Chapter 261: How to Molt a Dragon.

Chapter 261: How to Molt a Dragon.

S-Shed? But, Ive been shedding my scales all this time. I thought you would be teaching me how to groom my scales?

Dragon caves were large, according to Mother. I guess it would make sense since Mothers real size was large enough to cast a shadow over a whole neighborhood and tower over Griffonpeaks wall if my friends werent exaggerating. As such, Mother wanted her room inside the subspace to be large enough for her to transform in.

Naturally, creating such a large room demanded insane amounts of mana that even I would not be able to provide in one sitting, if I didnt have Mothers aid. Sharing her mana with me, the room quickly expanded, but at the same time, I was completely baffled at how deep her mana pool was. It felt like a bottomless pit was pouring mana into me. Mother showed absolutely no signs of exhaustion, even after we were done with her room.

Sadly, rooms made in the subspace were mostly wooden colored, as in, the floor, walls, and ceiling seemed like they were painted with wood. Similar to a dungeon, the outside walls and floors were indestructible, so the only way to morph it was to use even more mana. My jaw dropped to the floor at how much Mother leisurely gave me, and the only reason we had to split the room expansion into two sessions was due to arcane corruption.

My arcane corruption, to be specific. I was still spending mana, after all, even if it wasnt mine. And I was practically immune to Arcane Corruption at this point!

So, Mothers cave was finished. Outside of freezing the ceiling with her silver powder to create a cave with diamond-shimmering ice crystals, she hadnt decorated it. She only used it to sleep in.

Hestia, if you have already forgotten about it, we are dragons. You are not human anymore nor are you a dragonewt. As dragons, we need to take care of our dragon bodies. Our grooming will then be transferred over to our humanoid forms, Mother responded to my confusion. What you call shedding is just your scales falling off to be replaced by younger ones. We dragons molt our skins.

Oh, just like lizards and reptiles?

I should have figured, but when I pointed that out, Mother suddenly showed me a sinister smile.

My whelping comparing us mighty dragonkins to a lesser being like a reptile? No, no, no. You must take pride in yourself, Hestia. We are not like reptiles, we are above them. Do you understand?

Yes, Mother. Her eyes told me I had no choice but to accept it. Goes to show that superior beings dont want to be compared to their lesser kin. Just like with dragons and wyverns.

Speaking of the wyverns

I see, so you control the frost sacs close to your lungs to produce your ice breath. How do you control the temperature? Mana?

Tasianna was currently training with the two snow wyverns. Mother accepted Tasianna as her student after the latter asked her to do so, seeing as strengthening my friends would indirectly protect me. Conveniently, Mother was pretty much the epitome of cryomancy in this world right now.

Since Mother had to teach me how to be a better dragon first, she gave Tasianna a quick demonstration of her power and told her to train with the snow wyverns. In her words, They are still young, but lesser dragonkins like wyverns are not to be underestimated if they decide to focus on a single element. They will provide valuable knowledge if you can understand them.

A hatchling grows larger quickly, all for the sake of survival. However, Hestia, since you were born as a G rank and evolved and grew so fast into a B rank over the span of a single year, you have been growing normally despite not molting at all. Mother then pulled my hand up and pointed at some dark-looking scales on them. Its easy to see which of your scales have lost their luster from age. Their color has dulled and they arent glistening with mana.

I looked at the ones Mother showed me but I couldnt exactly follow her. Really? Shouldnt they be harder since they got older? It has the same color as my carapace. I thought it was good.

I mean, stories always say that the older a dragons scales become, the harder and more valuable they become. Shouldnt this be the case, too?

Mother frowned, looking at me with confusion. Is this what youve been taught from your old world? Does Earth have any actual dragons at all? How can they teach something if they do not know if it's true or not?

Mother deduced that quickly. Guess you shouldnt believe everything from a single source, huh?

No, dragon scales become stronger the more they regrow and are bathed in your mana. Your body adapts to your stats and the threats you face, so its imperative that you molt your old scales as often as possible. The more full your scales are with your mana, the stronger they and your scale-dust will become.

