First Spell!

John weighed his options carefully.

According to Mel, the words of power were really general definitions, and how they got expressed depended entirely on the individual. Specifically, based on their Draconic Affinity.

'Say, Mel, could you explain more about Draconic Affinity?' asked John.

[Of course. Dragons tend to attune themselves to a singular elemental force. Thus, there are fire dragons, ice dragons, storm dragons, and so on and so forth.

A Draconic Affinity is simply the element a dragon expresses, and that will heavily color the expression of all their Arcana.

A flame dragon, for example, uttering the word of power would likely rain fire from the skies. Vastly different from a wood dragon such as myself.

There are four Classical Affinities, and the vast majority of dragon kind will be attuned to them.

Fire.

Water.

Earth.

Wind.

From these, dragons with more potential may have Combinant Affinities that merge aspects of the Classical Affinities.

Lightning from fire and wind.

Wood from water and earth.

Magma from earth and fire.

And so on.

Likely, as a Great Offspring of the Dragon Monarch who bent all elements to his will, you will start with one affinity but attune with many more over the course of your growth.

Choose your Arcana, and we shall see what affinity you favor.]

John nodded, getting a sense now of how dragons worked.

Dragons in typical stories had lots of variations too, and it seemed like in this world, their variations were due to a particular elemental affinity. He could even see how evolutionary magic made different dragons look different, too.

There could be serpentine dragons, furred dragons, small dragons, giant dragons – the possibilities truly were endless.

"Alright then…," said John as he mused again on what Arcana to choose.

Currently, John had a defensive build. He had thick, crab shell scales and the Quill Fern thorns on his tail were meant to paralyze, not to kill.

He also already seemed to be able to naturally heal over time, not to mention his limb replacement skill from the Mudclaw Crab.

That made the word of healing seem a little redundant.

The word of wisdom, John figured he could hold off for later because for now, Mel was providing him with information.

What John needed most now to make up for his bulky defense was power.

Power to put enemies down, because though his teeth and claws were longer and his muscles bigger and tougher, he still had nothing to really put something as big as him down with.

'Mel, I want you to inscribe the Arcana of power onto me,' said John, making his decision.

[It is done,] said Mel, and John felt a temporary searing heat inside of his chest.

Knowledge and instinct on how to use the Arcana flowed into John's mind.

The meaning of the word of power.

Power could break. It could sunder. It could tear. It could control. It could strengthen. It could inspire.

It was a flexible word, and John could see how it could manifest so very uniquely among every individual dragon.

Now, it was just a matter of uttering the word and putting his magical energy in.

Which, by the way, was surprisingly intuitive. All John had to do was will his mana to come forward, and it did, heating up his body with a faint and comforting warmth.

"{Drokynthis}" said John out loud, his now more developed vocal chords managing to utter the word in a rumbling, rattling, distinctively inhuman voice.

Then, John collapsed in a wave of severe dizziness. He could not tell up from down, and the world span around him, the dark colors of the cave all merging into a mess.

'W-what's happening, Mel!?' asked John.

[Your body has lost a severe amount of mana. As mana is linked to your mind, you are facing mental drawback from expending so much magical energy.]

Deep breaths.

Deep breaths.

John took in deep breaths to calm the raging headache and storm of dizziness somewhat, though he was still too weak to stand for now. Everything he saw was blurry, but at least he could make out shapes now.

'Is this normal?' said John.

[No. I do not understand what has occurred. A lower Arcana like that should not have drained your mana to this degree, for they were designed to be used often.] For once, Mel's calm voice broke in tone, concern rising in her pitch.

'Ugh.' John felt like he had come out of a drunken stupor after downing a bottle of liquor.

So much for exciting new magic, then.

John sighed, his draconic throat loosing it more as a grumble, and then –

Light completely blinded John.

Golden, warm light that reminded him of when he bathed in the sun.

But…it was night now.

Where did the light come from!?

John looked up to see that the light had penetrated from above. A pillar of light sent straight from the sky down to where he was, illuminating his area like a spotlight.

As he looked up into that light, feeling its warmth, he almost wanted to reach up and praise it, to embrace the sun that had sent it.

John heard bubbling, and he realized that the ceiling of the cave he was in had melted away. The light beam was just that intensively hot, but as it gathered around him, all he could feel was how warm it was, like floating in a nice bath.

The light beam dimmed down, and John found himself standing in the midst of a smoking, molten red crater.

'Ouch!' John yelped as he leaped out of the red hot crater, the heat singing his feet. While the light was around him, he had not taken any damage, but with it gone, he realized just how insanely hot the light must have been.

'Mel, what happened!?' said John. He looked down at the crater first, then at the smoking hole in his nest, then back down at the crater with utter confusion. He was still dizzy, his magical energy still low, but his physical body felt amazing.

Completely nourished and healed up.

[Something is anomalous with your soul,] said Mel. [I require time to analyze it but know that the spell you conjured now was the Angelic spell {Ray of Light}.

Creatures with Earthen cores such as yourself are limited to tier 1 or 2 spells, but {Ray of Light} is of the 5th tier.

It is natural that your mind suffers in casting such a spell, but…

No…even beyond that, that you have access to the Helic Light of the Angels, perhaps the strongest of all magics in sheer firepower throughout this realm of twenty worlds, is completely unheard of.

The Helic Light is closely guarded by the Angels, and only they are blessed to draw into it.

How are you…no, I will spend time analyzing this for now and inform you when I myself am more informed.]

'Sounds, good, Mel. Man, I feel weird.' John fell on his stomach.

It was an odd feeling to have his body so full of energy but his mind so tired that he wanted to simultaneously run a marathon and take the fattest sleep he had ever had.

He decided on trying to drift to sleep, and as he did so, he had the thought that maybe that angel Sarael had not been so useless after all.

Now, thanks to her, because he was pretty sure that triangle seal she had given him was the cause of all this, he had an awesome spell in his arsenal.

He took a glance at the still smoking and red crater the {Ray of Light} had blasted out.

Nothing he had seen so far could survive that.

He had a one shot kill spell!

Now, John could hunt things that were way above his pay grade. Monsters and beasts that were supposed to be much stronger than him. He checked his Essence Level.

>>>

Next Evolutionary Stage: Wyrmling

Essence Level: 150/1000

>>>

He needed 850 more Essence to get to the Wyrmling stage, and he could either spend days and days foraging around for magical fruits and tiny animals, or -

He could aim big.

As John drifted off, his last conscious thoughts lingered on the huge green panther that had scared him so much when he had hidden from it.

Now, though, he licked his lips at the thought of that oversized green cat.

Yeah, he told himself, it was time to eat big.