Zero woke up abruptly and began coughing into his palm. "Huff. Huff. Huff. Yeah, these burns are gonna take a while to heal!" he said, looking at the burns and bruises that covered his body. He got off the ground and patted himself down. He felt something tap his shoulder and turned to see a black tendril holding a glowing lime-green heart.
"What the hell?" Zero watched as the tendril moved the heart in front of him and began shaking it slightly as if saying to take it. So he grabbed it. "Did you save me?" he asked, and the tendril shook as if nodding. It then pointed at the heart and then at his mouth. He planned on eating it either way, so he gobbled it up in one bite and swallowed it. Unlike with the wyvern's heart, after he ate it, his body felt a confusing energy flow into it.
He could feel that his regeneration ability had increased, making his injuries and burns fade away slowly, but apart from that, his reserves were refilling. He also felt that he had gained a few abilities, but couldn't tell what they were right now. He sensed someone familiar coming and turned around to see a man named Percival and another guy whom he didn't recognize. "So what do you want?" he asked Percival, remembering that the pink-haired girl had asked him to help her arrest him.
"Well, I wanted to find you as a corpse on the ground, but you being near death is just as good honestly!" Percival chuckled, glad to see how injured he was. Zero already knew Percival wasn't here with good intentions. There was something wrong about the guy, as he could sense something ominous from Percival. How did he not sense this before?
Zero's eyes crossed to the side, spotting his greatsword stabbed into the ground. Percival saw his gaze wasn't on him but on the greatsword that was a few meters away from them. "Oh, you want your weapon? Well, go on. I'll enjoy my time with you for a while!" Percival boasted as he put on a pair of bracelets.
Zero dashed to grab his greatsword and held it at his side. Before he could speak, Percival instantly sent dozens of sound blasts at him. Zero raised his greatsword to block the attack, but an explosion happened which blocked Percival's vision. He couldn't sense anything so he started laughing, thinking he had killed Zero. Suddenly, the cloud was dispersed, revealing that Zero was undamaged by his attack apart from his previous injuries.
Zero wasted no time and kicked the ground. He spun, performing a roundhouse at Percival's head, knocking him away. He kicked the ground again, appearing behind Percival and backhanding him into the ground, making him cough blood. "Attack me again and I will kill you," Zero threatened, but didn't expect him to recover and was surprised as Percival used all of his magical power at once, unleashing dozens of consecutive massive explosions of soundwaves that hit Zero's entire body and even his internal organs as the explosion engulfed him.
A few seconds passed before Percival began laughing hysterically, his arms spread wide. "Hehehehe!" Percival chuckled, believing he had finally killed Zero. "I won!" he exclaimed, imagining how he would bring Zero's body to the little girl who was with him last time, eager to see her reaction. However, his thoughts were cut short as a searing pain shuddered through his body, causing him to gasp in agony.
"No..." Zero's voice dripped with venom as he lifted him with a single arm, gripping his greatsword, which impaled Percival. Percival couldn't utter a word, overwhelmed by the searing pain coursing through him. "...you didn't," Zero concluded, seizing the handle with both hands and swinging once, splitting Percival in half.
The two halves fell onto the floor, and Zero turned to see that the guy who came with Percival had already run away. But among the burning soot, he smelled someone familiar. He couldn't tell whose smell it was until he saw a girl with black hair and light grayish skin run into view. She quickly sped up, crashing into him and knocking him down. "Zero!" she yelled as she hugged him tightly. He didn't feel any hostility coming from her, but he suddenly felt something draining his mana.
Before either of them could blurt a word, a black glyph appeared beneath them, and the last thing Zero saw was a flash of light before he lost consciousness. The black glyph then appeared within a forest filled with tall black trees that had dark red energy flowing through them.
The black-haired girl, Hera, got off the ground, cracking her neck. "Where are we?" Hera questioned as she looked around and noticed the weird black trees. But she quickly remembered that she had tackled Zero and quickly turned to find him lying on the ground. She quickly ran over to his side to check his vitals. "Holy shit! What the hell happened to him?!" she studied his body, removing the upper clothing, revealing more of his burnt chest and arms, which shocked her due to how severe his injuries were.
