Well, that just happened. But at least he had a new dragon pattern.

Thomas spent a few minutes reinforcing his dungeon just in case there was immediate retaliation, then summoned the creature.

Tried to, at least.

“Where is that damn pattern?” he muttered, barely even aware of the fact that he was broadcasting the thought.

“With the rest?” Elias replied immediately. He was already fluttering towards the roof, whether that was to act as a sentry or just to sun himself, Thomas didn’t know.

“Yeah, I checked there,” Thomas growled, this time, focusing on communicating with the fairy.

“Well, check again.”

“I did.”

“And?”

“Nothing. I can’t find anything related to dragons at a- …” Thomas trailed off.

“Let me guess, it was buried under a bunch of other patterns?” Elias asked dryly.

“No … I just found its powers …”

Thomas almost never looked at the collection of powers he’d amassed, both by creating them, or finding new ones in the bodies of slain foes.

Passive enhancements, as well as most active powers, he just made himself by exaggerating an existing biological power or physiological function, rather than digging through his collected powers.

And as for active powers taken from his enemies, if they were strong, they tended to also be memorable.

But when his desperately looking for his dragon pattern activated a search function he hadn’t even known existed, it showed him three powers, along with their names.

Floral Mimicry, Draconic Physiology, and Verdant Spiritflame.

That first one in particular was weird. It had clearly belonged to the dragon, but why would it want to mimic plants? And when had it even used that power?

But looking into the power itself revealed that it wasn’t about mimicking plants, it was about plants mimicking something else. Like a dragon.

A power that let a bunch of plant matter function as an animal, while retaining some of the durability and redundancy of its floral components.

Then, Draconic Physiology kicked in. Normally, magical creatures had an F-Rank power that would allow them to function normally even when their physiology flew in the face of all laws of physics and biology. But layered atop the previous ability, it turned a few random plants into an actual dragon.

And Verdant Spiritflame added some proper offensive power to everything else.

Wait a second … there was the body. In the “material patterns” section. Basically, it was a bush cut into the shape of a dragon like some fancy decorative planter. Nice to look at, but not something he could use. Even when he summoned it, it manifested as a planter, without even giving him the option of adding the powers that would have allowed it to function.

“What the fuck? Come on!” Thomas yelled, startling Elias, who’d just taken his position on the roof, atop a little recliner he’d fashioned himself from napkins and popsicle sticks last week. The contraption crumpled beneath him as the fairy took to the sky with a panicked leap.

“Don’t do that!” he growled, dropping back onto the roof, then, in a far more normal voice, asked, “What’s wrong?”

“That dragon wasn’t a dragon, it was just … walking compost with powers that let it pretend to be a dragon!” Thomas told him, anger and frustration boiling out of him.

But Elias didn’t seem to share those feelings. Thomas wasn’t the best at reading expressions, he’d be the first to admit that, however, he was pretty sure the fairy was currently torn between elation, worry, and confusion.

“That … that’s not good. Do you know how dragons, real dragons, work?”

“How the hell would I?” Thomas snapped. “You’re the magical expert here!”

He immediately regretted his tone. Admittedly, there were a lot of good reasons to be mad at Elias, his initial behavior first among them, but this right now was not something that should be taken out on the fairy.

“Remember when I told you that you can’t cut off your core from the world because as a Dungeon, your magic is all about challenge, so you can’t build defenses that are impossible to overcome? Most highly magical species are like that. Phoenixes are all about the concept of recreation, with their energy constantly seeking to recreate them if they’re hurt, annihilating the environment in the process. A phoenix coming back to life is … more violent than you’d think.

“Or take Jotuns, for example. Their magic is linked to the concept of winter, and freezes everything. Similar thing for the Sons of Muspel, but their magic is the essence of destruction and they destroy everything around them without them even being able reign it in.

“And a dragon’s magical energy is aligned with domination, and holds some kind of elemental bend. It bleeds out into the world and starts to warp it to suit the dragon itself, befitting their element and personality.

“Dragons related to fire will create volcanoes and subconciously guide the flow of lava, water dragons turn the ground into a swamp that will eventually become a lake or even an ocean, and so on.”

