It's pretty late.

I don't think the elves had any intent on coming. I guess they figured Dracosect would kill me? I doubt they expected he'd give me such a huge gift.

I look down at my body. Really, look at this! I'm more akin to one of those trading card dragons than a fantasy dragon from my previous world.

I lazily shake my sleek and powerful dragon head. Mana twists around it, as if to complain that my form is not compatible with existence.

image [https://timjames.net/data/acd/images/103.png]

I turn off my spatial compensation Origin program, which results in my true colors becoming visible. Ahrah, lack of colors.

Well, this is good, isn't it? If I started a trading card business, my own card would be SSR. My spatially black features eat the light around me, but I grin. I can see the landscape clear as day.

Indeed, no night can ever be dark enough.

Alright, enough admiring my new form. I partially stand from my prone position inside the waterfall. No, I wasn't hiding in here, I just wanted to see what it was like behind the waterfall. It was soothing— but nothing particularly notable happened. It's always good to try new things, I suppose.

Speaking of which!

~Status~

Name: Chronometric Dragon God

Talents: Causal Coherence, Causal Conduit, Causal Decoherence, Causal Void, Spatial Void, Devour, Endless Will, Parasitic Body and Mind, Spatial Absorption, Temporal Diffusion

Lineage: Void

Rank: God

Weapon: Pure Evil

Stats:

Str: 1.29 (30)

Sta: 1.26 (30)

Int: 1.54 (30)

Wis: 1.55 (30)

I've learned a fair bit while trying to rearrange this thing. First off, it's much easier to list my stats in scientific notation. 1.55 to the 30th exponent is 1.55 decillion. I don't have any need to see the multipliers or exact values as compared with a kaizen. Besides, mere numbers are no longer anywhere near as impressive as my divine body.

I admire my wonderful new dragon form again.

...

...

Reah, I can get used to this for sure. Dracosect was probably so jealous of me that he decided being a dragon was better than being anything else.

He's right!

...

Hreh hreh. I'm gonna stand here for ages admiring myself. I can't help it! I was already so cool before but now... Rawh!

Lemme just admire myself a bit more.

I run my clawed fingers over my armored body. They scrape silently, as with Spatial Absorption applied, it absorbs all sound. My spatially black form really seems as though it's eating the world itself.

Though, it feels pretty darn good running my claws over my arm, even though that stuff is supposed to be armor. Actually, rah, am I feeling the same thing from my claws, now, too? Did they get 'taken over' by whatever my body is doing?

I scrape my claw with my other claw. Roah. Reah. It feels weird, even though that... Should be a claw? Considering I'm also missing all my organs, my claws being weird is not exactly surprising.

I shrug. Not like I have any reason to care, either.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Roh, right. Spatial Absorption is the other talent the warp bug had— the one it used to eat magic. I forgot it existed, raheh. Guess it's good nobody's shot me with offensive magic. Reh, good for them, considering it's set as a passive talent. It affects me all the same. Which explains why I don't make sound anymore. I was slow to realize the true cause of my body's lack of sound.

Just goes to show, I need a working status panel.

I form a mirror in midair using magic.

My eyes are still red, but they glow mysteriously, lacking most of the blazing red light they once emitted.

I'm 99% empty black space, 1% creepy eyes. Yet I look so cool. How is this possible? Rawah, I'mma dragon, of course.

"RAWR! Hrew hraw!"

The other thing I've figured out is the difference between skills and talents. Rahem, I suppose I've refined what I knew.

Skills require activation, most can't be used continuously since they have a cooldown, and their power is fixed and unchanging. I'd say that last part is the biggest difference. Not being able to change the power is what screwed me over so hard with Seeding. It's not just Seeding that operates that way, though, it's all skills.

Talents, on the other hand, are always available. They can be used innately and become more powerful as the body does. They can even be modified in strength via the Will.

But they also have another huge advantage. Talents can used like a part of the body itself. If I want to have Causal Conduit always active as a layer of armor, I can. My body will act like it was always designed to work that way.

That's what Dracosect was doing with Spatial Void. It's why his attacks did so much more damage than mine. I've learned something VERY important today.

This said, I can't activate Spatial Void and Spatial Absorption at the same time. It makes a loud sound like claws on a chalkboard. Blrah. I could block the sound, but I don't see the point. If the talents are interfering that badly then I may cause some unseen problem by using them together.

Accidentally rendering my own armor useless would award me major dumb points. I can't brag about being a super-intelligent dragon if I'm willing to risk calling myself 'le estúpido' so easily.

I imagine one of my dragons saying 'Hey, le estúpido, you left the gas on and the fireplace is blazin'. Do you want me to add TNT?' And I'd go: 'Sure! Sounds lit AF.'

...

Annnd I just facepalmed at my own terrible joke. How can I be a cool dragon with such a terrible sense of humor?

...

I dismiss my floating mirror.

I've also discovered my current status is weaker than a Rank 1 god. Much weaker. Turns out, I've been absorbing that Rank 3 god's stats ever since I consumed the defication token. It pushed me past the limit of Demigod, which allowed those stats to finally merge into my body.

I've realized: individual stat points? Useless. The real value is in the stat exponent. Hence, the reason I decided to alter my stat panel to show the exponent directly.

An immortal has a stat exponent of five to ten. So, from 100,000 stats to 10,000,000,000— that's an immortal. Demigod is literally everything after that. Which is because gods have some other requirement I'm not clear about.

In short, it's possible to still be a Demigod yet have more raw stats than any rank of god. The disadvantages are that Demigods can't ascend, and they also can't defend their minds against a god's mental attacks.

Which wasn't really a problem for me, but... I'm starting to think I'm something of a unique case. As in, everything I do is an exception to the rule.

Reh, dragons break logic. No surprise there.

But that means my earlier concern was accurate. My huge decillion stats, wild though they may seem, would be squashed under even a mid-strength Demigod.

As for gods, Rank 1 is from 100 to 5,000 stat exponent. Not 1,000 stats. We're talkin' a one followed by a thousand zeros. Can my 30 stat exponent touch that? No freakin' way. Myself and a real Rank 1 god are on completely different levels.

So.

How in the hell did I beat a Rank 3 god? I don't have any idea how stats work after Rank 1, but it looks like he should've utterly crushed me. Erah, then again, considering he did actually do that, greh.

Is there a limitation to their ability to descend? There must be, because otherwise there's no way I should've been able to fight him. 'Wham, bam, thank you ma'am' is about all he should've needed to do to splatter my existence into individual atoms. Which may not have killed me outright, but I presume sealing what you can't kill is still on the table. Then again, just because void abilities make me stronger, doesn't mean I should become arrogant. Perhaps after I got sealed they'd call in someone else to finish me off.

Reah. I can't fight another of those gods right now. But believe me, gods! I know you can't hear me because of Pure Evil. Still, believe me! I'm gonna eatcha. Because...

I'mma dragon! Rawr.

###ROOOOOAAARRRRR###

(~KKKKZZSSTZZTT~)

Having some of my talents always active doesn't make my voice weird, thankfully. I don't want to go back to that again. It does mess with the Mana when I roar, though. Rather than a shaking or screeching sound, it sounds like a series of computer glitches. It's not scary or oppressive. Even when I hear it, I think: 'what the hell is that?'

Whelp, it's me.

Hello!