A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

“To be honest, I am not quite able to talk freely about it, but I reckon that it is unusual enough to warrant an explanation.

As you know, our teacher brought us to the Arena to gain some experience to supplement our cultivation efforts.

On top of that, Ser Pinewood took out some of the resources that his adventurer group had no more use for and used it for our training.

The place selected for me originally had a more ordinary object suitable to temper the body and increase the total amount of aura and mana.

By a twist of fate, the item in question underwent a mutation and changed into a lucky chance instead, which brought great benefits to me and directly pushed my cultivation all the way to the fourth rank.

It‘s just unfortunate that the resource was all used up and it‘s unlikely to regrow in the next one hundred turns and that I took it directly without sensing the unusual changes that it went through.

If it was turned into a potion by a skilled alchemist instead, there would have been a fierce competition to obtain some of the finished product.“

Nisha was aware that she had to explain some of her strength at least and was prepared before she came here.

She had also prepared a scapegoat, no one would question the famous group [Silverveil] for having some lower rank resources at hand or giving them out without much consideration.

It was unusual to see a cultivation resource go through a mutation, but it was not impossible either.

Most herbs and fruits were only able to grow to a certain level depending on the species they belonged to, albeit there was a very minor chance that a long period of accumulation led to a qualitative breakthrough.

One of the more famous examples was the prized possession of an alchemist working directly for the crown.

He used to own a third ranked [Chilly Depths Hawthorn], a herb rarely found in the ocean and renowned for the strong regenerative effect it had on water attribute warriors and magicians.

 

It was too low ranked for the really wealthy people, whereas the people who could use it generally lacked the gold to purchase a product made with the herb.

As such the treasure laid to waste in the personal herb garden of the alchemist and slowly absorbed the energy of the sun and the earth for many turns.

Due to its rareness, it was expensive in the first place, its age was estimated above the ten turn level and below the fifty turn level.

Eventually, the plant grew to the height of a fifty turn [Chilly Depths Hawthorn] and even less customers ended up interested in buying it.

The alchemist himself eventually formed an emotional attachment after raising it for so long and no longer planned to harvest it eventually.

An unexpected event happened when the herb recently reached the height of a hundred turn treasure, a long period of growth suddenly bridged the innate gap of a third rank herb and the herb mutated on the spot.

Using up the energy stored over the turns, the plant shot up in height and changed its innate traits, turning into a [Frigid Rift Hawthorn Tree] overnight, shooting past the fourth rank and becoming a fifth rank resource.

Not only did the rank change, the strong foundation also allowed the single strand to mutate into a tree that could get harvested frequently and recover with enough care and nutrition.

Plenty of people curried favour with the alchemist to obtain a fruit of the tree in order to concoct a powerful potion that was helpful for their cultivation and demand far exceeded supply.

With the skill of an alchemist under the royal family, it was the same as a goose that laid golden eggs, instantly turning the man in question into a formidable existence.

It was a piece of hot gossip currently, Nisha assumed that the attendant would have also heard of it.

Given such a precedent, it was not impossible to imagine that a resource could change in a different direction and allow a cultivator to soar in strength and make it to the fourth rank straight away.

 

Hearing the explanation just now, Elinor nodded her head along and did not interrupt.

It made sense that a student valued by a member of [Silverveil] had chances and encounters that others could only dream about.

There had to be something extraordinary regarding the elf in the first place to attract the attention of an expert like Tyne Pinewood, making a shocking leap in cultivation became less attention grabbing when it was put that way.

Observing the changes in the attendant‘s face, a gleam of conspiracy flashed through the dragon‘s eyes.

Another aspect of casually revealing a scapegoat and explaining the source of her improvement came from the etiquette training that Galan, the head butler of the Dharnas estate, had put Nisha through.

Nobles had to pay extreme attention to the things they said, even in a private conversation.

The capital was no exception and it was to be expected that rumours about a great chance would eventually circulate in some crowds, even though no one but the arena employee knew about it.

Information was a currency, and a lie could become a truth if it was repeated often enough.

Members of a Duke family did not need to fear that their words might be twisted by others with malicious intent, yet it was still better to pay attention in the first place and avoid suffering by digging a pit for themselves.

A secret was only a secret if no more than two people knew about it, or it would be too difficult to ensure that no one leaked it and pushed the blame.

The only surprise way to keep something secret was to silence all others and be the sole keeper of the information.

This time, Nisha deliberately gave out details of her strength, she did not have any expectations that the Arena would keep that info under wraps.

It was just too much of a draw for the crowd to see a fourth rank fighter as young as a dozen turns fighting in the pit.

In this manner, the elf could make use of the rumours to give herself a legitimate reason to possess extraordinary cultivation at the fourth rank and divert attention to the other parties as much as possible.

No one would think twice as long as [Silverveil], the [Royal Academy] and the Arena were involved, which would allow the dragon to act much more freely in the future.

 

“Wow, what a great fortune. I am jealous now.

But it makes more sense now …“

Ellinor‘s honest opinion broke off towards the end, it was not very polite to speak to a guest that way and went against her job as an attendant, hence she restrained herself.

