A Dragon's Curiosity

Gabriel stared at Rasenth. After going through transformation with [Polymorph], he looked like a stooped over elderly man, a white robe covering his body and a gnarled oak staff supporting his frame.

Despite the simple appearance, the garment did not truly exist in this form, rather it formed during the transformation phase of the spell out of his whiskers. Similarly, the staff had the hardness of dragon bones and the offensive power of a dragon fang.

And despite his dignified image, he did not look to be joking at all.

It astounded Gabriel to no end.

Towards the twin goddesses, Dragon God Rasenth had always represented the peak of beasts, the most powerful bloodline there is.

But by his own admission, he did not even qualify for the label of ‘dragon’.

The goddess recalled her experiences in the Abyss and acknowledged that she had not paid particular attention to the classification of beasts or the status of the top powers like the Ancient Clans.

Still, on Ator he was revered as the Dragon God, the pinnacle existence enshrined in the most prominent place inside the entire kingdom.

“Confused, are you? It’s contradictory when you hear it for the first time.

As I had mentioned, my parents were a water dragon and a giant dragon.

However, neither of them had a particular pure dragon bloodline either.

You see, each and every beast with dragon blood can trace back their line to a true dragon, but that ancestor would be many generations removed.

Though the bloodline itself is dominant enough to persist, there’s plenty of beasts and monsters that can show trace amounts of it.

Dragons, by nature, are rather lascivious and lustful beasts. For males, they freely spread their wild oats, unless someone is reining them in.

Females, on the other hand, do not indiscriminately assault male of other species, yet if they claim someone as their mate, they can get just as rough and carnal as the males, they just channel it in a different way.

You would think that this leads to many conflicts, as most human societies have a problem with cheating or sharing partners.

Curiously enough, the female dragons are usually not really bothered by these illegitimate offsprings, since they lack the purity in bloodline to compete with their own descendants.

If you get between two different females that eye the same male though …”

Usually, Gabriel would have long since objected and asked for clarification how this related to Nisha, but then the goddess noticed that Rasenth seemed to talk out of experience and his drooping eyelids looked rather sorrowful.

She secretly wiped the cold sweat from her temples and waited for the Dragon God to collect himself.

Who knew if he would digress even further upon mention of his romantic adventures in his younger days.

Additionally, the blonde haired beauty also vaguely had an impression as if she just heard something important, which got lost from her mind when she attempted to imagine the ruler of all beasts on Ator in a cat fight with another titanic dragon over a scared and shivering Rasenth.

“It’s not just the dragon species either that has different amounts of purity among their descendants.

Between two beasts with the same ancestry, but different amounts of purity, it’s very likely that their children will have even more diluted bloodlines.

It’s a field of study for some clans, too. Marriages get arranged according to the most suitable members of different branches from the same clan to ensure their bloodline does not degenerate further.

To further our conversation, between ancient clans there also exist a difference in pedigree.

Similar to the disparity between a kingdom and an empire, there are stronger and weaker inheritances.”

Gradually, Gabriel’s interest in the conversation revived and climbed towards a never before seen height.

Information on different significant organizations regardless of species were more than rare.

Sure, different worlds generally had a branch of the [Adventurer’s Guild], too.

Here on Ator, the dragon kingdom held the highest authority in the guild and released most of the information stored inside their libraries.

In the Abyss, the responsibility similarly laid with the local hegemon, and the content of their missions and info varied widely depending on the race of the power in charge.

And even then, the core secrets would generally never revealed to the public.

For Gabriel, all of this was new territory. Especially the way to rank bloodlines.

“Indeed, similar to human dynasties, beast races also have a hierarchy among them.

An [Eastern Thunder Eagle] does have an impressive might, but it can’t compare to a [Storm Phoenix] or a [Thunder Quilin].

Hence, the inheritances are ranked after the cultivation realm which the descendants usually attain when they reach adulthood.

It’s a qualitative difference, hence it’s seen as a watershed.

A clan that can claim to have reached the standard of an ancient family line should be the king realm quality.

So, a king tier bloodline gives birth to members that reach the peak of the king realm, sometimes have emperor realm powerhouses and only through many lucky opportunities a saint realm ancestor.

Among the mortal worlds, such a power can claim a plane for their clan if they work together with two or three others of their tier.

Next is the emperor tier quality bloodline. Analog, these beast clans have emperor realm warriors and mages as their common members, peak emperor realm powerhouses as their leaders and elders, and rarely saint level fighters if they have sufficient destiny.

God level beings sometimes also emerge from those influences, though it is still not often that they have an ancestor like that.

If they do though, a family or clan like that can stay as the sole hegemon of a world. Otherwise, they have to combine their power with at least one more influence to resist the invaders coming for their wealth.

