Chương 127: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 127 - Harvesting Leeks

The people around him looked genuinely stunned. Su Nian found that a bit puzzling. He ran a quick system check on himself and figured out what was happening. He'd simply gained a visual effect. The dark golden aura blazing around him had no real offensive power, it was just externalized Dragon Aura, something vaguely reminiscent of Haki from One Piece. The resemblance ended there, though. The effect wasn't anywhere near that dramatic.

[The host's comprehensive abilities will be increased by 15% when releasing Dragon's Might.] That was the system's explanation for [Fierce Dragon's Might]: a long-duration enhancement buff. Other transmigrators might scoff at something like that. Su Nian wouldn't. Because this skill? It looked cool. As long as it was flashy enough, zero damage output was perfectly acceptable. The Black Beast Mercenary Group situation had reached its conclusion. Commander Gus's head was still hanging from the walls of Saint Orist.

This nation had once prided itself on peace, but brutal warfare and a Black Dragon's influence had steadily coaxed out its fangs. Nowhere was that more evident than in Celestine. Her entire worldview had shifted. The moment the Black Dragon left, she was reorganizing the army, tightening the training regimen, and building the country's military strength from the ground up.

"Not a bad plan," Su Nian told her.

"This world is about to get messy."

"I can't protect this nation forever. I'm a busy dragon."

"The fact that you're thinking about self-improvement on your own — that's worth something." He meant it. A subordinate who wanted to change on her own was worth cultivating. What he couldn't stand was the other kind: the ones who took a beating and stayed half-dead afterward, or worse, latched onto a powerful backer and immediately started coasting. That type, Su Nian would rather just incinerate with a breath attack and be done with it. Celestine was easy on the eyes, sure. But talent mattered more.

Fall behind, and someone will come for you. Stagnation was its own kind of death sentence. You didn't have to go looking for enemies, enemies would find you regardless. The only real answer was to get stronger and stay ready. That was also why Su Nian had left the Saint Augustus Royal Capital treasury untouched. It was a small country. The treasury wasn't impressive, some gold coins, gemstones, suits of armor. For him, it would be a single bite. Negligible improvement.

But for Celestine, that stockpile could meaningfully lower the cost of training an army and push its combat power higher. It was more useful where it was.

"System — how many points would it take to modify my heart into a form Anna can use?" Su Nian was back in the palace. One matter left. Anna's illness. [Modifying your heart to an energy level compatible with Anna requires system points.] The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. [After modification, the dragon heart's size will adapt to Anna's thoracic cavity. The dragon heart's energy level will increase in sync with Anna's growing strength.] [Modifying Anna's heart into a form compatible with you requires system points.]"Sixty thousand total..." Su Nian checked his remaining system points. Not that far off, but it still stung. He thought about how long he'd spent farming those Sakura Island players. The effort. The dragon breath. The sheer grinding tedium of it all. And now it was almost gone again. He still had a muscle-density modification queued up too, but that would have to wait. Where was he supposed to grind system points now?

He frowned, turning it over, and then remembered the Russian players who'd hit Fortress Three. Maybe he could go harvest a few leeks over there. His eyes lit up. He called for Celestine immediately. A dragon, a saintess, and one thoroughly confused elven girl spent a long time conspiring inside the palace. Far away at the Third Fortress, the Russian players had no idea a wicked dragon had already put them on his list.... The next day. Saint Orist, Third Fortress.

"Ura! Ura! Ura!" The chant rolled across the entire fortress like thunder, the kind of communal roar you'd expect at a military parade. But no king was reviewing troops today. The Third Fortress was packed. People three, four rings deep had formed a wall of bodies, and at the absolute center of that wall, a shirtless Russian player was fighting a Level 18 Mountain Ridge Giant Bear with his bare hands. The player was also Level 18.

Under any normal logic, a human at equivalent level should never be able to go toe-to-toe with a magical beast head-on, the raw physical gap was too wide. But this particular Russian player, a man named Petrov, didn't operate under normal logic.

"Come on, big guy!" he bellowed, hauling the bruised and battered bear back upright by sheer force.

"You call yourself a giant bear?! You're barely even trying!"

"Stand up and fight me!" CRACK! A headbutt straight to the skull. The Mountain Ridge Giant Bear had long since stopped understanding what was happening to it. Its head was spinning. Stars popped across its vision. Its nose and mouth had been punched out of alignment, and its dislocated jaw could only produce a thin, pitiful whine. It had spectacularly bad luck, this bear. It had been asleep in its cave, perfectly minding its own business, when a mob of enormous humans surrounded it without warning. No words.

No hesitation. They just pinned it down and beat it half to death. Then, instead of finishing the job, they dragged it back to their settlement like a sack of meat, tossed it in a cage, and let it recover overnight. When they opened the cage in the morning, the bear had been cautiously optimistic. It puffed up, ready to roar, ready to remind these creatures exactly what kind of monster it was. Then it saw the eyes. Over two thousand pairs of them. Mocking, bright, hungry with excitement.

The bear's roar died in its throat. It swallowed, surrounded on all sides. One particularly large human stepped forward and bowed politely before requesting a duel. That had been this morning. Now the sun was fully up. Petrov executed a shoulder throw, BANG, and the Mountain Ridge Giant Bear hit the ground and stayed there. Unconscious. Done. The crowd erupted. Petrov hitched up his suspenders and slapped his bare, blood-soaked chest three times with both palms, a warrior beating a war drum.

In that moment he looked exactly like an ancient hero returning from conquest.

"Peter! You just keep getting stronger!"

"Eh." Petrov smiled modestly.

"Not enough khorosho yet." The bear hadn't been much of a test, honestly. As the village chief of the first Russian newbie village, his level wasn't the highest, but his combat instincts were ahead of everyone else's by a wide margin. He wiped his hands and dropped into a chair, picking up a thick slab of black bread and pulling a crate of vodka, purchased with invasion points, closer with one foot. His other hand scrolled through the game forum.

"Two newbie villages on Sakura Island got wiped out by a dragon?"

"Yeah." Someone nearby shrugged.

"A bunch of trash who spent all their time dumping nuclear wastewater into the ocean. Good riddance."

"Maybe." Petrov's eyes moved slowly across the forum post, something kindling behind them.

"But that's not the part I care about." He set the bread down.

"I really want to fight something like that one day." His voice had gone quieter, almost wistful.

"Grinding ordinary magical beasts out here every day... it's getting dull." Silence. His friend beside him didn't answer. Petrov glanced over. His friend was staring at the sky. His lips were trembling. The expression on his heavily bearded face had gone from blank to something approaching religious terror, which, on a face that large and hairy, looked frankly absurd.

"God above—" His friend's voice came out barely above a whisper.

"I think your wish... is about to come true, Petrov." ➤ Next: I Want to Duel the Dragon