“Alert, mythical creature detected, the flaming bird, Phoenix.”

“A phoenix?”, Ray then remembered something, there was a limited time game event that was out for only 2 hours. The event featured the mythical creature, the Phoenix, if you could find it, you could learn Phoenix fire, the embodiment of the eternal flame. Pheonix fire was stated to erase the user's mana. Meaning the user could not use magic or skills, however, it granted mages the abilities to manipulate pure flames at will and allowed those who used skills to engulf their bodies in empowering flames. From what information given, although it erased all the progress you had made up until that point, the reward seemed worth it for both mages and skill users; however, the event went by without even a single player catching a glimpse.

“But how do I even get the Pheonix fire?”, Ray thought to himself puzzled.

“It is stated in mythology that the Phoenix can peer into the future and will only appear before those he believes are or will be worthy of its power. I must bestow its power onto a being, ending its own existence temporarily until the being perishes, where it is then reborn from the nearest flame.”.

“So, in short, I need to show you, that I’m worthy of your power?”, Ray said, transferring his thoughts into the bird's head, it fluttered its wings, embers flying everywhere. Ray raised his sword, pointing it at the Pheonix.

Although Ray tried his hardest, he used a mixture of magic and skills and fully exhausted himself, using every bit of mana he had remaining, however the Pheonix simply out matched him, blocking and parrying all his attacks as if it were nothing, however Ray kept going until he had nothing left in him. As Ray dropped to his knees, vision blurry, he heard a strange angelic voice in his head.

“You still have a long way to go, However, the potential you have is incomparable to any others. I have also seen many paths in your potential future, and you will use this power to do great, righteous things and so, I will bestow upon you my power Mortal, use it wisely.”, and with that, Ray passed out.

“The Pheonix’s eternal flame now lives within you. Your bodies mana has been erased. Use of magic has been erased. Use of skills have been erased. Manipulation of pure flame has been granted. Empowering bodily flame has been granted. Phoenix’s healing flames granted. Additional evolution to evolution list is downloading. This may take some time.”

“Huh, what's all this.”, Ray thought drearily.

“You have succeeded your evolutionary requirement; your level is currently level 70; you are now evolving.”

“Level 70? I gained 27 levels?”, Ray thought confused, this kind of felt like cheating, he had just received an incredible power boost just because he had potential, and a mythical creature took a liking to him? “Is this how other isekai characters feel like when they are given a broken ability or receive a goddess blessing and start of overpowered?”, Ray thought, half excited, half confused on what had just happened

“would you rather evolve into a greater skeleton or zom-. Correction, Skeleton path has been erased. You are evolving into a unique zombie: model mummy.”.

“So, the unique evolution for a zombie was a mummy? Interesting.”.

“Now select your Demi-Human race, Beast-man, Elf or Dwarf.”.

“Beast-man.”.

“Race beast-man selected. Randomising beats-man appearance. Beat-man, model wolf, acquired. Ability to learn Beats-man Kung-Fu has been acquired.”.

Ray slowly opened his eyes, looking forwards, he could immediately tell that things had changed. His body, although still light, felt much heavier, more whole, his vision was no longer red, it was clear, clearer than ever in fact, and although he was thin, he had muscle, flesh and blood, he could feel his tongue in his mouth and tasted for the first time in ages, he took a deep breath through his nose and realised he had gotten his sense of smell back, he was also happy to feel that his private parts along with his vitality had also returned, Ray smiled, he was finally alive again. However, there were a few key differences, though he was skinny before, right now he was extremely skinny, as if he hadn’t eaten for months and the extreme hunger, he had felt represented that, he could also see that from neck down he was wrapped in scarlet bandages that, no matter how much he tugged at them, he could not pull off. Ray also realised, though he couldn't see them, that his ears were situated on the top of his head amongst his now red hair, he realised that he could wiggle them quite easily and freely and found it highly amusing, he also had a long bushy red tail, that was extremely soft. Ray felt great, more powerful, he didn't know whether it was due to his body evolving, a rapid increase in his level, the Pheonix’s powers or all three, whatever it was, Ray felt like he could Run the entire globe. Ray looked around, finally taking in his surroundings, he had been lying in a cave, though his head was on something soft, that was a bit odd, as he looked up, he saw that his head had been resting quite comfortably on Lillys lap, he immediately sat up and scuttered away, which jolted the girl, who had been sleeping upright peacefully, awake. As she awoke, she looked at Ray who was sitting in front of her and her face lit up in both shock an enjoyment.

