As the days passed, Dream couldn't help but dwell on the unanswered questions that had arisen from his encounter with the DragonBane Knight. He pondered over what had transpired during and after the battle, trying to piece together a coherent understanding of the event. It was a puzzle that refused to be neatly solved.
One of the questions that continued to nag at him was the feeling of gaining nothing from the battle. Dream had encountered similar situations in the past, where he defeated opponents and gained nothing in return. It reminded him of his early encounters with awakened beasts, particularly the hatchlings that roamed the central continent. They were so weak that they didn't even register on his Blessing of the Guardian Dragon skill, and they would simply disintegrate into tiny particles upon defeat, leaving no rewards behind.
Dream couldn't help but draw a parallel between those early encounters and his recent battle with the DragonBane Knight. Of course, he understood that the two were most likely for two very different reasons, with one being something that Suraxai himself had revealed to him in the past and the other being something that he had yet to figure out.
"One felt like... let's see, what did it feel like back then? Drinking inexistent water, perhaps?" Dream muttered, trying to put his thoughts into words. "Yes, that has to be it."
As he pondered the sensation he had experienced during those early encounters, Dream turned his attention to the more recent battle. "In the DragonBane Knight's case, it felt a little different. Let's see, how can I describe that?"
But this time, he struggled to find an analogy or description for the peculiar experience. The failure of his Blessing of the Guardian Dragon skill at the initial steps left him bewildered.
"Erm, let's see... argh, I can't think of anything; with it not even making past the synergy process, it's kind of like I didn't even try to absorb it after all," Dream monologued, growing frustrated with his inability to articulate the difference.
He glanced at his Battle Maidens for insight, but their featureless faces revealed nothing. Dream sighed, realizing that his questions would likely go unanswered.
"Come on, girls, give me an idea, a suggestion, something... You guys fought him, right? This silence makes me feel like I'm talking alone here," he remarked with a self-deprecating chuckle.
As he ruminated alone on these thoughts, something clicked in Dream's mind—a realization that had eluded him during the intensity of the battle. His brow furrowed as he contemplated this newfound insight, coming to a halt mid-sentence.
He thought to himself, "Maybe I should have dragged the battle out... No, that would have been a waste of time and energy. The outcome would have been the same in the end."
However, he suddenly saw the overlooked detail he had missed before. The DragonBane Knight's resistance, if that could be called that, to the Blessing of the Guardian Dragon skill wasn't the only noteworthy aspect of their encounter.
Dream's mind churned with this newfound realization, and he couldn't help but mutter to himself, "Not only did he not have a thread, he literally came back from the dead. It's like... I was fighting and trying to absorb a corpse all along."
The complexity of the situation weighed on Dream's thoughts. It was one thing to battle a living opponent and attempt to extract their essence through the Blessing of the Guardian Dragon skill, but the idea of absorbing the essence of a being that had already perished was an entirely different matter.
Coming back from the dead, huh?
"That wasn't pranakinesis, obviously. So Arcane, then? But there was no aspect, or even a lesser aspect, tied to him," Dream muttered to himself as he tried to piece together the puzzle of the Threadless’s DragonBane Knight.
He then recalled the sigil he had seen on the DragonBane Knight's left cheek, similar to the ones on his Battle Maidens. Realization dawned on him. "Wait, there was that sigil, like with the valkyries. So yes, that had to be arcane, meaning that he was under the effect of someone’s or something’s lesser—no, that had to be at least a full-blown aspect. I wonder what Wisdom Purity it's at? 1 Just like mine? 2 Perhaps? 3? It could even be higher."
As Dream's mind raced with theories and speculations, he suddenly realized that the more unconfirmed theories he entertained, the more questions began to pop up in his mind. It was becoming a tangled web of possibilities, and he needed more concrete information to make sense of it all.
Deciding to put aside these thoughts for the time being, Dream shook his head, attempting to clear his mind of the lingering questions. Dwelling on the past wouldn't bring him any closer to his goals, and he needed to stay focused on his journey ahead. He made a mental note to revisit these mysteries when the time was right and shifted his attention back to the path before him.
“Come on, girls, we’ve got flying enlightened beasts up ahead to clean up.”
***
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Synergy initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Synergy completed.
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Absorption initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Absorption completed.
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Integration initiated…
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon: Integration completed.
[ Nexus Alert]
Galewyrms’ Lesser-Aspect [Elemental Arcana] Absorbed
H.P
A.P▲
W.P
201▲
2029▲
0.7▲
Dream asserted, "This is the way. This is how it should always be. What would be the point of a battle with no reward at the end of it?" He settled atop the mangled corpse of the large winged reptile, his legs dangling and his feet swinging playfully against the creature's hard scales. "It simply wouldn't be worth it." As he sat there, Dream conjured an illusory screen, gazing at his current status with pride and a smile on his face.
Skills
Draconic / Godling
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Aspect
Blessing
Blessing of the Guardian Dragon
Nexus System
Golden Blessing
Animacreation [1]
Odo Leveling
Morphogenesis [0.2]
Elemental Resonance [0.5]
Elemental Arcana [0.5]
Blessing of the Golden Seedling
“Woah, it’s filled with a bunch of stuff! Especially this one.”
