[Humanize (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Mother and I sat down on the floor where she asked me to transform to my [Humanize Lv. 1] form with her. Now looking like two complete humanoid lizardmen with wings and horns, Mother’s scales suddenly brightened up in color before they started floating up in the air. Her silver dust followed them, flying and moving above us like water.

I marveled at how pretty it looked. Controlling your scales and silver dust with impeccable control. It was like telekinesis. However, when I looked back down to ask Mother how to do that, I noticed how she still had scales on her arms and legs. They should have been bare and naked. I mean, where did the scales over my head come from?

“Are you curious?” Mother asked. Just like Yorshka, Mother could speak in her full dragonewt form, explaining that I just needed to be in the form more often to practice speaking so I didn’t need to rely on [Telepathy] to speak in the future. The wyverns had the same problem.

In any case, I nodded to Mother’s question.

“This is why I made you focus on learning how to shed, Hestia. Molting is the basis of this ability. We might call it scale control, but the truth of this technique is that we only use the oldest layer of our scales..”

[“Ah, that makes sense. If you were to peel off your scales, that would leave you vulnerable at that naked spot? A perfect place to attack.”]

“Exactly. What good technique would leave you vulnerable for an extended time? Scales are to dragons what influence and power are to humans. We don’t like losing them. However, a single layer of our carapace that will molt away a week later? Even then, dragon scales are tougher than metal.”

[“And you can simply eat the shed scales up after the fight. No waste, and you don’t hand them over accidentally to your enemies.”]

I’ve shed my scales three times at this point. Every single time, I had to eat that bland, molted skin. I was thinking of frying them, but Mother said to not cook the scales, as it reduced the nutrients. Thankfully, I could add condiments to aid the taste, but Mother just lectured me on not being picky with food.

I’m not that picky.

In any case, Mother began her teachings.

“To control your scales for combative usage, you will need to master molting, mana control, and manipulation of your element, so [Pyrokinesis] for you as well as [Draconic Aura].”

[“[Draconic Aura]? That seems… random?”]

“Not at all, Hestia. Why do you think it’s called [Draconic Aura]? It’s exactly because only dragonkins may use it.” Mother smirked. “But, seriously, we need this ability since, without it, controlling all these scales would require massive amounts of attention to control perfectly.”

True. Looking at the thousand scales still hovering above, I could imagine how seriously annoying it would be. I would have to dedicate multiple parallel minds to use it effectively, probably making the skill useless outside of practice.

“However, our aura isn’t just some pressure to intimidate or scare off overconfident hunters, it is also our field of dominance. Like a fire attracting fireflies, or treasure luring in greedy adventurers. To us dragonkins, our aura attracts and empowers our elemental alignment.”

[“Like gravity? Oh, wait, maybe it’s like Saori’s twin catalysts? We made it from the electro sac of a lightning wyvern who could control an electromagnetic field.”]

“Hmm, in essence, yes. The stronger your [Draconic Aura], the further you can control your scales.”

Mother then began displaying examples of this ability, using her scales to instantly form a protective dome around us before transforming it into a spike that froze anything it touched. Her control over her scales was completely flawless, even able to move the scales into individual units all while she explained how she was doing it.

“It’s about linking your mana with your scales in a similar manner to using [Delayed Cast] or [Continuous Cast]. However, you will leave the movements to your [Pyrokinesis] skill, I mean, [Volcanic Blaze] skill. It’s all about your elemental control. You need to control fire as if it’s another limb. Fire control must come to you so naturally, you can dance and sing with your flames through the night without rest.”

[“… I mean, I’m confident in my ability, but through a whole night? That’s a bit rough for my mind, Mother.”]

“And that is why it’s called training, no? It’s supposed to be hard so you can reap the benefits for it later on. Just be glad that Aurena enhanced your [Pyrokinesis] into a unique skill. That should make it easier on you. Just think of this as furthering your mage training while benefiting your dragon side. Of course, when we do this, we will do it in your dragon form. You need to get better acquainted with it.”

