My smaller form was important for two major reasons:

  1 - I could travel with Meebur in a way that didn’t leave unending destruction in my wake.

  2 - It held back much of my magical and physical power so I could discover the extent of my abilities without doing too much damage.

  For example, when I accidentally sighed after realizing worked, the fire I started with my breath was easily stamped out by Meebur.

  I have to get a handle on that skill…

  According to the text box, I still had access to my full strength in my small form (which I decided to call “cute form”), but had to consciously access it. No more accidental forest fires.

  Meebur, though he had never seen a creature like me before, with his long monster history understood immediately the value of my new form. And he also knew that in this form it was safe to take me outside of the forest and to his tamer guild.

  I hadn't been alive in this world long, but I'd spent every day of my new life in these woods. Now that it was nearly time to go, I was actually a little nervous to leave. But that nervousness was quickly thwarted thanks to my skill. The second a tinge of fear crept up my spine, it was like a warm blanket wrapped around me and the fear disappeared.

  I wish I had that skill from the start…

  To double-check that my cute form would keep my powers in check, Meebur took a bit of time to test out a few of my skills. He quickly created a few targets by propping up pieces of his destroyed cottage walls.

  I tried the skill, which was the most basic magic attack skill a monster could learn. A tiny bolt of magical energy formed in front of me, and as the name suggested, shot out towards the target. No memory of being an expert sharpshooter in my past life came to me, so I was pretty surprised with how easily I hit the target. My perception stat was quite high, which I assumed accounted for my accuracy.

  Meebur tested the power of my bite as I used the skill, and I easily broke any piece of wood in half with a single snap of my fangs. And the skill allowed me to do the same with a flick of my tail.

  Overall, it reiterated the strength of this new body, but it also confirmed that I did have better control in cute form. If I had tried to use something like in my huge form, I feared for the state of everything around me.

  “Well, I don’t think you’re going to get any weaker out here. We may as well make our way to the guild!” Meebur said with a huge smile. “I’ll be better equipped to help you train back there, anyway. They won’t mind. You’re the first deity monster I’ll be bringing home, but certainly not the first dangerous monster. They’re used to it!”

  Being in a guild with Meebur must be very scary…

  Meebur packed up a bag with all the important things he could dig out of the cottage ruins. He could tell I was sad to have destroyed such a wonderful place, so he explained that it wasn't his real home. He had a dozen small houses like this one in different areas so he could hatch monsters in whatever environment he needed. It sounded very efficient and what you would expect from a pro.

  I wondered if there would be other tamers of his level in the guild he was a part of. If Meebur was a member then it had to be full of impressive people. Maybe people who were also capable of knocking me out with a single strike. Or people who knew more about those Great Beasts I sensed after first leveling up.

  Maybe I’ll even see the masked figure who stopped the Harrowhawk, and thank them for saving my life.

  My mind was racing with the possibilities that lived outside this forest!

  With his giant spear in one hand, a bag of supplies on his back and me on his shoulder, Meebur and I left the cottage ruins. The area itself had a real name, but to me it would always be the forest of death. Though it took the lives of the other eggs in my hatching zone, it didn't get the best of me. I'd never forget fighting for my life here. Fighting for my new life. I didn't know everything about who I was in the past, but I was lucky to have this second chance. Lucky to have found Meebur and to be leaving the forest alive. I felt a determination brewing deep within me.

  However long I have in this new life, I vow to never, ever squander it. I know better than anyone how quickly things can end.

  Text box. If I ever go back on that vow, remind me of all I survived in this place, and all that I lost in my last life. Don’t let me give up on a happy life here.

  Confirmed.

  * * * *

  The forest of death was much smaller than I expected. It seemed massive when I was a hatchling. But riding on Meebur's shoulder it took less than a day to leave the forest and reach a road.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “This road is called Ratatosk’s Highway.” Meebur said to me as we left the forest. “It connects many cities all across the country. If you ever get lost, follow this east and you'll eventually reach the great city of Artemis. Where my guild resides.”

  When I pictured a road in my mind, I got images from my past life of black and grey stone roads. But this one was mostly just dirt with a few cobblestones along the edge. Even if I had stumbled out of the forest alone somehow, I may not have even noticed the road. There was so much overgrown grass and brush along the edges, it was easy to miss. Luckily, my tamer knew exactly where to go.

  I still couldn't get used to that idea. I had a tamer. And that tamer thought I was just some newly born monster. I respected Meebur and was grateful he saved my life, but I would have to find a way to communicate with him in detail soon. I could shake and nod my head, but that didn't lead to much fruitful conversation. When he asked me if I was comfortable on his shoulder, I nodded yes, and when he asked me if I would miss the forest, I shook my head so intensely he knew I had no interest in returning. But there was so much more I wanted to ask him.

  When I tried to write him a message in the dirt with my nose, he either didn't notice or assumed I was playing or cleaning myself. It also dawned on me afterwards that he probably couldn’t read the language I wrote, anyway. I could understand what he said but the written language I saw in his notebook was illegible to me. Not sure how that worked, but it must have been a part of my reincarnation. For some reason.

