I recovered my flight after Sensei's unexpected interruption, my thoughts perplexed.
Was he saying that he would protect ?
That just seed strange…and absurd.
As I glided between the trees, I counted the number of tis he had done so, and they were not many.
Sensei was the type to let make mistakes and then correct them afterwards. He was the sa even in my mories as a human and perhaps, this hands off approach had taken an extre turn since our rebirth.
But it was odd that he would say this now.
If he wasn't a system, I would guess that he was drunk.
Why else would he say sothing cringey like this?
I had the suspicion that he was playing a trick, but his serious tone threw off guard.
«You seem surprised.» Sensei said. «What's so strange about what I said?»
Was he kidding?
"Everything." I deadpanned.
«Why? What did I say wrong?»
"That you would never let die." I bluntly replied. "I don't believe it."
«Why would I?» Sensei nonchalantly replied. «You're my precious student.»
This bastard.
My surprise faded, replaced by irritation as I quickly ca to my senses.
I'd already nearly died countless tis because of him!
"Liar! If you don't have anything useful to say, then don't speak at all."
What exactly was I hoping for? That he's suddenly turned over a new leaf?
He likely ant to say, 'you're my precious vessel.'
He hadn't changed at all!
«Why are you upset?» He asked.
"I'm not." I replied and continued to fly without another word.
What a shaless guy! And he had the nerve to be surprised.
Here I thought he'd learnt to feel sothing – but really he was simply getting my hopes up for nothing!
I passed the raised slope where I encountered the elf party, and the steep forest around it, travelling past it until Sylrin's cave ca into view.
It was pretty isolated, the cave situated between rocks and overlooking the forest below. The elf hunting party was no longer present and although I was eager to et my leathery counterpart, I surveyed it from the air before landing, in case of anything I needed to be wary about.
But so far there was nothing.
The area was quiet and noticeably devoid of creatures.
There was a flowing stream by the cave entrance, and I landed there to take a look inside. But to my surprise, the cave was empty.
I scanned it with [Heat Sense] to make sure there was nothing inside. The rocky cavern walls were scorched, and they radiated with heat where noxious fus gathered in a purple fog.
The majority of the cave was burning hot and rendered my [Heat Sense] useless.
Why did it feel worse than a sauna in here?
But suddenly the system dinged.
〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Detox LV 5』has beco『Detox LV 6』〛
And then.
〚Skill Aptitude Increase: 『Heat Resistance LV 3』has beco『Heat Resistance LV 4』〛
Hmm.
Was breathing in the poisonous air that bad? Or the stifling heat clinging to my scales that horrible that both skills had increased?
Where was the dumb lizard?
It was still hot, so he couldn't have gone far.
I looked around the cave, eager to find any clue as to where he went.
As the smoke dispersed, I saw a sliver of light coming from a crack above the cave, but most of it was dark.
Everywhere I looked, the ground was stained with poison and as my vision adjusted, I began to make out other unsavoury things.
In the far end, I found what looked like the scorched remains of a Hesperia. Its carapace was cracked open in large savage bites, and all of its innards were eaten, leaving behind only a hollow shell.
There were more carcasses of all kinds, so of creatures I'd never seen before and others that were familiar. One thing they had in common was that they were all of a similar size as , or much larger.
Hmm…That was a comforting thought.
I looked around in confusion.
The last ti I was here, I was much larger than Sylrin.
So, what happened here in that ti?
My survival instincts were already blaring loudly but I ignored it for now.
Perhaps, Sylrin was no longer here, and I'd wandered into another creature's den?
I began to retreat when I noticed sothing else in the corner.
There were gnarly, chewed bones, the remnants of what looked like a crushed skull and the distinctive shape of a femur attached to a hip bone.
I paid far too much attention in biology class to not recognise that they were human bones and I felt my heart skip a beat as my eyes went wide with panic – this couldn't be Sylrin's den!
He would never do this.
Then my senses picked up a faint, low growl from behind, and before I could even turn around, sothing slamd into with force.
Bowled over on the heated ground, I felt a sharp pain as large fangs clasped around the back of my neck as a smoky hot breath scorched my wing scales.
The system dinged once more as I yelped with pain.
〚Skill Mastery Achieved: 『Pain Resistance LV 9』has beco『Pain Resistance LV 10』〛
Aah!
