The Devouring Dragon

"Have you been well, Beast King?" Thrain greeted me, arriving at the large wooden wall that surrounded my territory. Behind him, nearly a hundred dwarves followed, all of them holding armor and weapons in their arms.

"I have been, Thrain. How is your king doing?" I replied easily.

Roughly two weeks had passed since my meeting with Vargan, and the dwarves and cyclops had worked quickly. I had requested as many sets of weapons and armor as they could make in a reasonable time for my army, and they had delivered.

"He's doing well. He's been very busy with making your equipment," Thrain grinned roughly, "I think you'll be pleased to see how it turned out."

I nodded, a small excitement building up within me.

The Dwarven King himself had made me a weapon and set of armor - how could I not be excited?

I quickly ordered Raya to deal with the rest of the supplies the dwarves were bringing, and she got to work - ordering around the nearby four-legged wolves to bring the supplies into my territory.

"He would've liked to give it to ya personally, but he needed to work on preparing our own forces for the war," Thrain grunted, reaching behind him and pulling off the massive bundled sack that was hanging on his back.

He laid it on the ground, unraveling it as a clang of metal rang out.

As I looked at the result of Vargan's work, I couldn't help but be… underwhelmed.

"It's… nice?" I muttered, trying not to be rude in front of Thrain. The armor looked rather plain, just looking like a typical set of iron armor - there was a chest plate, leg guards, and a basic helmet with a visor.

This is what he put so much effort into? I probably could've made this junk!

I feel less bad about having to kill him now.

"Hah, disappointed? Don't worry, ya just gotta put it on!" Thrain grinned, gesturing at the set of armor.

I quickly grabbed the helmet and placed it on my head. As I did, my eyes widened. The visor in front of me glowed, and the metal shifted in front of my eyes.

"Take a look!" Thrain said excitedly, waving for a dwarf to come over. It scurried over, placed down a mirror, and then went back to unloading supplies.

As I glanced in the mirror, I was impressed. Very impressed.

The normal iron helmet had changed - now, it was a sleek purple color. The material wrapped around my head in an angular way with two sharp plates jutting backward. 

There were two small slits for my eyes, and the material at my mouth area jutted up and down, looking similar to sharp teeth. Two metal slabs jutted outward at the top, looking like horns.

[You have equipped [LEGENDARY] [Beast King's Helmet]]

[LEGENDARY] [Beast King's Helmet] - A magical helmet created by the Dwarven King Vargan for the Beast King Valon.

You have been granted buffs by [Beast King's Helmet]!

Your AGI has been temporarily increased by 20%

Your END has been temporarily increased by 20%

Your STR has been temporarily increased by 20%

Your [Presence] has been temporarily increased by 1 stage!

You have been granted [C-Tier Magic Resistance]!

You have been granted [C-Tier Physical Resistance]!

Due to [Morph] being applied to [Beast King's Helmet], [Devour] has enhanced [Beast King's Helmet]!

[Aura of Devour] has been applied to [Beast King's Helmet]!

[Aura of Devour] - Release an oppressive aura, raising your presence by 1 stage and causing nearby non-[Subordinate] or [Ally] creatures to slowly be drained of their stats.

Due to [Morph] being applied to [Beast King's Helmet], [Devour] has enhanced [Beast King's Helmet]!

[Helmet Devour] has been applied to [Beast King's Helmet]!

[Helmet Devour] - Upon devouring a helmet of [EPIC] tier or above, the stats and abilities will be added to the [Beast King's Helmet]

I blinked, staring at the huge wall of text as I took it in. As I finished reading, my eyes were wide.

Overall, the helmet was overpowered as hell.

A percentage boost to all my stats would continue to scale with me as I grew stronger, I got a resistance to both magical and physical attacks, and [Devour] had enhanced the helmet.

The [Aura of Devour] was what made the helmet especially overpowered - it essentially made it so that my opponents would constantly grow weaker throughout the fight, while I would keep getting stronger.

Even better, since HP should count as a stat, I'd be constantly healing throughout the fight while also slowly draining away their HP.

As long as I could stall out the fight, there was no one I couldn't beat.

[Helmet Devour] was good too - it meant that the helmet would last me a long time, as I could keep enhancing it and slowly adding up buffs and abilities.

Truly, it was much better than I had expected. Even if the literal King of Dwarves was making it for me, this still seemed like a crazy late-game item - not something I should be getting in the tutorial.

I'm still in the tutorial, and yet I already have legendary-tier armor.

"D-Do you, ah, ahem, like it?" Thrain's voice pulled me out of my thoughts, and I quickly realized just how intimidating I looked now, even with just the helmet on.

The dwarven general was sweating, his voice wavering slightly at he looked at me nervously.

"Yes, it's great." I hummed, watching as the man let out a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad," He grunted, "It has morph magic applied to it, so it'll take the shape most fitting for the wearer. Your shape is, ah… a bit intimidating."

He wasn't wrong - if I saw someone wearing a helmet like this, I'd think they were an end-game boss at the very least.

I turned to the rest of the armor, starting to put it on. There was a chest plate, leg guards, arm guards and metallic-gloves, along with boots.

The armor all shifted around me, wrapping around my body and changing shape and color.

As I equipped it, more walls of text filled my eyes, each looking very similar to how the helmet had been.