“That dragon puppet was made from wood and still used fire, though. Does Alaxia have two elements?” Thomas pointed out.

Elias just shook his head with a soft chuckle. “Creatures this magical are weird. General fire breath is partially a part of their physiology, and part of their starter power, they need their Draconic Physiology power to survive having the physiological component. If they weren’t born at E-Rank, with both powers fully active, they’d literally explode the moment they hatched.

“And since they’re E-Rank, they’re also born with their environmental power, which grants them their specific element, but the power can be changed by their personality. If they want an extra breath attack later on, or change their original one, they can pick a power later on.”

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Thomas was starting to see the writing on the wall now.

“Let me guess, Empress Alaxia is a forest dragon of the opinion that no one else can do the job right, so she creates extensions of herself?” he suggested.

“Exactly. But the fact that she sent an extension to negotiate means …” Elias began to say, but Thomas interrupted him.

“Shut up for a second, I had an idea!”

“But …”

“Is it going to kill me if I take five minutes to try something?” Thomas asked.

“No, but I’m interrupting you in five minutes, even if you aren’t done,” Elias promised, using one of the velociraptors Thomas had scattered around his core room as his new lawnchair.

The thing that had caused Thomas to suddenly get sidetracked was simple. Draconic Physiology was one of those powers that could tell the laws of physics to take a hike when it came to certain features that really shouldn’t work in the real world. Like a dragon being able to fly despite being a solid slab of muscle, far denser than birds and other flying critters. And it came with partial fire-breathing capability.

He might not have gotten an actual dragon pattern, but maybe, just maybe, he’d gotten something almost as powerful, the ability to transform some of his creatures into draconic hybrids.

His first “victim” was the standard velociraptor pattern. He’d upgraded it into the cute, cuddly, avatar version and then immediately gone ahead and brought the original pattern to the cusp of F-Rank, waiting for him to come up with something suitably cool.

It felt like it should have been a grand moment, something to be announced by trumpets, with a herald loudly spreading the news of this supreme achievement, but it didn’t.

Thomas had the pattern in his mind’s eye, added the power of the dragon, and immediately spawned it in.

Oh, and it was glorious. No bigger than a regular raptor, but it looked far more impressive. It still had feathers, including the large, sweeping, winglike displays on both arms, but there were far fewer. Its snout was covered in heavy, dark emerald scales that could probably turn aside a blade, with fangs of gleaming ivory glinting between them. A row of spikes sat upon the spine, with heavy armor lining either side of it, tapering along the tail until the very end, which was tipped with a wicked onyx spike … no, it was black, but onyx wasn’t the correct term. More like … ebony.

Yeah, deep, dark, ebony wood. Claws on both fingertips and toes had shifted to be made up of the same color, with the near-legendary “sickle-claws” having become even darker, jet-black voids in existence that seemed to epitomize the term “deadly”.

A simple twitch of muscles pulled it down, causing the claw to click against the ground, bouncing with a sharp report, leaving a large gouge in the heavily reinforced rock of the Dungeon.

With a startled squawk, the raptor leaped away, somehow landing a full three meters away.

Wait a second … Thomas had it jump again, arms spread wide. Yep, that was a decidedly unnatural arc, the creature was gliding through the air in a way that its feathered arms should have been nowhere near big enough to allow. And yet, that was what was happening.

Elias had said that these powers made physical features work where the laws of physics dictated they really shouldn’t, so perhaps a “flying squirrel velociraptor” wasn’t too out there?

Either way, it was cool.

And as for the other feature … yeah, he had fire-breathing velociraptors!

Granted, the gout of flame that spewed from the raptor’s mouth when he gave the order was less “flamethrower” and more “hairspray and lighter”, but it was still fire breath. Not to mention that it had come part and parcel with hefty physical reinforcement as well as pseudo-flight power.

And he could always tac on the dragon’s Verdant Spiritflame at a later rank, or create something even more suitable, but for now, this would be awesome!