"Damnit, how do I even fix this?" she groaned, annoyed at the fact that she didn't have a way to heal Zero and the fact that she just managed to find Zero and now she had to deal with him being on the brink of death.
She placed her hand on Zero's body, and tiny shadow tendrils emerged from her hand to cover up his wounds. The tendrils quickly covered his body in what appeared to be a wrapping of pure black ropes. As it finished, she began going to pick him up. "Ok, that should be able to hold him for a while so I can try and find a way outta this forest!" she suddenly heard the trees behind them being knocked down.
She turned her head to see a group of 8-foot-tall figures with dark green skin and crudely forged iron armor that covered their vitals but still revealed their vast muscular bodies. These were Trolls, which is an Orge that becomes when it evolves.
"Trolls?" Hera sighed, a look of annoyance falling on her face. She stood up and stared at the trolls that stood a few meters away. As she stood there, her arms down to the forearm turned into a long black blade and wasted no time dashing at them. But before the Trolls could even blink, they were sliced up into dozens of pieces, the blood from their bodies falling all over her body, covering her clothes and hair. "Oh, you got to be fucking kidding me! Now I'm gonna smell like monster guts again!" Hera groaned with frustration.
She heard someone behind her and, thinking it was Zero, a thought ran through her head as a small blush appeared on her face. "Hehe hey Zero since you're up now you wanna find a river and clean up?" she turned around only to see a group of individuals running away. But what pissed her off the most was the black-haired girl who had Zero in her arms.
"Oh hell no! You get back here right now damnit!" Hera shouted, about to chase after them, but a troll got in her way. She casually chopped into bits easily but soon found herself surrounded by dozens of trolls, except they appeared to be many times stronger than the previous trolls. She sighed as this was going to take her a while.
________________________________________________________________________________
"Julia, are you retarded?! Why did you bring this guy?!" The man shouted as they leaped through the forest to get as far as they could from booming sounds they heard far behind them. They could still hear it even though they were getting further away from it.
"Tyronis, what the hell do you mean? He's one of us. I couldn't just leave him with that dark monster back there!" Julia shouted back at Tyronis. She kept a tight hold on Zero's body that was wrapped up in a shadowy substance. This worried her, but she decided to remove it when they arrived at their home.
As they got closer to their home, the sounds of battle soon went silent. After a few more minutes, they finally arrived at a wall that had a gate with two women who were wearing armor that appeared to be made of steel. Both women looked down to see the group, but before either could speak, the gate was opened, revealing an angry woman with long blue hair.
The blue-haired woman stomped up to the group. "So, why did you guys go out this time? You know lower-class dragonoids have a higher chance of dying out there!" She shouted intensely, glaring at them. She was enraged but still worried for their safety like a mother would. She stood before Tyronis and pointed her finger at his chest. "Tyronis, you're supposed to be her older brother. You are supposed to set an example for her! How could you take her out there?! You could've gotten not just your sister, but all of your friends could've been killed!" she shouted, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him repeatedly.
"Mom, please stop. We need to help this guy!" Tyronis said as his mom shook him back and forth. She stopped instantly as she heard those words and turned to see the heavily injured Zero in Julia's arms. "Honey, what have I told you about kidnapping people to make them your friends? I forgave you last time because Pyrthia and Radix forgave you two, but he doesn't even look like he's alive. What did you two do?" their mother questioned, shaking her head.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
They quickly explained how they were just coming back from finding a dungeon they were going to prepare to raid and found a heavily injured dragonoid being tied up in shadows by a suspicious-looking gray-skinned lady with black hair. The mom let out a sigh and just took Zero from Julia's arms so that she could take him to their healing chamber.
Quickly walking through the kingdom to the healing chamber, she walked up to a healing pod. The healing pod looked like an egg that was 10 by 10 feet in size. She tried tearing off the ropes made of shadows but found it tough to do so. She took several minutes to remove most of them and then put a Tide Mask on his face before opening the latch and gently placing him inside the healing pod.
