Chapter 22: What are You Guys Worried About?
Early Morning - Mid Spring : Home
After Mother said we should eat, she gave us each large Field Bison that she had prepared earlier.
They were simply divine. -So juicy.. so good..- The meat melted in my mouth and tasted more juicy than normal.
Mother gave me a curious look as I was enjoying the food. "So Vasilias, what was that magic you used on the wyvern? I've never seen anything like it. Although I'm also curious about your breath from earlier, I think this will be easier to understand."
Snapping out of my thoughts, I took a second to think about how to explain it. "Well, first I created a metal rod with earth magic, then used lightning magic to launch it out of my mouth.." I tried my best to word it in a way she could understand, but her not knowing what magnetism was made that a more complicated task.
Mother sat up straight and looked at father in complete confusion. "Sweetie, can I get more detail? Like how does the lightning move the metal rod at all, let alone fast enough to do that much damage?"
Father was confused about something else though. "What did he do?"
"He completely eviscerated a large wyvern along with a few kilometers of forest behind it.."
Father stopped eating for a moment and just froze. “With a metal rod?”
"Well it's not that complicated.." I decided I would just try to explain the basics of magnetism. "So on a basic level, certain metals are known as magnetic." I created a small iron ball in front of me, and used lightning to make it float. "See? I can control how it moves by using the lighting because the lightning has charge."
Mother still looked confused. "So you're trying to tell me you moved an iron rod faster than I could catch a glimpse of.. by using lightning?" "By using magnetism, yes. See?" I quickly used magic to throw the iron ball into the side of the mountain.
*Bang*
Father was the first to break the silence that followed. "Vasilias.. Could you show me what you did to the wyvern earlier?"
I lightly nodded my head and aimed at the iron ball embedded in the mountain.
*CRACK*
The metal rod instantly left my mouth and plowed straight through the mountain [1].
Krystallo and Father's jaws both dropped seeing a hole dripping molten rock appear in the side of the mountain.
Silence encompassed everyone for a moment before Father spoke up.
"Vasilias." He looked straight at me with a gleam in his eyes. "Would you like to come with me on a mission to a humanoid city?"
Mother froze as if she was going to intervene but I spoke up first. "Mission?"
"I have some business with the royalty in the Kingdom of Kaelallan in two months, it will only be a quick trip, there and back, but it might be a good experience for you."
"But won't I have to learn transformation magic first?" -I can't just walk into a human city as a dragon can I?-
I was super excited at the chance to see some more of the world, but my gut was telling me something like transformation magic would be extremely hard to learn especially on short notice.
"You've already learned it! Every dragon is born with the ability to change to a humanoid form once they acquire enough mana. The one you will make will be your temporary form. You will only be able to use your 'true' humanoid form once you awaken it around the elder stage, even your Mother and I are rather far from it."
-Ah so it was in the inheritance..-
Mother’s worry became more visible as she spoke. "Vasilias, remember you can choose whatever race you want for your 'temporary' form.. just keep in mind that.. it might hurt some.."
-Hmm what should I be then.. a human form is too boring, merfolk and elves aren't my style, so avians or demihuman..- After thinking for a short moment, I started to lean towards being an avian, but my instincts kept telling me to transform into something else.. something specific that felt incredibly natural.
I glanced over at Ilios. -Well I guess going with what feels most natural is smart.-
I started to exude a blinding purple light as my massive 23 meter body started to change shape.
Unlike how I expected, it was nothing like a spell, my body just took a bit of my mana and did it on its own.
-There isn't any pain?- Although Mother warned me that it might hurt, I didn't feel any pain, instead, I just felt extremely uncomfortable.
After a short moment, the light subsided and I looked at myself with aura.
I looked like a 10 year old kid. My hair was such a deep black it looked like the abyss but it was strangely beautiful. I also had two perky wolf ears on my head and a fluffy black tail that looked just like Ilios's except that it was black.
