After the defeat of the Daemon Emperor and returning to the kingdom, I was married to Princess Aria, as her father died in battle against the daemons I was forced to assume the throne of their Theocratic Monarchy. Over the years we rebuilt our kingdom and after pouring resources into research for enchantments that could push back the tide of miasma and purify the lands, the research bore fruit. Hence we expanded our borders and purified our new lands of miasma. However many of the preexisting animals had long become daemons. As far as we knew only the divine could purify such corrupted creatures. Thus we drove back these daemon beasts and allowed the animals from the inner kingdom to grow then fill the new lands. Eventually, we established a single path through the miasma to the dwarves, establishing a trade route with them. With our runic pillars holding back the miasma and our population booming things were looking great, but of course, nothing lasts forever.

We had few small skirmishes with the daemons over the centuries but the most trouble came from roaming daemon beasts. Thus one day when a daemon fire dragon wandered into our kingdom I had no choice but to kill it. In our battle, one of its claws struck the Mark of the Hero and cut it from my flesh leaving me wounded and without the power of the Mark of the Hero. After killing it I was permanently weakened and scarred. My people were able to remove the corruption but could not heal my scarred tissue and the injury had drained much of my health. So after four centuries and having reached the 40th stage in my arc cultivation I could advance no further. It seems while above-average my intelligence could not boost my cultivation any further, my rate of cultivation was only so fast before because of the Mark of the Hero.

Thus here I was laying in my bed surrounded by my wives, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Dying from old age and an injured body, a century after my injury had occurred. Five centuries, I ruled for five centuries, truly this is a fantasy world. Well, at least I had them invent sewers. Should’ve seen the place before, there was shit everywhere. I’m really glad I invented sewers. I and my main wife Aria had a long talk, a long time ago about how she lied to me about whether I could return home. However, I’m glad I stayed, I don’t know what I’d do without her and my other two wives, Talia and Catherine. Whelp, here it goes I can feel my life fading and the icy cold grip of death around my heart. Better say goodbye.

Dean, “I love all of you, good b”

Then I died.

The next thing I know I’m standing outside my body like a ghost and nobody sees me, my appearance now the same as it was when I was in my early 30s. I look around confused then stare at my dead body and my weeping family. Damn.

Suddenly I feel something tugging me upward and I get dragged into the sky. When I get outside I see thousands upon thousands of grey orbs with transparent white misty fire surrounding each one individually. All of us flying up toward the river of fire in the sky. Are those souls? Why don’t I look like them? We’re pulled up into the star river the locals call Styx. I immediately notice that I don’t feel anything, not even heat. Makes sense I guess you need nerves to feel stuff and can’t have nerves without a body. I look around at the other souls as my soul flows down the Styx and see the white mist around them burning up in the star fire until only their core is left, before being shot down back to the planet. Something seems to change as I am then also shot out of the Styx. I fall as if I’m being guided, down towards a region near the eastern coast of the Eastern Continent, and fall into a giant egg. I feel my soul fusing with whatever is in the big egg and blackout.

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I wake up in the egg my memories flooding my new brain as I feel my intelligence starting to fade. Apparently, my species has animal-level intelligence. Quickly I write the English words, "empower my mind" with my claws with mana on the inside of my egg's shell. I feel like a can’t breathe and quickly empower my claw with what I am surprised to find is mystical mana and use my claw to cut around the part of my egg shell with the words on it. I remove the runic eggshell piece and hold it as a break out of my shell, gasping for breath.

After catching my breath I enchant the ground to harden and begin carving a magic circle. The runic eggshell is not a real solution as it requires proximity to me and/or physical contact, in order to keep my mind at a sapient level. Hence using the magic circle I will purify my draconic bloodline as it seems from my observations that I am currently a forest drake. Theoretically, I should be able to use enchanting to purify my bloodline to a higher species of drake or if I am lucky a dragon. I simply need to purify the old dragon bloodline as all draconic species share them as a common ancestor somewhere down the line. Looking at my magic circle, I check it over for mistakes, then walk into its center. I’ve never done this before though so here it goes.

I pour my mystical mana into the freshly carved magic circle then watch as mana visible pours in from my surroundings like gusts of glowing cyan wind rush in the magic circle, which quickly becomes a tornado of mana with me in the center. Trees sway and birds quickly take flight as the tornado grows, while mana is rapidly pumped in to my body. I feel an itching sensation everywhere down even to my bones which quickly turns into a sharp burning pain. I feel my bones and muscles shift followed by my blood vessels and organs, then I blackout.

