“S-Shed? But, I’ve been shedding my scales all this time. I thought you would be teaching me how to groom my scales?”

Dragon caves were large, according to Mother. I guess it would make sense since Mother’s real size was large enough to cast a shadow over a whole neighborhood and tower over Griffonpeak’s wall if my friends weren’t exaggerating. As such, Mother wanted her room inside the subspace to be large enough for her to transform in.

Naturally, creating such a large room demanded insane amounts of mana that even I would not be able to provide in one sitting, if I didn’t have Mother’s aid. Sharing her mana with me, the room quickly expanded, but at the same time, I was completely baffled at how deep her mana pool was. It felt like a bottomless pit was pouring mana into me. Mother showed absolutely no signs of exhaustion, even after we were done with her room.

Sadly, rooms made in the subspace were mostly wooden colored, as in, the floor, walls, and ceiling seemed like they were painted with wood. Similar to a dungeon, the outside walls and floors were indestructible, so the only way to morph it was to use even more mana. My jaw dropped to the floor at how much Mother leisurely gave me, and the only reason we had to split the room expansion into two sessions was due to arcane corruption.

My arcane corruption, to be specific. I was still spending mana, after all, even if it wasn’t mine. And I was practically immune to Arcane Corruption at this point!

So, Mother’s cave was finished. Outside of freezing the ceiling with her silver powder to create a cave with diamond-shimmering ice crystals, she hadn’t decorated it. She only used it to sleep in.

“Hestia, if you have already forgotten about it, we are dragons. You are not human anymore nor are you a dragonewt. As dragons, we need to take care of our dragon bodies. Our grooming will then be transferred over to our humanoid forms,” Mother responded to my confusion. “What you call ‘shedding’ is just your scales falling off to be replaced by younger ones. We dragons molt our skins.”

“Oh, just like lizards and reptiles?”

I should have figured, but when I pointed that out, Mother suddenly showed me a sinister smile.

“My whelping… comparing us mighty dragonkins to a lesser being like a reptile? No, no, no. You must take pride in yourself, Hestia. We are not ‘like’ reptiles, we are above them. Do you understand?”

“… Yes, Mother.” Her eyes told me I had no choice but to accept it. Goes to show that “superior” beings don’t want to be compared to their “lesser” kin. Just like with dragons and wyverns.

Speaking of the wyverns…

“I see, so you control the frost sacs close to your lungs to produce your ice breath. How do you control the temperature? Mana?”

Tasianna was currently training with the two snow wyverns. Mother accepted Tasianna as her student after the latter asked her to do so, seeing as strengthening my friends would indirectly protect me. Conveniently, Mother was pretty much the epitome of cryomancy in this world right now.

Since Mother had to teach me how to be a better dragon first, she gave Tasianna a quick demonstration of her power and told her to train with the snow wyverns. In her words, “They are still young, but lesser dragonkins like wyverns are not to be underestimated if they decide to focus on a single element. They will provide valuable knowledge if you can understand them.”

“A hatchling grows larger quickly, all for the sake of survival. However, Hestia, since you were born as a G rank and evolved and grew so fast into a B rank over the span of a single year, you have been growing ‘normally’ despite not molting at all.” Mother then pulled my hand up and pointed at some dark-looking scales on them. “It’s easy to see which of your scales have lost their luster from age. Their color has dulled and they aren’t glistening with mana.”

I looked at the ones Mother showed me but I couldn’t exactly follow her. “Really? Shouldn’t they be harder since they got older? It has the same color as my carapace. I thought it was good.”

I mean, stories always say that the older a dragon’s scales become, the harder and more valuable they become. Shouldn’t this be the case, too?

Mother frowned, looking at me with confusion. “… Is this what you’ve been taught from your old world? Does Earth have any actual dragons at all? How can they teach something if they do not know if it's true or not?”

Mother deduced that quickly. Guess you shouldn’t believe everything from a single source, huh?

“No, dragon scales become stronger the more they regrow and are bathed in your mana. Your body adapts to your stats and the threats you face, so it’s imperative that you molt your old scales as often as possible. The more full your scales are with your mana, the stronger they and your scale-dust will become.”

That was weird. I had thought that my stats would apply to my whole body, so Vitality and Wisdom would not only increase the resistances of my bones but also my scales. That’s what I thought during all my fights. But now Mother told me that was wrong?

