My Bugged System Made Me Too OP!-Chapter 80: A Dragon?
Noah was momentarily blinded. The sheer radiance was too much for the human eye to process, forcing him to squint before he subconsciously closed his eyes altogether.
He raised a hand to shield his face, the heat of the mana brushing against his skin like a physical weight.
’What is happening now?’ he thought to himself.
He kept his eyes clamped shut for a few seconds, his heart hammering against his ribs in a frantic rhythm.
He could feel the atmospheric pressure in the room shifting, the humming of the air reaching a crescendo before suddenly snapping into a heavy, absolute silence.
The vibrating bed beneath him went still, and the blinding glow began to fade into a soft, ambient warmth.
He slowly opened his eyes.
His pupils constricted as they adjusted to the dimming light, and then they widened in profound shock at what now laid on his palm.
The weight in his hand had changed; it was no longer the cold, hard surface of an eggshell. It was soft, warm, and possessed a gentle, living weight that made his breath catch in his throat.
The creature was the size of a small pup.
It had four delicate legs tucked neatly against its torso and a long, tapering tail that curled around its hindquarters.
A pair of small, curved horns poked out from the sides of its head, and most surprisingly, a pair of small, translucent wings were folded tightly against its back.
The creature’s eyes were closed.
It seemed to be fast asleep, its chest rising and falling in a rhythmic, peaceful motion.
Even in its slumber, it was extremely beautiful. It possessed a regal quality that transcended its small size, an aura of ancient elegance that seemed to fill the entire room.
It was covered in smooth, small black scales.
The scales were perfectly aligned, looking like polished obsidian, and they shone with a slight golden hue whenever the light hit them at the right angle.
They felt as soft as silk to the touch, yet Noah could sense the inherent durability within each individual plate.
The horns at the sides of its head were a striking golden color.
They looked as if they had been forged from the purest ore, glowing with a faint, internal light.
Its wings were equally remarkable, the thin, leathery membranes lined with the same golden shimmer that traced the edges of its scales. It was a masterpiece of biological art, a creature born of shadow and light.
Noah’s eyes trembled in awe as he stared at the life in his hand.
’So this is it...’ he thought to himself, his fingers shaking slightly. ’This is what has been lying within the egg all this time.’
The realization was staggering. He moved his hand slightly to get a better look at the creature’s appearance, his mind racing through the thousands of pages he had memorized over the years.
’Those wings... those scales...’ he mused. ’It looks similar to the dragons I read about in books.’
In the academy, dragons were portrayed as fantastical creatures from a bygone era—mythological beings that had supposedly vanished from the world long before recorded history began.
Most scholars dismissed them as folklore, but there was a theory in one of the rare, forbidden books Noah had read that they might actually exist in a hidden corner of the world.
This was the first time he was seeing one face to face.
The thought sent a shiver of excitement down his spine, followed by a wave of cautious doubt. He had no way to confirm its lineage, and even if it were a dragon, it was nothing like the mountain-sized monsters of legend. This was a tiny, fragile being that fit comfortably in his grasp.
He stared at the creature’s peaceful face, watching a small puff of air escape its nostrils.
’Besides...’ he thought to himself, a confused frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. ’Are dragons meant to be this... cute?’
The creature let out a tiny, soft snore and shifted its head, nuzzling its golden horns against Noah’s thumb.
The dragons Noah had read about in the ancient archives were usually portrayed as gargantuan, terrifying beasts of old.
They were depicted as mountain-sized monsters with scales far harder than diamonds and breath that could turn entire kingdoms into nothing but ash and cinder.
In those illustrations, they were the embodiment of primal destruction, creatures that even the most powerful of magi would fear to encounter in the wild.
The creature in his hand, however, was nothing like those legends.
It was undeniably cute. Its small, rounded snout and the way its tiny wings twitched in its sleep made it look more like a cherished pet than a world-ending calamity.
It lacked the jagged, predatory edges of the illustrations, possessing instead a soft, vulnerable charm that felt entirely out of place for a member of the strongest race to ever exist.
