《Unsealed Demonic Dragon Goes to the Academy》


 Prologue – A Fight with a Dragon (1)

    *BOOM*


    An explosion illuminated the skies as two beings faced each other. One was a normal human, he was tall and possessed an extraordinary physique. With his blue eyes shining through his long blond hair, he stared at the creature in front of him.


    He was the size of several buildings stacked on top of each other, with black scales covering his whole body. A dragon, with his long neck, stood tall, staring down at the human with his fierce and beastly red eyes.


    "You have improved, Gideon. To be able to counter one of my attacks so easily, you could say that I''m slightly proud."


    The dragon''s voice made the earth tremble, making anyone tremble equally in fear.


    "Do not patronize me, Rex Draco, today will be our last battle!"(Gideon)


    "You sound pretty confident, should I put such confidence to the test?"(Rex Draco)


    "Come."(Gideon)


    With those words, the dragon''s black claws rushed forward to obliterate Gideon, who cleverly charged his legs with a golden aura and jumped high, avoiding the attack.


    Without wasting a single second, Gideon swung his great sword, sending a moon-shaped slash towards the black creature.


    The slash gradually grew in size until it met with the dragon''s counterattack. Instead of the usual ball of purple flames, the dragon shot a shockwave of pure unstoppable power, making the slash dissipate and the hero to be thrown away a few dozens of meters.


    *Fwoosh0*


    Far away, where the hero landed, a brilliant golden light, accompanied by a huge shockwave, appeared.


    "Overdrive, huh?" (Rex Draco)


    Overdrive was the hero''s innate skill/technique, it allowed to boost the user''s strength, speed, magic and aura almost hundredfold, at least at the level the hero was now at.


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    "I should take this a little seriously then." (Rex Draco)


    The dragon''s body was enveloped in purple light, and his body started to become smaller and smaller.


    Finally, the light receded, revealing a more human-like body.


    Rex Draco now had a humanoid body of around 210 centimeters in height. Large black wings, black scales covering his body like armor, a tail full of spikes, his face covered by a fearsome black mask made from scales, red light seeping through the slits in the mask meant for his eyes, and finally, jet black hair flowing down his back reaching his waist, it was unruly and wild reminding one of a lion''s mane.


    Gideon''s figure appeared with a flash, staring into Rex Draco''s eyes.


    Without uttering a word, both of their fists collided in the middle, a shockwave spreading a golden and purple aura into the surroundings.


    Still without saying anything, they both attacked again, Gideon with his great sword and Draco with his claws.


    *BOOOOM*


    Another explosion occurred, and they both had to take a few steps back.


    Sliding into the ground, blowing dust up into the air, they both prepared for another exchange.


    Rex Draco charged forward, his right claw covered with purple flames.


    In response, Gideon raised his left hand, and a magic circle appeared in front of him.


    "Sing a song of seasons!


    Something bright in all!


    Flowers in the summer,


    Fires in the fall!" (Gideon) (A/N: This is part of a poem called Autumn Fires by Robert Louis Stevenson)


    Flames, golden, rushed forward from the magic circle, hurrying towards Rex Draco.


    "Useless!" (Rex Draco)


    Swinging his claw, the flames covering it were expelled forward, colliding with the golden flames of Gideon''s spell.


    *Boooom*


    An explosion rang out, forming a cloud of dust. Expecting Rex Draco to appear amidst the cloud of dust, Gideon changed his stance.


    However,


    "Gotcha!" (Rex Draco)


    Rex Draco had tricked him. Using the cloud of dust as a cover, he used his high speed to sneak beside Gideon.


    Before the hero could react, he was struck with flame-covered claws that pierced the side of his torso.


    But Gideon was a petty man, raising his left hand, he commanded his aura to form a physical construct, a dagger. A golden dagger quickly settled in his grip, and he swung it down towards his enemy.


    "Aura Construct?!" (Rex Draco)


    The golden dagger pierced his armor-shaped scales and pierced his skin and flesh.


    Finally, the pain settled for both of them.


    "Ah!! F*ck!!!" (Rex Draco)


    "Ugh!! Damn it!" (Gideon)


    Using their regeneration, they both healed themselves and stared resentfully.


    "It''s the first time you actually drew blood from yourself." (Rex Draco)


    "Yes, last time you only backed off because Astra used the tower of condemnation spell." (Gideon)


    "That still hurts nowadays, and it''s been five years since then." (Rex Draco)


    "Shall we go all out, now?" (Gideon)


    "Oh? So you figured me out, huh? Alright, let''s go!" (Rex Draco)


    And with those words, the surrounding area was completely obliterated as they transformed.

 Prologue – A Fight with a Dragon (2)

    Two silhouettes could be seen amidst the smoke and debris.


    One was 190 centimeters tall, he had blue hair, golden eyes and a great sword in his hands. That was Gideon.


    Facing him was Rex Draco in a more human form. Long shoulder-length black hair, wearing an armor of black scales, a black mask hiding the lower face, only revealing his bright red eyes, human eyes.


    "I didn''t know you could transform." (Rex Draco / RD)


    "I found out not long ago, but to think you could go even further, it''s insane." (Gideon/ G)


    "Strength is the most important factor in the world and the only thing you can trust, when you die, your own strength will be the only one with you, no one else." (RD)


    "No, even if people are not around when you die, the warmth of their words and actions will stay with you, forever." (G)


    Rex Draco clenched his teeth behind his mask, glaring at Gideon he let his anger out.


    "You don''t know anything!! People will only betray you! There is nothing you can trust but your own strength." (RD)


    Raising his arm to the side, purple flames started appearing, taking the form of a one-handed long sword.


    "So it''s not only appearance, you have become slightly more human." (G)


    Gideon raised his great sword with a smirk.


    "Come at me, Rex Draco, the demonic dragon, the King of Dragons!" (G)


    "If that''s your wish, then I will make it real! Gideon Meyer, the Last Hero!!" (RD)


    Soon the swords collided, bringing devastation to the land. Stones were obliterated and thrown around, trees were caught on fire, rivers started to evaporate, and the wind became a simple breeze compared to the shockwaves.


    The ground below them started to cave in, and without separating, both of them started descending as a crater was slowly forming with them as an epicenter.


    Looking into each other''s eyes, they finally separated, only to collide again a few meters away.


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    This process continued for a few minutes, and the once completely round crater had become a pit hole going straight down.


    "For someone who just acquired a human body, your swordsmanship is the best that I ever saw, including my own." (G)


    Gideon was not lying, Rex Draco''s swordplay was divine, almost like it was created by gods for gods to kill gods.


    "Using a sword is that easy, don''t know why humans fuss over it so much." (RD)


    "What a monster." (G)


    Gideon muttered before hurriedly blocking a slash from Rex Draco.


    Right now they were in the middle of the "pit hole" crossing blades, leaving afterimages of their arms and streaks of light on their swords.


    *CRASH*


    In a single swing, Gideon''s sword was knocked off his hand, sending it against the wall. The hero tried recovering, using his aura to step in the air to rush in the sword''s direction, but before he could, his face was grabbed by a clawed hand.


    "You''re not getting away, hero~" (RD)


    Gideon just felt his body get dragged to the bottom of the pit alongside an explosion.


    *BOOM*


    "This is the end, there will not be a next time. You were lucky to have fought me three times." (RD)


    "*Cough* huh, the first didn''t count, I was a kid, and I couldn''t even look at you properly, too." (G)


    Rex Draco positioned his sword above his neck and prepared to strike down.


    "Not today, bastard." (G)


    Gideon raised his hand, revealing a small crystal.


    "No, you fucking don''t!" (RD)


    Gideon crushed the crystal and disappeared. That was transportation crystal.


    "Shit!" (RD)


    A magic circle suddenly appeared beneath him. He suddenly started receding to his first form, his original form, one of a black dragon.


    "ASTRA!! You witch!!" (RD)


    From the walls and the ground, bright blue chains shot towards him, wrapping around him before shooting to the ground and walls, chaining him to the ground.


    "Free me!! I said, Free me!! Mmmgh" (RD)


    Suddenly, various chains appeared again, this time wrapping around his mouth and closing it forcefully. From the sky, several pillars of light shot down, pinning his wings, hands and tail to the ground.


    On the other side of him, a woman with black hair and amethyst eyes faded into reality before tapping his body with her staff made of white wood and golden vines.


    Rex Draco''s eyes dulled, and he stopped resisting.


    "What did you do?" (G)


    Gideon appeared beside her and asked, he just knew to teleport away in case of defeat so that she could trap him, he was not aware of details.


    "I sealed his minds to the depths of his brain, so he can''t control his body, his soul was sent to The World''s Crystal." (Astra/ A)


    She pointed at the sphere of crystal on top of her staff, which, according to the legends, possessed an entire world inside.


    "Well, he was much stronger than I was. I mean, I knew he was stronger than me, but I didn''t know that the ceiling was that high." (G)


    "..."(A)


    "You know about him more deeply than you let me know, much more than he knows, right?" (G)


    "..."(A)


    "*Sigh* Whatever, his seal will cause a great power vacuum on the demonic creature''s ecosystem."


    "It should be fine, he was always about staying in his own corner, that''s why he got the title of King of Dragons unknowingly."


    With a simple magic circle, they both teleported away, not long after the demonic dragon''s body was covered with several black barriers covered with several thousand runes.


    This was the day the Era of Monsters ended with the defeat of Rex Dragon, the First Demon Dragon, the Last King of Dragons.

 Chapter 1 - The Body

    In a fairly lit room, a young girl stood in front of a mirror, seemingly in deep tought.


    She had long pink hair, that cascaded down her back, reaching her waist. Accentuating the pink color, she wore a long white tunic with several golden patterns.


    She was Arianne, the new Saint Candidate and she was only sixteen years of age. She had been taken in by the church when they found her in the streets, fascinated by her enormous divine power.


    Divine Power was different from mana or aura. Divine power was an entire different power system bestowed by the gods to the ones they most favored.


    Arianne was the person that had the most divine power in all recorded history. Her mere presence illuminated the surroundings, gave life to dead lands and healed minor illnessess.


    The room she was in did not possess any windows or other light sources, her presence did that for her.


    KNOCK KNOCK


    Someone knocked in the door making Arianne open her eyes, that where bright golden in color.


    "Everyone is ready, we are just waiting for you, my lady."


    "I will be there rigth away." (Arianne / A)


    Footsteps could be heard outside the door, from whoever was sent to call her.


    Once again looking at the mirror, Arianne couldn''t help but think back to the task ahead of her.


    A few months ago, bellow the royal palace, it was found a deep hole that seemed to have no end. After sneding an expedition, they discovered a huge barrier covered in seals and complex restraining arrays.


    They weren''t able to break them tough and there were alot of discussions to wether they should unseal whatever that was sealed there.


    And now they called for help, help that came from the church.


    Arianne was still not sure how she could help, but she was undoubtly interested on this case. She had recorrent visions about certain subjects, and after she was first told about this task.


    "In the deep abyss lies The Fallen One, huh?"(A)


    The deep abyss was obviously the hole, but she had no ideia what or who The Fallen One was.


    She decided to not thinking that much about it for now and went out to meet the ones who would guide her to the hole.


    The people chosen for this task were not many, the seal was top secret that only the people directly involved were aware of.


    So the ones that were going to acompany were exactly the ones who had found it.


    "Good Evening, I''m Arianne, I''m the Saint Candidate that was comissioned." (A)


    "Ah! Yes, Lady Arianne! Thank you for your help."


    The one responding was tall man with a cheerfull personality, George Goldskin. He was the vice-captain of the Royal Guard and the leader of the party that had found the seal. He had dark skin not very common in this side of the world and very, very short hair that was bleached blond.


    "Anything I need to know before we depart?" (A)


    "Nothing complicated. We will be using magic to slowly descend to the bottom, when we first went there we used an artifact since we didn''t know how deep it was, but now we know that we have enough mana to go and comeback without worry." (George / G)


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    "And about whatever it''s sealed down there?"(A)


    "We all have teleportation stones and you have a Holy Cross, right?"(G)


    An Holy Cross was not just a symbol of faith but also an artifact for members of the clerk that operated with divine power. One of it''s features was to teleport the endangered owner to nearest church.


    "Yes, I do have one." (A)


    "Good! Well, let''s going, if our plan works than we can solve this mistery tonight! Haha! I really am in the mood for a beer after this."(G)


    "Excuse me. But I''m still unsure of my role in this plan."(A)


    "Hm?"


    George looked at Arianne confused at first, until realization hit him.


    "Oh! I forgot to tell you? Damn. Where do I start? Right. What do you know about seals?"(G)


    "I know that only high-level mages can produce usefull ones."(A)


    "That''s correct. Only Archmages are known to produce truly powerfull seals. This one we believed was made the Sage himself."(G)


    "The Sage?!"(A)


    The Sage was a legendary figure on the level of celebrities like The First Hero, The First Demon King, The First Saint and The Last Hero. The Strongest Mage to ever lived, said to have aided The Last Hero in killing The King of Dragons.


    "This just leaves me even more confused. How do you know it was The Sage? And will I even help, if that''s true?"(A)


    George looked at her and smiled before answering.


    "You see. The Mistress herself came to site to try an unseal it, but she failed. She was said to be the only disciple of The Sage, so who would be better than her to tell apart the workings of her master apart from the others?"(G)


    "And the second question?"(A)


    "Well that one is easy. You see, divine power is quite literally the power favoritism, it''s the will of gods matching your desired because they want to see you succeed, because of that it''s the biggest weakness of seals. Naturally, we asked the Mistress about her opinion." (G)


    "And she said?" (A)


    "That altough possible, only someone with a enormous divine power could succeed." (G)


    "Now I see." (A)


    Well, she almost could be called the personification of "enormous divine power", so it was obvious who to go for after hearing that.