Seeing me still unable to understand, Mother nodded. “That’s alright. Dragons, like all monsters, usually know about the System and our body’s needs through instincts, but I guess your human mind suppressed it slightly. Allow me to demonstrate it. But first, Saori~ Could you transform back into your original form with my daughter?”

“Of course.”

Accompanying me today through this lesson was also Saori, since she also needed to learn how to groom her body. I guess since her garm mother was dead, Mother was kinda substituting as one. It also was convenient that Saori became a lesser dragonkin after I gave her my blood to drink.

After we both transformed back into our proper forms, I was glad that Mother’s room was large enough to fit both of us. Still, just from the looks of it, we were nowhere near as large as Mother could be, if the cave’s size was to be believed. At this point, curiosity for her actual form started to intrigue me.

When I expressed that to Mother, she smiled brightly, almost as if she was waiting for this request of mine. After telling everybody to make some space, she announced, “Hum! Hum! Witness your mother’s magnificence, Hestia!” before the mana mist expelled from her body like a bomb.

Not only did it cover her body, but it grew to what seemed like the size of a football stadium. She’s fricking huge! Like, the mist alone was enough to dwarf me even while I was dragoning around!

Just seeing how much it spread really made me glad I listened to Mother and made the—

Oh shit!

Pressure. A whole lot of pressure suddenly burst out in the middle of the mana mist, growing stronger and stronger with every second. The temperature quickly fell below zero, forcing my body to release a suppressed [Dreadflare Aura] to counter it, restoring it to slightly below room temperature.

But in the next second, this pressure stabilized and the cold disappeared as quickly as it came. Still, even if it felt easier to stay around, my instincts had already been spurned by that immense power. Like in the abyss of an ocean; my mind couldn’t comprehend the true depths of the mana source in front of me.

At first, it was like an exploding current. Now, all this mana felt like being inside a tranquil lake. Soothing even; that is something I could understand. When two glistening wings sprouted from the mana mist and blew it all away, the surprise of Mother’s true form wasn’t shocking to me. With that one display of power, I could gauge what my reaction to it would be.

Mesmerizing.

Silvery scales glistening like gemstones under the light, snow-like particles floating around before forming into icicle armor, and two turquoise eyes staring down at me with slight anxiousness.

[“I apologize. I was a bit too eager. Were any of you hurt?”] Mother’s voice resounded through our heads, worry clear to hear.

I turned around, letting a sigh out that Tasianna, Saori, and the wyverns weren’t hurt. I deactivated my [Dreadflare Aura] and shook my head, calming her down.

As Mother asked me how she looked, I couldn’t help but focus on how huge she was. Probably the second largest being I’d ever seen in this world, since Kargryxmor was in number one. However, the latter was a god. Mother was probably even larger than the leviathan I met in the Belzac forest.

I then flapped my wings and flew up to her head, noticing how my whole body was only as large as her head, and I was larger than a two-story house. But seconds later, her silver powder formed into a single icicle horn, ruining my size comparison.

[“It is normal for a dragon parent to give their child a ride on them as they fly. Would you like to sit on me as I do so outside, my whelping?”] she said.

[“Mother, please, you’re gonna embarrass me here. Please, don’t. Also, if you start flying around, you’re just gonna scare everybody,”] I quickly rejected her offer, disappointing her.

I mean, I could understand why a kid needed to sit on their dragon parent’s back to keep up with their flight speed, but I’m not gonna do it for leisure, okay! It’s like giving your teenage daughter a piggyback ride!

After I was done looking at Mother’s form, I did have to admit that I shared quite a few features with her. Well, we even shared them in our dragonewt forms but the fact she had a different face and was a high elf kinda ruined the whole mother-daughter thing for me at first. N-Not to speak ill of adopted children, though.

But, in any case, now? Well, now, I could see our familiarity. Mother was correct to say that our dragon forms would resemble each other since this was our correct form. Our humanoid ones were made using our minds, what we wanted to look like. My current dragonewt appearance was made using my subconscious knowledge of my past self, so it couldn’t be helped that Mother and I looked so different outside of our dragon features.

Our horns, carapace, claws, and tail were shared, in addition to the fact that I was quadrupedal like her, and not standing on two legs like Kargryxmor, and presumably my dragon father. On the other hand, our wings had different shapes, my scales were edgier than hers, my head was bulkier due to my jaw plate, and a couple of other traits. Still, I inherited quite a bit aside from my scale-dust.

