Chương 154: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 154 - Dragon Speech Instruction

Some players gained power through the Chrysanthemum's Demise. Others kept climbing the tech tree. On the Morigan Plain, in a stretch of gravel desert near the Silvermoon Forest. Bang! A single gunshot. A gliding monster dropped from the sky. The strange smile on Medraco's face faded. He walked over to the fallen creature and crouched to examine it. A Terror Eagle. Third-tier monster, one of the more dangerous fliers on the Morigan Plain. The bullet had hit it square between the eyes.

The thing was still struggling, its wingspan stretching four to five meters across the rocky ground, but its shattered brain tissue made any real counterattack impossible.

"The scales on this world's monsters are more fragile than I expected." Medraco pulled the dagger from his hip and dragged it across the Terror Eagle's wing. A sharp screech tore through the air, sparks skittering across the ground.

"They look like steel. And yet a bullet to the head is still fatal."

"That's the beauty of our firearms — kinetic energy. Even without penetrating the skull, the shockwave turns the brain to mush." He stood, raised one hard leather boot, and pressed it down on the Terror Eagle's head. He ground it left, then right. Deliberately. Insultingly. In his view, these creatures were nothing but materials and food.

"So killing the dragon is a certainty, then?" Ohguchi Akase was nestled in David Jones's arms, eyes soft and seductive. His rough, duck-like voice carried a coquettish lilt that had no business being there. His voice wasn't always like that. It was just that recently, his throat had seen... considerable use.

"No, no, no." Medraco shook his head. He pulled his foot back from the Terror Eagle's head and turned.

"The dragon isn't as simple as we think. Killing the elf, though — that's no problem."

"There's an old saying from the Celestial Empire: rice must be eaten one bite at a time. Things must be done one step at a time."

"To kill the dragon, we need to hit a vital point. Ordinary bullets won't cut it. We need armor-piercing rounds."

"So we're returning empty-handed?" Yamaguchi Mura Chicken pressed, his voice sharpening with anxiety. He wanted this done in one clean strike, not drawn out over multiple attempts, each one adding more variables.

"How could that be?" Medraco let out a short, cold laugh.

"We don't have armor-piercing rounds yet, but to hit the dragon's eye, we need something to draw its attention first. We need bait."

"Among the four of us, the weakest is you, Mr. Yamaguchi Mura Chicken."

"To maximize the success rate of the Decapitation Plan, you'll serve as that bait. You'll contribute your strength to the mission." Medraco's voice didn't rise.

"Won't you?" His cold gaze settled on Yamaguchi Mura Chicken. It wasn't a question. It wasn't a discussion. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. It was an order....

"What? A Sakura player spent an hour at noon getting tag-teamed by other Sakura players? And they were all male?" Su Nian stared at Polikli with a completely blank expression, his brain refusing to process the report at normal speed. The monsters had just gotten their sexual orientations sorted out. Now the Sakura players were developing serious orientation issues of their own. Not that it particularly mattered, as long as they showed up and worked hard, he couldn't care less if they fell in love with sandworms.

He just found the whole thing weirdly sudden and strange. He filed it away and moved on. At the moment, he was in the middle of teaching Anna true Dragon Speech magic. Anna wasn't like him, she couldn't receive orthodox dragon inheritance directly. She could only use elemental magic built on a foundation of dragon language. Powerful, yes. More powerful than what any ordinary mage could produce. But still a distant second to true Dragon Speech.

Now that Anna possessed the Dragon Heart, she had the capacity to learn the real thing. She just lacked the inheritance to go with it. So Su Nian would be that inheritance. He would serve as the channel and pour Dragon Speech magic directly into her.

"Brother, is Dragon Speech hard to learn..." Anna looked up at him, her peach blossom eyes wide and blinking, her small hands wound together in front of her.

"Anna is silly. Anna might not be able to do it..." She'd been excited at first when she heard the black dragon was going to teach her orthodox Dragon Speech. Then the apprehension had crept in. In the Elven Forest, she'd been labeled a failure. Her family had been driven out of the core district because of her. Ten awakenings, ten failures, and a mountain of wasted resources to show for it. She'd nearly had her ears and tail cut off before it was over. She was terrified of disappointing Su Nian.

Especially Su Nian, who was the person she cared about most in the world. That kind of inferiority complex didn't go away in a day or two.

"Relax." Su Nian's tone was shamelessly self-congratulatory, half truth, half bluster.

"You have the Dragon Heart. And that heart came from a genius black dragon. Nobody on this planet is going to understand magic better than you." Anna did have real talent. That much was genuine. But Dragon Speech was obscure and difficult, and whether she'd actually be able to master it was anybody's guess.

"Oh~ Brother! Anna will definitely try her hardest..." Her voice went small.

"But... but if I can't learn it... will Brother send Anna away?"

"No~" Su Nian grinned, his expression veering toward feral. He decided a joke was in order, just to put her at ease.

"If silly Anna can't figure it out, then as punishment, Anna will have to take a bath with me~ How does that sound?"

"Huh? Mmm~" The little ears on top of Anna's head twitched. Color flooded her face at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. Her fox tail swayed softly behind her. She dropped her gaze to her pink toes. Her mind immediately dredged up the memory of splashing around in the water with the black dragon. Ahhh — can't think about that, it's too embarrassing! Hmph. Brother thinks about nothing but that all day long!

Anna pressed her burning cheeks between her palms, her shy eyes stealing glances at Su Nian from beneath her lashes. There was a punishment for failing. But somehow, that punishment made something loosen in her chest. As long as she wasn't sent away. As long as she didn't have to leave him.

"Anna will do whatever Brother says," she murmured, biting her red lip. She gave a small, flustered nod, but couldn't bring herself to meet the black dragon's burning gaze.

"Whatever... whatever Brother wants, then, then... that's fine..." Su Nian didn't linger on it. Before the actual teaching could begin, he first needed to transfer the foundational knowledge into Anna's mind, the surface layer of Dragon Speech, the raw material of it. How much she understood afterward would depend on her own talent and his explanations. He raised one dragon claw and gently pressed it to the scale on Anna's forehead. Their hearts seemed to connect in that instant.

They could sense each other's thoughts, faint but real, like warmth through a thin wall. Su Nian found Anna's heart utterly clear. And full. Completely full, packed with memories of him. Only him. In that moment, he understood what he hadn't thought to notice until now. Without realizing it, he had become Anna's entire world. I'll always be with you, Anna. The thought moved through him. A faint golden-red light rose quietly in his eyes.

Orthodox Dragon Speech began to flow, moving in forms too deep and strange for ordinary language, pouring from his mind into hers. Anna's eyes, half-lidded a moment before, flew open. Golden-red vertical pupils, identical to Su Nian's, blazed with sudden, brilliant light. A presence radiated outward from the two of them, expanding in every direction from where they stood. Outside the lair, monsters felt a chill crawl up their spines. Their heads turned, one by one, toward the dragon's den.

That was draconic majesty. A second draconic majesty, separate from their master's. Both unfamiliar and achingly familiar, all at once. ➤ Next: Learning Dragon Speech