In absolute silence, the dragon, entirely submerged in lava, stared at the options before him.
He tried to focus, but his mind and eyes always wandered towards the single sentence, ‘What consequences is it even talking about? I would welcome a little bit more clarification.’
There was no response from the system, as it remained silently ignoring his query, ‘Maybe it will anger the dragon god?’
Vesuvius shook his head, sending waves through the lava.
He was a dragon, and all dragons inherited their values, emotions, and goals from their ancestor, the dragon god, which made him sure it wasn’t the case.
‘The fallen dragon is a good example of this. They obtained the powers of demons and even became one of their leaders, but the dragon god didn’t seem to care. They could even enter the temple and oversee my trial. Seeking power is in line with draconic values. To enrage the dragon god, I would have to do something that would go against our core principles, something like charity, betrayal, oathbreaking, or bowing my head to mortals. Not something like this.’
It made Vesuvius even more nervous and worried about that option, as he felt that an unknown threat or enemy would be the worse, ‘Why can’t a dragon have space affinity? It is not even one of the contested affinities.’
The world of magic was filled with convoluted messes such as contested affinities.
They were affinities and domains that didn’t belong only to one of the four balance races but multiple ones at the same time, like murder, which belonged to both reapers and demons, and plague, which belonged to dragons and reapers. Or the light, which belonged to both angels and dragons.
‘I should check all the options properly before entering this hole.’
Vesuvius focused on the first option and an image of a massive dragon hovering in the black clouds, swarms of dracodactyls, archdrakes, and dracowyrms circling and swarming around his huge body, their all eyes glowing in shining golden light.
Armies of kobolds marched in sprawling formations of metal and scales, and the ground shook under the steps of gigantic ground dragons, their heavily armored bodies of stone and metal slowly but surely moving forward like living tanks.
All of them moved in absolute unison. Even their steps and flaps of wings synchronized in perfect rhythm.
The huge barriers of golden light enveloped their ranks, with hundreds of projectiles raining on them and exploding to no avail.
‘This is strong… but is it really what I need?’ With a powerful army on his hand, Vesuvius was sure that his power would rise higher than the tallest mountain, ‘Swarms of wyrm will all generate mana that I could use. All the raw physical stats that I could absorb from ground drakes. And all their minds, domains, and horns would be under my control, allowing me to cast huge ritual spells with power far beyond anything that I could now.’
He felt he would be like a zerg brood’s mother, having his swarm that would empower him while he empowered them.
‘It feels a lot like what angels are doing.’
His eyes burned with excitement at all the power, but he knew there was a catch, ‘Without an army, there would be no bonuses. It would create the possibility of cutting off my source of power, making my minions even more critical. That would introduce a huge potentially exploitable vulnerability. That power wouldn’t truly be mine.’
He moved straight toward the second option while keeping the first one on the table.
A new image formed in his mind.
The impenetrable clouds of smoke drifted across the empty, burned plain. A huge army marched forward, magical formations glowing and pulsing above their heads.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a huge black mass of metal appeared, its size easily large enough to annihilate whole villages with a single swing of its black tail covered in a sharp crystalline blade.
It dashed straight towards the soldiers with such a speed that they couldn’t even react, their eyes only widening in terror as their magic barriers shattered into thousands of light shrapnel.
They only caught a slight glint of metal before the huge dragon crashed straight into the armies, moving and dancing around with the elegance of feline predators.
Its muscular body moved so fast they couldn’t properly aim at it, the few stray projectiles dispersing on the barriers of energy covering its shiny, close-fitting armor.
Each swing of its clawed hand cut through a whole formation, hundreds of soldiers turning into the red paste in a fraction of a second.
‘This one is pretty straightforward and simple, which is a nice change. It improves my body and melee combat capabilities beyond my current limit. I would even say that in one-on-one battles, it would turn me into a beast beyond comparison.’
Even his current self could use magic to form defensive barriers or cover his body in elements. He could also use his lightning railgun to propel himself to insane speeds.
‘However, they are not instant. All of them need time to prepare and cast. On top of that, this one also gives even more bonuses to my melee combat.’
It all sounded great to him, but he wasn’t entirely sure about it, ‘Why should I fight from close range when I have invested so much in my immense ranged firepower and defenses to prevent any ambushes that could catch me by surprise and force me to instantly react? On top of that, I have my space magic to allow me to keep my distance.’
He already felt like skipping over it, but then he remembered his past battles with the vampire, the dragons on trial, and the demon slime and how he was forced to keep his distance, slowing him down and preventing him from freely utilizing his immense firepower.
‘I was always on the defensive. My body is huge and sturdy, but that is all. I lack fluidity, agility, and powerful melee abilities to keep up with small and fast opponents. Or larger and strong ones. With this new power, I could fight head-on with the option to retreat with teleportation and unleash powerful attacks at any time. It would allow me to move freely through a battlefield, making me the one giving the pace. Yes, this one can potentially patch some of my last remaining weaknesses in my battle style.’𝑜𝔳𝐋xt.𝑐𝑀
Vesuvius moved towards the next option, pushing back his nudging to confirm his first choice, his nervousness getting worse as he got closer to the suspicious last one.