Without the presence of the sun, I cannot tell how much time has passed since I am reborn in this body. Heck, I do not even know if this world has the same day length as Earth's.
To make everything worse, my body seems to not take a rest at all no matter how much I tried to sleep, which means I cannot use my internal body clock to calculate the passage of time.
Personally though, it might be about an entire Earth day has passed since waking up. Also, it has been several hours since I encountered that dragon.
Speaking of the dragon, it scares the shit out of me. But my fears do not stop me from getting a taste of it sometime. Since that encounter, I have been hunting monsters for quite a long time and, as expected, my power has drastically increased.
During that time, I fought several kinds of monsters. Aside from those dragon-likes and the gryphon, I annihilated an army of gigantic tarantulas led by something like a massive queen. Of course, they give me the ability to shoot thick and flexible yet durable webs, allowing me to set effective crowd control on my targets.
Another insect monster, a mantis, had tried to ambush me but I was faster than it, so I was able to burn it. Now, I got razor sharp blades, keener and better senses, more insane movement and mental speed, and powerful hind legs to my arsenal.
I acquired the ability to turn my body into a highly magic-resistant stone from a grotesque winged demon-like monster I assume to be a gargoyle. But I have a strong feeling that the body of that massive golem from before is better than the gargoyle's. It is one of my goals alongside that powerful dragon.
While experimenting with my body, I discover that I can activate some of my abilities without transforming my full or a part of my body into that specific monster. Those abilities are just blended in my body seamlessly, but there are limits.
For example, I can apply the magic resistant properties of a gargoyle to my wooden exterior, but it requires me to change my body into the stony skin if I wanted to receive less physical damage.
By the way, my skin is actually flesh with the appearance and texture of a wood. My mimic body actually less tough than a wood. That was when in my early hours. Currently, my base body is able to tank a tail whip of a drake.
Overtime, I have cracked open countless magic crystals to absorb their power and gain numerous abilities from their body. I am definitely getting a lot more powerful every hour.
I might be able to fight that golem with difficulty, but I know that I am still not enough to take down that dragon. It is just on the other level. That might be the reason why it is in that special room and the dragon is probably the boss of this place or something.
Now that I think about it, sheer power is not the only factor on who is more powerful between us. I absolutely need to hone my skills and master my abilities to its full potential.
Although I have many abilities, none of them are actually flashy or destructive. They are just a tickle to that dragon. That's why I have been looking for a creature possessing abilities with high damage output. I have been looking so far that I ended up facing a large dragon.
(This one is huge.)
Hovering midair in my gryphon form a few hundred meters away, I am sternly looking at a dragon that is in the middle of its meal on the surface, which is a small wyvern. Dragons in general have keen senses and yet it does not notice me.
It is thanks to the mantis's natural stealthfulness. It is not like I blend to my surroundings, my presence has been impressively unnoticeable. The gryphons wings are also surprisingly silent, gonna give credits to that.
The dragon is huge, around thirty meters from snout to the tip of the tail, but it is not as big as that dragon. It has crimson red scales, which is brighter than that dragon's deep red or carmine shade.
This dragon is a good benchmark to test how powerful I have become. This may be a key to defeating that dragon. Actually, no, their gap is just too vast. But this dragon could help me at least defeat that golem, if I ever came across it again.
For any of that to happen, I need to take down this dragon first. While it is still busy eating, I prepare myself to my full power, including making my talons as sharp as the mantis's blades.
I finally flap my wings as powerful as I can, bursting myself toward the dragon at supersonic speed. My talons are ready to take the target's neck.
Whish. BOOM!
My body cut through the air and the sound barrier, generating a power and loud sonic boom followed by a shockwave. At this speed, I close the gap between us in just less than a second.
"!!?"
Alerted by the sound, the dragon quickly reacts to my sneak attack and immediately ducks as soon as my claws are about to reach its nape, barely dodging it. I am quite impressed by its reaction time.
I take a U-turn and charge at the dragon once more. The dragon has turned around to face me. Even though it is a lot bigger than I am, I still push myself to launch another attack again.
Whoosh.
VHOOSH.
In response, the dragon fires out a flamethrower. But it is nearly ineffective on me due to my magic-resistant body and I just pass it like walking through fog. Since it is occupied, my talons successfully land on its back, force my claws to pierce its durable scales, and penetrate them into its flesh.
"GRRAW!!"
The dragon growls loudly in pain and moves its body frantically to fend me off. With its long neck, the dragon turns its head before snapping its mouth and it manages to take a bite of one of my legs, burying its teeth into my body.
(AHH! It hurts!)
The dragon abruptly pulls his head and throws me off the floor. I quickly get up and check on my injuries. The wound is deep, but I have to be more mindful of the dragon. Fortunately, I got this amazing ability from a huge slime that allows me to heal my body passively at an incredible rate. My wounds have closed in less than ten seconds.
(This dragon... I have to admit that it's strong.)
But for some reasons, why am I so happy to face it? My god. My monstrous body must have been influencing my mind. There is no going back, I need to survive this obstacle to survive further. My previous life is full of running away from responsibilities and I have to end it right now.
"GGRRRW!"
When the dragon charges, I make my counterattack.