Deep red lightning and energy crackled around Faofa. As the Southern beast fired off its attack towards the serpent, a voice rang out loud in Faofa's head.

  Successful.

  Individual Skill [Serpents Wrath] has been learned.

  Activating [Serpents Wrath] immediately.

  Then, from the red spell circle that he held grew in size, before the energy gathered into it burst out. After the initial burst, a pair of red eyes shone from it before a giant red serpent formed from the red lightning and clouds burst forth — dashing towards the fired attack of the Southern Beast.

  Upon crashing into it, a standoff was reached.

  Neither side was winning or losing for a few seconds. It was a struggle. A struggle, which seemed like it would go on until one side ran out of magical energy to supply into their attack. However, then, the serpent fired off by the raging Faofa moved forward.

  The Beasts attack was starting to be pushed back. The creature tried to increase the magical energy output in its attack, to overpower the serpent — causing the beam it fired to practically triple in size. However, it was not enough.

  The red serpent continued to push forward and forward, farther and farther — without fail, until — it completely overpowered the Southern Beasts beam. Faofa let out a roar of rage, his voice turning more into a deathly hiss as magical energy raged on from his body. The red serpent dashed through the beast, slowly disintegrating its body and singing what little scales covered it.

  Then, the serpent dashed into the sky above the beast, before coming crashing down onto the beast, once again going through it as well as sinking into the ground. Once the entire red serpent had sunk into the ground, the same spell circle that had formed below Faofa formed below the beast, with magical energy raging from it. The beast immediately took to the sky, to try and escape — however red chains shot out from the spell circle, quickly binding the beast before pulling it back onto the ground.

  The beast struggled and roared — trying to break free from the red bindings. It turned its head towards Faofa, before attempting to charge up another beam to fire, only for the magical energy being used to charge it to be absorbed by the spell circle below the beast.

  Activating ‘Serpents Storm’...

  A voice once again rang out in Faofas head.

  Then, the spell circle below the beast burst, with a giant tornado of red clouds and crimson lightning bursting out of it, raging up to the very sky and dragging all clouds in the sky around it into a whirlpool. The beast roared in pain, its body slowly disintegrating as the storm fully engulfed it – until eventually, the last remaining bits of the beast vanished, dissipating in the raging red storm that had formed from the spell circle.

  The storm raged on for a few seconds more before in a flash, disappearing the spell circle that had called it forth also disappearing. The raging red magical energy from Faofa's body settled down. Then, the serpent fell down to his knees, breathing heavily.

  Experience threshold has been reached.

  You have risen to level 90.

  All wounds have been healed.

  The Vessel's stamina and magical energy has been restored.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  + Congratulations +

  You have successfully slain the Southern Beast.

  Reward Granted.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Experience threshold has been reached.

  You have risen to level 100.

  You have reached all requirements for evolution.

  Commencing evolution from ‘Dark Snake’ to ‘Shadow Snake’ immediately.

  The Rare Skills [Mimic] effects will be sustained during evolution.

  As announcement after announcement rang out in my head, I felt my head slightly hurt. It was a strange feeling. The mixed feeling of warmness from the level ups I had achieved mixed with the cold feeling of my consciousness fading as the evolution began. It was a contradictory feeling.

  Like I was dying, but at the same time reborn.

  My vision blurred — and then, I fell fully unconscious.

  …

  Not too far from the Southern Beast and Faofa,

  Inside a Cave…

  A large crystal was deep inside the cave. The crystal had a light blue colour to it, as well as emitted an ever so slight glow from itself — creating some lighting in the otherwise pitch black darkness. Inside the crystal, hugging her feet was a young girl, eyes closed and breath slow – as if in a deep slumber.

  Words echoed in the cave.

  ‘I place… in this…. Only one who…. Slay the great…. Will be… her hand.’

  …Silence.

  Then, the crystal cracked. Magical energy poured out from the crystal, filling the cave room. More and more the crystal cracked, before eventually shaking and then shattering into tiny fragments, which floated in the air for a couple of seconds, glowing gently before fading into the air.