    Arianne could understand now why she was needed for this task so she didn''t held them back any longer and signaled them to depart.


    It took sometime to reach the deapest part of the palace, and then go to the specific part where the hole was.


    "There it is! The Hole!" (G)


    They slowly descended each in their own manner, either magic or divine power.


    Reaching down, the place was full of brilliant runes and lines that glowed in a blue color. In the center of the hole, there was a gigantic black dome, covered in thousands of runes arranged in specific orders.


    "This is it?" (A)


    "Yeah! Magnificient, right?" (G)


    "So ... I just overdose it with divine power?" (A)


    "If your intention is to break the seal, then that should do it." (G)


    "I see." (A)


    Arianne aproached the black dome and placed her soft hand in the pure darkness of it''s surface.


    And chanelled every ounce of divine power that she had onto the dome. Suddenly, the runes and lines glowed in a golden color and shatered, leaving the air with thousands of the specks of ligth.


    Soon, the dark dome started dissolving into the air revealing a gigantic figure pinned to the ground.


    !!!


    Black scales, the size of carriages, claws the size of people. A black mane that flowed down it''s long neck into it''s back. Wide wings of complete black in color as if absorbing all light.


    What was the most astonishing where the collossal pillars of ligth that pinned the body to the ground. In the wings, limbs and tail. There were various chains encircling certains parts of it''s enormous and powerfull body.


    The mana in the surroundings reacted instantly, becoming thicker and purer.


    "A Dragon?!"


    Someone from George''s party screamed.


    However, there was another astonishing fact about this dragon something that only Arianne could tell.


    Call it a side-effect of having so much divine power or a special ability, Arianne could tell the balance between good deeds and bad deeds someone comitted, she called that balance Karma.


    And the karma of this dragon was all over the place.


    He had so many good deeds that people could only call him an angel. But countering them there was also an enormous amount of sins. Death. So much death, enough to extinguish humanity three times over. There was only one identity with so much sins.


    "This is ... Rex Draco, The King of Dragons!" (A)


    "What?! That''s impossible, he was killed by the Last Hero and he''s party 300 years ago!" (G)


    George was perplexed to say the least.


    "Maybe it''s dead and they just sealed the body, rigth? Is that what this is?" (G)


    "No." (A)


    George stared at Arianne eyes wide.


    "It''s alive, it''s heart is beating, the mana is flowing and I can see his Karma, wich means it is alive." (A)


    "Then ... Why isn''t it moving?" (G)


    "It''s seems that it''s disconnected with his mind, this body is alive but hollow." (A)


    Arianne stared at the infamous dragon and placed her hand on his scales. They felt warm and cold, just like his karma, it seemed so nonsensical.


    "We are safe ... for now." (A)


    "How ... reassuring, huh?" (G)


    Who would have tought, Rex Draco, also know as Humanity''s biggest chalenge since ancient time, had remained undefeated, no one had killed him.


    He. Was. Alive.

 Chapter 2 - The Mind

    What is the mind?


    Well, the normal answer consists of the fact that our mind is our consciousness, but although correct, this answer is incomplete.


    For a transcendent being like Rex Draco, the mind was one of the pillars that supported his existence. You see, a being''s existence is possible thanks to three factors, those being body, mind and soul.


    The body is the physical form of the being, as well as the most visible and comprehensible of the three. The soul was the origin of emotions, mana, aura and the life force needed to keep the body alive. On the other hand, the mind houses logic, reason and instinct as well as regulating emotions.


    The mind''s most important function, besides giving someone a sense of self, is to serve as a bridge between the body and the soul. Sending the emotions from the soul to the physical representation of the mind, the brain. And sending whatever information the body gather for the soul to store.


    Normally, the information can be stored in the brain, but important memories like first experiences or traumas are also stored in the soul.


    So what happens when all three of them are disconnected, like what happened with Rex Draco?


    The physical representation of the mind, the brain, was completely dead, so while Rex Draco was still alive, he was basically brain-dead.


    The soul had been separated from the mind, so it could no longer send emotions to both the body and the mind. Having been sent to an enclosed world, the soul most likely tried to find a new vessel.


    The mind, on the other hand, did not have many changes. For starters, the mind was logic, reason and instinct. It doesn''t have a body to worry about, nor does it have emotions, so it was nothing to worry about, since without the other it couldn''t do anything and wouldn''t try to.


    Theoretically.


    Rex Draco was the first being to ever have the three pillars of his existence completely separated. So the mind''s state was only a theory.


    However, there was a loophole in the theory, which was, the possibility that the mind had the instinct to pursue linking both the body and the soul.


    As it turned out, such a possibility was a reality.


    Finding itself isolated from both the body and the soul, Rex Draco''s mind followed its instinct to link them together again, aided by the cold guidance of logic and reason.


    The mind didn''t have many tools at hand, other than mana.


    Mana was originated by mixing soul energy with natural energy, and it was guided by the mind, unlike aura, which was created through the mix of soul energy and physical energy, being guided unconsciously like some muscles.


    Thankfully, for the connection that the body and the mind had, a.k.a., the brain, there was mana to access.


    Skillfully manipulating the mana that had unconsciously flowed from the brain to the mind, it started to work.


    Slowly, but surely, the work was getting done. How slow? How could it know? The mind is not a chronometer.


    But, it was slow, very slow, until it succeeded.


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    One day, in the deep abyss, the eyes of Rex Draco snapped open. It was not very long until the pain of the pillars nailing to the ground struck him.


    ''A lot of pain, it seems that I was nailed to the ground with these magic nails. Judging by my body, a few centuries have already passed, it''s whatever.''


    Without the soul to transmit emotions, pain was nothing but a sharper feeling of touch that alerted the mind to danger.


    ''It feels a lot clearer, for a long time, my soul had been corrupted, fueling me with negative emotions.''


    It really put things in perspective, without emotions to disrupt his thoughts, Rex Draco slowly rewatched his own actions.


    ''I don''t feel guilty, but I can understand that what I did was morally wrong. I just find it curious how I have never done a good thing, as if I were incapable of doing so.''


    This did raise a good point. One thing was being unable to choose the right path, the other was not having that path to walk on from the beginning. So it was strange for Rex Draco to be in such a situation.


    He did have a conjecture, however.


    ''Is it demonic power, perhaps?''


    If divine power was the favor of the gods, then demonic power was the hatred or disgust of the gods. Being a demonic dragon, it was obvious that Rex Draco was naturally full of demonic power.


    ''Demonic power does have morally corrupting capabilities, but does that apply to someone who possesses it? It surely does, I can feel the corruption in my body trying to reach something. But what?''


    After a little thinking, Rex Draco reached his answer.


    Emotions.


    The corruption was trying to reach his emotions to influence his mind. However, currently, Rex Draco does not possess any emotions due to a lack of a soul.


    Thanks to that, Rex Draco could now think more clearly without moral intervention.


    ''Well, firstly, I need to get rid of these restraints, they are really bothering me.''


    Slowly, he made the little mana and aura in his body flow towards the chains, so he could ignite them and consequentially break free.


    The pillars of light were much more difficult to shake off, but it was not impossible. Unlike mana and aura, demonic power inhabited his body, so his amounts of demonic power were still at their peak.


    A purple hue surged from his body and steadily flowed towards the pillars of light.


    The pillars being slowly turned to purple before turning to black and eroding into dust, freeing Rex Draco. For starters, these restraints themselves were pretty easy to destroy, it was the separation of his pillars of existence that was truly a problem.


    ''I suppose that if I felt emotions right now, I would be really pissed off by that woman, weirdly, I never really liked her, like an unquestionable amount of hatred that was unjustified. Well, she did blast my back with the strongest spell I''ve ever seen in my life.''


    Slowly raising his heavy body, Rex Draco looked around, trying to understand where he was.


    It was the same place he and Gideon were fighting before he got sealed, the depths of a really deep hole they themselves had created during their clash.


    Without the pillars of light, the hole was shrouded in a deep darkness, the only source of light being the bright red eyes of the King of Dragons.


    ''So what now?''


    Rex Draco didn''t really know what to do now, he didn''t really wanted to get out of the place he was right now, not until he regained his soul to replenish the mana and aura reserves he lacked.


    The problem was the fact that his soul was very far away, not in a sense of distance, like there were several boundaries between them.


    ''Should I just sleep like I used to? Problems get easier when you sleep, right? Yes, they do, it''s when you wake up that they get hard again.''


    After a little thinking, he decided to force his way into the place where his soul was.


    There were thousands of barriers before reaching the soul, so Rex Draco decided to only damage the barriers enough, so his senses could reach the next barrier, like a piercing attack.


    After, whatever the time he had spent was, he felt like he had reached halfway and it was getting tiring.


    ''This is getting out of hand, I need to find a way to speed up the process.''


    "There is no need for that, Rex Draco" (???)


    "!!!" (Rex Draco / RD)


    Right below him was a woman he recognized well.


    Black hair like the night and amethyst eyes that made the living dazed, she was the Witch Astra, currently known as The Sage.


    "You are that witch, Astra." (RD)


    Rex Draco spoke with an incredible hoarse voice.


    "That is correct, King of Dragons." (Astra / A)


    "What did you mean by what you said, witch?" (RD)


    "Exactly what I meant, there is no need for you to try to break into the world now resides, rather I will give it to you." (A)


    "Huh? It seems we are not on the same page, Witch Astra." (RD)


    "It''s simple. I have a price." (A)


    Astra looked up, staring right into the eyes of Rex Draco.


    "Are you interested in hearing it?" (A)

 Chapter 3 - The Soul (1)

    Rex Draco stared for sometime at the witch. Like when he first met her, hundreds of years ago, he felt a sense of familiarity with her, which pushed him into making the decision of hearing her.


    "You may speak." (Rex Draco / RD)


    "Thank you." (Astra / A)


    Hearing his aprovall, she waved her staff and made a confortable chair before sitting in it.


    "After we sealed you, me and Gideon got a hold of a old profet, that had made a prophecy about the consequences of your defeat." (A)


    "Consequences? Was this profet, a reliable one?" (RD)


    "She was the one who predicted the death of the First Hero and your birth." (A)


    " ''When the man falls, the dragon will rise'' , huh?" (RD)


    "Exactly." (A)


    "Then? What did they say?" (RD)


    Meaningless to say, but Rex Draco was very curious. In the past, seeking to find truth to his "birth", he had explored a great part of the world. The prophecy they had just mention was the biggest hint. In other words, he only knew that his "birth" was related to the death of the First Hero.


    "They said that at the time you woke up great catastrophes would happen frequently and that amidst them a hero would rise." (A)


    "And? If a hero is going to appear I do not see the reason to be informed of this." (RD)


    "That is only half of the prophecy." (A)


    The profet they were talking about was a old woman that had a special ability to see the future within certain conditions. The first being, to reveal one of the halves of each prophecy and the second condition was to hide the other half somewhere.


    "Have you found the second half?" (RD)


    "I did. A few months before Gideon''s death." (A)


    "Old age?" (RD)


    "Yes." (A)


    "Well, then what did the second half reveal?" (RD)


    "It said you would teach her something and that without it, humanity would be doomed." (A)


    "Hm?" (RD)


    Rex Draco was confused, mostly because he lacked proper emotions, otherwise, he would probably be fuming in anger.


    "Teach her?" (RD)


    "Right. I have already identified who the new hero is. This leads us to my price, our deal." (A)


    "I suppose, you want to make sure that I teach her whatever I need to teach her, right?" (RD)


    "Indeed. It would also be aprecciated if you could take care of her until she is ready." (A)


    Rex Draco tought deeply, it didn''t seem like a bad deal, but was he ready to face the brunt of corruption on his soul?


    "The Demonic Power-" (RD)


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    "It''s corrupting you soul and your emotions sending you in a killing spree, right?" (A)


    "Yes." (RD)


    "It shouldn''t be hard to supress." (A)


    "How so?" (RD)


    "Well, the demonic power''s corruption is aiming for the emotions that are on your soul, however, it does not originate from there, rather it''s origin is your body." (A)


    With this simple explanation, Rex Draco could vaguely understand her plan.


    "You want me to switch my body for a new one?" (RD)


    "Yes I will oversee the process, so you don''t have to worry. Besides the only consequences are a reset of your powers." (A)


    She was right. Both mana and aura traveled along the body, switching bodies meant switching the place those energies would travel on. This would result in his output diminishing.


    "Unfortunately, your demonic power is already deeply engraived in your soul, so both your mana and aura are going to permanently be of negative side of the balance, besides keeping your hot-tempered personality." (A)


    "What do you suggest then?" (RD)


    Problems with the soul were complicated, but if you added the fact that the problem originated from the body and only showed it''s effects on the mind. Naturally, Rex Draco was not shaken by the dificulty, mostly because of Astra''s presence.


    As The Sage, Astra was naturally someone highly versed in all areas known to Inteligent Life.


    "I will use several different methods to test wich one is the most safe, but the main goal is to build a new body capable of cleansing the corruption in your body caused by the demonic power without affecting the demonic power itself." (A)


    "That way I would still be able to weild my demonic power without being a victim to it''s corruption." (RD)


    "Indeed. Besides that, it will allow you a perfect way to approach the hero." (A)


    "A human body, huh?" (RD)


    "There shouldn''t be any problems moving around, considering that last transformation, right?" (A)


    "That is the least of my problems. But it will be a new body, essencially a new-born, my power will be reset. How can I trust that you will not dispose of me once I lose my purpose." (RD)


    "You don''t need to try to play mind games with me. I''m confident that you can regain your former power and incorporote moder magic arts aswell." (A)


    "..." (RD)


    "If you understand, then let me explain about how the world is now, who is the new hero and where you will meet." (A)


    Astra proceeded to explain vaguely what had happened in the last 300 years since his defeat. The world was very different, during his time, humanity was like a mischief of rats, running around afraid from the demonic creatures plaguing the land.


