So basically, if I want my dragon powers to grow stronger, than I have to let my emotions die out.

This was a huge shock to me.

But before I could say anything, William spoke up again.

“I can guess what you’re thinking right now. You can get stronger even without losing your emotions.”

“What?! How???”

“It’s quite simple actually, all you have to do is keep doing what you’ve been doing up till now. Dragonification only happens when you experience an extreme amount of any emotion, so if you make sure to not let your emotions go wild, you won’t experience dragonification and thus you won’t lose your emotions.”

That… makes a lot of sense!

So, all I have to do is to continue training without relying on dragonification, I’ll still grow stronger, but I just won’t be as strong as if I went through dragonification.

“You can still continue to train and develop your current dragon powers and strengths, but you won’t gain any new ability.”

No new dragon abilities…

A bit of a bummer, but it’s fine, I guess.

“But the problem now is that you’re still very weak. You’re growing stronger faster than the average person, but that’s only because of your dragon blood and even so you’re growing slower than I had expected. Dragonification is off limits I assume as you don’t want to lose your emotions, right?”

I nodded.

“So, I developed a new training device to help make you stronger, faster without relying on dragonification.”

I tilted my head in confusion and William pulled out this odd-looking steel bracelet with a weird design and pattern over it.

“This is something I myself, developed and made customized for you.”

He handed it to me and I took it.

I looked at it and fiddled around with it with my fingers as William explained what it was.

“It’s a magic training device that when worn, it will restrict your magic flow throughout your body. It will make the magic in your body uncontrollable and wild, even simply standing would be difficult. To a normal person, they may even become paralyzed and unable to move, but for you, you should be able to somewhat resist its effects.

Simply doing everyday activities such a walking or running would be extremely difficult with it on. But if you manage to get use to it, and overcome its effects, your control over your own body will drastically increase and you will become stronger.”

It was relatively small, and it just barely fit onto my hand.

To think such a small bracelet would have such an effect.

That’s basically all William wanted to talk to me about and so I left shortly after.

I took out the bracelet after writing in my journal and looked at it, William had told me to try it out, but I haven’t tried it yet.

I completely forgot about it while on the journey home because I was so excited to see my family again.

But now that I’ve gotten home, I remembered I had this.

I’m going to try it on now, I’ll write about how it’s like later tonight after I finish doing the work my wife told me to do.

.

OH MY LORD.

When I put the bracelet, nothing happened at first but then slowly I felt a chill run through my body.

It felt extremely uncomfortable.

Then suddenly my entire body clenched up, my muscles all tightened, and my fingers subconsciously closed.

It felt like I was being electrocuted… but worse!!!

I immediately plopped onto the ground, my legs and arms bent, and I couldn’t even straighten them out.

A sharp tingle ran through my body and my body was twitching and shaking uncontrollable!

I couldn’t stand up, as I wiggled around on the ground struggling like a flopping fish.

Damn William! He told me the effects were enough to paralyze a normal person but that’s a total understatement!

I calmed myself and tried to control the magic in my body and eventually after around half an hour I was able to neutralize it, just enough to stand up.

My knees were still shaking, and I put my arm on my desk to keep myself standing.

Forget working, even walking is going to be extremely difficult!

My muscles all tensed up and loosened randomly and it was like I wasn’t in control of my own body. It was the most horrifying feeling.

I activated my dragon essence and spread it through my entire body. It helped stabilize me a little but only by a bit.

By now I was sweating like hell and my wife from the kitchen even called out if I was okay as she was hearing a lot of weird sounds from my room.

I called out that I was okay but my voice came out kind of squeaky.

I didn’t want her to see me like this so I stood by my door to block her from opening it, it would be so embarrassing to let her see me like this.

My wife sighed and left but not after telling me to hurry up and get to work.

I wanted to take off the bracelet, but I convinced myself not to because if I wanted to become stronger, than this will help me if I can overcome it.

I won’t be defeated by a mere bracelet! I nearly defeated a wyvern! I won’t back down to a bracelet!

I hyped myself up and my fighting spirit roared, I WILL GET TO WORK WHILE WEARING THIS BRACELET!

And today was hell.

Every single movement I made was pain.

If I picked up a shovel, it felt like I was lifting an elephant.

If I dug a hole, it felt like I was breaking through steel with my bare hands.

If I took a step, it felt like my body weight was multiplied by ten times.

I did farm work, helped my wife cook, cleaned around the house, tended to the animals and other stuff!

Wait a second… nothing I mentioned just now sounds impressive.

All I did was everyday activities.

I feel a little embarrassed after being so proud of myself for doing such minor mundane things… I feel like a child who earned a dollar for the first time after doing his chores.

But I was doing it all while wearing this bracelet so it made things so much harder… alright… I have a right to be proud of myself!

…

I’m not just saying this to make myself feel less embarrassed…

(Sep 7)

A few days passed, I continued to wear my bracelet and I think I’m used to it now.

I can jump around and wield minor magic like before, I’m not as strong or flexible as I was without it, but I am closer to how I was originally.

It’s like if the gravity suddenly increased, at first, it’ll be very hard to move but after a while your body adapts and you become used to it and as a result, you become a lot stronger.

These few days, I’ve been working like crazy, even my wife started looking at me as if I was a masochist who liked working or something… a workaholic…

Then suddenly I had this random thought,

‘Wait a second, I came back home so I could relax… not to work harder!’

I didn’t take off my bracelet, but I decided to relax more.

I told my wife I was heading out and sell off some of our crops but it was actually an excuse so I could go out.

After heading to the market and selling things to our usual buyer, I went to a local tavern.

It was a tavern I went to quite frequently in the past called the “Dine and Don’t Dash.”

It was quite an interesting tavern name, apparently the name came from one time someone tried to run away without paying but the tavern owner beat the guy into a bloody pulp and even ripped off an arm as payment.

It’s just a rumor but… the tavern owner looked like the kind of man who could do that…

The smell of warm food and the sound of chatter hit me as I entered.

I went to the bartender and ordered some cold ale which I gulped down.

The cold liquid flowed down my throat and refreshed me as the flavor exploded in my mouth. Man, the ale here is fantastic…

I looked around and looked at the people in the tavern, I was searching for someone. A friend of mine.

Then, in the corner of my eye I noticed a man sitting in the corner of the room chugging down some beer.

He was the man I was looking for.