The Dragon Heart

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“Here.”

Winny extended a wooden case slightly larger than an adult’s fist.

Duke Noir and Lei craned their necks to observe it, Lei openly expressing awe.

“Oooh… That’s…”

Winny would assist Doyun’s heart absorption via magic arrays, while Duke Noir the mana control genius served as an observer in case of any emergencies.

Lei had badgered them to let him witness Doyun ingesting the Dragon Heart.

Doyun received the case – an unremarkable wooden box from the outside.

Yet through his senses, he could feel myriad complex spells intricately woven into it to preserve the Dragon Heart. This single wooden case likely cost a small fortune.

“Take it carefully. That’s the continent’s most precious elixir you’re holding. Drop it, and a whole nation’s wealth goes up in smoke.”

Lei made an odd noise.

“Oooh, wooow…”

Doyun chuckled wryly.

Of course, even if dropped, the preservation spells would protect it flawlessly. Winny was merely jesting.

But he focused on another implication.

‘The continent’s most precious elixir at present.’

The supreme elixir ‘The Sun’ that Winny had handled under the Alliance’s commission.

No matter how precious, the Dragon Heart paled before ‘The Sun’. Yet if the Dragon Heart was now the most valuable, it implied ‘The Sun’ had already been depleted from this world.

Placing his finger on the case’s locking mechanism, Doyun channeled his mana into it.

Numerous magic arrays emerged across its surface before shattering like cracking glass.

Zzrrak! Zzrink-!

Innumerable arrays disintegrated in succession.

Now reduced to a plain wooden container, a small fortune’s value had dissipated in an instant.

As the final preservation spells fell away, a brilliant radiance spilled forth, flooding the room.

Fwoooosh-

Lei gasped sharply.

“Wooooah…!”

Highly sensitive to mana, he squinted and trembled violently.

An intensely thick, saccharine mana aroma pervaded the room to an overwhelming degree.

‘Gulp…’

Lei enviously swallowed, yearning for that sensation himself.

A semi-transparent grayish gem no larger than a baby’s fist – the heart of a Dragon Progenitor.

The heart emanated a dazzling brilliance illuminating the room. Yet strangely, it did not blind at all.

Like Doyun’s Manifest Sword’s sacred radiance, this was the pure light of solidified mana itself.

The source of that luminescence was the still-burning Dragon Heart’s core, where mana fusion constantly occurred.

Just as Doyun had held within the Cosmic Tear, this too was a star in itself.

“It was incredibly difficult to refine that thing.”

“I can imagine.”

“You’re the first human in history to ingest a Dragon Heart. Even Sir Enoch, who scoured every corner of the continent for elixirs like a madman, never encountered Dragon Hearts – no records existed. I had to devise this process myself based on Master’s dragon research materials.”

Though stated casually as just another challenging task, this achievement would be immortalized in academia. Truly befitting a Master Alchemist.

“So Winny is the first to handle a Dragon Heart?”

“…Eh? I suppose so.”

Caught off guard, Winny flushed slightly.

“In any case, thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“W-, Well of course! But I did request this commission, and it greatly benefits me too… Ahem, ahem.”

Winny feigned nonchalance despite her elated inner glow.

As Doyun reached for the Dragon Heart, she interjected.

“One precaution.”

“Precaution?”

The trio’s gazes turned to Winny.

“Only absorb half the mana contained in that Dragon Heart. Don’t be greedy – release the other half into the air.”

“Pardon?”

Release half the mana?

What in the world was she saying?

“The mana within that Dragon Heart is immense – too much for your human body to absorb fully.”

“…What did you say?”

Even Doyun found this claim surprising.

“All lifeforms have an innate limit to the mana they can contain. A fact only revealed after the System emerged – in ancient times before that, aside from the peerless Sir Enoch, none could accumulate mana up to their bodily limits.”

“But I’m human in name only, a Supernatural…”

“I know. That you’re special. Do you think I haven’t thoroughly studied your blood?”

Doyun silently listened to her explanation.

“I don’t know what feats you accomplished in past lives to be born with such a body. But impossible is still impossible.”

“Hmm…”

“By absorbing just half the Dragon Heart’s mana, you’ll reach Magic Power 8. Didn’t Berden mention the System’s influence? Even a dragon would be capped at Magic Power 8 – a limitation for all biological lifeforms. You can manage Level 8 thanks to your dragon-like physique. Sir Heineken and Duke Noir only reached Level 6 at their peaks as regular humans.”

Duke Noir nodded in agreement alongside her.

At his prime, Enoch’s mana levels fell between the current System’s Level 9 and 10 benchmarks.

Only two things carried over through the rebirths – memories and mana reserves.

