Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot
Chapter 178 - 177 - Traumatized Omni.

Chapter 178: Chapter 177 - Traumatized Omni.

Raven teleported back into his room, appearing on the bed he had vanished from, with a whoosh.

A sigh left his lips as he looked around the room. The sigh that left his lips was one of a man who had just survived a conversation with a romantic apocalypse.

He paused.

Then stared out the window.

Birds chirped. Sunlight streamed. Rufus could be heard yelling, "Stop trying to ride the squirrel, Alex!"

Alex shouted back, "It’s not my fault he looks like a tiny majestic warhorse!"

Raven slowly turned to look at the wall clock.

"...Morning?"

But then, he frowned as the clock showed something strange.

It showed that it had only been thirty minutes since he left.

Raven squinted at the sunlight and then at the bed.

He was sure that he had spent four entire hours with Arietta.

There were at least three emotional breakdowns, one death threat, one yandere kiss, and some unexpected heartfelt tea-making qualifications in there.

"...So either I’m a time traveler or I was kidnapped by a goddess with a side hustle in temporal manipulation," he muttered, slumping onto the bed.

Ding!

A notification.

On the trade channel, no less.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Grandpa_Hot_Pot:

"Where are you? Why didn’t you send a message saying that you safely reached your place?"

"Are you alright? I didn’t mess up the law, right?"

"You reached there in one piece, right?"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"It hasn’t even been a full five seconds since I came here..." Raven muttered, staring at the messages.

However, he could already imagine her biting her nails in worry, so he quickly replied.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Raven:

"There’s nothing wrong with the spell."

"I arrived at my place safely, without any bone missing or misplaced."

"Also, I would like to ask you not to panic about everything. It is bad for your health."

"People say that even gods aren’t immune to hair loss that comes from stress."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"Ah, I forgot to ask the main thing," Raven realized, but seeing Arietta typing, he decided to wait for her reply while typing his own.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Grandpa_Hot_Pot:

"Hail loss?! No way!"

"I-I’ll create a new tale that prevents hair loss!"

"There’s no way I’m going to be able to see you if I lose my hair."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

’Create a tale that prevents hair loss...’

Raven stared at the message for some time, speechless.

There were people like him who would do whatever it took to have one tale, and there was her, who already had who knows how many of them and was now making one for something like hair loss.

With a deep breath, Raven decided to ignore what he had seen and sent the thing he wanted to talk about.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Raven:

"Hey, I was sure that we spent around four hours together, so how is it that only half an hour has passed here?"

"Did you do something?"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Arietta’s reply came the moment Raven’s was sent.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Grandpa_Hot_Pot:

"Hehe~"

"Our little meeting chamber has time dilation divine law."

"Time moves eight times faster in the room. That’s why, while it had only been half an hour outside, we were able to spend four hours together."

"You’re welcome. ♥"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Raven leaned back, dead-eyed.

"...Of course, why wouldn’t she be able to do it?"

However, there was one more thing he needed to say. This issue needed to be addressed as soon as possible.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Raven:

"Arietta. Can you change your name?"

"I feel like I’m talking romance to an old man, and believe me. It makes my stomach churn."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Yes. Raven couldn’t imagine talking to Arietta while looking at that name. It was an impossible task.

Arietta didn’t say anything for a while before she realized that it really did seem strange.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Grandpa_Hot_Pot:

"I’ll see if I can find a way to change the name, even though I don’t think that’s possible."

"If nothing else, I will make a new ID and send you a friend request."

"I’ll be off for a while now. Bye."

"Love you~"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As Raven replied with a bye, the chat ended.

But the second it did, he heard something vibrate from within his arm.

He didn’t even need anyone to tell him what it was.

His tattoo shimmered, and from the inked-black line on his forearm, a voice emerged, gritty and low like someone who had seen every war and lived to grumble about it.

"Never. Again."

Raven blinked. "Omni?"

"Don’t. Speak. Her. Name."

"...You mean Arietta?"

The tattoo shivered visibly. "YES. Her."

Omni, the world-sundering, god-slaying sword that could cleave through a Chaos Wyrm in a single strike, sounded like he had seen The Horrors.

"I was built to throw hands with titans, man. Bathed in cosmic blood, forged in the forges of forever—real top-shelf stuff. I ain’t no butterknife."

He paused, then added with a shake in his tone, "But what I saw in that room..."

The tattoo twisted into the vague shape of a curled-up noodle.

"Her mood swings, man... they bypassed all my enchantments like they weren’t even there."

Omni’s voice had a low, rattled edge, like he was still trying to process it.

"When she smiled? I saw a time fracture. No joke. And when she kissed you—" he paused as if shivering theatrically, "—I swear my edge dulled, bro. Like I caught emotional rust. I ain’t built for witnessing that level of chaos wrapped in affection."

