Day 5

You wake up feeling very slightly hungrier than the day before. Not much hungrier, just a bit.

But on a more important note it appeared that the skies outside were covered in storm clouds. Which should actually help you moving around while remaining unseen with how your dull scales let you blend a bit better in the shade.

With the thunderstorm showing no signs of going away any time soon you decide to take advantage of it and go hunt something stronger.

Only to find literally nothing as you searched around for something with even the slightest bit of challenge. To the point that you had to eventually… loosen your definition for a challenge.

Which is how you were currently sneaking up on the small bipedal lizard in front of you.

But despite it's small, non-threatening, nature you didn't hold anything back against it. You'd learnt your lesson after all.

So taking a deep breath, which parts of your body to start glowing, you activated your new ability. The sudden funnelling of your energies to your heart was the only, split second, warning you got before you were engulfed in a thin layer of completely silent black fire and a feeling of pure power.

…you really weren't surprised when you broke everything in the small lizards body with a single hit from one of your upper limbs.

Still, food is food so you grabbed the boneless seeming lizard back to your den.

Once you deposited the smaller lizard in your den you immediately set out again, this time heading towards the central area.

This hunt had been disappointing enough that you were willing to try for another strong enemy. Which, as it turns out, was exactly what you got.

Because, despite it not actually seeing you, the tingling sensation on your scales made it obvious that it was strong. Despite it's small size.

Looking at the smaller creature a feeling of apprehension rises within you.

And so, after judging the direction it's walking, you sink even deeper into the light shadows cast by a hill near you before taking a deep breath and holding it. Waiting as it slowly and surely got closer to your hiding form.

The split second it was within your reach you blasted forward, feeling something break around you as you soared through the air.

Lit up with dark fire, half your claws sank into it's flank before hitting bone. Though no sooner had it stopped that you swiped your claws to tear the holes into long tears in it's side and splashing blood everywhere.

All of which happened in split seconds, with you jumping back the moment you were finished to avoid getting hit by retaliation.

Which turned out to be the right decision as, the moment you jumped away from it, a giant lightning bolt struck down from the storm above onto it. Except, unlike what you expected, the lightning didn't actually hurt it more than how much it already was.

Instead, you were now facing a spiked up creature, which completely ignored the gashes in its sides, with glowing red eyes filled with pure wrath.

It was literally only through pure instincts that you leapt out of the way as it charged you, surrounded by an aura of lightning, and it was also through those instincts that you flicked your burning black tail right into it's face as it went past.

Which it also ignored, despite you feeling it's horn crack a bit when you hit it.

Not that it mattered to you, since you were staring it down with claws ready as it twisted around and came for another pass. Only, you didn't need to have done that.

Because literally a split-second later it once again charged you, only to just… flop onto the ground.

And well... you weren't going to let go of the free meal.

Taking the still sparking corpse back to your den, after ensuring it was still dead, you quickly closed the entrance with a boulder.

Then you sat down and began eating, starting by pulling off the crystalline horn off it's head and munching it down. Because literally every other time you've eaten something crystalline, it's only been good.

Something which has yet to change, especially as you instinctively felt your core tingle as it grows.

[Eternity reactor gained thunder infusion]

(? 3/7)

Though that's not to say that you didn't get something from the body as well, you did. Especially as you chomped down its bones and swallowed the blood that was still left in it's body from it.

Both of them causing your body to let off black smoke for a while.

[Eternity reactor gained Dragon infusion]

Then, finished with the good food and with your fangs tingling, you realise that you're still not full and so you go and retrieve the small lizard corpse you had lying around to fill that last bit of your stomach.

Which it did, even if it wasn't as nice tasting as the previous meal, even causing your core to grow again.

[Eternity reactor gained light infusion]

But still, after the comparatively lesser meal, you still weren't quite full. But you were close enough that you stopped.

With your stomach close enough to full you once again leave your den, this time wanting to go explore that yellow fog bottomed ravine you'd found the other day.

Which you did by going up to the edge and leaping off into the mist.

One thunderous crash later and you found yourself in a place that reminded you of the gore pit, something which had become a distant memory at this point. Except this was far larger, or at least it seemed to be with how you couldn't see the walls of the cavern at all.

Still, forgetting that for the moment, you began to wander around this new land.

Which continued for a while, until you stumbled on an unassuming pool of glowing blue liquid. One of many in this place, though this one was a lot different than the others.

For one, it seemed to be formed from the dripping fangs of a skull so large that the creature it had belonged to could probably have swallowed you whole when it was alive. But it was actually the second thing which actually interested you.

Because, unlike other pools of glowing blue, when you waded through it you found your skin actually itching.

