Mila
After sliding to the floor of the room, Mila just sat there for a full two minutes doing nothing. For one, she was in pain. Aalam had thrown her quite hard, and she was a bit out of it as a result. But the more important reason was she didn’t know what to do.
Aalam was back in his Id state, and he seemingly had been for a while. What had triggered it, she had no idea, but that wasn’t what was important. He was doing something to Isaiah and she had no way to stop him.
This wasn’t like when Aalam thought everything was a dream. Then his goals had a simple twisted logic, like he was playing a video game, and she was able to easily influence his decision making as he viewed her as a part of his own imagination.
This time, however, Aalam was aware everything was real, so emotions were involved. And Aalam in his normal state generally didn’t handle emotions all that well, often making rash decisions without considering the consequences, so she had no idea what he would do under the influence of Id.
In the tutorial, Mila could beat Aalam in a fight, and the same was true at the beginning of their time on Hira, but things were different now that they had both advanced to F rank and Aalam’s Territory had grown. Ever since the capture of the Shadow Thief’s soul fragment, the inheritance had become part of Aalam’s Territory, increasing all his stats even before his effective Spirit was multiplied by 12, and, unlike most F rank skills, the Heroic grade Telekinesis could handle Aalam’s currently D rank effective Spirit.
Were she to anger Aalam in the tutorial, she could defend herself. Were she to somehow anger him now, however, he might fail to control his own monstrous strength—the type capable of destroying an entire city with one blow—and accidentally kill her.
“Nana Xara, what is it Aalam is trying to do?” Mila sent, deciding she should at least understand the situation before she decided if she was going to try and do anything. “You were saying something about the formation being designed for torture.”
Mila could see the dragon heart, a somehow still beating giant red organ about the size of a basketball, floating above Isaiah, and it had three other race upgrading materials floating around it. One was a metallic bone, one of the two most powerful race upgrading treasures from the Shadow Thief’s ring, aligned with the metal element; the second was a non-material orb of energy around the size of a baseball which seemed to be made of purple lightning, the other most powerful race upgrading treasure, aligned with the lightning element; and the third was a normal looking brown stone about the size of a grapefruit, one of the weaker treasures for upgrading race, aligned with the earth element.
The orb containing the Essence of War was floating above the dragon heart as well and the can which had contained the Dragon Enhancing Powder was empty at the side of the room, Aalam seemingly having already dropped it all on Isaiah, but the powder was designed to work a lot like the Dragon Subduing Powder, easily entering into Isaiah’s body, so Mila couldn’t sense it.
The indentation where Isaiah was lying was also filled with a red liquid, which Mila guessed was about half the supply of high grade F rank qi potions stored in the inheritance, but Mila couldn’t sense anything from the formation at all, no energy leaking, and Isaiah was barely moving, so she had no idea what was going on.
“He’s trying to upgrade Isaiah’s race by more than we originally planned, but doing so in a way that causes a lot of pain.” Nana Xara’s tone made Mila think she was both nervous and impressed at the same time. “It’s kind of ingenious and, with his effective Spirit having risen to D rank, I think it might actually work, but I doubt Aalam and Isaiah will be able to be friends after this.
“Upgrading race, racial abilities, and the like doesn’t work like you probably think it would. There is almost no modification of DNA for example, and this is why most race upgrades don’t change appearance much. So, even though Isaiah is a half dragon, since he was born with a humanoid body, it is impossible for him to turn into a dragon with a race upgrade, at least until C rank, though he can gain the full power of a dragon in human form.
“This is because what race upgrades mainly change is the soul. And the soul is far more receptive to change and adaptation than a physical body made of matter. As an example, a common practice among powerful forces is to take control of a special environment filled with a certain type of energy helpful to the force’s main cultivation technique. If everyone in the force lives in that environment, over time their cultivation won't just be faster, but their souls will absorb some of that energy and their choice of racial upgrades will include races taking advantage of the energy their souls have absorbed.
