The Lich Who Coveted Dragonhood
The Lich Gallerheim was bewildered.
His opponent was a mage capable of manipulating domains. That alone meant he wasn't some worthless trash—he had at least reached the basics.
Still, the lich had judged that the man's skill level was lacking enough for an easy victory.
That is, until the atmosphere suddenly shifted.
-Sssssss
An attempt to seize the domain.
Gallerheim's jawbone rattled as he let out a mocking laugh.
A domain contest was basic knowledge among high-class mages. Since nearly all high-class magic involved dominating space, victory or defeat was usually decided by whose control was stronger.
And in most cases, willpower, talent, and instinct were the deciding factors.
To Gallerheim, who had wielded magic for hundreds of years, this was an area where he could never lose to an ordinary human mage.
Domain battles favored the more experienced mage. It would have been smarter to keep launching localized spells and chip away at the enemy.
Earlier, he'd seen that the man's no-chant casting was quite impressive. If they'd kept clashing like that, an opening might have appeared.
But it was already too late.
-Kugugugu!
Gallerheim drew even more power. The sinister mana surging from him erupted in streams, devouring the frozen ground Lim Dojun had created.
The creeping black energy slowly stained the pure white ice dark.
It shattered Lim Dojun's attempt to claim the domain and instead began consuming his territory even further.
At the same time, Gallerheim cast another spell to finish things decisively.
The blackened ice shattered, and from beneath it rose skeletal knights.
Their armor and swords were old and worn, but they could not be ignored—the blades emitted a faint, ominous black aura.
Death Knight
⊳ Elite undead knights born from fallen warriors
⊳ Wields black aura
⊳ Commands lesser skeletal forces
“Death Knight!”
Amber cried out in horror.
One of the most terrifying combinations in existence.
A knight who could wield aura paired with a high-class mage.
This was exactly why liches were feared.
A powerful lich would command Death Knights as servants while skeletal soldiers supported them from behind. The result was essentially an entire army. To face such a force, the opposing side needed to bring their own organized troops.
To mercenaries who operated in small elite teams, it was more terrifying than any ghost.
'Damn… what now?'
Amber's eyes darted frantically.
It had been a misjudgment. The moment they saw the lich, they should have turned and fled.
A quick glance showed that the elder from the Blue Magic Tower was gradually being pushed back.
In this situation, there was only one thing the Milberg Compass mercenaries could do.
“Elder! We'll hold off the Death Knights somehow!”
They had to create an opening so Lim Dojun could focus solely on the lich!
It didn't look like good odds, but it was their only hope.
-Woong!
Amber, Pavel, and Kane summoned their auras and charged forward.
Though they specialized in ruins exploration, they were among the best in their field and skilled enough to wield aura.
Whether the three of them could hold back two Death Knights plus the continuously rising skeletal soldiers, however, remained to be seen…
-Kwa-kwa-kwang!
“!”
“!?”
At that moment, a barrage of blue aura blades shot from behind them.
The power of ice swords enhanced by Blue Enhancement.
They bombarded one of the Death Knights and knocked it down.
The mercenaries' jaws dropped.
“W-wait… since when can a mage use aura…?”
“And it looks like he’s better at it than I am?”
Simply producing aura from a blade was one thing, but launching it like projectiles required a very high level of mastery.
Gallerheim was just as shocked.
Even a lich who had lived for hundreds of years had never seen anything like it.
“I am a mage. You can tell just by looking.”
Lim Dojun answered with a slight frown, enduring a throbbing headache.
It wasn’t easy to use secret arts while maintaining Dragon Soul Magic.
Once again, his body felt like it was freezing over—an unpleasant sensation no matter how many times he experienced it.
This time it was his leg.
Sensation was disappearing from the tip of his right foot’s toes.
Lim Dojun quickly activated his magic.
Dragon Soul Magic.
He combined it with the newly learned Blue Vision – Blue Flow.
Blue Flow could dye non-water or ice spells blue, allowing them to benefit from Blue Enhancement.
And when Blue Flow was pushed to the extreme through Dragon Soul Magic, it could turn not only his own spells but even others’ magic blue.
The black energy with which Gallerheim had been dominating the space slowly transformed into blue energy.
“Since when was this your domain?”
Lim Dojun stared directly at Gallerheim.
His reptilian vertical pupils met the lich’s eye sockets, which burned with red ghostly flames.
Even though he had no flesh, Gallerheim felt what could only be described as goosebumps.
Not only the frozen ground but even the air itself was now filled with blue energy.
In the midst of it all, he could not tear his gaze away from Lim Dojun’s eyes.
He had heard of it in legends.
The master who ruled over all magic in this world.
-Kwa-ga-gak!
The moment Gallerheim reached out and tried to speak, ice swords tore through his entire body.
The ghostly flames in his hollow eye sockets vanished as he crashed to the ground.
* * *
Gallerheim had not always been a lich.
Long ago, when he was still human, he had reached his limit.
