Devourer

Chapter 111: Boring Progress

I looked down at the very dead dragon and let out a sigh. I gave it another poke and then looked around at the myriad of stasis chambers, all filled with lost opportunities…

“This bothers you more than I thought.” Cecilia said curiously as she walked up onto the pedestal that held the dragon’s corpse.

“The most fun I ever had in this world was a fight with a troll. I wasn’t that strong then and that was a nice fight. A real back and forth battle.” I replied in a disgruntled murmur as I poked the corpse again.

“Still that is an oddly specific thing, I wonder if this is something specific to you or all devourers?” Mahaila said as she gazed at me in curiosity.

“You never picked this up with the other Firstborn?” I asked and Mahaila just shrugged.

“The Firstborn back then didn’t have many equal opponents. If two of the Firstborn started fighting it would almost guarantee a third Firstborn to appear and take the other two out when they were weak.” Mahaila replied.

“Hmm, makes sense. I like a good fight but I won’t die over it. I only take fights I think I can win.” I said as I cupped my chin.

“Possible evolutionary adaptation. Excitement and pleasure when hunting worthy prey incentivises such behaviour. It also trims those who are less capable of strength assessment.” Malegaros explained.

“I suppose that makes sense.” Cecilia admitted as she pondered his words.

This brought up an interesting point, I have come to realise there were two sides of myself. The human boy who still despite the difficulties of life who still held a shred of innocence. The other being the ravenous beast who’s kind once bent a world to their will. They were gods, the land, the sea, life itself, it was all toys to be changed and played with until their interest waned.

If all goes well I would one day be more powerful than any other, the Great Beast will be ascendant. When that day comes, sometimes I wonder what will become of the boy that did his best in the slums. Already I could feel his influence waning, he was still there calling out occasionally, taking pleasure and delight in the simplest of things. I remember sharing a soda or a slice of pizza with lil sis. We would often stand outside of shops peering at the TVs through the glass only to be chased away by the shop owners. Still a few stolen moments of those shows was enough for the two of us. I remember I promised that one day we would own one and we could watch it together…

How naive I was back then…

I still feel his presence in my mind. He appears when I read some random story. When I listen to music played by Cecilia, her voice singing the lyrics as the music washed over me. The boy liked these things, he liked the little chats I have with Cecilia and her family. He liked the board games we would play, the jokes we would tell, the little bets we would make and the little experiments we ran with magic.

Though his influence wanes when he does appear, I couldn’t help but follow his lead. It’s funny to think about in a way, like a small kind boy leading an ancient beast along in the vast scape that was my mind.

On the other hand the Great Beast was a vast presence of cold pragmatism. Survival at any cost, consume, adapt and overcome. He emerges when I’m angry and I sense danger. I know he was perfectly fine with burning everything to the ground if it meant he would survive.

Still regardless, the two coexisted rather well, I think that’s because they show up at different times. But there was still some overlap, I’m still inclined towards mercy and would rather not kill unnecessarily. So that means no killing for fun but I don’t mind killing if it gets me something.

As I looked down at the corpse I felt the two sides once again giving differing opinions. The boy said this was nice, it’s low effort and free. Furthermore, less combat means Cecilia was safer. This was true obviously, when Mahaila dropped the stasis chamber I nearly panicked when I shot forward to screen Cecilia from any attacking. I was going to use my wings actually to form a shield for her. I built an emergency shield ability into my wings. It would ruin my wings and reduce my mobility for a time but it was better than losing something or someone I want to protect. But the beast was angry that a good fight was taken from him. So that was why I was just disappointed. If the boy wasn’t in there I expect I would be far more upset.

With that I reached down and grabbed the vest on the dragon and ripped it off. I dumped it to the side and rolled it onto its back so I could get a better angle.

“This could take awhile.” I said as I looked at the stasis chambers around the room.

“It’s fine, I’ll just read. Plenty of books to get through.” Cecilia said as she took out her storage cube and a book appeared in her hand.

“I think I’ll do something like that too.” Mahaila replied as she took out her orb and a pair of chairs appeared. Mahaila gestured to the chair and Cecilia took a seat with a grateful nod. I then watched as Mahaila took out a sword from her orb and began to examine it.