“The original plan for Isaiah was to use the prepared array formation the Shadow Thief left in this inheritance to allow Isaiah to slowly absorb the power of the heart of the B rank Harmony Dragon and the Essence of War. Given Isaiah’s race, this would allow him to evolve into some variant of a Mettle Dragon, a more powerful dragon type which is also the usual result when a War Dragon and a Harmony Dragon breed, but most of the energy of the dragon heart would have been wasted, dissipating into the air. The process would have also taken about a month.
“Aalam, however, has modified the formation so it doesn’t allow any of the energy to dissipate while also greatly increasing the infusion rate. This in itself is dangerous, incredibly so, but he’s also taken three of the human race upgrading treasures from the Shadow Thief’s ring and is using them as well, adding quite a bit more energy on top.
“Normally, doing such a thing to an F rank would be a death sentence. Even given how gentle the power of a Harmony Dragon is, which will ease the absorption of the energies from the other treasures, there is just too much energy involved and, while a soul might be able to take it all in, the body housing the soul would not be able to survive.
“Isaiah, however, is a special case. He has the Troll Heart racial ability, so, as long as he has enough qi, he’s unlikely to die, and Aalam has covered his body in pure high rank qi potions, which will automatically be absorbed into Isaiah’s body as his Core Container approaches empty. This, along with his Silver Body and Iron Skin racial abilities, should allow Isaiah to survive the energies, especially if those racial abilities take some of the energy to evolve during the process, which seems to be Aalam’s goal.
“This just means Isaiah will survive, however, not that he won’t be in excruciating pain. As his soul is forced to absorb the energies of the dragon heart and the other treasures, an extremely, extremely painful process, the contained energy will repeatedly destroy his entire body over and over again, Troll Heart healing him each time.
“The thing is, however, what Aalam is trying to do will probably work. It’s incredibly crude, just forcing energies inside a soul, but Isaiah’s race is already a half dragon, the main source of external energies is from a dragon heart, and a Dragon Enhancing Catalyst is being used, which will help guide the other energies to enhance the two dragon energies instead of working against them. Isaiah also hasn't practiced a cultivation technique yet, so there shouldn’t be any sources of interference which could alter the energies’ natural flow.
“As for what Aalam is actually trying to do, he seems to be attempting to advance Isaiah’s race to a level beyond a Human Form Young Mettle Dragon to a race called Human Form Young Balance Dragon, a type of dragon one tier below the top three.
“Balance Dragons are Legendary grade from birth like the top dragon types, but they have quite low affinity for light, darkness, space, and time Laws, so they are considered a tier below Chaos Dragons, Order Dragons, and Divine Dragons.
“Aalam is planning to accomplish this upgrade by following the normal pathway for advancing to a Human Form Young Mettle Dragon—a dragon of the water, life, fire, and death elements—and adding in energies of the earth, wind, metal, and lightning elements to increase the power of the transformation. The wind and a bit of the earth elemental power will be gained from not allowing the power of Isaiah’s bloodline, which holds those elements, to leak out of his soul, while the lightning and metal elements will come from the strongest of the two extra race upgrading treasures, and the extra earth element power from the third.
“Other than the extreme pain, it’s actually pretty impressive, showing Aalam has understood a great deal more of the first volume of Alashan’s Book of Runes than most crafters who’ve studied it for hundreds of years, as well as what race would be most suitable for Isaiah’s Laws and future cultivation.”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Mila took a deep breath. “Should I try to stop it?”
“At this point, no.” Nana Xara’s tone of voice had changed, back to its normal joviality, and Mila got the distinct impression the woman was enjoying the show. “The time you could have safely stopped it already passed while you were stunned, and if you tried now Isaiah would probably die, with you and Aalam having a good chance of being blown up as well.
“The pain has already started. You just can’t tell because Isaiah physically can't scream and his aura is suppressed by all the energy flowing through his soul.”
