Up the path I went, enjoying the pace and marvelous scenery. This cave was odd. It was both chilling and beautiful. It was both dangerous and rich. It was so dark and yet so bright.
It was my home and place of birth, and I was birthed by an Origin Dragon.
Did that make Veldora my dad… or mom? Was that why he named me a Tempest and blessed me? Veldora was a true parent—very generous and unconditional. Even though I had memories and a personality of a different person, the dragon still said, "Yeah, you're my child alright. I'm gonna name you and bless you. I'll also give you some basic world lore."
Well, I was sure going to show him some much-needed appreciation. But I was probably going to see the dragon as my brother—a reliable big brother.
How many brothers did I have now? Four? Hopefully I didn't die before Veldora in this new life. Not that the big scaly dragon could die. Well, I needed to achieve immortality as well.
"Wait," I realized with widening eyes. "Aren't I technically immortal?"
Well, it was only biological immortality. But how exactly did you kill a slime? I didn't take damage easily, and my core was stored away in my inventory. In truth, at least the truth of my current knowledge, I suspected only someone with Imaginary Spacecould kill me. Also, a person with voodoo-tier witchcraft—the kind that just needed some words and dumb things to perform stupidly outrageous feats with that little witchery.
I was starting to wish that voodoo nonsense didn't exist here. It wouldn't be fair to train to be stupidly strong and somehow just get defeated by a crone on an average Tuesday.
Well, I supposed I just needed to not be a right bastard. Bah, I wasn't scared of death, and in my heart, I wanted some fun and happiness. I had lived two lives unfulfilled, and I wasn't about to waste this one.
As I traveled, I killed more monsters and scrubbed clean entire sections of the cave's lower levels. It was exhilarating watching the crystals sometimes grow back immediately after I consumed them. Also, the most curious thing was how much my stomach kept growing in response to the ambient and potent magicules in my system.
I kept condensing them and adding them into my pool. I was sure that what I was doing wasn't common practice. But while I had large reserves—nigh inexhaustible, though still nowhere near whatever Veldora had—I had some thin magicules. Sure, they were more easily manipulated that way, and I had optimized my skill costs to a discount rate; however, my recovery rate didn't keep up with my average cost.
I wasn't just going to let that slide.
In my current condition, my pool was thrice as rich and two times as easy to replenish. I could engage in a stagnant fight for a bit longer before needing a break. Additionally, this practice was widening my reserves ever so slightly. I suspected I'd be twice as inexhaustible in a year or so.
"Oi, what's taking so long?" someone with a low and rustic voice spoke.
I froze mid-walk, feeling the spoken words being analyzed in real time and the comprehension of the tongue being provided to me. I took the words and chewed them, feeling the cadence, theorizing the pronunciation, and acquiring the fluency.
These people spoke the language I'd only known for a fraction of a second a bit wrongly. Was it a dialect? I immediately started walking toward them, my form shrinking. I shot my sticky thread up to the rocky ceiling, and then immediately retracted it to pull myself up.
In a second, I was looking at the trio. Two guys and a woman—that was a concerning but interesting combination. They wore odd clothes. The woman was youngish, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, with marks under her eyes, and a very fair figure. She wore an odd shirt, red and white with double-layered sleeves and a short skirt fastened with a big belt.
And then, she wore thigh-high boots and a bow on her head?
That was a very odd fashion choice—definitely not adventurer-worthy. Though there was something odd about that girl; she was giving off just the faintest traces of Haki—not quite the flavor of Veldora—even though her reserves were pitiful. What gave her that arrogance and assurance?
I was definitely bothered by that. So I neared them, watching as the two men dressed in armor worked on the door whilst complaining and arguing about something—this group was too carefree, and I was desiring a human form.
This was definitely stupid; that much could not be argued. I discarded caution and decided to initiate conversation.
"Aren't you three a bit too carefree for being in the home of a Dragon?" I projected the words through my Shock Manipulation.
It was amusing watching the trio stiffen and look around searchingly.
The men jumped to the girl's defense, one holding a shield up and a sword at the ready, while the other drew his knife, a suspicious shimmer upon it. At the back, the girl raised her arm at the ready, an unreal glow upon it.
Was that magic? Maybe; the glows were definitely of different origins. One was relying on the ambient for empowerment while the other, the girl's, was drawing from her own personal magicules.
And what was with this crazy combination? A mage, a warrior, and a thief type? What was this, a video game?
"No," I projected again. "It's already too late for that. If I wanted you dead, then you'd be dead."
