Chapter 22
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Hundreds of metres underground, two people, one tall and the other short moved at a quick pace through a dark tunnel. The tall one had shining white plate armour, with scaly wings jutting out the back and a draconic helmet. White hair could be seen coming out the back of the helmet, whilst bulging muscles rippled under the armour.
The short person on the other hand, was relatively skinny but had the faint beginnings of a triangular body shape. He had black hair and relatively fair complexion which was all covered up by black/purple clothing and a dragon-like visor with purple glass covering his face.
Of course, the two were none other than Horatio, better known as 'old man' and Draylen. They were relatively familiar with this path as it was the one they had taken in order to catch the Fallen woman from before and therefore were able to avoid most of the traps. This may also have been because Draylen had triggered all of them on the way there, but that's not important.
'Master Horatio...' Karonar urged mentally.
Black lines covered the old man's face, making him seem extremely angry.
'No.'
'...'
'But master...'
'I said NO! Do you know how difficult that is?!' The old man screamed through their telepathic connection.
'Fine. Well, next time you try to summon me, I'll reject you!' Karonar replied in a child-like manner.
The black lines tripled in number.
Meanwhile, Draylen watched this silent exchange with a baffled expression.
'I wonder what's wrong with the old man... One moment he's all happy from meeting a true dragon, the next, his mood drops dramatically. Could it be that Gaia is not bipolar, rather, this old man is?!' He thought.
The old man suddenly yelled and stomped out of the blue.
"-You -you -you LIZARD! How the bloody hell do you expect me to make you a true dragon?! If you dare reject my summons, I'll donate you to the empire's torturer, I hear that creep does very strange things to his..." The old man glanced at Draylen.
"Er, ahem. Anyway, we're almost there, let's speed up a little." He said awkwardly.
"Wha-"
However, just as Draylen was about to ask what had happened between the old man and Karonar, the old man suddenly ran off into the darkness.
"Stupid old man. I just wanted to ask a question." The boy muttered, before bitterly chasing after him.
After several minutes of blind searching, he managed to find the tunnel's exit as well as the old man waiting for him. Draylen cast him an annoyed expression, before walking out into a bright forest.
"Well, let's look for-"
A large crashing sound echoed out, interrupting the old man. The old and young looked at one another for a moment, before hurriedly rushing toward the source of the sound. Very quickly, they reached a path of destroyed trees.
Draylen shot a worried glance towards the old man, before doubling his speed. They saw a large oversized bird which wasn't necessarily fat but very big for what it should be, but with a giant glowing pillar that replaced it's heads and necks.
The pillar had penetrated all the way through the bird's body and the surroundings were drenched in bright red. Draylen looked around before spotting a small green dragon similar to Charcoal's size lying motionless on the ground.
"Aria! Wait, old man, find Arboria too!" He shouted urgently.
The old man nodded grimly, before dashing into the nearby foliage. Draylen quickly moved over to the small dragon and picked her up carefully.
'Luckily she's not wounded, as I don't know any healing spells other than directly injecting earth mana.' He thought with a small sigh of relief.
After a short while, the old man returned, carrying the dragon lady over his shoulder, like luggage.
"There are little to no physical injuries, only light mana overload. That goes for that little girl too. Let's hurry back to Gaia, she'll probably help to heal them." He said briskly.
Draylen nodded and thus, they entered the tunnel once more and ran all the way back to Gaia's chamber. When they arrived at the large double doors, the old man gingerly knocked twice before entering.
Sure enough, the large green true dragon appeared once more, shrouded in a light spectral glow. Draylen and the old man bowed respectfully, before putting the mother and daughter on the ground.
"We meet again, Gaia. We hope that you would do us a favour and heal these two, as they were injured from the battle against the invading Fallen." The old man said.
Gaia's gaze swept across the mother and daughter pair, whilst lingering longer on Aria. She then looked at Draylen.
"Little boy, did you use your life sense eyesight on these two?"
"Er, the situation seemed dire and I ended up forgetting." He replied sheepishly.
The dragon snorted in an amused manner, before replying.
"Well, your job is done. You may leave now." She said.
"Yes, of course- wait what? You mean..."