And in the Abyss, emperor tier bloodlines can also form a small or mid level influence, owning an area of their own and setting the foundation for increasing their rank in the future given enough time.

Often, the high level influences mostly come from saint level heritages for beast clans.

When the average member can touch the saint boundary and deities are not uncommon among the elders, the ancestors are even more terrifying.

Generally, these powers don’t even have their main branch in the mortal planes anymore, at most you can find a branch with low quality members at the helm.

And in public, that’s the highest scope bloodlines can achieve, with individual prowess then depending on the fate of an entity.

Humans envy these ancient clans for the ease with which their descendants grow up into powerful fighters.

They do not know, however, that the bloodline also shackles beasts with the same severity.”

Rasenth turned his back on the beautiful guest, ready to show his weakness to someone outside of his own kingdom, and subsequently a great amount of trust.

Gabriel eagerly remembered all of the details, you could never know when rare info might save one’s life.

Also, the conversation was still in the introductory phase, hence there might be an even more shocking secret involved.

“Humanity quickly discovered that their descendants could also inherit these advantages when a beast married into their family and had offspring.

For quite a long period, it was the dream of many young maidens to be swept of their feet by an outstanding beast disguised in human form due to the [Polymorph] spell, while young masters hoped to find a damsel in distress that they could carry back home with the same premise.

Legends and folk tales about such incidents spread over the mortal planes and the Abyss like a flashfire in the past.

Unfortunately, it did not take long for these human powers to discover the downsides as well.

Once the new generation reached adulthood, the pure human descendants surpassed the limits of their parents and assaulted new heights, while the mixed descendants might have enjoyed a slightly longer life span, the cultivation boundary of their parents became the shackles that prevented them from breaking through.

The human forces abandoned the pursuit of beast races as their in-laws and let the younger generation take care of these matters by themselves.

Whether it was a stable base with problems further breaking through or lacking talent to make it that far anyway offset with the occasional genius soaring right into never before seen heights, a human sphere of influence always relies on the cultivation of the strongest warrior or magician backing them.

Beast clans, especially the ancient families, look for the purity of their descendants to rank themselves.

It’s not much of a secret among the ranks of those involved, so I don’t mind sharing this with you, or you can also tell others about it.

What I’m about to say next is a secret of the beast race. Please do not spread this matter, it’s not an issue of life and death, but those beasts that are aware might not take it kindly if you leak it.”

Rasenth did not require the golden deity to swear an oath to prevent her from giving away these secrets or hold back on sharing the information.

The consequences would ensure that she never told another soul about it.

Gabriel waited with bated breath. Usually, only core members and elders of a power were allowed to find out the true secrets of a faction.

Instantly, her mind also made another connection. Since the goddess shared no blood with the old dragon, nor did she render him a great service, he should not trust her to this degree.

It was only because Nisha, the little one, was involved that he had no choice but to confide in the twin goddesses.

“Since each bloodline density is matched with a cultivation realm, it is quite practical to combine that with a general term to shorten the name. As such, king beasts have a king tier bloodline and can grow to the peak of the king realm.

The same is true for emperor beasts and saint beasts.

Among the major human influences, an emperor tier egg is sometimes auctioned or a young king beast as a contract beast.

Saint beasts are never seen outside of the ancient clans besides a once in a million turn fortunate encounter.

To the general public, they are the pinnacle.

Yet, this is not true.

Picking up from my arrival at the ancient dragon clan I mentioned, the appraisal at the gate showed that the purity of my bloodline is only at one tenth.

Compared to a [True Dragon], the ancestor of the dragon ancestry, that’s not much at all.

Could you imagine? At the time I was a peak saint realm dragon beast, and my bloodline and cultivation only allowed me to go through the side entrance like a common servant.

At the [Ancient Dragon World], only those recently hatched younglings remained in the emperor realm.

Due to the abundant energy circulation, the weeds next to the road developed into precious herbs, a common rock had enough mana and aura stored to be a peak tier building material anywhere else in the Abyss, and a random puddle might turn out as a sacred spring filled with the [Water of Life].

That’s the accumulation over millions of turns. But that’s not the reason why every single member of the clan has similar strength to mine.

No, the real secret is that members with the full [True Dragon] bloodline are not saint beasts at all.

You have to know, one tenth purity is not bad.

Most common clan members have about three tenths, while the territory of five tenths and upwards is the territory of geniuses and elders.

In the entire [Ancient Dragon World], there might not be a single beast with more than seven tenths purity.

And still, there’s plenty of gods keeping down the fort at the worlds under control of the dragon god.

The reason?

A full purity [True Dragon] bloodline is no longer a saint beast bloodline, but rather a god beast bloodline!”