Mystical Journey

“Ola. The name’s Ola. We don’t have many dragons inside the spellcrafting course as we have only about a dozen Dragon Whelps. While our classes are flexible, our examinations are held on a timely basis. You’ll be informed on a monthly basis on the stone inside the Elder’s Peak,” Ola explained. “We need to receive something in return for passing down our knowledge and techniques to you guys. In this world, knowledge, and techniques are not to be passed down for free. Hence, you’ll need to work for the clan in exchange for them.”

“What’s the job about?” Garen understood the concept behind. The selfish White Dragon Clan would not give them anything without a reason.

“Battle.” Ola’s explanation was clear and simple. “With the humans or other living beings. This is to expand our territories. If you accept the terms, please press your claw here.” He placed a leather paper in front of Garen.

Garen then went through the contract written in Draconic Language.

Then, he pressed his claw onto it. Henceforth, his life was bound by the clan until he turned into an adult.

This was unavoidable. Despite being much stronger than typical living creatures, the hatred he could attract was far more than the typical living creatures. Without the clan’s protection, he would not be able to go anywhere more than ten kilometers.

Rumor had it that the humans had decided to build a colony nearby the clan’s location and they seemed to be planning a fight with the clan to the death.

Garen flew out of the registration office after dismissing himself from Ola. He went directly towards the combat course for registration. He then returned to the emergency assembly point where he noticed Satwo and the other two dragons already there waiting for him. Since they had only registered for one course, they were much faster than Garen.

“The instructor is Instructor Dragon. There will be an inquiry day every three days and we can go and inquire about anything related to combat. However, we only have half a day to ask the questions. Then, we will have a monthly examination.” Safour’s question was extremely concise and clear.

“Rumor has it that those humans that had killed Saone had decided to stay and not leave the area. This is too dangerous. They’re not even scared of the clan!” Satwo shouted.

A group of Dragon Whelps was chattering noisily between a stone crevice in the snowy peak.

Adult White Dragons and many Dragon Whelps could occasionally be seen flying past the gap of the snowy peak. They were just a group of inconspicuous members.

“We must work hard,” Safour said. “Let’s ignore the humans. I’ve already asked and I found out that less than five out of a hundred Dragon Whelps can reach adulthood safely. Most of them would either be caught and slaughtered, not strong enough or careless before reaching adulthood. We don’t have a guardian since our mother is no longer around.”

What he said was the truth. Garen and the rest were a group of fragile beings without the protection from their kin. The Elder’s Peak would not protect them unless they were nearby the Elder’s Peak. This was impossible as they were required to finish their missions in exchange for knowledge. However, they had to leave the proximity to complete their mission. It was an infinite cycle.

Garen understood the situation best as he had even inquired regarding the overall situation of the humans stationed outside. They were a group of powerful Wizards from the nearby Deladia Empire. Their leader was a Level Seven Great Wizard named Gushan. Since his arrival, he had already gotten into a conflict with a White Dragon’s family and he almost killed an adult White Dragon without going all out.

Despite this incident, the White Dragon Clan did not dare to wage war against him as Gushan was being backed by the enormous Deidala Empire. Rumor had it that this human race empire had quite a few Level Seven Great Wizards in their arsenal, dozens of them. They even had an even higher ranked Eternal Blazer. Only the top Wizards who were Level Eight and above could be crowned as the Eternal Blazer. Only the Ancient Dragons from the Dragon Clan could face against such existence, which strength was better than the Level Seven Great Wizards by leaps and bounds.

Hence, the clan could only hold their grudge even when one of the Adult White Dragons was almost killed. The innate selfish personality of the White Dragons did not allow them to put their lives on the line unless they benefited from it. In addition, the Deidala Empire was simply an existence that they could not fight against.

This clan was not under the care of an Ancient Dragon and what they had were just a few old Dragon Priests. The Evil Dragon Goddess Tiamat would never show herself when they fought against the humans as she once had her wings both wounded by the human’s God of War.

*************

Time flew as spring passed in a blink of an eye and the scorching hot summer arrived.

Garen had started gaining knowledge and techniques from both of the courses that he attended.

The combat course syllables were very easy and hardly consumed his energy. His main focus was the arcane art course as he had placed all of his attention it.

There were at least ten other Dragon Whelps that were as obsessed as him towards Spellcraft as they sat together in a valley somewhere in the snowy peak.

Garen was sitting on the right as he listened to the teenage dragon’s lecture quietly.

It was out of his expectation that Safour had enrolled in the same arcane art course as him. However, Safour had to give up on the combat course as he was not as energetic as Garen. The former was sitting on a stool carved from ice behind the latter as he listened intently to the lecture.

Despite the blizzard howling outside, it did not affect the teenage dragon’s boisterous voice.

“Level 0 Spellcraft is also known as Level 0 Trickery. Its application is very narrow. Other than performances, its general use is to determine the quality of a Wizard’s Spirit Power. However, it is the very foundation of every Spellcraft, hence, it is a step that we have to take,” the teenage dragon said loudly.

“While there are a total of fifty-six types of traditional Level 0 Trickery, we only need to be able to use ten types to fully master the basic energy manipulation for all types. These would be your foundation after selecting the sect in the future.”

