A Dragon's Curiosity Chapter 21 - A New World

Chapter 21: A New World

The unbelievable discovery, together with the clear flow of mana circulating around Nisha continued to shake her with emotion.

Secondly, the dragon girl had been able to achieve the first mana rank, her first step on the path of cultivation, and it was one step closer to her goal, the old elf Eldrin.

Eldrin looks exactly like I remember him. It feels so good to see again after all this time.

“I can see you … I can see you again, grandpa!”

Somewhat overwhelmed from the joy that his granddaughter had been able to achieve the first mana rank, the elf clearly did not grasp her words, and he wordlessly stared at her.

“What … what did you say? You can see me? But how? Your eyes are still closed …”

Prospects and hopes of Nisha’s eyes healing on her own flourished in his head, each thought equally as joyous as they were terrifying.

Comforting each other with their presence, grandfather and granddaughter stayed in the same position for a long time, and it was enough time to alert Lydia and Anna when they returned to the cottage after taking care of the animals; it had been the sisters turn to do the chore today.

Upon moving to the door of Eldrin’s room, they put their ears against the smooth wood of the door and they heard low noises coming from the room, they tried eavesdropping on the things happening inside.
When even the tiny noises disappeared, the two sisters could not bear it anymore and rushed inside the room to see what’s going on.

Inside the room, the first thing they saw was the old elf hugging Nisha close to his chest, pale rivers of tears ran down his cheeks as he had a blissful smile on his face.

Cautiously approaching the scene, Anna assessed the situation more calmly, while Lydia rushed over to them to fuss over the drained dragon.

His euphoric whisper sounded like a father who just got the news of his newborn baby, it was a principal collection of pure bliss.

“Sir, is that true?” “What happened?”

Their little sister had once again given them a huge surprise, one very pleasant wonder in a long row of wonders.

Having calmed down somewhat from the life altering experience, the small girl started to recount her ordeal, starting with showing off the achievement she was happy to finally obtain.

Chanting in a low voice which was coarse from crying, Nisha summoned a small flame on top of her palm. It was not big enough to threaten anything more powerful than a wooden board, but it was a flame nonetheless.

“You finally did it! I knew you would catch up in no time, our little sister is amazing!”

“The [Fireball] is now hovering in front of Lydia … and now it’s circling around Anna. I can see it! My eyes aren’t healed, but I have gained another sight! I don’t know what to say, I’m just so happy.”

Everyone missed out on breakfast and lunch, yet no one complained, they were all too excited about the youngest attaining a way to deal better with her inability and achieving the first mana rank at the same time.

“Based on your description of the world lighting up during your meditation, I don’t think your mana rank and the [Spirit Sight] as well as your soul space are unrelated.”

Compared to hand to hand combat, the main component of aura training along with the rounds around the clearing, fighting with a weapon was a novelty to her.

Despite Nisha using a wooden stick for the first time, the spar had no clear winner. Even when the aura user of the second rank, Lydia, faced off in a one on one confrontation with her younger sister, using speed and brute strength to go toe to toe with her.

Unlocking one’s soul space so early is unheard of anyway, truly a miracle.”

“Sir, if you don’t mind, please expand on the issue. What is a soul space anyway?”
Without a formal teacher in the field of mana before arriving at the cottage, she wanted to learn more about the method that would allow her to protect herself and her sister if anyone dared to attack or act maliciously against them. Personal power symbolized the perfect protection against anyone, and assured respect wherever one went.

“Hmm, let’s see. A soul space is a peculiar thing, and a closely guarded secret of the magicians, although people in positions of power and high ranking guild members are usually aware of them.

At the same time, they achieve a very high degree of mastery, some individuals gain the same ability, which has been named the [Soul Space].

As long as no opposing mana or aura is dwelling in an object, it is possible to store away items and dead bodies, a perfect way to hide important objects or store personal armor and weapons. It is a talent highly valued in any business.

