Chương 212: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 212 - System, Exchange This, Hurry Up

Warriors and a Mage Apprentice? Su Nian paused. He suddenly remembered the Gale Bandit Group he'd crippled with a single breath. Those male human bandits had been swarming toward a Mage Apprentice with water-blue hair, intent on killing her. So he'd breathed acid on the whole situation and delivered some heavenly justice. Dragon breath doesn't discriminate, though. The mage girl got a dose of that heavenly justice right along with the rest of them. Perfectly understandable. He was a dragon. Not a saint.

Su Nian studied the Lightning Archmage in front of him, and then it clicked. That Mage Apprentice he'd incidentally dissolved did look remarkably like this woman. Kill the little one, and the big one shows up. What were the odds. Maybe he should just silence her right now. He rubbed his chin with one sharp claw, various unpleasant options cycling through his mind. In the end, though, he decided to try recruiting her instead. Anna still needed a maid, and this Archmage seemed educated and composed.

If she could be brought to heel, she'd be a decent pick.

"Human. I do recall the Mage Apprentice you're describing." Su Nian made a show of thinking it over, then gave a casual nod.

"Really?" Saliste's voice trembled. She looked up at him, expression tight with urgency, fingers faintly clenched.

"Where did you see her? Please, if you can tell me anything, I'll give you everything I'm carrying." In the face of news about her sister, the ice-cold Archmage had cracked. Something warmer, something painfully human, showed through.

"When I found her, she was already dead. Killed by a bandit group in the Silvermoon Forest. A wretched end. Two weeks ago, roughly, I was patrolling my territory at the time and dealt with those bandits while I was at it."

"If you went back there now, you might still find traces. Do you want to go, human?" Su Nian told her the modified version of events without a shred of hesitation. Sparing her feelings wasn't something he'd considered for even a moment.

"You... is that true?" She'd braced herself for bad news. It hadn't helped. The starlight in her eyes flickered, and died. Her gaze dropped. Tears fell quietly onto the stone floor.

"I have no reason to deceive you, lowly human." Su Nian lifted his head and exhaled a slow column of thick smoke.

"And you have no standing to question a noble dragon." The sulfur in the air was suffocating. It pulled Saliste back from the edge of her grief, just enough. Maybe... Maybe what the Black Dragon had seen wasn't her sister. There were people who looked alike everywhere in this world. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. There was still a chance. She needed to see for herself. She crossed the cell in a few steps, grabbed the bars, and dropped to her knees.

She looked up, throat working.

"Please, please take me there. I have to see. Maybe it wasn't my sister at all. Maybe it was a mage from some other adventuring group." Su Nian stared at her without expression. Humans. Always so stubbornly, desperately deluded. And he seemed to be coming across as too agreeable lately. What did she think he was, some helpful old grandfather who handed out favors?

"Human." He leaned forward.

"When you demand a dragon's help, have you stopped to consider what it will cost you?" He stepped closer.

"Look carefully. I am a Black Dragon." Those crimson-gold slit pupils fixed on her face, carrying something cold and very final. The pressure hit her like a wave. Saliste's legs buckled. She crumpled, palms hitting the ground, face drained of color.

"Then offer something in exchange, human!"

"My patience is gone!"

"I am not one of those morons who wander around in their metal shells while their own kin are nearly hunted to extinction, still playing house with you humans like tame little pets!" His voice thundered through the dungeon, rattling the stone, filling every corner with his fury.

"I'm sorry..." Saliste's head stayed low. She wrapped her arms around herself, her voice small and hollow.

"Great Dragon Lord. I accept your terms. If you're willing to take me there — whether or not I find anything — I swear I will serve you." A pause.

"There's no one left anyway." She hugged her own shoulders, alone in the sound of her own words. She hadn't forgotten what she was. A prisoner. A captive in a dungeon that belonged to a Black Dragon, one of the five chromatic evil dragons. He could eat her where she knelt, and it would be entirely unremarkable.

"Good. But not now."

"I'll come for you later." He didn't spare her another glance. He turned, let Anna settle onto him, and left. Pushing one's luck was a deeply ingrained flaw of humans. Any human, really. Dragons had their own version of that flaw, of course. Su Nian just didn't care. He was strong enough that it didn't matter. With the prisoner inspection done, he made his way back to the Dark Sovereign Hall and counted up the haul.

Between the dungeon labyrinth's bonus and everything else, he'd cleared over forty thousand system points. Not enough for the second-stage heart enhancement. He wasn't in a rush. He browsed the system shop for a while. His eyes eventually settled on the princess dress. The skirt bloomed outward like a flower, the pure white fabric catching the light with a softness that reminded him of moonlight on still water.

The cut wasn't far off from a high-end modern wedding gown, though the train was shorter, less dramatic, and the materials were clearly finer, you didn't charge ten thousand system points for ordinary cloth. The dress had a name: [Manjusaka]. Anna had never had many decent clothes. She'd picked up a few things back in Saint Olister, but most of them weren't fit for anything formal. Whether it was a cultural aesthetic or something else entirely, women's clothing from Saint Olister tended toward the...

aggressively revealing. From the very first day he'd crossed over, Su Nian had thought this dress looked like it was made for Anna. He'd never had the points to spare. Back then he'd been scrambling to stay alive. Things were different now. Ten thousand system points was a few hundred player kills, nothing more.

"System. I want that dress. Get it done."

"And — do you have anything for men? Something decent-looking? Get me a set too." He was acting like someone primping before a first date. He supposed he was, in a way. He was about to take human form for the first time. Only for an hour, but he was more nervous about it than he'd been about his actual first date back on Earth. [Bzzt... apologies, Host... bzzt... this system carries no male clothing. If the Host would like women's clothing, however, we can accommodate a wide variety of,] Su Nian's expression went flat. He was certain now. This system had originally been meant for Anna. Somehow, through some catastrophic cosmic miscommunication, it had bonded to him instead. What should have been a princess's evil-dragon-companion system had become an evil dragon's princess-raising system. [Please remain calm, Host.] System-kun had barely finished recharging before it felt the killing intent roll off him in waves. [The Host already possesses iron armor. Upon transformation, a perfectly fitted suit will manifest automatically, no additional clothing required. And besides, ordinary menswear could never do justice to your authority. It wouldn't be worthy of you.] ➤ Next: An Incomplete Polymorph