Ch.12 Beast

Cinis woke up. They went to the slime fields and started to hunt. Weirdly there were less slimes than usual. Cinis wondered why.

‘Do you think there’s a reason why there are so few slimes here today?’

‘I don’t know, maybe we hunted too much.’

‘I don’t think so. Yesterday when we left there were still a lot of them here. What if the birds came again and drove them away?’

‘Probably not, remember when we came back after the birds were here? Nothing changed then so why would it now?’

‘Let’s not worry about that for now, there are still enough to hunt.’

And so they hunted. They hunted well, just as well as all the other times, yet there was a weight in their mind, thinking about what could have happened to the slimes but nothing suddenly revealed itself to clear it up. Cinis did not gain anything this time, but that was to be expected. This way of gaining stats and skills was not infinite. As soon as Cinis gained more resistances they would likely stop.

‘Now on to the rabbits!’

Cinis left in the direction of the city. As they came closer they noticed something weird.

‘Is that smoke?’

It certainly seemed like it. The city, or rather the place the city used to be spat out billowing clouds of dark smoke. Cinis carefully traversed the fields, even though the carefulness was unneeded, the rabbits had all left, and arrived at the smoldering walls of the city. The walls had come crashing down very recently. All that was left now was rubble. Cinis went to look inside the City and was shocked. What had previously been a bustling metropolis filled with the strange creatures that had defeated the goblins now was a crater full of ash and other burnt and charred objects. Cinis noticed a few objects they had believed to be burnt sticks that, upon closer inspection, turned out to be bones coated in soot. Cinis thought about absorbing these bones but was informed by Aiden that it would not be very effective in gathering strength so they left the bones on the ground and went further in. Even as they passed a charred street there was still no sign of life. The storefronts were soot-covered and the few glass windows that were there melted and had solidified into eery and droopy shapes.

‘What in the world could have happened here?’

‘It looks like there was a fire, but that shouldn’t have been able to obliterate the whole thing here right?’

‘This is weird. Should we really keep going?’

‘Yes! I don’t think whatever happened here is still ongoing. Or that whoever caused this would have any interest in you.’

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‘Alright, let’s go.’

Cinis went deeper into the city. traversing streets and what used to be buildings that were now just a pile of rocks. They were still shocked by the sheer scale of this disaster. They had to walk quite a while until they reached the center of the city where there lay a crater. Cinis spied over the edge of this crater and caught a glimpse of something huge, something scaled and red, looking from this glance remarkably similar to what Cinis would look like at this scale if they were to grow wings.

‘A Dragon!’

‘How do you know?’

‘I, I don’t know, it was kind of instinctual somehow. As if I already knew what it was but I had to see it.’

‘What is it then?’

‘I am sure it’s similar to me but far stronger and more adept at using fire.’

‘We should leave now.’

Cinis left. Upon reaching the outskirts of the forest they started wondering what they should do now. They were suppressing the imagery that they had witnessed so they could safely leave..

‘I think hunting slimes will still be safe, it’s further away from this place, but the rabbits are gone, we will need to find something else.’

‘I can’t fight the crabs yet right?’

‘Absolutely not, you will die.’

‘I thought so.’

‘We could just hunt slimes again, it won’t give levels but it will give skills. Maybe the rabbits will even return.’

‘We could, yes. If it doesn’t work out we will have to look for new hunting grounds. Or if the dragon doesn’t leave soon.’

‘We should plan for that case already, where will we go then?’

‘We could go downstream or somewhere behind where the dragon is.’

‘I am for going downstream if it gets dangerous.’

‘That’s good. For now we can just hunt slimes.’

As they continued to leave the two made plans, even with the weight of the dragons’ presence lay in the back of their mind. Occasionally it propelle itself into awareness and made Cinis aware how ridiculous it was that they had managed to approach an entity that had to them near unimaginable strength and lived. They had tried to ignore their shaking body when talking to Aiden but they couldn’t hide it due to their connection. Aiden didn’t press the issue as they too had experienced the horrifying pressure that had shrouded the beast.

‘We will never come back here until we are certain it is gone.’

Cinis didn’t even hesitate before agreeing. That statement was already certain and only had to be said out loud, or as out loud as mental communication could ever be, by Aiden. After this horrifying experience Cinis decided to let out the pressure that had accumulated on slimes and continue the previous hunt. Combined with the previous slimes they had hunted this day it even granted an additional stat point in magic. Although to get just this they had to spend 30 mana to execute a large scale attack using the cursed flame. This attack had seemed similar to what a dragon could do, although Cinis wasn’t sure how exactly they knew. They assumed it was the same reason as why they knew the name of the beasts species. Still it had not felt appropriate to call this usage of the skill “Dragon's Breath” As it was far, far weaker than what the beast had used to demolish the city.

As they lay in their cave they were unable to sleep for quite a while after laying down. In the quietness of the night they thought they were hearing a rumbling coming from the dragon’s location. Although they weren’t sure whether it was real or just their imagination running wild. Eventually they were able to fall into an uneasy sleep.