5 Chapter 5

Vesuvius woke up and looked up at the sun rising on the horizon.

'Wow, I went to sleep at noon and woke up the next morning... Dragons really sleep a lot.'

Ding!

// Your grew up a little bit!

All of your physical stats increased by 1

//

Then he realized that he had grown bigger once again. His head was at least a fifth of a meter higher than before.

Vesuvius sniffed, noticing the weakening of the smell that was scaring predators from his hatching site, 'This was probably the last night that this place was safe. I need to find some lair.'

His gaze moved towards the mountains on the horizon, 'There should be some caves.'. So he decided to follow the river upstream towards the mountains as it was the fastest way to cross the forest without getting lost inside of it.

Vesuvius took a last look at the place where he was born and started to walk up the stream along the river.

'Huh, what am I doing... I have wings I can fly.'

Vesuvius flapped both of his wings with all the strength he could muster, but he only slightly lifted from the ground before falling back.

He turned his long neck and looked at his wings that had a wingspan of only two meters to each side, 'These wings are too small to support my weight... Wait for a second, I have [Fly] ability, that should be it!!!'

Vesuvius focused on his ability, and innate dragon knowledge of how to fly flooded into his brain. He slowly started to move mana from his soul towards his wings. Immediately small conduits for magic energy in his wings flared up with energy. Then he flapped his wings, lifting from the ground. He turned upwards and slowly flew upwards; wind currents in the surrounding immediately moved and started to push him, allowing him to move faster.

Vesuvius was slowly flapping his wings, stabilizing himself at the height of a fifteen-story building. He looked downwards at the thick canopy of green leaves, excited about his ability to soar through the skies.

Then a small dragon launched himself towards the mountains in the distance. He kept flapping his wings while powerful winds enveloped his body, pushing him upward and forward.

As the small dragon soared through the skies, the mountains quickly grew larger with each second. As he kept accelerating, the ground under him slowly turned into a green and brown blur.

Thirty minutes into the fly, his wings started to feel sore from the continuous flapping, and his mana decreased by almost half.

'This is not good; this way, I will not reach mountains in one go...'

More of the dragon's knowledge of how to fly flooded into his brain. Vesuvius stopped flapping his wings. Instead, he spread his wings as much as he could. The small dragon started to glide, using air currents in the atmosphere to move forward and stay in the air, only occasionally flapping his wings to change direction or increase height and speed.

Soon he reached the mountains, landing on a stone surface at the bottom of the mountain. The temperature was lower compared to the forest down, causing slight discomfort to Vesuvius as he liked a warm environment due to his fire affinity. Surprisingly he couldn't see any cave straight away. But then he caught a familiar smell on the nearby boulder. He approached it and sniffed it from closer.

'It smells like a bear...' then he quickly pulled away his head in disgust, 'bear piss. It probably marked this as its territory. So it means it should have its burrow somewhere here.

Vesuvius immediately started sniffing, catching a strong bear odour from the north. He quickly started to trail it.

The trail led into a dark canyon covered in shadows thrown by tall cliffs on both sides.

"Grrr!" his sensitive dragon hearing caught a quiet growl coming from deeper in the canyon.

'I must be close.'

Finally, he spotted a gigantic bear the size of a small car rubbing its back against a sharp rock. Suddenly a small gust of wind flew from the dragon's direction towards the bear.

Bear sniffed and growled as he caught an unfamiliar smell, "Graaaaah!".

Its massive head turned towards Vesuvius, showing its teeth and drool flowing out of its mouth. It started to run towards him, each of its steps causing nearby stones to shake. Its massive body moved surprisingly fast, even with its multi-ton weight.

Vesuvius quickly analyzed the bear.

//

Analyze result:

Species: Giant Mountain Bear

Level: 10

Danger level: dangerous

//

In the meantime, the bear had already reached Vesuvius and swung its massive arm with claws at him. Vesuvius felt that the pure brute force behind the strike would shatter bones in his body, even with his scales. So he ducked down, letting the paw with claws pass above him. Vesuvius retaliated, using his own claws to cut the bear. His claws dug themself into a bear, but they didn't even pass through the fat under the bear's thick skin, causing only superficial injury.

'Fuck!!! What am I doing here? I am risking my life here in the dangerous melee fight. My attacks are doing small damage, and one mistake can cost me my life!'

Vesuvius retreated and flapped his wings, lifting his body from the ground.

"Graaa!" the bear growled angrily, waving its arms at the small dragon that it couldn't reach.

Vesuvius grinned and opened his mouth. A stream of fire erupted out of them, heading straight towards the bear that widened it's eyes in surprise. Flames quickly enveloped the bear burning its fur.

"Graaaah!" the bear cried in rage and pain.

Vesuvius kept releasing his flames at the bear that was trashing at the ground, trying to extinguish the flames.

[+150XP]

Ding!

//

You gained a title: [David]

Conditions: Defeat an opponent with at least five times greater level.

Effects: All stats increased by 10% when fighting against an opponent with a greater level.

//

'Haha, this how are dragons supposed to fight! Fly above enemies' heads and burn them with an unending stream of flames!'