He focused his will inside his Sea of Consciousness, looking at the vast empty void—he felt it was… utterly empty. With nothing but azure mana flowing around him, painting a vivid scenery like a galaxy.
'It's… rather empty,' he commented, looking at the place.
[Well no shit, Master. You need to form runes and create spells here to fill it out. And your Sea of Consciousness is much, much larger than others. That's why it feels rather empty to you.]
'How large is it anyway? Tell me, compared to humans, since I'll be interacting with them the most, and I doubt I will come in contact with Dragons anytime soon,' he asked while wandering inside.
[It is a hundred times larger compared to a human's, Master.]
'Oh? So, True Dragons have only ten times larger Sea of Consciousness than humans? That's rather small compared to what I thought.' He moved through a few layers of azure mist.
[That's because True Dragons rely on their body more than spells. And their main ability, Dragon Breath, is enough to overwhelm most spells.]
He paused in his steps as he came across a glowing orb of energy; it held complex runes swirling inside it like a galaxy. He tried to focus his gaze on it, to see all of its mysteries.
His gaze penetrated the first layer before his Sea of Consciousness abruptly shook. He hurriedly retracted his gaze and looked to the other side. 'Is… this Eye of Revelation?'
[Indeed, Master. All of your passive and active skills are inside your Sea of Consciousness. But since you can only handle the first level of the Sea of Consciousness, Echo placed seals upon the ability. You'll need to increase your strength and break off these seals.]
'I see. Then I will… get away from here.' He began drifting in a different direction without further checking on the Eye of Revelation rune. He had felt his entire Sea of Consciousness on the verge of crumbling if he continued trying to look into the second layer of the rune.
He didn't want to take the risk just yet and began looking for other runes. Soon, he reached another place, where two runes with different elements were placed side by side.
Both runes had complex lines interweaving inside them, yet they seemed to be the simplest things in the world in Orion's eyes.
"Fire Dragon's Breath and Thunder Dragon's Breath…" he murmured, looking at the runes.
[Your current body won't be able to use these abilities, Master. You can forcefully activate them, but that might rupture your throat and mouth, so I wouldn't advise that.]
"You seem rather serious right now; what happened to my cheerful little Lumi?" he curiously asked, ignoring the Dragon Breath ability as he knew he would be able to use it sooner or later.
[Hehe, it's just that this is a serious matter. I don't want to mess up here. It's your first time exploring your Sea of Consciousness after all. ( •́ ‸ •̀ )]
Orion lightly smiled and continued travelling. In the distance, behind the dense layer of azure mist, he felt a bone‑chilling aura.
His eyes narrowed as he cautiously stepped across the mist; there, he saw a sword floating menacingly all alone, exuding a chilling presence.
"Soulpiercer… Sword," he softly muttered its name.
The sword had a sleek design, with a dark black blade and a hilt with dragon engravings. It seemed to exude a predator's presence from its very core.
He took a deep breath and moved closer to the sword—boom! The sword released a wave of chilling sword aura, pushing his will back.
Orion's eyes chilled. "Who do you think you are?" His Sea of Consciousness flooded with an aura even more primal and supreme than a True Dragon's.
He activated his Dragon's Might, but it wasn't any Dragon's Might—it was a True Emperor's might. All the sword aura got pushed back toward the sword.
But it didn't relent and instead pulsed with an even stronger aura, trying to suppress not only Orion's will but his very soul.
"You might have had a chance in the outside world, but this—is my WORLD!" he roared before infusing both of his Dragon Lineage Might and suppressing the sword completely.
Walking closer toward the sword, he grabbed the hilt and swung it around. "Not bad, quite a decent sword." He nodded in appreciation before placing it back in its place.
The sword trembled slightly, showing clear signs of disobedience. 'Echo… mf, you really didn't let me have it easy, huh? A damn sentient sword that doesn't listen to me.' He took a deep breath and withdrew all of his aura.
The sword trembled but didn't attack him again, seemingly realizing that attacking him right now would be useless.
He turned around and walked toward the place where he felt the most elemental fluctuations.
[Master… are you angry with that sword?] Lumi softly asked.
"No, why would I be angry?" He lightly smiled and shook his head.
[Because of that sword's attitude… You're clearly the master of that sword, yet it dared to attack you. I so wanted to beat it up (ノ｀Д´)ノ]
He chuckled. "I can feel its strength is sealed. Echo might have suppressed it even if not completely. It's way out of my league right now. No wonder it won't want to submit to me."
[Mmm, it is useless for you at your current stage anyway, Master. Your body doesn't have enough mana to use it.]
"I know; no need to remind me of my weakness again. I should be able to find it… here." He finished saying while walking out of the mist.
In front, he saw over a dozen shining globes of elemental energy, all swirling with different affinities. His eyes lit up as he saw the myriad colors forming in front of him.
He sped up and arrived in front of one of the affinities; it seemed to be burning like the sun, melting all the mana that dared to enter within itself before throwing it outward.
Orion tried to put mana inside the rune, but he lost all control of it once it entered there.
"These are my… affinities… so many of them."
[Of course, Master, you have all the elemental affinities after all. You just need to use the corresponding elemental runes to make a rune around the globes to use them. Thought it won't be easy.]
He took a deep breath and began looking around all the glowing orbs before his eyes landed on a dark orb. It seemed to be spewing dark mana from its very core.
Slowly, he moved toward it. "The Darkness Affinity… I got a decent rune for it from the spell."
[Yes, Master, but I still think it's too risky. Forming an Affinity Rune is no joke and can seriously injure you. Even you won't be able to leave unscathed despite having the soul of three Emperor‑tier lineages.]
Orion lightly nodded his head and said in a calm voice, "But I want to try at least; at most I'll be slightly injured and won't be able to form a rune again for some time. But this is a valuable experience. Most others can't have it due to their fragile soul."