It is now one month after the hostilities came to a close. The dead were mourned and buried while the injured continued receiving treatment. The wall was rebuilt and various towns that were destroyed were now repaired. The welcome I received was grand. The streets of Capel were lined with people trying to catch glimpse of the White Eagle who negotiated for a cease fire with the Emperor Dragon. I was then invited to the royal palace. The reaction to father seeing me was unexpected. "Wow. You look just like me in my early twenties. At this point we are practically brothers." Father said while sizing me up and down. According to my estimates, father was between 32 and 35 years of age. We talked about the war where I confirmed the tales of all that he was told. "Giant tortoises shooting such a dangerous attack from their mouth?" he asked. "Yes, they were very formidable opponents. The only reason we won is because their attention was divided." I answered. I then told him about the vampire situation which shockingly enough he was aware of it. "The leader of the Fae has been the friend of our family for many generations. We aid their efforts to protect themselves by supplying our rare and valuable minerals. They process and then use them to make magical weapons." Father said. "Have you ever visited the place? It seems interesting." I asked. "The Fae community is not keen on having humans visit their dwellings. They consider us to be greedy and evil. But they are not opposed to maintaining a friendly relationship with a human nation." Father answered. We then talked more about other places that seem exciting. I learnt that there were 5 more continents apart from Yaran. They were far away from each other therefore very little was known about them. I was excited. I had found a new adventure to embark on. We talked all day long until it was time for me to say goodbye.
I had now evolved 17 baby dragons. Two on the first week, 3 on the second week, 5 on the third week and seven on the fourth week. They are all now dual wielders and their mana reserves have almost tripled. My statistics have also increased considerably. My physical strength and mana has increased by 20 times. My physical strength is up to 2.6 million while my mana reserves are at 5.1 million. My speed has increased by 100 times to reach 600, 0000. I am now undisputedly the strongest being within the island. I have learnt how to use the water attribute and offered it to the last 7 baby dragons I evolved. My species as a human no longer allows me to utilize my full strength. I am thinking of evolving myself to a dragon today. I also need to learn how to use the remaining 2 attributes light and earth and offer them to the other dragons.
We have been sparring lately with Zari and all I can say is that my techniques are terrible. Sure I am stronger than her but I can't seem to effectively use my strength. Maybe that will change when I upgrade my species. I have also learnt flight magic which allows me to manipulate gravity so that I can float. This method increases my flight speed by a factor of more than 50. I am now in a secluded place where I will evolve myself. I brought a new set of clothes because I can only conjure simple ones at this point. Evolving will allow me to tap all my strength and make the process of evolving all the dragons end much quicker. I expect to be through with all the dragons by the end of two months. I levitated up in the air and destroyed my body and built it anew. I made sure that no physical differences could be observed from my old form. The process was over in an instant. The practice of rebuilding bodies had made me to some kind of an expert. I am looking forward to our spar with Zari today. Although I call them sparring sessions, we usually go at each other's throat with all we have. We practice at the lake formed by the crater I made. I had evolved Zari a couple of weeks ago in secret. She was now boasting a mana capacity of a little over 1.5 million. I hurriedly put my clothes on and went to our normal meeting spot. "You have done the thing then. Today I will not accept any excuses." She smiled as soon as she saw me and started doing some stretches. "Today is the day you lose." I confidently declared. The result was also disappointing today. I lost very convincingly. We had always fought in human form till this point but after I evolved to a higher species. The last of the limitations for our duel was lifted. Zari turned to dragon form and began her relentless attacks. At first, I remained in my human form but soon learned that I was at a disadvantage. Her output was greatly increased and her body was now covered with very sturdy scales on top of the spherical barrier she had erected. It was an uphill battle. I then for the first time tried my Dragon form. I was not used to this body hence I was swiftly defeated. "One and a half millennia of experience baby. There is no beating that." She bragged. Come to think of it, I was only seven and a few months old on this World. If she is 1500 years, then I simply can't win this battle in the short term. The whole sparring session had not even lasted five minutes before I was hopelessly beaten. She controlled the fire and water attribute. She created mist to hide her presence and dodge my attacks while she threw hers. She could change forms between human and dragon instantaneously to attack and defend herself while it took me several seconds to do the same. I had strength but lacked battle experience. "You are very strong. But your movements are monotonous and easy to read. If you train under me for a century then you will be the strongest dragon who has ever lived." Zari said. It was surreal seeing how dragons view time as compared to humans. A century to her is probably no more than a few months. "Sure why not. It's not like I'm dying any time soon now that I am a dragon." I answered. We then spent some time talking about what is happening currently. "The vampires will attack our allies in one year. This is the estimation given to us by our allies. I will be heading there next month to offer our protection. Want to come with me?" she asked. Zari saw me like a little brother at this point and was always looking to drag me into whatever seemed fun at the time. "I still have to evolve your kin. I should be free in the next two months. By the way are the vampires powerful?" I asked. I think sending dragons is kind of an overkill. "Their speed is the most terrifying thing about them. They are several times faster than I am in all aspects including body movement, attack and defense speed. Their attacks are weak compared to that of dragons but stronger than the majority of other races around." Zari answered. "What about weaknesses and what kind of magic do they use?" I asked. "The lower ranked vampires have a weakness against sunlight. The other higher ranked have no weaknesses. They use blood magic, a derivative of water magic. I would say the higher level ones exude a similar presence to that of yours when you first visited our home. They are weaklings you see." She answered. But I had a mana capacity of about 144,000 when I visited the dragons. We have a very different perspective on what is considered weak. "What are their numbers?" I asked. If it's a few hundred then that will not really be a threat. "They have their own domain where it is estimated that they are at least thirty thousand in total. About 2000 high level ones and the rest are weaklings as strong as our children. The low level ones only fight at night so they are not as bothersome." Zari answered. This is a catastrophe. No other races would think that these vampires are weaklings apart from dragons. How is it even possible that they have not taken control of the whole continent? No wonder their neighbors are having such a difficult time with them. If their speeds are the only decisive qualities they have then I will need to learn light magic, the fastest attack magic available. Maybe if we shine enough of it, we might disintegrate the bodies of the lower level ones.
