A Dragon’s Curiosity

Entering the covered outside area adjacent to the stone building itself, many familiar faces from the first event came in her sight. Just as Nisha was doing, they were waiting for the beginner lesson to start.

Eager to see the teacher, the elf looked around, trying to find someone that stands out or older than the teens surrounding her. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a fruitless endeavour, aside from friendly conversations between fellow students meeting in an earlier class, the teacher had apparently not arrived yet.

Additionally, her searching behaviour did not stay hidden, an older student tending to one of the forges burning brightly in the back of the outside facility glanced at her while handling the bellows.

“The master isn’t here yet. You can take a break with the others, and the lesson won’t start until he is here.”

Nodding to signify she understood, the dragon chose a spot closer to the raging yellow flames, sighing in contentment as the fire started to warm her. She certainly did not mind coldness. Even the most bitter winter was nothing more than a white scenery to a beast born of fire. Soaking in almost boiling water or sunbathing under a blazing sky ranked among the most pleasurable activities Nisha could imagine. Still, nothing could beat a good hunt, but heat came in a close second place.

Taking a last look around and noticing several other students who similarly joined no group to chat, she closed her eyes and drifted into her [Inner Space], waiting for the teacher to arrive.

If the class was going to do nothing anyway, the girl might as well check upon her second companion, the little spirit hiding away inside her mind.

Returning to the Treasure Trove, the dragon established inside the space hardly took effort. With constant practice and little insights into the rules governing this weird area inside her soul, it was quite easy for Nisha to arrive at any place she desired. One was to spread her awareness, breaking down the spiritual body and letting her mind wander freely over the different lands contained in her [Inner Space]. Many beautiful places and landscapes existed in the seemingly endless expanse, and she had spent quite some time exploring them. A favourite of the elf was a cave located near a tall mountain, which would be inaccessible to anyone that could not fly. Inside, rows upon rows of precious stones shimmered from the light falling through the narrow entrance, lighting up the whole space and creating a mysterious solemness which captured Nisha’s heart upon the first discovery of this place. She spent quite some time afterwards in here and moved some furniture from the clearing to the [Crystal Cave], as she had named it.

And this led to the second way the elf discovered in regards to travelling through her space. The inspiration stemmed from the trips she made to the [Inner Space] belonging to Gabriel and Bael, to chat with them occasionally. If a gate could open between two different souls, why not use the same technique to cross the distance inside her own?

By directing her intent and picturing the two places she wanted to connect, the dragon was able to open a door quite effortless compared with finding the link she had with the two goddesses, and it took far less effort, allowing her to move items across vast distances.

Opening the gate from a giant desert beyond a towering mountain range she discovered, the fresh and shaded meadow appeared akin to a picture in the door frame. A single step crossed a distance her awareness needed almost a week to travel, in an undefined form and flying over oceans and mountains. Her goal had been to find the end of her [Inner Space], giving her a rough estimate just how vast it is. It kept on endlessly expanding, revealing more and more bizarre terrains. Nisha had read some records about these soul spaces inside the Great Library, and it all hinted at how the volume and conditions heavily linked with cultivation. A higher rank meant access to a greater area, yet her own already exceeded the limits of a small continent, and she still didn’t find an end to it. Overall, she had no clue how this anomaly occurred; her strength did not exceed the top of the second rank in either aura or mana. The only explanation she had at the moment was that due to her draconic heritage, the quality of her [Inner Space] changed. As such, she couldn’t ask the two goddesses either, they weren’t dragons, and Nisha knew no others of her kind besides her siblings.

After arriving at her little treasure trove, Nisha’s gaze fell on a small masked bundle leaning halfway into the small brook. A long time ago, the two goddesses gifted her with a mysterious item, telling her it might be a live saving treasure in the future. In the beginning, this small thing wasn’t much greater than her head, and the position at the edge of the water seemed to fit it. She initially wanted to lift the cloth concealing the truth right away and study the thing beneath it, but she held back her curiosity. If the life-saving treasure granted to her by the two goddesses got spoiled by that, she’d have no choice but to regret.

Currently, the mysterious thing already grew to half her height, yet the cloth wrapped around it was plentiful. Even if it was twice her size, she probably still couldn’t glimpse the situation beneath it. Sighing to herself and letting go of this matter, she sat down at the edge of the small river, not far from the web of spiritual power spreading under water. When the spirit was born from the egg she purchased, it immediately settled in this place and surrounded itself with a tight cocoon after trying to steal and refine her blood line. At the start, the density of the web was too much to see through, taking up a significant amount of space in the limited width of the creek. Over the course of the past week, the elf visited the injured spirit several times and observed any changes, wondering whether it was going to make it or perish. Luckily it seemed, every time she came to look after it, the amount of web reduced step by step, giving her hope her second companion would eventually recover. As for the crime of trying to steal from her, Nisha already considered it forgiven. She experienced how terrifying her blood can be before and truthfully speaking it could also be counted as a minor trauma when she recalled how quickly the warrior sparring with her inside the [Adventurer’s Guild] died after being hit with her blood refined into a poison. While she didn’t intentionally want to poison him to death, the facts remained the same. It would be good enough if the little spirit could endure the suffering and remain alive.

Gazing at the white spiritual threads of mana the dragon spent her time rearranging the various treasures inside her space and tidying them up until a short figure arrived inside the forging area and all of the other students straightened up, bringing Nisha out of her meditation state.

