Chapter 70 - Leaving The Dungeon Behind 1/?

I woke up and saw that I was surrounded by my friends all of them with looks of worry and confusion. I was a little confused aswell because... they looked bigger than the last time I saw them. Before I passed out they were small compared to me but now it almost looks like they matched my size. 

Then I looked around and saw that the cave had grown bigger aswell. It took a few moments but then I looked over at Sondar with a wide eyed expression paired with a wide smile. He nodded and smiled back at me before speaking.

"Yea, your back to your old form buddy. I don't know how you did it but when your screams died down I waited for a few hours then I opened up the hole to find your old form lying there.... but man, you were barely breathing.... And you had some kind of weird red and black energy radiating out of your chest. We didn't know what was happening but then out of nowhere a bright green light appeared and quickly overtook the energy. It was crazy and amazing to watch, afterwards I had Shorunt and Sylvania look after you to make sure you were ok."

I look over at the 2 healers of the group and saw them leaning up against the wall of the cave asleep. I looked back to Sondar who only shook his head.

"They used up alot of their energy these past couple of days. Without them I think over half of your children would have died." 

I looked over at the voice and saw Kitsoma with tears down her eyes.

"We were so worried about you Vexsus. I was praying for any way to help you, but in the end I'm useless." She said while hanging her head.

I reached up and cusped her head in my hand. "Hey, You are not useless. I heard how even though you lost control over your magic you still picked up a weapon so that you could help out. You are still important to this group. Your important to me Kitsoma, I know it's been a long time since we last saw eachother but I never stopped thinking about you. Every moment that I wasn't feral was filled with thoughts of coming back to you. I was so worried that the explosion destroyed your soul, but deep down I knew you were ok."

"AHEM" Sondar coughed, breaking us from the little moment we were having.

"Not cool dude." I said before I raised my hand towards him to help me up.

I grunted as I was helped up because my body ached all over. I guess the transformation from a giant dragon to a 6 foot tall dragonoid was a bit intense. Thank god I was passed out for most of it.

I walked over to Shorunt and Sylvania and touched their shoulders and used my MP share ability to revitalize them but soon felt that both my health aswell as my mana was drained and was given to them. I only felt a small drain but I could see a clear overflow of power flood into their bodies.

They both woke up with a gasp as they stood up and started shaking uncontrollably.

"HOLY HELL WHAT DID YOU JUST DO? I FEEL SO ENERGIZED AND PUMPED! I FEEL LIKE I CAN TAKE ON THE WORLD!" Sylvania said as she started flapping her wings causing intense wind storms mixed with ice.

Shorunt was no better as his magic seemed to be uncontrollable aswell and multiple stony roots shot up from the ground to produce transparent orbs filled with a purplish gas. He then grabbed onto Sylvania and it looked like he drained her of the excessive mana as more orb producing roots sprouted.

After a little bit they calmed down and Shorunt walked over to me.

"Master... Or Vexsus. I don't know what you just did but that was very hazardous to us. If I had not done what I did we could have experienced mana overflow and could have actually exploded from it."

"Oh gods are you for real? I'm sorry guys I just was trying to help.... I didn't think that my powers had grown that much in a year but I guess I became a bit overpowered. Thinking about it I did have to fight daily so yea maybe it was a better idea to let you sleep till I got a grasp of things..... I'm really sorry." I said as I felt really guilty. I didn't mean to honestly but then again I didn't take into consideration how much my stats and abilities had risen.

That was when I noticed a faint blue symbol in the corner of my vision. It looked like a message symbol that showed a 1000 next to it. It could only mean that the system had actually came back and that I had a few messages to look at.

"I have to take a look at something real quick but after that we are going to discuss why you just called me by name Shorunt." I said before excusing myself back to the hole Sondar made me and I used my mana hands to cover up the entrance before I sent a small bullet through the wall so I could have a breathing hole."

"Oh shit.... Sondar do you think he knows that I faltered?" Shorunt asked with a look of despair.

"You called him by his name instead of master like you usually did. You didn't bow or did any of your old routines you used to do back then so I'd say yea maybe a little. I don't think he is thinking to hard on about it seeing as how he knows it's been a year but I think he does know somethings up."

The two of them started talking while walking further away outside the range that I could hear them which I was thankful for. But I didn't know that Shorunt faltered. What did he falter in? Did he lose faith in me? That would make sense, I lost faith in myself aswell.

Anyways time for the messages.

[Vexsus are you there? It's gluttony, I felt our connection cut off is something wrong? I can still contact you so I know your alive but something is blocking me from sensing where you are.]

