Geysers of magma were gushing from the ground, thick clouds of toxic acidic clouds and smoke drifting through the sheer and spacious valley.
Vesuvius was lying amidst all of the magma. His scaly eyelids closed as he kept reading through the options before him over and over.
‘The second option fits, and at the same time, it doesn’t fit.’ He wanted to protect his territory, but he still felt like he should prioritise his own personal strength
‘It is powerful, but in the matter of personal strength, they are better options. I already am investing in my army to protect my territory from small fries, and for the big fries, I would have to attack personally anyway.’
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that it wasn’t a good choice.
‘As for the teleportation power, I should be able to replicate it with space magic, so I can cross this one out.’
Vesuvius gloomily looked at the three remaining options, thinking about what to cross until his eyes finally stopped at the third option.
‘Yes, it is powerful, but all that transforming powers feel like a hassle even with how powerful they are. I already have lots of different powers that I am not fully utilising. Do I really want to add more to it? I should instead focus on empowering what I already have.’
The whole valley suddenly shook as the huge dragon stirred, his body loudly scraping against the rocky ground, ‘Yes, that is it. Making my current powers more powerful is definitely the better option.
‘As one smart man once said: I fear not the man who has practised 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times.
‘In that case, I should go with the combination of that magical option and that with affinities. Both of them are not fancy adding some new weird powers. But both of them are instead already empowering what I have.’
A terrifying grin grew on his face as he was sure that he was on the right track, ‘On top of that, the first option is perfect. It can work as a foundation for anything. And last one…’
Vesuvius stopped moving, feeling like his heart was going to blow up, thinking about how he could turn disgusting enemy armies into a beautiful plain of gold shining under the sun.
Finally, Vesuvius made his choice and confirmed it.
His lids immediately turned heavy, and indescribable heat spread through each and every tendon and muscle of his body.
His vision slowly turned black, his consciousness fading away.
At the same time, at the border of the kingdom’s occupied territory, in the Alaria mountain range:
POV ???:
Tall rocky cliffs rose from the ground, reaching multiple stories high, enshrouding the wide passage leading between them in their black shadows.
A group of people stood on top of one of the cliffs. They were fully decked in silvery-looking armours with long white capes woven of white fetters flowing down their backs.
Even more feathers of light decorated their full-masked helmets, looking like rings of light.
They stood there unseen, the light distorting around them and making the whole group look opaque to anyone looking from a distance.
One of the knights stood on the edge of the cliff, leaning down with his eyes burning in anger.
An invisible line split it in half, with one being occupied by a massive human army. Fortifications and glowing magical crystals were built across it, supporting a huge dome of blue energy.
An army of monsters occupied the other half, their black armours and scales blending with the shadows, only the fiery orange lights visible.
The only thing that the two sides had in common was huge amounts of chaotically and nonchalantly behaving immortals moving around.
The knight was looking straight at a few shadows quickly moving between the rocks, shifting between forms of mist and human.
‘Who would have thought that this whole kingdom was infested with vampires? Sneaky bastards were hiding under our noses for who knows how long, even trying to use us in the war. They will pay for that. To think that we would fall for them if it weren’t for the everpresent eyes of the immortals.’
He turned back towards the other knights behind him, the eyes in under his visor burning in the light of zeal, “Brothers, the rumours were true. This country has fallen. Vile monsters are publically fighting for power. Both sides are corrupted and evil. Send the message that the intervention is necessary. We will unleash the holy guardian.”
POV Vesuvius:
The thick clouds of smoke slowly drifted through the valley, the orange radiance of magma passing through them.
Suddenly all of the clouds swirled, a bright purple light igniting in the smoke, brightly flickering within it. A huge mass of dark metal moved under cover of the smoke.
It was a huge dragon, with his whole body reaching a size of a small mountain. His whole body glinted, reflecting the light of magma in its reflective and, at the same time, rough armour.
It looked like molten sludge consisting of corium, volcanic stone, gems and metal, all of them blending together, forming a heterogeneous material.
The dragon opened his eyes. Immediately glowing lines of purple magma flared up all over his body, pulsing in repetitive intervals.
The lightning crackled, sparking and jumping between the neon-red crystals glowing in an ominous light and forming a line stretching all the way from his head to his tail.