Looking at the teacher that walked over, it wouldn’t be wrong to say he was only taller than the elf by half a head. No one would confuse him with a youngster, mainly due to his leather like skin, the giant black beard covering more than half of his face and the weathered eyes with a dark lustre shining towards the new students.

Nisha recognised his race from the records she had studied in the library. Their teacher was a dwarf! One had to know, in regards to metal working and smithing, there were no greater masters than the dwarfs on the continent. The armours treasured by royal families often stemmed from dwarven forges, and even inferior products sold for sky-high prices if the maker was a grand dwarf. To have guidance in the profound art of smithing from a dwarf certainly was a fortunate matter.

Giving off the presence of a mountain the dwarf swept his gaze over the batch of new students, a procedure he had done countless times. As an instructor of the Royal Academy, he took it upon himself to pass down the art every person of his race admired and had seen countless numbers of aspiring smiths in this place. Some stuck around to become prominent characters in the world of smithing as well, yet the majority gave up after some time, dejected by the complexity and harshness of the discipline listed among the primary courses.

With just a basic glance, he could discern whether or not a youth was capable of treading the path he prepared as an elder.

Therefore, when his judging eyes fell on a female elf among the fresh blood for the smithing branch, he couldn’t help but pause.

“G’day to all of you young ones.

The name’s Fithe, and this is my forge. I don’t expect you to become master smiths overnight, but I don’t bother with lazy students.

Learn to respect the fire, and I won’t have problems with you. Put your effort into increasing your skills and strive to make progress in small steps. And don’t underestimate the difficulty of becoming a Smith. It may look like a simple profession and profitable, this isn’t wrong either. To forge some small items, it doesn’t take long practice. Within a year, you can reach that realm. That is if you are ready to sacrifice a river of blood and sweat in practice. And you won’t make big profits either, this way you will be able to forge rank one weapons at most, maybe top grade quality if you are gifted. That are the basics of smithing I will teach you if you can persist.

To attain mastery beyond that and become a real Smith, you must be even more dedicated and forge and forge until you feel you will collapse from overwork. Not everyone can dedicate so much to the art. If you want to quit, now is the time.”

Akin to rocks smashing together, his words rolled over the various burning furnaces. Some of the gathered students had a pale look on their faces, reconsidering their choice of wanting to become a smith. Although it was a very prestigious profession and could earn a lot of money, they weren’t sure if they could torture themselves like that. The remaining students only nodded with grim convictions, likely they already had some experience with smithing and acknowledged the words of their teacher.

Still, no one left. Seeing is believing. Even with the guidance of a senior, they still wanted to try themselves in front of the fire.

“Good, no one left at least. Persistence is one of the most important attributes a Smith can have. If you can’t challenge yourself, how can you challenge the fire in the furnace? This time around, you can gather in groups and get familiar how the facilities work. That’s your task for now. You can use the materials that are lying around, most of them are waste products from other lessons.

In the future, you will need to purchase the required materials for ten merit points a set. Each day, there is one beginner lesson taking place, you can decide whether to attend or not. In order to earn contribution points, the smithing branch will pay you for materials you acquired in other lessons if they are on the purchase list or you can act as an assistant for seniors when they smith, learning from their guidance. For a day’s work, you can receive 25 merit points at a minimum, more if you are assisting higher ranked students. That’s for the future, though, it requires you to have some smithing skill first to earn more merit.”

With a slightly impatient look, the dwarf only informed them of the most important things, pointed out the danger of the furnace again and then turned around to leave.

Naturally, Nisha had a slightly good impression towards him as a teacher. Although his words were kept short and he didn’t show a lot of emotion, he still taught them the basics for them to discover the forge on their own.

Suddenly, the dwarf stopped his steps just before he would have entered the building beside the forges.

“You there, the elf.”

Pointing at Nisha, he made the other youths stop their actions and wonder what was about to happen. Although elves weren’t that rare in the capital, they were a minority, just like the dwarves. In the entire course, only Nisha looked like one.

“You tree huggers weren’t meant to handle fire. Go and learn wood crafting to make some bows or something. You won’t last as a smith anyway. Save yourself the time and the hardship.”

The relationship between dwarves and elves wasn’t the best. Due to historical relations, they almost never worked together on projects, and from Fithe’s point of view, he was doing the elf a favour by telling the girl early. Although there are examples of smiths originating from the elven folk, almost all of them were considered as strange fellows by their kind and almost exclusively males with impressive physiques. Works produced by them couldn’t quite measure up to dwarven artisanry, but the great dexterousness and grace they inherently possessed made their pieces still valuable and sought after.

How could the poor dwarf have known he just irritated an actual dragon? Even if you gave him ten times the courage, he still wouldn’t do it if he knew the truth.

“So old and such a big beard, and yet you wasted all those years. You ought to shave it all of lest people confuse you with an elder.”

Freely translating a dwarven curse she learned in the library, Nisha couldn’t just let his statement go over her head while lying down.

Want to see my perseverance? I’ll show you! I’m no less than anyone else here!

Although the swearing lost much of the original intent in the translation, the rest of the students still sucked in a sharp breath. On the first day, a newcomer dared to argue with a teacher? And they understood the sentence couldn’t be ordinary. The teacher, who almost entered the building, froze in his steps and the youths anxiously waited for his response. Imagining themselves in the crazy girl’s position, they shuddered. Truly arrogant! Overbearing to the extreme! None of them wanted to trade places with her.

Fortunately, the dwarf didn’t bother with responding, he just continued on his way and left Nisha behind in the forge.