Gaining Protection.

//Bonus chap cus I felt like It. ENJOY!!//

The return after only a single day felt a bit anticlimactic to Konrad and Octavia, but the tomb wasn't big to begin with. That they found an actual undead to research on, was an incredible find that received it's own lab designated to research on Necromancy.

Of course Konrad wasn't about to become a Necromancer. he was leaning more towards understanding how the death element worked and how he could fight it.

Before the duo realized, a few weeks passed and their research once again jumped i. progress.

They were doing a few things simultaneously like they always did and Konrad's training had made significant progress. His Sword Mastery improved slightly, even though he couldn't train his battle instinct and had no access to real battle experience. Instead he tried to perfect what he already knew and boy did it feel good to know how a single strike of his blade could cause so much damage to his target.

His Mana Manipulation was ever improving, slowly making it easier and easier for him to cast magic without thinking. Every now and then he would caught himself casting a spell without even thinking of the proper spell matrix.

It was especially useful while training his Dragon Skin Technique. The spell was now covering almost his entire body! Konrad found out that actually, wherever he cast the spell, the strengthening would stay in place indefinitely! That's why it was much easier to cover the areas you once already covered while training the spell. The spell was already there and he simply made it resurface and spread further. It made his skin very hard to cut though using an average knife, so he had to really try hard when collecting his blood, or ask octavia to cut him using an Adamantite tentacle. In the end, She simply made him a kitchen knife from Adamantite that could cut through his skin like butter...

Of course the fact that she could make a kitchen knife out of her magical metals now, didn't go unnoticed by either of them. That meant that, if she just wanted, she could make him an actual sword and equipment of whatever type he wanted! Her control over her metals really came a long way and if it was like this, her Formations should be now much smaller than before!

Konrad asked her for a miniature version of the concealment formation that he usually wore in public and after preparing herself for a few days, Octavia finally finished her creation! It was an Adamantite Mithrill formation disk no bigger than ten centimeters in diameter! And it was actually a complete formation from the Amulet of Phobos! Konrad was really proud of his little familiar. The Formation was already small enough to not hinder the wearer and Octavia could very easily carry such a formation inside of her slime! She was only a tiny bit away from reaching the size like in the original Amulet of Phobos!

It all led him to give her the task of exchanging all the light orb formations in the Caster Palace with a more compact and efficient model that used Magical Metals. Her miniaturization was now strong enough to lessen the amount of required materials while her capacity obviously increased by a large margin as it was one of the things that she used most of her magical metal for. In that regard she was a bit like those clicker games. She used the resources to be able to make more resources that she used to get even more resources.

Of course she needed to absorb something to exchange in the process of Metal Regeneration, but thankfully her need for organic material in that regard lessened considerably, letting Octavia regenerate the missing Metals through the consumption of any material as long as a few percent of what she consumed stayed organic. Suffice to say, the Sandstone Blocks in the Basement found a new usage outside of being a building material...

___________

Konrad was currently sitting beside the small lake he created on his land. He was actually meditating, trying to breach into the first stage of the Dragon Skin Technique but he was somehow stuck when it came to reinforcing his eyes with Mana.

It was one thing to apply the magic to his skin, but it was somehow different when it came to his eyes and eyelids. The Technique his mind had been engraved with, told him that he had to slightly tweak the spell to improve the vision and it had its good and bad parts. good was the fact that it could actually improve his vision but bad, because it should actually improve his vision...and he had to figure out how!

Since that was the case, Konrad kept his eyes open as he gazed into the distance. He was also keeping watch on the blue boat manned by a little slime that swam in the middle of the pond. Octavia found swimming on a boat a really fun pastime and liked the peacefulness of the lake, so Konrad took out his boat Bluemoon, and gave it to Octavia do do as she pleased with it.

He continued to experiment with the spell for another hour while seeing whether his vision changed or the scale effect finally got applied. It was a surprise that when he was just about to give up for today, he suddenly realized that his vision became slightly clearer on one eye. He could see Octavia practicing transformation into a dolphin with a much greater clarity. It amused him that she chose that animal but it was understandable. She already had a land creature and a flying creature so a transformation into a water creature would be the best to make Octavia ready for any situation.

