I decided to test more advanced spells. Offensive ones as well, since I get the feeling things aren't going in the right direction. But also some interesting ideas, too, such as using magic spells in tandem with my abilities.

Pathfinder seems to be the most useful. I've used it to automatically aim my spells perfectly every time. I tried making my spells target whatever object I think of, and bam, the spell attacks it perfectly.

That's admittedly pretty cool, but not being able to aim manually might be an issue. So, I've decided to leave aiming up to my senses. Which is fine since my draconic senses are dramatically improved. I don't think missing will be an issue.

I'm starting to think dragons are ridiculously strong.

I grin toothily.

Speaking of myself, I'd asked Master Pathfinder for the location of the city's 50 most important officials. Every single one of them was congregated in the same building. Because of me, no doubt.

I presume that's the mayor's mansion since the mayor never seems to leave. It also has what appears to be a kitchen and bedroom. It's weird that this city doesn't seem to have a city hall, though. Maybe that's normal in this world?

In any case, most of those city leaders are currently moving apart; presumably going back to where they'd started. This, in my view, should be a good thing. If I saw them meeting in smaller groups nearby, especially near the guards surrounding this house. That would suggest they were planning an assault.

They're not.

However, after their meeting, one of the 50 quickly rushed to an unusually large warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Interesting, I thought. I then asked for the location of all military and guard personnel within city limits. Unsurprisingly, they were mostly encircling my current location. Not a single one was anywhere nearby this warehouse.

So, I'd asked about tradesmen, merchants, slaves, and other... 'Professions.' None in the warehouse. In fact, whoever that dot was, they didn't show up either.

Then, I'd asked for criminals. The whole warehouse lit up my map like a red square. I'd never seen so many people packed into one location; not even on the main street.

It's like a beehive.

The only possibility I can think of is multiple floors.

Hmm. I need a better map of that building.

I'm surprised to see...

I get one.

Indeed, it has three floors and a basement. Packed within are a lot of back doors, hidden pathways, and secret rooms. Whatever this building is— it's bad news. Worse, one of the top 50 most important officials is right there.

I should confirm my suspicion.

I need criminals within the top 50 most important officials.

One red dot; currently inside this building. On the third floor, no less, in what appears to be a secret room. An important deal's going down.

Hmm.

Between the metaphorical heat rising and my apparently insane magic affinity, I'd thought about trying teleportation magic. It does work.

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Buuuut, it seems my inflated stats aren't enough to teleport large objects like myself. The best I could do was move my slices of bread outside this house's walls. Each one used my entire Mana throughput for nearly a solid minute. Forming the spell wasn't hard, no. My spell seemed to be wasting a lot of Mana on correcting... Something.

I'm not sure what. Maybe moving matter to another location is far harder than converting Mana into matter.

Speaking of which, I also tried other basic ideas like creating rocks, meat, water, and even a golem. The golem didn't work— but that's because it needs inscriptions. When I thought so, a huge sea of sigils flooded into my thoughts. I decided this was too much work for my current situation and went back to testing magic.

I examine the empty black claws affixed to the ends of my fingers. An orb-shaped spell floats silently atop each of their five sharp points. I don't know if these claws are wands or what, but Mana flows through them SO easily. These claws, plus my Overmind bonus, makes most magic a cinch. I can easily cast five spells at a time.

I decide to check each spell so I can praise my own hard work.

image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/011.png]

The one atop my thumb claw is a bright white color. I call that one 'Flashbang.' It should cause a blinding white light and a disorienting percussive bang, assuming I've got it correct. I haven't released it for testing.

The one on my index claw is blue; Water Beam. It makes a water cutter strong enough to slice through the spear the first guard left on the floor when he fled. It's fairly quiet, too. Opponents will never hear the thing until they're being sliced in half— scary stuff. I tried other liquids like oil and mercury. Because, why just water? Each had different properties. That was neat, but water ended up being the most sensible: cleaning up oil and mercury is annoying.

Next, for my ring claw— it's a cool silver. This is a metal-warping spell. It instantly warps the target metal into a different shape as though there's no resistance. It's surprisingly quiet, too. However, immediately after, friction heat came out from the metal like a blast furnace. It was startling to see my test scrap instantly blazing white hot. I used Water Beam on that scrap to avoid burning this mostly wood house down. Thanks to that discovery, I've added an extra cooling effect. I haven't bothered to give it a cool name; it's just 'the metal-warping spell.'

The one atop my pinky claw is green. This one's a plant spell. It manipulates plants, duh! It causes them to grow quickly in specific ways, so they appear to be moving like an animal. They're not, of course, but it does look that way. This spell is ironically the noisiest of the three I've tested. Fairly useless. I think I'll discard it.

Which leads to my middle claw. Yes, the middle claw. There doesn't appear to be anything there, which is because this is... Gamma Laser. I can't see it, though I've determined I possess a wider spectrum of vision than I did as a human. I only know it's there because I feel its Mana. Well, it does distort the air a little.

Shooting Gamma Laser randomly doesn't appear to have any noticeable effect. But since I'm familiar with EM radiation from my old world, I didn't get lazy with this lethal weapon. I made a plant and shot Gamma Laser at it, moving my finger rapidly from its bottom to top. I was aiming up at the sky the whole time.

Despite not showing any damage or burning like one might expect, the plant simply broke. It split into two halves like I'd cut it with Water Beam. Yet, the amount of effort it took was so incredibly low in comparison to Water Beam. It used much less Mana, too. It's also 100% silent.

Gamma Laser deserves its place above my middle claw; it's a damn dangerous weapon if I ever saw one. I was originally going to make a nuke, but Gamma Laser makes that explosive device look crass and lazy. I could swipe my hand horizontally across this city and slice everything in sight into two halves.

Terrifying!

Rawh, like a proper dragon.

I also considered inventing defensive spells. Except, I stabbed myself with the spear and shot myself with Water Beam. Neither of them scuffed my scales. Perhaps it's arrogant, but in my opinion? The best defense is a good offense. Especially when my passive defense is so absurd.

As such, I have no intention of wasting my efforts on defensive spells right now. I did half-make a blast containment spell for testing nuclear forces, but that seems excessive now that I have Gamma Laser. I'm not trying to annihilate half the country; it's just a little city. Sheesh!

I focus back on my mental map. It seems 'Top Crim,' as I've decided to call this high-ranking criminal, has exited the warehouse. He's bringing a substantial army of criminals along with him. In fact, criminals from across the entire city are filtering toward his location. With the sheer number outpacing city personnel five to one...

It looks like an insurrection.