“There, there. One day you’ll have the Eyes. There’s no need to cry.” Friya caressed Faluel’s head, not knowing what else to say.
After a while, the effects of the greed and the booze faded, and the Hydra went back to her old self.
“I guess you want to know how to refine the corpse of a powerful Divine Beast, correct?” She said, pretending that nothing weird had happened during the last few minutes.
“Correct.” Everyone was eager to put that outburst behind and acted accordingly.
“Well, the first thing that you must know is that the value and use of Dragon scales vary with their quantity. When you have just a few, like those I gave you for your Scalewalker armor, then you can only employ them in your crafts as ingredients.
“When you have a decent amount, instead, you can use them as a working material in place of rare magical metals.
“By mixing the remains of a powerful Awakened with Adamant, or any other enchanted metal for that matter, you can make yourself a Dragonwalker armor or whatever you’re going to call it.” Faluel said.
“What? How?” Lith asked.
“Having your own personal metal mine, you should have a grasp of how magical metals form, correct?” Faluel asked and the others nodded in response.
“A metal is just earth that has been purified from its weakest components that also becomes magical after being subjected to a powerful flow of world energy for a long time.
“The same can be said about the bodies of Awakened, be them humans, Emperor Beasts, or Divine Beasts. Until the blue core, their bodies still have impurities that limit their strength and mana flow.
“Past that point, energy and matter mix, transforming every part of us into a powerful magic conductor. The problem is that, unlike an enchanted metal, our body starts much weaker and it takes a long time for the mana flow to temper our flesh.
“I have a bright violet core, but after only 300 years my scales are not that powerful, yet. Let me see this Black Dragon and give me back the Eyes, please.” Faluel said while reverting into a Hydra.
Lith gave her a Monocle, keeping the other for himself. Solus gasped in amazement at his idea, abandoning her human form to be capable of looking through Lith’s eyes and experiencing first-hand the full power of Menadion’s relic.
“You can do that too? I-” Envy twisted the seven serpentine heads as they put the Monocle on. “Never mind. Let’s take a look at this guy.”
A snap of Lith’s fingers made Syrook’s gigantic carcass appear in the empty area in the middle of the lair, leaving barely enough space for the group.
“The subject is a violet-cored Black Dragon, about 500 years old. The bad news is that he had only recently achieved the violet. I guess no longer than a couple of decades ago, considering that he was a self-Awakened and had to develop his breathing technique with no help.
“The good news is that he spent most of that time as a pseudo violet core, which means that his body has been long since devoid of impurities and it experienced a powerful mana flow for over 400 years. It’s an excellent material.” Faluel said.
Lith was trying to exploit her heads to take a look around the lair, but unluckily, to combine the effects of the Eyes their wearers had to look at the same thing. Lith could understand everything about Syrook’s physiology but he got a splitting headache the moment he looked away.
“My eyes are down here, jerk.” Faluel said after noticing that Lith was trying to study a bastard sword hung high on the ceiling.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. You can’t blame a man for trying.” He gently caressed her scaly leg in a parody of her earlier behavior.
“My inner Dragon got the better of me when you dangled a lifelong dream in front of my eyes, what’s your excuse?” Suddenly all seven of Faluel’s heads had fire affinity.
“Whatever you want, sweetheart.” Lith laughed at her expense along with the others.
“Very funny. Call me sweetheart again and the lesson is over.” She snarled.
“Please, continue, Professor Faluel.” Lith took a step back, giving her a deep bow.
“I’ll never hear the end of it.” The Hydra sighed sevenfold. “Since you are not technically my disciple anymore and I need a sample to give you a practical example, I’ll take enough scales to make an armor for Friya.”
“What?” Lith’s wallet bled at the thought.
“This will teach you not to mock a sensitive lady for a moment of weakness!”
He would have liked to point out that her stomping, burping, and whining were hardly befitting of a lady, but Lith was afraid of losing more scales so he remained silent.
“As I said, the corpse of a powerful Awakened and magical metals are similar, to the point that they can mix akin to what happens with the Bonding spell for magic crystals.” Faluel said.
“The procedure requires a crucible big enough to host all the materials and to melt the metal.” The Hydra took several tools out of her dimensional amulet that reminded Lith of his own hunter set to skin and field dress his prey, just much bigger.
“Keep in mind that no race in the Awakened community likes for their members to wear each other’s skin. Both Emperor Beasts and Divine Beasts will look unfavorably on you if you walk around wearing Dragon scales.” Faluel said before starting to cut in.
“What? I saw Grandma’s hammer and she used Leegaain’s scales just like Sinmara has clothes made out of her brother’s skin and vice versa!” Lith considered human skin indeed disgusting but he had worn animal skins all of his life, giving him double standards.
“That’s different.” The Hydra replied. “Any beast is free to do with their fur, scales, or feathers whatever they want. Salaark and Sinmara received those scales as a gift whereas you murdered Syrook.”
“Because he was trying to kill me!”
“Did you make a hide armor of the knights that attacked you as a kid? No. How would your village have reacted if you did? It’s the same thing here.” Faluel shrugged.
“So it’s wrong to wear your grandpa unless he leaves you his corpse in his last will?” Lith’s voice oozed sarcasm.
“Correct. Why let your body rot and be devoured by maggots when you can strengthen your bloodline?” Faluel pointed at a war armor made of Hydra scales coated in Davross.
“That’s disgusting!” Solus said.
“No, it’s practical. My great grandfather died of old age at 3026 years, leaving behind scales so powerful that needed but a thin layer of metal to become even stronger than Davross itself.”
“That armor is part of his legacy and it has saved the lives of his descendants. We honor his sacrifice and his will to stand by his family’s side in battle even after death.” Faluel’s voice was filled with pride as she looked at the armor with loving eyes.
Then, she used Spirit Magic to handle the surgical tools and the Eyes to cut Syrook’s corpse without damaging either the skin or the scales.
“What are you going to use for me? Davross?” Friya hoped to get ahead of the competition for once.
