My Alter Ego’s Path to Greatness - Chapter 112
#112
Party disbandment (1)
The dragon’s body was a precious treasure in itself with no place to throw it away.
It was a favorite material for various techniques, not only because of its quality, but also because it contained great mystery.
Moreover, dragons are now almost on the verge of extinction.
Since the value was valuable, of course I had no choice but to be frugal with every single piece of flesh.
‘But I have no intention of selling it anywhere.’
It’s not that I don’t need money right away, but if you have such a valuable item, you’ll end up using it all up.
There was no need to worry about storage, as Hans was able to see the limits of magic.
Of course, it wasn’t just about storing all the ingredients.
I just used what I needed right away…
one of them was dragon’s blood.
It was dragon blood.
“Hmm… it definitely works well. “I’ve been feeling a little stagnant lately.”
Heinz II, who was feeling refreshed for the first time in a long time, clenched and opened his hands and quietly muttered.
As “Mixed Blood Evolution” is a skill that is activated when predating one’s own kind, the vampire factor has not evolved significantly.
However, something that was not systematically indicated made me feel that Heinz’s status had risen one level by absorbing dragon blood.
‘I guess the vampire’s racial trait, “blood clan (true blood),” has grown.’
Not only did all abilities grow overall, but the efficiency of techniques using blood also increased significantly.
Although it is not yet at the level of holy blood, the experience of sucking blood from a being as large as a dragon must have been a significant amount of experience.
“After all, sucking blood from a higher-ranking opponent was a condition for becoming a Holy Blood?”
Heinz had much stronger power than vampires of the same level due to the influence of various skills.
In particular, thanks to “mixed-blood evolution,” the vampiric factor itself, which is the basis of strength, was in a different state from that of others, but at some point, its growth became stagnant.
‘It’s enough to enable the evolution of the human element, and now even if it absorbs blood, it only increases the total amount of energy and doesn’t seem to make it much stronger.’
Well, Heinz has been living a bit peacefully these days.
Even in the most recent fight against the Brokoslak Clan, didn’t they embrace all the Jinhyeols instead of sucking them up in order to completely absorb their power?
For the original purpose, it was more advantageous to have many useful talents than to be strong alone, so I didn’t regret it…
‘I also earned a decent income this time. There will be many opportunities in the future, so there is no need to panic.’
For today, it will be okay to enjoy your current achievements in peace.
Perhaps because of my mood, my skin seemed to have improved as well, so I lightly rubbed my cheeks and felt the same smooth skin as always.
‘…I’m not sure.’
He slowly lowered his hand and looked at the dragon’s disintegrating body.
Undeads who move diligently with their death energy sealed by Hans for fresh quality control.
At that scene of intense labor, not a single drop of blood fell on the floor, which was inconsistent with the work.
Of course, it was the work of Heinz II, the true-blooded vampire here.
‘That doesn’t mean I drank it all.’
Since blood is closely related to other biological tissues, there was a risk that the material would be damaged if all of it was overly sucked.
Anyway, it was greedy to use all of the blood from one dragon to drink it.
‘No matter how effective dragon blood is, the blood of the same target inevitably becomes less effective.’
Thanks to this, I was able to secure a lot of blood to use for other purposes.
Blood was an important medium for all kinds of magic, so it would be useful in the future.
‘For example… Harley’s imprint.’
Wouldn’t higher-level engraving require materials of that level?
Although I wondered if Harley of today would need something like that.
〈Individual Information〉
-Individual name: Harley
-Race: Dragon (Hybrid)
-Common characteristics: 「Mind Herb」 「Persona」 「Mysterious Index」
-Individual characteristics: 「Mutation」 「Physical Mutation」 「Biological Auror」 「Frenzy Beast 」 「Gluttony」 「Heart of the Bright Dragon」 「Insanity Control」 「Gem Eye: Coercion」 「Super Regeneration」 「Chalcos-style Battle Engraving」
– Special Feature: Absorbs the ‘Heart of the Bright Dragon’ containing powerful genetic information and Most of them were replaced with dragon material and became acceptable. It controls the madness within the body centered on the heart and absorbs the madness around it. By combining the ‘Jewel Eye’ with the Dragon Eye, he was able to enforce his will more effectively.
