I woke up, still lying down in the little burrow under the redwood tree. Shaking my head to release the last bit of fatigue in my body, I started to make my way to the surface. A part of my mind was nagging that I forgot something important, but I ignored it, I couldn’t place my attention on something that would take my mind away from the situation I’m in. Looking around, I decided to head away from the ant colony, going east from where I first went to discover the little scout group from the colony, trying to get close now would be monumentally stupid.

I was walking for only about 20 minutes when a huge eagle cry came from the sky, the piercing sound felt infinitely close to my own ear. I immediately jumped into a thicker part of the underbrush, trying my hardest to stay still and hope the Eagle in the sky would ignore my small body. I stuck as close to the ground as possible, the cry still ringing in my ear, it was an instinctual response to get away from any danger as soon as possible, but any movement would alert the gigantic Eagle.

I moved my eyes, slowly so as to not trigger anything, to look at the gigantic Eagle perched on a branch. It had dark brown feathers, with a fully black head and yellow eyes. The claws were each a meter long and were gripping on the branch of a redwood, one that was especially large, most likely to help support the mass of the Eagle. It was 20 meters tall, from head to its talons and scanned through the environment. I had no delusions that the monster wouldn’t be able to see me, but the effort it would take to kill me would expend more energy than it was worth, or so I hoped.

The Eagle stayed there, moving its head and eyes for nearly 7 minutes, but it felt like 7 hours. My beating heart was pounding out of my chest, the sound close to my ears felt louder than it was. Eventually, the Eagle released its cry again before rushing off to an area behind me, I moved my head slightly to see where the Eagle was about to go. It landed down on a creature, one I didn’t even know the name of. It was also decently large, about 5 meters from head to tail, and had gigantic spines atop its back. It had grey skin, with a few mottled spots of green running along its sides, with the tail tapering off to a sharp point. The head was similar to the rest of the body, but it had two tusks on its pig-like face, or it looked like the one I killed a few days ago.

The creature, who’s name I didn’t know, disregarded its lying down position and started to run off. The tail that was gleaming in the sunlight shot something out of its point, I was too far away to tell but the Eagle flew to the side and kept its chase going, for not very long because in the next second the strange creature stopped to hold his ground, seeing that the Eagle would come face it soon. The creature, now facing the Eagle wanted to try its best but the Eagle, not seeming to care, did something I didn’t expect. The Eagle channeled electricity through its wings, and shot it through the tips of its wings, directly hitting the creature. It was fully paralyzed, with the Eagle pushing it on its back, and carrying it off, most likely to let one of its children get the kill, and then flew off.

After waiting for 15 minutes to make sure the Eagle was well and truly far away, I started to move again. The incident with the Eagle was the first time I saw a monster fully use magic in their fighting style. Shuddering at the thought of the Eagle, I looked around and was more alert than ever. The previous encounter served as a reminder that I should be more alert than ever, I have grown slightly stronger than when I first hatched, but still nothing compared to others. Sadly, every other creature will most likely also be hiding around so any chance of me catching something I could take on anytime soon is miniscule. Sighing a bit, I went back to walking while being alert of every sound around me.

After about 14 hours of resting for a bit and walking, I was tired and the fatigue was starting to hit me. The area I was in was slightly different, the number of trees around me was slightly less than the area I was born, and so far lived in. The ground I was walking on, while normally slightly went felt more hydrated than usual, and the monotonous tone of the gigantic trees was broken up by some newer trees, far shorter than the towering behemoths of nature. This will probably mark the end of the redwood forest I’m in, though I don’t think I am anywhere near a human civilization if these monsters are this abundant.

Looking around, I found a little hollow inside a redwood tree and wanted to sleep inside it, which would be far safer than anything else I could think of. Climbing up around 23 meters to the hollow. Looking inside, I saw a little gleam and instantly removed my head from the hole. A small snake head shot out to where I stuck my head inside the hollow, sweat was forming on my head, any slower and it would have bit me. The snake went back inside the little hollow, it wouldn’t chase me for no reason.

I pondered for a bit on what to do, the snake was dangerous and wouldn't leave for no reason, but I would be a sitting duck for anything to kill me were I to sleep outside. Eventually, I just decided to bury a hole and lie inside it. It was ironic, one of the fiercest Apex predators having to dig a hole to avoid other predators. Laughing at the situation allied me to take my mind off the monotonous process of digging, and when I focused again, it was already done. I laid down in the little burrow and went to sleep.

When I woke up, nothing much had changed and I continued on my trek to this new biome. The soil was getting more and more wet, with the amount of redwood trees also decreasing, to the point the only ones I could see were in the distance behind me. This new area was more of a swamp, filled with murky waters and trees with roots sucking nutrients from the depths of the waters, but it was still mostly wet land I could walk on. Looking at the scenery was nice, there was a bird flying through the sky but it was about the size of the first Lesser Horned Eagle I first found. It was definitely stronger than that one I saw though, carrying 2 lizards about the size of me within its talons quite easily.

Lurking around, avoiding the gaze of the bird in the sky, I found something very interesting, the birds nest of chicks. I staked out near it for half a day, seeing the bird taking care of them by itself. I had an extremely tempting idea, but I didn’t know whether I could take on the large bird by myself. I decided to bite the bullet and enact my plan, it would be a massive boon if I could take on and kill this larger bird and its children. The bird left in the morning to hunt down some food for itself, the perfect opportunity for me.