"I'd like to see you try, phantom monster," the pretty-boy warrior said, only to be scolded by the thief type.
These two were a comedy.
The girl kept looking about for me, but she was looking in all the wrong places. These three were unfit to be doing whatever it was they were doing.
I was taking advantage of that.
"I'll be obliging that request," I said, activating my analytic skill. "You'll have to forgive me the inconvenience."
I shot toward the girl, an unseen threat of silver attaching to her chest. No reaction whatsoever.
Easily, almost patiently, I swallowed her up in a growing mass of blue slime and began the analytic process.
I absorbed her hair in lieu of biting out a chunk of her flesh—frigging good guy over here.
It was then, after a second and a half—practically a century of idleness in actual reaction speed—that the others moved to act. The two men jumped into action, trying to save her.
Yeah, that wasn't going to work for me.
I shot two sticky threads at their feet and lit their bodies up with some unnatural voltage.
They ceased and shook for a bit before crumbling to the floor like puppets with their strings cut. Idiots. What exactly was this nonsense adventuring group? Why were they acting like game characters in an RPG? That wasn't how adventuring worked.
Reality didn't stop its indifferent punishment just because one decided to be… stupid.
After a moment, collecting the data of the girl's physiology and oddities, I also offloaded some deadly volts on her nape, letting her crumble with her friends.
Easily, as the form was acquired, I immediately initiated transformation. A cloud of black smoke consumed me as my form changed. I became a humanoid—face, arms, legs, torso, hair, and sweet, wondrous genitalia…
I frowned, activating my magic sense.
…and I was blue-haired and blue-eyed, and I had long, pointy ears. And I was also short—really short. Nope, I wasn't about to be a goddamn chibi. I pulled from my pool and invested in my form.
I immediately grew an extra two feet, muscles tightening, features sharpening. I also felt the investment to maintain the form was negligible—barely anything surrendered to drainage. Though it would have been nice if that form didn't need support.
"Still, to think this girl was an elf." I looked at the girl; her ears didn't seem that long. Was that some concealment skill? Magic? I shook my head, designing my new outfit from the furs and sticky threads.
I was done in a minute, wearing a long, comfy, unbuttoned leather jacket with furred sleeves and neck, alongside a pair of reptilian leather pants and shoes. Using more acids, I ate up the smells of the animals, and by concentrating the scents of the more pleasant plants, I became a rather nice-smelling… elf.
And wasn't that a bit odd? I definitely felt slightly different than when I did as a human. More flexibility, greater lung capacity, unnatural innate understanding of coordination, sharper eyesight, and a very strong desire to whistle.
But most of all, I felt… attuned to that most ethereal of feelings. Like a dream manifesting in real time under the governance of comprehension.
I could just…
«Skill "Aspectual Magic" acquired.»
…comprehend its utilization. A burst of revelation popped in my head, and in just a moment, I was aware and capable. It was imagination. It was… calculation. This was so stupid.
What kind of magic cost so little and relied on the miracles supported by the sciences? If I used myself as the catalyst and recalled the theories of jet pack operations, no matter how stupid, I could just…
"…fly!"
I lifted from the ground, a circle of light and formulas momentarily blinking in and out of existence at my activation of that spell. Activation duration was reliant on my imagination. That included speed and durability.
"Holy shit, I can drop nukes on this world," I realized, a bit surprised… and scared. How was this so cheap and easy to use?
I looked at the crumbled trio, then shook my head. Truly, it was a wonder how they managed that confidence.
I extended my hand toward the girl and simulated the process of hair growth…
"Bloom Rich!" I invoked, watching as the lustrous blonde hair just glitched into existence on the girl. That was so… unsettling. This was like wish magic.
I held my palm out, looking at it a bit. Then I just, out of pure nothingness and accelerated simulation of vial creation, four complete vials filled with my healing potion just appeared out of nowhere. It was just like that.
It shouldn't be this easy to create… miracles. I laughed, I laughed so hard I felt it in my soul. This world was so lousy with its gift. As I maddened—because I was indeed mad—my clothes twisted and changed, a dozen formulaic patterns running up and down my body.
My outfit changed, going black. I now wore a tight and breathable long sleeve shirt together with a pair of black pants that were only tight around the calves and baggy around thighs. A pair of leather boots appeared about my feet.
I looked like fashion finally acquired consciousness.
A cloak of black shimmered into existence, and it wrapped around my shoulders, eating away everything from the chest down.
"This world better be prepared." I quickly turned to black lightning and exited the cave. I'd made sure to leave the potions behind as an apology to the trio.
An extraordinary had appeared!!