latelenovela Chapter 374: Advancement of the Sturdy Scale Bloodline
Chapter 374: Advancement of the Sturdy Scale Bloodline
Gauss spent quite some time explaining before Albenia finally understood that it was a skill, not some kind of bloodline.Albenia nodded.
It was hard to tell whether she truly absorbed the explanation or still harbored doubts.
In any case, that page was turned.
Gauss spent some effort digging out the vining monster’s rhizome from deep underground.
He inspected the root in his hand, which looked like a one-meter ginseng, then handed it to Aria for study.
This was actually the true body of the vining monster.
Those large aboveground stalks looked imposing but were essentially harmless.
When faced with an unbeatable opponent, the vining monster would feign death, withdrawing its life force back into its rhizome; once the enemy left, it would relocate to a safe spot, feed, absorb nutrients, and make a comeback.
This was a survival ability born from biological evolution.
The more powerful a creature, the stronger its survival traits usually are:
various elemental resistances, self-healing, feigning death and reviving.
In short, they are armed to the teeth and extremely hard to kill.
Gauss glanced at the Adventurer’s Manual, then at the surroundings.
He shifted his focus for the moment and began collecting bodily materials left by the vining monster.
Besides the rhizome, the aboveground stalks also had some value.
Just the materials from this one vining monster were worth at least three hundred gold coins.
After processing the materials, several kill notifications popped up in front of Gauss.
The Clay Constructs he had dispatched had cleared out the goblins and other monsters he had scouted earlier.
“Let’s leave this forest for now.”
Back near the temporary camp, less than two hours had passed since they had left the area.
Gauss informed his teammates and returned to the Fold House room, then opened the Adventurer’s Manual.
After adjusting his breathing, he invested the twenty Commander Points he had just earned into the racial talent Sturdy Scale Bloodline.
Unlike before, when Gauss concentrated his mind on the Sturdy Scale Bloodline entry this time, it began to emit a piercing light.
“The conditions for advancement have been met. Do you wish to advance the blue-quality racial talent Sturdy Scale Bloodline?”
“Yes.”
As soon as he thought it,
the twenty Commander Points vanished in an instant, flooding into Sturdy Scale Bloodline.
Almost immediately,
a scorching warm current erupted from the depths of Gauss’s body.
“Mm!”
That brutal, primeval energy surged through his limbs.
Within a few breaths, his skin, once fair, began to redden, and the color deepened rapidly.
“Hu—”
Hot steam began to rise from every pore on his body.
Blood surged through his veins at multiple times the normal speed; his entire body went into an ultra-high operating state, trying to dissipate the rapidly rising temperature.
Though the scene looked terrifying—an ordinary person exposed to even one second of this could suffer irreversible brain damage—Gauss himself felt no discomfort.
On the contrary, he felt as if his body were undergoing a transcendence.
Both spirit and flesh entered a euphoric, otherworldly state.
The air around him seemed to have grown heavier because of his presence.
“Thud! Thud!”
His surging heart, wrapped in resilient muscle, contracted with greater force, then relaxed, then contracted again, then relaxed—
but the process gradually slowed.
If someone had recorded it, they would notice his heartbeat drop from the original 30–40 beats per minute down to 10–20.
Of course, heartbeat speed doesn’t tell the whole story; a slower heartbeat doesn’t strictly mean a stronger body.
Yet this change reflected the metamorphosis occurring inside Gauss.
“Thud!”
Outside the room.
Although Gauss had warned that he might undergo a breakthrough, his worried teammates still gathered outside the door.
They listened to the drumlike thumping from within, each of them stunned.
This presence was terrifying, as if the being inside the room was not their teammate, but a sleeping monstrous beast.
Could a human produce such a booming heartbeat?
“Should be fine, right?”
Aria looked worried, then glanced at Serlandul.
After nearly every fight, for safety’s sake, Serlandul conducted medical checks regardless of visible injuries; the clash with the vining monster had been no exception.
Serlandul had even given Gauss a careful examination.
He read the concern in Aria’s eyes but could only shake his head helplessly.
“The captain’s physical condition was good earlier.”
That was all he could reply.
The stronger a professional becomes, the more their body deviates from normal human limits; many high-tier professionals tend to resemble monsters more than ordinary people.
Gauss was undoubtedly a “monster among monsters.”
From outside the door,
Serlandul could still feel the powerful aura leaking from the room.
It was a bloodline-born oppression, a superior’s suppression over inferiors, making one want to bow down.
By contrast, Aria, Shadow and Albenia felt less discomfort under that pressure.
“Probably related to the captain’s draconic bloodline.”
Serlandul deduced this based on his own bodily reactions.
“You should go rest.”
Seeing Serlandul’s face pale a little,
Aria hurriedly suggested.
“We’ll stay here. If anything happens, we’ll call for you.”
They didn’t dare push the door open, fearful that any noise might bring bad consequences.
All they could do was wait quietly outside.
.....
A day slipped by in the blink of an eye.
Then a second day, a third...
Aria and the others began to get slightly anxious.
Fortunately, sensing the aura from inside the room assured them Gauss was likely alright.
Still, several days had passed, so worry lingered.
“His heartbeat sounds lighter.”
Aria lowered her voice.
Actually, since that morning the heartbeat inside had noticeably softened.
That powerful aura had slowly receded back into Gauss’s body.
Inside the room now,
Gauss’s skin had returned to its fair tone.
Looked at closely, his body surface seemed covered by an extremely fine, translucent layer of tiny dragon scales.
Over time, those physical scales were slowly fusing with his skin, appearing and disappearing like breathing.
