How to Survive as a terminally-ill Dragon

Chapter 14. A Bewildered Dragonling (1)

For Lois, who had practiced magic in solitude with no practical experience, the twins were the perfect sparring partners. While he was content with this quite suitable thought, the twins’ sparring was becoming increasingly intense.

“Die, Demon King!”

“Why am I the Demon King? You’re the Demon King, big sister!”

Crackling arcs of electricity wound around their clashing weapons.

“Wonder if they might get hurt… Tsk.”

Watching them incorporate attribute power into their already ferocious movements, Lois shook his head.

The twins’ inherent attribute was lightning, a power renowned for its destructive force among the natural elements.

Feeling it might lead to trouble if he just watched, Lois approached to intervene.

He crossed his arms and spoke up.

“Isn’t it about time to stop?”

Clang-clang-.

“Take this, warrior’s blade!”

“Will you stop?”

Clang-clang-.

“Don’t pretend to be a hero, Demon King!”

“These kids…”

However, the twins were not taking even the slightest notice of Lois’s words.

A vein throbbed on Lois’s forehead as he sighed heavily at their obliviousness to his attempts to halt their private world. Activating his Dragon Heart, he felt a peculiar refreshment spread throughout his body as the resonance from his heart, containing four attributes, pulsed outward.

“Heh heh.”

The outcome of magic varied greatly depending on one’s approach to analyzing and accessing attribute power. Lois too had defined his innate four attributes in his own unique way.

– Space attribute: Dealing with the unseen points, lines, planes, and beyond what can’t be explained.
– Strength attribute: Interfering with the gravitational and repulsive forces that exist in the world.
– Time attribute: Intervening in the flow of all things.
– Mind attribute: Handling the inner self within living beings.

Lois had also interpreted the structure of spell manifestation in his own way.

‘Tearing apart computers has come in handy in such an unexpected way…’

Typically, hearts accumulate attribute power, and through the brain’s computation process, the power is manifested externally, a common structure of magic. It’s like data storage and processing devices being contained in separate units, leading at times to inefficiencies such as errors and lag.

‘But dragons are different!’

Dragons possess the ultimate hardware capable of both storage and computation – the Dragon Heart. This blessed heart made them the mightiest life forms on the land.

‘Perhaps it’s like the difference between a regular computer and a supercomputer?’

Dragons don’t undergo complex computations when using magic.

‘It’s as if complex operations were shortcut by macros. They are indeed an extraordinary species.’

And the usefulness of the Dragon Heart didn’t end there. Lois demonstrated its second utility right then.

A low humming sound vibrated through the air as Lois extended his hand towards the twins. His Dragon Heart’s stored attribute power and the natural attribute power began to react. In that brief moment, the Dragon Heart swiftly completed complex calculations.

Lois then recited the command assigned to the time attribute.

“Slowly.”

As if on cue, the world responded.

“Huh?”

“Ah!”

The weapons wielded by the twins seemed to freeze in mid-air. It appeared as though time had stopped, but stopping time was an ability beyond Lois’s current level.

‘Slowing down the flow of time is possible, though.’

The time imbued in the twins’ weapons was moving slowly. Following that, Lois activated his second command.

“Repel.”

Instantly, the twins’ bodies were flung apart from each other as Lois’s strength attribute generated a repulsive force upon them.

As they were repelled, the third command fell.

This time it involved the space attribute.

“Solidify.”

The empty space around the twins hardened, trapping them as if they were caught in invisible cement.

Then, the final command.

“Transmit.”

The mind attribute manifested, and Lois’s thoughts transmitted directly to the twins.

[Hey, you idiots! Can’t you stop when told?]

The twins clutched at their ears as Lois’s booming voice echoed in their heads.

“We’re sorry…”

“Whimper… We won’t do it again…”

Rebuked by Lois, Khan and Kani’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

Finally, a satisfied smile spread across Lois’s face.

‘This is why dragons can master both magic and martial arts simultaneously.’

Typically, mages use mana sticks made of high conductivity materials to resonate with external attribute power. However, those materials are too soft for use as weapons. Even if they could be used as weapons, who would have the mind to perform complex calculations while engaged in intense close combat?

Here’s where the second advantage of the Dragon Heart comes into play.

‘Simply issuing commands triggers spells, leaving hands free to wield weapons for martial arts.’

To Lois, magic and martial arts seemed tailored for dragons. A pleased smile spread across his face.

“Lois, I did wrong!”

“Let us down!”

Roused from his musings by the twins’ whining, Lois’s voice thundered again.

“Do things in moderation, you two!”

“Yes…”

“We’re sorry.”

After releasing the contrite twins, Lois picked up the weapons that had been scattered on the ground when the time stop was lifted. That’s when he noticed something.

“Huh?”

Lois’s eyes lit up as he examined Khan’s bastard sword.

“What’s this?”

His gaze settled on the pommel of the sword, where a black gemstone was embedded.

“An attribute stone?”

And not just any attribute stone. It was one imbued with rare space attribute power.

“…This is remarkable.”

As someone who had reached the 1st tier of space attribute, Lois could feel the immense power within the seemingly modest stone, far surpassing the energy he harbored.

