- Sending the Hero away

"Come on people! We decided to go through the forest to avoid those monsters! You all voted for it! Stop complaining!"

I yell at all the people behind me, trying to get them to stop being so useless. I fought and fought for these people so that they could get out of the city, my friend even died for this! The least they could do is not complain! 'My feet hurt.' 'My daughter's tired.' 'It's scary outside.' JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!

"W-what's that up ahead?!"

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW, WHY DON'T YOU GO FIND-"

Holy shit. It's a gigantic tree!

"HOLY SHIT! IT'S A GIGANTIC TREE!"

There's a clearing in front of us around a giant tree! Like, the biggest tree I've ever seen! The base of it is as thick as a high-rise! We keep walking towards it with our weapons drawn, as a green little girl walks out from the middle.

"You humans can't be here. You need to leave."

Luckily, one of my benefits of having the title hero is that I can sense when something is stronger than me, and she just barely even shows up! Obviously, this makes me a bit angry because I'd thought I'd finally found a place we could stay!

"Why the hell would we let a monster tell us where we can and can't stay?!"

I get ready to cut this thing down, but a terrifying pressure starts spreading through the air as everyone around me is forced to their knees with a thud. I myself am only able to stay standing for a few seconds! That monster shakes her head and says,

"Well, you woke him up. You didn't understand. I wasn't trying to keep you away from here for MY sake, I was trying to keep you away for YOUR sake."

As she says that I hear an extremely low voice boom out of the corner of the tree,

"Willow…"

I see a gigantic dragon step from behind the tree! As soon as that creature steps out, I hear the people around me crying and shaking and seemingly giving up all hope. However, my hero sense is telling me I have a very small chance of beating this monster, and a small chance is still a chance!

"Why are there humans dragging their filth into MY domain?"

All of a sudden, the aura surrounding us seems to grow. The weaker people start passing out, the kids are crying and shaking, and some people have started making a mess of themselves. My sense is telling me now that the chance I had is quickly disappearing.

"HAHAHAHAHA! You! Hero! You're that idiot that tried scaring me off with that pathetic ice spear of yours! It looks like you took my advice and left that city!"

I feel the pressure around me dissipate a little bit. My senses tell me that I could easily kill it now. Honestly though, I don't believe that. The dragon speaks out again,

"My my, you're already looking like quite the bag of energy!"

Suddenly it feels like a mountain is laying on me as it feels like the very ground around me is threatening to swallow me whole. My senses go crazy, telling me no matter what, do not fight this thing!

"I wonder how many levels YOU would give me."

I give it a defiant look, trying to appear stronger than I am. The thing comes right up in my face, making my mask disappear as I feel petrified. It stands up as tall as it can and asks,

"So, what makes you so bold as to claim MY domain, little hero?"

I stand there silent for a couple seconds, completely unable to talk from the pressure. Then, all of a sudden, the pressure just disappears. I look up at the dragon, who seems to have a smug grin on his face.

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

[Adam's POV:]

I think I got my point across to them. I don't wanna kill them actually. Unless they try to fight me or try to hurt Willow. I release all of my aura on every single human there (excluding children and babies) and speak a single word,

"Leave."

I then turn around and go back into the tree.

"Willow, come."

I lay down on the bed of golden leaves and get Willow to sit in the center of where I curled up. Then me and her go back to our training.

"Ellie, show me my status."

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

[Status:]

[Name: Adam Lowell]

[Race: Elder Drake]

[Title: Beast King, King of the Starter Forest]

[Level: 46 / 100]

[Class: A-rank Boss]

[Domains: 1]

[Mana Heart: 1st - Heartstone, 2nd - 4 rings, 3rd - 0 rings]

[Inherent Magic: Transformation, Minor Spatial]

[Modifications: Body Transformation, 6th Sense, Bile Glands, Toxic Claws]

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

"Oh! I turned into an A-rank! Is that due to the extra levels or the rings?"

[Both. The levels less so than the rings.]

"Makes sense, the rings directly correlate to my strength just like the modifications. Oh yeah, before I forget, would those mana crystals help Willow?"

[Yes, they would be a lot of help to her. As such, I recommend making your next evolution here. Your body will sleep for a long time while bringing in insane amounts of mana from the surrounding area. I don't have an exact measurement, but your next evolution could take quite a long time. Possibly over a year.]

"Damn, I hope it's worth it."

[It should be, you should aim to have three heartstones before your next evolution.]

"Would going to places with higher densities of mana help this?"