Mila found herself sighing and she just started running her qi through her body to heal the damage Aalam had done by throwing her into the wall, using one of her minds to monitor Isaiah’s System feed.
Then, a couple minutes later, the first System notification appeared as expected.
Congratulations!
Your racial ability Iron Skin (Epic) has upgraded to Dragon Scales (Legendary)
Dragon Scales (Legendary): Increase the effectiveness of the Toughness and Attunement stats by 12.5%.
Isaiah’s pain resulted in his weakest racial ability rising to Legendary grade like his others, and it even gained an increase in effectiveness to the Attunement stat, which was quite rare.
And this was only the first of multiple notifications.
Congratulations!
Your racial ability Troll Heart (Legendary) has upgraded to Dragon Heart (Heroic)
Dragon Heart (Heroic): Qi and mana are passively drained whenever injured to boost the healing of injuries and the normal flow rate of qi and mana is increased with better burst potential.
The second to advance was Isaiah’s Troll Heart racial ability, gaining the power to passively heal from mana as well as qi and increasing the potency of Isaiah’s qi and mana, which would make his cultivation speed and skill activation time noticeably faster. And, more important, it raised his chance of surviving all the energy in his soul up to nearly 100%.
Congratulations!
Your racial ability Silver Body (Legendary) has upgraded to Golden Body (Heroic)
Golden Body (Heroic): Increase the effectiveness of the Strength and Agility stats by 25% and the Vitality stat by 12.5%.
Then his quarter grade higher Legendary grade skill rose to a quarter grade higher Heroic grade skill.
The System notifications stopped at this point, however, and it took about three hours for the next one to appear.
Your bloodline has been lost
You no longer have the bloodline Phantom Wolf (Fabled)
No bloodline has been awakened to replace it
It was expected, and it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing so long as that energy went somewhere useful, but Mila could only imagine how painful having a bloodline stripped from your soul could be.
Bloodlines weren’t actually genetic, more a special type of energy infused into a cultivator’s body, and Isaiah’d had his from birth, so its loss was likely as much psychologically scarring as physically painful.
And that pain continued for half a day, no new notifications appearing for Isaiah.
Aalam, on the other hand, seemed to be gaining a lot from the experience, raising a Law Larva to middle grade almost every hour, and, when Mila checked his status page, it seemed he’d advanced all his darkness and light element Laws before they’d returned, the elemental dao guide apparently quite helpful for his darkness Laws. So, as all his darkness Laws formed pairs with his light Laws, he’d found it easy to raise them as well.
It took about a day after the process started for Isaiah to get another notification, and this time it was the second advancement of his Dragon Scales racial ability.
Congratulations!
Your racial ability Dragon Scales (Legendary) has upgraded to Dragon Scales (Heroic)
Dragon Scales (Heroic): Increase the effectiveness of the Toughness and Attunement stats by 25%.
Throughout the entire time, Mila just sat there, unable to interfere, and, without having anything else to do, she spent all her time watching the changes occurring in Isaiah’s power.
Congratulations!
Your Law Larva of The Healer has advanced to middle grade.
Your soul is affected by your understanding of Laws.
Base Stats +16, Soul +48
Thinking about Isaiah and the medical marvel he was going through, Mila managed to advance one of her Laws. Then, however, unwilling to continue doing nothing but watch, she walked down the stairs to the inheritance’s warehouse, grabbed several Primal Energy Stones suitable for F rank, and brought them up before sitting back down in her spot, where she started using the energy of the stones to level up.
Two days later, the process of upgrading Isaiah’s race was starting to reach the end and Isaiah began to receive more System messages.
Congratulations!
