A Dragon and Two Holes

'Let's get down to work!' Jacob spoke in his head while figuring out how his wings worked. Since he evolved into a young dragon, he could feel an extra pair of arms in his backs.

The pair of arms were actually his wings. There was no better way to describe the sensation of having wings. A pair of arms in his back with a lot of extra skin.

Jacob concentrated on his wings, trying to fully sense how the air and dust touched them. This was the first time since he evolved that he would try to use his wings.

After a few seconds and as a result, he could completely feel the pair of arms in his back as wings. His wings lacked feathers and were instead made of a thin, white membrane.

He was not sure whether he could use his wings to keep himself afloat in the air currents. After all, his body was very heavy and he had no feathers.

However, this time was fine because he was not really going to fly. He was simply attempting to move the air within the cave.

He closed his eyes and imagined himself flapping his wings like a bird, moving his wings from top to bottom to keep himself in the air.

He tried to mimic the movement of a bird's wings by moving his own from top to bottom. Unfortunately, he did not succeed on his first attempt.

He tried to imitate how a bird flapped his wings, moving his own wings from top to bottom. Unfortunately, he failed on his first try.

Jacob flapped his wings but it was not quick enough and only a gentle breeze rose, faintly displacing the haze around him.

'Hmmm. I understand. I need to move the wings faster so I can exert a strong pressure in the air around me.' Jacob spoke inwardly as he adjusted his wings to their natural position.

'All right, just one more time.' He closed his eyes and focused on the strength he was exerting.

The strength he used to flap his wings was important. With more strength, the wing would move faster, allowing him to move the air inside the cave.

"FWAP."

When Jacob felt that all of his strength was concentrated in his wings, he flapped his wings again, and this time all of the dust suspended in the air quickly moved, clearing the cave's interior from the haze.

The cave still had some dust suspended in the air, but not enough to prevent him from seeing his surroundings.

Now that he was finally able to see his surroundings, without a yellowish haze interfering with his vision, Jacob quickly realized he was alone in the cave.

His sister, Sonu, was nowhere to be found. The cave, on the other hand, had two large holes in the wall on either side. He was certain the holes had been there before.

Suddenly, the System's robotic and neutral voice sounded in his mind, giving him a slight fright.

[Annihilation Passive Magic Skill deactivated. Your magic power, strength, agility, and toughness have all returned to normal levels.]

'Oh? My passive magic skill has been deactivated? The enemies had run away?' An angry but extremely sensual manly voice interrupted Jacob's thoughts before he could think further.

'Dumbass, the enemies you are referring to have kidnapped your sister! Why do you think two holes had appeared in the cave in the first place? If you do not want to lose your sister, get into one of these holes as soon as possible!'

Hearing what his System was telling him, Jacob wasted no time and dashed into the hole on the left wall, stepping inside.

He was still perplexed by the System's dual personalities, the robotic one he was used to and the virile one that appeared after the System Awakening.

He would, however, inquire about this at a later time. Someone had kidnapped his sister, and he was determined to get her back.

Jacob suspected that everything, from the tremor to the explosion and the caving of two holes to take Sonu, was caused by some beasts.

If the beasts were involved, they had to hunt in groups. After all, they appeared to have excellent teamwork.

He assumed that the tremor and sudden explosion were caused by one of the beasts in charge of distractions while the other two beasts dug the holes.

However, he had no idea what had caused the explosion. When the haze cleared, he saw no evidence of an explosion in the area.

If the holes had been caused by an explosion, the space inside would have been much larger, and the cave would also have been affected.

Now that he was inside the hole, slowly making his way to the other end, he was completely sure of it. The holes had been dug by using earth magic rather than explosive magic.

The hole was perfectly round, and the walls were nothing more than dirt. They did not have a single trace of rock, water, or vegetation in them.

However, his dragon's eyes could see traces of mana emanating from the dirt, which was as hard as rock.

If his guess was right, a beast with an earth affinity had infused the dirt with mana, hardening it, but it was most likely only temporary, as the mana spent would have been too much for a simple hunt.

After a while, all of the mana would leave the dirt and turn back to normal soil, causing the hole to collapse.

Jacob increased his pace, running on his fourth legs, fortunate that the hole was larger than his body.

He knew the dirt was safe in his current location because it had recently been infused with mana, but the other side was a totally different story.

If mana was infused in the soil, the dirt at the tunnel's entrance would be the first to wear off because it was infused first.

Knowing this, Jacob quickened his pace further, following the small tunnel for hundreds of meters until he could see the end of it.

Fortunately, the entrance has not yet collapsed, though given the low amount of mana emanating from the dirt, it would in a matter of seconds at most.

He was only a few dozen meters away from the exit. He believed he could make it at his current speed.

Eighty meters. Seventy meters. Sixty meters. Fifty meters. He had run thirty meters in merely a span of a few seconds.

Forty meters. Thirty, twenty, ten meters. Jacob could almost feel the fresh air coming from the exit when the dirt ran out of mana and fell, collapsing the tunnel.