"This dragonling fulfils my criteria. You may now leave. I have little time and would like to make the most of it, thus I would like you to leave immediately." Gaia commanded.
The old man hurriedly nodded.
"Of course, your grace, we shall take our leave now. Best of luck."
Then, without further ado, the two left. They remained silent as they walked away, through the dark tunnel. After a short silence, the old man turned to Draylen.
"A lot more has happened in this past couple of weeks than you think. As soon as we return, you must train as hard as possible. The both of us have become targets for the Fallen and whilst I can protect myself, I'm not confident in protecting you from hundreds of them." He said with a hard face.
Draylen nodded.
"I never planned to stop training."
By the time they returned to the surface, the sky had turned dark and no sound could be heard. Draylen stood by the entrance of the mana vein's enclosed area, whilst the old man was busy attempting to summon Karonar.
'I refuse.'
'Karonar, you worthless lizard, I'm warning you...'
'Sorry, I don't speak Aurian.'
Black lines returned to the old man's wrinkled face.
'I'll castrate you if you don't come out immediately.'
'...'
There was a brief silence, before a white summoning portal abruptly opened and Karonar stepped through in a nonchalant manner. The old man glowered at his dragon, before helping Draylen climb up.
-Fwooof
Gusts of wind whipped about as the white dragon began to lift off, causing nearby trees to sway and shake like hypnotised monkeys. Draylen tightly clutched Charcoal and Barong, who also desperately held onto the crevices between Karonar's scales.
The old man on the other hand sat on the dragon's head with his legs crossed. He seemed to be ignorant of the mini tornados which were created by his dragon. The old man and the dragon seemed to be ignoring each other and didn't speak throughout the entire journey.
When they returned to the old man's cave abode, Karonar vanished in white light, causing everyone to fall several metres onto the ground.
"Bloody lizard, I'll definitely castrate you next time..." The old man grumbled, rubbing his backside slowly.
On the other hand, Draylen had simply gotten used to the two's cold war and instead breathed in a large breath full of fresh air.
"Home sweet home."
They entered the cave in a slow manner, before shutting the door behind them with a 'bang'.
Only the faint sound of crickets could be heard in the dark forest, whilst small blue fireflies hovered around in swarms, making the forest seem like a spiritual land.
-----
-Lick lick lick
Draylen groggily woke up to find Charcoal covering his face in smelly dragon saliva. He slowly wiped his face, before looking at the black dragon.
"I told you that licking my face is not good."
-Rawr
The dragon grinned innocently, before jumping up and down and trotting out of the room. Draylen shook his head with a grin, before getting dressed and washing his face. Water poured out of his hands, like miniature fountains.
Then, he let out a blast of heat from his hands, which instantly dried his face. Draylen then combed his messy bed-hair, before strolling out of his room. Barong, which had also woken up before him rubbed against his legs in greeting.
"Good morning, Barong." Draylen said, gently scratching behind one of the Lioberus cub's ears.
-Purrr
The cub which was once a small kitten, was now a much larger adult dog sized creature. His eyes and mouth now constantly emitted a light orange glow, showing his affinity with the fire element, whilst his fur was much smoother and seemed to shine slightly under the light crystals.
After petting his familiar, Draylen hurried to the dining room. Charcoal and the old man were already there, digging into Giant Forest Boar meat. Upon noticing Draylen arriving, the old man smiled warmly.
"Up late again, are we?"
Draylen grinned slightly.
"It's because of my training, I sleep late to replenish my lost energy." He replied.
"Well, you've managed to keep up with your absurd training scheme for five years now, I'm surprised you don't sleep till even later." The old man mused.
It had been 5 years since the incident with the Fallen and Draylen had grown significantly. No longer was he the scrawny child which relied on sneak attacks to dispatch his enemies, he was now a slightly less scrawny boy who relied on fighting techniques and his agile physique!
Although, he still preferred to ambush his enemies, rather than an up front confrontation.
Draylen plopped onto his seat, before pouring himself a bowl of milk and grabbing a boar's leg from the storage box. Of course, the storage box wasn't some simple wooden container, rather, it relied on magic to keep everything within fresh.
The 10 year old boy created a small flame to reheat his food, whilst sipping some milk. After a while, he finished eating.