So, it kinda soothed my heart to see her true form right now. It made me finally realize that this was my mother. That we were blood-related. I knew nothing she told me could have been a lie, but I still had some doubts inside — that same wish to reject her. But, like the cold disappearing during spring, I felt like I was beginning to warm up more to Mother.

[“Thank you, Mother,”] I told her earnestly, returning to the ground, where I saw the snow wyverns bowing and tucking their tails between their legs. A sign of respect, I presume?

[“You are always welcome, my whelping.”] Mana mist then exuded from her body and she transformed back into her dragonewt form. She then looked at Saori and me. “Now, it is time to help you two with your grooming sessions.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

You would think the older a dragon got, the less they needed to molt, and you would be correct. Mother had her molting session soon, but due to her size, it would take a bit for the process to finish. As such, she would demonstrate the process to us through the scales on her forearms.

“The procedure is relatively easy once you know. Usually, parents would show and aid their hatchlings as they shed for the first time, but since your draconic instincts were suppressed in your respective situations, I will show you how.”

[“Well, Melloxtressa, you do know I was not born as a dragonkin, right? I expected Hestia’s blood to change me, but not into a dragonkin,”] Saori brought up.

“Oh, yes, of course. However, it is your fault now that you are a dragonkin, Saori. Sadly, not a true one, but you will still need to molt since you have scales underneath your fur. Do not worry, I know of dragons who have feathers and fur, so I understand how to help you through the process.”

Saori told me before that Mother told Saori to shed her old fur in her garm form. Like as mentioned, any grooming done to our original form would also influence our humanized ones. However, it didn’t work as efficiently the other way around.

As Mother moved Saori’s fur around to reveal the scales beneath them, I took this chance to observe Saori’s body more in detail. Just like her race’s name mentioned, her scales were colored black like the river Styx, glimmering slightly under the light. The carapace she had on her legs, though, were tougher and could shock you from the static electricity in her white fur.

[“How do you shed your fur, anyway, Saori? Don’t you do that all the time?”] I asked.

[“You are thinking of dogs, Hestia. I shed like a wolf, so it’s better to call it molting, in a way. In large bundles and clumps. However, the issue is that my fur is tough and gets hung up in my scales. Either I need to comb or have Tasianna wash me and then shake it off one by one.”]

“A monster’s body parts are always filled to the brim with their mana; that’s why humanoids are so, so, so greedy to make armor and weapons out of them. But, like our scales, Saori needs to shed them as often as possible to gain an outer fur coat worthy of her current stats. As I said, you two need to take better care of your bodies. Your real bodies.”

Mother insinuated that the armor and weapons we made up until now from our materials weren’t as strong as we thought they would be. Was there an even higher height for them even without evolving? Maybe, but we would need to reforge them. Thankfully, Grimnir could do that.

“Alright, now observe, you two.”

Mother stretched her arm forward. “Unlike reptiles, a dragonkin’s old skin is stuck to our new scales until we forcibly remove the outer layer. For our own protection. Yes, two layers are stronger than one, but that prevents you from regrowing a new one.”

Mother then breathed in for a moment before she mentioned moving her mana to her arm. As she did so, I wanted to activate [Mana Eyes] to see what’s going on, but my parallel minds quickly reminded me of the last time I used it on her, which strained my eyes until they bled. So, I held my urge back and simply observed.

At first, nothing was going on with Mother’s scales, but after a few seconds, the scales began wiggling slightly around, as if they were trembling. Saori and I could feel mana being released from her body. Even her dragon pheromones smelled more potent than usual.

“Always molt in a safe area. The mana attracts hunters… Which would be a good tip if you were actually hatchlings. In your case, use more mana during a molting session to intimidate potential threats away.” Mother’s want to provide motherly advice sadly wasn’t as successful here.

In any case, Mother continued explaining the process, “Circulate your mana throughout the area you wish to molt, and continuously inject more and more into your skin. At this point, you should be able to feel a loose layer above your scales. This is the skin you must shed. Continue the process until you see the skin loosen. If your scales are wiggling and letting mana escape, you are doing it correctly.”

And as Mother said, the color of her scales changed into something like baking paper — pale and slightly translucent. As she continued, more and more changed color until she was satisfied. Telling us she was still circulating her mana around her arm, she then used wind magic to create a larger gap between the shed skin and her scales, before using her silver powder to rip it off completely.

