POV Alesia:
The short elven girl with her long blonde hair split into two ponytails stood on top of a tall cliff. She nervously looked at her master facing her as she carefully observed each nook and cranny of the armor as she ran calculations within her head.
A large glowing crystal stood right beside her, pulsing in faint neon-red light.
It wasn’t even a smooth surface. Instead, it was filled with crevices, rough salients, and sharp nooks and crannies, making it all the more difficult.
She slowly breathed in to calm her nerves, the ash and dust from the surrounding air getting sucked into her nose, yet it did not affect her.
“We can proceed, your Majesty.”
The dragon nodded his huge head, which was easily big enough to crush whole buildings, making her gulp down.
She spun the mana in her veins, her eyes flaring up in bright golden light. It looked as if miniature golden suns had replaced her eyes. Her fear and nervosity dissipated, replaced by her constantly growing focus and excitement.
‘I have come a long way from the beginning, and now is finally the time to show that all of the master’s grace wasn’t for nothing.’
Bright mana burst out of her hands, pulsing in bright blue light, making it look as if there was a bright reflector on top of the cliff where she stood.
She willed her mana forward, the trails and streams of it slithering through the air, quickly crossing the gap between her and the dragon.
It was her own technique, dependent on her super dense mixture of elven and draconic mana, which allowed it to stay out of her body without being bound by the spell and without dissipating for a long time. She no longer needed to use any tools, as only her mana was enough.
The dragon stood silently, the incoming stream of mana reflecting within his shiny armor and the crystals growing on it, refracting into billions of light rays.
Alesia’s mind entered a perfect peace, the world around her slowing down into a crawl, everything losing its colors except for the target of her focus. Her grasp of mana was firm and stable as she guided it toward the dragon.
The next moment, mana reached the black and golden dragon, touching and flowing around his armor.𝑶𝔳𝗅xt.𝒸𝑶𝐌
Then all of the mana shot back, repulsed by the armor’s defense. Alesia flinched in pain as if she had punched a wall with her fist. She staggered backward, and her face turned pale as she quietly gasped.
Yet, she held up, her mind calm, knowing she couldn’t mess up her duty.
The dragon slightly stirred, the resistance of his armor vanishing as if it never even existed as he allowed her mana to interact with it.
Mana finally enveloped the whole dragon, circling around and engraving into his armor in a show of lights and energy, sparks raining down towards the ground.
Aleisa felt her mana vanish quickly out of her body as if a whirlpool was sucking it, her veins feeling as if they were on fire as the tiredness slowly seeped through every strand of her muscles.
‘At this rate, it will be enough for only a few seconds. His Majesty is simply… large.’
Luckily they already counted with it and prepared beforehand.
She reached with one of her tiny hands, her thin and pale fingers grasping at a neon-red crystal lying before her. She grasped the mana stored within it. It gave her no resistance as if it accepted her. Finally, the stream of mana flooded her veins, replenishing all of the mana that was flowing out of her second hand at a staggering rate.
‘Mana crystals in the armor will work perfectly.’
She had it right before her eyes, the complex plans and schematics she had silently created over the years, dreaming of the moment she would get closer to finishing her greatest masterpiece.
She was slowly improving it while she watched as her master grew and changed over the years, remaking it over and over to improve it and incorporate the new changes made by the dragon.
‘I am finally closer to my goal!’
She waved her hand, her mind refocusing back on her task.
Mana moved, spiraling and dancing around the dragon, seeping into his armor and engraving one rune after another. The glowing letters flared up on the black and gold background of the dragon’s armor.
Her eyes brightly shone as she carefully directed the flowing mana like a director directing an orchestra.
The runes were forming around the crystals embedded in the armor, the complex and uneven armor shapes. She fully accepted the opportunity given to her by her master’s armor.
‘A fool would consider it to be a hardship, but I see only opportunities. The crystals are disrupting the flow of mana, but on the other hand, they are sources of power and can be used to shield runes from potential enemy magic attacks. The crevices and uneven shapes make it harder to work with, but they also give me a third dimension to work with and more surface.’
The runes glowed brighter and brighter as they slowly formed runic words and then sentences. They complemented and made each other more powerful as they resonated together, forming a single large runic text.
‘These are my runes.’
They were different than any runes ever before seen by the world, they were her inheritance, combining her knowledge of both human and elven runic systems and also the knowledge inherited from her draconic bone marrow.
She was grateful to her master as it was his gifts that allowed her to do it.
She was changing, her power and even the raw calculative powers of her mind growing unexplainable thanks to the weird energy refining her body and soul given to her by her master and his blood and marrow, ‘It is time for me to repay it, at least a small portion of it.’
The next moment, a bright golden light exploded out of the dragon, golden energy flowing through the armor, entering and mixing with the mana engraving the runes.
Alesia took a step back in horror, noticing that something was wrong, something that she couldn’t predict. It was her worst nightmare, she…
“Continue, everything is as it should be.” However, the dragon spoke in his ever-calm tone, calming her down.
She looked at it again, finally noticing, now that she had gotten out of her shock, that nothing bad was happening. The two energies peacefully mixed with each other. She could even see how her runes were glowing in bright golden light, ‘Again, another mysterious power of my master… This is not even in the memories that I got from him.’
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon felt the warm feeling spread through his armor, filling him with comfort.
Ding!
//
Your DIV stat and [Runic Body] ability triggered a special interaction: Infuse the mana during the rune crafting with your divine energy.
//
‘It must be something good. If it goes wrong, I can always scratch the old runes and start again.’ Without hesitation, the dragon grabbed the golden droplet of energy stored in his heart.
He felt its radiance and power surge through his veins. Just a single thought was enough, and the droplet melted and burst out of his body in the form of a bright golden halo. His whole body shone in a bright golden light, that flooded the whole valley where he nested.
It mixed with the mana infusing into his armor, seeping into the already carved runes on his body. The glow of all of the runes turning into golden.
His small elven minion staggered, the dragon feeling the terror and horror sweeping through her whole body, her small heart pounding in panic.
“Continue, everything is as it should be.” He spoke, feeling kind of wrong for not warning her.
She immediately moved, taking control over the mana storm surging around his body, her small body sucking the mana out of the crystal he created to fuel her rune crafting.
Mana danced around his body, moving from his head to his tail, engraving one rune after another. His divine energy followed right behind it, seeping into the runes and changing their glow into golden.
Finally, the one last line blazed in the light, the radiance of all the runes becoming even brighter as they harmonized together.
His minion collapsed on the ground, heavily panting, her whole body trembling from the exhaustion, the light in her eyes slightly fading away.
Ding!
//
Your title: [Runic Body], was upgraded to [Semi-divine Runic Body]:
Condition: Cover your whole body in the runes engraved with a mixture of mana and divine energy.
Description: The body that became one with the runes covering it, the runes that were engraved with the powers out of the mortal’s reach.
Effects: Modifies the evolution options; Doubles the effects of the runes; The runes will regenerate together with the body. Allows to infuse divine energy into runes, temporarily increasing their effects by ten times.
+1 DIV stat
//