Evelyn can’t help but feel conflicted about all of this. It's happening too fast for her. Only a few days ago she was a part of an anti-dragon society smack dab in the middle of the map trying to expand their territory via magical machine warfare, and now she is riding on the back of a big lizard over the ocean to break into the place she dedicated her entire life to. It's hard not to feel conflicted. Most would have a mental breakdown, she assumed. She had to ask Abhor to use his calming spell when she couldn't sleep. It just helps so much. It doesn’t remove or smother her worries per say. In a way, it lets her view them rationally and file them away for when they matter.

  “You alright Evelyn?” Snowstorm asks from above her in the sky. It's annoying how bad her hearing is in the sky. She could barely hear him when he was less than 10 feet away.

  “Yeah.” She responds with a nod. Both dragons could hear her easily, since their senses of hearing are designed to make out sounds while flying with speed. And Abhor is fast alright. He hasn’t tired out one bit and has constantly had to be reminded to pace himself. Eventually, Snowstorm bumped his own speed stat up just to stay with him. Great, now there’s 2 super-dragons roaming the lands. She thinks to herself, then grimaces. No, I don’t need to worry. They seem kind enough, and they’re my friends. It's just hard to shake off a lifetime of being told one thing. She takes a peek at her own status. Level 9 still. She doesn’t have some overpowered essence stat by proximity, which doesn’t surprise her one bit. Level…

  “Are either of you considering hunting monsters to level up?” She asks them. Abhor turns his head to look at her on his back.

  “Thats a t-”

  “Yes.” Snowstorm interrupts him, whacking his snout with a leg as he drifts by. “It’s not a bad idea either.”

  “Why would we want to level up? We have the maximum possible stats for someone our tiers.” Abhor asks, confused. Evelyn snorts, then nearly falls off his back and remembers she is thousands of feet in the air. She wraps her arms around his neck again. So cold…

  “That's my point. We are at the limit of our potential right now. There’s nowhere for us to grow. We can get skills, sure, but without the raw stats, they’re pathetic. Your eyes are strong, but a tier 2 species with half-decent blocking skills could block you out with little to no effort. These skills and this essence is strong, sure, but it's useless if not used right. I have 300 essence saved up in case of emergency, and I assume, you saved some up before leaving too.” Abhor flinches at that, and Evelyn nearly falls off his back with a scream. Abhor stabilizes her and raises a glowing claw up to her. She takes the claw in her hands gratefully, letting out a sigh as the illusion seeps into her. It feels addicting. Can you get addicted to mana? Maybe I should stop… She wonders to himself while Snowstorm gives Abhor a look flatter than paper.

  “You didn’t save anything did you?”

  “I forgot after getting shadow warp!” He snaps back, then looks away. Evelyn wonders if dragons can blush. She doubts it, but can guess that Abhor would be redder than a tomato if he could. It's amusing, really. If he were human.. How great that would be. If Snowstorm and Abhor were human that would solve so many problems. She wouldn’t have to turn away from those she cares about to stand by them. Her parents wouldnt hunt them. She wouldn’t be betraying her people. Do I even care about betraying my people anymore? The commander left me to die… She considered that for a moment, closing her eyes and resting her head on Abhors neck as she thought, Abhor and Snowstorm arguing about something that happened 5 years ago. Something about sneezing a coffee table to the triassic period. Yes, I still care. The actions of that one man aren’t the actions of my people. She eventually decides. Fast paced, as always. She feels everything is going quickly. Too quickly. Too fast for her liking, yet she felt any slower would be too slow. It's contradictory, her thoughts. She needs to get herself together. Maybe then she can focus a bit. Maybe then I won't need illusions to keep the nightmares away…

  “We are almost to land, what direction do we go?” Abhor asks, snapping her out of her thoughts. She looks up at his face.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Oh, um…” She looks down at the treeline ahead. The trees are all seemingly tiny from so high up, but she can make out the soft white sand of the beachline, as well as the thickness and height of the trees. This clearly isn’t where they left. Around 40 kilometers west, she realized. She could not make out any mountains in the distance, though her perception was never very high. The substat of Intelligence wasn’t something she focused on much.

  “Angle northwest a bit. The republic of New Canica is between the Verdant forests and the Storm deserts.”

