Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

As for Arthur, he suddenly found himself with nothing to do. Everyone around him was either training, or going on patrol here and there. He decided to take a stroll over the forest, in an attempt to calm his mind and think about an issue in his mind.

The Dorgazire academy.

His journey to the academy was now on his doorsteps, and he knew nearly nothing at all regarding the academy, or the upcoming test.

He had to ask those older mages about it, as any info would be regarded good for him.

He knew that his external disputes wouldn't be allowed inside the walls of the academy, but he had to be careful, though, as if there was a backdoor for this law or something.

Another issue he tried to sort out while walking was regarding his own dragonair powers. This was his own secret, that shouldn't be known for now by anyone. Besides that, he thought about his own unique abilities, like the pets he had, and the ways to upgrade strengths by absorption, elixirs, and meat.

The good thing was that he wouldn't have anymore mages there to strengthen, so the absorption thing could be easily kept as a secret. However, the pet thing was hard to avoid, especially as he would depend on his pets to fight.

Mentioning pets, he had a deal with that scorpion, so he needed to fulfill it before heading to the academy. He decided to do it on the way to the academy, as there would be enough time until the test started.

That made just the elixir making secret remaining. He had to do it in an isolated place, perhaps when he ventured in the forest to do missions for the academy, perhaps if he managed to befriend some masters there, he would ask them for help, in exchange for elixirs.

He knew his own strength would depend in the future on these elixirs, with the diminishing effect of absorption, except if he used five horned monsters or higher.

Just as he was walking in the forest, he heard some noise coming from nearby, like someone stepping, accidently on dried leaves. He knew this place was being patrolled by his mages, so he stopped, turned to face the incoming mages.

"It's you!"

He muttered the moment he saw the face of his unexpected guest. She was Noura, who looked at him with a serious face, with her vigilance being alerted to maximum. "What are you doing here? I thought you would choose to retreat with your mages," he said, with a warm smile on his face, expressing his happiness to see her.

She didn't smile back to him, instead her face became more gloomy as she said:

"I'm here to ask about a few things first."

"Speak up your mind then, and I promise to answer whatever questions you have in mind, provided that they aren't my own secrets," he replied, casually, without any reservation at all.

After all, he wanted to pouch this mage, who would help him a lot inside the academy in the near future.

"I have watched from far away what you did to master Iman, may I ask what it is?" she started asking about the absorption process. If she announced her intention to join him, he would gladly explain, but now she didn't make up her mind. If he told her the details, he had to deal with her, and that was something he didn't aim for right now.

"It's a way to make her much stronger," he simply replied.

"How?" she asked, with some frustration over her face, "I tried to do the same with a monster I killed, but I didn't have any result at all," she added, surprising him for that.

"So, you want to be stronger?" he suddenly asked.

"Yes, very much stronger, far stronger than you can imagine," she said, with a dejected expression over her face.

"If you join me, I will make sure that happens," he said, promising her of the thing she seemed to desperately want.

"No, I doubt you can help me with that," she said, in a tone that made him feel annoyed by her reply, like she was insulting him.

"You don't know all my secrets," he said.

"You mean striking a deal with monsters to fight for you?" she suddenly said, "This isn't a rare case, as there are already many in the academy and outside it who can do it," she said, while a melancholic sad look appeared on her face, "eve he can do it," she said.

He didn't get her exact meaning, but he had some guesses already. "Is your enemy is this strong?" he asked.

"Far powerful than you think he is," she sighed, while taking a deep breath to clear up her mind, "unless you show me a strength that equals him, I can't accept your offer, and will fight to the last mage I have!" She declared the intention of her secret visit to him, and explained why she watched his every action inside his camp.

"How can I be compared to someone I didn't know?" he honestly said, as he didn't know how strong her enemy was.

She seemed to think about his logical remark, before she seemed to make up her mind, "fine, come with me if you want to, that man isn't far away from here."

The thought of having such an enemy nearby him made him startled. This wasn't an enemy he should know nothing about, so he also made up his mind, much faster than her. "Lead the way then," he said.

She then moved at a speed that was much higher than him, which made him quite fall behind her. She was higher in terms of training as a mage than him, but he pushed himself further, trying to cope with her strength.

She didn't decrease her speed at all, like she was satisfied with this single advantage that Arthur couldn't cope with right now. They kept going for hours, passing through the forest, evading many monsters by their current speed.

Arthur was thinking about this enemy, and after the passage of sometime he finally decided to ask her:

"What is the benefit you will get from occupying the whole area like this? What's the deal going on between you and that man?"

"I only know a little, what he just told me," She said, shaking her head, as she added, "he told me he was looking for ruins, a place so old that is forgotten, but it lies here in this area, so he wanted me to control all the region before he searched for it."