Which turned out to be because it was being melted away, albeit at a slow rate due to you recovering from it as it hurt you. But still that was still far better than any other pools had done… in fact, it gave you an idea.

Ideas that you'd try later as, for now, you climbed back up the ravine to return to your den to sleep.


Day 6

Waking up you take the time to stretch for the moment before getting up. For some reason you feel a bit weird… like something was closing in around you.

But you ignored that for now.

Once again making your way out of your den, you make your way to the specific ravine once again. This time with a plan that'll consume your whole day.

With another leap, huger crash, and short walk you are once again in front of the glowing blue pool.

But before you climb into it to train your recovery, you lean down onto all your limbs and scoop up a mouthful of glowing blue liquid. Then, despite the way it burned in your mouth, you swallowed it.

Because you've yet to really get hurt by anything you've eaten.

But it was a first time for everything, and it burned a lotmore as it went down than it did in your mouth. So much so that you had to go to the side and sit down, feeling it eat into the inside of your stomach even as your recovery fought back against it.

Which it kept doing for a good long while, a time in which you just lay there and ignored the pain.

[Eternity reactor gained Poison infusion]

Eventually though, the liquid you swallowed stopped trying to eat through your belly. Which allowed you to, after taking a breath to let your stomach regrow, finally move onto what you'd planned for the day.

Which was essentially just going and taking a dip into the glowing blue pool to train your recovery and scales.

Which was significantly less painful than drinking it, even at the points when you let your head go below the liquid occasionally and some got into your eyes. Even if going blind for a while was a rather… unpleasant experience.

Still, by the time you left the pool to return to your den and sleep, your recovery rate had overtaken the rate at which the pool ate away at your flesh.

Even if barely.

But still, it was a fruitful day spent strengthening your body, even if the start was painful.

First thing you did for the day was once again head to the ravine and dive off.

But this time you didn't go to the blue pool, instead you went and began to explore the surroundings. This time with a goal in your mind.

Specifically, you tried to find the central area for this location like the one you had found above ground. Something you knew existed here due to noticing the smaller creatures moving towards a specific location.

Which turned out to be the case as you soon found a large amount of smaller creatures congregating in one place.

A bit of looking around confirmed that this was the place.

Once you were completely sure you'd found the central area, which you were, you proceeded to find a sturdy looking wall.

Your intentions being to find a new location for a new den.

Which you found in the form of a purple moss covered wall, which you immediately began to make a hole into with your breath. A decent amount of time later, and you had a clean tunnel in the wall, with completely smooth walls…

Which then immediately proceeded to collapse onto you the moment you stepped in.

It was quite annoying having to dig your way out, mostly due to the fact that you failed.

When you finally managed to dig yourself out of the collapsed tunnel you, instead of just leaving, turned back to the stone filled tunnel.

You weren't going to just leave this as a failure.

Then you began pushing the rocks filling the tunnel into the walls and push them till they turn into the equivalent of hardened walls, feeling slightly warm to the touch. Once you were deep enough you even went ahead and dug a wider area.

All of which you finished by covering the entrance with a random boulder.

Only then were you finally satisfied.

With the den finally done in this new place there was only one thing for you to really do.

Go find some strong prey, which you start doing by walking around.

Only to almost immediately find something that fit the requirement, unlike the wasted time from two day ago. Still, ignoring that, you focused on the prey before you.

One surrounded by smaller creatures, one's you ignored due to the pathetically small amount of threat they posed.

Watching as it slowly wades through a shallow glowing pool, you can't help but look at how strange it looks.

Especially the way that it's body that seemed to be covered in a fleshy red veil and the weird double lower jaw, filled with large fangs, it possessed. In fact combined with the way its large yellow eyes were seemingly completely blank, completely unlike eyes, it made it seem as if…

Closing in on the creature, as far as you could without alerting the small ones around it, you look closer to confirm that you indeed guessed correctly.

Its body was covered in something that seemed to be a distraction.

One which you didn't fall for as you, once more covered in a black inferno, leapt and drove your claws into it's belly, where the covering was the least thick looking. Your burning claws sinking a good distance into it, though not as far as you'd like thanks to the covering, before you did the usual rending motion.

A motion that did a lot of damage, mostly because you put so much force into it that the limb you used snapped into a painful angle.

But you ignored it as it immediately began to thrash around to try to shake you off, something which killed most of it's group of small monsters. Something you were prepared for.

Enough so that you managed to grab it's fake lower jaw and tear it off, spraying blood as a few hooks tore from its actual flesh, before backing off.

And immediately being hit with an almost painfully loud roar, which seemed to be a thing in these lands, before letting out a blast of yellow fog. Most of which wrapped around it in a protective armour.

Except not that protective, since it was just yellow fog.