  The girl landed gently onto the ground, her bare feet baking a gentle thud as they touched the stone floor of the cave. Then, her breath stabilised, going from a slowed and heavy one, to a more light and normal one. For a few seconds, she remained standing in silence, before letting out a gentle groan and rubbing her eyes, opening them gently.

  “Mo… Mother?...” Her quaint voice left her lips.

  The girl looked around the cave, before looking down at the ground. Some fragments of the crystal she had been inside of still remained on the ground. She exhaled, before hugging her own body and closing her eyes. The magical energy in the room rushed around her, spinning around her for a few seconds, before forming clothes around her bare body.

  Afterwards, she stretched out lightly. “...I’m free…”

  She looked up at the ceiling, where a faded text was carved. The contents of the text were no longer decipherible. The girl simply closed her mouth before closing her eyes. “...Faofa… The worthy one…”

  After the words left her mouth, she exhaled again before moving towards the tunnel that led out of the cave, leaving behind the room she had been resting inside of.

  2 Days later…

  ….Once more, I felt as if I was floating. I opened my eyes slowly, my vision blurring for a couple of moments before clearing up. Immediately, I saw a familiar sight. Deep red vein-like patterns mixed together with black vein-like patterns. Immediately, I flipped around to see what was behind me and to my fears, I was met with the same giant black hole with a red outline and a core at its center.

  I was back to the place I had come to when I had undergone my evolution to a ‘Dark Snake’. “What is this place… There’s no way this is a dream. It wouldn’t feel so… real.” I shed a cold sweat, fear taking its residence in my heart and soul. The soundless nature of this location was once again being broken by the large black hole at the center of the red vein-like patterns, as deep and distorted groans came from it, alongside with a gentle, heavy heartbeat.

  However, alongside the groans and heartbeat of the strange blackhole, I also managed to hear what sounded like fire burning. I felt my entire body shiver. Then, I barely managed to blink twice before I was in a new location, the red vein patterns nowhere to be found and the black hole also nowhere to be found.

  I felt a cold shiver run down my spine as I flipped around and looked below me.

  My eyes widened.

  A sea of pitch black flames raged on below me. My entire body was trembling uncontrollably. It felt like I was being put under immense pressure — like an enormous weight was being pressed onto my body. However at the same time, this felt… familiar. It was like I had felt this sort of energy and power before.

  “I don’t understand… What on earth is this place?” I wondered.

  Then, from the sea of pitch black flames, a tornado of them shot up and engulfed me in an instant. I panicked for a moment. I immediately tried to break through, however, that was unsuccessful. However, at the same time, it confused me. The black flames looked like fire and they certainly felt like fire, however, they didn’t feel… hot. Or even warm for that matter.

  Instead, they felt cold, empty… Almost like they weren’t even there.

  The flames spun around me, forming a sphere before in an instant compressing around me, absorbing into my body. I shrieked out in pain — however not a sound of my voice came out.

  I felt like I was burning from the inside.

  Like my very soul was set ablaze.

  It felt horrible.

  For a few seconds, the pain continued — until eventually, it suddenly stopped. The pain disappeared and alongside it, I felt my consciousness fade once more as everything around me turned black. It was just like last time.

  The floating feeling disappeared seconds later as well.

  …

  I groaned a bit, before opening my eyes. I was laying down on something soft, comfortable. Above me, was a wooden ceiling with a candle lantern hanging from it. I rose up into a sitting position, holding my head gently. I felt a slight headache. “What on earth happened…”

  I thought.

  Then, an announcement rang in my head.

  Evolution Successful.

  You have evolved into ‘Shadow Snake’.

  Individual Skill [Shadowlord] has gained the SubSkill

  {King of Shadows}.

  You may now utilise an even stronger form of shadow manipulation before, regardless of how many or how little shadows are around you.

  The strength of the forms made using [Mimic] has been increased.

  Your senses have been sharpened and body strength increased.

  Shadow Beast ‘Arvalor’ has been ranked up from E to C.

  This concludes the evolution report.

