Chapter 15
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In what seemed to be a colourless dimension, a group of 4 people who wore long, concealing cloaks huddled around a table.
"The new recruit failed." A man said.
Despite wearing the cloak, his massive stature couldn't be hidden, giant muscles flexed every now and then, causing ripples to spread across the fabric.
"It is to be expected, he was just one of the pawns at our disposal. More importantly, did he set up the war portal?" A woman asked, her light gentle voice contradicted her cruel words.
"Yes, a new connection has just been made and what's more is that the earth dragon Arboria who is guarding the 'artifact' does not know of it yet." A skinny man gloated, his voice was high pitched, like a eunuch's.
"Save the gloating for later, once we have successfully taken control over the 'artifact'. Several variables have appeared that have disrupted our plans. Especially that boy, didn't we send men to deal with his bloodline years ago? Why is he still alive?" A tall lady snorted in disdain.
"We did, but it turns out that direct descendants had escaped and hid in a rural village. We sent Mad beasts after them, but it seems that the boy lived through it." The burly man answered.
"Third brother, the master will be quite displeased when he hears of this." The tall lady said in a passive-aggressive tone, turning to look at the skinny man.
The skinny man, or 'third brother', just put up his hands and shrugged.
"How was I supposed to know that he would survive? I sent one of my strongest beasts after them, in fact, if it weren't for you encouraging me to take them out so urgently, before informing the master, I would not have lost that Mad beast. Ah, I reared that one for 10 years, I still yearn for it every day. So tell me, fourth sister, how will you compensate?"
"Y-you... It was your incompetence which led to the mission's failure! How dare you try and shift the blame to me?" Fourth sister yelled in anger.
The two began quarrelling in a rapid back-forth.
"Imbeciles." The gentle sounding lady pinched her forehead in exasperation.
"Give them a moment, second sister. You know this always happens whenever the two meet up. I always question why the master wants to rank us and make us compete against one-another." The burly man said slowly.
"You know that it's to make us try and curry his favour, but for god's sake didn't this idea of his turn third brother and fourth sister into idiots?" She asked facetiously.
Sighing, the burly man lightly smacked the table with his fist, causing the quarrelling duo to stop.
"You two, don't forget that our objective is the 'artifact'. With it, we can turn our current situation around, even toppling the empire might become possible with it. I don't care how you get it, just make sure that it's undamaged and also try to kill the boy, I'm sure he'll become a thorn in the master's backside in the future."
"Yes, first brother." They chorused.
"Fine then. Meeting adjourned."
Portals opened up behind each of them and the four stepped backwards, disappearing from the colourless dimension.
Meanwhile, in a small earthen hut, Draylen lay helplessly on the bed. Every couple minutes, he'd try to move and he was slowly making progress. At first, all he could move his arms, but now, he could move his back and toes, just not his legs or feet.
His mind was clearer too, even manipulating mana (which he did in secret) became easier. The boy slowly lifted the black cub up with both of his hands, looking at it's face. All 3 pairs of the cubs eyes were looking into his, with a cute expression.
"I've thought of a name fore you." Draylen said.
-Rar
The black cub yowled in excitement, gently poking Draylen's forehead with it's paw.
"How does Barong sound?"
Barong nodded all three of his heads quickly, as if Draylen would take the name back if he didn't respond quick enough. Seeing this, the boy laughed in a light hearted manner. The name Barong came from some kind of mythology that he had read somewhere, where Barong was the spirit king who represented the 'good' in the world. He had a panther-like appearance and to be honest, if one factored out the three heads and nine tails, the black cub did look much like a panther, especially with his black fur.
The name also showed Draylen's high expectations for his new familiar.
'A great man must have great summons!'
The day passed with him playing with Charcoal and Barong. However, he didn't waste his time just like that. Throughout the whole day, he had been practicing his mana manipulation, testing the effects of mana on his body.