[Vexsus please respond. Something is blocking me from teleporting your consciousness, What is happening.]

[I know something is wrong with you because the power I gained passively through our link has stopped. It's been 2 months now, I am feeling very weak, I'm sorry but I am siphoning the power from you connection with Sondar until I figure out what's going on with you.]

those 3 messages were the only ones I got that wasn't a skill increase notification. I felt bad since I was her main source of energy but even I don't know what really happened after that. I think it had something to do with the blood seal put on me by Digger but I'm still clueless. I shook my head to get rid of the confusion regarding that issue and continued looking at the messages. 

After seeing them all I was so shocked and amazed. The system still worked in an auxiliary manner and still recorded my skill usage. In that time So many of my skills maxed out and even evolved. So that was why my spatial bullets and even just a few moments ago when I tried to use Life share, and it ended up being much more powerful than I expected. I couldn't believe it but was so happy nonetheless. I couldn't help but yell and shout in happiness, which in turn caused Sondar to take down the holes wall and run in worried.

"Vexsus what's wrong is something happening?" He said while looking around with an intimidating axe in his hand.

"Haha no man I just looked at the system messages I had saved up from all this time and so many good things had happened. so many of my skills had evolved and I gained so much power. I couldn't contain my happiness I'm sorry man."

He looked at me for a moment before sighing as his body slumped down as the adrenaline left his body. "Man you had me freaking out, you can't just do that. But I am glad that you got stronger, Hell I knew you were strong since you were an actual dragon when we saw you again but to see you back in your old body and still have all those powers I gotta say I'm jealous." He chuckled before he walked over and sat down next to me and sighed.

"This year has been a long and rough trial for all of us. First we lost you, then Kitsoma lost her control over her powers, then we kept getting attacked by the red goblins, it was almost non stop. Me and Sylvania and Kitsoma had to step up to fill your shoes dude. It was hard work but we managed to make it work.... but I'm still happy your back. I need a much needed break from commanding. You mind if I close my eyes for a bit while you take over?"

He said before closing his eyes and started snoring almost instantly. I looked over my friend who even after all this time still showed me respect and cared for my wellbeing, and even looked after the family we all made together after I abandoned them. 

"Sure buddy you just sleep and I'll still be here when you wake up." I said with a smile before I stood up and picked him up and walked out to the others. I motioned and asked where his bed was only to find that he didn't have a bed. He gave up the materials for the beds to make sure everybody else could have a better sleep and he would most nights stand guard and watch out for threats.

"Oh buddy. You sacrificed so much for this family. You made a way better leader than I could ever dream of becoming." I said while using mana manipulation I created a mana bed to lay him on. I made sure to make it as soft as possible for him, I didn't care that it cost a constant use of mana as I could easily gain it back with barely a thought as my absorption skill was maxed out. I had essentially gained unlimited mana the only things that could empty me now is the usage of my regen ability or insanely high powered spells.

"Master..... Can we talk now?" Shorunt said while standing behind me.

"Yes Shorunt. I think now would be a good time. First.... what did you falter in?" I said as I turned to look at him with seriousness in my eyes. I could understand why if he lost faith in me but I still needed to act the part atleast until I got the truth.

He looked shocked that I said that. "I-I-I didn't think that you heard that. Did you also hear what else was said?"

"No, You both moved out of my hearing range after that."

"Oh.... Ok well on our way to rescue you I lost faith that we would find you sane. I heard from a couple of goblins at the trading post that you had gone feral and insane and it sent me down a spiral of despair. Not to mention that all the hobgoblins under your control could feel the slight release of your power and we all started acting a bit more like the monsters we were before. I lost faith and I'm sorry master." He looked down in shame.

"..... Shorunt..... I lost faith in myself aswell."

He jerked his head back up in shock with wide eyes and slack jaw.

"You master? But... But why?"

"Like you heard, I was feral for a good portion of my time away from you all. I had become little more than a beast driven by primal urges. I fed daily from the meat of fallen foes. I slept upon the corpses of those same foes. I did everything a beast would do... But I could barely remember such events even happening. It was like a haze would come over me and I would get pushed into the back of my own mind while someone else took over."

"Wow.... I'm sorry that you had to go through that master. It must have been terrifying." 

