A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale

My choice is [The Red Sun Who Graces All]!

Job evolution commences for [Tyrant Diva] into [—

‘My choice is [Dragon Idol Candidate]!’

Job evolution aborted. Choice unclear

Eh?

‘Eh?’

Inside our mental world, Hikari and I stared at each other, tilting our heads as we both received that same System message. Aborted? Unclear? What did that mean? The choice was clear, no? We even said the same answer together and made it all synchronized for the effect, but the System just had to ruin our fun.

We said it over ourselves, right?

Hikari nodded. ‘Yeah. Probably too excited. Slower?’

I agreed and we made our choice together once again.My choice is [The Red Sun Who Graces All]!

‘My choice is [Dragon Idol Candidate]!’

Job evolution aborted. Choice unclear

Eh?

‘Eh?’

… Okay, this time I heard it properly. The two of us stared at each other, but unlike before, both of us were clearly more annoyed by our contradicting choices. I thought we agreed on things?

“Little scamp?” Nong interrupted me, probably ‘cause I was spacing out all this time.

“Give me a moment. I need to think,” I said before putting all my focus on speaking with Hikari.

Back in our mental world, I saw the Asian-German girl scowl slightly. Her black-haired locks covered up her forehead just like my crimson hair did, but while I looked like I could explode with my color scheme—despite not actually being that furious—Hikari had a more tranquil, calm anger with those dark-brown eyes of hers.

We had to talk.

“You said we should min-max. This is the best way to min-max,” I said as Hikari’s thoughts started to mix with mine. “You chose the wrong evolution.”

‘I disagree,’ Hikari stated firmly. ‘You’re choosing this evolution based on your dragon form, but this is a Job evolution. Even if it improves our draconic skills like the previous Job evolution, you also have to remember the value it has to all our skills. What we need right now isn’t more draconic powers to ‘min-max’ something we can’t catch up to. We need to min-max what we’re best at to catch up to others in strength! The fight against the leviathans is the catalyst; come on!’

The logic was sound … I couldn’t disagree with that point.

‘The idea behind the unique Job System is to create a ‘seraphim.’ A demi-god and a servant of the gods; a being that can surpass the status quo of this world and rise above everything. That is the point of the Seraphim Project and the reason for this entire revamp of the Job System,’ Hikari stated.

I scowled. “… That’s—”

“—bullshit.” She finished my sentence.

“Play into the hands of the gods, or play into the hands of desperation. Either way, you can’t avoid both unless you grasp for power,” I said. “It’s too obvious, and as Nong already said, this entire unique Job System is made to be unfair, even if it’s meant to equalize humans with monsters. Kramps’s reasoning for it is logical and it makes sense, but that’s just trying to cultivate a blessed without actually investing in them. ‘If somebody rises to the top; perfect! We don’t have to invest in them when they can do it themselves!’”

“So going with the flow would just put us potentially into ‘god’s pawn’ territory, even if we’re already invested in Aurena’s side. Yet, rebelling against it isn’t an option. Going against the grain won’t benefit us, as Vifi already figured out.”

“Sure, but if you want to stay on the boundary—relatively neutral—then why do you want [Dragon Idol Candidate]? That’s the least fitting choice! How are you min-maxing anything with that evolution?” I said, unable to understand her thinking process.

“Music,” she stated as if it was the most obvious answer ever but I shook my head. “It is obvious the four choices all will focus on different skills to increase the power of the unique skills. [Ruby Star] and [Trailblazing Tyrant] both are more focused on draconic skills, while [Drakonian Idol] and [Divine Solar Core] would benefit from our spell songs and holy magic. It’s good we both agree on that point, but there is a major difference between these two.”

I nodded. According to their descriptions, [Drakonian Idol] focused solely on spell songs while [Divine Solar Core] was a mixture of spell songs, solar energy attacks, and, most likely, healing. If I had to put each unique Job choice into their respective RPG archetypes, then—in order—it would be “Holy-fire dragon,” “hybrid idol dragon,” “pure bard,” and “offensive bard-cleric.” Okay, maybe these weren’t the exact archetypes, but they illustrated the ideas behind each Job in my head.

Which was why I chose the last option—[The Red Sun Who Graces All]. Being somebody who could switch between offensive battle style to a supportive one whenever I wanted to was how I fought now with my allies. With Nong and Vifi on this expedition, and later we would have Rhekk, me being on a supportive role would increase our survival by a tremendous amount.

Yet, I still needed firepower, and what better firepower than to potentially buff my core? [Divine Solar Core] should integrate my solar core-related skills, buffing it up. That was how I wanted to min-max things.

