A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

Surprised by the flurry of activity, Nisha no longer wanted to regale more tales of the Twin Kingdoms, despite how interesting their history was.

“If you are interested, you can check out the common section on the ground floor of the Great Library.

There are many more interesting accounts about foreign places written down in the books there, you should give them a try.

For the Left and Right Kingdoms alone, there‘s both informational text about their society and historical anecdotes about previous incidents, such as the war between the academicians and the crown, the Jade Conflicts, and the Cultural Revolution.

The librarians will be happy to help you find whatever scroll or book you are interested in, it‘s great.“

Aside from the unusual signs foreboding an unfavourable development, Nisha was genuine in recommending the common section to her friend.

Most people only ever visited the [Grand Library] to look for skills once they advanced a rank in their cultivation and ignored the rest.

While the untiered works did not have much use in the way of improving combat strength, the knowledge contained in them had its own use, and was sometimes much more important than a powerful attack or a similar skill.

“I didn‘t even know that they had so much info about other countries, I‘ll definitely take a look when we‘re back home.

Thanks for reminding me!“

The youth with the purple hued skin and the elf were nearly done with separating the remains of the monsters into useful materials and waste products by this point.

Despite their small group size, the trio managed to hunt an amount that was comparable in size to parties that were two or three times as big as them.

And since they only had to split the merit points between themselves, each party member ended up with a large profit, enough to redeem quite a few resources from the academy.

Many things were quite cheap when purchased with contribution instead of gold coins from other merchants outside, allowing the young prodigies of the capital to exchange their hard work for culpable progress in their own strength.

 

Whereas Nisha and even Unico perhaps did not benefit quite as much from second tier materials and resources, it was plenty enough to buy some useful gear for the warrior outings and to practice their skills.

Lisa on the other hand invested everything into herself, buying potions to strengthen her foundation, pills to enhance her cultivation speed and resources like treated monster meat to enhance herself.

Within a short period of time, the blonde girl went from a rookie at the late first stage to a second rank warrior and now to a middle second rank cultivator.

It felt ordinary to herself, as the other two always matched her strength and included her in their group activities on the warrior trips, but to everyone else, such a rate of progression in her cultivation was nothing short of monstrous and the sign of a great genius.

“We should start packing up the pieces we want to take back soon.

If we go back sooner today, our group might have spent a little less time compared to everyone else, yet our haul should be enough to exchange for some good stuff.

Rather than forcing ourselves to continue after someone became injured, it‘s better to train some more and digest our gains.

There‘s just something off about this place.“

If Nisha inexplicably argued for the trio to return early and blamed Lisa‘s injury, it would put undue pressure on the other girl and make her feel guilty.

For the dragon, the fights were rather effortless and more or less just to pile up some combat experience with different weapon types, there was little to no risk in areas with second rank monsters as long as she wielded her bow.

The weapon looked simple and unadorned, yet it was wrought from the wood of a third ranked tree and drawn with the tendon of a third rank monster.

With the elf‘s blind archery skills supplemented by the perception from her [Spirit Sight], any foe beneath the fourth rank was just begging for death if it dared to target the small group.

 

 “While the hides aren‘t tanned yet, it should not be a problem to use them to pack everything else into bundles.

As long as everyone takes two or three of them back to the gathering point, it should be possible to bring everything together with your familiar.“

Even though the young man in their group rarely took the initiative to speak up, his input generally had valuable advice and the most suitable options once he did talk.

He was correct as well, as long as each of the three of them carried two furs and Little Lia carried the rest on her back, the bones, fangs, teeth and other monster byproducts they harvested from the bodies should fit nicely.

They would leave behind a small hill of meat, internal organs and damaged parts, but these leftovers would neither fetch a good price at the contribution exchange point nor were they in demand elsewhere, so it was more trouble than worth it to carry them back.

At least the local monster population would be happy to get a couple of free meals all of a sudden.

Another instructor passed through the area while they prepared to depart for the base camp, though the elf made sure not to leak any signs that she noticed his presence.

The warrior trip outings were held so that the students could gather experience in life and death combat, which honed their skills and refined their mindset at the same time.

None of the teachers that followed them on these trips had a cultivation below fourth rank warrior, and most of them also were somewhat accomplished in movement techniques.

With their skills, it was as easy as walking on flat ground to use the trees around here to observe from a distance and evaluate whether a group was in decent fighting condition or if they needed help.

Unless a student was in danger of losing their life, the instructors would not bother to interfere and at most silently take care of threats in the immediate area to avoid a mob of monsters gathering.

But it was unusual that the teacher only glanced at their group once and then directly took off again, especially considering that Lisa injured her arm and needed treatment.

He should have confirmed that the trio was planning to head back for treatment first before departing, another sign that something else was at play here.

 

Be that as it may, Nisha was not overly concerned and did not plan to worry her team members with unfounded theories.

As long as they went back to the carriages and handed their materials in at the exchange point, there were bound to be plenty of strong warriors around and nothing short of an army could threaten the teachers of the academy.

