In the morning of the next day.Normally by this time Adrian already in the middle of practicing his martial arts and working out. But he was not doing those activities currently.
He instead was sitting leisurely at the desk"s chair inside his office while silently pondering alone.
He was holding his chin with his left hand and at the same time, he gazed at something he holds in his right hand. It was a serum with white golden colored liquid stored within.
This serum was one of the rewards he got from completing Rescue Yarra"s Villagers quest a week ago. It has become the source of Adrian"s doubt since then.
He quite hesitated in deciding whether to use it or not. Because honestly, the serum makes Adrian feels disturbed.
In front of his vision, the item"s information column appeared.
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Golden Star Dragon"s Bloodline (Ascended)
If Injected: Permanent +4.0 Strength, +2.5 Intelligence, +3.2 Agility, +2.3 Const.i.tution, +3.0 Vitality, +125% eyesight sharpness
Unique Ability: Star Dragon Cleave (Gold), Inferior Dragon"s Sacred Armor (Gold), Dragon Sense
Hereditary effect applied
Description: A bloodline of the Golden Star Dragon Race, one of the lowest ranked member of the Dragon Race, hailed from Radiant Nova Realm.
This item is one-time use only.
This item can be traded.
This item can be destroyed.
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It was a bloodline injection serum.
According to the System, Adrian could inject the serum into his body and as a result, his body will be remolded and reforged to accommodate the power from the bloodline. He would receive a variety of stat bonus as well as new abilities depending on the type of the bloodline.
This method of gaining power and strength was invented by ancient G.o.ds millenniums ago.
These ancient G.o.ds, in reality, was just a group of powerful spirit beings who held a little bit of strength. The only one that can be regarded as a G.o.d in this universe is none other than the World"s Will, she was the supreme and the highest authority of this Myriad"s Universe.
The bloodline inside Adrian"s serum belongs to one of the strongest race in the Myriad"s Universe, the Dragon.
Legendary creatures with immense natural power. From the moment they were born, they already became the apex existences that lord over other lesser beings.
The Dragon Race has become the symbol of the strength itself in this universe. Many people look up to them as deities and harbinger of destruction. Unfortunately, most of them were already eradicated and almost pushed to extinction due to the same war that caused annihilation to the ancient G.o.ds.
The remaining dragons have hidden themselves from the world, their once glorious and mighty feats already turned into myths and fantasy tales in the current times.
Dragon Race has many variations of sub-races. All of them was ranked with a strict hierarchy based on each sub-races overall physical prowess. The Golden Star Dragon Race whose bloodline was contained within Adrian"s serum was one of the lowest ranked sub-races, thus the power of their bloodline is not very strong.
Therefore, their bloodline could only be evaluated as Ascended-grade bloodline. Bloodline was cla.s.sified into 7 grades: Ordinary - Super - Ascended - Royal - Imperial - DemiG.o.d - G.o.d
But of course, Ascended-grade bloodline was already very valuable and priceless, not to mention it"s a Dragon"s bloodline.
It must be known, the technique to produce these bloodline serums has been lost due to the demise of the ancient G.o.ds in a ma.s.sive ancient intrrealm war, so there wasn"t many people knows about it nowadays. But small numbered of the astute who has knowledge about these serums existed throughout the Myriad"s.
Any kind of bloodline serum was highly sought after. Due to the limited amount of available serum, even the lowest Ordinary-grade bloodline serum already become so treasured to the point that a person who possessed it won"t sell it at all.
Since human is one of the races that did not get blessed with racial traits and only possessed a weak physical body, these serum is very popular among them. It"s the only way for them to have a powerful strength beyond the limit of their body.
Though races with racial traits also sought them too, but they might be looking for the bloodline that could match their trait.
Because the serum also has a hereditary effect, once a person injected it into the body, the bloodline will be automatically pa.s.sed down to his/her descendant. Thus, the descendant would enjoy the same power as their ancestor has.
"System! Are you sure this serum wouldn"t turn me into something not human?" Asked Adrian inside his mind.
[The user has asked this particular question many times before. We can a.s.sure you. The serum would only change your body slightly. In the end, you will still be a human.]