    At the time there was only a single place with more then a thousand humans, the last bastion of humanity called, The Nest.


    Or it was before Rex Draco destroyed it to induce a good dose trauma into a young Gideon.


    However, the world nowadays consisted on several nations. Some small, some Huge. Of importance, only three countries were woth notice from Rex Draco''s point of view.


    The Empire of Uclaria, founded right on the battlefield where he was sealed. The biggest country of them all and the most prosperous


    The Kingdom of Striocia, dominated the area where once was The Nest and prided itself to be the homeland of The Last Hero, Gideon.


    Republic of Whoastein, supposedly a neutral and mysterious nation. The only thing known was his political system and that it was the best when it came to technology.


    ''What even is a republic?'' (RD)


    Besides that magic become a bigger pillar to day to day life. In the past, magic was a rare practice and even slightly looked down upon. However, it seemed that nowadays it was used along with science to produce what was called as magitech. Creating artifacts that alowed everyday life to be quite confortable, apparentely.


    "The New Hero is from Striocia but is coming to Uclaria to study." (A)


    "Study?" (RD)


    "Yes, the Uclarian Academy of Sword and Magic or UASM for short, is the most renowned academy worldwide, many talented young adults go there to achieve greater feats on the areas they excel at." (A)


    "So I will find her there, then?" (RD)


    "Yes, that''s correct. In exactly a month the entrance exam to the academy will be hosted for the ones that are interested but were not recomended." (A)


    "Are you confident in creating a body for me in a month?" (RD)


    "Are you confident in adjusting to a new body in a month?" (A)


    Both of them looked at each other, tension feeling the air.


    However such tension was dissipated when Astra revealed a smug grin.


    "I believe that we are both capable of achieving our goals without delays, am I wrong?" (A)


    "I supose you are not." (RD)


    "Well then, I suppose as a sign of my good will I should give you, your soul back?" (A)


    "Won''t it cause problems?" (RD)


    After all, rex Draco did not possessed a new body capable of resisting the corruptive effect of his demonic power.


    "It should be alright. Besides you will need time to process a lot of things after you reunite with your soul. Time that I would rather not have overlapping with your time on the academy." (A)


    "Is it that bad?" (RD)


    "More than you could imagine. So are you ready?" (A)


    "I was born ready." (RD)


    "... You forgot that you don''t remember your birth, right?" (A)


    "Right." (RD)

 Chapter 4 - The Soul (2)

    Hundreds of years passed since Rex Draco''s defeat, but yet, for his soul, it had been a meager 18 years.


    Coming back from the world sealed on the Witch''s staff, his soul carried the memories of these eighteen years of a different life.


    The previously contaminated soul was now pure and cleansed, unshackled from the corruption of demonic power.


    Rex Draco started digesting the memories that it brought.


    In the sealed world, the soul''s new body was born in a mysterious way, much like the old one. It was never sure exactly how, but the child managed to survive the first six years of its life, living in the streets alone.


    At that time, his soul still remained corrupt. The boy was vicious and cruel, disposing of everything and everyone that was not useful, or didn''t have sufficient meat to become substance for him. His first kill was when he was three by making use of his recently growned full set of teeth to bite off a police officer''s throat.


    Full of savagery and bloodlust, this life did not prove to be any different from his old one. Living like a Dragon, the boy killed for food, survival... and amusement.


    That''s when he met an old man, whose life was coming to an end due to old age.


    "Give me your money! If you don''t, I will kill you." the boy had said.


    "Kill me? Don''t threaten me with a good time, boy. Death is just a nap time that I have been delaying for far too long."


    The boy was perplexed. Normally, there were only two responses to his threats. Fear or mockery. The old man was not threatened by him, because killing wouldn''t be bad but instead would be a favor.


    In a wave of rebellious feelings, the boy decided not to not kill the man, thinking that making the opposite of what the old man wanted would surely make him give up.


    He was wrong.


    "Why do you not fear death?" he had asked.


    "What''s there to fear? I''ve lived a long life. I was supposed to die much younger, but I strived to survive one more day, not only to stick to my ideals and goals but also for those close to me."


    "Where are they? The ones who were close to you."


    "They have abandoned me, I believe. But I did not seek a reward from them in the first place."


    "So... you fought for your life for nothing?" the boy was confused.


    "For nothing? Quite the contrary. All my goals and desires were fulfilled, and even if it hurt to see them abandon me, I was still rewarded by the world."


    "Rewarded by the world?"


    "Have you heard? To those whose actions have caused good, a new life awaits them, filled with new opportunities and goals."


    "Heaven?"


    "Heaven?! Gods, no, after finishing everything that I had to do, there wouldn''t be anything more boring than just sitting with angels!"


    The old man turned to the boy, a weird grin could be seen behind his dirty and long beard.


    "What I want is not rest, but a new adventure. To be someone I never was, to meet people I never even thought to be possible to exist, to see places that seemed like a fantasy book, to find new adventures, to find a new reason to live."


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    The boy was left in thought. He had heard a lot of people talking about how good actions would lead someone to Heaven, where they would rest in a peaceful life. He had scoffed at such an idea, it seemed ridiculous to him.


    However, the man''s words resonated inside the young boy.


    A desire for new adventure and goals, life a fire ignited amidst the darkness of the corruption of his soul.


    The man died after some time, but his words still echoed on the boy''s head.


    ''A new me'' he thought.


    What would he look like? How different would he be? What kind of experiences would he have?


    A new goal other than survival was discovered by the boy. To finally find such an adventure.


    However, what is the correct way to achieve it?


    The old man had talked about being rewarded by the world because his actions have done good. A new question arose in the boy''s mind.


    ''Am I capable of good? Do I have other desires other than survival that I need to fulfill? Do I have someone important to me?''


    The answer was no to all of them. Other than survival and reaching a new life, he didn''t have other desires. He was always alone, and he didn''t care about anyone.


    The boy continued to live as he had always lived, constantly asking himself this questions.


    It was when he was ten, that he found his answers.


    When he met . . . Her.


    She was like the sun, illuminating wherever she went, helping whoever she met. Her smile caused something deep inside him to steer and twist.


    At first, the boy believed these feelings were pure disgust, it was what he usually felt towards similar people.


    But then she approached.


    "Hey! Do you need help? You seem pretty tired. Are you alright?"


    The boy was for the second time in his life confused.


    He had been eating well the past few days. He had found a good place to stay that was quite warm, meaning he had been having a good sleep. Not only that, but he even found a good place to take a bath, so he was spotless. Why did she think that he was tired? It did not make sense.


    "What do you mean?" he voiced out.


    "Ah! Well, it seems that you have a lot on your mind, and my mama always says that people with a full mind get exhausted!" she explained.


    The boy fell into thought. Was the conversation that he had with the old man affected him that much? It seems so, at least.


    "Maybe I really am, I''m not sure."


    "Well, Papa says that the best way to get rid of that type of tiredness is to concentrate on other things. Like playing!"


    Without a warning, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to somewhere else so that they could play together.


    It was the first time that the boy tried to do something else other than killing, stealing or intimidating someone. It felt... refreshing.


    She was refreshing.


    Being with her made him feel... different.


    Like he was someone else.


    Someone better.


    Someone deserving.


    But was he? Didn''t matter.


    He found himself willing to make himself deserving to receive such treatment.


    Since then, his days were different.


    Instead of killing and stealing from his victims, he stole a book from a store and learned how to hunt and make a camping site.


    He used his strength and instincts to help others in exchange for money.


    And every day, he visited her.


    He escorted her from school to her home, he helped her when she needed help with something and played with her when she was alone.


    Although he was fine to always give and never receive from her, she refused.


    She helped him to set up his tent. She taught him how to cook, even though she preferred to just give him some packed food she had cooked. Furthermore, she taught some things she learned in school that she believed would be helpful for him.


    They grew up, and soon became 16 years of age. The girl grew to be the most beautiful flower in the fields. At least in the boy''s eyes she was.


    Among the dozens of new emotions and experiences the boy found out ever since he met her, a new one appeared over the last few years.


    Backed up by his hormones and her importance in his life, the boy grew to love her.


    "I love you, *****" he once said.


    "... I love you too, ***" she answered


    With a lump in the back of his throat, the boy continued to speak.


    "I have done a lot of bad, *****, are you sure I deserve your love?" he confessed


    "I already know, ***. I always knew. Everyone warned me and tried to persuade me to avoid you, and yet you''ve become my greatest friend, and much, much more. I love you. "


    Those words were not just enlightening but cathartic in the sense that they literally cleared the corruption his soul had suffered from Rex Draco''s body.


    "You are really much more than I should ever have." the boy said.


    Love.


    It was a powerful emotion. You cannot change love. You can pretend you are changing it, but you are not. In the end, it''s love that changes you. On a deeper level than what you could ever imagine.


    And the boy¡ªno, Rex Draco had just learned that.


    No. Not just that. All the emotions and experiences the boy had gone through, were now Rex Draco''s, or rather they always were.


    Rex Draco went unconscious after the overload of information.

 Chapter 5 - New Body

    Rex Draco''s eyes opened slowly, revealing a pure white ceiling. It seemed that he was laying down on his back, which confused him. As a Dragon it was much more comfortable to lay on one''s belly since the wings and structure of his spine made it really uncomfortable.


    And yet such feeling never came.


    Unconsciously, he raised his hand.


    Wait. Hand?


    A human hand was now in front of him. It was really pale, and its nails were slightly long and sharp.


    Remembering how to control a humanoid body, Rex Draco stood up, looking around.


    The room was not small, but it couldn''t be said to be massive. It was enough to have the bed he was laying on, a table and the closet beside it.


    "She got me a new body already? Just how much time did I spent relieving those memories?"


    Yes. Those memories.


    Rex Draco grasped his chest, uncaring of the damage his elongated nails could have on his skin.


    He recalled the feelings he had experienced on that world. The feeling of loving someone fully and being loved back with the same intensity.


    It was addicting.


    So much that he found himself thinking that he was much more worthy to send his mind and soul back there to continue to live such a life. To live with her.


    Rex Draco shook his head. The new feelings and experiences that he now had, were mind changing.


    He now knew. That he could be a better person. At least she made him believe that.


    It was time to prove it.


    And for that, I will help the hero that will save this world.


    "It seems that you are awake."


    A voice came from behind him, in the direction of the door. Rex Draco recognized the voice, so he didn''t turn around to look at her.


    "Yes, I have."


    "What do you think of your new memories?"


    "They are... intringing."


    Trying not to show the true impact of the other life his soul had lived, Rex Draco decided to change the subject.


    "How much time as passed?"


    "Barely a month, I would say."


    "You work quite fast."


    "Thank you. How do you feel?"


    That was a good question. Rex Draco did not feel any discomfort moving his new body. It was much weaker than his old one.


    "Good enough, I guess."


    "What about your strength?"


    Rex Draco sat crossed legged in the bed and peered inside his own body.


    His magic veins and Dragon heart were gone. In its place, mana channels and a magic core were present. Deep in the magic core, he could feel the fusion of natural energy and spiritual power coming together to form mana. It was untainted and pure, unlike his old malevolent mana.


    "In terms of density, my mana seems to be unchanged, however the quantity of it is minimal."


    Astra looked at him sharply, seemingly studying his answer.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    "Your mana levels are around 1.8 times the average on modern days. If compared to before you were sealed, I would say completely average."


    "The average levels of mana have decreased?"


    "Yes. Due to the rise in popularity of magic tech in the last couple of decades, the populace believes that there is no meaning to keep training magic."


    "Fools."


    "Indeed."


    As a Dragon and a Witch that saw more than a few centuries pass throughout their life, this blind belief in progress while completely discarding the old methods.


    "There is a movement that is trying to stop the progress of magic tech."


    "Fools."


    "Indeed."


    Tradition without progress was a carriage that would never move. While, progress without tradition was a carriage fated to crash.


    "Anyway, the point is that your mana levels are above average. Taking into account that your mana has kept its density, then it''s safe to assume that you are on the upper half of the rankings of a first year in the academy."


    Rex Draco groaned. The feeling of having to be content with not being in the lower half of power bothered him. As a Dragon, he had his pride.


    "What about your aura?"


    "Hard to say. It might take a bit of time figuring out the correct way to generate aura, considering the different body."


    "It will be very different from your usual aura, unlike mana, which will only face quantitive problems."


    "Right."


    Rex Draco stood up and started flexing his muscles, trying to familiarize himself with the new body.


    Astra did not stop looking at him, clearly not bothered, or rather enjoying, by the vision of his naked torso.


    "How am I supposed to enter the academy?"


    "It''s a simple process, really. You just deliver your identification on the day of the entrance exam and state your purpose."


    "Identification?"


    "Yes, I have already one prepared for you. You will go by the name of Ray."


    The name made something deep within him to click, he ignored it.


    "What about the entrance exam?"


    "It shouldn''t be hard for you, the exam is extended on three tests. Theory, Practical and Combat."


    "What''s the difference between Practical and Combat."


    "The Practical Test encompasses things like camping, hunting, magical application and strategic thinking. While the Combat Test, was, well, Combat."


    "Hmm."


    "Depending on the Course you apply, the Ratio of the evaluations changes, so you don''t have to worry about The Theory Test."


    "Which Course am I applying into?"


    "The Hero Course."


    "??"


    "The ratio of evaluations is simple. 20% for Theory, 35% Practical, 40% Combat and 5% Behavior/Discipline. To pass, you need 15 points out of twenty. Considering that Theory is going to hinder your grades, you need to ace the practical and combat tests."


    "I really hope you''re expecting my failure in that regard due to the difference in era, and not because you believe I fall short in intellect."


    "..."


    *Sigh*


    "So, what kind of test should I expect?"


