“What do you mean you failed to find it? Get back out there now, and don’t return unless you’ve got a dragon!” The woman in a wide-brim hat and robes descending to the floor shouted at two men. Both carried swords at their waists and wore hardy leather boots along with thick cloth and wool all over. Under the beration their mouths turned dry and barely knew what to say.

“We looked all around that mountain peak, sir. The closest thing we found to a dragon was some lizard with spikes on its back.”

“Since when did razorthorns possess even a fragment of a dragon’s magical ability! I was lucky to have a contact here who saw the dragons leaving, so find it before someone else arrives.” Enraged at the two incompetents, she returned to a desk to study an open scroll with hundreds of strange symbols along with a complex diagram at its centre.

“My, my, my. I never thought little Pearl would have such a temper, you were always so quiet back at the academy.” Almost like the door had been left unlocked, a slim man with a light beard walked in. His robes appeared the same to woman’s except for a gold and white scarf which draped onto his chest.

“That is not my name, Sir Bachlar,” she said with nothing more than a sneer. But turning back to the two men in front, her face distorted to anger once more before saying, “And this is why you two fools shouldn’t have returned without my dragon!”

“It’s not yours yet. Academy rules still apply, even if you have a title, Sir Augusticus.” While the man’s voice released some humour, the words still cut deep. Even after all her progress, geniuses like him saw her as a child.

But a dragon heart! Just that alone would change everything!

For months in the planning she spent enough to fund a small town all by herself, setting up informants all throughout the kingdom in hopes that news of a dragon hatchling came to her first! And it did!

Only for two useless humans, who promised to be expert hunters, to screw it all up! There were too few willing to go up the mountain at short notice, especially those she could afford to send out. Even if such a mountain sported few strong beasts, the cold alone made it tough for most low-level humans to go there.

Gritting her teeth, she looked at the superior noble in front of her to make a decision. First asking, “How many know about the dragon? And who’s arrived?”

“Who hasn’t heard of it? How often do dragons drop eggs this close to civilization? Right now it’s just us two, but it also seems I have an upperhand in manpower.” His smirk almost sent her into a rage, but she held back on account of status.

It took a few moments to rein in her emotions, and she knew that most of this attitude in fact came from the notice of failure she just received. As Bachlar said, she was indeed rather quiet back then…

“I’d like to make a deal. I’ll aid you in hunting the dragon, and in return I’d like the right to buy the dragon heart if you get the kill.” She readily admitted that she needed help, and trying to come out on top against this genius simply never worked.

Years in the academy, and she only bested him twice. Let alone the other geniuses…

“Deal. How could I ever reject little Pearl, although your cute appearance back then was far more enjoyable.” Teasing her willfully, Bachlar walked out of her office with a grin. While he sympathised with her for not obtaining the dragon, in the end the fault entirely ended on her.

She on the other hand only rolled her eyes at the words, being adults with few things to do besides magic, it was no surprise that relations popped up between most of them. And Bachlan was precisely the type to reminisce about it all. Or tease his partners about the events…

But for the both of them, one core precept of the academy resonated with them. If you want something done, do it yourself. Every teacher at the academy said this for a single reason, and today proved it even more.

* * *

On the mountain in question, a hatchling quickly made it back to his cave safely and spent the past few days practicing some more incantations. In particular learning that Light spell, and then an advanced form, Controlled light. The latter did as expected and moved around according to his will.

Though it formed a mental link, this link’s weight roughly matched two Jump seals, making its usage easy. Each of the spells consumed a fixed amount of mana upfront which lasted for about an hour of use, although only the latter could be dissipated early.

With that logic, he opted to avoid using the Light spell as it could draw predators or even humans. The latter being so much worse.

Alongside the Light spell, he learnt a Darkness spell. This being the antithesis of the Light spells, it created a region which rapidly absorbed light. While not dropping it into pure darkness, the result made it impossible for most to see through.

This sort of dark magic differed from its combat form, with utility being clear at first glance when used appropriately. It also prepared him for learning more complex dark spells, for example the simplest dark magic attack is Darkness bolt. It was also an eight word incantation.

In general though, his mouth seemed to move exactly as he imagined it to. Except for the occasional stutter or mispronunciation, he rarely struggled to speak now. Spellcasting still took a while on account of requiring precision and timing, but his improvements were clear.

Additionally, he took some time to learn some keywords that future humans might use. Things like ‘Over there!’ or ‘hunt’. At the very least he felt confident in knowing if they were coming after him… although whether or not he could escape had yet to be seen.

One spell he considered learning was an advanced form of the spell Windburst, which coated his body in a barrier of wind while accelerating him beyond his normal means. However, such a spell actually modified his body as well, which made it impossible to use.