It is true that he had frequently asked the question since the moment he got the serum. Although the System had a.s.sured him every time he asked, he still not convinced at all. He was afraid that once he injects the serum, his body will be turned into a form of a snake or something worse.
But Adrian was really tempted by the stat bonus and the abilities provided by the serum. Not only that, the strength he gained from injecting the serum would definitely help him in the longer run.
He was too weak now, this makes him really helpless.
He always thinks about a solution to raises his overall personal strength ever since his encounters with the Vargas Guardian Tiger. Even though that Lord-grade beast has not appeared again since Yarra"s destruction, Adrian was sure the beast is still roaming around near his village.
He couldn"t help but feel dread about the possibility that the beast was eyeing Seastar from the shadow. No one in the village has enough strength to contend against that beast, not even Zilong.
"C"mon Adrian... What are you afraid of? Why did you suddenly become this wimp? What happens to the brave Major Adrian Dornan? Is he dead?" Adrian asked to himself within his mind.
"System! How does the serum works? Do I need to simply inject it?" Said Adrian after he had decided.
[Yes... Just simply inject the serum into the blood vessel in either of your arms. But beware! The body condition after the injection cannot be reversed, and later, User cannot inject a serum made from another bloodline type. Doing so will result in User"s body becoming a cripple due to the conflict between two different bloodline types. But one"s bloodline can be upgraded using serum from the same type of bloodline albeit with a higher grade. In User"s case, since you want to inject your body with a serum made from one of the Dragon Race bloodlines, you need to have another Dragon Race bloodline serum with a higher grade in order to upgrade your bloodline in the future.]
Adrian nodded as he understood.
"So... I need to possess a higher grade Dragon bloodline if I want to upgrade...The Shop has these serums but..."
Bloodline serums are available in the System Shop. That way, Adrian doesn"t need traveling around to look for them in later days. However, the serums catalog in the Shop was locked, even their image was greyed out. It seems he needs to level up the System first so that he could access them.
Then, he stood up and walked to the s.p.a.cious area still inside his office. He unequips almost every piece of equipment covering his body while leaving the pants alone, he sat down on the floor and closed his eyes.
"System, Will the injection hurt?"
[Yes... You will feel extreme pain once you have injected the serum. It is advisable for User to be prepared and endure the pain until the body reforging process has finished.]
Adrian"s heart is beating wildly, even sweats had started coming out from his pores. This is a very major decision for him.
He opened his eyes and aims the serum"s needle towards the blood vessel on his left arm.
"Huh... Huh... Let"s get this over with!"
He began to inject the serum.
"Ouch!"
Like any other normal injection, Adrian felt like he was stung once the needle punctured his skin. The amount of white golden liquid inside the container decreased as it was continuously pumped into his blood vessel.
When the container is empty, he removed the needle, throw away the serum and he closed his eyes once more.
Not long, Adrian started feelings heat rising up, his blood carried the bloodline"s liquid circulating all over the inside of his body. Blue lines of veins could be seen bulging from Adrian"s topless upper body.
"F*CK!!! F*CKING h.e.l.l!!!"
Adrian shouted as the feeling of tremendous pain reverberated inside the entire body of his.
"AGHHH!!!"
The System did not lie, it was extremely painful. Every organ inside his body felt like they were twisted and crushed, Adrian even felt something funny happened around his belly. He never felt this kind of pain before, even the special forces advance physical training he did once back on earth weren"t this painful.
"AGHHH!!! SHIETTT!!!"
No one could hear Adrian"s roar, he was practically alone since Zilong was away doing his duty with the militia unit far from the village.
He clenched his hands and gritted his teeth as hard as he could while his body continues being reforged.
***
Outside the manor, the village was enveloped by a peaceful atmosphere. Many villagers had already started their activities outside the village, thus leaving behind only a small number of people.
Rogar, Dorhok, Guido, and Millea are also amongst the few people that were still inside the village since their duty does not give them many chances to go outside the fences.
Dorhok and his construction team were in the residential district building houses, while Guido was in the middle of teaching his three apprentices inside the smith. He had accepted two more pupils, and they were former Yarra"s villagers. Yarra was known not to have a single blacksmith, but these two people skills in blacksmithing were not bad at all, according to Guido a.s.sessment.
