I Level Up Dragons with My Evolution System-Chapter 106: Rebirth City

When it came close to the carriage, it circled several times in the air. During that time, it locked eyes with Edward more than once. It almost seemed as if it had traveled all that way just to see him.

Edward didn’t understand what was happening, but he didn’t look away for even a second.

A dragon wanted to see him? Well, he would return the gaze. Even if his body was trembling with fear on the inside.

After several more circles, the Frost Dragon King soared up into the clouds and began his return journey as if nothing had happened.

The moment they saw him descend upon their mountain, a sigh of relief was heard.

"Shit. I thought I was going to die." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"I saw myself becoming food for the Frost Dragons. How can that thing be so huge? And it was the king! God..."

The drivers were in such bad shape that they couldn’t continue on their way; they had to stop.

"I hope you’ll forgive us, young sir," they said as they rested under a tree around a campfire; it was already nighttime. "We’ve seen dragons from afar, but never one so close."

Edward laughed. "It’s okay. I’m in shock too. What could have made it travel all this way to us and then leave?" he asked casually.

"We’re wondering exactly the same thing. For a brief moment, I thought you’d challenged it with your gaze."

’Challenge it...’ Edward frowned. ’Could it have been because our eyes met at that moment? Did it feel challenged by me?’

’Then why didn’t it attack me? I kept staring at it the whole time.’

He couldn’t figure out the dragon’s mysteries, but he was sure that creature was interested in him. Although he didn’t understand what about him could interest it.

When it was time to sleep, Edward had trouble falling asleep. The world was too big, and for over a year he had been staring up from the bottom of an empty well.

He only saw what he wanted to see and ignored what he didn’t like. But it is so vast and so mysterious that now he felt small.

Too small.

He was so small that he felt he would have nightmares like when he was a child and would burrow into his parents’ arms.

That feeling... was inferiority.

What would he do in a fight where Robert unleashed his Lion? He would surely lose.

What would he do then, if a dragon decided to attack his loved ones?

’Die.’

He would have no choice but to die without posing any threat to his enemy.

Not to mention the Cursed Lands, the vampires, the cursed elves... There was so much that he felt smaller and smaller in his own eyes.

And that feeling of smallness. Of inferiority. It made him gaze at the stars with determination.

Unconsciously, he raised a hand and clenched it as if he wanted to grab one of the many stars. He had chosen the brightest one.

It was part of an entire constellation and shaped like a window. It was peculiar, for the star shone in the center like an eye gazing into the void below it. Gazing at the world and its inhabitants. It beheld the world’s beauty, but also its misfortune and misery. Nothing was hidden from that glorious star.

He wanted to be like it.

’I have to grow up to be as bright as you,’ he murmured in his heart.

A key appeared in that very hand.

[Key of the Desolate Temple]

’When all this trouble is over, I’ll challenge you. I hope you can give me power and that you’re not just an empty shell.’

He turned over in the tent and tried to fall asleep; he would need it.

--

"Young sir, this is Rebirth City in the Ashford Region. We’ve done our job and brought you here safe and sound; I hope you’ll speak highly of us at the guild." The carriage drivers bid Edward farewell, leaving him at the gates of the Drivers’ Guild.

Edward entered the guild, handed over the token, and left them a five-star rating.

Without further ado, he left the guild and walked through the city.

’Aurora told me it was here,’ he thought, looking up.

It was an ordinary city; not as glorious as Lor, nor as mysterious as Silver Ashes, and certainly not as luxurious as Ashford City.

The buildings were square or rectangular, with greenish or brownish decorations. Many of them seemed to have no decorations at all; that was their distinctive feature.

But the city was strangely desolate and smelled of... death. Perhaps ordinary people wouldn’t notice it, but he was a Beast Master with keen senses.

He could sense even the slightest shift in the atmosphere when it came to the energy of death; for it was a sign of undead beasts.

He walked along the streets and turned several corners. Suddenly, at one of those corners, he found a person lying in the street.

’A beggar in Rebirth?’ Edward looked at him suspiciously.

He had heard that there were no beggars in this city. Not because there were no poor people, but because everyone helped one another. That’s why it’s called "Rebirth City"; it’s a place where no one will abandon you and everyone will help you grow.

The man lying on the sidewalk was face down and radiated a dark energy; but he wasn’t undead.

When Edward tried to grab him, a person peered out the window.

"Don’t do it, young man." It was an elderly woman in her seventies. Her kind face betrayed sadness, but also determination.

Edward looked up. "I’ve heard that there are no beggars in Rebirth, and I saw it with my own eyes as I walked through the city, but... why is he here?"

The old woman offered a pained smile. "He was a brave man who always stood up to defend the city from the beasts. A hero who helped many people and protected us with his sword."

"But recently, his entire family was killed by invading beasts... He’s been like this ever since."

The old woman sighed and looked at the man lying on the ground. "We’ve all tried to help him. We gave him food, water, clothes, and even a new home... but he keeps trying to kill himself. He hasn’t understood that he won’t die because fate doesn’t want him dead."

Edward frowned and looked at the man again. The dark energy emanating from him was strange. ’I don’t feel like he’s an undead...’ he thought.

Ignoring the old woman, Edward reached out and turned the man onto his back.

As soon as he did, the old woman looked away and closed the window.

Edward frowned. This face... was human, yet at the same time, it wasn’t human.

’Vampire...’

Though not a normal vampire. Until recently, he had been human.

’Those damned bastards.’ Edward clenched his teeth in fury and tried to look into his eyes...

The moment he opened them, he felt a surge of energy wash over him.

[A fragment of True Death has been found.]

Suddenly, his mind found itself traveling elsewhere.