But apparently it didn't know that, since it decided to blindly charge you at full speed after making it incredibly obvious it was going to do that.

Which, of course, you dodged with little difficulty. But instead of justdodging, you also whipped your tail around to wrap around it's long slender neck and pull. Hard.

Hard enough to stop its charge with a sharp crack, one that was followed by it going limp.

… well. You weren't going to complain that it died easily.

Instead, you just dragged the body to your den, your broken limb snapping into place shortly after you began dragging it, before going to sleep for the day.

[You gained 24110 xp]

[You've reached level 55]

[Achievement: Apex hunter]


Day 8

You woke up to the sight of the large corpse in the corner of your den, a sight that caused you immense satisfaction.

Enough to once again ignore the feeling of something closing in.

Looking at the corpse in the corner, it didn't take you long to decide that you probably weren't hungry enough to eat all of it. And you really didn't feel like splitting it up and eating it in chunks.

So there was really one thing left to do for you.

*Crack*

*Whump*

Huh, it seems that the sound and effect on the surroundings from you cracking your spine has gotten quite a bit stronger.

Not to a troubling level, but still noticeable.

Then, with your stomach finally having enough space it, you finally began eating the corpse.

And you have to admit, it tasted really… weird. Feeling far too mushy to be its flesh while also being oddly tough to chew, especially the membranes in its wings. Not that it stopped you from eating it, but it was weird nonetheless.

And, despite the weird taste, it did improve your core.

[Poison infusion improved]

But it was when you got to the central body, which you left for last, that you actually hit the actually good stuff in the form of a glittering crystal. You didn't even hesitate as you threw it down your gullet and gulped it down in one go.

Something which immediately caused your body to pleasantly heat up.

[Dispersion infusion gained]

With the last of the chewy corpse finished off you once again leave your den, only this time you make for the bottom of the ravine you'd come down here through.

Which you find thanks to the craters at the bottom.

But anyways, after finding the bottom of the ravine, you begin to climb it to make your way out. You intended to hunt for something strong above ground today.

A bit later and you'd found your strong prey. Which was, as usual, unaware of you.

… you could feel the danger radiating from it, much like the steam wafting off it's back first observed the green coloured prey. Noting that it was both bipedal and seemed to have spikes all over its body. Though more importantly, you noted that it's front limbs were too small to stop you if you attacked it from the side.

Which is exactly what you did after sneaking up on it, barely avoiding getting noticed, and slamming into it's side with red flecked black smoke pouring from your scales.

Then, before it even has a chance to react, you clamp your jaws around the thick neck of the creature and release a black and red breath right into it.

It's only after you've vaporized a large chunk out of it's neck that it manages to knock you off with a slam from its, now red gashes covered, side.

Then, as you expected and were prepared for, it let out a deafening roar. Which was unfortunate for it since, because you'd been expecting it, you were already attacking it as it opened its mouth to roar.

So that's how your, now red spark clad, claw tore through the roof of its mouth, and also how you found your claw covered in a twitching corpse.

Once again, you didn't complain about the ease of the fight.

[You gained 46,577 xp]

[You've reached level 57]

Dragging the green corpse, by its thick tail, to the ravine you throw it down before taking a leap down yourself.

Two craters and some more dragging later, you've chucked the corpse into the below ground den and set out again. This time you were going for the glowing blue pool, intending to strengthen your body with its effect.

Which you did by trying to multitask by stretching in the pool. Something which… kind of worked.

Sure, it's likely that if you did only one thing you'd have probably strengthened it more. But you still managed to strengthen both of the things you intended to a fair amount.

… even if it was annoying having to keep your head above the pool while stretching to avoid choking.

Still, as you went to sleep, you were satisfied with the day.


Day 9

You ware up feeling… actually hungry. Something that you haven't truly felt in a long time.

Well, it was a good thing you currently had a large corpse in your den.

Getting up you practically pounce on the green corpse, immediately tearing into its thick tail. Which was delicious.

Despite the corpse looking like it was a plant.

It even caused your core to light up red for a moment, which could only mean something good as you'd come to realise. Though, by the time you finished, you were still a bit peckish.

[Dragon infusion improved]

Once you were finished eating the last of the green corpse you made your way to the bottom of the ravine again and climbed out. This time, instead of hunting, you began exploring the weird place you were in.

Something which you hadn't really done in a while.

This time though, you also had a specific intention for exploring instead of just, getting to know the surroundings. This time, you intended to try to find a different place with different surroundings.

Which you do, or at least start doing, by finding a trail of crystals while walking around. Which you began to follow instantly.

Because of course you were going to follow the trail of crystals.

But regardless, after climbing over various rocks and hills, you soon found the new location you wanted to find. One that looked absolutely great, especially with the large pillars of crystals you could see a short distance away.

