47 Icevolt Genitics (Dragon Descendant)
I was drowning, the cold, inky darkness pulled deeper and deeper into the abyss.
How long had it been? I wondered. Minutes? Hours? Days? I couldn't tell. My sense of time had long skipped away. Not that it mattered anymore.
The darkness was comforting. It's embrace wrapped around me like a cold soothing blanket, numbing everything. It was peaceful here, far from the suffocating world I had been forced into.
Even though it hasn't been much time since I transmigrated into this world, every second felt suffocating—the disgusted glares, hatred, scorned looks—I said multiple times myself, Their emotions are not towards me; it's toward Jadel.
But in the end, the one who is experiencing it is me. But I had found a few kids I could laugh with, moments of fleeting happiness. They gave me a breather.
But after the incident, everything went back to normal, and the same paralyzing dread crept back into my mind.
The fear of death.
I know how I would die in this world. I had read it in the novel how cruel this world is. My death wouldn't be quick or merciful. It would be cruel and agonizing….
"You're a hopeless person, Jake." Suddenly, I heard a voice that penetrated the darkness. Reaching me, echoing inside the head.
It pierced the veil of darkness, shaking me from my slowing detachment.
Then I saw the owner of the voice. A figure stepping out of the void. His body was darker than the darkness that enveloped me. His eyes, light as a hue of gold, locked onto me.
"I tried to change your mindset, to pull from your weak thoughts. But you gave in." I at least thought you'd fight back. Try to survive."
His words ignited a small fire in me. Helping me to regain my consciousness, which was on the verge of being devoured by the darkness.
"But no, you're a coward, Jake. A weak, sniveling coward."
Coward…?
I clenched my fists. He was right. I was a coward. A pathetic, weak human. I didn't want this life. I didn't want to be here. I was thrown into this world, forced to survive in exchange for a second life I never asked for.
"Don't you want to live?"
His next words made the unknown fire in me burn more. With his words, he reignited the thirst for life in me, and more fiercely than that, I yearned for life.
… I do.
"Don't you want to survive?"
Yes, I do. I want to survive in this damn world.
"But you can't, you're pitifully weak."
Yeah, I'm weak, I can't survive in this world.
Grin!
"But you can grow stronger." The words left me anticipating.
"You're not even using the full potential of the body you've been given." His words lashed out at me. "You're too weak. Too fragile. With that mind of yours, you can't even scrape the surface of what this body is capable of."
I felt something stir inside me—a surge of anger, of resentment. He was taunting me. Challenging me.
"I could help you." He spoke, his voice sweet as honey.
The man stepped closer, and suddenly two chains of pure darkness appeared on his hands. They rattled with an ominous power.
"Every personality has their own unique traits, their own unique abilities. When the mind split, all that locked potential split too. But now, I can give you a taste of it... two fragments of that power."
The chains slithered through the air like flying serpents, circling him. "With these, you can grow stronger. You know what your body is capable of when it learns something, don't you?"
Rattle! Rattle!
The darkness around us suddenly twisted, slowly turning crimson red. A thick iron smell filled, with the appearance of a third chain. This one drenched in blood so thick it dripped from it.
The chain suddenly circled around the ink man, binding him, coiling tighter and tighter the body.
His voice trembled with a twisted laugh. "Oh my…" His golden eyes gazed at me.
"You want this? But I can't give you this one. It's far too strong. Even for me to handle."
He leaned in. "But those other two. They're yours now. A gift from me to you. In exchange, of course..."
He grinned wider, the ink swirling around us, seeping into my mind. "You'll give me something, too. A gift for both of us. You know what it is, don't you? You will get it for us."
My thoughts blurred, the ink man's words crawled into my mind, wrapping everything.
***
***
***
Rattle!
"I followed every one of your order."
A pair of golden eyes shone brightly, observing the raged figure. "So?"
Chains rattled unwillingness. "You bastard! This isn't what we agreed on," a shadowed figure hissed, his cold, emotionless eyes locked onto the ink man.
"Agreed? What agreement?" The ink man replied, feigning ignorance.
"Don't play games with me," the cold voice spat back. "You said if we obtained the title, we would be completely free."
"Mmm, yeah. Didn't I keep my promise? You guys are free."
"Free? This is free? The bindings that were cast upon us, I know really well you manipulated, thus giving the control over him. You call that free?"
Grin!
"I kept my promise. I completely broke you two free from the bindings… but I never said I wouldn't leash you dogs."
Rattle!
The chains shook violently, fury burning in the shadowed figure.
"Easy there," the ink man said, turning his back as he started to walk away. "If you want true freedom, your only option is to break free from him. That's your only chance."
Without another glance, he waved dismissively. "Now, don't bother me again."
Meanwhile, Jadel opened his eyes, groggy and disoriented. His body was covered in blankets, and the cold air of the cave stung his skin. "Where am I?" he muttered.
