Under the guise of a stormy night, and the protection of a few cloaked guards, a stealthily-dressed man left the capital of Remelo and headed to a powerful forest directly west of it. None of the guards made a fuss in the light rain, in fact, the water simply slid right off their clothes as though made of metal.
No one dared make a noise, even their footsteps were silent when traversing rocky gravel or the muddy puddles littered about. With an astounding speed comparable to purebred racehorses, it did not take long for the group to arrive at their destination, an almost sacred forest in Remelo.
Once at its border, the guards took refuge under some grand trees with glittering gold leaves while the stealthy man lowered the hood on his cloak to wander within. Following some markings of his forefathers, he entered the forest’s depths without finding himself lost. To the locals, this was called The Labyrinthian Forest, or more simply, The Forest of Mazes.
After passing through one maze, you only then discovered it was merely one corner of an even grander puzzle. Yet the quiet man, with astoundingly handsome looks, simply passed through maze after maze with no issue. Finally, the layers of illusions passed and he took the final step, passing through a thin film which separated the world from a powerful plane.
The moment he stepped through, the raining stormy forest instantly transformed to a cloudy mountain. Winds approaching tornadoes swept the surroundings, threatening to throw him off a thin trail leading up to a massive tower piercing into the clouds.
This was it. The home of the nation’s protector, a solitary man who did not care for politics, wealth, nor luxuries beyond normal means…
Only information mattered, as well as resources to seek out that information.
His body endured the violent winds and slowly walked up to the giant tower, two giant wooden doors remained closed in his presence, and two stone statues twitched as he knelt down in front.
A person of his status having to bow… What an unimaginable idea to so many. But in front of absolute power he had no choice.
The two statues twitched, their fingers moving first before both heads snapped round to focus on him. From the two large pedestals on which they sat, he saw them both stand and summon large halberds from a dimensional space. Just one of these halberd-wielding statues could kill him.
“I have come seeking the presence of Sage Phrillax. Under the blood of Remelo’s first king, I beseech your opinion and consultation,” he spoke clearly and with sincerity. He did not intend to take up too much of this man’s time, knowing better than to waste the lifeforce of a dying man.
Both doors soon opened, and both statues returned to their sitting spots. The king stood up and entered the tower. No self-respecting wizard installed stairs to traverse their tower, and instead he saw a teleporter waiting to take him to the person he so rarely called upon. But today he needed the help, so much more desperately than any other day.
A flash of light filled the room as the array activated, instantly sending him up tens of floors until he arrived at the 86th one. Where the Sage he sought out sat reading a thick tome in front of a fireplace, the burning wood diffused the fresh scent of walnut and caramel, while a stick of incense seemingly cleared his mind to unnaturally high levels.
Products capable of doing so to a Mythril rank warrior are incredibly expensive.
Even by his kingly standards.
“You have sought me out regarding the chaos brewing in your kingdom?” He didn’t look up while reading, having seen enough himself to understand the problem.
“Yes, Sage Phrillax. My daughter was framed for murder. Now a duke, three viscounts, and a dozen barons are all dead… The Gentry and several Marquisses are considering a separation as they have yet to receive any attacks. And just north of here!” He was about to explain the horrific situation in the Evelard mountain range when the Sage cut him off.
“Someone is inciting rebellion, and they are extremely powerful. Whether wealth or personal power, I have yet to see, but it is a problem you will have to deal with. As for those mountains… We no longer have a right to possess them.” The words left the king in sadness, knowing he’d have to give up on so much just to survive this current impasse. Politically, the people still supported his rule, it was the nobles who proved an issue at the moment.
Still, he at least wanted to fight for the great natural resource on his border! Replying to the ancient man, “But its mana is nearing a holy land! If we—”
“No. Perhaps in my prime I could hold off those kings who came to fight over it, but these days just one or two is my limit. If you are dead set on possession you can offer the land to the Empire of Man… And spread news of the approaching war on the mountain. The dragon is no longer worth hunting.” In truth, the king of Remelo had completely forgotten about a dragon even existing on that mountain range. Supposedly, a single group noticed it two weeks back, but with a lack of sightings thereafter, it was put down to some fools making up information for fame.
“I understand. But this enemy… Who are they?”
“Only three forces on this world are able to attack seventeen nations all at once, culling their nobles and inciting chaos to this degree.” While the Sage seemed to be posing a question, he knew far better than that. He had no clue that the extent of these attacks spread so far as just like the other kingdoms, he suppressed the death of so many nobles.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
But with the Sage’s words, he knew only one force would aim for this level of destabilisation.
“The Eternals of Signeum… I will begin taking precautions.” As the Sage’s words clarified his confusions over some matters, he now knew to what extent things would grow. In comparison, the mountain range wasn’t worth speaking about.