Draylen's training scheme was something that really could be considered unique. In the morning he practiced mana manipulation, after that he practiced spell scroll inscribing. Although he only did two things in a single morning, the amount of things he did manage to do were absurd.
When he practiced mana manipulation, he actually cultivated at the same time whilst controlling the mana to speed up, doubling his cultivation speed and at the end of every spell circle training session, he would have learned a brand new spell. This training for 5 years had allowed him to advance from a tier 4 Neophyte, to a tier 6 Draconic Summoner.
Although with Draylen's previous progress 2 tiers in 5 years seemed too little, the truth was, after the tier 5 mark each tier would be split into low/middle/expert. This essentially meant that there were actually 22 tiers in total before 'ascension'.
This also meant that Draylen had basically passed through another 4 tiers in the past few years, which would make any genius around his age give up on learning the ways of the summoner and become a pig farmer instead, especially since he was at tier 6 expert stage and was soon to break into the seventh tier.
Then, in the afternoon, he would eat before practicing his agility by running through obstacle courses which he made in the forest and also strength training, which consisted of running with weights and wrestling with Giant Forest Boars.
Thus, whilst Draylen's body was rather slim, if one were to remove his robes, they would see a well-toned muscular body which would make any girl squeal however whether it be because that girl was only 10 years old or genuinely found him good looking, we'll never know.
As it was a brand new day, Draylen would naturally go out to train, but today he would skip cultivating and spell circle training.
Why?
Because he was excited to use his new familiar armament.
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Hundreds of metres underground, two people, one tall and the other short moved at a quick pace through a dark tunnel. The tall one had shining white plate armour, with scaly wings jutting out the back and a draconic helmet. White hair could be seen coming out the back of the helmet, whilst bulging muscles rippled under the armour.
The short person on the other hand, was relatively skinny but had the faint beginnings of a triangular body shape. He had black hair and relatively fair complexion which was all covered up by black/purple clothing and a dragon-like visor with purple glass covering his face.
Of course, the two were none other than Horatio, better known as 'old man' and Draylen. They were relatively familiar with this path as it was the one they had taken in order to catch the Fallen woman from before and therefore were able to avoid most of the traps. This may also have been because Draylen had triggered all of them on the way there, but that's not important.
'Master Horatio...' Karonar urged mentally.
Black lines covered the old man's face, making him seem extremely angry.
'No.'
'...'
'But master...'
'I said NO! Do you know how difficult that is?!' The old man screamed through their telepathic connection.
'Fine. Well, next time you try to summon me, I'll reject you!' Karonar replied in a child-like manner.
The black lines tripled in number.
Meanwhile, Draylen watched this silent exchange with a baffled expression.
'I wonder what's wrong with the old man... One moment he's all happy from meeting a true dragon, the next, his mood drops dramatically. Could it be that Gaia is not bipolar, rather, this old man is?!' He thought.
The old man suddenly yelled and stomped out of the blue.
"-You -you -you LIZARD! How the bloody hell do you expect me to make you a true dragon?! If you dare reject my summons, I'll donate you to the empire's torturer, I hear that creep does very strange things to his..." The old man glanced at Draylen.
"Er, ahem. Anyway, we're almost there, let's speed up a little." He said awkwardly.
"Wha-"
However, just as Draylen was about to ask what had happened between the old man and Karonar, the old man suddenly ran off into the darkness.
"Stupid old man. I just wanted to ask a question." The boy muttered, before bitterly chasing after him.
After several minutes of blind searching, he managed to find the tunnel's exit as well as the old man waiting for him. Draylen cast him an annoyed expression, before walking out into a bright forest.
"Well, let's look for-"
A large crashing sound echoed out, interrupting the old man. The old and young looked at one another for a moment, before hurriedly rushing toward the source of the sound. Very quickly, they reached a path of destroyed trees.
Draylen shot a worried glance towards the old man, before doubling his speed. They saw a large oversized bird which wasn't necessarily fat but very big for what it should be, but with a giant glowing pillar that replaced it's heads and necks.
The pillar had penetrated all the way through the bird's body and the surroundings were drenched in bright red. Draylen looked around before spotting a small green dragon similar to Charcoal's size lying motionless on the ground.
