“I’m Fiora, strongest ice dragon around. How do I know I’m the strongest ice dragon? I killed all the rest, hehe…”

…..

“Oh, my bad. I forgot the effect dragons have on weaker creatures, silly me!”

Suddenly I felt as if the immense pressure I had been feeling disappeared. I had been unable to even think due to the crippling fear I was feeling, but now I could at least use my mind again. Though I have no idea what to even think about…

“Now now, this is rude. I introduced myself and even made you relax, and yet you still haven’t even given me your name yet! I guess I should just kill you and be done with it…”

“No! Don’t… I mean, my name is Ben, I’m a human… that’s it I guess. Pleasure to meet you…?” I honestly had no idea what to do, none of my abilities seemed to be working and I was having a conversation with a mighty dragon of all things!

“Now that wasn’t too difficult was it? Ben huh… and the pleasure is all mine.”

The dragon made a bow as she greeted me. She was definitely toying with me and mocking me, but what could I do about it? My mind was racing with how I could escape from here but I could see no way out. My only choice for now was to keep speaking to her, maybe I could delay the conversation enough for me to get an idea? Or maybe I could distract her with my words long enough that she stopped using whatever it is she was using to keep me from using my abilities…?

The dragon raised her head once again and I became mesmerized by the majestic and terrifying sight in front of me. Previously when I saw her all those weeks ago she had been some distance away but now that I was up close I could see every individual detail about her.

She towered above me, at this close a range it was impossible for me to accurately say how large she was. Her face was a good 20 feet up in the air and this wasn’t even close to being her full height, as she was laying down on the ground currently. Her body was covered with light, icy blue scales that honestly looked quite beautiful as they shone under the moonlight. I remember thinking that her body was made out of crystals before, but I guess it just looked that way when the scales were reflecting the sunlight.

Her face looked extremely fierce, with a long jaw filled with teeth much larger than me which looked like they could instantly shred me to pieces with the smallest bite. Her nostrils were actually large enough that I could fit comfortably inside, and her whole face spanned a good 30 feet or so! Just her face was 30 feet long, just how large is this dragon!

As I looked into the massive blue eyes of hers, I could only see indifference and a hint of amusement in them as they stared down at the small fry that had been foolish enough to intentionally come to her home. I had to say I agreed with her, why did I think it was a smart choice to come here?!?

“So tell me Ben, what brings you to my mountain?”

Her voice was really fierce and loud, but also contained a bit of femininity to it. It was actually the only reason why I even knew the dragon was a female. That and her name I guess...

Now, how do I answer this? I would like to come up with some sort of a story but I’m afraid she might be able to spot it if I lie. I guess it’s best to stick with the truth…

“I was extremely bored and thought it would be fun to come here and see what kind of abilities you have. I was just curious to see how powerful you were…”

The dragon stared at me as if this was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. I have to admit, it sounds extremely stupid to me too. What kind of an idiot would think to get rid of his boredom by going near a DRAGON?!?

The dragon was still staring at me, and as the seconds ticked by I started to get afraid once again thinking she might just end me right here and now. Though the next second she actually started laughing! Her loud laughter seemed to fill up the entire mountain top as it caused snow to fall and ice to crack! I wanted to cover up my ears but I still couldn't move anything except my eyes and my mouth, so I had to stand there and endure the laughter ringing in my ears.

It took a couple of minutes for her to stop laughing.

“I must say I haven't laughed like that for a long time. I thought you were just being a smart-ass at first but you were actually speaking the truth!”

Oh, so she does have an ability to see if I’m speaking the truth or not, good thing I didn’t lie…

“I have to say though, any other human I have come across either piss in their pants at the sight of me or when I speak to them, or they stammer like fools while speaking to me. Most of them actually pass out… But you seem to be speaking quite normally to me, how?”

She suddenly fixed me with a sort of piercing stare and the pressure started to grow around me once again! I barely managed to croak out “I actually have no idea…” before the pressure eased up again and I breathed easily once again.

I really did have no idea how I was so calm. There was a huge dragon in front of me who had said she was going to kill me, and I was completely helpless in front of her, and yet I was speaking quite normally..? Weird. I have no idea how or why I am so calm…

“Let me see here….”

Suddenly my head felt as if it had split apart as I felt the most unimaginable pain possible throughout my head! It felt like someone was repeatedly bashing my head in with something as the pain kept growing stronger and stronger….

……

……

I opened my eyes to find the dragon glaring at me with such a stare I felt my time had come. It seemed as if I had passed out from the pain as I was now lying on the ground. I tried to get up and to my surprise I found out I could move my muscles again! I immediately tried teleporting out but it didn’t work… abilities were still not working I guess…

“Now, human, explain to me in detail about your ability. Leave nothing out. Know that your life depends on the answer you give.”

This time Fiora spoke with a snarl as her voice sent out a shock-wave that made me fall over on my ass once again! What is she talking about? Why the sudden hostility?

Never mind that Ben, just answer her damn question!

I explained how I had a unique ability that allowed me to absorb abilities by drinking blood. I let her know everything from start to finish about how I had discovered it and all the pros and cons of the ability, including the fact that I couldn’t absorb unique abilities from other humans.

After I had done explaining I waited with bathed breath as Fiora kept staring at me with her piercing glare. I was desperately trying to teleport again and again but it just wasn’t working at all!

“Change of plans human, I’m not going to kill you. Instead you are going to do something for me.”

Huh…? She isn’t going to kill me? Whew… I don’t care what she wants me to do I’ll do it as long as I can get the fuck out of here!

“Thank you so much. What is it that you want me to do? I’ll do anything!”

“Good. I want you to kill someone for me. It’s a dragon. It is about 10 times as strong as me, so I obviously can’t kill him. So I want your help.”

