Day??

  Isaac opened? His eyes?

  He was in the dark, but not awake.

  The hell, panic built up; a new death was not a wish he had. But a push of a notification made him calm down.

  He was evolving.

  Congratulations, you have earned the right to choose your next evolution as a dragon. Choose wisely.

  Hmmm, that was… he really didn't have words for what he was thinking. Was this because of the life Motes he had been drinking, or was there more?

  Isaac didn't have time to think as more messages appeared.

  Life Dragon: as a Life dragon, you are the embodiment of life and can control nature as a guardian from those who would destroy it.

  Skills and attributes received: Empowered life Mana, Longer lived, Guardian of nature, Life Bite, Nature Claws, life sight

  Now this was a hell of an evolution. But Isaac had so many questions; what did it mean to be a “Guardian of nature”, and what would an evolution of his skills do?

  He could make a self-educated guess, however, there was more.

  Cave Dragon: As a cave dragon, the earth and rock sing to you, and you sing back. You control rock and earth and mold it as you see fit.

  Skills and attributes received: Earth mana control, Obsidian scales, Sharpen Claws, Stone bite.

  It was underwhelming compared to the last one. It did, however, appeal to his scrapper side… which he didn't know he had.

  There was one more he could read.

  Arcane dragon: As an Arcane dragon, you awaken your magic core and can make your own magic, not take it from the world. You take the first step in controlling the arcane.

  Skills and attributes received: Mana pool, Arcane resistance, Mana control, Passive mana generation, Mana bite, Arcane claws, Arcane sight, Arcane focus.

  Wow, was all he could say. It was very out there. And he could already see a lot of possibilities and answers to some of the questions he had about the world.

  ‘Mana was part of the world and not his?’ In truth, that raised more questions than it answered, but it sounded right. The best was that it would give him more flexibility than the other choices. The magical part at least. And he was already quite strong physically.

  And in truth, just being able to do more magic was a big plus.

  Looking back at the other 2, he discarded the life Dragon. He didn't know what “Guardian of nature” Would do, but he didn’t like the sound of the skill or attribute.

  The Cave dragon did sound like a safe option, but compared to the arcane one... it was limited. And he could still find some of the skills, hopefully through magic.

  Arcane dragon, it was.

  ‘Well, it seemed like the optimal choice so far’. He gave the screen a yes, and the world changed.

  Day ???

  Isaac actually woke up in the real world this time, finding himself stiff and—

  ‘Wow’ he stumbled as he rose up. He had grown, grown a lot. And so had the place he’d been sleeping in—what had happened here? The clearing where he’d fallen asleep was now overgrown with trees; he couldn't see the sky anymore. He tried to process this sudden change, but before he could look around more or think further, he got invaded by messages.

  Congratulations, you have evolved into an Arcane dragon (youngling)

  Skills and attributes have awakened: Mana pool, Arcane resistance, Arcane claws, mana bite, arcane sight, and arcane focus.

  Skills have evolved: Mana manipulation < Mana control , Bite < mana bite, claw < arcane claws, mana sight < Arcane sight, meditation < arcane focus.

  Isaac groaned as he felt the change sink in. He observed, half dazed, as his scaled claws changed color —he was turning blue? more into a cyan color. The sensation was strange and new, his mind racing to understand it, even as his body continued to shift.

  However, the biggest change was how he perceived the world. The motes in the air no longer flowed into him automatically; now, he could feel the well of mana in him, gathering his own mana. He looked around. Experimentally, he tried controlling the greenish motes around. Much similar to before, he found with some surprise how easily they obeyed his will.

  ‘Damn, I can do magic?’ The thought of casting a fireball did excite him, but he still had so much to figure out from the magic motes and all. This also made him realize that he had a lot more to figure out from his status changes.

  Isaac.

  Arcane Dragon: youngling

  Level: 0

  Dragon nourishment: 10

  Mana nourishment 2nd stage : Low~

  Mana pool: 214 / 214

  Skills:

  Mana Bite level 10

  Arcane Claws level 12

  Mana control level 3

  ?

  Arcane sight level 2

  ?