The teenage dragon reached out its claw as a small ball of light lit up above it.

“This is an Illumination Spell.” He started wavering its arm but the ball of light remained stationary as it was grasped within the latter’s palm. “I used the snowball I have condensed as an illuminating object. Then, I cast the Illumination Spell on it and this is the end result.”

The Dragon Whelps had witnessed many objects that had been cast with Illumination Spell by their own family members. They were very calm and quiet as it was a given that they were not surprised by such a small trick.

Then, the teenage dragon started explaining the means to regulate the Spirit Power as he cast a simple Illumination Spell.

Garen soon understood the concept of Spellcraft as he listened attentively to the explanation.

In essence, Spellcraft used the basis of Spirit Power to draw the subtle energy from the universe. The latter could be categorized into different types which would result in a variety of simple and complex derivative alterations. Hence, this would naturally form Spellcraft Systems of different types and levels.

It was equivalent to a chemical chain reaction. When a Wizard wished for a specific chemical reaction, he would then required to follow the sequence as they put it the specified material.

The same could be said about Spellcraft. The final form of the Spellcraft was an end result of reactions. In order to create the desired end result, one would need to focus on their Spirit Power to balance and guide different types of energies to collide, fuse and react together. A complicated reaction would occur, achieving the final effect of Spellcraft.

The variety of energies in the air would be equivalent to the different ingredients required for a chemical reaction. The role of the Spirit Power was to control how the ingredients were introduced, such as the number of ingredients required, the methods of mixing and leading them together.

“… Hence, we need to focus once we release a spell. As it is a channeling process, it will be hard to continue channeling once the process is interrupted or you’ve missed the time to react,” the teenage dragon explained the theory behind Spellcraft.

“What is Spirit Power?” A Dragon Whelp stood up and asked loudly.

“Spirit Power is the amount of your concentration.” The teenage dragon smiled, revealing his white sharp fangs. “You’re placing all of your Spirit Power onto me as you’re paying full attention to my lecture. Since you’re paying attention to me with all of your senses, the moment I released an enhanced Illimunation Spell…”

Pew!

Suddenly, a blinding ball of light exploded from the teenage dragon’s hand.

Wow!~

An alarming cry was hard.

It seemed that the enhanced Illuminating Spell had considered the Dragon Whelps’ endurance. Despite the consideration, the group of Dragon Whelps was blinded by it as they screamed.

Garen managed to evade the ambushing attack.

“Alright let’s take a rest. Everyone is free to do their own things and we will continue when the hourglass is two thirds through.” The teenage dragon then took out a golden hourglass and placed it on the snowy floor. Then, the black fine sands started to flow from the top to the bottom.

Garen and the other Dragon Whelps rubbed their eyes as the blinding flash was very impressive.

Garen sat alone on the stool and started to recall the situation around here recently since he was bored.

The clan and the Deidala Empire had seemed to come to an agreement as the adult dragons were no longer being attacked. The people from the Deidala Empire had, in fact, stopped their attacks on the Dragon Whelps as well. Instead, they had started building something deep inside the forest.

According to Ola, There were wars occurring at the border of Deidala Empire as two major empires decided to invade the Deidala Empire at the same time. It was very likely that they might come to an agreement with the high ranking elder dragons of the Elder’s Peak, where the White Dragon Clan might assist the Deidala Empire by participating in the war while they received protection from the Empire in return.

He pondered as he glanced at the Dragon Whelps around him. He wondered how many Dragon Whelps would survive from this war.

The Dragon Whelps from the White Dragon Clan was never valuable as the White Dragons were too good at breeding once they were matured. In addition to that, it would require many years for the Dragon Whelps to mature and the price was simply too much.

“How troublesome… To improve and reach equilibrium with the soul within ten years is too difficult. I need to think of a plan or else this world’s mystery is the only path I can take.”

Garen started frowning unconsciously.

“Garen! Garen!” Safour, who was behind Garen, patted on the latter’s wings.

“What’s wrong?”

“Satwo has delivered our food to us,” Safour whispered.

Garen suddenly understood the situation.

He did not have enough time to go out and hunt for his own food lately as the two courses had consumed most of his time. At times like this, Satwo, who was already impressed with Garen had decided to share a portion of his food with Garen. It was the same case for Sathree as well.

These two Dragon Whelps felt Garen had his own definite views of his own. He was extremely calm even when they encountered a powerful Wizard back then. Their impressions towards him had changed since then.

Garen and Safour stood up as they walked to the entrance of the valley. There, they saw frozen food on the ground which was placed by Satwo and Sathree. They stared at Garen and Safour from afar before turning around and flying away into the distance.

Both of them walked towards the food and started to gobble them up quickly. Safour, on the other hand, basked under Garen’s glory as he ate along.

Garen had become the leader of this group of Dragon Whelps as he had gained both mental and physical recognition of the other Dragon Whelps.

Although the White Dragons were selfish, they would still listen to the stronger ones as such was the law of nature.

“Let’s eat up,” Garen took huge bites after bites as he munched on the raw meat as he quietly thought about other stuff.