Hunting is Hard!

John leaped up in the air in excitement, because even if 'John the Dragon Monarch' sounded lame, Mel's delivery of her last line was still pretty epic.

The Last Heir.

Successor to the Dragon Monarch.

Monarch of all that is here and all that is beyond.

Who wouldn't want titles like that?

And those would all be John's if he managed to survive!

It made him truly realize that he really was in here for a new life, a new journey, and that hopefully, it would be a life full of incredible moments because he was resolute in wanting to live it to its absolute fullest.

'Alright then, Mel, I'm pretty fired up now,' said John mentally. 'Now then, how do I go about getting stronger?'

[Dragons all grow stronger through the process of evolution. To evolve, you must consume other creatures and take in their essence. To do so, you must leave the cave, for there are no creatures here to hunt.]

John nodded his little lizard head and scampered outside, following a few rays of light that streamed in from the cave entrance. The cave was pretty tiny, no bigger than a one-person apartment bedroom from back on earth, and that got him wondering.

'Hey Mel, why is this cave so small? Aren't dragons supposed to be, I don't know, really big?' asked John.

[This nest was never meant to keep you long. It is small and hidden so that you may grow in peace until you reach the Wyrmling stage of evolution. From then on, you must leave the nest and move on.]

'Wyrmling stage? What stages are there-WOAH!' John's reptilian yellow eyes would have widened if they could, but instead his slit pupils just got slightly bigger as he looked out the world before him.

John was high up, and a whole new world in all its wondrously new beauty and majesty overwhelmed him. Azure blue skies filled with huge swathes of lazily floating white clouds.

Massive forests sprawled out beneath them, stretching out into the vast horizon, covering John's vision with brilliant, verdant green kissed a faint yellow by the rays of the sun.

And the sun-

John closed his eyes and breathed in deep, taking in clean, pristine, cool air while the warmth of the sun hit his back.

'Ahh yeah, that hits the spot,' said John. He knew that reptiles could be cold blooded and needed sunbathing to get their blood warm and started, but he did not know it could feel this good.

He almost got carried away with the sensation, with the warmth cozying him off almost to another sleep, but this was no time to be resting!

John opened his eyes and surveyed his surroundings again, trying to get a sense of where he was for survival purposes. Pretty strong winds whipped around him, indicating high altitude, and the forest land beneath him was tiny enough that he figured he was way up.

Thing was, though, when John crawled the rocky edge of the path in front of the cave and peered straight down, his back claws digging in the dirt behind him to keep him anchored so he would not fall, he could tell he was not just at high altitude.

'Mel…is this place flying?' asked John.

[This is a Floating Rock] said Mel. [Mana imbued in crystals on the base of this rock allow it to ride wind currents as if it were near weightless. This rock is also enchanted with a spell of mine that renders it undetectable and invisible so as to ensure your safety]

'Huh, that's incredible,' said John. He always knew about what magic could be from reading fiction with it in his past life, but truly experiencing it for himself, truly beginning to grasp how it make the impossible possible, awed him.

[As for your prior question] said Mel. [There are multiple stages of draconic evolution. Your goal as a Great Offspring is to climb through all of them until you ascend to the rank of Dragon Monarch.

The stages of evolution are as follows:

Hatchling. This is where you are now.

Whelp

Wyrmling

Drake

Dragon

Greater Dragon

Dragon Lord

And finally, your destiny: the Dragon Monarch stage.

Each successive stage is more difficult to reach, but I have confidence that as the last of the Great Offspring, you will live up to your potential]

'So many stages…,' noted John. But those were only goals for him to keep his eyes set on, and once he focused on something, he never let go.

If there was one thing he had to be proud of about himself, it was his determination.

John nodded his baby lizard head with resolute conviction. 'Alright, then, Mel, I need to go and start hunting, right? Let's do it, then! The sooner the better.'

[As you wish. Initiating transportation...]

'Huh?' John felt the rocky ground and dirt underneath him shudder violently, and he dug his small claws into the dirt as hard as he could to stop himself from getting tossed down. He had no wings yet, after all.

Then, John's vision became blurry, covered in rainbow light, and then, he was in a completely different place.

John closed his eyes as he felt nausea assault his small stomach before he crashed into dirt. Leaves crunched and branches cracked under his weight.

Wait, leaves and branches? None of those were on the floating rock.

