The Amber Sword volume 3 - Chapter 209 – Half-Dragon Scarle

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========== Brendel’s POV ==========
While the tension of Trentheim rose, Brendel and the others were descending into surprise.
Andesha was knocked unconscious with considerable ease by Brendel and Scarlett. The Mistress of Withering Decay who was older than them could not get even a little advantage under their combined prowess.
[But what’s going on?]
The red-haired girl walked over, her face as red like a cute apple, but she dared not to take in a single breath.
Brendel stared at the girl who occasionally showed her sharp canines with a little unruliness on the side, and he blurted:
“Scarlet, are you alright?”
The girl shook her head quickly to show that she was fine: “I’m not too sure, my lord. I feel that the Fire Seed has suppressed my Element Power, but I don’t think my strength was affected too much.”
“If going by rank?”
“Perhaps a little less than a Gold-ranker?”
“You retained that much!?” Veronica gasped.
Her abilities had been reduced to an Iron-ranked warrior, and Mephisto was no different. Brendel’s abilities went down as well, though it was mitigated greatly by the Dragon of Darkness’s blood.
Mana and Element Powers were added passively to a body’s Physique, Strength, Agility, and Perception.
An Unsealed Element Power was to perceive the Laws in one’s own body and the world’s Laws. By achieving a perfect understanding of the Laws, one would be able to absorb and hold the Laws within them to achieve a Shaped Physique for the body.
The greatest advantage for a Golden Lineage was their Shaped Physique, and they were typically born with an Unsealed Element Power, and they would automatically move towards perfecting their Element Powers and bodies. Galbu’s wizards and Silver Elves had their own Shaped Physiques and were just a step behind.
But there were other races that were not blessed. The Wind Elves and humans, even though they were perceived as beings who were blessed by Marsha, had to start with a body that was poorly attuned to their Element Power and had to take one step at a time to reach the top.
Still, the humans were flexible and had limitless potential.
The citizens of the Golden Lineage had to undergo a long journey to perfect their usage of Element Power, frequently requiring centuries to do so. The Silver Lineage also required a long time as well.
The person who gained strength the quickest was the Sword Genius King Gatel. He was only seventy when he reached perfection with his Element Power. The Dwarves’ record was a hundred and sixty years, while the Wind Elves’ record took two hundred and ten years.
They were much quicker than any of the Golden Lineage or Silver Lineage to master their Element Power.
“Not a true dragon,” Mephisto remarked.
Brendel nodded as well. Scarlett probably had a portion of the Dragon’s bloodline, and it was relatively common amongst humans. Dragons loved to change into human forms and leave their descendants behind amongst the humans.
“Dragons are said to choose their mates every decade on the fifth moon. The Star Seers from the Tower of Ten Borders claims that the first baby birthed on this month would have the blood of the dragon flowing in them.” Mephisto continued his remarks.
Rumors frequently happened at the southeastern regions of the Dark Forest.
Brendel suddenly squinted. There was a little girl dragon that he thought of, but he quickly dispelled that image in his mind.
“Scarlett, your parents are?” Brendel asked.
Scarlett looked puzzledly at her lord before she understood what he was thinking and hurriedly shook her head:
“My lord, my parents are normal citizens.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. I still remember things about my childhood. I’m definitely their child. My father told me that I resembled my mother more, and I have a brother as well.” She seemed like she was afraid of Brendel not believing her, so she added another sentence: “But my village was raided by bandits and I was rescued by my former commander after they…..”
“I’m sorry.” Brendel was feeling a little guilty because he had forced her to think about the sad events of the past and replied softly.
“No, it’s fine.” Scarlett shook her head and smiled, revealing her canines.
Brendel was nearly in a daze from looking at her smile. In his mind, he recalled that she rarely smiled, and now she had a huge dazzling smile plastered on her face. He yelled a few times in his mind to recover himself, and at the same time had a stronger doubt about Scarlett’s bloodline.
[Andesha shouldn’t be wrong about this. She’s one of the Tree Shepherds and sensitive to races with powerful bloodlines.]
“The Blood of Gods?” Orthlyss spoke in her mind.
