Alpha Realm (OP.MC.|Harem|NSFW)

High above a cliff by the mountainside, sat a lone creature. Its blue scales seemed to shine in the crepuscular light; its eyes seemed to change color as it looked over the horizon. A short stubble and messy hair were signs of neglect or a lack of proper tools.

Five days and four nights had passed since the Were-Dragon Aizel Kadashi was teleported high above the green valley. He almost tore his soul from his body by exploiting the mechanics of the "system" that guides Geas settlers through the ethereal power known as mana.

Name: Aizel Kadashi | Age: 19 | Level: 2

SE: 0 | HP: 110 | MP: 1150

Race: Were-Dragon

'I really need to resume my hunting'

But now that he had a nice shelter, and he was feeling fine again, he was growing restless.

'I didn’t even feel nausea or remorse while gutting those creatures, not the goblins and not the deer… At first, I thought I was desensitized to some gore thanks to hunting with dad and snuff videos. But now I crave flying and fighting. This race was not supposed to have any strong instincts. So I guess I always had it in me?'

He turned around and ate some leftover smoked meat before doing some stretches. He managed to create a small shelter with just the looted dagger and his claws. A small wooden hut made with woven wood and leaves.

'I will do some goblin hunting and then try to acquire some new skills'

Some ideas for new skills were spinning in his mind; he had not tried to acquire them because of the state of his soul. That had also made him pause hunting goblins; he did not want to gain another level and expose himself to the increase in Soul Energy. He would have time to strain himself by exploiting the skill deletion and re-acquisition later that night. It was supposedly "patched" by Deez Nerd, but it still somewhat worked; it was just less broken than before, needed exponentially more MP, and eventually HP.

His clothes were folded inside the little hut. They were getting worn quite fast, so he just wore his boxers and primitive sandals V2.0. While his scales left a lot of exposed skin, they did a good job of covering up most of his body, working like living armor.

The increase in his MP also allowed him to materialize most of his Draconian features; even when fully transformed, he still had around 250 MP to fly and use (Focus) in quick bursts.

Two goblins had made the mistake of getting too close to him while he was collecting materials or just crafting something down in the forest. While they were ten times harder to deal with during the day, both times he lost scales and got bruises, since they were nasty if they could see you, but he came out on top without his HP going down.

As the last rays of sunlight gave way to the night, his last point of recharging mana hit his max. With his full dragon form, he tucked in his wings and let himself fall over the cliff. The air rushed by, and his adrenaline started to go up the closer he got to the ground.

When he was about to hit the tree line, he unfolded his wings and started gliding towards the goblin camps.

The feeling of flying is not something that he could get bored with; the more he flew, the better he got at it, becoming more efficient with his mana usage. He wondered why he had not unlocked any skills for it, but is not like he needed them. (Infuse) allowed him to control the air currents closer to him, and that air influenced more air.

Not even ten minutes after he began flying around, he found his first target, a group of three goblins sleeping near a clearing. Since they were so close to open air, he landed softly a few meters away. His wings were not stealthy, but by not flapping them too much and using (Infuse) to gently touch down, he managed not to wake them.

With his hand claws, he slit the throat of the first one. The ruckus woke the other two, but before they could react, one of them got its head caved in by a wooden paddle that Aizel had crafted. It was larger than the first one and was carved out of denser wood.

The third goblin, however, was different. It did not start to immediately slash wildly like the others usually did. It stood there and locked eyes with Aizel. Its eyes were shining like a cat’s, and it could clearly see in the dark.

'Some kind of variant?'

It looked almost the same as all the others. Large pointy ears and nose, a face that not even a mother could love, swamp green leathery skin, dense muscles like a chimp, sparse thick black hairs in some places, and a huge dick barely covered by a dirty rag. The only difference was its eyes.

A higher degree of intelligence was clearly behind them, not much higher than the others, but the fact that it was observing instead of just attacking like a maniac was not lost on Aizel. It growled and grabbed a small, rusty, and chipped dagger hidden on its loincloth.

