From the darkness, sunlight begins to shine through as cracks form in the cocoon that envelopes me. With my consciousness beginning to recover in full, I hear voices from the outside.
"We've been waiting for some time now, but the wait will finally pay off. It only took five years, but we can at long last get started on our System Quest."
"I don't believe five years to be that long of a wait for the System Quest, Lia. Especially given our race's lifespan."
They're noisy, but that's not a bad thing. Their voices are helping me regain my focus. The first thing I do before I break through the cocoon is to check my status since a lot has probably changed.
Name: Cordelia Auspin
Race: Elite Adult Elemental Spirit Dragon
Tier: 8
Titles: Provoking Giants (-5 INT), Coward, A Fool, Immortal Slayer, Soul Eater, Seed of Calamity, Brave Explorer, The Sea Dragon's Inheritor, Life's End, Raging Alcoholic
Level: 1
EXP: 0/2,000
HP: 2,170 (+162) MP: 1,720 (+162) SP: 2,120 (+162)
STR: 720 (+162)
VIT: 760 (+162)
DEX: 650 (+162)
INT: 745 (+157)
WIS: 740 (+162)
MND: 970 (+162)
CHA: 70 (Intimidation)
LUCK: 20
Acquired Skills: Draconic Insight (1)
Innate Skills: Acid Beam (6), Tail Swipe (8), Venomous Bite (9), Ice Breath (5), Water Breath (5), Fire Breath (1), Gale Breath (1), Constrict (4), Element Fusion, Element Creation & Manipulation, Gliding, Humanoid Shapeshift
Soul Skills: Language Comprehension
Magic: Ice Shard, Water Wall, Fire Ball, Wind Wall, Flare Missile, Ice Bomb, Fire Bomb, Fire Enchant, Ice Enchant, Water Enchant, Air Enchant, Water Bullet, Air Bullet, Ice Bullet, Fire Bullet
Resistance: Corrosion Immunity, Weak Poison Resist, Ice Absorption, Water Absorption, Fire Absorption, Air Absorption, Light Pain Resist
Weakness: Lightning [+450% damage]
Mutations: Draconic Sight, Massive Size, Fluent Tongue, Toxic Scales, Enhanced Stomach, Colossal Size, Strong Venom, Soul Furnace (+162)
Current Biomatter: 1,514kg
Lifetime Biomatter: 13,468kg
System Quests: Legacy of the Dragons (1/2)
Details: The last of the Spirit Dragons. You are significantly smaller than you were as a Sea Dragon, but you are still quite large and your base power has significantly increased. As an Elite Monster, you currently have a +20 bonus to all base stats. As an Elite Monster above Tier 7, you are 40% larger than normal for your species. As an Elemental Spirit Dragon, you can manipulate the elements that correspond to your Elemental Essence and certain elements can be fused to create different effects. You may be a high tier now, but don't get ahead of yourself.
Hmm... is this a good or a bad thing? My level 1 stats are certainly much higher than me old level 1 stats as a Sea Dragon so my growth should be much higher, but I'm so much weaker than I previously was!
As for the rest of my status, I can at least say that for the most part, it is an improvement. Analysis has changed into Draconic Insight which will allow me to see a certain amount of skills my target has. My magic repertoire has been massively enhanced and I got the core abilities of the Elemental Spirit Dragon, Element Fusion and Element Creation & Manipulation. The latter of the two is rather straightforward, I can create the elements I have the essence for and then manipulate it. But the former, Element Fusion, is quite interesting. I can use Fire, Water, and Air elements to create steam, If I had an Earth Essence then I could combine it with water to make mud or fire to make lava. It's just a little disappointing that the essence that I do have don't mesh well with each other. I guess I can cause hail storms with Air, Water, and Ice, but that's no fun and doesn't seem particularly useful.
But on the topic of the elements, my resistances have also taken a massive leap most of it being pretty self-explanatory... but the weakness I'm taking nearly five times as much damage as normal from lightning now, WHAT THE FUCK! At this rate, a simple static shock will end up killing me!
Part of me doesn't want to get out of my cocoon since I've become so much weaker than before, but if I wait too long the cocoon will fall apart on its own, *sigh* guess I can just do it myself and break out now.
Within a minute of thrashing around from within the cocoon, I destroy the walls as my body becomes enveloped in the bright sunlight. My body is still serpentine in shape and my scales are still of a pale blue colour, but they now have a feather-like appearance. And on my back is a pair of large wings that share an appearance with my feathery scales. I still have antler-like horns, similar to the horns on dragon depictions from East Asia. But the biggest difference in appearance is the massive size difference. I am so much smaller than I previously was. Before I was probably around 720~730 metres, but now I'm probably no more than 300 metres tall, and this is with my size mutations. But with a little thinking, it makes sense, as with a few exceptions, there is generally a limit to how large a living terrestrial creature can grow.
