A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

Going with the flow and the constantly appearing inspiration, Nisha deduced a completely new principle based on the two she already inherited.

Going from the highest point to the deepest pit, then reversing the path and returning to the greatest heights, a cycle of nature formed in her mind.

It was not only present in the two principles she knew, and natural runes began to form on their own as the dragon realized that her inspiration was also present in nature itself.

Similar to the tide going from high to low, the phase of the moons changing with each turn, the growth of plants and withering after bearing fruits, many phenomenons that the elf observed flashed before her as she aligned them with the principle that had yet a fitting name.

Furthermore, there was a sneaking suspicion mounting in the elf’s mind that there were even more systems that she was unaware of that existed in nature.

With existing examples and the resonance from the natural runes, Nisha successfully established a circle in her mind that embodied the principle entirely.

Thanks to the newly established principle, any mana or aura that the girl fed into the circle would first follow the first half of the cycle and wither until all the energy faded away, leaving only the rebound.

While it was not a concrete mana or aura, the force still existed and once the force started to begin the second half of the process, it turned back into aura and mana as it completed the journey and returned to the starting point, having exactly as much power as when the circle started.

This surprised Nisha very much, because it did not matter whether she used a large amount of fire mana, dark aura or a very small amount, because an unusual change happened.

Normally, it was impossible to have a smaller unit than the minimum charge needed for a spell or skill, as anything below a certain threshold did not form a visible reaction and collapsed on itself

Yet when the dragon ignited a single unit of mana the size of a needle’s tip and attempted to send it through the cycle, it shrank even further before reaching the counter point at the bottom, which should have been impossible.

 

Although Nisha did not understand why the attempt worked when the single unit of energy should have collapsed instead, the formation of natural runes indeed proved that the principle she conceived was part of the natural order and there was no problem that it succeeded when her knowledge said that it should have had the opposite ending.

With her head swimming due to the strain of simulating the circle so often, the concept almost finished consolidating.

But the last step was much harder than before, and no matter how the elf pondered, the cycle did not go through the most important process to combine the runes.

Pondering over the difference, Nisha suddenly had a flash of inspiration and compared the new principle to the other two.

Both [Midnight] and [Solar Flare] were associated with an element, whereas her new cycle did not correspond to either fire or darkness element.

The four elements formed a cycle, where wind nourished fire, fire warmed water, water fostered earth and earth gave rise to wind.

Consequently, if the order was reversed the elements suppressed each other instead.

The elf was proficient in fire but lacked a second element to balance the first, making it an unsuitable choice.

Light and darkness repelled each other, yet also gave birth to the opposite at the extremes, forming another natural circle.

As before, although she was fairly proficient in one of them, the lack of the other balancing point made the choice unsuitable.

Finally, there was only the life and death element left.

With the constantly forthcoming inspirations, the dragon noticed how exceptionally suitable the concept was for this one.

Not only did the element itself have two extremes, there was a delicate balance between them that sustained the working of the world.

Without a doubt, this principle should belong to the life and death element.

Placing life above and death below, the cycle finally settled and merged with the natural runes, giving off a grey radiance as the principle consolidated.

 

Nisha‘s eyes snapped open as the sudden inspiration settled down with the end of the process.

She only lacked a name for the newly found gain, and she had to explore the usefulness of the principle on her own.

When the elf had inherited [Midnight] and [Solar Flare] before, the vision accompanying them had also introduced their use, or had at least inspired the direction on how to use them.

Since Nisha comprehended this principle on her own, it was also left to herself to figure out its uses.

Before experimenting with it though, she had to pick a suitable name.

Pondering on the examples in nature she thought of before, the dragon compared their processes and appearances and frowned deeply.

Although they looked similar on the surface and followed the same principle, the high and low tide was very different in nature from the growth cycle of a plant or the growth and decline of a lifeform.

As the girl was troubled over the exact designation, a term flashed in her mind.

Since it is related to the growth and decline of all living beings, why not follow the moons and call it [Wax and Wane]?

As a whole, the plane Ator had a big sun and a smaller accompanying sun, as well as three moons at night.

The trajectory of the three celestial bodies differed in length, and it was rare to see all three of them at once.

Nevertheless, they all went through the same phenomenon where the surface first grew as more of the moons were visible, then declined as the cycle completed.

Scholars speculated for the reason they waxed and waned, but they used these terms to describe the changes.

The principle Nisha comprehended aligned very much with these terms, alternating between two extremes.

Satisfied with the name, the young mistress stretched her body and checked the time outside, as she felt that quite a lot of time passed while she was immersed in her bout of inspiration.

 

To her surprise, the sun only vanished behind the horizon and the stars did not fully cover the sky yet.