Of course, the first thing you did was start munching on the crystals. Starting from the one's nearest to you.

But, for the first time in your life, the crystals failed you.

You felt no heating of your body nor did you feel anything change in your core. But you didn't give up, no, instead you decided to go closer to the large glowing white crystals in the distance.

Eating small bits of crystals as you went closer in hopes of eating something good.

Until suddenly you felt pain as your fangs cracked upon biting one that glowed particularly brightly… and no matter how many times you tried to bite it you weren't able to so much as scratch the crystal. Eventually, after your fangs healed again, you just gave up on it.

But you'll be back, once your fangs are stronger.

It was only when your fangs stopped hurting from your attempt… and failure, at eating the crystals that you actually realised that you were beginning to feel tired.

So, instead of going all the way back to your den which was quite a distance away, you instead searched for a solid wall.

Once you found one, in the form of a wall with a bit of crystal growing out of it, you immediately began using your claws to carve it out. Eating any excess you managed to carve out. Once it was done, with the entrance blocked with an opaque crystal, you finally went to sleep for the day.


Day 10

You wake up to the sound of a loud roar in the distance, one that seems to contain sheer hunger in it as well as a challenge. You could tell, just from that roar, that this creature was strong, definitely stronger than you.

… unfortunately by the time you went outside it was quite, but you remembered the general direction it came from for later.

But first, you needed to prepare for the inevitable fight. Something you start doing immediately by going out and slaughtering anything that moved with a combination of breath, fangs and your tail.

And this time, in addition to the usual small creatures, you also hunt some of the bigger ones. At least, those you though you could eat quickly.

The first of these bigger prey being those annoying molten creature that kept going into the ground, which you ended using your breath to behead when they surface from the ground.

Next were the small fat things that tried to spit explosive molten rock at you when you came up to them. You delt with them by ignoring the spitting in favour of just picking them up and crushing their skulls in your jaws.

Last, and most annoyingly, were the large bipedal ones with exploding scales. Those had the habit of rolling at you out of nowhere, which only got them killed when you used your tail to slam their armoured sides when they were rolled into balls. Instantly killing them.

By the time half the day passed multiple corpses of those larger ones and the literal heaps of smaller creatures in your den meant that you barely had enough space to get in and cover the entrance.

Not that you complained, it was all food after all.

[You gained 192,947 xp]

[You've reached level 62]

It was that very cramped situation in that den that led you to leave for your only other above ground den.

Once there you once again began the process of dealing death to anything you could, especially the larger creatures.

And when it came to larger prey, you found some new ones compared to earlier. The first of which were actually ones you couldn't help but feel were similar to your previous, quadrupedal form, only they were red and looked like they didn't have any skin.

But that didn't stop you from using your breath to vaporise a hole in their heads whenever you saw them, not wanting to deal with them trying to constantly attack you like the first one.

Yet, those went completely out of your mind when you encountered them.

The wings, their beaks, their talons and the fact that the first one you found was attacking something with a wave of ice? It even made similar shrieking sounds to that thing that sent you here!

Well, by the time you were finished, the rest of the corpses in your den here were filled with a lot of their corpses that now had dents and bite marks in their heads.

[You gained 180,834 xp]

[You've reached level 65]

Eventually, after you're satisfied with hunting those things and it's beginning to get a bit cramped in the den, you decide to go to another place to hunt.

And seeing as you only have one other den in this place you quickly head to the ravine and hop off to begin hunting again.

This time though, you decide to be a bit more… quite in your approach, deciding instead to sneak up on prey and use your breath to instantly kill it. Which as it turns out was a great practice, as you not only improved both those things but also got a bunch of larger prey.

Which included a pair of those red ones and a couple that tried to roll at you like the ones you hunted earlier in the day, except they also released blue smoke and were covered in sticky black stuff.

You also managed to get weak black and yellow lizard and the monsters that followed it as you returned to your den there to sleep, but that wasn't much of a difficult task anyways.

Still, you were once again in a cramped den. This time having to sleep in it.

[You gained 283,279 xp]

[You've reached level 70]


Day 11

You woke up to a corpse from one of the pile falling onto your head.

Something which would be quite annoying… if the sheer food there didn't make you quite pleased.

But before you could start feasting on the piles of meat you needed to first actually make space in your stomach.

Which is why you immediately got into a stretching pose, this time even trying to waste as much of your stamina as you could. Something which worked very well, with you feeling like you were starving by the time you stopped stretching.

Though, it was somewhat annoying that some of the corpses fell from the pile due to the shockwaves from your spine.

But, as hungry as you were, you didn't just start eating anything you could get your hands on. No, you instead began to go through the centre masses of each corpse.

The thing you were searching for being crystals, since those were the things that truly mattered.

