Chapter 2: They're Hungry

(Purple Pov)

Following the smell while flickering my tongue now and then. It was delicious to me.

"Ah..."

I breathed in some fresh air with my reptilian nose.

I'm currently just a tiny little dragon in the middle of a forest (I presume). From the world of smells, I could tell that this forest is simply filled with magic energy and beasts, or merely, you could call them monsters (I see them as experience points). So my first goal is to learn about my own power.

This place probably isn't Japan. This place probably is in Africa. Even though I do not know what those two places are. But they sound like fun places to be…

"Brothers," I call out to my brothers behind me. "We are close to this wonderful smell. But keep your guard up... I have no INTENTION of ever going back to that blasted void."

"Aye!"

I started by looking for targets' with my sense of smell. It seems like my reptile dragon brain could smell up to 4 meters.

No idea if this was good or not. It was pretty standard compared to regular animals, but until we met another creature, I will say it's below average.

Anyway, I decided to test out my [Venom Fang] ability. I noticed that my INT and WIS are higher than my other stats, so I'm probably more of a magic user, which is even better. Or maybe I'm an all-rounder since my AGI and END are the same with average STR.

Why are they so high?

[Because your soul and mind are that of a human]

Well, that would explain that. Although I did not know how my intellect that required the size of a human's brain could be crammed into my current tiny brain of a baby dragon.

I simply wrote it off as magic being magic. Then I began looking over my status once again.

While I could guess what my attributes meant, I still pulled up the information about them, to be completely sure.

From looking at skill details, my fang seemed to consume stamina as I kept using it, and the consumption lowered as the skill level raised. Also, the power of the fang depended on INT and STR, which was confusing.

My brain is telling that my poison or venom is STR+INT scaling, etc...

STR - Strength: Determines the physical power that the body can exert.

END - Endurance: Determines health, toughness, the resilience of the body to things like poison, and other aspects.

AGI - Agility: Determines mainly speed and other similar aspects also flexibility, grace, and balance that the body can perform. (It seems they combined DEX with AGI)

INT - Intellect: Determines not knowledge but the brain and the mind's ability to process and comprehend information, such as sensory input and thinking.

How come to me, and my brothers don't have a name. Give me a more detailed reason.

[Monsters do not have a name until an individual of enough power or significance names them, or a more significant amount of individuals collectively recognise you by a specific alias. To monsters, names hold both small and great significance.]

"Huh, vague, but interesting." I acknowledged.

"What is bro, bro?" I heard Blue ask me. So I informed my brothers about what the system just told me.

After a quick sensation of information, I learned my brother has different builds from me at the starting point.

Green has high END, and STR with his smell is bigger than us, with me being the second, Blue and Red next in line. But my little brother has the lowest WIS and INT out of all of us. Green also has the loudest voice.

Red has the smallest body with high INT and AGI but low everything else.

Blue has a high AGI and WIS with average STR and END but low INT and the third biggest body that feels 'slimly' according to him.

But there is something that is still bothering me. Well, to be correct, many things are bothering us, like where we are or how strong the monster here is, but the most annoying thing is that we can't see anything!

As former humans who relied heavily on eyesight to perceive their environment, and then suddenly being blind is undoubtedly annoying.

If I'm like a snake, then where are my pit organs? I should see an infrared vision or something like that. Anyway, I press on with my brother silent behind me. They must be starving if Blue is the one shutting up.

After two minutes of following the scent and sorting out my still confused and somewhat bored mind, I stalk downwards towards a section of forest near a water source.

I stop for a second to think about what maybe be inside. That could be another animal inside or perhaps even monsters. But feeling the hunger again, I hardened my resolve and went straight in.

"I can smell... something totally delish nearby, bro, bro!"

We all stop and just stare at Blue.

"Delish?" I hear Green ask with disappointment in his tone.

"Is that even a word in the dictionary world?" Red added on.

"What a dictionary?" The three of us asked Red.

"No idea, but it sounds very useless and unhelpful."

"Ok, moving on," I said. "Eat first and question vocabulary later."

*flick*

Hmm, the sweet scent is very near. It almost smells like honey or nectar.

I grinned and stalked faster, as my stomach was killing me.

*flick*

Ahh, it is just in front of me now.

As I neared the source of the scent, I sensed vibrations coming in front of me. Slowing down a little, I flicked my tongue a little more. The aroma gives the colour purple.

I could feel my instincts kick in, and I knew immediately how I was supposed to approach this situation.

Before I knew it, my teeth pierced the skin, and a warm feeling started flowing into my body.

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding*

*Ding*

I ignore that notification as I keep eating this fantastic, whatever it is. I keep eating and eating, not stopping at all. I can tell that my brothers aren't eating this, but are somewhere else.

Who cares right now? I felt the raw energy that was deep inside my dragon body.

The small amount of energy it had used to tell when I was hibernating. Hibernating?

Mana. That was its name.

As I ate, I reached into my mind the mentally glowing ball of power and pulled. A tiny wisp of energy came from the mass; I instinctively attempted to send it out with a desire.

'Death'

The energy left my control, and a feeling built.

[Ding! Overloading in progress… 6%]

What was going on? The energy build-up felt slower this time and reached greater heights than the more simple thought. What seemed like minutes dragged on by as the energy and feeling built, like a glass getting too much water filling it, yet not quite spilling. Until it snapped and information flooded in.

[Ding! Overloading in progress… 9%]

[Due to overloading your body with mana, you unlocked the siphon core, increasing your mana regeneration by 50%! Body Maturity Insufficient For Current Level – Expanding Vessel]

[Excess mana has been converted into Essence… Efficiency [100%]

[Essence containment attempted [12%]… Formed into Core [(Incomplete)]

[To Prevent Permanent Damage Remaining Essence Was Bound Into Growth Aspects (5%) (25%) (75%) Efficiency (100%)]

[Ding! Core Type Unlocked (Poison)]

I understood little more than the basics of what the information was telling me. It had all popped into my head at once and kept flitting back and forth between the different parts of the message.

From what I could grasp, my body had been too small or… immature to hold so much power.

*Ding*

[Choose Evolution:]

[1. Dragon Scales --> Random]

[2. Venomous Fangs --> Random]

[3. Emperor Eyes --> Random]

[4. Poison Glands --> Random]

[5. Hydra Tounge --> Random]

I'm part hydra?