“No, that’s not it. Humans carry the bloodline of the Iron Lineage, and they wouldn’t magically turn into someone possessing the Dragon’s blood or even the Golden Lineage after drinking the Blood of Gods…..” Brendel continued with some uncertainty after considering a while: “I’m probably an exception because I received the Dragon of Darkness’s blood and it had somehow awakened a certain bloodline.”
“My lord, look at this.” Scarlett raised both her arms.
Dark golden runes were flowing across her arms. It was a familiar sight, as it had happened before when the Mana Wave came. He did not think much about it back then and merely thought it was the Golden Apple that caused the tremendous flow of Mana to move in her veins, and it had resonated with the Mana Wave.
But it seemed like that was not the case.
The Mana and Elements around this area were severed, so there should not be any resonations. These magic Runes were definitely the power of a Bloodline. Brendel frowned. He did not study much about Bloodlines and did not recognize the Runes, but Orthlyss shouted in a startled voice:
“The Blood of a Dragon?!”
“What?” Brendel asked in confusion.
“This girl had drunk the blood of a Dragon in the past, and it’s a living Dragon at that. A half-dragon’s blood…… It’s not a Lineage, but it’s still something that’s good for her. She’s definitely stronger than you if she leaves the influence of the Fire Seed. It’s a great advantage for her, typically half-dragon humans learn things faster by twenty or thirty percent.”
Brendel nearly choked on his saliva.
[Dragon Bloodline…… That’s a quest in the game that offers that Talent and it’s an “XP gain +20-30%”, but that’s so rare that I have never seen a player with it. And drinking a Dragon’s blood? I drank plenty of that stuff costing from several hundred to millions of coins. It adds stats, and I have never seen someone drinking it and gaining a Talent. Do things work differently in this world?!]
Brendel wanted to smash his head against a wall when he heard the given advantage, but he quickly recovered and asked carefully: “Is there any harm to drink the Dragon’s blood?”
“There’s no real harm, but the drinker will have form a unique kinship to the owner of the blood,” she replied.
The youth could sense Orthlyss’s smirk.
“You have quite the number of enemies, and this little girl will be of great help to you, but you need to be careful. If that dragon who gave its blood to her happens to be a male dragon who’s full of charisma, your loyal girl would be seduced away by him.”
Brendel’s lips jerked a few times at the teasing words, though he was not really worried about it. He was basically certain that the little dragon girl did something to the Golden Apple.
[Hmm. Wait. Did Rauze intend me to have this Golden Apple? Shit, I knew it, that loli dragon is up to no good!]
Brendel was hugely relieved that Scarlett ate the apple. It was not a good thing to be fancied by a dragon— He had seen enough unlucky fellows in the game because of the text ‘A Dragon fancies you.’.
The Dragons in the game solved things simply and directly.
They threw a Charmed magic spell on the players or NPCs and directly dragged them into their caves. Players would not actually get affected by the magic and instead see this on their quest windows.
“A Dragon has expressed interest in you. It is casting a magic spell on you in order to take you away. You can choose to accept or refuse, but it will still drag you away— Alive or Dead.”
“Please choose to accept or refuse.”
The majority of the gamers who had a normal IQ would choose the former. Technically, a dragon who dragged such a person into their lair was not really going to do that particular pleasurable and entertaining thing that the masses enjoyed during their teenage and later years. It was actually a matter of making the dragons delighted.
The most common method of making them happy was telling a story to them or coming up with a riddle for them to solve. Most of the time it would take three full days and night.
Logging out was possible for the gamers, but it was necessary for them to work at least seventy-two hours and perhaps longer to make these Dragons satisfied.
The rewards were satisfactory, but the majority of the gamers were unwilling to do such quests because of the hassles involved. The Dragons’ memories were good enough to catch any stories that were repeated. It was all too easy to make the gamers know how good the dragons’ intelligence was when they solve the riddles quickly.
Brendel shivered when he thought of these things. Rauze gave away the Golden Apple instead of charming him with a spell. This meant that her interest had surpassed the norm. She did not leave him because of the lack of interest, but because there was something really important that she had to handle.
But despite the strong interest in him, a dragon’s thinking was completely different from a human.
She was most likely saying this: “Human, I want you to act as a toy until I’m greatly satisfied..”