The Community"s Hall interiors were separated into three levels of floors. The first and second floor was utilized to settle the villagers who don"t own a house yet, while the third floor was filled with many small and medium-sized rooms. Thus, these rooms on the third floor were used by Rogar"s and Millea"s departments as their office.
Both Rogar and Millea along with their subordinates were busy tending their job inside their respective room when suddenly...
*ROARRR!!!*
A grand beastly roar resounds throughout the village.
All the villagers that were inside the village were startled, even the people who were outside the fences also heard the deafening sound. Because the roar came from the center of the village, they all thought that the beasts have come and is attacking the village.
Rogar and Millea quickly went outside the hall to check up on the situation. There, they could see dozens of people already stood in the middle of the dirt road while looking at the direction of the Lord"s Manor with pale faces.
Both of them were shocked when they saw a ma.s.sive image of a dragon"s head formed above the manor.
"WH...W... What the h.e.l.l is that?!" Rogar stutteringly said.
"I... I... don"t know." Even Millea couldn"t say her word properly.
"That"s... A dragon"s head right?!" Said Dorhok who had just arrived after running straight from the residential district.
Guido was nearby as well, but he couldn"t utter a single word, he could only look at the dragon image with his mouth agape.
"Where is the lord?!" Asked Schmidt worriedly. His squad was the only militia unit currently presents within the village.
Hearing Schmidt"s inquiry, other people began to realize that they have not seen their lord this morning.
"Did he still inside the manor?!"
"It could be... And where"s Sir Zhao currently?!"
"He"s outside the village with the other squads..."
As their conversation"s continue.
*ROARRR!!!*
The dragon image letting out another roar.
The image also became even bigger and this time, it radiated a shining white light that felt so holy and warm.
But it wasn"t long before the image along with the light subsided and disappeared entirely. The people who witnessed the scene earlier were flabbergasted and greatly confused, they didn"t know what happened just now.
***
Back inside the manor.
Adrian"s body lies weakly above the carpet on the floor. After enduring extreme pain for several minutes, he doesn"t have energy left to stand up.
Fortunately, the body reforging process has finished.
His breath was haggard, he was drenched with an abnormal amount of sweats, and there was faint smoke coming out of his body. In short, Adrian was a mess currently.
But his blank expression soon turned into a happy one as a satisfied smile appeared.
"It"s worth it."
Said Adrian inside his mind while he checked his current stat.
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Name: Adrian Dornan
Race: Human
Age: 17
t.i.tle: None
Ident.i.ty: Lord of Seastar Village
Bloodline: Golden Star Dragon (Ascended)
Profession: Knight
Profession level: Normal (340/5000) (+0.3 STR, +0.2 Intelligence, +0.2 Const.i.tution, +0.2 Vitality, +5% territory management efficiency, +5% territory security)
Territory: Seastar Village
n.o.bility: Landed Knight (+5% territory order, +7% in territory protection against beasts, +3% citizen loyalty)
Skills: Basic Management Proficiency (15%), Basic Sword Proficiency (9%), Basic Construction Proficiency (2%), Basic Archery (0%), Basic Riding (0%), Basic Law (0%), Dragon Sense
Martial arts: Western War Style (7%) (Yellow)
Combat technique: Gloria"s Wings (Gold), Star Dragon Fang (Gold), Inferior Dragon Form (Gold), Swift Tiger Thrust (Yellow)
System level: Level 0
System EXP: 11800/20000
Strength: 5.6
Intelligence: 2.9
Agility: 3.9
Const.i.tution: 2.5
Vitality: 3.2
Money: Gold: 10, Silver 100, Copper 1000
System Dollar: $101,000
Equipment: Gloria"s Defender (Epic), Dark Leather Jacket (Normal), Plain White Cloth (Normal), Dark Leather Pants (Normal), Dark Leather boots (Normal)
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"HAHAHAHA!" A loud maniac laugh echoed from within Adrian"s office.
Rogar, Millea, Schmidt, and Dorhok had entered the manor to check up on their lord. But once they heard that sound of the laugh, they couldn"t help but shiver.
All of them are wondering. What happens to their lord?