"Aria! Wait, old man, find Arboria too!" He shouted urgently.
The old man nodded grimly, before dashing into the nearby foliage. Draylen quickly moved over to the small dragon and picked her up carefully.
'Luckily she's not wounded, as I don't know any healing spells other than directly injecting earth mana.' He thought with a small sigh of relief.
After a short while, the old man returned, carrying the dragon lady over his shoulder, like luggage.
"There are little to no physical injuries, only light mana overload. That goes for that little girl too. Let's hurry back to Gaia, she'll probably help to heal them." He said briskly.
Draylen nodded and thus, they entered the tunnel once more and ran all the way back to Gaia's chamber. When they arrived at the large double doors, the old man gingerly knocked twice before entering.
Sure enough, the large green true dragon appeared once more, shrouded in a light spectral glow. Draylen and the old man bowed respectfully, before putting the mother and daughter on the ground.
"We meet again, Gaia. We hope that you would do us a favour and heal these two, as they were injured from the battle against the invading Fallen." The old man said.
Gaia's gaze swept across the mother and daughter pair, whilst lingering longer on Aria. She then looked at Draylen.
"Little boy, did you use your life sense eyesight on these two?"
"Er, the situation seemed dire and I ended up forgetting." He replied sheepishly.
The dragon snorted in an amused manner, before replying.
"Well, your job is done. You may leave now." She said.
"Yes, of course- wait what? You mean..."
"This dragonling fulfils my criteria. You may now leave. I have little time and would like to make the most of it, thus I would like you to leave immediately." Gaia commanded.
The old man hurriedly nodded.
"Of course, your grace, we shall take our leave now. Best of luck."
Then, without further ado, the two left. They remained silent as they walked away, through the dark tunnel. After a short silence, the old man turned to Draylen.
"A lot more has happened in this past couple of weeks than you think. As soon as we return, you must train as hard as possible. The both of us have become targets for the Fallen and whilst I can protect myself, I'm not confident in protecting you from hundreds of them." He said with a hard face.
Draylen nodded.
"I never planned to stop training."
By the time they returned to the surface, the sky had turned dark and no sound could be heard. Draylen stood by the entrance of the mana vein's enclosed area, whilst the old man was busy attempting to summon Karonar.
'I refuse.'
'Karonar, you worthless lizard, I'm warning you...'
'Sorry, I don't speak Aurian.'
Black lines returned to the old man's wrinkled face.
'I'll castrate you if you don't come out immediately.'
'...'
There was a brief silence, before a white summoning portal abruptly opened and Karonar stepped through in a nonchalant manner. The old man glowered at his dragon, before helping Draylen climb up.
-Fwooof
Gusts of wind whipped about as the white dragon began to lift off, causing nearby trees to sway and shake like hypnotised monkeys. Draylen tightly clutched Charcoal and Barong, who also desperately held onto the crevices between Karonar's scales.
The old man on the other hand sat on the dragon's head with his legs crossed. He seemed to be ignorant of the mini tornados which were created by his dragon. The old man and the dragon seemed to be ignoring each other and didn't speak throughout the entire journey.
When they returned to the old man's cave abode, Karonar vanished in white light, causing everyone to fall several metres onto the ground.
"Bloody lizard, I'll definitely castrate you next time..." The old man grumbled, rubbing his backside slowly.
On the other hand, Draylen had simply gotten used to the two's cold war and instead breathed in a large breath full of fresh air.
"Home sweet home."
They entered the cave in a slow manner, before shutting the door behind them with a 'bang'.
Only the faint sound of crickets could be heard in the dark forest, whilst small blue fireflies hovered around in swarms, making the forest seem like a spiritual land.
-----
-Lick lick lick
Draylen groggily woke up to find Charcoal covering his face in smelly dragon saliva. He slowly wiped his face, before looking at the black dragon.
"I told you that licking my face is not good."
-Rawr
The dragon grinned innocently, before jumping up and down and trotting out of the room. Draylen shook his head with a grin, before getting dressed and washing his face. Water poured out of his hands, like miniature fountains.
