Evolving Systems

Chapter Four: Evolving Systems

The order of events had changed since the last host's failure, system D.O.C 100 had noticed. Typically, humans were appointed and tasked with systems and given rewards based on how they handle their quests.

But the Gods had now given up on these humans and sought out non-humans to take the quests.

These were all because one of those appointed humans had bugged the other systems, shifting them away from their true nature and evolving them.

Evolving the systems and their hosts.

D.O.C's last host had attained a reward as a Were-phoenix at level 12, instead of level 20. She was inexperienced in combating in that form and the information attached to that form was at level 20.

Due to her 'fast growth', she became proud, careless and wild in her quests, earning the attention of a group of deranged humans called, The Creators.

They had taken her blood and would create artificial were-phoenixes on earth, and they had ended up using her biological data to find the Phoenix realm and their neighbours, the dragon realm, Raxatia.

D.O.C's current host, while naturally being an anomaly as non-human, had his perks. Even if he was a young dragon, that could only translate to fifteen years of human age, he still had more maturity and self-control than the past host.

Power wouldn't cloud his judgement since he already had a taste of being a superior specie.

With turbulent emotions like fear, anxiety, desperation, grief, and panic in lockdown, the host would mainly work with anger and guilt as the catalyst for improvement.

"D.O.C, this forest doesn't seem to have animals." Zephyr noted when he had walked a kilometre into the dense rainforest and not a creature in sight.

[You are 15% dragon.]

Zephyr raised a brow. Was that supposed to explain anything? Were the animals on earth such cowards that they'd cower when a foreigner comes into their home?

"Can I ask them for directions? Surely, they'd have seen that man's lab."

[You do not have such abilities.]

"I am 15% dragon, remember? I am superior to them so I don't need to have an ability." Zephyr walked ahead. "What abilities do I actually have?"

[None.]

"Huh?"

[The Stats belong to the former hosts and you can't inherit that. Finishing the quests would require your own sheer willpower and intelligence.]

Zephyr stopped walking. That was unfair. He was just cleaning up after the lady that caused the destruction of his realm.

[However, you have access to her inventory, though nothing useful is in it. You gain XP (Experience Points) for completed quests that will be transferred to your account after hers is destroyed after completion.]

Zephyr chuckled lowly. Destroyed after completion? D.O.C truly despised his former host. "Show me her Stats."

[It's almost empty. Nothing to check.]

"Show me her stats." Zephyr repeated. "I'd decide that. Or haven't you recovered it yet?"

[Loading Stats...]

[First page of three pages...]

[Name: Seraphina Jeremy]

[Species: Human]

[Age: 18]

[Health Points (HP): 0/ 1200 – Dead]

[Mana Points (MP): 0 / 5000 – Depleted]

[Level: 12 – Intermediate]

[Experience Points (XP): 0 / 600 – Discontinued]

[Reputation: Middle-Class Warrior]

[Attributes:

- Strength: 0

- Agility: 0

- Intelligence: 0]

[Ethical Stance: Evil.]

Zephyr hummed. It was really empty. The host was dead anyway. He asked for the other two pages and they had her skills, detailed attributes and inventory.

The skills were frozen and detailed attributes were all zero. The inventory only had three weapons and one set of poisonous darts.

"Can't you make a temporary account for my Stats? That way it'd be easy to transfer the information to my main account. I need to know how much growth I gain as well."

D.O.C crosschecked databases and saw similar cases of temporary accounts, so he agreed.

[It'd take a while to set up.]

"Everything always took a while with you." Zephyr shook his head, going further into the forest.

He could see the other end of the forest coming to view. If he passed through the forest without finding the lab, what had he gained?

"D.O.C, Materialise an image of the first lab, if the animals have seen a similar building in the forest, they'd tell us."

D.O.C didn't understand the sense in that approach but suppressed its thoughts and materialised an image that dropped before Zephyr.

He caught it and looked around for where it had fallen from. As his head moved around, he noticed two pair of green eyes watching him, it disappeared instantly.

"The first animal that I'm meeting. It's not scared of me." Zephyr hurried towards it.

He slowed down when he saw a six foot white wolf rushing down the plains. With his human knowledge, he knew that was definitely not the right size for a wolf.

The animal ran off anytime he came close. Zephyr followed as it ran down the mountains, into the valleys, and across the lake. At some point, Zephyr began to wonder if its leading him somewhere.

He stopped walking and stood, staring at it. "If you are only going to waste my time, then I'd leave." He raised the paper that had the image. "I am looking for this place, do you know where?"

[It doesn't speak that language.]

"I know that." Zephyr walked slowly towards the animal, still holding the picture up. "This building doesn't belong to the forest and bad things happen in it. Could you take me there?"

[While you do... that, I'd recheck all logs concerning Dr. Leeroy's lab.]

Zephyr sighed when the wolf did nothing but seat on its hind legs and watch him. "Yeah, go ahead." He glanced at the wolf. "Where were you even taking me to?"

The wolf Instantly rose up and continued going into the forest. Zephyr squeezed his face. Did it actually understand him? He followed it, while still taking notes on the places he passed. He was fifteen percent dragon so his senses were better than a normal human's.

"Blood up ahead." His nose caught it and he ran faster, catching up with the wolf. There was a cave ahead and two young cubs moving around, whimpering.

Zephyr held his hand to his nose instinctively. He didn't like the smell of blood, or most accurately, the original soul of the body didn't like the smell of blood.

He took his hand down and strolled to the cave. The young jaguar cubs were now facing him with defensive stares, the huge wolf was nowhere to be found.

"They are protecting someone." Zephyr looked behind them. A young man on the ground bled from his sides.

It seemed to be a wild animal's claw that did that to him. The young man was in his early twenties and looked like a traveller with a small bag strapped to his waist.

While he was human, his blue hair and slightly elongated fingernails made Zephyr question his actual specie, and the only creature that came close were wolves.