Mother’s scales then flew under her, carrying her up like a flying carpet before moving her away from me. It was a signal. She was telling me to transform now.

Humanization.

Once the mana mist was gone, I had once again assumed my dragon form. I then moved away from the others training inside Mother’s cave, following Mother towards the opposite end of it.

“However, scale manipulation can be done any time. It’s a seamless process that requires practice over weeks and months or maybe even years. You need time to master it. And you need to train it every day for as often as you can. Use your scales like limbs and it will make your life easier.” Mother stopped once we arrived at the location, and turned around. “Try it now. Even if you think you can’t control your scale-dust, we should see where your limits are. I shall be your guide, my whelpling.”

And if my scales were to accidentally explode, I wouldn’t hurt anybody. Mother thought it through.

“Fire is your element, Hestia. Your scales have molted three times now, so they should be stronger and filled with more of your mana. They are fire, like your mana. Think of them as such. They are fire, and you are their master. You are the lord of inferno. To you, fire is but another pawn to dominate. Think of your scales and scale-dust as such!”

Mother’s way of explaining the process had a bit of a tyrannical or dictatorship vibe; she truly was a dragon. Her attitude fitted one. And, it certainly was clear enough for me to understand.

Like fire, huh? So I have to imagine myself being on fire… Like when I was in [Symphonie des Feuergottes]’s finale movement. My body is fire. I have to think of it as such. And now, I have to control it.

I first went through the process of molting, letting my mana flow through my whole body, repeatedly letting it seep into my skin. Once I could feel a loose layer forming above my scales, I injected more mana to speed up the process. I still had some problems with the process, but I was getting better and better while my scales felt sturdier.

“Good. Now, you must remove them, Hestia.”

I’m still at the stage of having to rely on [Unheilge Engel] to remove the molted skin, but Mother just needed to use her silver dust and her mana to do the same. To become better, I had to spread my wings. Learn more techniques.

As such, I began thinking of this skin as fire. Pure, destructive flames able to destroy the land with explosions and wildfire. However, I also knew fire could be beautiful. Like fireworks. Bright lights shining in the night like stars. And just as I used my flames for my performance’s special effect, I began controlling my scales in the same manner.

My scales are fire. They have my mana. I can control them like any other fire spell.

Just like how I used [Pyrokinesis], I expelled some of my mana outside my body, directing it towards the molted skin. Acting as if the mana was an extension of my physical body, I had it move whatever it was holding up.

With the sound of something tearing off, I looked down to see a pale red sheet slowly getting torn off from my body. Now knowing I could do it, I increased the strength of my control and peeled it all off my body. Instead of throwing it away, I imitated Mother and had my molted skin hover above me, using the method I did for all the flames I’ve used since I received [Pyrokinesis].

And there it was. My old skin, flying above me like a waving flag. I wanted to be proud. I did exactly how Mother instructed me to, but the issue was how ugly it looked. Unlike Mother’s scales, which gave the illusion of her scales coming directly from her body, mine was this ugly piece of paper. Why?

“Are you curious why there's such a difference from mine?” Mother seemed to have read my mind somehow. I nodded, as I had a feeling she knew what I was confused with. “You’ve only learned how to molt your entire outer layer as a whole, not individual scales at the same time. Instead of a unified skin sheet, you need to molt each scale individually without creating a connection between them.”

[“…”]

“Ehe~”

I felt a sudden sense of foreboding.

Training time flew by quite quickly at this point forward. Mother and I may have some quality mother-daughter time with all this training, but boy was it mentally exhausting. I did eventually manage to molt ten or twenty individual scales and move them, but I gave up on being able to control my scale-dust. There were too much to control.

