There wasn't anything useful or shiny in the carriage. The book was a neat find, but it wasn't worth bringing. I was about to hop of out the carriage when I heard some voices.

  Discreetly taking a look outside, I saw a group of three humans approaching on the road. They were dressed in light armor with lots of padding. They were also all equipped with a sword.

  Thinking back to what little knowledge I had of the world outside of the b, I quickly realised what they were. Those humans were adventurers. From what I knew, the Adventurers Guild was a global organisation that handled odd jobs like collecting rare materials and herbs, getting rid of bandits or sying monsters. I wasn't too clear on how they were able to operate everywhere, however.

  'Oh, wait. Sying monsters. Ok, let's NOT get spotted. I'd absolutely get attacked with how I look.'

  I quickly hid under a pile of junk inside the carriage and hoped that they wouldn't inspect it too closely. There was quite a bit of dust, but I'd seen worse.

  "You know, I wonder what's up with that new bounty at the Guild. A knight came in during the middle of the night to post it, which doesn't happen often." (Adventurer 1)

  "Yeah, it's strange. Plus, it was for a humanoid with dragon wings, a scaled tail and horns? I've never seen anything like that before." (Adventurer 2)

  Well, that was just amazing. Apparently the knights had put up a bounty for me after noticing my escape. I was now pretty much garanteed that any adventurer would attack me on sight. Plus, I felt like hiding was a shameful strategy, for some reason. That was probably just the dragon instincts talking, so I ignored it.

  "Hey, should we take a look at that carriage? There could be valuable things inside." (Adventurer 3)

  "Oh, come on. It's clearly already been looted. I mean, it looks like a goblin attack to me. They never leave anything good behind. Stop being greedy and come along." (Adventurer 1)

  That was a relief. I wasn't too sure as to what I would've done had I been discovered. Fighting against goblins was one thing, but I did not want to battle trained fighters. Plus, adventurers fight against monsters on a frequent basis. They would most likely have been far higher level than me.

  "Yeah, plus, we don't want to linger around here. It's said that the Witch of Camity resides in these woods. In fact, the reports indicate that she has learned how to duplicate herself. She has been seen with a smaller version of herself recently." (Adventurer 2)

  The story of the Witch of Camity wasn't just a fairytale? That was a surprise. Well, there was also a chance that it was just a local legend. I didn't really have a way to know.

  The adventurers stopped saying anything of interest after that. It was just some stuff about some goblin sying quest that they were on. I didn't really care about it, so I just waited for them to pass by.

  After some careful thinking, I decided that staying near the path was probably a bad idea. The odds of being spotted by passing adventurers was far higher on the road and I really did not want to deal with them. Sure, travelling would be slower, but it's not like I had a clear destination in the first pce.

  I jumped out of the carriage and resumed running on top of the snow as soon as the adventurers were out of view. I was starting to get really good at it, at least. I had mastered using my wings and to correct my bance too. However, if I had the bance aspect down, couldn't I try flying?

  Jumping up in the air, I tried using my wings to keep myself in the air. I fell down after a few seconds and nded in the snow, but I was still on my feet. That was progress. While I couldn't quite fly yet, I could extend the time spent in the air quite a bit.

  I then spent most of the day practicing flight while moving. When the sun went down, I searched for another one of those rat things to eat. It did not take long at all. Seems like those things were common. Killing it and getting the meat was far simpler now that I had a sword to cut it with. It was a bit too big of a tool for the job, but I managed.

  While I was sticking my hand right above the fire to cook a leg, I thought back to all the stuff that had happened since I woke up with these new dragon parts. It was... a lot, to say the least. If I had been told that I would one day stop being human and escape the b before the dragon blood injection, I would have ughed. But it's what happened. Well, I sure was not going to compin about it. I finally had some freedom, after all. That freedom was the most precious thing I had. The shiny coins were a close second, tho.