Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 151 - 150 - AnticlimactiChapter

Raven stared at the notification.

[You have received: Skill Tier-Up Voucher.]

[This voucher allows the user to upgrade the tier of one skill or ability to a new evolutionary stage. (One-time use.)]

[Warning: Evolution effects are irreversible.]

"...Huh?"

His voice came out croaked. As he stared at the notification, his head tilted and brows knitted.

"Wait... that’s a good thing." Omni’s voice echoed, equally confused. "No, for real—that’s a good thing, right? Did we win... on red?"

"...We won on red," Raven muttered. His eyes were blank.

Then, slowly, very slowly, he turned his head toward the virtual roulette still glowing faintly.

The red section seemed to wink at him.

Raven looked like he’d just been told his mom was a dragon and his dad was a toaster.

"What the hell, man... Why did it feel like I got hit by a truck emotionally if this was a jackpot?"

"You tripped like a drama queen during a beach volleyball anime scene," Omni muttered. "I saw your soul leave your body. Bro, you did not deserve this win."

Raven ignored the sass and focused on the notification.

His hand moved, almost automatically, to accept the voucher. The moment he did—

STING.

"Argh!"

He stumbled, clenching his eyes shut as a piercing sensation shot through his skull like someone had poured soda into his soul.

Violet streaks were dancing behind his eyelids.

"Yo! Yo! Are we dying? Is this a dying kind of pain or an enlightenment kind of pain?!"

"...This—" Raven hissed, blinking past the stabbing pressure. "This is the Fate Eyes thing. I felt this when I first got you."

There was a pause.

"That means it’s something big..." Omni whispered with nervous awe. "Like, grand-daddy, shift-the-heavens, reroute-your-life-trajectory kinda big."

Raven steadied his breathing, then immediately began flipping through his skills in his head like a frantic gamer at 2% HP and 0 healing potions.

He thought about the Fate Eyes.

Maybe they needed an upgrade, but—

There was no reaction. Not even a pixel twitch.

’Plot Armor?’

It was his first skill ever, so it was possible, but the answer remained the same.

Still nada.

Although he felt like the system flashed a brief "Stop trying to cheat" message.

"...Of course."

Then his mind landed on one word.

’Dragonification.’

It was the skill Crisaius had taught him, and the moment he thought about it—

His vision turned to Violet.

It was so similar to the time when he got Omni that Raven felt like he had lived this moment before.

The world bled into deep hues of cosmic purple.

The trees swayed like they were, but to Raven, they seemed to be bowing.

The very air vibrated as his senses exploded.

He could smell the sap running in the tree ten meters away. Hear a squirrel fart three trees over.

The worst part?

His bones started humming.

It was as if they could tell something was about to happen.

"Ah. Crap."

"Raven," Omni said slowly, "why do I feel like you just opened a file marked ’DO NOT TOUCH – Eldritch Dragon Version’?"

"Because I think I did."

Raven quickly clicked open the voucher and selected the Dragonification skill.

[Confirm Skill Tier-Up?

Target: Dragonification.

New Tier: Voidborne Variant.

Warning: You may experience minor discomfort, slight temporary psychosis, and an intense need to scream like a kaiju.]

His finger hovered right above the confirm button, wanting to test it out as soon as possible, but then, he saw the temporary psychosis warning.

"Yeah... no." He shook his head.

"What?" Omni blinked, baffled. "Bro, why didn’t you click confirm? Come on, man! We gotta see that transformation! Who knows what kind of OP, busted-ass power we just pulled! Click it! Click it!"

He couldn’t understand why Raven didn’t click on the confirm.

"It’s just slight psychosis, bro," he added, his tone filled with confusion. "Ain’t no way you’re scared of that."

"Actually," Raven sighed, swiping the tab away, "I am scared of it."

"What?! Why??"

Raven’s reply was instant.

"You might not know, but whenever any kind of system tells you that there might be a ’slight’ this or that, you gotta take it as if it’s saying that it would be a major this or that."

Omni didn’t know what to say to that.

Raven, on the other hand, continued, "Above all, I don’t think this is the right time to try the transformation. Others might arrive here anytime now. I don’t want to attack them in full Kaiju mode."

"Well, shit," Omni sighed like a deflated balloon. "Got all hyped for nothin’, huh?"

"Believe me when I say this, but I’m way more eager to try it than you can ever be." Raven took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "But it is what it is—"

Rustle!

Raven and Omni tensed as the bush meters away from them rustled, only to sigh as they saw Jake.

"Man, you gotta stop creeping up on us like that," Omni pulsed in Raven’s hand, his voice carrying clearly enough for Jake to hear. "Last dude who pulled that stunt? Dead. Real dead. He lying right there."

Jake’s gaze then landed on Travis’s body and then his head.

"...Travis?" He turned toward Raven questioningly.

Raven, however, shrugged. "As Omni said, it was his fault."

