Chapter 5: Hunting

--About 3 years later--

'Its been almost 3 years since I started training and [Great Sage] was right on all accounts. About one and a half years ago (1.5 years ago), Milim's magicule amount started increasing at an exponential rate and is still rising very quickly. I used to barely be around the same level as her, but now I'd estimate that she's an A rank but about to level up to an A+ rank while I'm just about to become an A- ranked.

During these past 3 years, Gin made sure that trio, Milim, Gaia and her, went swimming in the magicule saturated lake multiple hours every day. This wasn't just for training and increasing EP Values, but for fun as well since Milim seemed to enjoy playing tag in the water just as much as she did on land and in the sky. With Milim swimming so often, the lake soon became so loaded with magicules that fish could no longer survive. There might have been a small handful of fish that survived originally, but those quickly died when Gaia saw them. After all, a fish snack after being hungry and tired from exercising does sounds nice. Gaia and Gin were also able to slowly absorb the magicules in the air and water, making Gaia grow faster than expected, reaching top B+ class, fairly close to Gin. However, it seemed that [Great Sage] already expected this growth rate for Gin since she is right where the prediction was.

Today however, instead of going swimming with Milim and Gaia, Gin arrived at the lake on her own with a different purpose.

"Ms. Greater Water Spirit! Are you here right now?" screamed Gin into the glistening lake, trying to catch the water spirit's attention.

This wasn't the first time Gin tried communicating with the water spirit, but this time is different. In the past, Gin was too young and too weak to gain the spirit's recognition, but now things were different. Gin had just about reached A- rank and was now entering into the powerhouses of the world. She isn't too strong, as any saint class human or higher can defeat her. But she is strong enough to gain the spirit's attention.

The neighboring countries have elite army units that are comprised of mostly A and A+ ranked soldiers. How does she know this you might ask? Well starting about a month ago, soldiers with an emblem that said Ultra-Sorcery Kingdom on them have been scouting a nearby forest. This is very suspicious on its own, but when Gin overheard them knocked them out and used [Great Sage] to analyze their memories, she learned that these were only low level scouters. However, the scouters' memorizes mentioned that if they found a baby dragon supposedly living somewhere near this area near the Great Forest of Jura, then they can be an exception and join the elite units that comprise of all A and A+ ranked units.

Somehow, it seemed that the kingdom already uses the letter ranking system rather than the 4 step classification (Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced) that the adventures association uses. But Gin hypothesized that this is probably because only the Ultra-Sorcery Kingdom uses this ranking system, and once Milim wipes them off the map, the old system will be lost and the vague four step classification will be created. When Gin thought of this, she almost regretted the fact that Milim would wipe out their county. Almost.

When hearing about the Ultra-Sorcery Kingdom for the first time, Gin thought that the kingdom would be very advanced and supportive of all its people, but this wasn't the case. Looking through the soldiers memories, it seemed that even this advanced country was very corrupt. The only strong sorcerers and soldiers came from noble families, and all potentially powerful sorcerers for common families disappeared early in their careers, never to be seen again. Another this was that most of the common population was forced to live in the country side, living in small villages and tending to farms, rather than big cities to be educated.

After learning this, Gin decided that when Milim destroys the country, she is going to sneak out and shelter as many innocent people as possible, since although much of the country deserves to be annihilated, there are still some innocent people left. That's why she come to the lake and is trying to contact the spirit.

Realizing that she would need help escorting people away, Gin wanted to invite the Water Spirit to sign a temporary contract, allowing Gin to summon her to save the people. Luckily, the Greater Water Spirit agreed and even said that she would bring a few of her spirit friends to help.

Goal #1 of saving people. On track for success

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The following week, instead of going to the lake, Gin decided to go further. Not too far to where they leave the Great Forest of Jura and enter human controlled territories, but far enough to where there are more than just weaker and non-intelligent monsters.

After running into a beetle colony that just destroyed a goblin settlement, Gin found her target.

{Received.

Mission 1:

Goal: Exterminate the Giant Beetles

Task: Attack the Giant Beetles

Difficulty: 2/5

Reward: For each Giant Beetle you kill, you will gain 1 EP Value.}

"[Great Sage], give me an analysis of these beetles," Gin quickly said as she prepared for battle. She was immediately able to tell that they were weaker than her individually, but didn't know how strong the whole colony was.

{Received. Giant Beetles are C- rank, but as a colony, they are in between C and C+ rank. But with the number of Giant Beetles in the area, you can assume that they are C rank. Note that Giant Beetles are too heavy to fly. However, you should still proceed with caution.}

"Thanks [Great Sage]. This'll be a piece of cake."

These Giant beetles came in 2 types. There was the Rhinoceros Beetles that looked like it would mainly charge at its opponents and stab them with their single long horns. And then the Stag Beetle with 2 horns that grab things and squeeze and crush them.

