Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

As for the aim of the competition, some claimed it was to slain a mythical creature inside, and others claimed it was regarding a conflicted territory. Arthur knew all these were speculations, so he didn't give them any heed at all.

After half an hour, he finally managed to reach the gate, where he found another crowd lining in one hundred long lines waiting for their order. "Let's wait then," Arthur helplessly shook his head as he stood in the shortest line with Iman, who said:

"Do you think you can compete fairly with all these?"

"What do you mean by fairly?"

"All these mages had many teams belonging to the great clans and guilds. Do you think they don't know the aim of this competition already?"

Arthur went into silence, as he had to admit this was a very true fact. the teams coming from these grand clans and guilds already had the advantage over rogue mages like him. he just sighed, as he replied:

"What can I do then?"

"Simple, I will go inside and try to find your master, and ask her about this little piece of help."

"Really?!" Arthur turned to look at her, before he felt he just fell deeply into her trap. "What do you want in exchange for that?" he asked.

"It's nothing, just five more potions of the type you once gave me before," she chuckled, as she had great improvement since the day she took his potion, "don't forget you still owe me a permanent cure," she playfully added.

"Sigh," he didn't argue with her, as he knew it was desperate arguing with a woman, especially a beauty of her refined caliber. He simple took out five potions and gave them to her, as he said:

"Don't take them in one go, and don't do it in public."

"I know, don't worry, no one else will see my body after you," she winked in a very playful tone while saying her flirting answer, making him mistook her for Lendy. She stored the potions hurriedly into her ring, like they were a priceless treasure, and then she said:

"Give me some of your bird's wings."

He handed her fifty bird's wings, as he didn't know how long he would stay inside that pocket world, and thus it would be great, having an extra help from the outside world.

They both then stood there for another hour, before their turn had come. They didn't know why all of these mages took all this long time already, however when Arthur and Iman reached the mage responsible for registering them, they instantly understood everything.

There was a test of talents there, showing off your current strength and your potential talents, something that would take quite some time already.

"State your name, your team name, your clan name, and the number of mages in your team."

The mage routinely said the moment Arthur and Iman stepped in front of him.

"The name is Arthur, my team name is the Golden Lion, my clan's name is the Golden Lion clan, and I have one hundred mage inside my team."

Arthur replied, and the mage had a piece of paper behind him where everything he said was written there at once. "Go ahead and put your hand on the orb, put both of them tightly on it and wait as long as you can hold."

The mage then pointed towards one large crystal made of pure pink color. Arthur was about to head there, when Iman suddenly said:

"Excuse me, I'm here to admit for the master position in the academy."

The mage raised his head, for the first time, and glanced at her for a moment, before saying in warm welcoming words:

"Sure, sure, you can go directly into the academy and there someone will come and guide you afterwards."

"Thanks," she replied, before winking to Arthur as she bypassed him. He smiled back, as he went towards the crystal and put both his hands over it and waited.

The mage responsible for the test was another one, and he was already busy examining a hundred more of these crystals, so Arthur just waited patiently, while he tried to understand how this crystal worked.

The mages next to him were like him, waiting for the tester to come and activate the crystal. Arthur observed the distant mages, who were now being tested.

The crystal flashed with dim light first, then bright light later on, before one mage after another retreated away from it, like it was a very hot piece of metal. The tester would then observe the crystal keenly before writing something in his sheet of paper, and then make the mages go to the next test.

'So, I have to withstand the energy influx from this crystal then?' Arthur muttered, as he knew it wasn't a very complicated test, however he glanced again at his crystal, trying to figure out how this crystal emitted such immense energy.

The crystal was pure cold, with nothing there to be felt from it. if he passes by it in the forest, he would never think it had such an extraordinary ability.

Arthur knew there must be a trick somewhere, but he couldn't ascertain it. it didn't take long for the tester to come towards his group of ten mages, as he just patted with his fingers over the crystal of each one, making it start to work.

"Try to hold as long as you can," the tester repeated the same words which he said thousands of times already. Arthur started to feel some energy trying to penetrate his skin, and it felt quite offensive towards him.

As a reflex, he started to resist it, using his own energy to do so. Just as his energy clashed with this hostile one, a great unpleasant feeling started to erupt there, plus something else.

'Interesting! This energy isn't that harmful to me after all!'

The moment the first clash erupted between the two energies, Arthur felt the change of his energy after this clash, as it felt slightly purer, and the energy that seemed hostile ended up being absorbed by his energy.

'So the test is tricky after all! My energy seemed to be very superior to this kind of energy, and thus I shouldn't antagonize it, instead I should welcome it.'

His own thoughts led to a drastic change in his strategy, as he kept rotating his energy, but didn't send it towards his palms, instead he gracefully welcomed the hostile energy, withstanding the first unpleasant reaction between it and his own, before he started to enjoy the benefits of absorbing this energy.

Suddenly the rejection he had and the friction heat at his palms miraculously vanished. Arthur was closing his eyes to concentrate on these things, so he didn't see what unfolded outside him.

The moment he decided to absorb the energy, not reject it, the orb started to change color at once, showing dim red, bright red, dark red, then finally black color. The face of the tester immediately changed, and everyone around Arthur felt a great wave of energy hitting their bodies, literally knocking them off the ground, driving them away from the orbs, making them fail the test.

This scene had succeeded in attracting the attention of everyone, and some mages started to come from inside the slightly opened door of the academy to witness that.

"It's another prodigy! This year is destined to be unique!" one of the mages coming from the inside muttered.

"But this one is slightly different from the others, as this is the first black colored talent we had this year," another one replied, as he observed the reaction of the orb to Arthur's energy.

"Should we increase the energy now?" a third one asked.

"Sure, they all have to fail this test, even if they are prodigies," their highest in rank mage replied, as he didn't put these young prodigies into his eyes.

After all he hailed from one of the mightiest clans, and he was currently the head of this test. He only saw his clansmen, and no one else.

Arthur wasn't aware of any of this, as he was enjoying the blessing coming from this energy to his own. After a while, he started to feel the effects of this exchange getting lower, as if the energy was about to lose its effects on him.

'Sigh, it's a given the lower you are, the more benefits you get when eating heavenly meat.'

Arthur muttered to himself, as he was sure his gains would stop soon. Just as he inwardly shook his head in regret, the energy entering his body showed a dramatic change all of sudden, as if another source of energy was linked to his body, not the initial one.

This new type of energy was much more aggressive than the previous one, and he felt its energy was harming his blood vessels, making him even bleed from his skin pores, attracting everyone's attention.