Then, he let out a blast of heat from his hands, which instantly dried his face. Draylen then combed his messy bed-hair, before strolling out of his room. Barong, which had also woken up before him rubbed against his legs in greeting.
"Good morning, Barong." Draylen said, gently scratching behind one of the Lioberus cub's ears.
-Purrr
The cub which was once a small kitten, was now a much larger adult dog sized creature. His eyes and mouth now constantly emitted a light orange glow, showing his affinity with the fire element, whilst his fur was much smoother and seemed to shine slightly under the light crystals.
After petting his familiar, Draylen hurried to the dining room. Charcoal and the old man were already there, digging into Giant Forest Boar meat. Upon noticing Draylen arriving, the old man smiled warmly.
"Up late again, are we?"
Draylen grinned slightly.
"It's because of my training, I sleep late to replenish my lost energy." He replied.
"Well, you've managed to keep up with your absurd training scheme for five years now, I'm surprised you don't sleep till even later." The old man mused.
It had been 5 years since the incident with the Fallen and Draylen had grown significantly. No longer was he the scrawny child which relied on sneak attacks to dispatch his enemies, he was now a slightly less scrawny boy who relied on fighting techniques and his agile physique!
Although, he still preferred to ambush his enemies, rather than an up front confrontation.
Draylen plopped onto his seat, before pouring himself a bowl of milk and grabbing a boar's leg from the storage box. Of course, the storage box wasn't some simple wooden container, rather, it relied on magic to keep everything within fresh.
The 10 year old boy created a small flame to reheat his food, whilst sipping some milk. After a while, he finished eating.
Draylen's training scheme was something that really could be considered unique. In the morning he practiced mana manipulation, after that he practiced spell scroll inscribing. Although he only did two things in a single morning, the amount of things he did manage to do were absurd.
When he practiced mana manipulation, he actually cultivated at the same time whilst controlling the mana to speed up, doubling his cultivation speed and at the end of every spell circle training session, he would have learned a brand new spell. This training for 5 years had allowed him to advance from a tier 4 Neophyte, to a tier 6 Draconic Summoner.
Although with Draylen's previous progress 2 tiers in 5 years seemed too little, the truth was, after the tier 5 mark each tier would be split into low/middle/expert. This essentially meant that there were actually 22 tiers in total before 'ascension'.
This also meant that Draylen had basically passed through another 4 tiers in the past few years, which would make any genius around his age give up on learning the ways of the summoner and become a pig farmer instead, especially since he was at tier 6 expert stage and was soon to break into the seventh tier.
Then, in the afternoon, he would eat before practicing his agility by running through obstacle courses which he made in the forest and also strength training, which consisted of running with weights and wrestling with Giant Forest Boars.
Thus, whilst Draylen's body was rather slim, if one were to remove his robes, they would see a well-toned muscular body which would make any girl squeal however whether it be because that girl was only 10 years old or genuinely found him good looking, we'll never know.
As it was a brand new day, Draylen would naturally go out to train, but today he would skip cultivating and spell circle training.
Why?
Because he was excited to use his new familiar armament.
