Chương 7: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 7 - Modification: Basic Insight Technique

Anna's skirt and the corners of her mouth were still dotted with flecks of blood. Combined with how haggard she looked, the sight made his chest ache. Back on Earth, a girl this beautiful would've been coddled by her parents every single day. Instead, here she was. In a damp, dark cave with a vicious dragon. Barely breathing.

"Alas—" Su Nian sighed from somewhere deep in his chest, and what came out of his mouth was a low, rumbling growl. He didn't check his skills first. He looked at Anna instead, pulling up her information panel, and froze when he saw the remaining lifespan section. One day.

"What? Did I black out for over a day?" He was completely baffled. He glanced at the herbs scattered on the cave floor. They still looked fresh. Outside, it was still a rainy night. Nothing about this felt like a whole day had passed. So what happened? Why had Anna suddenly gotten this bad? He had no answer. What he did have was his cheat to fall back on. Su Nian pulled up his system interface and found two new additions waiting for him: the skill Basic Devour, and two thousand system points.

Basic Devour was useless right now. The two thousand system points were what mattered. He couldn't treat Anna on his own, he didn't even know what was wrong with her. But maybe the System Store had something. He opened the System Store with that slim hope. It didn't help. The store barely had anything inside, and what was there was baffling: daily necessities for human women, milk candies, various desserts.

The most expensive item was an elaborately gorgeous Lolita Dress, ten times more extravagant than the princess dress Anna was wearing, priced at a full ten thousand system points. He'd have to be out of his mind. There were three medicinal herbs, at least, but none of them were useful here. The Baikal Skullcap from earlier, restored to its original price of one hundred system points. Two others: Golden Wound Herb and Trauma Ointment. Su Nian frowned. What is this place?

Was this System Store actually set up for him? Or was it designed for the unconscious elf girl on the ground? He closed it and opened the Evolution Modification menu instead, his expression grim. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Now this looked more like it. Evolution Modification was split into two sections: external and internal.

External covered modifications to his entire body, scales included, Hardened Claws, Iron Scales, and similar options filled the first row. Prices were reasonable, and he could even reshape his overall appearance for anywhere between a hundred and ten thousand system points. Internal was a different story. The options went on and on, every organ, every muscle, every blood vessel, from his five senses all the way down to his digestive system. Every part of him that could be modified, was listed here.

The crown jewel: upgrade the energy intensity of his heart to stellar level. Ten billion system points. Su Nian swallowed and moved on quickly. He combed through the options looking for anything that could help Anna. The problem was that he had no idea what was actually wrong with her. He needed an ability that could give him that information. He didn't expect to find one. After all, why would dragon evolution modifications have anything to do with medicine?

He was a fantasy black dragon, not some urban dragon king with a clinic. And sure enough, after searching for a long time, he came up empty. He was about to give up and think of something else when one entry caught his eye. [Eye Modification: Solidify Basic Insight] [Modification cost: 1, 000 system points. Upgrading to Intermediate Insight costs 5, 000 system points.] [Basic Insight: Grants a rough understanding of certain objects and conditions.] This could work.

Whether it was enough to tell him what was wrong with Anna was another question entirely. Su Nian thought it over for a moment, then made up his mind.

"System. I want to exchange for the eye modification [Basic Insight]." [Ding! Exchange successful. 1, 000 system points deducted. Modification begins immediately. Note: Some discomfort may occur during the process. Host, please do not dig out your own eyeballs.] Su Nian: "... (?????)?????" He didn't even have time to react before his eyes erupted in agony. And in that moment, he finally understood why the System had felt the need to warn him. Because he desperately wanted to gouge his own eyes out right now.

It felt like someone was driving needles directly into his eyeballs, a horrible combination of soreness, pain, and an infuriating thread of itchiness underneath it all. The sensation came and went fast. If it had lasted much longer, he wasn't sure he could've held himself back. He shook the dragon tears off his face and looked down at the ground. A line of text surfaced in his mind: [Ordinary sandstone floor. Stained with dragon dung.]"... Was this stupid dragon really that filthy?"

Su Nian recoiled and shuffled away from that patch of ground. He turned his gaze on himself. [One dumb, dim-witted black dragon.] His mouth twitched. Maybe he should gouge his eyes out after all. This garbage skill wasn't worth the headache. Then again, he caught himself, the Insight was probably just reflecting his own thoughts back at him, since he'd been thinking of himself as a stupid dragon. That would explain the output. Thinking that, he turned his gaze toward Anna, lying unconscious on the cave floor.

[Sub-elf. Top-tier talent. Weakness. Night sweats. Chills. Festering sore on thigh. Anemia. Cough. Stomach cramps. Heart failure. Lung inflammation. Sprained ankle. Minor abrasions...] Su Nian stared at the long, wretched list. It was a miracle she was still alive. Basic Insight hadn't identified what disease she had, and it offered no solutions. It could only give him a rough readout of the symptoms. But that was enough. He looked at the Baikal Skullcap lying on the ground.

[Baikal Skullcap: Clears heat and detoxifies.] Good. The Insight could read the properties of medicinal herbs too. One day. That was enough time to comb through the jungle and find what he needed, treat the symptoms one by one, and buy Anna some time. It wasn't a clean solution — it was improvised and blunt — but these were desperate circumstances, and desperate circumstances called for desperate measures. His mind was already made up.

Su Nian pulled the bear skin up over Anna, tucking it in around her, then turned and charged back out into the rainy night. He was a little hungry. Other than that, he felt fine.

Intermission: a peek at a certain little troublemaker named Anna.

➤ Next: Dragon's Nest Defense Battle