Ba-dump. My heartbeat was fierce as the sensations continued to throw my insides into a whirlwind of confused butterflies. The process continued to settle while I kept my eyes closed. I left my inner space and merely sat behind my eyes, taking in the darkness while feeling the changes to my body. More subtle than what was occurring within my mana and the core which produced it, I could tell that something was happening to my Attributes mostly. My focus was on the skills I had spent time to understand, but the tingle which each skill felt when an underlying Attribute was raised was palpable.

When the rumbling from the Aspect and the shifting of my channels had fully calmed, I finally opened my eyes. Then, I blinked hard, attempting to deactivate Manasight. It had levelled up in the fighting, but my vision felt different. The psychedelic effect of seeing the world’s mana flow did not stop, because the skill wasn’t active. There was a slightly muted sheen to everything and I looked around with dismay until my eyes found Naea. Oh.

Her physical appearance hadn’t changed, but the way she looked to my sight was breathtaking. The dampened colours of the world were due to its lacking magic, I realised. Naea didn’t have that issue. Beautiful lilac and rose coloured mana floated through and around her tiny body, removing the effects of air resistance and allowing her flight. I had thought the wings were too delicate to carry her, and her wingbeats were often too slow or even non-existent but seeing the magic at work was stunning. “Wow,” I gasped almost by accident, “you’re absolutely beautiful.”

Naea blushed, her pale blue cheeks turning a sharp violet colour and I chuckled, explaining what was going on. “I feel… better.” Simply flexing my muscles had been enough for me to know they were full of new potential, my eyes not the only beneficiary of this change. The forest was generally quiet, with only a few birds I had seen, but I began to pick up on something in the background. A quiet humming coming from a few different directions.

Better was the only way to describe it. Everything about me felt more. More defined, more precise, more powerful. “You look funny,” Naea giggled. When I gave her a questioning look she pointed to my eyes. “Your pupils have changed a bit, and you had funny eyes to start with.”

I rolled my apparently altered eyes and ignored Naea for the System prompts I was putting off. My eyes were green but quirky genetics had created a circle of light brown around the pupil which I had never liked. If it had gotten worse, it was a small price to pay for the strength I could feel throughout myself, even down to my senses. I opened the first System message to appear.

Aspect Quest Completed

Aspect of The Dragon - Legacy

Prove that you are worthy to join the legacy of The Dragon. Step onto the path with certainty.

Defeat five foes at your level or higher.

Reward: Aspect Bound, New Skill Unlocked

Aspect of the Dragon bound.

A dragon is no simple thing. Nigh-extinct upon the Boughs of the Tree, while their numbers wane, the power grows. The magic of a dragon flows within you but only as a whisper. Continue to embody the tenets of the Dragon and greater boons shall be yours.

Effect: The whispers of the Dragon are quiet, but potent.

+2 free attribute points per level. +1 to Strength, Resilience, Power, Regeneration and Command per level.

I checked quickly, and the gains weren’t retroactive. For a brief second, I felt a pang of regret that I had scaled to level eleven without this boost but I cast the thought away just as quickly. My growth from here on out was going to be insane! Though, as my thoughts trailed to strength, I obviously thought of Master Thorn. The bizarre guilt which had tried to appear in my mood was stamped out. I had worked hard and nearly died twice for the Aspect’s gifts, it was a good thing they were so potent.

And they weren’t finished yet.

Acutely aware of the layout of my skill pathways, so when the System began to create a new one I observed the workings intensely. For all the good it did me. With a flash of action I had no chance to follow, the most complex weaving of mana pathways I had seen was crafted. I saw only two movements. First, next to my core, a tight bundle had formed, guided by the shape I imagined. Then, that bundle was instantly pulled to extend from the soles of my feet to the top of my head.

Then, amidst that framework, a new skill was born just as quickly.

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

New Skill Unlocked! - Dragonburn (Rare)

The power of a dragon’s breath is not solely in its devastating heat. Indeed, some dragons do not even produce heat. It is instead due to its corrosive and anti-magical nature that dragons have been hunted to near extinction, amongst other reasons.

I hissed in annoyance. This procedure was performed before my eyes but I didn’t have the acuity to understand it. Even looking at the confusing and intricate patterns in the aspected mana channels and skill gave me a strange headache between my eyes, so I gave up and focused on what the skill did. I could tell it was some kind of buff, but not much else due to the complexity of the pattern. Even the System information I normally received basically just said “turn it on.” Activating Dragonburn for the first time…

Nothing happened.