He became excited when his vision changed. He could feel the reinforcement resonating with the rest of his skill before calming down, meaning that it was accepted! He quickly checked with Observe and confirmed that his completion of the technique jumped by a few percent and only the other eye remained to be reinforced. And he also got a point in Perception!

Konrad quickly recreated the spell he did on his left eye, and applied it onto the right one, his intent guiding the magic into his eye socket. If he had seen his reflection at that time, he would have seen his eye glow purple as the light formed into an iris around a black vertical pupil. The effect only stayed there for a second before it returned back to normal.

Suddenly Konrad felt a wash of Mana spread allover his body. He understood what was happening as it was what he was aiming for from the very beginning. The spell was finished! and with it being completed an additional strengthening would be created as the magic in his Skin mixed into the proper form. It was a weird experience, only possible thanks to the primeval intent magic of the spell. A normal magic formule would just transform itself as certain rules were applied to make it work, but The Dragon Skin Technique was not a simple spell but as the name implied, a technique!

In a sudden wave of realization Konrad understood the second stage of the Dragon Skin Technique. It was the Stage of Power! The more magic you provided, the higher chance would be for your technique to achieve a higher stage in the future and you might even skip straight into the Second Stage if your control over this power is good enough!

According to the knowledge he received of this Technique, a young dragon would usually go to a much older dragon if it wished to gain a strong foundation. The older more powerful dragon could provide him with more potent magic to help him with the technique, but usually such a choice would mean that the dragon wasn't too powerful and his control over magic wasn't really that great.

Konrad wasn't though interested in dragon relations at the moment. He was much more interested in the realization that he had More Mana Capacity than a typical Elder Dragon!

What would happen if he applied that great amount of magic he had and the one he stored in his bracelet into the Technique right now?!

Konrad couldn't wait to find out!

_________

Octavia was sitting in the middle of a lake on the blue boat she had made a few months prior. There was a book in front of her with a detailed biology of a dolphin and a dolphin carcass that Konrad got for her somewhere, to help in her next transformation. The body was a very useful source of information but she still needed some theoretical knowledge, thus the book.

As she was working on her body, be it making a beak or fins or just the general shape, she suddenly felt a disturbance in Magic around her.

She quickly glanced towards the source which could only be her Daddy and her proverbial eyes opened wide in shock. Her Daddy was glowing with power as the Mana Scales covered his entire body, giving a much more intense light that ever before. His eyes were glowing purple as his pupils transformed into vertical slits like some kind of reptile, and Octavia could feel Konrad pumping his raw Mana into the Magic in his Skin.

She was quickly making her way towards him, pretty certain that Konrad couldn't see how the magic changed inside him so she would be there to give him a report when he was finished. She wasn't worried about something going wrong as Konrad was doing a reinforcement magic and there was no dangerous magical resonance anywhere in sight, meaning that the Magic was moving smoothly.

Octavia observed as more and more Magic was being applied into the blue scales. She watched in fascination as at some point the scales exploded in golden light and started to sink into Konrad's skin while still being visible letting Octavia to believe that the Technique wasn't just reserved to Skin alone. She wasn't sure how much Magic did Konrad expended but his Bracelet and ring were already empty and his Mana regeneration could only do this much as he was spending it faster and faster. Golden mist was now surrounding Konrad's body, forming into unrecognizable shapes and Octavia realized that his clothes actually disintegrated. His Mana was already almost depleted though so she couldn't examine the golden mist any further as Konrad was about to finish hid training.

The light dimmed as the Scales sunk into his Skin and Disappeared entirely. His eyes returned to normal and the golden mist returned back into his body.

Konrad took a deep breath through his nose, before turning to Octavia with a smile.

"Hey Octavia. When did you come? I was just training my Dragon Skin Technique." He asked, not realizing her bewildered and embarrassed state.

He stood up and Octavia turned around not looking at him, making Konrad puzzled.

"What is it Octavia?" He asked her, not understand her reaction.

*Umm...Daddy. Could you put on some clothes* She said very embarrassed, and Konrad opened his eyes wide before looking at his naked body.

"Oh Gods! I'm Sorry Octavia! I'll quickly put something on!" He said before summoning a set of clothing out of his inventory.

"Here, you can look back again." He said after putting the clothes on.

Octavia though, had a hard time looking at Konrad as she tried to process her own behavior. Why did she become so embarrassed seing her Daddy like this?! And why was she sneaking peaks while he was changing?!...She needed to think about it...but for now she needed to change the topic.

