A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

Seeing that Accalia was doing more or less fine and did not require her assistance, Nisha left the wolf in her corner to finish the breakthrough by itself.

Whenever she was with her contracted wolf beast, the elf never had to worry about her performance and could leave tasks to Little Lia without worry.

Since the wolf did its best to follow her lead, it was gratifying to see that her efforts were rewarded and that she stepped out of the first set of bloodline shackles.

A [Scaled Wind Wolf] would at most be able to cultivate up to the early intermediate realm of cultivation, stagnating after reaching the fourth or fifth rank.

By then, they either had to evolve or have a fortunate encounter to change their blood and bones to continue on the path of cultivation.

It was entirely different for a [Storm Trail Dragon Wolf], which had a far higher quality bloodline from the beginning.

Not only was it not unexpected for them to surpass the intermediate realm, it would not be an exaggeration to see them reach the seventh rank, then it would be up to effort and precious chances to see their limit.

Nisha never doubted that her own path of cultivation was still going to continue for a long time, as a dragon with a royal bloodline, the first realm was never able to contain her.

Due to the blood contract between herself and the two beats she took in, their cultivation levels could never stay too far apart from each other.

Whenever the elf advanced a rank, her contracted beasts enjoyed the benefits of their contract and received nurturing in the form of shared aura and mana that easily entered their bodies until they advanced as well.

Some noble families explicitly bought monsters with advanced bloodlines at very high prices for their offspring, as the monsters usually matured much faster than their descendants, effectively helping their cultivation advance as the monsters grew up and dragged along the children of the noble houses.

It was the same for Nisha and her contracted beasts, only that their roles were reversed.

 

Quite fond of the wolf and careful not to disturb her sleep, Nisha took another glance at Little Lia before she sat on her bed and entered meditation.

Usually, it was her body that took most of her attention during the day as she shuttled between the [Royal Academy], the Dungeon, the arena and Dharnas estate, with the occasional late visit to the [Crimson Night Palace].

During those times, the incarnation of her mental focus inside the [Inner World] either roamed the lands and appreciated the grandness of nature expressed in complicated landscapes or natural wonders or rested on top of the piled up mountain of treasure on her treasure island in the center of the ring shaped sea or dipped into a pool of molten metal collected in the mouth of a volcano.

Only when night arrived and her body rested did her attention fully focus on the internal affairs inside her own space.

A dragon‘s body was sturdy and powerful to begin with, so she originally did not require a long time to rest either.

Nisha more or less matched her schedule with the other residents of the Dharnas estate to keep the veneer of normality intact.

Her mind did not need to shut down and rest together with her body, giving the dragon more time compared to others.

Now she meditated and focused on her [Inner World] voluntarily, reminded of the existence of her second contracted beast by Accalia‘s advancement.

It was true that comparisons could make people die, especially with the great difference between peers.

On one side, her wolf familiar evolved its bloodline and followed her closely in cultivation, being a powerhouse in its own right.

On the other side, her elemental familiar almost lost all sense of presence and only idled away inside her inner space.

Perhaps Nisha would have forgotten about Eisen soon if she had not remembered at this point of time.

 

Entering the state of meditation, Nisha led her consciousness into her [Inner World] and fully took over the incarnation of her thoughts.

It looked exactly the same as her body outside, but it was essentially the master of an independent space.

Whether it was changing her clothes or flying in the air, it only took a thought to accomplish it.

If the elf was willing, her incarnation could collapse into countless strands of thought that merged with the entire space, feeding her information about the state of the land inside her soul.

The only downside was that the scattered strands were too weak to influence their surroundings and it was hard for the girl to act if she did not have an avatar to represent her consciousness.

Hence, she remained as an incarnation of her thoughts most of the time and either roamed the [Inner World] or busied herself with appreciating her pile of shinies.

Nothing was more convenient than carrying her treasure hoard along and being able to access it at any point of time for the dragon.

Sensing her surroundings, Nisha ascertained a direction with her influence over the space and picked up a direction immediately.

Although small animals and first rank monsters appeared recently in the woods and plains of her space, these were original residents and carried the mark of her space.

There was only one outsider that currently inhabited this space, making it easy for Nisha to spot her familiar Eisen.

Traveling through the air to quickly shrink the distance between herself and the elemental.

 

In the end her incarnation stepped on familiar land, as the destination ended up being the central island of her [Inner World].

At the center of the circular isle, her throne and the origin of this entire space stood in a cave together with seven different springs.

From each origin, a constant stream of elemental energy poured forth and nourished the entire world, giving life to all big and small things.

Three of them took the lead, according to the dragon‘s elemental alignment, so the most plentiful were fire, darkness as well as life and death elemental energy, springing forth in the form of a magnificent stream.

The four subordinated springs were not meager either, as wind, water, earth and light flowed into the world, and not as a trickle either.

Surrounding the springs were countless crystals that grew on the cave wall, transforming the throne of the world‘s master into the greatest natural wonder of all.

