Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

I met with Farahio just outside of the gate and we began our walk to the dungeon. When I asked if we shouldn't be going faster or even flying to spare time he answered with another question.

"How confident are you with blocking Jack's skill?" He asked. I took a moment to feel the timestream, feeling the paradox I had created on it starting to fade slowly.

"At least a couple of days, then the instability I created will return to normal and he will be able to see us" I answered, but was immediately asked another question.

"A couple of days for him to see us in a couple days, or a couple days for him to see us now?" He asked. I was about to answer, but paused. It's not a tricky question at all to answer, but considering it's something that is happening through time when we are inside of it is actually difficult to answer.

"A couple days for him to see us in a couple days" I finally answer after analysing the paradox and concentrating to feel the same effect in the past. The paradox I had created in the inn's bedroom was still there, existing by itself and being paradoxical, but the effect was blanketing an area behind and after, meaning that it would be impossible for him to peer into this area during these couple of days, and only after… Now I understand captain Janeway's hatred for temporal mechanics.

During the time we spent walking at a faster pace than normal, I asked Farahio to teach me the basics of magic casting, and he took a few moments thinking before answering that it would only be fair. So he spent the time as we walked teaching me the basics.

Honestly, it was just a little better than Henry's book in that I could ask questions about things I didn't understand. But in summary there are two methods of casting spells, the classical and modern. Classical methods are chants and rituals, when you use specific phrases to cast a specific spell. The words themselves didn't matter as much as keeping a firm and strong mental image while letting the magicules themselves form the spell.

The modern methods are the magic circuits and, while runes are also a part of rituals and considered classic, they are more utilized on modern methods of magic casting for their efficiency. In this type of casting, you need to create a magic circuit using runes and connecting them with lines, basically an electronic circuit if I understood it correctly. It takes more precision than classical casting but has a much better efficiency in terms of magicule consumption as the runes themselves dictate what must happen.

It was basically a confirmation that the way I casted spells, by programming them on [Magical Programming Language], was another entire way to cast that, at least, Farahio doesn't know about. It also meant that I would need to learn it myself if I wanted to be good at magic, something I already knew but at least it was good to have confirmed to me.

I tried casting using the classical method, as trying to do the modern method would take too much time for me to learn how to actually do it. I tried a few versions of the chant just to see what would change.

"Oh gods and spirits that hear my voice, grant me the power to destroy my enemies and return them to the ashes of creation. Fireball" Was the first test I did and the resulting fireball was 2 meters in diameter and exploded on contact with a boulder near us.

"I call upon the entropy that governs the world. Gather on the palm of my hand and condense. Burn my enemies and release their energy back into the world. Fireball" Was the second test and the resulting fireball was just a few centimeters in size but took a bunch more of my magicules and when it hit the same boulder it became so hot it started to melt a little.

I did a few more tests after that, using the same phrases and just changing my mental image of the spell as I did so, discovering the effect of the spells changed based on my mental image. I even made one just repeating "bah bah bah" over and over and it worked. The final test that I did before we reached the dungeon was the one where even Farahio became confused as to what I had just done.

"I call upon me the energy of creation" I said the first line while thinking about the birth of the universe, aka the big bang, but the moment the words left my mouth I felt my mind sliping and myself entering a trance, with one of my skills activating but I wasn't able to know which. "Burn with the energy of a quasar and devour with the hunger of a black hole" I couldn't see or hear anything else, so I completely missed when Farahio started calling me to stop as a sphere of pure burning energy appeared just outside of my mouth. "Through the power of a blue giant, explode. Stellar Nova"

The moment I finished my incantation was the moment I felt something burn through my soul, I felt the strain as two of my skills were overloaded and worked overtime

The next thing I know I'm being woken up by a ball of water on my face, causing me to jump out of whatever I was in and trying to cast a fireball only to immediately regret as my body screamed in protest from the sudden movement, causing me to stagger and almost fall to the ground.