The goblin took a step back; its mouth was filling with foam and saliva that got everywhere as it bit the air and swung its head wildly.

〔 Notice:

Level: 2 ► 3 | SE: 0 ► 1 〕

'Huh. Nice, one of them must have died just—' Aizel immediately used the point on his HP. But that little distraction was enough for the goblin to take its chance.

Surprisingly, it chose to run away.

"That’s a first…"

He let it run; he could track it easily, especially at night, so he just took a mental note of the direction it went and began searching the small camp.

Aizel’s soul was not feeling strained from the level up. He wanted to acquire more skills and drain the (Spark) and (Cook) for some SE, but he was curious about the recent encounter, so he began tracking the goblin that escaped.

Interestingly, it led him directly into an ambush. Or it would have been, were it not for Aizel’s senses.

There was a rock formation further west, hidden by large trees, with a natural cave at its end. Four goblins had climbed up the trees and were waiting on branches, hidden by the shadows. The forest canopy in here was so thick that he doubted he could see their thermal signatures from the air.

In the middle of the path leading to a cave, there was a gravel patch where no trees grew; it was illuminated by moonlight, and it was the place where the goblins were waiting for him to walk on. The goblin with the shiny eyes ran inside the cave, and the ones waiting in ambush were just stalking the clearing.

'To rush, or not to rush… That is the question.' Aizel chose not to trigger the ambush and just kept observing them from a distance.

He was getting bored, and the goblins were getting sleepy. Seeing that he had not come after the one with night vision after an hour, they climbed down and headed inside the cave. He could have sneaked inside or led them away to deal with them one by one, but he had a soul to strain.

After taking note of where this camp was by flying around it and memorizing the terrain and forest, he went back to his shelter. He had made it a habit of always leaving his campfire lit. It was not a large fire, barely perceptible even at night. But its thermal output served as a beacon that he could easily locate it from great distances.

— — —

Back in his shelter, Aizel felt that he had a clear grasp of (Infuse) to milk it for some SE. If he failed to regain the skill, it would mean that he would have to find another way to fly, or be stuck with wings just useful for gliding.

The skill proved to be more forgiving than all the others. After deleting it, the first re-acquisition only cost him 2 MP. So he got to work and drain it like the cheap whore it was.

He managed to get 8 SE before he exhausted his mana. The total SE he acquired in a single day was 11. The strain on his soul was faint, but it was there. He only managed to actually notice them this time because he knew what to look for. It would take at least double the amount to actually feel a bit strained. But he was out of mana anyway, so he just lazed around while his MP was restored.

He assigned his new SE points to his HP and MP. HP: 120/120, MP: 1170/1170. While it was tempting to put everything into his MP and just start blasting lightning inside the goblin cave, he could not deny that the points in HP made him feel stronger little by little and gave him more endurance.

'The Nerd was right…'

While he waited for his mana to regenerate, he worked on a new pair of footwear. Making the shelter and other utilities like the campfire and smoker had given him more insight into how to use the natural materials around him. He had stopped wasting so much of the deer he hunted, thanks to his dagger, which he used (Purify) on before using by the way.

Hunting runs did not take much time; it's just that they left him out of MP and a little tired. He always left enough to at least fly in an emergency, except when he was in his shelter and farming skills for SE. So he had a lot of time to just collect materials, craft, and explore.

'I love it out here… though, it would be nice to have a good bed. And salt.'

— — —

Around midnight, his mana was around seventy-five percent filled, and he glided back to the ambushing goblins' camp.

Even at night, the foliage blocked their thermal signal and most of their iridescent mana vapor. He could only spot one goblin moving around near the entrance of the cave. So he landed away from the camp and started to silently creep towards it.

As he got closer, he saw four goblins sleeping with their backs against trees. He assumed that these were the ones who climbed them for ambushes.