After a quick look at my new body, I start searching around my surroundings and find that for the most part, nothing major has changed. There is still that mountain settlement I saw previously and the large tracks of destruction I left on my way up still remain. But standing before me are two humanoid figures. The one in front has a light tan and deep red-scaled wings on her back and a pair of horns on her head that is reminiscent of my own. The one behind her has a lighter skin tone with features similar to the former, but instead of having red coloured scales, they're blue. If I'm solely basing it off their grabs and visible equipment, the red one is probably a martial artist of some sort and the blue one is probably a wizard or something like that.
Testing out my newly acquired Draconic Insight, I find out their names and much more. The red one is Milla August and the blue one is Lia Albertine, both of them being a type of Dragonoid. If their titles are anything to go by then they are probably pretty important people too, a Khatun and a princess. But both of them are far stronger than me, while they aren't the strongest people I've seen like a certain scary old rabbit, they are however far stronger than I was before my evolution. Thankfully it doesn't seem like they're here to kill me.
"So your finally out of your shell, we've been waiting for quite a while. If there anything you could use help with, say for example restoring the legacy of the Spirit Dragons?"
The Red Dragonoid, Milla, speaks out, but that offer is really suspicious. Who in their right mind would offer someone help like that? More importantly, why does she know about that!?
Calming my nerves, being careful to not upset the small girl who can completely murder me, I say, "Just what are you after? There is surely a motive behind your offer."
"Of course there is, who in their right mind would offer help to someone they just met if there wasn't anything to gain."
Ok, I've changed my mind about her a little. I like people like her who are straight to the point, I suppose I can not kill her once I'm strong enough to do so as long as she doesn't slight me before that, and is at least somewhat useful.
"It's like this, uhh... how am I supposed to address you?"
"Cordelia, my name is Cordelia."
"Well then, it's a pleasure, Miss Cordelia. I am Milla August, the current boss of the Dragon Bandits, Matriarch of the Red Dragonoid Clan, and the Khatun of the Dragonoid race, and one of the leaders of the Central Alliance of Talonia. This over here is Lia, she is one of the Captains in the Dragon Bandits and the third daughter of the current Blue Dragonoid Matriarch."
"You seem rather proud of all your titles, but you are rather young for them, are you not?"
"This..."
Her previous proud manner is shaken a little, but it doesn't take more than a couple of seconds to compose herself.
"This is because most of them are hereditary, actually all of them are. But lets get back to the topic at hand. Five years ago, when you first climbed the mountain for your evolution, Lia and I were the first to come and see the evolution cocoon up close and upon doing so we received a System Quest. Completing it will allow us to advance to a Legendary class, on the objective of the quest is to aid our racial ancestors, this being you, in gaining worldwide recognition."
This is a little suspicious, such a specific mission that just so happens to coincide with my own quest. This has to be the work of that jerk God... but I won't complain. I will use everything he gives me and turn it all against him someday.
"Your quest just so happens to be similar to mine, so I don't mind the help. But just what can you do for me?"
I keep an imposing tone in my voice since, at its core, our relationship will probably be a business one, so I need to make sure I have the high ground.
"To start with, I have a degree of political influence as one of the Alliance leaders. I also have command over two armed forces, the Dragonoid Horde and the Dragon Bandit troops. With only a handful of appearances, you can expand your influence with my help and not have to do much and focus on other private matters, levelling up for example. And in that same vein, I can bring you information on targets to take down for large amounts of EXP."
The idea of working with her is somewhat appealing. It would definitely lower my workload a bit but the is a hidden nuance to this, the area in which I can extend my influence won't go much farther than Milla's sphere of influence. In turn, if I choose to work with her, I would also end up expanding her own sphere of influence just to keep increasing mine. A well-played scheme, but it isn't a problem. I don't see this being particularly detrimental to me so I think I'll take her offer.
"I can very well do this on my own, your assistance will speed up the process, so I'll accept your help. I've also got some question about the world."
"Great, I look forward to a fruitful partnership. The world has undergone some changes in recent times since you began your evolution, so I'm sure you've got questions, let's hear them."
"What is the Central Alliance?"
After hearing my question, Milla nearly falls over, only standing with the support of Lia.
"So we have to start from there, huh? This is gonna be a long day."