Yet, I wasn’t the only person in control of this body any longer. I was supportive of Hikari speaking against me. I wanted to have her see this body as her own, and that included making decisions to improve it, similar to how I had her go through the [Battle Frenzy] training with me.

Hearing my thoughts, Hikari shook her head. ‘And that’s where we disagree. Do you know which skill combination is the hardest to improve right now? Our singing.’

“How? We make spell songs whenever we can and we just got instruments to improve our capabilities. We just got out ‘weapons,’ and you’re saying we’re having a hard time improving it? You do know I’m still leveling [Idol], right?”

‘How long did it take you to get instruments that can use catalysts?’ she asked and answered with an “Eh.” ‘But, that’s beside the point. My point is that, unlike your dragon abilities that naturally become stronger as our body matures, our [Idol] and spell singing abilities only bloom as we stay humanized. They benefit the most from the Job System, unlike our draconic and flame powers which rely on our dragon form. Your idea is to split the potential power boost, instead of an actual min-max experience.’

“Then where are we getting our offensive boosts from? We can’t just rely on others, even if it’s the most efficient battle style for us; sometimes we have to fight alone and that is where it is most important that we also boost our personal strength. That’s why I’m going hybrid because we have to do so!”

‘Offensive spell songs, of course. Why, we only have a single one in [Dragon Fire],’ she argued. ‘The fact is, Hestia, you pigeonhole your mindset into the supportive, buffing, synergistic style of fighting when it comes to our music. It’s very idol-like, and I love it, but even with [Starstruck Winterscape], it’s fundamentally just a buffing song. Look at the Prince of Pride and how he’s using buffing, debuffing, and offensive prowess to overwhelm us and control the battlefield. If you ask me, relying on buffing and debuffing songs and only using [Dragon Fire] weakens our potential.’

“Eh … Yeah, sure, but the issue is that creating buffing and debuffing spells is easier than offensive ones. After all, why rely on offensive spell songs when we have a repertoire of hard-hitting spells already? You should understand that was why I created both [Sun, Consume All] and [Quartz Regen]. Those two big hitting, battlefield-turning spells are powerful and they allow me to maintain a buffing spell song.”

‘Don’t think of it as a restriction! I am not our parallel minds. I don’t get occupied by controlling our spell songs, Hestia. I can maintain two while we’re human, while still having seven spell slots to cast spells with you. Similarly, you can do that as well! [Sun, Consume All] and [Quartz Regen] are our only multi-magic circle spells, but once you cast them, they stay on the battlefield almost indefinitely even without [Continuous Cast] until you tell them to fizzle out. See? This is the pigeonhole I’m talking about. You’re getting too comfortable with your already established battle style. I say we need to try something.’

“And that’s [Dragon Idol Candidate]? That’s why I’m taking the hybrid version of it in [Red Sun Who Graces All]. It isn’t like I don’t disagree with your thinking process, since I also understand how much our spell songs rely on [Star Idol]’s Job skills. I just think taking the one Job that only buffs our singing prowess is the real pigeonholing. Evolving our unique Job is a large power boost, but so is taking Job skills and evolving the corresponding development Job,” I argued. “If we have to, we can take the next evolution, but at this point, I think improving our solar core might be the way. What is the objective of this expedition for us?”

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‘To find a way to awaken our ice dragon lineage.’

“Correct! And for that, Aurena improved our solar core, not to mention, we have our grandmother’s crown to facilitate this later on. That mana absorption and control effect of it will likely help us control the cold affecting our body later. That is the most important point for me.”

‘… I see. Hmm, that does make sense then. But, if that is your goal, then why take the first option? [Red Star Tyrant] sounds better since it focuses on the solar-energy part of our core, so taking either the first or fourth option will boost our solar core, but the first is more specialized on that part. If you ask me, your archetype classification is wrong—[Red Star Tyrant] is a ‘sun dragon,’ not ‘holy-fire dragon.’’

I couldn’t disagree with that. A simple adjective change illustrated the situation in a better light.

‘If you want to min-max, your only options are one or three. Not four. Like the second option, it’s a hybrid that will split your potential power. If we share the same min-maxing idea, then why are you trying to split the power up? Jack-of-all-trades has never been our priority; we’ve never been a perfect jack-of-all-trades, even back on Earth. We’ve always been good at singing, but only an average dancer. To reach the peak, our specialty is our ticket there.’

“… So, our four options go down to two.”

‘Yes, what is our priority?’

“… Our solar core. That’s the second reason why we are going to the glacier.”

Hikari nodded. ‘One step closer to Mom, and another step closer to unlocking a new set of abilities. Hmm, in a way, you could argue that increasing our solar energy-related abilities is also hard. [Drakonian Sunlight Edge] is the only other solar energy skill we got, but it came from Yeostar. I’m good with either, now that I think about it.’