I strained to turn around but there was sothing heavy pressing against , keeping down.
I slowly succeeded in turning my neck slightly to my side and saw the cave entrance, which was now blocked by the shadow of a large, fearso beast
Such a large monster and I didn't even sense it…and that made go into panic.
The creature must've erged from outside and it managed to sneak up and pounce on before I could even realize its presence.
My heart began to pound. Could I defeat such a scary monster in my current state?
I quickly shook off those thoughts and imdiately generated a poison blade to attack the creature.
But then I heard a deep rumble from above as the beast's wide chest heaved. I felt so of the weight lift off but just as I was about to take a much needed breath, I felt more hot smoke filling the cave, seemingly erging from the beast's maw.
I soon began to choke, as the cave was slowly turned into a blaze of fire.
A plu of noxious fla erged from the creature's mouth, illuminating the cave in a flash of purple and I had a glimpse of the beast's large shadow and the massive height of a clawed, tattered wing drowning the entire cave in darkness.
Another deep rumbling filled the air, followed by a thunderous roar and I was beginning to go into a full blown panic.
What the heck was such a fearso beast doing in Sylrin's cave?
Wait, the creature's scent was vaguely familiar, but everything else was wrong.
Was this... Sylrin?
No… he was not this big, and he had no wings.
Did he... evolve?
If this wasn't him, was he eaten by this monstrous creature? And I'm about to beco its al too?
The heavy weight of the monster on , made feel I was much closer to being smothered first!
I tried not to struggle as more noxious fus began to seize the last few breaths out of my lungs.
But then, as if I was pulled out of a nightmare, the weight was lifted off and I could breathe again.
Then I felt myself getting tackled by tough claws and turned around to face the beast, bringing up close to its searing hot breath.
I winced in recoil as I examined the creature, while gathering my energy to launch a poison blade at a mont's notice.
There were several rows of sharp teeth, inside a mouth that burned with purple fla. Its body was covered with hard bristly scales that overlapped, with several spiked growths alongside its pitch-black leathery skin.
The creature's eyes blazed a greenish golden hue, but they were overshadowed by the large leathery wings tipped with sharp claws, and the powerful winged arms that held in place.
A Dragon?
No...
Its tail was excitedly wagging behind it and that gaze was far too playful, which was a dead giveaway!
This big, dumb-scary lizard.
When did he get so big? What level was he now?
Several questions needed answering, and I ignored the tiny squeal going through my head, because first of all, he did not deserve it!
The arrogant brat of a drake was still clutching like I was his toy!
I hissed loudly to show my anger, hoping to get him off , but Sylrin stayed put, seemingly grinning as he continued to stare at proudly.
The heat radiating off him was incredible. Standing taller than twelve feet, he filled the entire cave. If not for the fact that he had leathery wings in place of his front limbs, I would have thought I was staring at a dragon.
Eventually, he let go free and my scorched scales were able to breathe.
There was no way he had evolved more than once, because it was simply too soon – which only ant he was a fast growing monster.
Was the attack payback for getting larger than him?
Heh...So he took that much offence that he decided to grow even bigger.
Aside from being larger, I was curious to find out how much stronger he had gotten.
But in my current state, duelling him was out of the question.
What had he been up to? I couldn't believe he'd been killing mortals.
I suppose I never told him not to go after them.
I tried to question him using [Commander] but he didn't seem to understand as he tilted his head to give an amused look, before strolling past to move deeper into the cave.
He then let out a roar to scorch the ground with flas, before settling down to rest.
Was this brat ignoring ? I couldn't believe it!
Did he think he could make fun of , just because he had grown a little?
I slithered over to him in anger, generating a poison blade to shoot at him.
However, instead of moving, he stayed put, peeking at with one eye open with an amused smirk on his face.
My poison blade sizzled off his scales but the shallow cut that appeared was regenerated almost instantly.
I was gobsmacked. I wanted to examine the wound closely, but Sylrin got up before I could.
He swerved around at an incredible speed and grabbed hold of my tail, much to my annoyance yanking over to his side to rest beside him.
I stared in shock at the lizard that was now fast asleep, his large wings resting over my head.
«A sleepover? How cute.» Sensei dryly remarked.
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