Absolute Mana Dominion: All My Talents Are SSS

Chapter 20: 20 - Dragon’s Mark

- Adrien POV -

”Ugh...”

Adrien came back slowly, his eyes still closed while the rest of him tried to remember how being a person worked. His body felt heavy and strangely unfamiliar, as though somebody had taken it apart while he slept and put it back together with slightly different pieces.

The wind through the branches sounded too clear. He could hear leaves rubbing against each other somewhere above him, the scrape of bark further off, even the faint movement of something small through the undergrowth. Everything was sharper than it had any right to be.

Then his memory caught up.

’Oh, fuck. The dragon.’

Adrien pushed himself upright so quickly that the world tilted. His palms went down beneath him for support, and the first thing he noticed was the texture. Hard, ridged, strangely smooth between the edges.

Scales.

He opened his eyes fully and found himself sitting against the same obsidian scales he had spent what felt like an eternity trying to break. The dragon lay motionless beside him, one enormous wing collapsed across the ruined clearing and frost still clinging to parts of its body.

Adrien stared at it for several seconds.

’I actually killed it.’

Absolute Mana Sense flared before he had time to enjoy that thought.

There was another presence nearby.

Adrien’s head snapped toward it. This one was stronger than the dragon had been, and that realization cleared the last of the fog from his mind faster than cold water ever could.

Umbral Root formed in his hand as he got one knee under himself. Dark wood and silver folded together from drifting specks of mana, the crystal at its head already gathering frost as Adrien aimed toward the presence.

He had no idea whether firing would accomplish anything.

Considering what his talent was telling him, probably not.

His sight had changed as well. The figure standing near the edge of the clearing should have been too far away to make out properly through the broken trees, yet Adrien could see her clearly.

At first glance, she looked human.

Long red hair fell over a dark dress, and her eyes were a bright green that reminded him of polished emerald. Her figure was unmistakably feminine, and if Adrien had stopped there, he might have believed he was looking at an unusually beautiful woman who had somehow wandered into the worst possible forest.

Then there were the horns.

Two curved horns rose from her head and swept backward through her hair, making the human explanation considerably harder to defend.

”It looks like you’re finally awake.” Her voice carried easily across the clearing, feminine but strong enough that Adrien felt no need to ask her to repeat herself. ”I was beginning to wonder how long you intended to sleep.”

Her eyes moved from him to the dead dragon.

”I’ll admit, I’m impressed. A human killing something like that at your level isn’t something I expected to see.” She paused, studying him again. ”Although I’m starting to question how accurate the word human is.”

Adrien tightened his grip around Umbral Root.

The woman noticed.

”If you’d rather stay alive, I’d put that away.”

There was no threat in the way she said it. That somehow made it worse.

Adrien let Absolute Mana Sense focus on her properly, and whatever small amount of confidence he had recovered disappeared almost immediately. Her presence was ridiculous. Even injured and desperate, the dragon had felt like something beyond him.

This woman felt worse.

Adrien released Umbral Root, letting the staff break apart into mana again.

”Who are you?”

That seemed to satisfy her.

”Tessaly.” She stepped away from the tree she had been standing beside. ”Tess is easier, so let’s use that.”

Adrien glanced around the clearing before looking back at her. ”You’ve been standing here waiting for me to wake up?”

Tess tilted her head slightly.

”It’s generally considered polite to introduce yourself after someone gives you their name.” She lifted one hand before he could answer. ”And yes. You’ve been unconscious for a full day.”

”A day?”

His mouth felt dry enough to confirm it.

”Right. Sorry.” Adrien pushed himself properly to his feet, testing his balance before trusting it. ”Adrien Clairmont.”

Something changed in Tess’s expression.

”Clairmont?” She repeated the name as though pulling it from somewhere old. ”That’s interesting. I don’t remember your family having anyone like you.”

Her attention drifted briefly toward his chest.

”I did hear Alaric Clairmont was executed recently.”

Adrien’s jaw tightened a fraction. ”He was my father.”

”I see.”

Tess did not offer an apology, which Adrien appreciated more than he expected.

”So why wait for me?” he asked. ”You could’ve left at any point during that day.”

”Two reasons.”

She raised one finger.

”First, you killed someone connected to me. Although saying I was hunting him would be generous.” Her eyes moved toward the corpse. ”He was chasing me. Young, angry, and far too confident in himself. Unfortunately for him, he had absolutely no chance of catching me.”

Adrien looked from Tess to the dragon, then back again.

The thing that had nearly killed him by flying overhead had apparently been chasing her.

’Great. It was running after her and still almost turned me into paste. Definitely don’t piss this woman off.’

Tess raised a second finger.

”The other reason is you.”

Adrien frowned. ”Me?”

