Chapter 53: Chapter 52: Advancing

[Hillcamp]

Stepping back into the camp, Darganth was greeted by Jennia and Allaire who were sitting leisurely around a small campfire while chatting. Hanging over the fire was a rather big piece of meat, though one that contained little to no mana.

Noticing his return, both gave him a warm smile and separated a bit to let him sit between them. As soon as he sat down the two noticed that something good had happened.

“Met with the Drake I told you about.” He answered their question, “Gave me quite a few magical treasures so I think today we can just relax.”

“They were that efficient?” Allaire asked, slightly shocked.

The two of them had also seen the devastation all around and had come to a similar conclusion as Darganth did. Though compared to him who used the talk with Ilshas to infer that the beastmen army was nearly completely eradicated, they only thought that it had suffered a massive defeat.

“Two peak fourth ranks died on that field and while the traces were cleaned up very well, I doubt that many of the other beastmen survived. And even if many survived, the other fourth ranks should have cleaned house long ago.”

Hearing his words, the two of them fell into thoughts for a moment before agreeing. Spending the next few minutes recapping what he learned, Darganth brought to the two to the current state of affairs.

“A Wyvern, huh?” Jennia murmured after he finished.

Hearing the exitement in her voice he could only smile wryly. Apart from the rare dragon-hydras, Wyverns were without question the highest of all lesser dragons, whether in average talent, power or even their reputation and as a result they often lead groups other draconic beings.

This made them often look down on the others and he could already guess that she was planning some sort of prank, arrogant targets were the most fun after all.

Coming to the same conclusion, Allaire chuckled before saying, “Should I feel sorry for them or did you learn restraint?”

“No and don't intend to.” Jennia replied to her with a grin. Right as Allaire wanted to answer, their conversation was interrupted by Darganth.

“Oh.” He exclaimed out loud, puzzling Allaire and Jennia.

“I just realized that we should probably leave before this little skirmish period ends, who knows how the mythical rank in the city will react.” He explained.

At his words Jennia and Allaire nearly jumped up due to the realization. While previously they expected some small clashes with the mythical rank that the beasts likely send to oversee a safe retreat, now it could very well escalate far beyond that.

Only due to Darganth remaining rather calm did they do so too, expecting him to have already found a solution.

“You already have an alternative?” They asked nearly simultaneously.

“More or less. If we make our way away from here a day or two earlier there should be no problems. Sadly, that means that we will have to reschedule our week of fun.” He said, directing the last part to Allaire.

“It’s fine, we have time.” She answered.

“Still, let’s use this day similarly.”

“Hm?”

Just as Allaire expressed her confusion, their surroundings changed. While the hill remained the same, at about half its height an illusion shimmered into existence. Completely hiding the ground and forming a sphere around them, their surroundings were replaced with a gorgeous ocean.

Though this ocean didn’t start even close to them, instead the hill looked like it was flying hundreds of meters above this ocean. Scattered across the vast horizon were hundreds of floating islands of different shapes and sizes, with waterfalls flowing from nearly every one of them.

These perfectly harmonized perfectly with the beautiful blue ocean below, enhancing the picture even more. And even though it was only an illusion it looked extremely lifelike.

“While not the same as in reality, this sight should also be great.” Darganth said with a smile, bringing Allaire and Jennia out of their amazement.

“I love it.” Allaire answered without delay throwing her arms around him.

Jennia meanwhile just nodded with a smile. While she also found the sight mesmerizing, she wasn’t as enthusiastic about it as Allaire. Instead she left the moment to her while just enjoying it.

After a few minutes Darganth lead them to a spot a bit further from their camp where he quickly conjured a blanket and food for a small picnic.

Sitting down, he pulled both into his embrace by snaking his arms around their shoulders. Manipulating the illusion to also depict different animals jumping out of the ocean, he leaned his head on Allaire’s.

Silently combing his fingers through both their hairs, he joined them in silently watching the display despite being the one who controls it.

Besides the aquatic beasts of all sizes whose silhouette was visible through the water there were also all manners of birds flying overhead.

“It’s beautiful.” Allaire said.

“Mhm.” Jennia answered in affirmation.

After these two short comments about the sight they once more remained silent. This was only interrupted after what felt like an eternity when a rumble came from Allaire’s belly.

Managing to lift their sight from the scenery, the three of them started to dig into the food he had also conjured.

“I could grow accustomed to living like this.” Allaire said after a few more hours.

“Really? I would become bored by this rather quickly.”

“Maybe.” Allaire just answered with a shrug.

“You both will one day notice that there is nothing that will be fun for all eternity, one needs to find a balance.” Darganth advised.

“Seems sound.” Allaire said before laying down on the grass, “But for now I enjoy this.”

Remaining like this for a while longer, Darganth soon lay down with her.

After a while of lazing around, Allaire turned to Jennia with a questioning look.

“I wanted to ask you this since a while ago, but why does the human form you use always change?”

“Huh? Why not?” She answered with a puzzled look.

“Because Darganth always uses the same. And he says 'his human form' or so when referring to the transformed form of other dragons, so I assumed they do the same.”

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“They do.” Darganth interjected.

While slightly surprised by this, Jennia quickly answered, “Then they differ from beasts, but for me and probably most others its because we don't really feel like ourselves when transformed and thus don't identify with a specific look. Of course there are exceptions among beasts, at least my mother told me so, so I never wondered about this.”

