Chapter 5: Changes

Dante knew nothing about this strange world, but Fafnir’s memories provided enough to start with.

He immediately took out the black orb and began to focus on it. A moment later, his runes appeared again, forming words and numbers in the air.

Just then, he noticed that his runes weren’t the same as Fafnir. He could only read a few words.

’I have to translate these things.’ Dante decided as he took the notebook out of his pocket to understand them, but it wasn’t simple.

Some words had multiple meanings, some letters were written the same but the boldness made their difference, and other words gave different meanings depending on what followed them.

After a few moments of frying his brain, he finally understood each word as he began to read while comparing some things to Fafnir’s memories

════════

Name: Fafnir→Dante

Age: 15 (2 hours before Awakening)

Race: Demonic Dragon (Dragon Bloodline 5%, Demon Bloodline 5%)

——

❖ Classes:

[Empty]

——

❖ Stats:

• Vitality: 15

• Spirit: 15 →19

• Mind: 13 →15

• Demonic Energy: 10

——

❖ Domains & Aspects:

✧ Abyss Domain — Attunement: Normal

⤷ Aspect: Shadow [Comprehension:5%]

✧ Destiny Domain — Attunement: Greater

⤷ Aspect: Misfortune [Comprehension:0%]

——

❖ Innate Traits:

[Demonic Dragon]

[Regression Marks (13/30)]

[Silver Ether Bond]

[Silver Ether Eye]

[Sorcerer’s Gift]

[Fateless Soul]

[Unfortunate Aura]

[Misfortune Attraction]

——

❖ Relics:

[Empty]

════════

As Dante finished reading and comparing to Fafnir’s runes, one thought formed in his mind: ’What the hell?’

Some stats increased, all the Domains and their Aspects changed, and only two of Fafnir’s innate traits remained.

Additionally, his name became Dante, unlike last time, when the name had still been Fafnir only moments ago.

’Is this because the soul isn’t the same?’

Dante wondered, remembering the purpose of each stat.

The runes had 6 sections to focus on. Dante started sorting all of them: ’First is some general information.’

Name: Fafnir→Dante

Age: 15 (2 hours before Awakening)

Race: Demonic Dragon (Dragon Bloodline 5%, Demon Bloodline 5%)

Ignoring the name, the other two were more important at this point.

The age showed that he had two hours before awakening something, which he assumed was either the class or his bloodlines.

The race showed his bloodlines, both as a dragon and a demon.

For some reason, despite being a real demonic dragon, he looked like a normal human if his right eye and right arm were ignored. It was truly strange how his bloodlines need time to awaken completely.

’Maybe the demons and dragons are humans in their essence…? Anyway, the second is classes.’

❖ Classes:

[Empty]

Dante only knew that he—or Fafnir—was supposed to get one at the age of 16.

The reason why he assumed the number behind his age might be related to the class awakening was that his real birthday would be after two hours.

Yes, his real birthday, not Fafnir’s birthday. He didn’t believe that it was a coincidence, so it was more likely related to the class.

From his new memories, he understood that the class would make him stronger, somehow.

Dante looked at the next section.

’The third is stats.’

❖ Stats:

• Vitality: 15

• Spirit: 15 →19

• Mind: 13 →15

• Demonic Energy: 10

Every living being had only three foundations — Vitality, Spirit, and Mind. They were the pillars of existence.

Vitality governed the body, strength, endurance, stamina, and even lifespan. Anything that belonged to the physical body was strengthened through Vitality.

Spirit was the soul’s strength. Although Dante didn’t know how a stronger soul would be useful, he knew that some methods and people could touch or harm souls. He himself was a victim of such a thing.

Mind was the bridge between body and soul. It sharpened thought, memory, and perception. With a higher Mind, one could easily think faster in all situations and get the ability of multitasking, like the famous circle and square test.

His runes showed that his Vitality remained unchanged, but his Spirit and Mind had both grown beyond Fafnir’s. Dante understood the reason instinctively—his soul was simply stronger.

And with his soul increasing with four points, Mind also increased by half that number as it was deeply connected to it.

Dante didn’t know why his soul was stronger than Fafnir, but he wouldn’t complain about that.

Yet, there was a fourth line beneath the three pillars — Demonic Energy.

It wasn’t supposed to be there. It was unique to Fafnir’s demonic bloodline and the demon race.

Unlike the other three, the Demonic Energy stat was focusing only on refining and generating an energy called demonic energy, without giving any other benefits.

Shaking his head, he gazed at the next section.

’The fourth is Domains and Aspects.’

Dante nodded to himself as the runes read:

❖ Domains & Aspects:

✧ Abyss Domain — Attunement: Normal

⤷ Aspect: Shadow [Comprehension:5%]

✧ Destiny Domain — Attunement: Greater

⤷ Aspect: Misfortune [Comprehension:0%]

Basically, Domains were vast seas, and Aspects were the rivers branching from them. Everyone with a Domain had at least one Aspect branching from it.

