Arthur sat between rocks near the trail he had been walking. He had unpacked his backpack. The egg sat in front of him covered in a glossy coat of ice. He had scattered the pieces of ore around him as well. Arthur focused on his magic and began manipulating the ore. Each chunk of dragon scale ore heated up and burned away the impurities within. Once the heating process had finished he shaped them with his mind and brought them to himself. He took the dragon scale ore and brought it within himself. He had it snake its way to his metal core which was made of a different metal called magisteel. With the excess metal, he had gained Arthur reinforced the pieces so they would not be so easily damaged in the future.

‘After examining these pieces and my finished exterior I realize I completely forgot this aspect of myself that I can change. I was so focused on making small changes to runes that I didn’t look into the materials they were drawn onto. My metal body is made of dragon scale ore that is made of compressed and fossilized dragon scales. I guess it is fate that I would end up facing a dragon. Now to improve myself I just need to re-smelt my body. The dwarves did a fantastic job but are limited to their methods. As a dungeon, I have full control of this body so I can make changes to the metal they didn’t have the tools to. After comparing the magic glove and my body I realized that there are different grades of the metal-based on how condensed you can make the ore during the crafting process. I should be able to bypass the simpler methods of crafting and reforge my body into the highest-grade ore. Then I can avoid having my metal body scratch as much.

This change will cause me to shrink slightly because of the process. This means I will need to reimplement some of my runes and find a new way of adding them. After some thinking, I want to add folds into the interior of my body which should cause an overall increase in the room I have for them.’

With that goal in mind, Arthur began to work on himself. He started with his spherical metal core around his true dungeon core and began to melt it down. The new ore he brought into his body reshaped the core and condensed. He pushed it as far as he could until the sphere was two-thirds its original size. As soon as the smooth sphere was finished he began reimplementing the runes he wanted. Ever since he had started adjusting to the freedom Sylvia had brought him he found that many of the core’s old functions were redundant. They often helped with limiter functions that were no longer needed know that he was free. The main things he focused on adding to the core were defense and protective measures. If something broke his outer shell he wanted to be sure that his inner one would not break as well. Included on the defenses were some elemental protections but they were only minor because it was costly mana wise to keep the passive defenses up. Since leaving he did notice that his mana capacity had grown a bit faster than in the past though it had slowed back down.

Arthur finished up carving the runes and added the blue reactant to finish the process. With that done he rested for a short while. He looked up and out of himself and towards the forested mountain. He activated a quick scan of [Detect Life Aura]. He found no signs of problems with the largest animal being a fox. Arthur returned his mind to himself and to the egg in front of him. Arthur conjured some ice and covered the bottom of the egg with some more. The water drops on it refroze. Arthur had watched it over the past three days and had made sure to keep it at the same temperature ever since. He was unsure of what else to do other than wait. Sylvia had given him no instructions on how to care for it. Arthur assumed it would hatch and eat meat like its mother, but he knew very little. So far he only had indications based on how it felt. After Arthur had melded his aura into the egg and it had accepted he felt its heartbeat and issues when it got too warm. The egg had also grown slightly over time, but Arthur was unsure if this was normal or not.

Arthur returned to his improvement project after assuring himself that the egg was going to be fine unattended. Arthur remaking his external body would take much longer than his defense sphere and more mana in turn. He decided that he would do it this way because having uneven proportions even for a short time would be annoying. He also didn’t know exactly what he wanted his finished form to look like. There were a few places for adjustments or optional changes that he could make that he didn’t know for sure about. With an initial idea, ready Arthur brought his body to ten thousand degrees.

The air around him heated up as his body liquefied. Arthur forced the parts of his body into shape and held everything together with will now that the internal plant structure couldn’t. Arthur started on his legs and arms. They began to shrink bend. As they changed they became less cylindrical and grew details such as calf’s on his legs and heel’s on his feet. Arthur continued to work on the four pieces until he changed them the way he liked. Next Arthur moved inward and sculpted his chest and hips.

As the changes were implemented his body became less blocky and more humanoid. His height dropped slightly as well to about that of Ethan’s. As Arthur worked he realized he was running out of the dragon scale ore that wasn’t a part of his head and neck. In response he unconsciously did something. From his very center around his dungeon core more dragon scale ore grew that looked just like the ones, he had picked up. With a thought, he grew the ore larger and then liquefied it so that he could use it. The additional metal drained his mana quicker than he would have liked and would add weight to his body, but he would have to adjust or not make these changes. After some time scrutinizing his body a bit more he finalized it with the placement of the runes. Arthur shifted his focus to his head. He made fewer changes to it and didn’t shrink it as great. Arthur still kept the distinct elf ears and small protrusion of a nose. Arthur also had to shrink his crystal eyes with the changes, but he was used to seeing without their direct input by now.

Arthur also cast [Plant Growth] to rebuild his internals. He changed the vines within his body to be mostly formed after reconnecting his fingers and feet to the vine system. He could now hold his body together with only mana if he wanted to now but chose not to. The vine system in his body crisscrossed and formed a nice pattern stretching out from his core to the upper legs and arms of his body. He also found that now that he was in full control of his body he no longer had to use the system of rune pathways to cast [Illuminate] out of his fingers. With his reforging the elements were added to the metal allowing the spell to flow through him. Arthur also incorporated defensive ideas into the vines and strengthened them so that they would become another layer of protection for his body.

