Just as the sky began to bleed with the first light of dawn, the reorganized diplomatic envoy departed from the camp.
A guard of twenty Storm Knights split from the main group, tasked with escorting the wounded and the remains of their fallen comrades back to Farum Azula. The rest of the formation tightened, proceeding toward Caelid City in the northeast.
Elder Muriel led the vanguard, while Elder Yatog, still recovering from his injuries, held the rear. Guilel and Aegis rode their Dragon Scale Horses on either side of Lucia's carriage, forming a protective shell that not even a demigod could easily breach.
Inside the carriage, Lucia laid his dragon-scale blade and the Godskin Stitcher across his lap. As his palms brushed the steel, his mind replayed the life-or-death struggle from the previous night.
This was his first ti seeing a true hero-tier figure from the Lands Between go all out. Samuel's strength, speed, and the sheer potency of his Black Fla incantations had been overwhelming—he had even managed to edge out Elder Yatog in combat. If the forty-eight elders of Farum Azula represented the standard for "heroes," that Godskin Noble was comfortably in the upper-middle ranks.
Using that as a baseline, Lucia began to grasp the true scale of the monsters he would eventually face: the demigods of the Shattering, the Golden Order Radagon, and the Warlord Godfrey.
They were far stronger than they appeared in the ga. Lucia's "understanding" of them was based on ga chanics and speedrun fras, but in reality, their power was not limited by code. After witnessing Samuel, he wouldn't be surprised if soone like Radahn could actually call down a teor with the literal force of a world-ending impact.
While lost in thought, Lucia summoned his data panel. Since his arrival, he had studied it relentlessly, only to conclude it was a glorified mirror—accurate for stats, but functionally useless.
This ti, however, a sudden boom echoed in his mind. It felt as if a colossal bell had been struck in the depths of his soul. The carriage walls dissolved into shifting shadows, and a vast, boundless starry sky unfolded before his eyes.
"What the...?"
After his brain stalled for a full thirty seconds, Lucia examined his surroundings. The ground beneath his feet was pitch black and mirror-smooth, stretching infinitely. He looked up at the firmant; it was a graveyard of stars. Countless celestial bodies dotted the sky like cold, burnt-out wreckage.
In this space, he felt like a grain of dust in a vast ocean. He was captivated, swallowed by a magnificent, sorrowful atmosphere.
He eventually snapped back to his senses, his heart racing. As he stumbled backward, his leg hit a hard object. He sat back, finding a high-backed chair supporting him—the very one from his study in Farum Azula. A familiar desk manifested out of thin air, perfectly catching his wrists.
Lucia focused his thoughts, reaching into the air. A teacup appeared between his fingers, filled with fragrant, warm tea. He took a sip; the temperature and taste were identical to reality.
He began a series of experints. Anything that existed in the reality of the Lands Between could be projected here. Common items, rare minerals, even specialized weapons and armor. He could even manifest "Storm Knights" or "Sorcerers," though they were hollow, soulless shells—re training dummies.
However, the creation function failed when he targeted the legends. He could not manifest the demigods, nor could he replicate their unique weapons, like Radahn's Starscourge Greatswords or the Gloam-Eyed Queen's Godslayer Greatsword.
His ntal power in this space was vastly enhanced—his thoughts quite literally beca reality—but he was still limited by the laws of the world.
He continued to probe the space, discovering that while he could change the floor and environnt, the "extinguished" stars remained unresponsive.
"Isn't there even one that's lit?" Lucia muttered.
Just then, he noticed two faint flickers. One star sat in the center of the firmant, another on the northwestern periphery. They released imperceptible glimrs of light, visible only because of his current heightened state of mind.
Lucia focused on the central star. It zipped out of the sky, streaking toward him like a teor. Close up, it appeared to be made of a glass-like material, sealing within it a phantom image of a silver-white Ancient Dragon.
Lucia's breath hitched—that was his own dragon form.
Radiance poured from the star, weaving into a familiar screen in mid-air:
Na: Luciassax
Race: Ancient Dragon (Royal)
Level: 60
Available Rune Points: 15
Attributes: Vigor 30, Mind 15, Endurance 15, Strength 25, Dexterity 20, Intelligence 9, Faith 15, Arcane 10
Skills: Ancient Dragon Combat Techniques (Unranked), Storm Swordsmanship (Unranked)
Legendary Abilities: Dragon Bloodline Inheritance (Locked), mory Battlefield (Unlocked)
The sight of "Available Rune Points" sent a surge of adrenaline through his heart.
"Dragon Bloodline Inheritance" was a birthright of the Sancus line, unlocking as their ntal power matured. But this "mory Battlefield" was sothing else entirely. It seed the level-up and stat-allocation functions of his panel were tied directly to this space.
Suppressing his excitent, he considered his plan. He didn't know how to earn more points yet, so he had to maximize his survival. If another assassin ca, he couldn't count on a Sleep Pot to save him again.
"First, Vigor to 40," Lucia decided.
Ancient Dragons were already tanks, their scales providing near-invulnerable defense. If the attribute cap was still 99, 40 Vigor should ensure he wouldn't be one-shotted by a stray spell. For the remaining 5 points, he played to his physical strengths and put them into Strength, bringing it to 30.
As he confird the choice, a surging heat flooded his body. Within the mory Battlefield, he felt his heartbeat strengthen. The feedback from his muscles and blood felt more powerful, more visceral.
He admired his new Level 75 status with a glowing face, but then his eyes caught a discordant number. His good mood vanished instantly.
"Damn it," he hissed. "I forgot to get my Intelligence to double digits!"
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