Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

As my body hung from the branch I realized something that I overlooked. I didn't have a reliable source of food anymore. Water? Well, I could use a spell for that, but food? That's a different story. I could eat fruits but I didn't know how long that would last me, as far as I'm aware I needed meat, just like how cats are specifically carnivores. I would need to hunt on my own. At least I had [Spell Planner] to help me with it, because if I had to use my own claws and fangs to do it… yeah, let's not think about it.

I stood laying on the branch for a few minutes as my wings were still sore from gliding. The feeling of soaring through the air, even though it was just gliding through the air, was exhilarating to say the least. I wanted to do it again, but I would get nowhere right now and probably not for a while. My wings felt like they were about to snap while in the air, meaning I was probably still too young to actually fly, just like birds can't fly right out of the egg.

Speaking of which, I never really noticed but for how long have I been alive? I mean in this body. I've been aware of myself for at least a week now, but what about before that? Was I in a nest somewhere? No, better yet, do dragons actually lay eggs? I know that fiction on Earth they do, but do they-

A snap made me look around while I cursed at myself for zoning out while in a forest that held monsters that could easily kill me if I'm not paying attention. Then I saw a lone wolf walking right below me, sniffing the branches that fell on the ground when I broke them while falling.

The wolf had black fur that seemed to shimmer in the moonlight that shone through the trees. White spots seemed to move through its body. I sighed in relief, he wouldn't find anything and move along. I wouldn't need to do anything.

The wolf looked up.

Well, I'll be damned. He actually spotted me in the darkness, though I guess I'm easy enough to spot as I'm basically a white spot in the otherwise black forest.

The wolf stared at me for a few moments before the white spots in his fur I had noticed earlier began moving faster and converging in his forehead. I was confused for a few seconds but my eyes widened when I understood. He was probably charging an attack, and in that case I needed to finish him off before I got finished.

I used my back legs to pull myself from the tree and opened only one of my wings to change my trajectory mid air. I knew I made the right call when a silver beam shot out from the wolf's forehead and passed right where I was a moment ago. The beam cut through the trees behind it like a hot knife cutting through butter.

Before I even reached the ground I pulled up [Spell Planner] and made an electric bullet. The moment my feet touched the ground I shot one directly at the wolf's body. The bullet flew through the air, crackling with electric arcs as it traveled in a straight line. The moment it touched the wolf's body, I expected for it to paralyze him just enough for me to cast another spell, but instead the bullet passed through him like it passed through the air, the wolf's body dissipating as mist as the bullet made a hole through it. I barely had time to register his presence right on my side before a mouth full of teeth bit me on my shoulder.

I roared in pain and tried to attack him with my claws on my other hand, but just like with my bullet, my claws passed through him as if he wasn't there, at the same time the pressure I felt on my shoulder because of the bite vanished, leaving a deep wound.

Without giving me time to recover, he appeared on my other side and clawed my other shoulder, leaving deep laceration on it as well before vanishing again. I had to act fast. I didn't know where the next attack was coming from and wouldn't be fast enough to react.

I pulled [Spell Planner] again, and instead of forming a bullet with electricity, I just made a spell that charged with a high voltage. I was hoping I could make a ball of electricity that would hit him if he got too close.

I immediately charged the spell and, to my surprise, instead of the electricity condensing in a sphere in my hand, it spread through my body. Electricity crackled around my body, arcing from my body and hitting the ground and the trees around me. A yelp from behind me told me I had hit my target, and that he was going to attack me from behind.

I quickly turned around and jumped at the wolf, but he disappeared as mist before I could touch him again. But at least I had used [Appraisal] on him before he disappeared, at the same time I pulled information about his species on [Knowledge Library]

[Lunaspectra Wolf Lv. 12]

[Lunaspectra Wolves are a species of wolves that have evolved to absorb moonlight and use it to create powerful illusions during the night. According to tales, the most powerful Lunaspectra Wolves can conjure illusions so compelling that they have the potential to blur the line between reality and illusion]

Level 12?! I mentally screamed. I was fucked, honestly. I don't know how I would win with 11 levels of disparity between us, and illusions? Yeah, That would explain the turning to mist stuff. No, really, how would I win against this wolf? I couldn't attack him directly and I couldn't react to his attacks. The saving grace right now was that the wolf was apprehensive to approach me while I kept my body covered in electricity.