And you managed to find one in the body of one of the red four legged creatures, which you proceeded to immediately devour along with the actual body itself.

[Eternity reactor gained Exsanguination infusion]

Once you finished it, and were calmer due to your stomach not trying to turn you inside out, you went made your way to the den filled with those corpses. Only to find that none of the corpses there had any crystals.

But that didn't really matter, since you still ate two of them before moving to your third and last den.

[Eternity reactor gained Freeze infusion]

[Unknown 6/7]

Luckily for you, there happened to be another crystal in one of the corpses in that den too. This time inside of one of the molten creature, which predictably improved the heat in your core when you at it, crystal and all.

[Eternity reactor improved Inferno infusion]

With your stomach relatively full and your core stronger than ever you decided that it was time. You were going to go confront the being that had gave that challenging roar yesterday.

So you set out in the same direction as where you vaguely remembered hearing it from, making sure you were quite as you made your way there.

Good thing too, since the enemy you saw looked dangerous enough for you to need the advantage from the ambush. Something that was only reinforced when it immediately began sniffing the air in your direction when you were close enough.

But you weren't about to let it just sniff you out, no.

Instead you, pushing your core harder than you ever had before, you blasted forward with your jaws wide.

And by blasted you meant that quite literally, seeing as your sudden burst of movement caused the air to thicken and then break with a loud boom when you were half way to the barely reacting enemy.

But that didn't matter. What mattered was that your jaws, leaking lightning and venom, clamped around its neck from the side and allowed you to blast it with a sickly purple beam. One that tore off a couple of spikes along with a sizable chunk of its flesh as it tore through and caused your jaws to fangs to bite down on empty air with a painful snap.

And no sooner had it closed that you had to lean back to avoid the claw that swung from below you, the wind from it causing you to squint, and then lash out again with a claw to tear into the creature unaffected by your earlier attack.

Which actually ended up doing a lot more damage than you expected as blood erupted from the furrow you left with your claws like a geyser. Something which was surprising, especially with how unaffected it seemed.

It was because of that surprise that you barely managed to avoid the claw that rushed past your underbelly, with you almost feeling the spikes on its forearm on your stomach. But still, you managed to avoid the attack and thus, for the moment, had it at your mercy. So you, once again pushing your core, slammed it into the ground with you tail, spraying you with shattered spikes.

Then you immediately backed up, poison and lightning fading from your core, prepared for the retaliation!

Which didn't come, as it remained on the floor. Panting in exhaustion.

Which you obviously took advantage as you, with claw sparking again, slamming it into the ground with as much force as you could. Enough so that pain lanced through your claws as they impacted it. But it was worth it since it ended the fight right there and then, with it barely hanging on to life while on the ground.

And as you looked at the practically defeated enemy your mind couldn't help but go back to that moment and how you hadn't gone all out from the start. Then you just grabbed it's head and snapped the neck.

Multiple times even, with it still not immediately dying after the first few snaps.

It was only when it died that you dragged it back to your den, straight past the green bush that'd grown there as you fought it.

[You gained 210,094 xp]

[You've reached level 72]


Hunter POV

'Oh yeah, this is gonna take at least eight hunters,' she couldn't help but think as she watched the monster walk away with the Nergigante body from under her ghille mantle, dragging it like a potato sack.

A monster that was significantly larger than the description she'd gotten from the posting.

'Oh fuck, Par was right about it being a baby wasn't he?' she cursed under her breath, remembering the rantings of the hunter whose name she still didn't know, 'damit, he's gonna be such a smug bastard now.'

Sighing, she threw down a farcaster before hooking onto the wingdrake that came to her. Her mind wandering as she waited to arrive back at Astera, specifically to Interius. The monster that had just eviscerated an elder dragon which scared other elder dragons.

She'll admit, when she'd originally heard about the name decided for what she'd originally thought of as combination of Nergigante and a Deviljho she'd scoffed.

Like sure, this monster had shown itself to take out really strong monsters with casual ease and had wiped out a good chunk of the ecology in the vale, recess and highlands but so what? It was still not something that deserved the name that essentially meant destruction god.

It was just a stronger than normal elder dragon, there was no need to get melodramatic.

… at least that's what she'd though until she'd seen it destroy Nergigante like it was a Deviljho and Nergigante was a Great jagras. The way it's tale produced the same booms Valstrax's were known to do when they were at their fastest.

Honestly, she'd have been ready to accept the name if she'd only seen the size increase. Because if it kept growing like that then just it's size would be fitting for that name, forget the multiple elements it's shown or the fact that it tore apart Nergigant's spike with just the shockwave of it's tail!

Like, holy shit! At this point she ready to argue that it was a baby black dragon.

