A drake with tentacles. Wichita had not even heard of such a thing. But here it was. A dangerous beast, just like any of the dragon family. The overwhelming darkness did not make things easier.

The tentacles were magical, and she could sense them somewhat. The drake’s body on the other hand was difficult. The Fae had built the d dragons to counter Arcana, though they hadn’t truly succeeded. That meant that every battle against a dragon was difficult. The beasts were ridiculously resistant to almost all forms of magic, and their fire could still burn an Arcana.

“Rose, I need you to use your Skill as much as you can. I can’t really see the drake.” she said.

“I am trying!” Rose sounded exasperated. Wichita did not know what to do. The drake had faded back into the darkness, and she could not even detect its tentacles. No, wait, she—“Strike behind you Tully!” she yelled and the girl followed. The tentacle collided with Sword Qi and found itself cut off.

Another tentacle launched from the left. “Strike to your left, and then to the right!” she predicted. The tentacles once again failed.

Wichita frowned. A drake was an intelligent creature, far too intelligent to have attacked with tentacles when it knew she was on guard. Why would it do that—oh.

“How much Sword Qi do you have left?” she asked, on the lookout for more tentacles crawling towards them. Or even the drake itself.

“A third of it.” Tully replied, sounding even more nervous than before. Wichita swore. This was bad. Tully might be the only one that could kill the drake.

“Don’t use your Sword Qi from now on.” she said, moving closer to the girl. “I will use the needle to protect you. That Qi might be the only thing that can harm the drake.”

If it really did have dragon kind’s hard skin, her needle wouldn’t even be able to pierce it. With the darkness hovering around them, she could not rely on piercing through its eyes.

A tentacle emerged striking at Jace just as another headed towards Rose. A painful moment passed as she realized that the drake had heard her. Then she realized that it did not matter. The needle was fast enough to cover this area.

A growl pierced through the darkness, echoing around the area. The drake was not happy about its strategy failing, not happy at all.

Wichita took a deep breath. “So, this is what dragon kind has come to.” she mocked. There was little doubt in her mind that the two species’ Legends had just entered the arena.

The dragons and the Arcana had been warring since before the System was even born. Just the presence of her, an Uncrowned Queen of Arcana, and a lesser dragon was enough to bring the Story to the fore.

And Arcanian Queens hunted dragons. Wichita could only hope that enough of the Story survived to give her a fighting chance.

The drake had been silent biding its time, perhaps doing some thinking of its own.

“Not even replying?” she mocked again. “I suppose you are a lesser dragon after all. A proper dragon would not be such a coward.”

A roar shook the forest around her as the drake let out its fire in her direction. The darkness dispelled a bit as she saw the drake’s full body for the first time. The thing looked like a huge snake, its middle region enlarged like a balloon. A number of tentacles were emerging from it, and none of them were cut off.

The drake could regrow its tentacles. Tully had just been wasting her Qi cutting them off. The needle likely did more damage, a beast like that had to have limited mana.

Wichita had also forgotten about the girl. Tully let out a small string of Sword Qi, piercing into the drake’s flesh. The needle slipped through the fire, slipping into its mouth. The drake yelped as it shot fire.

Shaking her head, she called the needle out. The poor thing would not be able to survive in the drake’s mouth for long. But it had gotten a good amount of mana from it. The darkness had reduced by quite a bit, but the drake was still able to disappear into it. Wichita could almost make out the trees now.

Rose pointed in a direction, extending her hand outwards and then back again. Then did it again. Wichita was pretty sure she was trying to say that the drake was there, especially because the direction kept changing.

Feeling her Heart beat in her chest, she considered if she should attack. Tully did not have much Sword Qi left. If this attack failed, then she might not have enough for another. And in that case they might really end up dying.

Positing the needle to take advantage of an attack, she poked Tully. And then chopped in the direction Rose was pointing. A burst of Sword Qi emerged from Tully’s hand, the silvery light passing through the darkness without illuminating it.

And then it collided with something. A howl of pain emerged as the drake’s tail was cut off, the cut being just behind the tentacles. A large part of its body had been cut off. Wichita hoped that it was enough to kill it. The tentacles flaying about told her the answer to that was no. The magic she could see healing the thing was a definite no.

“Another” she said, sighing in relief as she felt the needle inside the drake’s body. The thing had slipped in through the wound and was now feasting on the mana trying to heal the body.

“I am out of Sword Qi.” Tully said bitterly. “The Skill won’t work.”

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Wichita’s eyes widened as she realized that they had no other way to damage the creature.

“Does your mechanical weapon have any charges left?” she asked Rose.

The girl looked at her. Wichita was surprised that she could actually see the girl. The drake’s mana must be low enough that it wasn’t able to keep it up anymore.

“No. I am out of bullets.” Rose answered, licking her lips to hydrate them. “Perhaps we can try throwing stones at it…?”

“No.” Wichita shook her head as she gulped. The needle was still inside, and the drake was still trashing about trying to heal itself. “The hide is too thick for that. I don’t think we can damage it anymore. The needle is inside, we can only hope that it can kill it.”