“So singing or solar energy,” I muttered, looking at the descriptions one last time.

What did I have to prioritize here? What could I gain from a Job evolution that I couldn’t from any other source at this point?

…

“Let’s do it then. You call it, Hikari.”

‘Sure … System voice, we choose [Red Star Tyrant]!’

Job evolution commences for [Tyrant Diva] into [Red Star Tyrant]

Acquired 2000 skill points

Skill requirement fulfilled. [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 7] [Solar Core Lv. 7] [White Flames Lv. 8] [Magic Power Enhancement Lv. 10] [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 10] [Sacred Resistance Lv. 6] [Stage Fever Lv. 8] [Draconic Aura Lv. 7] [Core Regulation] merged into unique skill [Ruby Star Lv. 1]

Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Ruby Star Lv. 1] evolved into [Ruby Star Lv. 7]

Ruby Star: A unique skill created from the Job [Red Star Tyrant], inheriting the fiery disposition of a sun-devouring dragon. A skill that combines solar powers with the inferno control of a fire dragon, creating a unison between the holy and fire elements. A mutation between two lineages and the blessing of the light allows this solar-powered dragon to summon stars. The skills combined are: [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 1] [Solar Core Lv. 1] [White Flames Lv. 1] [Magic Power Enhancement Lv. 10] [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 10] [Sacred Resistance Lv. 10] [Stage Fever Lv. 10] [Draconic Aura Lv. 10] [Core Regulation]. Skills [Dreadflame Dragon Lv. 1] [Solar Core Lv. 1] [White Flames Lv. 1] will level alongside [Ruby Star]

Due to a change of skills, individual [Young Sunfang Dragon, Hestia Atsuko Kargryxmor]’s mutation requirements have been changed. Updated maturation requirement: Age: 5 Years, [Ruby Star Lv. 10], [Hellblade Dragon Lv. 10], [Royal Presence Lv. 10]

“Arrghk!” I groaned, clutching my chest as I felt a sharp pain around it as if my solar core was breaking apart.

“Lady Hestia!” Tasianna and the twins jumped onto their feet, running up to me as I hunched over.

I gritted my teeth as a mist of mana escaped my body from that area, crystallizing around my chest as my body temperature started to rise to the point [Dreadflare Aura] was being unconsciously released.

Feeling the heat, our three cryomancer immediately cast their ice spells to cool me down, reducing the intensity of the flames, weakening them to the point I felt a chill run down my spine. Yet, it only lasted a second before the three reduced the effectiveness of the cold to the point it felt like a cooling gale. The twins came closer and wrapped their wings around me like a coat, trapping my body in a cocoon of their scale webbing.

Heat and cold, perfectly mixed together, equalizing my body temperature until it felt like I was inside a sauna. Shay and Beth perfectly executed the warming process they learned from Regolustrus and the fire wyverns, allowing me to mainly focus on controlling this sudden surge of power.

It felt similar to a monster evolution, but the ecstasy wasn’t as intense due to the pain. The power surge felt more like an intense training session as it required me to control the flow of mana into my chest, as my instincts told me this was the only way to accelerate the process. Something biological, maybe even chemically, was happening with me.

My body was changing with a unique Job evolution?

“… This is something new.” Vifi opened her party bracelet again, eyeing me with the look of a studious predator.

“Fuck!” I cursed as I felt my mind blacking out for a moment. It wasn’t even out of pain, but a bodily function, like that sleepy feeling I would get from evolving. “This is similar to a monster evolution!”

“Then just accept it!” Nong said. “Go to sleep. Don’t worry about yourself; we’ll keep you safe, little scamp. Take in the tranquility of nature, embrace its care.”

Nong came closer and flapped his wings, letting his feathers swing around as if a gale blew through them. My nose suddenly caught onto a sweet aroma similar to that of a scented candle. With every breath, my lungs calmed this turbulent feeling in my chest and head. I …

“Got it,” I said before I fell back into Shay’s arms. My eyelids felt so heavy. “Good … ni …”

I opened up my eyelids, still feeling the heat from our campfire. However… the ceiling had changed and the cold from outside felt stronger than before my eyes closed.

“Good evening, Lady Hestia!” I heard from behind me, prompting me to twist my body, noticing that I was inside my scaled, camping bedroll. “I hope you’ve built up a great appetite.”

The sizzling of meat and the aroma of cooking herbs and spices stimulated my senses as I helped myself out of the bedroll, feeling slightly refreshed and … different. My chest felt heavier … as I could feel my solar core having grown with how the heat was distributed there. Touching it, I could confirm it, before looking down my shirt to confirm that there was a substantial change done by a Job evolution.