  On the bright side, with no conversation and a long trip, there was plenty of time to scroll through my skills. On the less bright side, there was nothing in there to help us communicate. I thought for sure amongst them I’d find something like telepathy, but no psychic powers of any kind were listed. And I couldn’t imagine how to create it by combining anything I had.

  Maybe there’s a monster around here who I could copy that skill from, I thought, hoping the text box would get the hint and tell me what to do. But it didn’t pop up to say anything. The text box either didn’t know, or didn’t feel like telling me.

  But there were still a ton of useful skills available. It seemed like most had to do with my scales, fangs, and eyes, but there was a lot of variety. There were a ton of passive resistances and buffs from my scales. While most of the active skills associated with my fangs and body were physical, such as and , I did have a few magic and elemental skills. There was , which I was already way too familiar with, and also the skill I had practiced a bit with: . Considering it had looked like a magical bolt of energy, I assumed I inherited it from that weird floating orb monster that attacked me in the forest of death. and were healing abilities, which I was very surprised to see. A giant, fire breathing snake didn't seem like it would have support skills, but that wasn’t even close to the strangest thing amongst my skills.

  Overall, I found it pretty overwhelming. In time, I was certain I could memorize it all. But until then, I hoped I didn't forget anything important at a crucial moment.

  Knock on wood.

  There was so much to read in my skill list alone that I barely spent any time reading the other sections of the menu. The Almanac was filling up with entries the more I saw with my new eyes, heard from Meebur, and read in my skills. And my Status screen now had a lot more detail:

  Species - Nidh?gg, the Withering Wyrm

  Type - Earth Deity

  Rank - SSS

  Level - 1

  Title - “Twiceborn”

  Tamer - Meebur the Magnificent

  Status - Normal

  Skills - Click for full list

  Stats:

  HP - 1150/1150

  EP - 730/730

  Strength - 100+5 (physical attack, carrying capacity)

  Vitality - 100+5 (physical defense, HP)

  Agility - 100+5 (speed, evasion)

  Perception - 100+5 (hit chance, crit chance, detection)

  Intelligence - 60+3 (magic attack, memory)

  Mind - 60+3 (magic defense, EP)

  I didn't have anything to compare them to, but my stats seemed pretty high. Pair that with all of the skills, and I decided it was best to do as little as possible. Lest I destroy the very road we traveled on.

  We had one encounter shortly after leaving the forest that further confirmed my desire to be cautious with my skills. A bumblebee the size of Meebur’s head burst from a patch of long grass. Almost as quickly, a text box appeared to give me details on the monster.

  Species - Butter Bee

  Type - Sky > Air > Breeze

  Rank - E

  Level - 2

  Tamer - N/A

  Status - Normal

  Skills - ??

  Why doesn't that monster have a name like I do?

  Not all monsters have names in addition to their species classification.

  Many monsters below C rank do not have names. They can only gain them from vast experience or tamer training or-

  Where was this helpful info when I was running for my life in the forest?

  Providing the status of nearby monsters is thanks to the passive ability of the skill.

  The higher this skill’s level and your perception stat, the more info you will gain.

  Before I could ask the text box more, the giant bee began approaching us.

  My first instinct was to transform to my full size, but that instinct then corrected itself. It would have been overkill. As Meebur took out his spear, prepared to fight the giant bug, I let out a new kind of breath attack. I was curious what would do. Once I concentrated on the words of the skill, I could feel it activate. A green cloud of gas bellowed out of my open mouth. I was surprised by how quickly it came out, so I initially missed the insect. But as all of the grass around us melted like ice atop an open flame, I was suddenly happy I hadn’t hit the bumblebee. And it must have been happy too, because it took one look at the melted grass and flew away from us faster than anything I’d ever seen before.

  “Maybe don’t use skills like that unless absolutely necessary?” Meebur asked, looking down at me with sweat dripping from his brow.

  I nodded enthusiastically.

  Although I couldn’t speak to Meebur, while we trekked away from the pool of grass, I vowed to not destroy anything again. At least not on purpose. The last thing I wanted was to try out a skill, find out it created an acidic cloud that then destroys part of a city, and get Meebur kicked out of his guild.

  With my vow of avoiding destruction in my mind, we continued towards Meebur’s guild. On the second night of our journey, we stopped by the ruins of what looked like an old waystation. A place where travelers, merchants, and soldiers would have stopped at during their long treks across a now long forgotten world. It made me wonder how active this road may have been in the past, and why it seemed deserted now. It felt like we were going to go the whole way without seeing anyone, but when Meebur finished setting up camp near the ruined waystation, that all changed.

  There was rustling in the bushes nearby, and my greater sense of smell and hearing alerted me immediately. Meebur didn’t move, happily sipping on some tea he had made by our fire, and I was about to warn him.

  But it was too late.

  It happened so fast. I wondered if even a Great Beast could have reacted quick enough…

  precisely what is coming in Chapter 8 in a comment, I will tell you the plot twist at the end of Book 1.

  Patreon)