January 11th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar
I stretched my arms and yawned as I stood up, wiping of the dust on my pants. 'I really spent the whole night in that place, huh?', I thought as I made my way out of the alleyway.
However, as I was about to leave the alleyways, a fierce looking dwarf came out of a corner and waved at me.
"Mornin' lad, good day innit?"
"Morning, sir. It's a good day indeed", I gave him a polite smile and kept on walking.
'He couldn't have been here the entire night, right?'
"Lad, ya got guts screeching like a Wraith in the middle of the night. You got my hopes up, ya know? I even came out of my home thinkin' that some couples were having sex 'ere, got me excited for nothin' " The dwarf complained as he glared at me with scorn.
I instantly halted my steps and turned to look at the dwarf with a startled gaze. "Um I'm uh... sorry?"
"It's alright lad, just make sure to use [Silence] next time. Can't be givin' honest folks like meself false expectations" The dwarf grumbled as he walked away.
Staring at the back of the dwarf for some seconds, I shrugged my shoulders and made my way back to Avaron.
'So I guess Dwarves do have a weird accent?'
...
I didn't sleep at all last night. Thus, I just wanted to sleep through the day in my room. Alicia was going to train with the headmaster today so I got the bed to myself.
As soon as I opened the door though,
|Theodore, are you okay?|, Lyra asked in a worried tone as she flew towards me.
"I'm fine"
"Are you sure? You don't look so well"
Confused, I removed my sunglasses and looked into a mirror. What reflected back was still the normal me, jet black hair and dull gray eyes. But upon closer inspection, I noticed that my face was deathly pale.
"It's probably just hypothermia", I reassured Lyra.
But that was when I noticed two pair of circular lines glowing in my eyes. They were red in color, with one on the outline of my irises and the other a little bit away from my vertical pupils.
'Wait, vertical?'
Just as I was going to question the strange shape of my pupils, Lyra suddenly spoke up.
|Your eyes! Did you find Wyrm blood somehow? It's very diluted but still, I'm surprised that you could find one this early|
'That makes sense'. After all, vertical pupils were one of the unique physical characteristic of dragons. This proved that the Wyrm blood I supposedly consumed did indeed further purify my true dragon bloodline. Normally, this would be good news. However,
"This is bad", I sighed as I put my sunglasses back on.
|Huh, why? Didn't you get stronger?|
"No, not that. Don't you know how Halflings are treated here?"
|Oh...|
"At least, it's simple enough for even someone like you to understand"
|Hey! What are you implying?|
"Nothing, you're just overthinking it"
I left the pouting Lyra behind and sat down on my bed. A long sigh escaped from my mouth yet again.
This really brought me more trouble that it worth. I couldn't remove my sunglasses in public unless I wanted everyone to know that I was a Halfling. And my reputation would surely plunge down to the bottom if I did so.
Asides from the troublesome future ahead of me, I was confused for another reason. There weren't any Wyrms left in the continent, and I sure as hell didn't come across any massive Wyrms in Plexcious.
'Was it the kid?'. I thought back to the boy whom I killed. If he had diluted Wyrm blood flowing through his veins, it would make sense. After all, I could still remember the rusty and disgusting taste of his blood in my mouth.
Sensing that my guilt was slowly began to creep up, I quickly activated [F - Emotionless] to offset it.
[F - Emotionless] was an extremely convenient skill, but I shouldn't rely on it too much. Especially when Status didn't specify the limit of the skill.
'Speaking of Status'
=====
Name: Theodore Gray
Race: Human (Part-dragon)
Rank: F
Strength: F
Agility: F+
Stamina: F
Intelligent: F+
Mana capacity: F
Profession: Swordsman (Lv.3)
--
Affinities:
[Perfect - Lightning magic]
[High - Space manipulation]
[Intermediate - Time manipulation]
[Intermediate - Wind magic]
--
Skills:
[A - Authority of fear]
The innate skill of Theodore Gray that was evolved thanks to the user assimilating a true dragon's blood into his body. Upon glancing at his eyes, people at lower rank than his will experience great fear. The user can also choose to make the target feel immense pain. However, its effects diminishes by half if used on people one major rank higher than Theodore himself. The effect of the skill is greatly reduced when used on people two major ranks higher than the user, while people stronger than that are not affected.
