Jacob looked at the rapidly shrinking figure of Aurelius and then towards where Brian and Riley would be. They would not be that much helpful and they might even be killed before they could do anything. Jacob guessed Aurelius was right in a certain sense in leaving the two be, Jacob sighed as he brought Flowing Water up from the ground.

He just wanted to accumulate more contributions for the end of the tutorial, he fought a giant marble statue and that was fine. Now he has to fight a semi-dragon looking monster who did not even need any weapons. He hefted Flowing Water on to his left shoulder as he sprinted after Aurelius.

Aurelius raced through the outpost easily this time without the hail of black and blue bolts coming for him. The kobolds still exiting the hole saw the approaching golden black figure and started their screeches towards the dragonoid. In response the dragonoid broke into a small grin as it held its right claw, the chittering from the 10 kobolds immediately stopped and they formed two lines. The two lines stood on the sides of the dragonoid and stood at attention. Their weapons were down and not in any sort of ready position that Aurelius could see.

Intrigued by the movements of the kobolds and the dragonoid, Aurelius sped up his movement. Jacob did not see the actions of the kobolds and the dragonoid but he decided to follow Aurelius in speeding up his movements. As he got closer, Jacob was stunned by what he saw. It was like having an audience with a king, the only things missing were the red carpet and an austere enviroment. The dragonoid was also missing a crown but the resplendent yellow scales on the dragonoid did make it seem more dignified.

Aurelius stopped a distance away from the kobolds and dragonoid as he did a small look back to check where Jacob was.

“Whats happening? It feels like we are meeting the bloody monarch over here. Think we should throw a rock at them? If they wanted a rigid setting, we should test it.” Jacob asked as he came up beside

“The yellow scaled lizard raised a hand up once the rest of the cohort spotted me, they stopped moving and moved into that formation afterwards. Antagonising them for no reason seems abi..”

Before Aurelius even finished his warning, Jacob tossed a small stone towards one of the kobold knights. It bounced harmlessly off the silver breastplate and on to the floor, the kobold knight that was hit by the stone started growling before it could make a move on Jacob. The dragonoid lifted its left hand and mouthed something at the kobold knight, causing it to stay still.

“Stop antagonising my subordinates and step forward Adventurers. If not...” The dragonoid spoke aloud with his deep gravely voice it had a cadence to it but Jacob could not grasp it but he did not have the luxury to think about it, along with the words came a force that was buckling down on Jacob and Aurelius. Jacob tried retorting as he stumbled forward slightly from the pressure but his mouth was sewn shut by something, he moved his left hand towards his mouth to find out what was stopping his mouth from moving. But he could not even bring it up to his chest before another set of pressure acted upon his hand to stop it from reaching his mouth.

He saw Aurelius walking normally towards the dragonoid, he moved his left leg forward towards the procession and found no resistance. He endured the force acting upon his body and moved his right too, the pressure lessened. As he made another two steps the pressure lightened again, a little disgruntled but knowing he was no match for this dragonoid, kept moving after Aurelius. As he passed by the kobold knight that threw the stone at. He braced himself fully expecting some reprisal, to his surprise the kobold knight held itself still and unmoving not even giving Jacob a glance as he walked by.

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

“My knights have better control than what you are giving them credit for. Little adventurer.” The dragonoid spoke again, the voice felt like it was causing Jacob to shake with how much resonance it was giving out. Jacob and Aurelius arrived in front of the dragonoid, not knowing what to do he merely kept himself as still as a statue as he looked the dragonoid up and down. The dragonoid looked even more impressive up close to Jacob, under the light cast by the crystals above. Each scale that the dragonoid had from the scattered ones on its cheeks down to the condensed ones on both its foot catches the light and shines beautifully. It made the dragonoid looked like an extra sparkly topaz with sharp fangs and claws. The dragonoid spoke again as it ran its hand through its sleek dark brown hair, while it carried a smirk on its face.

“I shall introduce myself first, I am Lord Yshavol Thornedge. I was checking on the kobold village below before the four of you showed up, no worries you guys would not die atleast not from me. The two that are hiding at the back of the outpost can come over too. I have a little challenge for the four of you, of course you are free to reject it. There is 0 repercussions to this, I cannot interfere while the tutorial is ongoing. Once the other two come over, I will explain the challenge I have for you lot.”

Jacob looked back towards the entrance to the outpost as Lord Yshavol finished speaking, there were figures kicking out a storm of dust as they ran towards Jacob and the rest. Jacob remembered the Grades up to 4, if Yshavol can refer to himself as a Lord. He would be Grade 3, just right below Suzerain Turain. A Grade 3 was standing right in front of him, in the flesh. Questions were welling up within Jacob as he stood infront of the Lord. Before he exploded from holding the questions in, Riley and Brian arrived with a cloud of dust.

To Jacob’s surprise, the dust stopped 10 metres away from Lord Yshavol and did not managed to shoot past Riley and Brian as they shortened the distance between them and Lord Yshavol.

“It is customary to kneel when greeting a Lord, especially for fledglings such as yourselves.” Lord Yshavol voice boomed as Riley and Brian stood beside Jacob and Aurelius forming a neat line, a seat also appeared behind Lord Yshavol as he sat down.

Jacob looked to Aurelius to see what he would do, personally Jacob did not feel like kneeling at all. The Lord already mentioned he cannot interfere with the tutorial and if Jacob was right the System would be watching even now. Aurelius went down on one knee without a fuss, Jacob craned his neck a bit more to look past the gold giant to see Riley kneeling down too. He looked to his right and Brian was doing the same. While Jacob was still standing, Aurelius started his greetings

“ My name is Aurelius Atkinson, I pay my respects to Lord Yshavol Thornedge. Grant us your challenge.” Riley and Brian followed suit and said much the same.

“My name is Brian O’Conner, I pay my respects to Lord Yshavol Thornedge. Please grant us your challenge.”

“My name is Riley Erenhart, I pay my respects to Lord Yshavol Thornedge. Please grant us your challenge.”

Meanwhile, Jacob was still on his feet. Which prompted a response from the dragonoid both verbal and physical as the unseen pressure came back down on him again, causing him to buckle.

“Why are you not on your knee yet, little adventurer? Is there something wrong with you?” Lord Yshavol boomed again as he questioned Jacob. Jacob knew that this guy was only throwing his weight around just because he could and anything he did that was against the wishes of Lord Yshavol was just gonna provoke him further. As he was battling between indignation and plain unwillingness, the pressure on him increased again as he buckled further.

Not seeing much of a choice, Jacob bit the bullet and kneeled down. He made sure to make it extra special as he bowed his head down to the floor too as he said.

“My name is Beowulf Dragonator, I pay my respects to Lord Yshavol Thordedge. Please please please grant us your challenge.”

“I accept the greetings and this shall be your challenge, each of you will fight against one of my knight that I have personally trained to be my bodyguard. Rest assured, these ones are currently all Grade 1 so the disparity between all of you would not be too much. Now all challenges should have a reward no? If any of you managed to best my bodyguards, I will grant a reward to you from the items I am carrying.” Upon hearing rewards, Jacob’s eyes lit up and widened. He looked to his left and right, both Riley and Brian were definitely interested in the reward too. Aurelius did not show any positive or negative inclinations, merely nodding as he said.

“Lord Yshavol Thornedge, I am willing to accept the challenge you posed. I volunteer to be the first to fight.”