'Either the ones I killed earlier were not the ambushers, or they were, and these are new; just how many live here?… They are smarter than I thought, still dumb as fuck…'

While they slept, he got closer to one, lined up his dagger, and stabbed it in the throat. It would bleed out soon enough. Unfortunately, it went crazy before dying; it could not scream, as it only managed to drown faster, but it could lash out and make a lot of noise.

Not unexpectedly, but still surprisingly, the other three goblins climbed the trees in record time like bears on meth, screaming and alerting the rest of their camp as they did.

One of them decided to jump on top of Aizel, giving him leverage to kill it with a single swing of his paddle. Suddenly, one of the goblins threw a net at him. Aizel dodged it without much trouble. It was nicely crafted, unlike the rest of the things they had, so he assumed they must have stolen it from somewhere, like the daggers.

A wooden spear landed dangerously close to him with surprising strength. It looked roughly carved, so this one was probably made by them, but even with its rough construction, it still managed to bury itself in the dirt.

Aizel took the spear and threw it back at the goblin, missing by a lot. 'I've never been much of a thrower. However, give me a bow…'

Three more goblins were coming from within the cave. They were fast runners, but away from the clearing, Aizel had the cover of night. He led them deeper in the forest, downwind. Killing two without problem or much mana expenditure just by waiting behind trees.

The third one, however, was of the smarter kind with night vision.

—

Glowing eyes stared at each other; one pair belonged to the smaller creature, filled with bloodlust and ready to strike. The other pair belonged to a taller horned creature, filled with indifference.

The goblin slashed at the Were-Dragon’s legs, but with minimal movements, it evaded every attack. It jumped and stabbed, but again, the scaled one just shifted its body out of the blade’s path. Almost as if it could see where the goblin would slash before it did.

—

More goblins were coming from within the cave, so Aizel decided to finish their little dance. Suddenly, his large tail waved itself at the goblin’s leg, then it pulled. Before the creature could react, its neck was slashed open, and black blood started to taint the forest floor.

Two more goblins with glowing eyes reached the drowning goblin on the floor. A deafening roar, followed by a bright light, took one of them before it could see where it came from. Then another lightning bolt briefly illuminated the forest, killing the second one.

Aizel went and looked around, waiting for more goblins to come for him, but none did. After collecting the rusty dagger from the one with night-vision, he went back to explore the cave. No more goblins were waiting in the trees, but unlike last time, the cave was illuminated from within. Long shadows coming from torches betrayed movement from inside the cave.

'The goblin with night-vision did seem smarter; I just did not expect, making fire levels of smart from these creatures.'

As he entered the cave. A strong smell of blood and shit assaulted him. There was a strong draft coming from outside; he assumed that was the reason this reek could not be smelled by him before.

While he walked inside, he kept glancing back in case of an ambush or if the cave had adjacent passages where goblins could hide. He walked slowly and with a low stance, ready to run at a moment's notice.

Once he reached deep inside the cave, it opened up into a ravine where he could see the sky. Only a little light made it into the cave because the forest still grew on top of the opening.

On the opposite side of the cave, a goblin was waiting with a small dagger in hand; it also had the shine behind the eyes typical of creatures with night vision. To the sides, he could see two other goblins hiding on a higher level of the ravine. They blended perfectly with the shadows and rocks, but they glowed like flares to him; the coldness of the cave contrasted perfectly with their warm-blooded bodies, and even if they did not sweat that much mana, he could still see it from this close.

One of them threw a spear at him. Aizel dodged it and immediately released a (Lightning bolt) towards the one with the dagger. The other goblin jumped down and sprinted towards him while its partner threw spear after spear towards Aizel.

He managed to evade the spears and grabbed one as he walked backwards while evading the rampaging goblin at his front. He was about to try to blind it when he suddenly hit something with his back.

"Baby dragon. Yum!" A deep voice resounded like a growl.