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[F - Mana blood]
A degraded version of the innate skill [A - Fertilus' Blood] that every pure-blooded vampires has. Due to the user's barely qualified concentration of vampiric blood, he is granted the skill. The skill enables the user to recover Mana quicker than the average person, as well as control the Mana present within blood.
[F - Emotionless]
The skill consumes all of the user's emotion to boost the Strength and Intelligence stats while active, effectively raising the 2 aforementioned stats up to 2 minor ranks. However, it may backfire by amplifying emotions instead if the limit of the skill is reached.
[S – Monarch of the Storms]
Temporarily changes the user’s profession into [Monarch of the storm], boosting the user’s power up to a major rank at maximum. The casting speed as well as damage of Lightning and Wind related spells are greatly increased when the skill is active. This skill also nullifies any damage done by Lightning spells that the user uses on his or her own body while active. The user will fall into a state of vulnerability for 12 hours after the skill ends.
(Cooldown: 24 hours)
--
Battle arts:
[III - Roteare style]
Sword art created and developed by Swordsman Theodore Gray. The art is fast and concise, with strikes always aiming at the opponent's vital points. It specializes in using the force the enemies use in their attacks and the centrifugal force against them. As such, the practitioner will look like they are constantly half-spinning left to right from an outside perspective. As this sword art is dependent on the opponent's attacks, there are no named movements. The effectiveness of the art upon mastery is currently unknown.
[V – World splitter]
A battle art created by an unknown master Space mage. It allows the user to create a lingering trail of spatial distortion that shreds anything unprotected by mana to pieces. As the art is entirely dependent on the concentration of spatial attribute mana, it must be used in tandem with other battle arts. Thus, it doesn’t have any named movements. Upon mastery, the practitioner won’t even need a second to concentrate the necessary amount of space mana to execute the art.
=====
My Stats were increased. Granted, it was only to F rank but still, I could be ranked in the 200s of the first-years just for my stats alone.
And my magic Eyes got upgraded yet again. This time, I can make my opponent feel pain. It would be somewhat less useful if I used it against someone who has a high tolerance for pain like a trained knight, but it would be good against someone at a lower level.
After double-checking Status again, I felt my eyelids getting heavy.
'Guess I'm still tired after all'
Thus, I dropped onto my bed, face first, and fell asleep.
...
I groaned in frustration as I woke up. After a full minute, my eyes finally adapted to the sudden brightness.
I look around the room I was in, only to find <@!#@#!#&$#@>
"W- what's happening?"
It was then that <@!#^@!*&> appeared. <@!#@&> hair and <@!#@$> eyes, he was... <@!&#> that I <@*#@>.
"H- how are y- you here"
He stayed silent and pulled out a <@#@#^@!%$>.
"W - what are you doing?"
Not paying any mind to my pleads, he <@*@#$&> on me, and started <@@!#T@#>
I could see and feel everything vividly. My <@#*@!>, my <@!#%@!#$!>. Blood and gores <@#%@!%#$>, but he didn't seem to care.
I tried to activate [F - Emotionless], but nothing happened.
"ARRRRGHHHHHHHHH!!!!"
I screamed on the top of my lungs. Since I always relied on my skills to <@!#&@!#@!>, I never got used to <@!#^@$>.
Just as I felt like I was about to <@!#&!>, however, my <@!#!#$>, and <@#@&!#@$*> was back to where he was before.
"Huh?"
However, he started <@!#^$> and <@!#@!%#> me again.
"S- stop p- please"
But he didn't listen.
"P- please, I'm sorry, PLEASE"
|Wake up!|
"JUST KILL ME"
|Theodore! Wake up!|
"KILLMEKILLMEKILLMEKILLM—"
BAM—!
...
"So that's what I can recall"
|Hmmmm|
I stared at Lyra in her original form who was making a very exaggerated thinking face.
Despite feeling very uncomfortable being drenched in sweat, I still paid attention to everything Lyra did. After all, I needed to find a clue on what happened in my dreams before Lyra found me screaming on the top of my lungs in my sleep and woke me up.
After a while, Lyra nodded her head fervently as if she had figured out something very important.
I gaze at her expectantly, wanting to find out what the hell was wrong with me as soon as possible.
|From my observation, it seems like that you had a nightmare|
"..."
|So, am I right?|
"No shit", I massaged my temples in frustration. "You're really useless, huh?"
