Chapter 406 Locust
Vesuvius thought about improving his divine powers, but he lacked any kind of material with the divine attributes, ‘There is nothing I can do about it now. However, there might be something in that northern sea mentioned by the god of death.’
Even with all of it, one thing still bothered him: ‘ My armor and scales now require lots of fuel to supply all the barriers and active defenses. Maybe one last upgrade of my mana netwo…’
Suddenly the dragon’s soul lit up as he got a perfect idea. Now that he thought it was even so obvious, he felt like an idiot for not coming up with it sooner.
‘I can improve my divine powers! I already have a base for it with the two specialized horns and my divine veins. There should be no need for some extra fancy materials if I just slightly improve what I already have.’ππxt.πΈπ
Reacting to his soul, the golden glowing webbing growing through his tissue branched while the pair of his divine horns grew longer and wider. They kept growing and growing before dwarfing the other horns with their golden brilliance.
Ding!
//
You have used 2500 META points and 15 X magic-sensitive material to improve your divine horns and veins.
Draconic Divine Lord’s Horns (LV 1) –> Draconic Divine Lord’s Horns (LV 6)
Divine Lord’s Foundation (LV 1) –> Divine Lord’s Foundation (LV 4)
//
‘So it was only enough to raise your level… well that is better than nothing, I guess.’
Finally, the dragon returned back to his original plan, and the blue, glowing veins carrying mana and the red glowing veins with his blood branched and sprouted towards his armour and scales from the inner side and latched onto it like micelles of shrooms.
If it was before just like a thin carpet, now it turned into a lush lawn with all the tiny and thin veins connecting to it from everywhere.
Ding!
//
You have used 1000 META points and 5 X magic-sensitive material on more vein connections to the scales.
//
‘Now that I think about all these things that can cause lots of bleeding, I should fix it right in the crib.’
He tentatively looked at the old body of the cyborg, long drained of its blood, and the dozen of the small blue energy cores.
‘If I throw enough points on it I can maybe do something. System, grab all these energy cores, the technology parts from the body, and use them to empower my nanites. Use as many points as possible to extract the best possible result.’
Instantly the dead body melted into bubbling red goo with pieces of metal. At the same time, all the cores shattered into dust clouds of glass-like shards that glinted under the fire burning around the dragon.
Like a wave, they shot toward the dragon and passed through his armor and scales, absorbed into his blood.
Even now, Vesuvius saw all the tiny fragments of the cores embedding into the microscopic bots and the parts extracted from the dead cyborg. Like a domino, the change spread as the new, improved nanites duplicated and replaced the old ones.
Ding!
//
You have used one dead knight of Hyperion, 21 mana reactor cores, and 5000 META points to upgrade your nanites.
Officer-Grade Magitech Nanites (LV 6) –> General-Grade Magitech Nanites (LV 6)
(New): Massively increased speed of regeneration without any additional cost of mana. Nanites can now generate their own energy to be extracted for faster mana regeneration. The top limit of mana that can be used to fuel them up was also increased.
(New): Nanites can swarm outside the body to repair equipment or armor.
//
‘This is good, but I can still see how it can be improved even further.’ Vesuvius opened his status, and his eyes fell upon one skill he never used.
‘Fiery Devouring… I got you from that demon slime, but you were almost useless.’ He couldn’t even imagine himself just stopping mid-battle to eat and devour lava or fire, as his mouth was already reserved for his breath attacks which were his main weapon.
‘System, use the sacrificial token on this skill and use the extracted devouring aspect to fuse it with my nanites. As before, please spend as many points as necessary, no need to cheap out.’
A pain stabbed through his soul like a searing hot dagger stabbed into his eye. However, he didn’t even flinch, already used to pain from all his battles.
Ding!
//
You have used 1 X Sacrificial token to extract the devouring aspect from the skill: Fiery Devouring (LV 5)
Ability removed: Fiery Devouring (LV 5)
You have gained 1 X Orb of Devouring
You have used 1 X Orb of Devouring and 5000 META points to upgrade your nanites with the aspect of devouring.
General-Grade Magitech Nanites (LV 6) –> Locust-class Magitech Nanites (LV 6):
Description: The deadly version of the highest-class nanites used by Hyperion generals improved with the mystical demonic power of gluttony. They preserved all their old properties while gaining the power to devour materials and energy.
The devoured materials and energy can be delivered back to the host to speed up tissue and armor reconstitution while also recovering mana.
They can.’t exist outside the user’s domain, as they would lose the connection back to the host.
//
‘Carry it back? That seems impractical…, system, use more meta points and my connection with my divine kingdom to make it wireless.’ He could send stuff to his divine kingdom, so he could easily imagine it being used for transportation.
Ding!
//
You have used 2500 META points to establish a wireless connection to your divine kingdom for the nanites.
Ability Locust-class Magitech Nanites(LV 6) was augmented:
(New): Devoured materials and energy can be transferred through the connection of the divine kingdom back to the nanites still present in the host.
//
‘Heh, this was definitely worth it.’ Vesuvius could already imagine the miniature and voracious machines devouring his enemies to repair his own body.
With this, Vesuvius felt like he was done, ‘I can still use that curse core from the giant bird to probably offset my weakened curse power… but that is nothing more than trivial work.’
(AN: Thank you for your reminders for potential upgrades in the comments.)