After the incident with Chad, the nobles that had previously been bullies have stepped down their aggressive behavior. Rumors running around the school said they picked a fight with someone that was strong and were beaten to a pulp and following which they got a tongue lashing from the teachers and are now in detention until further notice. They still do PE and other things with all the Second year classes but by order of the principal they are punished by doing quite heavy exercise that pushes their limits to prohibit them from having spare time to go terrorize the other students.
The other nobles who had tendencies to do the same as Chad but weren’t his follower became quiet and trained properly so as to not suffer the same fate as them. For the poorer students, this was a blessing because now without the constant fear of bullies coming to beat them up they put full force to train. Some of the students admired the guy that beat them up and were training hard so that they wouldn’t have to fear Chad.
At the end of the first month of the school year, all the children from the second year and third year were gathered outside.
Unlike the second year, the third year had about 20 or 30% less people. Other people didn’t know but Xero noticed and could probably guess since he got a hint when he beat up Chad.
All 390 first year students and the 300 some third year students were all seated in the stands that had space to spare for the entire student populace of the academy.
Also the school has eight year groups, the first is those that are 9-10 years old and the last one is 17 or 18 year olds. Within the time of the academy it is said that students are put through many trials and of the almost 800 that start every year the school rapidly eliminated within the first two years while the remaining ones train for the rest of the time but with time the tasks slowly grow more intense and there are cases of death.
Standing in front of the group was the Vice Principal Miss Gilbody, Grunt, the Alchemy and Herbology teacher.
“Shut up brats!” Grunts voice vibrates the very air leaving the ears of the students buzzing.
“Good, now children listen up!” Miss Gilbody called out and looked at the stands, “Starting tomorrow we will have the annual Training Exertion. This is so that you students can feel real danger that isn’t present in the properly divided training zones.” She said and the third year’s moaned. “Now I don’t want any of that!” She rebutted the moans of complain, “This time we actually fall under a large contribution to the sentient races, for the next two months until the end of the first semester we will be charged with aiding the protection of the newly constructed frontier city, Niska. Not just us but all the Magic academy will be participating in this. The reason being that swarms of low ranking monsters have been invading. It is believed to be the start of a monster wave coming from the Desolate lands beyond.” She explained.
Before anyone could speak Grunt stomped forward, “Before anyone asks, you are there to train and fight against the low leveled monsters, when a true wave comes there will be us teachers plus the teachers of the other academy as well as the Hellvine Union!” He announced.
When the name of the final participants were announced everyone went into shock. The Hellvine Union were an amazing independant army unit, they number only 1000 but they are the apex of the meaning, Quality over Quantity. The general of the army is said to be ony of the few people to reach the level 90 benchmark. The average level of the familiars for this army is around 60 and recruits only come from Hellvine academy which is a private academy and is one of the strictest in the world with a drop out rate of 90% of the students but still every year more than 2000 students apply but to reach the eighth year isn’t easy. Unlike common academy that normally have only a 2 year expulsion period, unless someone acts up promoting the expulsion, the Hellvine academy has it throughout the eight years. If someone doesn’t meet the specific requirements for the semester or year they are expelled.
To learn that these kinds of experts will be there meant that their second and third year would also be tested and someone raised their hand but Grunt cuts them off, “Hellvine academy is the only one bringing all eight years of their students.” He says.
Everyone goes silent at this, that would mean that the city would be completely filled and probably overflowing with people which meant only one thing, “This isn’t a simple trip students, think of it as the most dangerous camping trip you will go in. We will be making the camp within 20 kilometers of the town, in truth each academy will be making their own camp or more correctly said, their own outpost with us teachers as the guide. During the waves we would take part of the wave. Expected wave strength is from level 2 up to level 10 and this gets harder since contains many mob creatures that fight together. The fighting will have to be done with the familiars so this is a good time to train efficiency with your familiars in large scale live combat. I know many of you have been lacking a large event to evolve your familiars so guess what, here it is. The next two months hunting record will be marked as your grade, depending on your kill count it could heavily impact your final grade for the semester.” Grunt said grinning.
The third years didn’t seem surprised but the rest of the students were. A two month test and without losing momentum Miss Gilbody pulled out a ring made of white metal.
“This ring was made specifically for this task, it will cause a small aura to cover you and your familiars so that it will be possible to see the kill count during the next two months, these will be passed out tomorrow when before we leave the academy for Niska.” Miss Gilbody explained. “When you pack your things don’t worry about tools to be used, just bring basic needs such as clothing and any safekeeps and don’t forget your wands since those will be extremely important in this task to come. Now you are all free for today, there will be no class so that you have time to prepare since I know that the ladies need more time then the boys. You are all dismissed!” She said and turned on her heel before walking away quickly to get the final details of the trip taken care off.
The students all begin dispersing and Xero walked down to Grunt, “Kid, I prepared some new gear for your and the imp, let’s go get them.” He said.
He drags Xero and drags him to a storage house and after a while he pulls out a kind of leather belt that had lots of springs.
“What is that?” Xero asked.
“Restraints of course, all these strap on and pull your body into a little ball so you need to be constantly forcing your body to keep upright and walking.” He said.