Raven stared at his forearm. "Bro, you’re literally a sword."

"And even I got emotions, man," Omni muttered, sounding personally betrayed.

"One second she’s sweet like pie, the next second, I swear I heard tectonic plates filing restraining orders." He paused, like the memory hurt. "There was tea, Raven. She made tea while talkin’ ’bout death. Who does that?! That’s not elegance—that’s villainy in a teacup!"

Raven sat back, brows raised. "Okay, I get it. But the tea was good."

"That’s the worst part!! I liked it. Like, fuck. How did the tea smell so good, man? I wanted to drink it so bad."

"...You don’t even have a mouth," Raven deadpanned.

"I tasted it in my essence, Raven!"

There was a pause.

Then Omni whispered the most defeated words Raven had ever heard, his voice dragging like a man who’d just seen his taxes come to life and slap him.

"I miss my time in the void, man... At least back there I didn’t have to deal with crazy goddesses swingin’ moods like war hammers."

He paused, his tone distant—like he was gazing off into some spiritual alleyway filled with shady memories.

"It was just me, the darkness... and the occasional star whale screamin’ through space like a banshee with rent due. Peaceful times."

Raven blinked. "What is... Star whale?"

"A dangerous beast," Omni muttered. "But even that cosmic blubber-beast was less terrifying than that woman, smilin’ like death served with sugar."

Raven didn’t know what to say anymore, so he decided not to say anything.

Instead, he decided to focus on the thing he had been focusing on before he was summoned by Arietta.

It was the Divine Trade Auction function.

He had Arietta now, so he didn’t need to worry about divinity anymore, you say?

He wished that were the case, as he would never say no to a sugar mommy.

Heck, he had been buttering Grandpa, even though he didn’t know that he was a she, just because he could see himself profiting from it.

But when he talked to Arietta, she said that there were some restrictions in the trade channel.

One of them was higher-level gods sponsoring lower-level ones, trying to control the lower-level market through them.

So, there was a restriction that only like-leveled gods could trade things worth more than 100,000 divinity points.

Before, when she gave him ten artifacts, she had gone against the system, disabling her gifting function for a while.

Now, the most she could do was give him 100,000 divinity every month until the system removed her penalty.

It was as if Raven had an OP power, but he couldn’t use it, or more like, it was on a cooldown.

The good thing, however, was that Arietta had permitted him to sell her items, as she had given them to him so that he could sell them in the first place.

After all, she knew that Raven, as a mortal, wouldn’t be able to use those items.

She merely didn’t want him to sell them to a goddess.

[Welcome to the Divine Trade Auction.]

[What would you like to do?]

[Buy] [Sell]

The auction’s interface popped up, and without thinking, Raven tapped the sell option.

Then, he selected Prism Thread Veil.

It was the item he had Windy had given him instead of divinity.

[Prism Thread Veil:

A divine cloak woven from the threads of light by a lesser goddess of illusion, upgraded by Windy using an anchor shard from a fallen realm. It bends perception, confuses divine senses, and deflects attention from the user.

Condition: Only divine beings can use it.

Bonus: It has an internal pocket that always has snacks.

Rating: Very Cool.]

It was something Raven didn’t want to sell, but after trying it once, he found out that he couldn’t use it like he used Omni.

It wasn’t an item that worked merely on divinity.

Raven also needed god-level power.

So, he decided to sell it.

[Are you sure you want to put ’Prism Thread Veil’ up in the auction?]

[Yes] [No]

The system asked for confirmation, so he clicked on yes.

[Order confirmed.]

[Please set the starting price for the item.]

An empty bar popped up below the notification along with a keyboard.

After staring at it for a while, recalling how it was worth around 400,000 divinity according to Windy, Raven decided to put the starting price as 200,000.

[Are you sure you want to set the starting price as 200,000 divinity?]

[Yes] [No]

Without hesitation, Raven clicked yes.

Just when Raven thought it was over, another notification came.

[Would you like to put this item in the current batch of items for sale?]

[Yes] [No]

{Suggestion: The busiest batch starts in three hours.}

"Hm, I almost clicked yes," Raven muttered as he saw the suggestion.

The busier the batch, the more likely it is for an item to be sold at a higher price, so Raven clicked no.

[Which batch would you like to display your item in?]

Below the new question, another empty bar popped up, and Raven typed, ’The batch three hours later from now.’

He didn’t know if that worked or not, but the next second—

[Request accepted.]

[You will be notified once the item is sold.]

Raven still didn’t know whether he had chosen the right words for the answer, but he merely sighed.

"Oh well, I guess we’ll know once the notification arrives."

He failed to notice how he was treating an item worth 300,000 plot points so lightly.

It was as if he didn’t even care about 300,000 divinity.

Above all, he had stood up to a god some hours ago when at first, he used to lose his shit talking to them.

He was growing, mentally and physically, without even realizing it.