"Wakey wakey. You spent the last five hours passed out after that show. What was that, by the way? I felt that beam could hurt even me" I heard Farahio's voice. It took me a moment to notice we were in a hut made out of compacted dirt.

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"I… What happened? The last thing I remember was testing out a few fireball chants" I said, my legs still slightly trembling.

"Well, why don't you take a look yourself?" Farahio said, moving his arms for me to leave the dirt hut.

I took one trembling step after trembling step, my body still arching in several places because of whatever had happened with me.

As I excited the hut I saw a deep gash on the plains. It was so deep even the sunlight couldn't reach the bottom, and somehow I could feel how weak space and time had become near it. It felt like I could crack open space if I pushed it just a bit harder.

I took a step back instinctively.

"So. What do you think?" Farahio's voice came from behind me. I looked at him and then at the scar on the planet.

"I did that?" I asked incredulously.

"Yep. I don't know how. One moment you were shooting normal fireballs and the next your face became that of a dragon and you shot out a beam with so much energy I seemed like one of several high-leveled spells I know but that takes minutes to prepare and cast, and you did it with just a few seconds" He explained.

"I don't remember any of it" I said. "I only know that my body is hurting and I can feel the edge of a pain deep in my soul"

"In your soul?"

"Yeah. I just know the pain is in my soul"

"Interesting" Farahio took what looked like a notepad and started to write something for a few moments before storing it again. "That would explain why your aura was so erratic until a few minutes ago. That's why I woke you up, by the way"

"I…see"

"Oh well. Let's keep going" He then started to walk again, leaving me behind.

"Now? I'm still not one hundred" I said, but he just waved me off.

"You're good enough. Besides, time doesn't wait for anyone and we are on a limited budget of it. Or do you want to meet Jack again?"

He had a point. I then walked behind Farahio, trying my best to ignore the pain that flared up every time I moved too much.

My steps became less stiff as the skill allowed me to ignore the pain I was feeling to continue doing whatever. I had a slight suspicion that this skill was one of the most preferred by masochists and the like. I just know that it is a pain, literally, to level it up. It's one skill I don't really mind not leveling up, you know?

Thirty minutes later, with Farahio just releasing his aura to scare a few creatures that tried to jump on us, we were in front of two trees that had their branches making some kind of arch between them and inside the arch there was a kind of tunnel going downwards. It was obviously unnatural as the branches and stone came together to connect and form the tunnel.

"And here we are. Mystery dungeon" Farahio said.

"Mystery? Will I have to resolve a mystery to complete it?" I asked.

"What? No. Mystery because I have no idea what's inside. I just felt the magicule levels leaking from the dungeon to estimate its level. I haven't entered it, that's for you to do"

"I never went into a dungeon. Is this safe?"

"Absolutely not. That's how dungeons are. And I don't want to spoil the surprise of what dungeons can do. Besides, it's just a low level dungeon. Probably doesn't even have five floors"

"Still…" I looked at the dark entrance to the dungeon. This is the type of stuff a battle maniac would love, but I wasn't one. If I could just stay put I would be glad.

"Bah! You're a dragon. You've said it yourself. Go do dragon things and conquer this dungeon!" As he said it, I felt a hand made out of magicules form behind me and shove me inside the dungeon. "Remember to take off your clothes if you change into a dragon again! I don't have another set"

Sighing and accepting my fate of having to do a dungeon run, I got up after the shove made me fall into the ground and cleared the dust off my clothes before taking them off and placing them neatly in a spot near the entrance. I then triggered [Genetic Dysphoria] and felt as my body changed directly into my true form instead of passing through the goop for a few minutes phase. Finding it weird, I opened my status screen.

Right away I noticed that, besides [Pain Resistance], [Elemental Breath] had gone up 3 levels, [Soul Damage Resistance] had gained 2 levels and [Genetic Dysphoria] gained 1 level… What the heck had happened back there for me to gain these levels?

Shaking my head to dismiss these thoughts, I looked forwards into the descending slope this dungeon had and I started walking forward.