Holding her shed skin with a business-like-usual smile, she told us to look at her arm. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, but once again Mother proved to me that my knowledge about my own body was severely lacking. Not only did her scales look even shinier, they actually looked like crystals. No, like diamonds! Like actual, clear, light-refracting diamonds!

[“Hold on, are your scales actually diamonds, Mother? I know you are called a [Diamond-Powder Fimbulvetr Dragon], but I thought it only described your silver powder.”]

“They aren’t, of course.” But Mother quickly brought me back to reality. “A dragon’s scales embody your mana’s element. Mine is ice, as I said before. As such, they look and shine like the clearest crystals while being harder than any diamonds in the world. A single scale could fetch an empire’s wealth. If you want, we could solve your wealth problems, however…”

[“Dragons should not give their scales out freely,”] Saori ended Mother’s sentence. [“Hestia, remember how Cernust told you how dragons only give their scales to those they trust? This is the same type of gesture, I believe.”]

Dragons disliked prying off their scales since that would weaken them, and would only do something like this if they trusted the other. It was also a sign of respect and loyalty. Yes, I could probably ask Mother for a scale for some larger amounts of money, but it would also be like spitting in her face if I did so. What kinda daughter would do that to somebody who’s trying to give all her love to you?

After Mother gave me a quick reminder of this, she then began eating her shed skin. Saori and I flinched from how cringy this action was, but Mother thought of it as normal. While we thought it was similar to eating your hair, dragons consume their shed skin to restore lost nutrients and mana stored in it. It was recycling, in other words. I didn’t know dragons were so ecologically aware.

After that, Mother told us it was our turn, so we began following her instructions. First, circulating mana throughout our bodies and letting it into our scales to remove the outer layer of skin. Now I understand why dragons were born with [Mana Control]. They needed this skill for molting.

However, compared to what Mother did, we had to do our entire bodies. And since we weren’t as proficient as her, we required quite a long process to do so. There was also the problem that Mother just told us about — our scales were too old from our lack of proper care. We had trouble shedding the outer layer with the inner one, and we were forced to repeat the process more than Mother anticipated.

In Saori’s case, her fur also was a problem. Sure, she shed it a few weeks ago, but due to our neglect, some of the old fur was stuck in between the scales that fell off. That caused trouble with creating the shed skin.

Honestly, I never would have expected this to be so problematic. More and more surprised. We were taking so long that Tamae came into the room and asked if we were coming for dinner. Sadly, Mother told me we had to finish the shedding sessions otherwise that shed skin would get stuck into the next layer.

It was a vicious cycle. It was better to do it now and eat later. To sate my hunger, I was using solar energy as the alternative. This was my punishment.

[“Argh, damn! My spikes and carapace aren’t coming off!”] I complained.

[“Another patch of fur tangled around my scales…”] Saori looked defeated.

“Enough complaining, you two! This is your fault! You must persevere!” Mother scolded us.

“Lady Hestia! Miss Saori! You can do it!” Tasianna cheered us on.

Even the two snow wyverns were acting like cheerleaders.

[“The process is important. Do well, Princess!”]

[“Yes. All hatchlings must learn how to do it.”]

The problem was that they demonstrated their shedding to us, thinking they could be good role models, but it only killed my self-confidence even more!

Fucking hell! I will never neglect this shit ever again! Never again!

It took us deep into the night, but we finally managed to do it. Our whole bodies, from head to tail, managed to shed the outer skin layer. Mother inspected us, noticing nothing lacking and told us it was time to take it off.

“The process for us dragons is easy. This is also a chance for the both of you to practice controlling your draconic abilities better. Instead of using your claws to scrape it off or using a wall to scratch your body, you should use your scale-dust and stygian lightning.”

Dragons take pride in being able to control their scales perfectly, so I guess this is what Mother was referring to. I don’t know what my scale-dust had to do with my scales, but I guess it would be better to have them handle it than to do it manually. The fastest way would be to—

“Oh, and do not forget, you must eat your shed skin for the process to work perfectly. Do not burn it off~”

… She was onto us. 100%.

Without further ado, I began the removal by copying what Mother did. First, I used wind magic to create a large gap between the shed skin, but this was where it got a bit finicky. Unlike Mother’s control of her silver powder, I wasn’t able to telekinetically control my scale-dust outside of setting them ablaze. I could fan them towards something with my wings or wind magic, but there was a reason why I had Grimnir make a glaive gun for me, meant to shoot scale-dust bullets.