“I will observe.” Malegaros said simply as he seemingly sat down on the ground and gazed at me with an almost unnerving intensity.

I did a quick search of his mind and found out why. Apparently he has never seen a Firstborn grow in power before his eyes. Back then the Firstborn had plateaued, their only worthy opponents other Firstborn. Fighting each other was off the table, since a duel may end up with a third entry attempting to kill the duelists when they were weak. A pair of Firstborn fighting wasn’t exactly subtle, usually the entire world would find out before the fight was over.

“Enjoy the show.” I replied as I approached the corpse. I was salivating in anticipation despite the disappointment at the lack of a fight. I took one look at the glowing heart in the dragon’s chest and I felt that familiar feral hunger rise up from within me.

I raised my blades and carved the chest open. My blades went through its armoured scales easily and I ripped the chest open. Then I bent down and bit down on that bright red sanguine fruit. Immediately I heard the voice in my head sound out.

Achieved [Azurite Dragon Genome] Level: 1/5

[Cryo Draconic Breath] Acquired

Augmenting…

[Cryo Draconic Breath] combining with [Solarite Breath]

Ability incompatibilities detected…

Resolving…

Branched Skills obtained

[Draconic Solarite Breath] Acquired

[Cryonic Fenix Breath] Acquired

[Draconic Solarite Breath] and [Cryonic Fenix Breath] possess similar effects

Both possess:

[Magic Piercing V]

[Ether Disruption IV]

[Ether Fire V]

[Draconic Solarite Breath] possess:

[Cursed Fire III]

[Cryonic Fenix Breath] possess:

[Cryonic Debilitate II]

[Cryonic Debilitate II] applies [Slow III] and [Ether Recovery Reduction II]

[Lesser Azurite Draconic Scales] Acquired

Augmenting…

[Lesser Azurite Draconic Scales] combining with [Phoenix Armour]

[Azurite Phoenix Armour] acquired

Augmenting…

[Adaptive Resistance] acquired

[Adaptive Resistance] improves [Elemental Resistance] when receiving [Elemental Attacks]

[Dragonic Bone Structure] acquired

[Kaiser Blades] [Material Strength] improved

[Kaiser Spines] [Material Strength] improved

[Dragonic Muscle Stranding] acquired

[Movement Speed] improved

[Flesh Physical Resistance] improved

[Azurite Dragon Genome] has lowered the Essence requirement for assimilation of archived [Dragon] Glass Genomes

Huh now that was interesting, so if I get a similar genome I will lower the assimilation requirement of the genomes I got from Malegaros.

These changes didn’t really change my physical appearance since most of the advantages are internal or obscured by the feathers in the case of the armour upgrade.

“Anything interesting friend?” Cecilia asked from behind me.

“Yeah, the assimilation requirements of the genomes I got from Malegaros can be lowered by assimilating similar genomes.” I replied and Cecilia’s eyes widened for a moment before looking away as if thinking.

“That is certainly interesting… Do you have any genomes relating to demons and angels?” Cecilia asked curiously.

“Yeah, apparently there are the elder and the younger variants. The demons have quite a few varieties. But I haven’t had a chance to go over them in its entirety.” I replied and Cecilia nodded.

“If you can get your hands on those genomes. We would be far more well equipped to deal with any threats.” Cecilia stated and I felt Malegaros shift his critical gaze to me.

“Demons?” Malegaros asked.

“The angels aren’t the only problem at the moment. The royal family of a nation we just conquered was possessed by demons.” I replied and Malegaros shifted his gaze as he pondered my words.

“Daemonia class of creature. Violent, pragmatic and opportunistic. They lack cohesion and cooperative tendencies. Daemonia psychological traits result of high pressure survival conditions. Results in superior individual strength in exchange for inferior civilisation development.” Malegaros said as he rattled off the information. Reminds me a lot of Beatrice honestly.

“You know Malegaros, there is someone back home that you might enjoy talking to.” I said with a smirk.

