I Received System to Become Dragonborn-Chapter 992: Exciting

Marcus entered his quarters, the door sliding shut with a muted hiss behind him.

The stillness of the room pressed in, a stark contrast to the charged atmosphere of the room before which they used to meditate.

He sat on the edge of his bed, elbows resting on his knees and staring at the floor without really seeing it.

His thoughts drifted back to the vision from earlier.

It had been vague at first, almost like the fading outline of a dream. But now, as the silence settled around him, the details sharpened with unsettling clarity.

That damn tower again. The black and jagged tower against a sky which stained deep red.

The ground was cracked and brittle. It was a lifeless wasteland littered with bones. Their pale shapes stark against the scorched earth.

The air in that place seemed thick and oppressive, as if it carried the weight of countless forgotten screams. After this stage, Marcus feels like his vision about that place becoming more clear.

He sighed slowly, but the image clung stubbornly to his mind. Then he remembered something else and another sensation. Something else was there and watching him. Not in the vision but right now.

It was impossible to pinpoint where the presence was as if it existed just beyond his perception, shifting in the corners of awareness.

The weight of it made his skin prickle and his chest tighten.

Marcus frowned, his jaw tensing. This wasn’t normal. And as much as he wanted to dismiss it he couldn’t help remembering the quiet way some of the veterans had looked at him before. With measured and cautious looks like they were weighing a possibility they didn’t want to voice.

Maybe what they suspected... was true.

A flicker of unease coiled in his stomach. If they were right, if he was different in a way that made him unsuitable for this experiment... what then? Would they remove him? Cast him aside before he even had a chance to prove himself?

However, beneath the worry, another thought pulsed. He had felt the power of Magic. It was intoxicating. He felt a warmth in his veins and a surge that made the world feel sharper and more alive.

That feeling was hard to let go of.

"Maybe it’s fine," he told himself. "Nothing’s happened so far. No harm done. So there’s nothing else going to happen... right?"

He nodded slightly to himself, forcing the tension from his shoulders.

"Yeah," he murmured under his breath as if saying it aloud would make it true.

With a deep breath, he lay back on the bed, closing his eyes and willing his thoughts to still.

He would not think about the tower, or the bones, or the unseen gaze that pressed at the edge of his awareness.

—

In the shared office, the air was heavier than before.

Erend sat at the desk, frowning faintly with an uneasy feeling curling at the back of his mind.

He couldn’t explain it but something was wrong. He could feel it.

Adrien leaned against the edge of the table, his arms crossed.

"From this point on, we need to keep a closer watch on every candidate," he said firmly. "Their Magic is going to grow stronger and that’s when things can start to turn bad."

Billy nodded grimly. Jessica shifted in her seat, the tension in her posture clear. She swallowed involuntarily.

"What exactly do we need to prepare for?" Jessica asked.

Adrien, Erend, and Billy glanced at her, nobody speaking at first. The silence stretched before Erend spoke.

"We should increase our presence during shifts. I think more of us need to watch here at night."

"I agree," Adrien said without hesitation.

"We should also inform General Lennard," Erend added. "He needs to be aware of this stage."

"Right. I’ll call him," Jessica replied. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

She reached for the desk phone and dialled quickly.

The conversation was brief but direct. When she set the receiver back in place, the tension in the room eased just slightly, though the unease lingered beneath the surface.

They all knew this was only the calm before something inevitable.

—

Arty and Jan’s party had been traveling for three days now, each step taking them farther from the towering walls of Qomore’s capital.

The forest had fully embraced them. Its canopy stretches high and vast letting only dappled sunlight spill through in soft shifting patches.

Arty didn’t feel even a sliver of fear. If anything, she was more than happy.

The air here was fresher and filled with just the scent of moss and flowers. Every hour seemed to bring something new to her to marvel at.

Walking in the forest was like stepping into a living dream.

She couldn’t stop her eyes from darting in every direction, drinking in the colors and shapes that seemed almost too strange to be real.

The first wonder she saw was a pair of animals that Jan called the Moonback Stags. They were tall and elegant deer with pearlescent coats that shimmered faintly as if reflecting a moon.

Their antlers glowed with a soft silver light and with each step they took, the grass beneath them briefly turned a pale bluish hue before fading back to green.

Later, while crossing a shallow stream, she caught sight of a cluster of Lantern Frogs. This one was small and round-bodied creatures whose translucent skin revealed a golden bioluminescent core.

They bobbed gently on the surface like living will-o’-wisps, croaking in soft harmonic tones that made the water itself vibrate faintly.

Arty wanted to catch them but Esther said they were poisonous.

The third was high above, she saw a flock of Glasswing Kites. They were bird-like creatures with wide kite-shaped wings so thin they were almost invisible.

Only when sunlight hit them at the right angle did their wings erupt in a rainbow of shifting colors, scattering prismatic light over the forest floor.

Arty wanted to catch them as well but Hund said they are very fast so don’t waste her time.

And it wasn’t just the animals that made her heart race with awe. The forest itself seemed alive with Magic.

Once, she passed through a grove where the Breathewood Trees exhaled faint clouds of glowing pollen with every gust of wind, filling the air with a golden mist that made her feel weightless and calm.

The second phenomenon appeared just before dusk. They called it Shimmerfall Veil where a thin sheet of water poured down a cliffside, catching the dying light in such a way that each droplet glittered like a falling gem.

The sound of it was oddly melodic.

Arty slowed her pace every time they stumbled across such wonders, her heart swelling.

This was nothing like the closed orderly life within Qomore’s walls and the city of her world. Out here, the world felt endless and unshaped. Wild but also breathtaking.

Jan, Hund, Esther, and Annete noticed the sparkle in her eyes but said nothing, only letting her walk a few steps ahead as if giving her space to drink it all in.

The road stretched ahead beneath the warm afternoon light. The distant hum of insects filling the air as Arty walked alongside Jan, Hund, Esther, and Annette.

She was lost in her thoughts when something caught her eye in the sky, an odd silhouette gliding against the clouds.

"What is that?" Arty asked, shading her eyes. The thing was bigger than any bird she’d ever seen.

The others stopped and followed her gaze. Their expressions shifted quickly from curiosity to concern.

"Wyvern? How’d it get here?" Jan muttered, his voice tense.

As a ranger, his eyes picked up the details.

"A wyvern?" Arty repeated, blinking in surprise before a smile spread across her face. "I want to see that. I’ve never seen a real wyvern before!"

The four of them stared at her as if she was crazy. It only took a moment for them to remember that she wasn’t from this world so she didn’t know the danger.

Jan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Arty... that’s a dangerous, powerful monster. This isn’t like that frog or bird we saw earlier, okay? We have to be careful."

"Oh." Her smile faltered, a flicker of disappointment crossing her face. "But... I still want to see it."

"Right," Jan said with a note of urgency. "But we need to move. Now. I don’t know why it’s so close to the kingdom they’re supposed to stay far away!"

Without another word, Jan and the others ushered her toward the edge of the road, into the thicker underbrush.

Arty had half-expected them to prepare for battle, but instead they crouched low and pressed into the shadows beneath the bushes.

Overhead, the wyvern circled once before angling its wings and beginning a sharp dive.

The wind shifted. A strong rushing gust swept over them, flattening the grass and rattling the leaves.

"Shit," Hund muttered, his hand tightening around the hilt of his sword. He glanced sideways at Arty. "Looks like you’ll get your wish after all. We’re about to see that wyvern."

Arty’s eyes widened, shimmering with excitement rather than fear.

---