Besides appearance, I also felt weaker, but not nearly as weak as I had expected. It still felt incredibly uncomfortable being so much smaller and weaker than my dragon form though.
Circulating my mana a bit, I quickly noticed my breath gland as well as all 7 attribute nodes were still there and my mana reserve was left untouched. -I thought my temporary form was supposed to be weaker..- (Will be explained next chap)
As I was busy thinking to myself, Ilios ran up to me and bowed his head at my feet.
-What the?- It was incredibly odd since Ilios had never acted like this, it was extremely out of character. "Mother, why is Ilios acting like this?" I quickly looked up to see Mother and Father completely awestruck and Krystallo staring at me as if in a trance. -What’s with that reaction..-
Father broke into a cold sweat the second I looked at him.
-What in the world.. wait.. maybe it's an aura thing?- Even if I knew about the issue though, I simply couldn't do anything about it. I still hadn’t learned how to control it properly.
"V..Vasilias.." Mother finally said something although her voice was very shaky. "What race.. is that?"
-Huh? Do I not look like a demihuman?- I decided it was best to just respond honestly. "I just followed my instinct." I glanced over at Ilios.
Mother and Father noticed my glance and looked at Ilios. "Did you.. copy Ilios’s race? B..but that's not possible.."
-What?- "What do you mean? What race is Ilios? Isn't he a frost wolf?" I was struggling to figure out what Mother meant.
Mother looked like she was deep in thought. "Well.. we thought he was, but after absorbing a ton of your aura during your dragon sleep he evolved into an Ancient Fenrir.. [2] There are only 2 ancient fenrir that can exist at once, one black and one white…” She looked back and forth between Ilios and I before continuing. “They are mythical creatures said to be stronger than the gods... Even dragons have to bow to them.."
-COOL!- I looked down at Ilios with a proud smile.
I thought it was incredible that Ilios was not only stunningly beautiful and adorable, but he was also crazy strong.
"But what did you mean by I copied his race? I didn't feel like I copied anything though..”
Mother stiffened up and her face was covered in an inexplicable expression.
Father was quick to take over for her. "Well.. when choosing your 'temporary form', you would be able to mimic the appearance of any race.. but you.. actually changed races.." Father looked at Mother with a face of concern and worry.
I wasn't following what they were talking about. I had thought that I did something cool but seeing their reactions was a little worrying.
After finally sorting some of her thoughts, Mother chimed back in. "So.. Vasilias.. how much of your mana reserve can you use?"
"Huh? Uh.. all of it."
Mother and Father both froze.
"It's not full at the moment but I do have access to all of it."
"W.. wh.. what about your attribute nodes..." Mothers voice was getting a bit shaky.
"I have all 7, even my breath gland is untouched.." I didn't know how to react to their expressions anymore.
"Are you sure?” Mother looked at me in disbelief. “Here.. aim at that tree and use a breath.. Just be very careful.."
"O..okay.." I was a bit nervous but I was excited to experiment with my breath again. -This time, not nuclear..-
I was thinking of what possible explosive I could use before I settled on ammonium nitrate, simple to make and moderately strong.
It was a dirty explosive but it was SIGNIFICANTLY more affordable mana wise than anything else I could think of. -Maybe I should try TNT next..-
TNT was cleaner, but it was crazy expensive compared to ammonium nitrate. (Ammonium nitrate is NOT toxic enough to harm dragons!)
After creating a moderately substantial amount of ammonium nitrate, I aimed towards the tree mother pointed towards, and opened my mouth.
*Crack*
This time I used some wind magic to help keep the explosion together, focusing the blast into a beam that instantly reached the tree.
*BoOm*
The explosion completely obliterated the bottom half of the tree and stripped the bark from a couple trees nearby it.
-Affordable with good firepower, a good combo..-
I looked at the scene in satisfaction, somehow overlooking the tense and awkward atmosphere behind me.