Noctis had prepared for this hunt for a long time.
Ever since he learned the Goddess had bestowed a Blessing, he had already taken action.
Throughout the long river of time, every deity would bestow upon their Blessed ones a power sufficient to carve out a place in the world.
This power would guide their believers to find a foothold in the torrent of the mortal realm, thriving endlessly.
The “power” given by each deity was different.
Some were weapons, others were treasures...
And what the Goddess of Light bestowed was the supreme privilege of making the proud Dragonkind willingly bow their heads and follow them for generations.
But as time passed and human development became more advanced, the deities stopped granting this power.
And the Goddess of Light, one of the five great Goddesses, had even stopped bestowing Blessings a thousand years ago.
The deities' believers were fully capable of establishing themselves in the world.
The Dragonkind also gradually faded from human sight.
Only by venturing beyond human territories and into the domain of monsters could one catch a glimpse of them.
And all Dragonkind possessed extremely high magical talent from birth.
Even the weakest young dragon possessed the strength of Peak Tier 4.
Their bloodlines were themselves the most stable magic circuits, and their deeper structure granted them near-immortal survival capabilities.
Adult dragons had almost no natural predators in this world, existing at the very pinnacle of all living creatures.
But this was only the understanding of a thousand years ago.
The Dragonkind were indeed strong.
But this strength made them overconfident.
Meanwhile, humans would continuously develop their civilization over time.
These were the truths Noctis had once discovered in the church's forbidden library.
Weeks ago, he had already buried countless confinement pillars cast from a mixture of mithril and mana-inhibiting stone in the seabed within a radius of several kilometers.
The cost of this alone had drained one-third of the church's financial resources.
He was willing to gamble.
Since the Goddess, who had not bestowed a Blessing for a thousand years, had chosen a Blessed one at this moment, then that legend from a millennium ago would surely come true!
The Dragonkind would surely reappear in the world!
Even if this space-confining magic circle could only last for a brief ten minutes, the price burned behind it was the lives of hundreds of believers.
But space confinement was only the first step in Noctis's plan.
At this moment, the massive staff in his hand, over two meters long, was one of the legendary weapons of the church, the Staff of Holy Light—Ignatius.
The mana required to activate this staff was extremely vast, enough to instantly drain all the mana of a Tier 6 Mage.
To activate this magic tool, which was infinitely close to a Tier 7 magical tool, he had already completely drained the mana and lives of the hundreds of Tier 3 Mages and Tier 4 Mages behind him.
At the cost of hundreds of human lives, he unleashed a high-level Tier 6 spell, vowing to strike down the giant dragon before him.
This was a massive gamble using all the political capital and church finances he had accumulated over decades.
He wanted to completely domesticate this ultimate monster, which existed only in myths, into the church's ultimate weapon!
If he could figure out how Dragonkind reproduced, he could even intervene artificially to let this mythical beast breed once more on human land!
Though he didn't even know if the giant dragon before him was male or female.
Just now, those Tier 6 spells unleashed at the cost of hundreds of believers' lives had poured down, yet the monster before him still stood tall.
Noctis should have been excited by this sheer strength.
After all, the more untamable the prey, the more valuable it would be once tamed.
However, things had already exceeded his expectations.
He had already sensed the divine radiance emanating from the depths of the sea.
He had never expected that Blessed one to actually be here.
And the lightning spear unleashed by the opponent had actually managed to forcibly deflect his Tier 6 spell!
Just who on earth was that guy!
Noctis was quite shocked in his heart.
A mage capable of unleashing such a high-level spell, even if they were a genius, would have to have studied it for at least forty years!
Someone with such achievements couldn't possibly be a student, right?
Noctis instantly ruled out all the students at the academy.
“True... at a time like this, how could you possibly look for a mere child as your capital to resist?”
Noctis sneered disdainfully.
He had never held the deities in any regard.
Soon, he raised his staff once more, and a massive golden magic circle materialized in the air again.
“It doesn't matter. This is even better...”
“Saves me the trouble of looking for you.”
Noctis stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.
“That spell looked so powerful...”
“Since your magic has the capital to contend with mine, do you really have enough mana!”
...
Again?!
Beneath the water, Ain looked at the golden holy light in the sky, utterly shocked.
Counting the previous rays of holy light that attacked the White Dragon, was this already the fourth or fifth one?
Whatever...
Ain gritted his teeth, once again materializing the massive magic circuit in his hand.
Since he had already made up his mind to save this giant dragon, he would see it through to the end!
Ain now had his own ambition.
And that was: to ride a dragon!
In the first playthrough, Ain had already set his sights on this giant dragon.
His mind had been filled with thoughts of how to tame her and make her his exclusive mount.
But unfortunately, his stats were insufficient in the early stages.
And in the original game, this was the first and last time a dragon-type creature appeared.
Even if he possessed more high-level magic tools and higher mana values in the later stages, he never encountered a second dragon.
He absolutely didn't want to miss out on the wish he couldn't fulfill in the game this time!
For a moment, Ain had actually wondered if he should take advantage of her plight and hit this big silly dragon's head with a few Tier 5 spells.
And then, when she was weak, force her to sign a Tier 5 contract magic.
But doing that carried too high of a risk.
Low-level contract magic was already difficult to work on high-level monsters, and against mythical creatures like the Dragonkind, it was practically useless.
Once the contract failed, this giant dragon would definitely end up dead from her severe injuries.
And the Goddess's request just happened to give Ain a reason to save her.
In the original story, the scene in Act Three, Scene Two where the giant dragon wantonly slaughtered humans must have harbored a deeper secret.
After all, the Goddess wouldn't allow her own daughter to do such a thing.
Once he grew powerful enough later on, he would enslave her then!
At this moment, Ain's eyes held only a yearning and thirst for stats.
To this end, in the spell he had just unleashed, he had secretly attached a magic mark to her tail.
【Tier 4 Spell: Eye of the Dark Raven】
【Effect: The caster will perceive the approximate location of the mark within seven days. The mark will disappear after seven days!】
This was a new type of magic developed only in the late stages of the game.
Ain had no intention of working for free for that old virgin Goddess.
Daughter or no daughter.
Once my stats are up, your daughter will be my girl!
Asking someone to do a job without paying?
Then I'll take your daughter as payment!
As the image of himself riding a giant dragon and soaring through the high skies took shape in his mind, the smile on Ain's lips grew wider, completely impossible to hide.
“Hia! Hia! Hia! Mmph-mmph-mmph!”
Ain had almost laughed out loud, inhaling several gulps of seawater.
He had forgotten he was underwater.
He would worry about the future later.
A cold glint flashed in Ain's eyes as the magic circuit in his right hand finished constructing once more.
First, let's keep this big silly dragon alive!
Now, no matter who it is...
Anyone who wants to hurt my future mount is my enemy!
Rate on N.U.