“Your finally awake, the others are gonna be so happy.”, she said excitedly. Ray hesitated slightly, then spoke

“G-good morning.”, he said in a slightly raspier tone then his usual, “how long was I asleep for?”.

“You're talking using your mouth now? Thats good, and it's been about 3 days since you collapsed, the others will be happy to see you awake when they get back”.

“3 DAYS??? How'd you know that”. Ray shouted, slumping against the cave wall.

“Lower your tone, the stones that light up the cave, simulate outsides day and night cycles, so that's how we know how long we’ve been down here. Me and the other kids have been down here for about 2 weeks now.”, she replied.

“I see...”, Ray thought, marvelling at how unique this place was. Ray looked at Lilly, who suddenly looked serious.

“What's wrong?”, Ray asked tentatively.

“I just wanted to thank you again, and apologise, you had to fight those humans and then protect us from that bird monster, and we couldn’t do a single thing.”, she said apologetically

“No, no, you don’t need to apologise, I mean you wouldn’t have been able to fight back against them due to the slave collars and by the time the wolves came you were knackered. Also, I would never make or expect children or a princess to fight.”, Ray replied earnestly.

“I’ll have you know that I’m level 41 and could have beaten those wolves and those humans EASILY if I had my bow and Sylph, they would never had caught me in the first place.”.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

To prove her point she picked up the bow that had belonged to the archer, she must have quickly claimed that for herself and lined up her shot, she was aiming through the mouth of the cave at a vorpal bunny, a bunny with a razor sharp horn that protruded from its head, which was a common monster on the second floor, 400 meters away, Ray was amazed that he could also see that far, but remembered that it was definitely due to his newly heightened senses of becoming a Beast-man. Lilly drew back the bows string, arrow pointed and fired. Before the bunny could even reacted, it had been struck. Ray was amazed she hit it from that distance and didn’t even use a skill, she had to be some kind of prodigy, Ray applauded her performance, and she stood their pride evident in her face.

“That was very impressive, who’d know the princess would be such a sharp Shot.”, Ray said.

“And that was without using a skill or Sylph.”, she replied proudly.

“Sylph? Is that the name of your Bow or something.”.

“No, Shes the name of my dragon you know the wind dragon.”.

Rays jaw dropped, “YOU HAVE ONE OF THE LEGENDARY DRAGONS AS A PET AND YOU CALL HER SYLPH!!”

“Why are you shouting for.”, Lilly said covering her ears, “come on, do you have brain damage or something? you should know this, even the Humans have one in the royal family, we’ve had them for centuries. Each nation, the Human lands, The northern and southern Beast tribes, the Elvern snowy plains and the Dwarven waste lands, each Royal family has possession of one of the nine dragons that are stated to have created the world and are passed down to the first born of the family at the age of 15. There's the ice dragon that has been passed down in the Elvern royal family, big sis Eis has had possession of her for a while now as elves live for ages, there's the earth dragon in the Dwarven Royal family, which should be in the possession now of the young prince who turns 15 this year, I, princess of the northern Beast tribe has possession of the wind dragon, there's the water dragon in the southern beast tribe that my aunt, the queen of the southern Beast tribe who my uncle married, is still in possession of that dragon as my little cousin is only 11 and lastly the fire dragon in the Human lands which is supposedly now in possession of the new king as the old King had no heirs and the new king claims to be the old kings brother.”.