Your race has upgraded from War Dragon Hybrid (F-Legendary) to Human Form Young Balance Dragon (E-Fabled)
Human Form Young Balance Dragon (E-Fabled)
A young dragon in the form of a human, balanced eight elements, balanced stats
Racial Abilities: 6
No limits, but a higher chance for abilities which raise the effectiveness of all stats
Max stats:
Strength: 62208
Agility: 62208
Endurance: 62208
Toughness: 62208
Vitality: 62208
Perception: 62208
Magic: 62208
Spirit: 62208
Soul: 62208
Aura: 62208
Attunement: 62208
Luck: 62208
Stat Growth Per Level:
Strength: 72 (12)
Agility: 72 (12)
Endurance: 72 (12)
Toughness: 72 (12)
Vitality: 72 (12)
Perception: 72 (12)
Magic: 72 (12)
Spirit: 72 (12)
Soul: 72 (12)
Aura: 0
Attunement: 0
Luck: 0
Advancement Criteria:
Live for 72 standard years. Comes with automatic grade increase.
Requirements:
???
His new race was far more powerful than War Dragon Hybrid, with two extra racial abilities and quite a bit more stat growth per level, the values in parentheses how many stats the race would grant per level before Isaiah officially entered E rank.
Congratulations!
You have gained a new bloodline, Ideal Human (Legendary)!
Ideal Human (Legendary)
The idealized form of the most common intelligent race in the universe
Effects:
Increase the effectiveness of all base stats by 3.125%
Raise cultivation speed to half that of an Ideal Human’s if your race would make it less
Aalam had managed to give Isaiah a new bloodline using the non-elemental energies of the treasures designed to boost the human race and the human half of Isaiah’s original race, and it was a very useful one. Even if it was weaker than his old Phantom Wolf bloodline, it helped to solve the biggest problem with dragon races, cultivation speed.
Because of it, Isaiah also didn’t grow any horns or scales. Granted, his hair might have changed color, but all the hair all over his body had fallen off and no new hair had grown in yet, so it was impossible to tell. And, as he’d fallen unconscious, his eyes were closed, so she couldn’t see if they’d changed either.
The notifications weren’t done, however, and a couple of Isaiah’s racial abilities rose to Fabled grade as well.
Congratulations!
Your racial ability Dragon Heart (Heroic) has upgraded to Dragon Heart (Fabled)
Dragon Heart (Fabled): Qi and mana are passively drained whenever injured to markedly boost the healing of injuries and the normal flow rate of qi and mana is markedly increased with better burst potential.
Congratulations!
Your racial ability Dragon Scales (Heroic) has upgraded to Dragon Scales (Fabled)
Dragon Scales (Fabled): Increase the effectiveness of the Toughness and Attunement stats by 50%.
And, finally, his only non-Legendary grade skill advanced as well, reverting back to 0% mastery, as it had also been originally formed by dragon energy.
Congratulations!
You have used external energy to advance the skill Dragon Drive (F-Epic) to Dragon Drive (F-Legendary)
Dragon Drive (F-Legendary) Magic, Activation, Dragon
You burn your health to destroy your enemy
The skill was now more efficient, with a higher effect, greatly increasing Isaiah’s strength further, and Isaiah’s base stats had all risen by more than 300 due to the remaining energy. Sure, he was passed out, but he was now stronger than her and, when he woke up, he’d almost certainly try to kill Aalam, so the entire strengthening was pointless.
Aalam then walked up to Mila, a big grin on his face like he’d done something really praiseworthy, instead of something incredibly stupid. “Pretty cool, right?”
“No, Aalam.” Mila didn’t quite know what to say, so she just decided to go with the unfiltered truth. That generally worked best on Aalam, and he seemed in a good mood, so he probably wouldn’t squash her into paste. “You just really hurt a teammate without asking, and he’s probably going to hate you now.”
“Right, asking people things.” Aalam looked like he just remembered something. Then he knelt down on one knee in front of her, summoned out a small box from the Left Hand of the Runescribe, and opened it to show a simple moonlight iron ring with an inset fire ruby. “Li Mila, will you marry me?”