Realizing the bastard sword was no ordinary weapon, Lois turned to Khan.

“Khan.”

“Huh?”

“Where did this come from?”

At Lois’s question, Khan and Kani excitedly answered.

“Dad’s treasury!”

“Mine too, I took it from Dad’s treasury!”

Kani also brandished her rapier and short sword, showing them off.

Lois asked another question.

“Did you have permission to take them?”

“…”

“…”

Faced with Lois’s inquiry, the twins sheepishly avoided his gaze.

‘No wonder it seemed too good to be true; they stole it from the uncle’s treasure trove.’

The swords the twins were treating like toys had the potential to cause chaos if released into the human world.

Shaking his head at the thought, Lois continued to scrutinize the space attribute stone.

“It doesn’t seem to be just filled with attribute power…?”

On closer inspection, a complex circuit was found within the space attribute stone.

“Is it broken? Finn, what do you think?”

“It does seem so to me. It probably had some function, but the circuit is damaged, and it’s lost its purpose. And I can’t discern what it was because it’s a high-level spell that’s beyond me…”

“Hmm… What kind of space magic would you normally pair with a sword?”

“Subspace storage, for travelers.”

“Would a subspace circuit be this complex?”

“The larger the subspace and the more additional functions it has, the more complex the circuitry, as far as I know.”

“Is that so? Well, then.”

After a moment’s consideration, Lois’s lips curled into a sly grin.

“Alright, let’s fix it! What could possibly come out of the subspace housed in a sword from a dragon’s treasure trove?”

A gleeful look appeared on Lois’s face. Bored and curious about what he might discover, he started to channel his attribute power into the space attribute stone.

‘Hmm… It’s not as damaged as I thought.’

The condition of the attribute stone was better than he had anticipated.

‘It shouldn’t be too difficult.’

Untangling a twisted circuit wasn’t as challenging as creating a magic circuit from scratch, something within Lois’s capabilities.

Finn and the twins huddled close to Lois as he focused on the task.

After a while…

“It’s done!”

Having untangled all the circuits, Lois declared his success.

“Hehe. Shall we see what’s inside?”

“Hurry up!”

“Lois, quick!”

Urged by the twins, Lois hurriedly poured his energy into the attribute stone.

Lois’s attribute power flowed endlessly into it.

His brows twitched.

‘What’s it trying to spit out, consuming so much attribute power?’

The stone’s voracious appetite for his attribute power only heightened his anticipation. But it didn’t take long for that anticipation to turn to dismay.

Pop-

Ssssss-

“What?”

A black orb of energy burst forth from the attribute stone.

Lois was shocked upon seeing the fist-sized concentrated mass of energy.

“This, this isn’t subspace…!”

He quickly stopped feeding energy into the attribute stone, but it was too late.

With a swish, the black energy that had absorbed Lois’s attribute power expanded rapidly to several meters in size.

Ssssss-

The large black mass devoured everything around it – Lois, Finn, and the twins.

Shortly after, the black energy vanished completely.

Where it had been, nothing remained.

* * *

In a cave dimly lit by faint light, a large black sphere suddenly appeared out of thin air.

With a pop, the sphere vanished as quickly as it had appeared, and from the empty air, three large and one small silhouette fell.

Thud, thud, thud –

One by one, they landed with heavy thumps – it was Lois, the twins, and Finn.

“Ugh!”

“Ow… my butt.”

“Oof.”

Though the fall would have broken the tailbones of ordinary people, the three sturdy dragonlings only rubbed their behinds as they got up.

“Where are we…?”

Lois looked around.

A vast cavity carved out of the cave.

Glancing around, he looked down at the bastard sword in his hand – or, more precisely, at the attribute stone set in its pommel.

“Oh, shoot…”

Lois’s eyes filled with consternation as he inspected the attribute stone, which had transported them to this odd place. It was crisscrossed with tiny cracks.

Zzzk, zzzk – bang!

The cracks spread until the attribute stone finally shattered completely.

At this, Khan wailed.

“Wah! My sword!”

He had chosen the sword for its pretty gemstone, and now that it was destroyed, it was understandable that he was upset.

“Lois broke my sword!”

“…It was the gemstone, not the sword.”

“Lois broke my gemstone!”

While Khan grumbled at him, Lois had no time to spare for the boy. Assessing their current situation was the priority.

“Khan, where did this sword come from?”

“You already said Dad’s treasury!”

“No, I mean… its origins. For example, who used it?”

“I dunno…”

Khan shrugged, indicating ignorance.

Lois’s question was answered from an unexpected source.

“I know!”

“Kani?”

“It belonged to our great-grandmother!”

“Great-grandmother?”

“Yes! She served as an elder.”

“Was she a space attribute user?”

“I don’t know that much…”

At Kani’s innocent response, Lois inwardly sighed.

‘This is problematic.’

Something else caught Lois’s eye.

“Huh? What’s that?”

He slowly walked towards something in the distance.

Drag – drag -.

The long bastard sword scraped against the cave floor, making a raucous noise.

A moment later, Lois looked down at an object with a sigh.

“Well, look at this?”