I spent the next month evolving more dragons and infusing their bodies with light magic in the final two weeks. Currently, over 75% of the dragons were evolved. However, my stats of strength and mana reserves reached the maximum amount at 25 million and could not increase any farther. My speed was still low at 4 million. I had gained all the dragon's breath techniques which included wind, fire, water and light. I had asked my companion why further increase in my stats was not possible. The answer I received was that my species had reached the maximum amount of power I could hold. The solution I was given was to either look for a stronger species or simply create a new one. It's not like I need more power at this point, all I need to do is learn how to use what I already have. The numerous combat training exercises with Zari were very helpful. I learnt how to effectively manipulate gravity in a fight, hide my presence and how to defend against attacks. While in dragon form, I learnt that Dark Void, the attack I got from the giant tortoise had the longest range but was the slowest to activate. Light attacks were the fastest to activate and reach the targets and its destructiveness was less than that of Dark Void. Fire attacks were the most destructive over a wide area in a limited range. If you wanted to destroy an area of 50 meters diameter at once, then this was the attack to use provided you were near it. Ice attacks derived from the water were more about putting a defensive barriers rather than attacking. Of course you could freeze your targets but that was not really an effective method of dealing with them. Lightning breaths from wind were the most penetrative attacks. I could also make storms and hurricanes with this wind attribute. Zari also taught me about creating the large spherical barrier that dragons usually used to protect themselves. All that remained was learning the earth attribute.
Zari and her gang of dragons will be leaving the Island today and head towards the continent of Yaran. They will be acting as reinforcements for the Fae, gnomes and dwarves. She came by today to remind me that she was going and to visit her after my work was finished. She left me a map of where she was going to be stationed. Only those that I have evolved would be taking part in this expedition. I don't really think it will be a battle with the Vampires at this point. The dragons are all over thrice the amount of strength that they initially had and now controlled an additional element. I wished her good luck and went back to the Earth Talon's domain to learn about the Earth attribute. Every attribute I had learnt after my encounter with the dragons was done so at the respective Talon's headquarters. The Earth Talon was stationed at the Capital city in the Kingdom of Capel. I regularly flew back home with treats from the capital and gave them to mother. At this point her businesses were very successful. She had set up other milling centers in the kingdom and was planning to do so in the other two kingdoms in future. After my suggestion a few months ago, a branch of the carriage business was set up in the capital here in Capel and was raking in some serious cash. I had thought about introducing some modern technology such as electricity but decided against that. The island was doing really well with only magic and primitive knowledge to rely upon. Adding complexities to their lives while they are already satisfied would not be an act of kindness but selfishness.
Two weeks passed and now only the Emperor dragon was not evolved. The other dragons were now infused with the earth element. I was contemplating infusing dark magic to the emperor dragon's new body to ensure that the hierarchy is maintained. After a few days of thinking about it I decided to go ahead with it. I visited his castle and after exchanging pleasantries I got back to work. "You are now a dark dragon. My promise has been kept. It's now up to you to make sure that the humans are left alone." I said to him. "Chrono my friend. I will never forget what you have done for my kin. I will forever uphold our agreement." Zurin said. His mana reserves were round 13 million second only to me. With his fighting skills honed for three millennia, he was now among the strongest forces on the planet to the best of my knowledge. I asked about how the war with the Vampires was coming along. I was then given the rundown of events. Fifty dragons were sent to the continent and were doing a fine job with dealing with the regular skirmishes. The vampire army was not yet mobilized. The Fae, dwarves and gnomes had shown interest in meeting with me to express their gratitude. But it mainly was to satisfy the curiosity on who had saved the dragon species. It had been three months after meeting the emperor dragon for the first time. There was atlest a few months before the war with the vampires could begin. I spent the next two weeks learning more about the earth attribute and relaxing at home. I was going to visit the continent of Yaran for the first time in the next two days.