Ultimately, this fight wasn't nearly as eventful as some of the others that we had done, such as the final Ember Flight boss. Although I did die earlier in the dungeon, that was due to an ambush. In this situation, despite facing three of the same boss, and one stronger, we had plenty of time to prepare ourselves.

Thus, it was only a matter of time before the bosses began to fall, unable to resist the poison they had been struck with. Once the Sea Dragon King slowed down and had to land on the ground, the necrotic storm attacked him far more fiercely, ending the battle with plenty of time to spare.

With the fall of the final boss, the conquest quest was marked as completed. Diane and I both earned the skill that we had been waiting for, which I took a look at while Diane was collecting the loot.

Dragon Pulse (Martial - 6☆): Allows the user to channel the power of a dragon through their body. Enhances Magic and internal recovery. Passively increases resistance to internal injuries.

Mana Burden: 0/sec. Level: 1(0%)

On a surface level, the skill did not look incredibly powerful. Its enhancement to the Magic stat was something that I could almost entirely disregard. However, I wanted it for the likely fusion that it would have with Dragon Form.

How's the loot? I asked Diane once I had finished reviewing the skill, activating it to begin passively training.

Got a Dragon King Pearl from the boss, and two or three Queen Pearls from each of the others. Just looking for the boss chest now. As she sent that, she began quickly swimming around the room, scanning it for any alcoves where the chest could be hidden.

Eventually, she found it, nestled behind the position where the four dragons had been slumbering prior to our arrival. Diane received a shield and a ring, while I worked my way over to test my luck. And… ultimately, my luck turned out to not be that great. I received another Dragon King Pearl, and a skill book for Fire Breath, which was registered as a Magic skill.

Since I already had Fire Projection, I didn't hesitate to simply give this new skill to Diane. If I wanted to, I could easily fake a fire breath any time I wanted. Even Diane was hesitant to learn the skill, but ultimately did so anyways after some brief consideration.

With that, the two of us made our way out of the dungeon, ready to count our spoils. Once we were back on the rock, we brought out everything that had dropped. Honestly… it was disappointing. Compared to the Ember Flight dungeon where we got so many skill books and highly valuable materials, this felt as if we had just gone in as a janitor, but got paid with scraps.

"Maybe these pearls are something special?" I asked, looking at the various pearls that we had gathered. There were five normal ones, ten queen pearls, and two king pearls. Even the smallest ones, dropped by the princes, were the size of a fist. Meanwhile, the king pearls were as big as my head. "Should we use them directly, or do you think you can improve their effects by turning them into a potion?"

Diane briefly hesitated, her eyes focused on the pearls. "I can try to experiment with one of the lesser ones. Are we in a stealth field right now?" She asked, to which I nodded my head.

With that confirmation, she pulled out her alchemy kit and got to work. She placed the orb onto her alchemy table, and began extracting various essences from it. Afterwards, she did the same with a sample of blood from the Ember Flight dungeon, and mixed them together with water that she gathered from nearby and distilled.

Once she was done with the potion, which took a full ten minutes to make, she handed me the vial to identify. "Well? Is it any good?" She asked, and I appraised its effects.

"...Congratulations. You've made a potion that will turn someone into a lesser dragon for three minutes." When I said that, Diane's brow twitched, and she simply put it in her inventory. "I guess we're using the pearls directly? Since you used that one in your experiment, there are enough that we can split them evenly."

Diane gave a small sigh, nodding her head. We each picked up one of the lesser pearls, and I looked at mine curiously. According to its appraisal, it should be able to enhance certain skills. With that thought in mind, I channeled my Dragon Form skill into the pearl, which began to glow brightly.

Moments later, the pearl dissolved between my hands. Looking at the skill window, I saw that the experience for Dragon Form had increased drastically, rising all the way to level thirteen in one burst. My eyes widened at the sharp advancement. These enhancement items were useless without the proper skills, but were a godsend if you had a skill that they were compatible with.

Naturally, I used the other lesser pearl, as well as one of the queen pearls to level my Dragon Form to twenty. After that, I repeated the process with Dragon Pulse, using three queen pearls to rapidly raise the skill to the same level. Right away, I could feel something change. My blood seemed to run hot, boiling beneath my skin, as if I was overflowing with energy.

As we expected, there was a fusion available for the two skills, and I immediately did so. In doing so, my Dragon Form skill was automatically deactivated. The resulting skill, True Dragon Embodiment, promised to let the user fully embody the power of a draconic being. Curious, I planned to test it out, but saw Diane putting a pair of queen pearls and her singular king pearl into her inventory.

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When she caught my look, she shook her head. "Remember how I said I want to walk a shadow dragon path? I'll wait to fuse the skills until I get Living Shade to twenty."

I gave a small nod. Before testing the new skill, I decided to go all in with my own skill. Consuming the last queen pearl, as well as the king pearl, increased the level of my new skill directly to ten. Once that was done, I gestured for Diane to step back.

