Chapter 288: Legacy
Chapter 288: Legacy
Immediately after I absorbed every last trace of Fafnir into my body.
Color returned to the grayscale world, and time began to flow once more.
The notification that had chimed just before the visions of the past overlapped finally spat out its contents.
Ding!
【Trait: Origin Regression (S) Acquired!】
The final piece Fafnir had spoken of had seeped into my body.
I could roughly guess its effects from the name alone, but I needed to check the details.
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【Origin Regression (S)】
You have realized your own origin!
A dragon in human form. That is what you are.
You have recognized and understood this truth, and you have been acknowledged by the "you" that is not you.
Now, if necessary, you can briefly return to your origin.
However, be careful.
No matter how much of a rightful successor you are, the power of a dragon is not something to be trifled with.
Take care not to be swallowed by your origin.
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Is this the dragon version of Beast Transformation, the trait exclusive to beastkin?
The effects were exactly as I had anticipated.
Of course, I couldn't tell just how much stronger I’d become from this alone, and the fact that I could fall into a state of Frenzy if I used it too long was a bit concerning… but I could figure out the specifics by testing it myself.
More importantly, I needed to cool my head, which was currently a mess from the sudden flood of information.
Fafnir’s final years, the things he left behind, the circumstances of how I came to this world, the things I ultimately had to accomplish, the warning that there was no other path, and the subtle existential dread of realizing I was actually a chimera.
As I spent a moment organizing the thoughts that were surfacing at random.
A voice I felt like I hadn't heard in a long time tickled my ear.
"Um, Master?"
"…Hm?"
"Did something happen? You suddenly went blank…."
"Ah."
It seemed that while I was viewing the records Fafnir left behind, I appeared to be just standing there vacantly to those around me.
"I'm fine. I just had something to think about for a second. By the way, Carla, do you happen to know how long I was like that?"
"Let's see. Maybe about thirty seconds?"
"Thirty seconds, huh…."
While I was having that brief conversation with the residual thought Fafnir left at the end, I had been able to look around for a moment, and everything had been frozen as if time had stopped.
Time probably hadn't actually stopped; my mind had likely just accelerated to the point where it felt that way.
I gave the worried Carla a smirk and suddenly gave her soft cheek a playful tug.
"Hyak! M-Master?"
"It’s really nothing, so don't worry so much. I just… remembered something from a long time ago."
"Ah…."
To be precise, I should say I found out about something from a long time ago, or that I went and saw it. Regardless, it wasn't a lie.
Well, Carla’s expression darkened slightly as she once again misunderstood in her own way.
Come to think of it, the origin I had been lying about all this time was a lie, yet not a lie at the same time.
Perhaps Fafnir’s soul fragment had whispered the truth to me, and I had used that information to make up an excuse subconsciously.
Just like when I was playing H&A for the last time and suddenly felt like I wanted to play as an Archmage for no reason.
When I first realized this, it felt unpleasant, as if I were being controlled… but thinking about it carefully, that wasn't quite it.
The soul fragment of Fafnir attached to me was powerful for its size, but it was ultimately just a small fragment.
The most it could do was provide a brief flash of inspiration to an ordinary person with no power; it wasn't some kind of hypnosis app.
And for the current me, who had grown significantly since I first started learning magic, even that was impossible.
In fact, after a bit more time, wouldn't it just be completely absorbed by me?
I nodded to myself and let go of Carla’s cheek.
"Speaking of old things, there's something I want to check. Would you all like to follow me?"
"Eh?"
Carla, clutching her cheek, blinked her ruby-colored eyes. Then, not long after, she took a deep breath.
"Hup! Could it be… is there a secret passage or a hidden room, Master?"
"Oh? You got it. How did you know?"
I ruffled Carla’s hair as if praising her.
"Hehe."
At that, Carla began to grin foolishly, as if she had never been depressed in the first place.
Iris, who had quietly moved to stand next to Carla, stood on her tiptoes and offered the top of her head toward me as she asked.
"Owner. If it is a hidden room… could it be that Fafnir’s true treasure is hidden there?"
"Treasure?"
I nodded, stroking Iris’s head with my other hand.
"It’s a treasure, in a sense. Though it might be a bit different from what you’re thinking."