  Arcane focus level 2

  Evasion level 3

  He was, once again, level 0. It hurt his inner gamer, and there were stages to mana nourishment? It seemed like it too reset when he reached its max level, but compared to his main level it affected his...evolution?

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  He shook his head and refocused. He needed to test this at a later time.

  Isaac had gained a bunch of new skills and a Mana Pool to play with. ‘Now what would a mana pool do?’

  As far as he could feel, the mana he produced? Generated?— was under his control. And currently, he was, for lack of better words, leaking mana motes into the world. Could I just?

  He flexed his mental muscle as he had done before, and “Asked” the mana to gather. It moved fast, with his new arcane sight; it didn't blind him, but it was clear what mana was his and what was the world's ambient mana motes. His mana responded fast, gathering together into a ball. It hummed with power, and in that moment, Isaac realized he kinda had done some magic… he didn’t quite know what to do with a buzzing ball of mana, though.

  He looked around, finding a tree stump with a simple mental command, and the ball shot out, faster than a froglet tongue attack.

  ?

  The overgrown garden shook from the blast, and half the tree stump was all that was left remaining. ‘Damn, that was powerful,’ but now there wasn't any ambient mana around.

  ?

  He tested a few more shots, finding that if he controlled it, he could make one that costs about 15 to 20 mana each. He could maybe even add more if he got more control over the mana. But this time, he used his own mana, not the ambient motes.

  ?

  Mana pool: 106 / 214

  ?

  It was draining work, but he did gain some levels from it.

  ?

  You have leveled Mana control to level 4

  ?

  You have leveled Arcane Focus to level 3

  ?

  You have leveled Arcane Sight to level 3

  ?

  The levels were nice, but so far, it felt more like he was still just testing muscles he had just gained.

  Looking around the place where he had killed off the last froglet. The pool was now gone, and the glade had become an overgrown forest. ‘How much time had passed?’ As if his body knew the answer, it popped into his mind. It was day 142 since his birth, and that meant…

  Some quick mental math.

  It had been 112 days since he had been awake. ‘... I am a heavy sleeper.’ At this point, however, it wasn’t surprising; he was a dragon after all, and he had just… evolved… whatever that meant.

  That did make him laugh a bit ‘What am I, a Pokemon.’ he shook himself, some leaves and dirt fell off, but he didn't see any signs of attacks. ‘Guess I got lucky’

  Now came the question: how much had the valley changed?

  Day 142

  The valley had changed a lot… too much, it felt like. There was a lot more life. A ton of new monsters and animals. It looked like the froglet pool had stifled most of the other monsters from spawning and from settling down in the valley.

  Some kind of cat-like shadow creature did try to attack him, but one swipe of an Arcane claw tore it out of the shadows literally. And Isaac was now snacking on what he could only say was shadow food. He hadn't realized it, but his growth was fast, and he wondered if other monsters had it like this.

  Looking down at his claws, they were slightly shining in a blue color. Similar to the mana motes that were of pure mana. His attacks now had some kind of magic property.

  Isaac felt more powerful than ever before.

  He was now the apex monster…’ at least here in the valley,’ he reminded himself. He wouldn't let dragon pride take over just yet.

  But what he didn't like at all was that… there were now a lot of monsters flying over him… and that grinded his gears to no end. Luckily for him, his wings on his arms were now halfway done, and he could glide… somewhat. The last couple of trees wouldn’t agree to that… as they had cushioned his half assed landings... mostly destroyed but.. he had tried.

  Finally arriving at his lair, he found it occupied by a bunch of giant mosquitoes.

  ‘Ooo hell naw’ if there was one thing Isaac’s old memories came back with… it was the utter hatred of mosquitoes… and his dragon side fully agreed…smoke started to come out of his nostrils.

  His rage boiled over when he could see that they had started to build nests in his HOME.

  And Isaac tasted dragon rage.

  The first mosquito to emerge from the cave was turned to ash before it hit the ground...

  Blue flames cover the entrance to Isaac’s cave.

  You have Awakened the Skill Arcane Dragonfire.

  Now we're talking.