“Can it?” Jace half-whispered. Wichita could see that his body was trembling. The shirt she had enchanted was drenched with sweat, and he was crouching on the floor. The situation must have been quite scary for him given that he couldn’t even see the beast, let alone defend himself.

“I do not know.” she replied, trying to hide her own nervousness. The four of them had stopped long ago, they could only hope the forest wouldn’t decide to kill them.

“I can’t tell how much mana the beast has. A lot, apparently.” she said. “This was a Tier 2 creature.”

The second statement surprised her. But it was true, she could feel the mana in it. With its dragon nature, and its tentacles, it was too powerful to be Tier 1. Or it could be a very special class like Tully, but that still left it with Tier 2 combat prowess.

The thrashing quieted down, the darkness all but disappeared as she began walking towards it. An idea had stuck her. An idea that was a waste of mana, but she really didn’t want to deal with the drake fighting again. If it managed to breathe fire again, they would be screwed. More than screwed, they would probably be dead.

Lifting her leg, she used her dress’ mana threads to tie a stone to it. Then she brought it down on the drake, using up a hundred mana in the process. The drake squealed, its voice making her companions shove their hands against their ears.

Then it died.

[Forgotten Queen] has reached level 9

Activating Skill assignment protocol…

Wichita’s eyes widened. The System had given her a level just for this? Well, she had been helping her subjects survive, and had contributed quite a bit. But still, a level just for this?

{Custom}: Choose a non-sapient living, organic creature in your vicinity. Choose a growth direction for said creature. A class matching the direction shall be granted to the creature. This may or may not grant it sapience after some growth. This task must be completed in 100 seconds or the Skill shall be withdrawn.

Wichita’s eyes widened as she looked around for any non-sapient creature around her. The vines—the vines were missing! The trees were dead. What else? What else was there? Looking around, at the ground, at the sky, she couldn't see anything. The organic restriction removed the needle from consideration.

This was bad. This was very bad. How was she supposed to—a thump had her turning to investigate the source of the sound. A black and white cat stood in the clearing, shaking its fur. Wichita’s eyes narrowed in confusion. This was the same cat she had been seeing. Did it count—no. The System was not acknowledging it.

Then an ant fell from its fur. Wichita blinked. An ant. There was no mana in it even. Just a normal, non monster ant. But it was there. The cat had delivered it to her. Not daring to think anymore about the cat’s actions, she tried to think of ideas.

The timer was ticking down, she only had fifty seconds left. There were too many options. The Iridor, and even the Arcana had done a lot of experimenting on ants. Even succeeded. What would she give? Deciding which of them to give was a pain in her arse.

But she had to give something. The timer ticked down to thirty, and she simply decided to fuck it.

Go deep. Wichita stopped as she felt her voice echo. The System was doing something, having detected that she was going to use the custom Skill.

Go deep. Hunt what lays below the surface of the earth. Feed no more on the flesh and blood of monsters, but on the rock and magma that makes up the earth. Dig until you can dig no more, until you encounter the ocean that burns. Then use it to grow stronger, for it shall be yours by right.

For some reason, just saying the words made her feel exhausted. A novel experience given what she was. To make things worse, the words had barely been hers by the end of it. The System, or perhaps something else, had been driving her. The idea was still hers, or more accurately an Iridor researcher’s, but it had been presented…differently. This had been grander. Like she was giving the ant a mission.

{Custom} transformed into Monarch Skill: [Magma Ant].

Granting class…

Wichita froze again as she felt the mana move. For a second she thought it was the System granting the class. But no, it felt wrong for that. The mana was wrong - her Heart froze.

Like time itself had frozen, though it probably hadn’t, the world froze around her. An ocean of mana made itself known, and she felt it even without using her mana sense. The System. A Judgement? The System had started a Judgement on her just for using its own Skill?

Wailing against the unfairness of it, she stared at the ocean of mana that had come to end her. Except it didn’t. The ocean stood there, observing her, and then disappeared as if it hadn’t arrived.

Skill [Magma Ant] has been transformed to [Magma Ant Queen]

Skill earned: [Magma Ant]

The species, [Magma Ant] has declared its loyalty to you.

[Forgotten Queen] has reached level 10

The Judgment coming for her suddenly made a bit more sense. Wichita still didn’t think it was fair, but…it made sense. The Judgment was the System dealing with someone who broke the rules, and it did seem like she had at least subverted them. That had been an ant queen, and apparently one ready to lay eggs. Was that how it worked? Did ants lay eggs? Wichita really didn’t know.

But whatever the case, its young had somehow gotten the class. And that had somehow caused a new species of ant to be born. Wichita hadn’t done any of that on purpose, but she had somehow benefited from it.

The cat was the one that had done it, somehow known the System would give her something like this and planned this in advance. Considering that she hadn’t even known the System could do it, she really wanted to ask it a few questions.

Of course, the bloody thing was nowhere to be seen. Just her subjects who looked like they had questions for her.