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Path to Prosperity - B3 Chapter 6
🕑 Added 2024-10-20 10:00:04 +0000 UTCPercy was glad as days of silence—no more nightmares plagued him at night—transformed into weeks, then months. The sightings of Demons increased consistently, but after the crown shared its information network with the Guild, most problems related to the Seven Hells could be solved with minimal casualties.
At least, that was what the reports stated. Percy grew restless the more time without any concrete information about the Devil’s actions passed. Still, all he could do was to work hard, nurture the students in the Dragon Nest, train with the Dragon Knight trainees, and keep Ego-enhancing Monster Cards, Artifacts, and potions.
Percy had long since lost count of how much Prosperity he’d invested in the last few months, but he could tell it had been a lot. If not for that, the Minister of Finances wouldn’t have started avoiding him. She glared at him in anger whenever they crossed paths and cursed him – jokingly most of the time – because he destroyed the economy.
The crown had requested a few more Monster Cards, mostly mounts with speed-related Augmentations, to equip Imperials and other powerhouses. The mounts were used to pursue the demons sighted across the Kainesh Kingdom. Percy considered Ego-enhancing the Monster Cards for free and only to request enough coins to upgrade the Cards, but decided against it when he recalled the kingdom’s treasury. It was filled to the brim. If the crown wished to use his service, they would have to pay for it.
The Old King approved of that attitude, but the Minister of Finances wasn’t all that pleased. After all, the crown requested too many special Monster Cards, while Percy asked for an atrocious price for his service. It was saddening, but Percy couldn’t be too nice to the Minister of Finances. He needed as much Prosperity as possible to grow stronger. Maybe the Devil wouldn’t reach the mortal realm for another year or two, but the devious creature might as well arrive on the mortal plane the next day. Nobody could tell for sure.
Percy arrived in his room after obtaining the last payment from the Minister of Finances, and he pulled Dragon Fang, the eerily black blade with crimson vein-like lines, out of the mark on the back of his right hand. The obsidian mark dimmed as he held the Syreablade, Dragon Fang, in his hands. He grasped the blade tightly and inspected it with [Consume] used on Prosperity.
[Dragon Fang(Syreablade) – Perfect/Soulbound(Percy Kain) – 219,536,923 Prosperity.]
~[Dragon Might]~, ~[Absolute Slash]~, ~[Vampiric Slash]~
[Growth⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐], ~[Super Sensory⭐⭐⭐]~, ~[Limit Break⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐]~, ~[Dragonblood⭐]~
Percy had been interested in Dragon Fang’s enchantments for a while, but he’d waited for a long time before checking what kind of enchantments his Ego could engrave on the royal heirloom. He was shocked to the core when he discovered that Dragon Fang acted like a Monster Card and an Artifact. Runic enchantments could be engraved on it, but his Prosperity could also be used to unlock Augmentations.
Every enchantment and Augmentation looks incredible, but I can only afford one of them. That has to be a bad joke. I have been diligently putting Prosperity aside whenever I could, but only [Dragonblood] can be unlocked?
That was a shocker, but Percy went through with it nonetheless. Today, of all days, Percy needed more strength. It was crucial to show himself in the best possible way this afternoon. Thus, he went through with it.
[Dragon Fang’s Augmentation -[Dragonblood⭐] has been unsealed. 250,000,000 Prosperity has been consumed.]
[Your Tier increased by one.]
250,000,000!
Percy nearly blurted aloud, but he kept his mouth shut. The flood of mana entering his body cleansed his anger, most of it, leaving him confused and only slightly agitated.
“You better be useful!” He grumbled as [Dragonblood] jumped into effect.
Dragon Fang transformed into a black wisp and returned to the obsidian Syreablade mark on the back of his hand. But that was only the beginning.
If only [Dragonblood]’s effect would be over already.
Percy sensed instinctively that something was changing, and he had yet to activate [Dragonblood]. No, activating [Dragonblood] wasn’t an issue. The bigger problem was that the [Dragonblood] Augmentation was already active and couldn’t be deactivated.
It’s a passive Augmentation!