“Let‘s go back, the earlier we return to the capital, the more time we have to practice and digest our experience.“

It did not hurt to be careful, and the elf had no plans to investigate the anomaly nearby.

The [Royal Academy] did not have a stellar reputation for nothing, it was not her place to solve a problem that suddenly cropped up.

Lisa and Unico agreed with her judgement and used the complete hides to manufacture some simple bundles to store their spoils of war with the rope they brought, each of the trio taking two bundles under their arms and piling the rest on the back of poor Little Lia, who neither had the opportunity to hunt to her heart‘s content nor feast on enemy flesh of a suitable rank.

It was more or less a formality for the [Storm Trail Dragon Wolf] to tag along, but the familiar was not afraid to put in any work when it concerned her master.

Due to being a beast with a low cultivation level and the lack of a decent bloodline, it was only recently that Accalia‘s spiritual intelligence came into being, so the wolf had trouble understanding why her master played along with those beneath her true cultivation level and made a serious effort to pretend like the dragon was much weaker.

On the other hand, her master was also much more amazing and was better at thinking, so whatever she was doing was probably not wrong either, so the familiar simply accepted being a beast of burden and carried the things on her back without complaining.

 

Nisha had no idea what was going on in the head of Little Lia and paid more attention to the route back while conversing about some trivial matters happening back at the academy with her group.

Among them, Lisa had several acquaintances in the capital around her own age, though she was a little shy before and did not have too many of them.

Contrary to that, Unico had his own methods to smoothly insert himself into any kind of conversation, which allowed him to get along with a great number of people even if he did not know them for long.

Nisha mainly followed wherever her curiosity took her and cherished opportunities to learn more, which ensured that she always had one topic or another to talk about, snaring both of her team mates attention.

Unfortunately, the harmonious atmosphere was impossible to sustain after Nisha spotted the same instructor from before again with her [Spirit Sight], only that he held a slender sword stained with blood this time and headed in the direction of the base camp even faster than the students, which he did not pay any attention at all.

“I think, the [Royal Academy] most likely also has a contact person for all questions related to politics and sensitive topics similar to that.

It won’t be a waste of time to visit them and ask for guidance, that’s what they are there for.”

No matter how much the elf and the youth advised her, Lisa still needed to figure out the boundaries herself, otherwise it was a pointless endeavour if she let sensitive information out by accident and got taken away by the guard.

Fortunately, it looked like their effort was not going to get wasted, as the blonde girl nodded like a hen picking up grains.

The idea that she unwittingly passed important information to a spy gave her a proper scare, the poor girl still had not processed the shock.

Since their companion looked suitably contrite over her mistake, neither Nisha nor Unico pressed for an answer and sped along the path, paying attention to stray monsters that might ambush them on the way ahead.

Important matters had to be said more than once, but since Lisa most likely took the matter to heart by now, the other two left her to think it through by herself and scanned the surroundings for unexpected encounters with monsters.

 

Fortunately for the team, they no longer came across any interlopers and steadily made their way through the forest.

It was too light to be part of the real Wilderness, so the base camp formed by the wagons did not need any heavy guard or spell formations to keep it safe and the trio arrived eventually with their cargo.

“Let’s go see the priest.”

Although Lisa did not complain, the wound on her arm still hurt and she wanted to take care of it earlier.

The academy especially employed them from the [Seven Star Church] so that their students could go all out during the training and did not need to worry about having access to healing.

Sadly, that idea went out of the window when they saw the state of the camp.

Instructors ran back and forth within the circle of wagons, either carrying supplies needed by the priests or headed into the forest, wielding their weapons.

The one Nisha saw earlier with her [Spirit Sight], blood on his sword, also returned during this time and rushed past the trio, supporting a bloodied figure around their age.

Treatment was bloody and the chorus of groans and wailing formed an eerie backdrop to the surreal atmosphere.

In the middle of all the procedures, the priests tried their best to heal half a dozen youths with injuries of various degrees, it was hard to tell from the distance.

Perhaps just as many students already finished their preliminary treatment, squirming on top of the blankets spread on the ground or whatever space was available as the healers went about their work to the best of their abilities.

Neither of the three of them was able to react properly for the time being.

The [Royal Academy], the most prestigious place of learning in the entire kingdom, organised this trip and sent their best teachers to accompany the students.

Never in a thousand turns would they have imagined that the place looked more like a field lazaret for the army than anything else.

Somewhat dazed and at the same time curious, Nisha, Lisa and Unico approached one of the drivers near the carriages, with Little Lia trotting behind them; the wolf hardly understood humans in the first place, so everything was fine as long as she followed her master.

“What happened?”

Perhaps the question could have been formulated in a more precise manner, yet that was everything that burned on the tip of their tongue right now.

The man, who had his brows furrowed and looked over the chaos happening next to them, only paid attention to them after they spoke to him.

“Is this your whole group? Are you missing anyone?”

Seeing the three young ones shaking their heads, he sighed in relief and put the harness back on the horses next to his carriage.

“You should go back first. The academy will give an explanation later on, but everyone should leave this place first.”