Chapter 340: Dragon’s Breath

Luke and Allison were deep inside the capital’s inner forest, a wild patch of land swallowed by the city long ago. Allison was in the middle of a fight, surrounded by beasts and undead that lunged at her from every direction.

Luke watched from the top of a half-collapsed building nearby, sitting on the edge of the roof with one leg dangling. From where he sat, he could see the aftermath of her power, frozen corpses scattered across the street, each one gleaming like an ice sculpture. That was one of her profession’s skills: every enemy she killed could be instantly frozen, turned into art made of frost and silence.

She was training to chain multiple skills at once, balancing her mana output while pushing her control to the limit. Luke had taken some time to understand how her bloodline worked, the Heart of the Ice Dragon. The heart of a dragon was its core, the very source of its power, and Allison’s came from a bloodline of frost dragons.

The difference between her skills and those of any other mage lucky enough to unlock the [Ice] element was staggering. The [Ice] element itself was considered Common, simple in function but incredibly hard to obtain. Like Charlie’s [Flame], it wasn’t powerful by default but served as the foundation for countless advanced skills. Elemental power was rare precisely because it meant something profound: your mana was naturally in harmony with that element.

Allison had told him that awakening an elemental affinity was something difficult to achieve. A mage could cast fireballs or lightning bolts or magnet-based spells, but having the element tied to those skills amplified them to an entirely different level.

That was where Allison’s bloodline truly shone. The Heart of the Ice Dragon infused her magic with draconic winter energy, reinforcing every ice spell she cast. A simple ice ball from her could hit with devastating power, scaling with both her level and her bloodline’s growth.

But there was more. Her bloodline grew stronger the more ice-based skills she learned. Every new skill was like a drop of water filling a glass, each one feeding into her Heart of the Ice Dragon. As the glass filled, her bloodline became denser, colder, stronger, amplifying all her magic even further.

That was why Allison chose a profession centered on ice rather than diversifying her skills like most people did. While others chased variety, she chased depth. Every frost-based skill was fuel for her inner dragon heart, a bonfire fed one icicle at a time. That bloodline skill was extremely powerful in the long run, after all, she came from a family of legendary dragons.

And here I was, Luke thought , feeling smug about my Acid Blood Arrow.

He watched in quiet awe as the street transformed into a frozen battlefield. Snow blanketed the ground, and undead corpses stood immortalized as crystalline statues. Every step the creatures took through the frost slowed them down, their movements turning sluggish until they collapsed from the creeping cold. The nearer they got to Allison, the faster they froze, their bodies cracking under invisible pressure.

That was why Luke kept his distance. The air around her shimmered with frost, every breath she exhaled leaving a swirl of icy mist.

There was another layer to her power, a terrifying one. The colder she made her surroundings, the stronger her skills became. Which made being anywhere near her when she went all out a very bad idea. It didn’t make her immune to the cold or to frost damage in general. She was only resistant to her own magic, the boost only triggered when she froze the environment herself.

She’s basically a walking artillery unit that can handle entire hordes on her own.

Luke couldn’t help being impressed.

“I did it!” she shouted from down the street, her voice echoing through the snow.

He blinked. Did what?

She must have read the confusion on his face. “My class’s level 60 epic skill!”

Before he could respond, she sprinted toward him, or rather, glided. Her boots barely touched the snow as she slid across the street, then used a double jump to leap onto the rooftop where he sat.

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“I even picked it already,” she said, eyes bright with excitement.

“Weren’t you, like, level fifty-two?”

“Nope.”

As she came closer, Luke flinched. The temperature dropped sharply, stabbing through his clothes. Within seconds, he felt the instinctive need to dive into a blanket and never come out.

“Cold!” he said, stepping back. “Way too cold.”

It wasn’t the kind of chill that came from a cloudy morning; it was worse. The kind of cold that burned, the kind that made fire and frost feel like two sides of the same agony.

“Sorry!” she said quickly, realizing what she’d done.

Her skin had taken on a faint blue hue, which slowly faded back to pale as she calmed her aura. The air began to warm again, though Luke’s breath still hung in the air.

“At least it’s a nice reminder of what’s waiting for us when we trigger the third mechanism,” he muttered, rubbing his arms.

She flicked her fingers through the air, clearly selecting something on her system screen.

“Just picked my epic skill,” she said.

“I thought you still had a few levels to go.”