In the end, overall I got a 100% boost to my STR, AGI, and END stats, along with a +10 presence boost.

I still didn't know the exact benefits of raising my presence, but through my usage of [King's Aura] I had discovered that it essentially made me more imposing and intimidating. 

That much was obvious now, as after equipping the entire set I had gained the attention of everyone in the vicinity.

Thrain was opening and closing his mouth, having taken a few steps back away from me, and was nervously trying to form a sentence but failing.

Meanwhile, the supply unloading had stopped, all the dwarves nearby looking at me either in fear or awe - or a mixture of both. The dire wolves nearby were much the same.

Even Raya was affected, the woman staring at me dumbly with a flushed face.

Honestly, even without the presence boost, I think I would've been gathering attention. The armor was imposing as hell.

Aside from the beast-like helmet, the rest of the armor was also purple, sleek, and had angular slabs of metal jutting out. 

Overall, it was a fitting image for a Beast King. It was imposing, monstrous, and wouldn't have looked out of place on a Demon King.

 "T-There is a… a, ah… t-there's a s-s-sword too, Y-Your Highness," Thrain finally spit out, his words becoming even more respectful as he referred to me as 'Your Highness' instead of 'Beast King.'

Thrain reached behind him, hastily pulling a small sheath off his back and holding it towards me nervously.

I reached out, grabbed the sheath, and pulled out the sword. Just like with the armor, the sword looked like a plain steel one but then changed abruptly.

It grew longer, and expanded wider, becoming in the shape of a great sword. The blade itself was black with a sharp white line running down the middle. The blade was also wide but curved forward at the end into a sharp tip, along with two jagged edges on each side.

The hilt was silver and curved upward slightly into a sharp point. The handle was long and thick, allowing it to fit comfortably in my large palm.

As I held the sword, a wall of notifications appeared.

[You have equipped [LEGENDARY] [Beast King's Blade]

[LEGENDARY] [Beast King's Blade] - A magical sword created by the Dwarven King Vargan for the Beast King Valon.

You have been granted buffs by [Beast King's Blade]!

Your AGI has been temporarily increased by 25%!

Your END has been temporarily increased by 25%

Your STR has been temporarily increased by 25%

Your [Presence] has been temporarily increased by 1 stage!

Due to [Morph] being applied to [Beast King's Blade], [Devour] has enhanced [Beast King's Blade]!

[Devouring Stab] has been applied to [Beast King's Blade]!

[Devouring Stab] - Utilize the power of the Devourer in your attack - upon making contact with an enemy, drain their stats depending on the severity of the blow.

Due to [Morph] being applied to [Beast King's Blade], [Devour] has enhanced [Beast King's Blade]!

[Weapon Devour] has been applied to [Beast King's Blade]!

[Weapon Devour] - Upon devouring a weapon of [EPIC] tier or above, the stats and abilities will be added to the [Beast King's Blade

[A condition has been imbued in [Beast King's Blade]!

Condition imbued: [Predator's Instincts]

[Predator's Instincts] - When outside of combat, [Beast King's Blade] will point toward the nearest perceived prey.

I quickly scanned over the text, a grin slipping onto my face.

Just like with the armor, the sword was a legendary item and it was blatantly overpowered.

The sword itself was already amazing - giving me buffs to my three combative stats along with acting as a constant compass to the nearest enemy.

But, what made it truly overpowered was how [Devour] reacted to it. Just like the armor, the weapon could scale up with me and become stronger as I defeated more opponents.

And, [Devouring Stab] was just as insane as [Aura of Devour] was. Just by landing a blow, I'd increase my own stats, both injuring and making my opponent weaker. And, considering HP was also technically a stat, the weapon pretty much had life steal.

I blinked as the metal vibrated lightly, and then tried to forcefully jerk my hand. I was too strong to let the sword control my arm, but I let it take over to see where it was going.

My arm slowly rose, moving to the side as the sword pointed directly at Thrain.

"W-What are you doing?" Thrain asked shakily, still obviously nervous from my presence having increased.

He wasn't the only one - the dwarves and dire wolves around us had tensed their bodies, looking as if they were ready to flee at a moment's notice.

I couldn't blame them - the imposing armor, along with my massive dark blade, made me a truly terrifying sight.

"Don't worry, it's just the condition," I said, making sure Thrain didn't think I was going to suddenly murder him. 

I blinked as I heard my own voice rattled through the helmet, realizing it sounded deeper than usually. It sounded slightly monstrous and threatening.

"T-The condition? But, ah, doesn't the condition make the s-sword point at, um, your…" Thrain started to ask, the man starting to sweat even more as he looked like he didn't want to finish the question, "A-At your enemies?"

"No," I shut him down, shaking my head, "It points at my prey."

Thrain only seemed to grow even more nervous at my words, her eyes shooting around as he seemed like he was trying to find an escape route.

"Y-You think of me as your… prey?" He spit out, his body tensing.

"Yup, but don't take it personally," I merely hummed, pulling my sword away from his face and sliding it into its sheath. 

"I see everyone as prey."

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AN: Thank you for reading! Valon's finally got something better than turning his hand into a knife! (Something a lot better!)

I'll continue to update this story multiple times a week, but you can also read a bunch of chapters ahead at Patreon.com/Koyon ! I'll be adding another chapter ahead too, as tomorrows story update will be this story, but only on Patreon!

Cya in a few days for the next update!