Tales Of The Mighty Dragonair

The three walked back towards the main camp of his, but alone the way he the old man excused himself to go back to the camp of his mages, as he would bring them to Arthur's camp and end this war by their surrender.

Arthur just wished the old man luck, while going on his way with Noura, who remained silent all the journey, said nothing, unlike her grandpa, who talked about many things with Arthur.

The old man was interested to know Arthur's plans for the future. Arthur simply explained his own vision, about many villages that would be towns and cities, prosperous with their visitors of mages from many places around the forest.

The old man asked about the meat stuff, when Noura explained this was already present inside the academy as the main food, but rarely knew the real recipe behind it.

Arthur then talked about his aim of teaching mages how to hunt and cook their meat, he also talked about weapons and alchemy. the more he talked, the more astonished the old man was, the more bored Noura became.

"You know all this stuff is already present in the academy, why do you bother doing it here?" she finally said after a long time of silence. Arthur knew she was still thinking about their last conversation before setting off to road, and he didn't open that topic, not yet, not here.

"You say these are all present in the academy, but you also say these are all secrets, so what's the problem in making the use of these knowledge that I have, and strengthen my clan?" he replied, talking calmly with her.

"Do you plan to make your clan like the academy? You must be joking, right?"

"First, it's our clan, not my clan. Secondly, sure I plan to make it even stronger than the academy, what's the problem in that?"

She didn't reply, just glanced at him before sighing, as if she thought he was a helpless case. "It's just no one had ever done it before," she remarked.

He shrugged his shoulders with no care for her remark, "then I will be the first to do it," he said, expressing his firm resolve towards this matter.

She didn't speak again, just sighing from time to time, like she was thinking how helpless and aimless this effort would be wasted upon.

"Tell me more about the academy," Arthur suddenly asked, as he wanted badly to know any info regarding this academy.

"What can I say, it's a huge place, reigning supreme over a large stretch of land. It had many masters, strong foundations, and long deep inheritance that started from ancient times," she said, using vague words, giving nothing useful to him.

"What about the interior design of the teaching system? What about the competition going on in one week?" he asked, making his questions more specific.

"Oh, you know nothing then about the academy," she commented while giving him a long glance, "how did you know all these secrets then?" she asked.

"It's my own secret," he simply replied.

"Fine," she shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't care about his own secrets, but in fact she did, "the academy is built upon the power system, depending on the number of inner demons disciples had. Each time you conquer your inner demon and gain another, you can rise in ranks there."

She then paused, before raising her head high as she said in proud:

"I have killed two inner demons so far, and had my third in the last weeks while staying here. When I return to the academy, I will be upgraded to the third rank there, which is quite a high position you know. Tell me, how many inner demons did you conquer? And how many do you currently have?"

She glanced at him, with an underestimation look upon her face. She was sure he was inferior to her, and she didn't take the age difference between the two of them into her consideration at all.

"I don't have any inner demon at all," he honestly replied, as his dragonair power had its unique way of working, not like traditional ways in this world.

"Oh, how can this be?" she raised her eyebrow while commenting, "you can't be this weak, I have seen your strength here and there already," she remarked, as she thought he was so proud in refusing to admit defeat to her, so he lied.

"That's the truth," he simply replied.

"If so, you won't be able to level up, oh except in one case," she suddenly said, as if she recalled something important, "there is an arena in the academy, where you can challenge other higher disciples and try to snatch their position. You can try that, I'm sure your dragon will make quite a stir there, and might attract the attention of some masters even, to gain their favor."

She then turned to him, like she was teaching a kid about the reality of the world, "masters there are everything. If you managed to gain their trust, then you can have a very easy life inside the walls of the academy," she sincerely advised him, and he nodded, before saying:

"I just want to keep my dragon ability hidden for now."

She glanced at him before she laughed, shortly, as if she heard a silly joke, "if you hid it, how can you rise then?" she asked a simple and true question.

"I will figure out something," he said, before stressing again as he said, "I want to keep my dragon form secret from anyone, and any master, for now."

She looked for long at him, before she sighed as she shrugged her shoulders while saying:

"Fine, I won't say a word. It's your life, and you are free to do whatever you want with it," she then paused before her face became pretty serious, "but there you won't be able to last for long if you hid your dragon form like this. Don't worry, you aren't the only one who can transform into monsters, there are many mages who can do it," she added.

"Really?!" he suddenly got interested in this, "what monsters can they transform into?" he asked.

"This is known either as an inner demon position ability, or a secret way belonging to their clans. Either way, they can change their bodies to many monsters, monsters that we fight here in the forest," she said, while adding, "thus hiding your ability won't be useful, as using it won't give you any problems."

He went into silence, as his case was different. He had a very ancient and antique form of strength, with a fearful enemy for it. he didn't want to stir the hidden monsters sleeping anywhere, but he also didn't want to be a leftover or a loser at the academy.

He knew, from her remarks along this way, that his ways here weren't that special at all.. There were already many mages with pets, many mages using elixirs there.