(5) Name?

A human and 2 dragons were lying unconsciously in the ground inside a tightly sealed cave while bathing and continuously absorbing a huge amount of magicules that filled the interior of the cave.

The human slowly opened its eyes and scanned his surroundings, "Where am I?". While he was busy studying his environment, a huge amount of information flooded in his brain.

Argh!

An excruciating cry of pain reverberated inside the cave.

As the human was suffering from the pain, a majestic voice filled with dignity and regality resounded from the deepest parts of the cave.

"Calm down, you are not in danger."

After hearing this voice, the human slowly calmed down and regained his composure. As he digested the influx of information, he was immediately flustered, and his face was filled with embarrassment.

He knelt down on one knee, faced the direction of the voice and said in a reverent voice while sweating profusely, "Supreme one, forgive this old one for my misconduct!"

A moment of silence permeated the cave. It was so suffocating that the human is using all of his strength just to withstand the invisible pressure.

After a few more minutes of silence.

Sigh!

An old and tired sigh came from the depths of the cave then the majestic voice questioned the kneeling human.

"You are not human, what are you?"

As if receiving the amnesty of the heavens, the humanoid heaved a sigh of relief as he answered truthfully in a shaking voice while still kneeling down and not daring to lift his head up. "Supreme One, according to my memory, I am indeed not human, apparently, I am a variant of a race called deathman created by the necromancy spell, 'Birthday'."

After answering swiftly, the humanoid waited patiently for a response from the being in the deepest parts of the cave.

"Do you possess the knowledge for such spell?" The being questioned majestically after a few seconds of waiting.

"I do, Supreme One. The majin who created me imparted the knowledge to me in hopes of awakening the dormant ego that's within all deathmen creations." The human answered respectfully while still kneeling on the floor.

"Deathmen possesses a dormant ego the moment they are created? Why is that?" The being in the deepest parts of the cave seems to have his interest piqued as he asked again.

"Yes, that is true. Deathmen are created using the necromancy spell 'birthday' using thousands of bodies as the medium. They are perfect to create puppets and a medium for incarnation. As for my case, I remembered that I was created using the bodies of wyverns, lesser dragons, couple of arch dragons and one dragon lord, and the ego that I possess shall belong to the dragon lord, however, it wasn't strong enough as it was already slightly influenced by the other egos inhabiting the dragon corpses. In a way, my ego right now could be considered a collective one. It may take some time to make it my own. Plus, it seems like my creator treated me as his life's greatest masterpiece as he gave me all of his knowledge."

"After the death of my creator at the hands of the western nation's crusaders, his influence vanished from my soul which cause my strength to deteriorate to a lesser dragon, I fled to this place as my body wanted to instinctively return to this mountain range and only now that I understood that this was the place for the majority of dragons in this world." The deathman seems to realize that he had spoken too much and immediately shut his mouth in fear.

However, the being inside seemed to be immersed in his story as he said slowly.

"Remove the formalities and continue."

The deathman didn't heed his words as he still kneeled down with his head hanging low. He continued his story.

"After my creator's defeat at the hands of the Crusaders of the western nation, all of his deathmen creations, aside from me, were destroyed. I only managed to escape as my creator treated me affectionately, he didn't send me into battle instead he bought me time to escape. Utilizing his control over my soul, he ordered me to run away, and I eventually found my way here."

The dragon finished his tale and obediently shut his mouth immediately while he waited patiently for the response of the being inside the cave.

"If you are created using the bodies of dragons, then why are you in human form?" The being was wildly curious as to why the dragon that was supposedly modeled after the corpses of dragons was in a human form.

The dragon thought for a moment then he answered with a passionate voice.

"It's all thanks to you Supreme One!"

"To me?" The being inside asked skeptically.

"Yes, to be more precise, it was due to your released magicules and the implanted soul fragment!" However, the deathman doesn't seem to mind it as he answered more passionately.

"I don't understand, elaborate." The being seems to get irritated as he said hurriedly.

The dragon was stunned for a bit and thought, 'Isn't this common knowledge?'. Nonetheless, he still answered respectfully.

"Forgive me for losing my composure. Due to your released magicules, which is still lingering in the air after a long time, we were able to absorb the required amount of magicules to evolve to the next level. All three of us evolved twice, we became arch dragons then dragon lords. Not only did we evolve, but our souls also seem to have fused completely with your soul fragment. The voice of the world said that I evolved into a Death dragon lord and the reason why I gained a humanoid form is because deathmen are humanoids upon creation, I should have been able to transform into my humanoid form even if I was still a lesser dragon. However, my ego was still so weak to even consider it, but that is not the case now, as dragon lords, we already possess our own individuality, and our intelligence can already rival that of humans." As the death dragon lord finished, he lifted his head as he tried to peep at the image of the supreme one, to his disappointment however, the 'Supreme One' was shrouded in a mist caused by the dense magicules inside the cave.

