The chimerae elder, Nora, led us back to her village, the entourage of wolves keeping a close eye on us the entire way. Meanwhile, we explained to her about the system of Players, Chosen, skills, and dungeons.
As she listened, her brow furrowed in frustration. “So, you mean to say that those fire bastards are just going to keep coming over and over?” She asked, her voice a near growl.
“Probably.” I confirmed. “How long have they been showing up?”
“About two days ago was the first wave. Caught a bunch of us off-guard.” Nora answered in a grave tone. “A few of them wandered to the edge of the village and started spewing fire at us. Most of our folk were okay, but the buildings took a beating.”
I could imagine so. If they were building in this forest, they were probably using almost exclusively wood. Nora shook her head, continuing. “Since then, we started tracking ‘em down, but more and more of them attack every few hours.”
“The dungeon they’re from should have a high spawn rate, then.” Diane muttered. “That, or it’s a large dungeon that just became too oversaturated. There are two ways to stop these monsters from escaping and wreaking havoc on your village.”
Nora arched a brow, looking over at Diane. “And what’s that, squirt? You want us to give you some treasure or something to buy your help?”
Diane shook her head. “Nothing like that. Our nation isn’t far from here, so helping you is helping ourselves. The easiest way is to send people in to raid the dungeon on a regular basis. As long as the dungeon can’t get oversaturated, the monsters can’t escape.”
“And the second way?” She asked, still staring at Diane.
“There’s a chance that the boss of the dungeon can drop a key. If someone uses that, they can completely close the dungeon. Monsters will still spawn to the saturation point, but they won’t be able to leave unless the key is used to open the dungeon.”
Nora let out a little huff. “So either way, we’ve got to go to this dungeon, which will probably be crawling with hundreds of those spirits. That’s what you’re saying, right?”
“We can help!” Bella chimed in, raising a hand. “Dungeons are a great way for people like us to level up, and we can even get new abilities or items from them. It’s a win-win, right?”
Nora’s brow knit together, thinking it over. “And what exactly do you want from us? You might be getting something from the dungeon, but it’s not like you don’t want a reward from us too, right?”
I simply shook my head. “While I’d like to ask you to join our nation, I won’t push the matter. Aetra already told us that you would be unwilling. If you can give us directions to another nearby village before we leave, that would suffice. Though, before we tackle the dungeon, do you have an open area for me to test something? One of my skills evolved in the previous fight, so I want to experiment with it before we get into actual combat.”
Nora arched a brow in confusion, but Diane’s head slowly turned to face me, her eyes wide with unspoken expectation. She knew which skills I had been using in the previous fight, so she no doubt knew which one had evolved.
“Sure.” Nora shrugged her shoulders. “We’ve got a training yard for the boys to keep themselves sharp. It’s just over there.” She pointed off to her right noncommittally.
I nodded, thanking her before making my way in that direction. It only took a minute for me to reach the wide clearing, where multiple wooden targets had been set up for training.
“Dragon time?” Diane asked eagerly. She had been wanting to see me turn into a real dragon ever since we first got the skill.
“We’re about to find out.” I chuckled, pulling up the previous notification and finally accepting it.
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Dragon Shifter-X (Martial – 10☆): Allows the user to transform into a dragon type of their choice, wielding the power of that dragon. Mana Burden: 0. Level: 1(0%) |
“Well… it sounds like what you’ve been waiting for.” I said, before activating the skill. Just like with True Dragon Embodiment, I was asked to select a skill to use as the basis for the transformation. To prevent any collateral damage from selecting an offensive skill, I chose King of All Trades.
Immediately, I felt a tingling across my skin, my flesh being replaced with firm, golden scales. My vision grew higher and higher, a shadow cast over the two girls below me as my center of gravity shifted, causing me to fall onto all fours. A radiant, golden aura burst from my body, enveloping the entire clearing.
Diane and Bella’s eyes were wide, staring up at the figure that I had become. Wanting to get a look at myself, I used Hawkeye-X to project my vision outwards.
Standing before the two girls was a ten-meter long golden dragon, its horns shaped like a regal crown. Its back was smooth and narrow, its legs elegant. Even just standing there, basking in the golden glow, it emanated an air of nobility.
“What type of breath weapon do you even have like that?” Diane asked, eyes roaming along my frame. “I assume you do still have a breath weapon, right?”
“I’d hope so.” I rumbled, my voice louder and deeper than normal. Lowering my head towards one of the wooden targets, I released a golden breath. However, nothing seemed to happen to the target.
