Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

We flew for a few hours before I needed to rest. Farahio didn't seem to be tired whatsoever. We landed near a small river that was half forming into those lakes that look like a horseshoe with a small village in the middle of it with several wooden bridges for them to cross the river in several points. The reason as to why we landed about a kilometer away from the village was because of me, if I approached them too much I would cause too much panic.

After landing Farahio asked me if I could change into the humanoid form I was using before, I answered by just triggering my skill as my body liquefied into the goo-like substance that had saved me from being stabbed through the heart.

"Fascinating" I heard him say as I got up from the ground, removing the remains of the clothes I was wearing and using [Magical Programming Language] to cast an illusion of the same clothes he made me buy. "Indeed, fascinating"

The sun was already starting to set, so we hurried to get into the village, all the way while Farahio asked me a few questions.

"Have you always been a dragon?"

"What else can you transform into?"

"How perfect is the transformation?"

"Does it change your species in your status screen as well?"

I answered his questions because if we were going to stay together on this trip, I might as well reveal a few things about me. In my vision he already proved to be trustworthy, at least while I remain an interesting research subject, although I didn't believe he would betray me after he was done with me, at least he didn't seem like that type of person.

"Wow. Even some of the higher leveled mimics can't actually change their species information in their status screen, that's why the usual way to detect them is to have a high level person with an equal high level [Appraisal] to appraise them. It's actually a safety measure in every kingdom to have the top notch be appraised by several people everyday" He explained.

Eventually we arrived at the village just as the sun was setting. We approached the wooden gate and the guard responsible for guarding it opened it up as we approached, closing it after us with a system of gears moved by the magical equivalent of an electric motor.

"Good afternoon" The guard said to us, approaching after having closed the gate. From the inside I could see and feel various magic engravings in the walls surrounding the village, something I couldn't even detect outside.

"Good afternoon. Do you have any kind of inn? We need to rest for the night" Farahio asked. I took the opportunity while he talked with the guard to observe the village itself.

It wasn't that impressive like Flamecrest, where almost everything was made with smooth stone, probably using magic. Here it felt more like a rural area from the medieval ages, although there were still a few light poles, but instead of the ambient magicules being drawn into them and then into the ground, they just had basic absorption runes that worked only to make the crystal on top of them shine with light. Even the enchantments on the walls were being charged by just a few key points of absorption.

The houses were made using wooden planks but looked sturdier than one would imagine from the same type of house from the medieval age. The smell was a lot more pungent than the city itself, some of them I couldn't even begin to imagine what was producing it.

"Thank you" I heard Farahio saying as he placed his hand on my shoulder and made a gesture for me to follow him. I tried to say something to him but he cut me off saying we would speak inside.

We arrived at an inn that looked like it had seen better days. Farahio rented a room for two, with separate beds, for the night. We entered the room, which wasn't much more than two beds, two chests and a table for two with one small window on the side, and as soon as the door was closed, Farahio casted the silencing spell around the room.

"Just in case" He said, then moved to one of the beds and sat down. "First things first. You said you were human until you were reborn in this world as just a white dragon"

I sat down on the other bed, which was somehow even worse than the one I rented on Flamecrest, and nodded to him.

"I can't believe it" He said with a small smile on his face. "When you die you go through the reincarnation process, at least that's one of the Church of Death's core beliefs. Something even weirder is that from what you said, you must have occupied a developing body, that's how souls are connected to those being born, meaning that there should have been a dragon egg already there. You can't reincarnate on empty air…unless you're a monster? Is that how they sometimes appear from high magicule concentration?"

"I guess. But there wasn't any other dragon where I was born. There wasn't even a proper nest there" I said as I remembered my first moments in this world as I got out of my egg.

"Something isn't adding up" He said, which I could only shrug as I had no idea and [Knowledge Library] wasn't helpful at all. "Anyway. I'll just have to accept what you're saying at face value, even if there's something bugging me about it, but if even you don't know, then there's nothing I can do. I'm not that knowledgeable on time magic"

At that exact moment, I felt the same weird sensation on time. I knew what it was, so my mind was immediately accelerated to the maximum I could. The black clothed person was probably trying to find me, although the sensation was coming from the future instead of the past like last time. If I were to guess, he is trying to find me by looking through the past on where I went.

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Unfortunately I didn't know how to stop him from trying…Or did I? Last time, after I resonated with his skill to be able to reverse his skill and be able to see him time became unstable around that period, but the question was, could I make it unstable enough to stop his spying?

Pulling on the temporal energy around me, I tried to resonate it with the sensation coming from the future, but instead of trying to build upon it, I was trying to directly counter it.

Time vibrated and oscillated as I adjusted how I manipulated it against the guy's skill. I felt as it tried to overpower whatever I was doing, but I kept trying to increase the strength of the block until I felt something deep within me reverberate and infect the local temporal energy, becoming something impossible, something…paradoxical.

I opened my status screen and stared at a specific title I received after I received my name and evolved.