"Hey partner! How'd the investigation go?" but that was for later because for now she had to talk to her handler, who'd gotten back before her, to get her to inform the fleet commander.

"Well… I don't think Nergigante is gonna be a problem anymore," she began, causing her handler to look at her in astonishment, obviously getting the wrong idea, "but now we may have another problem."

That changed astonishment to confusion, with the following words changing it back to astonishment.



Lizard POV

Once you'd dragged the spike corpse back to your den you once again found yourself in a dilemma.

It being that you were definitely not hungry enough to eat anything just yet. Which meant that you had to go back to stretching to empty your stomach… which you may have gotten too engrossed in.

Which was great for strengthening, but also meant that you stretched yourself right to sleep.


Day 12

You woke up to your stomach trying to literally kill you, which was not a pleasant experience. One made significantly worse since it was the first time you'd ever experienced it.

At least there was food right there.

But as hungry as you were you didn't just start to eat anything you could get your hand on, though it was a close thing. No, you instead actually only grabbed the corpse of the spiky creature you grabbed yesterday and began to munch on in a starved frenzy.

Not even caring for the few times it twitched as you ate it.

Though you did have enough presence of mind to be satisfied with the fact that it had a crystal inside inside it, one that seemed to glow with vitality, before also gulping it down.

[Eternity reactor gained Immortality infusion]

[Unknown 3/7]

It was only after finishing it all that you managed to calm down and realise the changes in your core.

But that was secondary, because now you had to go and finish the last of their corpses. Which you did the moment you arrived at the den that you stored them in.

[Eternity reactor Freeze infusion upgraded]

[Unknown 7/7]

And with that you'd eaten all the corpses of those things. Being all the stronger for it.

Now, with your stomach mostly full, you realised something. You had far too much food to eat in a feasible amount of time.

And it was the moment that you had that realisation that a distant memory came to you. A memory of asking the white demi-human about something. Yes, cooking.

Specifically you remember how the white demi-human had told you about the process, how they used heat on food to improve it. How, the food put in the container was a mixture of stuff that wasn't just meat.

Which is how you knew what to do with the excessive food you have.

But first, you needed something other than the meat, at least according to what you remember. Which is why you began to gather some of those metal bits you've been seeing just sticking out of the ground since you came here.

Once you collected enough of the metal you took it all and went to the area with the crystals, specifically the place you'd caught those creature that dove into the molten rock. Because, according to what you remember, the next step involved heat and a something to hold everything.

And so you dug a large crater into the ground and proceeded to throw all the metal in there along with the magma, some bones you collected, the various corpses, after you retrieved them.

Starting, by instinct, with the magma and the warmer feeling corpses.

Which immediately caused the magma, which you put in the hole first, to increase in heat so much that you actually felt it tingle your scales. Which led you to go look for something long to mix it with, which was also something you needed to do, since you weren't feeling like sticking your hand in that.

By the time you came back with a freshly carved crystal though, there were bushes growing at the edge of your hole from which things seemed to be dropping into the hole.

But you ignored that in favour of adding the rest of the corpses and metals into the mixture while mixing with your new crystal stick, which caused them to sort of merge into the liquid without really increasing the amount in the hole? The liquid was also glowing an uncomfortably bright reddish orange colour that was sparking violently.

It had also caused the bushes to move to the side and line up, though one of the bushes got a fleck of the fluid on it. Of course you ignored that. Still, looking at the fluid in the hole, you realise that you could drink that all now.

So this is what that white demi-human meant by cooking.

[Cooking] skill gained

[Achievement: Occultist] gained


Looking, or at least squinting, at the glowing fluid at the bottom of the hole you take a moment to think on whether you should drink it.

Then you decide to stop thinking and just drink it, something you do in a few short gulps… before immediately doubling over at the sheer agony you feel in your core.

You barely make it back to your, now empty of corpses, den before you fall uncouncious.

[Eternity reactor gained, and maxed, Conflagration infusion ]

[Eternity reactor gained Poison infusion (sleep)]

[Unknown 10/10]


Day 13

When you woke up you felt far, far better than you expected to feel, especially with how you went to "sleep".

Not to mention that you found yourself looking noticeably different, with your scales being darker with light white spots on the skin under them and cold mist all over your form. Which is always a good thing.

Looks like this cooking is indeed something worth doing.

[Personality update: Prefers to "cook" food, especially when it has a lot of it]

Still, ignoring the changes in your body for now you head out of your den. This time looking for another new location to find some new and fresh prey to hunt.

So you began to wander, and continued wandering until you found something new.

Which came in the form of the forest with trees so tall they towered over even you. One filled that was also filled with an incredibly large amount of moving bushes that somehow kept avoiding your feet when you were about to step on them.

