The smoke filling my lungs was a lullaby soothing my worries and fears. Everything would be alright we could make this trip; I would become an official slave of Od, I'd get a new pill furnace out of it, and a sweet job as a librarian at the Low port's Black Moon cadette branch. I wasn't worried about a thing my future was stable. Unfortunately, my fears were mad ogres on meth. They didn't give a fuck.

LOL lv3; passive; +3CHA/WIS

I covered my mouth, as laughter wracked my lungs. My grin threatened to split my lips. I could clearly sense the presence of several squads of armed and armored goblins. They had scouts in the trees armed with bows. Some moved in the distance mounted on wargs.

At the distance of 1km, my In Sight could show me the details of a warg in HD. Wargs were wolves with the bone structure of ponies. They were thick, tall, and quiet. Their snouts were thick with rippling muscle only overshadowed by the musculature of their jaws. They could yip quietly sending signals to others of their pack to set up their ambush. They moved independently of their riders making decisions and altering their formation. It was difficult to tell who was really in charge the goblins or the wargs.

In Sight lv40; passive; +20INT/PER

I was back to myself riding thunder down a washed-out dirt road. There hadn't been any rain lately but whole sections of the dirt road were washed out. Up ahead, I could hear the rush of water. Thunder continued to gallop like a champ barely keeping op with Od. We couldn't have been traveling for more than six hours. Was that right? Could we turn around and return to the homestead if we sprinted?

"Keep looking ahead, don't worry about the goblins. Did you notice their wearing collars?" Her voice carried despite the sound pollution from the hooves.

"No, I should have. Why are they here? Your far beyond their level. Why would they target you?" I asked.

"Who said I was the target? This may be where we part ways. For what it's worth I'm sorry." Od said. We continued to travel for ten minutes before we came upon a barricade.

Seven flags stood up each blue and bearing the insignia of a white rose. These flags stood upon pavilions made of wood blocking the road. Along with the pavilions were wooden towers manned by goblins. These towers no larger than 5ft tall were manned by goblins armed with bows. On either side of the fortification were warg Calvary. Behind the small pavilions was a large one. On the hill the towers defended. On this pavilion was a white rose on a blue field embroidered with gold.

"Don't let the appearance fool you. The talismans wrapped with the wood protects it from Dao." Od said. My eyes narrowed on the details I hadn't noticed. There were small bone figures wrapped around parts of the wooden fortification. To my In Sight they glowed with qi. Each of the talismans had a BP of 1000 or higher. Together they had millions of BP protecting the wooden fortification. Against Od, that should be useless. Her power was clearly in the hundreds of billions.

Then my eyes caught another 3. My In Sight buzzed with the ferocity of a thousand suns. They were centaurs. Each large and heavily muscled. They each bared a resemblance to the other. "They are of the Chu clan. They are at the core formation stage." Od said.

"What does this mean? Why go to all this trouble?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious. I forget you are a delicate flower. Almost as delicate as the Chu themselves." Od said and chuckled. I rolled my eyes at her words.

"They have two goals either are fortunate in their eyes. Can you not put that mind of yours to work and guess or is it that you refuse to see reality?" Od asked. She looked at me and I stared deeply at her face.

"Their first objective is to **** you. Their going to use their cultivation levels to match yours, hold you down, and take turns until one succeeds in mounting you for the allotted time. If I were to guess their secondary objective is to kill me. If they fail to mount you, then they will have more opportunities if you're forced to search for another human to enslave." I finished. I hadn't wanted to say it. "If anything, the wargs are over kill. I'm sure one goblin is more than enough to kill an unarmed naked human. How did they figure out you captured me?"

She blinked at me slowly. "Goblin slaves love to gossip. You didn't see any of mine. I kept them working in the farther fields and in their barracks at night. It didn't stop them from getting word out. These three have wanted me since I joined the sect." Od said. "I want you to flee as best you can. Once I take care of the Chu, I will find you." Od said.