I frowned, then I created a Mana Bolt and nearly passed out. The expenditure was staggering, draining nearly the whole pool in a single orb. I had only tried to make a small, five mana ball but the thing swelled to the size of a basketball instead. As if the ten times multiplier to the cost of the skill wasn’t enough, my mana continued to leak into the attack as I held it, the weight increasing. It felt like an increasingly unstable bomb. Unable to draw the energy back into myself, I threw the thing as hard as I could.

The normally fragile Mana Bolt burned through four trees on its way to the ground, where it buried a few metres before exploding in a rain of dirt and muck. Naea and I looked at each other with mirrored expressions of horror, but her’s only deepened while I gained a large grin instead. “Incredible!” I whooped. This was exactly the type of stopping power I was missing to keep the fighting at long range. I was excited to see how it worked with my other skills. “It’s a way to spend more mana for greater effect, more than a new skill itself.”

“I don’t think your mana could do that before.” Naea’s face was drawn into a mask of discomfort as she eyes the small swathe of destruction I had cast forth. She turned that same expression onto me, her worry clear, though not understood. “That’s Dragon magic, is it?”

“Yeah. Aspect of the Dragon. I didn’t say?” I thought back, wondering if I had ever voiced the name before. Probably not, but it hadn’t mattered until I could use it. I didn’t think it mattered at all but Naea’s reaction had me rethinking things. The wording on some of the System prompts was a little ominous, wasn’t it? “Is that… a problem?” I hedged the question when Naea didn’t respond.

“Not really,” she answered, “but it’s… dangerous, I suppose? I don’t know the stories. Just that there are stories about dragons and most of them end with ‘and then everyone died.’” To emphasise her point, Naea performed a dramatic, looping fake death complete with a eulogy to herself. In it, she effused about her own beauty and the sorrow the world felt at losing her splendour. I ignored her and began to Meditate.

As mana began to wash through my body once more, I was pleased to see the annoying crystals were no longer a problem. Previously, my mana had passed through the unbound Aspect and then been released randomly, cluttering up my mana channels. The Aspect was no longer expelling the strange pseudo-material, but drawing it in. I wasn’t sure what the end result of this would be but, like my mana channels, they weren’t truly there physically. The pebble was tiny and inert, simply gathering the excess mana like dust to a gravity well.

I shrugged. If I spent all my time internalising and worrying then I would never get anything done. Inspecting my wounds from the inside out as the magic of Meditate worked its wonders, I realised how close things had come. The fighting had taken me down to the wire, with the final attack across my chest putting my health in the single digits. “I really have to learn some kind of protection skill,” I complained to Naea, who could only return my earlier shrug.

“You’ll have to work that out on your own. I was pushing it with my friendly suggestions already.” She rubbed her temple in memory of the pain she had endured for helping me so far. I resolved not to even ask her again if I could help it. I would be dead a few times over if it wasn’t for Naea, and if not, then I would be left waiting to die in the café with no way to defend myself but Mana Bolt. My reliance on her tentative help would only be a crutch and make me weaker anyway. I needed to do things on my own.

I rose from my seated position, dusted myself off and stretched a little. I could tell the mana inside of me wanted to be used, and I was excited to see what I could do with it. As a simple test, I activated Manasight with my pure mana. The world nearly brought a tear to my eye, the deadened colours of the mundane returning with incredible vibrancy. Then, with a flick of concentration, I switched the skill to draconic. The darkness the world had been infected with before increased, nearly everything turning to monochrome but Naea and the two unlooted bodies of the Sundercats. I grunted as I collected the coins they had and checked my Skills window.

“Well, on the subject of working things out, I’ve got a whole new type of mana to play with as well as a new skill. Let’s see how well this forest holds up to me now.” Whilst making a point of not moving towards Master Thorn’s location, I took my first confident steps in days. I could do this, but I wasn’t going to be stupid and rush. It was time to powerlevel.

Skills

Mana Bolt (Level 2)

Common

Manasight (Level 2)

Common

Heavy Blow (Level 1)

Common

Sprint (Level 1)

Common

Meditate (Level 2)

Common

Stealth (Level 1)

Common

Tracking (Level 1)

Common

Mental Fortress (Level 1)

Uncommon

Dragonburn (Level 1)

Rare