The Dao of Magic

76 - Examinations

I kick the black, glossy stone and it shatters into sharp fragments. The black stuff is piled up pretty high now, two meters thick at least. I know how to fix a wasp infestation, but I don't think I can call a dragon exterminator.

First I would have to develop the phone, invest immense amounts of time, effort and money in rolling out the... You know what brain? Let's stop that train of thought right there.

I dash out of the protective bubble and look over the edge of the Tower, seeing a partly charred city. Someone once told me that the true worth of a man is the effect he has on the world. My true worth seems to be random tornadoes and destruction everywhere.

I dash back to the circle just in time to dodge the next blast of lava plopping down on the shield above my head. Red hot molten rock pudding drips down the round shield, splashing everywhere and heaping up on the sides. The new layer starts cooling rapidly, turning black and glossy like the rest.

I start to fiddle around with the still spinning circle formation. I found out why it started screaming at me, by the way. The qi spewing from the tower got caught and divided into two. Ninety percent went to storage, ten percent went to reinforcing the shield.

In hindsight, hardcoding these numbers was dumb, but it worked. How could I predict that a trio of angry dragons would start to bombard the shield with such force? The qi inside the shield was enough in the beginning, but the rigid division of storage and containment lacked the flexibility needed to withstand the attacks.

I am changing the circle to allow a free flow of qi between storage and shield. The shield was qi starved while the storage section got too much qi to be contained by the waning shield. Now, a permanent ten percent of the qi is used to reinforce the entire structure. Attacking it will only cause some qi to flow to the shields from storage, preventing the near collapse state from happening again.

I look at the sun while fiddling with the circle some more. I finally admit to myself that I lost track of which day it is. I should feel bad about it, but I just can't for some reason. Also for some unknown reason, I am grinning again as I think over the last few days.

I hear a plop behind me and Rhea appears, who immediately starts nagging. "What do you mean, the Flight was created? Don't just leave in the middle of a conversation. I don't know a lot about human etiquette, but finishing what you say before leaving is common courtesy, no?"

"You managed to get through the portal yourself, right? I was guessing you just needed some motivation." The dragoness, who is still wearing my shirt, by the way, blinks a few times as she takes in the lava cooling in a circle around us. A frown flits across her face as she looks up into the sky.

"Your current internal structure is a near perfect human copy, your dragon structure is a mess." How can I say with some delicacy? Telling someone to their face that their entire race is some rushed hack job from someone a few plane higher needs a gentle touch. "Your dragon structure looks like a god-level being copied and pasted his favourite animals together."

She looks at me, blinking some more. "Then that being installed some shoddy transformation switch that runs on external energy." I shake my head in disapproval. "The first rule of creature design is to keep everything internal. That lock inside your chest pulls energy from somewhere else, I don't think you can transform inside the pocket dimension. Let's try that now."

I ignore the new wave of red hot lava barrelling towards us accompanied by furious dragon roars. I will take care of those ass hats in a bit. For now, I drag Rhea after me through the portal.

⁂

"Please try to transform."

Rhea looks around the clearing. "I won't fit in here."