With a single thought, he transformed into a dragon. Everything around him suddenly looked much smaller. When he raised his hand, he saw it had turned into a dragon's claw. The claws were incredibly sharp but could still grip objects, though it felt weird, like his nails had suddenly grown super long.
He also had a tail now. Having never had a tail before, using it for the first time felt really awkward and clumsy. He had two wings on his back too, but no matter how hard he flapped them, he could only get a couple of meters off the ground. He accidentally hit his butt with his wings, causing him to fall and crash into the ground, kicking up a big cloud of dust.
A dragon's body is way bigger and heavier than a human's, so the crash was incredibly loud. Linley had just been seriously injured, and now his old wound flared up, making the pain unbearable. It took quite a while for him to recover. Once he came to, he changed back to his human form and checked his hands and feet. Although the wounds had disappeared, the pain still lingered.
"It's just phantom pain. Ignore it and you'll be fine," the system explained.
"But it really hurts," Linley replied.
He even felt pain in his tail and wings, even though they were gone. This is called phantom limb and phantom pain, caused by the nervous system sending wrong signals.
"You're not used to the dragon's body yet, so your combat power didn't really go up," the system continued to explain.
"So I just need to get used to it?" Linley asked.
"Practice more when you can, and you'll get stronger," the system replied.
"Uh..." Bavaria looked at him expectantly.
"You wanna try?" Linley asked.
"No, not really, I just want to try it out," Bavaria said, a bit embarrassed.
Linley lent the dragon skin armor to Bavaria. He was over the moon, quickly put it on, and walked around a bit but tripped over the tail. Then he tried transforming and flapping his wings, but he was even worse than Linley and couldn't fly at all.
Before long, Bavaria reverted to his human form, his face red, panting heavily, and sat on the ground to rest. "The physical exertion is too great; this transformation consumes too much energy."
"Consumes energy?" Linley was stunned; he didn't feel this way.
"A dragon's body is so large, of course, it consumes much more than a human's," the system explained.
"What about me?" Linley asked.
"You are a god; your consumption is even greater than a dragon's, so you don't have energy issues," the system replied.
So that's how it is. Linley had planned to lend the dragon skin armor to his subordinates, but it seemed impractical, so he could only wear it himself. He would practice more in the future, and at critical moments, transforming into a dragon might turn the tide of battle.
"Is this dragon skin armor made from the dragon's corpse?" Linley asked.
"Yes," the system replied. "Look behind the temple."
Linley walked to the back of the temple and saw the corpse of the ancient dragon. Most of its skin had been stripped off, leaving only scattered parts on its head, claws, and tail. The dragon's flesh and internal organs were exposed. At this moment, Linley realized that his earlier attempt to attack the ancient dragon's heart was actually futile.
The structure of a gulong's body is vastly different from that of a human. It has three hearts, each positioned differently within its chest cavity. This means that even if one heart is damaged, the gulong will not die immediately. It can only be truly defeated if all three hearts are pierced at the same time.
"I heard that bathing in dragon blood makes one invulnerable to weapons. Is that true?" Linley asked.
The system explained, "Achilles was invulnerable because he was dipped in the waters of the River Styx. His mother held him by the heel when she dipped him in, so his heel became his only weak point."
Linley blushed, realizing he had remembered wrong.
Bavaria chimed in, "In our legends, the dragon-slaying hero Sigurd killed the dragon Fafnir and bathed in its blood, becoming invulnerable to weapons. However, a leaf stuck to his shoulder while he was bathing, which became his only weak point."
Linley suddenly realized he had mixed up Norse and Greek myths. In modern society, Greek mythology used to dominate, but over time, people grew aesthetically tired of it, and Norse mythology began to gain popularity. The heroic tales of Odin's family became widely known.
The system responded, "Dragon blood doesn't have such magical powers."
Linley pressed on, "Then does the water of the River Styx really exist?"
The system replied, "I never said that. If you want to know, go check out the River Styx yourself."
An idea struck Linley. If the water of the River Styx really had magical effects, couldn't he create an invincible army by having everyone bathe in it? Even if their heels were weak spots, thick boots could fix that.
An interesting detail in Achilles' myth is that normally, heels are covered by shoes, so why was his heel exposed? In ancient Greece, most people didn't wear shoes, and only a few wore straw sandals, leaving their heels exposed and making long marches impossible.
The wooden box also held many dragon teeth that could be used as bullets, each packed with powerful dragon energy. The last two items were a pair of dragon eyes, which could also be used as reusable bullets.
When Linley put on the dragon skin armor, he could see through the dragon eyes, using them for reconnaissance. After reaching the target location, the dragon eyes could float invisibly in the air, providing long-term surveillance, and would return on their own after use. Additionally, the dragon eyes could cast simple divine spells for Linley, but since he didn't know any, this feature was currently useless.
Linley had a sudden idea and grabbed a slingshot, launching a dragon eye into the distant mist of the divine kingdom. Instantly, he saw the scene inside the divine kingdom.
The mist was filled with grapevines, and the statues were lifelike, as if they were working, resting, drinking, exercising, and dueling. Besides humans, there were centaurs, dwarves, elves, giants, mermaids, and other strange creatures. There even appeared to be some who looked like Chinese people. Could it be that China also had a cult of Dionysus?
However, these scenes quickly disappeared as the connection between the dragon eye and Linley was cut off.
The system angrily questioned, "What are you doing!"
Linley guiltily asked, "I just wanted to see the situation inside... the dragon eye isn't broken, is it?"
The system explained, "It's not broken yet, but it has fallen into an unopened area. You must unlock these areas to retrieve the dragon eye."
Linley nonchalantly said, "It's okay, there's still another dragon eye. We can retrieve it later."
The system helplessly said, "That area is too deep; it may take years to retrieve it!"