Massive crystal horns grew out of his head with glowing veins of mana pulsing in the semi-transparent material, the lightning swirling around them in wild vortexes.
Even more, lightning crackled around his wings. The wings were huge, easly large enough to cover a whole village. They glinted, reflecting the light in their dark-gold-looking bone structure. The space between the golden bone structure was filled with billions of glowing neon-red crystals, more mana veins growing through them like roots through the soil.
The dragon slightly moved his crystalline claws and the sharp tail cannon blade, which were big enough to rip a building apart, digging massive into the ground.
The whole sky went into chaos, massive burning tornadoes dancing around the dragon.
The mass of black flaming clouds spiralled around, all of them crackling with bolts of lightning raining around.𝒪𝔳xt.𝐜𝓞𝕞
Geysers of magma were spraying from the cracks in the stone, meeting with pillars of lightning descending from the burning clouds, crashing against each other.
It was as if nature itself decided to welcome the awakened dragon with a small apocalypse.
Ding!
//
Double evolution completed!
You have evolved into…
//
Ding!
//
The generated name is too long, applying the latest naming path…
Implementing race variant to naming…
//
‘Wow, system, you are finally going to fix the ridiculous name of my evolutions?’
Ding!
//
You have evolved into:
Species: True Noble Apocalypse Runic Dragon
Variant: (Curses, Magic, Radioactivity, Volcano, Thunder Storm)
All innate racial abilities levelled up X 2.
Dragon Domain – (Catastrophe – incomplete) (LV 4) –> (LV 6)
Manareinforced Composite Noble Dragon Scales (LV 20) –> (LV 22)
Nuclear Noble Dragon Breath (LV 16) –> (LV 18)
Chargable Mana Reinforced Runic Noble Dragon Scales (LV 11) –> (LV 13)
Manalife Noble Draconic Vitality (LV 16) –> (LV 18)
Draconic Fire of Might (LV 12) –> (LV 14)
Draconic Magic of Anger (LV 16) –> Draconic Magic of Anger (LV 18):
…
Racial ability changed:
Erupting Pressure-Forged Corium Armour (LV 15) –> Catastrophe Dragon Composite Armour (LV 17)
An armour forged with the combination of multiple powers of catastrophe dragons. It combines together hard volcanic stone, cooled-down corium, crystals of mana, the dragon’s hoard and various metals such as titanium and tungsten.
It creates non-uniform super, hard material that was hardened even more by forging under immense pressure and using various chemicals and acids.
Noble Dragon Hoard Armour (LV 14) become a sub-ability of Catastrophe Dragon Composite Armour (LV 17), increasing their synergy and allowing the buffs to one of them to affect another one.
New racial abilities unlocked:
Draconic Mana Body (LV 1):
A set of specially evolved body modifications dedicated to improving the already immense magical potential of dragons.
It contains dedicated mana veins, newly restructured higher mana affinity cells and lots of smaller tweaks.
Effects of the MAG stat on the speed of mana circulation and precision of mana manipulation are increased by 30%.
All of the mana passing through the body will have higher purity, increasing the power of all mana using spells and abilities by 30%.
MAG scaling +0.5 X
Caster Brain (LV 1):
A brain with specially evolved parts specially dedicated to the process of casting spells and mana manipulation.
Effects of the INT stat on the speed of constructing magical circuits, the precision of mana manipulation and the speed of learning and comprehending new spells increases by 50%
Allows to learn instinctive reflex casting by practising a specific spell for a long time.
INT scaling +0.5 X
Mana Crystals Growing (LV 1):
Ability to transform mana into crystalised form, growing over the body and manipulating their growth.
The created crystals are highly resistant to magical damage and are capable of storing large amounts of mana.
Affinities:
Special affinities: Volcano, Thunder Storm.
Primary affinities: Fire, Water, Lightning, Earth, Radioactivity, Magma (Special elemental fusions unlocked: Corium Magma, Metalic Magma), Wind.
Secondary affinities: Steam, Electricity, Acid, Toxin, Metal.
//
‘Well, this name is much better and easier to read. I can anytime omit the variant, and it will be compact. And when needed, I can also include the variant. This is much more intuitive and makes much more sense.’