A Dragon's Curiosity

Nisha’s schedule over the next quarter moon settled into a fairly ordinary routine.

During the morning, the elf attended the warrior class and practiced her sword forms together with the other kids.

Unico and Lisa continued to team up with her and the three deepened their friendship by talking to each other between each exercise.

The blonde girl really bloomed under the attention paid to her by her two new friends and smiled much more frequently, while Unico held his slightly reserved and polite demeanor.

Conner displayed remarkable ability when working with metal of any kind, often retelling stories about his father and their smithy when the two practiced blacksmithing.

Mr. Oak shunned him by association with the elf he loathed, but the two of them were happy enough to work and practice by themselves.

Finally, Alexander still often challenged Nisha to matches with the [Duel Board], even though he knew that he was hardly a qualified opponent for the monstrous mana hidden in the young woman’s slender frame.

No one threatened her seat as the King of the class, giving the dragon a steady income of merit points to exchange for items should she need to do so.

The special class under [Eternal Warrior] Tyne Pinewood had yet to reconvene, putting off the meeting between Nisha and the noble participants.

She somewhat missed Aaren though, who had the least strength yet struggled the most to make the best out of the chance he was given.

Nevertheless, the dragon also made contact with other classmates, albeit in limited nature thanks to the isolation in the smithing class.

She at least knew the names of all the pupils in the same classes as her and took care to greet them whenever she saw them between classes or outside of the [Royal Academy].

Most reciprocated the small gestures and greetings, while a minority looked at her with caution or annoyance.

Her late afternoons were split between visiting Miss Thana at the temple, learning about the ceremony of brewing tea and enjoying it properly, as well as trips to the Navis Terram outside the walls of the city, asking Cecilia Hale to teach her more about the [Imperial Swordplay].

The elf also visited the [Red Night Palace] one time secretly, to the great delight of Velvet.

Eager to make a new friend, the hostess whisked her away to her room on the second story and treated the girl like a doll, styling her hair in different ways and teaching her the basics of applying makeup.

Nisha also enjoyed the transformation she went through every time the older girl brought out another set of colours and powders.

And at last, the beginning of a new quarter moon invoked a new adventure.

On the Day of Fire, Nisha and the warrior class boarded the coaches towards the villages around the capital again, ready to go on another excursion.

The carriage owned by the academy brought Nisha, her friends and an excited Accalia to a minor village on the outskirts of the area under direct control of the capital.

Flowing fields of wheat surrounded the town called Rustmere, where the target for their outing was reported by scared farners.

A colony of [Yellow Banded Loam Monsters] developed near their dwellings, going unnoticed long enough for their population to explode and require the intervention of a larger group of adventurers, which the Academy picked up as a training mission for their students.

The monster in question appeared similar to six legged toads, with a dark yellow stripe running from the crown of their heads to the end of their tails.

Overall, these monsters were quite agile and turned aggressive quite fast when they sensed an intruder in their territory.

And as earth element creatures, the [Yellow Banded Loam Monsters] overturned the fields in their way when they expanded near the village, leading to their clash with the humans.

Left unchecked, it would only take them about one or two moons to devastate the area belonging to Rustmere, leaving behind chaotic wastelands in their wake.

Farmers hated these monsters with a passion.

Lisa was in an excellent mood when the trio left the assembling place of the Academy.

During the warrior lessons and the past outing, many small groups of friends gathered together and formed their own teams, eager to promote their strength together.

This time as well, the students grouped together and set off to hunt as many [Yellow Banded Loam Monsters] as possible, with the teachers and instructors roaming the area and guarding against accidents.

Unico carried a single dagger as usual, while Nisha took out a [Taurith Short Sword] from the pair she owned.

Showing off her advance in aura cultivation, Lisa hefted a round shield and thin sword while she jumped on rocks next to the trail in the small forest that constituted the Wilderness on the plains around Leandar.

Their combat attire included soft leather pants and coats for the girls, while the young man with the purple hued skin donned the traditional robes from the Twin Kingdoms in the south east.

Due to the humid and hot temperature caused by the numerous hot springs, giving birth to tropical forests and wet marshlands, man and woman alike preferred the airy and thin robes over trousers and pants.

Next to the trio, Little Lia competed with Lisa and often stepped on empty air thanks to her wind aura skills to jump higher and farther than the human girl.

“You look like you are having much more fun than usual. Did something good happen?”

Nisha easily kept the pace while walking, due to having a higher cultivation.

The young man next to them subtly employed a movement skill, which made him just as fast as a running second rank warrior and a peak third rank dragon walking along despite looking leisurely and relaxed.

Using her [Spirit Sight], she observed how the aura moved inside of his legs, covered by his robe, and the way Unico empowered his limbs to release short, yet explosive bursts of energy to propel himself forward.

