A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

“Elinor, then. Can you help me with the registration? I would like to fight as soon as possible.“

With the green light from the head of the house, Nisha was eager to get into the thick of it right away after she had scouted the location first.

No matter how big of a stir she kicked up, the Grand Marshal would clean up behind her.

She did not know why exactly Luthais allowed her to go wild, but it was a welcome surprise either way.

If Nisha was not able to fight until she was satisfied, she was not going to go back!

“Of course, that‘s no problem at all.

You have already registered the last time together with your instructor, hence your account is ready to go.

All we need to do is confirm some final details, measure your strength with the device and then you need to decide in which manner you want to compete, that‘s all.

Then you‘re good to go.“

Elinor tacitly declined to bring up the conduct of the two cousins from before.

On one hand, she was already used to the manner in which most of the participants conducted themselves; they saw the employees as little more than glorified servants for themselves.

Because the arena needed the guests to fight and allow them to profit, they tacitly agreed to look the other way as long as no one crossed the line and harmed their people.

On the other hand, it was rather laughable that two peak third ranked warriors thought they were bigshots that could demand whatever they wanted in the capital.

Not to mention the knights and higher ups of the school back in their homeplace, most of the city guards could easily subdue them with a single team, while the officers all had reached the fourth rank at least.

Plenty of peak third rank cultivators came to the arena in order to seek a chance to break through the first great divide, if the attendant really wanted to, it was easy to find a couple of them and exchange a favour with them to have them teach the insolent warriors a lesson they would never forget.

There were just too many people that were full of themselves, Elinor would never have any free time if she decided to pursue every insult and slight, not to mention that the Arena would not allow them to do whatever they wanted either.

If they came back and dared to stretch out their claws, deciding to use force to get what they wanted, it was quite possible that no one would ever hear of them again.

 

“Alright Miss Nisha. Do you want to compete under your own name or remain anonymous? We have a selection of masks and cloaks if you need them.“

Plenty of people wanted to conceal their faces, this was already a standard option when signing up for fights.

Fame had its own benefits and those that dominated the arena pit under their own name often had opportunities that eluded those without sufficient exposure towards the audience.

Nevertheless, Nisha still understood her own situation very well, so she did not hesitate to choose.

“I will probably choose an alias and wear a cloak, it‘s not really suitable for me to reveal myself at the moment.“

Neither Elinor nor the elf found this unusual, though for different reasons.

The attendant merely thought that this was the order from the academy‘s teacher, who did not wish to expose his students to the different influences of the arena too early.

“No problem, you should think about a stage name then, if you have not already.

Before you compete, we need to announce your alias, you have time until then to think about it.

Let‘s confirm your strength first so I can choose a suitable range of opponents.“

The procedure could not be more familiar to the attendant, who went through the same process dozens of times every day.

Leading Nisha behind the counter, a strange contraption with several displays and arms waited for them already.

Nisha raised her brows, as this was different from the simple crystal ball that was used for the test last time.

Then she shook her head, as it didn‘t actually matter.

If the dragon wanted to enjoy herself fully, it was unsuitable to conceal her strength, so this was an opportunity for her instead.

Though she had developed a habit to subconsciously stay out of the spotlight and downplay her own capabilities as a self protection mechanism, Nisha still knew what was important and what was not.

Hence the dragon was prepared to go all out.

“You probably have not seen one of these before, there‘s not much reason to get an accurate reading except for the first measurement when you sign up.

Compared to the crystal balls, the reading is more accurate and can measure different elements, which helps when it comes to assigning you an opponent.“

 

Elinor had gone through the process so often, she knew the ins and outs of the machine by heart by now.

Explaining it to the little lady was more for her sake, it would calm her down and make the measurement easier if the elf was not panicked or unclear about what to do for a clear result.

“You just need to place your hands on the base of the machine and channel your aura and mana from one hand to the other.

When the energy comes in contact with the machine, a reaction will occur and move the indicators accordingly.

The upper row is the major ranks, from the first to the ninth.

The middle row indicates the early, middle and late stages within a rank, although there might be minor differences for individuals.

Finally, the bottom row has two signals for each element, the four basic elements, light and darkness and life and death.

First is aura, second is mana.

Based on your results, you will be assigned a comprehensive score, which is the basis to find a match in the arena leagues.

To sum it up a little, if the difference between your scores is too large, the arena will not allow you to match up, as there‘s little to no doubt regarding the outcome.“

Although the attendant did not demonstrate personally, she pointed out each area while she explained, not treating Nisha lightly for her age.

No one was around, so Elinor would not get into trouble for skipping on her job details, yet she wanted to build a good relationship with this customer.

No matter how many ordinary assignments the attendant completed perfectly, they paled in comparison to having a cooperative relationship with a powerful fighter.

Elinor even dropped a little hint, which they were not supposed to tell outsiders about.

If any match ended up being too one-sided, the bets would follow the trend and overwhelmingly favour one side, indirectly wiping out any profit the arena could make.

Naturally, there was a way to get around such protections if the match was interesting enough or followed strict penalties for the stronger participant, but their exchange had yet to reach the level where the attendant would voluntarily advise the girl for no reason.