  “Oh right, I lost my temper back there while fighting that abomination… Did I kill it? But how…?” I shook my head, before sighing and opening my status window to the side, tossing my eyes onto it.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Name: Faofa Shin

  Species: Shadow Snake

  Level: 100

  Rank: B

  Stats:

  Health; 70,900/70,900

  Strength; 4650

  Defense; 4600

  Magical Energy; 150,700/150,700

  Stamina; 4650

  Intelligence; 200

  - Overall Power; A

  Skills (List)

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  “Well I have certainly grown stronger… That would mean I somehow managed to defeat that Abomination. But — how?” I scratched my chin, before opening the skill list, to see if anything had changed in there. And that was when my eyes fell onto a particular skill that I had not possessed before.

  ‘Serpents Wrath’.

  “What on earth is this one? I haven’t seen it before…” I tried to gain more information about the skill using ‘Enlightened’ however instead of more information appearing, I got an error saying that I lacked sufficient authority to view the skills details.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  I sighed.

  Blocked from seeing what my own skill does… again. Interesting what it even means by the statement that I ‘lack’ sufficient authority. Am I not the one that possesses and controls these skills? How can there be someone with higher authority over them than me? I didn’t know.

  And I didn’t want to overthink it at this point in time. I heard a door open, followed by footsteps, so quickly closed my status window, looking around. It seemed as if I was in some kind of clinic — judging from the window shapes and overall layout of the room. And my suspicions were confirmed as a woman with blonde hair and dressed in medical clothes appeared in my vision.

  “Oh, Sir Riyo, I didn’t expect you to be awake already. Are you feeling alright?” I nodded towards the woman, before stretching out a bit. “Where am I, if I may ask?”

  “You’re at the Ordial Medical Center. We got mercenary Avid transferred here in a horrible condition, with him stating something about a monster heart and the Southern Beast going on a rampage. Immediately, the Duke sent out some elite forces to subjugate the beast, however when they arrived at the scene, all that remained of the beast were incinerated and broken apart crystal bones. They also found you unconscious nearby so brought you back.” The woman explained, before walking over to a cupboard beside the bed I was sitting on, picking up some papers.

  “We were surprised to find you in a stable and practically unscathed condition, but still decided to keep you here until you awoke. Tell me, do you remember what happened back at the scene? An adventurer like you couldn’t have made it unscathed from a monster such as the Southern Beast.”

  As soon as she asked, I felt a shiver run down my spine.

  I most certainly cannot tell her that I was most likely the one that killed the beast, even if I am unsure how I had done that. Either she wouldn’t believe me or she would turn it into a huge deal. I needed to come up with something on the spot.

  “I… I don’t remember. I remember fighting and then at one point falling unconscious. I’m sorry..” The woman stared at me unsure for a second, before exhaling moving past me. “It can’t be helped. If you don’t remember, I can't pester you about it.”

  She turned to look at me once more. “Your stuff has been left in the corner of the room. Seeing as you are completely okay, you can gather your stuff and depart.” She then bowed towards me. “Now excuse me, I have other patients to attend to.”

  “Right… no worries.” I replied as the woman turned around and left the room.

  Once the door closed I let out a heavy sigh of relief. I know that there was no pressure, since I wasn’t being questioned or anything for very long, but even then, her asking about what had happened definitely made me scared for a moment. I stared at the ceiling for a few seconds, before getting out of the bed and stretching out more.

  It felt strange — it felt as if my human form had become stronger.

  I suppose in the evolution report it did say that the forms I made using ‘Mimic’ had become stronger, but even then – the body now felt a lot more durable and less dependent on my magical energy. After a quick moment of making sure my body was all fine for real, I turned around and moved to the corner of the room, quickly picking up and throwing on my stuff, the boots being the last thing I put back on.

  Once they were on, I noticed a mirror just across from me. Looking inside it, I noticed how the markings covering my body had changed slightly. Mainly, their colour had changed to a dark, dark purplish tone now.

  My eyes however, still remained the same serpent golden eyes as before.

  “Not much difference huh… But then again, it’s better this way. I don’t want to come up with an excuse as to why my body had suddenly changed, especially the markings that transfer over from my snake form.” I let a quick exhale escape my lips, before moving to the door of the room and leaving the room.