________________________________________________________________________________
Authors note: Tide mask is just a magical item that lets you breathe underwater
________________________________________________________________________________
After placing him inside the healing pod, she closed the latch and pressed her hand on a tablet that was attached to the pod's front causing the pod to begin filling with aquamarine-colored water. Since that was now dealt with she was going to go head home to make dinner for her children and their friends as she bet they were hungry after all the stuff they did today. The healing pod had several vine-like dragon scales attached to its bottom holding it up with the sound of its aquamarine water bubbling as an unconscious Zero slept inside it.
________________________________________________________________________________
Zero woke up once again over a dark red sea. He got off the water and turned to see Haru staring at him. "Is something wrong?" Zero asked, wondering why Haru was staring at him so intensely. Haru stayed quiet for a few seconds before speaking. "Well, you gained a few abilities from eating that spirit's heart."
Zero was surprised at what Haru said and rubbed his chin. "I did? Usually, it's only one from what I've seen, but I guess spirits are different. What abilities did I get?" He asked, curious about what abilities he could have gained. "Alright, well before that, the ones you had before were Blast Step, Harden, and Dragon Scale Manipulation," Haru summoned a screen and then swiped it toward Zero.
Barrier
Soundwave
Elemental Fusion
Compact
Sword Creation
Inferno
"Before you comment, I'll explain them. The barrier ability will allow you to create magical shields in sphere-like shapes. Soundwave allows you to generate or fire soundwaves from your mouth or hands. Elemental Fusion, as its name says, lets you combine two different magic types for attacks and such, but you need to have an extra magic type for this or a skill that gives you another magic type. Compact makes condensing magical attacks much easier, allowing for greater effects of said spells. Sword Creation just lets you create sword-based constructs out of your magic and abilities, and Inferno is a little weird as it's no longer an ability now." Haru explained to Zero, who listened quietly before asking, "Wait, why is Inferno not an ability anymore?"
"That's because it seems to have been integrated into your lightning magic, giving it a minor flame property, making it so you can do certain things that flame magic can do now," Haru answered. Zero nodded, kind of understanding, since he hadn't actually seen any flame magic users other than the flame bird and Draco. He thought of Jean but remembered that he had never seen him actually use his fire magic but knew that he did have it.
"So, is there anything else I should know?" Zero asked, sitting down on the water cross-legged. "Well, I should tell you that after you passed out, a group of people who felt similar to you snatched you up, but that's about as much as I know. Apart from that, there are a couple of things you need to learn, as without these, you might die the next time you fight another powerful opponent!" Haru said, leaning back in his chair.
Zero was curious about what was so important it could get him killed if he didn't learn it. So he asked, "So what do I need to learn?" Haru closed his eyes for a few minutes to talk to someone in his thoughts.
While this happened, Zero was thinking about some very important things. 'Man, I wonder what a giant bird tastes like?' Haru's eyes opened, and he got off his chair. He coughed into his palm, grabbing Zero's attention. "Sorry for the wait, but to start things off, you first need to train your mana control, as according to her, your mana control is 'kinda shit'. Second, try practicing all of your skills separately and together; just try to get used to them more. It should help a lot. Third, you really need to create some more spells, because right now you lack a lot of variety when it comes to your options, forcing you to improvise. Lastly, try fighting more opponents; preferably intelligent or experienced fighters, as that would help you gain more combat and battle experience than most beasts would give you!" Haru explained and paused for a moment to catch his breath
"OK did you get all that?" He asked him if he heard all of it. Zero nodded but then asked, "By the way Haru, you said her earlier. Who's that?"
Haru quickly wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Her? Oh, you must have misheard me. Look, just make sure to do all of the things I said for your training. It'll help you get stronger, okay!" He said, trying his best to change the subject. Zero didn't get the memo and continued, "You did mention a woman though. Is there someone you've been talking to other than me in here?" Haru was sweating, but suddenly he remembered something else.
"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about, but look, there's something very important you have to do, and it's related to your sword!" Haru said, hoping it would distract Zero from his mistake. Luckily for him, it did. "My sword?" Zero asked, extremely curious, completely forgetting the thing Haru had said earlier.
