19 To grow

After I got my fill of the wyvern I pushed off the ground and flew up towards the canopy. Apollonia and Corentine quickly followed suit, shouting at me as I picked up speed.

"Brother where are you going?!" Apollonia yelled from behind me.

Ignoring her I kept going faster until I broke through the canopy, then I turned towards the mountain range in the distance. I saw the trees flying past below as they started to blur from the speed I was reaching. I could no longer hear either of my sisters behind me, but I wasn't in the state of mind currently to really care. The only thing that could think about was finding more monsters that had a high mana affinity.

Continuing down along the border between the mountains and the forest making my way towards a lake that I had seen when riding on mothers back to the volcano. I didn't know what lived there but I could sense that the mana concentration was higher there.

After a few hours I decided to land to rest my wings, so I made my way towards the mountains and landed on a peak that was relatively flat and fell asleep for the night.

Upon waking up I continued my journey towards the lake, it took me a few more hours before I eventually saw the lake on the horizon.

Once I was close to it I started to descend towards the side of the lake, landing on the edge I walked to the waters edge and started to drink.

'I can feel the mana in the air here, I wonder why the mana is so much thicker in this area?'

Once I quenched my thirst I turn around and made my way into the forest next to the lake. As I walked through the forest the air glittered in sun light, I could almost feel the rich mana permeating into my being.

Off in the distance I could hear the sound of birds chirping, I pushed off the ground and took flight searching for something to hunt. I was sure that in a area this thick with mana there was going to be monsters with high mana affinities.

As I glided through the air focusing on my surrounds, I eventually caught the scent of something off to my right. Making my way towards the scent I caught sight of a enormous black snake coiling around itself sleeping.

I quickly began pushing mana into my breath glands getting ready to surprise the beast. It must have sensed my mana as its eyes flashed open, looking around it started to search for the source of the disturbance.

Seeing that it couldn't pinpoint my position I continued to charge my breath, once it felt reay I unleashed my breath directly at its head.

Unfortunately for the snake it couldn't react in time to avoid the torrent of flames as they smashed into its head killing it instantly as it cooked its brain instantly.

I nodded to myself in satisfaction as I descended towards the snakes body. Upon landing I started to feast on its body.

'Just as I thought the monsters here have a much higher mana affinity. I can feel it empowering me with every bite.'

I quickly finished my meal, then took flight to find a place to sleep for the night.

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It has been three months since I left my sisters behind to vent my frustrations over my own weakness. Everyday I would repeat the same routine, fly to the lake to get some water then go and hunt a monster in the forest. Both to absorb their mana and also to gain battle experience, I would try to kill my prey in a different way each time so that I didn't grow to dependent on one spell or certain attack pattern.

'I think it might be time for me to head back to grandfather so that I can refine what I have learned'

I was slightly worried about how mother would react to my being gone for all this time but I guess I would deal with that as it came.

Over the last three months I had experienced a large growth spurt, I didn't know whether if the cause was all the monsters I had been consuming or if I was just naturally growing this fast. But I was constantly hungry because of it.

I was now about sixty percent of mothers size, I was now 30 meters in length and had a wing span of about 65 meters, I also now stood at 30 feet tall. The scales on my sides and back had darkened to the point where without the sun reflecting off of them one would assume they were black. Whereas the scales on my underbelly took on a deeper red hue. New horns had emerged from the back of my skull now lining the entire back of my head.

I looked towards the sky, and taking a deep breath I took flight. Turning in the direction of the volcano I started to beat my wings to increase my speed. With every flap of my wings the forest below rushed past, as the mountains near the volcano came into view after a few hours of flight I marveled at the difference in speed between now and only a few months ago.

I decided that I would rest on a mountain near the volcano as the sun was already setting on the horizon, causing the sky to turn a orange hue.

I couldn't find a flat area to land so I started to form a spell to flatten the peak closest to me. I didn't want to just use my destruction mana as that would disintegrate the everything in the area. As I pushed mana into the spell it quickly activated, the terrain started to shape before my eyes.

Soon enough a platform was formed and I landed, then curled my tail around towards my face and went to sleep.