Attunement reflected how easily one could comprehend and wield an Aspect within its Domain. It started with Lesser as the lowest attunement, followed by Normal, and the highest was Greater. That was according to Fafnir’s memories, at least.

Dante read his aspects, his expression turning dark.

’Misfortune…’

Most people would be happy to have greater attunement—but why did it have to be Misfortune? Why not Fortune, instead?

Thinking about how Domains and Aspects were part of his soul, He suspected this Aspect was the source of his lifelong bad luck.

’But there is hope now.’

His tired eyes suddenly lit up with hope—If he could get Misfortune Aspect, couldn’t he, in this vast magical world, get Fortune Aspect, as well? Or maybe even control his misfortune!

A smile tugged at his lips as he imagined his life after controlling his luck, but then he shook his head and looked at his knuckles.

’Wait, before I forget, there are still those strange energies.’

From his domains and stats, flowed the different energies and powers he could wield.

Mana, Spiritual Energy, and Demonic Energy.

With a simple thought, 3 claws burst out of his left hand’s knuckles, but unlike the previous ones, these were clear, pale blue.

At the same time, a clear, thin, pale blue layer covered his fist from the inside and outside, filling it with immense power that made his eyes widen.

“Haha, hahaha!”

This energy was mana, the pure essence of magic that existed everywhere within the world, similar to the air.

The responsible part about his control over mana was his Mind stat. It was responsible for the amount of mana he could store and how fast he could absorb it.

Whenever someone absorbed mana, it’d get stored in their brain, then they could channel it through thin veins in their bodies, called mana veins, to use it, either to cast a spell or enhance something.

Usually, people would draw magical runic circles in the air or use chanting—like Fafnir—to cast magical spells, but Dante only had to understand it and use his will. That was the power of one of his traits.

As for the enhancement, it was about using mana to strengthen his body or an object, which could be used naturally without chanting or making strange formulas.

Because of that difference, that enhancing was called *technique* rather than *spell*.

’Now, Spiritual Energy.’

With a thought, both his fist and claws turned black, becoming lighter and getting blurry edges.

This energy was Spiritual Energy, but unlike mana, it wasn’t coming from an external source, but from within Dante himself.

Spirit birthed Spiritual Energy, a force that infused into mana, giving spells magical effects, attributes, and elemental nature.

Spirit determined how powerful his Spiritual Energy was, how much of it he could generate before becoming exhausted, and how quickly he could recover after exhaustion.

Spiritual Energy couldn’t be used alone, it needed mana as a vessel for it to move and work. As far as he knew, it was completely useless without mana.

Additionally, it was tied directly to his Aspects. Just now, he used his Shadow Aspect to turn his claws and hand black, but when he tried Misfortune, nothing worked.

This was because he didn’t have comprehension of that Aspect, as the comprehension governed the individual’s understanding of that Aspect.

The only reason Dante had some understanding of Shadow Aspect was that some of its mechanisms were similar to Fire Aspect—which was one of Fafnir’s aspects—meanwhile misfortune seemed to be more conceptual.

All of a sudden, Dante’s fist and claws got a crimson-black color on them, his expression turning serious immediately.

’Demonic Energy…’

It was the most complicated of them all.

It was similar to Spiritual Energy in how it needed a vessel to fuse with. But unlike it, that vessel could be anything—from mana, spiritual energy, body, and even normal objects, giving them all raw strength and twisted effects.

Dante immediately stopped using magic, his claws disappearing and his fist returning to normal, but there was a change.

At his knuckles and palm, there were a few crimson marks which were disappearing rapidly.

’Strange…’

That was the price of using Demonic Energy — corruption! He could feel it even now, like a faint itch under his skin.

The demonic energy could cause two types of corruption.

The first was the physical corruption, which would spread whenever Dante used demonic energy on his body.

The second was the mental corruption, which would spread whenever he used demonic energy on his spells.

Dante didn’t know what that corruption would do, but he didn’t have any intent to discover that.

Before kicking him out, maybe as an act of pity, one of the elders advised Fafnir to not use the demonic energy often.

He also advised him to always keep his mind and vitality higher than his demonic energy and never try to increase it.

Four stats, two domains, two aspects, two natural energies, and one dangerous energy. That was his foundation—the foundation he would need to use in order to survive.

Nodding to himself, he finally looked at the fifth important section.

’Innate traits.’

He stared at them deeply, then, they started to expand, showing more information about each one.

Immediately, he took his notebook out and started translating them, but then his expression turned puzzled when he saw two strange traits.

’What the fuck is Ether?’

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