A Dragon's Curiosity

The scenery of the training yard disappeared. Where a man with a thin figure clad in a dusty robe and straw sandals looked down at the crowd, an armored demon with silver black gear rose up.

Blood dyed the ground red and tainted air conjured a hellish atmosphere.

Cursed wind gathered around the fiend and made his bulky figure even more threatening.

The dirty green and toxic yellow streams of energy snaked around his arms and legs, ready to strike every moment.

Incarnation of violence, no other description fit him better.

Nisha almost summoned out her [Taurith Short Swords] and prepared to defend herself.

Thankfully, her [Spirit Sight] overlapped the chaos enveloping the training yard with another scene, where student after student succumbed to the pressure and dropped to their knees or on their backs.

This was still much better than the hellscape conjured by the image projected by the [Eternal Warrior].

Unico and Lisa also crumbled down, the pressure folded their legs under them.

The young man from the twin kingdoms held on longer than the blonde girl, but they both had to give in and ended up on their knees and back respectively.

Gritting her teeth, the elf resisted the heavy weight on her body. Admitting defeat in front of overwhelming power was not shameful at all.

As a matter of fact, the [Dragon’s Den] had to concede quite often to their opponents in the early days, when the four dragon siblings had yet to accumulate combat experience and influence among the surrounding areas of influence.

Running when necessary and returning when possible allowed them to survive and turn the tables on the attackers at a later time.

Currently, however, a human with a cultivation so high that the elf could not see through wanted to force her to kneel before him for some reason.

Whether it was her inborn pride, the duty as a member of house Dharnas or a mix of them, Nisha did not want to concede here.

Rousing the forces inside her body, aura frantically circulated to stave off the pressure.

Without being able to see where the force pressing down on her body comes from, the energy circulation only mitigated a small portion, and the ending seemed inevitable.

At the last moment, the [Dragon Force] reacted to the foreign pressure and followed the circulation of her aura.

Similar to a dried out river bed filling with a raging stream of water after a dam broke, Tyne’s image faded away in her eyes and the scenery returned to the training yard.

The dragon breathed out the stifled breath she had held until now.

While describing it made it appear longer than it actually happened, the majority of her fellow students had run out of strength to resist by now and either laid flat on their backs or barely supported themselves on their elbows.

Overall, the vast training yard showed a scene similar to a storm throwing human figures around like sticks, and the shock of those affected happened to be no less as if that really was the cause why they laid on the ground.

The dame sent by the [Adventurer’s Guild] only frowned a little during the sudden display and used a skill to stand tall and upright.

Mr. Oak similarly displayed a profound method to ward off the burden. His breathing sped up and he clenched his teeth, but he withstood the pressure.

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the substitute instructor who showed up earlier.

Only the sturdy stage prevented him from collapsing to the ground, a rather sad testament to his personal cultivation.

And lastly, the two students already on stage had to kneel behind the imposing figure that radiated might and bloodthirstiness in a boundless fashion.

It took a long while to describe the situation, yet in actuality the episode persisted for less than two breaths.

Realizing that she stood out like a nail among all the fallen students, Nisha’s mind went into overdrive to resolve the inconsistency.

Just as the elf was about to drop to the ground like everyone else and play it off like a moment of resistance or sheer dumb luck, the oppressive image of a bloody demon king vanished into thin air like a mirage.

Tyne Pinewood reappeared in place of the grim reaper, still full of dust and clad in a dirty robe.

Originally, he had a hand placed inside his robe to scratch his chest, yet when he checked out the remaining qualified seedlings, he had to take a double take and straightened his back.

When he had agreed to come to the [Royal Academy], Tyne felt annoyed in no small part.

Several of his team mates tricked him into taking on the task, and he had no motivation to give his best.

The warrior had scouted the area of his assignment and the quality of the buildings in advance and added several demands to make the other side reconsider, or at least his job bearable, yet the other side agreed right away and added even more concessions to make him unable to refuse.

From his point of view, Tyne felt like an expensive nanny for the kids who barely learnt to wield their powers.

Adding all of that up, he had felt less than enthusiastic when his task started and he held back nothin at all, testing each class with the full force of his aura.

Surprisingly enough, two young chicks in two different classes barely managed to hold up before this suppression.

That made him realize the reason why the backers behind the academy and contacts in the guild insisted that he had to take up the job.

These two should be young scions from two major noble houses, especially equipped with specialized training and trinkets to bolster their mental defenses.

Since Tyne already agreed to do the job, he squashed the impulse to walk out of the academy and go back to his inn and pretend he was not there when others came looking for him.

As expected, none of the other children managed to withstand his test, but he could not change the content on a whim when he was overseen by the old hag sent by the [Adventurer’s Guild].

He knew Madame Ellison from the time way back when he had started his own career as a warrior, when she was still part of the middle management and sometimes met with the adventurers dispatched for emergency quests.