  “Oh, I’ve heard of that place.” Abhor says. Snowstorm looks surprised.

  “You remembered something important that I didn’t? How is this possible?”

  “Well, you didn’t read the book I did. It was on dangerous parts of the world. The book I read called it the steel badlands. Full of humans that are actively violent to dragons and work heavily on Artificer stuff. Those metal hunks were artificery, right?” Abhor asks Evelyn.

  “A mixture of technology from before the collision, yes. It uses runes to generate electricity to power itself, and draws on the stats of the wielder to boost its defence. My defence was quite high on purpose, since that was the only stat my suit drew from. However, it can only draw so much. If my durability stat was too high it would hinder me to its maximum capacity. The grand General is said to have a suit so powerful that he destroyed half the mountains in Camica with a single punch.”

  “Really?” Snowstorm asks. “That sounds fake. Do you believe that?” Evelyn thinks back to the time her father brought her to a crater 20 miles wide and just as deep.

  “Yes.” She says simply. “My dad was there when it happened, and the aftermath of it is a tourist attraction called the “Crash sight”. It's a sight to see.”

  “Why would such a punch have to be made?” Abhor asks, curious.

  “Nobody knows. The theory was that he was fighting a demi-divine being. The grand general’s strength is unknown. But he makes the Commanders look like ants.”

  “Ants can lift 50 times their body weight.” Abhor points out.

  “Fine, like a caterpillar.” She responds flatly, punching his shoulder. It just hurt her hand.

  “Caterpillars have over 4000 muscles.” He counters.

  “Shut up.” She punches his shoulder again. She needs to stop doing that.

  “Why do you know that?” Snowstorm asks, looking at Abhor like he grew an extra head. Or like he grew a brain, more likely.

  “I like bugs.” Abhor responds simply. “Remember gerald?”

  “The beetle you caught and kept in a jar?” Snowstorm responds.

  “It was an asian long-horned beetle to be specific.” Abhor corrects him.

  “Shut up.” Snowstorm says flatly and Evelyn nods.

  “You two are jerks.” He mutters, then turns back to flying.

  Evelyn can see far into the distance, though likely nowhere near as far as either of them, which becomes apparent a few hours later as the sun dips down below the sky, hiding once more beneath the earth.

  “Look at that.” Snowstorm says, looking into the distance at something that clearly baffles him. All Evelyn can see is the quickly blackening sky.

  “What is it?” She asks, turning to look up at him.

  “I see it too.” Abhor says, sounding awfully confused. “It's… a tree.”

  “A huge tree.” Snowstorm confirms, nodding slowly. “Approximately 43 kilometers, 365 meters tall.”

  “What?” Abhor turns to him at the same time as her, both equally as baffled.

  “You're a walking clock, I'm a well of information.” Snowstorm says flatly.

  “Well… fair enough-”

  “We are getting off topic!” Evelyn insists.

  “It's called the Great tree, or the Ancient Tree, depending who you ask. Its the capital of the Forestry dragon's home as well as the temple of life.” Snowstorm explains. Evelyn has a feeling she's about to get a long lecture.

  “Nope!” Abhor whacks Snowstorm on the snout with a balled talon and Snowstorm lets out a yelp. “Just give us the info, don't rot our minds out.”

  “Fine.” Snowstorm grumbles. “We should stay away. The forest around is full of strong Mana beasts, and the Forestry dragons are slippery folk.”

  “Mana beasts?” Abhor scrunches up his nose in confusion.

  “You're lying.” Evelyn can't believe he doesn't know about mana beasts. That's a level of stupidity she has never believed to exist in beings older than 3. It's honestly kind of cute to her.

  “I wish he was.” Snowstorm mutters, then sighs. “Animals that unlock the system through reaching the mana threshold. They gain intelligence and power as they level, though Mana beasts tend to be… beasts, to put it simply.”

  “They give good experience though. And some cultivate mana beasts since they grow larger than regular animals and have tastier meat.” Evelyn adds.

  “Oh. Cool.” Abhor nods. “Like that?” He points down into the forest. Its now that she notices a large amount of felled trees in a straight line, like a monster plowing through, leaving only devastation behind. The trees were felled by… a bigger tree. With arms. And legs. Snowstorms eyes narrowed.

  “That's an Ent.”