As the beating heart and origin of the world, Nisha always cherished the springs and often sat on the natural rock formation that made up her throne to look at the elements as they directed the cycle of life inside her inner space.

The dragon was aware where the energy came from, as her physical body did not only devour mana or aura like others in order to cultivate.

Perhaps it was hidden from others, but Nisha knew that a constant exchange happened with her physique as the medium.

Unrelated to the element, energy was drawn over from a large area, far bigger than she could observe, and washed her blood vessels, bones and organs before entering the [Inner World], becoming part of the internal system hidden there.

In return, a constant stream of mana and aura exited her soul, not quite the same as before, since it passed through her inner space and contributed to the growth there.

It was hard to say what changes the energy exactly went through, but as the medium Nisha was confident that her senses were not wrong.

 

Under the constant baptism of all seven elements, it was impossible that the dragon‘s cultivation stagnated at any point.

Not only did the enormous ocean of aura and mana washing her body and soul excavate her potential under the pressure of the [Dragon Force] and steady her foundation, it also polished her soul when it left again.

On top of that, there was a discrepancy between intake and release, which should have been in balance or at least pretty close.

Nisha had never questioned how her [Inner World] managed to contain a volume of elements that would have blown others to smithereens long ago from the sheer vastness, yet the amount of energy also grew after it passed through her space.

Indeed, her output was greater than the supplied aura and mana.

Normally, a part of the elemental energy should have contributed to the growth of all living things and the world inside her, and the rest would exit through her soul to form a cycle.

This alone would have benefitted the elf and with the assistance of the [Dragon Force] refining her physique and mind allowed the girl to cultivate to the point where her rank naturally overflowed and bridged the vast gulf between third and fourth rank, causing a perfect ascension.

But after nourishing her inner space and perfecting the dragon‘s foundation, the energy did not grow weaker, but grew in abundance.

Right now it was not very noticeable, yet the Dharnas estate flourished more than any of the adjacent lots simply due to the young mistress of the Duke House residing there.

The people were more energized and all materials used for building the estate enjoyed a very minor boost in quality.

It was just that the sphere of aura and mana used for the cycle between the outer and inner world where Nisha lived was far too large to focus the effect in a particular area, or the Dharnas estate might have turned into a holy land for cultivation.

 

Stepping onto her treasured island, Nisha started to look around to spot her contracted elemental Eisen.

She rarely added things to her space aside from the treasures that occasionally appeared in her bedroom and was even less likely to withdraw anything after it fell into her treasure hoard.

The only exception was to trade shinies for even more shinies, where golden coins turned into many silver ones, making it a worthwhile endeavor for the elf.

Perhaps having abundant funds warped the young girl‘s sense of money, often troubling merchants in the royal capital when a minor expense was suddenly settled with gold coins, leaving them scrambling for change.

But with those circumstances, Nisha was not very worried for her treasures either, as none of them could leave her [Inner World] without her knowledge, as only the dragon herself had the power to add or subtract items from this hidden world.

She rarely, if at all, spared a thought to the elemental that had zero contributions to its name so far.

Whether it was warrior outings from the academy or entering the Dungeon, it was especially glaring to compare her faithful Little Lia with the freeloader Eisen.

It was floating around all day in a daze and did not properly cultivate either.

Once Nisha and Accalia stepped into the fourth rank, all of their cultivation results would be funneled into the floating armor until it caught up.

Until then, it was impossible for the wolf and dragon to advance from the early fourth rank to the middle stage.

The elf did not particularly resent her familiar for not being useful, as everyone had different talents.

Duke Dharnas was a beloved commander that firmly grasped the city guard where the soldiers threatened to rebel if their leader was forcefully removed from his post.

But when it came to administration, there was a stark difference between the territories belonging to the Duke and the city guard.

 

Whereas the budget for the guard was calculated down to the exact amount and their operation never stumbled, most of the towns and cities belonging to House Dharnas were left to the loyal subjects cultivated by the late Duke, Eldrin Dharnas.

Other than putting them under his umbrella and responding to emergencies, the current Grand Marshal had little influence over his domain and was very fortunate that these subjects did not have the intent to rebel.

Otherwise, there was little he could do if the knights and barons instated by his father had the will to break away from the Dharnas name and submitted to the other three big houses near their land.

This did not mean that the Duke was an irresponsible and detestable ruler, the tax rates were among the lowest in the entire kingdom and many of the commoners venerated the late Duke for carving out a space where the common man could thrive and make a living.

Goodwill from the last generation carried over to the current ruler, but this would not last forever.

Just as the late Duke had found trustworthy subordinates and put their talent in administration into use, Nisha had to find a place where her elemental familiar could display its talents.

It was time to study it more closely and figure out what exactly it could do in the first place.

Nisha imagined that the floating armor perhaps shared her fascination with shinies and observed the treasure hoard, one of the places the dragon was most fond of within her [Inner World].