A Dragon’s Curiosity

Having learnt from their previous ruckus, the crowd quieted down extremely quickly after each person found an opponent. And it turned out they were right as well since Miss Anet kept to her soft tone without bothering to check whether the class could hear her or not.

“The duel board’s rules are quite easy. It’s a contest between mental powers. If you take off the top part of the board itself, you will find several red stones and four blue ones. Take one of the red ones and place it in the middle of the board. The goal is to push this rock into the end zone of the enemy. And in case you have the mana to spare for several rounds, count each win as one point and see who can score the highest.”

Demonstrating her words on her edition, the instructor did not need to personally hold them up, with a gesture of her robe’s sleeve the about dozen stones hovered in the air, organising them in red and blue for everyone to see.

“My lecture will only contain the game until each of you has a fundamental grasp towards their mana, then we will move onto the next stage.

Don’t ask about learning any meditation techniques or fancy spells; you lot can’t even crawl yet, don’t dream about running.”

The soft yet chilly voice would have appeared as rude or condescending by most. However, Nisha knew better than to discredit Miss Anet.

Grandpa Eldrin drilled her in a similar manner when she was learning the basics from him in the [Hunting Grounds]. A structural approach helped far more than any flashing skills if a mage knew nothing else.

Glancing at her training partner, Alexander, the elf followed the lead of their teacher and placed a red stone in the middle of the markings, somewhat lost what to do afterwards.

Fortunately, their teacher didn’t disappoint and gave additional information to the students, albeit somewhat emotionless. For some reason, the dragon got the impression that the class disappointed her.

“The red stones contain a simple obstructing formation, steadily dissipating your mana as you channel it into them. On the other hand, the blue stones have numbers etched on them, marking their grades. A number one denotes a rank one control formation and so on. If you channel your mana through one of these before pressing onto the red dissipating formation, you can at most use the amount of mana a magician would possess at the corresponding grade. However, you don’t need to use the control stones from the get go. The overall objective of the class is to have everyone contest with a blue rank one control formation before moving on to other matters. You can slowly get used to it. It doesn’t matter how long everyone needs.”

Levitating her stones back in her personal case, the female instructor waved her sleeve to indicate them to begin, not gracing them with any more words until they had proven themselves.

Instead of the burning humiliation, the elf felt when the smithing elder called her out and denounced her from having any future in regards to metalworking; the current game served as a challenge instead. Confirming with Alexander if he was ready, the two of them started pouring their mental strength - mana - inside the stone right in the middle between them.

Through a swift and healthy green glow, Nisha discerned that her opponent used the wind element, hoping to secure an advantage by acting before the girl had a chance to react.

Of course, he vastly underestimated the fortitude of a true dragon.

Afraid of just overpowering him, noting his cultivation of the late early first rank, Nisha only fixed the red gem in its spot, searching for the connection with the formation inside.

At least this part went smoothly, creating a comical scene in the process.

In their vicinity, many students wrinkled their brows trying to make the stone move, yet their lack of control meant that neither side could even budge the play figure.

Alexander and Nisha instead appeared to be the same, yet a fierce competition took place - at least the male teenager felt so.

For the elf, things played out differently.

To secure the gem in place the dragon used a quite substantial amount of energy. All by the motto ‘more is better’.

Sadly the formation had a different idea. Or rather Nisha underestimated how efficient the effect worked. The more mana she poured in, the faster it disappeared, like water flowing into a basket without a bottom.

This drain subsequently led to the red gem trembling slightly in her half of the board for half a finger, before stabilising. After all, doing is better than just seeing, while interacting with the board the dragon gradually learned how to steadily pour her mana and avoid just wasting away her strength. Instead of focusing on winning, she learned.

On the other side of the table, Alexander slowly had sweat forming on his temples. As for having stepped into the late stage of the first mana rank, he did not say anything about it to the girl. Based on her warrior’s garb, she should similarly to him pursue both martial arts and magic. Those who chose to both instead of focusing on one all had their pride as geniuses. It took twice as much effort to get the same results as anyone else in their classes after all. Therefore he believed, her strength should not be too far from his own.

Much to his chagrin, Alexander failed to advance even a single pace after the first tremble. Like a rock thrown into a quiet sea, all of his mana dissipated no matter if he exploded into a burst or steadily mined away at the resistance.

And over the last twenty breaths, he almost exhausted all of his reserves.

Seeing that he could no longer go on, Nisha similarly stopped expending her energy and waited for him to catch his breath and refill his mana.

“Wow, initially I thought there was a good chance for me to win since I’m close to breaking through to the second mana rank, who’d have thought that you could match whatever I’m throwing your way.”

As a participant of the challenge, he naturally knew the elf could easily have taken advantage of him running out of energy and score a point, yet she chose to wait for him to recover. In a way Alexander felt quite thankful, due to this, they both had more opportunities to learn instead of going for mediocre victories.

“No problem, I’m quite fascinated by the duel board itself. Seeing this enchantment type is a first for me.

If her total mana pool amounted to one hundred units, the dragon only spent about ten of them right now to resist the moving force exerted by her opponent, giving her somewhat of a grasp on how she fared against other magicians. Her estimation had been to give a peak ranked magician or warrior at the third rank an even fight, and while she might not win, Nisha estimated this was already plenty fantastic. Surpassing an entire rank in fighting strength, how common could that be? As for the fourth rank, even initial ones, the dragon didn’t hold much hope. Going by the average knight’s power, at least in aura, she had no hope to contend. Since mana should act similarly, a mage on that level remained unbeatable as well.