For example, if he sent fire mana into his muscles, they would gain an explosive strength, whilst if he injected them with water mana, they would become nimble and flexible. Draylen even tried fusing different amounts and elements of mana, to create a more balanced strength boost to his body.
Not only had he grown substantially stronger, both Barong and Charcoal had grown too. The black baby dragon could now shoot small spurts of flame, what was strange about it was the fact that the flames were a ghostly blue, contrary to the traditional red.
Barong had learnt to control his tails better, much like his mother, he could extend them for several metres and also produce a few spikes here and there. This surprised Draylen a little, as he had expected more unique abilities to come from a cub which looked nothing like it's siblings or mother.
Draylen quickly sent mana into his balance spell circle which was on his back. In truth, he had always meant to check it, but eventually put it at the back of his mind. Now that he had little to do, what better than to check his progress?
Black and white mana filled the spell circle like molten metal into a cast. Soon, some numbers appeared in his mind.
50% 50%
'Wow, it seems that I've become fully balanced.'
'Perhaps it's due to being injured so heavily in the fight that lots of my body has been regenerated to equal proportions.' He speculated thoughtfully.
Suddenly, the front door opened.
'Crap, it's Arboria, I was too careless.' He scolded himself mentally, whilst frantically withdrawing his mana.
The dragon lady walked in elegantly, carrying a tray of different foods. She glanced at him suspiciously.
"Care to explain?" She asked sternly.
"W-what?" He asked nervously.
"The mana, I can feel traces."
Draylen looked around sheepishly before his eyes came to a stop on Charcoal's clear black scales.
"It was the dragon. He just learned how to shoot flames." He said, shamelessly shifting the blame onto his familiar.
Charcoal looked at his master as if he'd been wronged greatly, before trotting over to Arboria and nudging against her knees. She rolled her eyes and set down a large dish, which both of Draylen's familiars dived headfirst into. She then looked at the boy with an unconvinced look.
"Since you are so brazenly manipulating your mana, even when I specifically told you not to, you must have recovered quite a bit." Arboria said.
"Yes." He answered.
"Show me."
"I'm sorry?"
"Just cultivate for a couple of revolutions, I'll be able to check your condition that way."
"Ah, okay."
Draylen closed his eyes and focused his mind. The happy yapping of his familiar's began to feel as if they were hundreds of metres away, until he couldn't hear them any more. The bright scenery before him turned into a black abyss where he could only see and manipulate the mana residing in his body.
Then, he willed his heart to pump white and black mana through his bloodstream, causing it to beat vigorously and turn his blood black and white. Then, after a single revolution was completed, all the other elements of mana also seeped into his blood, creating a stream of myriad colours.
Draylen's lower body, which had originally felt numb, began to regain some feeling. Each time earth mana passed through that area, his injuries healed bit by bit until he could feel properly. Slowly, the boy got into the groove of cultivating and just as soon as he was beginning to enjoy the feeling of power rushing through his veins, Arboria interrupted him.
"Alright, that's enough you can stop now."
Draylen unwillingly withdrew from his focused state of mind and light gradually returned to his vision.
"For a child who is tier 4, you recover abnormally quickly. To be honest, a 5 year old child reaching even tier 1 would be impressive." She praised.
Draylen shamelessly accepted it as if the praise was natural.
'Of course, you should praise the great I, soon to be strongest Dragon Summoner in history!'
Although he didn't have the guts to say that out loud. The front door opened abruptly and a girl who looked almost like a carbon copy of Arboria, just younger emerged.
"Mom, the old man came again." She chirped loudly before looking curiously at Draylen.
He just nodded slightly in greeting before turning to Arboria.
"Did the old man really come?!" He asked excitedly.
"I guess so. You should get dressed and meet him you're body seems to be in good condition so it shouldn't be too difficult." She advised before walking over to her daughter and ruffling her hair.
"Silly girl, knock next time."
"Okay, mom."
