Chapter 411 Not The First One
One month later:
POV Vesuvius:
Ding!
//
Your winter soul is now level 16.
All stats of the winter soul increased!
+5 stat points
+1 ability point
Evolution is available.
//
'No, this time no. I have the luxury of waiting. I can wait for more powerful evolution.' The dragon watched with closed eyes as just the passive income of XP harvested by his minions slowly but surely leveled up his winter soul. The trickle of stats made him grow stronger with each level.
The dragon's eyes suddenly flung wide open as cracking echoed through his divine kingdom.
The small cracks spread through the colorful shell of the egg lying in the middle of a small island. His heart was filled with a mixture of worry and excitement. On the one hand, he was glad it hatched, but on the other hand, he couldn't but worry if it would still be his minion.
'No need to be so negative, even in the worst case it should at least be a new dragon.'
The cracks quickly spread and grew wider, making the tensions more palpable. Until now, he spent time guarding the egg, and now it was finally the time to see the result.
The one crack resounded, and the top of the egg separated from the rest. The pair of eyes, golden and blue, faintly glowed inside.
'Eyes remained, that is good news.'
A small green reptile crawled out. It was no bigger than a bear, its body covered in glittering green scales. The steam raised and formed a small shroud around their body with a pair of long, green-crystal horns looking like made of emeralds growing out of the scaly, reptilian head.
The small pair of wings were folded on their back.
'Huh?!' Vesuvius was shocked as something was wrong, 'This wasn't supposed to happen. This mix of elements makes no sense.'
Just at first glance, the dragon felt the presence of wind, water, and Earth.
The newly hatched dragon would always take on elements depending on their surroundings when they hatched, yet the small green dragon was... green instead of fiery as he expected.
'How?'
In everything else, it looked like any normal newly hatched dragon.
'At least they are no weird mutations.'
As if some instincts kicked in, the small dragon opened its mouth and ravenously threw itself at the eggshell, its sharp, pointy teeth crushing it into powder.
Vesuvius could only watch silently, his eyes bewildered by the unusual happenings. Still, he didn't lose his hope for his minion and waited.
Finally, the last piece of the shell vanished, and the little dragon turned to face Vesuvius.
Its small head immediately pressed against the stone, its eyes flashing as if in a panic.
"Mwaster... no, your lordwship, I..." Its mouth opened, and slightly malformed words came out, its long tongue helplessly moving through its mouth.
"Is it still you, Alesia?" The large dragon's word cut their words. As if the time stopped, Vesuvius waited with bathed breath as the small dragon looked at him with glowing eyes.
As if it had gotten used to its tongue, it spoke in a clear and melodious yet cold voice, "No, I am now Alesia Recentibius. I have been reborn to something greater. I will forever owe you for making me a member of the noblest race. Now I see what you see, the letters and numbers floating before my eyes. This was the reason for your fast ascent, wasn't it? Is this the power of dragons?"
The dragon's mood swept from disappointment at the first word to relief at the following name and finally into shock at the last part. He lost his words as he felt surprised beyond his expectations, 'She got the system from me...'
Now he realized how terrifying the thing that the dragons did was. They didn't just give the system to him; they gave the system to all the future generations of dragons.
It opened Vesuvius's eyes to what happened as he connected all the dots.
'I wasn't the first to implant a shard of dragon soul into a living being. It is what they must have done. They must have dragged my soul here all the way from Earth just to fuse my soul with it.'
He was now sure of it. Everyone underestimated dragons. They considered them arrogant and lazy, yet he now saw how devious a plan they had composed.
'So the system is likely nesting directly in souls, so when I take a piece of my soul to make a new dragon, the system likely comes with it.'
For a moment, even Vesuvius froze, realizing how dangerous it was if someone ever found out. He was sure the gods would go insane even more than for time magic, maybe even smiting him directly.
Yet, he could still see dragons becoming the absolute rulers with him as their king with their only weakness, the slow growth, eliminated by the system's power.
Then he spotted a gap in his grandiose view of the future, 'No, that is not correct, the system still requires connection to whatever the server is. However, until it shutdowns, dragons will have a chance to catch up and make for their loss.'
Finally, his mind returned back to his presence.
"Hahaha, that is great my min...no my kin. Welcome to the peak of the world. Grow stronger and live life worthy of a dragon!" Everything shook as the mountain-sized dragon laughed with genuine content like a madman, the apocalyptic storm chaotically swirling around him.
'That at least explains this mix of elements... she had chosen it. It is what she wanted. I wonder what path she will take in the future.' At last, he could breathe in relief, knowing he didn't lose his best minion. Instead, he got now largely upgraded vassal that will, in the future, become a great asset.
Ding!
//
Your title [Last Dragon] was changed to [The Resurrector of Dragons]:
Condition: Revive your dead race.
Effects: Defence scaling +1.50X; +1 DIV
//
'I am no longer alone...' It was such a weird emotion that he rather pushed it back and focused on the more important thing.
A devious and terrifying thought formed in his mind as he realized there was a race he had to win, 'The server, whatever is it and wherever is it... I must find it and secure it for my greatness and the greatness of the dragons I spawn, even if I will have to conquer and besiege the entire Earth. I am sure that I am not the only one searching for it. I would even bet there is already a race in the shadows to find it.'
"Rest my kin and grow stronger... I have a war to win." The dragon stood up and spread his wings, submerging everything in the sprawling shadow.
His tone turned more severe, "Do not speak to anyone about the letters you see."
Vesuvius gave one last glance at the smoke-surrounded form of his divine guardian looming in the distance, the terrifyingly evolved form of a noble draconid. "You, protect her while I am gone."
A bright golden portal swallowed the dragon as he reappeared high above the green landscape of his kingdom. The foundations of tall walls and towers stretched all over the skyline, his minions hardly working on finishing his vision.
'Time to use the little spies that infiltrated my home. Let them become my tools.' Even now, he couldn't believe how someone could be arrogant and think they could trick a dragon with some simple gear to alter their body signs like breathing and perspiration.
'Phh, even if you make yourself look calm as if you had nothing to hide, it is easy to see there is something wrong with how you breathe, sweat and your hormones smell.' It was simply impossible, as even a single unusual reaction was a big red flag.
POV The Spies:
The small group of players sat around a small crackling fireplace of their castle.
"The secret order for all land controlling administrators to arm has arrived... in a week we are supposed to march and attack the empire bordering us from the west." The young, dark-haired player in glasses pointed at the red border line.
Everyone looked gloomy as they felt like the war was already lost before it even happened.
"What about it? The church is in such a shambles they will not be able to summon another high-ranking angel. The armies are still in disarray." The blonde-haired woman just shook her head, feeling all their infiltration was in vain when they couldn't even have the power to respond to the threat they discovered.
'They all abandoned their fellow human kingdom because they are too shortsighted. You can recover your forces later, you idiots! Now you must act and support your former ally.' Captain Kusary hardly kept his temper on a leash as he just wanted to shout at fate for being so cruel by sending so many disasters in a few years.
"How powerful is even the dragon now?" That was the question that burned on his mind for a long time.
The boring-looking man in glasses and the looks of an accountant or, even worse, a politologyst affixed his glasses before speaking in his annoying all-knowing tone, "Well, the last time they defeated the holy wyrm, the vampire lord, and even the authority angel. So very..."
"I get it, we are screwed... but not too screwed. If our backers ambush it with all their elite forces, we can at least injure it enough to make it retreat back. Then destroying its slave armies will be an easy task."