At first Nisha suspected she had been busy for a whole day and night, but Little Lia was still curled up in the corner and digested the advancement to the fourth level.

Overall, it should be her perception of time that got messed up while comprehending the way of nature.

 

Normally, it would have been time for the girl to let her body rest and spend the night inside her [Inner World], either exploring new sceneries that she had yet to see or rolling around inside her pile of shiny treasures.

During the day, she did not have enough attention to spare for complex activities, so the dragon’s incarnation of thoughts scattered and merged with the land - which was not uncomfortable, but far too unfocused to transmit information back.

Currently, however, Nisha was not tired in the slightest, her mind still buzzing with activity from the sudden inspiration.

Aside from the newly comprehended principle, her proficiency with [Golem Control] also obtained a huge boost, since it triggered the whole affair in the first place.

Due to lacking the guidance of a teacher, she had to figure out most things herself, but the elf obtained an instinctive feel for most of the diagrams and their functions.

It might be an illusion from the comprehension of natural runes, yet she was fairly confident in her hunch and was eager to try them out later on.

She checked the condition of Little Lia in the corner, who slept through her enlightenment.

Neither of them was aware of the storm of aura and mana that ravaged the entire district, startling several people with high cultivation level, who failed to identify what exactly triggered their unease.

With the end of the inspiration, the unsettled energy returned to its normal placid state and no longer boiled.

Nevertheless, an additional trace of the dragon’s inspiration remained stuck on the huge golden furred wolf after the event ended.

Satisfied that the phenomenon this time did not destroy her bedding, Nisha got up and prepared to go out by putting on her scarf and boots.

The maids were already looking at her with weird eyes every time they changed the sheets, reminded of the incidents where the entire room took damage from her breakthrough.

A hint of scarlet appeared on her cheeks when Nisha had to endure all those unspoken questions, especially after the second time.

Thankfully, nothing happened this time or the servants might actually start to gossip about her either way.

 

Greeting the guard at the gate on the way out, Nisha left the estate and looked at the noble district.

Luthais was busy with official work and Henry recently had to spend more time with preparation work for the Knight Order, so neither of them were around right now.

With nothing to do at home, she could only head out and find something else to occupy her time now that the elf did not want to sleep anymore.

Her first thought was to look for the old crook, Alestar - the building project for the new wall was about to take off and he occasionally passed messages through a servant that everything was progressing well so far.

Nevertheless, it was better to show her face from time to time as well, lest problems occur without her knowledge.

Furthermore, it was fairly possible that the knowledge on golem she learned recently would come in handy when it came to the construction business, the bodies made from the skill had great natural strength and listened to orders obediently from whoever held the control unit.

Thus, they would be of great help when it came to construction work.

Leaving through the main gate, the elf greeted the guard and walked along the main path with familiar steps.

As one of the possible heirs of the estate, the people working there knew better than to inquire about their masters affairs and hence did not question the girl where she went at such a late time.

While the noble district had higher prestige than the other areas in the capital, it faced the same separation in status as other places and not every address had the same amount of prestige.

All the big names and high ranking families had their estates near the palace, with big areas.

The Dharnas estate had enough room for two main buildings, the stables and several small misceancellous constructions, as well as a grand garden, making it a premium piece of real estate and it was still half a level lower than the other Duke households.

Counts and lower nobility ranks could only have worse holdings, it got progressively worse in appearance the closer they were to the gates leading to the commoner district.

Although the differences hardly mattered to the young mistress, by living in an opulent mansion, she hardly cared whether other places were better or worse, which was a perspective that  many nobles struggling to climb the social ladder could not agree to.

 

When Nisha arrived at Alestar’s mansion, the building took up almost all the available space, with a short and crumbling stone fence surrounding a small strip of lawn outside of the building, making it not much different from a regular house in the other parts of the capital except the weathered decorations giving a hint at the noble status of the residents.

When the elf knocked on the door, it took a long while until there was movement behind the wooden frame.

Once the door opened, a scruffy and dazed man with an unkempt beard looked around, giving off a confused huh before looking down and spotting the elven girl.

Nisha wondered what exactly was going on, when a plume of smoke and sour odour wafted out of the room behind him, along with peals of laughter from some women and loud voices joking with each other.

Suddenly, Nisha was reminded of the scene when she visited Alestar the last time and figured that they were doing things that no one wanted to tell her about again.

When she had asked about it at home, Henry had refused to respond at all and Lydia had only said she would know once she grew up and then ran away.

Nevertheless, she was here to visit and not investigate what exactly the adults were doing, so she prepared to speak to the man, seeing that there were not any servants around.

Perhaps she should talk to the old crook about hiring a trustworthy butler, the scraggly man who opened the door only stared at her and hadn’t asked about her purpose in visiting at all.

How rude!