He reached up to rub his throbbing temple but froze. His right hand—gone.
"Huh?" Panic shot through him as he stared at the stump where his hand used to be. "What did the other personalities do?" He clenched his teeth, fighting the rising wave of fear.
Suddenly, he heard the faint clinking of chains. The sound seemed to echo inside his mind, removing the panic as if it were never there.
He remembered the strange, unknown words—words that still echoed in his mind like a reminder—someone reminding him.
"Who said that?" he murmured, all the dread he felt moments ago melting away.
'Am I hallucinating?' His eyes fell on a dark chain in his remaining hand, made of shadows, forming and vanishing at his will.
'Then what is this?'
It felt natural, as if it had always been there, summoned by his thoughts. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall who had spoken those words or when.
'Youre too weak.'.
Remembering those words, the thirst for power flared up in him again. The hunger, the urge to rise above it all. "I need that title," he whispered to himself, his resolve hardening.
Taking a deep breath, he scanned his surroundings. He was in a small cave. The entrance was so narrow he'd need to crawl to get out.
Behind him, there were a few eggs scattered across the ground. His memories were hazy, but something told him there had been more.
'Hm, only a few eggs? But I have a foggy memory of seeing thousands of them.' A scary thought suddenly came to his mind.
"Did that guy eat them?" He checked his spatial storage, and his eyes widened at the sight of thousands of eggshells. Without thinking, he pulled at his clothes, revealing pristine white scales covering his chest.
"That suicidal maniac, he just gambled with life." Jadel gritted his teeth.
Eating a monster's egg was akin to swallowing poison. If it was a hybrid type, the poison would be even more deadly.
Yet, consuming eggs came with a twisted advantage. If the person's element aligned with the monster's, there was a chance they could inherit its genetic traits and their skill by consuming enough eggs. A deadly risk with a reward.
He knew the odds. It was a six-out-of-ten chance of gaining the monster's traits. And the guy who controlled his body had clearly taken that risk.
This also happened to the protagonist. When he was trapped inside a dungeon with no food and anything to survive, he coincidentally arrived at an egg stored place.
With no choice, he started eating the highly poisonous eggs. And thanks to the help of the system he extracted the poison from his body whenever he ate.
The ambient mana in the dungeon with its own properties, combined with the sheer number of eggs he consumed, had caused his body to mutate, granting him spatial manipulation.
And now, Jadel had undergone a similar mutation. His element aligned with the monster's, and he already had mermaid scales. The mana stones in the cave and its properties only accelerated the process, causing his body to absorb the genetics of the Icevolt Drake.
"The mutation is convenient, but I already have ice affinity," he muttered.
"Most importantly, just how many days passed for him to consume these eggs and not get poisoned?" Sighing he scratched his head.
"Status"
===Status===
Name: Jadel Wayner || ?[Jake dane]
Race: Semi-mers ?[???]
Genitcs: Icevolt Drakes (Dragon Descendant)
Occupation: Assassin Lvl.1 ||
?[Swordsman Lvl.1]
Innate Skill: Emperor Of The Ocean ||
?[Gyrokinesis]
______________
?Rank: D+
?Strength: 309
?Speed: 324
?Agility: 341
?Stamina: 270
?Endurance: 301
?Mana: 375
?Intelligence: 161
?Luck: 197
?Charm: 560
?Talent Limit: A-
===] Skills [====
===] Techniques [===
Soul Bound: Lost Gem
Affinity: Water » Ice || Darkness » Shadow || Lightning
Spells: Waterball ‹★› || water bullet ‹★★›||
Water barrier ‹★★› || Mist ‹★›||
_________________________
"Oh gods!... Dragon descendant?!" Jadel stared at the screen with absolute shock. Dragon descendants were rare, not something to take lightly.
There are drogons in this world, and normally, hunters could become half-dragons by obtaining a dragon's heart, but they were limited in power compared to real dragons can do.
Now, Jadel had unlocked a path to something greater—he had the genetics of a dragon descendant. If he could acquire a dragon core and absorb it, he could transform into a full-blooded dragon. A true one.
He trembled, his remaining hand shaking as he stared at the status screen. "I thought I was stuck at A- rank forever," he whispered. "But with this, I can finally bypass my limit."
There is nothing that could increase someone's rank potential. Even Asher's system shop had nothing to offer in that regard, and it had explicitly stated there would never be anything capable of doing so.
Becoming a dragon wouldn't necessarily raise his potential, but it would free him from the limits of human power.
His strength would depend on the dragon heart he chose, but even the weakest dragons were ranked SS, and the strongest exceeded SSS+.
"But the problem is... obtaining a dragon heart." He thought.
'The weakest dragons are SS rank, and the strongest... they're far beyond what I could handle.'
"That's a really big problem."