I saw a wry smile cross Cecilia’s face and Mahaila rolled her eyes at my words. I could tell they both knew I was talking about the now heavily pregnant Beatrice. That silly girl needed Cecilia to order her to stop working, she was continuing her work despite her pregnancy. She even had to handle hazardous materials from time to time and we only found out about it because her husband came to Cecilia in desperation. So Cecilia, not wanting to squander someone as talented as Beatrice, ordered her to stop working until her pregnancy was over. She even told the Beastiary Institute to deny her entry until her baby was born just in case. That was rather smart considering she has already been turned away by the Institute on three separate occasions. This also much to my amusement caused Aaron boy a lot of grief since being away from her work combined with her raging hormones made her extremely temperamental.

“Who?” Malegaros asked as he tilted his large head. His large eye blinked as his gaze seemingly drilled a hole in me with this piercing stare. Honestly what was with this guy’s stare? I feel like he’s more looking through me than at me…

“Oh this human girl, she’s just like you. She’s a walking database on Beastiary knowledge.” I replied as I goaded him. Time for another lesson I guess.

“Like me? I doubt a human could match my expertise.” Malegaros grumbled in response, clearly taking my words as a clear insult.

“Really? Tell me how would you destroy this?” I said as I plucked a feather off the side of my head and I handed it to him.

Malegaros looked at it for a moment before popping it into his mouth. He paused for a moment and I scanned his mind. I sensed he was analysing the properties of my feather and I wondered what solution he would give me.

“Freezing the feather then applying kinetic force would be most effective. The feather has weak structural integrity, destroying the structure will make kinetic force more effective. A sufficiently powerful cursed fire attack can destroy it as well.” Malegaros said confidently. I scanned his mind and saw that his logic was sound. It was well reasoned, and his analysis skills were top notch. Only one problem though…

“You pass but I wouldn’t put that up there as the most effective solution.” I replied with a smirk.

“You have a better solution I presume?” Malegaros asked curiously. Though his tone seemed vaguely disrespectful I know this was just how he spoke. Not much need for manners when you make living weapons I guess.

“I didn’t. That girl I mentioned did, I used her idea to make something quite interesting.” I said as I transferred the knowledge of the Manticore Venom idea that Beatrice came up with.

“Hmm… interesting. Efficient.” Malegaros admitted as he pondered this idea.

“Humans are weak but like you said pressure creates strength. So their weakness forces them to be creative. They are a good source of ideas, we just need to refine them. Also it’s quite interesting in a way. If you think about it you destroyed the feather by digesting it for analysis and Plague Manticore Venom also digests it’s target in a way. The answer was staring you in the face and you didn’t even realise it.” I replied as I turned around and headed over to the next stasis chamber.

“You know, all of these creatures and resources aren't the most important thing. I can give you all the resources in the world but if you don’t use it well it will be squandered. This isn’t the old world of rich resources. This world is withered and decayed. We need to make the most of what we have.” I said as I opened the next stasis chamber and this time it held a giant snake.

“Elder Granite Basilisk.” Malegaros said as he approached the corpse.

“Yes and the real question is what can we do with it? How do we use it effectively? There are many ways to use it, destruction and violence is but just one way to use it.” I said as I turned the corpse over and opened its chest.

This one had two hearts, pretty good haul let’s see what it gives…

By the time I had finished listening to all the stuff I got I concluded that this one wasn’t that useful either.

However, it did get me to [Core Evolution Level: 9]

Main things that came out of it was an upgrade to my [Kaiser Blades] and [Kaiser Spines]. They turned into [Greater Kaiser Blades] and [Greater Kaiser Spines]. Notable improvements were increased [Resistance Penetration] on the blades and spines as well as improved [Regeneration] to the rest of my body.

The Basilisk itself gave me [Petrification III] which was augmented into my breath attack and I got [Petricite Toxin] which I could place into my bone spines, blades and fangs. Both of these cause a slow down of physical capabilities when resisted and it turns the target into stone when resistance fails. Well stone was not exactly accurate, it’s more of a turning the body into this weird calcium and carbon based rock formed from the body. It’s a useful option in combat against a powerful opponent but against a weak opponent it’s rather suboptimal. As to why it is sub-optimal it’s simply because it turns the heart to this weird stone so basically all of the body was wasted. Rather useless overall unless I want to use the venom or breath to slow a powerful target. Either that or I could use it as a scare tactic, like turn a group into stone so the rest submit. But to be fair, burning them alive as an example was also a rather effective scare tactic.

