A Dragon's Curiosity

As a matter of fact, Tyne Pinewood had considered asking his friend, who usually carried out the joint training at the academy, for advice regarding the most suitable training methods and ways to deal with headstrong young nobles and commoners.

The divide between social strata had been established for quite some time now, and only recently did the classification of servants change from slaves and owned livestock to independent citizens.

Naturally, the past students had biases against each other as well, with noble families meddling to obtain the greatest advantage for their own descendants.

According to the experiences from past graduates, the team member advised Tyne to treat all of them equally, placing emphasis on acknowledging the different origins between them and gradually allow them to build friendships and similar bonds during the training.

Unfortunately, the first thing the noble girl from House Silverwood accomplished had to be enraging the [Eternal Warrior].

He genuinely admired the health benefits that originated from regular training via running.

In the past, the now thin and lithe man had had quite the bulk, both from regularly feasting and drinking, and fighting in the Dungeon.

Faced with a pressing reason to live healthier, the warrior had began to run after getting some advice from a professional trainer at the [Adventurer’s Guild].

Not only did he end up losing almost all the excess fat on his body, his health condition turned for the better, his muscles grew more defined and compact, and most importantly, his fighting style underwent a complete change, from a bulky tank and frontliner to an agile and mobile warrior capable of dancing on the edge of death.

Disrespecting his authority or refusing to do the assignments he gave them, Tyne hardly cared about either.

Running, on the other hand, was similar to the reverse scale of a dragon.

Since the noble youth dared to touch it, the otherwise easy going and lazy instructor of their got ready to unleash a truly heaven defying and hellish training routine on them as revenge.

“Remember, you need to complete the exercise I assign you before you can get a new one.

Whether it’s running away, refusing to do it, or asking others to intervene, none of that works before my authority as a specially invited and esteemed teacher.”

Tyne meant what he said. His fame had long since spread to all layers of Leandar’s society, and the high noble families also had to give him face.

A casual evaluation from the [Eternal Warrior] held enough clout to make them give up on nurturing a particular descendant.

Through side branches and attached families, countless talents rose every decade, not to mention that there were barely enough resources to go around in the first place.

While not completely giving up on them, the position of these carefully selected two students would fall from heaven to hell, ruining any chances they had to become part of the leadership or even the head of the Dukedoms in the future.

He retreated a few steps and raised his wrists until they were at the same height as his shoulders.

Concentrating for a few breaths, Tyne gave a loud shout and the surrounding energy stirred restlessly.

Nisha might not be able to directly peer through his cultivation, yet the ambient upheaval told the dragon enough about his unfathomable strength.

“Lend me the strength of the wind! Condense and appear! Zephyr’s Band! Descend!”

Chanting an incantation similar to the spells used by mages, the energy concentration around his arms grew strong enough to be visible to the naked eye.

For the other three students that had no [Spirit Sight], this was the first time they came into contact with aura or mana condensed into substance.

Together with the wind that picked up again, strand after strand of wind conguluated into a pair of delicate golden and jade green bracelets.

Divine runes coiled around the rather fragile rings, diffusing a sacred and noble atmosphere, which in turn complemented the appearance into an immortal and indestructible image at the same time.

Satisfied with his [Manifestation], Tyne Pinewood spat out a murky breath.

Summoning them looked easy enough, but it took a significant amount of aura out of his reserves.

“As future knights and warriors of the kingdom, you will sooner or later come into contact with the [Manifestation] ability.

Sorcerers and magicians have their [Inner Space], which relies on chance and deals with with constructing an internal space, while aura cultivators have the same small chance to understand and obtain a [Manifestation].

Some people researching these uniform skills have proposed that the two abilities are swapped around between mana and aura practitioners, since it allows fighters to summon equipment magically, while the actual spellcasters open a space and more or less store physical objects instead.

Regardless whether it is true or not, [Manifestation] behaves the same for all of the lucky fellows who obtain a piece of equipment.

The difference, just like the qualities of [Inner Spaces], which vary by size and utility, comes with the summoned armors and weapons.”

As he spoke, the [Eternal Warrior] came back in front of the four students and displayed the previous casual and lazy attitude.

His technical explanation left a puzzled look on the elfs and commoners face, while the two noble youths nodded along.

“Although the chance for a warrior to comprehend and understand the way to manifest their own equipment is quite low, the outcome is not guaranteed to be favorable, too.

The most obvious benefit should be that the manifested gear is on the same rank as the user.

Aside from the rank, the quality is similar to crafted items for most [Manifestations], around the lowest masterwork mark.

While that’s plenty amazing for almost all fighters, those with money and connection can obtain masterwork gear quite easily.

True benefits only start to show up once the [Manifestation] surpasses that. As mentioned before, there are several scholars and martial fanatics studying this ability.