    "For Practical, they should drop you in an unexpected situation with a random objective and see how you adapt to it. In the past the tests were conducted in a hunting area so they were easy to predict. But nowadays, with the use of simulations born from magic tech, they can give you a truly unexpected environment."


    "I should be able to manage, there shouldn''t be a mind so creative that would surprise a dragon as old as I am."


    "I wouldn''t underestimate them, in this day and age, powerful minds area as valued as powerful bodies."


    "If you say so."


    Despite his apparent agreement, Rex Draco still believed that he wouldn''t be surprise so easily.


    "Anyway, regardless, you will need this."


    She extended her hand, which was holding a strange device. It was around the size of a hand, as thin as a piece of paper folded in half. It was silver and had a blue magic circle transcribed in the back of it.


    "What is this?"


    Rex Draco picked it up by a corner and shook it, eyes narrowed.


    "This is a phone. Magic tech. It allows you to communicate with other people, search for information, identification as well as other things."


    His eyes widened.


    "Seems pretty useful."


    "It is. Once you enter the academy they will give you one specific for academic use, but for now you need this to at least identify yourself."


    Rex Draco messed with the device for a while, getting a feel of how it worked and how to operate it.


    "Anything else I should know?"


    "I could instruct on how mana and aura are used in the modern days, don''t you think so?"


    "What''s the difference?"


    "Mostly they''re imagination."


    "?"


    Mana was operated with the mind. Which meant that magic spells if not cast by a ritual or magic circle were completely shaped on two factors. The Imagination and The affinity.


    Affinity was pretty self-explanatory. Some people had a greater affinity with flames, others had affinity with water. Some cases were more unique, much like Rex Draco, who affinity over flames, gravity and dominion.


    Imagination was the one most responsible for the details of a spell. If it''s flames, should it be an arrow or a sword? If it''s water, should I shape it like a whip or a serpent? Great mages used their imagination to shape the elements they had the most affinity to their liking.


    Lacking imagination, meant a lack of versatility.


    "What do you mean?"


    Rex Draco needed a clarification.


    "Nowadays, with the use of projection magic, new business branches started to form. Some of them were directed to entertainment."


    "Entertainment?"


    "Yes. This resulted in a widening gap between mages. Some got inspired and created new spells, taking ideas from it and mixing it with their ideas. Others were also inspired but were so fixated with them, that they always used them as they were instead of what was the most suitable."


    "Basically, they are copying fake spells instead of using it to inspire them to create their own."


    "Exactly."


    "Huh. How disappointing this generation is."


    "Stop it. You sound like an old man."


    "I am!"

 Chapter 6 - Entrance Exams: Start

    Rex Draco, now named Ray, was standing in front of a large gate. Past it was a huge building surrounded by similar yet smaller buildings. They were all built in the same style, with weird geometrical shapes and a huge presence of large windows made of dark glass, not allowing anyone to watch what was inside.


    Behind him was a large parking lot that was connected with a road that seemed to be full of traffic. Normally, he would feel slightly at loss, seeing so many different things after waking up from a three hundred-year-old nap. But due to the life that his soul lived, he was slightly familiar with certain terms and concepts.


    Without much hesitation, Ray walked forward, approaching the operator of the gate that was standing nearby.


    "Hello There! Are you here to apply to the entrance exams?"


    "Hm? Ah! Yes, yes, I am."


    "Do you have your ID?"


    "Yes! Just a wait a second."


    Ray reached in his pocket and took out his phone. As a dragon, clothes were never something he ever thought of. But now that he was using a human body, he was certain that using clothes was mandatory. He had opted by pieces of clothing more suited for exercise, he had tried the more formal ones, but they all make him feel restrained.


    "Here you go."


    "Thank you!" the gatekeeper took the phone, which had the Identification App open." It seems that everything is alright. You can go in now and good luck."


    "Thank you."


    Giving Ray his phone back, the gatekeeper operated his own and opened up the gate for Ray to enter.


    *Clank* *Swing*


    With loud metallic noises, the gate, which was the size of a building, started to open a small entrance meant for a single person. The gate seemed to be made of various pieces of metal that rearranged themselves depending on the type of opening that they were ordered to reveal.


    "Okay, you can enter now, have a good day."


    "Once again, thank you."


    Ray walked in, his rhythm slows in order to look closely at his surroundings. The campus of the academy had a quite big park for the students to hang around outside of classes.


    Right now, a few students were standing around, but they were small. Of course, that is only the case if one ignored the huge crowd that was close to a large circular building.


    Ray approached, after all, that building was exactly where the entrance exams took place. In an instance, he tried to make an estimate of how many people were there. The answer? Around two hundred.


    According to his research, the limit for acceptances was of fifty students every year. That translated to a 25% chance of being enrolled, or close to that.


    Ray looked around the crowd, focusing his mana to his eyes. Receiving the magical power sent to them, his eyes changed, they began to shine brightly, and his pupils straightened becoming vertical like a lizard''s or a cat''s eyes.


    Most of the crowd had lousy magical signatures. Even if he took into account the new average, he couldn''t help but feel amazed on how delusional some people were. With such low levels of mana, the probability of them being accepted was very low.


    However, treasures were always buried and therefore surrounded by dirt. Some individuals were, to put it simply, on a level leagues above.


    Surrounded by several young men, fawning over her, was a young woman that stood with an elegance of a noble lady. Her hair was bright red and her eyes of a deep orange that seemed to carry powerful flames. She had ridiculous amounts of magical power. If compared to Ray, she would have around twenty times more mana, and the quality of it was only a few steps behind his.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Isolated, a young man with dark hair and eyes, with enormous eye bags, kept muttering something with a frightened expression while trembling. At first, there was nothing impressive about the young man. Below average mana and common aura, both in quantity and quality. And yet, deep, deep inside, seemingly locked up, something frightening was trembling as well, not of fear but of excitement. At least that was Ray''s analysis.


    Along with a group made out of both boys and girls, a beautiful girl stood at the center with a gentle smile. Her mana and aura were above average, for this era, but compared to other people, not that special. Her divine power, however, was off the charts. In terms of quantity, she had as much divine power as he had demonic power. And in quality, both were equal.


    She was definitely someone to be cautious of.


    Surrounded by a few dozens of fan girls, there was another young man. He had golden hair and bright blue eyes, both his hair and face were well treated and smooth, an arrogant smile plastered on his face. His mana was of the same level as the red haired woman, and his aura was off the charts as well. He was definitely a talent.


    Suddenly, the young man noticed something, his smug look turned into a truly pleased one in an instant, and with a confident stride he approached a figure that had just arrived.


    She had long golden hair, not blond, but golden, it truly reminded one of actual gold. Her eyes were also blue, but while the boy''s eyes shone with a light that demanded attention, the girl''s eyes shone with hidden threat. She was different from anyone there. Her mana was not above his, or above the other people Ray had took notice of. However, it felt special, unlike the mana of the other, hers was the only that surpassed his mana in quality.


    ''Who is she?''


    The blond boy, with a bright smile, greeted the arriving woman.


    "Oh! Hello there, Stelle! How are you doing?! It''s great to see you!"


    "Hm" she nodded absentminded.


    "You still remember, right? When you promised to go with me to have dinner?"


    "Hm?" she seemed to be unsure about that.


    "You see, I found this wonderful restaurant that is underwater, we could see the fish while eating shrimp."


    "Hm" she seemed intrigued by his words, or the food, it was hard to say.


    "Unfortunately, they only serve single tables, so you will have to seat on my lap!"


    *Sigh*


    "Oof!"


    After sighing, and realizing his intentions, she swiftly delivered a sucker punch and walked forward, leaving him on his knees.


    Hiding his face from the crowd, he fought against a perverted smile that threatened to appear on his face. No one would ever know about that! Right?


    ''What is wrong with that guy?!''


    Ray has never seen such thing before. While he was innocently curious about the young man''s strange likes, he suddenly felt a gaze on himself.


    Without any urgency, he turned around and faced the gaze that was directed at him. The owner was the girl that had delivered the sucker punch.


    ''Stelle was her name, I believe.''


    She seemed to be oddly fixated in him, like she was seeing something that others weren''t.


    ''Interesting. She was the only one who noticed anything wrong with me.''


    She kept looking at Ray, who was waiting for her to do something, however, she just turned around and kept going her way.


    ''Weirdo.'' he thought


    "Attention Students! Please gather quickly! The details of the exams will be announced in a few minutes! Please cease any conversations and pay close attention, after all, the announcement will contain rules and objectives that cannot be forgotten during said exams! Come on! We don''t have all day!"


    A member of the staff screamed frantically, in a hurry to gather the attention of the young men and women that were present.


    A moment of silence followed and all the people present started going to the appointed location.


    It was a great semicircular conference hall with long tables formed in various arcs. The ones behind were positioned taller than the others, forming what seemed to be a staircase. Further down the hall was a podium where a stern looking man with a burn scar running from his neck to the left side of his face, he also had an easy to notice mustache.


    As they enter, the participants of the exam slowly took a seat somewhere in the hall. Ray chose a seat around the middle of the hall. Some smart asses would believe that seating in the corners or the extremities of each table would be the best to gather information, however, being in the middle of the conflict was where the most info was thrown around.


    Although it was requested to cease conversations, these young people were around 18 years of age, they just left their teen years, or didn''t at all. Conversations were still present, although in a subdued tone. Naturally, for any being proficient in magic or aura, their senses were good enough to hear parts of their conversations.


    Ray chose to do so, however, in a different light. Due to being forced to reunite his mind with his body, as well adapt his mind to a new body and brain, he was now capable of doing simultaneous tasks much faster.


    Right now, he was hearing several different conversations at the same time, however none of them seemed to carry any info, besides some gossip that could be used later.


    Still, he found conversations about something called movies very interesting.


    ''To think that fiction would evolve so much! I will have to check this "Internet" later.''

 Chapter 7 - Entrance Exams: Stelles POV

    Stelle''s POV:


    Stelle was always seen as average.


    It was quite the thing to say, considering her skill and mastery over both mana and aura. She knew that her mana and aura levels were not that high compared to her siblings, but compared to the average person, she was above them. Let''s not even talk about things like control and quality! Her control was spectacular! She could already form sword aura at the age of 9, that was three years younger than her older brother, the so-called prodigy of the Kingdom of Striocia or the Star of Striocia!


    She was above him in ever single evaluation. So why? Why was she always treated as the inferior one?


    The first time she was called average was after a training session that she did particularly bad. After that she trained really hard to not be called again, after all, seeing her father calling her "average" with such a disappointing face was quite traumatic for a seven-year-old girl.


    Once she showed how much she learned with her hard work, a look of sudden understanding flashed in her parent''s eyes. After looking at each other for a while, a small smirk appeared on her mother''s face.


    "You truly think that learning the Meyer''s Sword Style first 3 forms is enough to impress us? Do you think you are some kind of talent?"


    "Do you think we don''t know? How much you train to reach such minimal levels of mastery? Who do you think you are? A peasant? You are from the prestigious and founder family, Meyer! The descendants of the Last Hero!"


    Once again, Stelle was met with a shock that made her head spin. The last part of what her father told her didn''t even registered. In that day, she trained so much that she contracted a magical disease that halved her mana pool and damaged her magic control slightly.


    She still didn''t stop. She was obsessed.


    She didn''t care of the disadvantages of training to such extent, she just had to gain more than she lost on those injuries.


    However, unbeknownst to her, or rather ignored, this just made her distance herself from her family and worse, her potential.


    Over the years, she was affected by so many injuries to her magic channels that she could only use around a fourth of what she was supposed to. According to some specialists, her mana itself became damaged and never became the same. That didn''t stop her, though.


    She needed more power.


    Naturally, she herself noted that she needed more than hard work for that. She needed resources, those that the academy in front of her had.


    "Hey There! Are you perhaps here to apply to the entrance exams?"


    "Yes."


    "Your ID, please."


    She handed him her phone to show her ID without a word. Once the gates opened, she headed in silently.


    Near a building there was a crowd made of several people in constant chatter.


    It wasn''t long until she arrived near it, and almost immediately noticing someone.


    He was Jynn Caster, someone from the founder families of Striocia. Naturally, they both knew each other, as they were both forced to meet at some social gatherings.


    "Oh! Hello there, Stelle! How are you doing?! It''s great to see you!"


    "Hm" she nodded absentminded, she wasn''t in the mood to deal with him.


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    "You still remember, right? When you promised to go with me to have dinner?"


    "Hm?" she couldn''t really remember that, tough?


    "You see, I found this wonderful restaurant that is underwater, we could see the fish while eating shrimp."


    "Hm" That caught her attention, she loved shrimp after all.


    "Unfortunately, they only serve single tables, so you will have to seat on my lap!"


    *Sigh*


    "Oof!"


    After sighing, and realizing his intentions, she swiftly delivered a sucker punch and walked forward, leaving him on his knees. He wasn''t worthy of any more time.


    Talking about worthy. She adverted her attention to the source of the gaze that was observing them from the start.


    It was a young man with black hair and mesmerizing lizard-like red eyes, he seemed interesting.


    And as someone who caught her interest, she decided to use her ring.


    Using her thumb to rub her ring that was on her index finger, she activated its enchantment.


    It was simple really, the ring was supposed to say how strong someone was compared to her. It wasn''t totally accurate, but it was enough to never had failed her.


    As soon as she activated the ring, it shrank, strangling her finger while it started to overheat.


    Using her aura to protect her skin, she maintained a calm face and turned around with her answer.


    Death.


    That would be the result of a fight between them.


    She tried to ignore the implications of such a result. After all, according to her senses, although he possessed levels of mana above the average, but it was not to ridiculous level, not enough for the ring to instantly announce her death had they fought.


    The ring was an artifact that worked, not with magical sensors like a lot of other artifacts with similar functions. It was created by the Church and therefore used divine power to make a divination directed to the target and the user.


