Year 79

  As Isaac knocked over the final rock that had been blocking the entrance to his cave, he was still faced with the power he now held... but the changes to the valley took his breath away.

  The worms had ravaged it...

  There were clear signs that the worms had been looking for him for a while; deep grooves had been dug into the ground around the entrance... But the valley.

  The green valley looked dead, plants and trees—all of them looked withered. and tainted by the worm’s unending hunger...

  All over the valley, dead monsters and animals alike lay strewn, half rotten, and some not even eaten...

  The untainted land of nature was ruined... and Isaac was pissed.

  He didn't know why the worms had followed him home to HIS Mountain.

  As fire and smoke steamed out of his nostrils... he calmed his mind.

  ‘First of all, I need food.’

  Dragon nourishment: 29

  But the important matter, he looked down at his... blown-off claw hand... it was slowly growing back.

  ‘Dragon regenerations is something else,’ he smiled to himself...,

  Isaac could feel that it was draining his dragon's nourishment fast. and he had already eaten some meat that was left from the previous fight...

  Hopefully, the other worms wouldn’t be as strong as the ones he had fought previously...

  ‘Well, I can try out my new wings,’ he thought, looking at his new and much bigger wings on his back.

  And for the better, he had his claws.... or now, singular claw, ready to do some damage.

  Year 79 - one day after evolution

  Flying low over the ruined valley, Isaac shot down on an unsuspecting worm. It was a lot smaller than the previous ones.

  A short scream later, it was in his good claw, being burned by True Fire Marked claws; the fire went right through its defense.

  You have defeated Worm (Youngling), level 10

  The notifications confirmed Isaac’s suspicions.

  The worms had evolved, and it had changed them fundamentally... the bloody aura of hunger and death weren’t as prevalent in this worm, but still there. This one only needed to grow and eat food.

  Looking around, he could see smaller and bigger worms around... There were so many.

  They had taken over his mountain top.

  Luckily, there weren’t more of the Hunt variety around.

  However, it didn't explain why they were outside his cave... ‘except that they wanted a piece of my meat,’ Isaac chuckled as he started eating... worm wasn't on the top of his list of good meat... but as of right now, there wasn’t anything around.

  Looking at his food status.

  Dragon nourishment: 66

  The worms were at least nutritious.

  Flapping his wings, Isaac looked for his next target. He would need to start taking them out one by one, then.

  Year 79, - three months after evolution

  Flaring his dragon fear, one more time, the worm in front of Isaac froze. The worms struggled, but Isaac’s Dragon Aura paralyzed it.

  Forming the sigil of fire and taking control of the natural mana motes. He quickly enclosed the Hunter worm. It tried to wrestle free from the fear, but failed with his True dragon fire.

  Its mana too, went to the earth beneath, but Isaac had already infused it with his.

  Charging forward, Isaac’s healed claw hand struck just as it broke free from the fear, sending it into a new daze.

  Falling to the ground, the earth beneath the worm took grip, holding it still.

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  The fire mana Isaac had gathered around the quick exchange condensed around the head of the worm.

  It didn't take long for its head to burn and turn to ash, the rest of its body falling limp.

  You have defeated Hunter Worm (Youngling), level 20

  The worm had been a challenge. Not as big as the ones that had attacked. This time, Isaac had been the ambusher.

  And death from above was no joke.

  For the last couple of months, Isaac had been hunting the worms populating the valley.

  It seemed most of the hunter worms were the grown version of the evolved worms, as he had only found a handful more of the ones that had surprised him in his lair.

  But there had been hundreds of the normal variety of the worms.

  So far, Isaac had killed most of them...

  To his surprise, there were some monsters in the jungle that had survived the worm invasion.

  There was a Shadow-cat creature that had been attacked in his early days, but a much bigger one, a pack of them, really, that had survived.

  That and a what Isaac could only describe as a mammoth, but just much... much bigger.

  How Isaac hadn’t seen them before was... something; their natural mana and ability to move plants and trees might have been the reason.

  As Isaac had started his crusade on the worms in the valley, more singular creatures and monsters had shown themselves out of hiding.

  There were more and fewer than he expected.

  But as he finished his meal, he could confidently say he had enough food for days.

  Dragon nourishment: 230

  And as his claws had healed, his Dragon nourishment wasn't a drain, but dragon regeneration wasn’t something to scoff at.

  But now Isaac really could use a nap..

  His soul wound had left an itch in him that he couldn't get to.

  The hunt for the worms had, for the better, made him focus on them, and not his wounded state... but now, as he only went for the bigger worms around, his mind started to wander.

  The mana levels had not come back; if anything, they were worse than he could remember them ever being. and he hadn't seen any new spawning...

  Getting back to his lair, it was still in a rough state.

  His mana stone was still glowing softly in the center of his chamber. They still gave him a good feeling of mana and increased the ambient mana in his cave.

  However, Isaac had been exhausted for the last few months. Looking at his mana

  Mana pool: 79/ 251 (Soul damage ~ )

  He was still running, but it was regenerating slowly.

  And from his inner soul, he could see that his core had a crack... his mana partly being used to heal it, but also his new skill, Draconic Soul, was doing some of the work.

  Lying down, Isaac wondered.

  The state here had been bad; how much worse could it be down in the plains?

  Isaacs level gains

  Dragon of True Flame: Adolescent

  Level: 4 < 5

  Dragon nourishment: 230

  Mana nourishment 2nd stage: medium~

  Mana pool: 196/ 251 (Soul damage ~ )

  Skills:

  ?Bite of a Dragon level 3 < 4

  True fire Marked claws level 8

  Mana control 16

  Arcane sight level 16

  Arcane focus level 12

  Evasion level 9

  Mana perception level 11

  True Draconic Fire level 13

  Dragon Fear level 7 < 8

  Draconic Soul level 6 < 7

  Fire control level 2 < 3

  Draconic resistance level 3 < 4

  Fire manipulation level 2 < 4