Percy screamed in his mind as molten lava spurted out of his heart. At least, that was what it felt like. His heart palpated wildly, but that didn’t help Percy in the slightest. If anything, his wildly beating heart made everything worse. It spread the molten lava through his veins and arteries until every part of his body was melting from the inside.
Fortunately, that didn’t actually happen. It was just that Percy felt like his body was melting. His legs caved in from the pain, and he crashed to the floor, where he released a pained roar. Yet, instead of roaring like a human in pain, his roar was accompanied by something else. By something old and powerful.
The roar of a dead dragon erupted from the deepest parts of Percy’s body.
It hurts. Everything hurts so much! Why is it so painful?
Tears welled up in his eyes, but he couldn’t tell if they were the cause of his blurry sight. He was nauseous, in unbearable pain, and felt like collapsing at any moment as the streams of molten lava started circulating through his body.
His clothes were drenched in sweat and clung onto his body like a second skin, but Percy couldn’t feel them anymore. His senses were numb other than his pain receptors. They were active and shared every dirty detail of his pain with Percy as if he wanted to know. But all he wanted was not to be in pain.
He roared once more as more molten lava oozed out of his heart, but this time, he couldn’t keep going anymore.
The last he remembered was the doors to his room bursting open. A moment later, darkness enveloped him.
***
Percy wasn’t out for long. Only a few minutes must have passed when he regained consciousness again.
He was lying on the bed, surrounded by more than a dozen people whose attention was split between staring at him or ushering the crown’s healers to heal him faster and to take care of him.
Percy was not in pain anymore, but he groaned in relief and satisfaction as a cooling sensation washed over him.
“Percy!” Someone exclaimed to his right, but it sounded like the voice came from far away. He turned and his family entered his view. Sophia was trying to jump onto the bed to reach out for her brother and tend to his wounds, but the Queen pulled her back. The princess complained but Reina didn’t allow her daughter to bother her brother.
“Percy needs rest. He cannot play with you right now,” She reminded her daughter calmly.
“But I want to heal him! I need to help him!” Sophia responded in defiance.
“You can help him the best by staying here. Our healers are doing everything humanly possible to tend to his…condition.” Phillip said before ruffling through his daughter’s hair
Sophia didn’t like that. She stared at her father as if she was about to start brawling with her father.
“I’m fine, don’t worry,” Percy wanted to say in a confident tone, but a creaking and cracking voice was all that left his lips.
“You are fine?” Phillip turned to Percy with a frown. His expression was easy to interpret. ‘You don’t see what I see.’
“Is it that bad?” Percy wondered. He didn’t feel bad. If anything, he felt excellent, if not for the mix of starvation, mana exhaustion, thirst, and soreness all over his body. Even his skin was sore and itchy.
“You shed your skin like a serpent,” The Old King commented, “Twice.”
He pointed at something on the ground, probably the remnants of Percy’s skin, which had yet to be cleaned.
“And I don’t know what exactly you did to achieve this, but you nearly died of blood loss. There is not a single wound on your body. Your temperature was way too high – the Healers told us that your blood was boiling, but I don’t know about that one – and your blood, no your entire presence, is different now,” The Old King explained, “I don’t know what you’ve done. Still, your eyes are brighter than before, the traces of mana entering your body are purified beyond perfection, and your body has been consuming infusions of nutrition solutions en masse.”
The Queen cleared her throat, “You look like you’ve been starving for weeks when we entered the room after the–...”
“Dragon roaarrrr!” Sophia explained.
“Yes, after the dragon roar.”
Percy nodded slowly. He couldn’t sense the changes happening to him yet, but the interface seemed to be of the same opinion as the Old King.
[The Azure Dragon’s blood has been detected in your bloodstream. [Dragonblood] has been triggered.]
[The blood of the Azure Dragon has awakened.]
[[Dragonblood] completed the cleansing process. The Dragon Youngling’s heart and veins have been cleansed, strengthened, and expanded. Physique has been refined, and impure blood has been removed.]
[The Azure Dragon’s Essence has been infused into the remnants of ‘acceptable’ blood to refine the youngling’s subpar health and beastial regeneration.]
[Keep refining your bloodline to acquire the power of the Azure Dragon.]
That…was a little unexpected.
Percy had been expecting a lot of weird notifications, but these weren’t among them.
