A Dragon's Curiosity

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“It’s just not fair! I traded for the skill, so why is my contracted beast faster than me in comprehending it? I haven’t even grasped the basics yet and Eisen can already form a basic control seal. How is that acceptable?”

Nisha glared at the floating armor next to her.

Since the elemental resided in her [Inner Space] most of the time, it either floated among the collection of treasure in the small brook that now existed as part of a large island surrounded by a deep body of water or it followed the dragon when she dealt with new items in various parts of the endless lands.

At most, it would bath in one of the elemental springs hidden in the [Crystal Cave], when the elf went to the academy or the dungeon.

However, the new field with the seeds of knowledge happened to be next to the treasure lands and Eisen learned the method to activate them by watching its mistress.

In no time at all, the contracted beast eagerly studied the methods left behind by the goddess.

Bael spent the rest of the night giving the elf pointers anyway, so she extended her tutelage to the armored spirit as well.

Eisen showed remarkable talent when it came to forming the seal needed to control a golem, it already finished crafting a initial form.

With some tests and a suitable target to truly fit the spell to itself, the elemental might be faster in creating a golem under its control than its master.

Nisha had struggled with the other skill centred around a Seal before, she had obtained it from the library attached to the guild.

Forming a spell sounded easier than it was most of the time.

Circulating mana according to the recorded path only made it possible to draw a faint outline outside of her mind, the actual structure and intent behind the golem seal eluded the dragon so far.

“Don’t attempt to force your way through, a spell is similar to a delicate network of roots.

You cannot grow them in one attempt, it needs time to connect the important sources of strength with the core principle of turning energy into useable power by the main body.

Simulate the pattern in your mind and start over if you cannot make it work.

Once you find a suitable method for yourself, it’s only a matter of fine tuning the details.

Without a suitable foundation, the strongest tree cannot thrive.”

Why are you using nature collations to give me guidance anyway? I get that I look like an elf right now, but that does not mean I can perceive nature like one, or like a tree goddess, too.

Inwardly, the young lady grumbled and collapsed another half finished control seal.

She agreed with the green haired deity that the trade was worthwhile, not only for the different methods suitable for different realms, but also by the potential workforce available to her once she masters any of the seeds of knowledge.

Eisen grasping one of such methods should be a happy occasion, but it irked the dragon to be bested in a subject by one of her contracted beasts.

She was used to being the best, and most disciplines came easy to her.

For example, few fellow students had the upper hand against her in martial or magical disciplines, and despite falling back to the peak of the third rank in both, Nisha speculated that her actual battle power outranked her previous state.

Furthermore, the [Dragon Force] coursing through her frame still had to come into play, for now it perfected her physique and supplemented her spirit in passive ways.

Since it was by name a power derived from the third realm of cultivation, the elf only had the power to move a tiny wisp of the complete power, yet that small amount was enough to bring about massive changes.

She longed to throw aside the troublesome matter of forming a seal and concentrate on exploring the possibilities resulting from completing that seed grown from Bael’s experiments, however the goddess had accepted to guide her only for the rest of the night.

Attempting to explore the skill by herself would take much longer, similar to blindly stumbling through a dark room, hence the dragon preserved.

After all, Nisha had made a good amount of progress.

From knowing literally nothing at all about golems, the way to craft them, and the way to control them for either mundane tasks or as frontliners in a fight, now she had the required knowledge to at least pass as an advanced apprentice or somewhat new practitioner.

If the elf managed to form the seal needed to control one of them, it would signal that she had the right to call herself a [Golemancer], a rare branch of the magician path which apparently died out in Thurgau due to the high technical and magical skill required.

Or rather, the dragon had never met any adventurers that relied on golems following them around and the [Royal Academy] offered no course to teach the students about it.

Naturally, Nisha did not aspire to pursue this path to compensate for a lack of personal combat power nor did she fear for her own safety.

Hence, the profession would at most safe as a side path to speed up menial labor.

The elf had quickly grasped the advantages praised by the green haired goddess, the materials required to build a golem practically grew on their own in her [Inner World], and the time investment now to learn the method required to make them would repay itself through an army of workers that had no need for sleep or food or wages.

Although it was likely that delicate tasks like smithing or inscribing an array on an item were beyond the crude and simple form of a golem, it would already free up a lot of Nisha’s time with all the simple tasks performed on a daily basis were taken care of by her servants created through magic.

“You can say that because it’s not hard for you to do it, nor do your familiars overtake you in a field of study you just started.

What am I supposed to do if Eisen can master the seal before me?

Do I have to ask a mute floating spirit to teach me then?”

Nisha complained once more to Gabriel, who already prepared to go back and meet up with her sister, after resolving the problem that plagued her in an unexpected manner and teaching the little one a bit.

Naturally, the elf did not really denounce her contracted elemental for not speaking or learning faster than her in this discipline, she only vented her feelings in a dramatic manner.

At most, she would not feed the floating armor delicious stuff once the dragon found out what food elementals preferred.

