A pair of crystal-blue pupils snapped open, and the sound of heavy breathing echoed throughout the room.
"Hoo... hoo... hoo... hoo—"
A moment later, her breathing gradually slowed.
"What on earth was that just now? A dragon? Are you kidding me? How could a dragon possibly be that massive?"
Jonavili began to think, recalling the details of the dream she just had.
Before long, a slightly sympathetic grumble escaped her.
"But that egg really had it rough. It clearly had such a badass dragon dad. With a backer like that, shouldn't it be able to do whatever it wanted? Instead, it got tossed into some unknown world by that son-pitting old man."
After speaking, Jonavili frowned, feeling that something was a bit off, as if something wasn't quite right, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was.
"Tch—that guy is really something. He wouldn't even let me sleep. To be blunt, what does my sleeping have to do with him? He just had to blast me awake."
"Forget it, forget it. Since I'm awake, I might as well stay awake. Let's see the changes outside. Thirty-eight years of hibernation is enough."
As she spoke, Jonavili lifted her draconic head and finally began to examine her own body.
A room that was originally as massive as a football field now felt somewhat cramped to Jonavili.
Her scales were smoother now, with each scale featuring a slight protrusion from the center to the tip. They had also become firmer and thicker, boasting a heavy metallic texture.
They shimmered with a silver radiance and a cold starlight that transitioned from ice-blue to silver-white, draping her in a veil of mystery. Not only that, but ice-blue ice element particles constantly drifted around her.
Seeing this, her silver-white draconic snout curled slightly, her smugness plain to see.
This was all thanks to the massive amounts of iron ore, moon silver, frost-patterned mana crystals, and even star silver she had devoured earlier.
She had made ample preparations for this hibernation, and the rewards she received left her quite satisfied.
Jonavili's body had become even more massive, her streamlined beauty more pronounced, making her appear even more elegant than a silver dragon.
At the same time, Jonavili's dragon horns had changed. The original four thick horns had looked extremely savage and terrifying.
However, the pair of horns in the back had transformed. They were no longer conical but were slightly flattened and curved in the middle, with small diamond-shaped protrusions along the edges, giving them an appearance similar to a crown.
Her dragon tail was thicker and longer, and the muscles hidden beneath the dragon scales were robust and powerful—not flashy, but undeniably strong.
Jonavili nodded in satisfaction.
"Damn, I'm badass!"
After praising herself, Jonavili delved into her consciousness to investigate which abilities she had awakened.
[Stagnation: Slows down the time of enemies, a specific area, or oneself. The range and degree of the slowing are determined by the amount of mana released.]
[Wheel of the Future: Allows for the brief use of one's future power. Currently, power from the next stage can be accessed at most. The duration depends on mana.]
[Future Sight: Allows the user to see ten seconds into the future. Must be actively activated (can be upgraded). It can also be used to observe the river of time in the astral plane (current strength is insufficient to peer into it).]
Looking at the three awakened abilities, Jonavili opened her eyes in excitement.
Good heavens, she had awakened three time-based abilities at once. How could she not be thrilled?
The idea of naming them also popped into her head.
"Alright, the Naming Master is making a limited-time comeback. From now on, Time Slowing will be renamed [Stagnation]. As for the other two..."
Jonavili thought about it and felt they sounded pretty good as they were, so she decided to leave them alone.
"I originally wanted to change [Wheel of the Future] to [Yearning], since it's about yearning for the future, but on second thought, whatever, whatever~"
However, after the excitement passed, Jonavili regained her composure.
"Without even realizing it, I've reached the young adult stage."
Indeed, although only forty-five years had passed since Jonavili's birth, her physical body was actually over seventy years old because she constantly used [Chrono Surge] as a permanent passive ability.
Her strength had also leaped from the weak Silver tier to the current Diamond 8th Circle.
And all she had done was take a nap.
This was the nature of Dragons. What other creatures had to cultivate painstakingly to achieve, a Dragon could obtain just by sleeping.
This was the most unfair and cruel reality in the world.
The peak that some people spent their lives trying to climb was merely the starting point for certain existences.
Jonavili shook her head, preparing to go out for a stroll.
A flash of blue and white light flickered, and in the blink of an eye, the massive creature had vanished. In its place was a cute... little loli?
Jonavili looked at herself in the mirror and couldn't help but gulp, standing there completely frozen.
"Holy crap! This... she... I... you... this is way too cute... it feels like... the feeling of a first love."
A blush crept onto Jonavili's cheeks, like a ripe apple or the red glow of sunset. She hurriedly closed her eyes, but then she realized something was wrong.
"Wait! Something's wrong! This is me, damn it!"
Jonavili snapped her eyes open and looked at her cute reflection in the mirror, completely dumbfounded.
Refusing to believe it, she rubbed her eyes and looked again.
Still cute...
She rubbed them again and looked once more.
Exactly the same...
Jonavili felt like crying. This wasn't a hallucination!
The good news: she had become stronger! The bad news: she had gone forever down the path of a loli.
"No... no, this isn't right. It shouldn't be like this. My dragon form is so powerful, so... how is this right? Waaaah~"
Jonavili's voice trembled, and she looked as if she were about to burst into tears. Combined with her pink cheeks from excessive embarrassment, she looked like someone who had been severely bullied.
However, Jonavili still held onto a shred of hope. Her fair little hand slowly rose, and after hesitating several times, she seemed to make a firm decision and gave her cheek a hard pinch.
Her expression was as solemn as if she were taking a sacred oath.
It was soft, hot, and warm. At the same time, her heart turned to stone.
Jonavili was petrified on the spot, her small mouth opening and closing.
"Just destroy everything... I'm tired."
After a long while, the sensation of hunger in her stomach rushed into her mind, finally snapping Jonavili back to reality.
A long, sorrowful sigh echoed through the room.
"Sigh—forget it. At least... sigh."
Jonavili prepared to take a proper look at herself in the mirror.
After all, she had used transformation magic before, which wasn't her true appearance. Now, she had undergone a genuine shapeshifting.
A charming and cute little loli met her eyes. The first thing that crashed into Jonavili's vision was that exquisite and shy smiling face!
Her cheeks were like ripe apples, giving off a mouth-watering feeling. Her nose was small and upturned, and her crystal-blue pupils, combined with her furrowed willow-leaf eyebrows, displayed a unique kind of beauty.
Rate on N.U.
