A Dragon's Curiosity

Bael caught the dragon before she fell into the sludge at the bottom of the pool beneath her floating figure.

With the merging process complete, Nisha no longer hovered by herself, and the goddess did not want to endanger her niece by letting her fall in the toxic mud.

The green haired beauty had closely observed the entire process, beginning with the sudden recovery from the poisoning symptoms, followed by her drop in cultivation and finally observing as an inner fire lit inside her frame.

As the goddess monitored the changes, ripples travelled through the [Inner World] owned by the dragon.

Originally, the treasure meadow showed changes as well, copious amounts of mana and aura indicated a weakening trend before the subconsciousness remaining with the elf instinctively protected her ‘shinies’ and sent the changes far away in a circle.

On a more global scale, the vegetation and small life forms in the various biotopes rapidly withered and wasted away as all the available energy drained away.

Even the soil did not escape the forced robbery. It yellowed rapidly and soon a vast desert appeared in the formerly fertile lands.

All the concentrated life power gathered in the small frame of the dragon and condensed into a pin sized crystal to supplement the seed formed by the [Dragon Force].

Bael monitored the Little One even closer, ready to intervene. With her level of cultivation, the dense concentration of energy did not really concern her, but for a young dragon in the first realm, it was slightly concerning.

Although Nisha had mentioned that she was fine and had her aunt swear not to interfere, the goddess still worried.

The only consoling fact was that the elf flawlessly absorbed the crimson sphere and entered a state of comprehension or enlightenment afterwards, so the vast energy seas streaming into her should be a supplement to consolidate her gains.

Triggered by the influx of energy, the crimson orb broke apart into an infinite amount of miniscule crystal shards spreading to every inch of her flesh.

By swallowing the giant mass of aura and mana, the seed birthed by the assimilation of many diverse and powerful poisons grew into a complete state and began to administer the leftover power gathered by the energy drain.

Nisha’s face had its features drawn sharper and more defined, her dainty nose accentuated the slanted eyes next to them.

In her irises, the already pale gold colour boiled and condensed into a heavy and deep golden circle, heavy with meaning.

Furthermore, the elven influence on her ears reduced, the pointed tips even turned somewhat angular as the seed asserted its presence.

The changes did not stop here, the entire frame of the dragon gained about two hand spans of height and the slender and long limbs showing the elven inheritance gained defined muscles as well as faint red hue, so delicate that it manifested similar to a tan on her pure white skin.

Finally, the distance between her shoulder blades increased and the elf gained a first sign of womanly charms as her torso rounded out.

Her chest circumference grew at the same ratio as the width of the hips below them, while the dragon’s waist grew more slender.

Overall, the child like Nisha seemingly gained a few turns and turned from a young girl into a budding teenager in human terms.

With the physical changes finished, the bout of enlightenment also ended.

Bael had looked over the transformation from start to finish and nodded her head in approval.

On that fateful day where Little Flame turned into Nisha, the twin goddesses also played a role and interfered.

[Polymorph] happened to be a high ranked spell and only a small amount of physical techniques could thouroughly change the body of a beast, hence it always remained a mystery what the dragon relied on to transform into an elven form.

Nonetheless, under the experienced eye of the deities, the initial rough form had not completely aligned with the draconic spirit and soul contained inside and there were bound to be issues that arose later on as a result.

Nisha had already refined her appearance once and perfected the elf form, but it was not a complete match with her inner being either and it stunted her growth.

Currently, however, the influence of her original nature blended with her human and elven features and made a more accurate portrayal of herself and resolved many potential dangers.

“How long are you going to pretend you are sleeping? Get up already, the curiosity is going to drive me to my death.”

Cradling the petite figure on top of her lap in order to allow her to rest and monitor her condition at the same time, the green haired beauty could not help but shake the elf’s shoulder when she was certain that Nisha had already woken up again.

The dragon did not disappoint and fluttered her eyelashes open, lazily arching like a cat.

Her limbs felt somewhat unfamiliar after going through such a change, it did not only affect the spiritual embodiment of her soul, the actual body resting in the room at the Dharnas mansion went through the same changes.

Still, the languid dragon acted like a mischievous sprite and only hugged her step aunt from the side, too slumberous to speak first.

“You’re really making other people worry for you. Tell me already, what did you gain this time? I’m coming to you with a problem for you to solve, and instead you profit from my disaster.

How immoral is that?”

Of course the goddess only joked around, the laughter in her eyes giving her away.

But Nisha had to admit, this time she really found a jar of gold just by sitting around.

“Can you let me rest for a while longer? I worked so hard to get rid of the problem you brought for me to solve and you’re too stingy to let me recover from the ordeal.

So petty.”

Even after such enormous changes and unexpected occurrences, the aunt and niece pair kept bantering with each other, cutting faces at the other side too.

Nonetheless, I should explain it clearly. Aunt Bael might be able to share some insights too if I tell her.

