Intelligence?

Ragan's words had surprised him that night. The three humans went back to bed, but Emre had decided to stay away to keep watch. They had set off the next morning after picking up their supplies and began toward the village again.

But to think that Ragan would say it was too dangerous to live out in the forest. Was he considering the idea of moving to the village instead of living out here? While it would be safer, Emre still wasn't able to turn into a human. If he was able to do so, he wouldn't be as worried.

Even so, he didn't think he had to be that worried in the first place. He was at level 29 now. Once he hit 30, he was sure he would be able to evolve. Killing just a few more corruptions would surely get him there, but he wanted to see Anne and Audr to safety. That was more important right now.

If a village had been invaded like in his visions, it was possible for this village to be invaded as well with this many corruptions out and about in the forest. If anything, he would like to stay nearby but he would have to talk to Ragan about the situation before anything. He decided he would wait until they could talk alone.

They had been walking for a few hours before the treeline had begun to thin. Audr was becoming increasingly more upset looking the closer they got. Anne also had Audr cover up his scarred arm and told him not to take it off for a while. That way they could hide Emre's abilities.

Once they got to the edge of the treeline, where the village was visible, Emre kept himself behind some foliage. Audr had stopped and turned toward him.

"You're my friend, right, Emre?" He asked.

Emre was surprised at first but nodded. 'Yes, I'm your friend.'

"So we can hang out again soon, right?"

'Of course.' Emre smiled and stepped forward.

Audr gave him a hug and Emre returned it with his head. Emre hadn't expected to get so attached, but it wasn't too surprising. Besides, Emre could always come to find him when he was able to turn into a human. He knew it would be surprising for them, but Emre did not intend to live in hiding like this forever.

Having just a few humans know about his abilities wouldn't harm him. He trusted Ragan, Anne was bound by oath, and Audr was a child. While children have loose mouths sometimes, Emre had a trick.

'But remember… you can't tell anyone about me ever. If you do, I'll find out and I won't be your friend anymore.' Although a childish threat, it would matter to Audr.

"I promised already! I won't tell anyone." He reassured Emre as they parted.

Emre nodded and then glanced up to the trees. He turned and scrambled up into the branches before looking down at them.

'See you soon, Audr, Mrs Anne.' He dipped his head toward them before looking at Ragan. 'I'll wait for you here.'

Ragan nodded and the three of them started to head back. Audr kept looking back, but he couldn't see Emre once Emre hid behind the branches. He waited until they had disappeared into the village before starting back into the forest.

He went a few trees in before finding a large wide branch. Here would do. Sitting properly, he closed his golden eyes and began to meditate. While he waited, continuing to form his second layer was smart. The mana started to gather around him as he sat.

About an hour had passed and finally, Emre felt his core strengthen as the second layer completed. He let out a breath and slouched over as the feeling of energy flooded into his body. Forming layers actually felt quite nice. It felt like he was able to do twice as many spells now.

Peering through the branches, he looked out toward the distant clearing to see the small distant blob of someone coming toward him. Emre started to hop from branch to branch, back to the tree he had left them at, and waited as Ragan's form became increasingly larger as he neared.

His backpack looked jam-packed with stuff and Emre chuckled.

'Did you buy a lot of bread?' He asked lightheartedly.

"Of course I did. How would we ever last without it?" Ragan responded with a small smile. "But it seems it's time to go hunting first."

Emre's face became serious as he nodded. 'We should go back to Anne and Audr's old campsite and follow the prints I found.'

"We should find my sword afterward then." Ragan added as Emre hoped down beside him.

They began walking back into the forest without further adieu. They had walked in silence for a while before Emre finally spoke up again.

'Are you thinking about moving to the village? It would be safer.'

Ragan glanced at him with furrowed brows. "I don't know yet."

Emre had expected to add onto that, but it seemed he wasn't going to as he started looking forward again. Emre decided not to say anything longer on the matter and simply began to think.

