POV In the meantime, somewhere deep under the tower:
Four people were tied in absolute darkness. They could only feel rough stone walls and ground. Everything around them was quiet except for a quiet feminine sobbing and scratching on the stone. No one was in the mood to speak.
It had already been hours, and they were still tied, with no one approaching them.
Finally, a rough voice of the dwarf echoed through the cave, “Damn it, I am getting sober!”
No one responded, so the dwarf continued his rant, “I don’t get it. Why are you so scared? We are all craftsmen here. That means that they likely want us to create something.”
The female hidden in the darkness stopped sobbing and glared at the white-bearded dwarf, “Yes, and then what? We have been kidnapped by some insane cultists! There is no way that they will just let us walk out of here.”
A muffled sound came from the gagged and tightly tied alchemist, and everyone preventively crawled further away from her.
“At least they tied here properly now…”
Only one of them remained quiet. A man in his thirties with glasses and messy had quietly sat next to the wall, ignoring all of them as he quietly scratched the wall’s surface, trying to write.
Suddenly two sets of steps on the hard stone came from the distance. Ones were light and quiet, and the others were heavy, deeply resounding through the cave.
Even with his night vision, the dwarf couldn’t see so far in absolute darkness.
Two pairs of glowing eyes were slowly closing towards them. One was high above the ground, while the second was much lower.
The man in glasses stopped scribing. The tied alchemist stopped squirming, and the sobbing arcanist pushed back her sobs. All of them looked with fear at the glowing eyes in the distance.
Everyone had thought the same, ‘They are monsters. No normal race has glowing eyes.’
Suddenly the pair of eyes closer to the ground locked on them stopped getting closer.
“Huh, is something wrong?” the familiar voice of the cultist that kidnapped them resounded through the dark cave.
“Out of all people, you had to kidnap those that I know…” a second, much higher and childish voice responded before awkwardly quieting down.
POV Vesuvius:
The black heart floating in the black space started to pulse with circular waves of red light spreading out of it. The pulsing kept gradually speeding up, with a loud humming sound accompanying it.
Powerful winds started to howl through the black space, with snowflakes falling out of nowhere. A chill passed through Vesusviuse’s consciousness floating in the black nothingness. Crystals of ice started to crystalise around the black curse heart.
Small cracks started to spread through its black surface, white light and bone-chilling cold radiating out of them. They were slowly growing in size, the freezing cold becoming even colder. It looked almost as if something trapped under the layers of black curse wanted to get out.
‘Is it the power of that winter dragon from my vision?’ Vesuvius looked hypnotised at the spreading frost.
The cracks were quickly growing. They were already so large that it looked like the black curse blocking it would shatter at any moment.
Vesuvius looked into the cracks and a chilli feeling of winter entered his mind. A terrific amount of energy radiated out. It was like looking into a nuclear reactor. Yet, it wasn’t hot but cold. Cold enough to freeze a human in an instant.
Vesuvius could already imagine his reward of getting winter powers on top of his volcano powers.
‘Such a perfect combination. Ice and fire. It even sounds poeticaly.’
However, the cracks suddenly stopped growing before they closed. A weird chilly presence descended upon the black space. Bones and flesh started to grow around the heart, slowly forming a silhouette of a dragon. More and more bones were appearing, making the materialising dragon look more and more complete.
Vesuvius moved his consciousness back, looking worried at the event before him, ‘Why is this happening? This never before happened during any metamorphosis that I know about.’
Scales and ice started to grow around the dragon-shaped flesh. The tough yet sleek-looking scales of pristine white colour that looked like they were made of snowflakes covered the dragon. Soon sharp and rough neon-red ice spread all over the scales and covered them in thick impenetrable armour.
The ice dragon was huge, its height reaching at least ten floors high, towering over Vesuviuse’s unoccupied body. The dragon felt empty, with no magical power radiating out of them.
The ice dragon moved, turning their golden glowing eyes towards the Vesuviuse’s consciousness. A chill passed through him as the two golden circles locked on him.
“Do not try to cheat me! You know what to do… If you want my legacy, then finish your part first… Take this. It will help you fulfil my will.” a faint, weak whisper filled with authority resounded through the empty black space.
The next moment the ice dragon burst into shrapnels of neon-red ice, all launching towards Vesuvius. They penetrated into his consciousness, with a cold chilly feeling spreading through his whole being as if he had jumped into a lake in the middle of winter.
The model of the dragon in the middle of the black space started to change. Neon-red glowing vein-like lines spread through the whole dragon’s armour. The veins kept growing, spreading from the claws and tail all the way towards his horns.
A slight red glow started to pulse inside the volcanic glass crystals in his horns, claws and back spikes, contrasting with the bright glow of magma in the cracks of his volcanic armour.
The black heart in the dragon’s chest started to beat louder than before.
Ding!
//
You have successfully awakened a portion of the dead dragon’s power, but a curse lingers on them, preventing you from accessing their full power.
The title [One with the curse] was upgraded to [Will of the Curse]
[Will of the Curse]:
Conditions: Fuse with the curse and awaken its hidden power
Effects: You can control the curse; New Ability [Curse Magic (LV 1)]; You can access the powers of winter dragons while fulfilling the last will of the curse; +3 levels to all curse-type abilities; +100 to all stats except for faith; New unnatural affinity: Curse
Finish the legacy mission and unlock the powers of the dead winter dragon.
//
Vesuvius felt like cursing, knowing that he was so close to an immense power-up, ‘Dammit, greedy dragon. Can’t they just give me their power beforehand? It would make it much easier.’
It was a depressing feeling, knowing that he had such a great power so close to him, but some already dead dragon was stopping him from accessing it. It was almost as if the dragon dangled with candy before a child.
‘Still, at least I know now what my reward will be for finishing that legacy quest. Also system? Weren’t you saying something about unlocking its full potential? This is definitely not full potential!’
There was no response, only silence.
To suppress the depressive feeling, Vesuvius decided to continue. He looked at the large red core filled with flames. He focused his mind on it, and the core started to burn brighter.
‘At least you look like something without any nasty catches.’
With his through, he moved the core towards the image of the dragon. It kept getting closer and closer towards the massive armoured head of the dragon.
‘Where to put you? It would be best looking on my forehead, but it will be most practical safely inside of my body. But it would look soo good on my head!’
He could already imagine a massive flaming orb embedded in his head that would glow and burn, looking like a massive ruby in a royal crown.
In the end, he decided to be pragmatic and not induce weak spots just to look more fabulous. He pushed the massive fire core deep into the dragon’s chest and willed the surrounding veins to connect to it like previously the roots of the mother tree.
Ding!
//
The modification added to the list: Implant Greater Fire Core
Cost: 1000 meta points
Material cost: Greater Fire Core
//
Without even thinking, Vesuvius confirmed the modifications, and immediately the dragon started to burn in blazing hot-looking white flames with a hint of blue.
Ding!
//
New ability: [Greater Fire Core]
Description: A core of crystalised fire-attribute mana extracted from a powerful boss-level monster: Mother Flaming Tree.
+500°C to the temperature of the fire and its derived elements; Allows to bend fire with a will; Can summon flames from any part of the body; 25% increased control over the fire-attribute mana; Stores 25% of total mana capacity as extra fire mana usable by fire spells and fire abilities.
//
‘Pretty standard upgrade, basically mandatory for any fire mage. Well, most of them just can only dream about getting greater core.’