The sleeping Gauss was surrounded by an ancient, solemn power as if from primordial existence; but upon careful perception, it was actually very weak—
more like fleeting flashes, soon gone.
Deep within Gauss’s consciousness,
he seemed to stand in a sea of chaos.
Before him appeared the image of a magnificent, enormous, near-perfect beast.
He had never seen anything so beautiful, like a miracle of creation—so perfect it felt impossible to exist in this world.
It was an ancient dragon.
Its scales shimmered, two huge crown-like curved horns jutted from its head, it was immense, seeming to blot out the sky.
As Gauss observed it, the dragon seemed to return his gaze.
For some reason Gauss felt no fear.
Perhaps he was in a dreamlike mental state.
Or maybe it truly was a dream.
Gauss himself couldn’t tell.
Fragments of memories flickered before his eyes:
white claws tearing flesh, a sharp longsword extinguishing a body...
Various scattered shards flashed quickly.
After a flash of alarm, he felt a strong suction stirring below like a vortex.
His consciousness sank, and the beautiful dragon’s silhouette gradually blurred, eventually retreating into the depths of his mind.
Gauss opened his eyes.
A rainbow flash passed over.
He shook his head.
Vaguely, he felt as if he had dreamed, though the content had already slipped away.
“Hu—”
He exhaled a long breath.
Sitting in bed for a while, he finally recalled the state he had been in before sleeping.
“Right, I was advancing the Sturdy Scale Bloodline.”
He felt his body; this familiar physique seemed to hold some added, special power, especially that stronger, more potent heart.
He looked at his status panel.
Sure enough, Sturdy Scale Bloodline had advanced successfully and unlocked a new racial talent.
On the panel, the new racial talent entry emitted an extremely piercing purple glow.
“Blue-quality Sturdy Scale Bloodline successfully advanced!”
“Purple-quality Dragon Breed.”
“The gateway to an immaculate body has opened; ancient power will slowly revive within your form. This is Dragon Power, a gift transcending the mundane.”
“Thump! Thump!”
Reading the words, he instinctively raised a hand to his left chest; there, that powerful heart was beating slowly.
Dragon Breed.
His whole body felt slightly warm.
Is this the power of being of dragon stock?
Compared with the previous two purple-quality talents, he felt Dragon Breed brought the biggest changes.
Perhaps there was some deeper reason he didn’t fully understand.
He sank his awareness into his body; soon his entire form became crystal-clear in his inner vision.
There, his heart stood out conspicuously.
It was wrapped by mana and the mighty Dragon Breed force like a powerful machine, continuously pumping ample blood through his body.
The heart is not merely a pump; it is an engine of life and a source of strength.
Gauss examined that extremely complex heart, its form altered, and for the first time truly realized that as he grew stronger, his body was destined to walk an extraordinary path.
It was no longer a human heart but more like a dragon’s heart.
A human body’s structure could no longer contain such immense power.
Not only his heart; other organs of powerful humans would also evolve or mutate to varying degrees.
He inhaled deeply.
At the next beat—boom—the dragon-born power residing in the heart surged toward his right arm.
In the blink of an eye, his right-arm muscles began to fill with blood and swell.
“Clack!”
A fine, transparent layer of scales condensed on his skin surface.
That human arm transformed quickly into a white dragon arm.
It reflected a faint seven-colored sheen; this inhuman trait wasn’t terrifying, but rather carried an oddly sacred beauty.
“Partial draconic transformation?”
Gauss pinched the claw on his right arm, sensing the explosive force within.
Moreover, this dragon claw wasn’t merely an increase in raw strength and defense.
More importantly, his affinity for mana had significantly improved.
“Heighten Light Cantrip!”
With the thought,
a small but blinding orb of light instantly formed at the center of the five dragon claws.
Its radiance filled the room.
Such a quick heightened cast.
Gauss squinted.
Most spells can be heightened; heightened spells consume more mana but yield stronger effects.
The process of heightening is usually cumbersome and less fluid in combat.
That’s why Gauss generally avoided heightened casting.
But now, perhaps thanks to the Dragon Breed talent, heightening felt much simpler.
He dispelled the magic casually.
He checked his attribute panel.
“Constitution +1”
“Perception +1”
“Charisma +1”
Strength: 15
Agility: 14
Constitution: 15→16
Intelligence: 17
Perception: 13→14
Charisma: 14→15
The racial talent Dragon Breed had granted him a total of three attribute points.
No wonder his body felt significantly changed.
He raised an eyebrow and plunged into brief thought.
If he recalled correctly, this was the first time a racial talent had given him a large attribute boost.
It had happened once before, when the hundred-color-quality Elementary Draconic Language advanced to blue-quality Intermediate Draconic Language, his Charisma had increased slightly.
Then this time, Sturdy Scale Bloodline advanced from blue-quality into Dragon Breed.
Other talents, whether Encountering Evil Hour, Second-Stage Ghostification, or the rest, had not increased attributes.
He pursed his lips.
Both rare attribute boosts had been related to draconic blood.
Are dragons really that exceptional? Even their associated racial talents seem unusual.
Or perhaps he had a higher affinity with them?
He shook his head to dismiss the thought.
He glanced toward the door.
Perhaps the commotion in the room had alarmed his teammates outside; he could sense them pacing, sometimes reaching to open the door, then hesitating and putting their hands down.
As his thought moved,
an invisible force pressed the doorknob down.
The door slowly opened.
The opening startled those outside.
But soon they looked into the room.
“Whoa—”
An invisible force surged toward them, instantly making the hairs on their arms stand up.
In a daze, they seemed to see a dragon coiled before them, and in the next blink, the massive dragon vanished.
In its place was Gauss, safe and sound.
Aria and the others let out a collective sigh of relief.