You consider the question… for all of a single moment. After that moment you immediately tell her your desires.

You wanted any type of good food. You had a preference for any types of metals, notably the more spicy ones, but you'd eat most things as long as they were good. Ideally, you'd prefer something that you couldn't get yourself, and information on where to get good food, living and otherwise, was welcome too.

"Well… you've certainly thought this through… for the second you spent thinking about it…"

You tell her you weren't finished yet.

You would also like causality too, in any form, since you didn't really have as much as you'd want, unlike with magic and stamina.

She nod, beginning to write into a notebook that she'd summoned in a flash of white light ", right, okay. Makes sense, everyone can use more of that… anything else?"

And finally, and most importantly, you wanted every single butterfly dead.

"Pardon?"

You, Votusax, want very single butterfly to die in the most painful agony imaginable. You wanted them to suffer, their mind and spirit broken, before they are slowly crushed into a slurry.

"…that… is good?"

You nod, it was a good thing for the little mind-controlling pests to suffer.

"Okay then, I'll just… I'll just move onto the next thing on the agenda," she smiled as she summoned another chunk of metal and handed it to you, "now, as you so helpfully stated before, you know how I can't actually see you from a distance?"

You nod, gnawing on the chunk of, actually surprisingly hard, metal. It tasted great, better than most things you remember eating.

[Luxite added to creation]

[Luxite: [4:1 (causality:volume in m3)]]

[Luxite mutation: 1/7]

"Right, so. I want to fix that… and I need you to consent to letting me see you for that to happen… you get what I'm saying?" you think about it and then nod, telling her you understood the request for what it was, "great. Now, obviously, I won't ask you to agree for free… in fact, I'll give you something really great. A job."

… could you just have more good food instead? Because that didn't sound that impressive.

"Not impressive! Do you eve- oh wait… yeah, you wouldn't know," she sighed, "alright, so. Before you decide, I'll explain what jobs are first."

And that's what she did for a good bit of time, until she was sure you understood what jobs were.

"So, do you understand?" she asked at the end of the explanation, to which you responded positively.

Jobs were basically things you could level, and as you did you'd get these things called 'active skills' which will let you do a single action with the skill of the person who was best at that.

"Yep, and jobs also let you increase the related stats more easily too," she elaborated, "so… good right? Good enough to agree to the deal."

You nod.

"Great! Let's shake on it," smiling, she extends a hand… that starts glowing with what your senses tell you is the agreement itself?

… you shake the hand, and the change is immediate.

Where before, as you stood in front of her, it felt like she was looking in your general direction, now it felt like she was looking at you… actually, she seemed to be frozen as she stared at you.

"What the actual fuc-" she began after a long period of silent starting, "how did you even do… that," withdrawing her hand from the handshake, she gestured to your whole body, "actually, you know what. Don't answer that. let's just… move past that."

You do so, mostly because you didn't even know what that was.

"Great… so, any job you want?"


You deliberated on your answer… then you remembered the way you basically disintegrated the entirety of that fish. How, if you'd hit it with an even stronger attack the core would've probably disappeared too…

You ask her if she had a class that would allow you to get cores without destroying them.

"Well… there are multiple options for that," a thoughtful expression covered her face, "the ideal classes would be those based around stealth or or extracting resources… hmm…" theres a moment as she just sits there and thinks…

Before finally she's done, "alright, I got it. Thief, assassin, debilitator, butcher, and the deep miner jobs, those are the best for that."

She lifted five fingers

"Thief would let you sneak up and just… pluck it out as the first move. Same with assassin, though that one also gives a boost to your general damage output which you might not want," two fingers were lowered, "butcher is good for dismantling something as you fight it, which will let you get to the core, with deep miner working similarly due to the hardness of some being's flesh," another two fingers lowered, leaving only one.

"As for debilitator… well, it's about taking away stuff from the enemy to weaken them. Which is useful when you want to remove the core… but it doesn't really focus on core removal," with that, the last finger is lowered, "so… which one do you want?"


You consider your options, how they might work with how you hunted things… and the options were quickly narrowed down to thief and assassin when you remembered how the 'fight' with the fish went.

Then that was narrowed further to just thief when you remembered how little of the fish was left after you were done with it.

"Thief, huh? Pretty basic, but I see what you may be going for… though getting sneakier after agreeing to be seen is a bit suspect… eh, whatever. Here," with a moment to talk to herself, something she seemed to do a lot, she held out a hand with… a feather, "eat this."

You do… and then tell her it tastes alright for something that came from a bird.