"I see. Go and guard the entrance of the cave and kill anyone who gets near." Seemingly satisfied, the being inside the cave gave an order to the death dragon lord.

As the death dragon lord retreated to the outside of the cave, a pair of scarlet eyes slowly surfaced amidst the darkness of the cave.

"So, the voice that was speaking in my head is called the voice of the world. Are all beings in this world capable of hearing that voice? Or is it a select few? This world really does bring unprecedented surprises...Their souls have also improved." The humanoid with white hair muttered as he looked at the sleeping dragons on the ground.

"Based on what he said, these two should be on the process of evolving. It has already been 3 months since I first released the magicules from my skill and when they first absorbed the magicules. My small world has already been completely terraformed with the help of the skill 'Magicule Breeder Reactor'. Although I'm still recovering from the forceful extraction of my soul, I managed to fuse the skill to my small world."

After having the thought to fuse a part of his soul containing the skill 'Magicule Breeder Reactor' to his small world months ago, he immediately hopped into action. He succeeded in fusing a part of his soul that contains the 'black spot' of the skill 'Magicule Breeder Reactor' to his small world after 3 weeks of intense concentration, but the skill didn't stop generating magicules, as if the gates of a dam have been broken and cannot be fixed. With this experience, he finally understood why it was an intrinsic skill, almost nobody could acquire this skill and it caused his desires to deepen as he desperately wants to search for the origins of his body.

"I can't move even after months of recuperating, the damage to my soul is so severe that I lost access to my skills. For the time being, I only need to wait until I'm fully recovered before anything else."

As he was closing his eyes, he saw the still growing bodies of the dragons in his peripheral vision.

"I should let these 2 evolved inside my small world to hasten their evolution." As he thought of it, he called upon the death dragon lord and asked for his help to carry these 2 dragons to his small world that has time accelerated to the maximum. Although a little bit dissatisfied that these 2 lizards will be near the 'Supreme One', the death dragon lord still carried these 2 dragons to the small world. He carried the 2 dragons at the same time which momentarily surprised the white-haired humanoid, with an old and feeble body of a grandfather, he was still able to carry these 2 dragons like they were chickens, after considering the fact that this was a dragon in human skin and an amalgamation of several dragon bodies at that, the white-haired humanoid finally closed his eyes.

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6 months passed by in the blink of an eye.

Inside a cave filled with thick density of magicules, a white-haired humanoid opened its eyes as he exhaled deeply.

Fwaa!

"At last! I finally recovered and my soul seems to be a lot stronger than before the fusion of my soul containing the skill to my small world."

Clenching his fists, he vowed to himself that he will never let that thing happen ever again. Due to his overconfidence, he almost damaged his only foundation in this world. Although, he successfully fused the skill to his small world and provided a stable source of energy for it, he lost control over an extremely important skill. Now that 'Magicule Breeder Reactor' is fused to his small world, he no longer has a source of energy in case he overused his own energy. He can still use the magicule released within his small world, but he first needs to absorb it back to his body before he can even use it. A far cry when the skill was just embedded on his body, which allows him to use the magicules instantaneously.

Not only did he lose an important skill, but he also wasted precious time in recovering his divine soul, although, it was stronger compared to before. He can't help but grieve towards the lost time.

Sigh!

Shaking his head to throw away these useless thoughts, he affirmed himself.

"What's done is done, I will continue moving forward despite the obstacles!"

"My time isn't exactly wasted as I gained precious information from the death dragon lord."

While he was recuperating for the past months, he conversed continuously with the death dragon lord, squeezing all the available information that he could think of. He was like a transfer student that wanted to know everything as soon as possible to quickly adapt to the norms of the place.

During the span of 6 months, the 2 dragons successfully finished their evolution to dragon lords and woke up. After confirming that they already heard the voice of the world, he was finally certain that the origin of the second voice that's reverberating inside his head was indeed the voice of the world.

He also learned that dragon lords only came to being after thousands of years of living and after absorbing a tremendous amount of magicules. These dragons lord are semi-spiritual lifeforms that are said to rival a 'demon lord seed', as they call it.

