Thousand-Faced Dragon

Chapter 385 Universal Element
With his vision obscured, the mountain-sized dragon corpse lay before him. The exhausted black knight gasped for breath and finally slumped down, powerless.

When he finally stopped, countless fatigue and pains overwhelmed him, and the frenzied state intensified by the battle began to fade. Only then did Rean realize that his body and mind had long since exceeded their limits.

What should be done? The wounds and exhaustion on his body would normally be fatal.

If this were a story from a drama, his current script would be that after defeating a powerful enemy, he would laugh loudly three times, leave behind his farewell words, and then die standing up. Although that would be quite heroic, it's estimated that he wouldn't have any scenes in later episodes and would only occasionally make cameo appearances in various flashback sequences.

"call."

But as he instinctively gasped for breath, his physical strength, mental power, and magical power showed signs of recovery.

He stretched out his arms, his hands still covered in blood, but the wounds and strained muscles on his hands were healing. He closed his eyes and perceived the changes.

With each breath, the heart transforms something into magic, which in turn summons elements that replenish and compensate for the body's deficiencies, replacing shattered parts.

With a deep breath, the dragon heart infused dragon blood into every part of its body. The magical dragon blood activated the vitality of its organs and components, accelerating their self-renewal, and its strength and wounds healed on their own.

This is abnormal, this is extremely abnormal. Once it has been depleted to a certain extent, it should be beyond repair. The spirit has reached its limit and should be unable to recover.

"call."

When the physical body and magic begin to overflow, they in turn feed back to the soul, and even the spiritual power begins to recover.

"Elements are omnipotent."

At this moment, Rean finally understood the power of the dragons' authority, the "Command Element".

Paying with magic is merely a reward, but it can also be "recorded," "defaulted on," or "repaid a hundred years later." True dragons, possessing powerful bodies and the ability to command elements, have inexhaustible souls. As long as their souls can still stably produce magic, and that magic can still summon elements, they are truly "omnipotent."

That enormous dragon body might itself be a crystallization of elements.

In this respect, the gem dragons in front of us are more direct than other dragon species; parts of their bodies have been directly elementalized.

Rean touched the "sapphire crystal" filled with the power of "earth", "gold" and "sound", and felt its almost limitless potential.

"Perhaps I am more suited to the era of high magic (high elemental tides) than anyone else."

The corpse dragon before them, with its unseeing golden eyes, seemed to be clearly showing the difference between the two dragons. This heavily injured sapphire dragon had also greatly improved in this environment, but it did not expect that the dragon's offspring would improve even more.

Its tactical choice was not wrong; it couldn't have imagined that outsiders would include a freak like Rean.
"Phew, perhaps the battle itself is my greatest gain."

The first time I encountered a high-elemental tidal environment, where magic power didn't increase but one unit of magic power could be exchanged for ten units of elements, it was an absurd environment, a completely different combat logic.

As long as the soul is still burning and the brain is still functioning, one can summon "omnipotent" magic to solve almost any problem. Perhaps in future battles and evolutionary paths, one must consider such possibilities and tactical reserves.

"One to ten? You underestimate dragons. With a top-tier dragon vein, you can add another zero to that."

In high-elemental tidal environments, all life forms will be much more efficient at exchanging magic for elements. However, at that time, the characteristics of ancient species will be fully activated, and the strong will become even stronger.
"So, does that mean the beastmen have absolutely no chance?"

"No, if they really didn't, they would have lost their era long ago, just like the elves and dwarves. The bloodline of beastmen can evolve, and the bloodline strength of top-tier beastman warriors is no less than that of true dragons."

Thanks to the guidance of the god of drama, he noticed that the satisfaction and synchronization rate had increased by at least 10% without his knowledge. This drama of the weak challenging the dragon might have really pleased Him.

"Weakling? This sapphire dragon is the weakling in front of you."

Rean was about to retort, but looking at the dragon with its eyes wide open in death, he ultimately didn't say anything.

In the void, countless fragments of souls are being absorbed by Rean, and as he breathes deeply, something fundamental is subtly changing.

He was somewhat dazed, and he gradually realized the true nature of the Thousand-Faced Dragon. The reincarnated heroic souls were the growth of its spirit, experience, knowledge, etc., while the true dragons themselves were the "material basis" required for its growth.

Though called a dragon, it is essentially a dragon hunter. "That's normal. Dragons are basically all dragons. If someone considers giants or dragonborn as their mortal enemies, the other dragons will laugh at them."

The Lord of Drama has once again revealed secrets beyond His rightful knowledge.

[Dragon Soul Absorption is overloaded; please upgrade your physical body and bloodline as soon as possible.]

The spirit and body need to be united. Now that Rean's bloodline has reached its limit, it seems that the extra dragon soul will be wasted.

Fortunately, from the very beginning, he came here for the purpose of obtaining materials for evolution.

"Uh, these materials are a bit difficult to bring back."

Bringing the materials back and using them for potions and surgeries to adjust the evolution process is the normal procedure. If you're lucky, one set of materials will be enough.

But sometimes you need to use multiples, which makes poorly skilled Evolutionists even more annoying.

The key issue isn't the consumption of materials, but rather that materials like Dragon Heart, Dragon Eye, and Dragon Crystal are limited to a single quantity. If you fail, you can only find a lower-grade replacement, which will significantly reduce the effectiveness.

"Is there an evolutionary blueprint?"

While Rean was still considering how to bring the materials back and whether he could hold out until then, Emma, ​​who had been observing and waiting for the right moment, spoke up.

In a sense, the fate of this sapphire dragon was determined the moment the Lord of Drama arranged its destiny. If Rean couldn't defeat it, someone else would still hunt it down. Of course, the effects of that evolution would be vastly different.

"Yes, it was designed by a remarkable hero."

"show me."

Rean took out the blueprints from his spatial bag, and Emma flipped them over to take a look.

"Alchemy? A multi-headed dragon, what a brilliant design. Although it's a bit different from my totem type, it should be fine."

There is never just one path to evolution. Alchemy is currently the mainstream, originating from the research of spellcasters. However, when it comes to the evolution of souls and living materials, the totem binding evolution system from the shaman and sorcerer system is clearly more effective.

As she spoke, she turned to look at Rean.

"I can help you with that, if you trust me."

Upon hearing this, Rean was overjoyed. Fresh materials were definitely much better than those that had lost their vitality. At most, the soul fragments of the Seven-Day Dragon material would disappear completely, and now was the most "nutritious" time.

"That's great! Are there any conditions?"

Trust her? Of course I trust her. Although killing myself during surgery would only be a matter of one cut, killing myself now would also be a matter of one cut.

"This is a place where souls gather, a place where they die, and the most suitable environment. I'm about 70% sure, but if an alchemist helps with the basic materials, it's more than 90%."

Rean immediately looked at Hela, who nodded.

"I'm going to find Victoria; she shouldn't have gone far."

Rean looked at Emma and spoke.

"Then I entrust my life to you."

[Evolution in progress, Dragon's Sleep activated]

[Third thought line detected; Branch Soul Assistance Plan System activated]

(End of this chapter)