…..

Ummm….

What?

“Did you just say you want me to kill something which is 10 times stronger than you are…?” I obviously misheard this…

“Yes.”

….

Apparently not.

How is it even possible for me to kill a dragon?! And on top of that a dragon so much more powerful than the massive dragon currently in front of me!

“I see you are panicking, calm down. First of all I know you can’t defeat him right now, heck even if I disabled my ‘domain control’ ability right now to give you back all your powers you still won’t even be able to put a scratch on me. Which is why I don’t want you to go hunt him right now, but later when you get stronger.

As to why I need you, it’s simple, because of your ability. Do you realize how much potential you have? You foolishly think you can’t absorb unique abilities from humans, yet you do not realize that these so called ‘unique’ abilities are only ‘unique’ to humans! Your own so called ‘unique’ ability isn’t as unique as you think it is, there’s a whole species called “The Blood Worms” who have the same ‘absorption’ ability as you do.

Stupid humans as always think of themselves as the center of the universe as if everything revolves around them. Have you ever thought about how vast this universe is? Heck I’m sure you don’t even realize what is happening to your planet! You think all of us creatures that clearly do not belong on this world came out of nowhere without any purpose or goals?! You think your planet will remain in the same state as it is now indefinitely?

I don’t want to bother myself with explaining everything to you. Go and find the information yourself.

The fact is you can grow to the point where you could become powerful enough to treat me as a mere insect, which is why I want to grab this opportunity to bring you to my side and have you help me. So, what will it be?

Agree to help me and live, or refuse and die.”

…..

Okay…

Few things the dragon said there. So unique abilities are only ‘unique’ for humans? So only one human can have said ability but it doesn’t apply to monsters? Doesn’t this mean that I can absorb said ‘unique’ abilities by drinking blood from monsters that have them? If this is the case then I will have to find those monsters ASAP!

I’ll think about what she said regarding the universe and this planet later, the more pressing matter is the ‘choice’ she has given me. Honestly it’s not much of a choice is it? She called the ability she is using to suppress my abilities ‘Domain Control’ I think. I guess it allows her to have absolute control over an area? But if that’s the case then why can’t she go and control the area near the fucking dragon she wants me to kill?! Perhaps this only works on this mountain? Or perhaps it won’t work on that dragon..?

Nevertheless, I’ll simply have to agree. The problem is I can’t lie and say that I will agree to simply get away from here, as she will know whether I am lying or not. *Sigh* Okay Ben, prepare yourself to go and kill a dragon I guess…

“It’s not like I have any choice. I obviously agree to help you.”

“Good. I’ll bestow my mark on you now.”

“Wait! What mark? You didn’t say anything about a mark!”

“If you really think I am going to let you get so powerful without having some way to save myself if you decide to betray me when you are more powerful than me then you are crazy.” She said fixing another one of her piercing glares on me.

Okay... That makes sense I guess...

“Right… err… what does this ‘mark’ do exactly?”

“Simple. It allows me to keep track of wherever you are, and should you ever try to harm me I can kill you instantly no matter what kind of healing ability you have.”

Damn. This does not sound good at all! Why did I have to come here?!

“So, does it have any benefit for me…?” I was hoping it would be some kind of cool ‘dragon’s mark’ that would give me some percentage of her powers or something like that. At least there would be SOMETHING good for me in that case!

“No, it does not.”

Well… shit.

“Prepare yourself, this is going to hurt.”

Without giving me even a second to actually brace myself, she breathed an icy breath straight at me and I felt a burning sensation on my chest. It hurt like hell! It was even worse than whatever it was she did earlier to my head! It felt as if my chest was on fire! Every inch of my chest felt as if a million burning hot needles were piercing it!

….

….

________________________________________

(Dragon’s POV)

Hmph. The human fainted again, pitifully weak creatures.

The human doesn’t realize what this mark truly means. Though it’s fine for me. Even if this kid dies I will have no problems. I have waited thousands of years to kill that fucking dragon, I can wait for some more years!

Though I do hope this kid becomes powerful enough to help me. If he does manage to succeed in killing him, I’ll obviously use the mark to kill little Ben here. I don’t want anyone more powerful than me walking around after all. That mark is dangerous, though the human is probably too stupid to figure out how it works.

Oh look, the kid has woken up. Let’s give him back his abilities.

“There, everything is done. Go and get stronger. I will keep track of you through the mark and once you are powerful enough I will call for you. You have your powers back so you can get out of my home now!”

He said something I didn’t care about and left, probably used his teleportation. I scanned his memories earlier and found out all of his abilities after all, though I did ask him about them to see if he would tell me the truth.

Now, I’ll wait until the time I kill both him and Ben here. *Yawn*

Time for a nap I think.

___________________________________

Author's Note: Let me know what you guys think of this chapter.

Originally I had planned on Ben discovering about how 'unique' abilities aren't exactly 100% unique on his own instead of having this dragon conveniently telling him. But, the never-ending comments over the last two chapters about how you guys think the MC is too weak made me do it this way.

Basically he can absorb any ability he can find from a monster, though that being said such monsters having powerful abilities will be few and far between and will obviously be hard to find. Also, they will be powerful so he will have to actually work hard on getting them.

Now do you guys still think Steal is much too OP compared to absorption? I hope you don't. Though Steal is still dangerous enough at this point of time.

Stuff with the dragon will take place in the future, now the story will move on towards MC's interactions with the Council and other people, as I have received comments about how there needs to be more interactions with other characters.

As always, thank you so much for reading! Comments/questions welcome :)

P.S. I have the feeling that people will either like this chapter or absolutely hate it. I hope it's the former! *Fingers crossed*