Skills [Aspect]
Aspect
Lesser Aspect
W.P
Nexus System
⥈
⥈
Morphogenesis
Aquamorphism
0.2
Cryomorphism
0.2
Photomorphism
0.5
Pyromorphism
0.7
Elemental Resonance
Electrokinetic Resonance
0.5
Electrokinetic Dissonance
0.5
Elemental Arcana
Aqualis
0.5
Aether
0.5
Sthal
0.5
Calcis
0.5
Ignis
0.7
“Well, it’s mostly filled low-W.P level lesser-aspect, but still…”
Name
H.P
P.P
O.P
O.M.P
A.P
Level
Dream
1396/1396▲
4869/4869▲
23001▲/23042▲
3765▲
5909/7044
19
"No one can call me weak anymore. Not even you, Suraxai," Dream declared, his voice carried away by the wind, echoing in the empty sky. There was no answer, but it didn't depress Dream. He chuckled to himself. "Knowing you, in a cheerful time like this, you would say things like “you would still be clapped in one blow by the weakest of Godsent”, but still, I have the right to rejoice, can't I?" His words once again hung in the air, unanswered.
Dream glanced down at the creature's lifeless corpse beneath him. "Speaking of Lords of Old, as of late, I'm stumbling upon nothing but dragon-enlightened creatures," he mused. With a thought, he activated his ability to see threads. There, as always, were the three main threads that stretched southward, connected to Suraxai's three former Lords of Old. "It means I'm getting closer and closer to them."
However, as he examined the threads, Dream noticed something unusual. Among them, there was a strange, thin, and almost transparent thread that showed fluctuations. Unlike the threads of the valkyries, which usually closed in on him from the northern horizon, this one seemed to be coming from the southern horizon. But as he continued to watch it, he realized that it wasn't getting closer to him; instead, it was attached to something that was moving at high speed, not necessarily toward him but heading north.
Dream's curiosity was piqued. He couldn't help but wonder what was at the other end of that mysterious thread. He was intent on finding out.
With a mental command from Dream,Nox came over, picking up and with a couple of flap of her wings taking off to the sky, closely followed by the three other battle maidens.
As Dream and his battle maidens continued to fly south, they closed in on the rapidly approaching entity connected to the mysterious thread. After several minutes of flight, they finally stumbled upon it. Or, to be more precise, they stumbled upon him.
A lone figure, flying through the air with incredible speed, came into view. He seemed to be aware of Dream's approach, and he gradually slowed down, allowing the two parties to meet in the open sky.
While the man's skin bore a deep, sun-kissed tan, he was without a doubt Arbian, not an odoe. His long hair, tied into a bun, and beard, both white with age, flowed gracefully in the wind. Deep wrinkles etched his face, and his expression seemed a mix of wisdom and confusion. He was adorned in a regal robe of pure white, adorned with intricate golden embroidery. However, a part of the white robe was tainted with a deep, vivid red—the color of dried blood.
Much like the DragonBane Knight Dream had encountered a few days ago, the man was missing a portion of his body. His right arm, from the shoulder down, had been neatly severed or perhaps cleanly chopped, and the wound had stained his once-white robe almost entirely red.
Dream and his Battle Maidens came to a halt, hovering in the sky before this mysterious newcomer. There was a moment of silence as they looked at each other, the wind whistling around them.
The moment a status screen appeared beside the man’s face, Without hesitation, Dream summoned odo spears that materialized and hovered in the air around him.
[ Aero ]
Apprentice
Galestrike Spear Lvl.5
145
In one fluid motion, he unleashed them with deadly precision, sending them hurtling towards the approaching man. The spears streaked through the sky, gleaming ominously in the sunlight.
With surprising agility, he flew up into the sky, manipulating what appeared to be winds to evade the oncoming spears. The projectiles whizzed past him, missing their mark, and the man's expression shifted from confusion to alertness.
Undeterred by his first, failed attack, Dream unleashed another salvo at the man.
[ Aero ]
Apprentice
Galestrike Spear Lvl.5
145
Undeterred by his first failed attack, Dream unleashed another salvo of odos spears at the man. "What the—A child?" The man muttered once again, his eyes narrowing as he skillfully manipulated the swirling gusts to evade the incoming projectiles.
Dream and his Battle Maidens watched as the man kept himself aloft, and they heard him questioning, "Who are you?"
“You’ll be dead before getting an answer to that," Dream replied defiantly. He didn't have time for questions; he needed to subdue this mysterious figure quickly. With a mental command, he ordered his two frontliner Battle Maidens, Selene and Luna, to engage the man.
Selene and Luna charged forward, their spears at the ready, and attempted to close the distance between them and their target. The man, still hovering in the air, assessed the approaching threats and prepared to defend himself.
Name
H.P
A.P
W.P
Aspect
Durant
(Reflection)
262/825
8012 / 17105
2
Elemental Arcana [⥈]
Chaos Vitalis [2]