    Therefore, the ring took more than just mana and aura pools to measure strength, and instead divined a battle between the two.


    So, what happened in such a battle that she died so fast?


    Was it his control over mana? She was definitely lacking in that regard due to her injuries.


    Was it his battle style? Was he a better fighter overall? She didn''t think that was it, after all, although her mana was injured several times and therefore was weaker than before, her combat style had only improved.


    Maybe it was battle experience? She had to admit, due to her family''s belief that she was just average or below that, she never took part in a real fight or a proper spar.


    Or was it all the above?


    She decided to leave those thoughts for later, she had other matters to attend to. Right now, she needed a clear mind to deal with the Theory Test.


    She wanted to apply into the Hero Course with the best grade possible, that meant acing all the three tests. She had studied for several hours and gave up several nights of sleep to prepare for it. She wasn''t going to fail.


    In the conference room, where they would be briefed about the tests, not much was given. Other than a rundown on what the Theory Test is going to be and at what time will the other tests commence and end.


    Without much wait, they started to hand out the papers in order to start the Theory Test. There were over two hundred students, and yet there were only five teachers to oversee them. It took some time, but they eventually got their papers and were allowed to read them.


    Stelle started by reading each question, in order to familiarize herself with the contents and find a specific order based on priorities.


    Questions that valued more points. Questions that would take her more time to solve, either by complications or the long time-wasting methods to solve them. Questions that she was not comfortable to answer without finishing the problem with doubt.


    Luckily, there seemed to be a lot of common knowledge questions.


    ''Is this the extent of prestigious academy such as this? Why would they put such simple questions in the Test?''


    She decided to ignore that and focused on solving them.


    She started with the questions she believed to be easier and less time-consuming. Due to the lower difficulty level that she was not expecting, she solved the various numbers of questions easily enough.


    ''This should score me at least one of the best grades.''


    Feeling comfortable, she decided to look around the hall in curiosity.


    Jynn seemed to be handling himself and, like him and her, a lot of others students seemed to be comfortable on this scenario.


    Her eyes, once again, found the boy with the weird red eyes.


    He seemed rather laid back, unbothered by the tension of some candidates who were rather nervous.


    He was leaning against the back of his chair, holding the test paper over his head, he had a confused face, but not one of uncertainty in an answer.


    ''I wonder what he is thinking about?''


    With Ray/Rex Draco


    ''Why did the first governor of Republic of Whoastein decided to create what they called ''Democracy'', huh? What the hell is a democracy? For some reason, it sounds stupid.''


    He searched his memories, trying to remember Astra''s tutoring sessions.


    ''Democracy is that thing where the people decide who stays in power, right? That just seems a good way for stupider people to be tricked by stupid people, though. But who am I to judge?''


    He wrote something that he thought was right and moved on to the next question.


    ''What is the name given to the descendants of Rex Draco?''


    Ray started sweating.


    ''What the Heck are they talking about?!''

 Chapter 8 - A Long Hallway

    Ray''s POV


    "Your time is over! Hand over your papers, or you shall face the consequences."


    A man with short black hair and void like gray eyes finally said, after two hours.


    The Theory Test was over and Ray was ... conflicted.


    After that question, he found out many other questions related to him, that he couldn''t possibly understand.


    ''Descendants? With who? What do you mean there''s a whole community of historians trying to discover my gender? And why is the most popular opinion the one where I am female. The future is insane, I would rather go back to the past. Why didn''t I wake up earlier.''


    He had failed to realize that, after three hundred years, things that seemed clear to the people of the past were now completely different from the perspective of the younger generations.


    ''But isn''t this a little too much? I was known as the King of Dragons! If I was female, wouldn''t I be known as the Queen of Dragons?''


    Despite that, Astra''s lessons had come to be quite useful. Some of the other questions had been manageable. The biggest challenge after all was to write what humanity thought was correct and not what really transpired.


    For example, it was believed that the reason why Gideon stood up as the Last Hero to fight him was because he was his threat to humanity, and he wished to protect them.


    Ray naturally knew the truth. Gideon did want to protect humanity, but there was a bigger reason why he had targeted Rex Draco so much.


    Revenge.


    To avenge his family, friends and the citizens of the Nest that Rex Draco had destroyed.


    He was a good person indeed, but revenge was always on his mind, even if his words and actions did not translate such feeling.


    Anyway, Ray had to force himself to answer the questions according to how the history books had depicted certain events and not how he and everyone at the time perceived them.


    Luckily, that problem vanished when the topics regarding the events that happened during the time he was sealed.


    They were mostly the creation and founding of the countries that were now present around the world.


    It was not difficult per se, but the certain terms and expressions were entirely foreign to him, so it complicated things.


    *Sigh*


    "What are you sighing about?"


    Suddenly a voice could be heard right beside him.


    Ray looked at the source of the voice.


    The owner of that voice was a tanned skin girl with white hair and amber colored eyes. She was wearing rather revealing clothes, showing off her belly and most of her legs. She had a playful smile plastered in her face.


    "Did you hear me?"


    "Yes, I did."


    "Then why didn''t ya answer me?"


    "Didn''t want to."


    "Rude. But that kind of way to talk suits you."


    "It suits me?"


    "Yeah! You have that kind of bad boy vibe, ya know?"


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    "No, I don''t."


    How could one know if a person was "bad", was it something like an ability of hers? He should be cautious.


    "Who are you, anyway?"


    "Oh! I didn''t introduce myself yet? My name is Tania, an amazon that has come from our land to learn about the culture here and kidnap a man to become my mate!"


    The people around started looking at the shameless girl.


    ''Are the people of this era that bold?'' Ray wondered.


    "I''m Ray, just Ray."


    "Come on! You can do better than that! Introduce yourself with more energy!"


    "I''m Ray, if you want something else from me, you will have to shut up and behave properly otherwise, screw off."


    "Wow, calm down tiger, there is no need for such hostility, I just thought you should express yourself more! People look better when they are not acting gloomy, after all!"


    "I was not acting gloomy."


    Ray was not acting gloomy, he was just disappointed on the people of this era. They were weaker and weirdly open about what they were thinking.


    "Then why were you sighing about? Weren''t you depressed because the test didn''t go as you planned it?"


    "No! I was just weirded out with something that the historians theorized."


    "Oh? Like what?"


    "Why is Rex Draco, the KING of Dragons, theorized to be female?!"


    "That''s not weird at all! The shaman of my village believes that Rex Draco wasn''t even a dragon!"


    Well, that was even worse, what could he possibly other than a dragon? Well, he was now in the body of a human, but that didn''t matter at all!


    "But that isn''t something to be gloomy about, tough? Are you some kind of Rex Draco''s fanboy?"


    Fanboy? What a weird word.


    "What is a fanboy?"


    "Huh? You don''t know? It''s like a super enthusiastic fan, that so happens to be a boy."


    "No, why would I be a fan of Rex Draco?"


    ''Yeah, why? I killed tons of humans and caused genocide a couple of times, why would one be a fan of such a figure?''


    "Well, I don''t know much. But I heard there was a trend recently, about some teenagers that were hardcore fans of Rex Draco. The type that is kind of edgy? They are like, ''Rex Draco was right, humanity is a disease, and they should be eliminated'', you know?"


    ''What kind of logic is that?''


    Since when had Rex Draco said that humanity is a disease? He just killed because they were easy to kill and because they were kind of dumb, and due to the little lifespan of a human they often tended to forget the extent of his power. They mostly died accidentally, really.


    The only time that he had searched to kill humans was when one of them stole one of his treasures.


    It was in that incident that he met Gideon''s older brother, who was believed to be the resurgence of heroes.


    He was not that strong, but his brother, who was just a child at the time, had so much potential that Rex Draco couldn''t look away. From that day forward, he killed so many humans to feed Gideon''s thirst for vengeance, until one day, he appeared in front of him with power to rival his.


    Anyway, there was something terribly wrong with the heads of those kids to think such a thing.


    "And they truly believe that? And since when has Rex Draco said that humanity was disease?"


    "Never! As far as records go, he was just a beast like the other monsters rampaging across the ages ever since the end of the Era of Heroes."


    ''I think I did more thing than rampaging at the time, though.''


    "Anyway, you seem really interest in Rex Draco, huh? Are you really sure you are not a fanboy?"


    "No, I''m just interest in the Era of Monsters, he just so happened to be the biggest figure of that era."


    "Debatable."


    "..."


    ''What did she just say?''


    "What?"


    "You just said debatable, explain yourself."


    Oh, Ray was so looking forward to that explanation. What do you mean ""debatable"?! He was the strongest of that era, no one could defeat him, and it took the Last Hero Gideon and The Sage Astra to Seal him, they couldn''t even kill him!


    "Well, there are other figures that flash in my mind before the King of Dragons when someone talks about the Era of Monsters."


    "Like Who?"


    "The Last Hero, The Sage, The First Saintess and of course The Eastern Spirit Fox!"


    ''That damn Fox?!''


    "Hm?"


    "By "Eastern Spirit Fox" you mean the Nine-Tailed Fox?"


    "Correct! You know, the older people from my tribe used to travel a lot, in one of their travels they ended in the lands of the rising sun, they had so many stories and legends about the nine-tailed fox, I couldn''t help but becoming a fan."


    "Stories?"


    Ray was not liking where this is going.


    "Interested? I heard a lot of amazing legends, like, do you known the Phantoms? Beasts similar to the monsters of the Era of Monsters? According to legends, they are the offsprings of Rex Draco and the Nine-tailed Fox! According to legends, ever since his defeat, the fox spirit has guarded his previous lair in the hopes of his return so that he can support their children!"


    ''WHAT?!''


    Children? Support? Since when? He was never involved with that sly fox, she was only a pain in the ass trying to learn his methods of demonic power manipulation. She had moments where she constantly teased about such things, but to think that she would really do it. It left him exasperated.


    "Haha! I had the same reaction when I learned this! To think that the great King of Dragons was an absent father running from Child Support!"


    After laughing, she made a sound of realization before speaking.


    "Thinking about it, most of her legends included Rex Draco in some way, and they were all kinda weird. But don''t worry, my friend, until we reach the end of this hallway, I will tell you everything."


    Ray subconsciously looked to see the extent of the journey he was about to embark.


    This Hallway, though...


    ''It''s way too long!!''

 Chapter 9 - The Simulation Room

    After a devastating walk filled with preposterous stories about him and that nine-tailed fox. He didn''t need to think too hard to figure out who had created such tales, it was definitely her work.


    ''Just what did I do to deserve this? Wait.''


    Once they reached the end of the hallway, Ray was finally able to separate from Tiana.


    He and the other participants had arrives at a new room, labeled as the Simulation Room. But to call it a simple room was degrading. The "room" was enormous, with rows upon rows of several sleeping capsules that were standing straight, each with a number imprinted in it.


    Once they arrived, they were also ordered to stand in a single line with their backs against the wall, in front of them a new instructor stood.


    He was relatively short, with a bowl haircut and comically large round glasses.


    "Hello there, possible new students! Due to Academy policy, I cannot reveal my name, but it is a pleasure to meet you. For now just know that I am the head of the Research Department, since you are all applying for the Hero Course I won''t bother exposing to a lengthy explanation."


    He took a break to adjust his glasses and clear some of the sweat that was rolling down his forehead. *


    "As you should know, this is the Simulation Room, and where you will attend the Practical Test. As you should also know, you will be placed in the sleeping capsules and then sent to a virtual world to perform."


    Trembling, he reached out for a projector and turned it on. A Hologram soon appeared demonstrating the objectives.


    "You will be sent to a series of floating islands. At one end of the islands is a portal that will wake you up. At the other end is a special island where a virtual creature will be created for you to fight."


    Some murmurs echoed on the large room.


    "Take into account that every action that you make inside this virtual world will be evaluated by an instructor assigned to you. If you make a good decision you will be awarded points, but if you make bad decisions or break the rules of the test, points will be deducted from you.


    "However, that is not to say that those are the only ways to gain points, otherwise some talented students might lack the points to get a good grade. So, across the islands there will be certain checkpoints that will have points to claim. Only a limited number of students can claim the points of a checkpoint, so be careful, as this could lead to conflict between your fellow participants."


    The Hologram shifted to project the map of the islands. They were thirteen in total, each island had around five checkpoints, except two islands.


    The first island, meant for the portal, and the last island, meant for the virtual creature.


    On the first island, there was a single checkpoint. While on the last island there were at least fifty of them.


    ''They seem to be incentivating us to go towards the virtual creature.''


    "Make note that the Practical Test has always put great emphasis in survival!"


    ''And yet they send us to the wolf''s den. Odd''


    "Now, as you can see this is a list of your names, next to them is the number of the capsule that you are supposed to use, now go, and good luck."


    After that, he ran in an unknown direction, seemingly afraid of something.


    Looking at the images, Ray soon found the one assigned to him and headed towards it.


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    The sleeping capsules had a simple design. They were cylindrical with their number of identification stamped on it.


    As soon as Ray approached it, it opened without a sound, revealing its interior.


    It was mostly white and seemed pretty comfortable, as expected of a device called "sleeping capsule".


    Without ceremony, Ray entered and laid against the comfortable walls of the capsule, waiting for it to close by itself.


    He didn''t wait long, as the capsule shut close without a sound right after he entered.


    It was dark inside there was no illumination nor an opening to see the outside, strangely enough, there was no lack of air inside, not that Ray had any trouble spending a few minutes without air.


    Ray waited and waited. They seemed to be making sure that every participant was inside the capsules and there were no technic problems that they hadn''t foreseen.


    Soon, he started to feel sleepy.


    Thanks to his new mental strength, courtesy of forcing his mind to link itself back with his body, he was able to remain awake for some time before deciding to lower his defenses when he realized that this was the way they used to start the simulation.