“Hehehe—.”
A corner of the site where the dragon is dismantled.
Harley, curled up like a wounded beast, was trying to regain full control of her body.
‘If the race itself has changed… does that mean this change was that big?’
All this time, Harley could not be called a pure human being.
Because he was a test subject born through a biological experiment, he was mixed with the genes of all kinds of magical beasts and monsters.
Since it could not be defined as a specific race, it was not reflected in the information window, but if one had to name the race, ‘mutant’ would be the most appropriate.
However, this time, most of the parts were replaced with high-performance dragon genes, which even affected his identity.
The expression ‘hybrid’ probably came about thanks to the remnants that remain unchanged.
Plop-plop-plop-!
After eating the ‘Heart of Madness’, the size that had once exceeded 3 meters began to gradually compress and shrink.
The process continued for a while until the teeth and claw scales slowly disappeared into the body and Harley returned to her former self.
And by the time the dragon’s dismantling work was somewhat completed.
“Whoa—.”
Finally gaining full control over his body, he slowly stood up and took a deep breath.
Whiiing—
At the same time, a breeze blew in front of him, shaking the bushes.
‘what?’
It was a phenomenon that occurred due to the combination of overwhelming lung capacity and the “Heart of the Light Dragon.”
Although the wind speed was not that fast, it would be too much to say that it was created with just deep breathing.
‘Is it really the heart of a dragon? Not only the energy inside but also the mana around it moves in sync with the action. ‘It’s going to take some time to get used to this, right?’
As he was a light dragon that completely lost his magical abilities and specialized in the primitive use of magical power, Harley also inherited those characteristics.
Even though he became a dragon, he could not use magic, but instead, the surrounding mana assisted his actions even more strongly.
‘For the time being, I need to allocate a little more mental energy and pay attention. If you let your guard down, an accident will happen.’
It was a new task that arose at a time when it was difficult to properly handle the explosive increase in muscle strength.
“Eurachacha—! This is sore! I need to warm up a bit on the way! Haha!”
After roughly resolving the situation, Harley stretched and burst into lively laughter.
‘How did the journey that started to obtain Zaonic’s pickaxe end up here?’
It was a truly eventful adventure, starting with the Twin Head Ogre and running through the northern mountains to meeting the dragon and dealing with it.
‘Thanks to you, I have gained a lot, so I have no complaints.’
Not only did Heinz’s growth stagnate, but Harley turned into a monster.
Even though he shrunk his body as much as possible through “body transformation” that ignored the laws of physics, his weight reached the level of tons due to the density of his incredibly compressed body.
This was ridiculous considering he was only about 2.3 meters tall.
‘I need to train to control the energy around me and lose as much weight as possible. If this continues, I won’t even be able to enter the building.’
If the ground was weak, the ground could collapse, so I had to be careful in everything.
The good news was that energy efficiency improved slightly thanks to “Heart of the Light Dragon” drawing in the surrounding energy.
If it weren’t for that, I would really have to eat something all day to maintain this body.
“Tsk tsk, I guess I’m a little hungry though. “I need to fill my stomach.”
…These words came from the mouth of someone who had been eating non-stop until just now, but this was something that could not be helped.
Transformation of the body consumes a huge amount of energy, so now that the entire body has changed, the amount of energy has decreased significantly.
Shouldn’t we make up for the shortage?
‘There’s so much to eat, there’s nothing to save. Anyway, these are health foods that become more helpful the more you eat them!’
His eyes turned to the dragon meat that had already been slaughtered and piled up in a heap on one side.
“Sweet gulp.”