He was getting visions of large amounts of corruptions and a village getting attacked and burned to the ground by them. There was also the barren wasteland where he had seen another corruption. He shook his head, not sure what to make of it. Were they warnings to him? Or just signs that things were going to get worse?

"Emre?" Ragan interrupted his thoughts.

'Yeah?' Emre looked up at Ragan with raised brows.

Ragan truly looked troubled. "You said you thought something was happening yesterday. What did you mean?"

Emre wasn't sure what to say at first but then he shook his head. 'I just think that things with the corruptions are going to get worse… I think that if—'

"Corruptions?" Ragan cut him off.

Had he used the wrong word? 'Y-yeah, the dark creatures… I mean.' It was just a different name for them so it wasn't that important, right? 'That's just what I've been thinking of them as.'

"Hm… I've never heard of them being called that before." Ragan noted.

Emre didn't look him in the eye as he continued. 'I think that if things are this bad, something might happen again like another village invasion…' It probably already had happened.

"It already has." Ragan said.

Shocked, Emre looked up at Ragan with raised brows. 'What? How do you know that?'

Had Ragan been getting dreams too??

"There were refugees in the village. Apparently, the village across the river, west to the Black Swamp was attacked by dark creatures and their village was burnt to the ground." Ragan explained. "There was a small band of soldiers that were guarding the southern mountain border. They were informed that the village was experiencing a high number of dark creature attacks and had to head over to help them. Unable to save the village, they brought the few survivors back here."

Emre had to stop himself from shuddering in utter shock. His visions must have been that… So it already had happened. But there were also the big corruptions he had seen in the clearing, as well as the 7 foot one. That one had been alone at the time, but the rest were in a large group. They must have been the ones to attack the village.

But this also meant Ragan wasn't having dreams like he was. It was just him. He felt frustration bubbling up in his chest. Why was all this happening right now when he was just brought into this world? Was he just meant to be Tirian's corruption killing machine?

"Emre?" Ragan was wondering about his silence.

'Ragan, we need to find as many dark creatures in this forest and get rid of them. If you don't want to, I'll do it myself. I don't want the village to be attacked.'

"No, I'll do it with you."

'Are you sure?'

"Emre, I've fought off an invasion of these once. I may be older, but I can still do it again."

Emre looked up to him as he flexed his arms and let out a chuckle. 'Shall we hurry then?' He asked as the wind around him began to pick up.

Ragan nodded as the wind began to surround the both of them. Using wind gusts at their feet, they sped through the forest far faster than they had come. Their pace went from walking to galloping like horses as they dodged the trees and snaking roots with the gusts of wind coming from their feet.

With this boost and no need for as much rest, the two made it to the former campsite by sunset. With all the supplies gone, it looked little more than a trodden area with the remains of a campfire and bloodstains. Emre paused to glance at the dried blood that was scuffed by the dirt and grass.

"It was this way, right?" Ragan asked as he pointed toward the direction Emre had gone to follow the trail before.

Emre nodded and looked for the hand-like prints that led off into the forest. It took a moment to find and there was barely the lingering scent of decay that followed. Following alongside it, Ragan kept low behind him as he sniffed and tried to keep on the trail.

After about ten minutes they were tracking until Emre stopped at a craggy outcropping. They must have climbed it because the tracks led onto the rocks. It didn't seem like anything special but as he leapt onto the rocks to inspect them, he noticed a rather large hole. It would probably be big enough to fit the tiger-like corruption he had seen.

To think that there was a massive hole like this. Glancing inside, Emre could see it looked to be a slow decline as it led deeper and deeper into the ground. He couldn't hear anything but the faint scent of burnt rotting only signified that this was where they went.

'They went in here…' Emre informed Ragan who had been looking around the outskirts of the outcropping.

Ragan climbed up onto the rock with a grunt and a huff as he made his way up beside Emre. 'That's not ominous…' Ragan responded mentally with an uneasy look.

