'H-huh? What just happened?'
Perhaps it was just its imagination, but the Skeletal Dragon Lord definitely felt some kind of sharp decline in its overall Life Force.
It hadn't checked its Status Window in a while, and still didn't feel like it needed to, so it decided to consider it a mere fluke.
The moment it shrugged the whole thing off, though… the massive drop happened again.
"WHO… WHO IS DOING THAT?!" It yelled, but no one responded to it.
It couldn't trace the source of the damage as well. First, it happened close to its hip, then at its stomach, then its shoulder.
All of the areas were random, and the attacks were so fast that it found it incredibly difficult to do anything about it.
'What the hell…?' At this point, the Skeletal Dragon Lord finally decided to check its Status Window.
[STATUS WINDOW]
- Name: Wili'am
- Race: Skeletal Dragon (Undead)
- Class: Fallen Dragon Lord (A-Tier)
- Level: 300 (99.99% EXP)
- Life Force: 30,000/50,000 (Max)
- Miasma Level: 27,000/30,000 (Max)
- Combat Ability: 20,000/20,000 (Max)
- Stat Points: 0
- Skills (Exclusive): [Domain Of The Lord]. [Ears Of Truth]. [Ethereal Form]. [U@#$%&d]
- Skills (Non-Exclusive): [Absolute Miasma Recovery]. [Absolute Regeneration]. [Absolute Life Force Recovery]. [Orbs Of Destruction]. [Grand Claw Attack]. [Dragon Breath: Death]. [Draconic Flight]. [Draconic Power]. [Full Detection]. [Aura Of Protection]. [Runic Magic Mastery]. [Trap Magic]
- Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
[Additional Information]
A selfish Dragon Lord who abandoned his imperative for a mundane life, and was rightfully punished for it.
It seems he lives on due to some accidental means, rendering him undying.
[End Of Information]
As always, the Skeletal Dragon Lord felt a certain depression when he stared at his Stats.
Wili'am, as was his name, became reminded of how far he had fallen off—both in terms of his Stats and Skills. There used to be a lot higher numbers and more Skills present, yet…
Then there was also the System being spiteful, as usual.
Still, none of these caught his attention as much as a particular glaring Stat that he stared at with widened eyes.
'M-my Life Force!'
It had never come this low before, and the instant Wili'am saw it, he instantly forgot about the time limit, or about his virtue of patience.
A long forgotten emotion surfaced—FEAR!
The overwhelming fear of death!
**********
Wili'am was a mighty Dragon Lord in his time.
There were nine of them in total, and while there were no real ranks among the Lords—except for the undisputed mightiest one—he was certainly among the top five.
His SS-Tier Skill [Domain Of The Lord] allowed him sovereign control over everything within a particular space around him.
This space could span for miles and miles, and he was in full control of them.
He could further divide his domain into separate areas called 'Zones', and separately control them and their interactions with one another.
This home of his, now known to the humans as a Grand Calamity Class Dungeon, was a perfect representation of that authority it possessed.
Other than its SS-Tier Skill, it also had a bunch of S-Tier Skills, including;
[Shatter], which broke apart all defenses in its vicinity—even if they were on the same Tier as it. As long as he expended more energy than the defense in question, they would fall.
[Orbs Of Destruction], which simply reduced anything they touched to rubble and ash.
[Miasma Breath], which transformed someone into an Undead Minion that he could control. He could also control the distribution and rate of the transformation to create variety.
Over his years as Dragon Lord, Wili'am added so many entities to his collection of Undead Minions—especially humans.
When he became an Undead, they were servants of him in his abode.
Yes, he lost most of his power by becoming a Skeletal Dragon. Its Class even dropped from S to A, and the overall quality of his Skills weren't as heavy-hitting as they used to be.
His Stats had plummeted, and he was a mere husk of his former self—literally.
But did Wili'am regret it? Was he bitter about his decision to have an undying life and live forever; cursed to be this empty shell?
Was it worse than the alternative of falling to his former comrades?
The answer to all of these questions was NO!
He was alive, was he not? And anytime he wished to leave his home, he could always do so.
The only reason he remained was because he didn't know if his former comrades were still alive or not.
'I know at least a nine hundred years have passed since my defection, but that is no guarantee that the Dragon Lords I knew and remember are dead.'
Dragons could leave for a lot longer than mere hundreds of years.
'Even if they have fallen, I'm sure the Dragon Emperor still lives.'
That entity sat at the pinnacle of all Dragons, and he was invincible… even to the Dragons.
'He's practically immortal. His power is unfathomable as well' The bottom line was that, as long as the Dragon Emperor still lived, Wili'am could not dare show his face in the real world.
Not unless he wanted to face the consequences and die.
Life as an Undead wasn't that bad. Sure, he hardly felt sensations such as pain, hunger, and even general stimulus, but he was still alive, was he not?
Besides, he spent most of his time attempting to sleep—which was impossible for an Undead—and dreaming about all the epic things he used to enjoy.
Wili'am dreamt about how food tasted like, or how it felt to take a warm bath, and how he often felt after duking it out with his rival and best friend from the past.
—The same one who drove the last blade through his heart.
All of those sensations and experiences were lost to him now, but he couldn't help but daydream about them.
Once he got tired and bored of that, he would expose his Dungeon and have some fun with the denizens of the area he happened to be in.
Sometimes it was with Dwarves, other times Giants… but most of the time it was with the humans.
One would think he would have gotten bored of it by now, but he wasn't.
Despite living such a long life, Wili'am didn't want to die yet.
He desired to continue living… forever and ever!
But now… for the first time since he was nearly killed almost a thousand years ago, Wili'am felt death draw closer than ever before.
'I… I don't want to DIE!'
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Thanks for reading!