He couldn’t even become a grand mage—he hadn’t even broken past the level of a fairly competent high-class mage.
Once, he had believed himself a genius, so accepting this reality had been difficult. From then on, he searched for countless ways to overcome his lack of talent.
That was when he discovered ancient knowledge related to dragonians.
The Method of Imitating Dragon Magic, created by ancients who wished to mimic the powerful magical abilities of dragons.
This is it! If it’s dragon magic, it can shatter the limits of human talent!
From that moment, Gallerheim became completely absorbed in the research.
He scoured the entire continent, gathering information on dragons and related ruins.
Of course, he eventually ran into the wall the ancients had faced—that an ordinary body could not learn dragon magic. Gallerheim’s solution was simple.
What if I’m not human? What about becoming undead?
Becoming a lich.
His goal of seeing the end of magic had become desire, and eventually obsession.
Enough to discard his own body.
Yet even after becoming a lich, learning dragon magic proved impossible.
It was a unique authority of the dragon race that could not be used without their innate will.
Then what if I become a dragon!
He was already a lich—why couldn’t he become a dragon?
He searched the entire continent as if hunting rats and obtained dragon bones.
He gathered, processed, and reshaped them to fit his body, then replaced his own ribs with them.
He had wanted to replace his entire skeleton, but that was all the material he could gather. It was a shame.
The price of forcibly transplanting dragon bones was madness.
Something unknown eroded Gallerheim’s mind. In the end, he went completely insane, committing all sorts of atrocities before holing himself up in one of the dragon ruins.
It was a ruin related to dragons that he had discovered during his lifetime. When he arrived, he found something impossible.
Blood! There was still dragon blood left!
The legendary spiritual beings known as the sovereigns of magic—dragons—had vanished from the modern era for some unknown reason.
Even their traces were nearly impossible to find. Hearts, bones, and scales occasionally appeared because they were special parts, but flesh and blood did not.
Since dragons were living creatures, their meat and blood should have rotted away long ago. Yet the ancients of this ruin had sealed and preserved dragon blood!
They themselves could not transplant and wield it, but they hoped that distant future generations might be able.
If I obtain not only bones but blood and truly become a dragon… I might really be able to use dragon magic.
If he possessed both dragon bones and blood, wouldn’t that make him half a dragon even without their will?
There was only one problem.
Gallerheim, who had already become a lich, no longer had blood vessels. Therefore, he could not transplant the blood.
It felt like the promised land was right before his eyes, yet blocked by an invisible wall.
After that, Gallerheim continued his research in search of a solution, but he found no method. His madness only grew worse, and he remained trapped inside the ruin.
A long time passed before Lim Dojun and the mercenaries arrived.
Gallerheim felt as if his mind was clearing and grew puzzled.
Hadn’t he died?
Not only was he not dead, he felt strangely refreshed.
The madness that had tormented his head for so many years was completely gone.
Blue ghostly flames rose in Gallerheim’s eye sockets. The first thing he saw was his own torso.
The ribs below his neck were completely empty.
When he turned his gaze forward, he saw a pile of ribs that had apparently been removed.
Right after defeating him, Lim Dojun had prioritized removing the ribs above anything else.
His heart had been pounding wildly since earlier—he simply couldn’t endure it any longer.
And when Lim Dojun flicked his finger, the bones turned into smoke and began to be absorbed into him.
The sensation was beyond exaltation—it felt like his soul had exploded and was soaring into the universe!
Lim Dojun was surprised even after reading the messages, but he didn’t need to look to know.
Something fundamental inside his body had changed.
Over 27% Dragon’s Body.
Until now, no matter what artifacts he used, he had only gained tiny amounts less than 1%. Now, in a single moment, it had jumped more than 20%.
But the messages didn’t stop there.
More than 1/4 of the body has undergone dragon transformation.
Latent potential incompatible with current flesh has been detected.
Physical potential increases.
Strength +1
Agility +1
'What?!'
The physical potential that normally required achievement points to raise had increased on its own.
Of course, his body was screaming in protest as the price.
The imbalance caused by fighting recklessly against Gallerheim.
On top of that, the sudden sharp increase in his dragon body ratio had made the imbalance even worse.
Since the sensation in one leg had completely vanished, Lim Dojun was supporting his full weight on only one foot.
Gallerheim, who had watched all of this from right beside him, realized what had happened and was struck with horror.
The very thing he had longed for even after becoming a lich.
Dragon transformation!
Only now did he understand the goosebump-inducing sensation he had felt earlier.
Could that have been dragon magic?
“You’re still not dead?”
Lim Dojun clicked his tongue at the sound of Gallerheim’s voice and raised his hand.
He had made an uncharacteristic mistake.
He had been so distracted by the dragon bones that he failed to finish the job.
At that, the now-conscious Gallerheim urgently added,
“…What?”
Lim Dojun was not one to show mercy to enemies, but at those words, he had no choice but to lower his hand.