Still, maybe later down the road, it might become possible, but for now I had enough to do with only twenty of the full scales, let alone the dust. It required too much focus at this point. Mother was correct that my [Draconic Aura] had some effect on my scales and fire, but I still couldn’t feel it. This gravity-like feeling wasn’t there, sadly, so I had to control my scales with my parallel minds. Which was weird, since I could control fire so much better than this.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

“Hmm, more practice should be the answer, but I think we'll test your [Volcanic Blaze] skill next time, Hestia. Unique skills are always harder to predict without using them. Have you done any tests yet, Hestia?”

I shook my head. [“With what time? I’m either training with Yorshka, taking care of my spell training, or practicing for the concert. Now, I'm training with you and Kramps. I know I should probably have checked on it sooner, but it kinda slipped my mind.”]

“Then I will help you with that on another day. I also think today is enough with the scale training. Let us not do too much and take a breather. After dinner, I wish to check on your core, Hestia.”

[Humanize (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

And with that, the training ended and we all left Mother’s cave. As a group, we went to the dining room and, along with those who weren’t preoccupied with other things, ate together. Well, it was really just Grimnir and Daichi that were busy with other things. Grimnir usually didn’t eat with everybody when he was in a working mood, not letting anything stop him, not even hunger. Daichi was probably being forced to stay.

“Welcome! Hope you all had a busy day! Food is ready!” Tamae came out of the kitchen with Svena and Josine behind her. But surprisingly, Asaka was there, too.

“Yo, some food for everybody. Eat it while it’s hot, yaaaaay.” Asaka came out with a pot full of stew, still managing to sound aloof despite her expecting face.

So, that is where she was, huh?

Freshly made food was always better. What could make it better? Eating food with your friends and family.

“Ahhhhh, so tiring,” Kohaku complained while gouging down her food. “After this, I need a shower and bath.”

“How are you tired after training with me all the time, Kohaku? You need to toughen up a bit,” Yorshka scolded her at the dining table. “Your Stamina should be high enough to endure it, so stop complaining. It spoils the food after we all broke a good sweat.”

“What?! Come on, Dame Yorshka, I just want to complain a bit. Let out some stress, nothing big. Hmph!”

“She’s right,” Kyouya agreed. “You know, now that I think about it, our training has been quite hard ever since you came back from visiting your family in Firwood to drop off those [Room] runes. Did something happen?”

“What? No, nothing serious happened really. I just think that all of you need to train more and get stronger, so I’m just increasing the amount. I thought you kids would have appreciated it.”

“Oh?” Mother suddenly tilted her head. “Then, was the mumbling you made that other day about turning them into fine warriors to make ‘the Matriarch proud of me,’ false?”

“W-Wha—?! M-Matriarch, you shouldn’t eavesdrop on others! That’s really rude!”

“““Hahaha!”””

The more the merrier, they say. While our company getting bigger did have some small problems, mostly funds and some disputes, it did bring in a larger amount of people to spend time with. With all these people around, the dynamic of the group began to change.

“No, no, Beth. You need to hold the utensils like this.” Ellaine was showing the snow wyvern twins proper etiquette.

Seeing Mother show some impeccable table manners from her years of living, the wyverns wanted to emulate her like two ducklings following their mother. Of course, I knew it actually was the reverence of the wyverns for dragons, but it certainly was pretty close. It also helped that Mother was the greatest ice dragon in the world, a great role model for snow wyverns.

“Oh no, Shay! You must eat slower, otherwise you will create a mess” Josine and Svena were also helping them, seeing as those three were the most used to proper manners. Then again, most of the company knew how to eat properly and not like a slob, so I guess anybody could have done that… Maybe not Grimnir.

[“This is difficult.”] The brother, Shayatierus, expressed his disappointment.

[“Eating with our winged arms isn’t very comfortable.”] Bethlieranha, the younger sister, agreed with her brother and told us one of their problems.

“I see. However, progress can only be made if you put in the effort. Hold up your tail, and keep on the path, younglings!” Mother encouraged the twins, causing them to nod their wyvern heads vigorously.