  Out in the hallway, it became very clear this was a medical clinic. Workers dressed the same way as the woman that had come to me were walking around, humans and other races were sitting on chairs outside doors with tags on them — with the tags having the names of what I assumed to be the doctors of the clinic on them.

  Moving through the hall, I kept looking around.

  I had never been to the Ordinal Clinic, it looked so much different from what I expected. Its layout resembled the clinics I was familiar with, but the building itself was built using stone and wood by the looks of it, with very little colour being used in it. It certainly wasn’t like the white walls and smooth modern look of clinics I was used to in my previous life.

  “Maybe I should pay Avid a visit? He did get hurt that badly because of me… It would feel wrong to not at least ensure that he is alright.” I thought about it for a moment, debating it for some time, before exhaling and shaking my head. “Maybe tomorrow or something… I want to get to the guild to hopefully hear any reports on what had happened after I fell unconscious.”

  So, I picked up my pace.

  I moved down some stairs to the ground floor of the clinic and while on my way to the exit, I checked out at the reception, as per the invitation of the receptionist. Apparently no patient was allowed to officially leave the clinic until they’ve checked out and received at least one doctor's approval.

  Thankfully, that woman who had come to check up on me had already handed in her approval, so all I had to do was prove my identity using the Adventuring Guilds card and then check out.

  Once back out on the streets of Ordial, I stretched out once more.

  “Alright… I should B-line towards the Adventuring Guild. I really want to see whether it will have any information for me to gain.”

  Without wasting time, I headed straight towards the Adventuring Guilds building. Thanks to ‘Enlightened’, navigating the city was a breeze, even if I had never been on this side of Ordial. And before I knew it, I was at the Adventuring Guilds building. Walking up to the front door, I immediately heard commotion inside.

  This startled me a bit.

  Previously, my hearing wouldn’t have allowed me to hear this well… I suppose my senses did grow sharper from evolution. Slightly nervous about what was potentially happening inside the building, I cautiously placed my hands onto the door handles and pushed them open. I was immediately met with a strange sight indeed.

  There was a massive group of Adventurers gathered around one receptionist, all whispering amongst themselves. I raised an eyebrow, before noticing a familiar Lizardman receptionist. It was Jarvis, moving some documents.

  “Hey Jarvis, it’s been some time.” I said, walking towards the Lizardman. Upon noticing me, the Lizardman gently laughed and smiled. “Ah, Sir Riyo, it has indeed been a little while. How have you been fairing? As I understood, you and Sir Avid had encountered some huge trouble in the form of an infestation and then the Southern Beast.” I rubbed the back of my neck.

  “Yeah, we kind of did… But I’m fine.” Jarvis examined me.

  “That you are… Quite surprising honestly. The Southern Beast was regarded as a Calamity class monster with even the innate potential to be a catastrophe class.” As soon as I heard Jarvis say that, I froze. That… did not sound good. Calamity class? With innate potential to be a Catastrophe one? Yeah, I should most definitely keep quiet about slaying it.

  Shaking my head, I decided to quickly change the subject, pointing towards the large group of adventurers, gathered around the receptionist. “By the way, what’s with the commotion over there?” Jarvis looked towards the group, sighing.

  “Oh that? A strange woman arrived at the guild today, demanding to speak with someone named ‘Faofa’.” As soon as I heard that name leave Jarvis’ mouth, I completely froze up. There was someone… demanding to speak with me? And they knew the name given to me by Arabor? But… how? I hadn’t told anyone my name. As far as anyone in the city is concerned, my name is Riyo Komeno, an adventurer who just started.

  “Right now, she’s filling out an adventurer form, as according to her, it would help her find this ‘individual’ she’s looking for.” Then, Jarvis exhaled. “Strangest part is that there isn’t any adventurer registered with us with the name of Faofa, so I am unsure what she hopes to achieve.”

  I felt a cold sweat build up on my face, before letting out a small fake cough. “I mean, that’s strange and all, but hardly a reason for a commotion this big, no?”

  “Well yeah, the thing is, this woman isn’t—”

  “You!” A sudden call came.

