A Dragon's Curiosity

“Can anyone just claim a piece of land and start a sect on the spot?”

Having just spent a significant amount of gold - and by all means, Nisha did not feel attached to worldly possessions - she still seemed quite ridiculous to have just thrown it away if anyone was allowed to take it as they please.

“Oh, it is not that simple. Why would you value any random piece of land? To have value for cultivators the area needs redeeming features.”

Shaking his head in amusement, Unico allowed himself a small smile before explaining in greater detail.

“Over the years, nature often forms natural formations when great concentrations of mana or aura pool in some locations.

For example, one of the major clans in my home country has taken residence in a region after they discovered a herb garden with an exceptional density of natural energies. Any plant cultivated in that area grows ten times faster than normal. So a grass grown for ten years will be equal to one hundred-year-old herb. To a clan, this is just invaluable.”

Lisa gasped in amazement, as the daughter of an alchemist shop, she understood the immense advantage such an unusual natural formation represented. For a regular second or third class herb, having grown for a hundred years, her parents would pay a more than generous amount of gold. Not to mention any high-class herbs, just regarding money that herb garden was literally growing stalks of gold!

“Of course there are other oddities as well, not only relating to herbs. And to some degree, inscriptions and formations can simulate extraordinary environments as well. Once a clan collects enough wealth, they can invite a master to set up new areas. Therefore, the older a clan or school is, the more likely they are to rank among the top. Imagine if you had a meditation chamber that allows you to cultivate twice as fast with half the effort. All young geniuses would want to join you to benefit from that formation or inscription. In turn, the new blood gathers at your place, giving you the edge once they develop.

Of course, not every institution reveals their secret grounds freely, lest another stronger power takes it by force.”

Noticing how Lisa hung at his lips to not miss even a single word, Unico felt greatly satisfied. While the elf asked the question initially, he got a chance to show off his knowledge.

“And almost all students stay in a clan after joining one; it’s pretty rare to abandon their choice later on. No other power wants to take in a traitor that might leave them if there suddenly is a better offer. With that the heights, a clan member can reach relate to their clan, but there have been cases of talent blooming only later in life or lucky encounters elevating an individual's strength. By relying on a powerful mage or warrior, a clan can rise in power relatively fast.”

“You know a lot about schools and clans. Do you already have a place in mind you want to join after graduating from the academy?”

Lisa sounded honestly amazed and looked at the purple skinned youth with stars in her eyes. Although she had some ideas and heard rumours about this, the in-depth explanation still awed her.

“Haha, not at all. My father deals with clans from time to time as part of his job, and I tagged along sometimes when I was younger. Apart from their names, I only have a rough understanding about the clans near my kingdom, not to mention their locations.

What the future will bring, I don’t know yet.”

Modestly denying her inquiry, Unico tried to brush the topic off. The elf suddenly had an inclination that the young man lied in the latter part of his speech and suspected he had another reason not to join any clan. Furthermore, he knew a lot of supposedly secret information, which made her doubt just what position Unico’s father occupied.

While the trio whispered about this and that, the guests finished their introductions and gave the word back to Mr. Oak.

“Alright, children, let’s thank our visitors for taking the time to come and explain their origins. If you are interested in any of the offers, feel free to come to me after class, I can guide you towards the right place.”

Bowing before the man and women, the martial instructor did his best to appear as elegant as possible while the people in question went towards the next class.

As the commotion died down, the group moved back towards their training dummy, ready to beat it up and continue their practice.

To qualify for the trip at the end of the week, Lisa still needed to damage the wooden puppet at least once. An enormous amount of money flew into the training grounds each week as enchanters maintained the wooden weapons and targets, adjusting the strength of their formations to match the students. The elf and the young man from their group already proved to be capable of smashing apart the dummy; only Lisa lagged behind. Even if neither of the two put pressure on her or mentioned the trip, her demands for herself pushed the girl to do better and improve until she stood on the same level as Nisha and Unico.

With a burning desire, Lisa unconsciously looked for the young man, hoping to get his instruction this time again. Rather than asking Mr. Oak, who had his hands full with all kinds of requests from the other groups as an instructor, her best bet was to listen to her group and take their advice to improve.

The youth did not disappoint and waited for Lisa to attack the dummy, observing her movements and ready to point out her mistakes with a wry smile.

Nisha, on the other hand, itched to try out her newfound strength. As she had been at the peak of the second aura rank, her physical strength already allowed her to break apart the wooden target without any techniques. Now the elf had broken through to the middle of the third rank, and a wooden dummy was soon going to cry while being broken apart.

Sweeping a quick glance through the available weapons, the dragon quickly settled on a massive spear, similar to the exemplar she used during the first lesson. Although she had the option to train with a sword, like the majority of the other students, or more exotic arms, the extreme might exuded by a pole weapon enticed her endlessly.

To crush the enemy with supreme oppression, slamming down on their helpless backs with an infinitive power rushing through her muscles and breaking apart their defense in spite of their baseless hope, the thought alone sent a shiver down Nisha’s spine.