This is the happiness I want to preserve.

After dinner was done, everybody aside from Mother and I went to the hot spring. Instead, the two of us returned to her cave to begin the repairs of my sun core. I assumed my dragon form once again and looked down at my cracked core.

Thanks to Mother, I wasn’t crippled in any way thanks to my shoddy care of it, but it couldn’t be called healed either. Mother got rid of the cracks, but I also saw some purple stones deep inside it — pieces of my corrosive obsidian. 'Cause of this damage, I had pretty much forbidden myself from using [Solar Beam] or overusing it until I was confident it wouldn’t break.

Otherwise, the core worked the same as usual. Less efficiency, but I could still manage my body temperature and transform solar energy into nutrients. Thankfully, I didn’t cripple myself again.

“I’ve already said this before, but the only way to repair your solar core is to remove the current one and to create an entirely new one. Do you understand, Hestia?” Mother told me and I nodded.

[“Yeah… but what exactly does that entail? I know it’s my second heart, but what consequences will there be for removing it? Will I lose my ability to use solar energy?”]

“Not entirely, if my familiarity with solar energy monsters also applies to you.”

Essentially, from losing my solar core, I would lose the ability to store solar energy into my core and, subsequently, temporarily lose access to [Solar Beam]. Without a core, I would also have no way to properly regulate my body heat while I’m using [Symphonie des Feuergottes].

However, Mother told me that my ability to turn solar energy into Health, Mana, Stamina, and nutrients shouldn't be gone. I was like a plant, a photosynthesizer. My core wasn’t responsible for the process, but my individual cells.

Now, that didn’t mean I was a complete plant. I don’t think I produced oxygen like one and still expelled a ton of CO2, but the way I gained energy was similar. As such, even if I were to lose my core, I could still benefit from being a sunfang dragon.

[“If it’s about regulating my body heat, I could probably use my catalyst for that job. It’s made to transform heat into mana, so I can probably have it take over that job,”] I informed Mother, and she agreed.

“However, what you can’t replace will be the solar energy storage. Your body can store minimal amounts in your scale, but not enough to use it for a power boost. Hmmm, and also don’t think about using the broken core to make a catalyst, Hestia. It’s broken, so the quality of the catalyst will most likely be below the one you made with the volchark heart.”

Mother knew how to think like an adventurer from her time with the elves and humans 2000 years ago. Alchemy creating a catalyst to support a mage? Yeah, that existed back then as well, so it was common sense to Mother. She was starting to think like an adventurer for my sake.

[“Hehe,”] I laughed nervously after getting caught by Mother. [“Well, I had thought of using my core to make additional catalysts. It would help out the mages in our group.”]

“You are generous, but Hestia, regrowing a mana core usually takes a few weeks to finish. The process is long since the structure of a mana core is complicated, and yours will probably require even more time. Without one, you only have one heart left, so if something were to happen to your flesh heart, you will most likely die.”

[“How long will it take?”]

“About three or four weeks, probably.” I was stunned. “However, the process is pitifully easy compared to learning how to manipulate your scales, Hestia. It’s like a wound. Your mana seeps out and recreates it automatically. There is no problem there; the problem lies in removing your current one.”

[“… I assume it’s because the core is attached to my nervous or whatever system, right?”] Mother nodded. I hit the nail right on its head. [“So, tearing it off forcefully will probably hurt me in some way. That’s why overloading my core is so dangerous to me.”]

Using [Mana Eyes] on myself, I could see veins full of mana flowing from the core to the rest of my body, looking pretty much like my heart in this case. No kidding, it really was my second heart.

“I won’t say I know too much about your biology, Hestia. However, I can tell from instincts and the flow of your mana that we need to take it off carefully. I’ll help you with it. All you need to do is cut off the mana connection to your solar core.”

[“Cut it?”]

“Yes, your mana paths. It’s easy. You’ve done it multiple times today already.”

