Trope World - Volume 1 Chapter 30 Burn Everything

My mana was depleted below a million, my health bar was only half full, and my stamina had less than a quarter left. Every step was off balance. Missing my left arm had thrown me off more than I realized. The snake’s cultivation base was pressuring mine. Blood seeped from my ears and eyes as my own base was condensed further by an outside force. Each step brought me closer to the giant snake and each step increased the pressure even more.

When I reached some imperceptible border. The snake struck; its fangs flashed dripping venom as they sped over me. I couldn’t let it hit. I whipped my right hand to the side and unleashed a burst of dragon fire. Powerful flames shot from my palm angled at the ground. My body shot away from the monster. The sudden use of dragon fire slowed my mana recovery further. I was out of spirit stones and my mind needed a rest. The pressure continued to bear down on my cultivation base.

The snake countered with a tail sweep. Its tail was well over half a kilometer long. It was nearly a story wide and it moved fast as lightning. More pressure weighed upon my cultivation base as I fell over making use of a small gap in the monster’s scales. The tail zoomed overhead covering me in ash and sweeping up a massive ash cloud. I buried my face and tried to remain still. I needed to recover.

Seconds went by and the monster hissed out before opening its mouth and unleashing a breath attack. From its mouth toxic tar spewed forth swirling and covering the ground. It was powerful beyond reason and increased the pressure from the snake’s cultivation base even more. I buried myself under a layer of ash and silt. The breath attack moved over me, but I was protected by layers of ash and silt. Silt from the river that used to flow through here into the sea.

Deep below the ashes I could feel a faint flow of water qi. I pulled my sword from my belt and stabbed it into the ground. My blade wasted no time absorbing what little water qi remained from the long-dried river. In an instant the fire stopped melting the blade. Instead it heated up and changed colors to a solid red. I pulled one of the wood monster cores from my bag of holding and my sword absorbed it. The red glow brightened but the metal still didn’t melt.

“One more element and I can produce spirit energy master. Then all our problems are over.” My sword said. I really needed to get it a name. I rose from the ash just as the snake dipped it mouth and closed it. In one fell swoop the snake had managed to capture me.

“Why is it doing this? What does it gain by eating me?” I asked. The snake tossed back its head and I tumbled down. Disgusting saliva and venom covered me from head to toe. I stabbed my sword against the snake’s palate, but it bounced off. The pressure was at an all time high and my cultivation base rapidly crushed down on itself. Just as it reached the smallest it could possibly get it exploded outwards. I could feel myself push back against the snake’s pressure and my cultivation base increased. I leapt past stage 4 and went straight to stage 5 of qi condensation. I could feel qi flow through my body erasing weaknesses.

Qi multiplier 8

Qi Multiplier-8

Batttle Power 498954(31.933m)

Melting Sword = 105.379m – 144.047m

Status

Health 126,980(8.12675m)

Stamina 411,329(26.325m)

Mana 958,552(61.3473m)

STR 554.5(4436) CON 229(1832) DEX 976.1(7808.8)

END 421.4(3371.2) INT 1519.1(12152.8) WIS 631(5048)

CHA 234.1(1872.8) PER 854.5(6836)

Just as my qi finished flowing through my body powering me up to finish off the giant snake. I slipped and my sword slipped from my hand. The powerful muscles of the throat caught me and pulled me down. As it did, I could feel the dragon fire leave me body. My inner dragon let out a mournful cry is it was extracted. The process felt like my qi channels were being scorched from the inside out. But my mana levels remained the same.

I managed to move my hand to press against the powerful muscles that pulled me deeper into the serpent. The esophagus of the snake lit up showing of purple pulsating flesh. Silt filled the snake’s insides it had been used to grind against things the snake swallowed.

With my hand pointed away from me, I began to gather mana. A beam of mana shot through the snake ripping a massive hole in the creature. The snake leapt off the ground and crashed back down in shock at the sudden pain. Blood hot and sticky flowed out of the wound. There was enough blood to fill up a swimming pool. Even as the snake bled out its muscles continued to contract pulling me deeper. Acid poured onto me as the snake spasmed and fought against its coming demise. I saw a glint in the distance and reached for it. My hand grasped around the hilt of my sword. The silver blade turned crimson red as my battle power mixed with it. I turned the blade towards the guts and began to slice open the stomach.