[Class system module… installed]

[Current class: Thief (0/30)]

[Classes: Thief (0)]

"…did you meet Malios or Etix before? Did they put you up to this?" you look at her in confusion, "… I'll give you some more Luxite if you tell me that."

Was that the metal chunk she gave you?

"Yes."

You tell her that you were indeed put up to 'this' by the mentioned names.

"I fucking knew i-"

Could you get more Luxite now?

"… you just said that for the metal, didn't you," you nod, confirming that you were doing it for that… then you ask her if you could have it now. To which she just sigh and hands you another chunk.

[Luxite mutation: 2/7]

"Just… just go to Chloe and ask her to take you back," she says after watching you scarf down the metal.

You do so, and a short while later, after another touching of a glowing hand, you're back in your den… and moments later a maid walked into your den, her aura shining with fear. Shouting about how she was here on behalf of Myra and to not end her.

It took you a moment to remember that she was the maid that was meant to come today and lead you to the metals.


With the maid, Milly as she shakily introduced herself, here there was really only one thing you wanted to do.

Which is what led you to your current position of standing there in human form, a change that made the fear in Milly's aura far less pronounced, and reading the map of metals, with notes on the metals, that she provided. Going over the brief descriptions of each metal… until your eyes hit a particular metal.

Adamant, and it's variant, the metal that the notes said was the most resistant of the one's available.

Well… you had been feeling that your scales were a bit… weak.

At least compared to the strength of your breaths.

So, confirming the location of the metals in question—the center of a mountain that had a collapsed mine— and your decision, you took off from your den and into the black of the skies. From there, it took moments for you to arrive in the general location that was marked on the map.

Something that was made easier due to the fact that, when in the black skies, the ground looked a lot like the image on the map.

And once you were in the general area it only took you a relatively short while finding the mountain. Then, you just began tearing the rocks and ground off until your claws hit the metals you were here for.

Which you did… and for the first time in a while your claws were stopped in place. Unable to do more than slightly bend the metal.

…now you were truly excited.

It took a while for you to pull out all the metal from the ground, needing to tear it out chunk by chunk.

A process that involeveled quite a few of your claws being lost to the sharpened edges of freshly shorn metal… as it turns out, the metal was hard enough that, if you grabbed it on a sharp edge and pulled, it could go straight through your flesh.

But in the end, that didn't really slow you down all that much. With you having… quite a lot of the stuff stowed away. Enough that you had almost filled a quarter of your storage space.

On top of that, it turned out that this mountain had more than just the variety of adamant the map said. In fact, it had more of the metal in general!

So, suffice to say, you were rather happy when you returned to your den.

(Plus)15 [Adamantium], [Adamantite], [Pure Adamant], & [Adamandium]

Gained 3 [Pure Adamant(?)]


With the metal acquired you began planning for something you hadn't done in a while.

That is, make some soup… your, style of soup. Not the human kind.

The kind of soup made from all the metals and materials you had, and thus the soup that actually had taste. The kind that you usually grew significantly from eating.

But first, you needed something else to get. Specifically, another of those crystal cores that put you to sleep and also made you stronger. No point in sleeping if it won't make you stronger after all.

Not to mention that you were still disappointed with that fish.

And so, you took off. Flying further and further into the sky, past the moon, until you were a decent distance away.

Then you began your search for any particularly 'special core having' thing you could find… until out of the corner of your vision you saw a flash of purple a- whoah!

Jumping back, you avoid a spike, made of shifting back materials, that just… materialized through a ripple and tried to skewer your head.

Next thing you know you there is… a thing, in front of you.

… a shiver went up and down your spine as it's multiple eyes stared at you.


There was no hesitation, no delay.

One moment you were looking at the thing, and the next your core fired off and your body flooded with pure power as you launched towards it. Brilliant white breath, with a core of pitch black, poured out of your throat as you did… only to dissipate the moment it came near it.

Well, no matter. It didn't dissipate your claws, which tore through its inky flesh and to- Szqqnkd Rflnh jkkjhyx

You blink, suddenly finding yourself back to where you were before the charge. Everything seemed to be drowned in a crimson hue, and the creature before you was wounded… only not as much as it should have been.

And- Wjyfqnfyj ifrflj wjkqjhy

A shiver ran down your spine as its red eyes bore into you, and a pain you'd never felt before bloomed within your chest.

You surge forward, fueled by equal parts urgency to finish this fight and anger from the pain. Phantom copies of your head appear, your core hums, and pure power surges again. Then you are tearing the thing apart, plucking eyes from black flesh and searing the gaping hole left behind. You crushed bones and bit off a sharpened tendril that tries to skewer you.