The two left the hut, leaving only Draylen who realised that he was wearing nothing but his underwear. Blushing slightly, he fumbled around the room looking for clothes, but he only managed to find a white and green robe with ivy patterns which ran along the sides and sleeves.
'My clothes were probably too damaged in the fight to be salvaged.'
'But more importantly.'
'Who the hell undressed me?!'
Mulling over these thoughts, he quickly made his way to the door whilst beckoning to his familiars to follow. Charcoal was excited to see the old man, who had fed him well in the past whilst Barong was curious to see what kind of creature could get his master so happy at just a single meeting.
As soon as he opened the door, a bright light which he was not prepared for hit his vision, causing him to squint. The hut's interior was well but dimly lit and thus he took some time to adjust.
He hurriedly made his way down a small stone path, he guessed that this was the way as there were no other paths which led to the earthen hut. After a few minutes of running and several times where he almost fell flat on his face, Draylen finally saw a familiar beefy old man standing opposite Arboria and her daughter.
"Old man!" He yelled happily, waving his arms like a maniac.
The old man turned and smiled widely at seeing the mischievous little boy approach. He pulled Draylen into a bear hug before setting him down gently.
"Lady Arboria has told me what happened on your little trip." He said.
"Un. That saves me a lot of words." Draylen nodded.
"Brave boy." The old man patted his head fondly.
The boy grinned before leaning down to pick up Charcoal and Barong. He then showed the old man, holding them up as if he were exhibiting treasures.
"I contracted a new familiar, this Lioberus cub, which I named Barong! Also, Charcoal grew for some reason." He blurted out quickly.
"Slow down, lad. I'm not going to disappear." The old man chuckled.
Draylen nodded, before gasping for breath.
"Boy, for a summoner, a familiar is part of his family. Those two little devils you're holding will become your lifelong companions and whilst I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but I will anyway. Take good care of them." The old man said.
Draylen nodded for a second time before turning his familiars to look at him.
"Alright you two. This old man here is like my grandfather, and all four of use are like a family, therefore he's your grandfather too." He said solemnly.
Arboria chuckled slightly, whilst the old man, who had just been promoted to 'grandfather' blushed in embarrassment.
Barong and Charcoal nodded seriously, as if they were about to take on a dangerous mission in a war.
Suddenly, a giant black silhouette flew over them.
-Caaaawwww!
A guttural screech broke the joyful 'family' reunion.
-Boom
A massive two headed bird with large sharp teeth that jutted out of it's twin beaks landed on the ground. It had frenzied red eyes and emanated aggression. A tall black figure hopped down from it's back, with a coquettish giggle.
"It's sooo nice to see such a touching reunion, unfortunately for you, I'll have to end it here." The lady said, flirtatiously sticking out her hind and placing her hands on her hips.
"Fallen." Arboria whispered.
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In what seemed to be a colourless dimension, a group of 4 people who wore long, concealing cloaks huddled around a table.
"The new recruit failed." A man said.
Despite wearing the cloak, his massive stature couldn't be hidden, giant muscles flexed every now and then, causing ripples to spread across the fabric.
"It is to be expected, he was just one of the pawns at our disposal. More importantly, did he set up the war portal?" A woman asked, her light gentle voice contradicted her cruel words.
"Yes, a new connection has just been made and what's more is that the earth dragon Arboria who is guarding the 'artifact' does not know of it yet." A skinny man gloated, his voice was high pitched, like a eunuch's.
"Save the gloating for later, once we have successfully taken control over the 'artifact'. Several variables have appeared that have disrupted our plans. Especially that boy, didn't we send men to deal with his bloodline years ago? Why is he still alive?" A tall lady snorted in disdain.
"We did, but it turns out that direct descendants had escaped and hid in a rural village. We sent Mad beasts after them, but it seems that the boy lived through it." The burly man answered.
"Third brother, the master will be quite displeased when he hears of this." The tall lady said in a passive-aggressive tone, turning to look at the skinny man.
The skinny man, or 'third brother', just put up his hands and shrugged.