Harley swallowed the saliva that flowed from the corner of her mouth and headed straight for that place, working hard to store energy in her body like a bear preparing for hibernation.
***
As so many undead were mobilized, it did not take long for the dragon’s dismantling to be completed.
[Good job, Malcolm.]
Hans nodded with satisfaction as he looked at the by-products, including meat, bones, and organs, organized neatly by material.
[Not much to say…]
When Death Wizard Malcolm, who had finished slaughtering the undead, bowed his head politely and stepped back, Hans naturally headed towards the pile of dragon bones and looked around.
[Hoo—that’s really great.]
Even though it was just a pile of bones, its presence was so great that you could feel a certain force.
The skeleton was thick and hard, probably due to the effects of excessive activation of cells due to the insanity, making it an excellent material in itself.
‘Originally, it would have been quite difficult due to the dragon’s strong mentality.’
A dragon’s noble spirituality does not easily allow it to become undead even after death.
So, for this work, it was necessary to go through a complicated process and corrupt it over a long period of time…
‘Perhaps it is because it has already fallen into madness, so there is no need for any special preparation. ‘It saved me a lot of trouble.’
The most cumbersome and time-consuming part has already been solved.
In fact, the ingredients are prepared and cooked, so all you have to do is heat it up and eat it.
‘Of course, other warlocks would have a hard time dealing with this, perhaps because they were affected by the madness of the abyss…’
That was no problem for Hans, who was dealing with ‘death’ that came from the same abyss.
‘There’s no need to waste time. ‘Let’s get started right away.’
Preparation went smoothly.
Using “forbidden knowledge,” he set up a black magic barrier for the ritual, placed undead to build a simple altar, and even processed some of the dragon’s organs to be used as sacrifices.
It was a fairly simple procedure compared to the scale of the ritual, but how could the immortal king have the same conditions as an ordinary warlock?
After all the preparations were completed, the ceremony finally began.
The center of the altar, where numerous undead surrounding the area are arranged regularly to form a regular formation.
Facing the remains of the dragon, Hans slowly stretched out his hand.
[Now—what is your name? Tell me.]
As Hans lightly stroked the pile of bones, the energy of death slowly rose from the heart of the immortal king located in his chest.
As the death quietly spread around the area, the plants began to wither, and frost formed everywhere as the temperature suddenly dropped below freezing.
[Yes, it’s Heratos.]
Ugh—!
An enormous amount of black magic instantly enveloped the son-in-law and began to resonate with the undead that made up the altar.
It slowly seeped into the dragon’s bones.
[I am the king of the dead and the ruler of death, so I will grant you a second life.]
If it were a dragon in its lifetime, it would not have been possible.
No, how many people would choose to become undead in the first place?
Even the person who killed him wants to subordinate himself and make him a slave.
[You will be able to set foot on this land again. Of course, there will be a very small price to pay.]
However, it was not difficult for Hans to be possessed by thoughts that had already died and had only fragmented thoughts and had gone so far as to degenerate.
[…I am now your master.]
Because he was an immortal king who had reached the pinnacle of necromancy.
Whoa whoa—!
The death and dark magic that filled the surroundings were instantly sucked into the dragon’s remains.
The space trembled due to the enormous flow of energy, and some of the undead that made up the altar fell apart.
Inside the wildly shaking barrier.
And among the grass and trees that died in the aftermath of the ritual.
[———!]
Finally, the new dead opened his eyes.
***
“Hahaha! “Then let’s go!”
Harley, carrying a subspace magic tool filled with dragon meat, walked south to where the group would be.
“It’s been a while since I thought I’d take a look at heterosis.”
Heinz II, who was looking around lightly, disappeared on the spot.
After the two left, what was left in the ruined forest in the aftermath of the battle was…
[Hehehe— Since we’ve already come this far, let’s take a look around. I hope there are a lot of useful people around here.]
Countless Hans, the immortal king, surrounded by undead.
[Koooooo——!]
[Kyaaaaa——!]
There were only two bone dragons.