“Try it on me.” Diane eagerly volunteered, waving one hand. “Worst case scenario, I die and you have to make a short trip to pick me up.”
“Or I could bring out the respawn anchor…” I countered, summoning my clone to take the anchor off to the side of the clearing, causing Diane to chuckle.
With that taken care of, I lowered my head towards her, noting just how tiny she appeared in this form. Is this how my player looked at us when we were fighting?
I let out a careful exhale, bathing Diane in the same golden light that I had previously used. She clenched her fists, looking off to the side of her vision. “Like I thought. Your breath in this form is a ‘blessing’. Blessing of the Dragon King. Increases all stats for thirty minutes.”
That was… very useful. “Attack me.” I rumbled, and Diane nodded, pulling one of her daggers out without hesitation. Before Bella could even shout for her to stop, Diane had lunged at me, swinging her dagger with all her strength.
A long, white mark appeared on my scales, slowly fading away with my natural recovery. Continuing, she used her Bleeding Edge, this time managing to cut through my scales and draw blood. She was being careful not to cut too deeply, but I could tell that she wasn’t holding back in the strength of her swings.
“Given that I had your blessing active while doing that… I’d say your defense is pretty high in this form. Probably around level one-eighty standard? Maybe a little higher.” Diane said thoughtfully, sheathing her dagger.
“Did you have to attack him like that?!” Bella finally retorted, eyes wide in surprise.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. We do this whenever he gets an upgraded defense, just so we can judge his abilities. Why, did you want a turn? He’s got other forms he’ll need to practice, so there’s plenty of chances for both of us.” Diane said in a casual tone, causing Bella’s jaw to drop open.
As she said, I dismissed that form, this time switching to one that utilized my Crystal Bastion-X skill. I became a ruby dragon, my frame thicker and more robust than the previous form. Diane stepped back, urging Bella to try it out this time.
With a reluctant sigh, she drew her bow, firing an energy arrow at one of my arms. However, the energy shattered when it touched my arm, seeming to taunt her. Narrowing her eyes, she charged a Sundering Shot, holding it for a solid thirty seconds to build power before shooting it out. This time, it left a mark, a small crack on my gem-like scales that quickly healed over.
“So, this is a defensive form.” Diane commented with a nod.
I turned towards the targets, and once again released my breath. This time, it sent out thick javelins of red crystal, skewering the wooden stumps.
One by one, we tested each of my major skills. We tested their breath weapons, their defenses, and even tried to see if they had any other special abilities. For the most part, taking my draconic form resulted in a substantial increase to my Strength, Stamina, and Intelligence stats from what we could tell. Though, the exact increase varied between different forms. For instance, in my water dragon form, the Strength increase was negligible, but I gained a lot of Agility.
I also gained a high level of resistance against the element of whatever form I took. When I entered a fire dragon form, Diane activated numerous fire traps beneath me, but they caused almost no damage.
Meanwhile, nearby, I occasionally caught signs of Nora watching us. Though, that said, she never interfered with our experiments. When we seemed to be done, she turned to leave again.
“You think that we can beat this dungeon on our own?” Bella asked when I returned to my normal form. “You said that they were level two hundred and thirty, right? Even most of your new dragon forms can’t take on those attacks.”
I gave a small nod. “It won’t be easy, that’s for sure. This is an oversaturated dungeon, so the mobs will be everywhere. And it hasn’t been left alone long enough for them to starve and weaken like the dragon dungeon. Honestly, it’ll be a fight to see whether we can kill them faster than they naturally respawn. And we’ll probably die a few times ourselves.”
“What if you used your fire dragon form?” Diane suggested. “We can ride on your back for protection, and your increased fire resistance should help against the spirits. Then, it’s just a matter of either physically crushing their cores or firing skills to do it. Bella might even be able to snipe them with her bow.”
“You sure you won’t be uncomfortable?” I asked hesitantly. My fire dragon form radiated quite a bit of heat, enough that they could get burned from sitting on my back if they weren’t careful.
“Worth it.” Diane muttered, before quickly shaking her head. “I mean, if you keep your nature recovery skill active at the same time, it won’t be a problem. I’m more worried about whether or not you’ll be able to tank the boss’s attacks like that.”
“Only one way to find out.” I said, and the two girls nodded their heads. “Let’s go back. We’ll need Nora to show us where the dungeon is.”
When we returned to the village, we found Nora waiting for us, holding a spear in one hand. Her face and arms were covered in runic markings, and she wore thick, leather armor beneath her fur cloak. Clearly, she wasn’t just intending to show us the way. “Let’s go.” She said in a firm tone.