With her out of the way, I triggered True Dragon Embodiment, and heard something akin to a dragon's roar from my heart. My body grew larger, with thick, leathery wings sprouting out of my back, and long horns appearing on my head. My tail flicked behind me, and my hands turned into large claws. However, that was not all, as a prompt appeared before me.

Select the skill which will be used to determine your Draconic Element.

I looked at the skill in confusion, hesitating for a moment before choosing the Fireball skill. Immediately, my scales turned red, and the temperature around my body seemed to increase. The wet stone beneath my body quickly dried, and Diane had to take another step back.

Curious, I opened my mouth, attempting to release a flaming breath. I could feel it forming, just at the back of my throat. However, when I exhaled, it immediately died down. My eyes widened, before my wings drooped in disappointment. "What's wrong?" Diane asked, and I shook my head, explaining the skill's effect to her.

"Since I chose a Magic skill as my element, it must consider elemental attacks to be Magic skill uses, and my trait is preventing it from forming. It's apparently not like an enchantment or anything." After saying that, I deactivated the skill, reactivating it to select Fire Projection. I underwent much the same transformation, but this time my scales felt harder than before.

However, this time, when I tried to breathe fire, a huge gout of flame surged out past my open maw. My eyes widened in surprise, quickly cutting off the breath weapon. "So, it's fine as long as I choose a Martial skill. That means that poison, sand, and lightning are out of the question for now."

Diane had a thoughtful look on her face as she watched me. "Try out a non-attribute skill, like Ghost or Martial Intent. Oh, and you have that shadow weapon skill, too."

I nodded my head, playing along with her experiments. When I selected the Ghost-X skill, my scales became prismatic. From Diane's point of view, I simply disappeared where I was standing.

With the Martial Intent-X skill, my scales stayed green, but grew thicker, and there was an invisible layer of armor over them. Additionally, my breath weapon turned into a concussive force.

Finally, there was the Shadow Arsenal-X skill. This one, Diane seemed immensely interested in. My scales turned pitch black, much like her own in her Dragon Form. My breath weapon was a torrent of dark energy that seemed to cling to whatever surface it struck. Under Diane's guidance, I allowed her to strike my arm with one of her daggers, but we found that my scales carried no special properties beyond extra defense.

Additionally, I didn't have any other powers that she asked me to try, such as diving into my shadow. When I tried, I just slammed my head onto the stone beneath me. "Last thing." She said, once I managed to pull myself to my feet. "Can you properly fly now?"

I tilted my head, curious about that as well. The skill promised that I would be able to fully manifest the majesty of a dragon, so presumably flight was included? I stretched out my wings, much like I had when I first tested Dragon Form, and gave them a powerful flap downwards.

Unlike my original experiment, I felt this one lift me off the stone island. Being lifted by wings like this, despite my increased size and weight, defied all manner of reason. As I looked at my wings in surprise, my balance shifted and I tumbled back to the ground. While I was airborne, I could feel a strange energy in my wings, much like the warmth spreading through the rest of my body. Was it this energy that was keeping me aloft?

I reported my findings to Diane, who nodded her head seriously. "That's entirely possible. My last test would be to see if your Water Dragon form would be able to breathe underwater. If so, that would mean that you have a natural adaptation to your chosen element when you transform. Are you… alright with testing that, given what a failure would mean?"

I knew what she meant. If her guess was wrong, it would mean that I would drown by trying unsuccessfully to breathe water. However, this was something that we needed to figure out sooner rather than later. With that in mind, I deactivated and reactivated the skill to select Water Shaping.

Afterwards, I unceremoniously jumped into the water, creating a great splash in the process that Diane had to jump back to avoid getting soaked. Once my body was fully submerged, I hesitated for just a moment. All of my survival instincts were screaming at me to not do what I was about to do.

But, since when did I ever listen to those instincts? I was about to open my mouth and breathe in the water, when I abruptly stopped myself. I simply stayed where I was, tilting my head side to side.

Diane watched from above, curious when she saw me never even opening my mouth, right up until the moment that I surfaced. "I guess that was too much, huh?" She asked with a wry look on her face, but I shook my head.

"No, actually, it worked." I told her, and she looked confused. "I didn't feel the need to breathe while I was underwater. I moved my head around a little bit, and could feel a small amount of water flowing beneath some of the scales on my neck."

As I explained that, I tilted my head, bringing my hand towards one of the scales that I was referencing. Diane blinked, leaning up to get a better look. "Huh… I guess these could count as gills? The scales lift up just slightly."

I gave a small nod, finally transforming back into my normal, half-orc form. "Well, I might not turn into a real, proper dragon, but I'd still say that this is a powerful skill."

Diane definitely seemed to agree. "Right. It should be worth training. I'll still hold out hope for my shadow dragon skill, just to see if it has any of the other abilities I want, though. Also, at this rate, your next evolution should turn you into a full dragon. Just wait until we get a rematch with your former player."

I chuckled slightly at that. "I'm sure he'll be surprised."

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