That was weird. I had thought that my stats would apply to my whole body, so Vitality and Wisdom would not only increase the resistances of my bones but also my scales. Thats what I thought during all my fights. But now Mother told me that was wrong?

Seeing me still unable to understand, Mother nodded. Thats alright. Dragons, like all monsters, usually know about the System and our bodys needs through instincts, but I guess your human mind suppressed it slightly. Allow me to demonstrate it. But first, Saori~ Could you transform back into your original form with my daughter?

Of course.

Accompanying me today through this lesson was also Saori, since she also needed to learn how to groom her body. I guess since her garm mother was dead, Mother was kinda substituting as one. It also was convenient that Saori became a lesser dragonkin after I gave her my blood to drink.

After we both transformed back into our proper forms, I was glad that Mothers room was large enough to fit both of us. Still, just from the looks of it, we were nowhere near as large as Mother could be, if the caves size was to be believed. At this point, curiosity for her actual form started to intrigue me.

When I expressed that to Mother, she smiled brightly, almost as if she was waiting for this request of mine. After telling everybody to make some space, she announced, Hum! Hum! Witness your mothers magnificence, Hestia! before the mana mist expelled from her body like a bomb.

Not only did it cover her body, but it grew to what seemed like the size of a football stadium. Shes fricking huge! Like, the mist alone was enough to dwarf me even while I was dragoning around!

Just seeing how much it spread really made me glad I listened to Mother and made the

Oh shit!

Pressure. A whole lot of pressure suddenly burst out in the middle of the mana mist, growing stronger and stronger with every second. The temperature quickly fell below zero, forcing my body to release a suppressed [Dreadflare Aura] to counter it, restoring it to slightly below room temperature.

But in the next second, this pressure stabilized and the cold disappeared as quickly as it came. Still, even if it felt easier to stay around, my instincts had already been spurned by that immense power. Like in the abyss of an ocean; my mind couldnt comprehend the true depths of the mana source in front of me.

At first, it was like an exploding current. Now, all this mana felt like being inside a tranquil lake. Soothing even; that is something I could understand. When two glistening wings sprouted from the mana mist and blew it all away, the surprise of Mothers true form wasnt shocking to me. With that one display of power, I could gauge what my reaction to it would be.

Mesmerizing.

Silvery scales glistening like gemstones under the light, snow-like particles floating around before forming into icicle armor, and two turquoise eyes staring down at me with slight anxiousness.

[I apologize. I was a bit too eager. Were any of you hurt?] Mothers voice resounded through our heads, worry clear to hear.

I turned around, letting a sigh out that Tasianna, Saori, and the wyverns werent hurt. I deactivated my [Dreadflare Aura] and shook my head, calming her down.

As Mother asked me how she looked, I couldnt help but focus on how huge she was. Probably the second largest being Id ever seen in this world, since Kargryxmor was in number one. However, the latter was a god. Mother was probably even larger than the leviathan I met in the Belzac forest.

I then flapped my wings and flew up to her head, noticing how my whole body was only as large as her head, and I was larger than a two-story house. But seconds later, her silver powder formed into a single icicle horn, ruining my size comparison.

[It is normal for a dragon parent to give their child a ride on them as they fly. Would you like to sit on me as I do so outside, my whelping?] she said.

[Mother, please, youre gonna embarrass me here. Please, dont. Also, if you start flying around, youre just gonna scare everybody,] I quickly rejected her offer, disappointing her.

I mean, I could understand why a kid needed to sit on their dragon parents back to keep up with their flight speed, but Im not gonna do it for leisure, okay! Its like giving your teenage daughter a piggyback ride!

After I was done looking at Mothers form, I did have to admit that I shared quite a few features with her. Well, we even shared them in our dragonewt forms but the fact she had a different face and was a high elf kinda ruined the whole mother-daughter thing for me at first. N-Not to speak ill of adopted children, though.