The snake continued to fight. It rammed into the walls of the kiln and tightened its body trying to close the wound to no avail. With a final cut, I managed to get out of the snake. My qi pathways were burned but rapidly recovering thanks to my HP. The snake’s acid wasn’t that powerful compared the the fly monsters.

With the snake on the ropes, I buffed with oppression blade and charged at the monster. My sword cleaved through the snake’s earthen scales causing a trimmer to rush through the creature. Quake had entered the monster and its body was ripping itself apart at the seams. I released oppression blade and stepped back from the monster as it writhed and then twitched.

The creature’s goal had been to devour me alive and absorb my dragon fire. It was nearly time to light the kiln and bet my future on my inner dragon. When the snake stopped moving, I walked to the spot where the snake’s earth qi still flowed strongly. I sliced three times creating a triangular wound. After I pulled the scales and muscle away a brown monster core appeared. I stabbed my sword through it quickly adding its earth qi to my blade. I held my sword watching as its blade lengthened. The blade was only 4 feet long now, but it was clearly more powerful. The sword in my hand was stable complete. It began to pull qi from the air and convert it into spiritual energy.

“I’ll name you Lucifer after the king of Babylon.” I said. Just saying it made me want to laugh. What would I do next, name my dragon Samuel? I was starving despite my need for spiritual energy being sated. Something about the giant snake made me hungry.

Taking Lucifer and pointing it down, I stabbed into the snake and skinned it from head to tail. If losing an arm was my price for not taking this world seriously before, then I would use mana as my arm.

Sheathing Lucifer, I raised my right stump remembering the phantom feeling. My mana reacted forming a single blue hand. Then another appeared. More gathered until there were hundreds of hands made of mana. My limit was 300 hands at once. I used them to pull the skin away from the meat. Hundreds of tons of snake scale fell onto the ashes

Power Skill Discovered: Phantom Limbs lv25; cost 25,000mp; +250 INT/WIS

I set up my cracked pill furnace like a grill and put a slab of snake meat weighing just under 3 tons inside of it. The meat itself was extremely heavy and I barely closed the door and heated the meat with dragon fire, when my patience ended. My first bite of the meat was almost indescribable. It was unseasoned to the extreme, but it had a taste of power. With each bite fat drizzled down my face as I ate more than my body weight. My body began to grow stronger. For the first time in weeks, I felt my body bulk up. I grew nearly a foot taller and I could tell my skin was growing tougher with each bite. In minutes the meat was gone.

Monster Diet lv10; +100CON

I consumed more meat and used dragon fire as toilet paper. I stopped cooking the meat. It was better to eat it raw. I could feel something in the meat. I was learning some fundamental part of the snake with every bite. Whole sections of the snake began to disappear in my gluttony. Yet still I was only approaching the hidden secret in the meat. I even cracked open the serpent’s skull and ate the brain.

Poison resistance lv100; 100CON/END

Eating lv100; +100CON

A little poisoning was the price I paid for eating a giant snake. No matter how much I consumed, I didn’t get full. Only after I ate the last piece of the snake did I gain enlightenment.

Power Skill Stolen: Earth Scales lv1; Active 1000MP; +10CON

This world was amazing. I was originally 5ft 11inches tall but now thanks to the gamer system, I was nearing 7ft. My arm was a massive hulking mass of muscle and my legs weren’t far behind.

It was time to light up this place and burn all the bodies. I placed my hand on the dimond in the snake’s hood and pulled the flame out. This flame was powerful. Just holding it, I knew it was beyond Nascent Soul. This was a flame of the gods made to send loved ones to the afterlife. That snake had stolen it and used the flame to rise in power.

I placed the fire in the center of the kiln and began to release my inner dragon. My dragon cheered as his body overtook mine. A strange sensation overtook me one I’d never felt before. I was not only within my dragon a creature made of fire, but I could feel what he felt. As a dragon, I desired to be complete. I opened my bag of holding and fed myself the giant wood monster core, I’d won from the giant fly. Then I walked towards the carcass of the giant snake. Though cracked the large earth core still had its element within. I consumed it as well. Power rushed through me and I felt my body change again.