Noah was sure this was simply because it was still so young.
It was a hatchling, a being that had only just stepped into the world of the living.
He stared at the golden-lined wings and the obsidian scales, wondering how it would look when it eventually grew more.
He imagined those small horns extending into lethal points and those translucent wings expanding until they could blot out the sun.
He gently stroked the top of the creature’s head with his index finger.
The scales were smooth and surprisingly warm.
As he moved his finger over the space between its golden horns, the small sleeping beast let out a soft, vibrating purr at his touch.
The sound was low and rhythmic, resonating through Noah’s palm and sending a strange sense of calm through his own mana channels.
Noah smiled slightly, a rare expression of genuine warmth crossing his face.
In that moment, he felt almost like a mother who had given birth for the first time.
There was a protective instinct rising in his chest, a bond that had been forged through the hours of shared mana circulation.
He had nurtured this life with his own essence, and seeing it finally manifest in the physical world brought a sense of accomplishment that no rank or title could match.
He then turned his attention to the notifications still blinking across his vision.
The blue translucent tabs had been stacking up while he was distracted by the hatching.
They were simply the mana channeling quest rewards he had completed over over and over again while the egg was refining his energy.
Because the process had been so fluid and prolonged, the system had registered the act as multiple successful training sessions.
He had actually managed to complete the daily quest fifteen times.
The sheer volume of the rewards was staggering. Each completion had granted him twenty experience points, bringing his total gain to three hundred EXP in a single sitting.
Noah smirked, his eyes flashing with a competitive glint.
’System,’ he thought with a sense of rising anticipation, ’use all EXP to level up.’
[Congratulations! You have levelled up!]
[You’re now level 15!]
[Rank: High Magus (high) >> High Magus (peak)]
[Congratulations! You have levelled up!]
[You’re now level 16!]
[Rank: High Magus (peak) >> Master Magus (low)]
[Congratulations! You have levelled up!]
[You’re now level 17!]
[Rank: Master Magus (low) >> Master Magus (mid)]
Noah closed his eyes, breathing deeply as he continued to pet the small beast in his palm.
His mana swelled more and more, filling his expanded channels with a density that made his previous High Magus state feel like a shallow pond compared to a vast lake.
He had already absorbed a significant amount of mana from the beast while it was still within the egg.
That rich, ancient energy had acted as a catalyst, priming his body for the rapid advancement that followed.
Now, having broken through three times in a matter of seconds, he was receiving another huge surge of mana from the system.
It was a torrential downpour of power, flooding his system until every fiber of his being felt saturated with energy.
Mid Master rank... nice, Noah thought to himself.
He allowed a faint, satisfied smile to play across his lips as he felt the new limits of his strength.
With this breakthrough, he had grown even stronger again.
Suddenly, more notifications appeared before him, glowing with a prestigious silver light.
[Congratulations! You have broken through to the Master Magus Rank!]
[New Milestone reached!]
[Rewards Granted: Eye of Truth, Mana Glove, Mana Pulse, Ice Beam, Lightning Field, Ice Field, Ice Moon, Lightning Strike, Lightning Travel, Lightning Gauntlet, Shock Blast]
Noah’s eyes widened behind his lids, and he snapped them open to go through the names of the skills he had just received.
What surprised him the most was that a few of them seemed very familiar.
He paused as he read the descriptions for Mana Glove and Mana Pulse, his heart skipping a beat. These were the exact same skills he had used when he activated the Limit-Breaker!
’Mana Glove, Mana Pulse...’ he thought to himself, his fingers twitching against the sleeping dragon’s scales.
Those two skills were what he had relied on against the shadow creature.
They were the tools that had allowed him to treat the legendary "untouchable" assassin like a common nuisance.
He remembered the way the golden light had formed around his hands, creating a physical anchor that could interact with the void of the shadow element.
Without them, he doubted there would have been a way to touch the weird shadow around her, talkless of even fighting back.
