Chương 210: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 210 - Killing Two Birds with One Stone

While Medraco was working through his calculations, Su Nian was studying him with something close to appreciation. It's been a while. Ages since he'd run into a player this genuinely tough. Akatsuki Akase had talked a big game too, but that had been bluster, all bark, no spine underneath it. You could feel the deficit. Medraco was different. His hardness came from somewhere real. Absolute confidence. Bone-deep contempt for every monster that walked this earth.

"I was going to give you a chance to cooperate with me," Su Nian said, sneering.

"But I'm afraid that's been canceled. You don't have even a shred of reverence for us monsters, and that's a problem." His dragon claws kneaded the obsidian floor idly. The grinding screech of metal on stone grated at Medraco's nerves. He didn't care about the Black Dragon's words. As a human, if he showed respect to beasts like these, what would that make him? Worse than the pigs and dogs he'd rank them as.

So he kept his head down and said nothing, watching the dragon from beneath his brows with a cold, shuttered gaze. Prolonged time in a dark dungeon gradually sharpened pain sensitivity, Su Nian knew that. But he wasn't in the mood to wait. He called over Bolikri, who had been standing to the side awaiting orders.

"This prisoner is a man of remarkable backbone," Su Nian said.

"For a man like that, we must show special respect."

"Master, please, go on." Bolikri's dog face lit up with barely contained excitement. He already had a vivid picture of where this was going.

"Cut out his kidneys." Su Nian paused.

"Oh — didn't a large portion of those humans planting potatoes develop a mutation in their sexual preferences?"

"After the surgery, heal him. Once he's stable, tie his hands and feet, and lock him in a room with those humans whose orientation has shifted." As he spoke, Su Nian reached into the scales on his chest and withdrew a small bottle of pale blue liquid. A special-effect healing potion. Anna had just pulled it from the Silver Treasure Chest. Bit of a waste, giving it to Medraco.

But Anna's healing ability outstripped this potion anyway, so it might as well go to this stubborn, dead-duck-mouthed, annoyingly handsome player. Consider it a gift. As for why he wouldn't let Anna heal him personally. Was he worthy?

"Kill me! Just kill me!"

"You animals — God will punish you for this, I swear it!" Medraco's built-in translation system had caught every word. He screamed and raged and hurled curses at the walls. The Black Dragon didn't spare him a glance. He'd already turned his dragon rear and walked out of the cell. This world had no God. Old Jehovah had no jurisdiction here.... The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. In another dim cell, Kayal surfaced slowly from unconsciousness.

A foul smell clung around his nose and mouth. His stomach heaved in protest. But he hadn't eaten in a long time, there was nothing to bring up. He retched uselessly and gave it up. He looked around. Freya was curled in the corner of the dungeon, still unconscious. Her left cheek bore a clear, five-fingered print in the shape of a plum blossom, the flesh swollen and puffy. One look told him everything. A canine-type monster had done that. Clang. Clang. Clang. Heavy footsteps from outside the cell.

The floor trembled faintly with each one. A massive Black Dragon came into view. Kayal's pupils shrank. His hands and feet went cold. He couldn't quite stop himself from shaking. A dragon. An actual dragon. Rare. Powerful. A legendary creature, and not just any dragon, this was a Black Dragon, one of the evil and brutal Chromatic Five. He wasn't some fearless Player who'd grown up detached from this world's weight. He was a native. He'd grown up hearing stories.

The instinctive dread of dragons was written into his bones. The only thing keeping him upright was the knowledge of what he was, the Healing Hero. Without that to hold onto, he might already be on his knees.

"I hear you're a hero." Su Nian looked down at him. Heroes weren't anything extraordinary on this continent. There were others. But they were genuinely distinct from ordinary knights and mages, if you had to explain it in game terms, heroes were hidden class holders. Their abilities defied easy categorization. They awakened strange, singular powers that no one else could access. The continent's chosen, in a sense. Its unwilling custodians.

"I... I am the Healing Hero." Kayal kept his voice as steady as he could manage.

"Kayal." He lifted his head and met the dragon's gaze directly, fighting to keep his legs from shaking.

"Your ability is impressive," Su Nian said.

"So I'll give you a choice: serve me and become mine, or I crush you where you stand." Kayal went quiet. His eyes shifted. Nobody wanted to become a monster's subordinate. Not even for a Black Dragon, powerful as this one was. That pride was human. After more than a thousand years of dominance, humans had always been the masters of this continent, when had it ever been the monsters' turn to ride over their heads? But refusing outright meant death. That much was obvious. Kayal's thoughts churned.

He didn't want to die. In the end, he decided to gamble. Dragons were said to have extreme resistance to magic. But what Kayal used wasn't magic, it was technique. Entirely different category. There was a chance his techniques would land where spells couldn't. If he could weaken the dragon even briefly, the cage wouldn't hold him. One use of [Degradation] could soften the metal bars enough to escape. That was all he needed. So then...

"Great Black Dragon." Kayal dropped to one knee, letting his hair fall forward to hide the look in his eyes.

"I am willing to become your subordinate. I swear to follow you unto death, and fight for you." He waited. Waited for the moment to close the gap.

"Good." Su Nian's grin turned sharp.

"Come to me." He moved closer to the cell bars. This Healing Hero hasn't submitted. Not even a little. Even a fraction of genuine submission would have registered with the Swarm Will, it would have generated a golden neural link. Nothing had appeared. So Kayal was playing him, and something was coming. Didn't matter. Absolute strength rendered all tricks the same: theater performed by fools. Kayal crossed to the bars. One metal door between him and the ferocious Black Dragon.

Close enough that he could reach through and touch him. He didn't move yet.

"I'll form a contract with you using dragon blood," Su Nian said.

"Open your mind. Accept the dragon blood's transformation." He extended a dragon claw through the bars. The tip gleamed. A single drop of deep red dragon blood had condensed there, threaded with faint specks of fluorescent light. This was a test, and Su Nian knew it. He certainly wasn't offering his heart's blood. The moment is here. The thought flashed through Kayal's mind like a signal flare. He schooled his face into something reverent. Then his hands shot out and locked around the dragon claw.

"Plunder!"

"Degradation!" The techniques detonated simultaneously. A storm erupted in the space between them. [You have been targeted by the technique talent Plunder. Willpower check in progress... Check successful. Technique invalidated.] [Technique backlash. Devour Technique activated. You have stripped the opponent's technique and obtained: "Plunder."] [You have been targeted by the technique Localized Degradation. Resistance check in progress... Check successful. Technique invalidated.] [Technique backlash. Devour Technique activated. You have stripped the opponent's technique and obtained: "Degradation."] The system notifications chimed through his head one after another. Su Nian's entire dragon brain came to a complete halt. He'd known Kayal's techniques would fail. That was a given. But the thought of taking them — of walking away with Kayal's own abilities, had never crossed his mind. Devour Technique could do that? He didn't even know where to start. Some prerequisites were probably involved. Fine. Whatever.

Details later. Devour Technique was absolutely insane. ➤ Next: Optimizing the Cannon