Chapter 28: This forest really can’t give me a break.

Chapter 28: This forest really can’t give me a break.

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Spark Inferno Dragon, Hestia Atsuko] has risen from [Level 0] to [Level 2]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Acquired 1000 skill points

Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Singing Lv. 4] [Dancing Lv. 2] [Accuracy Correction Lv. 5] [Detection Sensor Lv. 2] [Tracking Lv. 2] [Sundering Enhancement Lv. 2] [Piercing Enhancement Lv. 2] [Royal Etiquette Lv. 2] [Dismantle Lv. 7] gained

Terra Wall! Terra Wall! Terra Wall! Terra Wall!

Calling out the name of one of my earth elemental spells, four walls of sturdy earth erupted from the ground, surrounding me and Saori in a cube-like formation.

Despite being in my human form, I easily tore off one side from the ground and threw it up in the air, landing perfectly on the top of the remaining walls. I have just made an impromptu shelter with magic and brute strength.

Urgh, thank goodness, I made it in time. A bit longer and the rain might have doused my dress.

["Considering how often it rains in this forest; your need for proper clothing has become even more essential. I must train [Mana Weave] and [Sewing], posthaste!]

A week has gone by, ever since I received my new name. I and Saori have, in our pursuit to find the exit out of this forest, been mostly wandering around this forest, killing any monster we could find for experience.

When I had my first real flight above the forest, I was able to see the layout of the forest, so Ive been directing us towards one end of it, in this case, were going towards the large gap or valley that I saw.

However, it has been, well, one month now. My memory of the sight is crystal clear, but we have no idea in which direction were going, so its more or less us wandering around the forest, aimlessly.

Now, youre gonna ask; why not fly? Well, it seems my left wing hasnt been able to heal after the battle with the garm, and no matter how many times I use healing spells on it, it wont heal.

Its called [Damaged Mana Paths [Left Wing] (Minor)], and Ive noticed that I havent been able to pour a lot of mana through it.

Casting spells using my left wing is difficult and strengthening my wing to help me fly is impossible. Ive lost my ability to fly, just after I learned how to do it semi-properly.

Life is unfair

Anyways, thats the reason why Im not able to ascertain our location. I could climb the trees, or use [Wind Blast] to boost me up into the sky, but I havent considered it cause Im a bit scared of falling down.

That landing was seriously terrible, he he.

[The rain seems to be very intense today.] Saori said, using [Telepathy] to inform me about the weather. [I think we might as well make camp for today, Hestia.]

I nodded and began taking out our crude cooking equipment and some wood for a fire.

[Hey, Saori] I was, now, also using [Telepathy], as the sound of the rain pouring down fiercely, banging onto the roof of our shelter, was loud enough to drown out my humanized forms voice. [Im perfectly fine with a simple one-piece. Using [Telepathy], maintaining [Humanize Lv. 6], and using [Pyrokinesis] to create a dress is quite a toll on my mana, in fact, my mana recovery isn't enough to keep up with my expenditure.]

The amount of mana I need to spend to maintain my humanized form is directly dependent on which form I take. The more dragon-like I look, the less mana I need; whereas the more human I look, the more mana I need. I have full command over which form I want to take, but I can only speak when I use [Humanize Lv. 6], unfortunately.

Normally, it would be perfectly maintainable if I spoke with Saori using my voice, but [Telepathy] can take up a lot of my mana, especially when Im sharing it with Saori for her own usage.

Imitating the reason why I took up my wood carving hobby, Saori bought [Mana Weave] and [Sewing] to learn how to moderate her new strength. Surprisingly, it was one of her past-time hobbies in her past life, so shes pretty good at it.

These two skills allow her to produce strings of her own mana, which she plans to use as the fabric for any future clothing. As this mana fabric can be freely controlled by the wearers mana, we understood that this might be the only clothing choice we have, as [Humanize] will definitely rip any normal fabrics upon our transformation into monsters.

I want her to make me something to wear, so I dont need to expend mana on this flame dress here.

[I understand, Hestia.] She spoke without turning her head to me, still having enough spare focus to meticulously prepare our meal. [However, I want you to look beautiful in it, majestic just like a princess from fairy tales.]