Od leapt in the air and took off. Her body turned into a beam of light and vanished. Three beams of light from the Large pavilion followed her. In reality. they didn't turn into light; their bodies were moving at incredible speeds. It was like an invisible giant grabbed them and hurled them in a direction.

I turned and kicked Thunder to a full gallop. All around me wargs launched themselves in a full charge. They gained on me in those few precious seconds. I heard the twang of bows and felt my back get impaled. One, five, and twelve lodged in my back in the first volley. Blood flowed from my back as more struck me. The pain was unimaginable. It was only luck that kept the arrows from hitting Thunder. If Thunder went down, then there was nothing I could do.

Pain resistance lv20; passive; +20CON/END

Hot sticky blood flowed down my back and covered Thunder's rump. Even as Thunder sped away the trail of blood was easy to follow. My left hand gripped the saddle as my right reached up and pulled an arrow out. Unimaginable pain shook my body as Thunder's pounding hooves and shaky body made me tassel the arrow before yanking it out. A hunk of meat covered the barbed tip of the arrow.

I sucked in smoke feeling the wound on my back heal up. From dozens of meters away another arrow and struck my back in the same place. My head fell forward and Thunder's neck broke my nose. Blood flowed down from my nose and ran down my beard making a sticky coppery mess. Knowledge that those goblins could kill me at any time was worse than the injuries. This was just a game to them.

-5000HP

My health shot down to zero and the spiritual energy from the pipe restored me. I needed more power. If I were stronger then these goblins couldn't defeat me. They couldn't do this to me. Wishful thinking, I knew they had planned this. These goblins probably hunted guys like me for sport.

I wasn't going to make it six hours the other way. They would kill Thunder if I got close. But they were also giving me time before they hunted. That was their mistake. Taking a massive drag of my pipe, I let both hands off the saddle and unleashed wyrmling. Instead of a dragon from my hands unleashed the equivalent of a baby dragon's breath. It was boosted by my mana. In the blink of an eye I drained all my mana away and I was lucky Thunder didn't buck me. The area around us was on fire and the wind was blowing from the south. The fire wasted no time jumping from tree to tree and growing. The goblins started rounding around the burning wood after us.

I sucked in a breath and turned Thunder around again. The flames had devoured the trees and risen into massive columns of inferno. These trees had been around for centuries. Their age and spiritual power had made them beacons of cultivation for the forest creatures. Now they were on the verge of death and all the creatures within would join them.

Dao Skill Level UP: Wyrmling lv250; active cost 250MP; +25INT/WIS

Wisdom has surpassed the milestone 50

Power skill discovered; Plan Establishment lv5; passive; +50WIS

Wisdom has surpassed the milestone 100

Next milestone 1000

Power skill discovered: KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) lv1; passive; +10WIS

I stopped Thunder and took another breath from my pipe. I topped it off with some more herb and sucked it dry. I added more from the bag. Od really did give me the nicest gifts. Wyrmling was growing stronger at an unprecedented level. All because, I continued to hold my connection to the Dao. Everything burned by the dragon flame counted as food for the wyrmling within me. Big and small monsters were dying from the forest fire. Wyrmling was still growing in power and with it, I too grew in power.

Keep it simple stupid was my new favorite skill. All I had to do was simplify my plan. Well in my plan establishment phase, I knew that the wind was blowing out of the south. I also knew that when I started the forest fire the warg riding goblins would try to head me off. They were almost on me. When they got here, I would lead them through the dragon fire.

A massive bat the size of a horse fell not 20 meters from me. It burned and shrieked out in pain. It was palace establishment and was burned to death in its sleep. Many more monsters fell nourishing my wyrmling Dao. Each was another bit of xp towards the next bottleneck.

Wyrmling lv499; active cost 499mp; +49.9INT/WIS

I could feel the flames even as they burnt away at the bat. The bat's tenacity was amazing. It at its weakest in the middle of the day. The bat wasn't exactly fireproof. Worst of all it was caught off guard. I raised a hand feeling the flames fight against the bat's qi. The flames wanted to devour the bat whole and use its qi to further fan the flames. If I wasn't controlling the fire, it might have developed a mind of its own. I closed my hands directing my mana to the flames fighting against the bat's palace formation qi. The flames spiked and multiplied forming a shell around the bat like the wyrmling egg. Then the egg shrunk down on itself.

