Novel Full Chapter 739: Dragon Evolution
Chapter 739: Dragon Evolution
Noah opened his eyes at six and stared at the ceiling for approximately four seconds before the void store appeared at the edge of his vision unbidden, the system doing what it did, sitting there patient and available the way it always sat.
He hadn’t gone through it properly since the desert. Since the night he sat on the mech shoulder watching his people train in the red sand and scrolled through the whole thing and bought the forge stone and it came out of the sky.
He had coins. More than before, the Kruel quest rewards sitting in his balance alongside everything accumulated across the operation.
[Void Coins: 214,340]
’Two hundred and fourteen thousand,’ he thought. ’Okay.’
He sat up and opened the store properly.
Storm was on the floor.
Somehow. The door was closed, Noah had checked it last night specifically because of the bathroom incident, and yet Storm was on the floor beside the bed taking up the floor the way Storm took up floors, completely and without apology. His scales were running their ambient lightning and the floor beneath him had a scorch mark that hadn’t been there yesterday and a frost pattern beside it that also hadn’t been there yesterday.
Noah looked at the scorch mark. At the frost. At Storm.
Storm opened one eye.
"How," Noah said.
Storm closed the eye.
Noah looked at the door. Looked at Storm. Looked at the ceiling.
’Fine,’ he thought, and went back to the store.
---
[CATEGORY: CONSUMABLES]
He scrolled through them with the detached interest of someone browsing things they weren’t going to buy but wanted to understand. The Void Surge Vial, forty percent output boost for thirty minutes, two thousand four hundred coins. The Hollow Mend Tablet, triple regeneration rate for fifteen minutes. The Ember Root Extract, sixty five percent heat resistance.
Then the one he had flagged before.
[Void Suppressant — Medical Grade]
[Effect: Suppresses onset of Void Entropy Syndrome. Maintains biological function for up to 20 minutes at critical threshold. Single use.]
[Cost: 5,500 Void Coins]
He looked at it.
’I was at ten HP on that planet,’ he thought. ’Ten. And void energy running out simultaneously. The system flagged Void Entropy Syndrome as active.’ He looked at the description. ’Having this wouldn’t have changed much at that point. The E.N.D armor was gone, the Warden’s Wake had already discharged, I was on the ground with my ribs outside my body.’ He paused. ’But twenty minutes of maintained function at that threshold means twenty minutes where I could still move. Still make decisions. Still do something.’
He bought it without deliberating further and moved on.
[Void Suppressant — Medical Grade: Acquired]
[Remaining Balance: 208,840 Void Coins]
---
[CATEGORY: SKILL UPGRADES]
He spent time here. More than the consumables because the skill upgrades had actual implications for how he fought and he liked thinking about that, the way certain people liked thinking about strategy and build optimization, the puzzle of it.
[Reaper’s Harvest — Level 2 Upgrade]
[Effect: Maximum active constructs increased from 5 to 8. Construct durability +40%]
[Cost: 44,000 Void Coins]
’Eight constructs,’ he thought. ’Three more than I have now. Three more things that don’t get tired, don’t need orders after the initial command, don’t feel anything when a four horn is standing in front of them.’ He looked at the cost. ’Forty four thousand is significant but the Reaper’s Harvest is genuinely one of my most useful abilities in extended engagements. More constructs means more coverage means I can be in five places and also have eight other things happening simultaneously.’
He flagged it.
[Void Blink — Level 14 Upgrade]
[Effect: Blink range +35%]
[Cost: 28,000 Void Coins]
’Longer range,’ he thought. ’My blink is already good. Level thirteen gets me where I need to be fast enough that most things can’t track it.’ He looked at the thirty five percent range increase. ’But thirty five percent more range means anchor points I currently can’t reach become reachable. That’s not nothing on an unknown planet where I don’t have drone coverage and Diana isn’t there to establish a ground position for me.’
He flagged it too and kept scrolling.
Storm moved on the floor below him. Not getting up, just shifting, the lightning across his scales brightening briefly before settling. The frost pattern on the floor crept another two centimeters toward the wall.
’Stop that,’ Noah said, without looking up.
Storm’s tail swept once.
---
[CATEGORY: PASSIVE ENHANCEMENTS]
[Abyssal Lungs]
[Effect: Void energy cost of all abilities reduced by 8%]
[Cost: 88,000 Void Coins]
He stopped on this one the way he had stopped on it before the Kruel mission. Eight percent of his current pool was nearly thirty two thousand void energy saved per combat cycle. Effectively a permanent buffer sitting on top of everything he already had.
