Ch.133Rampage – Aftermath (1)

In the darkness, someone’s consciousness opens its eyes.

A consciousness that has somehow regained awareness, or perhaps only a part of it has awakened in a form similar to a lucid dream, feels a sense of familiarity.

A sea within the heart that evokes memories of someone’s beloved homeland. That place, more beautiful than anywhere else because of its serenity.

‘He’ was intoxicated by the unique atmosphere brought about by the stillness of such a space.

But this space had no intention of granting him peace. The fruit presented before him demands a choice from ‘him’ who was enjoying the quiet atmosphere.

Quite fortunately, ‘he’ chose to chew and swallow the fruit instead of rejecting it, due to a sudden feeling of hunger.

The moment he took a bite, the fruit permeated his inner being, offering him an indescribable level of ecstasy and fulfillment, while presenting him with three options that further enhanced this satisfaction.

[This is the ability to store and preserve.

A kind of mystical phenomenon degraded to the realm of technique through imitation.

According to the abundance of your soul, you shall be able to convert matter into information and store it.]

The leftmost option. An ability-type factor called ‘Dimensional Storage.’

A special factor that grants the selector a storage ability commonly referred to as an “inventory” in old world media or entertainment that ‘he’ had previously encountered.

Since it converts one’s possessions into information for storage, anything that belongs to ‘him’ can be stored.

Moreover, the total amount of information that can be stored is generally directly proportional to ‘his’ spiritual presence, and there is also the advantage that items stored within remain in the exact state they were in when converted to information.

Although it can only store materials with non-biological characteristics or objects that are not classified as ‘individuals’ in the mystical sense…

Since the total amount of material that can be stored far exceeds conventional categories, it seems to be an element that expands non-combat versatility rather than combat capabilities.

[This is the essence of dragonkin.

The quintessence of their genetic factor, condensed into a single independent factor.

You who possess this shall no longer remain a pure human.]

Meanwhile, the one positioned in the middle among those that appeared before ‘him’ is a special constitution-type factor called ‘Dragonkin Factor,’ which has effects exactly matching its name.

As the name suggests, its identity is precisely the unique factor that all ‘dragonkin (draconoids)’ commonly possess, which serves as the most decisive criterion distinguishing ordinary living beings from magical beasts.

In fact, if this factor is extracted and injected into a living being, that creature becomes a dragonkin.

Anyway, if ‘he’ chooses this option before him now, ‘he’ whose body is certainly human, if not his soul, will most likely become a race called Dragonian (dragon-human).

These beings, classified as both human and dragonkin, are typically either those who have mutated due to some draconic mystical influence, or distant descendants of dragon bloodlines who ultimately reach the status of lesser dragonkin.

And their abilities, despite being lesser dragonkin, are like a rotten croaker fish—still valuable—possessing all the common characteristics of dragonkin.

Depending on the type of ancestral dragon, they have high resistance to specific elements (fire in the case of Red Dragons), and their overall physical capabilities are truly transcendent compared to humans.

Even without any training, they boast strength comparable to lower-tier humans enhanced by magical power, and their body’s pure durability is beyond anything found in ordinary human races.

If it’s said in folklore that ‘they are as strong as orcs, as agile as elves, and as robust as dwarves,’ then there’s not much more to say.

Moreover, they possess hearts equipped with the mana regeneration ability common to all dragonkin, and although its potency isn’t particularly strong, it functions effectively in practical situations.

Furthermore, Dragonians are born with bodily organs such as horns or tails, and as they age or grow, parts of their bodies may transform into forms closer to dragons.

Especially when reaching the intermediate stage, they acquire wings and breath abilities, gaining power comparable to half-dragons.

To such an extent that despite Dragonians merely being humans with the common characteristics of dragonkin, they are evaluated as having superior basic abilities among human races.

[This is rising fantasy.

The embodiment of endlessly rising delusion.

You who possess this shall never worry about mana deficiency.]

And the identity of the factor positioned on the far right is ‘Mana Regeneration.’

A constitution-type factor, its effect feels like it has isolated and amplified only the heart’s mana recovery function included in the above ‘Dragonkin Factor.’

Of course, it’s impossible to use mana lavishly as if it were infinite like dragons do; it merely recovers about 1/16 of total mana every minute.

This might not seem significant enough to function as an individual factor, but the story changes when you consider that the natural mana recovery rate takes half a day for complete restoration.

Unlike others who don’t even consider mana recovery, this means that mana will actually recover over time.

Considering the fact that mana recovery methods are rarely available in this world, this element that could fill such a deficiency was, in ‘his’ opinion, a factor without shortcomings…

Between ‘Dragonkin Factor’ and ‘Mana Regeneration,’ ‘he’ was able to narrow his choices down to one of the two, and ultimately chose the ‘Mana Regeneration’ factor.

Of course, purely in terms of value, the ‘Dragonkin Factor’ would be greater as it offers overall stat improvements, but ‘he’ was quite wary of the racial transformation that this honestly named factor would entail.

Racial transformation is tantamount to altering one’s way of thinking and soul structure, which according to ‘his’ personal standard, is no different from the death of one’s existing personality.

Even setting aside ‘his’ personal perspective entirely, the fact that racial transformation has a profound impact on the soul itself could not be denied.

※ ※ ※

The day after the incident concluded.

According to our original plan, our party should have left this Soul Faculty by now, but how could that be possible at this point with the situation so twisted?

Everyone roughly knows the reason, but on the surface, a golem armor that went berserk for “unknown reasons” rampaged and destroyed about 24% of this castle (mage tower base), making departure impossible.

Additionally, with various exchanges happening among them, the overall situation and atmosphere were generally unsettled.

While I’m well aware that something fishy is involved in this incident, whenever I try to dig deeper, my intuition sends fierce warnings.

“Here is the list of compensations.”

“…Oh.”

Moreover, since there are also offerings from each territory as compensation for my contributions in this incident, and also as hush money, I decided to settle for a large sum of reparations and various rights.

Gold enough to fill a small box was provided at the basic level from each magic faculty.

With this money, I could build an elegant small stone fortress in my territory, or even establish a large-scale ranch if needed.

Additionally, the Metal Faculty had to hand over numerous rights to me in the process of cleanly settling the ownership of the machine I destroyed.

According to customary law, the spoils (corpse, by-products) from subjugating an ‘hostile entity’ are initially mine, but from my perspective, rather than souring relations with the Metal Faculty over worthless scrap metal, it was possible to compromise appropriately.

Anyway, the content of these ‘rights’ I obtained was substantial, including having Lord ‘Malakai Falten’ stay in our village for about 5 years.

But among all that I gained, what I consider the most valuable is that these Metal Faculty mages have agreed to put all their effort into remaking my damaged equipment.

My shield, blunt weapon, and the full plate armor that was completely shattered during the intense battle.

Not just simply remaking them, but investing the highest quality materials and their full effort—which is why I accepted this without any complaints or hesitation.

And thus, having received news that the equipment was completed in just one night with several intermediate-level mages working on it, I now made my way to the repair workshop of the Metal Faculty.

To obtain those very pieces of equipment that would soon become mine.