Meriel watched the laughing man on the ground, wondering what he found so funny. The duel was a quick one, and he only needed to cast one attack spell, but it should still hopefully only qualify him as a good student, not a genius one. [Wind Gust] was one of the very first spells the students were taught in the past, after all, and he didn’t expect it to arouse much suspicion.

  "I must say, young man, that is quite some fine control over mana. And without a sword , nonetheless! I haven't seen such good mana manipulation in all my teaching years." The woman said, looking him up and down once again. It was clear that her opinion of Meriel was raised, in the way she smiled.

  "I assume I pass, my lady?" Meriel asked and looked at the laughing man again. He still hadn’t stopped. Meriel wondered whether he was getting too much attention upon himself after all, but he decided not to worry about it any longer. He showed a fraction. If a fraction got him called a genius, then his worries should be placed elsewhere.

  "With flying colors. You will be in group 5." She nodded her head and then went behind to the stack of papers again and scribbled something onto a paper, probably Meriel's score.

  "Okay, who's next?" she asked, looking at the other two.

  Meriel stood to the side, watching his two apprentices at work, but he also couldn't help but look at the other students once again, the few that remained. The glaring man was undergoing his own test, and although he did hold a sword, Meriel had to admit that he was quite talented. Probably the best mana heart he had seen in here, not counting these teachers. By all hells, it could probably rival his own capacity if the man got some good tips and guiding—not whatever these teachers put in these kids’ heads. The academy here offered guidance, but Meriel could see that he’d get further without this sword gimmick.

  Ziggy, as Meriel predicted, passed with flying colors as well. Not only was his own mana heart far stronger than Meriel's, but the dragon could also understand how to cast some spells naturally, though he surprised even Meriel with their potency. He shouldn’t even had time to level them, so they must have been level 1, yet they took far more mana than they should have. Just how strong were the imprints?

  The spells were from the same spell-tree as Meriel’s—dragonmancer skills, focused on creating elements.

  Mary was up next, and although she did have a mana heart and a third eye, she didn't quite understand even the basics on how to utilize it properly. Unlike the other two, she didn't get placed into group five like Meriel, but instead got placed firmly into group three. She somehow did manage to cast a spell though it was only a spark that poofed into oblivion the moment it was created.

  This was all fine. He’d teach her all she’d need to know.

  The man finally stopped laughing sometime midway through Ziggy's test, and he stood next to Meriel, waiting patiently for the other two to finish. Once the woman gave them their assessments and told them they would indeed be taken into the Academy, at least for the first semester, the man motioned for the trio to follow.

  "Follow along, you three! I'll take you to your room."

  "Is that a standard procedure?" Meriel asked, since he didn't see anyone being taken by the teachers. They had their hands full with testing the students for the whole day after all. Also, he wasn’t so keen on living in the academy. They discussed this a little more, but he still liked living in their small house.

  But now that he was here… he’d possibly consider again.

  "No, no!" The man waved him away and continued walking out of the training hall. "But I see something great in the two of you. And you too, little lady, though you need some refinement. Why are you three not using a sword?"

  "I do not think it would help me at all, and I would rather practice mana through my own body," Meriel repeated the same answer, hoping that it would suffice.

  "Hm, interesting. I hope that your convictions don't slow you down. I see great promise in you. Maybe it won’t, seeing what you can already do. Either way, we're here!" Brugus extended his hand and showed them a door. "I assume you three would want a room together. This one will be all yours."

  "Wow, a whole room? Weren't there dorms that the students had to share? That's at least what I heard," Meriel said, and quickly and hastily added the last bit.

  "No, no, that's decades past, though I did have to be in a dorm when I studied here. Either way, enjoy your stay, and I'll be teaching you some swordsmanship, should you decide to use a blade after all." He looked at the three of them, going from one to the other. "I assume you will, later on, but maybe you will be a surprise for us all." Without giving them a second to reply, Brugus turned and went back in the direction of the training hall, his stride not breaking.

  "Uuughh. I'm so tired, Mr. Meriel. I just wanna lie down," Mary said, and she looked a bit wobbly on her feet.

  "Oh come on, it was just some magic," Ziggy protested, giving her a stern look. How did these two become so sibling-like already? Every time Meriel looked at them, he was reminded of his own childhood and his rivalries with sister and brother.

  "Come in now, so you can lie down, Mary. I believe your first few times spellcasting would probably be a bit difficult on your body."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Will it get better?”

  “It will. I promise.”

  Meriel grabbed the door handle and opened the door. Strangely, he did sense mana from the door handle, searching for something as he grabbed it. A magical lock? Quite unexpected. It wasn't an easy spell to master and even harder to cast on so many doors. Maybe there were some skilled mages after all. He would have to stop underestimating these new spells and this new spellcasting technique.

  Though there was someone crafting all those blades…

  The room in front of them was better than anything Meriel had ever expected. There were three beds: two in the corners of the room and one in the middle. Each had a bedside table, and there was a large wardrobe from ornamented wood next to the door. The room was larger than any room he'd ever been in, and Meriel even guessed that it could possibly rival the size of his childhood home. The beds looked sturdy, and the mattresses were without a smidge of dirt. The tables all had stacks of paper on them, and a quill with a bottle of ink.

