Sergeant Jasper was leading his command of 50 men into the woods. They had been travelling for over a week, the poor weather and the foot speed of the soldiers meant they had run rather slow.

Their designated village was Carne, a small wooden fenced village that mostly subsisted off of hunting and small-time animal heading. They sold wood and other forest materials to a small-time trading caravan that came through a few times a month. It visited most of the villages around here.

It was their assignment to see the head village and cull any of the nearby monsters. He was hoping that this would be a simple assignment but he just had a feeling it wouldn't be. That was why he had been reading the bestiary and the theory of many magical beasts. This was getting into the wilderness and some creatures had lived long enough to awaken varicose forms of natural and racial magic.

Jasper had been practising his most valued skill, it had kept him alive through many beast encounters.

Race

Level

XP/Growth

Stat Points

Human

33

578/1165 [+1 /pd]

0

Strength

Vitality

Dexterity

Intelligence

120

67

60

50

Ability

Effects

Sword Skills [2]

You have trained in the art of swordplay. When fighting you gain an indication of how to swing your [Sword] and place your [Feet] to maintain [Balance] and [Power]. This ability scales with [Dexterity].

Identify [2]

Tells you the basic [Species] and [Level] of targets. Can appraise targets up to [40] Levels higher than you.

Strong Blow [2]

By striking many blows you have gained the feel, this allowed you to extract every measure of power from you [Muscles] when striking a blow. Can expend [Stamina] to increase the [Power] of a blow.

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Dash [3]

By running from a lot of creatures and towards even more danger you have learned to explosively release your [Muscles] and increase the [Speed] and [Power] of your [Steps] and [Lunges]. With the use of [Mana] move [Double] the speed, the amount is proportional to [Stamina] used.

Beast Knowledge [3]

You have taken the time to read and inspect various beasts and creatures. By [Identifying] with this skill, gain knowledge on how that creature [Grows] and its current state of [Maturity]. Only works on targets below your [Level]. These skills' effects will scale with [Intelligence]. How much is revealed is based on your [Intelligence] and targets.

………….

………………..

Jasper looked at his most prized skill. In his 30 years of life, he had picked up a lot. Most of them were completely useless and un-evolved. But these five had been some of his earliest skills and have all gone through an evolution. Some of them twice. He had made sure to get his intelligence to 50 for the status details and to increase his beast knowledge skill to a good enough level.

It had been a while since his last level as well. Finding beasts over level 20 was hard and he didn't get much experience for anything more than 5 levels beneath him. Anything that was in this level range either had to be taken down as a group, minimizing the XP earned or was too rare and dangerous. Only powerful and wealthy families could afford to send their members to known and scouted dungeons or other such magical ruins. Such places had a higher density of powerful monsters than in the wilds.

A man on horseback came up to Jasper sweating and reported.

“Captain the scouts have just reported that we're just over an hour away from the village. There had been an incident just over a week ago.”

“What sort of incident, goblins? Ogres…”

“No Sir, they said nearly their entire flock had been burned to a crisp and 6 of the townsfolk killed. The bodies were not found till the day after. Lots of beasts had at e’m by then.”

This was foreboding. Jasper sat back in his saddle and considered the beasts that could have done this. Salamanders, but they preferred warmer climates and fewer trees. A powerful fire mage, but why? Someone that powerful would have to be wealthy and trained. Killing farmers in a backwater village was beneath them.

There was only really one conclusion to draw from the recent reports and evidence. Dragon, and a red one at that. It had grown and levelled enough to get its breath weapon. The red ones were rare in this climate and was usually a sign of a large clutch. They grew rapidly in physical and magical aspects but were usually rather lacking in the intelligence department. They were the opposite of the black dragons, who grew fast and intelligent.

Jasper just hoped that the dragon had not reached truly dangerous levels.

…….

He looked at his scales, Nocte Umbra his mother had called him. He thought this was mostly because of his scales and the way he had watched from the shadows as his sibling bickered and fought.

He had blended in so well with the dark, only two had ever seen him in their early days. The red one and his mother. His mother was dead, slaughtered by the ones that held him captive. The red one, well she was not here. So maybe she was alive, hopefully.

There was a loud bang of iron on iron and Noe looked up into the doorway to his cell. He had quickly figured out what the humans wanted. They wanted him to be obedient submissive, they came in to feed him once a day and usually just dumped the carcass on the floor, sometimes they would come in and stab him with tools, collecting some of his blood. After the first time when he struggled and they beat him, he stopped resisting.

He was growing and by showing that he was submitting the beating lessened and more energy was spent growing. He had slowly levelled up, not having access to any source of XP except his food. It was only by the occasional mouse that he had discovered that killing gave him power.

He looked into the eyes of his jailer and the man looked back. This was the only one that did this, the human could see the cunning in his eyes. Noe new it, the was he squirmed and twitched under his gaze. He bared his teeth in a smile and the man practically fled from the room.

Noe listened hard for their grunting, making out a few words more than last time.

“ Im ******* you man **** thing is ******** ****thing, *** freaky. *** black **** *** the clever ****. ******** ** kill ** ** * bet”

“** stop **** your fear *********, *** ****** a beast. ***** ** our ****** *********, ** **** ** *** it fight ****, hahahah”

Over that last weeks, he had connected their grunting and gestures, linked them to things they did or asked when they came into his room and started to build upon his knowledge. To understand their speech.

A day would come when he could mimic those sounds, he could torment them. Just like they had him. Bringing his head round to look at his back and the two ragged stumps there. He used to have dreams of flying faster than the speed of shadow. Darting in and out of his domain, they had taken that from him. He let out a hiss, looking up towards the small slits where his jailers looked on from.

Concentrating he blew air past his throat and pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth.

“Kkklllllllllsssss ooooossss” The guard looked around at the sound and he grinned at the scared man. He went pale and jabbered to his friend as Noe slipped back into the shadows, hidden from sight by the time the second guard turned to look.

Small pleasure and progress.