POV Vesuvius:
The dragon sat on top of a tall white peak with a storm going berserk around it, lightning striking everywhere and winds loudly howling.
The cracks in his dark armour glowed brightly in blue light as he faced an opposite peak.
The ancient wyrm named Astrapolius rested there, their long tail wrapped around it. The lighting was constantly striking their body, electricity surging through them.
“Your magic is crude. It lacks any elegance and practicality, it works, but it isn’t optimal. It is not even standard magic; circuits have many deviations to make it more destructive, deviations that are beyond your knowledge to devise.”
The words hurt Vesuvius very much, his pride getting hurt.
Until now, he knew he was behind in studying magic, but he thought it was in an acceptable range. Still, he bit his tongue, not daring to interrupt the wyrm as he waited for more information.
Suddenly the wyrm opened their mouth, and four square-shaped circuits flared up in them. They formed so fast that Vesuvius didn’t even have an opportunity to blink.
‘That looks like mine so…’
“This is so inefficient. Why do you have to stack them in such an inefficient way to increase their effects? It is so wasteful. You can instead do this.”
The magic moved, all of the magical squares dissipating into specks of light.
In their place, magical symbols started to slowly arrange themself into one much smaller square, and then a bigger square formed around the small inner one with a bright line separating them.
The mana moved precisely and slowly as the wyrm wanted Vesuvius to observe it. It slowly filled one magical letter after another without even a single drop of mana leaking and going to waste.
Four more brightly glowing lines split the outer square into four parts. Each of the split parts of the outside square contained the same set of pulsing magic symbols.
“Watch and learn. This single lens is as good as four of yours.” the pride in the wyrm’s voice was evident as they flexed their skill and knowledge before the young dragon.
The dragon looked at it with shock, his eyes flickering as he immediately understood what had happened.𝒪𝓥xt.𝑶
‘This is smart, no, more than just smart. If I can use one control circuit for all and then just add more parts to create the effects, I can save lots of time, effort and mana. This is brilliant! There is no need to create four separate circuits when I can take just controlling core from them and then stack the effects on it.’
It was like using a single circuit box to power up four lights, while his old way was like using four different circuit boxes to power each other.
It was an elegant solution, but Vesuvius could still understand why it wasn’t included in the basics, ‘It needs much more precise control, not something a dragon of my age would possess without the system. I wonder on what level of skill this would normally unlock.’
“Don’t misunderstand me. This stacking around a core has its own limit in the form of how much mana can flow through it before breaking the core. When you reach that point, you will do it as you did before. Simply add more circuits.”
More light flashed inside the gaping mouth of the wyrm, magical energy quickly forming a small internal square surrounded by a bigger one split into four separate parts.
Vesuvius glared inside the wyrm’s mouth, which is filled with sharp pointy teeth, already feeling like a dentist for looking at someone’s teeth for so long.
An immensely bright, thin ray of lightning burst out, vanishing into the distance of the sky. It was only thick as a human hand but carried enough energy to power up a whole town.
Watching it, Vesuvius couldn’t compare it against a thick beam shot by the wyrm before, ‘It is so thin, but before, it was thicker and stronger.’
Without scruples, he asked what he wanted, “Astrapolius, how have you produced such a thick and destructive beam before?”
‘At least we are always going straight to the point.’ that was something that he liked about dragons. They spoke about what they wanted without obscuring it.
The wyrm Astrapolius closed their mouth, the ray of lightning stopping. They drilled with their eyes crackling with electricity deep into the dragon’s very soul. They both didn’t speak. Astrapolius just quietly observed the dragon.
It went on for a while, already making him nervous when the ancient wyrm finally spoke, “You look capable of using amplification breath lenses. They amplify the effects of any breath attacks passing through them at the cost of a huge amount of mana.”
The wyrm once again opened their mouth, the same two circuits as before flaring up in them, their bright light illuminating the whole interior of wyrm’s mouth.