“So… how am I going to move in this?” Xero asked.
“Oh that… figure out yourself.” Grunt said and moved like the wind.
In the blink of an eye all of Xero’s clothes were off and the restraints were put only over his undergarments and in another blink his clothes were back on.
As soon as all this was done Xero suddenly felt the restraints and his arms and legs instantly pressed close to the body and he kneeled since he was caught off guard.
Tasting dirt he got annoyed and looked up at the old bear who was grinning. “Try and move normally by the time you return, also summon your familiar.” He said
Gritting his teeth Xero trembled under the strain before finally standing up and summoning Ash.
“How… will… i… even… move…” Xero asked.
“Hmm… I guess I can loosen it up to a small degree, it ‘would’ be bad if you missed the trip.” Grunt said and fiddled with central springs and the entire suit loosened up a bit.
Xero sighed as it strain was lifted a bit and was able to force himself upright but was still restrained with more than 75% of his movements being dragged down.
Looking sideways he saw Ash in the same situation or possibly worst since he was still on the ground but ordering him to get up began to make him move but the restraints were even harder on him and Grunt had to adjust them to their individual strengths.
“There, this is a good training point to start, since you ‘do’ need to work once you get to the base I will teach you how to adjust the weight freely.” He said.
For over an hour he showed Xero how the restraints worked until he could work them easily and could easily go from 0 to his limit without surpassing it accidently.
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When that was finished he left Grunt while growling dejected and headed to his room. He arrived sweating and couldn’t make Ash suffer with him since he wasn’t allowed to keep him out.
Still in his room he went to the closet and took out his clothing and stored it in the magic bag. The school bags are gifts from the school to the students and each have a 10x10 meter space inside. It just couldn’t contain living beings. Because the material was stretchable, as long as it didn’t passed the maximum size, you could stuff anything as long as it wasn’t bigger than the space available.
He didn’t have much else but he did bring most of his study books and notebooks because they had quite a bit of useful content inside and he didn’t forget his monster encyclopedia since it would help him later to identify what he killed or was seeing.
Having nothing else he called Ash and began to train with him under the weights for the remainder of the day before taking a bath and falling asleep, after removing the weights, but the restraints made it really hard to fall asleep with so he figured out how to take them off after a bit of messing around and freed himself and had a more fitfully sleep.
The following morning he woke up and put that killer restraint on but reduced the weight so that he can reach the front of the school fast enough or he would miss whatever was the transport.
As soon as he walked out he stopped and looked up. Looking down on him and the students, while casting a huge shadow, was a truly monstrous dragon yet the face of it looked somewhat calm and the scary features of a common dragon extensively weren’t present. This was had light green extremely small scales that made it look like a glowing skin. It had two long tentacle like protrusions coming from the eyebrows and it had a really large body that went almost 1000 meters long and it was all curled up on the ground like a snake but it was possible to see the wings. The basic format of the body wasn’t snake like but instead of common dragon like, it was a really… really big dragon. The only feature that threw the majestic feeling off and gave it that warm gentle feeling instead was the strange fog or fluff gathered around its body that seem to flow and was just a thin layer that didn’t block the view of the body.
Xero walked forward while looking at the dragon and like all the other students, was completely mesmerized by such a grand sight.
A familiar loud bellowing laugh made Xero look at the source and he found Grunt standing behind him. “So kid, you like her?” He asked.
“What is such a huge dragon doing here?” Xero asked.
“That little beauty is a Cloud Dragon, it’s a dragon from a different world and doesn’t exist in our world besides as a familiar to a rare few people lucky enough to breed one. They are level 30 monsters but they have no combat potential but you won’t find a faster dragon.” He said.
“Cloud? And how is THAT level 30?!” Xero asked.
The other students around them were also looking at him skeptical, for such a huge monstrosity to be only level 30 makes them wonder what it would be like at level 100.
“Level 30 is it’s limit, it’s unknown of Cloud Dragons become anything else beyond that which is why it never surpasses level 30 which is when it is at its adult age. As for it’s purpose here, this is our transport to Niska.” He said grinning.
At once everyone looked at the dragon who grinned and bent its neck, “Grunt, stop teasing the children.” A gentlewoman's voice came from the dragon. “Don’t worry children, although I fly a bit fast, my clouds are quite comfortable and will help you handle the speed like a joyride.” She said.
Xero’s eye twitched at the comparison to a ride, how can a dragon’s flight speed be compared to a joyride.
Since he could not comprehend anything he would work off this building anxiety with sword play so increasing the pressure of the restraints he pulls out his sword and goes to a more open space and starts to work off the anxiety.
One by one the students would come out more and more from the school all of them with the same shocked expression and eventually Meldie came and when she found Xero training she walked over.
He stopped and spent time talking until the appointed time when Miss Gilbody walked out in a brisk pace.
“Alright! Everyone listen up! We will now be boarding, the method is simple, Grandjoy.” She called and the dragon nodded before standing up which reached almost 60 meters tall and the her tail curled around dropped to the ground about 20 meters away from the nearest student.
