Ved checked the remaining time before the next wave. 73:23:54. Around three days. He sighed, Naledi hadn't made any attempts to respond to his message yet.

He wasn't disappointed, all he had was time, he could wait but this did mean there was a possibility he would only be able to see her a few years later.

He wasn't going to delay his rank 5 evolution any longer. However before that, he needed to solve the issue of his contradicting images.

The only way Ved could do that, that he could think of was redefining the meaning of his images.

One was sourced by his desire to live, the other was born from the belief of absolute strength as all dragons do.

To be honest if it was up to him, he would get rid of that image but it was deeply etched into his bloodline.

Redefining the meaning was the easy part, the hard part was truly convincing himself of the new meaning.

Since will depends on beliefs or desires he would have to change his beliefs or desires to match the new meaning.

However contrary to the belief of others, those two aren't things that can be changed at will. You can tell yourself you desire something or claim you believe in something but deep down you still wouldn't.

So comes a second problem, Ved would have to change his definition of one of the two wills.

Changing the will of life to match that of strength would probably be harder. Convincing himself that life could mean anything but itself would be much harder.

Life was pretty straight forward, especially in his case as to him it meant being alive by any means, truly alive.

He could be crippled, wounded or lost all of his powers, if he's alive, that would be a win for him but his bloodline denied that, it contradicted such beliefs.

To dragons, being weak was worse than death. To them, strength was all that mattered.

Ved intended to change that. After all unlike life, strength really could mean anything to him as long as it can ensure he remains alive.

To others, strength could be wealth, love, admiration of others, connections. It definition depended on each individual.

Ved was going to redefine it, he knew this would possibly make him physically weaker than other true dragons but that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

After all, his new definition will match his other will, making his overall will stronger in the process.

Besides, even if he's not as physically powerful as other true dragons, he would still be a dragon and his physical strength would still be unmatched by others.

Not to mention, he genuinely hoped this change would rid him of the dragons prideful nature, it did not match his true self.

Ved told Avery he did not want to be disturbed. She locked the gates of the tower preventing others from getting in.

Ved closed his eyes and sank into his soul space. His soul was no longer that of a human, it now matched his body, it looked like a massive dragon.

He saw both of his images planted deep into his soul, he could feel their nature. The tree held the power of life yet it felt different from other life laws.

It felt more like defense? regeneration?. 'Survival.' a thought suddenly appeared in his head. The tree images purpose was increasing his survival chances by any means.

Of course it power was not unlimited, it could only make any action he takes to save his life if it's in danger more effective, however he prerequisite was that said action was possible.

The other image was more simple and straightforward. Any action he took to either attack or defend using only his body would be more effective.

They were both powerful but one required him to place himself in danger and the other required him to stay the hell away from danger.

Ved used his dream mist, he intended to conjure up a dream. Use it to hypnotize his soul and mind into truly believing the new meaning.

He started, what he was changing was his definition of strength. He wanted it to merge seamlessly with the survival image.

' I'm going to need a knew name for that.' Ved thought, survival will or image didn't sound right. ' I'll brainstorm later.'

He turned his focus back to the task. Changing the definition in his head was easy, the hard part was changing it in bloodline as well.

The meaning of strength for dragons had always been the same since times immemorial.

No matter how many times Ved tried to change it, it always bounced back to it original form like rubber.

Hours passed like this, Ved could feel his will weakening the more he tried to change it form.

Eventually he realised it was futile. He couldn't change something etched into his blood by the primordial dragon ancestor.

What he needed to do was incorporate it into his knew definition, he didn't know if this would work but it was worth a try.

He started by redefining strength. Strength to him meant surviving, if he lived through every storm, if he survived through anything thrown his way, would that not be a sign of strength.

His bloodline seemed to accept this definition though not fully. After all, it was yet to incorporate physical strength in it.

However Ved couldn't define physical strength as the only or the most important form of strength, he didn't even truly believe it.

Which made him wonder why his image was so powerful and dense. Even though it's part of his bloodline, technically it density should still be dependent on his belief in it.

That's how it works for every beast. ' Oh damn, that it.' Ved did believe it, he just didn't know he did.

This was due to the influence of fantasy media from his past life, they all instilled the idea of dragons being physically powerful creatures who are also prideful.

' That's wasn't only in my blood but mind as well, dang it Smaug.' Ved just realised, his pride wasn't just the influence of his bloodline, it was also because of his memories that dragons should be prideful creatures which made him subconsciously truly believe they were such and could only be such.

' By Morpheus's dream, this will be harder than expected.' he knew his dream mist was about to work overtime. Changing his own memories would take effort, if it was been possible.

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