The Blue Mage Raised by Dragons

Kim Hajun glanced down at the innate ability orb his root bracelet had spat out on his palm. Evidently, the tower had defined him as one of Vur’s friends, but since Kim Hajun had already used an innate ability orb, this one was useless for him. Or was it? He brought it up to his face, and unfortunately, it didn’t activate. The orb simply sparkled at him. Kim Hajun shrugged before pocketing the orb; he could always give it to someone else who needed it.

After putting the orb away, Kim Hajun raised his head to look across from him at Vur. Dragons tended to unlock strong innate abilities, which is why humans avoided their region whenever possible. Since Vur’s root bracelet was in his elementals’ hands, he couldn’t check his new ability, but he was poking himself all over to see if anything had changed.

“How about I open a portal to Diamant, Zilphy, and Mistle?” Tafel asked Vur, looking over the side of the mountaintop at the other ones in the distance. Roughly half of them had been stripped of their vegetation. “I’m not quite sure where they went though. They got pretty far, huh?”

“You don’t have to,” Vur said, shaking his head and lowering his hands. “I can wait for them to come back to find out.”

Tafel raised an eyebrow. “Well, alright,” she said and nodded. Although she was excited to compare the strength of her innate ability with Vur’s, at the same time, she almost didn’t want to find out? What if his ability was so amazing it dwarfed hers? Then, she’d never catch up. “Do you think the tower gave Auntie her orb? I wonder what kind of ability she got.”

“It’ll be related to her abilities or talents,” Kim Hajun said. “You’re good at controlling phoenix flames, so you received an innate ability related to fire.” He gestured towards himself. “I’m good at observing and remembering things, and my innate ability requires me to observe my target closely to record their attacks.”

“If that’s the case, why is my innate talent so weird?” Stella asked as she flew out of the flower on Vur’s chest.

“You know what your ability is?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow. “How? I thought you needed a root bracelet to see a description of it.”

Stella snorted as she placed her hand on her chest. “I know everything about myself,” she said. “So, when I found out I could do something new, I immediately tried it.”

“And it hurt,” Sheryl said, the sunlike runes on Vur’s shoulder flashing twice.

Vur blinked and looked down at the fairy queen. “What’s your new ability?”

Stella took in a deep breath. Then, she opened her mouth and said something. At least, it looked like she said something, but it sounded like someone was scratching their nails against a chalkboard. The sound sent shivers down Tafel’s spine as she hunched her shoulders and covered her ears. When Stella shut her mouth, Tafel lowered her arms and furrowed her brow at the fairy queen. “By any chance,” the demon said and frowned, “was anyone in your family a banshee?”

Stella placed her hands on her hips as she hovered in the air. “Rude,” she said, her voice sounding normal once more. The fairy queen turned her head towards Vur. “What’d you think?”

Vur furrowed his brow before opening his mouth. Then, Tafel shuddered and flinched as she covered her ears once more. His voice was harsher and louder than Stella’s, and the fairy queen had to block her hearing as well.

“Did you just copy my innate ability?” Stella asked upon seeing Vur’s mouth close. “I thought these things were supposed to be unique!”

Vur shrugged. “It was easy.”

Kim Hajun furrowed his brow and walked closer to Vur and Tafel. “You can copy innate abilities?” he asked. “Do you want to try learning mine as well?”

Vur blinked. “Okay.”

Kim Hajun nodded and took in a deep breath. He held his right arm out, palm facing up, and stared at Vur. Motes of light accumulated above his palm, taking the shape of a flat rectangle. The motes of light were each a different color, and they roughly resembled an image of Vur when they assembled together. When the outline of the card fully took shape, it flashed, and the image of Vur was reflected perfectly on its surface.

Vur tilted his head before looking at Tafel. He held out his right hand, and multicolored motes of light gathered above his palm. They formed together into a card before flashing with a bright light. A card appeared, the image on it resembling Tafel. Vur, Tafel, and Kim Hajun looked at the card in silence. Then, Stella burst out into laughter. “Is that supposed to be Tafel?” the fairy queen asked, a smile splitting her face nice and wide. “She’s … perfect.”

Tafel’s expression darkened as Stella rolled over in the air multiple times, laughing all the while. Vur scratched his head. “It’s harder than it looks,” he said.

Kim Hajun stared at the card with Tafel’s image on it. It was … abstract to say the least. Regardless, the fact Vur had simply experienced the process once and was able to replicate it—albeit a bit poorly—how talented of a copycat mage did he have to be? Kim Hajun frowned upon seeing Tafel staring at him. Was there something on his face?

Tafel turned her head towards Vur. “Say, Vur,” she said. “I thought you could only learn skills used on you by beasts.”

“Uh-huh,” Vur said and nodded.

“Then…?” Tafel asked, not finishing her question as she turned her head towards Kim Hajun.

A shiver ran down Kim Hajun’s spine. For some reason, the demon was looking at him as if he were a lamb fresh for slaughter. “I’m human,” he said, feeling the need to clarify. It hadn’t been that long since he saw Vur and Tafel consume sustenance. Just thinking about it was a bit traumatizing.