Chapter 179: Nothing wrong with a Little Extortion
Belladonna stepped out of Lord Swinesby’s Manor decked out in her newly repaired armour. After going back and forth with the Duke, trying to convince him to let her take certain things, she couldn’t get him to budge on giving her the Dragon’s source.
Even if she couldn’t use it now, as she was focusing on both her foundation and her real world magic, before racing to ascend the ranks, it would have been incredibly useful to have to later.
But Lucian remained firm, insisting that it was the one thing, above all else, that he had to take back with him since people had learned of his victory against the beast. However, since he noticed her annoyance at that result, she managed to extort... I mean, convince him, to help repair her armour instead - as well as give her other stuff from the dragon, of course.
Not only had he repaired it though, but improved it. Whoever he had working on it had made it extra comfy and flexible in all the right places and had used extra material to make up for what was destroyed, whilst reusing the old material and preserving her black leather and white fluffy trimmed bandit look.
In addition her ’convincing’ had netted her some of the Dragon’s volcanic scales, enough to make some armour for Lilith that would barely cover her massive body - just as she liked - as well as some blood for herself.
Two vials, one for now and one for later in case she lost the bonuses. She had even recommended that the Duke take some for himself, for when he was done with the ritual. It was a suggestion that came from the last of her little dream as the white eyed Belladonna of Wisdom.
Finally, wrapped in linen and slung across her back was the Dragon’s heart. The scales and the blood fit in her Bottomless Bag, but this Heart was bigger than a yoga ball, there was no way she was getting it in a satchel opening without crushing and possibly ruining it.
It had taken close to an hour to get to this point, as they had been discussing the Dragon’s loot for a while, and she had been waiting on the armour being repaired. She had only narrowly escaped the dinner invitation from the Piggy Lord, feigning other duties.
Once she was out, she immediately took one of the blood vials from her back and eagerly gulped down the contents. The blood tasted like a spiced alcohol, tickling her tongue and lighting up her taste buds with flavour whilst burning her throat on the way down.
The warmth filled her stomach and quickly spread throughout her entire body, as a notification appeared before her eyes.
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[Sanguine Essence Absorbed. Stats have been temporarily increased based on blood purity.
Vit + 75, Str + 100, Res + 30
Consuming new Sanguine Essence will replace the current effect.]
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Now that was what she loved to see. Dragon blood really was worth it all. Three bonuses, and at the level that practically doubled some of her stats. Especially in strength, which was consistently her best stat. The even better part? This Earth Dragon was apparently considered one of the ’lesser’ species.
So if she could get a little bit of sip from the ’true’ Dragons then how much would those increase her stats? Triple? Quadruple? There was only one real way to find out, thus it became a little personal quest of hers to find out how each dragon tasted.
She would become the ultimate gourmet of Dragon blood.
Speaking of stats, there were even more ways that she could increase them. Even if she hadn’t landed the killing blow on the Earth Dragon, she had still participated enough to gain the Exp from its death.
Everyone that had attacked it or participated in the event did, as it was split based on contribution. Contribution that put Belladonna miles ahead of anyone else, other than the Duke.
It might not have been the full load, but it was still enough to shoot her up 8 entire levels, to level 33. Something she sorely needed after spending a week lagging behind the players as she focused on her studies.
Even then, it was behind the average player level, and very far behind the highest. But her advantage definitely laid in more places than raw levels. With her bonus’, her stats probably still overshadowed the players many levels above her.
Her race truly was broken in the best ways, and she didn’t even have to Gacha for it unlike a certain Fox-kin!
After pumping her new attribute points into her stats, they were looking very nice.
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[Status:
Healthy Name: Belladonna Walachia
Race: Fell-spawn (Sanguine Maiden)
Class: Glyphborne Level 33
Innate Talent: Polaris
Constitution: Source Devouring
Attributes:-
Strength(STR): 150 (+100)
Agility(AGI): 140
Vitality(VIT):
140 (+75) Perception(PER): 50
Resistance(RES): 30 (+30)
Esoterica(EST): 105
Attribute Points: 0
Skills:-
Adept Butchery, Mana Sense, Basic Mana Manipulation, Infusion, Shadow Veil, Blood Frenzy (Partial Transformation), Beguiling Eyes, Shredding Strike]
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It wasn’t just her attribute points that were going up either. Her Esoterica had risen consistently over the last few days. Even when she wasn’t logged into the game, it would increase from her out of game studies.
The final nail in the coffin of the truth of the connections of the game and the real world, as if the literal magic she could use was not evidence enough.
It was nice to see, however, that at least one of her stats transferred. Even if her body was weak in one world and strong in the other, her magic proficiency would always translate.
A fluffy paw bapping against her cheek pulled her out of her stat based revelry, as she turned her head towards the annoyed looking Beans’ sitting on her shoulder. He slapped her lightly in the face again, right between the eyes, and let out an annoyed, rumbling meow.
As angry as he was being, Belladonna couldn’t help but laugh and brush his paw away.
"Alright Alright, I get it. Just give me a minute to get the meat. It’s not my fault they took so long.
If they knew how important your feeding time was, they wouldn’t have taken so long."
She opened her bottomless back, rooting around inside of it for the meat slabs she had previously prepared as well as his usual glazing when she paused. A devilish smile spread across her lips as she thought of something, and instead pulled out a slab of meat the size of her forearm that was still dripping with meat juices.
People do say that the tail of a dragon was the best part of it, after all.