"How was I supposed to know that he would survive? I sent one of my strongest beasts after them, in fact, if it weren't for you encouraging me to take them out so urgently, before informing the master, I would not have lost that Mad beast. Ah, I reared that one for 10 years, I still yearn for it every day. So tell me, fourth sister, how will you compensate?"
"Y-you... It was your incompetence which led to the mission's failure! How dare you try and shift the blame to me?" Fourth sister yelled in anger.
The two began quarrelling in a rapid back-forth.
"Imbeciles." The gentle sounding lady pinched her forehead in exasperation.
"Give them a moment, second sister. You know this always happens whenever the two meet up. I always question why the master wants to rank us and make us compete against one-another." The burly man said slowly.
"You know that it's to make us try and curry his favour, but for god's sake didn't this idea of his turn third brother and fourth sister into idiots?" She asked facetiously.
Sighing, the burly man lightly smacked the table with his fist, causing the quarrelling duo to stop.
"You two, don't forget that our objective is the 'artifact'. With it, we can turn our current situation around, even toppling the empire might become possible with it. I don't care how you get it, just make sure that it's undamaged and also try to kill the boy, I'm sure he'll become a thorn in the master's backside in the future."
"Yes, first brother." They chorused.
"Fine then. Meeting adjourned."
Portals opened up behind each of them and the four stepped backwards, disappearing from the colourless dimension.
Meanwhile, in a small earthen hut, Draylen lay helplessly on the bed. Every couple minutes, he'd try to move and he was slowly making progress. At first, all he could move his arms, but now, he could move his back and toes, just not his legs or feet.
His mind was clearer too, even manipulating mana (which he did in secret) became easier. The boy slowly lifted the black cub up with both of his hands, looking at it's face. All 3 pairs of the cubs eyes were looking into his, with a cute expression.
"I've thought of a name fore you." Draylen said.
-Rar
The black cub yowled in excitement, gently poking Draylen's forehead with it's paw.
"How does Barong sound?"
Barong nodded all three of his heads quickly, as if Draylen would take the name back if he didn't respond quick enough. Seeing this, the boy laughed in a light hearted manner. The name Barong came from some kind of mythology that he had read somewhere, where Barong was the spirit king who represented the 'good' in the world. He had a panther-like appearance and to be honest, if one factored out the three heads and nine tails, the black cub did look much like a panther, especially with his black fur.
The name also showed Draylen's high expectations for his new familiar.
'A great man must have great summons!'
The day passed with him playing with Charcoal and Barong. However, he didn't waste his time just like that. Throughout the whole day, he had been practicing his mana manipulation, testing the effects of mana on his body.
For example, if he sent fire mana into his muscles, they would gain an explosive strength, whilst if he injected them with water mana, they would become nimble and flexible. Draylen even tried fusing different amounts and elements of mana, to create a more balanced strength boost to his body.
Not only had he grown substantially stronger, both Barong and Charcoal had grown too. The black baby dragon could now shoot small spurts of flame, what was strange about it was the fact that the flames were a ghostly blue, contrary to the traditional red.
Barong had learnt to control his tails better, much like his mother, he could extend them for several metres and also produce a few spikes here and there. This surprised Draylen a little, as he had expected more unique abilities to come from a cub which looked nothing like it's siblings or mother.
Draylen quickly sent mana into his balance spell circle which was on his back. In truth, he had always meant to check it, but eventually put it at the back of his mind. Now that he had little to do, what better than to check his progress?
Black and white mana filled the spell circle like molten metal into a cast. Soon, some numbers appeared in his mind.
50% 50%
'Wow, it seems that I've become fully balanced.'
'Perhaps it's due to being injured so heavily in the fight that lots of my body has been regenerated to equal proportions.' He speculated thoughtfully.
Suddenly, the front door opened.
'Crap, it's Arboria, I was too careless.' He scolded himself mentally, whilst frantically withdrawing his mana.