Aizel turned; a creature that was a head taller than a goblin was just staring at him while licking its lips. It was a lighter shade of green, had glowing eyes like a cat, and had shoulder pads made from leather too small for its large frame, strapped with more leather in an X pattern over its chest. It also wore a cape or some kind of hood for a skirt, which did nothing to hide its massive erection, lifting it like a tent.

'Ew…'

Before he could finish processing what he was seeing, a wooden spear took him in the back. His scales took the hit, but that was enough of a distraction for the tall creature to take a swing at him with a massive wooden club.

He blocked with his forearm, but the force almost broke it.

〔 HP: 120/120 ► 118/120 〕

What broke were his scales; some of them broke off and were sent flying. The creature wound up for another swing, but Aizel released a (Lightning bolt) before it could strike.

Aizel turned around immediately and finished off the goblin behind him with another (Lightning bolt). His mana was running low, and the tall one had recovered from his previous strike.

He moved around it, placing it in between the spear-throwing one to block its view. Slowly, Aizel backed away, trying to run out of the cave.

'Hobgoblin… Fucking gorilla strength it has'

A spear struck the stunned hobgoblin in the back. It roared as it lodged itself in its back. It turned around and picked up a spear from the floor and threw it at the goblin. Impaling it in the stomach.

Aizel took the chance and released another (Lightning bolt) at it, making sure it went through its brain.

The lightning illuminated the cave, but the creature’s skin was even tougher than a goblin's, making for a dam good insulator; it was only stunned while the skill was active, and only looked angrier.

'Fuck that!'

He turned and started running out of the cave before the hobgoblin could recover. He managed to reach the outside, but the creature caught up to him and kicked his legs.

Aizel was sent flying into the dirt face-first. He tried to materialize his wings, but before he could even finish the thought, the hobgoblin was already before him.

Using (Focus), he managed to dodge and move around, but the hobgoblin was relentless. It struck and kicked at Aizel, forcing him to evade. He ducked and weaved under its arms. Sending a few strikes of his own, but the hobgoblin was not only tough, but it was also dense and heavy. Even if it was a bit smaller than Aizel, it was in a completely different weight division.

Aizel released (Lightning bolt) after (Lightning bolt). But the creature seemed to have developed a tolerance for it, because each time it recovered faster.

His MP was nearing zero points; he could no longer use a strong (Lightning bolt), so he used his remaining mana to maintain bursts of (Focus).

Aizel kicked it with all his might in its right side, where its liver should be. It felt more like hitting a padded wall than an actual living being. Before it could grab his leg, he pulled it away and launched a right hook that hit it perfectly in the chin, but it took it as if it was nothing.

The hobgoblin got into a low stance and managed to sneak a tackle into Aizel’s solar plexus, taking the air out of his lungs and sending him flying into the dirt.

Aizel dematerialized his tail and horns, using the mana that returned to him to shoot one last (Lightning bolt) at it. He continued to cast it, draining his mana. It did nothing at first, but the higher energy and constant assault were finally breaking through.

He dematerialized the scales in his arms and legs and kept the (Lightning bolt) active, pushing more and more mana into it. The hobgoblin’s legs locked, but it kept standing and roaring.

"Die! You green scrotum-faced bitch!"

〔 Notice: Advanced usage detected.

► Basic Active Skill (Lightning bolt) evolved.

► Advanced Active Skill (Discharge) acquired. 〕

As a last resort, he dematerialized everything, pushing all of his remaining mana into the skill.

〔 MP: 0 〕

His Magic points hit zero; his pool was completely drained. He was back to being a human; the only thing that betrayed his nature was two large scales over his shoulder blades, two smaller ones at the sides of his forehead, two more over his wrists, and a last one on his lower back.

Still, he kept pushing; the skill did not deactivate after his MP hit zero. And the hobgoblin, even if it was twitching, was still standing. Not questioning the how's or why's, he kept pushing all of his energy into the skill.

Suddenly, something changed.