When I wake up I’m on the ground covered in blacks scales as opposed to the previous grey mottle with grey-ish green and my body feels larger. When I sense my mana affinity/innate mana cultivation stage, It’s at the 150th Stage. Fifty stages into what would be an ascendant for a human. I enchant the water vapor in the air to turn into a water mirror with my magic, just to double-check. I look at my reflection and see a young Greater Drake hatchling staring at me. It seems I have succeeded in purifying my bloodline. With this, I will be able to maintain my sapience in this body without the use of magic. With that done and said I crush the enchanted eggshell in my hand and feel my intellect dull slightly but my sapience is still there.

“Fwhhufff.” I release a sigh through my nostrils and take stock of my surroundings.

It seems I am alone. By my guess, I was previously a lesser forest drake as my past knowledge states common forest drakes lay a clutch of at least three eggs, and I see no other eggshells besides my own.

Forest drakes in general are a lesser branch of the drake family, only slightly above Drake Wolves. Drake wolves being essentially miniature forest drakes the size of wolves sometimes medium dogs depending on their category. I knew a few priests who kept them as pets during my time as a Theocratic Monarch. That aside me being able to purify my bloodline to the peak of the drake family, a Greater Drake, is miraculous.

Taking stock of my environment again I notice the rich foliage and colossal skyscraper-sized trees, I sense no nearby miasma and a complete lack of mana for a few miles, oops. I must’ve drained the ambient mana/aether during my ritual to purify my bloodline. As for the miasma, this area must’ve been hit less by the invasion.

Feeling the sharp pang of hunger I head into the forest to find food.

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Ripping out the grey rat’s throat as I stand atop it I look around at the swarm of grey rats around bearing their wolf fang-like incisors and tiny teeth. I may have a use for them.

Opening my mouth after swallowing I speak a single word, “Suspend.”

My mystical mana reaches out and slows down the environment around me, the tree branches swaying like they’re underwater the wind coming to a crawl as the grey rat swarm comes to a halt as they float up in the air turning slowly in random directions. The air is covered in a blue haze as other loose forest debris float up in the air as well. The rising debris and grey rats stop rising and stay there suspended in the air.

Grabbing the mana around one of the live grey rats and using it to pull towards me, I start speaking English words similar to a programming language each word spoken exiting my mouth as mana breath before transforming into written words. The English words start to form a circle hardening the ground then engraving it, I continue speaking until the entire program/enchantment is written. When the enchantment is being engraved I supply some mystical mana and it lights up with a blue glow, a magic circle springing up and hovering over the engraving. Like a magnet, the selected grey rat falls feet first onto the ground into the center of the engraving. The floating words spin around the grey rat as it stood up awkwardly, its legs turned more human-like under the skin and fur, its front legs undergoing a similar change into arms, then finally the spine was corrected and it stood hunched over then fully upright. The rest of the muscles and bones soon got an overhaul to streamline functionality. The magic circle froze and a smaller magic circle popped up near me and with one of my claws, I cut my finger a drop of blood landing into the magic circle’s center. I watch as the blood drop floats over toward the modified grey rat, is enchanted and injected into its shoulder, the magic circle around the modified grey rat then starts to turn again faster and faster. The hair falls off the grey rat and black thick scales begin to cover it as it grows more muscular and new connections are formed in the brain as it grows. Its eyes turn pale blue as its snout and maw become more reminiscent of a dragon than a wolf but still pales in comparison to a real dragon’s.

Grey rats are as smart as wolves albeit far more aggressive, now with the draconic bloodline of a greater drake their intelligence is approaching sapience but not quiet, probably only as smart as an average human 2-year-old toddler. Now with the genetically modified grey rat almost complete, I watch as the program increases the creature's intelligence to full sapience while toning down its aggression and making it revere sapient dragons as well as greater drakes. Then with the process nearly complete, it imprints a mark of loyalty onto the creature so it will be absolutely loyal to me. With that done the process is complete, and the engraving dims then the magic circle disperses. Look at the creature I speak the words, ‘Full scan.” I see no problems with the creature besides potentially a small amount of degeneration of the draconic bloodline with each generation before it would eventually plateau, luckily they should maintain their sapience. With that done I name the new species Kobolds and begin mass production of kobolds after creating a second enchantment for the females. I modified the female kobolds during the production process to have two breasts and wider hips than the males, despite all the kobolds having six nipples due to their previous species. Despite their draconic bloodline they’ll still have live births and require milk to grow in the early stages. Luckily they should mature rather fast compared to humans.

With my new servants complete I send them out to hunt and forage. With an effective army of 1,000 under me, I should be able to protect myself in this vast forest full of danger, at least until I’ve matured.