Ithil headed towards the northern mountains. The Voucan Kingdom was quite far north, but it was still a long journey. Ithil used his full force to get there as fast as possible. Everything went blurry, and he pulled in his wings. They were only slowing him down at those speeds. By the time he was about to hit the ground, he had already slowed down by a lot.

After a few days of constantly flying at full speed, Ithil reached the huge mountains of the far north. Snow covered every peak and powerful creatures hid in every cave. Ithil crashed into one of the larger mountains and buried himself a few meters deep. Cracks spread outwards, but the mountain still stood tall.

‘Ow… these mountains are much harder than the others… Seems I’m in for a challenge.’

Ithil jumped out from the hole he had dug in the side of the mountain and started looking for a suitable first target.

“I should start with the weaker mountains.”

The next part of Ithil’s plan was to excavate a few mountains. He wanted to slam himself into the mountains until they fell apart. It would serve as a good way of hardening his body, plus the pain would develop his soul.

Ithil shot up high into the air, above the clouds, and flapped his wings the hardest he could downwards. The world went blurry again as Ithil crashed into his target, causing the whole area to rumble.

Even the smaller mountain he had picked out was extremely hard, and he barely left a mark.

‘Ow, ow, ow… I’m starting to regret this…’

He dislodged himself from the crater he’d created. Every part of his body was aching, especially his head and right shoulder. His neck also felt weird.

‘Maybe I should limit myself just a little? I think I’ve broken something, dragons definitely aren’t built to do things like that.’

--------------------

A bird-like creature flew over the mountains, just like it had been doing its entire life. Every few years, it flew over the northern mountains in search of a new place to live. Somewhere abundant and filled with prey it could hunt. This year, it was also in search of a mate. Its species was quite rare, so it most likely wasn’t going to find one in its new home. But it still had hope.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

It was covered in grey feathers and had a wing span of over three meters. It was small compared to its siblings but was still intimidating to everything below. It had a long and sharp beak with layers of small teeth hiding inside. Its eyes were small but well-developed.

There was something strange about the mountains this time, however. In one part mountains covered everything, reaching thousands of meters into the air. But in one particular place, there were far fewer mountains.

Cracks covered the ground and the mountains still standing were whittled down, covered in holes similar to that of meteor strikes. The bird got uneasy. It hadn’t been like that the last time it flew over that part. Such big changes couldn’t have happened in just under three years.

The bird froze for a moment, before shaking out of it. Its long neck bent upwards, something predator birds rarely did. A streak of light passed by, too fast for the bird to identify. Even though it was several kilometers away, a wave of intense heat hit the bird.

The bird squawked in pain, its wings paralyzed from the shock. The ground approached fast as the bird fell.

Before it fell unconscious, the bird spotted where the streak of light had impacted. A large crater, similar to the others, had appeared on one of the mountains. Another shock wave passed by, even stronger than the previous, completely knocking out the bird.

The body eventually hit the ground, emptying it of whatever life remained.

--------------------

‘This is starting to get boring… Dragons do have an unusual amount of patience compared to other beings, but smashing one's head into rocks for years on end…’

The excavation of the northern mountains had over a couple of months turned from painful training to boring, repetitive work. He had reached a limit to how hard he could throw himself at the mountains.

If he just went upwards, he eventually reached space. And space was a bit too much for him. He could handle the vacuum, but he couldn’t breathe. Plus, the radiation and freezing temperatures. It also didn’t help that he couldn’t use his wings.

He could gain more speed if he went from an angle, but it wasn’t much of a difference. If he wanted to get faster, he needed to get stronger. And what better way to get stronger, than to punch through the mountains instead?

Ithil planned to switch from throwing himself at the mountains, to digging through the mountains.

‘Maybe if I adopt a swimming method, my whole body will be trained? It certainly seems silly, but I do not want to search for an even deeper underwater cave.

…

I just realized that I haven’t fought anything powerful in a while. Something that can actually challenge me… That could be a promising way of training.

…

Why am I even training?

…

Oh right, I want to get stronger! But why do I want to get stronger?

…

Now I remember! To make up for not having magic. Banging my head at mountains seems to have had more of an effect than I imagined…’

Getting worried about his health, Ithil switched to digging right away.