Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

This new form I was using was more agile than the wolf form, at least in close distances. While the wolf form was good for running long distances, if I wanted to twist and change directions this form was better. Although there was still discomfort while using them, as if I was wearing a too tight swimsuit, but I digress.

While I was returning, I saw two people in the distance. One was a soldier with a bow on his back while the other one looked like a butler. Why would a butler be looking for a wolf with a soldier? I asked myself as I observed them. The soldier was analysing the corpse and the surrounding areas, while the butler looked like he would hit his head on a tree from anger.

They started talking, but I couldn't understand a single word they were saying, until I suddenly could. What? What the hell? How can I…

[Download of common Humania language has been completed]

My mind blanks for a second as I process both the information I just received of the language and the voice of both the announcer and [Knowledge Library]. After a few seconds where I just stared at nothing, I resumed looking at the soldier and butler.

So, that's why it took so long for [Knowledge Library] to download from wherever. I just got the entire language crammed inside my head and now, judging by the level of the skill, I could even give lessons on the language I thought.

"Huh? Where does the second wolf come from?" The butler asked. Huh, so they were discussing the fight? But how do they know there's a second wolf, aka me?

"Exactly! It doesn't make any sense! Where is the creature that killed this wolf? And where does the second one come from?" The soldiers said. Oh, so they don't know that it was a dragon that killed the wolf? That's good, the last thing I want is to have a bunch of people looking for "the small white dragon" and trying to tame me. The best part is that they didn't consider the option I can shapeshift, and honestly why would they? Oh, yeah, magic and all that.

"Let's go back to camp and sleep. Now that the wolf we attacked is dead, we can rest and look for this second wolf tomorrow" The butler said, looking dejected. Both of them then got up and started moving.

I was going to ignore them and continue, but then I remembered that the last time I was at their camp I was dragged there while knocked out, and then I escaped to another area of the forest, so I actually didn't know where their camp was, so I had to follow them.

I sighed. I could be easily discovered if I wasn't careful when following them, but I wouldn't let this get in the way. So I started following them from a dozen meters out, moving next to the ground while trying to be sneaky, avoiding broken branches that were on the ground and not moving inside bushes to avoid shaking it and making noise.

Then they stopped in the middle of the forest and looked around. Weird I thought, but then I started getting uneasy, as if something was going to happen. I took a few steps back, and I was glad I did, because the moment I backed away, an arrow hit where my head was a moment ago, startling the hell out of me. I ran behind a tree and pulled [Spell Planner], making a few earth spells and casting them, making the ground beneath me open up and then close again, leaving me inside with a pocket of air.

My heart was beating wildly inside my chest, even when I fought against the Lunaspectra Wolf did my heart beat so wildly. If I were to guess, as I was technically an Earthclaw Weasel at the moment, this survival instinct was engraved on my DNA, and that's why my heart seemed like it was going to explode and my breathing was ragged.

It took me a few minutes to recover from whatever state I was in, even opening a hole in the dirt so I could breathe better.

"If I were to rank the species, this would be low on the list, really" I said to myself after climbing out of the hole I had made.

Looking around, I had lost both of them while I was in the hole having what could only be described as a physical panic attack, because it was only my body that was in a panic state, my mind was as clear as a sunny day. I sighed. It seemed like I would have to track them, instead of following. What a great thing that I tracked things like this when I was a child…except not. How the hell would I track them?

With a shrug and a sigh, I walked where I had last seen them and started looking at the ground, trying to see if I could find their footsteps as this is the only thing I knew about tracking something. And to my surprise there were clear marks of shoes in the dirt. I was not expecting that, even more so that I didn't leave footprints on the dirt, maybe I was too light? I don't know.

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Anyway, the footsteps were clear enough that I had to concentrate a little to be able to follow them, but at the same time were light enough that I could just as easily lose track of them, so I had to follow them very carefully. Even more because I knew that the archer guy could spot me even underneath some bushes and a dozen meters away from him. I was honestly hoping that I wouldn't find him just waiting for me with an arrow in his bow aiming at me, and thankfully that wasn't the case.

After, I think it was, about two hours I found something weird. I was pretty sure it was the camp, but I was not certain. It looked like a bunch of white rocks with some distance between them, there was… something, moving around it slowly, I honestly couldn't make head or tails of what I was seeing. From the pattern I knew they were the soldiers patrolling the area from the time I was in the cage inside the camp.