He also learned that there was a council of extremely powerful beings in the world called "The Ten Great Demon Lords". Basing on the name alone, he could guess that they are extremely powerful than a 'demon lord seed' because he has companions that are said to rival a 'demon lord seed'. He was a little hesitant to believe that these 3 dragons are powerful enough to rival the so called 'demon lord seed' as he doesn't have anyone to compare their strength with. He also wasn't willing to take the risk to find someone who is as strong as them, just to test their claims.

He also learned about the existence of the true dragons, when he asked the death dragon lord about the true dragons, all he said was that they were beings that are nigh-invulnerable and nigh-unstoppable avatars of nature that serve as the pillars of all creation with only four known to ever exist. After hearing about the true dragons, he started to think if he was somewhat connected to them. As according to the death dragon lord, the descendants of dragons are called dragonewts. They are either the evolved form of lizardmen or the offspring of a humanized dragon with a human. As he was neither of the two, his thought process naturally veered towards the true dragons.

As he was contemplating, a human and 2 dragons approached him cautiously, they knelt down and said in unison,

"Congratulations to the Supreme One for the successful recovery!"

Although he doesn't have the slightest idea why these 3 dragon lords that could rival a 'demon lord seed' was so respectful to him even after ordering their death months prior, he still accepted their allegiance as they were the only one that he could utilize as of the moment.

"Stand up. Go outside and capture some mezus and gozus that you saw before and bring them to me. I want them to be the inhabitants of my small world... Also, capture some lesser dragons as well."

After receiving the order, the 3 dragon lords nodded their head in excitement as they answered in unison, "Your will be done, Supreme One!" With that, they left to accomplish the task given to them.

Looking at the retreating figures, the white-haired humanoid pondered about an extremely interesting topic that he heard from the dragon lords and thought to himself.

'They said that names are extremely important for the growth of monsters. Even after months of serving me, they still haven't asked for a name. Well, I won't give them one even if they requested.'

He wasn't keen on handing out names as of the moment as he himself doesn't even want to remember his own name.

The very name that once shook and terrified the whole world during his first reincarnation!

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As the 3 dragon lords exited the cave, they conversed among themselves.

"So, how do we divide the tasks among ourselves?" The sky dragon lord asked in a melodious voice that seems to captivate anyone that hears it.

"I'll take care of the Gozus." The poison dragon lord sounded lethargic as he voiced out his thoughts. He was oblivious that his tone of voice erred the other dragon lords.

"Hmph! Why don't you take care of your voice first! I'll handle the Mezus then." The sky dragon lord was annoyed at how sluggish the poison dragon lord sounded and she immediately flew away to the encampment of the mezus, not wanting to stay even a second near the poison dragon lord.

"What the hell is her problem? My voice always sounded this way." The poison dragon lord said in a listless voice as he was dumbfounded at how the graceful sky dragon lord reacted earlier.

"Don't mind her, just do your job as quick as possible and don't make the Supreme One wait for you." The death dragon lord said in a sagely manner as he also transformed into his draconic form and flew to capture some unsuspecting lesser dragons.

Sigh!

"Why does it seem like I'm the most normal dragon lord here?" While lamenting the abnormalities of the other dragon lords, he also flew into the distance as he focused on the completing the task given to him.

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As the 3 dragon lords left the cave to complete their individual tasks. The white-haired humanoid started to feel the changes that happened to his body.

"I now have 2 horns protruded on my forehead as well as scales that have started to appear on my body. These changes took effect the moment my soul grew stronger, it seems like this body is adapting to my divine soul, as my soul continues to grow powerful so does my body. If someday my soul was powerful enough, will I become a full-fledged dragon?"

"I will wait for them to return and then make preparations for the future." He said while holding his chin.

Now that he learned the existence of demon lords, heroes, saints and even true dragons. He felt like there was a massive mountain on his back. If he lagged behind, these absolute powerhouses would devour him without hesitation. After the betrayals that he suffered during his second life, he wasn't willing to trust anyone anymore no matter how much loyalty they show him. No matter the world is, only strength reigns supreme, without strength, he can only take the beating and lament the reality of powerlessness.

As he was feeling the pressure of getting powerful while staying hidden from the eyes of the powerhouses, he sensed a large group of beings nearing his cave.

He concentrated deeply for a couple of minutes until he received another skill.

[Confirmed. Extra skill "Heat Sense"... has been acquired.]

He started utilizing this newly acquired skill as soon as he heard the voice of the world.

"More than a thousand." He muttered in a low voice.

After confirming the number of intruders, he stood up and prepared to meet them head-on. As he walks towards the entrance, he started to use "Universal Shapeshift" to transform into an ice dragon. After several months, the properties that he acquired should have evolved to an ice arch dragon.