[Ancient forest found]

Of course, the first thing you do now that you're in this new area is begin to look around for the main area where everything happens.

Which you actually find relatively quick, what with there being a giant tree, one even bigger than all the others, right in the centre of it. A tree so big in fact that you could walk around on its branches.

You even found way more moving bushes every where, which made sense. This whole place was very green after all.

The next thing you did, after finding the main area of this forest, was to build another den in preparation for what you were going to do next.

The only problem with that was that his place didn't exactly have any large mountains or walls for you to dig into… so you just ran around for a bit and began digging down into it.

Eventually, after a lot of digging and compacting of the dirt you finally had a large underground cavern to act as your den. The entrance of which you covered with a couple of large trees, to ensure nothing got in to steal the food you'll be putting in.

By the time you finished that you'd admit. You've gotten quite good with this whole den making thing.

It was a bit strange that there were no moving bushes around your den though.

[Den Made in Ancient Forest]

With the main are found and a den created here you only had one thing left to do for the day.

So you went out and began to kill any large monster that you could get your claws on. At a certain point you even began to try to sneak up on any that were big enough to slow down the rate at which your newest den was filling up.

And it was during one of those sneaking attempt that a random two leg, or human if you remember right, dropped on you after you were momentarily blinded by a bright flash of light and began trying to… well you don't know what it was trying to do.

You still pulled it off you to get a better look at it, which caused it to stop moving, noting that it smelled different than the humans you remember.

It was also giving of a feeling of surprise and fear.

But really you didn't care what it was feeling, nor did you really feel like actually eating it since humans aren't exactly… nice tasting. Though you do see some small bits of metal on it…

Using your claws you pinch the metal off the human before throwing it aside, and then you move on with your hunts after popping the metal into your jaws.

Which went quite well, with you even finding a couple of those green bipedal lizards. Even if there weren't much prey left in the area by the time you stopped hunting and went to sleep.

[You gained 229,004 xp]

[You've reached level 74]


Day 14

When you woke up it was to the feeling of a phantom pressure all around your body. There was no source for it, but you somehow knew that it meant that you were going to leave this place some time soon.

Something which was a bit of a problem since you also felt a sudden surge of power from the direction you knew the giant crystals were.

Which added something to your already full plans.

Of course the first thing you did was go towards the surge of power. No matter what you had planned for the day, that seemed far more important.

But that didn't mean you couldn't do something for later. By which you meant that, as you were going to the source, you were doing your best to burn the food in your stomach to make space for more later.

And you, somewhat, succeeded in doing by the time you waded to the other side of the river that seemingly led to the source.

Which turned out to be a gigantic ball of light deep in a wall made of those giant unbreakable crystals.

But before you could once again have a go at trying to break them, and probably fail like last time, the entire wall began to crack. Something which was accompanied by the light pulsing before, with a massive crash, a glowing blue creature burst through the whole wall.

One that was accompanied by a burst of heat and… something. Something which you knew to be your antithesis.

You looked at the glowing blue creature that had skidded to a halt in front of you, and was currently snarling at you, with narrowed eyes and a growl at the back of your throat.

It was as big as you, something which was quite surprising with the growth you'd gone through, and gave off a feeling that put you on guard.

Which, on its own, was more than enough for you to take this fight with complete seriousness. The first step of which was you pushing your core further than ever before, enshrouding yourself in a sparking dark gold edged black aura.

Which served as the signal to start the fight, causing it to charge at you at startling speed.

Which you replied to with a gold cored black beam to it's shoulder, sending it tumbling back with a new hole drilled into it. A hole which was leaking copious amounts of glowing blue blood, tinged with a hint of purple all over the crystalline floor.

Which would've been more impressive if the hole didn't look so small on its body, but still. The leaking blood, and the poison running through it, was clearly affecting it.

At least judging by the way it seemed to sway as the two of you circled each other.

And then it fell down unconscious and you immediately took your chance to pounce. Tearing off one of its wings with your claws and using your breath to tear into anything not in your claws range.

Then jumping back as it shot up, chest glowing a furious crimson. Only to be engulfed in a wave of hot blue light and pain.

Pain not from the heat, which was actually quite pleasant, but from something else. Something which almost slithered past your scales and tore into your flesh directly, which you know would've torn much further into you if it wasn't for something in you… pushing back.

Enough that when the light trying to burn you away got less intense you just walked forward, pushing through it, and grabbed the long neck of the creature still spewing it. Immediately cutting off the beam and letting you see the sorry state it was in.

Then you dug your claw into its neck and twisted, snapping it.

Once it stopped moving, the glow from it's body fading, you just stood there, black blood dripping from your rapidly closing wounds.

Then you turned to the skies and roared.