Hundreds of metres underground, two people, one tall and the other short moved at a quick pace through a dark tunnel. The tall one had shining white plate armour, with scaly wings jutting out the back and a draconic helmet. White hair could be seen coming out the back of the helmet, whilst bulging muscles rippled under the armour.The short person on the other hand, was relatively skinny but had the faint beginnings of a triangular body shape. He had black hair and relatively fair complexion which was all covered up by black/purple clothing and a dragon-like visor with purple glass covering his face.Of course, the two were none other than Horatio, better known as 'old man' and Draylen. They were relatively familiar with this path as it was the one they had taken in order to catch the Fallen woman from before and therefore were able to avoid most of the traps. This may also have been because Draylen had triggered all of them on the way there, but that's not important.'Master Horatio...' Karonar urged mentally.Black lines covered the old man's face, making him seem extremely angry.'No.''...''But master...''I said NO! Do you know how difficult that is?!' The old man screamed through their telepathic connection.'Fine. Well, next time you try to summon me, I'll reject you!' Karonar replied in a child-like manner.The black lines tripled in number.Meanwhile, Draylen watched this silent exchange with a baffled expression.'I wonder what's wrong with the old man... One moment he's all happy from meeting a true dragon, the next, his mood drops dramatically. Could it be that Gaia is not bipolar, rather, this old man is?!' He thought.The old man suddenly yelled and stomped out of the blue."-You -you -you LIZARD! How the bloody hell do you expect me to make you a true dragon?! If you dare reject my summons, I'll donate you to the empire's torturer, I hear that creep does very strange things to his..." The old man glanced at Draylen."Er, ahem. Anyway, we're almost there, let's speed up a little." He said awkwardly."Wha-"However, just as Draylen was about to ask what had happened between the old man and Karonar, the old man suddenly ran off into the darkness."Stupid old man. I just wanted to ask a question." The boy muttered, before bitterly chasing after him.After several minutes of blind searching, he managed to find the tunnel's exit as well as the old man waiting for him. Draylen cast him an annoyed expression, before walking out into a bright forest."Well, let's look for-"A large crashing sound echoed out, interrupting the old man. The old and young looked at one another for a moment, before hurriedly rushing toward the source of the sound. Very quickly, they reached a path of destroyed trees.Draylen shot a worried glance towards the old man, before doubling his speed. They saw a large oversized bird which wasn't necessarily fat but very big for what it should be, but with a giant glowing pillar that replaced it's heads and necks.The pillar had penetrated all the way through the bird's body and the surroundings were drenched in bright red. Draylen looked around before spotting a small green dragon similar to Charcoal's size lying motionless on the ground."Aria! Wait, old man, find Arboria too!" He shouted urgently.The old man nodded grimly, before dashing into the nearby foliage. Draylen quickly moved over to the small dragon and picked her up carefully.'Luckily she's not wounded, as I don't know any healing spells other than directly injecting earth mana.' He thought with a small sigh of relief.After a short while, the old man returned, carrying the dragon lady over his shoulder, like luggage."There are little to no physical injuries, only light mana overload. That goes for that little girl too. Let's hurry back to Gaia, she'll probably help to heal them." He said briskly.Draylen nodded and thus, they entered the tunnel once more and ran all the way back to Gaia's chamber. When they arrived at the large double doors, the old man gingerly knocked twice before entering.Sure enough, the large green true dragon appeared once more, shrouded in a light spectral glow. Draylen and the old man bowed respectfully, before putting the mother and daughter on the ground."We meet again, Gaia. We hope that you would do us a favour and heal these two, as they were injured from the battle against the invading Fallen." The old man said.Gaia's gaze swept across the mother and daughter pair, whilst lingering longer on Aria. She then looked at Draylen."Little boy, did you use your life sense eyesight on these two?""Er, the situation seemed dire and I ended up forgetting." He replied sheepishly.The dragon snorted in an amused manner, before replying."Well, your job is done. You may leave now." She said."Yes, of course- wait what? You mean...""This dragonling fulfils my criteria. You may now leave. I have little time and would like to make the most of it, thus I would like you to leave immediately." Gaia commanded.The old man hurriedly nodded."Of course, your grace, we shall take our leave now. Best of luck."Then, without further ado, the two left. They remained silent as they walked away, through the dark tunnel. After a short silence, the old man turned to Draylen."A lot more has happened in this past couple of weeks than you think. As soon as we return, you must train as hard as possible. The both of us have become targets for the Fallen and whilst I can protect myself, I'm not confident in protecting you from hundreds of them." He said with a hard face.Draylen nodded."I never planned to stop training."By the time they returned to the surface, the sky had turned dark and no sound could be heard. Draylen stood by the entrance of the mana vein's enclosed area, whilst the old man was busy attempting to summon Karonar.'I refuse.''Karonar, you worthless lizard, I'm warning you...''Sorry, I don't speak Aurian.'Black lines returned to the old man's wrinkled face.'I'll castrate you if you don't come out immediately.''