Demonic Devourer's Development

The first thing I did was returning to the place of my imprisonment. There was one thing I almost forgot about with everything that happened, but that was even more important with the Twelve Bastards on my tail.

I stayed in the valley only for long enough to dig out the Ring of Thousand Faces from the place where I stashed it. Then, I flew to my next destination. One last place to visit before I would have to leave Blue Mountains, probably forever, to avoid those who wanted me dead.

The mountainside scenery changed drastically since the last time I saw it. Where once stood a steep cliff, now was a gentle slope covered in a thick layer of snow. I wouldn't have recognised it at all if not for the other landmarks around—the mountain peaks and the deep precipices that formed a clear map for me to look at from the sky.

The avalanche that brought me to Aivena's hands left a big trance in the mountain landscape. It was a sight that gave me hope. Hope that the draining curses that made me so angry that I created the avalanche that brought me to that terrible place were gone. Died from thirst, hunger and suffocation under the rocks, or were crushed by them in an instant—didn't matter.

I landed on the slope where the entrance to Marianna the dragon's cave once had been, and closed my eyes to look inside with my blind sight. All that I could see was snow, ice and frozen earth. The same was near the hole that once brought light to Marianna's treasury: it was completely buried under the snow.

With no other choice left, I transformed into a slender, worm-like form and ate my way to the inner parts of the cave. With my blind sight, I scanned my surroundings for Marianna and Naread's corpses.

They were both there. Cold, pressure and lack of air preserved them well—even after the time I spent away they weren't so rotten to be unrecognisable. Marianna's scales seemed to be especially resilient, as well as Naread carapace. From what I could discern, Naread died swiftly—he was crushed under the collapsed ceiling.

Marianna survived that, but wasn't strong enough to lift the tons of rocks and snow and claw her way out. I wasn't a doctor, but I recognised the signs of suffocation even in her dead body.

I wasn't going to leave the mountains without tasting a dragon, after all. Even if that one wasn't fresh.

From a practical standpoint, eating the two corpses with all the rocks pressing on them was a little tricky. If I ate too much at once, I risked being crushed under a cave-in myself. I mitigated that danger by strengthening the ceiling of the cavity I created by eating the giant dragon and a giant centipede with webs.

It slowed me down, but all the effort was worth it. I was sure that I would've gotten more EXP from both of them if I came to eat fresh corpses, and if the dragon's body wasn't weakened by Marianna's EXP drain, but… There was still plenty to reward me.

For a start, the dragon, the giant and powerful creature it was, gave me a ton of EXP. 56 millions, to be precise. Compared to that, the small amount (what, a couple of millions?) I got from Naread, were nothing.

Then there were abilities. It was nothing too unusual, but nonetheless, all of them looked like it had a lot of potential.

First and foremost, I got 'Fire Breath'. Surprisingly. I thought that a dragon living in a cold environment would have cold attacks, like Frost Griffins, but… then again, most creatures here were resistant to cold, so it did made sense.

In the same line, it made sense for a White Dragon to have another fire-themed ability, 'Melting Touch'. I wasn't sure what it did, except that it melted things.

Besides that, White Dragon (that was the System's official name for the species) had 'Temperature Resistance'. I assumed it was a combination of cold and heat resistances. It was, therefore, highly probable that if I evolved it, it will merge with my 'Cold Affinity', though I wasn't sure how that would work.

Naread, sadly, didn't give me any new abilities. Centipedes were centipedes no matter in what environment they lived… And I ate enough to have all their carapaces, bites and such already in my evolution list.

I would've gladly spent all my freshly gained EXP here and then, if not for the danger that breathed in my neck. I didn't know if I succeeded in preventing Aivena from giving information about my location to the Twelve Bastards. Neither did I know when, if she did, would they come after me, and how many of them at once.

Either way, returning to Tinaris right now wasn't an option, no matter how I longed to do so. I couldn't risk all the network of helpers I had now to be destroyed together with me. If I died again—who knew, maybe I'd still escape. I wouldn't risk that, either, if I could—but the point was, there was a chance.

No chance with my human followers.

I had to flee elsewhere. Evolve and prepare for a fight. Make a trap for whoever will come. With the EXP I got, and with the right preparations, and if there would be only one divine bastard involved… I had chances. Slight.

I wasn't strong enough yet… It was too early for a confrontation. But I felt like I had no choice now.

I burrowed my way out from the cave-in and soared into the skies. I didn't know where I would set my trap yet, but I would need every advantage I can get, and that included the advantage of knowing the surroundings.

After some hesitation, I turned towards the forest where I once hatched from a slug's egg. If I died at the place of my rebirth, it would be quite ironic, too…

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