Grandpa is incredible.

Admiring the light of the world again, Nisha ran around a bit more, circling the three slowly walking persons in the middle of her rounds. She was enjoying the feeling of perceiving the world around her despite her fatigue.

“I’m sure you figured it out by now, but when Nisha arrived here, she did not have her current form. There should have been many questions about her features and our relation, but you never said a word and eased up only after a certain amount of time, so you should have seen her true form.”

“It’s true sir … when her three siblings arrived, we were awake and heard your conversation. We did not want to conceal it, but we had no idea what you would do once you found out we know her true heritage.

Putting the confession and the sound she heard when entering the house with her dragon siblings together, Nisha suddenly realized that the two former maids had always known who she was and they never treated her any differently. She ran up to them and embraced both of them.

So they had the same worries as me. But I adore them like real sisters, just as they do with me.

Eldrin only smiled at the scene, mending the relationship of the women under his domain had always been one of his goals, although he did not think anything would work out so smoothly and he did not mind the interruption in his explanation. He had always known who spied on them when the lizards visited, and the lack of any questions only confirmed his observations.

True to his expectation, the time the three girls spent together allowed them to open up to each other and get close. At least the elf had no doubt that Lydia and Anna would never betray the little dragon.

As I have already explained the degree of mastery over one’s magic and soul is important to gain access to one’s soul space, and the earliest case of anyone achieving this feat I know had been shortly after arriving at the fifth rank.
Nisha however seems already able to enter her own space.”

To supplement Eldrin’s explanation, the blind girl pulled one of her sun dresses out of the empty air, holding it in front of her and passing it to Anna to let her feel the fabric, so she knows that it’s a real thing and not an illusion. Anna then passed it to Lydia afterwards, eagerly looking at the elf, urging him to continue with his explanation.

“They are my treasures! But now I have something much more precious, so I don’t need them anymore.”

The old elf returned the smile in a kind way, not chiding her for cutting him short.

At my rank, I might be able to store a few of my robes, my staff and a few litres of water to trek through the Wilderness.
Storing a full room of items is way beyond my capability, but if my hunch is correct, Nisha should be able to store away all the items away again in her space.”

Following this hunch, the inhabitants of the cottage waited until the women finished their emotional moment and headed towards the storage room.

Arriving at the treasure trove hidden deep into the pathway, the two former maids gawked at the mountains of gold, items and valuables. Never in their lives had they seen anything close in value.

The sheer amount of valuables concentrated in a single spot had left Annabelle speechless, she knew the approximate real value of the heap, while Lydia only admired the shiny items and inquired where their little sister dug out all of this.
“You see, every now and then, a small amounts of coins or a few items would appear overnight in my chamber or the ones of my siblings. Through trading and bartering with the Fairy Queen and the Harpy Queen, we amassed quite the amount of treasures, most of it was with me after I put it into my space, but Little Terra, Little Stream and Little Breeze together have almost the same amount as me combined, either in their rooms or spaces.”

The thought that roughly the same amount of wealth was out there in the Wilderness seemed to even shock the elf, an incredulous look on all three of their faces.

Walking through the room, Nisha quickly swept up the different items, the coins, the herbs, the metals and everything else that was scattered around.

“All cleaned up! Can we go and prepare lunch now? I’m hungry.”

“And people wonder why dragons are so rich …”

Armed with her [Spirit Sight], the old elf had allowed Nisha to leave the circle of the clearing. She had proven herself more than capable to enjoy hunting again.

The small circle of her unusual sight proved to be insufficient if the concealed hunter wanted to consider the situation with the input provided by it alone, but based on the smell of the forest, the absence of other animal noises and her intuition, Nisha considered the fight to be in her favour.

As soon as the iron headed arrow left the string, Nisha sheathed the bow onto her back and drew the short sword strapped to her waist on the right. She kept a weapon on each side, her training revealed that she had no problem handling or firing a weapon with each hand, so she just kept one spare on her and she fought with whatever hand was not busy at the moment.