Even though they have different opinions and many disagree with each other, the general consensus says the summoned items are replicas from powerful and legendary equipment from the past and far off places.

Combining the aura supplied by the user and an archetype of the weapon to be summoned, weapons and armors from past ages can reappear in the world.”

All four students listened with rapt attention and the two nobles put away their disdain for the time being.

They had learned some of this before as part of their education as the descendants of major influences, but none of their teachers ever went this in depth when explaining the topic.

Nisha increasingly felt familiar with the [Manifestation] described to her, she only failed to pinpoint where exactly the dragon had heard of it or seen it before.

“One of the supporting arguments for that theory stems from the fact that those who have taken the initial threshold and obtained their first piece of summoned gear, the subsequent difficulty is not as harsh as they succeeded once already.

The probability to obtain a related gear from a series or famous line is also quite high.

Now that you have some understanding of the general information on [Manifestation], allow me to explain why I told you this in the first place.

Take a look at my bracelets, they’re called Zephyr’s Band, and according to the [Seven Stars Temple], it’s a replica of the items worn by the wind god Zephyr himself.

It’s also the only [Manifestation] I can call upon currently.”

He took off the bracelets from his arms and casually tossed them in the air.

Instead of dropping to the ground like a stone, the two golden green circlets floated gently around him like loyal subordinates.

“I have not had only a single available summon in the past, rather than that, a great axe, two gauntlets and a helmet from a famous elven saint were summoned by me in combat.

Just like magicians who can refine their [Inner Space] and widen the area it occupies, my gear went through a qualitative leap when I gained the chance to understand my fourth item instead.

The combined might and quality combined into a single minor piece of equipment worn by the wind god Zephyr.”

Snapping his fingers, the two floating bands returned to his wrist and continued to radiate divine presence.

Especially after listening to their origin, Nisha quite agreed with the opinion from the researchers, whether it’s a replica or the original item itself, these bracelets should come from a sacred origin.

“Since you agreed to follow my arrangements, I’ll now give you individual tasks.

Tell me your names first, so I can tell who is who.”

From the unnecessarily detailed explanation and display of his [Manifestation], the dragon suspected something bad was about to happen, yet she did not warn the other students.

After all, Nisha had no obligation to do so and risk herself in the process, infuriating their exxentric teacher further.

“Grace Silverwood.”

“Kian Ravenstone.”

“Nisha.”

“Aaren.”

The noble girl and her cousin confidently stated their names, proud that their backing influenced a famous man such as the [Eternal Warrior] to some degree, although he disguised it as sounding harsh in their opinion.

Upon some consideration, the elf only gave her first name, whether or not she was connected to a Duke household had no relation to her stay at the [Royal Academy] and might leave a bad impression on Tyne.

The last name only barely sounded out, Aaren had no last name, denoting his status as a commoner who accepted a scholarship to attend this place.

Encountering a celebrity and high nobles scared him more than facing a horde of monsters, making him seem timid and shy.

“Alright, Aaren, you need to run five rounds along the track, see me then and you can leave afterwards.

Nisha, same conditions, you need to do twenty rounds though.”

Looking at the two fools besides them who still had running assigned as their task, Grace poked Kian’s side and sneered together with him.

“Since you two are left, I will certainly give you an objective fitting of your status.

It’s quite easy, too.

All you need to do is leave this courtyard with your own strength, then you can go home.”

The duo’s sneer deteriorated into a frown in the blink of an eye, this was the same as kicking them out.

Had the [Eternal Warrior] not explained so much and threatened them because he accepted them as students?

Kian, the more hotblooded noble descendant, prepared to raise his objections and stepped forward.

Before he could say anything though, the [Zephyr’s Band] around Tyne’s wrists shone with resplendent light.

Layer upon layer of wind energy condensed around the four students shoulders and ankles.

Instead of a physical appearance, dense wind aura circulated around their frames and weighed them down.

The Silverwood and Ravenstone progeny directly fell to the ground where they stood, the intensity of their restriction denser and much more intense than the ones around Nisha and Aaren, who stumbled around briefly before he regained his balance.

Only Nisha remained as stable as a mountain and quietly observed the wind aura chaining them down.

“The ability of my [Manifestation] is rather suitable for training, each of you has the same difficulty according to the rank of aura cultivation you reached so far.

Since some of you do not appreciate running, the training has changed slightly and instead of gradually working off your energy on the course by running, you only need to overcome it all at once and walk out.

For the rest, the more effort you put in, the faster will your aura deplete.

Once you empty your reserves, the restriction will naturally affect you less and you can leave earlier.

Okay, start now and I’ll take a nap over there, tell me when you’re done.”

With such a closing sentence, Tyne Pinewood left two kids struggling on the ground and two dumbfounded students behind and closed his eyes as soon as he reached his chair and sat down.