The dragon lady walked in elegantly, carrying a tray of different foods. She glanced at him suspiciously.
"Care to explain?" She asked sternly.
"W-what?" He asked nervously.
"The mana, I can feel traces."
Draylen looked around sheepishly before his eyes came to a stop on Charcoal's clear black scales.
"It was the dragon. He just learned how to shoot flames." He said, shamelessly shifting the blame onto his familiar.
Charcoal looked at his master as if he'd been wronged greatly, before trotting over to Arboria and nudging against her knees. She rolled her eyes and set down a large dish, which both of Draylen's familiars dived headfirst into. She then looked at the boy with an unconvinced look.
"Since you are so brazenly manipulating your mana, even when I specifically told you not to, you must have recovered quite a bit." Arboria said.
"Yes." He answered.
"Show me."
"I'm sorry?"
"Just cultivate for a couple of revolutions, I'll be able to check your condition that way."
"Ah, okay."
Draylen closed his eyes and focused his mind. The happy yapping of his familiar's began to feel as if they were hundreds of metres away, until he couldn't hear them any more. The bright scenery before him turned into a black abyss where he could only see and manipulate the mana residing in his body.
Then, he willed his heart to pump white and black mana through his bloodstream, causing it to beat vigorously and turn his blood black and white. Then, after a single revolution was completed, all the other elements of mana also seeped into his blood, creating a stream of myriad colours.
Draylen's lower body, which had originally felt numb, began to regain some feeling. Each time earth mana passed through that area, his injuries healed bit by bit until he could feel properly. Slowly, the boy got into the groove of cultivating and just as soon as he was beginning to enjoy the feeling of power rushing through his veins, Arboria interrupted him.
"Alright, that's enough you can stop now."
Draylen unwillingly withdrew from his focused state of mind and light gradually returned to his vision.
"For a child who is tier 4, you recover abnormally quickly. To be honest, a 5 year old child reaching even tier 1 would be impressive." She praised.
Draylen shamelessly accepted it as if the praise was natural.
'Of course, you should praise the great I, soon to be strongest Dragon Summoner in history!'
Although he didn't have the guts to say that out loud. The front door opened abruptly and a girl who looked almost like a carbon copy of Arboria, just younger emerged.
"Mom, the old man came again." She chirped loudly before looking curiously at Draylen.
He just nodded slightly in greeting before turning to Arboria.
"Did the old man really come?!" He asked excitedly.
"I guess so. You should get dressed and meet him you're body seems to be in good condition so it shouldn't be too difficult." She advised before walking over to her daughter and ruffling her hair.
"Silly girl, knock next time."
"Okay, mom."
The two left the hut, leaving only Draylen who realised that he was wearing nothing but his underwear. Blushing slightly, he fumbled around the room looking for clothes, but he only managed to find a white and green robe with ivy patterns which ran along the sides and sleeves.
'My clothes were probably too damaged in the fight to be salvaged.'
'But more importantly.'
'Who the hell undressed me?!'
Mulling over these thoughts, he quickly made his way to the door whilst beckoning to his familiars to follow. Charcoal was excited to see the old man, who had fed him well in the past whilst Barong was curious to see what kind of creature could get his master so happy at just a single meeting.
As soon as he opened the door, a bright light which he was not prepared for hit his vision, causing him to squint. The hut's interior was well but dimly lit and thus he took some time to adjust.
He hurriedly made his way down a small stone path, he guessed that this was the way as there were no other paths which led to the earthen hut. After a few minutes of running and several times where he almost fell flat on his face, Draylen finally saw a familiar beefy old man standing opposite Arboria and her daughter.
"Old man!" He yelled happily, waving his arms like a maniac.
The old man turned and smiled widely at seeing the mischievous little boy approach. He pulled Draylen into a bear hug before setting him down gently.
"Lady Arboria has told me what happened on your little trip." He said.
"Un. That saves me a lot of words." Draylen nodded.