    Before long, his mind started picking up signs that it was being manipulated.


    Perception, senses and time perception.


    Ray felt it all change before he found himself standing on his lonesome in a beach.


    Or it would be a beach if there was an ocean, but instead the shores only had a never ending void ahead.


    He looked around examining the island that he was in, before he could process entirely where he was, he received a mental notice.


    As if new information was implanted in his brain.


    Once again, he decided to not resist.


    This was the eighth island.


    It was perfectly round and around ten kilometers in diameter. It was seemingly shaped like a cone due to the tall mountain at the center, and like the other islands possessed five checkpoints. One in each cardinal direction, north, south, west and east, as well as the center of the island, at the peak of the mountain.


    Ray looked at the direction of the mountain peak, where he noticed a certain peculiarity.


    At the peak, a dim bluish green light was visible.


    ''Is it the checkpoint?''


    Ray looked at the sun, considering the time of the day, the sun was now in the east. Looking around, Ray guessed that the eastern checkpoint was on the other side of the island, a few degrees to the right, which meant that the western checkpoint should be nearby.


    However, there was no bluish green light nearby.


    ''It may be an optic illusion, a bait made by a creature, or something else completely unrelated to the checkpoints.''


    Ray focused his gaze on the direction of the western checkpoint and ran.


    He wasn''t running at insane speeds, he wasn''t even using his mana or aura, relying solely on his new body.


    Although this body was hundred of times inferior to his original one, it was still a body made to house and being operated by a dragon, and not just any dragon, the King of Dragons.


    His body was much more advanced than others and didn''t need to use supernatural means to boost his speed.


    It didn''t take long to reach his destination.


    The checkpoint was marked by a single device, carved into the sand. It was black with a red screen. As soon as Ray approached, it reacted.


    ?Participant Detected!?


    ?You are the first participant to reach this checkpoint! You receive 5 points!?


    ?The reward will be diminished! The Next participant to reach this particular checkpoint will receive 4 points!?


    ?Participant''s Collected Points : 5?


    ''Interesting. The first people are the ones that receive the most points.''


    Ray looked around, not finding signs of the other participants.


    ''I should get moving then.''


    He decided to go towards the North checkpoint, traveling in a straight path. While others would normally prefer to traverse through the beach in a curved path, Ray was confident on his skills to not be bothered by the vegetation or the wild life.


    So he ran. Ran at a constant speed.


    Once again, he was not using any magic or aura enhancements to augment himself, limiting himself to travel with just his physical strength.


    While running, he didn''t find anything of note for a long time, that was, until he found an easily three meters tall tiger.


    It was massive, for a normal animal.


    However, it wasn''t abnormal for beasts to have such size. Then gain, considering the size that he had before, ray didn''t feel intimidated at all.


    "Wow, there! I''m kinda in a hurry, so move aside."


    The beast didn''t move, instead, it started to growl and crouch slightly, preparing to attack.


    "A cub?"


    Younger beasts had a dampened survival instinct. For beasts, bloodline mattered more than personal talent, and that reflected in their Aura. When a young beast was born it instinctively felt the emotions of its parents through aura, this was normally used as a survival mechanism.


    However, there were no parents around.


    Reaching into his Dominion element, the power to command.


    "Let''s not waste time, you cannot feel my power, so you have no way to fight me."


    Taking a deep breath, he commanded.


    "Kill yourself."


    The tiger stopped growling and raised its head. After that, it raised its paw and reinforced it paw with aura before swiping at its neck, killing itself.


    "That was quick, should get going."

 Chapter 10 - Something is wrong, I can feel it

    Ray didn''t bother to look at the corpse of the creature, and instead he continued on his way towards the checkpoint.


    Running at great speeds and dodging the threes and other natural obstacles that he found in his way.


    It didn''t take long for him to finally reach his destination.


    Unlike the last checkpoint that Ray had found, this one was not placed on a beach but instead it was at the edge of a cliff that dropped into nothingness, the void between each island.


    ?Participant Detected!?


    ?You are the second participant to reach this checkpoint. Because a participant reached here before a point was deducted from the original reward.?


    ?You have received 4 bonus points. You have now 9 bonus points!?


    ''This checkpoint also had an original reward of 5 points? Is it a coincidence?'' Ray thought.


    There was only one way to confirm this hypothesis. Find the other checkpoints and check how much their original rewards.


    Without any wait, he sprinted towards the mountain peak of the island. This time, he reinforced his body with both mana and aura.


    The ground shook, the stone shattered, and the sand flew up raising a cloud of dust. If one looked from an aerial view, they would notice a cloud of dust going up the mountain at great speeds.


    Ray was still not running at full speeds, of course, after all he wasn''t using all of his means to increase speed on his arsenal. However, the speed that he was now demonstrating was one that couldn''t be ignored, not by the academy and not by the participants.


    All around the island, the various participants that were there, could faintly feel the rumbling sound of his run. The ones with a better view of the island could actually see the cloud of dust.


    The ones closer to the cloud of smoke had to cover their face in order to prevent dust and sand to get into their eyes or inhaling it.


    Ray kept moving forward, dodging trees, rocks and small rivers, he kept running to the top. However, at some point he had to stop.


    "This will be a little harder to go by."


    The ground in front of him was quite steep and therefore not suitable for him to run in. He could just use magic to overcome it, but he was following a more safe approach of spending mana, meaning that he didn''t want to use mana in meaningless ways.


    Because his body had been crafted using his old body as material, both his mana core and magic channels had certain characteristics that reminded him of his dragon heart.


    Not the unending amounts of mana, but the speed at which it replenished it.


    However, the academy hadn''t given them a certain time limit for the test, meaning that there were certain conditions that needed to be met so that the test could end.


    Besides that, in a normal survival situation, Ray believed to be really important to be prepared to face something or someone vastly stronger than you and one should be prepared to face it in order to escape and survive.


    Saving mana was one such method, one that Ray believed would score him some points.


    So, he looked around, looking for any way up.


    He found an entrance to a cave a few meters away from him.


    "It either leads to the core of the island way down, or it has a way up. Ah! It is worth the risk."


    With this, Ray entered the cave expecting to find a way upwards, what he found instead was a large room occupied by one single being.


    It was a large monkey, with red fur and blue tail, its hands lacked fur, but they were definitely purple.


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    It was curled into a ball, sleeping.


    Ray looked around, searching for any way up. His gaze was soon directed to the ceiling where a hole was, leading upwards.


    He was not an expert at climbing, but this should do the trick.


    Not bothering wasting more time, he sent a pulse of magical energy in the monkey''s direction, waking it up.


    "You are the one meant to guard this place, right? Do your job."


    As he said this, Ray entered in a stance.


    Although he spent most of his life in the body of a dragon, he found himself rather comfortable in a humanoid body.


    During his life, there had been some instances where he had switched to humanoid body. His battle with Gideon, his life on the different world, and some of his adventures when he was a young dragon.


    Point was, that a human body was strangely easy to use for him, it had always been the case, actually.


    The monkey''s giant body rose from the ground and looked at Ray, his eyes burning with fury, his golden eyes shining.


    Before Ray could make a remark on how he ugly he looked, the monkey shot two condensed beams of mana through his yellow eyes.


    Reinforcing his body with aura, Ray dodged swiftly, not bothering to show any reaction on his face.


    ''This beast is much more intelligent, my dominion element will not take effect unless I reinforce it with demonic power, but that would be overkill.''


    Instead of using his dominion affinity, he switched to his flame element, creating various fireballs of the size of his head.


    He then made them rotate on themselves, turning themselves into pure balls of light and heat.


    With a wave of his hand, they shot forward, making exaggerated turns to confound the beast.


    Still confused after waking up, the beast struggled to keep up with the beams of flames that soon reached him, piercing certain parts of his body.


    "Grrr"


    "Oh Come on, don''t look at me like that, you were lucky that I didn''t aim for the head directly-"


    Before Ray could finish his sentence, the monkey''s red fur lit up, revealing an enormous red light.


    "Graah"


    Roaring, the monkey opened his mouth, spewing a torrent of flames in his direction.


    Ray smirked and prepared to defend himself. Charging his legs to the brim with both mana and aura, he kicked the air with fluid motion. Following it, a sudden roar of the air being turned open was heard caused by a shockwave that blew away the flames directed at him.


    Regaining his stance, Ray didn''t lose any time attacking the beast again. Creating an explosion beneath his feet, he shot forward, looking to strike the monkey in physical combat.


    He pulled his fist back preparing to punch the monkey''s jaw right off, for that he made his mana leave his body and rotate in a large area around his fist, increasing the area of contact, otherwise he would get his fist stuck inside the beast mouth due to the size difference.


    Bam


    As soon as contact was made, the Monkey staggered back and struggled to keep his jaw in place, which was already out of place.


    Soon the monkey''s blue fur in his tail lit up as well. Still using one of his hands to keep the jaw from falling, he raised his other hand, creating a water ball.


    "That''s it? A water ball?" Ray mocked him.


    The beast, seemingly detecting his mockery, reacted. The sphere of water started increasing in size, reaching his own size.


    "Oh~, that''s a lot of water, it will get you wet, I should get rid of it."


    With these words he conjured several flames and made it rotate around his fist and entered in a stance.


    With a roar, the monkey slammed his hand down, guiding the massive water ball in Ray''s direction, who was smiling in excitement.


    Ray exhaled a deep breath, concentrating. He then punched forth as if punching someone who was actually close. Once he completed the motions, the flames around his arm flew in the direction of the water in the form of a spiraling column of flames.


    Once the two attacks made contact, a massive cloud of steam formed around them, rustling their fur or clothes. Ray covered his face, shielding himself from the explosion of steam.


    In order to clear his view, Ray decided to wave his hand with great amounts of force, forming a shockwave that cleared the cave from the steam.


    The giant monkey was breathing heavily, his eyes burning with fury were glaring at Ray.


    "Wow~! That one was pretty good, could you throw me another one, I don''t think I''m satisfied, you see?"


    Still glaring at Ray, the monkey finally let go of his jaw, that was now at the verge of a full recovery.


    "Oh~, so you can heal yourself, not much of a healer myself, but it''s not about skill for you, it''s about biology, huh?"


    Gritting his teeth, the colorful monkey''s hands started glowing purple. He then brought them closer to his mouth, forming something similar to a funnel, before blowing on it.


    A gigantic cloud of poisonous smoke surged and rushed in Ray''s direction.


    However, before it could distance itself from its caster, the smoke lit up on fire as it exploded.


    BOOM


    "Oops, that was more flammable than I tough."


    The monkey was dead, he could now keep moving forward.


    *******************************************************************************************


    Hey! It''s me, the Author, as we finally reach the destination that is the tenth chapter I believed to be a good idea to speak with you the readers.


    So, firstly, if you have any questions regarding the story, either about some things that have already been written or some things yet to be, do so.


    I will see to writing a section after the next chapter meant to answer your inquiries. Naturally, if you comment on previous chapters, I will answer your questions by replying.


    You can read this novel in Webnovel, Scribble Hub and Royal Road.


    If you have the time and are interested in a fan fiction where the MC uses the power systems of various animes, go read my other novel, a fan fiction called Transmigrator Competition.


    Now, cya in the next chapter.

 Chapter 11 - Hypothesis + Q&A

    Looking at the charred corpse of the giant monkey, Ray felt baffled. After all, why the hell was a beast that used fire, spewing flammable poison? That was dangerous as showed.


    "Well, I suppose that it never saw that coming, huh?"


    Deciding to move on from the colorful monkey, Ray looked upwards where a hole was leading to the top of the mountain, his destination.


    Wasting no time, Ray used the walls as a place for propulsion, jumping from one wall to another, slowly rising towards the top. He kept doing it for some time, around five minutes, and although he was going at considerable speeds...


    "Not even halfway?"


    Sighing, he just kept going tireless.


    Once he reached the top, what he found was a beautiful scenery. A lake surrounded by luxurious trees and flowers, and a magical glow permeated the surroundings.


    In the center of the lake, a small piece of land stood. It was quite small, only big enough to carry the checkpoint on top of it. However, Ray''s focus was not directed to the checkpoint and instead was directed to a bluish green magic circle that was hovering in the air.


    Its magical light engulfed the surroundings and beyond. This was the source of the weird glow he had noticed at the start of the test.


    Before Ray decided to mess with the magic circle he decided to collect the reward of the checkpoint.


    Looking at the lake, Ray, using his Dominion element, parted the waters clearing a path for him to move.


    The Dominion element wasn''t just the power to command, it was the power to impose your dominion over something or someone.


    He slowly walked in the direction of the checkpoint, no hurry in his steps.


    ?Participant Detected!?


    ?Congratulations! You are the first one to reach this checkpoint! You have been rewarded 5 points!?


    ?The reward has been decremented! The next participant will be rewarded 4 points!?


    ?Total Bonus Points Collected: 14?


    "5 points again."


    This is what he found weird. All the three checkpoints rewarded the first participant with 5 points and then proceeded to decrement the values. Meaning that only five participants can collect the rewards of one checkpoint. Not a surprise though. The Instructor had already said that the number of rewards per checkpoint was limited, he just didn''t give a proper number.


    However, was it a fixed number? Were all the checkpoints limited to 5 points or was it only on this island? There were several possibilities. The first was that the other islands had different rewards patterns for the checkpoints. This meant that the fact that the five point limit for all the checkpoints was just one of the combinations or simply untrue.


    The other case was that each island had a different limit for the points rewarded. Considering that the main focus that the academy had set was the last island where a powerful beast was waiting, most likely the reward limit would also increase the closer to the island one got.


    And there was the third possibility. All the checkpoints were limited to 5 points, meaning that the focus was not the powerful beast, but countless checkpoints that were scattered around the last island.


    "The last possibility is mostly just wild thinking, but if the evaluation for each island is not set on the limits of a singular checkpoint but on the number of points an island can provide than it changes a lot."