Woosh!

After the black mist subsided, a huge four-legged western dragon with glistening white-blue scales and two large wings emerged.

[Notice. Intrinsic skill "Universal Shapeshift" has acquired the properties of an Ice dragon lord after the properties of the lesser ice dragon was continuously bathe in a dense concentration of magicules.]

The dragon was lost for words as he stared at his humongous white-blue body after hearing his unique skill.

"Ice Dragon Lord. So, after several months, I can assume that all properties that I acquired so far have evolved to the Dragon lord level." He said while inspecting his huge body.

So far, he consumed 5 lesser dragon cores and after several months, he already has 5 dragon lord transformations at his disposal.

"I really wanted to take a look at all the transformations, but dealing with the intruders is much more important." He muttered in a serious voice.

Slowly stabilizing his thoughts, he walked awkwardly on four legs towards the entrance of the cave.

As he exited the cave, he concealed his presence using "Conceal Presence" and just stood at the entrance of the cave like a statue. After waiting for what seems like forever, silhouettes of small humanoid figures started to appear from the horizon.

Seeing these small figures, a race of monsters immediately appeared on his mind.

"Goblins?" He blurted out loud.

As if he can't believe his eyes, he complained loudly.

"Did I really just transform into a dragon lord for these guys?!"

[Notice. Emotions will be suppressed under the effects of the Unique Skill "Unmoved Sage"]

Recalling the memories from his original world, goblin is a race of monster that's prone to trouble and was considered as one of the lowest level monsters. The only thing that's troublesome about them is their capability to reproduce quickly. Albeit considered as a low-level monster, they are a race of monsters with limitless potential.

After making sure that the approaching monsters are indeed goblins, he finally chose to cancel his skill "Conceal Presence" as his aura immediately spread out using his extra skill "Dragon Pulse". The carefree looks of the goblins turned to immediate shock and fear as all of them almost fainted from the pressure. After confirming that they were indeed goblins, he immediately wanted to capture these creatures because he wanted to test if they are really the monsters that those fantasy novels make them out to be.

Using the innate capability of goblins to reproduce quickly, he wanted them inside his small world to populate it as fast as possible. Especially now, his small world already has a stable source of energy which means that when enough energy has been acquired, the small world would grow in size as well. After all the goblins fainted, he immediately put them inside his small world. He separated all of them, placing them in different terrains and environments.

"The death dragon lord said that absorbing a tremendous amount of magicules can make or break a monster. If these goblins manage to absorb enough magicules and survive, they could potentially evolve and if they absorbed too much, then they will die. In this way, I could filter out the talented ones among them." The dragon lord said in a neutral voice as if he was completing his daily routine.

After stuffing the last goblin inside his small world, he reverted back to his humanoid form and to his surprise, he finally gained a full human form without his tail, horns or even scales.

What emerged from the black mist caused by the intrinsic skill 'Universal Shapeshift' was a lanky, tall dude with wavy white hair with tanned skin and scarlet eyes. Seeing this familiar body type, he was shocked beyond words as an epiphany struck him.

He was capable of turning into a full human from the very beginning!

He should have known that the body he possessed in this world was influenced by his former appearances!

He was a human in his original world, and he was a human as well in his second life! And in both of those worlds, he had a wavy white hair, tanned skin paired with scarlet eyes.

Splat!

He slapped his forehead powerfully for missing such an easy comparison and for being so dumb!

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More than a month passed by in a blink of an eye.

A little over 11 years left before a unique slime is born.

Inside the small world.

A white-haired soul form was floating as he surveyed his growing small world.

"When I first checked my small world, it was only 150,000 square kilometers. After fusing the skill 'Magicule Breeder Reactor' to my small world, it started to grow and still continues to enlarge now. After several months, it has already grown to 170,000 square kilometers, although it was a small increase, I should always remember that the 4 sovereigns in my previous world were only able to increase the small world by a small percentage and that is after several centuries. This growth speed is already unbelievable!" The soul spoke with himself as he surveyed the 4 small continents, 1 large body of water located at the center of the 4 small continents and that traversed through the 4 small continents and the 3 layers of heavens that he initially created. These 3 major parts of the small world are still enlarging as they continuously absorb the magicules. After thinking for a moment, he decided to name these important places.

The northern continent - The Arctic.

The southern continent - The Sierra.

The eastern continent - The Prairie.

The western continent - The No-Mans-Land.

The central ocean - The Neptune.

The third layer of heaven - The White Haven.

The second layer of heaven - The Black Haven.

The first layer of heaven - The Forbidden Zone.