Waking up without any interruptions in sleep was blissful, even if we were only in a raggedly old camp, good sleep is a blessing around these parts of the swamp. Getting out of my little tent, and glancing around camp was depressing, of the 10 children that came with me and Zeler for their practical exam, 7 were too arrogant and got themselves killed over stupid things. One was too much of a sightseer and got themselves and 3 other people killed in an ambush before me and Zeler could help them out. Shaking the memory out of my head I went to wake up the last girl who was smart enough to stay away from most dangers, named Helena, along with Zeler who was in his own camp.

The two made some mild resistance to being woken up, but they eventually got themselves up from the fatigue of last night and joined me in packing up all we have. Helena muttered some complaints, but I ignored it and Helena went back to work. Zeler came up to me and asked “Hey, Ash, today is the last day right?”I nodded my head and a glint of joy could be found in his expression, we made good time and packed up all the items at camp, we were finally returning to the Magic Academy from this godforsaken swamp. While walking, Helena and Zeler kept talking among themselves, mostly to distract them from the brutal scene of the other students’ deaths. I understood why they did it, any escape is a good thing. People would have been killing themselves far easier if they didn’t take escapes from our job, seeing students die messes up your psyche and I’m no different.

I was paying attention to the underbrush and murky waters of the swamp, ambushes have killed far too many people for me to not pay attention. I saw a weird lizard, 2 meters long but it wasn’t paying attention to us and needlessly being aggressive to a monster would only drain us of our energy, so I disregarded its presence and continued on my trek out of the swamp. Zeler also noticed, but he was as professional as me and did the same thing as I did. Helena didn’t notice it, she was talking with Zeler about the Academy and the lizard was too well hidden for someone of her caliber to notice anyway.

After a light trek, the soil was starting to get a little less moist, with better areas to put our feet. Our moods lightened a little, and then Helena asked me “Ms.Ash, I-I have to go to the bathroom.” she had a little stutter but nothing imparining, I nodded and told Zeler what she said. He also nodded, Helena went to a place slightly farther away from Zeler and did her deed while I watched over her. Zeler was standing by himself, and I was slightly worried for his safety, this was his first expedition into the swamp and I didn’t know if he would be ok, but I chose to trust him and stand guard near Helena who would be swallowed up by the creatures of the swamp instantly.

She eventually finished and walked in front of me to meet Zeler, they were closer in age and got along better than me and her ever could. I was paying attention to the surroundings, but Helena’s scream caught me off-guard for a millisecond before I rushed to her and shouted “What’s wrong!?”, but it looked like nothing was attacking her. She was as pale as the moon at night though, so I went next to her to see what happened and then the smell hit me, a strong hit of iron. Zeler’s body, without his backpack, was what awaited me, mutilated by claws and nearly decapitated with his neck barely hanging on.

Frowning I approached his body, and completely focused on everything around us. He was definitely dead, and while it was sad, we couldn’t stay here. I turned to Helena to tell her that we need to be moving, but she was gone from where she stood. My frown only deepened, I may have led our group into the territory of a monster without knowing it. I started to slowly move to the area we were supposed to go to, away from the area the two died. Their bodies couldn’t be retrieved now, and the horror of their deaths was slowly settling in. The surroundings seemed to turn deathly quiet, the sword in my hand giving me some comfort.

I was still backing up when I hit something behind me, turning around it was Helena’s body with an expression of fear on her face, she was in the same position as Zeler. Mutilated with claw marks and nearly decapitated, I turned around to face away from her body and started to move in the direction of the rendezvous point we chose, the phone in my back pocket had lost any signal out here.

I started moving faster and faster when nothing attacked me, but as I was getting closer to where I needed to be, I heard some noises to the left of me in the underbrush, I readied my sword to block whatever it is, and out came the weird lizard throttling at full speed towards me, my eyes widened but my stance held firm and the lizard couldn’t knock me down. It had intelligence in its eyes, which surprised me, the little bastard was probably the one that killed both Zeler and Helena.

Stamping down the rage that built in me, any impairment to my fighting ability would be a detriment, and slashed down at the lizard. It seemed like he was already moving, but my sword still connected with the end of his tail, taking it clean off. The little lizard hissed in pain, but slashed back at my ankle, it only nicked the tip but still hurt like hell. The lizard then tried to bite down on my leg but I managed to hit the lizard with the tip of my saber, the lizard endured it to my surprise and bit down hard on my ankle, completely crippling my leg. It then rushed towards my hip, trying to completely break my bones.

I channeled my mana through the sword, allowing it to gain a cold blue gleam. Nicking the lizard body a bit, ice started to spread through the lizard but it disregarded all the pain and kept coming. I tried to use one of the items inside but the lizard changed its course and completely bit through my forearm, stopping its movement almost immediately. The pain coursed through my body, nearly unbearable but I endured through it. My sword was too long and heavy to use with one hand, I got rid of it and used the dagger on my waist to stab through the lizard's arm. It was futile though, the lizard already moved away from the area and I didn’t know where it was. I started to slowly back away while holding my arm and sword. I felt a stinging pain on my back and felt paralyzed, the little lizard must have dropped down and destroyed my spine. My last thought was “if only I could have noticed this threat before.”

POV change:

The girl was a much tougher threat than anything else I encountered, but I thankfully pulled through. I wanted to break her mind by using the bodies of the 2 people next to her. They weren’t too high leveled, about the same as me but this was the largest haul yet. Grinning, I ran back to the hollow I found near their camp, I followed them since morning, thankfully no one took me for a threat. The injuries sustained were massive, but they couldn’t contain the boiling excitement in my body.

Looking inside, it was a large enough space for me to evolve, I believe. The hollow was huge and even 10 of myself wouldn’t fill the entire space. I climbed down into it and brought up my status, grinning at my level.

Level 15 Evolution ready

I hesitated for only a second, and then mentally gave a command of affirmation, and with that. My existence has gotten closer to the level of a Primordial Dragon, grinning I fell into a deep sleep while feeling subtle changes happening to my body.

When I fully woke up, with all my lethargy after a complete evolution gone, I sat down to inspect my status.

Status: Healthy(Alive) Level: 0 (Level 20 for next evolution)

Condition for evolution: Rule over an area that is at least 10 square kilometers

Name: None Race: Wyrm

HP: 317

MP: 432

Stamina: 678

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: 178

Agility: 94

Vitality: 213

Charm: 28

Intelligence: 43

Skills: Skill points: 5

Observer’s eye Lv4: Can look into other people’s status. Gained due to your innate sense as a fledgling Dragon

Cut Lv6(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 Lv4(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.

Inspecting the changes in my body, I felt considerably happy, and much stronger. I now feel larger, from 2 meters long to 5, there were now nubs on my back which was previously smooth, most likely to get me ready for wings. I could only inspect the changes for a while, drowsiness overcame me again, and while slowly falling asleep, all I could think about was the requirement for the next evolution.