 

“If you have no questions, we can start.

The sooner we get the tests done, the sooner you can look for a suitable competition to participate in.“

Based on the preliminary testing when their teacher had brought along the students from the [Royal Academy], Elinor was almost more eager than the elf to send her into the pit.

If it was not for the strict regulations of the Arena, perhaps the staff member would have waived the test and used her impression from the previous time as a measurement.

And as it turned out, fortunately Elinor did not get ahead of herself and skipped out on her work, or she might have been in very deep trouble.

Nisha was rather interested in the contraption; it was very rare to see such detailed machinery elsewhere.

Most problems that could be solved with muscle power were not really problems for warriors, while magicians could easily rely on the power of elements to work for them.

So far, the most complicated piece of machinery the dragon had seen was the large clock in the Dharnas estate, an impressive piece of artwork that had many swirling gears inside.

Whenever the temple bells announced a new hour, the clock would accurately point at the corresponding time.

The elf did not believe that the clock was always accurate and suspected that the servants regularly corrected it according to the bells, hence she picked a candle and put it next to the clock.

Much to her grievance, the displayed time remained accurate, no matter how much she stared at the burnt leftover candle and the whirling piece of machinery.

Nisha had asked Galan about the principle behind the clockwork, and how it managed to tell the time, yet the butler disappointed her in that aspect.

He did not know either and only managed to explain that the clock was a gift from the previous king to the late Duke Dharnas as a marriage present, it would be difficult to find a similar item in Leandar.

Banishing the memories from her head, the elf placed her hands on the designated spots at the base of the machine and closed her eyes for a second to calm her mental state and prepare herself.

 

With a clear head, mana and aura seeped from the dragon‘s small hand into the measurement device, travelling through the mana storage and aura detection equipment and eventually returned to her other hand in one small cycle.

Warriors and magicians below the fourth rank could not easily project their internal energy, limiting the skills and spells they were capable of casting and executing by a large amount.

That’s why it was necessary to grasp the device and make skin contacts, or it would be impossible to inject the energy necessary for the measurement process.

As for the cultivators below the seventh rank, they could manage to project their aura and mana respectively in a close distance to the body, giving them more variety in their methods of attack and defence.

One famous skill was the [Aura Shock], where a warrior manifested a short, yet intense burst of aura all over the body in a flash.

Most spells and skills would bounce back from the clash in energy, making it an effective method of defence for knights, although it had a high degree of difficulty as the burden of control was high.

If the timing was bad, the flash would be too early or too late and achieve nothing, only skilled users dared to use [Aura Shock] in an actual battle.

Finally, seventh rank and above cultivators could separate their intrinsic energy from their bodies and manifest them in the outside world.

When their intent was powerful enough as well, it was even possible to attach these immaterial manifestations to objects with a clear direction, giving them extraordinary effects until the source energy ran out without the need for inscriptions or arrays.

And that was just one minor side ability of powerful cultivators, though a very practical one.

These thoughts briefly flashed through the elf‘s head while her energy continued to pour into the machinery base.

With the injection of aura and mana, the piece of equipment whirred to life and started the process of measuring the supplied materials.

First to move where the lowest levers, those for the distinction of elements.

Fire, mana and aura, as well as darkness, mana and aura, went from the inactive lower position to the upright active positions.

 

Elinor was pretty happy with this development, dual elements were rare to begin with, and even then most of the cultivators focused on their most talented aspect.

Students that had not yet chosen their direction for the future might be different, although most eventually reasoned with themselves to pick one or the other, mana or aura, instead of cultivating them both.

Time was limited, after all, a wasted day of training was a day lost of lifespan.

Having a dual affinity for a regular element and a rare one like darkness guaranteed that Nisha was bound to be popular in the future, especially if she demonstrated talent in physical combat and spell casting.

The attendant aside, most people would be shocked if they knew that the elf had habitually hidden part of her strength.

Thanks to her detailed control of strength inside her [Inner World], Nisha managed to only project fire and dark energy, leaving out her life and death affinity entirely.

In the worst case, she would reveal it later as her trump card, while the focus of the examination was on her cultivation base, so it did not really matter if the dragon kept one card hidden for herself.

While Elinor planned to promote the elf based on the novelty of a dual element talent, her gaze suddenly sprang to the levers at the top of the machine.

While the staff member racked her mind to come up with the best scheme for promotion, the levers indicating the cultivation base had started to move.

Starting from the first rank, the second row of levers would move first.

Jumping from early first rank to middle, then finally late stage, the middle lever would reset to the base position as all requirements for the first rank were cleared and the first row moved up one position to second rank.

Then it meticulously checked the supplied energy again for the milestones of higher cultivation and the lever would accordingly move from early to middle and late stage and so on.

According to the previous test, it was not unexpected that the elf managed to clear the second rank as well, setting the markers at third rank, early stage.

That much was uncommon, but still in the territory of geniuses.

The capital saw many of them every turn and not everyone among them managed to keep their potential going in a high paced environment filled with pressure and expectations.