’I’d never run dry,’ he thought. ’Not practically. Against anything I’ve faced. The cost of every ability just permanently lower, every fight starting with more runway than the last one.’ He looked at the price. ’Eighty eight thousand is expensive. That’s a big chunk of what I have.’ He looked at his current balance. ’But if this mission goes where I think it’s going, facing something that makes Nyx and Ares restless from inside the domain, having thirty two thousand extra void energy sitting in reserve is not a luxury. That’s the difference between running out at the wrong moment and not running out.’
He sat with it.
Then he kept scrolling because he had told himself he was going through the whole store properly and he was going to do that.
Storm made a sound. Not a roar, not a growl, just the low resonant hum he made when he was comfortable, and Noah looked down at him, the black scales and the closed eyes and the lightning running its slow patterns, and felt something that didn’t need a name.
"He’s genuinely just a big baby," Noah thought with affection. He didn’t have a favourite but storm to him was like a family’s second child or the last born. There was something just different about them.
’You heard it two years ago,’ Noah thought, looking at him. ’Whatever is on that planet called and you heard it from inside the domain and I didn’t follow up on it because there was always something else.’ He looked back at the store. ’Not this time.’
---
[CATEGORY: COMPANION — DRAGON]
He slowed down here.
The Dragon Saddle, the Scale Polish, the standard companion items sitting in their usual positions. He scrolled past them.
Then the one that stopped him.
[Dragon Growth Stone — Verdant Grade]
[Classification: Companion Enhancement]
[Effect: Accelerates evolutionary stage progression in system bonded dragons currently in developmental phase.]
[Eligible Recipients: Nyx, Storm]
[WARNING: Evolution outcome not guaranteed.]
[Successful progression probability: 61%]
[Regression to previous stage probability: 14%]
[Extended dormancy period probability: 25%]
[Note: Item is consumed permanently on use regardless of outcome. No refunds issued.]
[Cost: 120,000 Void Coins]
Noah looked at it for a long time.
’There you are,’ he thought.
He had told himself after. "If we come back from that planet in one piece, first thing I do is stand in front of this store and buy that stone," They had come back. He was standing in front of the store. The stone was right there.
He pulled up Nyx’s profile.
[Name: Nyx]
[Species: Red Death Dragon]
[Evolutionary Stage: Mid Adolescent Developmental Phase]
[Maturity Level: 77%]
[Abilities: Partially Activated]
[Additional Abilities: LOCKED]
Dimensional Breach
Primordial Fusion
Quantum Immolation
Void Resonance
He looked at the locked abilities.
’Void Resonance,’ he thought. ’What does a Red Death Dragon do with void resonance. What does that even look like. Dragon fire and void energy combining into something that doesn’t have a name yet, something the system locked behind a stage he hasn’t reached.’ He looked at Quantum Immolation. ’And that one. Quantum level fire. Whatever that means I want to find out.’
He closed Nyx’s profile and pulled up Storm’s.
[Name: Storm]
[Species: Hollow Blizzard Monarch]
[Evolutionary Stage: Prime Maturity Phase]
[Maturity Level: 67%]
[Additional Abilities: PARTIALLY UNLOCKED]
Storm Minion Summoning
Atmospheric Manipulation
Thermal Negation
Electrical Surge
’Storm is already Prime Maturity,’ he thought. ’Nyx is still Mid Adolescent. The growth stone works on developmental phase dragons. Does Prime Maturity count as developmental?’ He read the eligibility again. ’Eligible recipients: Nyx, Storm. So the system considers both of them eligible.’ He looked at Storm on the floor. ’Which means Storm could jump from Prime Maturity to whatever comes after Prime Maturity.’
He got off the bed and started pacing.
Storm opened both eyes and watched him pace.
’Okay,’ he thought. ’So the question is which one. Nyx or Storm. And the answer depends on what I’m optimizing for.’ He paced to the window and back. ’Nyx is my oldest. My first. We’ve been bonded since I found that egg on earth when I was eighteen or nineteen I think? Whatever Nyx becomes when he’s fully grown, I’ve always assumed it would be enormous. The Red Death Dragon we fought on that mountain, the one Egor’s men called an adolescent, Ares was already massive. And I have both Nyx and Ares and can safely say Nyx right now is bigger than him. A fully evolved Nyx is something I can’t picture yet and that’s exactly why I want to see it.’
He stopped pacing.