In the third world, humans ranked second in absolute power… As for the Eternals, they ranked third. Fortunately, as a race, their combat power wasn’t so great, being limited by somewhat weaker bodies and magical enhancements. In a direct war, it wasn’t too hard for humans to win.
Except their domain was never so easily found. To this day they shifted around constantly; if found, it wasn’t strange for a capital to be demolished and evacuated by day’s end.
* * *
On the mountain, things were neither good nor bad. For the dragon himself, things actually seemed alright for now, no one moving around with an army of beasts and sweeping through the node trees yet.
Although, he did not doubt the local node tree already had a new owner, as did the other few in this mountain range. Until he completed the entry-level mental training, he wanted to stay indoors too, the mental resistance it offered would be incomparable in the coming weeks.
And besides all that, he wanted to nurture his Auric spirit!
Fortunately, the nurturing process seemed incredibly simple. A new small sack underneath his heart was created during the evolution, and while he sensed some passive aura emitting from the sack, simply by inserting mana he could feel the internals breaking down his power.
The process slowly converted it into a generic type of aura for pressure, but then condensed it into a strange liquid and stored it inside this new organ. How any of this worked was beyond him, and thankfully the Nexus gave that basic description of his innate ability in advance.
It should be said, the innate ability was not aura production, but rather its refinement into this usable liquid.
This liquid appeared transparent with a sort of glassy texture. First he tried to move it mentally, something he simply grew used to attempting after learning to control mana, however the fluid didn’t even shake, let alone move.
Perhaps he could use Pronounced telekinesis to move it… although that’d be a bit extreme. There had to be a simpler way.
Water control might work, and a simple test showed…
That it didn’t in any way whatsoever. This condensed aura wasn’t recognised as a liquid by this spell, and even if it was he had no way to control it as the spell required line of sight. “How to move this stuff? Perhaps there’s a book on it…”
For a short while, he looked through the titles of several hundreds of books before laying his eyes on one called ‘Innate abilities: An introspective’. The book started off discussing a dragon’s breath attack, being the primary one acquired by all… But then it went through other types and nuances.
This included a class of abilities which generated some form of magical item within a being. Powerful clams are the simplest example of this ability, being able to transform mana and select elements to form pearls of varying quality and power, perfect for creating magical equipment.
A section of this then went over more offensive abilities which created various liquids or gases within bodies. More importantly, it described ways to utilise them, and he felt incredibly dumb when reading it up.
In fairness, no one ever told him such things were possible!
To control the product, simply wrap it in mana and push it out of your body. Solids cannot do this, but very few bodies can impede the other states of matter!
Just as the book stated, he wrapped the small volume of transparent, glassy liquid and pushed it. The mana moved with ease, and in moments it touched his scales where the web of aura lit up and drained every last drop of liquid away.
It had been so easy, yet he stupidly never thought of this… He had no excuses for this lacking thought process.
The web of aura covering his scales clearly strengthened from just that first deposit of the fluid, but who knew how many it needed to grow fully. His body continued turning mana into aura passively, and during the wait, he decided to check out his heart and mind.
Nothing else could get in the way, and he had plenty of time now.
A quick peer revealed an almost identical white vanilla heart, but on close inspection he found the sugar-mana mentioned by the system. Unlike a normal dragon, who would usually have red crystals, his were a faint brown akin to partially processed sugar.
This process, initiated by awakening, is generally called empowerment or heart replacement. Dragons, knowing their hearts to be the source of their power, realised that it naturally attempted to modify itself into stronger materials as they grew older. From that point on, techniques to encourage and enhance this modification became of great importance, now being common for every dragon to possess in their breadth of knowledge.
Naturally, he knew how to do this as well. A rather large book on the topic discussed how to create the proper structure, and then integrate it into his heart specifically such that function remained. The replacement must be done one crystal at a time, taking most dragons years to complete a single empowerment process.
He didn’t have any rapid hopes for this, and simply confirmed that all the crystals now within his heart were sugary on top of their heightened mana storage and durability.
But now came the part he cared for most, the strengthening of his mind.
The books on this talked about the first step simply, finding and entering the mental space. Being more or less similar for all members of the species, there were two ways to do it.
The recommended one is to cast a Beginner true spell which sought out the mental space and forced them within, the downside of this process being how you couldn’t escape until the spell ended. Not really a downside if you’re safe.
However, those with stronger minds can directly find and enter their mental space with ease, the exact way this works wasn’t stated in the book. Instead sticking to a vague description of ‘You will know how to do this once reaching the minimum standard’.
The spell wasn’t too difficult as well, just being 14 words long. Most normal dragons could learn and pronounce such a thing in just a day as a youngling.
He needed 20 minutes to memorise it.
And the moment it activated, his body entered a deep sleep while his consciousness travelled deep within himself.