Black Dragon (Part 2)

Feldman was scared, not for himself but for Evan. What Evan resembled right now closely resembled what the Dragon Clan depicted as their ancestors. They had portraits of past Clan Heads that looked eerily similar to the form that Evan had just taken. The people in those portraits always had longer horns, and large wings on their backs. There were only 2 portraits that depicted this, but they were extremely life-like. Everyone just assumed they had them painted after establishing their presence in the government.

"What's impossible?" Evan was confused.

"Stay there." Feldman said to Evan as he was already rushing towards the back-room Evan had never seen used before.

He was back before Evan could respond. He was carrying 3 large books. The one on top read, "Dragons: Myth and Fact". Evan couldn't read the ones underneath that. Feldman sat down and opened the book on top, scanning and flipping through pages frantically.

"Is this what you saw?" Feldman asked as he turned the book upside down and pointed at the page on the left. It was a figure of a dragon standing on the side of a mountain. The trees bellow it only came up to the ankles of the beast. If it was real, it would have been at least 100 feet tall. The scales were so black that it looked like a shadow standing alone. The only colors that could be seen were the vibrant red claws and horns on top of the head. The eyes were the most life-like in the drawing, a lava red oval iris, with golden lines sprawling through the red, and a vertical slit pupil, so dark it looked like a black hole sucking in light itself.

"Yes." Evan was a little taken aback that he was able to pull out the image that quickly from his description. "What is it and how did you know from the short description I gave you?"

"I didn't know from what you explained. It's your eyes. When you changed, it wasn't just your skin. Your eyes looked exactly like this." Feldman said this last part as he tapped the eyes in the picture. "I have always thought the eyes in this picture were a little to real looking. But this is a mythical dragon. It is called the Royal Black Dragon. According to the myth they flew down from the heaven's and taught the ancient Fortisians how to forge treasures. The Dragon Clan claims that they are their ancestors, but there has never been any proof of their existence."

"What does that mean for me then? Am I part of the Dragon Clan?" Evan asked, not particularly to Feldman but more thinking out loud.

"It is possible as I don't know anything about your mother. I only know what your father had said in passing. To be honest I didn't really care enough to pay attention to my students. I was always too caught up in a way to repair my pathways." Feldman admitted to Evan with a heavy heart.

"Either way, if it came from either of my parents, I don't want anything to do with them." Evan stated boldly.

"I'm afraid it might not be that easy. If they're honest about their ancestors being the Royal Black Dragon, and you carry the bloodline, then that would put them in a predicament. They have gained a lot of power in the government in the last 200 years, due to their high levels of both alchemy and forging. The Refinement Fire that they, and you, possess is actual a dual flame. It is useful in both creation arts. Well, lets just say that if there is a more pure bloodline of the dragon, it is safe to assume that there is someone with a stronger Refinement Fire than they possess. Since you are not a part of their clan, I'm afraid they wouldn't allow you to stay a, how should I put this, a freelancer. Plus, if your bloodline is this pure, it means that you can make a stronger offspring. I don't think that they would kill you, but if you aren't willing to conform, I don't think it would be impossible to make sure you never see the Sun again." Feldman was extremely honest about the situation. He wasn't trying to scare Evan, but he wanted him to know all the facts.

"So, how strong was this Black Dragon?" Evan was curious about his bloodline. The notification from the system never mentioned it being a royal bloodline, so maybe it was a different beast all-together. Evan had a feeling it wasn't though. He wondered if the bloodline was difficult to level up.

"Oh, that my boy, is hard to describe. Hmm, well through all of the books I have read on them, they were on an entirely different level of strength. The books all say that they were a top-notch existence in the God Realm, but that's the largest reason they are classified as a myth. The only thing that mentions Gods are myths." Feldman almost laughed at his response. Everything he had learned in his life said that Great Dragons were myths, but those eyes that Evan had shown him made him doubt all of the stories.

"So incredibly powerful then. Feldman. Do you know anything about how to activate or strengthen a bloodline?" Evan was hopeful that his "all-knowing" master could at least point him in the right direction.

"Evan, I'm going to be really honest with you right now. It is completely unheard of. You are either born with a bloodline or not. I have never heard of anyone discovering a bloodline later in life. You are an oddity that I can't explain. And that's not even the first one I have seen from you. Did you know it is supposed to be impossible to refine a plant while the roots are still pulling nutrients? You are supposed to gather the material before you temper it, otherwise the ground is supposed to swallow your energy. Yet, here you are, forcibly upgrading non-ranked materials through tempering. I haven't even read and fantasy books that can do this." Feldman let it slip that Evan was already doing the impossible. "And the process you described is extremely close to a body tempering technique only able to be performed by an Advanced A rank Alchemist, and impossible to perform on yourself."

Evan had no response. He didn't know that he was doing the possible and he experimented on himself. He figured it was safe to do since they say that your own energy can't hurt you. What Evan didn't know was that your energy could hurt you, just not in the ways that you would assume. Too much energy use too soon will degrade your pathways before you even ascend. Too much energy pushed into the physical body can cause things like muscle deterioration, brittle bones, and in rare cases can actually induce insanity.

Feldman went over these points after noticing Evan's refusal to speak.

"Look I am not saying that you will hurt yourself, or that you will even do something you regret. I am just asking from personal experience. Never tell anyone else what you can do, and never show anyone your full potential. I did both of those things and look how it turned out for me. I'm an old man at the young age of 127, my wife is scared to be close to me for my safety, and my children refuse to talk to me. They all say I am the creator of evil, and don't want me to infect their families." Feldman was trying to give advice, but just ended up bringing himself down.

"Sir, please tell me what is typical for someone with my talent. I don't ever want to make a mistake like Spirit Crystals." Evan pleaded with him. He had no family yet, but he hadn't forgotten his promise to himself either. He wanted to actually live this life, not just slave away till he died. That included cultivating. 'What good is power, if I have no one to share it with.', was his thought on this.

Feldman got to some of the finer details about what to expect from a peerless genius without going overboard. As Feldman had put it, "A genius is good, a freak of nature becomes a test subject."