'It could be a den of sorts… or a tunnel that leads somewhere else?' Emre speculated.

'Are you sure you want to go in there?'

'If it's a cave, we'll be able to corner them from escape. We'll just have to keep the entrance to our backs.'

'What if the big one is in here? This hole seems large enough.'

'If the big one is in here, you focus on the small ones and I'll focus on the big one.'

'We should regain some of our mana first. We might see if any come out too.'

'Alright.'

With that Emre and Ragan backed away from the hole and made their way back down the rocks. They walked a few meters away and Ragan hunkered down in some thick foliage while Emre scaled a tree.

Keeping his wits about him, he slowly started to focus on regaining mana. They sat for about twenty minutes but no creature had exited the hole during that time. Emre stirred first and waited an extra few minutes for Ragan to finish.

Feeling revitalized despite the darkened sky, Emre and Ragan both climbed back up the rock to the hole entrance and gingerly began to make their way in. Emre could see thanks to his draconic night vision, but Ragan was a bit more stumbly.

'Do you need to hold my tail?' Emre asked with a small chuckle.

'I'm fine.' Ragan responded stubbornly just as he slipped on a pebble.

He caught himself with a sigh and reluctantly grabbed Emre's tail tip for guidance when Emre poked him with it. Rolling his eyes, he carefully continued down. Slowly but surely, he began to hear sounds.

The rock tunnel still expanded out in front of him for a while, but he was hearing the distant grunts and growls and occasional screech from further in. His heartbeat quickened the closer they got.

Eventually, the tunnel stopped and opened up into a massive cavern. Clinging to the side of the tunnel wall, he peered in to see a group of corruptions. His golden eyes narrowed as he counted about seven smaller creatures. They matched Anne's description.

Their bodies and hands actually looked somewhat similar to the massive 7 foot one he had seen in his dream, but these carried longer muzzles instead. Their shoulders were higher than their hindquarters and their paws were monkey-looking hands.

They were roaming around one another, resting, or even squabbling like normal animals. The bigger problem is that in the very back of the cave laid a scary-looking wolf-like creature. It looked like the smaller wolf-like ones, except it looked to be about the same size as the panther-like one that had messed Emre up.

He quickly scanned the cave perimeter for another exit, but he could not find one. One of the smaller corruptions was jumping away from a companion with a screech, only to bump into the larger one.

The larger one immediately snapped its teeth at it, letting out a guttural snarl that sent shivers down Emre's back.

'The big one is here, huh?' Ragan commented through Emre's Telepathy.

'Yeah… I'll deal with it. There are about six smaller ones. Can you handle that?'

'Of course, I can. So as long as you keep that big one from me.'

'I'll try my best… now shall we?'

'I suppose.' Ragan sighed out.

Emre immediately cast Light as Ragan confirmed. Five radiant orbs quickly shot into the room and floated above the creatures. They all screeched and shied away from light. The large one quickly got up and snarled toward the tunnel entrance. He noted that it was missing half its left hind leg.

Gathering the wind at his feet, Emre shot himself into the air and shot toward the large one without hesitation. Opening his maw a light fiery ball formed between his jaws before it shot out like a bullet. For its size, it barely hopped out of the way.

The wind picked up behind him as Ragan began to assault the smaller ones. The large one seemed to notice and went to move toward him, but Emre flew in front of it with slashing radiant claws. Hopping back and unable to get the human with Emre in its way, it took up a battle stance in front of him with bared teeth.

'That's right, I'm your opponent.' Emre sneered.

Then a cracked and broken voice entered his mind in return. 'You..only, radiant...scum!'

Emre's sneer disappeared as a look of seriousness replaced it. The corruption had responded. It had the intelligence to respond… His chest tightened in what he could only describe as uncertainty and fear. A dark creature, the creation of the Goddess of Despair was speaking back to him in return.