...'There was a brief silence, before a white summoning portal abruptly opened and Karonar stepped through in a nonchalant manner. The old man glowered at his dragon, before helping Draylen climb up.-FwooofGusts of wind whipped about as the white dragon began to lift off, causing nearby trees to sway and shake like hypnotised monkeys. Draylen tightly clutched Charcoal and Barong, who also desperately held onto the crevices between Karonar's scales.The old man on the other hand sat on the dragon's head with his legs crossed. He seemed to be ignorant of the mini tornados which were created by his dragon. The old man and the dragon seemed to be ignoring each other and didn't speak throughout the entire journey.When they returned to the old man's cave abode, Karonar vanished in white light, causing everyone to fall several metres onto the ground."Bloody lizard, I'll definitely castrate you next time..." The old man grumbled, rubbing his backside slowly.On the other hand, Draylen had simply gotten used to the two's cold war and instead breathed in a large breath full of fresh air."Home sweet home."They entered the cave in a slow manner, before shutting the door behind them with a 'bang'.Only the faint sound of crickets could be heard in the dark forest, whilst small blue fireflies hovered around in swarms, making the forest seem like a spiritual land.------Lick lick lickDraylen groggily woke up to find Charcoal covering his face in smelly dragon saliva. He slowly wiped his face, before looking at the black dragon."I told you that licking my face is not good."-RawrThe dragon grinned innocently, before jumping up and down and trotting out of the room. Draylen shook his head with a grin, before getting dressed and washing his face. Water poured out of his hands, like miniature fountains.Then, he let out a blast of heat from his hands, which instantly dried his face. Draylen then combed his messy bed-hair, before strolling out of his room. Barong, which had also woken up before him rubbed against his legs in greeting."Good morning, Barong." Draylen said, gently scratching behind one of the Lioberus cub's ears.-PurrrThe cub which was once a small kitten, was now a much larger adult dog sized creature. His eyes and mouth now constantly emitted a light orange glow, showing his affinity with the fire element, whilst his fur was much smoother and seemed to shine slightly under the light crystals.After petting his familiar, Draylen hurried to the dining room. Charcoal and the old man were already there, digging into Giant Forest Boar meat. Upon noticing Draylen arriving, the old man smiled warmly."Up late again, are we?"Draylen grinned slightly."It's because of my training, I sleep late to replenish my lost energy." He replied."Well, you've managed to keep up with your absurd training scheme for five years now, I'm surprised you don't sleep till even later." The old man mused.It had been 5 years since the incident with the Fallen and Draylen had grown significantly. No longer was he the scrawny child which relied on sneak attacks to dispatch his enemies, he was now a slightly less scrawny boy who relied on fighting techniques and his agile physique!Although, he still preferred to ambush his enemies, rather than an up front confrontation.Draylen plopped onto his seat, before pouring himself a bowl of milk and grabbing a boar's leg from the storage box. Of course, the storage box wasn't some simple wooden container, rather, it relied on magic to keep everything within fresh.The 10 year old boy created a small flame to reheat his food, whilst sipping some milk. After a while, he finished eating.Draylen's training scheme was something that really could be considered unique. In the morning he practiced mana manipulation, after that he practiced spell scroll inscribing. Although he only did two things in a single morning, the amount of things he did manage to do were absurd.When he practiced mana manipulation, he actually cultivated at the same time whilst controlling the mana to speed up, doubling his cultivation speed and at the end of every spell circle training session, he would have learned a brand new spell. This training for 5 years had allowed him to advance from a tier 4 Neophyte, to a tier 6 Draconic Summoner.Although with Draylen's previous progress 2 tiers in 5 years seemed too little, the truth was, after the tier 5 mark each tier would be split into low/middle/expert. This essentially meant that there were actually 22 tiers in total before 'ascension'.This also meant that Draylen had basically passed through another 4 tiers in the past few years, which would make any genius around his age give up on learning the ways of the summoner and become a pig farmer instead, especially since he was at tier 6 expert stage and was soon to break into the seventh tier.Then, in the afternoon, he would eat before practicing his agility by running through obstacle courses which he made in the forest and also strength training, which consisted of running with weights and wrestling with Giant Forest Boars.Thus, whilst Draylen's body was rather slim, if one were to remove his robes, they would see a well-toned muscular body which would make any girl squeal however whether it be because that girl was only 10 years old or genuinely found him good looking, we'll never know.As it was a brand new day, Draylen would naturally go out to train, but today he would skip cultivating and spell circle training.Why?Because he was excited to use his new familiar armament.
