The aura of heat radiating with pride and greed exploded out of the giant dragon. A magical circuit formed in his mind as he fed mana into it. The next moment the aura around him ignited in bright orange flames, forming a sphere around the dragon.
The reaper faced the dragon, their body dwarfed by the mountain of armour and scales before them. The cold aura reeking of death and rot, pushed against the dragon’s fiery aura. Bright flashes of magic were occasionally illuminating the black night sky above them.
The cold and hot auras kept pushing and bashing against each other, the air around them bending and distorting with sparks raining towards the ground. Vesuvius refused to relent, pumping more and more mana into his aura.
Finally, the reaper retracted their aura, seeing that the dragon would not relent and knowing that trying to go against a pride of a dragon was like banging their head against the wall, “So be it, I got my compensation for now… But sooner or later, you will need something from me, and then we will speak again.”
Without anything hindering its advance, the fiery aura of the dragon spread even more, making it look like a massive ball of fire levitated above the mountain peak.
The reaper dispersed into the white mist, its whole body vanishing out of the dragon’s sight, leaving behind only a weak trail of magic. It was so faint that even Vesuvius had trouble perceiving it.
Finally, the dragon retracted his aura, the fiery sphere vanishing out of the sky. He tilted his crystal wings and slowly drifted back towards his tower. His heart was still loudly pounding, with all the adrenaline circulating through his veins.
‘I gained a lot out of this. At least now I am sure that I can learn magic even without the system skills to support it.’
It was a huge revelation for the dragon as he knew from his experience as a player that even if he had all the knowledge needed to cast some spell, he couldn’t do it without appropriate skill on his interface.
‘It is likely a countermeasure to prevent players from just creating a new account and already knowing all of their spells from the last time, but I guess that in my weird state of being something between player and NPC, I can enjoy perks of freedom exclusive to NPCs while retaining access to the system.’
It was a huge discovery that caused the dragon’s eyes to flash in golden light as it opened many new paths for him. He even felt like an idiot for not even trying it before.
‘If I was human, it wouldn’t be such a huge discovery as I would need to seek books and teachers. But I am a dragon, which means I already have all I need in my inherited memories. I can use spells from there to supplement my arsenal given to me by the system.’
POV Kidnappers:
Steps and splashing resounded through a dark underground tunnel. The tunnel was long, with occasional light entering through holes in the ceiling. A dirty sewage water flowed down, a disgusting smell rising out of it, filling the whole tunnel.
People in dark black robes walked through the tunnel. They carried flickering torches, the orange light reflected in their shiny masks.
One of them held a chain wrapped around four people. They were all gagged with their hands tied by a rope, with a sack over their heads.
“I hate how realistic this game is. It smells like rotten shit down here! Fuck, can’t we smuggle them through the gate?” one of the masked figures quietly muttered as they looked at their dirty robes and shoes.
“No, we kidnapped too many people at the same time. They are all important ones on top of that, not some random novices from the street. The whole town is in upheaval, and guards guard all of the gates.”
“Quiet now, I think I heard something!” suddenly, a masked player with horns and weird hair growing out of his head raised his fist for everyone to quiet down.
Everything immediately became quiet except for breathing, muffled sounds and splashing in the distance.
“Someone is following us. Hurry up!” Everyone moved forwards, even the tied persons, as they refused to be dragged through the shit if they tried to resist.
The horned figure immediately grabbed his bow and nocked in a long arrow, his reptilian eyes searching for any movement.
The splashing from the dark tunnel kept getting louder and louder, with multiple steps quickly closing towards him. He pulled back the string of his bow all the way back, mana flowing into his fingers and then the arrow.
Soon a humanoid figure appeared from behind a turn, followed by more humanoids.
PunkGuy’s reptilian eyes easily spotted them while the tunnel’s darkness hid him from his enemy’s eyes.
He released the arrow. It flew forwards at an incredible speed, whistling through the air before igniting in bright orange flames that illuminated the whole tunnel as it flew into the distant darkness.
It reached the human in a split second and penetrated through their chest. Hot flames blazed out of the arrow, engulfing their whole body and turning them into a human torch.
“Shit, they must-have night vision. Get a cover!” shouts immediately filled the tunnel as the humans retreated back behind the turn from where they came.
‘Night vision, such a simple yet powerful ability.’
He quickly nocked in a second arrow, his eyes not moving as they focused into the distance of the tunnel as he prepared to kill anything that would move.
Soon another silhouette moved from behind the corner. Their chest and head were hidden behind a heavy kite shield. They moved forwards confidently, like a wall of metal, clanging of their amour and shield resounding through the dark tunnel.
The horned figure pushed his mana into his fingers once more, feeding it into his bow and arrow. He released his string again, and the powerful winds surrounded the whistling arrow obscured by the darkness of the tunnel.
It flew at a steep angle, heading straight towards the shield man’s leg. It hit straight into it, the lacerating winds around it tearing away the whole leg, leaving behind a bleeding stump.
‘No cries of pain. That means that they are likely players.’
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon quietly rested on top of his tower. His mind was absent as his mind browsed through all of the spells in the inherent memories that he could access, trying to find something that would fit into his current arsenal.
‘Most of them are either too complex or too mana hungry for my current self. The rest is either weird or situational. The system really knows what it is doing by picking only these that are useful and not above my current capabilities…’
Suddenly an extra loud ding interrupted his thoughts as bright golden fireworks filled his whole vision, quickly forming into text.
Ding!
//
World Announcement!
The guild SearingCoalminers managed to defeat the main event boss of the version: The High Arch Lich Coolius, ending their cruel rule!
//
Ding!
//
World Announcement!
The main event of the version has ended!
Servers will be shut down in ten days for maintenance and a new update!
,m //
Vesuvius read in surprise through both updates, concerns filling his whole mind, ‘What will happen when the servers shut down? Will I still have access to my system?’
He wasn’t worried about the whole world vanishing as he was sure that it was real, but the system felt like something that was definitely connected to some kind of a server.
His gaze fell upon his level that was closing towards forty-nine, ‘No matter what, I need to evolve before it comes, just in case.’
The dragon looked over the edge of his tower, lights still flashing all over the ground with his XP bar slowly filling up, ‘There is still lots of fighting I don’t think that I need to rush. Ten days is more than enough to gain two levels.’
Then it hit him, his heart beating in panic as he realised that always many years had passed between game versions, ‘My minions will be gone for a very long time, who will be doing all of the annoying tasks for me. I will have to once again live like a poor dragon without minions.’
He felt like it was unacceptable after living convenient life of throwing all of the annoying stuff on his free workforce.
‘Well, I will still have my two native minions and my army of monsters, but they are not even close to being enough. I can’t see either of them doing large-scale construction work or preaching to crowds. My whole church will be basically without any priests!’
Suddenly Vesuvisu remembered something, his eye going wide in confusion, ‘What happened to that one soldier who drank my blood and got controlled by the dragon god, is he still even alive?’
The dragon jumped from his tower and spread his wings as he quickly glided towards the nearest group of his minions as he needed to quickly find out what happened.