[Living Paradox]

I watched the effect it had on temporal energy. My disruption attempt was absorbing itself before strengthening itself, causing a small paradox to form and creating a local temporal instability that I could feel made time fragile even when I wasn't in my true form but on this one that muted a lot of my magical senses.

I decelerated my mind just in time to hear Farahio asking a question.

"...was that?" He asked, but I didn't manage to hear the first part.

"Sorry, could you repeat?" I asked.

"I asked what was that. It's the second time I felt something wrong that I couldn't put my finger on. The first time was when you threw us in the air, but this time feels different"

"Oh… That guy who had jumped at us when we were escaping was trying to find us by looking into the past, I think. But I caused a small paradox so he can't see"

"...Are you telling me that you can create paradoxes?"

"Huh? Yeah. That's a part of being a Ouroboros Dragon. I can manipulate time. That's how I appeared behind you that moment, by the way. The guy came at me trying to kill me, but I had reverted time just enough so that he hadn't noticed me yet, then used that moment to escape and you know the rest" I explained.

"Wow. That's not even unfair, that's straight up cheating. Doesn't matter" He shook his head. "Now that you're saying we are being tracked through time, we have even less time than I originally thought, though it's nice knowing how Jack managed to catch that many criminals, he was literally spying on them and they were none the wiser."

"Jack?"

"The guy trying to kill you"

"Oh"

"Yeah. But anyway. You aren't strong enough to defend yourself from him, and I'm sorry to say this but I won't involve myself in a fight between the two of you. You're a nice kid, but we technically just met and I'm not going to put my ass on the line for you. Even if you're the most interesting person I met in recent years"

"I understand" I noticed he didn't do anything when I first clashed with this "Jack" guy, so that's the reason.

"Saying that" He continued, making me look at him. "I heard from one of the villagers that there's probably a dungeon near here. That will be the best way for you to level up and to escape from Jack's time spying skill"

"How?" I asked.

"Because it's a dungeon" He said as a matter of fact, but seeing my confused face he explained. "Dungeons are kind of like that expanded space I have on the back of the mage guild, but elevated ad infinitum. Meaning that he can't use any kind of magic or spells to see into the dungeon if the dungeon core doesn't allow it. They are like, their own dimension"

"I don't think I understand"

He shrugged. "You might learn as you enter. Maybe. I don't know. Now, You might want to sleep as I plan for us to leave very early tomorrow"

Farahio then lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. I wish I had the confidence that I wouldn't try to hurt him while he was asleep, or maybe it was confidence that I couldn't hurt him. Maybe, I didn't know.

Lying down as well I closed my eyes, trying and failing to fall asleep quickly as my mind repeated the scene where Jack had pushed his sword against my chest. I still could feel the cold metal inside my chest with the pain that it caused cut short as my nerves melted before they could transmit any pain signal to my brain. I just felt the pressure.

It was close, way too close for comfort. I doubt they would listen to me saying I wasn't a mimic, meaning that I would either vanish so that they wouldn't be able to track me anymore or become strong enough to protect myself. I now had a target on my back, and it made me uneasy as I could feel my life being threatened by Jack with his sword.

I eventually fell asleep and woke up with my heart being pierced again and again by a sword. I even jumped out of bed, casting a fireball as I flew out of it, managing to destroy the magic circuit of the spell before it could destroy the roof of the inn.

Looking around, I found the room empty with only me inside of it. There was a cup and a plate with food on the table, with a paper note right by its side.

Reaching towards the table I picked the note, seeing the weird characters on it before [Humania Language] made me understand it.

"I noticed you needed a couple more hours of sleep. I put a spell on the food so it would be warm when you wake up and the drink to be cold. Signed, Farahio" I read the note out loud before looking at the plate and the cup.

Both were made of wood. The plate had a small piece of meat, some green plant that looked like lettuce and an orange plant that looked like a mixture of corn and rice. The cup had a purple looking liquid that had a weak sweet smell. Looking at the food made my stomach grumble as I hadn't eaten anything since before yesterday.

Just as I finished eating, the door to the room opened revealing Farahio.

"Oh good. You're awake. I took the opportunity to ask around and go take a look at the dungeon. Good news, it's a low level one, probably only recently formed. And here, I bought some clothes for you" He tossed me some used clothes that I caught in the air with my hand. "Sorry about it being used. They don't really have a cloth store here. I used a cleaning spell on it beforehand, so don't worry about it being dirty"

I looked at myself and saw that the illusion spell I used to create my clothes had vanished as I slept, meaning I was naked yet again.

"Once you put your clothes on, meet me at the same gate we entered yesterday. We will go directly to the dungeon. It's only a few hours by foot" He said before closing the door and leaving.

I put on the clothes, finding that my fur would get tangled on the cloth every time I walked, but I unfortunately didn't have anything else to use, so I had to deal with it. Once I had dressed properly, I left the inn walking in the direction of the gate Farahio said he would be waiting