Oh well, let's keep moving and avoiding the patrolling guards. I thought and started to crawl towards the camp while I avoided the patrolling guards. Eventually, when I thought I had made it I noticed I was back inside the forest and looking behind me was the camp again.

"What the…?" I said with confusion.

I tried to turn back and go again, but I ended up again looking at the forest with the camp behind me…

"Anti-monster field, of course. If they have anti-magic cages, of course they would have anti-monster fields to protect from monsters inside a forest. Does that mean I am actually a monster? Or does it mean that I, with the weasel body, am a monster? Thoughts for later, now I need to find a way to enter the camp" I said to myself.

Looking at the rock formation and the… things moving around I wondered why I hadn't noticed it earlier. The reason why the camp looked like a bunch of rocks and the soldiers were eldritch abominations was that the anti-monster field was probably messing with my perception of the place, like a perception filter.

That's it! I thought. If the anti-monster field was acting like a perception filter and I already knew where it was, I just needed to not rely on my senses. As I was thinking about going underneath the earth and just digging straight and then popping back onto the surface, I thought about something better.

What's the distance and the direction of the camp? I used [Knowledge Library] and it answered.

[The temporary military camp of the Darnas household is currently 54 meters southwest]

A grin formed on my lips. If I couldn't trust my senses, then I would just cheat and use my skills and follow them. I started walking.

[The temporary military camp of the Darnas household is currently 52 meters southwest]

I kept walking.

[The temporary military camp of the Darnas household is currently 50 meters southwest]

And walking.

[The temporary military camp of the Darnas household is currently 51 meters east-southwest]

I stopped, turned slightly to the right, stepped forwards and asked again.

[The temporary military camp of the Darnas household is currently 49 meters southwest]

I grinned again and started walking again. Sometimes I had to correct my heading and sometimes I had to hide beneath the dirt. I made a hole and then hid myself in it, when a soldier got too close. Eventually I made it past the field effect and I could see the camp properly.

I used my small body and the fact that the soldiers wouldn't think that a creature had made inside their camp with the anti-monster field active to hide myself in plain sight by walking next to the tents and staying still if there's a person near me.

One thing that I hadn't noticed before was that there weren't only humans here, I saw various cat and dog persons walking around. Unfortunately the human helmet covered the ears, so I couldn't see if there were any elves as well. I snickered as I thought about something I find funny, a person is both a human and an elf existing in a superposition state until somebody looks at their ears beneath their helmets, collapsing the probability wave and locking the person in one of those two states, basically the cat of Schrödinger, dead and alive until somebody looks inside the box.

Shaking my head at my own lame joke that I still find funny, I continue moving, looking inside each tent, looking for the one where they keep their supplies. As the camp is not that big, it doesn't take too long and I find myself inside a storage tent. There were stacks and stacks of stacked boxes, with runes written on them. Those runes were way simpler and easier to read than the one inside the cages, though I still couldn't understand them. I could see them. Of course I appraised them and parsed the results through [Knowledge Library]

[Ice Rune]

[Ice Runes are runes that can decrease the temperature of items inside the containers the rune themselves are carved, requiring a significant amount of magicules to decrease the temperature but can keep a constant temperature, even those that are below 0, with a fraction of the amount of magicules used to reduce the temperature]

Oh, so they are basically fantasy fridges. Looks like I found the jackpot. I opened up a few to look inside and found frozen meat, vegetables and fruits inside the fridge-boxes. I picked some of the fruits and a bunch of the meat and went to a corner of the tent. I then used [Spell Planner] to create a small hole in the dirt where I jumped down, closing the entrance but making a few air holes so that I could breathe. Then I expanded the hole sideways, creating a small room. Next I used [Spell Planner] again to make several spells. I knew this would probably strain me, but honestly I wouldn't eat raw meat if I had the chance.

Creating a sphere of rotating air, I placed the meat inside and then created fire next to the rotating air. The air heated up inside the sphere and started to defrost the meat and would eventually fry it. Yes, I had created the magical equivalent of an air fryer, fight me.

While I waited for the meat to cook, I ate the fruits I had picked up.