  Me and Jarvis looked towards where the call had come from. There, out from the group stood a short woman, dressed in what looked like heavy clothing, with a distinct feather pattern as well as a feather cloak hanging off of her shoulders. Her hair was short and darkish brown, yet rather thick and with lighter brown strands, covering most of her head quite well.

  However, the things that caught my eye the most were her fingers, eyes and… some kind of antenna on the top of her head? It was hard to tell what they were. Two long, light brown feather like antenna things that went up. Her eyes were not human, looking a lot more like birds and her fingers were almost like fused with her nails — with sharp looking talons at the end of each finger.

  She narrowed her gaze onto me, before moving towards me. The entire guild's attention followed the woman, as she stomped over to me and looked up, directly into my eyes — with an intense gaze. I felt slight pressure as I shed a sweat.

  “Can I help you…?” I asked a bit nervously.

  “Don’t tell me she figured out that I am ‘Faofa’? There’s no way she did… right?” My mind rushed slightly. The woman examined my appearance closely, doing one loop around me, before backing up a bit and doing one last examination of me from the top of my head to my legs.

  Then, after a nod, she smiled. “I knew it…”

  “Pardon—?” I was beyond confused, however my confusion grew even greater as soon as the woman suddenly hugged me, clinging to me tightly. The entire guild gasped, while I just felt shocked. “Hold on– what are you—”

  “You. You are the one who saved me.” She suddenly cut me off before lifting her head up towards me, smiling brightly with a wide smile. “You’re my destined one, Faofa.”

  ….

  I was left speechless.

  The entire guild fell silent for a bit. Then—

  “HUUUUUHHH?!”

  Outside the Guild,

  In an Alleyway.

  I breathed heavily, leaning down and holding onto my knees. After the woman had called me her ‘saviour’ and ‘destined one’ as well as by my true name, I grabbed her by the wrist and rushed out of the guild with her. I could not afford anyone finding out my true nature at the guild — and this woman was about to bust my entire cover.

  Looking up at her, the woman was slightly leaning against the wall just across from me.

  Taking in a deep breath, I exhaled. “Alright, you better start explaining. First, how do you know my name?” I asked immediately. It was clear that she was aware of who I was, especially since she was able to tell I was ‘Faofa’, so trying to deny that I was who she was looking for was pointless.

  Better find out who she was and how she knew me.

  The woman remained silent for a bit, before tilting her head to the right side. “Don’t you remember me?”

  “We haven’t ever met!” I responded immediately, exhaling heavily before crossing my arms. The woman looked surprised, thinking for a moment before exhaling. “You saved me, of course I would know who you are.”

  I sighed.

  “I’m sorry lady, but you must have something mixed up. While yes I am ‘Faofa’, I do not remember saving anyone, especially someone like you, at any point.” Well, other than those adventurers I was forced to ‘save’ in the Abyssal Woods after they ran into Iyka, but I didn’t see this woman among those adventurers, so she is most definitely not acquainted with those guys.

  The woman exhaled, before turning her right side towards me and looking up to the sky. “It was you, wasn’t it?” I raised an eyebrow at her question, about to ask what she meant, before being cut off by her turning her head towards me and continuing.

  “You slew the beast that mother had made to guard my seal, didn’t you?”

  When she said this, a light gasp escaped my mouth. Then, the dots connected. The reason she was calling me her saviour — was because I slew the Southern Beast? But hold on, something isn’t adding up. She said her mother had made that to ‘guard her seal’? What on earth was that supposed to mean?

  Many questions arose in my mind.

  However, I was best to ask them one at a time. “What do you mean by ‘guard your seal’? Was that beast not just some rampaging monster?”

  The woman smiled and then chuckled. I was once again beyond confused. Then, she turned towards me once more and placed her right hand onto her chest. “I suppose I should clear up your confusion by telling you who I am, after all, you will be my future spouse.”

  When she said spouse, I felt my confusion reach its absolute maximum limit.

  However, I remained silent and continued to listen to what she would say.

  After a quick exhale, she continued, her eyes shining gently as she looked at me.

  “My name is Olivenite and I am the daughter of the Owl Empress, Oprass. I have waited a long time for the worthy one to free me from my mothers seal.”