I thought about it, before quickly landing on what she meant. [“Do you mean simple mana control? Like my molting? Should I just reverse the flow of mana and then pour it somewhere else?”]

“Caught on quickly. That’s my whelpling. Yes. Reduce the flow of mana to your solar core and let it flow somewhere else, like to your flesh heart, wings, or pretty much anywhere else. Once the core is removed, return the flow to normal and you will slowly seep out mana to rebuild your mana core. Simple.”

‘Simple.’ Yes, it’s simple for a dragon, not for humans or beastmen.

Without further ado, I followed Mother’s instructions and did exactly what she told me I should. I slowed down the flow of mana to my chest and began to move it away. Eventually, enough mana was removed that I could create a blockage, imitating how I used to have blocked mana paths in my right wing. The feeling was similar.

Once I gave Mother the signal, she touched my core and cooled it down significantly. It stung, hard! I could feel my core activating, trying to warm up my chest but, without any mana around, it had to use up the solar energy inside it as emergency fuel instead. However, Mother kept it up until all the energy was gone. My core was empty.

“Alright, stay strong, my whelpling. This might hurt.”

Mother then touched the edges of my solar core, right next to my protective carapace. She tore the scales attached to my core quickly and efficiently, confident that this wasn’t enough to hurt me. Once that was over, however, her freezing hands returned, and this time, they let some of her silver dust seep through the edges’ crevices.

Uurgk!

I could feel a painful cold right inside my chest. Not deep within, but it had definitely penetrated through the scales and skin. And then, I felt something moving. Something foreign and uncomfortable. Something that shouldn’t have been inside me!

“Hestia.”

I began to twitch and squirm as Mother called out to me, telling me to hold still as she continued letting more of her silver dust in between my core and chest. I nodded and stood as still as I could. My claws dug into the floor and I felt the urge to let out a yelp, but by remembering the pain I’d experienced in the past, I scolded myself for acting so weak right now. Performing my breathing technique, I simply waited for the procedure to end, just like a doctor visit.

“And… done!”

And just like that, it was out.

“Alright, good work, Hestia. You can let your mana flow normally again.”

I did just as she said. As my mana flowed back to my chest, I suddenly felt some phantom pain. My body thought the mana was flowing into my solar core, but all I could see was my bare chest. No scales nor carapace. It was just my skin, only looking red like blood.

“How do you feel?”

[“… A bit empty, honestly. Like something is missing. It also feels colder, no, wait, now I feel my body temperature rising. Wow, it’s been a long, long time since I last regulated my body warmth manually. I think, before I evolved?”]

Without the sun core, managing my own temperature was now back to being a daily thing. Well, I had enough practice when I was still a C rank, so this wouldn’t be too bad. Still, I did feel a bit like a cripple similar to when my wing was damaged. Well, it’s my fault in this case, so I’ll just take this as a chance to learn and heal.

[Humanize (Moderate)] inflicted on [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]

Once I was back to being a dragonewt, I opened up my shirt and checked my chest. As expected, my sun core was missing and it had the same emptiness feeling there as in my dragon form. I let out a sigh.

“Thanks, Mother. I’m glad you helped me.” I gave her a genuine smile. She’s been helping whenever she was needed, never complaining about it. How could I not appreciate all she had done for me and our company?

“No problem, my treasure. Mother is always here to give you a hand. Now, do be careful when you enter Estralia. You are still pretty strong for your age and you should have gotten even sturdier with your molting, but don’t go around and overexert yourself. I really don’t want you to force me to take you back to Miononbolax.”

It seemed like Mother wasn't as inclined to leave. Did my concert help change her mind?

“Sure, I won’t. Well, I guess this might be a good time to take it slow and just let Saori and the others handle stuff. Oh! Or, I’ll just learn how to throw a meteor at people~ Hahahahaha!”

“Meteor?”

Once again, Mother showed me that there was still so much I had to learn. But, for now, I’ll just take a dip in the hot spring with her.