However, then a third circuit started to form. Magic surged in the mouth, moving elegantly and precisely without a single shiver under the perfect control of Astrapolius.
The letters woven of mana formed out of thin air, quickly arranging into the shape of a four-pointed star.
Rays of pure blue mana surged from the walls of the mouth, energy flowing into the star. It shone so brightly that it looked like a real star, pulsing at a rising frequency.
The amount of energy flowing into it was so staggering that Vesuvius couldn’t help but to sight at it in amazement, ‘This just shows how efficient my glands are. It takes so much mana to just amplify the breath attack.’
A whirl of lightning crackled in the depths of the wyrm’s throat, passing through the focusing lenses and turning into a bright, thin ray.
The ray passed through the star-shaped lense that just pulsed, an incredible amount of mana flowing through it, soaking into the ray and overcharging it.
The ray immediately thickened, with its radiance increasing, even more, turning from a small ray into a bursting beam.
It was like comparing a small laser pointer with a massive industrial-grade laser.
The beam erupted out of the wyrm’s mouth, drawing a thick line across the sky. It crackled violently, with arcs dancing around the beam as it was highly energized.
The beam kept busting out, vanishing far into the sky, the unstable-looking beam of electricity constantly pulsing and shifting.
Vesuvius watched it in surprise, discovering that he had seen it before in his dragon memories but ignored it due to its high cost of mana.
However, after his metamorphosis, he felt he could support it now with his increased mana supply.
He could feel his heart beating loudly as he already imagined how he would unleash a massive beam of death out of his mouth.
Its mana cost was immense, but it was more than justifiable as he realized why it was, ‘Previously my previous lenses were only changing shape of the breath or engraving circuits into it, but this time it simply uses raw power to supercharge it.’
It was a brute and inefficient way, but when one needed to boost their attack power, not caring about the cost, it was the best way.
‘They are probably some more efficient ways, but they are probably too complex for me to implement effectively now.’
POV ???:
The mercenaries kept advancing deeper and deeper into the burned, ash-filled wasteland. They were all tense, expecting a monster’s attack at any second.
The priest, dressed in travelling clothes, slowly advanced forward, surrounded by the powerful protectors.
He looked gloomy, feeling like his search was in vain, ‘Nothing, there is no trace of the blood of any high-ranking angel.’
He clenched his fist, looking where the tower of the evil wyrm that slaughtered messengers of his god was.
‘No wonder, with how greedy the wyrm was, if there was any blood, they likely stole it a long time ago.’
“Help me!” a hoarse and painful cry of a man came from the clouds of ash, all of the mercenaries turning towards it, aiming their heavy crossbows, their fingers already itching on triggers, just a single impulse from pressing them.
“Wait, it is not a monster. Didn’t you hear him speak? It must be a human!” the priest shouted and waved his arms in panic.
His duty was to protect humans, and he would never allow such a brazen murder to happen under his watch.
The mercenaries didn’t drop their guard, still pointing their crossbows towards the voice.
Soon a silhouette appeared in the distance, shrouded by clouds of ash. He walked slowly, limping while faltering from side to side.
“Please help me!” the injured man kept walking forwards, soon revealing a man in ragged grey clothes stained with blood.
His skin was red and black with blisters all over it. He fell on his knees and started to vomit blood audibly.
“Shoot him. He must be infected!” the mercenaries aimed their crossbows, already preparing to unleash their bolts.
“No! Stop, I can heal him!” the priest jumped out of the formation of his protectors, blocking their aim. He slowly turned towards the dying man and stepped forwards.
He pointed his palms towards him, and a bright, pristine white radiance burst out, enveloping the sick man. His glisters immediately vanished, with his skin returning back to and healthy look.
The priest retracted his palms, feeling a slight sting in them, but he didn’t pay any attention to it. Instead, he focused on the ill man.
“It is useless. Just kill me! They said that no healing would work.” the man just murmured quietly, his hands trembling.