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Late Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

"Ugh…" *lick-lick-lick-lick* Before I even opened my eyes, Ilios was showering my face with his tongue. "Hey, Ilios… I hope I didn't make you wait long…"

Finally looking up, I noticed he had grown a ton, now being nearly 14 meters long and no longer wearing a puppy face.

-He's still so cute though...- Wanting to take a second to enjoy the moment, I went to rub my face into his fur but was hit by a wall of soreness all over my body. "Mmmm…" I couldn’t help but groan when I tried to move. -What the hell? Why am I so sore?-

Nervous that the soreness could be from something serious, I hastily readied my aura and started to scan through my insides, but it wasn’t until I actually saw my reserve that I remembered it should have exploded.

-Did I somehow form a new reserve?- Quickly examining the unfamiliar sphere of mana in my body, it was immediately apparent that my new reserve was immensely larger and changed on a fundamental level. -Woah… This is possible?-

I could only watch in awe as I thinned and thickened the walls of my reserve, controlling not only the ease of extracting mana, but also the amount of aura I emitted.

[1] -It’ll take some time to get used to it though…

- Although it was convenient, it gave me a moderately uncomfortable sensation similar to being in my humanoid form.

As for the rest of my insides, they were unrecognizable from before.

Simply put, my entire skeletal structure had been rebuilt, from bones to muscles and organs.

-I wonder how this will affect my movement…

- Although I was a little nervous that the difference in weight distribution would affect my ‘techniques’, it's not like worrying could change anything.

As for the outside, I had gone through a complete metamorphosis, growing all the way to 29 meters tall in one fell swoop, and instead of being sleek and skinny like before, I was more rugged and adult-like with various protruding horns and more muscle.

But, although it was significantly more intimidating, I somehow kept the air of majesty from before with my matte black scales and purple glow. -Somehow I think my scales got even darker..-

I continued looking at myself for another few minutes after that, simply to make sure nothing was seriously wrong before I finally stood up.

"Ack…" I was so sore that I struggled to stand up. -Just how long was I asleep?- But the instant I asked that question, my biological clocks gave me the answer. "I was asleep for 8 years?!"

"Woof!" Ilios was quick to confirm.

-I.. I left him here alone for 8 years...- Looking back at his innocent smile, I felt a wave of slightly exaggerated guilt wash over me. "I'M SO SORRYYYYY!!!" As I rushed back over and coddled him, he licked my face as if to comfort me, but I still coddled him for several more minutes.

As that guilt eventually faded though, I finally realized something that didn’t add up.

-If 8 years passed in this bubble…- "Have we not eaten anything this whole time?!"

I felt genuinely awful thinking that I starved Ilios, but not only was he not skinny, he looked well fed.

-Did he eat something?- But that was when I noticed I wasn’t the slightest bit hungry either. -It's not like I ate a lot before the dragon sleep, so… is it possible that we could just live off mana?-

The idea made me genuinely baffled, but I couldn’t just stand there in shock forever.

-Whatever, I'll figure it out later. Right now, I need to focus...- Looking around, I looked at the bubble still encapsulating us. -How do I get out of this..-

After taking a moment to think and not having any good ideas come to mind, I reached up and tapped the bubble with the tip of my claw.

*Vwoom* The instant the bubble popped, my pent-up aura flooded into the room, causing an extremely satisfying noise.

Casually looking around, I tried to find anything out of place, but everything was the exact same as it was before the sleep. -How much time has even passed… And how did I just instinctively create that kind of barrier? It'd be awfully convenient to have control over.-

Finally taking a moment to walk around, I quickly noticed just how much lighter I felt, even though I was significantly heavier.

*Crack* If I stepped down a little too hard, I actually cracked the stone floor now. -As satisfying as that is though, I need to figure out how to not do that.-

The next several minutes after that were simply dedicated to me figuring out how to walk without destroying the ground, but eventually, I got the hang of it and figured it would be worthwhile to check out my humanoid form as well. -I'm sure it changed too…-

Not knowing what to expect, I quickly changed forms with Ilios and took a moment to examine myself.

Whether surprisingly or unsurprisingly, my humanoid form looked just like it was in the dream, just with actual bones, muscles, and organs instead of the weird black tubes.

-I really do have a nice body though…- I only looked to be around 16 but my body was extremely toned. -I wonder how much stronger I am now…-

Quickly looking around for something to test my strength on, my eyes settled on the greatsword outside of the vault building. -That'll work…-

Casually making my way over to it, I reached down and picked it up like it was a feather. -Holy sh*t… It's almost too light.-

I ended up casually swinging it several more times after that before eventually getting the hang of things. -Swinging the sword is actually pretty fun…-

Nonchalantly remaking my 'noble clothing' I went with black and purple instead of white and purple. -If Mother yells at me, I'll change it back but I honestly think the black looks better...-

While I was making the changes though, I added a small sling to mount the greatsword on my back and turned to Ilios. "Shall we?" I gave an excited smile to him as he came trotting up to my side. -Hehe, he’s so cute…-

Quickly making it back up into the throne room, I was quick to notice how lifeless and cold the palace felt. Not only was there no one around, but even with my aura that now extended well over 100 meters in all directions, I couldn't sense a single aura.

Simply to make sure nothing changed from the dream, I walked around a bit to make sure people were alright, which they were.. sort of.

Although I was super far away from them, I was able to roughly scan their bodies and figure out that there were no injuries besides some minor bruises and an emptied reserve.

-They should all be fine once their reserves refill naturally.- Although I could have, I ended up deciding not to refill any of them myself. -They’ll be fine without me anyways.-

Ignoring the rest of those knocked out, I hastily made my way out of the palace and into the empty courtyard.

Looking toward the horizon, I could see the sun steadily setting, and decided it was finally time to go.

Using light magic to cloak myself, I got to the open area of the courtyard and changed to my dragon form. "Hooh…" Although I was trying not to show it, my excitement was starting to boil over. "I might need your help with this one, Ilios." But I'm curious how much stronger I've really become... -

"Woof!" Quickly climbing up onto my back, Ilios let out a confident woof.

"Haha, I'm glad to see you're excited too!" After double checking to make sure Ilios was secured, I spread my, now even larger, wings and through them towards the ground. *FWWOOOSH*

With just a single flap, we were launched several hundred meters into the air, the backdraft cracking the stone pathway in the courtyard.

After seeing that Ilios handled the hard launch without much effort, an excited smile came to my face. -I should let him fight some this time… I'm sure he could use the exercise.- Turning back towards the horizon, a fire of excitement filled my mind. "To battle!"