"Yeah, your sword is kinda special, so you have to let it absorb a lot of evil souls or monster essences. You can get them by killing monsters, but you need to kill a lot of monsters that have a battle power that exceeds at least 25 or 50 thousand would be enough to upgrade the sword to its 2nd stage!" Haru explained with a smile on his face, trying his best to make it sound more appealing to Zero.
"Hmm, how many essences do I need to get it to the 2nd stage?" Zero asked excitedly that he was going to be able to make his greatsword better than it already was. "Well, the first thing is that it's in the dormant stage at the moment so you need to kill 500 monsters to get it out of the dormant stage before you can proceed to the 2nd stage." Haru explained, but Zero quickly asked a question, "Wait so the sword is dormant right now?"
"Yes, now back to the topic. Each monster kill counts as one monster essence. Stronger monsters could count as more than one, maybe around 5 to 25, but it could be higher since it depends on how strong they are. But when you get it out of the dormant stage, I'll tell you what you have to do next!" Haru finished explaining, leaving Zero with a lot that he had to do. He didn't have any more questions, so he thanked Haru and closed his eyes to wake himself. Haru said goodbye as he began leaving his mind to enter the real world again.
________________________________________________________________________________
Zero's eyes fluttered open. He shifted a bit, noticing he was inside something filled with some sort of liquid that looked different from water. He noticed he could still breathe despite being submerged in water, so he didn't panic but looked around for a way to get out and found some sort of tablet with a green hand on it. Instinctively, he placed his hand on it, which caused the water to quickly drain down to below his knees. He gently pushed the glass pane in front of him, opening the pod, and allowing him to step out onto the white floor tiles.
The water dripped off his long mane of crimson hair to his feet. He realized that not only was he completely healed but he was also completely naked. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't bothered by this and just shook his head, shaking the water out of his hair. Once he finished shaking the water out of his hair, he began walking away from the pod but heard a loud squall from behind him.
He turned to see a woman who had a massive blush on her face. "Hey, do you think you could get me some clothes someone took mine!" Zero exclaimed, waving at the woman who was staring at him for a moment before finally answering, "Ah, s-sorry I'll get you something to wear!" The woman said stuttering before she quickly sprinted off and quickly came back with a big box.
She handed him the box. "W-Well I didn't know your size so I just made a guess so hopefully they fit you now. Please go change!" She said, pushing him away toward the other side of the room. He simply thanked her for the clothes and opened up the big box revealing a Long white sleeve shirt, matching black Wide-leg pants, and a pair of combat boots. He put on everyone, and luckily everything fitted nicely.
He walked over to ask the woman where was the exit and she pointed to her left. He thanked her before walking out of the room and through the hallway toward the exit. He walked out of the healing chamber room but wasn't greeted by a city but by an arena watching as a heavily injured girl was knocked out of it by an older-looking female.
The older woman with black hair had scars all over her body which were proof of her battle experience. "Tch! Another weakling! Can none of you low-class maggots make me even use 100% of my strength like cmon I haven't even used more than 10% damnit!" She shouted turning her back to him as her eyes glared at everyone on the sidelines. But her eyes suddenly widened as she sensed someone powerful and turned to stare at Zero who was looking at her.
"Hehehe! Well well well looks like somebody who's actually worth a damn has decided to join us today! Why don't you come up and show me what you got kid?!" The woman called him over waving her hand at him to come. 'Haru did say I need more battle experience I guess I could join in on whatever is going on here' Zero thought and reluctantly walked up to the arena and hopped up on the platform.
"I just woke up but I do need more experience so I hope you can take care of me!" He said cracking his knuckles. The woman clenched her fist as a confident smirk fell on her face. "Before the fight, we should exchange names so let me introduce myself first. I'm Moria what's yours?"
"Zero," He responded
"Odd name, I like it. I just hope you'll be able to keep up with me or I'll have to send you back to the healing chamber!" Moria said with an arrogant smirk on her face as she cracked her knuckles.
"Well, you can try," Zero said as his eyes glowed a crimson hue.