  "Wow! Mr. Meriel, this seems like the room of a noble!" Mary said, already rushing towards the table. And she immediately went to grab the quill.

  "Don't break it, Mary."

  "I wouldn't dare to," she replied, and brought it closer to her face, inspecting it.

  "This is new; it wasn't this way when I studied here," he said, and had to admit that it was nice coming to a room like this, especially after the days in the abandoned home. Although he had grown accustomed to it—the place had a special charm to it.

  "Wait, where do we cook food?" Ziggy said, looking around with a scared expression on his face. "Do they intend to starve me here?"

  "There's a canteen, Ziggy. Oh, I forget how little you know," Meriel said, and went to sit on his bed, but quickly decided not to. He had new clothes on, sure, but he didn't find the idea of dirtying his bed already on his first day to be a good idea.

  "Let us go home, pick up our things, and I guess we'll live here for a little bit." He definitely didn’t want to move because of the comfort this place provided. Definitely not.

  “But what about training us?”

  “I’ll either train you here, or we’ll go back to that house when we’re not in class.” Meriel replied to Ziggy, and stepped toward the other door in the room, which revealed a private bathroom and a toilet. Magical artifacts which only the wealthiest could afford.

  He couldn't quite believe it himself. Back in the academy, on a search for something that now seemed a bit silly. Surely there was an easier way to get the information about where his former companions were and what happened to them once Meriel got stuck. Did he subconsciously decide that the two of his apprentices needed this? What could it teach them here that he couldn't?

  But… was there a better source of information on the world than the Academy of Mura? Only the Capital had a similar library.

  Learning the ways of the kingdom as it was now was crucial if he wanted to live in this changed world. He didn't intend on being hidden and not telling people who he truly was for a long time, but he would need to understand first.

  And also, if his memory served and things didn't change that much, there was nobody more talkative and more gossipy than the mages of the mage academies. What better pastime to go with studying than to gossip about people studying less, or kings doing terrible things, or uprisings on the other side of the continent? He would stay here for as long as he needed. For as long as Mary and Ziggy needed.

  "So, when are we crafting a new dragon boss?" Ziggy suddenly said, and Meriel scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

  "New dragon? And why would I do that?" He tried to understand where Ziggy was coming from. He crafted—or, better said, created—Ziggy on a whim in a desperate fight for survival. He didn't see a need to create another one and didn't see any reason to do so. Ziggy was already powerful enough and he would only grow more so as time progressed. It was also a damned stroke of luck that Ziggy functioned as Meriel wanted him to. He’d almost never created something as complex as him, and his creations of such complexity worked even more seldomly.

  "Well, I thought that is what you are going to do once we got out of that bubble. You seemed quite happy with me after all," Ziggy said. "Also, do you not sense the bond between us?"

  "What bond?" Meriel crossed his arms, trying to understand. He opened his third eye, but he saw no mana fluctuating between him and Ziggy, at least not in any unusual ways.

  "The… how do I explain it?" Ziggy began, scratching his head. Meriel looked at Mary, who seemed as interested in the ongoing conversation as fish were in rocks, so not at all.

  "Okay, so when you created me, you imprinted some magic onto my mana heart," Ziggy explained what he meant before. "It created a bond. I don't quite understand it myself, but I know that some of the spells you've cast do rely on this connection between us?"

  Meriel had never heard of anything like that being done. All of his creations died shortly after being created or were created with the timer that would set them off.

  Creating long-lived summons was a bad practice after all, and only the Tyrants did that. Despised by the mage society would be the best way to put it, but there was little else to do in a time of need. But this… did creating Ziggy imprint a glyph onto his heart? Or was it that the glyph was what allowed him to create Ziggy in the first place?

  “You mean the Dragonmancer spell, spells like the great fire burst that I unlocked after I created you?”

  “As far as I understand it, yes. And you would get more spells if you created these different kinds of dragons, I think." Ziggy offered, sitting on his own bed, ignoring the fact that his clothes were even dirtier than Meriel's were. "It does go both ways, though. I think I get my intelligence from you, and probably this humanoid look?"

  "Why didn't you tell me before?" Meriel asked.

  "Let's say I didn't know or didn't understand it well," Ziggy said, visibly lost in his thoughts.

  New dragons. Meriel hadn't even considered doing something like that, and it has been a long time since he'd created Ziggy. But yes, he could do it. He didn't feel like he needed more power or more spells.

  He was probably far more knowledgeable on the subject of magic than any other mage of this current era. But he had something to protect now, just like he had in the past. He would do his utmost best to protect these two. He swore it. And for that, he would need power.

  Just being the best mage wasn't enough. He would become the strongest Dragonmancer, creating as many dragons as he took for him to become untouchable. He sat at his table and began scribbling down the possible spells and dragon combinations. The plans for his future only expanded.

  Ratings (Bonus chapter): 102/125

  Patrons (3 more advance chapters) : 14/20

  Enjoy!