The breathing quietly disturbed the silence of the night. No other sound was important right now. I stepped forward into the darkness of the cave. It soon widened into a cavern. Stalactites covered the ceiling in a few places connecting with stalagmites to form pillars. Sight was bad down here, only a sliver of moonlight slipping in through the small entrance my body stood in right now. Luckily, my eyes were still able to see perfectly fine. There was a trail on the ground, the same as what I had been following until now. It led deeper into the cave in between the stone pillars.

I followed it carefully. The area was cramped enough I would be unable to fly. Just in case I spread out a few shadowy tendrils around me. If I got into a problematic situation, I had options to shift my position.

Whatever was sleeping here hid very well. I clearly heard its breath not far but it still eluded my vision. It had to be lying on the ground somewhere between the stone. I moved forwards carefully. Not half a metre further the ground opened up. There was another cave below this cavern. Down there, I spotted the node I had felt earlier. A few crystals pointed to its presence even to those without enhanced senses. This was only a medium node and on the smaller side at that. The breathing also came from down below.

I lowered my head and looked into the dark room. As soon as I dipped below the edge of the hole, I finally saw a little more. The node’s light was somehow disturbed and did not go upwards. I found it only really reflected off the rocks and a small pool of water near the bottom. Which was how I finally spotted it. On the ceiling close to the hole a shadow sat. It reflected a small amount of the node’s light but not enough to blend in with its surroundings perfectly. The shape was an elongated body with four legs on its sides. A long tail trailed behind somehow sticking to the rock. In fact, the whole body seemed to be partially fused with the stones which was how the being laid down on the ceiling. Definitely an amazing strategy to protect oneself.

The body itself was almost a metre long, the tail doubling it. Its claws were sunken into the stone, as was the underside of its body. The head was long and sleek able to open up its huge maw to swallow its prey. It was a lizard. I was reminded of pictures of Komodo dragons running after people or prey. Only it had adopted the node’s earth mana very well. With this position, it would be very difficult to take it out even for me. The cave was not large enough to build up enough speed to take it out with one hit. And it was impossible for me to hang on the ceiling like a bat, there were simply no claw-holds anywhere close. I could try shifting a claw into its body but I was wary of its scales being hardened because of the earth mana. The only real option that let me retreat if needed would be my newest Skill, [Winged Death]. But while I was confident I could hurt it, I was not confident to get the kill.

In the end, I decided on doing something different. I had tried to stealthily [Identify] someone multiple times now. This guy did not look to be very threatening, especially since two shifts would bring me outside the cave. With how he had dug himself into the rock, I expected to escape easily in case I annoyed him. And I could come back a bit later when he was sleeping and try again.

I pulled on my Skill very carefully. This time I would succeed. Or rather, with this lizard I would succeed. It might take a few tries. [Stealth] went up to cover [Identify] and hopefully avoid detection. I paid close attention to how it latched onto my target. It was too complicated to figure out the details of the Skill but I could try to see what triggered the aggressive reaction. I assumed it was mostly a natural reaction to the unpleasant feeling of having one’s soul be invaded.

[Identify] latched onto the lizard and sunk into its body. Quickly, it found a point near its centre and heavily pulled on something. That was the moment the lizard woke up. It let out an angry hiss as I watched my Skill pull back into me.

[Identify]

Species: Monitor Lizard (mature)

Age: 16

Name: -

Gender: male

Huh, a monitor lizard? That should not be such a large animal, right? Maybe I just misremembered something or this world had some differences in biology. After all, orks, goblins and magic existed. It was weird to have such similar wildlife with the exception of mana enrichment.

Before the monster fully registered my presence, I retreated. It was easy to make my exit. I took to the air and circled a few times. The lizard left its cave and looked around. It was very annoyed but much less aggressive than I had expected. Maybe it was still sleepy? I kept watching until it retreated into its cave and settled on a nearby tree. Now it was waiting time. Once it was asleep for a bit I would try again.