It differed from Nisha’s way of detonating aura packets outside of her body on the ground during the exercises in the special warrior class and served as an example to improve her own method.

“Ah, how did you guess? It’s nothing big though, I will tell you guys later.

It’s such a nice day, I’m glad we managed to go on a trip and are not stuck in the academy inside a small yard.”

Never ceasing to run back and forth, Lisa happily chirped and sent small animals running deeper into the forest with her antics.

Nisha smiled and did not further question her about the surprise, scanning the surrounding area instead.

[Yellow Banded Loam Monsters] mostly had strength around the mid to late second aura rank, with a few leader types occasionally breaking through to the third rank.

Since the infestation near Rustmere was still in the early stages and had occurred not too long ago, the Academy was not worried about a large number of third rank monsters being around and the teachers accompanying the trip were enough to prevent any serious injuries among the students.

“Indeed, the scenery is more likeable than a sea of stone buildings. I don’t really enjoy staying inside a big tomb every day.”

In stark contrast to the architecture of the Terus Empire and Leandar, the Twin Kingdoms had comparatively fewer quarries and higher temperatures all turn around.

Hence, most if not all buildings were made of paper and wood.

As a foreigner to the sturdy stone and mortar constructions in the academy, Unico expressed his disdain for them.

“I think you are making a judgement too fast.

Even though stone buildings can indeed get damp sometimes and resemble a mausoleum if you look at them that way, there are also advantages to their architecture style.

When they are built properly, stone buildings can keep out the heat in summer quite well, and the heat retains for a long time when heated during winter.

Since it proved itself as the dominant style here in Leandar, there naturally has to be something about it that has merit.”

Nisha retorted with certainty, she had discovered a scroll discussing the architectural differences between the major countries on the continent in the general section of the Great Library a while ago.

One of her great joys happened to be reading the random and specialized books about marginal topics, which often served no direct support for handicrafts such as forging or sewing, or offered advantages for mana and aura cultivation.

Still, these disconnected pieces of knowledge sometimes came in handy, just like now.

“I haven’t got the slightest clue what you guys are talking about.”

Staring at the other two, Lisa gave them a stare that was entirely in line with her incomprehension how the topic shifted to buildings all of a sudden when they were looking for [Yellow Banded Loam Monsters].

“My bad. It’s not nice to disparage the taste of the host while being a guest in your fine country.”

Disengaging from a potential argument about the pros and cons of stone and paper, the youth with the purple hue on his skin apologized in advance and dropped the issue altogether.

“There’s a great variety in styles all over the continent. Leandar prefers wood and stone materials in equal proportions, while the Terus Empire uses stone exclusively.

And the elves scattered in big and small cities in the Wilderness use pelts, plant magic and wild grasses to mold their homes out of living trees.

Dwarves are not often seen, so other than the fact that they fashion their furniture almost exclusively out of iron, not much is known of their architecture.”

The elf shared some more of the knowledge she learned in the library, not to spark another argument, but rather to illustrate the difference in other places.

Just when they were looking for a new issue to talk about, the dragon was alarmed by Little Lia through their contract.

“Incoming!”

With Nisha’s warning, Unico stopped rushing forward with his movement skill and readied his dagger, scanning the nearby undergrowth for signs of monster activity.

Lisa similarly regrouped with her team and readied her shield to block the charge of an attacker.

True to the elf’s familiar warning a group of four [Yellow Banded Loam Monsters] broke through the shrubs to their right and spotted the adventurers.

For a brief moment, both sides kept their silence and sized each other up.

For monsters, the toad-like creatures were not too huge.

At the size of half an adult human, their threat largely came from their huge numbers rather than individual fighting capability.

Recognizing the trio before them as intruders in their territory, the monsters roared loudly and broke into a charge.

Standing in front of her team, Lisa did her best to reciprocate with a battle shout of her own while the round shield on her arm glowed with aura, a telltale sign of the blonde girl invoking a skill, ready and waiting for impact.

The [Yellow Banded Loam Monster] at the front crashed into the girl, yet the shield imbued with the skill withstood the clash and sent the creature staggering backward into its companions.

Due to their frog-like form, the monsters did not have sharp claws or pointed teeth to tear into their prey, their main form of damage relied on charging attacks, battering their bodies against that of their opponents.

Thanks to their steady contact with earth element aura from digging through the ground, their bodies' hardness rivaled a blunt weapon.

Unfortunately, Lisa’s shield parried the first attacker perfectly and threw it into the path of its friends, forcing them to crash into each other.

While the first charge was broken and the [Yellow Banded Loam Monsters] were confused and staggering around, Nisha and Unico sprung into action.