He had consumed every available elixir repeatedly across those lifetimes, each time replenishing his dwindling reserves.

That accumulation did not occur through Doyun’s physical body, but rather the rebirths’ blessings – a unique method of inheritance.

This allowed Enoch to amass such prodigious mana within a human vessel.

Otherwise, like all lifeforms, Enoch too would have inevitably encountered innate limits capping his containable mana.

It made sense. But Doyun raised an objection.

“I heard the Lion King has Magic Power 9.”

“That old man hardly qualifies as a ‘lifeform’.”

“…Meaning?”

“You know his dad was the previous Boss Monster Killer ‘Salamander’, right?”

“Yes. He dealt with interdimensional ethereal beings called Spirits.”

“Salamander married the Fire Realm princess Muspelheim back then, impregnating her before falling in battle. At that moment, Salamander’s Spirit essence merged with the unborn child – the current Lion King. That old man is half-Spirit in nature.”

Nodding at the revelatory background, Doyun understood.

Indeed, his monstrous Magic Power 9 stats and unparalleled offensive might stemmed from that extraordinary heritage.

“So don’t be greedy. Supernatural or not, all physical lifeforms have limits, capisce?”

“Hmm…”

Still vaguely dissatisfied, Doyun nonetheless nodded acquiescently for now.

‘Then…’

Was regaining his full power from past lives truly impossible?

‘If not through Magic Power, what if I enhance my overall output through other stats…’

Doubtful. Unlikely to suffice.

Unlike other attributes, Magic Power stood out as uniquely paramount.

“Preparations complete. Let’s begin.”

Checking the auxiliary magic arrays, Winny poked Doyun’s chest as she spoke.

“Remember my warning. If you get greedy, your body won’t withstand it.”

“…”

“Understood, you training-obsessed monster?”

“…Yes.”

Doyun decided to focus on the immediate task at hand.

Seated in a lotus position within Winny’s prepared magic circle, the Dragon Heart rested in his palms.

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

“Commencing.”

The mana circle to assist his absorption lit up.

Taking a deep breath, Doyun closed his eyes and swallowed the Dragon Heart whole.

Fssshhh-

No actual swallowing motion – it liquefied upon entering his mouth, flowing directly into his body.

A tidal wave of mana – no, an entire ocean – gushed forth.

“…!”

The Dragon Heart was a star unto itself.

Condensing an immense mana quantity into a singularity, generating intense mana pressure at its core.

This pressure induced a self-perpetuating mana fusion process akin to nuclear fusion, creating tremendous mana efficiency.

And the crystallized byproduct of this mana fusion reactor was the Dragon Heart itself.

A condensed ocean of mana and endlessly burning mana furnace like the sun – that was the Dragon Heart’s essence.

Doyun could not help but be awed by this colossal mana quantity.

Having ingested innumerable elixirs across 18 lifetimes, they all paled into utter insignificance before this Dragon Heart.

‘Not half.’

Winny was mistaken. A mere third of this mana would suffice for Magic Power 8.

And Doyun sensed his body could not withstand any further absorption beyond that point.

‘But…’

Even as reality set in, facing this surreal mana volume ignited an undeniable, rapacious greed within him.

If he could fully absorb this immense mana, just how far could he advance?

‘My prime power during past lives…’

Could he truly inch closer to regaining it at last?

The looming threat and their grand scheme to re-subjugate the Dark Lord – his growth toward that end.

Doyun’s instincts screamed to seize this opportunity no matter what.

Impossible or not, he had to achieve it as always before.

His willpower began burning ardently.

Meanwhile, observing Doyun’s state alarmed Duke Noir and Lei.

“Winny! Doyun’s blood vessels are bulging!”

“As expected.”

Winny calmly replied.

Doyun’s temples, eyes, neck – his entire circulatory system protruded and pulsed violently.

The immense influx of external mana churned erratically, traumatizing his blood pathways.

The very backlash Winny had feared, prompting her to instruct Doyun to reach Vitality 7 first.

From the magic circle’s center, Winny addressed Doyun.

“Doyun! Abandon and expel the remaining mana immediately! Hurry!”

Yet no mana dispersed.

Doyun’s brow furrowed intensely as his blood vessels continued writhing.

“Doyun! Hey!”

Winny raised her voice, but he paid no heed.

Dire expressions crossed Winny, Lei and Duke Noir’s faces. At this rate, catastrophe loomed…!

‘Just what is he thinking?!’

Winny’s gut twisted anxiously.

But she had overlooked one factor.

Doyun’s newly elevated willpower and mana control prowess.

His brow furrowed even tighter.

‘I can feel it.’

His willpower began dominating the mana within his body.