”Your body.” Her gaze settled on him with open curiosity now. ”You awakened something while you were unconscious. Something rather interesting, actually. Your aura changed with it.”

”Awakened?”

Adrien stayed quiet for a moment before the obvious answer reached him.

’Status.’

The familiar window opened.

[Name: Adrien Clairmont]

[Race: Human]

[Core: One Star]

[Unique Path: Absolute Magus]

...

A new entry sat beneath the information he already knew.

[Physique: Draconic Physique]

[Draconic Senses — Your senses have been greatly enhanced. Sight, hearing, smell, physical awareness, and reaction speed exceed normal human limits.]

[Mana Conduction — Mana passes through your body with greatly reduced resistance, allowing faster and more stable spell formation.]

[Mana Saturation — Your body can endure far greater concentrations of Mana without suffering damage, allowing it to safely channel power beyond ordinary human limits.]

Adrien read the three entries twice.

That explained the sound of the forest. It probably explained why his vision suddenly felt as though somebody had upgraded it while he was unconscious as well.

Tess gave a quiet hum.

”There. You’ve noticed.”

Adrien closed the window. ”You know what happened to me?”

”I know enough to be confused.” Tess walked closer, and Adrien resisted the urge to summon Umbral Root again. ”What I don’t understand is how a human ended up with a dragon’s heart beating inside his chest.”

For a second, Adrien forgot about everything else.

His hand moved toward his chest without thinking.

The scar.

The strange title he had awakened with. The feeling that something inside him had never quite matched the rest of his body. Even the dragon’s reaction when it first saw him.

’So that’s what the title meant.’

He pressed his fingers lightly against the fabric over the old scar.

’A dragon heart. I’ve had a fucking dragon heart inside me this whole time.’

A surprising amount suddenly made sense.

Tess watched him process it before continuing. ”Unfortunately, knowing that creates another problem for you. And considering you dealt with the problem that was chasing me, I suppose helping you with this one is fair.”

Adrien looked up. ”What problem?”

”You have a target painted on you.”

”That’s reassuring.”

”I’m serious.” Tess stopped several paces away. ”Dragons are proud. Irritatingly proud, even by my standards, and I’m one of them.”

She pointed toward Adrien’s chest.

”A human walking around with a dragon’s heart inside him will be considered many things. Interesting won’t be the first one. If the wrong dragon senses what you’re carrying, you could die before you even understand why they’re angry.”

Adrien stared at her horns.

”And you don’t want to kill me?”

”No.” Tess answered easily. ”I’m curious about you.”

Her eyes moved briefly toward the corpse behind him.

”Besides, as you’ve probably worked out, I’m not exactly on good terms with my own race either.”

That was putting it mildly if dragons were chasing her across kingdoms.

”So what are you going to do?” Adrien asked.

”Hide it.”

He looked down at his chest. ”How?”

”Like this.”

Tess took one step.

Adrien saw that much.

The next moment she was directly in front of him.

His improved eyes had caught nothing between those two positions. Absolute Mana Sense barely managed to register movement before Tess pressed one finger against the centre of his chest.

Adrien’s entire body locked.

Something cold slipped beneath his skin.

It did not hurt. That almost made it stranger. The sensation spread outward from beneath her fingertip in thin lines before folding back inward, wrapping itself around something deep inside his chest.

His heart beat once.

Hard.

Then the aura Absolute Mana Sense had been constantly registering from his own body disappeared.

Adrien looked down sharply.

”What did you do?”

”I covered the scent.” Tess removed her finger. ”Anyone trying to sense what you carry should read you as human now. At least until you grow strong enough to break what I placed on you.”

”Break it?”

”You’ll know when it happens.” Tess turned away as though that settled the matter. ”And by then, hopefully you’ll be strong enough that being noticed won’t immediately get you killed.”

Adrien touched the spot she had pressed. There was no wound, no mark that he could feel, and Absolute Mana Sense found almost nothing unusual.

Something was there, buried too deeply for him to understand.

Tess glanced toward the sky through the shattered canopy.

”We should leave. That idiot made enough noise coming down here that others could arrive at any moment.”

Adrien looked once more at the dead dragon, then at the woman already walking away from it.

A day ago, he had been heading home with a grimoire.

Now he had killed a dragon, awakened a [Draconic Physique], discovered that somebody had put a dragon’s heart inside his chest, and apparently acquired the attention of another dragon who could cross forty paces faster than his eyes could follow.

Greymoor was going to feel wonderfully normal after this.

Adrien grabbed his bag and followed Tess out of the clearing.

What Tess did not tell him was that hiding the dragon’s aura had only been half of what she had done.

The mark around his heart would hide him from others.

And wherever Adrien Clairmont went, Tess would always know exactly where to find him.

...

AN: Add the novel to collections and send (power stones and golden tickets) support if like it ;)