One last thing slightly interesting I got was this ability called [Petricite Skin] it basically petrifies my exterior skin to create an enhanced barrier at the cost of mobility. It’s only useful for dealing with a sudden burst of damage, like if someone threw a really powerful spell at me and I couldn’t get out of the way. Not really useful honestly if something was really so dangerous this ability was not going to save me. I’m just too durable for this ability to be useful, if something really dangerous starts flying at me it would be better for me to try to get out of the way. I could form a shield with my arms and use the [Petricite Skin] on the shields but I would only do that as a last resort. But at least this ability also granted me [Petrification Immunity] so I can’t be turned to stone, which was good I guess.

After that I moved on to eat the other creatures. Some were boring, some were interesting. There were quite a few that were duplicates, for instance there were another two Azurite Dragons. I ended up getting these genomes:

[Azurite Dragon Genome] Level: 3/5

[Granite Basilisk Genome] Level: 2/5

[Glass Eyed Gorgon Genome] Level: 2/5

[Volcanoid Elemental Ether Script] Level: 3/10

[Crimson Sandlisk Genome] Level: 2/5

[Errant Wyvern Genome] Level: 4/5

[Dread Mist Sea Serpent Genome] Level: 2/5

[Lesser Sand Worm Genome] Level: 4/5

The rest brought me to [Core Evolution] Level 10, this unlocked another named stage of my evolution called the Arbiter stage. Which gave me some interesting things, such as [Metabolic Surge] which was a buff that drastically increased my physical abilities for a short time. It also upgraded my [Void Enchant] ability for my blades and spines to an ability called [Void Cracker Enchant]. It had a rather punishing effect for my opponents, the original [Void Enchant] provides resistance piercing effects but this new one has an interesting twist named [Resistance Recoil]. It basically turns whatever resistance I encountered into additional damage. That means the harder the target, the harder I hit. Pretty strong ability overall, it made duelling me extremely dangerous, since this also affects my spines. Thus evasion would be the best way to fight me but my body’s strength was actually mobility and offensive power which made fighting me even more dangerous.

As for the other things I got from the other genomes there were only a few interesting abilities. The first being the [Dread Mist Sea Serpent Genome] which offered me aquatic adaptations. Which made my plans for an aquatic based hive for naval power projection much easier.

If you think about it the ability to breath fire and ice was not that useful underwater… no idea why that fact didn’t occur to me up until this point…

The other things I got were quite generic with it mostly being increased power to my body, my [Ether Manipulation], [Ether Storage], my [Kaiser Blades] and my [Kaiser spines]. Some of them also improved my flying ability and my burrowing ability.

A few standout abilities would be [Dread Mist] it causes [Cursed Damage] and also causes [Terror IV]. I can weave this into other things like venom for interrogation if needed. I just need to make sure the [Curse Damage] doesn’t kill my target by accident.

Another ability was [Frostfire Enchant] I got this one from upgrading the [Azurite Dragon Genome]. It’s another enchant for my blades and spines that causes a slow and drains the Ether reserves of the targets. Useful for incapacitating a target.

The [Glass Eyed Gorgon Genome] also added to my petrification abilities but it also granted me this interesting ability called [Heart Vision] it apparently allows me to infer some information on their mental state. Like if the target was nervous about the safety of someone in the party. Who was afraid and who was brave, stuff like that. On first glance this seems like demonic ability and it was to an extent. This genome lowered the assimilation requirements of the demonic genomes.

All these creatures were certainly useful and I could feel a significant power boost even if the changes were not that flashy. But still as I look at Mahaila… I am definitely stronger. In the past I was sure she could kill me instantly now on the other hand… I should be able to hold her off awhile before she inevitably manages to kill me. I suppose progress was still progress…

Well I suppose that ends the tasks in this vault. I turned to look at the other three, Malegaros was still giving me that unnerving piercing stare, Mahaila looked bored as she twirled a dagger in her hand and Cecilia looked up from her book when she noticed I was looking at her.

Shall we head to the Primordial Font?

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