Wyrmling lv1,500

Wyrmling lv2,500

Wyrmling lv5,000

Wyrmling lv6,500

Wyrmling lv7,500

Wood gives way to fire, fire gives way to earth, and wood destroys earth. This sequence closed the circle before it became unstable. Given enough time earth would create metal and fire would keep metal in check. For now, I let my dragon body flow naturally through to its newest transformation. Time ebbed and flowed and there was little difference between me and the dragon. My wings of ash hardened and fell away as my flesh became molten rock. In my current state flying was impossible. I was now a pure fire earth dragon. The the wood element kicked in. The excess earthly qi was destroyed, and my body changed again. The molten rock cooled becoming living earthly scales. I grew heavier than ever before as the earthly qi was tempered by fire and wood. True life flowed into my form and I took a living breath for the first time. This body though scaled like the giant snake was more alive. My flesh stretched as I moved towards the flame.

Chemicals moved through my new fleshy mind as desires to hunt and gather treasures emerged. Perhaps, I would find a mate as well. No, an unfamiliar thought crossed my mind. Why not seek my freedom and acquire treasures? Why not sate my hunger and journey across the world?

Then memories flowed through my mind. I remembered that this was a dream. I wasn’t a dragon; I was a one-armed man on a mission to burn the bodies of the dead. I was here to make my dragon self-reach core formation. Even so, I knew that unleashing the fire would increase my power by many times. It also meant greater difficulty finding monster cores that could bond with me. I needed a water and metal core. Without those, I would never fly, and my scales would always be limited. If I reach core formation as I am. I would need Nascent soul or higher monster cores.

We must light the flame and burn the wood. I took the flame and consumed it. In moments the small flame merged with my own. I opened my maw feeling a roar emerge from my throat. The fire was too much it needed to be released.

Flames shot from my maw spread across the ash and found the remains of the dead. As the flames left my mouth the fire qi in this place skyrocketed. And I saw something sparkle above the kiln. I recognized them for what they were. They were monster core’s carved and placed on the kiln’s chimney. I scrambled up the rock wall of the kiln feeling my body stretch out as I used my three taloned toes to ascend the kiln. The fire qi climbed at a phenomenal rate. It wouldn’t be long before I was forced to absorb it. Instincts were battling against my desire to gain another element.

I reached the chimney and shot my taloned paw out to grab the largest water core. It was lodged in the chimney tight. Forgoing my paw, I reached my head in and bit down on the water core. With a mighty jerk, I ripped it and many of the monster cores away before swallowing the water core. I lost my balanced and fell.

My tail destroyed several columns of stairs as I fell into the flames. I hit the ground hard shaking the kiln as my body transformed. My scales cracked and lengthened as more form became lither. My neck stretched out further my tongue changed from its forked nature into a thicker variant. My bones trembled as a second toe emerged on each paw. I opened my mouth and roared as wings burst from my back. I opened and closed my mouth feeling duel sets of jaws. Then just as I began to get used to my new form the fire qi in the kiln shot into me.

I awoke in a bed of ash. Everything around me had been burnt to ash and only a single flame remained in the center of all this. I looked over to my left to see my arm was still missing. I had some faint hope; I could have regrown my arm in dragon form.

Wyrmling lv10k; +1000INT/WIS

Wisdom has surpassed the 1000 milestone

Next milestone 100k

Dao skill discovered; Atonement lv1; active cost 1,000,000MP; +100WIS

Unlike deep talisman, I sensed a clue about my new skill. It was defensive in nature. I didn’t know how I knew but I did.

As for wyrmling. I could sense something. I held up my hand and dragon fire appeared on instinct. From my stump the clawed limb of a dragon emerged. It wasn’t made of ash or stone. This limb through scaled was monumentally powerful. It easily had a BP of 300b. After a moment my concentration slipped, and the limb vanished. It didn’t feel like I had asked for help.

I wanted my dragon limb to appear and it did. When had I thought of the dragon to be a part of me? When I thought about it there was no other presence than myself. My dragon fire was mine. I looked up at the broken stairs and sighed. It was going to be a long climb up with only one arm.