But, in any case, now? Well, now, I could see our familiarity. Mother was correct to say that our dragon forms would resemble each other since this was our correct form. Our humanoid ones were made using our minds, what we wanted to look like. My current dragonewt appearance was made using my subconscious knowledge of my past self, so it couldnt be helped that Mother and I looked so different outside of our dragon features.

Our horns, carapace, claws, and tail were shared, in addition to the fact that I was quadrupedal like her, and not standing on two legs like Kargryxmor, and presumably my dragon father. On the other hand, our wings had different shapes, my scales were edgier than hers, my head was bulkier due to my jaw plate, and a couple of other traits. Still, I inherited quite a bit aside from my scale-dust.

So, it kinda soothed my heart to see her true form right now. It made me finally realize that this was my mother. That we were blood-related. I knew nothing she told me could have been a lie, but I still had some doubts inside that same wish to reject her. But, like the cold disappearing during spring, I felt like I was beginning to warm up more to Mother.

[Thank you, Mother,] I told her earnestly, returning to the ground, where I saw the snow wyverns bowing and tucking their tails between their legs. A sign of respect, I presume?

[You are always welcome, my whelping.] Mana mist then exuded from her body and she transformed back into her dragonewt form. She then looked at Saori and me. Now, it is time to help you two with your grooming sessions.

You would think the older a dragon got, the less they needed to molt, and you would be correct. Mother had her molting session soon, but due to her size, it would take a bit for the process to finish. As such, she would demonstrate the process to us through the scales on her forearms.

The procedure is relatively easy once you know. Usually, parents would show and aid their hatchlings as they shed for the first time, but since your draconic instincts were suppressed in your respective situations, I will show you how.

[Well, Melloxtressa, you do know I was not born as a dragonkin, right? I expected Hestias blood to change me, but not into a dragonkin,] Saori brought up.

Oh, yes, of course. However, it is your fault now that you are a dragonkin, Saori. Sadly, not a true one, but you will still need to molt since you have scales underneath your fur. Do not worry, I know of dragons who have feathers and fur, so I understand how to help you through the process.

Saori told me before that Mother told Saori to shed her old fur in her garm form. Like as mentioned, any grooming done to our original form would also influence our humanized ones. However, it didnt work as efficiently the other way around.

As Mother moved Saoris fur around to reveal the scales beneath them, I took this chance to observe Saoris body more in detail. Just like her races name mentioned, her scales were colored black like the river Styx, glimmering slightly under the light. The carapace she had on her legs, though, were tougher and could shock you from the static electricity in her white fur.

[How do you shed your fur, anyway, Saori? Dont you do that all the time?] I asked.

[You are thinking of dogs, Hestia. I shed like a wolf, so its better to call it molting, in a way. In large bundles and clumps. However, the issue is that my fur is tough and gets hung up in my scales. Either I need to comb or have Tasianna wash me and then shake it off one by one.]

Melloxtressa, how dare you speak like that to your Emperor and God! I am Kargryxmor, the one who ruled it all! You dare speak in that tone towards me!!!

You are not my Emperor anymore, God! Eltharion is now the rightful Emperor! Unlike you, he stayed with us and fought to bring back peace to our empire! All you did was to take away all the elder scales and bring them to relax in the divine realm! You betrayed us!

Today, we would be playing Family Feud.

A note from AbyssRaven

Hestia has taken her stuff in becoming a proper dragon. Also, did anybody watch family feud? Yeah? Good. We about to have one in Hestia's dragon family.

If you guys want to support me, Hestia and "A Dragon Idol's Reincarnation Tale" (or just read up to 20 advance chapters + any Patreon-only chapters) please check out my Patreon: Rawr!

If you guys enjoyed this chapter then, please follow the story. If you guys want the story to grow, then giving it a rating or a favorite will do wonders: Rawr

Thank you for reading this chapter.

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Saturday, February 12, 2022 3:17:10 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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