Starting by quietly transforming back into her Greater Dragon form, Gin quietly flew very high in the sky and was planning on jumping down on top of the Beetles for a surprise attack. But right before she dived, [Great Sage] gave a recommendation.

{Received. User is recommended to use long range attacks with Intrinsic Skills [Flame Breath] and [Wind Breath] and Extra Skill [Control Particles]. This is more efficient and will be better practice than using physical attacks where each attack would one shot the opponent.}

'Ah, great idea. Let's go with that.'

And so Gin used [Control Particles] to make multiple water and wind blades, and used her Intrinsic Skills to make a fireball and wind bullet.

Since these Giant Beetles were 2 Major ranks away from Gin, they were unable to survive an attack from the A- ranked dragon. Not to mention that Giant Beetles couldn't leave the ground, they were unable to put up a resistance before they were destroyed before they were easily destroyed.

About 10 minutes later, when the last beetle screamed before it fell silent, Gin heard a pleasant notification.

{Received.

Mission 1: Complete

Reward: EP Value + 179

Current EP Value: 14,993 (B+ rank) }

"Wow. That was a lot of points. If all extermination missions are like this, then I'll level up in no time, thought Gin. Little did she know however that she only got this many points because it was her first extermination mission.

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Later that day, Gin found 2 more colonies of monsters, but unfortunately, they were not the kind she was looking for. If not for watching the anime, Gin would have no issues hunting ogres and goblins. However, since these monsters species seemed so human and had a human level of intelligence in the anime, she couldn't bear to exterminate them.

At night however, her luck went back up. Gin was able to find three B- ranked Armorsauri (A/N: Plural of Armorsaurus) and a B+ ranked Evil Centipede. These monsters weren't found as a large group moving together, but instead as individuals, making the hunting possible.

The battle against the Armorsauri went fairly quickly.

When Gin found the first Armorsaurus from above, she tried a few strategies.

First, after hearing a mission from [Great Sage], she shot [Water Blade] a few times. It pierced the exoskeleton of the Armorsaurus and knocked over the beast. Unfortunately, it didn't do enough damage to take out the monster for good.

After this didn't work, she tried swooping down onto the damaged saurus from above and swiping at it with her claws. Again, this easily penetrated the monster's shell, but didn't take out the monster.

But after taking all those blows, the Armorsaurus wasn't doing too well. It was still trying to attack the airborne dragon, even though it had no long range attacks, meaning it had no success. But Gin wasn't going to let this chance get away and resorted to her tired and trusted extermination method. This being scorching the monster using both [Flame Breath] and [Control Particles] to make a hot enough fire to burn it away.

With the Armorsaurus being extremely weak at this point, after the fire attack, it quickly perished. After this, Gin went and easily slayed the other Armorsauri without problems.

However, the Evil Centipede was much more difficult. Even before the confrontation, Gin felt a little threatened, since the monster was only a little weaker than her and was also in the same B+ rank as her. This made Gin a little cautous and so after finding some high ground where she could look at the monster from above, she told [Great Sage] to analyze the centipede.

{Received. The Evil Centipede is B+ ranked. Its only notable features are its decently protective exoskeleton as well as its two poisonous pincers on its head which is used for melee attacks. It also uses its Intrinsic Skill [Paralysis Breath] for mid range attacks.}

'Hmm, this might be a little hard, but if I recall, Rimuru used [Water Blade] to cut its head off fairly easily. If that doesn't work, then besides burning it, I don't really know what to do. Melee attacks probably won't get through its shell, but if I combine a claw swipe with fire, it just might work'

After coming up with a plan, Gin used [Water Blade] from high up. These blades easily hit the Centipede's neck, but only lightly scratched the the exoskeleton.

Not being phased by this, before the monster was able to locate where the attack came from, Gin swooped down and launched fire attacks with her 2 skills. While these attacks were launched, Gin also heated up her extended claws and swiped at the Evil Centipede.

*Swoosh*

*Stab*

*Screech*

The attack hit perfectly on the same mark where the [Water Blade] hit. Gin's claws were able to penetrate the Evil Centipede's neck, but was too slow. The Centipede, feeling an attack coming, had started running forwards right as the attack connected, so the wound was shallow.

Before Gin was able to recover and get back in the air, the Evil Centipede ran back towards the grounded dragon and rammed its pincers forwards.

Gin was barely able to jump up and dodge, but wasn't expecting a second attack so soon.

All of a sudden, the Evil Centipede used [Paralysis Breath] at point blank.

Gin tried flapping her wings and using [Control Particles] to make wing blow away the [Paralysis Breath].

Most of the [Paralysis Breath] was blown away, but Gin still inhaled a small amount.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough*

'Oh Uh. [Great Sage]. Do something!'