Forcing a smile to get over the awkwardness, most of the shock by the measurement had passed by now, the employee was just still overwhelmed by the sudden wealth of information thrown at her.

Nevertheless, her job still needed to be done, especially now that it was confirmed that a real fourth rank powerhouse was before her.

“It‘s all up to fate, I did not expect to have such a great harvest either, it was a regular training mission when Ser Pinewood handed the location over to me.

Now, it‘s not suitable for me to train with my fellow students under the Ser‘s care, the gap in cultivation is too big.

I will have to trouble you in the future, I might come more often to participate in events organized by the Arena to gain fighting experience.“

Seeing that her ruse had succeeded, the elf struck while the iron was hot and directly expressed her intention.

She was not completely lying either, if Nisha relied on her full cultivation, it would be quite easy to roll over all the students in the same turn as her, no matter how many of them came at her at the same time.

The dragon only did not want to stand out too much, and as a result she focused more on technique and learning, barely using any strength at all and restraining herself to the maximum.

“To be honest, I did not expect that you would have such an extraordinary level of cultivation..

As long as it’s the peak of the third rank and below, there are many different fights every day that would be suitable as recommendations for you to gain experience, but it is different for those above the fourth rank.

Usually, experts at that level make appointments in advance and fight against each other as a form of training themselves or to earn resources from the shops.

If it‘s the former, they rarely fight the same opponent several times, whereas the latter kind only moves when there are benefits.

It‘s a bit difficult to arrange a fight right now.

Since it was an oversight on their part, Elinor could only explain the circumstances and think about a solution with great difficulty.

 

“How about this? I don‘t know if there is another expert around the same level as Miss Nisha around right now, let me go and check with management first.

Above the fourth rank it‘s more difficult to estimate the full strength of a cultivator, the variance in strength can be very great even if both sides are at the early fourth rank.

If there is really no way, we can look for another early fourth rank magician or warrior and make an appointment on your behalf.“

The Arena would definitely welcome another capable fighter that made it beyond the first great divide, only fights at that level drew in the big bets from the crowd and propped up the reputation of their establishment.

Just by announcing a fight between experts, the revenue would rise in advance and lure more spectators beforehand.

As long as the elf wished to fight, Elinor believed the management would not let her down in any way and arrange a suitable opponent right away.

Nisha nodded once to indicate her agreement and watched as the attendant hurried away.

If there really was no suitable opponent for her, the dragon would have to return with empty hands this time.

At least, the Arena would not run away and she could make an appointment at least.

Sometimes it was troublesome to have a higher cultivation too, although the fourth rank was not yet the ceiling in the capital.

Perhaps those above the seventh rank would not be able to find a match at all, even if they waited for moons on end.

The Arena would not dare to let them fight either, as the destruction of their clash would be too great for the defensive measures, which would easily lead to casualties in the audience.

Should the spectators ever get hurt while on their premises, the entire establishment might as well give up and disband, no one would dare to visitier again.

As for those from the fourth to sixth rank, it was still manageable on part of the Arena, though it was rare for those who could cultivate to that height to lack resources so much that they entered the ring.

Even if they did not belong to a big force, a fifth rank warrior could easily obtain a position in the royal army, while powerful magicians were sought after by several different industries.

High fourth rank cultivators were the limit for the Arena, the occasional exhibition matches between fifth rank and sixth rank beings needed large amounts of money to invite them, where the parties involved would not showcase their trump cards either.

 

While the elf ruminated on the operating mode of the Arena and her own strength in comparison to the entire capital Thurgau, the door opened and Elinor rushed back into the room.

The attendant was scared that an overly long delay would displease this major customer and lose this business if the girl walked away.

Fortunately, the wait was not too long and Nisha was still there when she returned, lifting a burden from the woman‘s heart.

“Sorry for the wait, Miss Nisha. Please excuse me.“

Looking at the sorry figure of the attendant who was clearly anxious and rushed back and forth to settle the fight arrangement, Nisha was not a bit unhappy.

She already faintly accepted that it would be rather difficult to find a match on the spot, it was not the fault of the employees if there was no other challenger that matched her strength.

Waving her hand, the dragon signalled for the attendant to sit down first.

Elinor suddenly regretted that she lost her composure so often in front of a girl that was not even half her age.

Even in this situation, the girl was still more magnanimous than her and dealt with everything calmly.

Correcting her posture and sitting straight like an underling in front of her boss, the attendant did her best to maintain her image as an elite of the Arena.

“I have asked around and currently there is no other early fourth stage warrior or magician around that is willing to enter the pit.

Furthermore, most of the regular cultivators at that level either indicated that they were on break for the time being or already scheduled a match in advance, so they won‘t be available either in the short term.

We are very sorry about that.“

The saddest thing for a merchant was if there was a customer, but no product they could sell to them.

It also hurt the reputation of the Arena if they could not meet the demand of their participants, who would hesitate in the future when it came about coming back to fight.

The only saving grace in this instance happened to be that Nisha visited rather abruptly and was unaware of the system that matched the opponents, hence neither side would have bad feelings as long as they managed to find a compromise.