"Brave boy." The old man patted his head fondly.
The boy grinned before leaning down to pick up Charcoal and Barong. He then showed the old man, holding them up as if he were exhibiting treasures.
"I contracted a new familiar, this Lioberus cub, which I named Barong! Also, Charcoal grew for some reason." He blurted out quickly.
"Slow down, lad. I'm not going to disappear." The old man chuckled.
Draylen nodded, before gasping for breath.
"Boy, for a summoner, a familiar is part of his family. Those two little devils you're holding will become your lifelong companions and whilst I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but I will anyway. Take good care of them." The old man said.
Draylen nodded for a second time before turning his familiars to look at him.
"Alright you two. This old man here is like my grandfather, and all four of use are like a family, therefore he's your grandfather too." He said solemnly.
Arboria chuckled slightly, whilst the old man, who had just been promoted to 'grandfather' blushed in embarrassment.
Barong and Charcoal nodded seriously, as if they were about to take on a dangerous mission in a war.
Suddenly, a giant black silhouette flew over them.
-Caaaawwww!
A guttural screech broke the joyful 'family' reunion.
-Boom
A massive two headed bird with large sharp teeth that jutted out of it's twin beaks landed on the ground. It had frenzied red eyes and emanated aggression. A tall black figure hopped down from it's back, with a coquettish giggle.
"It's sooo nice to see such a touching reunion, unfortunately for you, I'll have to end it here." The lady said, flirtatiously sticking out her hind and placing her hands on her hips.
"Fallen." Arboria whispered.
In what seemed to be a colourless dimension, a group of 4 people who wore long, concealing cloaks huddled around a table."The new recruit failed." A man said.Despite wearing the cloak, his massive stature couldn't be hidden, giant muscles flexed every now and then, causing ripples to spread across the fabric."It is to be expected, he was just one of the pawns at our disposal. More importantly, did he set up the war portal?" A woman asked, her light gentle voice contradicted her cruel words."Yes, a new connection has just been made and what's more is that the earth dragon Arboria who is guarding the 'artifact' does not know of it yet." A skinny man gloated, his voice was high pitched, like a eunuch's."Save the gloating for later, once we have successfully taken control over the 'artifact'. Several variables have appeared that have disrupted our plans. Especially that boy, didn't we send men to deal with his bloodline years ago? Why is he still alive?" A tall lady snorted in disdain."We did, but it turns out that direct descendants had escaped and hid in a rural village. We sent Mad beasts after them, but it seems that the boy lived through it." The burly man answered."Third brother, the master will be quite displeased when he hears of this." The tall lady said in a passive-aggressive tone, turning to look at the skinny man.The skinny man, or 'third brother', just put up his hands and shrugged."How was I supposed to know that he would survive? I sent one of my strongest beasts after them, in fact, if it weren't for you encouraging me to take them out so urgently, before informing the master, I would not have lost that Mad beast. Ah, I reared that one for 10 years, I still yearn for it every day. So tell me, fourth sister, how will you compensate?""Y-you... It was your incompetence which led to the mission's failure! How dare you try and shift the blame to me?" Fourth sister yelled in anger.The two began quarrelling in a rapid back-forth."Imbeciles." The gentle sounding lady pinched her forehead in exasperation."Give them a moment, second sister. You know this always happens whenever the two meet up. I always question why the master wants to rank us and make us compete against one-another." The burly man said slowly."You know that it's to make us try and curry his favour, but for god's sake didn't this idea of his turn third brother and fourth sister into idiots?" She asked facetiously.Sighing, the burly man lightly smacked the table with his fist, causing the quarrelling duo to stop."You two, don't forget that our objective is the 'artifact'. With it, we can turn our current situation around, even toppling the empire might become possible with it. I don't care how you get it, just make sure that it's undamaged and also try to kill the boy, I'm sure he'll become a thorn in the master's backside in the future.""Yes, first brother." They chorused."Fine then. Meeting adjourned."Portals opened up behind each of them and the four stepped backwards, disappearing from the colourless dimension.Meanwhile, in a small earthen hut, Draylen lay helplessly on the bed. Every couple minutes, he'd try to move and he was slowly making progress. At first, all he could move his arms, but now, he could move his back and toes, just not his legs or feet.His mind was clearer too, even manipulating mana which he did in secret became easier. The boy slowly lifted the black cub up with both of his hands, looking at it's face. All 3 pairs of the cubs eyes were looking into his, with a cute expression."I've thought of a name fore you." Draylen said.