[Urgh, what?] I scratched my head in confusion at what she said. [Saori, Im ok with the whole 'Princess and Retainer' roleplay, but I really have no intention to become a real one. It was only a joke.]

Honestly, I could care less about what I wear. If its comfortable and not too unwieldy to move in, then Im perfectly ok with whatever its design is. Simple is better.

[Yes, but I cant stop imagining your potential!] She was squirming around in excitement, joy clearing showing on her fur-covered face. [The design, the colors; should it fit into the medieval world, or should we take some modern inspiration; or what about mixing them?! Ahhh, I cant wait to dress you up, Hestia!]

Am I supposed to be a dress-up doll for you?! I internally screamed.

[You might want to first get [Humanize], Saori. Sewing doesnt look easy with paws.] I retorted.

[I must admit it is a challenge to do so but [Humanize]s steep cost of 700 SP means I will require more time to eventually buy it. There are far more useful skills that I prefer, right now.] Her previously waggling tail was now lying limp on the ground, showing how disappointed she was about her lack of SP.

[Hestias Retainer] allows, Saori, access to my discounted SP cost blessing from my [Bearer of Kargryxmors Blood] title. [Humanize] would have cost her 1400 SP, otherwise.

I sighed, massaged my temple, and left the topic at that. This is something the future me can handle cause Im not in the mood to argue with her

Instead, I went ahead and organized some of the wood into a pile. Holding one finger from my left-hand upside down and one from my right hand against it, I could hear my sickle-like claws caressing each other, making a sound like rubbing a stone against another.

One, two, threebang!

Holding them firmly together, I struck them against each other, just like striking a match against a matchbox, and a flame was produced without using mana. This is the same process I would have done to activate [Spark Claws] but without using mana, the flame will be weaker and smaller. Out of combat, its a very handy ability that my body can do.

Finished with creating the campfire, I went close to the edge of the shelter and opened my [Storage Magic] to collect the falling rainwater.

Strangely, I havent found a single lake or river in this forest. Normally, I would have already run out of water by now, were it not for the fact that the forest has been raining very frequently ever since I left the cave. Honestly, considering the humidity and how much cooler it has gotten, it does remind me a bit of September in New York. Mostly, a guess, though.

As refilling our water storage will take a while, I'm also maintaining my claws right now. Using them in combat or outside of it will cause some wear and tear and the overall sharpness will drop. Ever since I became a [Young Spark Fire Dragon], having dull claws feels incredibly irritating; its like this itch on your back that you cant get rid of cause you cant reach it. That sorta irritation.

At the start, I learned quickly that the only way to sharpen my claws was using either my fangs or jaw fangs. Other materials in the area werent hard enough or they were too rough, on the other hand, my fangs were perfect as if they were made for sharpening duty.

The process is also pretty easy. Tightly grip the underside of the claws with the back of the fangs, and then just slide them around until its sharp again. Like a grinding wheel. Easy.

I just need to be careful if I do it in my human form. Its not a very pleasant experience when you pierce the inside of your own mouth.

Come to think of it, what are my claws made from? What are my fangs made from?

If I remember the things, I learned from school correctly, the sparks caused by striking my claws and fangs together are due to exposing a certain object to oxygen, pyrophoric is the name I believe.

If you take a flint or steel as an example, the pyrophoric is the steel, or to be more precise the iron inside it. Iron can spontaneously ignite in the air, causing those little fire sparks that you see.

Animal nails and claws are composed of keratin, an organic matter. It doesnt just catch fire by being exposed to oxygen.

My nails are definitely not made entirely from keratin, and my fangs aren't normal teeth. They must have something in them that is easily flammable, otherwise, physics makes no sense! Or this world's physics is completely different due to mana and I'm overthinking here

But what if I do have something like iron inside my nails and fangs. Dont they get used up every time I use [Spark Claws] or [Spark Fang]? My body has to be producing them, but where am I getting all that iron inside my body. If Im already eating iron, then what is the source?

What if I can eat stones. Not every stone has iron in them, but maybe there are other pyrophoric minerals inside my body, and this stone might have them.

Should I eat this stone?

My parallel minds are pleading me not to do itbut my body is telling me yes.

Following my gut feeling, I picked up a nearby stone and brought it to my mouth. Opening it, I was ready to bite into it.