After it had retreated, I spent half the night waiting in front of the cave. I wanted to make sure it fell asleep before trying once again. Only when its breathing had gone back to a regular rhythm and slowed down did I finally step in once more. I carefully stepped up to the hole and lowered my head. As it dipped into the lower cave, the breathing stopped. Instantly, I shifted backwards. A few more steps and I was out of the cave. Behind me, I heard stone cracking and a few pebbles flew past me, one even hitting my back. At least it was just a stray shot without any power behind it. I made my way into the sky again and looked back. The lizard sat at the entrance of his cave, glaring out into the night and searching for the disturbance. Before he could somehow spot me in the night sky I took my leave and flew back to my roost. That had been close.

He was aware of me now. I really hoped I could get another try at [Identify] next night. He had to get some sleep at some point, right? Arriving at my temporary place of residence left me feeling much safer. My stash was undisturbed and I spotted no tracks of anything dangerous close by. I was safe here.

I tried again the next night. While it had felt dangerous, thinking clearly made it clear I had not actually been at risk. I could just try again, though I took the additional precaution of shifting into my metal and glass form. This way, I could take a direct hit without issue.

The lizard was sleeping again, thankfully. I had arrived a little deeper into the night, just to make sure it felt safe. As I looked at the reptile half fused with the rocky ceiling, I felt a little bad. This was kind of psychological warfare, right? Waking him up in the middle of the night would certainly build up exhaustion, especially if I had to practice for a while longer. But then again, it was a monster. And if I managed to get my Skill to do what I wanted, I would no longer annoy wildlife, unless I actually wanted to kill. It would also help my own safety. Getting [Identify] levelled up would allow me to pick my battles more carefully, especially if I managed to make it avoid detection.

I went and activated my Skill once again. Similar to last time, I pushed [Sneak] to avoid disturbing the lizard. I probably needed to do more than that, but for now, I wanted to feel out if it was helping at all. My target woke up once again, though he seemed a little slower to react. Maybe he was exhausted? I retreated quickly. It would do me no good to get caught up in a fight.

Back at my roost, I sunk into my thoughts. I had suddenly cared about an animal. When before I had just killed them in a quick strike. Was that not the reason? I was uncaring about killing but I did not want to torture. I was an [Assassin] after all. Even the thaumaturges that died because of my spell I had felt bad about. They had suffered a lot and it was weighing on my mind. I had to quickly kill or not harm at all. Death was after all the end of suffering. For this lizard that would not be the case. I decided right there, in exchange for using him to upgrade my [Identify] I would not kill him. The Skill would let me decide more easily in the future. It was a necessary evil to interrupt his sleep.

I spent the rest of the night hunting. Maybe I could make out some more tracks or traces of interesting monsters. This time I made my way up into the hills behind my roost.

After flying for about half an hour I spotted lights on the horizon. There seemed to be another city in the distance. It was weird how the dwarves built their towns so far apart. Even I would have to travel for almost half a day to make it to the nearest city from the mining town. It was probably related to nodes. I remembered the large places being centred around one every single time. The quarry was the only different place.

I closed up on it once more. As it came into view I spotted something weird. The walls of the quarry seemed to move. I blinked a few times and looked again. Yes, there it was again. Like someone shoving the wall from within the ground, the stone grew outwards. Trying to make out more details, I got closer. The quarry was a near-vertical wall in the side of the hill. It was the same stone most dwarves built their houses from. A soft grey with scarce white lines forming fractal-like shapes. On the ground, in front of the quarry, I spotted something else. The dwarves had set up a line of paving different from their normal streets. The stones had been hollowed out and mana crystals inserted. Right in front of them, I made out lines as if someone had dragged something heavy. With the quarry walls moving, I could imagine what produced these trails.

I wondered what caused the stone to grow. Did they build this town on a node as well? I could not think of another explanation. Before anyone could spot me I decided to retreat. It was getting late and I wanted to get some rest. Soon, I would finish moulting. I only had two feathers left on the far edges which had to regrow that last bit. Then, I would be an adult.