While the elf played with one of the blue stones in her hand and debated whether or not she should look for an opportunity to spar with an initial fourth rank to accumulate more combat experience pushing her over the edge, Alexander did not idle either. Closing his eyes and regulating his breathing, he did his best to speed up his recovery, eager to go for another duel. Seeing as there was a willing training partner, the teenager had to grasp this chance and prepare to take his opponent down in the swiftest way possible. He did not win in a competition of overall mana capacity and couldn’t overpower the elf’s output either. The young man did not place much hope into suddenly reversing this outcome in the next bout and replayed the duel in his mind. If he could just figure out why he initially gained some ground and failed to do so afterwards, he might just grasp victory.

“Alright, I’m ready.”

In spite of not having figured out how to counter the elf’s strategy yet, Alexander still opened his eyes and indicated his willingness to have another duel. It would not be fair only to fight if he believed to win. And the experience itself helped to understand the peculiarities involved in the formation and the stone.

Nodding towards the teenager, Nisha once again focused on the game and turned serious.

During the moment before they started to pour out their energy, the dragon felt a passing sense observing them, initiated by someone close to them. Enduring the urge to raise her head and look around, trying to identify the source, Nisha knew better than that. She’d give away the simple fact that she noticed the observation and against an opponent of that calibre the elf needed all advantages she could get.

With the start of the second round, the red stone returned to the middle of the board. Rearing his maximum amount of mana and sending a steady stream into the target Alexander did not rush to overtake the elf this time. From the previous experience he had already confirmed that a clean cut victory in a single move was impossible, he needed to ration his power in a reasonable amount to last longer.

For Nisha, the circumstances appeared similar. While she had a greater total amount of energy to muster, the formation of the stone would also dissipate her mana at a faster rate if she tried to pour in more significant amount. If she wanted to, just overpowering the other youth remained possible, but she wanted to figure out the way their teacher spoke about, not relying merely on brute force.

Seated around them at various desks pushed together, most of the other students still struggled in their first duel. Only a small faction encountered the same issue as Nisha and Alexander, evenly matching up against each other, while a few talented newcomers directly squashed their opponents and took the first point. The other party couldn’t send out their mental energy yet like the majority of those present, struggling to move the stone yet both sides failed at that. Changing opponents for the few that directly obliterated the opposition, Miss Anet occasionally glanced at a particular board, but didn’t say anything all along.

Meanwhile, the elf and the youth still matched their mental strength at each other. What made Alexander excessively depressed was the fact that the red stone didn’t even tremble this time, his preparation to figure out what the minute gain he made in their previous bout turned out to be futile. Endlessly exhausting his mana, he did not gain a single advantage, and soon he would approach his limit again.

On the other side, Nisha didn’t intend to win at all. Experimenting with the formation inside and the material making up the gem, she learned about their nature instead of advancing. All her energy invested itself in fixating the red stone, not allowing it to move in either direction.

Appearing to be incredibly helpless the male mage already knew the results from their second bout. Nisha didn’t seem tired this time either; her mana pool was definitely above his own. Furthermore, she also did not focus on recovering earlier when he did, so how could she have recovered the total amount she spent previously?

In truth, the dragon had long ago recovered to her peak condition. While regular magicians needed to meditate and focus on restoring his energy, just living and breathing helped her refreshing her mana and aura continuously. In half the time it took Alexander to refill his energy, she already finished the same task while tinkering with the blue stone.

Resigned to his fate, he still fought it out with the teenager, trying different approaches to applying his mana. In this way, he did not fall behind the dragon’s attitude and struggled as hard as he could before ultimately running out of mana again.

Sighing deeply, Alexander stopped pressuring the stone as his energy ran out again. Deep inside, he was extremely clear on the matter of their duel. If the other party wanted to push through, the elf would easily be able to claim the second point by now. Instead, she gave him room to recover and focused on learning instead of competing with him. Based on that attitude alone, he already ought to be thankful, not to mention she never flaunted her superiority. Truly, the people cultivating both the martial and mental path were all extraordinary individuals. Including himself in that crowd might be difficult, but this draw also kindled his desire to stand proudly among them.

And subsequently losing to Nisha did not appear to be shameful. As a considerate opponent, both of them profited immensely this time, allowing both of them to have a smile on their faces as the second round ended now as well.

“You know, I don’t know whether I should curse you or thank you.”

Taking the sting out of his words with a smile, Alexander did a seated bow and still thanked her in the end. With only a crushing defeat, he certainly wouldn’t have gained the insights he did at present.

“Stop talking nonsense, isn’t this competition? You can thank me when you have beaten me.”

While she wasn’t sure what the youth was thinking, Nisha had a happy expression as well. Due to the experience of the first round, her insights into the dispersing formation grew by leaps and bounds in the second attempt, and she got an idea how to deal with it. No matter how much Alexander gained, the dragon was sure her profit surpassed his many times.

Before they could recuperate and vie for a third round, the quiet voice of Miss Anet appeared in their ears, as the female lecturer returned to the front of the room, which instantly grew silent.