Well, itadiki

I froze. I sat there, motionless, mouth hanging and the stone already touching my teeth. Cold sweat slowly forming.

I swallowed my saliva and began turning my body to the side in a robotic manner. What confronted my eyes were two large, black, animalistic eyes, silently judging me.

It was Saori

Blink. Blink. Our eyes were blinking, pouring rain sounds filling the air, no one was speaking. Staring each other down, I could feel myself being drenched in cold sweat, knowing nothing about Saoris current thoughts right now.

I wanted to avert my eyes from her gaze, but it was difficult, my anxiety of looking-like-an-idiot made me unable to move. I wanted her to say something to dispel this awkwardness.

Seconds began to count down, and those piercing, garm eyes kept my body paralyzed. Eventually, I realized that Saori wasnt able to speak cause Im not supplying her with the mana needed to use that skill, but I couldnt move, as I felt too awkward to do anything else at this moment.

[Hestia.] Deciding to break the silence by using her own mana, Saori spoke. [Please continue.]

What the hell?!

["I am also a bit interested in what will happen if you were to eat that rock. Will your body melt it, helping you acquire the minerals inside it? Or will it cause a stomachache?"]

Kuck, thats not what I expected her to think about. Isnt she worried about the problems that will happen if my experiment here fails? How could you allow a princess to do this?

Urgh, now I cant help imagining her expecting eyes pressuring me to continue with this dumb idea.

Oh, well. Itadikimasu. (Thank you for the food.)

Mhmph!

With a satisfying crunch, my teeth had no problem breaking a chunk off it. Inside my mouth, I could hear my teeth grinding and breaking the stone chunk into smaller pieces, crushing most of it into dust. It was very painful, to be honest, not for my teeth but my gums werent enjoying it one bit. The rough edges and crushed pieces damaged the inside of my mouth, telling me that I was doing something extremely wrong.

Either I was eating the rock wrong, or I was not supposed to eat it in the first place.

[It tastes so bad!] I cried out. The taste was mostly bland, but the texture of this meal made it into an unforgettable memory.

Enduring through the pain and taste bud killing texture, I managed to eventually swallow the whole thing with a little help from wetting my mouth with rainwater. I then threw the stone as far away as I could, in frustration.

[That was a bad idea] Saori only looked at me, nodded to my words and turned back to continue dinner prep.

You know, thinking about it, our main source for iron has to be red meat, right?

Yeah, weve been eating a ton of it.

We dont need to eat anything hard to get that source of iron to produce fire with our body.

Hearing my parallel minds figuring out the real answer for my source of iron, was kinda embarrassing. I really was overthinking it

The next day is gonna be roughurgh.

Needless to say, I was unable to move and fight the next day. It was honestly the most painful shit Ive ever had

*******************

As if it heard me, a [Long-Crested Ambusher Chameleon] came running at me, preparing its main weapon, the long crest, to strike me. I planned to use [Flame Spear] to pierce it but my incantation was interrupted, as the still-alive, chameleon under me struggled.

It bit my leg, putting his weight into it and pulled my body down to prevent me from dodging the incoming attack. It then swung its tail at my head, slapping it to the side with a dull sound; which distracted me long enough for the other chameleon to send me flying away, fortunately, in the process, my claws tore off the armored chameleons throat.

Experience has reached a breaking point. [Young Spark Inferno Dragon, Hestia Atsuko] has risen from [Level 3] to [Level 4]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Acquired 500 skill points

All attacks were blocked by my barrier, so it neither hurts nor did it do anything to me besides shaving off a bit of mana. Still, magic doesnt make me immune to the law of physics.

Controlling the air using [Aerokinesis] I made it shift my body around, helping me recover from that attacks recoil. At the same moment, a large cloud of smoke began spreading through the area, covering me and blocking my eyesight.

This trick would be fatal if I didnt have [Detection Sensor]. Annoyed, I fully spread out my wings and blew away all the smoke using [Aerokinesis] to support me.

Some chameleons were shooting poison shots at me, but I wasn't paying them any attention, instead, I swung my neck around, searching for Saori.

Shesshes not here?! Where is she?!

I had my parallel minds widen the search area, finally finding her signal being dragged around by a different one.

Something kidnapped her!

With my interest in this group of chameleons vanished, I began making my way towards Saori's signal, however, it seems the chameleons won't allow me to do that.