She might have her own agenda aside from overseeing his choice of acceptable youths, however the strict lady would never allow him to slack off and suddenly lower his standard for the test.

Since he no longer had a way out from this boring task, he resigned himself to do the absolute minimum and then go back to drinking and sleeping off his intoxication before going drinking again.

Honestly, Tyne had half a mind to do it anyway and just run away when the others came looking for him, but apparently his expectations were off target again when he reached the last class on the list of potential candidates.

And quite contrary to the assumption the [Eternal Warrior] held in the beginning and the annoyance from being pulled into the schemes of the noble houses, he somewhat looked forward to the task, seeing that two more candidates appeared in a class mainly composed of common born students and those on a scholarship.

Tyne allowed the dame to set the sequence in which they visited the classes and only listened in passing when the old bat mentioned it.

Overall, the general level of aura cultivation fell along with the decline in quality gear, although the students had yet to drift apart in poise and bearing.

Still, the man had seen several generations of nobles and commoners walking through the gates of the guild and the taverns he usually hung out at, so he could quite confidently declare that he learned to estimate pretty well who to avoid.

As for the elf kid and the boy one last push away from collapsing to the ground, Tyne acknowledged that they looked the commoner part at least.

Of course, the elf had a completely illogical cultivation strength, while the boy should have collapsed long ago, but the irregularities were the spice that would make the assignment interesting.

“Those two will do. Madame Ellison, I will leave it to you to apply for the appropriate amount of resources.

Since the [Adventurer’s Guild] promised to sponsor half of the expenditures, please go back first and report that four candidates will attend the training.

I will go ahead first and start with some simple exercises.”

Without giving the lady a chance to reply, the warrior revolved his aura around his body.

Nisha did not quite see it with her [Spirit Sight], only the ambient energy drawing close to the sudden streams appearing in the air.

Conversely, her normal sight showed more for once.

Green and yellow wind gathered and changed into an extension for Tyne’s arms.

Seeing the wind power come for her, the elf girl reached for her contracted beast, Accalia, and compressed her voice into a thin string right into the wolf’s ears.

“Go with Unico and Lisa and make sure they stay safe, I have to stay here for a while, it seems.”

The wolf whimpered in response but instinctively understood that she had no power to influence the current situation from the immense residual suppression lingering in the air.

Despite having a great resistance thanks to being contracted to a dragon, that bloody image petrified the wolf earlier with absolute certainty.

Accalia pondered whether or not she had the capability to help the elf resist that dreadful man and agreed to look after the two humans instead.

Nisha smiled bitterly at how easily Little Lia scampered off and laid next to her friends.

Most of the students still sat on the ground where they fell earlier and blankly watched as the wind carried two of their own away.

Rather than an invisible force, the greenish aura acted more like ropes and yanked the duo, along with the two other successful candidates, along the disappearing back of the [Eternal Warrior] who headed off the training yard.

The dragon understood that going against a supremely powerful opponent with her current strength would raise more questions than going along for now and getting a read on the coming events.

Furthermore, the one abducting the students happened to be a famous adventurer as well, raising even more doubts if she tried to run away.

Therefore, Nisha resigned herself to act calm and collected for the time being. Perhaps getting selected for the joint program might have attractive advantages for her, too.

Hence, only the boy selected together with her struggled in the green bindings while the two selected before them only appeared rather startled and remained calm as well.

Similar to a bird freed from his cage, Tyne Pinewood swept through the academy grounds toward his target.

He already knew the layout from his previous visits and the academy also promised him one of the advanced training environments for his personal use as long as he agreed to the task, hence the man certainly did not reserve himself when he made his pick.

Kicking open the enchanted door with practised ease, Tyne tossed the kids on an open field of grass and grandly ignored the broken lock and frame behind him.

The elf got her bearings and dusted off her clothes, taking a look at her surroundings.

Apart from the field of grass in the front half of the yard, a crystal clear stream of water separated the second half.

Two miniature bridges near the walls on either side of the field connected a long dirt path running in a big circle.

In the latter part, the open field gave way to a grand bamboo forest, with silvery black lustre covering each stalk.

Nisha recognized the species, a bamboo species called [Ironstalk Bamboo], a second tier material that sometimes appeared on the market in Leandar.

After maturing and growing to the limit, the man high plant sometimes turned into [Steelspike Bamboo], a material that barely reached third tier.

Craftsmen often used the fibres to wrap the handles of weapons or split it into small strips and soaked them into third rank spring water to soften it, before tying together different weapon parts.

When the bamboo dried out and hardened, the assembled weapon no longer feared neither fire or water and acted like a complete unit.

As a dragon growing up in the Wilderness, she appreciated the natural beauty of the place and returned her gaze towards the [Eternal Warrior] and her fellow abducted students, who similarly got their bearings back and looked towards Tyne for an explanation.