Spear Devil - 007 (Patreon)

Chapter 007 – Golden Tears

[March – 2008]

Moving to the backyard, I sat down crosslegged on the soft grass. Thankfully the bushes acting as a fence were all high enough so that the neighbours couldn't peek into the garden, which meant that I could do some basic training here for the time being.

Getting a handle on how to use my Dragon Aura was probably my priority, considering the incredible feats it could be used for. I knew that Dragon Aura was what fuelled my active skills, but this wasn't a video game where every skill had a certain cost to it.

This was reality, which meant that with training, I could learn to use my Dragon Aura more efficiently and utilize it in a myriad of different ways, but for that, I first needed to learn control.

Of course, advancing, i.e. re-learning, Spearmanship was equally important, but I decided to start with Dragon Aura.

Closing my eyes, I directed my focus to my chest, where I felt my Dragon Aura was gathered.

Inky-black swirls of energy with a reddish tint and a consistency like mercury flowed around and through my heart, as it was the origin and core for all dragons. I wasn't sure how I was aware of that, but I just knew this to be the truth.

Next, I tried to draw a small bit of Dragon Aura away from my heart, but it was rather difficult, as this type of energy proved rather rebellious, refusing to follow my mental commands for more than a few short moments before flowing back into my heart.

I knew that most dragons only used their Dragon Aura for Breath attacks while relying on their physical body to tank most other damage. I remember even Ddraig being the same, despite his status as a Heavenly Dragon.

Most of his other abilities were more akin to a Clan Trait like the Devils possessed and were not based on intricate manipulation of Dragon Aura.

Experiencing how difficult it was to get a good grasp on this type of energy, I started to understand why most dragons used it in destructive yet simple ways, but it also made my competitive spirit burn.

From what I remembered, Dragon Aura was one of the strongest types of energy. If I could manage to get good enough control over my Dragon Aure to use it like Devils used their Demonic Powers and Senjutsu users used their aura, I could only imagine the power that I could unleash.

'Retrieve reward Golden Tears(Rare).', I ordered mentally as soon as that thought came to my mind, and a moment later a small vial with exactly a hundred shining drops of liquid appeared in my hand.

The vial easily fit into my palm and despite being only a Rare-ranked reward it was still the reward for absorbing a Divine-ranked soul, which meant its value was nothing to scoff at.

The Support System's description for the item was as follows:

[Golden Tears(Rare): An alchemical genius without equal once tried to gain divinity through his own concoctions by using the blood of a god. This is one of his failed products that grants whoever drinks it divine learning speed. The effects last for 24 hours per drop, while this vial contains one hundred drops.]

I originally didn't want to use it so soon, but there was really no point in keeping something like that on the shelf without making use of it to increase my power, especially with how difficult it proved to be to gain control over my Dragon Aura.

I wasn't sure what 'divine learning speed entailed', but I hoped that this would help me gain at least some basic control over my energy in a few days.

Opening the vial, I let exactly one drop fall into my palm and watched as it was absorbed through my skin. There was no need to drink and ingest the potion for it to show its effect.

I could feel a warm sensation spread through my whole form and even my mind seemed to have become much much clearer.

Curious and eager to make some progress, I re-doubled my efforts in gaining control over my Dragon Aura.

…

[Ten days later]

I wasn't a particularly expressive person but as I looked at the small sphere of reddish-black Dragon Aura spinning in my hand, even I found it hard to suppress my smile.

With but a simple thought, I guided my Dragon Aura back into my body and let it flow naturally toward my heart. The whole process was smooth and unobstructed as if I had done this a million times already.

'Divine learning speed, huh... Well, this potion sure kept its promise.', I mused silently.

I had done in mere days with a few drops, what I had speculated might take me years or decades without. The only explanation I had for why this item was only Rare-ranked, was that it wasn't only a consumable, but also only contained a hundred drops. The real value could also only be displayed if one put in the effort to squeeze every last bit of use from the potion through training.

After I had felt the incredible effectiveness, I hadn't taken any breaks to eat or rest and focused solely on gaining as much from each drop as I could. I had only rested after I felt the effects fade away.

Over the last few days as my control had steadily grown, I had also experimented and managed to develop some simple techniques that could be used with my Dragon Aura, taking some inspiration from Senjutsu in particular.

In Senjutsu there was a technique where the practitioners used their aura or ki to reinforce their physical capabilities, called Touki. I had spent some of my time trying to recreate this technique with Dragon Aura, which surprisingly had gone even better than expected.

It was as if Dragon Aura was just a perfect fit for this technique, as I had achieved minor success after only a few minutes of testing, something I planned to expand on in the next few days.

I had also learned to fire off bullets of compressed Dragon Aura, while the damage done by the energy projectiles could be adjusted with the amount of aura I compressed and how strong I compressed it.

It went as low as a harmless sting, to as devastating as a grenade, not to mention the possible damage that could be done when activating my Penetration skill at the same time, which meant the Aura Bullet would ignore any kind of defense.

The thing that I had tested last was infusing my Dragon Aura with my fire attribute, which came with surprising ease, though it made it harder to control by several times as my fire was just too destructive, not to mention that it was impossible to extinguish.

Like Ddraig's flame, my own fire could theoretically only be extinguished by a being like Ophis, while Albion in his prime could probably also withstand them thanks to his special abilities.

Still, these last few days had been incredibly beneficial to my overall growth and adjustment, as I now felt much more comfortable and confident with wielding this power coursing through my veins.

All this training with my Dragon Aura while under the influence of the Golden Tears had also boosted the quantity of my energy by nearly five points, causing it to reach 16.3. This may seem like a sharp increase which it certainly was, but it was still within the range of Mid-Class Devils.

Generally speaking, it was also easier to increase your attributes through training when they were low, which meant that even taking the whole vial and training for three months as a Satan-level being with more than sixty points in Dragon Aura, it would be hard to make similar progress than I had done with only ten drops.