“It looks like you’re thinking about something scary. You almost learnt the complete skill in half a night and are complaining that someone else is even more talented than you.

If you tell that to any magician aiming to learn a new spell anywhere on the continent, they might faint from anger.

Anyway, I’ll probably say goodbye for real now and go back to my place soon, the sun will rise soon and I head that our Little One is properly attending the academy like a good elf and not playing hooky like a mischievous black dragon.

While hard to imagine, it does seem effective, given that you are still close in level to your other dragon siblings even after resetting your aura and mana once.”

Bael’s comment was thrown like an off hand blow, but Nisha acknowledged it as a small favor.

Through their servants Weiss and Hayze, the twin goddesses kept an eye on the [Dragon’s Den] and occasionally transmitted an update on the three dragons living there to keep Nisha’s mind at peace.

Since dragon species monsters and beasts usually took a long time to grow up and passively increased their aura and mana mastery even while sleeping, it seemed like the other three siblings also often went out and fought to keep up with their big sister that explored the outside world.

Sometimes, their level would exceed hers after changing into the form of an elf, but Nisha’s phenomenal rank up speed had them stressed out whenever they heard another one of her exploits and level ups.

A messenger capable of manipulating space made sending a message or report very easy after all.

She really missed her dragon siblings, fortunately the academy had a break at the end of the term, and the elf planned to make a trip back into the lodge in the hunting grounds owned by Eldrin to see them.

Similarly, the other children in her class had also made plans to either visit their hometowns if they were from a city or town outside of Thurgau or go out for a trip if they lived in the capital.

“It must be the constant meditation and the frequent exercise that helps me in growing faster.

I learned a bit from a manual called [Imperial Swordplay] and my teacher at the academy is always showing us how to regulate our breathing or concentrate our minds during meditation, that probably shows results now that I am getting the hang of it.

There’s still a lot I have to learn though, I only remembered the motions for the sword skill and advanced meditation techniques are hard to come by.

Speaking of it, I’m not really getting the feeling for the [Imperial Swordplay] either, even when practicing it with real soldiers.

But magic and martial arts are different, right from the ground up. Aura feels more alive when I use it, it powers my body while mana is more of an indistinct cool source that can be used to power spells.

Honestly speaking, I enjoy using my bow more than the sword, though that might just be the familiarity I have with using it too.”

Seeing that their lesson more or less ended by now and Bael had no further tips to give her regarding the [Golem Creation] technique, Nisha complained and acted spoiled.

Generally, most disciplines and general skills came to her quite easily, often surprising her teachers.

Only special cases stubbornly resisted her attempts to grasp them, such as sewing or math.

Even a goddess could not change that, and the dragon did not expect a miracle solution either.

Contrary to those expectations, the green haired beauty laughed once before going back into lecture mode.

“It’s not wrong when you say that mana and aura are fundamentally two different systems, but they have a lot more in common than you think.

In regards to that [Imperial Swordplay], I might have not heard of that exact version, yet there is not that much difference for aura manuals when they teach more than a single skill.

Instead of looking at them like a bundle of skills with a shared origin, it’s more apt to say that the goal of a skillset like that is to introduce a certain rule to the user.

Similar to the [Dragon Force] you obtained, the execution is done through the application on a medium rather than acting through itself alone.”

The deity summoned a vine growing nearby and reshaped it into a small floating sword.

Dancing through the air, it executed all kinds of sweeps and stabs, fighting against invisible opponents.

And although the actions did not come from the [Imperial Swordplay], they had a peculiar rhythm that was especially pleasing to the eyes.

“Strictly speaking, most spells and skills that exist derive their power from the existing laws behind the elements they come from.

A [Fireball] spell of the lowest level still has a trace amount of explosion and burning heat concepts mixed in, although it’s not quite enough to learn about the source laws only by casting only low level spells.

Furthermore, the real components hold so little laws, it is more appropriate to say that it’s not a real law either, more like a rule observed from the concept of a law.

Concepts, rules, laws and such denominations mark different insights in the pure essence of an element, and skills and spells are a way to interact with reality through the power behind them.

Imagine an archer that uses a skill called [Arrow of the Phoenix Descent].

Like a [Fireball] spell, there is a principle involved that changes a regular arrow into a move that imitates a real phoenix beast plunging on prey and killing them.

Maybe the creator of the skill observed a real beast hunting that way and as a result inspired him to recreate that feeling with his arrow.

The phoenix likely used part of their inborn understanding towards fire laws and generated a concept in the observers mind.

Imbuing that limited insight into a skill, other people can learn that rule when they execute the skill.

Rather than looking for inspiration and a spark of genius, the rule can imitate the concept towards a law well enough to make it useable by anyone that trains long enough.

[Imperial Swordplay] is not only about going through the motions and learning them by heart, but to understand the underlying rule first and changing your movements to suit the rule instead.

Then your fighting prowess is no longer at the level of imitating someone else, but really alive!”