When Arthur opened his eyes, he saw the smooth scales of Lilo. However, as he raised his head, he found a different creature in its stead. He looked with furrowed brows at the bigger dragon.
"Lilo?" Arthur muttered with confusion as he examined the dragon that was two meters tall now. "What happened to you? You were a lot cuter."
'I'm stronger now.' The reply came unexpectedly coherent. Arthur even saw the dragon look at him smugly.
"Still, I'd prefer that you've stayed the same," Arthur said with a serious face. However, Lilo looked at him like he was an idiot. It hmphed and pushed Arthur away as it flapped its wings.
This time, after its wing span became a meter and a half, Lilo was able to fly. With two flaps of its wings, it levitated. With another powerful flap, it soared to the skies as Arthur looked at it with amazement.
"It looks like its mother," Arthur shielded his eyes from the sun as he grinned. Lilo soared higher and higher until all Arthur could see was a dot in the sky.
Lilo issued a roar of triumph and Arthur felt the unease that the forest felt. Even as an infant, Lilo was at the peak-mid-tier. The amount of growth it can achieve with such a start point is staggering to think of.
"Is it because I gave it a name? I can feel its emotions." Arthur felt a foreign sense of joy and pride flood through him. Lilo then descended downward and landed in front of Arthur. This time, it was a lot more docile than earlier.
It spread its wings as it bent its back. Arthur realized that it was asking him to ride it, but he wasn't so sure he can suffer the fall if things went wrong. Nonetheless, he stepped forward and caressed its neck.
"Can you even carry me?" Arthur asked Lilo and it nodded with pride. It was taller than Arthur now and its body was lined with muscles. Arthur shrugged and rode on its back with his thighs touching the base of its wings.
Lilo then lifted its body and Arthur grabbed its neck lest he falls. With another flap of its wings, Arthur felt his feet leave the ground. As he was close now, he realized that Lilo was also using magic to help it fly.
They started rising higher and higher until Lilo flapped its wings powerfully, making them soar into the skies. Arthur clung to its neck as his body slide downward. The dragon kept rising higher before it stopped rising and simply flapped its wings to remain in place.
Arthur, who had his eyes squinted earlier, opened them slowly to see the wilderness with its mountains and forests. He saw a flying monster in the distance that was deterred from their location. The sun cast a shadow behind the mountains and the light penetrated the foggy steeps of them.
"Woah." Arthur couldn't help but be amazed at the scenery. The clouds that were far away looked so close now. Looking down on the world gave him a certain feeling of power.
'Do we go further?' Lilo asked in his mind and Arthur agreed unconsciously. The dragon flapped its wings again as it began racing across the skies. Arthur couldn't help but construct a barrier in front of him to shield himself from the wind.
They crossed over forests, mountains, great rivers, and even dungeons. Some of those dungeons were broken through and the monsters kept pouring out. These dungeons were the main reason the wilderness exists.
Arthur flew a distance before he spotted a gathering of monsters. He asked Lilo to slow down as he looked at the place they were gathered around.
To his amazement, it was a humanoid figure. However, it was a giant man that was about three meters in height. His build suggested that he was from Halin, but Arthur wasn't so sure. He watched as the man, injured, fought against the monsters.
'Stay a distance away, Lilo.'
The two kept hovering in the sky as the man took down the monsters one by one. After he took down the monsters one by one, he issued a war cry and fell to the ground. The man didn't move afterward.
'Descend, Lilo.' The two descended a distance away before Arthur returned the dragon to his body. Lilo's body turned ethereal and entered Arthur's consciousness again.
This ability was unheard of, especially with tamers. Arthur attributed this to Lilo's race, the Elusive Dragons, but he wasn't sure of it.
He started walking toward the battlefield and marveled at how many monsters this man took down. Despite all of them being of the high-tier, it was still a feat that even someone at the peak of the rei-rank would find hard to achieve.
He stood a distance away from the man, who was bleeding heavily. The reason he came here was to make sure he was dead, as this place was close to his fortress. He didn't want the world to stumble upon his fortress by chance.
"Is anyone here?" The man called out, seeming to have heard Arthur's steps. "Please help me!" The man called out. Arthur looked at him silently, keeping his distance. "Please, I have a family to return to. A mother to feed." His words made Arthur sigh.
He took out his mask from his subspace and raised his hood to cover his head. He began walking closer toward the man.
When he was a few meters away, the man raised his hand and it elongated as it rushed toward Arthur. Claws appeared instead of his fingers. Arthur calmly launched his dagger while using the teleport rune. The dagger teleported and stabbed the man in the head.
With a shriek, the man started convulsing as the body turned into a monster. It looked like an octopus with many eyes all over that were twitching in every direction.
"Hmm, a mimic." It was the first time that he came across such a monster. It was a family of different species that could assume the shape of other creatures to hunt for prey.
It wasn't dead yet, but about to. Arthur walked over as he raised his arm to the side, fire sprouting from his fingertips. With a wave, the fire spread to the surrounding as the mimic died. Arthur stood in front of its body as he absorbed its essence.
[Perception has increased by 1.]
[Perception has increased by 1.]
Arthur saw that something else has dropped. He picked it up thinking it was a skill, but it was not.
[A memory fragment has been obtained. Do you wish to assimilate it?]
Arthur frowned at the weird message. A memory fragment? He had heard of this before. It was a way to pass down the teachings of an ancestor but required a great amount of time to master that technique.
This monster dropping a memory fragment meant that it had belonged to the person it assumed his shape. Arthur wasn't sure if this was common, but it was the only explanation he could think of.
"Lilo, we're heading back to the fortress." Arthur knew he could just teleport back to the fortress, but he wanted Lilo to enjoy his time as well. The dragon appeared again and Arthur rode on its back after he grabbed the mana core of the mimic.
With a flap of its wings, Lilo and Arthur were riding across the skies again. As they did, Arthur examined the crystal that looked like a disfigured lightning bolt in his hand.
He didn't know if assimilating this here would leave him vulnerable or not, so he didn't risk it and returned to the fortress for now.
Arthur kept Lilo in his body as he entered the fortress. He found Hua already in his workshop, still reading. He sat in his chair as he took out the shard and started examining it. As he expected, there were some runic lines inside of it.
He took out a microscope that Idris has given him when he asked for items for his workshop. As he laid the shard there, he started studying the runic lines in detail.
Every twist and curve in the runic lines recorded secret information. Every time the lines intersected corresponded to a process in the runic lines. As Arthur kept studying them, he realized it was safe to use. However, he might be influenced by the emotions of the memory holder.
Nonetheless, Arthur was overwhelmed by curiosity. He wanted to know what's inside of this fragment so he made plans to use it tonight. Fragments usually recorded past events so he might gain something useful from this.
Arthur returned to his room and lied on his bed. He closed the doors tightly and controlled the fortress to prevent anyone from getting into his room. He then poured mana into the shard and his consciousness was pulled inside of it.
The scene changed in front of him.