{Received. At the moment, there is not much you can do. The only method you currently have to fully get rid of [Paralysis Breath]'s effects right now is to kill the monster. You can use some of the stored Healing Potions to clear the effects, but as long as the breath stays in your system, there is nothing you can do except quickly kill the monster.}

"AND HOW DO I DO THAT!!!" Gin screamed desperately. "My strongest attack didn't work and now the Evil Centipede will be on guard for that attack again."

{Received. Activating [Entertainment]'s effect, [Limited Plot Armor]. Unlocked Light Dragon Intrinsic Skills [Light Armor], [Light Beam], and [Light Bomb].

These skills would have been unlocked once you became a teenage dragon, but are unlocked earlier before of [Entertainment].

Effects of new skills:

[Light Armor]: Creates an Armor made of the user's Magicules. This armor absorbs small amounts of energy from Magical and Physical attacks, which is then can be stored or incorporated into user's scales for extra defense. When using it to block a pure Magical attack, it has a chance to reflect the attack using stored energy. This armor also has a chance of clearing status effects caused by opponents weaker than the opponent. When using this skill, the user's scales will release a bright white light, making the user shine. The user can change the amount of Magicules incorporated into the armor, changing how effective it will be and how bright the user shines.

[Light Beam]: Creates a ball of light near the user's mouth with Magicules. After charging the ball, the ball will extend forward, making a beam. This beam with extend certain distance and pierce the target. The beam travels in a straight line facing towards the direction the user is facing, but can move when the user's head moves. The attack does not explode at the end of its trajectory, but instead dissolves into the air. The amount of piercing damage and distance traveled depends on how many Magicules are used to charge the beam.

[Light Bomb]: reates a ball of light near the user's mouth with Magicules. After charging the ball, the ball with launch forward towards the direction the user's mouth is facing. The bomb travels a certain distance and explodes. The Bomb can either be manually or automatically exploded depending on how the user wants it. When automatically triggered, the bomb will explode at first contact, even if it does not touch the target. If it doesn't touch anything, it will explode. When manually triggered, the bomb will only explode when prompted. This gives it a small amount of piercing power, but if there is too much defense, the bomb will simply phase out. The amount of piercing power, explosion size and power, and distance traveled depends on how many Magicules are used to charge the bomb.

Note that as the user is a light attributed Greater Dragon and has the Intrinsic Skill [Light Body], light attributed attacks do more damage to a target when used by the user and does less damage when used against the user}

'Wow, this really is plot armor! Let's activate [Light Armor], clear the paralysis effect, and then charge a full power [Light Beam]'

Gin quickly jumped up high and started flying again. She then activated [Light Armor] to try to clear the paralysis effect, but the effect was still present, so she drank a Healing Potion.

She then charged [Light Beam], waited a moment so that the beam was fully charged and her aim was perfect squared at the grounded Evil Centipede and fired.

*Pierce*

*Slice*

The attack easily went trough the exoskeleton of the monster, so Gin moved her head in a way to manipulate the beam so that the Evil Centipede was decapitated.

After this, the paralysis effect went away and Gin heard a notification.

{Received.

Mission 1: Complete

Reward: EP Value + 25

Current EP Value: 15,018 (A- rank) }

Gin thought she misread the notification, but it seemed that the reward was lowered. Each Armorsaurus only gave 5 EP and the Evil Centiped only have 10 EP.

She didn't feel too bad though, since she gained 3 great skills as well as a lot of experience. And this was supposed to be a happy moment since she finally reached A- rank like [Great Sage] predicted.

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After a few more hours of unsuccessful monster searching in the pitch black darkness of the night passed, disatster.

Gin was just about to start heading back home when she heard a very, very, Very loud and angry yell that seemed to come a far distance, as well as a surprising notification.

"GAIAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!

WHY ARE YOU LYING THERE IN A POOL OF APPLE JUICE!!!!!!!!!!

WHATT HAPPENEDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!"

{Received. Single use Ultimate Gift [Soul Collector] forcefully activated by unknown outside influence. Soul of Gaia, successfully collected and stored.

Single use Ultimate Gift [Soul Collector] now forcefully deleting}

Then Gin heard another voice. This time it was in her head, and was so quiet that the thought she imagined it.

"Goodbye Gin. You may or may not know this, but I think of you as my own daughter, so I wanted to say good bye one last time. Stay safe and please keep taking care of Milim for me."

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Extra Authors Notes:

Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Some things that I want to bring up, Although I let Gin have an OP increase in power when she was in trouble, this won't happen every time. All increased in power will either be gradual and only look large because of time skips or just logical events. This time, I decided that it should be a logical event that allowed Gin to get new skills since I realized that even though she's a light attributed dragon, she didn't have any skills in her main attribute, so I needed to change that

Secondly, I think this is obvious, but starting in the next chapter, things will really start happening.