    If the number of points an island could provide were equal, then the actual goal would be to go for the checkpoints on the islands with the fewer checkpoints. But that was pure speculation, for now.


    In order for Ray to confirm which of the theories was correct he needed to visit another island.


    "By visiting the ninth island and check the rewards of the checkpoints, then I will be able to determine what kind of pattern the academy is using and which of my theories is correct."


    In case one of the theories was right, he would act in the most suitable way.


    Ray looked around searching for a way to go to the next island and eventually he did.


    The magic circle that had caught his interest at the start of the test was most likely the way to traverse between islands. The reason why the monkey was guarding this area was not to protect the checkpoint but the transportation. Unfortunately, Ray had killed before it could truly serve its purpose.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    "I guess it''s time to go to the next island."


    Saying this, he approached the magic circle and sent a mana signal to activate it.


    Magic Circles or Mana Arrays as they should be called were invented by the one known as The Sage, or better known to Ray as Astra the Witch.


    Their purpose is to allow people to use an element outside their own affinity. Using runes, geometry and mysticism symbols, they were capable of guiding mana to perform a certain task, normally a spell.


    Although Ray wasn''t an expert with magic circles, his abnormal senses were capable of detecting what kind of spell a magic circle was meant to perform.


    The reason was simple. In order to draw a magic circle, a mage must make use of a technique created by aura users / knights, called intent.


    Intent was the materialization of one''s will on the world. Alone, it''s only a way to alert someone of your feelings or scream out messages. An example of this was killing intent. But when combined with either mana or aura, it gained another purpose.


    In the case of mana, it allowed one to draw a magic circle with their mana regardless of control or affinity.


    While in the case of aura, it allowed an aura user to shape his aura outside his body and even replicate magic with it.


    Anyway, because a magic circle was drawn with intent, someone who was sensible to other people''s intent, like a beast or an experienced fighter could also feel it. Ray was both a dragon and a several hundred years old being, he didn''t lack experience.


    "It looks like it creates an air channel that forcefully sends the user to one of the directions. It doesn''t activate unless I choose one of the two directions, so I can go to other islands besides the next one, huh?"


    This wasn''t really groundbreaking information, after all, on the first island there was a portal to send people out of the test.


    Ray still decided to go into the next island in order to check his hypothesis, if there was any need to go back, he would.


    He sent his mana into the magi circle and kept himself focused on the direction of the ninth island. The magic circle vibrated before rising from the ground and start turning in the direction of the next island.


    Whoosh


    A sudden wind surged, causing a cloud of dust to rise, Ray protected his eyes with aura but kept still. Soon the cloud of dust cleared, revealing a greenish tunnel of wind.


    Magical wind was unlike normal wind as it was visible to the eye.


    Without hesitation, Ray entered the wind tunnel and was launched into the next island at great speeds.


    ''Hm. It''s around half of the speed I used to fly when I was bored, but still pretty fast.''


    It didn''t take that much time to reach the next island as the speed of the wind tunnel was quite impressive.


    Ray gracefully landed on the edge of the ninth island and looked around. The island was quite different from the last one. It didn''t have a massive mountain at the center neither had a great forest.


    It was a desert. Only a desert was to be seen, unfortunately.


    "Ugh. I really hate sand."


    Sand was never really of his liking, not for any reasonable reason, he just didn''t like it. It was for that reason that in his youth he had turned a portion of the biggest desert into glass.


    Good times.


    Anyway, if Ray remembered correctly, on the ninth island there were also five checkpoints, however they were not positioned according to the cardinal directions like the last one.


    "It seems that I will have to actually wonder about to find them, it seems. How unfortunate."


    Wasting no time he decided to hurry up, after all he didn''t want to be on the island of sand any longer. Reinforcing his body, he made his way around the desert.


    A cloud of sand rose from the ground as he traveled, marking his trail. Unbeknownst to Ray, a group of participants was eyeing the cloud with interest.


    "Ohoho, it seems that someone quite skilled arrived at the ninth island."


    A young man was the one talking. He had long dark gray hair and green eyes, weirdly, his teeth were quite sharp.


    "Hey guys, say how much of a loss do you think that the academy would retain if they lost such a talent this year."


    A sudden surge of laughter came to his companions that as wild as he was. Those were not laughs of mockery, but of excitement.


    They were about to fight someone quite capable, their blood was boiling.


    "What are you waiting then?"


    He raised his hand pointed in the direction of the cloud of sand.


    "Hunt"


    **************************************************************************************


    Q&A Time!


    There were only two question that were asked in the last chapter, but lets answer them!


    Q: How did other characters achieved level of mana, both in quality and quantity?


    A: Although the question was not exactly structured like this I got the feeling that this was what they meant to ask, and they did express the fact that they could''ve missed something. And indeed they missed.


    You see, Rex Draco, now Ray, no longer has as much power as he once had. When creating his new body his power reset, leaving him only a few advantages due to the fact that his own bodywas used as material. His mana level now his a little above average, almost double of the average.


    The quality of his mana stayed the same, because as I have explained, Mana is born from the junction of spiritual power with natural energy, mana quality although not explicity stated can only be altered by either improving the natural energy or alter your own soul.


    All the people that caught Ray''s interest are one of a kind talents. As for the Saintess, she stated herself to have ridiculous amounts of divine power, and its quite true, as she has indeed as much divine power as Ray has demonic power.


    Both of these power systems will be more deeply explored in the future.


    Q: What''s the release schedule?


    A: I don''t really have a set schedule for any of my works. Right now I just reserve some of my time to write outside of uni and let inspiration take me. I allways leave a finished chapter between the last publlished and the one I''m currently working on. As things are going for now, I can confirm that will be more than two chapter per week, but that might change as I start working on my other novels.


    That''s it for now, I might do this again later, but for now the only other things I have to say is that the First Volume should end with the Entrance Exams Arc that should take between 15 and 20 chapters, I''m not sure, some times ideas just pop out of nowhere in my head.

 Chapter 12 - Whos the Wildest?

    Ray kept running around, hoping to find something.


    "Another thing to add to the list of reasons that I hate deserts..."


    He looked around for a while before screaming.


    "Why the hell does it seem that I have been running in the same place for hours?!?"


    Before he could keep screaming, he stopped in his tracks and let the cloud of sand carried by the wind wash over him. Then, with a quick movement of his hand, he cleared it, revealing quite the sight.


    A group of people was surrounding him. They had been hiding on the sun cloud that he had created while running, masking their presence with their aura.


    Weirdly enough, they seemed to be all dressed in the same way, with fur of wolves and other animals and various necklaces and bracelets full of teeth of various different animals.


    "Oho~, so you finally noticed us, what gave it away?"


    The one who talked was the one with the wildest appearance. With his long gray hair and greish furred cape, he seemed like some tribe leader, or something like that.


    "Barbarians have quite the various amounts of uses for aura, including masking their presence and smell, however, for someone familiar with their ways of doing it, it is easy to notice the aura waves that such a concealing method causes, especially in such a high number."


    Ray was indeed familiar with their methods. Not because he had met barbarians during his time, it wasn''t even a thing in the past. Barbarians were humans that refused to include themselves in society, instead living in the same way humans used to live three hundred years ago during Rex Draco''s era.


    Living of what they hunted and living in small groups, the people that were in the present day known as barbarians were people that lived like wild animals and followed their same rules. The rules of the jungle.


    Having dealt with humanity a lot in the past, the barbarian methods were the norm for the time. While he was running and complaining about the sand, he noticed the familiar aura waves that he normally sensed when being approached by humans. Because he had trained himself to be able to sense such a thing even in his sleep, it wasn''t hard to notice such a big group, especially if such a group was so young and so behind their ancestor''s level, it was laughable, really.


    "Oh~, so you''re aware of our methods, huh? What does that matter? No matter what, we will make you fail this test and make sure that the academy loses another talented individual."


    ''This seems to be the constant no matter the time period.''


    During his time, Ray had noticed that the bigger the group of humans, the more disdain they attracted. A place like the Nest that housed more than a thousand people was a complete pariah and had a bad reputation in the small groups. They live more like the present society and were the template and image used to form the current countries that fill the world.


    Even after three hundred years, the barbarians that had inherited the way of life of the small communities, also inherited their view of society. They believed that strength and glory came from individualism. The goal for any barbarian is to reach a level of strength that allows them to do anything, anytime, anywhere, to anyone.


    Their goal right seemed to be to cut down these countries supply of talented people by infiltrating the entrance exams and purposely failing while taking down their targets.


    Because of his show of power, he was probably targeted by the barbarians.


    "Well, no time to waste, kill him. Even if he dies, he will just wake up in that weird room."


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Barbarians, although they were called that they were not unattached from progress, opposed to what their name and clothes might suggest. They were quite on par with technological advancements, not using them mostly to keep themselves inside their practices.


    "It seems that you have chosen me as your prey, some things never change, really."


    It was a constant problem in the past, humans would suddenly believe that they had made a perfect plan to steal one of my scales or, to more ambitious men, even kill me. They were not even worth making me reinforce myself to kill them.


    "You have chosen the wrong prey."


    "Oh~? Why do you say that?"


    "If you want to hunt, the first step is to not hunt a predator."


    "Is that what you consider yourself? A predator? You civilized bums are getting even more ridiculous! Did you get that line from the internet you tend to spend your day on?"


    "Ah. Haven''t had the chance to see it, seems to be quite the place, the internet."


    "Huh?"


    Caught in a sudden attack of confusion, the enemy leader failed to react to Ray''s action.


    He punched the ground while reinforcing himself, making the sand scatter everywhere, clouding the barbarian group''s vision. Without their vision, Ray was completely free to do whatever.


    Jumping in the air, he decided to deal with the small fries first. Several fireballs were conjured and shot forward in the directions they were. The punch in the sand was not just meant to cloud their vision. Ray had filled some of the grains of sand with aura, allowing Ray to sense their position.


    With the sand grains pointing towards the correct path, his fireballs stroke true, causing multiple fireballs to explode. Once he landed, he shot forward towards the ones who were not affected.


    Without any ounce of hesitation, he struck a reinforced fist in all of them. Either in their chest, jaw, kidney, gut or if he was feeling a bit resentful, groin. It was only one time, though.


    It didn''t take long. Although Ray had lost a lot of his power as a Dragon he still possessed his mana and aura control, his battle experience and a much more profound understanding of both energies that none of the people of this era had, except for Astra, of course.


    Looking around, Ray noticed he hadn''t killed anyone, they were all fine, just unconscious.


    ''Did I hold back that much?''


    He was always holding back, otherwise fights wouldn''t be as fun, and he wasn''t really a fan of bullying children. Mentally scaring them for the rest of their lives was a whole new topic of conversation.


    Apparently, the life that his soul had taken in the other world was affecting him in ways that he did not understand yet. The corruption of that existed in his soul was gone and would never come back, no matter how much demonic power he used, according to Astra. But he thought that he would remain as he always was, a merciless killing machine that could not appreciate any type of life in front of him.


    So why?


    Why did he make a point of only leaving them unconscious? It''s not like they would truly die, was he worried about something else? Their feelings? They didn''t want to enter the academy in the first place, they were here to mess with the academy, not join it.


    ''Am I worried about the way they would see me?''


    It sounded ridiculous. It was ridiculous.


    ''What should I do, *****?''


    Even now her name was still a blur, and yet he could always recall it, before forgetting right after.


    He decided to focus. On the man in front of him.


    His dark gray hair flew around him as the wind passed by. His green eyes glowed with a certain intensity, that Ray would never misinterpret.


    ''A beast.''


    It felt like a beast, like the ones he had encountered. Unfiltered bloodlust and an enormous hunger for battle, that was what distinguished a magical beast from a magical animal. They were both magical creatures, but beasts had a certain bloodlust unique to them. Or it was supposed to be unique to them.


    He was getting the feeling of a beast from this guy.


    "Who are you anyway?"


    "My name is C¨´ Sith, I''m the next Head of the C¨´ Tribe. What about you, talented city mage?"


    "Ray, just Ray."


    "Then, let''s dance, Ray!"


    A sudden surge of aura and mana erupted from Sith as he lunged forward at great speeds. Ray, with great reaction speed, dodged his attack, a swipe of Sith''s hands as if using claws.


    ''His control over mana and aura is outstanding, even compared to other humans I saw back in the day, he is still quite the amazing talent.''


    C¨´ Sith''s mana and aura levels were average, otherwise he would have gotten Ray''s attention before the entrance exams started, however his true strength lied in his control.


    Little to no leaks of mana and aura, a control so refined and yet used on methods so brutish and straight forward, truly reminded Ray of a not just a beast. But a Monster.


    A gleeful smile appeared in Ray''s face.


    "Let''s dance indeed, C¨´ Sith! Let''s see who the wildest monster here is!"


    In the same brutal way, Ray rushed forward with a control of mana and aura much more advanced than Sith''s, catching him by surprise.


    A flurry of punches and kicks were traded off. In most of them, Sith was on the losing side, after all, he was being completely outclassed by Ray. Raw physical power, control over mana and aura, mana pool and fighting prowess. He only had a few exchanges because he had more aura than Ray.


    As Ray started to get bored as the fight stopped giving anything new...


    A sudden howl was heard.

 Chapter 13 - Cù Siths Howls

    The howl had come from nowhere. There were no wolves or other howling animals nearby, nor had C¨´ Sith or any of his companions faked such a sound. The Howl had sounded across the desert, with no origin or explanation whatsoever, it spread through the air in an ethereal way that could not be explained.


    Following it, a repentine surge of mana and aura filled the air. Ray''s vision was covered by the blue light of mana and the green light of aura coalescing around C¨´ Sith. Without any shift of expression, Ray analyzed what was happening.