The chameleon with the long crest, once again, readied himself to strike me, and swung its flail-like crest at me, believing that it can take me out, while my attention was focus somewhere else.

Spark Flame Veil. Activate!

My internal body temperature began to heat up, causing the very air to catch on fire. From my observation, it seems like tiny particles, probably a pyrophoric, were being released from the inside of my scales, swarming around me using my mana as an anchor.

I wasnt using a ton of my mana in this process but stamina, on the other hand, decreased at an alarming rate the longer I had it activated.

In the split second I activated this skill, sparks of fire blocked the chameleons attack, with shockwaves, and caused his crest to catch fire.

Fuck off!

I ignored his wails of pain and simply used my tail to slap him away. I then cast [Flame Explosion] to reduce its body to ashes, leaving nothing for the insects to feed on.

As the other chameleons kept being persistent about killing me, a couple of [Inferno Blast] was needed to end this farce. My System was making bing sounds, indicating that I have leveled up; I was as interested in that, as I was interested in the fact that another forest fire happened cause of me.

Experience has reached multiple breaking points. [Young Spark Inferno Dragon, Hestia Atsuko] has risen from [Level 4] to [Level 8]

Attributes have increased due to level up

Acquired 2000 skill points

Saori, Im coming!

I re-casted [Haste], although it hasnt expired yet, and started to run with all my strength towards the location of the signal. There was no time to lose.

I'll rip the head off from that damn lizard if it harmed a single hair on her fur!

When I arrived at the location of the signal, I saw two bodies lying on the ground. One belonged to a, now dead, [Poison Spitting Chameleon] and the other was a black garm.

[Saori!]

Identify!

Saori's Status Board

Profile:

Name: Saori Segawa

Level: 20

Race: Young Garm

Age: 1 Month

Status:

Health: 331/731 (+422) Mana: 0/316 (+160) Strength: 489 (+278) Intelligence: 189 (+137) Vitality: 299 (+171) Wisdom: 305 (+186) Agility: 571 (+306) Stamina: 81/491 (+204) Effects: [Mana Stress (Minor)] [Arcane Fever (Modest)] [Poisoned (Minor)] Skill Points: 2050 (+1350) Skill: Magic skills and related

[Arcane Mind Lv. 1] (New)

[Mana Control Lv. 2] (New)

[Dark Magic Lv. 3] (New)

[Cast Revocation Lv. 1] (New)

[Mental Stability Lv. 1] (New)

[Mental Warfare Lv. 1] (New)

Physical skills and related

[Mana Strike Lv. 1] (New)

[Enhanced Claws Lv. 4] (+2)

[Enhanced Fangs Lv. 4] (+3)

Senses and movement skills

[Primal Senses]

[Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 3] (New)

[Evasion Lv. 3] (New)

[Acrobatic Lv. 3] (New)

[Prediction Lv. 3] (New)

[Terrain Maneuvering Lv. 2] (New)

Resistances

[Physical Resistance Lv. 2] (New)

[Pain Resistance Lv. 2] (New)

[Poison Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Arcane Corruption Resistance Lv. 2] (New)

[Fire Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Earth Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Wind Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

[Dark Resistance Lv. 1] (New)

Stat growths and related

[Health Recovery Lv. 1] (New)

[Mana Recovery Lv. 1] (New)

[Stamina Recovery Lv. 2] (New)

[Enhanced Health Growth Lv. 2] (New)

[Enhanced Mana Growth Lv. 2] (+1)

[Enhanced Strength Growth Lv. 2] (+1)

[Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 2] (New)

[Enhanced Vitality Growth Lv. 2] (New)

[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 2] (New)

[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 3] (+2)

[Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 3] (+2)

Others

[Identify Blocker Lv. 1] (New)

[Identify Lv. 2] (New)

[Mana Weave Lv. 1] (New)

[Sewing Lv. 1] (New)

[Royal Etiquette Lv. 1] (New)

[Cooking Lv. 4] (New)

[Dismantle Lv. 1] (New)

[Telepathy]

Spell List:

[Dark Bolt] [Dark Tendrils] [Shadow Dash]

Titles:

[Belzacs Successor] [Otherworldly Reincarnator] [Hestias Retainer]

Arcane Fe-Fever?!