John tentatively opened his eyes and found that he was on the forest floor. His body ached a little, but he shook himself like a dog shaking off water on its fur, and he felt a little better.

[Your body is yet weak. The transportation spell takes its toll upon you, so do not have me utilize it often]

'You could have told me there were side effects!' John started to protest but took in a calming breath. No, he had to focus on other things now.

He looked up to see the Floating Rock he was on above him.

From this far down, it looked like a splotch of grey floating in the air, though he could make out the glimmer of blue mana crystals on its base as Mel had said.

'Can I get back up there if I want to? I don't think I can fly,' asked John, a little worried that he may have gotten himself down on the forest floor defenseless with no return.

He had no idea what manner of creepy crawlies and hungry jaws wanted to snap him up.

[You merely have to ask for another Transportation. However, it must be in this location, for this is the point that the Transportation spell is linked to. You are linked to this area through your infant sense as a hatchling.

Hatchlings will always remember their nests as places of shelter, being capable of sensing its unique mana signature, and it is no different with you.]

John closed his eyes and tried to focus on the nest, and he found that Mel was right. Just by focusing, he could innately know where to go to find his nest. Sort of like a built-in compass.

Neat.

'And the nest, is it safe? It looks really unguarded up there. If any flying creature is around, I feel like they would investigate it,' said John.

[The nest is cloaked] said Mel. [But only for ten days. Then, the mana fueling it will begin to run out. For that is the amount of time I project it will take for you to reach the Wyrmling stage and become self-sufficient.]

'Ten days, huh. I'm on a timer.' John nodded his lizard head and scampered ahead, keeping his senses sharp. 'Then looks like I've got no time to waste!

It was time to hunt.

John traveled around the forest floor for quite a while, but he had trouble really catching anything. He found a few strange rabbits with feather plumes on their head, but they had incredibly sharp hearing, instantly bolting off when John even remotely began to approach them.

After John watched them almost miraculously disappear into the forest, he sighed and asked Mel, 'Mel, what were those rabbits?'

[Those are Plumed Rabbits,] said Mel. [Their plumes are capable of sensing vibrations in the air, making a direct approach difficult. Their Core Ascension Grade is Earthen, the lowest there is.

Coincidentally, that is how low you are.]

'Gee, thanks for reminding me,' said John.

He was a dragon, but he was on the same level as a few random rabbits?

He had to change that soon.

He remembered the angel from before. Sarael, that was her name. She had given him a triangular seal of golden energy, but it was nowhere to be found now.

What had happened to it? He asked Mel first.

'Mel, do you know if you've seen a triangle of light anywhere? I know this is really odd to ask, but it's important,' said John.

[I see only what you see. If you have not seen it, then I have not either. In addition, this shard of mine that aids you is programmed only for certain functions. Finding triangles of light is not within them.]

'Right. I forget that you're not really there, sometimes,' said John. 'And nothing's any different with me? I don't have any special powers?'

[None out of the ordinary for a newly born hatchling]

John sighed. Guess Sarael really had been useless, then. Well, better to figure out more important stuff, like how power levels worked here.

'But Core Ascension Grades? I'm assuming this is a scale of power levels, but I'm not familiar with how they work,' said John.

[All living beings possess physical cores that are analogous with the heart, though some creatures lacking hearts will have other organs act as cores.

Regardless, cores are not merely physical, they are spiritual in nature as well, being the source through which living creatures may breathe in mana from the world and channel it through the spirit roots intertwined through their bodies.

A living being's capacity to generate and store magical energy is determined by their Core Ascension Grade.

These Grades are as follows:

Earthen

Mystic

Unbound

Phantasmal

Heavenly

Sovereign

Transcendent

and finally, Divine, the grade your core must be at to reach the status of Dragon Monarch.]

'Let me guess,' said John, hearing yet another daunting list of power levels. 'Every single grade is much harder to reach than the last one. The difference being like 'that between heaven and earth?''

[That is so]

'Great,' groaned John. Absurd power level scaling tropes were a thing in this world too. Meant he had a long, long way to go.

But no use thinking about that now.

For now, John had a much more important topic to devote his attention to: survival.

If he was not strong enough, something here was just going to eat him, and his new life would end just like that.

Having reminded himself of that fact, John grew silent and focused, getting back to hunting.