[You gained 627,078]

[You've reached level 79]

[Achievement: Destroyer] gained

[Achievement: Eclipse] gained


By the time you were finished dragging the creature through the lake, and back to the nearest den, you had completely recovered from the wounds you'd taken.

And you were also hungry from your attempt at digesting as much food as possible just before the hunt.

Which meant that, as soon as you were back, you began eating the body that you'd dragged there. Completely ignoring any and all discomfort and feelings of doom you felt as you did so.

You especially ignored the temporary pain you felt in your core when you ate the gem you found in the body.

At least until it got bad enough that you fell onto your side from it.

[Unknown 10/10 (upgraded)]

[Eternity reactor gained Origin infusion]

[Eternity reactor mutated]

[Eternity reactor gained secondary core]

Eventually though the pain in your core faded a bit, and you felt the secondary core pulsing right next to it, allowing you to finally do the next thing you wanted to do for the day.

Hunt.

Unfortunately, while it had faded, the pain in your core persisted enough that it messed with your hunting capabilities. Leading you to barely find anything while hunting.

Barely being a couple more f those small fat lizards, and a couple of small prey that you stepped on.

[You gained 158,192 xp]

[You've reached level 80]

Of course you weren't satisfied with the few fat lizards, especially since you intended to try cooking again.

So you once again went hunting again.

And this time it went well. Very well. So well in fact that you'd once again stuffed the den there with food. More than enough for the cooking you'll do tomorrow.

Especially those annoying blue lizards that you saw flying and shot down.

But for now you went to sleep.

[You gained 527,307 xp]

[You've reached level 83]


Day 15

When you woke up it was to the absolute certainty that you were going to leave this place today. Specifically, the end of thise day.

… well, you got up to get on with the day.

But before you could cook like you'd intended to you felt that, perhaps, you needed some more things. Specific things in fact…

And so you went to the underground area, searching for those particular red, skinless looking, lizard. By the time you returned, it was with a few of those. Along with whatever small creatures you killed and were close enough to pick up.

Now you were truly ready to cook.

[You gained 160,687 xp]

[You've reached level 84]

It was finally time.

Collecting all the corpses you made your way to the place where you'd dug the hole into the ground. Grabbing any metal you saw as you passed through the pink lands.

Once there you dropped the meat and metal next to the hole, then remembered the crystals from that wall of indestructible crystal that the glowing blue creature had come out of.

By the time you came back with as many of them as you could carry you found that the corpses had broken apart for some reason.

But seeing as nothing was missing you just ignored that in favour of grabbing the magma that was past the line of bushes that had grown while you were away. Filling the hole with a decent amount of them. You also ignored the moving bushes as they rolled up to the edge of the hole as you dropped in the hotter corpse bits slowly, causing a burst of heat to go up.

Yet, unlike last time, you didn't even feel the heat.

Instead, you just added everything into there, ignoring the stuff dropping from the moving bushes into the hole, before prodding your core and using your, now dark purple flames covered tail, to move around the fluid.

Which caused a momentary flash of bright golden light to blind you.

Though, once your sight returned, you saw that the pool of liquid inside the hole had turned into a shimmering pool. One that was releasing a pillar of light that stretched into the skies.

For some reason you even heard a humming in the air.

Also, some flecks of the fluid had gotten on the bushes, which were now arranged in a circle around you, but you ignored that like the many things you were already ignoring.

Your attention was focused on the liquid in front of you.

There was no doubt on what you were going to do.

So you simply leaned forward, causing a couple of the bushes to move, and began to gulp down the shimmering gold fluid. And then your body exploded with golden light, one that filled you with great power.

Which was the exact moment that something triggered in you and you felt yourself get pushed sideways. Except not sideways but through something.

The last sight you saw, before your vision was filled with a kaleidoscope of colours, was the bushes shift and warp… before turning into demi-humans!?

[Eternity reactor gained wind infusion]

[Lightning infusion gained and maxed]

[Dragon infusion improved]

[Exsanguination infusion improved]

With that last revelation still burning in your mind you found yourself hurtling through the kaleidoscopic colour, seeing things that you forgot moments after seeing them.

And eventually that tunnel ended and you crashed into ice covered ground.

It didn't really hurt you, though you did feel fizzy from the journey, and you just got up and looked around… only to realise you recognised this place. It was the same place you'd fought that thing…

Which meant you were back.

Your immediate reaction was to go look around for that thing.

You were, after all, far stronger than when you last encountered it. More than strong enough that you could absolutely destroy it…

If you could actually find it!

Because no matter where you looked you found not a sign of that feathered blue thing. After a certain point you were too sleepy to keep searching.

Though, as you went to sleep in the open, you knew that you'd get it tomorrow.

[Soft cap for mutations reached]