It has been a few days since my birthday. Everything is back to normal. I decided to spend the past few days attaching myself to my mother and helping her out with her daily chores just in case something goes wrong when I evolve.

I knew more than anyone that I was taking a serious risk. At least becoming a dragnoid would still allow me to turn into a human, or at least that is what is stated in the system. There are a lot of things that I am worried about, like what if something goes wrong and I turn into a small lizard or some other kind of animal by accident and can never turn back. According to the system, such a thing would happen if I chose the dragging evolution path. But I am going with the dragnoid evolution path, which is a humanoid race that can transform into dragons. I just hope I do not end up becoming a lizard man or something with a full dragon body covered in scales but in a humanoid form. Not that there is anything wrong with such races but just saying. I prefer the current look that I have now.

As a dragnoid, I am wondering just how cool my dragon form will be. I wonder if I will become a huge massive dragon that would cause entire kingdoms to come at me with their armies. I could end up being a baby dragon that is small and cute as well, but who knows.

“Mother, I’m going out!” I called out as I finished putting my boots on. -.“Faith, be careful! If anyone from the other village shows any kind of hostility towards you, just beat them up. Do not let anyone look down on you!” My mother has really become violent as of late. It seems she had heard some people talking badly about me in Wandermere village. Wandermere is the name for the village before my father split his land off from it and made his own village. While my family normally stays out of Wandermere, there are those who have family still living there refusing to move. It’s not banned from assisting those in Wandermere either. My father is a good man and will help those in need. Of course, that need excludes certain families.

“I will!” I opened the door and headed out. Even now, as I am running down the street out and around Wandermere, I feel nervous. My hands are clammy as a thin layer of cold sweat is beginning to form on my body. But even so, it will not stop me. I have already firmed my resolve to evolve and hopefully grow stronger. I only wished I could have more information on what I was getting myself into. It’s not every day one is able to evolve. Or, to be perfectly honest, I am not sure if evolution is even a thing in this world. I am hoping to find out more about it when I finally venture out on my own.

It didn’t take long to get to the cave I have found. I stopped right in front of it, looking at the overgrowth that covered its entrance. The cave itself was somewhat hidden by tree roots. A tall tree grew on top of the entrance, and its roots hung down on its sides. Green moss and vines also lined the entrance making it hard to spot. If I wasn’t specifically looking around carefully for an evolution spot, I would probably have passed right by it without ever knowing it was here.

The area of the forest I was in was at least four miles deep. Villagers would never dare come this far, and for good reason. While they would not be able to tell the levels of monsters, I could, and the monsters here were all around level 13 to level 15. With me being level seventeen, they were easy to kill or scare off. Only a few more aggressive monsters would actually attack me even though I am of a higher level than them. Not that anything could really hurt me unless it could send me flying with mana shield up or use an attack that is indirect.

One thing I did find out was that indirect attacks do harm me, and by a lot. I kind of found out the hard way. I was fighting a pack of electric monkeys, and one of them casted an electric area of effect spell. While the initial attack did not do anything, when the electricity bounced off of something and then hit me, I received the shock of a lifetime. It was my own fault, though. I could have dodged but didn’t, thinking it would not hurt me. It was the first time I had ever lost over one hundred points of health.I was finding it hard to understand how mana shield worked. It made me wonder how mana shield knows what attacks were indirect and which were not. I mean, when the electric monkey’s area of attack first hit, the mana shield absorbed all the damage. My mana did not drop at all after absorbing the attack, but once the electricity bounced off something, it became indirect and harmed me.

It made me wonder if mana shield had a small window after absorbing an attack that it would not absorb anything or not but I have been hit many times in a row with other attacks without any injury. I need to investigate more, but I also need to figure out a way to test without actually harming myself in the end. Because of this, I have been debating on whether or not to up my appraisal to see if it will let me analyze spells if the appraisal skill was at a higher proficiency. This was something I was still debating on and how many points I would sink into it. As of now, I could max it out. I wondered if it would help me in finally completing my fusion magic.

I looked deep into the cave before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. I was trying my best to calm my nerves as I took a step into the cave. “Ignite….” I created a large flame to float in front of me to burn away the cobwebs. I was not exactly scared of spiders, but the cobwebs were very annoying. But just because I was not scared of them did not mean I shouldn’t be careful. Just like back on Earth, some of this world’s insects had poison sacs as well and could poison someone if they bite them. Not all bugs were poisonous, but a lot more were. Even a flying mosquito might be poisonous if not careful. Luckily unlike Earth though, covering your skin in a thin layer of mana could keep you from being bitten by most common insects. Only a few rare insects that I have been told about can bite through it and into your skin, but that is human skin. My skin is much tougher. At least, that is what I tell myself.

The cave ran deep underground, at least fifty feet. But it was a straight path that slanted down sharply. Not enough to make it seem like a slide but enough to force you to watch your footing in case you do fall. The upper part of the cave was made of large rocks caked with mud and roots, but the further down you went, the rockier it got. It was its own ecosystem in itself. But no actual monsters or things I would now consider monsters. After passing level ten, I no longer see anything level ten and under as a monster. While they technically still are, to me, they are just wild animals that run away when they see me.

It didn’t take long to get to the end of the cave, it was an open dry area, unlike the rest of the cave. I have been wondering since I have found the place whether or not some monster made this place its den at some point. But I had to say, after burning away the cobwebs, the whole area was fairly clean if you ignore the rocks and dirt on the ground. It was clean for a cave anyway. It was about one hundred square feet of space, making it a cozy little room.

After looking the room over, I turned towards the entrance. “Earth barrier! Water Barrier! Fire barrier! Wind Barrier! Lightning Barrier!” I looked at the barriers now blocking the entrance and nodded my head in satisfaction. “Let’s hope this is enough.”

Now that the barriers were up, it was finally time to find a place to sit and begin my evolution. I used sweeping magic, which was nothing more than wind magic that used gusts of wind to move debris, to clean the cave floor. Once I cleared an area out, I roasted it a bit with an ignite spell to warm the cold rocky surface before finally sitting down. Only when I was completely comfortable did I open my system menu and begin looking at the evolution system once more. As I read the same text over for the thousandth time. An idea popped into my head. “If I were to up my appraisal skill now before I evolve, would the information in the system become more detailed?”

I had thought about this before, but since level 1 appraisal had no change to the system, I kinda threw it to the back of my mind. But now I wondered if maxed out appraisal would actually do something. Since I planned to up it anyways to hopefully help with my magic, I might as well try it out now to see if I can get more information.

“It’s all or nothing! No harm in trying!” I quickly switched back to my status menu and began hitting that plus button.

[Skill Points] 15 → 6

[Appraisal (LVL 1 → 10(MAX))]