The white and blue lightning turned vivid red with a white core. It also became stronger, illuminating the forest like an angry rescue flare. It roared as if a whole power plant was struck by a continuous lightning strike.

HP: 118/120 ► 91/120

Aizel’s HP was decreasing. The only time it had gone down was when the hobgoblin almost broke his arm, but he kept pushing.

HP: 91/120 ► HP: 79/120

With the last push, the red (Discharge) exploded the head, right arm, and part of the back of the hobgoblin.

〔 Notice:

Level: 3 ► 4 | SE: 0 ► 1 〕

Aizel fell on his ass, tired out of his mind and without any MP, or any of his Draconian features materialized. Thankfully, his other racial traits did not depend on MP and were still active. The forest had gone quiet; he could not see any animals besides some insects around. He waited in silence for a moment in case there were more goblins.

With no more creatures coming after him, he went back inside the cave to rest. He did not have any mana left to fly back to his shelter, and was exhausted and even feeling lethargic.

Health Points were even slower than mana to recharge. Taking 10 minutes just to regain 1. The rate was the same as Soul Energy, which gave him either 10 MP or 1 HP. He eventually remembered that he had an extra SE point, so he added it to his HP.

He felt some relief from that, but nothing significant. But that gave him an Idea. He converted the 10 MP he had recovered into SE and then assigned it to his HP.

The next hours were filled with him moving his points around once he got enough MP back to make the conversion. But once he went past 100 HP, there was no change; he was still tired, just not passing-out levels of tiredness. He stood up and began looting the cave.

The natural string he had was handy, thanks to the net they tried to trap him with earlier, and a spear; he managed to get some stuff. A cooking pot that had not been used in quite some time, some spears, the large club that was even denser than his new paddle bat, a couple of daggers, and a lot of bones that had been sharpened; he was not about to question their origin and just took them.

While he walked back, he kept moving his points around; his HP was lagging behind, and two points were not recovering, even with time. The pain in his forearm reminded him that he had lost two points when the hobgoblin struck him there. Looking at his forearm, he saw that it was quite bruised, already looking purple.

'I guess it's time to learn a healing skill…'

He had thought about doing it before, but he was not going to mutilate himself without the certainty of acquiring a healing skill.

After a couple of hours walking, he gave up; he had underestimated how deep into the forest he was.

‘Flying just makes everything look so close…’

Leaving his MP max points with just enough for his flight form and some leeway for getting into his shelter, he sat by a tree and rested. Waiting for his points to get back up. Falling asleep as the sun started to rise on the horizon.

— — —

He woke up to the afternoon sun of his seventh day on Geas. His HP had gained a point, but was still one short of being full. Looking at his arm, it was clearly bruised, but it did not hurt as much as a broken bone; at worst, it was chipped, but he doubted that.

With enough MP for a quick test. He decided to try to heal his arm. Using (Infuse) to coat his forearm with mana, he started to focus on what "healing" meant. He saw with his mind how the body worked: the blood vessels and veins, the layers of skin and fat, how the bones inside the forearm should look, how the nerves carried his will through electrical impulses, the cells, the proteins. Aizel even added some (Discharge), to visualize his insides as he did the goblins. Imagining what it would look like to witness the damage healing as if one were to play a gore video in reverse.

〔 System: Active Skill (Heal) acquired. 〕

〔 Notice: Advanced knowledge detected.

► Basic Active Skill (Heal) evolved.

► Advanced Active Skill (Mend) acquired. 〕

〔 Notice: Superior knowledge detected.

► Advanced Active Active Skill (Mend) evolved.

► Superior Active Skill (Restore) acquired. 〕

Suddenly, the little mana he had recovered rushed out of him, his HP returned to full, and his arm was back to top shape. He also felt rested, as if he had just woken up from a long rest in a cozy bed instead of the short nap on the hard floor of the forest.

Filled with energy and motivated to have a new skill to milk for SE, he continued walking South towards his shelter.

'I need to see what the fuck that red lightning was… It could come in handy.'