"Yea it was. But as time went by I had my children to look forward to and I used them as the reason for keeping my sanity. I still lost parts of myself through those times but knowing that aslong as I woke back up form that nightmare I had them to be there for me to see, I started making preparations, I started training them to better handle themselves and even trained a few of them to control mana. Like for example my daughter Adalinda. She is a huge nerd, I told her stories of my old life from earth and some of the movies and shows called anime. She loved them all, she would always ask me for more and more stories to the point I had to make some up. Let me tell you bud, I am a horrible storyteller. Even less so at creating them. But even so she would sit there and listen like they were the best stories in the whole world. Her and her older brothers were the first three to gain a higher intelligence."

"But to circle back, yes even I lost my faith in myself. I doubted I would even see you guys again. I even felt myself losing the battle against the feral side as I lost time even more. If it wasn't for you coming to rescue me when you did who knows what would have become of me."

We chatted for a few minutes until he left to go check up on my children, leaving me alone with the sleeping Sondar.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that Vexsus Father." Michael said as he walked up to me. "I heard what you said to that goblin. I didn't know you felt that way, had I known I would have acted sooner to rescue you."

"Hey hey now, no need for that. I need you to be strong and not regretting anything. Our lives our starting over and we can begin to grow even more than we could ever dream of. But I need you to go and gather up all the Dragonants. I will have Sondar get all the others once he wakes up because I have some disturbing news."

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This will be a long list but this was what he gained from fighting daily for a year. Some of it is not in order but its all canon.

Str 2,000

Con 2,000

Speed 4,000

Dex 4,000

HP 30,000

MP 20,000

[Mana Manipulation] Lvl MAX

[Shadow Magic Comprehension] 25% - User has comprehended the bare minimum of shadow magic, at 100% will learn [Shadow Magic]

[Spatial Bullet] Level 10 Max - Evolved -> Spatial Cannon

[Spatial Cannon] - Level 6 0/70 - User shoots out a huge blast of Spatial energy that upon contact will distort space.

[Spatial Bomb] Level 10 Max - Evolved -> Spatial implosion

[Spatial Implosion] Level 4 0/50 - User will shoot out a bomb that upon contact will distort space and after a few seconds will break down upon itself causing a huge implosion that can suck in everything within a few meters.

[Regen] Level 10 Max - Evolved -> High speed Regen - Max - Evolved -> Passive Draconic Regeneration

[Draconic Regeneration] Max - User has gained psuedo Immortality and can heal from almost anything. [Warning - Decapitation and/or loss of soul will end users life.]

[Life Share] Lvl Max - [MP Share] Lvl Max-- Synthesized --- [Energy share]

[Energy Share] lvl 0 0/10 - User can now sacrifice health and MP to supply others at an increased ratio of 1:100

[Detection] - Lvl Max

[Mana Body slam] Lvl Max 

[Lightning Muscles] Lvl Max

[Quick Step] Lvl Max - Evolved ---- Elemental Affinity merging with skill ----- [Spatial blink]

[Spatial Blink] lvl 0 0/10 - User can now partially step through the void between dimensions to reappear a short distance away.

[Electric Scales of Vitality] Lvl Max - Evolved ---- Elemental Affinity Merging with skill---

[Scales of the Void]

[Scales of the Void] Lvl 0 0/10 - The user's scales now emit spatial energy that sucks in portion if not all the damage from an attack dependent on the difference between the user and the enemies stats

Energy from the absorbed attacks can be used to provide temp bonuses to users stats.

[Lightning slash] 3 -> MAX - Evolved -> [Draconic Lightning Slash]

[Draconic Lightning Slash] - Lvl 0 0/10 -  User's slash has gained the power of a dragon that is further enhanced by its understanding of lighting to produce a powerful slash of its claws with the potential of rending the earth asunder.

[Breath of Light] 0 - Max - Evolved -> [Breath of the Sun]

[Breath of the Sun] Lvl 0 0/10 - The user can now harness the power of the sun to produce a breath capable of emense heat and destruction.

[Dark Matter Breath] lvl 3 0/40- User can imbue natural affinity with space into a breath attack that can cause immense damage.

[King's command] - User has gained the right to rule by absorbing a ruling figure. The user will gain better control over his subjects, by blood or by loyalty. All Loyal subjects will gain a bonus to all stats depending on loyalty level.

[Crafting] Lvl 2 0/30 

[Synthesis] Lvl 1 0/20

[Orb of Gluttony] - The sin of Gluttony had taken over an Orb of Domination and repurposed it to help the user better refine and absorb the power of others.. User now has the ability to pick 2 skill when assimilating. [Added effect of concentrating shared leftover power to be sacrificed to Gluttony]