*So...Daddy...How is your Training going then?* She asked and Konrad only now must have realized that he didn't check his progress.

"Let me see..."

[• Konrad Caster •]

| Race - Human

| Class - Magic Swordsman

| Status - Healthy

| Mana ~ 340/3020MP

| Mana Regeneration ~604/min (4x5%/min)

| Blood Capacity - 6500/6500ml

| Blood Replenishment ~ 1000ml/day (500ml/4daysx8)

________

| Stats:

Strength - 40

Perception - 40

Agility - 36

Intelligence - 34

________

| Skills:

- Language Comprehension:

- [@π&¥@&€#∆££#&∆¶$

- Language Of Birds

- Health Regeneration: x8

- Mana Regeneration: x4

- Lesser Mana Affinity

- Space Storage: 24 m^2

- Observe: Basic

- Status Deterioration Block

- Mana Sprint

- Dragon Skin Technique (Stage - 3 • Spiritual Connection Stage) - 2%

- Ambidexterity

- Lesser Fire Resistance

- Lesser Frost Resistance

- Medium Chaos Resistance

- Poison Immunity

- Shock Immunity

- Blink Affinity

________

| Equipment

- Ring of Arcana (200/200)

- Bracelet of Hecate (2000/2000)

________

| Soul Bonded Artifacts:

- Cooking Grimoire

________

| Familiars:

- Octavia [ Slime ]

________

| Description:

Konrad is a...

.

.

.

...Hard.

________

His eyes opened wide. 'How did that happen?!' He thought. How could he reach the stage three in such a short amount of time?!...No wait... now that he reached this stage and he better understands the knowledge about the Technique, this would seem to be the effect of his frankly too big of a Mana Pool with the addition of his advanced control. Normally a Young dragons don't have so much power and control when they start with that skill after all.

The First stage seemed to be called the Power Stage. It basically depends on how much power you could provide to give a better foundation and a simple empowering of the resistance. His Mana though was provided in such quantities that he reached the peak of Mana possible to be provided into this stage before instantly jumping into stage two.

The second Stage is called the Stage of Quality. Because of his foundation reaching peak condition and thanks to his more than enough advanced Mana control this stage quickly passed as it was the stage where Technique was supposed to be refined using a simple principle. Quality over quantity! But because the quantity part was still way over the top, and he was using his great Mana control to instinctually achieve the desired effect, The quality part was achieved with an immediate success in the visible form of the new golden colouration. That little change increased his resistance by a significant margin though, or at least that's what his knowledge told him. And then he finally arrived at this Stage. The Stage of Spiritual Connection. This was a very complicated Stage. It required for the user to imbue his own magical language into the magic that already encompassed deeper than just skin. Konrad was more and more amazed with this Technique as this stage was supposed to actually improve the users control over Magic! He was yet to grasp the main reason for imbuing the language into the magic though.One thing was for certain. This was the stage where your average wizard loose to a dragon in resistance while using this skill. It all depended on the language you used and the Dragon Language was supposed to be one of the stronger Languages out there, not available for a typical mage. Of course Konrad didn't know it either, but he knew a different Language that never failed him until today. It had just a slight problem that he couldn't speak it but he would manage somehow. Even though it would be much easier to imbue the language if it was spoken out loud, He would try to just use his mind instead.

The only thing left was to test how resistant he became...

Konrad and Octavia exchanged their discoveries and he was surprised about the colour change as he didn't even realize that part, while octavia was surprised that he was already on the third stage when reaching the first one took him a few weeks.

Then it was time to test his resistance and Octavia easily agreed to attack his forearm with an iron sword she made, only for the sword to break on contact with his skin!

"..."

*...*

"Well...that's certainly an improvement..." Konrad said as a grin slowly emerged on his shocked face.

*Snort* *Yeah a tiny one for sure! Hahaha!* Octavia joked and laughed, Konrad joining her soon after.

"Haha watch out Tavy or I'll reach the same toughness as you soon enough Haha!" Konrad joked too, and soon enough the duo was playing in the green grass and laughing as an impromptu picnic was set up in the place. how they came to this situation is a mystery but the important part is that the rest of the day was spend on a leisure and enjoyment...