Compress lv20; passive; +100INT/PER

The flames shattered the qi barrier around the bat and dove into its qi. The bat quickly went up in flames dying to the fire. With the bat's death, I felt a release in pressure.

Wyrmling lv500; active cost 500, +50INT/WIS

This was my power. For the first time, I could feel the raw mana in my body and how it interacted with the rest of me. It was chaos. Only the dragon inside my body followed any logic. It remained in my body draining mana and through it I manipulated the flames burning the forest. Its clawed talon left my body. Not as a fiery illusion of a dragon but a solid creature made of ash and flame. All together it was far more substantial than it had ever been.

Its talon gripped the arrow shafts one by one. Instead of burning the wooden arrow shafts it plucked them out. With the ash it had gained from burning hundreds of monsters to death, it formed its scales. One by one it ripped out the arrows and I felt my health return in full.

With the arrows gone, I kicked Thunder and we charged into the inferno. Just before Thunder would have burned, I moved the flames and hot ash aside. We charged through into the heart of the forest fire.

We broke out of the flame just in front of the barricade. The forest fire grew at a constant rate far out of my control. The wargs and goblins had long since fled abandoning their mission to slay me. An arrow whizzed by and I pulled Thunder's reins dodging the ambush. My In Sight flickered and I saw the skeleton crew of goblins that manned the fort.

Most of the forest fire hadn't hit this area yet because of the tree cut down to build the barricade. I had to destroy this barricade if I wanted to keep moving forward. I could sense that 90% of the wargs were behind me. If I could get past this barricade there was nothing stopping me from reaching Low Port.

How did I know? I didn't my In Sight had been fooled before. In the saddle, I held up the triangle sign that began to Wyrmling Dao. From my body a dragon emerged. It was easily 12meters long from snout to tail. Its body was made of flames and ashes. Its wings were transparent as smoke and its eyes were burning pits. The dragon roared and the forest fire rose higher and hotter. The dragon ascended with the rising heat, it glided with its wings of smoke.

Fully manifested, the dragon took with it my control over fire. All along the fire belonged to the dragon and it merely lent me power in exchange for mana. With the forest fire the dragon had all the power it needed. The fire from the forest rose up and flew to the dragon. Not a spark remained in the forest or heat in the ash. Only blackened trees and the skeletal corpses of monsters could be seen from the once lush forest.

The fire condensed into a ball and the dragon consumed it. The goblins were no longer focused on me. They fired on the dragon their arrows turned to ash before hitting the dragon. I felt weakened without the presence of the dragon. Even as it flew above most of my mana flew up to the gluttonous beast. Even as it absorbed the lives of the forest creatures and the its own dragon flame, it sucked me dry.

The flames within the dragon turned white and it opened it mouth directing it at the barrier. A beam of peerless energy burst from its mouth. The beam slammed into the barricade before moving from side to side in several long passes.

When the flames hit the barricade the talismans lite up before cracking and exploding. The barricade burst into flames and the goblins quickly joined their structure in burning. The flags caught fire leaving only the large pavilion untouched. The dragon roared and looked to be on the verge of flying off. Then it looked down on me. I met the dragon's gaze. This was its chance to be free of me. What was it waiting for?

The dragon hurled itself down and slammed into my body. It threw me from the saddle, and I landed in the burnt grass. From the dragon, I sensed a feeling of home territory. It saw my body as its cave. Why would it leave its own territory? I snorted and picked myself up. Thunder and I made our way around the burned down barricade.

The sounds of crackling wood were deafening, and a cloud of ash was ready to pass through with the southern wind. If we didn't make this quick, we would be caught in it. I ran into the head pavilion and found multiple bags of spiritual herbs and a few flying swords. They didn't look like anything special, but their quality was much higher than anything I had. On a desk was a glowing pill slowly changing color. I grabbed it as well and made a break for it with thunder north as ash began to cover the forest.