Early Afternoon - Late Spring : Kingdom of Kaelallan

*Yawn*

"Uuugghh.." I stood up on the cushion with a yawn and a stretch. -Its only been a few days.. hopefully nothing awful happened..-

-Hm.. where'd Ilios go?- I looked around and didn't see him anywhere, it wasn't till I felt something move around on my back that I found him.

-Man.. I'm really blind when I don't use aura..-

After getting my bearing, it was time to think of what I was going to do for the day.

-I still need to go by the library at the academy..- There was something I still needed to look for even though I doubted if it would even be in there.

-Ah right.. I guess that's a more important matter..- There was a much more pressing matter I needed to finally take my time to look at.

After my dragon sleep, I had yet to actually look at the details of what changed inside my body. All I looked at then was my bone and muscle structure. -I should have looked closer earlier but.. things got in the way..-

I used aura to penetrate into the deepest parts of my body, taking a good look of what's changed.

-But what am I even looking at..- The only real part about my anatomy that looked the same was my lungs, stomach and breath gland, the rest was fairly unrecognizable.

-There’s no way I overlooked such a change after my dragon sleep.. right?-

My heart was basically gone. It had become just a web of veins and arteries that focused around my lungs before spreading out around the rest of my body.

Looking at it closely, I could see a microscopic amount of mana being used to cause the blood to flow.

-So my body adapted to utilize mana more in my organs and such..-

Thinking back to my dragon sleep, I didn't eat anything for nearly 8 years but I didn't starve nor did I get hungry.

My first idea was that my body somehow managed to live off of mana, but that made no sense.

Looking closer at my stomach, at a cellular level, I found that my natural aura was being absorbed by cells and turned into nutrients before it left my body.

-What in the..-

I sat there, speechless at the sight of a single cell naturally using mana to create its own nutrients. Mana was just pulled into the cell, and wherever it was needed, it would go and create the required nutrients.

No matter how much I wracked my brain to try and figure it out how it was doing that, I couldn't figure it out.

-It must just be my subconscious doing it..- But even that idea was a little far-fetched. -I wouldn't be able to keep track of even a tenth of that even if I gave it my my whole focus..-

Trying to shift my focus, I looked below my stomach and quickly realized there weren't intestines anymore.

Although this would likely be an issue for most creatures, it simply didn't matter to me. -I never used them anyways..-

Unlike my parents and other dragons, I was able to completely digest and utilize everything from what I ate, meaning I didn't produce any waste.

I looked over at Ilios as the thought crossed my mind. -I’ve never seen Ilios use the bathroom either.. maybe it's an ancient fenrir thing..-

Shrugging my shoulders thinking that's as good of an explanation as I could think, I looked back at my anatomy.

I focused on the now open space where my intestines and other organs used to be.

That whole area in my abdomen had become a mix of muscle and hardened cartilage with my reserve being right in the middle of it.

Usually, creatures have their reserves in their most protected areas so it was a little odd that it was only wrapped in muscle and cartilage. Even dragons had their reserve in their upper chest, but the reason for mine being oddly placed had to do with the fact that my reserve was fundamentally different.

Instead of being like a hard sphere, it had become something like a water balloon meaning I could stretch or contract it.

When I would stretch it, more aura would naturally leak out and when I'd contract it, it would exude less natural aura. In short, I could control the thickness of the wall of my reserve.

-The downside seems to be that I can't as easily pull mana out when it's contracted, but that's nothing I can't fix.- Whenever I need to use a huge volume of mana, I could just make the wall thinner. Luckily, things like thruster magic I could still easily use even when the walls of my reserve are as thick as they could get.

-It'll take a while to get used to but that's pretty handy..- I no longer needed to have excessive control over my aura to make sure people wouldn't die from it. -I will still need to thin it out.. but less so..- I would also be able to last far longer indoors without needing to vent my aura anywhere.

-As crazy as these changes are.. they're pretty convenient..- I could no longer die from a single hit unless it was to my head, I had far better control over aura and I never had to eat again. -Although I still will..-

I couldn't give up the delicious taste of juicy meat so easily.

Just thinking about it made my mouth water but I quickly shook my head and looked at Ilios. "Are you ready to head to town?"

"Woof!"

"Alright, let's not waste any time then!"

As I took the lift up, an odd thought surfaced. -I swear.. every time I take a nap I stray further from being a dragon..-

"Haah.." Letting out a sigh from the depths of my chest, I walked through the palace gates. "It's quite a nice day isn't it.."

There was a steady cool breeze that felt quite nice with the sunlight.

-I guess I'll swing by the guild first to catch up on what I missed..- I could have just asked the librarian but I wanted to take a short detour and look around town today.

Walking through town, I noticed that mostly everything was back to normal but something was off. -Why are there so few knights?-

Even in the palace, there were half as many knights as usual.

Walking into the guild, I noticed there were not nearly as many adventurers as normal either.

I walked up to the desk with a familiar receptionist. -I think her name was Ellen..- "Did something big happen over the last couple days?"

Ellen, who had nearly fallen asleep, shot up. "Ah, yes..s sir." She quickly responded but got her tongue tied when she looked at me.

"What did I miss?"

"Well, Kaelallan declared war on the Kingdom of Zan. They sent out the march this morning."

-Oh.. Weren't they a little too quick to act on that..- "Did any Nation ranks go with them?"

"Yes sir. Sir Keen is leading the charge." She said his name with a sense of pride.

"Was he the only nation rank that went?" -I guess they don't really need much more than that since I cleared the path already though..-

"Yes, the Grandmaster is still recovering in the academy."

-Whoops.. forgot I did that..- “Right… Well, I guess that's all. Were there any other big events?"

"Not that I know of sir."

"Sweet. Well, have a good day then."

"Y..you too sir!"

With that pit stop done, it was time to head to the library.

-If I can as much as find a hint I'll be happy..-