"Truly an enviable power."
Cassius couldn't help but marvel. Before the illusions of those progenitor dragons, even Tiamat's terrifying form seemed to lack something.
Yet he surmised that the Dragon Queen probably hadn't possessed her current form in ancient times. How could the deity of dragons that once ruled the world be merely an ordinary lesser power?
Still, that was nothing more than speculation.
Cassius glanced back at his interface, where a flurry of new notifications had refreshed.
[You have slain the Dragon-Mad Black Wizard, Vagnerd (Challenge Rating: 16), gaining 15,000 XP]
[You have slain White-Dragon Centaur...]
[You have slain White-Dragon Gnoll...]
...
[You have slain Vagnerd's Spawn of Dracorage (Challenge Rating: 19), gaining 22,000 XP]
Destroying the Tower of Polar Night had netted him a colossal amount of experience—fifty thousand in total. Combined with the twenty thousand XP earned not long ago from slaying Thrym's Winter Avatar, it was more than enough to propel him to the next level, with a substantial surplus left over. Most of this XP came from Vagnerd and the monstrosity he had become, but the draconic creatures killed along the way had also yielded a tidy sum.
Had Cassius possessed a standard player template without level-cap restrictions, this experience would have been enough to propel him straight to level 15 in a single leap.
[You have chosen to advance True Dragon Sorcerer to Level 12]
[Due to innate draconic spellcasting, your current caster level is: 15]
Cassius eagerly licked his lips, snorting plumes of sulfurous smoke from his nostrils.
Reaching caster level 15 marked a brand-new milestone for a True Dragon Sorcerer: it meant he could now cast eighth-circle spells entirely on his own, without relying on external items.
Reaching the eighth layer of the Weave was a realm countless wizards spent their entire lifetimes failing to attain.
[Learned bonus dragon spell: Spell Wither]
Spell Wither
8th-Circle Conjuration
[The dragon fires a ray of antimagic energy from a raised claw. The dragon must make a ranged touch attack roll to hit a target creature. On a hit, this magical ray dispels all effects on the target creature created by spells, spell-like abilities, or magic items. Furthermore, magic items carried by the target are permanently disenchanted unless they succeed on a Will save.]
Cassius's breathing hitched.
Antimagic, dispelling magical effects, and disenchanting magic items.
"Is this... a draconic version of Mordenkainen's Disjunction?"
Mordenkainen's Disjunction had been legendary in his past life. There had even been a suicidal wizard player who sneaked into a deity's temple and disjoined the consecrated Holy Grail into an ordinary drinking cup, getting his wish and triggering divine wrath.
He ended up being corpse-camped and hunted down over a hundred times by the church's legendary champions, only barely surviving after signing a slave contract agreeing to three hundred years of indentured labor.
For Cassius, this was an extraordinarily potent asset.
Globe of Invulnerability could only block spells below the fifth circle, which had long since fallen behind his tier of combat.
His current foes were near-epic beings like the frost giant chieftain or Vagnerd, wielding countless spells of the sixth circle and above. Spell Wither would undoubtedly grant a qualitative leap to his antimagic arsenal.
Had he possessed Spell Wither earlier, he wouldn't have needed to gather intel with Langpu and scheme so meticulously—he could have simply steamrolled the Tower of Polar Night straight through.
[Learned bonus dragon spell: All-Seeing Eye]
All-Seeing Eye
4th-Circle Divination, Evocation
[A brilliant flash of light briefly gleams in the dragon's eyes, opening its mind to every nearby object.
You gain a vast field of vision, allowing you to clearly see everything in the surrounding area and granting immunity to blindness effects.
Additionally, if you have line of sight to a target, you can apply a Faerie Fire effect to any nearby invisible creature or object, though doing so immediately ends All-Seeing Eye.]
"A very interesting spell—a fusion of Divination and Evocation. Its spell circle isn't high, but its utility is obvious," Cassius appraised.
Cataclysmic Dragon Eye was great, but it was a seventh-circle spell after all. Given his caster level, he could only cast it twice a day. All-Seeing Eye neatly covered that gap, working wonders when cracking a nut didn't require a sledgehammer and saving his already scarce spell slots.
As the notifications updated, a torrential influx of magical lore flooded Cassius's mind, making his head throb with a faint ache just after recovering from resisting Dracorage.
Although he had previously cast eighth- and even ninth-circle spells using the Eye of the Storm Sovereign, that had relied on external power. Back then, he had merely been an indirect, plug-and-play operator channeling spells through the Eye as an intermediary. Now, he had to govern an eighth-circle spell entirely through his own will. The difference between the two was night and day.
He had only first unlocked seventh-circle spells a few months ago; his rise was practically meteoric.
Furthermore, as a dragon sorcerer, the sheer number of spells he committed to memory far exceeded that of ordinary sorcerers.
Ordinary sorcerers specialized in only a handful of spells, acting more like magical artillery. While they only needed to channel magic through raw confidence—earning them the wizards' mocking nickname of "barbarians with staves"—that still required an innate mastery and understanding of their repertoire.
Put simply:
Cassius's Intelligence was running short.
Fortunately, this was level 12, granting him the attribute increase that came every four levels.
[Your class level has increased to 12. You may choose 2 points in a standard attribute, 1 point in a special attribute (for attributes above 20), or one bonus feat.]
[Chosen: Increase Intelligence to 16]
As an invisible power surged into his mind, Cassius immediately felt his thoughts clear. His memory, analytical prowess, and logical reasoning experienced a marked leap forward, finally bringing his Intelligence up to—a level close to that of a novice Langpu from seven years ago, odd as that sounded.
Only then did his headache slightly subside.
Cassius carefully reviewed Spell Wither in his mind. This eighth-circle dragon spell was indeed somewhat akin to Globe of Invulnerability, but its complexity was magnified exponentially.
He would likely need several months to master it completely.
After all, red dragons were magical creatures themselves. If his mastery slipped and he hit himself with an antimagic ray that disjoined his own essence, it would become a brand-new red dragon joke widely circulated among metallic dragons—one that would make even Bahamut laugh out loud.
"Whew, finished at last."
Having absorbed the spell's fundamentals, the red dragon collected himself and slowly opened his eyes.
Only to discover, to his astonishment, that Tinia had licked his front claws spotless. The slender talons even gleamed with a buffed sheen; her rough tongue had practically polished them to a lustrous patina.
"Awooo~"
The white dragon gazed up at him with an innocent look, the tip of her tongue slightly poking out, tail wagging back and forth, her eyes brimming with eager obsequiousness.
Cassius: "..."
It seemed wild white dragons truly lacked upbringing; she desperately needed a thorough reeducation!
Chapter 218