-RarThe black cub yowled in excitement, gently poking Draylen's forehead with it's paw."How does Barong sound?"Barong nodded all three of his heads quickly, as if Draylen would take the name back if he didn't respond quick enough. Seeing this, the boy laughed in a light hearted manner. The name Barong came from some kind of mythology that he had read somewhere, where Barong was the spirit king who represented the 'good' in the world. He had a panther-like appearance and to be honest, if one factored out the three heads and nine tails, the black cub did look much like a panther, especially with his black fur.The name also showed Draylen's high expectations for his new familiar.'A great man must have great summons!'The day passed with him playing with Charcoal and Barong. However, he didn't waste his time just like that. Throughout the whole day, he had been practicing his mana manipulation, testing the effects of mana on his body.For example, if he sent fire mana into his muscles, they would gain an explosive strength, whilst if he injected them with water mana, they would become nimble and flexible. Draylen even tried fusing different amounts and elements of mana, to create a more balanced strength boost to his body.Not only had he grown substantially stronger, both Barong and Charcoal had grown too. The black baby dragon could now shoot small spurts of flame, what was strange about it was the fact that the flames were a ghostly blue, contrary to the traditional red.Barong had learnt to control his tails better, much like his mother, he could extend them for several metres and also produce a few spikes here and there. This surprised Draylen a little, as he had expected more unique abilities to come from a cub which looked nothing like it's siblings or mother.Draylen quickly sent mana into his balance spell circle which was on his back. In truth, he had always meant to check it, but eventually put it at the back of his mind. Now that he had little to do, what better than to check his progress?Black and white mana filled the spell circle like molten metal into a cast. Soon, some numbers appeared in his mind.50% 50%'Wow, it seems that I've become fully balanced.''Perhaps it's due to being injured so heavily in the fight that lots of my body has been regenerated to equal proportions.' He speculated thoughtfully.Suddenly, the front door opened.'Crap, it's Arboria, I was too careless.' He scolded himself mentally, whilst frantically withdrawing his mana.The dragon lady walked in elegantly, carrying a tray of different foods. She glanced at him suspiciously."Care to explain?" She asked sternly."W-what?" He asked nervously."The mana, I can feel traces."Draylen looked around sheepishly before his eyes came to a stop on Charcoal's clear black scales."It was the dragon. He just learned how to shoot flames." He said, shamelessly shifting the blame onto his familiar.Charcoal looked at his master as if he'd been wronged greatly, before trotting over to Arboria and nudging against her knees. She rolled her eyes and set down a large dish, which both of Draylen's familiars dived headfirst into. She then looked at the boy with an unconvinced look."Since you are so brazenly manipulating your mana, even when I specifically told you not to, you must have recovered quite a bit." Arboria said."Yes." He answered."Show me.""I'm sorry?""Just cultivate for a couple of revolutions, I'll be able to check your condition that way.""Ah, okay."Draylen closed his eyes and focused his mind. The happy yapping of his familiar's began to feel as if they were hundreds of metres away, until he couldn't hear them any more. The bright scenery before him turned into a black abyss where he could only see and manipulate the mana residing in his body.Then, he willed his heart to pump white and black mana through his bloodstream, causing it to beat vigorously and turn his blood black and white. Then, after a single revolution was completed, all the other elements of mana also seeped into his