He needed to get rid of this being. That thought burned into his head as he lunged toward it. His teeth snapped just short of its face as it pulled back. With a snarl, it tried to return the attack as Emre had expected. Off to the side, he had been forming a light arrow. Although it would usually be noticed, he was going through the lengths to form it behind the corruption.

It wasn't so easy to manifest magic farther away from him, but he was still learning so it was fine. He would get better at it the more he did it. The thing is, he was taking Ragan's teaching into consideration as a second arrow formed next to it.

In the process, he was barely being missed by a hair. He also wasn't able to land any hits.

'Tell me, corruption. How were you created?' Emre asked to distract it further.

'Won't tell…' The almost groggy-sounding voice responded.

But that meant that it did know. Unless it had the intelligence to say something like that despite not knowing at all.

Regardless, his arrows were formed now. With a hiss, Emre lunged forward once more right as he shot both of the arrows toward its backside. One aimed for its right hind leg and the other swooped around to its flank. It was in the process of moving to dodge as the first impact on its leg connected.

It roared in pain as the flames devoured its leg only for the second arrow to land right afterward. The flames engulfed its whole left side and began to spread along to its neck, belly, and the remains of its left leg. Unfortunately, the flame was overtaken by the dense smoke that floated off its body.

It looked rough though. The burns allowed black to ooze out of its body, the whole left half of its body no longer had the smoke floating off of it. All that remained was charred flesh.

'B-bastard…' Its strained voice crawled into his mind as it staggered in pain.

'Hmmph. I may not have a father, but that was uncalled for.' Emre mocked, acting offended.

This only pissed the corruption off more as it lunged forward. Emre jerked back but flinched as the teeth connected with his shoulder but he had luckily pulled back before it was able to clasp on. He winced at the burning pain as the corruption was the one sneering this time.

'A lucky shot.' Emre snarled.

He could hear the commotion of the smaller corruptions fighting Ragan behind him, but he dare not look away from the one in front of him. The wound on his shoulder wasn't too deep, but luckily, he didn't have to worry about the corruption spreading and making things worse.

Emre could just hope that Ragan was doing well and go to help him once he dealt with this intelligent one. While its leg was still there, it looked like crap. Emre was guessing it was taking a lot of strain to stand on it right now since his left leg was missing.

Shooting forward, Emre tried to slink around toward its right side. It snapped its teeth at Emre, but he whisked his body to the side as it defended its uninjured side. Fine, he would just try the same thing as before.

He began to form the light arrow behind it and low to the ground so it was less noticeable as he swiped out with his claws. As his arm shot out, it reached forward and snapped its jaws on Emre's wrist. Emre let out a small yelp of pain as the teeth sunk into his arm.

He could see a sneer on its face but Emre simply used this as momentum to pull his body forward, planting his hind legs on its chest, he used its grip on his arm to get close and promptly bit onto its face with Radiant Bite.

His feet burned up only for a moment before it let go of his arm to try and bite at his shoulder instead. Emre let go of its face and kicked off it to avoid the bite before finally releasing the light arrow. It whizzed forward and slammed into its right hind leg again.

Limping, Emre decided to take flight so it was easier for him to move around. Even so, the creature wailed as the fire engulfed the same leg that he had burned before. This time, however, the structure crumbled to the flames, and both the corruptions hind legs were now gone.

It wailed out in anger at Emre who finally got the chance to turn and see how Ragan was doing. Unsurprisingly, Ragan had actually killed three already and was working on the fourth but he also seemed to be injured a bit. Turning his head, he focused back on the large corruption in front of him.

'Tell me, corruption, do you have a name?' Emre asked with narrowed eyes.

'M-mother, not name us.' It croaked out the answer as it tried to hold its painful body up. 'Too many.'

Interesting. They were calling the Goddess of Despair, mother. That wasn't much different from Emre who called Tirian his mother, so it was not something he disregarded as nothing important.

'Well, today there will be less.' Emre growled as he felt the warmth bubbling up in his throat.

