GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

She remembers what it felt like too. Her groggy consciousness was dimly aware of certain imprints in her bloodline. Exploring the imprints brought her mind into a dreamscape of her ancestor, where the trial took place.

There were a lot of trials in that dreamscape, but she couldn't take them all because they had requirements for soul strength. She could only take the small trials of her dragon ancestors who were much closer to her in lineage. The farther away the dragon ancestor is, the higher the soul requirement.

The ones close to her also didn't offer special rewards since they were also dragons with fire and water affinities. Even so, they were very difficult trails.

Of all the trails she took, she didn't pass even one and didn't gain any ancestral bestowal from any ancestor. The fourth, on the other hand, appears to have passed at least one. That means he gained the approval of that ancestor and was granted an activated ancestral imprint that will provide assistance in times of danger.

In theory, if a dragon has a strong enough soul when they are in the egg, it can gain bestowal from every dragon up to the dragon ancestor since every dragon is related. But most of them fail to go beyond a generation or two of relationships. The best that any one of them can achieve is what Fourth has achieved.

Fourth passed the trial of a lightning ancestor who was far away in relation to their parents. This means that his soul was more powerful than theirs when he was in the egg. It also means that he is very smart since he could pass the trial.

Third said to first, "It is no wonder he is progressing so quickly in training. His soul is stronger than ours. His intelligence is obvious, too. He knew to lay low and trick us by pretending to be weak. He has always been ahead of us, even before we were hatched."

She thought back to how she had bullied him when he had just hatched. Whatever damage to his pride she did seems to have returned to her now.

She gritted her teeth and ground them against each other as she thought to herself, "He must have been secretly smug while we were beating him."

"It is not over until it is over."

She didn't languish for long. She picked herself up mentally and continued to work hard. She and third who used to fight each other have stopped doing so ever since Fourth left them in the dust. Instead, they have dedicated all their time and energy to hunting and training.

They grow stronger and more skilled every day. But they can't overtake Fourth, who seems to be making faster progress. This made it so that they couldn't bear to relax at all. They have gained freedom from Mother, but they are not enjoying it at all.

Only fourth could relax. The others were always meditating. What they are trying to accomplish is the dragon's majesty. It is the first ability that requires the use of the dragon heart. The more difficult one after it is the dragon breath, which fourth has accomplished. It shows the wide gulf between them.

They are in a race with Fourth and all the other dragonlings hatched in their circle, but being fast doesn't guarantee victory. They still have a long way to go and a lot of time to do so. Victory is not determined by talent. It is determined by power. If they are the strongest, then they will win. They will have the last laugh if they manage to beat him, and they have a little more than 900 years to accomplish it. So they were not discouraged, despite being aware of the disparity between them and fourth.

Dragon's majesty requires the use of the dragon heart. The dragon heart is where their soul and consciousness of a dragon are. It is also a physical part of their body, so they can sense its presence as a tangible object. What they have to do is rouse it and make its power manifest in the world.

The dragon heart is the foundation of their supremacy. They have learned how to weave spells by using their divine sense to shape the mana in the world. Now they have to use their divine sense to bring the dragon force from within their dragon heart into the world. Unfortunately, it is not easy to do.

Dragon force is an intangible power, but they have to wield it like a limb or a physical tool. It is easier said than done. Still, it is easier to do now compared to the ancient dragons, who had to grope around in the dark.

They have memories and instincts so they know what to do. All they have to do is meditate and look inward. When they find dragon force within them and can move it, then they will be able to bring it out.

Dragon force is a power capable of amplifying almost anything. They can use it to empower their physical strength or their spellcasting. They can use it to amplify dragons's roar into dragon's majesty. The amplification of dragon force will add psychic pressure to everything they do. Such that the dragon's roar will produce a psychic impact in addition to the shockwave of sound.

The next step is dragon breath. To do this, they will use dragon force to cast their innate elemental spell. When doing so, their dragon heart will light up and can be seen glowing beneath the weak scale on their chest. This highlights their only weakness, but it is not so easy to kill them.

They will then move on to master the dragon tongue after achieving dragon breath. This is the fifth training objective. The dragon tongue is just a way to cast spells with dragon force without the need for spell structures.

The possession of dragon force has made it so that dragons don't need to coerce mana gently into the shape and function that they want. They dominate mana with dragon force, unlike the weak-willed elves.