"???"
Iris tilted her head, looking confused. However, perhaps thinking she would find out soon enough anyway, she quietly closed her eyes and began to enjoy my touch.
Seeing Iris tilt her head in the direction I was stroking, I patted the top of her head a couple of times and pulled my hand away.
I shrugged at Iris, who looked somewhat dissatisfied.
"Don't be too disappointed. This is the kind of treasure I think you’ll like the most, Iris."
"…Could it be a Primordial Gem?"
A Primordial Gem. They weren't actually made at the beginning of time, but they were jewels that contained such pure and vast elemental mana that people thought they were.
Things like that never even appeared at auctions. The Levantine Imperial Family kept three, and the Kingdom of Alfheim kept one as national treasures.
Because they were such rare jewels, Fafnir had once gone on a mad collecting spree for them.
Thanks to that, all sorts of records stated that Fafnir’s treasury contained Primordial Gems of every type. However….
"There were some, but I used them all."
"Eh?"
I had consumed all the Primordial Gems he had collected while creating my body.
The Elemental Affinity I had from the start was a trait created that way.
I left Iris frozen with her mouth agape and handed her over to Elisha as I strode across the lair.
Unlike when I had simply seen it through a screen, I now knew everything about this lair after seeing Fafnir’s memories directly.
For example, while most of the lair was used as a living space and treasury because he had so much treasure, he had kept the laboratory separate.
I stood before a mural in a corner of the lair, where the paint had mostly peeled off, leaving only faint colors.
Elisha, standing beside me, twitched her long ears as if concentrating.
"Hmm… I still don't feel anything. But there is something here, isn't there?"
"Yeah. I'm going to open it now, so step back for a second."
I placed my hand on the dusty wall. Only then did I feel a faint sense of incongruity.
To think I could only sense this much even with the Mana Affinity trait and possessing the same nature of mana.
I marveled once again at Fafnir’s concealment magic as I recalled the original appearance of the half-erased mural.
A giant black dragon descending from the sky, with humans, elves, beastkin, and dwarves all mixed together below, bowing down.
It was the kind of painting a dragon with excessive self-love would adore… but the thing to note here was the posture of those bowing.
There was one person from each race whose waist was bent, but whose head was held stiffly upright.
I channeled my mana into those specific locations simultaneously.
Wooooong—
The entire wall vibrated, and thick dust began to pour down.
The secret door, which only opened when Fafnir’s mana was channeled into the exact locations, began to open before me—the one who had inherited everything of his.
Rumble. Rumble….
With the sound of stone grinding, the wall slowly lowered. Simultaneously, the laboratory, which even the cultists who had once raided this place failed to find, revealed itself.
"Wow…."
"Behind a mural. There were nobles who hid secret safes behind portrait frames."
"Yeah, yeah. The scale is bigger, but it’s that kind of feeling, right?"
While the women watching from behind whispered, the mural completely receded into the floor.
The moment I took a step into the pitch-black interior, bright lights flickered on, illuminating the laboratory.
The overall atmosphere was white and clean. However, the water tanks filling every wall contained body parts of all sorts of creatures.
In the center, a round, egg-like case and a giant press-like object connected to it sat prominently.
It looked exactly like a mad mage’s workshop.
I knew this was the trace of Fafnir’s attempt to create a successor, but I wondered if it looked a bit macabre to others. The excited group all flinched in unison.
Seeing them do that at the same time was actually a bit cute.
With a smirk, the first place I headed was the only spot covered in dirt in the laboratory filled with magical tools and specimens.
As I carefully dug through the soil, it wasn't long before my fingertips touched a hard sensation.
Since they felt too heavy to lift by hand, I used Telekinesis magic to pull them out one by one and line them up on the floor.
Three large metal coffins. When I placed my hand on one and lightly channeled mana, the lid opened automatically.
Inside the white mist was a perfectly preserved lizard corpse… or rather, the clone dragon Fafnir had first created, a being that was, in a way, my brother. I made the Sign of the Cross of the Church of Light toward it.
"Go to a better place… and I’ll be using the body you left behind."
Sorry.
But honestly, it’s too much of a waste to leave it here, isn't it?