They weren't able to move without dragging themself on the ground, so Emre knew they would not be able to dodge this. Swooping down, Emre released the torrent of radiant flame over its body as he hovered over it. The fire began to violently gobble up the smoke and body of the large corruption, alighting the cavern with golden light.

It screeched and writhed on the ground as it slowly began to die. A leveled-up radiant flame seemed more effective now on the larger ones even if it was already half burned.

[ Corruption slain, gained 2000 experience ]

[ You leveled up ]

[ Gained 4 stat points ]

[ You can evolve ]

[ Skill gained, Radiant Spear ]

[ Skill gained, Invisibility ]

Emre felt his excitement crash into him. His chest tightened as the message that he could evolve went off in his head. Two new skills as well. Invisibility would have been useful way earlier… but it was an overpowered skill so in a way he didn't mind that it was only appearing now.

He would have to wait to evolve as he had more important things at hand right now. Ragan had killed his fourth, but there were still three more left. He didn't look like he was having too hard of a time, but Emre wanted to get this done and over with.

With the big one dead, he formed two light arrows as he hovered in the air and then released them. They both met their marks, causing two of them to burst into flame while Ragan cut down the last one, piercing its heart with the sword that was surrounded by wind blades.

[ Corruption killed, gained 1000 experience ]

[ You leveled up ]

[ Gained 4 stat points ]

[ Corruption killed, gained 1000 experience ]

[ You leveled up ]

[ Gained 4 stat points ]

Emre ignored the notifications as he approached Ragan. He was bitten and cut in a few places but Emre got straight to healing him even though they weren't very substantial injuries.

"Jeez, you youngins are always taking all the kills." Ragan chuckled as he allowed Emre to heal him. He healed a bite and a few larger cuts.

[ Healed a Human, gained 100 experience ]

[ Healed a Human, gained 100 experience ]

[ Healed a Human, gained 100 experience ]

[ Healed a Human, gained 100 experience ]

The repeating words in his head were annoying as he finished up. With a sigh, he actually felt quite tired before he healed his own injuries. Luckily, with his second layer being formed it didn't actually feel quite bad.

Now it was time to deal with his evolution. If he was going to become a Lesser Dragon, he expected his size to increase from his current miniature dragon form. Evolving in Ragan's house wouldn't work, as he might end up breaking things if his body gets too big.

Evolving in the open wouldn't work either. The last time he evolved he had experienced a lot of pain right before he passed out. He would be vulnerable. The convenience was the fact that they were currently in a large cavern. It had high ceilings and a wide floor. It was practically the perfect spot.

As for Ragan… he didn't really want him to see it.

'Ragan, can you do a favor for me?' He then asked softly.

"Yes?"

'I… I need to do something so I was wondering if you could guard the entrance for me?' Emre spoke and as Ragan opened his mouth, Emre intercepted. 'Without questions… please.'

Ragan's brows furrowed but he nodded anyway. "Alright, I'll guard the entrance."

'Thank you.' Emre let out a small sigh of relief. 'I don't know how long it will take, but please don't come back in until I tell you.'

"Alright. I don't know what this 'it' is but, I'll do as you say."

Emre smiled and nodded as Ragan dusted his clothes and glanced around.

"I'll see you soon then?"

'Yeah.'

Emre watched as Ragan turned and began to leave out the tunnel they had come from. Taking in a deep breath, he first burned the bodies that Ragan had killed before finding a cleaner spot to lay down.

He already knew what he wanted so he just spoke it. 'Voice, I choose to evolve into a Radiant Lesser Dragon.'

[ Evolving into a Radiant Lesser Dragon ]

He waited for the pain to begin and relaxed himself as the same warming sensation he had felt before started to fill his body. He started to tense as the warmth became hotter and hotter. Grunting, he pressed his forehead into the ground as he felt his muscles beginning to shake in pain.

It lasted longer this time. He had to resist letting out yells of pain as each little movement sent a spark of boiling pain through his nerves. Letting out one last gasp, his vision faded to black and he fell unconscious.