Imitating the flight path of the projectile, Nisha used her sword to heavily land on the back of another wolf, severing its left front leg and knocking its head away with her knee.

Grinning from the rush of adrenaline and the joy of the hunt, she carefully observed the three remaining wolves in her own special vision. The alpha was already out of commission, it was struggling to draw out the arrow that nailed it into the ground.

Using their formation, they hoped to entrap her and slowly wear her down, at least that was the impression Nisha got from them.

The sword strike contained no technique, no finesse.

A silver flash cut through the air when the body of the dragon girl burst into motion, severing the head of the wolf on the left in a flash, the [Taurith Short Swords] she prefered to use shimmered in a silver-bluish glow, where the attacking dragon had to stumble a few steps from the momentum after finishing her strike and landing behind the two remaining future preys.

Getting the approval from her grandfather allowed her to venture into the woods every now and then on her own, hunting leisurely as long as she promised him to respect the strength of her enemies and not take any unnecessary risks.

The wolves were very wary by now, the small opponent that they deemed harmless after their initial shock, turned out to be a predator who did not need the element of surprise to be their enemy.
Torn between running away and leaving their alpha behind or joining paws to defeat the enemy before them, the large monsters waited a moment too long, their indecisiveness costed them their life.

A wolfish smile playing on her lips, Nisha shortly licked her lips before exploding into a rush again.

Using a weapon way above the rank of the intended prey usually took some enjoyment out of the hunt as there was no fight once the blade hit true, but the blind girl was still too engrossed in the thrill of moving about freely once again and interacting with the world to impose a self inhibition like only using weapons of the appropriate tier.

Bisected cleanly in half, the halves slid down from her blade, not moving in death anymore.

The body technique she used for moving unseen throughout the forest also compressed her pressure, hiding her from the more formidable beasts when she sensed them enter the area, the tune of the forest quieted down in these situations, her ability to escape and go unseen one was one of the big arguments for her to be allowed to wander around alone.

Unfortunately for the Nisha, she lost herself in memories while hunting down the last wolf, who had now turned around and ran away, leaving behind the alpha wolf to die. Angry with her prey escaping, the dragon girl sprinted behind the wolf, relying on her powerful physique to catch up with it.

Eldrin had advised her that it was too early to definitely decide which path of cultivation she wanted to walk, clearly the elf had seen through her goal of pursuing his path as a mage of the seventh rank and he didn’t want her to be limited to a single option.

The red star Nisha managed to light up warranted a day of celebration and enjoyment, and this was her first hunt since the feast.
Itching to test out the new limits of her body, the blind girl strained herself more and more to catch up with the wolf, who was driven by the fear of the cute reaper behind him managing to run faster than ever before in its life.

Wrapping her small wings, tail and legs in sparkling embers of her fire aura, it enhanced her already strengthened body from the dark sheen that veiled Nisha completely, a flash of ingenuity prompted the dragon girl to try out this particular double strengthening.

Erupting with a newfound speed, the blind girl flew through the forest, avoiding trees right and left, holding the sword in a reverse grip before her chest.

A flaming shadow dashed by fleeing animal, taking off its hind leg, sending it tumbling to the ground.

While the [Grey Furred Wolves] preferred to travel in small packs with a single alpha wolf, there were simply too many of them travelling through the forest.

With a wicked expression on her face, the dragon looked forward to the confrontation and readied her sword.

Stained completely in blood, the victor of the skirmish walked back to the first Alpha she slew, recovering the arrow that was still nailing the dead body to the ground.

Dressing herself in one of the spare dresses in her collection, she picked up the bodies of the alpha and the first wolf she killed, strolling back in the direction of the cottage with the sun shining down on the forest.

Nisha was a predator and hunter, just like Little Flame.

Chapter end