“You are to walk to her back and find a spot to sit, stay 10 meters away from the wings and only sit where there is cloud, don’t worry about getting wet because there is no moisture in them that will wet your clothing. The master of the dragon is on the back as well so make sure to greet him and sit down patiently.” Miss Gilbody said and clapped her hand, “Chop chop, start boarding, we don’t have all day! The trip will take several hours from here even by cloud dragon.” She exclaimed.
With her shouts everyone began to pick up their things and started to walk.
“Wait!” A shout came and a boy from the second year came shouting and on his back was six magic bags. “Made it!” He exclaimed.
“Mr. Dorian why are you so late?” Miss Gilbody asked.
“There were too many things to fix up… including my handsome face.” He said and stood up and smiled and flashed his pearly white teeth.
A few people just looked at him like he was an idiot and mostly ignored him and walked to the dragon.
“Come on Meldie, don’t let his stupid contaminate you.” Xero said and walked with the halfling who looked at the boy and nodded wryly. The tail end was flatter than the rest of the tail as if it was made for transporting and allowing land creatures to scale its body. That said it still took about ten minutes of climbing its tail to reach the back and arriving there they found a man in his middle age with light green hair, wrinkles but his physical condition could easily be compared to Grunt.
When Xero saw Grunt walk over and pat the man on his shoulder he saw Grunt’s arm tense up and his eyes widened as Grunt put full force into the back slap.
Bang!
The slap landed and he bellowed out laughing, “Old Tiro! Been a while!” He laughed yet the old man didn’t even budge.
“Oh little cub, it has been a while since you joined the training.” The old man said smiling as if he didn’t even feel the slap.
All the students froze upon seeing this and were wondering what that man’s body was made of for it to handle a full power slap from Grunt.
“Alright brats! Listen up, this is Tiro Covina, he is the leader of the Covina Transport Corporation that transports not only goods and services but also people. This old bag was also my own teacher 40 years ago and is side to have one of the strongest defensive capabilities. Even if I go full out he won’t budge.” Grunt laughed.
“Boy, don’t exaggerate thing, I’m getting old so I’m sure you might move me… maybe after seven or eight hits if you put your back into it.” He said.
“Tiro.” Grandjoy said looking back and he just turned and waved back.
“Don’t worry don’t worry, it’s a good thing for the children to see the wide world.” He said.
Grunt laughed, “Brats, you heard that Grandjoy is only level 30 and has no combat potential but what you didn’t hear was that her defensive capabilities are second to none and to actually injure her you need something that is 30 levels above her. Not to mention to catch her you would need something of equal status as those that can hurt her.”
“How is this level 30 then?!” Someone exclaimed.
“Cloud dragons aren’t native to our world, supposedly they are low ranking dragons in their original world. Also Joy has never evolved and simply grew up from an infant.” Trio said. “The scale we use makes her level 30 but her original world is far different from ours.” He explained.
“Then what did Grunt say about dragons evolving into a cloud dragon?” Xero asked.
“That is a native breed, they aren’t the same dragon but they possess similar capabilities if you compare speed at least but the size is more than 3 times smaller and they possess fighting capabilities. Grandjoy can’t use breath attacks nor does she have a violent disposition. She at best can only swing her tail and attack with her claws but because of her speed, anything that attacks will never keep up unless they ambush us from all sides but that is where I come in.” Tiro said without batting an eye.
“Children stop talking and get seated!” Miss Gilbody reached the back at this time after the last student had climbed aboard and was getting climbing.
The children began to move onto the extremely broad back.
After a short time everyone sat down and after making sure no one was out of place or left behind Trio nodded to Grandjoy. A green wave pulsed through her body and slowly the small clouds began to get denser and soon covered the students before it almost became cotton like and lifted them up as if they were floating.
Woosh!
A strong wind blew and they were pushed back but the clouds became denser as they moved back until it formed a kind of cushion and held them where they were. No one could see out of the cloud coat and it only got faster and they were pushed further back until stopping.
“This is… scary and fun.” Meldie said as she gripped the cloud ‘bed’ that formed behind her. She was trembling at what they were experiencing.
“Alright children, we are finally stable in the air, I’ll give you a little treat to see.” Grandjoy suddenly said and a green pulse came from below. Slowly the cloud became more transparent as if it was dispersing but the cloud behind them remained but soon they were all in the air accompanied by the dragons green glowing body while looking down at the ground that was already thousands of meters below them. The horizon was far and already seemed to curve a small bit. All the students felt a drop at the pit of their stomachs and quickly all of the grabbed ahold of the cloud bed they were on from fear of falling.
“Grandjoy, stop teasing the kids!” Grunt bellowed out laughing as he looked back at the kids who were pale as the clouds they were on. Even the third years students since it wasn’t a pleasant sight to see when suspended in mid air by clouds that could suddenly vanish like the other.
The dragon chuckled and a green pulse made the clouds cover their view once more causing the children to calm down but most were trembling and would probably fear being in the air from now on.
Meldie, Xero noticed, had fainted from fear and he could only sigh as he relieved the pressure from the restraints and laid back on the bed as he let the gentle wind lull him to sleep to get more sleep after waking up early.