Not only did my solar core grow in size, but the scales around it … were bleached. Pure white with golden yellow outlines on the ridges, creating the same color scheme the holy dragons and the knights of Aurena had. All of that surrounded this polished, gem-like solar core gleaming with red, orange, and yellow. Small flames flickered on its surface as the core pulsated with so much heat, that the cold from outside felt like nothing.

“A day.” I heard from the side. Turning to the voice, I saw Vifi was already eating her meal. “Exactly a day and at the same time.”

[“Exactly like a monster evolution,”] Beth, eating next to her, said. [“My lady, this did not happen with Saori. Her unique evolution did not cause such a drastic result.”]

[“Which prompts us to ask if this only applies to our monsters, or …”] Shay rubbed his chin as he finished his noodle soup, licking his lips clean. [“If this applies to humanoids as well.”]

Tasianna nodded as she approached me, handing me a warm noodle soup with goat meat, filling my lungs with pure ecstasy. Soft-boiled eggs, chopped onions, and a little fried cut garlic decorated the meal, making me almost want to devour it in one gulp. Fortunately, I suppressed my urge as I picked up some chopsticks and began my meal.

“Itadakimasu!” I thanked, enjoying my dinner.

“This might be the ‘evolution’ I need. As Her Majesty said, I can change myself similar to an elemental, but another option would be to gain the ice mana and then finalize the change with a Job evolution,” Tasianna said. “I am not close to my third Job evolution, but knowing this, I should think a bit more about what skills to get and which Jobs to level up. If I can experience a Job evolution like Lady Hestia.”

“Yeah … A Job evolution that also changes your body. Hmm, that is certainly very interesting,” Vifi’s eyes were locked onto the flames appearing on my chest.

“Ha, that really equalizes things if elves and dwarves start to experience what you did,” Nong said from the side, handing Tasianna five empty bowls, licking his lips and fingers clean with a satisfied and reddened face. “Compliments to the chef … Haaa, I just want to say: How do you feel, little scamp?”

“Good. Just like after an evolution,” I answered, feeling the heat in my chest growing. “Though, it doesn’t feel much different than before. My solar core made a pretty drastic change, to the point you can even see some flames escaping through my clothes around my chest. See?”

I then snapped my fingers, conjuring up white flames, confirming that being merged into [Ruby Star] didn’t eliminate my ability to create white flames. If that were the case, then I should be able to continue creating holy-fire spells using [Ruby Star] as the empty vessel, now.

Similarly, [Dreadflame Dragon] as a skill was gone from my Profile, but everything related to it was still there. I could create flames like before and even inflict [Dread Burn], meaning the mutation Job skills I got for my dragon skill were fully inherited in its new form.

I guess it made sense since getting [Ruby Star] to level ten was now one of the requirements for me to evolve into rank A. It even inherited the levels of my skills and instantly leveled up to level seven.

“Nothing seems to have changed much, but, well, the main point of [Ruby Star] is to summon ‘stars,’” I said after some exercise, noticing the cave entrance was buffeted by hail. “Well, I guess I can try it now with the blizzard outside.”

“Nah, it’s not problematic, yet,” Nong said, pointing at the entrance. “See? We haven’t made any preparations for a long stay here. This blizzard is simply normal stuff within this ice-mana drenched place. Come over to Storm Nest, and you will see more tornados and strong winds than anywhere else.”

I flinched. “Wait, we’re already inside the glaciers?”

“Yes, my lady. Just a bit further in from where we all stopped,” Tasianna answered. “Just past that valley with the still flowing river and the bundle of elementals.”

“I see.” I turned back to the entrance, taking a deep breath to feel the cold cutting my nose and throat, only for my new solar core to warm me right up as if I had drunk some German Christmas punch. “Got it. Then tomorrow is the official start of the expedition, right?”

I finished my bowl of noodle soup, ordering more to fill me up for the trip ahead. Having decided as such, we all went to sleep early after dinner, and once morning came, we dragonkin turned back into our original form and put on the dragon-sized fur clothes we had ordered.

Specially ordered by Sieg to keep our party warmed up, it was made to fit our original sizes and enchanted to be resistant to our respective elements and the cold to protect them. It felt a bit weird to wear clothes in my dragon form, but this was how we would protect ourselves from the blizzards.

One final swig from Tasianna’s [Ice-Resistance Potion (Major)] and the expedition to the glacial north had finally begun.

Come now. Be born, red sun!

A crimson flame burst from my chest, around my core, as I called my solar energy to use it. The flame then flew up before it started to distort with my mana, turning the matter into plasma as it started to radiate intense heat even with only sparks flying about. Nowhere as brilliant as [Sun, Consume All], but this little hatchling of a fire was still mine.

A little star was just born.

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