Ray was in complete shock, he had no idea that the Royal families had possession of so much power, the legendary dragons are said to have forged the world itself and yet 5 of the 9 obey mortals? Then, 2 questions popped into Rays head simultaneously.

“Wait, 2 questions, 1, where are the other 4 dragons and 2, if the 2 Beast-men tribes, Elves and Dwarves have access to these dragons, why haven't you all bound together and fought back against the enslavement and unfair treatment of Demi-humans? Surely you would be able to win?”.

“Well, it's not exactly known where the other 4 are, however its speculated that the thunder dragon lives up in the clouds, the darkness dragon lives in the underworld with the demons, the plant dragon resides inside of forests and moves around a lot and the light dragon lives in the sun itself, of course this is just all speculation.”, she sighed, “And as for the last question, out of all the living creatures in this world Humans make up the vast majority of them, with all the Demi-human races combined, there would still be 3 times the number of humans, we are greatly outnumbered, even with the help of 4 dragons, we’d gain the upper hand temporarily, but as we lose steam, we’d eventually get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Besides the Demi-human leaders haven't been able to meet face to face for the last 10 years, it's too risky. We were supposed to have a meeting recently and ten we were attacked.” she said disappointedly.

Ray clenched his fists, “It sounds like you're giving up.”.

“of course we’re not! It's just...”.

“What you can’t make up in quantity you make in quality. The humans may have a lot of people but not all of them are combatants and all the ones that are doesn't mean they’re stronger than you. What it sounds like to me is you need to all come together and create an attack force filled with the strongest of each Demi-Human nation, hell get the help of monsters if you can and chip away at them, bit by bit, a war, not a battle.”, Ray said determination in his eyes.

“Though I'm sure that's what the plan was going to be for the meeting, a huge discussion on how to best achieve this. After all they’re the leaders of 4 great nations, all we need is for them to meet up.”. Ray said shrugging his shoulders, Lilly smiled.

“By the way where is your sacred Dragon, if you had her, you said you wouldn’t have been caught.”, Ray asked tentatively.

“I had, told her to help out the civilians and try and put out as much fire as possible, whilst we were separated, I was snuck up on and taken, but it’s fine, I know she’s alive and that we’ll be reunited soon, especially since you said you would take us to the south.”, she said smiling, Rays face began to turn red, when he heard a familiar voice.

“So, your finally awake?”.

Ray looked over to the entrance of the cave to see... Ken? He was much taller now and was carrying a stack of wolves, he was around Rays height, he had evolved into a hobgoblin, though his appearance was a little different to that of an ordinary hob. Ordinary goblins looked like a –3/10 and hob goblins looked 5/10, it was a drastic improvement in appearance, however Ken looked more human that anything a solid 7/10, not as good looking as him though Ray though smugly, Ken was clearly a hob goblin, he had grown in height to about 5 foot 8 which is the average height for most hob goblins, but there were a few distinct differences. He had his usual red skin instead of grey like normal hob goblins and appeared to be a bit more toned than the usual hobs, Ray was kind of jealous, whereas Ken had muscles, he was pretty much skin and bone, another key difference was that he has small little horns protruding from his forehead.

“You don’t look much like what I expected a zombie to look like, I expected rotten flesh, exposed bones and a terrible smell, you just look like a starved wolf-man, wait... I thought you were human.”.

Ray explained to Ken, though missing some important details about the change in his evolutionary path for protecting the Demi humans.

“Hey mister, what happened with that Big red bird, you were fighting him and then he just disappeared.”, Leo asked to him.

“Oh, Yeah, I completely forgot to ask you that.”, Lilly said, curiosity in her face. So, Ray explained Twice what had happened to both Ken and the Beast-men, the Kids and Lilly looked impressed and amazed, it clearly fit into the chosen hero they thought he was, whereas Ken, who had made it to level 54, was annoyed at how much the gap had grown by.

“Show us the powers of the Pheonix”, the Children all said in unison, excitement in the air, Lilly and Ken clearly intrigued too, Ray closed his eyes... “How does this power even work?”.