Thomas spawned in a couple more raptors and had them run around the core room, playing with their gliding and fire breath, while experimenting with their other physical changes. Mainly, fangs and claws had gained quite a lot of durability and sharpness, capable of scratching up even the ludicrously durable Dungeon floor, though the new, oversized, scales were nothing to sneeze at either.

Presumably, they’d not be entirely bulletproof, but still tough enough that instead of instantly penetrating, the bullet would encounter sufficient resistance that it would throw back the raptor.

And while most delvers would not run around wearing particularly flammable apparel, they wouldn’t be wearing firefighter gear either. So even if the fire breath was nowhere close to what the dragon had shown, it should suffice to ignite clothing.

In other words, these “Physiology” powers were almost on par with the physical enhancements Thomas gave his champions. However, using them didn’t grant him the same flexibility as the champion power, he couldn’t customize them, he’d have to use what he got. And using powers instead of the champion upgrade would, of course, cost him a power slot, unlike the upgrade. Overall, Thomas preferred the upgrade over the power, but this power could be used far more often.

And using it as a base for further upgrading, he should be able to create incredible creatures. What about some variant of the spitting cobra using flammable liquid instead of venom to douse targets, then igniting them with the dragon-raptors? Or perhaps a fire-related power to supercharge the flame breath, which could possibly pull double-duty to allow for its wielder to detonate itself? The raptors were small, fast, and could all but fly. Throw in a power that turned them into bombs and they’d be lethal beyond measure.

Or perhaps …

His train of thought was interrupted by Elias rapping his knuckles on Thomas’ core.

“You had your five minutes, now you’re listening to me,” the fairy demanded.

“Fine, a promise is a promise,” Thomas sighed, still partially daydreaming. Draconic hybrids were so cool …

“Alaxia Mystscale might be a tyrant, but she’s not stupid. She knows better than to send a projection to negotiate.”

Elias paused after that, making it very obvious he expected some form of reply.

After a few seconds of waiting, Thomas finally decided to ask.

“Why?”

“You saw how that thing acted, right? It went from ’take your time’ to ‘submit or die’ in minutes. Those things are the opposite of diplomatic at the best of times, and that thing wasn’t even strong enough to pull the old ‘might makes right’ card. She was at the early S-Rank before her ‘death’, her minions should have been mid A-Rank at the very least. But this one wasn’t. Alaxia Mystscale, empress of all Wyrmroost and self-proclaimed ruler of all dragons, ‘died’ and showed up on a random world via a stupidly weak proxy. Do you know what that means?”

“Well, no, but if you don’t cut out the arrogant shithead act, I’m not responsible for what unspeakable substances you get drenched in,” Thomas told him in his most “innocent” tone. He probably deserved a little snark for interrupting Elias earlier, but this much? Nah, a few friendly threats were appropriate here, he felt.

“There are artifacts that can give you a second life, she used one, and now, she’s stuck here without any support except whatever she can create with her mana manipulation mastery,” Elias explained.

“Like … like a teleporter that snatches you away as you’re dying?” Thomas asked.

“No, that would be too obvious. Devices like that exist, but they’re kinda … limited. They can be blocked or traced, stuff like that. I’m talking about something that would literally grab your soul before it reached the afterlife and created a new body. It’ll take you years to reach your previous power after using it, but considering that you’d have literally dodged death it should be worth it, right?” Elias corrected.

“But how long would it take for her to regain enough power that no one on Earth can beat her anymore?” Thomas asked.

“Few months, maybe?” Elias shrugged. “We should warn our visitors the next time they show up. Actually, can you send an emergency signal with that fire of yours?”

Thomas sighed. “I’m already sending the most urgent signal in existence.”

“Then send a proper message? Shouldn’t something like ‘God-like dragon around, send help’ get us a response?” Elias suggested.

“I only know the one signal, sorry,” Thomas told him. “But the moment any human shows up, I’ll bribe them with a mountain of precious gems to carry the message if I have to.”

“What a bloody mess,” Elias sighed. “But you did hit D-Rank, right? What did you get?”

Oh, right, he’d almost completely forgotten about that! Thomas rubbed his metaphorical hands while diving straight into the deepest recesses of his core, where the gains should be the most obvious.