The bright light surrounding the dragon in the empty black space finally subsided, revealing the dragon’s changed body.
The dragon was even bigger than before. His whole body was enveloped in a dark-looking material, with parts of it looking murky like a stone, with others having a metallic lustre. It was glowing in the faint blue light, and the bright bluish light radiated out of the cracks filled with magma.
The incredibly hot-looking liquid dripped out and fell into the infinity depth of the black space.
A bright light was leaking from a place in the upper half of the dragon’s long neck. It was the place where were his breath glands.
The arcs of electricity were constantly running alongside the shiny crystal spikes growing on the dragon’s back.
His seven long horns were brightly glowing, the electricity wildly dancing around them and forming high-voltage arcs connecting to different parts of the dragon’s body.
An immense magical energy was radiating out of the dragon, a bluish glow of Cherenkov radiation passing through the thick clouds of smoke, sparking with electricity.
When seeing it, Vesuvius felt his doubts vanish, his mind amazed by his new form. He wanted just to go and try it, to feel its power. He wanted to unleash his radioactive breath and see its destruction with his own eyes.
From the first-person perspective, he wanted to feel the immense magical power pulsing through the dragon.
Vesuvius finally shook his metaphorical head and looked back at the remaining materials. There were still dozens of blue orbs and one large neon-red globe.
There was also the headless body with metallic prosthetics drifting across the black space.
‘There are a few small things that I need to fix. After that, my points will be too low to add any bigger features. It would be a waste of these materials to waste them on suboptimal changes. I will just make some smaller tweaks and wrap this up.’
With just a single thought, the dragon’s body turned transparent again, revealing all of his organs and skeleton.
‘My hearts are too important. I should add more protection.’
Instantly more ribs started to grow out of nowhere, with the old ribs growing thicker and denser. The dragon’s ribcage slowly turned into a third layer of defence, forming a thick barrier with only thin gaps between each rib to allow veins and nerves to pass while preventing blunt damage from spreading to all of his ribs.
Vesuvius didn’t stop as he made his skull and spine thicker and denser, with his neck and head growing to accommodate the more formidable skeletal structure.
Normally such a heavy skeleton would hinder his mobility. Still, with the mystical powers giving him strength beyond what his muscles should be able to exert, it would have such a little effect on him that he felt like it was more than worth it.
‘With my armour and scales, this is my third layer of defence.’
(AN: So I grabbed a few of your mod ideas and used them here, thanks for them.)
Ding!
//
The modifications added to the list: Strengthened skeleton
Cost: 200 meta points
//
Vesuvius looked towards his head, his gaze locking at his horns and brain.
‘I fixed the physical strain of my horns but using them for a long time to control too many things is still a big distraction and strain on my mind.’
With just a single thought, a lump of tissue and nerves started to grow in the hind portion of the dragon’s head. Wrinkles began to form on its surface as it slowly took on the shape of a small brain.
It was a simple brain, all of its structure programmed and evolved only to do one specific task. That removed all of its versatility, but at the same time, it made it cheap and good at doing that one thing.
‘It should be affordable as this brain can only do one thing, taking care of a large portion of the burden of controlling my horns.’
Nerves quickly started to branch out of it like the roots of a tree. They connected straight to the dragon’s horns as if they were wires.
Finally, one thicker nerve emerged, connecting straight with the dragon’s spine like a central bus.
Ding!
//
The modifications added to the list: Horns controlling sub-brain
Cost: 250 meta points
//
With satisfaction, Vesuvius looked at all of the changes, ‘These things are similar to that one evolution of the mage dragon or how it was called… I already got the fire core, the sub-brain and also improved mana generation. I only lack that secondary vein system just for pure mana and more cores. Well, maybe sometime in future.’
He felt like laughing at how he initially thought he had more than enough points when he now felt like he didn’t have enough for everything he wanted to do.
Finally, with most of his points spent, the dragon glanced for the one last time at the glowing red core and the dead cyborg with regret of not using them, ‘I have only around four hundred points left. That is not enough…’
p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、 Vesuvius blinked, thinking about something weird, ‘What if I don’t want to add anything new but only improve my already existing ability?’
Under the influence of the dragon’s will, the corpse of the cyborg stopped moving, levitating in the air. Blood started to flow out of its injuries, quickly forming a small red river flowing through the air, forming a small orb of blood.
With another push of the dragon’s will, tiny specks of silvery-looking dust started to fly out of the blood, forming a sparkling cloud.
He usually wouldn’t be able to do what he wanted, but when the system was ready to offer him any assistance during metamorphosis, he was more than sure it would work.
‘That boss looked important, so he must have some high-grade officer-level nanites or something like that.’
Normally he wouldn’t try just using the blood on himself as he felt like, at best, it wouldn’t work, or in the worst case, the nanites would attack his body from inside.
He suspected that some programming would prevent anyone from just taking a blood sample from the dead to obtain nanites.
The silvery cloud of nanites moved at once, moving towards the dragon’s eyes, entering into his bloodstream through veins in his eyes.
Ding!
//
Action needed: Rebind nanites to the user
Cost: 375 meta points
//
‘Do it.’
Ding!
//
Your ability Magitech Nanites (LV 6) evolved into Officer-Grade Magitech Nanites (LV 6):
The improved and more effective variant of the standard issue nanites used by knights of Hyperion.
The improved nanites are more mana effective and can endure higher amounts of mana, effectively increasing their maximal regeneration speed.
//
‘Finally, I am done!’ with his impatience growing, Vesuvius confirmed his last addition.
Ding!
//
Finalising the metamorphosis…
Calculating a new evolution path…
//