Adopting a stance and waiting for the other girl to finish her attack, the dragon played with the bracelet on her left arm - [Thorns of the Night]. Remodeling and shaping the dark wood in her spare time absentmindedly, the initially thorny and irregular brambles now formed a perfect circlet around her wrist. Occasionally pulses of life ran throughout it, thankfully Nisha entirely controlled the item and used the overflowing energy to reshape the inner structure, again and again, to make it seem like a completely normal wooden bracelet.

Grasping the wooden handle of her spear and comparing their textures, many possible attack scenarios ran through the dragon’s head, where she slowly eliminated all the wrong or inefficient approaches one by one.

As soon as her two group members stepped away and discussed the previous attack Lisa executed, a burst of strength filled the elf’s legs, sending a worrying break through the tile beneath her feet as it almost snapped from the sudden impact.

Bringing down the wooden edge from a cross-handed overhead grip the spear slashed at the training dummy’s throat, leaving a deep fissure threatening to take its head off.

Stopped by the spectacle Lisa and Unico stopped discussing and blinked at the weak looking girl, not quite sure how to react to the enormous strength. Even some of the surrounding students stared in wonder, questioning how so much power hid in such slender and white arms.

“My bad, I think I overdid it.”

Broken out of her trance, Nisha felt bad to break the wooden target. Thanks to her natural aura flowing into the spear it did not break. However, the weapon and the dummy still took a heavy burden, from her attack.

“You …”

“It’s nothing, I just got lucky. Maybe another class already weakened the enchantment on the doll, so my strike, fortunately, landed on a weakness in the grain.”

Brushing off the incident with a carefree attitude, not wishing to reveal her abnormal growth rate the dragon shrugged her shoulders and walked away from the damaged target behind her.

Glancing at the strange girl with suspicious eyes Unico failed to see through her. As usual, his understanding seemed to exceed common sense.

“That’s not it. You did get stronger, didn’t you? Maybe your aura had a breakthrough?”

At his earnest tone, even Lisa began to question the elf’s strength. Usually, she did not have the leisure to pay attention, but since the young man in front of her insisted she became convinced as well.

“Aw, stop it, I’m all embarrassed now. It’s not what you think it is, how can you think breaking through the ranks is so easy? My luck has just been good, that’s all.”

In fact, Unico hit the nail right on the head; Nisha’s strength elevated almost by a full rank for both her mana and her aura. She just could not admit it, a regular elf or human did not just advance in such a crazy fashion, not to mention skipping a stage. How scary would it be if the dragon did promote a full rank one day?

In any case, Nisha refused to acknowledge it in any manner. Lying here was not only for her sake, but it would also undermine everyone else’s confidence.

The purple skinned youth apparently did not quite buy her excuse and suspiciously looked at her. However, Lisa nodded her head repeatedly and agreed.

“I know what you mean; I had to exercise quite a lot to reach the threshold and get accepted into the academy and almost did not make it. Just a moon before the deadline I made it.”

Sharing some sympathy with the fellow girl, Lisa reminisced for a moment before realizing the attention shifted to her and blushed furiously, not used to being in the limelight.

Escaping from her predicament, she ran towards the wooden training dummy again, showering with a rain of blows to work off her embarrassment.

Seeing the heartwarming scene, Nisha suddenly remembered another matter and broke her stance.

“I just recalled something, I won’t be here tomorrow. To allow my companion monster to come with me on the trip with the warrior class, I need to register her at the guild first. Otherwise, I can’t even take her to the Academy with me.”

To her sudden declaration, her two group members showed a lot of interest.

“You are raising a monster? That’s rare.”

“A monster companion? Are you sure that’s safe?”

Regarding the two vastly differing opinions, the dragon only chuckled.

“You will know soon; I will bring her along on the outing. It’s a [Scaled Wind Wolf], and still really young. You’ll love her!”

Thankfully the little wolf recently enjoyed to run around the mansion and tease the maids while they were cleaning during the time Nisha attended the Academy. Instead of feeling lonely, the servants appreciated the cheerful creature as well and got along well with the monster.

“I’m looking forward to meeting your companion then. Come on; it’s your turn. Show the target dummy what you’re made of!”

After learning about Nisha’s near absence ahead of time, Unico did not dwell on the new information and focused his attention back on Lisa, who still struggled with correctly handling a sword. Compared to the monstrous elf, she made him far more worried.

Grinning at the nonchalant attitude Nisha did not say anything more and readied her spear again. In this manner, the rest of the warrior lecture passed without incident.

Returning the weapon to the rack and bidding farewell to Unico and Lisa, the elf headed towards the smithies. Still, in a happy mood from the friendly banter and the stories the three shared, she had a sudden idea for an item she could prepare there.

Since Fithe never bothered with even glancing in her general direction after his rude comments, the elf might as well use the remaining time for her purposes.

Along the way, the general idea transformed into a definite plan and Nisha already listed the needed material and thought about the required smithing process.

Arriving ahead of time compared to Conner the elf already heated up the forge and collected some random iron scraps lying around the forge. Thankfully the previous courses always left behind morsels allowing her to save on materials as well as being exempted from being accused of cheating by bringing in her stuff from the outside.

As the first charge started turning red from the heat, Conner arrived too, out of breath from running all the way here.