    C¨´ Sith''s mana and aura levels had doubled. Not only had they doubled, but their quality had definitely increased, and although quality could hardly be represented in number, there was no doubt that it had doubled as well.


    His mana and aura were revolving around themselves, causing a strange phenomenon where they were both increasing their quantity and quality by using each other.


    It was such a strange occurrence that it even managed to surprise even Ray. He just simply never had seen something like it. The use of mana and aura to strengthen each other was simply impossible, it was a well-established fact that the physical power present in aura was incompatible with the natural energy that was part of mana.


    There was only one exception to that fact.


    "A unique affinity."


    Affinity was deeply tied to one''s existence. Although it was not a pillar like the body, the mind and the soul, one''s affinity was deeply tied to one''s existence as a living creature, their personality and even their fate. It was because of that, that affinities were present not only on aura but also on mana, and in several cases even divine power.


    A unique affinity was, as its name implies, unique. Unique to a person, unique to a bloodline, unique to a region, or even unique to a race. A unique affinity was an element that wasn''t normally seen in nature.


    It was mostly presented as a phenomenon and not an element. Like some creatures that could remain in the world after death, that was a unique affinity.


    C¨´ Sith''s affinity was most likely a unique affinity. One where after meeting certain conditions, a howl would be heard and the user''s mana and aura would duplicate, both in amount and in quality.


    As the sand picked up and scattered around, C¨´''s voice could be heard.


    "Indeed. This is my unique affinity, Gatherer of Souls, unlike affinities like fire or wind, this affinity allows me to duplicate my power as well as give me extra abilities."


    As soon as he said that, the rampaging energies started to be sucked into his body. His aura started shaping itself as claws while his mana focused on his eyes, which had turned similar to predator''s.


    He shot forward, much, much faster than before.


    Doubling your mana and aura pool, did not mean doubling your strength, instead it doubled the amount of times you could multiply your own strength by. And that notion was completely disregarding the effect of quality.


    Even so, Ray was not worried. His mana pool, although it had been surpassed, was not that far behind, and its quality was leagues beyond C¨´''s still. The problem was his aura, which had been his weak point ever since he received a new body, and it was now on even greater disadvantage.


    However,


    ''His control is faltering.''


    That was to be expected. After a sudden surge of power, it was normal to lose one''s grip on it. It was akin to playing tug of war. The bigger the mana or aura pool, the more force one would need to use to keep themselves from falling forward. If the energies suddenly doubled, then the strength of your opponent would also double, and the strength of your grip on the rope would also have to double, otherwise you would lose your grip on it.


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    C¨´ Sith was losing his grip.


    His claws cleaved the air, leaving a trail of green light. Ray dove below the strike and countered by delivering a gut punch powered not only by his mana and aura but also quite a bit of flames.


    In a fast movement, C¨´''s other clawed hand caught his hand before it could reach him. He struggled to maintain his grip on Ray''s wrist.


    With their free hands, both of them tried to attack the other, however, seeing that both had thought of the same idea, they changed tactics and locked themselves.


    They couldn''t use their hands.


    They were in a power struggle to free themselves. But, Ray was not having it. He suddenly breathed a large quantity of air in, before exhaling it, along with a torrent of flames.


    The searing heat was the first thing that C¨´ sensed, the pain only reached once the flames had already covered him.


    In pain, he let go of Ray, allowing him to step back. He grunted in pain, but as if realizing something, he smiled.


    A second howl was heard.


    ''Another one?!''


    And with it, a new surge of mana and aura scattered the flames consuming C¨´''s body. As his figure was revealed, new features could be seen.


    In his head there were wolf ears that were green and seemed illusory, as if seen through. They were made of aura, and they seemed to twitch every time there was slight movement of anything, sand, wind, the remaining flames, their bodies and even mana.


    ''What about his mana? What change did it cause?''


    Exactly when he was asking this, C¨´ suddenly disappeared in a flash of blue light.


    He then appeared right beside Ray, swiping his claws at him violently.


    ''Did he become so fast that I couldn''t keep up with my senses? Impossible!''


    Blocking with great struggle, Ray was forced into the defensive, however, he remained calmly analyzing his surroundings.


    ''There were no trails on the sand even after he reappeared, in other words, he didn''t travel faster than I could see, not only that there was a delay between disappearing and reappearing, he is concealing himself every time that blue light flashes.''


    As soon as he figured that out, he switched tactics. Ducking below another swipe of his claws, he delivered a gut punch that was once again stopped. However, this time the flames on his hand kept shooting forward, blowing him out of his feet and sending him several meters back.


    In another flash of light, C¨´ once again disappeared, and in response, Ray created several fireballs, above his head, that rotated on themselves to launch in several streams of flames around him, stopping C¨´ in his tracks and forcing him to step back.


    With a wave of his hand, Ray created several similar flames and shot them in the direction of C¨´ and the surrounding area., filling the area in flames.


    He was trying to make C¨´ incapable of approaching him by constantly bombarding the surrounding area, if C¨´ were to get close, he would be hit as well.


    After the second howl, C¨´ Sith''s mana and aura had once again doubled, yet he still was in a standstill against Ray.


    ''What kind of man is this guy? I doubled my mana and aura twice, making my mana and aura pool, four times higher than before, and yet, this difference still didn''t make him fazed. How?''


    It was actually quite easy to answer that. Although C¨´ was doubling his mana and aura pool, his control over them was descending, as for Ray, his control over his own mana and aura was impeccable, and his battle experience was more than C¨´ had lived for. Taking that into account, unless C¨´ multiplied his strength enough times to completely overwhelm the current Ray, there was no way to catch him.


    As if on cue, a third howl was heard, and C¨´ grinned.


    His unique affinity was called the Gathering of Souls, it was represented in a way that resembled an old story from his tribe. A giant beast would howl three times, at the third, he would appear behind you and reap your soul from you.


    His affinity worked in the same way. Each howl would double his mana and aura reserves, as well as their quality. Each howl would shape his aura, changing his body. Giving him claws, ears to sense movement, and finally a furry tail that changed his balance and way of moving. Each howl would change his mana, giving him new abilities.


    The first howl would give him the ability to physically see the blind spots of enemies, as well as other details on their movements. The way that Ray leaned slightly forward, as if he were trying to go into his fours, was a detail he picked, he sometimes did that too, after all.


    The second howl allowed him to temporarily conceal himself in a flash of blue light.


    And in the third howl, he gained the ability to teleport to a blind spot that he had already identified and use an ability that required both mana and aura to use.


    In a murmur, C¨´ Sith called out its name,


    "Soul Reaper Hound"

 Chapter 14 - Soul Reaper Hound

    C¨´ Sith''s murmur was quite silent. Amidst the roaring flames, the explosions of Ray''s fireballs, and the sudden surge of mana and aura that came from C¨´, his low words shouldn''t be heard, and they were not. Instead, they were felt.


    Beasts and Monsters were as stated before, quite sensible to intent. Being a Demonic Dragon and therefore qualified as a Monster, Ray was also quite sensible. So when C¨´ muttered those words, the chilling intent that covered the area in that millisecond seemed to completely overwhelm any noise that was traveling in that area.


    ''What is this? Killing Intent? No that is not it. This is not the intent to kill, this is something more pure, less human.''


    As Ray struggled to understand what he was sensing, C¨´ started to experience the changes that the third howl implied. An illusory green and furry tail, similar to a wolf''s, appeared at the lower part of his back, swaying lightly.


    His eyes explored the area around him. Due to the increase in mana and aura, his eyes could now see more clearly. Ray was quite an outstanding individual, the mana that each of those fireballs had was minimal, it was quite impressive, how those fireballs compared to the spells of some of the best shamans of his tribe were being cast with such low amounts of mana. If he used more, what could he do? C¨´''s instincts were divided, he wanted to find out more about his strength but the other part of him reminded him that someone that amazing was dangerous and that C¨´ shouldn''t find himself invincible just because he activated his last howl.


    He explored Ray''s figure, he seemed to be suspicious of C¨´, such instincts were even more advanced than the most experienced veterans of his tribe. How amazing.


    C¨´ once again had to keep himself from falling into an uncontrollable state.


    Instead, he focused on Ray''s blind spots. Ray seemed quite experienced in certain aspects, in all aspects really, except blind spots. He knew how to handle magic and aura, and he knew about unique affinities and what they can cause, however, he couldn''t cover his blind spots?


    No that was not true. Ray''s blind spots were constantly being covered, however, new ones were being created over and over again, It was as if sometimes he forgot how his own body worked, like operating an old machine that you remember how to use but still is complicated to use in the same way one used to.


    ''It doesn''t matter.'' C¨´ once again willed himself to focus.


    He looked attentively at the blind spots that he could find in Ray''s stance. It was like playing a game his father used to play with him. He would hide a ball in a bowl and then proceed to switch the bowl with another. He would keep switching until he wouldn''t be able to remember where the ball was.


    In the end, C¨´ Sith had become quite good at that kind of game, so he successfully kept up with Ray as he continuously covered his blind spots.


    Until he missed one.


    C¨´ did not miss that opportunity and used his unique affinity''s third ability to teleport to the blind spot he had found.


    In a flash of green and blue, C¨´ disappeared from Ray''s vision, startling him. The scary intent that he had sensed intensified, urging him to turn around and protect himself.


    He heard his instincts and turned, just to find C¨´ preparing to strike.


    The world seemed to slow down as C¨´ once again muttered the name of the ultimate technique of his affinity.


    "Soul Reaper Hound!"


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    His hand shot forward, the green and blue hues of his aura and mana completely overshadowed by the new and chilling red light.


    ''What is that?''


    Ray was fascinated, this unique affinity was truly unique, he had never seen something like this.


    ''Just how many interesting things did I miss just because their wielders were leagues below me?''


    That strange thought crossed his mind.


    C¨´''s hand landed on the chest. It was not a vicious thrust of claws nor a bloodthirsty ripping, it was much more similar to a poke of a sharp object.


    Right now, C¨´ was reaching for Ray''s soul, and he had sensed that, however, out of curiosity, he decided to let C¨´ proceed.


    C¨´ gazed at the image of Ray''s soul standing in front of him.


    A scenery unfolded before him.


    It was bright, resembling a battlefield that had seen countless despair and malice but had finally known peace and hope.


    ''What kind of place was this before?'' C¨´ subconsciously thought that.


    He shouldn''t have done that.


    As if to respect C¨´''s wishes the scenery changed. The battlefield was swallowed by darkness and the skies were lit ablaze and in front of him stood a giant figure.


    Before C¨´ could think anything more the figure acted.


    R???????????O????????????????????A????????????R??????????????


    C¨´ shivered, his soul shivered. Purple flames swallowed him and he was completely overwhelmed.


    He found himself back in reality, Ray''s calm eyes staring at his own trembling ones.


    Ray had been quite surprised. His soul had changed a lot but he was even more surprised at C¨´ ability to not only interact with souls but also be capable of seeing their past versions.


    "Time to end this, I suppose."


    Using his mana, he reached into his gravity affinity, and using space itself as a slingshot he forced C¨´ away.


    He stumbled on the sand. The remaining fear of his encounter with the giant figure and the illusory pain of being burned alive were still overwhelming his senses.


    When he came back to his senses he rose from the sand trying to stand up. All of his howls were about to be reset so he needed to make a move, quick.


    All that reached his was not a clever plan or idea, but it was Ray''s knee instead.


    He came at great speeds and delivered a knee to the face. As a follow-up, he used his foot to pin C¨´ down as he prepared for the final strike.


    Flames rotated around his arm, before completely engulfing it. They converged to such high levels that one could only see a brilliant hand made of light.


    Said hand rushed forward and struck C¨´ in the gut, creating a gigantic shockwave.


    The sand rose creating what one could call a sand geyser.


    Before being dispersed by a tower of spiraling flames.


    Once those had dissipated, two figures could be seen. One of them stood tall looking at the fallen one from above. The one who had fallen was C¨´. His clothes had been burned along with some of his skin, but he was alive.


    "Just what are you?"


    This was the question on C¨´ Sith''s mind. He had never met someone like Ray, whose powers seemed to have layers with layers. Just how much power was he hiding? Did he have a chance to begin with?


    "There is not a correct answer for that question, I''m afraid, not one that will satisfy you, anyway."


    Ray was really satisfied. For the first time after acquiring a new body, he was glad to have lost his strength, if he still had it, this fight wouldn''t be a tenth as satisfying as it was. Even then he was still a little disappointed, after all, unlike his body his soul had still been of the same power level as before and he was technically saved by that fact.


    "It''s a shame that your last ability had something to do with the soul, otherwise we could have more fun."


    As Ray said that, C¨´ couldn''t help but chuckle, before clenching his teeth due to the pain.


    "Don''t worry, I only lost because I messed with stuff that I shouldn''t, next time I will win."


    Hearing this Ray wasn''t offended or triggered, instead, he grinned, a feral smug grin.


    "Then do your best and enroll in the academy, I will need someone to pummel to the ground to entertain myself."


    Naturally, Ray had no malice towards C¨´, and it wasn''t like he was such an easy target to pick on. It was mostly to rile C¨´ up.


    "Enroll, huh?"


    A similar beastly grin appeared on C¨´''s face.


    "What a good stage for two beasts to hunt, alright, Ray. Let''s make this academy our hunting grounds."


    Some people say that the best way for two people to grow closer is through conflict, and they are not wrong. Even though Ray and C¨´ had fought, the result of it was not a loss of any kind but instead a certain understanding of each other.


    C¨´ was someone who sought to achieve his goals in his own way, constantly pursuing his prey, like a wolf.


    Ray was the personification of a sleeping dragon, calm and still, until it woke up, incinerating everything around him, like a erupting volcano.


    They both gained a certain respect for each other. Not the kind of respect a man gives to another. A respect between beasts.


    A Respect Between Monsters.