I looked around, trying to find him, but all I could see was the forest and the blue light coming from my scales being covered in electricity. I needed to find a way to deal with him and quickly. I had 500 MP total, but I had already used 100 MP with the skills I casted, and leaving the electricity armor was a constant drain. I could keep it for a few minutes at best.

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I kept looking around, trying to see anything out of the ordinary. I was even paying attention to the sounds around me, trying to find it by when it walked. That's when I noticed something odd with the light. In a spot directly on my right, in around 5 meters, there was a weirdly shimmering light coming from above, almost as if-!

The wolf absorbed moonlight to power itself, that meant that that shimmer in the moonlight coming from the tree canopies was moonlight being absorbed by the wolf, he was right where the shimmer disappeared on the ground. I had found him.

I began turning my body to face him, as well as keeping my head moving from side to side, trying to make him think I hadn't found him yet. The moment I was facing him I lunged at him. When I got close enough, electricity jumped from me towards him, hitting him square in the chest. The moment he was hit, the invisibility he had vanished as if he was put under a spotlight, his surprised face told me he didn't expect me to find him.

The electric arc that hit him gave me enough time to reach his torso and sink my teeth on it. The wolf gave out a loud yelp in pain, but I wasn't done yet. With one of my front legs I jabbed him in the face, my claws hitting him in one eye and electricity running from my scales through my claw to his eye and directly to his brain.

His body fell on the ground, spasming. I needed to act quickly. I didn't have time to think about the moral implications of what I was about to do, it was me or him. I quickly let go of his torso and jumped on his neck, biting as hard as I could and then pulling my face away, tearing flesh as I did.

The wolf spasmed a few more times before gradually stopping

I panted after my second ever fight in this world, and I had won. I had won. Without the thing that made me pass out against the slime, I had honestly won a fight against a stronger foe. The rush of adrenaline in my system was exhilarating, but I knew it wouldn't last and I couldn't become addicted to it, else I would become a battle maniac.

The taste of blood on my mouth reminded me I was still holding a piece of the wolf's neck in my mouth, but before I could spit it out a hunger I've never felt hit me. I unconsciously knew this hunger wasn't mine, but from my skill [Genetic Dysphoria]. I was about to know what it did.

I let the feeling of hunger guide me and swallowed the meat. I felt it as it passed through my throat and reached my stomach, and then, an energy pulsed from my stomach to the rest of my body.

[Lunaspectra Wolf's genetic code has been added to [Genetic Dysphoria] DNA list]

I immediately pulled my status screen.

I was now level 3 and my attributes really did increase. Though, I was a little worried about how much HP I lost in the fight. I didn't know how I survived, but I did and that's what really mattered.

There was another page on my status screen.

There is was. A DNA list of the wolf I had just killed. I didn't know what my skill could do before, but I now knew. It could store the DNA of the creatures I consumed and I could transform into them whenever I wanted. Though, why it didn't work on the meat the kobolds offered me was still a mystery. Maybe I had to be the one who killed the creature? There were too many questions I couldn't answer yet.

I felt a shift on the magicules covering the wolf after I finished looking at my status. I looked over and saw an illusion over his body dissipating, revealing wounds upon wounds. It was no surprise that I had beaten it, it was so mangled that I was surprised it was even alive. It probably casted an illusion over itself to appear fully healed, probably to intimidate the creature that had done this to him.

I looked at the wounds closer and noticed something. They were too clean to be another creature. Even my fangs and claws didn't leave clean cuts as the ones that covered the wolf's bodies. There was only one thing that could leave such clean wounds on flesh.

"A sword" I said under my breath.