Where is this? This was the first thought that surfaced in Luge's mind at that moment.
After a dizzying, disorienting experience, when he opened his eyes it was still the same desolate wilds, still without even the faintest trace of civilization. He shook his head and turned to look around, and for a moment actually felt this place was even more desolate than his former kobold territory.
Half-Man—now Kaliu—gave a dry cough off to the side, drawing his attention back.
"There was a small miscalculation. Carrying you drained more than I'd imagined," Kaliu said. "It seems my wounds haven't healed yet—at least not to the degree I'd expected. But we're already not far from a place where people live; about two or three more days of walking should do it. Right now you can go ahead and do the dragonborn kobold transformation first. That should mend that crookedly-set arm of yours and the wounds on your body as well."
Luge stared at him blankly, wondering if there was some new scheme being set up again. But then he reflected that he himself seemed to have nothing worth exploiting anymore. After all, in the past, so long as he could move about and walk, running errands and doing tasks had been of enormous value to the immobile Half-Man. Now things were no longer as before.
"I'll wait for you here. I need to make some adjustments myself as well."
With a smile, Kaliu said this, then walked a short distance to one side, sat down, and closed his eyes to rest.
The little kobold scratched his head, felt a spot where the scalp was missing, and grimaced at the pain. Then he opened the Abyssal bedroom space and stepped inside.
The moment he came in, he heard a burst of cheerful laughter.
It eased, just a little, the weariness in his heart.
He saw two tall dragonborn kobolds eating fat grubs while playing with and teasing a giant worm thicker than Luge's waist, now and then feeding the big worm a bit of tender, pale grub.
"Big Brother Luge!"
Aisjin came running over. She was happy at first, but the moment she saw the many wounds on his body, it instantly turned to worry.
Big Dumb Hum followed too, grunting a couple of times as he stood to one side, his face equally full of alarm.
"Squeak, squeak!"
The two soft cries were a greeting from the companion familiar.
Luge smiled at the three big fellows before him. Big Dumb Hum was taller than before; even standing there somewhat hunched, he still stood more than a head taller than Baonte, and his broad, thick shoulders were even more astonishing. His fur was smoother and glossier than before, but sparser, because some areas were covered with black dragon scales. Standing before an ordinary person, this fellow was like a wall; before Luge, he was simply a mountain.
This build had to have surpassed the range of a normal dragonborn kobold.
"From now on, when we're outside, remember not to call me Master. You can call me Big Brother Luge."
Hearing this, Big Dumb Hum grunted twice and gave two firm nods of his head.
Aisjin's height reached only Big Dumb Hum's shoulder. She too had black scales, though hers were finer and denser, and she too looked powerful and sturdy. Just now, though, paired with her lively, worried eyes, the contrast was rather striking.
"I'm fine, don't worry. Everything will be better in a little while." As he spoke, Luge walked toward the pool of aberrant dragon blood he had set aside for himself.
The companion familiar needed no words to communicate. At a single thought, the little guy came over and raised its head, the cluster of little feet beneath its belly shuffling nonstop as it followed along. Walking beside Luge, it enjoyed its master's gentle caresses against the top of its head.
This little guy could no longer really be called a little guy. Luge looked it over: it had twelve pairs of pointed legs in all, which rustled loudly as it walked; a black, hard shell with a dragon-scale-like texture covered its whole body, and it had a small horn on its head. If it could rear up on its hind legs, it would stand considerably taller than Big Dumb Hum.
Luge took out the pureblood potion.
The three big fellows watched nervously from the side.
Through the perception of his mental power, the message left on the bottle told him that the pureblood potion could be mixed into dragon blood to purify it, then drunk; it could also be dropped into a pool and, after quietly waiting for the reaction to finish, used for a dragon blood bath. Once purified, the transformed bloodline would be on a stable footing, and absorbing more blood of the same source afterward could slowly dispel any hidden dangers.
He looked at the blood pool before him. According to the guidance given on the potion, the volume needed for this pool of his was a bit large.
Just as the thought formed, the companion bug abruptly plunged into the ground and burrowed into the soil. A small pit was quickly dug out, and Big Dumb Hum and Aisjin, understanding at once, went down to help tamp the earth firm.
Luge watched, smiling. After they finished, he used a Ray of Frost to line the pool with a layer of frozen earth.
He brought in the dragon blood and poured in the potion.
Before he lay down in the blood pool, Luge was still dwelling on how he'd lost his composure in the battle this time.
But before that, he'd had to shoo away the three little guys who were really big fellows. Sometimes being cared for by others was tiring too, especially for a wounded little kobold. Now, touching the wounds on his body, he took off his storage pouch and other such things, set them down at the pool's edge, and slowly stepped into the pool.
A tingling itch came over him. When he first touched the bottom of the pool it was still a little cool, but in only a moment he was enveloped in scorching heat, as if every cell in his body were singing an agitated song. His blood truly boiled, burning with a powerful life force that pushed him toward a higher life form.
Once the heat had spread through his whole body, he could no longer feel the itch, and gradually could no longer feel the heat either. He couldn't feel anything at all. He felt himself to be in a state of utter emptiness, and it seemed even his mental power had climbed a little, made slight progress.
Gradually, he fell asleep.
He dreamed that he had grown immeasurably tall, sitting in a chair, gently patting Big Dumb Hum's shoulder and saying some baffling words of encouragement that moved Big Dumb Hum to floods of tears; then he lowered his head to look at Aisjin beside him and gave her a scolding, and she looked up at him, crying.
Everything about it felt so natural. He didn't know how much time had passed when he suddenly felt a wave of suffocation.
Then he struggled awake. With one hand braced on the edge of the pool he coughed, and with the other he wiped the dragon blood from his face. Great quantities of dragon blood flowed out from his ears and nose with his coughing, and he finally understood how Old Gold Tooth had looked back then.
He snorted through his nose and looked with delight at his hands and feet.
He'd grown taller! He'd really grown taller!
Those who had never experienced it would never understand. He got his emotions under control.
This feeling of being powerful and sturdy really was wonderful. He tapped the scales near his elbows; there were a few on his cheeks as well, and he touched some along his spine. They didn't cover much area, but that was fine. The dreadful wounds on his body and the large chunks of missing flesh had all been restored.
"Hahaha!"
Luge couldn't help standing at the edge of the pool and laughing up at the sky.
Then he saw Big Dumb Hum and the others hiding in the distance, secretly peeking this way—these fellows still had black fruit stuffed in their mouths.
"Come here! How long was I asleep?" Luge called them over.
Before he had entered the blood pool, he had already taught Aisjin how to read that crystal clock, whose top and bottom ends lit up in turn.
As they came closer, Luge's expression changed again and again.
By comparison, he was actually still not as tall as Aisjin—he only just barely reached Aisjin's shoulder.
"Five days, Big Brother Luge. That thing changed up and down five times." As she spoke, Aisjin handed over five pieces of fruit.
Luge nodded blankly, took the black fruits, and stuffed them into his mouth one after another.
Chapter 78