Mother told me to pour mana into them just like how Tasianna controlled her ice blades, but even after trying it over and over again with her instructions, I still couldn’t do it. At this point, I told her I was giving up on this idea for now, since the skin was annoying my eyes. As such, I used something more comparable to Tasianna’s control.

[Corrosive Fire], to be specific, my corrosive slime and obsidian.

Unheilige Engel!

Two purple slime wings appeared from a magic circle behind me before I had them turned into obsidian. Using them like chopsticks, I slowly began removing patches of shed skin from myself. Mother nodded her head in satisfaction, telling me this was also acceptable. At least, I wasn’t doing it with my claws like a reptile… Her words, not mine.

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Hellblade Dragon Lv. 3] evolved into [Hellblade Dragon Lv. 4]

The moment that notification appeared, my eyes widened as I marveled at how bright red my scales were. There were still spots of crimson around, but it just seemed as if my body brightened up like a light bulb. Scales like rubies, I tell you. I felt like a ruby being revealed to the world.

“How do you like it, Hestia? It’s already darkening a bit since it’s ‘old’ skin due to your molting neglect, but it’s beautiful, right? My little beautiful fire!” Mother embraced my front foot, unable to control her tail from caressing me.

[“… Mother, please, stop trying to embarrass me here! I know I look far better than before but you don’t have to say it so loudly!”]

Loving mothers in any world know how to fluster their children.

As I was working through this embarrassment of my own mother nuzzling her head on my leg, I turned around to see Saori having some difficulty with her shedding. Not only did she not have access to wind spells, but her fur was proving to be an obstacle. Even her lightning wasn't proving itself as helpful as usual.

Mother noticed this and stopped hugging my leg and went over to Saori. “Fur and plumage aren’t convenient for shedding, since you don’t want to remove them from the root. Hmm, if you can’t use wind magic, couldn’t you use your lightning to create a magnetic field? Bounce the skin away?”

[“I don’t think that would work. My catalyst and armguards could create a proper magnetic force, but my stygian lightning isn’t the same. Also, ‘bounce your skin away’?”] Saori looked confused. [“Hmm, well, if I have to bounce this shed skin away, then maybe I could— Oh, right! That would work! Shadow Armament!”]

Saori’s shadow armor materialized underneath her shed skin, making her look a bit like a cheap plastic toy right now. As she began to expand the armor, the skin was naturally pushed outward, until she was finally finished.

“Congratulations on your first molts, Lady Hestia! Miss Saori!” Tasianna congratulated us.

I smirked and took the compliment with pride, despite how normal this was for dragons. To me, this was a new experience despite driving me insane with its difficulty.

“Yes, it is good to celebrate your first molting, you two! Now, for the future, please do not forget to groom yourselves regularly. You may use my cave to do so even when I am asleep. I will most likely sleep through it, unfortunately,” Mother told us, and we could only agree.

I did it ‘cause this molting was actually legit. Not only did my scales gain an amazing luster, I also felt more flexible and “free.” You know how it was important to allow your skin to breathe and how breathable clothes were important for workouts? Yeah, I guess you could say this was the same case. I felt far more comfortable being in my body.

I did check on my stats if anything changed with them, but sadly nothing did. It should have been expected, I guess. This wasn’t a process to increase your stats, this was a method to have your body adapt better to your profile!

And it felt gooooood! I swore to myself to create an urge for shedding and to do so when I was free, but Mother told me she will manage my shedding schedule for now, until I get into the groove.

Since it was past midnight, we all went to sleep hungry; Saori and I were mentally exhausted. Hunger was not fatigue’s opponent.

Once morning came, I decided on putting my dance training off for now, ‘cause it seemed I got addicted to all this dragon improving stuff. Mother still hadn’t told me how to control my scales, groom them, nor other things I wanted to ask her. I wanted to learn more about my body.

But I guess the actual reason why I came to her today was due to something else. Something coming from far higher than the sky.

Melloxtressa, how dare you speak like that to your Emperor and God! I am Kargryxmor, the one who ruled it all! You dare speak in that tone towards me!!!

“You are not my Emperor anymore, God! Eltharion is now the rightful Emperor! Unlike you, he stayed with us and fought to bring back peace to our empire! All you did was to take away all the elder scales and bring them to relax in the divine realm! You betrayed us!”

Today, we would be playing Family Feud.