Until finally, with one massive surge of exertion, you grabbed both sides… and wrenched it apart!

Silence. The creature's divided haleveles floated there.

You took a deep, calming, breath a-

Ymj mjfajsx bjju xmfitbx, ymj ywzym nx bfwuji.

Ymj dfbsnsl rfb tk ifwpsjxx zskzwqx.

There are no stars, no lights in the blackness. Nothing but a pure, unseeable darkness… and in the darkness there is only a colossal eye, simultaneously larger and tinier than you, hovering weightlessly.

You can't help but stare at it…

It stares back at you

It's pure instincts that have you rush forward, something which saves you as the space you were in moments before just… collapses in on itself.

But what isn't purely instinctual is you using everything you possibly can, every ounce of power and cunning, to tear into the milky white flesh of the eye. To ignore the burning of the luminescent fluid that splashes onto you from the gashes you carve into it, while twisting your neck to not allows any of the liquid to crawl into your eyes.

You can almost feel it. The way this thing was charging up another one of those attacks that collapsed space. Surviving the attack was unlikely, and you wouldn't be halting that attack at the rate you were hurting it now...

And that made you angry… and through that anger came more power.

Time seemed to almost slow at that point, with you damaging it in a desperate fury and it charging that attack you knew you wouldn't survive. Until finally the moment of reckoning came… and you plunged your head straight into its pupil!

Then, within that freshly made hole, you poured from your maw every ounce of power.

For a singular moment nothing seemed to happen as it continued charging. Then, almost as if some invisible threshold had been passed, it began to swell and bulge, crack forming on the milky flesh from which golden tinged black energy leaked.

Then there was light, and all was back to normal. The pain, the injuries, all gone like they'd never happened. The only thing that was left being an eyeball the same size as you, a giant hole in the pupil as if something had burst out from within it.

…you swat the eyeball with your tail a couple of times before you dug through it for a core and then stowed it.

[ (Plus)8,021,470 xp]

[You've reached level 141] (Plus)4 level's

[ (Plus)20 to all stats]

[ (Plus)10 agility]

[ (Plus)20 Strength, Constitution, Spirit, & Magic]

[Claw combat (Quadruped/Biped] (Plus)3 level's - (3/15)

(Plus) [Eyeball corpse]

(Plus) [Crystal core]

[Thief] (Plus)23 level's - (23/30)

[Sneak], [Swipe], [Survey], [Unlock], and [Blend] active skills gained

(Plus) [Votusax has a distaste for eldritch looking (of the shadowy-hyper realistic variety) eyeballs]


Your return to your den was one that was filled with wouldn't it be?

You had the core you wanted, even if the process of getting it wasn't that simple, and the metals were ready and now there was only a single thing to do, the most important thing.

Make… the soup.

And you began doing that right away… only to realize that, perhaps, your den under the castle was a tad too small to handle the sheer amount of metals you had… so you took a short trip to the bowl that was big enough to hold the metals.

The mountain you had got it from, the one you'd turned into a giant crater.

After that? You were cooking.

Starting with only a small amount of the overall metals in the bowl, you brought it all up to heat with some simple golden beams of heat. It took a bit, showcasing again the metals durability, but soon there was a small pool of molten metal at the bottom.

From there you began adding more hunks of the metal, stopping after each addition to blast it with even more heat. Sometimes you even switched up your breath, a sort of… experiment, until finally all the metal had been melted into the pool.

Something that took longer than expected, seeing as one of the chunks you added just refused to melt in any reasonable amount of time.

Still, in the end, you had it.

The soup, a sizeable pool that was still far smaller than the mass of metal you started with.

On top of that, you'd even saved a miniscule amount of each of the type's of metals for later use. Maybe in a more human sized soup, or as a way to trade for more ingredient.

But that was for later. Right now, you just stayed the glowing light gold fluid and returned to your den.

Then, you just enjoyed the fruits of your labors. Reclining on one of the walls as you sipped on the delicious golden soup as you relaxed before, in no time at all, you were finished and the only thing to remind you of the absolutely delicious experience being the light after-taste on your tongue.

You were tempted to make a small amount more using the small amounts of the metals you'd saved… but in the end decided against it.

There wouldn't be enough to satisfy you anyways.

So instead you just ate the core and let sleep overcome you.

[ (Plus)10,000 max HP]

[ (Plus)15 all stats]

[Cooking] (Plus)5 level's - (27/30)