I went to the nest and took 2 of the 7 chicks, leaving the other 5. The 2 chicks I took with me were very small, small enough that I could kill them easily, and I did. Their dead bodies would do wonders in angering the bird protecting them, so with a snap of the neck, the 2 chicks were dead and I held one in my mouth. I waited for a while, and the large bird came to its nest. The sharp gaze it normally held became angered immediately, noticing the 2 missing chicks. When I was around 10 meters away from it, the farthest I could activate my skill, and I did just that.

Lesser Storm Osprey Lv12

A bird, similar in nature to the Lesser Horned Eagle, but primarily feeds upon marine life. They are born with a small organ to harness electricity, and eventually control the power of storms.

Interesting, the bird I saw earlier was the evolution of this thing? Calming my heart, any memory of that large storm bird I encountered makes my heart race with fear, and holding the chick in my jaws more firmly, I walked out of the undergrowth to the Osprey. The Osprey, who was already quite angry when she saw the 2 children missing, became absolutely livid with the sight of one of her chicks in my mouth. She was 2 meters tall, but her wings had a wingspan of 6 meters made her look far larger than she actually was. The Osprey immediately pounced towards me in an attempt to dislodge the chick in my mouth, but I was prepared and was already moving when she was just starting to jump. I went to her nest, spat out the chick in my mouth and killed 2 more with my claws.

The Osprey became incensed, rushing towards me without much regard to her own health. Perfect, was what I thought before I stepped to the side of her mindless charge. I wasn’t fast enough though, with one of its talons burying deep into my back. The pain was to the extreme, more than anything had done to me so far, but I stamped down the pain and anger that brewed in my mind, I couldn’t afford to get distracted now. With the talons stuck in my hide, I agonizingly turned around and bit at one of the wings of the Osprey, hearing the successful snapping of bones which was blissful to my ears.

The Osprey, now regaining some of her sanity, realized how bad the situation was turning but still wasn’t going to abandon her kids, and this familial love is exactly what I counted on. Slightly grinning, I started to rush to the nest, but she knew what I was trying and immediately went to stop me, but I never intended to get to her kids, I only wanted to cripple her. I changed my course from the nest to one of her legs, and snapped down hard. A crunching sound was heard, and blood spilled into my mouth, imbuing the inside of my mouth with the flavor of her blood which tastes especially sweet at the moment.

Her eyes, still partially angry before, regained all their clarity, but while she was distracted by the injury on one of her legs, I went and bit down on the other one, fully crippling her movement. She was now trying to flap one of her wings to move to her nest, trying to get her children away from the threat that was me. Good, this situation was exactly what I wanted her to become, too focused on her children. Smiling a bit, I rushed to her nest and killed 2 chicks in front of her, trying to get her to release the last bit of energy she had, but soon after I realized it was a mistake, her eyes were signifying her apocalyptic rage and she tried her best to kill me, using more energy than what I thought was left. The love of a mother for her children was one I truly underestimated and got slashed by her talons twice, but she was essentially crippled so I ran away from her current incensed state and waited for her to lose all of the energy left in her.

She lost it pretty quickly, her energy was waning far before the last desperate struggle against me. She fully died in front of me, and I took her body away from the scene of the fight, quickly eating the meat off her body, her meat was sweeter than anything else I had tried before, and so were her bones. After disposing of the body, the fatigue and pain set in which made moving an excruciating experience. I barely got to the little hole I used in this area, the residence of a rodent about my size before I took it over. I checked my status after the fight, it was sure to have a decently sized upgrade and allowed me to check all the changes at once.

Status: Healthy(Alive) Level: 13(15 for next evolution)

Name: None Race: Lesser Wyrm

HP: 167

MP: 212

Stamina: 318

Titles:

The last of your species: +25% Exp gain in total

Ancestor of the Primordial Dragon: +1% stats against every enemy(Upgraded the higher up in the evolutionary line)

Provoker: More likely to enrage others (Gained due to your actions in the world)

Stats:

Strength: 92

Agility: 38

Vitality: 73

Charm: 10

Intelligence: 31

Skills: Skill points: 5

Observer’s eye Lv3: Can look into other people’s status. Gained due to your innate sense as a fledgling Dragon

Cut Lv5(Passive): Your claws become sharper, sturdier and more useful

Bite Lv6(Passive): The teeth in your maw will become sharper, sturdier and more useful

Innate mana manipulation Lv1(Passive): Your heritage is filled with the blood of the Primordial Dragon, mana comes naturally to you as naturally as it is for you to breathe.

Hatchling mana sense Lv3(Passive): The Dragon’s have an innate sense for mana, starting from only having weak hints to sensing the tiniest speck of it on the other side of the world.

Looking at the stat changes, I was feeling amazing, like I was on the top of the world. My whole body felt more maneuverable, and it has become slightly stronger. I couldn’t dent one of the redwood tree’s when I was first born, but I could get a slight crack after my ant killing expedition. I would be even stronger now, but the experience of the large bird in the redwoods stamped down the minute amount of pride I held in myself. Sighing, I settled down to sleep.