As Arthur finished he stood up. With the last of his mana, he cooled himself and the egg off with ice. His body produced a cloud of steam that he brushed away. Arthur focused on his core and began taking in mana. With some of the changes, he was able to increase his efficiencies when intaking mana. This allowed him to recover faster. Arthur took some time to walk around a bit as he did so. Arthur walked unsteadily at first and made some quick adjustments after seeing his body from more of a third-person perspective. Arthur also took this time to send another [Detect Life Aura] spell.

Arthur felt the creatures right away. They were about a mile away but had started wandering in his direction. Arthur drew in more mana and started to pick up his things.

“It looks like we have company. Let’s get you inside.”

Arthur picked up the egg and put it inside his backpack. This time with nothing else in the bag he covered the egg in a protective shell of ice. He picked up the backpack and adjusted it to his new frame before walking over to meet the three creatures.

He saw their forms as he got closer. All of them looked the same. They had two horns each and long furry snouts with a humanoid body except for large, hoofed feet. The minotaur’s charged towards him. They each held an ax in their hand. They towered over him in size even after his transformation.

Arthur took a step back and fired off [Chain Lightning] while holding a [Fire Shield]. The lightning bounced off the first minotaur’s chest quickly before scattering to the other two. The lightning only left a small burn and slowed the minotaur slightly but hit no lasting damage. Arthur quickly switched to a fire attack and shaped his firebolt into a spear.

Arthur stabbed out with his spear before sidestepping and twisting his body. Now that he had a smaller body the feat was easier. He made sure to keep his backpack safe from the minotaur as he swung its ax down during its charge. When the minotaur swung down its body followed suit allowing Arthur a position to attack its head. Arthur fashioned another fireball spell into a point and fed it extra mana before bringing it across the minotaur’s head. The first minotaur fell dead.

As Arthur dealt with the first minotaur the others finished their charge. One of them shoulder-checked him and sent him flying back. He tucked into a roll and formed a [Bubble Shield] around the backpack. His newly hardened body took the hit well and he got back up quickly. Next Arthur dodged as the same minotaur that hit him threw its ax at him. Arthur tried to change its trajectory with wind, but it moved too fast, so he was forced to dodge.

With the minotaur out of an ax, he used [Rock Blast]. The rocky terrain and loose stones shot through the air and pelted the two minotaurs with the stones. The minotaur who still axe its ax swung out in the air and a wave of earth mana flew out in the shape of the ax blade. The other minotaur also cast a spell and its ax reappeared in its hands.

Arthur was too slow to dodge the spell and the magic flowed to his chest. He felt it hit his exterior and the spell reshaped the metal. He resisted most of the effects, but he felt the minotaur’s power destabilize his own control weakening his defenses. The minotaur’s charged at him again and he used [Web Ensnare] to slow them down while he tried to fix what had happened to him.

The webs appeared around the minotaurs from all sides. They tried to push forward but moved at a walking pace forward. The minotaur’s swung out at the webs at started to cut themselves free.

Arthur focused on his internals and felt the runaway mana. It pushed at his runes it had infected causing them to shut down. Arthur pulled on the foreign mana and began sectioning it off before overpowering it with his own mana.

The minotaur’s finally freed themselves from Arthur’s trap. They snorted and were furious. Together they send out another wave of disruptive earth mana. This time instead of trying to dodge Arthur put up a reinforced [Mana Shield]. The energy rolled off the shield stopping it from hurting him further. Arthur returned to the fight in full force once he fixed himself. With both hands, he cast [Fire Spear]. Arthur further modified it to explode on impact. The spells launched themselves at the two minotaur’s and slammed into them. This time the two were thrown into the air. Arthur cast one final set of spells and grew [Stone Spikes] for them to impale themselves on.

Arthur inspected the minotaur’s after they died and cut them open. Form his hunts with Lucas, Aria, and Kendra he knew that these beasts often held beast cores within them. The other parts of the minotaurs would be nice for other people, but he did not need them for crafting materials. With a few cuts with a mana blade, he opened up the chest of the first minotaur.

“Where is it?”

Arthur reached into the chest of the creature and could not find its beast core.

“This should be impossible. I saw it cast magic. It must be stored somewhere.”

Arthur searched around its head next but did not find the core. As Arthur moved to search elsewhere in the minotaur’s body next. The bodies of all three minotaur’s began rapidly decaying. Arthur jumped up and took a few steps back. In only a few moments the bodies had all turned to dust.

“What is going on? Where did they come?” Arthur asked himself.

Arthur felt the pull of curiosity and the strangeness of a type of encounter he had not heard of. All of the creatures he had fought and the others he knew of fought never had the beasts disintegrate like that before. Arthur looked around the site of the fight once more before altering his path. He walked toward where the minotaur’s had come from following their distinctive heavy hoof marks along the way.