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Tale of a Blue Mage
Chapter 10: The Jewel

Chapter 10: The Jewel

When Eon said the world didn't have enough knowledge on wildlife, he wasn't entirely wrong. But writers like Professor Alder Repliac made some attempt to note down about domesticated monsters, and his writings were very interesting to Eon as well. The seventy year old professor was somewhat of a role model to him.

Eon had the professor's work held in his hand, he shifted through the pages and marveled at the detailed information. Before he noticed, a sound of clearing throat let him know the presence of an old man in the room. General Frill was one of the higher ranks that got injured in the Quetzalcoatl attack, or as the people call it, third strike of Apocalypse.

"Good day, general." Eon set the book aside and focused on the well built and tall old man, who had made himself comfortable in a seat across Eon.

"Good day to you as well, Mr. Bells. How may I be of your help?"

"The guards have some sort of information regarding the possible reasoning of the dragon attack. To put it simply, I'd like to know them as well."

"And what makes you think we'd be willing to share something so confidential to a mere child like you?" The old general laughed. "It's not everyday we let a fourteen year old boy roam around in our headquarters."

"Yet, here I am."

"As much as I hate to admit it, we both present here know that you were the only one who could remotely damage the dragon somehow without artillery spells and managed to send it away from your classmates. I think we both can exchange some information and gain something here."

"I am a blue mage, I copy dragon moves I observe."

"I say, that's a very interesting suggestion. But it holds very little power behind it." The old man frowned, "To put it simply, you exhibited magic spells the dragon did not use at all. And you did not cast a single spell the dragon tended to cast. Most people wouldn't have noticed, but my aged eyes are still sharp enough to catch on those details."

"I believe you're overlooking stuff, general. I want to remind you again that I am from the Town of Aeria." Eon boldly answered.

"Aeria..the town where.."

"The first Apocalypse Dragon striked. Yes. I'm a survivor." Eon completed the old man's sentence.

A silence descended upon the room for the next few moments as Eon waited patiently for the general to process the info. General looked at Eon, probably finding it difficult to imagine how the boy survived not one but two dragons.

"I remember Aeria drove the dragon away before the Royal Army could arrive." He said.

"My mentor died protecting the town. I unlocked my Draconic powers soon after that and wounded it."

"Interesting." The general mused. "Even if I say I believe you, what's your plan from there? What do you wish to accomplish with the information we have in hand?"

"I would try to look for any leads to find the source of the dragon attacks." Eon replied.

"And what makes you think you are better suited for the job than the Royal army?"

"I'm not. I'm just a kid who's trying to find out the culprit behind this city's destruction and my mentor's death."

"And that is also after hypothetically suggesting that the two, or rather all three attacks are somehow related."

This was true. Public were openly voicing their opinions stating that the three attacks were performed by the same bigger mastermind, there was no evidence backing this theory up, except the fact that all three dragons disappeared into thin air after their attacks.

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"Though I would do the same thing if I was in your shoes, I'd give you that." General Frill continued. "So I shall entertain your wish."

The next couple of hours were spent by the general explaining the mana jewel to Eon. The mana jewel in Grimoria was not actually an intact one but a tiny broken piece that had been found around a wreckage near an actual mana jewel, caused by none other than a legendary Elemental. The sheer indestructible nature of a mana jewel could only be so very slightly chipped out by an Elemental, the very thought made people realize the tiny mana jewel's importance. After putting it into an underground government facility and raising multiple self sustaining barriers and restrainers to reduce the jewel's radiation to a moderate degree so that it was somewhat safe for society to use. The tiny crystal supplied the entire city with waves of ambient mana and it caused little effects as well. One good example would be how the radiation visibly reacted with living beings' fetus as well, granting them special powers or affecting their physical appearance.

Most of this info was known to Eon. But the self sustaining restrainers and barriers being up indefinitely without the need of any external mana source due to the excessive ambient mana that provided a natural feedback mechanism was kind of interesting.

"You mentioned that you could only feel the jewel's energy after the blast in the middle of the town. That blast was indeed caused by the dragon stripping open the restrainers. But it could not get past the barriers. So your words hold some weight there. Besides you gave precise location of the jewel without actually being there yourself, that does make me feel like you're not completely lying."

"So what do you think the Dragon's motives were?" Eon asked.

"I would be relieved if it was an attempt to steal the jewel coming from another kingdom. Grimoria's jewel is lusted by almost every other country in the world. As much as I love to say the thrice damned quetzalcoatl couldn't get past the barriers, it is very curious that it didn't even try to. The dragon had no intentions to seize the jewel. It caused some destruction around the jewel but that was it. After that the monster simply shot out in the sky and disappeared." The general explained. "Whatever this is leading to, it is not as simple as anything we are used to dealing with."

A few moments passed again, with both of them being silent.

"What do you plan to do now?" General Frill asked curiously.

"What do you think I should do now?"

"Go home like the rest of your peers and enjoy the early vacation till we rebuild the city. The instability inside the city will leave us exposed to international threats as well." General replied. "But I have a feeling you wouldn't simply listen to my advice."

"No, I won't." Eon smiled. "And I have a feeling you wouldn't refuse to help me out in this if I am ever in need of your expertise."

***

"How are you feeling now?" Eon asked a Razor, who had been unconscious till the end of the fight.

"As good as new! They're gonna discharge me later today." Razor replied, focused on petting his hydra. The little two headed lizard had been sleeping on his lap the entire time.

"The academy is closed indefinitely apparently."

"We truly have rotten luck. I kind of want to smack someone real hard now to relieve my stress." Razor laughed. "Hey, wanna go for a spar?"

"A spar with Razor Shiftblade? Child of the Renzero Shiftblade?"

"Scared?"

"I think the correct term is 'fired up'."

Eon generally loved testing out his abilities against other mages. Now that he had no mother to answer to about his tattered shirts, he could actually 'not hold back' for once. Heck, maybe he would even challenge Evelyn for a rematch.

"But you can't use your overpowered dragon spells. That's just cheating."

"You won't even survive them." Eon laughed. "Plus I can't control them too well. Only reason I used them on the dragon was because I didn't need to hold back."

Eon also realized that using that unrefined and untamed raw energy swirling inside him was bad for a lot of reasons. Not only were they mana draining, they messed up his body's mana structure. Before it used to straight up make him lose his consciousness, but training to control this Draconic aura with Brute helped him somewhat. Now using these spells only left him with fatigue and nausea, but that also lasted for a few hours.

"Makes sense." Razor chuckled. "Where are Sonia and others?"

"Most of the students were unharmed, suffering minor wounds and such. They are either on their way home or packing up to do so."

"And what about you?"

"I'm just killing time while Eve is dealing with some of her business here. We are going to leave the city together." Eon replied. " She was kind of pissed off about not being of any help in the whole battle. Apparently she was injured at the very start and was unconscious throughout the battle, under Sonia and Xiola's care."

"I'd be pissed as well." Razor sighed. "I'm still angry about how the overgrown snake caught me off guard."

"I want to investigate a bit more about the dragon attacks myself. The person behind this destroyed my town and my mentor died protecting us. I have some scores to settle with the guy." Visible frustration surfaced on Eon's face.

"I didn't.. know that."

After a moment's silence Razor continued. "Hey Eon, wanna make a bet?"

"A bet?"

"Whoever loses the upcoming battle has to do one thing that the winner says." Razor grinned.

Eon had a bad feeling about this.