Up until now, all of the mindless, lumbering monsters that could even harm us were alone. It was odd; the only time I had encountered a group of Monsters had been a threat was short— relatively speaking— after I killed the White Wyrmling. But we hadn't seen any more since then. There are no groups of monsters out there, right? We're not going to run into one at some point and have it be too much for us to handle. They are just like small children trying to do something dangerous together but having trouble figuring it out.

Where is the god damn ocean ins this place! But, really, how long did I need to fly to even find the oceanic-bodied area?

At least then, I would know I was going in the right direction. If I could find a seashore, it would be even better. I needed to discover where I was to make my way to Hellfire Isle.

That to mention my situation on levelling up.

Ever since I had decided to focus on levelling myself up, I had only gained a single level, going from Level 6 to Level 7. It wasn't easy levelling up when everything I fought was lower level than me. Plus, the exp share with my minions was relatively low, making it difficult to gain levels quickly.

The reason why I was able to gain so many levels by killing the White Wyrmling is that he was already a higher level than me.

It didn't bother me too much— who the heck am I kiddin'? Of course, it bothered me! I always hated JRPGs and the godawful exp system they used. It took forever to just get past a single level. And it sucked that we couldn't use skills that would increase our stats or other abilities without gaining experience points first. The whole thing made me want to throw my computer out the window.

But anyway, I was makin' steady progress. It was visible both in my Status as well as in my physical body. As my [Agility], [Defense], [Magic], and [Attack] increased, some of my limbs grew longer. I was growing in size too. My wings had grown a bit, which gave me more manoeuvrability. Other parts of my body seemed to have become denser or harder, although I didn't really understand what those meant yet.

Then I came across a spider monster yesterday. He was one of the smaller ones— about half the size of a human— and he was one of the last monsters I wanted to fight. The damn thing was firing off fireballs after fireballs.

Why can some stupid spider use magic or fire abilities? But I can't! Hell, even can Sett use his fire breath, and he was dumbass! A loyal dumbass, but still. Stupid spiders.

I flew fast and tried to dodge the attacks, but it was pointless. As soon as one fireball was dodged, another would fly towards me. They were hard to see until they were right on top of you, so it wasn't like I could predict their trajectory.

That frustrated me. Perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough? Sure, I was focusing more on fighting now than trying to do dragon stuff. But the periods of reprieve in between were all spent with my tryin' to use my 【Dragon Breath】attack, which was useless against the low-level arachnid.

Damn it! I hate being weak. At least if I had an element that could help me out here, it would make things easier.

I was lacking somethin'. Every single time I raised my tired only fire skill, I knew somethin' was changin' within' yours truly. However, there was a component of mana that I just wasn't grasping right.

I tried once again grabbing at the mana in my surroundings, but nothing happened. I pushed at it, pulled at it, and even tried chasing after it. Still, I wasn't able to make that damn breath attack. After I kept practising for hours on end, it wasn't working. So I… stopped carin' a moment.

As much as I hated to admit it, I needed to stop. I couldn't push myself further. I wasn't going to get any results. No matter how much I tried, I would never be able to breathe fire.

It was infuriating, sure. But I was close to a level up! So instead of wasting my time lyin' here and accomplishing nothing, I decided to hell with it and go back lookin' for the damn isle.

I flew into the air and continued searchin' for a way out of place. I saw some regular small animals that could survive in such a climate from time to time, so I decided to use them as target practice. However, I was still a bit surprised that I didn't gain a skill for throwing projectiles.

They only gave me minuscule amounts of EXP and some tasty food. Rat lizards and worms are pretty good to me. Lianna seems like rotten meat more. While Sett loves fishin' and Zia seems to hunt avian prey. But EXP was EXP, so I wasn't complainin' also; the food was helping me in the long run. I tried to see if I could gain EXP from animals through '【Pyro Absorption】', but it didn't work. I didn't know whether I just couldn't absorb it from them or was because of the daily limit.

During my flight, I also couldn't help but wonder what continent I was on. All I ever see are mountains, volcanoes, lava rivers, and cloudy skies. How big is this place?

I would have already found something. I was pretty fast in the air.

Not even close to the speed of planes in my old world, but still, I didn't think that this Wu continent could be any bigger than, for example, Australia. That was another thing to think of. How big was dragon place compared to Earth?

Oh, I know, System! Some help would be excellent.

[And why should I tell you? Seeing you struggle is my only entertainment.]

I should have expected that response. Damn it, you are just a stupid game system anyway. Why am I even talking to you?

After flying around for a while, I finally came upon an extensive mountain range. It was a massive, jagged line of peaks that looked like they ran almost vertically.

I circled above the tallest peak, looking for any signs of movement. It was surrounded by a wall of clouds and a dark black sky. I tried to pierce through the layers of mist, but I couldn't get a clear view of the terrain beyond.

"Alright guys, we goin' to rest on the summit and be careful of any traps," I whispered to my minions. "I don't wanna die today. Not yet."

A few days later

I did it! I fuckin' did it! I found the seashore, and now I was absolutely sure I was on the continent's end. Zia, Lianna, Sett and I spent the last five bloody days flyin' along the seashore to figure out our approximate location on the continent. If my calculations were right then, I was somewhere on the southern side of it. Now here was the big problem.

From what I sense, the sea separating Sanus and the dragon continent was quite large. With our current speed, it would probably take us five more days or 10 – maybe more – of continuous flyin' to get to the other shore. So the question was, would all four of us get tired durin' the flight?

A week later...

Yep, We could fly without tirin' for more than a week, but we were starving afterwards. I did not know that flyin' uses MP! Never doin' that again.

At least it is almost Lv 5... Yeah, the grind I stuff.