With Jennia finishing her explanation, Darganth decided to add onto it.

“While I can't say for sure, its probably due to how different your transformation is from my ability to polymorph. Dragons don't have this feeling as if it isn't their own body that you described, so we tend to also identify with the form we take and thus rarely change them. We also tend to pick similar looking humanoid forms across the different species for the same reason.”

“Interesting, expected something more along the lines of experience as the deciding factor. Needing a few years to choose a form that one finds the best or something like that.”

Following Allaire's words their conversation slowly drifted to other topics before subsiding after a while. A while later all three had fallen asleep with the illusion around them accompanying them and only breaking minutes after Darganth had fallen asleep.

The next morning all three of them got up with a relaxed smile. Slowly getting up and going through their respective morning rituals.

Soon after, Darganth continued with their initial plan. With dozens of different small containers floating all around him he mixed their contents while carefully controlling the flames he had conjured below them.

“Why do I have the feeling that what we are witnessing something that most alchemists would consider abnormal?” Jennia suddenly said.

Her question brought Allaire who was witching the happening with a similar intensity as she did out of her trance.

“Probably because it is the case. Just creating multiple potions at the same time should be extremely complicated, at least if my understanding is correct. But doing it like this would probably drive every famous Alchemists insane.”

Nodding in agreement, Jennia turned her attention back to Darganth. After a few more minutes he completed the potions, letting the remaining ingredients float back to the ground.

The bottles meanwhile hovered before Allaire and Jennia.

“And?”

“Full success.” Darganth answered.

He had worked out which potions to create earlier that day, with every one ending as a success. A large part of this was due to each one being below the mythical rank in classification, making their creation easy for him.

“Oh, and yes, the method I just used would probably drive this worlds Alchemists crazy.”

“Well, it’s you so it was easy to guess.” Allaire said with a grin.

Chuckling slightly at her words, Dargnath let the remaining mana gather in a shere before him. Instead of having to eat every last magical treasure he could just absorb one treasure he filled with the mana of the others.

Allaire and Jennia were meanwhile absorbing the potions he had created for them one after another. Half focusing on them and half on his own mana heart, he watched over all three process.

While his own mana pool was growing under pressure of the overflowing mana he absorbed, he could feel both their strength growing.

While Allaire had mainly one that focused on her physique and mana, Jennia’s potions helped her with her main affinities.

Soon the process started affecting their surroundings, with the space around Jennia overflowing with four of the six elements represented among her heads. Sometimes the space would shatter or warp, time would distort, flames erupting or the ground would crack or move otherwise.

Jennia was meanwhile hued in a hurricane of mana nearly strong enough to be visible. At the same time there was a small symbol slowly forming on her heart, indicating her advancement into the second order.

Darganth was meanwhile at the center of a constant stream of mana flowing out of his body. This is the surplus mana that couldn’t go to enhancing his mana pool. And while small parts of it made its way into the tornado around Allaire, most dispersed into the surroundings.

But despite having absorbed nearly as much mana as Allaire he didn’t advance. This was because a dragon needed more mana for each rank and order, at least compared to most species. This difference was large enough that even the mana from the bodies he devoured in the forest couldn't breach the gap.

After a few more minutes the mana around him started to calm and he soon after reopened his eyes and he let his sight wander to Jennia fore a moment, before turning towards Allaire. Compared to an increase to once elemental affinities, there were far more things that can go wrong during an advancement.

Watching carefully to make sure that everything remained within her control, he waited patiently for a few minutes.

After some time he suddenly started to smile, shortly followed by a blinding light forming in Allaire's hand.

Slowly opening her eyes, she let the light construct float just above her palm while shifting its form repeatedly.

Looking up, she gave Darganth a bright smile.

“Congratulation on archiving the second order.” He said.

“Thanks to your help.” She added, nonetheless happy at her success.

After spending a few more minutes to grow familiar with her new found strength, Allaire turned her attention to Jennia and her gains.

“Want to test whether you can still beat me when I have an advantage of one order?”

“Of course. But most of my element's gained a few new tricks, so don't think this will be easy.” Jennia answered playfully.

The two were just about to start their spar when Darganth interrupted them.

“Let's restrain yourself for a moment, both of you just used enough potions that even most nobles would cry when they hear their cost so maybe don't overexert yourself.”

“Why?” Jennia asked with a small pout.

“Because one, there are still small parts that your bodies haven't yet processed and exhaustion could hinder that process, and two, there is a way better use of this period, starting with physical aura.” Darganth explained.

Darganth's word's caused a flash of excitement in both. For Allaire it was because he had told her to delay learning physical aura, the act of using aura to train ones body beyond the limits that each rank offers.

While it wouldn't necessarily be detrimental to do so before, without enough mana of high quality it was too inefficient to be considered worthwhile. Among most humanoid species that changes somewhere in the third rank, with those whose body is innately more powerful reaching that point later.

Jennia was meanwhile exited as she understood that this meant that he would teach her aura. Previously he had convinced her that it wouldn't be worthwhile for the current her, so she had asked him to just teach her once he believes this to be no longer the case.

“We can wait.” Both said to the other simultaneously before turning to Darganth with an exited grin.

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