Lord Evolution: Starting With SS-rank Skills

Dragun was still searching for herbs in the dark hours past midnight when he suddenly began to hear footsteps approaching him from different directions, causing him to frown a little bit and observe his surroundings, but he spotted nothing out of the ordinary.

As he halted to look around, the footsteps ceased all of a sudden.

He also began to feel a faint trace of mana at that moment, as though some mages or monsters with really vigorous mana were surrounding him.

"This is strange," Dragun muttered to himself but kept moving forward without any sort of fear. If it was a monster or a mage, with the faint mana they were releasing, he was sure he would be able to handle them easily.

He strolled a little bit further, and the steps that had halted earlier continued once again.

This time, Dragun didn't bother to stop and continued moving forward until the footsteps around him got closer and louder.

All of a sudden, a smirking figure appeared in front of him, dressed in a robe with a strange insignia embroidered on its chest pocket area that Dragun recognized but couldn't recall where he had seen it before. The insignia was intricate, depicting an intertwined serpent and staff, hinting at an affiliation with a magical institution or guild.

With the pale glow of the moonlight filtering through the tall canopy trees in the area, Dragun was able to observe his features.

It was that of a young man around the age of 18 to 23, he had long black hair that relaxed on his shoulders a little bit and blue eyes that carried a weird sense of happiness in them. He was also wearing a crooked wizard hat that matched the color of his robe. The attire suggested he was a mage-in-training or perhaps a recent graduate from a magic academy.

The smirk on his face was funny, almost like a nervous smile and a cheeky one combined. It was hard to really explain his facial expression.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in this place?" Dragun asked with a frown.

But the young man standing in front of him kept looking at him as though he hadn't just asked a question.

"Do not make me ask again. Who are you?" Dragun kept his hand in his pouch in his pocket and got ready to make the smirking man speak.

The young man remained standing, completely pissing Dragun off.

Dragun stretched out his right hand and chanted a quick spell, a wisp of flame appeared, swirling chaotically in his right hand. The fire illuminated their surroundings, casting flickering shadows on the nearby bushes.

The smirk on the face of the young man quickly ceased as though he suddenly realized that Dragun was a threat.

"Please, I am not an enemy," the young man let out in a language that Dragun couldn't understand.

Dragun suddenly realized that the young man in front of him didn't understand his words earlier.

He called off the fireball and used sign language to communicate with the stranger and inform him he couldn't hear him.

The young man gave a strange look of realization before bringing out a small silver magic slip from his pocket.

Seeing the silver slip, Dragun's face turned cold, and he prepared himself for any spell the silver slip might be hoarding. He assumed he was going to attack and was ready to counterattack and kill him without hesitation if he did attack.

Nevertheless, after he tore the slip, three small soft-looking wisps of light floated out—one of them drifted towards his mouth and floated just a few inches away, while the other two went towards his ears. The wisps settled into places and soft, calm hum filled the air.

After all this was over, the young man looked up at Dragun and said in a calm and somewhat polite voice, "Hi, sorry, I didn't understand what you said earlier. I am not an enemy, please don't attack me!"

This time, his words weren't in an undecipherable language, and Dragun understood him immediately. The language barrier was causing the misunderstanding.

Dragun understood that the silver slip he just used possessed a rare type of sound spell, which could translate any language to one that others could understand and make the strange language of others understandable to the user. It is mostly used by wandering mages who travel around the world and lack the time to learn the language of the places they visit.

He has heard of such spells but rarely saw anyone using it.

"It is okay, I won't attack you unless you make the first move," Dragun replied. "Still, what are you doing here, and who are you?"

"My name is Vishirk. I am here to collect herbs for my school. I didn't mean to step into your territory, please forgive me," Vishirk introduced himself.

"Collect herbs for your school?" Dragun repeated with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, senior. My school is holding our annual potion brewing contest, and the participants have to go into the Dark Forest of the Wishiros to collect their ingredients by themselves," Vish, Vish, Vishirk began to explain, his voice sounding really excited as he explained.

Dragun looked at Vishirk with a confused expression on his face.

Since he is a wanderer and mage who has been traveling around the world for six whole years, his knowledge of the geography of this world is pretty broad.

Wishiros is the name of the country in the Southreach continent, which dominates the south part of the world. Wishiros is a very big country with a lot of large territories like empires, kingdoms, dukedoms, and small territories like villages, including Winterseed.

The Dark Forest, known as the South Forest by the people of Winterseed, is a big landmark in Wishiros, and it serves as a large border for tens of territories.

To move from one end of the forest to the opposite end would take at least two weeks, and based on Vishirk's narration, he has been in the forest for more than two weeks and claimed to be lost.

"Weren't there any sort of guides with you guys while you took the exam?" Dragun asked with a frown.

"There were," Vishirk said, and his expression saddened.

"Did anything happen?" Dragun quickly asked.

But Vish, he didn't answer immediately. His eyes reddened, and tears started streaming down his face, his fists were clenched as he seemed to be recalling some pretty solemn and gruesome memories.

"What could have happened? Did his classmates beat him up and chase him into an unknown part of the forest to steal the ingredients he collected?" Dragun wondered.

Vishirk cried for a few seconds before looking up at Dragun and revealing, "All my schoolmates, and the guides assigned to watch over us during the exam were slaughtered..."

Dragun's eyes widened as he didn't expect such a gruesome story.

"How?" Dragun asked immediately.

Vishirk opened up and told him the full details, describing how they were deep in the forest and two strange dark mages suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began slaughtering everyone without consideration.

He said he was swimming in a river nearby when this took place and was able to escape from the killers by lowering himself in the water, away from their field of sight.

Dragun felt really remorseful for Vish when he heard his story. Vishirk looked so young and had to witness such gruesome deaths.

"The path of magic is gruesome and filled with bloodshed, but these kinds of bloodshed are really stupid and pointless!" Dragun thought inwardly.

Somehow, the dark mages in Vishirk's story made him recall the faces of Xandros and Alister!

"Wait, can you describe the dark mages or the magic they used?" he asked Vishirk immediately.

"They were white haired, one of them could summon monsters, and the other one used darkness and blood magic. Also, they took one of my colleagues without killing him," Vishirk replied while still in tears.

Dragun's eyes widened as he came to a quick realization.

"Alister and Xandros!" he yelled out in pure horror.

Vishirk turned to look at him with a pretty confused expression on his face.

"Sir, are you okay?" Vishirk asked.

Dragun only waved at him without speaking as he fell into deep thoughts.

Dragun aura became a little weak as he turned his back against Vishirk and just stared at the bushes with widened eyes.

The revelation he had just received shocked him to the core, it was like witnessing one's worst nightmare in reality! -read-now

"They are nearby!" Dragun muttered inaudibly.

"If they find out my whereabout! They are going to destroy not only but everyone related to me, just as they did to all the territory they come in contact with!"

"Now that I think of it, that horde attack on that village wasn't a coincidence at all, It was their doing!"