Lord Evolution: Starting With SS-rank Skills

It was late in the evening, yet the sky remained bright even after the sun had set for the day. By the river, Dragun stood before the windmill, observing its structure with amazed and curious eyes.

While strolling around the village as usual, he arrived at the farms and saw farmers pumping water from snake-like pipes. At first glance from afar, he thought they were using water magic and quickly sprinted towards them, only to be met with the realization.

He saw the farmers happily watering their crops and others filling up buckets with it. He could see the clear liquid and easily tell that the water was pure enough for drinking, which surprised him even more.

Sadly, he couldn't speak to anyone as they would only ignore him, so he followed the path back to the river where he saw the windmill.

Even after hours of studying the windmill, he still didn't understand how it actually worked!

"This is similar to the one near the farms for chopping wood," he muttered.

"How did Rowan do all this? There's no way he could've built them; he made them appear out of thin air just like he did with the wood-chopping one," he continued muttering to himself.

He still couldn't forget the scene of that one appearing out of nowhere in midair and descending slowly to the ground.

Dragun was truly amazed back then; he didn't feel threatened by the monstrous structure of the windmill at all, as he couldn't sense any sort of mana coming from it.

"Could he be one of those strange lords who possess supernatural abilities aside from magic?" Dragun wondered to himself.

During his journey outside Winterseed, he made friends and entered several territories ruled by strange lords.

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There was one time he entered a kingdom where the lord—a king—could summon monsters out of nowhere to do his bidding. There was even one who could use blood magic and another who was able to heal others without using mana. Another one could multiply the loot he got from war by tenfold!

Dragun usually found these hard to believe when he heard about them from his friends. But when he saw most of them, he couldn't help but accept that there are more mysteries in the world than he imagined.

At this point, he couldn't help but realize that his son was weirdly similar to those lords. In fact, Rowan was even more mysterious.

Speaking of mysteries, Dragun didn't forget the faint trace of mana he sensed from Riela earlier.

"Is she going to become a mage?" he asked himself.

"Becoming a mage is pretty difficult, especially for a village like ours with no strand of mana in the atmosphere. But with some of the potions I have, she might be able to become a first-stage mage apprentice and unlock her affinities," he continued.

Dragun muttered other things to himself concerning Rowan and Riela.

While he was muttering to himself, a pair of red eyes glared intently at his figure from the river.

Suddenly, two gigantic hippopotamuses with sharp teeth and bloodthirsty red eyes crawled swiftly out of the river towards Dragun.

Dragun was still looking at the structure of the windmill, not paying much attention to his surroundings, when he suddenly heard the noise of the hippopotamuses charging towards him and quickly turned his attention to them.

He saw the two gigantic hippopotamuses emerge from the river, moving faster when they spotted him. Their massive bodies pushed through the water, muscles bulging under thick, gray skin. Sharp teeth glinted in the fading light of the calm evening, and their blood-red eyes stared hungrily at Dragun.

Despite their fearsome appearance, Dragun remained calm. He stood still, taking a deep breath as the ground trembled with each heavy step the monsters took.

The hippopotamuses were enormous, about twice the size of elephants on Earth. Their sheer presence was terrifying. Their eyes burned with wild hunger, and their mouths opened wide, showing rows of big, sharp teeth. They looked like living nightmares, their massive forms casting long shadows in the evening light.

"Demonic hippopotamuses," he muttered as he recognized the monsters; he had fought them in the past.

Without wasting time, he began to chant softly, his voice steady and clear. As he spoke the ancient words, water started to flow from the river, rising into the air around him. The liquid shimmered and froze quickly, turning into sharp ice spears that hovered in midair.

With precise movements, Dragun directed the ice spears toward the first demonic hippopotamus running ahead of the other. The spear darted through the air and struck the creature's head, making it let out a pained cry. The beast staggered back, surprised by the attack.

Not wasting any time, Dragun continued his chant. More water flowed from the river, forming additional ice spears. The second hippopotamus charged forward, but Dragun was ready. He threw the spears at the monster's head, each one piercing its thick skin.

The pained sounds made Dragun more determined. He summoned more magic, creating a rain of ice spears that poured down on the attacking monsters. Each spear found its mark, stabbing into the heads of the demonic hippopotamuses. The creatures, now wounded and confused, began to retreat.

The demonic hippopotamuses turned and made their way back into the river in fear of the monstrous human.

But Dragun wasn't ready to let them go easily, as they would attack others in the future—he had to prevent that from happening.

He stretched out his hands and focused his eyes, drawing more water and forming many ice spikes at once before shooting them at the monsters.

The ice spikes rained down brutally, badly injuring the monsters, who let out loud cries of pain.

Before they could reach the river, they fell to the ground and died.

Dragun strolled casually toward their corpses. He brought out a small pouch from his pocket, dipped his hand inside, and drew out a sharp, long knife that wouldn't fit into the pouch naturally. However, it could fit because the pouch was a magical item.

Dragun squatted beside the corpses and used his knife to extract their large teeth, storing them inside his pouch. He didn't touch any other part of the demonic hippopotamuses and didn't even bother to bring them back to the village with him as he left the area.