Desire finished his talk with Liya with a bumpy mood. To be exact, they just moved somewhere else when Desire mentioned that he wanted to learn some magic.
Desire thought that to be one with the water; he should be able to use water magic well enough to be called natural. Even if he is wrong, that's the only clue he has.
They were out in the grassland, where they will conduct the training session. This place was similar to the vibrant trees.
Desire was looking at the grass which has various colors. It was colorful and beautiful but it was extremely unsettling for the eyes.
Liya was fine with it but Desire was getting dizzy.
"W-what is this place?"
"Ah, this is defense magic set up by the previous head. Don't worry, you passed through the proper entrance; you will get used to it soon enough."
Desire just nodded his head. It was the first time he felt something like this so he didn't know how to react to it.
"S-so, will we be doing it here?"
Liya turned around to face Desire and she spoke with a bit of a playful tone.
"That's right but first, since we don't know if you are a human or not, we will try the monster-way-of-training."
At those words, Desire's eyes widened to the brim. He spoke full of energy. It's as if he didn't feel his head hurting.
"Monster-way-of-training?! What's that?"
Liya nodded her head before continuing.
"Do you know that a monster cannot get stronger?"
A monster has a tremendous advantage just from its origins.
A Succubus can kill any men if the man falls in love with her. A Dryad can sweep any human army if it is fighting in the forest. Goblins with their ridiculous reproductive capabilities can overthrow a kingdom in a single night.
All of those have been decided by birth and all of them have incredible instincts that let them use their strengths in the best possible way.
However, all of them cannot get stronger. Regardless of any monster race, this is true.
A race that stems from a god, a race that originated from two different monsters like a Suckus... All of them cannot escape this hopelessness.
A special monster that has a Grand Magic like the Suckus, which makes the monster stronger, is rare.
"I don't...but why do monsters cannot get stronger?"
"I didn't expect you to know it..."
There, Desire tilted his head. Even though he is but a baby, it seems like he could think better than the average child.
'Then why did you ask?'
Liya continued with a smile, seeing Desire tilting his head.
"Well, it's because we are monsters. Legends say that humans are the only beings occupying this world during its early age and we just somehow came to be."
"Then, what do you mean by a monster way of training? If you cannot get stronger, there's no point in training is there?"
Liya grinned, her face looks exactly like a mischievous child that found a new toy.
"That is only until recently. Though recently is the word, it is actually more than a thousand years ago. Some monsters back in the day found a way to get stronger. To be specific, they discovered how to increase our rank."
Desire couldn't help but get confused. How is increasing your rank equates to a monster getting stronger?
When a monster is born, a rank is automatically given by the system.
Until adulthood, a monster can increase their rank but when they hit the absolute peak of their race, they can't get stronger.
But because of those monsters in the legends...a new method was delivered to the society of monsters to help them surpass their limits.
"You look like you're not keeping up. Well, it's better to just show it to you personally."
After Liya said that much, the grassland that they were on started to emit light.
The various colors were intertwining each other around Liya.
It only lasted for a moment.
The colors that have become white from their intertwining have dispersed and Liya emerged.
Desire was stupefied from the event. To him, it only looked like a light has gone on and off and then it stabilized.
"Well? Do you feel that I've changed?"
"E-eh? No..."
"Haaah. Why do I keep forgetting that you are a baby..."
Liya sighed, walking up to Desire to touch his head with her palm.
Then a magical event happened. Something far more mysterious than the one before.
Desire's body glowed with the light of green and he could feel something...
'W-what is this...? It's familiar to me?'
Liya then took off her hand and spoke with a wide smile on her face.
"That was my magical energy from before the light flickered."
"I-I see...it was stro-?"
Desire looked at her with a bewildered expression on his face.
"Before...? Ah!"
"That's right. The method that the monsters from before, which we call 'ancients' now, came up with is this. A magic infusion and that came from this magical space."
Desire could only nod and agree with her. After all, how does she expect a baby to understand what she was saying?
Desire was only smarter than a child. Yes, a child.
"Well, I'll explain the specifics to you later. Go, try it out."
Desire immediately ran forward to where Liya stood before.
It seems that proving that he was indeed a monster was the most important thing rather than the facts or safety.
Then after checking everything out, Liya raised her hands in the direction of Desire.
Afterward, the same event of the light flickering happened with Desire.
However, this time was a bit different.
The colors…no, the color that rose to the air was the color of gray. It wasn't like Liya's that had various colors that became white.
It twirled around Desire as it changes colors once more, this time to black.
The black were complete darkness, Liya could feel that it was pulling her body but...
The light changed once more, this time to the color of white. No, it was light itself.
Liya could feel something happening within that light and then when she started to focus on it, Desire appeared.
'What happened?'
Of course, even though Liya had superior senses, a blink of an eye was a blink of an eye.
Unless she had the necessary brain cells to compute and analyze what happened in a blink of an eye, she wouldn't be able to completely see what happened.
To her, the scene just changed colors.
"Desire?"
She called for Desire after regaining her wits. She wanted to know if it was a success or not.
"L-Liya…"
"What is it!"
Liya rushed to his side after hearing his weakened voice. Afterward, Desire limply fell to the ground. Unable to hold on to his consciousness, he passed out.
****
"Uhh."
A sound came out from the mouth of the baby; it was a soft and gentle voice.
However, unlike his voice, his actions were not so gentle.
The baby yawned and he got up without the help of another as he stretched.
"Where am I?"
That baby was Desire, who was able to talk and walk despite being a baby.
"Wasn't I with Liya...?"
Fuzzy memories were filling up his mind and it cannot be helped.
"Ouch!"
Desire put his tiny hand on his tiny head as a severe headache came across him.
"Aghhh!?"
He started foaming on the mouth and with that as a signal; his eyes started to light up.
The light from his eyes spread in his room and Desire couldn't see anything.
No, to be exact, he could see something. Something akin to letters was being written right in front of him.
'H-huh? Is that the system?'
Despite his body shaking so furiously and his mouth foaming, he couldn't feel it.
Desire could only feel his head that is throbbing like his heart. It was getting louder and Desire could read the finished words. It said...
'W-what is this...?'
Desire was dumbfounded at the sudden drop of a bomb. This was the first time he heard something like this.
'N-no...If I remember right, then?'
At that moment, before he could finish his thinking, another sentence was finished but Desire could feel that it was different.
[Desire's mana has increased to 2]
[Desire's rank - Rank 1 has been updated]
[Desire's rank - cannot be identified]
[Desire's innate skill is being awaken]
[Innate skill, waiting time 0/100 days]
[Innate skill will be displayed as ??? for the meantime]
Then, the light in his eyes disappeared and his body returned to normal.
"Puff. Huff."
What was that? He couldn't bring it to words as he was too tired.
His disordered breathing could be heard resonating throughout the room.
He looked up to confirm once more but the letters weren't there anymore...