“I’ll be the adult around here for once and share my finding with you. Somehow, I pity Aunt Gabriel who always has to balance out your personality, maybe a gift basket can somewhat make it up to her …”

Seeing that the elf in her arms had no trouble with moving her new body and did not need time to adjust to it, the green haired goddess helped her sit down next to herself and they enjoyed the tranquility of the treasure brook.

For all the earth shaking changes in the [Inner Space] and her body, Nisha experienced no discomfort or the need to reverse any of the events.

The wide grey desert bereft of life had broken down to the point where nearby water sources washed away the soil and a giant ocean would soon fill up in the void left.

Her changed figure and height at most challenged the dimension of her clothes, but a girl could never have enough dresses and clothes according to the twin sisters Annabelle and Lydia, who would most likely enjoy picking out a new wardrobe for their best friend and sister.

Together with the power originating from the seed, Nisha sensed a state of completeness, which wiped away all the awkwardness and limitations of her elven body before.

“Rather than a poison with spiritual nature, the red orb acted as a counter force to the destructive and vicious energy conguluated in your alchemy experiment.

On the basis of my blood, the core turned into a seed in dire need of mana and aura - hence, it absorbed as much as it could from its host, namely you.

Since our heritage does not quite match up and our realms are too different from each other, the seed had an abysmal conversion rate for the energy it absorbed and neared the limit how much it could absorb from you anyway.

When I took it away, the orb more or less found its way home and I only had to finish supplementing the aura and mana through my [Inner Space].

That allowed the seed to bloom and it neutralized all the poisonous elements with the power it nurtured, following which the orb broke down in my body and the power assimilated with me.

According to the memories I obtained, this should have been the general process, and the power should have the name [Dragon Force].

Does that sound plausible to you?”

After combining with the orb and experiencing the changes, these memories were added to Nisha’s own, and the dragon would tend to trust them.

Especially since the familiarity with the new power resonated with her blood, it should really originate from there.

“Are you sure it’s [Dragon Force] and not a similarly named ability?”

Rather than delving into an answer right away, Bael had a pensive look on her face and made sure to confirm the information.

“Indeed, it’s called as such. Compared to my aura, which needs to channel through my body to activate, or my mana, which needs to congregate before activating a spell, the [Dragon Force] is evenly distributed throughout my body and mind. It can instantly appear anywhere on me, although I don’t really know what it can do.

Additionally, it circulates on its own in a non defined pattern, but it should not stagnate even if I don’t interfere.”

“This is called ‘sewing a wedding dress for another to wear’. You easily picked up a great thing like [Dragon Force] and I even made a deal and have to pay you for it … Anyway, as you might have noticed, attaining mastery over a force is a really good circumstance.

To give a more in depth explanation, you can practice any weapon in any realm, but there’s a mastery level that corresponds to each of them.

A sword for example, starts in the first realm and when you hit the limit of the nine ranks, you can at maximum reach the state of [One with the Sword]. Only extremely talented geniuses can break past that, the rest of us then can attain [Sword Intent] in the Noble Realm, or also known as the second realm.

As the name implies, the destructive prowess of a swordsman is then no longer bound to a physical proximity, yet not anyone can reach that height, without talent an average fighter can reach about one realm lower in mastery.

Afterwards comes the [Sword Force] once one reaches the King Realm, or the third realm, an overall upgrade from the intent stage. Furthermore, the applications outside of battle increase as well.

Fourth comes the Emperor Realm, where a swordsman can finally master the [Sword Will], a mastery domain where one has complete control over the sword and all related aspects.

Only the Saint Realm has a higher level, the [Sword Heart], which is also the last step a mortal can achieve in cultivation realm or mastery.

This also means that only extremely talented warriors have a chance to cultivate a [Heart] for their weapon of choice for the lack of a higher realm.”

Bael easily revealed the still obscure realms of cultivation to the dragon, as if it were no big deal.

Her defeated expression gradually eased up and she made her peace with losing the seed of [Dragon Force].

“To make a long story short, the [Dragon Force] is a power that others generally only have a slim chance to attain at the King Realm, and not only weapons have mastery associated with them.

Race, crafts, and even literary or similar topics unrelated to cultivation can give birth to a particular force. Unfortunately, it’s also much harder to gain insight into the unorthodox powers.

Therefore, many powerful warriors and magicians never come into contact with them.

[Dragon Force] relates to the essence of an entire race, and with your original body and soul being a dragon it’s not that unusual to obtain it after a fortunate encounter.

Rather than applying it to martial arts or magic, you can strengthen pretty much everything with it or use it to improve your body.

If you channel it into a sapling tree growing up, the plant can change and become a [Dragon Tree] instead.

Accumulating the force without a medium and giving it physical form, you can recreate a dragon scale or fang.

You tell me, did you profit from my misfortune or did you not?”