’But Storm,’ he thought. ’Storm went through two planets. Atmospheric Manipulation partially unlocked. Whatever full Storm looks like with Atmospheric Manipulation active and Electrical Surge running and Storm Minion Summoning bringing in smaller Hollow Blizzards.’ He looked at Storm on the floor. ’Storm with a miniature army of himself.’
Storm yawned. A slow wide yawn that showed a lot of teeth and released a small crackle of electricity that scorched the floor directly in front of him.
’Stop doing that,’ Noah said, out loud this time.
Storm looked at the scorch mark. Then at Noah.
’You did that on purpose,’ Noah thought.
Storm put his head back down.
Noah stood in the middle of the room looking at the Growth Stone description still open in his system and the two dragon profiles sitting beside it and the cost sitting at the bottom.
One hundred and twenty thousand coins. He had two hundred and eight thousand. He could buy it right now. Open the domain, stand in front of whichever dragon he chose, use it, and find out in real time whether it was sixty one percent or fourteen percent or twenty five percent.
He looked at the twenty five percent one more time.
’Dormancy,’ he thought. ’Not regression, not failure, dormancy. Nyx going to sleep before this mission. Before whatever is on that planet at the edge of the solar system.’ He closed the profile. ’And I don’t know the mission timeline yet. Brooks hasn’t told me when they’re going. Could be a week. Could be a month. Could be two days.’ He looked at the store. ’I am not going into an encounter with an alpha dragon without Nyx. I am not doing that. Whatever that thing is out there, it called loudly enough to reach the domain across dimensional space and make a Red Death Dragon restless. I need Nyx awake and functional and at full capacity when we get there.’
It was almost certain now that he was going to use it on Nyx, no doubt.
He closed the store.
’After the mission,’ he thought. ’Same answer as last time. After the mission.’
He looked at Storm.
Storm looked back.
’You knew I was going to say that didn’t you,’ Noah thought. ’You’ve been watching me go in circles for twenty minutes and you knew the whole time I was going to land on after the mission.’
Storm’s tail swept once.
’Smug,’ Noah thought. ’You’re genuinely smug.’
He grabbed his jacket off the chair and pulled it on and looked at Storm.
"Stay," he said.
Storm stood up immediately and walked to the door.
"Storm."
Storm looked at the door.
Noah opened it and Storm walked out into the corridor ahead of him and Noah followed because this was just how things were now apparently. He was a badly trained puppy.
---
He found Brooks in the observation corridor twenty minutes later. She was standing at the viewport with a coffee looking at Earth the way people looked at it when they had been up here long enough that the view had stopped being remarkable and started being familiar, which was its own kind of remarkable.
She looked at him when he came up beside her. At the jacket. At Storm padding down the corridor behind him.
"He got out again," she said.
"He was already in when I woke up," Noah said.
She looked at Storm. Storm looked at her with the open curiosity he gave people he had decided were acceptable.
Noah stood beside her at the viewport and looked at Earth for a moment and thought about how to say what he wanted to say without it sounding like what it sounded like in his head which was a twenty one year old asking his former teacher if she wanted to do yoga again.
"The session this morning," he said. "The yoga."
She looked at him.
"Did you want to," he said. "Again. Today."
She held her coffee with both hands and looked at him with the expression she got when she was reading something and had arrived at a conclusion she wasn’t going to say out loud.
"Sure," she said, and almost smiled. "Same room. Twenty minutes."
She walked away down the corridor.
Noah stood at the viewport and looked at Earth and said nothing.
Thirty meters down the corridor, around the corner, partially obscured by the glass partition that separated the observation deck from the eastern access passage, four figures stood very still.
Rael had his arms crossed.
Mara was looking between him and the retreating figure of Brooks and back again.
Pix had his head tilted at an angle.
"What," Rael said, quietly, "is he doing with Commander Brooks."
"They’re smiling," Mara said.
"I can see that."
"Like a lot."
"I can see that too Mara."
Pix tilted his head further. "He asked her something and she said yes and now she’s walking away smiling."
"Why is she smiling," Rael said.
Nobody answered.
Storm walked past the glass partition and looked directly at the four of them through it without slowing down and they all went very still and Storm kept walking and caught up to Noah at the viewport and kept giving them a scowling look.
"Did the dragon just look at us with a mean mugging face?" Pix said.
"Yes," Mara said.
They stood there for another moment watching Noah stand at the viewport with Storm beside him.
"I don’t like this," Rael said.