Jake deadpanned. "...You didn’t see his face?"

Raven looked away, coughing. "I was busy with something."

Jake’s stare intensified.

Raven, after a minute, groaned. "I didn’t think he would be dumb enough to approach an enemy like that! I thought that he would send a subordinate."

Then there was silence as Raven knew that he was at fault.

Jake didn’t say anything else for a while.

Then, he spoke, his voice low. "...Alex?"

Raven turned to the guy and then pointed at Travis, who was lying in the pool of his own blood.

"That guy was the leader. Do you think Alex would’ve lost to him?"

Jake, hearing his words, squinted at Travis, then, a second later, he shook his head.

Raven nodded. "Thought so."

Before they could talk about anything else, the bushes rustled, and the rest of the group appeared, and the first thing they saw was Travis’s dead body.

Then his head, lying on the ground like a discarded trophy.

"...Yeah, he’s dead," Raven said before any of them could ask anything.

"Cool," Siris whispered while Graye, who had stubbornly tagged along, copied Siris.

"Cool," she muttered, causing everyone to turn to her.

"Hm?" She tilted her head innocently. "What’s wrong?"

"...You think this is cool?" Lia asked, her expression stuck between speechless and uncertain.

"I don’t know?" Graye replied with a smile. "I thought that is what I was supposed to say."

Raven facepalmed. "Don’t learn anything from Siris."

..........................

Back to where Blargh-Alex was freed from their cage.

Smoke hung in the air like a guilty fart, and silence returned to the corridor—except for the dripping of blood, the faint crackle of lava veins cooling, and the echo of a slow, victorious crunch.

The corridor was now a disaster zone.

Burnt claw marks on the walls. Scorch marks shaped like confused demons mid-backflip.

In the center of it all stood the glorious, half-molten, currently-snacking mess that was Blargh-Alex, holding the limp leg of a demon like it was a turkey drumstick at a violent Renaissance fair.

Alex—whose head was now visible because Blargh had made them have two heads, one of Alex and the other of Blargh—wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Seriously, dude. Did you bite that thing’s head?"

Blargh licked his molten lips. "I nibbled it. Big difference." fгeewёbnoѵel_cσm

"You ate part of a demon’s skull!"

"I’m building my calcium reserves!"

"That’s not how bones work!"

They were arguing like two heads of a hydra fighting for food.

Nibbles, sitting daintily atop a broken helmet like a tiny war general taking five, sighed long and loud.

His flaming tail twitched with secondhand embarrassment.

Squeak.

"You’re going to get soul rot or brain flame or—I don’t know—demonic indigestion!" Alex snapped.

Blargh huffed, arms crossed like an overcooked toddler. "Well, excuse me for having culinary curiosity. You try spending your life as a pinky blob and not wondering what evil tastes like."

Alex uncrossed their (Blargh and Alex’s, as both of them had the same body but different heads) arms, shaking his head, about to say something, but before he could—

Nibbles squeaked again, louder this time.

His ears twitched, his body stiffening like a squirrel-shaped antenna catching the satellite signal of doom.

"Did he just... gasp?" Alex asked.

"That’s never good," Blargh muttered, reluctantly dropping the demon leg with a wet, meaty thwack.

Squeak. Squeak-squeak.

Nibbles squeaked at them seriously, asking them to shut up, and they did it.

Then—thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.

"...Footsteps," Alex murmured.

"No," Blargh corrected grimly. "A lot of footsteps."

The stone floor trembled under their feet, a low vibration growing into a full-on seismic disco.

Shadows flickered down the corridor.

Screams. Yells. The sharp clang of weapons. Worst of all—motivated breathing.

A blur of movement rounded the far hallway.

"...That’s a horde," Alex said.

Blargh nodded slowly. "That’s definitely a horde. Of angry people. Probably demonic."

Nibbles tilted his head.

Then came the sound—chanting.

It was rhythmic, ominous, and slightly offbeat, as if someone had organized a cult flash mob on short notice.

Alex swallowed. "I think I just heard the phrase ’flay the intruder’s soul while singing karaoke.’"

Even Blargh flinched. "...Yikes."

Behind them, from the hallway they came from, came a singular, angry grunt from the one demon that wasn’t completely unconscious.

Blargh looked at the demon, then sighed.

"You know what? We’ll revisit the head cuisine debate later," he muttered before Blargh-Alex picked that demon up and yeeted the demon into the oncoming stampede like a demonic distraction piñata.

Then, Alex and Blargh’s heads combined again.

"Running away heroically sounds like the best option right now," Blargh muttered.

Alex didn’t need convincing. "Agreed. Extremely agreed."

Nibbles glanced at the hallway, and as he saw the shadow larger now, he squeaked.

Squeak!

This time, his squeak was louder, and without a second’s delay, Blargh-Alex, with Nibbles seated on their head, ran.

Foll𝑜w current novℯls on fre𝒆web(n)ovel.co(m)