Chapter 41: A True Dragon

"..." Nio waited for about 30 minutes before the dragon came back to call her inside, less time than she expected considering the pride of dragons. Inside the passage, there was a large dome with several large tunnels and a few dozen dragons.

"It’s very well made," Nio praised the nest. The system resembled an ant farm, meaning it made theft very difficult. For dragons who need to defend their eggs, this complex dwelling made it a real problem for any invader to try entering unseen and leaving unseen.

"Thank you," the dragon thanked her while several other dragons looked at Nio with suspicion. She didn’t care about that, as she used magic to sense all life forms in the place.

"Bring all the eggs here, I want to see how many there are."

’There’s a limit to how many eggs can be incubated in my palace at a time, the rest will have to wait a while until the others hatch, if there are too many of them...’

"..." Nio noticed the hostility immediately. It was obvious that no one there liked her or her request. From a hole in the ceiling, a dragon a little larger than the one guarding the gate emerged, its tone was completely black, without the silvery traits.

’So this is the leader, he’s a bit stronger...’

"You not only let an intruder in but accepted her demands?" The black dragon dropped from the ceiling in front of Nio, and the dragon who guarded the gate lowered its head to its leader, remaining in total silence at the criticism.

"Hey, hey, don’t talk as if I’m not here. Your companion here was smart to accept my proposal, but I see he wasn’t in charge of anything."

"That’s right-" The black dragon tried to agree that the dragon who guarded the gate wasn’t in charge of anything, but Nio interrupted him.

"[Kaleidoscoprio]"

[Kaleidoscoprio] Forms a powerful elemental whip that hits the target from all sides, trapping it. When the target is trapped, the whip contracts and tightens while hardening until it cuts the target to pieces.

A whip glowing in shades of silver covered the dragon’s entire body and then contracted. The grip completely crushed the fully black dragon’s scales, and when the whip hardened enough, the dragon’s body was severed into several pieces.

Blood, organs, and flesh scattered across the floor as Nio looked at all the dragons around her.

"This one here is your new boss, understand? You will obey him, whoever doesn’t obey, I will kill," Nio pointed to the dragon that guarded the gate while telling everyone that he was in charge now. She didn’t need a "leader," so she killed the leader the dragons had, both to show who was boss and to get rid of the one who would resist obeying the most.

"..." The dragon who lost the strength contest against Nio became uneasy at being chosen as the new leader without earning the post, but no one said anything, because the difference in strength was too abysmal.

"What are you all standing around for? Get the eggs and bring them for me to see!! Now!" With Nio’s authoritarian order, the females of the nest entered the tunnels, while Nio looked around, analyzing everything more carefully.

’Even though everything is made of earth and rocks, the general structure is an almost human architecture. How did they make these pillars with their hands if they are giant and have claws? Or did they use magic...’ The dragons returned carrying various eggs of different sizes, and Nio became excited.

’So much magic!! So it was true...’ Nio touched her own belly. In the game, dragon eggs were described as having a lot of magic; in the game, they were mostly a useless decorative Drop, so Nio never cared.

But ever since she fought Typhon, she had been trying to see what from the Lore had become real, and dragon eggs had so much magic that she immediately perceived several uses.

’A dragon’s egg has magic depending on who the egg came from... if I lay eggs... they would have so much magic... it would be possible to make a battery capable of lifting my palace off the ground...’ Nio became thoughtful as she looked at the pile of eggs.

’Lay eggs...’ She shook her head, not wanting to think about that while evaluating. There were fewer eggs than she expected, so all of them could go to her palace.

"Here’s the deal, my house can accommodate all these eggs, so I think our deal still stands, how about it? All of you will have your eggs and children protected until adulthood. In exchange, you will kill everything that approaches my palace. Moreover, if someone very strong appears, you must go immediately warn the inhabitants of my palace."

"I’ll send someone here to adjust everything properly; after all, I don’t have time to adjust each position, my servants can take care of that. For now, stay around here, and leave the eggs here in the middle to make transport easier," Nio spoke to the dragon she had just appointed as leader. She didn’t even ask his name, becoming pressed for time.

"Now I’m leaving." Nio gave a nod to the new leader, walking outside. However, to a large extent, she was more running away from a strange reaction from her body. She opened her wings, breaking through the ceiling, and flew extremely high so as not to be seen.

Her exaggerated reaction made her pass many layers, rising to the point where it became extremely cold. She looked around as if someone could see her that high and then sent a hand inside her dress.

"...Wehhh?... S-Seriously?" She pulled out the hand that had touched her private parts, seeing a viscous, extremely sticky string that had leaked through her panties.

"...Haa... damn... I’m a dragon..." Nio immediately knew. It wasn’t "arousal" but rather the fluid that is generated by the body to help the eggs come out. Seeing all those eggs and thinking about her own eggs had generated that reaction, just like the act of salivating just from smelling food.

"...A-Anatomically considering my size, my body on the inside must be very different from a human’s since I have to lay eggs..." She tried to think rationally to hide her embarrassment.

"L-Like, it’s a big, fragile egg... s-so I must be very elastic and my bones must be very unusual... ah..." She couldn’t fool her own mind. This is extremely strange, not arousing, not interesting, just strange.

Like a teenager waking up and noticing something embarrassing about their own body that happened for the first time in their life. ℯℯ𝑙.

"I really, really, really am a damn dragon..." She looked at the viscous string connecting her fingers and her intimate part, a string that even in this absurd cold and strong winds hadn’t broken, an almost frightening consistency for something that is just liquid.

"Haaa... I’m a dragon. No matter how many times I say what I am, I can’t accept this strange reality..." She kept repeating that, uncertain of what to think of herself.

"Yes... being a girl in the end is the least of the problems! How the hell do I deal with the fact that I’m literally another race!! I can’t ignore this kind of shit!!" She got irritated, because she had spent all the time since she arrived avoiding thinking too much about her new race, but certain things are unavoidable.

"And why won’t this disgusting stuff break?" She shook her hand, but the string only slid lightly through her fingers without really breaking or disappearing.

"..." She looked at her lower parts and felt, for the first time, an urge to cry when imagining how unbearable it would be to take off her clothes and bathe, feeling how soaked it had gotten down there.

It was a wound to her honor as a top player among the top, a blow difficult to recover from.

"It’s better I stay here... at some point it will have to dry on its own... I think... I hope..."