Flustered, Lyra stuttered as she desperately tried to think of more explanations. |O- of course t- that's not t- the only thing I thought of! Um...|
Despite being disappointed in her uselessness, I found it funny seeing her struggling to think of anything else.
After another minute of thinking, Lyra exclaimed out loud. |Ah! That's right! It must be because you absorbed the Wyrm blood. The sudden increase in power must have um... done something to your dreams?|
I did not trust her words at all since it was most likely just her sprouting random stuff. But I accepted it eventually. It's not like I had any better explanations.
Sighing, I checked my pocket watch, it was only 1 in the afternoon. Yes, I had an extremely mysterious artifact in my possession that even a B ranked lvl.5 Appraiser couldn't inspect, and I used it as a mere clock.
No one could stop me from doing so.
'Well, I have to register for an elective anyways'. Thus, I pulled out the holographic phone.
Staring at the list, I wondered for a second before deciding on 2 electives: Artificing and Sharpshooting.
Some important events would happen in other elective, but I chose to not intervene in them. I've learnt that interfering with the plotline without careful planning would just make things go to shit. As evident by the sheer amount effort I spent getting Arthur's mentality back on the right track.
Thus, those 2 electives were perfect for me. The main casts weren't in any of them, and they would be very useful for me.
I wanted to join the Artificing elective to find out more about the pocket watch artifact I had with me. Maybe I could find interpret the runes engraved on the watch if I joined the elective.
As for the other elective, well, I needed to increase my accuracy with [Railgun]. And I didn't need to worry about interacting with Marie, as she was going to join the Archery elective.
Originally, the Archery elective was a part of the Sharpshooting elective. But they got split into 2 different electives since students think that bows and arrows should be categorized differently from other ranged weapons. Thus, the sharpshooting elective that I was going to join was only consisted of people using unconventional weapons like mana artilleries or guns like me.
Well, this was the one time I was grateful that my reputation was shit. No one tried to recruit me into their electives, and I didn't need to worry about all the complicated political stuff that came with it.
...
After successfully registering for the electives, I took out the Wyvern egg from [Alternate storage] and started channeling Wind and Lightning mana into it like I do everyday. However,
|You should stop doing that|, Lyra crossed her arms as I attempted to inject my mana into the egg
"?"
|The egg is going to hatch if you keep doing it. You wouldn't want to hatch a crippled Wyvern, would you?|
"I see", I sighed in relief. Every mana-injecting sessions took at least 2 hours, so I was finally free from sitting around doing nothing but touching the egg for 2 hours straight everyday. "I'll need to find some water mages soon"
But that was itself a problem. I wasn't acquainted with anyone that could use water magic, and I wasn't sure if anyone would be willing to help me, given my reputation.
'Should I ask Arthur?'. It would most likely work since he saw me as a rival now. And since I know his personality quite well, he wouldn't refuse, as long as I agreed to fight him again. But,
"Ughhh" I groaned in disgust at the mere thought asking that pushover for help. Thus, I put away the egg and decided to deal with the problem later.
...
I checked my pocket watch again, it was still 4 in the afternoon. I didn't want to go out of my dorms until dinner since I didn't want to risk running into Max and his lackeys.
Left with nothing else to do, I started to do random things to quench my boredom.
Well, one such things was me cleaning the pocket watch.
—Scrub —Scrub
The watch was... surprisingly shiny. The silvery metal that made up the watch directly reflected the lights from the window. Normally, I wouldn't care all that much about it. However,
"Shiny...", I stared into the watch with sparkling eyes, seemingly drawn to its glamour. However, I quickly hit myself on the head before I could become more captivated by it.
"Must be the treasure hoard instinct", I sighed. As I absorbed more Wyvern blood, I was becoming more and more like a dragon. Despite only being part dragon, I found it extremely difficult to resist the instinct. I didn't even want to imagine what trainings full-fledged dragons had to go through to restrain themselves from barging into every jewelry stores and stealing everything.
'I guess it wouldn't hurt to stare at it for a bit'. I decided to give in to my instinct just this once. But before I could indulge myself in admiring the shiny pocket watch, the door to my room was suddenly swung open.
CLANK—!