The advanced form instead stored the speed boost as a seal, exactly like the Jump spell. He started progress on learning the Windburst’s seal form to facilitate escaping, but anything more than two words required some time to complete.

On occasion he forgot some words as well, which meant finding the spells once more and practicing for a while. Not too long ago he forgot part of the Frost shell spell, and then spent half an hour before finally casting it again.

It had been just a couple days since seeing those last hunters, and by now they either camped up here for the past few days, or left due to not finding the dragon they wanted. He knew there was no skill involved in that day though, having survived purely on luck.

Those with more skill and ability would not make such a mistake though. With his growth phase now being solidified a bit more, an immediate change in the length of his tail appeared first. In the next few weeks he could expect some development to his legs, body, and head. The brain development alone should help with psychic spells and using more seals.

But the most important feature of a growth phase is a dragon’s heart. In the process of going from a hatchling to a youngling, the smallest their heart grew was to three times the size. But those dragons with strong bodies saw increases of up to five fold, occasionally even greater!

This inevitably made spellcasting dragons with weak bodies even more vulnerable than their physically adept counterparts.

After all, the dragon heart is simply the core of any dragon. Losing it meant losing the ability to adeptly harness mana, and soon after, death. That was why older dragons continuously grew, even if by minute proportions every year.

Regardless of information on this growth phase, he needed a way to evade any hunters appearing in the future. Not just for a few weeks, but years if necessary. The cave walls contained so many mana-rich gems that he believed it adequate to hide his own.

But if anyone capable of sensing mana saw him…

The first priority was to find a place tough for humans to reach, preferably underground. All that came to mind was searching for unlikely tunnels, Or even looking for gaps in the mountain just off the cliff outside his cave, an idea so dangerous that he didn’t dare look outside, let alone think it through.

Lost in that thought he inevitably looked around his cave for any inspiration. The gems stuck in its walls refused to budge, not that they aided him in any way. Suddenly turning his head to the side, he thought that something appeared outside his cave.

However, it was either his imagination or something which ran off immediately. Leaving him to walk around the cave for a while in concern.

Was his only option to run away?

He certainly wanted to avoid such a fate, especially given this cave’s natural safety and amazing view. Only when he walked to the corpses situated at the cave’s back did an idea finally realise. Not only did the two frozen bodies exist here, but it reminded him of the small patch of snow he’d grown to hate due to the appearance of so many ants.

Didn’t he want to go wipe them out at some point? Digging an underground home branching off at some point couldn’t be too hard either...

With that in mind, all he had to do was follow the hole dug by all those ants from before. Not believing it to be that far, he quickly started on digging a long tunnel.

A lack of elements left the ant tunnels in pristine condition, greatly easing the problem of finding their nest, and he simply dug away more and more. Every bit of removed snow had to be carried away somewhere, creating a growing pile of it in his cave over the next few hours. But he had yet to find even a smidge of mana in the tunnel. He began wondering how those original ants even found him. Perhaps it was random luck, or perhaps these ants had a strange talent to sense open-air spaces nearby. Either way, he lacked such abilities and could only hope this tunnel ended soon.

It took a hell of a lot of time to do all this digging in the first place.

* * *

As things in Remelo heated up with select nobles personally rushing to acquire the dragon first, things beyond the border were a bit… messier. Rather, one would notice black shapes stalking the edges of unlit paths and slipping into manors at night. What might usually be a rat or two sneaking in through a tiny crack was instead a fluid-like substance which seeped in through these miniature holes and reformed on the other side into an upright bipedal being.

In the darkness, it was only barely possible to make out their shadowy figure. But in the light, they would’ve been easily noticeable, given the silver markings all over their bodies, that is, if they weren’t also utterly covered by some sort of dark clothing.

The sneaky beings crept around the relatively unguarded homes without much of an issue, and stepped into the rooms of their owners before displaying no hostility, simply lighting a small candle and taking a seat in the bedchambers of these elite and powerful individuals.

And not merely politically powerful.

Most woke up the moment the black figure entered their room, drawing a weapon immediately and targeting the casual figure who simply did their best to restrict sound from escaping. But the lack of weaponry on the opposite side quickly eased the minds of these people… And discussions began.

Very simple discussions. Ones where the black figures received information or a guarantee that a target would be dealt with, and the opposing side gained rare materials or advanced knowledge to push their power to new heights.

In some cases, they received interesting equipment capable of completing magical feats far beyond their level. These were by no means cheap, and so, hundreds of such individuals came to agreements in the nights following.

Surely, it wasn’t traitorous to gently target another noble? Or cause a bit of easily manageable chaos which the kingdom could put down in a matter of days?

No… Surely not.