blood, creating a stream of myriad colours.Draylen's lower body, which had originally felt numb, began to regain some feeling. Each time earth mana passed through that area, his injuries healed bit by bit until he could feel properly. Slowly, the boy got into the groove of cultivating and just as soon as he was beginning to enjoy the feeling of power rushing through his veins, Arboria interrupted him."Alright, that's enough you can stop now."Draylen unwillingly withdrew from his focused state of mind and light gradually returned to his vision."For a child who is tier 4, you recover abnormally quickly. To be honest, a 5 year old child reaching even tier 1 would be impressive." She praised.Draylen shamelessly accepted it as if the praise was natural.'Of course, you should praise the great I, soon to be strongest Dragon Summoner in history!'Although he didn't have the guts to say that out loud. The front door opened abruptly and a girl who looked almost like a carbon copy of Arboria, just younger emerged."Mom, the old man came again." She chirped loudly before looking curiously at Draylen.He just nodded slightly in greeting before turning to Arboria."Did the old man really come?!" He asked excitedly."I guess so. You should get dressed and meet him you're body seems to be in good condition so it shouldn't be too difficult." She advised before walking over to her daughter and ruffling her hair."Silly girl, knock next time.""Okay, mom."The two left the hut, leaving only Draylen who realised that he was wearing nothing but his underwear. Blushing slightly, he fumbled around the room looking for clothes, but he only managed to find a white and green robe with ivy patterns which ran along the sides and sleeves.'My clothes were probably too damaged in the fight to be salvaged.''But more importantly.''Who the hell undressed me?!'Mulling over these thoughts, he quickly made his way to the door whilst beckoning to his familiars to follow. Charcoal was excited to see the old man, who had fed him well in the past whilst Barong was curious to see what kind of creature could get his master so happy at just a single meeting.As soon as he opened the door, a bright light which he was not prepared for hit his vision, causing him to squint. The hut's interior was well but dimly lit and thus he took some time to adjust.He hurriedly made his way down a small stone path, he guessed that this was the way as there were no other paths which led to the earthen hut. After a few minutes of running and several times where he almost fell flat on his face, Draylen finally saw a familiar beefy old man standing opposite Arboria and her daughter."Old man!" He yelled happily, waving his arms like a maniac.The old man turned and smiled widely at seeing the mischievous little boy approach. He pulled Draylen into a bear hug before setting him down gently."Lady Arboria has told me what happened on your little trip." He said."Un. That saves me a lot of words." Draylen nodded."Brave boy." The old man patted his head fondly.The boy grinned before leaning down to pick up Charcoal and Barong. He then showed the old man, holding them up as if he were exhibiting treasures."I contracted a new familiar, this Lioberus cub, which I named Barong! Also, Charcoal grew for some reason." He blurted out quickly."Slow down, lad. I'm not going to disappear." The old man chuckled.Draylen nodded, before gasping for breath."Boy, for a summoner, a familiar is part of his family. Those two little devils you're holding will become your lifelong companions and whilst I'm sure I don't need to tell you, but I will anyway. Take good care of them." The old man said.Draylen nodded for a second time before turning his familiars to look at him."Alright you two. This old man here is like my grandfather, and all four of use are like a family, therefore he's your grandfather too." He said solemnly.Arboria chuckled slightly, whilst the old man, who had just been promoted to 'grandfather' blushed in embarrassment.Barong and Charcoal nodded seriously, as if they were about to take on a dangerous mission in a war.Suddenly, a giant black silhouette flew over them.-Caaaawwww!A guttural screech broke the joyful 'family' reunion.-BoomA massive two headed bird with large sharp teeth that jutted out of it's twin beaks landed on the ground. It had frenzied red eyes and emanated aggression. A tall black figure hopped down from it's back, with a coquettish giggle."It's sooo nice to see such a touching reunion, unfortunately for you, I'll have to end it here." The lady said, flirtatiously sticking out her hind and placing her hands on her hips."Fallen." Arboria whispered.
