Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 758: Underwhelming Birth of Territorial Providence

CH758 Underwhelming Birth of Territorial Providence

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After giving his address to the people, Alex immediately felt an impulse rise within him.

A quick inspection of his body with his Spiritual Force revealed that the Fortune-suppressing Dragon within him was trying to do something.

He had no control over the Fortune-suppressing Dragon, so Alex didn’t waste time trying to stop its actions.

He gave a knowing glance to Zora and Eleanore, who noticed that something was amiss, before quickly turning around and returning to the manor, leaving his wives to handle any matters arising from the speech.

Unbeknownst to him, his swift departure actually lent even more credibility to his speech, so Zora and Eleanore didn’t need to do anything. Instead, they also left the square to find out what had happened.

“The Fortune-suppressing Dragon is acting up. I think it’s about to do something. I’ll be in the study. Please run interference for me,” Alex informed his wives through the comms.

Alex quickly entered the study and locked himself inside.

To those not in the know, it appeared as though Alex had immediately thrown himself into his duties as domain lord. After all, he had already ordered a number of records and documents to be prepared for him on the table.

The moment Alex locked himself in the room, he let go of the final inhibitions he had—which he doubted had been restraining the Fortune-suppressing Dragon anyway—and allowed the miniature Fortune Divine Dragon to do as it wished.

The Fortune-suppressing Dragon’s form appeared above Alex’s head, accompanied by a bright but not blinding golden light that radiated a warm aura.

Fortunately, this existed only within Alex’s perception, as he was the only one capable of seeing the dragon.

The small serpentine dragon slithered through the air and floated before Alex’s face. It stared into the youth’s eyes, and for a moment, the dragon’s serpentine slits transformed into familiar ruby-red, human-like pupils ringed with gold.

Alex had the strange sense that he was the dragon… and that the dragon was him.

The moment this feeling settled in his mind and he accepted it, Alex felt something leave his body and move towards the dragon, though he initially didn’t know what it was.

Unbeknownst to him, a number of ephemeral threads slowly stretched out from his body and latched onto the miniature serpentine dragon.

The threads resembled newly formed blood vessels as they spread across the dragon’s body. Slowly but surely, the vein-like patterns extended over its scales until they completely covered its form.

Roar!

The dragon suddenly released a roar that echoed imperiously through Alex’s mind.

Only then did he realise what had left his body.

The True Name’s concepts.

Regality and Dominion from his Solmir True Name, Domination and Subjugation from his Velkar True Name… and something more.

‘Limitless… and Written Wisdom? Sage?’ Alex frowned as the understanding surfaced within his mind.

Indeed, Written Wisdom—a concept he hadn’t known he possessed, one that enabled him to innately form a deeper understanding of power and magical glyphs—from his Sage True Name.

The absorption of Alex’s True Name concepts caused a change in the Fortune-suppressing Dragon. Its form subtly morphed to reflect the pieces of the concepts it had absorbed.

While still a serpentine dragon, the Fortune-suppressing Dragon now looked more savage, terrifying, and domineering. Yet within that savagery was a captivating beauty that naturally drew one’s gaze.

It had gone from a generic serpentine dragon to a form possessing its own unique blend of savage beauty and dominating charm.

Furthermore, within the dragon’s eyes, one could now see orbs of wisdom that seemed capable of peering into the concepts, rules, and laws forming the fundamental principles of the universe.

A sight that was as beautiful and captivating as it was domineering and eerie.

However, the dragon wasn’t content with merely changing its appearance.

The small serpentine dragon suddenly shot out through the window, flying into the sky above the Fonterra bastide.

Roar!

It once again released a dragon’s cry that filled the heavens and the land—but was audible only to Alex.

Suddenly, another set of ephemeral thread rose, but this time, from the lands below—from every corner of the Frontier March—towards the Fortune-suppressing Dragon.

Each thread latched onto the dragon’s body, after which seemingly copious amounts of an ephemeral substance flooded into it, causing the dragon to bloat and swell.

‘What are you doing?!’

For a moment, Alex feared that the dragon would overfeed itself, bloat, and explode.

But that fear never came to pass.

Instead, the dragon simply expanded its size exponentially to accommodate the incoming flood, reaching an absurd length of nearly a kilometre as far as Alex could tell.

After what felt like an eternity to Alex, the dragon finally finished absorbing everything. Then its figure began to shrink once more.

As it shrank, its body released a dark, sticky, smoke-like substance.

‘Impurities?’ Alex wondered.

The dragon, which had grown to nearly a kilometre in length, eventually shrank back down to roughly the size of Alex’s forearm.

Alex looked at the smoke-like substance dissipating into nothingness, and a frown formed between his brows.

This discarded, dark smoke-like substance appeared to account for more than half of the total ephemeral substance the dragon had absorbed.

ROAR!

Once again, the dragon issued another cry.

Alex immediately felt a vivid connection to the land upon which he stood. The sensation caused him to instantly recognise what the dragon had absorbed.

‘Territorial Providence.’

By condensing both Alex’s providence and the territory’s providence together, the Fortune-suppressing Dragon granted him access to a new source of power.

Alex opened and clenched his fist, feeling a new sensation of power surge within and around him.

‘It is weak,’ he evaluated. “Too weak,” he added, shaking his head.

The power was much weaker than he had expected. He doubted relying on it would allow him to defeat a Class 3 opponent, never mind the above legendary threats which he would eventually have to contend with.

More than that…

‘The power is not flowing smoothly… as though something is impeding it,’ he realised.

As Alex thought this, the Fortune-suppressing Dragon floated down from the sky, returning to the study and coming to a halt before him.

Alex carefully examined the changes to the dragon and noticed something else.

‘Its scales… they are duller,’ Alex observed.

‘If length corresponds to the volume of providence, then the vividness of its body must correspond to the quality of the providence it condenses,’ he mused, rubbing his chin.

‘Being a large swathe of land, it makes sense that it would produce a considerable amount of providence, but my true control over it is minimal. That makes sense, I suppose. I don’t yet have the full support of the people living here. Heck, I might even have opposition to my rule,’ Alex deduced.

Then he recalled the dark, ominous substance the Fortune-suppressing Dragon had ejected from its body.

Though visually somewhat different, the eeriness surrounding the substance reminded Alex of the Berserk property—Gu Mo’s divinity.

‘It is also likely that the influence of the Great Berserk Beast Forest on this land is undermining my claim to it.’

Surprisingly, Alex smiled. He reached out and rubbed beneath the dragon’s chin with his fingers.

‘Well, these are the usual starter problems when one takes over a territory in many kingdom-building stories. Fortunately, thanks to that, I have a myriad of methods for dealing with early-stage challenges.’

His eyes shone with a determined light.

The Fortune-suppressing Dragon circled around his arm for a moment before passing through his head and returning to the Sanctuary’s sealed space—back to its nest atop Lord Bonsai’s crown.

Alex realised that far more time had passed than he had thought while observing the dragon’s actions and experimenting with his newfound power.

Much of the town, including his wives, had already gone to sleep.

However, Alex felt remarkably refreshed and had no desire to sleep. Instead, he walked over to the study desk and began examining the documents that had been placed upon it.

‘I should familiarise myself with my domain. What kind of domain lord would I be if I knew nothing about the place and the people I rule…?’

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