After 12 days of continuous flying', We finally reached the next shore, and it wouldn't be a lie to say that I miscalculated. Because you see, when I arrived at the shore I got a very interesting notification.

[Congratulations! You left Drung's Domain and entered Major Domain number 1.]

What? Wait, what? Did I read that right? So the dragon continent was divided into major territories, each containing a different set of monsters? Major Domain? Number 1? What the hell is going on? Some explanation would be nice!

[Oh yeah, I was going to tell you that later!]

One day! One day straight to the moon! Or a fire cap, so your knee!

[Don't get got... Welcome to the territory/domain system of Ather. Nearly all of the world of Ather is made up of territories, some smaller and some larger. Because you are already on your way to a startin' horde and are the son of Alphas Dragons. You can now conquer those territories and take them for yourself. Every domain requires you to meet specific requirements in order to attain it. Those requirements vary from territory to territory.

The territories separate into two categories, minor and major.

Minor territories are temporary, created inside or outside a major territory. For the most part, semi-powerful Monsters can reside in these territories. While conquering those territories won't give you any special boosts, it does reward you with EXP.

Next are Major territories. Currently, there are 8 of them besides the region the Dragon King controls. Conquering a major territory grant you special bonuses. Those bonuses can vary from territory to territory, but one thing that is always the same is being granted minor control over all minor Monsters within.

Warning: Using the control ability will alert Drung, the Dragon King of Wu, of your actions.

There is a lot more to the territory system, but the rest will be explained upon conquering your first major territory. Good luck.]

Riiiiiight, good luck. Not sure if I wanna conquer any territory since I'm not exactly sure what it involves. But I guess that is gonna be my next goal. To conquer a territory.

Well, as lovely as this was, I'd like to know what Domain number 1 is. Maybe I should try the 'territory or domain' menu'?

Huh, it worked.

[This is the territory menu. Here you can check on every territory you conquered or encountered.]

[Number 1: Ashen Ganglands of Ingi.]

[Requirements to conquer:

-Defeat powerful groups of Pryo Lizards (0/25)

- Have horde up to 70 members (3/70)

-Exterminate individual number of monsters (0/2,000)

-Conquer all minor territories (0/5) The Underground Forest, Ashen Center, Ingi Summit, Pyro Wetlands, Meteor Falls

-Eradicate the Salamdner (0/1)

-Third Evolution (1/3) ]

Yeah, ok, that's definitely not for me in my current state. The present me would have a problem with killing a more significant than me, so there was no way for me to beat a group of powerful monsters that could breathe fire better than me. And the other requirement was impossible. I mean, where am I supposed to find a bunch of monsters.

"Hey, boss, we have a new friend!"

Why can't the poisonous venomous bird pseudo dragon thing be a sarcastic ass like me!?

"Fuck," I cursed, having barely dodged an incoming way, way bigger feather dagger that looks like a massive lance-sword! I looked behind me and saw an unfairly bigger, less demony version of me that was probably the size of a Hummer.

[Wymn Nevermore LVL:?]

Late-stage hatchling.

HP: 20,000

MP: 0

Ps, he is a minion

"Oh hell, Nah!" I grumbled as I shot into the sky at full speed. Those three better follow me. There was no way for me or my idiots to defeat this thing, so I could only try to escape.

"Hey, bird brain, follow me, and you three go hide now!" I threw some smoke on the bird dragon thing while ordering the Zia, Lianna, and Sett. Then, I flew into some tree while the thing was chasing me.

I used this opportunity to activate 【Shealth】and【Presence Masking】Presence Masking' with the last of my MP and hid inside the bark of the tree. Hours passed until I heard a few loud squawks before I heard it fly away.

Releasing a breath of relief, I perched on the ground and began meditating. I needed my MP full in case of another encounter like that. While I was doin' that, I checked the notifications.

[You gained a new skill.]

【Danger Sense: Lv 1 (93%)】

A sixth sense. It lets the user know when an attack is near them and allows them to react to it ahead of time.

-Radius: 5 Feet]

I also heard the sound of two notifications, but now was not the time to check them.

A nice addition. Useful as hell, but it felt peculiar when it was working. So what is the other one?

[Quest Completed.]

Survive your encounter with the evolved creature.

Rewards:

- 500 EXP

- 5 Stats Points

- [Speed Path Update]

- [Lighting Bruiser Path Unlock]

Special reward: 1 EP for not losing any HP

Okay, now this was a nice reward. I might be able to gain more evolutions before I finally evolve. Alright, I needed to get the hell away from this territory, domain or whatever. I can't even hurt them.

"Boss, where are you!" I hear two girls callin' for me... I usually would be happy bout this if I was a human man.

I once again took to the sky, but this time I decided to exclusively fly near the seashore. Soon I would make a sharp turn left, and I should hopefully be able to get to Hellfire Isle.

I made the turn about an hour later and once again was treated to a tedious view as I flew above the water. However, it was already dark, so we should arrive sometime in the morning. Fortunately, I had a weak night vision, so I should be able to spot the Island.

"Boss, wait for us!

I don't know how they are able to find me, no problem.

[You are entering the minor domain of Major domain 2.]

So I was right; the Island before me was my target. I should probably check just to be sure.

The details, please.

[Number 1: Hellfire Isle

-Defeat semi-powerful Sea monsters (0/2)

-Exterminate individual number of Grimm Monsters (0/50)

-Taken the Demon Training challenge -[0/5]

Huh, that's easy. I should take this place first in the future.

"Hey, boss, follow me!" I heard Lianna call out to me when we landed.

"What do ya want, woman?" I moaned in annoyance. I want to sleep!

"I smell something good!"

"Fine..."