Reincarnated as a Lizard

Faced with the three unique evolutions that each had their own benefits and flaws, Scaly wished she could just merge the three unique evolutions into a single powerful evolution whose strength surpassed that annoying world devouring serpent evolution at the very top of the list.

Unfortunately, no matter how much she wished for this to be the case, she couldn’t merge the three evolutions together into one and had to choose between them.

Dream Void Serpent, True Dreamscale Dragon and Dragon Born...

Narrowing her eyes as she gazed back over the descriptions of those three unique evolutions, Scaly slowly came to a decision after weighing the benefits of all three inside her mind.

If possible, she wanted to think things through a bit longer, but the injuries left behind by the icy currents were spreading and starting to slowly freeze her body. Limiting the time, she had to think about what evolution to choose from.

Out of the three evolutions, she did find the Dragon Born evolution the most intriguing, but at the same time, it was also the evolution that had the most question marks attached to it. Although it looked powerful from what she could see, it didn’t give her any real confidence when it came to future evolutions. Not to mention, she had no idea if she would still be able to fly after taking on this evolution.

In a way, it was the same with the Dream Void Serpent evolution, as from what she knew, a serpent didn’t have wings. Meaning there was a good chance she would end up losing her ability to fly if she ended up choosing this evolution.

Sure, there was a chance she would still somehow retain her ability to fly, but there was no clear indication that she would... And while the unique spatial magic from the Dream Void Serpent evolution was by far the most tempting out of all the benefits shown by the three evolutions. Losing the ability to fly would essentially cancel out, any of these benefits.

Not to mention how travel in the dreamscape would get harder without some new unique travel method through the sky of the dreamscape, her overall abilities and strength would suffer quite a bit if she ended up losing her ability to fly.

The only evolution where it might be worth it would be the world devouring serpent evolution, but that evolution had several other flaws that had already made her avoid it.

So... In the end, she ended up going with the True Dreamscale Dragon evolution in the end. Not because it was the strongest, so to speak, but instead because it was one, she at least had some understanding of while at the same time had also grown familiar given how long she had already spent being a dreamscale dragon.

[Do you want to evolve into a True Dreamscale Dragon?]: [Y/N]

Yes!

And without much hesitation left, she happily confirmed her choice for her seventh evolution. Continuing down the path of a dreamscale dragon.

The familiar pain soon enough came surging forth from who knows where, as she felt her consciousness slowly starting to drift following her confirmation.

But... Already familiar with this, she wasn’t worried in the slightest and instead focused her last bit of attention towards the frozen parts of her body that had visibly stopped spreading before reversing course. Showing the clear healing effect, the evolution had on her body, as the slow freezing was directly reversed by her evolution beginning.

Not having felt certain it would work at first but now felt a clear sense of relief seeing work as she hoped.

Along with this and the simple knowledge that she had already sealed off her small temporary home from any monsters or rough weather outside, Scaly found the final bit of strength keeping her awake fading as darkness overwhelmed her.

Slowly, her evolution from a second stage dreamscale dragon to a true dreamscale dragon began in an obscure corner of the dreamscape. The icy currents outside and the extreme environment unable to pierce through the defense of the growing floating island of ice she had made her home during this evolution.

Even when the environment started to shift and partly broke through the defensive barrier that covered the floating island. Hidden away within the hill of ice at the center of the island, Scaly remained completely safe and out of the way. Avoiding any danger, she might have found herself in had she not decided to dig out a safe place within the hill and properly seal herself off from the outside in the process.

...

"To think I would end up getting beaten even after becoming an S Rank Adventurer..." Dragging his exhausted body out of the training ground as he muttered this to himself, Verdell couldn’t help glancing up towards his happy looking friend, Valerie, who had just beaten him to the point that he had no idea who was the S Rank Adventurer and who was the A Rank Adventurer.

"Don’t worry about it, the only reason I won was because you didn’t use any magic during our spar. If you had, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to win!"

"Sure..." Rolling his eyes a bit at this response, Verdell couldn’t say for certain how true those words of hers were. After all, compared to him, an adventurer who spent most of his time dealing with monsters or exploring dungeons, Valerie was a genuine menace who spent most of her time fighting others. Meaning she was far more experienced when it came to fighting others while he was the more experienced one when it came to fighting monsters.

Of course, it wasn’t to say he was weak in any way when it came to fighting other adventurers or even skilled fighters, it was just that the young woman before him was fa too abnormal. Giving an old, experienced senior like himself no chance to fight back.

Sure, as she said, he could rely on magic, but his current magic didn’t exactly distinguish between a friendly spar and a life and death battle.

Using less powerful magic was possible, but at that point it would be too weak to do anything beyond serving as a slight nuisance during the battle.

In fact, him being able to hold on for as long as he had in the face of a purely physical combatant like Valerie was entirely because of his experience when it came to wielding daggers and his high dexterity.

Without those two, he would have ended up getting knocked out within a few short minutes after she forced her way through his magical barrier.

As for why he had decided to agree to this kind of unfair spar... It mainly had to do with him being curious about how much stronger Valerie had become since their last meeting, while at the same time also knowing he didn’t have much choice in the matter once that girl set her sight on someone.

Just looking at the terrified adventurers within the training grounds fleeing the second the two of them arrived made it clear she had been staying at this branch for quite some time and the local adventurers had already become familiar with her.

"So, that dragon you mentioned, where did it go...?" And as he was momentarily lost in his own thought, Valerie popped up eagerly beside him with a clear shine in her eyes as she said this, causing a brief shiver to run down Verdell’s spine. Understanding what this look meant.

"I don’t know, she should have gone somewhere to evolve. If you want to fight her, you are bound to end up disappointed, as I heard monster evolutions can last anywhere from a few weeks to several years depending on how strong the monsters are... And with the strength of that dragon, it should at least take a few months."

"A few months!? I see... Strong indeed, but worth the wait. Hm... Maybe I can use the opportunity to officially become an S Rank Adventurer before that little dragon reappears!?"

"Sounds great..." Rolling his eyes at just how casually this person talked about reaching the S Rank, a rank that countless adventurers strived for and spent their lives unable to reach, Verdell decided it was best to just go along. Understanding that there was a very good chance she would indeed be able to cross that seemingly insurmountable gap within only a few short months.

In fact, given how she had come to the northern region to complete her class advancement quest, there was a good chance she was already close to completing it.

Who knew. Maybe by the time Scaly appeared again, she would have already surpassed him- or not. After all, progress within the S Rank was truly difficult and getting anywhere close to the upper echelons that he himself had managed to reach in an incredibly short time normally took years if not decades of hard work without any breaks in between.