__________

Adamantite was still cutting easily through his skin but instead of butter, Konrad's body was now to it more like a regular meat to a mildly sharp kitchen knife. So like a normal knife to his body before learning the skill. That was certainly an improvement and Konrad was quiet happy when an Orichalcum sword could only cut him like a sharp knife trying to cut a fish's skin before it was peeled of it's scales. (If you don't know what i mean because you never prepared a fish then let me explain: Fish is slimy and scaly and the knife even very sharp would usually just slide over the skin if you don't try hard enough or if you don't try cutting it by piercing. So basically an Orichalcum sword should act on him basically like a fairly blunt sword made out of normal metal on a normal human. It would leave a mark, shallow cut or a bruise but that's about it if you don't just outright stab your target)

All in all Konrad was very pleased with the protection he received and he was curious how it would fair against a gun or magic. Would it be like my resistance skills? so many questions, so little answers.

They were so preoccupied with all this research that they completely forgot the reason why they chose this location for their home in the first place....

//AN//

I'll mention more about the mummy in the next chapter as it just slipped my mind while writing about their improvements and suddenly the chapter became too long LOL

///

____________

Current Status

[• Konrad Caster •]

| Race - Human

| Class - Magic Swordsman

| Status - Healthy

| Mana ~ 3020/3020MP

| Mana Regeneration ~604/min (4x5%/min)

| Blood Capacity - 6500/6500ml

| Blood Replenishment ~ 1000ml/day (500ml/4daysx8)

________

| Stats:

Strength - 40

Perception - 40

Agility - 36

Intelligence - 34

________

| Skills:

- Language Comprehension:

- [@π&¥@&€#∆££#&∆¶$

- Language Of Birds

- Health Regeneration: x8

- Mana Regeneration: x4

- Lesser Mana Affinity

- Space Storage: 24 m^2

- Observe: Basic

- Status Deterioration Block

- Mana Sprint

- Dragon Skin Technique (Stage - 3 • Spiritual Connection Stage) - 2%

- Ambidexterity

- Lesser Fire Resistance

- Lesser Frost Resistance

- Medium Chaos Resistance

- Poison Immunity

- Shock Immunity

- Blink Affinity

________

| Equipment

- Ring of Arcana (200/200)

- Bracelet of Hecate (2000/2000)

________

| Soul Bonded Artifacts:

- Cooking Grimoire

________

| Familiars:

- Octavia [ Slime ]

________

| Description:

Konrad is a...

.

.

.

...Hard.

________

//Konrad's inventory list//

- Food!

- Water/Drinkables!

- Enchanted Orichalcum Broadsword

- Steel Broadsword

- Steel Gauntlets

- Steel Armour

- Compass Of Random Journey

- Map Of Revealment

- Medium Health Potion

- Floating Ice Prison formation

- Teleportation Formation (->Greece)

- Teleportation Formation (->Gacha Space)

- Teleportation Formation (-> School)

- Smartphone

- few changes of clothes

- Konrad's favourite knife

- Konrad's personal Grimoire:

- Fire magic

- Light magic

- Wind magic

- Mind magic

-Water magic

- Gravity magic

- Space Magic

-Combination magic

- notepad for quick observations.

- • Fey Language Dictionary •

- bunch of different trinkets he thought might come in handy someday...

- Spelunking equipment

- Diving equipment

- Hiking equipment

- Climbing equipment

- Prize orbs:

[} User targeted Summoning (Another World Hero) {]

[} Common Gemstone Draw {] x6

[} Rare Gemstone Draw {] x2

[} Lesser Mana Potion +5 {] x17

[} Medium Mana Potion +50 {] x3

[} Lesser Health Potion {] x20

[} Medium Health Potion {] x5

[} Great Health Potion {]

[} Chosen Language Comprehension {]

[} Pure Iron Dagger {]

[}Mana Capacity +1{] x15

[} Mana Capacity +10 {] x3

[} Steel Gauntlets {] x2

[} Pure Iron Broadsword {]

[} Medium Health Potion {] x2

[} Steel Helmet {] x2

[} Steel Armour {] x2

[} Steel Boots {]

[} Steel Shield {]

[} Basic Weapon Manual (User adapted) {]

[} Broken Sword {]

[} Ambidexterity {]

[} Lesser Frost Resistance {]

[} Observe {]