[Yes, but currently none near you have a higher concentration of mana. The closest place with higher amounts is Yellowstone. As such, with you having the mana crystals and the world tree, you're progressing as fast as you can. Your next evolution will be a very significant one, so spending time to prepare yourself will be imperative.]

And, I do just that. Me and Willow spend nearly a year just strengthening our mana hearts. I managed to get the second and third to full glowing rings, wanting to turn both of them into heartstones at the same time.

I pull mana from outside and load it into both mana hearts and their rings at the same time. As I do so, I feel both of them start to feel like they're shaking. Unlike the first one, the second one takes a while before its rings finally break, releasing that giant cloud of beautiful dust. I experience pretty much the same thing as the other heartstone's creation. Once it comes to a calm, the second mana heart begins to form. The first one had a deep, wine red color; however, this one begins to form with a slightly brighter color of red. Eventually, this heartstone is complete. During this whole process however, the third mana heart's rings have yet to break. I keep the pressure on them for another hour or so and then I feel it. They all crack at the same time. When they crack, I feel the most intense headache in my life. I struggle to keep focus, but I manage to fight through the pain. When I finally manage to, I can appreciate the beauty of this nebula in its full glory.

A myriad of colors exploded forth, creating a nebula nearly a hundred times bigger than the second one. Those lights that I had seen in the first and second one appear once again, but they introduce what they actually are to me. Stars. Each and every light that appears inside of this nebula is a miniature star. None of them have planets in their orbits, but still. I'm creating miniature stars every time I create a heartstone! The mana heart in the center acts as a black hole, sucking in all of the stars who just silently and peacefully accept their fate. Soon, the very last star reaches the crystal cocoon surrounding my heart. In an unexpected fashion, a small explosion happens where the star met, causing me a headache. It seems that as I get stronger, the stars will start fighting back. But with this, I have three mana hearts all orbiting around each other like a trinary star system. I open my eyes and see Willow standing there with a worried expression on her face.

"Don't worry, Willow. Something like this won't be killing me anytime soon."

She gives me a smile and hugs my face.

'Ellie, show me Willows status.'

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

[Status:]

[Name: Willow]

[Race: Dryad Empress]

[Title: The First Dryad, Dryad of the First World Tree, Gaia's Child]

[Level: 189 / 250]

[Class: A-rank Boss]

[Domains: 1]

[Mana Heart: 1st - Lesser Heartstone, 2nd - 7 Rings, 3rd - 5 Rings]

[Inherent Magic: Nature magic, Transformation, Charm]

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

'And mine.'

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

[Status:]

[Name: Adam Lowell]

[Race: Elder Drake]

[Title: Beast King, King of the Starter Forest, King of the Hunting Mountains]

[Level: 100 / 100]

[Class: A-rank World Boss]

[Domains: 2]

[Mana Heart: 1st - Heartstone, 2nd - Heartstone, 3rd - Heartstone]

[Inherent Magic: Transformation, Spatial]

[Modifications: Body Transformation +3, 6th Sense, Bile Glands, Toxic Claws]

[Mod points: 300]

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

"Alright! Now I just need to get my modifications before Evolving!"

I hadn't just been sitting on my ass and strengthening my mana hearts that whole time. Some of the time was spent on me and Willow going back and forth from here and the mountains hunting.

"Show me the mods I can get."

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

[Body Transformation - 10 each lvl]

[Fourth Mana Heart - 500 Mod points]

[Elemental claws - 100 Mod points]

[Clairvoyance - 50 Mod points]

[Elemental Bile Glands - 100 Mod points]

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

"Give me all of the new ones and put the remaining 50 into body transformation."

[Alright. Administering Anesthesia.]

I feel the pockets in my mouth start to change as they actually seem to shrink. However, I can tell that even with less bile they still increased in strength, allowing for less to do more. I also feel another group of them appear, around three. I feel my mind start to clear even further, as my thought processes seem to fly by at god-like speeds. I even feel like I can see a slight amount of time into the future, maybe a few milliseconds? My claws no longer have a purple tinge to them, instead adopting similar properties to the bile gland where little pockets of 'bile' are near the edge of my claws, allowing me to deploy them across the claws at a moment's notice.

Now that those are done, it's time.

"System, what are my options for leveling up?"

[Choose your-]

"Reptile, Mythical."

[...]

[Dragon.]

"I choose it."

I see the same cocoon as before cover me, this time nearly instantly. I just barely manage to get out a,

"Protect me, Willow."

And then pass out.